The Video Game Magazine Round-Up | JULY 1991

Video Games & Computer Entertainment | Issue 30

Hello gamers,

welcome to the first iteration of the new segment on this blog, called "The Video Game Magazine Round-Up". This is the July 1991 round-up.

As explained in this post, the idea behind this is to supplement our journey through video game history by looking at retro game magazines and looking at news topics of the time, interesting reviews of video games, columns, controversies, new tech releases and anything else of interest that any given magazine may write an article about. I could explain more, but you'll understand what this is about as you go through this post, which I hope you enjoy doing.

The magazines that will take part in this month's "VGM Round-Up" are

• Computer Gaming World | Issue 84
• Electronic Gaming Monthly | Issue 24
• GamePro | Issue 24
• Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) | Issue 30

You can read each magazine in full using the links provided. We will start this month's round up by taking a look at the Computer Gaming World first.

COMPUTER GAMING WORLD | ISSUE 84

• TAKING A PEEK: In the starting segment that takes a look at upcoming games from various publishers, one game catches the eye and immediately tells you that this an early 90's magazine you're reading. I'll just add the direct quote here because I can't describe it any better. "In the latest installment of Brad Stallion's adventures in the "Big Thruster", Dr. Dildo has penetrated the Sex Olympics." Yes, this is indeed Computer Gaming World that we're reading, a magazine with airtight coverage on computer gaming. This game/series is courtesy of publisher Free Spirit Software. "Amiga Joker" and "Datormagazin" (source: lemonamiga.com) have given the game an average rating of 14%. Other games that get a quick peak are Konami's 'Theme Park Mystery', Paragon Software's 'The Amazing Spider-Man' and Capstone's 'Trump Castle II'.
• REVIEWS: This issue reviews Infogrames' 'Continuum', Event Horizon's 'DarkSpyre', Platinumware's Lexi-Cross (published by Interplay) and Origin's Wing Commander: The Secret Mission 1 & 2.
• Continuum: This is called a "new approach to flight sims', though flight sim might give you the wrong idea, as it is rather a 3D game using vector graphics where you control a "Mobile" that bounces up and down and has to be maneuvered from one platform to another. It sports a Moby Score of 7.3 (#8,857 of 155K) and, from a quick glance, has music much more groovy than it has any right to have.
• DarkSpyre: DarkSpyre is a 3-D isometric dungeon crawling RPG. CRPGAddict has a great gameplay showcase for the game, which he compares to 1987's Dungeon Master.
• Lexi-Cross: A futuristically styled TV quiz show game that resembles Wheel of Fortune with a much more complex twist. The game is played on a 10 x 15 matrix of blank tiles, and puzzles are of four themes: common theme, literal, puzzle word and missing word. Players take turns buying vowels, exposing tiles and attempting to ultimately solve the puzzle. It has a Moby Score of 7.4 (#6,951 of 155K).
• The Secret Missions & The Secret Missions 2: Crusade IBM: These expansion packs for the widely beloved Wing Commander, $29.95 each, get a lengthy review here, though it is ultimately described as 'MOTS' (more of the same), which, considering Wing Commander is rated as the #1 game by the readers later in the magazine, is certainly not a bad thing.
• SNEAK PREVIEW: The game that receives a sneak preview in this issue of CGW is upcoming RPG The Magic Candle II, sequel to The Magical Candle, CGW's Fantasy RPG GOTY for 1989. As will likely be common for these round-ups, the best spot for reviews on these old-school RPGs is CRPGAddict, who has played through this game and given his conclusive thoughts here. The game is praised in this preview for having a lot of depth in its conversational elements.
• There is a OPPONENTS WANTED category here where 'modem gamers' can reach out to others to play them in online games, whether that is to meet face-to-face or using BBS (bulletin-board-system) services. One group "invites you to call the Wizard's Tower BBS" to find opponents. It's fascinating to see how far things have come in such a short time.
• An article discussing VIRTUAL REALITY looks at W Industry's VR systems, which come in two forms: stand-up (which allows one to walk around their room) and sit-down (where you are seated in a "console bath-chair"). For the stand-up system, you can use additional tools like a VR glove and a joystick. There is a video showcasing what was shown at the Wembley Conference Center at the time.
• CGW released a list of TOP 100 GAMES rated on by their readers. 'Wing Commander' takes the #1 spot with a rating of 10.69, and finishing up the Top 5 are 'Railroad Tycoon' (10.61), 'Warlords' (10.43), 'Red Baron' (10.41) and 'Their Finest Hour' (10.36). A Hall of Fame is shown as well, which has games that don't find themselves in the Top 100, which turns this into a confusing list. The Hall of Fame games include 'Bard's Tale I', 'Ultima III & IV' and 'Wizardry', among others.
• An interesting Behind The Scenes look at COMPUTER GAME ANIMATION and how Dynamix seeks to improve upon it. The article looks at the success of the 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' movie and gives high credit to the characterization in the personalities of the dwarfs by caricaturing their faces/expressions, the life-like action and atmospheric backgrounds. Dynamix looks to implement a similar approach for its upcoming game 'The Adventures of Willy Beamish'. 

ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY | ISSUE 24

• The REVIEW CREW covers many games in this month's issue: LJN's 'Bill & Ted', Acclaim's 'Smash TV', Ultra's 'Basewars', Natsume's 'S.C.A.T', Konami's 'Bill Elliot's Nascar Challenge', NEC's 'J.B. Harold', Treco's 'Street Smart', Sega's 'Sonic the Hedgehog' & '688 Attack Sub', Ocean's 'Navy Seals', Tradewest's 'Sneaky Snakes' & 'High Speed', Atari's 'Warbirds' and 'Ninja Gaiden'.
• Bill & Ted: A relative rarity on EGM reviews, Bill & Ted receives a 3 by two of the four crew members. Words like "un-triumphant" and "un-excellent" are used to describe this Adventure/RPG where the time continuum is disrupted and historical figures placed in wrong time lines.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: Sega's new answer to Super Mario is Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic is incredibly fast and needs to stop Dr. Eggman in his debut adventure. It receives 9's across the board, signaling a successful character creation for Sega. 
• Ninja Gaiden: This is an Atari Lynx port of the 1988 Arcade game. The game released in 1990, though the NA release appears to be in July 1991. It's a Action / beat 'em up game that is very different to the NES trilogy that would finish around the same time. It received 8's across the board.
• Here comes this issues GAMING GOSSIP courtesy of 'Quartermann'. 
• As suspected, Sega drop the price of the Genesis to combat Nintendo's introduction of the SNES, and actually adds Sonic the Hedgehog to every purchase as well. 
• Meanwhile, Nintendo will put Super Mario World in each SNES box as well. Nintendo has also announced the SNES for the West and its technical capabilities. A 16 bit chip, Sony sound board, cosmetic changes to the controller shell and a first line-up of games such as Super Mario World, Pilotwings and F-Zero are announced.
• In Atari news, don't expect any new revolutionary product to come from them in the near future, though there appear to be a wide number of games in development for the Lynx. This does raise questions of whether Atari is scaling back a bit however.
• NEC lower TurboGrafx ($149 to $99.99) and CD-ROM ($399 to $299) prices. Later this fall, NEC will also include a CD+G (Compact Disc plus Graphics) music sampler disk with their CD-ROM unit, which will give visual images whilst listening to music, like still frames of the singers.
• The SNES Times feature looks at upcoming SNES titles, which includes Konami's 'Castlevania 4' releasing in December 1991 (NA times), Capcom's 'Super Ghouls and Ghosts' releasing in November 1991 (successor of the infamous Ghouls 'n Ghouls from 1985) and Hudson's 'Super Adventure Island' releasing in Q1 1992 (a platforming game I promptly added to the TGBProject Spreadsheet)
• This is followed by a great article on HUDSON SOFT, the mega-corporation from Japan with an American-sounding name that is known for having published lots and lots of games for Japanese game systems. It explains their rise to fame with the release of 'Lode Runner', a game released for the NES in 1984, and becoming a sought-after game publisher from then on. It is a rather lenghty article covering Hudson Soft's involvement in NEC's PC Engine and then swaying away from Hudson Soft to talk about cultural similarities and dissimilarities as it pertains to Japanese and American gamers. The article later ties Hudson Soft back in by suggesting that they do the heavy lifting in requesting appropriate changes to the games before NA release and explains how this process plays out. Definitely worth a read. (pages 74-80)

GAMEPRO | ISSUE 24

• In THE MAIL, which includes reader's letters, an interesting letter is included by Jeremy Wise, who says that games at this time often feel so similar to each other. He mentions 'StarTropics' and 'Battletoads' as two of the few games that feel positively different, two games that TGBProject has reviewed favorably as well. It's in the (last) name. Derek North agrees and suggest adding more depth to characters.
• A feature on GAME GENIE is next, which is a 'line of video game cheat cartridges', which lets the player do things in games that are unintended by their original developers. Game Genie actually got sued by Nintendo earlier, but won and was able to continue to be sold.
• There are many GAME REVIEWS in this edition of GamePro. The most positive reviews are for Accolade's 'Hardball!' (Sega Genesis), Sunsoft's 'Batman' (Genesis), Renovation's 'Valis III' (Genesis), Sega's Alien Storm (Genesis), Disney's Tale Spin (TurboGrafx-16), American Sammy's 'Ninja Taro' (Game Boy) and Capcom's 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (Game Boy).

VIDEO GAMES & COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT | ISSUE 30 

• In the EDITORIAL, Andy Eddy talks about noticing a starting change in the current generation of video games from similarly designed 'scroll-boss' games (move vertically/horizontally, fight boss at the end of progressively more difficult levels) to a much more diverse approach to video game design thanks to the emergence of new competitors (EA is mentioned), 16-bit technology and Japenese software companies turning to American game-manufacturers for added inspiration.
• In the Nay section of this issue's YEA OR NAY news reports, disappointment is expressed about the FTC's decision to allow Nintendo to buy themselves out of a price-fixing suit, where Nintendo was investigated for forcing retailers to not discount the NES by threatening with slower deliveries otherwise. Nintendo will basically have to give out five million $5 coupons, which in turn will result in more business for Nintendo, which is what the article is disappointed about as well.
• In other NEWS BITS, Nintendo won an injunction against Atari to halt further marketing and distribution due to copyright infringment in their production of unauthorized NES cartridges. Video game software sales have risen in 1990 by 13.1% to $355.5 million compared to 1989 ($314.4 million). The agreed-on merger between Sierra and Brøderbund has been terminated due to disagreements. The Top 10 Video Games for February 1991 were announced by the Software Publishers Association (in terms of sales), with Konami's 'T.M.N.T.' first, Acclaim's 'The Simpsons' second and Nintendo's 'Super Mario Land' third. Awards were given out in the Computer Game Developers Conference, with Lucasfilm's 'The Secret of Monkey Island' winning Best Game Play, the game's producer Greg Hammond winning Best Producer and Origin's 'Wing Commander' winning Best Technical Achievement in a Computer Game.
• VIDEO GAME REVIEWS for this month include EA's 'King's Bounty' (Genesis, 29/40), Konami's 'Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge' (NES, 29/40), EA's 'Centurion' (Genesis, 29/40), Sega's '688 Attack Sub' (Genesis, 26/40), Tradewest's High Speed (NES, 31/40), NEC's 'J.B. Harold Murder Club' (TurboGrafx-16, 35/40), Razorsoft's 'Stormlord' (Genesis, 32/40) and Parker Brothers' 'Monopoly' (NES, 35/40).
• The A.C.M.E (American Coin Machine Exposition) this year took place in Las Vegas. Arcade games showcased were, among others, American Technos' 'WrestleFest', Atari's 'Batman - The Caped Crusader', Capcom's 'Street Fighter II', Konami's 'The Simpsons' and Williams' 'The Machine: Bride of Pin Bot'. 
• COMPUTER GAME REVIEWS for this month include Game Arts' 'Zeliard' (IBM PC, 30/40), Data East MVP Sports' 'The Dream Team: 3 on 3 Challenge' (Commodore 64/IBM PC, 23/40), Virgin Mastertronic's 'Wonderland' (Amiga/Atari ST/IBM PC, 32/40), EA's 'Hard Nova' (IBM PC, 35/40), Dynamix's 'Red Baron' (IBM PC, 36/40), which becomes the best reviewed game of the issue, a WWI flight-sim, and Draconian's 'Full Metal Planet' (26/40).
  
• Arnie Katz has a feature on the GIANTS OF ELECTRONIC GAMING, which features many different major contributors to video gaming over the past decade, include Nolan Bushnell, who is known for his flair for promotion, presentation and marketing, Jack Tramiel, who deserves recognition for transforming computer gaming to a growing hobby due to his efforts on the Commodore 64, Barry Friedman, a pioneer in multisystem-publishing, Jim Levy, who helped usher in the age of third-party publishing, Roberta Williams, who brought interactive story-telling to a new level of sophistication with the King's Quest series and many more, like Don Mattrick, Bruce Artwick and of course, Sid Meier.

Game #045 | MEGA MAN: DR. WILY'S REVENGE Review (1991) | Beaten

MEGA MAN: DR. WILY'S REVENGE (July 26, 1991)

Genre: Action, Platformer

Platforms: Game Boy

Developer: Minakuchi Engineering

Publisher: Capcom, Nintendo

Started: April 13, 2023

Finished: April 13, 2023

Beaten: Yes

Playtime: 2,5 hours

Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge is the first time that the Mega Man series moved away from the NES. This game released for the Game Boy on July 26, 1991 and unlike the main series, which was developed by Capcom, this version was outsourced to Minakuchi Engineering. In its final form, it's hard not to say that the developers phoned it in to cash in on the series popularity and the success of the Game Boy.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 1/10

There is no actual text to explain what's going on in the game. Even the manual, which in many games is your only way to get a story setup in games at this time period, only says that Dr. Wily once again is going insane and you, Mega Man, must stop him. The bosses that you face in this game are the same that you will find in Mega Man 1 and 2 for the NES.

GAMEPLAY | 9/20

The gameplay is the same as the NES games. You have a pistol and get to choose one of four levels, all of which have a specific boss at the end. Beat the boss and you get his special attack, which you can use to defeat the other bosses. Beat all bosses, and you go to the final stage, where you are faced with a boss rush before you meet the ultimate antagonist, Dr. Wily.

Unlike Mega Man 3 for example, you only have 4 boss fights before you reach the final stage. Those four bosses are the same as in Mega Man 1 I believe, and the four boss rush fights are not actually those same bosses, but rather different bosses from Mega Man 2. So, to me, it doesn't really make sense why you would purchase this game at the time unless you didn't own an SNES, because it is literally just an inferior version of those NES games.

The sprite size of Mega Man looks like it wasn't changed from the NES games, whilst the screen of the Game Boy is obviously much smaller than any TV. I don't know if this even got any design considerations, because due to your size, and the fact that there is no crouch feature, means that you will simply be helpless against many attacks from enemies.

However, in terms of difficulty, you're unlikely to have a big problem here once you figure out which is the easiest way to go through those four bosses. I started against Cutman first, which didn't go well at all. Then I tried Elecman and had a relatively easy time. The boss fight was a mess because of the lack of ways you can defend yourself and the attack of the Elecman which seemingly can cover the entire screen vertically. Somehow I beat him after a while, and once I got his attack, the other levels were pretty much a cake walk, hard to control platforming at times notwithstanding.

If you couldn't at the time get enough of Mega Man, I guess you'll have some fun with this one, but in pretty much every way, this is skippable, since it doesn't even offer new types of bosses or anything.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 7/10

There is no voice acting. Soundtrack is solid with some good tracks, specifically the Elecman theme.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 5/10

The Game Boy doesn't have the capabilities to offer much attention to detail, let alone any color in its original version, and in terms of its art design, this game doesn't really bring anything to the table. In fact, copying pretty much all elements from the NES games makes this pretty uninspiring looking, though Mega Man fans will obviously appreciate what they see on a basic level.

ATMOSPHERE | 5/10

This is a rather average presentation here overall. It definitely feels like a Mega Man game, which is the only praise one can give here.

CONTENT | 4/10

The content that is here is mostly copied or 'dumbed down' from the NES games for a lack of a better word. Its fine content (five levels, 9 total boss fights) but obviously there should have been newer, and more, boss fights here.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 5/10

The Mega Man formula is pretty fun but I think a common issue I'm going to have with it is that many bosses can't really be chosen first, if even more than a specific one, which made me question what the point of offering choice to the player is when I reviewed Mega Man 3, and the same questions apply here. And then when you do have a boss attack, it can (and did here) make other boss fights trivial. But certainly, the idea, and in parts the execution, is good.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 2/10

I guess this deserves an extra point for the fact that they successfully moved the series over to the Game Boy for the first time. But it's obviously a simple copy the previous Mega Man games.

REPLAYABILITY | 3/5

Being able to choose which boss to fight first, and having many different weapons at your disposal, should lead to more replayability than, to your average player, is available here. Unless you really figure out how to actually get through the tougher bosses without getting the other bosses weapons first, doing that doesn't really make sense. And the combat abilities available to you certainly doesn't make it easy, and especially fair, on the player to choose the tougher road.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 46/100

Definitely one of the few games in this challenge so far where I would recommend to go back and play it, though I wouldn't say it's a recommendation to all gamers like with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Super Mario World, but rather a recommendation to those who enjoy retro games, as I'm sure plenty of retro gamers actually missed out on playing this game, which to me is pretty underrated due to what it has on offer here.

Game #044 | THE LEGEND OF THE MYSTICAL NINJA Review (1991) | Beaten

THE LEGEND OF THE MYSTICAL NINJA (July 19, 1991)

Genre: Action Adventure

Platforms: SNES

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Started: April 2, 2023

Finished: April 6, 2023

Beaten: Yes

Playtime: 6 hours

The SNES just keeps delivering. Here, we have a game I heard way less about than the other SNES titles I have played already. This game is called The Legend of the Mystical Ninja and is part of the Ganbare Goemon series. The game released in Japan on July 19, 1991 and is the first game of the series to release in the West (in 1992). It doesn't move the needle necessarily in its gameplay, however in its presentation and in its content, where many other games would have to be described as lackadaisical copy-cats, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja proves to be an exciting game that tries and succeeds in offering a lot of fun activities outside of its core gameplay loop.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 4/10

You are Kid Ying (or Goemon originally), and if you play this in two-player coop, the other player would be Dr. Yang (or Ebisumaru originally). You are two ninjas who go on a heroic adventure, which has the ultimate goal of finding and freeing Princess Yuki. On your journey, you will meet many characters, both named and simple NPCs, who will each at least have one line of dialogue, typical of most action adventures of this time. Some more important characters have a bit more to say, and in addition, the end of each level comes with a quick recap of what just happened and where Kid Ying and Dr. Yang are going to next. It's simple. It gets the job done.

GAMEPLAY | 15/20

I played this on my own, so I'm going to describe this through the perspective of Kid Ying. He has multiple weapons he can upgrade towards, starting with a pipe-type of weapon, which can ultimately transform into a yo-yo with much larger reach. An upgrade is made with each time you collect a cat item. Your main combat ability is to press Attack and swing the melee weapon. Most enemies die to one hit and that's what you do for the entire game combat-wise. There are also multiple types of Judo attacks you can learn in Dojo's. These are special abilities that usually don't last long and can only be used in the zone/level you acquire them, like riding a Tiger, flying yourself or shooting lightning that kills everyone on screen. It's a simple but neat mechanic.

All zones are interspersed with tons, and I mean TONS, of mini games to partake in. There is dice rolling, a memory game, a paint game, whack-a-mole, a lottery game, damn arcade games like Gradius, a quiz show and a lot more. These require you to pay a pretty big amount of money to play, and the goal usually is to do well enough to try and come out of it with more money than you put in. I can't say I wasn't vary of how this would introduce kids to gambling at a very young age. Some levels require you to buy items for up to $1000, whilst each enemy you kill would only give you $10. So to pass the grind, the fastest way to make money would be to try to double your money with dice rolling for example. Luckily for me, a loss isn't a big deal, because thanks to the power of emulation, I can rewind and try again, but for all the kids playing back in the day, this actually adds more stakes to the gambling by locking progress behind money, so I can't say I was a fan of all of these mini games. Notwithstanding that, most levels have no money requirements and you can kill a few enemies and play a bunch of different mini games to break up the monotony, which overall is a major plus here.

Finally, the absolute highlight here for me is the variety you find in the boss fights. Just do yourself the favor and go take a look at them. The amount of creativity put on display here with the technological availabilities at the time is just insane. The graphical presentation of the bosses just puts the icing on the cake. The only bad part here is that some bosses are very difficult, and unfairly so in my opinion, which is definitely a shame, but it doesn't take away from the fact that these boss fights have been among the most pleasant I've experienced since starting this challenge.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10

There is no voice acting. The soundtrack here is truly wonderful, it has a great theme befitting a "ninja hero" adventure with lots of great tracks.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10

This is one of the first SNES games ever and the game certainly takes advantage of the 16-bit capabilities of the console by creating this colorful world that at times does lack in diversity, but makes up for it through attention to detail in many areas like the circus one. You'll find lots of environmental pieces to appreciate here, like in the bark of the trees or the water, which looks excellent for a game of this time. And as mentioned previously, the graphical presentation for the boss fights is top notch, and the same goes for the enemy design in general.

ATMOSPHERE | 7/10

The music, the art style and graphical presentation overall certainly makes for a great overall game from an atmospheric standpoint, however it does feel odd to have all these mini games present for the main character in an environment where he fights dozens of hostiles.

CONTENT | 8/10

Lots and lots of side content here to get distracted by. Minus points for not offering the same diversity in the main gameplay and for making certain levels too grinding or gambling focused.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 7/10

You find yourself in many different zones, each with a few map slides that you can walk through and fight enemies or play mini games in. In most, you are free to choose whether you want to grind for money, play those games or move on to the platforming type area with the boss at the end. You reach these areas by finding a bear guarding the entrance to them. Before you enter, he warns you that you are about to approach a "dangerous area".

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 7/10

I haven't seen any other game that offers this many mini games next to its main content, and that's certainly a unique concept. Apart from this, the game plays like a basic adventure/platformer, which is not a bad thing.

REPLAYABILITY | 2/5

Apart from trying to beat your high score, there isn't any other motivation given to play this game again. You could certainly go back and play some of the mini games you missed the first time through or use more of the Judo attacks.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 71/100

Definitely one of the few games in this challenge so far where I would recommend to go back and play it, though I wouldn't say it's a recommendation to all gamers like with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Super Mario World, but rather a recommendation to those who enjoy retro games, as I'm sure plenty of retro gamers actually missed out on playing this game, which to me is pretty underrated due to what it has on offer here. 

Game #043 | NINJA GAIDEN III: THE ANCIENT SHIP OF DOOM Review (1991) | Not Beaten

NINJA GAIDEN III: THE ANCIENT SHIP OF DOOM (June 21, 1991)

Genre: Platformer

Platforms: NES, Atari Lynx, SNES

Developer: Tecmo

Publisher: Tecmo

Started: December 25, 2022

Finished: December 26, 2022

Beaten: No

Playtime: 3 hours

I think this is the first time in this challenge that I'm playing an actual sequel, though Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom chronologically actually plays between Ninja Gaiden I and II. The game came out on June 21, 1991 for the NES. I've actually played this back in December, so my memory of the game isn't so fresh, which means this review will be a bit shorter.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 7/10

This series is known for an unusually big focus on its story at the time, giving players cutscenes that could last for minutes at a time after each level. Add a recognizable main character in Ryu Hayabusa, and I can't really not give this series a solid grade here. What has it stay a couple levels behind other story-heavy games of this time like Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and graphical adventures, is that the story is missing that one ingredient which makes it memorable. Sure, there is the conspiracy with Irene, Ryu's love interest, being killed by a Ryu Hayabusa lookalike, and sure, there are a few twists present here, but it never really goes deeper than that. You don't gain deeper insight into the mind of Ryu, the antagonist simply has a "take over the world" motive that you see everywhere and the conclusion is pretty much what you would expect. That is not a bad story overall, it's just pretty basic with a few cool little moments and revelations. For video games at the time, again, it's great to see that a game spends so much time to tell a story, but it's not going to make you think about the game after playing it, or beyond the game whilst playing it like Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for example.

GAMEPLAY | 12/20

The Ninja Gaiden series has hack & slash and platforming gameplay, and that's the same here. This is on the NES just like Ninja Gaiden II was, so there are no improvements here that an SNES release would have given. It did get released for the SNES as part of the Ninja Gaiden Trilogy years later however.

Ninja Gaiden to me felt a bit worse in terms of its gameplay than what I played of the second title. The enemy design felt worse for some, it felt like some features were missing like the ability for Ryu to clone himself, which added a different layer to everything in Ninja Gaiden 2, and so overall, this felt like a worse version of an older game, which is never great for a sequel.

In general though, the hack & slash gameplay in this series is not too bad, it just felt disappointing that this game was made for the NES again and didn't improve, which an SNES release surely would have accomplished.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10

There is no voice acting. The soundtrack is really good. I really like the fast pace to all the beats and it definitely supplemented the game well.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10

The game looks good for an NES game. The graphical presentation, both overall and in cutscenes, is absolutely a plus here.

ATMOSPHERE | 8/10

Varied environments throughout. The urgency put forward by the story along with the great soundtrack make for an exciting affair throughout.

CONTENT | 6/10

The game is just about as long as the previous one I believe, and while the game has a high difficulty overall, what's on offer here is plentiful and challenging. The gameplay is pretty much the same throughout and there isn't much else to this game though, but that's not an issue here.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 5/10

Platforming / Hack & slash sections followed by a cut scene. You do this throughout and then the game ends. Unlike many other platformers, there aren't any levels that try to mix things up a little bit, and the game's difficulty is too high in my opinion.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 6/10

I can write pretty much the same thing here as for the 2nd game in this trilogy. Its focus on storytelling makes this be a pretty original game, the core gameplay is fun, but this is a small step back overall in my opinion.

REPLAYABILITY | 2/5

Apart from trying to beat your high score, there isn't any other motivation given to play this game again.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 67/100

Great soundtrack, big focus on storytelling, which is always a plus in my book for this time period, and pretty fun gameplay makes this a recommendation. However, I'd rather recommend the second game for newcomers to the series, which actually is an improvement over the first and probably the best game in this NES trilogy.

Game #042 | BATTLETOADS Review (1991) | Not Beaten

BATTLETOADS (June 1, 1991)

Genre: Beat 'em up, Platformer

Platforms: NES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear

Developer: Rare, Arc System Works, Mindscape

Publisher: Tradewest

Started: December 5, 2022

Finished: December 6, 2022

Beaten: No

Playtime: 3 hours

This review of Battletoads comes months after I initially played the game, as I took a break from the challenge shortly after, so I might be iffy on some details in this review. One thing I know for sure though is that I was impressed by it and how, in a lot of ways, Battletoads did things I have not seen any other game do up to this point. At the same time, it's ridiculously difficult, which is counterintuitive when the developers clearly put a lot of energy and passion into creating all the levels this game has on offer.

Battletoads released on June 1, 1991 for the NES and later got released for the Sega Mega Drive, Game Gear and Game Boy. It's a beat 'em up / platformer game, was developed by Rare and just a few years ago, in 2020, actually got a reboot, but released to an underwhelming reception. One thing that is critized about the reboot is that it lacks the difficulty of the original, however, having played the original, I can't say that in itself is a bad thing, considering that this game goes way overboard with that. But if you want to reboot a game like this and take advantage of the name recognition among its fans, you need to realize that those fans most likely remember this game FOR its difficulty, so I guess that criticism is justified in that regard.

However, all my thoughts about the game you can find in my review below.

STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10

There is very little story here apart from the set-up. There are three Battletoads called Pimple, Zitz and Rash. Yeah I know, very endearing names. They are escorting Princess Angelica. Pimple and Princess Angelica find themselves kidnapped by the Dark Queen and her gang, so Rash and Zitz are sent to rescue them. Rash and Zitz are differentiated in color but in this game, there aren't really any other differences between the two. The SNES game that released in 1993 actually gives each character different powers.

GAMEPLAY | 14/20

This is a very fun game to play, at least over the first third/half of the game. Most levels are actually unique in design, in some you just beat up enemies, in one you climb down a "wookie hole" and fight enemies whilst hanging from a rope, then there is an ice level where you dodge rocks and throw snowballs, a level where you surf, where you climb snakes, where you have to quickly run through tubes while large gears try to mow you down and much, much more. There is incredible variety here, and so much creativity in the design of each level, that you just have to wonder why they decided to make this game so difficult.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Battletoads would have done just fine, if its levels were actually beatable without having to spend dozens and dozens of hours to collect the muscle memory to beat this thing. For the majority of players,, most of the levels this game has to offer will simply be unachievable, whether through lack of skill or 'willpower', though I'd rather call it thickheadedness to put oneself through the torture of perfecting every button press in order to win.

In one level for example, you have to race a rat to the bottom of the map. The rat is so fast, that you simply will not beat it unless you figure out when exactly to move exactly where in the exact millisecond to avoid losing momentum. I simply could not do it after hours. That includes using an emulator and rewinding every time to try and get it down perfectly. To think that people had to do it through trial and error and with limited continues, and the thought of that just makes me nauseous.

Somehow, I got to the next level however, which is actually the penultimate level in this game. Here, you hold on to a tire and have to run away from a lollipop-like looking circle that rushes after you. To not lose your speed, you need to move left, right, up and down through many many corners and have to press the appropriate button at the exact moment that you reach the edge of the line that you are currently driving on. Miss it by a tiny bit and you already lose speed and I think just a couple of those misses are already enough to have you be outrun and overrun. It's just brutal and a little more leeway would still have this game last many hours, but actually be beatable in a proper amount of time.

As it is, the game is incredibly varied in its level design, a lot of fun, but incredibly frustrating altogether.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 6/10

There is no voice acting. Both the music and sounds are not really anything special in my opinion as far as the NES goes. Playing this game for dozens of hours to beat it will of course burn the music for the first few levels into the players brains, and I personally found the first few songs to be the best (best being slightly above average) but the overall soundtrack to be average, if not below average.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 9/10

This game looks good graphically for an NES game. Where it is very good is in the sprite quality and especially in its animation. I chuckled the first time I saw Rash's jaw literally drop to the floor when he saw a strong enemy. But even apart from that, good animation work is omnipresent in this game and it definitely adds a lot to the presentation here.

ATMOSPHERE | 8/10

The vibes in this game are pretty positive based on the presentation. Sounds, graphical design, level design and soundtrack combine to trick you into thinking this will be a fun little affair, but then you add the difficulty to the mix, which we frankly have to as it is such a big factor in this game, and it starts to get a little weird. I can't tell if it's positive or negative weird.

CONTENT | 5/10

On the one hand, I want to give a much better score here because the content is so varied and original, but on the other hand, the majority of these levels come with the caveat that they are simply very, very tough to beat without hours and hours of frustration and/or the use of the rewind feature of an emulator of your choosing.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 7/10

I got similar feelings here as in the "content" section, however, I'm gonna be a bit more friendly here because the levels are just that creative. You gotta think though, was the design choice to make it so difficult made before the levels were designed or after? Either way, I'd like to know what the devs who designed these thought about the choice to make the game so difficult, because it really is a waste of the creativity and passion put on display here for the latter levels.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 7/10

Few games are these varied and creative during this time period of gaming, especially amongst platformers. Many devs however chose to make their games more difficult than they would in a world where making games last longer without the added difficulty had been possible.

REPLAYABILITY | 1/5

Unless you're a masochist, you're not replaying this after/if you beat it.

PLAYABILITY | 5/5

The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL | 64/100

A fantastic showcase of how creative developers were at this time in video gaming history. They pulled a lot out of the NES and then some, made each level unique, put a lot of love and attention to detail, only to decide to make this game tough as nails and not allow most of the players to even see the majority of levels the devs spent so much time on designing. Very weird, but it's clear why Battletoads has its hardcore fans. I'd say absolutely check it out, but don't be surprised if you don't make it far before you drop it.