Captain Silver

System: Sega Master System

Cheats Used: None

I like pirates, so considering the fact that there aren’t many pirate-themed games, the ones there are should be fun, right? Not in this case. The game is simple enough. You walk to the right killing enemies with your sword to get letters that spell out “captain silver”. As far as I could tell, nothing happens when you collect all the letters, they just disappear and you have to collect them again from the next group of enemies. This in itself wouldn’t make the game bad (although it does seem rather pointless), but the game is way harder than it needs to be due to you dieing after only one hit. I couldn’t even make it past the first level because of this, so I have no idea whether the rest of the game would have been any better. My advice? Give this one a pass.

Kirby's Dream Land

System: Game Boy

Cheats Used: None

This first game in the Kirby series is no less than a classic. While it is very short (only five levels), it is a ton of fun. The level design is fantastic and the music is excellent and very catchy. The game is easy enough that anyone, even young children, can finish it without too much trouble, although there is one boss that I couldn’t get past without being at full health (this is where save states come in handy). From this humble beginning, Kirby would go on to bigger and better things (Kirby’s Adventure for the NES is one of my favorite games for that system) and, although it’s not as high-profile as Nintendo’s other franchises, the series continues to this day with the release of Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Wii. If you’re interested (and if you can find it) there was a very cute and enjoyable Kirby anime series. The English version was done by 4Kids and I think it’s the second best series they’ve done (after Pokemon, of course). Happy hunting!

Batman

System: TurboGrafX 16

Cheats Used: None

In 1989 when Tim Burton’s Batman film was released, there were several videogames released for multiple systems as tie-ins, as well as an excellent arcade game. The Turbo game, unfortunately, never made it out of Japan and that’s a shame because it’s a fun little game that every batfan should have in their collection.

Every other Batman game was a side-scrolling beat-em-up, but for this one, Sunsoft decided to try something a little different. Instead of being a side-scroller, this game is viewed from a top-down perspective. In each level you go around collecting all of the Joker’s chemicals, dodging his henchmen along the way. You can stun the henchmen with your batarangs and knock them off the screen for points, but they respawn infinitely so it’s better to just knock out the ones in your way and ignore the rest. Once you’ve collected everything in a level (indicated by a counter in the bottom right corner of the screen), you move on to the next. The game does get repetitive, but it’s still a lot of fun and if you like arcade-style games, this is one of the better ones on the system.

Space Battle

System: Intellivision

Cheats Used: None

Considering the era in which it was released, Space Battle is a remarkably complex game for its time. The main goal of the game is to defend your mothership against five groups of invaders. You have three squadrons you can deploy and when one of your squadrons encounters a group of invaders, you move to a battle screen which plays like a first-person shooter. If a group of invaders reaches the mothership, they begin attacking it and if you don’t fight them in time (for example, if all your squadrons are deployed elsewhere), the mothership is destroyed and it’s game over.

There are five difficulty levels to choose from, but even on the easiest setting, the game is very difficult. This is due primarily to the fact that the invaders seem to move faster than your squadrons do and it’s hard to get a squadron back to base in time to defend it. Despite this, the game is still a lot of fun to play and I imagine that if I spent some time practicing, I could get better at it. This is indicative of the types of games found on the Intellivision, which were often more involved than Atari games in an attempt to be better than the 2600, which was the reigning champion at the time. In fact, that you had to use your brain was the system’s chief selling point and it was advertised as “intelligent television”. This is certainly truth in advertising and as a first impression of playing on real hardware, I’m very impressed.

Mortal Kombat

System: Sega Genesis

Cheats Used: None

When Mortal Kombat hit the arcades in 1992, it caused a sensation, both for its violence (which upset many parent’s groups) and for it’s fantastic gameplay and visuals which featured live actors digitized into the game. In fact, this game was one of the primary reasons we now have a videogame rating system after congressional hearings on the subject of videogame violence. The game features eight fighters all dukeing it out for the chance to battle Shang Tsung and his top general, Goro. It would go on to become a huge media franchise, spawning many sequels as well as movies, tv shows, comic books and a ton of other merchandise.

So how about the home version? Unlike the Super NES translation, which replaced the blood with “sweat”, all the mayhem of the arcade original is intact in the Genesis port. The game isn’t terribly difficult due to the fact that it’s easy to spam your special attacks and I made it almost all the way to the end before I ran out of continues. The controls are perfect and simple enough for anyone to pick up and play and sound is decent as well. And, of course, it’s even more fun if you have someone else to play with. All in all, it’s very easy to see why it became such a phenomenon and why the series continues to this day.

My Newest Purchase

Hey guys! I just got a great deal on the Mattell Intellivision (thanks, Ebay!). The one I got came with the system (and all the needed hookups), the Intellivoice module and eight games all with instruction manuals and controller overlays, plus the instruction manual for the system and a few other goodies. I got all this for $50! Yay! I fell head over heels for the Intellivision after playing Intellivision Lives on the PS2. The problem with that compilation, though, is that they just couldn't manage to duplicate the Intellivision controller on the PS2 controller, making many of the games difficult to play. So, now that I have an original system coming, I can review some of the games for it along with all the other systems I've been doing. I hope you'll look forward to it.

Dragon Spirit

System TurboGrafx 16

Cheats Used: Infinite Health

I’m not a huge fan of scrolling shoot-em-ups, mainly because a lot of them are very similar and don’t have anything special to differentiate one from another. For this reason, I like to play those shmups which do try to break the mold and do something different. Namco’s Dragon Spirit is one of those. Rather than a spaceship shooting down other spaceships (which is what shmups usually are), in this game you play a dragon, flying through various fantasy settings and using your flames to battle a wide variety of wild creatures. Since I love dragons, this premise appealed to me immediately.

This game is very good on a technical level with tight controls, good level design, creative boss fights, and catchy music. However, I imagine that the absurdly tough difficulty would be a big deterrent to most players. If I hadn’t cheated, I never would have made it past the first level. The last two levels in particular would be a nightmare for anyone trying to finish the game normally, and the final boss? Forget it! On the other hand, if you’re looking for just such a challenge, then I can certainly recommend this as one of the hardest games I’ve played. All I can say is good luck. You’ll need it.

The Super Mario Bros Super Show!

In the late 80’s, Super Mario Bros. was one of the most popular video games in the world. It was only natural that someone would turn it into a TV show. That someone was DIC and the 65 episodes they produced ran five days a week in syndication. There were two parts to the show: first, of course was the Mario Bros. cartoon where Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool battled King Koopa in almost every episode. These cartoons would often be take offs on movies or popular legends. Bookending the cartoons were live action segments (sometimes with guest stars) set at the Mario Bros.’ plumbing business in Brooklyn. Once a week on Fridays, the Mario Bros. cartoon would be replaced by a Legend of Zelda one (“Well, excuuuuuuse me, princess!”).

The show is goofy, cheesy, tacky, all of the above, but it’s still fun to watch and there are some genuinely funny moments in it. Of particular note is Captain Lou Albano’s memorable performance as Mario. If you liked the show as a kid, it’s worth revisiting and if you’ve never seen it, you should give it a try. It’s kind of a shame that Nintendo games don’t get cartoons anymore, but Shout Factory has been nice enough to release the ones we did get on DVD and for that, they should be commended.

Battle Robot Retsuden

System: Super NES

Cheats Used: None

In Japan, there is a well known series called Super Robot Taisen which features mecha and pilots from multiple different anime series coming together for strategy/war games. This game appears to be a spinoff from that as it features the same thing. I don’t know what the plot is supposed to be because the game is totally in Japanese and there hasn’t been an English translation yet. However, despite this, the game is still very playable. It only took me a few minutes of fiddling with the menus to figure out how to play and once I figured it out, I had a great time with it.

The gameplay is fairly simple. Each level has multiple enemy mechs and you move your character around the battlefield and attack when you’ve got the enemy in range. In the first level, you fight them alone, but after that, more people join your team. You control a different mech in each level and the computer controls the ones that you’re not. The AI here is awesome and makes the game completely non-frustrating, which is a big plus. Add to that the fact that all your team members have a very high amount of HP and it’s almost impossible to lose. This is another excellent effort from Banpresto (who make all the best anime-based games) and if you’re a fan of mecha series like Gundam, I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Videogame Soundtracks On Youtube!

Hey guys! I wanted to tell you all about the most awesome youtube channel ever. This guy uploads "suites" of videogame music so you can get an entire game soundtrack in one ten to fifteen minute suite. the link is http://www.youtube.com/user/grad1u5 . Definitely check it out, you might find something you like.

Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout

System: NES

Cheats Used: None

This was Kemco’s second and last Bugs Bunny game for the NES and it was released to coincide with Bugs’s 50th anniversary celebration (which I recall went on for a year and included a TV special and the first new Bugs cartoon in about 20 years). Like Crazy Castle, Birthday Blowout is simple yet challenging. Most of the challenge, though comes from some tricky platforming bits. The game is otherwise fairly easy because most enemies can be avoided and you rack up a ridiculous amount of extra lives by collecting all the carrots you see and using them in a bonus game after every level

There’s a good amount of variety in the environments you traverse and there’s a boss fight every two levels (although some of the bosses repeat). One particularly clever boss fight has both Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk and the trick is that you’re supposed to hit only one of them with the other being a decoy. Also, in the later parts of the game, there were several levels that I had to try several times to get through, so it does provide some challenge. All in all, this is a nice alternative to Mario if you don’t feel like playing that one for the hundredth time. Thumbs up!

Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle

System: NES

Cheats Used: None

My sisters and I received an NES for Christmas when I was four years old. Aside from Mario, Crazy Castle was the first videogame I ever played and I must admit, I still have a soft spot for it. The game has a whopping 60 levels and each one is like a puzzle. The enemies move in patterns and the challenge is to memorize these patterns and use them to get through the levels. Each level has a password, but you’re not likely to need them unless you don’t feel like playing through the whole game in one go because with each level you complete you get an extra life, making it nearly impossible to run out.

Some levels are tricky and took me several tries, but most are easy enough that anyone should be able to beat the game without much trouble. What’s interesting about this game is that it was originally based on Roger Rabbit, but someone else had the American videogame rights to that film, so Kemco changed it to Bugs Bunny for its American release. The series would have four sequels on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, with the last one featuring Woody Woodpecker in place of Bugs Bunny. I’ve not played the sequels, but the original is great fun and an excellent way to kill a couple of hours.

The Itchy and Scratchy Game

System: Super NES

Cheats Used: None

Here’s a game that should have worked. The Itchy and Scratchy shorts have always been one of the best parts of The Simpsons (with the one that opens the movie being the best of them), so it seems like a game starring the duo would be a lot of fun. Sadly, this is not the case. The game finds you playing as Itchy and the goal is to kill Scratchy before he kills you. However, there are two problems.

First, your default weapon, the mallet, does very little damage so you have to upgrade to a better weapon, but they only let you have two upgrades and they expire quickly. The second problem is that Scratchy seems to have far more health than you because he takes a lot of hits to kill while you can only take a few, which makes the game extremely unfair. I wasn’t even able to make it past the first level because of this. Spy vs. Spy this ain’t. At least that game made your deaths funny so you didn’t mind so much.

The Amazing Spider-Man

System: Game Boy Cheats Used: Infinite Health, Infinite Webbing The Angry Video Game Nerd hated this game, but I think it’s fun. The controls aren’t perfect, but they’re responsive enough not to be a problem. The game has six levels and you get three lives and three continues. At the end of each level, you fight one of Spider-Man’s foes, including Mysterio, Hobgoblin, Scorpion, Rhino, Doctor Octopus and Venom. The main challenge of the game comes from the fact that the bosses’ attacks are hard to avoid while getting a hit in and in the last couple of levels, the mooks you fight are also hard to avoid. Without cheats, I was able to make it to level four and I only turned the cheats on to see the last two levels. There’s not much to say about this one except that I had a good time with it and if you’re a fan of Spidey, you could do worse.

Wayne's World

System: Sega Genesis

Cheats Used: Infinite Health

I’m a big fan of Wayne’s World. The movie is one of my all time favorites. So imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the game is a horrible, worthless piece of crap. Seriously, this is one of the worst games I’ve ever played. I would have turned it off except I hit the final boss just as I decided to quit.

First, you start off with five hit points and you can refill them as you go through the levels, but that doesn’t help when almost every hazard is almost impossible to avoid. Second, the level design is confusing and it’s easy to get lost and wind up back where you were a few minutes ago. Third, the between-level bits with Wayne and Garth are lame and not even the slightest bit funny. Fourth, hearing Wayne say “Not!” every time he gets hit gets very annoying very fast because you get hit a lot. Fifth, the levels are all very bland and there’s little to no variety between them. In short, this game is an absolute train wreck and should be avoided at all costs.

Movie Review: The Wizard

Anyone who’s heard of this film knows it’s nothing more than an ad for Nintendo. In fact, when the film was first released, its main selling point was that viewers would get a first glimpse of Super Mario Bros. 3, which wouldn’t be released in the states for another year or so. However, despite the film’s status as a feature length commercial, it still manages to be entertaining.

The plot, such as it is, involves two kids (one of whom is autistic) who run away from home to compete in a video game tournament when it’s discovered that the autistic boy is a gaming wizard (hence the title). Shades of Tommy, perhaps? The acting is about as good as you’d expect for a film of this type and the writing is fairly solid, although there are some moments of unintentional humor, which, some would argue, makes the film more enjoyable. In any case, this film ought to be required viewing for anyone with an interest in gaming history because it offers a snapshot of just how Nintendo-crazy America was in the late 1980s. It really is quite fascinating.

Transformers: Convoy no Nazo (The Mystery of Convoy)

System: NES

Cheats Used: Invincibility

In this game based on the classic G1 TV series, Optimus Prime has disappeared and, as Ultra Magnus, you must traverse ten levels to rescue him. This game is notorious for its difficulty, and after trying it without cheats, I can see why. You only get three lives to make it through the game and you die if you get hit just once. Also, level nine is a maze similar to the ones in Super Mario Bros., but in this game, rather then looping around, it lets you get all the way to the end of the level before bumping you back to the start if you took the wrong path. In this day and age when cheats are just a Google search away, I honestly wonder how many gamers have made it to the end without them. Still, even so, this is a fun game to play and if you’re a fan of Transformers at all, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

I'm Back!

Hi all! After five solid days and a total of about 25 hours, I'm just about finished with Pokemon Black. I've got all the gym badges and I've captured all the legendaries it's possible to capture at this point, including Victini.All that's left is to level up my team some more before taking on the elite four and N. That's gonna take awhile, so I'll work on it a little at a time and I'll start posting here again.

I can tell you that if you like Pokemon at all, you have to play this one because it's the best game of the series so far. They've added a number of great features (like TMs being infinite use now and your pokemon no longer losing HP from poisoning outside of battle) that make the game much more enjoyable. The new pokemon are awesome and the fact that they level up quicker in this game makes grinding less of a hassle. Also, if I ever manage to finish the main story, there's a ton of stuff to do afterwards, which is nice. It's easy to see why Famitsu gave this game a perfect score (something they rarely do) and I recommend it very highly.

PAUSE

Pokemon Black comes out today and it's going to be taking up a lot of my time for the next couple of weeks at least. I'll still be posting stuff here but it's gonna be infrequent for the immediate future. Sorry, but I've been excited about Black for a year and once I have it in my hands, I'm not gonna wanna put it down right away. Once I finish the main story, I'll start posting more regularly again, I promise. I hope you'll bear with me.

Bonk's Adventure

System: TurboGrafX 16

Cheats Used: Infinite Lives

After Nintendo’s Mario series defined the NES for a whole generation of kids, it became standard practice for other console developers to invent mascots of their own. NEC’s mascot was Bonk, a little caveman with a big head. Bonk would star in three games and have a spinoff set in the future featuring his descendant, Zonk. In this first adventure, you have to save Princess Za and the people of Moonland from Evil King Drool. The only weapon you have is Bonk’s head, which you can use to bash enemies.

Like most games of this type, it starts out pretty easy and then gets harder the closer you get to the end. Level 5-5 is especially brutal because you have to refight all the previous bosses plus a new one. This is why I used an infinite lives cheat, because I knew I was going to need every last one. So how does Bonk compare to other famous mascots? Quite well, actually. NEC never had a superstar like Shigeru Miyamoto in their corner, but despite this, they managed to come up with a good, fun, well-designed game that I think can stand proudly alongside the best of what Nintendo and Sega had to offer. I’d love to see a new Bonk game on the current systems, but someone has to remember he exists first.