Spectrum Round-Up #2

Budget games were great, a real lifeline for kids my age back in the mid-to-late-80s. I fondly recall my good friend Luke and I frequently visiting our local Blockbuster video store and browsing the rack of budget games they had for sale, but both there and featured heavily in the magazines that covered the 8-bit micros at the time were games bearing the name of Joe Blade, but for some reason I never played them. They are a trilogy of flick-screen arcade adventures - a type of game that appeals to me, and they were always near the top of the budget charts and were well received by most of the magazines too, so I really don't know why I never gave them a try. Time, then, for this pitiful blog to do its job once again. Behold:

Joe Blade (1987)

This first instalment sees Joe as a lone commando sent into an enemy fortress to rescue six hostages, then set a few bombs, and escape before they blow. Sounds like a cinch! There are guards patrolling most rooms though, and you have limited ammo for your machine gun. Luckily you can pick up more as well as keys, guards uniforms (temporary invincibility), and food to replenish Joe's health metre which depletes rapidly from contact with guards or other enemies. You will also find the aforementioned bombs here and there (there are six in total). Touching one brings up a mini-game where you have to put letters in the right order. If you do, you'll have 20 minutes to find the other bombs and arm them in a similar way before escaping. If you don't, the bomb will blow, killing you. It's a good idea to find the hostages before messing about with these! It's simple like most budget games, but the monochrome graphics are really nice (colours change now and then), there are tons of screens, it's good fun to play, and would be addictive enough anyway, but the placement of all the items (hostages, bombs, pick-ups) is randomised every time you play which makes it even more addictive, not to mention great value for money... 8/10

MSX Round-Up #3

I guess this makes me a bit of a weirdo, but one of the most memorable things about Golvellius for me was Randar, the awesome shopkeeper. This might seem to suggest that Golvellius sucks ass but it is a mighty splendid game, particularly the versions for the MSX2 and the mighty Master System. But in spite of its splendour, I still carry with me joyful memories of the cheerful blue fellow in addition to fond memories of the game itself. I guess I just like cute/amusing/weird characters in games!

As you've probably already seen for yourself, Randar is basically a blue sphere with rudimentary feet and a perpetually happy face. Well, I assume he's a sphere - I guess he could be a two-dimensional blue circle, but he is awesome nonetheless. He is friendly and helpful and his warm personality could brighten up the gloomiest day. He even speaks in a semi-medieval stylee! Such is my affection for this odd character, imagine my happiness, not to mention surprise, when I found out he had his own entire games! Three of them! Which he alone was the star of! Unfortunately, I also soon found that they're all RPGs of all things - a genre I admire but seldom play.

PC Round-Up #1 - Part 2

After perhaps world record levels of procrastination (I started this post two years ago, which was itself some five years since my first 'Catacomb' post!), I've finally gotten around to resuming my coverage of first-person shooters... which never even started to begin with. This is due to my mild-yet-prevalent OCD which dictated I review the first FPS before looking at the later, more well-known ones. This led to a problem: what was the first FPS? My initial research into this subject has yielded several answers. Many might say Doom; oldies like me will remember Wolfenstein 3D; but the answer lies even further back than that - Catacomb 3D and its sequels.

Catacomb 3D: The Descent (1991)

Also known as Catacomb 3 to tie in to the 2D games and also known as Catacomb 3D: A New Dimension to emphasise the added dimension, this possibly first ever first-person shooter by the now-legendary id Software casts you in the same role as before - that of wizard Petton Everhail who must save his friend from the evil lich Grelminar. This seems to involve wandering around various mazey stages shooting lots of monsters with fireballs from your hand as you try to find the portal that takes you to the next such example. I was expecting an ugly, clunky, unplayable mess to be honest but I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, the stages are all flat and there's not much variety but movement is smoother than I thought it would be which includes a helpful strafe button, and there are plenty of scary monsters and stuff to collect, and even some secret areas! Frankly, I was just going to play it for long enough to grab a screenshot and get a reasonable impression of it but I kept playing simply because I was enjoying it. Okay, it's very basic and repetitive (especially the music) compared to later examples, but it's not at all bad, all things considered... 6/10

Sega SG-1000 Round-Up #7

It's been far too long since I last visited Sega's splendid début console, thanks in the most part to my oafishness, but finally I have returned after checking out another selection of titles. The games were selected largely at random but fortunately they represent a decent range of styles and mostly include games I haven't played before. Here is how I got on with my latest five choices:

Hyper Sports (1985)

I was surprised to find this famous multi-event sports title in the SG's library since Konami have rarely given much support to Sega over the years. It turns out it's rather different to the arcade version and many of its conversions though, instead bearing resemblance only to the MSX version. Accordingly it has just the four events - diving, long horse, trampoline, horizontal bar - and... well, they're not easy, at least for me. Only the d-pad and one action button are used so the controls are at least simple but no matter how much I wiggle my d-pad (snigger?) I can't seem to make the guy move very quickly. Maybe I don't have a suitable pad for a game like this, maybe I'm just crap. You can't choose events either - they are in a set order and you have to reach a qualification score to advance to the next. I just about managed to squeak through the first time around though, and it's clear the game is pretty good fun at first, though it soon gets repetitive. It's therefore a shame it lost some events. The graphics are okay though, virtually identical to the MSX version, in fact, and there aren't really any alternatives on the SG anyway... 6/10

Master System Round-Up #6

As long-term visitors here (if there are any) might have noticed, I'm a bit of a Sega fan. It was their arcade games, specifically some of their Super Scaler titles, that got me into gaming to begin with, and their wonderful Master System console that so captivated me for years at home. With that in mind, and since I have now reviewed a sufficient number of the arcade versions of those Super Scaler gamers for a Round-Up, here is a look at their MS versions to see how they measure up:

Hang-On (1985)

I actually played this one before I'd even encountered it in an arcade since it came built into my MS, and I spent a lot of time with it. In fact, I got rather good and thought that would translate over to the arcade version when I did finally get to try it, only to fail miserably! It isn't a bad conversion though, all things considered (it was mainly the giant red bike that caused me problems in the arcades). There are four stages rather than the five in the original (happily, the cool night stage keeps its place) which repeat over and over so you basically keep going for as long as you can, and I used to be able to loop through the game several times. I can't now of course, as my powers have waned over the years, but it's still an enjoyable little racing game. It does get a little repetitive after a while - something a few more stages/backgrounds would've helped with, and some in-game music would've been nice too, but for most of us this was a freebie, and to me at least it was a very welcome one... 8/10 (arcade version reviewed here)

Neo Geo Round-Up #1

I've never really been the biggest fan of one-on-one fighting games, I'm sorry to say. I did get drawn in by the Street Fighter II craze like most gamers around that time, but aside from that game and a few other Capcom examples, it's a genre I haven't spent too much time on. This may be because I'm not that good at them. Learning the often-complicated special move commands and performing elaborate combos can be very satisfying but I'm not one of those gamers that it comes naturally to.

Mainly for this reason, most of the examples found on the Neo Geo have been largely neglected here in RKS Land. In an effort to rectify that, however, I have decided to take a look at each fighting game series found on SNK's mighty console in the form of round-ups. I can't promise they will be the most comprehensive evaluations as the finer points of such games are often lost on me, but I shall do my best. These posts, much like all of my posts, are more for my benefit than yours anyway, assuming anyone is even reading this, as they motivate me to play games I've seldom or never played before, but I do of course hope you like them! First up was going to be the Fatal Fury series which was, I believe, the first SNK fighting game series, but there are about a million of them. So instead, I've started with one I'm at least a little familiar with - the Art of Fighting series. Before I get started, however, here's a bit of general info on the series.

Master System Round-Up #5

They're probably looked back on now as a bit of a gimmick; a silly novelty gadget of limited use, but the Master System's 3D Glasses were actually quite an innovative peripheral for their time. Unlike Nintendo's pointless R.O.B. (Robotic Operated Buddy) for their Famicom/NES, or ridiculous third-party nonsense like Mattel's Power Glove, Sega's glasses actually did something for one thing.

Indeed, by using some manner of spooky wizardry involving shutters in the glasses and flickering images on the screen, they were able to give the impression of actual 3D graphics in games that were made to take advantage of them. You might think that a dazzling, cutting edge technology like this would cost a bomb but, as I recall, they cost a little more than a standard game at the time. When my ultra-splendid parents agreed to help in my acquisition of my soon-to-be-treasured Master System back in 1987/8 (I forget exactly when now), I was lucky enough that they separately added a pair of 3D Glasses to my bundle - a result, I suspect, of my OutRun infatuation - but some lucky MS owners such as my good friend Luke received them with the console itself in the form of the might Super System set! I can't remember if he ever got around to getting any games that actually used them though, besides Missile Defence 3D which was built into his console (I'll have to ask him), but I certainly did.

Games of the Year - 2016

I'm a bit late with this but finally I've gotten around to the now-traditional 'Games of the Year' post! As mentioned in another recent post, it's been an eventful year for me, and one that's seen a few changes too, not all of which were welcome, and as a result, what was looking like a good, productive year blog-wise actually ended up fizzling out in a largely unspectacular and somewhat frustrating way.

I'll be back though, hopefully with a vengeance as there are still tons of things I want to write about here. As always, whether you are chance visitors or long-term readers of my page, I hope you continue to enjoy my various posts. Feedback is always welcome, positive or negative - what would you like to see more of or less of? In the meantime, here are the Top Ten Best Games I reviewed during 2016:

10. Wonder Boy by Sega (1986) - Arcade

This Sega classic was actually supposed to be the first game I ever reviewed here at Red Parsley, I'm not sure why it took me so long. Oh well, least I got to it, even if it did take me 6 years! It was worth the wait too - the runny leapy action might be a bit unforgiving but it's great fun, and it still plays really well. (full review here)

San Francisco's Gaming Gem - Part 2

Oops, it's now been almost exactly a year since I went to California which means I am long overdue with this post (no surprise there I guess!). Anyway, having already revealed the wonders of Musée Mécanique generally, I thought I'd also take a quick look at the five games I spent the most time playing there (besides skee ball of course, which is the greatest thing ever). Here they are:

Sprint 2 (1976)

I've long been a fan of the splendid Super Sprint so it was a real thrill to find this, the original Sprint (the '2' denotes a two-player version) lurking amongst the more modern machines. Naturally I gave it a go and quickly found it... rather tough going. As you can see, the cars are teeny things but steering them around the circuits isn't too tough. The black and white graphics are tidy and the controls are smooth enough. What makes it tough is its mandatory 4-speed transmission. It's not always easy to constantly shift up and down in any normal racing game but it's even tougher here with ultra-concentration needed to get around within sight of the other cars. I guess I'd get used to it after a while but... jeez, I made a mess of it on this occasion (my ranking was 'granny' - boo hoo)! It was still wonderful to even have the chance to play it at all though - there can't be too many of these machines left at all, never mind ones working this flawlessly, and it does still play really well considering how old it is.

PC Round-Up #1 - Part 1

Anyone who considered themselves a gamer in the late 80's and 90's had heard of John Carmack. He, along with Jon Romero, was head programmer at id Software who became rather famous for their first-person shooters (just a couple of little games called Doom and Quake). Like all coders, however, he had to start somewhere. I've already taken a look at one of Mr. Romero's first games so now it's his fellow founder's turn, and while these aren't the very first games ever to be completed by Mr. Carmack, they were released in his early years as a coder and would go on to have much significance, for id Software and gaming generally.

Catacomb (1990)

First developed for the Apple II at the end of the 80's, the first game in the Catacomb series is a simple maze shooter. You're a magician called Petton Everhail who has been asked to rescue the Kieralon Empire by freeing their catacombs of the terrifying monsters that now dwell therein. There are ten mazey stages populated by numerous enemies. Petton can run at quite a pace and shoot fireballs without limit (including more powerful charge shots), but the enemies can run just as quickly so fast reactions are needed, especially since his energy meter is depleted rapidly and he only has one life. It's a short game, though pretty tough due to the fast and numerous enemies, but it shouldn't take long to get through it. It was still a pretty cool little game in its day, but early DOS games were never really the pinnacle of gaming and it hasn't aged well. It's certainly worth a quick play for its historical significance, specially for id Software fans, but nothing more than that... 4/10

Games of the Year - 2015

Well, it doesn't seem like five minutes ago I did the last one of these but the year is already over! It's been a busy one for me, and accordingly it has seen the least posts here at Red Parsley in the six years I've been rambling away here, but I've still managed to play a good variety of games on an ever-widening variety of systems.

Over the coming year I hope to continue this. I've started to feel a tad overwhelmed by the enormity of the indie/homebrew/doujin scene but I will continue to cover any titles that catch my eye in addition to covering old favourites and discovering new gems (hopefully at least) on the older systems. I also have a huge backlog of films and TV shows to review but I'll get through as many as I can.

Anyway, I hope you all, whether you are chance visitors or long-term readers of my page, continue to enjoy my various posts. Feedback is always welcome, positive or negative - what would you like to see more of or less of? In the meantime, here is the largely-pointless Top Ten Best Games I reviewed throughout 2015:

10. Super Bomberman by Hudson Soft (1993) - SNES

Only recently reviewed here, the first of the SNES Bomberman games wasn't quite as flashy as the PC Engine version that preceded it, but it was the introduction to the great series for many of us gamers here in the UK, and a mighty fine one it was too. Packed full of hours of manic blasting fun for one player or several. (full review here)

Sega SG-1000 Round-Up #6

It's been far too long since I last visited Sega's splendid début console, thanks in the most part to my oafishness, but finally I have returned after checking out another selection of titles. The games were selected largely at random but fortunately they represent a decent range of styles including a few versions of games I have played before. Here is how I got on with my latest five choices:

Castle, The (1986)

Released on most of the Japanese systems of the time (except the NES), The Castle is a flick-screen platform/puzzle game of surprising size and complexity. It takes place within the titular structure which consists of a slightly bewildering 100 rooms. Located within one of them is a princess who, in your role as prince, it is your duty and honour to rescue. This is easier said than done though, naturally, as the prince's few abilities do not extend beyond walking, jumping, and pushing, and the castle is chock-full of various enemies and hazards which must be avoided or outsmarted as well as many items to help your progress including colour-coded keys to access areas of the castle. Graphically the game is quite nice. The detail isn't great but there is a lot of variety considering the setting, and the music is amusing and catchy (though repetitive) too. It takes a while to get used to the very slow pace of the gameplay (that is until you discover the 'speed up' button) but once you do you should find The Castle to be an addictive and highly enjoyable platformy puzzler. It could do with a suicide button for when you get stuck, but that's my only gripe with this superbly playable game... 9/10

MSX Round-Up #2

They might be better known for the likes of Aleste, Gunhed, and Puyo Puyo but, like everyone else, Compile had to start somewhere. In their earliest days they favoured the Japanese 8-bit micros, eventually settling on MSX as their 'main' machine, and even this far back their focus was apparently on shoot 'em ups. One of the first was Final Justice, also one of the first games by designer, Satoshi 'Pac' Fujishima, and it was the first part of what would eventually became his trilogy - all shooters, all vertical-scrollers (kind of), and all available only on the MSX. Were there already signs of Compile's greatness this far back? Let's see :)

Final Justice (1985)

Hailing the arrival of both Pac and Compile was this, a simple shooter which, while technically a vertical-scroller, looks and plays more like a gallery shooter. Your ship is at the bottom and is armed with a pea-shooter cannon, various enemies approach from the top. Your job is simply to shoot or avoid them long enough to reach the boss. Defeat it and move to the next stage, of which there are supposedly 99 in total. Lord knows who could clear them all without cheating though! You only get one life for starters, although you do get a shield that can take a few hits. The enemies are all pretty basic and each type moves in a different way - some swoop around, some head straight for you, some meander unpredictably, etc. There are also white blocks which can, if you're quick, bestow upon you a shield-refill, shot power-up, or speed-up. Even with these, though, Final Justice is an extremely simple blaster which, while quite addictive, is also very repetitive. It's definitely interesting enough for Compile fans to take a peek at (it even has their little jingle) but it most likely won't hold your attention for very long... 5/10

San Francisco's Gaming Gem - Part 1

Oh, hello there, how's stuff 'n' junk? As mentioned in my 'why I haven't posted much lately' post, I have recently enjoyed a spectacular holiday driving around California visiting various cities and National Parks alike. There were of course many highlights but few relevant to the usual content of this blog. One, however, was very relevant, and I didn't discover its existence until mid-way through my second-to-last day of the trip when a friend I had met up with who lives in (or near) San Francisco.

The magical place in question was the Musée Mécanique, located at Fisherman’s Wharf in the north of San Francisco, and it's a museum of coin-operated arcade games. While the machines on display do include classic video games like Galaxians, Robotron, Phoenix, etc, the museum is perhaps even more noteworthy for its collection of antique electro-mechanical arcade games, and the best part is that all the machines have been lovingly restored and are fully playable too! Some of these date back as far as the 1920's, amazingly, and range right up to the 70's where of course the electronic games we know today were born (yes, okay, I know Spacewar was earlier), and they were absolutely fascinating to behold.

ColecoVision Round-Up #1

Well, it's been quite a while since I 'Explored' the ColecoVision - over 18 months now actually (oops!) - so I guess it's time I got around to checking out a few more of its games. Here are five I chose at random because I like their names :)

Space Panic (1983)

Unknown to many, this is actually a conversion of a very important and historic game, for the arcade version of Space Panic was the first ever platform game! Despite this iconic status though, I was never very keen on it so I didn't expect to like this either, but it's actually not bad. The object is to clear each single-screen stage of enemies by digging holes in the platforms, letting them fall in, and then filling in the holes. This is fairly easy at first - the tomato enemies are a bit dim and just walk straight into your traps - but the other two types take a bit more work to outwit! The number of them per stage also gets pretty hardcore before long and while you're digging holes for advancing enemies to fall into, others are approaching from behind. There's a time-limit, too, in the form of finite oxygen for our brave tomato-planting hero, so it can be a pretty hectic game at times, but appealing graphics and sound effects and superb controls make it a very enjoyable one as well. Good fun and surprisingly engaging for the first ever game of its type... 8/10

Games of the Year - 2014

Well, after revisiting many of my old reviews, and indeed getting the urge to play many of the games again too (I don't often get the time to play games simply for pleasure these days), we're finally up to date! The biggest difference with this list is the presence of several indie PC games - a type of game I've increasingly become a fan of since delving into that dauntingly-large world - but this year also featured some landmark arcade titles and I finally reviewed my very favourite game of all time too. Behold, the ten best games I've played (and reviewed) this year are:

10. Oids by FTL Games (1987) - Atari ST

For many years, every time the subject of 'gravity games' comes up I've heard three names - Gravitar, Thrust, and Oids. The latter is one that I never played until this review but it's turned out to be the best of them all - as well as loads of stages featuring all the usual stuff but it even has a level editor too! (full review here)

Games of the Year - 2013

Remarkably (for my standards), I've now posted reviews of over 400 games here at Red Parsley, covering many systems and genres, popular and obscure titles alike. I've still barely even scratched the surface of most of these of course, and my 'to do' list contains well over 400 more titles, but I've still played a lot of good and bad games over these (almost) five years. Here is a list of the finest examples from my fourth year of blogging. Only seems like yesterday that I reviewed some of these...

10. Ghost'n Goblins by Capcom (1985) - Arcade

I actually played Ghouls'n Ghosts before this but I'd heard it was meant to be just as almost-impossibly tough. As it turned out, it wasn't too bad in that regard - it was still a big challenge but not as frustrating as expected, and I consequently enjoyed it a lot. Sir Arthur's first adventure remains a top arcade game. (full review here)

Games of the Year - 2012

Remarkably (for my standards), I've now posted reviews of over 400 games here at Red Parsley, covering many systems and genres, popular and obscure titles alike. I've still barely even scratched the surface of most of these of course, and my 'to do' list contains well over 400 more titles, but I've still played a lot of good and bad games over these (almost) five years. Here is a list of the finest examples from my third year of blogging. I need to play some of these again...

10. Yars' Revenge by Atari (1981) - Atari VCS

I missed the heyday of the VCS so I didn't get around to playing this highly-regarded title for it until many years after its release but first impressions of it were still great even after all this time. It's as simple as you would expect from the VCS but the challenge is just right and it's very addictive! (full review here)

Games of the Year - 2011

Remarkably (for my standards), I've now posted reviews of over 400 games here at Red Parsley, covering many systems and genres, popular and obscure titles alike. I've still barely even scratched the surface of most of these of course, and my 'to do' list contains well over 400 more titles, but I've still played a lot of good and bad games over these (almost) five years. Here is a list of the finest examples from my second year of blogging. Seems like such a long time ago now...

10. Hellfire by Toaplan (1990) - MegaDrive/Genesis

Jaz Rignall of C&VG/Mean Machines used to rave about this one, a rare example of a horizontal-scroller from Toaplan, but I never really thought it looked like much. Then I played it and discovered one of the smoothest and most well designed such games yet seen! It's tough but I still can't stop playing it. (full review here)

Games of the Year - 2010

Well, 'tis nearly the festive season here in the UK, and indeed many other countries, and will remarkably be the fifth such season since I've been posting my ramblings here at Red Parsley. Usually this affects the content of my posts to no significant margin, such is my indifference to this time of year (and there are only so many 'Christmas Games' posts people can read, anyway), but this year I was thinking of posting a 'Top Ten Games of the Year' closer to the... ummm, well, end of the year.

This would not, however, be comprised of games released in 2014 - I've played so few of those it would be a bit pointless - but will instead feature my favourite ten games of those that I've reviewed in the year. Since these games could've been made at any time, I suppose this could also be a somewhat pointless exercise, but I'm going to do it anyway. Before I do that, though, I figured I might as well do the same thing for every year since Red Parsley has existed.

If nothing else, this will give me a chance to highlight some of my older reviews (and some great games in the process) to newer readers, and will probably prompt me to tidy them up a bit too (looks like I was less of a perfectionist in the early days!). So, the finest games reviewed during Red Parsley's fledgling year are:

10. Shinobi by Sega (1987) - Arcade

I've probably spent much more time playing the MS version of this classic than this version but few could deny the charm the arcade original has. It's tougher, there's no doubt of that, but it's also very satisfying and enormous fun to play. The gaming world has seen many ninjas but none as cool as Joe Musashi. (full review here)