Category: 2 out of 5

Categories
2 out of 5 Miscellaneous Arcade Nes Platform

Adventure Island

Publisher: Hudsonsoft

Designer: Hudsonsoft

Type: Platform

Platform: NES

Release Date: 1986

Rating:

It seems as if there are just some games that certain platforms don’t get the rights to, and it seems as if Wonderboy is one of them. Yeah, this is the Nintendo version of Wonderboy, right down to the skateboard and the axe that he happens to through at the nasties. In fact, the only difference that I encountered with this game was the title.

Look, it isn’t a bad game, it is fun, and it isn’t too difficult either, and I suspect that if you plugged away at it you could actually get a rather decent way through. However, I’m not one of those people that is willing to plug away with it all that much, particularly since this isn’t really the type of game that I would spend too much time playing, beyond simply checking it out and writing this review of it.

Then again, when I was a kid I did play Wonderboy often because, well, it wasn’t too difficult, and as I’ve suggested, this is the case with this game as well. Interestingly, another version (which I have already talked about) has appeared on the Super Nintendo, which reminds me of how painful it is when you want to upgrade from one box to another. These days though, well, we have emulators, so I guess it is all good then.

So, you can find more details about it on Wikipedia, of course, but you can also find instructions, and a walkthrough, on Strategywiki. Finally, there is another review of this game on Nintendolife.

Categories
2 out of 5 C64 Shoot-em Up

F1 Tornado

Publisher: Zepplin Games

Designer: Wahid Kahn, Neil Hislop

Type: Shoot-em Up

Platform: C64

Release Date: 1991

Rating:

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I came to this game, that is whether it was a shootem-up or not. Well, it turned out that it isn’t a flight simulator, but rather a shootem-up, and a pretty hard one at that. You are basically flying a jet fighter and you have lots of enemies coming at you, as well as lots of ships firing stuff at you, and well, yeah, that is about it.

Actually, I found that the baddies pretty much come at you really thick and fast, which made it really, really hard to avoid getting blown up, when it was being hit by a missile (or rather a bullet) from one of the ships or being struck by one of the many planes that seem to come flying in your direction. The thing was that you really don’t seem to be given all that much breathing space, which meant that even if I managed to shoot down, or avoid, one of the many swarms that were coming towards me, then another lot would come. As it turned out, I spent more time dodging things than actually shooting any of the baddies down.

Then there are the ships. Well, there was just way, way too many of them. In fact, it felt as if I was flying over an entire fleet, and of course, you do have to avoid them because, well, planes and ships tend not to mix, especially if you slam into them at the speed that you are travelling. I did work out that you can actually shoot down the turrets, but of course you do have to pull up before, well, splatting against the bridge.

Yeah, this game was just way too hard for my liking, and I’m glad I never forked out any money for it when I was a kid, though I do suspect that maybe, just maybe, it was one of those el-cheapo games, which still doesn’t mean that it was value for money.

Well, not surprisingly, there is no Wikipedia page, but you can find some details (as scant as they are) on Lemon 64.

Categories
2 out of 5 Atari Maze Miscellaneous Arcade

Pacman

Publisher: Atari Inc

Designer: Atari Inc

Type: Maze

Platform: Atari 2600

Release Date: 1982

Rating:

I probably shouldn’t be too harsh on the Atari 2600 considering that it not only is an 8-bit machine, but it was also really really popular. The most common joysticks that I found when I was a kid happened to be the Atari joysticks, not that they were good mind you. In fact, they were pretty bad, and quite prone to breaking. However, let us consider this game, which ironically was the most popular game on the machine.

However, imagine driving a car when your breaks don’t work (not that I would encourage you to test it out because you are likely to cause more damage than to). Well, that is what it was like playing this game.

Honestly, I found that once I sent Pacman in a direction it was really, really hard turning corners because, well, he would just go, and go, and then run into a ghost.

Yeah, controlling this game was an absolute nightmare. Sure, maybe it was designed that way to make the game a little harder, not that I can recall playing it on any other machines, at least in the not too distant past. However, I did attempt to play this game, and it was a nightmare, even if it was simply because I couldn’t make sharp turns, stop, or avoid the ghosts.

Anyway, you can find more about this version of Pacman on Wikipedia, and there is also an entry on Pacman’s very own wiki page. Actually, as a point of note, if you type Pacman into Google, you will find a playable Pacman Google doodle.

Categories
2 out of 5 Beatem Up C64

Express Raider

Publisher: Data East

Designer: Zoltán Kanizsai, Zoltan Czigler, Istvan Ratkai, Ferenc Frank

Type: Beat-em Up

Platform: C64

Release Date: 1986

Rating:

I’ve seen quite a few beatem-up games, though to be honest with you, pretty much all of them involve ninjas and the like, or street fighters, however in this one you happen to be a cowboy, and you are running along the top of the train beating up anybody who gets in your way. Furthermore, you also happen to have just robbed a bank, so it seems that you are trying to get away with as much money as possible (or simply just trying to get away because, well, I suspect the law of the West plays its role here and all that).

Okay, it is probably more than a beatem-up game because when I got to the second level it was more like a shooting gallery where you shoot people who are hiding in the train, while you are riding alongside on your horse. Mind you, I didn’t quite expect that horses would run as fast as trains, but then again this does happen to be a computer game, so I probably should give it a bit of leeway in that regards.

Look, it was okay, but like a lot of the games that I have been playing around with, I found that this one ended up getting particularly hard once I hit the second level – namely the shooting gallery and all that. The first level was pretty easy though, but I guess it had a lot more to do with trying to control your character, and also getting the shots to go where they are supposed to go. In the end though, while it was a nice game, it really isn’t worth spending all your time playing it, despite it being one of those games that the video game magazines back in the day would really hype about them.

Anyway, there doesn’t seem to actually be a Wikipedia page for the game, which sort of suggests that it really wasn’t all that groundbreaking, at least to be remembered. However, you can find an entry on Lemon64, which sort of does say something.

Categories
2 out of 5 C64 Shoot-em Up

Avenger

Publisher: Commodore

Designer: Commodore

Type: Shoot-em Up

Platform: C64

Release Date: 1982

Rating:

For some reason, the file that this game happened to be in was called Avenger (which as it turns out, is the correct name). Okay, considering that this does happen to be an old C64 game, I wasn’t expecting it to have anything to do with those Marvel characters, or collecting pieces of the infinity stone to defeat Thanos. Rather, I wasn’t actually sure what this game was actually about. So, when I fired it up, you can probably imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was space invaders.

Look, I shouldn’t be too harsh on the game because it is actually one of the original arcade games, and I have played it a few times. I won’t necessarily say that it is easy though, especially since as you go up levels it does tend to get harder and harder. Then again, the more that you shoot, the faster they become. Apparently this started as a bug in the game, but because it worked so well, the original designers decided not to fix it.

However, I have to admit that the game is, well, boring. Like, yeah, its space invaders, and there is only so much of this game that I can play before I want to go and do something else, or even play something else. Still, it is certainly something to remember for posterities sake (and no doubt this isn’t the last time I’ll be writing a review of this game, though it will probably be on a different platform).

So, I guess the reason for the name change is that Commodore (who released the game) didn’t actually have the rights for the original title, so they ended up making their own. Anyway, there is a brief article about this game on Wikipedia, for what it’s worth.

Categories
2 out of 5 Run & Shoot Shoot-em Up SNES

Contra III: The Alien Wars

Publisher: Konami

Designer: Nobuya Nakazato

Type: Shoot-em Up

Platform: SNES

Release Date: 1992

Rating:

Okay, I found that this game was a little hard. It’s your basic shootem-up type game (though I believe the correct term if run & shoot), though it also happens to be sideways scrolling as well. It appears that you play some sort of soldier and you have to go around killing nasties (which is basically what you have to do in pretty much all shootem-up games). The thing was that the nasties seem to come at you thick and fast, which meant that before I knew it, I had run into a nasty and it was back to the beginning.

Oh, the controls were a little confusing (though I probably could have solved that by actually looking at the instructions, but then again I do happen to be a guy, and we all know what guys tend to think of instructions). One of the things that seemed to be happening, when I was randomly pressing buttons on my controller (I would call it a joystick, but since it is a Nintendo controller, there doesn’t happen to be any stick to give me any joy) I would set of a nuclear bomb or something, but since there were no nasties around, it pretty much didn’t do all that much.

The other thing is that you can rotate your gun to fire upwards, which was also awkward because I would try to turn around to shoot a nasty coming at me from behind, only to discover that my gun was pointing upwards and not at the nasty coming at me. That meant that the nasty would basically take me out.

Yeah, I wasn’t all that impressed. It was cool Nintendo stuff, however, yeah, I’ll give this one a miss as well.

Anyway, you can find out more about this game from Wikipedia, and I’ve also noticed that there is an entire Wiki dedicated to it as well.

Categories
2 out of 5 Miscellaneous Arcade SNES

Super Adventure Island

Publisher: Produce!

Designer: Yuzo Koshiro

Type: Miscellaneous Arcade

Platform: SNES

Release Date: 1992

Rating:

This game reminded me a lot of the old arcade game Wonderboy. I guess that was the intention of it, especially if Nintendo didn’t have, or didn’t want to pay for, the rights for the original game. Anyway, the game starts off with you sitting on top of a palm tree with your girlfriend when some nasty appears and takes her away. So, you decide to go an rescue her (because, well, why not?).

Yeah, pretty much right from the get-go I could see Wonderboy written all over this game, from the skateboard that you pick up, to the weapons that you collect to deal with the nasties. However, the catch is that this game is pretty hard. No, let me rephrase that, this game is really hard. Sure, getting past the first level was all well and good, but then I came to that part of games that I really, really detest, namely the parts where you have to jump onto moving platforms, and if you happen to miss these platforms, then, well its game over (not quite – you do have three lives, and an option to continue afterwards).

Yeah, I managed to get to that part, and then it was just a huge flurry of deaths that meant that I threw my controller down in disgust and went off to do something else with my time (such as writing this pointless reviews). Sure, some people are probably really good at these types of games, it just happens that I’m not one of them.

Anyway, as I tend to do, you can find out more about this game on the Wikipedia page, and here is another review you may want to consider as well.

Categories
2 out of 5 Beatem Up SNES

Sonic Blast Man

Publisher: Taito

Designer: Taito

Type: Beat-em Up

Platform: SNES

Release: 1992

Rating:

Personally, I’m not a particularly big fan of the game genre I call ‘beat-em-ups’. This is basically where you play a character that simply punches and kicks their opponents into submission. This is what this game happens to be, though I should point out that it is probably a little more entertaining than some of the others, where you are simply a fighter in an arena and churn through opponents one by one. No, this one is somewhat different in that you are going on an adventure.

I found that the game was quite easy though. In fact, I found that it was a little too easy, namely because I had completed two levels before I actually died, and when I died I discovered that I had only lost one life. This, in my mind, suggests that the game really isn’t all that challenging. Okay, I’m certainly not one of those people that are going to be playing this game for hours on end because, as I mentioned, I’m not a particularly big fan of beat-em-ups. While it wasn’t boring by any sense of the word, still isn’t a game that I’ll be returning too.

C64Anyway, you can find out more about it on Wikipedia, which tells me that it used to be an arcade game, not that I would have ever played it mind you. It seems that it also made an entry onto TV Tropes, which I must admit surprised me, but it must have been popular.

Categories
2 out of 5 Shoot-em Up

Alley Oops

Publisher: Artworx

Type: Shoot-em Up

Platform: C64

Rating:

It seems that people will turn anything into a shoot-em-up, and this game is a case in point. Well, it could also be an attempt to make a bowling simulator by somebody who, halfway through, decided to give up and make a shoot-em-up instead because, well, they are just so much easier to write (and you can see my Java version of Space Invaders as a case in point).

The game itself starts during World War I where you guide your futuristic plane across the skies shooting down, and attempting to avoid, Anyway, yeah, it is basically a bowling game, but instead of doing what you would normally do in a bowling game, you instead have to shoot pins as they come flying at you. There are a number of lanes which you can move across, and the pins come down these lanes randomly, so you need to move across the lanes to hit the pins. Oh, your weapon is a bowling ball, but you probably guess that already. There are otherways of scoring points as well, but I guess that is enough.

So, what did I think about this game? I guess my comments have basically told you everything you need to know, and that is basically that I wasn’t all that impressed. Okay, it is fun for a while, but it is just one of those simplistic games that you pretty much get sick of pretty quickly. Mind you, my initial reaction was ‘seriously! You have got to be kidding me!’.

Mind you, I have had a lot of difficulty actually finding any information about this game because, well, there certainly isn’t a Wikipedia entry, not a C64 Wiki entry either. However, I did find some vague information on Lemon 64, and of course somebody has posted a video of it up on Youtube.

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