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Posts tagged NES
Contra
01040 days
by WiFi Pirate
in Reviews
There is a short list of games from my childhood that i vividly remember almost everything about. Super Mario Brothers, Goonies II, Mega Man II, and Contra. I remember where every enemy is, what weapons are pop up where, just about anything from that game. That is not only a testament to how much of a geek i am but also to how much fun this game is.
I can remember the first time i played Contra on the NES. I was at a friends house, and he had just gotten it from like KB Toys or something. He told me that it was a two player game that we both could play at the same time, and i was hooked. From the second the title screen fired up, you knew you were in for something. There they were, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean… you don’t get more tuff than those two names! Your average gamer, and especially the ones growing up now with neo-retro titles on XBLA, probably have no clue that the game actually went by another name in the PAL regions. Over there it was called “Probotector” and they weren’t humans they were, you guessed it, robots. Also… the arcade version was hard as hell.
Quick put the code in before the music stops!
Any true Nintendo Entertainment System generation kid can look at this pic, and immediately hear the title song playing in their head. I know i hear it right now writing this. The music from this game was catchy. I mean we are still talking about 8-bit technology, but still good stuff. The sound effects in this game were kinda forgettable on the other hand. Except for the gun sounds. Machine Gun, Laser, Fire-ring-thingy, and the always present ever sought after “Spread Shot.” There literally were fights started over just being able to wield this weapon first.
The story behind Contra was… well pretty much nonexistent. If you can tell me the plot of the game (with out reading wikipedia) you are better than me. All i can remember is being dropped off in the jungle, fighting my way through countless enemies, and defeating a giant alien heart like thing. Then you are treated to one of the most lame endings, as your helicopter flies off into the sunset “Congratulations! You defeated the vile Red Falcon…” who we never really told you about at all. So, thanks for that then.
How much further up?
One of the best things about this game however was the Co-Op. Running through hordes of enemies with a buddy, shooting anything that moves (and some that don’t) was just mindless fun. Made all the better by the infamous “Konami Code.” Thirty lives were more than enough to tackle this game. Hell, have fun with it. Fall off cliffs, jump into enemies, catch a bullet in the crotch, who cares. You got lives to spare.
Contra is one of those game that people play and they really don’t know why they keep coming back. It is a truly unforgiving game. Most have been a “one hit death” kind of gameplay, making it all about timing and awareness. If you lose track of where one enemies bullet has flown, you will die from the other three that you never saw. It’s campy as hell to play as well. I mean how many video games have you ever played where you are taking on swarms of bad guys while literally running on top of the blades of a helicopter, mid-flight. It was never meant to be taken seriously and that is why the majority of people love that game (and Metal Wolf too).
Giant Heart Boss... Really!?!?
Contra would go on from it’s roots on the MSX and NES to spawn more sequels and re-releases than i care to count. Contra has been present on just about every video game system in one form or another. Some were really good, like the recent Contra 4 on the Nintendo DS. Some were not so good like… well, a lot of them. One things for sure, you can’t keep a good game franchise down. I am sure there will be a Contra game on the next generation of gaming consoles, when ever those come out.
Contra will always remain one of my favorite games from the NES days. I have purchased several different versions of just that game, and its subsequent releases. Nothing beats the original though. So grab a friend, hook up the NES one more time and don’t forget to blow out the cartridge. Take a trip back to a simpler time of arcade style shooters, that will kick your ass routinely, and enjoy every second of it.
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out (NES)
01082 days
by WiFi Pirate
in Random
After much deliberation I ran through about five different titles that i might want to review. Just as i thought i had the perfect title, i get sucker punched and a star pops outta my head. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, that was the answer.
Back in the mid to late 80′s i owned just about every major release on the original NES. I would regularly play an assortment of titles when i had the chance, after school. There were however a select group of cartridges that always seemed to make their way back into the system. One of those being Punch Out.
Punch Out was one of the few titles that my entire family enjoyed playing. Granted there was no multi-player or co-op in that game, but we would take turns fighting as far as we could. If you got knocked out you had to pass the controller. To this day it still makes a child of the 80′s smile when ever it is brought up in conversation.
If i said there is a story involved in this game you would probably laugh, but there really is. It’s the story of and up and coming boxer by the moniker of “Little Mac”. He has to, quiet literally, fight his way to the top through 11 fighters to defeat the champ, Mike Tyson.
Little Mac didn’t have much in the way of moves, but he more than made up for it in drive and desire. Left, right, jab and body blow, pretty much were your only choices. Except for the Star Uppercut, that you could pull off if you attained a star from a well timed sucker punch.
Some fighters were easier to get the hang of than others. Glass Joe and Don Flamenco were pitiful excuses for boxers. However Bald Bull and Piston Honda still give me trouble to this day.
Making your way through different divisions earned you a little musical montage. Consisting of little mac training in his light pink track suit running behind your coach, Jerome “Doc” Louis. This also was the only time that you were able to get a password, should you need to restart for whatever reason.
This game was just a lot of fun no matter how good you were at it. Once you learned the timing of certain fighters you could breeze through the game in less than 30mins. Tyson on the other hand is a bitch, there i said it. In all the years that i have played this game i have beaten Tyson once… ONCE. Lightning quick speed and a one punch knock down leads to an easy TKO (thank you Mario voice in my head). Ugh! I can still hear the digital sound of Tyson laughing after he has just knocked you out.
I still play from time to time the version that is available for download on the Virtual Console, and it’s still fun. If you have never played this game, first of all, shame on you. Second you should pick it up from the VC, its only a couple bucks for some true old school fun.
Funny little side story: When i was visiting a friend (Bill) in South Carolina, i beat the arcade version, in an awesome bar…drunk! And i have two witnesses.
Shadowgate (NES)
01110 days
by WiFi Pirate
in Reviews
Back in the day, I used to rent games from a place called “Phar-More”. Probably not as big a place as I thought it was when I was a kid, but it had a big selection of NES games. I used to have my mom take me there about once a wee. She would rent a couple of movies and I would get a game. It may not sound like it but it was kind of a bonding time for her and I. Anyway they would rent you a new NES game for a week for like three bucks. It was awesome for a kid like me.
So there on the shelves along side movie greats like “Police Academy III” and “My Science Project” sit a large chuck of my NES memories. One game that i would rent about once a month was “Shadowgate”. Aside from the original Final Fantasy, and Bionic Commando, Shadowgate still stands out as a truly great game experience on the NES.
Shadowgate is about as close as you can get to the old “text adventures” on early PC. The difference being that the graphics weren’t done in ASCII. The story was still told almost as a choose your own adventure book, except that if you “died” you couldn’t just go back a chapter and try again. You were in the role of “the last great hero king” and sent to Castle Shadowgate to destroy the evil Warlock. Pretty generic, I know, but really what were you looking for on a NES cart?
The screen was laid out in three sections. You had a large viewing window on the left, the right side was dedicated to your inventory and the bottom section of the screen was your “action” options. You are told to make your way through the castle avoiding endless amounts of traps, and overcoming an immense number of puzzles (which are often times booby-traps). You gather quite a few items that will help you along you way and aid in solving some of the puzzles, the best of which is the torch. The torch, such a simple unassuming item to have, but with out it the game would be pointless. When your torch burns out you are simply dead. Nothing adds to the anxiety of a game like the music picking up pace and pitch when each torch begins to slowly sputter and die out. Ugh… that sound is still stuck in my head.
This game was. for lack of a better term, hard. I never and have never finished the original version. I would always make it to what I would say is the halfway point and either have to take the game back, or just get completely stuck. I still own the game and still have not been able to finish it. Though not for a lack of trying and dedication to throwing down my (mom’s) hard earned money to rent it over and over again.
There were several games released after Shadowgate, like Deja-Vu, and the Uninvited. They attempted to capture the same audience as Shadowgate but I don’t think they had much of a following. There was a sequel that came out in the late 90′s for the Nintendo 64 called “Shadowgate 64: Trials of the four towers”. I rushed out to get it based on the simple fact that i loved the first one so much. To my disappointment the game was really bad, almost to the point of not even mentioning it at all.
The original however, will live on in my memory (and my old game library) as a great game that should not be missed if you have the means to play it still. The opening music at the front gate still comes up on my iPod from time to time and it never gets old. So if you have a chance and the ability to play it, do youself a favor and check it out.
Mega Man
0
I don’t think that myself, or any other gamer could consider themselves “hard core” and not talk about a Mega Man game. This post isn’t limited to just one game, more so the entire series, or at least the NES classics.
These games were not meant for the likes of people that feel pain. People that like forgiving games that will treat you well and allow you a break, not in the cards here. This series will punish you every chance it gets, and makes no apologies about it.
Split second timing, lightning reflexes, and nerves of steel, all required to even attempt starting these games. At no point will the series let you breath a sigh of relief, well except maybe the menu screen.
Some of my earliest memories of the NES involve “The Blue Bomber”. I can remember playing MM1 at a neighbors house, and being totally jealous that he owned it, where I was forced to rent. I could only make it through about two levels before I would get kicked off. Now that I own the VC version of the game, sadly my skills are no better and I still can’t do much further than three levels. Mega Man two and three seemed to be a bit easier on my nerves, both of which I can still beat to this day.
Besides the fact that the first game kicked my ass on a constant basis I kept going back for more. Maybe it was some sick desire to have sweaty palms the entire time the controller was in my hands. More than likely it was the fact that the game was, in all aspects, brilliantly designed. Levels were designed to keep you on your toes and on guard at all times. The music still stands out to me as the best ever produced for an 8-bit system. Granted the bosses started to get a little ridiculous closer to the end of the NES era, but not as bad as the series would get in the later console days.
Mega Man has seen the release of upwards of a hundred games, spanning almost every system known to man. Recently he tried to make a retro come back to current gen consoles with a throw back to the good ol’ days. Mega Man 9 released over the summer to lukewarm reviews and sales (on the download-able front). What the old gamers knew about, the new kids would find they didn’t like. “Hard Core” indeed. I knew better and avoided the latest release, basically because I don’t have the time to memorize entire games anymore.
If you are a true fan, or just want to become one, do yourself a favor and get MM2 in some capacity. I can assure you that you will not be disappointed, just be prepared to die, A LOT!
“I have the key to One-Eyed Willie…”
0
Wow, where do i begin with this game. Of all the games I played on my NES, this one probably has the most fond memories for me. That includes other big titles like Super Mario Brothers, Final Fantasy, and River City Ransom.
First of all to give you a little more back story on myself, I have always loved the movie version of Goonies. I have literally watch the movie upwards of triple digits. I can give you just about the entire script word for word with no assistance. I really don’t know why I latched onto the film like I did but it is quite the obsession. So I vividly remember getting this game the year it came out for Christmas. From the second the title screen dropped in and the first stage started with that rendition of Cindy Lauper’s “Good Enough” I was totally hooked.
I played the game every moment that I was allowed to and probably have an entire notebook somewhere of all the passwords that I would acquire. That’s right kiddies, before there was hard drives, or even memory cards, you had to do things the hard way. Beat it in one sitting or get a pad and pen and write down your code, or you were back to square one. Anyway…
I don’t think I really ever cared that the game was called “Goonies II” and I never saw the first game, that was released in Japan only. Nor did I seem to care that the story line of the game was a complete fever dream of the movie. I mean really, three Fratelli brothers, and ice world, and… AND a mermaid named Annie!! None of that mattered to me. I was just happy to take on the in game persona of “Mikey” as he went on a quest to save his friends from the evil Fratelli’s.
The game took you to strange locations not seen in the movie, like the Fratelli’s Attic, the “Underworld”, a strange Ice level, and the underwater level where you had to rescue Annie. You would collect interesting items along the way. Some were weapons, like the slingshot, the bomb, and the boomerang. Some items helped you out in stages, like the spring shoes, the helmet, and the candle. There were also other random NPC’s that would help you along the way too. There was the old man, and the old woman that would either give you info or items. There was the Eskimo and how could I forget “Konami Man”. Best thing about the NPC’s was that if you hit them either with a hammer or your fist they would usually say “OUCH! What do you do?”. That is just some great engrish there.
I absolutely loved this game. I can’t say enough about it. I have played it recently through ROMs on my PC but it just isn’t the same. I need to have Nintendo release it on the Virtual Console, then i can get the full pleasure of playing it again with a (mostly) original controller. To me this game hasn’t aged a bit. Sure the graphics aren’t “Next Gen” but who cares. This game is timeless to me. So if you still have an old NES sitting around your house and a couple extra bucks, you almost owe it to yourself to play this game if you never did in the 80′s.
