Pinball Games #3

Revenge of the 'Gator (1989)
By: HAL Laboratory  Genre: Pinball Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo Game Boy First Day Score: 278,570
Also Available For: Nothing
Download For: Nintendo 3DS

I'm not sure why I never got 'into' the whole handheld console scene but as a result there are millions of cracking games I missed out on, and continue to miss out on until I eventually look at them here. One I remember getting lots of positive press in its day was Revenge of the 'Gator which, despite the strange name, is actually a pinball game! This is well skillish since... Well, I was going to say since I like digital pinball games thanks to the Crush series, but they are about the only examples I played extensively in their day. This effort arrived a year after said series debuted with Alien Crush so it's possible it was 'inspired' by the Compile classic, but it's immediately apparent that it's at least a decent one, perhaps even a corking one. It even has a two-player link-up option but alas, I don't have any friends with Game Boys. I don't have any friends with any handhelds, in fact, so I will have to focus on the one-player mode, although I suspect there are few who have ever played it any other way.

TV Shows #25

Away (2020)
Developed By: Andrew Hinderaker
Starring: Hilary Swank, Josh Charles, Vivian Wu, Mark Ivanir, Ato Essandoh, Ray Panthaki, Talitha Bateman

Certificate: 12 Running Time: 44-57 Minutes per Episode, 10 Episodes

Tagline: "Home Can Never Leave You"

My previously-glowing opinions about Netflix have slowly been changing over the last year or two but back in 2020, the news that they were working on a brand new, original sci-fi series made me giddy and excited and I had to sit down and think about fungus and other things of an oozy nature in order to calm down. I was going to start by saying it's set in the near future but do they ever actually state that in the show? I can't remember now, but I assume it must be as it's about the first manned mission to Mars. The crew due to make this historic flight is, naturally, one of a multi-national nature but I'm sure it won't come as a shock to find the mission commander is an American; namely, NASA astronaut Commander Emma Green played by the excellent Hilary Swank, which is great since she is an actress I haven't seen in anything for a while.

First Look PS4 #1

The Witness by Thekla, Inc (2016) - PS4

I'm often a bit wary of games that require more than perfunctory use of one's grey matter, chiefly, I suspect, because I have little in the way of processing power in that area, but when an offering is free as this one was last year from the PlayStation Store, I'm more than happy to give them a go. For a few minutes, at least, until I get stuck (chortle!). The Witness is a puzzle game but it definitely doesn't have much in common with the shape/colour matching games that we generally think about when people say 'puzzle games' which, let's face it, aren't really puzzle games at all. No, this one is an actual puzzle game, and a mighty challenging one at that, which puts the player in the shoes of an unnamed human (or at least humanoid) who we'll call Grimpleforth.

Overhead Racers #17

Super Cars (1990)
By: Magnetic Fields Genre: Overhead Racing Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Commodore Amiga
Also Available For: Atari ST, NES, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

I have been meaning to review this fab game for many years now as I have happy memories of playing it at my good friend Luke's house on his Atari ST, and accordingly I was going to look at that version here. However, as is often the case when I'm preparing reviews here, I had a quick look at some other versions too, and was slightly started to find that the Amiga version appears to be a jolly sight nicer in all regards, so I have instead decided to focus on that version like the graphics tart I didn't realise I was. None of the versions are terribly complicated though, admittedly. Simply load the game, enter your name (which must be four letters long, it seems, so I went for 'boob', naturally), choose one of the nine available tracks, and off you go.

Xbox: The Time To Collect Is Now - Part 2

Even if there is still anyone reading this blog, I doubt anyone has been reading it for long enough to remember my last post about my Xbox collection. It came some seven years ago; shortly after I was given the splendid green console by my wife for Christmas, in fact. I bought many games for it at very low prices in a short space of time after discovering just how cheap most of them were. I also had many others on my radar, however, and intended to buy them all equally quickly and make a follow-up post accordingly. This was achieved for the most part. Well, the part about buying the other games, anyway. But the post about them here was not forthcoming.

Discounting my usual laziness and procrastination, the cause for this exccessive delay was my desire to purchase all of the games I wanted before making my second post. Most of these were bought swiftly but some, including the more pricey ones, not incoincidentally, were continually put off over and over until it became... years. There were a few reasons for this but the biggest one was the change in policy by CEX, a game/movie store here in the UK. It was from there I bought most of the Xbox games I already had (as well as games for other systems). Quite a few I bought in person in my local store but many of them I bought online via their website.

TV Shows #24 - Part 1

Dexter (2006-13)
Developed By: James Manos Jr. Starring: Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, Lauren Velez, David Zayas, James Remar, C. S. Lee, Desmond Harrington, Geoff Pierson, Aimee Garcia

Certificate: 18 Running Time: 45-60 Minutes per Episode

Tagline: Takes Life. Seriously.

I have always found the subject of serial killers fascinating for some reason, as apparently many others do too. I don't admire or excuse what they do, obviously, but I do find it interesting hearing about their upbringing, the reasons they commit their horrendous acts, how long they keep going before getting caught, and what exactly it is that eventually trips them up. There have been a few good films on the subject over the years and I've seen most of them, so it's a bit surprising I put off watching Dexter for so long. I did eventually watch it about 3-4 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it overall, and was sad that it ended. For anyone who doesn't know, however, a revival was announced a while back which sees the return of the titular character after an absence of nearly a decade. With this in mind, I decided the time was right to watch the show again.

Shinobi Series - Part 7

The GG Shinobi (1991)
By: Sega Genre: Platform/Fighting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Sega Game Gear First Day Score: 000,000
Also Available For: Nothing
Download For: 3DS Virtual Console

This great, now-celebrated series was only four games old but it had already started looking as though it was heading downhill. The original game and the MegaDrive sequel were both widely acclaimed (with good reason) but Shadow Dancer (both versions) less so, and Cyber Shinobi, the series' only Master System exclusive, was not well received at all. The next title would need to be a corker or Musashi-san might be heading for the gaming retirement home. Luckily for keen assassins such as myself and no doubt many of you, it looked as though the title in question might restore Joe's crown as gaming's top ninja! In an effort to push their shiny new handheld, Sega made the game an exclusive for it. Known simply (and slightly confusingly) as 'Shinobi' outside Japan, fans always refer to it these days by it's Japanese title - The GG Shinobi - and here's a look at it.