Once I realized that I could revisit caves for more weapon power-ups, I had an easier time with him. T
Whoa, handn't realized that. Thanks!
I'm enjoying the remake quite a bit. It does have several downsides: the animation seems off to me, I miss the chibi dude in the overhead sections, the strafe and cancel buttons are idiotically placed, and why on Earth did they include that stupid weapon recharge meter with the tank? Also, I wish the tank could jump a bit higher, as right now it feels like it's just doing short hops instead of full blown jumps.
Other than that I think it'll be worth the $10. I've played it for about 40 minutes and just beat the first boss. I really like how the game lets you switch between three types of weapons at your liesure. The ability to shoot diagonally is also an overdue blessing, especially on foot. My favorite feature is the permanent rewards for exploration: in the original I'd hit up one or two caves to max out, and then go straight for the boss, as the loss of weapon level disincentivizes further exploration.
I get a kick out of how deliberately corny the plot is. Has anyone read the Operation Manual? I like how they poke fun at their own plot.
I'm a bit bummed that this is no longer A Boy And His Frog, but I suppose this makes it more in-line with the Japanese original.
They had better include the damned frog boss though.
It's also nice to finally get an idea of what the enemies in the original are supposed to represent. Granted, most of them are still ambiguous blobs of ewww, but it's deliberate this time, so I'm okay with it. One big downer: where are my metroids!? I loved seeing them in the original, but now they're AWOL.
And sure, it's probably because of fears of copyright, but it's not like Nintendo's gotten any more litigious since the 80's, and it didn't stop them then!
That reminds me: are there any water areas? I haven't encountered any yet. I hope they didn't remove them, since they add some nice variety to the game. I really liked how the original Area 5 was aquatic, which forced you to abandon your tank in the side-scrolling area and conquer it on-foot. I hope we get something similar here.
Unfortunately, I probably wont' be able to continue the game for the rest of the week, but I'm really digging it so far, and looking foward to hearing your discussion.