Deadpool: The NES Hack with a Mouth

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Chris W

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Deadpool for the NES was released by Techmoon in October of 2019, and is available either by a rompatch or downloading the rom hack itself. Deadpool is a total and complete hack of Ninja Gaiden 1, and has elements from all 3 NG games. Everything was changed for Deadpool, even the cinema scenes! Techmoon put a lot of time and love into this and it’s worth playing even if you’re not a comic fan! The graphics are great and the remixed music is fabulous, even having 8-bit renditions of DMX “X Gonna Get Ya” and George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.” This game is also not for kids considering foul language in the cinema scenes. Kinda wish there were little yellow dialogue boxes though. And Deadpool on a moped. There’s also 2 difficulty levels: mercy (easy mode) and merc (hard mode) for your choosing, and I think a boss rush mode when you finish the game and a music test option. What’s also great is the game will save where you left off, so just hit load game when you restart and you’ll be back where you left off! No save states needed! At the bottom of this post are a list of links to get this rom hack and Techmoon’s sites.

So the plot involves Deadpool getting beaten in a duel with DC’s Deathstroke, then being given the Infinity Gauntlet by a mysterious young woman. Trying to keep it safe he encounters a number of enemies, including some heroes and villains across the Marvel and DC universe. Still looking for Francis, Deadpool finds himself in a larger plot involving Death herself and Thanos. There’s more but don’t want to spoil the fun. 😉

NOW THE REVIEW: Holy crow is this good. This is what all hacks should be. It’s challenging but not insane with enemy placement and cheap ai or rng. This hack completely changes up Ninja Gaiden 1 to Deadpool. Everything was changed: cinema scenes, levels, power-ups, plot. The tutorial level to learn how to control Deadpool and his gear is even fun! It works as a level itself so when you begin the game itself, any extra goodies you acquired during the tutorial stays with you in Stage 1. This game isn’t for kids, like any Deadpool book. There is raunchy language and mature themes. Deadpool can collect food items and when he has enough can set off a bomb that blows up any enemies on screen, except for certain enemies and bosses. Deadpool’s special abilities include guns, a jumpslash, rockets, and a teleport slash. You wanna be invincible for a few moments, find yourself a nice meatsuit. So after I found this originally I played it on stream in merc (hard) mode and managed to limp my way to stage 5. Playing on my own as of this writing in mercy (easy mode).

GRAPHICS AND SOUND: Not much to say here, everything from NG is different. Deadpool and the various enemies throughout stages and the bosses look great! Throughout the game Deadpool changes outfits from his traditional red and black costume. The backgrounds have a great style to them and they’re not just empty fields of color, and obstacles and everything you climb and jump onto look great too. The graphics during the cutscenes have a lot of life to them as well, even some are animated. The developers really got the style of Deadpool from the comics and the movies! The bosses look like who they’re supposed to be depicting also. The music is great, with the aforementioned 8bit renditions of “X Gonna Get Ya” and George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.” Boss music is about the same as it was in NG1, but that’s ok.

PLAY CONTROL: Deadpool controls as well as Ryu does in the ninja Gaiden titles, meaning he does what you want him to. He has his basic slash and jump abilities. the tutorial mode will show you how to activate his other special skills, along with the special bomb when you collect all food items. Hot boxes all seem logical though like NG, the knockback from getting hit by enemies can really mess you up if you don’t slash at the right time when jumping to take out an enemy.

CHALLENGE: This is a challenge even on easy mode. Easy mode you won’t have as many enemies around, but the ones that do remain are in places where you gotta think on your feet to defeat them and claim a platform or floating piece of land. Hard mode you’ll be dealing with enemies that will make your life hell, level design, and in some cases, dealing with the weather either wind blowing in different directions (think stage 2-2 in NG2), and ice physics (my fav!). Both modes there’s a number of spots where you’ll have to earn your way through the level due to the enemies in your way. The boss fights are fun once you learn their movesets! If you know your way through NG1, you’re gonna know many of these bosses as they move and attack the way their counterparts do in NG1, just not in the same order as NG1.

I RATE DEADPOOL 4 OUT OF 5 CHIMICHANGAS!!

Links:
TechMoon Facebook page
TechMoon Youtube
TechMoon on Instagram
Deadpool IPS patch @ romhacking.net
Deadpool rom bundles

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Various Star Wars Retro Game Reviews

Posted on May 17, 2020 by Chris W

So after my Star Wars retro game variety night on the 4th into the 5th, and a second variety night to revisited a few titles and I figured I’d so a little more SW related content with a few little retro game reviews. Decided to add a mini review of Star Wars Trilogy Arcade too!

STAR WARS: DEATH STAR BATTLE (ATARI 2600): Not much to say about an Atari 2600 title. You fly the Millennium Falcon, blasting TIEs and Imperial Shuttles till a hole opens up in the shield. Fly through it you gotta destroy parts of the Death Star 2 to expose the core. Blast the core you win the round, but you can get blown up too. The laser also tracks you. graphics and sound are good for what they are, and everything looks like what you think it is. Challenge comes from the rng of it, one round you can do great and beat a personal high school, the next you get blasted by everything including the kitchen sink. Wish i had this as a kid cause its fun! Think I’m gonna buy a copy now…

STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (ATARI 2600): This I had as a kid and played for hours along with River Raid. You’re a snowspeeder blasting AT-ATs during the Battle of Hoth. A row of Walkers block your path and you gotta keep shooting at them to damage them till they explode. Your snowspeeder and the AT-ATs change different colors as they take damage, sometimes a glowing dot appearing that will grant you a OHKO on the Walker. Graphics are great and the sound effects aren’t annoying. Challenge comes from avoiding enemy shots and blasting the Walkers as they start slow and get faster as they march towards Echo Base.

STAR WARS (FAMICOM): This game belongs in the trash compacter on the first Death Star. I don’t think even the Dianoga would eat this! It would be forgivable if it was the one that came out for the NES, but i think Namco didn’t even watch A New Hope. graphics and music are decent at least, very challenging since you die in one hit and no continues. Oh and you travel to different planets with landscapes based on places on Earth for no reason to save your friends. Least the space battles with the Millennium Falcon are cool. Yes, this is THAT Star Wars game where Darth Vader turns into different animals when you fight him. Scorpion Vader still sounds like something from Super Sentai.

STAR WARS ARCADE (32x): Oh lord, the good about this is that it’s a very solid space flight sim, taking the basics of the pc Tie Fighter/X-Wing series. The graphics and music are ok, least the TIE’s and your X-Wing look like they’re supposed to. The 32x port has the original arcade and a 32x mode that’s harder, and you can play two players: one person as pilot and the other shoots. You go through a number of stages on your way to blast the first and then the second Death Stars through waves of TIEs. The voice acting of Darth Vader and Admiral Ackbar are atrocious.

STAR WARS EPISODE 1 RACER (PC/STEAM): I had this years ago on PC and played the hell outta it and was glad I found this on Steam. I wish I had the n64 version sometimes though. This is a racing game of the famous pod racing scene in The Phantom Menace. Play as kid Anakin or any other driver, replace and upgrade your pod racer parts at Watto’s shop, race to earn cash! The graphics in this still hold up, during the races, they’re BEAUTIFUL!! Game is fast and doesn’t hit any lag or gets jumpy when you blow up or other racers are on the field. Play via controller (if you can get one to work), or keyboard/mouse. Like most Star Wars titles, this one still holds up for pc.

STAR WARS TRILOGY ARCADE: Released in 1998, this is one of the definitive Star Wars titles. The graphics and amazing and crisp John Williams soundtrack still holds up! You play through flying and first-person shooter stages during the Battle of Yavin IV, the battle of Hoth, and destroying the shield generator on Endor during the Battle of Endor from the original trilogy. Bonus stages include a lightsaber fight with Boba Fett and Darth Vader, leading to another space battle sage flying into and destroying the second Death Star. All the graphics, sound and controls on this are tight! I played this finally getting a supermodel3 emulator working and fiddling with the stats a lot. Most time splaying this via emulator the game won’t be at full space, or the graphics will glitch, and lightsabers won’t be the right colors. But it’s nothing distracting enough to turn you off from spending 20-30 minutes blasting TIEs and Stormtroopers. I’m also amused there’s a Wampa room during the Hoth stage based on a a deleted scene from Empire Strikes Back.

Willow Arcade Review

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Chris W

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I remember seeing Willow in the movie theaters as a kid and loved it. It was a wonderful and charming fantasy movie with a likable cast, great action, and comedy. Capcom released 2 different Willow games in 1989. The arcade Willow is an action platformer title with some rpg elements with the stores. Willow released for the NES was a great action-rpg that took a lot from Zelda and titles before it. Willow was chosen by the holy baby Elora Danan to protect her. Setting off from his village and meets friends and enemies to battle the forces of the queen Bavmorda.

Arade Willow consists of 6 different stages depicting parts of the movie. You start the game as Willow himself. Willow jumps across obstacles and throwing his magic acorns to defeat enemies, mini-bosses and stage bosses. Some stages let you use the knight Madmartigan who plays more of a melee fighter considering he has a sword. The stages include: Crossroads, Cherlindrea’s Forest, Fin Raziel’s Island, Sorsha’s Camp, Tir Asleen Castle, and Nockmaar Castle. Some stages you’ll switch between using Willow or Madmartigan for the stage, with Stage 5 letting you choose one of the 2, and Stage 6 starts with Madmartigan and ends with Willow taking on the mad queen Bavmorda in one of the toughest final boss fights I ever experienced.

Shops run by gnomes with really creepy feather(?) eyebrows dot the landscape. Picking up gold from defeated enemies let you buy powerups, life bar increases (up to 6) and healing items. Willow’s powerups are more powerful ranged magics, Madmartigan’s are sword upgrades. Each powerup can be thrown at different levels by holding the attack button and charging the meter. All of Willow’s different magics consist of different types of attacks, including one the turns enemies to extra gold. The way the game works, you will need to get Willow’s best magic to even stand a chance against Bavmorda. So get to every shop you find, there’s normally 2 per stage.

REVIEW TIME: I had honestly never known there was a Willow arcade game until a few months ago when I was hunting down new MAME roms for streaming and playing on my own. Turning it on I loved it right away. Capcom hit it out of the park with the atmosphere and music, along with the enemy and stage variety. Except that cart stage at the end of Stage 2. It sucks. I had played this on stream and gotten up to the end after a lot of deaths and trying new things. I failed miserably against Bavmorda thanks to not knowing her attacks well, and not realizing how the magic/sword powerup system really worked. Watching some videos on youtube I realized I needed to concentrate more on Willow’s magic to get his ultimate magic for the final fight. Second time around after a very long and frustrating series of matches, I finally beat her and brought peace to the lands. I also didn’t realize the game had dipswitches after my first stream, so I messed with them some to give myself more of a chance, and changing the amount of lives from 1 quarter to 4. I also really wish the Brownies somehow made it into the game. XD

GRAPHICS AND SOUND: The graphics are gorgeous in Willow and hold to Capcom’s high standards. The foreground and backgrounds are very detailed and colorful, even all the enemies, human and otherwise, are bathed in different colors instead of being just one shade or color. Magic spells and Madmartigan’s attacks are very detailed as you upgrade your gear. The music is very good and fits the fantasy atmosphere of the game. Boss fight music will get you pumped up, and the whimsical tune playing when you’re sledding down the snowy hill collecting gold will make you smile. I do love the track playing fighting the final boss Bavmorda!

PLAY CONTROL: Play control is very tight. You have two buttons, one for attacking, one for jumping. Holding up as you jump gives you the high jump, and when high jumping to higher cliffs and platforms Willow and Madmartigan can climb up. Holding the attack button charges your magic or sword to one of its levels. The more magic or sword power the longer it takes to charge to max, but it’s pretty fast. Both buttons are quite responsive.

CHALLENGE: Game isn’t hard, it’s a platformer so you gotta be careful where you jump and attacking enemies. Some jumps can be tricky especially in the later levels. A lot of the challenge comes from the mini and boss fights, along with how upgraded Willow’s magic and Madmartigan’s sword are. The final fight with Bavmorda is HARD. If you don’t have Willow’s magic upgraded to the final magic Crystal, you’re gonna have a bad time avoiding her shots. Be sure to try saving your gold for the upgrades and life bar increases (up to 6, dafaq?!), get as many defensive items as you can before Bavmorda.

A friend of mine DariaPlaysRPGs also did an amazing video regarding NES Willow: https://youtu.be/A_jBj6bFoiM

I GIVE ARCADE WILLOW 4 OUT OF 5 MAGIC ACORNS!!

I wish these guys were in the game, even as a cameo.

May the 4th Be With You Star Wars Day 2020

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Chris W

May 4th is Star Wars Day, with the familiar motto “May the 4th Be With You. Being a big Star Wars fan, i wanted to do something special this year so I turned to streaming. I went through what I had for emulators and found various Star Wars titles, and also took advantage of a Steam sale for some older titles I hadn’t played in years! Then I went for something different, I got the Sega supermodel3 emulator and fuddled around to get Star Wars Trilogy Arcade working! And it did!! It doesn’t run at full speed and there’s graphical glitches, but it’s very much playable, even the 2 bonus lightsaber levels.

Unfortunately due to trying to get the Star Wars games from Steam to work right in a windowed view for streaming purposes and other issues, some which stemming from the fact that SW games on Steam are quite hard to get to stream, I couldn’t do all the ones I wanted for a Star Wars games night Which left only Dark Forces and Episode 1 Racer, which is ok cause they were 2 favorites of mine. I think streaming them from gog.com purchases is supposed to be less a hassle. It sucks cause I really wanted to do Tie Fighter. I’m gonna revisit some more Star Wars content for that week being the SNES Super SW trilogy, Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, and Episode 1 Racer. I also want to do a Star Wars post regarding the various SW merchandise I own sometime.

So I played 12 different games, ranging from arcade, Atari 2600, 32x, Steam Dos classics, SNES, and Famicom ending the night with Star Wars Trilogy Arcade!

So I played:
Arcade: Star Wars, Empire, Jedi
Atari 2600: Empire and Death Star Battle
Sw Arcade 32x
Steam: Dark Forces and Episode 1 Racer
Star Wars Famicom
Super Star Wars Snes
Super Jedi Snes
Supermodel 3 star wars trilogy arcade

Check it out! Sorry about any muted video.

RetroRevisited: MUSHA, Task Force Harrier EX, Silpeed (Sega Shmups)

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Chris W

So one night I decided to do a night of Sega shumps that i grew up with. I’ve never been that big on shmups or Sega games but these 3 are ones I’ve played or had at one point: M.U.S.H.A, Task Force Harrier EX, and Silpheed. Still wishing M.U.S.H.A. wasn’t going for so much or else I’ve make another run for it on ebay. I had a blast with them once I started remembering the controls and some muscle memory began to kick in. So here’s the video of it, Some mini-reviews follow.

M.U.S.H.A.: I wish I picked this up at Funcoland back when I was a teen like my friend did, i forgot how banging this game is!! This game has great play control and an amazing heavy metal soundtrack! You’re a flying mech fighting off invaders in the form of giant baby faces, planes, and other enemies. The bosses are large and colorful. You have your main weapon, add-ons that you can set in different directions and different sub-weapons that can be powered up in the form of lightning beams, bombs, and a shield. if you can get this at a reasonable price, do it, or play the rom!

TASK FORCE HARRIER EX: So I played this from my step-father and we both enjoy it. it’s base don the arcade game of the same title, minus the ex. You’re a lone fighter blasting your way through the enemy forces to save your country. The graphics are average and not very colorful, save for the cute anime girl who gives you your missions at the start of each level. The music on the other hand is great! Your plane has different shot options that you pick up, along with support planes and different types of bombs to drop between the air and the ground assault levels.

SILPHEED: This was one of the last ports of Silpheed made before the company went under and I very much enjoy this shooter! The graphics and fmv are definitely dated to today’s standards but they’re fun to watch. The music is great, I especially still love stage 1’s track to this day, and the voice-overs are clear, even if annoying after awhile. Your ship gains different options after each level, along with bombs. Fun game to kick back for an afternoon run!

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Photo Batch: Random stuffs

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Chris W

So I worked on these a few months ago, and completely forgot to upload them to Google Photos and do another photo post. These are just some other random photos from events, nature and the like. Thanks to coronavirus pretty much killing my con season this year at this point, I can likely set down and finish off all them soon. Last ones being some older conventions and New York Comic Cons 2012-2019. Also uploaded the start of my 2020 Flowers album too.

Random Stuffs:
Flowers 2020
Dover Fireworks 2011
Final Fantasy 7 Photoshoot 2007
Japan Day NYC 2007
Sakura Matsuri 2007
Sakrua Matsuri 2009

Legacy of the Wizard NES Review

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Chris W

Legacy of the Wizard is the only game in the Dragon Slayer series localized outside of Japan. LotW was originally titled Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family and was released on the Famicom, MSX and MSX2 systems along with the NES in the United States by Brøderbund. It was release din Japan in 1987, the NES port came out in 1989. This is an open world dungeon exploration action-RPG game, and could be likened to what were later called “Metroidvania” type games in recent years. This game follows the adventures of the Drasle family, a family of woodcutters descended from a great wizard destined to defeat an evil dragon that was returning to life after a number of years. You will end up using and needing all members of the family to explore the underground dungeon, as only certain members can get to some areas and use certain items. You’ll buy items and shops scattered in the dungeon along with finding some in treasure chests along with finding health and magic restoration items and inns to restore all your health and magic. Saving the game involves a long password of random letters and characters, something made infamous back in those days on the NES where writing one character down incorrectly locks you out of your progress. Thankfully most of us have phones with cameras now so we don’t have to write anything down.

Your family includes Xemn, the father who’s tough and strong and can push blocks, the mother Meyna who can fly and use magic, Roas, the son who is the only one capable of using the Dragon Slayer sword, lyll the daughter who can jump really high. Then Pochi the family pet who monsters cannot harm and is a lovable ball of destruction who smiles as he murders his own kind. Going through each part of the dungeon requires one of these family members and you’ll be looking for one of the 4 Crowns. Finding a Crown result sin a tough boss fight. Finding all 4 Crowns means Roas can find the Dragon Slayer sword and fight the evil dragon Keela.

REVIEW TIME:
So this was actually one of the first NES games I owned when I got my system in uh…1989? I saw it on QVC and it looked lots of fun! Playing it often I really didn’t know what I was doing, even with making scattered maps and notes. Really wishing Nintendo Power did a feature on this. This game is really a hidden gem once you sit down with it and I’m glad I picked this game up again in the past year and finished it. I think between when I was a kid and now I can think things out more with games like this, not to mention looking up maps if I get really stuck enough. Very special thanks to the amazing Therenesance for giving me the motivation to give this game another try so many years later, and big congrats to Hungrygoriya for recently playing and finishing this on stream!

GRAPHICS AND SOUND: For a late 80’s NES title the graphics are pretty colorful. Heck, take a look at the castle in the background before you go into the dungeon for inspiration! All of the tiles and patterns in the dungeon look different, but until you step on them you can’t tell if they’re real or an illusion. Your family members all have their own color scheme and look when you choose them and they put on their Dungeons & Dragons cosplay to go explore the dungeon. You’ll spend most of your time shooting at, avoiding, and trying to use monsters as stepping stones too. All the monsters in different parts of the dungeon look different, from ogres, flying lizards, rock people, cat girls(?), to something that looks like Frankenstein’s monster sucking its thumb (wth). The boss monsters are in their own special part of the dungeon and pretty large in size. Large amounts of monsters on some screens will cause screen flicker, which can cause you to take unwanted damage cause you didn’t realize something was there.

The music is quite whimsical. The tracks in this are from Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa. Outside the dungeon you’ll have happy charming music, going into different parts of the dungeon trigger different tracks ranging from dark and forbidding to whimsical. Boss fight music will trigger a rush as you try to fight the boss off before it kills you. Family members using their magic, restoring life or magic, collecting keys each have their own sound effects. The more annoying effect is when you’re taking damage either by enemies or floor spikes.

PLAY CONTROL: Everyone controls the same quite easily jumping, pushing blocks, using magic. You may find yourself stuck trying to navigate riding on monsters over areas as you take damage (unless you’re Pochi). Moving blocks with Xemn can be tough and you’ll find yourself pushing a block where you don’t want often and cursing till you get used to how his glove item works. You’re gonna find yourself stuck trying to jump to ladders and trying not to take fall damage more often than you may like when you get deeper into the dungeon.

CHALLENGE: Remember i said this game was hard? I wasn’t kidding. Majority of this game is pure exploration, mapping, and trying not to die. This game really needed some feature in Nintendo Power. I dunno how I would finish this as a kid unless I came across a number of passwords. This is one those games you would have had to pass along notes with friends on the playground with, which reminds me of when I played Shadowgate as a kid. At least now we have gamefaqs, websites with amazing looking maps and strategywiki. Game gives you no clues as to where to go for the 4 crowns, and the manual just tells you the basics on what all the items do. Game over means all the way back home and trying again, only way to save any progress you might have made is warping home with a crystal and getting a password from Grandma.

The block puzzles for Xemn can drive you bananas, and I hate block puzzles personally. Messing up means resetting the room, or resetting your NES depending how deep into a room you are, if you don’t throw your controller first. Remember, this was before save states folks! One area you may run out of magic to use an item or run out of keys to progress, and find yourself dead from invisible enemies if you don’t realize they’re there. Boss fights can be hectic as you try to do more damage to them before they kill you, until you learn the pattern and find a spot where they can’t hurt you, and you can’t use healing items in boss fights either. Though the boss fights and dragon fight trigger a neat life bar for the boss and for you. After finding the crowns you can take Roas out and use a crown to warp to different areas by touching a painting of the Princess throughout the dungeon to find the Dragon Slayer sword, but that takes more trial and error too.

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So in short, I do recommend this if you love dungeon exploration and puzzle solving with little help and lots of trial and error. The music and graphics are decent enough, though you may find yourself dead too often before you can get home to find a password to save your progress. Google searches provide lovely maps and advice, and here’s a link for a full color dungeon map: full dungeon map.

I’m gonna give this 3.5 out of 5 Pochis!

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