endings : Well, you know, it's kind of funny. Back then you didn't have the internet so information about gaming wasn't so easily obtained. I knew that ShaqFu wasn't a good game but I had no idea it was regarded as one of the worst. It wasn't until many years later that I realized that everyone hates that game. Perhaps if I had a subscription to Nintendo Power or something I would have known and avoided the game all together.

endings : Good point about the art style. In the cut scenes in War of the Lions, the characters definitely look weird. I didn't like it at first and it took awhile for it to grow on me. But I think they're fine now.

Overall: 9.9. Final Fantasy Tactics is a polarizing game. While is it regarded by critics as being one of the best PS1 games, it is viewed by some as the black sheet of the Final Fantasy Series. You need to realize that this game isn't like the rest of the FF universe. On it's face, it's not like them at all. However, if you give the game a chance, you'd start seeing so many reminders that this is part of one of the greatest video game series of all time. It has a different style but it's such a GREAT game. I've beaten about 2/3 of the FF games out there but Tactics is the only one that I've beaten more than twice. It's one of those games that just doesn't get old. It just sticks in your mind and and you think about it and say "aww man I haven't played that game in awhile, I need to give it another run".

This is a strategy RPG and for those who don't know what that means, it's nothing like other FF games. To enjoy this game, don't go into this thinking it's going to be the same experience as FF7 because it's not going to meet those expectations. The thing that a strategy game is all about is... wait for it... gasp! Strategy. Simply overpowering an enemy won't work most of the time and you need to use different tactics (pun intended) to overcome their strengths and expose their weaknesses. This takes a little bit of getting used to in the beginning but once you figure out what's going on, you'll be so immersed in the game that you'll feel like you're living there. This is such an awesome game!

I've recently played through the PSP port of Tactics and that is a fantastic addition. It includes a couple extra job classes and introduces cut scenes with voice acting. If you can get your hands on that, check it out in addition to the PS1 version. I've also played the GBA Tactics game and while I don't want to focus my review on bashing those games, they pale in comparison to the original Tactics. I've read some other reviews saying that they preferred the Advance games over the PS1 version and I'm not sure I understand it. I feel like the GBA games have no intriguing story or characters and you're just doing random mission after random mission. I've tried to like them and if I hadn't play FFT first, I might love them. But they just don't come close to matching what this game game has to offer.

Graphics: 8. The characters look good. The environments look good. But honestly, after playing Super Mario RPG in recent years, I think they could have been much better. If an SNES game in the isometric/grid view then a PS1 game should look GREAT. I don't want to criticize it too much because the graphics are really nice. Compared to the blocky characters of FF7, Tactics is fantastic! I love all the different environments that look vibrant and unique. The various jobs are distinguishable and fantastic. I would have liked to have some FMV cut scenes like in FF7 or voice acting like in PSP War of the Lions but it definitely doesn't take away from story at all.

Sound: 8. Just like the graphics, the sound is very good while not spectacular. To be fair, there aren't many games out there I'd give a rating higher than an 8. For these earlier games, the sound just isn't all that important to me. However, I do appreciate how the music in this game sets the mood based upon what's happening in the story. The sound effects during battle are satisfying and rock solid. It's very enjoyable to cast spells and attack the enemy.

Addictiveness: 10. Like I mentioned previously, I've played through this game several times. It's replayability is so high, it's crazy. Now, it does take some time getting used to the style. The learning curve can be a bit steep but if you stick with it and not get frustrated, it starts to get a little easier and more enjoyable. But once you're through the first Act, you're hooked. If you haven't made it to Act II then you can't accurately critique this game in my opinion. From that point on, you can't put the game down. Whether you're advancing the story or completing a side quest or even trying to master/unlock another job class, you're always wanting to do more with this game. Part of the addicting factor due to the job class system which I'll cover under the Depth section.

Story: 10. I don't even know where to start with this one. Literally, I can't because I don't fully understand the story evne though I've played through this game multiple times. It's not because it's poorly told or unnecessarily convoluted, it's just a complex tale full of interlocking characters and personalities. It has your typical FF plot twists where you are fighting one bad guy only to later realize it's another bad guy that's your true enemy. While this is a FF tried and true formula, Tactics executes it better than any other FF game. Seriously, it's fantastic. I think the mark of a good story is if you care about the characters. We all cared when Aries was killed off in FF7 didn't we? That made the story really good because we were connected with her. The same thing happens in Tactics. You care about Ramza and Delita and their strained friendship. You want to know what's Delita's true motive and what he's going to do next. That's how you know it's a good story and you're not just blowing through the dialogue to move on to the next battle. Because you don't have an open world to explore, the story and game does feel pretty linear. But at least you don't have the "where the hell do I go now?" feeling. Plus, backtracking isn't really much of a chore like in other RPGs.

Depth: 10. Here's where Tactics shines. As with any FF game, the amount of depth due to side quests, secret/ultimate weapons, secret characters is unmatched. Tactics has all of those things of course, but it's the Job System that takes this baby to an 11. The amount of customization possibilities are HUGE. Where FFV took the simple job system and improved upon it, Tactics perfected it. For those who are new, the job system works like this. There are several starter jobs which have different inherent abilities. For example, the chemist is good at using items while the archer focuses on long range attacks and equips a bow. The knight is a strong physical attacker while the white mage is a healer. Each job has their strength and weakness that reflect their stats, equipment and special abilities. As you learn abilities and level up, you an switch classes and retain some abilities of previous classes. You can have a knight that can cast black magic for example. As you progress, you'll unlock more classes that are have some pretty powerful abilities such as the Ninja's Dual Wield. What this amounts to is that you can play the game so many different ways by using these classes for your various characters. The only problem with this is that you get special characters as you progress who are pretty overpowered (looking at you Orlandu). So to beat the game you don't need to change classes and strategize as much. You can just roll through the enemy without too much effort. Net- this makes a lot of the leveling up unnecessary. I know what you're thinking, "oh so you have to grind to get all these special features". Well, yes and no. If you'd like to master every class then yeah, it's going to require grinding (although there are tips and tricks to help with this). But if you strategize on what you want to do in the big picture, it's not that much work. Also, the battles are enjoyable so it's not like it's that much work.

Difficulty: 6. This is a tough one. The beginning can be difficult when you're still learning the ropes and your characters are weak. I remember the first battle against a Black Mage was really tough since he could hit multiple characters at once with his magic. There are a few difficult battles mixed here and there throughout the game but if you know what you're doing, it's not that difficult. The end of the game is not challenging and I wish it was harder. You almost don't want to use Orlandu because he's so powerful and it makes it too easy but he's just so awesome that it's hard not to play with him. Perhaps one day I'll play the game again and the only special character I'll use is Ramza. I'm sure that'll beef up the difficulty a bit so give that a try if you're so inclined and let me know your thoughts.

All I have to say, give this game a shot. Play at least halfway through Act II and give a fair assessment based upon what it delivers and not what the name on the box says. I think you'll be pleased. I freaking love this game!!

Overall: 9.8. This is a game that everyone knows and loves. At the time, it was such a great blend of action and strategy. The co-op mode was revolutionary since it allowed you to grab a buddy (or in my case, my older brother) and just shoot baddies for hours.

The concept is simple. Run from left to right shooting enemies and collecting weapon powerups. Each time you got shot you died. Run out of lives and it's game over. Pretty damn simple, right? Well if it was so simple then why is it so beloved? In my opinion, it's the controls. They are TIGHT. No other platformer allowed you to escape danger like Contra. No other platformer had the powerups like Contra - two words: Spread Gun.

Graphics: 7. The graphics were decent but nothing special. You experience some flickering and slow down in some areas on some enemies. You see this especially when you're trying to fill the screen with Spread Gun bullets. But, this doesn't take away too much from the game and can be overlooked easily.

Sound: 8. This game just blasts good tunes throughout the game. It pumps you full of energy while you're jumping from platform to platform, just trying to stay alive. The sound effects are solid, if a bit underwhelming. I can't really say the gunfire is realistic but what do you want from an NES game.

Addictiveness: 10. If anyone rates this game under 10, is nuts. Even though you'll die a lot (sometimes on the first level when learning), you'll keep coming back for more. You always want to keep playing trying to beat the next level. It's one of those games where you just don't want to give up. It's such a blast to play.

Story: 6. I don't know what's going on here. Something about two commandos fighting bad guys in a jungle. Okay got it. All right, now I'm fighting some aliens. Huh? Yeah, spoiler alert, you fight aliens at the end. But I guess that's all right, it all kind of works and makes sense to a little kid. Of course I liked shooting up aliens, duh!

Depth: 9. For a run and gun game, it's hard at first to say there is a ton of depth but this game was a pioneer. The various weapons and powerups spread through out the levels. The level styles change from typical horizontal sidescroller to an overhead view or to a vertical sidescroller. It's a great change of pace for the game and prevents it from getting stale. The variety of enemies isn't extremely extensive but the the boss battles have a good variety and are unique.

Difficulty: 9. Yeah, this game is pretty tough, we all know that. One hit deaths aren't something to sneeze to at. Trust me, you'll die a lot and it'll be frustrating. But this game is not unbeatable. Even without the konami code, you can still beat it. It took me about 20 years, but I finally did it and I was PUMPED. The co-op mode surprisingly makes it even a little harder since you need to coordinate movements and fight each other for power ups. But this game does a great job of making it a 'fair' difficult. You don't feel like it's just cheap or unfair. After you lose, you say to yourself, "Aww man, I know I can beat this" and you hit restart. That's a the sign of a great game right there.

Overall, we're talking about a revolutionary classic. Everyone loved this game when I was growing up and no sleep over was complete with Contra. Even after all these years, the game just doesn't get old.

I saw a segment of "Shaqtin' a Fool" earlier today and was inspired to revisit one of the most infamous SNES games in existence.

Shaq-Fu is universally known as the worst SNES games and one of the worst video games of ALL TIME. Is this the game really that bad? Nah, I don't think so. Is it actually pretty good? No, it's pretty bad. Does it have at least some redeeming qualities that make it special? Nah, not really. It's just a poor, poor game.

My video game collection growing up was pretty small. Outside of Mario and Donkey Kong games, I owned WWF The Arcade Game, Lamborghini and Shaq-Fu. Yes, I owned this slop. Why did I purchase this game one might ask. Well just like all the other suckers out there, I was a huge Shaq fan. I wasn't a huge NBA fan as a kid but I really liked Shaq when he played for the Magic. He was simply THE MAN. So I purchased this game so I could play as Shaq in video game form.

But not only did I own this game, I played the hell out of this game. That how slim my pickings were back then. I played Shaq-Fu for HOURS. I haven't played it since so I'm doing this entire review from memory as I have no desire to play it again at this moment.

Graphics: 6. This is the best part of the game. They aren't bad at all for the time. Sure the characters are unimaginative and there's not exactly a whole lot to the environment/arenas. But they look pretty nice for the most part. The 'level select' area where you control a mini Shaq traveling to the next opponent looks pretty darn rough though. But the most important question is "how does Shaq look?". Well he looks like a very large black man. So pretty much spot on!

Sound: 5. I dunno. I just guessed. I can't remember a thing about the sound but I'm sure it was mediocre at best.

Addictiveness. 2. Okay, for me, this is probably higher because I played this game so much. But honestly, I have no idea why. It's not addictive at all. The only thing that would make it less addictive is if the game was unplayable. You could probably kill some time and have some semblance of fun playing this game but it probably maxes out at maybe 3 minutes.

Story. 2. Okay let's see here. Story... story... Two words sum up the story. "Um... wut?". The story is about some kid sucked into an alternate dimension and Shaq just happens to be a martial arts master (I guess Kung Fu based upon the name of the game) so Shaq goes and saves him. Something like that. I mean, fighting games don't need to have the best story-line but this is just awful. I gave it a 2 because I'll give them some credit for originality.

Depth. 1. Oh jeez let's see. You have what, 5 characters? Do any of the characters have special moves? I don't even really know. But let's talk about those characters. Let's see here... we have a mummy, a cat lady, a prince of persia knockoff, and some red creature guy. Maybe there's another character, I can't remember. I'm sure he was just as bad. Who were these people and why were they so boring? What made them special? Nothing. Shaq was the best character, by far. And he was the most boring and normal! Just some dude dressed in a basketball uniform. There were no secrets to uncover and nothing to entice you to replay.

Difficulty: 8. I don't think the game was THAT hard. But the controls were terrible so by definition of the rating system, I'm forced to give this a high difficulty. The game is so short that it's not that hard to beat. You can probably rip through it in about 15 min. But man, moving around sucked. Punching and kicking was so clumsy. Compared to Street Fighter or MK, it seemed like you were playing an Atari version of a fighting game. If the controls were rock solid, then maybe it'd be known for a decent game but they just didn't even bother trying to make this game playable. Must have spent all the development time on the story.

Well there you have it. A very bad game that's known for being the worst. It's not the worst, it's just very bad. Have I owned worse games? No. Have I played worse games? Honestly, I'm pretty sure I have but no names come to mind. If you haven't played this game, just give it a shot for about 10 minutes and that'll be enough. Trust me, you won't grow to love it.

Overall: 9.8. Twisted Metal 2. A car combat game that took a relatively simple formula from TM1 and just blew it up into something that still remains one the greatest and most influential games in gaming history.

The concept is simple. Drive around picking up weapons such as missles, bombs, napalm, etc and destroy your enemy before they blow you away. Man, what a genius idea. Drive around blowing stuff up? Who doesn't love that! TM2 took that basic idea from TM1 and added more interesting characters/vehicles, more diverse and bigger environments (all of which had destructible elements) and smoother controls (always a plus!).

Tack on a multiplayer mode and this game is just flat out fun to play with friends and can easily consumer hours upon hours of your time.

Graphics: 10. TM2's graphics are AWESOME. Now I'm including the destructible environments when talking about this. Whether it's blowing up the Eiffel Tower or escaping from the collapsing ground in the Arctic, you're always interacting with the environment. Not only are these features unique but they are pulled off fantastically. Explosions look great and realistic. Your vehicle appearance changes as it obtains damage. It all comes together to look just beautiful.

I think full motion video of the various endings would have looked better than the still images but I think the art style looks great and definitely enhances the experience in some aspects.

Sound: 10. Boom. You'll be hearing a variation of that word A LOT. The music is pretty good but the sound effects of explosions and weapons is fantastic. The voice acting is also very, very good. You don't get to hear a lot of it except for the intro and then the endings so you might not notice it much but it's rock solid.

Addictiveness: 10. I wish I could crank this number up to 11. This is such an easy game to pick up and play. Whether you're alone or with friends, it just never gets old. Since each character has their own ending, you'll want to play over and over until you get to see them all. Back in those days we couldn't look them up on youtube so there is definitely more mystique to them back then.

Story: 9. The story is so simple. Some maniac wants people to kill each other for his amusement. I guess he has special powers to grant them any wish they want? Doesn't make all that much sense really, but it's good enough. The story gets a high rating because there are so many alternate endings as well as side stories with the hidden characters Sweet Tooth and Minion.

Depth: 10. TONS of depth here. Every vehicle has it's strengths and weaknesses. You got the sports car Spectre that is fast and has good handling but can't take a pounding. Axel has giant wheels so you can just run over other vehicles but the handling is weak. Grimm Reaper is fricking motorcyle! How much damage do you think that guy is gonna take. Each of them has their own special weapon. Spectre with homing missles that go through walls and sonic shockwave from Axel. But by far the best is Minion with the triple homing missle that just decimates an enemy vehicle. There are special moves that are executed from button combinations- It's been awhile since I played but I think its Left, Right, Up for freeze? Each stage has something different to offer with hidden power ups- destroy the Eiffel Tower to create a bridge to a rooftop and find power missles. The stages are so diverse and expansive that you really feel immersed into the environment. As mentioned previously, there is an ending for each character which increases the replayability.

Difficulty: 7. The game can be pretty tough actually. They have difficulty levels but you can only go halfway through the game (up until Mini boss Minion) on Easy. Playing on Co-op helps a lot but you don't get the special character ending unless you beat it on single player mode. One thing that can't be faulted for the difficulty are the controls. They are rock solid and much better than the original. I believe in the original you couldn't turn your car while stopped. Sure, that's not realistic, but this makes it a little easier. Beating the game with some of the characters seems absolutely outrageous (looking at you Grasshopper).

I honestly haven't played this game in a long time but I'm going to have to rectify that shortly. If you can get your hands on a copy, which isn't too hard on ebay, you'll be satisfied with the purchase. One of the best games that the PS1 has to offer and that's saying A LOT.

One of my favorite lines from any movie is from the first Ninja Turtles movie. The exchange is between Donny and Casey Jones

Donny - "You're a claustrophobic!"
Casey - "Want a fist in the mouth? I've never even looked at another guy before"

On to the game!

If you had an NES growing up then you've played this game. It's a fun but frustrating experience. Some of the features (or lack of) are hard to overlook but for the time they weren't too crazy. Some of the features in the game were pretty progressive.

Graphics: 6. The graphics are actually pretty decent most of the time but the slow down and blurry enemies are hard things to overlook. I hate that! But the heroes and enemy characters are recognizable. The environments are mostly pretty bright and detailed. But I can't get over the slow down and blurry enemies.

Sound: 7. Spoiler alert. There's not a single 'cowabunga' in the game. However, despite this, the sound is solid. Music is somewhat repetitive (like most NES titles) but each area has it's own beat so it's a good change of pace. The sound when you hit something is strange. It's like you're always hearing swords clanging together.

Story: 9. Who doesn't love the turtle story?? Shredder is trying to hurt innocent people. April gets kidnapped. Splinter gets kidnapped. As a kid, you understood this story. You knew who you were fighting. There's a reason every kid under 10 LOVED the turtles. The story kicked ass.

Depth: 7. This might be generous. I'll give it a 7 because of the ability to switch characters on a fly. This allowed you to keep a Turtle alive a little longer but it also enabled you to use different characters for different situations. Each weapon had it's strengths and weaknesses. Donny's Bo Staff is way overpowered since it's powerful and has a long range. But this was something unique to TMNT and added a little strategy to the game.

Difficulty: 9. All right, we all know this game is hard. But why is it hard. In order, the reasons for it's difficulty are as follows 1) Controls. Man, the controls are rough. Jumping is a chore sometimes and there's no shortage of cheap deaths when you get hit mid air and fall in a hole/spike pit. Why did they make it so hard to jump? No platforming should make jumping the weakest link. The hit detection is pretty good at least. 2)Lack of health. Where are all the 'zas! You can 'cheat' a little and refresh a pizza pickup by exiting and entering an area. Everyone knows that. But they are far and few in between and you usually need to spend more health just getting to it. 4) Respawning enemies. Man, you just can't kill these things! Backtracking is a nightmare. 5) No save feature. Just like Mario, you gotta play this baby from start to finish. But the game isn't terribly long so it's feasible.

I will say this about the Dam level. This is way overrated as the hardest stage that it's known as. Yes it's challenging but once you learn the pattern and where to go, it really isn't that difficult. The last level leading up to Shredder? Now THAT'S tough.

This game has a nostalgia effect going on for all of us reviewers. Pretty surprised this has a higher rating than TMNT2 and TMNT3. I'd give the edge to the others based upon the multiplayer alone but that's just my opinion.

Overall - good game that's a lot of fun but very flawed due to being one of the earlier NES games.

Thanks for the feedback! Hope you enjoyed it

Overall: 9.9 (aka my highest score possible) Oh man, why oh why did I wait to review this game? Truth be told, this is only my 3rd review so I guess I'm getting to it pretty quickly.

If you can tell by my other reviews of Zelda 2 and Kid Icarus (shameless plug), I'm a little weird when it comes to games. There are some games that I just can't explain it, I just really, really like them. So it should probably come as no surprise to me that just like the often criticized Zelda 2 game, Mega Man Legends is the odd ball of a historic series that I happen to like most of all.

Now, I'd like to point something out to everyone and try to get you to realize when I say Mega Man Legends is my favorite Mega Man game that I'm not too young to have experienced the series during the glory days of NES. I was born in '86 so when I was young, we (my older brother and I) played Mega Man all the time. We didn't have much money so our video game collection was pretty small and outside of the Mario series we didn't really own many games. But we rented the hell out of Mega Man 1, 2 and 3. I have recently played through the entire NES series and beaten all of them except for 6. But I never beat them as a child. Maybe they were too difficult, maybe we didn't have enough time because they were rentals or maybe I was just too young, I'm not sure.

As I got older, I did the same thing with the Mega Man X series. What an awesome series btw! But again, I never owned a single one of them and would just rent it over and over. I was definitely a big, big fan of the Mega Man series even though I never physically owned them.

I know this is a long winded introduction and I haven't even talked about the game yet but I think the backstory is important for the reader to realize that I'm not exaggerating about how good this game is. It is so fricken awesome, I'll blow your mind!

MML was the first MM I actually ever owned. Why I asked for this game for Christmas, while I never did before with the previous games, I can't remember and we'll never know. But man, I'm glad I did. I have since lost that copy of Mega Man during my move to college several years ago and I regret it so much. I have since played through the game a couple times on an emulator and I've even played through the N64 version on Vizzed. It really never gets old to me and I have a hard time sometimes sticking with a game (I got bored with Final Fantasy XII right before the final boss and never finished for some reason).

In preparation of writing this review, I watched some youtube video reviews. I've realized something about what I think about when I'm doing reviews. I never even think about explaining the story, which is what some reviewer talked about extensively with this game and didn't even show footage of a single dungeon. Listen, you can learn what the story is about by reading the back of the box and learn the names of the key characters by skimming a gamefaqs intro section. I want to focus on what I really think about the game (which I haven't even really done yet ha).

Depth: 10. I'm starting with Depth first because this is what you need to appreciate if you want to truly enjoy this game. Comparing the depth to other MM games isn't even fair. Legends blows all the previous games away in the amount of hidden items, customization ability, side quests and exploration opportunities. As far as depth goes, this baby ranks up there with Ocarina of Time. Yes, I said it! Okay, okay, OoT is by all rights, 'the better game' but I like Legends more and if you've played through them you'll see the similarities. Let's do the check 1)Large dungeons to explore? check. 2)Fetch quests that require you to back track through areas you've previously visited and meet with the townsfolk and interact with the environments and finally culminates with a prize that helps you on your journey? CHECK. 3)Item and skill upgrades that allow you to reach those areas that you could see but you couldn't figure out how to get to? Check.

I could go on how the similarities with OoT are so apparent but overlooked (ummm Z targeting anyone??) but I'll move on. The real difference between the two games, in my opinion, is that the OoT's controls were much better and I'll get to that later. Okay, OoT's puzzles are obviously much, much better as well.

More on the depth though! How about this- how many games have you played where you collect some form of currency and it's vital to getting new weapons/armor/accessories? How often in those game that towards the end of the game, you become so rich that you can't even spend it anymore? The answer is - a lot. It almost becomes pointless to hack at jars and bushes to collect rupees at the end. But not Legends! You almost always can use money (zenny). Whether it's to buy some health upgrades or to customize/upgrade your special weapons, you can never have enough. I think this adds an element of trying to pick up that dropped zenny after destroying a robot that keeps killing them satisfying.

More on depth you say? Did I mention finding parts spread throughout the game that can be used to upgrade your buster? Or items that create a new special weapons? C'mon. How many games give you that much room for customization over your weaponry? You can even change how your buster performs based on the situation - long range and rapid fire for those pesky flying little guys or powerful with high energy for big bad robots.

Addictiveness: 10. Covered in the depth for the most part. Money is always needed giving you the desire to explore and blow stuff up. The customization of weapons is fantastic. Finding new parts through fetch quests and exploring parts of the dungeons and town looking for things you've missed. The side quest parts are what keeps you coming back for more. I once spent several hours trying to beat the high score of the hoverskates racing mini game.. as sad as that sounds.

Graphics: 8. The graphics are what you'd expect from a PS1 game. Overall, I do think they're very good. However, I'm not personally a big fan of the Japanese Anime art style with the weird flapping mouth. Literally, sometimes the characters mouth just moves open and closed even though you're not hearing words. Beyond this, they are pretty darn good for a 3D PS1 game.

Sound: 9. The music is good. The sound effects are good. But when you're talking about sound with this game, you're probably going to first think about the voice acting. While I think the delivery of the anime style characters is average, the voice acting is actually really good. This is polarizing I think based upon what I've read, but for me it definitely is very good for a PS1 game.

Story: 9. Like I said before. I won't go into the details of the story. It's not important in my opinion to give it to you but rather to offer my opinion of the quality. I will say that while it's no FFVII, the story does have some nice twists. Even a forbidden love story is included. Oh la la! But the story is engaging and you connect with the characters as much as you could in a silly game like this.

Difficulty: 6. Okay, this game isn't that hard. If you think this game is hard, I think I know why and as I alluded to earlier, I'll address it now. The controls aren't great. Actually, sometimes they are frustrating and they stink! Okay I said it! They are tricky to get used to and clunky and you can lose your enemy sometimes rather easily. However, once you learn that you can lock on to the target and just run in a circle around that target, it's pretty good. The camera angle is still a challenge though and sometimes while you're doing this you'll run into other enemies or walls or a hole in the ground. The controls are something that I think some people have trouble getting around and can't overlook and it's something that certainly hurts MML's prestige. I'm certainly not saying good controls aren't important, they definitely are! I'm saying that you can work with it and learn to get better at what it has to offer.

If I haven't convinced you yet that this is just a fantastic game and everyone who likes action adventure games should definitely give it a try, then I almost give up. Get over the fact that it's not a traditional MM game. So what. It is unique and certainly one of a kind that is just flat out fun to play. I won't get into how I feel about Legends 2 here but I will say this - go play the original. You won't be disappointed.

Oh and please don't crucify me for comparing this game to OoT
Just play the game, think about it and tell me how far off you think I am!

I just played through this game again and decided to do a review for it while the memory was fresh in my mind.

Speaking of memory, this is one of the games I remember playing the most when I was very young. I remember playing Kid Icarus with my mom was I was a toddler and probably the thing I remember most are those damn Eggplant Wizards. I even remember my mom explaining what eggplant even was.

Because this was one of our favorite games to play when growing up, I think I might be overrating the game a bit in my mind. But you can't deny that it was one of the best that the NES had to offer when it launched.

Now, this game is not without its flaws by any means. The controls take some getting used to, the difficulty is extremely uneven and it's a pretty short game.

Controls: They aren't the tightest controls out there and you'll find yourself dying because you hit up instead of right or left (and then subsequently plummeting to your doom).

Difficulty: Overall, the game really isn't that difficult, just the beginning is. By having a vertical scrolling level, where you get an instant death if you fall off the screen, as the first level is pretty unfair. While it immediately separates itself from other side scrolling games like Mario, it makes it difficult to get into the game because you'll die so many times. What makes things weirder is that the 2-1 and 2-2 are all so much easier than the first level. Not only are you stronger but the jumps required are less precise and you'll live long. Additionally, all of the bosses are a joke. You're supposed to build up to the big boss fight where you need to work at learning his pattern, finding the weakspot and then after trial and error, finally defeat it. Way too easy, especially the final boss. If you can make it past the first two levels, you're golden. Throw in the fact you get unlimited continues and you can see why I say this game isn't all that difficult.

Length: The game can be beaten pretty quickly once you learn to master the controls. The castle (dungeons?) levels definitely add to the length since they do take some time to memorize but overall, you can beat it in one sitting easily since there are only 3 worlds.

As an RPG fan, I really like what they did with the leveling elements. The fact that you don't really know how to level up or why you're leveling up can be confusing and it's a drawback to the player to understand what the heck is going on. However, rewarding the player for defeating enemies was pretty new at the time so the whole concept was a learning experience (no pun intended).

Without a doubt, the castle/dungeon levels are my favorite part of the game. Having the unique Eggplant Wizards only located at the castles and making you find the cure somewhere in another room was genius even if it was frustrating. But that's the point, I think. You don't want to make the player get so overpowered that they can just blow through all the enemies. Very, very cool addition and something that makes the game so memorable in my opinion.

Looking back, I'm glad that for some reason my family happened across this lesser known (or at least recognized for what it is) title. It definitely doesn't get the proper accolades that it deserves.

All right here goes. This is my first game review ever on any site. So be kind with ratings please

I will say before I begin, that my ratings are probably much higher than just about anyone. I may be looking at this game through an extreme set of nostalgia goggles but I just love this game. I've replayed it a few times in the past couple years (including some hacks) and it never gets old for me.

Let's rewind to 1990ish and I was 4 years old. My mother was a stay at home mom and I remember playing Nintendo with her frequently. My girlfriend refused to believe it but I remember beating Super Mario 3 when I was 5. She claims "I didn't have the motor skills" at that age. She's a cynical lady...

Along with the Mario series and Kid Icarus, I played Zelda 2 frequently. We never owned the game and would just rent it from the video store constantly. Now, I was only 4 or 5 years old but I still have vivid memories of playing this game. It's crazy to think about but it really is true.

Now, we all know the difficulty between Mario and Zelda 2 isn't even close so to be honest; I'm not sure how much I was playing or how much I was watching my mom play. In those 20 year old memories, it almost doesn't even matter to me. The thing I remember most is the game itself and all the great moments that came with it. I remember crossing the falling bridge in the first dungeon. Using the hammer to smash the rocks. Walking across water. And YES, I remember fighting shadow Link. How we made it that far on a rental in 1990 still blows my mind.

For all these reasons and more as I will discuss in the rest of the review, this is not only my favorite Zelda game, it's probably top 3 in all games of all time. I played so many games in my life where I get bored halfway through and never finish. But for some reason that I can't quite explain, this game doesn't get old to me and I just can't get enough. It gets the highest possible score I could give a game and that's a 9.9. LOVE IT.

Graphics: 9. Yeah the overworld looks kinds crappy with a doll like Link running around wagging his hips but it still looks really good to me. The side scrolling view is even better and Link likes a real person instead of a child. There is typically very little slowdown even when there are a lot of enemies on the screen. I think it's aged really well over the years.

Sound: 10. I wish I could go to 11. That tune that plays when on the world map never gets old and I vividly remember hearing this as a young boy. I'm not really big into sound in video games personally. I don't get what all the excitement is over the sound of FFVI. But Zelda 2 is different for me and for an NES game, they really made the most of it. I can barely remember of the sounds with the original LoZ but Zelda 2 is stuck in my head on repeat.

Addictiveness: 9. For me, it's really high. It's a frustrating game, you can get lost and you die a lot. But I don't know, it's easy to play in my opinion. I rate the addictiveness partly on the fact that I’ve played through this so many times and I’m still not bored with it. And this is not typical for me at all. I’ve picked up some games, played them for 30 minutes and just get bored. Even widely respected games like Earthbound or Secret of Mana!

Story: 9. I was going to go lower but perhaps the thing for me was that as a child, I still kind of knew what was going on. You always started at the same palace with Zelda asleep laying there. Okay, so Zelda is asleep and you need to wake her up. Fight monsters and gain weapons. Pretty darn easy to follow for even a 5 year old!

Depth:10. I looked up a world map the other day and I was like, damn, this overworld is huge! Not only that but the way to access each new part of the world was new and interesting. This was the beginning of the Zelda legacy so you didn't know what power up did what so it was cool to learn as you went.

Difficulty: 7. Okay, this game is pretty tough but I don't think it's THAT difficult... Is it? My MOM was able to beat it on a rental. And this was before the days of the internet where you could look up where to find the next item/dungeon. Or how to beat a boss. She did that all on her own! I was 5 and I couldn't beat the game on my own but I could at least PLAY it. I think the difference is nowadays we just have no patience. Games that were long and challenging which required us to re-do areas, I most likely don't feel like dealing with. Back then, we had nothing else to do! Literally nothing!

So there you go, I love this game for a variety of reasons. We played the original LoZ around the same time back but we always rented Zelda 2 a lot more and those memories have always stayed with me a lot more.

Just watched Stand By Me last night on netflix. Pretty solid flick but a little weird.

Then i fell asleep watching cheech and chong Up In Smoke. LOVE  that movie

Someone might have already posted the is but i tried playing goldeneye yesterday and it was extremely laggy. It was so bad that it wasnt worth playing. I tried with both emulators? and tried restarting but no dice. I remember playing it awhile back with no issues so not sure what changed,