The Brothers Duomazov

Atomic Robo-Kid Special, a blast 'em up that has never been the recipient of many accolades and that I was never in any great hurry to play, turned out to be more engaging and enjoyable than I'd expected. That's not to say that it's fantastic, and some people might find that its flaws damage it beyond redemption.

But even the players who'll ultimately hate it will probably find ARKS likable in many ways initially. It's a pleasant (if not technically impressive) game aesthetically. The music is cutesy but has an edge to it to ensure that it remains appropriate for the soar-and-blast action. Appealing color choices; bits of simplistic-but-nice-looking parallax; and large, chunky sprites make the visuals more than just acceptable. The bosses, whom you wage war against in exciting walled-off showdowns, are absolutely enormous, and while the first two are pushovers and the third has but one little trick up his sleeve, the last two can really wreak some havoc. You also duel with other robo kids in entertaining confrontations that I find strangely reminiscent of the He-Man vs. Skeletor face-offs that take place in the Atari 2600 Masters of the Universe game. Your own flying trash can is an endearing little bot, and he gets to explore both straightforward strips and intricate labyrinths.

That's all nice. What isn't nice is the control scheme, which practically cries out for an additional button (the same trigger is used for both strafing and switching weapons). Also, the old combination of gigantic hitbox and large projectiles never makes for smooth gameplay, and the fact that you'll often find yourself in very tight corridors doesn't help matters. Some of the mazelike areas can be a bit boring, especially when they force you to undertake the laborious task of tunneling through walls. And while the variety in level design helps keep things fresh, twenty-five boards is just too many. It's not that the levels require much time--many can be completed quite quickly, in fact--but that it can be annoying to reach the Big Arm Boss in Area 25, lose, and then have to fight through the twenty-four previous stages again in order to get another crack at him.

I didn't mind replaying those stages a few times (at least not all that much), and beating the game felt quite good despite the crummy ending. Whether or not you'll agree with me that ARKS is worth buying will likely depend on how willing you'll be to replay the early boards in order to get good enough to beat the last few and how forgiving you'll be of the lousy control setup.

Some of your foes emerge from the floors or ceilings in efforts to surprise you.

The visuals impress at times with large enemies and appealing backdrops.

You probably don't want the bosses to get this close to you (unless you're trying to nab a good screenshot, of course).

You'll encounter some interesting folks in the maze areas.

The last two bosses are pretty tough.

Ballistix

~ BALLISTIX ~

NEC / Psygnosis

HuCard

1991

Upon acquiring Ballistix, I immediately challenged my then-girlfriend to a series of matches. She defeated me handily--an unexpected and unacceptable result. I tossed the chip aside, feeling that it had proven itself to be junk.

Still, when I'm not actually playing the game, its underlying concept seems kinda neat. Participants in the proceedings zip about the playfield while blasting a "puck" towards their adversary's goal with cannon shots. It's essentially a crazy, chaotic, futuristic take on air hockey--and air hockey rules.

So I occasionally give the chip a chance to prove my initial impressions wrong. While the action can be somewhat enjoyable for a minute or two, the novelty wears off quickly, as the silliness of the whole affair becomes apparent. The game is just too random and wild to provide a worthwhile experience, as a typical round consists of both parties flooding the playfield with marble-shots until the puck just happens to get batted into one goal or the other.

If Ballistix were a mini-game on a chip featuring a number of similar simplistic, futuristic events, I'd probably be more tolerant of it; but it really isn't of much value on its own.

Very few aspects of this "sport" are commendable, but the "ref" is pretty cool.

Someone explain to me the relevance of the art on the left to the game on the right.

One setup seems much more complex and cluttered than the other, but the game plays like a wild mess either way.

What a dumb-looking playfield.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Bonk's Adventure

Atlus/RED/Hudson Soft - 1990 - U.S.A.

HuCard

The TurboGrafx mascot in his first-ever adventure. Bonk's Adventure is a great game in every respect, not to mention having been quite original back in the late '80s when it debuted in Japan.

The gameplay was really pretty innovative back in the day and offered many new twists on the "Mario" platformer standard. Bounce enemies on your head consecutively for bonus points. Use your teeth to scale otherwise impassible walls. Eat giant pieces of meat and go temporarily insane. One great thing about Adventure is that it knows how to have fun, even at its own expense. The characters you'll encounter, including Bonk himself, are virtually caricatures.

Adventure features fantastical cartoony graphics, and while they really set the mood for the game, they look pretty dated anymore, especially stacked up against later 16-bit contenders. The second game in the trilogy introduced a new graphical style (still cartoony) that holds up a little better than the look featured here. While Bonk's Adventure might have a dated visual aesthetic, it still looks miles better than primitive 8-bit junk.

Music, on the other hand, is top-notch and stands the test of time well. Even today the Bonk's Adventure soundtrack holds a place as one of the best works from the 16-bit era. This game is a prime example of why I prefer the Turbo's soundchip over that of the Genesis or SNES. The songs are just so warm and fluid, and the instrumentation lends itself perfectly to the gameplay. There's no way the Genesis's abrasive FM could accurately replicate Adventure's warm tones, and a SNES interpretation would undoubtedly prominently feature flutes.

Levels in Adventure are a bit more linear than those in the later journeys, but that's not necessarily a bad thing-- gives Adventure a flavor of it's own. Bonus rounds have always been a staple of the Bonk games. Adventure's bonus rounds are admittedly a little weaker and lesser in number than those found in later episodes, but fun nonetheless.

My two favorite bonus rounds in Adventure.

Bonk's Adventure also features one of my favorite video game bosses of all time-- T. Ractorhead the 3rd.

A very solid & consistent game, bested only by part 3 in the trilogy. That said, Adventure possesses a certain magical quality unparalleled by any of the four sequels and is more than deserving of a place on the gaming shelf of any self-respecting TurboGrafx-16 player.

Altered Beast

~ ALTERED BEAST ~

NEC Avenue / Sega

HuCard

1989

Before purchasing PCE Altered Beast, I took a look at screens of it lined up against caps from the Genesis version, and the comparisons left me disappointed with (and very critical of) the HuCard's visuals. So I was absolutely amazed to find that said visuals are extremely appealing when viewed firsthand, mainly thanks to the gorgeous colors the artists employed. Some of the foreground objects and backgrounds that I'd scoffed at ended up looking not so bad onscreen. Even without parallax scrolling, the PCE version of AB looks fantastic. In fact, the colors add so much to the experience that I'd say I prefer the graphics here to those in the Genesis game.

I was also shocked by just how wonderful the tunes sound. This was crucial: one of the main reasons I'd bothered to hold on to the practically worthless Genesis cartridge for many years was that it has quality music--music I believed would be stronger than whatever the PC Engine's sound chip could manage to crank out. As it turns out, the tracks here sound very rich, "lacking" only the shrillness and tin of their Genny counterparts.

And then there's the challenging gameplay. Altered Beast in any form is a mechanically simple beat 'em up at heart (for those unacquainted with it, your bruiser punches and kicks his foes prior to evolving via power-ups into a stage-specific beast with remarkable attack capabilities), but studying the ways in which the levels play out is necessary here if you hope to make it through all five stages. I had to memorize the exact locations where my enemies would appear and determine the most effective techniques to utilize against them. And the bosses in this version require that you come up with strategies; some schemes I devised actually made me feel proud, as each of the big beasts can really put up a fight. Yes, this is an Altered Beast that actually makes you think.

But make no mistake about it: this is rough-and-tumble stuff. While the Genesis AB was the laughingstock of every seventh-grader back in the day because of how easy it is, the PCE version will pummel you over and over again. Using the directional pad rather than a button to leap might not feel intuitive to players weaned on the Genesis version (although I was surprised by how well it works). Much more of a concern are the enemies who'll knock you to the turf and stomp on your helpless avatar until your life has been drained completely. Frankly, the game can feel cheap at times. Be aware of what you're getting yourself into before you buy it. Heck, I love it and I've mastered it, but even I get pissed at it every now and then.

But I can forgive it for its annoying aspects. In fact, it's a version of Altered Beast that I can actually say I own and enjoy for the game itself and not just for reasons related to nostalgia, which wasn't the case with the Genesis cartridge (which, by the way, I came to view as expendable and eventually disposed of, as the PCE rendition endeared itself to me to such an extent that eighteen years' worth of Genesis-version sentimentality had been effectively obliterated).

Familiar enemies and backgrounds look extremely nice in this version.

The simple interludes exhibit no overt alterations.

Creatures most of us know well. The eyeball guy who goes down so easily in the Genny version is a bastard here.

The first boss battle is as far as most people get. I kid you not.

Only the hardiest of champions will live to evolve into a golden werewolf and be able to finish the job.

Alien Crush

~ ALIEN CRUSH ~

Compile / Hudson Soft / NEC

HuCard

1989

I wasn't particularly happy the day I lugged Alien Crush home with me. I had journeyed to the local game store with the intention of picking up the famously intense Blazing Lazers, but some other Turbo-owning bums had apparently beaten me to the punch, as Compile's blaster was no longer in stock. A pinball game, regardless of the theme it was built on and the embellishments it was adorned with, seemed like a rather poor substitute. But it took only a few minutes of ball-and-flippers-style outer-space-creature annihilation for AC to ingratiate itself with me, and presently I find it anything but shameful that this game and its followup, a duo of thematically intense pinball titles, were among the system's most well-received releases.

There's no question about it: both of the Turbo's Crush games rule. But Alien Crush has a certain appeal for me that the formidable Devil's Crush has never had. Nostalgia plays a part in this; I had partaken in eleven years of alien obliteration prior to setting foot in DC's den of iniquity. Also, I prefer the music in AC, repetitive as it may be. The two selectable compositions--one a fast-paced torpedo of a tune and the other an eerie distortion-laden dirge--prove to be very memorable numbers, as do the bonus-round tunes and the brief Game Over track. Most importantly, AC feels better to play, mainly because I don't like the fact that DC's playfield scrolls as the game's camera follows the ball. I know I'm in the minority here, but the "blinking" that takes place in AC as the ball crosses over into a new section of the field has never bothered me; and I like being able to see my flippers at all times, especially when the ball is making a fast trip south.

I wouldn't try to convince anyone that Alien Crush is the better of the two games, as it isn't. Speaking as "objectively" as I can on the matter, Devil's Crush is superior in almost every way, and it's the one I recommend first to people who haven't played either. But if I'm in the mood for a quick, fun thirty minutes of video-game pinball, AC is the title I reach for.

Little alien critters emerge from the brains and cocoons you bust open. Of course, there's another way to come across these creatures: the big purple guy occasionally spits 'em out at you.