NES Game Reviews

CRT televisions have many advantage over modern displays when it comes to retro gaming, but the ability to play light-gun based games is perhaps the most obvious. Light guns work by manipulating the scan-rate of a CRT tele. Wild Gunman has a target on screen. When you press the trigger, you cause the screen to flash briefly. If your aim is true you’ll hit the marker. There is no scan-rate for a flat-screen tv, so the game is unable to know where you’ve aimed at the screen, ergo you’ll always miss.

Anyway Atari decided to turn the popular game into a video-game. Ironically the game turned out about as mysterious to me as the real thing! Marble Madness, has this strange allure to it that is hard to describe. When put into words, the concept of controlling a Marble across 7 different levels, avoid hazards and falling off edges doesn’t seem anything special, but when you play the game, its like there some deeper meaning lurking in there? Maybe its the somewhat m psychedelic level design? perhaps it’s the wonderfully bizarre music? Or perhaps it’s just the fact that I used to be very stoned when I played this one in my teens?

You have lightning fast kicks and punches, everything feels sharp and responsive but you only move on a 2 dimensional line. Enemies attack from ahead and behind. Most can be dispatched with one hit, but some are quipped with throwing knives or can flip around the screen. Simply being out numbered is your biggest concern, otherwise most enemies are easily dispatched!

Guided by a giant talking sunflower, Alfred the chicken must traverse 5 hazardous worlds and defeat an intergalactic hoard of Mecha-Chickens! Yawn it’s one of those games ?!?

I’m not gonna explain the rules, if you’re unsure why not ask Mario? He’s the umpire, looks like he may have eaten a few extra mushrooms as he’s looking a little porky even for him. Maybe he’s still coming down from his last shroom, hence why he keeps calling IN on some of shots that are clearly OUT. Oh well, I’m not gonna tell him he ‘cannot be serious’, he might have a Star in his pocket!

The NES has a wide library of racing games. Some go for the realistic driving sim others aim more at fantasy. Either way the most important thing is whether it’s fun! Thankfully Eliminator Boat Duel is packed full of charm and lots of fun to play.

For a film with only one game worthy transferable scene, it’s amazing they actually composed a NES game for Home Alone 2. The hotel level has more in common with the Overlook hotel from the Shining than it does with Home Alone 2.

You start out on a quiet empty street, you can find a Health Food store, but you cant buy anything. There’s a subway you can enter but no train comes. Eventually I work out how to make a Hole, and drop to the lower platform, what now?