Today’s piece looks back at not one but two, two, TWO Goonies games in one fell swoop. I have a few personal anecdotes about this one, too, but I’ll have to save them for another time. Shantae: Risky’s Revenge ain’t gonna play itself, you know.
Speaking of which, if you own a DSi and don’t download Shantae, I will be tragically disappointed in you. It’s a lot of game for twelve bucks! Seriously now.
You bet I’ve already got my own Risky’s Revenge DSiWare downloaded. This game’s excellent; they just don’t often make 2D games as awesome as this on DSiWare. Or really, almost anywhere. It’s a real labor of love, this. ^_^
Oh, and Goonies II is pretty cool too. I totally pissed off Konamiman by hitting him once. =D
“If software as dreadfully terrible as Labyrinth had made its way into American hands, well, Nintendo might well have been doomed from the very start.”
So explain the Acclaim X-Men.
I would like to play Risky’s Revenge, but I don’t yet own a DSi. I’ve been planning to hold out for a 3DS, but of course by that time my purchase of RR will be completely irrelevant to whether the game is considered a success. Aagh!
I, too, thought of the horrid LJN X-Men game when thinking of games with mechanics as broken as Labyrinth. As for Goonies II… I seriously loved that game. It was definitely one of my top 3 NES games in my 8-bit days. And even then, I would’ve told you that it would be my favorite if I could just keep track of where everything was and so on better. Just adding a SoTN or Super Metroid map would’ve helped the game immensely. I always assumed it was called “Goonies II” because it was a sequel to the movie. I was quite shocked when I finally learned there actually was a prior game.
I really would love to buy Shantae but again I’ve no DSi to buy it with. It’s a shame, I love wayforward and think that their games are amazing. Unlike the rocket knight game by Climax who managed to completely miss the point, Wayforwards Contra 4 and a Boy and his Blob have kept true to the originals and been fantastic additions to their franchises. Wayforward just knows how to do 2D gaming and it’s a shame so few developers outside japan are up to their quality.
LJN’s X-Men game was released in 1989. My comments were specific to the early, formative years of the NES (1986), when games like The Goonies, Convoy No Nazo, Urusei Yatsura, etc. were originally published in Japan but not here. Once the NES achieved market saturation, the gloves were off and publishers were happy to pummel us with unapologetic crap.
Regarding sales of the new Shantae — folks, I’m pretty sure WayForward expects that a lot of folks are holding out for the 3DS. I wouldn’t worry about if your purchase is counted among their measures of success.
Also, Rocket Knight was awesome fun for Rocket Bursting around everywhere. Just sayin’.
Regarding Goonies — because I didn’t actually learn about original game until sometime in the early aughts, if I remember right — for the longest time as a kid, I thought of the Goonies II game as the official-yet-odd sequel to the movie itself.
Well with regards to rocket knight I think my big problem is that RKA and the snes version of Sparkster play like Contra games which Climax didn’t cotton on to and the new one plays like a mascot platformer to me. I wasn’t bad but maybe I was just expecting great things.
Well I’ll definitely be getting Shantae whenever I get a 3DS (at launch if I have a job!), loved the first game.
Purchased Shantae yesterday. Played it for around an hour and a half. Great stuff. Now, I’ve not extensively played the GBC version, but this one is giving me a big-time Monster World IV vibe, which is a really, really good thing. It’s almost criminal that we never got that particular game, and seeing that a current downloadable game scratches that itch is a wonderful thing indeed.
As for Goonies and Goonies II: I remember both versions. I saw the original Goonies in a Pizza Hut a long time ago, and was never exposed to it since. Goonies II was one of my favorite NES games back in the day, simply because of the amount of exploration and RPG-lite elements. Great, great stuff. It would have been easier, though, had I had the gigantic map that was in Official Nintendo Player’s Guide.
Count me among the people waiting for the 3DS before downloading Shantae. Though I just might change my mind. The Monster World IV parallel is one that excites me though.
Solid assessment of the Goonies games. I did spot the first one in VS. form at an arcade not long before nabbing the sequel in the spring of ’88. I personally preferred the original’s mechanics. If there’s one issue with II, aside from the labyrinth areas of course, it’s Mikey’s complete floatiness, not to mention his standard yo-yo attack’s latency.
Hey, maybe the original Shantae will come out on 3DS Virtual Console!
Ugh, I must be delerious… that’d make sense and assume Nintendo will actually support it.
@pimento: I’d think that the original Shantae being “Distributed by Capcom” could be a potential problem, but if it did appear on 3DS VC (or hell, a DSiWare port or remake), you bet I’d buy that baby up ASAP.