X-Blades - PS3 Review

This is a hack n slash / melee game for the PS3.  You basically run around on each level killing various monsters and collecting artifacts.  There are bosses to fight every 2 levels or so.  The levels are not very large and are pretty easy to figure out. There are lots of power ups to discover and the interesting thing about the game is that the main character carries gun blades so you can also shoot at enemies.  The graphics are pretty decent for a 2009 release game.  The game play is also surprisingly good for this type of game.  Overall, I give the game a 7 out of 10 stars.  Nothing epic going on with it, but not a terrible game by any means.  Give it a try, you will be surprised.  

Evergrace - PS2 Review

This is an early release action / RPG for the PS2.  Released in 2000 and you can tell it is an early release game for sure.  First off, the music is terrible.  This game contains the worst music I have ever heard in any video game, seriously.  The graphics are terrible and twitchy.  The game play is painfully slow to the point that the game gets boring real fast.  In the 10 minutes that I played this garbage, I couldn't tell how you leveled up the character or really the point of the game.  I walked around slowly for a bit and killed about 10 monster very slowly.  I talked to a guy and he jumped off a cliff.  I then jumped off that same cliff ending the game.  Seriously though, this is just lazy programming to put a game out like this.  Overall, I give this game a 1 out of 10 stars.  Terrible, don't bother with it at all.  Maybe I will revisit this one in the future and see if it is any better.

Yo, Bro TurboGrafx-16 Review

This is an original game.  You are basically a dog on a skateboard with a mission.  Your mission is to protect the city from evils such as killer plants and killer bees.  Watch out for evil dogs on skateboards as well.  You pick up power ups like sling shots that shoot 3 rocks at a time.  Pick up hamburgers and hearts to replenish your energy.  The music in the game is Beach Boys music that sounds like MIDI.  The main character is kind of hard to control.  You go around and pick up town folk and shoot the evil plants and bees.  There is a small arrow that shows you where the next threat is located.  You are rewarded with clever catch phrases when you kill things and pick things up.  The game gets really boring after about 5 or 10 minutes though.  It is too repetitive.  Overall, I give it a 6 out of 10.  The 6 rating is mostly for originality.  

Circus Atari. Atari 2600 Review

This game uses the Atari analog paddles.  You play the role of 2 acrobats in a circus.  you control a teter totter / trampoline?  You goal is to pop the balloons that are scrolling along the top of the screen.  The button on the paddle controller will flip the trampoline around (which is sometimes required).  The purpose of the game is nothing more than to accumulate score.  It is an OK game to play but it does get boring.  The problem with the game overall is the fact that there is not much going on and I find myself "zombied" out playing it.  It is not a game that I would play very often and overall I give it a 6 out of 10 stars.  I am being generous with the rating due to the fact that most of the Atari 2600's library is complete shovelware.

Centipede Atari 7800 Review

Good ole Centipede.  This is one of the many arcade ports of this game for home consoles.  This one is pretty good.  Graphically it is a little weird and the screen is shrunk down.  It does however contain all of the elements of the arcade version.  It seems a tad bit slower to me though.  A nice feature of this one is that it has 3 selectable difficulty levels.  Novice, Standard, and Expert.  The game is pretty challenging on the novice setting.  I am not going to go through and tell you how the game is played because everyone should be familiar with Centipede.  Overall, I give this one a 7 out of 10 stars.  Solid arcade port on the 7800.

Yars' Revenge Atari 2600 Review

This is a basic, simple game for the Atari 2600.  Atari 2600 games don't really get too involved.  Usually what you see is what you get.  This game is basically this screen and when you clear it, it goes to the next.  There is a screen with fixed blocks and a screen with moving blocks.  The point of the game is to fly your alien bug around and shoot holes in the wall to expose the "enemy".  If you touch the floating minus sign, you die.  It tracks you everywhere you go.  The colorful region in the middle is a safe zone which the minus sign cannot hurt you.  Every so often the "enemy" behind the wall will start spinning and shoot out after you.  You can scroll from the bottom to the top and vice versa.  The only way to clear the screen and move onto the next is to shoot a missile at the "enemy" and kill him.  The way to do this is to either peck at the wall or touch the enemy.  A missile will appear at the left of the screen and you can then shoot it at the "enemy".  The only catch is that the screen is moving up and down so you have to time it just right.  You can also kill yourself by being hit by the missile.  I am not sure if there is a way to finish the game or not.  I usually only make it to about the 5th screen before my game is over.  It does get harder and faster with every new screen.  Overall, I give this game a 7 out of 10.  Pretty decent for a 2600 game.  The sound is awesome!