That Retro Vidya Blog

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The 16-bit era brought about some pretty rad Shoot-Em-Ups. You'll have heard of the likes of R-Type III, Axelay and Gradius III, I'm sure, each of which were pretty great games. However, for me, it's one often-overlooked game which had me, and still has me coming back over and over.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this in the past, but one of my favourite ever games is Pop'n Twinbee , a Cute-'em-Up game released by Konami in 1993 and exclusive to the Snes. It's a vertical shooter which follows Twinbee on his epic quest to stop an evil professor named Dr. Mardock from taking over the world. He was a cool guy, until he took a pole to the head.

The game's graphics are one of the most striking of features which set this game out from the crowd. Instead of adopting a bland Space theme like oh so many other shooters, Twinbee takes place over colourful and lively backdrops which fit the crazy nature of the game. Each level is unique and full to the brim with charm and character, and full of unique enemies which'll likely confuse ya. In what other game might you see this?

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That's right, I'm being attacked by flying grapes. This fruity foe takes a fair amount of hits, since each hit will take out just one grape. The game's full of weird enemy designs like this, such as swarms of flying pandas, giant indestructible watermelons, and turbo water-pigs. Yup, you're lively to find at least one enemy which'll have you giggling like a school boy once more. This game is unbelievably silly.

Anyway, I should talk about how the game actually plays now.
The control layout's simple enough. B shoots, while Y can be used to bomb ground enemies, like turrets or pineapples. Hold Y, and when you release it, Twinbee will punch, not only dealing a hella lot of damage, but deflecting enemy projectiles. Press A to release a swarm of Mini-Bees, useful for if the screen's getting crammed with enemies.
Pretty simple stuff there, but the real key to victory is in the unique upgrade system. When clouds move down the screen, they can be shot to release bells. These bells will have different effects based on colour, which will change as you shoot the bell. For example, blue bells will speed your ship up, while green bells reward you helpful drones, which will multiply your fire power. Pink bells, by far the most useful, will reward you with a shield to protect you against enemies.
On top of this, bells can also change your weapon. Purple bells will give you split-shot, which'll fire in three directions, while silver bells give you laser beams which'll blast right through any weak enemies, killing all in your line of fire.

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I guess you could call it... Panda-monium.

To compliment the upgrade system, the game has also discarded of the generic shooter Lives system, where you're given a certain amount of ships to use. Instead, you're simply given a health bar, which depletes when you're hit. When the bar hits zero, Twinbee lets out a cute lil' yelp (N'aww), before he plummets to his death. A continue is taken, and the level restarted. Simples.
This different system compliments the upgrade system perfectly, since it means you don't lose all your powers instantly when hit. However, it can potentially lead to quicker game-overs if you're not careful. But if you find yourself in a pickle, just make sure to bomb the ground enemies- From time to time they'll drop a heart, which'll raise your health bar a little.

The result of these very well executed systems is that the game is an absolute joy to play, while being not only unique graphically and in design, but unique in how it plays too. And to say it's satisfying is an understatement- Whizzing over cities and mountains, blowing up hippos and shooting down killer ostriches feels fantastic when paired up with the upbeat and lively music, the kawaii shouts of Twinbee as he grabs those bells, that wonderful clang of bullet against metal, that boom as that pineapple explodes- It all just feels great.

Spoiler: Music Taster

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And aye, the game's full of surprises, so your bound to have giggles on your first playthrough. But if you find it's not hardcore enough for you (It's not exactly Gradius III difficulty- In challenge is the only place Twinbee truly falls), switch up the difficulty in the options and play it through again sometime. It wont make many big differences other than increasing enemy health and fire rate, but it should make for some more interesting bullet storms. It's one of those games where once is just not enough, and you'll find yourself coming back over and over, whether you're a shoot-'em-up fan or not. The replay value is also bumped up by its great Multiplayer mode- the game's a hella lot more fun with a friend, who'll fight beside you as a Pink robot named Winbee. You'll even get a new move, whereby you'll be able to lob your partner around the screen, bouncing about like a pinball, while taking out any enemies they might bump into. Wont even take any health points!

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This game, despite it's cutesy graphics, is hilariously fun, a must-play for any and all shoot-em-up fans, and among the finest on the Snes. The graphics are great, the music's great, it plays great, the entire game. It's just great.
In short, why don't you own it yet?

9/10


You can probably grab the game for £10-£20 on ebay or amazon, and believe you me, it's worth every penny and more. Unless you're American. See, the game was never released in North America, so if you're up there, you'll need to ship it over, as well as buying either a Japanese or PAL Snes/Famicom.

Anywho, the easiest route is Emulation (of course).

So, I was just browsing EqD, for the first time in a fairly long time, when I saw a picture of this;



They should just sell those things. I'd buy one. I'd buy two, actually.

PS; Been busy lately, sorry about the lack of reviewings. Might push one out next week.

So, I was playing some Pocky and Rocky 2, when I noticed...

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Originally, I payed no attention to this, until I remembered that playing Lufia, a 90's RPG, I saw this.

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Now, if anybody here has ever witnessed the MLP phenomenon, they'd know that "Tia" is infact a nickname for a certain princess who is officially named Princess Celestia. Now, Princess Luna is, in fact, her sister.

Do you think that these games predicted the future?
Or perhaps the show FiM was planned all along?
What do you think was the Illuminati's involvement with this?

I know it's hard to swallow guys, but THESE SCREENSHOTS ARE REAL.
Feel free to discuss.

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I quite enjoyed throwing together those big-ol' review compilations, but I thought it time to get back to the old review formula. I'm sick of reviewing godawful games quite frankly, and although I'm still picking out interesting protos I'm tempted to write about, I decided I'd post about something which was both released AND playable today- B.O.B.

Developed by Gray Matter in 1993, and released on Snes and Megadrive, B.O.B uses the same game engine used for “Wayne's World” believe it or not. Don't be put off though- This game's actually pretty fun, despite it spawning from something oh so horrific. You play as an edgy teenage robot who borrows his father's hover-car to pick up his girlfriend. However, along the way, the kid crashes into an asteroid, and finds himself stranded on a strange planet filled with conveniently hostile creatures (Tut, just Typical).

A run-and-gun game, it sees you exploring maze-like levels, blasting a variety of enemies with one of your six weapons, such as a flame thrower, a rocket launcher and a wave gun, all of which are fired with the “Y” button. You can change between the weapons using the “L” button. You're given limited ammo and have to find more as you explore the stages, so I'd recommend punching weaker enemies with the “A” button rather than shooting them, so as to save up ammo. When you're weapons are limited, every little helps.

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As well as your weapons, you can pick up a selection of Remote Items (REMOs) along the way, which you can use to launch yourself into the air, shield yourself from damage, or perhaps just to blow up any on-screen enemies which may be annoying you. These items can be activated by pressing the “X” button, and are selected by pressing the “R” button. Although they're usually mainly for your convenience, the game sometimes throws traps at you which will require a REMO to escape, such as those pesky death pits which'll sap your energy, while being impossible to escape without either using the launchpad or Helicopter REMOs. Traps are all over the place and fall damage is a common pest, so remember; When in doubt, have a REMO About.
There're also parts of the game where you simply will not be able to progress without a certain REMO, so make sure to keep some spare. This'll become more common as you progress through the game.
I really like the REMO system B.O.B. adopts. So many Run-N-Gun games just turn into mindless shooting button-mashing frenzies, with little to no obstacles other than “ENEMIES ARE RUNNING AT YOU- SHOOT THEM”. But thanks to the REMO system, B.O.B. has been give a little more depth than that. Some parts of the game even require some thinking for you to come up with a good way to tackle the problem provided.

B.O.B. takes you through three giant worlds, all introducing new enemies with unique behaviours, such as those weird-as monks which can summon thunder, and bloody crabs and scorpions which'll quickly sap your power (And bloody hell, are those scorpions which lurk below ladders irritating. How on Earth are you supposed to avoid loosing power while climbing down?) There's a fair amount of variety throughout the game, as it'll take you from an alien planet, through other-worldly temples, to phoenix filled volcanoes.
And it must be said, after the first world, the heat truly gets switched on. The game's full of challenge, and you'll likely be tantrum-ing like a toddler once you reach those temples. Unfortunately, there're plenty of leaps of faiths, though most of the time the consequences can be avoided simply by preparing your good 'ol REMOs. Nonetheless, the game is certainly challenging, and Will leave you feeling somewhat frustrated from time to time.
Nonetheless, the game is filled with charm, especially with its enjoyable animations. After each level, B.O.B will do a dumb little dance, while saying a cheesy-as-cheese phrase like “Yo! Can Do!” or “Psyche!” before moving onto the next level. You've got to love the way he climbs along wires, using naught but his fingers. And generally, the levels are colourful and characterful. I wish there was more variety within each world in terms of graphics, but the design of the levels are often varied enough to take away from the repetitiveness.

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As I've already mentioned, the levels are often set out in a similar way to a maze, with plenty of dead-ends and traps. The ammo and REMOs are often hidden around the maze-like level, and so you may find yourself tempted to explore the map. However, take caution young grasshopper- There is a time limit, and as soon as the counter hits zero, your power will start to slowly drain away until you eventually just explode, and provided you have another life spare, will spawn you all the way back at the start of the level So try not to get too lost.

The game's reasonably long so it's unlikely you'll finish it in one sitting. Luckily though, there's a password system which is pretty quick to use, because it only uses Six digits. Just make sure to keep a notepad handy because as soon as you Game-Over, you'll be returned to the Title Screen without getting another chance to copy it down- Meaning you may have to just start from where ever you last recorded your password. You'll be given your password after every few levels, but if you miss it, it'll also be available on the Pause menu any time throughout the game.

This is probably one of my favourite Run-N-Gun games from the 16-bit era. It's full of character, its controls are gold, and there are some parts in the game that really do make you consider how to tackle the problem, preventing it just becoming a mindless alien-killing frenzy. It can become pretty damn challenging from time to time, and the game is far from forgiving, but that just makes the success all the sweeter.

8/10

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So, a week or two back, I made a post concerning great Snes games which were, unfortunately, never released. Y'know, I find it infuriating that such games went to waste, considering all the crappy shovelware which Did make it to shop shelves in the 16-bit era. So this week I'm doing the complete opposite of my last post, and will instead be looking into a handful of Snes games I personally wish had never been.
PS; Though I suggest you avoid the games listed below, some of these truly do have to be played to be believed. Besides- perhaps you'll like 'em if you give them a try. This here post is just my personal opinions on 'em.

Revolution X

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Revolution X was an arcade rail shooter game featuring Aerosmith. You've been chosen by the band to stop an evil organisation named NON, who're brainwashing kids, restricting media access, putting chemicals in our food, and all sorts of evil stuff like that. You'll fight them using "The Power of Music"- That is, lobbing CDs at them. You travel the world, fighting all sorts of enemies, such as some blokes in yellow costumes, Japanese Power Rangers and jungle natives.
In the arcade, the game was played using a light gun, so it would only make sense for it to be compatible with the Snes' own Light gun, right? Well, funnily enough, this light gun game isn't actually compatible with the Snes Light Gun, so you instead aim by moving a cursor around the screen with the D-Pad of your controller. Lazy, huh?. Now, the problem with this is that the cursor moves quite sluggishly, and you'll often find that your enemies attack too fast for you to shoot 'em all.
The game's very repetitive. For the first few stages, you only have one enemy type- some bloke in yellow uniform. It's difficult to tell when you're taking damage from them, due to lack of damage sounds or graphics, and it's also quite difficult to prevent damage from being dealt at times. As a result, game-overs are a common thing. Don't worry though 'cos you get unlimited credits, and since the cursor's so damn slow, you'll find yourself using lots of 'em.
Most of the music's just a five second long loop, so the music gets tiresome fast. Although the quality of some of the voice recordings are pretty good, the acting is pretty awful, and the graphics look all grainy. It's difficult to pick out any good points, really. Just get a good shooter instead, like Metal Combat, a game which is actually compatible with the Snes light Gun. 3/10

Pink Goes to Hollywood

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This game features the Pink Panther, who travels from film set to film set in Hollywood, each with a different theme but all with the exact same dull feeling. It's your basic hop'n bop game where you can either attack by jumping on your enemies, or by firing deadly air at them with your big bad bicycle pump. You'll be defending yourself against everything from cowboy boots to cameras, even dinosaurs. But don't get too excited, because all the enemies seem to follow the same behaviour, simply moving left and right, and many will be killed with one hit. Other than in appearance, there's little variety found here.
Leaps-of-faith are the name of the game it would seem, thanks to the teeny view you're given and the badly designed levels. Speaking of level design, many seem to lack in content, having you walking for ages between obstacles. And that gets boring fast. It's also difficult to tell where you're meant to go, since random objects seem to teleport you to different levels. These objects sometimes blend in with the rest of the scenery, such as a painting on the wall, so you're never sure what you're looking for, nor where it's going to take you. This means you'll be floating through levels with little to no objective, no aim, and the game seems to lack in direction.
The way Pink controls will certainly cause frustration. The Panther walks quite slowly, and jumping while walking won’t get you far. However, running seems to go a little too fast, and because of the small view the game gives you, I often found myself running into enemies. Many a cheap death was had.
The game does have a small feature which sets it out from the crowd a little. It has a Token system whereby you can collect coins which'll have certain effects when put in a Toll slot, such as creating a staircase, or summoning a gigantic hook to take you to a higher area of the level. Although this's a nice feature, I find it's not enough to save this poor game.
It's not the worst of Snes games, but it hasn't got much respect from me.
This is no gem, 4/10.

Bebe's Kids

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Oh goodness, this game. Where to start.
This was a US exclusive game based on a flop of a film of the same name, and in it you play as one of two kids, a girl and a boy, and beat up staff in a theme park. Not sure why you're beating up the park staff, since there's bugger all storyline, but let’s just go with it.
So, the two enemies you'll encounter at the start of the game barely even attack you, simply walking around, or if you're lucky, standing around while you repeatedly punch them in the you-know-where's. They both take a hell of a lot of punching to defeat, so you'll find it gets dull fast. There never seems to be any more than two enemies on screen, either, and the enemies which do appear are the same mascots and agents, with the same behaviour and Health points. The music is nothing but an irritating four second loop, and the animation looks choppy. Oh, and the walking animation for the boy is so stereotypical-black-kid it's almost racist. (I haven't played as the girl yet.)
After you beat up a few staff members (just 'cos), it's to an oddly placed pottery shelf, which has some baby crawling around on it and knocking the pottery off. It's not overly clear what you've gotta do here- Do you have to catch the pottery? Nope- In fact, it'll smash on your head if you try. Do you walk away? Invisible walls say nope. Try and grab the baby before the pottery all smashes? Nah. You've actually got to smash the pottery as it falls by punching it. It sounds just about as fun as it is. Fail to do it in time? It'll actually place you All the way back to the beginning of the game, in the Theme park scene.
And if you do do it in time? It's back to the Theme park scene anyway, where bugger all has changed other than that stuff is being thrown at you now.
Bebe's kids is repetitive, unresponsive and a generally painful experience. Just writing about it's draining my energy. Just avoid.

Captain Novolin

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An educational game developed to teach American kiddies (it wasn't released outside the US) about diabetes. It was developed by Sculptured Software, the same company who made Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon, another US exclusive educational game.
You play as diabetic superhero Captain Novolin, a man with no actual super powers. You're mission; To survive a walk down a weird-as path, eating “healthy” food (The sort that sprouts legs and walks about) such as toast and carrots, while avoiding dangerous alien food, such as gigantic cookies and sugary cereals. Not the sort of action likely to bring your arse to the end of your seat.
The game begins with our hero practising the only skill he has by walking, on a treadmill. Midway through your hardcore practice session, you're interrupted by a News report, which notifies you that sugary food aliens are attacking Earth from outer space. Off you walk to save the day.
But hold your Horses! Before every stage, you're forced (by an imaginary woman) to check your Blood glucose. This's literally as simple as matching the colour green with the colour green, but don't worry if you somehow make a mistake- You have unlimited retries. Aww, they're so kind. After that, you must inject yourself with the correct dosage of insulin.
Thankfully, imaginary woman will then bugger off, but some other bloke (with a misshaped neck) comes along for a quick chat about what you should and shouldn't eat. So much for freedom.
After that, you're finally released for your stroll. You walk constantly to the right, picking up the food your made-up mate told you to eat, and avoiding the food he told you to avoid. Watch out though- One glass of milk too many, and you just might keel over and die. Throughout the levels you'll also be thrown a diabetes-related question, but they're pretty easy to figure out- If you're stuck, just find the answer which doesn't look dumb. They seem to give no reward though, so eh.
After each level, you'll have to check your glucose levels again, before receiving an update from your imaginary friends on what you can and can't eat.
And then it's all repeated. That's basically the entire game.

I personally found myself bored of the game midway through the second level. The repetitive gameplay's enough to evoke drowsiness and the deaths often seem somewhat cheap, especially when the cookies rear their ugly faces at lunch time. But otherwise, the questions are stupid and the match-the-colour minigames were actually more entertaining than the sugar-dodging main game. Don't worry though- there's only Five levels on the entire game anyway, so you won’t suffer for long.
All I've learnt from this ordeal is that fast food beats you up, green is the same as green, and that Nintendo made a gigantic mistake licensing this title. But at least they sorta made up for it by not letting it travel any further than North America- And may America keep it forever. 3/10

Space Ace

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Space Ace is far from forgiving, so much so that it's barely playable. It's the sort of game which doesn't depend on skill, nor reaction time. It depends solely on one thing- Memory. From the start you're given five lives, and everything is on a set path. Borf moves around the screen firing lasers about the place, while you have to walk out of the way. If a laser touches you, it's insta-death. Thing is... Borf moves so fast... And you move so slow. The only way of succeeding is to actually memorise the movement patterns, and that's never a good formula for a game. After that, you're attacked by laser-robots, who fire lasers. Dodging these guys is a pain in the arse, since you have to jump to another platform, then when the robots leave, jump back. This's difficult though, because the robots just don't leave you enough bloody space.
And throughout the game, your success will depend on nought but trial and error. What happens if you lose all your lives though? Well, you gotta start all over.
The frustrating thing is, the graphics and music seem sound to me. The only area of the game which the developers got lazy with is the Gameplay- the most important part of any game.
I don't even want to talk about this game anymore. It's really not worth playing. 2/10

Race Drivin'

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Race Driving was originally a 3-Dimensional Arcade game, where players drive cars, doing a few cool stunts with 'em. It was later ported to home console, the packaging printed with the line “brings screaming-fast car racing to your home!” What it does bring to your home is a pretty terrible experience.
The game offers three cars to the player. They're all set to Manual, bar from the “Sportster”, which is also available in Automatic. You can then choose from three tracks. The first track is the Autocross, a dull track with a flat road, no features and a disgusting grey-brown colour for the grass. The Second track is a Stunt Track which splits off into two routes, both offering different obstacles, such as Loop-de-loops and ramps. Watch out for ramps though- If you go just one MPH over 80, you'll go flying through the air, landing with your face smashed in the tarmac. This track also has traffic which you'll have to dodge, which makes the stage a little more interesting. The third track is the “Super” Stunt track, which features stunts impossible in real life, such as driving up a vertical wall. It also sees you driving around a cliff edge, which would be fun, if not for the unresponsive controls.
The first thing you'll notice when you start the game up will be the awful frame rate. It must be running at about five frames per second, no exaggeration, and as a result the game feels sluggish and the graphics look bad. But the frame rate also has a devastating effect on the gameplay- it often takes a second for the game to respond to your commands, meaning that the car can be quite difficult to keep control over. I even had occasional difficulty with simply pausing the game, because it just didn't want to respond. The frame rate is probably due to the game not using the Super FX chip, which had not been created by the time Race Drivin' was released. Had the game been released a little later, it might have been much more playable.
I dislike how the top of the Loop-De-Loops are, for some reason, invisible. As a result, it can be difficult knowing where the road is- I've occasionally found myself loosing time over a cheap crash caused by not being able to see anything but sky. One of the most irritating things about the gameplay, however, is that there is seemingly no reward for your efforts. In fact, it feels more like a punishment, because every time you reach the Finish line, instead of ending the race, you'll be rewarded “Extended Play”- That is, about a minute more on the clock and another lap around the track. The difficulty is never ramped up to keep the game interesting, and as a result, you could end up going around that track forever. I got bored around about my Eighth lap though, and just ended it there.

It's kinda sad. Had the developers waited a few years, they'd have had the Super FX chip to play around with, and it's possible this could have been an okay game. But instead, it ended up an almost unplayable mess. Think about this- Some poor kid might have gotten this for Christmas one year.
3/10


Other Bad Games not worth Mentioning

Super 3d Noah's Ark


This unlicensed Christian game was developed to teach kiddies in the United States (Europe luckily never saw a release) about Noah's Ark. You play as Noah, who has to shoot food at unsettled animals on board the ark with his slingshot, to make them go to sleep- Y'know, just like in the actual story.
The games a complete Wolvenstein Re-skin, and feels all cheap and tacky and bleck. It's not right to make religious First person Shooters, y'know. The graphics are as boring as the game- You'll be seeing nothing but brown, brown, and ore brown.
Y'know, it's funny, I thought that only two of each animal were put on the Ark, but there're just hundreds of goats. They must've mated like rabbits.

Mario is Missing!


Most of the educational "Mario's Early Years" rubbish never made it outside the United States, thank goodness, but unfortunately, we weren't to be shielded from this game.
Mario is Missing! is a game which teaches kids Geography, or was intended to, at least. You play as Luigi, and must gather clues around cities to find and rescue Mario. The problem with the game is that the cities are quite generic, making it difficult to navigate properly.
There're koopa Troopas scattered around the entire city who you have to stomp, in order to find these three artefacts, but there're so many of 'em, and only three actually carry an artefact. Eventually, it just feels like a chore travelling around the boring maze-like city, jumping on the koopas you find. The koopas never fight back mind. They just walk up and down the road, on a constant path.
Mario's missing simply because he didn't want to be in this game, and that truly is understandable. It's pretty bad, although Mario is Missing! did bring us le Weegee maymay.

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I skipped a few games I wanted to review, such as Pit Fighter. Pit Fighter's the sort of game which's so awful, I can't even bring myself to write about it. So, go emulate it or something, and you'll probably find out why it's among the worst of Snes games.
Writing reviews for bad games, however, is tiresome for me. I'm sorry if it seems that some of my reviews got somewhat lazy, but this sorta thing just sucks the life out of me.
I'm gonna go ahead and hunt out a good game to write about next week. I quite enjoyed writing about unreleased gems last week. perhaps I'll go back to doing that.

Anyway, see ya next week.

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I thought I'd mix it up a little this week. It's great talking about the gems of the 16-bit era, even if I've been babbling on about nought but Snes games these last few months. But there's so many games which never quite reached the game shop shelves- Aye, the sad, forgotten games which didn't receive a shred of love. Perhaps development got too pricey. Perhaps the company was shut down, or bought mid-way through production. Perhaps the game was simply cancelled in favour of a new idea.
But although these games flopped before reaching the public eye, seemingly destined never to see the light of day, leaked prototypes have been made available on ROM sites to give us a glimpse of what might have been.

So, I thought I'd make a post celebrating some of the games which never quite got the chance they deserved.

EURIT

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So, let's say you're the emperor of an entire Galaxy. You're getting old, and soon you'll have to choose a new, younger emperor to take your place. “Emperor of the Galaxy” is a big pair of shoes to be filled, so how would you go about choosing the new ruler? Would you host a gigantic blood-bath tournament where the last man standing wins the title? Would you host a humongous racing competition?
No no no, of course not. The current emperor knows how it's done- The new emperor is decided via games of Tag.

That's right, Eurit is a game of tag, mixed with elements of Capture the Flag. Developed by radical Entertainment, this game has a player set as "It", and you have to chase your opponent until you touch them, making them "it". They will then proceed to chase you back. Meanwhile, while your opponent is chasing you, you need to capture a certain number of flags. The first player to get as many flags as is required will win the game.
This game is hilarious, and pretty addictive. It's simple yet innovative gameplay is perfect for a multiplayer split-screen game, and would have been a party-game must-have. It's hilarious how stupidly serious all the player's facers are while they play, and the emperor's powerful, booming voice shouting "Player 2's It" is just the icing on the cake.
The game isn't quite as simple as tagging and grabbing, though. Each stage has a minimal amount of flooring, and you'll have to build paths to get to tag your enemies, and to reach the flags. You can also destroy paths behind yourself, to put more distance between yourself and your enemy. Another thing you can do is use your magic to confuse the other player (which swaps the controls around, making it more difficult for them to escape), slow ‘em down, even turn all the creatures on the level against your them.
This game's so dang fun, really, it is. It being a prototype however, it's not quite finished. Just whatever you do, Do Not Fail a game, because if you do the game will crash. And quite badly too.

The game was cancelled because the development team simply couldn't find a publisher for the game. After deciding the Snes market had died, they instead adapted the game for the newer gen consoles. It became the game we now know as "Grid Runner".
It truely is such a shame the Snes never saw this game, but I'm glad it found a home in the following generation.

APOCALYPSE II
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Apocalypse II was written by Simon Nicol for Psygnosis, and was intended for release in 1995.
It would have been a slightly odd game. Instead of the player being a hero, on a quest to save a planet from destruction, you find yourself in a large spaceship, dealing out the apocalyptic destruction.

At the start of every stage, countless power ups whizz about the stage like it's nobody’s business. You'll have the opportunity to catch some shields, rockets, speed-ups and more before the battle begins. After that, the game takes on an asteroids-like style of play. Using L and R to rotate your ship and A/B to shoot, you've got to destroy planets and moons, dodging them as they (Strangely enough) chase you around the screen. Once so many planets are destroyed, you'll be taken to the next stage, where the process is repeated with more difficult planets.

Apocalypse II seems reasonably polished for a half-brewed game, but where the developers hadn't quite finished their work is obvious.
The planets zoom into the scene until they come into the foreground, where they'll start following you around. But for some reason, the planets seem to be destructible while in the background, despite the fact they're so far away. In fact, the earlier you attack them, the more easily they are destroyed- Leave them to reach the foreground, and you're going to have trouble getting away from 'em. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark, and perhaps I'm wrong, but I'd say this isn't the originally intended gameplay mechanic. It seems as though planets were originally intended to be of varying sizes, and the larger the planet would be, the more difficulty you'll have destroying it. However, in the prototype, they used the smaller planets to make the planet appear to zoom in, before a better script was to be written to allow the usage of different sized planets. The prototype also seemed to mostly lack a difficulty curve, simply throwing you in against hard-to-destroy planets from the get-go. I'd assume that the planets at the start were originally intended to be a whole lot smaller, and a little easier to destroy, but because the prototype was mainly made for testing purposes, they simply released it as it was to demonstrate the engine.

Certainly, despite it being almost unplayable in its current form, I feel that had development continued this might have made a pretty great game, one I'd have been happy to include in my collection.
Such a shame, really.

IRON COMMANDO


A Shotgun in one hand, an enemy in the other. Truth be told, I'm feeling pretty brutal right now.​

This game was in development by Arcade Zone, and was set for release in Europe and Japan.
Now, I must say, as far as Beat-Em’-Ups are concerned, I think this could have made a fine one. At the start of the game, you're dropped onto a long street full of thugs who desperately want their knifes in your gut. As with most Beat-Em’-Ups, you can punch, jump-kick and grab enemies, as well as picking up dropped weapons such as baseball bats and knifes, and all the rest of the staple beat-em-up things. But one of the things featured in this game I thought was nice is that enemies will sometimes drop guns, which you can pick up and use yourself. How cool's that? Now I'm not saying it's an entirely new concept, but it's a beat-em-up with Shotguns! Shotguns! On top of that, the "GO >" sound is just so perfect! "Guh, Guh, Guh!!"
One thing that annoys me about this prototype, however, is that you can't pause it. In fact, press Start, and you'll be greeted by a game-over screen. That's never convenient. However, this's just a prototype after all, and this obviously wouldn't have been carried over to the full release, had it happened.

EDIT; The game was released in Japan, but never reached European shores, nor US.

MR. TUFF

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Mr. Tuff was in development by Sales Curve Interactive, and was intended for release in 1995. The game was never finished, supposedly because it was “Too Ambitious”.
In Mr. Tuff, you play as a robot who must destroy an empire ruled by Military bots. Mr Tuff has large wrecking balls for hands- And as his name implies, he's a pretty tough guy who can get past practically any obstacle by smashing it up. Pressing Y allows you to punch out with your left arm, while pressing A will swing whatever item you've got equipped around. You can pick up all sorts of power-ups along the way, such as drills, fire balls and force beams, all of which have their own pros and cons. When you pick up your new power-up, it'll attach itself to your right arm, replacing your right wrecking ball.
It's fun drilling your way through walls, smashing up robots, and squishing gigantic cockroaches, and the vehicles available in some of the levels add a little more variety to the game, such as the wrecking crane in the Home Land Flats stage, or the Hover-boards of the Bad Land Castle.

The only real issue I could find in the prototype was that collision sometimes seemed a tiny bit off. The graphics looked a little odd in places too, most notably the first door in the Flats level, which seems to cover up some of the floor's texture. Ooh, and on top of that, this prototype had not yet implemented the use of passwords, so you’ll need to use some save-states instead.

However, the prototype is completely playable and well presented. This is yet another would-have-been great game.

CORN BUSTER

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Imagine a game like Arkanoid, where the objective of the game is to move a bat around and break blocks. However, in this game, the main objective is to get to the end of each stage. The camera follows the ball as it travels upwards, while it breaks through walls and collects up cash. So basically, Arkanoid in adventure-game form. You get an extra bat as well as your staple hanging-about-the-bottom-of-the-screen one, though. The second bat can be moved in all directions, including vertically, so you can travel through the levels with more ease. Both bats can be controlled in multiplayer, one for each player, so as to bring co-operative multiplay into the game. Which is nice. And as with all games of this genre, if the ball falls to the bottom of the screen, you lose a life.

I feel the game takes an over-used, simple concept and gives it a new spin, making its gameplay sorta refreshing. However, there is definitely an air of incompleteness about it. The prototype allows you to fly directly over levels without releasing the ball, basically allowing you to simply watch the world go by, until you reach the finish line... and then further. You can go as far as to actually leave the level behind, but if you release your ball over this point, the game will just crash. Using this, you can even pass over walls and onto later levels in the game, though the graphics on these levels often look all screwed up.

Something terrible has occurred.​

This ability to skip huge parts of, or even entire levels, was likely used so the developers could test specific areas of the levels. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say this wouldn't have featured in the actual game.
Despite the fact the game is on constant-debug mode, and is thus made almost unplayable, I feel that had the developers finished the game, it could have been pretty great.

SHADOW

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“The Shadow” was basically gonna be your average beat-em-up game. You start off in Time Square, where you beat up punks, sailors and samurai warriors. You've got three main abilities- You can punch, spin-kick to trip your opponents, and (Obviously) grab and throw them. You've also got three Special abilities which'll lower your Special bar. Invisibility will turn you invisible, so your opponents can't attack you. They still seem to be aware of where you are, but eh, perhaps they can hear your footsteps or something. Dash will slam you into the side of your enemy, knocking them possibly into another enemy, in which case both will take damage. Devastation takes up more of your special bar, and will cause an explosion to deal massive damage to any enemies on screen. You can scroll through these abilities using L and R. I like the use of the Special bar, it adds a little more depth to the otherwise generic Beat-Em-Up gameplay.
Ooh, and you get Twin pistols, which looks awesome. And Feels Awesome. And is Awesome.

Now, there is a timer on “The Shadow”, but really- Don't worry about it. Take your time. If it runs out, nothing happens because the timer hasn't been properly implemented in this proto. Also, you'll sometimes see some enemy sprites go all MissingNo on you, turning into a terrible pixely abomination.

6% speed. That's the pain I went through for you, EP. Be grateful and stuff.​

It's noticeable, but should only last half a second or so, and wont effect the gameplay in any way. And, obviously, this would have been fixed for the final release.

STARFOX/WING 2

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Perhaps one of the most anticipated of unreleased snes games is StarFox/Wing 2, which, despite it being entirely complete on the development side of things, was not published simply because Nintendo was soon releasing the Nintendo 64, and felt they should stop releasing 3D games on the Snes because of it. As such, we never saw this fantastic game on shop shelves.
This sequel added new ships, two new playable characters (including best character Miyu), land-walker stages (which were Awesome), and an entirely new style of gameplay.
Instead of the linear gameplay of the original, where your paths through the levels were set in stone, you can now freely move around the Lylat system. The aim of the game is to protect Corneria from missiles and enemies, approaching them in the map screen to intercept them. The battle system is similar to the originals, although you now can turn your ship in 360 degrees, rather than having to go in one set direction. The frame rate is much smoother than the original due to the improved Super FX chip, making the game a whole lot easier on the eyes, and the graphics are simply superb. This game is also in real-time - even while you're battling enemies, other enemies and missiles continue moving towards their destinations.

I find it astonishing that the game was never released, especially after gaining such positive feedback in countless magazines and in the 1995 Winter CES. However, despite a good game being wasted, the development of Star Fox 2 did have an effect on later Nintendo titles. The programming for the camera was apparently reused for the N64 game Super Mario 64, and a few game concepts were recycled in Lylat Wars and StarFox Command.
But anyway- This game is Amazing. Play it. Right now.




Although these games were never released, their prototypes are available in ROM form, for Emulation. These ROMs can be found on sites such as Emuparadise, which I find to be one of the most reliable sites for ROMs (Though pop-up advertisements can be a pain).
I've been playing unreleased games for the past week or so, and I really must say, it's so sad seeing some great concepts and fantastic game-development feats having gone to waste. These games really deserved to have been finished and published. It's especially infuriating when you consider the amount or crappy shovel-ware the poor old Snes received. I think unreleased games like these deserve to be recovered, released and remembered.
Hmm. Enjoyed that. Might see if I can find some more discontinued game protos.

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The 90's was a sort of "Animals With Attitude" era, whereby games would adopt furry, attitude-filled creatures as mascots, so developers could make insta-loveable characters with minimal effort. This can be seen on many 16 bit games, from Sonic to Sparkster. Each was designed in the hopes of making a memorable mascot, but the majority simply flopped. Just look at Radical Rex, or Ardy Lightfoot. God, those were terrible games. It was also an era of generic games, games which stuck to tried-and-tested gameplay mechanics, rather than coming up with original ideas to help sell games- See Zool or The Blues Brothers. Now, Mr Nuts is both of these things, but might it still be a decent platformer?

So, Mr Nutz was a game Developed and Published by Ocean Software. You play as a red, fluffy Squirrel with a cap slapped onto him. Apparently, he's a bit of a prick, 'cos from berries to butterflies, everything seems to want him Dead. He has three attacks- He can jump on his enemy's head, whip them with his fluffy fluffy tail, or use a talent all squirrels possess- Lobbing Nuts about.

​

So, you start off with three lives, and Three of Five health points, more of which can be collected within the level. Most enemies will propel you upwards when jumped on, usually giving you the chance to grab some goodies, like coins, or nuts which can be thrown. You explore four stages before reaching a boss battle. The game's generally quite easy, though you're bound to lose lives here and there. Don't worry though, 'cos as far as I'm aware, you have unlimited credits. The game has no methods of saving, no passwords nor save battery, so you'll have to play through in one single sitting- Not ideal for those of us with short attention spans. Still, the fact the game uses unlimited credits is nice, because it should mean you'll never have the classic disappointment of getting Aaaall the way to the last boss, game-overing, and having to start AAAAALL over again, Right from the very start.

I must say, the name of the game's pretty unfortunate. I mean, this was marketed towards children was it not? I doubt it was accidental- The very first world in the game is named "Woody Land".
Noice.
Woody land is, as the name clearly implies... A magical forest, full of hedgehogs, live berries, and fairies. This area is almost insultingly easy. But as soon as the first boss, a gigantic red-neck spider, is felled, you'll find things heat up quite quickly.

What I really want to get off my chest now, however, is the controls. Generally, they feel quite responsive and solid, making for a pretty nice platforming experience, but what really gets my goat is the default button layout.
B button is assigned to Jump, as with many platformers, and to throw nuts and whip your tail you press Y. However, X is used to run. On paper, this doesn't sound so bad- Thing is, X is all the way up there, and your thumb's all the way down there, on B. If you have large thumbs and need to run and jump, you might as well just be punching your control pad, but either way, it's bloody awkward. To add insult to injury, the much closer A button, which is nicely within your reach... is used merely as another Jump button! Wouldn't it have made more sense to assign jump to B, run to Y, and use A to Attack? Or perhaps use L and R for Running- At least those buttons are Within Reach. Either way, because running and jumping can be tedious, some gaps can be a little difficult to pass over, which may take a cheap health point.

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And when you play the game, you'll realise that it adds pretty much nothing new to the genre- It's just your typical platformer, seeing you jumping from ledge to ledge, bouncing from enemy head to enemy head. It's something you could have gotten from practically any other platformer out there, isn't it? Some dangers also feel cheap as chips, such as those God-awful hammers, which'll suddenly pop out from small holes within trees, and slam you on the head. And who’d have thought Tap water hurt? Having to redo the entire level when you die can occasionally be a little frustrating on the larger stages. Perhaps it would have done well to include a checkpoint system. However, I must admit, the platforming in this game truly is quite solid and satisfying. Whilst the game is simple and seemingly uninspired, the game does succeed where so many other similar platformers have failed- Against all logical logic, it's actually quite Fun. It shouldn't be, but... It is. Perhaps, in part, this is because of that satisfying "Thunk" when you land on a platform- or because of how, despite some issues with the button layout, the game controls so damn well. Either way, while the game may seem like a recipe for a generic game, once plugged up, the simple gameplay actually manages to play out fairly well.

The graphics are one of the main highlights of the game though, making for some beautiful, lively levels, rich in colour that generally seem exciting and in cases quite magical. All this is helped along by the jolly background tunes. My goodness are they catchy, and they're also as charming and magical-feel-y as the rest of the game. The enemies, while strange, are well designed, and seem to have had creativity melted down and poured straight into them. There's a vast range of them, too, many of which have unique attacking styles. My personal favourites are light bulbs, which you must first smash by jumping on. Afterwards, you must stand at a distance and lob a nut at it, to knock it cold without being electrocuted. Although the protagonist is a generic (fluffy) squirrel... He's pretty dang adorable.
While the Cutesy design may not be for everyone, it's certainly for me. :3 Gotta be said though his Looking up sprite is terrifying.

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While the game may lack original gameplay, a password system, and suffers under a bad control scheme, the platforming is solid and satisfying, the graphics and music are fantastic, and the stages are well designed. On top of that, Nutz is pretty Cute. Released in an era of absolutely terrible platformers, this game provided a surprisingly decent experience. A must-have for any platforming fan. 7/10

(PS- The game was also later ported to the Mega Drive, for all you Mega Drive fans out there. I'm willing to bet you can pick it up for slightly cheaper on Mega Drive, but expect less detailed graphics, colours which are somewhat off, and removed mode 7 effects such as scaling and rotating images. Also, the music's a little crappier. There was also a Gameboy and Gameboy Colour port, although these versions are slightly different in design, as could be expected.)

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There were quite a few Caveman games back in the 90's. Remember such titles as "Prehistorik Man", "Chuck Rock", and the Playstation's "Tomba!"? We just couldn't get enough of these prehistoric dinosaur (or perhaps pig) fighting blokes, swinging their clubs around like it's nobody's business.

Joe and Mac 3- Lost in the Tropics (known in North America as "Joe and Mac 2- Lost in the Tropics", despite the game being the third game in its series) is another such game, seeing you clobbering cavemen, picking pterodactyls out the sky, and spitting projectiles all over the place.

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You play as Joe, a green-haired caveman living on a small island, who is sent on a quest to recover a stolen crown from a thieving, evil caveman named Gork. To attack, Joe swings his club at his foes. Whilst most enemies are knocked out in one hit, such as pterodactyls, some require multiple blows. The animations are also quite humours. I don't think I'll ever get fed up of watching Joe repeated bonking certain cavemen on the head, gradually planting 'em into the ground, until but a scalp is left visible. Or the way cavemen giggle and run away with dumb grins on their faces after attacking. You'll also stumble across food on your journey, which you can suck right off the ground. It'll not only restore some health, but can also grant certain abilities. Eat some chicken, and you'll find yourself spitting bones at your enemies. The game is more-or-less your average platformer, and is pretty easy, and fairly short. However, the hilarious animations, large array of interesting enemies and the large boss fights will keep your interest, and hold it 'til the very end.

The Locations you visit are chosen through the map screen. This means levels can be visited in any order, and later revisited, if the player pleases. Each and Every level is long and varied, with interesting scenery, and often with a few prehistoric creatures you can ride on, to max out the mayhem, such as gigantic pterodactyls. The game also has some RPG elements. On your travels, you'll find stone wheels, which you can use as currency. Stone wheels can be traded in town for meat, house remodelling, or even for the chance to find love. If you find yourself married, you'll be able to buy your wife things, to keep her happy. If she's happy enough, she'll even pop out a kid or two! It adds a little bit more depth to the game, which's nice.

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The graphics on this game are just great. Everything has a cartoony charm about it, with vibrant colours, detailed sprites and lots of variety. The animations are also fluid and lively, and the characters are often portrayed with comical, goofy expressions. Oh, the faces the cavemen make when you whack 'em... The sound effects are also clear, and compliment the spirit of the game well. I must say, Joe makes quite the feminine yelp when he's hurt. The music's good, with an upbeat rhythm and grunts of cavemen. Again, compliments the game well. However, musically, there's little here to go shouting from rooftops about.

The game uses passwords to store data. I understand that there's a fair bit of data to be stored, but I'm not a big fan of any password over eight characters in length. This game uses 16. However, it seems reasonably fair, considering the password has to encode the amount of stone wheels you have, which levels you've completed, the condition of your home, and so on. Still... Bleck, passwords.

The game also has a 2-player game option, which is basically the same game, only co-op. We had a go, which is how that gif up there came to be. It makes some platforming sequences kind of awkward, but otherwise, it's pretty hilarious. It makes battles a hella lot easy though, since difficulty or enemy count is not risen. But there's no more food than usual either, meaning that you usually have to work on a who-needs-it-more basis. But playing with a mate makes the experience all the more enjoyable, nonetheless.

​

The game has a very appealing style, with its goofy graphics and sounds. The game's easy, and a little too short, but it's fairly re-playable, and the RPG elements and cavewife feature add depth to the game. On top of that, multiplayer is pretty hilarious.

8.5/10

Edit; Well, I wasn't actually gonna post this until next week, but I accidentally did, and since I can't be arsed removing it, I'll just have to write another review later this week. Oh No!

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I've been posting some abstract Snes games recently. I've still got more I want to get through, but I thought I'd break up my streak with something more... Furry.

When I found out this game existed, it kinda took me by surprise. "Brutal- Paws of Fury" is a Fighting game in which you play as one of a range of anthropomorphic characters, including Prince Leon (A hippie Lion), Ivan (A russian bear), and Foxy Roxy (Best character). Using skills learnt throughout the game, you fight your way across an island, in one-on-one style.

Each fighter is colourful, well designed, and full of character. It's unfortunate that the only female on the game is your typical fighter gal, but otherwise, each character is quite unique, and well-drawn out. On the character select screen, you can also read a little bio of the character, and get a more in-depth idea of who they are, which is nice, even if the descriptions happen to be full of clichés.
Each stage looks attractive, and makes for a great scene for fighting. The game also features some pretty accurate shadow effects, which act as very appealing eye-candy. While this may not seem like a big deal, do remember that this was in an era when black circles drawn beneath your character would usually be considered sufficient. Anyway, the point is this- The game looks fantastic. Really, it does, they put their all into making it look great.
The music is also pretty good, setting the mood for fights quite well. However, it's a little generic, y'know. Otherwise, there's little to say about the sound, the game lacks voice files in this version of the game. I hear the Megadrive version had some, though they were annoying- And Roxy, apparently, sounded like a man. Thank goodness they didn't include that in the Snes version!

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So far, pretty positive. Fantastic visuals, well designed characters and reasonably good music. But when it comes to a fighter, what's really important is how it plays. Unfortunately, this's where it starts to lose a few marks. Your main moves are your Punches and Kicks. Both these moves have three versions, each assigned to different buttons- A slow version which does more damage and often knocks your opponent over, a normal version which does medium damage, and a fast version which will do little damage, but can be stringed with other moves. You also have the ability to block, by holding the d-pad in the direction behind you and down, at the same time. As you go through the game, you'll learn how to use new attacks. However, your enemies know how to use their special attacks from the start of the game, and as a result of having little else to use, will occasionally wind up spamming you mercilessly with them. It's even more irritating when that special move breaks your defence. Rhei Rat is the second opponent you will face in this game, and will often end up spamming his charge attack unless you block him whilst ducked. If you try to block him while stood, he'll break through your defence. And once he does break through, he'll often spam his attack over and over and over.

Once you defeat Rhei Rat, you should learn a new ability. You'll learn how to Taunt. It's actually a very useful part of the game, which raises a little HP on your health bar. It's a handy little feature- You can kick people on their backs and slap your arse at them whilst they're down, to regain some lost health. Provided you're Roxy, that is.

And that's pretty much how the game works. Beat some critters up, and learn new moves. You continue through like this until you reach the end of the game. At that point, it'll loop straight back to the first fight, giving you enemies at higher difficulties. If you choose to continue playing after your first run, the game will also allow you to learn new special moves, although these moves often get quite difficult to learn after your first playthrough, using ridiculous button combinations- A contrast to the earlier moves, which were really very simple. You're unlikely to bother using the later moves anyway. The special moves you learn on your second playthrough also usually just reuse previous animations from other moves, which I felt was a little cheap.

After every fight, you'll be provided with a password. Now, personally, I've never been a fan of passwords. I understand why games did it back in the day, but it's always a mild inconvenience. Usually, passwords are quite small, however, so on most games, it's quick to note down. In fact, usually on Snes games, you can simply remember the password.
Not here. Look at this.

​

Does it not just strike terror into your heart? As if the 16-digit password wasn't horrifying enough, they had to throw random shapes and symbols into the mix, just to make it that little more confusing. Although it's not the worst password I've ever seen, this monstrosity hits near the top for me. This shouldn't matter a whole lot, as you can probbly complete the game within a half hour, if that. Nonetheless, I really don't undertand why such a long password was so neccessary.

I think my greatest pet-peeve with this game, however, has got to be the lack of a Combo system. That's right. This is a Mid-90's Fighting game which lacks Combo systems. How weird is that?

Anyway, all in all, it's an alright game. The graphics are fantastic, the characters are well designed, but the actual gameplay (the most important part of any fighter) drags this fighter down a few marks. There's a fair few flaws, including spamming opponents, silly button combinations for later moves, and a lack of a Combo system. And on top of this, provided you manage to block the AI's spam, the game is a little too easy. Nonetheless, it is playable, and still quite enjoyable. It also has a pretty good multiplayer mode, as any fighter should, which puts you up against a second player.

​

This game could have been wonderful, had they nailed the fighting on the head, but unfortunately, some flaws pulled it down. Still, I had a laugh playing this, and the multiplayer worked pretty well. T'was worth the play.

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Here's a wacky lil' title for ya.

Spindizzy worlds is an odd game about a Spinning Top Robot, named Gerald- That is, the "Geographic Environmental Reconnaissance and Landmapping Device". Gerald must explore alien planets before they are destroyed forever, navigating harsh and strange environments, collecting things and finding fuel as it goes. The game is an isometric puzzler, though it also involves a truck-load of platforming. Some levels will see you carefully traveling over narrow bridges, and using ramps to jump from platform to platform. A few will have you racing around set courses, trying to reach the goal before you run out of time. Others will see you solving puzzles, or tackling isometric illusions, trying to figure out which paths are real. Throughout each level, you'll have to find switches to open paths up, and find collectables to fuel you up. Some will also let you pass only when you've collected enough jewels.

​

The game's a well balanced joy to play. The controls can seem floaty at first, but it shouldn't take long to get the hang of 'em. The worlds are varied and well designed, and although some appear rather flat, the majority of the levels are lively, colourful and quirky. The isometric view also allows the developers to play around with the level design, to make illusions in some levels, whereby a platform which appears to be infront of you will end up, instead, being a higher platform in the foreground, and if you try to pass over it, you'll find yourself hurtling through space. That'll teach ya to keep on your toes! The L and R buttons will rotate the view, giving you a better perspective of what's going on around you, and in some situations this is a very useful feature.
After each level, you'll be taken to a Bonus stage. In this area, you'll be racing against the clock to collect all the Jewels. As fun as these stages can be, they seem to offer little reward. On top of this, each bonus level, and a few other timed levels throughout the game, have no music- Instead, you're left racing around the level listening to a dull silence, broken only by the irritating ticking of the timer.
Once you've finished the bonus level, you'll be taken to the level select screen, where you can watch a little animaton of the planet you just visited exploding, receive your password, and choose your next level. The screen shows the entire solar system, allowing you to rotate it until the level you want to play is highlighted. There are about three layers of planets overall. To reach the inner layers of the solar system, you must complete the planets from the previous layer. The presentation and execution of this screen alone is pretty impressive. The only real down side is that it makes revisiting past levels quite difficult.

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As with many Snes games, SpinDizzy Worlds uses passwords to store data. After every world you explore, you'll be given a password, which you can input to continue your game. This game uses fairly short 8 letter long passwords, so copying it down and inputting it later shouldn't prove a large problem.

Spindizzy Worlds is an impressive little game, with some very appealing level designs you'll find yourself wanting to replay from time to time. The controls and gameplay take a little time to get used to, but the Easydizzy Solarsystem provides you with a few easy levels, to get your barings. There's been a lot of thought put into this game. Would definetely recommend.

I love my Snes.
I love my Snes because there're tonnes of Great games available for it. But, when People talk about the Snes, it only ever seems to be the same things people mention- Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Link to the Past, etc. This is understandable, since these games are freakin' awesome.

However, there are a lot of games on Snes that didn't quite get the recognition they deserved, perhaps partly due to the huge amounts of Shovelware shamelessly thrown at the poor, poor Snes.
Anyway. I'll be writing some posts up on my blog about some of these lesser-mentioned games, as well as some all-time favourites of mine, and some other extras, perhaps.

I'm gonna start with a Favourite of mine.



"On The Ball" is a port of the arcade game "Cameltry". It's a fairly odd game, where the aim is to get the ball to the end of a stage. You do this by turning the stage (Using the L and R buttons, or the D-pad), to keep the ball falling, building up momentum. You have a time limit and the faster you complete the stage the better, since your time limit will carry over to the following stages, with some extra time added based on your performance.
Along the way to the goal, your little ball will run into a fair few obstacles, including time-draining X Blocks, smaller Blocks which you can destroy by building up momentum, and some irritatingly-placed bumpers, which'll occasionally send you flying in the opposite direction to where you wanted to go.

The game uses Mode 7 quite heavily, the entire game being based on the rotation of the stage. Each stage is well designed, using the obstacles available in new ways, to create unique levels. The game has four difficulties, which each provide a completely unique course of stages. Whilst all these courses are relatively easy, the game's variety of levels still have quite a lot of replay value. This game's strangely entertaining, for what it is.
The game also has a multiplayer mode, though it's nothing special. Players take it in turns, trying to get through the stages as quickly as they can.



Anyway, all in all, I'd say this's a pretty great game. It's a simple concept, but one that stands out from the crowd as a fairly unique game, and its variety of levels will keep you coming back for a replay. I guess the only real issue is that it's over too quick.

Forgive me if this's old news, or whatever, but I was looking through this video when I noticed that, from 0:48-1:16, there's some sort of... Game being advertised in the background. I was just wondering whether anyone knew anything about it.

(PS; Although in this part there's no spoilers, there are soilers later i the video. So beware.)

[youtube]2IedyQJHqA8[/youtube]

This was taken at NY Toy Fair. It looks like a dancing game to me. Does anyone know anything about that?

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It's only been a week and a bit, but I somehow feel kinda guilty about it nonetheless. Seems I caught something while I was gong to my Nan's for Christmas, because when I woke up the next day, I could hardly bloody move.
Well, I've been in bed for the last week or so, Ill. S' bin a dull and lonely week, woe is me, and though the majority of the terribleness is gone I still have a pretty nasty sore throat, and the amount of tissues I'm having to use... It can't be good for the environment. Luckily though, my Plushie's been beside me every step of the way, with it's soft fabric and it's adorable face and and and.
But on top of that, I'm falling behind on course work due to the whole being-asleep-for-days thing. So I've got about a weeks worth of work to do in a few days. Wish me luck!

Anyway, as a result, ya haven't seen me in a while, and might not see me again for a little while longer, depending on how stuff goes.

Love ya everypony :33 , and srry. See ya soon, and see ya even more when stuff clears up.

Sometimes, people need to be reminded of things.

These things exist;

Spoiler: ...

You're very welcome.
_____________________________

So, just saw this on EqD;

*<\3*
If I'm honest, I'm not really surprised. They did, after all, fall silent for almost a Year. It's still a shame to see an once strongly anticipaterd project dropped, though.
Apparently there's a group of people being set up who are attempting to revive it, since the Source Code was released. Buuuut I doubt they'll get far with it.