Solar Jetman NES Review

A different kind of game for the NES.  It is pretty fun.  Very hard at first until you get used to the controls.  Actually, it is still hard after you get used to it.  There are 12 planets that you land on, each is progressively harder.  The goal of the game is to collect pieces to a Golden Warp Ship while also collecting power ups such as shields and missiles along the way.  The game is fun and challenging but can get very frustrating at times.  If you take your time and take it slow you will get farther.  This is not a game I would play all the time but it is fun to revisit from time to time.  It is one of those games you forget about and then rediscover.  The game play, graphics, and music are all average.  Overall, I give this game a 6 out of 10 stars.  Worth checking out. 

Destruction Derby Playstation Review

This is an early release game for the Playstation.  Came out in 1995.  This game is not as fun as I remember it.  The graphics are not very good as it is an early release and the music is kind of repetitive.  There are a few different modes you can play.  Practice mode, Race mode, Demolition Derby mode, and race wreckin mode.  The mode most fun is probably the race wreckin mode because you get to race around a track and crash into people.  The game play is not that great and the game get pretty boring after a few minutes.  The annoying voice over guy yelling things like "Get outta my way!" is pretty stupid.  Like I said, this game is fun for a few minutes and then it becomes boring.  Overall, I give it a 4 out of 10. 

Video Olympics Atari VCS (2600) Review

Released in 1978 as one of the Atari VCS's initial launch titles.  For its time it was pretty awesome because it took a basic Pong style game and added different variations to it.  Mediocre by today's standards but pretty cool back then.  I just attempted to play it and realized that my paddle controllers are not functioning correctly.  Nonetheless, the basic concept of what the game is was translated to me as I remember it. Hit a square ball back and forth and try to score on your opponent.  A fun 2 player game to mess with but nothing epic going on here.  Overall, I give it a 5 out of 10.  Atari is very hard to rate due to the huge amount of crappy games but this one stands the test of time.  It does what it is intended to do.  Pong with multiple variations.

Gyruss NES Review

This is a port of an arcade title by the same name.  Almost every NES arcade port is solid and so is this one.  This is a really fun arcade shoot em up that is the raster version of the vector classic Tempest.  You are basically trying to make your way towards Earth and start off at Neptune.  Every 3 screens or so you get a challenging stage and then a boss to fight.  The enemies come from the sides of the screen and then they go into the middle.  Your ship rotates around the middle and shoots inward towards the enemies just like tempest.  You get a double shot power up and eventually start collecting bombs that you can launch.  The game itself is fun and gets harder as you go on.  The music is pretty decent and the graphics are not bad for the NES.  Game play ranks pretty high up on the scale with this one.  Re playability is good as I find myself wanting to play the game every so often.  If you like shoot em ups, check this one out for something a little different and fun.  Overall, I give it a 7 out of 10.   

Elevator Action NES Review

Another port of an arcade game to the NES.  Pretty well done.  The purpose of this game is to go from the top of the building to the basement of the building where your get away car awaits.  There are many elevators, doors, and escalators in the building.  The elevators move on their own but you can also control them by pressing up and down when you enter them.  You have a gun with unlimited ammo to shoot the enemies who are also shooting at you.  You can also crouch and jump.  If you stand in front of a red door and press up, you can enter inside and get a secret file for bonus points.  You have to go into the red doors and get the files or you cannot clear the board.  The sound in the game is kind of generic, nothing special, and the game play is not that great.  What drives me crazy are the escalators.  You have to go all the way to one side and press diagonal down and to the left or right.  When you get off the escalator, sometimes there is an enemy there and you turn back but it goes back up instead.  Overall this game is pretty fun with some quirks here and there.  I give it a 5 out of 10 stars, nothing special but fun to play every now and then.    

Phoenix Atari 2600 Review

Arcade port for the 2600.  Pretty decent game overall.  It is what you expect fast for a VCS game.  There are 4 stages.  The first is small "demon birds", the second stage is small "demon birds" but you can hold the fire button down for rapid shot.  The third stage is big "demon bird" with wings that you can shoot off and they grow back.  You get no points for shooting their wings so it is better to just kill them.  The 4th and final stage is a mothership with an alien in the middle that lowers on you as you try and kill it.  When you kill it, it resets to the first board.  The point of the game is score and that is it.  Overall, I give it a 6 out of 10 stars.  Pretty good graphics for the 2600 and great shoot em up game play.  The sound sucks and is super annoying though, that is a huge negative for the game.

Pac-Man Atari 2600 Review

Alright, There are really no other screen shots to show.  This is it.  An arcade port that was rushed to come out for Christmas and resulted in a horrible game right?  Not quite.  The game is not all that horrible.  The graphics are not very good and the game play is super slow compared to the arcade, but this is an Atari 2600, not a powerful machine at all.  Most people played the game for 5 minutes and then said it was horrible.  The fact of the matter is, when you clear about 5 boards, it starts getting challenging.  It is a bad game, don't get me wrong, but it is not the worst game ever.  I am not a super huge Pac-Man fan anyway so I wouldn't really play this game much, but if you want a challenge, pop it in and clear the first 5 boards and then play the real game.  Overall, I give this game a 4 out of 10 stars (GASP!).  Try it, actually give it a chance.. It's not complete shit like you have been led to believe.  Come at it with a new seasoned gamers outlook..  :)

Need For Speed Underground Gamecube Review

This game is pretty awesome.  Underground (quest mode) and quick race mode are your options.  Playing the underground mode allows you to buy new cars, unlock upgrades and visual mods for your cars.  The graphics in this game are great for the Gamecube.  The music is awesome, a great mix of rock and rap of the time when this came out in 2001.  The game play is awesome.  You can pop this game in and end up playing it for over an hour or two.  It is quite addicting.  The only thing I dislike about the game is the fact that when you get towards the end of the game, it becomes tedious to try and win to move on.  You have to acquire points to unlock mods to continue at the higher stages which means basically switching back and forth between 2 vehicles.  One vehicle will be for handling and one for acceleration.  It is basically those two things you have to worry about.  The game has lots of different tracks and even runs them in reverse on some stages.  There is a Circuit mode where you just race laps and a sprint mode where you race to the finish.  There are also drift modes and drag racing modes which have their own style of play which you have to master.  Overall I give this game an 8 out of 10 stars.  Highly addictive and awesome to play.