You know when a new video game console comes on the market, but its predecessor still has a good deal of life left in it? That can lead to some awkward, even unfortunate, moments. For example, Shantae has been cited by some as the best game ever made for the Game Boy Color -- I believe I may have implied something of that nature. The problem was, by the time it was released, the Game Boy Advance had been on the market for a year, so for the sake of putting their resources where the hip new thing was at, Capcom made only a limited production run of the game. Oh wait, this was the same Capcom that cancelled Mega Man Legends 3... okay, bad example.
Let's move on to the actual subject of today's review: Summer Carnival '92: Recca, a shoot-em-up released only in Japan for the Nintendo Famicom, but two years into the lifespan of the Super Famicom. From what I've read, Recca was made for an annual shooting-game competition, something which apparently was all the rage in early-90s Japan. [1] So, it's sort of like Nintendo World Championships '90 and those other multi-game challenge carts, right? Not exactly; it has a fully-featured single-player campaign, albeit a short one, and it had its own production run, with a box and everything. A very limited production run, mind you; a hard copy of the game will either cost you hundreds or even thousands of US dollars. Or you could visit nesreproductions.com and see how you could get a reproduction copy made for around $20. #NotSponsored Thankfully, that all changed in 2013, when Nintendo offered the game on the 3DS eShop for a mere $5. #StillNotSponsored But even at that low price, is Recca worth it?
Letting go of the trigger button charges a bomb, and also builds your score.
Recca offers three modes, all designed for one player: a standard campaign consisting of four stages, a Score Attack mode where you have two minutes to score as many points as possible, and a Time Attack mode where you have five minutes to score a million points. No matter which mode you select, your ship has a main weapon which can be changed and upgraded with blue-coloured items, and will thankfully auto-fire when you hold the B button. But let go of B, and an energy meter at the bottom of the screen will fill up. Press B again when it is full, and you launch a bomb which lingers on the screen for a few seconds. Furthermore, you can pick up red-coloured items to gain and power-up a secondary helper gun, which fires when you hold the A button. Think the Option modules from Gradius or R-Type and you've got the idea. But these extra turrets offer more than just added firepower. Recca has a peculiar scoring system: in addition to earning points for shooting targets, your score increments automatically -- as long as you're not firing your main weapon. So while running through the levels with B held down and guns blazing is a perfectly acceptable strategy for survival, it would not have won you the tournament this game was made for.
And your skills would need to be of tournament-ready caliber in order to thrive, nay, survive in Recca. As I said before, there are only four stages in the main game, each of which last five to ten minutes and host at least two bosses, so it's not much for length. (Unless you beat the game and reset, in which case you get to play a second campaign, like The Legend of Zelda's second quest.) But what it lacks there, it more than makes up for in challenge -- specifically, in its pace. Enemies fly onto the screen from all directions at a tremendous rate, so there will be many, many ships and bullets for you to dodge. And you lose all your power-ups every time you get hit. A lot of games do that, so I'm not gonna single out Recca on this offence, but still, I'm never a fan of this decision. If our ship's gonna be a one-hit-point-wonder anyway, why not let us keep our upgrades until we continue? Or maybe I'm just not good enough to appreciate this game, whatever. Ironically, most bosses tend to be easier than the stages leading up to them, since you only need to drop a few bombs on them to win. Which is why I feel no shame whatsoever in sharing with you an infinite-lives cheat. Ready? Here it goes: Hold Select during the opening Naxat Soft logo. This will open a menu where you can change the score target for Time Attack mode. Before leaving this screen, press Start while holding A, B, Select, and Up. Start a game in any mode and you will have infinite lives.
Recca employs various background effects and doesn't often slow down.
Summer Carnival '92: Recca is a well-put-together shooter, don't get me wrong. But for some reason I just couldn't connect with it. Maybe it's the visual aesthetics; the colour palette seems to focus on reds, blues, and violets, making for a somewhat monochromatic affair. And even though I will give credit to the graphics engine for employing special effects to the backgrounds every once in a while, and only suffering slowdown in rare, specific instances, the combination of warping backdrops and limited colours makes the visual action hard to make out, or at the very least a little ugly. Maybe it's the soundtrack; it seems to be going for a house/jock-jam feel, with intricate beats and lots of sound-effect samples. It's impressive in theory; you don't see, or rather hear, many NES soundtracks emulating real-world musical genres. But it suffers a similar problem I had with 1942 in that with the NES's sound hardware, it just isn't rendered in a pleasing manner. I don't know, maybe if this soundtrack got a remake with some real production, I'd like it a lot more. Or maybe I'm just the type of gamer who demands a difficulty curve on which I can ride a game to the end without relying on cheat codes. Oh well, practise makes perfect, I guess.
Positives:
+ A unique scoring system that values making your shots count.
+ The bosses are breathers compared to the rest of the game.
+ Innovative graphical effects with limited slowdown.
+ An ambitious house soundtrack.
Negatives:
- Insane difficulty.
- An ugly colour palette.
Control: 4 minutes out of 5 Design: 3 minutes out of 5 Graphics: 4 minutes out of 5 Audio: 3 minutes out of 5 The Call: 75% (B-)
[1] ZZZ. "Recca". Hardcore Gaming 101. 21 April 2007 http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/recca/recca.htm.
Previously on the SDP, I reviewed the NES port of Spy Hunter. And it was... okay. But it turns out, the NES also plays host to a pseudo-sequel titled Super Spy Hunter. Is it any good?
Let me state for the record that I'm not of the mindset that a sequel should slavishly follow whatever concepts were established by its predecessor. I believe my Zelda II review made that perfectly clear. But try telling that to general public. For some reason, sequels that stray from what is commonly perceived as the original formula are forgotten at best, and shunned at worst. For example: what comes to mind when you think of Spy Hunter? You drive a car that can shoot machine guns to disable other cars, and you pick up special weapons like oil slicks, smoke screens, and missiles from weapons vans. Actually, our new game's still got all that. But Super Spy Hunter throws so many little changes into the mix that it develops an identity of its own.
When you press and hold the B button, your car shoots bullets from three directions: one from the front, and two from a turret on the roof, which you can change the angle of by holding A. I suppose this offers a degree of versatility, even strategy, to gameplay, but I for one just found it an unnecessary encumbrance. I had an easier time finding one of the power-ups that automatically sets the angle to lock-on to enemies, but I guess your mileage may vary. Just don't pick up another one of those items, or you'll lose the ability again. Which brings me to my next point...
The weapons vans make their return appearance, in concept anyway. Instead of driving into them, you shoot them up to release whichever item they're holding. The red ones offer upgrades to your weapon power, fire rate, maximum health, etc., and the blue ones hold special weapons and other miscellany. Curiously, special weapons are triggered with the same button as the one that rotates your turret, so if you haven't found a lock-on item yet, enjoy spending a precious extra second resetting your angle. Unlike in Spy Hunter -- and indeed many shoot-em-ups of the time, I'm not singling out its "predecessor" or anything -- you don't go down with one hit. Instead, you have a lifebar, which can be refilled or even extended by picking up certain power-ups.
I found bosses considerably harder than their preceding stages.
Also unlike in Spy Hunter, the structure of this game follows a more traditional format of levels and bosses. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve can be a little schizophrenic. With the right upgrades, the main stages are a breeze, except for the occasional environmental trap (for example, the deep water in Level 1 and the quicksand in Level 2). The boss fights, on the other hand, are disproportionately tougher. They all absorb many, many hits, and from Level 3 on, include instant-death lasers in their arsenals. And when you do get taken down, your upgrades get taken down a peg as well, making your next attempt that much tougher.
Super Spy Hunter ups its game in more areas than just gameplay, though. As a game made for a console which found itself in the shadow of a successor product just a year earlier, it had to stand out in some flashy way in order to have any hope of decent sales. To that effect, Super Spy Hunter employs some innovative graphical moments for its time. On certain levels, the road will curve to the left or right, and the screen scrolls along with it. True, this effect chugs the frame rate something awful, but for the NES in 1992, I appreciate the effort. Other memorable moments include sections of level 2, where you dodge quicksand pits in the desert, and level 4, where you go off ramps to take monster jumps, and attempt to land on the road again as it zooms in from the background. And as further homage to the original Spy Hunter, later levels have your car transform into a boat and even a plane.
Super Spy Hunter employs impressive, if technologically taxing, special effects by the NES's standards.
So many changes... How did this happen? Well, it turns out that Super Spy Hunter was first sold in Japan in 1991, as the Famicom game Battle Formula. But when it came time to sell it in North America and Europe, publisher Sunsoft apparently slapped the Spy Hunter brand on the game. You may also remember that Sunsoft did the NES version of the original Spy Hunter. Perhaps they were on good enough terms with Midway that they borrowed the licence that way, I don't know. What I do know is that apart from the title screen, Battle Formula and Super Spy Hunter are identical. Even the Peter Gunn theme, made famous by the original Spy Hunter, is used in both versions of this game. So if I had to guess why Super Spy Hunter's been left by the wayside of history, my only conclusion would be that no one from the original team was involved in its production. But don't let that be a reason for you to pass it up. It's original among 8-bit shooters and holds up well to this day. Yup, change can be a good thing.
Positives:
+ Innovative departures from the Spy Hunter formula.
+ You can take more than one hit per life.
+ Graphical effects that are unique for the NES.
Negatives:
- Too-tough bosses.
- You still lose some of your upgrades when you die.
Control: 4 weapons vans out of 5 Design: 4 weapons vans out of 5 Graphics: 4 weapons vans out of 5 Audio: 5 weapons vans out of 5 The Call: 85% (B+)
Previously on the SDP, I reviewed 1942, one of Capcom's earliest arcade games. And it sucked, at least the NES port. Well, it turns out that its sequel, 1943, also got ported to the same system, so have its developers learned some new tricks? Well, not exactly, if only because the 1942 port was developed by Micronics, whereas Capcom did the 1943 port themselves. But regardless, is it any good this time around? Read on.
As can be assumed from the game's subtitle*, "The Battle of Midway", 1943 returns gamers to the Pacific theatre of World War II. There are only 16 stages to the 32 in 1942, but this time around, most of them are split up into two parts. They start out high in the skies, where you have to make your way through aircraft of all sizes, the usual fare. But then you spot what looks like a small flotilla of ships in the water below. Before long, what do you know -- you've entered the second phase of the level, where you strafe those ships, taking out their turret guns in addition to fending off the usual planes. At the end of this section, you'll encounter some sort of boss ship, named after one of the Imperial Japanese Navy's own ships for that added touch of historical accuracy. Oddly, you don't have to destroy the boss completely; rather, you have an unseen time limit when fighting these bosses. When "time" runs out, you'll either move on to the next stage if you've destroyed enough of its weak points, or be forced to re-play the section if not. I don't see why they have to complicate matters so, but whatever.
*Fun Fact: The Japanese release of 1943 instead carries the subtitle "The Battle of Valhalla". So much for facing up to their past...
In addition to dodge loops, the A button can unleash screen-clearing super attacks. (NES version shown.)
The level progression format isn't the only thing 1943 shakes up from its predecessor. As opposed to having a set number of lives and losing one each time you get hit, you instead have one life and a "fuel gauge", which depletes with damage, and also slowly over time. For some reason, you'll never crash by automatic fuel loss alone, you'll just stay with a sliver of fuel until you get hit or find a replenishing power-up. I suppose I should be thankful for taking yet another time limit out of the equation, but that annoying warning music is holding my tongue on that affair. (Still better than the NES 1942's music.) Speaking of power-ups, you can equip several unique weapons by picking up other items. There's a wide-reaching 3-way shot (which, by the way, is way over-powered in the NES version and I love it), a thumb-saving auto-cannon, and a slow and generally useless shotgun. Notably, unlike in most games of this type, you can shoot power-up items multiple times to change their type, which I guess is better than having fixed types, or worse, items that change type automatically. (And I thought you were perfect, Raiden Project...) And just as before, you might even chance upon the item which gives you two wingmen for that little bit of supporting fire.
Certain plane types are coloured uniquely for better visibility. (NES version shown.)
Of course, 1943 got a port on the Nintendo Entertainment System, but considering the failings of the first game's port, is 1943 any better? Actually, yes. In lieu of trying to render the same realistic colours (for the time) generated by Capcom's up-to-date arcade hardware, the vivid colour palettes for both the backgrounds and foreground objects keep everything looking distinct from one another. The music's far, far less of an earsore, although you could chalk that one up to the original version for having better music anyway. Although the "danger" music, which plays when you're at low fuel, wears just as thin as the one song from the first game. On top of the aesthetic trappings, the NES version adds two notable changes to gameplay. One, you can hold the fire button to charge up a high-powered shot. Sure, you won't be able to do it with the turbo switched on, but hey, that's why you can turn off the turbo on those special controllers. Second, by shooting at certain secret spots in each of the levels, you can reveal upgrades for your plane's stats. It's still easy to die, but hey, it's (based on) a coin-op game; gotta keep that turnover rate high. Like 1942, the home version offers infinite continues, and this time around there's even a password system which saves your progress and upgrades. Anyone who's taken the time to write down longer passwords for games like Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Metal Gear will be happy to know that these codes are only five letters long.
In short, 1943 offers the same stripped-down appeal of the original 1942, but with a number of twists on the formula to keep things fresh. And for once, they didn't mess up the experience on the NES. In fact, it's worth trying both of them out, as they provide unique takes on the same concept. If you want to check out the original, you can get it as part of Capcom Arcade Cabinet, a download-only title for PlayStation 3 and XBox 360. But if for whatever reason you wish to stick with the NES, you can sleep soundly with its interpretation of 1943.
Positives:
+ High and low-altitude sections offer some level variety.
+ Better and more varied music than before.
+ A satisfactory NES port with a few improvements of its own.
Negatives:
- The low-fuel warning beeps.
Control: 5 battleships out of 5 Design: 4 battleships out of 5 Graphics & Sound: 4 battleships out of 5 The Call: 90% (A-)
In honour of my recent trip to Japan, I'm dedicating an entire month of reviews to that very Japanese of gaming genres... No, not visual novels; I'm talking shoot-em-ups! Yes, the Land of the Rising Sun has been a specialist in this genre, producing shooters of multiple settings (with airplanes, spacecraft, and even witches as characters) across a wide spectrum (okay, primarily on the hard side) of difficulty levels, from the simple yet skill-testing affairs of yesteryear to the "bullet-hells" of today. Yes, the field of shoot-em-ups is a crowded one, but if you keep your core interests in mind, some of them are bound to stick out. And enough titles have done so for me to kick off... Shooter Month! First on the menu is the one which kicked off the whole craze, not only the grand-daddy of shooter games, but the first great Japanese video game...* Space Invaders.
*Not the first Japanese video game, mind you. Tomohiro Nishikado, the designer of Space Invaders, had worked on several games before, including the Pong-like Davis Cup and Soccer, which he claims are the "Japan's first video game[s]".
Now, I know what you're thinking: "I know Space Invaders, everyone knows about Space Invaders! Its alien characters have become mascots for not only its studio Taito, but for gaming as a whole! Why bother reviewing it at all? And you call yourself alternative..." First of all, don't be so quick to hypothetically judge me, man. Second, you're right. We all know Space Invaders works. But... why? What makes it tick? And why did it catch on as well as it did? I started thinking thoughts like these whilst playing the Famicom port of SI, which I picked up over in Tokyo. And so, in a transparent attempt to fill up space, I shall endeavour to answer these very questions.
We'll start with a basic treatment of the gameplay. You control a moving gun turret shaped like the US Capitol building (huh). And in front of you is a phalanx of alien creatures, who will advance on your position and occasionally shoot laser bolts at you. Your objective is to shoot all of the on-screen beasties out of existence. Shooting the aliens scores you points, and you're awarded with extra lives at certain score milestones. Gotta love having an excuse for scoring points. When they're all gone, do it again, only a little bit faster, and so on. That's it. There's no backstory given to where these aliens come from and why they're invading... whichever territory your avatar represents. But, if you've been spoiled to need more incentive than that, then you're beyond my help Space Invaders is one of those games you play for the simple experience of playing it. It's a little hard to explain myself on that one, but sometimes you don't need an explanation.
Barriers don't offer much piece of mind when they can be broken so easily. (Arcade version.)
I'll be honest, whatever memories I have of playing Space Invaders when I was a wee little gamer were not entirely pleasant. I remember thinking the game to be hard, and even scary a little. See, as the aliens move side-to-side across the screen, when one of them hits the edge, they reverse course, and move a step down towards your position. This means that if given the chance, they will eventually collide with you. To make matters worse, the more aliens you take off the screen, the faster the rest of them move. Furthermore, the background music loop is a descending scale of four notes, which increases in tempo as more enemies are eliminated. (Fun fact: This was because the game's hardware could only run faster when fewer elements were drawn on-screen, but when Nishikado-san noticed it, he kept it in for the challenge.) Way to use multiple senses to put the player on edge, game. But far be it from me to condemn the game entirely based on those qualities. In fact, I have to give it credit for its ability to instill such strong emotions in the player with the bare minimum of artistic elements, and even a virtual absence of storytelling.
You may also notice that when you start out, there are four barriers between you and the aliens. Both your and their shots can damage these barriers, until eventually a hole or two gets cut through them. Admittedly, they're not much for protection. So, why even have them there in the first place? But tactics aside, their mere presence brings a very peculiar allegory to mind, at least my mind. Think about it: your avatar has the ability to move freely, at least along a one-dimensional line, and can dodge attacks or even hide behind objects for protection. Meanwhile, your opponents march lock-step in a fixed, gridlike pattern, never breaking ranks even as their peers are knocked out beside them. Sound familiar? If not, then you're not thinking of the American Revolutionary War, wherein the Native Americans and anti-British rebels came up with the genius idea of eschewing "conventional" warfare in favour of utilising the cover of their environment. To be fair, I'm not sure that's what Nishikado-san had in mind whilst designing Space Invaders, but it's a nice bonus thought to keep in mind and enhance the experience. Regardless, I guess it's true what they say: war never changes.
Later ports offer various colour and background options. (Super NES version shown.)
Home ports of Space Invaders are ubiquitous, given its early release and later influence, and are virtually too numerous to count. There's the Atari 2600 version (1980) which, despite its different looks, is credited as the first home port of an arcade game. There's the Famicom/NES version (1985) which was never released outside of Japan, likely due to Nintendo of America's restrictions which I may have discussed before. There's the Game Boy version (1994) which offers multiple background colour options when run in a Super Game Boy, and the Super NES version (1997) which has all that without the added fuss. And there's the iPhone version (2009) which is essentially arcade-perfect minus the control interface, but I find a tad overpriced at US$5. (Then again, I spent almost 800 yen for my copy of the Famicom version, so what should I care.) But really, you can't go wrong with any of them. Space Invaders is a shining example of how even the simplest of concepts can create the deepest of experiences.
Positives:
+ Simple but straightforward shooter gameplay.
+ An effective increase of challenge.
Negatives:
- Bare-bones aesthetics.
- The stress of increasingly-speedy targets.
Control: 5 barriers out of 5
Design: 4 barriers out of 5
Graphics & Sound: 5 barriers out of 5 The Call: 95% (A)
As you may recall, for my April Fools' Day special this year, I converted my review on the Super NES version of Doom into video form... in the style of the Irate Gamer. At first I had only seen a few episodes of his show, and despite his occasional lapses of research failures and hypocrisies, there were some moments of his I genuinely liked. I watched more of his show as I was working on my episode, and it was then that I chanced upon his "review" of Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES. This, ladies and gentlemen, was the moment when I lost all respect for the Irate Gamer as a critic. There was so much he overlooked and just failed to care about that it instantly became one of those opinions I refused to recognise. And so, here's what I have to say about what the Irate Gamer had to say about...
Super Mario Bros. 2
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Platform/Release:
NES, October 1988
Game Boy Advance, 10 June 2001 (as Super Mario Advance)
Genre: 2D Action (Platformer)
Players: 1
Rarity/Cost:
NES: Common, US$10-20
GBA: Common, US$5-10
"If you line up all the Super Mario games in order, one of them just sticks out like a sore thumb."
You mean Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the one game out of those five in which you don't even play as Mario? ...Still good, though.
"Now when you start this game, you'll have the choice of picking from four different characters., all with their own special abilities. Mario is the regular fighter, Luigi is the high jumper, Princess Peach can hover in the air for extended periods of time, and Toadstool, well, he's pretty much worthless."
Toad is not useless; he's the fastest digger out of all the four characters. Which comes in handy in places such as the levels in World 2, which have deep digging passages.
"[...] You'll notice that the gameplay has been totally altered. First they did away with the ability to smash your enemies. Instead, you'll have to pick them up and toss them at other enemies in order to kill them."
Okay, look. I can understand annoyance at the loss of instant gratification, like the kind you find when you stomp on an enemy in Super Mario Bros. and it goes away right then and there. But SMB2 plays by its own set of rules, and if you're comparing it to a completely foreign system, then you're not going to have fun with it. Which, might I argue, is the point of video games on the whole, no?
"Second, this game is only a one-player game. It's totally different from the original in which you can play two players."
Funny thing about that: in its earliest stages of development, SMB2was conceived as supporting two player co-op, but this feature was deemed not fun enough and scrapped early on. Also, the multiplayer offerings from the first SMB were of the take-turns variety.
"And remember that invincibility star? Well, yeah, they pretty much [verb]ed that whole thing up, too. Instead of now finding the star, you'll have to go around collecting five cherries that are scattered around the levels. And after you collected that fifth cherry, you've got to wait for it!"
Look at that scene again. Not only did he cut away from that footage in order to artificially stretch it out, but he also slowed down the footage itself. Yeah, I can tell. I re-created that scenario, and the time it took for the Starman to rise up from the screen and touch my player was exactly 10.85 seconds. And besides, it's not like Cherries are hard to find, in most levels.
"And while we're at it, this game could really use a lot more power-ups, too. Some spots in the game are so over-crowded with enemies, it's insane."
Wimp.
"At the end of the game, you'll finally meet up with the last boss, Wart, who ends up just really being a pushover. All you have to do is throw vegetables at him when his mouth is open, and he'll choke on them and die. And yet again giving kids another reason not to eat their vegetables."
Your hero, ladies and gentlemen.
"Released only in Japan, [Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels] continues where the first one left off. All the same enemies, power-up items, even the maps look the same. This right here is the perfect predecessor to the first Mario game."
When you said that part about the same items, you showed a Poison Mushroom - an item not found in the first SMB. Also, let me emphasize one of the words he said: predecessor. I'm not sure if he didn't notice that, or if he's just really stupid.
"I did some more research, and found something that's guaranteed to flip some [noun]. Years earlier, a game was released in Japan called Doki-doki Panic. [...] It's the exact same game! And we're not just talking about copying the layout of the levels - everything has been stolen! The enemies, power-ups, music, everything! If you compare both these games side by side, they're the exact same video game."
Funny thing about that: the game in question (full title Yume Kojo: Doki-doki Panic) was made by Nintendo themselves - with Shigeru Miyamoto at the helm, to boot. So would ya mind telling me how Nintendo could've ripped off SOMETHING THEY CREATED IN THE FIRST PLACE!?!? Oh wait, it gets even better: DDP was originally conceived as a sequel to Super Mario Bros. in the first place. That explains why items like Starmen, Coins, and the Pow Block (from the 1983 Mario Bros.) were in there to begin with.
If you want to know more about Doki-doki Panic (and if you want to see me totally show up the Irate Gamer), here you go: The game was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1987 as a tie-in with Fuji TV's "Yume Kojo '87" (English: "Dream Factory '87") promotion. The major difference between this game and SMB2 is that it has a save function and unlimited continues, but you can only switch characters in between worlds or when you start or resume a game. Also, each of the four characters progresses separately, so to get the best ending, you have to beat the game four times, once for each of them.
"Even the characters in this game have the exact same abilities as the characters from Mario 2! I mean, look: here's Mario, Luigi, Princess, and yeah, even the worthless Toad."
You may have matched the DDP and SMB2 characters by looks, but not by abilities. Technically, the character you labelled as Mario's counterpart, Papa, has Toad's abilities, and vice-versa for Imajin, the guy you labelled as Toad's counterpart. Oh, and if you find the fact that DDP's Mama shares the role of SMB2's Luigi to be hilarious in hindsight, then we have so much to discuss.
"It's unclear as to why they copied [DDP] in the first place. But many have speculated that the real Mario 2 game was just too much like the first one."
Partial credit, for once. See, Nintendo of America was the one who chose not to sell the original SMB2 abroad. Partly because it was more of the same, but mostly because of its intense, "fustrating" challenge, and at such an early stage, NoA did not want to risk Mario's popularity with a product they felt others would not appreciate. Now, The Lost Levels has been re-released numerous times (I've played it as part of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on Game Boy Color), and I agree that it puts you to the test, alright. But still, better late then never -- or better late than on time, in this case.
"Now, I was never a big fan of Super Mario 2, but a few years ago, they released it again, and this time for the Game Boy Advance. Super Mario 2 was given a complete makeover, and the end result is amazing. I can honestly say that for the first time, this truly feels like a Mario game."
Even though the level designs and core mechanics have gone unchanged?
"They totally revamped all the levels..."
By which you mean they simply changed around the enemy placement and added five red coins per level.
"...included a lot more power-ups, mixed in with some interesting enemies..."
Both of which are merely larger versions of things already present in the game.
"...and now finding hearts to replenish your health is so much easier."
Seriously, dude? If you think a game holding your hand is a deciding factor of quality... well, you may be right some times, but this is not one of those times! You must secretly suck at gaming -- and this isn't the only example. It has come to my attention that you could only get through the first few levels of subjects like Resident Evil 5 and Robocop 2, and you only made it as far as you did on Final Fantasy III and Ghosts & Goblins because you cheated. Hoo boy, I can't wait to challenge you to some sort of showdown somewhere along the line.
So what do I think of the game? It's certainly well-executed, no surprise coming from a Nintendo product. Sure, the pick-up and throw mechanic is different than what we're used to, but with the way the game revolves around it, it becomes second nature fast. (And if it doesn't, it's you that needs to change.) My biggest beef with the original version is its lack of a save function, but unlike a certain someone I just talked about, I'm no crybaby. I understand that back in 1988, this was an unconventional and not exactly cost-effective feature, so I know better than to judge it for that. Besides, that's what the ports are for. All things considered, Super Mario Bros. 2 scores 90%, an A-.
Okay, I'm gonna say this upfront, just to get you thinking. This is set in World War II, and you play as an American pilot fighting against the Imperial Japanese air force. And this was made by a Japanese company. ...Does this connection seem weird to you? Okay, to be fair, Japan in the 80s was a far cry from Japan in the 40s, and there are no humans shown in-game. Plus, if modern Japan can finally own up to the Tojo era by treating it as a villain, then they may finally have made some progress in that area. In case you haven't been in a Japanese history class lately (neither have I), then you may notice that the Japanese today are very afraid of bringing up their prewar era and the atrocities committed against China, Korea, et. al. therein, almost to the point (if not worse) of modern Germany and the Nazis. Even I'll admit, it wan't exactly Japan's finest hour. Thankfully, 1942 stays clear of all the politics and invites you to just have a good time. But is it good enough to let you do so?
First showing up in 1984, 1942 comes from Capcom's first wave of arcade games, and it became their first true franchise, with somewhere around five sequels made since. It's a pretty simple little shoot-em-up in the grand scheme of things, far-removed from the Bullet Hells of today, but it does evolve the formula set by other titles like Space Invaders and Galaga. You play as a P-38 Lightning fighter for the Allied forces, and your ultimate goal is to survive a series of 32 levels while shooting down any Japanese planes that would pose a threat to your safety. Considering that at this point in time we were gradually moving away from video games you would just try to get a high score at, and could theoretically go on forever, to those with a definitive story and ending, having 32 levels which last as long as they do is pretty substantial. It's certainly a turnabout from its latest sequel, the download-exclusive 1942 Joint Strike, which only has four levels.
Can you see the enemy planes in this shot?
Ignoring how much game we have on our hands, you may believe that what is present isn't all that innovative, but try to understand that it was, for its time. There are numerous types of enemy planes, including some that take more than one hit to shoot down. They move in intricate, looping paths in numbers of up to a dozen on-screen at once. Formations of red planes give out power-ups (most of which, I'll admit, aren't all that impressive). In addition to shooting them down, you can perform loops to prevent yourself from crashing into bullets or other planes. As for how I play, I don't use the loops much; I just keep them for the point bonuses. And blank black space backgrounds? Forget about it: you get to fly over patterned seas and, in later levels, green islands complete with beaches. Too bad they tend to obscure you and/or the other planes.
So, with so much going on, how well did 1942 survive the porting to the NES. Answer: it didn't. The frame rate is atrocious (although this being a shoot-em-up, a little slowdown now and then is appreciated), almost as bad as the last game I reviewed. When oversized enemies fly near the top of the screen, some of their parts will be missing. Don't believe me? Check the screenshot below. On rare occasions, your shots will fail to fire even if the shooting sound effect plays. Even the HUD flickers every so often of you look hard enough. And that music... that horrible noise that's just drums and whistles! Okay, so it is the same music from the arcade version, but it's rendered so poorly and scratchy on this version.
It's not location-specific damage; it's a glitch.
Coming from an earlier time, 1942 is more of a no-frills shooting experience than most of you might be used to. I can imagine that it won't be to everyone's taste, but every now and then I can appreciate games without all those modern complexities. And complicated or not, I have to admire how much content they packed into it all. Seriously, try playing through all 32 levels yourself in one sitting (infinite mid-level continues are gracefully provided). Just do yourself a favor: if you are interested in trying out 1942, stay away from the NES version. A direct port of the arcade version is available as DLC for Wii (US$5) and on Gametap's basic subscription package (US$5/month). Or you could check out its sequel, 1943: The Battle of Midway, which was also ported to the NES. I hear that one runs pretty well.
Control: 3 Lightnings out of 5 Design: 3 Lightnings out of 5 Graphics: 1 Lightning out of 5 Audio: 1 Lightning out of 5 Value: 3 Lightnings out of 5 The Call: 45% (D-)
P.S. At this point, given the recent unpleasantness, I would like to delve into a little editorial content. As you know, Capcom has made a few... boneheaded business decisions over the past month. Out of rage, I was about to suggest to you readers that you boycott any and all Capcom-published games, which includes downloading the aforementioned Wii port of 1942. But I've had some time to think since I came up with the idea, and in this case, I'll say it's okay to buy 1942 if you really want to try it out. We shouldn't look at the company's game portfolio as a whole, but instead give our support to the franchises which deserve it the most. Since 1942 and its sequels are one of their lesser-developed franchises, then, why not?
Next Episode: After my previous rant, I still have some ill will pent up in me, so I'll take it elsewhere, like the Empire State... of Mind.
It may be a lost art these days, but one of the hallmarks of any worthwhile spoof movie is the ability of its writer(s) to see the potential for humour in mundane, everyday activities. I'll get into that more when I actually review something from the genre, but for now I'd like for you to imagine applying that concept to a job like, I don't know, a bicycle paper route. This is the basic idea behind the video game Paperboy. This game originated as an arcade machine made by Atari Games (as discussed previously, they were separate from Atari's home console division) in 1984, notable for employing an exercise bike-like controller, letting you pedal and turn the handlebars to control your character. As was the usual routine in the 80s, a slew of home ports of Paperboy were released for home consoles and computers. I will be focusing on the 1988 release for the Nintendo Entertainment System (which, unlike other Atari Games/Tengen titles, got a licenced release by Mindscape), as it has nostalgic value for pretty much my whole family.
Getting your angle right is part of the challenge.
Your mission in this game is to ride your bike down the street and throw newspapers to subscribing households. When starting up a new game, you are randomly assigned 10 out of the 20 houses on the block as subscribers (colour-coded in light blue/yellow/white); the other 10 are non-subscribers (colour-coded in dark red). To successfully deliver a paper to a subscriber's house, you have to throw it onto the front doormat, or into the mailbox for more points. You can adjust your aim angle by pedaling faster (Hold Up) or slower (Hold Down), and while the ideal angle is frequently difficulty to get down pat, I'll accept that as part of the challenge. When your supply of papers runs low, find and pick up a bundle to restock. Any subscribers you miss will become non-subscribers in the next round, and if you run out of subscribers, the game is over. You can get one back by delivering to all existing subscribers.
Each round ends with an obstacle course, serving as a bonus section. This dirt-road maze of jumps and walls is controlled by a time limit, which determines your point bonus should you finish succesfully. The time limit in this section always used to spook me as a kid; however, there is no penalty for running out of time, and even crashing doesn't cost you a life as it does in the main section. There are also blue and pink target objects lining the paths here which, along with many, many objects in the main areas, can be knocked over or broken for points. (For the longest time I had no idea you could knock over these targets, since they resemble oversize tires and car batteries.) Some of the traps, such as moving ramps and gates, highlight the game's worse-than-optimal hit detection, but again, it's a good thing that the training courses are penalty-free.
The Training Course is less stressful than the time limit suggests.
Paperboy is weird, at least for an American game. The traps littering the roads and sidewalks include breakdancers who seem to be stuck on their backs, tires and lawnmowers that move on their own, miniature tornado funnels, and even the grim reaper. It's a shame that the less-than-exemplary quality of the graphics make some these things hard to make out. For example, I always used to think the aforementioned grim reapers were just old ladies, what with them shaded entirely in gray apart from black dots for eyes. And the baby blue/yellow colour scheme they chose for your character is just lame. Now, I know the NES's colour palette is limited, but the likes of the Mega Man series -- which got its start before this -- had far better graphics and art direction than this, which would be passable on Atari's old systems. The music is rather minimal and bares only a passing resemblance to the arcade version's tunes, and some of the sound effects come across as weird, especially the one that plays when you pick up extra papers.
Going back to take a formal, in-depth look at Paperboy, I was surprised to discover as many flaws as I did. While the controls, far from perfect as they may be, are easy enough to handle with practice, the only way to describe the graphics is that they were beaten by the ugly stick. That said, it's still a fun and challenging title if you're looking to kill a little time, and if you think about it, it presents a novel take on the shoot-em-up genre. It is, long story short, flawed yet engaging.
Control: 3 newspapers out of 5 Design: 4 newspapers out of 5 Graphics: 2 newspapers out of 5 Audio: 2 newspapers out of 5 Value: 2 newspapers out of 5 The Call: 65% (C)
P.S. I am sorry to report that Paperboy does not work on most after-market "Famiclone" consoles. When tested on the Retro Duo and FC Twin (both reviewed in my description of Famiclones), the game would boot up, but would not read any controller input no matter what. Coincidentally, most of the other Tengen-published games, including the unlicenced "black cartidge" titles, suffer similar compatibility issues, so I wonder if there's a connection. For futher discussion on the topic, read my review on their version of Pac-Man. So, if my review has enticed you to try out Paperboy, be sure to have your old "toaster" control deck in working order.
In the history of video games, the turn of the 1990s was the age of the ninja. Think about it: we had Ninja Gaiden, Strider, two Shinobi games, two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, Demon Sword -- hey, wait a minute!
That guy's not a ninja! That's just some discount Conan the Barbarian! Ah, but here's the thing: in the game itself, you definitely control a ninja -- I can tell. His weapons of the trade are a sword, shuriken stars, and various types of magic. He soars from tree to tree in a bamboo forest in monster jumps. The bosses he faces, as well as the settings in which he does so, are also taken out of Japanese mythology. No, my good sirs and ladies, the cover-up will not last so long as I'm around.
Perhaps I should explain. A little while ago, it was the "norm" for media being exported from Japan to America and Europe to have any Japanese cultural elements removed or replaced with things more recognisable. This is how we get such classics as rice balls in anime being passed off as powdered donuts. Call me an otaku, but... I just don't see the point of going through the trouble. Yes, it could be to avoid assumed culture shock, but they could just as well pass it off as a new cultural experience for the kiddies to learn about... in a cool way. Fortunately, this trend seems to be over, no matter what 4Kids says. Shows in the mid-2000s, such as Power Rangers Ninja Storm (2003) and Naruto (2005) proved that you could successfully market shows to children while keeping Japanese cultural elements intact. ...Either that or the American cover artist and manual writer(s) didn't play this game themselves.
But enough about my ranting; let's talk about the game itself. Demon Sword is an unofficial sequel to The Legend of Kage (1987, NES), another ninja game. The plot stars the warrior Victar, whose titular sword must be re-assembled to its full power to slay an oppressive demon overlord. ...Or, based on what I could translate from Japanese Wikipedia, it stars the unrelated warrior Ashura, a descendant of Buddhist mythology figure Acala, who must save the Emperor's daughter from being used in a sacrifice by said overlord. Whatever; the backstory isn't really referred to in the game itself, apart from a few minor cutscenes. VictarAshura ...ah, screw it, I'll just refer to him as "you". "Your" weapons are the titular sword (A), an endless supply of shuriken (B), and fire, lightning, and wind magic (Select). Starting out, the sword deals twice the damage of your stars, but has an abysmal range of only a few pixels in front of you. However, both the sword and stars' performances are upgradeable.
Magic and upgrades are hidden in bonus rooms.
In each of the seven levels, no matter where you go (apart from bosses or bonus rooms), you'll be assaulted by an infinite stream of enemies, and most bosses take a huge amount of hits, but it's important to take them on so you can collect items vital to survival. Red orbs fill a unit of your lifebar and black orbs extend it by one unit each, but for some reason they don't take effect until your lifebar drains. If you don't have the enclosed instruction book on hand, confusion will ensue. Keys open bonus rooms, where you fight minibosses for magic and shuriken upgrades, which reminded me of Kid Icarus. Other types of items let you survive falls into bottomless pits (which only exist on the first level...), shoot stars in four directions at once, and give you invincibility and a trail of shadow clones. Farming for items is an essential part of this game, because you get three lives, but once those are gone, your game is over, no continues, nothing. ..Or so it would seem.
Actually, there is a continue and password function in this game, but they're hidden by button codes. On the Game Over screen, hold Down and press B, A, B, and A to get your password and continue the game. To load a password from the title screen, hold Up and press A, B, A, and B. These codes may be easy to remember -- either one is basically the mirror image of the other, but the same cannot be said for the 17-character passwords. Fortunately, these passwords save your items and stats as well as position. And yes, these codes are included in the original manual, but like I said, these days you're less likely to come across them included with copies of the game itself.
You can almost leap tall buildings in a single bound.
The jumping and movement physics, while befitting of the "awesome" ninja archetype, take some getting used to from a usability standpoint. Your character's running speed is fast enough to give Sonic a worthy challenge (in some ofhis games, at least), and your jumping height (in case you haven't figured it out, you press the Up direction to jump) is beefed up to match. The downside of having such super-powered speed is that you run the risk of running into one of those infinitely-spawning enemies I mentioned earlier. Also something to be mindful of is that, while jumping in one direction, you can change your horizontal speed but can't turn around. This is a pinch of realism compared to the jumping mechanics of most other platform heroes, but drawing the line between realism and playability is a tricky proposition. You also have the ability to climb tree trunks and other vertical surfaces. While you still retain the ability to attack while climbing, the fact that automatically grab onto these surfaces while airborne hinders the flow of movement, in my opinion.
The Japanese release of this game is titled Fudō Myō'ō Den ("Legend of Acala") and shipped out in March 1988. Apart from the manual's backstory matching up with the game itself, there's a whole lot more content to be found compared to the American Demon Sword. There are more cutscenes with (Japanese) text, more types of magic and items, and six more levels, bringing the total level count to 13. ...Wow, that's almost half the content they ripped out of the American release, and I have to ask... Why? Granted, one of the cut levels was a graveyard, and in the 8- and 16-bit eras Nintendo vetoed the use of religious symbolism in games for their consoles, but I've seen examples getting around that. So... I've got nothing. On the other hand, the life bar from Demon Sword has been removed. Taking one hit (without the right items to back you up) costs you a life, so even though the password system remains intact (without needing button codes to work), you'll need a lot more skill and patience to slog through this version.. While Fudō Myō'ō Den is superior for being twice as long and otherwise more fully featured, playing Famicom cassettes outside of Asia is a complicated affair, since cartridge converters are way hard to find, much less at a reasonable price. That said, don't feel too bad if you're stuck with the American version. It's still as much of a challenge as many games of the era were wont to be.
Japanese: 1 kanji out of 5 (Japanese version only)
Control: 3 missing levels out of 5
Design: 4 missing levels out of 5
Graphics: 3 missing levels out of 5
Sound: 3 missing levels out of 5
Value: 3 missing levels out of 5 (NA) / 4 missing levels out of 5 (JP) The Call: 70% (C-)
First of all, I would like to make a correction to my review of Track & Field II. When I brought up the fact that you have to play a harder version of Championship Mode after going through it once, I said you were unable to continue if you failed an event the second time around. I only said that because I couldn't get to what would have been the first milestone. But, I recently bought myself a decent turbo controller (the SNES Super Advantage), and it worked well enough to take West Germany all the way to the end. Now that I have finally beaten the game, I would like to retract what I said before and officially state that you are indeed allowed to continue in the finals. As in the preliminaries, you are given a password after every third event. It's just that the game ends immediately after failing an event instead of waiting for the next checkpoint. I admit it's something I wish the game did before, since having you go on if you were already doomed to a game over didn't make sense to me.
Well, now that I got that out of the way, I figured it would be a good excuse to take an in-depth look at all the events found in this game. Some are good and some are bad; the rating of 60% that I gave this game reflects that.
Fencing: A simple versus-fighter game. The first player to land five hits on the other wins. You stab with A, holding Up or Down to aim high or low, and block by holding B. It's not a very polished game, as was nearly every fighting game before (the first) Street Fighter II. The easiest way to win is to always aim low, so skill isn't as important as luck.
Triple Jump: Since this is the first sport that involves button-mashing, this was a major roadblock for me, and we're only two out of twelve sports in! You mash A to build up speed, and when you get up to the foul line, press B to jump. Holding B for longer increases the angle of your jump; I recommend aiming for 45 degrees for each jump. This sport returns from the original Track & Field, and I imagine not much has changed.
Freestyle Swimming: This is another button-masher, but this time you have to deal with two buttons instead of one. A builds up speed, while B builds up oxygen. If your oxygen meter depletes, you'll stop for a moment to breathe automatically, which kills your chances of making the qualifying time.
High Dive: To start out, you select the type of dive you want to take (your choices vary between Forward, Backward, Reverse, Handstand, and Twist), but there's really no difference that I know of. Then, while you're in the air, you perform tucks and pikes by pressing B with Left or Right pressed. Ideally, you're supposed to stop just before you hit the water in order to get the best angle. The truth is, I have not found any consistent way to get high grades; I would even go so far as to call the judging completely random. At least you have four attempts to be lucky enough to get a qualifying score.
Clay Pigeon Shooting: There was a similar event in the first Track & Field, but it's much more straightforward this time around. Press B to manually launch your targets, the Control Pad to move a cursor, and A to fire. It's pretty fun, except for the fact that at 40 targets total, it drags on for a while.
Hammer Throw: Here's an interesting twist: instead of mashing a button to build up power, you "rotate" or hit directions on the Control Pad clockwise to swing the hammer around. Then, once your athlete starts flashing, hold and release A to throw it. Because of the control mechanism, I was able to score well on this even without a turbo controller, but it all goes wrong when you try to throw it. Unlike in the Triple Jump, you have to hold A for a while before the angle starts going up, and if your timing's off, it may not respond at all.
Taekwondo: Another fighting game, except this is possibly even more broken than fencing. The A button punches and B kicks, and you have to whittle down your opponent's stamina bar before he does the same to you. The problem is, every so often you or your opponent might collapse from a hit. It's not like in Punch-Out!! where you have to mash buttons to get back up; as long as your life isn't at zero, you'll always get back up. So, it's nothing more than a waste of time. Besides, the punches are useless; it's way more effective to just spam kicks. Two-player enabled.
Pole Vault: Similar to the Triple Jump. You start out by selecting your starting height, and (once again) you have to mash A to build up speed. Then you have to press and hold B when the blue tip of your pole is over a box on the ground, then release it when you're over the bar. It takes practice to get the timing right without being fouled out, but I got it down quickly. A successful jump will increase the bar height for your next at
Canoeing: This one is interesting. You have to go through a series of gates, mashing A to move forward and B to go backwards. Some of the gates make you enter from the back or in reverse; missing adds a 30-second penalty. Strangely, the qualifying targets are given in points instead of time. The physics are a little off, too; if you run into a wall while going too fast, your momentum going in makes it tough to get away.
Archery: This event plays completely differently than the arcade-oriented version in the first Track & Field. Mash A to build up strength and press B to fire the arrow. You don't need to be at full power to hit the closer targets, and in fact I would advise against it, too. The catch is that you also have to adjust your aim with the Control Pad, taking wind into account. The directional arrows in the wind meter correspond to the mimi-map at the top of the screen and not to the main view, but other than that there's not much wrong with this event.
Hurdles: Another revival from Track & Field, plus the closest thing this sequel has to a straight-up race. Mash A to run and B to jump over the hurdles. Oddly, the hurdles all have a shallow pool of water behind them, as if it were a horseback steeplechase. Still, there's to complain about with this event.
Horizontal Bar: Way to end on a low note. This, the final event in Championship Mode, combines nearly everything wrong with this game into one. It's a button masher, the non-mashing controls are poor, and like the High Dive, it's based on a grading system which seems to have no relation to what you just did. Building up power by mashing A changes the tricks you can do by pressing B, but loading your routine with high-powered maneuvers won't necessarily earn you the best grades. You can help things along by sticking the landing (press and hold Up just as you land), but really you'll be lucky to get at or above the qualifying mark.
Well, I only have time for one more review for NES month, and since I believe in making a lasting... last impression, it has to be something climactic. And here I was, trying to choose between Paperboy and Jack Nicklaus Golf, two games that I've known for along time but no one really cares about. So I took a different route, and tried to think of something controversial. Something that I've played, that I have a lot of opinions about... which are pretty much the only requirements for something to show here on on the SDP. Hmmm... ZELDA II!
The apparent trend in NES games in 1988 was sequels that differed radically from their predecessors. I am of course thinking about the American Super Mario Bros. 2, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. These games have split the fanbase due to how radical of departures they were, and series fans either have to love them or hate them. (Less so for Mario 2; that one seems to have gone over pretty well.) The main, if not only, reason for all this decisiveness is because the original games were such masterpieces, even to this very day. True, I never played anything in the Legend of Zelda franchise until Ocarina of Time, but I got to the first game eventually, and I still love it despite its quirks. I don't care that it doesn't follow all the rules set by the original and by everything that came after it; I love it for what it is.
This is one of the few direct sequels in the Zelda franchise. After the events of the first game (I think it's safe to go without spoilers), Ganon is dead and Princess Zelda is safe and ruling Hyrule again. ...Until she is stricken with a sleeping spell. The only way to wake her up involves traveling to six temples to place a gemstone in each, then going to one final temple to find the wizard who can reverse the curse. All the while, the enemy forces are trying to revive Ganon by using the blood of Link. Obviously, Ganon's not the villain of this game, but he does show up on the Game Over screen, something you'll be very familiar with by the time you're done.
Not everything from the first game is gone. [1]
The action takes place in a side-scrolling perspective this time around, taking breaks in an overhead-view map to get from place to place. It's true that there are some things carried over from the first Zelda, such as items you collect to access future areas, and containers to increase your maximum health and magic. This was the first Zelda game to feature magic, which you use to cast a number of useful spells. When most of your time with this is spent in something non-gamers would confuse with Super Mario, you know this isn't an ordinary Zelda title. On the contrary, there are more similarities to role-playing games, like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, both of which were released in Japan beforehand. By defeating enemies in the side-scrolling areas, you get experience points. When you reach certain point targets, you can spend them on stat upgrades. Attack strengthens the damage you deal out, Magic reduces the magic you need to cast spells, and Life increases your defense. Upgrading your Magic or Life stats will also refill their respective meters, so use your upgrades strategically.
As in the first Zelda, there is a battery-backed save function, and it's a good thing; this game is massive, whether for its time or otherwise. There are a total of seven dungeon levels you'll have to explore, and each one is bigger even than any given dungeon from the first Zelda. In order to get through one of them, you'll have to do plenty of level grinding on your own time. Given the low experience returns from random battles, it's easier to do so in caves or temples instead. Wherever you choose to spend your time leveling up, you'll need it; this game is not only big in length, but in challenge. Your sword has a short range, even though you can, once again, fire sword beams only when your health is full. You get three lives, but when they're gone, you have to continue from the starting point, Zelda's palace, even if you were in a dungeon. There are 1-ups to be found here and there, but in one more classic screw-you, they never reappear if you save your game after picking up one of them. Save them for the final level, or just buy one for 9,000 experience points once you've upgraded one of your stats fully. Plus, there are some enemies whose attacks can't be blocked by your shield, and don't get me started with the Darknut knights you'll have to duel with. Spare yourself the trouble of trying to get past their defenses, and jump and attack to hit their heads above their shields.
Sparring with armoured enemies can be frustrating... or trivially easy. [1]
Don't be daunted by all the trivial things that make this rougher to newer gamers; it all plays and looks as good as the best of everything that's out there on the NES. The music, although not composed by Koji Kondo, evokes the same spirit of the original music while being more fully featured. What this means is the dungeon music is no longer so repetitive and minimal. The graphics are well-done, if nothing special, and it's nice to see how your favorite (or not) monsters from the top-down Legend of Zelda are re-imagined for a side-scrolling view. And that's this game in a nutshell: a new way to experience a new adventure just as epic as the last one. Just like the nearly everything else in the Legend of Zelda series, this is nothing short of engaging. There's been nothing like it in the franchise ever since, and it makes you wonder what it would be like if they had done another entry in this style. Forget the controversy it has garnered over the years -- the results would be EPIC. So for now, I encourage you to enjoy what we've got.
Control: 4 Triforce pieces out of 5
Design: 4 Triforce pieces out of 5
Graphics: 4 Triforce pieces out of 5
Audio: 5 Triforce pieces out of 5
Value: 5 Triforce pieces out of 5 The Call: 90% (A-)
Thank you all for joining me in this month-long journey through some of the best and worst the NES has to offer. This is by no means the last time I'll cover games for this great system, since given its library of almost 800 titles (for North America and the PAL region), there's so, so much I haven't played. All the same, since I've done only NES games this whole month, it would be nice to stretch my non-literal legs. I thought I'd be a little daring, and go from Nintendo to... Sega? Look forward to that, vague as it may be, and happy Halloween!
[1] "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link NES Screenshots". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/zelda-ii-the-adventure-of-link/screenshots.
In my quest for the perfect Zapper-compatible game, I have come up with the following conclusion: they're all really short. There are the games that repeat short levels endlessly, or those that have a finite story that is over before you get into it. Today's subject, Freedom Force by Sunsoft, oddly has some of both of these qualities. Although you only get five levels before looping back and doing them again, the prospect of earning the best ending by clearing it four times in a row should keep you coming back for more -- if you can handle it.
The game itself is a glorified shooting gallery, specifically something like Hogan's Alley on steroids. As you slowly pan through a location, you must shoot terrorists as they pop out from behind cover, while not shooting hostages and civilians as they do likewise. These aren't cardboard cutouts, either; everyone's been given quite a few frames of animation, and there's even a tame amount of blood. If you let an enemy go for too long, they'll start shooting at you and drain your health meter. Empty either your health or ammo meter, and of course, your game ends. Shooting an innocent, on the other hand, adds a point to your Error meter. If you fill up your Error meter with six strikes, you go back to the first level with your score intact.
Keep your health and ammo high, but not your error meter! [1]
The only way to get power-ups in this game is to shoot the window in the lower-right corner of the screen as something pops up inside. The Health and Ammo icons refill their respective meters, but nearly every time the Health pickup shows up, it disappears faster than you can even react to it. Now that's just criminal. It's easier to just score points to automatically refill your health, but you can only do this twice (at 20,000 and 60,000 points). If an icon of a weapon shows up, you can shoot it to switch to that weapon. There's no difference between the .38 caliber handgun and the .44 magnum other than what sound they make (but man, is it a satisfying report). The grenade launcher, on the other hand, takes out multiple people when you pull the trigger -- and unfortunately, this includes civilians, so avoid this. The final icon type makes the game harder by having more people appear at a faster rate. If you pile on the Harder items, you'll be shooting almost constantly, which was enough of a challenge for a Time Crisis veteran such as myself.
The plot, paper-thin as it is, suits this game's genre well enough. First, you rescue an airplane that has been hijacked on the ground, and then you proceed through the airport for the next three scenes. The fifth and final scene jumps straight to the mastermind's hideout. Like I said, this game ends before you start to get into it. Clear this level, and you get what can barely be called a cinematic before going back to the first airplane scene. You're supposed to get a different ending if you clear the game four times in a row. I haven't made it that far, but it's a neat thing to work for and it give this game some much-needed replay value.
The Code Breakers mini-game. [1]
After clearing each second and fourth level, you get to play a mini-game called Code Breakers. This is a Hangman-type game wherein you are given a category and must shoot letters to select them. The catch is that you can only shoot letters that are lit up; this group of four letters cycles to the next each second. Since the hit box for these letters is smaller than the people you shoot in the main game, if your light gun's accuracy is fading, it'll be hard to pick out the letter you want. You're done when you make five mistakes (not including repeated or non-lit letters), run out of time, or finish the puzzle. A time bonus is awarded if you complete the puzzle, but you don't lose anything if you can't make it. There aren't that many puzzles, either, compared to thousands in each of the Wheel of Fortune games. Execution aside, it's a nice little diversion that doesn't detract from the core of the game.
1992's Lethal Enforcers may have modernised the light gun genre, but many of its facets can be seen here, in a game four to five years older. Even more shocking is the fact that, for the most part, it all works. Concepts such as power-ups and hostages to avoid are things that have been ingrained into the minds of gamers who have ever frequented arcades in the 90s. While I can't guarantee whether or not they first appeared here in Freedom Force, this is still well ahead of its time, and offers just enough replay value to interest a purchase from light gun fans.
Control: 3 Zappers out of 5
Design: 4 Zappers out of 5
Graphics: 3 Zappers out of 5
Audio: 3 Zappers out of 5
Value: 2 Zappers out of 5 The Call: 75% (B-)
[1] "Freedom Force NES Screenshots". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/freedom-force_/screenshots.
