Story 6

This is a game about defeating an evil wizard and restoring peace. The wizard lives in a strange, twisty castle you will explore. You actually mainly walk on the outside of it, as there are ramparts to fall off, and never see any furniture. While this area has some minibosses, shops and foes - its more a prep area - to level you up and get strong enough for the 2nd part. At the end of the castle you come to a large cave like system and this is actually where the meat of the story and game happen. There are 7 towers, and you must walk up the long staircases out of the cave and into the tower, to fight the bosses, get a bell, and burn it. The burning of the bells is the main point of the game, as they are how the wizard gets his power. Honestly, its pretty fleshed out for a NES game, and this is one of the better parts of the game.


Graphics: 7
While this may seem low-level on the graphics compared to something like Star Tropics, this was an early release.. its better to compare it to something like Legend of Zelda 1. The evil castle and towers are full of evil energy (like grinning faces on the wall) and can remind one of scarier games like Monster Party. The viewpoint is a isometric 3-d angle that shows depth (compare climbing up Deadly Tower's mpressive stairs and then looking at the original Legend of Zelda with its flat, ladder like dias). The hero is a large character and has some detail. The enemies are varied, and can be fearsome ghosts, dragons or knights, or rather silly; the early enemies are innocent looking blue globs that just dance in place.. one of the toughest regular enemies is a bat about 4 pixels tall, thats fast and can tank so many swords to the face.


Sound: 4

There are not a lof of musical tracks, and they are OK, its just you hear the same 2 or 3 songs. Moving from one screen to another resets the music , so as you explore the many tight corridors and paths on the castle, expect to hear the beginning part of the music "DUN DUN DA DA DUN" over and over as you'll move into the next area before it gets to a chance to continue. The boss music of the 7 evil demon lords is pretty good, simple but manacing. There is a few gratings sounds, like at the very end of the game and the noise made when you burn one of the evil bells. If there were more tracks and they didn't reset the loop, it would be better.


Depth: 7

While it looks fairly simple, there are items to acquire, stores to shop at, and secrets to find. It is an RPG so there is a screen to equip gear and use potions and such. The shops are a mixed bag, because they tend to be hidden, and many of them are put in these large phantom dungeon zones ( more on that later). The toweres you climb also have special gear in them, the best swords and armor, even a powerup that lets you shoot two swords, etc. But rather than earn these from boss wins, these are also hidden secrets, and if you kill the boss, get the bell and leave, it closes the area forever... you cannot return to get the items you missed.
So there is more depth that it looks like, but frustratingly hidden behind bad ideas like invisible warps.



Difficulty: 10

The hero starts off really weak. In the original instruction book to the game, it said his starting gear was so weak, it gave him no confidence (yikes). Mind you the character is a prince, and if he can't afford better gear, we are in trouble. The prince's large sprite, weak damage, and ability to only shoot again when his sword has left the screen/hit something really undermines him. To make matters worse, the enemies are numerous, and often can fly or move faster than Prince Myer, and repeatedly hit him over and over.. each time he is hit, he suffers knockback. Now, if you've played Castlevania, or Ninja Gaiden, this is what kind of knockback I am talking about. It can knock you off ledges, instantly killing you, knock you into worse situations with enemies.
This wouldn't be so bad but when you die, there is a password, but it takes half your money. So if you were saving up for something, tough. There is no save feature, just a password for when he falls.

If the prince can find better gear he actually becomes quite dangerous, armor to save on his life and stronger weapons so you're not hitting a blue bouncing ball 50 times to get 5 money (woo). This is when the game makes the worst decision, and has the best shops and items hidden away in secret invisible areas. In the castle, to get to shops, you have to find an invisible dungeon space (it looks just like a regular spot) and THEN.. you find out there is about 40 screens of enemies in a maze that has 2 or 3 shops, and 1 exit. Yeah, you can't leave the same way you came in. The enemies in the hidden areas are often very strong, and its exploring here that is very frustrating as you have no idea how to get out, and will die and lose whatever you were trying to save up for, if you could have found a shop. In the towers at the 2nd half of the game, there are hidden invisible rooms (and some called parallel worlds) that can unfairly put you right in the center of 10 enemies. The gear in the towers is amazing (a free sword found in the fire monsters tower pretty much 2 shots most foes), IF you can survive to get it.

Funny enough, the bosses are the weakest enemies. All of the tower bosses have wildly different looks but most follow the same boring strategy, lazily float around and haphazardly sprinkle fireballs down on you. They don't track you like the annoying ghosts you had to fight in the parallel world, and they lack the high HP of basic foes like the bouncing blue blob.

The overly complex hidden zones should have just been regular areas, and the shop system shouldn't be hidden behind mazes more difficult than the rest of the game. The prince starts out weak, and takes a long time to feel he's worthy of this quest.


Addictive: 3

This game doesn't respect your time. The fact most of the games items are hidden behind invisible rooms hidden on regular looking tiles, was the worst decision in the game. I can think of one other NES game that tried this same tactic.. Super Pitfall, and it didn't work there either. It feels cheap, and the fact the prince can't even kill a bouncing ball on the first screen without 20 -30 hits just makes him uncool. Where are your knights, prince? You shoulda brought backup.

The plot doesn't make much sense, Bugs Bunny is looking for his girlfriend (not Lola) who looks like him a dress (LOL), and the other Looney Tunes are blocking him for some reason. You go through 60 levels and you'll probably be ready to be done by the 20th. But its kind of fun and if you die its very easy to jump right back in, and extra lives are plentiful.



7- The graphics are clean and you can clearly tell what items are, and what characters are here (Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, and about 100 Sylvester clones?), and each has their own kind of pathing. You are just to collect carrots and the level ends. You can sometimes pick up ACME type weapons like a boxing glove, or push a safe on someones head.


6- There is very few tracks or sound effects, but what is here is good. The main theme is hummable.

7- Its honestly a bit addictive, and deaths happen quick and boom you're right back in. Its not a great game, but it has no wasted space other than a celebraory dance for a few seconds when you win a stage.

4- Story is bare bones. Its rescuing a char you've no history of, and not sure why the other Tunes care to stop this.

5- As far as depth, its OK. Some of the levels have different mechanics and there are new items and dangers (at least).

3- None of the enemies are very challenging, the maps can be fairly large, but there is time to think and get the hang of it.


In the end, playing this is mediocre, but serviceable. Its OK, and thats.. OK!

Super Mario Party shakes up the formulaic games of old with a lot of changes, but never manages to fix my long time gripe with this series. At first it seems disappointing, the boards are all smaller, the dice blocks also only have 6 spaces on them (instead of 10), and most aggravating of all, there are only 4 maps!! I had issue with Mario Party Superstars for only having 5, this is a step in the wrong direction. But some of these changes are actually more beneficial.

Pros:

Games give you way more money - in old MP games, one good player can win all Minigames and choke on coins while everyone else stays poor. The Lucky Spaces were an attempt to counter it, but this features nearly every game giving at least +2 coins. It means you're not stagnating, and more money means more spending on items in the shop, creating more variables.

Stars only cost 10 coins instead of 20 - in an effort to streamline, the stars are cheaper overall, and thats good for keeping the stakes high.

Many playable characters, each with Dice Blocks- Every character now has their own special dice block they can choose at any time to roll instead of a regular one. These dice are very specific to different playstyles. The Shy Guy is all 4's and one 0, for instance. Some have High risk, high reward. Some give or take away coins, and you can gain an ally in the board game who will share their block with you, and roll a 1 or 2 that is added to your total. The more the merrier when you land on this space.

Rumble Controls - When you enter a duel, it used to take you to a crappy minigame you barely played since duels are rare. Now it takes you to a simplistic minigame that relies on the rumble feature.

Faster, dramatic games - Games are quicker and you can enjoy more out of them. The ! spaces on boards now can do many different actions, depending on where you land when you got there.


Cons:

4 boards??? - This is unforgivable. Too low a number.

Small boards - while the games are faster, there is no big board to get lost in, the matches will always feel a bit cramped

Bad AI partners - playing with the cpu it seems they don't quite get the rules. In 2 VS 2 games they often do exactly what you want for 5 seconds, and then are useless.

Stage appropriate endings - at the end of previous Mario Parties, you would see a character chased by something if they were in last place, or shot out of a cannon. Now everyone just stands on a yoga mat and claps. Its pretty boring.

Not created equal - now that a selected character can be evaluated by their special block dice, it really sets a pecking order. There are some who you would never probably take.

Weird online matching - in Superstars, you just got 4 players and played, very easy. In this, you can't have, say, 2 ppl on a switch vs two single players on switches. IDK why, but it only wanted to combine 2 players per switch together.

Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Addictive: 6
Story: 6
Depth: 7
Difficulty: 5

Some char you would expect to play as, Toad, the koopa wizard Kamek, are part of hosting duties. Instead of a Bowser space, Kamek curses you. Its... OK, at least you get to play Bowser. While this Mario Party lacks the fun emoji introduced from Superstars, it at least has the random bonus stars. I just want to tell nintendo, you have 9 boards on MP1. How in the world are we in a place where 4 boards is OK?

Mega Man, the hero who is fairly generic, save for his ability to copy his foe's more powerful attacks. The box art looks bad. The hero looks constipated. But here it starts, a platformer where you can do the stages in any order, and the weapons can help you defeat the other stages.

Bomb Man: He's probably the easiest to defeat, and his stage is not very hard. His bomb power sounds very useful, but honestly, aren't. The fire weapon from Fire Man is his weakness, but the boss spends so much time slowly jumping, you shouldn't need it.

Cut Man: This dork has a pair of scissors over his head and he throws them at you. His stage is a little harder than Bomb Man, but his Rolling Cutter is useful. If you have Guts Man's power, Cut Man is a piece of cake.

Guts Man: Some recommend starting here first, I think he has a hard stage, as its full of pits and armored enemies. The boss throws giant rocks at you and stuns you when he lands from a jump. Timing is key for this whole level. Just be aggresive with the boss.

Elec Man: A pretty easy vertical stage, and one you definitely want to come back to with Guts Man's Super Arm ability, as there is a hidden powerup, Magnet Beam near the top of the tower. Elec Man himself has a very strong attack you'll want to jump over. Use the Cutter to kill him.

Ice Man : This stage sucks. The disappearing blocks are numerous and can really waste your time and your life. If the magnet beam has been recovered, it can make steps for you to cheat, haha. You might think a fire weapon hurts Ice man but surprise, its Elec Beam.


Fire Man: This guy has a stage of flowing lava that's a little hard, made easier with magnet beam. His weakness is Ice Slasher, but it still takes quite a few hits.

Mega Man has a heavy jump that takes some getting used to. He can also hang almost completely off an edge with only one foot supporting him, so use that to your advantage.

Graphics: 5
The visuals are kind of murky, save for the brightly colored robots. The bosses are pretty impressive, but this whole series takes it to another level in the sequel. I did like themed stages, like Guts Man has a construction site (seems OK), Fire Man is in a refinery (on point) and then you have Bomb Man in a ... high rise? IDK. Cut Man's level felt very pedestrian and maybe belonging to another game, not really futuristic save for the robots trying to kill you. Megaman looks pretty good, despite his bland green and blue outfit, his bright eyes stand out. The special attacks are nothing special, the Elec Beam looks weird, and the goofy giant bombs give this a cartoon feel.

Sound: 6
I don't think you'll remember very much of the tracks, but I did like Fire Mans. The zapping laser sound of Mega Man's gun is very satisfying, as is the giant explosion when bosses die.

Addictiveness: 7
The ability to chose your own stage, and therefore your own fate, gives a lot of replay. You'll die a lot, since this is the hardest MegaMan game ever, its still the formula you love from all his future games.

Story: 7
Evil Robot Masters take over the city? Robot fighting and stealing power ups? Pretty cool. The guys who are actually behind Mega Man, Dr. Light, play a very small part that could have been stronger.

Depth: 6
Since you might be having trouble with a stage and having a subweapon that handles it, adds some planning and strategy. I'm glad you can't get locked out, like with the Magnet Beam, you can go back to Elec Man's stage even when hes defeated. You can also do the stages in a certain order and help yourself to easier boss fights: GM; CM, EM, IM, FM, BM

Difficulty: 8
This game gets a rap for being very hard, but its really a few scenarios that make it tough. Ice Man's stage is infamous (try doing it first), the infamous Yellow Devil boss fight (Wily stage 1 )is so hard, I can't beat it fairly. But most of the enemies and encounters are not too bad for MM veterans.

Its worth a try, just don't look at the box art pic. It looks like the hero is constipated. The game is rough, but its because this is the genesis, its all uphill from here (unless you like difficulty).

Rad Gravity is a quirky game that looks weird, plays weird, but is pretty fun. Your mission is to collect the lost computer -minds (compuminds) that can save the galaxy. You have one already, its in your ship and talks to you (its a big robot eye on a computer lol). You get to choose what stage you visit, or revisit, as its open world, and Rad is a side-scroller with an assortment of upgradable weapons and an odd, slippery run.

Graphics: 4
Rad on the title screen isn't so bad, but once you get playing, it all looks simplistic. The spaceship interior with the robot eye looking at you is pretty campy and tolerable (though his space chair looks 1d) but once you beam down to the planets you'll see how small the characters are. There is a bit of definition, but all the backgrounds look cheap and don't sell the adventure. The first planet, Cyberia, is supposed to be a cyberpunk planet, with neon signs and graffitti, but good luck telling what is what in this place. Other worlds don't fare much better.

Sound: 2
Ooh, boy. The sound is close to trash. There aren't many tracks and many are used for the world stages over and over. I recommend muting this one, its pretty bad.

Addictive: 7
Despite the too small graphics and atrocious music, the adventure does have a lot of twists and new areas to explore, as each planet is not huge, so just when you get tired of pastels and grey of Cyberia, you are moving on. There are simple puzzles to solve, and many items to pick up. Since you can revisit locations, its always available, and with your trusty communicator in your inventory, you can teleport out of danger/map any time you want.

Story: 7
After beating the first stage, i was surprised to find the ship burglarized! There are always small things happening to change the plot and add suspense. I really liked these touches. Navigating the asteroid belt was my favorite. There are some twists, I won't spoil them.

Depth: 6
Rad's armor and weapons can be upgraded. he starts off with a lame lightsaber knock off with low range. But you can get a gun, bombs, all sorts of things. Adventuring in side doors can lead to finding life upgrades too. I really like this was an open world game, it was rare to see one of these at the time.

Difficulty: the enemies are often brainless and move along their post, but there are flying enemies who can move at angles you can't hit them at, and any bullets can blend in with the background -because they are so loud and messy. What makes the game most difficult is Rad himself, he has a bit of a floaty movement, so if you are coming to a ledge, he might go just a little over when you want to stop. When you jump, he might go a little further than you wanted. Its a dangerous recipe for a platformer.

Rad Gravity is what I think of when I think of decent NES games few people have heard of. Its almost a hit, but I think many people get turned off by the weird controls, graphics and lack of powerups Rad suffers from in the beginning.

Ultima Exodus is like overcomplicating an RPG. You get over 10 classes of character with no data on what their differences are, you cannot just level up - you need a permit to be above level 5, and just raising your stats doesn't come naturally - you have to go to a weird place. The combat is very slow (because you start 50 feet away from all your enemies, forcing you to walk to each other for many turns), and you need a wide array of incomprable MacGuffins to compelte the quest (cards, marks, a silver horn, etc).Lets face it, this is a grindy game.

Graphics: 4
The character creating sprites are big, but crudely made. The combat sprites are small and only have 2 animations! This feels like some very crude age of gameplay here. One of the items you can pick up is a flower, which looks HUGE and is as big as one of your people. When you enter dungeons, its a first-person experience, and can be disorienting.

Sound: 7
The music is pretty good, honestly. At least they had that going for it.

Addictive: 4
Its fun for awhile, then you get to that crushing realism that you will probably never beat this game, and find out what the heck Exodus is.

Story: 6
So the first Ultima game was about an evil warrior, a Mordred type if you wanna go King Arthur. The second game was about his wicked apprentice, a wizard lady. Now this third game is about Exodus, their infernal creation.. a kid? No, its.. actually... their castle. Yes, you're fighting their castle this time. LOL. It doesn't make much sense but you'll understand it a little better if you make it to the end.

Depth: 6
There is a lot of heart put into this, with the classes, the choice in what stat to upgrade (only 4, but stil), and where to go, what to equip. Its kind of daunting if you're unfamiliar with RPGs. But honestly, the classes are unbalanced and some are useless (don't be a druid). The weapon selection is interestingly very small, and do yourself a favor, try to get ranged weapons. They make combat so much easier. You an even use a bow right next to a bad guy. LOL. The spell selection is classic Dungeons and Dragons, the cleric can even banish the undead with a free spell (and the wizard can get rid of orange little imp guys likewise), so for once, your low level magic users have an easier time starting out.
The part about leveling up your stats is probably the weirdest part of this game. You have to sail into a whirlpool,it takes you to a forgotten island, and of course its full of monsters. Its not a fun place.
One interesting thing about this game if you open treasure in a town, you can get caught and the guards come after you, watch out, they have high levels.

Difficulty: 6
Its not a hard game, its just the grind is so long. You will be annoyed at 'novel' ideas like the towns have a grocery store, where you must buy food, bc your heroes can starve to death and are voracious eaters. You are encouraged to talk to everyone but beware any strangely colored spaces on the ground, its poison or fire that burns you.

All in all, this is a game that paved the way for better ones. Ultima 4:Avatar is twice the game this is, and makes much more sense. What Exodus does well is get that old school RPG grindy feeling mixed with the complex dice rolling rules of tabletop RPG games. Its not a bad game, but adding a food bar to appease and torches for dungeons, a mark to even go past level 5, just makes this more work than it should be.

This game is obtuse and no fun to play. Dragonlance are a series of books about the 8 characters the game shows you impressive portraits of when starting. And then it plops you in a crappy dungeon with a stick figure woman and you have no idea what's going on. The team is here to kill an evil dragon, and only Goldmoon's staff can do it, not that you'd know that, the game itself doesn't make that clear. It just assumes you've read these books.

You just get names for your people, so I will help you out and tell you a little bit about each one!

Sturm in top row, he has a big mustache and looks like a knight. He's strong and is a good character to attack.

Cameron in top row, another big warrior, he looks like a bodybuilder and his sprite he looks like a dork. He is the strongest dude. Make him leader.

Wizard dude top row. Very obvious who he is. Terrible fighter, but his spells might come in handy, like web that holds people. He gets 100 uses for his spells. If you move him to bottom row (more protection) he can't cast spells??? LOL.

A ponytail hobbit in bottom row. IDK, he was pretty weak and I didn't use him. Not sure why he is here.

A bottom row dwarf. he looks old but hardcore, and I thought he'd be a pretty good fighter, but eh.

Bushy Beard Guy bottom row. He has arrows, but he kind of sucks. Why is this guy here?

Riverwind- He has black hair and is in the bottom row. He's like a ranger, he has a bow too, so he can shoot things (from the submenu) and has a sword. He's OK. I think he loves the cleric, as he protects her when shes almost dead. Funny since shes the most important person and only he protects her.

Goldmoon, the blonde Cleric! She is the first character you see in the dungeon, and you can only see the lead character, and she's very important. She is your healer. She has a special staff that you cannot lose. If you lose it, YOU CANNOT BEAT THE GAME. Imagine my surprise. And as the lead, she's gonna fight people and- you know what, if she's that important, lets switch her out. I see two guys in armor right beside her on the giant HUD taking up the bottom of the screen.

Everything in this game is just done poorly. The fearsome dwarves who guard the dragon, look like little naked guys. The strongest hero, Cameron, who should totally be your party leader, his sprite looks like he's cosplaying. To switch the character order, or to even pick up items off the ground or cast spells, you have to go into the submenu, and select. You get one wizard and one cleric, and if you lose them, woe is you. No more magic of their type. Its OK, most of the characters and spells are lame. The ranged attacks tend to arc and miss their shots. Combat looks very silly, and you have to poke up or down to hit the enemy, then shuffle away, and come back. To even leave the first screen by going in a doorway you have to hold UP or DOWN for 5 seconds! Its just clunky clunky controls! Also there is a giant pit right next to you as you begin to play, and you can just drop all your characters in it, one by one and end the game. Better off.

Graphics: 3
The title logo and the big portraits look GREAT! Then you see the rest of the game, all the dungeon sections are vague and unmemorable. You're gonna want to map this yourself, you'll likely get lost with how boring it all looks. The characters don't inspire heroics, they look dumpy or goofy.

Sound: 3
There is a few tracks and you will hear them over and over on loop. Its not great. But I guess I've heard worse.

Addictive: 1
There is nothing fun about this game. Only if you read this book, and you know what they are doing, is this even mildly interesting.

Depth: 3
This game has a score system, I assume for collecting treasure, as there is no shops in this dungeon to buy anything. You do get quite a few options on how to attack (ranged, close, magic) and can revive and heal party members as well as 'protect from evil'... the whole place is evil, Guess this is always on. The enemies you fight are dumb though, and tend to blunder ahead, or back away and snipe. Some of them hit like a truck, and some are weak as some of your lesser party members. LOL.

Difficulty: 7
The bad controls are your real foe. For instance, when you fight a foe and he shoots magic at you, you want to duck. Just push down, right? Its down and A. Holding down puts you in a door, so its not like just a simple down wouldn't work? The A and B don't do anything unless you are in combat, and the game tells you when by a little wording on the HUD.

This is a terribly made game. Its like fans of this series wanted to make a game that honored the plot, but forgot to include the plot! Everyone already has magic weapons, is the game half over? Who is Sturm and why should we care? What are the dics we seek, and how is going to stop a dark queen? I don't recommend this game at all. Honestly, there is a book version.

Ahh, Milon. I tried it, hated this game, and someone asked me to try it again years later. They said "It gets a lot of flack, and while it does have flaws, there is a lot to like here". This is a game about patience. And wanting to solve puzzles that you don't really know are there. I still dislike this game, but I do see kind of what it was going for, the game just makes most of it unfun.

Milon lives in a land of music, but oh no, he can't play anything so he can't talk to anyone, and double oh no, the royal family of Musicals has been taken prisoner by demons in their castle! I guess when your guards just wave tambourines its not scary to demons. Milon's game is adventuring in this castle, there are many doors each leading to a room that you get locked into. And there is no exit! Great game design! But wait, there are dozens of things hidden in each level, except they are invisible. Blocks you can stand on could also be hidden items, or a blank wall could be the exit door (you also need a hidden key). Even the barrier framing the stage itself could lead to a hidden shop! You have to shoot everything to find out if its real or not, with Milon's only weapon... a bubble blower.... I don't know why. He doesn't shoot them straight on, they either go thirty degrees upwards or downwards, so if you are trying to hit a space near your feet, good luck, the curvature sucks and you'll have to fiddle around with the range.

The real challenge is all the gatekeeping. You need X item to pass, most likely. The issue is either be able to buy it or being able to know where to use it. Take the first challenge, you can go to two rooms. But in order to pass on, you can see the second room has these wooden platforms, like a dock, and standing on them does nothing, but you can see a walkway above. You are supposed to buy shoes. Somehow buying shoes makes you able to use the springs on the wooden planks. I thought maybe the shoes themselves have springs - but you only use them on select locations. Like later on in stage 3, its just a random block on the upper right level, but surprise, you can bounce your springs on it for some reason. Its part of the 'adventure' part of the game that some ppl make very well like, but I don't, because there's nothing that suggests these things will do that. I don't know the rules of this game and they break them constantly. Eventually you unlock the boss door, and fight a big scary guy (all the bosses follow this same pattern of a giant hopping thing that shoots sparks at you), and you ascend up to the 2nd floor of the castle. This is the cool part, because now theres even more doors to explore, and you can even fall off the castle and into a well! Its crazy. Oh, but if you did, I hope you bought the lantern from the secret shop in the wall on the ground floor!

The hints in the game are not very great either. 'Jump to make block appear'. Great, where is that? In the shop? I bought a fire-proof vest. Immediately after buying it the hint said 'vest not 100% fireproof' LOL. Great. Money is a big problem in this game, because you can't just kill foes for it, and can only be found from hitting specific blocks and revealing they are actually money. And they don't respawn. You have to continue exploring upwards, you can't backtrack for money if you clean a level out.

Graphics: 6
The main character looks rather silly, and the enemies are odd but quite noticable, a gloopy blob with one eye, a weird little guy flying around. The game shows you it can make things stand out, but it loves to hide everything from you.

Sound: 4
For a game in a musical kingdom, the music stinks. All the sounds are tinny and not very good.

Addictive: 4
You don't know what you're supposed to do, just that you're stuck and need to get to areas you can't reach, so just randomly hop around and shoot everything. That's how you play this game. Its kind of defeating.

Story: 5
The game says the royals hid everything for their rescuers to find (even the shops?)... but the game is still just a save the princess kind of story.

Depth: 8
Make no mistake, this is a game you have to think things through. The game just doesn't give you very many GOOD hints. Just try anything. Most of the time its something so random, but occasionally, a blank ledge with nothing there actually hides a hidden doorway, or the visible door surrounded by blocks, you know one of them must be fake.

Difficulty: 7
In a way this game is frustratingly hard because the enemies always keep coming, and you will puddle around not knowing where to go, so you're taking even more hits. The design choices are your enemy sometimes. But the random foes are often quite content to leave you alone, and once you get some life extenders and figure out some of the odd controls like the running extends your jump, or the stupid bubble gun angles, its not a bad game. All the overly hidden items was giving me Super Pitfall flashbacks, and that is a trash game, I wish it hadn't made everything hidden. Its a little annoying for money, at least. The shop items, also, once you buy it, its gone from the store and just says SOLD OUT - and there is no inventory screen. Hope you remember what you bought and what it does.

Milon's Secret Castle is full of secrets, all right. If you are the type you likes figuring out a game's unique design, and thinking over things, this may be a game for you. This was not my cup of tea.

Its been called The walking simulator. Its been called the worst game on the NES. Definitely never been called the best game. Jekyll and Hyde is a memeworthy slog that dares you to cheat code your way through it, and then punishes you for doing so.

The game is based off the book, about a good man, Jekyll, who wanted to know what it would be like to be bad, and made a potion. It turns him into Hyde, the mirror reverse of his normal self - a nasty, fighty, ugly dude. The game takes this concept and has Jekyll as a Bruce Banner type- if he gets angry, he turns into Hyde. Playing as Jekyll is boring, all he does is walk very slowly through a VIctorian age town, towards the right side of the screen, while avoiding every single mundane thing he runs into.
Playing as Hyde is pretty cool, he fights in a Halloween cityscape. He fights brains with legs, flying imps, all sorts of weird things! He also has a special move called the 'Psycho Wave' that you can abuse that is basically a crazy projectile with an odd arc. He travels from right to left, mirror reverse, remember? Here's the problem.
The game punishes you for being Hyde. LOL. Not by making his stuff harder, its Jekyll who can't even walk across a street without a mob forming to kill him - no Hyde can fight, so his stuff is easy, but if you get further as Hyde than you do as Jekyll, its game over. You get hit by lightning as Hyde and thats it. The game doesn't tell you why... but thats why. Each of them is basically in a race, and Jekyll has to be in the lead or else.
The meters mean different things for each char. As Jekyll, you have a rate meter , and above it, a life meter. If you lose all your life, its also game over. And as Hyde, you want to kill the monsters with your punches and wave attack to decrease your anger, and return to the good scientist. You also get coins as Hyde, which is unusual, since there is no shop in the game.

EVERYONE HATES JEKYLL.
Seriously. Hyde is fighting for his life in a nightmare world, and Jekyll is walking to church. The guy cannot catch a single break. Let me make a short list of things that make Jekyll angry or hurt him.
-dogs and cats
-a kid with a slingshot
-spiders that block your path (seriously)
-a mad bomber that shows up every 20 seconds
-bird poop
-dead birds falling from the sky??
-a lady singing (the only use for Hyde's coins, they shut her up)
-dirt
-bees (the only thing you can attack with Jekylls cane button!!!)
-barrels, just random barrels rolling like Donkey Kong
-any pedestrian who decides to run, they want to tackle you.
-a fountain (seriously Jekyll?)

All of these things will irritate him (and you) and knock Jekyll backwards left. And Dr. Jekyll is a champ at falling backwards and impeding your progress. In several maddening situations, you will be stuck in a loop as you are barred by a spider moving on a web, which might a well be a door opening and closing. While you are waiting for the spider to go up (you cant attack it) the mad bomber shows up. He drops a bomb and it makes all the townspeople run. If they touch you, they knock you back. If the spider touches you, it knocks you back. If the bomb touches you, you're pretty much Hyde angry/or dead. The barrels section towards the end is even worse! They roll at different speeds, and the bomber is still coming, and its just the biggest test of patience. All this violence, and no police! What's going on??

Graphics: 3
The graphics are not bad, and for the most part, everything looks pretty good, The background is detailed and not generic looking - although it is sad two of the stages, a cemetary and a park , are repeated with new enemies. The pedestrians are fine, but there is not many types, four types of normal people who might leave you alone, and the evil pink suited bomber who will make your gaming a grueling process. As Hyde, the graphics look a little worse, maybe because you aren't quite sure what youre fighting, Hyde looks like a Total Recall (NES) reject, wearing a lime jumpsuit lol.

Sound: 2
There is only a few tracks, and a lot of annoying sound effects. The bomb and bird poop, and singing lady will be your symphony as you play this game.

Addictive: 1
This is one of the most unfun games ever. It sucks, SUCKS to be Jekyll. Even if you just wanna walk, he is so slow and his jump is floaty AND slow. He can't pick up anything, he can only use his cane, which does nothing unless a bee, an uncommon enemy, is in perfect position to get hit. (you can hit the singing lady, which is pretty funny, but it turns you into hyde)

Story: 5
The story of Jekyll trying to get married by walking to church (getting cardio?) and not paying for a carriage just makes him look cheap. I really want to know the story about where Hyde is, or why all the townspeople hate him. Takes a special kind of person to get a bird to poop only on you, Doc.

Depth: 5
Now there are multiple endings. Just for surviving the game, the basic ending trolls you and gives you a static image. If you can get to the last level (6) and get Hyde there, there is a secret path on top of the houses that has a boss fight, and removes every single foe from Jekyll's path for the final leg of the game! This ending is much more fitting with the source material.

Difficulty: 10
There are 4 out of the 6 levels that are very annoying, and will make you turn this off. J&H is boring and you can't fight off a spider as the Doctor. You slowly plod, and get knocked all the way back to the beginning of the screen, and everything hates you. You have no friends. The enemies repeat constantly, severely blocking progress. Thanks to poor game design, there are a couple of glitches with the enemies. In the park stages, the mad pink bomber man appears at the bottom of the screen, where his bombs can't hurt you- but still aggravate any animals or people nearby. The singing lady, who is very very annoying on first encounter, seems to be devoid of her attacks on subsequent visitations.

This is a cruel game, and you play this only to punish yourself. Its not fun being Jekyll, ever. And the fun Hyde part is something that often gives you game over. The best part is you can't cheese this game to get the good ending, because invincibility prevents you from turning into Hyde, which you need to get the good ending. Do yourself a favor, just play something else.

Me and the spouse have only played 3 or so of Super Mario Party, but I'll get it after we give it a few more plays. The best thing I like about it are the rule changes, which feel like a breath of fresh air.

Its kind of odd in Mario Party's 10 game history, that a rehash of their past content would be this amazing, but this is a 'best of the best' version. 8 classic char to choose from, 5 boards, 100 minigames - all chosen from fan favorites. While there isn't any new game play mechanics, this is a return to basics, as many felt the gimmicks of recent Mario Party games were diminishing the brand. This is a very customizable Mario Party, from difficulty, to bonuses, to what type of games you want, all kinds of stuff.

Of the 5 boards, 2 were chosen from Mario Party 1, 2 were from MP2, and one from MP3 - these three games were considered a golden age of the series. The boards are ranked by how hard the boards are considered:

Yoshi's Tropical Island (1 dificulty)- two donut tracks with a toll bridge in two locations. Each island has a unique perk (a store, a ghost)

Peach's Birthday Cake (2 difficulty)- The star never moves, and the board is small, but its the bowser lottery and player planted 'strawberries' that make this board challenging

Space Land (3 difficulty) - A large board with some subpar ideas (the snifit cops are really lame), the cannon is a powerful coin stealer when triggered, but since it only fires in one direction, easily avoided.

Woody Woods (4 difficulty) - Every round the paths alternate direction. It can be a headache. There are good and bad trees, be careful.

Haunted Land (5 difficulty)- A sprawling board, with day and night mechanics that effect several parts of the stage events. Its also got a LOT of ghosts, which makes coin/star theft high.

Of the 100 minigames, a lot of these are solid bangers so are very good. They pull from all Mario Parties, not just 1,2 or 3. The only issue I had was some games are samey feeling (there are 2 counting games, 2 jump up as high as you can games), and could have been replaced for more variety. The dull Duel minigames I was not too fond of, but the item minigames were great.

Despite being a revanp, there are some new features here, the two most important ones being an Online mode, and the emoji stickers (which are for sale in the game's shop, using the coins u win from playing). The Online is very easy to use (even more than Super Mario Party which came out later), and I liked it very much. The emoji stickers are absolutely a hit and I wish to see them in all Mario games going forward. They add a lot of personality and are great when you don't have voicechat or friends over. (the Bowser "MISS!" spamming for when you all want someone to fail their dice roll is memeworthy).

There are also other items to the main hub, which has been tailored to look like Mario Party 1's. This is familiar but bad in a way, as apart from the shop (which too quickly is emptied of stickers and backgrounds), there isn't much else. There is a Records room with a lot of meh data on the massive Mario games cast, and some cosmetic and personal changes (ex: your online card that shows other players your favorite board and top 4 games). The options house is .. just as pathetic as the 1st mario party. Clearly the hub needs a little more love.

One neat end-game addition is you can play with the old 'bonus' stars on (predictable ez stars for savvy players), or the new mixed up bonuses, which can be from many random stats, such as who bought the most items, or who moved the fewest spaces. They are fun (but you only get 2 stars, not 3), and I like them over the old style, but at least its an option.

Post game, you get a great breakdown from Toad of what every players accomplishment was, and the stats. One of my favorite things from past Mario Parties returns, the infamous mockery of last place player. As the game takes a snapshot of the 4 players, where you are placed is based on your rank, First player is most prominent, and last is often being shot out of a cannon, or getting bitten or chased by monsters. LOL. Its all in good fun for a game that is known to get heated.

Graphics: 10
Bold and bright, you can always see whats going on in these games. The facelift given to the old boards looks great, and while there are some changes (where is the big tongue from Horror land?), I don't miss anything. The emoji stickers are great and take up just the right amount of space. There are some games where perspective makes things hard to see, but thats design, not a graphic issue.

Sound: 10
Its almost all here, complete from Toads "whoaaaAAAaaohh!" to Bowser's laugh. One thing missing that is just my issue is when playing the Item minigame, it no longer says "GOT ITEM!!!" and for some reason I miss it.

Addictive: 9
These are really good boards for the most part, and if you play with friends or online this makes the game very enjoyable. Against computer isn't the way to play this. The only issue is the games take a long time, there are long-winded scenes you can't skip from Toad, from events happening - if the game says it should last 60 minutes, add 30 to it, for all the fluff.

Story: 7
While the tale of who is the best is not very amazing, at least they capture the memory of what the special goal was for each board. One thing I do miss is Space and Horror land used to have dress up costumes.. I dont know why they have still not done that again.

Depth: 8
The variety of items, randomizing of games and odds, backstabbing or alliances, there is a ton to this game, its a shame Nintendo doesn't have voice chat for online but I get it with their kid-friendly stance. Your fortunes really can change on a dime and go from first to last or vice-versa.

Difficulty: 4
You set the CPU, but its honestly just as hard as your friends are good at the game. An average level CPU will make weird choices like buying a gold pipe (takes you right to star) then ignore it for 5 turns. I do like the bonus stars can be old/new/or turned off, it helps when playing against your friend who knows these minigames inside and out.

This is the best Mario Party game, ever. A celebration of what worked, all in one package. Its a shame Nintendo didn't put some DLC of other boards and games on here. I don't know what it is with Mario Party games not having a lot of boards (the first one had 9??? Come on guys), but 5 is a fairly reasonable number, I'm not happy its 5, but I can accept it.

And to anyone worried about MP1's finger blistering joystick rotation games, they toned those way down. Its good.

Kung-Fu Heroes is a one to two player game where you take control of a red or blue guy to rescue a princess. If you play two player is at the same time, and you share the screen. Every stage is a single screen (no scrolling), sometimes there are small stairs in a corner, that act as a little warp to the other side. There might be water hazards, or rocks in your way. You can punch the rocks for items or to launch them at badguys. The foes are really wild, and might be anything from a walking mummy giant to a small umbrella ghost. You have 10 worlds, of 4 stages each (many looking very identical). This is not a hard game, but might test your stamina to see it through as its kind of a slog, as you repeat the mantra of beat up enemies, until glowy door opens, and go to it. Again! Again!


Graphics: 5
The characters are blocky and a bit crude, like the chubby guy in a robe who uses a spear against you, his nose takes up most of his face. The variety comes in your foes, as there is very little change in your stages, other than some slight variations (a bridge over a river, a series of floating platforms over a pit) but 90% of the time its a big wide area full of rocks to break. Seeing some more terrain options and seeing them affect you would have been a nice addition. As it is, your big -headed character is easy to find and despite the madness on the screen, its pretty easy to find the bright red or blue bald guy hero. When you break a rock it can drop a treasure chest, which is tiny but detailed very well, and it could contain a power up or if you're lucky, one of the 10 treasures for the princess, some of which you can use in the fights. When collected the HUD up top of screen displays them, which is a nice feature.

Sound: 6
The music is pretty good honestly. The soft beat when you are in the game stages is pretty relaxing, and is almost Nintendo worthy. There is a menacing boss music that plays when a boss appears (they dominate the whole stage by themselves for a few seconds.. then run away). The sound effects.... well they are loud. The sound of a fist hitting a rock is kind of funny. If you learn to spam the flip kick (OP) you will constantly hear little dude "A-choi!". None of the enemies talk or make any sounds other than the ubiquitous tiny smash sound when they die.

Addictive: 6
The cool thing about this game is the moves are easy to do. And the flip kick and sword are pretty awesome. The bullet punch is cool too. I had more fun than I thought i would with such a simple game of one screen, kill enemy til door opens. When I would die, which would often be due to misplaced jumps or the dreaded lightning (more on that later), I didn't feel bad because you get right back in the action without restarting the level!
I just wish there the boss fights, which mainly include you running away, had more purpose.

Story: 3
The game falters here, as we have a chinese princess, who gets captured, and some guys who fight ridiculous enemies to rescue her, goign through the same garden like stages again and again, and sometimes gloomy temples. There''s nothing more than that. I don't know if the two heroes are brothers (i assume they are based on the sequel game), or anything about the enemies.

Depth: 4
The levels are bland and start to run together after awhile. The only saving graces are the new foes you always face, and the princess' treasures. The villains often have a small immunity- who sometimes can only be hurt by say, punches, or kicks. Upon finding a lucky treasure box you could get a rare item, and its one of the princess' treasures, one for each world, which can be used in the game to help you. The mirror reflects lightning, the sword can be used to kill dragons (the only thing that hurts them), and more. I didn't find all 10 treasures, so if there is something special for getting all 10, I'd like to know.

Difficulty: 4
Since you have many new enemies, it can seem challenging, but the AI is pretty dumb. Only a few follow you doggedly. Some foes can only be beaten by punches, or kicks, or some by sword. There are some tough stages to crack, a temple stage where statues shoot fireballs, a very sneaky fast lightning wave that slides from one side of screen to the other, but its only on a few levels so its not a big deal. For as much show as the big mummy/dragon /etc enemies are when they appear, they are easily avoided (except level 8, hardest level fr).

Kung Fu Heroes is an OK game, and won't take long to beat, but it badly needs stage or goal variety to spice it up. Its just kill kill kill, move to door. At least the enemies are pretty fun. The NES also had the sequel, Little Ninja Bros, an RPG lite game using the same combat, and it was a lot more fun and fleshed out.

That 90's arcarde beat-em-up was awesome! Even if the sound dept was having a field day (in a crowded arcade, everyone around the Xmen cabinet as the machine screams 'WEN-DI-GO!" 500 times).

Of all the infamous NES games, this is easily in the top 5. Its almost unplayable. Its certainly not enjoyable. Its a slog, with bad design decisions abroad.

You play as the X-men (Cyclops; Storm, Iceman, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler), the first three shoot projectiiles, the last three punch at close range, which is terrible. Most of the mutants powers don't really seem represented well in game. Nightcrawler's is, and its pretty awesome, he phases through solid stuff (not enemies tho). Storm and Iceman can fly, but honestly its just a hovering jump and doesn't seem to do anything I could find. This game is 1 or 2 players, but if you do 1 player, the CPU will unhelpfully be an AI companion for as long as they live, which is likely 20 seconds. You are supposed to walk through a long mess of similar weird colored backgrounds until you run into stairs/teleporters and have to navigate a small maze of screens, which is made harder because everything really looks the same. Once you find some 'keys' you can travel to where the boss is, good luck finding them or even making it that far.
There are powerups, but their shapes are confusing as to what they do. The only distinguishable one, a magnet, is the only negative powerup. The stack of gold coins heals you, the gold coins with a red one makes you invincible, and the lightning kills all enemies on screen.

Graphics: 3
The main character selection looks good. The small art for each stage is bad, with a 'sewer' of bright green and pink, bronze and blue, its very bright, if any of it made sense. The powerups that drop, good luck figuring out what they mean.

Sound: 3
The music is OK, if unmemorable. The sound effects are classic arcade bloops and pings, and kind of annoying.

Addictive: 1
This game is very unfun. Even with a game genie invincibility code, its just a boring slog of similar backdrops until you can find a boss.

Story: 2
The setup seems OK, as you go on vague missions of 'destroy robot factory', when really all you do in this game is wander around and collect keys, then fight a boss at the end. You get a timer to escape, and get odd text that your mission was a success, without making it clear why. At least the bosses are Xmen villains, though like your heroes all they do is walk around randomly and shoot haphazardly.

Depth: 2
Character selection is dumb, there are a lot of stats when really the only ones that matter is punch/missle attack, and Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a fantastic char bc he can go through walls. On infinitte life, he makes the only CPU ally choice, as the AI is so bad . The mazes are confusing as they all seem to loop to the same locations, the cpu ally is infuriating,

Difficulty: 9
The char die quickly, forcing you to scavange the life powerups constantly. Your Ally AI in 1 oneplayer is so bad, they will get stuck on walls and impede your progress until you go to them, wait for them to realize its a wall, and move on. The enemies are unending, and important more for their drops than for any real strategy, most drop after 1 hit. There is just too many things firing at you, the coding has invisible walls you can't see, making pathing bizarre, and your char has the toughness of wet paper.

Uncanny X-men is a nightmare product. No one should play this, its so unfun and boring you will question your life choices. Be warned.

Crash N the Boys uses the squishy marshmellow high-schoolers from the Kunio (River City Ransom) series, and in this, its not a beat em up, its a sporting event. Well, there's still a lot of fighting, both on and off the field.
Taking place in the streets against rival schools, you get to see such whimsical adaptions of the events, although there are only 5, it makes the game short, but honestly, you will need to practice to win, because the computer cheats a lot.

The 5 events are:
Hurdles: This looks like regular hurdles event, except you can fight each other with kicks and throwing parts of the broken hurdles at each other.

Shot-put Golf: You only need power for this event, and its just tapping a button fast to build a strength bar and throw. You have to throw the heavy weight until it lands in the golf hole (how does it fit). No opponents can interfere with you, making this purely your own skill (or lack of).

Swimming: This is a tough event of attrition. Watching your oxygen meter, you must beat up your opponent, and keep them from reaching the surface and refilling their air. Harder than it looks, but there are a few tricks to cheese the overly aggressive AI.

Rooftop LongJump: Another event where its just yourself, you start running and have to clear a long series of jumps. Sometimes there is a pole vault, sometimes a unicycle (to cross tightropes), you can also try to junmp it on your own. This isn't too hard, as long as you don't rush.

Street Fight: A mini-fighting tournment, complete with wrestling grabs. This is another hard event as the computer really puts on pressure.

Winning gets you medals, in gold, silver and bronze. These are actually currency and can be spent, but keep some for the overall winners are determined this way. You can also find them in the minigames, as random pickups. But where does one spend these medals? I'm glad you asked! At the start of an event, you proceed to the shop minimap, which you use your hard-won awards to help give you a boost in the next event. There are 4 shops; an inn offers basic advice (waste of time), a pharmacy offers health refills and hexes (often too expensive), the clothing outfitter offers +20 stat boosts (good prices). The 4th is a sports store offers the best things to buy, which go from 'competitive edge' to 'holy cow this is rampant cheating' - the other 3 stores always sell the same items except the sports store, which is another reason its so popular, you can try different power-ups and see which ones work for you.

Another thing to consider is which team you select, and their stats. Every team has a captain who often is the best person for every event, but unless you want to shell out for life refills, others are going to have to carry some weight. Crash's team, while the story default heroes, are actually the worst team (LOL). There is an unplayable 'pro' team also in the competition, the Thornley squad, and they will be some of your strongest competition.

Graphics: 6
I am a fan of these super-deformed guys and all their games. But its been years and honestly there is little improvement. I was hoping for more detail. That said, the backgrounds are fairly detailed, and the potato-bodied characters are always charming.

Sound: 5
While fairly generic TECHNOS type music, this game has tracks that get the sports theme right, with courageous or tense notes. That said, they aren't anything to remember later, but in the moment, sure. Does the job. The annoying sound of the text being typed takes some getting used to. The best sound effect is the whack of smacking your opponent, which feels they have used this same sound in all their games.

Addictive: 5
The entire event feels too short on playtime yet too long (you have to watch the computer fight against itself) and the players don't really have much personality, since they are just numbers really. Its OK, but there are way better games (like River City Ransom) in this in-game world.

Story: 6
Crash is from Southside High, a poor school that always defeats the preppy kids. Thornley Thurston, the prep jock, is mad and challenges Crash and his team again, this time on the streets, in a no holds barred series of events. Thornley also whines to his super rich dad, who gets a coroporate team of super-atheletes (the Thornley team) to compete to help carry a win for the preps. And thats about it. You see interesting characters but no backstory to them (why are you called Cheese, Cheese?). Who are these guys in the other schools, like Lincoln? We get no info about how they react to Crash or Thornley. The event is a fun backdrop but needs more engagement with the characters themselves.

Depth: 6
Having 5 events, each with 2 or more big cheats from the sports store, there is a lot you can do to improve your odds. One item that I found interesting was the @#%&!! (thats its name) from the Pharmacy, it randomly reduces a characters stats. Its chaotic nature adds some Mario Party luck to the game, and I wish there was more like that. With the computers cheating on every event, there is little room for variety if you want to win. Just do what works.

Difficulty: 7
The learning curve is tough, but there is practice mode, which helps a lot. Unfortunately, because the computer buys all the cheat items rampantly, its not enough, and you had better buy them yourself or outsmart them.

Crash N the Boys is anarchy. The potential is there for a fun time, but it slightly misses the mark on being a great entry. I wish it had more events, more about the characters, and the computer would chill out a bit and not have unlimited gold. If you are a fan of Kunio-kun games, please give it a shot. If you're looking for some zany NES sports where the difficulty is more fair, try Caveman Ughlympics.

They have some things in common. Both are frontloaded with a very hard stage early on (lvl 3 speeder bike in BT, the town stage 2 in GNG), and both as much about luck as it is about remembering patterns. Both also have wimpy last bosses. If I had to choose which one was harder, Battletoads, because its far more unique stages to get something wrong.

No one has reviewed Tombs and Treasure? I guess its my chance to reveal this hidden gem to you. Hardly anyone talks about this game, but its actually quite decent, and would make an excellent first rpg for new players. It uses some PC menu controls (use/move/go, etc) that can also make fans of KEMCO's Shadowgate/Deju Vu/Uninvited happy.

This is a game about an archeologist and a team inspecting Mayan ruins. They go missing, the only person who returns is the guide, with a bunch of items the professor was using, and a diary full of his ramblings about sun necklaces and demons they accidentally woke up. Its honestly kind of ominous, and when you go out exploring the ruins with Jose-the guide, and your best pal-anime hair girl, it looks bright and sunny and not dangerous at all. The open map has no random battles, nor are there secrets. Its big to show the expanse of the former Mayan city, not for any practical reason gameplay wise (I think there is only 12 or so locations you visit in the sprawling overworld anyway). When you fight, its turn based, and once slain, the monster never returns (letting you explore in peace). Going back into detective mode, you have to explore the ruins and find out what the heck is going on, and get to the bottom of what happened to the researchers.

Graphics: 6
The graphics while you are exploring inside the ruins are fairly good. Unfortunately thats not good enough, as this is a game about details, and the designers hide small things that force you to look at small sections to zoom in/get. The fighting parts are OK, the creatures are animated, but just move back and forth. The overworld walking looks hilarious, giant chubby chibi people.

Sound: 7
I felt the music was pretty good. It definitely gives a mystery feel with some of it, and fights have a good track. The sound effects are alright.

Addictive: 6
When you die, you can continue. And you level up (useful to fight bigger monsters) just by exploring and finding useful items, so this is an explorer's rpg. There are a few things that can sour your experience, but nothing derails the adventure.

Story: 8
I found the mysttery of what hapened to Prof. Ines was very interesting. I like seeing my companions tag-in and also be useful (even if it was in limimted ways). I did enjoy the story because it doesn't hold your hand.

Depth: 5
There is a lot of freedom it seems, to go anywhere, but really, you are not going to beat some monsters being a wimp. The linear story is accelerated by how you need to use many items to get desired results, often in a certain pattern and order. There is a password feature and thats nice.

Difficulty: 7
The foes in this are pretty easy. If you out level them, and use the sword properly, its not very challenging, combat wise.
The evil of the game is hard-locking yourself from continuing further by doing a few tasks out of order. Its quite mean and while rare, does happen more than once. Save often.

Tombs and Treasure is a game that flew past radars in its time. It doesn't do anything particularly stellar, but I like its a different setting, a mystery, and the weirdness of the mouse type interface. Its a funky game but good for a solid hour. Just be very careful.

Capcom's classic DuckTales got a surprising sequel, thank VIZZED that we get to play it, because this one was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of game. After going to the Amazon and even the Moon, for priceless treasure, its good to see Scrooge McDuck is back for more globetrotting adventure hunting. The difficulty feels a bit tougher this time, and the new powerups are kind of lame, but its a decent sequel, devoid of the new charms of the original.

Graphics: 6 - Scrooge looks great. The characters are decently detailed, but the backgrounds are where what received a facelift. You will see a lot of recycled assets, like the loot boxes, the treasure crates (and something more I'll get to), and the new map, IMO, makes everything look small and squished.

Sound: 6 - Again, some reused sounds (like the defeated enemies squeal), but the new music is pretty OK, I liked the Bermuda music best. Nothing can beat the first game's Moon stage for undeniable bop though.

Addictive: 5 - If you are a fan of the first, this should be a no-brainer. Its hard to say exactly what it is, but this isn't so exciting. It feels half-baked, and kind of lazy. The diamonds you used to collect en masse on the first, are less plentiful (but their amounts have been raised) but it makes it less fun.

Story: 4 - Its almost the exact same story, collect treasure! Stop Glomgold from getting stuff and being richer than you! Its honestly pretty petty. One thing that kept taking me out was every character calling me 'Uncle Scrooge' when it was only the children that called him that. There is a hidden map for a hidden stage, which is a lot of work.

Depth: 7 - There is a lot of hidden stuff, but again, it feels inferior to the first game, despite this one having some very elaborate later stages (Egypt, for example). The hidden map pieces make me more excited than the 'treasure item' of the stage bosses.

Difficulty: 7 - It kind of feels like they wanted you to come straight from the first game to this one. There's not a lot of room to ramp up before you meet lots of death pits, or game overs. One death on a stage, and you lose all your money, which is a disappointment. There are items sold at end of stage but they honestly feel hokey and padded.

DuckTales 2 tries to follow up the smash success of the first, but honestly, can't really hold a candle. This is a mid-tier sequel, and while not a bad game, its honestly just more of the same and not a worthy addition.

Ghosts N' Goblins is a tough challenge. No doubt. If you are not using save states or some kind of way to backtrack before disaster, its definitely one of the hardest games the NES offers. Before getting a rep for lightweight and kiddie games, games being 'Nintendo hard' used to be fact. What makes its legacy so known?
1) interface - the hero, Arthur the knight, moves a bit stiff. His jump is a commitment, he cannot change direction once he takes the plunge (though you can face the other direction). There are not a lot of death pits in this game, but you will often use a jump as a dodge, and often land right onto another foe or bullet. If you do happen to toe a ledge, he drops like a stone.
2) interface-again! The hero gets a few weapons on his quest, but can only hold one at a time. Some that are great for certain parts (the slow ax destroys the dragon in just a few hits) is terrible in other stages. And you cannot switch until you find a new one, which is very infrequent. To make it more difficult, the game has 'trap' weapons placed that can block the path, forcing you to take it, and basically lose as its not for this section.
3) Enemy placement- The bad guys tend to not take many hits, but are haphazardly always in your way. Chaotic birds that dip in every 10 seconds in, a red devil that dive bombs you at angles you can barely counter from, and the worst - the big guys siting at the top of the ladders who are just waiting for you with their weird blue orbs. These guys take so many hits, and can rain fire on you from another platform, they are probably the hardest foes in the game due to where they are put.
4) Timer - There is a short clock for each leg of the stages. There is only 6 stages fortunately, but waiting for a big guy at the top of the ladder to move out of the way or a moving platform to come back around just eats your time. Even worse, you can be weapon farming and waste all your time trying to get one of the random drops. At least you get unlimited continues.
5) Fake ending- If you don't have a certain weapon for the final boss, you have to repeat the entire game over. Yeah. Its not any different, and just pads the game.
6) No life bar. You get one safe hit, which you lose your armor, then you spend the stage in your underwear. One more hit and you are dead. At least he gets invincibility frames, but against guys like the red demon or the big guys, thats a small comfort.

Graphics: 8 - This score may seem generous, but this tough game could have been made even more challenging with a typical dark palette. Imagine this game with gloomy colors. At least the bright graphics stand out, and you can't really blame a death on 'not' seeing something. Its a game about scary monsters and spooky things, and it delivers.

Sound: 4 - The music for the first stage is pretty good, but its downhill after that. The sound effects are very loud and tinny, and the 'ghost' noise is grating. Its not the strong point.

Addictive: 7 - One of the best selling points of the NES is how queued up the games are to get back in. You are gonna die a lot, but its always ready to give you more continues and keep going. Sometimes though, you hit a wall and just are fed up. There is no save/password for this, so they wanted you to do it all in one go. It can be done in about 40 minutes if you're good.

Story: 7 - So the knight is hanging out with the princess in ... a... graveyard.. lol.. just having a picnic, when all of a sudden a big red demon guy with bat wings comes and swoops the princess off! He looked evil, but happy! Better get her back. One cool feature is you see a map of the whole game before you start, so you know how close or far you are to victory.

Depth: 5 - There isn't alternate paths, or anything very different, even if you do the dreaded second run. You have to get creative with dodging foes, and making the most of the weapons. The bosses have fairly predictable movesets and few projectiles, making the basic red devil usually harder than they are.

Difficulty: 10 - If you are playing this on the NES console, this game deserved to be in the top 10 of hard games. Its just made to be unforgiving and punish you for the slightest mistakes. There are a handful of areas where you can tell the programmers are being unfair.

If you think Elden Ring is easy, and have an hour to kill, try this game. It doesn't look like anything special, but the cruelty is baked in.

legacyme3 : I came back to look over the old members and come across this. "Leggy" was always full of himself, to the end.