Friday Night Rentals: Gun.Smoke

Intro:

An immersive experience set in the late 1800s? The time of cowboys, cattle drives, and shoot outs? Are we talking Red Dead Redemption 2?

No!

It's old school time and I'm spending a little time in the old west this week with the Capcom shoot'em up classic Gun.Smoke!

Now, upfront, I want to say it took me years to realize that Gun.Smoke actually is a top down shoot'em up. (Late to the party, I know) In fact, there are several games that I started to play better as an adult that I didn't do so well at as a kid because I was lost in the astetics of the games. Stuff from Dino Riki to Dragon Spirit had me half "fooled" as a kid that they were something other than their true nature. An overhead shoot'em up. Not that I dislike those, but as a kid (and as an adult) I realize my own gaming limitations. I can enjoy a game like Gradius or Life Force, even when I'm terrible at it. That said, I still don't do that well at them.

As a kid though, I was more or less given to avoid all shoot'em ups. I was halfway decent at Gradius and Life Force, so I would occasionally rent them if there were no other options. (Remember, the cardinal rule as a kid was never leave the video store empty handed.) If there were games like Castlevania or Mega Man 3 on the shelf, I was gonna pass those games with the space ships and UFOs on them right up. I realize now that I missed out on some quality stuff because I took this idea with me well into 2000's. This isn't to say I never rented shoot'em ups, just that they never really grabbed my attention. Decades later, I'm grateful for the Retro Gamer Swap meets and sites like eBay so I have a chance to pick up those skipped games now that I'm adult with a bit of spending money of my own.

So, a bit of background on me. I loved westerns as a kid, and quite frankly I still love them as an adult.  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Fistful of Dollars are required movie watching in my opinion. I still love reading Louis' L'amour novels as much as I loved listening to them on tape when I was a kid. So naturally when a game like Gun.Smoke was available to rent, I grabbed that game happily. Never realizing I had picked up a shoot'em up with a western coating instead of space ships. 

So, does the game still hold up years later?

Draw!...

...Up a chair and let me tell you a bit about the game first.

Gameplay/Control:

With endless bullets and your trusty horse, it's up to you to bring leaden justice to the old west. Using wanted posters as your guide it's time to saddle up. Oh. A quick note on those wanted posters, unless you find them or buy them, you will endlessly loop the stage you are currently on. The necessity of buying the wanted posters and the chance to buy power ups (and pause the game of course) are the primary ways in which this version of Gun.Smoke varies from the original arcade game. You get points/money for every bad guy you take down and some of them drop money bags which gets you those extra points needed to buy the wanted poster should you not find its hiding place in the stage. I kinda have a love/hate relationship with this mechanic. 

The addition of shops where you can buy the poster, powered up weapons, extra ammo, and even a horse among other things is great. As a kid, I appreciated that the game was much easier to get into. I liked getting the shot gun or machine gun power ups. Of course, as an adult I see it for what it is; basically the "power up your spaceship" deal from other shooters. This realization in no way diminishes my fondness for the way the power ups are integrated into the game while keeping with the western theme.

However, I remember getting a little bored looping a stage endlessly. Sure, you can hunt down the wanted poster for free in each stage, but if you missed the wanted poster it was the same as if you had just decided to get more money and buy it instead. I don't know that the NES game would have had the programming power to make the game offer the shopkeepers selling the poster at a cheaper price if you missed where it was hidden or have them appear more often or something; but I sometimes wish it was there never-the-less.

As for the stages themselves, each one offers an array of fun and familiar old west locations from small, dusty towns to railroad tracks in the desert that occasionally passes a lonely station or two. Great stuff.

The controls still hold up pretty well. Just like a space shooter, you start out a little slow and under powered until you grab boots to boost your speed and shotgun icons to upgrade your weapon reach and rate. Again, as a kid I didn't see this in the same as a thing like Gradius. I was in the old west, gearing up to take down a gang of rustlin' outlaws ridin' fer trouble.

Ya know?

Sound Design/Music:

If you want to hear the soundtrack for Gun.Smoke, please follow this link here for the soundtrack. Capcom offers the usual mix of fun arcade sounding beats with a western flair. True, the NES didn't have the same capabilities as the arcade proper, but it still has quality to it that evokes a feel reminiscent of Ghost Riders in the Sky or something Johnny Cash might have written if he worked on a game sound track. Seriously, go to YouTube and hunt down some of the covers of the main theme, Hicksville, and you'll see what I mean.

In fact, go check this cover of Hicksville right now. It's just fantastic, and when you hear it covered in this way, you get even more of the western feel that this tune has.

In so far as sound design goes, Capcom again got it just right for this one. There are limitations in the NES, but the best companies (at least back in the day) knew how to make the most out of a few synthesized sounds. Gun shots, bad guy yells, horse clip clops are all done in a reasonably well way and still hold up today.

Conclusion:

As I mentioned earlier, I can see as an adult I did myself a disservice by not trying out more shoot'em ups. Yeah, the majority of overhead shooters you're going to find yourself piloting a space ship, fighting a slew of ships to save the planet, or galaxy, or all of space and time.

You get the idea.

I loved this game back in the day, I liked playing it as part of a Capcom collection that I have for the PS2--but that was direct arcade port. I finally picked up this NES port both as an excuse for this review, and because I recalled that I connected more with this version. Boy did I ever. It was worth popping into the local video game store to grab this one. I played for hours just for this review...because it's still a double-barreled blast of western nostalgia.

Friday Night Rentals: Amagon and Elevator Action

Intro:

Okay, time for a little trip down nostalgia road again. These two games were never rentals, but they made it into my collection of NES games and I have a fondness for them both. You see, as I may have mentioned in the past, I was a sickly kid growing up. I won't bore you with the details, sufficed to say--not even counting my transplant surgery--I had many surgeries, prolonged hospital stays, been laid up at home recouping from said hospital stays and...well, the list goes on. After the first go-round of one particularly grueling procedure that required drinking a "clear-you-out" mixture that smelled like old tires, my folks surprised me by getting me a couple of games to play as a "sorry you had to go through that" and "here is a reward for enduring such awfulness." I greatly appreciate that they did this for me. It aided my physical and emotional recovery as well. Believe me, being a kid and going through the stuff I had gone through was pretty rough. I'm forever grateful that my parents helped me maintain a semblance of a normal childhood by indulging me in the occasional video game gift to help the recovery time pass.

Let me say up front that Elevator Action was always going to be a win because I used to play that any time my family went into an arcade. I think I was pretty good at it too, if I recall correctly...

 As far as the other game is concerned, I had never heard of Amagon. I read a fair amount of Nintendo Power and other game magazine, and they had never mentioned it. Regardless of the circumstances or my knowing about an NES game, it was pretty awesome to get a game as a kid. Especially when we usually only rented them or got them as birthday or Christmas presents. 

Speaking of present, here we are in the present! I still have the games (I would never part with a single one of my beloved NES games), and I popped them in for this review and the question from other Friday Night Rentals remains: Do the games hold up still? Did they ever? Does sentiment override my better judgement in this review? 

A little. But I think that is okay in this case, given what I had to go through to "get" them.

Amagon:

So.

I made the mistake of thinking that because I was an adult now, this game would be easier. Obviously the memories I have of barely making it past the first level were my childish self not realizing that all games couldn't be like Super Mario where you get the hang of things pretty quickly. You just gotta learn the ropes. You just gotta know the enemy patterns. Just gotta realize that the game gravity is insane and that one hit deaths are pretty terrible in most video games... 

Amagon was crazy hard back then, and has lost none of the difficulty for me now that I am an adult. The wonky gravity, one-touch deaths with no health bar (unless you grab a certain power up, but even then your health bar is temporary), and lack of continues make this one of the more bonkers-hard games I've ever played. I tried to play it again for this review, assuming my gamer reflexes refined via years of gaming would aid me in my quest to snap some pics from my own system and show levels beyond 1-2.

It. Did. Not. Happen.

I wanted to have pics of my own and talk at length on how now that I was a "mature adult", such things that were a frustration to me in the day were now mere child's play. However, I still appear not be able to eek much past the very first level. Now, I could probably dedicate more time beyond the 30-40 minutes to make it past 1-2. I could learn the patterns of the enemies, play smarter each time, yadda yadda yadda...

 

Mainly though, I'm not interested in trying to do that at this time because I'm not here today to talk about how I can eventually play better now as an adult. I'm here to talk about the memories I have as a kid and maybe a quick re-evaluation.

I remember the music, not because it is particularly memorable, but because it seemed to make use of higher pitched noises to create a tune that I think is still a little grating today. I remembered the enemy patterns better than I was expecting; it having been years since the last time I popped the game in. I remember trying hard to like this game better when I was a kid, after all, my folks got this for me to enjoy and to recover with...but the enjoyment was not happening as easily as I had hoped. I guess though, this is the one thing that has really changed. I think even thought years of gaming didn't equal better skills at this game and more enjoyment, it definitely made me more appreciative of it. My folks grabbed a game for me that looked pleasant enough, was a platformer, which I love; and they did it to help me because they knew that between fantasy books and games I had a childhood that was a lot of laying down due to sickness. So a big shout out to my folks for this game. I hope to beat it still some day.

Elevator Action:

I want to quote myself here to talk a little bit about this one:

"In addition to playing it every time I went to the arcade, I remember when I got it as a gift from my folks to help me through some tough times.  I was really sick as a kid, had a number of hospital visits here and there.  I still remember following a particularly rough procedure my folks tried to perk up my spirits by getting me two games.  One was a little title called Amagon; the other was the home port of Elevator Action!"

I loved this game back then, and I love it still. In fact, when there was a gaming competition a few months ago on one of my gamer groups, I downloaded a copy to my Nintendo Switch so I could play it everywhere. So I could improve beyond what I was able to do as a kid. Unlike Amagon, I was able to get better and better as I played again and again.

It offers a type of simple, solid old-school arcade experience that holds up still. The simple premise of you are spy who has broken into an enemy building and is swiping top secret files on the way to the street level via elevator. Shoot the bad guys, don't fall down the elevator shaft or get shot. Simple, uncomplicated, high scoring fun. 

I gushed about this game years ago for a Midweek Music Box Article, and I could do it again here. 

I have never made a "top ten" NES games list, but it wouldn't surprise me if I ever did make one that this game would be in there. 

The responsive controls, the cleverly designed action, simple goals, and fun premise easily make this one a game that I can say if you don't already own it in some shape or form, you should do so. It is out there on the Nintendo Switch eShop, and it loads of fun. 

I know that some arcade game ports can get old quickly for people. Between most of them having one-hit-deaths and no "ending," just the relentless pursuit of the high score; I can see why some may pass on on it. However, you'd be doing yourself a disservice to ignore this classic.

Okay, enough gushing over Elevator Action. For now.

As I wind down this installment, I really want to give a shout to my folks, if they ever happen to read this blog and see this post. I love having Amagon and Elevator Action. Yeah, I have a ton of games, I'm a gamer and that's how the hobby goes. But really, I love you both and want to have a thanks out there on the internet for both having gotten me these games as a kid to help pass the recovery time, and to just up and do that in the first place. I know money had to have been tight at the time, but you still did something that I think of as huge to this day. Thanks so much for both trying to keep me healthy as a kid, and knowing the ways to help me feel like a kid even though I was dealing with some pretty grown up things at the time.

So anywho, I don't have much more to say in this edition of Friday Night Rentals, other than it has obviously been a long time since my last entry. I really do intend to write more on this blog. In fact, I've got a few drafts right now so that I'm able to get some more content out each Friday for the next few weeks at least. I do have book projects that I have been working on, but not as much as I would like. I guess that is the nature of the times we are living in. Regardless, thanks for taking a few minutes to read my little blog. If you like what I write and want to throw a buck my way, cool. If not, I still appreciate that you took the time to read what I wrote. See you next time!

Friday Night Rentals: Superman 64 and the Nerd of Hope

Intro

Hoooboy....where to start with this one?

Everything I can think of to say was likely said already somewhere else, and said in a hilarious way. Likely with lots of swearing too...

What better game to talk about for Independence Day Weekend than Superman 64? After all, Sups fights for truth, justice, and the American way right?....

Or does he fly about in circles all day like a drunk, endlessly attempting to navigate a maddening obstacle course within a minuscule amount of time? 

I think you know the answer.

Was this game a home run? As American as apple pie and baseball itself? Or does Superman 64, for the Nintendo 64 make the Justice League movie look good? (Just kidding, nothing can make that film look good, not even a Snyder Cut.)

Let's talk about the game, but also a little bit about the experience of renting bad games, and the one Nerd to rule them all...

Gameplay, Memories, and The Nerd of Hope:

Based off the popular animated series, The Adventures of Superman, Superman 64 follows our intrepid Kryptonian as he attempts to rescue his friends from a virtual reality world where they are imprisoned by Lex Luthor.  Now, as a fan of the show, I want to say I find the overall plot of the game terrible. If you have ever watched the show, which was phenomenal for the most part, you know that Luthor was usually more cunning and subtle than this contrived plan. Straight up kidnapping people, shoving them in a VR world, AND letting Sups know about it? This was more like something a lower tier villain like Toy Man might have done.

That aside, we all know by now the game had terrible control, an inane plot, and borderline cruel tasks requiring inhuman levels of precision. Getting through the first task--a course of rings that must be completed in under 2 minutes--is daunting to say the least. No punches pulled, no surrender or easy mode. Superman 64 just drops you straight into the mother of all gaming frying pans. To use a familiar meme, it's the Dark Souls of terrible retro games. The idea of completing this in one sitting, is laughable, and yet there are some people out there who can do just that, and do it in record time. If you've never done so before, watch a speed run of this game and you can see just how broken the game is from top to bottom as speed runners take advantage of every broken corner of this game. And there are many, many broken corners.  Yet it squarely falls under the retro game banner at this point in time, whether we like it or not. Feeling the warm fuzzies of nostalgia and member-berries yet?  You should, and let me tell you why.

One of the awesome things about renting games back in the 80s and 90s was as kids we had these collective experiences of picking up something new. Getting a brief, weekend's worth of playing a game almost always left us feeling emotions that were a mixture of excited, intense, and just plain joy at trying something new.  Superman 64 though has the distinction of being a game that everyone agrees was a terrible experience. We rented it back in the day, tried to play it, hated it, and returned it--bitter that our weekend had been wasted on such utter trash.  But I want to make a case that it is one of the best games ever made if for no other reason than it helped introduce me to the works of The Angry Video Game Nerd and to the collective experience of having played a terrible game back in the day. Before I get to that part, let's take a walk down memory lane.

Rental Memories:

Walking into a rental store, you never really knew whether what you were grabbing was a good or bad video game, and more importantly, whether or not you had just wasted a chunk of allowance money or summer job money. Yeah, there were game magazines that reviewed some stuff. But they couldn't cover it all, and it's not like you had a copy of Nintendo Power in your back pocket as you were wondering up and down the aisles, trying to pick something before your parents told you it was time to go. Sometimes, in those frantic moments before your mom or dad said something like, "If you can't decide then we could just leave without getting something," you would just grab the nearest game handy. Never go home without a game.

Sometimes you hit gold with Contra. Yeah, maybe you beat it already, but it was a blast, so why not do it again?  Or, it could go south and you could end up stuck for the whole weekend with a game that was total garbage--And oh wow, does Superman 64 ever fit that bill. Until about a decade ago, I never would have known I wasn't alone in thinking the game was trash. The fact was though, renting that game had actually made me a part of a collective video game experience of gamers across the world.  Not a good one, but an experience never the less.

I hated the game and I really, really, really tried to like it. 

When I was younger, if I couldn't play a game well when I rented it, most times I just chalked it up to me being lousy at that particular game. Blown to bits on the first level of Gradius? Sure. Smacked down by Dhalsim in Street Fighter? Yeah, that happens. Maybe I wasn't figuring out something basic. Maybe I needed to play more and develop the skills to play the game well. Maybe the copy I got was broken somehow. (Note: I've actually thought this was the case for a particular game, but that's a story for another time.) This time though I knew, I just knew that the game was fundamentally bad. In fact, it was so bad it made me wonder if other games from my slightly older systems, like the NES and the Sega, were bad as well, and I was too naive and too young at the time to realize it. I shrugged it off at the time, but the effect of renting such a terrible game stayed with me for a long while afterwards.

Cue James Rolfe AKA the Angry Video Game Nerd, or The Nerd if you prefer...

The Nerd of Hope:

I found out about The Nerd in a different way than most, and I want to give you a little backstory on it:

I was going through a pretty rough time in 2010. Previous years had been marked by poor health and a degenerative liver disease known as PSC. Mid-January of that year, I had been diagnosed with early signs of liver cancer and was bumped up pretty high on the transplant list. While getting regular time in front of radiation machine and low-level chemo treatments, I would play video games, read, watch movies; you know, do anything to pass the time and try to not obsess about what was going on. 

Problem was, I was rapidly running out of energy on a daily basis, and although I enjoyed playing games to pass the time, I really just spent most of my time half asleep or in a daze from my illness and treatments. My little sister suggested I try out a website called thatguywiththeglasses, the original home of the Nostalgia Critic, and watch some of the funny videos there to lift my spirits. This lead to me hopping over to Youtube to check out the various movie and game reviews as well. After some hopscotching around what we now think of as "old school" Youtube to see if I could find other funny reviews to lift my spirits, I discovered the Nerd and his review of the now infamous game. What a treasure that channel truly is, and what a blessing it was (and still is) to me.

What unfolded in The Nerd's roughly ten minute thrashing of Superman 64 was a comedy genius game review that still holds up a decade later. Sure he swears like drunken sailor at a bar holding a "Swear Like a Drunken Sailor Night," but in a weird way, that's part of the charm. Not only was he dropping F-bombs, but doing so while pointing out the basics of why Superman 64 was so terrible. It wasn't just that the game was being used as part of a comedy bit, there were legitimate criticisms wrapped up in it as well. From the stupid, endless ring levels, to the bad graphics, to the unending green fog surrounding the first stage--all of these horrible hallmarks of the game provided fodder for The Nerd. Each minute was funnier then the last culminating in a goofy, but fun green-screen tribute to Superman, complete with The Nerd saving the day by hurling his copy of the game into the sun. 

I laughed a lot, probably more than I had in a while, and I binged all his reviews over the next few days, and I've been fan ever since.

It was a great bit of levity that I needed in those dark times, and I want to give a shout out/thanks to James Rolfe for creating AVGN. His videos have always been a great pick me up when times are down, and I've enjoyed nearly every project he's done since. Heck, I'm not really into horror films, but his annual devotion to various horror films in the month of October convinced me to pick up some of the early Hammer horror films, such as the various Dracula movies starring Sir Christopher Lee. But I digress. It goes beyond just enjoying the misadventures of the Angry Video Game Nerd. It was great to know that not only was it okay to say that some of those older games didn't hold up, some of them were downright awful and unplayable. It was great to see him pick apart the game and layout reasons why. Everything he vented about was exactly the way I remember feeling about Superman 64 at the time. It was good to know that there were others out there who not only remembered playing the good games, the easy ones that came to mind like Contra, or Super Mario Bros., or Sonic the Hedgehog.--but also really remembered the bad ones like Total Recall, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde....and even Superman 64. 

Bad Games, Good Memories:

I remember nearly every game I've rented, both the fun ones and the dreadful ones. Sure, grousing about bad video games in this day and age is pretty easy to come by. Why, you could probably step out your front door right now, or visit a gamer forum, and find at least three people who left a harsh opinion *somewhere* online about the latest Playstation, Xbox, or Nintendo game. What's unique about the criticisms and consternation that we had in the past was not only did we not have the ability to access games with a couple of button pushes and a download; but you more keenly felt it when a game was going bad on you. Sure, might have invited friends to hang out if you had a copy of something like Super Punch Out, but if you picked up a bad game, no way you would want others to know about your embarrassing mistake.

We worked hard to get those four or five bucks to get that game rental when our parents went to the video store. It was absolutely crushing as a kid to get home and find out that not only did the LJN movie based game you rented suck, but you had that thing for the whooooooooole weekend, no going back. It was your companion after school that Friday night, the first thing you did after Saturday Morning Cartoons, and for some of us it was the first thing we did after getting home from church on Sundays. You played that game you rented, even if it filled you with deep regret that you didn't just rent Bionic Commando for the 5th time. Yeah, there were times I was mentally kicking myself for having picked up a game I didn't like, that happened. 

Funny thing is, I sometimes laugh at myself now for having passed up renting certain games as a kid, only to have them be some of my favorite games now as an adult. Was Superman 64 a good game to play on a weekend? Not by a long shot. But it was so bad that it has to bring a smile to your face these days just thinking about it. Ask anyone these days what they think of as the worst game ever made and some may knee jerk say  E.T. for Atari. But for those of us who got a chance to rent games, and know about it, Superman 64 has a legacy that will live on.

Friday Night Rentals: War Gods

Intro:

War Gods was filmed before a live studio audience! Please do not attempt any of the stunts seen on War Gods, Midway Entertainment would like to remind you that what you see depicted is intended for mature audiences and entertainment purposes only....

Okay, so maybe that wasn't the intro for the game War Gods, but I do remember being entertained by playing this game when it was in a local arcade. It would blare out it's title in that overly enthusiastic Midway manner, sounding for all the world like the announcer for an action heavy game show. In any case, the real question now is whether the game lives up to the former hype that it bellowed from arcades back in the day; or was the port a case of Nintendo 64 burping out another dud, suitable for quick cancellation in our collective memories, not to be renewed for a further season, or brought back via reboot?


Gameplay:



As the story for the game goes, in the distant past, a meteor know as "the ore" broke into 10 fragments and was scattered across the earth, only to be found by various humans who turned into powerful beings known as the War Gods. Each god is on a quest to find and defeat the other holders of the ore and become the most powerful being in the world...and it plays out pretty much how you'd expect.

Published by Midway and featuring a goofy cast of characters, War Gods feels every inch the lesser version of Mortal Kombat that you'd expect. 

How I wish this wasn't so...

The premise seems like it should be a cheesy good time, but after spending some time trying to re-familiarize myself with War Gods, I kept wishing that it was Mortal Kombat.

The controls themselves are fine and they get the job done. The 3D function to help you move around the arena at the time were, and still are, a mix of "nice idea who's time has yet to come." That said, it would have been possible to make this game feel clunky and phoned in (even further than it already is) if the tightness of the controls were not there, but I never once felt that the hits and punches my guy would take were anything other than my own lack of ability in the fighting game genre. Full disclosure--I'm terrible at fighting games. This doesn't mean I don't enjoy goofing around with them from time to time, and even when I'm getting walloped, I'm usually still having a bit of fun.

Games like Street Fighter and Streets of Rage have thrived because the controls have stayed the same so you know what to expect. I wanted to be able to dive right into the game, but found myself looking up special moves that seemed more along the lines of a complex baking recipe than something from a fighting game. I think this comes from the fact that the game has its clunky 3D system, and it is far too easy to mess up a combo. This left me continually frustrated rather than feeling like I was about to pull off something cool, and I ended up abandoning my attempts pretty early on. A few times I managed to actually perform a special move, but darned if I know what I did because my attempts to recreate it were fruitless.

Graphics and Style:

The biggest surprise here for me was the fact that the game was created by Midway. (Guess I didn't pay much attention to branding when it came to fighting games.) It's pretty obvious to me now though that they were trying to copycat themselves and create a new "battle to the death" fighting game. They attempted to spice things up by way of a "gods" motif. 

However, the only one of the characters that feels like a "pantheon of the gods" pick would be Anubis. The rest of the playable characters are an oddball assortment of knock offs of the Terminator, a generic gladiator, a kabuki fighter, and so on. When I picked this game up for reviewing, the only other fighter I could recall off the top of my head from the game, beyond Anubis, was Kabuki Joe. And I only remembered him because the name sounded like one of those goofy 80s action movies. (Which, if there was such a movie I'd watch in a heartbeat.)

The characters, like Kabuki Joe and Anubis, should have a certain eccentric appeal, but they just don't feel like there was much thought put into them, and so much of what they do feels like a not-quite-as-cool version of Mortal Kombat. Even some of their special moves feel like a rip off of the moves of more well known characters. Things like a version of Scorpion's spear throw and Kano's laser beam eye make an appearance, or at least that is what it looked like was hitting me... 

Anywho. The Graphics are what you would expect from a Nintendo 64 game that's poorly lit with 3D rendered characters. Slightly muddy, unpleasant backgrounds seem to be the norm, and if you turn out the lights and squint, then maybe you can look past how it feels. Now, this isn't to rag on the game for being of its time, but other games pulled the look off better?  (Noticing a theme here?) 

Music and Sound:

Honestly, the tracks of the game are pretty standard fare and very forgettable at that. Everything about the sound effects and soundtrack feels a little too paint by numbers. Yeah, it has some decent guitar riffs, but nothing about those riffs will stick with you the next day. Maybe others can get more out of the music then me, but I just wasn't as into it as I usually am when a game tries to offer up heavy metal music.  Now granted, not everything in every game should have to hold up outside of the level or area that it is created for--but when it gets bland, it can get really bland. Sure, there are bits that are appropriately dark sounding and such, but in a way the whole soundtrack felt forced and as cookie cutter as the rest of the game.

Memories and New Thoughts:

I wish while playing War Gods for this review that I had rediscovered a gem, something fun and familiar that I was finally getting around to playing again now that I had my own copy--and not just a vague memory of when I rented it in the proverbial land of "back in the day." The sad truth though is that War Gods just wasn't that good. Maybe the arcade experience was better than the Nintendo 64 port of the game, but as I was writing this my research led me to find out that because War Gods received such lukewarm reviews in the arcade when it came out, not many cabinets are out there, so the chances of me seeing if I would have preferred the cabinet to the port are slim.  All said, War Gods is not a terrible game, and it does have a thing or two that stuck with me over the years, but even nostalgia wasn't enough to pull this game beyond the vague feeling of, "Oh yeah, I remember War Gods."

Friday Night Rentals: Dynowarz

Intro:

I have a three-year-old son, so covering this particular game was inevitable. No, not the Thanos kind of inevitable, but inevitable all the same. I figure when I was a kid, I was into dinosaurs. It's kind of a right of passage when it comes to little boys. That and robots. And ninjas (likely those will be a future Friday Night Rentals, if not many of them). And other action things in general. But if you can fuse Dinosaurs AND robots, all the better. If they could have worked ninjas into this game, it would have blown minds. Still, fighting robot dinos wasn't a bad place to start. I remember having a good time playing Dynowarz as a kid, and not much beyond that. So, was Dynowarz still as good time when I picked it up again? Or are dinos and robots better left in the past?

Gameplay:

In Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus...there's likely a complicated back story and premise that I won't pretend to know anything about. Seeing as I don't have a game manual, we're gonna stick with what you can generally glean just as if you rented it back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. I could look up the details, but is it really important if you were a kid renting this back in the day?

You are a space fighter who pilots a giant robot dinosaur with the goal of getting to an enemy base at the end of the level and destroying it before it destroys you. The game is fairly simple as you move from left to right battling other bots along the way. The jumps would be easy save for one little thing. This is not due to the gaps. (More on this later). There's not much variety from level to level when it comes to challenge or even layout, at least there wasn't for the three levels that I played through to help refresh my memory for this little review/trip down memory lane.  Not that it was dull playing mind you, just something about each level seemed fairly stripped down, even for an original NES game.

The real variety comes from the weapons your robo-dinosaur can get and power up along the way. Everything from a robo-fist that launches from your bot, to a bomb toss, to a basic blaster.  You level up your weapons by grabbing different power ups, but as soon as you grab a new power up, you lose the previous one. Meaning that you can get a blaster powered up to level 3, then accidentally grab a fist shot and be back at square one when it comes to your weaponry. It isn't a deal-breaker though. Each of the enemy robo-dinos you battle aren't too strong and they provide occasional energy power ups which make navigating a level satisfying and not frustrating. Once you get to the enemy base portion of the game, you disembark your robo-dino and go through a short base level to get to a blobish-looking boss that puts up little fight.  Overall, the challenge of the game just isn't there. Not that it isn't fun, just that the game isn't as difficult as it could be.

Except in one regard.

When you jump there's a momentary delay as your character, be it the dinobot or space guy, crouches and THEN jumps. It can making judging the timing of gaps difficult in a way that doesn't feel like the game intends it to be. I get that when you are leaping from one moving platform to the next there's supposed to be a bit of a challenge, but one would hope that it was born of the game feeling fair. Something about the oddity of the way your character jumps adds an artificial challenge that comes from the control itself and not the game. There are other games in that time and some in present day which have the weird crouch-then-jump thing and they manage to pull it off better. Dinowarz does not. Barring that, the game does offer you the chance to continue from the level that you die on and a code for each level, so even though there's the odd jumping mechanic and you don't have extra lives--the game still feels playable and not ridiculously hard. Sometimes this lack of difficulty makes it less interesting than it could be, but it is still fun overall.

Graphics and Style:

The brief cut scenes you see as you transition from space guy to robo-dino are pretty solid for the time. Digitized pictures of actors and movie sets never translated well in this era, but when it came to stylized cartoon images and brief cut scenes with or without minor animation, the NES was able to do it in a way that made a game feel a bit more epic. (See the entire Ninja Gaiden for more proof of this.)

As for the game itself, it isn't overly complex in the graphics department. Not that this is a knock against it, just that I wish Dynowarz could have added something extra. By using a starry background and having much of the adventure be in outer space/other planets, the game doesn't have to work too hard or do much in the way of parallax scrolling to give it a vague 3D feel. Going from the well rendered, kick-butt looking dino to this was a little bit of a let down, even back in the day. Again, I know the NES wasn't exactly a graphical powerhouse, just wish that for all the detail on the dino cut scene, the background could have had a little more going on.  Still, the colors are nice and the sprites are decently detailed for what you get.

Music and Sound:

Sometimes a game can have music and sound that doesn't fit, is terrible, or just has such average feel that you can forget it pretty quickly after playing. For Dynowarz, the sound effects are okay and the music has some decent beats that while not always memorable, are fun to listen to from time to time. I particularly like the Intro/Title screen music for it's continuous crescendo. It feels adventurous and exciting, while not being to over-the-top. I'd recommend hunting down the soundtrack on Youtube for some decent background tunes every now and then, but it is likely that you will forget them quickly or would have a hard time identifying a track from the game if it were in a shuffle of other games.

Memories and New Thoughts:

As I mentioned before, I vaguely remember enjoying Dynowarz as a kid.  When I played it so I could do this little slice of blogging nostalgia, I had fun again and most times that's enough. However, a new bit of joy and fun was added this time around as my little boy enjoyed watching me blast dinos as he called out the names of the various dinosaur robots from stegos to T-rex's. Most of the time my little boy will want me stop playing if I try to sneak in a little video game playing during the day. This time he was fine with it and wanted me to continue. I don't know if Dinowarz would be my first choice when doing some retro gaming or even as an introduction to retro gaming for my kids--but if it provides a gateway to introduce my little guy into the world of classic Nintendo, that's just fine by me.

Friday Night Rentals: Plok

This particular game has been a long time coming both for review, and for me personally. I think I have hoped to find Plok in the so-called "wild" of game hunting for several years now. While not the very first game that I started hoping to find either in the wild or at a local game swap, I think Plok has always occupied a corner of my mind. I remembered it as a fun, if somewhat oddball game that I rented several times and kept either hoping to beat or hoping to get fairly far along on.  After years of hunting I came across it at a garage sale and I could not have been happier.

So, after a long wait (much like my return to game blogging) I now have that chance to once more see whether my happy memories were right--or if I was about to get a cold dose of adult-hood reality.


Gameplay:

You are Plok! A king with a flag obsession who rules over a small set of islands. One day he goes out to lounge and finds his beloved flag is stolen! Thus begins his epic quest to recover his beloved flag and punish those who stole it.  But is this really a game about recovering a flag? Or are there more nefarious schemes and an evil villain lurking in the shadows using the flag-theft as a distraction? Thus begins the story....so, does this simple sounding quest give you a simple time? Well....

No.

Plok offers a bigger challenge than I expected and was much, much harder than I recalled...yet I can't say it doesn't feel fair. There are a fair share of games on any given system--and the SNES is no exception--that have unreasonable difficulty with absurd hit boxes and barrages of endlessly respawning enemies who cheap-shot you at every turn.  I want to say despite getting battered and losing time and time again, I never felt like the game was cheap or had done me an unfair turn.

Okay, that's not totally true. There were a few times when logs and enemies literally dropped out of nowhere. Not to mention that there were several times along the first level/world where there are places where you needed to take blind faith leaps in order to get somewhere. Most times you will find a ledge, other times you will find yourself falling helplessly into the ocean with no recourse only to watch poor Plok hop in and out of the water, doomed to die. Also, collecting shells in the game and earning extra lives and a continue is an absolute must if you plan on ever beating the game. While getting those extra lives and a continue or two isn't impossible, the fact that you can get all the way through an area's levels, fight the boss and lose, and end up starting all over at the beginning...it can feel a bit harsh for a game that looks like it is a bit on "kiddie" side.
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With the ability to toss his arms and legs as weapons, Plok really sets itself apart from other platformers. By having your "ammo" limited to the limbs you have "on hand" so-to-speak. Because of this limitation, you have an extra layer of challenge. If you go crazy and toss your arms and legs too much--you basically turn into the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. However, rather than being an immobile stump, you can find your limbless torso bouncing and sliding itself into danger. It's a fun mechanic and, despite the aforementioned challenges of blind jumps, it forces you to strategize a little before you attack. There are power-ups along the way such as suits that allow you to fire a more traditional projectile weapon, and a saw blade that causes Plok to spin in the direction he is facing and cut through obstacles and enemies for a brief distance. Both of these things are limited in nature though, and do not take away from the core mechanic of the game.

Graphics and Style:

Published by Tradewest and developed by Software Creations, the game screams European design. I don't know why, but something about any game developed in Europe has a look and feel to it that just tells you where it came from. Likely it has to do with the use of bright colors and large sprites that really does it. Not that the overly large characters detract from the game play, but it does make it feel less like you are inhabiting a world where the characters are existing and living lives, and more like it is "just a game." That said, the vibrant colors work to Plok's advantage given the whimsical nature of a game where your main method of attack is to fling your appendages at enemies, power ups, and switches.

The animation cycles are fun and simple, and Plok himself is memorable design-wise for how uncomplicated he looks. I assume that his simple design likely comes from the fact that the designers wanted to make it easy to animate Plok when he throws his arms and legs. The big, bulging cartoon eyes on his head/cap do make cutesy expressions based on the environment and what is happening to Plok at the time, and many times during the game it felt like I was playing as a muppet. Expressive, yet simple.


Music and Sound:

Plok Main Theme

Composed by Tim Follin, the soundtrack does shine in the amount of whimsy and energy it gives to various stages and power ups. Fun and bouncy, with a little hint of country bop and rock and roll, the main theme of Plok is really where the soundtrack for Plok shines. It has such variety and pep to it, you can't help but do a little head bob along to it and smile. I am sorry to say that most of the rest of the tracks in the game did not stick with me. They weren't bad or mediocre, just in an already crowded field of games with memorable soundtracks (the SNES library alone is enough competition for anyone) it just didn't stick with me over the years like I would have preferred. Of course, games like Super Mario World and Super Metroid are hard to compete with, but I am listening to the music as I write this review, and it is good and worth putting on in the background separately from the game.


Memories and New Thoughts:

I don't know why I never asked for Plok as a gift or tried to save up allowance or tried to find some other way of picking up the game when I was a kid. I remember liking the game well enough and I DID rent it several times hoping each time that I would get a chance to get a little further than I had the previous rental time. It was a funny and charming back then and it still is today.

Like I said before, it was a real joy to find it at a garage sale a while ago, and I think this is one of the games in my collection that I am willing to pop in more often then some other titles. Maybe one day I'll manage to even beat it over a weekend, just like I had hoped to do when I was a kid. If you don't already own it, I'd say it is worth having in your collection and having a go at beating every now and again.

Friday Night Rentals: American Gladiators

It's a double dose of nostalgia in this NES classic based on the popular TV show, American Gladiators. Okay...so maybe "classic" NES game is a bit of stretch for American Gladiators, but the TV show definitely falls under the retro/old school banner. It has an aesthetic that mashes up elements of 80s WWF and possible precursors of our more modern obstacle course based game shows like Wipeout and American Ninja Warrior. So has the game held up over time? Or does it go down in the final round?



Game play:

Something about this particular layout of a select screen gives that Mega Man vibe every time I see it. I don't know if Capcom was the first to do it, but they sure made it feel like a thing. In any case, when you start the game, you can choose from five different events. Each one plays a little different and has their own unique challenges. I won't say that the events are terrible or poor to play, but there are some that are harder than others, and this can lead to an uneven experience when you play. For example, in the Powerball event, the goal is to get a ball into each of the five baskets. You get 10 points per basket scored, with an extra life or "event attempt" as a reward if you score in each basket. It's fun to dodge the gladiators as they attempt to run into you and knock the ball out of your hands. Simple enough, right?

Yep. Simple and fun. 

However, if you hop over to the Wall event, it's a different story. Your goal is to get to the top of the wall. Simple too, right? 

No. Not at all. 

In fact, between the gladiators coming from below to grab you and pull you off, and the ones that come from above and suicidally fling themselves off the wall in an effort to take you with them--this event is bonkers hard. 

I played this particular stage for almost a half an hour straight and never made it to the top. Not only are the gladiators themselves a threat, but the wall itself has a weird layout that finds you avoiding gaps, maneuvering around obstacles, and navigating narrow spaces. On top of this, there's a timer. Now, I won't go so far as to say that it is impossible or near impossible, or even unfair (although it feels like it at times). I will say it feels "fiddly" when you get to the narrow gaps and that it does ride the line between being "Nintendo Hard" and feeling stupidly unfair.

Graphics and Style:

The colors and character sprites are actually pretty decent given the time period, but I guess when you really only need to stick to some solid reds, whites, and blues to keep up with the "American" part of the American Gladiators theme, you can't go too wrong. The digitized pictures of the gladiators aren't half bad for the time, but if you're looking for the gladiators that you actually do battle with on screen to match up in any way with how they look on TV, you will be disappointed. The characters have a look to them which feels like something from a Double Dragon game, and the movement isn't half bad. Not that there is much demanded of them, but all and all, the graphics aren't half bad for a later NES game.

Music and Sound:

While the music itself has some sufficient action beats and energy, it just never stuck with me. I remember some really annoying NES tunes from back in the day along with the really good ones. I wanted to remember this one, but grappled with remembering it, in fact I forgot it a few hours after playing the game. See, if it was terrible, I'd probably remember it, but I don't.  I will say this though, the scream sound effect is pretty memorable:

Memories and New Thoughts:

I remember being a little annoyed at this game as a kid for a host of reasons that seem silly to me now. Stuff like, "The characters in the game don't look like the guys from TV," and "Why does the joust game have a buncha platforms and not just two like the TV show?" I think now that I'm grown up I can appreciate the fact that they were trying to pad the length of the games within the limitations of NES cart. And...well, looking back on it...I was probably just too young to realize that just because I loved the NES and the graphics were a huge step up from the Atari, it didn't mean that the games themselves could process fully rendered versions of my favorite gladiators like Nitro and Zap.

Having picked this game up for only $5 at a local video game swap meet, I don't feel like the price point was too low or too high on the game. While it does have points in it that are definitely in the category of "Nintendo Hard," I don't feel like the times that I lost were too cheap or due to ridiculously small hit boxes on the enemies while my own character had one the size of a body builder on steroids. I'd probably recommend picking it up, but only if you're in the same vague nostalgia mood that I was when I got my copy. Not that the American Gladiators on the NES is terrible, but maybe only good for a brief weekend of entertainment like it was for me back in the day.

Midweek Music Box: Mortal Kombat the Movie Theme Song

It has begun! Yes, a brand new Midweek Music Box has arrived here on your virtual doorstep. Okay, so most game movies are somewhere between terrible or terrifically (and unintendedly) funny. They're either unbridled cheese-fests that are laughably bad, or so disconnected from the source material (lookin' at you Super Mario Bros Movie) that aside from a few perfunctory nods to game, that you would never know the movie was based on a game---

Except for, I would argue, the first Mortal Kombat movie. No, it does not have a hard "R" rating like you would expect the movie to have if it were true to the source material. However, let's keep in mind that the game itself was largely played by teenage boys, so a hard R would have any money making potential of the film.  I love the film for two reasons. First, it keeps to the basics within a PG -13 setting. The plot is thin and the characters two-dimensional, but really, do we need the exciting back story of each person? No! Just a quick intro for the key players, off to the island, and let's start some fights to the death to save humanity! Who needs plot when a kick to the face will do? Oh, and the other reason the movie is awesome? The intro music!  So let's talk real quick about music from the intro of the film:

Mortal Kombat (Techno-Syndrome 7"):

"Mortal Kombat Movie Intro"

Okay, so most of us (or rather, those of us familiar with the movie) have this intro burned into our minds like Scorpion finishes off his enemies. It plays for less than a minute, but is as iconic as this moment:

However, it'd be a disservice to The Immortals, the German techno band responsible for the music, to not only not mention them by name, but to not link to the full cut of the song so here's that:

Great, ain't it? Not sure whether this or Daft Punk came first for me when I was introduced to electronic/techno music, but it was definitely one of the "gateway" songs. Its driving beat felt like an actual composed piece of music rather than empty droning. That synthesized gong hit at the beginning, leading into an electronic keyboard intro had me hooked--but then somebody screams "Mortal Kombat" and you know the song has entered into awesomeness. It has all the right elements going for it, and that's just the intro. It not only gets you into the movie, but it gets you amped to play the game. I like the game sampled audio of the characters' names being announced as it doesn't get in the way of the rhythm in the jarring way many electronic/techno songs can go. Don't care if it sounds weird to say it, but it actually sounds like a musical composition, not just "techno music."

I hope that this doesn't come across sounding like a slam, because I love techno...when it's done right. So much techno was flying about at the time of the movie. It was the hot new thing and raves were starting to happen and...well, much of the music that was meant to get your glow-stick groove on was only functional, not listenable. Maybe I sound like a snob here, but I wonder if half the techno tunes listened to back in the early to mid-90s get a listen to today and how many albums are now floating around various garages and thrift stores across the world.

Always on the hunt for retro games, I, like everyone else, do a quick search in the CD section in case a random Dreamcast or PlayStation game should happen to show up. (Sometimes I even pick up an album or two that's fallen out of popularity). Among the countless country western and Christmas CDs I don't recall once coming across the soundtrack for the movie, and I would be willing to bet that most people held on to it just for this song alone. Not all of the songs from the movie soundtrack or The Immortals inspired album hold up as well as they did in the day (and perhaps I'll cover the tribute album in full in the future). Speaking for myself though, I'll happily pop in the original movie soundtrack just to give the title track a listen because it takes me back not just to the movies, but to a time when Mortal Kombat was an arcade staple and both the game, and this song, was a must play.

Midweek Music Box: Donkey Kong Country Music

Truthfully, I never have liked apes, monkeys, chimps and the like. I find them gross. Also truthfully, I'm not much into funk unless it's done right. Well, the tunes in Donkey Kong Country have just the right amount of funkiness to them that I can wash away thoughts of monkeys and just jam along to the tunes.

Intro Music:

I'd be remiss if I didn't just use the intro itself to showcase this particular track. It goes from what could be just a simple, upbeat tune--into the funky, radio blasting music. It's funny, it tries to be hip, and still has a decent basic beat that can be appreciated even today.

Jungle Hijinks:

     

Originally this track was actually composed as three separate tunes, but the composer (or so rumor has it) was told to just make it all into one. Well, I think it works as a continuous beat. It goes from jungle drum sounds and flows into a higher tempo as it goes along. I think this not only works for the game but just basic listening goodness. There's something about the mysterious nature of the jungle drums underneath the later half that just helps me get into a groove when I'm working on something (like writing).

Aquatic Ambience:

I hate this track. I'm allowed to say that right? It's not the tracks fault, I just don't care for music like this in a video game or even for listening to in my non-gaming time. I mean, it just feels dull to me. It makes the action on screen feel dull. I could be swarmed by zombies all about to take a massive chunk out of my neck and I'd probably be too far into a boredom coma to care. I don't get why the normally funky, upbeat music in the game takes this sudden turn where I'm reminded of New Age synthesizer music. Can't there be conga drums under water? I mean seriously!  Anywho. I just don't like this music and it makes me want to rush through the stage and never play it again, who cares about the bananas! Just get me away from that boring music before I....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Well, there you have it. Something a little different this week for Midweek Music Box, me highlighting a track that I hated. I may do this again with future articles because I think there are even some in my most beloved of series. Yes, maybe it's time to highlight some of the lesser tracks and say just why they are so bad/unlistenable outside of the game.

Midweek Music Box: The Battle of Olympus (NES)

Beware the Ides of March! Or rather, games that are really fun but may-or-may-not be similar to a second installment of a beloved series. No, I'm not here to talk about the similarities/out-and-out clone-type nature of The Battle of Olympus and Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. I will probably do so when I cover The Battle of Olympus for a Friday Night Rentals. For now, lets talk a little bit about the music from the game.

"Title Theme"

For a little bit, I did consider covering the music for God of War, but I honestly have little experience with the game and even if I did, I am more in the mood for something slightly more old school. And nothing quite says old school gaming music to me like the sounds made by those guys and gals over at Broderbund. (Not pronounced Broaderbound, as I used to do when I was a kid.) Anywho lets get into things by looking a few tunes:

World Map Music:

"World Map"

I like the way they tried to do trumpets and a sort-of army march drum beat in this one. It not only suits the game well, but I think it reflects the music choices made at the time. It seemed like classic films from the golden age of Hollywood had the notion that all things Greek or Roman should have continual trumpet flare and drums in order to impress upon you the...well, impressiveness and grand scale of what you were seeing. There was a certain spectacle nature to films, and I think that it is reflected in game music, in particular with this track. It suits the game well for while you are exploring and adds a subtle layer of classic feeling without being overbearing.

Temple of the Gods:

Something about this music feels more suited to a game about the Phantom of the Opera. Perhaps it's the big, dramatic pipe organ that intros the music. It drives the whole selection and makes the game feel more epic, but in a way that doesn't quite suit the game. I mean, it's great and all, but tonally doesn't seem to work. I get that's a classical piece, but it doesn't feel like the right classical piece as most audiences who recognize it will instantly think of the silent film version of Phantom of the Opera. It's odd to have music in a game that sounds well done, but jars you out of the game just as much as if it were bad.

Boss Battle:

Now this music is more like it. The low snare drum constantly in the background, the drumming, thrumming sounds. A few bleeps and bloops here and there to add atmosphere and setting and you are there for a boss battle. I love it when the old NES games make battle either sound epic or intimidating and I think this does a great job on the latter.

There's so much more I want to cover with this game, but most of it false under the purview of my Friday Night Rentals blog. SO...I guess that offers a big hint as to what a future one might be about. 

Friday Night Rental: Deadly Towers

Perhaps Atari Hard would be a better term for the game than Nintendo Hard. After all, Broderbund produced a number of games that I recall enjoying on the Atari 800 my folks had. Not only that, but the graphics, sounds, and overall movements of the main character remind me more of a later Atari game than a Nintendo game--even a harder one. Was it worth renting back when I was a kid, or did Broderbund leave me feeling like I wasted not only one, but at least two or three weekend rentals on this thing?


Gameplay:

You are Prince Myer, on the eve of your coronation ceremony a mysterious shadow with a name that will make you scream like Shatner (Khan) informs you that Rubas, the "Devil of Darkness" has designs to conquer your kingdom. What can you do to stop this threat? Ascend the Seven Deadly Towers, capture the mystical bells held by their masters, and vanquish the evil Rubas. To call the game an action puzzle game doesn't do justice the literal hundreds of screens you will need to navigate through in order to find your way to the top of the towers. Navigating these mazes can get especially difficult and frustrating as many of the screens are similar in layout, enemies respawn as soon as you leave a room/screen, and color differentiation just doesn't happen. The dull colors and unimaginative enemies are also a problem as killing them gets tedious within minutes of play. Also problematic with the game is the fact that you have to make the choice between chopping your way through enemies and collecting health and coins, or "ludder" as Deadly Towers calls it, or make an attempt to avoid them all together in order to advance as fast as you can. If you spend forever killing enemies (and it will take forever because your knife, unless right on the enemy, the game will not let you re-throw it until it has reached the other side of the screen.) You can lose all the health and money you just gained only to start back at the bottom of the tower.

Graphics and Style:

I can sum up both the graphics and style of game very simply: This feels like an Atari game from top to bottom. Not that I didn't love and still love Atari games. It just so reminds me of an Atari game that I can't help but feel I would be more forgiving of the repetitive colors and bland, flat graphics. James Rolfe of Angry Video Game Nerd fame hit it on the head in his review when he points out that fighting slinkys and the usual assortment of bats is just old, even at this point. I know that they were going for an isometric-ish view, but really nothing pops, nothing looks 3-D in the slightest. The poorness of it makes it feel even flatter if such a thing were possible. It sometimes looks like paper pieces moving across a cut out scene like for paper dollhouse.

Music and Sound:

The sound is passable, which I think is a perfect summation of much of the game. The plinks and plunks again really remind me of something I would find on the Atari and all but the earliest Nintendo games--which this is. So I guess it's earliness shows? But maybe that's no excuse, because the sound design in the original Legend of Zelda was awesome! But I digress...let's talk about the music.

While sufficient, the music for the soundtrack to Deadly Towers never gets memorable. The loops get old, the tunes are forgettable, and border on annoying. Truthfully, I never heard much beyond the title screen music and the first castle floor music when I was a kid. While YouTube now allows me the luxury of finding other soundtracks from the game, none of them are something I would plan on listening to again outside of this review. Take a listen and see what you think:

Memories and New Thoughts:

When I played this game as a kid I just took it for granted that some NES games were super hard, and others were super easy. Both styles can get dull rather quickly, and I think playing the game now as an adult I feel like dull pretty much encapsulates the whole experience. I mean, I don't think that it's quite as terrible as some other games out there. For the most part the controls function, bad guys take dozens of stabs--but at least they die, and if you can work your way through it all, Deadly Towers does have an ending that satisfyingly wraps up the game's story. The problem though remains now the same for me as when I was a kid. I just am not satisfied when I am playing the game. I'll call the feeling I get from the game "chopping wood syndrome." Meaning I feel like playing through the game is tedious work that feels like it "needs" getting done. If I don't chop the wood, it won't get done. If I don't plow down all these bad guys, it's not going to get done. I get that there's this epic quest where you've got to stop a great evil from conquering your kingdom and all that stuff, but every slime ball, every bat, and every monster just may as well be blocks of wood. While the controls seem workable and it's fair in that you can kill enemies if you are patient it enough...in the end, I think this kingdom is going to fall because I'm ready to leave it and never come back.

Midweek Music Box: Intro to Awesome Metroid Prime Trilogy

Were you ever uncertain about a game but the moment you popped it in the music sent tingles up your spine and you knew you were in for an awesome time based on that intro music? It doesn't have to necessarily have a bombastic feel or an epic quality--thought that certainly helps--what it does do though is it makes you not only ready to play, but it immerses you in a way that should shout to the world, "I'm no longer here, I've entered the game." I love intro music, I've talked about it before with many of these Midweek Music boxes. Well, rather than just doing one, I wanted to do three because I love me some intro music and I love the way these games get me in to the game. Let's take a quick look at some intro tunes that help pull you into the world the game creates.

Metroid Prime Trilogy:

Having Metroid kick this off should be a shock as not only did it act as the title card for this review, but I've talked about how awesome Metroid music is on Three Separate Occasions. Kenji Yamamoto rules and it's about high time you learned that! From the intense, low drums, to the ethereal chants; the music from the Metroid Prime series ranks up there for me (and it should for you too) as some of the best game music--no I take that back--best music period. Yamamoto does it again with the intro music for the Metroid Prime Trilogy intro. Every time I hear it I get tingles up my spine and wish I had a week, no I take that back, a MONTH to set aside to beat every one of the Metroid Prime games as the single continuous story it represents.

Kingdom Hearts (original PS2 version):

I know there are in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 variations of each individual Kingdom Hearts game. I could be lowballing that number though. Well, until we finally get a proper "3" in the title, it seems gamers are forever doomed to endless HD remakes and version 1.2 , 1.3, 1.FOREVER!  In any case, I really was surprised how much I fell in love with the game as a whole. Even now, 15 years later, the concept of Mickey and his pals fighting alongside and against Final Fantasy characters seems absurd. Yet it worked then and works now. I wouldn't be willing to put up with the craziness that is now on a 2.8 Final Prologue if I hadn't gotten sucked in years ago by Yoko Shimomura's score. The music that plays over the intro has such a Disney feel with it's big brass instruments and grand orchestra feel, it's hard not to smile at its charm. You couldn't ask for a more warm, and some how epic introduction. Now, can we can past introductions and prologues and point-ohs and just get a proper sequel please?


Super Mario World:

Cute, charming, simple, and it makes use of the Super Nintendo's musical capabilities in a way that lets you know just what you are in for. I know it may seem like a stretch to think that the intro music for Super Mario World could in any way "pull you into its world," but I was a kid at the time of this game's release, and to me this was a true wonder. From simple chiptunes to...well, better chiptunes. Like I said, I was a kid the time this came out. However, this game was not just my first game on the Super Nintendo, but it made me realize just how much greater the sound was going to get in the future. I didn't love the NES' music any less; just, I realized that this newest Mario game was really going to sweep me away. It was built on pure awesome. As soon as the opening animation was over, I was ready to enter this world of Mario's. It wasn't just me goofing around with a new system and game. There was Bowser to defeat, a kingdom to restore, and Princess Peach to rescue. It wasn't just a fun game, it was a tale to be told, and fun one at that, thanks to the intro music by Koji Kondo.

Like I said at the start. It doesn't always have to be epic, just awesome.