NES #46: Commando (1986)

(As if they needed to tell you that)

When I wrote about 1942 I talked about how the other two games released by Capcom in 1986, Command and Ghosts N' Goblins, would make people hate themselves after they played them. Of course this thought appealed to me so I decided to go back and play one of them. I am not going to try Ghosts N' Goblins yet because I want to hold on to my last shred of sanity, but I did spend a very late night playing Commando. I am happy to say that I did not hate myself after playing it. Actually I felt better about myself. Maybe the makers of this game knew what they were doing after all.

I always found this game interesting because of its connection to Bionic Commando. In that game you are on a mission to rescue Super Joe and blow up Hitler's head. In this game you are Super Joe on a mission to destroy everyone and everything. Bionic Commando is the indirect sequel to this game although they don't share too much in common in terms of gameplay. If you've never played Commando, it is similar to the parts in Bionic Commando where you run into a truck on the map and switch to an overhead view. It is all overhead vertical scrolling action with that classic one man army motif that was so popular after the rise of Rambo.

(It doesn't look like much, but trust me. This game is pure intensity)

 

The first thing to note about this game is that it is very deep for an arcade conversion from 1986. Hidden rooms abound in every level. Most of them have to be opened up by a well placed grenade, but some of them seem to come out of nowhere. They all have a grey brick look to them, but their actual contents vary. Sometimes you'll find a bunch of bonus points and extra lives. Sometimes you will find poison gas. Sometimes the exits of these rooms are hidden themselves. I would hate to get far into this game and run out of grenades trying to find the way out. This is frustrating and infuriating, but still impressive in its own way. All the hidden rooms means that you will be playing this game for hours if you want to find them all. Now that gaming goals were expanding beyond collecting high scores game developers were starting to think of new ways to give gamers their money's worth. One way was to fill their game with secret bonuses and easter eggs. This works as well in 2016 as it did in 1986. I could see you getting a trophy for finding all the hidden rooms if this game was on PS4. Sure it could ruin your game, but it was an important step in the evolution of gaming.
 

(These houses become deadly obstacles in the later levels)

The second thing to note about this game is that it is very hard. I have had my complaints about one man army games before. They are usually too hard to the point of impossibility like Ikari Warriors or way to easy like Guerrilla War. This game smartly finds a middle ground between these two future releases. It does have infinite continues, but the respawn points are fixed. This means that you can't just mindlessly run forward and hope for the best, but at the same time there is hope for seeing it through to the end. The game uses the same level layouts four times in a row giving this game a total of 16 levels. You would think that it wouldn't be so bad with 16 repetitive levels which are only a few minutes long each, but this game took me almost two whole hours to play though with many instances of self doubt. I almost gave up at least a half dozen times figuring it was too late to be able to focus. Luckily I stuck it out and powered through. The repeating levels are actually a good thing in my opinion. When you have a dozen or so soldiers shooting at you the last thing you want is to be memorizing new level layouts. As I said before, the developers knew what they were doing.

(Thankfully the fourth level is not as quite as hard as the third. This knowledge was the only thing that kept me going through the final run.)

In the end I was left with a sore thumb and a great sense of accomplishment. It's the kind of thing that only defeating a challenging game in one two hour session can give a person. It is the kind of experience that gaming can't duplicate no matter how hard they try. The ending is very simplistic, but that's beside the point. I"m not going to make any judgements on whether games were better back then or if they are better now. I am happy to have both, and spend plenty of time playing modern games. It is nice, however, to be able to go back and play a game from an era where it was all about the journey.

NES #45: Wizard and Warriors (1987)

Wizards & Warriors is one of the truly classic NES games. It's such a classic that I'm baffled by its lack of post 8-bit sequels. There are three games on NES and an oddly titled one on the Game Boy and that's it. It's hard to think of another series that had three NES games and none on any later systems. Well I guess there's also Adventures of Lolo. Oh yeah and Ikari Warriors. Maybe it's not that uncommon. Anyway, my point is that Rare has been doing this for the last thirty years. They have never been a company to drive a franchise into the ground even when it's probably a good idea to do so. Didn't the world always want another Banjo-Kazooie or Conker game? So instead of making sequel after sequel they stopped after Wizards and Warriors III. Because of this the series will forever be associated with the NES. It probably gives thirty year olds just as many warm feelings as Mario and Zelda without the recognition of seeing the characters in more games through the years. This makes it one of the more quintessential games even among the more famous ones that came out around the same time. Mario may be a Nintendo franchise, but Wizards and Warriors is an NES franchise.

(Who wouldn't want to play this forever?)

The game came out right at the tail end of Nintendo's breakout year of 1987. This is the year that saw Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Mega Man, and Kid Icarus all get released. It's probably the most important year any Nintendo system ever had. At first glance a weird sword and sorcery platform game doesn't sound like it has much of a chance to stand out, but it doesn't take long to figure out that this game is special. It's a very hard game to put into one category. You play as a knight so the first thing you would probably think is action rpg, but it only has a few rpg elements. There are keys to find and items to accumulate, but that is about it. It's not a traditional platform game either because the levels don't just move from one side to another. They require some extensive exploration. The main object of the game is to find the right items to be able to progress past obstacles and then fight some truly zany bosses. They love floating heads, skeletons, and large things that burst into tiny versions of the same thing. But who doesn't, right? Sometimes a game that doesn't fall into one specific genre can end up being a mess, but in this case it's what makes the game so playable. You never quite know what's around the next corner so it never gets boring. It shows that by this time third party developers were thinking bigger and bolder.  

I talk about how much of a classic this game is, but honestly I only played it for the first time a couple years ago. Even though it's the type of game that is right up my alley I somehow missed it. I never even played it as a rental when I was a kid. I was finally able to play it thanks to my wife owning a copy. It's another great endurance test for the NES. It plays differently than games like 1942 though because it is always changing. The play mechanics stay mostly the same, but environments change vastly from level to level. This caused me to frequently rethink my strategy. What works in a cave doesn't work in a cloud. Sometimes the game requires long jumps and sometimes there is lava to keep you more careful. The continues are infinite, so it encourages the exploration of every nook and cranny. Why not get that extra treasure chest? It's not like battling through monsters to get it is going to cause permanent death. The game actually gets more fun as you get closer to death because the low energy music is so entertaining. It's not an annoying beep like Zelda. It is a cheerful tune that seems to be encouraging you to venture further. This game is one of the most inviting on the whole system.

(This bat drove me crazy. I will admit that)

This game took me right around an hour and a half which is starting to seem like the average for NES endurance games. It was made a bit easier by my wife's advice of skipping the treasure chest which contained the practically useless Boots of Force near the end of the game. It was a fun, very old school feeling afternoon. I usually sneak these games in on the weekend and start playing much later than I should. I had a day off when I played this, so I was able to finish it at a reasonable hour without getting too frustrated. I have talked about Rare before as being one of the great game developers of the era. This was the first in a long string of classics for Nintendo systems right up to their infamous buyout by Microsoft in 2002. In the future they would develop Battletoads, Goldeneye, and Donkey Kong Country just to name a few. Wizards and Warriors was the first indication that they were going to be something special. They were able to live up to the hype and more over the next twenty years.

NES #44: 1942

There is something very exciting about finally being able to cross 1942 off of my list. This is one of those games that everyone with an NES seems to have. It doesn't matter if you like shooters or not you'll probably have a copy. I think it is one of those games that just appears out of the ether. Okay I know that's not true because I bought a copy with real money years after I should've had one already. Oh well a guy can dream. The popularity of this one has more to do with its age and publisher than anything else. It was one of the first three North American Capcom games released way back in November of 1986. It was released right after third parties started making NES games which was a very important step toward Nintendo dominance. The NES had a pretty spectacular launch, but their well was starting to go dry. Nothing in 1986 was really setting the world on fire. They were mostly releasing old arcade games and genre oddities like Mach Rider and Urban Champion. Sure Donkey Kong is a great game, but it was already on about a dozen systems and probably still in most pizza parlors in 1986. Luckily the third party support meant that Nintendo could slow down and focus on good games while other companies filled out the catalogue. Capcom got in the game just before Christmas by releasing 1942, Commando, and Ghost 'n Goblins. Of those three 1942 seems to be the one that everybody has. It's also the one that nobody seems to like. It's the least heralded but most popular. Isn't that always the way?

(This island was a relief after nothing but blue)

Well it's probably a little harsh to say that people dislike this game. They just don't get very excited about it. I can see what their complaints are too. First and foremost is the awful music. This game has the worst sound I have ever heard. It is full of random scrapes and high pitched beeps that never seem to stop. The only relief is the bit of actual music between levels. I wonder why they didn't just have music like this during the levels themselves. Perhaps the high level count caused the developers to cut some corners. I'm sure there was a better solution than snare drum and morse code though. The high number of levels is another thing this game is known for, but much like the music it is not in a good way. This game has 32 levels of oceans and islands with the same few plane designs over and over again. Nothing really changes much except for an occasional boss just to keep things interesting. However, even the bosses repeat over and over. This could all be a very dull affair, but I had a blast playing this one. I am kind of a sucker for ancient games of course, but I certainly also see this one as a symbol of what made the NES so great in the first place.

(I think this screenshot has every color you will see in the game)

This game is one of the great NES endurance matches. It takes about a hour and a half to play through and it all has to be done in one sitting, or at least as long as you feel comfortable leaving you system's power on. This almost makes the sound seem strategic. The developers are daring you to sit an play for a long period of time while the sound effects slowly melt your brain. Of course I turned the sound down and listened to my itunes. I'm crazy but I'm not that crazy. The gameplay itself is repetitive but with a satisfying challenge that keeps a player interested. It has unlimited continues so it gives you a chance to think about your next move and how you would play a certain section differently. Playing a game like this is certainly a cerebral experience. I was surprised by how much thought went into it. It's much more than mindless shooting. 

(Get used to this giant plane boss. Make sure you fly above his guns and shoot his wings. I should've written the FAQ on this one)

What this all adds up to is one of the first games that has the true NES long play experience. It was an important shift away from arcade style games to a new style which required a much larger investment of time by the gamer. It was a promise that games were going to be more than five minute diversions. Nintendo started this with Super Mario Bros. and to a lesser extent other launch titles like Ice Climber and Clu Clu Land. However, by 1986 they had started to stagnate and went back to releasing simpler games. Capcom could see that the new long form game was the future and reflected this in their early titles. They weren't the first third party publisher, but they were the first good one and probably most important. As time went on more people published games in the Capcom mold and after suffering its weakest year the NES would rebound and become a legend instead of the one hit wonder it could've become. So we owe a great debt to 1942 and the other two games Capcom released in late 1986. They set the template of the kind of games we still play today, but unlike the other two 1942 won't make you hate yourself after you get done with it. This is the one that didn't go overboard. It manages to be long enough to be challenging but short enough to still be fun.

Game Boy Advance #1: Gumby vs. The Astrobots

In retrospect much of the output on the Game Boy Advance feels like a ripoff. The system was able to squeeze out over 1000 games in just six years or so, but far too many of them take five hours or less. Even many of the good ones like Metroid Fusion can be played through in an afternoon. It almost feels like the entire game catalogue could be played through in less hours than it would take to play through Bethesda's output on PS3. It also doesn't garner much attention from collectors. Used gaming stores will often have dusty bins filled with licensed shovelware games that the average person would never want to play in 2016. Of course I love these bins and will sometimes go in and stock up on obscure GBA games. I know I shouldn't but then how would I ever come across oddities like Gumby vs. The Astrobots?

(Never would've guessed!)

 

Gumby is an odd franchise. The old cartoons are great showcases of animation and surrealism. Almost every episode of the television series was written and directed by Art Clokey which gives the whole thing a very singular feel. The strangeness of his vision is probably missed on little kids, but watching it as an adult I can't help but seeing the nonsensical plots and exotic settings as intentional pieces of art. I have a great deal of admiration for Art Clokey and his work. He wasn't, however, a person who brought out his characters all that often. We weren't bombarded by other media such as books and comics like so many other classic kid franchises. There was just the original series, a revival series in the 80s, and a very strange movie from 1995. This makes the game's existence all the more unusual. When this game was released it was the first significant piece of Gumby related media in over a decade. There were no games to tie in with the movie or the revival series so this is the first, and to date only, Gumby game. It is also a very slight affair obviously targeted toward children, so of course your thirtysomething game profiler is going to talk about it. I am probably not the target audience, but like every game I've ever played I enjoyed it.

(As usual the mine cart was the hardest part of this game)

If you know anything about the Game Boy Advance than you can probably already guess that this is a platform game with story segments between the levels which can easily be beaten in a couple of hours. There are probably 600 games like this on the GBA, and hopefully I will write about each one of them on here. I can see myself at the age of 95 finishing the last one knowing that I had completed my life's work and that I could now die happy. The game does use the Gumby premise well though. Each level takes place in a different book which features a completely different environment. You play as Gumby going along and collecting ice cream while also saving your family and friends from the Blockheads. They were the main villains in many Gumby episodes, and their wordless destruction was always a bit unsettling. Sadly they are underused in this game. The majority of the enemies are Astrobots. They were friendly until the Blockheads transformed them using a stolen remote. Basically you make your way through the levels until you get to the end. I have done this sort of thing hundreds of times at least. Sometimes there are bosses and sometimes there aren't. The bosses that the games does have are a bit strange  and of course easy. It doesn't sound like this game has much going for it.

(What could possibly go wrong?)

At the very least it does manage to capture much of Art Clokey's style. The characters are very claylike and Gumby has special moves that reflect this such as rolling up into a ball. You know if this were a show or game today it would be ugly CGI. It also features Clokey's favorite themes of indifference and miscommunication. The whole thing starts because Professor Kapp is unable to communicate properly. He is unable to talk to the mute Blockheads and gets his Astrobot controller stolen. Clokey loved doing this as a way to teach people that being unable to communicate is what causes many of our problems. I appreciated that this made it into the game. I am probably starting to go a little too deep, but that gameplay doesn't give me too much to talk about. 

(I do love this kind of overworld though)

So Gumby vs. The Astrobots is a slight game but not an unpleasant one. I played through it on a sick day, and it has just the right amount of challenge for a person with a fever who can't quite think straight. It manages to capture the Gumby spirit without updating anything too much. It is an oddity in the Gumby universe, but it's a universe that thrives on oddity. This is probably the most obscure game I've played through so far on the blog, but it doesn't bother me too much if this one doesn't get a ton of views. I totally understand. It's not exactly a lost classic. I enjoyed it but I am a special case. If you really love Gumby and easy games that you can cross of your backlog than you should pick it up the next time you see it for a dollar or two. It did encourage me to go back and watch some of the old Gumby shorts and that's never a bad thing.

Playstation #3: Guardian's Crusade

My journey through the RPGs of the original Playstation has finally brought me to Guardian's Crusade. One of the things the Playstation was most known for in the late 90s was finally bringing the RPG into the mainstream. They were able to turn the new Final Fantasy games into events which is no small feat considering that  about half of them were skipped over in the U.S due to lack of interest. The better marketing and more powerful graphics made even smaller companies want to get into the RPG business and for the first time a console was over saturated with RPGs. Consoles in the US rarely had more than 20. The Playstation, however, featured nearly 80. Because of this even someone obsessed with the genre who constantly read gaming magazines during the late 90s was bound to miss a few. That's why it took me so many years to stumble upon Guardian's Crusade which has to be one of the most obscure RPGs on the system. 

(High definition graphics: 90s style)

 

It is always exciting when I can find an old RPG that is both unusual and cheap, and this one just about drowns itself in unusual. The influence of Pokemon shows up very quickly. Luckily I never get tired of collecting cute creatures. This one had to go and be awkward about it though. The main gimmick is that you go around collecting living toys which aide you both in and out of battle. There are 70 of them in all, so you can probably imagine that some of them are going to be completely useless. What do you need in a game like this? You need things that attack and things that heal. Status effects are usually fairly useless because they take up a round that you can spend attacking. They probably could've gotten by with having about ten and letting you level them up. Instead we get about 30 that will never get used. One of them only does play-by-play of the battle. This might be fun if not for the fact that all he does is repeat what is already written in the text box with a "congratulations" at the end. At least they spelled it correctly. I imagine they were a lot of fun to design though, and if the only problem with this game was that it had too many goofy battle toys than it might be a lost classic. Unfortunately it just misses the mark thanks to some other issues.

(Our heroes)

The main problem with this game has to do with the two most important parts of any RPG, the characters and the story. There are only two party members and only one that the player is in direct control of. This is annoying because anytime you want to use an item or call out a living toy you can't use your main attacker. This makes using living toys in the first half of the game almost pointless. The monsters are fairly easy in the beginning and don't usually take too many hits so you're better off attacking by yourself. The two characters, a young knight and his baby dragon pal, are creatively named Knight and Baby. That right there is a perfect example of how generic the game's story is. You go on a journey to save the world which features one betrayal, one boss who turns out not to be the big boss, a late quest to find special armor, and a boss that goes through a couple forms before it is dead. This is basically the plot of every RPG without the interesting bits and character interactions.

(Look how skinny that thing's neck is. Seriously, how does it eat with a neck like that?)

This is also one of those games that is so easy that I played it wrong right up to the end and didn't even notice. As I said earlier, Baby is not a controllable character. He is, however, supposed to be cared for or else he starts acting irresponsibly and attacking you during battle. You have to take care of him by giving him treats and playing fetch with him. Being the notorious instruction skipper that I am I had no idea I was supposed to do this. I just figured he attacked me sometimes because he was stupid. I didn't find out until I was going to fight the final boss that I was actually supposed to be caring for him and feeding him weapons and armor. If you do this his stats will grow. This also explains why I had so much money near the end of the game. I should've been spending it on treats and equipment. However, even though I never even so much as patted him on the head I had no trouble killing just about everyone. I only died permanently in battle once and after I gained a few more levels nothing really threatened me. It's never a good sign when a person can miss one of the main mechanisms in the game and not even suffer any ill effects. I certainly haven't learned my lesson and I will keep skipping the instructions. Who's got time for that sort of thing?

(My wife appreciated the Monty Python reference)

Playing this game was one of those situations where I had to question my own motivations. It is a bad game, and yet I enjoyed playing it. Does that make me a bad person? I have always talked about how I will play any RPG out there and get some enjoyment out of it. This certainly fits the bill of bottom rung RPG that should only be enjoyed by crazy people like me. At least it is colorful and funny. It doesn't go for bleak and muted like so many other games did. I will see if Nester's RPG Rule holds up if I am able to stay awake long enough while playing Eternal Eyes to actually beat it. Until then I am ranking this at the bottom of the Playstation RPG heap. Of course I still have about 60 to play through so I might change my mind. Hopefully I'm not quite as crazy as I think I am.