Here we are, part two of the impressions. This week, it's a bunch of games I have never played, so this should be interesting for me!
Clayfighter
Have I played it before? Clayfighter is kind of game that one would see on the shelf at Blockbuster and not really think much of it. I never picked it up, but I have heard the vocal theme song that was in the SNES version.
The big gimmick of this fighting game is that everyone is a silly character made out of clay. We got a killer snow man, a clown, a big muscular guy named Tiny (get it, because he's not tiny!), and a heavyset opera singer who really hates salad! As for the substance to this style, it's just a not-that-great early Street Fighter II clone. It's the 6 button layout, there's normal fireball and charge motions, and there are no combos as far as I can tell. This is the first game alphabetically on the Genesis Mini 2 to actually use the 6 button controller, so that's kind of interesting. (Really wish Alien Soldier used it, but alas.)
I am no EVO contender, but I can say that this is not the worst fighting game I ever played. I would play this over Doomsday Warrior. I actually kept playing this game for a little over 15 minutes because I kept winning with my strategy of ducking and pressing the Medium Kick button over and over again with Bad Mr. Frosty, and I was wondering if I was actually going to get a sightread 1cC of the game. Granted, I did set it to Easy in the options, so that could be why. It's okay.
Is this a game I'm willing to go back to? Maybe to see what the final boss is, but I don't think I'm going to practice for its eventual appearance at EVO 2023. I am sure that will happen.
Crusader of Centy
Have I played it before? No.
The minute the gameplay started, I knew this was the Genesis' answer to Link to the Past. It may not be as blatant as, say, the Neutopia games on the Turbografx, but it's definitely supposed to be Link to the Past. My method of playing each game for at least 15 minutes does run into a wall with these kinds of games, and I played this one the most just because I wanted to get to the actual meat of the game.
I went through a surprisingly harmful obstacle course, I went to a mountain and fought enemies with my boomerang sword abilities, I fought against a big bad wolf boss I just stumbled into, the person I rescued told me to go to a fortune teller, and the fortune teller gave me the ability to talk to animals at the cost of being able to talk to other people. That's as far as I got. I know there's a lot more to this game, as I didn't even get to the part where you learn to jump, but I have to keep this project moving. All in all, I enjoyed my time with it.
Also, this may be the only game on the Genesis where the main character can get stuck in a Japanese-style squat toilet. Sorry to say to Clayfighter, that was the biggest laugh of the night.
Is this a game I'm willing to go back to? Of course.
Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf
Have I played it before? No.
This is one of those games where you control a helicopter and blow things up in an isometric perspective. I did not get too far into this game, but I think I got the gist. There are some interesting mechanics, like saving missing in action soldiers and collecting ammo and fuel, and there is some strategy in ammo management. I'm more into the arcade side of shooters like this, but if I took my time with this game, I could get into it.
...I did not have much to say about this one. This did get some really good reviews back in the day, so maybe there's more to it.
Is this a game I'm willing to go back to? Maybe.
Devi & Pii
Have I played it before? The only people who can say yes to this question are the people that developed the game.
If I was ranking games based on how great preserving it on a console like this is, this would be near the top. This is an unreleased game nobody has ever heard of until they announced it for this mini console, and it's neat to see something that would have been lost to the sands of time. It's like Star Fox 2; nobody knew that prototype that was floating around the internet wasn't even the latest version of the game until the SNES Mini came out.
This is not to say that this game is Star Fox 2, though. It's a puzzle action game that's like Breakout and Kaboom mashed together. There's two paddles, one that whacks away little devils, called Devis, and another that collects little Cupids, called Piis. Yes, Piis. Each level has its own gimmick, and, to be honest, I didn't know exactly what I was really doing until nearly the end of my session with it. This seems like the kind of game that would be better with two players controlling each paddle, though I cannot imagine getting someone to play this over, say, Bonanza Bros. or even ClayFighter.
It's unfair to compare this game with any of the other games on this list, as it feels more like an experiment than something that would be on the same shelf as games like Desert Strike or Crusader of Centy. The game does seem fully featured; it has an opening cutscene, and it has at least 6 different worlds, each with its own boss. Rule of three suggests there should be something else I can say, but I got nothing.
Is this a game I'm willing to go back to? After the 15 minutes, I felt I had enough Pii for one day. There, there's your juvenile joke about the game's title.
Earthworm Jim 2
Have I played it before? I did play the SNES version on Nintendo Switch Online, also just for a little bit on a different Twitch stream.
There's a huge elephant in the room here, in more ways than one. Earthworm Jim, sort of a spiritual successor to the Genesis Aladdin game, known for its creative and surreal gameplay and great animation, and created by someone who has some rather horrible views when it comes to the LGBT community, among other things. As much as I really should make this game dead last based on that alone, as long as the game itself does not expose those views, I feel like that should not harm it in the ranking. As far as I played, it does not.
OrangeRight says trans rights, by the way.
Anyway, this is a very unique platformer with a unique sense of humor. First level involves transporting pigs and going up stair lifts while avoiding falling grannies. Second level has Jim shoot a bunch of soil walls to make hills while collecting clocks. Third level was Game & Watch Fire, and anything that reminds me of the Game & Watch Gallery games is good to me. This game looks like it goes to wild places in future levels, especially the level right after the one I had to end on, and, disregarding that elephant in the room, I would at least like to play it for myself someday.
Is this a game I'm willing to go back to? Maybe.
Ranking so far
- Alien Soldier
- Sonic CD
- Crusader of Centy*
- Atomic Runner
- Earthworm Jim 2
- Bonanza Bros.
- After Burner II
- Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf*
- ClayFighter
- Devi & Pii
* Really haven't played enough of it
And that's it for part 2! Next game is Ecco the Dolphin on Sega CD. Didn't really like Ecco on Genesis, though maybe my opinion changed over the years?