Battle Unit Zeoth is a 1990 GB side-scrolling action game by Jacelo where you play as the titular mech out to destroy self-replicating alien robots or something. It’s an early Gameboi game so there’s nothing ressembling a plot
The game is split into two type of stages: odd-numbered stages basically are a horizontal shmups with a vertically-scrolling field, albeit you aim in all four cardinal directions and you control Zeoth’s ascend by feathering the A button, like a jetpack. Even-numbered stages are more conventional sidescrollers where you climb up (or down) the level. You have generous allotment of 8 hitpoints (somewhat offset by the extremely short mercy invincibility period) and you can collect power-ups to change your shot type or regain health.
It’s pretty decent: it’s not deep but stages are decently paced and the quick and frequent enemies keep you on your toes. The relative freedom of movement helps to give it an identity.
Definitely the best thing about BUE is the aesthetics: the sprites and backgrounds are all very nice looking and detailled. the bosses in particular look fantastic, being suitabling mean and gritty. The soundtrack, though quite simple, is also decently catchy. Unlike a few other games, it looks great without being riddled with slowdowns or skimping on the framerate
It’s a good thing too because Battle Unit Zeoth is short. The game lasts about 10 minutes (both of the sidescrolling levels last less than a minute each) and while the bosses can be decently challenging, their limited and unchanging attack patterns mean it won’t last too long before you eventually learn them well enough to clear the game on a first life, and if that’s you just don’t say “fuck it” and exploit the fact continuing returns you on the stage you died on with a filled lifebar. The game has no difficulty selection and though pressing select on the credit screen restarts the game with a different weapon, it does not seem the levels or difficulty change in any noticeable way. But while it lasts, Battle Unit Zeoth is pretty cool.
I finished Breath of Fire on the GBA. I played it with a Palette Restoration and Music Restoration patch. Great game, though relatively basic JRPG. Feels like an 8-bit RPG with a 16-Bit coat of paint.
With the original GBA screen being without backlight, many games had very bright palettes to compensate. SNES ports in particular were brightened so that they were easier to see with less light. The Palette restoration patch changes the colours back to the SNES originals, which is not an issue when playing on backlit screens.
Likewise, the music restoration aims to get the music as close as possible to the SNES original, as it was compromised during the port to GBA. It does a good job, though I noticed some nasty hum in the background of most tracks.
The Palette restoration patch can be found here, whereas the sound restoration patch can be found here. I patched the same ROM with both patches and it worked fine.
AGS-101 screen modded into my original launch AGS-001. I absolutely love it. Here’s another screengrab from near the end of the game:
Legend of Zelda. Probably took about 25 hours of playtime, dungeon 6 easily being the hardest part of the game. Glad to be done with this one, but I thoroughly enjoyed it for how old it is. First playthrough as well.
I saw a terrible thread on some other forum that inspired me to play Super Mario 64. So, yesterday, I sat down and got all 120 stars. Overall, Mario 64 is still a good game (of course). If I had to complain about anything, it would be the camera and Bowser. I would love to have a remake which let me move the camera using an analog stick rather than fighting with Lakitu using the C-buttons. Bowser just isn’t that good of a boss battle and it’s super annoying to do the throw thing. I wish they had more variety with the Bowser encounters but it’s not the biggest deal.
Super Mario 64 is still one of the best games out there for me - the mastery of the controls being the main difficulty makes for a very expressive game in terms of what you can do in it. It still does feel like a playground where your imagination fills in the gaps, and it certainly manages to be eternally entertaining beyond high scores and content, a feat that very few games can attest to.
Totally agreed about the camera by the way. It certainly works, and the Lakitu metaphor does a great job at explaining less-popular-by-today’s-standards invert controls, but there are quirks which have been ironed out today. It’s strange how it always floats towards Mario’s back whenever you move - I think Ocarina of Time changed that so that only happens during movement. And Wind Waker/Mario Sunshine certainly perfected things in the sense that the auto camera is still excellent, but as soon as you touch the camera controls it locks you into manual mode until you re-centre again.
The only thing I can complain about is the theme for the final worlds. It is the one thing in the game that feels lacking/rushed. Soundtrack was so amazing otherwise, shit like music being different under and above water in some levels, but then last ones use an already reused theme.
I had to skip out of those threads the moment that person talked about the controls being bad. Just noped out, saw the other thread that they made and noped again.
Edge magazine did a top 100 games special back in 2007 and the page written for Super Mario 64 was also an excellent deconstruction of what made the game so special 11 years on at the time.
Been playing through Cotton 2 a lot recently - what a game! I’m still experimenting with the capture mechanics and elementals and bosses - eventually I’ll get to the point where it all comes together and I get a good scoring run. Right now my high scores are fragmented between stages 1-3/4 and stages 5-7. I keep losing credits in the latter stages.
The ending is unexpectedly grim and funny at the same time, haha.
Anyone got any tips for reaching the Bonus 3 score tier which seems to require a score of 3m?
What a replayable game though. Even when I’ve done what I want to do (try it on hard mode, clear it with more navigators) I can see myself picking it up to play still. They really nailed the controls.
