Just when you thought they were only going to be releasing one game every week on the VC, this week…they still released only one game. Ha! Fooled you! Ok, that was lame. But let’s hope this week’s new VC game isn’t lame, too. This week, we’re getting Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II. Let’s see what everyone here has to say about it!
Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
Original Release Date: 1994
Price: 500 Wii Points
Ashe Collins: Surprisingly, this got an 8 at GAMEFAQs.
It sounds bizarre. I wouldn’t download it. I wasn’t interested when this came out in ’94. Definitely not interested now. I guess someone out there liked it though.
Personally I’d save my money and play Legend of Zelda. This one looks like it’s the same game with slightly different sprites.
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Alex Lucard:Ugh. StarTropics II?
Now the first StarTropics was a decent little game that hasn’t aged well at all. But STII? That game was nearly universally reviled when it came out and I’ve never heard anyone say nice things about it. Why Nintendo, why?
STII cuts out all the good things from the original and just leaves in the crap no one liked.
I guess this annoys me more because Japan got 4 games on Christmas Eve, including the Fire Pro Wrestling 3: Final Bout for the TG-16, Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Nobunaga’s Ambition! Oh, and Life Force. FREAKING LIFE FORCE! Europe at least got Secret of Mana and the Master System version of Sonic 2, so I can’t complain too much there as we already have those, but really NOA? Life Force, Wonder Boy, NA and Fire Pro Wrestling across the Pacific and we get a game no one ever liked? Is there any reason I’ve been playing the lovely six dollar Castlevania Chronicles on my PS3 lately?
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Christopher Bowen: OK, this is going to sound strange, and my glasses have likely taken a rose-coloured hue, but hear me out:
I liked StarTropics II.
I thought the time-travel aspect of the game was good. I liked how they took it in a different direction. I liked the dungeons. I appreciated that I didn’t have to put my fucking instruction booklet in water. I thought it was a fun game.
Then again, when StarTropics II came out, it was one of the last releases for the NES. And I haven’t played it in ten years. So I could be looking back fondly on a game that a repeat playthrough isn’t going to be kind to. After all, I don’t like the first StarTropics as much in 2008 as I did in 1992.
For now, I’ll give this a very tepid recommendation – at $5, it could be worse – but if my peers come out more strongly against the game, I’ll defer to them. Hey, wouldn’t be the first time I thought an old game was better than it actually was.
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Nathan Birch: On the one hand, this game, in theory, is exactly the type that should be on the VC. It’s a hard to find curiosity that most people didn’t play first time around (it was released only in the US in 1994, 3 years after the debut of the Super Nintendo, and sold in very small quantities).
Problem is, it’s not actually very good. I didn’t like the first StarTropics and this one is basically more of the same except uglier, clunkier and goofier. Then again maybe my original impressions of the game were colored by the fact that it came out two years after A Link to the Past and was horribly dated from day one. Maybe if you pretend the game came out in the late-80s instead of the mid-90s you’ll be more forgiving.
Very marginally recommended seeing as it’s only five bucks and unlike stuff like Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario Bros. this is probably the only place you’ll ever be able to play the game.
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Aileen Coe: Wasted no time with the tepid releases, eh Nintendo?
OK, in all honesty, the game’s not that bad. You can’t really go wrong with traveling through time, after all. You could do worse with $5, and this could be your sole option to play it you have unless you happen to have an NES and a copy of the game lying around. Just approach the game armed with patience.
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Meanwhile, on Wii Ware this week, we’re getting Maboshi’s Arcade and Cue Sports – Pool Revolution. Whatever games you plan to buy with your hard earned cash, we at DHGF hope they bring you many good times in the coming new year, and that the new year brings some good games to the VC (*cough*EARTHBOUNDGODDAMNIT*cough*).
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