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.