Mastery #21: GunForce (Super Nintendo)

 

    What the hell is GunForce and why did I pick this? I didn't know that much about this game going in and although I technically did some research on this, I'm not really going to go into detail about that. More or less this game was a okay arcade game by IREM but was ported over by "Bits game". I have yet to play the arcade one so I can't properly describe the differences but this game is so slow & clunky it's ridiculous. The game in itself is roughly about 30 minutes of gameplay & isn't that difficult in the slightest. Although it has a 'hard mode' the controls of the game is already hard enough. Looking like a Contra/Metal Slug clone it sadly doesn't control the same way. Your character moves slow & jumps like they are from Castlevania. One thing that took me awhile to realize was if you 'touch' an enemy you don't immediately die thankfully. Remembering games like Contra I thought the same thing when going into this game but it does carry on it's one shot & your dead. 

    I'm not even sure why I picked this game. It may of been one of those times where I just choose a random game one day. I didn't even get to the sub-title part. This game's full name is "GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island". It sounds like a title to a RiffTrax or MST3K movie but that's the full name of the game. Other than that this game has a lot of flaws to it. The screen slowly pans to the left causing all sorts of problems and very easy ways to get hit by a bullet without have the ability to dodge it. Also it's awful inability to properly jump on machines or vehicles. And considering how short the game is it really surprises me how many vehicles they have in this game that you utilize for 30 seconds. 

    The first level alone has you drive a jeep type vehicle with a turret on the back. You can also jump into big turret guns which don't do that much except shoot the enemies that literally just run from right to left on the screen occasionally stopping to take a shot at you. Than you have a helicopter you fly in the first level...the ride is roughly about 15 seconds and the helicopter takes up the entire screen. But than you never ride a helicopter again? Why? Like why have it in the game at all? The other levels you get to ride a trolley, & a mech for the last level. I say 'mech' but really I mean it's ED-209 from Robocop. This leads on to the next part of the frustrating part of the game which was the controls which jumping & landing on things. So to ride all of these vehicles you have to be able to jump onto these vehicles to ride them right? Well this game falls for the same crap lot of other games do when you're trying to jump onto something. You have to press slightly up or down & lightly hit 'A' along with it. It's hard to explain without really experiencing it. 

On the left is the Mech you ride in GunForce on the Right is ED-209 from Robocop (Specifically the Mega Drive version of Robocop Vs. The Terminator

    Man after all is said & done I'm glad I mastered it. I really want to get this game for my collection too, although for the past few paragraphs I may of made it seem like it was a bad game. And I still stand by that notion, but even bad games have a special place in my heart. Except maybe DreamTV....

Mastery #20: Wild Arms 2 (Playstation)

 

    WHAT A SET & GAME. This game hits home for a lot of reasons for me. This one along with a couple of other JRPG's from the same era. When this game came out or actually when I very first started playing this game was during a time I lived in Arizona. So playing a anime JRPG that is suppose to be kind of like a wild west theme I was all over it cause it felt like my backyard was part of the world. I don't want to go into too much detail (I will save more for other blog posts of other RPG's) but I moved to Arizona when I was about 13. At this time in my life I was a nerd with closed curtains; playing video games that was not a sports game or Tony Hawk Pro Skater or really any kind of video game for that matter you were some what of an outcast. Not in the same traditional way you see in movies but more like you would lose cool points. To add an extra layer to this I also loved anime, which again, at this time in American culture it was deemed 'weird' or 'childish' or 'nerdy'. Any time I would bring up anime to anyone, I was always met with "Isn't that like cartoon porn?". When moving to Arizona I had never moved before that so being in a all new school with new kids was extremely nerve racking to me and it ended with many bus rides home in tears clinging onto my previous home & friends. I would eventually find my way into a group of friends that shared all the same interest with me, which if I am being honest my old friends didn't even really care for RPG's & anime. My new friends loved anime, games, jrpgs, technology, music, it had really felt like I had found my home. 

    

    JRPG's at the time were rare even during this time. We may have been lucky to find one or two at a funcoland or fry's electronics. So many times my friends and I would share each other's games. It was almost kind of like unwritten rule of some sorts. One friend would buy Tales of Destiny, while another friend would buy Arc the Lad, while another Suikoden game. Thus when one was done playing one we would loan it to the next friend while we took on another. The games traveled so many times I firmly believe I still have some of my friend's game copies (Sorry John, Jarrod & Josh). I forgot who introduced me into the Wild Arms 2 game but I remember borrowing a copy and playing it at my friend John's house. I remember the opening theme and animation was so ingrained into my head after starting it up. It wasn't too uncommon to see anime openers for certain JRPG's but this one has always stuck with me. Even today before I started this retroachievement hunt I would often hum or whistle to the opening animation theme. I also remember so many of my friends were always like "The 2nd disc opener is way cooler and the song is better". Well I never got to disc 2 until recently earning the cheevos, remember this was a time before youtube so I couldn't really just pull it up online. Although there may have been a time or two I had seen it before but just forgot. After seeing the disc 2 opener....I still like the first one better. /fightMe

    Before I talk about my journey earning the cheevos on this game the one thing I want to mention is, after all these years, I never realized how this game does anime openers & closers. Let me explain or if you want you can watch my gif I uploaded below. But each time you start up your file it will play the opening animation, which was somewhat typical of JRPG's at the time or even now really. You start the game and before the opening screen it plays the typical anime opening. But if you were to save your game and than choose to no longer play the game it would play another animation with a different song and a typical anime ending cut scene. This little discovery gave this game a whole new level of respect for me. Such a small unique detail that I don't often find anymore in games.

    Now for the cheevos. Damn these cheevos were a blast but the last three proved rather difficult. For the most part all the achievements for the game was for story progression which I really enjoyed. Along the way was some side quest things but nothing too major. Normally for these games I typically have a bunch of save files so if I ever need to go back I can. I also loved that the achievements also helped if you defeated the other 'parts' of the boss. This game has a lot of boss battles in it, but instead of a simple single target to a giant boss this game provides different targets to a boss to weaken it & earn more experience. Thus many achievements required you to do this & I loved it. Especially since you get some extra experience with it.

I was so pumped I got this much damage on Zavorg when I was playing. Looking back on it now I'm like, "Oh I have done way more damage than that lol"

    I started theses achievements back in July 2022 and was planning on finishing it by October 2022 but with the release of PS2 achievements & some of my friends got me sucked back into Rocket League this fell to the wayside. I assumed that I was going to finish it by October 2022 cause all I had was like 5 more achievements. Which just so happened to be possibly the hardest ones to get lol. 3 of them being defeating the 3 hardest secret bosses in the game, and the last one being complete the monster card album. I decided to hit up these last few cheevos when I got to the end of the game so I can explore the world & hope the bosses would be rather easy if I was high level. How wrong I was...Bulkogidon & defeating his Belly & Drill (counted as two achievements) was the first one I tackled. Luckily I had to find a special strategy guide for that one. The next two was the infamous Ragu O Ragula & Angolmois. At this point in the game did I realize that I messed up their leveling. You see in this game you gain levels like normal through experience but there is also a thing called 'Personal Skills' and this increases certain stats based on the personal skill level. For a quick example there is a personal skill you can upgrade called 'Up Hp' & after every level your HP increases more than normal if the personal skill level is high up too. (Don't quote me exactly on the naming convention please xD ). Well most guides suggest you level this up early on so everyone has a lot of HP to take on these bosses, I didn't do that because I did start the game with a guide at first so I missed a pivotal piece of information. So what else can one person do?

I know, I know, Brad technically isn't at level 99...but his stats are so OP even at 97 he was insane xD

    Get all your characters to level 99. And that's exactly what I did. I leveled up all my characters to 99 which still to my surprise the Ragu & Ango fight was still difficult. Without a proper strategy the bosses were rather difficult and would decimate my team. From doing previous readings it would seem people discussed which one was harder. Some said, Ango others said Ragu....my vote is Ango. When I finally beat him by this point he was the last one in my monster album I hadn't filled out yet, so finally when I took him down I ran around the house lol. I know dramatic but the set was so much fun & I really learned a lot more about this game. When I was younger & I played it understanding all the themes sometimes just went over my head or I just didn't really pay too much attention to them. This game will always hold a special place in my heart. Like I said before, just hearing that opening theme...

Mastery #19: Whomp 'Em (NES)

 

        So brings on a new year with all new retroachievements to master this year. This year I have decided to try mastering 25 retroachievements, well at least that's what I have on my vision board this year lol. Last year I had one up there for mastering only 20 and I walked away with about 10, but with the release of the PS2 retroachievements in October that messed up what I originally had planned to master other games. Ah well, it's not that big of a deal. My goal of this really isn't to be the number 1 spot of retroachievements leaderboard or anything. Not to say if I did hold the number 1 spot I wouldn't be happy, but really it would be a title I could care less about. My only enjoyment is coming from playing these games in a different way & play games I would normally pass up on. Also sometimes being a collector you also carry the mentality of being a "completionist". But I digress, my most recent mastery was the game "Whomp 'Em" the rather interesting Mega Man clone from Jaleco. The concept of this game is rather really cool. Given there really isn't any Native American type of games out there or that many where you play as one, this game was somewhat ahead of it's time if you ask me. Although the name could be changed, not saying I don't like it but it's just ehhhh for me.

        Right off the get go you're dropped in this game with nice assets & graphics. The character sprite is nice and the different actions his weapon can do make it just look even crispier. The game will immediately remind you of basically most platformers, bright skies, gaps to jump over, oddly placed enemies. Yeah, one of the few odd things about this game is the oddly placed enemies. There are a few enemy placements that feel weird or off, not that big of a deal but it can cause for some unwanted damage at times. Speaking of the hit detection in this game drives me crazy. There was many times where I feel the hit was unwarranted or the hit box was just too far out from the sprite. This was massively more apparent when fighting bosses. Being that you're main weapon is a melee close range weapon you can understand more why the hit detection can be even more frustrating. For the most part everything else felt really smooth. 

        The game as follows puts you in a first opening level. The level is rather short and boring but the opening music puts you in the right mood for the rest of the game. But we will get to the music soon, I have much more to say about that. After the introduction level you are presented with a stage selection screen with 6 levels. Some levels being called 'test' can be rather confusing but when playing this game since there is a giant mountain in the middle all the levels I thought it was like, "Oh you have to overcome all these trails before you can defeat the last boss. That's cool". It technically became that considering after each boss you defeat for each of the six levels you get a new power up to your weapon. Each level has it's own 'theme' to it, but it can be kind of a loose theme. And what I mean by that is there is two forest levels. One being the 'Sacred Woods' the other being the 'Magic Forest'. After beating all 6 levels & their bosses next is taking on the last level & the last boss. Now, most of the levels in this game were rather simple & easy, the only real struggle challenge came from the bosses. Well, the last level they went all out. Including the last boss. 

    The last boss gives you very little to work with at first. It definitely takes some trail & error with it. Thank goodness there wasn't a achievement for beating the last boss damageless cause I'm not sure if that would be possible. Now to spare everyone the time of this, I will discus the music to this game but I won't go on a very big rant I promise. That's the magic word though, promise. Cause this game's music holds so much promise to it, it honestly almost feels incomplete in some places. Like the opener is just absolutely jamming. Almost on par to a point I honestly thought this was a Capcom game. But by the time you get to the last level the music just goes on & on.

    There is one other major factor I want to talk about this game with. The bosses. This game has some similar traits to like how Joe & Mac is, short levels with a more emphasis on the boss fight. This game has a similar feel, small short levels with a boss fight, which makes this game not a very long game at all. But a really fascinating feature this game includes is the boss can steal your health potion. A game trait I would assume would be in a game such as Dark Souls was in this one. And honestly I'm not surprised no other game has really implemented this. Throughout the level you can get a energy tank...I mean a potion to refill your health when it depletes. Opposite of it's counterpart the energy tank this items activates automatically when you reach 0 health, which is a nice feature. But if you come across a boss and have one of these potions if you don't use it inadvertently on the boss, well the boss will have no problem using it on itself. I can't express how much I loved this feature but also hated it with obvious reasons. 

    The achievement set for this game was fun but I won't lie I was surprised it wasn't filled with more achievements but considering how short the game is the achievements could theoretically be broken up into smaller pieces to seem to be "more" but honestly I think this set was perfect for what it is. Also the only other thing I can think of is cheevos for "not dying" in the level...better not be damageless boss run. I could talk on forever about this game and the pros & flaws but I'm still getting use to this writing thing. So hopefully I haven't bored you so far. This game will one day be in my collection of games, now playing it and mastering it. It shall be mine.