Are the Neutopia Games Worth Playing Today? - Turbodrunk
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มี.ค. 2024
- Covering Neutopia and Neutopia 2. These games look much better than they actually are.
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I loved these games as a kid. I played them with my parents. RIP Dad.
My favorite description of these games is "Zelda 1 but the NPCs are actually helpful"
But does it have chickens I can attack?
@@samholdsworth420There weren't any chickens in Zelda 1 (or The Legend of Zelda for the NES/Famicom). ;)
@@samholdsworth420 Zelda did not have those either in 1990....
@@Tolbat damn 😂
It's a secret to no one
I swear, SNES drunk must be one of the most "feel good" channels of the platform. Each time I see a new vid coming up, I'm like awesome, 6-8 minutes of pure and effortless trip back to "those" days. Grab that cup of coffee, and chill. Even the way he covers and talks about all games, SNES-related or not, is just so "zen" and easy to understand/ listen to. Keep up the good work man, those compilations going, and thank you for all of your content up until now.
I've been following it week after week since 2017, and I'm glad new episodes still come out on a semi-regular basis. For me it's consistently been essential viewing for so many years.
Really gives that "childhood friend with all the cool stuff that actually shared and was helpful" vibe
"Dude, how drunk are you? TURBO DRUNK?!"
In Zelda 1 you don't bomb cracks in the wall, there is no indication which walls need to be bombed. So bomb spots being marked is an improvement.
Yeah. That's one pet peeve I have when creators like avgn praise zelda when they bashed similar games. He would always mention the cracked walls and have lttp footage playing, completely ignoring the original zelda, despite him reviewing an nes title that was similar to zelda 1
Thankfully in Zelda 1 the design is simple enough that the bombable rocks in the overworld are usually in a place that feels like one could be there. And you don't have to waste too many bombs finding them if you place them to check two tiles at once.
In the dungeons I wind up checking each wall out of habit but luckily there's only one tile on each wall to check so it's less necessary to have indicators compared to later top-down Zeldas.
Yeah dude needs to keep away from non SEGA games if he is gonna compare this to a game that came out 2 years later.
Cracked walls didn't show up until link to the past...which came out after this game....so who ripped off who?
@@tylerpemberton3134Yep! The same is true of Fire Rod - Neutopia had the Fire Rod before Zelda had it. First game had only Candle and Blue Candle.
I've always loved Neutopia. Yeah, in a 2024 world with an endless choice of action/adventure Zelda-likes, the places it could use improvement are worth pointing out. But as a product of its time - November 1989 in Japan, before we even had Super Mario Bros 3 here, never mind the Super Nintendo and Link to the Past - it was really a quality stand-out product with incredible atmosphere. Its music has been burned into my brain for decades. It came out in Japan around the same time Sword of Vermillion did and uh, I own it, finished it, and would take either Neutopia over its basic combat and grindfest gameplay any day. _That_ game is the poster child for poorly thought out sword combat.
Neutopia was awesome and the music was great. I was happy to get a long form adventure game for the TG-16 that wasn't Dungeon Explorer
I really loved the funny pop culture references in this one. Beavis, Rob Reiner, etc. Great writing this time and a fun video as always. Thanks!
Neutopia 2 coming out before Link to the Past is really interesting, since there seems to be an unusual amount of overlap. I'm sure it's pure coincidence, but it does show that some people were working hard to make the game, even if it is flawed.
Calling the old man Rob Reiner got a chuckle out of me, great vid as always
I'm playing through the first game right now and actually enjoy the linearity. I'm always strapped for time to play so I'm fine not getting list. These games have also been on my backlog for a long time so I knew exactly what I was getting into. It simply matched my expections perfectly I suppose.
I think I actually would get more into a Zelda-like game that has a bit more linear settings to it. That's probably the one huge handicap I have against the Zelda series as a whole; the "Where the Hell do I go next?" syndrome.
@@michaelpeacock4228 Most zelda games are linear, it's just that the more popular zelda games are open world.
they arent just open world,,, u can do the levels in any order. there arent many games like that@@HereticHydra
Both games are good, it's just Drunk was unduly harsh in his assessment of them. They're not classics in the way Zelda was, but they're both solid seven or eight out of ten games and well worth a playthrough if you're into this sort of stuff.
@@HereticHydra Yeah, I agree, (talking about pre-BOTW) it was the NES games that were "where the heck do I go". Once you got to SNES _Link to the Past_ or Game Boy _Link's Awakening_ you could figure out where you needed to go pretty easily usually (but you still had the option to explore for extra hidden stuff like heart pieces, which I like). For the NES games, as a kid I used Nintendo Power and/or Player's Guides (or my Dad helped me lol); as a teen replaying them I used GameFAQs.
The other big, first-party, blatant Zelda clone that comes to mind is Sega's Golden Axe Warrior for the Master System. It would be great to get a Sega Drunk entry covering it as well.
Good game
And Soleil, but that one already has a video, IIRC
@@drillerdev4624soleil is really good, loved it as a kid and still do it from time to time.
Wait. WAIT. HOLY SHEET. I played this like 30 ish years ago only one time at a friends house and was looking for this game ever since but could never find it.
Thanks Mr. Drunk. You've unironically solved a very old mystery that I'd completely given up on.
its been on YT for 20 years my dude
@@Tolbat I didn't know the name of the game though. Nice try.
I saw a TV show at my Grandma's house when I was a kid. I hope to figure out the name of it before I die of old age.
I initially misread this as, "Are the Neptunia games worth playing today?" and that made me go, "Oh my!"
To be fair, if Nintendo couldn't bother to make a proper sequel to the original Zelda for that long, there's no reason another company shouldn't have stepped in and done a spiritual successor.
Golvellius is a more soulful take
Don't buy the TG16 mini. They were made during the pandemic, VERY few were shipped and the prices for them online are absurd (cheapest I could find was almost $400). Instead, buy the PC Engine Mini which isn't region locked, has more games and only costs around $150. Also do yourself a favor and pick up a bluetooth controller for it unless you really want to play with a wired controller in TYOL 2024 (the 8bitDO model is sturdy, feels just like the original and runs about $25.00). As someone who had a TG16 and the CD add-on back in the day, I really love these games. They all have a very distinct "mood" that really wasn't replicated on any other console out there.
depends where you looking, I looked up used PC Engine minis and it's up to about 200 on different stores. I got lucky, I preordered 2x of both and got them at retail.
I remember playing both of these. I actually got a lot of enjoyment out of them. Certainly, A Link to the Past is a far superior title, but I felt Neutopia was a competent series. It made me think of the NES Willow game in a number of ways, which I also enjoyed.
Blazing Lazers, Super Star Soldier, and especially Soldier Blade!! Play em!!
Star Soldier is the best of those three
@@pabloalvarez-qu2hyagreed 😊
Blazing Lasers ftw
Soldier. Blade. is. king.
Man, this three guys above me have nothing left for me to say how awesome it was...darn!
And Jackie Chans Kung Fu, play that, I think you'll really like the TG16 version.
Just a heads-up: The base console can be upgraded with save functionality through an expansion card called the TurboBooster Plus in America. It goes into a dedicated expansion slot located in the rear end of the console which is also where you insert the Super System Card which on top of increasing RAM for the CD system gave the same save functionality. You might be wondering why this extra save memory didn't come built-in but remember that NEC and Hudson were greedy enough to sell the console with only one controller port and made you buy multiplayer functionality for a lot extra. Now that I think about it, that extends to how expansion-heavy the console is in general...
My memories of these games always boil down to the mirror match fight in 2 teaching me that I had missed multiple elements of wands in the game, and the fact that the series seriously offers a non-magical boomerang. Throw the boomerang and it will only bounce back to where you are standing right now. If you don't catch it, that one's gone forever. You can always go back and buy another from the shop. You can only carry one at a time.
Using Amazon Basics and Signature Select to distinguish between good and bad generic brands was spot on.
Maybe if you are American, I have no idea what signature select is.
@@potetnamnbaknamn895Signature Select is the name for generic store brand stuff at a grocery store called Albertsons (they’re mainly in some states that are in the western part of the U.S.).
I’m not sure which one of those is supposed to be bad, though!
@@potetnamnbaknamn895 It's a generic brand made by the Safeway conglomerate of grocery store chains, which are pretty ubiquitous throughout much of the US. But yeah, it's a pretty oblique reference for a global platform.
@@gamefrySE Also not sure. Not at all.
🎶 "Woke up in Neutopia, where I fell down a flight of stairs"
I mean, I know its totally unrelated, but the absolutely Whelming vibes totally fit it perfectly.
I think I would've enjoyed the sequel in the past though, legit. The slightly improved movement seems like it would have been my jam if I didn't know any better
Something about the turbo drunk intros just hits different
So glad to see your channel is still active and pumping the same style of content since I watched you I think in 2018
Congrats!
I love how you dont have to commit to these videos. Just quick jaunts of 5 mins or so and you get your dose and good content in it. Not like 30-45 minute videos
When you grew up in the NES era, this was the next best Zelda that the adventures of link didn't deliver on. It filled the void waiting for the SNES to release.
no love for the golden axe zelda rip off?
@@thecunninlynguistor crusader of sentry, for that matter
Crystalis. Nuff said.
@testshietchannel Crusader of CENTY ?
@@1fightdragons whatever 🤷
I was winging it. In Europe it's Soleil 😜
I enjoyed Neutopia's take on the Zelda formula, and remember it fondly. Better graphics and music than the NES, obviously. I liked exploring the four distinct Spheres instead of one sprawling wilderness. Is it better than Zelda? No; just an alternative. Neutopia knows what it is, and cruises along comfortably in its lane.
Looking at Neutopia 2 I get some real Bomberman Tournament vibes. Especially in that shot with the shop keeper near the end of th video.
Bomberman Tournament is heavily lifted from Neutopia II, down to the point where it's been idly speculated if it was meant to be a Neutopia game originally or if it's just more inspiration. In fact, a large amount of classic Bomberman enemies come from Neutopia as well, dating back to Super Bomberman 3!
Love these games. Glad a new video is up. Always look forward to a new SNES Drunk.
This and its sequel have been on my backlog for quite a long time.
Play it. It's a fun time. I don't understand all the hate behind these games. It's actually less clunky than Zelda and the difficulty is certainly more accessible.
@@jhfoleiss yeah me neither. It’s a straight forward action game as opposed to a tricky puzzler. As for the hit collision, it’s just more literal.
I'm always surprised how many Zelda clones stuck to the Zelda 1 format for much of the 90s. Even Blood Omen 1 feels more like LoZ than ALttP or LA.
I need to replay blood omen. Great atmosphere. Shit load times though. Ah well.
Haa!
Hearing the word shrubbery for the first time in a couple years just made me want to watch Montey Python and The Holy Grail.
😅👍
The TB16 had some gorgeous graphics and great sound, it's incredible that it's not an actual 16 bit machine. these neutopia games look like SNES games.
Air zonk Is gonna be reviewed?👀
seems like Neutopia 1/2 followed the same path as Star Tropics...even in movement improvements, haha.
3:32 these really look like the Geldmen in A Link To The Past! Same concept with sand monsters appearing and disappearing.
Neptunia might have a "weak story" but the original Legend of Zelda had no in-game story. A lot of your criticisms could be said about the original LoZ.
Have fond memories of this series - esp cause at the time I was hungry for anything first party! esp an RPG (lite). I think i'll bring up the series on the next ep of our pod. Thanks for reminding me of this game!
Hudson's own take of Zelda. They're not even hiding it, and the graphics reminds me a lot like Zelda A Link To The Past here.
These games are older than Link to the Past, they're based on Zelda 1.
Based on the intro, I assume your guy in Neutopia is actually retrieving the princess's corpse and returning her to the royal tomb.
I love and cherish both of these games. Haven't beaten them yet..
Ooooh! Love the very harmonious intro!
Loved the writing in this one!!
I’ll bet this was a decent enough holdover for Zelda enthusiasts sitting in the ALttP waiting room
the commentary is always godlike and hilarious 🖤
eh, might be interested, a zelda clone where you don't get yourself lost, with easy going dungeon and stuff ? feels like a good game to play when you just want to chill a little.
The Neutopia games were available on the Wii VC. And imo are bittersweet. It felt like glimpsing into some alternate reality where Nintendo made a game in-between Zelda 1 and 3 that wasn't a 2D sidescroller. Better in some ways but overall just lacking.
My biggest complaint is with the second game. Instead of making dungeons more creative, they made them larger and more tedious. Constantly having to find which block is pushable in a room full of them, having to bomb every unmarked wall in the dungeon to find the secret room. It was exhausting.
The second game actually hints at a Neutopia 3 - which was never made but honestly I would have liked to see. Just in case the devs on that one would have done better.
I love these games so much it's unreal. The first one has an especially solid OST. Wish the tracks were a little longer though; they loop too quickly.
Both these games are WAY better than Golden Axe Warrior.
You leave Signature Select out of this!
Damn the music is great, especially the track at the end of your video
As a big fan of FF mystic quest, not gonna lie, the first game looks kinda fun 😅
It is fun. While it's not a classic, I genuinely think that Drunk was harsh in his assessment of it.
I enjoyed Neutopia I, but it was a bit of a grind in the beginning. You really hit the nail on the head that they took the mystery and adventure out of these games. Have Neutopia II and might try it one day. Was only $8 on Wii U eshop if I remember right. Great video. Have a great day!
I have a soft spot for the early Zelda-likes. It's like each console from the late 80s and early 90s felt they needed to have at least one, if not multiple interpretations of the formula. NES had Crystalis, Master System had Golden Axe Warrior and Golvelius, Turbo had the Neutopia games, Ys (Kind of of), and Dungeon Explorer games, Genesis had Beyond Oasis and Landstalker, and SNES had the Terranigma games and probably a bunch more.
It's crazy how much better A Link to the Past looks. The details of the map tiles look GBC-tier.
The PC-Engine was really a competitor to the NES more than the SNES. The fact that it hung around as long as it did is a credit to the console. It was released in 1987, almost 4 years before the SNES. It is very slept on and has great games. I was very late to most of the PC Engine/Turbo-grafx 16 but I highly recommend it.
@@jarredcombs7603 oooh I always thought it was a competitor to the SNES because of the 16 in the name.
Zelda: A Link to the Past is a great game, but given that it was released on a much more powerful console than the PC Engine, I think it doesn't look very good. E.g. the color of the grass was just solid green. There was little proper pixel art like in later SNES games. Even the GBC Zelda games were arguably more varied visually. In terms of colors, ALttP looked more like a Sega Master System game than a SNES game.
Though to be fair, Neutopia also didn't exactly push the PC Engine capabilities.
The SNES was still in planning and development when this game came out people.
@@ktak2811 The PC Engine kind of straddled two generations: It was much more powerful than the other 8-bit consoles and actually had some advantages over the Mega Drive and SNES (more colours and better sound than the Mega Drive and a faster CPU than the SNES).
2:54 - "... because again, just like Zelda - take a drink every time you hear me say that in this video..."
And then you never say it again for the rest of the video. I opened my beer for NOTHING!
I really liked the first and its expansive fire mechanic. It’s been decades though.
Have yet to play the second. Own it on Wii/U.
Bomberman Tournament "AKA Neutopia III" is the best of the trilogy, and you should definitely play it. It even has a few enemies and NPCs from Neutopia.
I got fond memories of these games. I remember when I played the first one when it came out that it was a decent game to play for Zelda fans (still got two more years before Link to the Past). It was also these two games (and a couple others) that made me get the turbo 16 mini.
Great review 😊
This video shows how miserably underrated Neutopia ganes are
"Take a drink every time you hear me say that" wait now I'm also turbo drunk
Sounds like a perfect, rent-a-zelda to me. Its done in a weekend and not much replay value but that was exactly what you wanted from a rental.
I played Netopia back in the 80s. I finally played part 2 on the Turbograpguc mini! I love them both!
You should do a store brand tier list. 😹 I always figured that except maybe WalMart/Sam's, everyone used the same couple generic brand manufacturers.
I notice those lobster designs look very similar to the scorpions from Battle of Olympus.
They are scorpions, he blew this review to hell and compared it to a game that was not even out yet for a system that was still in R and D.
3:20 - "heh heh, FIRE FIRE! heh heh..."
This is one of the Turbografx games I have CIB and I mean I've got the cardboard box and everything. I find this game fascinating. It's one of the early Zelda type games before Link To The Past really perfected the formula.
You had Zelda 1, these, and Golden Axe Warrior on Master System. Then the Zeldaish type games like Golvellius on Master System & YS either the Master System original or the TG16 remake. I can't speak to Golden Axe Warrior as that's the one I haven't played, but Zelda 1 people did complain it was too cryptic and brutally hard in the back half. So this is like Hudson saw those complaints and thought what if they did the opposite? No one had tried it before.
Link To The Past is the Goldilocks Zone in between where it's just right and people stuck to that in the middle zone. But my point being I admire Hudson for trying to do it differently just to see how it would be received. They could have just totally copied Zelda 1 but resisted the temptation. While it probably would have been better I respect them for it.
“Every time you hear Zelda, drink.”
(Looking at my cognac) “Gladly.”
Good reviews! I've never played these games, but may check them out. Even if generic, they don't look bad at all. The TurboGrafx-16 got so few games of this type, so they at least seem like a novelty. Though, yeah, especially now with so many solid indie games that have mirrored the Zelda games, these games just haven't held up so well in the modern gaming landscape.
I think Drunk was pretty harsh on Neutopia: Of the many Zelda clones out there, this is one of the better ones, even if it's not one of the all-time great games.
I remember downloading it on the Wii virtual console. Had a lot of the same issues. It was perfectly okay video game junk food
2:45 - Barely an inconvenience?
So it's the Kirk cousins of zelda clones?
You don’t need the CD add on to save. You can take the cheaper route and get the turbo booster plus to savr
And all I could keep thinking about was Todd's Rock Opera: "Newtopia Rising, Book I: The Search for a New Utopia"
Aldi's Zelda is perfect
Would love to see a turbodrunk episode about good turbografx music.
This is basically modern day Skyrim if Skyrim wasn't open world
Come for the gaming info; stay for the detailed ranking of generic store brands.
I actually just bought Neutopia on my PS3 off the PSN store the other day. Sadly they don't have the second one for sale on there anymore.
They even got the "Koala" Knights as Statues!
Sweet.
I'm always asleep when these pop up. Pretty cool seeing it so early.
😄👍
3:05 Inconceivable!
Guess who’s back! Nice
Made sure to download these before the close of the WiiU eshop.
Hearing that music, all I can think of is Soldier Blade. Soldier Blade when?!?!?
Dear Mr. SNES Drunk. Have you ever reviewed the game Milandra? I don't recall it from that "Superfamicon RPGs that never left Japan" series. I saw the cover from Milandra other day and found it very cool.
I liked part 1 better than part 2, because in part 2 they kept telling you how to play the game, almost til the end of the game, it seemed like
Honestly this looks like a game I'd come across at 8 years old and play the hell out of not getting very far. A game I loved that no one else knew about. Playing by myself on a Saturday morning.
1:19. Holy Crap! It's Mr. Gus from Uncle Grandpa. How did he get in there?
Jazeta, what does the scouter say about his power level!
Hahaha: "like rob reiner here". Amazingly random.
Also crazy that they used the borderlands "new you" revive system AND the paladins quest "no mp, just 2 things using hp" approach. (Unless I'm just misunderstanding how the magic worked)
Nintendo was so often imitated but when they’d actually make sequels, it was clear who the innovators were.
In these troubled times (meaning, being 40 years old), sometimes really basic games seem appealing to me because of their simplicity - but yeah, they would actually get boring before long, especially when there are better games out there.
To be fair, Neutopia I came out in 1989 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (which is a fairer comparison than the original Zelda) came out in 1991, so one could argue that LttP took inspiration from Neutopia but did it much better 2 years later.
"Take a drink every time I say this."
But I'm at work! 😢
I remember playing these games when I was in the hospital years ago.
This was one of those games in my emulation backlog, and the linear nature was a good selling point, ha ha. Love the older Zelda's and BOTW as well, but sometimes I like just going down a narrow corridor and killin shit.
Alright, TurboDrunk time!
upvoted for mention of rob reiner
Love the Brain Lord shout out