Game:

Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985)

Duration: 1:49:06

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What a day. At least this one didn't go long... but only because I ended up using rewind for the last game. Three games that aren't the best in my opinion, though I can at least see merit in two of them. Two of them. One is the first hard pass of the set.

Commando: Not a bad little game. Short, overall, which can be a good thing. Pretty basic top-down solider vs. army shooter, gun that shoots where you are pointed, grenades that fire upwards. But I don't think it's implemented all that well. The SNK versions, since they had the rotating joystick, were far superior gameplay-wise to this. Here you always have to run toward danger to kill it. The grenades in this also seemed to be a waste of time as they were difficult to actually hit the things that could only be killed with them. No continues hurts it a lot too.

Ghosts 'n Goblins: The first solid "nope" of this set. This game personifies "cheap" game design. The difficulty in this is purely artificial with enemies that can be literally impossible to prevent them from doing damage to you in some situations. If you pick up the wrong weapon, you aren't going to kill the trolls guarding ladders before they run up and hit you. It's literally not possible since you end up limited on how many you can throw at once. On top of that, even with Invulnerability, the game hits a solid progression-stopping wall when it required me to use a weapon I had not seen the entire game, and even sent me back two levels to look for it. Which I did, unsuccessfully, and then was sent back AGAIN. That's a hard "nope" right there. I don't care if the weapon is hidden somewhere. If it's hidden, that's even worse, because you're on a timer so you can't afford to look EVERYWHERE and being required means it should be accessible. This game is a huge fail in my books.

Section Z: I actually really liked some of the things this game does. I like the looking back and forth with a button, making it a bit different from a traditional schmup. I even liked the little touches, like being able to walk on the ground (which slows you down). The vertical sections were problematic, since you can't fire in the direction of movement to protect yourself, and it is an absolutely brutal quarter eater of a game. But I still overall liked this one. Probably just an "in comparison" thing, but I still give this one an OK. -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/the_nametag

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