Sam's video game collection essentials

And here we have another one of those games from Treasure. This time, obviously it’s a licensed game. Now, licensed games don’t have a great reputation because of how developers rely on the license rather than quality for their sales, but sometimes they’ll put in the actual love and care a game needs anyway, and that’s exactly what Treasure did here. McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure is a delightful platformer in every respect. There’s not a ton to say as the game doesn't really reinvent the wheel. Ronald has an actual attack, he shoots out magic dust that makes most enemies go poof on contact. He has hit points so he won’t die in one hit. He’s got a scarf that he can use to wrap around things above him to hang from and/or climb up. There are optional things to find in levels, such as mini games for earning items that will help Ronald out. The quality gameplay is sweetened with good graphics and a very nice, upbeat soundtrack.  I don’t have a ton else to say about this game, I nev

I have a thing for goofy non-traditional sports games, and this one fits the bill. It was one of the lesser-known such arcade titles made by legendary developer Midway, originally released as an arcade game called Pigskin 621 A.D. in which a bunch of vikings play a simplified version of American football with no huddles. The only stoppage of play is scoring a touchdown, so that means no penalties, so that means you can beat the snot out of the other team. There’s no positions and anyone can throw a forward pass. There are hazards on the field to dodge. It’s not all random chaos, as you can issue commands to your team that will affect how the computer-controlled players behave.  The odd thing about this game, as you can see from the title, is the endorsement of real-life then-head coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, Jerry Glanville. Sega liked to get these kinds of endorsements from real athletes or coaches, and that makes all the sense in the world for games that depict real leagues an

This is a game that I didn’t know about for years and years, and once I discovered I was flabbergasted that I never had. It’s one of the most creative and unique games of its time. Haunting is about a dead teenager who had gotten into an accident because of a defective skateboard. As a deceased ghost, he decides to get his revenge on the family of the businessman in charge of the skateboard company. So your objective is to go around the house and scare the people who live there. You do this by possessing the objects around the house, making them do supernatural creepy stuff. Some things can be set like traps waiting for a person to pass by, some go off immediately when they’re activated, and some can be possessed and controlled. This game works because the animations are so well-done, and it’s always amusing to see all the different things you can do and how the terrified people react to them. Once you’ve scared everyone to the max, you move on to the next level. But your health slowly

Yesterday I talked about a Treasure game for the first time and noted that it had been their third one released, and that I would get to the first two at a later time. Well, here’s the first one released, Gunstar Heroes, a game that wasn’t quite a household name but is known and revered by retro game enthusiasts as one of the highlights in the Genesis library. As stated before, Treasure was founded from former Konami employees who wanted more freedom in their game development. And of course Konami was the company that brought us Contra, the incredible series of run ‘n gun games. So it’s fitting that Treasure’s first-released game is a run ‘n gun. And Gunstar Heroes does plenty to set itself apart from Contra so that it’s not merely a clone. The basic concept is pretty much the same, to advance forward and use whatever gun you have to wipe out enemies in your way. But the execution is significantly different. An immediately obvious and cool difference with Gunstar Heroes is that you can

I’ve talked plenty about Konami’s games already and how great they are. In the early ‘90s, some employees at Konami decided to leave the company and form their own in order to be free to make whatever games they wanted. And so, no surprise, Treasure became a legendary developer highly revered by old school gamers. Dynamite Headdy is their third game, and we’ll get to the first two later on. In Dynamite Headdy, you control the eponymous Headdy. You’ll notice that he has no neck and a head that floats above his torso. This lack of a neck is Headdy’s greatest strength, as he attacks his enemies by shooting his head forward for a bite before it returns to his body like a boomerang. He can do this in eight directions, all around his body. On top of this, there are various temporary power-ups that improve or change his head-shooting power. For example, one of them makes his head duplicate into three which lets the head attack cover a wider range (pictured). Headdy can also use his head for n

It’s kinda weird to be talking about a game featuring the antagonist of that blue hedgehog before actually talking about the hedgehog itself, but oh well, so it goes. In Japan, developer Compile had already released a couple games in a series of falling-blocks puzzle games called Puyo Puyo. Bringing the series to the West posed a bit of a problem, because most Western gamers at that point were young boys, and the main character of Puyo Puyo was a little girl. And the rest of the characters in the series were often really bizarre in that particular Japanese way, and companies weren’t sure at that point whether that sort of thing would go over well in other countries. So what was the solution? Take the gameplay, and swap out the characters and music for stuff more tailored to what young American ‘90s boys would like! In this case, the antagonist of that blue hedgehog and his robotic underlings proved to be ideal. That hedgehog had already received an animated television series that intro

And here’s Konami with another series I’m very fond of now on the Genesis. Contra and Super C on the NES set an excellent standard for run ‘n gun action. Now, I really like Contra: Hard Corps and it has an awful lot going for it, but at the same time I feel that the game is a bit tragic. This SHOULD be the best game in the whole series, but there are flaws that hold it back a little bit from getting that title for me. But first, allow me to describe the game and what’s great about it, because there’s plenty to say on that front. First of all, this game really cranks it up when it comes to graphics and audio. Contra on the NES is no match for how this game looks and sounds. The game boasts a killer upbeat soundtrack that really complements the action, and I even like to listen to music from this game while I’m out jogging! There are four different playable characters now, each of which has their own unique set of weapons they can acquire, which is super cool and provides lots of gamepla

Castlevania is back!! I’ve already talked about a few Castlevania games on this blog, so this post is gonna be a little short since I don’t need to explain the whole thing. This game doesn’t mess with the basic formula of the series, and you’ve got top-notch Genesis-quality graphics and music this time. This game has two playable characters, John Morris and Eric. John plays more like one of the previous Castlevania main characters, while Eric wields a spear instead that he can thrust in eight directions. John can only swing his whip upwards when he’s jumping for some odd reason, and he’s definitely an inferior character to Eric. He can swing on things with his whip sometimes, but this isn’t as useful as being able to attack enemies coming from anywhere. Bloodlines doesn’t have the character-switching system or the branching paths to the same extent as Castlevania III did. One could argue that’s a step backwards and a flaw, but this game is so good that I don’t mind. The main complaint

It’s no surprise that, with the huge success of Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series, a lot of developers would try to take their own stab at that style of adventure game. Beyond Oasis was far from the first, and in fact it came quite late in the Genesis’ lifespan, seeing a worldwide release in 1995. As far as Zelda-likes on the Genesis go, this is absolutely my favorite. It was made by a fairly obscure developer named Ancient (though they’re still around today), and they really nailed it. I only played through it once, and that was almost nine years ago, so I can’t give you a super-detailed description of all there is to this game. But as you can expect from a Zelda game, there’s dungeons to traverse and puzzles to solve. It sets itself apart from Zelda in a few different ways, the most immediately obvious being that this game has a jump button, while you typically can’t jump in Zelda games, so there’s actually some platforming going on here too.  Something really neat in this game is th

Let me just say right away, this is not one of the best Sega Genesis games. But it was a launch title for the system, and was initially bundled with it until it got replaced by that certain blue hedgehog’s first game, so it has a special significance. Altered Beast was originally an arcade game, and the Sega Genesis version is a pretty decent port. It’s a fairly straightforward game from a side perspective where the screen slowly scrolls automatically, and you move left and right punching and kicking stuff. In each level you'll need to acquire three orbs, and when you do so successfully, you will transform into a beast!! Which creature you become depends on what level you’re playing. Becoming a beast is certainly the most fun part of the game. There are some cheesy voice lines in the game too which to me adds to the charm, most notably a voice that says “WISE FWOM YOUR GWAVE” when you start the first level. The game is just charming and significant enough for me to warrant adding i

Since Nintendo’s Famicom was the first big home console in Japan, and because the NES single-handedly revived the dead home console market in America, Nintendo in the 1980s found themselves with a near-monopoly over the business. While the NES was a legitimately great console, monopolies are never a good thing. Nintendo was a bit of a bully at times due to their monopolistic power. For example, they had policies with their third-party developers that forced them to keep their games exclusive to the Famicom and NES. If they wanted to make games for another company’s console, Nintendo wouldn’t allow them to keep making games for them as well, and since Famicom and NES were so big, developers often had little choice but to comply. In America Nintendo even found themselves locked in an antitrust lawsuit filed by Atari Games at one point. For the long-term good of the industry, somebody else would have to find a way to break through and knock Nintendo down a peg. In Japan, a console called

The original Zelda was obviously one of the biggest, most significant releases on the NES. So everybody was eagerly anticipating what Nintendo was going to do for a follow-up. For better or worse, they decided to greatly change the formula, so that it’s an entirely different type of experience. While the original was an action adventure game, it would be more accurate to call Zelda II an action RPG, as it uses a level-up system complete with experience points as well as various spells that cost MP to cast. It is still comparable to the original in terms of giving you a world to explore with various dungeons to tackle. The big, immediate, obvious difference with Zelda II is that it primarily uses side-scrolling gameplay, with some platforming elements, even. When you’re on the world map (between locations), then the game goes back to an overhead view like the original Zelda, but you can’t attack or use items, since your goal is only to reach your next destination. When you touch a town

Yet another game from the great Konami. It’s another platformer, but with a totally unique twist. Not only are you trying to get to the end of the level, but it’s also very important to stay in shape. If you make it to the end but your required weight is too high, then your girlfriend penguin dumps you and you lose anyway!!  How does this work? Well, there are items you can get that will slim you down, so you have to collect as many of those as possible. Enemies don’t deal damage or kill you like in most other video games, instead they either stun you or make you fatter. Some will lob food at you that you must die, or else you’ll eat it ‘cuz you’re a glutton who can’t resist!! You don’t have hit points, but the timer is the other big thing you have to be mindful of in this game. You have a limited amount of time to clear the stage, and if you waste time getting hit by enemies, you’ll run out and lose that way. There are also some shoot ‘em up levels to mix up the gameplay from the typi

This is the last of Nintendo’s three 1985 Zapper light gun games that I’m covering here. Wild Gunman is actually a remake of an arcade game from the 1970s, which was quite different from the NES game you see here. The thing is, that game used actual live footage of actors for its graphics, and obviously that wasn’t even remotely in the stratosphere of possibility for the NES, so they completely built the game up and made amusing sprites of various enemy characters for this version. Wild Gunman is a quick draw game. The main gameplay modes involve one or two enemy characters coming on the screen to have a duel with you. You can see how fast the enemy is going to shoot in the info box near the top of the screen. You are theoretically supposed to keep your light gun around your waist as if it were holstered and then draw when the time comes and shoot first, although there is no way for the game to know if you’re cheating by holding the gun right at the TV the whole time. There’s also a th

This one’s a bit of a nostalgia pick for me, as it’s one of the first games I had when I first got an NES as a young teenager. It always made for a good multiplayer pick, and I particularly remember playing it with my sister Abby on various occasions. While it is a nostalgia pick, though, I do think it’s a solid rendition of the popular game show, though a better one probably exists somewhere.  If you’re unfamiliar with the game show, Wheel of Fortune is basically a modified game of hangman. When it’s your turn, you spin the wheel, and if the wheel gives you a dollar amount (most common), you can guess a letter, and if the letter is in the solution then you earn the dollar amount that you spun. Also on the wheel are other things like “Bankrupt”, “Miss a turn” or “Free spin” which you can save and use later. Vowels can’t be normally guessed, and vowel guesses must be bought with the money a player has already earned without spinning the wheel. At the end of their turn, a player may take

With the huge success of Mario dawned the era of mascots, where many companies wanted a short and cute character, usually from a platformer, to be their equivalent of Mario, as a face of their company. Hebereke is Sunsoft’s introduction of one such mascot, introducing Hebereke (or “Hebe”) the penguin along with his three friends. They would star in a game with a strange, quirky, cartoony world distinct from Mario’s. For example, in the photo, you’ll see a block face drooling, and you actually have to climb up the drool from below to get to where I am in the photo. That’s the kind of strange we’re talking about. Unfortunately, Sunsoft’s American division thought that the game was a little too strange and quirky for the American market, and it didn’t get a North American release. Oops. The game did see a release in Europe, though, under the name “Ufouria: The Saga” with a few aesthetic changes, though the game only got a small print run over there. But in Japan, Hebereke did indeed go on

Another day, another Tetris. This is Nintendo’s rendition that they released not long after Atari Games lost the rights to Tetris. I already talked a lot about all that, and Tetris itself, in yesterday’s post, so go back and read that if you missed it! This version made headlines very recently, just a couple months ago, as a kid became the first player to progress so far in the game that it crashed, making him the first person in a certain sense to "beat" the game. Nintendo’s Tetris was a huge success and is one of the most common NES games. They didn’t merely take the Atari Games version and slap their own label on it. Not at all, in fact. This is a completely different version built from the ground up, with completely different graphics and music, as well as differences in modes available. Nintendo’s Tetris features “Game A” which is a basic game of Tetris where you just play to get a high score until you lose. “Game B” requires you to clear a certain amount of lines before

You knew I would get to this eventually, one of the most famous video games of all-time, Tetris!! There’s quite a history behind this iconic and beloved game. As you may know, it was created in Russia during the Cold War, and I’m not going to tell the whole story, but bringing the game to the rest of the world proved to be a complicated issue that resulted in legal snares and battles, enough that an entire movie was released last year on the topic.  This particular release for the NES by itself has quite a tumultuous story surrounding it. Atari Games (owner of the Tengen brand) had received the rights to produce an arcade version of Tetris. Then, they wanted to port this version into cartridge form for Nintendo’s home console. Atari Games and Nintendo already had an antagonistic relationship. Nintendo, thanks to having a near-monopoly over the video game console market at the time, made steep demands of people who made games for them, and most developers didn’t have much choice because

Tecmo had previously released “Tecmo Bowl” nearly three years before this game, and while I don’t own it and don’t consider it essential, it was a very good football game for its time. But fans of that game had seen nothing yet. Tecmo Super Bowl provided a major upgrade, and is widely considered the best sports game on the NES, and some would even say one of the best sports video games of all time in general. The first noticeable difference is that Tecmo Super Bowl, unlike the original, got the license to use real NFL teams with their logos, and all the real players, which maybe sounds frivolous to a non-sports fan, but believe me when I say people who like sports enjoy controlling fantasy versions of their favorite teams and athletes much more than generic made-up counterparts! When making a sports video game, there are different ways a developer can go about it. The most obvious path, perhaps, would be to try and make it as realistic and true to the real thing as possible. That’s oft