Star Wars: The Arcade Game - Review

I’m a little late to the party with this, but with The Force Awakens in theaters, I  

figured it was about time to check out a game inspired by Star Wars.  There have 

been a ton of them over the years, but there was no second thought about it 

when it came down to which one I was going to pick.  So I figured I’d start right at 

the beginning with the oldest of the Star Wars games.  

The original Star Wars arcade game was a first-person on-rails shooter that used 

color vector wireframe graphics which was produced by Atari.  It was  released in 

1983 and appeared in two different styled cabinets:  either your standard stand-up 

arcade machine cab, or a huge sit-down immersion cabinet.  This classic arcade 

Star Wars game has you taking control Luke Skywalker piloting an X-Wing fighter, 

dogfighting with TIE fighters and ultimately blowing up the Death Star, just like the 

scenes in the original film.  This time around I’d like to show you and share a few 

thoughts on three different home versions of this game.

The game was ported to a number of platforms over the past 32 years, mainly 

8-bit computer platforms at first,  but there were releases on both the Atari 5200 

and 2600, among other 2nd gen consoles It’s kind of funny how the arcade game 

was originally produced by Atari, but the version for the Atari 2600 console was 

published by Parker Brothers.  Licensing can be really weird sometimes…  The 

visuals and sound seem like a solid effort, best you can do on this kind of system, 

but the game really suffers with its controls.  Very unresponsive, but as far as Atari 

2600 games go, I’ve played a hell of a lot worse.

More recently there was a port which was a hidden bonus that can be unlocked 

in Star Wars Rogue Squadron III:  Rebel Strike for the GameCube.  But if you 

have the preview disc that people who preordered the game got, you can play 

it without doing any unlocking.  This is basically a spot on version of the game, 

which is quite nice.  It’s a little awkward how the reticule snaps back to the center 

of the screen when you let of the analog stick, and I’ve never been a fan of 

inverted controls, so I’m not very good at this one.

The version I grew up with was actually for Macintosh computers.  My first 

computer was one of those beige all-in-one Macintosh machines from the late 

’80’s, and the version for the old Mac was one of the games I played on it most.  

It was a good version, but it should be noted that playing this game with a mouse 

makes it very easy.  Unfortunately this game is not compatible with OS X.  So 

unless you have an old Mac, or means to emulate a vintage Mac you probably 

won’t be able to play this one.  Like the arcade, this version had speech samples 

from the movie.  The biggest difference with this version is that it’s not in color.  

But a lot of the old Macintosh machines from when this game was out were

monochrome, so it really didn’t matter.  This and the PC versions were published 

by Broderbund software and released in 1988.

It’s worth noting that there’s also the game Star Wars Arcade on the Sega 32X,

but that’s actually a port of the 1993 arcade game from Sega.  This game draws

some inspiration from the game which first appeared ten years prior, but it’s

definitely not the same.  The 32X game was a launch title for the add-on and

was met with some pretty underwhelming reviews.  I’ve played it a few times, and

I’m not a fan.  But if you’re classic arcade games, give this one a look.

Super Mario 3 (NES) Review

It would be crazy of me to do a month of iconic video games and video game

characters without talking about a Mario game.  There’s been so many over the 

years and like I said before, Mario titles are usually the “killer app” for a Nintendo 

console.  

Of course the first Mario game that comes to mind  for most people when they

think retro is Super Mario Bros. 3.  It’s arguably the best game on the NES.  It

wouldn’t surprise me if someone said it was to the NES what “Hey Jude” was

to the Beatles or “Stairway to Heaven” was to Led Zeppelin or something like

that.  

I might have a bit more nostalgia for Super Mario 2 USA, but I do love Super 

Mario 3.  I have the original cartridge, I have the original Famicom cartridge, I 

have it on Virtual Console, I have the Game Boy Advance version, and I have 

Super Mario Collection, the Japanese version of Super Mario All-Stars.  You can 

say I’m slightly obsessed.

With all the promotion Nintendo put behind that game back in the day, it’s no 

surprise.  On top of a fairly memorable tv commercial, Nintendo put a feature 

length commercial in theaters in the form of the movie The Wizard.  The most 

memorable parts of that movie are the debut of the game and the character 

Lucas and his power glove.  Simply put, it’s so bad.  To further promote the 

series, paired with Captain N on Saturday mornings was The Adventures of 

Super Mario Bros. 3, a cartoon flat out bearing the name of the game.

Basically what Nintendo did here was take the foundation that the first game 

laid down and built upon it.  Better graphics and sound, more levels more power 

ups, more secrets, more fun to be had by all.  The graphics are some of the best 

on the console thanks to the MMC3 chip that was also used on Mario 2, many of 

the Mega Man games and Kirby’s Adventure.  Each level of the game is laid out 

like a different world of its own.  Each one has its own personality and flair and 

each stage fits together like pieces of a puzzle to make some of the best level 

design in a 2D platform game.  The stages are all fairly short, there are no mid-

points in any of them, and the level maps weren’t linear, so often you could skip 

some stages in levels, and there are some items you pick up later in the game

to get you through quicker.  On top of the warp whistles, which I’ll get into later.

Musically the game is a real treat.  The jazzy themes are all instantly identifiable 

as being from Super Mario 3.  I don’t think it’s the kind of thing you’d really want 

to listen to outside of the game, but that’s just not my thing.  But when I’m playing 

Super Mario 3, I can’t imagine anything other than Koji Kondo wrote for this 

game.  Overall, I feel a lot about the game has aged remarkably well.

A few years ago there was some speculation going around on the Internet about

how Super Mario Bros. 3 was really a stage play.  If you type Mario 3 stage play

into google you’ll find it, so I won’t go into that here.  The way I see it, it’s already

a work of fiction, it’s a video game.  I never heard anything about the designers 

or developers speaking up on the subject.  So it’s completely open to 

interpretation.

This time around the story goes something like this:  Bowser, the King of the 

Koopas lets his Koopalings loose.  Turning the chieftains of the lands of the

Mushroom Kingdom into animals.  But after the seventh king was restored, a

note arrives stating that Bowser had kidnapped the princess again.  So our

hero Mario goes right into the depths of the Koopa Kingdom to rescue the

Princess.  But Koopa’s prepared with a literal army at his disposal mobilized

to take our favorite plumber down.

But things aren’t so bleak as Mario has a ton of tools at his own disposal, the 

already familiar super mushrooms, fire flowers and star men return, and in

addition to those we also have a series of suits and the super leaf.  The super

leaf turns Mario into raccoon Mario, he can melee enemies with his tail and

fly short distances after building up a full head of steam.  He can also slow his 

descent by repeated taps of the jump button.  This comes in very handy in

stages which involve heavy platforming.  These abilities plus the ability to 

turn into a stone statue are available while using the Tanooki suit.  Adopted

from Japanese folklore, just minus the ridiculously huge testicles.  Other

suits include the Frog suit which is crap on land, but enables faster swimming

with more control.  Also there’s the Hammer bros. suit, which allowed Mario

to throw deadly hammers and gave him a shell that made him impervious to

fireballs.  There’s also a handful of other tools Mario can pick up including

music boxes and clouds to help him along.

One of my favorite features of Mario 3 is the ability to “bank” power ups picked 

up in mushroom huts and bonus games, because no one wants to play as regular 

Mario.  One thing you may notice is how frequently you will pick up a star man 

from fighting hammer brothers or their fireball or boomerang throwing  

counterparts.  At first you might think starting off a stage with invincibility for

maybe 30 seconds at most is kind of useless.  But it’s the quickest way to jump

in and dispatch the roaming enemies on the level map.  If you ask me it’s more

useful than wasting them in a stage.

This being a review, I guess the most stand out nit pick I could possibly make is

a pretty common one.  That would be the lack of a save feature.  With the 

multitude of stages in each of the 8 levels, getting through them all in one sitting,

is kind of a pain in the butt for an adult with responsibilities and other stuff to do

than playing a video game all day—not that I regret doing just that for the purpose

of this review.  I read somewhere that the developers  included the warp whistles 

as a way to make up for the lack of a game save or password feature.  No idea 

whether or not that’s true.  But I guess you can run through the first level or so, 

building up extra lives (which is very easy to do in the first two levels or so) and 

banked power ups as best you can, and then warp to later stages to get through t

he game, but there  is an air of satisfaction you lose out on if you skip over stuff.  

I don’t think of myself as a completionist, but there’s that sense of discovery you 

lose out on by warping past stuff.  That kind of lessens the experience.  Playing 

the All-Stars or Super Mario Advance version of the game you get game saves, 

and you can pick up where you left off with virtual console or playing on a Retron 

5 which is pretty nice.

In speaking of different versions of the game, I don’t know how many of you are

familiar with the differences between the US and Japanese versions of the game.

The original Japanese version is a bit more difficult, with any time you get hit as

a powered-up version of Mario, you go back to regular small Mario, just like you

do in Super Mario 1.  Also there’s this kind of cool animation of the suits falling

away from you body as you get it in the Japanese version instead of just a puff

of smoke.  There are some other level design tweaks here and there, but many

of the changes seem to be to make the American version slightly easier than its 

Famicom counterpart.  However in Super Mario Collection, many of the tweaks

made to the NES version of Mario 3 are present.  So I assume that Nintendo

decided they preferred the NES version to the Famicom.  The Super Mario

Advance version is graphically based on the All-Stars version, but adds it’s

own little intro cinematic, and gives you the ability to bank more power ups than 

you could in any of the other versions, which is a nice touch.  

Oh, this me going totally off track, but am I the only one who thought the 

boomerangs the boomerang bros throw look kind of like gym socks?  Just

something about the stripe on the one side made them look kind of like  socks 

to me.  I know, I’m weird.  Another thing which might make me seem a little 

weird is that I really prefer the look of the visuals on the 8 bit versions over the 

fancier upgraded Mario Advance or All-Stars versions.  Mario looks kind of like he 

got a bad spray tan or something in these versions.  The simpler graphics of the

8 bit versions just look cleaner and more appealing to me.

There’s quite the lasting legacy to Mario 3.  A lot of the later games feature a

lot of elements introduced in Mario 3.  The suits make a return in Mario 3D Land

and many later games have a similar level map setup.  Personally I’d love for

some more elements from Mario 3 made a return.  I think a raccoon tail in a New 

Super Mario Bros game would be awesome.

Usually I end my reviews by saying whether or not I recommend a game.  I don’t

really think that is all that necessary here.  I spent a nice chunk of the beginning

of this review saying how much I like it.  So I won’t repeat myself here.

What do you like or dislike about Super Mario 3?  What elements from the game

would you like to see make a return in modern Super Mario games?  Any fond 

memories of this game you’d like to share.  Feel free to leave a  comment down 

below.  Hope you’ve enjoyed this look at Mario 3. 

Super Castlevania IV (SNES) Review

I’ve taken a look at Bloodlines, and I’ve taken a look at Rondo of Blood.  So it was

only a matter of time before I did the same to this title.  It’s without any doubt in

my mind one of the most popular titles in the series, so it’s about time I did.

That game of course being Super Castlevania IV.  The first Castlevania game of

the 16-bit era.  Here in the US, it was released a couple months after the launch 

of the Super Nintendo.  When familiar franchises made the jump from 8-bit to 16-

bit, it wasn’t just a cosmetic thing at this point.  Mario, Mega Man, Metroid, all 

made HUGE leaps in what you could do in their games.  Super Castlevania IV 

was no different.  Before I get into the meat and potatoes—or the blood and

guts of this review, if you prefer, the gameplay footage for this one was captured

from both the Japanese and US versions, as I have it on Virtual Console and

a Japanese cartridge.  There is some minor censorship of nude statues and 

crosses on gravestones in the US version which isn’t in the Japanese.  Aside

from that there’s no other changes, I thought it was worth noting.

Super Castlevania IV is a re-telling of the story of the original Castlevania.  In

Japan, this game is titled Akumajou Dracula, just like the original on the Famicom

Disc System.  Which means we’re once again in the role of Simon Belmont.  For 

those who aren’t familiar with the story behind Castlevania, the legend goes that 

every hundred years or so, the Demon Castle appears through the mist and 

Count Dracula manages to come back from the dead, and it’s up to  the Belmont 

family to stop him.  

Compared to the NES games, character movement is a lot more fluid and you

have much better control of your jumping and whipping.  Overall the controls and 

movement just feel a lot less stiff, making platforming a lot more comfortable to 

do.  You have more control over your jump this time around as well.  Adding a 

new dimension to the platforming is another new ability, you can swing and hang 

from your whip.  Being able to do this, just looks cool, and the level design the 

developers made around this new technique are so unique.  Rooms spinning, 

hanging from moving rings, nothing like this had been seen before in side scrolling 

action-adventure games.

Which brings us to the whipping.  This was a huge deal, something I’m not sure

they’ve done in many games since, and I’m not really sure why.  This game gave

Simon the ability to whip in multiple directions.  While standing, you can whip in

5 different directions, and in mid-jump you can whip in all 8, making this version

of Simon Belmont the most formidable of them all.  

Now this brings up something that a lot of people nit pick about when it comes to

the game.  One of the few things, really.  Having this ability to whip in multiple

directions makes the sub-weapons and hearts, a staple of Castlevania games, 

redundant in some cases.  That doesn’t mean they’re complete useless, the holy 

water is great when there’s an enemy below you, the cross is powerful and will 

often hit multiple times, and the stopwatch is handy when medusa heads are 

coming at you.

Personally, I don’t think that having such an advantage is a negative.  I don’t see 

being able to max out on hearts before meeting the first boss if you’re careful, it’s 

not like using your familiars to farm XP in Symphony of the Night.  It’s just being 

better equipped for battle.  It’s not like this game is a cakewalk.  It might not be as 

challenging as the other classic linear-style Castlevanias, but it does have it’s 

moments.

Now that we’ve gotten the gameplay out of the way, let’s talk about presentation.

Now, when the game came out in Japan, the Super Famicom had been out for

nearly a year, but many of us here in the US had virgin eyes when we saw it for

the first time.  When you think of the time frame that this game and the Super

Nintendo came out, I bet there were many kids out there who got this game and

their SNES for Christmas.  I know when I played it for the first time, I was really 

impressed with the detail and style of the game.  It doesn’t have quite the color to 

it that the later 16-bit games have, but more often than not, the look is quite 

striking.

One department where the Castlevania series rarely seems to disappoint, in my 

opinion, this game is no exception.  Many of the songs in this game are 

absolutely epic, what you would expect out of a classic Castlevania title.  Some 

are less epic and more ambient, which still fits the game quite well.  A favorite 

part of the soundtrack to me is the inclusions of “The Beginning”, “Bloody Tears” 

and “Vampire Killer”, three of the main themes from the previous games, which 

not unlike Simon’s Theme from this game have gone on to have numerous 

remakes and remixes made of them.  Testament to how great some of these 

pieces of music are.  Who said that video games aren’t art?

If you were to ask me two years ago which of the old-style linear Castlevania

games was my favorite, I would have said this one without thinking.  Now, I think 

I might like Rondo of Blood a bit more.  That doesn’t mean that this is a bad 

game, not by a long shot.  When it comes to Super Nintendo games, this one is 

one of those essentials, just like how the first Castlevania is for the NES, and it 

holds up remarkably well 24 years later.  If you want to play this game for 

yourself, you can find it on Virtual Console for the Wii and Wii U and in its

original form.

Where are your thoughts on the classic linear-style Castlevania games?

Which one is your favorite?  Leave a comment down below.  

Splatterhouse 2 (Genesis) Review

There have been games which showed some blood and guts violence well before

titles like Mortal Kombat became famous for doing that sort of thing.  It’s not really 

a surprise.  There was a video game adaption of the 1978 classic slasher film 

Halloween, when you were defeated by Michael Myers, you saw this pixelated 

depiction of Laurie Strode’s body running across your TV screen, sans head.  

There was a twisted arcade game called Chiller, which had you shooting a light 

gun at victims in medieval torture devices, leading to crushed heads and 

dismembered limbs.  Then in 1988 a side scrolling action title called 

Splatterhouse first appeared in Arcades in Japan, a year later appearing in the 

US, and later still on the TurboGrafx-16.

The game first came to my attention by way of commercials for that TurboGrafx-

16 version on Saturday mornings while watching wrestling.  It wasn’t until much

later I’d get to see what the game was all about, but the masked, 2x4 wielding 

protagonist’s image, despite the mask’s color being changed to red, the character

was still quite reminiscent of slasher icon Jason Voorhees.

Splatterhouse is the tale of a young man named Rick who, along with his 

girlfriend Jennifer, were trapped inside the mansion of an evil mad scientist.  

Granted superhuman strength by an ancient artifact known as the Terror Mask, 

Rick battles the hordes of monsters through the mansion… but his attempts to 

save his beloved Jennifer are all for nought…  or so we’re led to believe.

That’s what leads us to a sequel.  Splatterhouse 2 on the Sega MegaDrive, 

known in the US as the Genesis appeared in 1992.  It opens with Rick having 

dreams of the mask, telling him to come back and rescue Jennifer.

The series as a whole takes inspiration from a huge number of horror films, not

just Friday the 13th, complete with gory violence.  From the start of the game,

you are slugging it out with monsters, smashing them with weapons and yes,

splattering their guts all over the walls.  It’s pretty apparent where the title comes 

from.

Not unlike one of my favorite 80’s horror films, Evil Dead 2, Splatterhouse 2 is

kind of like a sequel and remake rolled into one.  It takes everything the original

game did and improves on it greatly, except for the gameplay, which may be very

basic, maybe a little clunky, but still passable.  You walk to the right, punching, 

kicking and bashing a series of progressively more hideous monsters as you go.  

The weapons you can obtain and use to your advantage include a shotgun and a

chainsaw…  groovy.

This was the first and only Splatterhouse title I ever played back in the 90’s, and

I do remember that I played it quite a bit, despite the fact hat I never made it very 

far in the game.  This game throws a lot at you, just as a proper horror themed 

video game should.  In order to show some variety in my gameplay footage, I’m 

getting my wish granted by the good old Game Genie.  Or at least the cheat 

menu on my Retron 5.  It’s also worth noting that the US and PAL versions of this 

title does have a password system, which is quite convenient.  

But the main draw to the game is its presentation.  Right from the get-go you will

find yourself punching enemies’ torsos right off of the rest of them and swinging

that 2x4, sending them into the background wall, truly putting the “splatter” in

Splatterhouse.  The game definitely tries for the gross-out factor with the blood

and guts that are spewed by the monsters.  I guess it’s okay since you’re killing

monsters and not people.  Anyway, overall the visual design is good, well detailed

and colorful despite the dreary setting.  The music is also a perfect match, very

creepy, but still fitting for an action game.  Many of the songs are full of an eerie,

nasal simulated harpsichord sound that the Genesis sound chip does so well.

Probably the worst part of the presentation, and more than anything else, the

biggest negative about the game, would be the sound effects.  Muffled grunts,

scratchy screams, and numerous uninspired noises do no favors to the game.

In some parts the monsters screams can get pretty annoying, too.  But truth be

told there are a lot worse out there, especially on the Genesis.

In short, what you have is a game which shows its age with kind of clunky

control, and mediocre sound effects, but it’s such a product of its time.  It was

games like this that Sega licensed to put on the Genesis that made it stand out

and help it get that reputation of being “edgier” than prime competitor Nintendo’s

products.  It comes off kind of like the schlocky horror films that the series drew

inspiration from, and it’s still pretty fun, and it’s worth a look.  Aside from its 

original release on the Genesis, it also was released on the Wii Virtual Console

in 2008.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To the Past (SNES) Review

Ever since I did the review of Zelda II last month, I’ve been thinking of giving a

similar treatment to its follow up.  To be honest, the thought of doing such a thing

is actually slightly intimidating.  We’re only talking about my FAVORITE Super

Nintendo game of all time here.  To be perfectly honest, this review hasn’t exactly

written itself.  I’ve already tried to re-write it three or four times.  Not to mention

losing a save file better than three-quarters through the game and having to

start over from scratch, at least the second time I recorded my full play through.

Which I hope explains why this took a little longer than planned to complete.

Without any further ado, let’s do this:

It seems to me there are two separate factions of Zelda fans.  Those who prefer

the 2D Zelda games and those who prefer the 3D games.  I think it may be kind

of obvious which side of the fence I’m on.  I’ve tried, and I really have to admit,

I have a hell of a time getting into the more story-driven 3D titles.  I much prefer

the simpler exploration-based 2D games.  Sometimes I feel as if I haven’t given

them a fair shake, so maybe I’ll be giving Ocarina another go sometime in the

near future, but that’s for another time.  Right now, we’re here to talk about A

Link to the Past.

Not unlike Super Mario Bros. 3 was a return to form of sorts for that series, A 

Link to the Past was one for the Zelda series.  Nintendo decided to leave the 2D 

side scrolling behind with Adventure of Link and go back to the overhead view of 

the original game.  Just like Zelda 1, it has selectable sub weapons, dungeon 

exploring, secrets, blowing up walls, heart containers, all of those things and then 

some are here for your enjoyment; now in beautiful 16-bit glory with orchestrated 

MIDI sound.

In this installment, we meet different incarnations of Link and Zelda.  This game

is considered a prequel set many generations prior to the events of Zelda 1.

If you’ve seen my Zelda II review, you already know my take on the mythology,

so I won’t trouble you with any of that.  Regardless, Zelda games should be

judged on their own, not how the fit into some continuity.  They’re legends,

not some serialized adventures.

The story of this game is summarized something like this:  There once was an

all-powerful force known as the Golden Power, what we all know as the Triforce, 

hidden away in a Golden Land, which many had sought to obtain, but all had 

failed.  One day evil forces came through from the Golden Land, so it was sealed 

away by seven sages.  The seal was thought to be permanent, after many years 

later when an evil wizard known as Agahnim set into motion his plan to break the 

seal, killing the King of Hyrule and kidnapping seven maidens who had 

descended from the sages who closed the gate to the Golden Land, now 

corrupted by evil  and known as the Dark World.  Among those maidens was 

the Princess Zelda.

Here’s a little weird side note, that name Aganihm.  Back when this game first

came out, I was studying German in school and there’s a word in German

meaning “pleasant”, angenehm.  Learning the villain’s name and this word

around the same time, I confused the two.  Looking back I find kinda amusing.

That of course being where the story of this game starts.   Link helps Zelda

escape the palace and then sets out to obtain the means necessary to wield

the Master Sword.  Before doing so, he must find three magic pendants.  Upon 

achieving the Master Sword, Link finds that Zelda has yet again been kidnapped.  

Link confronts Agahinm, and finds himself cast into the Dark World.  In the Dark 

World Link discovers the locations of where the seven maidens are being held 

captive and rescues them discovering the true identity of Agahnim in the process.  

(Spoilers it’s Ganon.)  

While this game doesn’t have the hugely spread out map of Zelda II, it still

has an epic feel to to its design.  Hyrule’s over world and the Dark World

are parallel dimensions with many similarities and differences.  There are

a few instances where an event in one world will trigger something in the

other, and there are plenty of puzzles and obstacles to traverse in both

worlds.

While it’s possible to tackle some of the dungeons out of order in this game,

this game is more linear than the original.  There are a few items you will

need to further your journey that are found in dungeons like the hammer,

the hookshoot, and the cane of Somaria.  I’d actually compare this to Zelda

II in this way.  It’s not always wise to attempt some dungeons out of their

intended order, despite it being possible.

This game introduces a number of items and features which I don’t think

the Zelda series would be the same without.  A favorite of mine is the

hookshot, a weapon that helps you in your travels which would be just

as fitting in Batman’s utility belt as it is in a Zelda game.  Also, even though

potions first appeared in Zelda 1, requiring an empty bottle to use one, first

came to be here.  I love how you can hold a fairy in a bottle and it will revive

you if you fall.  Think of it as life insurance.

Another thing I love about this game is the music.  Every bit of music is ever

so memorable.  It really showed off what the Super Nintendo was capable

of in the sound department.  To this day, A Link to the Past features some of

my favorite music in all of the Zelda series.  I’m venturing off topic by 

mentioning it, but I was so happy when I first heard how many of the songs

from this game were re-arranged for A Link Between Worlds, but that’s 

another story for another time.

Visually, this game is a treat as well.  The Super Nintendo had some other

games with similar overhead views that came later, but for it’s time.  Link to

the Past stood out.  Games like Secret of Mana may look a little better now,

but in 1992, this wowed a number of us.  Little things like seeing the trees

down below when you’re atop Death Mountain are still pretty striking.  I

love the effect of Link standing in the waterfall after you emerge from the 

Waterfall of Wishing, complete with lapping sound effect.  It’s not exactly

Bioshock water effects, but just being able to go in the water without dying 

was a big freaking deal back then.  The animations of many of the enemies,

especially bosses still really stand out to me too.

In speaking of those bosses, you know how some people say Zelda games

lack in creativity in how you always need a certain weapon to beat them, so

no arrows, you’re screwed.  No bombs, you’re screwed… and so on.  One

nice thing here is that frequently even though an enemy might be weak to a

specific weapon, there are usually alternate methods.  While these alternate

methods work, they usually take considerably longer.  However, if you know

the weaknesses, the bosses seem kind of easy compared to the dungeons

they reside in.

And some of those dungeons, especially the later ones can be brutal. Almost

to the point of controller throwing.  The Ice Palace seems to be something a

number of gamers complain about, but I felt like the platform riding in Turtle Rock 

was the bane of my existence, that got to me worse to the ice palace ever did.

But it’s the kind of difficulty where once you’re past it, you get that feeling of

accomplishment that usually only retro games can give you.  So in the end,

it’s still worthwhile even if you find yourself nearly ready to throw your controller.

Now if you’ve never played it, should you?  Abso-freaking-lutely.  To me, this is

one of the essential Super Nintendo titles out there.  So I think you’re missing

out if you haven’t.  It’s easy to find yourself a copy of the game.  It was the 

number-five best selling Super Nintendo game of all time, moving  over 4.6 

million copies worldwide.  It was later issued on the Game Boy Advance, which 

was a faithful port, however the addition of some voice effects lifted from Ocarina

of time every time Link attacks does get rather annoying.  You can also find the 

game on Virtual Console for the Wii and Wii U, so the game is pretty easy to get 

a hold of.

Even though I think it’s kind of common knowledge, I still think it’s worth noting

that the 3DS saw a follow up to A Link to the Past in the form of A Link Between 

Worlds, which was actually called “Triforce of the Gods 2” in Japan.  I can’t really 

call it a direct sequel, but it’s set in the same incarnation of Hyrule, generations 

after the events of Link to the Past.  It draws a lot of inspiration from the Super 

Nintendo game, enough that some almost consider it a re-make or re-imagining.

No surprise here, but I’m quite fond of it.

In closing, like with the original Zelda, this one gets my highest recommendation.

I really can’t say it any better than that. I’d love to hear from you:  what are your

favorite memories of Link to the Past?  What do you love about the game?  

What do you hate?  Do you prefer the 3D or 2D Zelda games?  Leave a comment 

down below.  Hope you’ve enjoyed this review, thank you for watching.  I’ll see

you next time.  Take care.

Contra (NES) Review

Whether you know the game as Contra, Probotector or maybe even Gryzor, this 

is probably the best known side-scrolling run-and gun platform game you’ll find.  If

there was any game that screamed “this is from the 1980’s”, it would be Contra.

From the cover art with it’s Rambo-meets-Commando versus Aliens vibe to that

one gigantic boss character who looks like something out of a Mad Max movie, a

lot inspiration for this one is drawn from the action movies of that decade.  As for 

the story behind the game, why are you running around shirtless shooting up 

everything you see?  That isn’t so clear.

That is unless you understand Japanese, because the Famicom version has an

opening cutscene and a map.  It also has slightly better animation thanks to a 

special Multi-Memory Controller chip Konami made called the VRC2.  I have a

patched ROM with English translation, not quite sure why the guy who translated

it chose to hack in the logo for Gryzor, perhaps he was European.  Let’s see:

OK, it’s the year 2631 and you’re controlling a super soldier doing battle 

against the Red Falcon, a Terrorist sect out to destroy… well, they’re out to 

destroy everything.  Well, that’s a good reason to stop them.  If they destroy

the whole world, that means no more beer, or pizza…. or video games.  Let’s

get those bastards.

Iif I’m not mistaken the manual to the US version says something totally 

different,  To be honest, when it comes to games whose stories I care about, 

Contra isn’t one of them.  All you need to know is that the A button jumps and the 

B button shoots.  From there, you start the game, drop down from the sky and 

open fire.  Most levels are side scrolling, but levels 2 and 4 are base stages that 

have this mock-3D third-person perspective which mixes things up a little.  

The overall presentation is good.  Colorful graphics with good detail, even though

a lot of the sprites are a bit small.  if you are playing a two-player game, the 

characters are easy to tell apart.  Everything looks good.  The music and sound

effects are also very good.  The music to the first level is one of those bits of

game music that always stood out to me.  It fits the vibe of the game perfectly.

But in a game like this, what you care most about is the gameplay.  That’s what

keeps people coming back for more.  The controls are good, they take a little

getting used to, but still decent.  Having the ability to shoot in multiple different

directions is always enjoyable in this type of game.  This is one of the earliest

examples I can think of with a game that has two player cooperative action on

the NES.  This is also one of those games that might benefit from a turbo 

controller.  As most of the time, unless you pick up the M power-up—known as 

the Machine gun, you have to hit rapidly tap the b button in order to rapidly fire.

In speaking of those power-ups, most of them are pretty awesome, except for

the Laser rifle, it just behaves way too differently from every other weapon you

can use in the game.  All the others are great, everyone knows and loves the

spread shot.  The swirly flame-thrower isn’t half bad, either.

Oh, there’s one other thing that you should probably know about the game.

UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A START

While Gradius was the first game to use the code, but it is most commonly

associated with Contra, to the point of sometimes even being referred to as the

“Contra Code”.  The game gives you three lives to start, and you lose one every

single time you’re hit.  You do get extra lives every time you reach 20,000 points,

arcade style, but the average player still won’t last very long.  Entering that code

on the title screen starts you off with ten times as many lives.  Making things

much more manageable.

Since I did bring it up in the beginning of the video, there were a few differences

in the localization of the game for different markets.  Gryzor was the name of

the arcade game in Europe, it was under this title a lot of the European home

computer versions were released as.  As for the NES and Famicom versions,

Contra on North American NES and Japanese Famicom were both released

in February of 1988.  Lastly was the version for the PAL NES systems known as

Probotector.  Due to censorship laws against video game violence, a lot of the

humanoid looking enemy characters were changed to robots, and even the 

heroes were changed to a pair of robots or Gundam-style mech suits.  Even 

some of the sequels maintained that convention until the mid/late 90s.  But I won’t 

get into the sequels here.

Contra is a great example of a game in which the home port becomes more

memorable and better regarded than the arcade game which inspired it.  Heck,

I didn’t even know there was an arcade version of Contra until 2006 or so.  Even

today it remains one of the most popular NES games, fetching a significantly

higher price in the used game market than other games just as common.  That

means it’s not quite as easy to find yourself a copy nowadays.  Arcade ports

seem to be a little more common on the compilations that are floating around.

Heck, Konami chose the Japanese MSX2 computer version for a release on

Nintendo’s Virtual Console for the Wii and Wii U, which is a really weird choice

if you ask me.  Of course those Virtual Console ports have since been pulled  

There were a couple of ports of the NES version, I have no idea why Konami 

didn’t do more, it’s not like the game wasn’t very popular.  Then again, there’s a 

lot of things Konami which really make me scratch my head, I’m sure I’m not the 

only one there.

Balloon Fight (NES) Review

When I started collecting NES games again, I decided to go for

all of the Black Box games.  Many of which, I never got around to playing when

they were new.  While it was obvious to me that I was going to enjoy Popeye and 

a few of the others, this one took me by surprise.

Development started on this game in 1983, which first appeared as a Nintendo

VS. System arcade machine in 1984.  The game found it’s way home on the

Famicom in Japan a year later, and the NES in North America in the summer of

1986.  It was the first game programmed for Nintendo by Satoru Iwata, a man 

who later went on to become the President and CEO of Nintendo.  As I’m sure 

many of you already know Iwata passed away just last weekend.  I couldn’t think 

of a better way to pay homage to such a brilliant and innovative man than to 

simply give the best review of one of his games I possibly could.  

On first inspection, Balloon fight appears to be a take off of a classic arcade 

title Joust.  A number of people bring it up in reviews.  But this game puts its

own spin on things, and the result is a colorful game with a fun, quirky 

personality.

Being a very early Nintendo home title, the presentation is very simple, but

that doesn’t detract form the game at all.  Like many of these “Black Box” era

games, the music was composed by Hip Tanaka, who is also known for the

music in Metroid, Kid Icarus, Earthbound and Super Mario Land on the 

Game Boy.  Here he created a few fun and memorable tunes, most notably

the Balloon Trip theme.

The gameplay is extremely simple, you control your character in the air by 

repeated taps of the A button.  Rapid taps will cause your character to ascend, 

slow taps will cause you to hover.  You attack by bumping into your enemies, 

and popping their balloons, all while defending your balloons.  One hit drops 

your opponents to the ground, a second will send them falling to their doom,

if you or your opponents fall too close to the water, you run the risk of getting

eaten by a giant fish monster.  Freaky.

The main game is available to play in both one- and two-player modes, it’s

actually one of the earliest simultaneous 2-player games on the home console

for Nintendo.  Not unlike with Joust, you can play the two-player mode 

cooperatively in order to clear the stages, or you can play competitively and

try to take the other player out, making this either a very fun, or very frustrating

game to play with a friend.  There is also a third game type called Balloon Trip,

in which you attempt to navigate as far as you can through a field of lighting 

sparks.  Something about the Balloon trip kind of reminds me of Flappy Bird,

just 29 years before Flappy Bird was a thing.  I’m not good at either Balloon

trip or Flappy Bird, so can’t say much about it.

There’s something about this kind of game, this type of classic arcade-style

single-screen action.  It’s simple, easy to figure out how to play, and even if

you don’t do so well your first try, you do a little better on your next go.  Keep

going and you get a little better still.  This kind of gameplay is what made

Mario Bros, or Pac-Man and many other games of the early 80’s so much

fun and so addictive.  

I can’t say that this game is perfection, but if you’re into classic arcade-style

games and want something different, give this one a go.  The original NES cart 

will set you back $15-20 retail on the used market, but naturally it is available 

on virtual console for the Wii, Wii U and 3DS, among other places.