Nightmare Buster (SNES)

Do you hate Nightmare? Do you really hate it so much that you want to bust it for good? You do? Then let's do some nightmare bustin' with Arcade Zone's Nightmare Buster (1995). 

I'm not movie expert but i can recognize that 'Nightmare' word should belong to Nightmare on Elm Street. As for 'Busters' word, it has the same font with Back to The Future title. Nice dark scenery, though. Arcade Zone also made another game on SNES: Legend which is beat/slash 'em up with magic, inspired by Sega's Golden Axe. I happen to play and finish it 2 years ago along with its sequel on PSX. I wouldn't be surprised if this game also relative crude like Legend.

 

As i hit start button, the main menu appears. Well, that leprechaun looks nightmare-ish and unfortunately you do control him in this game. There's no plot exposition or whatsoever here but i got some from www.mobygames.com: "When an evil fiend called the Tyrant hijacks and spoils the dreams of small children, two bold leprechauns named Flynn and Floyd jump into action to stop him. Armed with razor-sharp playing cards, the courageous brothers can also summon magical attacks to destroy the various beasts they encounter. Traversing the inner depths of the dream world, they must overcome all the Tyrant's minions before facing the bloated monster himself." That's interesting plot setting, really.

 

Before the 1st level begins. There's this scene. No voice or text involved so it's up to you to interpret this still image. My best guess is: Flynn points out that there's monsters attacking this village.

 

Then he's burnt by one of the monster. That's great visual effect of someone getting burned. I say, it has the same level as the one in Street Fighter II. Besides the burning effect, i would say that this is obviously bad starter.

 

Now, this is lot better. The control is as follows: 1) d-pad to move, aim or crouch 2) 'B' button to jump 3) 'Y' button to shoot projectile. The plot said that Flynn uses playing cards as his weapon but i happen to pick up this stronger weapon. I want to say that this is burning card but judging from how heavy sound it makes. I'm quite sure that it's burning small ingot instead. This big pot will unlimitedly spawns goblins. No rupee inside pot in this game, i'm afraid.

 

Next we have this jolly monster who has such hygienic teeth for nightmare creature like him. He will jump very high and land with barrel on his hands and later throw at me on either high or low degree. He's quite easy to dispatch but the true horror comes from barrel barricade behind him. You have to destroy it but later barrels fly anywhere upon its destruction.      

 

And i have to go through burning building because why not? The burning ceiling is harmless but there's falling debris and fire ghosts that causes harm. Besides that, the burning bit of the ground also can damage me. Luckily there's potion there that replenish 1 block of my health (indicated in top HUD) but the thing is i only have 2 health block before i vanish in explosion that damage enemies. Relentless 2D platform game with only 2 hit before perish? This is the homage of Ghost 'n Goblin, huh?    

 

This building is less burning then the previous building but the hazard still come relentlessly. In this section i'm being tested on this ledge hanging obstacle. I can cling to some bar or ledge by pressing up while in air and near climbable platform. It's sluggish system but quite accurate to pull it off.

 

As in 101 rules of platformer game, there's a boss at the end of the stage. Before i face the boss directly, there's this intermission a la fighting game. I like this feature.

 

I assume this troll is the leader of the attacking group as he's the biggest and... i want to say the smartest but his attack is ridiculously easy to predict: he jumps to other side, blow his torches that you can duck under, and repeat. Engineer_dominationpyro03.wav   

 

Next intermission shows that the brother are about to get ambushed in woods. So, next stage is the obligatory forest stage?

 

Why, of course yes! The icon on top of me is bomb pickup and here's the thing: you got 3 type of bomb each with their strength and range. They're: 1) Atomic explosion which deal damage the most but has the most narrow range 2) Bouncing Typhoon that cover 98% of the screen but has the weakest power. 3) Tornado that move left and right from your facing and position that has middling strength. You can switch between them by pressing 'L' or 'R' button.   

 

Then there's giant totem hinder my way but i can "convince" it to lower itself by shooting it lots of time. The totem itself does nothing but there's goblins spawn here but they do nothing much than walking to off-screen. On the other hand, i got this blue fireball weapon that fired in 2 direction: straight and diagonal. It's useful for big target like this giant wooden pillar.     

 

There's this gnome who for some reason attack with his hammer or mistletoe leaves that fall due to his hammer slam. Leprechaun and gnome are supposed to be friends, right? Why he takes sides on goblin? I have no idea.

 

Another mid-boss! This time it's goblin that rides on owl. The mid-boss either swoop from random direction or throw volatile concoction at me. Summary, he's not so hard.

 

Another totem! But instead of goblins, there are butterflies that assist it. They're better at the task of defending the totem as they block my projectile, compared to those idiotic goblin.

 

The totem is lowered but another gnome awaits me at the top.  I will get "SMACK!" if i try to climb it. Thus i resort to the Little Boy by pressing 'A' button! Demoman_specialcompleted11.wav

This time the boss stage is a werewolf that somehow shouts "Meeeeow!" when charging. The key to beating him safely is to constantly switch height between this platform and ground while gives him damage in between time. The platform climbing feels sluggish but with some practice you will get used to it.

Every time boss defeated you will get this domino pieces in either half-of-Leprechaun size or jumbo size. These domino pieces serves as collectibles that can increase your live if you manage to make that domino counter to 100. "Small" domino piece yields 1 point while jumbo ones yields 5 points.

 

Next stage takes place in cavern. After short section of walking, i fall into this auto-scrolling section where there's falling big rock on top of me while i have to navigate hazards and bonus items below. The way Flynn throw his card downward while in air, looks like ninja in Sega's Shadow Dance. A magician that "borrows" trick from a ninja, interesting. 

 

After that and more rockslide, i arrives at volcano place. Indicated by how dangerous the place is, i will be surprised if this cavern doesn't lead me to villain's headquarter.

 

I encounter the barrel-throwing monster but this time he throws fire at me. Unfortunately for him, i can dodge his attack more easily than the previous moment. But good on him for trying something new to kill me.

 

And now i get to be in elevator section where falling stalactites and spike crystals try to bring harms on me. But at least there's coins up here. Money always makes everyone happy, right?

 

It seems i'm on right track as i encounter this dark mage as boss stage. He will open his wizardry robe to unleash butterflies and he can only be hit while his robe is open. So just keep chucking those projectiles!

 

He can also summon ring of fire that bouncing on entire screen. As long as it exists, he can be harmed so i slip under him and shoot his inside from bottom. Does that statement sounds suggestive? I'm sorry.   

 

There's no bold intermission after defeating the dark mage. The 4th stage just start seamlessly in the same sliding elevator that occasionally jump because it leaps through gap on the rail. After some falling rocks, the owl rider appears again. Without the center platform like in previous encounter there's no way for me to take cover from the bombing unless i resort to this dash. To perform it you have to press and hold 'X' button until the bar (which is located below Dash counter) is fully filled and then released it. You will be completely invincible while dashing and you can also sweep down enemies with this move. The weakness of said move is: limited in number and the charging process feels pretty slow.

 

After the sliding elevator hit a castle's door, this intermission screen appears. "Here's Flynn and Floyd!"

 

See that burning blue orb? That's pickup to increase the dash's number by one. There's also pickup in form of 'Blast' word that i have no idea what's that for.

 

This castle is filled with instant kill spikes. Is this place not the villain's headquarter, i don't know is this place. This section demands your platforming skill very bad. You can't stand on these block so you have to skillfully grab them instead. Remainder: pressing up on d-pad while near the block to hang to it. On later section the blocks will periodically pull in and out which require precision timing. I'll be honest, this is the least likable part of this game especially there's no domino pieces around here thus preventing me from getting 1up... in section where i need it the most! Sniper_jeers04.wav  

Should you lose a life, you can jump down anywhere on the screen with the help of these fairies. This is pretty handy for this platforming section.

 

This section requires you to master the art of hanging/getting on platform. This long platform will move up and down so you have to switch between stand on platform and hanging on platform precisely and quickly. Pressing  jump button and down on d-pad, will make you jump down the platform but you have to immediately press up on d-pad to cling on the platform otherwise you will jump to the spikes below. Pressing jump while hanging on ledge, will make you hop on to the platform directly. If you hold up on d-pad while doing so (like in other platforming game), you will high jump to the spikes above. This may sounds tedious but this section's design is brilliant in my opinion. Or at least better than the previous precision platforming section.

 

In this descending elevator, there's 4 turrets that strongly tracks me. I need to jump straight up at very perfect time to dodge all of their projectile. They're durable but with each destroyed turret will gives me a breather.

 

The idiotic goblins are back by descending through the chains and some wall blown by bats. They're entertaining feature after that tedious platforming section. Heavy_positivevocalization02.wav

 

At the end of this stage, there's this bit that moves diagonally away from me. Is there going to be epic boss entrance or what?  

 

Nope! We jump to this cutscene instead. Turns out, it was part of that airship and we're just in time to catch a rope attached to it. So is this really the final stage?

 

With the indication of boss rush, i say yes. This guy isn't tougher than before. Heavy_domination15.wav

 

Besides the fur's color is different, this boss fight changes by the position of platform that's now in middle. Only slightly though.

 

The dark wizard also return but with additional trick where he can summon fire torrent near him therefore you only need to far away from him. Maybe he has the same tricks including this before but he can't show them all because i already killed him. I think that's all for the boss battle redux, next boss must be the final boss!

 

Finally, here's the Tyrant himself and my god he's hideous! With clown's collar and those horrid yellow teeth, he must be very evil! Because he's the final boss, he has the most hitpoints (with 2 rows of them) from all bosses. Sensible, no?

 

The tyrant has 3 attack patterns: 1) He flies above and drop on you from above 2) He will conjure fireballs with strong tracking 3) He bangs his armchair to summon blue balls that you can destroy especially if you have this weapon.

 

The Tyrant get another attack pattern when his health is down to 50%: he come from either corner and sweep entire screen with lightning bolt so i have to be under him very fast. Flynn running speed is slow like sedately slow but he can slide by pressing jump button while crouching. His slide is quite fast and goes almost half of the screen. But unlike the invincible dash, Flynn isn't invincible while sliding.

His fireball attack becomes more intense and faster. When in slower pace, you can dodge it by sliding around. But in this version you only need to jump. Kind of strange but i take it.

 

When he's down to zero health, the Tyrant explodes and becomes this chubby small git. Heavy_taunts02.wav   

 

With the Tyrant defeated this girl can have sweet dream again which is credit rolls apparently. Judging with smile on her face, she has great time so be it. There's familiar name to me: Lyes Belaidouni and Carlo Perconti. They're the men behind Legend that i mentioned before. I expected their name to be in credit rolls and i feel glad that it comes true. Heavy_positivevocalization02.wav  

 

Then i'm stuck in this screen forever without further epilogue until i reset, that is. Someone said that the game still not completed so this shouldn't be surprising.

Arcade Zone's Nightmare Buster (1995) is relentless 2D platformer game and tedious to play. Even the weakest mook takes many hit to dispatch. On contrary with Flynn and/or Floyd that can be killed with only 2 hits from anything including enemy's skin contact although they will produce 2 explosions: upon demise and while respawn. On top of that, they move really sluggish except for sliding. But the sliding takes too much distance and you can't alter it with d-pad. But on the bright side, the boss battle is quite well designed except the werewolf. It's the main stages are the main problem including the harsh platforming section. But i admit i like the visual design of the enemies, each and every one of them. The arsenal feel lack of distinction except for the 2-way blue fireball and it's simply the best because it covers competent range. All i can say is the other weapon are definitely step up than the standard card. Another good thing is the fine selection of bombs that you have. They're all distinguishable and quite unique on both visual and gameplay effect. There's no password or save slot. You only have 3 continues to finish the 5 stages or you have to restart from the beginning. Although it's considered pretty short for a game that only consist of 5 stage, it still feels unfair. With 3 continues, i can only cover 3 stages at most. If i play the game without savestate that is. The music is grainy but unlike Legend, NB feels less likable. The sound effect is okay for SNES game.  

I believe there's many 2D platformer game that are better than Nightmare Buster (1995). So i suggest you shouldn't play this game at all. Even though the premise is remarkable: Leprechaun magician that destroy evil creatures. I wish that there's some amazing game with that setting or remake of this game but more polished, but that sounds impossible like sweet dream that's taken away by some fiend. But if you like magician protagonist with top hat that fight evil creature, i recommend you to check The Twisted Tale of Spike McFang! 

Street Fighter (Arcade)

"One must acknowledges the predecessor". That words don't come from some historic person, by the way. Unless you think that i am historic enough to you (which -let's be honest- i'm not). Following my own word, thus i play the Street Fighter before the 2nd ones which become trendsetting of fighting games. Yep, instead of the famous Street Fighter II , i review the obscured Street Fighter (1987) 

Here we have some artistic graffiti that presumably made by some talented Capcom's fans. Besides the largest graffiti of all "Capcom", there's also graffiti of Capcom's game titles. Such as: Wings from presumably Legendary Wings, Section Z, Avengers, Trojan and the least readable ones on right bottom corner: Commando. But suddenly some bloke punches the wall from behind, making the Capcom graffiti destroyed. I know that it's not entirely destroyed but still. Although he has rules to cue the title of the game, i can't forgive him for breaking this fine graffiti. I will get him as soon as i start the game.   

But before i can get to the street fighting, i have to choose which country should i go first. The countries are represented by their flag, sure. But i don't think it's necessary for Capcom to draw the flags in such realistic way: pinned with nail on each corner. Just plain flag will be fine. Anyway, i think that git is from USA so i choose the star and stripes flag.

Yes, that's him! As there's no character selection, i'm stuck as the pioneer of Shoto: Ryu. I don't mind about that as i like naive fighter like him. I notice that his hair is red like in Street Fighter Alpha series. Later his hair turns to brown in Street Fighter 2 and much much later in Street Fighter V it becomes black. While in Capcom Vs SNK, Ryu's hair is dark blue. It amazes me for Capcom to be so indecisive creative with the hair of Ryu meanwhile Ken Master (the 2nd player in this game) always has blonde hair.

Just like its sequel, SF uses 6 buttons: 3 buttons to punch, and 3 buttons to kick. There's 3 strength of punch/kick: weak, medium, and strong. Left or right direction to move left or right. Up for jumping and down for crouching. Hold away direction to block enemy's attack. All the basic are here.

 

As you expect from the legendary shoto guy, Ryu can unleashes Hadou Ken. It will be great if it hits but as you can see Joe manage to jump out of it and he delivers the finishing blow swiftly. 1st match goes to him.

What a smug face! And also cocky laughter. Engineer_taunts12.wav   

Of course, Ryu can do Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku or Tornado kick as what Ryu shouts it. The move can deal substantial amount of damage if it connects. That also goes to Hadou Ken. But here's the thing about the special moves: they're difficult to pull off even if you're get used to their input which are very easy. They don't have the same consistency as the later installment is another way to say it.      

I have no idea what happens here. Yes, we got hit at the same time. I know that much. But what's the detail? I really don't know or rather don't remember. You can tell that the situation is chaotic as our body fly close to each other while there's unconnected hit splash on far right.  

Eventually, i can beat him. Not so cocky now with bruised face, aren't you? Do note that, every fighter has the same quote as Joe's, except for the boss.

Next opponent is Mike who i assume is Mike Tyson and i fight him near Mt. Rushmore, the most American place besides near Liberty Statue. He's not tougher than Joe. Next! 

I'm big embarrassment of martial art world because i let everyone here knows that i suck at breaking a stack of roof tile. In my defense, this minigame use an "unorthodox" mean: you have to press the button with correct timing instead of mashing the button like in first Mortal Kombat which i can nail it everytime. Everyone looks angry except for that bloke in front row with brown jacket. He looks confused and as if says "What on earth did i just see?". I like him.

After that embarrassing martial art exhibition, i travel back to Japan. I said travel back because Ryu's home is in Japan, you see. Once again, i complaint about the correctness of my beloved country, Indonesia's  geography. Java Island is only 8%. Borneo/Kalimantan Island lose some weight and is that Halmahera Island on east of it? That's way too close! Besides there's supposed to be Sulawesi Island which has the size of 90% Borneo/Kalimantan Island and it's not there. Irian Island lose its "head" at western part. This geography is slightly more accurate than in Mario Is Missing!. Only slightly.

My first opponent is Retsu...and he already down. Never bring a (presumably) pacifist monk to street fighter tournament! That's a valuable lesson, we can learn. Hey! I reckon that huge building on background is in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. That's another thing that we can learn.

Next opponent is Geki, the ninja. Man! He sure likes to teleport a lot. You're not Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Get back here and fight!

He stops teleporting but now he chucks shuriken at me. A dozen of them! I know you're ninja but please! Don't be so jerk like that! You can block the shuriken but the blocking aren't so responsive just like in case of special moves. Heavy_jeers05.wav

Eventually, i can defeat the bastard ninja. With that, i can move on to this wooden block breaking minigame. the 2 on bottom are easy to deal with. As for the one on top...isn't so easy. I notice that my straight vertical jump has lower height than my forward/backward jump. Or maybe i can use jumping punch to deal with that ones instead of jumping kick. By the way, i'm impressed with people totem on the left. 

I move on to England to fight...Oh shoot! It's Birdie! There's no throw at all in this game. But even without his devastating throw, Birdie is very dangerous thanks to his high-damaging headbutt...on my crotch!

Therefore, i change my strategy a bit from "Jumping kick a lot" to "Crouching sweep a lot with just a bit of jumping kick" and it works well! I notice that store's name is Block Heads. Maybe Birdie is the owner if you what i mean. ;p

Next opponent is Eagle. Compare to some miserable git who like to teleport around and throw shuriken a lot, a bloke with pair of batons feels way fairer. You may recognize him from Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max on PSP and his stage is also the same here. That makes 2 character that i encounter so far that appears in other Street Fighter game. Maybe that castle there is a part of Cammy's stage in Street Fighter II. Or maybe i was wrong.

Finally! I can throw soul fireball at him and i got perfect health! Sniper_cheers06.wav

This time, i must break a stack of concrete block. Is it just me or the audience mostly look stoned?

Yep, i failed again. I learnt nothing and everyone look disappointed and furious. No one win.

Then i move to China and fight Lee on none other than The Great Wall of China! What other famous landmark that we can use to establish fighting match other than the wall? The forbidden city? Well. It's forbidden for street fighting, y'know?

Wow! I fight the old man assassin Gen himself, this time. By the way, this is how i fight most of the time. Lots of jumping kicking and crouching sweep. I can't show you more "artistic"  fighting style because of the inconsistent input of special moves. I'm big fool, indeed.

Next stop is Thailand, land of elephant and Muay Thai boxing. First strike that happens in the match is: Adon punches me in the nut in air. Now, i see the trend of evil characters in Street Fighter Alpha in here: they like to aim my genitalia. The cheeky sods. Besides that, Adon here like to jumping attack on me until i'm cornered. Do you know what will be nice in this situation? A responsive dragon punch! You can imagine if it's very hard to do Hadou Ken then unleashing dragon punch is almost impossible. I can only do it once when i don't need it.   

Of course, the next opponent is Adon's mentor: Sagat. Man! He looks very smug.

Fine! You can be smug as your Tiger Shoot can depletes my health by 60% in a flash.

On next round, i get my revenge by shooting Hadou Ken at him! How do you like that? >:) 

Okay, fine! You win! 3X

 

As you expect from the final opponent, Sagat is harder to beat than that ninja sod. Besides his projectile deal devastating damage, Sagat also is the only one who is sensible enough to dodge my sweep by raising his feet. But he's not in SNK Boss' tier of unfairness. With more sweeping/jump kicking and savestate, i beat him eventually.

I try to recreate a dramatic scene where Sagat get his famous scar along his torso by doing dragon uppercut as finishing blow but it's really tricky to do so i give up. Instead i give him Hadou Ken which less dramatic but satisfying enough.

Also, it's satisfying to see Sagat's bruised face. I kind of wonder why Sagat is the best street fighter in the world as his stage isn't in street. He should be disqualified as street fighter from the beginning.

After watching recap of defeated faces of my opponent, i'm told that i earn the title of "King of The Hill". Not "King of The Street"? Sure, whatever. As long as not "King of Fighter" because that's belong to SNK.

Then i got to write my name for top score. Those tigers may cue Sagat but damn! They look very dorky. They're certainly not representative of Sagat's might, for sure.

As for "Insert coin to continue" screen, there's  this time bomb that also serves as countdown to game over. Why using time bomb? Is it necessary to punish the street fighting failure with a bomb? According to some rumor, Final Fight the pioneer's of side scroller brawler, is supposed to be the sequel of this game by the name of Street Fighter 89 but later Capcom rename it and make the real sequel much much later. Therefore explaining the time bomb here.

Capcom's Street FIghter (1987) is the early Street Fighter game and probably the best fighting game at the time. But for nowadays' standard, the game is really janky thanks to rough control. Besides unresponsive blocking and special moves that i have mentioned, the left/right movement isn't like what you want.  You expect smooth sidestep, right? But this game implements jerky sidehop instead. Due to that, the special moves become unresponsive or you will be defenseless in longer period if you try to input the special move command. Also the jumping kick is janky. Ryu will only extend his leg after he's in last 15% arc of his jump not as soon as you press the kick button like what you expect. The damage ratio is chunky this can mean either good or bad, it's up to your judgment. Personally, i like fighting game that deploys relative big damage value like in Asura Blade or Asura Buster thus making the game pace brisk. The music isn't catchy and not worth to listen for. The voice is horrid. It's too bass-y and muffled.

Aside for historic value or curiosity, there's no reason for you to play this prototype of Street Fighter as the gameplay is straight bad. You better play the famous Street Fighter II or Fighting Master. That last one is my personal taste, by the way. But one thing that's good in this game is Ryu wears shoe! Wicked, isn't?