 That's drunk. When your game has a title like Psycho Dream, it's gonna put some real particular expectations into your head. I mean, right off the bat, just listen to this music. And yeah, one way to describe that music would be slightly psychotic. So what is this game? It's an action platformer for Super Famicom that never left Japan, developed by the Riot Division of Telnet Japan, and they're most famous for creating the Valus series that spanned across a whole bunch of other consoles. And yeah, that's pretty much the best comparison I can come up with here, it's like a Valus game only, kind of sort of different. I should also note that the Telnet Riot Division's only other game on Super Famicom was titled Edo No Kiba, a crazy run and gun that'll have to get its own video someday. Interestingly, Psycho Dream is one of the rare games that actually was scheduled for a North American release under the title Dream Probe, only it was cancelled, and I have to imagine at least part of it was because of the reviews it received at the time. Magazines were done right mean to this game. British magazine Super Play gave it a 33% out of 100, EGM gave it a 52 out of 100, and Famitsu gave it 18 out of 40, ouch. And that brings me to a point I've wanted to talk about for a while. Now Psycho Dream is a perfectly okay action platformer, and I'll get into the guts of the game in a little bit. But just to set your expectations, no, this game is not going to compare with stuff like Mega Man X or Super Metroid or the very best on the system. I mean, jeez, those games don't just spring up out of the ground out of nowhere, but just because a game doesn't represent the absolute best of its kind doesn't mean it's not worth a playthrough. I'm just saying when it comes to playing games like Psycho Dream it's a healthy thing to adjust your standards accordingly, otherwise you're just not going to have any fun with any game, that's not among the absolute best on the system. Alright, so with that out of the way, Psycho Dream gives you one life bar and unlimited continues to get through six levels split up into three stages each. No saves or passwords here, but this is a pretty short game. As usual it's B to jump, Y to attack with a melee weapon, A being a clear screen attack, and you can also hold down L or R to run or jump higher, which is kinda nice. You can play as two different characters, Ryo and Maria, and they both pretty much play the same and have the same speed and range of motion and all that, but they have their own weapons that lend themselves well to different parts of the game. With Ryo starting out using a sword and Maria with a whip. You can also find plenty of power ups and upgrades in the form of gems when you destroy enemies, yellow gives a weapon upgrade, green gives you a shield that lasts like four seconds, purple gives you an extra clear screen attack, red replenishes life, and blue changes your weapon to a gun, which you can upgrade even further. In fact you can upgrade your original weapon up to four times, and once you reach that point you start to upgrade yourself. Ryo turns into a cyborg that shoots lasers, and Maria turns into one of the most overpowered characters in any game ever, a fairy that shoots these energy orb things all over the place. Seriously, once you reach this form, all you have to do is just para-wet all over the place like your Mikhail Baryshnikov, and make sure you don't fall off any ledges or anything. She is friggin' unstoppable, it's ridiculous. It's still fun, don't get me wrong, but come on, how about a little bit of challenge here? I should mention that if you do take three hits of damage when in this form, you go back down to your lowest level. But I mean, look at me, I'm friggin' Katerina Vitt, nothing's gonna hurt me. Anyway, I know the story doesn't usually matter in games like this, but in Psycho Dream it's actually kinda sorta interesting. In this game's universe, kids have gotten obsessed with virtual reality to the point that their minds end up being trapped there somehow, with one girl in particular named Sakaya getting so addicted that she falls into a coma. Cases like this have become so severe that new technology is developed so people can enter people's dreams to try and get them out. So two specialized agents, those being Rio and Maria, enter Sakaya's dreams and have 24 hours to try and savor, and it should be mentioned that the codename for these specialized agents going into dreams are the Diamond Dogs. I'm assuming they gotta move from station to station to meet up with Ziggy Stardust and find the man who sold the world. I should mention very quickly that no, there's no English patch available for this one, but hey, just imagine you're playing through David Bowie's brain in 1974 or something. And sure enough, since you are in a dream world, you're attacking all sorts of weird enemies in all sorts of bizarre settings. The graphics and art design here are pretty dang imaginative. You start out on the roof of a TV station where these giant friggin' towers somehow rise from the ground, completely covered in these creature things. What the hell? After that, you go through a sewer until you get to a subway, and the game eventually wraps up at a crazy theme park thing, I guess. And some of the bosses you fight are just awesome, like this thing that takes up half the screen, or whatever this thing is that hangs from the ceiling. Geez, it's like it's taken straight out of a game like Majuo. And like I said earlier, all throughout the game, the music is absolutely bonkers. Really the only flaw with this game is the level design. This game can either be annoyingly difficult or just way too easy. It all depends on which weapon you have and how upgraded you are. Starting out with your regular sword or whip, you gotta inch your way across the screen because everything does damage, but once you max out your upgrades, this game is a total breeze, even the bosses. Now granted, the main appeal of this game, at least for me, is the crazy visuals and the even crazier music, so the difficulty and occasional lack thereof are definitely not dealbreakers for me. I'm just letting you know this game can swing from one extreme to the other, and that can be kinda lousy. So yeah, ultimately, I think it's a real bummer Psycho Dream never got localized because it has a lot of things going for it. I think this game fits in right alongside other good action platformers of the time like Run Saber and Sky Blazer. I think another game it compares to really well is another Japanese-only Super Famicom game that I mentioned earlier, Majuo. It's got that same unsettling vibe to it, and while I think that game is a better playthrough, Psycho Dream is still worth checking out, just for the bizarre atmosphere, if nothing else. Alright, I wanna thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.