Tendo City - Super NES Reviews

Donkey Kong Country 2

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 09:41:43 +0000

Yar and all that! Only a year after the first game's release, Rare already had the sequel lined up and ready to go. The team learned many lessons from shortcomings they noticed in the previous game and took those lessons into hardening the overall design of the sequel. Thematically, where the last game was a "wild island giving way to industrialization", this one's a grand pirate adventure through the Kremling's own home base.

A number of changes were made to basic design. Hit detection is more accurate, although it can still at times be difficult to gauge from the artwork where the end of a platform is. Donkey's been captured, an attempt by Rare's employees to distance themselves a bit from Miyamoto's characters after what he'd apparently said about the original DKC. The result was introducing a female character, Dixie Kong, who has a hovering helicopter hair thing she can do. Pay no attention to how weird it is for Dixie to have two different kinds of hair, the helicopter ponytail is very cool and very effective. In fact, almost TWO effective. The sheer navigational capability it allows makes Dixie the best choice for most exploration in the game. Diddy does still have more of a horizontal distance with his roll not losing height off the edges of platforms, but it's very niche. There is no longer a "heavy weight" in this game, so the big burly kremlings now require throwing something at them to defeat them. That leads to a new mechanic, partner carrying. You can pick up your partner and either toss them to out of reach places you can't reach alone, or just chuck them at enemies that aren't dangerous to touch and defeat them outright. New pirate themed items litter the game as well. Treasure chests have unique items hidden inside but require smacking them against an enemy to break open. Cannons often lead to bonus levels but require finding a cannon ball and successfully carrying it to the cannon. Replacing the swinging vines of the last game, fixed "rope rigging" can be found in many places, allowing navigating the ropes up and down, left and right, very much like the controls in Donkey Kong Jr. There's far more verticality, whole levels designed with scaling in mind. Along with this come some deadly levels with something rising from the floor to kill you, requiring speed to stay ahead. And, at the very end of each level there is now a clear "marker" to pass, a target to hit which raises a barrel to win a rotating prize. Hit from high enough a height and the prize is your's.

This game added something special to the bonus stages. Now, not only do bonus stages have proper presentation with intro screens and clear objectives, you actually have to win each one for full completion. All of the bonus levels now reward special coins. One set is Krem coins, which are pirate treasure to be handed to this gigantic mountain of a croc with a giant spiked club on a draw bridge. Try to fight him and Monkey D. Kong gets utterly destroyed in one swing, but you can bribe him and win him over. Every 15 coins unlock a brand new hidden world full of very difficult levels. This is borrowing from Super Mario World's Star Road and Special Zone worlds. Further, there are Hero Coins. These special tokens are the main completion goal of the game. Getting them all will require finding every other secret, and Cranky Kong now "ranks" your "hero rating" based on how many you get. Apparently, Diddy's competing with Link, Yoshi, and Mario, and a couple "no hopers" who appear to be Sonic and Earthworm Jim. Notably, this does restrict the variety of bonus stage objectives, but they've also adjusted bonus level design to tie the bonus levels more tightly with whatever the level's gimics are. Now, at max a level will have three bonus levels, minimum one. The "Hero Coins" are (mostly) found inside the main level and each one is put out in clever locations that often require very tricky methods to reach.

Visually, the game still uses prerenders, but doesn't recycle the renders from the last game. All the characters have been rerendered using new techniques, most notably in the fur rendering. The previous renders made it look more like Donkey and the other furred animals were wearing suits made out of their own fur, somehow shaved off, glued into a suit, and stuck back on them. This "fur rendering" would be something Rare became rather well known for right up through the amazing "fur and grass rendering" in Star Fox Adventures (And Conker Live & Reloaded). Generally, the art style was also shifted to be more "cartoony" than the previous game as well. Rambi has larger eyes, the KONG letters are now bigger and rotate, and many of the enemies now have a more exaggerated look. This is especially true of bosses, who are now all unique entities rather than just super sized versions of regular enemies. Well, alright there's a LITTLE recycling, but not in the normal sense. The pirate crow (which you fight in the crow's nest of the first world which mainly takes place on K.Rool's pirate ship), later comes back as a GHOOOST pirate crow in the haunted woods world. Since you can't really fight Klubba, you instead get to fight a sort of twin brother as a boss in the swamp world. In fact, only one world is missing a boss completely (something I'll bring up again when it comes time to review the GBA port). Further, every part of this game is designed with the pirate aesthetic in mind. From enemies now sporting peg legs and hook hands and eyepatches and the like to the fancy "age of sail" font used in many areas to often using a "treasure map" backdrop for menus, they lean hard into the pirate theme. Even the locations fit the idea of going on a grand pirate adventure through the island, from the starting large pirate ship (and it's underwater stages taking place inside sunken ships full of treasure chests and the like) to ghost woods and some frankly bizarre mixups like the amusement park beehive world. (Yes you heard that right, BRISBY LAND is real!) All the same, they do manage to make a lot of the pirate kremlings look somewhat intimidating, especially the giant skeletal croco-ghost with a giant sword for a lower half that stalks you through a roller coaster library (like I said, truly creative mixups here).

The music is once again composed by David Wise and it's absolutely outstanding. The whole soundtrack is frankly some of the best music in all of platforming and manages to outmonkeyshine all but the very best music from the first DKC. Once again the piratic themes ring strong with things like accordion instrumentation and a few riffs from well known sea shanties used as leitmotifs, with every track building up and up and up to rising complexity throughout a stage. The boss music is suitably bombastic as well. Of course, it's hard not to mention what may be the most famous track from the whole game, Stickerbrush Symphony. Of note is that this song wasn't originally intended for the "sticker brush" levels, but in a crunch near the end of development it was decided to simply use it as a placeholder and then simply kept. It's now hard to imagine those stages without this music which has an odd combination of both soaring and tranquil. The music may not be as "tense" as a level that takes place in a field of deadly spikes hovering over an abyss would suggest, but the juxtaposition still somehow "fits" and also helps to keep the player calm and daring enough to keep trying. Every single level (or I should say every single unique level music track) also now has unique death tracks, and Diddy and Dixie also each have unique victory fanfares at the end of each stage. Sound effects are similarly excellently done. Most enemies have unique sounds to indicate their presence and the "death" sounds on taking them out are usually appropriately amusing. The "impact" sounds from barrel impacts or loading and using cannons are also appropriately punchy really bringing the player into this world.

Then there's the new way the Kong family works. They all got bit by a desire for pirate treasure it seems, because this is the one game in the trilogy where every family member are charging for services. They all got in on it. In most cases, it's a one time fee. For example, pay Funky once up front and you can use his plane rental service in that world whenever needed. Cranky Kong's hint system is dramatically improved. In the first game, he gave three hints entirely at random, making them fairly unreliable unless one had quite a bit of patience. This time, they can be selected from a menu, but they are no longer free. New Kong family are introduced here too. Swanky is a consummate hustler who runs a game show. It's a trivia game which costs coins to try and rewards extra lives. While most of his questions are things you should know either by paying close attention up to that point in the game, a few require checking the manual, and at least one requires some knowledge of the first game. Wrinkly replaces Candy as the game's save system. She also serves as a basic "manual", with new "tips" offered in each world. Considering the game already came with a manual, it's hard to say if this was redundant or an early attempt to make sure players didn't need manuals. But, since you have to pay for that stuff, it's better to just use the manual. Also, the first save is free, but every following save costs two coins. This is one of the biggest issues with this game's design, unfortunately. A platformer shouldn't really have save restrictions like it's a survival horror game, but if it's going to, this is compounded by other issues. Like many Nintendo platformers at the time, the save system doesn't record your total lives, but further it also fails to record how many banana coins you have (the other two coin types, being key to completion, are saved fortunately). So, by restarting your save, you can't even save again until you play some level and get two coins to rub together. This mainly hurts people who take breaks while someone who plays the game in one sitting will pretty much never have an issue. Either allow us to save for free like in the previous game, or remember the number of coins I have so I can stock up, but the compounded decisions hurt anyone who plays a few levels at a time. I found the best tactic I could manage was taking a plane back to the first underwater level, quickly collecting a few easy coins, and then taking a plane back to wherever I could save.

The game's pirate theme holds very strong and the overall world map does clearly illustrate roughly what you can expect to find before you enter each world, but I found the wholistic "storytelling" lacking compared to DKC1. In the first game, there's an overall progression from familiar jungle to more dangerous distances on the island and simultaneously a steady progression in what the Kremlings are doing to DK's island, from open wilds to a more or less natural environment now riddled with dug out mines to factories and horrible pollution and damage to a military base and finally concluding with K.Rool himself aboard his ship, which itself naturally hints that secretly this "king" is actually a pirate lord and sets up the sequel. That said, the "storytelling" within each world is now magnified as a result, so it's more of a tradeoff. The first world, for example, takes place all over different sections of a pirate ship, which at first involves simply charging aboard, then climbing the rigging, failing to reach the main mast and having to escape back down into the sea, sneaking back aboard through a section underwater, which floods the ship, and the next one from there the ship's sinking and you're outrunning the water, and finally bringing the crow's nest down to you with a VERY angry crow boss ready to claw you to bits. This is frankly some amazing linking between individual levels in a very dynamic "living" way. But, there's a small flaw, and that's the lost world. Don't misunderstand, the Lost World itself is amazing, but absolutely none of it's levels really "tie together". It's a large chunk of very different sections that don't tell a cohesive story, because they're encountered as difficulty spiking "one offs" throughout the adventure. In fact, there's no way to just walk from one level to the next. Each one has to be reached through the appropriate bridge from one of the main worlds. It's still a great set of secrets, but it could have been approached a little better.

The first "ending" involves taking down K.Rool in his new flying battleship. After dodging countless complicated trick shots from his pirate blunderbuss (which also has a suction mode, though by drawing everything in this pirate king also takes more damage, so use that to your advantage), eventually you give Donkey the chance to break free and he delivers the final blow knocking K.Rool into a bunch of sharks in the water below. He manages to survive and awaits in the Lost World. Apparently there's some power source there that's the "source" of all Kremlings or something.... the lore's weird and a bit unclear, also it's monkeys fighting crocodiles so I guess it doesn't matter. After finding every single bonus coin in the game and finally taking down each level in the lost world, the final boss fight is a rematch, and defeating him here blows up this kroc kore which causes the whole island to self destruct. You win! K.Rool sails off from his sinking island laughing wildly, so that sets up room for a sequel. Maybe Donkey Kong Land 2? Yes, I'll review that at some point probably.

All in all, I'd say the level design and the movement mechanics were perfected in this game. While there are a handful of design decisions that hold the game back from perfection, I'd still say this is my favorite game in the trilogy and one of my favorite platformers of all time. I took quite a bit of childhood pride in finding every last secret the game had to offer (after several weeks of hunting) all by myself without resorting to a player's guide or help online.

This game comes HIGHLY recommended.

Tin Star

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:54:14 +0000

TinStar
Developed by Software Creations
Published by Nintendo of America
Released in 1994 on the SNES in the US only (not released in other regions)

Tin Star is a light-gun game on the Super Nintendo. It is really a quite fun game, and definitely is very under-appreciated. It was developed by Software Creations (an American developer) and published by Nintendo (NOA particularly), and is single player only, unfortunately. It supports gamepad, mouse, or Super Scope; I played with the mouse, because it's vastly superior to pad in this kind of game.

The graphics are great and music good, definitely high-end SNES stuff. Parallax, great cartoony art designs, robot cowboys (all the characters are robots!)... :) It's got a plot too, with cutscenes between every stage, telling the often-funny story. The main character, Tin Star, is a heroic sheriff, trying to defeat the dastardly villains who want to take over the helpless town. They try to run him out of town, con people into throwing him out as sheriff, break villains out from jail, and more... a few times I thought that maybe there was a bit too much text, but you can skip cutscenes by pressing both mouse buttons together, so you don't have to watch them if you've seen them before or don't want to. The game is broken into seven stages, one for each day from Monday to Sunday. The game actually has SAVING, and you can save between each stage section (usually). There are three save slots. It costs money (points) to save, though, so if you want a good high score you might not want to save every time you can... but if you don't and then die, you'll be sent back farther. So it's got a good balance there for people trying to get a good high score, between saving more and getting more points.

The actual gameplay is consistently fun, with lots of variety for a light gun game. There are 'keep hitting up the bottle' minigames before each day. The stages involve shooting bad guys, but there are a variety of settings; some do repeat later in the game, but there are always new ones as well. The stages, and bosses, start out easy but get harder as you progress. In some you just see the target on the screen and shoot enemies (while protecting a building, say; you aren't being attacked in these stages, you just need to keep the enemies from succeeding at their task), in others you actually see Tin Star on the screen as he runs around through the stage. You can't control him, but it definitely adds something to actually see your character going around, and also makes it so that instead of just having to stop anything from hitting the screen, you have to keep things from hitting Tin Star. It works very well. At the end of each day you play a minigame-like boss fight in the form of a duel. In this you have to wait for the 'bullets' icon to appear on screen, click on it, and then click on the enemy before they fire. You'll have to hit each enemy six or eight times to win. It starts out very easy, but by the end you need split-second timing and very good aim to not get hit... this game would be so much harder without the mouse! :)

In addition, the game has three endings, depending on how much money you had at the end. You need a lot of money to get anything better than the bad ending though (750,000 for the medium ending, 1,000,000 for the good one), and that's not going to happen the first time you play. The best score I got during this play was 160,000 I believe. I saved every time I could, and your score resets each time you die and load your last save of course. Given that the game does have battery save, it probably will save the top 10 high scores, as well as those three save files, so there is reason to try to get better scores in addition to this.

There are some flaws, however. The game isn't that long -- I started and finished it today, and it only took a couple of hours at most. And other than trying on Hard or trying for a higher score (and different ending), there isn't much reason to play it again, and as I said at the beginning there is no multiplayer. Also it'd probably be a little frustrating at times without the mouse, as with most light-gun games. Those are the main problems with the game. Still, the good points more than outweigh them. The graphics are great, with a great cartoony style, multiple background layers, and plenty of variety. The music is good 'wild west' style stuff and works well. The saving is unexpected in a light-gun game and is a fantastic addition. And finally, it's very cheap and not particularly well known. All in all I'd definitely recommend that anyone who sees a copy for a few bucks should pick it up. Tin Star, if it is thought of at all, seems to be remembred as 'that other Wild-West-with-robots game, behind Wild Guns', but while Wild Guns is definitely a fantastic game, I think that that's selling Tin Star a little short. It's a great game on its own right. It's perhaps one of Software Creations' better games. Though my favorite game published by them will probably always be Hexxagon, this one is pretty impressive for something I didn't have high expectations for.

Gameplay - 9/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8/10
Single Player - 8/10
Multi Player - N/A
Other/Value - 8/10

Overall: 88% (not an average). Tin Star is a game many more Super Nintendo owners should play, and is definitely one of the system's better light-gun games.

BlaZeon

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 09:29:27 +0000

BlaZeon
Developed and published by Atlus
Released 1992 on the SNES
Review written March 1, 2006

Gameplay: BlaZeon is a shmup. That is, a shoot 'em up game, where you take a flying vehicle of some kind and kill things to presumably save your people. BlaZeon is a forgotten classic in its genre. Perhaps one reason for that is its very slow pace. The game is admittedly very, very slow, and sometimes you might spend as much as 45 seconds just watching the background scroll by with nothing to do. Also typical within the genre, the game is short -- it just has five levels -- but brutally hard. There are three difficulty levels and when you beat one the game loops to the next one. A simple system, but it works. This genre did not become great by being overly complex.

BlaZeon does have some interesting game mechanics, however. Your ship, the Garland, is very weak and has no power-ups as they are normally understood. It is slow, dies in one hit, and, for armaments, has only one single machine gun and its special weapon: the Tranquilander gun. It is more of a missile really, because you can only fire one at a time, but this cannon will disable certain enemy ships (that is, Bio-Cyborgs), allowing you to take them over (that is, your ship vanishes and the Bio-Cyborg replaces it; you can only have one of these at a time, and if it is destroyed you go back to just your basic ship.). These are the game's powerups, and this system is interesting. Equally interesting is the fact that as many ships get hit they take damage and lose weapons. This damage is visual; parts of the ship get shot off, leaving those guns unusable. This goes equally for the enemies and the Bio-Cyborgs you can control. So, if you want that awesome wave gun guy at full power, you'll have to disable it without accidentally hitting it with your machine gun (for that hurts Bio-Cyborgs, until you have disabled them and can take them over) and then do your best to avoid hitting the walls, enemies, or bullets. The first part is usually easy, but that second part can be quite tricky... The paths sometimes get very narrow, making that task extremely difficult. The last level, in particular, is full of paths pretty much the same width as your Bio-Cyborg, making navigation very tricky. It is possible, though, and as a shooter, difficult is expected, so its presence here is far from problematic. An easy shooter doesn't get played for long...

In graphics and style, the game seems most influenced by R-Type at first. The first level could have been in an R-Type game, actually. It gets more unique and interesting as it goes along however, and the game mechanics differentiate it sharply from R-Type. The levels also get longer, which is welcome because the first level is too short. Also, Atlus has a different concept of cruelty than Irem does. That is, they are more subtle. Instead of beating you down with a constant series of massively difficult challenges, they have long, slow levels with many pauses where you do very little except watch the background, and the average encounter is only of moderate difficulty. But since when you get a game over (lose three lives; getting an extra life requires so many points you have to beat three levels without getting a game over just in order to meet that number...) you restart the level from the beginning, the difficulty level's true level of cruelty slowly presents itsself. And the game, of course, has no form of saving, passwords, or cheat codes to skip to the later levels. It is a very difficult game. Oddly, I can't tell a huge difference between the difficultly levels (more bullets, I guess), but at least your ship changes color... :)

As is typical in this genre, BlaZeon has a minimal story. In fact, it is 100% contained in the manual. The game itsself is minimalist to the extreme: there is NO story shown or presented in any form within the game. No introduction, no in-mission story segments, and no ending. When you finish level five, you simply restart the game on the next difficulty level. Story is so irrelevant to games in this genre though that I truly do not miss it... As far as it goes from the manual though, the story goes like this: the earth created a fleet called the Imperial Earth Army to protect it from interstellar threats. The fleet got corrupted though, and instituted a dictatorship over the planet. You fight for the resistance using their special protype fighter, the Garland. The ship isn't in great shape, and this shows in the game with its slowness and weakness, but its Tranquilander gun makes up for that and then some... the game has seven Bio-Cyborg enemy types you can control, and they vary greatly from a small, fast ship to slow, larger ones that have very powerful guns that just fire forward, one with adjustable small guns, and one which fires bombs below it.

Single Player: Five levels, but the difficulty level ensures that it'll take a while, particularly on the higher difficulty settings. The first level is short and too easy, but it picks up after that. Level two is interesting, with the first part in an asteroid field and the second half passing a large fleet. Level three passes over some space platform and is fun too, but the midboss is very frusterating; watch out when it dies, it's easy to get taken out with it! Level four is my favorite in the game. Great music, an interesting junkyard setting with a unique junkbot Bio-Cyborg to control, and cool bosses. Level five, a giant space station, is the last one, and it's appropriately difficult with perfect music for a final level. You'll want to replay this one over and over like any good shooter, so the length isn't a problem. The pacing may be slow, and the pauses between action points frequent and often long (fifteen-second crawls across a screen, only to face three enemies and then wait another ten seconds for anything else to happen? Not uncommon.), but have a little patience and there is plenty of fun to be had.

Multiplayer: BlaZeon is single player only.

Graphics: BlaZeon's graphics are strictly average for the Super Nintendo. It's an arcade port and they do a decent job, but this isn't one of the system's graphical showcases, that's for sure. Multiple levels of parallax scroling is about all you can look for in nice special effects. Also, as mentioned earlier a lot of the art styles look very, very similar to R-Type's... the way that some kinds of ships take visual damage as they get hit is pretty cool, though, and definitely isn't the norm for this genre (particularly in how that damage actually removes some of their armaments -- shoot the top side of that gunship to knock out its top laser, or the bottom side to knock out the bottom one... adds strategy.). Slowdown is kept to a minimum because of the pacing and relative simplicity of the game, but occasionally when the screen is crowded there is some, as with all SNES shooters. For the most part, though, the game is remarkably slowdown-free compared to many SNES shooters (Super R-Type or E.D.F. or Gradius III, for instance). Some may say that that is because of how bland the graphics are and because the game's pacing is far too slow, but those are inaccurate depictions of this game. The pacing is intentional and works, and the graphics, while not the greatest on the SNES, are varied and interesting. Each level has a very distinct graphical style and many enemies are unique to each one. The backgrounds are also often very detailed and expansive.

Sound/music: The sound is fine. Nothing spectacular, but it does its job well. The music, however, is often great. The tracks for level 2 part 2, level 3 part 1, and level 4 are particularly great, I think. The level four music is the kind of music track that you don't mind listening to loop over and over and over and over and over as you play the level... the music in this game is great! Addictive and it loops fantastically, which is as much as you could possibly hope for from a game in this genre on the SNES.

Overall: BlaZeon is a pretty good shooter. It's slow paced and deliberate, for a nice contrast from fast, "hold the button down the whole time or you die" titles that seem to dominate this genre. It's also unique, because it has no conventional powerups and instead substitutes an interesting system of being able to take over certain types of enemy ships and control them as your own. This is a very well made game and it's too bad that it never got a sequel. Also, the fact that the story is truly nonexistent within the game cartridge is actually a good thing; the plot is utterly unoriginal and a clone of the plots of every other shooter ever made, so it really wouldn't add anything to have it. Just leave it out and focus on the important part for games like this: the gameplay! And that gameplay is pretty fun, and is backed up with acceptable visuals and good music. This game is recommended, if you can find it!

Gameplay: 9/10
Single Player: 9/10
Multiplayer: N/A
Graphics: 8/10
Sound and music: 10/10

Overall: 92% (not an average).

Zombies Ate my Neighbors

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 06:22:04 +0000

This was/is a great game. A definite recommendation for horror-movie fans (not to be confused with "horrible" movies like Scream, the Ring, and that other Japanese import not worth remembering).
Each level is themed with a different camp-flick in mind and half the fun of this game is picking out the references. The objective of each level is to reach the victims before the monsters do. Once you have found and rescued the designated number of victims a doorway will open and you can proceed to the next stage. Fortunately you are able to equip yourself with anything from your standard issue squirtgun, to tomatoes, to plates and silverware, to weedwhackers, to popsicles, to bazookas, to odd potions that give your character, Zeke, incredible abilities.
This game starts out simple enough but as you progress the levels get increasingly harder. With 48 levels and 7 bonus levels, you can be sure you will get a few years logged into this game before you can declare yourself victorious, no joke. This is a very addictive game and very replayable.
The CoconutCommander gives Zombies Ate My Neighbors a 10/10.

Secret of Evermore

Wed, 25 May 2005 03:32:35 +0000

Time for another review from me.

Recently, I managed to get this game I lost from years ago again, and I played it from start to finish. The game is actually a spiritual successor to Secret of Mana, but with a totally different and unrelated storyline. It was made by Square USA, an illl-fated offshoot of Square that also gave us the rather embarressing tgame of "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest".

So, you may wonder after that bit of info if this game measures up to the Mana legacy or if it is no better than the game where you could kill every enemy with cure spells.

The visuals of the game are very nice. I'll get the one complaint I can think of out of the way from the start. There is a bit of a stylistic clash in the game. That is to say, they have 3 different visual styles more or less fighting for dominance. Some things are prerendered CG sprites. Some things are brightly colored with exxagerated features. And finally, the majority of the game is the backgrounds, consisting of more darkly colored and somewhat more realistic locals, but at the same time very expressive. With brightly colored sprites wandering on darkly colored backgrounds, it makes for the clash I spoke of. However, it's really not that bad at all, and in some instances actually makes an interesting statement. Judging the visuals outside of the clash, everything looks simply gorgeous. The style is NOT like Secret of Mana, but it is VERY lovely in it's own right. It really does make it look like you are in another world with science as the ruling force.

The audio... Well first I will tell you this. There is not much in the way of music in the game. There is enough there, but a lot of the areas you will be in have forgone music for the sake of ambient sound. This isn't a bad choice at all though, as the ambiance really helps set the mood of the game very well. From the jungle you start in to the underground caves you wander around to the forest you will crawl through, the ambient sound effects really draw you in. The jungle for example is host to the sounds of ruffling leaves, birds singing off in the distance, and the occasional roar of some prehistoric beast. The sound effects for the actual battles are passable at best. A slash sounds like a slash, a gun sounds...well decent enough. They get the job done, but it's clear they put most of the work into the ambient noises. They did do one thing for the sound effects. The various alchemy formulas you use take their visual effects and sound effects straight from Secret of Mana, meaning they sound (and look) appropriatly magical enough and are very well done.

I should note the combat system. They didn't break the mold when it came to combat. You press the button to attack the enemy. Different weapons have different attack methods, like a wide sweep, a forward lunge, or something unorthodox. However, there are only 4 weapon types (swords, spears, axes, and one bazooka with 3 types of ammo). There are 4 different weapons in each catagory though (except bazooka), but that doesn't give much variation. You'll end up just using the strongest one you have in any given situation. Each weapon does have an extra feature. Spears can be thrown to trigger switches. Axes can break down barriers. Swords can... be swords.... um I got nothing for that, but they do swing the fastest. Just as in Mana, you can level up your skill with any weapon you have (not just for catagory, each individual weapon must be levelled up seperatly, annoyingly enough). For each level, you can hold down the B button to charge up for an increasinly powerful charge attack. Even with individual level up meters for individual weapons, the charged attacks are the same in each catagory (ie; all swords use the same 3 charge attacks).

Moving along, there is another character. The boy's best friend, his faithful dog. Due to the dog's physical form nearly being lost when he chewed on some cables, his body is permanently linked to the world, probably due to some alchemy, and so every major region you go to, your dog will change appearence and will have different capabilities. You'll see your dog be a prehistoric beastly hound in one place, a sleek, quick, and jumpy greyhound in another, and later a pink poodle and eventually even a funky looking robot dog that looks to be somewhere between Aibo and a toaster (in fact, it's standing animation shows it cooking toast). The dog's weapons are just the teeth and claws (and laser cannon eventually :D), and the only equipment it has is it's collar. The dog also isn't capable of enough intelligent though to use alchemy, so he's there basically as the physical might. Keep in mind that if the boy dies, game over, but the dog "dying" just means he'll walk around exxhausted behind you unable to fight.

The main battle "gimic" of this game is the magic system. It's actually not magic but the "science" of alchemy. From the moment you enter the world you'll start learning all manner of alchemic formulas and collecting ingredients. Alchemy works by combining various basic components to produce all sorts of effects. For example, you can turn lead into gold, or in this game, turn one part granite and two parts sulfer into a giant fist that crushes an enemy, or two parts crude oil and one part sulfer into an explosion of flames. To heal yourself, one part water, and one part clay, boom, you recover. MP does not exist in the game, instead you'll find yourself always refilling your ingredients. You can only equip so many "formulas" at a time by the way, so you'll need to think of what you can need before setting out to whatever combat zone you are heading to next. This system is actually pretty fun. As you roam around, your dog has a special ability that allows it to sniff out all sorts of secrets. Just hold L or R and follow it if it starts walking. Examine where it stops and you'll usually find some ingrediants. This all sounds great, in theory, but they messed up the execution. Namely, as in Secret of Mana, you can level up your spells. Unfortunatly, rather than have catagories (for example, alchemy comes in either light and dark, you could have levelled up each of those catagories), you actually level up each individual formula. This is not a good thing. Considering you need alchemy ingrediants just to use each formula, it makes levelling up cost WAY too much money. You'll end up really just levelling up a few basic spells when you have the money to throw around on it. For example, curing. As a result, you will likely end up ignoring the majority of attack alchemy, loading yourself up with a lot more buffing and curing alchemy. You'll still use alchemy all the time, but the attack formulas will likely end up off your list, as you will see that you do a lot more damage with your weapons than any of your unlevelled attack formulas. Had they changed this whole thing it could have been a lot better.

As an aside, if they ever make a successor, I would really like to experiment with ingredients to make my own formulas. As it is, you have to find alchemy masters all over the world to teach you new formulas. It would be nice if you had a little lab to yourself where you could mix ingrediants of your choosing to make your own spells. Like, ingrediants like sulfer and oil create combustion effects, and ingrediants like water have a healing effect. Maybe mixing a part oil, salt, and water produces a formula that sets an enemy on fire, restoring your health for each bit of damage their immolation does to them? Well, back to the review.

All in all, it's Mana gameplay, with alchemy for magic, and for the most part it's done well, thus making for a fun game.

Story, well, that's all interesting... Really, it's a shame what they ended up with. It all comes off like they couldn't decide if they wanted a serious story or a comedy. There are very strong elements of both in this game, and the end result just seems... poorly written. The jokes, well, some of them are pretty funny, though some are just lame. For example, the main character has always wanted to be the star of a cheesy 1940's sci-fi movie and so he takes every opportunity to compare every situation he's in with made up movies. Some stuff is pretty funny though, but even those, a lot of them are done at the most inappropriate times, when the story is trying to be serious.

About the serious stuff. There seems to be some goal of trying to make serious elements of the story, like what the nature of "real" is, or the effects outsiders can have on a world, even if that world is created by those very outsiders, and the typical stuff regarding "balance", the consequences of free will, basically stuff you might imagine is the case when a core gameplay element is alchemy. There are 4 "leaders" of the 4 worlds within this world, each of them having an incredible amount of alchemic power. They even created concentrated beads filled with alchemy that let you summon them at any time to use their various skills. Near the end you even learn a formula to make these "call beads" yourself. However, an evil force is in the works (well duh, there's no point in a combat system without someone to fight) which has created 4 evil twin versions of the leaders to replace them. Now, that's where the flaws in their storytelling really show. Sometimes it's actually pretty serious, for example in the dark ages world where you meet everyone being oppressed by their previously generous queen and they seem to really be questining things. In fact, here you even meet Cecil from Final Fantasy IV (he runs a weapon shop and gives you his bazooka). But other times, it's just comedy. Now, that's fine and all, but the way they did it leaves it lacking. There are some places where how they did it was just very awkward or ruined the moment outright. With some work though, the story could have been done very well and the comedy could be done at the right moments too.

The controls are exactly what you would expect. A button for fighting, one to "dash", direct control of the character, and the need to pause in order to cast spells by selecting them from a menu.

In summery, the gameplay is a fair copy of Secret of Mana but with alchemy. It is only single player unfortunatly. The world isn't as large, but large enough. In the end, the game is very fun, and you may find yourself addicted, but it's just not as good as Secret of Mana. A game that is worth owning if you want something new, but it could have been better.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:19:39 +0000

This game follows the style of most Zelda games. Zelda is in trouble, and Link must rescue her. The storyline is that there is a Light world and a Dark World of Hyrule, and many years ago, the Seven Sages of Hyrule sealed the Dark World, and the Triforce forever. Or so they thought. In the beginning, Link wakes up after hearing Zeldas pleas for help in a dream. His uncle tells him that he is leaving for a while. Link goes outside searching for the voice that is calling him. Upon Links arrival to Hyrule castle, in a hidden passageway Zelda tells him of, he finds his uncle dying in the hallway.
Link takes his sword and shield and begins quest. Throughout the game you learn that an evil entity called Aghanim (sorry it's been a while I forget how to spell his name). You must then get three pendants to receive the Master Sword. Then you find that Aghanim is just a puppet for Ganon, who is trying to get the Triforce so he can rule the world. Link must find the descendants of the seven sages entrapped in seven crystals around Hyrule, all guarded by powerful monsters in castles.

Gameplay is very addictive, and in my opinion is the best Zelda game. Graphics are good for the SNES, very much detail on terrain and characters, but most other things are in solid colors with little detail.

A Link to the Past remains one of my favorite games, and I'm sure it will be one of yours too. I rate The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past an 8 out of 10.

Vegas Stakes

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:18:52 +0000

Vegas Stakes is a game about 5 people, yourself and 4 friends, taking a road trip to Las Vegas, in hopes of getting rich. You arrive at hotel/casino The Golden Sunshine, one of the five casinos available. Your other options on the Strip are:

The Hideaway - a run down, low maximum bid casino, which should be saved as your last resort in Vegas.
The Buffalo Head - A western themed casino with bids close to that of the Golden Sunshine.
The 2020 - A futuristic themed casino with moderately high bids.
The Laurel Palace - High bidders only! This elegant casino sports minimum bids of $500, and can make you or break you quickly. This casino comes available to you after you make about $500,000.00

Vegas Stakes incorporates some unique attributes of a casino into it. For starters, this game used the SNES Mouse, making it easier control than a standard SNES controller. One cool concept is that strangers actually come up and talk to you. They can say any number of random things such as they "fell and twisted their ankle so they need you to take then to the hospital", or they'll sell you something. The problem is, they're not always sincere. If someone bumps into you or rubs a spot off your shirt, it could be just that, or it could be a pickpocket. You have to take chances when dealing with these people, they'll scam you, or if they are telling the truth, reward you in a few turns.

There are 5 available games in each casino with varying bids. Slots, Craps, Poker, Blackjack, and Roulette. If you don't know how to play some of these games, the friend that accompanies you can tell you how to play, alos give advice on bidding, slot values, and other useful information. Vegas awaits you, gamblers! Know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. Test your judgement to tell if strangers are sincere, or crooks. Play your cards right and you may leave Vegas a Millionaire. If not, well, I have a shirt you can borrow. I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Simcity

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:18:03 +0000

Almost everyone has played Simcity at one point or another, but just in case you haven't here's what the game is like: You are the mayor of a huge open area of nothing, and your job is to build that from a village, to a town, to a city, to a capital, to a metropolis, and finally, a megalopolis. You build neighborhoods, residential, commercial, and industrial zones, power plants, airports, stadiums, and road and mass transit systems. You get your money from taxes. You must also deal with natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, and floods.

You view your city from a birds-eye view, the buildings don't have a whole lot of detail, but enough to tell what they are. Airports have planes, nuclear power plants have cooling towers, etc. Not a feast for the eyes, but it looks okay.

Gameplay can be addictive if you get into it, especially if you know the money cheat so you can build to your hearts desire. The cheat escapes me now, but it should be easy to find if you look on a search engine.

I rate Simcity a 6 out of 10.

Shadowrun

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:17:25 +0000

You are Drake, a hacker in a futuristic world, ruled by computers and The Matrix (no blue or red pills here though). You wake up in a morque and begin your quest. Your journey starts as a quest to find yourself, to find out who you are, you wake up with almost zero memory of your past. After you find the truth, you go to do what you feel is your duty, revenge. During the game you will find several enemies and gunfights. You eventually are able to hire mercenaries to join you for a little while. Some are mages, ogres, and gunslingers of all walks of life.

Graphics and gameplay are very good. Gunfights are realtime, you have to move your crosshairs to the enemy and fire. There is a chance you will miss too. There is free movement, so you can move anywhere you wish. When you kill enemies, you occasionally get money, and sometimes you get a karma point. When you sleep, you can cash in your karma to make your skills better. Gameplay is very addictive, you are driven to find the next step in the game. If you are going to play, prepare to get hung up in some places because it will happen.

I really enjoy this game, however some parts may get you so hung up you may stop playing. This is what happened to me, so I can't say I have beaten it, but the time I had playing it was a lot of fun, and I recommend this game highly.

I rate it 7.5 out of 10. Give it a try, I think you'll have a great time.

Super R-Type

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:16:55 +0000

Super R-Type is a scrolling, kill-everything-in-sight game. You know the kind. The game details very little, but I'll sketch together what I can remember from the manual. Apparently an alien known as the Womb has captured four ships, and you are the fifth ship that must come to rescue them. Accompanying you through this is a large glowing orange ball of goodness which can fire any number of weapons, from a barrage of fireballs (I call them cheese-balls), to reflecting lasers. Also available are what are called "pits", which hover above and below your ship when found to protect from more angles. Also available are different sorts of missiles which can either be dropped on the ground, or sent out to home in on random enemies.

This game has four different levels of difficulty, Novice, Easy, Normal, and Hard. I prefer to think of them as Easy, Hard, Impossible, and shouldn't-even-be-allowed-to-be-this-difficult setting.

Graphics take full advantage of everything the SNES can do, creating stunning backgrounds, meticulously detailed bosses, and realistic looking weapons. Music is also very catchy, especially in the very first level, gets stuck in your head. I usually don't care for scrolling games, but this one was an exception, very well done.

This game takes a bit of strategy too. You have to maneuver minefields, jets of water, shrapnel from exploding enemies, and a million other threats to your weak little ship, even a minor hit from a weak foe and you and your ship is a cloud of smoke. So it takes a bit of skill to get the feel for how that ship moves and to steerit out of danger. Level 4 consists of a huge Battleship which you must maneuver through. Its difficult by itself, but the ship is moving and you aren't moving with it, also with enemies and bullets flying everywhere, it makes for a great challenge and overall great game.

Super R-Type has been a recurring favorite of mine for many, many years, and I never tire of playing it. The game sucks you in, and the fact that you can die so easily makes it all to easy too say "well, lemme just try that again". Addictive, fun, and challenging. My kind of game. I rate Super R-Type an 8.0 out of 10!

Super Mario World

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:15:58 +0000

Surely you remember? That magical moment when you first flipped the switch of your SNES to reveal the lush color of Dinosaur World? The first time you saw Super Mario World, a game that would become one of the greatest games ever made.

Bowser has kidnapped the princess while on vacation with Mario and Luigi to exotic Dinosaur Island. Not too long after they begin their journey, they find a friendly dinosaur named Yoshi trapped in an egg. Henceforth, Yoshi would become an invaluable ally, while Mario was riding Yoshi he could swallow turtle shells. Red shells would cause Yoshi to spit fireballs, Yellow shells made him hit the ground and raise dust clouds when he jumped, and blue shells made him sprout wings. A very versatile dinosaur, Yoshi made Marios success possible.

This game, for it's time, is quite large. From the rolling Donut Plains, to the dark and dreary Vanilla Dome. From Cookie Mountain, to the insanely difficult SPECIAL stages, which made you think if you wanted to win.

In Super Mario World, there are seven castles, each inhabited by one of Bowsers seven villanous children (Bowser must be a ladies koopa). You must defeat each of Bowsers children to retrieve a trapped Yoshi egg, and you can then move on to the next level. Along the way you may find doorways ot the useful Star Road, capable of transporting you anywhere in Dinosaur World in mere seconds. Not only are there castles, but also Fortresses and Ghost Houses.

Super Mario World remains one of the best games ever, boasting a lot of great features. Since the Super Ninteno has fallen out of play since the advent of N64, GameCube, and Playstation 1 & 2, this classic game gathers dust on many shelves, but then came the Game Boy Advance! Yuo can once again play this game, and better yet, take it with you wherever you may go!

I rate it a 9.3!

Super Mario RPG

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:15:12 +0000

The game begins with Bowser kidnapping Princess Toadstool (original, huh?), and taking her to his castle. Mario, of course, rescues her about 5-10 gaming minutes later. Just as she is being rescued, a huge sword falls from the sky and plants itself right into Bowser's castle. This is where the game really begins. You come to find that the huge sword is part of an army of the villian Smithy. Now all hell breaks loose in the Mushroom Kingdom and all around Mario's world. Soon, you find that Smithy is attempting to destroy the Star Road, where wishes are granted. In doing this, he wants to make a world filled with weapons and evil. Mario can't have that. During the course of your journey you make four allies. The supposed "tadpole" Mallow, the inhabited doll messenger of the Star Road, Geno, Princess Toadstool, and even King Koopa himself, Bowser joins with Mario. You must defeat bosses like Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich, the Axem Rangers, and Captain Jonathan Jones to retrieve the seven star pieces, the last held by Smithy. There is so much more to this game, but this is only an overview.

The graphics in Mario RPG are wonderfully detailed and great eye candy, as SNES games go. The music is also quite good, making for a great gaming experience. Even the battle animations are good looking.

If you want to play Mario RPG, quit your job, wait till summer vacation, break up with your significant other, and put a lock on your door because you WILL get hopelessly hooked! This game takes a long time to beat and makes you use your brain in parts too. Once you start, its hard to stop, trust me. I'm a recovering Mario RPG addict myself.

Overall I rate Super Mario RPG a 9.5 out of 10 on the gaming scale, it's really that good. Now go buy it, an emulator just wouldn't do it justice...oh and if you do download an emulation, be sure you have the original cart, or delete it within 24 hours...*wink*.

Civilization

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:13:57 +0000

Civilization is a turn-based war game/strategy game. In it, you begin a civilization of your choice of 18, including the Germans, Japanese, Aztecs, Babylonians, Americans, and Romans. As you play, you build cities and army units with the money you make from mines and city taxes. You add buildings to your cities to make them and your civilization greater. Also, you can build one of several Wonders of the World, each with their own advantages. The Great Wall forces other civilization to make peace with you, while the Pyramids give you all the food you'll need to run all your cities. There are two ways you can win Civilization, one way is to destroy all your opposing Civilizations, and rule the world. The other way is to make it so far into the future, that you build a starship and travel to Alpha Centauri.

Graphics leave something to be desired, cities as well as units appear as squares over a gridded layout map. Attacks show the attacking unit moving and colliding with the opposing unit. But the city screen boasts better graphics. You have the option to view your cities, as well as each building within them, including Wonders, in fairly good detail.

Gameplay is EXTREMELY addictive! I guarantee that when you play this game and get good at it, you'll be hooked for a long time. Because 5 levels of difficulty offer a more challenging game all the time, you'll never get bored.

I give Civilization a 7 out of 10, and highly recommend it to strategy buffs.

Super Castlevania IV

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:57:30 +0000

Super Castlevania IV Review

By Derek Miller

I was never a big fan of the original Castlevania for NES. While I liked the game, it was never one of my favorites. Super Castlevania IV, however, was easily one of my five favorite games for the SNES. The game was tough, maybe not as tough as the original, but tough nonetheless. Also, the graphics were spectacular for an early SNES game. The music was also great. There was little that I could complain about regarding this game and it ate up a lot of my time when I first got it. Let us journey with Simon Belmonte and help him on his quest to save the land from the evil Count Dracula.

Graphics

Super Castlevania was one of the best looking games on the SNES, if not the best looking game, when it was released. It even looks good when compared to later games on the SNES. Everything looks spectacular in Super Castlevania and there are many great effects that were previously never used on the SNES. Moving backgrounds appear for the first time in a SNES game and they look great. The only problem in this department would be the occasional major slowdown. All slowdown can be suffered through, however, and it only comes up in certain locations. It is the only thing keeping the game from getting a perfect score in this department.

9.5

Sound

The music in Super Castlevania is amongst the best on the SNES. All of the tracks are gloomy and spooky and provide a good backdrop for the creepy levels. This is one of the few early games where the tracks don't sound annoying when listened to outside of the game. The sound effects aren't anything special, though. Simon's whip makes a cracking sound when it hits enemies and there are various other effects but most of the resources are devoted to the music and graphics.

8.5

Gameplay

If you've played the original Castlevania then you can play Super Castlevania. The gameplay is nearly identical with only a few slight tweaks. Simon can now whip his whip in all directions, allowing him to hit enemies below him as well as enemies at angles. This change makes it hard to go back to the original Castlevania and is akin to the change in Super Metroid that allowed Samus to fire diagonally. The game is fun and is also extremely hard. Some of the bosses are nearly impossible to beat but it's gratifying to finally defeat them. The only problem is the lack of an on-cart save system. Instead a password system is used which is mildly annoying. Nothing else to complain about, really. You've probably played Castlevania at some point in your life so chances are you know what the game is like.

8.0

Modern Appeal

The game looks good so chances are the graphics won't turn you off. It's a fun game no matter how old it is but chances are, after you beat it, you won't play it as much. A quick game every once in a while is probably as much as you'll play it after you have it mastered.

7.5

Purchase Price

This game is in fairly high demand so expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $20. You shouldn't have much trouble finding it, though. Just check eBay or your local used game store.

Total (not an average) : 9.0

Donkey Kong Country

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:54:28 +0000

Donkey Kong Country Review

By Derek Miller

Near the end of the Super Nintendo's life span, things weren't looking too good for Nintendo. Sega's Saturn and Sony's Playstation has already hit the market and had begun to take a chunk of the 16-bit crowd away from the SNES. Not helping matters, the Nintendo 64, known back then as Project Reality or the Ultra 64, was constantly being delayed. 3D was the"in-thing" and the SNES, while it did have some 3D games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX, was really starting to show its age. That's where a little-known company called Rare came in. They used a large amount of resources, partly donated by Nintendo, to create a make-or-break game that would star Nintendo's own Donkey Kong. When Donkey Kong Country was being released Nintendo promoted it to no end. People were awed by it's graphics and many originally thought it was a game for the upcoming Nintendo 64. Donkey Kong Country even looked better than many of the games on Playstation even though it was really only 2.5D. Donkey Kong Country was one of Super Nintendo's last great games and it helped top off one of the greatest consoles ever.

Graphics

Easily the best graphics on Super Nintendo, bar none. Even compared to the next generation consoles Donkey Kong Country was able to hold its own. Whereas games like Star Fox and Stunt Race FX had the extremely noticeable textures and were really buggy, DKC did a fantastic job putting 3D characters in a 2D environment. The landscapes were awe-inspiring and the characters and enemies looked terrific. Not much to complain about in this department. There was never even any noticeable slowdown.

10.0

Sound

Catchy tunes and funny sound effects helped make this game sound great. The music seemed to fit the stages perfectly and the monkey sounds and grunts from the enemies were just plain hilarious. The sound effects were professionally done and were a foreshadowing of Rare's unbelievably sound tracks and effects for their Nintendo 64 games. I truly think there are very few companies that produce better sounding games than Rare.

8.5

Sound

Donkey Kong Country was a classic 2D platform that added a few tricks to make things interesting. The buddy system worked great in the game. Donkey and Diddy each had their stregths and weaknesses and you'd soon learn which situations each excelled in. Playing the game with two players was a lot of fun. You could either make it a competition and try to get farther than your opponent or you could each control either Donkey or Diddy to try to beat King K. Rool. This was one of the first games to use a lot of different mini-games and it was something that would be used in later games again and again. In order to truly beat the game you had to find all of these mini-games which was a task in and of itself. And who could forget the minecart races? While there weren't many of them, they were so much fun to play over and over again. Donkey Kong Country was not just another 2D platformer, it was an incredibly addictive game that would bring Rare into the spotlight as a videogame developer.

8.0

Modern Appeal

Even today Donkey Kong Country looks good. The game has a polished look and the graphics won't turn people off like many NES games sometimes do. The classic platforming action is just plain fun and it's the kind of game you can pick up and play for a few minutes or a few hours, depending on what you're looking for. A thoroughly addictive game if you haven't played it or are a fan of 2D platformers.

8.0

Purchase Price

Donkey Kong Country is a very common game and should be easy to find. Expect to pay anywhere from $10 to $20 for it. Don't pay much more than $20, even if it's brand new.

Total (not an average) : 8.5