Classic Gaming Blog

Circus Charlie (Famicom) Review

2013-10-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

This week's game is Circus Charlie for the Famicom. It is a action/adventure game originally released in the arcades then ported to the Famicom.

Personally, me and my brothers played this endlessly, trying to finish this game, getting farther and farther in to game, trying to finish it every time we play it.

Circus Charlie is a circus-themed arcade game. The player controls Charlie, who is a circus clown, who entertains the crowd via different circus acts.

The player must control Charlie to get from the starting point to the finishing podium to clear the stage, while performing the acts. Each stage is a different circus act and with varying difficulty. You control Charlie going to left and right with the directional pad, and depending on the stage, pressing the A button makes Charlie do a specific action for that stage.

The first stage is Charlie riding on top of the lion racing to the podium while jumping through the burning hoops and burning pot of oil.

Stage 2 is about Charlie walking a tightrope and jumping over passing monkeys. Sometimes a blue monkey will quickly go by, and you earn 500 points by jumping over it.

Stage 3 is making Charlie walk on balls. It is a similar to stage 1 but this time, you have to jump over to the next ball, if Charlie touches the other ball, Charlie will fall.

Stage 4 is Charlie standing on a running horse and jumping on the bouncing board. This stage is an autoscrolling stage, and can prove to be a quite difficult stage to clear as for the unpredictable location and spawn of the bouncing boards.

Stage 5 is Charlie doing the trapeze. This is the shortest stage of the 5. However it is also the most difficult of them all.

Since this game is just a Famicom port of the original game, this game has no ending, with your purpose is simply to get the highest score you can.

What is surprising, is that for an arcade game, the game is not fast, frantic or difficult at all. The game is slow paced, and has a more relaxed tone to it compared to games like Berzerk or Pacman. And the difficulty mostly comes from timing your jumps and trapeze.

Good Points:
+ Easy to get into
+ Relax pace
+ Solid arcade gameplay

Bad Points:
- Bad landing detection
- no feeling of momentum which usually leads to miscalculated jumps
- Players can get easily bored with the concept of the game

Choujikuu Yousai Macross (Famicom) Review

2013-09-22T02:28:00.001-07:00

This week's game is Choujikuu Yousai Macross for the Famicom. The game was made by Namco and was released in Japan in 1985. Let's find out how good this game is.

Choujikuu Yousai Macross is a video game based from the anime series of the same name. The story is about the human race fighting an alien race using jets transforming to robots. But the focal point of the story is the love triangle between Hikaru Ichijo, Minmay and Lisa Hayase. Of course it was adapted to English as Robotech.

This game is a horizontal shooting game, aka shmup. The game lets you control, if I am correct in my guess, a VF-1 Strike Pack Valkyrie, to shoot every Zeltrandi enemies. The directional pad lets you move the Valkyrie across the screen, while the A button lets you shoot. The B button, in conjuction with the directional pad, lets your Valkyrie transform to one of the 3 modes, the Valkyrie or the jet form, the Guardian mode, or the halfway between the robot and jet form or the Battroid mode, the robot form.

The game also gives you missile barrage, more commonly called as Itano Circus. You can do it by pressing select at any time, however, it is limited ammunition but you can pick up more in the stage or when you die. Unfortunately, the missile barrage is unreliable in this game, the missiles don't follow the enemies and you are better off using the guns on your Valkyrie.

In the game, your objective is to go through the hordes of the enemies to get to the Zentradi battleship. And then you have to go inside and go to the core and shoot it.

When you are inside the battleship, there is a time limit to get to the core and destroy it. When you get to the core, you have to shoot the middle of it. When you shoot all the middle pieces of the core, you have finished the stage, and begin again with higher difficulty.

In the end, Choujikuu Yousai Macross game for the Famicom is an ok game, not bad, not great either. It sets out what it wants to do, mainly giving the player the control of a Valkyrie and does it pretty well.
The missile barrage was definitely flawed, but kind of expected since it is a Famicom game.

Unfortunately, this game has no ending, so I can not show you screenshots of the ending.

Ikki (Famicom Review)

2013-09-14T12:35:00.003-07:00

This week's game review is Ikki for the Famicom. This is probably the most legendary game in the Famicom library. Not because it is a good game, but it is a bad game. This is the legendary "kusoge" or shit game. But what makes the game bad? Is it really bad? Or is it one of those misunderstood games, or even flawed but harshly criticized game?

Well read more about the game after the jump.

Believe it or not, I quite played Ikki a lot back in my childhood days. I played it a lot along with B-Wings, Musashi, Konami Wai Wai World, Battle City and more. But more on that later.

Ikki is basically a top down screen scrolling arcade style shooter. The controls are easy enough. The directional pad. Similar to games like Berzerk and Robotron 2084. However, unlike those games, the player only shoots sickles one at a time. However, unlike other games, where you only shoot where the character is facing, or using twin sticks to control aiming, Ikki has the player shoot automatically where the closest enemy is. It is actually quite effective.

Ikki is a game about a farmer in Feudal times in Japan, starting a rebellion against a vicious feudal lord. Unfortunately, it is a one-man rebellion, due to not having any other participants other the protagonist Gonbe. Or you can make it two-man rebellion with Tago, if it is a 2 players game.

The players must collect 8 golden coins scattered around the stage in order to go to the next one. There are 4 stages overall in the game and a bonus round after a few stages, where you collect onigiri thrown by the old man. After completing the 4 stages, it goes back on loop to stage 1 with harder and faster enemies.

There are some items that helps the player finish the stage or impede the player. Items like the radish, makes the player walk faster for a few seconds, the bamboo pole and the lady who follows the player, where when she touches the player, the player is stuck in place for a few seconds.

One of the biggest problems for the players is the player speed. The character unfortunately moves very slow compared to the ninja enemies he can encounter. Already, the player is at a disadvantage at the start. And the ninjas moves and shoots fast, which is almost impossible for the player to dodge enemy attacks. The game often needs precise timing from the player in order to hit them with the sickle. And the ninjas spawn at an incredibly fast rate, which can easily overwhelm the player.

But the biggest problem in the game is the screen scrolling. The player must be very close to the edge of the screen for it to start scrolling. Unfortunately, the edge of the screen are usually where the enemies spawn. Making it really hard for the player. Also, there are no visual boundaries like fences or walls on the playing field, so the player has no idea if it is the end of the stage or not.

I think these issues elevate the game to the legendary "kusoge" status. But I think the game does not deserve that title. The game is quite playable, no game breaking bugs. And the game does not let player go through hoops and leaps of logic in gameplay like Atlantis no Nazo where you kill yourself at a certain point to warp. However, I think a few minor fixes to the game such as putting fences or walls at the edge of the stages, making the player move faster, fixing the screen scrolling issue, makes this game passable or playable if not good.

Ikki will be remembered throughout the gaming history as one of the legenday "kusoge". However, if you want to try looking at a great piece of gaming from the past, you can try Ikki.

Good Points:

+ Easy to understand gameplay

+ Good shooting system

Bad Points:

- Bad screen scrolling

- Slow player movement

- Enemy spawn too fast and shoots too fast to dodge

Sample Gameplay Video

Contra (Nes, Famicom) Review

2013-09-04T21:05:00.003-07:00

This week's game is Contra for the Nes and Famicom. Contra is a shooting action game for the NES in America and the Famicom in Japan. It was released in February 1988 in America and Japan, and Europe version in 1990 by Konami. It must be noted that Contra is originally an arcade game ported to the NES and Famicom systems, but the home system version is the far more popular version of the game. Contra will probably be on a lot of gamers' minds as one of their favorite games.

In this game, you control one of the two commandos, Bill "Mad Dog" Rizer for the player one and Lance "Scorpion" Bean for the player two, who are sent to destroy the evil terrorist organization Red Falcon Organization. The players must guide the commandos through levels, shooting everything in the way. At the end of the level, the players must confront the stage boss and defeat it to go to the next stage.

One interesting thing about this game, is that it quite shares a lot of the aesthetic of Commando and Terminator movies, which both star the famous actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even the player characters look a bit like him.

Players are given three lives at the start of the game, and a hit from enemy fire or touching the enemy will kill the player. But the player will respawn at where the player died. The player is given three continues that they can use when they run out of lives.

The players can pick up special weapon powerups for their guns that disappear when the player dies. The player can get it by flying weapon canisters that whist by the player in the air. The player can get one of the six available powerups in the game. They are Machine gun, Rapid fire, Spread shot, Laser, Fireball and the Invincibility shield, that only last for a few seconds.

There are eight stages in the game, each has a different setting.

Stage 1: Jungle

Stage 2: Base

Stage 3: Waterfall

Stage 4: Base 2

Stage 5: Snow Field

Stage 6: Energy Zone

Stage 7: Hangar

Stage 8: Alien Base

The Bosses

Stage 1 Boss:

Stage 2 Boss:

Stage 3 Boss:

Stage 4 Boss:

Stage 5 Boss:

Stage 6 Boss:

Stage 7 Boss:

Stage 8 Boss:

What is interesting in this game, is that up until stage 8, there are no signs of alien invasion or anything involving alien, monster creatures.

What is more interesting is that the alien creatures and boss is vaguely reminiscent of the aliens in the movie Aliens. From the crawlers to the giant alien head, it has a very Aliens-like motif.

In the end, Contra, blends the feel and aesthetics of Commando, Terminator and Aliens, mixing it together and giving the players one awesome game.

Ending:

With fast paced action, two player co-op mode, frantic shooting and tough bosses to beat, Contra is one of the classic games to be remembered. And it helped spawn the infamous Konami Code.

Still no Videos???

2013-09-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hi. I know that it took me a long time to post a new post on this blog. But I had to deal with a lot of personal problems along with money problems. So the video reviews will have to wait.\

But in the meantime, I will now continue posting reviews of classic games that I hope you would enjoy.

Happenings

2011-02-10T03:20:00.000-08:00

Hi, I don't know if anyone is reading this blog yet, or of my other blogs, but I'll keep everyone up-to-date to the 1 reader who reads this blog.

Right now, I think I missed one weekend on giving a blog entry on a classic game. However this is due to my plan to also make a video on these classic games. Right now, I'm trying to set it up, and taking a lot time. I'm not so good at speaking, and the equipment is cheap and old, so the voice and sound isn't so good. But I hope that everyone who will watch the videos will enjoy it.

1942 (Famicom)

2011-01-28T20:59:00.001-08:00

Our game for the week is 1942 for the Famicom. It was released in 1985 by Capcom. It is a vertical shooter game, but not a very good one at that. One main draw of this game is that it doesn't have spaceships, aliens or whatsoever. The enemies and the player are all World War 2 planes.

The player controls a WW2 plane, and then try to shoot the enemies down. The controls are quite tight, but the movement is slow. The player press the B button to shoot and the A button to dive to safety. However, the player can only perform dive 3 times.

The player can get powerups, but it is limited. However, the enemies are quick to be defeated and does not pose a lot of threat. Bullets are quite easy to evade, but in later stages, bullets will hail from different directions. Difficulty comes from the slow movement of the player's plane.

There are 32 stages in all and no passwords, so whenever the player has to play, he/she has to start from the beginning.

Graphics are quite bland but the background is mostly sea with some islands that appear sparsely. It is serviceable because the great contrast between the planes and the sea background, but the background can get dull very quickly.

Sound is very very grating to the ears. There's no music either.

Good Points:
+ Easy
+ Responsive controls
+ Solid Gameplay

Bad Points:
- No music, bad sound design
- background is repetitive and dull
- slow movement of player plane

Screenshots:

Armadillo (Famicom)

2011-01-22T01:34:00.000-08:00

The game of the week is Armadillo. Armadillo is a platforming game released for the Japanese NES or Famicom in 1991. It is published by IGS. Players control an armadillo with a hat. Players are put in a board style map similar to Mario Brothers 3. The player must clear the stages to proceed. In each map, there is a boss in the board that roams around that you have to fight in order to finish the current level to move on to the next. You can actually finish the boss and move on to the next map without finishing all the stages in the map!

Players can move left and right. Pressing the A button makes the player jump while pressing the B button makes the player transform into a ball. Players can also slide down the wall slowly. In
later stages, the player can get some powerups that gives an additional transformation such as
bird and snail and more.

The main feature of the game is the ball transformation. When the player transform into a ball, the player can defeat the enemies by jumping on them. Also, the player can jump even higher on ball mode by making himself bounce up and down on the ground.

As for the controls, its quite dodgy yet not so unresponsive. The player moves slow and the jumps are quite floaty, you need some time to get used to it, but the controls are not so frustrating that it is unplayable.

The graphics are quite colorful and bright. But sometimes the background can get in the way. There are also sushi bars and restaurants in the background that the player can enter for some hints and tips.

I remember this game widly as a kid as I tried to finish game and failing. Many weekends are wasted trying to finish the game.

The game is not quite as good as Mario but way better than most of the platformers that can be found in NES or Famicom. It has solid gameplay mechanics, workable controls, and elements that are not found in other games, Armadillo is a good classic game.

Pros:
+ Good gameplay
+ Bright graphics
+ Lots of secrets
+ Medium difficulty

Bad:
- Controls need getting used to
- Difficult platforming in later stages
- Bosses are very easy

Screenshots

Ending:

Welcome To Classic Gaming Blog!

2011-01-21T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hi. This blog is created to blog and review about classic and niche or simply forgotten games of the yesteryears. However, I will also blog about modern games and stuff from time to time.