Getting Mail

Before we get to the goods, I wanted to mention I was a guest on TheWellRedMage’s wonderful podcast talking about the first Breath of Fire game for SNES.  If you want to hear more on our conversation, it’s here!

http://magecast.buzzsprout.com/199140/2229524-037-first-stage-halitosis-breath-of-fire

The local pickings out my way have been slim over the past few weeks, so I’ve been doing a lot of looking online for new games.  Thankfully there have been many deals to scoop up, so I’m bringing you a little bit of awesomeness thanks to the wonders of credit cards and door-to-door delivery!

First up are a few Game Boy games.  Ultima: Runes of Virtue is one of the RPGs I had left to collect for the system.  I fired up an old save file on this one and died within seconds, so it seems just about right for this kind of adventure!  I can’t wait to start my own game, find a manual online somewhere, and see what this (and its sequel, which I have already) are all about!  I’m not sure how the Runes of Virtue games are related to the others in the main series.  There seem to be a lot of Ultima spinoffs out there!

Another game I bought is Pokemon Pinball.  I only had one other weirdly-shaped Game Boy game prior to this and it’s a Star Wars game I think, but anyway, I love pinball!  I played a lot of 3D Pinball Space Cadet when I was really young, and even though I haven’t played much real life pinball, video pin ball is where it’s at.  I’ve bought a few games over the past few years, most notably Pinball Quest for NES, but mixing Pokemon with anything fun is sure to make it even better.  I really want to sit down with a manual for this game since it looks a lot deeper than your typical paddle-flipping time.

Wario games are plentiful, but I’ve only played the first one for the Game Boy ages ago.  I’ve been dabbling a bit in the Virtual Boy game recently and have been having a good time with it, so when I saw Wario Land II available, it was hard to resist.  I’ve heard these games touted as some of the best of the best on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, and I’ll be looking for the third and fourth games in this series to round things out.

I also picked up two NES games, the first of which was Rambo.  I’ve been feeling moderately obsessed with finding more Faxanadu-like side-scrolling action adventure games over the past little while.  Rambo is something that fits the bill (believe it or not) and it was just what I was looking for to scratch that itch!  I ended up playing through the entire game over two streams, and while it was difficult, it was also very fulfilling to get to the end of this one.  The music in this was awesome too.  Very quest-y!

Another game I found for NES was Conquest of the Crystal Palace.  I think I mentioned a few posts ago how I always used to get The Krion Conquest and Conquest of the Crystal Palace confused all the time, but now that I own both of them I hope I’ll stop making that mistake.  I doubt it though.  They’ll probably always just be The Krion Conquest of the Crystal Palace to me.  This game is a side-scrolling adventure game with shops and weapons, etc.  Maybe some RPG elements here?  I’ve been wanting to pick this up for a long while now and I’m glad I finally did.  It’s in great shape too!

In an effort to find even more games with bone-in meatsticks to play for a themed stream night on Mondays, I purchased this Capcom Classics Mini Mix cartridge for the Game Boy Advance.  It comes with a few games that were repackaged from the NES: Strider, Bionic Commando, and the game of interest, Mighty Final Fight.  Mighty Final Fight is about a bajillion dollars to buy in its native NES state right now, so this was one of the cheaper and easier ways I’ll be able to play it.

I found a whole bunch of Master System games for a relatively good price as well, the first of which is Black Belt.  A couple of posts ago I mentioned accidentally buying The Ninja when I meant to buy this game instead, so I’m officially calling things fixed.  This is the one where you run around and literally explode your enemies into several pieces when you kick or punch them.  It’s awesome!  I can’t say I’ve ever been good at these run-to-the-right-kicking-and-punching games, but I hope I’ll be able to finish it sometime!  And look at that wonderful box art.  It’s just beautiful (not really at all).  It’s too bad that the manual was taped up, but it’ll do.

Battle Out Run is a pretty neat game that I’d never really heard much about until I found this game sale.  Apparently you run into other cars with your car to teach them a lesson!  Compared to Hang on and regular Out Run, I found this one to feel a lot smoother and nicer overall, but it’s obviously a bit more complicated than getting to the next finish line in time.  Unfortunately there were some scuffs on the box’s cover plastic that are noticible (even in the photo) and the label has clearly seen better days, but the price for a complete copy was too good to pass up.

Rescue Mission is a light gun game that has been highly praised as one of the best on the system by sirhcman, who has his own blog that you should check out sometime if you haven’t already.  You have to protect a soldier that’s rescuing what I’m assuming are prisoners of war while the enemy is trying to kill him.  It looks like a blast.  I love light gun games.  I’m not particularly great at them, maybe except for Duck Hunt!

Asterix and the Secret Mission was the last Asterix game I had left to pick up for the console.  These games are so delightful and fun that completing the trifecta was an absolute requirement for me.  It’s another platformer where you can play as either character, and once again doesn’t come with a manual.  I’m really curious about where all these manuals end up.

Finally, I also scooped up a copy of Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck.  This was by far the most expensive of all the games I bought, but all things considered, it was still less than the going rate out there on the internet.  The box label has a little bit of damage, but overall the rest of it is in relatively good shape.  This game is absolutely adorable.  There’s something about the Disney games that is really charming on the Master System.  They’re all beautifully scored and animated.  I can’t wait to play through this, since I’ve heard it’s relatively short.

And thar she blows, folks!  I’m really happy with where my collection is standing these days, but as usual, there’s always more around the next corner.  I hope you’re all keeping warm out there.  The weather here has already turned pretty cold, and the snow has come and gone a few times… it’s going to stick soon!  More time to stay in and play games, I guess!

Thanks for reading!

-GG