Micro Mages Review (Evercade)

The indie revival has moved forward somewhat in recent years. For a long time, we have been reviewing games made to look like titles on classic systems. In the last few years though more and more indie titles are making the full jump and simply being developed and released on the original hardware. Micro Mages for the NES is one of the most high profile of these.

Micro Mages is a platformer where up to four players can help each other ascend a tower before existing the door at the top. Don’t worry though because it is perfectly playable on your own. Your little dude can jump and shoot and they also stick to walls. Some of the later levels require a few more advanced techniques such as a power jump (caused by fire a charged shot down while jumping), but it’s basically your starting skill set all the way through.

It can be tough as well as one hit kills and you aren’t exactly brimming with lives. More can be picked up along the way of course and you can also pick up a few items which protect against instant death. There are four worlds in total with a stand off against a large boss creature at the end of each. Once completed you unlock an advanced mode which remixes the levels enough to make it worth while playing through again so it will keep you occupied for a decent amount of time.

The biggest criticism is that your character and enemies are quite small on screen. It’s not such an issue on original hardware but if you are playing the rom on a handheld or the Evercade version it can be difficult to see what’s going on. That said, you are never in a position where things become impossible. 

The controls are wonderfully responsive as well and allow players to leap around the levels with the confidence that your character is going to respond in the way you think. This is handy as the game runs at an excellent pace and suffers none of the characteristic slow down or flicker often associated with NES games. 

Overall, Micro Mages is a welcome addition to the ‘original hardware’ indie scene. It’s one of the few games in this category that would have happily sat alongside the original systems releases. This new focus on simple but effective gameplay and the creativity that working with reduced memory is breeding is something we can get behind with Micro Mages being among the very best examples. If you’ve never tried any of these sorts of titles before this is certainly one to start with.

Overall 8/10

Battle Toads Review (Evercade)

The story goes that one day while the biggest and toughest Battletoad (Pimple), was taking Princess Angelica out for a spin in the toadster the evil Dark Queen ambushes them and takes them to Ragnarok’s world - the Queens home planet. 

The remaining toads, Rash and Zitz have to beat everything up that stands in their way and rescue their friends. Far from being the dull side scrolling fighter that this game could so easily have turned into, Rare and Tradewest have made sure that it is something different and fresh.

While the first level keeps the classic side scrolling fighter format, from then on each level offers something new. Level two has our heroic toads being lowered down a tunnel having to jump from side to side to avoid obstacles and enemies while Level three has you jumping chasms on speeder bikes, and the next level (if you make it), is a more standard platform affair, each level offering a different twist taking the game away from constant repetitive button bashing. 

Graphically superb, everything is well animated and presented extremely well. The toads themselves offer different facial expressions from time to time, for instance having their jaws drop to the floor and eyes pop out when a huge monster arrives on the scene. Enemies differ from level to level but are repetitive in their respective worlds with only a handful of different creatures per stage. But this slight lack of variety is more than made up for by the shear quality the game overall. 

The Game plays well, although there are areas in the game when the limitations of your toad become far too apparent. During fights you could not ask for better controls, and while they simply consist of hitting one button continuously the attacks vary from level to level - in one the toad may hit the enemy with a huge fist while another will see him knocking him into the ground before kicking the enemy away like a living football. What lets the game down is when you are required to perform precision jumps, with the game being set in a multi-levelled playing field it is hard to judge the depth of the field often meaning a fall to an untimely death. 

Another problem with the game is the insane difficulty level, unusual for Rare games the difficulty curve for Battletoads is extremely unforgiving and in fact if you manage to get past the third level without using a warp then I would be very surprised. But strangely, the difficulty of the game adds to the overall charm and though you will die over and over again you will find yourself returning for one more go. 

Battletoads is a charming and fun filled game, which for a moment in time kept the mighty toads at the top of the gaming pile. Alas, along with many other characters from the creative minds of Rare the Toads never made it past the sixteen bit generation. Although we doubt a new version would have the same sort of charm it would still make a unique experience for the modern gamer. Until the day the Toads rule again this serves as a good reminder that it was not all Mario and Sonic back in the good old days.

Overall 8/10 

 

Simon the Sorcerer Origins Review (Switch)

With all the retro revivals that have been going on for the last decade or so it’s a bit of a surprise that we haven’t seen Simon the Sorcerer reappear sooner. The point and click genre is long past its heyday but we’ve had big hitters such as Broken Sword and Monkey Island both release new games and remaster older ones. Sam and Max had their own comeback as well and there have been a host of solid new games in the genre. Simon the Sorcerer is a decent enough franchise though (well, the first two games anyway), so we were happy enough to see a new game appear.

As the name suggests, Origins is a prequal game to the series and sets the scene of how Simon first acquired his powers. It’s a classic styled point and click game which has wisely kept away from the unfortunate 3D phase a lot of franchises tried to implement. It looks quite different to the original games with the pixel art replaced with a more clear-cut cartoonish look. It took a little while to get used to but works well enough.

There are a few things to help the player out. For instance, you can hold down a button to highlight all the interactable objects in a location. For anyone who has played a point and click game before you’ll know how much of a help this is and actually something that doesn’t affect the challenge of the game.

There’s also a map which means you can fast travel to different locations which helps reduce back tracking. You can also use the new control system which involves moving Simon around and highlighting objects he’s near, though we found it easier to switch back to classic controls which puts an on-screen cursor on screen to move around. Call us traditionalists but this just made the game seem a lot more controllable and enjoyable.

The game itself does start quite slowly. You’ll control Simon as he wonders around his new house. The environments are a little dull and you’ll soon be glad when he manages to move into the more fantastical world. Here, things look a lot more interesting, and you’ll get some interesting puzzles to overcome. The overall design of the game though is a little sparce with the environments lacking some of those more personal touches that help brings games like this to life. It is fully voiced though, and the script is decent enough as to not harm the lineage of the past games. You even get Chris Barry back to reprise his role which really is both a nice and respectful touch.

Overall, Simon the Sorcerer Origins is a solid enough return for the franchise. The humour and script retain the distinctly British humour and the puzzles and world work well enough. The environments may lack a little charm but there’s enough here to keep fans of the point and click genre interested while the game is also gentle enough in the beginning to bring in players not familiar with the genre. If anything, it has whetted our appetites to see the first two games given the HD remake treatment, even if this doesn’t quite match either of them.

Overall 7/10

Lumo 2 Review (Switch)

Somehow, almost ten years have passed since the original Lumo graced us with its presence. The original indie darling was a charming isometric platform game that encouraged players to explore its 400+ rooms while drawing on a host of nostalgic references from systems going all the way back to 8-bit computers such as the Spectrum and C64. It is still an original oddity with few other games choosing to go down the isometric nostalgia route, despite just about every other avenue of retro themed games being explored.

Lumo 2 keeps the viewpoint but moves the world from the 8-bit up to 16-bit. So now, instead of Solstice, you’ve got Equinox, and if you get that reference, we salute you. Referencing older video games is still very much the order of the day though and your familiarity with them will likely define how much you are going to enjoy the game. You explore Lumo’s world, collecting pickups and solving block and button-based puzzles, many of which involve taking on some sort of mini game.

To give you an idea of what you are getting into, the first of these is a pretty spot on recreation of some of the sections from Impossible Mission. A great homage for those that get it. For those that don’t though, we do wonder how long the interest will hold. There are other high profile retro classics references as well such as Prince of Persia, so just because you don’t get one doesn’t mean there’s nothing here for you.

The main areas of the game play well enough of course, as you move your character around avoiding the cute creatures trying to zap you. It’s perhaps a little slow and imprecise at times but there’s nothing particularly frustrating here as you jump around and pick up objects in an isometric space.

 You’ll gradually gain new skills such as a double jump which adds a very lite Metroidvania-esque elements as this often allows you to access new areas. There are not often multiple routes to go down though as, aside from some collectables, this is a largely linear experience, but then there isn’t really anything wrong with that. These skills do add more game elements to the main bulk of Lumo 2’s game world as well. It’s not all references to the 80’s as you’ll be jumping around and avoiding enemies in the main game world as well. Unlike the 80’s though, Lumo 2 is quite well balanced in terms of difficulty, and while it can be challenging, you’ll normally progress with some patience and forward thinking.

What is more impressive is that all the homages and changes in gameplay work well. The game never falls into frustration, and while it is relying heavily on nostalgia, it has also clearly had a lot of care and attention put in to make sure everything being referenced is also fun to play around with. This results in the player experiencing a continual loop of experiences that keep things fresh and also raise a smile.

Overall, Lumo 2 remains both nostalgic and fresh feeling. There is certainly enough here for players to enjoy even if they aren’t going to get all the references to games from the 8-bit computer era. For players old enough to remember though, or those who have tracked down these classic retro games it becomes much more of an unmissable title. If you liked the original game, you’ll likely love this as well and if by some way you’ve not played it then this won’t let you down either. It’s a fun, creative and reflective game that’s easy to like.

Overall 8/10