When I first played this game in the arcade as a kid, I thought that it was merely a coincidence that Rush’n Attack sounded just like Russian Attack.  I know now of course that it was purposely a play on words, because the cold war was still a big thing back in the 1980’s.  To be exact it was 1985 that Rush’n Attack was released to the arcades by Konami.  Konami’s 1987 port to the NES doesn’t look exactly like the arcade, but it looks close enough, and it plays just like it.  The early days of the NES were great for arcade ports, but eventually arcade technology left the NES in it’s dust.

Rush’n Attack is a side scrolling action game where you are dropped into enemy territory in order to sabotage their secret weapon.  The weapon you have for the vast majority of the game is a knife.  Yup, they expected you to take out an entire army with just a knife.  There is no life bar either, so one touch from an enemy or projectile will kill you.  You can pick up grenades, bazookas, guns, and invincibility items, but they’re not plentiful, and you’ll only get around three shots, or a very limited amount of time to use them.  The enemy is nearly as badly equipped as you are, as most enemies will just charge into you without firing a weapon.  The occasional enemy will fire a weapon, and some will jump at you.  To defeat the jumpers you will also have to jump, and stab them in mid-air.  The tricky part about this is that you don’t have much control over your jump, so you may land in a very inconvenient spot.  Conveniently for you though is that the enemy wears clothing that tell you what they’re going to do.  If they’re wearing red, then they’ll jump at you.  If they’re wearing yellow, then they’ll fire a gun at you.  Other things to watch out for are land mines, dogs, and enemies shooting from guard towers.

The stage designs are great, and really convey the Russian landscape well, or at least what we think it should look like.  Typical of Konami the music is pretty catchy too.  It’s very easy to control your guy, except that you have to press up on the d-pad to jump, and that’s never a good thing.  Overall Rush’n Attack is a decent game.  It’s not setting the world on fire, but it’s still good.  It keeps score, and it’s tough without being frustrating.  It’s not an absolute must-have, but if you’re a side-scrolling action fan, or an arcade fan then I recommend picking it up if you see it.

Rating – 7 / 10

I often get Star Soldier for the NES mixed up with Star Force, which is also an NES game.  They play and look very much the same, but this is not a bad thing, because both are great NES arcade shoot-em-ups.  Star Soldier was released in Japan for the Famicom in 1986 by Hudson Soft, and finally brought over to North America by Taxan in 1989.  Star Soldier is actually the first game in series that has games released not only on the NES, but also the TurboGrafix-16, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo Wii.

Like Star Force, this is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up that takes place in outer space.  One button shoots, and that is enough to take care of both flying targets, and ground targets.  There is no automatic fire, so you’ll want to use a controller that does have automatic fire.  There is no shortage of enemies, and targets to shoot at, and that is what makes the game fun.  It’s a difficult game, and I was only able to get to stage 4 or so, but this is a game that you’ll want to play to beat your high score.  The game is designed with that in mind, because there are plenty of hidden targets that offer bonus points.  Some of these targets will also give your spaceship power ups.  The powerups don’t get too crazy, and are limited to a shot that fires behind your ship, and another that lets you shoot in five directions.  Of course at the end of each stage is a large boss ship.

Being a relatively early NES release, Star Soldier isn’t going to wow you with fantastic graphics, or sounds.  The graphics are however good enough, and it’s always easy to see what is going on.  About the only times you can’t see what is going on is when your ship flies under the scenery.  That is pretty annoying, because not only can I not see where I am, but I also can’t shoot at all.  As far as the sound goes, there are so many explosions happening that I never really paid much attention to the music, except the catchy tune that plays when you power up your ship to it’s maximum.  There isn’t really anything bad I can say about the game.  It’s a solid shoot-em-up that controls well, and is a lot of fun to play.  It’s recommended for all arcade, and shoot-em-up fans.

Rating – 8 / 10

Xevious is one of the very first vertically scrolling shoot-em-ups ever, and it was also one of the best.  It was first released in the arcades by Namco in early 1983, and then published by Bandai for the North American NES in 1988.  I used to love this game in the arcade, but I had forgotten the name of it for a while.  One day I rented Xevious for the NES not knowing exactly what it was, and what a very nice surprise when I discovered that it was a nearly perfect arcade port of an old forgotten favourite.

You control a loan spacecraft, and your goal is to…. well there is no real goal to Xevious except to go for a high score.  One button shoots enemies in the air, and another drops bombs on ground targets.  There are no powerups in Xevious, nor are there any stages beyond the first.  If there are multiple stages in this game, then I haven’t come across any during my entire life.  You never know though, because It is a pretty tough game in that one hit will kill you.  Most enemies are small spacecraft that vary in speed, and aggressiveness.  A lot of attacking happens from the various ground targets, and in fact the only boss type enemies I ever came across are also ground based.  They can be pretty tough, so it’s really satisfying when you defeat them.

Unless you grew up playing the arcade game, you may not appreciate the graphics and sounds in this NES port.  Having played the arcade game growing up though, I can tell you that this looks, and sounds just like the arcade version.  Even the hard difficulty has been carried over.  The only difference that I’ve spotted is that the environments are wider, since the arcade game had a 3:4 aspect ratio rather than the 4:3 ratio of home televisions.  The controls are very responsive and smooth, and that goes a long way in making a great shoot-em-up.  Xevious is recommended for anyone looking for a fun trip down memory lane, or for those curious about the roots of the shoot-em-up genre.

Rating – 8 / 10

I still find it amazing that one of the greatest, and most famous arcade games of all time started out life as an unauthorized hack of another legendary arcade game.  These games are Pac-Man, and it’s unauthorized sequel Ms. Pac-Man.  Ms. Pac-Man is based of Namco’s Pac-Man, and released to the arcades in 1982 by Bally/Midway.  This NES port was released by Tengen in 1990 for the NES.  The timing of this was very interesting, because everyone was moving on from the early 1980’s arcade games, and focusing on beat-em-ups, shoot-em-ups, and platformers.  I should also note that there are two versions of Ms. Pac-Man on the NES, this one released by Tengen, and another released by Namco themselves later on.  They both have some big differences, so keep that in mind.

There isn’t much to say about the gameplay of Ms. Pac-Man that hasn’t been said before.  You control Ms. Pac-Man, and the goal is to eat all of the dots in the maze.  One tough from the ghosts will cost you a life, but you can temporarily turn the tables by eating one of the four power pellets.  Additions to the original Pac-Man include additional mazes, and bonus fruit that bounces around the maze.  This port of Ms. Pac-Man is similar to the Sega Genesis port in that it contains options to play in even more mazes, and play at different speeds.  I had great fun test my Pac-Man skills by turning the difficulty up.  Ms. Pac-Man even by itself has infinite replayability, and these options give it even more replayability if that’s even possible.

Unlike the Sega Genesis port, the NES port of Ms. Pac-Man keeps the arcade style graphics, and they look really accurate.  Unfortunately that comes at a cost of having to have the maze scroll during game play.  You will get used to it quickly though.  The sound effects aren’t quite the same as the arcade, but they sound pretty close.  The most important part of any Pac-Man game is the control, and this version nailed it perfectly.  To sum it all up, this may be the definitive version of Ms. Pac-Man, and even to this day it can be enjoyed by everyone.

Rating – 9 / 10

Many games released today give you freedom to play the game as you see fit.  For example there are many ways to complete missions in the Grand Theft Auto series, and some games such as the Elder Scrolls series will take things even farther than that.  Rolling Thunder is as far from that type of game as you can get.  This was first released in the arcades by Namco in 1986, and then ported over to the NES and released by Tengen in 1989.

Rolling Thunder is a side-scrolling action game where you control an secret agent whose mission is to blast away the enemy in an attempt to rescue another kidnapped agent.  It plays like many side-scrolling action games for the NES as you use one button to fire your gun, and another button to jump.  Pressing down ducks, and pressing up and jump will make your character leap up to a balcony, or whatever else is above you.  Rolling Thunder is a tough game for many reasons.  For one thing, your character isn’t much of a multitasker.  You can’t jump and shoot at the same time, nor can you walk and shoot.  You also can’t shoot at enemies above you, nor do you have much control over your jumps.  Other things that make it a tough game is the limited supply of ammo, although you can pick up additional ammo.  You die by either getting shot once, or by getting touched by an enemy twice.  I think that if I was the one kidnapped, I would rather have the guys from Contra try to rescue me rather than this chump.  Your character may have his shortcomings, but you can compensate for them by the way you play the game.  You have to play the game slow, and methodically.  You’ll have to take cover, and make your shots count.  There isn’t much room for error at all, so you’ll have to play it like you would play a modern Tom Clancy game.  Above all though, you have to memorize the levels completely, because the enemy is really cheap, and can hit you even while off-screen.

The graphics are very plain, but at least the character sprites are nice and large.  The music, and sound effects are a bit bland, but at least they won’t annoy you.  Your character might not be the most mobile character ever, but at least the controls are responsive, and consistent.  The game does keep score, so even if you aren’t very good at the game it’s still fun to play to beat your high score, or to see how far you can make it.  There is a password system, so you could finish the game if you’re persistent enough.  Overall this is wouldn’t be a bad game to add to your collection if you’re up for a real old school arcade challenge.

Rating – 7 / 10

If you’re looking for a really tough old school driving game, they don’t get much tougher than 1987’s Spy Hunter from Sunsoft on the NES.  It’s a top down vertically scrolling combat driving game that was originally released to arcades in 1983 by Bally Midway, and while I never personally played the arcade version, I can see from pictures that the arcade game had a steering wheel, gas pedal, and gear shift.  The NES never had those accessories, but despite that the port to the NES is very playable, and it’s fun.

As far as I can tell the game is just one endless stage where it’s your goal to drive as far as you can.  You get points for driving faster, but then you risk hitting other vehicles.  You can shoot enemies for points, but you risk crashing into their wreckage, and not to mention you will be penalized for shooting civilian vehicles.  You can’t go too slow either, because enemy vehicles will catch up to you.  The best advise I can give to you is to drive as fast as your skill allows you to, and try to earn as many points as you can.  This is what really old games were all about anyways, and that is going for a high score.  Being an arcade game, it is really difficult in order to free up the machine for the next player to play, or for you to put in another quarter, because despite the difficulty it is a lot of fun.  There are a few helpful powerups that can be earned by driving into the back of a semi Knight Rider style.  The powerups include missiles to destroy helicopters.  Smoke screens, and oil slicks take care of enemies approaching from behind.  Apparently you can transform into a boat if you reach a certain part of the game, but I was never able to do this, because I’m terrible at this.

Despite my terrible Spy Hunter gaming ability, it is still addicting to play.  It looks nice, it plays nice, and the music sounds like it came from a James Bond movie.  The games are pretty short, or at least mine are, so don’t expect this to be the next Skyrim.  It’s just a simple, old school arcade game, and recommended to fans of those games.

Rating – 7 / 10

It’s name says it all.  It’s a Baseball game by Tecmo.  It’s called Tecmo Baseball, and it was released on the NES back in 1989.  It was clearly inspired by the previously released RBI Baseball, but it was certainly not alone in that regard.  It may be inspired by RBI Baseball, but it is surely different from it.  Back before companies started to sell roster updates as full prices games every year, NES baseball games are pretty much all unique.

There are 14 teams representing Major League Baseball cities, but it’s not licensed, and all of the player names are fake.  The colours of their uniforms, and the stats are kind of based off real teams from that time though.  The only modes available are a gauntlet run through all the teams, which can be saved via password.  The other mode is of course a two player mode.  Like a lot of early NES baseball games you can select your starting picture, but not your starting line up.  Game play is a mix of Bases Loaded, and RBI Baseball.  Pitching and hitting is done from a view behind the pitcher.  It’s similar to the view they use on televised games.  You can use the control pad to direct his swing high, low, or in the middle.  If you swing in the middle your batter will automatically correct the height of his swing to hit high balls anyways.  You’ll also want to choose the middle swing, because the ball comes at you so fast that you have no time to think.  The timing takes a lot to get used to as you have to swing well before the pitch gets to you.  I suppose that is similar to real baseball.  Once in play the view switches to a high camera view where your players are smaller.  This is similar to RBI Baseball.  The players may be small, but the outfield is enourmous.  You’ll have quite the adventures trying to track down fly balls that’s for sure.  Surprisingly the scores stay fairly realistic with about 9 runs scored combined on average during my games.  The high amount of ground balls, and infielders with cannons for arms will create a lot of double plays which will balance out the amount of hits to the outfield.

Tecmo Baseball is an example of a game that is more than the sum of it’s parts.  The graphics are extremely plain looking, but passable.  The music is okay, although I do like the rockabilly music that plays whenever someone is on base.  I also find it hilarious that the umpire insists on saying “safe” every single time you touch a base with someone on it.  It’s fun to move your fielder constantly over the base to hear the umpire go “safesafe…sss.sss…safesafesafe!”  The controls are very responsive, although you’ll have to get used to running controls that are the reverse of most other NES games.  Overall Tecmo Baseball is very fun to play.  The CPU is competitive, the games play very quickly, and it just all comes together very well.  The NES has a lot of great baseball games, and this is one you can include in that list.

Rating – 8 / 10

One type of game that never seems to get old is the vertical shoot-em-up.  One of the earliest, and one of my favourites on the NES is Star Force.  It was originally released in Japanese arcades in 1984, and eventually ported to the NES by Tecmo in 1987.  There are no gimmicks, and it’s nothing fancy.  It’s just good old fashioned alien blasting fun.

I don’t have the manual, so I have no idea what the plot is, and also there is no storyline in the game.  That is typical of the vast majority of shoot-em-ups up until the 21st century.  What I can tell is that your job is to blast everything in sight to rack up a high score.  There’s a nice variety of alien spacecraft, and they all fly in their own unique formations.  While most of them can be destroyed with one hit, the trick to doing well in the game is to recognize the formations the aliens fly in, and use that to effectively blast them away while avoiding their fire.  At the end of each level is an end boss that takes many more hits to destroy.  Each end boss is identical to the next with the exception of the Greek letter that is printed on it.  Each stage is named after the Greek alphabet, such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.  You only have the one weapon in the game, and that is your double shot laser.  It fires up to three pairs of shots on screen at once, and can be upgraded to shoot faster.  Unlike Xevious, you don’t have to use separate weapons for ground and air targets as your weapon will destroy both.  There are a LOT of ground targets, so there is always something to hit.

About the only downside I can think of is that the stages don’t change much visually.  Each stage takes place in outer space, and about the only thing that changes visually is the colour scheme.  The graphics are very clean however, and the mostly plain background at least makes it very easy to see enemies, and their projectiles.  There are only three soundtracks in the game.  The default one is so quiet that it often gets drowned about by the shear amount of carnage going on.  The one that plays when you get the game’s only power up is suitably upbeat.  The boss music is a wicked tune that lets you know you’re in for a fight.  There isn’t much more to say about this game.  It’s a very simple game, but it controls great, has a lot of stuff to shoot at, and it’s a lot of fun.  It also plays very fast, and can provide a decent challenge.  It’s highly recommended for all really old school shooter fans.

Rating – 8 / 10

Back when I was a kid, my first impression upon playing Jaws for the NES was not a good one.  In fact I brought it back to the rental store, and told them it was broken.  Many years later I picked it up for a couple of bucks, and after spending some time with it I have to say that it’s not as bad as I initially thought.  It’s still not very good mind you, but it’s sometimes fun, and always challenging.  It was released by LJN, the masters of crappy licensed NES games, in 1987.

Jaws is a kind of hybrid arcade shooter and RPG.  You start off by piloting your sailboat on the map screen.  While moving on the map screen you will encounter random battles.  When a random battle takes place, you jump into the water with your scuba gear, and try to defeat all of the enemies using your harpoon gun.  The battles take place on one screen, and you can maneuver your diver in all directions, and you’re able to shoot to the left or to the right.  The enemies are mostly jellyfish and stingrays, but sometimes a shark, and Jaws itself will appear.  Enemies will sometimes drop seashells which you can use to level up your harpoon gun.  You can also earn seashells through the bonus rounds that you get to play.  In these bonus rounds you drop bombs from an airplane onto jellyfish.  It plays very similarly to Air-Sea Battle for the Atari 2600.  When you’ve earned enough seashells, you can level up your gun at the two ports that are on the map screen.  These upgrades are absolutely necessary if you want to inflict any significant damage on Jaws, because it’s practically invincible without them.  Having a controller with a turbofire option is also highly recommended.  As the game goes on the battles become more difficult.  The enemies move faster, and more erratically.  The battles will take place in shallower water more often, and that is more difficult, because there is less room to maneuver.

There are several flaws in Jaws that prevent it from being a great game.  Mostly it is extremely frustrating to beat.  When you die you not only lose a level, but Jaws regains all of it’s health.  I eventually just used a cheat code to skip right to the final battle with Jaws, and that was even more frustrating.  The final boss battle takes place in a 3D behind the boat view, and you have to lure Jaws out of the water with a probe, and then strike him with the your boat’s bow when he jumps out of the water.  Jaws moves very randomly in this battle, and you have to line him up precisely, and he also has to be a very particular distance away from your boat.  Other flaws include the extremely small map that barely covers one screen.  It would have been a lot better if there was some exploration involved.  More variety in the enemies would have been nice too.  The music fits the game well, but it can get repetitive.  The graphics won’t blow you away, but they get the job done.  The controls are pretty good for an underwater game, but you will have to get used to not being able to stop your diver on a dime.  If you play this game for a high score, then it’s okay to play once in a while.  If you plan to beat the game, then be prepared for frustration.

Rating – 5 / 10

Has there ever been a more appropriate title for a game?  It’s from the 80’s, and it’s an awesome racing game, it’s Rad Racer.  This was released by of all companies Square in 1987.  This was before Square found their calling making RPG’s.  Rad Racer borrows a lot from Sega’s Out Run, including the make of your car, and having the first stage set near a sandy ocean.  It does have a few differences that make it it’s own game.

Rad Racer is a 3D driving game that takes place in a behind-the-car view.  You’ll travel down normal highways, and try to negotiate corners while dodging traffic.  If you thought that traffic going to your daily commute was bad, just wait until you see the drivers in this game.  Not only do they hog the passing lanes, but they’ll often be three abreast, and worst yet they may try to side swipe you.  This does make the game interesting though, and makes it a lot of fun.  Hitting traffic doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll crash, but there’s a good chance you’ll skid off the road and into one of the many obstacles that line the sides of the roads.  After hitting an roadside object your car will sail through the air flipping about.  Despite how cool that looks, you don’t want to crash in this game, because that will waste valuable time, and you’re always racing against a clock that is counting down.  You can gain extra time by hitting a checkpoint, and you’ll move on to the next stage when all checkpoints are passed.  There are eight stages in all, and each of them are fairly long point-to-point races.  The stages are your usual seaside stage, night time stage, prairie stage, etc.  Rad Racer certainly doesn’t earn many points for originality.  I suppose one thing that was kind of cool back in 1987 is that your car is equipped with a turbo option.  Pressing up on the controller will make your car accelerate faster, but will make your car handle more poorly.

Nobuo Uematsu who is famous for composing the excellent music in the Final Fantasy series is also the composer for Rad Racer, but the results here are only okay.  It’s not bad music, but not good enough for me to turn it on during races.  Although since pressing down on the controller will turn on the music, you’ll be turning it on quite often in panicking situations.  The sounds effects are pretty good for the NES however.  It looks pretty nice too.  It doesn’t look quite as good as Sega’s Out Run for the Master System, but it scrolls and moves more smoothly.  I don’t think there were too many games of this type made for the NES, although it might be just that I don’t have too many games like this in my collection, but that being said it’s probably the best 3D racing game for the NES.  Whether or not you like it better than Out Run is a matter of choice.  Out Run is a bit more laid back, has better music, better graphics, but Rad Racer is more exciting.  I say get them both.  Rad Racer for sure is a must have for the NES.

Rating – 8 / 10