Flipper Slipper - ColecoVision Review

 

This game is advertised as a pinball game.  It is more of a breakout style game really.  There are two "flippers" that you can move left and right.  The "flippers" are also tilt-able to the left and right.  The goal of the game is to get the highest score possible.  You can hit the forest area at the top and cut down the trees.  You can hit the ten links of chain fence in the top center of the screen to break away the fence and let the dog escape for bonus score.  When you hit 10000 points, the floating beach house in the center turns into a bumper increasing the difficulty.  Graphics and sound are on par with the ColecoVision in 1983.  Game play is ok, I guess.  The game gets repetitive and boring pretty fast.  It is plagued with the problem that most early brick breaker games had; you are left with one or two things to break but the ball never reaches them.  Overall, I give this game a 4 out of 10.  Not a horrible game, but there are far better games on the ColecoVision.

Urban Champion - NES Review

 

This is an original launch title, one of the 30 "black box" games that were released at the NES launch.  There is not much to the game.  You work from left to right, street fighting your opponent.  The B button is your "hard" punch, and the A button is your jab.  You can punch in the stomach or the head.  You also have a stamina meter and a time meter.  When the time meter runs out, if nobody has won, the game is over.  When the stamina meter runs out, you no longer have your "hard" punch at your disposal.  You also have to watch out for people dropping flower pots from the buildings' second floor windows.  If you get hit with a flower pot, you will be stunned for a few seconds.  The graphics and sound are mediocre as with most early NES games.  The game play is not very good, no real strategy involved, just button mashing really.  This is not a game I would play regularly.  Overall, I give it a 4 out of 10.  It is not really worth the time to play.

Override - PC Engine Review

 

Another PC Engine Shoot Em Up.  There are quite a few aren't there?  This one is pretty decent.  It starts off slow and easy on the first stage but gets progressively harder as you go on.  The power ups are abundant and come out in pods that you shoot.  The speed at which you level up is also pretty fast.  I do appreciate the distinct sound that is made you you get hit.  I however do not like the fact that there is no cool down or "grace period" when you get hit.  This means that you can get hit 3 times very fast and lose a ship.  Energy comes out in power up pods every so often, but it is rare.  It doesn't appear that you can really get anything different than you main shot.  You can get power ups to make it wider, but it doesn't really change.   The secondary weapon could be chase pods that shoot lasers or side shot pods.  Nothing really too special in the weapons dept.  The "mega bomb" or entire screen killer is a bunch of wide fast shots that take up the whole screen for about 3 seconds.  You have unlimited use of this feature, however you have to remain still for 3 seconds without shooting to charge it.  This sounds easy but in reality you will probably only ever use it on boss fights.  This game does have the feature where you can slow down and speed up on the fly by pressing button II.  This feature does come in handy at times.  The game play in this game is fun and challenging after the first stage.  The graphics and sound are good and on par with a PC Engine huCard.  Overall, I give this game a 6 out of 10.  It's just a small notch above average.

Jumping Flash - PS1 Review

This is a first person shooter / 3D puzzle game for the PS1.  My first impression was that the game was absolute garbage.  Once I got the hang of the controls and the weird jumping perspective, I found my self having fun and trying to beat every level.  The point of the game is to collect 3 Jetpod items per level and then go to the exit.  Sound easy in theory, but the game is actually really challenging.  There are moving platforms floating in the sky and lots of little ledges to jump onto.  It gets really frustrating at times trying to figure out how to get up to the super high platforms.  You can fire lasers at the different "bug" type enemies that are roaming around the level.  When you kill an enemy, they will drop coins and sometimes an occasional power up.  Power ups are Acorn bombs, Roman Candles, Snakes, and missiles.  After 2 stages, you get to fight a boss.  The first boss is a giant dragon that shoots fire.  The boss fight is not too tough if you pay attention to what you are doing.  The game play of the game is pretty fun once you get the hang of it.  The graphics and sound are alright and on par with the PS1 for the time.  Overall, I give this game a 6 out of 10.  A fun game to pick up and play from time to time.   

Astro Robo Sasa - Famicom Review

Very basic game for the Famicom.  You are a robot that shoots out energy balls.  The way that you move, is to shoot an energy ball in the opposite direction you want to go.  It is hard to get the hang of it, but after awhile it gets pretty easy.  This is an arcade style game where you clear one screen at a time by getting all the energy pods on the level.  You do have to avoid cows and helicopters, etc.  Graphics are alright for the time period and sound is as well.  Every time you shoot, you use energy.  If your energy gets to zero, you die.  Overall, I give this game a 4 out of 10 stars.  Not exactly a game I would play all the time.  

Sigma Star Saga - Game Boy Advance Review

This is a unique game.  It's a shoot 'em up, adventure, and RPG combined.  There is a story tied to the game that is actually pretty good.  When you are walking around exploring, you will get random battles where you go into shoot 'em up mode and have to eliminate a certain number of enemies to win the battle.  There are plenty of upgrades for weapons that you will find while adventuring.  Graphics are decent and on par with the GBA and sound is pretty good.  Some of the music gets repetitive after awhile.  The game play is pretty good, but you will find the game to play really slow at times.  Sometimes you have to play a level 5 or 6 times to learn it before you can beat it and move on to the next stage.  There are experience points in the game and you can level up to make your ship stronger and more powerful.  Overall, I give this game a 7 out of 10 stars.  I recommend that you pick it up and play it.  You can get a loose copy on ebay for about $10.

Super SD System 3 Review

You can purchase this device at https://shop.terraonion.com/en/ for 240 Euros with shipping.  It comes out to roughly $300 US.  Option number two: you can buy from my favorite video game store https://stoneagegamer.com/ for $299 US plus shipping.  The advantage of buying it from Stone Age Gamer is that you get it shipped faster, and if there is an issue, you can call them for support.  I had a minor issue with the audio and they worked with me and found out it was a cable issue.  They gave me a free cable and a new unit!  So what does this thing do for $300?  Everything!  It first and foremost emulates the CD-ROM unit allowing PC Engine and Turbo Grafx 16 CDs to be played on either system (all region free).  The device plugs into the back of either a TG-16 or a PC Engine where the CD-ROM would plug in.  It has a micro SD (up to 256gb supported but 128gb is plenty of space) slot on the side to put the CD images on.  As if CD support wasn't enough, you can also read TG-16 and PC Engine HuCards from this device!  Oh yeah, and it has direct RGB out the back, using a Genesis / Megadrive 2 cable.  Also, it gets its power from the console so it requires no external power!  It also has no moving parts.  I forgot to mention that it has the PC Engine Arcade Card built in also and a handy green LED that flashes showing the loading from the SD card.  When you power the system on with the Super SD System 3 attached, it will take you to a menu system where you can load all your games.  This device works flawlessly and I would highly recommend it to anyone that is considering getting a DUO or a CD-Rom attachment.  Lets face it, this is the way most everyone will get to play all the exotic, expensive games that you can't afford.  Well worth the $300 investment.  Highly recommended!