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The Fair Shake

Space Station: Oblivion

So this past weekend I just saw the new Tom Cruise movie (Did I really just type that?) Oblivion. Without giving away the plot, It’s a very stylistically designed mind ‘eff’, set in a futuristic sci-fi dystopia. I came away from viewing it questioning a few of the bigger moral questions the movie posed, but I enjoyed the movie. As of this writing, there is no video game tie in. This is probably a good thing, considering how most video game – movie tie ins end up. However, for gamers in the US, there already IS a game called Oblivion. Actually, it’s Space Station: Oblivion. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with the movie. In fact, in the UK, the game is called ‘Driller’.

The Retro Critic

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary

The search for a fun Star Trek game to play and review was long and eventful, finally I settled on this little outing mostly due to the fact that it’s actually pretty decent and works as a kind of 4th Season for The Original Series.

The good thing about this game is that, in the CD version anyway, the original cast of the series actually voice the characters and add a certain authenticity, nostalgia and validity to the whole thing. This really does feel like you’re playing through further adventures the old gang would have undertaken.

The Retro Critic

New Ghostbusters II

When it comes to the Game Boy, I’m something of a purist. Although growing up squinting over those tiny colorless pixels might just be the reason why I currently wear/need glasses, I still love that unique feeling of nostalgia that occurs when I play a game on it.

When it comes to the Ghostbusters movies, however, I’m not one of those who are married to the first film and see the sequel as a dead raccoon the first film gave birth to through its ass. I love Ghostbusters II with its evil paintings, its goofy art dealers, its river of slime, its Nintendo-controlled Statue Of Liberty… what’s not to like?!

The Ghostbuster games have the unfortunate reputation of being terrible. This is mostly due to that first NES/Sega Master System release indeed being absolutely awful. But there ARE good Ghostbusters retro games out there. My favorite being Ghostbusters II on the Sega Genesis: fun, cartoonish visuals, crazy new villains, a good choice of levels you can approach in different ways, cool game overall.

Ghostbusters II on the original Game Boy, I’m happy to say, is another good one. The game begins with a cut scene showing adorably tiny Bill Murray and adorably tiny Sigourney Weaver walking around with their baby in a pram.

Virtual View

Mario’s Tennis Review

When I got my Virtual Boy for Xmas, I could finally get down to creating some reviews relating to the console, the first of which will be a review of the VB’s pack-in title, Mario’s Tennis. When the red machine came in the mail, one of the games it came with was Mario’s Tennis which would become the first entry in the Mario Tennis series which still continues today with Mario Tennis Open on the 3DS, which came out back in May of 2012.

Age of Empires 2: HD Review

Writing a review on an HD remake of a game is a tricky thing. Do I review the game itself, or do I judge the merits of it’s HD port from a technical level? In a way, I hope I can do a bit of both.

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The Fair Shake

SimCity Classic

As noted in previous Fair Shakes, I’m a fan of simulation games like Civilization. I like being able to modify a setting and see how things change over time. With the latest debacle and blunder from EA regarding the newest iteration in the Simcity series, I thought I’d go back to the beginning, where Simcity started. Before online play, constant DRM, and that guy from Workaholics doing commercials pretending he’s a mayor. Simcity. Or, as it’s been retconned, Simcity Classic. Released initially in 1989, Simcity came about as an afterthought from programmer Will Wright, who was developing maps for the game Raid on Bungeling Bay. Wright had more fun drawing maps than playing the game, so he went about trying to do something them. Simcity was created for the Commodore 64, but was released (4 years later) eventually for just about every system at the time. Ports range from the Japanese FM Towns, to the SNES, with even current releases under iOS and Wii.

The Retro Critic

Earthworm Jim 2

After looking back at the first Earthworm Jim game on the Sega Genesis for Review A Great Game Day, I thought that I might as well check out the sequel, a game I actually always found superior to the original.

Earthworm Jim 2, also on the Genesis, takes what made the first game great and just… makes it better.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the first game but I was never a huge fan of that bubble-sub water level and those mini Psy-Crow space races did get somewhat repetitive after a while. This time around, the game feels much more consistent and I recall back in the day playing it and completing it way more often than the first game just because it had a better overall flow to it. Not that it’s that much easier than the first game, it’s still quite challenging in places but you can get through the game far more smoothly than the original Earthworm Jim.

Review A Great Game Day – Solaris (Atari 2600)

When I first heard of Review a Good Game Day, I immediately knew what game I would be reviewing. From the first time I ever played Solaris for the Atari 2600 to today, I’ve always believed this it is the best game ever made for that system. Here’s why:

Background

If many of you aren’t familiar with Solaris, even those among you who did grow up with a 2600 in the house, it might have something to do with the fact that it was released on July 25th, 1986, which means many of you had already been helping a plumber save a princess on your NES for nearly a year. Luckily for me, who only got an NES in 1989, and gamers everywhere, Douglas Neubauer (the man behind the massively influential Star Raiders, to which Solaris is ostensibly a sequel) was still programming games for it.

Why would anyone bother to make a game for a dying console? Apparently, while Neubauer doesn’t know why Atari bothered releasing more games for the 2600, he was working only a few miles away from Atari’s headquarters at the time, so it looks like he just figured “Why not?” He had pitched the game years earlier, and Atari wanted it to be called “The Last Starfighter” as a tie-in to the movie; however, one week after they flew him down for a screening of the movie, Jack Tramiel bought the company and pretty much laid everyone off. To Neubauer, it looked like the end for Atari and video games. Yet, two years later, he gets a call and just like that, Atari bought the game we now know as Solaris.

The Fair Shake

Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure

Apologies for my absence this past week. You see, I attended PAX East, as I have for the past three years. Unfortunately, this year, I discovered what ‘PAX Pox’ is. Ugh. As I type this I’m still making diplomatic contact with small life forms that I cough up from my lungs. It just so happened that while I was laid up on the couch, my girlfriend discovered Boogerman for the Super Nintendo. I’m not sure if she was implying something or not.

The Retro Critic

Mickey Mania

Now I’m not one to usually play AND promote Disney games but, you know what? When Disney games are good, they are sublimely good.

Take Aladdin on the Genesis for example: I played that game so much, the movie almost seemed lame in comparison after a while. And I loved the movie! Very rarely have I played a game based on an animated feature and felt it captured what made the source material great but Aladdin was spot-on.

I’ll get to that one another time, though.

In the meantime: let’s talk Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures Of Mickey Mouse.

The Retro Critic

Plan 9 From Outer Space

“Greeeeetingssss” indeed.

Welcome to the weird and wacky world of obscure-Amiga-games-it’s-crazy-but-awesome-they-even-made. A world where nothing makes sense and things that shouldn’t be are but a world you can appreciate nonetheless.

Yes, there is a Plan 9 From Outer Space game based on Ed Wood’s iconic Z-list movie about plastic UFOs on strings, silent undead weirdos and cardboard plane cockpits. The game was released on the Amiga but also DOS and, being a fan of Ed Wood’s demented attempts at filmmaking, it’s one I was certainly very happy to discover.

But I was also curious: could a game based on a bad movie actually transcend the inherent silliness of the original source material and blossom into something…

Dare I say it…

Good?

The Retro Critic

The Wizard Of Oz

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high, there’s a game that I played once and it made me cry…

Not really, I just wanted that opening line to rhyme.

Anyway, let’s take a look at The Wizard Of Oz on the SNES to celebrate the release of Oz: The Great And Powerful, yet another James Franco ape-centric feature.

The Fair Shake

Sword of Fargoal: VIC 20

Some time ago, I asked “What the EFF should I play?” with regards to my Commodore 64. Sadly, I still have not ‘played’ anything on the machine. On a related note however, last week my long awaited “Mega-Cart” arrived for the VIC 20. Let me back up a bit. Sometime in 1980-1981, the VIC 20 was released by Commodore Business Machines as a replacement for their PET computer. A computer with a real keyboard, 5K of RAM, a cartridge port, an Atari joystick compatible port, and a low sale price in 1980 of $299 (compared to the Atari 800 which was close to $1000 in 1979!) the VIC was, as Commodore founder Jack Tramiel put it “for the masses, not the classes”. It sold several million machines, preceding the Commodore 64 by two years. It was quickly overshadowed by the C64, but it does still have a dedicated fanbase.

The Retro Critic

Crude Buster

After taking a look at the somewhat obscure movie-sequel-turned-good-and-bad-games Predator 2, let’s get back to basics: demented arcade beat ’em ups.

More specifically: Crude Buster or… rather Two Crude Dudes.

Though born in the arcade, we’ll be looking at the Sega Genesis version of the game which bears the latter title.

Much like, say, Wolfchild, Two Crude Dudes is not only great thanks to it being a genuinely good game but also thanks to just how overall nuts it is! The plot sees two muscly dudes with silly Guile-style haircuts, U.S. mercenaries, take on a terrorist organization called “Big Valley” and reclaim a post-apocalyptic New York City.

The Retro Critic

Predator 2

You know how some movie sequels split audiences into two halves? With one half claiming the follow-up film is an underrated gem and the other just not going for it at all?

For example, I really enjoy the likes of Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and Ghostbusters II but they’re not for everyone. When it comes to Predator 2, however, that’s one I just didn’t get back in the day…

Like, how did we get from Arnie “getting to the choppa,” having his pals get picked out one after the other in the jungle to a weird Danny Glover flick about voodoo practitioners and drug lords in the city?

Whatever, I’m not here to talk about the movie. Need to re-watch it anyway, if only for Gary Busey. No, I’m here to talk about the game!

The Fair Shake

Armor Attack

Vectrex: The very name sounds futuristic, sort of like Valtrex. It doesn’t luckily (or unfortunately, sorry) treat herpes, because it’s a unique system released in 1982 initially by General Consumer Electric that is known as being the only home vector-monitor based game console. The system had a brief retail run, cut short due to that dang video game crash back in 1984.

The Retro Critic

Die Hard Trilogy

Welcome to the party, pal.

Movie-based games very rarely achieve what they endeavor to achieve. Either they end up being rushed, cheaply made and clunky as hell or they just miss the mark completely.

Or they’re good but that’s a rarity.

Remember Ghostbusters on the NES? Sure you do, I’ve mentioned it many times before. Talk about not capturing the essence of the source material…

The Fair Shake

Street Rod

So you like to race (I do, as judging by previous articles, but you probably figured that out by now). You’re tired of Need for Speed. You want something a little more in depth, with more things to do ‘under the hood’. I present Street Rod, which was released for four computer systems in 1989. Atari, Commodore, Amiga, and PC. Sorry Apple, you can keep playing Oregon Trail.

Aliens versus Predator

If you’ve been keeping your eye on gaming news this past week, you’ve probably seen that Gearbox Software managed to outdo themselves with the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines. While Alien based games haven’t always been disasters, recent releases may make you think otherwise. However, at the turn of the century, a lovely game called Aliens versus Predator was released. Read on to learn about just how scary this classic was.
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The Fair Shake

Solar Jetman

Usually, Paul is the one who delivers the weekly Fair Shake column. However, blizzard-related conditions have knocked out his power! So, lacking electricity and the means to effectively deliver content over the Internet, we wish Paul well. In the meantime, I, Eric Bailey, Editor-In-Chief of this here crazy collaborative retro gaming features website, will be filling in. I did this once before, with my Fair Shake treatment of Kid Icarus on NES.

This time, I will by sticking to the NES, my specialty, again, and hoping to reduce my dependency on commas in the coming paragraphs. At any rate, I chose something a little more obscure this time: A 1990 diamond in the rough from Rare called Solar Jetman.

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