Snes Hack And Slash Games

[Latanya Hariri]

Im trying to identify a game I've played as a child, most likely on the NES. The time when I would have played this would likely fall in the 1992 - 1998 range. Sadly, I remember only a small part of it - the part that made it stand out to me at the time.

The main gameplay of the game was probably some RPG or hack and slash type, but between levels (areas? maps?) there was a town one could build. Unlocking space for building would require completing another level.

You play some kind of god that can come down to Earth to smite evil in a very personal way. You also guide a number of communities in developing their villages into towns, while helping them seal evil. Sometimes these communities find sacred artifacts that then become part of your inventory.

In the town screenshot above, you can see a couple bridges. I remember you had to fight some monsters in a platform level so that villagers could reach some special area, and that's where they learned how to build bridges so you could expand to the other side of the river.

I saw the edits to the question. Actraiser was released for the Super NES in 1990. Actraiser 2 was released in 1993, also for the Super NES, but unlike the first game it had no city-building elements. A third game for the series was planned for Sega consoles but it seems it never got released.

In the town building area, you control your assistant which happens to be an angel. The life meter has the word 'angel' written on its left. You can see the angel in the village screenshot, close to the plantation that is most to the left. I highlighted him in the screenshot below:

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, this is Shulk's side special. When Shulk performs Back Slash, he lunges forward and slashes his opponent with his Monado as his Monado glows red. Back Slash does more damage and knockback when he hits his opponent from behind. Shulk cannot grab the ledge while performing Back Slash.

How do I use special attacks in The Lion King on SNES?In the instruction booklet, It says: "Make Simba pounce. B button and land on top of enemy." and "Jumping slash as Adult Simba. B button and the Y button" but I cannot use any of these. Do I need to land on some special part of the enemy sprite? How long do I need to wait between the B and Y Button presses?I tried multiple combinations for over two hours now, and I still don't know how to do these consistently.

In the future the economy is in shambles. Without funding governments around the world are effective useless. In this disparate world organized crime steps in to fill the void the government has left. A man named Raptor rules Neo New York with an iron fist but still fears one man, Slash. With the legendary sword X-Kalibur in hand Slash is the only one who can stop him and exact revenge for his missing girlfriend. X-Kalibur 2097 was originally known in Japan as Sword Maniac and underwent heavy changes in localization, some for good and some worse.

Your only weapon throughout the entire game is the X-Kalibur. This is an action platformer and Slash has a variety of attacks. The quick slash is efficient but the weakest attack. The piercing thrust is the most reliable, both fast and with decent power. The overhead slice at first seems awesome. Its attack is wide and it produces a long range wave. But it is incredibly slow with an absurdly long recovery time if it misses. Your best skill is the ability to block. You can block nearly everything, enemy fire, bombs, and even flames. This skill is crucial to passing the tough boss battles but more on that later.

X-Kalibur 2097 has the setup to be an action platformer along the lines of Gunstar Heroes, mixing both to create something greater than the sum of its parts. But as a whole both sides feel undercooked. The fodder enemies do not put up enough of a fight. Occasionally there is an extended segment where one particular attack is the most expedient. But these drag on longer than they should. The platforming is solid thanks to the responsive controls. But it is let down by frustrating enemy placement. For every good platforming sequence there is another full of cheap enemies that knock you around and cause you to retrace your steps. Late in the game it almost becomes insufferable. It is doubly frustrating because there are times when the game is enjoyable when its mechanics are executed well. It just lacks consistency.

Even though there are no extra power-ups I found X-Kalibur 2097 to be fairly easy for the most part. Life restoring burgers and soda are in ready supply and spaced out evenly. There are a lot of cheap hits in the game but they inflict little damage. There are a few spots where enemies attack in groups, more specifically toward the end that borders on infuriating but these are an exception and not commonplace. The only consistent challenge is the end level boss battles and these are few.

I like X-Kalibur 2097 to an extent but it could have used some polish. The excellent soundtrack does not help X-Kalibur 2097 rise to the level of far superior action titles on the system, relegating it to second class status. There are better titles to spend your money on.

If you don't want to use your magic items, you can simply press 'up' and hit the fire button. This was given away as an easter egg of sorts back in the day, and makes the game much, much easier (especially the bosses, as you can just whoop em with the spin attack). The move wasn't described in the english instruction manual, but I've heard rumours that it was actually in the Japanese one and was lost in translation.

What's your take on it? Do you consider this a 'cheat' of sorts? Was the game ever meant to utilize this trick? You'll notice that the sequels, the trick doesn't work (well, I can't say 100%...I don't recall it anyway), and they removed the ultra powerful spin attack from the list of available magic. So those games are still hard as balls, particularly the third one. For this mortal, anyway.

What do you guys think? Does anybody have some info about the Japanese manual? I'd be interested to hear opinions. Personally? I...hate to say it, but I think it's a cheat. The game is ridiculously frustrating in one particular area, and the final boss sequences are killer without the use of the spin attack. Back in the day, though, I would use the spin attack...which would mean saving magic points, avoiding getting new magic, and hopefully making it to the boss to rock it. But that's just me. I have finished the game both ways.

Are you saying you press up, release it, and then press fire button? If that's the case, what happens? You swing your sword, use a magic item without losing your magic points, use another special attack?

The trick is actually only useable when you have the spin attack. Normally you spin attack every time you press B. But if you press up while you have spin attack, you just do a regular slash. Saves your limited magic points so you can use it on the bosses (one shot kill, usually). Its still a lil tricky to do but makes the final level much easier.

Is it cheating to spam down+B to do rapid slashing on bosses? As long as it's part of the game and not a cheat code then I wouldn't really consider it cheating, although there are borderline cases such as the pause exploit in Blaster Master and Mega Man.

Kind of like figuring out that in the original tecmo bowl, the Chicago Bears have a pass play where a receiver runs a slant route that cannot be intercepted, even if the opponent calls the same play. Call that play and throw long to Willie Gault on a streak if the opponent picks a different play, but if they call the same play, switch to the receiver on the slant route and throw as quick as you can. No chance to be intercepted.... Cheating? No... just finding the quirks in the game and using your knowledge to maximize your efficiency.

I'd think in general anything the game was designed for isn't cheating. If you find a bug or a bad design flaw that ruins the intent of the game though, that would be. Something that causes you and anyone else if it's competitive to solely master the cheat to have a win be likely at all would fall into that.

That's definitely not cheating. It's just a move that makes sense. You have this cool spin attack that activates automatically when you attack in mid-air. But in a game where you frequently have to attack during a jump, it wouldn't be fair* to make you burn through a special attack when you don't intend to use it. None of the other specials are automatic, except for the Art of Fire Wheel, which only makes sense because it would be overpowered if you could trigger it at will.

Yep.. you didn't even KNOW that the spin attack was powerful until you actually tried it.. which is semi-difficult since like you said, the game gives you many other weapons along the way afterward. So you probably are pretty skilled at the game before you even decide to try and hold onto it for the boss. I remember when I did and it was a really nice surprise that it killed them quickly.. so it's definitely a design of the game made to award you for doing that. It's about as much of a "cheat" as discovering what weapon works best on a boss in Megaman.

Good points all around. I still wonder why it wasn't documented in the instructions. Tecmo seems to have a few games where thy could be looked at as strategies, or bugs. Tecmo Bowl was mentioned, and Rygar's tower where you can grind experience for ten minutes, and then one-shot most enemies for the remainder of the game.

As far as Gaidens spin attack, it substantially lowers the difficulty of the game in two key areas. I know it was brutally unforgiving without the tactic back in the day, made worse by having to start from the beginning of the entire stage if you die during a boss battle. That happens potentially three times in Gaidens final Jaquio battle. With a loaded magic spin attack, you can do it on the first try.

I'm sure you could, and did The amount of time you get to spend in each of those final three boss rooms to learn the patterns is...pretty short. I beat the game for the first time without spins for the most part. I'd probably chalk it up to luck, maybe fire magic as well...I'll have to revisit on the NES Classic with some save states.

3a8082e126