Mon, 23 April 2018
Another game licensed from a Japanese media property hits Super NES, but this one isn't quite as good as U.N. Squadron. In fact, it's really quite poor: A clumsy fighting game based on Ultraman's short-lived push into the U.S. television market. It might not be all bad if not for the unspeakably boneheaded victory condition requirement, which turns this into a jarring example of a faithful video game adaptation that suffers for its accuracy to the source material…
Direct download: Ultraman_Towards_the_Future_retrospective_Leave_it_in_the_past___Super_NES_Works_015.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:19pm EDT |
Mon, 23 April 2018
The Super NES gets its first sports game in the form of an entry in Jaleco's Bases Loaded baseball series, which doesn't offer a whole lot that you couldn't find in Jaleco's simultaneous release for NES, Bases Loaded 3. All this 16-bit iteration really offers over its 8-bit counterpart is a questionable race not for the pennant but rather for a "perfect" game, a task best left to masochists drowning in free time.
Direct download: Super_Bases_Loaded_retrospective_Yer_out___Super_NES_Works_014.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:17pm EDT |
Mon, 23 April 2018
As if to prove there's no idea so good that you can't do it several times over in mostly identical ways, here is the third Battleship-like naval combat game for Game Boy. This one is from Nintendo themselves, which means that it's less offbeat than Use's Battleship/Navy Blue or NTVIC's Power Mission, but it's a lot more polished. And it includes an entirely original secondary sub combat mode, too! Just be sure to play with a friend, because the computer cheats like crazy in this one… as usual.
Direct download: Radar_Mission_retrospective_War_is_much_better_down_where_its_wetter___Game_Boy_Works_105.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:11pm EDT |
Mon, 23 April 2018
Who says Game Boy racing games have to be awful? Not TOSE and Tonkin House, who evidently took the likes of Monster Truck as a challenge. Roadster is everything previous Game Boy racers weren't: Fun, a joy to control, fairly balanced, thoughtfully designed. Will wonders never cease?
Direct download: Roadster_retrospective_From_Game_Boy_to_turbo_teen___Game_Boy_Works_104.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:09pm EDT |
Mon, 23 April 2018
It's weird that someone in Japan made a game about the all-American pastime of monster trucks and didn't bring it to the U.S., right? Well, mystery solved: The game is a terrible Excitebike clone with inscrutable mechanics, and it would have bombed terribly here in America. It certainly didn't win many fans in its own home territory…
Direct download: Monster_Truck_retrospective_Monstrously_underwhelming___Game_Boy_Works_103.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:07pm EDT |
Mon, 23 April 2018
What a relief: A genuinely great game, and a licensed one to boot!? Yes, Ghostbusters II defies the odds by ditching all connections to Activision's other Ghostbusters games and going with a portable adaptation of HAL Labs' charming-as-heck Famicom game New Ghostbusters II. Sure, it has some rough patches, but it's sweet and entertaining — a nice, breezy, personality-packed rendition of the movie.
Direct download: Ghostbusters_II_retrospective_Were_ready_to_relieve_you___Game_Boy_Works_102.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:06pm EDT |
Mon, 23 April 2018
Ah, here we go: The second set of 100 Game Boy Works episodes begins with the quintessential Game Boy experience. Yes, it's a mediocre puzzle-ish game that plays better on other platforms. Not an auspicious beginning, perhaps, but at least it's a realistic one. It appears I missed a play mechanic here (clearing rows by pressing down) due to the manuals to this game only being available in German and Japanese, so I will revisit this game in some capacity in the future to make a small note. Just a small one — the added mechanic makes it a little less difficult but doesn't fix the color ambiguity issue.
Direct download: Palamedes_retrospective_An_unlucky_roll_of_the_dice___Game_Boy_Works_101.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:05pm EDT |
Mon, 23 April 2018
The series hits its 100th episode and to celebrate… uh, well, it's business as usual. Thankfully, this episode tackles a pretty good (if somewhat unfairly balanced) shooter by none other than Konami: Pop ’N Twinbee. This shooter originally appeared in Japan in 1990 as Twinbee Da! (pictured in the video); the European version showed up four years later and is almost impossible to find complete these days (hence the lack of European packaging photos).
Direct download: Pop_N_Twinbee_retrospective_Cute_the_messenger___Game_Boy_Works_100.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 2:03pm EDT |