NES #30: Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics 2

So last time I was on here I was talking about the somewhat fun but ultimately lazy Rescue Rangers 2. In that post I was talking about how many of the late releases showed what the NES could do both in terms of graphics and gameplay. Well Zoda's revenge is the perfect example of this. Zoda's Revenge came out about a month after RR2, and it's one of the last three games Nintendo released for the NES. It's such a late release that they could've done a lousy job on it and nobody would have even noticed. Luckily they put a lot of time into it so that the NES could go out in style.

I feel slightly weird about the fact that this game came out right around my tenth birthday. The NES has always been such a part of my life that it's hard to believe that by the time I was 10 it was all over. They would start clearing out all the NES stock from stores, and rental places would get rid of them in favor of the 16 bits. This was something that I had a hard time dealing with way back in '94. Every kid has trouble dealing with change, and this is one that I just couldn't tolerate. I felt like my whole world was crumbling away. It caused me to be bitter at the SNES for years to come. That's probably why I have 260 NES games and about 30 SNES ones.

The commercials for this game did give me a little bit of hope however. It was advertised in the same commercial as the top loading NES. By then the price of the NES had dropped to 49.95 which just about any collector would be happy to pay today. If only we had known. The same commercial also advertised Mega Man 6, so I thought that the system was making a comeback. Little did I know that it was more of a last gasp.

Thankfully this was quite a last gasp. Zoda's Revenge is one of the best action RPGs that I've played on the NES. By this point most of the ambiguity and slow pacing that plagued earlier RPGs is gone. This game moves at a very quick, action packed pace. It has an entertaining story where Mikey is time traveling while looking for magic Tetris pieces, and it's able to unfold well while never slowing down the pace. This is something I wish modern games would be able to do. Also, unlike some games that will remain nameless, you get to go to Egypt and fight Sphinxes that shoot lasers out of their eyes.

They also tried to fix the problems from the first game. I appreciate them for trying, but some of the fixes are better than others. You get two weapons at a time in this one, and only one of them has strength based on your heart level. No matter how weak you are you will still have a good weapon to use. There also seem to be more opportunities to save your progress which is helpful in a game full of difficult dungeons. Most notably this game does away with all those green boxes. They are still there, but you can simply walk over them instead of jumping one space at a time. This is a welcome change, but it does make the jumping a little odd in this one. It was far too easy to jump to your death which was usually not a problem in the first game. You still move like you're walking on ice as well. At least they tried to fix the motion problem.

This game still has very difficult dungeons and bosses, but unlike the first game I never got overly frustrated. I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the bosses on this one, but some of them were difficult. A few of them felt like mini bosses, but I didn't really mind that so much because they came after difficult dungeon stages. The final stage is set up Mega Man style where you fight many of the old bosses over again. Zoda isn't as difficult as he was the first time around, but he's got about 8 bosses in front of him so it all balances out.

This game really feels like it was made by a group of people that were going to miss the NES as much as I did. As a result they put much more into this game than was probably required and I do appreciate that. The Nintendo suffered a long, painful death where it had to watch its younger brother rise to power. I'm happy that even in its last moments there were still people out there that cared about it.

NES #29: Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2

Most of you who are interested in games enough to read this blog have probably played the first Rescue Rangers game. However, I'm sure hardly any of you have played the sequel. There's a good reason for that. This is a very late, 3rd party release for the NES. By the time it came out everybody had already moved on to SNES and Genesis. If you want to play this one today you've got to hunt down a copy and pay good money for it. I never see it on ebay for less that 50 dollars anymore. Actually, it's one of the most expensive licensed games on the whole system. So good luck on finding that one anywhere. Too bad you missed it the first time around.

Of course you could always get lucky and find it at your local used video game store for 15 bucks. That's what I did anyway. You never know what you're going to find out there. That's why I love this hobby so much. Of course, that's also what makes me put off buying certain things for years and years. I should've bought Action 50 about 80 dollars ago, but I wanted to wait and find one that was ridiculously cheap. But enough about me, let's talk about the game.

Rescue Rangers is a lot like the first game in the series except shorter and possibly even easier. The world map that I loved so much from the first game is gone and replaced by cutscenes that make the game feel like an episode of the show. The gameplay from the first one is still in tact. There's lots of running and throwing boxes. It's actually pretty fun. Also, you collect tokens all throughout the game which add to your health bar. It's sort of a level gaining system that almost makes the game seem deeper.

The bosses are extremely cute in this one. You sorta feel bad killing them, but I guess they attack first. I haven't seen the cartoon show in about 15 years so I have no idea if they are characters from the tv show or not. Was there a bunny that squirted water at you in the show? Maybe they were all made up for the game. Anyway, I have no idea why they turned over to the dark side. I'm sure all those kitties could've found nice homes, so that they wouldn't have to fly around on bat wings or dress up like magicians and throw playing cards at hat wearing chipmunks. That may be the best sentence I've ever typed.

I guess the thing that was really supposed to set this game apart was the dialogue between levels. As I stated earlier, the game plays like an episode of the tv show. It's actually a pretty good idea. The only problem is that the story is quite flimsy. The story goes that Fat Cat escaped from prison and wanted to steal something important from Egypt. You'd think that since I played this game three days ago that I'd remember what it was. I guess that tells you something right there. I figured that this would be a trek across the world leading to a big show down in a pyramid. I was dead wrong though. It's just the same ol' generic levels like in the first game. There's always some excuse why you're in a factory or pier instead of Egypt, but I don't buy it for a minute. Would it really have been so hard to put some sand and pyramids in the background? I wanted to fight some sphinxes with lasers shooting out of their eyes, not just the same old robot dogs!

The worst part is probably the ending. I was expecting something a little more involved since the whole game was set up like a tv show, but you never even get to fight Fat Cat. You just find his factory or evil headquarters on the end of town and fight the robot Fat Cat. No problem with that battle. Then the building collapses and Monterey Jack compliments you on making Fat Cat's life slightly more difficult. That's it? Mild irritation!? That's how the heroes save the day? What about that thing that he was going to take over the world with? What about getting him back into prison? It left me feeling pretty empty inside.

The ending implies that they wanted to make more games in the series, which is odd to me on a few different levels. This game came out in 1993 which was three years after the first game and the original run of the series. It was also at the very end of the system's life when nobody was playing the system anymore except for me, and I wasn't that interested in another Rescue Rangers game. I know that there were still little kids playing the NES, but if you really wanted to continue the series on why put it on a dead system? SNES and Genesis both made excellent side scrollers that plenty of little kids played. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

So in my collecting I've always been interested in the last games for consoles. What goes into making a game for a system on its last legs? Every year after 1991 saw less and less NES games up until its final year in 1994. What surprises me most about the 93s and 94s out there is that they really seem like the people involved were trying to make good games. You can see a lot of time and effort in them. This game is pretty good, but I just don't see the love in it. There isn't one from the era that seems more phoned in that I have played. It was just a game made for kids who were all playing Kirby's Adventure instead. At least its rarity makes it a conversation piece. After all I did spend more time writing this blog entry than I did playing through it.

TurboGrafx-CD #1: Y's Book I and II

I'm sure that it would be a safe bet to say that if not for the Wii Virtual Console than this would be the most obscure game I have ever written about on here. Not only is it for the extremely unpopular TurboGrafx system, but it's for the even harder to find CD add-on. It seems like everybody was trying to make one of those in the early 90s, and at least in America they were all dismal failures. Remember how unsuccessful the Sega Cd was? Well that was the most successful of any of the CD add-ons. Nintendo still gets criticized for splitting Sony in the early 90s, but given the history of CD-Rom gaming up to that point who could blame them? The Turbo CD came out in 1990 at a price of 399.99 which was pretty steep back then. That's one of the many reasons that the system never caught on and is only really sought after by obsessive collectors like me. I'm not sure if the retail price was ever truly justified, but there are some impressive games.

I can't even imagine how awesome Ys must've seemed way back in 1990. I mean, this was a time when there were still a few stray Atari and Intellivision games coming out. Here was a game with large anime type characters during cutscenes, CD quality sound, and real voice acting. Who wouldn't want to hear some of Debi Derryberry's early work? Of course there are a couple of problems with the new technology. There are times where the music will cut out which I suspect is due to the music track ending and not being able to loop. You have to leave the room to get it to start back up again. There are also some load times, especially when someone is about to talk. It's not as bad as Playstation or some of the other more advanced systems, but it can get a little annoying sometimes. It also has a picture frame around it making the action screen smaller. It didn't bother me much, but I have a big TV.


Thankfully behind all this flash there is a very good RPG with one of the most unique fighting systems of all time. When you see a monster in you sight you just run right into him. Then you keep doing that until he is dead. You don't even have to swing your sword. This takes a little getting used to, but I enjoy it because it takes up much less time than standard action RPG fighting. Another unique thing about this game is just how much of it is spent in dungeons. There's an opening grassland and mountain in the first half of the game, and that's really about it. The rest of the game will be spent in long, confusing dungeons. Luckily you are able to save anywhere, and in the second half of the game you have a magic spell that that teleport you back to the nearest town.

Another important feature about this game is its boss fights. I've honestly never really been that in to boss fights in RPGs. They always take too long. These, however, are some of the funnest and most difficult bosses I can remember fighting in a long time. Having to make contact to hurt them makes for some interesting strategies, and no two bosses are fought the same way. This was my second time playing through this game, and I had the same reaction as I did when playing back through Star Tropics. I couldn't believe that I had killed all those bosses twice.



I guess my one major complaint with this game is the ending. I was expecting some really spectacular visuals, but it was mostly text moving slowly across the screen with about 30 seconds of voices. The final cutscene was actually quite short. I guess they spent all the money on the cool intro which is very easy to miss. You have to let the game load up without pushing any of the buttons. I only knew about because I read it in EGM. They sould've put something like that at the end of the game so everybody would see it. Oh well, I guess nobody's perfect.

This is one of those games that falls into the lost classic category. I hope some of you have gotten to play it now that it is on the virtual console. I wish I could've taken my time and really enjoyed playing through it again, but I didn't have any other games going so I wanted to get it finished for the blog. I actually got pretty mad at it sometimes. I guess I should apologize. Sorry Ys. It's not you, it's me.

NES #28: Star Tropics

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been all distracted with the holidays. You would think that I would've finished some games with the extended time off, but I've been too scattered lately and have been playing every game I own for 10 minutes. I haven't gotten very much done like that. Thankfully I finished Star Tropics before this happened and saved it just in case something like this happened. Just keep in mind that I did not beat this game yesterday. It's been a few weeks.

So what can I say about Star Tropics? It's sort of a lost classic. It's a whole lot of fun, but also insanely difficult. The difficulty of this game is both intentional and accidental. This is another game released by Nintendo in the early 90s when they realized there wasn't going to be another NES Zelda game, but they still wanted to draw in the RPG/adventure crowd. Thankfully they didn't rip themselves off too much with this one. Aside from the similar looking hearts and that familiar overworld perspective it is a vastly different game. It was also made exclusively for North America, so for once the Japanese missed out on the cool new game. That didn't happen very often after about 1983.

This game has a lot of memorable moments in it. It certainly oozes personality. I can't think of that many NES games that have dialogue in them that is actually meant to be funny. Most funny NES lines are due to poor translations. The island hopping aspect is enjoyable, and it really makes the game feel like it takes place in our world. Even though you're fighting giant monsters and aliens the game feels like it takes place on Earth. I always thought that was unique in RPGs. However, with all the memorable scenes in this game, the thing that it will always be remembered for is its difficulty.

This game really is punishingly difficult. Most RPGs are just a matter of time an leveling up, but this one requires some real skills. I honestly can't believe that I've beat it twice. So what makes this game so hard? There are many reasons for this. Mikey, the main character, moves very stiffly, so just about every enemy is faster. It's especially bad if you're trying to change directions quickly. It makes it feel like every level is the ice level. The stiff motion is deliberate though, because this game is all about green blocks. Every dungeon has about 1000 green blocks in it, and you'll have to jump on each one if you want to find the treasure. And trust me, you really do want to find it. So you've got to jump on all these green blocks while all kinds of monster are flying around trying to kill you, and even when you're not on green blocks you still feel like you are. This is not a game that lets you relax.

There is also the fiendish level design. You never really know what you're going to find in the next room, and it is often something that can kill you. In the very first dungeon there is a room with two sets of green blocks that go in different directions. The one leads you to safety, but do you know where the other one leads you? Straight to your death! You'll automatically jump into the next room only to find that there is no ground beneath you. And this is the very first dungeon! There are also disappearing blocks that don't make themselves known until you are already on them. You'll have a split second to react before it's too late. It's insane.

I also still don't understand the heart system. It seems completely random how many hearts you start back with after you die. Some dungeons will only give you three, but there will be a hidden room off to the side where you can find some more. Why not just start you back with enough hearts to survive with in the first place? There are other times where you will inexplicably have more hearts as well. It still doesn't make any sense, and I've been playing this game for 15 years.

All this ranting makes it sound like I had a miserable time playing this game. In truth though, I kinda love it. It's probably the game that I've had the most fun going back through. The high difficulty makes every step forward feel like an accomplishment, and the dungeons never get so frustrating that they are no longer fun. It really does have good dialogue too. I wasn't kidding about that one. You even get to fight evil aliens which is always a plus.

The final boss is insane. So most older games have predictable bosses. There are the ones that are fixed at the top of the screen and shoot things at you, the ones that are on the ground and either stay at the edge or move back and fourth, or the ones that move around in a big rectangle that is either the ground or a fixed amount of sky. Well Zoda moves in a completely different way than any of these. He's in a large room that actually scrolls, and he moves wherever the hell he wants. It's impossible to get any kind of a pattern down because there isn't one. He just moves everywhere and shoots at you. You just gotta try to hit him in the side before he turns around. I've really never seen another one like it.

Star Tropics is a game that I have really fond memories of. I got it in a box of games my grandma got me out of the newspaper that had almost every great NES game in it. I would devour just about any RPG I could get my hands on back then, so of course I loved it. It took me a long time to beat because I would always get stuck. I've gone through it a couple of times now, and I"m happy to say that it has stood the test of time wonderfully. It's only a shame that this never really caught on as a franchise. There's only this game and a sequel that was one of the last NES game ever released. It's a shame cause I'm sure the SNES version would've been great. But we'll always have this one, and I guess that's not so bad.

NES #27: Monster Party

Okay so this is a weird one. I remember playing this one a lot as a kid which doesn't surprise me considering how much I was into weird things. It's also one of the better games published by Bandai, but that really isn't saying too much. Bandai is one of the more infamous licensed NES publishers. They're not quite down there with THQ or LJN, but they're pretty close. They did publish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after all. However, that's another entry for another day. I sure can't wait to go back through that one again.

So what's up with Monster Party? I will say that it's not much of a party, but it sure is full of monsters. The name might not be the most appropriate, but I can't think of a better name for it. The main character is a cute little kid with a baseball bat, so you can't really name it after him. Monster Bat Boy just doesn't have the same ring to it, although I wouldn't be too surprised if that's the game's name in Japan. Actually I think it's just called Monster Party over there, but that's not nearly as interesting.

As I was saying, you play as a little kid with a baseball bat taking on some of the weirdest monsters I've ever seen. The picture on the box has a vampire and gill man, but the only movie monster I remember seeing is the plant from Little Shop of Horrors. Ok so if there aren't any famous movie monsters than what is there? Well how about a fried shrimp? Or a couple of zombies that dance themselves to death? Or an empty pair of pants with a life of its own? Or a giant spider that just tells you it's dead? I'm not kidding guys, there is some weird stuff in this game. In fact that's really the whole reason to play. The gameplay itself is fairly dull. Take out all the weird monsters and it's a perfectly dull side scroller.

Well I guess that's not entirely true. There are a few other interesting things about this game. You've only got one life in this game, but you do have a really huge life bar. It starts half full, and one of the main goals in the game is to keep this meter full so that you can take on the boss at the end. I think that's interesting. Also some of the levels scroll in different directions so at least you won't get bored just traveling from left to right.

However, even with this the game is a little dull. The whole game is spent going from door to door in the levels and looking for bosses. Some doors are hard to get too and contain nothing at all. I hate these doors. Once you kill all the bosses you get a key and then go on to the next level. A couple of doors are a little bit hidden, but it's still pretty basic. There's also a password given after ever level so the stakes are pretty low. You don't have to try especially hard when you know you can always just start back at he same level again.

I will say that I had a pretty good time playing it. As I said earlier in this post, I used to play this game all the time when I was a kid. Or at the very least I remember it well. I never did beat it though. I got very close once in college, but I got stuck at the boss and then lost my password. I played through it this time with the knowledge that the final boss was going to be very hard. I was very careful throughout the game. I spent large amounts of time fighting overworld monsters so I could build up my life bar. This epic battle was in the back of my head the whole time. So what happens when I finally get there? It turns out to be real easy. I have no idea what hung me up the first time. I bet I only had about half of my life left when I figured out what I was doing, but he was still no problem. Just jump over stuff and hit him in the mouth. What was my problem anyway?

It was all for the best though, because it gave me a brand new game to beat on my blog. It's nice not only playing through repeats. So how was my Monster Party experience? The gameplay is boring, but this game has character to spare. It's worth it just to see all the bosses and read the stupid things they say. There really is a monster in this game that curls up into a ball and says "My Name's Royce." If that doesn't prove that playing video games is the best way to waste your life than I don't know what will. Sorry stamp collectors, but this is the best hobby ever.

NES #26: Darkwing Duck

Well here's the one you've all been waiting for. After all these months of anticipation, I'm finally writing about your favorite game. You'd better sit tight because this game's got a lot of nuance and mystery attached. What's that you say? This is just a typical side scroller? It's not you're favorite game but in fact one you've never really thought about much? Actually I knew that going into this post, but since it's been almost a month since my last NES game, I thought you would cut me some slack. Well that's very kind of you.

Alright well enough talking to myself. It's time to talk about some Darkwing Duck. It's based on the cartoon series from twenty years ago. If you didn't see it you missed out, especially if you're now an adult. You can watch it if you want, but I doubt it would be the same. You can try, but can never truly recapture the joys of childhood. Am I sill not talking about the game? I'm really trying to avoid this one.

Okay so Darkwing Duck is a typical NES side scroller on the way easy side of things. It may actually be at the base of the Capcom difficulty scale. It's easier than Rescue Rangers and even shorter. If you are an adult who has been playing Nintendo for 20 years or so, and you're just picking it up for the first time than you shouldn't have too much trouble with it. I know this from experience. The only two parts that gave me trouble were Liquidator's level and the final battle with Steelbeak. Although even that turns out to be easy when you've learned the technique.

So what is there to set this game apart from other games? Well like Mega Man and Duck Tales you can select your level. Although unlike those games it make absolutely no difference in the game which order you beat the levels in. DW's got a pretty cool gas gun, but the only special gas weapon that you'll ever need to use is the arrow gas. Actually avoiding the other types of gas made the game a little bit more challenging. I sort of enjoyed it. Oh and I do like the way DW can hang off of ledges and get back on. That's probably the game's best feature. You can go up and down very easily, and I wish more games would've followed its example. So there's a negative, neutral, and positive thing about this game. I think that's pretty good.

I wish I had more to say about this one. I never got to play it as a kid and was actually a little excited when I found it recently at Savers of all places. I wish I had got to play it in 1992 when I was really into the cartoon. I would at least have some good memories about it. Of course if you read my Rescue Rangers article you know that I don't automatically love a game just because I played it as a kid. So perhaps it's just was well. You get a totally honest opinion not biased by nostalgia. I had an alright time playing this game. It's one you don't see in stores too often so if you see it cheap sometime you should probably pick it up. Just don't expect it to be Contra or anything. It's not a classic, but it gets the job done. I'm just glad there's not 400 games just like it on the NES. What's that you say? There actually are? What have I gotten myself into?

Super Nintendo #1: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I like to talk on here about how it's harder to write about a great game than an awful game. That's especially true if the game in question is one of the most famous ever made. Writing about A Link to the Past is a little bit like writing reviews for Beatles albums or Citizen Kane. So much has already been said that it's really difficult to say something that nobody's said before. It's also hard not to spend the whole article talking about how awesome it is. So let me try to get all the gushing out of the way here in the first paragraph. A Link to the Past is one of the greatest games of all time. I still think it's the best game in the series, even though it might not be my favorite. I'd say it's about 200 times better than Ocarina of time. It's also a game that represents the golden age of gaming possibly better than any other. This hobby that I love so much really hit its peak in the early 90s. I know that modern games have a lot more flash and do some amazing things, but nothing will ever top the 16-bit era for pure fun and innovation. Okay, I got that out of my system, now I can actually talk about the game.

There are many things about this game that would influence gaming for years to come. I want to start right at the beginning and talk about the title. Earlier, when I talked about Super C I mentioned the rise of games that had the word "Super" in the title. This game is the first (and only!) installment of the Zelda series on the SNES, and yet it is not called Super Zelda. No, it's has a cryptic title that includes a pun. It is not numbered and instead has a colon followed by a subtitle. Back before this game came out almost every game sequel was given a number. This was one of the first to forgo the number system completely and just have an odd subtitle. Thanks to this game our series have really got mixed up. You never know what game came before and what game came after. Seriously, what number are they up to in the Castlevania series? The world may never know. I would say that this it the only one of the game's innovations that I do not enjoy.

So in this game you're running around in a big ol' world full of surprises and fighting your way through a bunch of dungeons. It's called A Link to the Past, but you're not really traveling through time. It's more of a dimensional shift. It has a very well done overhead perspective. This is a good perspective for an action RPG, but it didn't always work that well. If you don't believe me just play Lagoon. Luckily Link's sword is just the right length so that he doesn't get a lot of cheap hits, but he can't wipe everything out at once either. Actually I want to talk about the perspective for a minute. People always talk about Ocarina of Time transforming the Zelda franchise into 3D. While I suppose this is technically true, it's not really much of an improvement. In LTTP you can move in all directions including up and down. It seems like OOt is about he same except ledges are harder to jump to and monsters just get rotated around. Of course you can't jump in the older Zelda games but that's beside the point.

Now there's a lot to love about this game. It's got cool graphics, a good storyline, engrossing dungeons with some good bosses in them, and lots of other things I could use adjectives in front of. My favorite things about this game, however, is exploring the overworld. In later Zelda games, and many action RPGs for that matter, the overworld is mostly just a means to get from place to place. Sure there will be a few secrets scattered about, but they mainly feel like they were put there to keep you from getting bored. In LTTP there's something exciting in almost every screen. You never know what you're going to find when you pull up that next rock or go into that cave. Will it be a heart piece or just some rupees to add to the 800 you already have? I almost hate going to dungeons because they cut into my item exploration time. Link to the Past is one of the only games I can think of that makes the journey just as much fun as the destination.

As you can tell, I really like this game, and I had a lot of fun playing through it again. Despite my tendency to play SNES games to death, I think I only beat this one once about 16 years ago. I've started up a game several times since then, but I never really had an excuse to go back through it all the way. That's why it's nice having a blog. As usual I was surprised both by how much I remembered about it and how much I had forgotten. I even had to use the internet to help me out a couple of times. I guess I shouldn't bee too ashamed about that. I remember when the game came out I read a few of the secrets on the back of a cereal box. So now that this game is approaching 20 years old it might be a good time to dust it off and play it again. When I played through it this time around it felt just as fresh as it did in 92. Of course if you read about games on the internet much you probably already know that.

Collector Chronicles #1: That one game

I'll tell you one thing that drives me crazy about being an obsessive video game collector. It seems that no matter what system you want to collect for, there's always that one game that is super expensive and hard to find. It seems like every system has at least one.

Atari 2600 is probably the king of expensive rare games. I'd say there's probably half a dozen of them that cost at least 1000 dollars regularly, and I don't even want to talk about all the games that are more than 100. It depresses me just thinking about it. There's also an added catch that all of the rare Atari games are awful. Boing is a notable exception (and the only one that I own), but many of them rank among the worst games ever made. You would have to be crazy to spend 600 dollars on a game that you knew was terrible. Of course I probably would if I had the money.

You would think that a system with a small library would be free of this curse, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Take the Virtual Boy for example. There are only 14 US games to hunt down. 13 of them of relatively easy to find. You can find them on ebay any day of the week. But good luck finding a reasonably priced copy of Jack Bros. I'm sure a lot of people's Virtual Boy collections are stuck at 13. Either that or they have no idea what a Virtual Boy is.

It's much the same way with the other Atari systems. The 5200 has one of the least expensive libraries to compile except for. However, there are two, Meteorites and Bounty Bob Strikes Back, that each cost as much as all the other games combined. Atari 7800 is similar although it does have more obscure games that don't pop up that often. Most of them can are still pretty when you can find them. The two super expensive games were the ones made by Froggo, Tank Command and Water Ski. The worst part about this one is that neither one of them are particularly rare, and both of them used to be somewhat reasonable. Water Ski is only a 4 on the Atariage rarity scale and I never see it for less than 80 dollars. It's gotta be the most expensive 4 I've ever seen. Jaguar I don't even want to talk about except to say that I one time put a 70 dollar bid on Air Cars and lost. I'm sure some of you will laugh at that one.

So it seems like just about every system's got one, and I look over at my collection and know that most systems will always have a gaping hole where that one game should go. I'll probably never have a Stadium Events or a Quadrun. I'm either gonna have to search every dusty little flea market in the world until I find a guy selling video games who's never heard of the internet or get a higher paying job and buy up all the expensive ones before I have kids. Either way it's both a pain and a thrill. At least I can take comfort in knowing that all the 32X games are fairly cheap. Now if only I could find a connector cable for that thing.

NES #25: Deadly Towers

Yeah that's right, Nester beat Deadly Towers. Any of your friends ever do that? This is one of those games that everybody has but nobody ever finishes. There are some good reason for this, but I guess I should talk about the quality first.

It seems that everybody online has made it a hobby of talking about how bad this game is. It's almost a rite of passage for any blogger to think of a bunch of off-color jokes about this one. I will say that some of this is deserved, but I do feel like most people are writing about this game without playing it very much. Most people probably play the game for a couple of minutes, get trapped in a dungeon, and then quickly give up on ever playing it again. I can't say I blame you for this, but that doesn't make for particularly in depth reviews.

So what does everybody hate about this game? Well as I said before, it does have those horrible dungeons in it. The dungeons are completely invisible, so you'll just be walking along and suddenly you're trapped with only one way out. People also hate how hard this game is. I'll give you that one too. You start out very weak, and it's hard to figure out how to power up. You can pick up a bunch of hearts which increase your HP. However, just like in Zelda and Metroid you always start back with a fixed amount after you get killed. Yes I did just say this game has something in common with Zelda and Metriod. If this was the typical online review I would start typing a bunch of curse words about the annoying things and then call it done, but there's actually more to this game than that.

What you find when start playing through it is that there's actually a game hidden in there. For example, did you know that some of the dungeons actually serve a useful purpose? There are shops in a few of the dungeons that have most of the items you'll need to take the sting out of this game. When you get killed you start back at the beginning of the game, but after playing it a little while you realize that the overworld is pretty small so getting killed isn't much of a problem. It never takes longer than 10 minutes or so to get anywhere, and after you have some good armor and weapons the monsters are a lot less menacing. Also, did you know that there are actually towers in this game? I played this game for years and never knew that. I don't think most people get there because they are all the way at the top. You'll need to get to the top of those towers and fight a bunch of bosses. It's actually kind of fun.

So what' my advice to people planning on playing through this one? Like with everything else these days, use the internet. I really don't like using online FAQs much, but there are some games that I make an exception for. This game is confusing and full of secrets. I'm sure back in the 80s this was their version of online play. A group of friends would all get this game, play it separately, and share the secrets they discovered with each other. It would be really hard to take on alone, but together it could probably be conquered. Today we don't really have the luxury of having a bunch of people on the playground to talk to, so we have to turn to the internet. I don't see any shame in that.

So as I was saying, I actually had some fun with this one. It's one of the only games I've ever played that was both too hard and too easy. Once you get all the good equipment it's not too bad and the bosses will go down easy. It's certainly a testament to not giving up. All I've ever heard about this game is snarky internet comments. Seanbaby, whoever that is, even picked this game has the #1 worst game on the system. I played through it and I think it's an interesting old title that does have something to offer to gamers out there. I certainly felt like I accomplished something when it was over. I will remember that forever, and I think that goes a lot farther than making a couple of teenagers chuckle on the internet.

Video Game Dream #2

I had another dream about gaming the other night which I completely forgot about until now. It's not exactly a Reef Store Dream, but it's kind of funny anyway. In this one I was visiting my brother, and he was showing me a sock that he had bought from a thrift store recently and told me that there was something very strange about it. I looked at it and noticed that there was a big bulge in it. I investigate further, and you know what the bulge was? Why it was an Atari Jaguar Cd of course. Those things usually sell for about 150 dollars, and he got one for free in a thrift store sock that he only paid a few cents for. If only real life was like this. Anyway, I have no idea why I was dreaming about Jaguars. I don't have a CD unit but hopefully I'll get a good deal on one someday. Maybe I'll bust out my regular Jaguar and play some of the cartridge games sometime. I'm sure it would be fun to talk about.

Sega Master System #1: Captain Silver

The problem with writing about Master System is that many of the games that are actually easy enough to beat are really awful. Captain Silver is a great example of this. I don't think I've ever played an easier game with one hit kills and no continues.

I think it's also important to point out that this was the first Master System game that I ever saw in the wild. They had it at one of the thrift stores in my town. For a long time I didn't know what it was and it just sat there in the shelf. I got it soon after I got the system because it was a real novelty seeing a game for the SMS anywhere. Don't worry though, I had already read reviews for this one and knew it was a stinker. I just wanted another game for my SMS shelf. So just how is this game anyway?

If you need a little insight into the quality of this game just compare the box to the instruction manual. The back of the box says that this game has 4 levels while the instruction manual says that there are 6. You gotta wonder about a game that doesn't even know how many levels it has. Actually there were 6 levels in the European version and 4 in the U.S. version. I guess they were both right.

Wait this game only has 4 levels? Just think about that for a minute. This game only has four levels in it. It has a town, boat, jungle, and cliff. The boat level is the only one that you could call lengthy, and that's pushing it a little. It does has some branching paths and a boss to fight though. The town and jungle levels both only take 3 or 4 minutes to get through, and the final cliff level is even shorter than the others. When you add it all up, this game only takes about 15 minutes to beat, and I'm not talking about a Contra 15 minutes where you spend hours practicing and get through the game quickly when you're finally good at it. I'm talking about a turn it on the first time and be done with it forever 15 minutes. The enemies are easy and the two bosses are only mildly challenging. The only challenging thing in this game is the jumps, and that's just because the controls are so bad. How awful is a game in which the only challenge comes from poor control?

It's actually so bad that I hardly feel like talking about it. This is really one of my least favorite games ever. Master System games are supposed to be fast, colorful, and challenging. It did 80s arcade style gaming better than anyone. This game is just the opposite. It's slow, easy, and very bland. It has bad control and ugly sprites. However, if you've just gotten a Master System and are looking to start crossing some games off the list, I would probably recommend you playing this one first. At least that way it will be over, and you'll have nothing but better games to play once you're done.

Reef Store Dream

I don't know if people who collect other things do this much, but I tend to dream about video games a lot. This happened to me a couple of nights ago when I dreamed about a magical video game store that had an amazing supply of very cheap old games. What I had experienced was a Reef Store Dream.

The origin of the name comes from a collector's dream about a place just called Reef Store. As far as I know this was a real dream somebody had, but either way that's what they call it. I don't know much more about the origin of the story, but I sure do have dreams like that a lot. I'd say I have one every couple of months at least. Usually I will be in a store that seems unremarkable at first, but eventually I will find "the bin" and suddenly start finding incredible deals on some very strange things.

I was writing about the Master System over the weekend, so of course I dreamed about it. I was at a store with some unremarkable NES games when I found the bin holding all the Master System games. There were many games I didn't have for only .50 each. I'm fairly certain that they were mostly real games, but it's always hard to tell in the dream world. What actually gave it away that I was dreaming was that I found a game that couldn't possibly have been a real SMS game. I wish I can't remember what it was, but I do remember it coming in a soft plastic clam shell case. I remember thinking to myself "is this a real game?" when I suddenly switched over into another dream. Oh well, it wasn't real anyway.

So as I was saying this happens all the time. I guess when you're into a hobby it starts to take over the parts of your life that you don't have much control over. I don't know if a stamp collector dreams about stamps, but I'm going to assume that he does. Do any of you out there have any similar experiences? I thought it might be fun to ask for some audience participation for a change.

System Overview: Sega Master System

Well it looks like it's time for me to branch out and start talking about games for other systems. Before I jump right into the games though, I thought it would be fun to talk about the other systems that I have completed games for. It looks like first up is Sega Master System. Isn't that exciting?

So did you people know that Sega existed before the Genesis? Sega is actually a company that dates back to the early 40s that released different kinds of games over the years. They got into the video game racket early on and had several famous arcade games back in the day. They even released a few games on the Atari 2600. However, Sega is by far best known for the 16-bit Genesis which came out in the US in 1989. It's so closely associated with the company that most people just generically refer to it as a Sega.

To most people this is where the Sega story begins, and for many it's also where it ends. There are many people out there who have some recollections of the Saturn or the Dreamcast, but it will always be the Genesis that stands out in peoples minds. Most people have no idea that Sega actually had a console before the Genesis. They had a cool 8-bit machine that competed head to head with the Nintendo and was only mostly a failure. It was a success in Europe and Brazil, but over here it quickly faded into obscurity. So what's a system like that like anyway?

Actually, the Master System is a pretty good little machine. The graphics are probably superior to the NES especially in the early days. The games are colorful and vibrant. They seem much more Japanese than their NES counterparts. What I love about the SMS is that most of its games are hard to find anywhere else. This was before the more open 3rd party policies caused games to be on several systems at the same time. There are a few that got snatched up by Tengen and a couple of arcade classics, but other than that it's mostly exclusives.

Probably the thing that the system is most famous for is the difficulty level of the games. Sega was trying to pull in the hardcore gamers. They wanted the types of people that had spent hours at the arcades during the boom of the early 80s. Because of this there are many games brought over from the arcade without much being changed. A game like Contra would be too easy on the SMS. A large percentage of them don't have continues and only have a couple of lives to begin with. They are a lot of fun, and I enjoy playing them, but don't expect too many of them on the blog right away. They require a lot of practice.

If you look at the system itself it's a little bit strange. It has slots for two different types of media. A traditional cartridge slot and a card slot in the front. The cards allowed publishers to make smaller, cheaper games that mostly sucked. You'll also notice that the pause button is on the system itself. This is probably the Master System's biggest flaw. There is no pause button on the controller, so if you need to go to the bathroom or something you have to time it out so you can bend over and pause it without getting killed. Or you need to have the system close by and push it with your foot. That's usually what I do. It especially drives me crazy when the game has menu screens that can only be accessed by the pause button. The controller only has two buttons and a control pad so the options are somewhat limited.

I got my Master System almost ten years ago. I had only rarely seen it mentioned before the internet days. I always wondered why I could never find the original Phantasy Star on the Genesis and later found out that was because it was actually a Master System game. I finally discovered it on the internet and was impressed by its rich history and library of games. It had 114 or so in the US, but a couple hundred more overseas that mostly work on American systems. I actually bought one on ebay a couple of days after I first saw pictures of it on the internet. It was with the SMS that I first started to feel like a real collector. I had lots of video games before that, but the Master System was the first piece of hardware I got that most people hadn't heard of. You can get all the common stuff, but you just don't feel like a collector unless you start to get things that either suck or are not cared about.

So if you're thinking about getting one I say go for it. They're still pretty cheap with the exception of a few of the games. There are also excellent versions of games like Shinobi and R-Type which are just as good or even better than their NES counterparts. You'll also get a piece of gaming history that most people have forgotten about. A whole new world will open up for you. It might even make you start calling it a Genesis instead of a Sega.

NES #24: Super C

I thought it would be fun to go back through Super C after playing the original so recently. Super C is, of course, the sequel to the classic Contra. It was innovative in its use of the word "Super" in the title. In a year or two the Super Nintendo would come out, and every game would start to have "super" in its title. It also has an abbreviation in its title. This was right before the big abbreviation boom of the 90s. I think it was still pre-KFC. I don't think I've ever spent so much time talking about the title of a game, but I haven't written about Street Fighter 2010 or Super Castlevania IV yet. Don't think that this is the last time.

So Super C is one of the ultimate sequels on the NES. It is also one of the sequels that is the most like its predecessor. If you play the two games far apart from each other its hard to even tell the difference. About the only thing that I noticed the first time through was that the base levels from the first games are gone and replaced by fun vertical scrolling levels. This time I waited about a month between the two games, so I was much better able to notice the subtle differences.

What I noticed right away was that on Super C you walk much slower. This is very strange for a game series. In almost every case the next game in a series is faster. This annoyed me at first, but I got used to it. Another difference is that the weapons are better. The fire and laser were both pretty much useless in the first game, but in this one I don't always try to avoid them. There were even sections of the game where I wanted to get the fire gun. This is highly unusual. Also I noticed that the levels didn't have titles on this one. I don't know why, but I really missed that.

It also seems to me that Super C is easier than the original, although it is almost impossible to to be unbiased about it. If you've played through one of the games than you will already know the game play, and that should give you an advantage in the second game no matter which one it is. I sure had an easier time getting through it this time around though. I would say it took about a half dozen tries. I didn't even mean to beat it when I was playing it. I was just practicing because I had a little extra time and knew that it was going to be the next game I was going to play. My girlfriend left the room and actually didn't believe me ten minutes later when I told her I had beaten it. It was all so sudden.

Of course this is where it goes back to being unbiased. I just played through the original Contra a couple weeks before this one and was able to get back into the game play. As you already know Contra took me about a million tries and almost made me want to retire from gaming. So I breezed through Super C but does that make it an easier game? It's hard to say.

One thing I will say though is that they are both excellent games. If you look at the whole Contra series you've got one excellent Super Nintendo installment (which oddly leaves the word "Super" out of it's title) and then a baffling number of games that people don't care about much on just about every system. At best these games usually play like poor Gunstar Heroes clones. It was in the old days that this once proud franchise truly shines, and we should all feel lucky that there were two games that played so well released so close together which can still be found for around ten bucks. Of course there is another NES installment that just about ruins the whole narrative, but I'm not ready to talk about that one yet.

NES #23: Final Fantasy

Sorry that it's been so long since I updated this blog. Is it really just my second entry in September? Well I have a good excuse. I've been busy playing Final Fantasy. This has to be one of the longest games on the whole system. There's no counter on it, but I'm sure I put in a good 20 or 30 hours on it, and this was probably my 3rd or 4th time through. That's really impressive for a game that is about to turn 23.

I have to say that I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed playing through this one again. It seems like it's got some things working against it. You walk very slowly in this game. This gets really annoying in towns, especially when townsfolk block your way. Like most old overhead RPGs there is an over emphasis on level gaining especially in the sections leading up to the first two fiends. Of course a lot of this can be attributed to the game being released in 1987 in Japan. At that time there was only a handful of 8-bit RPGs to use as a template. This game was a pretty bold leap forward when all you had for inspiration was Hydlyde and the first two Dragon Quest games.

So why do I love this game so much? I certainly love how large it is. This game as a very large overworld with with several towns and and dungeons with secrets to be found in all of them. This is a game that really requires you to pay attention because you are going to hear things in towns that you have to remember much later in the game. This really gives the game the feeling of an actual world and not just a bunch of separate quests smashed together. This is a really ambitious game, and I'm really surprised by how well everything in it works.

I've only got a couple of complaints about this one. I hate how long it takes to buy potions. You gotta buy those things one at a time, so buying 99 of them will take a few minutes. There's only one level of heal potion, so when you start to get near the end of the game it could take 20 or so for your character to be completely healed. It would've been nice to have a heal 2 potion so you wouldn't have to buy as many. This was also before the innovation of attacks defaulting to the next available enemy if the enemy selected gets killed. If you select all four of your characters to attack a certain enemy and your first character kills him than the rest are going to be attacking the air. This is a little annoying, but it does require you to actually think about the battles a little bit. I guess I've got mixed feelings about that one.

So I had a lot of fun playing back through this one. It certainly took longer than any of the games on my list so far. I was actually playing through Battle of Olympus before I started this one, but as usual I got bored with it half way through. I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever finish that game. Anyway, if you've never played Final Fantasy than I highly recommend it. It's an excellent first installment of one of the great video game franchises of all time. You might be surprised to see a Final Fantasy game on such an old timey system, especially since it has so much in it that they still use in the series today. I always go with two fighters, a black mage, and a white mage, but I guess that choice is completely up to you.

NES #22: Contra

For as good as I was at Life Force recently I completely embarrassed myself playing Contra. I used to be so good at this game! I remember beating this game without getting killed back in the day. I didn't think it was a big accomplishment or anything at the time. I just didn't want to lose my good gun and felt that the best way to keep it would be by not getting killed. Of course that was quite a few years ago. Recently I picked the game back up because I thought it would be an easy completion for my blog. I am the king of Contra after all.

I played through this game like someone who had never even played NES before. It probably took me a dozen or so tries before I could even get past the first level. The weakest guys shooting at me from the ground gave me endless trouble. I thought I would still have this game memorized, but I didn't even remember anything after the snow level which I thought was in Super C. I persevered though and eventually got through it. Thankfully the last boss is pretty easy. The victory was actually quite satisfying after all the sweat and toil it took me to get through it again. It's nice when I get that feeling again.

I always hear that this game is one of the hardest out there. I don't really know if I would call it that, but it is a game that you have to play a lot. It's not exactly a trial and error game like Prince of Persia, but you do need to play through it enough to learn what's coming next. After you do that the game becomes much easier. I guess you could use the Konami code to get a bunch of lives, but as we all know the Konami code is for sissies. You really won't need it. This game is really fun and no problem to play levels multiple times.

Hmm, I actually can't think of that much to say about this one. It's always more difficult when it's a good game without many flaws. I really can't think of anything negative to say about this one. Well, the fire gun sucks but it's also pretty easy to avoid. This is just a fun and challenging game that all of you should beat at least once. You might think it's too hard or that you need a code to cheat your way through, but trust me you can do it.

NES #21: Life Force

It doesn't seem like there are that many good flying shooters on the NES. You can tell because people often put Legendary Wings on their list of favorites from the system. The only reason you would put that on the top of your list is because you didn't have any other games to choose from. However, when you dig a little deeper into the NES catalog you start to discover that there are some good ones to be played like Zanac and Dragon Spirit. Although they are fun games very few of them are well known.

Life Force is the exception. It is probably the most famous of the flying shooters on the whole system. It also has quite a reputation. People usually put this game on their best of lists to represent the whole genre. I guess it does have a lot going for it. It's made by Konami, who could do almost no wrong at the time. It has some of the coolest graphics of the era, especially those swooping flames in level three. It also has an interesting weapon systems that requires you to think a little bit. I guess it's easy to see why it represents a whole genre. It does everything so well. Okay, so there is one thing it doesn't do well, but I will get to that in a minute.

I remember playing this game all the time in college. It was one of those games that my nerdy friends thought was too hard, so I wanted to beat it. I remember playing that game over and over again and finally beating it after months of off and on play. It's a tricky game because it has so many things popping up. You scroll both vertically and horizontally, and it is not uncommon for things to be coming at you from three or even four directions. You also never know what to expect as the screen scrolls. Trust me, those curving flames will kill you the first time, and probably up through the 20th time as well. The best strategy in this game is to play through it enough times that you know what's going to happen next. Thankfully it's fun enough that you won't really mind.

Remembering the difficulty level I was surprised by how easy of a time I had beating this one again. It really only took me a few tries. By the time I was good enough to make it to the level I had about eight lives and hadn't even used a continue. And it's not like I had it very well memorized either. I only had a good memory of levels 1 and 3 which are the ones that I died in the most. I really don't have an explanation for it. I think I just got lucky or maybe all this Nintendo playing has got me into some kind of zone. Whatever the reason it was nice finding a game that I was still good at.

So what was the one flaw I was talking about earlier? The end of the game is too easy. It really doesn't have much of a final boss It just has this snake thing flying around in a big circle. All you gotta do is shoot him a few times and he's down. It's really odd for a game that has such big, tough bosses. After that you gotta fly through some really skinny spots which isn't a problem if you have some lives saved up. Then there's not even much of an ending. It's kind of a shame for a game that is otherwise great.

Well I guess that's about it for Life Force. It's another example of a sequel that I'm better at than the first installment. I've never been able to beat Gradius, the first game in the series. I've also never been able to beat the original Mega Man or Castlevania despite getting through all the other ones. There are different reasons for this, but in the case of Life Force it's because it is designed much better. In Gradius you pretty much can never get hit. Once you've lost your power ups you're done for. In Life Force it seems like you can always get by until new power ups arrive. Not enough shooters are like this. I never once felt hopeless. Okay I guess I can end this entry now. I guess this is a pretty good game to represent a genre with. I sure can't think of a better one.

NES #20: Super Mario Bros.

I decided to close out my summer vacation by playing something really iconic. I had originally planned on playing through SMB 3, but that game takes way too long so I will save it for another day. Of course it doesn't get more iconic than the original Super Mario Bros. It's only grown in stature now that all of us that were kids when it came out are adults now. It's the game the most people play to get nostalgic, and it has been kept alive by countless dumb t-shirts and a few cool ones. It's just hard to top those good illustrations from back in the day, and it really doesn't help things when you add a dumb slogan or a joke. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

I have a lot of memories about this game. When we got our first Nintendo back in 88 or 89 the multi cart with SMB and Duck Hunt was the only game we had. I don't think we got another game until the next Christmas, so for the first year it was all we had to play at our house. I think it took us about 4 months until my dad was able to get all the way to world 4-1. I remember that being a really exciting day at our house. That was also around the time the Mario tv show started. I used to watch that in the mornings during my kindergarten year. I also had a Mario lunchbox that I'm fairly sure still exists somewhere even though my brother hit it with a hammer. To this day I am not sure why he did that, but I don't think he meant any harm by it. So that first year of video games was pretty much dominated by Mario. Of course we only had one tv back then, so we weren't able to play that much and one game lasted a lot longer. However, when I look at my shelf with 250 Nintendo games and about 500 games for other systems it makes me chuckle a little bit when I think about only having one game.

Another significant memory I have of this game is during my freshman year of college. I used to have a friend that would play this game every single day. This went on for almost a whole semester, and possibly even longer than that. He played just about every inch of that game, and did just about every trick and glitch. I saw him go to the minus world about a dozen times. In all that he never got tired of this game. I guess it's how he would unwind after class. This was 2002 so he had plenty of other games to chose from. I guess I'm not the only one who takes comfort of the games from my youth.

I'm actually really glad that I went back through this game again. We got this game so early in my life that I couldn't remember if I had ever beat it legitimately or not. I know I had seen many of my friends and relatives do it, and I'm sure that I finished it sometime in there, but I don't remember for sure. I couldn't guarantee that I hadn't used a cheat code or warp zone back then. This time I decided to do it for real and end the debate once and for all.

What probably surprised me the most about playing through it again was how easy it was for me. I guess it's like riding a bicycle. I was really expecting this one to be hard as I hadn't played it in years and never found it to be all that easy to begin with. However, I never even died until world 7-4, and I don't think I ever had less than 10 lives. It also surprised that my girlfriend had it memorized even better than I did. It sounds like she spent an even longer amount of time with only one game. So I got to the end and defeated Bowser. Hopefully the next time around he doesn't leave that axe so close to the bridge.

Well there's not too much left for me to say about this one. I still don't understand the cover of this game. Why did they decide to have Mario jumping against a wall? And can you even shoot a fireball through the bricks? Anyway, I'm getting off topic again. It was nice celebrating the end of my summer vacation by playing our most iconic childhood game. I'll have to go back tomorrow and teach to kids who were born after the Nintendo 64 came out. If that wouldn't make a person feel old than I don't know what would.

NES #19: Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland

I'm not wasting any time. This game is bad! I've only had it for a week or so, and it's already one of my least favorite games. Everybody knows that Gogo Dodo was the best character on Tiny Toon Adventures. He was the wild and absurd one. We had to sit through cartoon after cartoon of Buster acting smug and self righteous just for a few seconds of Gogo, and it was well worth it. So much time was wasted at that school when we could see the entrance of Wackyland on the map. I knew something awesome was happening in there, but Stephen Spielberg and the gang didn't want the world to see it. Finally in 1993 Konami of all people released this game for the NES. We were finally gonna get a glimpse inside. There was only one problem. THIS GAME HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WACKYLAND!!!!!

This game is nothing more than a cheap ripoff of Adventures in the Magic Kingdom. Yeah that's right, it's an amusement park game. We've got a roller coaster, bumper cars, a log ride, a train ride, and finally a fun house. WHY DID THE DEVELOPERS THINK THAT WACKYLAND WAS AN AMUSEMENT PARK?? Is it because it had the word land in it? Wackyland was its own self contained world with all kind of strange creatures in it. Porky flew there in the classic Bob Clampett cartoon, and I don't think there were any bumper cars in it. The amusement park in Tiny Toons was Happy World Land, not Wackyland. What's worse is that Gogo's no a playable character. Actually he's not even really in it. You only see him walk by during the credits. He doesn't even have a supporting role like he does in better games like Buster's Hidden Treasure. What the hell happened here!?

I could probably give this game more of a pass if it was fun, but it is far from it. The object is to get into the fun house and beat Montana Max. You get there by getting 4 golden tickets or 50 regular tickets. Each other attraction costs a certain amount of tickets, but when you can trade in your points for regular tickets at the ticket booth. Here's where the game gets really bad. The bumper cars and train levels are pretty easy and only take 1 or 2 tickets. The roller coaster and log ride are much more difficult and take 3 or 4 tickets. When all you need are 50 tickets there's no point to playing through the harder levels. Honestly the train stage was about the only one I could stomach, so I just played it over and over. I think I played through the level seven times before I saved up enough tickets. Then I went to the final stage.

Yeah that's right, you can get through this game by only playing two levels, one of the regular levels and the fun house. I bed you'd love to spend 50 dollars to buy a game where you only have to play 2 levels. At least the fun house plays more like a regular game. Of course keeping with the theme there's nothing funny inside of it, and you play as Buster. All you get is a confusing maze with some doors on the ceiling and some upside down walking. Then you get to Montana Max and easily beat him. Then you turn off the game and never play it again, but I doubt you'll be able to forget about it so easily.

Well that's about all I want to talk about this one. I know that I only got it a week ago and it's made for little kids, but I'm sure I would've been just as furious then as I am now. Kids aren't dumb, especially when it comes to their favorite shows. Everyone who was a fan of the show would know that it wasn't Wackyland. I doubt there's a kid alive who would fool themselves into thinking that this was anything but a lazy money grab. I guess I can't really blame Gogo for not showing up. I wouldn't want my face in this game either. I'm just thankful that I've got 20 or so better Konami games to play through on my NES. This game isn't exactly Contra.

NES #18: Dragon Warrior

It was a relief playing through Dragon Warrior again. Sometimes I play these old games and discover that they're not as good as I remember. Dragon Warrior is one that I still enjoyed playing. It's hard to say exactly why though. By all accounts this should be an exercise in tedium. Somehow, though, it still manages to be fun and engaging.

This game came out in Japan in 1986 making it one of the earliest console RPGs. Over there it was called Dragon Quest, and the modern US games have taken on that title now. It didn't come out in America until 1989 by which time it must've already seemed a little primitive. The original Final Fantasy came out in 1990 in the US and I think it's interesting that while we only got the one NES Final Fantasy out of the three made we got all four 8-bit Dragon Warrior games in this country. Enix was very dedicated to their flagship series.

The gameplay in this game is very interesting. If it wasn't so slow and time consuming I might call it arcade style. Everything is simplified compared to most RPGs. You only control one character, and he only fights one monster at a time. The battles are mostly text based with no monster animations. You start out very weak and slowly gain levels to become stronger. I'm not sure if there is an RPG that is more centered on level gaining. Basically you are gaining enough levels to go to the next town so you can buy new equipment. There are some puzzles and treasures put in there to make things more interesting, but they don't seem to be the main focus in this game.

Describing this game makes it sound like it's going to be boring, but for whatever reason I really enjoy it. It's one of those rare exceptions where I probably like it more now than I did when I was a kid. At the time when I first played through it I had a insatiable appetite for RPGs, and I would play any of them that I could get my hands on. I originally played through Dragon Warrior while I was also playing through several other similar games like the SNES Final Fantasies. It got lost on the shuffle due to its primitive nature. I still remember playing it for hours and hours, but I don't remember it standing out to me like it does today.

It's not a perfect game though. As usual I do have some gripes. I hate how you can only save at the first castle in the game. It's really annoying having to go back and forth all the time. It's also the castle that you start back at after you die or continue your progress. So you're going to spend a lot of time walking away from the castle getting attacked slimes and ghosts which give you very little gold or experience. It's not till much later in the game when you have spells that take you to the castle and repel those weaker enemies. However, there isn't a spell that takes you away from the castle, so if you want to save your game you'll still have a long trip back to where you were. You can also get back to the castle quickly by dying, but while you keep your experience points after death you lose half your gold. It gets pretty annoying.

And speaking of death, I think it's kind of funny that after you die you appear in front of the king. He tells you that you should not have died and so he has brought you back to life. The king can bring people back from the dead! You would think with godlike powers like that he could kill the Dragonlord by himself. Or at the very least he wouldn't lost his daughter so easily.

Dragon Warrior is often called the game that started the console RPG, and although there are a couple of older ones this game certainly took the genre a long way. While the series is still only a moderate success in the US it is a craze in Japan. At least that's the image we get over here. It's a lot of fun going back to the series' roots and seeing how it all started. Dragon Warrior is an unusually slow paced game, and it certainly has its faults, but it's still a classic. It's almost 25 years old now, and it's still fun to play today. That really makes this game seem like something special.

NES #17: Strider

Well here's yet another Capcom game. It seems like they made half the games I've finished so far. I'm not sure if that's because they are especially easy or that I played them so much as a kid. Either way I appreciate Capcom for making this blog a little bit easier. Many of their games are easy to get through and fun to write about.

So Strider was a game that I absolutely loved as a kid. I always loved non-linear games with deep story lines. This game also reminded me of Bionic Commando which was my absolute favorite game. Looking back on it though the two games don't seem all that similar. Maybe I thought they were alike because of the world map and menu screen. They both just seemed a little more advanced than the average Nintendo game.

Anyway, this game is about a group of Striders. Or are the bad guys the Striders? I have to be completely honest with you. The story in this game makes absolutely no sense to me. The storytelling is a little clunky, so it's hard to tell what's going on. First you're supposed to go kill Kain, then you save Kain, then he goes crazy, and your sister is in there somewhere, then there's a guy named Faceas Clay (get it!), then all your friends die and you appear to be fighting against the Striders. It's all very confusing.

The gameplay is set up in an interesting way. Some of the levels you will pass through more than once. Along the way you will get key cards and special items that help you get further into levels. It's sort of a pre-Symphony of the Night layout. It sounds like it would get a little tedious, but the levels are set up well. The new sections are usually placed in the earlier parts of the levels so you don't have to travel long distances over the same terrain. The only thing I don't like about the levels is that, like a depressingly large amount of NES games, you keep having to fight the same boss over and over. You got this big alien robot computer thing that you fight about a half dozen times. It's easy the first time and never gets any harder. Oh, and there's also a part where you are in Australia then you go through a small tunnel and are in China, but I'm gonna let them slide on that one.

I just have a couple of nitpicks with the game play itself. First of all it is way too hard to do a wall jump. You're going to need to quite a few times in this game, but the jump controls are really stiff. The first time I attempted to beat this game I must've tried wall jumping a hundred times before I ever did it successfully. It's even worse when you have to do two or three of them in a row. The other thing that bugs me is that the special moves you get are almost completely useless. I never remember using any of them except for the plasma shot and the health recovery. There's also nothing on the screen that tells you when you've got them. I guess it's not much of a problem since you'll never use them anyway. It does make for a cool looking menu screen though.

Although I've played Strider a million times, this was the first time I ever beat it. It surprises me some to say that because the game isn't very hard. It's also quite short for a password game. I doubt it took me more than a couple hours to beat it. It's probably about half the length of Super Mario Bros. 3 if you skip the warp zones. This is certainly a good weekend afternoon game for when you can't think of anything to play among your 250 NES games and you're in the mood to play through one you haven't beaten before. I'm sure that kind of thing happens to you all the time.

My Sporcle quiz

No full entries tonight. I just wanted to let you guys know that I made a fun Sporcle.com quiz. I found a bunch of Nintendo quotes and you have to guess what game they came from. It's fun!

http://www.sporcle.com/games/nester/nintendo_by_quote

NES #16: Kirby's Adventure

Kirby's Adventure was another game I remember getting on Christmas '93. I also got Final Fantasy and a couple non-NES games that I can't remember off the top of my head, so I kinda hit the mother lode that year. I'm sure my brother did get some good presents, but I do remember that he got Rocky & Bullwinkle for the NES. I guess you can't win them all.

I guess the difference between Kirby and the other games I got that year was that it was brand new and the other ones were reissues put out to cash in on the end of the system's life. Kirby was just about the last high profile game I can remember coming out for the NES. It was one of the last shining moments in childhood where talk on the playground went back to my favorite dying system, and I didn't feel like the world was passing me by. I don't remember Zoda's Revenge or Mega Man 6 generating nearly as much buzz around school the next year. In a lot of ways this was the system's last hurrah.

I remembered being excited about Kirby after seeing commercials for the Game Boy game that came out a year or two earlier. I know that the Game Boy sold about a zillion units, but back then I didn't know anybody who had one and therefore had no way to play Kirby. I know that there were a lot of kids with the same situation waiting for the big console version to come out so they could actually play it. I always felt like this was one of the main reasons they decided to go with NES instead of SNES. People actually craved the 8-bit graphics from that Game Boy game they never got to play, and the developers felt like it would be an easy transition.

Although when playing it today you can tell that they really wanted it to be a Super Nintendo game. It's got all the hallmarks of those great early 16 bit platform games. It's got a big, interactive world map with plenty of branching paths and bonus levels. The graphics are pushed about as far as they can go as well. You're not going to find too many games on the NES that look better than this one. It also keeps track of your completion percentage which I thought was a really nice touch when I was a kid. I'm sure there are games that did it before Kirby, but it's certainly the first one I can remember.

The downside to all this is that the control also seems like it was meant for the SNES. It's a little to complicated for the two button controller. Pushing up on the controller to float is easy enough, but it drives me crazy that Kirby will start floating too often when jumping. This really slows down the game. The B button is used both for sucking up bad guys and using the weapons you get from them. This makes it a little weird when you're trying to get other weapons or using other attacks involving objects on the screen. Sometimes it's much more effective to suck up one enemy and shoot it at another enemy and it would be nice to be able to save my weapon while doing this. However, the only way to do this is to push select and get rid of your weapon so you can suck things up again. I guess they had too many functions to fit into 2 buttons so they had to improvise a little.

So how does this game play in 2010? Actually I think it holds up pretty well. The gameplay is still pretty unique and fun. I was surprised how many different weapons there were. It seems like they were throwing new ones in there right up till the end. The main quest is still really easy, but they make up for it by having so many hidden levels and rooms. Even though you'll breeze right through it in a couple days there will still be plenty to do after the final boss has been beaten. It probably has the most depth of any NES platform game that you don't have to finish in one sitting. It's certainly worth picking up.

So as I said, this game will always have a special place in my heart. When I was a kid I really hated to see things changing. I knew I had it good and someday my life would be mostly about working and trying to get by. Even though I loved my Super Nintendo the transition was really difficult for me. There was no toy that I loved more than my NES, and by 1993 it was really fading away. Kids would make fun of you for even having one. This game helped me hold on to my childhood a little bit longer, and even though it's not my favorite NES game I'll always appreciate it for that.

NES #15: Metroid

This is one of those famous NES games that I remember playing quite a bit as a kid. Usually we would rent it, and I would quickly get lost and not play it anymore. My parents got a little upset about me renting it all the time just to play it for half and hour, but that didn't stop me. I just loved the way the game was set up. It had such a unique look and feel to it. I really felt like I was on another world fighting aliens. It was pretty unique at the time, and it must've been stunning when it came out in 1987. I mean, when this game came out the Atari 2600 was still about 4 years from calling it quits. It was an amazing jump in technology.

So as I said, I really wasn't very good at this game as a small child. It wasn't until a few years later when I got this game for Christmas during the waning days of the NES that I was able to get through it. I will admit that I used a map to help me though. This is something that I feel bad about today. I really wish I could say that I beat it completely legit, but it's a decision I made when I was young and I can't take it back.

One thing that still surprises me about this game is how non-linear it is. Basically you have three objectives: kill Kraid, kill Ridley, and kill Mother Brain. How you do this is entirely up to you. The time between is spent exploring and getting power ups. The only other game like this at the time was The Legend of Zelda which came out at the same time, but even that had 9 dungeons and more orderly gameplay. Metroid was a radical departure from the early side scrollers and arcade hits. It was truly revolutionary.

Now before I heap too much praise on this game it does have one very serious flaw. One that never seemed to bother me until going back through it again. The problem is that whenever you die you only start back with 30 life. At first this doesn't seem so bad, but think about it for a second. In the game you collect energy tanks that raise your total life by 100. I believe there are 9 or 10 of these total. If you get killed near the end of the game it is possible that you will will have to collect 970 life points to fill yourself back up. This is really hard when most enemies other than metroids either give you 5 or 20 health back. To help deal with this the game designers did a couple of things. There are long upward corridors near the beginning with plenty of easy enemies to kill. There are also large holes in the ground that bugs fly out of which you are able to shoot away at. Of course this could still take you 15 or 20 minutes just to get your health back. Why couldn't they start you out with more health? This seems to take up about half the gameplay time. I guess the best way is to plot a course where you get energy tanks when your health might be getting low and just never die. But can you imagine how hard that is?

However don't get me wrong, I do love this game. It can't really help being imperfect. It was made in 1986. I loved it then and I still love it now although probably not as much. It's interesting how Samus' identity was kept secret unless you get one of the better endings. It would've been nice to have a female lead character out in the open at the time. As it is though it's still one of the great 80s games and one of the defining moments in Nintendo history.