Isometric Games #2

Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos (1990)
By: Software Creations Genre: Arcade Adventure Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES
Also Available For: Nothing

Pesky wizards, sometimes I think they're more trouble than they're worth. It seems that for every good and helpful beardy, there's another who's cruel and evil and generally troublesome. In the case of this splendid British game, released for the NES exclusively, the culprit is an unpleasant fellow who goes by the rather tell-tale name of Morbius the Malevolent who's kidnapped the probably-buxom Princess Eleanor amongst other things. Luckily for all us princess lovers there's a more helpful wizard in the area with the slightly more mysterious name of Shadax who has volunteered to get her back. In order to do this, however, he must find his way through the treacherous fortress of Kastlerock to find the six pieces of the Staff of Demnos, the only weapon capable of defeating Morbius.

Lucky Shadax isn't scared of heights...

As you may or may not have guessed, this is where you come in. The fortress is spread over more than 250 rooms which includes its main floor, the towers, and the gardens. Regardless of their locations though, the areas are all viewed from the isometric perspective that fans of games like this should be used to by now. The gameplay is approached from a non-violent standpoint with most rooms requiring brains from you rather than brawn from Shadax to progress. Having said that, he is a wizard so surely he can bring about some sort of horrific end to any adversaries he may face? Well, I can't vouch for his abilities but progression through the fortress is mainly achieved through collecting the various items that are scattered through it and by solving the many puzzles.

Stupid skeleton things getting in the way...

Of course, there are numerous henchmen of Morbius roaming about the place such as orcs, skeletons, even small blobs, but these are to be avoided when possible. They usually move around following a set pattern but some zero straight in on you and there can be a good few of them too, so it's not always possible to avoid them. In these situations, Shadax can use just about the only 'weapons' he has - magic potions, of which there are are four kinds - Blue (invincibility for as long as you're in the room you use it in), Purple (destroys all monsters in a room), Yellow (freezes all monsters and moving blocks in a room), and Green (reveals any hidden platforms in a room). You start the game with two of each kind of potion but luckily more can be picked up through the game.

It's easy to get lost in the maze-like caverns...

As you might imagine, these can be at least very helpful and on occasion essential if you're to rescue whatever-her-name-is, so they should be used sparingly and only in the utmost hour of need, particularly the purple one as in some rooms you need the unwitting help of the monsters to solve a puzzle! Of course, the rooms contain more than just monsters, as you can see. There are moving platforms, stairways, conveyor belts, and things of that nature, but nearly all the rooms feature various arrangements of blocks, whether fixed 'concrete' ones or 'loose' moveable ones which Shadax can pick up and reposition. The blocks often create stairways themselves but however they're positioned, navigating your way around them often forms the basis of the puzzles.

Time for a purple potion?

Shadax can only jump the height of one block and he can only carry one moveable block at a time, and even then he can't take it into another room, so conquering some of the rooms can require some fairly intricate movements and daring strategies! To that end, there's several special jumping techniques that should be learnt and it's also worth experimenting with where you can and can't place the moveable blocks. For example, they can be used as stepping-stones to get across one kind of spikey floor but not another. There's a few items dotted around to make things a little easier too. The first one I found, which proved to be a very useful one, was Magic Boots which doubles the height Shadax can jump. There's also keys, extra lives (in the form of hats), credits (which act as both continue and restart points), and extra potions.

A staff piece! But how do you get to it?

Something that can really help the enjoyment a game like this is a sense of atmosphere. The soundtrack here includes a great title screen tune, which actually reminds me of Speccy music (don't let that put you off though!), and a single in-game tune which is a nice, moody number but it does grate after a while, especially considering the lengthy sessions this game might command! The graphics aren't bad either. There's not much variety through the game, admittedly, but everything is quite small and nicely-defined. The sprites almost look super-deformed (which is odd since this isn't a Japanese game!). The colour-scheme is pretty appealing too, I like the style here a lot which does indeed create a great atmosphere. The only real problem is that there are no shadows so depth perception can be a problem and does cause a few otherwise unnecessary deaths.

Tiny conveyor belts over spikes - wonderful...

Solstice presents a pretty tough challenge overall but it's also one of those games that you can't help but try one more time if you get stuck. Thankfully you shouldn't get stuck as often as you otherwise might - control of Shadax is good and the items and enemies in a room are reset if you leave and re-enter it. The fortress is laid out in a non-linear way but there's an approximate routine that you'll need to follow to achieve your goals so it will take a good while to finish, particularly as there's no password or save feature! You do get a count of your total rooms visited as well as a game completion percentage at the game over screen though so at least you'll know how close you were! You'll rarely get too frustrated though and playing it takes me back to the wonders of playing Head Over Heels on my Speccy. Every time I played I was sure I could get just a little further, see one more room, and it's the same thing here which is surely the mark of a very well-designed game. Another superb NES exclusive which is rightly considered a classic!

RKS Score: 8/10

Top Five Annoying Things About Star Trek

Some people love it, some people hate it, but no one can deny the impact Star Trek has had on the entertainment world. I personally like it, but even as a fan I certainly can't claim that it doesn't have faults. Here are five that I always notice when I watch the show:

5 - Failure to introduce new characters...

One of the appealing things about Star Trek is the group of main characters. Each incarnation of the show has a distinctive and varied bunch and many of the sub-plots involve their interaction with each other, but the group of characters that starts the series is invariably the group that finishes it too. Okay, there's a few exceptions, more often than not brought on by actors leaving suddenly or something like that (such as Denise Crosby), but how many major characters are introduced mid-way through a show's run? Again, there are a few exceptions but would it really hurt to add a decent amount of new blood? And yes, I remember Seven of Nine but adding a blonde with big knockers because the ratings are falling isn't really the same thing, is it? One of my favourite almost-new characters was Ensign Gomez (played by Lycia Naff who you might remember as the hoe with three boobies in Total Recall) who appeared in a couple of episodes of Next Generation. She and many like her should've received prolonged runs in their respective shows. Listen to me dammit!

4 - Most aliens look human...

Yes, yes, I know - The Next Generation conveniently explained this curious phenomenon by revealing that most sentient races through the galaxy evolved from a single, ancient race trillions of years ago or some such waffle. The real reason? Simply because they couldn't afford/be bothered (delete as appropriate) to put in more effort. TNG was a particularly memorable offender in this regard. Most episodes featured some new minor race and nearly all of them looked just like us except for some small facial difference like ridges or patterns on the head or even just a weird hair-do. Some other 'races' don't even have any physical differences and are merely given some wacky clothes or something like that! Again, there are exceptions, particularly when we got to Voyager, but it happened too often. Sorry Paramount, but it's lazy and not terribly convincing. If little old Babylon 5 can do it, surely Trek can do it?

3 - All spatial anomalies are dangerous...

Aside from the many, many alien races that populate it, almost all of whom are aggressive or have some sort of sinister agenda of course, the galaxy is filled with many sights of staggering beauty and wonder. Indeed, even today our telescopes have taken many thousands of amazing photos of strange gaseous formations of all sorts of shapes and sizes. However, why is it that every time a Federation ship encounters an 'anomaly', it's always of an unknown type, and it always ends up trapping the ship somehow, containing (or even being) a malevolent, non-corporeal being, or causing some sort of major catastrophe which a resourceful crew member will just about manage to avert at the last second, allowing the ship to be the first one ever to escape? To Star Trek writers: sometimes nebulae are just clouds of colourful gas!

2 - Any stranger on an away mission is in trouble...

Exploring the galaxy and delving head-first into the unknown is a tricky and dangerous business so when one arrives at a unknown planet and is detecting some sort of signal or power-source, sending all your main bridge officers down to investigate could be considered foolhardy at best. This of course happened routinely on the Original Series with Kirk usually ending up fighting, scoring, or both. It continued with TNG and Voyager except this time the respective Captains remained on board most of the time while everyone else goes to scope out the area. However, something that remained true throughout all incarnations of the show is - if a crew member who isn't a known character joins an away mission, there's going to be some trouble, and he or she will almost certainly be severely injured or, more usually, killed outright. I think the 'Black Box' pic above sums it up better than I ever could though!

1 - The Federation and its ships are stupid...

I've already touched on this subject in the 'Top Five Star Trek Ships' post but it's something that I really dislike about the entire Star Trek franchise - why are Humans such pussies? The Federation meekly go about their business exploring the galaxy, trying to make friends and not offend anyone. Of course, intentionally causing trouble isn't the best idea but I'm willing to bet that most starship captains are afraid of getting into a fight simply because their ships suck so much arse! Yes, I can understand the design of the Enterprise for the Original Series - it was after all the 60's when the 'flying saucer' craze was at its height. As has been pointed out to me - it's a classic design, but when the show was reborn in the late 80's it was the perfect opportunity to create a fleet of sleek, sexy, arse-kicking warships to show those stupid Romulan monkey-spanks who the boss really is, but noooo... Oh well, least we have the USS Defiant...

Doujin Shmups #4

Blue Wish (2005)
By: X.X Game Room Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: PC First Day Score: 1,346,200 (one credit)
Also Available For: Nothing

Hooray, it's time to look at another doujin game! I've been greatly enjoying the ones I've found so far and here's another one I stumbled upon by accident. It's actually one of several games offered by a Japanese individual or group who call themselves X.X Game Room and, accordingly, all information I've found about the game, including any kind of story or set-up, is in kanji. However, as with most shmups, this isn't enormously important anyway. Like most of the games offered by the splendid fellow(s) at X.X, Blue Wish is a bullet-hell style vertical-scroller. The first thing I noticed when it loaded was that its display options are rather limited - it either plays in a very small windowed mode (the same size as the screenshots here) or a 'full screen' mode which is only about two or three times bigger than that.

It's certainly playable with the latter option though and it doesn't take long to get stuck into the action. There's a pretty thorough options screen where you can change various settings (including the colour of the bullets), and then there's a choice of three difficulty levels - Heaven, Original, or Desperate (as you can see from the screenshots, I took the middle option). Your last choice before starting the game proper is which of the two (initial) fighters you want to use - Blue Wish which has a wider shot or Blue Hope which shoots straight ahead. Both ships will concentrate their fire forwards if you hold the fire button for a few seconds anyway so Blue Wish, the ship in the shot to the left here, is my preferred choice. Whichever you choose, however, it's now time to shoot stuff up!

The game is comprised of five stages which take place over varied terrain. Each is increasingly filled with varied enemies and ends with the usual giant boss ship. All enemies are bigger than your own ship, with many being far larger, and the extent of their offensive abilities is to unleash an unholy number of large, colourful bullets - not just in your direction but all over the screen! Your ships can produce a decent number themselves though and can also deploy a limited number of powerful smart-bombs. Destruction of enemy ships is met with showers of tokens. Collecting these, which come in many multiples, boosts your score considerably. Also appearing now and then are P's which power-up your shot, B's which award you with an additional bomb, and the rather less common 1UP.

Other the the seemingly-limited display option, Blue Wish is a fairly pleasing game from an audio/visual perspective. The sounds effects are solid and well-suited to the game and the music, as far as I know all original compositions, are superb pieces. The landscapes are little more than repeated patterns but they're nicely drawn and are varied from stage to stage. I particularly like the first one which looks like a forest canopy covered in an early morning mist. The sprites aren't hugely detailed but they do get pretty huge in size! You won't get many chances to admire the sights though as the screen is almost constantly awash in a sea of colourful (and surprisingly large) bullets! Most of them move pretty slowly though and the hitbox on your ship (the part that registers damage) is quite forgiving.

It's actually not overly tough going for a bullet-hell game and this is partly thanks to the fact that collected power-ups are dropped at the point of death and can be recollected when you resume. There's also an 'auto bomb' feature. This is a handy option which sees your ship set off a smart-bomb automatically the instant before it's hit by an otherwise-undodged bullet or enemy. Many shmups come with screen-clearing bombs of the sort found here of course, but let's face it - we often press the relevant button a fraction too late and end up dying anyway, so it's a mighty helpful feature which works really well and helps make Blue Wish less insane than many similar games. It's still pretty hectic of course, a quick glance at the screenshots reveals that much, but as well being fairly accomplished from a technical point of view, it's also very tense and satisfying game to play. So, a big thanks to X.X Game Room! The talent and creativity of these dedicated fans never ceases to amaze me and, despite being a little rough around the edges, this is another fine example.

RKS Score: 7/10

Exploring the WonderSwan

I think it's safe to say that if any one company can be credited with not just pioneering handheld gaming, but near enough creating it, it would be Nintendo. The Game & Watch series wasn't really my cup of tea, at least not by the time I got into gaming in the mid-80's, but I was in the minority and it proved to be a big success. Towards the end of that decade the Big N unveiled the spiritual successor to the G&W series, the Game Boy, and this was an even bigger success and has ended up being one of the most successful systems of all-time, handheld or otherwise. Both Atari and Sega tried to get in on the act and both failed. Surely, someone would have to be very brave or just plain crazy to try again?

When I first heard about the WonderSwan, aside from some initial chuckles at the expense of the somewhat unorthodox name, I thought its creators, toy company Bandai, were indeed plain crazy, for here was not just another handheld console vying for a share of the Game Boy's market, but one that was technically inferior to its competition! Okay, its specs made for pretty impressive reading - it had a 16-bit CPU over the 8-bit one in Nintendo's machine, for example - but it had a black & white display for heaven's sake! The long-awaited Game Boy Color had been released the previous year so the decision to launch the WonderSwan with this antiquated screen was frankly baffling. However, when you stop to consider that it was developed by a certain Gunpei Yokoi, the not-insignificant fellow who designed the Game & Watch and Game Boy, then it would be foolish to immediately write it off. Yokoi-san was tragically killed before his latest vision was released but, immediately after its release in 1999, it actually didn't get off to a bad start in Japan.

The early success of this upstart handheld can largely be attributed to a deal Bandai made with Square which would see the immensely popular Final Fantasy series converted to the new machine, and it also featured lots of Digimon games which were also very popular at the time. It couldn't last though and the WonderSwan's initial popularity began to wane. Bandai swiftly moved to combat this by releasing the WonderSwan Color, and after that the further-improved SwanCrystal, but it was too late and the machine was sadly discontinued in 2003.

It didn't go without leaving its mark on the games world though and was home to quite a sizeable catalogue of titles. The machine never made it our of Japan, I don't think it was ever intended to, so that of course means that all of its games are in Japanese and many of them feature so much kanji that they're not realistically playable by non-speakers. In order to get a feel for the machine I did a bit of research to try and find some games that I could without too much bother and to that end I have selected these games to try:

Gunpey (1999)

Any new console, questionably-timed or not, needs games if it's going to stand a chance and this was the first one released for Bandai's new handheld. It was named for Gunpei Yokoi and was presumably an attempt to ensnare new WonderSwan owners the same way that Game Boy owners had been with Tetris. Indeed, Gunpey is a simple puzzle game with even simpler graphics which does little to demonstrate the abilities of the console, but it does offer a lot of enjoyment. Unsurprisingly, it has an anime theme and features a resonable intro sequence to that end, and there's a decent selection of play modes too. They include Endless, Stage, Puzzle, Story, and Free, so there's plenty to keep you busy, as long as you like the game to begin with of course. The object of the game is to arrange the tiles so that the lines on them create a continuous line across the screen at which point the tiles in question will disappear. You can only move the tiles vertically though so it requires a bit of thought but it's not as fast-paced as most similar puzzle games so it's actually quite relaxing to play. Something it does have in common with similar games though, is how addictive it is! So, nothing terribly dazzling, aesthetically, but great fun all the same.

Guilty Gear Petit (2001)

I must admit, I haven't actually gotten around to playing a Guilty Gear game yet (despite owning one - oops!) so this is my first foray into the strangely-named series that debuted on the PlayStation. I already knew they were one-on-one fighting games but I didn't realise how strange they are! The seven selectable characters available at the start in this one are a peculiar bunch but they have a good selection of fancy moves available which suit them well. They look superb too - distinctive and nicely animated, and their backgrounds are great as well. This is a game that will take me a while to learn the intricacies of, but any game that lets me play as a slutty nurse called Fanny who thrusts her rear-end at enemies is one that immediately has my attention!

Rainbow Islands Putty's Party (2000)

This Taito classic was a bit of a strange choice to release on a console with a black & white display and it's even stranger that it didn't get a re-release on the WonderSwan Color, but nevermind - most versions of Rainbow Islands are splendid so hopefully this one will be too! The first thing you may have noticed about it is the addition of a subtitle. There's a lot of intro screens with Japanese text which presumably explains this but all I can tell you at the moment is that it's Rainbow Islands as we've always loved it except the sprite is now a little anime girly. She moves around very slowly which can feel rather restrictive to veterans of the game and control of her is also somewhat sluggish causing some unnecessary falls, but the graphics and music are nice with lots of nice anime screens (including some 'fan service'), presumably to relay the (unintelligible) story, and there's even some giggly anime speech too! The levels seem to be as I remember them though, albeit with fewer enemies, so if you can live with the few faults, this is a capable enough version of the Taito favourite.

Golden Axe (2002)

This was the game that initially drew me to the WonderSwan to start with. I've always been a fan of the Golden Axe series, especially the first game, so the prospect of a portable version was appealing, and it would also be a good measure of how good the system is. I was pleased to see that the animated title screen was present and correct and the play modes include the same selection as the fantastic MegaDrive version of the game. In-game, everything is about as good as you could reasonably expect. Obviously, the quality of the graphics have suffered a little but they're still impressive for such a small system. The music isn't bad either and near enough everything from the arcade game has been jammed onto the little WonderSwan cartridge making this a surprisingly solid version of the Sega classic.

Judgement Silversword (2001)

Now this one was a surprise! I assumed there would be a few shmups tucked away in the WonderSwan's back-catalogue but who would've guessed that there would be one like this? What makes it even more impressive is that it was apparently made by fans in tribute to the immense Radiant Silvergun. While it was never likely to better that legendary game, it's still a hugely accomplished effort. It features some thirty stages for one thing! Most of them are very short, admittedly, to the point where your completion time is displayed at the end of each stage down to tenths of a second - my best time for the first stage is around 12 seconds! Your ship starts the game already equipped with a pretty decent spread shot and there are various other power-ups to be found through the game's many stages too, which are a mixture of space and planet-based ones. The graphics are mighty impressive and the little WonderSwan can apparently throw around a very surprising number of sprites at once - things are verging on bullet-hell territory at times here! This has certainly been the most technically-impressive game I've seen on the system so far and it's a damn good one too.

Verdict:
Most consoles are appealing to collectors simply because they exist but it certainly helps if there's some good titles available to use on them. The WonderSwan is a rather obscure release though. Its critics would say it was completely pointless whilst even its fans must concede that it was an odd decision to release it when the Game Boy Color was already out and selling like hot cakes. On top of that, for non-Japanese speakers at least, there is a rather limited selection of games that can be realistically played on it and even less that are exclusive to the system. So, are there any reasons to own a WonderSwan?

Well, technically it's a pretty impressive machine, more so than I thought before I tried it out for this feature. Its audio abilities aren't great, although it's still capable of producing lots of catchy tunes and decent quality speech, but the graphics are surprisingly good. There's a sizeable pallet of colours available on the SwanColor and SwanCrystal with some games looking really nice, and some of the original black & white games don't look too bad either. The console also has a few nice tricks such as its ability to display games horizontally or vertically which is a real advantage with some titles as you can see above. The games themselves are the usual mixed bag but for any Westerners thinking of buying one, I would only say that games for it are quite hard to come by, and that some of them are pretty pricey as a result. I actually used to own a SwanCrystal for a short while but never found copies of the few games I wanted to buy for it (like Golden Axe which, as it turns out, I would've enjoyed a lot).

It's a pretty capable little machine then, more so than the Game Boy Color, and it has got some great games hidden amongst the ones that only our Japanese friends can play, but unfortunately the release of the Game Boy Advance mid-way through its life ended any chance Bandai's machine might've had. I mean, let's face it - Nintendo's handheld market share was (and still is) so overwhelming that it would've taken something really special to put a dent in it, and sadly the WonderSwan wasn't quite up to the task. Gunpei Yokoi's final offering to the world of videogames was certainly not without its positives but ultimately it proved to be too little too late.

Film Review #34

The Three Musketeers (2011)
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson Starring: Matthew Macfayden, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Logan Lerman, Orlando Bloom, Milla Jovovich, Christoph Waltz, Mads Mikkelsen, Freddie Fox, Juno Temple, Gabriella Wilde, James Corden

Certificate: 12A Running Time: 110 Minutes

Tagline: "Every legend has a new beginning."

A number of the works of famed French author, Alexandre Dumas, have been adapted over the years but none more so than this tale of D'Artagnan and his new friends, the Three Musketeers. This latest realisation of Dumas' story opens with our three heroes Athos (Macfayden), Porthos (Stevenson), and Aramis (Evans) in action in Venice accompanied by Milady (Jovovich), Athos' lover. It isn't long, however, before they find themselves tricked and betrayed by the dastardly Duke of Buckingham (Bloom). Events are picked up again a year later where we first meet D'Artagnan (Lerman) who is headed for Paris to become one of these famous Musketeers only to find they no longer exist. He instead encounters the three former heroes rather despondent and down on their luck.

The Musketeers and Milady look upon their prize...

Needless to say, with the help of their cocky new friend it's not too long before they find their feet again, so to speak, and soon become embroiled in all manner of corruption and intrigue in the French Royal Court. It's a familiar story that's been well told by now, although not always in the same way of course, and this version is another slight variation on the theme. Suitably, given the extravagant nature of the surroundings for much of the film, everything looks rather nice! I can't vouch for their historical accuracy of course, but the costumes are particularly superb. I'm willing to bet that some, such as those of Buckingham and the young French king, Louis XIII, are somewhat exaggerated, but this is mainly down to them constantly trying to out-do each other in the fashion stakes and provides much of the humour found in the film.

The King, Richelieu, and Buckingham...

The sets and locations, whilst still superb, are somewhat more restrained, but the most impressive visual aspects of the film (other than the girlies - hee hee!) are the outstanding action scenes. The special effects are of the standard we've now come to expect from blockbusters such as this but the numerous fight scenes are very well choreographed and shot as well and provide many of the highlights found here. The characters are also well cast in my opinion. The Musketeers themselves have good chemistry and have ample opportunities to impress, both physically and verbally, and the teen girlies will certainly enjoy watching D'Artagnan's scenes. Milla has a few chances to show off her well-honed action skills as well and I particularly enjoyed the scenes featuring the Duke of Buckingham, with Bloom apparently relishing the chance to play the bad guy and over-acting amusingly.

D'Artagnan impressing Constance with his swordplay...

Also hogging his scenes is Fox as the weedy king and the conniving Cardinal Richelieu (Waltz) but most of the rest of the sizeable cast are charged with little beyond looking pretty such as Queen Anne (Temple) and the queen's Lady-In-Waiting, Constance (Wilde) who mostly just stands around looking angelic and vulnerable. Even Corden, best known from Gavin & Stacey, is well worth his screen time as the bumbling Musketeer's assistant. I wasn't sure what to expect from this film to be honest. From what little I knew of it beforehand it had the potential to be anything from horrifyingly bad to amazingly good. When the lights went down in the theatre and I saw the name of Paul W.S. Anderson though, I couldn't help but shudder. He is after all the man previously responsible for such disappointments as Alien vs Predator, as well as several rather poor videogame-to-film adaptions. Has he finally come good?

Milady's not just a pretty face...

Well, I think I'm in the minority here, but I think he has! His latest film is one that has received little praise from critics since its release but I haven't heard anything in the way of complaints from movie-goers. Perhaps some of the critics missed the point. After all, it's not supposed to be a historically accurate period drama - it was meant as a rollicking action adventure to dazzle ones senses and in that regard it's a success as far as I'm concerned. The actions scenes and set-pieces are memorable and very enjoyable and the dialogue certainly fills the gaps well enough, at least. The result is a rather silly and unrealistic film, replete with Steampunk influences, but it's also one that looks superb and is tremendous fun to watch. It also appears that there may well be a sequel. I don't know about those stuffy critics but I for one am greatly looking forward to it!

RKS Score: 8/10

Arcade Platform Games #1

SonSon (1984)
By: Capcom Genre: Platform Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 61,780
Also Available For: NES
Download For: Wii Virtual Console

There's been millions of completely original games over the years but developers are also happy to take some help now and then. Accordingly, there's also been a huge number of games based on films, TV shows, celebrities, and goodness know what else, but classic Chinese literature? Apparently so, for this early Capcom game is based on the 16th century novel known as Journey to the West! Actually it didn't really surprise me all that much once I learned that the novel has been adapted before and is more commonly known, in the West at least, as Monkey! The story is a potentially great source of entertainment though, whether that be film or game-based, and SonSon is of course the latter. Due to its age, is a rather basic interpretation but, much like the amusing TV show, it's also one that's proven to be an enduring cult favourite so it's high time I had a more detailed look at it.

The Capcom version of Monkey Boy's adventure takes the form of a left-to-right, auto-scrolling platform/shooting game. It's a one or two-player game so SonSon can be joined by his best friend, TonTon. Alone or not though, his job is to battle through twenty enemy-filled stages with the ultimate objective of ridding the land of the evil which has covered it in darkness and kidnapped the villagers. Each stage has six tiers of platforms running all the way through it which are spaced roughly an equal distance apart and each has numerous small gaps in it. With your help, SonSon (and TonTon) run along these platforms until they reach the end of the stage. They can jump up or down floors at will and can also walk slower or faster on the constantly-moving surface. Streaming onto the platforms from both directions are groups of monsters. Some of them walk along the platforms, others jump up from the water below, some can even fly. Luckily, SonSon has a magic staff and TonTon has a similarly-powered pitchfork with which our heroes can shoot the pesky interlopers.

There's not an awful lot more to it than that either. It's a fast-paced game where you can't afford to stand still for more than a second or so. The only time the scrolling stops is when it's time for a boss fight which involves five guys on different floors of what looks like a castle. These turn up every five stages or so but they don't exactly offer a chance to catch your breath as they are accompanied by some of the standard enemies too which include various human-like (or at least humanoid) rapscallions as well as various beasties like bats, frogs, and dragonflies. Whether you're fighting a boss or traversing a strage however, keeping on the move jumping up and down floors regularly and shooting or avoiding the many monsters is the best way to progress and it's great fun too! The graphics and sound aren't bad for the game's age either. The backgrounds are all black but the platforms change every stage and new monsters are also introduced quite regularly. Similarly, the sound effects are minimal but the Eastern-flavoured music is quite nice.

It's a good game for high-scores too as there's lots of fruits and flowers appearing and disappearing from the platforms seemingly at random which are worth various bonus points, and you'll get way more points for taking out a whole group of baddies than you will for an odd few. Capcom must be fond of this character as he (or she - there's some confusion over SonSon's gender!) has been resurrected much more recently in games like Marvel vs Capcom 2. Most modern gamers who play as him in that game, however, probably aren't even aware of his proud heritage and that's something that should be rectified. SonSon is a pretty basic, no-frills game but it's also a well-made one which is still perfectly enjoyable, especially when played with a friend, but even with one-player its manic action proves to be very addictive! It may be showing its age a bit now but there's still some fun to be had with this Monkey Boy's adventure.

RKS Score: 7/10

Star Control - Part 4

Well, it's been a while since I've had a look at anything Star Control-related so I think I'm well overdue for another more detailed look at the splendid series. The first game was a great little strategy game which I played repeatedly over many years on my trusty MegaDrive but it's more keenly remembered these days for the Melee one-on-one starship battle mode that accompanied it. This saw two opposing groups of seven alien races pitted against one another - the heroic Alliance of Free Stars and the evil Ur-Quan Hierarchy. The last two posts in this Red Parsley series have taken a detailed look at the seven ships available to each side but the amazing and far more detailed sequel to Star Control introduced a varied selection of new races with ships of their own as well as the new Super Melee mode to use them in. In this two-part post I'll take a look at these additions to the series.

Chmmr Avatar

After the events of the first Star Control, the Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm - two fairly similar races who were long-time friends and allies and who also shared the same region of space - decided to genetically merge their two species into one new race - the Chmmr. Rather than continuing to use the awesome Broodhome and respectable Transformer ships, however, this new hybrid species created a brand new warship, and the result is one of the finest ships in the entire game - the Avatar.

This fearsome craft is a little cumbersome to move around, in part due to its large size, but it's quite fast and has also has a few tricks up its sleeve. The main weapon is its devastating Terawatt 'Heavy X-Ray' Laser which is immensely powerful but, like the other laser-equipped craft, has a limited range. To combat this, however, the Chmmr also fitted their new ship with a strong tractor beam which can pull any faster or more manoeuvrable ships into range.

Both the laser and the tractor beam do of course eat up the Avatar's fuel reserves pretty quickly but it also has among the fastest fuel regeneration speeds around. As if all this wasn't enough, the ship is also circled by three ZapSat escorts which fire their own homing lasers at anything within range as well. An awesome ship which is so good it's almost a 'cheat' ship!

Ship Rating: 5/5

Druuge Mauler

As you can probably tell from the picture, the ship used by the vile Druuge is basically just a giant flying cannon! It's a very slow craft which isn't easy to accurately pilot but its main weapon is powerful and has a long range. Using it produces a recoil-like effect which causes the ship to move backwards but if you fire several shots in succession, the ship will go flying backwards many times faster than it's capable of moving forwards under the power of its engine. As you might imagine, this can be a very handy way of escaping an approaching vessel whilst simultaneously causing it some pretty hefty damage!

Most ships have a downside though and the Mauler is not different - it doesn't take long for the cannon to use up the ship's fuel reserves and it suffers from a cripplingly slow recharge speed. It does have one way around this though - using the ship's 'secondary weapon' actually sees a member of the crew thrown in the furnace (accompanied by a horrified scream) which replenishes a chunk of the fuel supply! As we learn in Star Control 2's main game, it's one of the ship's Human 'guests' who unwillingly make this sacrifice too. An unusual ship which is great against some enemies, near-useless against others. An acquired taste.

Ship Rating: 3/5

Kohr-Ah Marauder

I'm sure everyone remembers the cruel, oppressive Ur-Quan from the first game, mainly thanks to their superb Dreadnought vessel, and introduced here for the sequel are their opposite number, the even crueler, even more oppressive Kohr-Ah! Despite their desire to destroy all sentient life, however, their ships are not as impressive as their green-skinned relatives.

Like the Dreadnought, it's speed and manoeuvrability is thoroughly average, but unlike the Dreadnought its main weapon requires a little more thought. The Marauder fires spinning metal blades which have a long range but cause less damage than the Dreadnought's fusion blast. They do, however, have a limited homing ability and can remain floating in space for some time after their launch. Liberal distribution of them can therefore effectively create a minefield for opposing ships to try and navigate.

The Marauder can also deploy a defensive weapon - the F.R.I.E.D, or 'Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction' (fiery ring - snigger). This is a short range weapon which emits super-heated gas from all sides of the ship and can easily enable a Marauder pilot to turn the tables on an attacking foe. Overall, it's a big, formidable, and intimidating ship which is rarely troubled, it's just not as much fun to use as the other large ships.

Ship Rating: 4/5

Melnorme Trader

The Melnorme are an amusing race with whom you'll have a lot of contact in the main game but their ship is one that can only be used in the Super Melee mode. It's a slightly odd ship too. It looks almost spherical and was designed for travel and trading missions rather than war. Consequently, it can move at a pretty decent speed but it's not especially agile whilst doing so.

The main weapon is a pretty good one though - it's a 'charge' cannon which means the longer you hold down the fire button, the more powerful the shot will be when you release it. Quickly-released shots do small to average damage, depending on the charge, but at maximum charge it's among the most powerful weapons in the game! Not only that, but maintaining the charge without releasing it also allows the front of the Trader (where the weapon is charged) to absorb the impact from almost any enemy weapon.

The secondary weapon employed by the Trader is also a good one. It's known as the 'Confusion Ray' and is an electromagnetic cannon which does no physical damage but disrupts the control system of any vessel it hits, rendering them almost helpless for a while until the effects wear off. A slightly unusual ship but great to use when you get used to it.

Ship Rating: 4/5

Orz Nemesis

The Orz are a very strange bunch who emerged suddenly from another dimension at the expense of the Androsynth, and probably as a result of this they are nonsensical and unpredictable. Their Nemesis ships, on the other hand, are not only unexpectedly normal but also rather good too! They aren't blessed with the greatest of crew complements or fuel reserves but they're nippy little things with very tight turning circles which makes them ultra-manoeuvrable. For their main weapon they have a tank-like rotating 'Howitzer' turret which can of course just as easily be fired from the side or behind while keeping out of the way of enemy ships as it can from a frontal assault. It doesn't do a huge amount of damage and it can't fire too many shots in succession but it doesn't take long for the ship to regain its fuel either.

As well as this handy cannon, the Nemesis can also deploy Space Marines which exit the ship in special armoured suits and travel across space to the enemy ship. Upon entering it they travel through it killing any crew member they encounter! They're not indestructible of course, and each one sent depletes your own crew complement by one, but you can send as many as you like providing you have at least one crew member left and they are a very handy way to rid an enemy ship of its crew with a bare minimum of effort, and combined with the versatile cannon, they make the Nemesis one of my favourite ships in the game.

Ship Rating: 4/5

Pkunk Fury

Considering how amusingly peculiar the Pkunk are, I suppose it's only natural that their ship would also be rather 'unique' too. One of the few characteristics you can't really apply to the Fury, however, is that it's... furious! It's a small, light, and super-quick ship which must surely be the fastest and most manoeuvrable in the whole game. Accordingly, however, like most of the small, fast ships, it suffers in almost every other area.

It's main weapon is a weak and short-range gun which fires molten-metal pellets in three directions. It can fire them very rapidly but it also has small fuel tanks so a volley lasts less than a second and must be deployed when close to an enemy ship. This combination spells trouble and even a ship as agile as this one doesn't often last very long. In addition to this, the Fury has an unusual way of regaining lost fuel. Rather than slowly building back up automatically like most ships, the captain of any given Fury hurls insults at his opponent. The 'psychic emanations' resulting from this then recharge the ship, one unit per insult!

The strangeness of this nippy little ship doesn't stop there either. Thanks to the divine, spiritual nature of the Pkunk, roughly half of the times a Fury is destroyed it will be immediately reincarnated, fully crewed and fuelled! As you might expect, this can be an extremely useful, if somewhat unpredictable feature. Regardless of how you might feel about its strengths and weaknesses though, the Fury can be a really handy ship in the right hands and is absolutely invaluable in the main game of Star Control 2.

Ship Rating: 3/5

That's it for now! I'll take a look at the remaining newbies in a post coming soon :)

Puzzle Games #9

Zoom! (1989)
By: Discovery Software / Sega Genre: Maze / Puzzle Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: 4,440
Also Available For: Commodore 64, Amiga, PC

We've already taken a look at a few of the MegaDrive launch titles here at Red Parsley. Many of them were state-of-the-art at the time with flashy graphics and amazing soundtracks, but there were a couple that were somewhat less befitting the power and prestige of the world's first 16-bit console (okay, the first proper 16-bit console) and one of them was Zoom! A conversion of a simple puzzle game which first appeared on the rather less powerful Commodore 64 hardly seems like the best choice of game to showcase Sega's swanky new hardware, though, and it isn't an especially original game either! However, as us retro gamers know better than anyone, fancy graphics and ingenious concepts certainly don't hurt but few games actually require them to be enjoyable.

Anyone who's played a 1981 arcade game called Amidar will know what to expect here, for it's from this Stern game that Discovery Software have drawn their inspiration for Zoom. It takes place over thirty-six levels which are spread equally over six stages. Each level is a single-screen in size and, unlike Amidar, viewed from a 3D overhead perspective. They take the form of grids of different arrangements of squares from a maximum possible size of eight by eight squares. The object is to guide the strange creature called Smart (who looks like a potato with big ears on the cover of the game) through the game. Each level is completed by encircling each of the squares on the grid although Smart can only walk on the lines between squares. To make things a little easier, there is a simultaneous two-player mode as well.

Patrolling each level are up to five different kinds of enemy creatures who will cause Smart (or Zoomer as he was known in previous versions - a much better name if you ask me!) to lose a life if he touches them. The most irritating ones are 'Rowdy Fingers' which follow Smart around and Spiler's which erase lines he has drawn around squares. He isn't completely helpless though as he can jump the enemies or smack them with his rubber ball which bumps them back. There are also various collectables which appear at random for a short while before disappearing again. They include an hourglass which freezes the enemies, bananas which slows them down, and sunflowers which make Smart invincible. The effect of all of these is of course temporary but there are also other items for bonus points and a feather which 'zooms' you straight to the next level.

If you manage to clear the last level the game repeats them all but with different enemies and items and there's also a number of secret levels so it's not a game you're likely to finish on your first attempt! The question is, is it a game you would want to? Well, it did seem a little out of place next to some of the games that accompanied it at the MD's launch but it's actually a fun little game. Despite the initially poor presentation the graphics aren't too bad - rather simple and not particularly varied, but neat and colourful. The sound isn't too bad either - there are few tunes so they do get repetitive but they're also quite quite catchy and cheerful. I can understand Zoom not looking like a very attractive purchase at the time but I'm pretty sure I remember it being a little cheaper than the other launch titles. More importantly though, it's also a pretty enjoyable game and proves to be a rather addictive one as well.

RKS Score: 7/10

Film Review #33

Dave (1993)
Director: Ivan Reitman Starring: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley, Charles Grodin, Laura Linney

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 105 Minutes

Tagline: "In a country where anybody can become President, anybody just did."

Times are hard once again here in RKS land, and with no recent cinema visits I thought I'd take a look at another old favourite in the hopes of turning more movie fans onto its charms. It's a film that stars Kevin Kline and... umm... Kevin Kline (chortle) with the two Kevins playing both the character of the title, Dave Kovic - a nice, charming, helpful, everyday guy who runs a temping agency, as well as the President of the United States, Bill Mitchell, who isn't quite as pleasant. Dave's agency is his main source of income but he also makes a few 'bucks' on the side doing impersonations of the President, so he's already aware of the similarity he bears towards the Commander-in-Chief but perhaps he's not aware of just how close the resemblance is.

"Just get rid of the grin, you look like a shmuck..."

After his latest appearance as the 'President', Dave finds himself propositioned by Duane Stevenson (Rhames) of the Secret Service to actually double for the President for the evening while he turns his attentions towards a "patriotic secretary". Predictably enough, the real President has a stroke meaning the ruse has to be kept up for a while longer and Dave soon finds himself being given a crash course in White House operations by the ambitious Chief of Staff, Bob Alexander (Langella) and conscientious Communications Director, Alan Reed (Dunn) - the only ones other than Duane who know Dave's secret. Of course, it isn't long before he finds himself embroiled in the schemes and various relationships within the White House, including a somewhat less-than-loving First Lady (Weaver).

The First Lady, Dave, and Duane visit the President...

It may all sound very silly, and there are plenty of comedic moments, but Reitman and his crew have done a fantastic job in making everything as realistic as possible. I've never been in the White House before, admittedly, but the sets all seem very genuine to me, and there's dozens of cameos throughout the film from real-life politicians, celebrities, and media personalities, which adds to the air of authenticity a great deal. It's not a film that's too demanding of any of the cast but Kline is superb nonetheless as the captivating title character as well as the dastardly President, and Langella is also noteworthy as the 'bad guy' Chief of Staff, and it's great fun to see the two of them gradually coming to loggerheads as Dave gets the hang of things and realises the potential benefits of his new "temp job".

"There's a few things I'd like to go over in the budget..."

Most of the other characters don't really have a huge amount to do except for the First Lady whose icy demeanour slowly thaws, and also great value are Rhames as the self-conscious Presidential body guard, Grodin as Dave's best friend, and Kingsley as the Vice-President - actually one of the only honest politicians in the film! Of course, it is a little unrealistic to think a President, or indeed any other politician, could be as nice, honest, and selfless as Dave is, but it's nice to imagine what it might be like and this fantastic feel-good film does a great job of demonstrating it. The memorable script and great ensemble headed by a superb lead performance make Dave a wonderfully appealing film which will surely keep a smile on your face for the entire running time.

RKS Score: 9/10

SNES Shmups #3

Strike Gunner S.T.G. (1992)
By: Athena / Tecmo Genre: Shooting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Mediumd
Featured Version: Nintendo SNES First Day Score: I don't know, it doesn't give you a chance to record it!
Also Available For: Arcade

Since I started writing this blog it has served two main purposes. The first has been to stir some of my many fond memories of the games and systems I played while I was growing up. The other is to introduce me to titles I missed for whatever reason the first time around. The time I've spent playing Strike Gunner over the last couple of weeks has done a little of both. I have a vague recollection of it receiving very little attention in magazines of the day, maybe the odd unenthusiastic review in the corner of a page, so it went under the radar of most SNES gamers, including me. I can't even remember what brought it back to my attention just recently but I went in expecting little. Shoot 'em ups were ten a penny on the 16-bit consoles after all, so if this one was much good, we'd have all heard about it long ago, surely?

The plot certainly does nothing to set the game apart. There's something about an evil dictator joining forces with some evil, conniving aliens to destroy mankind and take over the world. Our remaining scientists are of course able to use the last of our resources to hastily construct two 'advanced prototype' assault crafts with unmatched power and abilities. Taking control of these fighters are the rather ordinary-sounding 'Jane' and 'Mark', one or both of whom must pilot them through eight stages of vertically-scrolling, enemy-ridden danger. The craft are armed with bog-standard forward-firing cannons but that's not all. Immediately after the fairly striking title screen (no pun intended) comes the game's first attempt at innovation - you can choose from some fifteen different special weapons to supplement your default gun.

You can only choose one special weapon per stage but your choice can make a tremendous difference to your progress through the game. They include various different kinds of cannons and missiles which vary enormously in power and therefore how often you can use them. For example, using the Homing Missiles fires two small heat-seekers which can be pretty handy but don't do a huge amount of damage so they can be used quite a few times before the energy-meter is emptied. On the other hand, using the MegaBeam Cannon causes devastating carnage but it empties the energy-meter after only one use. Fortunately, power-ups are fairly frequently encountered. These are dropped by passing Stealth Bombers (or Space Shuttles on later stages) and will either boost the power of your standard cannon, give you a speed-up, or refill the special weapon energy-meter, which can be particularly helpful!

This also helps to make this one of the fairest shmups I've played. Although your basic gun can be powered-up several times, it never reaches amazing levels of destructive power which means that when you lose a life it's completely realistic to continue without too many problems, especially as play resumes immediately from the point of death. It's also a game that rarely overwhelms you with enemies. Most of them come in the form of helicopters, jets, tanks, etc, which can be taken out with a shot or two from the standard cannon. Waves of them are occasionally interrupted by barrages of fast missiles and there's increasingly frequent larger enemy vehicles which require more time to destroy, but there are also moments now and then, as long as ten seconds sometimes, with nothing on the screen besides the red fighter you control (and a blue one too, in two player mode).

It's not an especially impressive game from a technical point of view. The music is great but there's not too many different tunes, and it's the same with the sound effects really. Graphically, everything is neat and tidy but there's not much variety in the backgrounds which include the usual forest, desert, and ocean scenarios before moving into space, and it's here that the sprites change from various sizes of military-type vehicles into alien spacecraft, but there are few examples of each type. Even the bosses are mostly just giant versions of normal enemies. The scrolling through the stages is mostly very slow as well and sometimes the scenery doesn't even change between stages. Despite all this, I still really liked Strike Gunner. It looks and sounds pretty good at first but there doesn't seem to be anything special about it either. For some reason, however, it's superb!

The pace of the gameplay isn't like most shmups I've played for one thing. One minute there's a few helicopters drifting onto the screen, one at a time, and you can just take them out with a solitary shot each, a bit like a shooting gallery. Then suddenly, a load of tanks will drive onto the screen and fill the air with heat-seeking rockets! If you manage to get past them, there may be nothing for a few seconds. Then a barrage of missiles fired by unseen launchers career down the screen at you! It's definitely a game that keeps you on your toes! The stages are pretty long too and there's some nice attention to detail. The airborne craft cast shadows on the ground below, for example. Special mention must also go to the outstanding two-player mode which, as well as the usual, also allows the players to combine they ships into a super-ship - one player controls flight with the other unleashing the new special combo weapons! It's remains hard to adequately explain the appeal this game has though. A couple of the special weapons are quite flashy, but apart from that it looks like a totally generic shmup. All I can is - give it a try - I think you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

RKS Score: 8/10