A Personal Video Game Retrospective (1986-2015) 1990

Welcome to the 90’s! We haven’t entered the age of cool yet but this might just be the height of NES popularity. With the SNES on the horizon a lot of developers have gotten quite good at pulling out every last bit of power out of this little console. This is noted by the improvements in Super Mario Bros 3 or Castlevania III. These were also examples of developers returning to what they did best after the experimental second act in both of these franchises. My collection this year is quite large which makes this a really long blog post. I’m beginning to think ¼ of my collection from this time is Capcom games.

1990

It took me a few levels and facing the Medusa boss to jog my memories of playing this game. This is the first time a game has tried to tell a on going story as you progress. At least in this version you play as unwilling teenage hero named Astyanax who gets pulled into another world by a fairy named Cutie. If he wishes to return back to his world he must take down a evil wizard and rescue the princess. This is told via still images that have a anime style to them.

I was also impressed by the translation which had very few errors. The game itself is a action platformer with the main focus on swinging a ax around to kill enemies. A magic attack can also be used to clear the screen. Going from cut scene to game is kinda odd since you go from bishonen anime dude to buffed up armored He Man looking guy. No clue why they did that. I must say this was a unexpected gem in my collection.

The best light gun game on the NES right here. Why is this better than the rest? Well at this point Nintendo knew the margin of error for the Zapper so they give the player a large enough target that you can actually hit it with some accuracy. 4 different shooting events gives the player enough reason to keep coming back. Especially if you play this in a party format to see who can get the highest score. Yet the best thing ever is that you can get your revenge on the duck hunt dog by “accidentally” shooting him during the balloon event.

Batman makes no qualms about giving the player tough platforming levels mixed in with boss encounters. It seems to be based on the movie that came out around this time although it all plays out in silent format with the cut scenes mainly showing off how cool the bat-mobile is. Overall this is a well made action platformer that slowly keeps ramping up the difficulty to challenge the player as they go along. The fact that Batman has a ton of control that allowed me to control the distance of my wall jumps is something I did not see often from this time period. Plus the rest of his moveset was just as useful too. A good licensed game these days is a rarity but this happens to be one of those.

Going from one of the harder games on the NES to a easy one. Bugs Bunny was invited to a birthday blowout yet all of his loney toon friends really don't want him to make it to the party. In order to make it to his party he will need to platform and hammer any foes that stand in his way. This premise makes very little sense and the game itself is rather easy. Yet the game is well put together.

What appears to be a top down shooter starring the world's best F-14 pilot Skyhawk actually has a few tricks up its sleeve. For one it has different objectives depending on stage. The perspective changes on the shoot down the fighter stages to emulate the camera angle of After Burner. Finally you also happen to be in command of a space f-14 because after every 2 levels you dock with a space station to upgrade/restock special weapons.

So I've watched Vinny play through this and even watched a speed run of it. I'm obviously ready to take down Dracula. That isn't quite true but I did at least know what I was getting into compared to the first time I played this. I did manage to get to the 4th level before getting a game over which is a lot better than every other time. Plus the 8 bit soundtrack mixed with the satisfying whip attack always kept me coming back even if I've never gotten to the final boss.

Until Rare Replay came out I didn't realize that I owned more of their games than I thought. Including this one starring a spelunker who is after a grand treasure. Like many similar adventurers this one has a issue with heights but at least it isn't instant death like some other games. As the name implies you do a lot of digging although you will also need to use dynamite and ladders to succeed in this expedition. Since it is a puzzle platformer the fact that you can't look below the screen leads to ending up at a dead end a lot.

My love of anything Disney during this period did lead to me buying just about every game related to them. It is a good thing Capcom spent some time making these games good. Really this time period may have accidentally pushed a lot of people into thinking that licensed games were mostly on the good side.

Anyway the Magic Kingdom stars you the player as a Indiana Jones Jr lookalike form to search through the theme park to collect silver keys. Mickey and the crew just don't have time to do all the work so why not make a kid do it eh. Each attraction is a different mini game. Both the pirate and the ghost house are platformers. While the train and race track stages are a race against time. The pirate level is especially tough thanks to the fact you can't even damage a enemy without using a barrel placed around the level. I didn't get to collect all the keys but I assume the castle might be another level as well.

This has to be the one game I've beaten the most in my NES library. Compared to most of the games on NES this one is really easy. Even during my 30 minute visit I ended up getting to the end of the game. The story of this game is pretty much cutting a episode of the tv show to it's bare essentials. Chip and Dale must beat up Fatcat because he is doing something evil. So it isn't going to win any awards for it's great story. It is notable to me at least for being the first simultaneous co op game. So you didn't need to wait for your turn to play a level. Since the main mechanic is picking up items and throwing them this could lead to some antics in coop. If the one thing NSMB taught me was that it is kinda fun to mess with your co op partner.

I've always found it hilarious that this game changes slightly depending on if you suck at top down shooters. The first level is the final level of the previous game similar to what Castlevania: SOTN does. It is quite a bit easier so it is very unlikely that you'll die but if you do the storyline changes. Plus in general it makes the game a lot easier although you do get a silly ending instead of the real one.

Either way what you will be playing is a good top down shooter with similar systems as the Xevious series. Instead of a space ship you play as a epic dragon that has to travel through time and defeat a bunch of giant bosses. Like just about every game like this more upgrades you get the easier the game becomes but if you die it knocks you down back to a peashooter. In general I recommend this game to anyone that might not have played this before since it is a really good game.

Another game to that I could add to a list of games with great 8 bit soundtracks. It is quite amazing what some composers could do with such limited hardware. Journey to Silius stars Jay who's father has been killed by “terrorists.” Those terrorists happen to be comprised entirely of robotic enemies.

If the slightly off tune intro music didn't give it away the giant Terminator boss later on does. They must have had the Terminator license at some point but lost it. I also consider this game rather unfair since it almost requires the player to die to beat certain bosses. Taking a few hits is 100% required to beat most of the bosses so if I went into a boss encounter with low health I was almost guaranteed to lose.

Kickle is in quite a pickle, every land has been frozen solid by a evil wizard. Conveniently he loves cold weather so it is up to him to travel across the 4 lands and save the 4 princesses who have been captured by the Wizard's minions. The game is a of a puzzle variety with the main focus being turning foes into ice blocks that are then used to fill in holes to obtain roses that are required to complete each level. After I finished off the first world they started to add new enemies and obstacles in every level to make them tougher. The first boss which happened to be a giant chicken with a eye patch tested my dodging skills more than my mind.

Out of the NES Capcom games I own this is most likely the worst one. Based on the movie this game follows Nemo as he journeys through Slumberland. It is another platformer but Nemo can't hurt anything without some help from some animal pals. After feeding them candy he can control them for a while. Each animal has different skills that will let him collect all the keys in the level. Those keys are a key reason why I never played this game much. Getting to the end of the level only to realize I didn't collect all the keys is just not fun.

Mission Impossible actually plays like a top down Zelda game but instead of using a sword you have a gun. It also has 3 playable characters that have their own unique weapon sets. Like the Tv show this is based on it features Jim and his companions as they tackle another impossible mission. I just wish the first real area didn't turn out to be a sewer level. It even has enemies that only skill is to push the player into the water. This game does feature NPCs that gave me hints on where to go next although Konami's sub par translation skills show up again.

The other unlicensed NES game I own. The black cartridge these come in make them stand out in my collection. The carts also feel tougher compared to the normal ones. I really don't know if I need to say much about Pac-Man. It is a really good port of the arcade game. I somehow got to the 2nd intermission that plays after you beat 5 stages where a ghost loses part of himself while chasing Pac Man.

Rock and Roll pinball is my first virtual pinball game. It only features one normal pinball table although it does have 3 other variations. One is a pachico table with a Vegas theme and you can even bet points to get a higher score. Another one actually a VS pinball table with each player being on opposite sides of the table. The final game is a variation of ice hockey although instead of attacking with a paddle you use a pinball flipper. The solo table wasn't that fun and the rest could have been if I wasn't playing against the CPU.

The very first talking NES game if the box art is to be believed. It features Big Bird and his Sesame Street pals as they teach kids name recognition and how to spell 3 letter words. Big Bird does speak to the player the entire time and compared to the previous learning games this one could have had the most impact on helping someone to spell simple words. The game part doesn't seem that fun though since it I really is just picking out characters that might hide in different windows.

As you may be able to infer by the title you'll be hearing Shake Rattle and Roll along with other 1950's music. It fits the tone of the game more than you would expect. The game itself is a 3D platformer that has a couple of snakes as the protagonists. They need to jump and eat enough dots to open up the end of the level. The weirdest thing about this premise are the enemies which include toilet seats and even a giant foot. Well it is a Rare game and a another example of them making a 3D platformer before Super Mario 64.

Spot isn't quite cool yet so instead of a platformer starring 7ups mascot you get a board game. You will pretty much be playing Reversi. Where the goal is to get more spots with your color compared to your opponent. I guess to give some flair to the game every time you move it plays a animation with Spot doing something silly. This slows the game down a bit to much so it is also good that it is possible to turn off the animations. A lack of any other options left me never playing this game often.

Who was the person that convinced someone at Capcom to use the name Street FIghter on a game that wasn’t even slightly connected to it. They named the main character Ken and going by the text crawl in the beginning he decided to be a scientist after winning the street fighter tournament years ago. Some evil dude decided to kill Ken’s new friend Troy and steal some research they were working on. It is up to Ken to use his cybernetic abilities to get his revenge on a evil organization.

The game itself isn’t even slightly a traditional fighting game. You are given a bar that needs to be filled to expand the range of your attacks. So instead of only being able to hit an opponent from a few pixels away you can fire sonic boomish attacks from across the screen if you collect enough. I will say that each level starts out with a VS screen but that doesn’t mean you’ll be fighting in a arena. Platforming along with climbing is now apart of cyber Ken’s repertoire Overall it seems alright although dying really hinders the player since your across the screen attack goes back down to a basic attack.

Now that I once again beat SMB3 I have to wonder if I ever beat this the normal way. Why play all of those levels when you can just skip directly to the end with some warp whistles? I’ve certainly tried to beat every world before but I usually end up having to turn off my NES before getting to the end. Like SMB2 it took a bit to get this one to work. Mostly thanks to how much I blew into my NES cartridges in the past. The addition of new power ups and the world map only added to what they started with SMB. They will continue to expand the Mario formula in a 2D format for one more time but that’ll have to wait till the next generation of consoles. As a side note I seem to have two copies of this game. Most likely thanks to already having one before getting another with the toploader NES.

You may not expect this but this is a great port of the TMNT arcade game. The only downside is that you can’t continue when you run out of lives so it is twice as hard unless you know how to deal with bosses without getting hit. Like the last game April has been kidnapped by shredder and it is up to the turtles to save her. This time it is in beat em up format similar to FInal Fight. This NES port is a downgrade graphicly and it has a few flickering sprites. Yet it is a complete port of the arcade game with all the cutscenes and levels presented in a 8 bit format. I also noted that this version has an early example of in game advertising. The 2nd level features falling billboards with the Pizza Hut logo.

I believe this is the last game show game you’ll see in my collection. The real reason why these games are in my collection is that my mom originally got the NES for her to play. Since she enjoyed watching game shows it makes sense she would pick these games up. Drawing on a NES pad seems like a bad decision so the developers were smart in giving the player the option of letting the CPU draw. Sure they do give the player the option of drawing whatever word they decide to give you but it requires another player to do anything. Kinda odd how they programed in a lot of drawings yet no CPU opponents. I also noticed a few “special” translation errors like after getting a correct answer the player characters will yell HAIRY instead of hooray.

Domino's didn’t feel like buying some product placement in a game so with Capcom’s help they retooled a game into one starting The Noid. For some reason the red Noid has turned good and is now platforming through levels to reach pizza eating contests to beat other evil Noids. At least that is what I figured out from the first 3 levels. At least at first the game seems like a run of the mill platformer with no issues. Even the odd pizza eating card game at the end of the first level was okay. Yet once I got to the skateboarding level I found out why I never got very far into this game. The hitbox on the skateboard is weird along with an annoying long jump at the end of the level.

Conclusion

I’m certain that we can start to see what kind of games I prefer during these early years. Sure it is mostly thanks to Mario making the action platformer a thing everyone wanted to make yet it is the type of game I seem to have an affinity for in this time period. This was also the start of my love of beat em up games with TMNT the arcade game which continues to be a type of game I still enjoy. Looking ahead slightly this could be considered the last big hurrah for the NES before a slight downturn in quality thanks to most developers putting more time into the SNES. Games are about to get a dose of cool with the introduction of the Genesis and Sonic The Hedgehog. Not to be left behind Nintendo also released what couldh Super Mario World.