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Virtual Console Mondays: September 17, 2007

by Steven Rodriguez - September 19, 2007, 9:14 am
Total comments: 26

Are you ready for some baseball?

Batter up? This week's surprising game is a classic baseball game with a self-describing name. The N64 sees some more love with a love-it or hate-it release; see which one our recommending staffer thinks it is. Also, a crappy Genesis shooter. Something for everyone, it seems!

You are authorized to view our Virtual Console recommendations. Begin!


World Class Baseball

SystemVirtual Console - TurboGrafx-16

Cost600 Points
Players2
ControllersWii Remote,Wii Nunchuk,GameCube
ESRB RatingEveryone
ReleasedDec 1989

Click here for a video preview

Coming out of left field is this diamond of a baseball game. At its core, World Class Baseball is not unlike the simple arcade baseball titles of its era. However, what makes this game earn its moniker are the small details. The batting and pitching motions are surprisingly fluid. If you hit a home run, you'll see yor player wave his arms in the air from the top-down view as he heads for home plate. And my favorite, it you get hit by a pitch, your batsman will really look like he's hurting, even with a scant few frames of animation. It's a dandy, graphically.

But even better, it's well fleshed-out in terms of gameplay. You can change the rosters and lineups of all 12 teams in the game, including calling up farm prospects. You can call for defensive shifts and shore up to bunt. The game even keeps track of statistics and keeps you updated on changes from inning to inning. I think that's impressive, and as such it's more than enough to recommend this game to anyone that likes America's pastime.

Recommended for Everyone

- Steven Rodriguez



Yoshi's Story

SystemVirtual Console - Nintendo 64

Cost1000 Points
Players1
ControllersWii Nunchuk,GameCube
ESRB RatingEveryone
ReleasedYear 1998

Click here for a video preview

Yoshi's Story is truly one of the gems of the N64 library. It's a psuedo-sequel to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and the gameplay remains largely the same. The largest difference is in the graphics department, where the hand-drawn pastel look from Yoshi's Island has been replaced by a bizarre, 2.5D "sewn" look. Baby Bowser has turned Yoshi's Island into a storybook, and the result is that everything looks plush, cardboard, or something in between. It's a wonderful aesthetic, complimented by the impressive texture effects. Yoshi's Story progresses in a strange, non-linear way. Each level is broken into several stages, and you only have to play through one of them to complete the level. The challenge comes from the fact that you do not clear a stage by getting to a goal. Rather, you seek out 30 pieces of fruit. Depending on your Yoshi's color, various fruits will give different scores. If you want the biggest challenge (and best score), try finding the 30 Melons which are hidden throughout each stage.

Yoshi runs through the stage in a giant loop, eating fruit and avoiding familiar enemies like Shy-Guys and giant fish. There are all sorts of interesting movement systems in the game as well, from a flying sea dragon to a bunch of zig-zagging smiling ... things. No matter which stage you pick in a given level, the amount of variety within that stage is staggering. Now, there are some stages which present cheap deaths, but hey—this is a 2D platformer. It's expected! But I can't recommend Yoshi's Story enough for its variable gameplay and incredible charm.

Recommended for Everyone

Super Thunder Blade

SystemVirtual Console - Genesis

Cost800 Points
Players1
ControllersWii Remote,Wii Nunchuk,GameCube
ESRB RatingEveryone
ReleasedYear 1989

Click here for a video preview

Imagine playing the SNES version of Star Fox, only instead of an Arwing fighter you get to pilot a helicopter. That's the basic gameplay of Super Thunder Blade, a shooter played from the behind-the-tail view. Swarms of enemy helicopters, jet fighters, and tanks come into view on the horizon and shoot balls of firey death at you, and you need to avoid their shots while gunning them down with your own. Your machine guns and homing missiles fire automatically, so it's really just a matter of keeping your finger on the trigger and dodging the incoming attacks.

Trying to find a safe spot among all the sprites on the screen is difficult, especially because the advancing horizon scrolling is a bit jerky. (Mode 7 scrolling, this ain't.) As a result, it's very easy to die in this game. Truth be told, it's a little boring, too. There's not much in Super Thunder Blade to recommend it to anyone. So I won't!

Not Recommended

- Steven Rodriguez


Thanks to VG Museum for some of this week's classic screenshots.

Talkback

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I changed my mind! I wanna buy Yoshi's Story again!

Ian SaneSeptember 19, 2007

Zach is apparently the biggest fan of Yoshi's Story in the world. face-icon-small-wink.gif I've never heard so much praise for that game in one paragraph before. Truly one of the gems of the N64 library? On the N64? Really? Yoshi's Story is one of the gems of a console that had Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and two of the very best Zelda games?

In truth, Yoshi's Story has one problem and one problem only: there's nothing to make you want to collect all 30 melons in a level because it's only for high score and it's actually pretty difficult to do so... and because of that, it's far too tempting to cheese the level by just swallowing the first 30 fruit that come along.

Nick DiMolaNick DiMola, Staff AlumnusSeptember 19, 2007

I bought Yoshi's Story the day it came out on the N64 and no game in the history of time made me regret a purchase so badly. I finished the game in something like 3 hours even retrieving both the Black and White Yoshis. Not sure if I would recommend that game to everyone, but I guess at $10 it's worth it. For $50 though I got burned ... bad.

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterSeptember 19, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Zach is apparently the biggest fan of Yoshi's Story in the world. face-icon-small-wink.gif I've never heard so much praise for that game in one paragraph before. Truly one of the gems of the N64 library? On the N64? Really? Yoshi's Story is one of the gems of a console that had Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and two of the very best Zelda games?


I have to agree with Ian here. I honestly thought that the game was going to get at the very least a "Recommended for fans".

I'm sorry but as much as I liked Yoshi's story it is NOT a gem in the N64 library. Its a joke compared to the far deeper Yoshi's island. The game is too short and while the presentation is really good it might be too cute for some to tolerate.

I you guys should rethink how the VC games are reviewed and presented. I recall you pointed out that while Metroid was a good game much better games came after it so why wasn't the same step used when reviewing Yoshi's story.

only one i might buy is Yoshi's Story. I never owned a 64 so i plan on getting alot of 64 games.

LuigiHannSeptember 19, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: pap64
I honestly thought that the game was going to get at the very least a "Recommended for fans".


I would have gone with "Recommended only to people who aren't fans."

Also, was Yoshi's Story marketed as a sequel to Yoshi's Island, or did people just assume that because it stars Yoshi?

It was originally called Yoshi's Island 64.

MashiroSeptember 19, 2007

Lawl recommened for everyone . . .

Quote

I you guys should rethink how the VC games are reviewed and presented. I recall you pointed out that while Metroid was a good game much better games came after it so why wasn't the same step used when reviewing Yoshi's story.


QFT. Yoshi's Island: SMW2 is FAR supperior to Yoshi's Story so it should be not recommended =)

Quote

Yoshi's Story is truly one of the gems of the N64 library.


lies . . . lies lies lies. and more lies.

Quote

Yoshi's Story is truly one of Nintendos biggest let down games.


Fixed.

GoldenPhoenixSeptember 19, 2007

:::listens to all the nsiders run away scared after the Yoshi's Story recommendation::

Good job guys, you managed to top Pale's Kid Icarus recommendation for everyone!

I want to go on record as saying there was strong pushback from others on NWR staff about this Yoshi's Story recommendation. That said, this is Zach's honest-to-God opinion (although I'm flabbergasted) and I'd rather not muzzle those on staff who have bad taste--er...disagree with the majority. I do think we need second opinions for some of these recommendations, though.

Anyway, Yoshi's Island is not *terrible*. It has good music and can be fun to play if you just feel like farting around or exploring for 30 melons. But it isn't a good $10 purchase.

GoldenPhoenixSeptember 19, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: TheYoungerPlumber
I want to go on record as saying there was strong pushback from others on NWR staff about this Yoshi's Story recommendation. That said, this is Zach's honest-to-God opinion (although I'm flabbergasted) and I'd rather not muzzle those on staff who have bad taste--er...disagree with the majority. I do think we need second opinions for some of these recommendations, though.

Anyway, Yoshi's Island is not *terrible*. It has good music and can be fun to play if you just feel like farting around or exploring for 30 melons. But it isn't a good $10 purchase.


The memories I have about Yoshi's story include

1) A pounding headache
2) A lame final boss battle

that Baby guySeptember 19, 2007

A revise using stars with info on the genre and how the game rates within games similar to it! Four stars, three stars, two stars, blue fish. It will be more familiar to movies, and the price of the games is about the same, too.

KDR_11kSeptember 19, 2007

Quote

I recall you pointed out that while Metroid was a good game much better games came after it so why wasn't the same step used when reviewing Yoshi's story.


Metroid isn't a good game by modern standards, it may have been impressive on the NES but it plays like crap compared to later games. No idea about Yoshi's Story but saying Metroid only got a bad grade because better games came after it is wrong.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorSeptember 20, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: pap64
I you guys should rethink how the VC games are reviewed and presented. I recall you pointed out that while Metroid was a good game much better games came after it so why wasn't the same step used when reviewing Yoshi's story.



I think the difference is that we *knew* when a similar, better game was going to be released. Can anyone tell me when the next Mario Series game is going to be released on the VC?

I know there are a lot of people who were disappointed with Yoshi's Story - but can y'all say it is really a *bad* game? Or just a disappointment?

GoldenPhoenixSeptember 20, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: UncleBob
Quote

Originally posted by: pap64
I you guys should rethink how the VC games are reviewed and presented. I recall you pointed out that while Metroid was a good game much better games came after it so why wasn't the same step used when reviewing Yoshi's story.



I think the difference is that we *knew* when a similar, better game was going to be released. Can anyone tell me when the next Mario Series game is going to be released on the VC?

I know there are a lot of people who were disappointed with Yoshi's Story - but can y'all say it is really a *bad* game? Or just a disappointment?


I can say it is a bad game because it was, the game was extremely shallow and generic in about every way.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorSeptember 20, 2007

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/199386.asp?q=Yoshis%20Story
It's got a 60+% on Game Rankings. Spectacular? No. Horribly bad? Come on! Would you seriously stick Yoshi's Story in the same category as DK Jr. Math?

planetidiotSeptember 20, 2007

yeah Super Thunder Blade was terrible. If only the genesis had hardware scaling and the 40 layers of parallax that the arcade version did.

GoldenPhoenixSeptember 20, 2007

Quote

Originally posted by: UncleBob
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/199386.asp?q=Yoshis%20Story
It's got a 60+% on Game Rankings. Spectacular? No. Horribly bad? Come on! Would you seriously stick Yoshi's Story in the same category as DK Jr. Math?


At least DK Jr. Math didn't give me a headache.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorSeptember 20, 2007

That's only because you didn't actually do the math problems themselves.

After all, you're a woman and "Math is hard" for women. face-icon-small-smile.gif

Lord almighty! I've gotta stop "recommending" VC games, because it gets me in trouble! You have no idea how much trouble I got from my fellow staffers on this one. Windy even emailed me and asked if I really did play it, or was I writing the recommendation from memory. I love Yoshi's Story, seriously. It's among my favorite N64 games, and when I saw it on the VC, I was ALL ABOUT THAT.

Ya'll are being awfully hard on it. The level designs are tremendous, there is an amazing amount of gameplay variety, and game's look is unique and charming. The only parts I don't really like about it are the (1) lack of background music (it's barely there), (2) the melon-crate minigame, and (3) finding that last freaking Melon in a level!

Like I think I said in the recommendation, the challenge is up to the player, which is another reason I like it. Yeah, you can cheese your way through, eating every piece of fruit in sight, and beat the game in an hour. Actually, you SHOULD, because then you play through it again, choose different stages for each level, repeat a few times, and unlock every stage in the challenge mode.

Yes, challenge mode, where you select a stage, then try and get the highest score. That's where I spend most of my time these days.

But I really think you guys should give Yoshi's Story another chance.

Don't worry Halbred! You've actually caused me to re-examine my stance on the game, and I'm actually planning to buy it now because thinking of the game objectively, it really does only have those few actual concrete faults.

Plus, Yoshi's sorta awesome.

CalibanSeptember 20, 2007

I got the game (Yoshi's Story) without ever having played it and I am pleased with the purchase.
My bad purchase though was Super Thunder Blade...yeah I know, impulse buy.

GoldenPhoenixSeptember 20, 2007

Yoshi Story's 5 whole bosses is the best variety EVER in gaming, not to mention the most amazing jump on the boss three times to beat the game! The game was and still is a shallow game with little to no variety and a mind numbingly easy difficulty that puts any other "easy" game to shame.

KDR_11kSeptember 20, 2007

My bad purchase though was Super Thunder Blade...yeah I know, impulse buy.

Heh, I have that game on the Megadrive Collection and I agree, it's baaaaad.

CalibanSeptember 21, 2007

Really baaaaaaad.

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