Tendo City - NES Reviews

Rolling Thunder

Sun, 05 Apr 2015 09:12:47 +0000

Rolling Thunder (NES) Review

Quote:
The Japanese cover looks a lot like the game.

Of course in the US the hero is made to look a lot more bulked-up.

BACKGROUND INFO & STORY

I finally beat this game a few days ago, and it feels great! Rolling Thunder was one of my favorite games of the '80s, but it's a very difficult game. Yes, despite its often nearly unfair difficulty I love Rolling Thunder, it's an incredible game and a bit of an under-rated classic. I actually already got halfway through Hard mode, which I didn't know existed until I finished this game on Normal yesterday; you get the password for it after beating the game on normal. Of course I have to challenge it. This is a super-frustrating game and you must memorize every inch of it to survive, and pull off those button presses PERFECTLY to not die, but I love it!

I bought the NES version of Rolling Thunder a few years ago and got to level three out of the games' ten levels before giving up. I started playing this game again a few weeks ago, after picking up Rolling Thunder 2 again and deciding that while it's great, I like the first game more, so I should play this game as well. I'm actually at the last level of Rolling Thunder 2 now, and will get back to finish that... but now I'm playing Rolling Thunder 1 in Hard instead. Yeah, I like this game a lot, as frustratingly hard as it is. The first Rolling Thunder game is my favorte one in the series; each of the two sequels isn't quite as good as the one before it, though Rolling Thunder 2 is a lot better than the third game.

Rolling Thunder is a mid 1980s Namco arcade game which got a NES port later in the decade, published by Namco in Japan and Tengen in the US. You play as Albatross, a secret agent, and have to, of course, rescue the kidnapped woman; Leila, another agent, was captured by the evil Geldra organization and you have to save her. So yeah, the story is awful, "rescue the girl" is one of the worst plots possible. There are even dumb little cutscenes between levels with fanservicey shots of Leila suffering to encourage you to save her. Fortunately it makes up for it with great gameplay. The game has a Cold War spy-movie look to it, maybe 1960s or something like that. The NES version is graphically downgraded from the arcade, but it holds up quite well. There have been changes to levels, and some bits have been simplified because of NES sprite limits, but things have been spread out a bit, so the end result is at least as hard as the arcade game and might be even harder overall. Arcade and NES longplay playthroughs are about the same length in time.

To make the game possible to finish, fortuantely Rolling Thunder does have a password save system. You'll get a password after every other level in Normal, and after every level in Hard. I was pretty happy to see the passwords every level in Hard, it's a nice addition! Most levels also have a midway checkpoint, but levels 5 and 10 do not, you'll have to beat those two in one try. There are 10 levels in the game. So, yes, this means that if you die at the final boss it's all the way back to the beginning of level 10, and in Normal, if that's your last continue, it's back to level 9. Fortunately, after a lot of practice level 9 is actually not too difficult, I got through it without too much trouble. It was level 10, and the last part of it in particular, that's the trick.

As it is an arcade port, Rolling Thunder has a points system. Killing enemies gets points, and you get a point bonus at the end of each level based on your time. You get one extra life at 30,000 points, and a second at 75,000. I imagine there are more past that. Lives are useful most of the time because game over sends you back to the title screen and thus the last point you can continue from a password, while if you reached the level checkpoint in a level with a checkpoint you will start from there for as long as your lives last.

Quote:
The beginning. Note the upper and lower platforms, and one of many doors.

CONTROLS

Rolling Thunder is one of those games where everything is very predictable and super hard. Any one bullet will kill you, and get sent back when you die. Albatross does have two hit points, but bullets take away two, while touching any enemy takes off one. There are no health recharges during levels, only if you beat a stage, so if you touch any enemy once you'll need to avoid that happening again until the end of the level. The sequels do have some health recharge or increase powerups in some doors, but not this one; it's a memorizer through and through. Play the game, die, learn where the enemies are, and try to do it right next time. Ammo is limited, so only shoot when you need to, wasting bullets means you might run out, and there is no backup attack, you're just a sitting duck. Again the sequels ease up here and give you melee attacks. I never actually ran out of ammo while playing the game in the last few weeks, but it is possible if you don't go in every ammo door or waste lots of ammo. You can only shoot straight ahead in a line, and not up, down, or any other direction.

Albatross does not control like Mario; your movements are more realistic, apart from how high you can jump, and more limited. Left and right move left and right, up looks up (needed to to platforms above you), down ducks (you cannot move while ducking, but can shoot), B jumps, and A shoots. The controls are very responsive, even touchy, and take time to get used to. You can only do one thing at any time, so if you hit the shoot button, you cannot duck immediately, you have to wait until the shot finishes and let go of the fire button before you will be able to duck, by which point you're probably dead. Try again. You will jump upwards if you hit jump, forwards with the direction Albatross is currently facing plus jump, and jump higher and onto a platform above you if you hold up and then hit jump. To jump forward you hit forward and then jump a moment later, but get the tap of forward off versus the tap of jump and you'll walk off the platform if you're at the edge. This can get very frustrating sometimes. You can't control your guy, Albatross, in the air, so you need to jump from the correct point in order to land where you want. To jump or shoot the other way you'll need to turn around first, which takes time.

One vital strategy to learn is how to fire both ways while ducking without standing up. Press the dpad diagonally down in the way you are facing, roll to diagonal in the other way, then press fire a few times. Albatross will fire once in the way he is facing, wasting a shot if no one is there, before flipping and shooting the other way. It's clumsy, but works, though the sequels improve this quite a bit, as in those games you can just turn around while ducking by hitting the opposite diagonal down direction.

Quote:
The back of the boxes (this and the other one, below) show several of the types of environments Albatross will face.

LEVEL DESIGN

Rolling Thunder has an iconic level design style. Clearly somewhat inspired by Elevator Action but zoomed in, Rolling Thunder is a side-scrolling 2d platform-action game. Most areas have either one or two levels of platforms, with ground below and platforms often above. Occasional sections have boxes, walls, or other rarer obstacles that block your way and force you to go over them or go to the other level to proceed. There are also a few sections with a background area behind metal grille walls that you can go to, to go around some obstacles and such. Most levels stroll to the right only, but once a As in Elevator Action, Rolling Thunder's levels are full of doors. Enemies often come out of doors, there are powerups behind doors (these are usually, but not always, marked with signs), and you can hide behind doors in order to stay out of the way of enemy fire. You are invulnerable when behind a door, even if enemies are there too they can't hurt you. It's kind of amusing when an enemy enters the same door you're behind; nothing happens. Levels are varied in length, which is nice. The game has somewhat limited graphical variety, but this is the NES so that is somewhat to be expected, and anyway I don't midn this all that much; you are invading an evil organization's base, so it makes sense that the game has a consistent visual theme.

In addition to coming out of doors, enemies also will come onto the screen from the sides or top. All enemies appear when you reach certain points on the screen, and whether you are on the upper or lower platforms will affect which enemies appear. So, you can memorize where enemies will appear from with practice. However, beccause of the sprite limit on the NES, you cannot be sure that every enemy will appear. I had to just learn all the possibilities, and try to figure out what movements would get the enemies I wanted for some of the trickier segments. This game is very unfair, there are segments where you just have to wait for the enemies to move out of the way before you can progress. Trying to get certain enemies to not appear by having too many other enemies on screen can work at times, though.

Because you die in one shot, and many enemies shoot at you, jumping and ducking are vital for survival. The controls are a factor here. Most enemies will shoot at normal height so you can duck under their fire and hopefully shoot them, but learn which enemies duck and shoot low, they can make your life difficult at times! I died innumerable times because of slightly messing up my button timing. Remember, Albatross only can move or jump in the direction he is facing, and you have to get that button timing right in order to jump where you want. Getting to the exact pixel you need to jump from can be tricky because of the need to tap forward with jump. Often you have to jump from the VERY edge of a platform, anywhere else and you'll jump over that block in front of you and into the bullets on the other side instead of on top of the block as you need to. It's very finicky and frustrating, but you get used to it, or quit. And I think a lot of people quit on this game, it's not mentioned as one of the great arcade or NES games nearly as often as I feel it should be.

Most of Rolling Thunder doesn't have instant-death pits, but there are some, and also some instant-death laser traps in the second half of the game that you will have to learn the timing for. The death pits, over pits of lava, are in levels 4 and 8. You really need to master memorizing how far each jump will take you to get through these, and jump from just the right place to land on the next platform! And the fire-bat enemies in these areas can be tricky, too. Watch out for their comeback after you shoot them! You can shoot that too for additional points. The segment in level 8 is particularly hard. Rolling Thunder 2 does have a part over death pits in one level, but it's not quite as hard as the segment in level 8 of the first game, and they entirely got rid of the parts where you have to jump onto boxes from exactly the right pixel on the very edge of the box below it. I kind of like that, but I do appreciate the challenge of the first game. It's probably kind of weird to miss those super-evil jumps, but... I kind of do. Heh. The third game has no jumping puzzle sections over instant-death pits at all, which makes it even easier; as I said in my review of that game I do find that one definitely a bit disappointing level design-wise. At least the second game is still a challenge, even if it's not quite as much of one as the first. Rolling Thunder is a very hard game, and beating the game on an actual cartridge and not in an emulator with savestates took effort, but it was really worth it. The password system really is a huge, huge help, save systems make games so much better.

Rolling Thunder is mostly a great game, but it is kind of disappointing that the second half of the game is mostly a copy of the first half -- four of the five levels from levels 6 to 10 are copies of levels from the first half of the game with some changes here and there, and a few new areas (levels 8 and 10 particularly have large new segments at the end versus levels 3 and 5). The only all-new level in the second half is level 9, which replaces level 4 and is quite different from it. Rolling Thunders 2 and 3 actually are all original stages to the end. This means that if you beat this game on both difficulties, and you have to beat normal in order to get the password to start on hard, you'll play most of the levels four times. It does get a bit repetitive.

Quote:
For enemies in the screenshots, note the grenade guy, monkey-man, pumas, and regular yellow and blue guy.

ENEMIES

There are only a handful of enemy types in this game, and most of them are recolors of the same hooded Geldra henchman guy. The colors are nice because you know how each type is going to behave at a glance. In Normal, some enemies will shoot at you and others won't, and the colors say which are which, and also how many shots it'll take to kill an enemy. In hard all enemies shoot at you, which makes things tougher, but the number and placement of enemies is identical to before. For enemy types, the blue and yellow guys take two shots but won't shoot at you in Normal, the purple guys die in one hit but will always shoot, the yellow guys take 3 shots, white four, white and another color two and they will shoot at you and also duck behind boxes, green and brown two and they will shoot but won't duck, grey guys will throw grenades at you, and some more. It'd be nice if you could use grenades too, but no. Grenades kill in one hit of course, just like bullets. (In Rolling Thunder 2, grenades do only one hit of damage, not two.)

Beyond the numerous henchmen, there are also several types of animal foes. Geldra has fire-bats, pumas (or some other large cat like that), jumping monkey-men, and flying birdlike creatures. All four die in one hit, mostly (the fire-bats are sort of an exception). The monkey-men will come at you from the ground or air, and jump around back and forth. Try to kill them as soon as possible. The birds can be tough to kill if they're in the air, so try to either kill them before they take off, if they start on the ground, or find a door to hide behind, and shoot them after they dive at you. Fire-bats seem to die when you shoot them, but will then fly up out of the ground into the sky at a diagonal angle. You can either avoid this or shoot it. And the big cats will jump at you; you can only shoot them when they are in the air or are tensing to jump, your shots will go over them while they're just walking on the ground. They will jump at you when you approach them, thankfully. The animal enemies don't always appear, but can make some areas tough, particularly when you need to deal with flying enemies, considering that you can only shoot straight and not up.

At the end of the game, you face Geldra himself, in a room full of enemies with a cool Art Deco design and the word "GELDRA" spelled out in the background and Leila chained up in the background. This room is VERY tricky, and memorizing and avoiding the start locations of every one of the numerous foes who drop from various points on the ceiling took many, many plays of levels 9 and 10; remember, every death in that room sends you back to the start of the level, and on Normal, game over and it's level 9 again. The game has only one true boss, Geldra himself. Amusingly enough, I actually beat him the very first time I managed to get through the waves of regular enemies and face Geldra himself! That was pretty awesome. He's tough, but just have enough ammo and fire high and low a lot and you should get through. Having enough ammo is definitely important though, that last room takes up a lot of it.

The last kind of obstacle that can kill you re those death pits and laser traps. Death pits are obvious, just learn the jumps and don't fall in them. Laser traps only appear in the second half of the game, at certain points in some levels. Level 9 is particularly full of them. These take perfectly timed jumps or movement to get through without getting killed. Because of how hard level 10 is, though, and that passwords in Normal are only every other level, eventually I got pretty good at beating level 9 while usually not getting hit by the lasers.

Quote:
Geldra's laughing face greets you when you go to the title screen.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Graphically, Rolling Thunder has, as I said before, very limited variety. There are ten levels, but only six of them are entirely unique, four of the levels from the second half are mostly rehashes. And many of the levels look similar, as well, in similar Geldra-base environments. There is also a level in a cave, and a few of those bits over fire-pits, but this game doesn't have the most variety. I do think that the look works, though, and again, Geldra is an evil organization, why not have a consistent look to your base? There is an obvious graphical downgrade from the arcade game, but for the NES it looks good enough.

For music, the game has even less variety. There are only a couple of songs in this game which repeat endlessly, so get used to them. Most levels have the same music. Fortunately it's decent, but more music would be nice. Different music in each level would have been great. The Japanese version of this game has enhanced audio with a chip that uses the Famicom cart's additional audio lines, but they had to remove that for the US version, so the audio on a FC with that version is probably better. I have the US version.

CONCLUSION

Rolling Thunder is one great game! This is a fantastic arcade classic, and the NES version of the game is almost as great as the arcade original. The graphics of course not as good as the arcade game, but it still looks fine, and all the enemies and obstacles from the arcade game are here. NES flicker issues actually help here, because you can get enemies to not appear if there are already too many enemies on screen, quite helpful at times. In order to take down Geldra and his thugs you'll need all the help you can get. Albatross controls tightly and the controls are touchy, and you'll need to get your button presses just right, but it does get easier with practice. This game is all about memorizing levels and then executing the perfect path through the stage. It is very, very rewarding when you finally get a level right and beat it! It just wouldn't have been the same if I'd used an emulator and savestates, the risk of being sent back if I died made me take the game more seriously, and it deserves that respect. And after a while I did eventually beat the game, so it is possible with effort. Now all I have to do is try to beat levels 6 through 10 of the hard mode... but I will try, and hopefully eventually beat the whole thing.

In conclusion, Rolling Thunder is fantastic, a great version of an arcade classic that is just as good as the arcade game, and I would definitely put it on my list of my favorite NES games. The game has a few issues, such as repetitive graphics and music and some control issues that could have been improved on, but they don't hurt it much overall. I give the game an A grade. As far as scores go, it's in the top ten of NES games that I actually own on cartridge.

VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btfRSbSqyhs Here is a good longplay of the NES game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUrTqXtdINw For comparison, this is the arcade original.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:02:54 +0000

I thought I'd review a game that for reasons I'm not sure of has come under fire as being a "black sheep" or otherwise unpopular game in the first Mario trilogy. Basically this is my attempt to defend the game from what I see as recent unfair criticism.

Firstly, a history. As is well known by now, this is a redesign of the game Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom Disk System add-on in Japan. Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan was basically a rehash of Super Mario Bros. 1 but with completely new levels and a vastly steeper difficulty curve. We later recieved that game in Super Mario All-Stars as Lost Levels, and now even the original version, still called Super Mario Bros. 2, can be bought from the Wii shopping channel.

However aside from that basic info, there's some misconceptions. Firstly, many seem to think the difficulty alone was the reason that SMB2 Japan was never released here and they went with Doki Doki instead. That did play a part, but the greater part of the consideration was that SMB2J basically was the same thing again, and there was a fear that retreading the same game would not sell well and they wanted something more unique. This is hardly as insulting as purely "Americans just don't like hard games" and is actually quite a complement. Adding to this is other games, such as Clu Clu Land Plus, which never saw the light of day in the US because they didn't want to just release minor upgrades to games already out. For that matter, some Japanese versions are easier than their US counterparts, such as Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania 3.

That's not the only misunderstanding. Another is that Nintendo just "bought out" the small company that "did all the work" and took the credit by shoving Mario in the game. This couldn't be further from the truth. A little research and it's easy to find the "small company" that made Doki Doki Panic, it was Nintendo EAD! Even more, it was designed by Tanabe! That's someone who, while not Miyamoto, still worked on a large number of the Mario games. Nintendo didn't steal anything. With that origin, replacing the characters basically owned by some other radio station with characters Nintendo actually owned can hardly be considered deceptive or "lazy" in any way. They really did do all the work themselves.

Further though, Miyamoto didn't have much involvement in SMB2J, leaving that to others to work on, so really Doki Doki can be considered more worthy a successor to Mario than that can.

One last thing to point out is that we aren't the ONLY ones that got the modified version of Doki Doki as a Mario game. Japan got the same game, simply renamed Super Mario USA, and it sold better than Doki Doki ever did there too. I would have to imagine based on the poor sales of Doki Doki that even many Japanese kids didn't realize Super Mario USA was a repackaging until years later on the internets.

This isn't to say that SMB2J is a bad game. When I first got a chance to play it, I loved the insane level design and basic torture of the game. However, that said it basically is more like an expansion pack added to Mario 1 than a true sequel. That's not a bad thing, but it has to be said.

What I'm getting at here is that SMB2 isn't some afterthought tossed out to Americans, they put a lot of work into it from the start.

However that's all meaningless if it isn't a good game. Personally though, I consider it great. Further, I'm not the only one. The labels of SMB2 as a "bad Mario game" are pretty recent. Back when it first came out, it was repeatedly at the top of the sales charts, and even after SMB3 came along it still sold very well. It never reached the sales of 1 and 3, but it still sold far better than most other games. Further, for the longest time online reviews had nothing but praise for it's "unique" gameplay. Check older reviews on GameFAQs and you see almost nothing but 9/10 ratings for the game. Further, and this is just personally, but I never had a bad thing to say about the game when I played it as a kid, and neither did anyone I remember playing it with, except that it didn't have a multiplayer mode like 1 and 3. Everyone I knew loved it then.

So, I have to ask why all the recent hate? I'm really note sure, that's beyond the scope of this, but I can only say that it's probably just a passing meme. A similar thing happened with Donkey Kong Country shortly after Rare got sold to MS. Many people started suddenly saying that DKC sucked, when I read nothing but glowing reviews when that game first came out.

I think it's good to look at the game itself now. I'll start with the major changes from Doki Doki. Of course there's the replacement of the characters with Mario characters, but what is surprising (though it shouldn't be considering it had the same developer) is just how much didn't need to be changed at all. There are a lot of things in even the original Doki Doki that were taken straight from Mario. Invincibility stars, for example, had no changes at all.

Here's a list of things that Doki Doki already had from the Mario universe (just as that universe existed at the time):

POW blocks (Mario Bros.)
Coins (Super Mario Bros.)
Starmen (Super Mario Bros.)
That "boing" sound effect for jumping (I think that's as early as Donkey Kong)
Spark enemies (Donkey Kong Jr.)
Vines to climb to reach the sky with clouds you can walk on, complete with climbing sound effect (Super Mario Bros.)
Pipe-style objects you can press down to go into and find secrets, including warp pipes (Super Mario Bros.)
Mushroom houses (Super Mario Bros.)
Something you can throw along the ground to take out lots of enemies (Super Mario Bros)
Cannons firing stuff at you (in this case fire) (Super Mario Bros.)
Fish flying out from the water at you (trouters here instead of bloopers, but the basic enemy type is the same)

It's also worth noting that the cherries were likely inspired by the cherries in Pacman, since Miyamoto is known to be a big fan of that game. Heck, for that matter the stopwatch item that freezes enemies seems to be lifted directly from Zelda 1 (Castlevania uses it too actually).

Now, clearly some of the latter stuff isn't an exact match, instead of shells the things along the ground are weird shrunken heads, the cannons shoot fireballs instead of bullet bills, and the pipes are actually weird vase things, but clearly the spirit is the same, and the rest are clearly directly lifted from the Mario world. The game has a pretty obvious Arabian theme to it, but that's really more of a setting thing than anything, no different than a Mario game set on a tropical island would modify a lot of things to fit a tropical setting (Mario Sunshine anyone?) or a game set in space would change some conventions to be more futuristic (Mario Galaxy?).

In other words, it's almost like this was intended to be a Mario game from the start, and the Doki Doki thing was tacked on later on simply due to that deal being struck with that radio station. It's also possible it was never intended to be a Mario game and it was just Miyamoto's influence that led to so many similarities, but either way it's very striking and makes this game tailor-made to be a Mario game from the very start. Oh yes, and it's notable that the lead character in this game, Papa or whatever, happens to look a lot like Mario. Further, Mario using plants as powerups is pretty well established by SMB1, and with that being the only game to use them to that point, that they are radishes and such rather than mushrooms can be easily forgiven. The spirit is the same, eat your veggies.

It's also worth noting that this game has had a massive lasting impact on the entire Mario series. Here's a list of things that first appeared here that are now staples of the Mario series.

Pokey
Shyguys
Snifits
Bob-ombs
Pidgit (sort of, it was reused in Mario World when you unlocked the Halloween remodel of the world)
Flowers shooting fire at you (Here it's the Panzer rather than a special Piranha plant, but the basic idea is the same, and the Panzer heavily resembles an underwater version found in SMB3)
Bombs Mario himself just picks up and uses to blow stuff up
Gathering keys to open locked doors
Super jumping by ducking first
Mini-games at the end of levels to earn extra lives (SMB3's clearly had a strong inspiration in that it uses the card matching system with a spinning slot machine style reel at the end, only it does it one card at a time instead of 3 at a time)
Picking stuff up and throwing it at the enemy (though not nearly to the same extent as it was here, and done in a different way, it's been a big part of Mario's abilities ever since this game).
The Princess, basically everything about her. (Her sprite in Mario 3 was basically a direct rip from this game, and all those special moves they gave her defined her later on, such as most of her moves in Smash Bros.)

Clearly this game was responsible for a lot of stuff later Mario games would use, so it is hardly some footnote.

So what else was changed when it went from Doki Doki to Mario 2? Well, the characters got changed obviously, and lots of little elements got changed to better fit the Mario universe. The Heart Container items (which are another nod to Zelda) were changed to mushrooms (the littler hearts remained the same, and again are a nod to Zelda). The extra life "character heads" in Doki Doki were changed to 1-up mushrooms (not green as usual but a different look with the word "1-up" on it). Doki Doki had a lot of strange tiki/african style masks in it, and most of these got changed. The stackable masks become mushroom blocks, and the big scary mask at the end of the level was changed to a big scary bird head. The Phanto chasing mask was given a big creepy grin and one of the turnips that was angrier in Doki got a fat faced look here. The slot machine was totally changed from the most boring bland green background in the world to a fancy smancy border. A lot of things that were static sprites before became animated, such as the tufts of grass and the clouds. The condor that had two frames of animation had a much smoother wing flapping animation added. Also, when bob-ombs exploded, it just said "BOM" in Doki but said "Bomb" in SMB2 (still not sure why they didn't change it to "Boom" an actual sound).

The title screen was totally changed, with a story explanation as a new song played. Along those lines, the character selection music and "outside level" music which were brief in Doki Doki were made a lot longer with more sections so they didn't get nearly as old. Further, the arabian sounding music in Subspace for Doki was replaced with good ol' fasioned Mario music. It's notable that the extra life music in Doki Doki was the same, another lift from Mario. Further, the ending credits music was basically a dreamy and expanded remix of the opening music from Doki Doki's title screen and story sequence.

Along those lines, the story was completely changed. In the original, kids are reading a book when suddenly Wart, the villian of the book, comes to life and kidnaps them. The rest of the family rushes in and jumps into the world in the book to rescue them (sort of an Arabian Nights comes to life kind of thing). The changed story is that Mario was dreaming and heard a voice telling him the world of dreams called "Subcon" was in danger and he had to rescue them, and when he went to a picnic with his friends and told them, he found a door in a mountain nearby which led to the world from his dreams, where everyone decided to help the subconians by defeating Wart.

This is another point of contention. A lot of complaints seem to stem from the whole "it was just a dream" thing, like it was all "pointless". Well, as far as I can tell, it wasn't like it was "just all in Mario's head". The story seems to make it very clear that it's more of a "dreams occur in another world and if Mario doesn't save subcon everyone with have nightmares forever thanks to the evil Wart" sort of thing. It seems that Mario is "sharing" his dream with Luigi Toad and the Princess at that, like the picnic was all part of the dream too. The instruction booklet actually mentions a curse on Mario that he has to break by beating Wart, which seems to suggest Mario is under some sleep spell. Mario wakes up to find everything is well and then goes back to sleep again, and all in all I can't really find fault in that. I mean, everyone likes Kirby and all his games take place in dreamland. There's a notable difference between "just a dream" and a "dream world".

The gameplay was largely unchanged from Doki Doki. They basically just added the ability to run by holding down "B". It's pretty easy to infer from this that the entire game can be played without ever using the run button, every single thing in the game can be jumped to, though a few require certain characters like Luigi or Peach. Other than this, the crab boss replaced, gasp, another mouser boss in the original. This one has spikes in his room, oh deary me. The only other notable change was to a small level layout in one of the final levels, making a certain jump to reach a ladder from under some clouds a little less dangerous. There is one other thing to note. Doki Doki had a save system, saving each individual character's progress (notably, one can't just change characters, each must make their own way through all levels). As a result, one has effectively infinite continues. For SMB2, they didn't put in a save system, understandable due to costs of cartridge batteries in those days. However, for some reason they had to make it harder than that and limit the player to two continues. This more than anything extended the gameplay for new players more than it needed to. Two is more than enough, but if you are new, better learn to master that slot machine game. It's especially bizarre seeing as how no other Mario game has limited continues. One can select characters between all stages, and when they use a continue, but not when they die, a rather annoying omission.

Graphically, it's leaps above SMB1, but not quite as good as SMB3. The sound follows the same pattern. While most of the tunes are new, they are all very catchy. This should be no surprise as Koji Kondo composed this game (Both Doki Doki and the remodel) as well as the other Mario games.

The gameplay is pretty addictive. Aside from Mario suffering Belmont-itis with rather slippery bouncing when he gets hurt (at least he can recover from it in the air), the controls are pretty tight. It is a little too easy to slip off vines and ladders though.

The tossing of enemies doesn't get old, which is good because you'll do a lot of it, to do everything in the game. The bosses are all bizzarre and there's enough changing up of them to keep things interesting all the way to Wart. The levels follow a typical "here's a world, and here's 3 stages" pattern. There's no time limit, which is nice, and many have multiple pathways. There's also a number of hidden world warps, found by managing to carry a special "sub space potion" to certain out of the way pipes and entering the pipe in sub space. Ah yes, sub space is interesting. Throw magic potions and you get a door, and inside that door is a dark mirror image of the screen you entered the door at. Here all plants become coins (for a limited number of times) and you may find a hidden mushroom to increase your life. Get your life down to one heart and you shrink, again and you die.

There's plenty of platforming fun to be had across the levels, from hopping from one fish to another to logs and bouncing around albatoss birdies across a mostly bottomless level.

Oh yes, an important mention of the characters. Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess make up the roster, each with their own specialities. Mario is average in all ways, perfect averageness is basically his super power. Luigi jumps higher with "floaty" longer jumps, but his jumps are shorter holding things. Toad jumps the shortest but his jumps are unaffected by holding things (and he's the fastest at plucking things). Princess Peach Toadstool (whatever you want to call her) is very slow at picking things up and her jumps very crippled by holding things, but she has the greatest thing ever, she floats when she jumps.

All in all, I very much enjoyed this game, and still do. They remade it twice, and the second time added a bunch of extras like red coin hunts and such. I'd highly recommend it as another great game in a great series.

Metroid

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 13:26:19 +0000

Review: Metroid
Platform: NES
Rating: 9.0/10

Metroid is one of the defining moments of the NES, at any point in it's life. It was the huge, non-linear, and difficult quest of Samus Aran, bountyhunter extraordinaire, who hunts a not-so-nice group of guys called Space Pirates, who, like any self-respecting villains, have aspirations to dominate the galaxy. The tool they plan to use in search of this goal is the Metroid. A large creature shaped roughly like a squid, Metroids have the capacity to completely destroy almost anything, making them the perfect weapon if they can be brought under control. As Samus, you will search miles and miles of the dangerous underworld of the planet Zebes, hunt down the Space Pirates and their leader, the Mother Brain, and destroy the Metroids, all while trying your damndest to stay alive.

Graphics: 9.0

The various areas below the surface of Zebes are large, well-detailed, and diverse in looks. They range from the cavernous Brinstar to the firey Norfair to the high-tech base of Mother Brain, Tourian. Mother Brain's henchmen Ridley and Kraid also have their own domains, one an almost-pleasant area flowered with shrubs, the other an awfully strange place. Each section has it's own graphical variations as well, which makes for a pleasant visual experience. Of the early NES games, this probably makes some of the best uses of the machine's limited color palette. It manages to be colorful without ruining the dark atmosphere.

Enemies are all over the place, so you can't help but notice that they look pretty good, all things considered. Of course there's some palette-swapping going on, but there is still a rather diverse assembly of critters who want you dead. For it's time the number of enemies, and the level of animation were pretty advanced, and it shows through that design was a strength of the developing team. There are only three bosses in the game, but all are large, well-animated, and properly dominate the scene.

Audio: 8.0

The music in Metroid is excellent, and there are some catchy tunes here that have become staples of the series for good reasons. The problem lies in the simply massive areas you're exploring: You're in one area for such a protracted period of time that the music, as good as it is, will repeat and repeat until you really do start getting tired of it, and you'll wish there was a larger selection of tunes to break the monotony, even if nothing more than slight variations. That of course would be restrictive, as cart size was precious, so that can't really count much against the score. The sound effects are pretty standard.

Gameplay: 9.5

To start with, Metroid is a very difficult game. It WILL kick your ass, no matter how good you think you are. Health is a rare commodity for a good long while, your initial weaponry is weak and there are hordes of nasty things out there who like nothing more than to see your yellow self go boom. Though the game is definitely above the average skill level, it isn't insanely difficult either, it is balanced well and the curve isn't too steep. This game does require you to be adventurous, and it requires you to both take some risks and to be imaginitive. There are tons of secrets, most of them vital to your success, and the game gives you absolutely no hints as to where you can find these hidden items. Therefore, you have to take it upon yourself to explore every nook and cranny, to look in the least obvious places and discover the secrets of the planet Zebes. In addition to your exploration, you'll be firing that trusty arm cannon quite often, which can be upgraded three times to three lethal new levels, and soon enough you'll be complementing that with missiles. There are also extra items that complement other aspects of Samus Aran, and allow for higher jumping, lava-walking, and using her own body as a weapon, and more.

You have a serious lack of health at the beginning, which forces you to take a crash course in avoidance and being dodgy, because until you find a few of the precious Energy Tanks, you simply cannot take damage unnecessarily. Even small, seemingly-harmless enemies can take you down with a few hits. Fortunately, upon death they drop health tabs and other goodies to keep you rocking, but even still, often times trying to kill an enemy for five points of health can end up costing you four times as much, so know what you're getting into before shooting at anything that moves.

To add to the fact that the underworld of Zebes is gigantic, you will have to map it by memory, because the game does not do it for you. You will have to learn to memorize landmarks to aid your navigation, and it is almost certain you will get lost a few times. It's fortunate that there is little in the way of backtracking involved.

To top it all off, you have one life to live. Lose that life and you are given a long password. This is your only means of continuing, as this was in the days when battery-saving was in it's infancy. That the password is so long is incentive enough not to die, although it is a good idea when you want to break from the game for awhile. Make sure you get it down though, because you get only one chance. Metroid is a game that shows no mercy. And fans wouldn't have it any other way.

Final Word

Metroid is a classic for many good reasons, and is a blast to play if the heavy challenge doesn't daunt you. Any self-respecting NES afficionado should have this game in their collection, without doubt. And lucky you, it was a common, popular game, so if you're not a total slouch, you can easily obtain a copy of this game on the cheap. And you should. Because you definitely will not regret it.

Mega Man 5

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:25:27 +0000

In my opinion, this is where the series started to go stagnant. Enemies were kind of boring, music was okay, and gameplay was...eh. The enemies were:

Charge Man - Basically a train with legs. He would run at you or shoot out rocks from his smokestack.
Gravity Man - Not much of an active weapon, just a plasma cannon not unlike Mega Mans, but the difference was gravity was wrong. When Mega Man was on the floor, Gravity Man was on the ceiling, took timing to hit him.
Napalm Man - Shot napalm filled canisters upward and crashing down on Mega Man, also shot a missile from his head.
Crystal Man - Froze the ground to make it slippery, then shoots crystals at you.
Gyro Man - Flew into the clouds wher you couldn't see him, then shot helicopter blades down at you until falling down himself.
Star Man - Uses a star shield, which protects him until he throws it at you.
Stone Man - Uses a strange weapon which rotates stones around his body and then they fling off into different directions.
Wave Man - Makes surges in the piping through the floor to shoot water underneath Mega Man.

Gameplay is alright, kind of challenging in some parts, but all in all pretty unremarkable. Music, which is usually pretty good, was just plain lousy this time around, with the exception of Gravity Man, that's a diamond in the rough. Graphics are good, but nothing to really write home about.

I rate Mega Man 5 a mere 3 out 10, and I can't help but wonder what the Capcom people were thinking.

Mega Man 4

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:24:18 +0000

Mega Man 4 is a standout game in this already great game series. Featuring:

Dust Man - Who fires exploding dust and sucks you towards him.
Pharaoh Man - Who jumps a lot and fires fireballs, some small, some huge.
Dive Man - In an underwater level, he shoots homing missles and charges you like a torpedo.
Bright Man - Who stops time momentarily while he shoots you. Not too diffrent from his predecessor Flash Man.
Drill Man - Drill Man shoots drills out from his arms, then burrows underground where you can't see him, then launches out right underneath Mega Man a few seconds later.
Ring Man - Throws Rings, thats about it.
Skull Man - Has the ability to use a skull shield, which protects him from anything, until he throws it at you.
Toad Man - Jumps around and does a weird dance causing acid rain to pour down.

Gameplay is pretty decent. Some parts are challenging, none of the levels can really be called "easy". The bosses have a bit more kick in them now too.
Music, once again, is very addictive. Graphics are very good. Dust Man's level in particular is very well done.
The background consists of conveyor belts, hammers, gears and other mechanical stuff.
Later on in the level, you find parts where some garbage is burning, and that looks really cool.

I rate Mega Man 4 a 7 out of 10, it's a great game, I recommend it highly.

Mega Man 3

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:23:28 +0000
They say that the third time is a charm, and when the first two are gold, you know the third must be incredible, and it is. Mega Man 3 boasts great enemies as well as great music and graphics. Your eight initial enemy robots are:

Spark Man, who shoots electrical bursts and simply attacks with his own jumping
Snake Man, a high jumping robot who fires snakes which crawl around the floor and up the walls, hurting Mega Man.
Needle Man, who attacks by either throwing needles at you, or shooting out his spiked top.
Top Man, a weak enemy who throws three guided tops or spins from one side of the screen to the other.
Shadow Man, extremely fast, attacks by either throwing blades, or by simply hitting you with his lightning quick slide.
Magnet Man, can stick to the ceiling and throw guided Magnet Missiles or attract Mega Man with his magnetic power.
Gemini Man, who splits himself into two parts and shoots plasma bullets at the same time Mega Man does, and once half of his health is gone, the clone goes away and the remaining original shoots lasers.
Hard Man, shoots his guided fists at Mega Man, or jumps and tries to smash Mega Man under his weight.

After these guys, you expect to head to Dr. Wilys Skull Castle, but first you have to go back through Spark, Needle, Shadow, and Gemini Mans now destroyed stages, where you'll find some powerful robots who are like nothing you've seen before, but in one special way, they are very familiar...

Once you get to Dr. Wily's infamous Skull Castle, where you encounter such enemies as three Mega Man clones, and a strange monster who disassembles, throws his pieces at you, reassembles, and attacks. As a fan of Mega Man games myself, this is my favorite, even including the Mega Man X games.

I highly recommend you get this game and play it. It's challenging, it's fun, and it simply doesn't get old. I give it a 9!

Mega Man 2

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:22:41 +0000
Mega Man II was where the Mega Man games we all know and love started to take shape. With a full compliment of 8 powerful robots, including:

Bubble Man - In an underwater level, shoots bubbles and plasma shots at you while swins around. Watch out for the spikes on the ceiling.
Air Man - Air Man shoots 3 tornadoes from one side of the screen to the other. Some you can dodge, others not.
Quick Man - As his name suggests, Quick Man is FAST. He jumps and runs at lightspeed shooting boomerangs at you. An uneven floor makes him difficult to dodge, too.
Wood Man - Uses leaves as him main weapon. He'll create a spinning shield of leaves and throw it at you, then leaves fall from the top of the screen.
Flash Man - Flash man doesn't have much of an active weapon, he stops time momentarily and shoots a rapid-fire plasma cannon at you. The slippery floors don't help with your dodging, either.
Heat Man - Looking like a giant pissed off Zippo lighter, Heat Man attacks in two ways. He will either throw fireballs which make flames rise from the ground, or he will turn himself into fire and charge you.
Crash Man - Crash Man is kind of difficult to beat, it takes timing and a Energy Canister or two. When you fire your weapon (even if not at him) he will jump in the air and throw bombs at you. You need to time your attacks to hit him when he jumps.
Metal Man - Metal Man is not too difficult to beat. He will be on the opposite side of the room, jumping up and down and throwing up to three sawblades at you at a time. The floor is also a conveyor belt, making movement and dodging difficult.

This game is one of the best in the Mega Man series. Featuring two levels of difficulty and challenging levels, it'll keep you entertained. Also this game introduced bonus items Item-1, Item-2, and Item-3. One climbed walls, one made a rocket (very useful in Heat Mans stage), and the other made a balloon. Dr. Wily's levels and bosses were also very challenging and fun.

Music, once again, was excellent, especially in Metal Man and Crash Mans stage.

I consider this game to be the first true Mega Man game, it set the standard for all its descendants. I rate Mega Man II an 8 out of 10.

Mega Man 1

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:22:01 +0000
Ah, the one that started it all! This game may look strange for players of Mega Man 2-X because of a few differences.
For one there are only 6 six enemy robots instead of the traditional 8.
They consist of:

Cut Man, who uses scissor-like blades
Fire Man, who uses flame attacks
Elec Man, who uses lightning attacks
Ice Man, who uses freezing attacks
Guts Man, who uses strength to throw huge boulders
Bomb Man, who uses, obviously, bombs to get his point across.

This game also uses a point system. You get a certain number of points for beating enemies and picking up pellets, you get a certain number of points for beating bosses. Also, after a boss is killed, you must walk over to where you killed him and pick up a capsule ot recieve his weapon. If you wait too long, it will disappear and you have to do the level and the boss all over again. Quite a difference, but fun.

Gameplay is good for an early NES game. There are some challenging parts that may have you pulling your hair out.
I know it took me a little while to even get off the first part of Guts Mans level! Graphics are classic 8 bit, everything is flat, but it's a detailed flat, mostly with backgrounds and non-moving things, everything else is pretty solid looking. The background of Bomb Man's stage is impressive though.

Mega Man 1 paved the way for a great series in gaming, and did a good job asserting itself, letting the world know it was for real. For these reasons and others, I rate Mega Man 1 a 7.5 out of 10.

Tecmo Bowl

Thu, 13 Feb 2003 07:12:50 +0000
Review: Tecmo Bowl
Platform: NES
Release Date: 12/13/1991
Rating: 7.0/10

Tecmo Bowl was a rather nice football game that appeared on the NES years ago. Featuring all 28 teams (at that time) and rosters for the main defensive and offensive players on a team, and displayed from a 2D side angle, Tecmo Bowl was a pretty good game that remains playable, and is a source for nostalgia (ah, the times when Bubby Brister quarterbacked the Pittsburgh Steelers).

Graphics: 7.5

Each team has it's own helmet and logo, which was unusual in the day. The players themselves are all nondescript little guys on the field, but each team has their own colors to eliminate confusion. There seems to be just one stadium where all the games are played, and the end zones have different colored Tecmo logos instead of team logos. Special plays, like sacks, interceptions, touchdowns, and such are accentuated by short cut-scenes to add a bit of drama and realism to the event. It's still the only football game in my memory that actually has a halftime show, with cutscenes of various halftime events. Overall, it's not flashy, it just does the job well.

Sound: 8.5

Tecmo Bowl features, among other things, digitized voices, mostly referee signals, and they are done pretty well. Crowd noise is alright, but hardly important. Another thing that Tecmo Bowl has that other games no longer do is a musical score, and it changes in various situations. It's a nice touch, one I miss in the days of sports games trying ever harder to perfectly emulate the experience of watching a game on TV.

Gameplay: 6.0

Excecuting plays is usually a cinch. However, you will often find yourself picking the wrong play because you press the button wrong, and that can lead to you giving up a big play, especially when you mistakenly pick a running play on 3rd and 18. An audible system would have helped. It also seems that sometimes the computer opponent is either totally outmatched or ends up nailing you for 30 yards every play. Another problem is that once you pick the defensive player you want to control for the play, you're stuck with him until it's over, and that's irritating as can be when you select a cornerback, the offense calls a run and you can never even get within 20 yards of the running back.

Negatives aside, the game is fun, it's fast, and most importantly it's easy to get into. There doesn't seem to be any money plays either, which is a bonus. My favorite play, the HB sweep, sometimes gets me 50 yards, sometimes gets me a 3 yard loss. The stats system is impressively comprehensive, considering it's an NES game, and allows for entire seasons of play (a downside though is that unless you want to control all 28 teams, you'll have to simulate every game you do not play, and that can take awhile).

Overall: 7.0

All in all, this is the best NFL football game to be found on the NES. Despite it's shortcomings, the game is fun, and is still playable after all these years, and that's primarily due to there being nothing like this game anymore. It's definitely a different experience from your Maddens or your NFL2K3s. It's worth a shot, definitely.

Snake, Rattle, & Roll

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:53:01 +0000
Snake, Rattle, & Roll Review

By Derek Miller

Snake, Rattle, and Roll was one of Rare's last NES games. They weren't called Rare back in the NES days but they were churning out fun games none the less. Snake, Rattle, & Roll was one of their best. Even if you haven't played it, chances are you've seen or heard of it. Who can forget the images of the snakes destroying enemies with their tounges and getting power ups to increase their length? It was also one of the few semi-3D games on the NES. Marble Madness and Q-Bert come to mind as some other games that utilized a 3D grid. SNR was simply a fun, arcade-action game, and it would even be ported to the Sega Genesis years later. Not many NES games were ported to other systems, mostly due to Nintendo's strict rules, so Snake already stands out from other NES games.

Graphics

Excellent graphics for an NES game. The 3D grid looks pretty good and bright colors are used to increase the happy mood of the game. The snakes look good as well as the enemies. Even the water graphics are decent. Overall, one of the best looking NES games.

9.5

Sound

The music in the game helps to increase the happy mood of the game as well, but it can get slightly annoying. The sound effects sound pretty good, though. The audible thwomp when you kill an enemy is great as well as the noise when you attack. Decent sound for an NES game.

6.5

Gameplay

Snake, Rattle, & Roll is very fun and very addictive. The point is pretty much to make your way through the 3D levels and get to the exit. The catch is that you have to eat little balls along the way that increase your snake's length (Please no sick jokes). You need to have eaten enough to open the door when you get to it. A scale we determine if you weight enough to open the door. Of course, there are numerous enemies and traps along the way to try and stop you. The game is really challenging and will take some time to master. You can also compete with a second player to add to the fun of the game. The multiplayer option makes the game ten times as fun. It's a tough game but you'll find yourself not wanting to put it down.

9.0

Modern Appeal

Snake, Rattle, & Roll can be placed in the same category as Ms. Pacman, Pong, and Asteroids. It's the kind of game that is fun no matter how old it is and how dated the graphics look. SNR is a great arcade-type game that will keep you hooked like so many quarter-eating arcade games used to do. The good thing is this game is for NES and you won't spend all your quarters trying to beat it.

8.5

Purchase Price

Snake, Rattle, & Roll is a very common game and it won't cost you much at all. Look for it to be less than $5. At this price you'd be crazy not to pick it up. You aren't crazy, are you?

Total (not an average) : 9.0

P.O.W.

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:52:00 +0000
P.O.W. Review

By Derek Miller

P.O.W. is really an unheralded game. That may be because it was overshadowed by the better Double Dragon series. That doesn't mean P.O.W. doesn't deserve a shot, though. It had similar gameplay to Double Dragon but is set in a war zone which provides for, in my opinion, a more interesting scenario. If you liked the Double Dragon series then give P.O.W. a chance.

Graphics

P.O.W. had similar graphics to Double Dragon but looked just a little better. The people in the game all looked pretty good, at least better than the clunky, cartoonish enemies from Double Dragon. It's good enough so that it won't turn you off but it's nothing spectacular.

7.5

Sound

Nothing special here and I really mean it. The sound track can get annoying and the sound effects are almost nonexistant.

4.5

Gameplay

This is your standard Double Dragon-type game. You know the type of gameplay. There are weapons and powerups you can pick up along the way such as brass knuckles, knives, and machine guns. This makes the war zone seem all the more realistic and makes the game a heck of a lot more interesting. You can also play with a second person which is always fun.

8.5

Modern Appeal

If you liked this type of game back in the day then you will like P.O.W. If you've never played this type of game you might enjoy P.O.W. anyway simply because it's fun arcade-type action. The graphics are decent so they won't turn you off. That's a good thing.

8.0

Purchase Price

Shouldn't cost you much. Probably about $5. You shouldn't have much trouble finding it on eBay or at a used game store.

Total (not an average) : 8.0

The Legend of Zelda

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:50:41 +0000
The Legend of Zelda Review

By Derek Miller

Incredible game after incredible game, created by Shigeru Miyamoto and other brilliant game designers,was released for the NES in the early days. The market was still in itsinfancy and there was a lot of room to innovate. The Legend of Zeldawas one of those innovative games. Not only was it the first game to featurescreen scrolling in four different directions, but it was also the firstNES game to feature a save system. While the save system wasn't perfectthere is no way you could complete Zelda without the ability to save unless you had a lot of time on your hands or you used the trick I used sometimes and left the NES on while you were away. The Legendof Zelda didn't only bring about technical innovations, it also provided us with a seemingly never-ending quest that would keep us playing until our eyes were bleary. Then what happens? We are given a second quest, asomewhat new quest with brand new dungeons in new locations that was much harder than the original quest. The Legend of Zelda marked the birth of a series that is highly regarded in the gaming community as one of, if not the best series of games in existence. No review can really do the game justice but I'll give it a try.

Graphics

For it's time, Zelda had decent graphics. While it wasn't anything mind blowing like Donkey Kong Country was for the SNES, it looked up-to-par with the other early NES games. A limited number of colors were used to provide the mood of the different areas of the game. The early parts that Link could explore were bright and the green really made the place seem nice. Whereas the dungeons were dark and gloomy, and did a good job setting the tone along with the music. There were only a few occurrence of slowdown in the game, mainly in the dungeons, when there were a lot of enemies on screen but it didn't take much away from this great game.

7.5

Sound

Who doesn't remember the Zelda over world theme? Many gamers were shocked when the theme didn't reappear in Ocarina of Time. The sound, along with the graphics, provided the mood for this epic quest and the tunes, while some people may be annoyed by them, were good for the limited resources that the NES had to devote to sound. Not much you can do in the way of sound with an the 8-bit NES.

8.5

Gameplay

This is where the Legend of Zelda really shines. You start out as Link and you have nothing but your wits about you. When an old man gives you a sword, the fun really begins. You have to fight your way through a never-ending onslaught of monsters as you attempt to locate all the dungeons. Finding the dungeons was fun, but it didn't match the appeal of fighting your way through the dungeons themselves. Every dungeon contained at least one weapon or item for you to find, each essential to completing your quest. Not only did you have the main quest to keep you occupied, but the Zelda overworld contained many hidden secrets that you wouldn't find if you didn©ˆt explore. Hidden heart containers would boost your maximum heart containers and there were also secret places where you could buy these heart containers. There were also secret areas where people would give you money to help you along or sell you items at a discount. There were also two locations to upgrade your sword, but only if you were strong enough. While none of this was integral to the main quest it provided a sense of satisfaction when you finally found the most powerful sword or another heart container. Zelda was a game that was unmatched in it's time.

10.0

Modern Appeal

Zelda is the type of game that you yearn to play every once in a while. While it isn't the same type of epic quest as Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy, it does provide hours of pure 8-bit entertainment. It's not the type of game you will pick up and put down in a hour. When you are bored and don't have any new games to play, pick up the Legend of Zelda and go on a quest to save Princess Zelda and the Land of Hyrule from the evil clutches of the monster Ganon.

8.5

Purchase Price

Even the gold cartridge of Zelda, which isn't as rare as some might like you to think, won't cost you too much. You shouldn't pay more than $10 for this game.

Total (not an average) : 9.5

Final Fantasy

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 12:52:08 +0000
Final Fantasy Review

By Ryan Usher

The one that started a revolution. Everyone knows the name Final Fantasy. Whether they like the series or hate it, it's a name among gamers as well-known as the likes of Mario and Zelda. While today the series is well-known for its epic storylines, great music and mind-blowing graphics, few people remember the series' humble beginnings in 1987, the first smash hit by the then-small and unknown developing house called Square, which had only done games like Rad Racer and a few even less-remembered. The "final" in Final Fantasy is there because Hironobu Sakaguchi, who is today a game guru among the ranks of Yu Suzuki and Shigeru Miyamoto, was disenchanted with previous games he made and was ready to leave the business. This RPG was to be his last ditch effort, his "final fantasy".

Your team of four children compose the Light Warriors. The Four Orbs of the Earth no longer shine, and because of that, the Four Fiends of the Earth are slowly killing the world, cancerous tumors on the planet. It's up to you to destroy these baddies and breathe life into the world once more, and to break a 2000 year cycle of destruction wrought by the evil Chaos.

Graphics

Nothing special, even by the standards of the day, but as far as NES graphics go, it wasn't all that bad. The monsters are nicely detailed, but most everything else is rather plain.

6.0

Sound

The sound for this game is quite good for NES, and you'll be humming some songs in your head. Sound effects are blah, but again, it's NES and I'm unfairly weighing against later efforts.

4.5

Gameplay

A caveat to hardcore FF Fans who never played this game before: THIS GAME PLAYS MUCH DIFFERENTLY FROM OTHER FF GAMES. After replaying it years later, I was completely stupified. Each enemy must be individually targeted, otherwise, the attack is for naught! Only certain character types can use magic, magic must be bought, and instead of MP, each spell level has a certain number of times it can be used, adding much challenge to those who like magic-users. The battles are mind-numbingly slow-paced as well. Playing through this game takes a saint's patience, indeed.

5.5

Modern Appeal

Certainly diverging from other FF games. If you want to see where it all began, go for it, but if you don't already like FF or RPGs in general, this game won't change you.

Purchase Price

I don't honestly know. I've seen it at FuncoLand for about $25-30, which isn't really too bad as long as the battery still works.

Total (not an average) : 6.5

Maniac Mansion

Wed, 12 Feb 2003 12:47:49 +0000
Maniac Mansion Review

By Ryan Usher

A well known ancient PC game got its port to the NES ten years ago. Maniac Mansion, developed by LucasArts using the SCUMM Engine, is one of those old point and click games that were so popular in the early 90s. The game has a certain charm to it, and there are a number of different ways to play through the game, utilizing different characters and their unique talents.

The Characters

DAVE is Sandy's boyfriend, and the only character you're forced to bring. He has no special talents. His favorite song is The Boys are Still Back by Fat Patty.
RAZOR is a punk rocker and leader of the band Razor and the Scummettes. Her talent is Music, and that talent may come in handy later on for a particular aspiring musician you will meet inside. Her favorite song is No No Never Never Well Maybe Sure Ok by The Void.
BERNARD is the archetypal geek, glasses and pocket protector at the ready. He is actually one of the most useful characters, he is handy with tools and knows how to fix anything. He likes Comp-U-Nerd by The Rocket Scientists.
WENDY is prim and proper, and is an aspiring novelist. She is the only character who knows how to type. She jams with The Sonatina in G Opus.
SYD is also an aspiring musician. Decked in black and yellow, with shades, he looks to be a spy type. His skills are the same as Razor's, and it doesn't really matter which you pick. Syd enjoys Psychedelic Brie by Metalflake.
JEFF is a surfer dOOd. He is handy with tools, and can fix telephones. Bernard does that and more, so Jeff really isn't that useful. His theme is Surf Face by Goofy Feet.
MICHAEL is a photography student and can develop any rolls of film you may happen to find. He listens to Flashbulb Funk by Princess.

Graphics

For the NES this is about as detailed as they get. In my opinion Maniac Mansion has the best graphics of any NES game. There are tons of color variations and each room seems to have a different style. The little details are everywhere. Excellent job.

10.0

Sound

Most of the character themes are pretty good, but they can get a bit repetitive after awhile. You do have the option of turning their CD Players off but then you have nothing but silence to listen to.

8.5

Gameplay

Standard point and click fare. This game is more brainpower than it is reflex only in a few select situations is fast fingerplay required. The game does play slightly differently depending on the characters you choose and you can win with any combination. There are also multiple endings depending on how you do certain things. It's good for 4 or 5 plays to see everything.

Total (not an average) : 7.5

Dragon Warrior

Tue, 11 Feb 2003 07:27:15 +0000
Dragon Warrior
Reviewed by Ryan Usher (Weltall)

Quite possibly the first console RPG ever (I'm not completely sure), Enix's Dragon Warrior was certainly my first, and the first installment in this long-running series. It set me on the path to becoming the full-fledged RPG whore that I am today. :) You are the Son of Erdrick, the one who defeated the Dragonlord many years ago. The Princess Guenevive has been kidnapped by the Dragonlord's minions, and his monster armies pillage and plunder the kingdom of Alefgard. It's up to you alone to find your father's sword and armor and strike the final blow to the Dragonlord and end his evil reign forever!

Graphics: 5/10

The graphics for Dragon Warrior are about as bland and generic as can be expected for a game of it's age. Map graphics are fairly varied but small and lacking detail. However, the shortcomings of appearance are mostly overcome by some rather creative map designs. There's nothing flashy about them but they do the job. The battle screen is in a first-person perspective, with you looking at the monster you're battling. Monster graphics are okay, but there is a wicked amount of pallette-swapping going on here. I'd say there's perhaps three color variations of about a dozen enemies. Again, they're hardly anything special, and certainly outdone tremendously in the NES's later years, but one might call this function over form. Unfortunately, there is almost no animation in battles whatsoever, the action is told to you via the text screen, which is a big minus.

Sound: 6/10

The music in this game is simple, but kind of memorable. There's a grand total of ten different tracks in the game, but most of them aren't that bad. The dungeon music will probably get on your nerves after awhile though. What really drags down this score is the horrible sound effects. Text is spelled out accompanied by noise, which is a no-no. Most of the sound effects are heard in battle, and this is where it goes south. The effects used in battle are just plain wierd, and sound very little like battle ought to sound.

4.5

Gameplay

This game is the hallmark of RPG simplicity. Battles are always mano-a-thingo, one-on-one. It's a very easy game to learn, especially for seasoned RPG veterans. It's not that the gameplay hasn't aged well, but rather that RPGs have evolved so exponentially beyond this, that for RPG fans of today, it may be hard to get into this game. If you love a good retro RPG and are willing to look past its age, it's a solid pick. It's better than Final Fantasy was, as the battles are usually quick affairs.

6.5

Modern Appeal

If you want to see the game that gave birth to the console RPG genre, and can overlook the flaws (of age mostly) that affect Dragon Warrior, then grab a copy.

Purchase Price

I don't honestly know. I've seen it at FuncoLand for about $25-30, which isn't really too bad as long as the battery still works.

Total (not an average) : 7.0