21. Keith Courage in Alpha Zones
What a weird pack-in. On the positive side, the jumping is kind of fun to get the hang of, I mostly like the spritework (although it's kinda bare) and music, and the "town" grinding is actually fast enough to be kind of fun. Useless subweapons, hugely repetitive stage _layouts_, extremely easy-to-farm respawning enemies (the manual even points this out lol), and mad-repeated background art hold the game back a lot, though. There just isn't much going on here. I accidentally caught the final boss in a stun loop without getting hit/10.
22. Bonk's Adventure
finally some good fucking food. Just a great game. It's a bit easy, a bit too exploitable, but Bonk is such a fun and still-unique character, mechanically! The standing headbutt has that great crunch sound and impact effect. The jumping headbutt has that great penalty for whiffing. Juggling enemies in the air with a chance to get an extra life is just the best. Even the little climbing mechanic is pretty neat! There's such a good, consistent style to the varied cast of enemies, and they all have these great animations and expressions when attacking and when hit. Really floored by this, since I've paid exactly zero attention to this series and know so little about it.
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