ZODA'S REVENGE: STARTROPICS II (1994): CHAPTER 1 & 2
Woof, first impressions are not great here. Chapter 1 is just pure exposition, so Chapter 2 is where the game proper starts. Let's get the obvious out of the way: this game controls like hot ass. The original game already didn't have great gamefeel, but that's easy to excuse in an early NES game, and it was partially due to the grid-based movement. The big issue, for instance, is that when turning you have to hold down a direction for a bit before Mike actually started moving in that direction, but that was so you could tap it and turn without moving, which was crucial in places. The sequel ditches the grid-based movement, which was a good sign, but then it still has the delay on turning, and that makes basic movement really awkward and unsatisfying. The lack of a grid makes aiming harder, and jumping also feels worse in this game in a way that's hard to pin down. The first boss was pretty awful, and already required me to make a savestate at the entrance to the room, which isn't a great sign. Your starting weapon, an axe, has terrible range, and the boss uses fan-spread bullet patterns that encourage you to stand at the opposite end of the room to maneuver around them - putting you out of range to hit him. He's a damage sponge, too. The other issue I have is that the plot is just inherently kind of uninteresting to me. Time travel plots that actually explore time travel as a concept can be really fun, but given that the first level is Mike Goes To Prehistoric Times And Talks To Cavemen, it seems like this is going to be the much more boring time-travel-as-excuse-for-generic-public-domain-settings. It's not all bad, though - the writing is still as goofy and memorable as ever, the music is great, and I can see myself enjoying this more once I have a handle on the awful controls - the dungeon design is less mean than in the first game, but that may just be because it's the first one.