(Awesome Game Sack theme music)
- Hello, and welcome to Game Sack.
This time around, we're talking about some games
that just cannot decide what the hell they wanna be.
- Yeah, you're playing along in an action-platformer,
and then all of a sudden, what, it's a shooter?
Wait, no, it's an RPG next, what the hell?
- What's going on here, just make up your mind, game.
- Stupid game.
- Let's talk about some of these games.
(16-bit music with many channels)
[Joe] How about Toy Story on the Genesis?
It's also on the Super Nintendo.
This late title was inspired
by Clockwork Knight on the Saturn,
and it's amazing for a lot of reasons.
First and foremost are the technical aspects of the game.
I already talked about these a lot
in one of our Pushing Hardware Limits episodes,
so I won't go into all that here,
but they really did fit a lot of stuff onto this cartridge.
Sometimes, it feels like every level
features an entirely new game engine.
It starts out as kind of a weird side-scrolling platformer.
It takes a while to get used to the controls
and how the game works, what you can jump on, and all that.
It's not the world's best platformer,
but once you figure it out, you should do okay.
Just be aware that your hit-box feels like it's bigger
than the entire screen sometimes.
Everything can hurt you easily.
It feels like no two levels have you
doing quite the exact same thing.
And soon, the game changes completely up
into an overhead racer similar to Micro Machines.
You're not actually racing here,
but you have to navigate the track, touch Buzz,
collect his batteries, and make it to the end.
Then it's off to avoiding food that falls from tables
because, I guess that's just what food does at Pizza Planet.
And what 2D platformer would be complete
without a 3D Doom-style level?
You're not shooting or killing anything here,
but instead you're finding three-eyed aliens
hidden in the machine and taking them back
to their collective within a strict time limit.
Then there's a third-person racer where you're after Buzz.
Again, you're not actually racing.
It's somewhat similar to the overhead RC car part
gameplay-wise, but this time it's outside, in 3D,
and it looks really cool.
Then you get kind of a horizontal shooter,
but without the shooting, as Buzz flies you back
to the car where Andy awaits.
Suffice it to say, this game can't fit into a single genre,
and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Developer Jon Burton is working on a director's cut
of this game to improve some of the gameplay aspects
of this one, and I'm really looking forward to that.
It might even be available to download
by the time you watch this.
I honestly have no idea, since we make these episodes
so far in advance.
But visit his channel, GameHut, for more details.
(collectables ding)
- [Dave] Here's Sigma Star Saga, for the Game Boy Advance,
developed by WayForward and published by Namco.
It's funny, because you can tell the game was developed
by WayForward just by looking at their female characters.
I certainly don't hate it,
but I'm sure it offends some people out there.
But you know what, that's their problem.
The game comes to you as an RPG.
Oh wait, it's a shooter.
Wait, no, it's both.
Let's take a look at this different approach
to the RPG genre.
As an RPG, you'll do a lot of the stuff you're used to:
you'll wander around large space stations talking to people
to get information.
Of course, this information helps you out,
and it also helps you further the storyline.
As with all RPGs, if you get stuck,
just talk to everyone and you'll find your way.
Besides the space stations,
you'll go down to the surface of different planets.
These exploration missions are pretty fun.
There's lots of enemies that you'll fight,
but you won't do it in a turn-based battle
like other RPGs.
It's all real-time, and you have your little gun
which kills enemies quickly.
Don't look for experience points here
because you won't get any.
I thought this was bit weird, and felt like I deserved XP
because, you know, I'm killing stuff.
You'll find many things on these trips,
like this radar-thingy that will help you get to new areas
that were previously blocked.
You'll also find gun data here-and-there.
Now this isn't for the gun that's in your hand,
this is for the ship that you'll use
when fighting enemies in the shooter segments.
There's over 50 types of gun data that you can collect,
and you can make thousands of different combinations
if you really wanna waste time.
You can customize the cannon, bullet type,
and the impact of the bullet.
I don't really like to waste a lot of time,
and found a few of these that suited me just fine.
I like this, as it's not deep,
and it's really fun and easy to try different combinations.
The shooter levels are like the random battles
that you're used to in a traditional RPG.
As you're exploring the planet,
you'll just randomly get beamed-up into a ship
that's cruising in space.
You won't always have the same ship every time,
but you'll always have the same weapons
that you powered-up on the planet's surface below.
The story explains it that there are drone ships
patrolling the skies and tunnels.
If the drones sense danger, it will warp the nearest pilot
into the cockpit, and he must destroy the enemies.
And that's you!
It's such a cool idea, and I like that you're sometimes
in fast fighter-looking ship, and other times,
you're in what looks like to be a transport ship.
These battles are where you get your experience points,
and do you're leveling-up.
On the side of the screen is the number of ships
that you have to destroy, and then the battle will be over.
As you kill enemies, they drop white orbs,
and these are your XP, so do your best to collect them.
You do have an HP bar on the top,
and if you get shot down like I often did,
you'll come back immediately to finish the job.
Unfortunately there's no way for you to heal yourself
during these battles, but that's okay
since they're usually over pretty quickly.
So I haven't beaten this game yet,
but what I've played is pretty fun,
and definitely a nice change to the genre.
Sure, the shooter levels can get a little repetitive
and boring at times, but they're a lot more entertaining
than the super-repetitive battles in a traditional RPG.
So if you're a fan of shooters and RPGs,
then you should try this game.
It's quite good, and as I've said before,
WayForward is definitely a worthy developer.
(tinny-sunding GBA explosion)
(sweet shooter soundz)
- [Joe] A good game for today's topic
is Back to the Future part three on the Genesis.
Actually, it's a good example, not a good game,
because dear God, this is one of the worst games ever made.
Each and every stage has completely different gameplay.
You start out riding a horse as Doc Brown,
and even if you're playing on a CRT,
you barely have any time to react.
You can try again and again,
and you're only gonna hate your life more and more
each time you try.
The next level, though, is better as it's a shooting gallery
but of course the control is still weird
as you need to press down to point your gun up.
There are three levels of height you can aim your gun at.
Are you a crack shot at this?
'Cause I'm not.
Then you have a weird isometric level
where you throw pies, or plates, or whatever.
And you don't throw the plates in the direction
that you press, either, it's very hard to make sense of.
It's like you need to press left to throw them up.
The last stage is the final one, and it's the best,
though it still sucks.
You're on top of a train throwing plates at bad guys.
You're also trying to reach the engine to make it go fast
so you can go back to the future!
It's tough, and it's easy to fall off.
Also, why is this entire game super dark?
I mean, seriously, did they develop the game
on monitors that had the brightness cranked way up
so that they thought it looked normal?
That's the only thing that makes any sense to me.
Still, I'm amazed that the developers
were proud enough of this one to put their names on it,
but they did.
I really want these guys to explain themselves.
Avoid this game at all costs.
(some of the weakest music you'll hear on the Genesis)
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Wow Dave, I don't know about this,
I can't handle so much variety.
- Yeah, you know, we're used to just one thing,
but now they throw this at us, what the hell?
- My brain, it just can't compute.
- Well, just settle down, we'll get through it.
- Let's do it.
(energetic Pac-Man Championship Edition music)
- [Dave] This is The Guardian Legend on NES,
developed by Compile and published by Broderbund in 1988.
Broderbund? Or is it broderboond? Broderbun?
Whatever, all they make is, like, publishing software now,
so pfft, who cares?
There's a huge planet called Naju,
and it's hurtling towards Earth.
If that's not bad enough, it's filled with evil aliens
that are ready to do foul and disgusting things
to the people that survive the impact
of another planet smashing into theirs.
As the guardian of Earth, you can't let this happen,
so off you go to Naju, and find that luckily,
there's a self-destruct mechanism.
For the entire planet, yes.
You have to activate to 10 safety devices
to destroy the planet.
Sounds pretty easy, right?
So let's go.
The game starts out on a shooter level.
It's moving fast, and all you have is a little pea shooter
to destroy all these aliens and debris
that's coming on screen.
You can't shoot it all, and for the most part,
I found myself just trying to dodge as much as I could.
But wait, that's the last thing you should do.
Your score is also your experience, and the higher the score
the higher your level,
which, in turn, extends your life bar.
You want a large life bar because the shooter levels
get tougher the further you get.
Once you defeat the first boss,
the game transforms into an overhead almost-dungeon crawler.
This labyrinth gets frickin' huge.
Your goal here is to make it
to the next corridor or shooter segment.
Luckily, there's a map on the sub-screen
which flashes the area that you need to reach
for the next corridor.
It's not easy making your way around,
since it's basically a large maze.
Very rarely is there a direct line
between you and your goal.
It's okay though, because exploring is pretty fun.
You'll kill lots of enemies
which will help boost your levels.
Be sure to shoot everything
because you'll get experience for it.
You'll also find many different power-ups
which will let you shoot faster, or carry more chips.
Chips are important since they serve two purposes.
One is currency, so you can buy new sub-weapons.
And two is ammunition for those sub-weapons.
You start out with a max of 50 chips,
and almost everything costs more than that,
but it won't be long before you find an icon
to let you carry more chips.
That's why you have to scavenge these areas.
Sure, you could skip and try your best
just to get to the goal,
but that won't give you any advantages down the road
when the game gets much harder.
Once you do get to a new corridor,
you go back into a shooter level.
Your weapon is more powerful,
and you have all those sub-weapons
which will help you out quite a bit.
I really like that you can use your sub-weapons
in both areas, and you can switch them any time
just by going onto the select screen.
As I said before, the game's dungeon-crawling area is huge.
Once you start collecting keys,
you can warp from area to another, so you don't have to
tread across the humongous map constantly.
The game is insanely fun and highly addictive
thanks to the awesome graphics and really good controls.
Hey, you know what else makes this game awesome?
Yep, it's the soundtrack.
A lot of great melodies that really bring you back
to the glory days of the NES.
So if you're looking for a fun game
that adds some serious difficulty later on
and will put your skills to the test, then look no further.
It's definitely worth a try.
(cool NES music)
- [Joe] Here's the breathtaking CrossFire for the Genesis,
from the ever-so exciting Kyugo Trading Company.
Is it a shooter? Is it a run-and-gun?
Why it's both for the price of one, you can't beat that.
Well, actually you can
by getting pretty much any other game.
This one is known as Super Airwolf in Japan,
and it's based on the Airwolf TV series.
But sadly, in the US, we got no Airwolf tie-in.
It starts out as a vertical shooter
where you pilot your helicopter.
It's pretty standard shooting action here.
You have your regular shot, and this can be powered-up.
You have a bomb that will help clear-out enemies,
and you also have a turbo thing
which makes you fast and invincible for a short time.
Oh, and have fun trying to collect these power-ups.
Not only do they run away from you when you fly towards them
but you need to collect all three of them to get the item.
After what seems like 30 years,
you zoom in really close to the ground
and shoot stuff up with your helicopter.
You're invincible here, and basically,
you're clearing the way for what happens next.
Now, you're playing a run-and-gun
shooting down bad guys that explode.
But don't worry, you explode too if you get hit.
You can jump high in order to shoot things
that are higher than you are.
This doesn't always work out well,
but it helps kill things that otherwise could shoot at you.
There also walkie-talkies to collect.
These will let you call in Super Airwolf
to clear out the screen while you lie down and take a nap.
After this, you go inside the base.
In here, you're looking for a hostage to rescue,
all the while shooting down bad guys.
Once you get the hostage, you escape,
and suddenly you're back into an overhead shooter again.
After another 30 years,
you finally get to a rather bland boss fight.
Win this, and you're back at the selection screen.
You can then buy new equipment at the store
with the money you earned.
And then you choose your next mission,
and then choose your weapons,
and then do it all over again.
There's not a lot of variety in the stages, the enemies,
or even the music in this game.
It's tough to keep your interest.
Hell, it's tough to even stay awake while playing it.
The run-and-gun segments are definitely
the best part of the game, though,
especially when you're inside looking for the hostages.
I wish these areas were a lot bigger.
I also wish the overhead shooter levels were shorter
and had more variety.
Not a game I'd recommend to anyone, really,
but nobody ever mentions it.
(gun fires rapidly, FM sound effects fail to impress)
- [Dave] Here's the Adventures of Bayou Billy
for the NES by Konami.
- [NES] The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
- [Dave] Billy's well-endowed girlfriend, Annabelle,
has been kidnapped, and you've gotta get her back.
But it's not gonna be easy, and that's the damn truth..
This game has three different play styles
for you to try and enjoy, and even master
as you hunt down Annabelle and her kidnapper.
- [NES] The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
- [Dave] The first play style is a typical beat 'em up
where you fight goons and alligators
with your fists and feet.
Once you've cleared the screen,
you can move forward to the next area and fight some more.
This is the hardest part of the game, hands down.
The levels are long,
and the enemies are strong and take lots of hits.
They also deal out a good amount of damage.
They'll drop weapons for you to pick up,
and even full-sized pre-cooked turkeys
that help give you life and energy.
Even with all the turkeys that you eat,
it's easy to see your life bar drain very quickly.
No lie here, the first level took over an hour to get past,
and there's no freakin' boss fight at the end.
Of the eight stages in the game, five are beat 'em ups.
- [NES] The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
- [Dave] The second type of gameplay
is a side-scrolling shooting game.
It plays very similar to Operation Wolf,
and other games like that.
The Zapper is the preferred control method,
but you can also use the normal controller
if you don't have one, or if you're playing on a modern TV.
These stages are a lot easier,
and the enemies have generous hit-boxes.
They drop lots of power-ups like life and extra bullets.
You don't have infinite ammo,
so be sure to pick up bullets when you can.
- [NES] The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
- [Dave] The last genre this one tries to be
is a combat driving game.
You drive in your bayou jeep
that's equipped with a machine gun on the front
to take out other jeeps.
It also has an open roof for you to throw grenades
at airplanes or helicopters that are coming at you.
They do have nice colors, and the clouds look good,
but that's as pretty as it gets.
And they're quite tough, as not only do you lose a life
any time you bump into anything,
you're also racing a strict timer.
I used to play this game a lot back when it came out.
I've only ever made it to the sixth level.
It's beyond difficult, and at times frustrating.
Apparently, the Japanese game, called Mad City
is much easier and has lots more content.
I'm gonna have to get that version, I think,
'cause I'd like to see the ending.
- [NES] The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
(8-bit music straight from the)
(player character groans)
- Alright, Dave, doesn't it piss you off
that some of these games can't stick to a genre?
- For the most part, Joe, no it doesn't,
and especially in the case of games like Bayou Billy,
where the beat 'em up stages are just ridiculously hard,
it's kinda nice to break it up with a driving sequence,
or maybe a Zapper game.
- By the way, those driving sequences
can suck the farts out of my ass, I hate 'em.
- (laughs) Yeah, now I'm not sucking any farts
out of anybody's ass, but.
- Dude, why not?
- You know, It just doesn't sound appealing.
Anyways, we got a couple more games,
so let's just get right back to it.
- [Joe] This is Final Lap Twin for the TurboGrafx-16.
Is it a racing game?
Is it an RPG?
Does it excel at either?
Dave briefly mentioned this one,
but screw him, he sucks.
The main portion of this game is a standard racing game
where you race to place high enough
and advance to the next track.
There's nothing really special here at all.
The graphics aren't much better
than the original Pole Position.
The music during the races isn't bad though.
Like I said, it's fairly basic,
and back when our expectations were pretty low,
this woulda been kind of entertaining.
But there's also a quest mode
which is more-or-less your standard RPG.
Your mission is to become the world champion,
and also to save the world.
I mean, you probably have to save it, it's an RPG after all.
The random battles are one-lap races,
and you earn money whether you win or lose,
but of course you get a lot more if you win.
If you lose, you also get put back into the original town.
You can buy lots and lots of parts for your car,
then you can face off against the local boss.
His race is three laps, and if you win,
you get a secret part, like a warp box, or a map.
You have a fairly convoluted password you can input
if you wanna continue your game,
and be sure to write it down correctly, or, oops, oh well.
The RPG mode is tough but not because of the difficulty,
but because it's so damn tedious.
The races are boring,
and take place to the world's most boring music.
(boooooring 8-bit music)
There's only two race tracks,
and they both look extremely bland.
It would be better if I were allowed to run
from all of the random battles.
Just that one little thing would improve the game ten-fold.
There is a lot of grinding in this game,
but I don't like being forced to do it when I don't want to.
Still, I've gotta give props to Namco
for putting in a fairly fleshed-out quest mode in this.
It showed that they cared about their customer,
at least a little.
(better 8-bit music)
Believe it or not,
Namco had tried this approach earlier
with World Court Tennis, also on the TurboGrafx-16.
The main part of the game is a crappy tennis simulator
and it also has a built-in RPG mode
that works very similar to Final Lap Twin.
The main tennis game isn't that hot,
and it really doesn't help
that I have absolutely no interest in tennis at all.
The graphics are, well, they're just plain,
and everything looks squashed, especially the court.
The RPG mode has King of Tennis sending you out on a journey
to stop the evil Tennis King and restore tennis to the land.
So that's right, you have to save the world.
And the NPCs give you great information like,
"Get information from people."
Gee, thanks.
Another one tells me that this town is Chicago?
Wow, Chicago has sure gone downhill, I mean,
there's only like six or seven people living here now.
Of course, the random battles are quick tennis matches,
and since I suck at this game,
I lose every battle without exception.
I could buy parts to power-up my tennis dude,
but, damn, everything is expensive here.
So it goes without saying that grinding is a must.
Honestly, I can find no positive aspects to this game,
just stick to Final Lap Twin.
(some top tier 8-bit music)
- [Dave] And no, we didn't forget about Blaster Master,
by SunSoft on the NES.
The game with a storyline that leaves you
with more questions than answers.
Like, why is there radioactive stuff in my front yard?
Why is there a huge world underground?
Where did this battle tank and suit come from?
And that's just to start with.
It really doesn't matter, and if you've played this title,
you know it's about as solid as a game can get.
The game is broken up into two play styles.
The first is a side-scrolling action-type.
You drive around in your tank,
platforming and blasting your cannon
at everything that moves.
The tank controls splendidly,
making platforming easy and fun.
It even has secondary weapons like lightning,
and missiles that are very useful that are just too low
for your cannon to hit.
Unfortunately they're limited,
but can be recharged by collecting the proper icons.
You can also get out of your tank at any time
and fight on foot if you so choose.
Does this count as half of a game type?
Your character is tiny, and so is his firepower.
You'll also take a lot of damage,
so it's not wise to do this until you need to.
And of course, you'll run across small doors
that only your small character can fit into.
This is where you ditch the tank and go inside.
The second play style is an overhead dungeon crawler-type.
There's lots of these, and most of them will make you feel
like you're wasting your time, but you're not.
If you shoot everything, you'll come across weapon power-ups
which are good for boss fights.
Sadly, your weapon will revert to a lower level
if you take damage, though.
And if you wanna beat this game, just don't take damage,
that's my advice.
And it's good advice, it works 100% of the time.
You only have a total of three lives per continue,
and very few continues.
No saves or passwords, so good luck.
Still though, this is excellent game
with an even better soundtrack.
This is another game that I've never beat,
but it's got personality and gameplay
that make you wanna keep trying.
(8-bit music that makes you appreciate the NES)
If you have a Switch, you can also try Blaster Master Zero,
which is excellent.
It features the same multiple styles of play
and does them all extremely well.
The graphics go for the retro look
that's so popular with low-budget modern games, these days.
The music is also presented in a retro style,
sounding like a hyped-up NES, or maybe a TurboGrafx-16.
It's great stuff, for sure,
approaching the quality of the original compositions.
(pretty good 8-bit-ish music)
Some of the previous bosses return,
but you certainly don't fight them in the exact same way
you did in the original.
And of course, you're constantly upgrading your weapons
and other powers as you progress through the game.
The control is very good, and this time
you can save your progress, which is very helpful.
This is good because levels are extremely large,
and you'll be in each one for quite some time
before proceeding.
Of course, the worst thing about this game
is that it's digital-only.
And as Nintendo has already shown us,
the eShop won't be open forever, so don't delete this one
to make space, you won't always be able to re-download it
because Nintendo WILL close the Switch eShop in the future.
Move it to another SD card instead.
Otherwise, it's a great game.
(really nice 8-bit-ish music)
- [Joe] Alright, I'm sick of talking about crappy games,
let's look at Thunder Force II on the Sega Genesis.
Is it a horizontal shooter?
Is it a free-roaming overhead shooter?
Much to the dismay of the people who can't learn
the free-roaming overhead parts, it's both.
In fact, this game favors the free-roaming overhead stages
as there are more of these
than the horizontally-scrolling side-view stages.
Personally, I like both, though I can understand
why Technosoft ditched the overhead stages in later games.
These stages are weird, and most people were just incapable
of figuring them out.
They're actually pretty simple:
you just need to find and destroy four of these bases
that look like this big round thing here on the ground,
and it can only be hit with your ground-based weapon,
so look for the little circles that indicate
that the ground is being hit.
Also, listen for the deep sound
as a the ground enemies take damage.
(deep sound)
Once you defeat all four, that's it!
Some of these can be beaten in less than 30 seconds.
Then, you have the side-scrolling stages.
These are awesome, but at the same time, slightly flawed.
I mean, things will fly and attack you from nowhere
with little to no warning.
It can be tough to remain alive until you learn the game.
Oh, and when you die, all of the weapons
that you collected disappear,
and you're left with your default pea shooters.
This game is tough.
Not anywhere near as tough as Thunder Force 4 or 5,
not by a long shot, but it's still pretty tough.
Unfortunately, it's often due
to the questionable stage design.
Still, it's a great early Genesis game
with some of the best music on the system.
This one introduced the side-scrolling stages
into the Thunder Force series,
so we should probably all be thankful.
Otherwise, your precious Thunder Force 3, 4, and 5
would all be overhead only, just like the first game.
Every Genesis owner should have at least three copies.
I'm sure they made enough.
(cool 16-bit music with great bass)
(gun whirs)
-[Genesis] Nova. Mega Flash. Side Blaster. Wave Set. Claw.
-Alright, there you go: hybrid games,
for lack of a better term.
Okay, Dave, so if you're playing one of these games
that we covered in this episode,
and you knew absolutely nothing about it,
and all of a sudden the play style switched up,
are you gonna be happy, or sad?
Does it make the game better or worse?
- You know, probably better, because as they say,
variety is the spice of life, so why not?
- Okay, so that means every game should be multi-genre then?
- No, definitely not.
I don't want my Castlevania game
to have anything else in it, like--
- Like a driving sequence?
- Yeah, I don't wanna be driving
from one castle to the next, or something like that.
- I think that'd be awesome.
- (laughs) Oh God no.
- Like in a Tesla or something.
- Yeah, something like that, or a horse and carriage.
(they laugh)
- Tesla, maybe a Ferrari.
- Oh, that'd be alright.
- Okay, anyway, what are some of your favorite hybrid games
that just can't decide what the hell they wanna be,
let us know.
In the meantime, thank you for watching Game Sack.
(Game Sack credits theme)
- I'm really excited for the next time we cover more games
that can't decide what they wanna be.
So, I've already been doing some research,
and I think this is gonna be a great game.
This is two genres in one game.
- Dude, you are an idiot,
this is two games on one cartridge.
That doesn't count.
- You're right dude, I am such an idiot, God.
How about this one though?
This has three genres in one game.
- Oh my God Dave, just, just, just, no.
You should cover one of these.
This is what I plan on covering for that next episode,
the Sega Genesis 6-Pak, six different genres in one game.
- That is awesome Joe, I wish Nintendo had a 6-Pak.
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