Sunday, 31 October 2021

Splatterhouse 2 (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Developer: Now Production
| Release Date: 1992 | Systems: Mega Drive

This week on Super Adventures, I'm checking out Mega Drive brawler Splatterhouse 2! I figured I should play something with a bit of a horror theme for Halloween... for a change. I generally only remember to play a Halloween game 40% of the time, so you got lucky this year. Or unlucky, if you came here hoping to get away from it.

Horror's never really been my favourite genre to be honest, plus I get bored of side-scrolling beat 'em ups very quickly, but I found Splatterhouse 2 at #1 on Horror Geek Life's Top 10 Spookiest Horror Games on the Sega Genesis so it has to be something special. Unless it's just not a very spooky console. Splatterhouse 3 also made the list, but not the first Splatterhouse... which makes sense as it was never released for the system. Splatterhouse 1 started out on arcade and was ported to TurboGrafix-16, FM Towns, PC, but not the Mega Drive. The two sequels, on the other hand, were Mega Drive exclusives. So that must have sucked for all the TG-16-owning Splatterhouse fans who wanted a sequel, and the Sega-owning completists who wanted them all.

The original arcade Splatterhouse was by Namco, but this sequel was outsourced to Now Production, the folks who'd made the Splatterhouse spoof spin-off Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti on the NES. They've got 70 games listed on MobyGames and they're still going strong to this day, releasing Switch titles like, uh, Spaceship Curse, Seal Electric Railway, and Shark Copter vs. Zombie Dancers.

Bloody hell, I've written Splatterhouse 9 times and it's only the intro. 10 times now. Alright I usually stop after the first hour, but that would probably be enough to beat Splatt... this game twice over, so this time I'm only going to cover the first ten minutes. Fortunately I can probably drag those ten minutes out all night, as I'm crap at these kinds of games.

Content warning
: this is a horror game so it's going to be a bit horrible at times. Lots of 16-bit gore and nastiness. There'll also be spoilers for the first game.

Friday, 22 October 2021

YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG (PC) - Part 2 - Guest Post

Previously on the self-explanatory Y II K: A Post-Modern RPG, childhood buds Alex and Michael encountered a spooky ghost in an abandoned factory and freaked the heck out! Are you ready to see the photos they took?

You are invited to review the game's Content Warning in Part 1. Oh, and don't forget to click the screenshots to enlarge!

YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG (PC) - Part 1 - Guest Post

This week on Super Adventures, indie guest reviewer mecha-neko is giving under-rated indie RPG YIIK a fair chance to impress him. Uh, I don't mean it's underrated because people aren't giving it a high enough score, I mean it's gotten fewer ratings that you'd expect for a game so notorious. 186 user reviews on Steam, 35 user ratings on Metacritic; it's like people don't even want to play it for some reason!

I don't know much about the game myself, though the title claims that it's a post-modern RPG, which I guess is a bit like a post-nuclear RPG except without so many super mutants. I'm sure mecha-neko will bring us all the facts.

YIIK A Post-Modern RPG title screen
Developer:Ackk Studios|Release Date:17th January 2019|Systems:Windows, PS4, Switch

Take a seat and enjoy the strange, warbling, echoing elevator muzak. It is time for our minds to be expanded and our preconceptions to be obliterated as we begin Y II K: A Post-Modern RPG.

Other than knowing it's an RPG set in the modern day (yaaay!), I'm completely oblivious to all things YIIK. Some people can't stand it. Maybe I'll like it! There's only one way to find out:

Click the pictures to enlarge!

YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG (PC) - Guest PostPart 1 - Part 2

Thursday, 14 October 2021

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2)

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal | Release Date: 2003 | Systems: PS2, GameCube, Xbox, Win (HD on PS3)

This week on Super Adventures I'm playing the fourth of the legendary Prince of Persia games, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time! Okay technically it's the fifth of the games, but no one ever talks about Prince of Persia: Harem Adventures and I'm sure there's probably a reason for that.

Sands of Time is the second 3D Prince of Persia and the first of the Ubisoft trilogy, which lasted for four games in the end (after being interrupted by a temporary reboot part-way through). Ubisoft still owns the franchise to this day, but we haven't gotten a new Prince of Persia out of them since 2010. They got a bit distracted after a planned sequel called Prince of Persia: Assassin became too powerful, took on the name Assassin's Creed, and launched its own series.

By the way, my gimmick on Super Adventures this year is that I'm only playing games which have appeared on someone's 'top 10'. Well it took some serious research, but I finally found Sands of Time at #8 on stuff.tv's 10 faithful video game to movie adaptations list! I have the feeling it's probably on a few other top 10 lists too, seeing as it's got 92 on Metacritic. It's in the top 2% of PlayStation 2 titles!

Alright, this isn't my first time playing the game but it might as well be. I tried it out for 20 minutes or so back when it was new and didn't really feel a need to keep going with it. This time around I'm going to try to stick with it a little longer so it has an actual chance to win me over... or give me a real reason to quit.

Wednesday, 6 October 2021

The Sims (PC)

Developer: Maxis | Release Date: 2000 | Systems: PC, Mac

This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing The Sims! The original game from the year 2000, installed right off the CD I bought and played it from years ago. In fact I don't even think you can buy this digitally, which sucks. I haven't got any of the expansions but from what I've heard I'm probably better keeping my installation light. At least if I want to avoid suffering long loading times and crashes.

My Super Adventures gimmick for this year is 'games that have appeared on a top ten list' and I found The Sims on an old list of bestselling PC games ever, right up at number 1. It kicked the ass of all the previous 'Sim' games like SimCity and SimAnt, and I can see why. It's pretty much the most relatable video game ever made as it's simulating everyone's normal life, to a degree that no game had ever managed up to this point. This time you're controlling the people who live in the SimCity, the tiny Sims that complain about crime and traffic all the time, and you get to dress them up and buy them microwaves and stuff!

To be honest I've been meaning to write about the game forever, but it's always been too daunting for me. Other people always manage to construct insane narratives around their Sims' lives and I know my own playthrough is going to be depressingly sedate and uneventful by comparison. I just don't have it in me to torture my little computer people! I'm not going to let them use the oven and burn the house down, I'm not going to seal them up in a wall in a puddle of their own urine, and I'm definitely not going to build a swimming pool and then delete the steps when they're in. So really, what's even the point of this?

But eventually I came to an epiphany: if nothing interesting happens then that's the game's fault, not mine! I'm just going to play it as boring and normal as possible and if see if the various interacting simulations can give us some entertainment. C'mon game, amuse me!

Semi-Random Game Box

Super Adventures in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
Disco Elysium (PC)
Ace Combat 2 (PSX)