Diary Entry #11: He-Man on C64 and More GBA Garbage

                After playing OverBlood, I took a couple days off from video games. According to my girlfriend, it was actually one day, but it felt like more. The problem was I didn't know what to play at all, but now I have some pretty good ideas of what direction I need to take. The first thing I tried out: He-Man Commodore 64 games.

                The first game I tried was this really cool text adventure, though it didn't seem to have a whole lot of depth. He-Man and Skeletor border the screen at all times and a bunch of green text tells you the action. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of inventory items, with most of the areas either leading to other places or killing you almost instantly.

I should have gone east.

                When I die, Skeletor gives me this look like, seriously dude? You're He-Man and everything from tentacles to Evil Lyn is killing you instantly. I love the little computers that buttress Skeletor. I'm definitely returning to this.

                Masters of the Universe: The Movie is a virtually unplayable Gauntlet knockoff, though I really appreciated the Metal Gear-esque radio transmissions. I was evidently so disenchanted with the gameplay that I didn't get a single screenshot of it. There was a third game called the Ilearth Stone or something, a pretty straightforward action-platformer in the slowest way possible. 

                A few years back, I was obsessed with the side-scrolling RPG. While it was my favorite genre, not a whole lot of them really appealed to me. I hate some critically-acclaimed ones like Odin Sphere, yet I'd adore some random obscure semi-eroge PC98 titles. I picked up Kien for the Game Boy Advance praying this would be a lost gem, all the while ignoring the 1 star reviews Nintendo Power gave it. It's like super ghetto Maple Story, which the screenshot below can attest to. Maybe some day I'll replay it, but then again, maybe someday I'll cut my legs off.
             

                After dabbling in the MMORPG social experiment that is Twitch Plays Pokemon, I felt compelled to explore some potential Pokemon clones. I'm sure there are some great ripoff games that all of the Twitch people will need once they finish Pokemon Red. Medabots: Rokusho version will probably fill that void nicely.

The doctor is actually smacking me
in the image. Child abuse is common
in Pokemon clones.

                Unlike Pokemon, you have a team of customizable Medabots that battle one another. I'm starting early on, but from the picture below, it's probable that Medabot battles are 3 against 3. It also appears that players can equip different head, arm, and leg armors.  Five minutes isn't really long enough to unravel all of the game's nuances I'm sure, but I'm looking forward to it.

                Years of procrastination have led to this final moment: I will play through Ultima V. I played through I, II, III, and IV in a few weeks period, but V just feels impenetrable. A lot of people claim it's one of the greatest RPGs in history and I'm ready to see it through. I should probably also discuss the great Ultima III port for the Game Boy Color, which includes a difficult fanmade second quest! I love it.

                

I've got a lot of followers and a whole lot of nothing
else near Lord British's castle.