Category: SNES

Categories
3 out of 5 Run & Shoot SNES

Megaman X

Publisher: Capcom

Designer: Tokuro Fujiwara

Type: Run & Shoot

Platform: SNES

Release Date: 1993

Rating:

This appears to be the third game in a series, though I’m not entirely sure what went on before. All I know, from the particularly long intro, is that there are these, well, robot types things that have been taken under the care of this character known as Doctor Dopler. Apparently, they were causing problems for Earth, but that had been sorted out (as I said, I don’t know anything about the original games, though I suspect I could easily find out, if I could be bothered searching the internet).

Anyway, it turns out that Doctor Dopler isn’t as good as people think that he was, and these creatures all turn loose and begin raising havoc across the world. You happen to be this guy named Megaman, and you like some sort of future police officer, or more precisely, some future commando of some sort. Well, because you happen to be so good, you get recruited to solve this problem. Except, the headquarters gets attacked and you have to deal with it.

Basically, this game is sort of a cross between a platform game, and a shootem-up, but I’ll put it into the shootem-up category since you seem to do more shooting than jumping about. It took me a while to work out the controls, particularly when you get to the big boss at the end of the first level. However, it turned out that by holding the buttons down you, well, can jump higher, and a fire a much deadlier shot than if you just press them normally. Oh, you also have another ability which allows you to run really, really, fast, though I’m not sure where that is used. Once you complete the first level (which is relatively easy, but it took me a couple of goes), you then have a choice of where to head next.

This game wasn’t bad, and the first level is interesting because you swap between characters a couple of times. Actually, I was a bit surprised to find the character I started playing gets captured halfway through, and you end up swapping characters to rescue him. The other thing is that when you die (you have an energy counter), you don’t go right back to the beginning, but rather back to a save point. Oh, and there is also a password that you can enter which will jump you much further ahead in the game. However, it isn’t one that I’m all that likely to be pursuing much in the future.

Anyway, as you can probably expect, there is a Wikipedia article on this game (as well as the series). Oh, and since it is a series, there a Megaman wiki, and an entry on the character as well. If you are looking for a solution, there is also one on Strategywiki.

Categories
3 out of 5 Maze Miscellaneous Arcade SNES

Pacman

Publisher: Namco

Designer: Namco

Type: Maze

Platform: SNES

Release Date: 1980

Rating:

After a rather disastrous experience with the Atari version of Pacman, I decided to see what the SNES version was like, and whether it was any easier. Well, my judgement is that it is, though there is still the problem that Pacman can be pretty difficult to control. I guess the reason for that is because once you start him moving, he just doesn’t stop. However, with this version, I did manage to complete the first level, so I guess I can say that it is certainly better.

This game does look a lot more like the version that you would see in the arcade parlours though, and it certainly runs much better as well. The graphics do match the original game, and of course, the ghosts each have their own personality. One thing I noticed is that they don’t all pile out of their inner sanctum at once, which can make it a little tricky. It is also tricky when you find yourself snookered.

Another thing that I noticed is that the maze changes slightly as you progress up the levels. Once again, I’m not sure if that is what is supposed to happen in the original, but it certainly gives this version of the game some more flare to it. However, as I mentioned, it does happen to be difficult, especially since Pacman isn’t as controllable as one would like him to be. Yet, I guess that just adds to the thrill of the game.

Categories
4 out of 5 Platform SNES

Castlevania

Publisher: Konami

Designer: Hitoshi Akamatsu

Type: Platform

Platform: NES

Release Date: 1986

Rating: undefined

So, you happen to be this guy with a whip. Yes, a guy with a whip, but you can upgrade it if you find something to do so, namely turn it from a leather whip to a chain whip. Anyway, you happen to be this guy and you wander into a haunted castle of all places, and you have to use this whip to kill all the nasties in the castle, as well as collect other things to help you in your quest (whatever that happens to be).

This is basically a platform game, sort of, because you also get to kill the nasties with your whip, and if you are lucky enough, with some special items that you pick up. Now here is the catch, you can only use these items a certain number of times, and these times sort of corresponding with the number of hearts that you pick up on the way.

However, these items aren’t necessarily visible – they happen to be hidden, behind torches and candles. Now, this is where the other use for the whip comes in, and that is that you hit the torches (or candles) and these special items (or hearts) drop out which you can collect. Now, this was the other tricky part, and that is if you aren’t careful you might end up using all these special items before they are really needed, and that is when you meet the big baddie (otherwise known as the boss monster, in video game parlance of course) at the end of the level.

Yeah, the game was fun, and it certainly does sound like it was pretty popular. I found that the controls were a bit tricky though. It took me a while to work out how to use the special items, and then I’d discovered that because I was mashing the controls as I was moving through the castle, I would end up using all of them before they were needed. Still, I did rather like this game – it was fun.

Anyway, as with a lot of games (but not all), you can find further details on Wikipedia. Also, I have found a few reviews of this game as well, including this one on retrogames as well as a fan site for the game.\

Categories
4 out of 5 Platform SNES

Donkey Kong Country

Publisher: Nintendo

Designer: Rare

Type: Platform

Platform: Super Nintendo

Release Date: 1994

Rating: undefined

This was certainly an interesting game, and a part of me suspects that it has something to do with the popularity of Super Mario Bros. The thing that that you might not realise that back in the deep dark days of computer history, Mario and Donkey Kong used to go head to head in an attempt to rescue Princess Daisy (whom Donkey Kong had kidnapped and taken to the top of a construction site). No doubt, this goes back to the grand old days of King Kong, hence the name, and hence the fact that Donkey Kong is a pretty big ape.

Well, this game takes us back to Donkey Kong’s home, and of course, there is no sign of Mario anywhere. However, what has happened is that Donkey Kong’s protege was tasked with guarding a cave full of bananas. Unfortunately, some nasties came along, tied up Diddy in a barrel, and scampered off with all the bananas. As such, it is now up to Donkey Kong, and Diddy, to get them all back.

So, the game pretty much plays like Super Mario Bros, though it does happen to be a little more detailed than the previous game. Then again, this is the SNES that we are talking about. You pretty much run, jump, and collect as many bananas as you can. You also have the benefit of having Diddy come along with you, and you can tag team with him. This also means that you get the benefit of having an extra life. Fortunately, if you do lose one of them, all you need to do is find a barrel with DK on it, and you can get them back.

The game has some interesting features, one of them being the ability to save, though to do that you have to get to a save point (though I haven’t managed to actually get that far). You can also find yourself getting some bonus rounds, such as when you collect three Emus, and thus you can then collect a heap of gold by playing the emu game (if it is an emu because this thing flies, and emus don’t).

One really cool aspect is that Donkey Kong happens to wear a tie, which was rather cute. Also, you can get power-ups, such as a rhinoceros which you can ride, and basically splatter as many enemies as you can possibly imagine while charging through the level.
Yeah, this game was pretty cool, though of course it does have the problem of getting somewhat harder as you progress through the levels, but still, I did like it.

Anyway, that’s enough from me for a change. If you want to know more, well, Wikipedia is probably the go to source for pretty much everything these days. Oh, and there is also a wiki page set aside for everything Mario Bros related, so you’ll find this game here as well.

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
5 out of 5 RPG SNES

The Legend of Zelda

A Link to the Past

Publisher: Nintendo

Designer/Director: Takashi Tezuka

Type: Roleplaying Game

Platform: Super Nintendo

Release: 1991

Rating:

I played this game years ago, right through to the end. It surprised me somewhat because I never expected to find a full-blown roleplaying game on a console machine, namely because from my experience (at least back when I was playing it) there was no way to save the game, especially after you turned the machine off. Well, it turned out that you can, and it also turns out that this game is pretty massive.

As I mentioned, it has been ages since I played this game, and played it right through to the end, but I can say that I thought it was amazing. The game uses a top-down perspective, and it is also pretty cool the number of things you can do in the game with that simple SNES controller. In fact, one of the fun things to do was to pick up the bushes and throw them (though that generally just annoyed people).

You start off in a hut, and your hut mate (brother, uncle, I don’t know) runs off in a hurry and tells you not to leave. Well, being the obedient person that you happen to be, you just hang around the hut and leave it at that. No, not quite, you ignore the command and run out to see what is going on, especially since you have this person screaming for help, through some psychic connection or something like this (yes, it is a fantasy Roleplaying Game as well).

I thoroughly enjoyed this game when I played it, though I should point out that it is pretty huge, and it will no doubt keep you occupied for hours. However, as a game, it is pretty awesome.

Not surprising, for such a popular and well known game, there is a Wikipedia article on it. Actually, there is a wiki page completely dedicated to the Zelda legacy (whom I discovered is the name of the princess). Oh, and if you happen to get stuck, like with a lot of these types of games, there are plenty of walkthroughs.

Categories
4 out of 5 Shoot-em Up SNES

Super R-Type

Publisher: Nintendo

Designer: Irem

Type: Shoot-em Up

Platform: SNES

Release: 1991

Rating: undefined

How can I describe this game other than as one of your typical shootem-ups. Well, I guess you could call it a typical shoot-em-up.

However, it wasn’t too bad, though, like a lot of similar games, this one can sort of grab your attention and drag you into a quagmire of simply spending heaps of time trying to see how far you can get. Well, I didn’t get caught up in that quagmire, not that I didn’t want to, but rather that I ended up getting bored rather quickly. Also, I kept on dying, but then again, that is sort of what you should expect to happen in such games.

I ended up getting bored rather quickly. Also, I kept on dying, but then again, that is sort of what you should expect to happen in such games.
I’m not sure if there is a story behind the game, but I suspect there is, not that you really pay all that much attention to it. It seems that you are basically a fighter pilot who flies their spacecraft towards a multitude of enemies and then have to face off against the big bad guy at the end of each level. Since I didn’t really get past the first big bad guy (as I said, it is challenging), I can say whether this is one of those ‘infinite loop’ type of games, though a part of me suspects that it just well maybe.

One interesting thing though is that you do have a power-up button, where you can charge your weapon to be extra strong simply by holding it down. Actually, I should also mention that I didn’t realise that you have two guns – one normal gun, and one that you can power up – though since these guns are pretty much, how do you say it, similar, I’m not sure why you have two.

In the end, though, this game was rather fun, though you may want to try to avoid getting sucked into a quagmire.

Anyway, you can find more information about this game on Wikipedia, of course, but there are also some reviews of this game as well, such as this site.

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