Red Parsley

Master System Round-Up #1

2012-02-01T19:43:00.000Z

'Great' Sports Games - Part 1

You know the habit games companies got into of releasing multiple installments of multiple games of multiple sports, often on multiple systems, but all part of the same series? Well, I could be wrong but I think Sega may have started it all with this very series for their splendid Master System console. All of the games in the series were already available by the time I got around to buying my Master System and I've never had a huge amount of interest in sports games, something partly caused by an overwhelmingly indifferent reception in the case of these particular games, so I still hadn't played them until very recently for this very feature. Can they be as bad as I've heard or are they unjustly cast aside? Bravely, I shall venture forth:

Great Soccer (1985)

As far as I can tell, this was the very first game in the 'Great' range and, since I've never really liked 'soccer' (i.e. football) games before for some reason, I wasn't expecting to like this one either. It's a little surprising as a first release too - the sport wasn't especially popular in Japan or the US at that time after all! The action is viewed from overhead and scrolls up and down the length of the pitch and you can choose from three difficulties before starting a game. The players are all rather squat and almost super-deformed in appearance but look quite appealing, but sadly my first impressions soon went downhill. When in possession of the ball, the players kick it a short distance ahead rather than dribble it so it's hard to keep hold of it for one thing. The goalies are human-controlled too, although I didn't know that to start with (hence the score deficit in the screenshot!) and passing and goal kicks are hard to execute well too. The controls in general aren't very responsive actually, which sadly makes Great Soccer a frustrating and rather futile experience.... 3/10

Great Golf (1986)

On the other hand, I have always been keen on Golf games, although I got into them way after this one came out so it was interesting to see an example of such an early one, and it's actually not too bad. There's training, match play, and tournament modes on offer (with the latter offering games for up to four players), and the action in each is viewed from an angled overhead perspective. There's the usual choice of clubs and a simple aim and power interface which is perhaps a little too simple - quite a bit of practise is required before any degree of accuracy can be achieved with your shots, and it can be a little inconsistent even then, but it's pretty good fun overall, especially with friends. The graphics are bright and clear and the music, while basic, isn't too annoying at least! Great Golf certainly isn't perfect but I've played worse golf games, and on far newer systems too! ... 6/10

Great Football (1987)

This is a sport I like in real life so it was the first one I tried, and initially it doesn't appear to be a bad little game, but some weirdness soon rears its head. It features twelve fictional teams (which seemingly differ only in the colour of their uniforms) and each game takes place over four slightly speeded-up quarters. The CPU team already has a quota of points at the start of the game and you play only on offense with the objective obviously being to score more! There are eight plays for you to choose from which are slowly cycled though. Supposedly you can stop the cycle on your chosen play but I cannot. I don't know if my copy of the game has an oddly-specific error but it basically means I can only run the final play. The biggest problem with this is that as soon as I'm in field goal range, the final play becomes a field goal! The graphics are simple and repetitive but colourful and with surprisingly little flicker, and the in-game music isn't bad either so this would be a fairly enjoyable, albeit basic game if I could stop the play damn selector. Even if it was possible though, you'd be better off sticking to American Pro Football for your MS-based gridiron action.... 2/10

Great Baseball (1985)

The second release in the series was less surprising than the first, given the sport's popularity in both Japan and the US, and unlike Football I can actually play this one! There are six teams to choose from this time and you can play either a normal game or a home run contest, but as is often the case with baseball games, you have only a limited degree of control over the proceedings. As the pitcher you can curve the ball to the left or right slightly, the batter can be re-positioned on the plate in the usual way, and the fielders can be moved around a little, but there's really not much point as they automatically catch high balls anyway! The computer-controlled teams are highly-skilled ones as well, of course, so it would be helpful if there were a few tricks and techniques that could be learnt to thwart them! The viewpoint shown in the screenshot scarcely changes throughout a game and there's no in-game music this time either, with just a few ditties instead, so all things considered, playing this can be a rather boring experience, sadly.... 4/10

Great Basketball (1987)

Unlike some sports, basketball is one that actually translates pretty well to video games, so it's no surprise to find that this is one of the better 'Great' game so far, although that's not really saying much! Strangely, the green playing surface from the previous field-based games is retained but it doesn't really look too out of place, and the sprites, whilst tiny and identical-looking, are quite appealing too (although I couldn't help noticing that there's no black players!). You can tell this is one of the later releases though - there's even some (rather fuzzy) sampled speech. Gameplay-wise, rather than fictional teams there's eight different countries you can choose to represent but it's still very simple stuff. Possible actions begin and end with 'jump' and 'shoot', it's far from realistic, and there's a few puzzling moments, but I enjoyed it more than most of the others games. Not a 'great' basketball game by some distance but it's still a reasonable five minutes of fun for two players.... 5/10

For reasons that will soon become apparent, there will be a second part to this post - look out for it soon!

Top Five Movie Moments #5

2012-01-30T19:23:00.000Z

#5 - Jurassic Park

There are few films that have been released in my lifetime, that I'm able to remember from personal experience at least, that have had a bigger impact than Jurassic Park. For a long time it was among the very highest-grossing films of all-time and the franchise's name still carries a lot of weight today, to such an extent where the oft-delayed fourth instalment in the series still gets me excited! The second and third films were pretty damn entertaining but surely everyone agrees that the first remains the best. I've watched it a good few times now as well, and here are my Top Five favourite moments from it:

Spoiler Alert: the Top Five Movie Moments featured here obviously assume that you've seen the film in question or don't mind knowing about its most prominent moments so don't come whining to me if they ruin a film that you haven't seen yet!

5... Feeding the Brachiosaur

The arrival in the park itself unquestionably fills you with awe and wonder, but if there's one scene that really transports you back into pre-historic times, it's the unexpected sight of a group of giant Brachiosaurs, their necks poking high above the treeline going off into the distance. I'm not sure if they really did sing like whales, and I can't decide if the snot joke adds to the moment or ruins it, but it's a poignant scene for sure.

4... The Philosophical Discussion

Jurassic Park is obviously an action-thriller, a classic example of the genre in fact, but if there's one non-action scene in it that I always look forward to, it's the discussion that takes place shortly before everyone embarks upon their 'tour'. Particularly noteworthy in my opinion are Dr. Malcolm's lines...

Malcolm: "The lack of humility before nature that's been displayed here staggers me."
Gennaro: "Thank you, Dr. Malcolm, but I think things are a little different than you and I feared."
Malcolm: "Yes, I know. They're a lot worse."
Gennaro: "Now, wait a second, we haven't even see the park yet. Let's just hold out concerns until..."
Hammond: "Alright Donald, alright, but just let him talk. I want to hear all viewpoints. I really do."
Malcolm: "Don't you see the danger, John, inherent in what you're doing here? Genetic power is the most awesome force ever seen on this planet. But you wield it like a kid who's found his dad's gun. I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power you've used here - it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge yourselves, so you don't take the responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you knew what you had, you patented it, packaged it, slapped in on a plastic lunch box, and now you want to sell it."
Hammond: "I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things no one could ever do before."
Malcolm: "Yeah but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."
Hammond: "But this is nature! Why not give an extinct species a second chance?! I mean, Condors. Condors are on the verge of extinction - if I was to create a flock of them on the island, you wouldn't have anything to say at all!"
Malcolm: "Hold on - this is no species that was obliterated by deforestation or the building of a dam. Dinosaurs had their shot and nature selected them for extinction."
Hammond: "I don't understand this Luddite attitude, especially from a scientist. How could we stand in the light of discovery and not act?"
Malcolm: "What's so great about discovery? It's a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. What you call discovery I call the rape of the natural world!"
Ellie: "The question is - how much can you know about an extinct ecosystem, and therefore, how could you assume you can control it? You have plants right here in this building, for example, that are poisonous. You picked them because they look pretty, but these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they're in and will defend themselves. Violently, if necessary."
Hammond: "Dr. Grant, if there's one person here who can appreciate what am I trying to do?"
Grant: "The world has just changed so radically. We're all running to catch up. I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but look - dinosaurs and man - two species separated by 65 million years of evolution - have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea of what to expect?"
Hammond: "I don't believe it. I expected you to come down here and defend me from these characters and the only one I've got on my side it the bloodsucking lawyer!?"
Gennaro: "Thank you."

3... Raptors in the Kitchen

Those stupid Raptors are determined things, aren't they? Actually, if this film and especially its sequels are to be believed, they were/are pretty far from stupid and this scene was their first real showcase. Some of the film's harsher fans may have been happy to see the chirpy fellows chow down on the blabbering Tim and the perpetually-terrified Lex but the kids put up a fight and ultimately manage to outwit the sneaky creatures in what surely be one of the most gripping scenes in the film.

2... Arrival in the Park

Prior to watching the film, if anyone somehow managed to avoid seeing the many trailers and spoilers that were doing the rounds, this scene would probably have had the same effect as it did on the film's protagonists - complete, dumbstruck awe! The scene is built up superbly as Richard Hammond persuades our heroic scientists to visit his island, and the longer they're travelling, the more we're wondering what they're going to eventually find. Of course, even the film's name gives a good idea but it still doesn't quite prepare you for the sight that soon befalls you. I think Dr. Grant summed it up better than I could: "It's, it's... it's a dinosaur!"

1... T-Rex Attack

Pretty obvious, I know, but let's face it - it sold the movie! Again, it was built up superbly, what with the lack of any dino-sightings on the actual tour, the approaching tropical storm, and the 'ride' breaking down right outside the T-Rex paddock. Then we get the famous ripples in the water before all hell breaks loose! The huge, toothy Tyrannosaur is an angry fellow and is fantastically realised on screen, using a combination of animatronics and CGI. The special effects were truly ground-breaking and, unlike many films that were championed for their effects, even ones released after this one (*cough*IndependanceDay*cough*), Jurassic Park still looks great today. The only thing I don't really like about this scene is the idiotic Lex turning up the giant torch. Why? Why would anyone do that? Stupid screechy kids. Still, least we got to see a lawyer get eaten, straight from the toilet no less!

**Bonus Moment!** I don't know about anyone else but there's one other moment that I always seem to notice - Laura Dern's arse! Hee hee!

SNES Platform Games #2

2012-01-27T19:57:00.001Z

Skyblazer (1994)
By: Ukiyotei / Sony Imagesoft Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo SNES
Also Available For: Nothing

The arrival of the monstrous 32-bit consoles in the mid 90's may have brought lots of flashy polygons and lighting effects with them but something else their arrival did was to overshadow a good few of the later releases for the trusty 16-bit machines, and among them was this offering from Sony which must surely have been one of the last games they made for someone else's console. It takes the form of a platform/adventure game and is actually pretty flashy itself which is just as well since its story is not. It's an adventure that sees you take the role of a young scamp named Sky, believe or not, which presumably means his adventure will take the form of a 'blaze' across the magical kingdom in which he lives; a magical kingdom, incidentally, which is now bereft of its princess, Ariana, who has been kidnapped by the nefarious 'Lord of War', Ashura, who intends to use her magical properties to summon Raglan, an ancient creature of unspeakable terror. The story gets a little more detailed with the odd piece of dialogue here and there but the basic objective is - rescue Ariana and smack Ashura upside the head!

"Talk to the hand..." etc

The quest at hand is a rather large one consisting of eighteen stages which are selected, and can also be revisited, via the map screen which shows them spread across the fictional world in question. They include the usual forests, castles, temples, and caverns, as well as a few more unusual locations, and they're patrolled by a considerable variety of enemies such as sorcerers, dragons, and strange monsters beyond description, all of whom are intent on depleting Sky's energy meter. He's a fairly agile guy though. He can run and jump around like any decent platform hero but he can also climb up walls as well which proves to be extremely helpful. His attacks come in two forms. The most basic sees him unleash his fury via punches and kicks which are so ferocious they leave blue swirly things in their wake! These are of course available without restriction. His more potent attacks requires magic power which is represented by a meter similar to the energy one at the top of the screen.

Amusingly, you can punch those little fireballs!

There are eight magic attacks in all but you start the game with only the first. The others are acquired one at a time after successfully vanquishing successive bosses and, whilst looking quite sparkly and flashy, actually only perform the usual old power-up tricks - more powerful projectile attacks, enemy freeze, temporary shield, smart bomb, etc. You can cycle through all the magics you've obtained and of course each has its uses. Using them depletes your magic power, but it's possible to collect bottles to replenish your reserves. Bottles to recover energy also exist and there are large and small varieties of each. The only other special items to keep your eyes open for are gems. Collecting a hundred of these will award you with an extra life but there's also some bigger ones dotted around which are worth ten normal ones. All these items are dropped by defeated enemies but they can also often be found around the stages, located in hard-to-reach places of course, so mastering Sky's movements is key here.

The map and stage select screen, believe it or not...

He doesn't have a huge repertoire of actions available but control over him is near-flawless, and it needs to be for much of the game. Quite a bit of the action is made up of standard platforming but Sky's agility is called into question on many occasions as well. There's some steep walls he needs to clamber up, the second stage mostly takes place through tree-tops with monsters hiding inside, the fourth stage sees him commandeer a mini-hang-glider, there's a Nebulus-style rotating tower stage with precarious little platforms, and some areas have moving sections of wall which need to be navigated very quickly to avoid a crushing! These comprise but a few examples of the varied gameplay on offer here, and there's also the bosses. Rather than the usual one boss per stage, here there's only ten boss battles, but they also invariably require lots of leaping and wall-climbing tomfoolery as well! Fortunately it's possible to use your magic during these battles and success is generally met with a chit-chat with the old man who guides you through the game and a return to the map screen from where it's sometimes possible to choose between several stages.

The first hang-glider stage is viewed from the side...

As mentioned, one area in which Skyblazer excels is the variety between stages. Some games try to add mini-games or bolt-on inappropriate sections that don't feel right but here the balance has been struck just about right. Each of the many stages is distinctive and each requires a slightly different approach without ever betraying the style and feel of the game. You even have to travel between continents on the map screen by hang-glider which sees the game switch to a 3D view, using trusty Mode 7 of course! A few other touches of Mode 7 have been used during the course of the game too, without ever going overboard, and that's typical of the graphics used throughout really - instead of trying to do too much, Ukiyotei have ensured that everything is clean, neat, and finely polished, and the result is fantastic. Accordingly, the sprites all feature an ideal amount of detail and the backdrops, whilst generally quite basic, are beautifully drawn with fantastic use of colour throughout.

...and the second is in scary Mode 7!

There's some nice special effects during the course of the game, such as the rain on the first stage, and the animation is nice too. The foreground graphics aren't as varied as the everything else, consisting mostly of rock, but all look great as well. Splendidly, the audio is also of a very high standard. The sound effects are good, although not hugely numerous or memorable, but the music is superb. The style is typical of the SNES and its distinctive sound chip and there's lots of different tunes which are very rousing and moody and add a lot to the atmosphere of the game. The various stages, as well as the aforementioned variety, are generally very well designed, and increasingly challenging as well (although there is a handy password system). Most of the usual themes are visited here at some point like woodland areas, slippy ice, deserts, castles, etc, but there is usually at least an attempt to do something a bit more interesting with them than the norm.

The obligatory ice stage, but it's a nice one...

When I first started playing this game my initial impressions of it were great anyway, but after the first few stages I really started wondering what might be in store for me on the next one too! Sure enough, throughout most of its length it continually surprised me, and pretty much always in a good way. The rise in difficulty is well-graded - the first day's play should see you reach the second continent but it does get quite tough and requires some quick thinking as well as quick reflexes. In addition to the modestly-numbered enemies there's plenty of traps and hazards around the stages such as moving platforms, spikes, fire, and all the usual stuff, as well as a few less common ones like rolling logs. Using (or saving) your magic power also requires a little strategic thinking as it can occasionally be used to pass some of these hazards. Overall, it's hard to think of anything bad about Skyblazer. The SNES sets the standard pretty high for platformers but this one is a tremendously entertaining, varied, and long-lasting game which deserves your attention, however belatedly. The last good release for the SNES? Probably not but it's certainly a good release. A very good one in fact!

RKS Score: 8/10

Overhead Run 'n' Gun Games #7

2012-01-24T19:57:00.000Z

Alien Syndrome (1987)
By: Sega Genre: Run 'n' Gun Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 96,400
Also Available For: Master System, Game Gear, Sharp X68000, NES, PC, Amiga, Atari ST, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

Like many game companies in the mid-to-late 80's, it seems almost certain that Sega were also bitten by the 'Alien' bug, so to speak. That is to say, they drew inspiration from the Alien movies for one (or some) of their games. The fact that this release came the year after the super-successful sequel to the classic 1979 film would tend to back up that theory as it's a game that may seem familiar to some fans. Rather than a gound-based colony, however, it takes place in a series of seven spacecraft. These were presumably craft operated by humans but they have become overrun by hideous alien creatures of various descriptions and their human crew taken prisoner. It therefore falls to Ricky and Mary, two suspiciously Space Marine-like soldiers, to liberate each ship in succession and eradicate the alien scum that now dwells within.

Splat! The laser slices through a horrible slug alien...

The interior of each craft is viewed from an angled overhead perspective and usually consists of a maze-like series of corridors, rooms, or open areas linked by walkways. The human captives, or 'comrades', are dotted around the scrolling stages and a set number of them must be rescued (by touching them) within a pretty strict time-limit before the exit is unlocked. This inevitably leads to a much larger and more dangerous alien boss who you must shoot the crap out of before moving onto the next ship. Each stage has unique enemies, usually two different kinds, and from the second stage onwards an infinite number of them are produced by Gauntlet-like generators. Destroying these will finally stem the flow of alien filth and allow you to cleanse the stage. If you want to, that is, as the only actual requirement is to rescue those pesky comrades.

The small, light-blue balls are the standard gun...

Blasting the idiotic aliens does take up valuable time of course, but it also makes the game a lot more fun! Each new alien encountered looks and acts differently to the last. Some can spontaneously reproduce, others chase you, but most of them are able to shoot at you. A single touch from any alien or one of their projectiles is enough to take a life from Ricky or Mary but surprisingly the aliens are just as fragile - from the first stage to the last, a single shot is all that's required to take them out. Except for the bosses, obviously. Typically, you start the game with a pea-shooter gun which just about does the job, but its range and rate of fire is somewhat limited. There are four other weapons available, however - laser, flamethrower, napalm, and a rapid-fire cannon - which, impressively, not only have unlimited ammo but also last forever as long as you don't lose a life.

The second stage boss in all its grotesque glory...

It's also possible to collect up to two small guns that follow you around and shoot backwards every time you shoot your normal weapon which can be shot in eight directions but only forward. These, and all the other weapons, can be collected from panels on the walls where you can also find bonus points and maps that show the basic layout of the stage as well as the location of the remaining comrades. Points are awarded at the end of each stage for any remaining time and for any comrades rescued beyond the quota but, if you're like me, you probably won't see too many of them! I usually tend to play games in a very meticulous way, trying to do everything and see everything, so I found the time limits to be quite tight. Aside from that though, Alien Syndrome isn't an overly tough game and is actually, dare I say it, even pretty fair.

Part of the reason for this it that the aliens are defeated by a single shot from whichever gun you're carrying at the time (even the one you start with) but it also helps that their movement doesn't seem to conform to any repeating patterns. Their appearances are apparently random and their movement is seemingly dependent on your own, so your progress is pretty much just down to your own ability. Accompanying you on your refreshingly-unfrustrating mission are some tunes and sound effects which aren't too bad, although not especially memorable, but about the only thing I don't really like about Alien Syndrome is its graphics. It's running on Sega's System 16 board which I`m not hugely fond of at the best of times and this means that most of the colours used are rather pale and drab and there`s some quite unpleasant patterns used for the stage floors. That aside though, there's little to complain about, and some of the aliens look great!

This is particularly true of the big and imaginative bosses and there's quite a few different normal sprites too. The two playable characters don't look much different and are even less different to play as but they're not there to provide a bit of variety - they're there to facilitate a two-player game, and they do that well. A few differences between wouldn't have hurt anyway though, I suppose! Oh well, it's still an enjoyable game, for one or two players, and proves to be a very addictive one as well. The stages themselves get bigger and more complicated but are never overly large or complex - this is a game that's about fast and frantic shooting and nothing more, and with the ever-increasing hordes of aliens in the later stages, you'll need to be precise as well as fast! It's a shame it doesn't look a bit nicer but if you can handle the offensive patterns, this is a game that's aged well.

RKS Score: 7/10

Awesome Nature #8

2012-01-22T18:59:00.001Z

Toucan
Type: Bird Lives In: Central and South America Conservation Status: Least Concern

These strange-looking creatures have long been my favourite birds and it's not hard to see why! There are around forty different species of Toucan in all, varying in both size and colour, but my favourite, and also probably the best-known species is the one pictured - the Toco Toucan. It lives in South America across much of Brazil with its range also overlapping a few of Brazil's neighbours. Sadly, none of my own trips to Brazil have yielded a sighting of this splendid bird but there's a lot of them out there, mainly in the areas that are seldom touched by mankind (and long may it stay that way). I guess their poor flying ability could be one reason I haven't seen one in the wild but there's plenty about in zoos and the like, even here in the UK, where they can be seen hopping around, passing food to each other, and clunking their giant bills! I'll have to take a trip to the Pantanal one of these days where I might actually spot a few of them (or get eaten by a Jaguar).

Why It Is Awesome: Because they pass berries to each other!

F-Zero Series - Part 7

2012-01-19T20:38:00.000Z

F-Zero GP Legend (2003)
By: Suzak / Nintendo Genre: Racing Players: 1-4 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Game Boy Advance
Also Available For: Nothing

Everyone knows the F-Zero series rules more than any other racing game series in the history of the universe so it's slightly odd that Nintendo hasn't thought to expand the franchise to other potentially profitable areas. Until now, that is! Indeed, unknown to me (because it didn't make it to the UK, as usual) there was an F-Zero anime series produced in 2003 known as GP Legend which centres around good old Captain Falcon, Dr Stewart, and a new 'good' character called Rick Wheeler (or Ryu Suzaku, depending on where you live) and their battles against Zoda, Black Shadow, and the other 'bad' characters. It was a good idea which, at the very least, adds more to characters from an already character-heavy series and, in a move that would make Capcom proud, it wasn't long before there was a game of the series of the game too!

As you might expect considering the inspiration behind this entry in the series, one of the play modes included here is a Story Mode. Experienced F-Zero players will recall, however, that this isn't the first time such a mode has graced the series. Much like the Story Mode found in F-Zero X, this one consists of a series of racing-based missions with set objectives which usually involve beating a particular opponent on a particular course, and they are punctuated by some nice anime-style cut-scenes to progress the story. To start with, only the new main character, Rick Wheeler, can be used here but it's possible to unlock more characters up to a total of eight, including a few more new ones, and they all have their own set of missions. And yes, you can play as the bad guys too!

As well as this splendid mode, GP Legend also features the usual Grand Prix events (arcade mode), this time named the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Cups, each of which consists of five races, and the Platinum Cup which consists of eight races and is unlocked upon successful completion of the others. Each cup comes with various difficulty options as usual, too. There's also a Link-Up multi-player mode for up to four players available from the off, and Time Attack and Training modes can be quickly unlocked. Curiously, there is also an all-new mode called Zero Test. This consists of forty-eight simple missions divided into four classes which are meant to hone your racing skills. It's a bit like the license tests in Gran Turismo - they involve completing a given section of track within a strict time-limit which is ultimately meant to improve your corning techniques and things like that and there are gold, silver, and bronze awards for how well you do.

The Story and Zero Test modes are welcome new additions but other than that it's business as usual here. The style of the game, aside from the anime influence, is a curious mixture of previous games. For example, the courses are presented in the same graphical style as the original SNES game (and Maximum Velocity) but the game also includes all thirty racers from F-Zero X (as well as a few new ones) and an attempt has been made to present their machines in the same way as the N64 game, from their supposed polygonal appearance right down to the ability to toggle their acceleration and top speed ratio before each race. Use of the booster is taken from both games too - you only get one boost per lap but it reduces your energy levels too. The resulting amalgamation is mostly very good but it's not a game without faults either.

The presentation is of the usual high standard - all the menus, machine profiles, and anime cut-scenes are really nicely done, and the fact that the in-game visual style is mostly based on the original game means experienced players will know exactly what to expect there - the courses are all flat and the backgrounds colourful but the amount of detail is somewhat lacking too. Having said that, there are a few attempts to imitate the GX visual style (grated race surface, busy cities at trackside, etc) whilst remaining flat but overall the visuals do their job well enough. The sense of speed isn't great while going in a straight line though, often resulting in sharp corners seeming to appear from nowhere, and the smaller screen size means the many unique machines are less easy to distinguish during races unless they're close up and this probably won't be too often as the poor little GBA is apparently unable to display more than four simultaneously.

Indeed, this means that despite the fact there are thirty contestants in each race, unlike F-Zero X, and even GX, the other racers are not flitting about all over the track and jostling for position in front of you as you can only see the three machines immediately ahead. If you start well and race well you may not see anyone else for the entire race! It's not always as simple as that though, obviously. Many of the course locations from the first game return such as Mute City, Big Blue, Sand Ocean, Red Canyon, Silence, White Land, etc, and a few courses are even based on previous ones, albeit rather customised. There's a few new locations too such as 'Mist Flow' (courses are shrouded in mist, reducing visibility), 'Lightning' (GX-style courses with grated floors), and 'Illusion' (where the tracks have no sides). There are several variations of most courses and they can get rather complex as usual!

One thing I definitely noticed about this game more than the other entries in the series was the number of jumps! There's blinkin' loads of them here, on most courses in fact. Not only that but they're often rather long as well meaning you have to get a good run up - bump the side of the track or another racer just before reaching one and you're doomed! Some jumps have more than one possible landing point too meaning there are a few short-cuts (which the computer-controlled machines always use, of course). Other features include forks (one route might have an energy field, the other might have dash plates, for example), and roundabouts, as well as all the usual stuff (super-hairpins, right-angle turns, slow-down patches, slidy stuff, dash plates, magnets, etc). The sheer number of jumps is surprising though - I'd like to think I'm a pretty good F-Zero player and while playing it for this review I won around 75% of my races. The only ones I didn't win is because I was caught out by a ramp and crashed!

For the most part, GP Legend is about what I was expecting. The graphics offer little new to the series and will be very familiar to fans, the sound effects are again almost all taken from the original game, there's the usual arranged versions of the various music tracks, and the courses are filled with familiar sights and features. The new stuff works well and is welcome though, and it doesn't take too long to unlock the other play modes. Zero Test should keep you going for a good while and there's also plenty of other things to unlock of course, primarily the other characters machines. There are only five available at the start but up to thirty-four are ultimately available to choose between, although the difference from one to another is far less pronounced here.

The first time I played GP Legend I thought it was a stupidly easy game but it does get a lot tougher. Most of the courses are well designed and feature some fairly complicated (and even confusing, on occasion) layouts, but generally they offer a good challenge. Some sections on later courses can reduce your power reserves from full to empty within five seconds (like the dense minefields) and the irritating pinball effect is alive and well again, and there are some rather aggressive opponents too. On the plus side, there's more recharge zones to compensate for the increase in hazards and the tricky method of banking introduced in Maximum Velocity is gone too. Anyone who's played a videogame before should still avoid the easiest difficulty setting though, or playing may end up being a rather lonely experience, especially if you're ultra-skilled like me! Overall, It's not the fairest game in the series and doesn't have the most finely-balanced difficulty in the world either but GP Legend is a great game, classic F-Zero really, and a more than worthy entry in the series.

RKS Score: 8/10

Film Review #36

2012-01-17T21:58:00.000Z

Colombiana (2011)
Director: Olivier Megaton Starring: Zoe Saldana, Michael Vartan, Cliff Curtis, Lennie James, Callum Blue, Jordi Molla, Beto Benites, Jesse Borrego, Amandla Stenberg

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 108 Minutes

Tagline: "Vengeance is beautiful."

A while back here at Red Parsley I took a look at some of Hollywood's finest arse-kicking chicks. I'd like to think it was and remains a fairly respectable list but I've discovered a few more ladies lately who might also be worthy of inclusion. One featured in the superb 'Hanna' and it seems we may have another here in this thriller directed by the awesomely-named Frenchman, Olivier Megaton. The character in question is called Cataleya and is played by rising star, Saldana. We first meet her in Colombia as the child of Fabio (Borrego) who's a gangster trying to leave the employ of drug baron, Don Luis (Benites). Predictably, Fabio's intentions do not go down well with Don Luis who has him and his wife killed, but not before he passes a 'valuable item' wanted by his boss to his young daughter who of course manages to escape and find her way to the American embassy. Once she arrives in the US she seeks out an uncle, Emilio (Curtis), in Chicago who agrees to train her to fight and to kill.

We catch up with her fifteen years later where it emerges she has forged a successful career as an assassin while at the same time plotting revenge against Don Luis and his minions who have now also made the move to the Land of Opportunity. So yes, as you may have already guessed from the hardly-inconspicious tagline, Colombiana is a revenge film, and the thing that's often of vital importance with films like this is whether or not we care about the protagonist, namely the delightful Cataleya, and by extension her 'mission'. One thing's for sure - whether it's as a young, newly-orphaned girl (Stenberg), or as an adult trained killer (Saldana), she certainly impresses in the numerous action scenes which are of the chase, infiltration, and standard shoot-out types. As satisfying as these are, however, there is little emotional connection with our 'hero' despite some more tender moments with her boyfriend (Blue) and even an FBI agent (James).

It could be because she's avenging someone who perhaps doesn't warrant it - her father wasn't exactly an innocent bystander after all. Questionable motives aside, however, the end product is a fairly solid if not particularly original action-thriller. Few of the other characters are remotely memorable, and the film is probably offensive to Colombians, but Saldana just about engages the attention enough to keep you watching. There is one particularly superb scene involving a jail break-in, and some tense moments as the police close in on her, but I can't help feeling a slightly more polished script and a more sympathetic main character would've made this a gripping film for its entire duration. The involvement of Luc Besson (who acts as both writer and producer) can't turn this into a must-see thrill-ride but it's not a disaster either.

RKS Score: 6/10

Cover Art: Master System - Part 3

2012-01-15T18:53:00.000Z

I was supposed to be taking a look at the cover art of some games for a different system next but the first and second parts of this series were pretty popular and I'm quite keen on doing a few more Master System cover comparisons too, partly because it enables me to see some more lovely (and previously-unseen) Japanese cover art but also because those non-Japanese ones are often so amusing! So, here is another selection for your viewing pleasure...

The Ninja (1986)
I guess the name pretty tells you all you need to know about what kind of game this is. Few games involving ninjas are anything but combat games but even so, clearly very little effort was put into the UK/US cover. If it wasn't for the shuriken (and its giant companion in mid-flight), this guy would look more like a medieval executioner than a ninja. The Japanese cover is far more appealing featuring a good indication of the kind of peril and intrigue our hero can expect as well as an example of the kind of locale in which he can expect to receive it. The main character doesn't look much like the one in the game though...

Double Dragon (1988)
This splendid brawler featured one of the best UK/US covers in my opinion. The logo/title takes up too much space, admittedly, but the image clearly indicates that not only is a street-fighting game, but also makes is fairly obvious that it's a two-player one too. I suppose most scrolling fighting games are two-player but even so - even the characters are good likenesses! The guy on the cover of the Japanese effort, however, looks like someone just yanked his junk! I suppose you would guess from the image that it's a fighting game but it's still perhaps the weakest Japanese Mark III cover I've seen and a rare example of a superior overseas cover.

Enduro Racer (1987)
I suppose neither of these covers are much cop really. Both feature motorbikes as indeed the game itself does, but neither really gives any more clues. You might assume from the Japanese cover that the game is a motocross game - I guess it is in a way - and using a photograph is pretty lazy but you can't get much lazier than the amusingly-bad cover on the left either!

Astro Warrior (1986)
I've always been rather keen on this fine little blaster but my affection for its cover is less enthusiastic! The blue triangular contraption could be an aircraft or a spaceship and it's shooting what could be a pizza or a car steering-wheel. I suppose it does at least tell you that there's shooting involved but just take a look at that fantastic Japanese cover! It clearly features a spaceship (although mainly by virtue of the fact that it's in space than anything else) but it does a superb job of indicating the kind of game that awaits. The long, flat alien base is similar to that in the game and shows that the game is almost certainly going to be a vertical-scroller too. Great stuff!

Spellcaster (1988)
I'm not actually sure which I prefer out of these two - they're both pretty good but obviously feature the kind of artwork most common in their part of the world. So, the overseas version features a fairly serious image of Kane battling some sort of fiery magician dude whilst the Japanese cover predictably uses an anime/manga-style image. I'm not sure how many small naked girls I can recall seeing in the game though. Both covers look pretty nice but I think the UK/US cover actually does a better job of depicting the style of game (although I'm not sure why Kane has a sword - he casts spells in the game, hence Spellcaster!)...

I hope you liked the latest selection! I have a few more MS covers lined up for praise/ridicule but after the next post I really will be moving on to another system... :)

Arcade Shmups #10

2012-01-13T19:38:00.000Z

Star Force a.k.a. Mega Force (1984)
By: Tehkan Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: ???,???
Also Available For: Nintendo NES, Sharp X68000, MSX, Sega SG-1000
Download For: Wii Virtual Console

Most of the games I feature here at Red Parsley seem to fall into one of three categories: either old favourites from my youth that I'm fondly revisiting, classics I've known of for many years but never gotten around to playing, or obscure, little known games I've never heard of. This early Tekhan (Tecmo) release, however, falls into a much rarer category. It's apparently a very-well known and influential game, but one of which I previously had no knowledge! Eeek, how did that happen?! I suppose the fact that it wasn't converted to any home systems I owned at the time is a slight excuse but still! Luckily, thanks to the wonders of emulation I am now able to rectify this glaring oversight!

As many of you probably already knew, it's a shmup of the vertically-scrolling variety. What you may not have known is that it's set in "the year 2010 of Dimension Almanac" and pits you against the "mysterious planet named Gordess which was moving in the darkness of the cosmos for the purpose of mass murder and plunder". Jeepers! Predictably it falls to you to end this horror by piloting the 'Final Star' space patrol vessel through the twenty-five areas into which Gordess is divided. Contrary to the information provided with the game, these areas are apparently all enemy installations which have been constructed on asteroids or something of the sort floating in the expanse of space.

These metallic-looking enemy base things take various, seemingly random shapes and are built on different colours of what I assume must be rock. Adorning their surface are various objects which can be destroyed by the Final Star but they are not weapons. The threat comes exclusively from the many small enemy ships which zip about all over the place. There are around twenty different types in total and, whilst they almost always appear in groups or formations, they have many different methods of attack. Each stage is named after a letter of the Greek alphabet and at the end of each is a large boss ship bearing the letter in question which is your target.

Successful destruction of the boss ship will of course provide immediate progression to the next stage which, aside from perhaps a couple of new enemies, features more of the same. Your only weapon with which to strike down the evil minions of Gordess is the mighty 'Star Beam Gun' bolted to the front of your small but formidable ship. It shoots an unspectacular twin-shot straight ahead but it's enough to destroy most enemies with a single shot and it can be fired quite rapidly too. There's just the one power-up available which doubles the size of your ship and increases its rate of fire, but that's it - you'll get no more help, so this is definitely a reaction-testing game throughout!

Considering Godress has ruled for 2,000 years and "everyone gave up fighting because of its awesome power", it's a surprisingly straight-forward task to end its oppression! To watch someone else play the game may also make it look like a rather easy one but it is actually a pretty tough challenge. The surprisingly-numerous stages are of differing lengths - one might take a few minutes to play through, another thirty seconds, but there's little variety. The bosses are the same, and the graphics for each stage, whilst fairly detailed and well-drawn, are merely different-shaped arrangements of the same grey squares with various-coloured rocky surrounds.

The explosions are poor too but there are a few things to keep you plugging away. Shooting certain areas of the 'ground' occasionally unveils bonus icons. If you can find all of them during a stage, a nice bonus awaits at the end of the stage! The instruction book of the NES version also speaks of 'seven mysteries' that the game contains which are mainly other ways of obtaining bonus points. Star Force is still a simple game though, even by shmup standards, but I don't think its simplicity is a restriction imposed upon Tecmo by the limited technology at the time - there were more complicated shmups around, after all. I think it's supposed to be this simple, and it works... to a degree.

This may be a game I knew little (okay, nothing) of before playing it for this feature but it immediately reminded me of a game I have played before, namely Astro Warrior for the splendid Master System which, as it turns out, is a Star Force clone. My affection for Sega's game means my first impressions of this 'original' were great - control of the ship is smooth and accurate, the blasting action is slick and fairly balanced, and the action is accompanied by a few nice tunes. As mentioned, new enemies are introduced quite often and some of them can get really fast, whizzing around the screen spewing bullets all over the place. The grey scenery is fairly well-designed too - certain parts of it block your shots, forcing you to keep on the move to wipe out as much of the advancing scum as possible. I must admit though, the more I played it, the less I felt compelled to continue playing it. Unusually for a shoot 'em up, I just didn't find it particularly satisfying. It's a slick and playable game throughout, and considering its age its fantastic, but unfortunately the lack of variety takes a toll in the end.

RKS Score: 6/10

Lush Food #2

2012-01-09T20:40:00.001Z

A Rare Treat

As those who know me will already be well aware, my favourite food of all-time is without question curry. Whilst keen on most varieties found on Indian restaurant menus, I tend to stick to hot chicken-based ones such as the Vindaloo and usually have several a week, whether home-made or preferably from a takeaway. For me to go longer than this without a curry is almost unheard of and one of the only times I do is when.... I'm on a long holiday!

The mother-in-law's fine pastels garnished with chillies!

As some of you may know, I'm currently into the fourth and final week of a trip to a far-off land (Brazil) where curries are unknown and, accordingly, times like this can be a source of great difficulty for me. However, where on the one hand the lack of many of my favourites are causing me to endure withdrawal symptoms, on the other hand I can look forward to special treats that cannot be found in the UK but which are commonplace here. Chief among these are the delightful 'pastels' I discovered on my very first trip to the country in Rio de Janeiro. Contrary to popular belief, these are not merely delicately coloured crayons but are also a mighty lush foodstuff that originated in Portugal. Subsequent research reveals that several other mostly Hispanic countries have foods that share the same name but it's definitely the Brasilian variety that appeals to me.

And the auntie's, with some uncooked on the right...

They are a fairly simple savoury fast-food often found on the menus of cafes and restaurants but their popularity here, particularly in Rio and Sao Paulo as far as I can tell, means that there's even dedicated 'pastelarias' which pretty much only sell them. But wait... what are they? Well, in typical fast-food style they're not very healthy for one thing! They're usually square or semi-circle shaped and made of a crispy, bubbly, deep-fried pastry filled with a variety of tasty ingredients! These can of course include boring things like vegetables or disgusting cheese but the best ones contain various meats. My favourites predictably feature chicken with a good few dashings of 'pimenta' (spicy sauce similar to Tabasco) which is a permanent fixture at most Brasilian dinner tables.

Although my last few trips to Brasil have taken in what has become my favourite pastelaria in Sao Paulo, this trip has seen both my mother-in-law and my auntie-in-law make special pastels just for me! The resulting feasts have been of monumental proportions and also included masses of pimenta, and it got me thinking... given how simple and lush these things are, combined with their rarity in north-western Europe, maybe I should open my own pastelaria in England! Hmmm, unless I ended up giving everyone food-poisoning. I'm just getting over a non-pastel-related bout of that myself so I know it's not the most enjoyable affliction! Well, whatever else happens, one thing's for sure - even if I do have to wait another two years for some pastels, it'll be worth the wait!

Splendid MegaDrive Music #1

2012-01-06T20:01:00.000Z

Hellfire (1990)

Shoot 'em ups were certainly pretty abundant on Sega's 16-bit power-house and they were definitely of varying quality but one of the finest must surely be Hellfire, one of Toaplan's few horizontally-scrolling efforts. It was never the flashiest game around but it did have one vital ingredient - a great first impression - and a big reason for that was the fantastic music, composed by Toaplan stalwart Tatsuya Uemura, that blasted out at you as soon as you undertook your mission. Games like Thunder Force 3 and Super Fantasy Zone have better overall soundtracks but few shmups on any system get you pumped-up for the alien smackdown like this one does. See if you agree! (full Hellfire review here)

Special Note: I didn't record this great tune myself, I'm just an admirer, so all credit to, firstly the original composer, and secondly the YouTube user who uploaded it!

Exploring the Sega SG-1000

2012-01-03T16:59:00.000Z

Like most gamers, I first encountered the Sega name in various amusement arcades where they had been developing games since the early 80's before hitting the big time with their series of 'Super-Scaler' games. After a good run of success in this demanding environment, it didn't take them long before they decided they wanted a slice of the home-gaming pie as well.

For many years I believed, like many, that their first offering in this field was their splendid Mark III console, better known to those outside Japan as the Master System. If I'd stopped to think about it, however, I would probably have thought... if that's the Mark III, then what happened to the Mark I and II? The obvious answer to this equally obvious question is of course that there were two consoles before it, and the first of them was named the Sega Game 1000, or SG-1000 for short. It was a modestly-powered machine which run from a clone version of the legendary Zilog Z80 processor which means that, like most computers and consoles of the time, it was 8-bit. Its graphical abilities included a resolution of 256x192 and a pallette of sixteen colours. It wasn't blessed with much memory though, so most games were rather basic. The SG-1000 was replaced the following year by the SG-1000 II which was near-enough identical under the hood but had seen an external redesign and was gifted with a less-crippling controller.

Sega also released a computer version of the console called the SC-3000 but none of them were very successful. A big reason for this was the rather unfortunate coincidence that the first version of the console was released on the very same day as Nintendo's brand-spanking-new, not to mention far more advanced (and cheaper), Famicom console which would of course go on to dominate both the Japanese and American gaming markets for many years to come. As a result of its less-than-staggering success, Sega's machine didn't receive a huge number of releases either and, as would also prove to be the case with the Master System, most of those that did appear were released by Sega themselves.

By my count, there are around 75 games in the SG-1000's back catalogue (some on cartridge, some on smart card, some on both) but it's hard to be sure - many games saw two or more releases and there were also a number of non-game-related releases such as BASIC programming packages. Of the games that did see release, some were conversions of well-known arcade machines while others are names I know little or nothing about, so in an attempt to get a well-rounded view of Sega debut console, I've chosen what I think will be a good mixture. Here's how I got on:

Chack'n Pop (1985)

I've only recently discovered and played the arcade version of this early Taito game and I quite enjoyed it too, so it seems like as good a place to start as any! It's a good choice of game to convert too. Obviously even the basic graphics of the original couldn't be perfectly replicated here but aside from some different colours and a slightly squashed playfield, everything looks more or less as it should including, most importantly, the carefully-designed stages, and there's also a good rendition of the coin-op's music. The only real difference I noticed is that Chack'n now moves quite a bit slower. It's a shame that both the arcade game and the SG-1000 weren't more popular though as this is a very respectable conversion of an enjoyable platformer which fans would've enjoyed a lot. It'll still take some getting used to for non-fans but I like it...

Zippy Race (1983)

This one is a conversion of a little-known Irem coin-op of the same year which bears more than a passing resemblance to Spy Hunter (although this may be a coincidence - they were released very close together). Instead of a car though, you're charged with riding a motorbike through a succession of stages across the US while avoiding cars and and obstacles. Progress is ensured by collecting gas cans but crashing costs you a chunk of your supply which will probably happen often as the cars actually try to cut you off! It's a pretty decent little game though - the graphics are quite nice and colourful and the game alternates between two very different looking types of stage. The perspective also switches from overhead to an into-the-screen view shortly before the end of each stage as well. The music is okay but rather repetitive, but least there is some! Quite an enjoyable and addictive game, and it's a decent conversion too.

Space Slalom (1983)

When I first saw the name of this game by Orca Corp I assumed it would be a vertical shmup, and for the first five seconds or so of the game, this continues to seem the case, but it turns out the game literally is a space slalom! You control what appears to be a space shuttle through a vertically-scrolling region of space which has a series of 'gates' marked by pairs of coloured stars through which you can pass (if you want - it doesn't seem like you have to!). Attempting to stop you are glowy objects which advance down the screen regularly. That's pretty much it and it's about as exciting as it sounds! The graphics differ very little from what you can see in the screenshot and the gameplay is hardly involving either. It proved to be mildly distracting for a few minutes but I already know the SG-1000 is capable of much more than this. It's no surprise to find that this game was one of the smallest games for the console in terms of memory used.

Elevator Action (1985)

Another arcade conversion and this time it's a rather more well-known one starring you as a spy called Otto who must travel down through several rather tall buildings to retrieve secret documents while enemy agents try to stop you. You can shoot the agents as you would expect any decent spy to be able to, but they can also shoot back and delicate Otto will lose a life after a single bullet strike (or from being squashed under the elevator, as I discovered!) The graphics are quite good and the music isn't bad either but unfortunately I just didn't like the game much which was even more disappointing since I was expecting to. I think it's the clunky and unresponsive controls that I most have an issue with but the game is also rather frustrating too as it's often very hard to avoid incoming fire. Still, it's a great conversion so anyone who does like this game will greatly appreciate this interpretation of it.

Gulkave (1986)

The Mark III had already been launched by the time this game appeared so it must surely have been one of the final releases for the console, and much like many games that appear near the end of a system's lifetime, it's one of the most technically-impressive games I've yet seen on the machine! Arriving courtesy of Compile (who would go on to bring us the Aleste series), Gulkave is a horizontal shmup which featured absolutely loads of unique stages, both above and under ground, and has stacks of power-ups too. The sprites are mostly small but everything moves around quickly and smoothly and there's even some parallax scrolling! Something of a pleasant surprise, this one, which shows what Sega's fledgling technology could achieve in the right hands. Top stuff!

Verdict:
Was it plain bad luck that Sega were soundly beaten in the battle of the 8-bits, or was it down to their own stupidity? It's hard for me to say without doing much more research but based on my assessment of this console, I'd have to take the easy way out and say it was probably a bit of both! As I understand it, the SG-1000 was test-marketed in 1981 but wasn't officially launched for two more years. Why the delay? If it was launched in 1981, I'm confident it would've met with more success than it did upon its eventual launch which, as mentioned, was on the very same day as the superior Nintendo Famicom of all consoles! Sega's machine is home to few exclusive titles, Nintendo's had many, and that's on top of its superior technical abilities.

The SG-1000's closest well-known equivalent is probably the ColecoVision, or maybe the MSX. All three machines are at a fairly similar level, technically. They shared the same CPU for starters, and Sega and Coleco's machine also used the same Texas Instruments sound chip which would go on to see further use in the Master System, Game Gear, and even the MegaDrive, albeit heavily modified. A good few games also ended up appearing on two or all three of these machines as well which further demonstrates the similarities between them. This wasn't always the case though. Take Gulkave, for example. I'm not sure whether the SG or MSX version was first but the two versions look quite different with the SG's version quite a bit bolder and more colourful than its MSX counterpart whose first stage looks more like a Virtual Boy game!

Oh well, fail it did though, nothing will change that now. I suppose there was more competition in the early years and the ColecoVision didn't do much better! The most important question we can ask nearly thirty years later is, is the SG-1000 worth playing now? For Sega fans such as myself, the answer is obviously yes, but I think any retro enthusiast should at least give it a try. It's a pretty capable little machine which has some great conversions of many popular arcade games of the time as well as a few all-original titles as well. Hopefully I'll be taking a look at many of these over the coming months with the results being swiftly documented on this very blog. In the meantime, if you were curious, or if this post has made you curious, it's an easy console to emulate, so what are you waiting for?!

Astronomical Musings #1

2011-12-31T14:45:00.000Z

I recently read a news report on a subject that I've long found slightly irksome - extrasolar planets. They, for non-astronomers, are planets in orbit around stars that are not our Sun. They are difficult to spot - considering their distance it's hardly surprising - and it's only been with the help of recent innovations in the field that astronomers have been reliably able to detect them amidst the glare of their parent star. As the news article in question mentions, this is done by looking out for the tiny and very brief drop in luminescence in the star as the planet passes between it and us.

The existence of quite a large number of these planets has now been confirmed. Amazingly, from such a huge distance it's possible to determine what kind of planet they are and even their temperature. Many of those found so far are gas giants but this latest discovery is not. Not only is it a terrestrial planet (i.e. one with a solid surface) but it's also one that's supposedly in the so-called 'habitable zone' around its host star. By this the genius astrophysicists mean that its distance from its star and therefore its mean surface temperature is comparable to that of Earth. This had led to many excited claims of 'a second Earth' or a 'twin' of our planet which has in turn prompted some more imaginative individuals to speculate that it might even host complex life-forms not unlike those found here on our own planet, and it's from here that my problem arises.

It was the otherwise outstanding BBC astronomy series called 'The Planets' that first brought this trend to my attention. There's one episode where they consider and then rule out the possibility of life on the various planets and moons in our own solar system. Their reasons for this are familiar ones - "Life couldn't exist on Venus, it's too hot" ... "Life couldn't exist on Jupiter, it's a gas giant" ... "Life couldn't exist on Titan, it's too cold" ... "Life couldn't exist on Mars, there's no oxygen or water" ... etc, etc, etc. Am I the only one who finds this kind of thing annoying? What they're basically saying is: life from Earth couldn't exist in these places. Is it not beyond the realms of possibility to think that possible life elsewhere in the galaxy might take other forms? Is it not incredibly arrogant to assume that, if life does exist beyond Earth, it must still be formed from the same basic ingredients as ours?

I can understand that we only have one example of a planet with life from which to take reference, so our search should probably begin there, but our kind of life might comprise only a very small proportion of all life in the universe for all we know. We could even be unique. Does it make sense to immediately dismiss a planet because it doesn't have an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, or because it doesn't have an abundant water source, or because it doesn't have a thick atmosphere to protect the surface from radiation? These things might be poisonous to some life-forms as many gases and liquids are to us and the same goes for temperatures. There are even examples here on Earth of life-forms who do not necessarily need the things we assume aliens will. Creatures that spend their whole lives in deep caves devoid of any light, for example, or life-forms that thrive on our ocean floors beneath crushing water pressures, living in the intense heat from volcanic vents. There are even creatures that can survive exposure to intense nuclear radiation. Surely this provides a hint of just how adaptable life can be?

I suppose one possible downside of looking for life in seemingly unlikely places is that we simply won't know what we're looking for. There could be complex being living in the clouds of Jupiter for all we know - how could we tell? I suppose I've answered my own question really but I still find it very frustrating that we only seem to have any interest in planets or moons which share some qualities with our own planet. Are the boffins being narrow-minded or have I just been watching too much Star Trek?

NES Platform Games #2

2011-12-28T22:41:00.000Z

Mighty Bomb Jack (1986)
By: Tecmo Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 170,350
Also Available For: Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC
Download For: Wii Virtual Console

One of my favourite arcade games when I was growing up was Bomb Jack. Its simple premise and pixel-perfect controls made for a tense and addictive game. During my Speccy gaming days I noticed that Elite had quietly slipped out a sequel on the 8-bit micros of the time which, as it turned out, was a pretty big departure from the first game and wasn't nearly as enjoyable. However, it seems that there was another sequel shortly before the one I played all those years ago, known as Mighty Bomb Jack. It was released on the NES as well as most home micros of the time, but not the Speccy or any Sega system which is probably why I didn't hear about it at the time! As is often the case here at Red Parsley, however, it's now time to rectify that. That usually begins with some brief research before actually playing the game and on this occasion I was shocked to find a game that is apparently despised amongst the NES community. It can't be that bad, surely?

We'll find that out a bit later but I have to admit - my expectations weren't good, even before I discovered some of the vitriolic reviews doing the rounds. Obscure sequels to all-time classic coin-ops hardly have a good track-record after all! Then again, it is by the developer of the original so all hope was not lost. There's some poor excuse of a story involving Jack's mission to rescue a royal family from the clutches of 'king demon', Belzebut (no, that's not a typo). This, unsurprisingly, involves travelling through many bomb-filled stages! There are sixteen levels altogether (not counting the final battle) and each of them is split into two parts. The second part of each, known as 'Royal Palace' rooms, will be most familiar to Bomb Jack fans as they are basically stages from the first game. In other words, they're single-screen stages filled with platforms, bombs to collect, and enemies to avoid, but this time without the fancy backgrounds. The first parts of each level, however, are rather different.

For the only time in a Bomb Jack game as far as I know, the main parts of each level take the form of scrolling platform stages. The basic premise remains the same as before though, and that is to collect the bombs in each stage, but this time it's not mandatory. Given the considerably larger size of the stages, the bombs are more sparsely spread out and the platforms are more infrequent, but the same kind of enemies spontaneously (and randomly) appear as always, often following you around. The notable addition to these sections are the numerous treasure chests dotted around almost as liberally as the bombs. These can be opened by Jack if he jumps while stood on one and they contain a variety of items including bonus points of various values, extra lives, Mighty Drinks, and Mighty Coins. Each stage, both 'Action Zones' and 'Royal Palace' rooms, are timed and each Mighty Drink you collect will give you an extra ten seconds. The Mighty Coins, however, are a little more interesting.

Once used, these special coins will change Jack's colour and bestow new abilities on him. Using one coin will turn him blue which allows him to open otherwise-locked orange treasure chests (the normal ones are red - they actually look almost identical though!), using two coins turns him orange and allows him to open any treasure chest simply by walking into it, and using three coins turns him green and has the same effect as collecting a Power Ball - it turns all enemies on-screen into coins (of a non-Mighty variety). Talking of the Power Balls, these also appear elsewhere in the stages. They, and the 'B' icons, return as normal in the Royal Palace rooms but in the main stages they will only appear from treasure chests, in addition to its normal item, when you've collected a sufficient number of bombs. Collecting the items in the treasure chests must be done carefully though as if you collect too many, an unpleasant surprise awaits!

If you collect too many Mighty Drinks or Coins, the game judges you as being too greedy and sends you to a Torture Room! These are like Royal Palace Rooms but without any bombs. To escape from them you instead have to perform fifty jumps! On top of these new features, there's also quite a few secrets to be discovered here too including secret rooms with treasure chests (and enemies which can still kill you!), and it's also possible to skip all but the first of the main stages and just play through the Royal Palace rooms instead. This leads to the 'bad' ending though so you'll have to keep plugging away if you want to see the proper ending which requires two special crystal balls, which are of course hidden! It's a very tough game too, even unfairly so in some ways. For example, if you lose a life you have to restart a whole stage from scratch, and this is also the case if you manage to leave a Torture Room as well - back to the start with all power-ups lost!

As with the original game, the random and sudden appearance of the enemies can also cause problems if they materialise close to (or right on top of) Jack since he dies from the merest touch, and then of course it's back to the start of the stage. If you can cope with the need to complete each stage in one life though, there's a lot of enjoyment to be had here. The sights and sounds are a bit basic though. The sprites are quite good and well detailed but the backgrounds and foregrounds mostly consist of simple patterns repeated through the stage, albeit in alternating colours which are well-chosen. The music and effects are similarly simplistic but pleasant and inoffensive enough. As with the original game though, it's the superb accuracy of control over Jack that makes the game so enjoyable. He can jump any height you want, including the whole height of the screen, and can hover or change direction at a pixel's notice, and he's extremely nippy too, so it's possible to zip all over the place, weaving in and out of the pesky enemies with as much precision as you yourself can muster.

While it would be hard to place this game alongside the best platformers on the NES, mainly because there is so many great ones, it's still an addictive and entertaining game which is far better than I was expecting after seeing the savage reviews it received elsewhere. It can be rather harsh and unfair for sure but, like the original game, the controls and collision-detection are spot-on so practise makes perfect! It's packed with secrets and areas to explore too, and some areas have more than one route through them, so it'll certainly keep you busy. Bomb Jack is deservedly regarded as an all-time great and Bomb Jack Twin is basically the original on steroids but Mighty Bomb Jack is a far better sequel than Bomb Jack II. Rather than changing the style altogether it instead expands upon it, keeping the core gameplay and adding a good amount of new stuff too. I'm not sure which game those other reviewers were playing but this reviewer thinks Mighty Bomb Jack is great, and I'm confident that fans of the original game would agree!

RKS Score: 8/10

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T19:38:00.000Z

So, for the second year it's Christmas time here at Red Parsley, and indeed everywhere else that celebrates it! Unlike last year I'm not at home in the UK but am instead enjoying a sweltering festive season in Brazil right in the middle of their summer so it's been a mixture of searing temperatures, monsoon-like downpours, and brick-shaking thunderstorms. This of course means it doesn't really seem like Christmas to someone brought up not too far below the Arctic Circle. I'm lucky enough, however, to have a great family who arranged a special early Christmas for me before I left the UK so whatever happens here over the next week or so is a bonus!

This also means I will be doing virtually no gaming, retro or otherwise, during this most celebrated of festivals, but I suspect many of you will be. Of course, this is likely to be stupid modern games that take an hour to install, two hours to download updates, and are still riddled with bugs, but I'll leave you to it! I'll be back to super retro-gaming before long and, unlike last year, I've actually had a few posts saved up this time too. Regardless of my pursuits here or at home though, I hope very much that you all enjoy whatever you spend your time on and that you have a lot of fun. I've made some great new friends here over the last year including Sean, Bryan, Eric, Pablo, Marco, some older friends have continued to drop by including Marc, Edward, and Darkstalker, and there are of course many others too, so it just stands to me to wish you all, as well as everyone else who stops by here, and most of all my wonderful wife:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Awesome Nature #7

2011-12-23T21:38:00.001Z

Great Kiskadee
Type: Bird Lives In: Central and South America Conservation Status: Least Concern

It's tempting whilst on holiday here in Brazil to do an 'Awesome Nature' post about one of the more famous creatures or trees found here but one thing I always look forward to when coming here is the sound of the Great Kiskadee's. They're not an especially tropical bird in any regard though. Even with their eye-catching white head-stripe, the brown and yellow colour means they wouldn't look out of place in any of the woodland areas back in the UK, and they don't exhibit any unusual behaviour as a result of their surroundings aside from their bravery in chasing off much larger birds. It's mostly just that loud and distinctive call that makes them stand out and it's a call that can be heard almost anywhere in Brazil, pretty much endlessly! It's also a call that led to their name here - Bem-Te-Vi, which translates to "I see you well!" They might see us but it's not to easy to spot them, only hear them. Everywhere.

Why It Is Awesome: Because it never shuts up!

Listen to their 'song' on Wikipedia or just play this clip:

Gaming Memories - Part 7

2011-12-22T18:53:00.000Z

It was my discovery of the mighty OutRun in the arcades of Torquay that first brought the Sega name to my attention and my subsequent acquisition of their splendid Master System console endeared them to me further, but it was when the MegaDrive arrived on the scene that I truly became ensnared by their magnificence, twenty long years ago now.

It must've been around 1988 when I got my Master System. I quickly became very fond of it and remain so today but it was never a console that was gifted by a huge range of titles. There was enough to support a monthly magazine though which was simply called 'S'. Although this magazine went on to become better known as Sega Power and would last right up until the end of the Saturn's reign, in the late 80's it was a pretty small magazine, composed of few pages, but midway through its run it started featuring news of a new and very exciting-sounding console. My interest was piqued immediately but I grew more and more excited the more they featured news and even some tantalising screenshots of some of the games the privileged few could expect to play on this new wonder-machine! The excitement and anticipation grew day by day, for my good friend Luke too. Then, one weekend I dropped by a different friend's house for the first time in a while, only to be greeted by a sight of special magnificence - a gleaming new imported Japanese MegaDrive! The sight of this was quite overwhelming in itself and the expectation increased when he flipped the power switch to the 'on' position.

I didn't know which game was 'slotted' into the shiny console, it didn't matter. The 'Sega' logo appeared on the screen in a new and exciting way. The screen flashed .... a figure jumped up out of sight, a shurikin flashed across the screen accompanied by a sound effect, another followed it .... EXPLOSION!! Lightning ripped across the sky. A sword appeared. It expertly deflected the shurikins. The person holding the sword is seen .... It is Joe Musashi - master ninja! All this while amazing music coincides perfectly with the action. The title appears: The Super Shinobi! It was unlike anything that had ever gone before it - even outdoing most arcade games of the time, and nothing from the actual game had yet been seen!

The events of this day remain the most a new console has impressed me upon seeing it for the first time. My friend and his brother had some other imported games as well but none were quite as dazzling as this first one. A few months went by and the MegaDrive has finally been launched here in the UK so my friend decided to switch his Japanese console for an official PAL one. Until, that is, he discovered that it ran slightly slower than a Japanese machine so he decided to sell it and return to his imported one again. This was shortly before Christmas so I seized the opportunity to take it off his hands by 'suggesting' to my parents that it would make an ideal Christmas present for me, and to my not-inconsiderable delight - they agreed! It was then a long wait until Christmas morning of course, but when it did arrive it was a moment to behold. I played each game as I unwrapped them and can remember phoning my good friend (and fellow MD-admirer), Luke, so he could hear the awesome music as I played! Ah, what a great day that was, and the beginning of a long relationship that still holds up today. My friend and his brother had bought five games for their UK MD before reverting to its Japanese forebear and they were:

Altered Beast (1988)

Remember when consoles used to come bundled with a game? It was a great idea and this is the one that Sega chose to accompany their fancy new console, to start with at least. It was a bit of a strange choice though. I guess it was only natural to choose a conversion of one of their own arcade games but wouldn't a popular one have been a better choice? Not only was Altered Beast a little unloved but it also did little to demonstrate the splendid abilities of Sega's latest machine - it was near-enough arcade perfect but the coin-op was hardly the flashiest one around to start with. Not only that but the Master System already had a reasonable version of the game itself! Surely the idea was to show everyone that the MD could do things the MS could only dream of? Instead, it showed us that the MD could do something the MS had already done, just slightly better...

Revenge of Shinobi (1989)

This, however, is the kind of game Sega should've bundled with it. As mentioned, it was the first MD game I ever saw in action and it had quite an effect on me - a true 'gaming memory' in itself! It wasn't just all flashy intros either. The soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro and amazing graphics were indeed stunning but they merely complemented what was an amazingly-well-designed run 'n' gun-style adventure rather than diverting attention from any flaws. It was a big game, with nearly every one of the side-scrolling stages having a unique feature, and was packed with the kind of attention to detail that I couldn't have imagined mere months earlier whilst at the same time staying true to the game's roots and continuing the evolution of the series, and arguably the whole genre. Everything a launch game (and a sequel) should be and still a fantastically playable game today. (full review here)

Thunder Force 2 (1989)

Long since eclipsed by the much more famous and revered sequels that would go on to reign supreme at the head of the genre on the MD, this creative blaster was an unfairly-overlooked game in the MD's early days but was actually a top game in my opinion, and made for another great launch title too. The graphics were neat, colourful and varied and the music and sound effects were superb. The alternating stage styles made for a nicely varied and challenging game too - the overhead, multi-directional stages from the original Thunder Force were expanded upon but Techno Soft also added an (almost) equal number of more traditional side-scrolling stages with bosses and all the usual stuff. One of my favourite things about the Thunder Force series has always been its weapon system and here's where is started, and since this game marked the last appearance of the overhead sections, some weapons were never seen again. A great shooter which I still play regularly today. (full review here)

Mystic Defender (1989)

I always remember seeing this game reviewed under its Japanese name of Kujaku Ō 2 and it was this enduring memory that led me, many years later, to discover that it's actually the sequel to one of my favourite MS games - Spellcaster! The first game was an arcade adventure with some RPG overtones but this game was very much of the platform/run 'n' gun variety featuring a nimble character who could collect and use a variety of magics over the large and atmospheric game-world. It's a bit like a mystical, ogre-filled version of Revenge of Shinobi or, as I recall a magazine of the day cruelly putting it, "a poor-man's Ghouls 'n' Ghosts". Whatever you want to compare it to, it's an underrated and enjoyable adventure if you ask me, and one I was pleased to have as one of the earliest parts of my MD collection.

Golden Axe (1989)

Here we had another game that was already available for the MS. Crucially, however, this time it was both a significant improvement over that already-good version, and it was a mighty fine game to start with! The MS tried its best but had to drop the selectable characters and the two-player mode as well as losing a lot of audio/visual quality. This skillish MD version actually improved on the arcade version! The graphics were as detailed but more colourful, the music was superb, plus it even added a whole new stage as well as a couple of new play modes, one of which was a more like a one-on-one fighting game! Golden Axe is a great game in my opinion and this MD conversion was one of the first 'better-than-arcade' ones I can ever remember seeing. It would've also made a fantastic pack-in game for the console too, especially if Sega had thought to include a second controller.

So there we have it - my first five MegaDrive games but certainly not my last. Sega's 16-bit wonder would go on to dominate my free time over the coming months, cause some arguments with fellow games, solve some others, and even now is still by far the console I've spent the most time on. At my peak I had around 70-80 games for it and, unlike some consoles I would go on to own, all the games were played thoroughly. It's also a console that's aged extremely well in my view - many of its games are as playable now as they were the day they came out and that must surely be a testament to Sega's awesomeness when they were at their absolute best!

Top Five Spectrum Shmups

2011-12-19T20:30:00.000Z

There's no question that over my many years of gaming, shoot 'em ups have become one of my favourite genres, probably my very favourite, but it wasn't always the case. Back when my main source of gaming was my Speccy, I didn't spend much time playing them. Is that because the humble Speccy was incapable of hosting a decent shmup? No, I don't think so - it was graced by more than a few top arcade conversions such as ace ports of Flying Shark, R-Type, and Salamander so that can't be it. Maybe there wasn't many available or perhaps I just failed to notice them. Whatever the reason, it's a subject I've recently looked into and decided to compile a list of the best ones, excluding arcade conversions. Here's my cyan-soaked choices:

Games-Related Top Fives Disclaimer: I've traditionally stuck to the games I know and love so far, and these game-related top fives reflect that. One of the purposes of this blog is diversify my gaming experiences, to play games I haven't played before, so I will do new game-related top fives in a few years to see how different they are!

5. Xenon (1988)

Whilst I knew the 8-bit micros received ports of this overhead shooter, I've always been under the impression that the ST and Amiga versions were its natural home. But then I recently heard that supposedly the Speccy version is the best one, and playing it reveals that it is indeed pretty sweet! The game itself is something of an acquired taste - you can switch between a flying spacecraft, for which the screen scrolls automatically, and a ground-based tank which can move as quickly or as slowly as you like, and there are of course enemies that can only be destroyed by one or the other of them. The monochrome graphics on this version can be a little confusing at times but other than that, it's a great effort, and the 128k version has some fantastic music too!

4. Zynaps (1986)

I actually first played this horizontal-scroller on my Amiga and I didn't really think too much of it at the time. It was okay, just rather basic and far too hard! I often heard positive things about the Speccy version though and sure enough, like Xenon, it's actually more enjoyable than its 16-bit interpretation! Its basic nature suits the Speccy more than the Miggy and it's also noticeably easier, mercifully. That's not to suggest it's now an easy game, mind you, but it is more forgiving and I enjoyed playing it a lot as a result. The backgrounds are a bit bare but the sprites and foreground graphics are detailed and colourful, particularly later in the game, so it's worth the tough slog. There's a few power-ups to make things a little easier too. Just goes to show, more powerful machines don't necessarily produce the best versions of a game!

3. Cybernoid (1988)

This side-viewed, flick-screen effort was one of the most famous and celebrated of all Speccy shmups and it's easy to see why. The premise was no more interesting than any other game of the type - you have to retrieve jewels and supplies stolen by pirates - but, as was typical of Raffaele Cecco's games, it was one of the best looking games to appear on Sir Clive's machine. The glorious, multi-coloured screens were full of detail and populated by lots of equally-colourful enemies which exploded satisfyingly in a nice, sparkly fashion when you shot them. The screens were also packed with just as many obstacles and traps as they were evil aliens and there was numerous power-ups too. Cybernoid is a unique and addictive game but it's also bloody hard which is probably the only thing keeping it from the number one spot!

2. Chronos (1987)

This is actually one of the few shmups I did spend a lot of time playing all those years ago and amazingly it's a mere budget game! It's often criticised for its simplicity - there are no power-ups and few different types of alien for example, and some of those that do exist are merely geometric shapes - but on this occasion simplicity is a good thing in my opinion. The few sound effects are good ones and the graphics are detailed with nicely-chosen monochrome colour schemes, but my favourite thing about the game is the design of the stages which is quite unlike any other shoot 'em up I've played. The horizontally-scrolling scenery is quite extensive and features several types of barrier as well as narrow gaps, multiple routes, and even written messages. I don't think it was even particularly well-liked, either by reviewers or other gamers, but the sheer unpredictability of the stages was enough to keep me playing and it's challenging and enjoyable throughout as well.

1. Lightforce (1986)

This one was seemingly a rather high-profile game being the first release on Gargoyle's 'Faster Than Light' label, and what a debut it was! It's a vertical-scroller this time which is set over five stages which take place in space and over the surface of planets and it's a game that was notable for its lovely colourful graphics and big sprites which feature none of the colour-clash that so blights many other games of the same... ummm... colourfullness. There's nothing especially original here admittedly - travel up the screen in your oddly-designed vessel and blast everything that moves - but it's the way that it's done that impresses. The sound is very limited but those lovely graphics and slick gameplay will encourage you to keep blasting away until you sent the alien scum running for good!

Holiday Time!

2011-12-15T19:49:00.001Z

Well, it's been around twenty months since I started this blog at the behest of my videogame-hating wife who was tired of listening to me babble on about them. I guess she hoped it would channel my interest in the subject in a more creative direction. I don't know how any of my regular readers feel but I'd like to think it's been fairly successful. At the very least, it's forced me to expand my gaming horizons beyond the few consoles I've owned in the past and play some games I've been hearing about for 20-30 years! For the first time since Red Parsley's birth, however, I am going on holiday!

Yes that's right, even as some of you are reading this very post I may be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, for RKS is taking a well-earned break in Brazil for... one month! I've been to Brazil three times before so I know I'll have a supremely enjoyable and leisurely time, plus it's the summer there at the moment too which means it will be very hot but with a lot of tropical rain storms, and believe me - it can rain in Brazil and then some! My travels this time will take in my wife's home town, Brasilia, where we will spend Christmas with her family, before moving on to Sao Paulo (and possibly Santos) for our New Year celebrations with her friends. This overwhelmingly huge city is home to many unique and diverse areas and one of them is Liberdade, its Japanese neighbourhood where I will hopefully encounter the same anime and ninja weapon stores that I saw on my first visit!

One thing that did disappoint me, just a little, two years ago when I was last in Sao Paulo, and something that's loosely associated with the bulk of the subject-matter of this blog, was the lack of anything remotely associated with retro gaming. Considering Brazil's supposed retro-gaming heritage, this was a big surprise to me. We are talking about the country that supported many consoles for far longer than anyone else, after all. Take my beloved Master System for example, which saw new releases here right up until 1998 when I was preparing myself for the Dreamcast's launch. Brazil, like some Far-Eastern countries, has also seen the release of many 'clone' consoles and 'unofficial' games too, so I hope this time I'm able to find some treasure-troves of retro goodness. If I'm successful, you'll read about it here, I'm sure!

Of course, this kind of thing is hardly the reason for my visit though, and regardless of whether or not I find any little retro nuggets, I'm sure the trip will be a fantastic one. I'll still be posting things here every few days but before anyone starts calling me a sad bastard for writing blog posts about retro games while I'm on holiday in a tropical country - I've actually had quite a few posts saved up for a while now. Of course, I may find some time to do some holiday-related posts but we'll see.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a great month while I'm away, wherever you are and whatever you're doing. My friends and family in the UK, and indeed many more in other northern countries, will of course be shivering away in temperatures of -10°c or so, but spare a thought for my wife and I if you will, sweating and burning in the tropical heat of summertime Brazil...

Arcade Platform Games #2

2011-12-13T23:41:00.000Z

Wardner (1987)
By: Taito Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 61,440
Also Available For: MegaDrive, Famicom Disk System

I think it's safe to say Taito have introduced a good few memorable games and characters over the years but Wardner must be considered one of their more obscure offerings. It's a side-scrolling platform adventure and stars a portly young chap who goes by the name of Dover who's out for a stroll with his girlfriend when a mysterious cloaked fellow appears and beckons them to follow him with stories of an awaiting 'fantasia'. Sure enough, the rapscallion has tricked them and swiftly kidnaps Dover's better half (but not before turning her into a crystal ball for some reason) and whisks her off to the evil wizard, Wardner. Predictably enough, it's now up to the girl's porky boyfriend to pursue the foul creatures responsible and rescue her (and hopefully turn her back into a human again too).

Some potatoes attack on the pleasant first stage...

To reclaim his bit of stuff, Dover will need to brave five fairly large, scrolling stages. Adhering to platform game law, the first stage is set in a grassy/wooded area but it's quite a nice one featuring lots of small floating platforms and vines to climb before unexpectedly moving on to pools of gunky red 'water' and clouds with deadly lightning strikes. The second stage takes place in some sort of warehouse or industrial facility which contains more hazards than enemies, such as conveyor belts, whirling buzz-saws, steam-vents, and spiked presses. The third stage is similar to the first except there's much less climbing involved and things are far more fiery with tiny moving platforms floating on lava, pillars of fire, and fireballs raining from the sky. The fourth stage sees you entering Wardner's castle which is pretty much a giant maze of platforms and ladders. Successfully navigating this stage will lead you to the final stage in the depths of the basement beneath the castle.

There's more obstacles than enemies in this stage...

The stages are all timed and the exit of each is locked. To obtain the key you must defeat the dragon that guards the end of each. Dover's only means of attack throughout the game is his ability to throw flames. These are rather droopy to start with and have a rather short range but their power can of course be significantly upgraded. This is done by collecting the golden orbs that are frequently left behind by defeated enemies or by purchasing a power-up from the shop that appears between stages. There are several items on offer here and there are others that can also be found all-too-rarely during the states such as the Magic Mantle (one-hit shield), Needle and Yarn (strengthens the Mantle to a two-hit shield), Clock (gives you infinite time to complete a stage), and a Golden Fairy (enemy-damaging companion).

Yep, there's even a time-limit in the shop!

There's also a couple of rather unusual power-ups that appear just once like the Ocarina that summons a large bird to carry you through much of stage three and another that allows Dover to jump many times higher than normal, but just once. As well as golden orbs, defeated enemies often leave behind bags of money and these, along with the treasure chests that are sprinkled through the stages, are what you use in the shops to buy some (but not all) of these power-ups. The enemies are quite numerous through most of the game and stages each have some that are unique to it. The first stage, for example, features what appears to be flying Mr Potato Head's, the second is the only place you'll find hunchbacks and birds, the third has skeleton warriors with shields, and the fourth is home to toucans and jumping eggs.

The Mighty Eagle carries me over pits of fire...

There are of course also several enemies that appear in more than one stage such as fireball-spitting cloaked dudes, rock-men, and bats, as well as the dragons which appear increasingly frequently as you advance through the stages, and of whom there are several different types. Fortunately, very few of the enemies regenerate as it's a pretty tough game already. Control of Dover is superb, although jumping in cramped spaces can cause a bit of a problem, but it's a very fair game regarding collision-detection and re-start points which helps a great deal and will encourage continued play, or at least it did with me! Having said that, the graphics are a little disappointing. Not technically as you can probably see - they're well-defined and fairly detailed, and the animation's not bad. I just don't find them particularly appealing.

Is it worth braving two rock-men for that treasure?

The first and third stages look quite similar, for example, as do the fourth and fifth, and some of them such as the third are full of drab greys and browns. Even Dover himself is clad in light-brown attire! The music is a bit more appealing though - each stage has its own tune and the sound effects are pretty good too except for a horrible noise used in place of speech which is somewhat akin to someone scraping their fingernails down a blackboard! It's definitely a good game overall though and I enjoyed playing through it a lot. I think my favourite thing about it is the variety between stages - jumping across vines on the first stage, dodging obstacles on the second, navigating the maze of the fourth, etc. As far as I know, Wardner isn't a well-known game but it's nicely-designed, not too frustrating, and pretty addictive. If you're a fan of platformers you should give it a try - you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

RKS Score: 8/10

Early Driving Games #5

2011-12-11T21:07:00.000Z

Battle OutRun (1989)
By: Sega Genre: Driving Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Sega Master System
Also Available For: Nothing

I'm not sure why but I'm in a bit of an OutRun mood at the moment. It could just be because OutRun rules more than anything else ever, but is that true of every game that carried the famous name? I took a look at the best games in the series with the recent Top Five OutRun Games, but you may have noticed that Battle OutRun isn't there. In fact, there's a good chance that many of the world's gamers won't even have played it as it was apparently only released in Europe. Seems a bit strange to me - surely if any game in the series should only be released in Europe, the logical choice would be OutRun Europa? Perhaps it's because the rest of the world didn't want it. After all, OutRun hardly has a glowing track-record on home systems...

The first thing you may notice about this game is that it uses a Ferrari F40 as the player's car, much like Turbo OutRun did which was released the same year. Aside from that, things initially look very familiar. Except for a screen prior to play which seem to indicate the existence of an enemy vehicle. Indeed, it soon transpired that a famous racing game which was heavily influenced by the original OutRun has in turn influenced this sequel to OutRun! The game in question is of course Chase HQ so, as you may have guessed, the 'Battle' part of Battle OutRun's name, as well as the game's casual reference to an enemy car, means that this is also a racing/combat game - you get 150 seconds with which to catch up with the enemy, then smash him off the road, just like Taito's game. Of which there is already a fine conversion on the Master System.

Since you're playing the game as bounty hunter, there's also some money involved. You start with $3,000 and each time you defeat a 'mobster' you'll get some more, with the amount increasing as you get further into the game. This money can be spent in the 'Parts Shop' which is actually a big truck that turns up mid-way through each stage. Here, you can buy upgrades to your body, tyres, engine, and chassis (the latter of which doesn't seem to do an awful lot), as well as outfit your car with some good old nitrous oxide! Most of the upgrades are necessary to be able to keep up with the bad guys too, one of whom occupies each of the eight stages spread across the US (and a ninth which appears upon successful completion of the rest).

Like Chase HQ (and OutRun, I suppose!), each stage is a point-to-point race along highways filled with civilian vehicles as well as lots of (indestructible) cars driven by henchmen of that stage's 'boss' who will try to prevent you from catching him up. Each stage also features some sections with ramps although I'm not entirely sure what these are for - there's not anything to jump over and they don't really cause you any problems either. A bit more troublesome are the seemingly random oil spills and yellow boards that are usually placed around corners. Hitting either of these will cause a reduction in speed much like hitting any of the other cars, and there's also the usual roadside objects such as sign-posts that will cause even bigger problems if you veer off-road and hit them.

Whether you're a fan of OutRun or Chase HQ, there's nothing here that will surprise you too much. The big question must therefore be, is it better than either of them? The Master System already hosts good conversions of both games after all. Graphically it's a mixed bag. On the one hand, the cars all look pretty good and are nicely detailed and each stage has its own backdrop. On the other hand, there are few different cars, there's a lot of sprite-flicker (which made getting decent screenshots tough!), the sensation of speed isn't great, and the track-side is completely bare most of the time. While this is helpful for the lack of things to accidentally crash into, it's not very pleasing to the eye! The sound effects are pretty poor too but the music is better. There are four tunes you can choose between prior to each stage (on the car radio, of course) and they're not bad. I particularly like the second one and I'm sure any player will be able to find one they like too.

As far as playing it is concerned, the first thing I noticed is how annoying the henchmen cars are! They home-in on you as you approach them to overtake and cause a big reduction in speed if you hit them, and it's even possible to hit the same car three of four times in succession - grrr! Aside from this great source of frustration though, Battle OutRun is actually a fairly enjoyable game. There's enough stages to keep you busy for a good while and although it's a pretty tough game too, even near the start, you can play the eight stages in any order you like. As it stands though, those bloody henchmen cars do exist and they're a pain in the damn arse, so it's a hard game to recommend. OutRun fans should definitely give it a try, for the sake of completion if nothing else, but everyone else should probably try Chase HQ itself first.

RKS Score: 6/10

Film Review #35

2011-12-08T19:39:00.002Z

Gran Torino (2008)
Director: Clint Eastwood Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley, Doua Moua, Brian Haley, Geraldine Hughes, Dreama Walker, John Carroll Lynch, Chee Thao, Choua Kue, Brian Howe, Scott Eastwood

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 9? Minutes

Tagline: "Ever notice how you come across somebody every once in a while you shouldn't have messed with?"

He's been on our screens for over fifty years now, playing a huge variety of roles across most genres, but this film is apparently the last time we'll ever clap eyes upon the great Clint Eastwood. Unless we happen to know him in person, of course. He stated before Gran Torino was released that it was to be his last acting role, and at 78 years old who could blame him? A statement like that does bring with it a certain degree of expectation though. That may be true of any Clint film but his last ever? His legions of loyal fans will have been expecting nothing but the greatest of send-offs! Luckily for me I didn't find all this out until after I saw the film so I didn't go in with such an unreasonable level of expectation.

"Get the hell off my muvvafukkin lawn, beeyatch"

The car of the title is the most prized possession of Walt Kowalski (Eastwood, believe it or not), a Korean war veteran and retired Ford factory worker who, having been recently widowed after 50 years of marriage, now lives by himself in a formerly-white working-class part of Detroit which is now mainly populated by Asian immigrant families. Walt's two sons, Mitch (Haley) and Steve (Howe), disappoint him and he thinks even less of his grandchildren, especially teenage Ashley (Walker). He spends most of his time sitting on his porch with his dog, Daisy, grimacing disapprovingly at near enough everything, but particularly the large Hmong family who live next door who look upon him with little more affection.

"What in the blazes do you want, young rapscallion?"

Two of the younger members of the Hmong family are teenagers, Thao (Vang) and older sister Sue (Her). The latter is a bright and confident young girl while the former is quiet and reserved. A bigger problem is that his cousin, Spider (Moua), is head of a Hmong street gang who are hassling him to join them. He reluctantly agrees to a 'trial' with them which involves stealing Walt's beloved Gran Torino. Suffice to say, things get a little more complicated and Walt unwittingly ends up as the hero of the Hmong community, a situation which does nothing to dampen his disdain for them, but a grudging respect gradually begins to form as Walt sees a way of atoning for some of his haunting memories of war.

Sue brings Walt to a family meal...

Considering what little I knew of the film beforehand I was surprised to find that it's actually quite a slow film, particularly the first half, but the story and characters soon grab hold. The quality of the production was already assured with Mr. Eastwood's involvement too, and accordingly the extras are all played by Hmong actors and much of the crew is Hmong as well. Most of the cast have little to do, with the screen-time dominated by Walt's two young Hmong neighbours, Father Janovich (Carley), the young and inexperienced priest to whom Walt's late Catholic wife became close, and of course Walt himself. Clint fans will certainly appreciate his performance here. His character seems to have shades of several of his previous characters but it's a rather controversial one too.

The Hmong gang try to convince Thao to join them...

Walt is a unashamedly racist for one thing. He growls disapprovingly, speaks his mind including flagrant racist terms, and doesn't even try to conceal his disgust at most of the people and events around him, much of which is related to the multi-ethnic nature of his neighbourhood. Eastwood plays him as well as any of his previous best roles - I'm sure no one needs me to extol the virtues of his acting talent but he's looking his age, probably more than his age in fact, and I've never seen (or heard) him as 'grizzled' as he is here. It's a captivating performance though - the minute he growls "Get... off... my... lawn" you just know he can back it up! How many other 78 year old's could seem as genuinely menacing as a disgruntled Walt Kowalski? It's a captivating film as well. Most of Eastwood's characters are hugely cheerable and this one, last on-screen performance or not, is among his most memorable.

RKS Score: 8/10

Scrolling Fighting Games #6

2011-12-06T21:13:00.000Z

Final Fight (1989)
By: Capcom Genre: Fighting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 925,419
Also Available For: SNES, Mega CD, Game Boy Advance, Sharp X68000, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Download For: Wii Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, Apple iOS

In recent years, Capcom have probably been most famous for their Resident Evil games. Through most of 90's it was the Street Fighter series, but before all of the many, many incarnations of these games, one of their most popular games was a scrolling fighting game which was so revered that it pretty much single-handedly formed the basis for Sega's decision to create the Streets of Rage (Bare Knuckle) series! This game was of course Final Fight and it's a game that I'm ashamed to say I had never played properly until a recent visit by my good friend Luke. In my defence, I was a Sega fanboy during the years in question but it's still no excuse really. To make amends, an hour or so of two-player ass-whooping ensued with the following discoveries.

It's on! Once someone moves these pesky drums...

Apparently the game is set during the same period as the original Street Fighter tournament and is based in Metro City where ex-wrestler, Mike Haggar, has recently become mayor. The leading gang in the city, Mad Gear, decide to send a message to Haggar by kidnapping his daughter, Jessica. This of course doesn't have the desired effect and instead sees Haggar set out to bring down the heinous gang along with Jessica's boyfriend, Cody, and his sparring partner, Guy. However you try to tart it up, it's a pretty weak story which had been heard numerous times before and would be heard many more times in the future. It's enough to get you playing though, but first you must choose which of the three protagonists you want to play as!

That'll teach me for gawping!

I already had a feeling that Luke would choose to fight as the mighty Haggar himself due to his immensely powerful wrestling moves so that left me to choose between the two martial artists - the quick and agile Guy or the jack-of-all-trades Cody. I went for the former and we got stuck straight into the action! The start of the game sees our heroes and some Mad Gear gang members, Jessica in tow, separated by some steel drums. This stand-off doesn't last long though as the suddenly Jessica-less goons set upon the mayor and his associate for the start of six fairly long rounds which are set all over the fictional city from the slums and the west side, through subways, parks, and bars, to industrial facilities and the bay area.

That's not very environmentally-friendly...

Mad Gear initially seems to be a mere street gang whose numbers are made up of punks, thugs, and crack-hoes of various descriptions, but as you get further into the game, as well as getting more numerous, you'll find a few who are a bit more professional and militaristic. Wherever in the game the enemies appear though, most of them merely attack with punches, kicks, and throws but there are a few who use knives or even firebombs! Our three heroes all have their own unique set of moves, of course, which include a multitude of punches and kicks as well as throws, multi-hit combos and special attacks. There's also a good helping of weapons such as knives, pipes, and swords they can use which can frequently be found laying around or, perhaps more commonly, in the wreckage of the many objects such as phone boxes, dustbins, and billboards that can be destroyed.

I slash you with my katana to prove I'm right...

There are some other items to look out for too including a variety of foods and drinks for recovering some energy as well as jewellery and gems for bonus points. Like most fighting games though, it's not a complicated affair, with the object simply being to beat the crap out of anything that moves! Each player character has some rather satisfying moves to learn, which doesn't take too long and, while I did have a quick go with Haggar and Cody, I think Guy remains my favourite. The enemy characters are pretty good too. There's around eight different types but also several different designs of each too, so there's a surprising amount of variety during the stages.

Three Hugo's from SFIII ambush us!

The bosses are pretty varied too. They can be found at the end of each round as always and some of these, whilst perhaps a little unusual, are mostly a real challenge. They're usually armed (although there's often weapons lying around for you to use too) and, like the standard enemies, have their own energy bars, but this time much longer! Some of them have gone on to greater fame in the Street Fighter Alpha (Zero) series such as samurai wrestler, Sodom, and pesky Red Beret special forces goon, Rolento, but the others are fairly memorable too like the porky machine-gun-wielding cop at the end of round three. One of the standard enemies even starred as a playable character in Street Fighter 3! Talking of bonus points, there's also bonus rounds at the end of the second and fourth stages which charge you with destroying first a fancy car and then a load of glass panes within a strict time limit.

Haggar has fainted at the naughty minx's antics!

I'm sure everything sounds very familiar so far, even if you haven't played the game before, but lets not forget - many of these things are so familiar because Final Fight invented them, or at least popularised them! Even I, as a loyal Streets of Rage player, am able to acknowledge that. My experience with Sega's series has perhaps dulled the impact Final Fight has had on me but it's still clear to see what a fantastic game it was, and still is. It still looks really nice for one thing. The backgrounds are mostly very urban or industrial with great attention to detail (like graffiti and posters all over the place, for example). My favourite stage is probably the one that takes place on a subway train, although I'm not sure how barrels ended up on it!

These portly chaps have some anger issues...

The big and distinctive sprites found here have long been popular too. They're animated quite well and as mentioned there's a few different 'skins' for each type of enemy as well. Some of them have some rather creative moves, especially the crack hoes, Roxy and Poison (who were censored in some Western versions) who flip and leap all over the place, and there's a few nice special effects that would reappear in later Capcom fighting games such as someone getting engulfed in flames - eeek! One area of the game that disappointed a little, though, was the audio. The music and sound effects are pretty good but after being spoilt by Streets of Rage (especially the second game), they seem a little bit anonymous. Still, I'm sure they would've been fantastic if I hadn't played Sega's game first!

Flashing your boobs won't save you now!

There's no doubting the quality of the game though. Nearly everyone except for Sega owners got to play a home version of it, hence Streets of Rage, but playing it for the first time after all these years reveals a fairly simple but very well-made game that hasn't aged at all. The stages themselves are fairly generic, much like the ones in Sega's game, but the actual fighting seldom gets either boring or overwhelming. It is very satisfying though - each character has their own strengths of course but all are enjoyable to use (although it's hard to beat Haggar's piledriver and suplex moves!). It's just a shame the series quickly went downhill - I guess Capcom were concentrating elsewhere by then - but this first entry in the still-respected series is a frickin' awesome one!

RKS Score: 9/10

Atari 2600 Round-Up #1

2011-12-04T18:19:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to another new Red Parsley feature! As regular readers will no doubt already know, game reviews here are rather on the lengthy side, but not all games need (or deserve) so much detail. Less commonly, I may not be able to discover all the necessary information about a game to start with. Whatever the reason though, I thought the 'Round Up' was an ideal solution! Here I will look at games that fit these criteria, five at a time. These will often include arcade conversions, so to start things off, here's a look at how the Atari 2600 handled versions of some of the most popular arcade games of its time...

Space Invaders (1978)

I don't think there were too many VCS games that were as eagerly awaited as this one! When it did arrive, some bemoaned the unauthentic alien designs or the incorrect number of shields, but the fact is, it's still great fun to play. Of course, even in the arcades it got a bit boring after a while but this version features an amazing 112 variations of the game which includes ones with moving shields, invisible invaders, extra weapons, and even a simultaneous two-player option! It could certainly be prettier (although it is more colourful than the arcade version), and if it was no more than it appears as default it would soon grow equally tiresome, but the huge number and variety of game variations makes it one of the most enjoyable games I've yet played on this classic old console! ... 9/10

Asteroids (1979)

An arcade game famous for its vector graphics is unlikely to ever be quite the same in any other form but this version actually isn't bad. The asteroids are 'filled in' and multi-coloured this time and, while I'm not sure how much they actually look like asteroids (I suppose that was also true of the original!), everything else is about as good as could be expected. The background tune, if you can call it that, is present and correct and shooting up asteroids is nearly as much fun as it was in the arcades. It's also rather easier on the default game setting but there's an impressive sixty-six variations to be found here which change all sorts of in-game features which make it even easier or much harder, so there's bound to be a game you can get on with. They even thought up a backstory! ... 7/10

Defender (1981)

Perhaps controversially, Defender isn't nearly my favourite arcade game of the era. This is mainly because I could never get used to having to use a button to change direction rather than simply pressing left or right. Thankfully, due to the restrictive nature of the VCS controller, this version uses the control method I'm more comfortable with but unfortunately that's about all it does right! The landscape has been changed to apparently random squares, the enemy sprites flicker relentlessly, the collision-detection is far from trustworthy, but most remarkable of all, your own ship disappears whenever you fire, during which time you can't be killed. This basically means you can fly around doing whatever the hell you want as long as you press the fire button rapidly! It does have twenty variations which offer games with different settings and speeds including some more difficult games which skip the first two waves but unfortunately I don't think there's any amount of different games that could save this mess.... 3/10

Pac-Man (1981)

Here's another one that was hotly-anticipated, perhaps even more so than Space Invaders. Few arcade games have ever been as popular as Pac-Man. Indeed, so eager were gamers to have a home version that there were dozens of unofficial copies. The quality of many of these was questionable but the VCS was due an official conversion - that would surely be worth the wait? Sadly, it wasn't. Like Defender, this port was blighted by flickery, almost-unrecognisable sprites and a poor interpretation of the famous Pac-Man gameplay. This isn't one that could be saved by the game variations either - there's just eight here which merely alter the speed of the yellow glutton and the 'ghosts' chasing him. As a game, it's barely average. As a conversion, it's terrible.... 5/10

Berzerk (1982)

It was only recently that I took a look at the arcade version of this classic, and mighty impressed with it I was too. There are few games that have such simple graphics and yet remain so supremely enjoyable to play so it shouldn't be too hard to convert to the VCS, and this has certainly been the case. Obviously the splendid robotic speech is gone here (with the standard version) but the gameplay has survived intact and there are twelve game variations too, most of which merely make the game easier or harder by changing the robot and Evil Otto settings. The graphics may be a bit blockier and the screen isn't as tall (in fact, it's almost as if someone portly sat on the screen - the diagonal shots are at a strange angle too), but it's still a very enjoyable and addictive version of Stern's great game. Plus, you can even get a special 'voice enhanced' version! ... 8/10

I hope you liked the first 'Round Up' feature! More will follow :)

Top Five Neighbours Characters

2011-12-02T21:04:00.000Z

It may have outstayed its welcome now by a good twenty years but once upon a time, just for a short while, the Australian soap-opera known as Neighbours was compulsive viewing. The cast, while hardly award-winning in terms of their thesping, were a distinctive and frequently amusing bunch. Here's the five that have stuck in my mind the most over the years:

5 - Clive Gibbons

To call him the village idiot would be far too cruel but Clive, played by Geoff Paine, was certainly a pretty crazy guy and he would make this list purely for his highly chortlesome appearances in his gorilla suit - all part of the service offered by his gorillagram agency, naturally! He was a big favourite but his wacky antics hid some painful memories from his past...

4 - Henry Ramsay

Good old Henry and his wacky antics! Played by Craig McLachlan, he was only in the show for a couple of years before he buggered off to New Zealand but he made an immediate impact when he arrived. The other characters were suspicious of him as he had (gasp) a criminal record but most of his time was spent on hair-brained money-making schemes, which of course rarely worked!

3 - Jim Robinson

His ability to master the American accent has made Alan Dale a very familiar face to TV audiences in recent years with notable appearances in such shows as Ugly Betty, 24, NCIS, The West Wing, and The O.C., where he is generally cast in authoritative, no-nonsense roles, but for a lot of us he'll always be Jim, patriarch of the extensive Robinson family!

2 - Harold Bishop

The portly Harold, played by Ian Smith, has now had three runs in the show but his first is the only one I witnessed. He was vegetarian, tee-total, and a devout Christian and his fuddy-duddy ways often made him the butt of jokes and source of much of the show's humour. Until the shows producers went and drowned him, that is! (just temporarily, of course)

1 - Joe Mangel

Portrayed as a typical Aussie 'bloke', Joe was popular with viewers of the show but less popular with his fellow residents due to his oafish ways. He was a hard working handyman and loved watching football, drinking beer, and playing loud music, but he's best remembered by many for his frequent and amusing use of Australian slang... "Strewth mate, I just had a blue with me shiela!" :)

Yes, yes, I know, all five of the characters in this list are male. We'll be covering the Top Five Neighbours Babes another time... ;)