My Nintendo WiiWare Collection

This list last updated January 13, 2010.

Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth

Current game count: 1

My Nintendo Game Boy Advance Collection

This list last updated January 14, 2010.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Ghost Rider
Gunstar Super Heroes
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords
Mech Platoon
Reign of Fire
Shrek 2: Beg for Mercy!
World Poker Tour

Current game count: 9

My Nintendo Game Boy Color Collection

This list last updated January 7, 2010.

Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!

Current game count: 1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan

You certainly won’t find the kind of beat-em-up action here that you would in the original coin-op or Turtles in Time, but Fall of the Foot Clan still provides a lot of fun and should satisfy Turtle fans.

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were huge. They had starred in a blockbuster movie and cartoon series, had been translated into a popular line of action figures, and had been featured in a four-player coin-op that was the highlight of many arcades. Eager young gamers waited for the TMNT gaming experience at home, first receiving an NES game unrelated to the arcade cabinet before being blessed with a port of the coin-op. In between the release of these NES games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan—the first Turtles game for the Game Boy—was released. Though it did not match the complexity of the arcade or NES games, gamers finally could Turtle Power with them on the road.

I remember reading about this cart in GamePro and being impressed by the graphics. The game features large, detailed sprites that are perfect representations of the Turtle characters. Playing through the game, you’ll run across Bebop, Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Shredder, Krang, along with many recognizable lesser foes like Mousers and Foot Soldiers. The animation is very limited, but even twenty years later, I am impressed by the Game Boy graphics. Many of the cut scenes look like they could have been lifted right from the cartoon series . . . had the cartoons been in black and white (or is that green and paler green?).

The game plays very simply. You choose which turtle you want to use at the beginning of each stage or after one of your turtles falls in combat, but the differences in each turtle are only represented by the weapon each carries. You would expect that Leonardo’s and Donatello’s weapons would extend further than Raphael’s and Michelangelo’s, but that is not the case. Though it did seem to me that Michelangelo’s nunchucks were faster, I think this was more wishful thinking on my part than reality. In addition to each turtle’s primary weapon, shurikens can be thrown while crouching, and each turtle can jump kick as well. You have an unlimited number of shurikens, but it is often much easier to just walk up to an enemy and attack than to fight him from afar. There is some platforming involved in the game, but for the most part, you will be walking left to right attempting to hit your enemies before they hit you. Enemies are generally easy to kill or avoid, and the most problematic foes you’re likely to come across are the Foot Soldiers who jump onscreen and attempt to land on you. The bosses are surprisingly easy as well, and I made my battles with them more difficult by trying to find their patterns of attack. For example, I almost died fighting Shredder, thinking I had to avoid his attack and jump behind him to retaliate, until I realized I could walk up to him, strike, and then walk away.

The sound in this game is standard fare for the Game Boy, though it does have a good rendition of the Turtles theme song . . . which you will hear repeatedly throughout the game. Unless my count is off, the game alternates between two songs during the level, switching to a different tune for each boss battle. This didn’t detract from the game for me at all, and I found myself singing along to the Turtles theme in my head as I played.

Fall of the Foot Clan is a short game and can be beaten in under thirty minutes, which in my opinion makes it a perfect game for a portable. The game is very easy, and you may find yourself blowing through it on your first playthrough without losing a single turtle. You certainly won’t find the kind of beat-em-up action here that you would in the original coin-op or Turtles in Time, but Fall of the Foot Clan still provides a lot of fun and should satisfy Turtle fans.

Highly recommended

The House of the Dead Overkill

If you’re searching for epic quests and complicated storylines, you should look elsewhere, but fans of old light gun games or any gamers wanting some quick, mindless fun won’t go wrong with The House of the Dead Overkill.

What is it with women and zombie blasting? Sure, that may sound like a strange question, but inexplicably, women seem to love unloading a clip into a zombie’s head. Don’t believe me? Let me share some anecdotal evidence to make my point.

The year is 2001, and I am living in North Carolina. A girl I was kind of seeing at the time meets up with me at a mall. We end up at the arcade (yeah, they weren’t as scare in 2001 as they are now). Why did we go to the arcade? There was a game there she wanted to play with me: The House of the Dead 2. Yes, instead of dragging me along while she shopped or watching a movie together or any of the other activities in which we could have engaged at the mall, this girl wanted to put holes in zombies.

Jump ahead to 2009. A friend of mine (this time someone I am not kind of seeing) visits me at my house. If you’ve looked through my video game collection, you will see that I have a lot of games and many games that seem to span the gender gap. However, once this friend learns that I bought The House of the Dead Overkill, she excitedly says, “Let’s shoot zombies.” And the next time she visits? “I want to shoot zombies.”

It seems there is something about blowing away swarm after swarm of the walking dead that appeals to both men and women. Perhaps it is an inherent fear of the dead shared by both. Perhaps it is catharsis without the intrusion of conscience (they were already dead, anyway). Perhaps we were all so freaked out by Night of the Living Dead that we need to shoot zombies for our mental wellness. I’m sure there is a psychological study in there, but I guess that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to discuss whether or not this game is worth buying and/or playing.

The answer to both is yes.

The House of the Dead Overkill is just plain fun. It’s great that the introduction of the Wii has revived the light gun genre (though we’re not really talking about light guns anymore). These games were almost always fun and accessible to a wide audience. Instead of memorizing what a bunch of different buttons do, all you have to remember is to pull the trigger when that zombie is in your crosshairs and occasionally shake your gun to reload (as opposed to shooting offscreen, which tended to be the way to reload with light guns). You don’t even need to worry about controlling where you move, since the game does that for you. It’s a matter of shooting and surviving, outlasting the horde of creatures wanting to rend your flesh.

Before I give this game too glowing of a review, there are some weak spots I need to point out. The graphics in the cut scenes are not great. I know that the Wii is incapable of producing the graphics of the Xbox 360 or the PS3, but the cut scene graphics here are exceptionally poor. The graphics while playing seem better, though I cannot say whether they actually are or if it is just a matter of being too focused on the action to notice them. Also, the storyline can be hit or miss, depending on your tastes. I appreciated that they presented the whole game like a low-budget seventies horror flick, but my friend was very annoyed by the cut scenes and just wanted to get to the action. Part of that may have been that the storyline is more catered to a male audience (for example, the intro to the game includes a live action exotic dancer, presented in grainy footage appropriate for the era this game is trying to capture). Also, the profanity in this game is excessive, and while I don’t believe that really bothered my friend, those of you who find this distasteful might want to avoid this game.

Those issues aside, there isn’t a whole lot to dislike here. This is pure fun and the reason we went to arcades back in the day. What’s even better is that this title can now be found for cheap (I saw it for as little as $13 around Christmas). If you’re searching for epic quests and complicated storylines, you should look elsewhere, but fans of old light gun games or any gamers wanting some quick, mindless fun won’t go wrong with The House of the Dead Overkill.

Highly recommended

Conan

It may not be as technically refined as God of War, but Conan for the Xbox 360 is a faithful and fun translation of character from page to game. You can now find this game for $10 or under (mine was slightly under $10 from GoGamer, including shipping), which makes this a definite buy for hack-and-slash fans or fans of the Conan books, movies, or comics.

Conan really wants to be God of War. I’m not referring to the character, of course. Our favorite Cimmerian is quite happy being the barbarian and thief that he is, and he has no desire to switch roles with Kratos. Conan for the Xbox 360 is reminiscent of the God of War games on the PS2, though, from its emphasis on stringing together multiple-hit combos against numerous enemies to its control scheme, including its “Battle Actions” (sequences of onscreen button presses). Considering that Conan and Kratos share many of the same qualities (they are both strong, independent, ruthless, and womanizing warriors), it is understandable why the developers would choose to copy the gameplay of God of War, but how well did they replicate this highly regarded game?

Well, They replicated it well. However, there are enough flaws to prevent this game from reaching the level of God of War.

The most apparent weakness in this game is its graphics. The God of War games showed us what the PS2 was capable of doing graphically, but Conan seems to tap very little of the Xbox 360’s potential. This game would have been more acceptable as an early Xbox 360 title, but it was released in 2007 after games like Gears of War, which treated us with some amazing visuals. Frankly, if you compare the graphics in Conan to those in even the first God of War game, God of War comes out on top. This is most noticeable in the cut scenes, which look like they came straight out of a last-generation game. In fact, the weakness of the cut scene graphics almost prevented me from picking up this game, as I thought it would be representative of the game’s polish as a whole. However, the in-game graphics are much better and or only noticeably subpar when viewed closely (for example, when zooming in on the many topless women Conan rescues throughout the game).

The controls in Conan are good, for the most part. New combos and special attacks are unlocked by spending red runes you collect during the game, and these are generally easy to pull off. Each time you use a combo or special attack, you work toward mastering it. Mastering all the attacks for a weapon type (single weapon, two weapon, and two-handed weapon) opens up achievements. The manual states that two-weapon attacks are weaker and are more useful for normal enemies, but I ended up using two-weapon attacks for the majority of the game. First, it’s just fun to see Conan slice and dice his enemies, a sword in one hand and an axe in the other. Second, I found the two-handed weapon attacks too slow, leaving me open for attack. In fact, there are some enemies I just could not hit with a two-handed weapon. Overall, the fighting in this game is very satisfactory; however, the platforming is a different matter. Conan’s jump is not as responsive as it could be, and a lot of times, you will miss a jump or not grab onto a ledge even though it appears onscreen that you should have. It seems appropriate that my last review was for Astyanax for the NES, since it was another hack-and-slash game brought down by cheap pit deaths. Seems like some pesky traits of the genre persist, even after fifteen years.

Though I haven’t read any Conan for a while, from what I remember, this game has done well in capturing the theme of Robert E. Howard’s books. Conan’s attitude seem like it may be toned down a little, but the way in which he dismembers his enemies, sending them to the ground with streams of blood, is appropriate for his character. Add to this the aforementioned topless maidens in distress, and we have a very barbaric, very male-centric atmosphere that we would expect from a Conan game.

It may not be as technically refined as God of War, but Conan for the Xbox 360 is a faithful and fun translation of character from page to game. You can now find this game for $10 or under (mine was slightly under $10 from GoGamer, including shipping), which makes this a definite buy for hack-and-slash fans or fans of the Conan books, movies, or comics.

Recommended (highly recommended for Conan and hack-and-slash fans)

Twas the season to be gaming

This holiday season, I splurged a little bit on my gaming habit and picked up a bunch of sale and budget titles. Why, I’m not sure. I have many, many games I’ll likely never get to, but I can’t help adding to my collection when I see games at good prices. Anyway, here are my purchases since Thanksgiving:

Xbox 360
Assassin’s Creed (Platinum Hits)
Battle Fantasia
Blue Dragon
Conan
Crackdown
Dark Sector
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Ghostbusters
Guitar Hero 5
Resident Evil 5
Rise of the Argonauts
Silent Hill: Homecoming
Stranglehold
Timeshift
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Tomb Raider: Underworld
Viking: Battle for Asgard

Xbox Live
Castle Crashers
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Wii
The Conduit
The House of the Dead: Overkill
Madworld
Nights: Journey of Dreams

PS3
Beowulf
Dead Space

PC
The Movies

That’s twenty-eight new games, for those of you counting. Now if only I could retire and play games all day, I might get to all of these before I die.

Astyanax

Overall, Astyanax isn’t a bad game, and for those of us looking for hack-and-slash action on the NES, it is probably one of the better titles to choose from. Though the game does not rank among the best the 8-bit era has to offer, it will provide a couple of hours of fun—interspersed with the occasional expletive as you fall victim to another cheap pit death . . . .

Finding a good hack-and-slash game on the NES isn’t an easy prospect. It’s a genre that would thrive on the 16-bit consoles, with games like Golden Axe and Knights of the Round being ported from the arcades, but the titles on the leading 8-bit platform were scarce. For this reason, Astyanax caught my eye when it was released back in 1990, and though it took me another 19 years before I would add it to my collection, it always remained in my mind as one of those games I had to get my hands on someday.

So, the burning question is, was Astyanax worth the wait? Is Astyanax a good game?

If making a good game were just a matter of combining aspects of already successful games, then there would be no question, as there are qualities of this game which are reminiscent of Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, and The Legendary Axe—all games which are typically held in high regard. Astyanax has similar platforming and controls to Castlevania. Its presentation includes cut scenes to help tell its story, just like Ninja Gaiden. The gameplay is also quite similar to The Legendary Axe, especially considering how your axe powers up the longer you wait between attacks in both games. Unfortunately, though Astyanax appears to borrow from these and similar games, it lacks the polish of these games. The controls often feel unresponsive and the hit detection can be poor. The cut scenes, though attractive, really do not add a lot to a very basic save-the-princess storyline. Even powering up your axe has its problems. Along with your power bar increasing, you will also be able to upgrade your weapon when you receive a special token from the stone idols placed throughout the levels. The first token you will get changes your axe to a spear, which actually decreases your attack power. If you find another token, you will then wield a sword, which is the most powerful of the three weapons, but unless you are sure you will be able to upgrade to the sword, there is no reason to take one of these tokens, as it will just make defeating your enemies more difficult.

The graphics are probably the one area in which Astyanax shines, but there are still issues that prevent it from really excelling even in this regard. For an NES game, your character sprite is large, as are those for many of your enemies, such as the skeletons and the mini-bosses. The problem this creates is that it only takes four or five enemies to appear onscreen to cause a lot of flicker and a painful amount of slowdown. This slowdown will often be crippling, as it makes the controls that much more unresponsive, which will often lead to you taking cheap hits and falling into one of many pits to your doom. Strangely, there does not appear to be a lot of slowdown when facing the end bosses, which are huge and well defined. As is the case with many NES games featuring large bosses, the background is removed for boss fights, and all that will appear onscreen are a ground plane, your character, and the boss. While the bosses look nice, they are not well animated, and will frequently feature just one or two parts that actually appear to move. It’s not enough to detract totally from the presentation of these enemies, but it is noticeable.

Overall, Astyanax isn’t a bad game, and for those of us looking for hack-and-slash action on the NES, it is probably one of the better titles to choose from. Though the game does not rank among the best the 8-bit era has to offer, it will provide a couple of hours of fun—interspersed with the occasional expletive as you fall victim to another cheap pit death . . . .

Recommended (with reservations)

My Nintendo Wii Virtual Console Collection

This list last updated January 15, 2010.

Bonk 3: Bonk’s Big Adventure
Dragon’s Curse
Kid Icarus
Lords of Thunder
Neutopia
Neutopia 2
Riot Zone
River City Ransom

Current game count: 8

My Sony Playstation 3 Collection

This list last updated December 19, 2009.

Alone in the Dark: Inferno
Beowulf
Dead Space
Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Current game count: 4