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Retro-Review: Bare Knuckle III [Genesis]

Developer: SEGA/Ancient
Publisher: SEGA
Released: March 18, 1994
Completed: April 27, 2020

A while back I reviewed Streets of Rage 3, the western release of Bare Knuckle III and the final installment in the series until 2020's hotly anticipated Streets of Rage 4.  I compared it quite unfavorably to the Japanese version because, well, the Japanese version is better.  In fact, it's so much better, it warrants its own review, even though it's sort of redundant.

The experience of playing Bare Knuckle III is vastly different than its American counterpart.  It's easier - almost too easy on the normal difficulty - by a wide margin, with the US version's default difficulty being worse than hard in Japan.  Whereas the US version often feels like a slog, the lower enemy count of BK3 quickens the overall pacing, and thank god for the more modest lifebars of the Japanese bosses. 

Fundamentally, it's the same game.  It has the same characters with the same moves, the same levels, the same soundtrack, and the same new mechanics.  Weapons still degrade and break after several hits, you can still roll up or down or dash left to right, and a meter still governs whether your special moves will cost you a small portion of your lifebar or not.  The more reasonable difficulty just makes it exponentially more fun to play.

There are some minor differences, of course, many of them cosmetic.  Axel's inexplicably yellow shirt is once again white, and Blaze returns in her red top and skirt.  Axel again shouts "grand upper!" instead of the ironic "bare knuckle" used in the US version, despite it being the Japanese title of the series.  The biggest gameplay difference, besides being more manageable to play, is the inclusion of the stage one mid-boss, Ash.

It's easy to see why Ash was dropped from the American release, though some of his data still exists on the cart and can be accessed via a Game Genie if you want to play a bugged out version of him.  A raging homosexual stereotype, Ash resembles the Village People's Macho Man, wears fishnet stockings, and runs with limp wrists flung upwards.  I'm not easily offended, but even I groaned.  Even in 1994 when homosexuality was far less socially accepted, this would be considered outrageous.  If nothing else, it's an interesting sign of cultural differences that no one at SEGA of Japan thought this should be removed.

Oddly, the American version does not replace the boss fight with Ash.  His sprite driving boatloads of thugs to the dock was replaced with stage one boss Shiva's, but you don't engage with him until the end of the round. 

The other big difference between the US and Japanese releases is the story.  Not only was it heavily altered for the US, containing a plot that involved Mr. X replacing government officials with robot clones, it was also significantly cut down.  There are additional mid-level cinematics in Bare Knuckle III that tell an entirely different story of a deadly explosive discovered by newcomer Dr. Zan that Mr. X hopes to use to start a full-scale world war.  It's the discovery of this substance that leads Zan to joining the rest of the cast as a force for good.  Stories in beat 'em ups are about as important as male nipples, but it's still puzzling why it was changed for the western audience.

Unfortunately, one thing that did not change was the music.  Bare Knuckle III has the same spastic hard techno soundtrack as the US game.  I know it has its fans, but I hate it with few exceptions. 

The change in difficulty really makes all the difference, resulting in a much more fair and faster paced game.  The stages are still somewhat uninspired, but you won't be bogged down by twice as many enemies in each one, allowing you to progress faster.  It's generally assumed that SEGA altered the difficulty of Streets of Rage 3 to combat the rental market, where games could often be beaten over a weekend, thus eliminating the incentive to purchase them.  In doing so, they highlighted the repetitive nature of beat 'em ups and stripped much of the fun out of the game.  There are only so many hundreds of Galsias you can beat down before you're ready to stop playing.  Taking everything into account, Bare Knuckle III is still the weakest game in the series, but it's superior to the American Streets of Rage 3.  

Bare Knuckle III was completed on a real Genesis via a homebrew English translation cart with no cheats.

Review: Call of Cthulhu [PlayStation 4]

Developer: Cyanide
Publisher: Maximum Games
Released: October 30, 2018
Completed: April 18, 2020
Rated: M for Mature

I am a sucker for HP Lovecraft games.  Just about anything with the word "Cthulhu" in it, and I'm in.  I know, I know, Lovecraft was a racist, garbage person and The Woke will probably cancel me for liking his writing (#Player1StartIsOverParty), but the horror genre as we know it wouldn't be the same without his input.  Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be both talented and an asshole, just as it is possible to appreciate a person's body of work even if you dislike the person. 

Based on the pen & paper RPG, the official Call of Cthulhu game plays out like a first-person detective thriller.  Investigating your surroundings, interrogating shady people, gathering clues, solving light puzzles, and even some stealth are the order of the day as you try to uncover the mystery of the Hawkins family and their suspicious fiery deaths.

I'm going to admit right here and now that my bias towards Lovecraftian games plays a big part in how much I enjoyed Call of Cthulhu.  From a purely objective point of view, it's not that great of a game.  Most of its mechanics feel like they needed a little more time in the oven.  There are some light RPG elements that don't feel very fleshed out.  The stealth is passable at best.  Even the technical aspects are inconsistent with stunningly atmospheric environments inhabited by lousy character models, and adequate (sometimes excellent) sound design marred by mediocre (sometimes terrible) voice acting.

Subjectively, I enjoyed just about all of it.  In some ways, the budget title quality made the experience feel like the campy film adaptations of Lovecraft's work.  Hearing the main character pronounce macabre as "macarbe" always roused a chuckle.  The subtitles don't always match what the characters are saying, and the lip-synching is some of the worst I've seen since the days when mouths just opened and closed.  There are some really questionable approximations of the Boston, Mass. accent to top it all off.

But dammit if I wasn't captivated by its story.  I couldn't wait to see what happened next as the line between sanity and insanity blurred.  There's a palpable feeling of dread during the gameplay, like something lurking in the shadows behind you. 

The game is at its best when the player is engaged in solving puzzles, several of which have multiple solutions that can affect the outcome of the story.  Combat encounters are kept to a minimum, and trust me, it's better that way.  While you have to wield a gun at certain points, it's clunky and does not mesh with the rest of the game's slower, more methodical pace.

Contrarily, there's a sequence against a cosmic horror known as the Shambler that relies on stealth and  light puzzle solving as you must first find the proper artifact to send the monster packing while avoiding it in the interim.  I found this bit intensely engaging for how it created a dangerous scenario for the player that couldn't be solved by shooting something and advanced the story. 

In fact, most of the game's best moments are spent uncovering Lovecraftian lore, meeting strange and shifty characters, and marveling at the landscapes.  Whatever you may think of the character models, no one in their right mind could deny the world around them is superbly designed.  It's captivating enough that I often found myself standing still to make use of the PS4's screenshot feature.  There's an eerie, surreal quality to everything, and that's before you start getting into the occult stuff.

Being based on a popular tabletop role-playing game, one would have expected better incorporation of statistics.  Arguably the game's biggest failing is not the mediocre character models, but the mediocre character progression.  You can upgrade your stats, but only those related to investigation and perception skills seem to have any perceivable effect.  That said, this is a narrative-driven game that at times borders on being a walking simulator, so how a statistic like strength could really be utilized is unclear anyway.

One other thing worth pointing out is that at around 15 hours, the game is unusually long.  That's not a negative, but I was shocked by it as most games of this type clock in under 10.  When you reach the finale, there are four possible endings, and thankfully you can go back and make a different choice without having the replay the whole game if you want to see them all.  Don't expect any of them to be happy conclusions though.

Call of Cthulhu received generally average reviews upon release, which may have turned lots of people away.  The reviews aren't necessarily wrong; there are myriad problems with the game, both big and small.  Fans of HP Lovecraft's seminal work should definitely make time for it, however.  If you can look past some of the jankiness, you'll likely get sucked into a wonderfully bizarre tale of cosmic horror.

Call of Cthulhu was completed on a PlayStation 4 Pro with no cheats.

Retro-Review: Dark Sun: Shattered Lands [PC]

Developer: Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Publisher: Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Released: 1993
Completed: April 15, 2020

As someone who grew up entrenched in D&D campaigns and fantasy novels, I bought pretty much anything with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons logo on it.  This included SSI's legendary Goldbox games such as Pool of Radiance and Champions of Krynn, as well as the lesser-known but equally awesome Buck Rogers titles, and even the incredibly buggy but entertaining SpellJammer: Pirates of Realmspace.

After many years of faithful service, the venerable Goldbox engine was retired and SSI developed a new one to replace it.  The first game to use that new engine was Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, the first foray into the incredibly unique and criminally overlooked campaign setting of the same name.

Taking place in a harsh desert wasteland, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands captivated me immediately upon seeing the first screen shots and previews various in computer gaming magazines.  It looked unlike anything out there, especially traditional AD&D worlds or the licensed computer and video games that had come before it.

Shattered Lands was eventually purchased as a would-be birthday gift for me, but I had other plans.  Having been there when it was bought, I asked my mother if I could "read the manual," knowing full well this would give me access to the game disks when my parents weren't around.  She obliged, and the first chance I got, I installed the game.

Unfortunately, at the time my grades were slipping - a result of spending entirely too much time gaming, and not enough time doing homework.  As punishment, my parents banned me from the computer by instituting a password, and I could only get on when they were around.  This posed a problem for playing my newly-installed game - a problem that was remedied when I discovered an index card on my brother's desk with the new password written on it. 

I played Shattered Lands in secret for several weeks leading up to my birthday, until the day I lost track of time and my brother came home to find me sitting in front of the computer.  Oops.

Shattered Lands isn't a complete reinvention of the Goldbox engine, but a modernized interpretation of it.  Combat is similarly a turn-based affair, and adheres pretty faithfully to the rules of the pen-and-paper game it's based on.  Instead of switching to first-person when exploring, however, the game stays in the same bird's eye view all throughout, eliminating much of the confusion of the Goldbox engine games and their maze-like locations.

You begin the game by creating your party of up to four characters.  Unlike other AD&D campaigns at the time, Dark Sun allowed for higher statistics and unique races such as half-giants, Muls (half-human, half-dwarf hybrids), and the insectoid Thri-Kreen.  Most of the standard D&D character classes remain the same, but Dark Sun also adds the Psionicist, who uses mental attacks to cause damage, heal, buff, and debuff in combat - very similar to magic. 

The world of Dark Sun is wildly different from any D&D world before, and probably since.  Creatures are generally much tougher, not to mention hideous.  Equipment is mostly leather, bone, or the coveted obsidian, as metals are a rarity in the wastes.  Water is in short supply, although this was unfortunately left out of the game engine, I suppose for fear of bogging it down with resource management, and most of the areas are little more than giant sand dunes or dank sewers. 

Danger lurks around every corner in Shattered Lands, but the game's combat engine is up to the task.  The addition of psionics, which all characters have limited access to no matter their class, adds new layers of strategy to the battles, and buff/debuff spells are far more useful than in most previous AD&D games, especially when engaged in one of the many large-scale battles.  The problem of the game actively seeming to be working against you still rears its ugly head though, just as it always has in AD&D games, when dice rolls never seem to go your way but always work out in the enemy's favor. 

The engine's biggest problem, however, is that it's very buggy.  Most of the glitches aren't game-breaking, but they can be obnoxious and frequent, and once in a while you'll experience an all-out crash.  It's advised to save frequently, which shouldn't be unfamiliar to any Goldbox veterans who are used to the Battle-then-Save rhythm of the games.

It may not be perfect, but the Dark Sun engine sure did look good for its time.  Both the PCs and monsters are far more detailed than the old static icons of the Goldbox titles, and feature more than two frames of animation (attacking or not-attacking).  The game's color palette is somewhat limited by its setting, but it looks appropriately good in that respect with desolate expanses of rolling sand and dingy, grimy backgrounds.

Sound is also notably improved from the very simplistic beeps and grating effects from the Goldbox engine.  Some spells feature fantastic booming samples, monsters snarl when attacking, and sounds are generally pretty crisp, though there isn't much in the way of ambient sound.  The soundtrack is pleasant enough, particularly the main menu music, though most of it is looped for the duration of your stay in each new area.

One of the biggest draws is the ability to truly roleplay, and there's plenty of opportunities to do so.  For the first time, you can be about as heroic or as dastardly as you please, electing not to help many friendly NPCs, or starting fights with no real penalty (other than missing out on some quests).  The game doesn't force you down the path of good, and though the outcome of the story is ultimately unaffected regardless of your actions, it's nice to have the option to play a truly evil character.

Buggy or not, Shattered Lands was every bit the game I hoped it would be when I ran across the first advertisements and previews back in the day.  No AD&D-based game made a greater impression on me, and it's a shame the campaign setting was abandoned by TSR relatively hastily.  It's equally unfortunate that SSI didn't stick with the Dark Sun engine and improve it for future games in their AD&D line.  Thankfully, Shattered Lands hasn't lost its appeal to me, and I regularly find myself returning to the violent world of Athas for some fun in the sun.

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands was completed via DOSbox.

Review: Resident Evil 3 [PlayStation 4]

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: April 3, 2020
Completed: April 5, 2020
Rated: M for Mature

"What happened?" 

That's all I could think upon completing Capcom's remake of Resident Evil 3.  How could the same company that did such a remarkable job updating the classic Resident Evil 2 do such a ho-hum job updating the third entry?  Perhaps the name itself was a warning: Resident Evil 3.  No subtitle like the PlayStation game it's based on.  An indication that things were lacking was right there on the packaging.

Resident Evil 3 is not a bad game.  Running on the same engine the prior remake did, it looks gorgeous, filled with moody lighting, gruesome gore, and solid animation.  It plays fine, with a familiar and easy to grasp control scheme for anyone who's played more modern Resi titles.  So then what's the problem?

I'll answer that question with one of my own: Where's the rest of it?

Resident Evil 2 included and expanded upon everything from the PlayStation game.  By contrast, RE3 cuts several sections from the original.  There are no additional game modes, including those present in 1999.  It feels much more linear, like you're being forced down a narrow hallway, than the exceptional remake that preceded it.  Everything here screams of a quick cash grab rather than a fully fledged project that does justice to the source material. 

Take, for example, Nemesis himself.  Capcom already had the AI from Mr. X in Resident Evil 2, but instead of using it to make Nemesis an ever-present threat, he's reduced to scripted sequences and boss battles.  It's like the whole game was produced with the mantra "do as little as possible, so long as it's recognizable as Resident Evil 3." 

The disappointment stems from two things: the game was allegedly in development for three years, and what little of it is included is pretty good.  The shooting feels great, the world looks incredible, the music is well done, control is responsive - all the elements were there for this to be just as good as RE2, but in the end it feels like a rush job, shoved out the door to cash in on eager fans. I know game development is hard, but what were they doing for three years where they couldn't remake the entire PlayStation game as a bare minimum? 

The original Resident Evil 3 was the beginning of the series shift towards a more action-oriented experience.  The puzzles aren't nearly as convoluted, for better or worse, or as plentiful.  It's been a long time since I've played the PS1 game, but the remake definitely feels easier than my recollection of it, though that could be due in part to the updated controls.

Again, I stress, what's here is fun.  It's just that coming off the heels of arguably one of the best remakes ever made, Resident Evil 3 feels like a step backward in almost every way.  You could argue that Carlos, the secondary protagonist, is given a slightly expanded role but his extra gameplay segments don't add up to the two areas from the original that were cut entirely.  The lack of post-game content also fuels the fire that this was just a quick way to make a buck for Capcom.  I don't think anyone expected RE3 to be as good as RE2, considering that RE2 is just a comparatively better game in either incarnation than 3.  It would have been nice to see as much effort put into this remake, however.  Give fans some more meat to chew on, not the skeleton of Resident Evil 3.

Resident Evil 3 was completed on a PlayStation 4 Pro with no cheats.