Platform and Shooting Game Multicart Compilation Review: Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt

Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt was a Nintendo Entertainment System pack-in multicart that compiled two games together, making good use of both the NES gamepad controller and the Zapper light gun.

Super Mario Bros. was the system seller for the Nintendo Entertainment System at the time of its release in 1985. By release of the multicart in 1988, Duck Hunt was also a peripheral seller for the Zapper. So, it was a no-brainer to compile both games together.

Super Mario Bros. took the platformer genre to new heights by bringing the Mario brothers from static to smooth-scrolling horizontal platforming. Along with that, it brought the oft copied system of levels inside of stages set in a variety of settings. It had levels with gaps spread along the ground, levels high in the sky, levels under water, levels on bridges, levels in castles, and levels set at night. To audiences of the 1980s, it offered a little bit of everything for everyone.

On the other end of the multicart, Duck Hunt was a fun light gun shooter. The title was a bit of a misnomer, as it included two games that were a remake of sorts of projection-based light gun games from the 1970s. The titular Duck Hunt shared a name with the Beam Gun projector-based shooter. It took things much further than the click-clacky projection of ducks to full-colored ducks flying over a field with a cute hunting dog chasing after those that have been downed by the hunter.  

The second game in Duck Hunt was Clay Shooting, which was a demake of Nintendo's first lightgun arcade game, Laser Clay Shooting System. The latter had a 16-mm film of clay pigeons streaming into the sky while a white light would flash which would signal the area and time to fire the gun. The clay shooting in Duck Hunt, like the game proper, used the scanlines of a cathode ray tube television or monitor to determine the position the gun had been fired. The latter is more precise, if not as pleasing artistically.

It's no surprise that Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt became one of the best sellers for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Even if it wasn't packed-in with the system, it would have certainly still have sold well because both games are among the best and brightest for the console at the time of the compilation's release in the mid-1980s.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Arcade Maze Game Review: Pac-Man Plus

Pac-Man Plus is a weird game. It is a conversion kit that acts as an upgrade for the classic arcade maze game Pac-Man. 

Two arcade games in the Pac-Man series were developed between the release of this game in 1983, not including the two Pac-Man pinball tables. Both Ms. Pac-Man by General Computer Corporation and Super Pac-Man by Namco were quite different than the original game. Pac-Man Plus, created by Bally/Midway, is simply Pac-Man with faster, more aggressive ghosts and some other tweaks.

The music and sound effects are identical between the original and Plus iterations. The part that makes this an upgrade, is, above all, slightly altered graphics in comparison to the classic game. The maze layouts haven't changed except for the fact that they are now green rather than blue. The ghosts are now shorter with closer set eyes, and strangely, now are apparently fruit since they have stems with leaves on their heads. On the subject of fruit, the items that appear periodically in the center of the maze have now been changed to other items.

The aforementioned items do have a use beyond a point bonus this time around. When they are collected, ghosts will become invisible signifying the ability for Pac-Man to chomp them up. If Pac-Man eats a ghost in this state, its point value is doubled. Pac-Man's other method of eating ghosts, the power pellets, now are a bit wonky. Occasionally, eating one will cause weird effects such as turning the maze walls invisible or only turning a maximum of three ghosts blue rather than four. The latter will lower the possible point chain and will disrupt the usual ghost pattern.

Pac-Man Plus is essentially nothing more than a more difficult game of Pac-Man. The graphics have been tweaked, though the music and sound effects are identical to the original. The biggest changes are the fact that the ghosts are faster and nastier. The ability of the bonus item to make ghosts vulnerable with double the point value is a welcome addition to clear the maze and rank up points. This is especially needed considering the weird power pellets which occasionally reduce the amount of ghosts that were turned blue, which in turn lowers the amount of points that can be collected. Pac-Man Plus isn't really a must-play compared to the first two Pac-Man games. It has been ignored by Namco and its licensees, undoubtably for this reason, until Arcade1Up began adding it to its lineup of games in some of its home cabinets. If you have access to it, give it a try, but there is no need to go out of your way to track this one down.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Platform Game Mega Review: The Lion King

The Lion King is a video game by Westwood Studios. It is a fondly remembered, if difficult, platform game recapping the events of the Disney animated film of the same name.

The most striking thing about the game is the art. Like Aladdin by Virgin Games, the art department had support from the artists at Walt Disney Feature Animation to ensure that the game captured the essence of the film. This resulted in beautiful backgrounds that highly resemble those in the film and amazing sprites that have highly detailed expressions and walk cycles. 

Like the film, the game features Simba as a lion cub and as a full grown lion. In the early sections, cub Simba roars at his enemies with his tiny voice, which causes them to get stunned or flipped over allowing him to stomp on them. When he becomes an adult, the enemies get tougher and so does he. Simba can now slash his claws at enemies as well as pounce on them to enact a two-pawed slash fest. 

The levels also get harder as they go on, but today's emulation-based compilations negate this aspect since it is now possible to rewind to before a failure occurred. The levels in the game take place at different parts of the film, from the early pride rock, safari and jungle areas, to the vegetation-deprived pride rock at the end. The levels are mostly straight forward, with easy to follow level layouts. The exception to this is a puzzle in the safari area where Simba needs to be thrown by monkeys in order to exit to the next level. He needs to roar at the right monkeys, so they will rotate in the correct order to have him be thrown in the order required for him to be thrown up and out of that location. This happens for several sections until the game returns to a standard platformer. This section of the "Just Can't Wait to Be King" area can be confusing and annoying, but if you keep an eye on the monkeys you can see the correct trajectory.

On the subject of the film's memorable musical numbers, the musicians at Westwood Studios did an excellent job making the music sound great in instrumental form on the Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer on the Sega Genesis aka Mega Drive and the Sony SPC700 sample-based audio chip on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The ports to Amiga, DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System, and Nintendo Entertainment System also do a good job translating the music to their respective sound chips. There are also sound clips on most versions which include spoken dialog as well as Simba's roars. The cub roar is just as cute here as it is in the film. 

The Lion King is an amazing translation of a film to a 16-bit video game. The art is amazing as it was supervised by Disney animators, the gameplay is fun for the most part, although the puzzle section in the safari can get annoying as it goes on a bit too long. One of the best aspects of the film was its music, and the musical pieces are translated quite well. Unlike Virgin Game's Aladdin, there is no clear cut winner in the music department here. The Genesis and SNES both have their charm and each sounds great, so either version is worth playing. Luckily, the emulation-based compilations by Digital Eclipse include both versions, so it is now easy to play either, or both, versions.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Free Open Source Point-and-Click Adventure Fan Game Review: Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder

I compiled Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder, gave the game an ending rather than a call for volunteers as the project had long closed by that point, and added some inventory art. Other than that, I had no input in the actual game design. Because of this, like Open Quest before it, I have decided to give this one a full review instead of a retrospective.

The game uses the sixth version of the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, one version above the one used in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Because of this, the game art is inspired by, and mostly uses art lifted from and used by or slightly modified from that game. It has no music, but it has one sound effect in the form of a lightning strike. This is a quick and dirty little example that puts the ScummGen fan compiler to its full use, and excludes features that were not supported by it.

The game is a simple two room game that works like a point-and-click escape room adventure game. Indiana Jones has been driven to a cave entrance. The game begins with the classic Indiana Jones title card as the adventurer walks into said cave. He has come for an artifact, and has difficulty exploring do to a lack of light.

The objectives are simple, yet the puzzles themselves aren't as simple as they seem on paper. Indy needs to find a light source, find the artifact, find a way to extract it from the cave, and finally, find his way out of the cave. The game uses the classic text verb buttons with an icon-based inventory system that were used in classic LucasArts adventures of the early 1990s. Inventory items can be used on objects in the cave or combined with objects in the inventory to create a new inventory item.

The game is straightforward, but there are a few places that could use some improvements to make it easier to know what to do next. The biggest one is that there is no lever graphic for a lever puzzle. The puzzle can still be solved, but it can be difficult to determine which way to use the lever without the graphic assistance. The second main issue is Indy's partner, who is waiting at the truck used to bring Indy into the cave. It is not obvious that he can be interacted with, as he is completely off-screen and is only accessible by pointing the mouse pointer at the top of the screen at the cave entrance.

Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder is a fun little game, although it is rough and unfinished due to its status as a work-in-progress project at the time of its release. Its flaws make it more of a demonstration of the ScummGen compiler than a game in its own right. However, even though it has since been left stagnant, but what is there can still be played through from start to finish. Your mileage may vary based on how much you able to enjoy what is essentially a tech demo.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

Visual Novel Review: Do AIs Dream of Electric Turtles?

Do AIs Dream of Electric Turtles? is a short fan made visual novel created for Neuro-sama's second birthday game jam. The creative people in the swarm, the name given to Neuro-sama's fans, sure love creating Visual Novels about her. I'm all for it, as, in the words of a burger chain headlined by a creepy corporate clown, I'm lovin' it.

In this game, Neuro puts herself to sleep during a stream, and revisits past streams. In her dreams, everything, including herself, become drawn in an adorable childlike art style. There are no voice overs, which isn't a surprise as this was a game made during a short game jam.  There are, however, background musical pieces that fit each situation in which Neuro finds herself.

There are three doors, each leading to one of her past streams. The stream takes place nearly as they actually occurred. However, at the end of each, she is given meaning by one of her friends to the concept of dreams and memories.

The streams in question include the first cooking stream with streamer Layna Lazar where Neuro trolled her into making cookies complete with grass and soil, the dog school stream with adorable hell hound  female VTuber Cerber, and the first court stream where Neuro-sama was the defendant, her VTuber turtle creator Vedal was the judge, her twin Evil Neuro was the prosecutor, and her VTuber fox girl artist mother was a witness.

Do AIs Dream of Electric Turtles? is a short, cute visual novel that only takes about fifteen minutes to complete. Like the other short visual novels created during the Neuro-sama birthday game jams, this would be a perfect game to experience with children. Even as an adult, it's cute art style and fun musicial pieces make it a joy to experience, despite its short length. Playing it is especially fun for Neuro-sama fans as they can relive the streams in a new art style from Neuro's point of view.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Platform Game Review: Aladdin

Aladdin was a successful Disney animated film during the time period known as the Disney Renaissance. This era occurred between 1989 and 1999 when the animated films finally shucked away the issues that the animated films suffered following Walt Disney's death. These films were of a quality that allowed the films to be critically and commercially successful, for the most part. Because of this, it was a sure thing that it would receive a video game adaptation.

Not including the games that came long after the release of the film, there were actually three Aladdin games. These games were developed by Capcom, Sega, and Virgin Games. This review covers the latter, which, not including the compilations that played the game through emulation, was released for Sega Genesis aka Mega Drive and ported to Amiga, DOS, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Windows. Out of these, the Sega Genesis game was the best version of the bunch.

The game is a platformer in which Aladdin can defeat enemies, mostly by swinging a sword. He also can collect apples which act as weapons when he throws them at adversaries. 

The art of the game is beautiful and very faithful to the source material. This is because the Virgin Games artists worked closely with Walt Disney Feature Animation. This resulted in backgrounds that looked like they were ripped right out of the film and characters with pixel art that had expressive faces and smooth movement. As the result, this was one of the prettiest looking games when it was released.

The story of the film is presented with still pictures which lead to the levels. Each of them takes liberties in regard to the film, but have fantastic layouts. Some of the levels are really challenging, but it's worth it to make it through to the end. The most creative level, and the one that takes the most liberties in regards to the film, is a level that takes place inside of Genie's lamp. This one has gameplay that is not seen anywhere else. Aladdin will jump off of Genie's pointer fingers, use the Genie's hands as platforms, and jump off of the letter pedestals seen in the "Friend Like Me" segment of the film. The hardest part of the game is the sequence leaving the Cave of Wonders. Aladdin will have to jump off rocks above lava while avoiding Raiders of the Lost Ark-style rolling boulders. Then he has to fly on the magic carpet while avoiding obstacles above and below him. It is very difficult, but modern releases use emulation which allows for rewinding to the point before failure. This makes the game more fun for modern gamers who aren't used to the punishing difficulties of games of the 1980s and 1990s. 

There are bonus levels with Aladdin's monkey Apu that are available through collectibles. There are also collectibles that can be used to buy powerups from stalls manned by salespeople at the end of levels. These include extra lives and even more continues. These aren't as relevant to today's emulation based compilations, but they were nearly a necessity when the game came out. People have made it through without them, but I would never have made it through the game when I was a little girl without the help of the vendors.

Another impressive part of the game is the music from the film that is impressively adapted for the Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer in the Sega Genesis. There are also some voice clips scattered throughout the game in various places. This was quite impressive in the 1990s, since most games didn't have voiceovers outside of CD-ROM titles.

The ports also have adaptations of the songs for their respective chips, and manage to do a good job of it. The sound and art of the ports are actually pretty good adaptations of the Genesis original, but where they come up short is in the control, and in some cases, quite noticeable slow down. That makes the Genesis version the superior version.

Aladdin, as created by Virgin Games, is an impressive game that is a blast to play. It looks and sounds just like you would imagine of a 16-bit adaptation of a Disney film. The art, music, and level layouts are super impressive. The ports aren't as impressive as the Sega Genesis original, but with today's emulation-based releases, it's not hard to experience the game as it was meant to be played. As a bonus, the Digital Eclipse compilations also includes a prototype of the game that was previously exhibited only once. It's well worth playing Aladdin as it is one of the best games of the 16-bit generation and it still holds up remarkably well today.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Arcade Fighting Game Mega Review: SoulCalibur

SoulCalibur is the second Soul fighting game by Namco's Project Soul, after Soul Edge. It is vastly superior to its forebearer, but it is did not catch on until the console port. The original arcade game was revolutionary when it was released, and with the popularity of the console port it inspired many three-dimensional games and ensuring all of the future Soul games used the SoulCalibur name.

The game included an eclectic group of characters. Some returned from Soul Edge, including Hwang,  Mitsurugi, Rock, Seong Mi-na, Siegfried, Sophitia, Taki, and Voldo. The enemy characters Inferno and his ultimate form Nightmare. SoulCalibur also brought in the new characters Astaroth, Ivy, Kilik, Maxi, Xianghua, and Yoshimitsu. 

Most of these characters employ heavy use of weapons, which is even extended into the story. The fighters are seeking the mass murderer Nightmare, who is in possession of the legendary sword from the original game, the Soul Edge. The characters all have different reasons for seeking Nightmare. Some want to kill him to stop his mass murder, some want to cure him, and others want to claim the legendary sword for themselves.

The game had fantastic music, and limited but enjoyable voice acting, however the gameplay is the part that was revolutionary. Before the release of SoulCalibur, characters in 3D fighters had limited movement. This game had an eight-way movement system, which allowed more freedom of movement, making 3D games feel smoother than ever before. Games after this employed more freedom of movement as well, and they never looked back.

SoulCalibur is a revolutionary 3D fighting game that remains fun to play even today. While previous 3D fighting games such as the Virtua Fighter series and Namco's own Tekken series brought fighters into the third dimension for the first time, SoulCalibur is the game that made 3D fighters smooth as silk to play. The arcade game isn't as well known as the later enhanced console ports, it is still worth playing if you ever have the opportunity to play it.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5