#0156 Ghouls n' Ghosts

So today I played Ghouls n’ Ghosts. A 1988 platformer by Capcom released in Arcades and then later home consoles.

In this game you play as Arthur again, and you have to save Princess Prin Prin from Lucifer. Again. You all know the drill. Save the princess. It’s dated even in 1988. But that’s not what you’re here for.

This game is a bastard. Straight up. This game HATES you SO much. People talk about difficulty of games these days like Dark Souls, where you need to take your time, learn patterns and exploit them through a series of trial and error while you die over and over again. And the accomplishment you get from FINALLY beating the game that killed you SO many times is such a sweet accomplishment.

People also seem to think this is a unique concept, calling games that are hard “like Dark Souls”. But in reality, this kind of difficulty was around LONG before Dark Souls. Games like this THRIVED on that kind of difficulty.

But the point is, it’s fun! Like, this is a legitimately tight game. The controls are responsive, attacking is easy, I rarely feel like I’m fighting the controls. The graphics are beautifully animated with great looking artwork, amazingly animated sprites, colorful and fun set pieces. It’s just a place you want to explore and just EXIST in because it’s just so gothic and exciting! The game has a self-aware sense of humor that also adds to the joy of the game.

That’s not to say the game is perfect, far from it. This is STILL an arcade game. As such they need you to keep pumping quarters into it. They do this with LOTS of really cheap deaths. Like, take a look at this section here:

See those there? Those parts will RANDOMLY drop you into the pit below you with an ant lion. Now the first two are so far from the edge you can jump out but then look at this shit!

That second one is SO close to the edge of the ant lion there’s no way in HELL you can get out. So you HAVE to know where it is and how to avoid it. Without any hint to what’s coming.

But lame deaths aside, I spent maybe $5 in quarters on this game, and probably would have spent more but I needed to write this review. 

If you’re looking for a punishing platformer that will test your skills as a gamer, this is a GREAT game to pick up. If game difficulty is something that turns you off, this game isn’t going to be an exception.

Next up: Laser Squad

#0155 Forgotten Worlds

So today marks the start of 1988! This was a great year for gaming. The NES was in full swing and was really starting to churn out some gems. Arcades continued to decline during this year as more and more customers flocked to home consoles and more game devs started developing for the NES. The games that DID come out were either not of the best quality, or were soon ported to PCs or game consoles.

And example of one of those arcade games was Capcom’s side scrolling SHMUP Forgotten Worlds.

In this game you play as a HILARIOUSLY 80s Bad Dude trying to fight aliens. And rather than flying in a jet or a cool spaceship you just… Fly…. Space Harrier style, only side scrolling.

I gotta say at the very least it looks and sounds gorgeous. Nice high 16 bit graphics, fun music, and the gameplay is fine I suppose.

Only downside is it’s REALLY not anything we haven’t seen before. It’s really just a poorer R-Type. What it DOES have I have to admit is these awesome stores where you can buy upgrades. Now, a game that is SO gung-ho american I expected the shopkeeper to be either a grizzled weapons merchant, or some large breasted woman in a bikini selling weapons.

What we got instead was… Not what I expected. We got an adorable, kind faced anime girl dressed in what looks like sorcery robes.

Not what I expected at all!

If you’re looking for a good arcade side scroller this one is fine I suppose, you could do a lot worse. But you could also do a lot better, like R-Type.

Next up: Ghoules n’ Ghosts

#0154 Rampage

Okay! As you will notice this is NOT Command Carrier like was promised last time.

I fully intended to PLAY Command Carrier, it looks like a good game, but then I started to look at the manual for the game. It's 64 pages long. 64 pages of mostly dry instructions on how to play the game. I couldn't do it. I honestly couldn't do it. I tried playing the game WITHOUT the instructions but I couldn't even MOVE the dang carrier so I couldn't' do anything. Props for taking a simulation game to the extreme in terms of complexity, but DANG it was just SO complicated.

So instead we have a game that is NOT on the list. Today we have Rampage, a 1986 game from Midway! I love Midway, they've made some of my favorite arcade games including Robotron 2084.

In this game you play as one of three humans turned into monsters through various fashions George the giant Gorilla, Lizzie the giant iguana/dinosaur/Godzilla thing, and Ralph the giant werewolf. (fun fact, Ralph from Wreck It Ralph was named after Ralph in this game) Your goal is to smash up all the buildings while eating as many people as you can to stay alive.

This game is honestly unique. There really hasn't been a game QUITE like this on the list. Not only is the game unique in that it involves a unique style of platforming and climbing, with an emphasis on destroying the play field, but it's also a game where you actively play as the villain. the people you're tasked to devour are the heroes trying to defend their fair city.

Normally I'm absolutely opposed to plots like this, I simply can't enjoy games where I'm actively rooting against the main character, Rampage seems to pull it off for me. There's just such a cartoonish vibe to it. And this disconnects me from those sorts of feelings. The characters are just having SO much fun causing destruction you can't help but root for them. It's honestly a blast.

unfortunately there's really not much in the way of music, and the controls feel clunky and unpolished. But overall the experience has aged surprisingly well.

If you're in the mood for a game about causing as much destruction as you can while playing as giant monsters, you'll have a good time here.

Next up: Forgotten Worlds

#0153 Wizball

It's been a while guys! Alright, so today I played Wizball, a 1987 SHMUP/Platformer maybe/ maybe run 'n gun depending on how ya wanna look at it like that - from Sensible Software for the Commodore 64 and all the other big computers at the time.

In this game you play as a little ball, named Wiz. His problem is some bad guys stoll all the color from his world. So you gotta fight the bad guys and bring color back. The story isn't important, this could be an arcade game for how gameplay-centric it is.

What makes this game stand out is how it's played. You bounce along the terrain. Continuously bouncing in a low gravity world. You can turn and flip and change directions, but you're always bouncing. this is how you move around. Your goal is to collect these little spheres, while shooting hordes of bad guys. Collect all the spheres to move on to the next level.

This... This is a good game! Like, legit! The physics are believable and the bouncing mechanic feels loose and flexible. It's a lot like Mario's Jump from Super Mario Bros. It just FEELS right. It's fun killing stuff, honestly, it's one of the better "platformers" that I've seen since SMB.

Honestly the only flaw that I can see with the game is probably the lack of music on the main levels, and the HORRIFYING difficulty curve. It goes from a nice little tutorial place to pure bullet hell!

Seriously, if you're looking for a really unique shooter/platformer/run 'n gun thing that's unlike anything you've ever played before in your life, you'll probably find something to enjoy here! I love it when this list actually gives me something NEW. But If you're not into platformers, or shooters, this probably won't sway you. If you got a Commodore 64 emulator or even the real thing, this would be worth giving a try!

Aaaaaaand that actually finishes up 1987! Time to award U-G's 1987 Game of the Year award! And the Best game of 1987 is!

Gemini Wing! The quirky and unique SHMUP from Techmo.

Yeah this was actually pretty tough to award. Mostly because while there were a lot of good games coming out of this year, none of them REALLY stood out. No SMB, no Legend of Zelda. Basically what it had to come down to was just which game I would rather come back to the most! And Gemini Wing game out slightly above 1943, and R-Type.

Lookin' forward to 1988. Next game is: Carrier Command

#0152 Sid Meier's Pirates!

So I finally, FINALLY played Sid Meier's Pirates! A 1987 game by Microprose Software.

The game is a pirate simulator where you take the role of a pirate from a country of your choosing and then are just dumped into a big-ol sandbox to do as thou wilt! You can help the English fight the Spanish in their war they got going on. You can plunder towns and other ships, you can sword fight with other captains on their burning ship.

This game really reminded me of something and I just couldn't put my finger on it until I went to a town to buy from a merchant. That's when it hit me. This reminds me of some of the Oregon Trail games I've played. Not the 1971 Oregon Trail, the first game I played on the list, no the early 90s Oregon Trail games from Mecc where you have to balance your crew's well being along with supplies for the long trips you'll be taking. You have to balance how much supplies you'll have vs the weight of your ship. Except rather than just going down a pre-set path, you can go wherever you want! 

But here is where we start to see a bit of the seams coming undone. See, they tried to make this a realistic simulator. So things are really REALLY far apart. Towns, ships, ports, everything will be spread out along the Caribbean. You will sail for DAYS before you see anything of value. 

I also wish the fencing wasn't so clunky. The controls are really unresponsive and delayed. I didn't feel like I was accurately fencing, but rather just moving my joystick in random directions hoping to land something. 

However, those things aside, it's actually a pretty solid simulator. I had a good time! The menus are easy to navigate, the towns are fun to explore, fighting enemy ships and storming towns ended up being more exciting than I had originally thought. Overall i had a good time and I really could recommend it to those looking for a good pirate simulator. Just make sure to hit up the Amiga version for its beautiful visuals.

Next up: We finish up 1987 with Wizball.

#0151 Xybots

Today I played Xybots, a -get this- 1987 third person shooter from Atari! The first 3rd person shooter I've seen on the list and from what I gather, one of the first PERIOD.

you play as a dude named Major Rock Hardy or Captain Ace Gunn (depending on if you're playing first or second player) Your job is to kill robots roaming through narrow corridors. 

This game is YEARS ahead of its time. Implementing two factor movement for the first time in a shooter like this. The normal joystick moves your character left right forward and back, but rather than turning and facing the direction that you press on the joystick, your character strafes left and right. The joystick was built so that it can also rotate left and right to turn your character. This makes movement and shooting a million times more fluid than we've seen in other top down run and guns. This control scheme also meant that I actually had to map the game to a game pad in order to play, which is always fun.

So enough gushing over the innovation and the controls, how's the game? Well, honestly, amazing! I was SO skeptical when I first looked into a corridor third person shooter. We've seen similar corridor style games in Ulima and Dungeon Master, both of which were very clunky and often hard to navigate. While this is still clunky as fluid 3D environments were still their infancy, the fact that you actually move within each "square" rather than pressing a single button to move to the next one feels much better than previous games.

Another great thing about this game is its upgrade system. Basically, you can collect money throughout the level and use that money after you beat the level to buy upgrades for your character. This is the first time I've seen something like this and it's something that's still used to this day in lots of games across many genres, it adds another layer of strategy and decision making.

If I did have a gripe it would be that I'm not a huge fan of the constantly draining energy in a maze game. Your life continuously drains unless you either finish the level, or find more energy in the form of a powerup scattered throughout the maze. the powerups are too few and far between. I often had trouble finishing even the second level due to my life draining and being unable to find the exit or more energy. This causes me to not want to explore the level and just race straight to the exit, despite all the goodies and munchies that might be laying around.

Overall though, it's a solid game, if you're a fan of third person shooters, or shooters in general and are in the mood for something a little retro, this will absolutely scratch that itch.

Next up: Sid Meier's Pirates!

#0150 Shinobi

Game number 150! Woo-hoo! I'm Officially 3/20ths of the way through the entire book!

For my sesquicentennial game I played Shinobi, a 1987 arcade Beat-em-up by those guys from Sega.

The game is a clone of Rolling Thunder, which in turn was a clone of Green Beret. You play as probably the whitest ninja you'll ever see. (It's actually kinda funny how pasty this guy looks). Your goal is to rescue hostages from the bad ninjas. And that's about it. You shoot throw shuriken at them to kill them, and do sick karate moves when they get too close.

The game is fine. Mostly. Remember my Rolling Thunder game from 1986? Yeah it's pretty much that. Mostly.

the controls are fluid, killing things is easy and satisfying, i enjoyed the boss fights a lot.I also will say they really tuned the difficulty here. It's still punishing, but not so much so that I couldn't get past the first level, moving to the right once you know the layout of the level is a lot of fun actually as you know where to shoot, where enemies are going to be, it's really easy to memorize. That made for a better overall game.

Shame my 150th game had to be something so underwhelming. Oh well, I'm sure there's an audience for it, it just didn't really grab me personally.

Next up: Xybots

#0149 Rainbow Islands

So today I played Rainbow Islands, a 1987 Platformer by Taito.

So, before I get into this game, I realized while playing it, that this game was a HUGE source of inspiration for one of my favorite horror games of all time. Eversion. I mean look at the similarities:

Eversion

Rainbow Islands

Both have adorable character and enemies, both have bright overly happy aesthetics, both have alarmingly similar soundtracks. The difference is Eversion is a horror game and isn't for children and can be downloaded and played for free http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://zarat.us/tra/eversion/ here. (There's also a steam version with updated graphics and I highly recommend it)

Anywho, on to the game itself. You play as this little fat kid who shoots rainbows out of his hands. these rainbows can be used to kill enemies and if you climb on them the'll let you climb to higher places. Your goal is to reach the top of every level.

As a game, It's fine. It's an early platformer, they're all just a little off. This one has some particularly sluggish controls, that don't allow you to maneuver like you would. And the rainbows don't do much in the way of weaponry when most of your enemies are coming from directly above or below you. And the rainbows dissolve a second after you touch them so after you climb one you gotta quickly jump to the next ledge before you fall.

I love the style, it's sickeningly sweet, the music is fun and the whole game feels so happy and creative, it's hard not to feel the same while playing it. If you're in the mood for an early platformer that's not Mario, you could do a whole lot worse than this.

Next up: Shinobi

#0148 Operation Wolf

Alright! Last game in the run!

Ya know what's cheating? Playing a rail shooter with a mouse. Ya know what's even MORE cheating? When the game is so stacked against you that it doesn't matter.

This is Operation Wolf. A 1987 Rail Shooter made by Taito. The first Rail Shooter on the list actually! And while it may share the name as shooter with it's other SHMUP bretheran, this is actually an evolution all to itself. See, games like 1943 were inspired by other SHMUPS like Galaga, which was a sequal to Galaxian, which was inspired by Space Invaders, which was inspired by Breakout, a sequel to Pong. nearly all SHMUPS can have their linage traced back to Pong. Operation Wolf, cannot. It was inspired by the Rambo movies and used a new technology where motion sensors tracked a mounted gun (yeah, not a light gun, a motion censored gun) It also had haptic feedback to give you a real sense of kickback from the rifle.

You play as a buff white dude, and your job is to kill anyone who isn't white (it was the 80's, so it's okay). More specifically, your job is to save all the white people from a south american POW camp. And the game follows a fairly linear story even, something that would be followed in later Rail Shooters.

Honestly, it was a lot of fun! Killing people is satisfying, the sounds are loud and energetic, the graphics may be a bit behind the times, but I have a feeling that's due to the technical constraints of the gun technology. If I did have a complaint, it would be that holy cow is this game hard. Like, seriously, I was playing with a frickin' mouse. And the game STILL won.It was basically a point and click adventure, but bad guys keep popping out from the sides of the screen giving you zero time to react.

If you really like Rail Shooters and want a really early example of what they were like, this is probably fine, otherwise, I'd stick to other shooters until they get the kinks ironed out.

Next up: Rainbow Islands

#0147 1943

Alright! Next up is 1943, another SHMUP, this time by those guys at Capcom.

I've played three SHMUPs in a row now. How does each one seem to get consecutively better? Seriously, despite coming out the same year they seem to be learning from each other's mistakes.

1943 has a different way of handling lives than the others. You actually have a life bar. Something I've been absolutely DYING for in these games. OHKOs are a HUGE pain when you're playing SHMUPs so being able to take a hit or two is a really welcome feature.

Another thing handled very well is the powerup system! We finally FINALLY have powerups that are applied immediately to your primary weapon, and you can pick and choose which powerups you want. they don't stack, they're not single use, but they're incredibly useful and every one is unique and interesting.

Along with an amazing sound track, great visuals (if a tad pixelated compared to what came before) and a continue system that leaves you RIGHT where you left off, this is a recipe for a near perfect shooter. I'm legit impressed.

Next up: Operation Wolf

#0146 Gemini Wing

Alright! Next up is Gemini Wing another SHMUP this time by Tecmo.

I'm honestly amazed at how polished and unique these games are looking. Gemini Wing is a top down shmup in the same style as Xevious, and Galaga before it. But where it differs is in its powerups, and I gotta tell you these are some of the COOLEST powerups I've seen in even modern SHMUPs.

See, rather than just getting a couple powerups you need a couple times per level, you get dozens of one-use powerups that stack behind your ship. Every powerup is a single use, but my goodness some of these are just amazing to behold. Like, one will be a giant wall of flames that sweeps back and forth from your ship, another will be giant blue orbs that expand outward like a shield. Each one has the potential to clear the entire screen. And when you die, you don't necessarily lose all your powerups either. Kinda like Sonic did in the 90s, when you die, rather than losing your powerups, they scatter all over the screen, letting you pick up a couple if you're fast enough.

Besides that the music is fun the graphics and sprites look good even today. and the art style is just ADORABLE! Where R-Type was a gritty, serious-looking sci-fi shooter, this is an adorable game about shooting rainbow colored bugs. It reminded me a lot of Galaga in that they obviously put more effort into making the enemies distinctive looking and original.

If I did have a gripe, it'd probably be the controls. Not that they're unresponsive or anything, they're just backwards of what they usually are. Usually the button furthest from you is the attack button, while the one slightly in is your secondary. Here they're switched. A lot of times I found myself looking to use a powerup but hitting nothing because the secondary weapon was on the other side.

Honestly, again, if you're looking for a good SHMUP, this one holds up even to today's standards and is amazingly fun.

Next up: 1943

#0145 R-Type

Alright! We got four arcade games in a row! ya know what that means? That means I can plow through all of them in a single evening. let's rip into these bad boys:

So today I played R-Type, a 1987 SHMUP from Irem.

This game... Is amazing. Like seriously, this was everything Gradius was and more. Like, honestly, this is probably the most polished SHMUP I've seen so far. It has the amazing visuals and sounds of Darius, it has the powerup system of Gradius, it's like the perfect SHMUP game!

Well, ALMOST perfect. I have to say that the powerups, while amazing, take a while to accumulate in power. And the amazing art and smooth animations of every sprite make the game distracting, and hard to concentrate on what's going on around you. I found the difficulty curve EXTREMELY high. At least it has a very robust and forgiving checkpoint system so you never go back too far so long as you have enough quarters. And MAN does this thing eat quarters. I gladly fed the thing like $5 easily.  Amazing game, if you like SHMUPs at all, you NEED to give this game a try.

Next up: Gemini Wing

#0143 Maniac Mansion

today I played Maniac mansion a 1987 Point and Click Adventure from LucasArts, and from what I've heard, a real cult classic.

(yes I included a screenshot this time. Just kinda felt like it.)

So... How do I put this... the game is... Underwhelming. Maybe because it was so hyped up for me? Being an EarthBound fan I have a soft spot for cult classics, and this certainly has an EarthBound like sense of humor. But I'm not exactly sure what the appeal is honestly.

Okay, so it's about this crazy scientist guy who's trying to extract your girlfriend's brain. Your job is to rescue her from such a fate by exploring this huge creepy mansion. And that's it! Solve the puzzles, save your girlfriend.

When viewed in a vaccum the game is okay, the puzzles seem creative, I like the all-mouse gameplay (seriously, thank god that's starting to become a thing) I like the sense of humor and the atmosphere seems alright.

But when looked at in terms of what came before it, there's really just nothing special about it from what I've seen. We've seen point and click adventures before in DeJavu, we've seen quirky humor in plenty of Infocom games like Planetfall, so I'm really not sure what makes this one so special and beloved.

I have a feeling it's nostalgia, a game many people played with fondness and just grew to love it more and more as they played.

This makes it hard to recommend honestly. If you're REALLY into quirky humor and point and click adventures, this might do something for you, but honestly there's plenty of games that do it better.

If you're reading this, (and let's be honest nobody is :) I see the statistics) and you loved the game, please, by all means, leave me a comment, sell me on it. I'd LOVE to hear what others think of this game.

Next up: R-Type

#0143 Galaga '88

So today I played Galaga '88, a remake of the original 1981 Galaga by Namco.

So before I get into the remake, just like with any sequels or remakes, I think I should probably go over what I thought of the original:

I liked it. Yeah. It was one of the first great SMUPS, but IDK, I think people overhyped it for me. It wasn't as groundbreaking as Space Invaders, and didn't have as big a "wow" factor as Galaxian did (which was the first Color game iirc) but it was a very tight and well designed game. For its time it was an amazing feat that perfected on what Galaxian started.

As for the remake? It's even better. Just like with Arcanoid remake of Breakout and the Blasteroids remake of Asteroids before it. Seriously, the graphics are improved, the sounds are improved, even the gameplay has tweaks that make it feel even tighter than the original. All the things you loved about Galaga are present here, but better presented and feels like a genuine update for the late 80s.

It DOES have a couple issues, but that mainly stems from the fact that it does try to be faithful to the source material. For example, you can still only fire one bullet at a time, there's still no upgrades, and there's really no continue system to speak of. Arcanoid and Blasteroids introduced these elements in their own remakes to keep the title from feeling dated the moment it hit the floor. It is unfortunate, in my opinion anyway, that they chose to keep these design choices, but  I could see some purists preferring this.

If you liked the original Galaga, this one's even better. It's one of the few remakes I've seen where not only is the new one better, but becomes the definitive version of the game. This is one of those games, the gameplay is still just as tight as the original, the sounds and graphics are absolutely amazing, I just wish they would have updated the mechanics to modernize it a little bit.

If you liked Galaga, you're going to absolutely love this game as it's the same thing only better. If you're not a fan of Galaga, this will be okay. I can't see anyone finding the game bad, but some might not like the lack of updated mechanics.

Next up: Maniac Mansion

#0142 Oids

So today I played Oids, a SHMUP developed by FTL Games in 1987.

So before I talk about the game, I wanted to talk about what I had to go through just to play it. See, this game originally only came out on the Macintosh and the Atari ST. I didn't want to have to download yet another emulator. So, I started poking around. Turns out, back in 2014, the game was actually ported! to the Amiga.

That's right, a guy by the name of meynaf on http://eab.abime.net the English Amiga Boards actually ported a 30 year old game to another 30 year old computer.

Admitedly I didn't really look too much into WHY it was ported to such an old computer but it got me thinking about The Amiga, and how people must have really REALLY loved their Amigas back in the day.

The thing was a BEAST when it came out though, so it's really no wonder why it was so beloved by all. It also helps that the Amiga's keyboard is starting to look something more like a modern keyboard. That was always something that's been difficult with other emulators. Emulating the keyboard, the Apple II and the ZX Spectrum's keyboards are almost nothing like IBM PC keyboards, so it's nice to have something that's emulated more accurately.

Anywho, onto the game itself:

It's okay.

For all the effort I put into playing this game in a version that was only released a couple years ago, it was pretty underwhelming. It's a Gravitar clone. It has better, more updated graphics, but I was never a huge fan of Gravitar or Lunar Lander to begin with. Honestly, it wasn't bad, the controls are just like I remembered them being, if you're into physics based SHMUPS, then this might just be right up your ally, but for me, I probably could have given it a pass.

Next up: Galaga '88

#0141 Nebulus

Today was a lot of fun. Today I played Nebulus, a 1987 puzzle platformer by John Phillips for various computer systems.

That's right, this was a puzzle platformer, not on the NES, not on Arcade, but on PC and it was AWESOME!  You play as this little alien dude and your goal is to climb this big ol' tower avoiding obstacles along the way. You get hit by a bad guy, you go tumbling down a couple of levels, fall all the way back down into the water, and you lose a life.

this game introduced a mechanic that I don't think I've seen on the list before, where the main character remains stationary, while the entire world moves around them. It helps you keep track of your character while you move around and the result is some very fun platforming action.

It's helped even more by the fact that the graphics in this game look amazing. It has this affect that you really can't see in the static screenshots, but the sides of the tower narrow and fade as you move around it, giving you this cool 3D looking affect.

If I had to gripe, it'd be about the controls, they're pretty stiff and slugish. Reaction time to jump is pretty slow and the result is not being able to perform the manuvers you'd LIKE to do as well.

but honestly it's just a nitpick, the game overall is pretty amazing, especailly for a PC platformer. If you're into challenging puzzle platformers, give this one a try, it was ported to NES and Gameboy as well as Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST etc.

Next up: Oids

#0140 Head Over Heels

So today I played a kind of surprising game. Head over Heels, a 1987 Isometric Adventure game developed by Ocean Software.

I've played a couple of Isometric games on the list before such as Knight Lore and Fairlight, but this is the first game that felt like a complete and tested game.

You play as a duo, Head and Heels. Head can jump higher and can fire projectiles, heels is faster and can carry items. Together they can jump high, fire projectiles, is much faster and can carry items. See, you play as both, swapping between the two with the press of a button, unlike the other two isometric games, the controls felt tight, and intuitive, the gameplay and map layout felt clear and consise, I felt the challenge was much more manageable, and the two character gimick is actually a lot of fun. You'll run into puzzles where you can't do it as one of the characters, so you have to remember it and come back as the other. It's something modern games do with dungeon layout and it's great to see it here!

Next up: Nebulus

#0139 Double Dragon

Today I played Double Dragon. An arcade beat em up developed by Technos.

A spiritual successor to Renegade, which wasn't on the list, it's one of the most popular and influential beat em up games, and the first beat em up on the list!

You basically gotta save your smokin hot babe from bad guys and... That's it! Save your Girlfriend from bad guys!

The gameplay is pretty good. It's one of the first beat em ups and it shows. The hit box feels inconsistent, bad guys seem to be hit sponges, and the controls aren't super intuitive.

But it's fun! Picking up the bad guys weapon and using it against them is a good idea, and I love love LOVE the continue system. When you lose all your loves you have the option to jump RIGHT back in and keep going. Really gets you spending your quarters.

I feel it would have been even better two player. Overall though, if you're not a fan of beat em ups, this one isn't going to change your mind. But if you like beat em ups, this one's a dated, but still solid game.

Next up: Head Over Heels

#0138 International Karate +

Eh, it's okay.
I did a review of the original Karate Champ a while back, it's almost the same but with more movement allowed. The controls are stiff, and unresponsive still. I had a hard time making attacks flow.
So I did what all gamers do when they're playing a fighting game for the first time.
I button mashed.
I ended up doing okay after that.
It's okay, I suppose, foran 80s fighting game.
Still really not my cup of tea.

next up: Double Dragon

#0137 California Games

So I finally finally FINALLY played California Games. I gotta say, this one wasn't so bad. As far as sports games go, this is probably the most fun I've had with one. Their choice of games is kinda weird, like footbag, but the controls feel more responsive, and more intuitive than the previous sports games I played. Overall not bad, but I've never been a big sports game guy.

It also helps that this game is just FILLED to the brim with 80s cheese. It's just so apologetically 80s that it's hilarious.

Next up: International Karate Champ +