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.

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Ghostbusters II (Game Boy) Review

A lot of people talk about New Ghostbusters II, the un-released in the US game

often cited because of how much better of a game it is compared to the 8-bit

offerings Activision gave us.  But I feel that this game we did get—one that can

be thought of as a younger sibling to New Ghostbusters II, doesn’t get enough

attention.  So today I’d like to take a look at HAL Laboratory’s handheld game

based on Ghostbusters II.

The game is pretty simple, you start off by choosing two of the ghostbusters:  

one to blast the ghosts, and the other to trap.  Capture all the ghosts in the area 

to move to the next stage.  There’s a time limit for each stage, but it only effects 

the scoring.  The art design is kind of cute, but you can tell who all the characters 

are supposed to be. The game follows the movie somewhat.  You battle ghosts in 

the courthouse, sewers and the museum.  

If you’re familiar with New Ghostbusters II, at first inspection youth may think this 

is basically a scaled-down version of that game.  There are fewer levels, and the 

levels that are here are much shorter.  But they made a few tweaks that change 

up the gameplay a little bit from the console version.  

Here, both characters, the blaster and the trapper have lives, so if either takes 

four hits, it’s game over.  So you have to watch out for you and your partner.  

The ghosts can be kind of unpredictable at times, so this can get kind of tricky,

but not terribly unmanageable.  However to help you along you do encounter

your fellow Ghostbusters and supporting cast members Louis Tully and Dana

Barrett.  They will give you health and weapon power ups.  The Ghostbusters

will also switch players, which other than appearances, doesn’t change anything 

else, not even health, unless that’s what kind of power up he gives you.  At the 

end of each level, there’s a boss battle which plays a little different than the 

stages.  Shield, weapon and health power ups fall during the battle.  This is the

only time you don’t have to worry about the well-being of your trapper, as he 

is protected by a shield throughout the battle.  It’s a good strategy to get behind

him, since he can’t be hurt.

The power ups during the stages are pretty neat and well varied, from the ability 

to walk through walls, to temporary invincibility, and direct trapping, among others.  

All of which are really fun and useful.  

While there is quite a bit of good about the game, there are a couple negatives as

well.  The music isn’t all that great.  Aside from the title theme, the music is pretty 

boring.  Kind of disappointing, especially since New Ghostbusters II has some 

decent sound-alike tracks of songs from the movie’s soundtrack.  Also, the AI of 

the trapping character is pretty dumb, frequently getting caught up when you’re 

trying to make your way around the stage, which could lead to a cheap death.

In speaking of cheap deaths, while I don’t feel that there’s quite as many in this

game than there are in the console version.  But they can happen especially since

you have to keep an eye on both Ghostbusters’ lives.  It can be frustrating to see

the game over screen because your trapping character takes a hit you had no

chance at defending against.

The only other gripe I can really mention is that sometimes, when you only have 

a couple ghosts left to catch, the unpredictable nature of how and where the 

ghosts will pop up can cause things to get a little annoying.  After the time limit

expires, the “no ghost” icons might not disappear and reappear like the ghosts,

but they do move pretty quickly, and can travel through walls.  So chasing after 

those I feel is even more tedious, especially since many ghosts, while you might

not tell when they’ll show up, many will stay in a section of the stage at a time.

With that said, is the game fun?  Is the atomic weight of cobalt 58.9?  The answer

to both questions is yes.  It might not be a popular opinion, but I actually find this

one more enjoyable than New Ghostbusters II.  If you’re a fan of the franchise, 

check this one out.  

Activision had the rights to produce games based on Ghostbusters in the US,

which is why HAL Labs’ console offering wasn’t ever released here.  Activision 

chose to distribute this one here, but not in very large quantities. A loose cartridge 

sells between $10-$15.  You might be able to find a European or Japanese copy

for a little less, having no region protection on Game Boy games makes playing

imports easy.  So check it out, if you can.

Magic Sword (SNES) Review

As we all know, just because a game isn’t well known, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Many games are overlooked by ones released to greater fanfare.  Magic Sword:

Heroic Fantasy first appeared in Japanese arcades in the summer of 1990 by 

Capcom, two and a half years later it first found its way home on the SNES in the 

US.  

I never heard of this game before I started assembling a future A to Z video.  But

when I sat down to play it, I decided it deserved a little bit more than a 20 second

blurb wouldn’t be enough to do the game justice.

Magic Sword is a side scrolling action adventure platform game with some

elements often found in dungeon crawlers.  You control a loincloth-clad guy

named Alan, often simply referred to as “the Brave One” and you hack and

slash and cast spells, battling through monsters and villains as you ascend the

levels of this tower to get to the top and face off with the Evil Lord Drokmar.  

It’s a pretty generic story, but that’s what you got from arcade games back then.

Along the way, you find keys to open doors.  Behind these doors you may

find a number of potential allies along the way.  But be careful, as sometimes

these doors will have traps behind them.  

When you rescue a potential ally, they will follow you around and attack when

you do, jump when you do, basically shadowing your moves.  The allies can be

one of several different types:  A wizard, a priest, a knight, a thief, an archer,

a big man, a ninja and a lizard man.  All of which have projectile weapons, but 

the first two will not attack unless your magic meter is full.  While they’re both

very powerful, especially with the amount of damage the priest does to undead, 

you may find the others more useful.  All of which are quite effective, but have

their own shortcomings, for example the big man is very slow and the thief’s

bombs lack range.  The knight is considered the best in the game, but the lizard 

man is pretty cool, it’s nice to get one of these dragon monsters on your side for 

once.  As you fight and find items, you and the allies will level up, making your 

attacks more powerful.

Visually, the game isn’t much to write home about, it’s fairly typical of the era, 

but there are some good visual effects like the heat rising in the levels with all

the fire pits. However it is all very true to the arcade version.  There is a pretty 

big variety to the monsters you encounter.  These little red demons remind me 

of Firebrand from Ghouls and Ghosts.  The sound effects are fairly mediocre, 

but the game has excellent music, composed by Manami Matsumae, known for 

her work on the original Mega Man and a number of other classic games.

While I feel that the controls are decent, there were times with the platforming 

where I would think Iwas going to overshoot a platform, so I would tap back on 

the controller and completely fall short.  Thankfully spikes and fire pits don’t do 

that much damage.  Aside from that, you attack, you jump, and you have a screen 

nuke which kills or damages everything at the expense of some health.  

Enemy placement and respawning can be rather annoying, but I reckon this was 

a quarter muncher in the arcades, and things like that are to be expected from 

this kind of game.  You do get a few continues to help you ascend to the top, and 

you can choose to start as far up as the 33rd floor, leaving you with the final third

of the game to complete.

Another negative, regarding the Super Nintendo version is that the original arcade

game had a two player co-op mode.  Not unlike Final Fight, Capcom omitted this

gameplay feature for their Super Nintendo ports.

All in all, this game really surprised me.  I wasn’t expecting much at all, and when

I started playing it, I didn’t want to put it down until I finished it.  If you want to get

yourself this version, a loose cartridge will set you back around $20-$25 retail, 

but if you’re more interested in seeing what the arcade version has to offer, it

was ported to the original Xbox and PS2 on the Capcom Classics Collection Vol.

2, and it is also available on Xbox live arcade bundled with Final Fight under the 

name Final Fight Double Impact.  

In closing, I like this game.  It mixes a couple different genres and does a pretty

respectable job.  While I don’t think it’s a game everyone would rave about.  It

gets a thumbs up in my book.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy) Review

I think it’s been pretty obvious that I’ve been on a serious Zelda kick for the past 

few months.  It had been some time since I’ve sat down and played these games,

and this being one of my favorite game series, it was long overdue.  

If someone was to ask me what my favorite Game Boy game was, this is the

game that comes to mind first.  I know I’ve said it before, but developers really

got into the groove and really worked out what the Game Boy was really capable

of by 1991 or so.  This game is an excellent example of just that.  Let me show

you just what I mean.  

From first inspection, you see that for a game with the limited palette of the Game

Boy, it still has great detail to the characters and landscapes.  This footage comes

from my Retron 5 and an Elgato HD capture device, so it looks extra pretty.  But 

even back in the 90’s when I was playing it for the first time on an original Game 

Boy, it really surprised me how good it looked.  Then there’s the music, the music 

is my absolute favorite of all Game Boy titles.  It has so much personality and 

variety to it.  Some of it isn’t as “Zelda like” as music in other games.  But it fits 

this game so well.  Even today, there’s something about “Ballad of the Wind Fish” 

which really stands out to me.  It’s probably one of my favorite bits of music on

the Game Boy.

(me playing “Ballad of the Wind Fish” on guitar, dissolve to Marin singing)

I think the quality of the visuals and sound are testament to the time and care that

went into the creation of this game.  Legend has it that the game had its start as a

port of Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past that was being developed as a side-

project by Nintendo staff after hours.  From there it grew and took on its own life

as an original game with an original story.  The influence of Link to the Past is

very obvious in the art design of this game.  While it is a younger sibling to the 16

bit entry to the Zelda franchise, it has it’s own personality and introduces quite a

few elements which carried over into later Zelda titles.  I’ll get into those a little bit

later.  

By now, I think you already know about my opinion and thoughts on the timeline

of the Zelda series.  So I won’t trouble you with that.  This game could really fit

just about anywhere.  There are no returning characters aside from Link and not

unlike Majora’s Mask, it takes place somewhere other than Hyrule.  In this story

Link finds himself shipwrecked and lost at sea.  He washes up, unconscious on 

Koholint Island, and is discovered by a girl named Tarin, she brings him to Mabe 

Village to the home she shares with her father Marin to recover.  Link makes his

way back to the shore and recovers his sword.  Then he encounters a talking owl

who acts as a guide for Link in this game who tells us about the Wind Fish who

needs to awoken in order to return home.  Link then sets out to collect the 8

musical instruments hidden in dungeons across the island.  Playing them all

will open the last dungeon and ultimately wake the Wind Fish.  That’s the story in 

a nut shell… or egg shell if you prefer.

There are a lot of elements to this game which I think are just so great.  Like

how self-aware this game is.  The kids that break the fourth wall and tell you 

things like how to save the game always amused me.  The inclusion of things 

from the Mario series, like Shyguys, Pokeys, Wart, Mario’s face on your wall,

a photo of Princess Peach and some really angry looking Bob-Ombs really 

made things different.  Those aren’t the only characters from other Nintendo 

games.  We’ve got Dr. Wright from the SNES SimCity, and Prince Richard from 

a Japanese Game Boy title which I don’t think was released elsewhere…  and 

hey!  Is that Kirby?  Naturally, I got a huge kick out of this stuff back when I was 

13 or however old I was back when I first played this.

Something I realize now, which I had no clue about before, mainly because

I had never played Ocarina of Time until more recently is how there are a

few elements which this game introduces that carry over into Ocarina.  The

most obvious one of course being the Ocarina, and needing to learn to play

songs on it.  The mysterious owl guide is another obvious one.  Also one

that stands out to me is that you’ll need to ready your shield to deflect things,

that I think has appeared in most Zelda games since this one.  While you

also have to equip it in this one, having to ready the shield becomes a pretty

important element in later games.  That started here too.  Also, while Marin and

Tarin only inhabited Koholint Island, characters named Malon and Talon appeared 

in several later Zelda games.

Interesting elements, good graphics and sound are all important factors in making

a good game, but they don’t mean all that much if the game doesn’t play well.

The gameplay in this game is pretty decent.  You pick up all the familiar sub

weapons and choose where to equip them between the A or B buttons. You can

also change which button uses your sword, or even equip more than one sub

weapon, at the expense giving up use of the sword until you equip it again.  

That’s one of the biggest issues about the gameplay.  You can switch out the

sword and shield, and sometimes you have to switch them out.  The shield isn’t

such a bad thing, and some of the items or sub weapons are way more useful

anyway, but Link without his sword is like a day without sunshine.  I can

understand why they did things this way, so you can have all the abilities you

did in A Link to the Past, despite the limited number of buttons on the Game

Boy.  I guess they worked out the best way to do it, but having to switch out your

weapons and items constantly can get a little bit annoying at times.  Especially

with the shield, you have to not just have it equipped, but you also have to ready 

it by holding the button you have it assigned to.  Before this game, the shield did 

its thing automatically in the previous Zelda games.  But there are some 

gameplay elements introduced by having the shield used this way, the shield 

push and shield bump moves are pretty neat, and those mechanics probably 

wouldn’t work in previous Zelda games.  So I see why they did it.  But most of the 

time it renders the shield less effective, I’d rather keep the feather or the bracelet 

equipped.

The feather is one of my favorite items they added in this game, giving Link

the ability to jump in the overhead environment, and the side scrolling

sections too.  Side scrolling sections?  You heard me right.  Remember the 

tunnels in the original Zelda?  Well take that and add in a huge helping of

Super Mario Bros. and it’s kind of like that.  Complete with Goombas and 

Piranha plants.  Using the feather you can even stomp on the Goombas like

Mario.  Which is totally out of place in a  Zelda game, but I love it.

Just like with most Zelda games, there is some excellent problem solving

required to get you through the dungeons.  Coming off of A Link to the Past,

there was no way Nintendo was going to slack off when it came to this.  Even

the hints were a puzzle, requiring you to find stone slabs to complete a 

tablet on the walls.  While I feel much of the game is somewhat easier than

it’s 16-bit sibling, there are a few things in the dungeons which will leave you

scratching your head.  Another thing nice about the dungeons is that all of

them have a mid-stage boss encounter, and while you need to defeat the

mid-boss to progress, doing so also activates a teleport which will send you

to and from the entrance room, which is very handy if you get yourself

killed.  Also, much like A Link to the Past, there are tricks to beating most,

if not all of the bosses.  You can’t just dive in, brandishing your sword with

reckless abandon, you need to jump, throw, bomb, launch arrows or use your

hookshot your way past them and to the magical musical instrument of the

dungeon.

As many of you already know, there’s not just a version of this for the original

Game Boy, but one for the the Game Boy Color as well, Link’s Awakening DX

or Deluxe isn’t just a version of the game that was colorized like an old movie,

but there were new features added including synergy with the Game Boy

printer and also an extra dungeon which upon its completion, granted the

player their choice of a red or blue tunic, improving their attack or increasing

their defense.  That dungeon is of course optional, and the core of the game is

identical.  I know most reviewers will talk about that version.  But the original is

the one I have nostalgia for, so I chose this one.  That said, I do have the DX

version downloaded on my 3DS.

As I stated earlier, this is, without any doubt, my favorite Game Boy game.  It

shows it’s age a bit, and while I’d not call it perfect, I still thoroughly enjoy the

game.  Much like with the original Zelda, I’m amazed at how much of it I 

remembered.

Chances are, if you’re a Game Boy fan like me, you’ve already played it, but

if not, check this or the Deluxe version out.