Astro City Mini -RQ87's video game playthroughs

Playthrough with Thud. Yeah, that's his actual name. Anyway, here's a horrible fighting game which had never seen a console port before, with good reason: it plays terribly. Whilst this is technically a 2D fighter, it makes use of sprite scaling to simulate a 3D arena. This means you can move in and out of the screen, and that's where the game fails immediately: you spend most fights jumping around, desperately trying and hoping to land a hit on your opponent. It just doesn't work at all and to me this is basically unplayable.

Of course the CPU just has to be obnoxious as it can be, constantly doing special moves with no issue. I really didn't think I'd be able to 1CC this, but then it turns out Thud has a good special move with his sword that can be used to get through most of the game.

This game has two bosses, the first one you need to wait for him to fire some missiles, then when he charges towards you, jump and try and hit him with a strong punch. The timing on this is very difficult but it was the only way I could find to beat him. The last boss you have to try and move in, land one attack, move out and repeat. You only have to win one round against the last boss, whilst he has to win two.

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

Playthrough with Gilius Thunderhead. I have never liked this game or series that much (I'm more of a Streets of Rage kind of guy), but once I saw this could be beaten in under 15 minutes I had to try it again. The thing that puts me off this game is the hit detection -sometimes you'll start attacking an enemy but you won't hit them, then they immediately start hitting you, it's frustrating. If you can get used to the poor hit detection this isn't actually too hard to get through, for the most part. The first three levels are fairly easy if you use the beasts.

For the fourth level, use magic on the last group of enemies, the skeletons are pretty annoying so wiping them out with your most powerful magic attack is your best option. For the last level, it's much easier if you manage to keep the dragon to the very end. When you get to Death=Adder, kill the skeletons first before taking him on.

You can't enter your initials after beating the game, which is a let down. But as this game has one of the best endings I've ever seen, all is forgiven.

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

When you start playing this you'll probably absolutely hate it (I know I did). The key is to kill the white wolves as soon as possible, so you can power up your character quickly. If you fail to kill three wolves in a row, you can't fight the boss, and the stage keeps going, which is less than ideal.

However the hit detection on the wolves is poor, there are times where it looks like you're clearly hitting an enemy and nothing happens, and then you get hit. There is no way to recover any health in this game, and you don't get your health replenished between levels either. However it's far more important to get your character powered up than it is to have lives stocked up. The bosses are mostly easy to beat, the last two are actually easier than the first one.

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Akira. If you just try to play this game normally the CPU is going to kick your butt from stage 4 and onwards, but thankfully there is a consistent strat which I believe works with any character. You have to do a neutral jump, then hold forwards and press punch. The CPU usually will start doing a combo as you're in the air, but your air punch will knock them down as they approach. Just keep doing that to beat the game, it even works on Dural.

Dark Edge

Video length: 13:40	Game region:
Difficulty level:
Playthrough with Thud. Yeah, that's his actual name. Anyway, here's a horrible fighting game which had never seen a console port before, with good reason: it plays terribly. Whilst this is technically a 2D fighter, it makes use of sprite scaling to simulate a 3D arena. This means you can move in and out of the screen, and that's where the game fails immediately: you spend most fights jumping around, desperately trying and hoping to land a hit on your opponent. It just doesn't work at all and to me this is basically unplayable. Of course the CPU just has to be obnoxious as it can be, constantly doing special moves with no issue. I really didn't think I'd be able to 1CC this, but then it turns out Thud has a good special move with his sword that can be used to get through most of the game. This game has two bosses, the first one you need to wait for him to fire some missiles, then when he charges towards you, jump and try and hit him with a strong punch. The timing on this is very difficult but it was the only way I could find to beat him. The last boss you have to try and move in, land one attack, move out and repeat. You only have to win one round against the last boss, whilst he has to win two.

Golden Axe

Video length: 17:22	Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5
Playthrough with Gilius Thunderhead. I have never liked this game or series that much (I'm more of a Streets of Rage kind of guy), but once I saw this could be beaten in under 15 minutes I had to try it again. The thing that puts me off this game is the hit detection -sometimes you'll start attacking an enemy but you won't hit them, then they immediately start hitting you, it's frustrating. If you can get used to the poor hit detection this isn't actually too hard to get through, for the most part. The first three levels are fairly easy if you use the beasts. For the fourth level, use magic on the last group of enemies, the skeletons are pretty annoying so wiping them out with your most powerful magic attack is your best option. For the last level, it's much easier if you manage to keep the dragon to the very end. When you get to Death=Adder, kill the skeletons first before taking him on. You can't enter your initials after beating the game, which is a let down. But as this game has one of the best endings I've ever seen, all is forgiven.

Juuouki

Video length: 13:06	Game region:
Difficulty level: 4 out of 5
When you start playing this you'll probably absolutely hate it (I know I did). The key is to kill the white wolves as soon as possible, so you can power up your character quickly. If you fail to kill three wolves in a row, you can't fight the boss, and the stage keeps going, which is less than ideal. However the hit detection on the wolves is poor, there are times where it looks like you're clearly hitting an enemy and nothing happens, and then you get hit. There is no way to recover any health in this game, and you don't get your health replenished between levels either. However it's far more important to get your character powered up than it is to have lives stocked up. The bosses are mostly easy to beat, the last two are actually easier than the first one.

Virtua Fighter

Video length: 10:27	Game region:
Difficulty level: 3 out of 5
Playthrough with Akira. If you just try to play this game normally the CPU is going to kick your butt from stage 4 and onwards, but thankfully there is a consistent strat which I believe works with any character. You have to do a neutral jump, then hold forwards and press punch. The CPU usually will start doing a combo as you're in the air, but your air punch will knock them down as they approach. Just keep doing that to beat the game, it even works on Dural.