Short reviews of all games I have for a system: Saturn

[j_factor]

On the Genesis, Sega only put save functions in RPGs, sports games, Sonic 3, and that is pretty much it.
(snip)
for 1990 to 1995, the only Sega platfomers with saving are Sonic 3, Knuckles Chaotix, Bug! (though it has a continue limit), and the password system in Tails' Adventure.

While I agree with you that Sonic 3D Blast should have had saving, you're off base here. Sonic CD saves to system memory, Toejam & Earl 2 has passwords, Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin has passwords, Tempo has passwords, Prince of Persia CD (which Sega published) saves to system memory, Wild Woody (lol) saves to system memory, World of Illusion has passwords, Asterix and the Great Rescue has passwords, Jurassic Park has passwords, etc.

In additional response to the first sentence, other first-party Genesis games with save functions, that aren't RPG or sports or Sonic 3, include Toejam & Earl, Herzog Zwei, both Ecco games, The Lost World, etc.

Sega did make a lot of games that lacked saving, but that's primarily because Sega made a lot of games that don't really call for it. A game like Comix Zone not only doesn't need saving, it wouldn't even work well with a save function. Other than Sonic 3D, the only game that was really sorely lacking it that I can think of was Kid Chameleon.

But really, it's NOT a rare exception. Not at all. Other Sega platformers that have no saving released in 1996 include Marsupilami, Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, Vectorman 2, Spider-Man: Web of Fire,Sonic Blast (GG), and X-Men: Mojo World (GG), as well as Sonic 3D Blast (SAT/GEN); only NiGHTS and Bug Too! actually let you save.

You forgot Mr. Bones. Both of those Game Gear games are about 30 minutes long, and Web of Fire was a rush release.

In 1997 Sega's only platformer was the no-saving but super-ultra-short GG The Lost World game

Sonic Jam says hi. It may be a compilation, but the 3D portion was new, and Jam has saving for both that portion and each individual game.

[A Black Falcon]

I agree but Sega's non-saving platformers weren't several hours long.

The Game Gear ones seem to be usually 30-45 minutes long, but a lot of those Genesis games are going to take a LOT more than two hours the first time through, because thanks to the limited lives and continues it will take some time to get good enough to actually finish them. And I'd absolutely say that the amount of time you spend on failed attempts to beat the game counts towards your completion time...

I understand the convenience factor. One of the best things about modern gaming (and emulating old stuff) is being able to stop and resume if you don't have a lot of time in a row to play. I just think it's a little unfair to apply that idea to something like Genesis Ristar or Sonic Chaos when it was common practice during that time period for games of those lengths to be "one sitting" experiences (as opposed to games the length of DKC or SMW).

Yeah, one of the best things about the GG Ristar game is that it actually has passwords! So awesome, versus the Genesis game. And the game's actually good, too, unlike so many GG platformers. (yeah, the GG's games do not exactly impress me most of the time...)

It's really, really annoying to have to start games over again and again, either because of limited continues, or because the designers were jerks and put in infinite continues with no saving, so you have to play the whole thing in one sitting. And it's not like most of them have warp zones like Marios 1-3, either.

And I do think that it's completely fair to complain about this. Why do you think that I've emphasized the Nintendo aspect? That's because those games are contemporaries of these. Nintendo put saving, on-cart battery save, in every single platformer they developed for the SNES. Ones they published from third parties generally at least have passwords. Sega, we all know what they did. Sure, it may have been a common practice, but it wasn't a good one, not for anything over like half an hour long! Sure, you are right that most games weren't SMW or DKC length, but still, plenty were long enough, or hard enough, that saving would have been great.

And really, I think that that's a key part of why Sega did this -- not because they didn't want to spend the extra money (passwords cost nothing), but because they were still stuck on the idea of making their games arcade-hard, long after Nintendo had left the idea behind. That had some good effects, but also some bad ones, and a serious lack of save systems in most of their games into the mid '90s is one of the worst of them.

Of course, it WAS an improvement over '80s Sega, where most of their '80s SMS games not only have no saving but also have no continues, so one game over and you start the whole thing over from scratch (and don't expect cheats either!), but still they lagged far behind Nintendo.

While I agree with you that Sonic 3D Blast should have had saving, you're off base here. Sonic CD saves to system memory, Toejam & Earl 2 has passwords, Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin has passwords, Tempo has passwords, Prince of Persia CD (which Sega published) saves to system memory, Wild Woody (lol) saves to system memory, World of Illusion has passwords, Asterix and the Great Rescue has passwords, Jurassic Park has passwords, etc.

I know that Wild Woody, Sonic CD, and Tempo save; referred to that in the post in my "how many 1995 platformers save each way" list there. As for the rest of those, PoP CD aside I admit that I did forget that those other five games have password save systems; I didn't go look up saving just now for years other than '95 and '96, and while I own three of those (don't have JP or Toejam & Earl 2), I haven't played them recently... still though, even if as I said I can understand why they did not put saving in the cheap licensed games, Tempo really should have had on-cart saving and not passwords, and Ristar should have had on-cart saving too, like Sonic 3 (or even passwords, but it should have had better!). And that "etc" of yours... I know that there are some others with password save, but a majority of the rest don't save at all.

And I think this is the right time to complain again about how ludicrous it is that the only GG Sonic platformer with saving saves ... via 16-character passwords. What the heck. On the Game Gear, Sega's "only RPGs, strategy games, and sports games get batteries" was a rule that they followed to the letter, with no exceptions I know of at least in the US library. Even considering how short those games are, that's inexcusable in a system with battery life that poor.

In additional response to the first sentence, other first-party Genesis games with save functions, that aren't RPG or sports or Sonic 3, include Toejam & Earl, Herzog Zwei, both Ecco games, The Lost World, etc.

Yeah, it's great that the Ecco games and The Lost World have password save, I agree. But those were major releases; an equivalent Nintendo release would have had a battery. Still, it's a lot better than nothing, for sure. Of course, other games that should have saving, like The Ooze, don't. (It's a good game, but that game's way too hard to have only 3 lives and limited continues and no saving!)

And why in the world don't the Sega CD versions of the Ecco games support saving to the system, and instead still make your write down the passwords? Even Ecco 2 CD, which adds so much new stuff, does that. It's bizarre. And on that note, why do none of the SCD shmup, rail shooter, etc. games support saving your high scores to the system? On Turbo CD some of the shmups do support high-score save, but on the Sega CD, not one single game has the feature. It's strange.

Sega did make a lot of games that lacked saving, but that's primarily because Sega made a lot of games that don't really call for it. A game like Comix Zone not only doesn't need saving, it wouldn't even work well with a save function. Other than Sonic 3D, the only game that was really sorely lacking it that I can think of was Kid Chameleon.

There are a whole lot more Genesis/GG/Saturn games from Sega than that that would have benefitted from some kind of save system. I won't list everything, but how about Ristar, Astal, Aladdin, Dynamite Headdy, Pulseman, Greendog, X-Men (the GG and Genesis games), the GG Sonic games, particularly the ones after 2 (because early GB games didn't always have saving either, as I've said; this is part of why I find Triple Trouble, Chaos, and Blast disappointing -- it's not that they're bad, it's that they're basically identical to the first two in gameplay and features, just with a couple of minor things added. And if you say "but those games are really short!" Well, they are... but that's part of the problem too. And I already mentioned how given the battery life, even an hour-long game really should have had saving. If you start with your batteries not full, and then get stuck somewhere, you're done, turn it off and start over... But anyway, that's another subject.)... there are plenty of Sega games from that era that would have benefitted from having saving!

I guess your defense is "well the games are short"... but even while that is often true, it isn't always, and with the harder ones, it doesn't matter how short they are if you're perfect, for most people they're going to be tough. Of course that was intentional, to disguise a very short game as a longer one by having you play through it over and over to get better. But my point is, I guess, that Sega stuck with that style of game design for too long, and it did eventually come back to bite them, when many people turned on the Dreamcast in part because of how short many of Sega's games were, since now they all had saving, but Sega was still using similar design philosophies to before... I like Sega games a lot, and don't always mind that there isn't saving in games -- it doesn't really bother me that, say, Adventures of Batman & Robin or Shadow Dancer don't let you save, for instance -- but Ristar, really?

To add some more outside of the platformer genre, Panzer Dragoon would have been better off with saving for unlocks, instead of just cheat codes, that's for sure -- that is, the PD Zwei model. And I already mentioned The Ooze above. Another example would be Scud for the Saturn (the 2d side-scrolling shooting/lightgun game); that game has saving, but just for scores and settings, not progress, you have to play the whole game in one sitting. And with how mind-numbingly tedious the game is, that's a near-impossible task. It'd be much more manageable if you could save your progress and take it in smaller chunks. Sega's PC Scud game, which is a 2d, top-down action-adventure game with online multiplayer, actually does save your settings, but game progress is password only. I know some other '90s PC games did do this (Worms 2 is another example), so that's not a Sega-only thing, but still, I can't even begin to figure out why they'd do it that way.

And on that note, while the two Bug! games do save, they REALLY should have saving between every level, instead of just between every world. Those levels are very, very long, and very hard. Actually completing a world and getting to the next save point is a massive accomplishment; the games are too hard for most people, I think, which is really a shame with how great they are. If they were a little more approachable, with saving between levels and more checkpoints within the levels, I think they might be more popular, and that would be a great thing. (and of course, GET RID of that idiotic "you can only load each save a few times before you get sent back to the last level" thing from the first game! Sure you can get around it with a memory card by copying over the file each time, but still, it's insanely cruel if you play it straight.)

You forgot Mr. Bones. Both of those Game Gear games are about 30 minutes long, and Web of Fire was a rush release.

Gah, Mr. Bones, another game that was missing from my list. It doesn't save either? Or does it?

Sonic Jam says hi. It may be a compilation, but the 3D portion was new, and Jam has saving for both that portion and each individual game.

I hope those are the only two missing games from the list... maybe I should make a thread for the list, to make sure.

[StarMist]

There are a whole lot more Genesis/GG/Saturn games from Sega than that that would have benefitted from some kind of save system. I won't list everything, but how about Ristar, Astal, Aladdin, Dynamite Headdy, Pulseman, Greendog, X-Men (the GG and Genesis games),

No way to Aladdin unless you mean the GG game I know nothing about; the MD version will keep one at 9 lives through most of the game which is avg length at best. Saving would've wasted that game for many children and the parents who bought them it. Greendog is a rental: short and easy. No reason for that one to save. X-Men's a lot trickier but just not big enough to justify shrinking it through saves. Ristar perhaps should've had an Easy mode with passwords for the youngsters. But you have to approach these as an eleven year old back in the day who only got a game a month if he was lucky: he didn't want to beat all his games in a week or (much) less as saving would've enabled him to do.

I can't think of a single MD action game I would want to save apart from some inclusions to help out children. Perhaps Target Earth but that's more a matter of my disliking it, as you with SCUD. Shooters and whatnot ought to save scores though.

[NeoZeedeater]

Of course, it WAS an improvement over '80s Sega, where most of their '80s SMS games not only have no saving but also have no continues, so one game over and you start the whole thing over from scratch (and don't expect cheats either!), but still they lagged far behind Nintendo.

This comment on the SMS is way off base, especially the "don't expect cheats" part. Sega's philosophy on continues with the SMS in the '80s was generally that they should exist for arcade-y games but they're still kind of cheating. Between the cheats included in manuals and in magazines, I had access to most of them back in the day.

After Burner - continue cheat
Alex Kidd in Miracle World - continue cheat
Choplifter - level select cheat
Fantasy Zone: The Maze - you can choose starting level
Gangster Town - continues
Golvellius - passwords
Kenseiden - continue and level select cheats
Lord of the Sword - continues
Maze Hunter 3-D - continue cheat
Miracle Warriors - battery saves
Penguin Land - you can choose starting level, and there's battery for level making saves
Phantasy Star - battery saves
Power Strike - continue cheat
Psycho Fox - has SMB-like level warps
Quartet - level select cheats
Rambo - continue and level select cheats
R-Type - continue cheat
Shinobi - level select cheat
Space Harrier - continue cheat
Space Harrier 3D - level select cheat
Spellcaster - passwords
Thunder Blade - continue cheat
Wanted - level select cheat
Wonder Boy - level select cheat
Wonder Boy in Monster Land - level select cheat
Wonder Boy III - passwords
Ys - battery save
Zillion - continue cheat
Zillion II - continue cheat

[goldenband]

I can't think of a single MD action game I would want to save apart from some inclusions to help out children. Perhaps Target Earth but that's more a matter of my disliking it, as you with SCUD. Shooters and whatnot ought to save scores though.

Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge is a good candidate on the SNES for some sort of save system. Haven't really played it on the Genesis yet (which is why I called it for next year) but if it's similar, then it'll have the same issue of having to mindlessly replay early stages to get at the real challenge.

As I get older I'm getting more and more weary of having to slog through areas I can handle in my sleep just to get 1-2 cracks at figuring out a tricky boss. Clever idea that was never implemented in any 8-/16-bit game AFAIK: if you reach a boss in a platformer/action game, you unlock that boss in a "battle mode" where you can practice against him.

Make the whole mode a boss rush if you want (requiring near-perfection), or exclude some attacks and/or the final boss. But an hour of mindlessness to reach 2 minutes of frustration doesn't hold the charm it once did. (I'm sure somewhere there's a woman at a singles bar declaring much the same thing.)

[jerry coeurl]

Mr. Bones saves to the system memory, although it doesn't have your usual Continue option on the main screen. Instead, there is a level select screen in the options menu which lets you immediately start on any level you have previously made it to.

[A Black Falcon]

Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge is a good candidate on the SNES for some sort of save system. Haven't really played it on the Genesis yet (which is why I called it for next year) but if it's similar, then it'll have the same issue of having to mindlessly replay early stages to get at the real challenge.

Yeah, Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge is a good, hard game which very, VERY badly needs a save system. Heck, it doesn't even have continue or level-select cheats! I only have the Game Gear version, but it's pretty much the same thing, and it's just as crazily hard. It's a game that I think I would definitely like if it wasn't so absurdly cruel. Actually, even with how impossibly hard it is, it is at least a lot more fun to play than X-Men for the Game Gear... that one I don't like much at all.

As I get older I'm getting more and more weary of having to slog through areas I can handle in my sleep just to get 1-2 cracks at figuring out a tricky boss. Clever idea that was never implemented in any 8-/16-bit game AFAIK: if you reach a boss in a platformer/action game, you unlock that boss in a "battle mode" where you can practice against him.

Yes, I agree with this, for sure. I HATE having to replay levels I've beaten fifty times simply because level 8 is hard and I keep getting game over there. I think that that's unfair and wrong; I expect saving in games, darnit! That probably comes from my first gaming experience being on the PC (DOS), where most games had saving, but I expect it. And that's why Genesis, SMS, and NES games particularly somewhat annoy me on the subject. And some SNES games too of course. My general recourse is "leave the system on until I finish it", but that doesn't help with games with limited continues... with those it's just "start all over again and again". And as you say, I too have a lot of trouble taking that these days. I don't think I ever really liked it (I remember being annoyed at PC games I had as a kid that had no saving, like Zool 2 or the DOS Mega Man 3 game, and never finished either of those games as a kid as a result; I have since beaten MM3-DOS, but not Zool 2.), but if I did, I like it even less now, I think.

Make the whole mode a boss rush if you want (requiring near-perfection), or exclude some attacks and/or the final boss. But an hour of mindlessness to reach 2 minutes of frustration doesn't hold the charm it once did. (I'm sure somewhere there's a woman at a singles bar declaring much the same thing.)

Agreed.

This comment on the SMS is way off base, especially the "don't expect cheats" part. Sega's philosophy on continues with the SMS in the '80s was generally that they should exist for arcade-y games but they're still kind of cheating. Between the cheats included in manuals and in magazines, I had access to most of them back in the day.

After Burner - continue cheat
Alex Kidd in Miracle World - continue cheat
Choplifter - level select cheat
Fantasy Zone: The Maze - you can choose starting level
Gangster Town - continues
Golvellius - passwords
Kenseiden - continue and level select cheats
Lord of the Sword - continues
Maze Hunter 3-D - continue cheat
Miracle Warriors - battery saves
Penguin Land - you can choose starting level, and there's battery for level making saves
Phantasy Star - battery saves
Power Strike - continue cheat
Psycho Fox - has SMB-like level warps
Quartet - level select cheats
Rambo - continue and level select cheats
R-Type - continue cheat
Shinobi - level select cheat
Space Harrier - continue cheat
Space Harrier 3D - level select cheat
Spellcaster - passwords
Thunder Blade - continue cheat
Wanted - level select cheat
Wonder Boy - level select cheat
Wonder Boy in Monster Land - level select cheat
Wonder Boy III - passwords
Ys - battery save
Zillion - continue cheat
Zillion II - continue cheat

For Ys, Miracle Warriors, and Phantasy Star, of course they have saving; they're RPGs. Those almost always save. It also makes sense that the part-adventure Spellcaster saves too. As for the rest I must admit that there are more SMS games with continue cheats than I thought, but still, many don't have any... (and really, Gangster Town and Kenseiden have continues, really? I don't remember having any... am I forgetting, or are they "get via points" or something? You don't say that it's a code.) But seriously, people talk about "Nintendo hard" for the NES and it's true, but games with no saving or continues are more common on the SMS I think. There are some on the Genesis too (Comix Zone and DJ Boy are two, I'm sure there are others), versus very few on SNES (none I know of offhand).

Mr. Bones saves to the system memory, although it doesn't have your usual Continue option on the main screen. Instead, there is a level select screen in the options menu which lets you immediately start on any level you have previously made it to.

Ah, okay.

No way to Aladdin unless you mean the GG game I know nothing about; the MD version will keep one at 9 lives through most of the game which is avg length at best. Saving would've wasted that game for many children and the parents who bought them it. Greendog is a rental: short and easy. No reason for that one to save. X-Men's a lot trickier but just not big enough to justify shrinking it through saves. Ristar perhaps should've had an Easy mode with passwords for the youngsters. But you have to approach these as an eleven year old back in the day who only got a game a month if he was lucky: he didn't want to beat all his games in a week or (much) less as saving would've enabled him to do.

For Aladdin, the SNES game saves (finally, none of Capcom's NES Disney platformers did). The Genesis one isn't longer, just a lot harder to finish because of the lack of saving and the limited continues. I've never managed to beat Genesis Aladdin, despite how much I like it... I could try to find the GBA version, but I'd rather play it on Genesis... for Ristar, if Sonic 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles saved, Ristar should; it's just as long. Why should it only be in an "Easy" mode? Passwords aren't just for kids, they're for anyone who doesn't want to have to play the whole game in one sitting, perhaps with limited continues! That's a lot of people, not just little children. And that "approach it like one game a month" approach may be a historical explanation, or an excuse, but it's not a reason to consider it okay.

I can't think of a single MD action game I would want to save apart from some inclusions to help out children. Perhaps Target Earth but that's more a matter of my disliking it, as you with SCUD. Shooters and whatnot ought to save scores though.

I can think of plenty. And yes, it is clear that we disagree on this subject quite strongly. Games should have saving, all of them. Shmups should save high scores, at least, and have level select you can unlock. For any game with a high score table, it should be saving that table so that it means something; otherwise it's only relevant if you take pictures of the screen or write down your scores or something. Platformers should save your progress. Etc. I know it wasn't normal back then, and I love third and fourth gen games quite a lot, but their lack of saving is by far the biggest problem with pre-6th gen gaming (most 5th gen games save, but not all).

And on that note, I know I said that I can accept that games like Adventures of Batman & Robin (or Contra: Hard Corps, etc.) don't save, but newer games of that style all do, and aren't worse games for it. That's definitely one thing I prefer about the GBA Gunstar Super Heroes game versus the Genesis original...

Oh, and as for some other Sega CD games, Battlecorps and Soulstar should have had saving! Adventures of Batman & Robin too (sure it's short, but it's so so hard...) But for those first two, ThunderStrike saved, so there's no excuse for why Core's next two SCD scaler action games don't! I know Battlecorps has a level select cheat, but save files would be better, and I don't know of anything for SoulStar (except infinite continues, but as I've said before, I particularly hate when games have infinite continues but no saving, because that's such a horribly cruel piece of game design... "sure you can continue as much as you want, but not if you turn the system off"? What? Who'd design something like that? And SoulStar is so hard that you might not want to leave it on... but it'll be quite tough to get back to the point you were at!).

[NeoZeedeater]

(and really, Gangster Town and Kenseiden have continues, really? I don't remember having any... am I forgetting, or are they "get via points" or something? You don't say that it's a code.)

In Gangster Town, you shoot the hat to continue. I mentioned cheats in plural for Kenseiden but I guess it wasn't clear. Kenseiden's continue does require inputing a code at the Game Over screen. I think it was given in the manual but I don't remember for certain.

[StarMist]

But seriously, people talk about "Nintendo hard" for the NES and it's true, but games with no saving or continues are more common on the SMS I think.

Your bringing cheats into the equation clouds this a bit for me but in straight up battery or password terms the NES has few games that save outside the obvious genres. Go play Solstice.

There are some on the Genesis too (Comix Zone and DJ Boy are two, I'm sure there are others), versus very few on SNES (none I know of offhand).

I must be missing something here...but Comix Zone and DJ Boy should not have passwords. Iirc Comix Zone lets one recommence from the stage where one's game ended; I saw this lately but didn't properly examine it. And DJ Boy? Should SoR have passwords? Level select codes on game completion however I am in favour of (such as the awesome Xexyz provides; a stylized set).

Ah, okay.

Whoa, I missed that. Mr Bones would be evil w/o saves. There are 32 bit RPGs I'd rather play w/o saves.

For Aladdin, the SNES game saves (finally, none of Capcom's NES Disney platformers did). The Genesis one isn't longer, just a lot harder to finish because of the lack of saving and the limited continues. I've never managed to beat Genesis Aladdin, despite how much I like it...

There are plenty of hard games (ie not Aladdin) I haven't beaten at least in part due to replay drudgery but that doesn't mean they should have saves just for me. If the game doesn't involve a lot of exploration it shouldn't save. Even Alien 3 MD or NES is fine w/o saves--I probably shan't ever complete the NES version but I wouldn't like dinking through it one stage a session, and the concept of getting a new game, reaching the final area/boss, then saving and squatting on that one area/boss until I'd beaten is wasteful.
-->>

And that "approach it like one game a month" approach may be a historical explanation, or an excuse, but it's not a reason to consider it okay.

It's specious to claim now that one's an adult one hasn't the time and all that horseshit, the reality is now that one's an adult one owns two thousand plus games or has access to unlimited ROMs. If the game's not worth your time forget it but don't complain it wasn't made with your trying to guzzle down four games a week in mind.

[TVC 15]

It's specious to claim now that one's an adult one hasn't the time and all that horseshit, the reality is now that one's an adult one owns two thousand plus games or has access to unlimited ROMs. If the game's not worth your time forget it but don't complain it wasn't made with your trying to guzzle down four games a week in mind.

I have to spread some rep around, because this sentiment is so very very true.

[A Black Falcon]

Your bringing cheats into the equation clouds this a bit for me but in straight up battery or password terms the NES has few games that save outside the obvious genres. Go play Solstice.

I have Solstice, but with its difficulty and lack of saving, I'm not sure if I want to play it.

I must be missing something here...but Comix Zone and DJ Boy should not have passwords. Iirc Comix Zone lets one recommence from the stage where one's game ended; I saw this lately but didn't properly examine it. And DJ Boy? Should SoR have passwords? Level select codes on game completion however I am in favour of (such as the awesome Xexyz provides; a stylized set).

You are indeed missing something here: for the Genesis version of DJ Boy the main problem isn't so much that it doesn't have saving. It's that it doesn't have continues or extra lives at all. And no, there isn't even a continue cheat. Die once and that's it, you have to start the whole game over. It's borderline unplayable as a result.

Comix Zone works similarly, doesn't it? I certainly can't remember ever being able to actually continue in that game, after losing my one life. And you only get one. It does, however, have a level-select cheat that I'd forgotten about. I've never actually used it, maybe I should if I ever want to get anywhere in level 2 (page 3, whatever); I think that's about as far as I've gotten in the game, page 3 or 4. With one life per game, and not using the continue code, and with those parts where you're forced to lose health (punching boxes and the like), it's a brutal game. Fantastic, but brutal.

Another game with no saving and no continues by default is the TG16 version of Cadash. Decent game, but wow is it hard unless you know and use the continue cheat. The (much inferior thanks to missing two of the four player characters) Genesis version gives you two credits, or infinite if you use a cheat code, but 2 credits is also quite few; the game's balance isn't great, and the first part of the game is very tough, only it actually gets easier a bit farther in, if you can manage to get past the first boss.


Anyway, for things like beat 'em ups, rail shooters, or shmups I don't mind not having save files, but those should have score save and unlockable level selects, possibly for after you beat the game. Shmups finally started doing this some of the time in the 5th generation, which was a good change for sure. (Certainly makes R-Type DX a whole lot more fun to complete than the original GB versions, with that level select where you unlock each level in level select after you reach it!)

Also, yeah, Xexyz is a pretty cool game.

Whoa, I missed that. Mr Bones would be evil w/o saves. There are 32 bit RPGs I'd rather play w/o saves.

I haven't played the game, so I can't say what I think about it.

There are plenty of hard games (ie not Aladdin) I haven't beaten at least in part due to replay drudgery but that doesn't mean they should have saves just for me.

If the game requires "repeat drudgery" to complete, or gives you infinite continues, it should have save files, unlockable level select, or passwords. Period. (And also, Aladdin may not be really hard, but it's not easy either.

If the game doesn't involve a lot of exploration it shouldn't save. Even Alien 3 MD or NES is fine w/o saves--I probably shan't ever complete the NES version but I wouldn't like dinking through it one stage a session, and the concept of getting a new game, reaching the final area/boss, then saving and squatting on that one area/boss until I'd beaten is wasteful.

I haven't played any Alien games before for more than a minute or two (or watched any of the movies), but I strongly disagree with what you say here. I do NOT want to have to replay stuff I've beaten repeatedly simply because the game designers are annoying... I mean, I'd rather play the real game than play in emulation, that's why I own the real things, and I do think that beating games as they were originally designed is more legitimate than savestating your way through them, and as I've said it can be a fun challenge for sure, but I wish that more games had had more forgiving designs in the first place. What's really wasteful is having to repeatedly replay something you've beaten... if you want to replay the game that's one thing, but being forced to is not good.

-->>
It's specious to claim now that one's an adult one hasn't the time and all that horseshit, the reality is now that one's an adult one owns two thousand plus games or has access to unlimited ROMs. If the game's not worth your time forget it but don't complain it wasn't made with your trying to guzzle down four games a week in mind.

That's not really what it's about, though. It's about not wanting to have to replay something I have beaten before over and over and over and over and over simply because the level AFTER that is really hard. That is the problem, the forced replaying. This is also why I keep talking about how much I dislike it when games have infinite continues but no saving (very common, actually!), because they're letting you try as much as you like, but only as long as you keep the system on. So stupid.

[NeoZeedeater]

DJ Boy is borderline unplayable? I bought the Japanese version in early 1991 and beat it within a couple days if I recall correctly. And Starmist is right that Comix Zone has continues. They don't give you them in the earliest levels of the game or something, though.

[sheath]

If DJ Boy is unplayable so is River City Ransom.

[A Black Falcon]

If DJ Boy is unplayable so is River City Ransom.

River City Ransom has password save, so I don't know what you're talking about.

[sheath]

DJ Boy can be beaten in 15 minutes or less. Unlike most good Beat-em ups, it actually doesn't take that much play time to get to that point either.