Gaming off the Beaten Path

The Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon Hi Kids!  Today we are going to talk about a very serious topic...drugs. It’s no secret that drugs are bad for you.  They are illegal, unhealthy and expensive.  Of course, that isn’t going to stop people from using them, but just because someone else does something doesn’t mean you should too.  Even if they can make you see or feel something completely out of the realm of ordinary, the long and short term effects can be devastating.   Besides, there are plenty of ways to experience what its like to be high/tripping/rolling/etc. without risking your health.  One of those is to play “The Mystical Ninja.”  The best way I can imagine this game’s development is that a team of folks at Konami hacked the source code of Super Mario 64, ingested one or more types of some unknown illicit substance, watched a documentary about Japanese culture and made a video game. And, despite all of its technical fl...

This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most important game consoles ever released...the Nintendo GameBoy.  It may not have looked liked much, but this little gray beast with monochrome graphics stuck around for 14 years, outlasting the NES, SNES and N64.  Hell, the GameCube came out before Nintendo stopped making these things. They came out with all sorts of iterations, including the smaller and better lit GameBoy Pocket and the GameBoy Color, which, you guessed it, played games in color.  There were also about eleventy billion accessories, maybe three of which were actually useful. I wanted to review a GameBoy game in honor of the milestone, but most of mine have been lost to the ages.  The GameBoy was great to take on the road with you, but the small cartridges were easy to lose in all sorts of places.  I didn’t want to play any of the obvious ones, so, Star Wars it is. This is a straight up port of the NES Star W...

So today, we are going to talk about a fighting game. This game is the second entry in a well known 90s tournament fighter franchise.  It’s sort of a sequel to a sequel, with extra modes and the ability to make the action a little faster.  It features a colorful cast of characters representing various countries, each with their own unique fighting styles and special moves.  You all know which one I mean. Of course, I’m talking about World Heroes 2 Jet!  What? Street Fighter II Turbo?  Never heard of it.  In all seriousness, World Heroes was one of many tournament fighters SNK produced in the 90s. Fighting games were incredibly popular in those days, but most companies stuck to one or two franchises.  Capcom had Street Fighter. Akklaim/Midway had Mortal Kombat.  SNK had World Heroes.  And Fatal Fury.  And King of Fighters.  And Art of Fighting. I think  there are others that I am forgetting, maybe I’ll p...

Mega Man Battle and Chase I wasn’t going to continue with the Mega Man games, but I just had to write about this one.   Who knew there existed a Mega Man kart racer?  I sure as hell didn’t.  After the last two weeks, I decided to fire up Mega Man X legacy collection, as I wanted to play through X3.  Upon finishing it, I accidentally unlocked Battle and Chase without realizing I had done so. Apparently it was released in Japan and Europe for the PS1, but never made it to the U.S. That usually means one  or more of the following: It completely sucked OR was absolutely incredible It’s overflowing with Japanese cultural references that wouldn’t translate It’s rrrreaaaaaaallllllly hard Yet none of those things are true here.  It’s an okay game filled with familiar Mega Man characters that’s a little too easy for its own good.  Battle and Chase is fun, but its very flawed and kind of simplistic.  There are some real...

Come on, you knew this was coming.   I telegraphed this a mile away last week, but we are going to talk about the other forgotten member of the X series, Mega Man X6. I mean it can’t be all bad.  Its predecessor was a solid, if underwhelming entry into the franchise, with some fun boss fights making up for less inspired level design.  So maybe X6 was the one that put it all together?  Did it combine the great level design and soundtrack of X4 with the outstanding boss fights and more polished graphics of X5?  In a word, no. Despite not necessarily being a “bad” game, X6 is among the worst in the entire Mega Man franchise (both old school and X games).  I would certainly say its the worst X title and if you were to bring the older games into the fray, the only one I disliked more was probably Mega Man and Bass.  Again, this isn’t some jank franchise that has been around for five years, so its a different set of standards, but...

I wanted to start this review by waxing nostalgic about the Mega Man franchise, but I realize I already went that route in the “Command Mission” review, so there goes that.   For such a mainstream series, Mega Man sure goes off on its share of tangents.  We already discussed one of those tangents, but there were so, so many others.  But perhaps the most forgotten games are the middle entries in the X series. Look, I think most gamers agree the first two Mega Man X games were classic.  The third is considered a solid effort and the original cart is a SNES collector’s item, while the fourth received middling reviews in its day but has since been recognized for the quality game it is.  Mega Man X7 is pretty much universally hated (though not by me, I could probably write an entire post on it) and X8 is thought of as a return to form.  It’s weird, even though the latter two games have a reputation, its almost as if non mega fans do...