Topic: RFN RetroActive Discussion (Game #1: Dynamite Headdy)

[NWR_Neal]

Yea, the first level doesn't make much sense.
It's like, you're running and there's a robot. Your friends get captured. You kill the robot.
Then you fight a cat puppet.

[Jonnyboy117]

I got to the doll-on-chains boss and ran out of lives, so now I have to start over.  But I feel like I can do much better this time.

[NWR_Neal]

Doll-on-chains boss is a bitch

[NWR_DrewMG]

Yea, the first level doesn't make much sense.
It's like, you're running and there's a robot. Your friends get captured. You kill the robot.
Then you fight a cat puppet.

Yeah, that echoes my thoughts as well.  I'll keep playing a bit, but this game is confusing the hell out of me.  After I beat the cat puppet thing I went to what appears to be some sort of hub world with training rooms. 

Very strange little game. 

[gojira]

I'm a huge Treasure fan, so I picked up this game for my Genesis some time ago.  But I've never really put a whole lot of time into it before now.  I'm happy this came up and gave me the motivation to play through the game again. 

I played the game a bit tonight and got through 5-3 which is just after Stair Wars.  The aesthetic of the game really reminded me of Paper Mario.  The world feels very alive and is extremely dynamic especially for a 16bit game.  And since it is Treasure, you can see them pushing the hardware.  There is some very nice use of 3d effects in the game.  It isn't as impressive as what they probably could have done on the SNES, but I was very surprised and happy that they were easy to navigate.  A lot of pseudo 3D back in the 8bit and 16bit era was rather clunky.  And with a game as hard as this, the last thing you need is poor controls. 

There's a very WTF? feeling when it comes to the story of the game.  And with the gameplay being pretty straightforward, I'm not surprised this is one of Treasure's least heralded games.  It's still a fun game that I'll definitely play a few more times, but I think it's a hard sell for most gamers out there.

[Cambot]

The levels in Dynamite Headdy are like sweating through one fever dream after another. I also got as far as the puppet-on-chains boss and lost all my lives there. I respect the difficulty in this game, in that it's an old-school "win-or-die-trying" style platformer, but I'll admit, I gave myself continues with the level select cheat code.

Another thing I like is how this game takes me back to the 90's. Aside from it being on Genesis, There's a bunch of cheesy 80s and 90s movie title puns in the names of the stages: "Mad Mechs, "Terminate Her Too" and, oddly, "Mad Dog and Headdy." 

And as always, big ups to Treasure for pushing Sega's hardware. They tend to pull off little graphical tricks that look even cleaner and crispier than if they were on the SNES.

Take that Mode 7!

[GoldenPhoenix]

I'll have to see if I bought Dynamite Headdy on VC or not.

It is kind of funny that Treasure was able to get some impressive visuals, that people doubted could be done, on Genesis but their Wario game on GC was, um, pretty dang ugly!

[Jonnyboy117]

Square?  You mean Treasure.  :-)  And I think it was pretty clear that Wario World was a sub-par effort in many ways, not just visually.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Square?  You mean Treasure.  :-)  And I think it was pretty clear that Wario World was a sub-par effort in many ways, not just visually.

Ehem. Yes Treasure .

It is funny though Treasure is known for having such diverse levels in their games yet Wario World played like a game developed by (cues Crimm) Ubisoft.

[NWR_Lindy]

Actually, James' Ubisoft rage has really toned down lately.  He's downright docile nowadays.

[gojira]

Just listened to the newest show and had a couple of thoughts about what was said about Dynamite Headdy.

I've looked at some youtube videos that show the differences between the Japanese version and the NA version.  It was funny hearing Greg talking about stuff that different in the version the others played.  The biggest difference is that the cupie doll that shoots lasers out of her eyes in the Japanese version is a robot in the NA version.

I've also heard Greg say there was only two continues.  In the NA version there are no continues until you earn them.  After you beat a boss a bunch of stuff shoots out and after you collect a certain number of them you earn a continue. 

Also the number you're supposed to remember after bonus levels is to gain access to a secret final boss.  You have to complete the bonus level four times before beating the game.  After beating the game you be asked to enter the code (it's different each time you play).  Then you fight a business man (The President of Sega in the Japanese version).

[Yoshidious]

I've since discovered that the Japanese version is significantly easier than the North American version -- certain bossess require many more hits to beat in the NA release. I also think you can earn extra continues in the Japanese version, but you are given some to begin with unlike the NA version as gojira said. Apparently, somewhere between when the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 was too hard to be released in the West and Dynamite Headdy's release in 1994, Americans got much better at games!

However, Bullseye Doll of Death is just so much better than some run-of-the-mill robot.

[Plugabugz]

Can we get, eventually, a set of gams which may be rarer to find (and less likely to appear on VC)? Lke McDonaldland?

[Cambot]

Can we get, eventually, a set of gams which may be rarer to find (and less likely to appear on VC)? Lke McDonaldland?

Why? So no one can find it and there will be no comments to discuss?