Today with the Grand Thef t Auto series we have driving, fighting, and shooting all seamlessly wrapped into one very entertaining game.  Before Grand Theft Auto this was very uncommon, but we have a rare example of it in 1989’s The Adventures of Bayou Billy by Konami.  Unlike Grand Theft Auto however, these game types aren’t seamlessly integrated into one, and it’s far less fun.

The story is that Bayou Billy’s girlfriend has been kidnapped by a gang, and of course you have to rescue her.  In most 80’s games the motive of the hero is always given, but rarely is the villain given a motive.  Why do these gangs kidnap people’s girlfriends?  Is it rape, extortion, revenge, or a personal beef with the hero?  Well I don’t know the motive of this particular gang, but they are really dead set on keeping this girl, because this game is tough.  There are nine stages in the game, and they involve either Double Dragon style beat-em-up stages, driving stages, and shooting stages where you can use the NES Zapper.

In the beat-em-up stages Billy can punch, kick, or drop kick the enemies.  He can also pick up weapons such as knives, sticks, and guns.  You mostly fight lackeys, with some alligators thrown in for variety.  All of the enemies are tough.  They take a lot of hits to take down, and you can only hit them once, because they retaliate immediately.  Fighting the alligators is boring, because they swim in a particular pattern, and you have to kick them when they swim to a certain part of the swamp.  At the end of stage is a boss battle, and these are extremely tough at first, but easy when you discover their weak point.  In fact everything about the street fighting stages is about exploiting the AI of your enemies, and I didn’t find this very fun.

The next stage type are the shooting stages.  I can imagine this would be a whole lot of fun with the NES Zapper, but unfortunately my modern HD television doesn’t work with the Zapper.  Luckily the game allows you to use the control pad to move a set of cross-hairs on screen, and shoot with the A button.  There are a LOT of enemies in these stages to shoot down, but there are health packs, and ammo packs that you can shoot to help you out.  At the end of the stage is another boss battle.  Despite being limited to the regular NES controller, I had fun with these stages.

The last type of stage are the driving stages.  Using a behind the car view, you drive your jeep down a dirt road, shooting enemy vehicles, and throwing grenades at passing enemy airplanes.  These stages are alright, but kind of weak.  They are extremely long and difficult too.

In fact the whole game is a bit weak.  That is strange too, because Konami usually puts out high quality games on the NES.  If they were to take any of these game types, and flesh them out into their own full games, they could have made some good games I am sure.  Even the graphics in Bayou Billy aren’t of the usual Konami quality, although they aren’t too bad.  On the plus side, the music is really catchy, and probably the best part of the game.  I also like the Louisiana bayou setting.  It also keeps score, so you can have a bit of fun trying for a high score.  If the game was a bit easier, I might have liked it more.  As is though, I find it a bit too frustrating, and not fun enough to master. I can recommend this game only for those who love the most challenging NES games.  The rest of us will probably be too frustrated to bother.

Rating – 5 / 10

Double Dragon is the legendary beat-em-up released in the arcades in 1987, and was the inspiration for many many games to come after it.  I previously reviewed the Sega Master System version of the game, and I liked it  even though it wasn’t quite like the arcade.  The NES version released by Tradewest in 1988 is an even weaker version of the game.  It’s not a bad game by any means, but I just don’t find it that great either.

In Double Dragon you control Billy or Jimmy on a quest to rescue your girlfriend Marian who has been kidnapped by the Black Warriors gang.  It’s a side scrolling beat-em-up, and you’ll have to dispense of many cronies before you get to the final battle.  In a new twist on the game, in the NES version you start off with only the ability to punch and kick.  After defeating enemies you gain experience, and when you earn more moves when you gain experience levels.  The moves include drop kicks, uppercuts, a throw, an extremely useless roundhouse kick, the ability to sit on an enemy’s chest and punch them in the face, and my favourite which is the ability to grab an enemy by the head and knee them in the face.  I found punches were useless due to their short range, so I mostly just kicked everyone, grabbed them by the head and kneed them in the face before tossing them over my shoulder.  There are weapons you can pick up, but they only last a limited time.  Some other changes to the game aren’t so great.  First change is that there is no two player co-op option.  That is criminal.  The reason is was called “Double” Dragon was because of the two player co-op game play.  Another limitation is that there can only be two enemies on screen at once.  This reduces the action, and makes the game a bit dull.  The stages are also different than the arcade version, and any other version of Double Dragon.  While there is nothing wrong with the stage design, it was a bit of a disappointment to anyone who wanted the arcade stages.  Another new addition is the one-on-one mode.  It’s an amusing mode for a bit, and two players can actually fight against each other.

The graphics aren’t nearly as good as the arcade version, but the NES hardware was several years older, and the graphics look quite nice on the NES.  The music is okay, but nothing too memorable.  Overall the game is merely okay.  I find it a bit repetitive, and I never could complete the game.  In fact I have never even gotten to the last stage, even after many times playing it.  It’s not exactly a tough game to play as most enemies are pretty easy to dispense of, but you do not get any continues at all, so you will have to absolutely master this game in order to complete it.  There are no cheats for it, but if I ever come across a Game Genie, I’ll have to come back to this game to complete it.  I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to get this game, but it’s not bad, and it does keep score.  This is mostly recommended for those who played it when they were younger.

Rating – 6 / 10

Sometimes I like to pick up totally random games that I’ve never heard of in the hopes that I will find a hidden gem.  Boomer’s Adventure in Asmik World isn’t a gem of a game, but it isn’t terrible either.  This game is just completely average.  It was released in Japan by Asmik in 1989, and in North America in 1990.

What was I thinking picking up a game with a pink dinosaur on it?

I don’t have the manual, and there is no storyline in the game itself, but I do know that the object of the game is to find a key to open a door to the next level.  The key to these doors are buried in the dirt, and you have to dig up the dirt in the hopes of finding it.  To help you out you can collect items such as a compass which will show you the general direction of the key, and a metal detector which will beep louder the closer you get to the key.  Out to stop you are various enemies, and if they touch you once you are dead.  You can fight back by digging a hole for the enemies to fall into, and then burying them.  Burying animals alive seems kind of cruel doesn’t it?  You can also dig up boomerangs, and bones to throw at your enemies as well.  The toughest part of the game is that your character digs very slowly, and the mazes are all corridors, and this makes it very easy for enemies to surround you.  Every 8th stage or so is a boss battle.  In the boss battles you dig up bones and throw them at the boss.

The major problem with this game for me is it’s relentless difficulty.  I just absolutely suck at this game.  I’ve only made it to stage 6 out of the 30+ stages.  I used a password to get to the first boss battle, and I could only manage a single hit on him.  The game does keep score however, so I guess you can try for a high score, but overall I didn’t find the game very fun.  I should mention that the character you control is a dinosaur, and if this game was based on real life events, then I’m pretty sure this was how the dinosaurs became extinct.

I previously reviewed Ms. Pac-Man for the Atari 2600, and that was a great game, although it wasn’t quite like the arcade game.  Ms. Pac-Man for the Sega Genesis actually tries to be better than the arcade game, and it has succeeded on some points.  Ms. Pac-Man of course was released to the arcades by Midway in 1981, and this version on the Sega Genesis was released by Tengen (aka Atari) in 1991.

The Marilyn Monroe of video games, Ms. Pac-Man.

In order to fit Ms. Pac-Man from the vertically oriented arcade monitor to the more horizontally orientated home television sets, this port of the game has a scrolling playfield.  I generally complete the maze in sections anyway, so the scrolling didn’t bother me at all, but it is good to point out.  Some other changes to note are the new updated graphics.  The graphics are more detailed than the arcade version, and while they do look really good, some people may prefer the classic arcade graphics.  For me I wish they would have given you an option to switch between the two graphical styles.  Speaking of options though, this game is absolutely loaded with them.  Not only do you get all of the arcade mazes, but there are options to play with different mazes.  The mazes come in the mini, large, and strange categories.  I mostly played the arcade mazes, but it was really neat and refreshing to play the new ones.  There’s also a difficulty option, and this mainly controls the speed of the game.  Another new option is the Pac-Boost.  The Pac-Boost makes Ms. Pac-Man go extremely fast through the maze.  You can choose to play with it on all of the time, or only when you press a button.  Again I preferred to play with it off, but it was fun to choose sometimes.  Finally the last addition is the two player co-op, or competitive mode.  Player one plays as Ms. Pac-Man, and player two plays as Mr. Pac-Man.  This mode is best played in the mini mazes, since it’s tough to play two player games in the larger mazes that make the screen scroll.  The sounds aren’t quite the same as the arcade, but they sound pretty good none the less.

The most important part of any Pac-Man game is the controls, and while nothing will beat the original arcade stick, this game plays pretty good with the Sega Genesis controller.  Naturally if you love old school games, and Pac-Man in particular, then you should for sure get this for your Sega Genesis.  There is also a port of this game with all of the mazes and options on the NES, and that version more closely resembles in the arcade version in terms of graphics.  I would recommend picking up both.

I like the Where’s Waldo books, and comic strips.  The scenes have so much detail that it is fun to look even after you’ve found Waldo himself.  If you don’t know what Where’s Waldo is, it’s a book with hand drawn chaotic scenes of everyday life, such as camping or a carnival.  In the sea of many people you have to find where the character Waldo is.  Sometimes it’s hard to find him, and sometimes you’ll get lucky and find him immediately.  When I saw Where’s Waldo for the NES, I wondered how they were going to pull such a game off.  The answer is not very well at all.

Where’s Waldo for the NES was developed by Bethesda, who are now better known for the Fallout series, and the Elder Scrolls series of games.  The publisher though is THQ, and they have the quality control of that drunk handyman you got to fix your roof.  Your ultimate goal of the game is to get Waldo to the space shuttle on time, so he can be launched to the moon.  There are eight stages in all, and a time limit to complete them.  Five of the stages have you searching a scene for Waldo.  When you think you’ve found him, you press a button.  If you’re wrong you will take a time penalty.  If you get it right, then it’s on to the next stage.  The other stages involve searching for Waldo in the dark, a maze, and the final stage is a slot machine.  These additional stages have nothing to do with Where’s Waldo at all, and shouldn’t have been in the game.

I normally don’t criticize old games for their graphics, but in this case I have no choice.  The graphics in this game is what makes the game so awful.  The Waldo books are highly detailed, but the resolution of the NES is not nearly high enough for a game like this.  You can barely make anything out at all, and that ruins the fun.  It sounds like a neat game concept, but it shouldn’t have been made on the NES.  I had more fun finding Waldo on the instruction manual cover than in the game.  It might be the worst NES game in my collection at the moment.

Rating – 2 / 10

I recently heard that after a nearly 20 year break, a new RBI Baseball game called RBI Baseball 14 will be coming to the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices.  With that I decided to take a look back at the one of my all-time favourite baseball games RBI Baseball for the NES.  RBI Baseball was originally developed by Namco, and released in Japan as Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium.  Tengen (aka Atari) took the game, replaced the Japanese players and teams with Major League Baseball ones, and released the game in the arcades and the NES in 1988.  This was a huge deal for me, because until RBI Baseball I never played a game that featured actual MLB players.

RBI Baseball is an extremely simple game compared to today’s overly complicated baseball games.  You position your batter in the batter’s box, and press A to swing the bat.  That’s it.  When pitching you can press down and A for a fastball, up and A for a change-up or sinker, and you can curve the ball left or right with the d-pad.  After picking up a ground ball in the field, you press the A button plus a direction on the d-pad in order to throw it to a base.  If you can get the timing right you can throw the ball a bit harder, and it’s a lot of fun when you do this.  There isn’t exactly a lot of game modes, or a lot of teams.  There is just a one or two player option, and an option to watch the CPU play itself.  You just get 8 MLB teams, plus 2 All-Star teams.  You can’t set your lineup before the game, and there are only four pitchers total, and 4 pinch hitters.  It’s also a bit too easy to hit homeruns.

In spite of it all though, this game is extremely fun to play.  The controls are very responsive, and it takes skill to win.  The graphics are really plain, and the players are really fat, but the graphics are also very clear, and you can easily see everything that is going on right down to the eyes and hands of the fielders.  I really enjoy the music in this game, but I suspect that this is nostalgia kicking in.  You may find it a bit repetitive if you haven’t played the game before.  RBI Baseball comes from a time where fun and playability was the most important thing, and this game is evidence of that.  Recommended for baseball fans, and especially if you can get a friend to play.  I’ll be checking out the new RBI 14 as soon as it is released for the PS4, and I really hope it can live up to this NES classic.

Rating – 9 / 10

I love vertically scrolling shoot-em-ups, and one of my favourites in the arcades growing up was Tiger-Heli.  It was developed by Toaplan, and released in the arcades in 1985.  The NES version was published by Acclaim in 1986.  This was one of Toaplan’s earliest games, and they later went on to make some more great shoot-em-ups, which include Truxton, Sky Shark, Twin Cobra, Hell Fire, and the infamous Zero Wing (All your base are belong to us!)

In Tiger-Heli you control a helicopter, and it’s your mission to… well I’m not sure since I don’t have the instructions, but I simply made it my mission to destroy everything on screen.  Strangely about 99% of your enemies are surface targets such as tanks, boats, jeeps, and cannons.  This is one of the first games that I can remember where you can destroy non-enemy targets such as cars, and houses.  As evidenced by the Grand Theft Auto series, indiscriminate destruction is a lot of fun, and it is fun in this game too.  To destroy these targets, one buttons shoots, and the other one drops a carpet bomb.  You are limited to two of these bombs, and they are mounted on the sides of your helicopter.  One neat thing is that if an enemy bullet hits one of these bombs, you will not die, but your bomb will go off.  If you do get hit with an enemy shot, you lose a life.  To help you along the way, you can acquire up to two mini-helicopters that fly along side of you, so you can enjoy double or triple the firepower.  These mini-helicopters can also be shot down, and for whatever reason it’s always sad to lose these little helicopters.  Almost everything in Tiger-Heli can be destroyed with just one hit, except for these large tank type things that occasionally occur.  There are no end bosses in this game, and these tanks are about as close as there is to a boss enemy.  There are only four stages in Tiger-Heli, and when you finish the fourth stage it loops back around to the second stage, and the difficulty increases.

The difficulty in Tiger-Heli is reasonable.  The game moves at a slower pace than a lot of shooters, and this should appeal to novice gamers.  The graphics are kind of plain, but it’s okay, because it’s easy to tell what everything is, and more importantly it’s easy to see enemies, and their shots.  I like the smouldering remains of enemies when you destroy them.  The music for me brings back a lot of memories, but others will find it repetitive.  There are only two soundtracks in the game, the default one, and the upbeat one that plays when you have a mini-helicopter flying with you.  After all of these years I still like this game a lot.  Even though I’ve beaten the game, it’s still fun to play again for a high score.  It’s not the best shooter out there, but it is solid.  Shooter fans, and arcade fans should get this.

Rating – 7 / 10

One of the most popular games ever for the NES was Konami’s Contra.  It’s sequel Super C is less well known than Contra, but is as good as, if not better than the original Contra.  Released in 1988 in the arcades by Konami, and ported to the NES in 1990, I believe the NES version of this game is even better than the arcade version.

Super C is a side scrolling run and gun shooter, and your goal is to defeat the invading aliens.  Normal aliens can be defeated in one hit, while larger weapons and obstacles require many hits.  The end bosses, some of which take up the entire screen, take many many hits to destroy.  Luckily there are different weapon power-ups such as a flame thrower, laser gun, machine gun, and the all conquering spreadshot.  These will be needed, because you have no life bar.  It takes just one hit from anything, and you’re dead.  This is what I think maybe younger people find most difficult about the game.  In a lot of today’s games, you have unlimited lives, a health bar, and sometimes regenerating health.  Anyone who grew up with an NES will be used to Super C’s one hit and your dead game play.  Besides the side scrolling levels, there are two levels that take place from an overhead perspective.  If there was any chance of you being bored with the game, and there probably isn’t, then these overhead levels would break up the game play nicely for you.

The first things you’ll notice about this game are it’s amazing graphics, and music.  Apparently the NES was able to support cartridges with additional chips or something, and that is why Super C looks and sounds so great.  Besides technically good graphics, the alien and weapon designs are very cool looking.  The music is some of the best, and most memorable of all NES games.  The difficulty in the game can be overcome with practice, and you’ll be playing it a lot, because it is so damn fun.  The controls are absolutely instantaneous.  I’ve gotten good enough at the game that I was recently able to beat it with only losing one life.  Unfortunately for me, the game didn’t get harder after that.  To make the game more interesting for me now, I play it without using any power-ups, and try for a high score.  You can also play the game with another player co-cooperatively.  The NES Contra games seem to hold their value well, so it might not be easy to find at a good price, but if you do see it for $20 or less, then grab it immediately.

Rating – 9 / 10

I love 1980’s video games.  Games back then were not as serious as all of the war games we have today.  Games were either abstract games such as Pac-Man, spaceship shooters like Galaga, and games based off everyday jobs, such as Paperboy.  Paperboy was released in the arcades in 1984 by Atari, and released for the NES in 1988.  I’ve not played the arcade version before, but this NES version is a lot of fun.

Your job in Paperboy is to ride your bicycle down the street, and each day throwing newspapers in subscribers mailboxes, or doorsteps.  Naturally along the way there are the usual obstacles such as cars, dogs, skateboarders, kids on big wheels, and my personal favourite the old lady who chases you with a rolling pin.  Other stranger obstacles include the Grim Reaper, and mini-tornadoes.  You score points for each successful delivery, and also by completing the training course at the end of each level.  Half the fun of this game is throwing your papers at these obstacles, and causing property damage.  It’s just so satisfying to smack that dog that chases you, or that stupid kid on the big wheel who cuts you off.  You’ll have to be careful not to get too carried away, or else you’ll run out of papers, and not be able to make your deliveries.  You’ll lose a subscriber if you fail to make your delivery.

The sound effects in this game really add to the fun.  The sound of windows smashing is very satisfying.  The sounds of the dog, and car are also very realistic.  I jump whenever I hear that car horn, because usually I get hit by it.  The music in the background is pleasant, and it fits the game’s suburban environment.  The graphics are plain, but everything is very clear, and easy to make out.  Paperboy is such a fun game that it’s even fun to watch other people play it.  It’s a blast to play every time.  Highly recommend for your NES.

Rating – 8 / 10

I love fighting games, even though I generally suck at playing them.  It’s always cool to see the rosters of two fighting games in the same game.  Street Fighter of course is the legendary Capcom 2D fighter that has been around since the late 1980’s.  Tekken is a 3D fighter that has been around since the mid 1990’s.  Street Fighter X Tekken (the X is pronounced “cross”) is a 2D fighter released by Capcom in 2012 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Exciting cover art, okay game, and dastardly DLC policy.

Street Fighter X Tekken is a two on two tag team fighter, which means you can switch between your two fighters, and the first team to knock anyone out wins the round.  It uses the 6-button Street Fighter control scheme, and similar commands for the special moves.  Special moves of course would be moves such as throwing fireballs.  These special moves have been around since at least Street Fighter 2 back in the early 1990’s.  With each release of Street Fighter over the years, there have been more and more features added.  This games has not only special moves, but EX special moves, cross cancels, forward roll recoveries, launchers, boost combos, cross rushes, super arts, super charges, cross arts, cross assaults, pandora, and all sorts of customizable gems that you can activate in battle.  I learned some of these techniques in the helpful tutorial, and was able to use some of them.  I left the game for a few weeks though, and when I came back to it, I had no idea how to do anything.  You really need to be a dedicated Street Fighter player in order to be masterful of all of these techniques.  Luckily though, you can also just play the game using normal kicks, punches, throws, basic special moves, and basic moves.  I find that spamming the heavy kicks and punches works well.

Since I’m not great at fighting games, and I don’t have the time to learn, and appreciate all of the game mechanics, I instead judge fighting games on their fun factor.  I like fighting games that have style, and are simply fun to play.  I find this game to be merely okay.  For me it’s just missing that special X factor that makes a game fun.  I can’t really put my finger on what it’s missing.  There isn’t anything special in this game for me, and that includes the characters, graphics, and music.  There is nothing wrong with any of it, except the fact that the game is less than the sum of it’s parts.  It could be the fact that I don’t like 6-button control schemes, because I hate using the shoulder buttons for attacks.  If you’re a Street Fighter fan, then you should definitely get this game, although you probably already have it by now.

On a side note, only 41 of the 53 on the character selection screen are accessible right away.  After completing arcade mode several times, and doing some missions, I was puzzled as to how to unlock them.  I later learned that you have to pay for these characters.  I also learned that all the data, and programming for the characters are already on the disc!  Basically you’re paying to play part of the game that you already paid for.  I’m going to have to research any future Capcom game I intend to purchase.