Tiger Chainsaw

Shantae Review

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Back in 2002, all eyes were on the upcoming Game Boy Advance that was set to be released in a year. However, WayForward Technologies led by Matt Bozon teamed up with Capcom and decided to give one last gift to the Game Boy Color with the release of Shantae, a platformer filled with dungeon exploring and plenty of bouncing action but more on that later. The original Shantae was met with critical success but due to the late release in the Game Boy Color flew under the radar for a while. Today, Shantae still lives spawning numerous sequels. I whip my hair back and forth in this Shantae review!

Shante Plot:

You play as Shantae, a cute purple-haired half-genie who protects Scuttle Town from danger. Shantae doesn’t have the full powers of a real genie but she makes do with what God gave her. One day while relaxing in her hut by the ocean, Scuttle Town is bombed by a pirate ship led by the infamous evil female pirate Risky Boots.

Risky Boots pillages Scuttle Town and discovers a brand new invention, the steam-powered engine! She steals the prototype and vows to retrieve four elemental stones that will power up the steam engine to the max making her ship nearly invincible. As the protector of Scuttle Town, Shantae sets off to stop Risky Boots by traveling to the neighboring towns and getting clues on where the stones are hidden. All four stones are guarded in dungeons scattered across the land and with the help of a few friends, Shantae discovers each dungeon, explores them and retrieves the stones. Each dungeon comes equipped with plenty of enemies and locked doors where you must find keys around the dungeon.

Shantae rescues a caged genie in each dungeon who grants her new powers in the form of shapeshifting. By performing different dances, Shantae can transform into a monkey, elephant, spider, and hawk. You’ll need these powers to further explore the dungeons and world around Shantae.

After retrieving all four stones, Shantae is deceived by Risky Boots who steals all the stones at once and travels back to her pirate ship. Shantae storms the ship and defeats Risky Boots and her crew of pirates. After defeating Risky Boots, Shantae is transported to the genie realm where she is offered a home there and full genie powers. While tempted, Shantae declines and chooses to stay a half-genie so she can stay with her friends in Scuttle Town.

Shantae Gameplay:

Shantae was tough for me to beat. In my Shantae review I had to learn that avoiding enemies was better than killing them. I’m the type of gamer where if I see a monster on the screen I’m going to attack them. With Shantae, I learned that it’s better to avoid them altogether.

As Shantae, you will travel to different towns seeking help to find the stones. Each town is separated by a few screens of environments. For example, there might be two forest screens before reaching a town, or two desert screens. Each of these environments has enemies that are scattered throughout the scrolling screen. It’s not easy getting past them, it took me numerous attempts sometimes to get past an environment before reaching the safety of the town. It was my least favorite part of my Shantae review because admittedly it was the hardest. Some enemies would jump up and down and fling arrows at you while others would shout supersonic waves. You had to prepare for anything when in the wild.

The various towns in Shantae offered a lot of activities and were presented in a unique way for the Game Boy Color. Looking over the shoulder of Shantae, you can direct her toward buildings. Citizens of the towns walked in front of you and if you wanted to you can talk to them. Each town offered a few staple buildings. There was a bathhouse that healed Shantae, a save center, an item store and a squid hut which worked as a warp center once you collect four squids and deliver them to the Mama Squid of each town. Some towns offered unique challenges to Shantae where she could collect extra gems that could be used to buy things like potions or temporary spells.

Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice about the characters of Shantae is that they are all rather friendly, especially the females. It always seemed like whenever Shantae interacted with the other females in the game that I was one conversation away from starting a softcore porn scene. Whether it was the girls at the bathhouse, Shantae’s friends or even Risky Boots her self, all the females were top-heavy and complimented Shantae, not that it was an issue, not at all, but there’s some sexual innuendo going on behind these cute colorful graphics. Even the way Shantae wiggles her little rump, when she is on the ground, was cute. Don’t worry, this won’t negatively impact my Shantae review!

The game comes down to a basic formula. Help/Talk to one of Shantae’s friends in a neighboring town, discover where the dungeon is at and explore through it to retrieve an elemental stone. The dungeons can be difficult, there were a few times where I’d get lost or it’d take a while to figure out what to do next. I’ll admit I watched playthrough on some portions so I understood what I had to do next. With enough practice, you should be able to get through each dungeon, but it will take some time. There was one section that I got pissed at in the final dungeon. It involves shooting Shantae up through a tunnel and landing on the cliff above. No matter how many times I did it, she wouldn’t land on the edge. I did it constantly for five minutes with no luck. Five minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, but it was when it’s literally just pushing one button to shoot her up and steer her to the left. I finally gave up and had to restart the entire dungeon again. For some magical reason, she stuck the landing on my first attempt when I tried again.

Part of what makes Shantae tough is the save points. There’s not many around in the wild, so if you die in the dungeon, you’ll have to restart the entire thing. I was not pleased, to say the least whenever I died, especially if you fall on spikes because that’s a one-hit kill. Each dungeon ended with one of Risky Boot’s henchmen or creatures trying to kill Shantae. The bosses were the best part of the dungeon and were relatively easy to defeat compared to the rest of the game. Risky Boots was the toughest boss but I still managed to beat her my first attempt. If you’ve read my previous reviews, you know I love a good boss fight. Having these included in Shantae increased the fun and scored extra points in my Shantae review.

Shantae earns a new power when she is halfway done with each dungeon. You’ll learn a new dance move to transform her into a new animal. The monkey will let her jump high and climb walls, the elephant will be able to smash through objects, the spider climbs webs and unique surfaces and finally, the hawk gives you the power to fly. Earning new powers and shapeshifting is nothing new to video games back in 2002, but it added so much to the game, especially on the Game Boy Color.

Memories:
I digitally downloaded Shantae a few months back on my Nintendo 3DS. It looked like a cute game and I knew it was received well but I didn’t realize the difficulty of it. I gave up halfway through my first playthrough and set it aside for a while. I picked the game back up recently and was able to play through it with the help of some guides. It always gave me anxiety trying to reach the next save point, that’s the only thing I didn’t care for with Shantae.

Shante Review Score:

Pushing the limits of the Game Boy Color, Shantae sent the system out with a bang or I should say a dance. The first Shantae is tough, make no mistake about it. It will take patience and time to master the dungeons and you’ll replay them over and over. In the end, I think it’s worth it. Shantae was a unique game that gave me a run for my money. I’m excited to check out the sequels.

Shantae scores a 7.9 out of 10.

What would you write in your Shantae review? When did you first play Shantae? Did you find it as hard as I did? What was your favorite animal to transform into? Is there some weird tension between Risky Boots and Shantae? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

If you’d like to own a copy of Shantae for the Game Boy Color, you can purchase a preowned version from eBay for between $600 and $2,500. Wait, what? Yes, that’s true. I guess the game is ultra-rare in physical cases. Just do what I did and buy a digital copy for $5 from the Nintendo eShop.

Contra Review

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After the success of the run-and-gun arcade game “Contra”, Konami ported the game in 1988 to massive success on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The original Contra has spawned numerous sequels, some good, some…not so good. Let’s take a look at the original Contra that started it all. It’s Bill and Lance to the rescue in this Contra review!

Contra Plot:

There is a bit of a discrepancy between the North American and the Japanese timeline in Contra. In the North American release, the game takes place in 1987, while the Japanese version takes place in 2633. That’s quite the leap! I think 1988 sounds boring, so for entertainment purposes, we’ll go with the setting of 2633 in my Contra review.

Anyway, there’s a terrorist organization called “Red Falcon” with headquarters near New Zealand. Their goal is to destroy humanity, but here’s where I get confused. I thought Red Falcon was a terrorist organization made up of humans, and become brainwashed from invading aliens. Do the aliens not have enough bodies to destroy all of humanity or is Red Falcon founded by aliens where they brainwash humans into joining the cause? I don’t know, but I’m confused. Either way, Red Falcon is bad news. Terrorists and aliens teaming up to blow up the Earth? That’s almost as bad as Nazi Zombies.

Red Falcon starts wreaking havoc on the neighboring countries around New Zealand. The only hope for the human race is the Contra Force made up of hardened elite marines. At the top of the chain is Bill Rizer and Lance Bean. Two bad motherfuckers, with terrible names. Lance Bean? Are you serious? They may have terrible names, but these two will summersault through the air on way to blowing holes through alien skulls and setting fire to headquarters.

In the arcade version, they were able to look unique, but due to the NES graphic limitations, the programmers just gave Bill a blue jumpsuit and Lance a red one. The main objection of the game is to clear every level and take down the alien bosses at the end to bring down Red Falcon and save the human race.

When you beat the game, you get a small cutscene of the island exploding and a helicopter flying away. The following message will appear on the screen:

“Congratulations! You’ve destroyed the vile Red Falcon and saved the universe. Consider yourself a hero.”

Considered.

Contra Gameplay:

Contra consists of nine levels, but nine insane levels. You will die. You will die a lot. You may never beat the game. I completed my Contra review in three hours, but it took me around 30 times to beat the level two boss. It all depends on which weapon you have. I had the flamethrower against the boss in level two and that was a big mistake. My favorite weapon by far was the gun that had the spread shot. Even if your aim was off, you would probably hit at least one enemy. Once I secured the spread shot weapon, I didn’t collect any other power-ups, I didn’t see the point in risking it.

There was one feature from Contra that I enjoyed and thought was innovative. Instead of the whole game being horizontal side-scrolling, it mixes it up with 2D vertical levels. These levels acted like indoor shooting ranges. I applaud Contra for putting this into the game and made sure to include this feature in my Contra review. The level designs are generic but change at the same time. There is a jungle level, water level, snow level, factory level, and cave level, so you get all the environments even though most level layouts are the same for the side-scrolling part.

After each level, you face a boss that varies from difficulty. Some bosses I beat my first try but others like the second level boss took me close to 30 tries. The final boss is a weird alien sac that hatches little aliens. This fight took me about 15 tries. Most bosses show unique designs, which is refreshing, fighting the same boss over and over is boring. It wasn’t uncommon for games in the 80s to do that to save time and costs.

The gameplay was a lot of fun but the difficulty is the number of lives you get. You start with three, which is like saying here are three lives to cross this giant field littered with land mines, good luck. Back in the day, I don’t know how anyone beat this game without playing it hundreds of times to memorize every enemy. So if you beat it in the 80s, kudos to you. Well, I should say, if you beat it in the 80s without using the Konami code, kudos to you! Contra gained extra attention from one of the first universal cheat codes. The Konami code became so popular that even today it exists in various games and gets parodied in tv shows and movies. Did I use the Konami code? You bet I did!

Memories:
I started playing Contra right after I got out of college. I had heard such great things about the first couple of games, that I wanted to see it for myself. I wasn’t disappointed, there was such much action on the screen with bullets flying everywhere. Call it silly, but I loved doing the summersaults in the air, it was just so over the top. I quickly learned to never stop shooting even if there are no enemies on the screen because even if you don’t see them, they’re coming! I wrote an old Contra review before but wanted to update it to reflect my last playthrough.

Contra Review Score:

If you love action, Contra is for you. If you like dying, Contra is for you. It’s not easy, although some make it look like it. I had to practice over and over to beat levels, but with the overall game so short I didn’t mind. There’s no difficulty curve, I found that the challenge was generally the same for every level unless you made the mistake of switching weapons.

The game is tough but fair. Contra is a fantastic run-and-gun game, I’m getting the itch to play it again just writing about it. It’s too bad that the series is in shambles today. The original Contra showed how much fun dying could be.

Contra scores a 7.7 out of 10.

What would you write in your Contra review? When did you first play Contra and did you team up with a friend to take down the Red Falcon? Which boss was your favorite and what was your weapon of choice? Let me know your memories and thoughts, I’d love to read the comments!

Harvest Moon GB Review

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Before there was Stardew Valley, before there was Farmville or any other farming simulators you can think of there was Harvest Moon. The original farming game hit the Super Nintendo in 1997. It’s addicting and simple gameplay has attracted thousands of causal gamers since spawning a series that is still going today. We’ll be taking a look at the first Harvest Moon for the Game Boy simply titled Harvest Moon: GB. Developed by Victor Interactive Software and published by Natsume, Harvest Moon GB was released in August 1998 with the Game Boy Color version being released just a few months later in December. Grab your shovel and prepare to get your hands dirty in this Harvest Moon GB review!

Harvest Moon GB Plot:

My wife is quite the Harvest Moon fan, so much of this Harvest Moon GB review is based on her critique of the game. She’d like to call herself a “ranch master” as she’s beat Harvest Moon SNES, Harvest Moon 1, 2, and 3 for the Game Boy and has currently logged over 100 hours on the newest Harvest Moon for the Nintendo Switch.

Unlike the first Harvest Moon for the SNES, you’ll be able to choose your gender. Once you select either the boy or girl, your grandfather’s spirit will descend upon them asking you to take over his farm. He wants you to become a Ranch Master and restore his rundown farm and says he’ll check in on you at the end of the year. This gives you four seasons to revitalize his farm and restore it to glory. If you succeed, you’ll receive extra tools to continue growing your farm, if your grandfather’s spirit determines you suck at a farmer, you’ll receive a “game over” at the end of the year.

The original Harvest Moon had you wooing a few bachelorettes from the local town into marrying you and having children. This feature was taken away from Harvest Moon GB, which was disappointing to me as my wife likes to brag about “all the hoes she’s playing”. With the marriage goal gone, your only job is to get the farm up and running to your Grandpa’s standards.

Harvest Moon GB Gameplay:

Restoring the farm requires mundane tasks repeated over and over each day. You’ll have to clear out your farmland from weeds and stones before you can hoe the fields, plant the seeds, and water them. I’d personally do a playthrough for my Harvest Moon GB review, but I only have so much time so much of the gameplay aspects comes from my wife.

You’ll be able to grow eight different crops with two per season. Spring brings turnips and potatoes, summer has tomatoes and corn, fall will grow eggplants and peanuts and finally, winter grows carrots and broccoli. Each crop is worth different amounts of money and grows at different rates. Forgetting to water your crops each day, unless it rains will result in stunted growth.

Tools will help you revive the farm. You’ll have a hoe, hammer, ax, sickle, and watering can. By completing requests or special achievements you’ll unlock super tools that work much better. Tired of your old hoe? Get it upgraded to the Super Hoe after a long day of plowing! (LOL) Later on, you’ll be able to buy a sprinkler, butter churn, and cheesemaker.

Where does this butter and cheese come from? Glad you asked! Along with crops, you’ll have animals that need affection and care in order to grow. Keep them well fed and pet them to get them to love you. You can have up to four cows that will produce milk and four chickens that lay eggs. You’ll be able to make some money from the produce. You’ll be gifted a horse and dog as well. My wife always names the dog Tiko and the horse Koko.

You’ll need a lot of money to help upgrade your house. You can buy two expansions where the carpenter will come to your farm and enlarge it. It’s a requirement to make your Grandpa happy.

Think you’ll experience “cabin fever” on your farm? Think again! There’s plenty to do outside of your farm including a whole town to explore with characters to interact and converse with. Harvest Moon GB offers a variety of both random and annual events to change the pace up which helps score points in my Harvest Moon GB review.

There will be earthquakes, hurricanes and fun events like picnics, stargazing, a Harvest Festival, and a Christmas party. Some of the characters will have side quests for you like finding a pet bird, helping a female avoid an arranged marriage, a “juice” aka beer sampling for the town bar, and finding a lost weathervane after a big storm. Harvest Moon packs a lot into a single Game Boy game! You can even go fishing and find power berries to increase your stamina.

Harvest Moon GB Review Score:

Here are my wife’s thoughts on the game:

“It was hard to learn the controls at first. You’d have to go into your bag and switch your tools. In modern Harvest Moon games the tools just come out automatically when you need them, it was a huge pain to switch them back then. It’s fun to start with nothing and work your way up to better tools and crops.”

“The gameplay is very addicting but the controls were difficult to use on the Game Boy. The year timetable has both pros and cons, I like that it forces you to really focus and get stuff done, but it’s a little on the shorter side. In the new Harvest Moon games, you can make recipes with food, but with this one, you actually made butter and cheese which I think is more fun. I liked that the Game Boy version still included different crops for each season. Getting married is another goal besides taking care of the farm, but it’s not a big deal to me. It takes away from my farm work so I didn’t care too much that it was left out of this version.”

My wife scores Harvest Moon GB a 7 out of 10.

What would you write in your Harvest Moon GB review? What Harvest Moon game was your first? Do you enjoy farming simulators and if so what game is your favorite? Are there any secrets you’ve discovered in Harvest Moon? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!

If you want to own Harvest Moon GB you can purchase a preowned copy of it for the Game Boy on eBay for $15.

Borderlands 2 Review

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After the success of the original Borderlands, developer Gearbox and publisher 2K games went back to work and released the sequel, Borderlands 2, in 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. More guns, more madness, and more claptrap paved the way in this successful sequel. Let’s dive in and find out what made Borderlands 2 the peak of the series! This review will be based on the PlayStation 3 version. “This party is worse than stairs”, but hopefully this Borderlands 2 review is better!

Borderlands 2 Plot:

After the previous events on Pandora, you’re back for more with four different vault hunters. Once again, I played the entire Borderlands 2 review with my wife. I was Axton the Commando and she was Salvador the Gunzerker. Taking place five years after the first Borderlands, there are rumors of an even larger vault on Pandora that brings attention back onto the planet.

From left to right – Axton, Zero, Salvador, and Maya.

Opening the first vault resulted in Pandora producing a valuable mineral called “Eridium”. A new mega-corporation called Hyperion has settled in and mined the mineral up led by Hyperion’s president Handsome Jack. Under his rule, Pandora is seen as a Hyperion planet, with Handsome Jack’s base orbiting the planet.

You arrive on the planet in a wreck and with the help of Claptrap and the Guardian Angel find safety in the city of Sanctuary. Recruited by the Crimson Raiders, a rebel organization with the goal of destroying Hyperion and Handsome Jack, you’ll find yourself doing various missions for its members.

One of the missions is to high-jack a Hyperion train that is carrying a Vault Key. Blowing up the train results in fighting a killer robot named Wilhelm. After stealing his power core and using it to power the shield of Sanctuary, you discover that it’s all a trap set by the Guardian Angel who has been working for Handsome Jack.

With the shields down, Handsome Jack bombs Sanctuary from his orbiting station. Lilith who you’ll remember from the first Borderlands is able to save Sanctuary which was a former space ship. Handsome Jack’s main goal is to open up the second vault by forcing the vault key to charge with the Eridium he has been mining.

The Guardian Angel starts to communicate with the Vault Hunters and informs them that she physically has the vault key. You’ll break into a high-security zone that holds the Guardian Angel where you meet face-to-face. She informs you that she is a siren and Handsome Jack’s daughter. She wants to stop her father from charging the key and asks you to kill her. After successfully killing her, Handsome Jack teleports in and capture Lilith while Killing Roland. I played as Roland in the original Borderlands and was surprised to see his death. I felt like it was an important building block in the Borderlands universe, making you cherish the characters, even more, knowing that they all weren’t invincible and that they could die. After that, I realized no one was safe and took extra notice of loveable characters I came across because Roland would not be the last to die.

Lilith safely transports you away from the chaos before Handsome Jack forces her to fully charge the vault key. You learn where the vault is located and race to meet Handsome Jack there. When you arrive, it’s too late as Handsome Jack has opened it releasing “the Warrior” a violent monster that he can command. You kill the Warrior and for good measure kill Handsome Jack too. In the end, Lilith tries to destroy the vault key for good but accidentally activates a secret information storage unit inside the key that reveals several locations around the galaxy of more vaults.

You’ll feel more invested in the story of Borderlands 2 than you were in Borderlands. With the four main characters back from the first, it was fun to interact with them although I wish they were playable in my Borderlands 2 review. Handsome Jack really comes through as a villain you love to hate. His personality is one you’ve probably met in your life. He’s arrogant, cocky, in love with himself, but he’s a psychopath, ruthless and greedy. I’m sure we all know people that fit that bill. He doesn’t have superpowers, he’s just a dick, which makes him more believable.

Borderlands 2 Gameplay:

The gameplay doesn’t change much from the original Borderlands, and that’s a good thing! During my Borderlands 2 review I spent hours collecting guns, strategizing which ones to use, and trying them out on poor psychos or midgets. I was bummed that I wouldn’t be playing as Roland again, but the four playable characters were adequate to make me forget about him.

I can never pass up a side quest much to the dismay of my wife, so like the first, we played all the side missions. We leveled up as we went and continued to power up through our skill trees. Boss fights are back, and you’ll face plenty of fun and interesting characters full of humor and quips as much as they are flesh shredding ammo.

Borderlands does a great job creating characters that you enjoy interacting with. Claptrap, Scooter, Moxxi and the others are back along with a few new ones. Completing missions for them was enjoyable, and much like the original, you had plenty of fetch quests, bounties, monster hunts, and rescue missions. The game is all more of the same from the original but expands upon what made the first game great. I’ll never complain when sequels come out and keep a successful formula. Don’t fix it if it’s not broken. This results in Borderlands 2 being the peak of the series with the inclusive of Handsome Jack.

Memories:
After beating the first Borderlands, my wife couldn’t wait to pop in Borderlands 2. I had already started a campaign, but because of her excitement, I decided to restart the game and play it through with her. It didn’t disappoint as we spent weeks slaughtering midgets, scags, and more leaving burning, frozen, electric and poisoned corpses behind in our path of destruction.

Borderlands 2 Review Score:

Borderlands 2 is a great example of a sequel. It builds upon a successful formula, includes beloved characters, and sprinkles in a few upgrades making the best game in the Borderlands series.

Borderlands 2 scores a 9.1 out of 10.

What would you write in your Borderlands 2 review? What did you think of Borderlands 2 when it first came out? Which character did you select? Did you like Handsome Jack as a villain? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!

If you want to own Borderlands 2 you can purchase a preowned copy of it for the Playstation 3 on eBay for $5.

Syphon Filter Review

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In 1999, the world was captivated by Action Spy movies. James Bond, Mission Impossible and even Austin Powers were feeding the craving of stealth-action for movie theaters. On the smaller screen and in video game land, developer Eidectic teamed up with 989 Studios and released Syphon Filter, a third-person shooter filled with terrorists, government turmoil and stealth-action for the original PlayStation. What makes Syphon Filter a memorable game? Grab your taser and let’s shock this Syphon Filter review!

Syphon Filter Plot:

Set in 1999, the player controls agent Gabe Logan who is investigating biological outbreaks from international terrorists. The first mission takes place in Washington D.C. as the terrorists are planting viral bombs across the city. Gabe teams up with his female partner Lian and with her communicating through an earpiece, Gabe disables the bombs and tracks down a commanding terrorist named Anton Girdeux.

After defeating him, Gabe discovers a new lead, a man named Jonathan Phagan who is the CEO of PharCom, a pharmaceutical and biotech corporation. Gabe trails Phagan during a PharCom special event witnesses Phagan meeting with two other terrorists, one an ex-agent. Gabe protects Phagan from an assassination attempt, killing the ex-agent and taking in a female terrorist named Mara Aramov.

PharCom has been teaming up with the terrorists creating the virus in their labs for them. The virus is dubbed “Syphon Filter”. The terrorist organization has been lead by Erich Rhoemer who Gabe has been tracking since the beginning of the game. Gabe lands in Kazakhstan to destroy one of Rhoemer’s main terrorist bases.

After blowing up the base, Gabe travels to Ukraine where secret lab tests are being administered to prisoners and patients. Lian has been captured and is being held captive inside one of the jail cells. Gabe rescues Lian and runs into Phagan who has also been captured by Rhoemer. Phagan is assassinated by Aramov but strikes a deal with Gabe informing him that Rhoemer plans to launch a missile at a secret base.

Gabe reaches the secret missile base and discovers that his boss Thomas Markinson has been working with Rhoemer all along. Rhoemer kills Markinson in front of Gabe and starts the launch of the missile. Gabe rushes to shut the missile off and confronts Rhoemer in a computer lab killing him. After the credits roll, Aramov is seen talking to an unidentified man in front of PharCom boxes. He tells her that she did good and that the plan is still in place.

Syphon Filter Gameplay:

If you read my Driver 2 review, you’ll remember how I complained about how poor the running mechanics were. They were stiff, hard to control and unreliable. Syphon Filter is the complete opposite, Gabe runs very smooth and turns in all directions. You don’t have to stop to make Gabe turn, you can continue running and he’ll start moving in the direction you want in a smooth motion. It sounds simple, but after playing some bad games with character controls, Gabe’s running physics are great. It made completing my Syphon Filter review much easier with such smooth controls.

Each mission will have a few different objectives like killing a certain target, disarming or planting bombs, and making your way to a section on the map. You’ll receive helpful checkpoints during the mission in case you die, which will happen. I rarely died from enemy firing, but died a few times from falling off ledges or shafts. I didn’t look before I jumped, whoops! Syphon filter goes into great detail with its weapons. You can take a look at each weapon and it will describe in-depth the history of that weapon and why the agency uses it. Useless knowledge, but cool! Bonus points for my Syphon Filter review!

Speaking of weapons, you’ll get a lot of them. From silenced pistols to machine guns, shotguns, grenades and my all-time favorite weapon, the legendary air taser. This taser is hilarious to kill enemies with. The range it has is almost endless, you’ll be able to shoot the wire into enemies from just about anywhere on the screen. Once the wire hooks into the target it starts to electrocute them, Their bodies will shake and spark while you hold down the button. Keep the button held down long enough and their bodies will catch on fire as they scream in agony as they burn to a crisp. It sounds like an awful death, but it’s so hilarious and fun. As long as enemies aren’t wearing a flak jacket, I used the taser on them. Another great element of the gameplay was the auto-aim feature. Holding R1 will auto-lock onto an enemy. You’ll be able to run around with Gabe’s gun pointed at the enemy. It’s unrealistic, but it’s quite useful.

Combat is both fun and strategic in Syphon Filter. You’ll have firefights with two or three terrorists and you’ll also sneak around putting silenced bullets into the back of their heads. The environment is also yours to use. Shooting barrels will cause explosions, or much to my delight, in the labs you can shoot vials of liquids and cause them to spew poisonous gas that takes down scientists. Writing all of this for my Syphon Filter review makes me want to restart the game and play it all again!

Missions aren’t just run-and-gun, you’ll have to carefully maneuver past enemies and solve small puzzles. One mission has you searching buildings for infected bodies in boxes with an x-ray sensor. There were only a couple of instances where I was stuck and had to turn to a guide to see what I needed to do.

Syphon Filter’s gameplay was great, but it does have a weakness. The cut scenes are cringe-worthy if you can even make out what the dialogue is. The characters talk very fast, and sometimes it results in very serious situations coming off as humorous. In particular, there is a bomb that is about to detonate, and Gabe is telling Lian it’s too late as he dives away from it. He is speaking way too fast and the result is comical.

I completed my Syphon Filter review within 15 hours, ten if you know exactly what you’re doing. Syphon Filter is one of the best stealth-action shooters on the PlayStation, not quite Metal Gear Solid but not too far behind.

Memories:
I’ll have much more to say on Syphon Filter 2 as I have quite the story on that game, but I don’t have any memories of the first game. I received a PS One classic recently and Syphon Filter was one of the games so I decided to try it out and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

Syphon Filter Review Score:

One of the top games in the original PlayStation library, I highly recommend you play Syphon Filter if you’re a fan of stealth-action.

Syphon Filter scores a 9 out of 10.

What would you write in your Syphon Filter review? What did you think of Syphon Filter? Did you have as much fun with the taser as I did? Are you surprised the series doesn’t live on today? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!

If you want to own Syphon Filter you can purchase a preowned copy of it for the Playstation on eBay between $5-$10.

Fantasy Zone Review

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Ported from the arcade, Sega’s “Fantasy Zone” was a colorful shooter starring Opa-Opa who some consider being Sega’s first mascot. In 1986, Fantasy Zone came to the Sega Master System which is the version I’ll be reviewing today. Opa-Opa, I am your father! I demand you to read this Fantasy Zone review!

Fantasy Zone Plot:

Fantasy Zone stars Opa-Opa, I’m not sure if Opa-Opa is the ship or the pilot inside of the ship but I suppose that doesn’t change the story. In the universe exists a “Fantasy Zone” full of colorful and pleasant landscapes. It looks something out of Candy Land with how the levels and graphics are. The enemy forces are taking over and destroying the land led by an unknown leader. Opa-Opa sets out to restore order in the Fantasy Zone and take down the invading army.

You’ll take control of Opa-Opa as you destroy bases on your way to fighting eight different bosses. The final boss is the mysterious leader of the invading army and it turns out to be Opa-Opa’s father. That plot was probably influenced by Star Wars as it was released just three years after Return of The Jedi. Unless Sega was trying to parody the plot of Star Wars, I think it’s lame that they copied that plotline even if it’s minuscule in a game that few people ever played and even fewer beat. I like my plots to be unique and creative, and because of that my Fantasy Zone review will be dinged a few small points.

Fantasy Zone Gameplay:

In Fantasy Zone you’ll fly Opa-Opa through eight different levels, each one filled with vibrant colors and “cute” enemies. Even though it’s a shooter, it’s vastly different from the typical space shooters set in deep space with alien ships. Fantasy Zone is straight from some programmer’s bad drug trip and during my Fantasy Zone review I felt like I was on one too!

Opa-Opa is very weak in the first level only equipped with the “twin shots” which is your main weapon, firing two side-by-side bullets and a “single bomb” that you can drop above enemies. The more enemies you defeat, the more money you can collect. Killing enemies will result in them dropping small and large coins for you to collect. Each level will have a floating “shop” sign that you can access to purchase upgrades. You will need to continue to upgrade “Opa-Opa” if you have any chance of defeating the bosses. Not only is Opa-Opa weak, but he’s very slow. You’ll have the chance to buy bigger wings, and three different upgraded engines to zoom around the screen. With so much action on the screen, I held off as long as possible before purchasing the actual engines as occasionally I’d die from lack of control.

There are two forms of weapons, one you shoot, and one you drop. You’ll have your chance at buying temporary upgrades like lasers or wide-beams but those only last for about ten seconds before reverting to your twin shot. The key and this is something I just learned during my Fantasy Zone review, is buying all three engines. Once you do that, your main weapon becomes infinite so if you buy a special weapon it will stick making the game a hundred times easier. I went with the seven-shot spray, which as you can guess shoots seven bullets at once in a wide shot.

The levels are split into the typical element terrains. You’ll fly through a fire, desert, water, ice, grass, and a few other trippy levels during your purge of the Fantasy Zone. Instead of just flying to the right of the screen on a scrolling level, you’ll have full control of Opa-Opa with the ability to turn around to scroll both left and right. You’ll need to do that to find the bases in each stage. Each base is themed for the stage and there are six of them. You’ll have to destroy all the bases on the level to face the boss. If you die, you’ll restart at the beginning of the level with the opportunity to go straight to the shop, but honestly, this game is a lot easier if you just do a straight run without dying.

Let’s take a look at the bosses you’ll fight.

Boss #1 – He’s a wooden log that pukes wooden pellets at you. You’ll have to shoot him in the mouth to deal damage.

Boss #2 – This guy is literally a bong, I mean he has to be right? He’s the guy on the cover of the box. He was the most difficult boss for me. You have to shoot his three orbiting balls to kill him and if you don’t do it in time he closes in on Opa-Opa destroying him.

Boss #3 – He looks like a sun made from sand with lasers attached on the side of his face. They’ll shoot in order but if you stay above him and drop bombs he’s pretty easy.

Boss #4 – This is some type of fish, he looks like a piranha if you ask me. He’ll stick his tongue out and shoot some spikes at you.

Boss #5 – This is a snowman army. You’ll face eight little snowmen, then four larger ones, then two big ones, and finally one gigantic snowman.

Boss #6 – “I like turtles”. This boss sticks his head out of his shell while spraying chunks from the top of his shell.

Boss #7 – This guy is just a face and one that looks like it belongs on a totem pole. He’ll separate into a few pieces before reforming again.

Boss #8 – You won’t see the full body of this boss until you defeat him. A blue tongue with a face will zigzag along the screen until you shoot it a few times. Do this over and over and the leader of the invading army will be defeated. The tongue reels back to the right side of the screen and into a large space ship that looks like Opa-Opa. This was brutal and you won’t beat the game without a “freeze state” on an emulator. I know this Fantasy Zone review wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that ability.

The end credits reveal that the final boss was indeed Opa-Opa’s father and he’s distraught over the fact that he had to kill his own father.

Fantasy Zone is colorful cute shoot em’ up worth your time because you’ll be able to beat it within 15 minutes. It’s not worth revisiting though, so make sure you enjoy it while it lasts.

Memories:
I had the Sega Master System growing up so I have a soft spot for games for it. I never played the original Fantasy Zone, but I did have the sequel. I was able to get to world four or five as a pretty young kid but never further. Fantasy Zone is very similar to the original, so it brought back memories of playing it.

Fantasy Zone Review Score:

Colorful, cute, and quick. You’ll beat it in no time once you discover that buying three engines makes your main weapon infinite. I liked the boss rush at the end, something that was very common in 80s games.

Fantasy Zone scores a 6.3 out of 10.

What would you write in your Fantasy Zone review? What did you think of Fantasy Zone? What was the toughest boss from the game? What was your favorite world? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!

If you want to own Fantasy Zone you can purchase a preowned copy of it for the Sega Master System on eBay for a whopping $62.

The Final Station Review

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Developed by Do My Best Games and published by tinyBuild, The Final Station is a side-scrolling horror shooter video game. Released in 2016, for the Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Windows, this thriller was free for Xbox Gold members. Let’s take a look at The Final Station. Almost didn’t reach my final destination but I made it and wrote this Final Station Review!

The Final Station Plot:

There’s not much dialogue in The Final Station but there’s enough of it and few clues scattered around to give the player an idea of what’s going on. You are a train conductor in a world on the verge of a pandemic disaster. According to a few letters and one very old man, this pandemic occurred 106 years ago and was dubbed “The First Visitation”. During the First Visitation, large capsules about the size of cars fell from the sky and admitted a mysterious gas. The gas infected the humans and turned them into infected beings, covered in black slime that made them aggressive. I wouldn’t call them zombies, but they’d be very similar. The infection wiped out much of the civilization but humans were able to recover after the capsules stopped admitting gas.

Now, in the present-day capsules are falling from the sky again, turning humans into infected black slimes. The government has scientists and researchers working on a cure but they can’t even identify what the capsules are made of or what the gas is. Cities are starting to fall as the number of infected continues to rise. You are ordered to conduct one of the last operational trains in the region taking precious cargo from station to station so the government can build a giant robot called “the Guardian”. How a giant robot can defeat the outbreak, who knows but that seems to be the plan.

After making your way all around the region, facing deserted towns filled with infected, pockets of civilization, and dark tunnels, you deliver the final parts of the Guardian making it operational. During your missions, you keep trying to reach someone via the phone with no luck.

In the end, the Guardian is launched but is shown lying in the ground in a mess outside a large city. During the game, you can rescue civilians from towns and bring them to safety. The last person you rescue is a mysterious figure dressed like a hunter complete with a shotgun. Reading letters through the game, others have dreamed of this figure. He knows much more about the capsules and gas than anyone else you’ve encountered. He says the gas is medicine and that not all humans can handle it. He also seems to know a lot about you, without having met you before. The hunter informs you that you were protected from the gas by your train’s radiation but that you are still infected. The train breaks down and you start walking on foot toward your hometown slowly succumbing to your sickness.

You see the hunter in various places as he speaks to you about what is happening. When you reach your house it’s revealed that you were trying to reach your young daughter. The conductor succumbs to the disease and turns into one of the black slimes in his home before he can speak to his daughter. The hunter appears and lets you know that he’ll watch over your daughter before taking out his shotgun and killing the conductor.

There are a few interpretations of the story but my theory is that these capsules are not manmade or from the government since they don’t know what the material is. If they knew, they would have been able to come up with a cure. During a few missions you are meeting with the military and they keep saying “they” will be here soon. I think they are referring not only to the black slimes but possibly to an alien race. When you leave one of the stations, you travel through the night around mountains. The skyline is lit up with explosions and sounds of bombs and gunfire from perhaps an invasion. I still get goosebumps from my experience of this scene. Writing this Final Station review makes me want to start all over again.

The Guardian is pointless against the gas unless he is a secret vacuum cleaner. I bet the government assembled this giant robot in hopes of fighting the aliens back. The hunter, in my opinion, is an alien, knowing what the gas does and claiming it’s a “medicine” for humans. He seems to have the power of teleportation appearing before the conductor when he was just a few buildings behind. This is just my interpretation but I like it!

The Final Station Gameplay:

The Final Station takes about five hours to beat if you are exploring every room and floor of each station which I highly recommend. Some might not consider it a “horror” game but I would. Each station is filled “zombie” like humans waiting to attack you, hiding behind doors, in the dark or bathroom stalls. The graphics would be right at home on the Super Nintendo, but I found my favorite portions were the train sections where the environment would scroll behind you. It was a little preview of what you’d be facing in a few moments and on more than one occasion the atmosphere was perfectly eerie. The best scene was when the train was silently navigating through the mountains in the night with some type of “invasion” or battle going on just over the hills filled with loud explosions and lighting up the hills. That moment was perfect and it captured the uneasy feeling of the game perfectly. You never are too far from danger. Every door and floor will be holding secrets and danger. Tread carefully.

The game is split into two different gameplays, one is the side-scrolling shooter where the conductor explores cities and train stations uncovering the truth about the “visitation”, pillaging for food, medicine, and ammunition. You’re equipped with a pistol, shotgun, and rifle. At first, you may feel inclined to shoot everything sight but during my Final Station review I learned there is more than one way to kill the black slimes with other forces. Exploring every building was crucial to finding survivors who you could take on the train and receive rewards from when delivering them to safety. Each exploration level ended when you found the four-digit code for the train to continue onto the next track.

If you weren’t searching train stations and cities, you were conducting the train. These levels were short, lasting one to two minutes max but there was a lot to do with small mini-games. Each time the train was running, something would go wrong, some gadget or gear would need tuning to keep the train rolling. If you neglected it or didn’t fix the issue, the train would halt.

During the train rides, you would have to tend to your passengers who were constantly hungry or succumbing to injuries. You need to divide your time wisely between tuning the train, making supplies, and feeding/treating your passengers in the span of a few minutes. It was a fun portion of The Final Station but strategy came into play. A few times I got lazy on checking my passengers and two of them ended up dying. I was pissed! Each passenger that survives will reward you like money or ammunition.

I loved the Final Station, it’s a spooky game that you can beat over the weekend but I will leave you with a warning. My Final Station review score will drop considerably because of one issue. During the second-to-last level, I ran into a game-breaking glitch. When you interact with an object it will glow with a white line around it. It’s how you pick up objects, open doors and read letters. I was required to visit an office but whenever I went to the door it wouldn’t glow. I was having issues on this level with other objects and constantly had to walk back-and-forth for them to light up even if it was for a split second. Doors that were once easy to open took 20 seconds for the game to light them up. The office door didn’t light up at all. I restarted the level multiple times, shut off the console a few times but nothing worked. I thought the game was broken and I was very upset because I was at the end and loved the game up until that point.

I didn’t believe I’d be able to continue with the game. I even looked it up on forums seeing if it was a common glitch but I didn’t find anything. Finally, after running back-and-forth through the door a hundred times it started to glow for a split second. It took me another few minutes to mash the button for it to work. It’s too bad that such a great game was ruined because of that near game-breaking glitch and I feel like I had to discuss it in my Final Station review.

Memories:
This game was free with Xbox Gold and I had no idea what it was. I took a chance playing it and couldn’t put it down. I loved it from start to finish except for that stupid glitch which almost killed it.

The Final Station Review Score:

A retro game crafted with a mysterious story, great platforming, spooky enemies and a great atmosphere make for a fun playthrough.

The Final Station scores a 7 out of 10. If the glitch didn’t occur you’re looking at a score closer to 8.5… but I take glitches serious!

What would you write in your Final Station review? What did you think of The Final Station? What’s your interpretation of the story? Was it spooky for you and did you run into any glitches? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!

If you want to own The Final Station you can download it on various consoles for $15.

Mortal Kombat Review

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Arcades were heating up again in the early 90s with the rise of the fighting genre. Street Fighter got the word out to gamers but Mortal Kombat got the word out to the world with its “controversial” gore and violence which is comical looking back on it. Developed and published by Midway and released by Acclaim Entertainment for multiple home consoles, I’ll be reviewing the Sega Genesis version which kept the blood. How does the 1992 headline fighting game rank in my opinion? GET OVER HERE and read this Mortal Kombat review!

Moral Kombat Plot:

For a fighting game, Mortal Kombat has a confusing and elaborate story. I’ll do my best to share my knowledge of what I’ve learned researching the game but there’s a good chance I don’t have all the details or messed something up so bear with me. I will say that this Mortal Kombat review score points for having such a detailed plot, even if I can’t understand it.

There are multiple realms within the universe including an Earth realm. Within the multiple realms is a fighting tournament where the best warriors in the universe fight. This tournament is called Mortal Kombat. Five hundred years ago this tournament was high-jacked by Shang Tsung a sorcerer shapeshifter and his warrior Goro who is half-man and half-dragon. Goro destroys the competition and becomes the Grand Champion for the next five hundred years. Shang Tsung wanted to give the power of the tournament to the Outworld which is another realm. Various fighters from the realms gain access to the tournament one way or another. After fighting each other, the surviving fighter must battle Goro and then Shang Tsung to become the Grand Champion.

Let’s take a look at the playable fighters and their reasons for joining the tournament.

Johnny Cage – He’s a famous Hollywood actor known for his action movies, but his critics have cast doubt on his real fighting abilities believing he is just an actor who uses stunt doubles. He decided to enter the Mortal Kombat tournament to prove himself as a real mixed-martial artist.

Liu Kang – He’s a monk that’s a member of the White Lotus Society. He is an excellent fighter and according to the history of Mortal Kombat is the fighter that is supposed to win the tournament. His ultimate goal was to return the tournament to its rightful coordinators and end the reign of Shang Tsung.

Kano – He’s a mercenary that works for the criminal organization called the “Black Dragons”. He enters the tournament in hopes of winning it and monopolizing it for the Black Dragons.

Raiden – He’s the God of Thunder…literally. Although perhaps he should be the God of Lightning as he shoots it from his hands. He enters the tournament after receiving an invitation. As a god, I think he’s just bored, he must be to enter a mortal tournament. He’s also who I used during my Mortal Kombat review.

Sub-Zero – He’s a ninja assassin who enters the tournament in hopes of killing Shang Tsung as his enemies have paid Sub-Zero a good deal of money.

Sonya Blade – She’s a high-ranking member in a U.S. Special Forces team that is in charge of taking down the criminal gang of the Black Dragons. After tracking one of the Black Dragons to a mysterious island, Sonya finds herself in the tournament.

Scorpion – He’s a ninja who has been resurrected from the dead so he can avenge his death on the man that killed him, a rival ninja called Sub-Zero.

Moral Kombat Gameplay:

I need to say this right now. I am not good at Mortal Kombat, like at all. I was only able to beat a playthrough when I played on “very easy” and had six credits. I know, what a wimp but man this game doesn’t mess around. I defeated the tournament with Raiden using his uppercut to my advantage. It was only because of that uppercut that I was able to complete my Mortal Kombat review.

Becoming the Grand Champion is no easy task. You will face the six other fighters in the best of two-out-of-three fights. Defeat them, and you’ll face yourself in a mirror match. Next up will be three endurance fights which are two fighters that you already beat teamed up against you. You must defeat them both without your health regenerating between fights. This was by far the most difficult test of the tournament. No matter who I played with I struggled. Eventually, I broke through with Raiden, learning to be patient and backing away from attacks instead of always moving forward being aggressive.

After defeating the three endurance fights, you will face Goro. All I picture is Goro’s depiction from Robot Chicken which gives me a good chuckle. Goro is tough but not impossible. Finally, you’ll face off against Shang Tsung who looks like an old man in this version.

Each fighter will receive an ending detailing what they did after the tournament. I received the Raiden ending, which turned out to be my favorite after looking them up. Raiden grows bored of his champion status and invites other gods to participate, their powers lead to the mass destruction of our world. Have a nice day. It literally ends with “have a nice day”. I love it.

I’m sure Mortal Kombat is a great game, I just suck at it. I didn’t know how to pull off any combos or fatalities, so when I was told to “Finish Him” I just pushed them over. Kudos to anyone who beats Mortal Kombat on any skill level above “easy”. I’m more of a Tekken guy.

The soundtrack reminds me of something that belongs in Donkey Kong Country, which is a good thing! I thought the backgrounds were interesting and the character models were probably so “realistic” in the early 90s.

Memories:
I was too young to remember Mortal Kombat as a child so sadly I don’t have any memories of it. I tried to play it a few years ago and it was too tough back then, but I brought it back out this month and was able to at least get through a playthrough and write a Mortal Kombat review.

Mortal Kombat Review Score:

You’re either Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter or you don’t have enough knowledge or skill to pick one. I fall into that category. Mortal Kombat is a look into the early 90s fighting war, no matter what series you pick you’ll get a great game. I like the game, I’m just not good at it.

Mortal Kombat scores a 7.6 out of 10.

What would you write in your Mortal Kombat review? When were you introduced to the Mortal Kombat series? Who was your favorite fighter? Is Mortal Kombat hard or am I wuss? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!

Mega Man 2 Review

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After the moderate success of the first Mega Man, Capcom went back to work on creating a sequel. The sequel would become the best selling Mega Man game on the original Nintendo, selling over 1.5 million copies when it released on December 24th, 1988. What makes Mega Man 2 superior to its predecessor? Let’s get that upgrade and launch into this Mega Man 2 review!

Mega Man 2 Plot:

The Mega Man series has never been big on changing up the formula or the plot, so as I review them you can expect the plots to revolve around Dr. Wily and his dream of world domination. After showing mercy to Dr. Wily during the closing events of Mega Man 1, Dr. Wily begins plotting his revenge. The first Mega Man, Dr. Wily planted a virus into Dr. Light’s robot masters turning them evil. This time, Dr. Wily decides he is better off constructing his own robot masters and creates Wood Man, Bubble Man, Crash Man, Air Man, Metal Man, Flash Man, Quick Man, and Heat Man. Dr. Wily also needs a new base of operations so he constructs a secret base and begins creating smaller robots and send them off to destroy the city with each robot master overseeing a portion of Dr. Wily’s robotic army.

Dr. Light calls upon Mega Man to clean up the mess that Dr. Wily has started. He defeats the eight robot masters and heads to Dr. Wily’s fortress to take on the mad scientist. The fortress is full of booby-traps and more killer robots but Mega Man makes it through and faces off against a flying alien. After defeating it, it’s revealed that Dr. Wily controlled the alien which was a hologram. Dr. Wily begs for mercy and Mega Man grants him it. A mistake that he will do over and over.

Mega Man 2 Gameplay:

Mega Man 2 is an upgrade in every sense. I noticed right away that the background of each level looks more sophisticated with gears turning, clouds covering the stage, water raining down and other small details that showcase the effort that went into crafting the stages. The enemies seem to be a bit more advanced too. It’s not just small enemies popping up from the ground and shooting pellets. You’ll have robot birds dropping eggs with dozen of tiny birds buzzing around you, giant fish unleashing swarms of shrimp on you or roosters that sprint. Each level has unique enemies, and you better prepare yourself and learn their patterns. If I was going to complete my Mega Man 2 review, I was going to have to practice!

Enemies were not the biggest threat of death to me in Mega Man 2. I can’t count how many times I cursed out loud or wanted to throw my controller down when the jumping sequences came. The disappearing blocks come back from the original which are a headache. It requires memorization, not skill. If you don’t jump at the right time you’ll land in lava or fall off a cliff. The toughest section by far was getting to the ladders that were too high up to jump to. After beating the robot masters you’ll get a few cool weapons from Dr. Light. You’ll get a helicopter board, a rocket surfboard and another small board that hoovers up. I must have tried 25 times to collectively shoot my helicopter boards in just the right location and jump across them to the ladder on the ceiling. It frustrated me so much that I had to take a break, but after coming back to it I was able to jump to the ladder on my first try.

Mega Man 2 in my humble opinion is easier than Mega Man because of how generous they are with replenishing your health bar. I’m not complaining in this Mega Man 2 review, I’m very thankful for that because without it, Mega Man 2 would be near impossible for me to beat. The robot masters weren’t too difficult to beat, especially when you had the correct weapon to take them down. Heat Man, Bubble Man, Metal Man, and Wood Man are generally easy. I had the toughest fights against Crash Man and Air Man.

The Wily stages are short but challenging, and the final Dr. Wily fights can be difficult as he shoots bouncing balls at you while you must be high enough to shoot him in his tank. The alien fight was the easiest but after slugging through his fortress, I didn’t mind an easier opponent.

Lots of gamers praise Mega Man 2 for its music, and while it’s better than the original, I don’t think much of it. The overall improvement comes from the gameplay and environments in my opinion.

With Dr. Wily’s defeat, you get some colorful credits with Mega Man working toward you. In the end, he places his helmet down in a grassy field. I always have enjoyed those small cut scenes in old video games, something about the simplicity pleases me. Mega Man would need that helmet however as Dr. Wily would soon be back.

Memories:
Like the original Mega Man, I snuck Mega Man 2 into work when I was in college. My coworker and I would play it on my laptop as we “worked” in our private office. Mega Man 2 was so fun and we were able to beat it within a week. I’ve gone back to Mega Man 2 over the years and beat it a few times. I don’t know why either because it’s one of the games that know how to piss me off with those stupid timed jumps and disappearing blocks.

Mega Man 2 Review Score:

Mega Man 2 is superior to Mega Man 1, that much almost everyone agrees on, but is it the best on the Nintendo? That’s a tough choice and I’ll have to replay the other four games to determine that. For now, Mega Man 2 is a huge upgrade to the original. The blue bomber’s popularity really took off afterward.

Mega Man 2 scores an 8.2 out of 10.

What would you write in your Mega Man 2 review? When were you introduced to the Mega Man series? Who was your favorite Robot Master in the second game? What’s the most frustrating part of Mega Man 2? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!

If you want to own Mega Man 2 for the Nintendo, you can purchase a preowned copy on eBay between $15-$30.

NFL 2K Review

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In September of 1999, Visual Concepts and Sega Sports teamed up to release NFL 2K for the Sega Dreamcast. While the football simulator was created in the 90s, the graphics, presentation, and gameplay shattered what sports games could be launching a new era into the new millennium. NFL 2K made the Dreamcast a must-buy if you were an NFL fan, let’s take a look at what made the game a touchdown. Let’s run a post route and dive into this NFL 2K review!

NFL 2K Plot:

It’s the NFL! The battle between 32 professional football teams takes place throughout a season to see who will be crowned the Super Bowl Champion.

NFL 2K Gameplay:

As soon as you start a game, you’ll notice the graphics. It may not look like much now, but back in 1999, this was as real as it would get. I still remember how fuzzy the graphics for other NFL games were. PlayStation football games looked like a scrambled mess, barely able to tell what was going on in the trenches between the two teams, just limbs in a pile. The N64 didn’t fare much better, the football players were blocky and chunky, their faces stretched over square heads. Then NFL 2K was released.

NFL 2K shattered those graphics with the Dreamcast and all the NFL 2K reviews glowed from it. You could visibly see the last names on the jerseys, clear as day. For once you could distinguish who was who without looking at their jersey number. NFL stadiums are draped in signs, each team with specific signs for current players. The sidelines look nothing more than cardboard cutouts, but at least the figures are there.

Graphics don’t make a game, but they can hide the ugliness. NFL 2K doesn’t have much to hide with flaws. The tackling physics is almost as good as today’s NFL games, sometimes even better. What caught my eye was the ability of the defenders to be dragged by a runner near their feet. Quarterbacks will be in the pocket and a defender can try and take them down if they’re by their feet, the quarterback will struggle wiggling his feet trying to shake their tackler free. I don’t see that in today’s Madden games, I thought that was an excellent and realistic touch.

For my NFL 2K review I played a 16-game season going 16-0 with the 1999 New England Patriots. Boy, did those blue uniforms bring back memories. I loved bombing it away with Drew Bledsoe to Ben Coates. Throughout the season, you’ll notice that the tackling animations will start repeating, with a rotation of about ten different tackles, you’ll start to recognize them quickly but at least they are realistic.

Sega did an excellent job with the presentation of the game, it feels like you are watching and LISTENING to a real football game. The commentators observe the game, acknowledge milestones and comment on players. When Kevin Faulk went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, they started talking about it and a graphic was brought up. Very nice touch. I was so impressed I had to stop and write it into my NFL 2K review notes! You’ll even hear input from the sideline reporter after quarters and halftime. I chuckled a few times to myself when looking at the scrolling scores at the bottom. Every now and then, Sega would throw in an advertisement for one of their upcoming games or would let me know that the Dreamcast is thinking. Advertising at its best, I would of bought the games that they advertised as a kid, well I would of asked for them.

During my season of play in which I blew through the league, NFL 2K presented me with every stat I could want as well as Pro Bowl voting, injury updates, and more. Sega didn’t blow their opportunity with the NFL license, that’s for sure.

You’ll be able to play a full season, playoffs and of course the Super Bowl like most football games, but it also offers you a fantasy draft if you want to shake up the league. The game starts you off on “rookie” and warns you that it could be tough if you change it. I destroyed every team on the rookie-level, so unless you are new football games I suggest a higher difficulty.

There are a few things I would tweak to NFL 2K. Every football game, even today seems to have a play or player that is impossible to stop. For NFL 2K, it was the play “All Streaks” from the shotgun formation. Every time I called it, I was going to score a touchdown. My tight end Ben Coates would streak down the seam, blow by the linebacker and catch the pass for a touchdown at least three or four times a game. I didn’t call it often because it felt like cheating. I wish there was a bit more presentation after a big game. When I went to the Super Bowl I didn’t see any players on the field celebrating, or confetti or any type of celebration. It was the same when I won the Super Bowl, no excitement, just a text that flashes across the screen saying the New England Patriots are Super Bowl Champions, but what else is new? My boys always win!

Most stadiums look great, but back in the 90s, there were a few stadiums with astroturf. If you don’t remember what it is, look it up. It’s ugly and the ugliness really stuck out on NFL 2K. When I played the Colts and when I was in the Super Bowl it was played inside a stadium with astroturf. Instead of looking like grass, it looked like the teams were playing on neon glowing green floors that were radioactive. It honestly distracted me a little bit , and I wish they would have toned down that hideous hint of green for the astroturf. I’m surprised that I was able to write this NFL 2K review after being blinded by that green.

When looking for a licensed NFL game in the late 90s, you would not have found a better one. NFL 2K was way ahead of the curve and it became the signature sports game for the Sega Dreamcast.

Memories:
I had one friend who owned a Sega Dreamcast, and he did have a copy of NFL 2K. I vaguely remember watching him play it one weekend and perhaps I tried it out myself. Unfortunately for him, he was a huge Cowboys fan and still is to this day. I vividly remember Randy Moss on the cover of the game too, I loved him when he played for the Patriots a few seasons later.

NFL 2K Review Score:

Just like the Sega Dreamcast, NFL 2K was ahead of its time. Anything you could want from an NFL game in 1999 is included. Superb physics, an authentic presentation made the first 2K game an instant classic.

NFL 2K isn’t perfect, but it’s beautiful.

NFL 2K scores a 9.4 out of 10.

What would you write in your NFL 2K review? Who was your favorite player for the 1999-2000 season? I loved Drew Bledsoe. What’s the best NFL game of all-time? Do you want the 2K series to return? Let me know your thoughts and memories, I’d love to read them!