Zombies Ate My Neighbors-Genesis-LucasArts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.