A Closer Look at Uncanny X-men for the NES

A Closer Look at Uncanny X-men for the NES

Yes, so here we are again, in a place I never expected to be, much less twice.  Coming to the defense of an LJN game isn’t easy, but once again my eyes have been opened to a game that at first blush appears to be a steaming pile, but upon closer inspection turns out not to suck as much as I thought.  Heck, with the game in question, I’d even be so bold as to now admit that I like the game a lot.  The previous sentences are ones I would have never expected to write about X-men for the NES, but here we are.It all started over on NintendoAge, a fellow website devoted to all things Nintendo, where we are discussing “impossible” to beat NES games and I threw out X-men as a candidate. My previous experience with the game indicated that it was pretty much unplayable. Another poster replied that not only was X-men beatable, but there were people out there who could do it in short order and that once you learned the intricacies of the game, it was actually quite playable.  Certain that I had missed something, and being a big Marvel Comics fan who was sorely disappointed by this title back in the 80’s, I set out to find if this poster was indeed correct.

Step One:  Read the freaking Instruction Manual.  This should be a disclaimer for all video games made before the PSX.  It should be second nature to old schoolers like me, but I’ve been spoiled by the in-game tutorial that is a staple of modern games.  That doesn’t dismiss the fact that I obviously played this as a kid without reading the manual, but it was probably a rental and those never had a manuals, so leave me alone!  Anyway, read the damn manual if you want a shot at playing this game and understanding what is going on.

Step Two:  Play cautiously, learn the game.  The biggest mistake I made was thinking that this game was a standard dungeon crawler like Gauntlet and ran in guns a-blazing.  That will not work with X-men.  You have to play carefully, at least until you are familiar with the game play and level design.  Take your time.
If you follow those two steps you just might be able to salvage your opinion of this game.  And if you are really crazy, like me, you just might find you actually like it, a lot.  What the hell.

So how do you go from completely dismissing a game to playing it for hours on end?  Sheer will power.  If someone else had possessed the wherewithal to actually beat this game, then there must be something to it.  I’ve never let a game best me and I wasn’t about to let X-men be the first! So I started playing and kept playing and playing.  Here is what I discovered.  In all honesty, X-men feels like a sloppily made dungeon crawler that was pretty much already programmed when someone from LJN got a hold of the X-men license and started shopping around what they could do for an X-men themed game.  Somebody pulled out this program and said they could change the sprites to look like the heroes from the comic and minutes later this game appeared on toy store shelves across America.  I kid you not.  The game is only loosely based on the comic books, despite the aforementioned, very well themed Instruction Manual.

The Unstoppable Shooting Juggernaut!

Take the bosses for example: Sabretooth, White Queen, Juggernaut and Boomerang.  Boomerang?  Since when is he an X-men villain?  Dude fights the Hulk and Spider-man and maybe like Daredevil.  He has no beef with mutants that I am aware of.  Why is he in here instead of Blob or Pyro?  Also, Juggernaut, the character known for being “unstoppable” has decided to forgo his usual MO of ramming people into pulp in favor of shooting some kind of electric beams at you.  And while we’re at it, the White Queen acts more like Mystique since she takes your form and attacks you as you.  Heck the sprite even looks like Mystique!  Oh and Sabretooth jumps a lot.  Now you tell me this game was designed with a working knowledge of the X-men and their rogues’ gallery…

Anyway, if we look past the half-heartedly applied theming, what we are left with is an average or below average dungeon crawler that is tricky to learn, but once it has been learned, it proves to be simple and even fun.   For an added kick, once you learn the game, you can reapply the theming and ignore some obvious mistakes and enjoy the game at its fullest.  By no means am I suggesting that X-men is a classic, but it may not suck as much as you or I originally thought.  The key is to be patient and learn its ins and outs.  The remainder of this article is designed as a guide to getting some enjoyment out of this game and to redeem what is otherwise a dismal, comic-based video game.  Having finally beaten X-men, I can say with some authority that X-men for the NES isn’t as bad as its reputation, but isn’t as good as it should have been.

But enough defending LJN games, next month I’ll take a Closer Look at something that we have unknowingly allowed to happen over the past 30 years, and we are worse for it…


TIPS AND TRICKS

Ranged vs. Melee Heroes.  Your team is split into two types of characters: ranged and melee.  My first instinct was that ranged was the way to go, but I soon discovered the advantage of the melee type.  Ranged characters are great because they can attack from a distance and hit multiple enemies at once.  Where they come up short is defense.  A few good hits means curtains for them and if an enemy spawns under them, it’s goodnight Gracie (George Burns, look it up).  Melee characters have to get up close and personal to take down bad guys, but they have more HP and defense to make up for this fact.  I prefer the melee guys for this very reason.  If you are going to use ranged heroes, pick up every, and I mean every, Energy and Invincibility power-up you see.  This is a good strategy in general (see below), but for ranged characters this is not optional.  Iceman can have full health one minute and be seconds from death the next.  Do not risk it.

Colossus is the best character in the game.  Why?  Durability.  He has the most HP and he packs the biggest punch.  I believe you can beat the game with him alone if you have to.  Sure he’s slow, but so what?  That really only comes into play in the Robot Factory and even then you can work around his speed.
Storm and Nightcrawler are useless.  Useless.  Both have the resilience of a paper hat in the rain.  They will die instantly upon contact with an enemy and their attack power is not sufficient to make up for their lack of fortitude.  These two are expendable.  Do not use either as your main character unless you just really want a challenge.
Wolverine, Cyclops and Iceman are all good middle of the road characters.  Wolverine is a lot like Colossus, but with a little less durability.  He can go a long way, but sometimes needs some help.  Cyclops and Iceman are the best ranged attackers, but they can’t take too many hits, so use carefully.  Other than the fact that Iceman can fly (?) they are virtually identical.

MINI-WALKTHROUGH

My strategy is to start with Colossus and Storm in the Underground Sewers level.  Storm will fold like a chair at the civic center pretty much as soon as the level starts, so get that out of the way.  Colossus is best to fight Sabretooth since Toothy tends to jump a lot and Colossus can just stand there and wail on him.  Plus Sabretooth tends to work in an “L” shaped pattern so he will just keep running into Colossus’ fists.  Next I take Cyclops and Nightcrawler to the Future City Street Fight.  Once again, Nightcrawler lasts about as long as a bag of cookies at my overweight aunt’s house, so he’ll be out quick.  Cyclops is pretty fast and has powerful optic blasts so he can mow through bad guys pretty easily.  Iceman is equally reliable, and if Cyclops goes down, Bobby is my back-up.  Next I take Cyclops (or Iceman) to the Robot Factory along with Wolverine; sorry Logan you’re not going to make it.  Again, Cyclops is great against Juggernaut because he can wail on him from a distance (see below about Bosses that Shoot).  Finally, I take Cyclops and Iceman, one of them must die sadly, to the Living Alien Ship and run amok in there.  The White Queen is an easy kill.  Then I load everybody back up into the station wagon and head for Magneto’s house, where we all get soundly trounced and I get to try it all over again… (see below about Getting to Magneto)  You may find it strange that despite my previous adoration for Colossus, I only used him once in this mini-walkthrough.  That is because he is my go-to.  If everyone else gets slaughtered in a mission for some reason, I know with reasonable certainty that I can put Colossus in there and get us through the mission.  Thus, I never put him on the front line unless I have to (like in the Sewers).

Laser gates are instant death.  I don’t care if Colossus has full health; he cannot make it through a laser gate without dying should the gate close on him.  Oh sure, you might make it once, but I promise you the odds are against you.  What’s worse, there is no real rhyme or reason to when they open or close.  It appears to be totally at random.  The only way I have found to get through these gates is to kill baddies until one drops an invincibility power-up.  Grab the power-up and run like hell through the gate.  It may take a minute for one to drop, but I promise the alternative is 99% certain death.


Power-ups:  There are two power-ups you should ALWAYS pick up: Invincibility and Energy.  Dying in this game is easy, very easy.  Stupid very easy.  To stave off the grave, pick up these two power-ups every, and I mean every, time they appear.  The Invincibility is great for obvious reasons and the Energy will refill your entire HP every time.  Picking these up every time is a no-brainer. Avoid the Magnet Mines like they were the plague.  If you are playing with a weaker character, these are instant death anyway, and they can be just as fatal for good characters.  The Time Stop and All Kill are good, but I wouldn’t risk anything going for them.  Use as you see fit.

Defeating Bosses that Shoot:  For some reason Boomerang is a boss in this game and he throws boomerangs at you (shoots).  Also the Juggernaut shoots at you, despite that being contrary to his very nature.  When dealing with bosses that shoot, for any reason, your best bet is to avoid being on the same level (line) as they are.  When you share a level (line) with them, their shots can hit you, otherwise they cannot.  Position yourself just below their level or just to the side if working vertically, and then wail on them with melee attacks or blast them with range attacks.  If they move to your level, adjust and repeat.  They will continuously try to walk to your level so if you are careful and time it right, you can often bounce them back and forth into your attack until they are vanquished.

Look before you leap.  Until you know the levels inside and out, walk carefully.  The levels are littered with poisonous floors, traps, spike pits and other pitfalls that look nothing like those kinds of things.  If you are walking and you hear the noise that indicates you are taking damage, check where you are, chances are good you are standing on a trap or other floor hazard.  Get off of there quick.  Weaker characters will be pretty much instantly killed by these, so mark them well and avoid.

Violence is NOT the answer.  Most of the time, the bad guys in this game are not really out to get you as much as they are just meandering about.  Thus, for several of the levels, you can clear entire areas with little to no violence at all.  Just run past everything.  Why is this a good idea?  Killing an enemy causes it to respawn and sometimes that happens right under where you are standing resulting in a quick death if you are not careful.  If killing them causes this, why do it?  Plus if you don’t stop to kill everything that shows up, you cannot get surrounded and blitzed from all sides. Play around and see which levels/areas you can clear with a minimum of conflict.  It may save you in the long run!

A note about escaping the Robot Factory.  On your way out of the boss room, you are going to pass through an area where the walls close off part of the room.  RUN.  Fast.  If you get stuck between these walls all you can do is sit and wait for the bomb to go off and kill you.  It is in your best interest to learn this room and its three closing walls well.  At the start, grab an Invincibility power-up if you can and then make a run for it.  If you get closed off before passing the first wall, you can always go back out the teleporter pad and come back in and the wall will be open again.  I have actually gotten stuck in the wall before as it closed on me, however I was able to wiggle free by repeatedly pressing the A and B button and pausing and unpausing the game.  Not sure if this will work every time, but it got me out once.  Also, occasionally picking up the Time Stop power-up will give you a speed boost, not sure what governs when and if this happens.  You can also use this to increase your speed and escape the closing walls. If you are playing as Colossus, this strategy is a must.
 
FINDING MAGNETO
Ok are you sitting down?  Are you ready for this?  There is absolutely nothing in the game that tells you how to access the final level against Magneto.  There is nothing in the instruction manual that tells you how to access the final level against Magneto.  The only thing that even hints at how to do this is printed in extremely small print at toward the bottom of the label on the game cartridge itself.  Not only that, but the hint that they give you on that label is WRONG.  You heard me.  If you beat all four regular levels, the game appears to be over, as you can only access the PRACTICE level.  However, once you have completed the four main levels, on the stage select screen, you press UP + B+ SELECT + START and it will take you to the character select screen where you pick the two heroes you want to take on Magneto and then it will whisk you off to the final level.  How totally messed up is that crap?

Now, before you race off to fight the bastard, spend at least one round in the PRACTICE level.  Why?  Doing so grants you access to all of your heroes again, even the dead ones – creepy, huh?– for use in the final level.  So killing off Iceman on the last level isn’t so bad after all.  And trust me, you are going to need them, Magneto’s lair is way tougher than the previous four levels!  Actually, you can do this after successful completion of any level, and that might be good for you as you practice, but don’t rely on it as a crutch, play the game!
Be careful!  Magneto’s lair is bigger than any of the previous levels and is a perilous maze.  Many of the passages lead to dead ends and the floors are riddled with traps.  The enemies move faster, spawn quicker and hit for more damage.  Once you get to Magento, he’ll act a lot like a Boss that Can Shoot, so use those strategies.  The only real difference is that the battle area is smaller, so watch your step.  Also, if he hits you with his magnetic beam, your controls will be temporarily reversed.  That is not good.  Your best bet is to try and trap him in the upper right corner of the screen and give him what for!

Hopefully, the above tips and strategies will help you get more out of this game than you did the first time you made a go at playing it.  Heck, if you are stupid like me, you might even like the game, but I’m not making any promises!

A Closer Look at Spider-man for the PSX

As most of you probably know, I am a HUGE Spider-Man fan.  HUGE.  I have an entire upstairs filled with Spider-man comics, toys, posters, plastic banks, toothpaste, cereal, even pillows.  Spider-man was my hero when I was a kid.  To this day I have a slavish, idealistic vision of Stan Lee’s greatest creation.  Even though the comics aren’t as good as they used to be, I still buy Amazing Spider-Man every month; I feel I owe it to the wall-crawler after all he has given me.  I have mental problems.  That notwithstanding I am a HUGE Spider-Man fan.

When I was a kid playing the Atari 2600, I made an incredible discovery: Parker Bros. had granted me the opportunity of a lifetime, I could be Spider-Man.  Around 1982, Parker Bros. released a Spider-Man game for the VCS and I had to have it.  Sure, the game wasn’t much, climbing a building, snagging some bad guys and avoiding the Green Goblin, but it was Spider-Man, alive and under my control!  Thus began my love, and hate, affair with Spider-Man video games.
Later offerings would fail to wow me the way this initial foray into the pixilated Marvelverse did.  LJN released an entirely unspectacular Spider-Man game for the NES.  The premise was perfect: Spider-Man vs. the Sinister Six, six of his greatest foes, but thanks to the half-hearted efforts of the programmers at LJN the game turned out to be virtually unplayable.  Don’t think I didn’t try.  The Gameboy proved to be a bit more successful in bringing the web-head to life, but the original game was a little tricky to control and rather short.  On the Super Nintendo and Genesis Spider-Man games showed more promise with better controls, bright, colorful graphics and increased depth.  However, the games quickly revealed themselves to be repetitive side-scrolling fighting games that weren’t different enough from the thousands of other similar games that flooded those systems.  The addition of new and playable characters like Venom and the close tie-ins to the contemporary comic book storylines were a big plus, but they turned out to be really nice set dressing on what could have been a Double Dragon or Batman game.

Then it came. The promise of Spider-Man action like it had never been before.  Controlling Spider-Man in a completely wide-open three dimensional world, the ability to web-swing between skyscrapers,  fighting Spidey’s rogue’s gallery and saving the city, it was all going to be a reality and it was going to happen on the Playstation.  I owned a Playstation!  The math is really rather simple.  Anticipation was high and rumors flew regarding who was going to be in the game and what it was really going to be like.  Then, the game arrived…and it was amazing!  It was everything it promised.  Oh sure, there were little things to nitpick: the “mysterious” grey fog that enveloped the lower half of the city (very convenient Neversoft, very), the tunnel-vision story line that allowed for some exploration, but ultimately never strayed too far from the track, the camera angles were at times abysmal, but overall this game delivered everything it promised.  Packed with tons of bag guys, dynamic fighting controls, a dedication to the creative use of Spidey’s web shooters, a variety of level designs and goals, and boatloads of unlockables and hidden areas, Spider-Man for the PSX delivered in a big, big way.  I should know, I played the game through about a dozen times, at least once with every unlockable costume, and I explored every, and I mean every, inch of the playable areas.

And clearly, I was not alone in my estimation of just how good this game was.  Subsequent Spider-Man games for advancing modern systems all seem to take their cue from the ground that was broken by this game.  From its sequel, Spider-Man 2 Enter: Electro to even the most recent Spider-Man movie games, Spider-Man game play has evolved from the primordial ooze that is Spider-Man on the PSX.  So the question remains, when a game sets the stage for the future development of its franchise, can the original possibly stand the test of time?  (Last month I wrote an entire article analyzing this phenomenon, good reading) There is only one way to find out: fire up the Playstation!

And I did.  It was very difficult to resist the urge to just re-up one of my old save files and play as the Amazing Bag-man, or Spider-Man 2099. (The invincible allure of playing as Captain Universe Spidey still gnaws at me…)  But resist I did.  If I was going to give the game an honest shot, it needed to come from playing it through again as if it were new. 
It takes a few seconds to readjust to the controls, what I imagine it would be like were someone from today to revert to driving a car without power steering, but once I got used to the moderately jerky nature of Spidey’s turns, I was off and swinging.  The first level is really just a tutorial, as is to be expected, but there is plenty of webslinging to do and lots of bad guys to web up and punch out.  It’s nice that this sort of thing is here, because while not as tricky as learning the controls the first time around, it is helpful to have a low pressure area to regain your bearings (no matter how many times Spidey reminds me that I have to use his Spidey-compass to find the bank.  You’d think he might already know where the bank is, being the spider-about-town that he is. And furthermore, “Spidey-compass???”  But I digress…).

Who lives here, I wonder?

The levels progress from there in good order, some require you to liberate hostages all stealthily-like lest the terrorist shoot them point blank (and oh hell yes they will, too!);  some have you making a mad dash across the city either to save J. Jonah Jameson from the Scorpion or follow Venom to his hide-out to save Mary Jane.  Intermixed are plenty of good old fashioned 3-D explore-and-fight levels where you have to find this or that, destroy a certain something, or make your way to the end of a given area.  There is one particularly maddening level where you must ride atop a subway train whilst fending off scores (and I mean scores) of lizardmen without falling to your doom.  That level is a menace, even for experienced gamers.  Another very cool level has you deep in the sewers, where, if you poke around a bit, you might just stumble into the hidden lair of the Lizard! Interspersed amongst the various levels are some engaging boss battles against classic Spider-man villains like the Rhino and Mysterio.  The boss battles require a nice blend of brute strength and brains (ala luring Rhino into electrical conduits to stun him so you can bash him with oil drums) and are tough without being tedious.

The story is remarkably deep with several plot twists and comic book style character plotting.  There are cameos galore from nearly all of Marvel’s heavy hitters of the era (curiously absent is Wolverine, unless you count that billboard…).   The game feels like playing a Spider-man comic from the 1990’s which is pretty much exactly what you want from a game like this.

Goodies Galore!

I was truly surprised at how well the game has stood the test of time.  The gameplay graphics are solid, not great, but solid.   The level design is dynamic and holds mostly true to its promise of being a free-roaming, if a bit limited, three dimensional adventure.  The combat is dynamic as well: bad guys can be defeated a number of ways, fisticuffs, webbing, a combination of the two, tossing them off the side of a building, you get the idea.  The web swinging is a lot of fun and you can swing just about any way you want, even zip from surface to surface on webline!  Spidey is also able to crawl on virtually any surface, wall or ceiling, something I honestly wouldn’t have expected from an early attempt at a game like this. There are plenty of power-ups, secret areas to explore, and hidden unlockables to seek out that give the game enormous replay value.  (I really cannot describe fully just how much stuff there is to find and unlock and how many times you are going to want to replay this game) This game also harkens from a nearly bygone era where once the game is beaten you can give it another go on HARD mode.
Of course, it isn’t all sunshine and roses.  The game is dated in a number of ways.  The cut-scene graphics are just plain terrible.  As I recall, even for the time they were pretty bad, and time has not been their friend.  The characters are very blocky and their movements are reminiscent of those puppets on strings that are so damn creepy I will find them and kill them…DIE YOU HORRIBLE PUPPETS!  DIE! (Sorry, got stuck on a thing there…)  The game also suffers from miserable voice acting, but I’ve long since given up on getting good voice acting from a video game.  Beyond that there are some of the long aforementioned minor quibbles.  Occasionally the camera will get stuck behind something and make a jump nearly impossible.  You don’t get to go street level and explore the entire city (we’ll have to wait until the Ultimate Spider-Man game to go there), but considering what you do get, this is a minor point.  And perhaps the biggest drawback:  the game is quite short.  I realize I am playing this again after having worn it out ten years ago, but it only took me about 8 hours to get back through the game.  I had forgotten a great number of the levels, but still managed to work it out in fairly short order.  This is where the replay value saves the day. You see, beating the game on normal level unlocks the Black Costume Spider-Man, and I defy you not to play the game again with that costume on.  It cannot be done.  But that said, the game can be completed pretty quickly even if you are figuring things out for the first time.
 
Final Look
Quibbles notwithstanding, I would have to say that overall, Spider-Man for the Playstation has successfully stood the test of time and while a bit dated, is just as much fun today as it was when I first spun the disc way back when.  As a matter of fact, after I finish typing this, I’m going to have to get some screenshots and chances are good that is going to result in me playing through the game again, at least one more time!  Maybe it’s just the Spidey fan in me, but I still love this game!  If you are looking for a nice trip down memory lane or just want to see how your favorite modern Spider-Man game got where it is, I still highly recommend Spider-Man for the PSX.

Spidey may be gone, but stick around for Tips & Tricks!

Join me next month because I’m going to stir the pot a bit and probably make a few people mad or at the very least scratch their heads.  You’ll never disagree with me more than you will after next month’s Closer Look!


TIPS AND TRICKS

SPOILER ALERT!!  This section may contain plot information or reveal aspects of the game better left to discovery.  Proceed with caution.

Explore, explore, explore.  Except for the levels where time is of the essence (i.e. chasing Venom or the Scorpion), take your time and crawl over every building and swing to every ledge.  Sure, your Spidey-Compass, and Spidey himself, will nag you incessantly about getting to wherever it is you are supposed to go, but you can ignore that all you want.  You’ll have to cover every corner of the playable area if you are to find all the unlockable comics and costumes, etc.  Also, there are some real treats for Spider-man fans like myself.  Some of the hidden areas are just too cool to miss.  I’ll not ruin them for you by listing them here, although there are plenty of good Walkthroughs out there that can point you to them if you like.
Some locations and objects will generate context specific dialogue from ol’ Spidey.  Swing over to the Baxter Building (Four Freedoms Plaza depending on the era, I forget) in level one, for example.


Remember, you are SPIDER-MAN, and one of your key abilities is being able to stick to any surface.  You can save yourself a lot of headaches if you spend as much time on ceilings and walls as you do walking around on foot.
Remember, you are SPIDER-MAN, and another of your key abilities is to web swing.  You can quickly span great distances or zip from a wall-to-wall or wall-to-ceiling using your web shooters.  This can help you avoid tedious enemies, dodge attacks, or find hidden passages.  Just be sure you watch your web fluid.

When fighting the Scorpion, keep your distance.  Scorpy’s tail is quick and almost always knocks you down.  Your best strategy is to attack from afar by tossing office equipment at him to get his attention, then when quarters get close, give him a few kicks to the carapace and then haul ass out of there.  Repeat.
Boss levels almost always contain a hidden comic book.  If there is no urgency to defeat the boss, take a second to look around, break some things and see what is what.

Impact webbing will be your best friend later in the game.  It is the only way to defeat Mysterio and it takes down Lizardmen from a safe distance.

When taking on the Rhino, you obviously have to ram him into the electrical generators, but if you are careful, while he is still recovering from the jolt you can use that opportunity to heave an oil drum at him and take him out in short order.  If you cannot get the timing right, then a few trips into the barrels matador-style after he has exhausted the generators should do the trick.  Just jump straight up when he charges at you (and, you know, be sure you are standing in front of some oil drums…)

On the subway ride, stick to the middle of the car (unless you really need a power-up) and use a combination of kicks, impact webbing and web shields to keep the lizardmen at bay.

When battling Venom, both times, use impact webbing and stay the hell away from him.  If you get close enough to punch, he can level you with one good smack, or worse he can snag you with the symbiote and initiate some truly dreadful voice acting that you’ll get sick of really fast.  Impact webbing does a ton of damage and will take him out in short order.
Be very careful when saving Mary Jane.  Venom can activate any of four different switches to fill the tank she in dangling in with water.  What is worse, so can you! And you probably will a million times if Venom jumps out of your way as you fire impact webbing at him.  Close quarters fighting is even worse as multiple punches can toggle the switch off and on repeatedly, causing MJ to freak completely out and whine like there is no tomorrow.  Keep your distance, use the impact webbing and keep an eye on the tank.  If you see water starting to fill, find out which switch is responsible and turn it off fast.  If you miss Venom and hit the switch yourself, be sure you turn it back off immediately before trying to find Venom again.

Fire webbing is essential against the symbiote spawn.  It is the only thing that can take them down with any speed.  Hand-to-hand is a sure way to get your Spidey-butt kicked, so keep your distance and shoot the Fire webbing at them.

In the fight with Carnage, you have to trap him in the Sonic Bubble and hold him there so the sound waves can take him out.  Once in the bubble, well timed impact webbing can keep him there until he expires.   If you have a moment, take a good look outside the windows as Carnage is getting his due…




Escaping from the final level is a trial and error learning experience.  Expect to die a few times before you get out.  Once you know the layout of the route, web-swing to dramatically increase the distance between you and Monster Ock.  You can also zip-line up and immediately web-swing over when you ascend to a new level.  There is some generous lead time, but Monster Ock will catch you if you dally too long.

All this time, Doc Ock just needed a good hug!  Who knew?!

RUN.  I'm not even kidding.

Once you think you’ve seen and done everything this game has to offer you, enter the following code: GBHSRSPM.  I promise you a very good time on this run through of the game.

As you encounter different characters you will unlock their profiles in the extras section. Like these lovely, if mightily polygonal, ladies.

Or this curious fellow...

Closer Look at Dungeon: An In-Depth Guide!

A Closer Look at Dungeon for the Atari 2600


Dungeon for the Atari 2600 is a new homebrew released this year by David Weavil. the game is an impressively large adventure role playing game with a lot of depth and tons of replayability. Much like its ancestor, Adventure, the game pits you , the humble adventurer, against a sea of troubles in pursuit of a noble goal. In Adventure, the goal is to find the fabled Chalice, for Dungeon you must slay the evil Demon; you should probably also save the princess, although that is optional. Considering the limitations of the VCS, this game is remarkably complex and offers a gamer experience unique to the system.

Dungeon represents some of the greatest things about the modern Atari homebrewing scene. Making new games for old systems isn't a new concept, but significant advancements have been made in the past decade opening all kinds of new doors for ambitious programmers with a love for otherwise "obsolete" gaming platforms. Programming for an older system like the VCS is a true labor or love that requires dedication and determination. Dungeon was programmed using a relatively new programming tool called batari Basic. From the batari Basic web site: "batari Basic (bB) is a BASIC-like language for creating Atari 2600 games. It is a compiled language and the compiler runs on a computer, but it creates a binary file that can be run on an Atari 2600 emulator or used to make a cartridge that will operate on a real Atari 2600." (see http://bataribasic.com/) In layman's terms, batari Basic provides a simpler interface for designing 2600 games, which are traditionally programmed using the somewhat thicker 6502 assembly language. Originally designed as a learning tool to propel promising programmers (alliteration unintentional, I promise) on to the more comprehensive 6502, batari Basic is also being used as a platform for creating full-fledged games like Dungeon as well.

This edition of Closer Look will delve deep into the heart of Dungeon and shed light on the darkest corners of the exceptional game. What follows is intended to be a Complete Strategy. This means that SPOILERS aplenty await readers who continue beyond the final, closing paragraph of this introduction. If you wish to explore Dungeon entirely unspoiled, READ NO FURTHER and go play the game. However, if you are looking for specific information, or just want to peek behind the curtain, by all means, proceed. The guide follows after the jump!

Closer Look at Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town for Gameboy Advance

One of the best things about writing these Closer Looks is that I often get to play the living crap out of games that I, and maybe you, would otherwise shun, usually with good reason. Doing this forces me outside my comfort zone and makes me see video games from entirely other perspectives. This go-round is a perfect example of this phenomenon. The game of choice this time is Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town, because the friends that were originally in Mineral Town grew insufficient, perhaps? Either way, the Harvest Moon series is one of my wife’s video game passions (Circus Atari, Eggomania, and Sims are few of the others if that means anything to you). I think she has played nearly all of the games in the series and by virtue of proximity the games’ many jaunty theme songs have been drilled into my memory for all time. During one marathon session of Harvest Moon, we’ll say N64 for kicks, I asked her what about the game appealed to her, because to me it looked like a whole lot of work with no pay off. I’m sure she gave an answer that was somewhat insightful, but to be honest I cannot remember it. However, that set off a chain of events the end result of which you are about to read.

I was looking for a new game to spotlight with Closer Look, when my wife suggested that this would be a perfect time to introduce me to the Harvest Moon series. Intrigued, but highly skeptical, I agreed and asked her to pick out the game she felt would be best for a complete novice who had minimal interest in the series. Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town was the answer, but being the curious lad that I am, I suggested the girl version instead (Harvest Moon: MORE Friends of Mineral Town). Hey, I’m not afraid to play as a girl, I kicked Belle’s Quest’s ass, remember! Thus, I embarked on my first venture into the land of farm simulation as a scrappy young blonde…



The game starts simply enough: you are a modern girl dissatisfied with big city livin’ and looking to shake thing up a bit in your life. One day, a television ad catches your eye glorifying the fantastic lifestyle that is to be had in Mineral Town, a small community that has recently found itself with a vacant farm property. Just the change you’ve been looking for! However, once you get there, you find out the quaint farm land is really a run-down derelict and the Mayor (Thomas) has pulled the old “bait and switch” on you. To make matters worse, the check cleared the bank and you are stuck here with only your newly acquired dog and a field full of weeds. If life is going to be worth living, you’re going to have to make the most of it here in Mineral Town.
From there, the game is pretty wide open. What you choose to do with your farm is entirely up to you and your future is literally in your hands. You can go all green-thumby and sow the entire field in turnips, pumpkins, and pineapples (what a climate this place has!). You can raise a herd of cattle and live off of milk and cheese. From sheep and chickens to mines full of gems, the possibilities are endless. Maybe a little too endless, but more on that later. Harvest Moon:MFoMT is a big farming/social simulation game that is made up of three basic phases: shipping things for money, interacting with the local townsfolk, and personal character growth. These three phases are completely intertwined and how you conduct yourself in one area usually has a direct impact on what goes on with the other two.



The most fundamental, day-to-day aspect of the game is shipping things for money. Predominately this means farming in some capacity, although there are other ways to get rich, and early on those ways are vital to getting your farm up and running. The crops you grow, the products your livestock creates (eggs, milk, wool), even things you just find laying around in the forest can all be shipped off and exchanged for money. Your basic task every day is to do something to generate sufficient revenue to maintain your land. You’ll need to buy seeds for growing crops; you’ll need to buy chickens, cows, and/or sheep to reap the benefits of livestock. And all of these things cost money. The simplest way to make money early on is to harvest ores and gems from the local mine. These gems and ore can be sold straight away and will bring consistent profits until your plants and animals start to produce. Once that gets going, trips to the mine will become less important and more supplemental in nature and you’ll be able to spend more time on your farm and in town.



While you’re busy mining, and hoeing (not the other kind…), and chopping, and brushing cattle, you also need to make an occasional appearance in town to let people know that you’re not just some creepy recluse who never leaves her farm and brushes cows all day. Interacting with the townsfolk is an important way to advance the minimal plot of the game and is also beneficial for increasing your ability to turn a profit. The most important interactions in the game, I am told, are the interactions you have with the majority of the single males in Mineral Town. Apparently, there is a narrow boy:girl ratio in Mineral Town and everyone has the fever to get married. If you are to join in the fun you’re going to have to do some serious wooing of the local male populace and maybe start a few catfights with the stunningly attractive ladies of the town. One of the main story elements in the game is getting married: when you finally do, the game credits roll (again, I am told), so those looking to “beat” the game are going to want to spend a lot of time paying attention to the boy of your choice (and the choices ain’t exactly George Clooney or Johnny Depp here in Mineral Town, good luck!). Other interactions in Mineral Town include making friends and enlisting the help of various people primarily through a long and elaborate gift-giving game. Participating in this can be as time-consuming as farming itself, so you’ll have to manage your time wisely.



The game does feature annual events to keep your daily life from getting too tedious. Every 25th day of the Winter season, the Mayor of Mineral Town will break into your house between 9pm and midnight, while you are sleeping and leave you a gift if you hang your sock on the wall. You think I’m kidding, but in Mineral Town this is a close as you are going to get to Christmas. There are more normal events, called Festivals that you can partake in. You can enter your best cow or sheep in the various livestock festivals, or you can watch fireworks from the beach with your sweetheart during the aptly named Fireworks Festival. These events provide various opportunities for advancing character subplots, winning rare items and awards, or just creating a general sense of community. Participation appears to be optional, unless you are pursuing a particular angle, but there are lots of things to be gained from taking in a festival. Just be sure you have done all of the things you need to do on the day of the festival, because most times activating the festival will consume the remaining time in the day. Don’t leave your chickens out in the rain just because you want to enter the Cooking Contest!

A Closer Look at Sonic Shuffle

A Closer Look at Sonic Shuffle for the Dreamcast



I never had a Dreamcast during its brief lifespan. I had an N64 and a PSX, so the Dreamcast with all of its whistles and bells was a bit too much for my gaming palate at the time of its release. This means I missed out on some really great games. I managed to play SoulCalibur (maybe the best game for the system) at a friend’s house regularly, but beyond that SEGA’s last (?) throw into the console pool was lost on me. I heard tales of Virtua Tennis, Crazy Taxi, and Jet Grind Radio, but they were phantoms in the gaming night. So, when I married and my lovely wife added a Dreamcast to our console collection, a whole new world was opened to me.
Going through her collection of games one day, I spied an interesting property: Sonic Shuffle.

“What’s this,” I said, “some great Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Dreamcast?” “Not quite,” my wife replied. She went on to explain that it was a board game with Sonic characters. “Is it any good?” I asked. “Well,” said she, “it’s like Mario Party, without Mario or the Party.” We both laughed pretty hard at that, clever though she is, but when the laughing was done, I insisted that we give it a spin and see what happens. The following account is the result:



My turn (I’m playing as Sonic): I pick a “6” card and pick a distance of six spaces on the board to travel, however Sonic’s special ability is to occasionally double the amount of spaces I can move, so instead of 6 I get to move 12. I move 4 spaces, but then hit a spinning arrow and immediately backtrack 2. I land on a space with a picture of a helicopter on it. At that moment, a helicopter appears above me, lifts me up and proceeds to carry and subsequently drop me precisely 3 spaces behind the space where I started. Knuckles’ turn (controlled by the CPU): Knuckles selects an “S” card (from my row of cards no less!). A menu appears from which he selects “Roulette.” A spinning card appears on the screen and he stops it on a “5.” Knuckles then proceeds to move 5 spaces and lands on the same square that is occupied by Amy (the other CPU character). The word “DUEL” appears on the screen and Amy and Knuckles move to a screen filled with cards. Icons with all four characters appear amidst the cards. The screen says “GO” and all of the character icons begin to move about the cards. Some cards leave the screen toward Knuckles, some towards Amy, and then suddenly, they all fly back up and fill the screen again at which point the process repeats until finally all of the cards are gone either to one side or the other. A winner is somehow declared and it is Amy. The game shifts back to the main screen and Knuckles must sit out a turn. Next it is Tails’ turn (played by my wife). She selects a “6” card and chooses a space the appropriate distance away. Tails moves to this space, which is marked with an “!.” The screen goes black and the words “Mini-Game” appears. All four characters are whisked away to a screen that explains the rules of the mini-game. Apparently, one of the players is to be the “DJ” and the remaining three are going to be placed on a giant turntable. The DJ character controls the movements of the turntable and various arcs of electrical current that span it, while the other characters must run about trying to avoid the electricity and collecting rings. Get hit and you lose your rings. The game lasts one minute. Chaos ensues. The minute expires, somehow a winner is declared and a leaderboard appears listing the rankings plus the amount of rings awarded. Knuckles wins, and as a result he also gets to steal 10 rings from another character at random. A wheel appears, spins, and the arm lands on me. I am forced to give 10 rings to Knuckles. Finally, it is Amy’s turn (the other CPU, remember). Amy selects a “1” card from Knuckles row of cards and moves one space onto a red space with a gold ring. Amy flinches as she loses 6 rings, only made worse because the screen says “COMBO 2.” The action suddenly stops and a character called Eggman appears above the board in a metal contraption. He laughs and says that we have stepped on a collective amount of 10 red ring spaces and as a result he is going to make the red ring spaces bigger so that we lose even more rings! His contraption zaps the red ring space with a yellow beam and it shrinks. The game’s administrator, Lumina, informs us that Eggman made a mistake and made the red spaces smaller. Instead of his insidious punishment, we will actually earn more rings for landing on blue spaces and lose less for landing on red. And now it is back to my turn…

Lost yet? I am not kidding you; this is what can happen during one average round of turns from Sonic Shuffle. I’ve seen a game last as long as 4 hours. One game. But I am getting ahead of myself… (continued after the jump!)

A Closer Look at Asteroids on the GBC

A Closer Look at Asteroids for the Gameboy Color


I mean seriously, it’s Asteroids. Everything you need is right there in the Atari 2600 version. Hell, the arcade game was concurrent with the VCS. What could a game from twenty years later on a vastly superior system possible add to something that was clearly a classic in its own time? Nothing, Asteroids was perfect as it was. Read no further.

Well….

I really have no idea how Asteroids for the Gameboy Color ended up in my collection. My best guess is that I got it in a lot of games from a yard sale or the like. Maybe I got it cheap at a convention. Who knows, but that really isn’t the point. Due to an overwhelming sense of obligation to make sure that every game in my collection actually works, I was duty bound to pop this thing into my GBC just to be sure it wasn’t a clunker. Shouldn’t take too long, I mean, it’s Asteroids, nothing to see here…


Wait a minute…select a ship? You can’t pick your ship in Asteroids; you get the little triangle.

But here you can. What could possibly be the difference? Hmmm…

Needless to say, from there the differences began to multiply and become increasingly evident, and gasp, dare I say enjoyable? If you have already played this particular version of the arcade classic, you know that it isn’t your father’s (can you, the humble reader, be so young…sigh) Asteroids. Could it possibly be better? Let’s not get hasty.

Asteroids for the Gameboy Color is much like the Asteroids you may know and love, but with some very interesting updates. The gameplay is exactly what you remember from the original: you pilot a ship in space and asteroids come drifting near you. It is your job to blow them all into harmless space dust before they do likewise to you. However, this version of Asteroids takes that basic concept a few steps further. First of all, there is an attempt at a story. The opening cut scenes (yes cut scenes!) introduce you to the fact that there is a method to your asteroid smashing. You’ll even get a mission briefing before the first level! The story doesn’t really change anything about the basic game, but it does add some really nice flavor and back story. The only disappointment is that the story stops after the second zone. I was looking forward to mission briefings and story updates throughout, but for no apparent reason there is nothing beyond the second zone.



The second advancement is the aforementioned ability to select the ship you wish to do your asteroid smashing in. There are three varieties, each with different designs and secondary abilities, an interesting take on the old game variations which imbued your craft with various upgrades. While this doesn’t fundamentally change the gameplay it does allow you to tweak your experience a little bit and provide different kinds of challenges. To that extent you are also able to select the difficulty level you wish to play with. The main difference in difficulty level resides in the number of continues you are granted and what secondary weapons are made available (although I am sure there are deeper distinctions, I have yet to find a manual to explain such things to me).



Continues are another nice feature. Since the game is finite, unlike its predecessor, you’ll probably want to reach the end of the adventure. Doing so with three reserve ships is not going to be easy, so having a few extra chances doesn’t hurt. You can also obtain passwords for each level so that you can pick back up at the start of a level if you get obliterated or you just really want to replay that level again. Fortunately, the game has the kind of appeal that makes this feature more than just an endless continue.

The biggest impact on gameplay comes in the form of alien spaceships, weird hunks of space junk, some kind of metal space tube and various other intergalactic brik-a-brak that also clutter the cosmos in addition to the familiar asteroids of yore. In this game you’ll be shooting and dodging lots more than hunks of rock. You’ll also have to get out of that rut where you just sit in the middle of the screen and rotate 360 degrees firing indiscriminately--you know, classic Asteroids strategy! Level innovations include black holes, giant space worms and stars going supernova. These features create dynamic new gameplay situations and add depth to the overall Asteroids experience. This is the kind of game for people who think Asteroids is a good idea, but wish there was a little more to it. Honestly, for all my histrionics at the start of this article, that’s me.




The game is rather short, only five levels, but there is sufficient challenge and enough varieties of gaming experience that you’ll probably spend a lot more time with it than you might expect from an Asteroids game. As an added bonus, you can unlock a version of “Classic Asteroids” which you can select and play from the main menu screen. This game has tremendous pick-up-and-play appeal and doesn’t require much personal investment, a sometimes refreshing break from much larger more immersive games of this era.

The Final Look

Asteroids for the Gameboy Color is a successful adaptation and evolution of a true classic! All of the elements that make Asteroids a great game are here, and they are supplemented by features that take that basic concept to the next level. Furthermore, the game is ideal for a handheld system like the GBC, because this is the kind of game that can salvage a long road trip, a visit to Aunt Helen’s house (you know there is nothing to do there, why do YOU have to go?), or just kill 15-20 while waiting for that Overture at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey to end. I strongly recommend anyone who likes Asteroids to give this game a look. I never would have if it hadn’t fallen to my collection by accident, but I am glad it did.

Asteroid-Smashin’ Stan

Join me next time when I’ll get my board game on and take a Closer Look at Sonic Shuffle for the Dreamcast.

Tips follow after the jump!

A Closer Look at Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool

A Closer Look at Chester Cheetah: Too Cool To Fool

I like Cheetos. I want to start this essay with that caveat perfectly clear. I like Cheetos, I like the puffy kind, and I like the Flaming Hot crunchy kind. So please, as you read, remember I like Cheetos.

Chester Cheetah: Too Cool To Fool for the Super Nintendo, I am not as sure about. As a matter of fact I can tell you right now, this thing comes in a gray plastic cartridge, it fits into the cartridge slot of a Super Nintendo video game console, when you turn the machine on images and sound emanate from your television screen as a result of the cartridge being inserted into the console, but outside of that, CC: TCTF barely resembles anything you might consider to be a video game.



Ok, so maybe some of the above is hyperbolic. That’s ok, what is to follow might just convince you otherwise.



In the tradition of other video games based on product tie-ins, for example the very fun SPOT game for the NES based on the 1990’s 7up mascot or the variety of bizarre Kool-Aid man games for the home consoles of the 1980’s, Chester Cheetah: Too Cool To Fool is a video game based on the exploits of a then popular, I suppose, marketing icon. The game is a simple platformer in which you must guide Chester through five (although the manual says six at one point, more on the manual in a bit) levels of trials and tribulations as he attempts to escape the Four Corners Zoo and regain his “radicool”* motorcycle, so he can, I don’t know, be more cool or something; the plot is pretty weak. The five levels of Four Corners Zoo feature all of your standard platforming elements with no real innovation or deviation. There is a water-type level in which you must cross a lake filled with alligators then navigate the lake in a boat. There is an air level where you ride a bird through the skies, a cave level where everything is dark except for your immediate area, you get the idea. If it has been done better in another platforming game it is probably here. The levels are incredibly short and lack depth or imagination.

*Sorry kids, it is in the manual like that…



The game is well themed. Apart from Chester running about, there are several other references to the product this game endorses. Part of your goal is collect paw print shaped Cheetos (remember those?) to regain your health. In the bonus stages, there are old school (then contemporary) Cheetos bags in the background. There is even a coupon for a bag of Cheetos in the back of the manual (but it expired Dec. 31, 1993, sorry). So if the true object of the game is to coerce me into the store to purchase a bag of puffed corn covered in orange “cheese” flavored powder, then the game has a good chance of success. After all, eating a bag of Cheetos is far superior to suffering through this sorry excuse for a video game. Heck an empty Cheetos bag is more fun than this game…but I digress.

The main problem with this game, however, is that it just plain isn’t fun. Oh sure, you can play it, but saying this game is fun just because you can play it is like saying Brussels sprouts are food just because you can eat them. Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool is the Brussels sprouts of Super Nintendo games. The levels are short and simple and lack much of interest outside the main goal of obtaining the motorcycle part and moving on to the next level. The controls are simple and the game is pretty much pick-up-and-play, although going up the pipes in level one is almost accidental rather that intentional. Swinging and climbing on the vines in level two is also a grind-it-until-you-find-it endeavor, but all in all you can work your way through the levels with fundamental gaming skills. There are items to collect, but they are generally irrelevant.