Phantasy Star Collection Game Boy Advance Review

This game is a collection of 3 classic RPG's by Sega.  The collection was released in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance.  I am not going to review each game in the collection individually.  I will review the collection as a whole.  I am a big fan of the Phantasy Star series so I was happy when this came out.  This collection has Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System, Phantasy Star 2 for the Sega Genesis, and Phantasy Star 3 for the Sega Genesis.  The only one missing for the 8 bit / 16 bit systems is Phantasy Star 4.  If you have never played any of these games, I highly recommend them.  This collection contains the roms of these three games and they play and sound identical to the single versions.  There is a battery back up so you can save your progress just like the originals.  I give this a 9 out of 10 overall.  It would have gotten a perfect 10 if it contained part 4. 

No Escape! Atari 2600 Review

This game is an OK game.  Like I have said before, it is hard to find good Atari 2600 games.  You are a guy who can run back and forth and shoot a (kinda steerable) shot into the ceiling knocking bricks down.  The bricks fall and hopefully hit your enemies who move back and forth and get increasingly harder when you clear a stage.  If you hit the enemies instead of the ceiling, it will spawn another enemy.  You have a power gauge at the bottom of the screen and if you get hit by enemies shots of falling bricks, you lose power.  When you run out of power, the game is over.  After you shoot all the enemies on a level, you get points for how many bricks are left.  The game play is pretty smooth for a 2600 game and the graphics and sound are on par with other 2600 games.  It is a decent game to pick up every now and then and play.  I do have it on my 2600 regularly played shelf.  Overall I give it a 6 out of 10 stars.  I probably would have given it a 7 if there were more to it than just the shooting stage.  Maybe there is more to it and I have never made it far enough?  I am not sure  

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.

G-LOC Air Battle Game Gear Review

Another fighter jet sim.  This one for the Sega handheld portable Game Gear.  Not too bad of a game.  You can select beginner, normal, or hard mode.  You can select between 9 stages when you start.  The game plays well for an 8 bit fighter flight sim.  The unique thing about this game is that after you clear a stage, you have the ability to upgrade your airplanes weapons and armor.  The game is quite challenging.  I found it pretty difficult on the easy level.  Overall I give the game a 5 out of 10 stars.  Nothing really special about it but it is a fun game to pop in from time to time.

Air Raiders Atari 2600 Review

This game came out in 1982 for the Atari 2600.  For its time, this was a pretty cool game.  It is a dogfight simulation game.  You start out on a runway and you take off.  Once you are in the air you can climb in altitude with you max being 40.  You have cross hairs in the middle of the screen and your goal is to shoot down enemy jets.  You have 99 ammo and when you run low on ammo or fuel (the gauge right below the numbers) you can go close to the ground to land.  You can land 3 times during the game to refill you fuel and ammo.  The only catch is that it does not refill them all the way, only a small percentage.  You also have to be careful of the enemy firing on you.  The gauge on the bottom is like a radar with the red area in the middle being the "flak zone" where you will get fired upon.  When you get shot a few times, it makes you fuel go down.  If you get shot a bunch of times you will go down 10 in altitude.  If you crash into the ground it is game over.  Overall I give this game a 6 out of 10 stars.  The game play is not horrible but not great.  Graphics and sound are ok for Atari 2600.  It is a challenging game but not one you would play on a regular basis.

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.

Keystone Kapers Atari 2600 Review

Another great game by Activision.  You play the role of a cop and you chase a robber.  You run faster than the robber so you can eventually catch him.  It would appear that you are in a shopping mall.  You have to avoid obstacles such as bouncing barrels, old fashioned radios to jump over, shopping carts, and remote control planes.  Something that adds to the game play is the fact that you can jump while running, jump while standing, and duck.  Hitting some objects will deduct from your score while others will take a life and start you back at the beginning.  Every time you get to the end of a level, you have to go up the escalator.  There are also elevators in the middle but you don't really have to ever use them until maybe the later levels.  The game is really fast paced and fun to play.  There is also a little radar on the bottom of the screen which I have seen in a few other Activision games.  Overall I give the game a 7 out of 10.  Very original and a quality game overall.