Mega Man 2 American Box Art
Ok, so this is totally like over 20 years of relevancy, and I know it’s kind of like an accepted joke, but what’s with the Mega Man American box art? Specifically Mega Man 2. Did the art designer even play the game? Was he denied very important information? Aside from moving far away from the original art design – whatever, I’ll accept that; there are two things done terribly wrong.
1. Dr. Light is hiding behind Crash Man, pointing at Mega Man, as if to say attack. Dr. Light would not be doing this, Dr. Wily should be there instead.
2. Mega Man is using a pistol. When, in the entirety of the game does he fire a pistol? No, Mega Man uses the Mega Buster, an arm cannon that extends from his forearm.
Yeah, this is something I think about regularly, today, it just got to the boiling point I wanted to talk about it….these are the biggest concerns in my life….not my newborn son or paying my mortgage or anything. Cuz, ya know, that’s not important…
On a somewhat related note, why was Clash Man, in the Japanese release renamed Crash Man in the American release? I can’t imagine it’s for any sort of infringement or special interest groups reasons. The only thing I can come up with is that Clash Man pronounced by a Japanese person comes out sounding like Crash Man.
Super Mario Bros. 3 Mix Cart Ready
Super Mario Bros. 3 Mix, a rom hack made by Southbird, completed and available on cart. Max and myself did a complete playthrough of the game to “test it out”, plus it’s just awesome Mario fun. There’s a lot to do in this game. It has so much more than the original NES could offer, including game saves, alternate stage exits, unlockable stages, etc. If anyone’s interested, I could make this one for $40. I also have an alternate label available.
Legend – SNES – 2 player playthrough
Back before I discovered King of Dragons, or Chronicles of Mystara, there was Legend. At the time I thought it was the most awesome beat ’em up ever. Two huge guys with giant barbarian weapons traipsing about the kingdom slaying….peasants…and homeless guys….? Well that last part I really didn’t think about in my youth. I just though it was a pretty rad game. Unfortunately playing this game again after about 20 years or so has not held up to the game in my memory. It’s a grossly underdeveloped game with tons of various staples of the brawler genre that are painfully missing, and just complete laziness on the developers part with lack of color palettes, no variety of BGM, poor hit detection, etc. At any rate, it is a pretty rare game, so for a collector, it’s a must have, but it’s not something I could imagine someone owning “for fun”, unless they just enjoyed playing bad games, like I do.
There is nothing that can’t be beaten with infinite continues
Possibly the most difficult game I’ve ever played, or at least in recent memory. I would have to sit down and go through the entire video game library to find another game that compares in frustrating difficulty. Of course there’s “I wanna be the guy”, but that’s in a different category altogether. That game is designed to be unfair. Hagane, despite it’s rather steep learning curve, is extraordinarily fair. You’ll die a lot, but there are tons of 1-ups, extra life drops, and most importantly, infinite continues. Without the infinite continues, I’m pretty certain I never would have beaten this game. At first, the control scheme it a bit difficult to use and is rather awkward, specifically the jumping, when compared to pretty much any other action-platformer. But after getting used to it, you realize how really well the game controls. Hagane also has some of the best level design I have ever seen from a game of its generation, and is complimented by the game’s controls. You’d really have to play the game to understand just how well they work together. And not just for like 5 minutes, you really have to commit to it. It’s like a long distance run. At first, you’re struggling and out and breath and every part of your body is telling you to stop, but then you break out of it and reach a state of euphoria.That’s Hagane.
River City Ransom Underground – Replica NES Cart Bonus!
Anyone who follows me knows how excited I am about the upcoming River City Ransom Underground, from Conatus Creative. They’ve been sending out some of their backer gifts lately in preparation for their full game launch. Anyone who was a backer from Crate Expectations on up was set to receive a replica NES cart featuring RCR: Underground art. Well as it turns out, it’s way more than a mere replica. After opening the box, I noticed that there was in fact a board inside the cart. And as I was debating on whether or not it was just a dummy board for looks, or it actually did something, I saw on the back that it had standard NES security screws officially used by Nintendo on all their carts. So I took out my bit, opened it up and lo and behold, there was an actual board in there with EPROM chips on it. Curiosity piqued, I threw it in my NES and was playing the original classic River City Ransom, which was made using all new hardware, chips, boards, shells, etc.
These carts were limited to only 300, but apparently Conatus Creative does have about 30 left. So if you weren’t a backer but you are still interested in getting this cool replica, there’s still a chance. I don’t think they’ve officially announced out how to get them yet, so keep your eyes open.
Mega Man X – 100% Run
One of my favorite Mega Man games of all time. Might even be my top favorite. There’s just so many kick ass things about it. Mega Man on the NES was always top tier, and then when I found out they were making a Mega Man game for the SNES, I was filled with almost more excitement than my little childhood body could contain. Everything about it was an improvement. Can you have a complaint about this game? Seriously, this is an action-platformer perfection.
Demon’s Crest – SNES – Full Playthrough
Full playthrough of Demon’s Crest by Gamesquad Squad. I had always wanted to play this game because I was told that is was difficult and I like a challenge, but it’s a pretty pricey cart. I guess I had the option to get it as a kid, but I was turned off by the fact that they removed a lot of the RPG elements that the NES predecessor had. Turns out that was a stupid reason not to buy the game. I finally managed to get my hands on one for a price that wasn’t too steep. The game was good, I definitely enjoyed it, but I’m a little disappointed because it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had been lead to believe. The final boss however was nearly impossible. Almost the entirety of the 3rd video is us trying to be the final boss. That’s about an hour and a half of fighting the same putz over and over. The game reminded me somewhere of a cross between Mega Man X and Act Raiser and actually did have a fair about of RPG elements to it. Also, the fact that you can fly indefinitely without a wing strength meter makes this game far superior than the other Gargoyle’s Quest games.
Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan – The Lost Levels
Finished another repro cart. Known in America as Super Mario Bros The Lost Levels, this is the official sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. game which was available on the Famicom Disk System. We of course got the remake on SNES in the form of Super Mario All-Stars. If you are interested in purchasing one of these carts, shoot me a message or send me $35 through paypal to gdraudt@gmail.com with your shipping address. I’ll knock $10 off that price if you send me a donor cart. Message me for possible donors.
SonSon NES Cart Finally Finished
Been kinda busy with things, but I managed to finally finish the label for SonSon. I kind of messed up cutting it a bit, but whatever, it’s my copy so I don’t care. I used the classic Capcom label style, a-la GunSmoke and 1942. I do plan on making an alternate label using the later Capcom label version such as on DuckTales and Rescue Rangers. Of course, if you are interested in purchasing on one of these carts, shoot me a message or send me $35 through paypal to gdraudt@gmail.com with your shipping address. I’ll knock $10 off that price if you send me a donor cart. Message me for possible donors.
Gamesquad Squad
Our Twitch account has been successfully set up and we’ve got a few good episodes under our belts at this point. Hopefully some of you stop by and chat with us while we play. We’re welcome to any requests. Actually I’d happily take requests. It’s a chance to me to play some games that I’ve always wanted to but never really had the motivation to make happen. Plus Max is usually drunk and says stupid shit.
Anyway, we don’t have any sort of schedule set up yet. Our personal lives aren’t neatly scheduled, so it’s difficult to set up a gaming schedule. We’re trying to work something out though.
http://www.twitch.tv/gamesquadsquad if you wanna check us out.
gameblorg 