Espial - Atari 2600 Review

A shoot 'em up game for the Atari VCS.  Very colorful and flashy looking.  You control a ship that shoots lasers and there is a target in front of you.  The enemies seem to be lurking below the background or in the shadows.  You must line your target up with the enemy ship or ground target to kill it when you shoot.  After about a minute, you clear the level and move on to the next.  When you get to the 3rd level, it gets crazy hard.  Enemies now come at you from behind!  Overall, not a bad game and pretty challenging.  I give this one a 6 out of 10 overall.  Worth checking out for sure.

Ridge Racer V - PS2 Review

Straightforward, no frills arcade racing brought to you by Namco.  This was one of the initial launch titles for the Play Station 2 way back in 2000.  This game is pretty decent and fun to play.  Don't expect it to be realistic however.  There is no braking really required, just releasing the gas and drifting around corners.  There are no real world physics, so cars don't act like they should.  You have to go into this game with the mindset that it is an arcade racer.  The game even comes complete with the annoying announcer guy that makes all kinds of obvious and goofball comments.  The game does get boring however after about 30 minutes due to the limitation of different tracks.  The tracks are basically just different versions of about 4 or 5 main, core tracks.  Overall, I give this game a 6 out of 10.  Fun to play and what you would expect from an arcade style racing game.    

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.

X-Perts Sega Genesis Review

Late release Genesis game that in my opinion is pretty boring.  Released in 1994 and making use of the 6 button controller is X-Perts.  The graphics are pretty good but the rest of the game is lacking.  It is slow and sluggish, and the game play is terrible.  The whole point of the game is that you switch between 3 characters in real time and try to do missions where you disable computers and restart elevators, etc.  It gets boring and repetitive after about 10 minutes.  Overall, I give this game a 3 out of 10 stars.  There is nothing really special about it and it is really not even worth playing. 

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.  

Yoshi - NES Review

It is very hard for me to fairly rate puzzle games, but I try.  This is a Tetris like game where two pieces at a time fall.  You can't move the pieces as the are falling, you can only rotate ones than have already fell.  Match two and they go away and you score points.  There is also a 2 player simultaneous mode.  Graphics and sound are on par with the NES and the game play is what it should be for a puzzle game.  Overall, I will give this game a 4 out of 10 stars.  I am sure it would rank higher for someone who likes puzzle games.

Space Tunnel Atari 2600 Review

This game is absolute garbage.  Number one, you barely have any movement.  Number two, it is not even challenging.  Number three, it is so repetitive that you can literally sleep will playing it.  The only good thing about the game is that you can fire in four directions. It is borderline unplayable.  Overall, I give it a 1 out of 10 stars.  It is just horrible, especially for a shoot em up.  

Times Of Lore NES Review

This is supposed to be an RPG, however I found no way of leveling up while playing it.  The game is terrible.  It is slow, repetitive and hard to control.  The game play is horrible, borderline unplayable.  The game reminds me of a slower, easier, Hydlide.  You have to bring a menu up to talk to people and to pick things up.  The path from town to town is linear so there is no exploring.  Graphics and music are both sub par for the NES.  Overall, I give this game a 2 out of 10.  Horrible, don't even bother with it.

Robowarrior NES Review

This game is almost identical to Bomberman.  I am not a big fan of either.  This type of top down puzzle action game is not really one of my favorites.  The game play is tedious and not very fun in my opinion.  Boring, boring, boring.  Simply put, I don't like this game at all.  I give it 2 out of 10 stars.  The only thing that is remotely good about it is there is a huge amount of power ups.  

Final Fantasy VIII PS1 Review

Released in 1998 on the PlayStation.  A lot of people dislike this second installment on the PS1.  I don't dislike the game, but it is not one of my favorites either.  The story line in this game is pretty good and the CG animations are awesome for the time.  The characters are alright, nothing special.  Game play is pretty decent, and the battle mode is turn based like all the Final Fantasy games up to this point.  The game is kind of weird though because you mainly use physical attacks in the random battles but rely heavily on Guardian Forces for boss battles.  Boss battles are really easy because of this.  Guardian Forces are summoned and come out and do heavy damage to enemies.  Another strange thing about this game is that you have to use a draw command to draw magic out of enemies, stocking it, and junctioning it to your character.  A lot of elements of this game turn people off due to the tediousness of playing.  That is the beauty of Final Fantasy games though right?  Every game has something different and new to do.  The music and CG animation in this game is extraordinary and the game play is good.  As you get towards the end of the game on the 4th disc, it just seems to wear at you and never end.  Overall, I give the game 7 out of 10 stars.  If you are a RPG gamer, you definitely have to play through it at least once.   

Skykid NES Review

This game is terrible in my opinion.  The graphics are sub par for the NES, even early NES.  The music is repetitive and not very good.  The game play is atrocious.  It is difficult to control the plane and it seems like you never get the hang of it.  The purpose of the game is to fly your plane through each stage, picking up a bomb, bombing a target, and then landing.  I think this is a direct arcade port.  Overall, I give the game 3 out of 10 stars.  Maybe people like this game? Not I.

Dragon's Curse TurboGrafx-16 Review

This is a platform / RPG / adventure game for the TurboGrafx-16.  It is an alright game, nothing special.  It has a password feature for continuing.  It is a pretty straightforward game although there is some exploring that you have to do in order to find items.  You can buy weapon and armor upgrades and there are plenty of power ups throughout the game that enemies drop or you can find.  The graphics are great for the TurboGrafx and the sound and music are OK.  Overall, I give this game a 5 out of 10.  It is just your basic adventure / RPG.  It is not something that I would regularly play but is cool to mess with every now and then.  

Gun.Smoke NES Review

This is a forced vertical scrolling shoot 'em up that takes place in the old west.  Your goal is to find or buy a wanted poster of each villain on each stage.  If you don't find or buy a wanted poster, the stage loops back around and you replay through it.  There are about 5 gun power ups that you have to buy and enemies drop bullets and money after you shoot them.  You also gain money instead of points for shooting enemies.  There is also a horse power up that you can find or buy that speeds you up and allows you to get hit twice before you die, instead of the usual once.  The graphics are OK and on par with the NES, the sound and music are decent and above average, and the game play is great.  I give this game an 8 out of 10 stars.  It is always fun to play and you can play it for a long period without getting bored.

Space Invaders '91 Genesis Review

An upgraded 16 bit version of a not so great game.  The graphics and sound are obviously better with this remake.  The game play however is exactly the same.  They could have done something to make the game play a little different.  You get power ups like lasers and better shields and some of the enemies have to be shot multiple times to kill them.  Basically, it is still Space Invaders.  Very weak in my opinion and not very fun just like the original.  Overall, I give this game 4 out of 10 stars, and I am being extremely generous. 

Lords of Thunder Sega CD Review

Side scrolling shoot em up for the Sega CD, a good one!  This game is pretty awesome.  You fight through seven stages that you can select to play in any order.  You have four types of armor to select from, all four elements, earth, fire, wind, and water.  Which ever armor you choose is a strategy in itself because it helps with the stage you play.  The game play is smooth and fluid and the graphics are awesome.  The music is an awesome heavy rock soundtrack and the sounds are pretty decent.  This is one of the few Sega CD games that I find myself playing again and again.  There is also a cool feature where you collect crystals of different values and spend them at a store between stages to power up.  The bosses are huge and challenging as well.  Overall I give this game an 8 out of 10 stars.  I definitely recommend picking it up and playing it if you are a shoot em up fan.

10 Yard Fight NES Review

One of the original 30 launch titles.  Looking at this game and playing it now, it seems like pure crap.  When this first came out, it was awesome because all other football games at the time sucked bad.  I am not a real big football fan so I didn't play this one much back in the day.  I play it now and I can't say that I enjoy it.  It just isn't fun for me to play.  It was an arcade port and the graphics are pretty good for an early NES release.  The game play is OK, and the sound and music are sub par in my opinion.  Overall, I give it a 5 out of 10.  Average game, not really something I would play at all.  There are better 8 bit football games out there for sure.

Phantasy Star 3 Sega Genesis Review

I just played through this game again recently and I didn't find it as enjoyable as previously.  This game is the 3rd in the series of 4 and it doesn't really pick up where 2 left off.  It is kind of a spin off from the series.  The graphics and music are pretty good and it is pretty much your typical J-RPG.  When you first start the game it seems like it is going to take forever but the game is actually pretty short compared to the other games in the series.  The dungeons are not hard and are almost linear.  There are only 4 bosses in the game including the end boss.  There are techniques in the game but they are almost nonexistent and not really required even to fight the extremely easy bosses.  You play through three generations of main characters but the storyline is kind of dry and there is no real attachment to the game at all.  I would classify this game as mainly a hack n slash RPG due to the use of mainly weapons and not techniques.  Is it a bad game? No.  Is it a great game? No.  It's just an average game, my least favorite in the series.  Overall, I give it a 5 out of 10 stars.  Nothing special but semi enjoyable to play through for the hardcore RPG fan.

Black Hole Assault Sega CD Review

Yet another beat 'em up game for the Genesis.  This one in my opinion is really bad.  The moves are limited and the game play is shotty.  As with almost all Sega CD games, the sound, music, and graphics for the cut scenes are great, but the actual game is lacking.  The graphics for the game are pretty good for Sega CD but the game play ruins this game.  You basically travel to different planets fighting robot enemies one on one.  I am not of big fan of fighting games anyway but this one really falls short.  It gets boring after the first fight and never gets any better after that.  Overall, I give this game a 3 out of 10 stars.  Mediocre and not fun at all.   

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. 

Wolfchilid Genesis Review

Platformer game for the Genesis similar to Altered Beast.  Think of it as Altered Beast on steroids.  You are a guy that when you obtain certain power up balls, you turn into a wolf that shoots blue fire.  Prior to the wolf / blue fire shooting, your only weapon is your fist.  You also have a "kill all enemies on the screen" weapon where it looks like you throw an orb on the ground with lightning.  The game itself is not too difficult but it is one of those frustrating games where the levels are designed so that you have to go a certain way to exit.  Sometimes you will fall off a ledge and have to go all the way back and do most of the level again.  Game play is alright and the graphics and sound / music is pretty good for the Genesis.  Overall, I give the game a 5 out of 10.  Nothing special going on, just a typical frustrating platformer. 

Cosmic Commuter Atari 2600 Review

Released in 1984 by Activision. This game is not really well known.  The goal of the game is to land and then detach from your lander into a speedy craft.  Next, you fly through a series of obstacles that you can shoot with lasers that kind of steer as you move up and down while firing.  The object is to pick up the commuters at the bottom of the screen all while avoiding the objects which move at a different speed than the ground.  You also have to be mindful of your fuel gauge as it runs down quite quick.  After you pick up all the commuters on the stage, you fly back to your landing point and dock with the lander.  Next you take off while avoiding the obstacles again.  You start a new stage, the obstacles change, and you do it all over again.   The game play is fun and fast paced as most Activision games are.  The sound and graphics are pretty good for the Atari VCS.  A fun and challenging game.  Overall, it gets a 7 out of 10 rating.  Not one of my favorite games but fun to play nonetheless.