Long story short, I got my hands on some other ROMs that looked interesting, so I'm talking about them today, despite them not following alphabetically from the previous week. Deal with it, suckaaaaas!
The Seventh Saga
This game reminds me why context-sensitive buttons are so wonderful. It's hard to talk to someone when they keep moving before you can select the "talk" option. In addition, it's possible to get wiped in the first encounter out from the starting city, which is an RPG tradition which started with Dragon Warrior and thankfully has mostly died out. The graphics in this are pretty good and the sound is okay but…I just don't like this. It's an Enix RPG, but it lacks the charm of the Final Fantasys. It's just…a thing. Competent. Average. Okay. Meh.
The Adventures of Tintin:
The Prisoners of the Sun
Tintin, I want you to think long and hard about the fact that you're taking damage from pedestrians. That's some Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shit right there. Cut it out. It's naughty. I'm going to tell the Angry Video Game Nerd on you. Seriously, though. I love Tintin, and this game is irredeemably bad. Don’t.
Barkley: Shut up and Jam
So as far as I can tell, my input has absolutely no effect on what happens on screen. I'm serious. The AI players can sink dunks from half-court, whereas I can't even manage a 2-pointer. Also, blatant fouls are ignored (I get that this is "street" basketball rules but come on). And, yeah. The graphics and sound are…the sound is bad. Very bad. The graphics aren't terrible. Sound…again. Very bad. Very. It's just…the lamest soundtrack ever, with a few vaguely-basketbally noises dubbed over it. Awf.
Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
So the best part of the game is the animations of the battletoads. It's the NES Battletoads attacks, brought to 16-bit. Other than that, it's…meh at best. The combat is pretty boring, the attacks are…repetitive, the environmental hazards are cheap, yea... Me no likey.
Clayfighter
Huh. This is…this is a thing. I'm awful at fighting games. Particularly this sort of fighting game. So I can't really comment on the controls/combat. But the art style, music, characters, humor… That's all amazing. So I like this.
