Review A Bad Game Day

Many years ago I swore to myself that I was never going to touch this forsaken game again. In a previous blog post I spoke on my original hopes/kid-like innocent expectations and even my journey of sorts to obtain this "gem". Close to 20 years later and thanks to Nintendo Legend, and his brain child of "Review A Bad Game Day," I have once again braved the ugly pits of licensed game hell. Geeks, nerds, others…without further blah blah I give you…Muppet Adventure: Chaos at the Carnival

Looks safe enough right? Just another N.E.S game right? Wrong! Growing up as a huge Muppet fan, seeing this game (of all places) in my mothers boring Avon catalog nearly caused me to like Avon. Actually buying the game was my first major problem, fresh off buying me a very very overpriced at 74.99 (but worth it) Super Mario Bros 3, my parents were not going to get me this so soon after.(Avon catalogs run their course and some merchandise is "one time only" like this game) Faced with the task of raising 59.99 plus the crazy Avon tax I was unable to work out in my brain, I started to make unholy deals, take out IOU's, kiss family ass etc, few days before the last orders were being taken my $72 bucks plus change were being spent on this magical game.....which was IMHO my first crappy N.E.S purchase.

"Choose your torture"

Upon first fire up the game actually froze. I calmly took out the cart, blew into my N.E.S, put the cart back in, and was met with the publisher logo, title screen, and an option to choose a level. Wow non linear!, oh glory! Starting from this point on I will review the game on my present thoughts vs. the past as those memories beyond the title screen are too painful. Choice of what "Ride" to go on first is the game's early attempt to sucker you into a web of awful gameplay, design, sound, shaming of a great license, and pure mind numbing moments. Divided up into 5 levels, the game gives you, as I had mentioned, a choice of what level to start on (Minus the final level) which I can only guess the developers wanted you to think were full games on their own, for the sake of this review I will review each level on its own as I did brave the whole fucking game this time around. First time ever beating this, last time ever touching it.

"Stuck in stool..er log heaven"

River Ride AKA Kermit's game.
Someone who was involved with the game must have been a toobin fan, as this "game" is basically a very crappy attempt at toobin as best as I have ever been able to tell. While the gameplay attempts to be simple and to the point in terms of moving Kermit out of the way of obstacles in the river, the execution of this is HORRIBLE. Controls feels "floaty" at best, hit zone/detection is awful, plus hitting a log somehow pretty much almost ensures you'll hit another obstacle unless your timing is nanosecond accurate. Visually this game is pretty bland with almost no actual animation (just scrolling), color use is awful (though theme fitting) even for the N.E.S., and last but not least your ears will hate you the most in this game out of all the cart has to offer. Poor Kermit.

"That a cherry or a bomb?"

Car Course AKA Animal's game

Bumper cars, how can you honestly train wreck such a great concept of bumper cars and the best Muppet ever Animal?  First off we have "Physics" that pretty much feel more at home in a slipping on ice game, crappy hit detection (constant in this cart), and shitty collecting of flags to gain points/lives...shitty because they pretty much lead into more hits; yep all a formula to ruin the concept. Car Course has the worst control of the games, visually it's probably the most accurate of the bunch but that's not something to brag about. Musically we have basic chip tunage but the sfx are just ear wrecking. UGH

"Swollen Tip Space Folly"

Space Ride AKA Gonzo's game

......................Ok here is where I am honestly lost. Space Ride is probably the most "sound" game in the bunch. Visually it is nothing to write home about, musically it is just ok, and gameplay is the best on the cart, so why am I lost? It's a freaking Asteroids rip off! Sure, unlike Asteroids you can "move" (scroll) the screen and things do not break up into smaller chunks, but trust me if you play this you will tell the minute you shoot, rotate, and thrust that it's basically Asteroids -1. Space Ride is honestly the only so-so offering on the cart which is a sad thing since it shows that an established title's gameplay had to pretty much be surgically implanted plus changed up one notch to be able to create the only sanity on this cart. Gonzo…I love you.

"Fuck this game"

Amazing Maze AKA Fozzy's game

Mazes…ok I guess mazes have been in gaming as far back as Adventure or even further back, plus all the mazes have an ice cream treat-like theme, WTF? Fozzy is probably one my most loved Muppets so in the past I was super happy to try his game first. Presently, I was hopeful that maybe I was wrong about this game. Visuals alone can turn you crazy here; they have a really awful patterning to them, which makes me wish this game was as bland looking as the others. Game play? Where? Not in this game! It honestly feels like hit detection is pretty much plainly hit or miss at times, especially more annoying since you must collect a few thing to move on. Musically this only ranks behind the River Ride game because the music fits the game better. Boring Boring Boring! Rat in the hat is cool though very creepy.

Pic Lost In Laptop Wipe

Dr. Grump AKA The Cliche Castle Level

Honestly if this game was not a total abuser of the retro formula of remembering patterns/enemy placement it could easily be the best game on the cart. Logically four other things keep it from being the best offering: firstly the fact that you must unlock the "right" to play it, secondly the patterns you must remember are pretty much (again) to get past the crappy hit detection, thirdly the animation for Kermit in this game gives you the wrong impression on what you have to do in the game, and lastly at this point you really won't care for the fact that if the whole game was more of this but with some polish it may have actually been ok. Graphically the game shines best here in all aspects but again—too little too late, best offering on the cart bar none. Musically it's nothing special, and gameplay like previously stated is super past the abuse point of patterns. Also, how does throwing hearts at a final boss to defeat him make sense? I thought it was Dr. Grump not the cowardly lion. Fuck this game

1/10.... the 1 is for effort

Big Shout out to my pal Amy Steen for her help in making this effort easy to swallow for non retro people too plus for catching many issues I was unaware of!

See you next year!

XBOX 360 Collection (Forever Growing Post)

Will write up an intro later.

1942: Joint Strike

Being a retro nut especially since I grew up with capcom games this was bliss for me. 1942: Joint Strike is a above par reboot of sorts to the 19xx series by capcom, visuals are fair, sound IMHO was perfect, presentation very proper for the theme, game play is a notch or two under the previous 1999 entries into the series since the combat reflects more on the 80s titles. Honestly speaking the title is a bit underrated if you ask me especially with other shumps like Ikagura on XBLA but 1942: Joint Strike has a lot of soul that no one should neglect in any game. 7/10

Blurb: This game cost me a pizza once as I honestly dropped my controller while playing it in a bit of a rage fit, then in the process knocked over my pizza, which my pups very happily cleaned up.

A World of Keflings

Currently playing this title somewhat actively, must say I am enjoying it more than I ever thought I was going to enjoy it. Originally bought it to go along with some promo swag that went along with this title, Raskulls and the very awesome Ilo Milo. WoF is a rather cute take on the "god/overlord" quasi genre, while I will give the devs props for trying to make the game deep as possible, at times the game just feels like it throws new blue prints at you just for the sole purpose of it. Customizing the towns to such a great degree is great it feels more of a requirement vs choice. Small nitpicking aside though the game is very fun, visually original/above par, audio is fitting with gibberish making it that much entertaining, game play is again a bit too busy at a few times but it's not annoying. 8/10

Evil thought. While I know it's a family title I honestly wish there was a way to at times actually slay a kefling lol, guilty pleasures of kicking em just leaves a teasing feeling of actually being able to kick em into the sea, a lumber mill, or into the pick axe of another kefling!

Aegis Wing

Who wants a free game? Aegis was a freebie (still is) thanks in part to some nice folks who just want to make games, people usually (not always) link free to "Crappy" but Aegis Wing is a fun not always easy shoot em up (shump) which also can be a great way to entertain tipsy pals or family up to 4 at a time lol. Aegis Wing's learning curve unlike a few other shumps is somewhat fair, action is never overly aggressive in bullet count as the more popular J-Shumps or love letter to J-shump types, but can still make you flex your reflexes a bit. Co-op locally is where Aegis Wing shines so much though, from the "Voltron" like union of the ships (sans robot form) to the natural reactions of playing hectic screen filling games with people, more than make up for a few rough nit picks in the control flow. Visually it's not super no.1 winner but effective, audio falls short minus the sfx which i feel are more than proper, game play is almost almost close to silk smooth but feels a bit off, however the mechanics are super sweet, co op really brings that all out! 7/10

Blurb: I always thought the ships somewhat look like the space winnebago in space balls. I know...I'm fucking nuts but can you blame me?

After Burner Climax

Oh sweet jesus! Those who really know the gamer in me know that I am a HUGE Sega fan(retro specially)!, Huge arcade fan..so combine the two into something like this and I literally have total bliss. Left and Right I always hear how "short/repetitive" most Sega Arcade titles are, but I honestly feel people ignore the fact that arcade titles were never meant to have 20+ hour campaigns etc (something which not all "AAA" home console titles can pull off as is....) but are only meant to give you a challenge. Top score runs are the original achievements/trophies. Visually After Burner Climax is a bit in the past but the fast frame rate, visually cool art style, particles etc still get the job done well. Sega KILLS me on the audio, their legacy for cheesy tunes but yet fitting in a "camp" way is very evident here, but the sound effects easily drown out the 80s style cheesy action OST. Gameplay the game is easy to get into, somewhat challenging to master (cheat users go f*** yourself) and controls can't be any smoother/perfect for this game. 9/10

Note: SEGA can never do no wrong.....well except for that Golden Axe Beast whatever game.... 2 or so years ago..FML

Alan Wake

I have yet to play this.... Bring on the hate mail!

Reason for purchase: Hype, Love Remedy, hoping to actually play it when I got it.

Reason for not playing it: Not really sure, but for a fact I knew it was in my must play queue but I think either an injury (which put me in a rut) or maybe some fighting game kept me from it.

Will I play it?. Yes hope to get through this prior to playing ..... (wait for it)

Alan Wake's American Nightmare

Yep I want to play these in order at some point soon just for the hell of it to be honest, as I have been super super close to just playing this first

Reason for purchase: Impulse buy, plus I honestly want to play both title in the series very soon back to back

Reason for not playing: I want to play the original Alan wake first, plus like always other game take center stage but I may crack soon.

Will I play it?: Of course ...or so I say for the purposes of this entry!

Alien Hominid HD

Now here is a game that amazes all the senses a gamer has, eyes for visuals that represent the creators vision, game play that will punish you for being lazy, but never irritate you (unless you suck), musically savy for it's theme, full of heart all thank to the imagination of Dan Paladin and company. Silky smooth mechanics, amazing art style, super fitting music, learning curve nearly perfect, enough variety to warrant multiple play through's plus the co-op? Awesome. XBLA I salute you for hosting this gem even though I was a first time console player on the cube, plus was a fan of the original flash version. 9/10

Blurb: Playing this game on the cube after a few too many beers, I was starting to have this huge craving to be able to use my playstation 2 controller on my cube, thankfully for 30 bucks more I just got the ps2 port :)

Aliens vs. Predator

Now here's a toughie, one can argue I have actually played this game since it went into the console, I was actually playing but to be honest not even 10 minutes into the intro/tutorial portion. So........ I will say this actually goes into my pile of "have never played"

Reason for purchase: Saw it on sale for 19.99 early into it's release time frame, plus the monkey likes the franchise. I'm a nice guy like that at times /snicker PLUS It's a Sega Release

Reasons for not playing: Just another victim of the backlog plus I was a bit burnt out on fps game at the time as well, look very fun though.

Will I play it?: Maybe, just happy it has a home vs being in the cheapo game  bin loop at gamestop or w/e not :(

Alone in the Dark

Not a fan of the series, no time spent on the game.
Reason for purchase: Two reasons here, one it was 7.99 new plus at the time I felt the atari name may go belly up so felt like owning a bit more of the history of the once mighty company..... lastly monkey is a fan of the series, he even spent time on the original pc/psx titles.
Reasons for not playing: Not a fan of the series, not a fan of what I've seen gameplay wise
Will I play it? Nope

Altered Beast

One of my absolute favorite 80's/all time Sega titles. Gotta say this game was full of cool things to make any young boy/girl go "ohhhhh, ahhh, whoa" or make any gamer proclaim that this game was cool. Morphing into mythical beasts while waiting to see what "nasty" or "scary looking" monstor were coming up next was so great that it almost got you to forget about the not so tight mechanics, cheap hits (many brawlers then were guilty of this)... but hey YOU WERE MORPHING. Great visuals for the time, aka big sprites, color variey, cheesy yet at the time great music score, more than fitting sfx (voice over crazy for the time) mostly spot on (minus the hiccups and cheap hits) mechanics all gave Altered Beast a place in many gamers hearts. 7/10

Genesis Port: YUCK. I honestly just....when you tout that your 16 bit "power" brings the hits home .... I feel that this claim has to be accurate for the money. Levels were shorter, gameplay felt looser, more cheap hits, etc etc. Sure N.E.S ports were far from spot on but I rarely saw as many "cuts" as in this "16 bit power" port......

Amy

Amy at first looks brings back memories of games like the psx era Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Clock Tower games. Going past just looking, we find a game that calls back to the mood/structure of those titles but brings a few twists to the mechanics of the games it pays much homage to. Praise to it's styling, roots, direction and all, one can't  really ignore a lot of the visual issues, as in a reality while graphics rarely break a game's charm/hear for me in these types of games the visual aspect has to have enough "umph" to grab you, while that is VERY present in this game, it's not without flaws. Controls are "tank" like in the sense that you must adjust your direction manually etc as you move which many people always hated. Amy's sound score is IMHO perfect for the genre/game, not exactly new or groundbreaking, but great stuff here. I enjoy the game, but I won't lie it's a love letter to the genre but falls short of bringing any new life into the classic style of the genre. Amy's story, presentation and obvious breath of fresh air into a genre that is quickly turning into a running with guns fest more thank makes up for it's technical short comings. 8/10 (4 point gain for story/presentation alone)

Army Of Two   (Awesome Co Op Of  8BillionFive Megatons Series)

Army of Two has always been met with harsh views on it's crazy "mechanics" or basically on the fact that you can't outright just rambo through the game unless you KNOW how to properly. Say what you will the game was pretty much born (yes born) to be a co op only affair, screw the AI you must call in a real living breathing and hopefully trustworthy partner (or in my case a drunker sailor mouth partner who kept making some lewd male to male remarks ...in game males). Graphically the game was on par with many other shooters while not in a particular a standout, I felt it did a great job making you feel like you were in the actual conveyed areas animations were a bit stiff at time but what was there was workable. Soundscore I felt was a great point in the title with each gun having somewhat slightly more realistic sfx than other shooters but not real real, the music I felt just really rang of "bro action" movie to a max which is perfect for the game and in general a great score. Mechanics... most people hate the damage system (it's not all that fair per se) but when you combine it with the aggro system on the FOCUS on Co-Op it works out to be a challenge vs a chore however the aiming at times is seriously off not to mention control flow seems tight at times (not the right tight..haha) but much better than many other craptastic titles out there. Fun here with a bro....boring without a bro. 7/10


Bro Joey blurb: being able to "praise/punish" your bro was a cool little extra plus I felt the emphasis on bro to bro help was just enough to make me get all teary eye....../nut punch

Unibrocorn's blurb: The homo eroticism in it is fucking hilarious

Note: For some games I may tack on thoughts by others. I can't promise they won't be tasteless but I approve

Army of Two: 40th Day (Awesome Co Op Of  8BillionFive Megatons Series)

More bromance, bigger guns, more bling, better mechanics, a few tweaks to controls, still rather frustrating challenge, a few morale testing story points, bigger explosions plus worse polygon clipping than in the first title which.. I'll explain later. What we have here is a perfect example of how to STICK to your fans, improve on the few noticeable (but missing a few minor ones) flaws, giving players more of what was right plus wrapping it all in a nicer looking nicer sounding package. Visually I feel the game was a rather good leap  vs the first game especially in the feel of the art style, sound again is spot on, but I feel the overall presentation/menus were a step back somehow. Game play the game is sure at least 3 steps past the first but the still at times off aiming, plus mostly unchanged aggro system (a few touches were in order I feel) still have this title falling short of AAA. Great Co Op game once again much better much more of the same but once again, solo play is boring. 8/10

Bro Joey blurbs: I honestly feel the last section of this game was more than responsible for me nearly tossing live bombs at my co op pal, I are evil for that but man we were at it for 4 hours.

Unibrocorn's Blurbs: IMO, relatively difficult and still wondering where the hell all those cats are (and what they are for). Heavily armoured enemies a real pain in the ass, which in the end makes it extra rewarding. Still all the good homo erotisicm from Army of 2 #1

Now for your viewing pleasure........

Photo by me

"Looking Further In"

Photo by me

"telescoping the issue"

Photo by Unibrocorn

"Come get it big boy"

Photo by Unibrocorn

"Waiting on the big bang"

Mom! That's the Arcade Game..ON NINTENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Part 1

Arcade games were always something cool and new in the 70s, 80s and most of the 90s. Quarter sucking, at times cheap, but always fun and addicting games filled the halls, rooms or whole buildings full of these cabinets of  AWESOME. Problem was after you left the arcade you were left wanting more, and you had 2 base options... spend/seek more money, or hope there was a port for your home pc or console. Atari, Commodore, Coleco, Nintendo, they all had different arcade port offerings but the N.E.S would for a very long time reign as the console that had the widest variety of ports.
N.E.S ports were known for either being as direct as possible, having some re-tooled game play, a good sized overhaul to make the games more fitting for home use (more levels etc) or were just games "based" on the "arcade smash" which usually meant a massive retooling / re make of the game concept. Let's explore a few of the arcade to n.e.s ports that I feel where awesome whether or not they are direct ports or "based on the arcade game". Soon enough I will do a post about some of the dung pile arcade to N.E.S ports that were also out there, but today I want to talk about the good stuff! Prior to going on I'd like to add that I have played and completed both the arcade and N.E.S ports of all the games mentioned in this post today, so no talking out of my ass here.



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game (Known as "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin OP" in EU Regions for personal home pc ports, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles 2 the Arcade Game for the EU/PAL N.E.S, Known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in it's Arcade Form and as TMNT 1989 Classic Arcade on Xbox Live, PS2/XBOX ports via unlock feature in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 Battle Nexus for those consoles)

-Arcade, NES, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, XBLA, Virtual Console Arcade-

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a runaway smash cartoon series, excellent toy series, awesome comic book series and it was also a crazy chaotic arcade game by Konami one of the arcade leaders and favorite 3rd party developer/publisher in the N.E.S era. Four player Mayhem, great soundtrack, smooth action, and just some un-nameable cool feeling that you were kicking so much ass were some of the perks that made this game so great, but yet the N.E.S was stuck with a average generic adventure game featuring the Turtles. Soon enough hungry N.E.S gamers would get their wish with a port of the arcade TMNT game called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game! and it came with free pizza in the form of a coupon for a free personal pizza from pizza hut, fuck ya!

TMNT2TAG was no mere direct port, while trying to be as true to the game as possible Konami (ahem sorry..ULTRA... post on this later)knew that many a game before it had raised the bar on how to do arcade to N.E.S ports and Konami delivered. New Levels, redesigned enemy placement to avoid technical issues (slow down), slightly more difficult enemies to make up for the mass amount of enemies that would rush you in the arcade game, new bosses, and slightly tighter control! Awesome as all this was the only bummer dude type moment came from the lack of 4 player support in this cart but at least we had a two player option which worked well and I am sure was only due to again technical limitations. Pizza eaten, hours left behind, a few "ACK No's!!" later you were left feeling that while the odd smells, the loud ambient noises and sticky floors were missing, you were happy as could be with this fun, well done and most of all GNARLY port.

Arcade






N.E.S







Contra
-Arcade, Famicom/NES, MSX2, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 (XBLA), Nintendo DS, Virtual Console, Mobile Phone, PlayStation Network-
(Known as Gyzor in EU)

Contra was not the most popular of arcade games, while not to say it was a dud it was just not exactly one of Konami's super titles in terms of popularity. Personally I would say that I only liked Contra as much as I did since it was constantly in rotation at my local laundromat. Packing at times hard to avoid enemy placement that required some memorization, but yet very enjoyable spaz type play that grew on me the game had some decent twitch factors to it. Learning the game over time I was able to beat it with at the most 2 quarters and I was quite happy with that (rastan was another one that I was sooo happy to beat) but sadly while I had heard of Super Contra, I could never find a Cabinet Having beat it so often thought left me a bit 'meh" when I saw a N.E.S Contra at Sears one day but curious enough I scouted a rental copy and that's when I really came to the conclusion that some arcade games found a good swift shot of new life on the N.E.S (though this early on I had been burned by some shitty ports)

Right as you jump into the game you get that already familiar feeling of smoother yet tighter controls that was a staple in good/great arcade to N.E.S ports. Oddly enough while the truth would be that graphically Contra (and most if not all ports) were inferior on the N.E.S, Contra just had a look that felt so perfect and looked more so perfect for the game. Levels were slightly extended in size, not much enemy compromise (numbers) and if anything the powers up felt better planned out/balanced. My only worry were the "3D" levels that were in the arcade game. When I saw these levels in action in the N.E.S game I was blown away (later I learned about MMC's) and by the time I sorta woke up from my "WHOA!" trance I realized just how well fleshed out the game was! More challenging than the arcade game due to bigger level size and just much more atmospheric than it's big brother Contra found a whole new life of it's own on the N.E.S. Searching for Super Contra was not an issue for me no more, I would wait for the N.E.S Port!

N.E.S










Arcade






Double Dragon 1-3
-way too many ports to name all the platforms-

Double Dragon, the series name alone speaks mass amount of praise and even some dreadful hate among arcade goers of the 80s. Love it or hate it, you heard the name, seen the games, played them or heard stories about other players encountering some glitch, beating a nearly perfect score or how they took no damage etc etc. Double Dragon II would continue said urban legacy with a new control scheme and slightly tougher enemy patterns and more swarms of em to deal with at a time, oddly enough Double Dragon 2 cabinets did not seem to circulate as much as original Double Dragon cabinets but I managed to sneak in some time with the game. Double Dragon 3 upon first look seems so different, sounded so different and had some whacked out story that seem to fit better in a cheaply written book than the beloved beat em up series. EGADS man what the hell did they do to the game? Enough about what the games stood for in the arcade scene, let's get into theme here shall we? the awesome N.E.S ports of the series, amazingly enough even Double Dragon 3 gets it's ass saved thanks to the N.E.S

Double Dragon on the N.E.S followed what was the most common formula for N.E.S ports, make up for the technical limitations with deeper game play, more levels, varied A.I. Digging past this all we also fin a new game play mode simply called Mode B, which was a simple 1 on 1 mode where you could choose from either of the lead characters or 4 enemy characters from the main story mode. Mode B included rather impressive graphic use for the N.E.S at the time, though the A.I was rather unfair and over powered. Double Dragon's main mode also changed around the game play enough to have it stand on it's own merits and even  well past those of previous games that raised the bar for ports. Arcade players would recall having no limits on the moves the characters could perform, however the N.E.S version adopted an experience system which would award you with new moves as you gained levels. Frustrating at first but it also taught you how to play the game better so as to earn those perks or suffer (per se). Overall in my opinion and other's Double Dragon not only followed a good idea on how to do ports but also paved the way for changes that could improve an already great game. Based on the arcade smash became a phrase that could honestly mean "AWESOME" vs "oh crap it's another pacman for the 2600 repeat!!!!!!!!"

Double Dragon 2 hit the N.E.S hard with another build up on the previous formula for improving an arcade to home port while making the technical cuts seem null. Name alone drove the games popularity and it's a good thing that the name could sell the product as the game now had it's north american box tagged with "Acclaim" a publisher that to the hard core, could mean a garbage game or a hidden gem. Acclaims marketing muscle was put behind the game in full blast but once again in gaming when you are tainted as a publisher, that's that! Double Dragon 2 once again gave us extended levels, and slightly altered A.I, more missions, and polished game play that made Double Dragon a hit but lacked that Mode B form the previous game....instead we got CO-OP! Difficulty as in the first game could be unforgiving to the casual crowd, but was a lot more balanced with less spotty moments (Minus the platforming portions like the conveyor belts or those stupid spikes) and you could even inflict friendly fire (er damage). Rewarding (or challenging ..to me it was a reward) good players was a final level that was only accessible by playing the game in it's hardest difficulty which even included a whole new final boss and awesome theme! Double Dragon 2 fixed all the mistakes of it's arcade counter part (IMHO the arcade game was good but was just more of the same) but also like the previous N.E.S version added more life into the series. Beat em up 101!

Double Dragon 3 was a disaster in the arcades, from the crappy "credits' store which would even charge you real money for weapons, the odd graphical style (static images looked ok..motion looked like someone was hitting pause a lot, aka choppy) and the questionable story and music pretty much doomed the game. Acclaim once took the N.A publisher reigns for the title but thankfully once again it was only the publisher. Ads were all over the place, tv spots ran very often, the game play footage seemed to mimic that of the arcade game, my heart sank.. I would rent this before buying. Lightning was seen in the sky a third time around, however the thunder was not as awesome. Double Dragon 3 for the N.E.S was a great game in every right, and while the port was another fixer up, the core elements were not too far changed from 2 and the remaining elements from the arcade version did not really help the game. Story was just too complex for the fighter, the additional characters while they felt less tacked on than in the arcade version just felt tacky and tolerable at best. Game play while not a huge departure from Double Dragon 2 was a bit smoother and was nearly perfect in response, but there was just not enough charm in this title to really make it better than Double Dragon 2. Efforts seem to be too focused on re-tooling the game too heavily in efforts to fix the mess that was Double Dragon 3 in the arcade, and while I can appreciate the efforts, the magic was not there anymore. Double Dragon 3 was a perfect example on how to fix a bumbling mess and brought justice to the franchise but as I said before the remaining taint of the arcade game that was left in, soured the game a bit. IMHO too much time and effort was spent on fixing it and not adding features or making the levels more enjoyable as in the previous two efforts. Great, but not classic.

Double Dragon (NES)

Double Dragon (Arcade)

Double Dragon 2 NES

Double Dragon 2 (Arcade)

Double Dragon 3 (NES)

Double Dragon 3 (Arcade)

Honorable Mentions

Ninja Gaiden (Series)

 Ninja Gaiden Started off as generic but somewhat challenging arcade beat em up,but sticking with the formula for N.E.S ports the game took on a whole new life, the game play was heavily modified, levels so much larger, bosses were something else and the game was balls to the wall hard! While I loved a challenge the difficulty was so mind boggling at the time and combine that with the fact that a lot of jumps were laced with almost unavoidable hits and you got a few reasons to put this series down a tiny notch but even then the series remains a test for skill. Xbox, and current gen versions hold the difficulty legacy true.

Punchout!! (nes on top)

Punchout got a rather faithful conversion as far as the core game and looks go. Game play was simplified a bit to fit the N.E.S controller but remained mostly intact. More variety in fighters was tossed in along with adding a bit more personality to those that made the cut to the home cart. Mike Tyson was even tossed into a particular run of the game. Great example again on how to do ports. Missing voices somewhat changed the overall experience of playing the arcade game but honestly this would have been too hard on the hardware and while it never ruined the game, somehow I always missed them. On it's own the game stood out magically and would end up becoming one of most beloved N.E.S games, ever.. Period.!

Tons of titles were cut from my original post idea but I think I will take a friend's idea to split it up, since some of titles that fell in my list under honorable mentions really do deserve a dedicated write up. Part 2 of this particular topic will happen soon enough as I honestly want to improve on my formatting here a bit and also not subject so many titles to simple write ups. Today's post was done out of love for doing this here blog, today should have been my lazy day to do nothing but instead I will post up dlc for this and yesterday's post by tonight! Thank you for reading as always and before I forget...

Can anyone tell me what is REALLY going on here??