Asteroids (Atari 2600) - Review

 Welcome to the dawn of the video game, from the early days of the home video game market, when the Odyssey tried and failed to come up with it's screen covering technology and having just a paddle and a ball on the screen, to Pong consoles galore, which was just tennis and added and adapted to who knows what and where, and still goes on with it's adaptations to the modern day, until finally, we reach the pinnacle of the Pre-Burst Bubble Video Game monolith that was the Atari 2600, which both shot gaming into the stratosphere, and also sent the Video Game crash that nearly killed the entire industry were it not for Nintendo.

One of the best games, one that continues to be ported to every Atari flashback console and who knows what else, one that continues to stick out even amongst those favorites, is that of an Arcade Port, one that sticks out from how the colors flash against the black screen.

That of the simple Spaceship Blaster known only as Asteroids, and it's simply colored rocks, which controlled like you were in butter, rather than space.

Score - 2045

Block Block - Review

 I need to stop finding ways to play random games, especially given the fact I do have a big game I want to talk about for once, and yet, I find myself stumbling right back into the odd reworkings of the game of Breakout.

This time however, the levels are far more challenging than normal breakout, even compared to Alleyway. In fact, to explain Block Block, would be that someone took the ideas from Alleyway and turned them into their own version, expanding upon sort of puzzle-like elements to solve and break blocks in order to clear levels, and for a time waster, it is a fantastic way to do so.

If you are playing it on one of the Capcom collections, two rules however. Don't care about Score, and keep the rewind button at the ready, because the shrinking paddle mechanic is one of the most annoying bits of the game, the fact you need to collect fruit to keep your paddle grown to easily catch the ball.

Whose Line Hoedown - Sports

To tell you the truth, I don’t know much about sports,
I’m a geek at heart, Sci-Fi are my clear exports,
Yet sometimes there just comes a moment in history,
When it’s time to sit down and root in all of the glee!

Super Mario Land 2 - Review

 The gold standard when it came to portable Mario Games, for what had to be several decades, with short worlds and short levels but such a variety and multiple different locations, everything from a Graveyard to outer space, Under the Sea to within a robot climbing to the head of said robot, all of which trying to get the six medallions to the locked door to Mario's Castle (Which apparently explains why he is no longer allowed to have any more, and ends up living with Luigi for every other game that we see him in), and fight to get the castle back from the hands of the (newly introduced) Wario, and right from the beginning, Wario is a one of a kind villain, where even though he shows up at the end, seeing him use Mario's powerups must have shocked so many kids back in the day, and his alterations to Mario's castle make it one of the hardest in the series.

All within a Game Boy cart.

Are we sure this is in the same series as Daisy's introduction?

Party House (UFO 50) - Review

 A year or two ago, a group of indie game creators all got together with a vision and a dream, to create 50 or so games all for a system that didn't exist, all with it's own story and unique feel that each game has their own storytelling devices, and each one stands out and is genuinely unique enough to deserve it's own release away from the complete package.

One of these games is that of Party House, in which you are running a House Part, and need to get 4 important visitors in on one night, within a certain amount of time, without getting too many troublemakers getting into the part and getting the cops called on you. Especially given that it is based in an NES style, and yet the Puzzle is fresh and hard to choose, because with the currency of "Popularity" for your party, you can add to the pool of potential party guests, and with money expand the area to let in guests, both making it easier to try and get 4 important guests, but pray to whoever you do that you don't get too many troublemakers.

This ain't no Redneck House Party, after all.

Super Mario Land - Review

 The opening bell, the beginning shot of a race. The launch titles of a system are almost always the most important, due to the way that they tell just how much time and effort has been placed to make sure the console is ready for launch, and just how many games have been made to keep the attention of little Timmy readying the next adventure without having to go into the woods himself, or exploring the wide open plains. The Nintendo Game Boy was the first foray into mass marketing portable systems with cartridges that people actually wanted to play, it had to get this right.

For a Mario game, with 4 worlds into Daisy's Kingdom to rescue her, while Luigi's been kidnapped himself to stop him from saving the day (the only excuse we have for why you don't play as Luigi), it is a beautiful portable Mario game, compacted into 12 levels, with even some mix ups to the formula and some unique enemies never seen since.

It may not have aged perfectly well, but it is a Mario Game through and through, just a bit off.

Score - 185700

Tetris Review - Game Boy

 Given how I reviewed the updated look of the game that was made for the Game Boy Color, it only makes sense to look at the game that became a cultural icon and launched the Game Boy into the atmosphere originally. While there was some who played Super Mario Land, or played some of the other launch titles, there was always, always, someone talking about Tetris, the unique puzzle game from the NES, brought to the small screen and made portable, made for quick bouts of matching blocks into lines, and spouted from it so many memes in the future that it still holds it's cult status.

Best Part, is the Music, which trounces many of the ports of the game, who some forget to all put into effect one simple song. Tetris: Type A.

Score: 75983

Level : 12

Lines : 126

Whose Line Hoedown - Doctor's Visit

I had to go see my Doctor, not too long ago,
It drove me crazy as to why, like I was facing a mortal foe,
For every time he tells me, as I sit there in annoyance,
Why? It’s real easy, He’s an amateur Clairvoyance.

Dr. Mario - Review (NES)

 One of the unique introductions to the Nintendo Entertainment System, a persistence throughout its entire life, and one that would spread into the Super Nintendo, was the introduction of Puzzle games starring Mario Characters, simple, matching puzzle games akin to Tetris to try and capitalize on the popularity of the growing mascot thanks to the breakout hit that was the original Trilogy.

However, the most famous of these games would have to be one Dr. Mario, in which Mario trades in his overalls for a lab coat and tries to fight viruses in his medicine bottles by filling them with multi colored pills aimed to try and knock out all of the viruses before you can move on to the next level.

And believe me when I say, the difficulty in this game, scan scale fast if one doesn't expect it.

Final Stage - Level 7

Final Score - 25000

Super Mario Brothers Advance 2 - Review

 You really can understand just how this game was able to both capture the imagination of children, and also be known as one of the games that "Every LPer should do in their career", given it's reputation. The levels are short, but they are unique enough to stand out, and with each level having the possibility for secret exits (Which can lead to even more different routes to castles and the elusive Star Road Levels), challenge and difficulty can rise and fall to one's liking.

The GBA port added one thing, as well, to help in the challenge, and that is the ability to switch between Mario and Luigi, Luigi having his floaty jump and being slightly like he is constantly on Ice does give him a bit of a "Hard Mode" feel, but honestly, it feels better to play as him, given how his floaty jump can get to places Mario's normal jump cannot without Yoshi or the Cape.

All in All, a Fantastic Port of a Classic Game.