Retro Treasures

Nothing This Week.

2009-10-11T19:59:00.003-05:00

I'm sure it's expected, but I completely underestimated the amount of work that goes into these applications. Luckily, I started early.

I do, however, have two games that I plan to review this month. I just hope I can make it to them. Sorry again guys, but once I'm done with this task, I'll get things back on track.

Visions and Voices

2009-10-02T20:31:00.005-05:00

It has come to my attention that keeping Retro Treasures' current schedule may not be possible for the month of October. This is due in part to the fact that I'm organizing my applications to grad school, but more importantly, it's Halloween, which is a huge holiday for my family. As a result, most of this month will be spent either working on applications or decorating the old family home. So, for the month, I'm going to try shifting the updates to Friday in the hopes that that will free up some time. This may not solve the problem and more than likely I will still miss a couple, but it does place the updates on one of my days off, which should help. Now, on to the real topic.

Visions and Voices was the game I mentioned having played while I was away. In essence, it's a simple 16-bit J-rpg made in RPGmaker with an active time battle system and a dark story line. And although I don't want to talk too much about it, I do want to share a few thoughts on the game.

For one, it looks exactly as one would expect of a game from RPGmaker. Its rather a simplistic yet clean look that excels through the use of setting and atmosphere far more than it does through some of the choices in sprites. Take Telia's sprite for instance, which, without context, looks like a young school girl. This clashes harshly with the fact that not only is she a bard, but that she's also sexually active and a con artist, which are both mentioned enough to get ridiculous. Not to mention that Elena, the female warrior, looks like a stereotypical dancing girl.

The story in the game is slightly non-linear as it's up to the player to find clues and determine where they want to go next or even if they wish to follow up on them. But the main thread of the plot is that the Wanderer, an ex-con, has journeyed to Montfort village in order to investigate the rumors that people have been disappearing and that those that don't are losing their minds. When the Wanderer arrives, he runs into his old acquaintance and bed mate, Telia, whom is being chased by a man that is at that particular moment growling trying to murder her. After killing him, Telia offers to join the Wanderer and help him on his quest to uncover the secrets of Montfort.

As I mentioned earlier, the game is like a JRPG, except that there are pretty much no levels. After a good number of fights a stat just might go up, but this happens so rarely and battles are so dangerous at first, that grinding just simply isn't feasible. As a result, choosing the correct stats at the beginning of the game to suit your play style is crucial.

The stats are also different from most RPGs. Rather than having stats like Strength and Speed, Visions and Voices has stats like Bravery and Perception. Bravery, for instance, influences how hard your player can hit with a melee weapon. However, it also determines how well they defend against a melee attack, as well as how often they are targeted by the enemy. Perception, on the other hand, influences how hard you'll hit with ranged attacks, how well you'll defend against ranged attacks, and how fast you are.

Of course, having no levels, one might be groaning at the thought of fighting group after group of enemies for no reason, but that would be a misconception. There is something gained by defeating the enemies. You get to survive. Thinking about this game as a standard jRPG is doing a disservice to the uniqueness of the game. It is in essence a survival horror RPG. Managing the finite materials in your inventory and picking when you fight the on screen enemies are every bit as important as those choices are in a Resident Evil game. The better you manage your inventory and pick wothwhile fights, the more you can explore, and the more you explore, the stronger you may be able to get.

The game does have issues though. Having a character with low perception means having a character that is almost too sluggish to be useful, espceically early on. Seeing as I chose the standard warrior class at the start of the game, my Wanderer was slower than Christmas. In fact, Telia could often almost attack twice before the Wanderer would even get to choose what to do.

The characters are also a bit juvenile. Not really in who they are or how they came to be, but in how they are occasionally written. More often than not, they will make direct statements to facts about themselves that most characters would probably allude to or not just flt out say. Some times, this comes off as feeling fresh, but other times it just feels silly.

On the whole though, the game is definitely an enjoyable experience. It's unique and different enough that it's worth playing despite some off putting moments with thecharacters and a few quibbles with the battle system. And besides, it's hard to beat free.

Arizona

2009-09-28T23:09:00.002-05:00

I spent the majority of last week in Arizona, which has left me jet lagged and woefully unprepared for a Retro Treasures post. We shall return to our regularly scheduled posting next week, but at some point during the week, I shall share a 16-bit styled RPG that I did play while I was gone. Enjoy your night, and I'll see you in a few days.

Cybernator-SNES-Konami

2009-09-20T21:21:00.018-05:00

To a kid, there's just something insanely cool about robots fighting. When I was young, cybernetics and robots were always fascinating subjects to play with in my head, which more often than not led to a combination of Mega Man and RoboCop And yet, for some reason, I never learned about mechs. It wasn't until Toonami began airing Gundam Wing that I even learned the term existed. Which is a shame because I just know the younger version of myself would have just gone crazy over the notion of giant, bipedal, robotic tanks. But unfortunately, I had no idea that such a thing existed, which is why Konami's 1993 game, Cybernator, completely passed me by. So is the game everything a robot loving kid could ask for or does collapse under its own weight.

The story is about as typical as can be. The world's supply of fossil fuels is running out, which leads to an outbreak of war over not only the remaining supply but also territory rights to the moon. You play as Jake Brain, an AS pilot on the Aerial Cruiser, the Versis. Most of the plot is told through mission briefings, but there are occasional bits of dialogue occur during the levels, which unfortunately halt all the action. They're short, but annoying none the less.

However, despite the over done plot, there was one thing that did stand out. In the opening scenes, narrated by Jake, he makes it a point that he's not fighting for any grand reason. He's not seeking justice or fighting because he's patriotic. No, he's solely fighting to survive and nothing more. He doesn't even paint his his own country as anything but selfish. In a time when most games have clear cut good guys and bad guys, it's refreshing to see a game that's decidedly neutral.

Visually, the game looks great. Jake's Mech is bulky and sturdy looking, as if it had evolved from attaching legs to a tank and then making it humanoid. As a result, the mech feels much more like the powerful, heavy weapon in its design than how they are portrayed in some Animes. Although, it's not a clear cut departure because it definitely took a lot of design choices from the Gundam series.

The enemies are also very nicely stylized and animated. From the other bulky mechs and robots to the humans that scamper about, everything you come across looks right for a mech series. The boss fights in particular are massive and interesting, save the subterranean, robot worm battle, which is mostly just annoying and ho-hum.

The levels themselves are nice as well, ranging from the interior of a space colony and a mobile base hidden in a meteor to the capital city of the enemy country. Every locale feels fresh and distinct from the last. The backgrounds are also nicely detailed, such as the vaguely D.C. looking appearance given to the buildings in the enemy capital. There is no denying that the game looks pretty good, but how does it play?

For the most part, the game plays like you would expect. The player jumps and guns Jake's way to right through waves of enemies and a boss. To help him out, Jake's mech is capable of dashing for a short distance, hovering for a time, or bringing up an impenetrable shield that will block all enemy fire, even if it's coming from behind. This, of course, begs the age old question, "Why didn't they just build the whole thing out of that material?"

There are also several weapons, including a hidden one, at Jake's disposale. Each of the weapons work a little differently. The Vulcan Cannon is one of the starting weapons and the player's standard choice if they want rapid fire. The punch is the other, and though it doesn't look as useful, there are certain situations where it will come in handy. Other weapons include a missile launcher and a laser beam which can be found in other levels. The extremely powerful napalm gun is the games hidden weapon, and can only be acquired by beating the first level without shooting anything except for the boss.

As I've mentioned before, it's all a bit standard, but Cybernator does add something to spice things up. All of the weapons are upgradable, which not only increases damage dealt, but often changes how the weapon reacts. Take the Vulcan Cannon, for instance. When the player first begins, the gun is simply a pure rapid fire gun. It's fast and little more, but add a weapon level, and the bullets begin to ricochet. When the third level is reached, the reload time is cut to almost nothing.

These little tweaks go a long way toward making Jake's mech feel like an unstoppable killing force, which is heightened even more if the player gets the napalm gun. However, getting the upgrades isn't so simple as picking up a quick power up. To upgrade a gun, the player must collect p-chips. The number required to upgrade is listed beside the weapon's energy bar. And though p-chips are plentiful, they disappear fairly quickly, which means the player has to be paying attention or they might miss them.

The game's greatest weakness, though, is in its feel. Jake's mech is heavy and slow to move, which makes the game feel sluggish. In my opinion, this adds a feeling of weight to the mechs and makes it feel more like I'm piloting a powerful mobile suit. But for others the sluggishness, will annoy them as more often than not, it makes dodging much more difficult than it would be in other action games.

On the other hand, the games greatest strength is its willingness to vary its gameplay enough to keep it feeling fresh. The first level of the game is your standard run and gun segment, but the second starts off like a horizontal shooter and finishes in a section of zero gravity, which allows the player greater freedom of movement. There are other sections, though these are the weakest, that have the player's mech rushing across the ground at rapid speed, fighting off enemies and dodging traps. Though they're not all created equal, the varied structures of the levels do a good job of not allowing any one section to grow stale.

Musically, the game is truly great, with its large sweeping songs that are both enjoyable to listen to and very fitting for the theme. The sound effects are also quite good, with the sounds of the heavy steps and landings adding a great sense of weight to the game. The weapons also sound suitably powerful.

In the end, enjoying Cybernator depends on whether the controls feel right to you or not. If they feel sluggish and cumbersome, the player will not enjoy much of their experience with the game. However, if they feel like they fit the setting and add a sense of depth and weight to the game, then one will have found themselves an enjoyable game.

Final Fantasy VIII: Beating the System

2009-09-13T13:26:00.012-05:00

September 9th, 1999 was a fantastic day to be a gamer. It was the release of Final Fantasy VIII, Square's followup to their breakthrough (In America) title: Final Fantasy VII. But it was also the release SEGA's swan song, the Dreamcast, a system that would endear itself in the hearts of SEGA fans and still be spoken of to this day as a system that was ahead of its time. I made one hard rule when I started this blog. I would only look at games from systems whose generation has passed. With the Playstation 2 still actively receiving new games, the Dreamcast can't be reviewed yet. However, I still wished to commemorate that day, and I could do so by looking back at a game I didn't understand and despised it for that, in order to see if time and understanding would change my perception. I am, of course, referring to Squaresoft's divisive classic, Final Fantasy VIII.

I'm not going to go into detail about the plot or the characters. Most people already know who Squall is and the problems he has, and any insight that I could offer has probably already been discussed much more eloquently than I am capable of. Instead, I want to discuss the Guardian Force system, the core that all of the gameplay is based on and how it can be used to create a game that plays exactly as the player wants.

The Guardians are Final Fantasy VIII's summons, except that instead of solely being the characters big magic attacks, they are the source of all their powers. Without a GF equipped, the only thing they are capable of doing is attacking. Once a GF is equipped though, there becomes a whole range of options for the player to chose from. At the start, these include the magic, item, GF, and draw commands. Three of these commands can be added to your character at any time, and there are others that can be unlocked later, which allows the player to customize how each character approaches battle.

For what I want to discuss though, draw is probably the most important of the skills available at first. That's because magic in Final Fantasy VIII isn't determined in the normal way. A spell doesn't require a certain amount of magic points out of your total pool in order to be cast. Rather, magic in this game is a consumable, which means that as long as you have it, you can use it.

When the character draws a spell from an enemy, it can be either cast or stocked to a maximum of 100 spells. If the player wanted to, he or she could draw all 100 of those from a single enemy. Lets say 100 fires were drawn. Now the player can do one of several things with that group of spells. The most obvious use is that they could be cast on enemies, but that's, sometimes, not the best choice.

Take junctioning, for example. Junctioning, for ease of contemplation, can be thought of as a complicated equipment screen. The Guardian Forces act as the main piece of equipment, each of which comes with different attributes and characteristics. They have skills like ATK-J or HP-J, modifiers like MAG +20%, commands like 'defend' or 'card', skills that effect the summon itself, and some that grant useful skills for inventory management. Some of these skills are available at the start, while others must be learned by gaining AP.

But what we are concerned with, at this moment, are the ATK-J type skills. What these skills allow the player to do is junction a group of spells to the stat it names. So, if the the Guardian Force that a player has equipped knows ATK-J, then one becomes capable of junctioning magic to it. So, if we junction 100 fires to ATK, then that character's attack will increase by 10 points. If we junction 99, then it's 9 points. 85 would be 8 points. And if fira or firaga were junctioned the increase would be even greater. Now, the player is stronger than before, but the trade off is that there is a penalty for using those spells.

At first, this only allows the player to increase the characters stats a little beyond what they should be capable of, and as one would expect, the game is slow to dole out enemies with more powerful spells for the characters to draw from and draw points, special spots on the map where magic can be drawn, are not a good source of magic. However, for the patient, that is not a problem.

The inventory management skills I spoke of come into play here. By learning certain skills, the player is able to refine items into magic. The M-stone piece could be used to make fire magic for example. The Magic Stone could create fira. While the Wizard Stone could be turned into firaga. By refining items into magic, it is possible to gain a large number of powerful magics early in the game.

However, one might think, and rightly so, that collecting these items would require a lot of battles, which would raise the party's level, defeating the purpose of junctioning all that magic because you've already grown stronger. That is only half right, and there are two reasons for that.

The first is that the game levels with you, so as the character's levels grow higher, the game becomes more difficult to compensate. So if the player is the type of person that likes to grind until they are more powerful than his or her enemies, they are actually doing themselves a disservice.

The second reason is that the player does not have to gain EXP for their battles. With the use of the Card command, any monster can be captured and turned into a card. This grants the player everything that came from winning the battle except the EXP. With the use of this command, it is possible for the player to control their level, and by that, the difficulty of the game.

These cards can then be put to an even better use. By acquiring a skill called Card Mod, the player can refine cards into items, and those items into spells. The Card and the Card Mod skills are taught by one of your first Guardian Forces, as is a skill that will turn five low level spells into a mid level spell. For those who want to, it is possible, very early in the game, to create spells beyond what one should have.

What this does, and why this is so amazing, is that it places full control over the game in the hands of the player. If one wants the game to be more difficult, he or she can increase the characters' levels and lower their junctions. If one wants it to be easier, then Card or run from fights to manage your levels and create high level spells to junction.

I used to hate Final Fantasy VIII, and that's because, for the most part, the tutorials explaining the game were horrible. There are a lot of things, such as the game scaling with you, that weren't even explained outside of a SeeD Test. I played though most of the game lost and struggling. And I still hold the game responsible for that. However, going back and figuring out what was actually going on, I was able to find a deep and engaging system that required the player to grind intelligently rather than by simply hitting stuff over and over again until the characters had bigger muscles. And that is what makesFinal Fantasy VIII so fun.

Labor Day

2009-09-07T22:57:00.001-05:00

Been a hectic week, and unfortunately, I didn't have time to review a game. So, I'll see you guys next week. Happy Labor Day.

Uniracers-SNES-DMA Design

2009-08-30T15:48:00.013-05:00

One of the genres that I have grown to love more and more as technology has increased is racing. Back when I was younger, I rarely had much to do with them unless I was visiting a friend. As a result, my experiences were limited to games like Mario Kart and Virtua Racing. Both were fantastic games, but only scratch the surface of the experiences available at that time. So I was excited to pick up DMA Design's (who would later go on to become Rockstar North) 1994 game, Uniracer. So does Uniracers keep up with the pack or does it lose its balance at the starting line?

Visually, the game is colorful and pleasing to look at. The tracks are brightly colored and look much like a candy cane. Similarly, the unicycles themselves are all vibrantly colored and do a great job of remaining distinct from the background. Unfortunately, there is very little to see while one is racing. The backgrounds are particularly bland, often being made up of repetitious shapes and colors. Yet, as a result of this, it is able to keep a strong sense of speed with little to no slowdown.

The mechanics, likewise, are simple to learn and difficult to master. Pressing left or right on the d-pad will send the living unicycle hurtling in that direction. The should buttons cause them to flip in the air, while pressing left and right rapidly while in the air causes them to twist. The Y button is the breaks, though one will hardly ever need to use it, while X and A both perform different tricks that are useful in the trick challenges. In any other situation, a flip or a twist is preferable because they can be preformed quicker. Seeing as boost is earned from landing a trick successfully, the quicker one can be pulled off the better.

There are eight different cups in the game (Four of which are unlocked from the start). Each cup has five races and three difficulty settings. The first difficulty level is bronze, followed by silver and gold. To move up to a higher difficulty, the player must win all five races on each previous difficulty level of that cup. Unlike Mario Kart, though, the new difficulty levels do not change how the races play out. There are no changes in speed or variations to the track that will help keep the game feeling fresh. Instead, the computer character becomes almost infallible, often times beating the gold rank that has been set on the time trials. This requires the player to preform perfectly in most situations. And seeing as a jump can be bungled by landing at just slightly the wrong angle, some races can become quite frustrating.

At the start of the game, the player is allowed to choose one of 16 differently named and colored unicycles, or if one is so inclined, he can go to the options menu and rename them. Every medal earned, will be saved to that specific character. Unfortunately, the game does not record beating specific races, so if the player beats four of five challenges, the progress will not be recorded. Even so much as leaving the screen would cause all four victories to be wiped.

As I've stated, each cup is made up of five races. These are usually made up of two lapped races, two race to the finish, and one trick race. These races usually have symbols by each which will inform the player a little about each race. A straight arrow generally means that the player will be mostly heading in one direction, while a hook usually means the race has large jumps. A circular arrow generally denoted a lapped race.

As frustrating as the game can be, controlling the unicycles is a breeze. As there is no slowdown even at high speeds, there is no delay between button presses and the action. This helps as more often than not, the player is required to make split second choices where any mistake could doom the round.

As I mentioned, the games environments are nondescript, which makes it difficult to tell exactly where one is during the race. Being a side-scrolling racer, the player is not able to see what is ahead of him. Luckily, the game color codes the track so as to help one know what's coming up. Blue and red generally mean that a sharp hill is coming and not to jump. An orange and yellow set of track always comes before a trap that must be jumped to avoid. Paying attention to these can spell the difference between victory and defeat.

Musically, the game is fantastic with a rocking, upbeat and fun tempo that matches the breakneck pace of the races. The sound effects, on the other hand, are almost non-existent. Other than the chime that plays when a trick is landed, the racing is extremely quiet. There is a muted sound to the jumps, but none for the landing. There are other things that make a sound, such as the wheels peeling off at the start, but for the most part it's a fairly silent in the sound effects department.

Uniracers is a simple game. It's equal parts frustrating and fulfilling. When you're wining or at least in contention, the game is a blast to play, but if you make a mistake, it becomes almost impossible to catch, especially up in the later difficulties. It's an archaic game that feels awesome. I can't personally say that I loved the game, but I didn't hate it either. It's a well made game, just don't go in expecting a perfect, or easy, race.

Jurassic Park-Genesis-BlueSky Software

2009-08-23T16:36:00.011-05:00

Kids love dinosaurs. It's almost an undeniable fact. There's something about the that is absolutely fascinating, something that causes the mind to latch on and run wild. Perhaps, it's because that period in time was so fantastical and yet so real. Regardless, kids loved them. I loved them. So, it's not surprising that during several of my trips to the rental store as a child, I'd come home with BlueSky Software's 1993 Genesis version of Jurassic Park. And I loved this game when I was younger. I would play it all the time. So is this a game worth reanimating, or should it just stay buried.

Graphically, the game is hard to judge. Everything about the game looks grainy and fairly ugly, but as a result it also looks grittier and more realistic. Likewise, the main character and enemies look good. Grant, though lankier than his film counterpart, looks impressively realistic, and for the most part animates very nicely. The raptor, as well as the other dinosaurs, also look impressively real for a genesis game. That's because Grant's actions and movements were based on recordings of one of the developers movements, which was then digitized, while the dinosaurs were created using stop motion photography.

Unfortunately, although the models look very good, there is a bit of a disconnect between them and the background. At times, this disconnect can be extremely helpfully as it makes the enemies stand out against the business of the background. On the other hand, it never really looks like the characters and backgrounds exist in the same world. This is especially noticeable when the T-Rex shows up. Luckily, the graphics are pleasing and do a good job of creating a feeling of danger.

It's just too bad that the gameplay is really only capable of capturing the feeling of the latter. The game is broken up into two distinct and very different modes of play. When the player reaches the menu screen, they are given the option of selecting to either play as Dr. Grant as he flees the T-Rex Menace or as the Raptor, who for some reason has decided that Grant has to die.

As Grant is the default character, we will begin by discussing his game. Grants game is a survival platformer. By this, I mean that most of his game is based around scavenging for health and items. The player is given three lives with which to beat the level, and checkpoints are often few and far between, with many levels having none at all. Death at any point in a level, means redoing the whole section.

This difficulty, combined with the fact that Grant takes damage from almost anything, forces players to remain on the lookout for health items and other useful defensive weapons. I call them defensive, because Grant doesn't collect pistols and shotguns in his quest to escape the island. No, he collects tranquilizer darts, flash bangs, and sleep gas grenades. The only damaging weapons that Grant gets are a set of explosive grenades and a rocket launcher, both of which, though extremely powerful, are fairly rare. As a result, the game maintains this feeling that one is escaping, rather than fighting back. This feeling gives Grant's game an extremely interesting motif.

The Raptor, on the other hand, plays out more like a standard platformer. Where as Grant must scavenge for weapons in order to survive, the raptor is in itself a weapon. With the ability to bite, kick, and stomp its enemies to death, the raptor has little to fear from a lone enemy. Unfortunately, the majority of the raptors five levels will put it in situations where it must either fight multiple enemies or large numbers of enemies. Luckily, there are bits of meat and small dinosaurs around that can be eaten to refill the raptor's health. The raptor is also much more mobile than Grant, capable of preforming a lunging bite or a high jump, if the situation calls for it.

Despite the inherent differences in the game, Grant and the Raptor often move through the same areas, which makes the two modes feel interconnected. Despite this, Grant has more levels than the Raptor. These levels generally play out slightly different than the shared ones, such as the waterfall level. Grant's third level has him descending a waterfall via boat. This level is one of the more frustrating in the game as it's the first to really feel like trial and error is the only solution. Yet, even when Grant and the raptor move through the same stages, the differences in how they are controlled and the slight differences in how the levels are laid out, causes the stages to feel fresh and new.

Unfortunately, the game has some flaws. The first being that the game is difficult. The first time the player will pick up on this is when he or she is exploring the caves at the end of the first level. Until the player knows were to go, it is almost impossible to get to the end without dying. That's because the caves require the player to go down toward the exit, but also toward the instant death water. At first it is not difficult to make it down safely, as the screen will shift when down on the d-pad is pressed. However, once the player nears the bottom, it stops doing that, which means the final drop must be done blind.

The controls are also stiff and a lot of jumps require the player to be very precise in order to grab ledges or to climb ladders and rope. This problem is much worse as the raptor, because it is a larger and much clunkier character. Finding the appropriate spot to jump from so that not only does the raptor not hit something and stop dead but also to grab the exact spot required for its stubby arms to catch can quite hallenging.

Perhaps the biggest problem the game faces, though, is something that doesn't really become apparent until the player is already a ways into the game. That problem is the extreme trial and error based later levels. More often than not, in those levels, enemies will attack you as soon as or before they are even on the screen. The first time through a level is often a slow death by degrees as the player is pelted by range attacks and falling traps that they didn't even know were there at first.

There is, however, one concession that the game makes for its difficulty: passwords. While it is not new for a games to have passwords as a way to keep one's progress, this game takes it a step beyond. Not only does the game remember the password a player put in before starting a game, it will also auto-input the password for the last level the player made it to. As a result, the game sort of has infinite continues. It's just that one has to select password to continue.

Musically, the game is well served by a soundtrack that helps to create the feelings of tension and danger that the game seems to be trying to create. However, they're not songs that will stick with someone long after he or she have finished playing. The sound effects in the game are quite good. The convincing grunts and screams from Grant and the roars from the dinosaurs are all quite good.

In the end, the game is no where near as good as I remember, and that's a real shame because the game feels like a collection of great ideas that were just poorly implemented. It's not a horrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but it is frustrating. However, if you're a fan of the movie or just want to stomp on people as a raptor, you'll probably end up having an enjoyable visit to the park.

No Update This Week

2009-08-17T20:48:00.002-05:00

Sorry, guys.

I had an absolutely exhausting week, and a friend is moving to Iowa on Wednesday. As a result of my tiredness and the work I am putting into a different project, I didn't get started on reviewing a game for this week, and the essay I had penned up to replace it just isn't cutting the mustard.

The friend moving to Iowa is why I will be busy tonight. So as you already know, there will be no Retro Treasures review this week. I will see you all again next week.

Have a good one.

Steel Empire-Genesis-Flying Edge

2009-08-10T11:31:00.017-05:00

Occasionally, there would be games I'd rent that, despite getting very little actual play time, would live on in my mind as a sort of mythical lost opportunity. Flying Edge's Steel Empire was one of those games. Though, I barely touched it when I was younger, its steampunk zeppelin and biplane became etched into my mind as classic images of what a horizontal shooter should be. So, is this 1992 Genesis game as awesome as I had made myself believe it was or is it merely rusting iron?

The story is, at its most basic, a steampunk retelling of World War 2. This time it's the Motorhead Empire that has swept across the world, conquering every nation that dared to stand against them-- except one. Only the Republic of Silverhead has the power and technology to stand against Motorhead's domination. It's a simple story, but the setting makes it feel fresher and a bit more imaginative than it would had it been just a retelling.

Graphically, the game is very attractive and the steampunk helps make it feel unique. From the flickering opening story scene reminiscent of early movies to flying battleships held in the air by propellers, the setting exudes a unique strangeness that keeps the player intrigued. The only real problem is the abundance of slowdown that appears during most of the boss fights. It's never so much that the player loses their rhythm, but it is definitely noticeable.

Steel Empire follows the same basic rule that most other shooters have adhered to over the years: if it moves, shoot it, even if it doesn't move. The game plays as one would expect. The player controls either a biplane or a zeppelin and holds down the shoot button until everything on the screen is either dead or gone. If it is needed to for the player to accomplish that objective, there is the standard screen clearing bomb that can be used by pressing the A button. However, rather than just exploding, this bomb summons bolts of lightening. It's a bit silly and impractical, but extremely charming.

Steel Empire does differentiate itself from other shooters in several key ways. One is that it allows the player to not only shoot forward but backwards as well, and it is as simple as switching from the C button to B. This gives the player a greater feeling of control over the environment.

Each aircraft also comes with a secondary shot unique to that ship. The zeppelin launches depth charges which arc up before falling, while the biplane drops bombs at a downward angle. These sub-weapons add nicely to the notion that you are flying the most hi-tech weapons ever designed while still fitting the unique style of the game.

The sub-weapons are not the only difference between the two aircraft though. The biplane, as one might expect is, fast, nimble, and small. It's able to weave through enemy fire with ease. The zeppelin, on the other hand, is slower and larger but more powerful, capable of destroying enemies much quicker. It's also more resistant to damage.

That is probably the biggest difference between Steel Empire and other shooters: neither of the two aircraft are shot down from just one hit. In fact, each plane has a life bar that can not only be refilled, but also increased over its starting value by collecting health refilling items.

Items don't drop from destroyed enemies, either. They are carried in either sacks attached to small helicopters or large, red drop ships that release a ring of them when shot down. The smaller bags will only drop one item at a time, but have the potential to drop many different types, ranging from simple money orbs (points) and bombs to extra lives, more health, or twin aircraft that fly along side you. The ring of items though, always holds a random combination of 6 item tokens that are either money or experience.

Experience as one might have guessed is used to level up the players aircraft to a possible level twenty. For the most part, it simply increases to the amount of damage that the player's weapon deals, but it will occasionally change the number of shots fired by the sub-weapon as well. So, by the end of the game, the zeppelin is launching six depth charges as opposed to one. It is important to note that unlike the players point total, levels and experience are not lost when the player gets a game over. As a result, players are able to go through levels that bested them slightly stronger.

These changes in power and weaponry can be a huge boon when battling the games many bosses. Like most shooters, the bosses are many times the size of the player's aircraft, however, unlike most shooters, they are also several times the size of the screen. The majority of these fights involve the player skirting around the edge of the boss, trying to destroy as much of it as possible, which more often than not, simply means knocking all of its many weapons off until you reveal its last set of defenses.

The music in the game varies from awesome to merely good. The soaring and beat heavy first level theme fits the high flying nature of the game perfectly, and energizes the player. While the second level's theme, on the other hand, (an underground level), fits thematically with the area the player is flying through, its muted tones and soft notes fail to leave much of an impression. The sounds effects are equally nice, with a distinct difference between when an enemy is hit and when the player takes damage. With such a need for dodging, the auditory clues are a big help.

Steel Empire is a great game. Its setting is unique and interesting, its action is frantic but not overly so, and most importantly, its fun. It has held up well over the years and validated my own preconceived notions. It has its share of flaws, such as the lack of a two player mode, but I would have no problems recommending it to anyone that loved shooters, steampunk, or a frantically good time.

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose-SNES-Konami

2009-08-03T19:00:00.008-05:00

As a kid, I absolutely adored Tiny Toon Adventures. It was one of my favorite shows during the time it was on the air, and the kind I'd rush home to see. I'd curl up in my chair and watch the fun filled shinanigans of Buster, Babs, and the rest of the cast. One episode was never enough. I always wanted more. Thankfully, the NES game and the frequently rented Genesis one filled the gap. However, there was always something missing. I didn't own a SNES. As a result, I was unable to experience Konami's 1993 release of Buster Busts Loose. This created an air of mystery around the game, as I tried, through reviews and screen shots, to piece together what the game was like. What I imagined was a game very much like Buster's Hidden Treasure but better. So, is Buster Busts Loose anything like I imagined it, or was I a little loony?

The story of the game is actually fairly charming. Rather than being a grand adventure like in Hidden Treasure, Busts Loose is actually a collection of episodes that the characters are filming. Each level, usually, opens with a small scene of Buster talking to one of the other Tiny Toons cast members. These short snippets inform the player of the setting and give a little bit of background information. As the level is the episode, the conversations feel more like one that actors standing around a set would have before filming.

As one can tell, one of the biggest additions to Busts Loose over the other games is that this version actually manages to capture the charm of the show. As a result, many of the scenes have a humor that the other games were lacking. The dialogue is the most obvious place this shows, but one can't forget the facial expresions, which closely mirror those of their drawn counterparts. During the opening of the Western Level, while Max is ranting about how he's the star, the camera pans to show the disgusted faces of Plucky and Buster.

As one can tell, the game is very attractive. The colors are bright and vivid. The sprites are detailed and well animated. Even the enemies have changing facial expressions depending on their actions. The levels (Acme Looniversity, the wild west, a horror level, a football game, a sky stage, and a space opera) are also extremely attractive and are all varied and distinct.

Of course, beautiful games can still be lacking when it comes to gameplay, but I'm thankful to say that the controls are spot on, at least when it comes to movement and jumping. Buster handles exactly like one would want him to so the player is rarely left with the feeling that a death was caused by bad controls. On the other hand, unlike Hidden Treasure and most other platformers for that matter, Buster has an attack button. When the X or Y buttons are pressed, Buster will either preform a short hop into a drop kick if he's on the ground or a flip kick if he's in the air.

This is a bit jarring at first, because it feels unnatural. Whether jumping on an enemy or kicking them, Buster is still landing on said enemy. Drop kicking also has the added handicap of taking control of Buster away from the player until he lands on the ground. Though Buster is invulnerable during this period, I have had a few untimely deaths due to attacking an enemy near an edge, which caused me to plummet to my death. Thankfully, this is rare and there are mercifully few times that the inability to move actually hinders the player.

Another of Buster's abilities is that he can dash by pressing the L or R buttons. This move allows Buster not only to perform long jumps but also climb walls and extend the reach of normal jumps. The dash drains a meter at the top of the screen, so it can't be used for long. Luckily, it can be replenished by either collecting Gogo Dodo status or just allowing it to slowly refill.

As I stated, most of the levels are slightly different from each other, which causes there to be some variation in quality. For instance the train section of the wild west level would be an awesome section of platforming greatness except for the fact that the level auto scrolls, has jumps that one must already know about in order to make correctly, and will kill you if you fall too far behind. Not only that, all three of those points combine into a couple of frustrating jumps late in the level.

On the other hand, the football level is absolutely excellent. Playing out like an actual game of football, the player is charged with marching Acme Loo down the field in order to score one last touch down before time runs out. There are two plays that can be called: pass or run. The run play is exactly as one would imagine it, while the pass play tasks the player with actually catching the ball before dashing off. As Buster makes his way down field he must either go over or under the other team as they charge, leap, or hop in order to stop him. Making a huge gain in this level is an awesome minor victory, one which is rewarded with stars.

Stars, much like coins in a Mario game, grant the player with an extra life for every hundred collected. There are other collectibles as well, such as silver and gold carrots that refill Buster's health as well a diamond one that increases his life bar by one.

At the end of each level, a roulette wheel is spun to see which of five mini games the player will attempt in order to gain extra lives. In most of these, the player will actually control a different cast member. Plucky catches the balls in a game of bingo. Sweetie (The pink bird) plays a game with scales where the player must assign characters to be weighed. The winner is determined by the heaviest. Hampton runs, slowly, along a path in a sliding tile puzzle in order to collect apples. Furball plays a game of racket ball. Babs, though, has probably the most enjoyable of the games. Her's is a Pac-Man-esque run through a maze to free her friends. Players are almost guaranteed to earn a few lives in these minigames, which will come in handy during the final sections of each level.

Not every level ends in a boss fight. Some like the Sky and Western levels end with challenging bits of platforming, which are fairly frustrating until one knows exactly how to proceed. The boss fights, though, are a treat to play. More than just a one on one show down to see who can hit the other the most, the bosses usually require alternate methods to defeating them, such as stuffing them full of food or knocking the metal bolts they throw back into a machine. This keeps the boss fights inventive and slightly challenging, while also being extremely nonviolent.

The music in the game is good, but unfortunately, it is themed to match the levels. As a result, each song sounds derivative and are completely forgettable. It does have the theme song and a few reimaginings of it, which are nice. The sound effects are good, but the sound the game makes when Buster hits an enemy is a little muted compared to the others.

In the end, Buster Busts Loose is a fantastic game. It does something things a little awkwardly, and it is, unfortunately, short, but it's definitely the best of the 16 bit era Tiny Toons games.

World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck- Genesis- Sega

2009-07-26T09:18:00.013-05:00

I grew up watching the Disney Channel, and didn't even know thatt Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network existed until I was nearing ten. So, it should probably come as no surprise that I played a lot of Disney games during my youth and especially anything that offered the ability to play as that cantankerous duck in a sailor suit, Donald. It just so happens that Sega's 1992 World of Illusion offered me such a treat, and I was quick to be in line for that magic show. So is the game as magical as I remember or did Sega drop the deck mid shuffle?

The story is fairly simple. Mickey and Donald are practicing their magic act, when Donald is startled by one of the tricks, causing him to fall backwards through the curtains. This leads the two to discover a magical disappearing box. Donald, deciding that it'd be great addition to their act, hops in and immediately vanishes. Mickey, worried about his friend, begins to search for the trap door in the box when he too vanishes. As the two plummet into another world, they hear a voice telling them that besting him in magic is the only way he'll allow them to escape from his domain. Now, Mickey and Donald must traverse this world of magic and illusion if they ever want to see home again.

Visually, the game is gorgeous with detailed spirits and fluid animations. The world is as bright and cheerful as one would expect from the House of Mouse and Sega, and the levels exude that charm that is all but mandatory in a Disney game.

Though there are only 5 levels, each seems to to send the player to a multitude of various locations. From the forests to the mountains and under the sea, Donald and Mickey will be whisked to several beautiful and whimsical areas, and that doesn't even cover the stranger stages like a giant study, a world of cookies, or wonderland itself.

The enemy sprites are either pulled straight from various Disney movies and shorts, or they are made up of common characters that have been tweaked to make them fit into the theme of the level, such as Tweedledee and Tweedledum being redone as poppers for the Christmas Tree level.

The gameplay is fairly simple. The A button runs, B attacks, and C jumps. Though simple, the layout controls feels a bit awkward, especially as I like having the run button close to jump. Luckily, the controls are fully customizable, and it seems that their is no difference between a walking jump and a running jump.

As the game was meant for children, the action is of a nonviolent nature. The attack button cause Donald or Mickey to swing out a magical cape, which transforms their enemies into harmless magical items such as a dove or a card. Whether that is a worse fate than death, I'm not entirely sure.

The game is also very short. I was able to beat the game in about forty minutes the first time through as Donald, in about thirty as Mickey, and in about an hour during the two player mode. World of Illusion isn't a game that would last a seasoned platformer very long, but it's the perfect length for kids.

Luckily, though short, the game does have a good bit of replayability, due eniterly to the fact that each character has a unique segment in each of the five levels. The levels follow a specific pattern by starting the characters in a shared environment before sending them to their own section, which is followed by another shared section, which ends in a boss battle.

It is my opinion that the differences between each characters levels replaces the difficulty options. For example, during the third level (an underwater level), Mickey is able to crawl through a small gap and ends up in the belly of a whale. Donald, on the other hand, can't fit his large rump through the gap and is forced to double back and swim to the surface for a more challenging platforming section. Of course, if the game were being played by two players, than Mickey would be able to pull Donald through the gap, which would send the pair to either Atlantis or a bizarrely dry version of King Triton's Palace.

That leads us to probably the best bit about the game. It is not only a two player game, but an actual cooperative game. The players must work together to not only overcome enemies but obstacles as well. They can stand on each other's shoulders to reach high platforms, lower ropes, and help push a handcar through a collapsing mine.

Each of the cooperative sections are more challenging (due to the cooperative nature) and often more inventive than the single player sections, except for the final one. Where as in the single player game Mickey or Donald explore the area behind the mirror or a hedge maze respectively, in the cooperative mode, the two end up in a room of doors, each of which takes them back to an already explored area. Seeing as the game is only an hour long, the section ends up feeling extremely tedious.

The bosses, unfortunately, are no different between the various modes, meaning that they are even more simple on the two player game. Most bosses take about five hits to bring down, and when two players are working in tandem there isn't really any strategy required.

After each boss, Mickey and Donald are granted a tome of magical knowledge, which will grant them a spell that will get them through the next level. These spells are mostly just varying modes of transportation, such as a magic carpet, a bubble that allows them to breathe underwater, and a teleportation spell. Even the spell that allows them to control cards does little more than create platforms. Though these spells don't change the gameplay up to drastically, they add to the magic of the game and are still enjoyable if only because hearing Donald say "Alakazam" is always amusing.

The music is definitely the highlight of the game. It covers a wide range of styles and almost all of them are pleasing even if they aren't terribly memorable. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the sound affects, though most are passable, some, such as the sound of swimming in the bubble, are grating to the ears.

All in all, World of Illusion is a well made game. It's beautiful, and the music is wonderful. However, it's simply too easy to be played multiple times by someone good at these types of games. Yet, if you have a kid that has a friend, than this game would probably be right up their alley.

No update this week.

2009-07-20T12:01:00.004-05:00

I apologize for the lack of an actual review these past two weeks. I have been out of town and have only just returned at which point I discovered my cat has gone missing. The original plan was that I'd write up another essay, but with my cat being gone, I will probably spend today looking for him.

I'll be back next week with a new review. I hope to see you then.

Thank you.

Defying the Odds: Power Fantasies of the Single Player in the Current Generation

2009-07-12T11:44:00.001-05:00

We've all done it at some point, whether it was as children or last Tuesday while on the drive to work. We've all had those little moments where the mind begins to walk its own path, separate from both reality and logic. In those moments, we envision scenarios for ourselves in which we become a larger than life persona, a sort of superhero . We become powerful, confident, and content. We leap from the roof tops, win miraculous court cases, fend off armies, or win the love of that model on that particular billboard we always pass. But all too soon, logic breaks through to our little safe haven and pulls us back to life, leaving a part of us that feels silly that we allowed ourselves to get so taken in by our delusions of grandeur. And yet, there is another part, the part that holds onto our childhood dreams like they were fragile, ceramic Legos, that already misses the fun and the rush of the imagined world.

That little vestige of our childhood is what the single player mode in video games reaches out to. The single player, or story mode, does not target the same emotions that a multiplayer mode would, nor the same that can be found by playing board games or card games. That is not because there is some inherent difference in how each one is a game, but rather, it is due to a difference in the stakes.

The prime reason for this is competition. In games where the main mode of play is that which pits a person against against a varying number of others, all the combinations of skill and luck that can exist between come into play. In a game like Go Fish, it is hard to know who will be asked for a card or what that card may be. Likewise, one never fully knows what word someone may play next in Scrabble, or if an opponent will rise over the hill in Halo to interrupt ones ambush. As a result, though winning does feel good and accomplishing something difficult feels great, it is rare to have those moments where one gains and maintains that feeling of absolute dominance over one's surroundings that are required in a power fantasy.

Story mode though, in many cases, is custom tailored to create that feeling. Often, the player controls either the sole person capable of saving the world or a small group of heroes capable of defying the odds. So, while playing, one becomes the sole deciding factor between not only the player's own life and death, but also almost everyone else on the planet's. And through the characters, the player becomes so central that the weight of a world is on their shoulders. It does not mater that others have experienced the same victory. At that time and in that place, it is all on that particular player.

Over time, the core group of players that stuck with the hobby have improved, which makes games seem to have gotten easier. There are a combination of factors at play here besides just increased player skill, but for the experienced player there is only one important thing. The weight on their shoulders is little more than than the weight of a a baseball.

It's a pressure so minor that one could dance underneath it, take risks, and reap huge rewards. And yet, it is a weight that is still constantly present. The difficulty reminds the player that it exists, but it never actually impedes ones progress. It's a carefully crafted and balanced experience designed to never frustrate. As a result, the player begins to feel super human, as enemies capable of destroying armies during a cinematic collapse easily under the weight of the player's onslaught.

In Gears of War, the player takes the role of Marcus Fenix, a man freshly freed from jail. As it turns out, the war against the Locust that has been raging while he was inside is not going well. Luckily, Marcus is just the sort of hero that is required in a situation like this. Under his leadership, a squad of four are able to punch through enemy lines and deliver, what the player and Marcus believe at the time, to be crippling a defeat to the Locust. Of course, the need for a sequel negates the force of the ending a bit, but the point still remains. The player does what millions of men could not, when he or she drives back the enemy. Hope springs again in the hearts of man because of the actions of the player and his or her squad.

It is the kind of situation that would seem ridiculous in life, but on the screen and in the game, that very ridiculousness only increases the effect. We can easily turn off the brain as we pick up the controller, and become the kind of hero that we've always dreamed of. And when we put the controller down and turn the system off, we can return to reality without the feeling that we might be a bit too silly, because not only have we saved the world, but we've also driven back the boredom in our lives.

Gex-PSX-Crystal Dynamics

2009-07-06T19:09:00.000-05:00

Childhood favorites are always the hardest games to write about. I got Gex for the Sega Saturn back in 96, while a friend got it for the Playstation. I must have played through the game countless times, enough that I could almost remember every level in detail of Crystal Dynamic's little gem. However, like all things, coming back to it years later has brought the nostalgia crashing into the reality of the game. So is Gex as good as I remember, or is it just killing my TV?

The story of Gex is a bit convoluted. Most of is only revealed in the manual, and never mentioned inside the actual game. The manual discusses Gex's adolescence in Maui, Hawaii. Raised by his mother while his father worked his job at NASA, Gex lived a rather idealistic life, hanging with friends, surfing, and throwing poi parties. Until one day, his mother receives a phone call. Gex's father had been killed when the rocket he was to be piloting blew up the launch pad.

Rather than dealing with his problems like the rest of the family, our lizard friend bottled up his emotions and began to focus all of his attentions on the television. When Gex's addiction grew problematic, the family tried to intervene by moving to California and leaving the TV behind.

The loss of his TV caused Gex to run away from home. He lived on the streets for several months, until one day, his family found him again. Due to the death of his father, Gex, as well as the rest of his family, had inherited a massive fortune. With his share of the money, Gex bought a mansion back in Maui and a giant TV, where he wastes his days away. That is, until Rez pulled Gex into the Media Dimension. Now, Gex must destroy televisions in order to escape.

There's actually a slight bit of pathos to the story. More so than most heroes at the time, Gex had real issues and had taken refuge from them in a very humane way, especially considering he's a lizard. But not only that, there's a slight air of condemnation for the sedentary life that Gex is living. The player is constantly being reminded by Gex that he doesn't have a life and that the only way to escape the Media Dimension is to kill your TV.

Oddly enough, little of this makes it way into the actual game. Without reading the manual, the only thing that the player will know is that Rez has pulled Gex into the Media Dimension, and now he's got to escape. The interesting thing about this is that it grants an interesting story to the gamers that want it, while never forcing it down the throat of those that don't.

Regardless of the story, Gex remains the wisecracking hero that was so prevalent in the 90's. Unlike Bug though, Gex's jokes and banter serve as a way to strengthen the character and draw the player deeper into the game. This is in part because because Gex was voiced by the comedian Dana Gould, who was able to deliver the quips and commentary in a much more pleasing way.

The game is actually rather simple. The player must guide Gex through five themed worlds (A sixth is hidden), in his quest for freedom. Each world is made up of a small collection of levels and a boss battle, and new levels and worlds are opened up by finding the remotes that are hidden in each one.

Though the structure is simple, actually accomplishing the objectives in Gex can be a bit of a challenge. Near the end of the game, the jumps, traps, and enemies require more than just a little bit of finesse to bypass. Thankfully, Gex is quite talented in both combat and navigating terrain.

In combat, Gex has a standard tail attack that can defeat most enemies. The only problem is that getting so close to them leaves Gex vulnerable. As there is a bit of a delay between when an enemy is struck and when they no longer cause damage, this is not always the safest path. The tail bounce is a much safer decision if the player wishes to fight in close, as the bounce after landing on an enemy ensures that Gex is well out of harms way.

Additionally, Gex can eat special orbs that contain flies. These orbs grant the lizard several different special abilities. A red orb allows him to shoot fire. A dark blue orb allows him to shoot ice. A yellow orb lets him fire out a spread-shot of lightening. These orbs grant Gex with an almost unfair advantage over his enemies, but that power is lost if Gex takes damage.

These powers also stack. Eating three fire bugs gives Gex not only three extra slip-ups before the powers are gone, but also three extra hit points. Combine that with the orange orbs that increase Gex's maximum health for the duration of that life or level, and it becomes not uncommon for a skilled player to possess nine hit points at the end of some levels instead of three.

There are other orbs as well: an orb that increases Gex's speed for a time, one that increases his jumping abilities until he takes damage, one that creates a wind shield that protects Gex from damage, and simple ones that restore health or grant extra lives.

Early on the player will likely eat every orb they come across, hoarding as much power as they can, but later on the game becomes much more tricky. Sometimes all one wants is a health refill, but all that is available is a speed boost. Luckily, by attacking the orb rather than eating it, Gex is able to take that speed boost orb, or any orb, and turn it into health.

To move through levels easily, Gex can climb walls, ceilings, and certain backgrounds. When combined with his ability to tail bounce off of most enemies and several obstacles this grants Gex a freedom of movement that not many other platforming characters have.

Unfortunately, the game is neither that long nor that difficult. In my mind, I remember Gex as a lengthy and challenging platformer that defeated me forever. And in a sense it was.

Though few in number, most of the levels are actually rather long, and many have branching paths and up to four or five checkpoints to keep one from having to go back too far. The later levels are also rather challenging. Deaths can come suddenly from instant death pits or slowly from a simple onslaught of traps and enemies.

So what makes the game so easy? It gives out lives as if they are M&Ms. The first time I played through the game again, I reached Rez with 96 lives, and beat him with 82. Lives are gained so frequently, that despite the game offering a feeling of danger and tension, it never really matters much. In fact, many of the most difficult sections are proceeded by a checkpoint and several lives. It's not uncommon to gain lives by dying at certain points.

And other than Rez, the bosses are extremely easy, due to their patterned nature. Thankfully, they are at least interestingly varied. Ranging from superhero with super-gas to a snake-like monster that Gex must race up a mountain, each boss manages to remain unique. Even the battle with Rez boils down to simple patterns. Fortunately, Rez changes up so often and actually damaging him is so difficult that most players will lose a life or two to simple human error.

Musically, the game is nothing amazing. Each area has three music tracks: one for the world map, one for the levels, and one for the boss. Though a little banal, these tracks do manage to fit the theme and the B-movie vibe of the game very well. The sound effects are excellent, every attack carries a snap and auditory punch that makes the world sound alive. Gex's quips and the little bit of Rez's dialogue are well delivered, even if Gex does tend to repeat jokes extremely frequently. Some of the jokes have also become dated, but a good number are still funny today.

Gex is a fantastic game, but it's not without its faults. The controls are slightly slippery and the challenge is a bit uneven. It's also a little on the short side and predates memory cards. So it'd be a good idea to have some paper and a pen ready. However, if you can endure a couple over used jokes and are looking for a PSX or Saturn platformer, Gex will be sure to amuse until he escapes the Media Dimension.

Kendo Rage-SNES-Seta U.S.A.

2009-06-29T18:50:00.000-05:00

Part of the fun of writing these reviews is walking into a retro games store and leaving with a few games solely based on how ridiculous their names are. And while Kendo Rage may not be the strangest name I've seen, it does possess its own unique ridiculousness. A quality that shines throughout Seta U.S.A.'s 1993 adventure. But does Kendo Rage possess the violent beauty of the martial arts, or is it merely an enraging experience?

You play as Jo, a girl in love with kendo and the martial arts, who was sent by her parents to Japan for the summer. There she has enrolled in Honest Osaki's Kendo School and Used Car Sales, to be trained by one of the greatest Kendo masters in Japan. Once Jo arrives, Osaki finds her a quiet mountain cabin six hours from school. While rushing to school on the first day, Osaki surprises her and informs her that she can call him Bob, and also that she must crush the rotten evildoers that are along her path to school. He then gives her a talisman from the great wizard Hiundai, which protected the great warrior Farratti as he did battle with the evil General Moto's legions in the battle of Detroit. The charm grants Jo the magical powers she needs to defeat evil and reach school in time (more or less).

I mentioned already that the game is ridiculous, but I failed to mention that the game revels in its goofiness. From the pun heavy story to the beyond groan-worthy level opening and ending quips, the game takes great delight in making the player laugh at just how bad some of the jokes are. This lack of seriousness is a definite plus for the game as it gives Jo, Osaki, and even the bosses a quick shot of character and personality.

Everything about how the game was crafted visually bleeds charm as if the designers had been cut with a knife made of orange tuxedos. Every level is drastically different than the last. Ranging from the predawn mountains to under the sea. Each one maintains a striking distinction from the last that, and more often than not, makes the player wonder if Jo's gotten lost.

Even the enemies are more goofy than they are troubling. From pink ghosts and bears to snowmen ghost and effeminate salary men, the air of ridiculousness pervades almost every design. The bosses are especially odd, being both giant and super deformed, two qualities usually at odds with one another. Even Jo's magical girl outfit is humorous in its gaudiness.

That ridiculousness also makes its way into the gameplay as well, but unfortunately, it's a bit less endearing there. Like in the Prince of Persia, the game's clock is constantly ticking, demanding that Jo complete all seven levels before it is time for school. This keeps the pace of the game fast. However, the controls are just not tight enough for that.

This is due in part to the fact that Jo accelerates slowly. Like Sonic, it takes Jo a moment to get to her normal movement speed, a speed that she can, also like Sonic, surpass when running down a hill. The problem with this is that, unlike Sonic, Jo's not restricted by inertia, but a slight stutter step that she takes every time she starts moving. This creates a slight feeling of lag between when the player moves and the character complies. The slight frustration of this is exacerbated by enemies that simply appear in front of Jo.

Luckily, Jo is no slouch when it comes to combat. Much like in a shooter, her standard attack can be augmented by three elemental powers. The fire element grants a sword with longer reach, while the water element creates a crescent of energy. The wind element, probably the most useful in terms of pure combat abilities, summons a flurry of thrusts.

Each strike can be additionally enhanced by allowing the PSY meter to build, which does so as long as Jo does not attack or get hit. Once the bar is filled at least halfway, the next strike will have an added effect: A beam of flame, a spread shot of ice, or a greater flurry of thrusts. These magical strikes can help swing a battle back in Jo's favor.

Unfortunately, the manner in which Jo selects which element she wants to use is unwieldy at best. Jo must attack a specific enemy that appears at certain points in the level. As the creature flits around the screen, the orb in its possession alternates between four colors. Attacking the enemy while it's holding the red, green, or blue orb will net Jo the effect of that element, but will not power up her attack if she picks the same element as it would in a shooter. The fourth color, yellow, allows Jo to take one extra hit by creating a shield in front of her when an attack comes near.

The elemental system is a nice idea as it grants a slightly deeper element of strategy to the bosses. The first boss is easier when fought with fire, while the second boss is simpler when fought with wind, and so on. The problem is that the orb-carrying enemies appear so suddenly, that the player is likely to attack one as soon as it shows up, which more often than not, results in having the wrong element for a boss fight. This can become extremely frustrating, especially as once that mistake is made, the player has no choice but to use an ineffective element and probably waste a life.

This is the game's greatest flaw, especially near the end when enemies are darting in on all sides. The player grows so used to attacking everything before Jo's sluggish controls become a problem, that the elemental power up carrier seems just like any other enemy. And as the red element becomes too sluggish and narrow focused to really hold up to the onslaught, there becomes a greater possibility of death if the wrong element is selected.

Beyond that, Jo possesses a dash move that causes her to surge forward surrounded by energy, destroying any enemy that gets in her way. However, as this move takes almost a fourth of her health and only has slightly more range and power than her fully charged attacks, it ends up being more costly than effective.

Oddly enough, the game's soundtrack might be the best thing about the game. It's a bumpy and energetic collection of songs, reminiscent of the early Sonic games. It's a good indicator of the effort that Seta U.S.A put into creating the game.

In the end, though, Kendo Rage is just a mediocre action-platformer. It has charm to spare and wonderful music, but that doesn't make up for the frustration caused by how the elemental powers are delivered. If you're looking for a quirky, Japanese game with a goofy localization, Kendo Rage might provide some silly fun. Anyone else should just let this rage pass them by.

Bug!-Saturn-Sega

2009-06-21T16:21:00.000-05:00

I haven't beaten Bug!, and I probably never will. Even as a kid, sitting around waiting for the next Sonic game, I never really tried. This is probably due to the fact that even though I played it often, I hated it with a passion. Bug! was, to my young mind, Sega's replacement for Sonic. After all, his game was the platformer available near the 1995 launch of the system, while Sonic was nowhere to be seen. But that wasn't the total reason that I hated the game. I genuinely thought that Realtime Associates had created a poor game. However, I never actually thought about why. So, when I recently bought a Saturn from a friend, I was itching to go back and find out if Bug! was as bad a game as I remember, or if I was just bugged that Sonic was nowhere to be seen.

The main character is the titular Bug, a small, green insect whom just prior to the start of the game struck it big in the movie industry with a blockbuster hit. That one film earns him enough money that he's able to rent out an entire tower for a birthday bash that lasts several days. I'm not entirely certain why that was pertinent information, but it was in the opening. Now, his apparently demanding public wants more, and Bug must return to the set to film his next smash hit, an action movie in which he rescues his girlfriend and various family members from the nefarious Black Widow. Whether said family members are the girlfriend's or Bug's, I'm not sure.

Placing the entire game on the sets of a movie was a nice touch of creativity, however, the actually game makes little use of this. There are no hanging lights, no wires to hold the set up, no backdrops. The only things that even possibly hint towards this are the occasional 2D props used to show grass or a rock, the invincibility item that summons in the Stunt Bug, points being money earned by the film, and small cut scenes that play between areas.

Those simple scenes show Bug walking from the just beaten set to the next. And that's it. With so little of the actual game referring to the movie aspect, the bits that are included feel a bit like window dressings, desperately put in place once the developers realized that a hook was needed. And while it seems a bit disingenuous, it succeeds in giving the game a much needed charm and a way to explain some of the poor design decisions.

However, while the setting itself is charming, Bug, the character, is not. In all honesty, I can't think of any other character that matches Bug in the act of being annoying. In that aspect, he reigns supreme.

Oddly enough, that crown has nothing to do with his design. Bug is a fairly standard, cartoony mascot character, and Less offensive in design than his buddy, a brown spider with a pimp hat, gold chain, and humongous lips. Rather, it is Bug's constant stream of stupid one-liners that make make him detestable. These quips range from the mildly annoying "BUG JUICE" that he sings out every time he picks up that particular healing item, to the "What a slobber head" that he screeches out after killing an enemy. Bug drips a forced bad attitude and wise cracking personality that is so far off the mark of what actually makes a good lead that he'd make a better henchman than hero.

Bug is such an awful character that I can actually understand someone forming a negative opinion about the game just from him alone. In fact, I spent most of my first few play sessions begging for him to shut up. Luckily, that was actually a feture included in the options menu, which is a good thing, because Bug is not all that bad of a game.

Graphically, the game has aged fairly well. Rather than using the blocky polygons that often made up the characters of that time, Bug and his baddies were created by circles and rounded curves. This allowed them escape from looking like the standard hodgepodge of boxes and blocks that creates such a dated feel.

Even the levels the, with their unmoving backgrounds and small, blocky pathways that hover over oblivion, have managed to run past dated and into a surrealistic, quirkiness that actually manages to look good thirteen years later. Part of this is due to the simple aesthetics of the level. The game has little ornamentation to adorn the pathways save the occasional two dimensional wallpaper of a rock or grass that is placed on invisible walls.

The gameplay also transitions well. Being one of the earliest 3D platformers on consoles, the developers made a good choice by creating, for all intents and purposes, a 2D platformer in a 3D space. By this, I mean, that Bug! rarely, if ever, requires the use of all three dimensions at once. Bug is only able to walk in four directions, and there are hardly ever any jumping sections that must be preformed either away from or towards the stationary camera. A good choice when dealing with players unaccustomed to the third dimension.

Speaking of jumping, Bug controls well in the air, which is one of the most important aspects of a platformer. Perhaps the only qualm I have with Bug's jumping abilities is that he doesn't jump high enough to effectively fight enemies on a hill. As a result, Bug must either lure them away from their spot or take damage to move past them.

Of course, taking damage will become second nature to anyone that plays this game. It's not a game that wants you to win, nor is it a game that wants you to die. No, Bug! is a game that wants you to suffer. With a suspect hit detection, enemies that simply appear right in front of the player, and traps that lack a clear distinction for when they won't cause damage, making it through the levels becomes a fight for survival, especially during the later levels when traps are placed on jumps or on corners.

Luckily, Bug does have some tricks to help even the odds. Beyond simply impaling enemies on his stinger, Bug is capable of finding several other power-ups. Zap allows him to arc lightning between his antenna, which is able to take down even the toughest of enemies in no time. The other is a spit attack, which allows bug to lob globs of poisonous spittle at his enemies. Unfortunately, these power-ups are few and far between, so more often than not, Bug will have to make do with the power of his rear.

For a platformer that does not focus on the collection of items, Bug is extremely exploration based. Often times, there are several different pathways through a level that will vary drastically in their requirements. Some of them will have challenging jumps, while others will be full of traps like rolling boulders or just an absurd number of enemies. This allows the player to determine how they would like to tackle the levels. There are even hidden pathways that, while dangerous to access, offer greater rewards in lives, health, power-ups or a combination of all three. This helps keep the game feeling fresh and rewards the brave or crazy for trying out different tactics.

Each area is composed of three stages and a boss fight. All of which border on the needlessly long side. Bosses in particular take far too long to fight. This is especially annoying when one adds in the questionable hit detection. The first boss has five phases and after each one, the player must hit it an increasing number of times. As the phases pass, the boss grows faster and faster, requiring that the jumps become more precise. Normally, that's not a bad thing, but when one must hit a boss close to thirty times before it falls, it becomes a rather tedious experience.

The music is ok. It accentuates the action rather well with a jazzy, schizophrenic nature that plays to the strengths of the odd design and quirky setting. However, it never manages to be memorable. The voice acting, on the other hand, is very memorable if only for how horrid it is. Bug's quips serve more to annoy the player than to make them smile. The sound effects never grate, but there's only so many times one can hear a jingle of picking up a gem before they all tend to blur.

In the end,"Bug!" is a game that's as easy to enjoy as it is to despise, and it's better than I remember it being. It's a competent platformer with a lot of charm and good controls. In some ways, it has actually improved with time due to players growing more accustomed to maneuvering in a 3D space. However, it is still plagued by a terrible lead and frustratingly cheap difficulty. If you've got a Saturn and love platformers, give it a go. It will test your skills better than most. But, if you're new to the genre or just looking for a quirky romp in a whimsical land, don't let this be the bug spray that kills your interest.

Getting Stuck: An Adventure Game Saga

2009-06-15T18:04:00.000-05:00

Well, folks, I've had a bit of an issue pop up. Some family troubles. And that's going to be monopolizing a good bit of my time for the next few days, but I don't feel right leaving you guys with nothing on Monday. So, while you wait for the next installment of Retro Treasures, I figured I'd take a short moment to discuss a little issue that exists within one of my favorite genres-- getting stuck. No, not the kind of stuck that you experienced in Super Mario Bros when you first reached world 8. What I'm referring to is the all-encompassing, mood-killing brain lock that comes from getting stuck in a graphical adventure.

If you've played an adventure game, you know the feeling. You've taken Guybrush to every island you can. You searched every nook as Larry Laugher. You've shown you want to be a hero so bad you've died in every possible way that the creators had imagined. And yet, you can still not proceed forward.

If you haven't ever played an adventure game, simply conjure up the feeling of having misplaced your keys. And then realize that you're doing this for fun. It's a frustrating experience made all the more so by both the nagging sensation that you've already seen the necessary item and the complete lack of anything new to experience.

So, players does the only thing he or she can do. He or she talks to people over again, look at the same objects again, and try to pick up the same immovable items in the vague hope that he or she simply missed it the first time, and only thought it had already been tried. And occasionally, the player does have a breakthrough and the cursor picks up that unseen path or minute little item. And away you go, off to solve the puzzle.

Those moments are absolutely divine. That simple moment where you know that everything is falling into place and the inane genius you possess will conquer it all. And then the very next puzzle stops you cold. And in an instant all that annoyance comes tumbling back.

In essence, that is the strange cycle of the adventure game. New acts and new areas provide such a simple thrill as all new and easier puzzles fall away and there is still the simple joy of exploration. But the tedium eventually catches up, and all but the most stalwart of players will succumb to the inevitable-- Cheat.

If you say you've never called up a hint line or looked up even a single hint in an FAQ, you're a dirty liar. It's the constant temptation of the adventure game. One made even worse by the Internet and readily available FAQs that are only a few, simple key strokes away.

But once you cheat, once you look for help, the flood gates open. You find yourself thinking less and less. And more and more you're turning to the FAQ for help. Be it for the name of the next item or an in depth explanation for an entire section, the result is always the same: the game feels cheapened.

It's not that the game isn't fun. Even in this new state, it's still an enjoyable experience watching the story unfold. But the actual playing of the game, of using that necessary item, simply feels hollow.

That is the biggest problem for adventure games. It's a precarious balance between too easy and too hard, and no matter where on the spectrum the game falls, someone will get stuck-- stuck between the choices of frustration and cheating. And unfortunately, it's a problem that comes from the very core of how adventure games are created, played, and expected to be. It's a problem without a solution. But would the fans want it any other way?

Stunt Race FX- SNES- Nintendo

2009-06-08T19:06:00.000-05:00

The goal of Retro Treasures has always been, and will always be, to seek out those little gems that have been lost to the ages. Whether they are games that were overshadowed at launch by bigger and better ones, games that were ahead of their time, or just games that fill a necessary niche and grant players a new game they missed out on in a beloved genre. Of course, I did leave room for special occasions, I would add my voice to the multitudes and discuss one of the big names. After all, it was finally beating Chrono Trigger after years of attempts that lead me to create this blog. As a result, I never expected to be able to legitimately review a Shigeru Miyamoto game outside of one of those rare occasions. But, I had forgotten that in 1994 Miyamoto and Nintendo EAD released a little racing game using the Super FX, the graphics chip that allowed their carts to produce true 3D images. But does Stunt Race FX live up to the Miyamoto name, or does it buckle under the weight of the SNES' own limitations?

As Stunt Race FX is a racing game, it is completely devoid of plot. Due to that fact, I will move on to discuss the five modes of play: Speed Trax, Stunt Trax, Battle Trax, Test Run, and Free Trax.

Speed Trax is the standard racing circuit, and a mode that will feel familiar to anyone that has played the Mario Kart franchise. In this mode, players pick on of three vehicles (The Coupe, The F-Type, or 4WD Truck), and compete against three other drivers in either the Novice, Expert, or Master class. Each class contains 4 tracks, but what makes the game stand out from Mario Kart are the inclusion of a time limit for each race and a bonus race in the middle of the class, which is played by driving an 18 wheeler around a course through slalom gates for time and extra lives.

Stunt Trax, despite its name, is rather light on stunts. Instead, the player can expect to drive their chosen vehicle through one of four themed obstacle courses as they attempt to collect as many stars as they can out of forty total. An ice level, a water level, an off road course, and a level made of almost nothing but hills are the challenging areas players must navigate. Even finishing one of these courses may take more than a few tries, especially if a player hasn't mastered the nuances of their chosen ride.

Battle Trax is a fairly straightforward verses mode. The player and a friend compete head to head in order to determine which of them is superior in early 3D racing. There isn't much to this mode other than that. There are. however, four courses that are only playable in this mode, and a trick involving waiting at the start of the race to sub in computer drivers.

Test Run is an interesting mode that exists solely for the beginner to learn how to drive. There is only one unnamed course, and after three laps the player is kicked out to the mode select screen. This mode is only available for a short time as once the player beats either of the first two classes in Speed Trax, the training level disappears and is replaced by the final mode.

Free Trax is the time trail of Stunt Race, and can serve the same function as Test Run with the added bonus of actually allowing new players to learn on a course they will be racing on. In Free Trax, a player races alone through the course to test their mastery of a specific track. As an added bonus, there is one extra vehicle available in this mode, the 2WD motorbike. With high speed and high acceleration, the 2WD will test even the best players finesse as the finicky bike threatens to spill at even the slightest miss turn.

As I've already mentioned, there are what amounts to five vehicles in the game, and two of those are only usable at certain times. Each vehicle has specific characteristics that set them apart from the others. The 4WD is the sturdiest, able to take a good bit of damage and possesses high acceleration. It is, however, the slowest of the racers . The coupe is the balanced racer, never excelling at nor lagging in any of the stats. The F-type, though, is all speed, and as a result has slow acceleration and a weak frame. Obviously, as the speed of the vehicles increases, the ease of handling them decreases. This makes the 4WD an ideal choice for the beginning player as it requires little of the finesse that the F-Type demands from its driver.

Driving in Stunt Race is simple. B is gas, Y is boost, and A is break. However, while that's enough to get around the course in the truck, it simply won't cut it when driving the faster cars. For that, the player needs to use the L and R buttons. These cause the car to perform a hard turn in the direction pressed. Maintaining control while holding these turns isn't as easy as performing the slight turns of the cross pad, but it is necessary for making it around some of the sharper curves at high speed.

Which leads me to the subject of crashing, a situation any racing game fan, and quite a few people that aren't, have experienced numerous times. Like F-Zero, the Stunt Race vehicles all have a damage bar, and once it fills up, the race is over. Thankfully, the game has colored blobs that heal or restore boosts. A red blob heals the damage done to the player's car while a blue on refiles the boost meter by about fifty percent.

As good as the game plays, it does have a couple major flaws. One being that it has not aged well. The graphics are so blocky and rudimentary, that they fly past ugly and gain a sense of beauty that only someone who remembers that era fondly could enjoy. As a result, visibility is dreadful. More often than not, even on the perfectly clear and simple maps, turns and signs warning of those turns appear without warning giving one little time to react. The game can, also, never decide what is an adequate draw distance, so occasionally, you'll see one section of a wall before you see a closer one. Or the player might see the path below, before the one he or she is driving on has finished forming. As a result, memorization is even more vital to this game than in later racers, and that comes with the added difficulty of few consistent visual clues to speed the process up.

Because of the graphical problems, the game is extremely difficult to play for long stretches at a time. Anytime I played for more than thirty minutes, I would be left with a nagging headache and tired eyes for the rest of the day. Which is sad when one considers how charming the vehicles are with their big bulbous eyes and bright colors.

Another problem is that the game never really creates the sense that the player is working towards something. No matter the mode being played, time was what the game kept track of. As a result of that, it always felt like playing a time trail. It didn't matter if the player came in first or fourth as long as their time was low. And even should one place first in every event, victory only means a screen showing the times for each race. This left victory feeling pointless and hollow.

Musically, the game is everything one would expect from a Nintendo EAD developed game. The soundtrack is bumping and fun, creating an easy energy that is fun to drive to. The sound effects are also nice. The squeal of the tires and the roar of the engine are noticeable but never overpowering.

Stunt Race FX is something that has to be played to be believed. Just watching it one can't get a sense of just how good it feels to drive in this game. It is a simple, pick-up-and-play racer that sits comfortably on the technical side of the genre and offers plenty to be mastered for the more serious racing game fan. It's unfortunate that the graphics have aged so poorly, but not nearly as unfortunate as the fact that Nintendo has abandoned this series to history. Stunt Race FX is a wonderful racer that's worth at least a test drive to see if you can appreciate the engine below the rusted coat of paint.

Jungle Book-SNES-Virgin Interactive

2009-06-01T18:07:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in the Ranger X review, my childhood was full of Saturday morning trips to Adventure Video for new games to play. I also said that there were no set guidelines that I adhered to at the time. And while true, there were certain things that caught my eye more than others. One of those was a simple name: Disney. If a game had any connection to that company, chances were high that I was going to rent it. I mean why wouldn't I? I grew up with Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers and Ducktales being constants in my NES. Disney games were so entrenched as quality titles that even when I came across one I didn't like, such as Beauty and the Beast, I assumed that the game had been made for my sister rather than me. So, it doesn't surprise me that I have fond memories of Virgin Interactive's 1993, Jungle Book. But were my fond memories just bits of Disney drivel or was the Jungle Book actually a swinging good time?

The game's plot is the same as the movie it was based on. There are no deviations and little to no references within actual gameplay. When the game first boots up, the player is greeted with a quick overview of the plot. Mowgli was found by Bagheera, and raised by wolves, living an idyllic life with his jungle family until the return of the tiger, Shere Khan. Shere Khan cannot tolerate a man cub in his jungle and vows to hunt Mowgli. Now, Mowgli must escape the jungle to a human village or be killed by the tiger.

Graphically, the game is a bit of a mixed bag. Sprites are blurry and not pleasing to look at. As a result, even Mowgli can be a bit hard to focus on at times. The backgrounds in the game are busy, and the canopy is nicely detailed, which does a good job of creating the impression that one is actually in the deep jungle. However, this creates clutter. So much so that it can occasionally be difficult to tell what is foreground and what is background. Hanging vines, which are usually just shadowy outlines are especially bad about this. On the other hand, despite being rather unappealing to look at, sprites are actually animated rather beautifully, bringing to them the same feeling of life that exists in the levels.

Like the graphics, gameplay is also very hit or miss. Jungle Book is a platformer much like Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. And while the game rarely varies from the "Right leads to the goal" mentality, getting there can have you exploring all over the level.

Mowgli's main method of attack is the banana. By tapping Y, Mowgli will toss said fruit rapidly, which flies straight across the screen or straight up. Mowgli can also attack with other fruit that he collects throughout the level, such as apples or coconuts. Or he can, and usually should, jump on the enemy.

The extra fruits are very limited, and players will rarely find more than six of a specific type in a level. And while they aren't more powerful than the banana, they do attack in different ways. The apple is thrown in an arc, allowing Mowgli to hit enemies that are in front of him and slightly above. The coconut on the other hand is rolled like a bowling ball straight out in front of Mowgli, unless, he is standing on a ledge, at which point the coconut will drop straight down. These attacks, when combined with Mowgli's standard banana, grant the player a wide option of how to approach enemies and bosses.

Or rather, it should give you a wide option of how to approach enemies and bosses. The problem is the game rarely gives you time to react. Enemies attack as soon as they come on screen, and usually to exactly the spot the player just entered. Not only that, enemies also take several hits with the banana before they actually fall. A better solution is to simply jump on them before they have time to hit you, but doing that requires prior knowledge of the stage.

In fact, that's the biggest flaw in the game. It feels, in almost all instances, that the game was designed to be played over and over again. That mastery and knowledge of a level were stressed in the creation of the game above fun and skill. This only becomes more obvious as you proceed through the game. An enemy in the waterfall level spits water back at you, which all but invisible against the background. Monkeys toss fruit the second they see you. And Mowgli falls so quickly, that the player is left with no time to react if their is a danger under his feet.

Even the vines that Mowgli has to use to cross the level feel like they were tailored for this. The hanging ones look like bits of the scenery, and it is really easy to lose sight of the swinging vines in the background, which can, and usually does, lead to a lot of tiresome and unnecessary deaths. This is only exacerbated by the finicky way Mowgli grabs the vines. Mowgli doesn't just latch on when he jumps toward them. No, he will only grab it if up is pressed and if he is at the appropriate spot. Which isn't too annoying, but when combined with the fact that the player must not be pressing up to jump off a vine, it becomes slightly more so.

The problems with actually playing Jungle Book are disheartening because there is good in the game. The level design is very well laid out, and once the player actually know where to go, a lot of fun can be had just moving through the levels.

Another thing the game has a lot of is charm. From the voice clip of the monkeys to the general feel of the game, one can tell the creators put a lot of thought and love into it. So much so that I can almost forgive them the difficulties of actually playing the game.

The boss battles are the reason I can't. Though Few and far between, they are needlessly difficult, especially the first, The battle with Kaa. It is extremely frustrating. Mostly because by that point, Players will have probably not earned any continues, so defeat here means redoing the first couple levels. And that is highly likely. Mainly because Kaa's primary attack is a homing wave that zips across the screen quickly, and even if the player dodges it, it will simply perform a U-turn turn and be back again. The only way to avoid the it is to force it to fly off the side of the level. Forcing it to go below the level doesn't work. It will still come back and smack Mowgli.

Another problem is that Kaa attacks from various points on the screen. That wouldn't normally be a problem except that it exposes two more of the games weaknesses. The first being that Kaa can hit you before he's even appeared on screen. If Mowgli is standing in the wrong spot, he will take damage before the player even knows to react. The big issue though, is that there is very little temporary invulnerability after getting hit. If Mowgli ends up on the wrong side of Kaa, he may lose two or three hearts before he can get away.

The music is the game is superb. Tommy Tallarico does an awesome job of turning the songs from the movie into catchy midi renditions and of creating new songs that mesh well with both the feel and setting of the game. Sound effects are also nice. The bananas have a sort of fun squishy sound when thrown, and the simple jungle ambiance mixes well with the music.

The Jungle Book is a difficult game. It's a game that feels like a labor of love, but I'd be lying if I said I had a great time with it. It's frustrating, it's confusing, and the boss battles are needlessly difficult. Unless you're a fan of the Jungle Book or an avid platformer fan in need of something, anything, new, I cannot recommend it. It's a decent game, but time has not been kind to it.

Ranger X- Genesis- Gau Entertainment

2009-05-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

Growing up, I was a Genesis kid. Sure, the first system I had was an NES, but if you really pressed me for just one system that defined my childhood, the Sega would be it. And it may have been because at that time I began to be allowed to rent games. Almost every weekend began with my dad taking me down to Adventure Video, and as he was looking around for a movie to rent, I would stare in awe at the vast collection of games that seemed almost magical to my young mind. There was no set criteria for the games I would play. I rented randomly. More often than not, it'd be a last second grab as my dad was demanding we go home. So, it shouldn't be surprising that I've played a lot of games for the Genesis. That's why it's always a surprise when I run into one that I've never even heard of. And Ranger X, created by Toshio Toyota and Gau Entertainment in 1993, was one of those games.

The plot is a simple one. Those pesky terrorists have invaded the Homeworld, and it is up to you and your mech, Ranger X, to put a stop to them and restore peace to your planet. It's the kind of plot that's just there to placate the people like me that have to know what's going on and why they're blowing up everything that moves. It has no real effect on the storyline. Anything that the player needed to know, they knew before picking up the game. There are bad guys, and the player's the only one that can stop them.

The graphics are some of the best on the Genesis boasting detailed sprite work and top notch animation. The frame rate is mostly solid, but there are the occasional hiccup when there's too much on the screen. The locales that you visit are varied and interesting. Occasionally, the background's don't seem to shift with you, but in those cases the background is either an important visual or something that makes sense to be static.

Enemy designs range from generic orbs that fire missiles to small walking mechs with a shield that can only be attacked through careful movement and planning. The bosses in the game are huge, often dwarfing the Ranger X and making him look tiny in comparison. The fact the player's mech is several times the size of a person only add emphasis to how big these bosses are.

The game looks great, and there's no denying that, but having pretty graphics don't amount to much if the game doesn't play well. Luckily, Ranger X handles well. Attacking in this game is simple. A fires your gun left, C fires your gun to the right, and B fires which ever special weapon you have equipped at the time. If you happen to have a six button controller, you are able to also dictate how you wish your companion robot to shoot. The button setup for the game allows for almost the level of precision found in a schmup, because one is capable of training fire toward the enemy without having to break to dodge.

Which is a nice touch, because this mech behaves more like a Gundam than a walking tank. Indeed, the Ranger X is a very flighty machine able to almost dart about the screen simply by pressing the direction you wish to go. In fact double tapping to the side or pressing down and then up, will launch the mech quickly across the screen. The maneuverability in this game is amazing. The only thing keeping you from dodging a shot is a bit of inertia and your own ability to guide your walking death machine out of harms way.

Unfortunately, these abilities aren't really put to the test that often in the game. Because, generally, a more methodical pace will serve you better, allowing the player to only face a few enemies at a time rather than a dozen. Of course, while you're inching along, you're probably riding in the Ex-Up, a motorcycle like mech that follows you through half of the levels. This is because not only does the Ex-Up have a different life bar than the Ranger X, but it also has an auto targeting system, which makes most of the situations in the game, especially early on, extremely easy. In fact, the first boss, with just a pinch luck, can be beaten by sitting in one spot and firing.

What I'm trying to get across is that the game is rarely frantic enough to force the player fully make use of the control scheme. This is why the third level is so enjoyable. In the third level, the Ex-Up is replaced by a hovering base that floats after you well above the action. Its only roles are the occasional blast of support fire and providing a place to swap your special attacks. So, the player no longer has the ex-ups extra life bar or its homing attack to fall back on when things get a little heated. And as this level is filled with little flying enemies, Ranger X will be darting around trying to dodge shots and enemies while keeping enough life that he can make it through the onslaught with enough health to destroy all of the targets. It's a moment that just feels right.

Speaking of the targets, the goal of each level is to destroy all of the targets in a given level. After which, the player will be whisked away to a boss battle. The issue I have with the targets is that a majority of the levels are just straight lines. The player walks, or climbs, in one direction, pausing to destroy the large enemy or base that they have been told to. But, a player would do that anyway. These are not just little houses that just sit there or tokens sitting slightly off to the side. These are enemies or bases that spawn enemies, which are sitting right in the player's path. Players would destroy them regardless of being told.

It's not simply that there are targets that bothers me. Having targets makes sense in levels like two and five, which are large and sprawling. It actually forces exploration. However, in levels like one and four, which are literally straight lines, it ends up breaking the flow. And, I can't help but feel that those levels would have been better with only one target at the end and more quick, darting enemies to force the player to master controlling the mech.

Unfortunately, there are actually very few times that being skilled at controlling the mech is required. Those few times are during the third level and at the final boss. Normally, one would think that the bosses would be the test that makes sure the player has gained enough skill, but that's not the case in this game. That's because Ranger X is more about the levels than the bosses, or rather, the bosses serve little more purpose than being a pothole on the road to the next level.

The bosses in Ranger X vary in difficulty from simple to easy. The first can be beaten, as I said, by sitting in the Ex-up and firing. The second is a little better, actually having four distinct parts and attack patterns that emerge as it loses health. The first two parts simply ask you to dodge back and forth and shoot. The third asks you to duck at the right time and shoot. While the fourth asks you to back up and shoot. Only the final boss and the second half of the third feels both fair and challenging.

This is in part because the game never forces the player to adapt beyond the first two specials: the Flame Unit and the Seeker Mine. That's probably because the Flame Unit, or flame thrower, is extremely powerful at close ranges, while the Seeker Unit, a grenade, is capable of destroying ground based targets in three hits. And as those are two of seven power-ups, it just feels like wasted potential.

The music in the game is good with quick and pumping beats that fit in well with a shooter, and do a good job of creating an environment of energy. The sound effects, on the other hand, are muted at best. The weapons sound weak and the explosions are muffled, which stands in contrast to how powerful the Ranger X actually is.

I've come across very harsh in this review, which wasn't my intention. Ranger X is a good game. It's just a good game that I feel could have been great if a few choices had been made differently. It's worth playing just for stage three alone. If you're a fan of mechs or just feel like playing a shooter with a unique playstyle, give Ranger X a try.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment-PSX-Atlus

2009-05-18T19:25:00.000-05:00

Over the years, the Persona series has grown to become one of my favorite series of games, and with its ascension up the ranks, its developer Atlus grew to be a name I trust. But this wasn't always the case. Both Persona 1 and Eternal Punishment were far too confusing for me when they were released back in 1996 and 2000 respectively. So it wasn't until Persona 3, which streamlined both the persona and battle systems, was released that I fell in love with the series. However, both games left their mark on me, and I found that throughout the years, I would often recall moments from both that seemed, even years later, so fresh and so cunning. Of course, that begs the question, is Eternal Punishment as brilliantly challenging as I remember, or was I wearing the mask of a fool?

The story is one of the most important parts of an RPG, so I'll try to explain the plot of Eternal Punishment as best I can. Persona 2 is actually made up of two games: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. Innocent Sin never made it out of Japan, but we did receive Eternal Punishment. So in effect, what we got was the second half of a very long, confusing, and dark plot. As I have never played Innocent Sin, I know little of what transpired in the first game, I shall start with Eternal Punishment and explain what I know.

When Eternal Punishment begins, the characters have lost their memories of the events of Innocent Sin and exist in a parallel dimension where the events of the first game never occurred. Their peaceful existence is conditional though. They must never remember the events of Innocent Sin . Unfortunately, Tatsuya, the main character of the first half of the story, is unable to forget, which causes the cycle of destruction to begin anew.

As I mentioned, you don't actually play as Tatsuya in Eternal Punishment. It isn't until much later in the game that he even joins your party. This time, you play as Maya Amano, one of the party members from the first game. Maya, an editor for the fashion magazine Coolest, is sent to Seven Sister's High School in order to investigate the rumor of the JOKER, a bag wearing serial killer who murders anyone he's asked. To make matters worse, this psycho-for-hire is easy to get in touch with. One simply needs to dial their own cell phone number.

While investigating the school, Maya stumbles across the grizzly murder of a principle who'd been harassing a student. While leaving the scene, Maya is stopped by the JOKER, who is capable of summoning demons. Rambling like the madman he is, the JOKER demands that Maya remember the "other side" and laments that he is living in a world that is completely wrong. On their first encounter, JOKER causes Maya, her friend Ulala, and a police officer, Katsuya, to awaken to their persona through taunts and attacks. On their second encounter in the school's clock tower, Maya and her party are put to sleep because the JOKER cares more about Maya remembering the "other side" than about outright killing her.

Not surprising when the tale involves demons, magic, and persona, no one believes Maya's group when they try to explain the situation So they take it upon themselves, with the help of an information seller named Baofu, to discover the identity of the JOKER and figure out exactly what this "other side" is.

Graphically, the game hasn't aged that badly. The sprites are slender and capable of showing off a good deal of emotion and movement. And other than being almost featureless, they do a good job of replicating the artwork they are based on. The monsters are well designed and varied. There are a few enemies, such as slimes, that show up more than once as simple recolors, but for the most part, each area will throw around ten new enemies at the player.

Inside environments are clean and crisp, doing a good job of melding the real world look and feel of an area with the more gamey dungeon structure. Outside areas, on the other hand, are more often blurry, confusing, and outright dungeon like. This can occasionally break the flow of the game, especially considering that the in game map is cumbersome at best. Fortunately, outside dungeons occur less frequently than the indoor ones, so it is rarely a problem.

The battle screens are a good for their time. The floor of the arena is created from the more dominant ground pattern of the place the party is exploring, while the area around it is made up of a wiggling wall of shadows and fog. The ground twists and warps a bit around the edges, which is either a representation of reality breaking or a graphical glitch. The former adds a bit of mystique, but the latter is probably the truth.

Speaking of the battles, the battle system of Eternal Punishment is completely designed around the fact that it is a grind heavy game. What I mean is, you do not command Maya to shoot enemy A and then Katsuya to heal. Instead, you create a strategy that the party will follow by telling each character what you want them to do. So, while grinding all you have to do is select battle, and the characters will attack on their own until either the battle is over or you press circle to pause the fight to change the strategy.

There it is. I had to mention the kiss of death for many a decent RPG: grinding. And I will not lie, there is a lot of it in this game, but it is not as bad as one might think. And that's because you aren't just grinding for levels, and when you do, they actually come fairly quickly. Combine that with the auto battle system, and leveling becomes as hassle free as possible without using the gambit system. No, I call Eternal Punishment a grind heavy game because you have to grind twice. Once for levels and again for tarot cards or vice-versa.

The tarot cards are earned by contacting the various monsters and conversing with them by sending out various combinations of your party members. This allows the player to not only win battles through combat, but through diplomacy as well. Each monster has a set personality type that can be influenced to feel one of four emotions: anger, fear, happiness, or interest. A monster that is angered may go berserk or attack without warning, while one that is afraid of your party will flee. A happy monster will either make a contract or give you something. But, it is their interest that you'll most want to pique as an interested monster will grant you tarot cards that allow the summoning of more powerful persona.

The summoning of persona is the backbone of the game, because not only do the persona attached to each character effect their stats and stat growth but also determine the skills that they will be able to learn and perform in battle. Of course, you can't just attach any persona to whom ever you want. You have to match based on affinity. A character with a high affinity will use less SP when summoning a persona than a character with low affinity. And one with a low enough affinity may not be able to summon that persona at all. Matching affinity is important, because SP isn't drained by spell but rather by the act of calling upon a persona. All the spells that are at a characters disposal will cost the exact same to use every time, so if the affinity is too low your characters will blow through their SP before the battle is even near complete.

As I mentioned, it was Persona 3 that really brought me into the series, and one of the major differences between the games is that stats aren't linked just to persona. Your characters have their own stats, which are increased along set parameters that match up with their personality, except for Maya. Maya's stats are dependent on how you want to build her. If you want a powerful mage, put most of her points into TEC. If you want a strong fighter, put them into STR. With each level, you are allowed 3 points to assign as you see fit and a bonus point that is determined by the persona that character has equipped. It's a nice little bit of customization that allows you to build based on your needs, and gives the game a bit of replayabilty.

Of course, that's not the only facet of the game that you are allowed to bend to your will. In the world of EP, anything that becomes a rumor,or rather anything believed by a significant number of people, becomes reality. By hiring a detective, you are able to spread rumors that you need. Need a bar to sell weapons? No problem. Need an exchange student to be a mafia smuggler? Not a worry. Need the symbol of Seven Sisters High School to protect people from the JOKER? It can do that too. Anything that the people believe is now as real as a table. Even that which is spread by the enemy. The story becomes a bit more hectic when anyone that ever called upon the JOKER becomes one themselves.

The music in the game is a mixture of techno, rock, and more atmospheric songs, and, in general, lacks the repetitious JPOP songs that most people grew so tired of in the third and fourth games. The only real problem with the game's audio is that the voices sound like the character is talking into cupped hands. It's an odd effect that could have been an attempt to highlight the game's muddled reality, but in the end, just comes off as slightly sloppy. And while the voice work isn't stealer, the voices definitely match the character, so it's a shame that it isn't as clear as they could be.

Eternal Punishment is not a game without faults. It is confusing, and it is challenging. More often than not, I survived a boss battle more due to a lucky Persona equip than skill. But if you've got the time, and the patience, Persona 2 will reward you with an interesting trip through a dark world populated by adults rather than the standard teenager.

Herc's Adventures-PSX- Big Ape Productions

2009-05-10T19:18:00.000-05:00

What do you get when you combine one part Lucas Arts adventure game, one part Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and one part action RPG? Herc's Adventure's, a quirky little romp through ancient Greece, that's what. Developed by Big Ape Productions, this Lucas Arts title was released in 1997 for both the PSX and the Saturn. This was one of those games I remember loving as a kid, often quoting bits of the opening cinematic to myself at random times. But, so often the memory plays tricks on one. So does Herc's Adventures electrify like Zeus or smell like Hades?

Let's begin with a story of old. It is the end of winter, and spring is just beginning to spread its way across Greece. Hades, however, has a plan to stop that. And I think, just this once, I'll let someone else do the explaining. Besides, Hades put it best when he told Zeus, "I have Persephone. There will be no more spring, no more trees, no more flowers, no more food. Without spring, all of Greece will perish. My power in the underworld will grow supreme as I rule a nation of the dead." Zeus' forces have been slaughtered. There are only three players left on Zeus' side of the board that are capable of standing up against Hades' power: Hercules, Jason, and Atlanta. But will their strength be enough to find the Golden Fleece, assault the underworld, and bring Persephone back before the lack of food starves all of Greece?

As you can tell, the set-up is pretty bleak, but luckily, that never brings the humorous nature of the game down. The graphics are actually quite gorgeous, with brightly colored backgrounds, well animated sprites, and a great attention to detail. Enemies are both humorously and well designed. But most importantly, or most surprisingly, the game retains in gameplay the exact visual styling that was shown in the opening FMV. That's a nice touch, especially in the early PSX era when most games in game sprites only vaguely resembled the person they were designed from.

Speaking of which, the characters during gameplay are actually expressive, reacting in pain when hit and in fright when Zeus or Hades appear to encourage or antagonize. But what impresses me the most is that the enemies are given this same attention to detail. Cyclops' maintain the same look of blundering stupidity even when hurling you into the ground. While enemies solders, once defeated, run from you in their boxers until they collapse from panic and fatigue.

One of the biggest achievements in the game is that there are no breaks in the action, once the game loads, it is loaded. There is rarely an end of the screen, and areas meld seamlessly, save a few bit of slowdown, between one another. This small thing removes from the player the minor annoyance that load times would add to the game's exploration based gameplay.

And what I mean by that, is that there is no hand holding in this game. From the moment, you are dropped down on the mountain as what ever ancient hero you deigned to be, it is up to you to figure out where you are supposed to go.

Like in Metroid or an exploration based Castlevania, there are hidden nooks everywhere containing some little treasure, and often there are no clues that the path was there or that an item had been hidden behind those trees. These, of course, aren't pivotal to the plot, but they do a good job of rewarding players that actively explore the land around them.

To continue with the Metroid analogy, there are occasionally paths that are for a time blocked off. And there can be one of two ways that this can happen.

The first is a door, requiring either a standard key or a god key. Standard doors, usually, only hide items, weapons, coins, or the occasional cow. God doors, on the other hand block off sections of the land you haven't yet proven yourself ready for. These usually require completing a task set by one of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece or by defeating a tricky monster or two.

The other thing that can block your path is your players own strength. Each of the three players behave a little bit differently. Jason is the fastest, Atlanta has the ability to attack at a distance easily with her bow, and Herc is the strongest. This strength is represented by the blue bar on the screen and effects not only what you can lift, but how long you can lift it. Certain spots in the game will be blocked by large boulders or weights that require the player to have gained enough strength to pass. Strength can be gained fairly easily though by visiting the training booths that are in most major cities, so a diligent player will likely not be impeded by the giant boulders placed in their path.

Speaking of training booths, the stat progression in the game is mostly dependent on these booths. A man weight lighting will charge you a few coins to increase the maximum amount of the players power, while a man whacking himself in the head with a board will increase the characters toughness or health. Other ways of going about this are by finding dumbbells or hearts that have been littered around Greece. These give smaller increases to overall strength or health than the booths, but they don't usually cost anything. However, they tend to be well hidden or locked within a small, magic shrine, which only gives up its goods if a certain task is completed. These tasks are never specified but are always nearby. Most of the time, it requires simply hitting a target a bit off the path, but sometimes requires a bit more effort, or at least a small portion of your weapons.

I have explained the the things that I believe make the game feel like Lucas Arts adventure and Action RPG, but I haven't yet touched on what makes the game similar to Zombies Ate my Neighbors. And while I could attribute it to feel, because the game does feel like the next game in that series (Especially once you meet the martians in Egypt). I would prefer to basing this on the weapons and items.

In Zombies Ate my Neighbors, the player was wholly dependent upon whatever weapons and items that they could scrounge from their environment. But that wouldn't work in an action RPG where backtracking for goods is not only rewarding, but vital. To aid in that, each character has a basic attack that can be used at all times. However, much like the water pistol, this attack is exceedingly weak and will do little to protect the player from anything but the weakest of enemies.

Instead, the player would be wise to fight with the weapons and items they can scrounge from the surrounding area. Yes, that system that was the very foundation of the combat in Zombies Ate my Neighbors made its way into the game, and it is every bit as rewarding. Of course, the difference is that these tools are based on ancient Greek mythology and zany wackiness rather than monster movies and zany wackiness. Another difference is that these tools replenish once the player has gone from an area for a long enough time, so it is possible to go raid Sparta, collect some coins, and return to Elis for strength training and health restoring gyros over and over again. This lessens the difficulty of the game slightly, but not enough that it would hinder the enjoyment.

The voice acting in the game is pretty solid, especially for an early PSX title. There are no voices that really stand out as stellar, save maybe Hades. But even his can sound a bit too soft at times. The sound effects in the game are good and goofy and generally do a nice job of conveying exactly what they need to.The music is also quite good, ranging from soaring epics of the opening area to the eerie quite of the the edge of the world.

On the whole, the game is very good. There are a few problems though. One being that save points are few and far between. This isn't something that would be accepted in this day and age, but it was the norm when it came out. Thankfully, these scribes never move from their locations, so a careful player should be able to manage it. Another problem is that the player is never told how many lives they have. Once dead, the player appears in the underworld and must battle their way out. With each subsequent death, the player is pushed farther and farther back, until they end up in a locked room with the words game over on the floor and Hades laughing maniacal. If Zombies At my Neighbors holds a place in your heart, than you owe it to yourself to track down a copy of Herc's Adventures. But if you just want a whimsical romp through ancient Greece, well... why haven't you bought Herc's Adventures?

Knights of the Round- SNES-Capcom

2009-05-04T19:00:00.000-05:00

Every so often, people just feel the need to hit something. Of course, that's not entirely possible in today's society unless we want to make statements like, 'no, officer. I wasn't really trying to hurt him. I just wanted to hit something.' Thankfully, video game designers were quick to latch onto that notion, which may be the reason we got so many great beat-em-ups in the 90s. While Knights of the Round doesn't reach the same level of greatness that other Capcom classics, such as Final Fight, have achieved, it is a good game in its own right. Designed by Boyoyon and released in 1994, this SNES game dared to ask the question 'Does King Arthur hate barrels?' Yes, yes he does.

The story of Knights of the Round is, as you can probably guess, based on the Arthurian Legend. Arthur is a man training to be a knight. However, all of that changes when he pulls the sword Excalibur from the stone. In a flash, Merlin appears before the young man and informs him that he must locate the Holy Grail to drive the chaos from Brittan. On his quest, Arthur will be joined by the talented swordsman, Lancelot, who is searching for a liege, and the pure-hearted Percival who I guess just came along because he wanted to hit stuff too. The story doesn't perfectly match up with the legend, but it comes close enough that it would at least seem correct to someone not well versed in the lore.

The graphics in the game are fairly impressive. The world is colorful and vibrant and the sprite work is detailed. The enemies are especially well designed, and there are enough of them that even the recolors maintain a sense of newness to them, except the soldier, as I could never remember if the green or the red one was the first to appear (it's the green one by the way). That said, the attacking animation can look a little choppy, but it's never bad enough to distract the player from what's going on in the battle. I should point out that Arthur's initial attack looks a little odd. Mostly because it's a half swing if it doesn't connect, so seeing it break barrels without going through the full swinging motion seems a tad off.

The gameplay is what you'd expect. The player and, if they are lucky, a buddy choose one of three characters. Lancelot is for those who favor the swift, while Percival excels in breaking enemies with his brute force and mighty axe. Arthur plays the typical balanced leader role. All of the characters can be used successfully, and there isn't really a character that is just hugely better than the others. However, there are differences. The length of the standard attack combo varies slightly from character to character, as does how the jumping attack works. During a jump, Lancelot will flurry his sword the moment the button is pressed, while Percival will not deliver the crushing blow until his feet touch the ground again. Percival also seems to have a move that none of the other characters have, which is a dashing attack. By double tapping forward, Percival will begin to sprint. Attacking at this time will unleash a slow but heavy blow.

Like other games in the genre, each character possesses a special attack that sacrifices some health. These attacks aren't necessarily more powerful than the standard attack, but they have the ability to hit any enemy near the player and knock them down. It's a very useful skill when you're getting attacked from all sides, and while that situation doesn't happen all that often, you'll be glad you have that move when you need it. The most interesting skill that the game offers the player is a block. When the block button is pressed, your character will hold his weapon out in front of him for about two seconds. If during that time, he is struck by an attack, he will take no damage and be granted a small period of invincibility. This is very, very useful against the bosses.

Speaking of which, the bosses in the game are as difficult as they are large. You are given nine continues at the start of each game for a reason, and there have been times, especially early on, where I would need three or more to take one down. That is especially sad when you realize that you respawn in the exact spot you died at with enemies retaining all the damage dealt to them. However, it's not that surprising when you realize that even standard enemies can kill you in just a few hits. The bosses with their increased power, huge reach, and life bar that takes a normal amount of damage, are much stronger than your characters. Blocking and gaining that momentary invincibility is imperative if you want to survive to do more than a few small ticks of damage to the boss.

As I mentioned before, the player character takes a lot of damage from attacks. It's not rare to die from one hit when there is still a third of the life bar remaining. Thankfully, this is alleviated slightly by the level-up system. As you gain points from defeating enemies, picking up treasures, or eating food while at full health, the characters grow stronger. With each level, the player gains a point in strength, defense, speed, and also changes in appearance, gaining new weapons or heavier armor to visually inform the player that their character is stronger. The problem is that these level ups mostly occur at the end of a stage, and each new one brings stronger enemies, so it never really feels like the characters have gotten stronger. It is a nice touch though that serves to reward the player every so often for their work.

The music in the game is good. The standard between level music captures that feeling of knightly valor without sounding completely over the top. While the level tunes, on the other hand, are more upbeat and generally very pleasant to listen to. On the downside, the sound effects are very muted. It's not hard to hear them, but they are so soft that the combat in the game lacks that oomph that a good heavy striking sound adds to the combat.

One the whole, Knights of the Round is a good beat-em-up. There are advanced strategies for playing the game, such as hitting large items to break them into smaller ones for more points, and advanced moves that players won't notice the first time, but the game does have problems. It's really easy to die, hard to block at times, and the enemies' reach sometimes seems to go beyond the animation. But, if those don't bother you, and you feel like a challenge, there are much worse beat-em-ups out there.

Run Saber-SNES-Hori Electric

2009-04-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be honest. I was extremely busy all last week, so I wasn't able to sink as much time into Run Saber as I would have liked. But I do feel I have enough of an understanding to talk about it. Developed by Hori Electric and published by Atlus, it was released in 1993 for the SNES. Now, one of my greatest flaws as a retro gamer is that I have yet to sit down and play Capcom's Strider for more than a minute or two, but even I can tell that this game has been heavily influenced by it. But is this game worthy of being called flattery, or is it just a pale imitation?

Well, first lets discuss the story, which is not even hinted at in the actual game, except for a few still shots if you allow the game to sit at the title screen. In the future, humanity has allowed pollution to ravage our world, creating an almost unlivable environment. This, as you may well have guessed, causes humanity to begin colonizing space. Fortunately, one scientist has a plan. He will launch a rocket into the atmosphere, releasing a gas that will counteract the effects of pollution. Unfortunately, that was all a lie. The scientist actually released a mutagen which quickly transforms the remaining humans into monsters ready to serve in his army for world conquest. Earth's last hope rests on three cybernetic warriors, called Sabers, to save the day. So, of course, one goes rogue, and it's only natural that the remaining two must stop both the scientist and the other Saber. Typing that out, I feel it may have been for the best that the story was pretty much left out of the game. It's a bit ridiculous and could be simplified a good bit. Thankfully, the story doesn't really effect the game much.

Graphics are much more important, and they aren't bad, just very unremarkable. When I got to this section of the essay, I had to go back and replay the game for a bit, because I felt like the game had pretty good graphics, but I could not for the life of me remember them. I was able to remember that the game takes place across five levels: a military base, a futuristic Asian city, a jungle, another future city, and finally a cavernous area on a newly created island. But other than a few bits, none of the levels really stood out.The enemies, and even the player characters themselves, are very much the same. They serve their job, but aren't very memorable. However, the game does animates really nicely, and most of the movements look very fluid. The only animation I take issue with is the running animation, or lack there of, and that's only because there are some many actions that are animated distinctly.

While the presentation and story of the game are fairly lack luster, the game play itself is definitely above average. You pick one of two characters: Allen or Sheeva. The only difference I could find between them were the angles of their attacks. Allen's blade slashes out horizontally, while Sheeva's slashes upwards right in front of her. The real difference comes in the area of effect. Sheeva's attack can hurt enemies in front of her in a wide angle, while Allen, on the other hand, attacks straight out. To balance this, his slashes are able to effect enemies directly above him as well.

The choice of characters effects how you approach enemies, but not how you approach the level. Both Allen and Sheeva are capable of climbing walls and on the ceiling. This gives the player a greater feel of mobility, and it is really easy to grab onto either when one wants. Unfortunately, it can be a bit tricky to get off the ceiling once you're there, especially if you are trying to do it quickly. The positive side of this is that the levels are large and sprawling. The downside is that sometimes, the levels force you to follow a specific path. To explain what I mean, imagine an upside down 4. Rather than allowing you to go down and to the side, the game will occasionally force the player to go farther down and double around an area arbitrarily. And even if you reach where you are going early, the game won't let you move forward.

Annoyances with the level design aside, your characters definitely feel like high powered cybernetic ninjas. Besides the standard attack, which can be powered up by finding the sword orb, your characters are able to preform a jumping spin attack by pressing up and jump, or by doing a drop kick by pressing down while in mid air. Much like the bomb in a schump, pressing the X button on the controller summons an elemental attack unique, in look, to each character. Allen summons a lightening dragon, while Sheeva summons blades of ice. No matter how it looks, the effects are the same- all enemies are damaged. Health is a little different in this game. The player starts out with three points of health, but can gain up to seven by collecting rare health drops from enemies.

Of course, other than bosses, damaging your enemies is not a hard task. Most take only one hit before dying, while others take at most three. And although, there are a good number of enemies, a patient player will have no trouble with them. The challenge of the game comes from the bosses, and there are several in each level. When approaching a boss the music will change and 'ALERT!" will flash on the screen.

The bosses are fairly challenging until you realize that there is generally a spot where the player can stand and simply hack away without being touched. The final boss of the second level is a good example. Initially intimidating, this undead bride summons fire which scorches the bottom of the screen and laser beams that bounce around. But if you jump on her hand and shift a bit so that the character is standing on her wrist, you can whack away undamaged by the fire and finish her off before the beam reaches you.

The game has been called a Strider clone, so perhaps it is fitting that the music reminds me of a Mega Man game. The music is very fast paced and very rocking, but like most of the other parts of the game, it is fairly unmemorable. The sound effects aren't bad, save for the constant yelling the player character does once their weapon has been upgraded. It's mildly annoying at worst, but worth a mention.

So is the game more than just a Strider clone? Unfortunately, I can't answer that. Some day, I plan to be able to, but for now all I can do is say that Run Saber is a game that is very forgettable. It isn't bad, but there is nothing to really latch onto and say 'this is great' about. It's fun, it has co-op, and controls very well, but I know that as soon as I finish this, I'm going to forget it all again.

Mohawk and Headphone Jack- SNES-THQ

2009-04-20T19:27:00.000-05:00

I won't lie. I picked this game up entirely due to how ridiculous the name is. Prior to seeing it in my local game store, I had no idea it even existed. And with a name like that, you would think that it was with good reason. Created by D. Scott Williamson and Black Pearl Software, this 1996 game has probably one of the worst names to ever be thought up. There is, however, more to a game than just a name. But does Mohawk have anything going for it, or is it just a game that tries to sell itself by the strangeness of its title?

As always, I'll start with the game's graphical presentation, which just oozes 90s. Mohawk, himself, is almost a laughable caricature of 90's culture. He is huge and masculine, neon yellow, with a green Mohawk that runs down his back, and completely naked except for a pair of RayBan sunglasses and his CD player. He would be an amazing mockery of the 90s if he hadn't existed right in the middle of it all and felt designed as strong mascot platformer.

The levels, on the other hand, are fairly varied, ranging from jungle ruins and caves to some sort of factory and an industrial complex. Unfortunately, they are pretty boring in their design, and predominantly made of very similar colors. The first level, for instance, is just a vast expanse of gray. The walls are gray, the floor is gray, the wire mesh is gray, and even some of the enemies are gray. If Mohawk wasn't bright yellow there'd be stretches of the level without any variety of color. The samey feeling of the first two levels does not do much to endear itself to the player, however, it never actually becomes an issue as distinguishing the floor from the background is as simple as it should be. And a platformer without the ability to determine where the floor was would be very nearly unplayable.

It would also be nearly unplayable if the controls were terrible. Luckily, that is not the case for this game. Mohawk controls easily and responsively, and there will be very few occasions where he does something that the player did not intend for him to do. The actions the player can take are, for the most part simple. By pressing either A or B, Mohawk can jump. By pressing Y, Mohawk will curl into a ball and will remain in that state until either the button is released or enough time passes. X makes Mohawk explode. Thankfully, it doesn't kill him or even damage him, it just hurts all the enemies on screen. The number of times Mohawk can explode is shown by the number and balls in the upper left corner, while Mohawks health and lives are shown in the bottom left.

In the lower left corner are the CDs that Mohawk must collect throughout each level. Once he has enough, a warp gate will open, shown as a red X on the map, which will transport him to the next level. This is where the game begins to break down a little. This is a platformer with a map, and that map is necessary to even begin to comprehend where to go after level one. Because not only are the levels massive, but also there is no set in stone up in this game. Levels spin around Mohawk so that it always looks like he's standing right side up. Becoming disoriented is a common occurrence in this game.

Even more so because the game plays like a combination of Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic Rush. By that, I mean that the game is made up of the standard pathways, bits of floating rock, and ceilings, and each of these has their own gravitational pull that can jerk a jumping Mohawk towards them, which causes the screen to flip. Sometimes, that gravitational pull comes from a good distance away, which is a rather jarring experience, especially as it always seems to happen right when you were finishing a tricky platforming section, interrupting your victory because you jumped a hair too far to the left. However, I can't say the gravity controls aren't fun. Flying through the air, only to orbit a small sphere, be grabbed by another, and be hurled elsewhere has a very visceral thrill.

Like Sonic, Mohawk is very fast. Also like Sonic, he has a strange hair cut that runs down his back and kills enemies by rolling into a ball. Mohawk's speed is the only thing that keeps the experience even semi-sane. As I said before, the levels are sprawling, and distances that look like they'd take forever to traverse, actually only take a few seconds. On the other hand, the player has to be paying constant attention or they will run right into an enemy that appeared a fraction of a second before. This is alleviated slightly by a feature called lookahead, which causes the screen to shift towards whatever direction the player is pressing on the D-pad. The problem is that it creates a really shaky camera, especially in the moments where gravity is flinging Mohawk all over, which only adds to how disorienting the game can be. And on more than one occasion, I found myself feeling slightly nauseous, which is not something one can say for most 2D games

Every two levels, there is a boss. This boss guards the warp that goes to the next area (and by this I mean jumps in setting). Unlike the standard enemies, which are rather boring, such as the random small ball or the large slinky-like worm, the bosses, or at least the one I've seen, exude a goofy charm. The first boss is a smiling yellow ball with mecha legs, and it was actually quite challenging as it had several different attacks, such as missiles, guns, and a flamethrower. Choosing your time to strike wisely and making judicious use of the explode ability are necessities in these confrontations.

The music in the game is interesting. Not in the sense that it is good, though. The music is made up of mostly generic 90s rock tunes. Though they aren't bad by any means, they just have this feeling of already been heard before. Now, what's interesting is that there aren't actually level tunes. There are simply collectible songs, in the from of large CDs, scattered through out the game. Once the player discovers one, the game automatically jumps to the new song, and at any time the game can be paused and a new song selected.

So, the question still remains, is the game good? And the only real answer I can give is that it is awesomely bad. There are flaws to the game in spades. Cheap deaths happen often. The shaky camera is awful, but can thankfully be turned off. And that's not even mentioning the wonkiness of the gravity at times. And yet, the game feels so much like it was ahead of its time that I can't bring myself to truly condemn it. While it looks bland and ridiculous, it feels like it was really striving to accomplish something great. And even though it fell very short of that goal, it still managed to create a very unique experience unlike any I would have played at the time. If you can find it for cheap, and don't mind putting up with some major annoyances, you might walk away with one of those games that inspire some people to curse the heathens that just don't understand.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors-Genesis-LucasArts

2009-04-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it may be difficult to remember, but there was once a time when LucasArts created more than just Star Wars cash-ins of varying quality. Of course, that's not to say there were no Star Wars games during that time, but this was when they were on the top of their game, creating iconic classics of the gaming world, such as Monkey Island, The Fate of Atlantis, and Maniac Mansion. It was during this period, 1993 to be exact, that Mike Ebert and LucasArts released a forgotten classic on the Genesis and SNES: Zombies Ate my Neighbors. Published by Konami, This was one of those games that I actually owned as a child, and the game that I still claim to have achieved my greatest gaming moment: making it to level 46 with no game overs.

The games story is a simple one. Monsters, such as zombies, werewolves, martians, and giant babies, are out to kill everyone. And, of course, it's up to Zeke and Julie to stop them. There's a crazy doctor named Dr. Tongue involved in this somehow, but really it doesn't matter. There are people to save, and monsters to destroy.

The story is minimalistic, but really, the actual plot of the game is so unimportant, that you'll never find yourself actually thinking about it or the final confrontation with Dr. Tongue. Instead, you'll find yourself solely focused on each level's story, if that, told to you exclusively by the level's title and the monsters present inside. The game is 54 levels of goofy monster movie spoofs just waiting to be survived.

But just because the game has a sense of humor doesn't mean it's not hard or that there are no tense moments. The game is a free roaming top-down shooter, and like any game set with that camera angle, you will be attacked from all sides. Luckily, you don't have to defeat all the enemies or even make it to a specific location to end the level. Unfortunately, to escape, you actually have to save all the people that you can before the door to the next level opens. And you have to be quick, because if an enemy reaches one of the neighbors, they will die, and there will be one less neighbor to save on the next level. If they all die, it's game over. Racing an ax wielding doll towards a panicking soldier, builds a certain kind of tension

Of course, you could, if you are able, simply off the doll with one of your many weapons. But this isn't a gritty game. There are no pistols or shotguns to be found. Starting off, the player will only have access to a water gun. but it shouldn't take long to build up an arsenal of creative weapons like soda can grenades, silverware, tomatoes, fire extinguishers, and bazookas. And that's not the only thing they have. There are also items like clown punching bags, med kits, and various potions that will give the player that much needed edge. With a little strategy, these weapons and items will help Zeke and Julie overcome the odds and save their neighbors.

Of course, all of this is moot if you don't have what it takes to play this game correctly. No, not an itchy trigger finger and a sure shot, though those will definitely help. No, Zombies Ate my Neighbors requires the player to have a brain and to prioritize. Not every enemy needs to be defeated. Nor must every drawer be searched as the player moves through the level. And for the love of all that's holy, save the victim first then get the bazooka.

There's even strategy involved in the combat. Most enemies are more susceptible to damage from specific types of weapons. The water pistol works wonderfully on the zombies, but you'll want to use a soda can grenade on the mummies and silverware on the werewolves. I'd also recommend you save those red potions (drinking one of them will turn either Zeke or Julie into an invincible monster) for level 20. You'll need them.

As I've mentioned, each level has its own story. This is set up by a title written in classic 50s B-movie blood font and the occasional goofy blurb. As you move through the levels you will hop from zombie infested suburbia, to haunted castles, mummy filled pyramids, hedge mazes with loving chainsaw maniacs, and football stadiums willed with undead tackles. And there is no clear distinction of where you are heading next. This makes the game feel more like a spoof than a solidified story, and that works very well for this game. The constant jumping from area to area randomizes the enemy types and never allows the player to lay down a consistent plan of attack. It also allows you to restock weapons you may be running low on as weapons that are more useful in the factory may not be needed in the shopping mall.

The game is playable cooperatively, which is a nice touch. Although, it does not really change the game all that much as both players must remain on the same screen. So, there is no diving the ten victims up into equal chunks as one heads east and the other west, which is a real shame. This can also be a hindrance if both players aren't on the same page or in constant communication. But as you would be sitting in the same room as the person, you are playing with, you should be able to discuss strategy.

The music and sound effects are pure B-movie melodrama, the posses that feeling of striving to add tension but going just a hair too far and ending up ridiculous. One shot from the water pistol causes a zombie to explode, loudly, into clouds of dust, and the piercing shriek of a dying victim sounds the same no matter what gender.

Zombies Ate my Neighbors is a blast to play. The goofy nature of the game will keep any little kid from becoming scared, while the satirizing of a genre of movies will keep those willing to think a bit deeply about things amused. The game is easy to pick up and play, and a convenient four digit password system will checkpoint your progress after every few levels. The game has its flaws. Switching weapons and items by holding A and pressing the respective button can become a bit cumbersome when hunting for something desperately needed, but if you can put up with that, you will find an enjoyable zombie romp that no horror buff should dare pass up.

Aladdin-Genesis-Virgin Interactive

2009-04-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

The final game, for now, in our jaunt down the classic cartoon to games line-up is the Genesis version of Aladdin. The specification that this is the Genesis version is important this time because unlike most multi-platform games, the various ports are all vastly different, due in part to the fact that different companies designed the different games. While Capcom and Shinji Mikami created the SNES version, it was Virgin Interactive and David Bishop that did the work on 1993's Genesis edition. This version of the game was so good that it was awarded Best Genesis Game and Best Animation by the late, great EGM. So, does it hold up to this day?

Well, as it was awarded Best Animation, lets start with the graphics. The game is gorgeous. End of story. The areas through which Aladdin travels are mostly varied, except for one instance of overlap, and even then it is a completely different level, it is just set, for the second time, on the streets of Agrabah. The sprite work is, also, superb. Everything in the game is fluidly animated down to the guards hopping up and down while clutching their feet if you lead them across burning coals. The presentation simply oozes character and the feel of the movie.

The story is told through text and still images in between each level. These bits of dialogue are entirely skipable, though doing so will cause you to miss some rather good pixel art renditions of the classic characters. Now, this is generally where I would explain the plot, but really, if you don't know the story of Aladdin, shame on you. Go youtube the songs at least and then come back.

Now, where was I? Oh yes. Like last week's game, this was one of the gaming staples of my renting career. I can't say how many times I rented this one over the years. Probably enough times to own a couple of copies, but in all those rentals, I never beat the game. And I only made it past the carpet ride once or twice, which is ridiculous considering the game points where you should go. So, it came as a complete shock to find out just how easy the game is.

However, it's not stupidly so. The game is a simple platformer at heart. Your job is to guide Aladdin through the various locations to the end of the level. Some of the levels require you to beat a boss, while others require you to find an item, and all of them require you to jump and fight your way through hoards of traps and enemies to do so. But Aladdin is no slouch. He comes armed with a sword, several apples, and his acrobatic prowess. The sword is your close range melee attack, capable of dealing high damage, but putting Aladdin in dangerous situations. The apples, which you collect throughout the level, are your weaker range weapons. It's important to recognize early that neither of these attacks are better than the others, and this is due to how fights with the enemies play out.

It is entirely possible to brute force your way through the levels using only the sword, check points, a few lives, and a lot of luck, but that defeats what makes the combat interesting. And that is that each of the enemies has a specific method that should be employed when fighting them. The large sword wielding guard should be attacked with apples because he will parry your sword. The knife throwing guard should have his knives reflected back at him by your sword due to the fact that he will slice your apples in twine. This creates a slight strategic air to the combat that makes it feel as if Aladdin is actually outwitting his opponents rather than defeating them, which is more in line with his character from the movie.

The music in the game is a combination of new song and those taken from the movie. On numerous occasions, I found myself actually singing along with the songs, despite not having heard them in years. And the created songs aren't bad either. Though not quite as good as the movie tracks, they capture the feel of both the area they are paired with and the movie as a whole very nicely. The sound effects aren't bad either, ranging from short vocal samples for Aladdin and Abu to cracking pots and clanging swords. None of which sound silly or out of place.

Of course, the game isn't perfect. In the third and fourth levels, I found a few spots where the edges of a ledge didn't seem to want to catch me, luckily none of these were over anything perilous, so it was just a minor annoyance. However, I did run into a glitch in the fourth level that resulted in a quick game over. After defeating the Golden Ape statue and riding the carpet, I reached a check point before some semi-tricky jumps over some water, which I, of course, died on. Luckily, or so I thought, there was a checkpoint right before hand, so I'd start right back at the beginning of the jumps. Unfortunately, when I respawned, the ground didn't want to catch me, and I ended up falling to my death over and over, losing all nine of the lives I had collected in a matter of seconds. Now, I've died there before, many times actually, and that was the first time I've encountered that glitch, so it doesn't seem like that should be a major complaint, but it is there.

In closing, I feel that EGM was correct with their praise of the game. The only downsides to the game are a couple glitches and the length. A competent gamer can beat the game in about an hour and a half, which isn't much bang for your buck, I admit, but it's a really pretty bang that's fun to look at while it's still around.

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure- Genesis-Konami

2009-03-30T19:23:00.000-05:00

Next on our list of games is Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure. This was one of my favorite games when I was a kid. I adored the show, and I loved the game to pieces, though I never actually had it. So it has been quite a long time since I last sat down to play the game, long enough in fact that I remembered nothing about the game save the fact that I loved it as a kid. So does it stand up to my memories? No. But is it good? Well, let's talk about that.

The story of the game is pretty much standard Tiny Toons stuff. Buster finds a treasure map, and Montana Max steals it. Of course, in the process of fleeing Monty, with the help of Gene Splicer, manage to brainwash Plucky, Dizzy, Hampton, and Clamaty Coyote. He also kidnaps Babs, Fifi, and Shirley. Sadly, the story is missing the wit that made the show so much fun to watch. During the opening scene and in conversations with the bosses, Buster comes off as very plain and rarely has any clever quips to say. And while all the statements do feel like something Buster would say, it definitely feels like it's missing that spark.

Yet, while the story may be missing that spark that fans want, the game is certainly not lacking in references. Even the most common of enemies have come from somewhere within the show. You'll not only be facing off with the likes of Roderick Rat but also the wolverine from the episode about "Peter and the Wolf." And the sprite work of these characters is beautiful, especially the amount of detail that went into Buster's sprite. The only really goofy animation is Buster crossing a rope hand over hand, which really just looks like he's grabbing the rope back and forth with both hands rather than actually moving along it.

However, looking good is not all that a game must do to be good. It is in the actual playing of the game that it falters some. The game controls sort of like a cross between Sonic and Super Mario World. Taken from Sonic is Buster's running animation and the sense of inertia, but that inertia seems a little exagerated, so much so that at times it felt like the rabit was actually resisting my commands. What is taken from Mario is the basic hop and bop gameplay. Unfortunately, the angle of attack seems much less forgiving in this game and any attack not coming from withing a thirty degree angle above the enemy is more likely to hurt Buster instead. The jumps also feel off. Normally, when people say that, they mean that the controlls feel floaty. Buster, on the other hand, controls as if he's got a rubber band attaching him to the ground, and at the moment the jump button is released, he'll rocket to the ground. If you're capable of pressing the jump button fast enough, Buster can jump without ever really leaving the ground.

Bosses in the game are comprised of Buster's brainwashed buddies that are being controlled by Dr. Splicer. Unlike how most games would do it, Buster doesn't actually fight his friends to free them of their brainwashing cap. He actually fights the crazed doctor while dodging the attacks of his friends, which is a nice little twist on the formula. After defeating Splicer and saving one of his buddies, Buster will talk with them for a moment, which is often when most of the game's humor occurs. One such example is when Plucky fights Buster twice, once under the control of Splicer and the second as the Toxic Avenger just for the heck of it, which is a nice homage to Plucky's character and a neat throw back to the show.

Perhaps the sadest part of the game is that, for the most part, the level layout is generally very good, and those times it's not are either early in the game where it is playing like Green Hill Zone or late in the game where it's being hard just because it can. In later levels, enemies are placed at just the right spots to make you jump into a trap. Luckily, this annoyance can be allieviated in two ways.

The first is by using Buster's special abilities. In each area, Buster will have access to a minor side character, such as Sneezer or Lil' Beeper, who, after collecting fifty carrots, will be usable by pressing A. This freezes the action on the screen while the character summoned preforms an attack destroying all enemies on screen. However, this action is often fairly slow and gets rather annoying after seeing it a few times.

The second way to decrease the annoyance is by collecting hidden bells in the levels, which add one extra heart to Buster's life bar for as long as he remains alive. With the bells, it is possible to gain up to five hearts, but as soon as you die, Buster goes back to three. Luckily, health refilling hearts are plentiful enough that most players should be able to keep their hearts at five for a good while unless they blunder into one of the instant death spike traps.

The game's music is for the most part good, although the various remixes of the main Tiny Toons theme does get annoying after a while, especially considering it is used so often: At the Title, as the main music of the first area, sped up for the invincibility item, and sampled for the stage victory music just to name a few. Those songs not sampled feel inspired by either the Sonic games, Carnivale music, orsometimes both. The sound effects, on the other hand, are fairly annoying, especially the jumping noise, which is a bit on the shril side.

Though I must accept that the game is not as good as I remembered, it is far better than it could have been. When it comes right down to it, Buster's Hidden Treasure is the exact opposite of Goof Troop. The gameplay is flawed, challenging, long and has added replayability due to hidden levels and bonus stages. It is not broken by any means, but it is frustrating. With a little time and patience one will eventually stop feeling those little kinks in the games armor.

Goof Troop-SNES-Capcom

2009-03-23T19:24:00.000-05:00

Being a child of the nineties, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I spent a large chunk of my afternoons watching the old Disney cartoons such as Chip n' Dales Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales, and Tale Spin. Goof Troop, while not the best of these, won a place in my heart with its goofy antics (Hyuck) and heart warming moments of tenderness. The game is much the same. Created by Shinji Mikami and Satoshi Murata in 1993, Goof Troop is silly, enjoyable, and lovingly crafted even if it is not the greatest of games to come from the shows on the Disney Afternoon.

The game has been described as an action adventure game, but I feel that does one of the games main selling points an injustice. For at its heart, I feel that Goof Troop is a puzzler. Sure, there are a lot of moments where one must find item A and take it to location B to reach area C, but one of the big differences to me is the combat. Yes, there are enemies in the game, but neither Goofy nor Max are capable of attacking without items found either in the level or on that screen. This can range from the hook shot, which does no actual damage, to pots and barrels that must be gathered and thrown. The throwing items are always finite and a miss or two can result in restarting a room.

The other point I wish to make on the game being a puzzler is that most of the actual obstacles in the game are sliding block puzzles. Every level has a couple and it is always impossible to proceed without completing them. Though these puzzles are for the most part very easy, some of them require a tricky bit of finesse to see them through, often calling on an unexpected move or two before all the blocks end up in the right spots.

Unfortunately, for the most part, the game is very easy. Sitting down the other night, I was able to beat it in just a few hours, which is a little bit disappointing. However, remembering that this game is aimed at kids, makes the simplicity of the game seem more tolerable, and even makes some of the later puzzles come off as down right devilish. A player, seasoned by Zeldas, puzzlers, or point and clicks, won't have an difficulty realizing that the board they are carrying will allow them to cross that gap, or that the key that they just found will open that locked door they saw. On the other hand, the inventory is limited to two items in single player and to one a person in two-player.

That brings me to probably the strongest point of this game. It is a co-op puzzler. You and a friend are able to take control of the Goofs as you guide them through the island on their way to rescue Pete and PJ. And each of the two players plays a little bit differently, with Goofy being able to do twice as much damage with his throws, and Max capable of moving at twice the speed. This creates a strong sense of player purpose in co-op where each player knows what they need to do and when. The person playing as Goofy is the enforcer, so to speak. His role is to use his brute strength to protect his son, while Max uses the hook shot to stun them. Max on the other hand should be the one sent through the trap rooms, because one player clearing a screen will warp both to the next room. Traps with tricky timing that would be challenging for Goofy to get past can be easily bypassed by Max.

There are five levels in the game and, waiting at the end, are bosses just itching to send the Goofs packing. The boss fights always play out the same way. You dodge their attacks until an item appears that can either be picked up and thrown back at them or caught and thrown and then nail them in the face with it, which is very satisfying.

The bosses are probably the most challenging part of the game, as they are capable of eating through your hearts and lives rather quickly if you're not careful. More often than not, I and my co-op buddy found ourselves overrun by some of the later bosses forcing us to cash in one of the continues we gained by finding the light blue diamond.

There is a reason that the bosses can eat through your stock of lives so quickly, and that's due to a rather unconventional health/life system. Each of the goofs can hold up to six hearts that are gained by eating cherries and bananas, but once that sixth heart is filled, any other health item ingested will grant the player another life. Unfortunately, it also reduces all health to zero. Not only that, but if the player dies, they restart with no health. So a player going into a boss with six lives and four hearts may only be able to take eight hits before the game over screen flashes. On the other hand, it is not hard to gain health and lives, as they are hidden conveniently under barrels and in patches of dirt that can be dug up much like in Zelda. These spots replenish after leaving the screen, so even though they are random, there will usually be something there. Also, if one is playing with a partner and that partner dies, all that needs to be done is to move to a different screen and that player will be able to come back with two lives.

The music is definitely one of the game's strong points. Filled with whimsy and that Disney feeling, the music is vibrant and well suited to the various areas of the island that the Goofs are traversing. And yet, for all the skill that went into the music, there is none on the title screen, and even odder, there is no midi form of the Goof Troop theme song, which is a real shame.

Goof Troop is one of those odd games you run into every now and then. It's a game that for all intents and purposes has no real flaws other than its length and difficulty. It can be breezed through in a little over three hours by anyone with any previous experience with video game puzzles, and the experience never changes. It is a great game that would have been made far better by just a few more levels. However, if you've got a buddy, a love of puzzlers, and a few hours to kill, I'd definitely consider giving this rough diamond a try.

Blackthorne-SNES-Blizzard

2009-03-15T20:16:00.000-05:00

Blackthorne was created by Blizzard Entertainment and released on the SNES in 1994. The story is told through cut scenes that show at the end of each area and through what the player can gleam from talking to the inhabitants of the planet Tuul. The player is quickly learns that Kyle Blackthorne is the son of the previous king of Androth who fell to the power of the demon Sarlac and the might of the Ka'dra'suul kingdom. There are some mentions of a light stone that is given to Kyle before he is beamed to Earth, but the exact reasons as to why it is important are a secret to Kyle in the beginning. Our hero spends the next 20 years on Earth, joining the military, being court-martialed, and preparing for the day that he will return to Tuul to retake his kingdom.

And return he does, after a surprise encounter in the desert, Kyle wakes up in the mines, and the game begins. The game play is very similar to games like Prince of Persia and Flashback. Meaning each screen is made up of three floors that the player must navigate via climbing, jumping, fighting and exploring. Though the game is a lot more linear than Prince of Persia (by that I mean that there are fewer secrets), those that are familiar with the old version's game play will feel right at home with the methodical pace.

Movement through the game isn't slow, per se, but it is deliberate. There is a run button, but more often than not, it makes the player's movements a bit more unruly than is safe. And as a deadly or damaging drop may be only a screen away, it is often better to walk than to hope you can notice and stop before bumping into something nasty.

The combat in the game is focused on gun play, but unlike the gun play in Flashback, one is more likely to survive going toe to toe with an enemy even if they are heavily armed. This is due to a simple cover system that Blizzard included. While the shotgun is drawn, pressing up on the d-pad causes Kyle to lean into the background. While in this state, all dangers will pass him by without dealing any damage. Of course, his enemies can do this as well, so the fire fights end up being more about timing than having a quick trigger finger. One thing I feel compelled to mention, is that like Prince of Persia, healing items are hard to come by. So even a mistake that didn't kill you at the beginning may have disastrous consequences later as the level slowly eats away at Kyle's health.

The world that Kyle explores is broken into four areas with different levels in each. At the end of each level, the player is given a short 4 digit alphanumeric password that will allow them to return to that section. These passwords are always the same and do not take into account any items the player might have in their possession at the end of the level. This is, unfortunately, normal as the game always strips Kyle of all items at the start of every level. Of course, Kyle's health is also refilled, so after a few of the more difficult levels, the player may feel more rewarded than gypped.

Not only that, but because all items that are needed for a level are found in that level, it is impossible for a player to get completely stuck. However, it is possible to mess a section up badly enough to need to restart. Such as if the player misses a grenade toss and ends up blowing up the wrong thing, a quick press of the start button will bring up the level restart menu, allowing one to go back and fix said mistake. Of course, the games difficulty will force the player to restart levels many times simply due to punishing them for any mistake that is made.

Unfortunately, this means you'll be playing the same sections of the game over and over again, trying to complete a run that will get you to the end of the level before your health is whittled away by enemies, traps, and falls. This can get a tad repetitive as the levels do not change at all. The enemies will always be in the exact same place and for the most part will act in the exact same way. Thankfully, this is elevated somewhat by the music, which has a heavy and oppressive feel that adds to the sense of danger and mixes well with the dark and somber tones of the backgrounds. One interesting thing about the music is that there seems to be a thread of power and defiance that is struggling against the surrounding, bleak tones. This thread seems to grow stronger as the player progresses though the game until it is the driving force behind the music.

All in all, Blackthorne is a very good game. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed by it. It was one of those games I remember reading about in magazines as a child. I was obsessed with Flashback, and because of that I had always wanted to play Blackthorne. Over the years, I must have created in my head the idea of a game that was far better than Flashback. I don't know if that's just the nostalgia talking, and maybe if I went back, I'd find Flashback a tad underwhelming. I do, on the other hand, know that Blackthorne did not live up to my own self-created hype. It's a fine game, though, a lot of fun and well worth the few bucks you'll spend on it if you find it in a used game store or if it ever comes up on the Virtual Console. Just make sure you're ready for the methodical pace.

Gunforce-SNES-Irem

2009-03-09T19:01:00.000-05:00

Gunforce was released in America in 1992 by the company Irem. The games full name is "Gunforce- Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island." So it should come as no surprise that I picked this game up more for the ridiculous title than for Irem's pedigry, which is solid considering they are the creators of R-Type. It's a good thing that I used that reasoning, because the game's ridiculousness extends well beyond its title.

The game is simple enough to pick up and play. Your character moves quickily, shoots in eight directions, and is generally controlled exactly how you want him to be. The controls are simple, needing only to move, jump and shoot. Oddly enough though, you have two shoot buttons, and four jump buttons. There are no differences between them. You can play for a while shooting enemies with the B button, then switch it up and shoot them with the A button for awhile. You can spend some time in the game jumping enemies by pressing Y and then switch to R just for kicks.

The actually issue that I had with the controlls is my own. I have it so ingrained in my mind that Y should shoot and B should jump in games like these, that I routinely died because I pressed the wrong button. And I almost always have to readjust after lulls in the combat.

But that's not really a complaint as the game is fairly easy, especially for a game that feels so much like it's trying to be Contra. Most of the enemies in the game are little more than lemmings whose sole goal in this life is to die by your hnads, or machine gun fire, or flames, or proton bazooka.

Occasionally, these lemmings will fire a shot at you, which can easily be dodge by ducking. While ducked, the bullet will fly through your head, but deal no damage. That should be the first sign that the hit detection in this game is a little wonkey. Sometimes, it'll look like you're going to be hit, but you're not, while at other times, you'll be hit even though you were out of the way. I've died to a bullet grazing the back of the truck I was driving, which usually just deals damage to the vehicle, but that time, I was the one that died.

Speaking of vehicles, they are one of the best and worst things about the game. They are powerful and can take many more hits than your character can, and they have infinite ammo for whatever weapon is equipped, which is generally the laser canon. Of course, the drawback is actually using the things. Getting in and out of the various vehicles is a chore, as you are able to latch onto more places than just the mounted turret. So often you end up dying just trying to get into the thing the first few times you play. Also, there's no driver, so it looks kind of silly as you chug along, blasting away with the turret and running over the lemmings. But no vehicle comes close to the chopper for sheer goofiness, as it takes up half the screen and looks exactly the same in the air as it did on the ground. Also, when you get it in the first level, it will come to a point where it will simply no longer move forward, and if you back up, you end up trapped, which forces you to bail a screen or two from what looks like the landing pad.

The bosses in the game are also disappointingly easy, and the first one feels so similiar to the first boss in Contra that it felt like I already knew how to beat it. This, of course, may have been exacerbated by the fact that it only had two distinct attacks, and that the game gave me one of the most powerful weapons in the game right before hand: the bazooka, which allowed me to destroy the boss in seconds.

The music is a bit of a mystery to me as most of the time it is drowned out by the gunfire and other sound effects in the game. There is no music at the title screen, so the only thing I've really heard enough of to comment on is the little jingle as you enter your initials, which isn't bad, but sure can get annoying if you let it sit for awhile. The sound effects in the game are good and the weapons really sound as if they have a good kick to them. Plus, the scream your character makes when he dies is hillarious, and I often found myself chuckling as he slumped to the ground, which may say something about me.

All in all, the games a bit of a mixed bag. It has some severe issues, but it is enjoyable and I found myself having a good time despite myself. It's not a game that one can sit down and play for hours as the flaws would eventually begin to bog down the experiance. It's easy for the type of game it is, and there is no options menu to change either difficulty or controls, but it's not broken. Shooter fans will definitely find something to enjoy.

King of Dragons-Capcom-SNES

2009-03-02T20:42:00.000-06:00

The King of Dragons is a beat-em-up for the SNES. It was made by Capcom and released in 1991. I picked this game up at a whim due largely in part to the fact that it was a Capcom game, but also because the name of the game just sounds like silly, simple fun. And that's exactly what it is. The story is that the dragon Gildress has unleashed a hoard of malicous fiends across the Malus countryside. And guess whose job it is to fix all of this and set the kingdom back on the path of peace and prosperity. Yup. You. Luckily, you're more than ready for it.

The game starts with a character select screen, where you can choose to play as one of five different heros: Elf, Mage, Fighter, Cleric, and Dwarf. Each of the different characters plays a little bit differently. The Elf is fast, uses a bow, and will die to a missplaced leaf sticking to his shin. The mage is slow and cumbersom, with a slow attack, but devestating power. The fighter seems to be the most balanced of the charaters. While the cleric can take more damage than all the others, but moves slowly. The Dwarf is powerful, and it has been said that he has a very good defense. I disagree with this as every other hit I took seemed to knock off a third of his HP, but maybe it gets better near the end of the game. There are other deferences as well, such as range, strength when casting magic, and speed to level, which creates a good, solid feeling of diference between the five characters.

However, despite all of that, the gameplay is rather standard. You have three or four buttons depending on whether you've gone into the options menu and fiddled with the controls. And they are you standard attack button, magic button, jump button, and should you have chosen to add it, a rather useless block button. The meat of the combat involves walking up to an enemy, or jumping if you're looking for the tactical advatange, and pressing the attack button until the enemy dies. There are no combos in the game, and magic sacrifices a rather heafty chunck of health for what seems to be three or four hits on different enemies, not to mention feeling useless against most bosses, due to the health lose and the fact that you can deal damage quicker by just smacking them in the face with your weapon.

Speaking the bosses most of them range from simple, to frustrating, to downright stupid. One battle about midway through the game has you fighting a ring of wraths, where all you can do is slash at the ring until either one of the floating heads takes damage or you do. Standard enemies are better as they range from merely cannon fodder to challenging cannon fodder, with a few actually fighting in much the same way you do.

I've been rather harsh on the game so far, but it's not all bad. The enemy designs are nice, and the levels are bright and colorful. The level up system and the weapons and armor found at fixed locations around that game offer a compleling reason to keep playing. The game is also rather short. I was able to beat all 16 levels in around an hour. And for the most part, I had a good time.

It definitely feels a little front loaded however. At the beginning of the game, you are greated with enemy type after enemy type as you progress with few actually being recolored sprites, or if they are, they have a different weapon type that causes them to fight in a different manner. Unfortunately, after about the 12th level, almost all the enemies and even the bosses become simply more powerful recolors, which was very disappointing.

The music is pleasent but entirely forgetable. While playing, I'd occasionally find myself noticing it and thinking that I'd like to listen to it again. But if you pressed me for what it was like now, I couldn't really answer except that it was standard Capcom music with a fantasy vibe and a bit of epicness dashed in for spice. And no, that doesn't make sense to me either.

That game is fun though, and can be played two player, which actually makes the game harder as you share both experiance points and continues. With a buddy playing, I've made it all the 12th level, but alone I was able to beat the game with lives to spare.

King of Dragon's isn't a great game by any means, but it isn't bad either. And it's definitely more enjoyable if you have a friend along to laugh at the goofy stuff that goes on, such as your characters releasing a terrible sounding war cry at the start of every stage and new life. It's a fun little time waster that's not too deep or too hard of a game and can be easily beaten in an afternoon.

Super Turrican- SNES- Factor 5

2009-02-22T22:12:00.000-06:00

I must admit that I wasn't a turrican fan in my youth. The whole of my experiences with the series prior to this involves one weekend with Mega Turrican where I spent more time swinging on the grappling beam than actually trying to advance through the game. So other than a replay here and there of Mega Turrican after its release on the Virtual Console and a little bit of message board chatter, I was pretty much going in blind for Super Turrican. I didn't have a manual for the game either as it was one of the first games I picked up at the Play N' Trade that had opened up nearby. Fortunately, I was prepared for this eventuality, having grown up in the time when rentals were popular and having or not having a manual was not a detriment as we expected to be able to figure a game out, at least enough to play, in five minutes.

And Super Turrican is no different. The buttons configurtion is simple. You can shoot, jump, fire off a green beam, and let loose with an explosive blast. Of course, there is more that you can do, but those are the moves one figures out by accident. Such as ducking and pressing jump turns our hero into an indestructible ball that rolls at high speeds and is cappable of laying mines or dropping bombs. The green beam can also be rotated to locate hidden platforms or stun enemies. The game plays like one part Metroid, one part Contra, one part shump, rolled into a ball of hell.

This game is definitive proof that a level designer can hate you. Sure, it starts off easily enough. The first level is pretty much a cake walk, but there are moments when the game shows signs of the evil that will soon befall you. In the first few minutes of game play, the player comes to a temple and a series of gaps, a storm begins to rage. In this storm, lightening can strike the player, and wind can blow hard enough to stop the player in their tracks. The player must contend with this, the enemies, and make the jumps required to advance.

Most of those that have played this are probably rolling your eyes right now. That trap might catch them once or twice, maybe more if you really weren't paying attention. But that is my point. Super Turrican does not need to surprise you to be difficult. It doesn't need random drop away floors or bullets that come from nowhere. No, every trap, every enemy, every bullet is clears placed in front of you. The signs for the traps are always there, but the elements of the level design make it so that does not matter. You will get hit; you will die.

But the game designers haven't hung you out to dry. The hero of Turrican isn't like the boys from Contra. He won't die in just one hit, he can roll into an invicible ball, and his weapons are useful. Taking a page from the book of shumps, our hero is able to collect different collored gems: Blue, Red, or yellow. These gems grant the hero the abilty to fire a powerful laser, a spread shot, or a richochet shot respectively. Each of these weapons powers up as the player collects more gems, and changing weapons does not reset the other weapons power levels to one. If you have a fully powered up spread shot and pick up the laser beam, it will still be a fully powered up spread shot when you go back.

Lives are also plentiful, but you could go the whole level and not find a single one. That's because the levels are built like a tree. Your ultimate goal is to climb the tree as fast as you can (yes, there is is a time limit), but if you take the time to go out on the branches and beat those challenges, the game rewards you with an extra life. In total, there are about tweleve extra lives in the first level alone. And you will need them, you will bo going through them like Rambo goes through bullets, especially your first time through.

Speeking of 80's action movies, that's what this game reminds me of, especially the music. The pumping, upbeat rhythms are drum heavy, and of the ones I survived to hear, many would fit as an action movie's theme. They're a bit more upbeat than one would expect to hear in the heat of the action, but they mesh well with the space theme and the vibrant colors of the game.

It took me a long time to actually get into Super Turrican. Many things are not obvious, but if you stick with the game, you will discover a shooter with a surprising amount of depth, challenge, and that zany fairness that all evil masterminds have because they want to prolong the suffering of their prey. But if you stick with it, and out wit that mastermind, you will find that it's definitely a worthy addition to any collection of Retro Treasures.

I'm the Retro Gamer, and I'm on the hunt.

Chrono Trigger

2009-02-16T21:50:00.001-06:00

Chrono Trigger is one of those games that needs no introduction. It is hailed by many as being one of, if not, the greatest jRPG of all time.

The game was the creation of three of the biggest names in the industry: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama. If you are unaware, that is the creator of Final Fantasy, the screen writer of Dragon Quest, and the creator of Dragon Ball. With such big names attached to the game, expectations must have been astronomical. But I'm sure you already have your own opinions about how it fared.

The story of Chrono Trigger is about a group of young teens who, while enjoying the fair, find themselves lost in time. Unlike most jRPGs, this does not require the deaths of everyone the main character knew or the burning of his home village. It is an event that happens merely by chance as the main character, Crono, watches a science experiment performed by his childhood friend, Lucca. Marle, whom Crono had met just minutes prior, had volunteered to be the second subject to be transported across the plaza by a scientific device. Unfortunately, during the course of the experiment, the energies created by the device interacted with Marle's pendent, tearing a hole in time and sending her tumbling into the past. Picking up the dropped pendant, Crono ventured alone into time to save her, beginning his adventure.

In all honesty, it is not the most grandious of beginnings, but it sucks you in all the more for it. You are just a normal person in a peaceful time, enjoying life. And for the most part, the game remains at that same light-hearted and funny level. This serves to make the saddening and or terrifying moments all the more powerful. The story is simple, and not drug out, leaving the player to make connections and determine what needs to be done. It does a good job of making the player feel not only as if they are Crono but also as if they are actually plotting the course for their own adventure.

The battle system is one of the games many strong suits. The Active Time system forces players to react quickly and speeds up the battles, which shortens the grind that many jRPGs suffer from. There was a moment late in the game, where I decided I was just going to grind for a bit to raise my level and learn new techs. The speed at which I was able to do this was impressive. Battles were over quickly, and the fact that there was not a separate screen for them meant that I did not have to wait for the screen to change. In about two hours, I was able to gain five or six levels and max out most of my characters techniques. And other than that one time, I was not forced to grind to beat any of the games challenges.

As I sit here, looking at the ending screen, I am reminded of just how good the games music is. Scored by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu, the game is a classic example of memorable tunes. From the upbeat battle theme to the haunting music box ending, the music will will carve a place into your heart. It may not be my favorite soundtrack ever, but it is one of the best.

All in all, Chrono Trigger has earned its place as one of gamings gems.It is a well told story, with endearing characters, a fun battle system, and good music. It's short and sweet like those summer afternoons where you sat inside playing games rather than going outside like your mom said. If you haven't already played it, you should go track it down. It's a worth addition to any collection of retro treasures.

This is the Retro Gamer, and I'm on the hunt.

Greeting

2009-02-16T21:32:00.000-06:00

Hiya, folks. Welcome to the Retro Gamer's Treasure Trove. I'm not sure how you actually managed to stumble across this blog but welcome.

The purpose of this blog, like many others out there, is to catalog the various retro games I have played over the years. All the games I write about must have been played recently and enough to form a proper and concise opinion on the subject. Keep in mind that these are not to be taken as reviews, but rambling discussions of a game. That of course will include whether the game is playable or enjoyable, but other things may come in as well.

Many of the games I play, I will endeavor to experience on the original system that they were designed for, but if that is not possible and they are available, I will not hesitate to play the game on Nintendo's Virtual Console. My personal goal is to use this as a way to refine my writing and to discover rare gems that I overlooked in years past. However, that does not mean I will skip the big titles, as will be evident by the first game I discuss.

I hope you enjoy your stay. This is the Retro Gamer, and I'm on the hunt.