Clash at Demonhead and Faxanadu
Well, after a long delay, I went back to my quest to play through all my old games. (I have since become long delayed again.) This time I went and played Clash at Demonhead and Faxanadu, two fairly-involved games. I finished neither, becoming annoyed at some point and turning them off.
Clash at Demonhead is a pretty cool game. For one thing, your dude is pretty mobile and well-animated. I'm pretty sure he's the first video game character with a crawl (moving while crouched by pressing down-forward) and he can also climb certain walls and swim. He has a lot of animation, like a goofy face when he bumps his head, though he has no idle. He is a pretty generic 80's anime guy, looking a bit like the leader of team Voltron. There are times when you talk to a friendly character that appears on the road, complete with face shots and silly dialogue. You can get a jet pack, a diving suit, and a magma suit (for diving in lava) which change your character's art, including in these dialogue bits. So this game was pretty ahead of its time for animation.
Clash at Demonhead has a map screen, similar to Super Mario Bros. 3, except the levels are the lines between the dots. You really have no idea where to go at first, but it's not too hard to figure out. Another unusual thing about this game is that there are no bottomless pits, though there are pits; they just lead to different sections. There is water that will slowly drain your life without a diving suit, and beneath the water are extra areas. Lava kills you instantly unless you're wearing the lava suit, which allows you to dive in the lava like it is water. There is also a jet pack, as mentioned and whose use is obvious, and some boots that give you extra speed and jumping power, plus extra-good controls. All of these things wear down with use, but can be stashed away when not in use. There is a system of special abilities using 'force apples', but only after you save the guru, plus a bunch of stuff to buy besides the suits from a shop. In a stroke of kindliness, the shop allows you to buy a 'shop call' item. You can pick up gold bars and exchange them for money, but it's not really something you need to worry about too much.
It sounds great, right? Well, the controls are a little sloppy. It's like Mega Man, superficially, in how it plays, but a bit floaty and imprecise. Aiming a shot at a flying enemy can be frustrating. The enemies are annoying and annoyingly placed. This game has some of the worst enemy designs I've ever seen. They're just awful. I quit playing because I accidentally found my way to the last boss's area, and getting out was more of a pain than starting over. I didn't feel like starting over or fighting my way out, so I just quit. A good game, but the flaws really hurt it. My rating: 6/10
Faxanadu is a classic of my childhood, unlike Clash at Demonhead, which I rented as a kid, then bought later, used. It is a bit strange, being a side-scrolling action platformer with rpg elements. It has pretty cool music and graphics. The controls are really stiff and your character makes Simon Belmont look agile. If you don't know where you're going, you can end up going in circles a lot, which is never good. It also has some pretty obnoxious enemy placement, with enemies sometimes lurking right off-screen (there is no scrolling) so when you scroll over, they knock you back to the previous screen. Very obnoxious. Aside from enemies that respawn the instant you get them off screen, as in Mega Man, this is perhaps my biggest pet peeve in these types of games.
It has pretty good pacing, once you come to understand how it all works, though there is a spell at the end that you'll probably never see without some serious grinding for cash. The thing that made me quit -- and I knew about this but forgot the location -- is the amulet. The instructions inform you that the amulet raises your attack power. After battling through a lengthy area with no other reward, you find that it actually reduces your attack power. And there's now way to get rid if it. I was already annoyed from backtracking around in the end of the first area, so this just did it for me. I don't know if this was sloppy programming or just the designers being mean, but it's pretty darn irritating. Still, overall, it's a pretty amusing game. My score: 7/10
I have beat both of these games in the past, and could do so again, I'm sure. I just need to watch where I go early on in Clash at Demonhead and ignore that tower with the amulet. Faxanadu just came out on the Wii Virtual Console, too, so it's a pretty cool game if you like games of that type.
Shaun didn't believe me when I told him I beat Clash at Demonhead. Ha! Speaking of whom, he was on Mega Man MUSH this last month. Too bad I missed him. It was sheer blind luck I caught him last time (two years ago?) he was on. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on M3 in two years. Heh!
Clash at Demonhead is a pretty cool game. For one thing, your dude is pretty mobile and well-animated. I'm pretty sure he's the first video game character with a crawl (moving while crouched by pressing down-forward) and he can also climb certain walls and swim. He has a lot of animation, like a goofy face when he bumps his head, though he has no idle. He is a pretty generic 80's anime guy, looking a bit like the leader of team Voltron. There are times when you talk to a friendly character that appears on the road, complete with face shots and silly dialogue. You can get a jet pack, a diving suit, and a magma suit (for diving in lava) which change your character's art, including in these dialogue bits. So this game was pretty ahead of its time for animation.
Clash at Demonhead has a map screen, similar to Super Mario Bros. 3, except the levels are the lines between the dots. You really have no idea where to go at first, but it's not too hard to figure out. Another unusual thing about this game is that there are no bottomless pits, though there are pits; they just lead to different sections. There is water that will slowly drain your life without a diving suit, and beneath the water are extra areas. Lava kills you instantly unless you're wearing the lava suit, which allows you to dive in the lava like it is water. There is also a jet pack, as mentioned and whose use is obvious, and some boots that give you extra speed and jumping power, plus extra-good controls. All of these things wear down with use, but can be stashed away when not in use. There is a system of special abilities using 'force apples', but only after you save the guru, plus a bunch of stuff to buy besides the suits from a shop. In a stroke of kindliness, the shop allows you to buy a 'shop call' item. You can pick up gold bars and exchange them for money, but it's not really something you need to worry about too much.
It sounds great, right? Well, the controls are a little sloppy. It's like Mega Man, superficially, in how it plays, but a bit floaty and imprecise. Aiming a shot at a flying enemy can be frustrating. The enemies are annoying and annoyingly placed. This game has some of the worst enemy designs I've ever seen. They're just awful. I quit playing because I accidentally found my way to the last boss's area, and getting out was more of a pain than starting over. I didn't feel like starting over or fighting my way out, so I just quit. A good game, but the flaws really hurt it. My rating: 6/10
Faxanadu is a classic of my childhood, unlike Clash at Demonhead, which I rented as a kid, then bought later, used. It is a bit strange, being a side-scrolling action platformer with rpg elements. It has pretty cool music and graphics. The controls are really stiff and your character makes Simon Belmont look agile. If you don't know where you're going, you can end up going in circles a lot, which is never good. It also has some pretty obnoxious enemy placement, with enemies sometimes lurking right off-screen (there is no scrolling) so when you scroll over, they knock you back to the previous screen. Very obnoxious. Aside from enemies that respawn the instant you get them off screen, as in Mega Man, this is perhaps my biggest pet peeve in these types of games.
It has pretty good pacing, once you come to understand how it all works, though there is a spell at the end that you'll probably never see without some serious grinding for cash. The thing that made me quit -- and I knew about this but forgot the location -- is the amulet. The instructions inform you that the amulet raises your attack power. After battling through a lengthy area with no other reward, you find that it actually reduces your attack power. And there's now way to get rid if it. I was already annoyed from backtracking around in the end of the first area, so this just did it for me. I don't know if this was sloppy programming or just the designers being mean, but it's pretty darn irritating. Still, overall, it's a pretty amusing game. My score: 7/10
I have beat both of these games in the past, and could do so again, I'm sure. I just need to watch where I go early on in Clash at Demonhead and ignore that tower with the amulet. Faxanadu just came out on the Wii Virtual Console, too, so it's a pretty cool game if you like games of that type.
Shaun didn't believe me when I told him I beat Clash at Demonhead. Ha! Speaking of whom, he was on Mega Man MUSH this last month. Too bad I missed him. It was sheer blind luck I caught him last time (two years ago?) he was on. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on M3 in two years. Heh!