Spider Fighter Atari 2600 Review

A shoot em up game by Activision.  This game is real fast paced and plays well.  You start off with 4 ships.  The goal is to protect your 3 pieces of fruit in the top right corner of the screen.  There are 4 spiders per round that hatch eggs creating other spiders.  Shoot them for score and to clear the round.  If you have less than 4 ships at the end of a round you get a free ship.  The game is really repetitive but fun.  Overall I give it 5 out of 10.

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.

Popeye NES Review

This is an arcade port for the NES.  This is the best version of this game other than the arcade that I have seen.  It is an NES "black label" game with means it was one of the original launch titles.  The game plays identical to the arcade from what I could tell.  You play through 3 stages.  You catch hearts, musical notes, and letters that spell help from Olive Oyle.  You have to avoid Bluto and also a giant condor / eagle thing on the final stage.  You get 1 can of spinach per stage per life that you can use to go after Bluto or the eagle / condor thing. The game is pretty good for what it is.  I give it a 7 out of 10 overall.  Nothing really special about it.  It plays pretty well, however.

3D World Runner NES Review

3D World Runner by Square.  This is a decent game.  It is fun to play and has decent graphics and sound for the NES.  It has a 3D mode when you press select like Rad Racer has.  I assume this game came with 3D glasses back in the day?  The point of the game is to run through the different worlds with 4 stages each.  You can run faster by pressing up and slower by pressing down.  You move left and right and can jump.  If you hold the button down longer, you can jump higher.  It is a challenging game because you have to time your jumps and certain points to make it over pits and other obstacles.  You collect stars which go towards your score at the end of the world.  At the end of the 4th stage you fight a boss.  It is a snake like dragon thing that flies through the air.  Your character at this point during the boss battle can float in the air and shoot a weapon.  The boss battle is super easy but they do get harder as you go on.  The game play in this game is really good.  Overall, I give the game 7 out of 10 stars.  It has high re playability and challenge factor.

Hat Trick Atari 7800 Review

This game is a port of an arcade game by the same name.  It is a pretty close adaptation of the arcade version except that it seems slower and sluggish.  Once you get used to the speed it seems to play fine though.  It is a top down perspective one on one hockey  game.  2 on 2 technically if you count the goalies.  You can select between Novice and Expert mode and either 1 or 2 players.  It is much more fun to play with a friend but the computer does offer a challenge on expert mode.  Fun little game to pick up and play a few rounds with a friend every now and then.  Graphics and sound seem a little mediocre for the 7800 but not horrible.  Overall, I give this game a 6 out of 10 stars.