Ristar (GEN) Retro Review

Fresh off the heels of this afternoon's published trailer for Wonder Boy: Ashe in Monster World, why don't we continue the SEGA Genesis themed fun with a look at another platformer from that bygone era? We're looking this evening to the sky, where somewhere Ristar awaits his chance to shine once more. Well, that day has arrived, Ristar--at least on SPC! Here's my retro review of this then-overlooked, but now-rather appreciated SEGA Genesis platformer.

 In search of an unsung, old school platforming hero? Look for the star.

During the 16-bit era, SEGA was a juggernaut in the console space, and a part of what made the console manufacturer and publisher so strong was its grand collection of characters and franchises that helped put the Genesis toe-to-toe with the Super Nintendo. However, for every Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage that turned into a lucrative series, there were multiple games that never quite enjoyed success, much more a sequel. Ristar is one of these. While SEGA's blue hedgehog still sees games to this day, the galactic hero Ristar was left in the 16-bit era, save for appearances in various Genesis greatest hits game collections and as the starter of each race in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, of course.

Ristar arrived on the SEGA Genesis late in the console's life. In actuality, most gamers of the era were eager to move beyond the 16-bit landscape and towards the fresh tech that Nintendo and SEGA, as well as then-newcomer Sony were set to release. Thus, it's no wonder that Ristar never really got a fair shot at success as a series.

The story of Ristar has Kaiser Greedy, an intergalactic tyrant, using mind control to force each elder of the galaxy's planets to abide by his command. In the process--and if that wasn't enough--the star hero of legend, has been captured by Greedy. Young starling Ristar has an adventure ahead of him, but not just to rescue the elders, but his father--the legendary hero--as well! 

Ristar can climb...

Being a late-gen title on the SEGA Genesis, Ristar is one of the system's most impressive looking games. The pallet is rich and vibrant, overflowing with delightful colors. This is rather astonishing, considering how limited the Genesis hardware was at displaying lots of colors at once, so you can bet I appreciate the hardware voodoo that Sonic Team voo-did. Furthermore, the amount of little, noticeable details and effects in the myriad multilayered environments are truly amazing to look upon, whether they be scrolling clouds in the background or the way the water splashes and bubbles as Ristar enters and exits its surface. Ristar is just a gorgeous game, and fortunately, it plays just as well as it looks.

Whereas Sonic bounces on--in typical platforming fashion--and rolls into enemies to defeat them, Ristar utilizes his arms, able to stretch out in eight different directions a short distance, grab enemies, and then slam into them with the whole of his body to defeat them. Of course, to keep the challenge up, not all enemies easily just stand there waiting to be body-slammed into. Most scurry and scamper about, and many are only vulnerable in specific locations. Additionally, some will simply greet Ristar with a painful star-full of spikes when an errant and careless attempt at a grab occurs. Ristar can also catch and throw certain objects and projectiles as well.

Ristar can grab on to and then catapult into enemies...

Ristar's arms aren't just for offense. No, they're also used to get around the levels--rather ingeniously, if I might add. Stretching his upper extremities to pull himself past poles--from one side to the other, to hang onto monkey bars, latch onto ledges, and to swing upon special "Star Handles" to blast off and reach new heights are just some of the tricks in Ristar's repertoire. Early levels and worlds grant you leniency in missing grabs to pull yourself to safety over perilous spike-filled gaps and chasms, but later levels demand an almost perfect amount of precision as you chain grabs together to make progress. One midgame level has you in a maze of bouncing drums that propel our protagonist high into the air. Some of these drums bounce Ristar directly into a ceiling full of spikes--that is, unless you as the player successfully grab your way to safety via grabbing a pole, before meeting a painful fate.

Ristar can run...

Speaking of painful, Ristar is no certainly cakewalk. While the game can be short, it stars--excuse me--stars out breezy enough, but not too long into the game the difficulty picks up considerably. The aforementioned need to be on top of chaining grabs together is there, but so are the different enemies and bosses to learn patterns from, evading the tricks, traps and hazards that litter each level, and making your way to the goal "Star Handle" are but some of the trials needing to be overcome. Speaking of those specific handles, in each of the platforming-based levels, there is a secret "Star Handle" that leads to a bonus area. Complete the bonus area to acquire a special item. Back at release, and obviously before the Internet (but us olden gamers still had Tips & Tricks Magazine!), these special items would reveal three passwords at the end of the game, revealing everything from a level select, to a boss rush, to an even higher difficulty.

Ristar can... sit on his butt and enjoy the scenery?
(Okay, I don't blame you. The environments ARE really nice!)

Also, unlike Sonic Team's namesake, Ristar is a much slower paced adventure than what the blue blur's original offers delivered. It's a more methodical game, focusing less on skillful twitch running, jumping and speed, and more on careful precision platforming, particularly with Ristar's stretchable arms. 

There are six planets that our protagonist explores on his way to Castle Greedy, where our mind-bending boss awaits. Each planet is set with a different theme and is composed of two platforming levels and boss fight. The opening world, Planet Flora is full of lush vegetation, fauna and flora, perfect for a pleasant welcome into the mechanics of the game. Meanwhile, worlds like Planet Scorch offer less than welcoming fires, deadly walls of flames, and traps awaiting Ristar to unknowingly get caught and subsequently burned inside. Then, the music-themed Planet Sonata features birds that block Ristar's progress, but delivering metronomes to these feathered friends through carrying the time-keeping devices to them will allow them to fly away unfettered. By Planet Freon, the frozen planet, Ristar will be slipping and sliding around, needing to time his grabs or else slide into hazards that will no doubt deliver a star-ache. 

The boss fights are yet another great part to the whole that is Ristar.

What doesn't deliver a star-ache, or a headache for us humans, is Ristar as an overall game. Sonic Team may have left poor Ristar in the blue blur's dust, but there's no denying that the game successfully differentiates itself from the developer's other, more popular Genesis works. The fact that Ristar still plays as well today as it did over 25 years ago is a testament to Sonic Team for making one of the better, more innovative and creative platformers of the 16-bit era. It may be a short game, but it's also certainly a sweet one. With a wonderfully clever grab mechanic that pours over into all facets of the game from offense to traversal, Ristar remains a very worthy play that any platformer fan out there.

[SPC Says: B+]

Sonic 3D Blast (GEN, SAT, PC) Retro Review

As we approach Christmas, the holiday season, and the SuperPhillip Central Best of 2020 Awards (beginning this Sunday night), let's go back in time for a Super Sonic 3D Blast from the past! It's retro review time, and this time we're checking out Sonic 3D Blast! Here is the SPC review.

A 3D blast from the past

If you're versed at all, whether well or not, with gaming, you're probably aware of the nineties where then-console titan Sega was in a retail and marketing war with Nintendo. The two butted heads considerably throughout the decade. It's no wonder why the two publishers took inspiration from each other, and in many ways, gaming fans of that era were the real winners in the end. 

Following the massive success of the Super Nintendo and Rareware's pre-rendered 3D modeled platformer Donkey Kong Country, Sega, too, didn't want to be the left in the digital dust. They partnered with a British studio, Traveller's Tales, now most known for their mega-hit literal blockbuster LEGO games, to create a unique platformer starring their main mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. That game would be known by the world as Sonic 3D Blast.

Sonic 3D Blast served as a slower paced platformer compared to past console entries, but by no means was that a foreign concept to the Blue Blur. On the Game Gear he starred in Sonic Labyrinth, which was as slow as it was dull (in my opinion, at least, but that's a review for another day). In fact, alongside Nintendo and Rare's Donkey Kong Country, Sega and Traveler's Tales were inspired by Sonic Labyrinth in the design of Sonic 3D Blast. 

Whereas Sonic Labyrinth was clunky and rather boring, Sonic 3D Blast brings with it a higher level of energy. Don't get me wrong--it's still a leisurely romp with a slow, methodical pace, but not to the point of tedium like Labyrinth was. Sonic 3D Blast, like Sonic Labyrinth, features an isometric camera and 3D worlds, though these are much more detailed and interesting than Labyrinth. 

Sonic's mission, if you choose to accept it: recover Flickies from defeated Badniks and deposit them in the goal ring.

The goal of most acts in Sonic 3D Blast is to defeat five enemies, which Dr. Robotnik has trapped colorful bird creatures known as Flickies inside. Beating the badniks results in freeing the Flicky stuck inside, and once grabbed by Sonic, thus circles around him. When Sonic takes damage or a Flicky is in range of a hazard, the Flickies surrounding Sonic scurry away, much like Sonic's rings when the hedgehog gets hit. Flickies will then bounce around near the location Sonic was damaged, and our prideful protagonist will need to recover them. This is easier said than done, as different Flicky types have different movement patterns. Some scurry about on the ground while others bounce back and forth. When you're damaged on a wide area of hazards, like a lava or spike pit, it's quite possible to pick up Flickies lost only to get hit again, thus causing the Flickies to run away once more. It's a cycle of annoyance that can quickly irritate.

Whoa! Watch out for those spikes, Sonic!

Regardless, after nabbing five Flickies, Sonic's objective is to find a floating horizontal gold ring upon which he can hang off of while depositing the Flickies inside. This either opens up a new portion of level or sees the act being completed. Acts generally have at least two segments where you need to recover and deposit five Flickies after defeating five enemies. To lessen the burden of losing Flickies upon taking damage, Sonic can deposit his newfound feathered friends early, and then go back to find the others still around the level, though this will result in a lesser Flicky point bonus at the end of the level. Still, I will take less points if that means less frustration from having to run around like a Flicky with its head cut off to recover both lost rings and lost Flickies from getting hit.

Just like the Paul Simon song, Sonic's slip-slidin' away.
(Yes, I'm old, so this musical reference might go over many of SPC's younger readers' heads.)

With its isometric view, Sonic 3D Blast can be a bit of a challenge to properly line up leaps on platforms (this is a big issue in zones like Rusty Ruin and Panic Puppet), as well as hits on foes. This is especially so with every Robotnik encounter during every zone's third act. These battles showcase how poor hit detection and how much of an enemy the camera perspective can truly become. With Dr. Robotnik, so many parts of his machinery can damage you, and the zone to attack him is seemingly so small. It results in a lot of rings lost, and perhaps lives, too, as you bang your head against the figurative wall to battle and beat his mechanical monstrosities and robotic creations. 

If there's one positive about Dr. Robotnik, it's that he is surely persistent!

As always, collecting rings is Sonic's lifeline and serves as his health bar. As long as he has one ring in his collection when taking damage, he'll be alright. Rings disappear quite quickly upon taking damage, as they bounce away and Sonic gets into a mad dash to collect them again. So it makes boss battles where there are limited quantities of rings available to Sonic all the more challenging, as previously mentioned, getting hit in these encounters is far too common and possible.

However, rings aren't only used for Sonic's health and wellbeing--they're also used to enter special stages to acquire Chaos Emeralds. Hidden and not-so-hidden in each playable act are Knuckles and Tails, and if you have at least 50 rings, you can enter the special stage. Depending on the version, you either run along a bridge, collecting rings while dodging mines (Sega Genesis), or in the more interesting and challenging special stage version on PC and Sega Saturn, you run along a halfpipe, avoiding mines while also collecting rings, Sonic 2-style. Upon collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds and beating the main game, you unlock the final level, a boss rush of sorts against Robotnik's most menacing mechanical creation. If you successfully complete that, you earn a level select, including all special stages to replay at your leisure.

Dodge spiked balls while nabbing rings to satisfy the ring thresholds of each special stage.

Sonic 3D Blast is rather good looking on the Genesis, which the screenshots of this review come from, but on the PC and Sega Saturn, it's of course even better. There's more detail in environments, there's unique animations and cutscenes, such as Knuckles or Tails personally delivering Sonic to each special stage location and dropping him in, and it's just overall a nicer presentation package. This goes into the music, too. While the Genesis version has remarkably catchy tunes, for me they're vastly outrivaled by Richard Jacques' marvelous compositions that deliver delightfully impressive themes. Upbeat when appropriate and epic and sensational when needed. 

Uh... you might want to move out of the way, Sonic.

If you're looking for a lengthy game, you won't find it with Sonic 3D Blast. It's a rather breezy adventure, clocking in at around 3-4 hours, if you're skilled enough and don't encounter too many annoyances from spotty hit detection from boss battles or confusing camera angles due to the less than adequate perspective. Still, there is plenty of fun to be had, even if Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't reach as high of speeds as most, even the Blue Blur himself, are accustomed to. Released on plenty of platforms and in many collections, Sonic 3D Blast isn't too difficult to track down, and if you can play it, I encourage you to do so and experience this unique Sonic adventure.

[SPC Says: C+]

Beyond Oasis (GEN) Retro Review

We move on from one Zelda-like game to another, though this one is much, much older and far, far less recent. It's the Ancient-developed, Sega-published Beyond Oasis, and that means it's Retro Review time, everyone! Here is the SPC review of Beyond Oasis for the Sega Genesis.

A game whose quality is no mirage

If you were a child of the early 1990s who enjoyed video games, you most likely were either in the Sega camp or the Nintendo camp. While most are well aware of the nasty console wars of the era, ironically, the two consoles, the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo, complemented each other well. Generally, each console marveled in genres and games that the other didn't, or at least didn't do as well. While the Super Nintendo arguably was more proficient with platformers and RPGs, the case could easily be made that the Sega Genesis did better with fighters and sports games. Either way, it was worth owning both consoles, but as any '90s kid can tell you (including me), owning both consoles wasn't usually in the cards.

So, while the Super Nintendo had myriad RPGs and action-adventure games under its crown, the Genesis did not really have as many to boast about. Yes, there was the occasional Phantasy Star, but other than that, not much else. With The Legend of Zelda and its then-recent mega hit A Link to the Past being the new hotness, Sega saw a need to come up with its own answer to Nintendo's action-adventure title. Sega's answer was none other than Beyond Oasis, a game not too unlike Zelda. Launching near the end of 1994, Beyond Oasis gave Genesis owners Sega's own take on the now all-too-familiar formula. 

The beginning plot of Beyond Oasis reveals itself in a gorgeous partially animated opening scene. In the distant past, two warriors, one wielding a gold armlet while the other wore a silver armlet, battled one another in a war for the ages. This war brought chaos and destruction across the land of Oasis until victory was achieved. The armlets mysteriously vanished after the fact. That is until one day, on an expedition on an island, Prince Ali (not to be confused with a more famous, Disney-oriented Prince Ali) uncovers a gold armlet buried in the sand. Now, Prince Ali must use the gold armlet to put a stop to a new evil that has entered the picture--one wielding the silver armlet once more to cause havoc and ultimately rule the land of Oasis and the world itself.

Immediately Beyond Oasis dazzles with its opening scene.

Beyond Oasis no doubt gives off heavy Zelda vibes (you'll have to pardon me if I constantly compare and contrast the two games/series), and that's for the simple reason that it pretty much is a Zelda game with some Secret of Mana stylings thrown into the mix for good measure. You play in a top-down perspective, travel across an overworld, venture inside dungeons, solve puzzles, battle bosses, rinse and repeat. It's all rather enjoyable.

Combat in Beyond Oasis sees Prince Ali initiate a series of thrusts and strikes with his starting weapon, a dagger. However, you routinely come across new weapons to add to your arsenal, but funnily enough, not unlike a certain recent Zelda game, these weapons have a finite number of uses before they deteriorate and break. Different weapons have different attack power and number of times they can be used before going bye-bye. There are close-range weapons like daggers and swords, but also weapons like crossbows and bombs that work well at having Prince Ali keeps his distance from more dangerous enemies while delivering a decent dose of damage.

When you have a prized artifact like the Gold Armlet on you,
bad guys are bound to notice and take an invested interest in you!

Prince Ali has plenty of oomph behind his attacks, even able to perform multiple hits one right after another in an almost beat-em-up-like combo. The impact of each attack is nice enough, but at the same time, combat feels a bit off in the sense that it can hard to line up attacks in general. Additionally, Prince Ali can crouch to attack low-lying enemies, which also suffers from an inability to routinely line up and attack your intended target. Make no mistake, though, when Beyond Oasis's combat works, it's fun, but when it doesn't, I just prefer to use a long-ranged weapon or else see myself lose precious health from stumbling around to hit a foe.

Here's a dagger in your eye!

The aforementioned gold armlet that Prince Ali wears isn't just a plot device; it's also used to acquire and use special magic that he can use to summon one of four elemental Spirits that he gains through his adventure. These Spirits are summoned by throwing a magical sphere at various elemental objects, such as chucking a sphere at a campfire to spawn Efreet, the Fire Spirit, or throwing a sphere at a body of water to summon Dytto, the Water Spirit. Summoned Spirits stay on screen as long as Prince Ali's magic meter has some juice in it. Each Spirit has three moves it can use, some depleting his magic more than others. Dytto is especially useful in the early game because that Spirit has a healing ability. This is great when Ali runs out of consumable food to otherwise heal himself.

Spirit Efreet is on fire, both in a literal sense and a butt-kicking sense.

Spirits are used not just for combat but as the main means to solve puzzles. There's of course your simple puzzle solutions, such as using the Water Spirit to douse a wall of fire that impedes your progress, but there eventually becomes more challenging brain busters to decipher and unravel. The dungeons hold the most puzzles in the game, but there are plenty of overworld puzzles to solve as well.

Unlike A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo, Beyond Oasis's overworld and map are not square-based. Instead, they're more like an Ys game with screens/areas/rooms of varying sizes and shapes. This can make it difficult to detect what parts of the screen can be exited from, particularly in outdoor areas. Multiple times I'd comb the edge of the screen, thinking I'd be able to pass through to the next screen, only to be denied. 

Furthermore, regarding traversal of the world in Beyond Oasis, I found this rather tedious at times. Backtracking, especially if you want to return to past areas to collect missed goodies like treasures such as special orbs and rare weapons, is quite hard to do. You don't really have any means to fast travel in Oasis, making it a pain in the butt to get around, unfortunately. A lot of my extra play time with Beyond Oasis came from extensive and rather dull doubling back to areas I had already been in just to reach where I wanted to finally be. 

You know the saying, "The bigger they are, the harder Prince Ali falls!"

Beyond Oasis looks exceptionally nice visually. The large sprites are detailed and have nice animations to them. The environments are colorful and even more detailed than the already impressive sprite-work. The music is less of a stellar note, and that might be blasphemy considering the great Yuzo Koshiro was the composer behind Beyond Oasis's soundtrack. However, it's more the soundfont used than anything else with some of the brass-heavy themes--which Beyond Oasis is full of--sounding like boisterous flatulence than anything heroic and enjoyable to listen to. (Sorry, not sorry.) 

Most weapons other than Prince Ali's initial dagger and late-game weapons
have a set durability to them and will break after a limited amount of uses.

As a Zelda-like mixed with some Secret of Mana goodness, Beyond Oasis does its job well enough to be worthy enough of being within earshot of the Zelda series. By no means is this Ancient-developed, Sega-published action-adventure one that surpasses something like A Link to the Past due to its unrefined, clumsy combat and extensive and unenjoyable backtracking, but Beyond Oasis does manage to bring enough to the table to make it a recommended game to play. From the gorgeous visuals to the clever use of Spirits for battles and puzzles, Beyond Oasis may not be timeless, but it is quite the epic adventure regardless.

[SPC Says: B-]

Decap Attack (GEN) Retro Review

Being October and all, I think it'd be fun to focus on some Halloween-themed games here and there throughout the month. Not only that, but we have our first Retro Review in quite a while, too. It's SEGA's Decap Attack, a game with an interesting story in how it came to be compared to what it originally was. Here's SuperPhillip Central's review.

A macabre platformer that doesn't push that far a-head of its contemporaries

How do you take a game that is heavily tied to a Japanese anime and rework it for Western audiences? Well, look at SEGA's Decap Attack for the answer. The original Magical Hat's Turbo Flight! Adventure launched in Japan in 1990 and was based on the anime series Magical Hat. In order to bring the game to the west, a wholly unique, slightly macabre theme was given to the game. While the gameplay remained relatively unchanged, everything from the story, to the visuals, to the levels themselves were altered to fit the new approach designed specifically for the Western Genesis and Mega Drive audiences. The end result is a game that nails the fundamentals and makes for a spooky good time.

Decap Attack stars Chuck D. Head, a mummy who is tasked by his creator Dr. Frank N. Stein to stop the evil demon Max D. Cap. (Have enough play-on words with the names yet?) The latter has brought his underworld monster minions topside to conquer the world, as well as split up an island reminiscent of a skeleton into seven pieces. It's up to Chuck D. Head to travel to each island, beat the boss of each, bring the skeletal series of islands back together, and beat down Max D. Cap back into the underworld where he belongs. 

There are 21 levels in Decap Attack, spread out among seven worlds. Each level sees our mummified hero Chuck run and leap his way through enemy and hazard-filled areas (with lava pits being instant death to our bandage-covered friend) as he finds his way to the goal. Some levels are standard left to right affairs, but other times they take you right to left, or straight up vertical, whether going upwards or downwards. 

Chuck doesn't really have a good head on his shoulders; 
It's merely a powerup that goes away as soon as he takes damage!

Levels aren't too lengthy in the game, but exploration is encouraged. Breakable statue idols are scattered throughout levels, hiding all sorts of goods (and the occasional bad thing like an enemy) inside. Such goods include health, potions that when used bestow temporary effects to Chuck, and coins, which are used at the end of each world to participate in a bonus game for extra lives and items alike. 

One of the things I don't particularly care for in Decap Attack is that when you die, the stone idols that you break don't reset. This means their contents don't reset either, making it so if you pillaged all of the health pickups in a level and die, you have to play through the level from the beginning with no means to heal yourself. There are no checkpoints in levels either, and while I said levels aren't lengthy, they are rather difficult with pesky enemies thwarting your progress every step of the way.

Occasionally, Chuck will have to get his bandages wet and do some swimming.

The third level of each island concludes with a boss battle of some sort. These have Chuck taking on foes of all shapes and sizes. He'll encounter a baby frog-spewing bullfrog, a mischievous mole, and an incensed yeti, to name but a few. Each boss's pattern is simple enough to learn and far from complicated, but as they take more damage (and their color and complexion literally changes to show how close they are to their demise), battles with them become more dangerous. 

Mo' levels completed, "mole" problems.

It's not just enough to beat the boss of an island and get the third level's goal. No, that's not good enough in Decap Attack to clear an island completely. You're forced to collect a hidden, special artifact found somewhere in that level. If you failed to pick it up and reach the goal, you're told to go back through the level to find it. Each is hidden in a stone idol statue, and many are in out-of-the-way locations. Thankfully, if you do die after beating a boss as you return through the level to find the necessary artifact to help restore the skeletal isles to their former glory, you need not refight the boss. 

Which is great, because Decap Attack is already a hard game. It by no means reaches the level of something like Contra or something hard because of poor design like various "NES Hard" games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but it will give you a run for your mummy--er--that is to say, a run for your money.

Here's looking at you--up close and personal!

Fortunately, Chuck has a helpful assortment of moves to tackle levels and bosses. For offense, he can jump on normal enemies multiple times to bury them into the ground, utterly defeating them. He can also launch his face forward to attack enemies directly in front of his gaze. You can't just keep Chuck's face out, though, and there's a delay in it retracting back in. Thus, there's some tricky timing to be found in properly attacking foes without taking damage to Chuck himself. There is a powerup that Chuck can discover in levels that places a skeleton head on top of his body that serves a function similar to a boomerang. When launched, it shoots forward and regardless of where it's thrown or where it lands, it will return to Chuck. The only caveat is that once Chuck takes damage, this highly beneficial boost to his attack gets taken away.

Meanwhile, platforming in Decap Attack is responsive, and while it's not necessarily the tightest around, making precision jumps on platforms is helped by Chuck's ability to slow his descent. This is performed by repeatedly pressing the jump button upon Chuck falling. It's a heaven sent maneuver to have due to the fact that without it, Decap Attack would be a much harder--and much more frustrating--game. 

The required platforming in Decap Attack isn't as punishing as it might have been
without Chuck's ability to slow his fall.

Decap Attack is a bit of a looker running on the SEGA Genesis. Environments are pronounced and look suitably dreary for the type of world the game plays out in, but no doubt well detailed. That said, one of the worlds was an assault on the eyes with the painful combination of hot reds and oranges. Regardless of that lone midgame world, when it concerns the character sprites, they look absolutely fantastic. The amount of detail is great on Chuck himself, and the bigger boss sprites are tremendous to gaze upon. Just don't get totally preoccupied staring at them, or you might end up having Chuck die on you! Musically, there are some catchy songs using the Genesis' signature soundfont, though I'll always argue that said soundfont and soundchip does get grating after a while.

It was a thrill (in more ways than one) returning to the macabre world of Decap Attack and once more taking control of Chuck D. Head in his adventure to save the world, defeat Max D. Cap and yes, get the surprise ending of him becoming human as reward for his good deeds. While there isn't too much here that pushes the platforming genre forward--and it would otherwise be lost in a sea of similar platformers without its unique atmosphere and vibe--Decap Attack remains a solid 2D platformer right down to its bones. 

[SPC Says: B-]