Zombies Ate My Neighbors - Sega Genesis

If you are looking for an obscure yet incredibly awesome game, have I got one for you. From its title to its never-ending array of unique environments, enemies and weapons, Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a game that even to this day is one of a kind. I’ve literally been playing this game all week and I can’t get over how much fun it is. Let me explain how it works.

You start the game by selecting a character. You can either play as Zeke (left controller) or Julie (right controller). The game plays like a top view run and gun. The object of each level is to save your neighbors from getting killed by hordes of stereotypical horror-movie monsters. There are ten neighbors scattered around each level for you to save, and in order to exit the stage you must save at least one. Seems simple right? Well, here’s the kicker. You continue the next level out to save the same amount of neighbors you saved in the previous stage. So if you were only able to save five of your neighbors in stage one, you will only be able to save a maximum of five neighbors in stage two. If two of your neighbors get killed in stage two and you saved the rest to complete the level, then you will start stage three only able to save a maximum of three. There are 48 levels in the game (not including the 6 bonus stages and the credits stage), so you can see that it is imperative to save as many neighbors as you can in each stage, otherwise its going to get really difficult down the road.

Now, 48 levels may seem a bit extensive considering the objective is the same in each area, but let me assure you it’s not. The creators at Konami put together such a large amount of differing environments and so many bizarre weapons at your disposal, it’s virtually impossible for you to get bored. You will be fighting off monsters in so many places: rural neighborhoods, shopping malls, ancient pyramids, medieval castles, vast deserts, business offices, toy factories and many more. Another awesome aspect of the game is the amount of monsters you’ll be seeing. The title is slightly misleading; you definitely won’t be saving your neighbors from only zombies. You’ll be fighting werewolves, vampires, huge blobs of goo, mushroom plant monsters, sand worms, three-story-tall babies, ants the size of cars, axe-wielding demon dolls, chainsaw murderers and almost every other horror flick monster you could dream of. How will you be killing these creatures you ask? Well let me tell you...

The weapon selection is simply amazing. In a way I like to think of it as a retro Dead Rising. You literally can use almost anything you find. You are initially armed with just a water pistol, but you can later freeze enemies with fire-extinguishers, mulch creatures with a hand mower and even blast creatures with a bazooka. And if that’s not crazy enough for you, you could pummel your enemies with dinner plates and kitchen utensils, blow up zombies with popsicles, pelt your foe with tomatoes, or even drink a special potion which transforms you into a monstrous killer with an explosive punch. You can also plant decoys to attract enemies and collect many other items that act as homing missiles against the hordes. Now it’s not just the existence of the weapons that is awesome, it’s the way you can use them. The game is very well supportive of the horror movies that it references. For instance, the vampires can be killed instantly with the use of the crucifix item. The werewolves also only need to take one hit from a piece of silverware for them to eat the dust. Speaking of cool weapon uses, the bazooka can change the environments a little bit, since it is able to blow through locked doors and walls...frickin’ sweet.

You’ll find that there is a port of this game on the SNES, but if you ask me, the Genesis port is far superior to its Nintendo counterpart. For one thing, Nintendo, being a family oriented gaming developer, demanded that the game have no violent content and no blood or gore. So, anywhere where there should be blood is replaced by green or purple slime. Sure it’s cute, but it’s just not authentic. The Nintendo version also has a button you need to press to bring up your radar, which can be a pain in the butt. The Genesis version keeps a transparent radar on the screen at all times. This makes for much easier neighbor searching since you won’t have to be constantly pulling up the map. Also, the amount of sprites on the screen is just better supported by the Genesis’s hardware capabilities.

So, is this one obscure enough for you? I guarantee almost anyone would be pleased with this game. Oh, and did I mention it’s two player compatible? A lot of teamwork aspects in this mode, but I’ll let you discover that on your own. This game is a little tougher to find and will probably run you anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. I got mine cartridge-only and it cost me 15 bucks. Is it worth it though? Hell yes. If you see this one anywhere, I would definitely pick it up. With over 48 levels to play through, you’ll be enjoying this one for a long time.

Next Review Coming Soon!

I'm having a few minor difficulties getting this post up, so check back tomorrow night for the review of...

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Zombies Ate My Neighbors on the Sega Genesis!

Contra - Nintendo Entertainment System

I’m not going to lie, when it comes to some of the “greatest” games on the NES, a lot of them are overrated. Tetris (unless it happens to be the Tengen version) fails to have a two player feature. Zelda II is an excellent game, but sometimes the hit detection can be ridiculous. Duck Hunt is a great arcade concept game, but the zapper isn’t exactly the easiest to work with sometimes. My point is, even the classics have their flaws. Although, there is one classic in particular that I can truly say contains no flaws in my mind; that game is Contra.

I guarantee that anyone who has owned an NES has at least heard of Contra. But for the off chance that there are some people out there who don’t know about this masterpiece, let me quickly explain. Contra is a classic side-scrolling run and gun with a twist. You play as a commando fighting through an endless wave of enemies until you reach the end of the game. A simple idea, but there are so many things that set Contra apart from any other run and gun game ever made.

The one hit kill:

One of the most talked about aspect of this game is its classic one-hit kill system. It doesn’t matter how an enemy hurts you; if you get hit, you’re dead. Three lives per level and three continues per game; once those are out, you’re done. Contra is widely thought of as being one of the hardest games ever made almost solely based on this idea. I’m willing to come out and argue that the game really doesn’t get too incredibly difficult until stage five, but nevertheless the game is not meant to be beaten in one sit in. You need to learn how to dodge enemy fire swiftly and easily. You need to plan ahead in later levels so you don’t find yourself getting hit while dodging another enemy. Near the end of the game you need to be on your toes at all times. This game really knows how to build its difficulty as you advance. Bosses get tougher, enemies become more frequent, and power-ups become harder and harder to achieve, which brings me to my next aspect of the game.

Excellent weapon scheme:

What would a run and gun be without a good array of power-ups to collect? Contra does an amazing job at letting the player decide what power-up they want to use. No one weapon is the best in this game. It all depends on how you want to play the game. The machine gun has the fastest bullet rate and is perfect for constant shooting and plowing through enemy lines. The flame thrower has a great amount of power behind it and hits a great amount of area directly in front of you. The spread gun can make shooting far off enemies a lot easier with its extended range, and the laser gun has by far the strongest attack power, however, you cannot rapid fire with it, making it hard to kill quick enemies with. No matter what weapon you decide to go with, you will always have advantages and disadvantages with you. This is a really hard aspect to integrate into run and gun games, but Contra pulled it off brilliantly.

Level design:

Contra definitely went above and beyond to keep the player interested in the gameplay. The game starts off in a typical side-scrolling perspective, but once you make it to the second level, you are faced with a change. The perspective changes to a three dimensional aspect in which you move your character towards the background as if running through a tunnel. This forces the player to bring out their depth perception skills adding a new element to the game. The third level goes back to side-scrolling, but instead of going from left to right, the player now must scale a water fall, going from bottom to top. The forth level returns to tunnel view and then the final four levels go back to classic left to right. The last four levels keep the player pulled in by putting them into excellent environments. You play through a winter icecap, an industrial plant, a mine cart warehouse of sorts, and finally an alien lair. Simply put, it’s breathtaking.

Two Player:

Finally, if you get sick of this game on one player mode (which it will take you a long time to do), you can always grab a friend and play it on two player mode. This is where the game really shines bright. In two player mode it is just as simple as it sounds. Both players play through the game just like they would on one player, but this time they are both on the screen at the same time. This means that you must strategize with each other to achieve the goal of beating each level. If one player goes too far and begins to leave the other behind, the screen won’t scroll and this leaves both players vulnerable to attack from the sides of the screen. This mode of the game calls for great communication to be executed well. Both players must be quick on their feet and destroy the enemy as efficiently as possible. You can take it from me, this game gets really intense on the two player mode.

Famicom Version:

One last thing I’d like to say about this game is that if any of you have a Famicom and are looking for great Japanese counterparts to American releases, Contra is a great one to look for. The graphics in the game are amazing and the bullets, movement and enemy attacks are really fluid. Also, the music is so much more intense, it’s almost unbelievable. I have no idea why they made the game so much better in Japan, but they did, and if you get a chance, find this game on the Famicom and give it a whirl.

There you have it, my take on a classic game on the NES. If for some strange reason, you have never played this game before, then what the hell are you doing?! Get off your ass and kill some alien scum!

Toy Story - Sega Genesis

Disney has brought us many great movies in the past; movies that not only are entertaining for the children, but are equally entertaining for the adults. They always had that way of incorporating both child appropriate and subtle adult humor to their films. This is one of the biggest reasons why the movies are as popular and loved as they are.

Disney is also responsible for releasing some of the best video games of the retro era. From great NES titles like Darkwing Duck, The Little Mermaid and DuckTales, to great 16-bit games like Bonkers and Goof Troop, Disney never ceased to impress the retro world. These games can also be looked at as being as popular as they were for almost the same reason as the movies can. They were perfectly developed for both the child and adult player. The games consisted of simple gaming ideas that a child could get into fairly easily, but as the games progressed, the games became increasingly difficult and required a greater bit of skill that could pull in the older audience.

As I said, there were obviously many great retro Disney games, but there is one game in particular that I feel stands on a pedestal of its own. Based on one of my favorite movies, Toy Story on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis is in my opinion, one of the most diverse and innovative games released in part by Disney. Toy Story can roughly be called a platformer, but in all reality, you can’t categorize this game at all. The game consists of seventeen stages (sixteen on the SNES), only five of which could be labeled as true platformer levels.

The other types of levels that the game presents the player are overhead driving levels, in which you need to collect battery packs to keep your RC car from running out of juice while driving through sharp turns and fast straight-aways. There are two constant motion avoidance levels, where you are constantly moving from left to right (either on Roller Bob or Rex) avoiding enemies coming from behind you, in the air, and on the ground. The final level in the game actually acts sort of like a 2-D side scrolling flyer, where you need fly Buzz and Woody to avoid on-coming traffic, stop lights and trees. Of course there are also the occasional boss battles that can be pretty tricky and definitely require a bit of skill and precision. There is also a 3-D first person level with Doom style graphics in which you need to rescue lost aliens inside the depths claw machine (this level is only accessible on the Sega Genesis port). This incredibly diverse dispersion of levels makes sure that the game will never get old as you play through it. You’ll never find yourself getting bogged down by the same old enemies in the same old environments. It really plays itself like seventeen smaller games inside of one larger compilation, which keeps the game really interesting.

Since the game changes styles so often, it makes it a really difficult game to master. Most popular games that Sega was releasing at the time consisted of the same gameplay from start to end. This allowed the player to become better at the game as they progressed through each level, learning from their mistakes and correcting themselves in future stages. But this game does not allow for that, because once a style of gameplay passes, it’s over and either won’t be coming back for a few levels, or won’t be coming back at all. This forces the player to instantly switch mindsets and play the game in a new light after each passing level. So to say that this game is in any way easy, would be ludicrous (I myself have yet to complete this game. I’ve only made it to the sixteenth stage on the Genesis port).

I think it is also worth mentioning that the game’s levels follow the movie’s plot very closely, and don’t seem to stray from the original storyline at all (The game even incorporates a nightmare style boss battle with Buzz that was actually a deleted scene from the original film). Any portions of the movie that may be skipped in the gameplay are present in the in-between-level text scenes that continue the story from the wherever you had last left off. This allows the player to relive the movie as if they were actually piloting the whole film.

If you have never played this one, I highly recommend you do so. You can pick it up at any retro game store or pawn shop for less than five bucks, guaranteed. To close this review up I can safely say that Toy Story on the Sega Genesis is one of my favorite games on the system and quite arguably one of the most ingenious Disney games ever made.

Mario Clash - Virtual Boy

When I was young and I began discovering arcade games like Donkey Kong and Q-Bert, it didn’t take me long to realize that I had entered a completely different style of gaming.  These were games that were deceptively simple; games that had extremely simple concepts, but required a lot of skill and patience to master.  Of all the arcade games that were released onto the Nintendo Entertainment system, I always feel like there is one game in particular that is commonly forgotten, and that game is Mario Bros.

Unlike other arcade games at the time, Mario Bros. allowed the player to build strategies and offensive/defensive maneuvers rather than recognize patterns in level progression and layout.  It also allowed for much more replay value because of this.  The game is incredibly well put together and allows for great diversity in gameplay, yet it is only in two dimensions.  By adding a third dimension to the mix, the gameplay could reach a whole new level.  With that said, this brings us to this week’s game to review, Mario Clash.

Mario Clash is simply a revamped version of Mario Bros. with an added dimension to the play field.  You play as Mario, and you need to scale the 99 levels of the Clash House Tower and clear it of the baddies that have taken over.  Just like in the original Mario Bros. in order to destroy your enemies, you need to hit them with shells.  Since there are now three dimensions on the playing field, the variety of ways to destroy the enemies has evolved.  Some enemies now need to be attacked from the side by throwing a shell at them from the foreground to the background or vice versa.

The game also extends its variety of gameplay by adding a whole load of new enemies.  Alongside Spikes are now Thornys, Big Boos and even Pokeys.  Each enemy has a different way it needs to be destroyed, whether it’s by attacking it from the side, head on, or a combination of the two.

Mario Clash really does a good job mixing the three dimensional capabilities of the Virtual Boy into the gameplay.  You need a certain amount of depth perception to aim towards the front or the back of the playing field.  This makes the game slightly more difficult to master.  The game is just as deceptively simple as its NES counterpart, even to avid Mario Bros. players because of these added third dimension skill factors.

Depth perception is also a key factor in the coin collecting bonus stages.  Coins will come hovering towards the foreground where you control Mario.  You need to collect the coins that come towards the screen, but this isn’t as easy as it sounds.  The coins are placed at varying heights when hovering towards you, which makes it increasingly difficult to perceive where the coins are located.

On top of the excellent gameplay Mario Clash presents, the game’s graphics are done very well.  You won’t be fighting to make out enemy faces or graphics in this game.  Also, when you lose all your lives, a giant three dimensional Mario head presents you with you final score.  This Mario head is a perfect example of the three dimensional capabilities of the system.

In conclusion, Mario Clash is a great continuation of the Mario Bros. arcade game and I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed that classic NES experience.  The game unfortunately lacks a two player mode, but since the Virtual Boy wasn’t around long enough for a link cable to be manufactured, a two player mode wouldn’t have been feasible anyway.  The other problem with the game is that it was only released on Virtual Boy and can’t be found on any other console, this makes it really hard to track down [This game definitely deserves a Virtual Console release].  However if you have a Virtual Boy and don’t own this game, I highly recommend picking it up.  Chances are you won’t be disappointed.

New Post Coming Soon!

Since Monday, I have been moving into my new house in La Crosse, and it has been a lot more work than originally perceived.  Unfortunately, this week's review will be slightly delayed.  Although I will leave you with this: the review this week will be on a platform of the "portable" variety.

The review should be posted sometime on Thursday, so be sure to check back tomorrow!