- 10,170
- 1,439
I remember having a lot of fun with The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang way back when so I decided to play through it again. Overall it doesn't hold up as well as I remember but it does do some things very well.
The idea behind the mechanics is great. You've got your melee spin attack, your long-range hat toss and your jump. You've got to make use of all three to make effective progress, and when you hit your groove it's actually quite fun. However, there's definitely a bit of a learning curve and, especially at the beginning, it can be tricky to deal with aggressive enemies. You start out doing pathetic damage while enemies can drain your life bar pretty quickly. This is countered with the exp/level up system, where you get an additional life bar and added attack power with every level you gain. Unfortunately, that means if you're having trouble in an area you're better off just grinding the same screens over and over until you gain a level or two, which definitely hurts the flow of the game. It is satisfying when you can lay waste to enemies that once gave you a hard time, though. The boss battles tend to get a bit drawn out, especially since most bosses have a habit of refilling their life and getting a speed boost once you beat them the first time.
You can also buy cards that perform a variety of effects in battle, but except for the life-refilling one they're mostly useless. Your money is better spent on hat upgrades, and once you get the best hat you'll find yourself spending money on cards you don't need just to prevent your money from maxing out at 999G. Oddly, the last stage has no shop yet includes enemies that drop lots of money, so you're likely to beat the game with 999G you'll never be able to use anyway.
I love the graphic style, which is cutesy and features a lot of great sprite work (the python bunnies are a personal favorite, see vid at 1:18:45). Having said that, the graphics themselves are a bit simplistic looking and lack detail. There could definitely be more variety in the environment tilesets and, heck, in the environments themselves. The dialog text boxes use an annoying dithering effect instead of a transparent color which is kind of annoying, and there's no way to speed up the text display speed either. The music, like the graphics, is charming but not as polished or impressive as a lot of other SNES games.
The game itself is also really short. There are only a handful of stages and, if it wasn't for the grinding and the restarting from a save point when you die (which could lead to losing chunks of progress), you'd be able to beat the game really quickly. Still, once you're sufficiently powered up it is pretty fun to play. Despite its flaws, it does enough right that I kept wanting to continue playing. There are a few details that help it stand out. Your life bar is represented by tomatoes, which are also your life-replenishing item (because... you're a vampire?), while enemy life bars are represented by garlic (you also fight several variations of garlic-based enemies). Enemies have levels just like you do, which helps you plan how much to level up (NPCs will sometimes tell you what level a boss is before you reach him). There's also one part early on where you get launched high into the sky (see vid at 8 minute mark). While you soar you hear a tense jingle which slows down and introduces a drum roll before smoothly segueing into the BG theme as you land on a cliff. I don't know why, but I love that shit. This game is just begging for a modern sequel, one that refines the control, balances the mechanics and polishes up the presentation. It isn't quite the gem I remember, but it's a solid and entertaining (if brief) action-RPG romp.
The idea behind the mechanics is great. You've got your melee spin attack, your long-range hat toss and your jump. You've got to make use of all three to make effective progress, and when you hit your groove it's actually quite fun. However, there's definitely a bit of a learning curve and, especially at the beginning, it can be tricky to deal with aggressive enemies. You start out doing pathetic damage while enemies can drain your life bar pretty quickly. This is countered with the exp/level up system, where you get an additional life bar and added attack power with every level you gain. Unfortunately, that means if you're having trouble in an area you're better off just grinding the same screens over and over until you gain a level or two, which definitely hurts the flow of the game. It is satisfying when you can lay waste to enemies that once gave you a hard time, though. The boss battles tend to get a bit drawn out, especially since most bosses have a habit of refilling their life and getting a speed boost once you beat them the first time.
You can also buy cards that perform a variety of effects in battle, but except for the life-refilling one they're mostly useless. Your money is better spent on hat upgrades, and once you get the best hat you'll find yourself spending money on cards you don't need just to prevent your money from maxing out at 999G. Oddly, the last stage has no shop yet includes enemies that drop lots of money, so you're likely to beat the game with 999G you'll never be able to use anyway.
I love the graphic style, which is cutesy and features a lot of great sprite work (the python bunnies are a personal favorite, see vid at 1:18:45). Having said that, the graphics themselves are a bit simplistic looking and lack detail. There could definitely be more variety in the environment tilesets and, heck, in the environments themselves. The dialog text boxes use an annoying dithering effect instead of a transparent color which is kind of annoying, and there's no way to speed up the text display speed either. The music, like the graphics, is charming but not as polished or impressive as a lot of other SNES games.
The game itself is also really short. There are only a handful of stages and, if it wasn't for the grinding and the restarting from a save point when you die (which could lead to losing chunks of progress), you'd be able to beat the game really quickly. Still, once you're sufficiently powered up it is pretty fun to play. Despite its flaws, it does enough right that I kept wanting to continue playing. There are a few details that help it stand out. Your life bar is represented by tomatoes, which are also your life-replenishing item (because... you're a vampire?), while enemy life bars are represented by garlic (you also fight several variations of garlic-based enemies). Enemies have levels just like you do, which helps you plan how much to level up (NPCs will sometimes tell you what level a boss is before you reach him). There's also one part early on where you get launched high into the sky (see vid at 8 minute mark). While you soar you hear a tense jingle which slows down and introduces a drum roll before smoothly segueing into the BG theme as you land on a cliff. I don't know why, but I love that shit. This game is just begging for a modern sequel, one that refines the control, balances the mechanics and polishes up the presentation. It isn't quite the gem I remember, but it's a solid and entertaining (if brief) action-RPG romp.