A Closer Look at Halloween

A Closer Look: Special Halloween Edition Trick or Treat!

Halloween.  No holiday begs for video games to be themed around it more that this one, and for good reason.  Halloween is all about monsters and skeletons and aliens and all kinds of other scary things that you can vanquish with blasters, swords, fire, or just run the hell away from in any number of video games throughout the ages.  When autumn rolls around and Halloween is getting big in the window, it’s always fun to make a run through some of the very best Halloween-type games in my collection.  Often played are classics like Haunted House and Frankenstein’s Monster for the Atari 2600, or Friday the 13th and the Addam’s Family for the NES, and you can never go wrong, any time of year, when pulling out any Castlevania game and giving ol’ Drac a run for his money.  But Closer Look isn’t about my favorite games or whimsical trips down memory lane (don’t hold me to this, chances are good somewhere down the line it will be about both…).  No, Closer Look is about shedding some light on the darker corners of the gaming universe and that means it is time to reach deeper into our hollow plastic pumpkin and pull out a couple of Tricks and Treats in the classic gaming world and double check them just to make sure that creepy guy who lives on Valentine Street didn’t stuff them full of razor blades.  So without further ado, I give you A Closer Look’s Halloween Special: Tricks and Treats for the NES!

First, the Trick.

We’ll get this nasty surprise out of the way and that will make the Treat all the sweeter!  Reach in to that plastic pumpkin and pull out THIS:  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!  A Robert Louis Stevenson classic all about the dual nature of man and the constant internal struggle between the ego and the id.  A fascinating tale that would most certainly make a fascinating video game, right?  Yeah, and eating that unwrapped popcorn ball is a good idea as well…

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the NES is set up with promise.  It follows the premise of the story to the letter.  You are Dr. Jekyll and all you want to do is get to the church on time so that you can marry your beloved Miss Millicent.  To do this he has to travel across London (which is remarkably big in 1886!) all the while avoiding becoming upset lest he should trigger his transformation into his darker alter ego: Mr. Hyde!  The trip should be simple.  What could go wrong?  Walk across London, no problem…well, unless you are the extremely sensitive Dr. Jekyll that is.  Apparently anything and everything will set this guy off.  Now I can see becoming upset whilst being pummeled by barrels, pooped on by birds, or exploded by bombs.  These things are annoying and potentially injurious.  But the good Doctor is also set off by barking dogs, walking into spider webs, and the occasional agitated passer-by. As a matter of fact, there is very little in this game that doesn’t royally frustrate Dr. Jekyll.  How is this guy getting married?  I’m thinking two months into married life and Jekyll is going to be Mr. Hyde all the time.

It is clear that aggravation is impossible to avoid, thus you are inevitably going to spend some time as Mr. Hyde.  When this change takes place, you will be transported to a dark, twisted version of London filled with all kinds of bizarre monsters.  Fortunately, Mr. Hyde doesn’t really care about being upset by such things and actually gets his kicks off blasting them into oblivion with his Psycho-Wave (a little detail RLS failed to clue us in on back in 1886).  Vaporizing these phantoms seems to have a calming effect on Mr. Hyde and will eventually result in a return to his more docile Dr. Jekyll state.

The object of the game is to reach the church as Jekyll before Hyde catches up to him.  As you travel toward the church as Jekyll, each transformation into Hyde will progress him along a course toward Jekyll.  Should Hyde reach Jekyll, Divine Intervention will cause lightning to strike Hyde and Miss Millicent will be stranded at the altar as her betrothed becomes a crispy critter.  It is your job to guide Jekyll through London avoiding the myriad of annoyances that plague you.  When you do become Hyde, you’ll have to blast away at the monsters as quickly as possible to trigger the transformation back to Jekyll as time marches you closer to that fateful bolt.

This really is set up as a would-be classic.  The gameplay is unique, the concept successfully implements the plot elements of the time-honored story, there is a variety of things to do in the game, and there is an arcade feel that makes replay seem likely.  Yep, and that popcorn ball is all covered in caramel and glistens in the porch light.  But let’s not forget about that guy on Valentine St.  Sure, the game is set up to be a winner, but that is where the winning ends.  The game is bad.  At its best it is an exercise in frustration.  After about ten minutes chances are good you’ll be the one turning into Mr. Hyde.

The problems are most evident in the Jekyll levels.  The good doctor moves like he’s made of wood.  I’m not expecting Flo Jo here, but for a man looking to make it to his pending nuptials and aware that he is prone to fearsome transformation as a result of mild agitation you would think he would be looking to make better time.  But, no, Jekyll subscribes to the travel doctrine of the tortoise.  That alone wouldn’t be overly frustrating were it not coupled with the doctor’s complete lack of tolerance for aggravation. The game boasts a large Jekyll/Hyde meter that indicates Jekyll’s calmness level, but major instances, like being caught in one of the mad bomber’s blasts, will drain that meter in one shot and it’ll be off to Hyde-land. Even that wouldn’t be a game killer, but the coup de grace is the sheer number of irritants in London and Jekyll’s complete impotence to deal with them.  A good 90% of the characters you encounter are out to piss you off and you have almost no way to avoid being the victim of their animosity.  Jekyll’s defensive options are limited to jumping (best for angry dogs and cats) and ducking (the sling shot kid).  You can also duck into some buildings, but your stay will be limited and timing is essential.  Jekyll’s offensive capabilities are none.  Apparently, the good doctor is a complete pacifist.  The manual states that you can use his cane to poke at people, but all that does is make them even more contentious with him, so there is no effective use for that feature.  All of this adds up to numerous trips to Hyde’s dark London and less and less progress toward the church.

The only upside, Hyde’s adventure is actually fun.  There are plenty of monsters to blast with your PSYCHO-WAVE, you can also punch them, but the wave is primo.  The level design is the reverse of what you travel as Jekyll, so you’ll know if you are getting close to a date with destiny. The impetus is on blasting as many baddies as you can as fast as you can so that you can return to the tranquility of regular London.  You’ll want to be hasty since dark London is auto-scrolling constantly pushing you toward eternity.  Just be careful not to take too many hits as Hyde.  Death as Hyde is the same as death as Jekyll, and while Hyde is tougher, he can be felled if overwhelmed.  Overall, though, your time as Hyde is way more fun than anything you’ll do as Jekyll.  However, since you’ll be coming here often, chances are good that lightning bolt is in your future, no matter how good you get as Hyde…

Irritating gameplay aside, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde features solid graphics, with interesting detail and colorful backgrounds (as well as the largest bird poop in video game history!).  The music gets redundant fast, but only because of the lack of variety and the amount of time you’ll spend replaying levels.  The game does feature endless continues so you can beat your head against the wall as long as you like.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a true Halloween trick.  It looks good, it is built on a solid premise, the gameplay successfully implements that premise in an innovative and interesting way, and it has enough variety and challenge to make replay seem likely.  However, it fails to execute on the most fundamental level and fails to be fun.  If you think Dr. Jekyll spends a lot of time in an irritated state during this game, that will be nothing compared to the out-right rage that will take control of your mind.  I kid you not, this is the one and only game in my collection that has actually been yanked out of the console and sent flying across the room into, and nearly breaking, a window.  The game succeeded in turning me into Mr. Hyde, but it failed to deliver in any other way.  In case you are wondering, no, I have never successfully completed the journey to the chapel and the good doctor remains a bachelor in my world. (ed. note, this has recently changed, I finally got the good doctor to the church and never have to ever, ever again) If you are lured in by this game, don’t blame me, you have been warned.  Stay off of Valentine Street.

And with that horrible experience behind us, we can put our metal detectors away and unwrap that ever-shrinking Snickers Fun Size bar and have ourselves a little treat: Frankenstein: The Monster Returns! (also NES) Unlike the game described in the above section, Frankenstein goes above and beyond what it needs to be and ends up being quite a nice little game.

Intended as a sequel to the timeless Mary Shelley tale, Frankenstein: The Monster Returns tells a story years after the monster was put to death (although it departs from the original a bit to do this).  As the title indicates, the Monster has indeed returned from the dead and has taken his revenge upon a small village by abducting the Elder’s daughter, and consequently your love interest (what are the chances?), Emily.  To prevent a second (third?) trip to the grave, the Monster has also enlisted the aid of a bevy of classic horror creatures to ransack the town and stymie any would-be heroes.  This means bad news for you, since you are, in fact, a would-be hero!  And it is up to you to defeat the Monster’s hordes and rescue fair Emily.

Frankenstein: The Monster Returns is a side-scrolling adventure game featuring a number of levels, scores of monsters to defeat and lots of items and power-ups to find and collect.  The game follows the standard formula with each level consummating in a boss fight.  The story is integrated into the gameplay much in the way such is accomplished in Faxanadu.  People you meet and talk to will give you items and tips as well as develop the storyline, but these inclusions are fairly unobtrusive and skippable if you are playing through.
While not particularly long, the levels are diverse and feature lots of areas to explore and items to find.

The main appeal of this game is the simplicity of the design juxtaposed with the surprising amount of depth that can be discovered with dedicated playing.  The fact that it is littered with monsters to vanquish doesn’t hurt.  The power-ups are generously spaced and, of the levels I have played, there are few “stuck points” where you just beat your head against the wall unable to progress.  There are all kinds of secret passages and buildings to explore and the levels are long enough without being tedious and repetitive.  The game isn’t a cakewalk, by any means, but there is enough here to keep players challenged and still motivated to try again to put the demented Monster to rest, should they falter in their attempt.  Best of all, the game is fun.  There is something undeniably appealing about taking a sword and slashing your way through a collection of hideous monsters.  This may be what is likewise so compelling about games like Castlevania.  I would wager that, while not as iconic or classic as Castlevania, Frankenstein: The Monster Returns, is just about as good.

Graphically, the game is solid, if a bit muddy.  They aren’t going to win any awards, but they aren’t going to inhibit your ability to play the game, either.  The cut scenes are interesting for a game of this ilk and do a nice job of advancing the plot.  The main drawback is that the game is relatively rare and therefore in fewer collections.  If a copy can be found, it is well worth getting a hold of.    To be honest, I haven’t gotten nearly as far on this game as I would like.  There is a sea monster that keeps kicking my butt when I fall in the lake.  The good news, there is a password feature that allows you to start over at the beginning of any level, so one day I will get past that bastard and on to the Monster himself!

Thus, Frankenstein: The Monster Returns is a true Halloween treat, one you might have missed while pouring through your more popular, holiday appropriate NES titles.  Sure, you’re going to play Castlevania and Friday the 13th this year; you’re supposed to.  But while you’re thumbing through Monster Party and Maniac Mansion, don’t forget to give Frankenstein: The Monster Returns some serious love.  Oh and be smart, don’t ruin a perfectly good holiday by thinking Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can end in anything other than unmitigated rage on your part.  Avoid, trust me.  And if you have the time, you may also want to take a look at Uninvited, or Shadowgate by Kemco-Seika.  But those are stories for another Halloween….


Have a great Halloween and join me back here in two weeks when I’ll get topical and take a Closer Look at
Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus for the Nintendo Wii.  Does it work?  Is it fun?  Answers to these questions and more, in two weeks!

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.

A Closer Look at Pryzm Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn

A Closer Look at Pryzm, Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn



So I am at my local second hand (a marvelous little spot called MUST HAVE Music and More, big shout out for those guys, they rock) and I’m browsing the Gamecube, PS2, and Wii games when I spot the impossible. Yes, the impossible. Amidst the used copies of Kingdom Hearts and God of War, I see a game with a price tag that is too cheap to be real. There, on the shelf is a PS2 game with the low, low price of $5. Yes, $5. So I have to know, right. What kind of game is so bad that it only fetches $5 on the second hand market? How bad can it really be? $5?

The cover of the game case clearly shows a dwarf brandishing a magic wand and riding a unicorn fighting some kind of slightly armored skeletons. Not an instant indicator of loserdom, although the assemblage is rather unexpected. The game is called Pryzm, Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn. No real help there, had it been called “Super Dwarf and the Pegasus Coalition,” we might have cause to worry, scorn even, but Pryzm isn’t a terrible title. Are you sure this game is only $5? So I ask my guy, “why is this game $5? Can it really be that bad? Do you know anything about it?” Promptly, because my guy at MUST HAVE is very cool, he jumps on a certain website to check user reviews. While none of them are dismal, most 3 out of 5 stars or something, none of them are glowing either. Yet one stands out. According to this particular reviewer the game is a bit tedious, but fun and the reviewer only picked the game up in the first place because he was a fan of unicorns! You read that right; he was a fan of unicorns. Well, could any game that appeals to a unicorn fan be too good for yours truly?

Not for five dollars.

So I bought Pryzm, Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn and brought it home. Now I’m no big fan of unicorns like our friend the reviewer, but I’m willing to at least give the game a try for five dollars. I mean, it’s a PS2 game, for…five…dollars. At the very least the cuts scenes are going to be worth five dollars, right? Well, not exactly.



Pryzm is a game about a troubled land which has fallen victim to a deadly plague that has transformed the four realms of the trolls, gnomes, elves and nymphs into dark, twisted mirror images of themselves. The plague is spread through viral plague flowers that have cropped up in the realms and spewed poison across the land. Only the peaceful unicorn realm of Tu-lum has been spared. (I know, but hang in there) It is there that hope for the realms lies in the form of a young unicorn named Pryzm. Pryzm is the unicorn of prophecy said to be the only one capable of cleansing the land of the plague. The unicorn council has entrusted this dangerous quest to the ambitious Pryzm and her uneasy ally, Karrock the troll arch-mage. (You’ve made it this far, you’re in this thing now, keep reading)




The main purpose of the game is to work your way through each of the four realms, comprised of four regions and a final showdown with a plague boss. In each region you must seek out six plague flowers and heal them with your magic. Both Pryzm and Karrock possess healing magic that can restore the flowers to their true glory. The inhabitants of each region have been horribly mutated by the plague, thus you must cure them as well. Some inhabitants are linked to the plague flower itself and must be healed before you can have any effect on the flower. Once a flower is restored, the surrounding area will be renewed and your health and magic levels will be restored so long as you remain in that area. Cure all six flowers and the entire region will be restored and you will move on to the next region.



You may explore the realms in any order any and may leave one realm for another at any time via the map screen. You may also return to the unicorn realm if you are sadistic enough to want an extra dose of bad voice acting and N64 level graphics (more on that in a minute). Once an entire realm is healed you will be automatically returned to the unicorn realm and be subjected to the aforementioned bad voice acting anyway.

As you play the game, the truth behind the plague will be revealed as well as the one responsible for inflicting it upon the land. (I’ll give you a hint: it rhymes with Ze Hark Punicorn). These cut scenes might be some of the creepiest, scariest things I have ever been witness to in my years of video gaming (and that includes countless jolts from playing Haunted House when I was eight). While I won’t spoil the surprise, in case you decide to give this game a try, I will tell you not to
play this game late at night with no lights on, if you like being able to go to sleep later.



Honestly, the game isn’t all that bad. The world is pretty cool if lacking in depth. The level designs are reminiscent of Gauntlet: Legends for the N64 (partially due to the graphics), wherein you have a large area to explore, but really only a single goal in mind. You are free to look around all you like, and while there are some neat set dressings here and there, you’ll not find much depth to the world you are playing in. The unicorn castle is particularly well rendered, but ultimately a little unfulfilling. Overall, the visual quality of the game is on par with the very best N64 games. Blocky, but well drawn, everything save the scant few FMVs looks about as good as Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Which means it could be a whole lot worse, but probably a lot better for the PS2. Those FMVs that do exist are up to par for the system and they are used for some of the more important parts of the story, particularly those horrific scenes I described above, but they are not enough to carry the game.



In terms of game play, Pryzm offers a very straightforward play. While it isn’t quite pick-up-and-play, it should only take a few levels to get the hang of the controls and how to meet your objectives. I was still making discoveries four and five levels deep. The levels are fun and not overly difficult, although there are a few parts of the game that seem impossible. They are not; I have beaten the game. There is a level of frustration that sometimes rears its ugly head and maybe makes you want to go play something else for a while, but chances are pretty good you’ll come back and give that particular level another try after you have cooled off. That is one of the game’s strong points, the levels are non-linear and if one area is giving you the fits, you can always try a different one. The boss fights are not terribly difficult, but each one is unique and you’ll have to develop different strategies to defeat them. Controlling Pryzm is intuitive and simple and you’ll rarely be asked to execute a maneuver that is beyond your abilities.



Thankfully, there are no tedious jumping puzzles here. The main deficit in the game play is the lack of development. While this fundamentally speaks to the classic gamer in me who likes the idea that everything you need to know about the game is given to you from the start, I somehow expect a little more from a PS2 game of this caliber. Pryzm could desperately use at least a few power-ups, level-ups, items, NPC characters to talk to, something more than what is there on the surface. With just a little extra depth this game could be vastly improved.

Possibly one of the most lacking, and sometimes irritating, parts of the game is the sound. First of all, the voice acting is atrocious. I mean we are talking bad dinner theatre atrocious. Were I the people responsible for producing this rubbish, I would continue my career under a nom de plume and deny all knowledge of this project. Imagine the worst children’s cartoon, say Herculoids, and then triple the absence of quality in the voice acting and you have something that is only slightly better than the voice of the unicorn leader. While the above diatribe wasted more of your time than you probably would have liked, it does not really do the voice acting in this game justice. The only cool voice belongs to the terrifying evil creature responsible for the plague. You’ll know him when you encounter him. Not only is the voice acting devoid of quality, you get to hear a lot of it on your quest because Pryzm and Karrock are constantly talking to each other. That alone wouldn’t be so bad, excepting that they are only programmed to say two phrases at a given time. This means you’ll be sick of whatever they have to say before you have completed your first level. The only bright spot lies in the fact that the two phrases change as you complete more of your quest; and once you beat the game if you replay a level, they never talk at all. So, while it is tedious, it isn’t as bad as it could have been.



Playing Pryzm is overall a pretty fun ride, but the lack of depth mentioned above, the sub-par graphics, and horrendous voice acting all combine to keep it from being the upper tier game it could have been. There is enough here to make this game worth playing and chances are pretty good I’ll play through it again someday just for the fun of it. As for whether it is classic or crap, I cannot relegate this game to the crap pile along with LJN’s X-men for the NES and Sonic Shuffle for the Dreamcast (someday I will tell you that story). Pryzm isn’t quite a true classic, but it is far closer to classic than crap. One thing I can say for absolute certain is that Pryzm, Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn is definitely worth the whopping $5 I paid for it. If you come across this game in a similar, albeit unlikely, situation I say buy with confidence and enjoy!


The Final Look:

If you see this game somewhere and it’s cheap enough, it is worth a look, but don’t go out of your way to add it to your collection. It is ten, maybe fifteen, dollars worth of fun at the most. And with that we bid a fond farewell to the land of dwarves who ride unicorns. As a side note, I also picked up a copy of Britney’s Dance Beat at the same time, also for five dollars, maybe someday I’ll tell you about that one….

Pryzmatic Stan



Join me next time when I’ll take a Closer Look and tell you if Chester Cheetah really is Too Cool to Fool on the SNES. Yeah, I know…

Guide follows after the jump!