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.