Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Shoddiness of Mediocrity

Upon sitting down one night with my highly inspired other half, I attempted the question:

“Honey, would you like to play a game?”

“Yes!” She gleamed.

The Gamer Chronicles episode 17 World Heroes SNES review

Hey guys! Here is my newest game review, and it’s World Heroes for the SNES! Now while this is not the best fighting game by far, its still pretty darned good! Give this video a watch to find out why.

2 Decades Late

Earthworm Jim

In continuing with the Reader Request series for 2 Decades Late, I am here today with yet another request. This one comes from a good personal friend of mine, Zack Williamson. It’s kind of surprising to me that I haven’t played this one yet given how much I loved the cartoon. Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and Earthworm Jim. Those were my jam when I was but a wee Tom. I may be just a tick, and by tick I mean 2 decades late, but the time has come to review the game I should have played a long, long time ago.

The Retro Critic

Godzilla: Monster Of Monsters!

You’d think that making a good Godzilla game would be pretty straight forward: big monsters fighting.

The end.

Why complicate something so pure, so perfect?

It’s the 1998 movie all over again!

The NES did not NOT complicate things, alas, and thus we got Godzilla: Monster Of Monsters!.

The game opens with a text scroll so slow they might as well have played the very first Godzilla movie before finally telling you to press start!
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Chasing Ghosts: One Quarter at a Time

My First Crush: An addiction to dots, ghosts and a lady in a bow

The following is a series about my past experiences with arcade games and running them in MAME. I will only write about games I remember playing in an actual arcade, not games I only discovered through MAME.

GMZ

GMZ #14 – Fun and Whimsy, Trash and Treasure, Beaches and Bodies

Nintendo Decides to Remove More Options From Tomodachi Life

By Homer Foebier

Apparently not satisfied to just let their apology for their extremely poorly worded explanation as to why Tomodachi Life will not have same-sex relationships have any form of calming effect on its fans, Nintendo has announced that many more options will also be unavailable.

“As we said in regards to gay relationships, we aren’t trying to make any form of social commentary here. We’re just looking to broaden our approach and continue developing fun games that will delight and surprise players,” said a Nintendo of America spokesperson. “As we’ve said before, Tomodachi life was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game, and as such we are removing several more options from the game.”
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1 More Podcastle

87 – The Worst Game Ever Brought To the Podcast

This week, we have guest host Gaming Historian Norman Caruso! Will his YouTube Internet Stardom help him in the showdown? Listen and find out!

RetroHate

GameBoy-ed

I love the GameBoy. Rather, I loved the GameBoy Color. I didn’t have an original GameBoy for very long, instead opting for the vastly superior Game Gear & a plethora of Sonic the Hedgehog games. After the Color, I got a GameBoy Advance. Then a DS. Then a PSP. Then a 3DS. Then a Vita. Needless to say, I love my handhelds. However, if I were to be honest with myself (sometimes it’s easier than others), I’d have to say that a lot of early handheld games, particularly console ports, have by and large, sucked. For every Link’s Awakening or Metal Gear Solid there were dozens of Earthworm Jims & Mortal Kombats.
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The Retro Critic

Choplifter

Originally an Apple II computer game, Choplifter may sound like a lame play on words and look like a typical shooting game upon first glance and yet there’s actually a tad bit more to it than that.

For one thing, the game was on a home system before enjoying some popularity in the arcade and, eventually, on 8 and 16-bit consoles.

Today we’ll be looking at the Sega Master System port.

Again, upon first glance, Choplifter looks like no big deal: a right-to-left shooting game with a helicopter instead of the usual plane and/or spaceship.
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1 More Countdown

Top 10 Performances Within a Game

A show within a show is a common phrase used to describe when a story takes place within a larger story, think of Last Action Hero for example. Sometimes the smaller story is a parallel to the larger one, and sometimes it’s just a simple distraction. This is a common literary tool, but it’s also used in other forms of entertainment.

The Gamer Chronicles

The Gamer Chronicles Ep. 16: Air Combat

Hey guys, back again this week with my review of Air Combat for the Sony Playstation! This is one awesome arcade style dog fighting game! I played this over and over and over again when I was a teenager, and I just love this game even today it stands out as one of the best on the PS1 to me. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this game!

1 More Podcastle

86 – Scrooge McSkynet

Would you accept your new robot overlords so long as they played the Moon theme on speakers citywide from time to time?

The Backlog

ASCII Grip One-Handed RPG Controller Review (PlayStation)

Joe goes hands-on (er, hand-on) with the ASCII Grip One-Handed Controller for the PlayStation by ASCIIWARE. Is it the perfect RPG controller as it was promoted during its release?

Gaming Soliloquy

Road Rash: Solace In A Time of War

The senseless beating of bikers in a war with the road. Angry cops on an impassioned mission of pursuit. Fiercely expedited rice burning motorcycles with a flair for the flamboyant. These are the reasons we rash with the road. Or more appropriately, the reason we Road Rash.

The Retro Critic

Hook

Following the sad passing of actor Bob Hoskins yesterday, I thought it would be cool to look at a game based on one of his movies.

I would have gone for Who Framed Roger Rabbit? on the NES but that game’s a chore to play through and, sadly, there is no Super Mario Bros. The Movie: The Game that I know of.

If there is, I’m totally there, though!

Another film I loved growing up, which happened to star Bob Hoskins, was Hook and, of course, a few games were made based on Steven Spielberg’s schmaltzy but fun fantasy flick.

For our very own Nintendo Legend’s take on the NES game, check out his website, by the way.

The game opens with Tinkerbell (aka “Tink”) kindly blocking our view of the game (and the film’s) plot.
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N64 Connoisseur

N64 Review #11- Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Good day, fellow Nintendo 64 enthusiasts! Now, if you are that one guy over there who reads all of these reviews, you are right now saying to yourself, “Kirby? What in the name of invisible walls is he talking about? He’s supposed to review NHL 99. He said so at the end of the last review.” You’re right, I am. But then a thing happened.
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Masterpiece Microscope

Yoshi’s Island Level 3-1

Masterpiece Microscope is a series in which I choose one great video game, then focus intensely on a single specific feature of its gameplay. Upon close examination, we may gain new insight as to just how great the game is, along with a better appreciation for the quality work that went into every little detail.

Somewhere in the game-loving part of my mind is a spectrum. At one end is Formula; that is, the cold, rational mathematics behind game design. Great graphics + sound + gameplay = great game. Throw in some sensible user interface, move around a few pixels and polygons to their utmost perfect positions, maybe tweak that level design a bit, and you have the foundation for a rewarding experience.

On the other end of that spectrum is Whimsy. This is the area where conniving developers hide their giddy secrets, where artists spend hours trying to get the facial expression of a background character just right for no particular reason, where players delight at bonuses and extras. This is where we encounter the extravagantly unnecessary.

And when I consider examples of video games that contain a great many exhibits of the wonderfully unnecessary, I quickly think of Yoshi’s Island.

GMZ

GMZ #13 – UNBiased Journalism, Raiden’s New Show, and Nuzlocking

Why the WATCH_DOGS/Nexus 7 Tablet Controversy is No Big Deal

By Compère Corporativa

So apparently, Ubisoft gave a bunch of journalists at a Watch Dogs preview event in the UK a free Google Nexus tablet a couple of weeks ago. People on Twitter and in the comments on the outlets who reported about this got pretty upset. Our very own UK correspondent, Nigel Sheepbottom, was at the event and confirmed that not only did they try to give him the tablet, but he also received a bag, which he left at the event, filled with pink Crayola crayons, a hentai colouring book, marijuana cookies, a jar of marmite, personal lubricant, and, most bizarrely, a Pikachu blow-up sex-doll.

1 More Podcastle

85 – Digital Demon

Bonus points to whomever can identify the sprites used in the header image!
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The Backlog

Episode 31 – Catrap (Game Boy)

Joe introduces you to Catrap, an incredibly fun but challenging puzzle game that’s an absolute must-have for gaming on the go.