#172 – Ninja Gaiden (NES)
I used to have a love/hate relationship with this game. Now I simply love it (Save States, yeah sue me). No matter how hard I used to try I could never get past that ****ing second last boss. Every single strategy I tried simply bombed. Hell even using a guide couldn’t get me through. But years later I finished the game in a single try (I don’t consider save states cheating for games like these). But looking at this game from a reviewer’s standpoint, it has barely any flaws apart from the insane difficulty. Boss battles are all unique, levels look SO good, not to mention action games at that time didn’t have much of a plot but this game did a pretty good job with it. I just wished Ryu Hayabasa could have gained the ability to climb and attack while climbing. The lack of that feature brought upon me… SO many cheap deaths.
#171 – Battletoads (NES)
Whew as if things could get any more difficult than the game I just mentioned in the last post. It just did. Hell this game leaves Ninja Gaiden or any NES Castlevania game in the dust if you wanna compare difficulties. I could never for the life of me ever get past “Rat Race” and even getting there took me over a year of perfecting my Battletoads play. I beat Battletoads the same way I beat any of those ridiculously difficult NES era games (save states) and even then I’m ashamed to say I almost couldn’t beat it even WITH these godsend options. Apart from the RIDICULOUSLY RIDICULOUS difficulty this game is an enigma. Each level is their own level much to the gamer’s dismay but when you think about it it’s almost an unprecedented element at that time. Gameplay changes drastically with each level. If you master say level 3 there’s no guarantee you’d even do a decent run in level 4. I don’t know what genre to put Battletoads in because it is like a compilation of beat-em up/platforming/action/racing. Battletoads will forever be remembered for the torture it put me through and for the classic it always will be.
--
Rock n' Roll and Glam Metal... It never died