Red Parsley

3DO Games #5

2013-05-24T14:07:00.000+01:00

Return Fire (1994)
By: Silent Software Genre: Strategy / Shooting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: 3DO
Also Available For: PlayStation, PC

The culmination of RF's dramatic title sequence...

As technically impressive as the 3DO was for its day, it's a sad fact that anyone who met the rather immense outlay required to own one had little in the way of high-quality games to play on it, and even less that actually made use of the new machine's impressive abilities. One game that appeared to do just that, however, was Return Fire, and it was an exclusive too! Well, until the 3DO started floundering at least, at which point it was also released on the PS1 and PC, but still - for a while, 3DO owners had something to show off, and it was a game worthy of envy. It's a simple military-based strategic frolic at heart which pits two forces against one another - green and brown. Player one controls the latter while a second player or the console itself controls the former, and the object is simply to seize your opponent's flag and return it to your base. As you might expect, however, it's not quite that simple.

A player-one tank and a gun tower exchanging fire...

There are somewhere in the region of 130 stages altogether and they are divided equally into two groups - one consisting of single player stages, another of two player stages. They are viewed from a scrolling, angled-overhead perspective and most of them consist of an island with opposing forces occupying a different end each - two player maps give each side about half of the land area each while one player maps just have a few buildings on the player's side with most of the island taken up by enemy buildings and defences. In either case, your job is to find the building which houses the flag, destroy it, collect the flag, and return to base, and there is initially only one mission on which to do this. Once this is completed, however, the next tier of stages is unlocked which has eight new maps. Finish any of these and the next tier becomes available with eight more, and so on.

Choose your vehicle wisely...

Your means of vanquishing your opponent and completing these stages comes in four forms. You start each stage safely within the confines of your bunker and here there are four vehicles to choose from - the Tank, which moves at a reasonable speed and can fire shells at ground or air targets with its rotating turret, the Armoured Support Vehicle, which is slow but has meatier defences and can fire air/ground rockets and drop mines, the Helicopter, which is fast and obviously unimpeded by buildings and suchlike, and can fire air/ground rockets, but is obviously a bit more delicate, and lastly the Jeep which is fast and nimble, can move across watery areas with its inflatable air thingies, and can launch grenades, but is of course incredibly weedy. Eight of the jeeps are available for each stage and these are the only vehicles with which you can grab and transport the flag, but you also get three each of the other vehicles for blasting your way to it.

Player two is suffering from an aerial bombardment...

If any of your fine vehicles are destroyed you'll automatically return to your bunker to choose another (unless you somehow manage to lose all seventeen of them!), but you can return at any time anyway to switch if you want. Helpfully, doing this also replenishes their limited fuel, ammunition, and armour as well, although this can be done 'on the fly' too, by stopping off at one of the relevant depots nestled amongst the gun towers and other buildings of either side. The depots though, like everything else in the game can be destroyed (even the trees!). This doesn't present a dilemma for the solo-player as you're only up against the enemy gun towers, but with a two-player game you then need to decide whether to preserve them for your own use or to destroy them to prevent your opponent from doing the same. Indeed, despite the extensive amount of shooting and destroying you'll no doubt engage in while playing Return Fire (its 'tagline' is even "Destroy, Destroy, Destroy!"), if you want to actually play it properly, there's a lot of strategy involved as well.

A shiny new helicopter emerges from the bunker...

One aspect of this is of course choosing the right vehicle at the right time, and they all differ enough for each player to find a strategy that suits them. You might want, for example, to use the chopper to scout out your opponent's stronghold and try to locate his flag tower (there are usually some decoy towers too) and find the easiest route to it. Alternatively, you may choose to plough head-first through everything in a straight line from your bunker to your final goal. Whichever method you employ, it's best not to hang around for too long or annoying little helicopters will turn up and start taking pot-shots at you (although it is very satisfying to shoot them down!). Other things to consider are the design of the stage in question. They all consist of one or several islands and in the case of the latter they're linked together by rickety (and very destroyable) bridges which presents numerous possibilities in itself. As you probably already guessed, this is therefore a game which was not designed for solo play and accordingly is immeasurably more enjoyable when playing against a friend.

Bridge out? No problem for the Jeep!

As undeniably awesome as this mode is, I've also spend quite a bit of time with the one player mode and, while it is good fun, either for practise or for mere wanton destruction purposes, it does get a bit repetitive after a while. A big part of this is down to the graphics which are quite splendid but pretty much the same throughout the whole game. In spite of the angled-overhead viewpoint, the stages are presented in 3D which allows the camera to zoom in or out rather nicely depending on how fast you're moving. Things do get a little blocky when the view zooms right in but that's not too often. The worst thing about the visuals, though, is without doubt the total lack of variety. All stages are set in the same environment - sandy areas with surrounding water, bridges, the odd patch of grass - and all feature the same few types of building with the same roads around them. The only differences really are the shapes of the islands and the actual location/arrangement of the buildings and features, and even then, some stages are merely mirrored versions of others.

Yes, my tank is under that mass of explosions...

One aspect of the game that definitely impresses, however, is the presentation. From the tank that trundles onto the screen to destroy the glass 3DO logo, to the dramatic title sequence, and the FMV clip of a WWII victory parade that greets completion of a stage, everything is very slick and polished, especially the audio which, famously, consists of several pieces of classical music. The aforementioned title sequence features Requiem Dies Irae while, in-game, each of the vehicles has its own theme tune including Mars: Bringer of War for the Tank, Flight of the Bumblebee for the Jeep, In the Hall of the Mountain King for the ASV, and of course Ride of the Valkyries for the Helicopter, and the volume of the music even increases or decreases according to the intensity of the on-screen drama! There is also the occasional use of 'incidental music' such as upon discovery of your opponent's flag, and victory is hailed by the Hallelujah Chorus which certainly gives the sense of a job well done.

Oops, seem to have gotten a bit lost here...

The ingenious use of this music, as well as some spot-on sound effects, is what really gives this game its fantastic atmosphere which is helped further still by some great attention-to-detail. Shooting a building often sees its occupants flee, for example (and yes, you can squash them if you so desire, complete with squelching noise). This superb atmosphere plays a big part in drawing you back to Return Fire too, even on your own. I don't usually play it for long at a time by myself own as, despite the tremendously enjoyable and satisfying game mechanics, it's easy, a bit repetitive, and largely pointless to play solo, but I still return to it often. Besides, it's nice to play it with a full-screen (well, the upper two-thirds of the screen) now and then rather than half of it which can feel a bit cramped. If Silent Software came up with a decent back-story and incorporated some sort of mission-based one-player mode this could be an all-time great. It is a two-player game really though, and offers a rare chance to outfox a friend with cunning stategies rather than brute force, and in this capacity alone it's one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played.

RKS Score: 8/10

Adult Games #3

2013-05-20T21:27:00.000+01:00

Gals Panic! (1990)
By: Kaneko Genre: Puzzle Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 38,000 (one credit)
Also Available For: Nothing

The more I look into these so-called 'adult games', the more I discover the same old formula. Take a liked, well-known, simple title, copy it, and add some naked (or at least scantily-clad) girlies while doing so. It's not a very complicated process and neither are the games that generally result from such unions. Arriving courtesy of the reasonably-prolific Japanese arcade outfit, Kaneko, this effort graced a small number of the world's arcades at the start of the 90's and followed a similar trend. The game on which it's based is Taito's classic 'space-filling' puzzler, Qix, and that means that, unless executed with exceptional incompetence, it should at least be a pretty darn addictive game!

For the benefit of those who've never played Taito's game, it consists of a series of single-screen stages which require you to fill-in a set percentage of the playfield by 'drawing' shapes over it (at least 80% in the case of this game). To do this you need to move your marker thing which can move around the outer edge of the screen. Pressing the fire button allows you to move into the screen with the objective of 'fencing off' as much of it as you can. However, if any of the annoying enemies that inhabit this area touch your line as you're drawing it, you'll lose a life. Reconnecting with the outer edge of the playfield without this happening, however, will then fill-in the area in question.

Like most adult games I've covered so far, the gameplay here differs little from the game on which it's based and, also like those other games, the main difference is the background graphics on each stage which, believe it or not, feature one of six saucy girlies from whom you can choose before play (no pun intended). There are three stages for each girl and at the start of each your chosen vixen is silhouetted and is uncovered only by drawing over the area she occupies. On the first stage she will be mostly fully clothed (though still positioned provocatively), on the second down to her underwear, and on the third... harumph, I reel with inchoate shock at such brazen titillation!

Indeed, if you're talented (or pervy) enough, not only will you get to see them in their birthday suits in the pixelly manner shown in the shots here but afterwards you'll be treated to a digitised photo of the real girl! It's not always easy to get that far though. Each of the three stages for each girl features a different enemy and they're all pretty tough. The first is a large spider which produces numerous smaller versions of itself while also spinning large webs which slow down your marker thing, the second is a whirly, fiery thing which creates lots of smaller flames, and the third is a big spinning triangle which releases lots of smaller (and slightly less terrifying) geometric shapes.

The main enemies get smaller as you fill in more space but they still create the smaller thingies which makes the going pretty tricky, as do the block obstacles that you have to move around, and if you hang around for too long or fill in too much 'uninteresting' parts of the screen, the game will switch the girl for something rather less appealing such as the giant blue bear pictured above or even worse! It's not as frustrating as some other examples I've played before though (Lynx version of Qix - grrrrr!), and that could be down to the colourful and surprisingly varied graphics and decent sound effects (including inappropriate moans from the girls as you uncover their 'parts'!) which help make it a rather pleasant experience, despite the questionable content. So, against all the odds, Gals Panic is actually a perfectly decent Qix clone which has surprisingly proven to be not only well known but also rather popular (there are multiple sequels with some even appearing on the Saturn and PlayStation). The girls add little to it but it's a well made, typically addictive, and enjoyable game. It's perhaps even the best Qix clone around.

RKS Score: 7/10

Top Five Master System Arcade Conversions

2013-05-17T17:59:00.000+01:00

Some of the harsher critics of Sega's charming Master System might suggest that one of the few reasons to own one would be for the generally splendid quality of its arcade conversions. Many of these were conversions of Sega's own arcade games of course but, strangely, it wasn't the only place to find most of these. Games such as OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner, Shinobi, etc, could be found on the NES, PC Engine, and other rival systems which meant the MS didn't always host the finest home versions of their games. It did still receive some spiffing conversions though, and here are five of the best:

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. R-Type (1988)

Considering its popularity, I've always found it amazing that R-Type was never converted to more systems, especially certain consoles. The PC Engine version is of course amazing (although split over two HuCards) but, unless you were lucky enough to own NEC's box of tricks, this MS version has long been widely regarded as the next best thing, and such a reputation is more than deserved. It suffers from the usual sprite-flicker, some sprites are a bit smaller, and the scenery and background graphics disappear to accommodate the large bosses, but apart from these points the MS has produced a splendid version of Irem's classic. The stages are well reproduced (and there's even a secret one!), the music is great, and the most difficult part of the arcade version to duplicate - the fancy graphics and large bosses - are also mighty impressive. A sterling effort then, and one of the best shmups on the MS.

4. Space Harrier (1986)

Unlike many arcade conversions for the MS, this was actually released quite soon after the arcade original, and considering how early it was it's pretty darn impressive, especially when you consider just how technically-demanding Sega's ground-breaking coin-op was to begin with. All eighteen of the bright, colourful stages have been crammed into this cartridge and, while they're understandably not as fast or smooth as the arcade game, they still look really nice and the MS moves them around as well as could reasonably be expected. That sprite-scaling that made the game famous is well-reproduced here too. Even better is the splendid music which helps to make this conversion among the most enjoyable there is. Sega even released a 3D version of the game for use with the Master System's special glasses.

3. Bubble Bobble (1991)

Yes, yes, I know, as immensely awesome as Taito's super-duper classic is, it was never the most processor-hungry game of all-time, even in its day. So, with this conversion arriving some six years later, it's only to be expected that it's at the very least close to the original, right? Well, yes, but such is the vast popularity of the arcade version and its deceptively-intricate gameplay, home versions were often unsatisfactory. Now, I'm not hardcore enough to know if this MS version includes every tiny detail, but I can tell you that it's a hugely slick and playable version of the all-time great. Plus, it was the first version I played at length as well which makes it my favourite, especially considering it has a handy password system which helped me reach the later stages for the first time, and it has a whopping 200 stages! The graphics are faithful, not as flickery as you might expect, and that catchy tune is present and correct as well which means, until the Saturn and PS ports arrived, this was one of the very best.

2. New Zealand Story (1992)

I've been a big fan of this cute-but-tricky Taito platformer since it was originally released and I rarely need much of an excuse to buy another copy of it. By the time this MS version was released, I'd already played the game to death on my Speccy and MegaDrive, the latter of which features different stages, so this was my first chance to play a version that may possibly be close to the arcade original. As it turned out, it was very close, more so than I had expected! The presentation is great and includes the short-but-appealing intro, and there's a map screen too - even the MD didn't have that! The insanely catchy music is perfectly reproduced here as well, the sound effects are nearly as good, and the stages and relevant graphics are spot-on. True, there is some flicker when too many sprites are close together, but other than that this is as close to the fantastic arcade game as is possible.

1. Gauntlet (1990)

The first version of this game I ever played was the decent Speccy conversion which kept me entertained for hours but it wasn't until I stumbled upon the arcade version that I realised just how great a game Gauntlet is. The prospect of this Master System version was something I was a less enthusiastic about though. As great as the console is, many of its games are rather prone to sprite-flicker when there's a lot of them about, and not too many games have more sprites on-screen at once than Gauntlet! However, to the immense surprise of me, and no doubt many others, this conversion features a typically high number of sprites whilst suffering from no flicker at all! This in itself makes it a tremendous achievement on Sega's console but it's also near-faultless to play as well. The speech is of course missing (even the MD version struggled with that) but aside from that everything is here making it almost certainly the closest version to the arcade until the MegaDrive's super-port arrived.

Shinobi Series - Part 5

2013-05-13T16:20:00.001+01:00

Shadow Dancer (1990)
By: Sega Genre: Run 'n' Gun Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: 395,200
Also Available For: Nothing
Download For: Wii Virtual Console

It at least has a better title screen...

Sega's mighty MegaDrive was their most popular console and one of the reasons for that is the many ultra-spiffing arcade conversions it played host to. Among these must surely have been the second Shinobi game which had graced arcades of the world around the time the MD itself was being unleashed. Oddly, however, Sega instead opted to release a mostly-new game bearing the same name, but with the added subtitle of 'The Secret of Shinobi'. They seem to have had some trouble deciding whether to follow the same story or not though. The hero in the white pyjamas is either the legendary Joe Musashi in the UK version, or Hayate (Joe's son, as in the arcade game) in the Japanese version, both of which grace my collection. The objective in both versions is more akin to the original Shinobi than its sequel though, which sees you rescuing various hostages taken by evil terrorist organisation, Union Lizard, who have occupied New York City and run amok.

Yamato munches on an idiotic frisbee dude...

The many cretinous civilians are distributed over the five rounds which make up the game. The first four are each divided into three stages - two normal side-scrolling, multi-tiered examples followed by a scary boss stage (much like original Shinobi, and indeed Revenge of Shinobi, no less), while the fifth and final round consists of several rooms, each filled with a particular type of enemy, before the final confrontation. Joe is armed with an infinite number of shurikens to fling at the many enemies which are the usual mixture of gun-toting military dudes and ninjas, samurais, frisbee-throwers, and other Far Eastern-flavoured oafs. Some of them fall to a single shuriken strike while others need two or more hits, and Joe is also able to kick them or slash them with his sword if he's close enough which has the same effect. Helping to give you a safe opportunity to do this is one of the few things to return from the arcade game - Joe's (or Hayate's) faithful hound, Yamato, who can be send to chow down on any enemies you like (except bosses for whom he is mysteriously absent). Be careful though, as he can be fended off and turned into a yelping puppy!

The bonus stage - shoot all ninjas!

As well as these forms of attack, Joe also has access to that staple of the whole Shinobi series - ninja magic! There are three kinds available here - fire, earth, and wind - which the game cycles through from stage to stage, and all have the same effect; namely, eliminating all standard enemies who are on-screen at the time or damaging a boss. It's worth battling on without using them though, as doing so will give you a hefty bonus at the end of the stage. Saving the hostages on each stage generally just gives you bonus points (as well a sense of personal gratification, no doubt) but one hostage per stage will also kindly boost Joe's firepower, enabling him to take out any enemy (besides the bosses) with a single hit. The effect only lasts for the stage in question but it's very helpful! Something else that gives you bonus points is the appropriately-named bonus stage that comes after each boss encounter. It's similar to the one from the arcade game but instead of looking up a skyscraper at falling ninjas, this time you're the one falling and must take out the many ninjas attempting to scale the building.

Joe's ROS-style sword is highly satisfying to use!

The more of them you take out, the bigger the bonus! The boss contingent is made up of a large fire-breathing warrior, a living wall, a buzzsaw-wielding vixen, and a whirly wheel of fire before you reach the final, climactic confrontation, and at first they seem quite tricky. Joe is felled by a single touch from any enemy weapon after all (though the enemies themselves in the normal stages merely bump him away). It takes very little time, however, to work out the simple and predictable patterns the bosses move and attack in, and they'll soon become a pushover. The same can be said of the stages. Most feature the same multi-storey structure as in the original Shinobi, which allows you to perform sneak attacks of course (hee hee!), and they're quite well-designed, if slightly basic for the day, but they're also rather on the easy side. You'll have to start each from scratch if you do lose a life but they're not vast in size and once you've learnt where the enemies are lurking you'll be able to breeze through the entire game in less than half an hour.

The only stage based on one from the arcade game...

Predictably, this is where my only problem with the game lies. The rejigged graphics aren't bad, especially the first couple of rounds which feature a nice burning cityscape, earthquake-damaged buildings, and a decent bridge stage, and the sprites are detailed and appealing (the gunmen even have to stop to reload!) but, with the exception of a nice cave stage, the later backgrounds are a bit dull. The music is of mixed quality too. Some tunes are great, others barely noticeable, but there's certainly no stunning Yuzo Koshiro score here. The presentation is great though, and the slightly mixed quality of the aesthetics is by no means fatal - that special Shinobi gameplay is intact as always and the stages are never less than enjoyable to play through, even the pain in the arse ones likes the Statue of Liberty which features a helicopter gunship! I guess only Sega will know why they decided to make an almost entirely new game rather than simply convert the quite splendid arcade game but the result is a fine addition to the series; it's just a rather short and easy one too.

RKS Score: 7/10

Arcade Shmups #17

2013-05-08T20:12:00.000+01:00

Raiden (1990)
By: Seibu Kaihatsu Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 96,400 (one credit)
Also Available For: PlayStation, PC Engine, FM Towns Marty, Lynx, Jaguar, Falcon, PC

For the longest time now I've been meaning to give the much-revered Raiden a thorough once over. I've played it a couple of times over the years and, while it never exactly blew me away, it did tickle me enough to leave this nagging desire to dissect it properly. Its name is arguably more famous than the game itself, which is understandable since, as well as giving rise to a long series, it also happens to mean 'Thunder and Lightning' in Japanese! A fearsome name like that certainly gives it a lot to live up to but you wouldn't know it from the story which is the usual nonsense: set in 2090, you (and a friend) are charged with seeing off some invading alien buffoons called the 'Cranassians'.

The name conjures images of a generic Star Trek 'race of the week' with a tiny facial difference to make them 'alien' but they've got some decent hardware at their disposal which is distributed with increasing intensity over eight stages. Their forces consist of several types of aircraft, tanks, boats, and all the usual stuff you'd expect to find in a non-spacey shmup. Your craft, the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter (which is based on alien technology, incidentally) starts the game with a weedy twin shot and three large bombs. Destroying some of the larger aircraft releases collectible icons, however, which include extra bombs, missiles, or power-ups.

The missiles come in homing or non-homing varieties while the weapon power-up alternates between red and blue. The former boosts your default weapon, gradually turning it into a formidable spread shot while the latter gives you a laser which is more powerful but only fires straight ahead. The only other things to look out for are medals which can often be found in the wreckage of destroyed tanks and give you bonus points. This type of thing is rarely worth risking your life for in any shmup though, and with Raiden that's even more the case! The enemies aren't as numerous as in some games but they appear from all sides of the screen and quickly send plenty of bullets in your direction.

The merest blow from any of them is of course enough to claim one of your lives here and there are no shields to offer a brief reprieve or even speed-ups to help you circumvent an enemy or their attack. You do have the bombs, admittedly, but they're not an instant save and there aren't many of them either. Accordingly, I found Raiden to be among the toughest shmups I've played! The collision-detection is pretty good and the ship moves well, if slightly slowly, but there's often so much to avoid that it's not too likely that you'll be able to fully power-up your ship, and even if you do you'll lose it all when you do die. This is especially true of the boss battles which can get a bit ridiculous!

These are usually much larger tanks and aircraft and things of that nature and they sure are well-armed! Some of the pesky normal enemies continue to attack during these confrontations too (although to a lesser extent) so it's not merely a case of working out the attack pattern of the boss. Having said that, the game does throw you a lifeline by releasing your previous power-ups when you lose a life which can (potentially) fully restore things if you can grab them, but if you're as crap as me you'll die just as often as not while trying to reach them! From a technical point of view, things are mixed. On the plus side, the music and effects are catchy and distinctive, although slightly repetitive.

The graphics, too, are quite detailed and move nice and smoothly regardless of how many enemies or bullets are flooding the screen, but the number of different sprites and variety of the landscapes is a little disappointing for a game of this age. New enemies appear now and then but old ones are reused throughout the game as well, and the scenery is often a little dull and uninteresting. There's some nice attention to detail though, like little guys running around on the ground or the debris of your ship destroying nearby stuff when you lose a life. How many of the stages you'll end up seeing is debatable though, and to be honest I wasn't all that inclined to keep trying. Many games are difficult, obviously, but the best ones make you want to show them who's boss. Raiden annoyed me often and, as I lost my fifty billionth credit on the same damn boss, made me shout many ugly words as well. It is of course a two-player game though, and in that capacity it's a rather unoriginal but quite enjoyable blaster which is noticeably easier than when played alone. The Raiden name may well be a proud one, and it's probably worshipped by many hardcore shmuppers with super-human skills, but for mere mortals like me it's just too hard and not special enough to devote the necessary time to.

RKS Score: 6/10

Commodore 64 Games #3

2013-04-29T19:42:00.001+01:00

Gribbly's Day Out (1985)
By: Andrew Braybrook / Hewson Consultants Genre: Platform / Action Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Commodore 64 First Day Score: Nothing :(
Also Available For: Nothing

Although I never owned a C64 at the time, I did frequently see games featured in multi-format magazines of the day, and one that always appealed to me was this one, thanks mainly, I don't doubt, to the peculiar main character I saw in screenshots and adverts. More recently I've discovered that he's something called a Blabgorian and has the rather splendid name of Gribbly Grobbly. His job, at least insofar as his game is concerned, is to locate and rescue infant Blabgorians called Gribblets which apparently have a tendency to leave their home in search of adventure. Blabgor is not a safe place though, so Gribbly needs to recover the careless oafs as quickly as possible, and since there are eight of them on each of the sixteen stages that make up the game, it's quite a challenge that faces him as well.

Gribbly hovers above some damaging rough ground...

The scrolling stages are each approximately six screens wide by three high and viewed from the side, and the gribblets are of course distributed across the whole landscape. They have the appearance of small mollusc-like creatures and can hop back and forth but never move far from their original position. To save them, Gribbly must collect them and take them one at a time to a cave-like area. As you may have noticed, he's a unique-looking fellow too, having no hands and just one foot with which he can hop around. While he's doing this there's little that can hurt him, but he also has the ability to levitate himself indefinitely by using the psychic powers that he and all Blabgorians possess. While he's doing this there's a lot that can hurt him which is unfortunate since it's how he needs to spend most of his time.

The scary Seon stalks poor Gribbly...

Pretty much everything in the entire stage can hurt Gribbly, in fact. Each of them is walled and features things like trees and rocks on the ground, and there are usually a few small floating platforms dotted around as well. Touching any of this stuff causes him to lose precious 'Psi Energy' (quite rapidly too!), as does hopping onto or trying to land on rough ground, water, or some other non-normal surface. There are also some unpleasant creatures lurking around the place as well and they're quite interesting as they evolve as you play! They start out as Seed Pods which look a lot like sycamore seeds, whirling about the place. When they land on a suitable surface they become Topsies which are worm-like things that flollop back and forth along platforms, flipping over any Gribblets that may be there as they go.

Three Topsies floople around atop the safety cave...

If Topsies are left alone for long enough they take the form of a Chrysalis from which Stompers will eventually hatch. These things are a bit more aggressive and if they encounter a gribblet they'll absorb it and take their final form - a larger Flyer which carry the gribblets away. The only enemy that doesn't form part of this evolutionary chain is the flying black crab thing called Seon which stalks Gribbly around the stages relentlessly. Luckily, Seon is the only enemy that drains Gribbly's energy - the others are dangerous only to the gribblets - but our hoppity friend is still able to see them off with his bubbly attack. This kills Seed Pods, Topsies, Chrysalises, and Flyers with ease, causing the latter to drop any gribblet they may be carrying (collect it as it falls in case it lands somewhere dangerous!), and temporarily stuns the indestructible Seon (very temporarily too!). The only enemy unaffected by bubbles are the mean Stompers so it's best not to let any of them evolve if you can avoid it!

Gribbly watches a Flyer carry a poor gribblet away...

More immediately troublesome than any of this, however, are the force-fields that span much of the stages. Although Gribbly is unable to pass them (and will lose energy if he tries), he can turn sections on and off by blowing bubbles near them. The 'energy web', however, is there to contain Seon, so if you turn the wrong parts off he'll be free to wreak havoc! There's no actual time-limit you have to stick to here but it's still a race against time to finish each stage as you have to rescue at least six gribblets on each - take too long and there won't be enough left, or Gribbly himself won't be left as he'll have been permanently grounded by Seon. Needless to say, with so much against Gribbly, his task is a mighty difficult one. He can fly nice and smoothly in eight directions, and at quite a speed too, but if he hits something he'll bounce off it with considerable force, and this can sometimes result in a pinball-like effect of bouncing back and forth between two objects until he's lost a life.

Blocked from the off!

A careful, tempered approach would seem sensible then but, as mentioned, this isn't really a game that allows you to take too much time. As a result, I found it super-tough going! Indeed, it took me a good while to even finish the first stage and it's massively unlikely that I'd ever be able to finish it so it's fortunate that the order of the stages is random after the first. This at least allowed me to see a good few of them (even if only for a short while!). In so doing, I found that graphically they're fairly varied in terms of the colour schemes used. Only a couple force you to reach for the sunglasses really (the purple foreground/cyan background one above, for instance), but the foreground scenery is much more repetitive. The enemies are the same over the whole game too, but they're animated nicely, better than Gribbly himself in fact.

Oops, trapped myself inside the force-field!

Even with those fairly samey visuals and almost non-existent audio, though, the appeal that Gribbly and his game displayed prior to my actually playing it remains prevalent now that I've spent some time with it. I didn't even know what kind of game to expect to be honest. I knew it was a scrolling adventure of some sort but, being a famous C64 game, I had a feeling it wouldn't just be a generic hop 'n' bopper either. I can now safely say that's definitely the case! I absolutely loved it to begin with - steering this peculiar green alien creature around such an unusual place was a lot of fun and the appealing graphics, original premise, and smooth controls certainly leave a great first impression, but after a while it became apparent that it's far too difficult for a wussy arcade gamer like me. The title 'Gribbly's Day Out' makes it sound like a happy, jolly stroll in the park; I think a more apt title may have been 'Gribbly's Hellish Ordeal'. I'm very pleased to have finally played it though, and it's enjoyable and addictive enough that I'll return to it often, but I doubt I'll ever get very far.

RKS Score: 7/10

Film Review #50

2013-04-26T16:11:00.000+01:00

The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)
Director: Derek Cianfrance Starring: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Harris Yulin

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 140 Minutes

Tagline: "If you ride like lightning you're gonna crash like thunder"

Usually it takes it certain kind of film to draw me to the cinema. I can't talk for any of you but doing so has become an expensive business in my part of the world, costing almost as much as a new DVD in fact. The Place Beyond the Pines is not the kind of film that usually succeeds in enticing me - as much as I love films, I'm usually pretty patient and therefore often wait until a film's arrival on home media - but there was something about this particular release. I'm not sure what either; I wouldn't call myself a particular fan of anyone involved and I hadn't even seen a trailer, I just knew I wanted to see it, so that's what I did, knowing almost nothing about it. Even the beginning of the film itself offered few clues, opening on a heavily-tattooed fellow swishing a flick-knife around in a cramped room as though killing time before abruptly pinning it to a wall and exiting what it's now clear is a trailer in a fairground.

It isn't long before we discover that he's actually Luke Glanton (Gosling), a slightly-famous motorcycle stuntman known as 'Handsome Luke' who works for a travelling fair. After his latest show he's visited by Romina (Mendes), a local hottie with whom he had a brief fling during a previous visit. It turns out she now has a baby boy and guess who the father is? Unlike many such men who unexpectedly find themselves in the same position, however, Luke does the right thing - he quits his job and subsequent life on the road to instead look for work in the nearby town of Schenectady, New York, and support his son. As admirable as his intentions may be though, they aren't embraced wholly enthusiastically by Romina who's now involved with another guy, Kofi (Ali). On top of that, he quickly finds it tough getting by on minimum wage working as a mechanic for Robin (Mendelsohn). This dilemma leads Luke and his new friend to put their heads together to come up with a faster and more efficient way of obtaining money.

The results of their scheming soon draws the attention of the local authorities and in particular Officer Avery Cross (Cooper), an ambitious former law student and now rookie cop. A decision then made by Luke puts both men on a collision course and triggers a series of events that have repercussions for years to come, and not just for the two of them but on the lives of their sons as well. I'm reluctant to say much more than that to be honest (although even the trailer reveals quite a bit more) but, while it may sound a little unspectacular on paper, it's quickly apparent that's it's much more than that. The film's three acts effectively form separate parts of the story but they're linked together nicely and everything is superbly executed - I haven't yet seen Cianfrance's previous film (the also-acclaimed Blue Valentine), but if this follow-up is anything to go by his style is immensely captivating.

The tracking shot that opens the film, for example, instantly draws you in whilst at the same time doing a fantastic job of wordlessly establishing Gosling's character. Both he and Cooper, as the reluctant hero cop, put in what must surely be career-best performances here too. Add Mike Patton's moody soundtrack to the mix and you're left with a film that's great in pretty much every way. The epic story is riveting from beginning to end and, while some events are more predictable than others, it remains a tale that's masterfully told by Cianfrance. It's a bit of a slow-burner, admittedly, and may not appeal to those used to non-stop action and snappy dialogue, but it's a wonderfully directed and acted film that exemplifies the ripple effect of reckless crime. I may not have known much about it beforehand but I won't forget in a hurry.

RKS Score: 9/10

Maze Games #10

2013-04-24T15:59:00.001+01:00

Pulsar (1981)
By: Gremlin / Sega Genre: Maze / Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 10,150
Also Available For: Nothing

Considering I'm supposed to be a Sega fan, there's an embarrassing amount I don't know about their early years and the games released during that time, and this rather obscure title is a great example of that. I hadn't even heard of it until recently but as soon as I did I sought it out expecting it to be some sort of Space Invaders clone. Happily, I actually found that it's a maze game - a genre on which I'm strangely keen. If there's a story I've no idea what it is - the flyer shows several 'cool dudes' standing around a Pulsar machine while the cabinet artwork shows what looks like that Silver Surfer guy shooting lightning from his hand.

In accordance with none of this, however, the game places you in command of a small tank and plonks you in the bottom-left corner of the first in a series of mazes. They are all one-screen in size and viewed from directly overhead, and the object is simply to reach the exit which is located in the bottom-right corner of each. It is locked though, of course, and standing between you and the keys, which can be found at the top of the screen, are numerous 'Defenders'. There are four types of these - red, yellow, and green ones about the size of your own tank, and a larger, wibbly red thing which is the 'Pulsar' from which the game takes its name.

Curiously, none of the Defenders damage your tank by contact alone but all the small ones shoot lasers which cost you a life if accurate. These erratic oafs can be destroyed just as easily by your own shots but the Pulsar takes several shots to put down, and when you do it splits into six of the small enemies! It's not mandatory to destroy any of them but they do obviously get in the way of your objective - namely the keys. These must be collected and taken to the corresponding lock one-by-one. There are two colour-coded locks on the first stage, then three on the next, up to a maximum of five and they can be unlocked in any order you like.

If you open them in the numbered order, however, it earns you a bonus at the end of the stage. Also, while you're in possession of a coloured key, your tank turns that colour - if you then shoot an enemy of the same colour you'll get a bonus for that too! It's all fairly standard stuff so far, admittedly, but the most interesting thing about Pulsar is the way the mazes are constructed. Each features a seven-by-seven grid of blue columns (or posts or something) between which sections of wall span. However, these sections of wall are constantly changing - they appear and disappear regularly as you play which makes finding your way around considerably more difficult as you might expect!

Some of the gaps between posts are spanned by force-fields too. These merely stop you in your tracks if you run into one but if it appears on top of your tank, it'll be destroyed. As if all this didn't already make conquering the stages tricky enough, you also have a finite (and ever-decreasing) supply of fuel. Taking out the idiotic Defenders tops it up a little but you still need to move quickly. Any fuel remaining at the end of a stage is totted up and bonus points are duly awarded. Interestingly, the game also features an in-game ranking which shows your current position on the score board, so there's even more incentive to go after those bonuses points, hi-score chasers!

Technically, Pulsar is pretty average for its day - the mazes are presented in coloured vectors but each looks the same aside from the differing wall positions and there's no music at all with the audio represented only by a couple of sound effects (one of which is the constant clanging of the walls moving which is... spooky). Thankfully, the repetitive aesthetics do little to hinder enjoyment of what soon turns out to be a surprisingly addictive game. The going does get very tough very quickly but, despite ever-faster enemies and more numerous force-fields, it's not an unfair game - your tank only takes up about a third of the width between walls and so do the normal enemies, so when they shoot at you it's almost always avoidable - in theory at least! That's what makes Pulsar so addictive though - the knowledge that your failure was your own fault and if you have 'one more go' you can improve your score. It was a common lure of many games from that era but most of those are famous and revered; Pulsar, for some reason, is not. A lost classic? Possibly, but it certainly deserves more attention than it's received at the very least.

RKS Score: 8/10

Bomberman Series - Part 9

2013-04-22T20:05:00.001+01:00

Bomber Boy a.k.a. Atomic Punk, a.k.a. Dynablaster (1990)
By: Hudson Soft Genre: Maze Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo Game Boy
Also Available For: Nothing

Usually with any long-running videogame series, the first few sequels stick to the same format as the original game while trying to add to it and improve it, but with the Bomberman series the opposite seems to be true. It was among the first few years of the franchise that Hudson experimented with it, trying new styles, features, even main characters, before settling into the routine that would comprise the later and more successful years of their hero's games. I've already looked at a few of these spin-offs earlier in this series of features, the last of which was exclusive to the Game Boy. Nintendo's handheld was blessed by another visit from our explosive friend though, and this game would be a bit more familiar to fans of his better known outings. Indeed, despite again being released outside its native Japan in a Bomberman-less guise, Bomber Boy was unmistakably a Bomberman game, but was it a good one? As always, I was eager to find out...

There are two one-player game modes to choose from and the first one I looked at was... umm, the first one, which is called, appropriately enough, Bomber Boy. There are sixty stages in total which are unevenly spread over eight themed locations (or towns) on the world map. Any of them can be selected except for the final one but once you've chosen one, all its stages must be completed before you can return to the map. With the exception of Hevol, which has a fairly standard Bomberman-ish theme, they all have unique features: Grad is a mountainous area filled with 'warp caves', Cuolece is an icy place with stronger soft blocks, Windria is an annoying area featuring winds that hinder your movement, Thulia is a hilly area where all blocks are destructible, Jagoraz is home to overgrown forests, Wather is a flooded water world, and Faria, the final area, is predictably a harsh and unforgiving place filled with fire and all manner of scary stuff!

Much like most other games in the series, each stage here is completed by finding the exit which is hidden under a random soft block, and unlocking it by defeating all the idiotic enemies present in the usual way. The power-up system, however, is slightly different. They are represented by tiles that you can choose from before a stage begins and there are three different items available initially - Bomb Up, Fire Up, and an Elixir which revives Bomberman if he's killed. Completing some of the towns then unlocks additional power-ups which are selected in the same way. There are six of these which include Speed-Up, Remote Bombs, Wall Pass, Bomb Pass, Fire Pass, and a Timer, which of course extends the otherwise mediumly-strict time-limit. Each tile can only be used once, although its effects last as long as your current life, but the world map also features a shop where you can buy extra power-up tiles using gold which is earned after each stage depending on time remaining and number of soft blocks destroyed.

There are also two rather similar variations of the two-player Vs Mode, and the second of the one-player game modes, which is called Bomber Man, is a port of the original Bomberman game released for the NES. It's a rather splendid bonus I have to say, but it was the Bomber Boy mode that was most interesting for me and accordingly it took up most of my time while playing this too. The graphics and sound are about as good as you'd hope for on the Game Boy - the latter features a smattering of short, repetitive, but catchy tunes while the former presents the stages in a slightly zoomed-in, scrolly manner thanks to the poor Game Boy's rather limited display, but they're quite well varied considering the lack of colour. There's a surprising amount to see and do here as well, and there are even password continues available to help you see it all. To be honest though, the thing I liked most about Bomber Boy is that, despite my initial fears, it's actually a 'proper' Bomberman game. Some of the spin-offs are okay but they're never as much fun as a normal Bomberman game, and this is a good one.

RKS Score: 8/10

SNES Platform Games #4

2013-04-20T18:47:00.003+01:00

Mr. Nutz (1993)
By: Ocean Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Nintendo SNES First Day Score: 75,630
Also Available For: MegaDrive, Game Boy, Game Boy Color

As far back as their very earliest days, most platform games have been based around a hopefully-appealing character, and after the success of Sonic many of these characters were cutesy anthropomorphic animals as you might expect. This particular game, which was first released on the SNES before receiving ports to the MD and GB, was one of many that featured such a character. He's called Mr. Nutz, he's a squirrel, and there's not really anything exceptional about him. Indeed, immediate impressions of the game are that it's nothing more than a generic bandwagon-jumper-onner. Even the story is rather yawnsome - apparently an evil yeti called Mr. Blizzard is trying to take over the world by freezing it. Mr. Nutz's mission is to stop him. Via some unspecified means. That's it! So, with an unspectacular (albeit cute, as was necessary at the time) main character and a story so uninspiring that I feel embarrassed using that word to describe it, the game has got its work cut out if it's going to impress anyone.

A walking plum ahead and a hornet hovering above...

These are six themed worlds for Mr. Nutz to conquer before he gets to smack up Mr. Blizzard and they're each divided into several stages. The first world features, unsurprisingly, a lush grassy woodland theme and is named Woody Land. The others are also themed and are called Adventure Park, Living Room and Foul Kitchen, Volcano Underpass and Clouds, Mean Streets, and Ice Cream and Frozen Nuts. To help him on his journey, Mr. Nutz has few squirrel-like abilities - he can't climb stuff or make any funny squeaking noises for example - but he does have a few talents less commonly associated with rodents such as walking/running on his hind legs, wearing a baseball cap, swimming underwater (apparently without need of air), and throwing stuff, the latter of which is one of his three forms of attack. To do this, though, he needs to collect acorns which, instead of being hoarded in a burrow like a normal squirrel, are lobbed at... well, anything you like really but it's best to direct them towards the numerous enemy creatures.

The second world doesn't differ much from the first...

These idiotic minions of Blizzard are unique to each stage and are usually appropriate to its theme as well. Woody Land, for instance, features the biggest range of them and includes walking fruits, hornets, venus fly-traps, caterpillars, spiders, fairies, porcupines, and several others. In addition to lobbing acorns, most of them can be defeated by jumping on them as well (not the porcupines though - eeek!), or by a swish of the tail, and the exit of each world is guarded by a boss who each have their own energy bars which are substantially larger than that of Mr. Nutz. Acorns are the most numerous items to collect but each world also houses extra energy and lives, as well as a sizeable quantity of coins which earn you bonus points. You can choose how much energy Mr. Nutz starts with via the options screen but the default is three points. Touching an enemy obviously costs you one of these and so do the numerous traps and hazards which include spike pits, electrocution things, and lava as well as the usual less dangerous features such as swings, springers, and moving platforms.

This haggard old crone is boss of the second world...

Most of these things merely prove an inconvenience though, the main challenge comes from the many enemies. There are a lot of them and many of them regenerate if you decide (or are forced) to go back to a previous area, even if it's just a screen or two back. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for two things. Firstly, the collision-detection is a bit iffy - not too bad but just off by enough that I was never fully confident with it. Secondly, enemies are almost all mobile, as in most games I suppose, but some have unhelpful movement patterns or offensive/defensive abilities which, when combined with the first problem, means it's very easy to lose energy. On top of that, the stages (which are called 'Journeys', by the way) start off fairly large and can reach pretty enormous proportions later in the game which, when combined with the total lack of any passwords or save facility, means an epic slog is required to reach the end of the game. However, the big question I found myself asking... ummm, myself while playing is: could I be arsed?

Took me a while to realise I could push stuff!

Talking of arses, perhaps I'm starting to make Mr. Nutz sound like it sucks some of them, so let's move on to the good stuff which, as you may have already noticed, includes the aesthetics. The graphics have something of an Amiga-esque quality about them, which is ironic since it didn't receive an Amiga release (although a spin-off did later appear on said machine), but they're really rather nice. The scrolling is nice and smooth, the backdrops are mostly lovely, sometimes having a bit of a matte painting feel about them, while the foreground graphics and scenery, which initially seem to vary little (the first and second worlds are quite similar), is superb on most stages, particularly the close-up world of the kitchen in world three, the volcano of the fourth world, and much of the final world. Perhaps even more impressive are the sprites. Their design varies between average and great but they're mostly animated very nicely (especially Mr. Nutz himself of course, who even has an obligatory 'over-balancing' animation), but the sheer number and variety of them exceeds probably any platform game I've played!

Lots of stupid splatty watery cretins...

Every stage has unique enemies - some are tiny, some are much bigger than Mr. Nutz - but the total over the whole game must be in the region of fifty different characters! There are also some nice graphical touches such as the stages that comprise the first world which take place at progressively later times of day (with the last at night). The quality of the audio is a bit more inconsistent - some worlds have memorable, catchy tunes, but others are almost unnoticeable. Visual treats, though, are not enough to keep me playing by themselves; that requires well-designed stages and enjoyable gameplay which, on paper at least, Mr. Nutz could well have. As mentioned, the stages are pretty big and, although at first they do just seem like normal left-to-right affairs, before long it becomes apparent that they're a bit more involved than that. Many incorporate some slightly puzzley elements or ask you to locate certain items before allowing you to progress and there are frequently branching paths too. Sometimes one direction leads to a cache of acorns or coins but other times it offers an alternate route.

Leapy fiery guy is about to be squished!

Fortunately there's no time limit either, so you can explore and experiment as much as you like, but those many and varied enemies with their unreliable collision-detection take their toll and the stages aren't always designed in the fairest ways either. Many stages force you to climb up very high by way of small platforms (such as tree branches) meaning it's easy to fall and lose much of your progress. There are also often sections where energy loss is unavoidable such as dangerous gaps that are just too wide to jump or enemies/projectiles that hit you as soon as you see them. Of course, it doesn't help that you're sent back to the back to the beginning of a stage when you lose a life, especially given how long some of them are. Trudging back through a stage that was a pain in the arse to begin with can be a bit of a chore and if you do finally finish them, your energy isn't even replenished for the next one! So, to sum up: Mr Nutz is a big game and it looks nice, but it's also difficult and often unfair, and therefore frequently annoying. It seems to have many of the ingredients of another enjoyable cutesy console platformer, but it just ends up being too frustrating. I imagine I would've gone through a good few SNES controllers if I'd had this back in its day...

RKS Score: 6/10

Arcade Round-Up #2

2013-04-15T20:54:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I took a look at an 'adult' came here at Red Parsley - it's not really a subject I invest much time or thought in I suppose (no, really!) - but I did kind of stumble back into the murky world recently when I discovered... well, let's leave that as a surprise for a later post shall we? Before we get there, however, I thought it might be spiffy to return to the setting of the first such game I looked at and investigate some more of the few risqué arcade games that made it out, purely for the sake of completion you understand!

I had intended to look at each one individually, but as I should've guessed from my previous experiences with the genre, limited as they might've been, games that feature any adult material are generally rip-offs of existing games but with some boobs and stuff tacked on as well. It would've therefore been a bit of a waste of effort to devote a whole review to each one. To that end, here's a round-up of the five somewhat dubious examples that probably no one has ever played:

Block Gal (1987)

Any regular visitors here at RP should know of my fondness for bat 'n' ball games, so simply adding a bit o' skin to such a title must mean I'd still find it at least semi-spiffing, right? It makes sense in theory at least, but this effort, published by Sega no less, is the oldest game featured here so I don't hold out too much expectation for the adult content. Indeed, aside from a slightly sultry-looking (but fully-clothed) young lady on the title screen it was a while before I even saw anything at all, for Block Gal initially appears to be a completely normal, non-adult Breakout clone. Its stages feature all the usual stuff and there's a few minor innovations such as the colour of the bricks denoting how many times they need to be hit, but the only adult stuff I found was a pink-haired young lady sprawled on the ground after each stage. She's obscured by flowers at first but each stage you win removes one line of them until after the tenth stage she can be viewed in all her glory, but it's no more explicit than what's been seen in countless anime shows. As a bat 'n' ball game I quite enjoyed this one at first but after a while it reveals itself to be a bit limited and rough around the edges. Passable but don't play it if you're after sexy girlies doing inappropriate things! ... 6/10

Las Vegas Girls (1994)

I discovered this one by chance when I noticed its name in a game list. I naturally assumed it would be a gambling game of some sort. However, as you can probably see, it's actually just a columns-esque 'falling blocks' game. The blocks in question feature various things found on the reels of slot machines and must be arranged in such a way as to match three or more of the same one either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The game features ten girls in total whose poses make up the backdrop to the playfield. They're usually shrouded in darkness (see right side of screenshot) but if you manage a decent score or combo, you're rewarded with a brief illumination (see left side!). It seems to be a rather obscure game, even for the genre - I can't find much additional information on it and there's barely any mention of it on that interweb machine. Maybe that's because it's not very good. There are several difficulty settings and it's a two-player game, but it's a bit clunky and not very enjoyable to play... 3/10

Play Girls (1992)

Yes, that's right, another bat 'n' ball game and one which should feature a bit of skin too, judging by its name at least! Upon 'inserting' a coin, you're offered the choice of four amiable-looking 'play girls' who comprise the backdrop to the brick-busting action but who then get immediately covered up by not only the bricks but completely! The first lady is covered by a shower screen, for example, while the lights go out on the 'exotic dancer' to the right here. All is not lost though, for each round you finish (by destroying all the bricks, obviously) more and more of the saucy minx is revealed! As a bat 'n' ball game though, Play Girls is pretty average. There isn't really that many stages considering how easy they must be to make, and their designs aren't especially memorable either. Each one does feature a treasure chest somewhere on the screen which drops one of various icons when hit with the ball. Some are for points but most are Arkanoid-style power-ups such as a larger bat or slower ball, but there are a couple of interesting versions of the laser from Taito's game such as a controllable tank or even a ninja! There are certainly better brick breaker games around though, and the ladies are nothing to get too worked up about. So, decent fun for a few minutes it's all pretty generic stuff... 5/10

Peek-a-Boo! (1993)

Crikey, yet another bat 'n' ball game! It seems Atari provided pervy programmers with an ideal outlet for their inappropriate tendencies with they came up with Breakout all those years ago! This particular effort is the work of Jaleco and was notable for only one reason really - it catered for female as well as male gamers. That's right, that means that in addition to the six amorous ladies on offer, there's also two males to choose from as well - well I never! Aside from that and the mildly-humorous name (and corresponding title screen) though, we're in familiar territory with regards to the gameplay. Each character is hidden in the background of his or her own stages which are filled with the usual bricks as well as numerous less-obstructive balls and, much like many other 'adult' games, the lady (or gent) loses more clothes on each one. There are again Arkanoid-style collectibles to help you do this and it can be reasonably enjoyable if you like this sort of game. Graphically it's strangely appealing, although technically it's pretty poor for its day, but spending time on it purely for the titillating pictures is folly... 5/10

Super Pinball Action (1991)

As I've been learning, most games that contain some sort of adult-orientated material are one of only a small number of genres, but one of them was definitely not that of pinball games... until I stumbled upon this effort! It really is just a blatant attempt to shoehorn a number of scantily-clad girlies into a game that doesn't warrant them too. Just look at this screenshot - looks like nothing more than a normal pinball video game, right? And it almost is - you get the choice of four ladies (well, one choice features two rather friendly looking examples together) and each of them has their own completely unrelated pintable. Before starting each, its custodian nonchalantly announces "If you hit all the targets I'll be happy to take off my clothes!". If you manage to do as she suggests (as well as a few other things), she will indeed remove her clothes as promised! Although far from photo-realistic, the ladies here are the most realistic looking of the games featured too, but they add nothing to the game. I suppose that's true of most adult games but here they seem more out of place than normal. However, as a pinball game it's actually not too bad. The Crush series showed us what could be done with pinball video games but the tables here are pretty decent for an 'authentic' pinball game. Although they're all only a single screen in height (albeit, a vertical screen), their design is reminiscent of real tables and the ball physics is passable as well. However, all of this is true with or without the ladies and it's not an easy game to find, so... 6/10

Film Review #49

2013-04-13T14:32:00.000+01:00

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
Director: Lorene Scafaria Starring: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Adam Brody, Derek Luke, Melanie Lynskey, William Petersen, Connie Britton, Martin Sheen

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 101 Minutes

Tagline: "Nice knowing you"

I seem to have ended up watching quite a few films about the end of the world lately but this one is the first that actually has it in its title! The few words that precede them, however, indicate that it's not the most serious take on the subject there's ever been. There's also the fact that the cover is plastered with review quotes celebrating its hilarity of course. The more I thought about it though, the more I realised just how much potential there is for humour in the apocalypse - the many and enormously varied ways in which people would deal with their imminent doom, for example, could be worth the price of admission alone, especially with the always-splendid Steve Carrell in attendence. It was therefore with much hope that I recently bought and enthusiastically watched this slightly-exhaustively titled film.

Usually the doom facing mankind in these films comes by way of our own stupidity but this time it's a rather sizeable asteroid which is heading for us. Dodge Petersen (Carell) and his wife (played by his real-life wife, Nancy) are listening to a solemn radio broadcast in their car from which we (and they) learn that a last-ditch attempt to destroy the potato-shaped fiend has failed leaving three weeks for everyone to get their affairs in order or, as is more likely, act in a wildly irresponsible/desperate fashion until they're vaporised. Upon hearing this news, Nancy runs out on Dodge - literally - leaving him to spend his final days alone which understandably he's reluctant to do. To begin with he attempts to continue his life as normal by resuming his work as an insurance salesman before a chance encounter with his neighbour, Penny (Knightley), inspires him to look up his high-school sweetheart, with Penny's help of course.

So, what we have is basically a road movie set against the backdrop of Earth's final days! Despite this and the chaos going on around them, our two main characters remain remarkably level-headed through much of the film. Dodge reluctantly builds some bridges with his estranged father (Sheen) while Penny, and her collection of vinyl records, is hoping to catch one of the last flights back to England to see her family (that's right - Keira Knightley is actually playing an English character in an American film for a change!) but, as with most films, and indeed real life situations of this nature (road trips, not the end of the world), it's more about the journey than the destination and the same is true here. It's for this reason that the third act is probably the weakest, but weaker than what? Well, that depends almost entirely on our two leads.

Steve Carell has become one of the most reliably entertaining actors in recent years. Whether it's deadpan humour or serious drama, he's always highly watchable. Here, he does a bit of both and he's as likeable as always. Knightley is also quite appealing as the scatty music lover and they make a pretty interesting couple, as bickering strangers at first but their time together endears them to each other as well as us, the viewers. It was also a bit of a surprise to me as, thanks mainly to the review quotes on the cover, I was expecting an full-on comedy filled with slapstick as well as verbal gags. What I found instead was a film that's sometimes touching, sometimes quirky, and frequently surreal, but rarely out-and-out funny.

Prior to watching I was also expecting, for some reason, that the events would take place post-disaster, but that's not the case. There are some highly amusing moments though, of course, and they are most often down to the antics of people Dodge and Penny meet along the way (hard drugs, suicide, orgies, etc) but most of the scenes involving our unwitting travel companions are more a bit more subtle, and usually more affecting for it too. So, the ever-burgeoning number of apocalypse films still doesn't include the gag-fest I thought they now would but I was still far from disappointed when the credits rolled. More could've probably been done with the general concept admittedly, and if you can't stand Carell or Knightley I doubt they'll change your mind here, but for everyone else this is a pretty interesting and unique effort. It's certainly a thought-provoking film too. What would you do? How would you react? Watch this, then give it some thought.

RKS Score: 7/10

Master System Shmups #7

2013-04-11T20:45:00.000+01:00

Aerial Assault (1990)
By: Sega Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega Master System First Day Score: 173,200
Also Available For: Game Gear

The poor old Master System had a bit of a tough time. Few could argue with its splendour but it was hardly awash with original titles, especially those of an arcadey nature. Those that did arrive were usually from Sega themselves and were sometimes based on currently-popular titles by their rivals. One of these is Aerial Assault which is a side-viewed military-based shooter. At first glance it could well have been influenced by any number of other games, and that includes its story which introduces your adversary as N.A.C., an 'evil militaristic organisation' who have developed a laser emitter capable of destroying the ozone layer and in so doing 'cast a shadow of fear stretching to the far corners of the Earth'. As well as their fancy laser, the N.A.C. are also packing a formidable military which eventually defeats all the nations of our proud planet. Then, in the far-future of 1999, a mysterious lone fighter appears...

Helpfully, the N.A.C. allow you to choose from three difficulty levels before taking on their forces which are spread over five horizontally-scrolling stages. Your aircraft starts off with a meagre forward shot and a finite supply of bombs (not the usual shmup-style smart bombs though). The enemy airborne forces consist of waves of jets similar to your own as well as larger examples, and choppers. The ground forces are nearly as numerous and include ships and submarines over watery areas, and guns, tanks, and jeeps on the land. Most can be taken out with one shot or bomb but there are a few larger craft about which take a bit more punishment. Some of the smaller enemies release power-ups when shot which wibble about making it hard to grab them. If you manage it they can offer a speed-up, a temporary shield, more bombs, bonus points, or several weapon upgrades including three-way, six-way, eight-way, and directional shots, fragmenting shells, and missiles.

Even your default gun takes out most enemies easily enough though, so the main reason to collect a different weapon is to increase the range and/or fire-rate. Each has its advantages and disadvantages - the six way shot, for example, obviously covers a decent amount of the screen but the trade-off is that it fires slowly. My favourite weapon is probably the missiles which have a very poor range but also fire very quickly and move up and down with your fighter after being fired which means you can use them on ground targets as well as the airborne oafs. Despite this and a couple of other tiny new ideas (like mine-laying choppers) though, it's all very familiar stuff as you may have guessed. The enemies are quite numerous and pump out a reasonable number of bullets but they, like most things in the game including your own fighter, are quite small so they're fairly easy to avoid.

The bosses predictably take the form of larger normal enemies. The first is a sizeable naval ship festooned with guns turrets and the second is a large bomber, for example, and they're each joined by a continuing flow of smaller enemies, but none of them are remotely intelligent. They follow pre-determined movements and patterns so, once you've practised a bit and discovered your preferred weapon, it doesn't take too long to conquer all five stages on offer here. Whether you'll want to persevere or not is another matter. The graphics are pretty average with small sprites, poor explosions, slow scrolling, and unspectacular weapons, although some of the backgrounds are decent (if unoriginal) and there's not much in the way of flicker, and the audio is similarly average. Both accompany the action well enough, the biggest problem here is the generic gameplay which appears to have had little effort put into it.

As mentioned back at the start of the review, Aerial Assault is seemingly based on another game and indeed, shortly after I started playing I was quickly reminded of P-47. It features more modern military hardware but is otherwise very similar in style. Then, as I advanced past the first boss I was greeted by a stage that initially looks nigh on identical to the distinctive sunset-drenched equivalent in Jaleco's game, complete with the barrage of missiles from beneath the clouds. Even your craft is called the Freedom Fighter for heaven's sake! Oh well, it's not like Aerial Assault was the first shameless rip-off, it's just a pity that it's not a particularly good one. There's nothing major wrong with it, it's just not memorable or exciting either. It's a bit like a horizontal version or Bomber Raid really - neither is original or special in any way but there's not too much in the way of alternatives on the MS either.

RKS Score: 6/10

Puzzle Games #13

2013-04-09T18:23:00.002+01:00

Pang a.k.a. Pomping World, a.k.a. Buster Bros. (1989)
By: Mitchell / Capcom Genre: Puzzle / Shooting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 107,700
Also Available For: PlayStation, PC Engine CD, SNES, Game Boy, PC, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
Download For: Apple iOS

I recently decided it was high time to revisit this classic game but, upon doing so, it got me thinking - it's usually considered a puzzle game but what actually makes a game a puzzle game? Take Tetris for example - the quintessential example of the genre for most, but any puzzley elements it may contain are extremely basic ones to say the least. Likewise, Pang probably has even less puzzles than the Russian classic and the game to which it bears most resemblance - Asteroids - is considered a shoot 'em up! Oh well, who am I to argue with tradition? Puzzle game or not, Pang was certainly an eye-catching game in its day and it's premise is worthy of the genre - apparently the world has been invaded by 'bouncing balloons' which are 'terrorising several of our landmarks and cities'. The most obvious solution to this problem? Employ the services of two harpoon gun-wielding brothers!

To achieve their goal the brave brothers must travel across the whole world by themselves. There are seventeen locations which are each home to several single-screen stages which comes to a total of fifty stages. Each one contains some of the aforementioned balloons which bounce gleefully around the screen rebounding off the side walls and any other obstructions that may be present which are usually small (and strategically located) platforms. Your balloon-busting hero (or both of them in a two-player game) can walk left or right along the bottom of the screen and must fire his harpoon gun up at the balloons as they flollop around. They come in four sizes and, like Asteroids, the larger ones split into two smaller examples when they're shot. Keep shooting until they're all gone to move to the next stage!

Obviously it's not quite as simple as that though. Each stage has a time limit and if any balloons touch either of the brothers they'll lose a life. To make things even more difficult, many stages also feature irritating creatures of which there are two types - ground based ones, such as crabs, which prevent you from shooting when they're touching you, and airborne ones which get in the way of your shots. Neither type causes the brothers any harm but some can shoot at you which does. Luckily, spearing them gets rid of them but only for a few seconds as they swiftly return. Occasionally, fruits will fall from the sky during play which can be shot or collected for bonus points, and there are also a few power-ups to look out for as well. These occasionally appear upon shooting a balloon and produce either a weapon upgrade or a less violent but equally useful item.

Comprising the former category are Double Wire, an upgrade to the harpoon gun which allows you to fire two shots at once, or Power Wire, a grappler which attaches the harpoon to the ceiling (or a platform if one is in the way) creating a balloon-damaging barrier for a couple of seconds. Even more spiffy is the rapid-fire Vulcan Missile gun which lets you unleash your fury for a few often-vital seconds on any balloons that may lurk above. Other helpful bits and pieces include an egg-timer which slows the balloons down, a clock which freezes them, a temporary shield, or dynamite which splits all balloons down to the smallest kind, although the usefulness of this is debatable - it causes problems more often than solves them since, if the stage you've started features three of the largest balloons, for example, upon collecting the dynamite you're suddenly faced with twenty-four tiny balloons which can also fit between gaps in the platforms the bigger ones can't!

With this, and indeed the game play in general in mind, it's safe to say that reaction times play a bigger part in succeeding at Pang than deciphering puzzles, and even if you somehow have the reflexes of a hyperactive fly, this is still a mighty challenging game; there is after all some fifty stages to battle through! They are reasonably varied too, despite featuring otherwise fairly uninspiring graphics for the time. The brothers and evil creatures are fairly detailed and everything is neat and tidy but most gamers were used to much flashier visuals than this by the end of the 80's. The music is rather quiet and unassuming as well, although it's not too bad if you make the effort to actually listen out for it. Even the backgrounds which change with each new location aren't particularly impressive. I suppose it is a puzzle game though, technically, and they're hardly renowned for pushing hardware to its limits!

That leaves the game itself with the burden of ensnaring the player, and happily this aspect of Pang is much better. Some of the stage designs can get quite intricate considering the manner in which the game is played. A few of them (such as the one above) take the form of full-on platform game stages while more often they have fewer but more cunningly positioned platforms and ladders which force you to devise suitable strategies, and there are a few other features such as destroyable platforms and slippy floors! The one thing that Pang definitely has in common with puzzle games though, is its highly addictive nature. Whether you're playing alone or with a friend, once you start it can be difficult to stop, even though it can prove pretty frustrating on more than the odd occasion! It's also a game with lots of charm despite its rather average front-end. The superior sequels it received may have rendered it somewhat obsolete, but this original is still great, simple fun.

RKS Score: 8/10

Top Five Fast and the Furious Films

2013-04-05T15:31:00.001+01:00

My taste in films has always been a bit perplexing, even for me. I often frown upon those visually dazzling films filled with good looking people, special effects, fancy stunts, etc, as they are often the only qualities they possess which makes them rather unsatisfactory, for me anyway. There are occasional exceptions though, and one of them is The Fast and the Furious, a film which one way or another has gone on to have a dramatic effect on my life (mainly because it indirectly led to me meeting the lovely lady who would become my wife!). That's not the only reason though, obviously - most guys like cars and here was a film that not only featured them but had them on an equal billing with the actors!

The result was quite original for an action-orientated film and featured some nice set-pieces, memorable characters, a thumping soundtrack, and some pretty sweet vehicles, as well as some blisteringly fast races and impressive stunts to show them off with. Add a 'new' tough guy, some nice girlies, and a rudimentary story and you were left with a surprise hit! Inevitably this led to a sequel. And then another. And then another, and now we find ourselves awaiting the release of the sixth film in the series (and a seventh has also been announced!). I thought this was a good opportunity to take a look back at the previous five and ramble on about it here.

To that end, I recently re-watched them to help me assemble this list and while doing so I realised that it's a bit of a pointless list really (not unlike many of my Top Fives I guess!). If you like one of them you're probably going to like all of them, and if you don't like one of them I doubt you'll like any of them. They're all slightly different in style but still similar enough that there's little to separate them, frankly. Oh well, here are my largely inconsequential thoughts anyway:

Spoiler Alert: the movie-related Top Fives featured here obviously assume that you've seen the films in question or don't mind knowing about their most prominent moments so don't come whining to me if they ruin a film that you haven't seen yet!

5. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

There was no doubt a great deal expected of this film after the surprise success of the original. A glance at the cast list didn't bode well though. Vin Diesel, the breakout star of the first film, had decided not to return and nor had anyone else save for Paul Walker, the weakest main actor from the first film in the view of many people. It suffers a little from the omissions but does introduce some decent new characters in Roman Pearce (Tyrese) and Tej Parker (Ludacris), the former of whom plays an ex-con reluctantly partnering the now-disgraced Brian as drivers working undercover to bring down Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), a scary drug lord. There are some lovely cars on display in this offering which get more attention than the girlies represented by Devon Aoki and Eva Mendes, but the dialogue seems to alternate between amusing and cringe-inducing and the story/action is probably the least realistic of the series so far (which is saying something, I know!). Still entertaining stuff though.

4. Fast and Furious (2009)

I was greatly looking forward to this instalment as it marked the return of several characters not seen since the first film, and it remains the only entry in the whole series that I've seen in the cinema. I left said theatre rather deflated, however, after another weak story very similar to that of 2 Fast 2 Furious. When it came time to re-watch it for this feature, I wasn't looking forward to it that much, but I actually really enjoyed it this time! The story is instantly forgettable, that remained true, but it's still great to see Diesel, Brewster, Rodriguez, Kang, etc, back in the series, and Brian's back on the force so there's some nice tension between him and Dom too, who each have very different reasons for going after drug-lord-of-the-week, Braga. Only one new character of note is introduced who comes in the seductive form of ex-Mossad agent, Gisele, and the cars take a bit more of a back-seat to normal, but there's some great action scenes here including the long-awaited rematch - Brian vs Dom! It took two viewings to grab me, but I'm glad I gave it another chance.

3. The Fast and the Furious (2001)

This pesky film has got a lot to answer for! As well as indirectly prompting the aforementioned union, this series début thrust the whole street racing culture under the spotlight, introducing it to many and popularising a good few aspects of it. A little of its appeal was down to some good casting but it was mostly thanks to the many gorgeously modified 'rice rockets', the racing (including the innovative effects for the NOS shots), and most of all the stunts - the mere two-second flash of a car swooping under the trailer of a 'semi' in the trailer sold the film to most people! It might be fairly typical Hollywood gubbins with a more than familiar story beneath all the shiny paint-jobs and cocky attitudes, but it's all done with the kind of style that not only makes it thrilling to watch but also makes you want to actually be a part of it, even that 'snowman' Brian! I still want that orange Supra too. Wouldn't say no to Michelle Rodriguez occupying the passenger seat either!

2. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

I'm confident few, if any series fans will agree with the lofty position I've put this entry in, but there are several reasons why, until very recently, it was my favourite film in the series. Firstly, it was set in Japan which automatically made it awesome. Secondly, however, it features what is in my opinion the best actual racing of the whole series including a pulse-quickening chase through the crowded city streets (and tunnels) of Tokyo. Whatever opinion you may have of this 'drifting' business the Japanese are so keen on, it's surely better then racing for 'ten seconds or less' in a straight line? On top of all that, it's also the only entry in the series that's devoid of any 'working undercover to bring down evil crime lord' business. Poor old 'Bama boy, Lucas Black, didn't prove too popular as the new (and short-lived) lead of the series, 'teenage' rebel Sean Boswell (he's meant to be 17 but looks every bit his actual age of 24), but he's got some great support, notably from diminutive rapper, Bow Wow, the splendid Sung Kang as the snack-obsessed Han. With Nathalie Kelley and Keiko Kitagawa on eye-candy duties as well, there's not really much here that isn't ace!

1. Fast Five (2011)

Watching the other four films for this feature was entertaining but it was actually the first time I'd seen this fifth and (at time of writing) most recent instalment in what has fast become a saga. We're back in 'taking down evil crime lord' territory but the style has changed a bit from street racing action films to a heist film which just happens to feature a few flashy/powerful cars. Dom, Brian, and Mia are on the run and end up in the heaven/hell that is Rio de Janeiro where they meet up with an old friend. This inevitably leads to a 'job' which puts them on the radar of evil 'investor', Hernan Reyes, who rules over all the favelas which means he also has hundreds of machine-gun wielding goons in his pocket too. The focus on the actual racing has been toned down here (to the extent that it's the only part not shown when they need to acquire new cars!) but there's a lot more action here than in previous instalments, including an insane chase through the streets of Rio, and a larger cast too, which is almost a 'best of' from previous films! Far from the most realistic film ever but it's a hell of a ride if you turn your brain down! Oh, and The Rock's in it too - sweeet!

Special Bonus! Here's a nice picture of the lovely Michelle Rodriguez, star of the first film and also featuring in the fourth and upcoming sixth films too, looking suitably mean and sultry! :)

Bat 'n' Ball Games #6

2013-04-03T15:14:00.001+01:00

Robo-Squash (1990)
By: Atari Genre: Bat 'n' Ball Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Atari Lynx First Day Score: 16,200
Also Available For: Nothing

Considering the genre was one of the first ones ever created, there's been surprisingly few innovations in the world of bat 'n' ball games, but Atari, the very creators in question, tried doing just that with this slightly obscure release for their own Lynx 'handheld' (snigger). The objective does not, however, include the usual block-hitting tomfoolery that I had initially believed formed the basis of the game. Robo Squash is instead a tarted-up version of the very first bat 'n' ball game of them all, and indeed the very first popular video game full stop - Pong! Instead of the simple left-to-right-to-left-again gameplay of the original though, this example asks you to do the same thing but from an into-the-screen perspective! There's a bit more to it than that though, of course.

Luckily your paddle is transparent...

Set against the backdrop of a rather peculiar political power-struggle of the far-future, you, playing as the champion of the 'World Party' must face your opposite number from the rival 'International Party' to decide the future of the world - eeeek! At the start of the game you're presented with a four-by-four group of balls. Selecting one will start a round which consists of an into-the-screen view of the playfield. Your 'paddle' occupies the end closest to the screen, your opponent's the opposite end. About half-way between the two in the middle of the screen is an assortment of bricks and a few other bits and pieces. The winner of the round is the first to score three 'goals' past his or her opponent or, less often, a quicker victory can be achieved if you manage to hit the elusive 'mechanical spider'. There are several things that can make the process of winning a round a bit more complicated though.

Frog attack! Oops, I mean 'dragon' attack!

For one thing, the 'ball' appears to be a tomato or something similar as it leaves a big red splotch on the screen if you let it get past you! There's also a seemingly random sprinkling of yellow and blue bricks which act as an obstruction but give you bonus points upon destruction, and there are a few power-ups items nestled among them too. These include a mouth (lets you catch the ball and shoot it from wherever you want), a dragon (lets you shoot fireballs to create a fiery distraction, although it looks more like a frog), a spiral disk (makes your paddle bigger), and an eye (helps you to see where the ball will end up). As well as all this, the ball predictably gets faster and faster the longer it's in play as well which, along with the various visual impairments (splats, explosions, etc) can make this a pretty tricky game, especially when played against the near-infallible computer opponent.

Oops, a rather unceremonious defeat again!

There are four difficulty levels though, and control of the quite accommodating paddle thing is surprisingly intuitive. Besides, games like Breakout and all its derivatives are the ones for solo-players; Pong and similar games were designed for two players and so is the case here. Aesthetically the game isn't too troubling - the colourful bricks, power-ups, and the ball along with its splats work well against the grey backdrop, and the scaling is quite good too, as we've come to expect from the Lynx. The basic sound effects and lack of in-game music are less impressive but I still had a bit of fun with this one, albeit only for a short while as it's a bit pointless playing it alone! That makes its appeal limited of course - these days, the chances of finding another Lynx owner are fairly slim never mind one also owns this game. If you should manage it though, Robo Squash would make the encounter a mighty entertaining one.

RKS Score: 6/10

Doujin Platform Games #2

2013-04-01T19:11:00.000+01:00

Obake no Koushinkyoku (2004)
By: Samona Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: PC First Day Score: Still going!
Also Available For: Nothing

During my occasional searches for more doujin goodies to try out, it often doesn't take much to pique my interest. With this title it was a mere glimpse of the main character, or what I had immediately assumed was the main character at least - it may be tough to tell from the screen shots but he's a curious-looking white ghost similar to one of the pesky examples found in Pac-Man. Except he's white, as is more traditional for ghosts of course. Although having said that, he's not actually a ghost but a type of spirit called an 'obake' which means 'thing that changes', and was the star of his own manga, and later anime show, called Obake no Q-taro which is a rather Doraemon-ish offering from the same era (60's and 70's). The character in this game, whose title means 'March of Obake', incidentally, doesn't look much like the original though.

Q-taro faces some sprightly purple fellows...

However, I think it's more the general concept that has been used here rather than being directly based on the manga or anime, and that concept is a rather spiffy one. At first the game appears to be no more than a standard, side-scrolling platformer. It consists of seven worlds which are each divided into several stages with a boss guarding the exit of the last. Q-taro, for that is the name of our heroic spirit, hovers through each at ground level with the object of reaching the exit. He has an impressive jumping ability but no means of attack or any other talents save for one - he can 'possess' enemies. To do this he merely has to jump on top of one, thereafter inheriting their appearance, health, and abilities until such time as he loses all his host's energy which sees him revert to his ghostly original form. Using the enemies in this way isn't just a handy way of dishing out the hurt either - it's actually necessary to finish even the very first stage.

A hopper encounters two green woodpecker things...

Accordingly, most of the enemy creatures you'll encounter have unique abilities you need to take advantage of. The first stage, for example, features one type which hops around on a pogo stick enabling it to jump much higher than other enemies, or indeed Q-taro himself of course. On the second stage you'll find green bird things who throw boomerangs which are required to smash down barriers. The third stage features bats who can flutter about for a short distance. Pretty much all of the peculiar characters offer something that none of the others do and it's this that makes Obake such as appealing game. Many of the enemies look like some sort of small Totoro-like creature but their abilities and behaviour are quite varied. Some just wander around doing their thing while others home in on you and attack but it's always interesting to discover a newcomer and possess them for the first time. I defy anyone to not be enthused by the discovery of an electric monkey!

Time it right to pass the twirly laser...

It's even possible to possess creatures much larger than Q-taro such as the angry bipedal pigs you start to encounter towards the end of the first world, but care should always be taken when near them or any other enemies as they quickly reduce your energy reserves. They get quite numerous as you progress through the game too, and they always regenerate if you scroll the screen back and forth. This is probably with good reason for once though - if you need a particular creature to pass a certain point and you lose it, you'd be in trouble if it was the last one. This way, there's always an endless supply of potential hosts available. Having said that, it also makes the margin for error close to irrelevant and accordingly Obake is a pretty easy game. The main cause of lost lives here, as with many other platformers, is falling off the bottom of the screen which is quite easy to do, but you start with a decent amount of lives and more can be collected during play, either by collecting a hundred of the swirly white things that litter the platforms (and air) or by finding the much rarer sparkly extra life icons themselves.

A red blob is defeated by a barrier...

On top of all that, extra energy is also fairly prevalent and the game automatically saves your progress after each stage too, but the further you get into the game the more traps and hazards there are to overcome such as dropping platforms and twirly lasers, and things start getting rather puzzley as well with switches, multiple routes, and numerous warp doors as well. The graphics are pretty high-res including some rather cute characters but otherwise have a bit of an MS Paint feel about them at times, but it's still outstanding stuff for a free fan-made game. There's a surprising amount of variety for a game of its type including some bonus rooms and secrets, and the music is fantastic. I was expecting Obake to be a simple, short, fun, ten minute diversion, but it has more depth than is initially apparent, there's hours of play in it, and it even has a dash of originality too. It might not be to everyone's taste and it may be a little obscure but I've really enjoyed playing this charming little game which comes highly recommended if you're a fan of the genre.

RKS Score: 8/10

Special Note: As you can probably see, the high-res graphics used in Obake apparently don't like being resized so the screenshots look pretty crappy. Sorry :(

N64 Racing / Driving Games #3

2013-03-28T15:21:00.000Z

Beetle Adventure Racing (1999)
By: Paradigm Entertainment / Electronic Arts Genre: Racing Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo 64
Also Available For: Nothing

There's no story so why the film strip?

Considering the apparent ease with which the mighty N64 was able to handle 3D game worlds, I always found it rather surprising that it didn't host more top quality racing games. There was the king itself, F-Zero X, of course, and a few other corkers such as the floopy Wave Race, but alternatives were few and far between. I thought I had found one when I saw a rather enthusiastic review in a gaming magazine of the day so I bought the game in question at full price only to find it sucked big floppy donkey dicks. No, I'm not talking about Beetle Adventure Racing - I'll review the actual culprit another time - but such was the horror I endured with the other title that I became far more hesitant to try any other N64 racers, and that's where the EA's Volkswagen-starring game comes in. It too received decent reviews but I was so scarred by my previous experience that I never dared to try it... until now.

Look! Look at all the nice hot-air balloons!

As you might've gathered from the name and the fact that it stars the Beetle, this game isn't exactly a hardcore driving simulation - it couldn't be more arcadey if it came bundled with a big, loud hydraulic cabinet! You can initially choose between one or two players with the former offering either a Single Race or Championship. The only car you can race as (or against for that matter) is unsurprisingly the one of the title but there are at least several different versions available (distinguished by their paint jobs) which differ in their top speed, acceleration, and handling. The Single Race mode offers three types of race - Full Grid (a normal race featuring eight cars), Duel (a one-on-one battle), and Time Attack (umm, a time attack mode). You can only choose between three Beetles and two courses in these modes to start with though - the Championship mode is the one to choose if you want to increase the selection which, like all the play modes, has three difficulty levels.

It's easy to get distracted by the lovely scenery...

All of the Championship modes feature races between eight cars and there's no qualifying so you always start at the back of the grid (shocking, I know) but the number of races depends on the difficulty. The first and easiest one has three races for which you receive points based on your finishing position. If you finish third or above you can move onto the next race and if you win the tournament you can move up the next tier which has four races, then the next which has five, and then you unlock the secret fourth level which consists of six races. Each tournament you win also unlocks new, faster Beetles up to a total of eleven as well, and you'll need them as your opponents go from being bumbling walkovers in the first few races to near-faultless pros in the later stages. Two player games can be contested over the normal courses or in a mode called Beetle Battle. These take place within enclosed arenas where you compete to collect six different coloured ladybirds (or 'ladybugs' as our American friends insist on calling them).

Less discreet tomb-raiding than Lara's variety...

The main courses are by far the most interesting things about the game though, and there are six in total - Coventry Cove (a hilly, British countryside course with waterfalls and castles and stuff), Mount Mayhem (a mostly snow-covered course filled with icy stuff), Inferno Isle (a dense, tropical, primeval place similar to Isla Nublar), Sunset Sands (set around/through various Egyptian pyramids and temples and all that stuff), Metro Madness (a large city), and Wicked Woods (a spooky wooded area which reminded me of Bree). What these courses may lack in their quantity they more than make up for in other ways. Each of them is unusually long for one thing - a three lap race on some of them can exceed ten minutes - but even more impressive than that is the amount of features and secrets packed into them including many alternate routes and short-cuts, some of which are obvious while others are less so.

Pretty snow falling on Mount Mayhem...

There are also loads of crates dotted around each course. Generally the least hidden type are blue Nitro Boxes which give a momentary-but-helpful speed boost once smashed and there are also Bonus Boxes which can reward you with continues in the Championship mode and can also help you to unlock a few bits and pieces. The last kind of crate is the Flower Box which is the least numerous and hardest to find but unlocks some special cheats! Happily though, this isn't a game that's so hard that you'll need to cheat to see the later courses. If anything it's a little too easy - I finished all three standard tiers of the championship on my first go with no prior experience of the courses involved, for example. As mentioned earlier, the opponents do get tougher of course, and as you unlock faster and faster Beetles, it's also more of a challenge to navigate the courses too.

Metro Madness - the only remotely generic course...

That's not to suggest that the cars don't handle well though. Their turning ability often isn't great but they're grippy things which can be hurled around corners at good speeds. Indeed, I can't vouch for real Beetles but these ones can powerslide and perform impressive jumps, given the opportunity, and they don't lose much speed from driving on other surfaces such as ice, sand, rough terrain, or from veering off road either. As such, successful racing is more down to how well you take the corners and avoid the obstacles, and there are quite a few rather unique ones such as icebergs, falling columns, broken bridges, volcanoes, and even a T-Rex! The view of many corners is often obscured by trees, vegetation, signposts, boxes, barrels, etc, all of which can be driven through but this of course means you won't get much of a chance to react to whatever may lay beyond! It's also possible to fall off the track completely, such as off a bridge, or into water or lava, which will see your car repositioned, but if you get stuck in a corner or something, you can reposition your car yourself with the press of a button.

Yeah - racing stripes means speeeed!

Luckily there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many times you can do this, and you apparently can't destroy your car either (at least not permanently as far as I can tell), but repositioning it does obviously slow you down somewhat. This is most likely down to the officially licensed nature of the game (there's a special Volkswagen screen at the start) and that also means the cars don't show damage no matter how many walls, corners, or dinosaurs you smash into. Damaged or not though, they're not the best looking cars from behind either (which is of course how you'll see them 99% of the time) but this is the only less than stellar aspect of the visuals - the courses themselves are fantastic! With the possible exception of Metro Madness they're highly varied, they're all superbly designed, the draw distance is surprisingly good, and they're packed with detail as well.

Yes that's right, I'm driving around a volcano...

After all this splendour, the audio is a bit disappointing and probably the weakest aspect of the game. The engine noise is whiny and unpleasant (although I suppose we couldn't exactly have V8's rumbling through our speakers!) and the music, while noticeably spiffy on occasion, is largely forgettable too, which is a shame - a lively, catchy soundtrack could've made this game even more fun to play! The courses are definitely the highlight though - there are so many memorable sights and features and you're never quite sure what you'll find around the corner the first time you race each of them. Even after finishing the game multiple times you'll still be finding new secrets and short-cuts occasionally, and if you're like me you'll probably end up completing it many times! It really is enormous fun to play, for one player or two - the cars may all be Beetles but each one is slightly different to use; some of the later ones are very fast and there are plenty or ramps and jumps dotted around to make things even more interesting.

Smashing through barrels in what looks like Greece!

Surprisingly, none of the other drivers are very aggressive and get annoyed and start honking at you if you act aggressively toward them, but they're not generally too difficult to beat - this is definitely a game that's worth starting on the highest difficulty setting but even if you don't, keep away from the easy one! However you play though, there's no question that it's a tremendously enjoyable game, and one which I'd wager many gamers haven't played which is strange. As much grief as I give Electronic Arts for constantly releasing crap, or at least generic games, not to mention endless sequels, this game is far from crap and yet received no sequels; very unlike EA and a great shame too. Still, let's just be grateful this one exists, and what a wonderful surprise it's been too - it's quite amazingly and unexpectedly one of the most charming and addictive racing games I've played for a while. With just a bit more challenge it could've been one of the best arcade style racers ever.

RKS Score: 9/10

Sega SG-1000 Round-Up #4

2013-03-25T15:31:00.001Z

Sega's oddly appealing SG-1000 has apparently harboured few hidden gems so far (that I've seen, at least) but I've missed it anyway so I figured it was time for another Round Up. The lucky dip on this occasion has yielded a nice mixture of genres including the only RPG released for the system! Take a look:

The Black Onyx (1987)

Yes that's right, this very game is supposedly (barring any doujin releases or something) the only RPG released on Sega's first console. That means there is a bit of Japanese text on the options screens but surprisingly the in-game menu is in English. Unfortunately that did little to improve my enjoyment of it. At the start you need to create a party of up to five adventurers before starting the game in a multi-storey labyrinth located beneath a town. However, I didn't get much further than this as sadly it's only marginally less confusing to play than the MSX's horrifying 3D Bomberman which it immediately reminded me of. Accordingly, it's incredibly easy to get lost and using a map to explore defeats the object really so I'm afraid I didn't stick with it for long. Black Onyx did appear on several other platforms and I can't comment on those versions, but this one was mighty unpleasant... 3/10

Girl's Garden (1984)

As any Sega fanboys reading may be aware, this game is most famous these days for being the début work of Sonic creator, Yuji Naka. Perhaps just as noteworthy as that though, is the fact that it was exclusive to the SG-1000 (and the SC-3000, its computery equivalent) which makes it even more unusual! The game itself is quite interesting too. It sees you in control of a young girl named Papri who's resolved to tempt her prospective boyfriend from a rival by bestowing lovely flowers upon him. To that end, she must collect ten blooms, but only fresh ones - they grow as you play and collecting wilted ones will cost you. There are various obstacles along the looping landscape such as rocks and tree stumps, and falling in ponds or contact with one of the bears will cost Papri a life. Girl's Garden is certainly no Sonic but it's an intriguing and addictive game with some nice graphics featuring a good number of colours (although the scrolling is very jerky) and superb music. Not bad at all... 7/10

Rock n' Bolt (1985)

I had a feeling from its name that this one would be a puzzle game and I was correct! It's viewed from an angled-overhead perspective, almost isometric in fact, and stars some dude who's seemingly trapped amongst numerous floating tiles. The ones with holes move backwards and forwards allowing access to the whole puzzle but the object is to drill these moving pieces into place by performing a nice pirouette over each hole. They must, however, be fixed into place according to a small map of the pieces at the bottom of the screen which can make things quite a bit more complicated! The graphics are almost entirely comprised of the SG-1000's trademark blue and red and the music is merely reasonable and quite repetitive, but I still enjoyed this one a lot despite wondering what the hell I was supposed to be doing for the first few minutes. Once sussed out though, it's an addictive and enjoyable puzzler which I'll definitely be returning to... 8/10

GP World (1985)

The prospect of an into-the-screen racing game on the SG-1000 was an intriguing one so I was quite looking forward to this one. First impressions weren't great, due mainly to the rather iffy graphics, but it's actually not too bad. The object is to complete two laps of the circuit within the qualifying time but the tracks are filled with lots of competing racers. Each one you pass gives you a bonus at the end of the race but they weave backwards and forwards trying to prevent you from passing. If you do manage to finish though, it's on to the next, usually more complex circuit. As mentioned, the graphics aren't great (although races do take place at different times of day), there's no in-game music, and it's easy to change gear by accident, but these are the only bad points about this game which is otherwise challenging and rather addictive, and there's even a track editor too! ... 7/10

Congo Bongo (1983)

Hmmm, a bit of a confusing one this. Congo Bongo is basically a dodge 'em up and a clone of both Donkey Kong and Frogger, which is fine. It's also a port of Sega's own arcade game which presents the action from an isometric perspective. Here though, the perspective has been switched from isometric to side-on for the first stage and angled overhead for the second. The reason this confuses me is that even the VCS attempted a faithful conversion but Sega apparently couldn't manage it with their own machine! Not only that but the number of stages here has seemingly been halved as well - the first two are intact (albeit with the gameplay and graphical differences resulting from their change in perspective) but the third and fourth stages are missing as far as I can tell, and I looped the first two stages several times to be sure. Oh well, judging by the year of release it must've been among the first releases for the SG and it's still a fairly enjoyable little game (with the emphasis on the 'little' now!) but as a conversion it's shocking! ... 5/10

Red Parsley will be back with some more SG-1000 mini-reviews soon! :)

Maze Games #9

2013-03-22T20:18:00.000Z

Raimais (1988)
By: Taito Genre: Maze Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 82,620
Also Available For: Various Compilations for PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox

I wonder how the name is pronounced...

Good old Taito, they sure know how to rip a game off don't they? Take Breakout as an example - released way back in the 70's to great acclaim and popularity, but by the 80's it was starting to look and feel rather dated, so what did Taito do? Around ten years after the original appeared they made their own version, gave it a sci-fi theme and basic back-story, tarted up the graphics, chucked in a load of power-ups, and released it as Arkanoid, which... also received great acclaim and popularity, and is in fact still generally regarded as the pinncale of the genre. Next move? A couple of years later, they worked their magic on another early classic in pretty much the same way, and the result is Raimais. As you may have already noticed from the screenshots, it's based on Pac-Man, but what have Taito done to moderise it? That's right - given it a sci-fi theme and basic back-story, tarted up the graphics, and chucked in a load of power-ups!

I won't get to that laser before the enemy does...

Indeed, for Raimais is basically a cross between Pac-Man and Arkanoid, which probably means I don't really need to say much else! However, it's a surprisingly intricate game for its type so to elaborate a little: there are thirty-two single-screen stages in total, each of which is bested by steering your little space-bike thing around the mazes to collect all of the dots, or 'energy plates'. Doing so then opens up to eight gates around the four sides of the maze, two on each wall, which offer differing routes through the stages. You always start off at the bottom of the screen and your bike moves forward automatically but the enemies appear very soon afterwards and they're pretty fast so it's best to not leave it trundling around by itself for long! To that end, it can of course be steered in the four normal directions freely and pressing one of the two available buttons will give it a speed boost which soon proves invaluable.

Each coloured dot is worth a different amount...

There are seven types of enemy altogether which are gradually introduced through the game. Most will cost you a life if you crash into them but they all have a unique ability or affect on your contraption too. The first kind you encounter just dart around the maze seemingly randomly but later examples can jump, some clots have cloaking devices, some slow you down rather than kill you, and there are even replicas of your bike which can use the same power-ups as you! Talking of the power-ups, these come in the form of lettered icons which appear periodically and there are eight kinds: S (slows down the enemies), B (opens an exit from the stage), A (one-hit shield, although the more you collect the more hits you can take), C (clears all energy plates), P (extra life), O (opens an entrance to the 'reverse round'), R (has a random effect), and lastly our old favourite from Arkanoid - L (lasers). These bits and pieces are all mighty useful and most are self-explanatory with the possible exception of one.

The first scary boss. And a few lasers, luckily!

That's right, the odd 'reverse rounds', which I'm still not sure I've figured out properly myself! These usually lead to one of four battles against large insectoid bosses (don't worry, there are a few 'L' icons available here!) but are followed by an encounter with an oafish-looking creature called 'Gum Can' who talks to you briefly (in Japanese) and sometimes gives you a gift as well. These can include a super shield, temporary invincibility, enemy stopper, warp, maximum speed, or the 'Mirror of Light' which is needed in order to see the 'good ending', if you get that far, obviously! If you do, the mysterious device should help you to liberate your brother who's been kidnapped by... someone. It sure is a tough challenge too. The enemies are not just as fast as your bike but they can sometimes travel faster! This is where the 'boost' button comes in handy of course, but the enemies are often unpredictable and change direction at the last second, and it also makes turning corners more difficult, so careful use is advised!

Look, there's scary devices in each corner :(

Aside from the power-ups, the biggest Arkanoid influence here is in the graphics, and there's actually not too much difference between them. Accordingly, the detail is quite nice, with decent looking sprites and backdrops, but there's not much variety with only a handful of different examples of the latter. The bosses are quite cool though - giant insect monsters are rarely anything but! Unlike Arkanoid, however, there is some in-game music here and it's quite good - the tunes are pleasant and suit the action well enough. It's also a fairly pleasant game to play. There are some creative and challenging maze layouts and a few features such as bombs, barriers, shutters, tunnels, metal energy plates which need to passed over more than once, and even meteors if you take too long. This stuff combined with gradually faster and more numerous enemies, not to mention the fact that they quickly regenerate when destroyed, means that things can become very hectic as you progress into the game! Fortunately, it's also pretty addictive too! Raimais doesn't do for maze collect 'em ups what Arkanoid did for bat 'n' ball games but it's decent enough if you like this kind of thing. Which I do!

RKS Score: 7/10

Almost 3D Platform Games #1

2013-03-20T19:51:00.000Z

Spider: The Video Game (1996)
By: Boss Game Studios Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Sony PlayStation
Also Available For: Nothing

The arrival of the powerful 32-bit CD-based consoles brought many new and exciting things to gaming but one of the most obvious was 3D games. Although some had come before, notably on the PC, it was now much easier for developers to create complex game worlds in all three dimensions. A good number of these flashy new games came on Sony's PlayStation which was much better suited to the job than the Saturn (boo hoo!) but, whilst they almost always looked nice, not all of them were truly 3D. This was particularly true of platform games - many featured lovely polygonal worlds in which you often spent as much time moving into and out from the screen as you did moving left and right, but their stages were still linear, forcing you to follow a set path. This didn't necessarily make them bad of course; some were spiffing and one that I always found interesting was Spider.

Spider uses a flame-thrower for no good reason...

It has a fairly imaginative story which is told through a pretty long movie intro as well as some between-stage sequences as well. Set in 2018, it concerns Dr. Michael Kelly, scientist and authority on nanotechnology, who's been busy creating a cybernetic spider. The company funding his work, the shady MicroTech, are eager to get their hands on the technology, most likely for rather nefarious purposes, and are spying on him to check his progress. During his research he discovers a way to transfer his own consciousness to the spider just as some MicroTech cronies arrive to take his research by force. In the ensuing struggle, Dr. Kelly's body is injured just as the connection is activated, effectively transferring him to the spider. The two MicroTech goons then take Doc's unconscious body away leaving his arachnid host to pursue them in the hope of retrieving it and uncovering their sinister plan.

The first bonus stage known as '70's Room'...

Unfortunately, that's a long way for the small creature that he now is - six areas, in fact, that he'll need to crawl across. They are: Laboratory, Factory, City, Museum, Sewer, and the far-from-inconspicuously-named Evil Labs. Each of these areas is occupied by a variety of scary creepy-crawlies including wasps, slugs, flies, bats, grasshoppers, and rats, as well as plenty of fellow spiders of course! Most of these oafs follow set movement patterns and can therefore be avoided if you prefer, but some spit projectiles at you and your spidery form can only take two hits before losing a life so you'll need to use all of its range of moves. As you might expect, this includes the ability to walk on any surface at any angle, and he can also hang and drop down on a web strand. Touching non-solid stuff (mostly water and fire) will hurt him, but slightly less realistically he has an impressive jump and can fall a long way without taking any damage (unlike real spiders on both counts as far as I'm aware).

That spider is braver than me!

Even more unrealistic, although mighty welcome all the same, are the offensive abilities your arachnid host has to offer. He begins armed only with the tiny scalpel Dr. Kelly grafted to one of his front legs but many more weapons can be collected along the way. Some are used from the 'rear' such as smart bombs and mines, but most are for frontal assaults and include a flame-thrower, poison-spray, homing missiles, electro-beam, and boomerang. All but the last are in finite supply and all of them last only for the current stage or life, but they sure make the going easier, especially since you can have two front and two rear weapons deployed at once! Before you find any of these though, you'll notice little DNA strand things which are all over the place. Collecting a hundred of these gives you an extra life, although extra lives can be found occasionally by themselves as well, and most stages also contain 'pieces of CD' which will unlock a bonus stage (just an extra normal stage really) if you find all of them within a given area.

Hanging from the ceiling of a toxic sewer...

All this business with weapons and collecting the odd item here and there isn't especially original these days though. Where our Spider's adventure is a bit more unique is with the choice of main character and the abilities that come with it, and the 'enlarged' environments in which he finds himself, appropriately enough. Consequently you'll probably spend as much time crawling up walls or creeping along the underside of shelves or pipes or something as you will walking along platforms in the normal platformy way. There are around thirty stages including the bonus stages too, and they are pretty nicely varied despite being limited to only six areas which all feature various traps throughout such as puddles, vents, lots of flame spouts, and of course the inevitable chasms of doom. Some stages simply charge you with getting from one side of a room or area to the other, although the route is rarely is a straight line and can sometimes include alternate paths, but others are looped and allow you to move in either direction when you start, eventually ending up back where you started as though having walked all the way around a square(ish) room.

Eeek! Fire one way, a scorpion the other!

This actually explains the way some stages are presented too. When playing, you're either walking one way or another but your view of some stages often moves around corners creating the illusion that you're moving through a three-dimensional landscape. The graphics do a good job of maintaining this effect too - the backgrounds are flat and there are some fancy transparency effects on the flames and suchlike, but most of the foreground scenery and various creatures are made up of polygons, often viewed from an angle to further the 3D effect, and the result is... pretty sweet actually! The stages themselves are all quite realistic and feature the kind of things you'd expect to find in such a location such as sinks, flasks, and shelves in the Laboratory, boxes and conveyors in the Factory, streets, buildings and a park in the City, and dinosaur bones, a volcano, and a model city in the Museum which is my personal favourite area.

That's one way to avoid an oncoming spider!

The textures are mostly decent enough and the sense of scale is superb but the best thing about the visuals, at least initially, is the creatures. Your own spider is nicely modelled and moves authentically but it's the creepy enemies that are more affecting. Imagine leaping across a gap onto a box or shelf or something similar, taking a quick look around before moving on, then noticing some long, spindly legs slowly appearing around the corner, for example. If you're not overly keen on creepy-crawlies it'll probably make you poop your pants! This scary atmosphere isn't really heightened by the soundtrack though. Some of the tracks are rock instrumentals and are pretty good in their own right but I'm not sure they really suit the game. Maybe a quieter, more atmospheric score would've been better. Oh well, some tunes are okay (or you could always turn the volume down in the options screen), and the sound effects are pretty good too.

This tricky stage gave me the bone (snigger)

Spider wasn't a very well known game in its day and is probably even less so now so I'm not sure what drew me to it. It doesn't even have a particularly enticing cover! It's basically a platform version of Micro Machines but its biggest appeal must simply be the opportunity to play a game as a spider. In this capacity it's definitely a success - exploring its miniaturised world is good fun (when it's not spooky) even if it is just as linear as a good old 8-bit platformer. It's a tough game too. You have to start the stage from scratch when you lose a life, which can be irritating if you keep getting stuck in the same spot, but there are continues, passwords, and save options so it's not too bad. Games like this may not have been what some people had in mind when the '3D Revolution' arrived, but Spider is a nice looking, original, and mighty enjoyable platform romp anyway. Besides, how many games offer you the chance to snoop around as a cybernetic, missile-firing tarantula?

RKS Score: 8/10

Top Five Lynx Arcade Conversions

2013-03-18T14:06:00.000Z

Despite being hailed by its fans as the most underrated hand held ever, Atari's poor old Lynx was pretty much a flop from start to finish. It was a mighty powerful machine for its time, perhaps too powerful, as it sadly crippled the machine with a bulky size and woeful battery life. Due to this, few developers other than Epyx (the original designers of the machine) and Atari themselves actually released games for it, and what this means is that a large percentage of its back-catalogue is made up of arcade conversions. Thanks to that aforementioned power it managed most of them admirably though, and here are the very best ones:

5. Roadblasters (1990)

To be honest, I've never been hugely keen on this game. The version I've played the most is the monochrome version on the Speccy which is decent but too easy, but fan or not, this Lynx version is a pretty impressive effort. Like the arcade version and unlike the Speccy one, it's not particularly easy, partly because the car controls in the same slightly annoying way and I consequently didn't make it very far (and had little desire to try due to the aforementioned mild dislikeness I still harbour). The gameplay has been well duplicated though, and the graphics are superb - very colourful and fairly fast, although the scaling looks a but iffy on the Lynx's screen. So, great job on the conversion, less so on the game itself...

4. Pac-Land (1991)

Until recently I had only played this Pac-Man spin-off on my trusty Speccy and PC Engine, as well as in the arcades in the late 80's, and it's always proven to be a tricky but mighty enjoyable and addictive game. Happily, this Lynx version is no different! Technically, it's not a terribly hard game to convert featuring basic colouring, uncomplicated backdrops, and short, catchy tunes, but that's not the point - it's still a good conversion and it's still simply really nice to play. If Atari's 'handheld' was truly a portable machine, this would be an ideal type of game to play on the train or something. I wish I'd gotten around to buying it for my own Lynx!

3. Xybots (1991)

This is one I had never played outside of the arcades until very recently, mainly because I was less than confident that its unique control method could be duplicated well enough. After some time playing it, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Moving 'Major Rock Hardy' (snigger) around the 3D mazes is a little fiddly to start with but quickly becomes second nature, and that makes Xybots a more than capable conversion of a pretty sweet game! Of course, like many of Atari's arcade games, this was intended as a two-player game, and that's something that wasn't forgotten during the conversion process either - it takes a fellow Lynx/Xybots owner to do it, but it's worth the effort. Probably the best conversion Xybots received.

2. Toki (1989)

As with the other games on this list, playing the Lynx version of Toki necessitated a (supposedly quick) refresher of the arcade version in order to make a well-informed comparison, and I ended up enjoying it so much I wrote a whole review of it! It also provided me with more than enough info to realise that this Lynx offering is very splendid. The Amiga and Atari ST versions are probably the closest to the arcade game visually – things are a bit blockier here, understandably – but this version features nice use of colour, decent audio, spot on stages, and has a 'feel' very close to the original. Toki's jump is a bit floaty but that's my only complaint. Not everyone likes Toki but if you do this is a stonking conversion.

1. STUN Runner (1991)

There was a period when I used to spend nearly every Sunday in the arcades of a nearby beach resort (as detailed here), and during this time STUN Runner was one of my favourite arcade games. It featured a rather uncomfortable plastic seat you had to straddle but the control yoke was similar to the one from the Star Wars machine and therefore awesome, which not only allowed you to guide your red 'speed bike' down twisty, loopy tunnels at almost 1000mph, but you could also shoot stuff up with its trigger buttons too! Due to these insane speeds and the game's fancy polygon graphics, decent conversions were few and far between... until the Lynx version showed up. It may not look very nice in this, or indeed any screen shots, but it works a lot better than any other conversions of the famous tunnel racer that I've played and is consequently an amazing achievement.

Film Review #48

2013-03-16T15:52:00.001Z

I Am Legend (2007)
Director: Francis Lawrence Starring: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith, Emma Thompson

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 96 Minutes

Tagline: "The last man on Earth is not alone"

Adapting a novel to film must be a damn tricky business at the best of times. This particular effort is actually the third attempt to place Richard Matheson's book on film following The Last Man On Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971), and the first to use the book's original name, but none of them have earned (or even asked for, in some cases) the endorsement of the author. Armed with a big budget and the very latest in ultra-fancy technology however, Lawrence's attempt to finally do justice to the celebrated book must surely be in with a good chance? I didn't actually get to find this out until just a few days ago when I finally got around to watching this well-liked film (see, it's not just games it takes me a while to get around to!). Despite its popularity, I've always been in two minds as to whether to watch it. Films set in post-apocalyptic worlds are always at least intriguing, but I couldn't really give two pieces of monkey crap about zombie films, which I've always been under the impression this is.

We open with Dr. Alice Krippin (Thompson) being interviewed on some news or chat show who is proudly revealing that she's developed a cure for cancer using a genetically-engineered variant of the measles virus. After this short segment we cut to New York three years later which has apparently long been deserted save for lone survivor LTC Robert Neville (Smith) who we later discover is (or was) a military virologist. He spends his days driving around the city looking for supplies and hunting deer, or in his basement laboratory trying to find a cure for a virus that mutated from Dr. Krippin's cancer cure and has apparently decimated Earth's population leaving him as, to the best of his knowledge, the only human survivor due to a natural immunity to the virus. However, as implied by the tagline, being the last human doesn't necessarily mean he's the last creature of any kind. After all, there must be a reason he doesn't go out at night, instead boarding up his house with metal shutters.

Indeed, as we later discover, not all the victims of the virus were killed outright - only about 90% had that 'luxury'. The rest, with the apparent exception of Robert only, were mutated into 'Darkseekers' - unpleasant, not to mention aggressive creatures whose abilities/demeanour falls somewhere between that of vampires and zombies. Director Lawrence has opted for CG to portray these clots resulting in creatures with some impressive abilities. The lead Darkseeker (Mihok), however, spends much of his time bellowing like Gollum's older brother - perhaps because, sadly, the visual effects aren't that great. That's the only blemish on an otherwise stunning-looking film though. Whilst the story may not necessarily stick to the plot of book too stringently, the post-apocalyptic world (okay, New York) is fantastically realised.

Thanks partly to this, the first two thirds or so of the films are completely compulsive viewing. The streets, strewn with long-abandoned vehicles and odd pieces of debris, are visited by occasional wild animals but are otherwise overgrown with weeds and eerily silent. This all creates a superb atmosphere but even more impressive is Will Smith's performance. I suppose it was a mighty helpful coincidence that the only survivor was military trained and a virologist too, as opposed to a lazy, obese, benefits scrounger, but even so he is a revelation here. At the beginning he talks only to his faithful hound, Sam, and mannequins he's arranged as 'customers' in stores he visits for supplies, but the constant loneliness would affect anyone eventually and the gradual decline of his mental state is brilliantly, and at times heart-wrenchingly portrayed by Smith. This if nothing else makes the film very watchable but, although the dodgy CG and a weaker final act do let the side down a little, I Am Legend is still sufficiently intriguing and well enough executed to be a mighty entertaining hour and a half.

RKS Score: 7/10

Doujin Platform Games #1

2013-03-14T11:27:00.000Z

Yamamoto-san (2012)
By: AnnoJoe Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: PC First Day Score: 23,376
Also Available For: Nothing

Well, isn't she a lovely-looking girly!

There was I, merrily scouring the limitless ether for another interesting-looking doijin shmup to play (and review) and pretty much by accident I discovered that the phenomenon that is doujin seemingly extends to almost all other genres too, not to mention many non-video game related interests as well. Since platform games are, along with shmups, probably my very favourite genre, I figured it was worth picking one at random and giving it a try, and that game was, unsurprisingly, Yamamoto-san. It's a game that features enough kanji to render its premise a mystery to me, but a short intro sequence reveals a tornado or something causing some havoc. That leaves the sprightly girly to the right here to vanquish her land of the evil creatures that have moved in, presumably since the unwelcome disaster.

A hidden cavern containing gold coins... and a blob...

Hitting the start button reveals the game to be a simple Super Mario Bros clone with you in control of what appears to be a super-deformed version of the slender young lady on the title screen. As with Nintendo's ultra classic, the aim is simply to reach the end of each stage which does of course mean navigating tricky landscapes filled with enemies and hazards. Our young heroine (who may or may not be called Yamamoto-san) can walk at a reasonable pace or run faster by pressing one of the two buttons, the other of which is the jump button which not only allows her move around the stages but also comprises her only means of attack as well. Good timing is important though, as a single touch from an enemy will cost a life, and the traps, which include spikes and gaps, are just as deadly. It's not all doom and gloom, however - sprinkled all over the stages are many coins. These come in gold, silver, and bronze varieties and can be collected for bonus points - hooray!

A rather spiky fall onto a moving platform awaits!

The landscapes take all manner of shapes and the further you progress through the game, the more precise you need to be when moving around them. There are plenty of moving and whirly platforms and lifts and stuff and it's easy to fall off into the netherworld that lurks below every platform game stage. The visuals are quite basic with jerky scrolling, and it's disappointing that the foreground scenery is mainly black. The backgrounds change after every fourth stage though, bringing with them a new tune, and the sprites, while small, are well-drawn. It's not an especially long or difficult game (you start with ten lives for one thing!), and nothing about it is flashy, but it definitely has a certain charm. Of course, some may dismiss it purely because of the small and simple graphics or the complete absence of originality, and I can understand that, but it sure is an addictive little game!

RKS Score: 6/10

Gaming Memories - Part 11

2013-03-12T13:08:00.002Z

For any keen gamer, the prospect of acquiring a new console can often be an exciting one. From the first announcement of the new system to leaked photos of games in action on it to finalised prices and launch line-ups and then finally the chance to actually own it, finances permitting of course. This cycle was particularly memorable for me with regards to several consoles which remain among my favourites, but none more so than NEC's mighty PC Engine.

The classic white Engine is the most appealing one...

I can't speak for other countries but here in the UK we had some fantastic gaming magazines in the 80's and 90's. One of them - Computer & Video Games (more usually referred to as C&VG) - covered computers such as the Spectrum, C64, Amiga, etc in its front half but had a dedicated console section in the second half know as Mean Machines which would eventually evolve into a separate magazine in its own right, but at this stage it was about as comprehensive as console coverage got for us. The most tantalising system they featured was the PC Engine which was quite mysterious but immensely desirable. It was released in Japan in 1987 and glimpses started appearing in C&VG soon afterwards along with the odd screenshot of early games like Alien Crush, Victory Run, and a stunning-looking port of the amazing R-Type. Every gamer who wasn't stupid immediately wanted one but, due to the lack of a European release, that wasn't an easy proposition.

Puts my £40 into perspective!

Lots of companies started appearing in the back of C&VG specifically to help us do this - one example I remember was called PC Engine Supplies and they had all the latest games and accessories, but they weren't cheap and I was still at school then so persuading my parents to stump up for a possibly-ropey 'grey import' was an unrealistic challenge! Fortunately, over the couple of years I had spent compiling an ever-increasing PCE wish-list, I had left school and had a bit of money available - something which helpfully coincided with the opening of a new games shop in my home-town called South Coast Consoles (read a little more about the store here if you so desire). It was during one of my frequent visits that I observed a second-hand white PC Engine, for a remarkable £40 if I remember correctly. This would've been a bargain for any console but an Engine? I snapped it up right away and the owner of the store, helpful fellow that he was, told me about how it had been modified to work in the UK. He suggested I take it home that night to test it out - if all was okay, I'd buy a few days later. The only bad thing about this particular Engine was that, while boxed, it didn't have its power lead. Luckily my Master System lead fitted it perfectly, and it wasn't too much hassle to tune my TV in either. Successful test conducted, I returned excitedly to the store the next day and bought it.

I could only afford to take a single game with my shiny new machine at the time of purchase but I still had my list, and I was immensely satisfied to be able to tick some of the titles off over the next few years, albeit rather slowly! For the first time since the early 90's, however, I've returned to the first few titles I experienced for NEC's magnificent little white box to relive some great gaming memories...

Twin Cobra (1989)

I've never actually owned this game for the Engine but it is the game I was given by my helpful friend at South Coast Consoles to test out my prospective new purchase. The colours certainly weren't as bold as they are in this screenshot - many PCE's weren't converted to work on PAL TV's very skilfully and had faded colours, or even none at all - but it was a stonking blaster which rivalled many that I already had for my MegaDrive. The graphics were superb - close to arcade perfect in fact (and nicer than the MD's own version in my opinion) - and still look nice today, and the audio also provided a worthy introduction to Hudson's versatile CPU (which produced the sounds instead of a dedicated sound chip). Of course, such was the abundance of shmups on the Engine, Twin Cobra was soon outflanked, but it was and remains an enjoyable game and a great conversion.

Fantasy Zone (1988)

My appreciation for Sega’s day-glo series is well known here and I had already played all three FZ games on my Master System by the time I bought my Engine but, such is their splendour, this was still an obvious purchase for my new console! It was in fact the only game I took home with it and I enjoyed reacquainting myself with Opa-Opa and his plight. It was still a very tough plight too, one which I've never completed without resorting to cheating (snigger), but it ended up being the version of FZ I played the most. This was partly because the graphics and music are understandably superior to the MS version, particularly the former which included much more vibrant colours and backgrounds crammed with far more detail, and there's a handy radar thingy at the bottom too! In fact, it may possibly be the most garish version of any Fantasy Zone game to date but that doesn't stop it from being one of the rulingest as well. Destroy Menons forever!

Gradius (1991)

This classic has long been one of my very favourite horizontal-scrollers and the first version I ever played properly was this version which was donated to me by a friend who had acquired a copy but had no console on which to play it. Poor him but lucky me! Happily, not only did I swiftly discover that Gradius is frickin' awesome but, as I wasn't aware at the time, this is also arguably the best of the many conversions the arcade original received. It does summer from some rather jarring slow-down when things get busy (try braving a crowded section whilst armed with four Options and lasers!) but that's the only negative thing I can say about it. The graphics were spot-on, the music had undergone a favourable remix, and there was even an entire extra level for blast through! Unquestionably my favourite version of an all-time great (yes, including the arcade version).

Chan & Chan (1987)

It may not have escaped your notice that this is the only game featured here which isn't a shoot 'em up, and it's also the only one that's not an arcade conversion as well! I guess that says something about not only my taste in games, but also the sort of games the Engine was home to. This was also one of the first PCE games released by Hudson and was always referred to as simply 'Chan and Chan' by C&VG, although it's full title is actually Kato-chan and Ken-chan and is based on a TV show featuring the two comedians of the title, either of whom you can select and guide through their hazard-filled platformy world. It's a very Japanese game with lots of weird goings-on and it's full of toilet-humour. Our heroes can fart on enemies to kill them, for example, some enemies poop on you to attack, and there are even some backgrounds characters taking a dump! A unique game to say the least, but a funny one which has some catchy music and addictive stages as well.

Dragon Spirit (1989)

One reason I didn’t have a large number of Engine games in the early days is the complete absence of anything like eBay. This meant buying games for fixed prices from importers, of which there was many. One which carried a great range was Telegames but their prices were a little... inflated, shall we say. I used to like Dragon Spirit a lot on my Speccy so I decided I wanted the Engine version at any cost. That cost, thanks to Telegames, ended up being £60 which was not a small sum to me in those days (or now either, I suppose). In retrospect, if I was going to spend that much on a PCE shump, it really should've been Gunhed or something, but Namco's game was still a pretty good one, if rather tough. It's a great conversion too, and I played it a lot. Sixty pounds though... I think that's still the most I've ever paid for a game that wasn't some super collectors item or something. It was a hard life being a retro gamer in the 90's!

The PC Engine was a hugely desirable console when it was launched but the reality was a little different. Owning it was great and made me feel like a genuine 'hardcore gamer' but it wasn't easy to build my library of games. It was actually to me what being a Neo Geo collector is like today - some of the earliest/most popular games are easy and cheap to get hold of but most of the titles worth having were either uncommon, expensive, or both. It's no longer the case with the Engine of course - it's a reasonably affordable machine to collect for these days but back then I had little choice but to stick to the five games listed above.

I did manage to add a few titles such as Dungeon Explorer (a game C&VG raved about and called a superb Gauntlet clone, although it actually turned out to be an action RPG with tonnes of Japanese text - thanks for that, C&VG!) and my good friend Luke donated a handful of loose HuCards as well, including the spiffing Galaga '88, and my Engine gaming days were happy ones. How could they not be? It was a technical marvel really - one of the first pictures of it we saw in the UK was in C&VG which showed it next to a packet of Skips crisps which made it very small (less than a foot square in fact) but it sure packed a whallop! Many games on it matched their MegaDrive counterparts despite Sega's machine packing a 16-bit CPU next to the Engine's 8-bit one, and it also had the benefit of some of Japan's finest developers working on it, sometimes exclusively (such as its designer, Hudson Soft).

I don't really know how the Engine was viewed in other countries but I'm confident that if you speak to any gamers who grew up around the time I did here in the UK, no console would've captured their imagination quite like the PC Engine.