A Return to Grace!

Ok, so, I'm done with the book. Yay! And without further delays, more reviews!

First game:

Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

Ahh, Wonder Boy, you magnificently confusing title. With spin-offs and multiple crazy named sequels, like Wonder Boy VI: Monster World 4, and your entire Adventure Island break offs, its amazing you came from such humble roots of mediocrity.

Really, this game is a horribly boring forced side scroller, by which I mean the screen constantly shifts to the right, propelling you always forward, with somewhat passable controls, and a mechanism where the main character must constantly gorge himself on the food that flies past him, or else he dies.
But, it is true, as you play this game, you can easily tell it was made to suck down quarters, with it being just passable enough that it could be the best game in the arcade, or at least, the one you get stuck on while your older sibling takes over the better, more enjoyable cabinet.

The Tappers say 4.7.
Mookie say 5.0.
Deleted.
21, out of now 960 games, complete.

Rolling Thunder 2

Ahh, the Genesis. As I have noted before, I did, and still do, have a Genesis. But, as I may or may not have said, I did not have or get as many game for it as I did my more loved SNES. But that doesn't mean the Genesis did not hold secret games of awesomeness that I overlooked as a small child. Could this possibly be one of those games?

Bah, I didn't even bother to get a good gameplay pic for this game. And it really looked like it had potential!

Rolling Thunder 2 is basically just a very lukewarm sidescrolling shooter. The character model is very stiff, you can only shoot while standing still, you can't jump in any direction but stright up, and the enemies ranger from idiotic to cheap. Nothing really else to say about this, but, if you like sidescroller shooters like Gunstar Superheroes, go ahead and give it a try if you want to play a cruddier version of it.

Tappers say 7, Mookie says 6.
Deletion indeed.
22 out of 960 complete.

Hang the Sense of It

Ok, so I have decided to shelve the Boss Fight idea, at least for now. I solemnly vow that I will indeed bring it back spontaneously here in the near future, but for right now it is seriously harming my progress. So! Back to my tried and true method of... THE WHEEL!

Also, I want to thank people for the Birthday wishes. I had a good one, if I do say so myself!

But, I digress. SPIN!

HA! I have HOURS logged under this particular game's belt. I seriously played it to death when I first got it for my Sega Genesis. I know some people say it really isn't that good... and it isn't. But I love it anyway.

Sonic Spinball

Yes indeed. Not much else to say but that really! Yet, I must give the benefit of the doubt, as I am sure many many people have not played this game. So, where to begin. I guess I should just play it and write what comes to my mind! Yes! Why of course! That's blogging anyway!


Well, I must say, I love this game still. I have a vivid memory of actually sitting and playing this game for hours and hours straight, trying to beat it. I'm happily surprised to see that all that fun I remember having still holds up today.
Spinball is actually a somewhat intimidating game, and I can remember as a youngin' not understanding it one bit. I truly had to feel my way around in the dark to figure out exactly what I was supposed to do.

For the uninitiated, there are three, I think four, "tables" all with three Chaos Emeralds to collect, and a boss to fight. You must meet certain parameters to reach each of the three Emeralds, which then allow you to fight the boss and progress. It was all as needlessly complicated and fun as any real pinball machine, just this one has Sonic in it, the tables are dangerous and have numerous wings to them, and you have a tiny bit of control of Sonic as he is moving.

Still, quite marvelous fun, if I do say so myself.

Gametap says 7.7 (which surprised me further) and I give it an 8!
And, even though I own this game twice, once for the Genesis and once for the Sonic Mega Collection + on PS2, I think I will go ahead and keep it.
20 out of 958 games complete.

Short post, I know, but stuff to do today! I shall return shortly.

Lets Pray for More Quickies

So, I take another spin and I find myself on the most joyus of joys, the Atari game Fun with Numbers which carries an awesome 2.0 rating.

Well, gotta play em all.

Fun with Numbers

Right off the bat, I am confused as all hell. Now, I was a late eighties kid. I missed the whole Atari scene, hell, I mostly missed the NES scene, though I did play with it well into the mid 90's, but even after trying to think back to the mentality of the era, I can't see the enjoyment in this. My god, I can barely tell what I supposed to do! And it's got the audacity to be called fun with numbers! Really, what I see is, a puke green background, with a number 9 with a plus sign to the left of it. The game is now asking me to input a number above it. I have now tried 6 numbers and the game has yelled at me for all of them. It then asks me what 6 divided by 4 is. A real calculator tells me it's 1.5, which is all well and good until a realize I can enter decimal places. Then it hits me, the game is trying to tell me something... 1.5... OH! It's telling me its deserved score!

Gametap Score = 2.0
My Score = 1.0
2 out of 958 complete.

NEXT! SPIN THAT WHEEL!

Oh joy! A Sega arcade game from... 1979... It's time for...

HEAD ON!

So I have a bit more hope for this game, as it holds a 5.1 on the ol' rating board, and 5.1 usualy symbolizes "fun, but not to interesting... or fun for that long." What I find is exactly that. Head On seems to be a weird hybrid of Pac-man and Off Road Rally. The gist of it is you are a car, and you are driving in one direction while picking up dots for points, while the "evil" red car is doing the same... IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. *revealing organ music cue* There are multiple "lanes" in which you can switch to very stiffly, all while trying to avoid crashing into the EVIL RED CAR, who seems intent on killing himself along with you.

I actually ended up playing this game for a good ten minutes and actually enjoyed myself. It's not very deep or nearly as strategic as some arcade games, but it was at least good fun for a bit.

Gametap ranks it as 5.1, I say it deserves a 6.
3 out of 958 complete.

SPIN SPIN SPINARUUU!

Oooooo, an Intellivision game. Another system from before my time. Here we go!

Night Stalker

So apparently I'm some secret spy, who's been caught... and now I'm in the evil guys labyrinth of doom or something... and I need to get out. Compelling! Lets see how I do!

Well, the controls are slow and unresponsive at best, but it controls well enough. Long story short, you are chased by a robot, you get out of your cage, get chased around, get a gun, and fight back. All while scoring points. Wasn't that fun, if you ask me.

Gametap Score =5.4
My Score = 4
4 out of 958 complete.

Time to spin it right round baby, right round.

Alright! An arcade game! I loves me some arcade games. Has a nice 6.3, lets see how it fares.

Return of the Invaders

Thats right, its what you think it is. This is the sequel to Space Invaders. Whats that you say? Didn't know they made a Space Invaders sequel? While, prior to about 10 seconds ago, neither did I. Does it stand up to the original? Lets see.

Wow, so, yeah. Thats actually a really really good game. For all ostensive purposes, the game is just Space Invaders with color, good color mind you, more dynamic enemies, and actual music. I actually had a real good time playing this one and could imagine playing it again in the future.


GameTap score = 6.3
My score = 7
5 out of 958 complete.

And thats it for now. Food and a break, maybe some more real soon.