Video Game Musings – Page 32

Midway Fighting For Its life

Midway is undergoing ecomonic problems… and considering the current happenings on the stock side of things, who isn’t? According to this piece, Midway is pretty much in dire straights, as they had to cancel a couple projects based on licensed properties and the properties that they didn’t cancel (such as TNA Impact) hasn’t sold as well as they would have liked. Right now, they’re hoping that the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game will be their saving grace.

Could this upcoming MK game have a chance of turning Midway’s fortunes around? I’ll admit that I’m a bit skeptical as to one game making all the difference, especially a game that is part of a franchise known for its excessively violent video games. However, considering the game also features DC heroes such as Superman, as well as a Teen rating for less bloody but still intense action, the possibility might be that the game could make Midway a lot of money. However, it can’t be the only game to do this feat. It takes more than that.

TMNT on NES… Still A Good Game Despite Nerd Boy

I just ended an hour of TMNT on the NES, somehow managing to beat the game without dying despite the fact that I haven’t played the game in years… and I mean, really play the game, not just “play for a few minutes, relish in the old memories, and then off to the shelf you go.” This was a good ol’ romp through childhood lane.

Some minor thoughts while playing through this game:

– AVGN complained about the pizza in the building (in Area 01) and how it takes much effort to get there. The solution is pretty simple: you see the fucking pizza on the first screen… THE FIRST FUCKING SCREEN. If you actually believe fighting your way through enemies for a pizza is worth, go right ahead and get it, but don’t bitch to me when you do get it and leave the building with one red block left in your life meter.

– The “infamous” underwater level… I actually managed to make it through the whole level without switching turtles. Mind you, ol’ Raph nearly bit the bullet, but I found the level to be actually easier than I thought.

– Splinter tells you to get to the blimp so you can chase the helicopter, but I always wondered how they would find the helicopter after having gone through several extraniously difficult passages. More to the point, I’d like to know exactly how the Turtles uncovered the secret Foot camp (the fifth area).

– Somehow, I managed to find the Technodrome on the first shot. I guess I jumped the gun a bit, so allow me to explain. In the fifth are, you have to search three underground caverns for the Technodrome. Only one path leads you to the monstrous tank, while the other two paths are dead ends. Back in the day, the Technodrome would be found in the hardest of these paths, but today I just took the easiest path and boom – there it was… completely by accident.

– The final area… somehow I survived this area despite being ill-prepared for this. Actually, the flying white dudes didn’t seem as frustrating now as they did back in the day. Either I’m getting better or they’re getting sloppy… probably the latter.

– Scrolls are your friend. Embrace them and DON’T LOSE THEM!

All in all, an enjoyable experience nonetheless and a difficult game conquered. Overall, I still say that this is a good game, regardless of what the almighty NERD says…

Now TMNT2: The Arcade Game? That’s a Cowa-Fucking-Piece-Of-Dog-Shit. I’ll stick with the original arcade version on MAME or on the TMNT2: Battle Nexus game.

Thank you for reading. Good night.

…

The ending rocks too.

A Relic Comes Home (and also Castle Of Dragons)

So I found myself a classic Nintendo Entertainment System.

Well, a working one.

A front-loader. Classic model.

For the most part, it works without fail… mostly. The obvious connector issue is an issue, but it works better than my dearly departed system, which means I can play Castlevania III without fail… and that’s a good thing because that game needs a bit of love that my FC Twin cannot provide.

However, instead of playing that gloriously difficult game, I’m spending my time playing crap like The Last Starfighter and Platoon. Suddenly, I get the feeling as to why my last front-loader died the death it did… even though its last game being played was Kirby’s Adventure, which is not crap.

Speaking of not crap, I also snagged the original Contra in a shop downtown. Truth be told, there’s a lot of good games there, but the prices are just ridiculous. In any case, I got that, along with another game called Castle of Dragon… the less said about that game, the better, but at least it was real cheap.

In closing, I’d like to remind you folks that Mega Man 9 is out now and I do suggest you get it… because it deserves love.

Splash has what now?

As some people may have noticed, the Rockman 9 OST has been released – brief snippets can be found on the net (it sounds good). Some scans of the booklet revealing the bosses have surfaced and naturally, the Japanese text was translated for us stupid North Americans. Nothing particularly special (although the new bosses look both awesome and weird at the same time), but then you read Splash Woman’s description, which goes something like this…

A robot who performs rescue work in situations such as sinking ships and people in oceans. Her special weapon is the Laser Trident. It fires a laser that has penetration ability.

Okay, so Splash Woman’s weapon has penetration abilities. Yes, that sounds just about right… yeah.

Um… right.

Very unsettling.

(2019 Update: The Laser Trident can penetrate shields, which makes it useful for enemies that have shields. It’s actually pretty useful despite its somewhat unfortunate descriptor.)

Another Uncommon Relic Claimed

Have managed to snag Tetris for NES. Not the widely-known Nintendo version, but the unlicenced Tengen version featuring two players and more Russian folk songs. Now supposedly unlicenced Tengen games aren’t supposed to work on the FC Twin (according to some sites here and there), but Tetris seems to work fine so far on mine.

In addition, I’ve also snagged WWF Wrestlemania Challenge for NES. This game was the sequel to the first NES Wrestlemania game and is generally a much better game overall, although I hate that you have to hold the D-Pad diagonally in order to move straight along… but I digress.

Power Rangers Game Wizard LCD Handheld Video

Written August 8th, 2015
Digging through the archives and I saw this old 2008 video where I was showing this Game Wizard Power Rangers handheld thing. It doesn’t show off gameplay, the vocal and picture quality is god-awful – I think this was taken with a digital camera that has long since left the world of the living – and the video as a whole is short, but it’s a fun lookback.

In hindsight, I kinda wish I still had this. Then again, I kinda wish this was still working.

Oh well…

A Message To Ericmansuper

This guy did a couple NES game reviews and is currently wrapping up his Wrestlemania review (spoiler: the game is bad), but people tend to complain about how long he’s taking. Guys, I wish I could be on the same bandwagon as the rest of you – bitching about how it takes months to review a game with about as much depth as a Sizzler review – but I’m not. These types of video take time to do and the conflicts of dealing with crashing software doesn’t help matters. I remember it took a good couple days to do a two-minute clip of crappy animation that could have taken less time if fucking Movie Maker hadn’t crashed as much as it likes to. Also, another thing these guys have to remember is that the people reviewing games have lives outside of YouTube. Not everyone gets paid for posting videos.

So Eric. Keep up the good work and take your time. While you have few reviews than the other guys, I find them to be much more thourough and enjoyable than the other “Big Two.”

People can check out Eric’s awesome work here.

Madden-ing Repetition And A Datel Dartel… What?

So Madden ’09 came out yesterday and apparently, I’m supposed to care.

Let me recap something here. I’m not a big football guy and therefore don’t get crazy over the latest Madden game a.k.a. the Same Fucking Game You Bought Last Year But With New Rosters That Could Have All Been Done on DLC You Greedy Madden Felating Corporate Fuck Hacks (thanks, MovieBob). For that matter, I’m not a big sports guy and don’t get crazy over the latest sports title EA manages to recycle from six years ago and releases it as a brand-spanking new title.

I got a couple sports games at best from 2003 and they seem fine for my tastes, but besides that, what’s the point? Isn’t it a bit excessive to fork fifty bucks over for a game that is not only a mere rehash of a game chances are you already have, but is based on a game that you can easily go outside and play for real? Would you really rather play hockey on a TV screen or out doors where you can get a real workout and play the real deal?

In other news, having recently bought a Datel Games ‘N Music cart, I wanted to see if I can get homebrew software to work. I found a neat package that contained a program called DS Organizer, which was a file sorting system of sorts. Okay, so that works and after fiddling through the special package I downloaded (which contained the DSO along with several other homebrews and emulators), I discovered that I can do little text files. Assuming these files can be ported to PC with no problem, I might use this to write stuff on the road during subway/metro trips. I’ll get back to you on that…

Somehow Snagged Ninja Gaiden II (the old one)

Yes, by “old one”, I am in fact refering to the the NES video game and not the recent XBox 360 version with five hundred different attacks but none of them very effective against insanely difficult opponents who seem to have ten million better attacks than you. Now, some smart-ass might be thinking “eBay” but I don’t go to eBay for my gaming goods. Mostly because I still do not have a credit card… or anything necessary to obtain a PayPal account. Instead, I scour flea markets and thrift shops for my gaming needs. Insane, isn’t it?

So yeah, the chances of getting my hands on a Ninja Gaiden original NES game (for ten bucks no less) was pretty fucking minimal… but somehow it happened. Plays fairly well, still can’t get past the second stage with the snow storm, but that’s okay. I got time… oh yes I do.

Cheap Xbox 360 Is Now Cheaper

According to gamedame.com and confirmed by Microsoft, the 20GB XBox 360 model has dropped its price to $299US. Taking the place of the old $349US price tag is a newer model that comes equipped with a 60GB hard drive. If the newer model also comes with no red ring of death, I’m sold. Of course, you still have the Arcade package and Elite consoles, which are both the same price, so… if you’ve been holding out on getting a Xbox 360, you have a cheap alternative now.