Where is Mike Jones? - Episode 1: Quad Slayer
0Originally recorded: August 28, 2022
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Crystalis -- which I will forever pronouce like the word "chrysalis", no matter how many retro gaming enthusiasts try to correct me -- is one of those games that I tried to play back in the past, but my short attention span got the better of me. Honestly, it's games like that, the ones that I have very little experience with, that I love streaming the most. Granted, discovering brand-new games is fun too... and I'm sure my audience's favorite streams are the ones where I essentially get strong-armed into playing something I despise. But for whatever reason, checking games off of some subconscious bucket list kept in the back of my mind just feels satisfying in a way nothing else really matches. Honestly, that's probably why I've been devoting so much time to my side project this year.
I decided to play this one through the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. I'm not sure if I completely regret that just yet. Granted, showing cropped menus is a small price to pay for avoiding wasting important screen real estate. But I'm noticing these weird hiccups in this release... that I'm not sure are present in other means of emulating the classic title. Either way, it's not bothering me too much... but if the game seems a bit more stuttery than usual, that's why. And the weird part is that it just seems to be Crystalis that's affected: for laughs, I played through the first level of Beast Busters and it didn't have any of the same issues.
According to Dari, I'm already about halfway through the game. But despite the fact that some of this stuff is familiar, a lot of this feels like brand new to me. Like, I remember getting my hands on the fire sword on my first real attempt at beating the game... but I don't remember the swamp or the other villages. It *has* been awhile since I attempted beating this one though, so maybe my memory's just bad.