Raiden Trad - SNES Review

Arcade port for the SNES. The game is alright, nothing special. It seems to run at a lower framerate than any other version that I have played. It is very choppy at times which is more of a frustration than anything.  It is a simple shoot em up with minimal power ups.  You have machine gun and lasers that you can switch back and forth from by getting red or blue power ups.  You also have straight missiles and homing missiles that fire automatically. Everything seems the same as the arcade except for the choppiness.  Overall, I give the game 6 out of 10.  There are much better ports of the game.  If you have the means, play this port on the Genesis or Turbo Grafx 16.

Arkanoid: Doh It Again - SNES Review

I guess this is part 2 of Arkanoid.  Nothing super special about this game.  It plays identical to the original Arkanoid.  Graphics do not really appear to be much better.  The only difference I can see, is that after 10 levels you fight a boss.  I don't believe the original game had bosses but I could be wrong.  Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 10 stars.  Very generic and doesn't really stand out. 

Ultraman - SNES Review

Quite frankly, this game stinks.  There are eight stages with monsters that you battle through.  You knock their power down until it says finish and you shoot a laser at them to kill them.  The moves are basic and the game play is super slow and boring.  Another thing that sucks about this turd of a game is that there is no 2 player mode.  If it had 2 player vs mode it might have made the game a little easier to swallow.  Music is repetitive and boring, and sound is sub par for the system.  Overall, I give this game a 3 out of 10 stars.  Nothing special about it and if you want it in your collection, don't pay more than a buck for it. 

Actraiser - SNES Review

If you have never played this game before, you must immediately drop whatever you are doing and play it now!  I am serious, this game is a must play.  It is a combination of a sim, an RPG, and an action platformer.  You play the role of a god that comes down to the land and rids it of monsters so people can live and build there.  Once you clear the first stage, you go into sim mode.  You control an angel with a bow and arrow which you can use to shoot enemies.  You also can use natural disasters like lightning, rain, earthquakes, etc.  You have to solve puzzles and figure things out quite often.  The people will ask you to help with various things throughout the game.  There are 2 bosses on each level / area.  There are even some emotional parts in the story that make it really interesting.  The graphics are amazing, the sound and music some of the best for its time, and the game play is excellent.  Overall, I give this game a perfect 10.  There is nothing wrong with it at all and you will replay it over and over again because it is so fun.

Aero Fighters - SNES Review

Pretty solid shooter for the SNES.  This was an arcade game and plays just like the arcade version.  Typical you versus the entire world type shoot em up.  In true SNES fashion, there is an options screen where you can select difficulty and lives etc.  I found it to be pretty challenging on normal mode and I made it to the 6th stage using 3 continues.  The power ups are straightforward with 5 levels of power that upgrade your shot.  You do however lose a level based on time it you don't keep collecting power ups.  You also have 3 bombs that you start with.  There are giant bosses at the end of each stage that are challenging and I believe I saw a few mini bosses on the first couple stages.  There is a little bit of slow down / lag when there is a lot of sprites on the screen at once.  I experienced the slow down about 3 or 4 times.  Overall I give this one a 7 out of 10 stars.  Graphics and sound are SNES awesome and the game play is great.

William's Arcades Greatest Hits - SNES review

A compilation of 5 games made by Williams and translated to (not ported) to the SNES.  Some people might really like this compilation because they liked these arcade games originally.  I don't really care for any of the games in this collection except maybe Robotron 2084.  The games are: Defender, Defender 2 (Stargate?), Joust, Robotron 2084, and Sinistar.  As far as I could tell, they all play exactly like the arcade predecessors and the look and sound similar.  There is also a feature for every game that allows you to set the difficulty and also the number of lives you start with.  Overall, I give the entire package a 5 out of 10 stars for me anyway.  It might have gone up to a higher rating if there were more games I liked in the collection.

We're Back A Dinosaur's Story - SNES Review

Let me start of by saying that this game is terrible.  Not even playable in my opinion.  Horrible garbage.  You play the role of a dinosaur who must jump from building to building and dodge fat guys wearing tank tops throwing bombs at you out the window.  For some reason you have an unlimited supply of rocks to throw and you can run and jump.  Game play is terrible, graphics are sub par for the SNES and so is the music and sound effects.  The game just stinks.  Overall, it gets a 1 out of 10 stars.  

Equinox Super Nintendo Review

This game is the sequel to Solstice on the NES.  I try to give every game I play an honest chance.  This game to me is complete garbage.  It is an isometric game which I absolutely hate.  There are two modes in the game, overworld and underworld.  The point of the game is to collect coins and magic and fight bosses to advance to the end to save your father I think.  It is basically a puzzle game where you move blocks and jump on platforms and avoid enemies.  One of the main problems is the control.  It is almost impossible to control and to tell where objects are half the time.  Overall I give this game a 2 out of 10 stars.  It would have gotten a 0 rating but the graphics and sound / music are pretty awesome.  As for the game itself in a whole? Don't bother. 

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest SNES Review

This game came out between the US releases of Final Fantasy 2 and 3 on the Super Nintendo.  It was designed and marketed as an entry level RPG for younger inexperienced players.  Its not a bad game overall.  The game play is very linear and there is not much exploring to do.  You always have a NPC that joins you and help you through each level.  The weapons throughout the game have different uses and help you get past certain parts of the levels.  You do get experience points and you level up and get gold.  The way you fight is that you have to run into visible enemies that are in fixed locations in the levels.  There are also monster tiles that you can clear by fighting 10 battles.  Your reward for clearing these monster tiles is something like gold or a cure item.  The game is not real long and not too in depth.  I enjoy playing through it every now and then because it is a pretty mindless RPG that you can just veg out and play.  Music is pretty decent but the graphics are a little under par for the SNES.  Overall I give this game a 7 out of 10.

Porky Pigs Haunted Holiday SNES Review

I didn't even know this game existed.  Platformer game with basic controls.  2 buttons are utilized, one for jump and one to hold down to look around.  Very basic but not boring.  The game play is actually pretty good and it is pretty fun.  You get hit 4 times and you are dead.  When you die, or course he says "That's all folks."  You have no weapons in the game, you have to stomp your enemies  to kill them.  Overall, I give the game a 6 out of 10.  Fun game that is not horrible to play as most platformers are.

Hyperzone SNES Review

This is an early release shoot em up for the Super Nintendo.  Other than the background scrolling fast taking advantage of the mode 7 scaling chip, the game is sluggish.  As you advance through the stages, you get faster ships but the difficulty increases making it the same.  It doesn't ever feel like you get ahead in this game.  The graphics, music, and sound are good for an early release game.  I made it to the 3rd stage and didn't see any power ups except for the 3rd stage when I got a new ship it had a charge shot feature.  You can use a brake to slow you ship down also and there are power strips that you run through to charge your power back up.  The game play is OK, not great.  The re playability of this game is not very good because it gets tedious and not very fun after a few stages.  Every time you play it is just the same thing over and over.  Overall, I give this game a 6 out of 10 stars.  

Judge Dredd SNES Review

Adventure platformer for the SNES.  This is based off of a Sylvester Stallone movie of the same name which I have never seen.  I am not a big fan of hunt and search platformers which this game is.  It is an average game with decent graphics, music, and sound.  You walk around a level and search for objectives to fulfill a primary and a secondary quest.  You shoot a gun with unlimited ammo and you can also kick and punch.  You can arrest perps just like the game Narc and there are weapons power ups scattered throughout the level.  Playing this game gave me motion sickness.  I think it is due to all the up and down scrolling.  There is a password feature in the game so you can continue.  Overall I give the game 5 out of 10 stars.  Nothing really special about it, just an average game.   

Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings SNES Review

This is a platformer for the SNES released in 1992.  I am not a fan of platformer games and this game is probably the reason why.  Its sucks bad.  It is plain horrible.  I didn't fine anything about this game that was good.  The game literally gave me motion sickness and made me nauseous.  The SNES controller has 8 buttons not counting the D-pad and most games utilize at least 4.  This game uses 2 buttons, 1 for jump and 1 for faster jump.  I don't really have anything else to say about this game except that it is pure crap.  I give it a 1 out of 10 stars.  It would have gotten a worse rating but the graphics are pretty decent for an early release SNES game.

Radical Psycho Machine (RPM) Racing SNES Review

A feeble attempt to clone RC Pro-Am on the SNES.  I believe this was an early release game for the system.  I try to give every game I review a chance but this one is just painful to play.  It is mediocre at best.  What you see is basically what you get.  You race different tracks and try and win money to upgrade your car / truck.  The only issue with the game is the fact that the difficultly is so high that it makes the game frustrating and not even remotely fun.  The game is sluggish and very hard to control.  You also have a damage gauge and it is only half full when you start a race.  If you just slightly touch another car (which is almost impossible not to do) you lose a good portion off the damage gauge.  If you touch a wall, you also lose damage points.  When the gauge goes all the way down, you blow up and it takes like 5 seconds to re spawn.  Another thing is that I didn't find a button that would let you reverse and that becomes a problem.  You get to certain points where another car will hit you and make you stop, then you have to go up a hill or ramp and you can't because there is not enough speed.  What ends up happening is that you have to go up and roll back down like 2 or 3 times to build up enough speed.  Poorly planned out game in my opinion.  I give the game 2 stars out of 10.  Not a very good game overall.

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.

Drakkhen SNES Review

Drakkhen is a RPG.  I think it was originally a PC game.  It plays like one anyway.  A lot of people hate this game.  You have to give it a chance.  It is a very slow, tedious game.  Sometimes you can play it for about an hour and seem like you are making no progress.  I like the game.  It is challenging and decent to play.  You do have to be in the right kind of mood to enjoy it though.  This game had awesome graphics and sound for its time.  I remember when it first came out being blown away by it.  You have 4 characters which you can select male or female and then their attribute points.  You have a fighter, scout, magician, and a priest or priestess.  Weapons and armor are sometimes dropped by enemies.  The battles are automatic and hit points regenerate automatically.  You will have to explore to find out what you even have to do to advance because the game is not straightforward.  That is sometimes frustrating but makes the game challenging and allows you to level up and collect more items.  I recommend trying this game out it you are a RPG fan and are looking for something different.  I give it a 6 out of 10 overall.