Hmmm, about time for another couple of gruesome games I reckon! Well, neither of these are actually very gruesome at all really....but "Cutesy-Japanese-Magical Weirdness-Type-Games for Halloween" isn't the name of the list......
38 - Magical Crystals (Arcade) :
You're an odd little wizardy type in this game then, and all of your little pixie friends have been captured by some horribly nasty monster and stuck into these magical crystals....so you'll have to use your magic powers to defeat all the crazy enemies and break them back out, and go kick some baddie beastie butt!
And you'll encounter a weird bunch o' baddies indeed....everything from jelly monsters who split into smaller versions of themselves, to mad teacup-men who rush at you and try to drown you with their liquid filled heads!!
Your main weapon appears to be mystical balls of energy or something,which you hurl at the enemies whilst also trying to avoid falling off the edges of the levels, which seem to suspended on nothingness... way, way up in mid air.
Every now and then you'll come up against a boss (such as the aforementioned jelly thing) which will drop a huge crystal containing a Queen Pixie when defeated...or at least that's what I think is going on? I couldn't really find much in the way of story or instructions online to back up my theories...
Anyway, after you beat one of the bosses, you get treated to something a little different in one of the cool bonus mini-games! The ones I've discovered so far are pictured below, and involve a tug-of war with a random monster and some sort of whack-a-mole type thing.
I believe there are others when you beat more bosses too...I can remember seeing a sort of skeet-shooting one when watching footage of the game on Youtube a while back....
As I mentioned earlier, the levels are just sort of floating in mid-air, and you often have to hop over large gaps in the level, or onto little moving platforms. Sometimes you'll land on one which will disappear after a short time, meaning you have to take extra care not to plummet to your doom. So you'll need to keep your wits about you....
You can also find the occasional power-up to help you out on your journey, my favourite being one which turns you super-size and lets you stomp on everything around about you! Great fun that one!
And I think the pixies act as some sort of barrier when you collect them too, as they whirl around your body and seem to fly off if a stray enemy projectile hits them....
As you can see from the screenshots, the game looks great! And it pretty much is.....
It can get a little tricky when there are lots of projectiles flying around, or you hit a particularly nasty stretch of platforming, but overall it's a really fun game that any fan of cutesy-weirdness (or wizards.... or mad teacup-men....) will really enjoy!
37 - The Twisted Tales Of Spike McFang (SNES) :
Ah yes, time to catch up with our little vampire chum Prince Dorobochan again now, or Spike McFang as he seems to be calling himself now one of his games has been translated to English....You'll remember I took a quick look at his previous game Makai Prince Dorobochan on the PC Engine a little while back...
That one was a platformer, but our pal Spike is set for bigger things this time round and is now starring in an action RPG! One that thankfully keeps the cute horror style and general weirdness...
We join Spike as he's about to start fight training on a far off island, unaware that back home trouble is brewing in a big way! The greedy zombie ruler, General Von Hesler has decided that his zombie island isn't big enough, and using his dark powers and army of undead he takes over the other two islands in Vladamasco and battles the two other leaders, Vampra and Dracuman.....
Dracuman happens to be the father of our hero, and Spike would have remained unaware of the situation were it not for Vampra's daughter, Camelia, who managed to escape to seek out McFang and get his help! After a quick bit of training, Spike rushes back home and gets down to sorting this whole mess out....
He has a few tricks up his sleeve to help him out with his quest....his basic form of defence being a spin attack that will smash his enemies when they approach, although you have to be careful not to spin him around too much or he gets dizzy and becomes uncontrollable. He can throw his hat at enemies too, and also use special magic cards which have different abilities...including restoring health, causing a swarm of bats to appear or freezing enemies in their tracks! These can be purchased in shops along with hat upgrades, or in other places in the game...
Rather bizarrely, tomatoes are your main source of health instead of blood in the game...which led me to assume that perhaps Spike was a vegetarian. However, apparently this was changed from collecting hearts in the Japanese version of the game? Maybe a vampire using hearts seemed too much for Nintendo, but it's a bit weird when you consider how many other games have you collecting heart pick ups....
The American release also saw a few other changes. The enemies have a higher defence & Spike doesn't regain his health after going up a level, both of which mean the game is harder in the US version.
The one-eyed mummy shopkeeper you can see in a screen above was originally a pretty blonde girl too, but again censors must have changed that for some weird reason....
I've only just started playing Twisted Tales, but already I'm loving the wacky style and all the encounters with the freaky characters. It's charming and filled with nice little touches....I love Spike's pet in the moat for instance, or being kicked by one of those Easter-Island-type butler things so I can break through a wall in the castle....
I look forward to playing through it properly once I can discipline myself to stick with one game long enough, but even with what I've played up until now I can heartily recommend it as a fun, funny, action-packed RPG for those with the time to spend playing it!
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