Armored Warriors - Arcade Review

This is a Capcom game so you know its going to be good, right?  Yes, its awesome.  This is a beat em up game but with giant robots that your character pilots.  You have a choice between 4 different robots, each with their own speed / strength / abilities.  The power ups in this game are awesome!  Drills for your arm, claws, rocket launchers, and various guns.  The game play is really good, the music is really good, and the graphics are great.  The game is fun with a lot of variety to keep in interesting.  Overall, I give this game an 8 out of 10.  If you get the chance to play this game, do it, its worth it.

Final Soldier - PC Engine Review

PC Engine is known for its shooters, and this one does not disappoint. Fast paced, smooth, beautiful graphics, and superb music and sound.  You can select between normal, hard, and expert.  The difficulty settings on hard and expert are insane to play.  The thing that I like about this game is that there are ample power ups, yet there are not too many that it becomes confusing or just stupid like some other games.  You can access a setup menu where you can select what the power ups do, for example, missiles can be dumb fired or homing.  The game doesn't get boring during play with a mini boss and a main boss on every stage.  You also have the ability of setting 3 different speeds for your ship with the press of a button so you can do it while playing.  You don't  really have bombs like most games.  Instead you collect 2 companion ships that follow you and you can detonate them at any time to use as a bomb that wipes through the screen.  Very fun and challenging game overall.  I give it a solid 8 out of 10 stars.

Excitebike - NES Review

This game was one of the initial launch titles for the NES way back in 1986.  Most everyone has likely played this game at least once.  Most people write it off as just a cutesy dirt bike racing game, but in reality, this game is one of the most technically difficult games on the console.  You have to control the speed of you bike and make sure you don't overheat it.  You also have to shift the weight of the bike back and forth when you jump and land. There are three modes to the game, mode A where you are racing to beat the time on each track, mode B where you race against others adding more difficulty, and track creation mode.  It was pretty awesome back in 1986 that you could make your own tracks and race on them.  Overall, this game gets a 8 out of 10, being almost a perfect game.  If you have only played it once or twice I would definitely recommend revisiting it.  

Gun.Smoke NES Review

This is a forced vertical scrolling shoot 'em up that takes place in the old west.  Your goal is to find or buy a wanted poster of each villain on each stage.  If you don't find or buy a wanted poster, the stage loops back around and you replay through it.  There are about 5 gun power ups that you have to buy and enemies drop bullets and money after you shoot them.  You also gain money instead of points for shooting enemies.  There is also a horse power up that you can find or buy that speeds you up and allows you to get hit twice before you die, instead of the usual once.  The graphics are OK and on par with the NES, the sound and music are decent and above average, and the game play is great.  I give this game an 8 out of 10 stars.  It is always fun to play and you can play it for a long period without getting bored.

Lords of Thunder Sega CD Review

Side scrolling shoot em up for the Sega CD, a good one!  This game is pretty awesome.  You fight through seven stages that you can select to play in any order.  You have four types of armor to select from, all four elements, earth, fire, wind, and water.  Which ever armor you choose is a strategy in itself because it helps with the stage you play.  The game play is smooth and fluid and the graphics are awesome.  The music is an awesome heavy rock soundtrack and the sounds are pretty decent.  This is one of the few Sega CD games that I find myself playing again and again.  There is also a cool feature where you collect crystals of different values and spend them at a store between stages to power up.  The bosses are huge and challenging as well.  Overall I give this game an 8 out of 10 stars.  I definitely recommend picking it up and playing it if you are a shoot em up fan.

N2O: Nitrous Oxide Playstation Review

Pretty cool game.  The object of the game is to fly your ship through nitrous oxide filled tubes and destroy alien bugs and their eggs.  The game is really challenging on the easiest difficulty setting.  Game play is great as most shooters are.  Music is awesome, it is The Crystal Method that does the music.  Songs from their Vegas album and featured in this game.  Graphics are awesome and very colorful.  There are a few power ups in the game that allow you to shoot projectile weapons or a wall of fire to clear the tube ahead of you.  You can choose from 5 different ships when you first start.  I have not found any difference between the ships except that they look different. The main point of the game is to get the highest score as this is an arcade style shooter.  Fun game to play and definitely worth having in your collection.  Overall, I give this one an 8 out of 10 stars.  

Legendary Wings NES Review

Shoot em up port of an arcade game.  It is not quite the same as the arcade version but close.  The memories I have of this game is that it was extremely hard.  I remember playing it as a kid and not getting very far.  It seemed impossible. The game starts out as a vertical scroller.  You then get sucked in a large mouth on the ground and go into a horizontal scrolling mode.  There is a worm like mini boss after this and you go back to vertical mode.  At the end of the level, you come to a palace and fight another mini boss which is a dragon that shoots fire.  You go into the palace which is side scrolling again.  At the end of the palace you fight the level boss which kind of looks like the first level boss in Gradius.  There are 5 levels total in the game and all the bosses are the same except they have increased difficulty.  At the end of the game you fight a final boss which is pretty challenging.  In each level there is a "lucky" underground level with treasures and power ups which is located under a ground target.  The weapon you start with is very weak.  It is recommended to get the best power up early on and keep it.  You can also shoot ground bombs in vertical mode. Graphics and sound is on par with the games of it's time.  Game play is great for an NES shooter, and re playability is very good.  Overall I give it an 8 out of 10.  The recycled bosses really hurt the game but it is still very fun.  Try playing the 2 player simultaneous mode for added fun.

Need For Speed Underground Gamecube Review

This game is pretty awesome.  Underground (quest mode) and quick race mode are your options.  Playing the underground mode allows you to buy new cars, unlock upgrades and visual mods for your cars.  The graphics in this game are great for the Gamecube.  The music is awesome, a great mix of rock and rap of the time when this came out in 2001.  The game play is awesome.  You can pop this game in and end up playing it for over an hour or two.  It is quite addicting.  The only thing I dislike about the game is the fact that when you get towards the end of the game, it becomes tedious to try and win to move on.  You have to acquire points to unlock mods to continue at the higher stages which means basically switching back and forth between 2 vehicles.  One vehicle will be for handling and one for acceleration.  It is basically those two things you have to worry about.  The game has lots of different tracks and even runs them in reverse on some stages.  There is a Circuit mode where you just race laps and a sprint mode where you race to the finish.  There are also drift modes and drag racing modes which have their own style of play which you have to master.  Overall I give this game an 8 out of 10 stars.  Highly addictive and awesome to play.

Donkey Kong Classics NES Review

Donkey Kong Classics contains 2 games, the original arcade port of Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Jr.  I am not going to review these games individually because everyone knows them.  They are both really close versions to the arcade and play quite well.  There is a difficulty select for each game.  Both of these games were released as single carts in the initial NES 30 release games.  Not really too much to say about this cart except that in true NES fashion, arcade games are well ported and represented here.  Overall, I give it a 8 out 10.  It does what it is supposed to do.  The only drawback is no pie factory level for Donkey Kong.  :(

Raiden Trad Sega Genesis Review

Awesome shoot em up.  Probably the best on the Genesis.  There are only a handful on the Genesis anyway which is sad in itself.  This is an arcade port and it seems to be perfect.  The only thing that stinks about this version is that there is no two player mode.  The game is a top scrolling shooter with power ups.  You can switch between regular shot and laser shot.  Also you can switch between regular "dumb" missiles and homing missiles.  I believe there are 6 or 8 levels of power ups.  I am not sure how many levels there are though because I only make it to like the 4th.  There are 3 difficulty's, easy, normal, and hard.  Easy and Normal don't seem to be much different to me but the Hard setting is pretty challenging.  The game has decent graphics, music, and sound for the Genesis and the game play is great.  I recommend this game for any shoot em up fan.  Overall, I give it a solid 8 out of 10 stars. 

Shinobi Sega Master System Review

Solid arcade port for the master system.  The game is pretty similar.  The only difference I noticed is that this version doesn't seem as smooth as the 16 bit / arcade version.  The music is and sounds are awesome and the game play is great.  I believe there are 6 rounds that you have to clear with 3 stages each.  You save tied up kids along the way and fight a boos at the end of each round.  It seems a bit easier than the other versions I have played but that does not detract from the game in any way.  The bonus round is also in the game which is pretty challenging.  Overall I give this an 8 out of 10 stars.  Great game and always fun to pick up and play.

H.E.R.O. Atari 2600 Review

It is very hard to find good Atari 2600 games.  99 percent of them are crap.  This game is in the 1 percent of good.  In fact this game is pretty awesome.  It is one of my favorites on the system.  Made by Activision, which in case you don't know made the best games for the system.  The goal of the game is to save trapped miners while avoiding bats, snakes and other enemies.  You have a propeller strapped to you back so you can fly up or slow your descent.  You have a laser beam that you can fire a short distance by pressing the fire button.  You start each level with 5 bombs which you use to blow up walls by pressing down to drop them.  The game is fast paced and challenging.  The game play is awesome and graphics and sound are awesome for the 2600.  The only drawback to the game is you play the same levels over and over again.  It would have been awesome if they could have randomized the levels every time you started.  The game would have been perfect if it were randomized.  Overall I give it an 8 out of 10.

Jr. Pac Man Atari 2600 Review

PacMan and Ms PacMan had a baby.  Enter Jr. PacMan wearing a beanie.  This is an arcade port for the Atari 2600.  This is probably the best arcade port on the system.  The first PacMan on the 2600 was a huge failure.  Probably the worst game on the system.  They made up for it with this game.  It plays real smooth and the sound is surprisingly good for the 2600.  The screen scrolls up and down as you move.  It holds the same basic concept of any PacMan game.  You go around eating dots and avoiding the 4 ghosts.  You get the power pellets and the ghosts turn blue for a short period where you can eat them for points.  You then collect items that dance around the screen for points.  Do I really have to explain PacMan?  Anyway, there are good games on the 2600, you just have to dig deep for them.  I give this game an 8 out of 10.

U.N. Squadron SNES Review

This was one of my favorite shoot em ups when I was a teenager playing my SNES.  These days, I would not say it is one of my favorites.  It is a great game though.  It is a port of an arcade game called area 88.  It plays identical to the arcade version.  The beauty of the SNES at the time it came out was that it was up to par with most arcade games.  There were a ton of awesome arcade ports for the SNES but that's a different story.  The game is a side scroller.  You start out picking between 3 characters which I guess have different attributes, but they seem the same to me.  You can buy special weapons and better planes as the game progresses.  You get more money by shooting down planes and blowing up ground targets.  You also get score in addition to the money.  After you get to the end of a stage you fight a boss and then you can select your next stage.  You usually have the option to select between 3 or 4 stages.  The game has smooth animation, great sound and music, and awesome game play.  You can also pick between easy, normal, and hard modes.  If you like shoot em ups, I highly recommend this one.  Since it is a common game you can pick it up fairly cheap.  I give it a 8 out of 10 overall.

Enduro Atari 2600 Review

This is a really fun racing game.  I would say the best on the 2600.  Very smooth graphics and game play.  You start out having to pass 200 cars.  It is timed, so you can't go slow.  The cars appear at random places and it it your job to avoid them.  The control in simple; left and right, and fire button for gas.  You hold down the fire button to go faster and you let go to slow down.  There is no brake.  Scoring is simply your mileage which goes up quicker the faster you go.  As time progresses, you go from morning, to afternoon, to driving on snow, then back to dry pavement.  It then becomes dusk, night time, foggy night time, and then morning again.  The game has great replay value and is a must have in my opinion for anyone's 2600 collection.  Overall I give it a 8 out of 10.  I think it would have been a perfect game if the added braking control by pulling back on the joystick.

Defender II NES Review

I never was a fan of this game.  This is just a port of the original arcade version.  It is a very good port.  The graphics are about as good as you can get on the NES for this game.  The game play is identical to the arcade version.  I can play this version and be satisfied as an arcade port.  Overall I give it 8 out of 10 stars.  The only reason it didn't get a 10 out of 10 is because the title screen music is ripped off from NES Baseball and after you press start it uses Mike Tyson's Punch-out music.  The other reason this game did not get a perfect score is the fact that the ships lasers are white instead of multi colored like the arcade version.  Maybe this game is supposed to be a mash-up of Stargate and Defender?