Super Mario Land (GB)

Begs the question, why is there an option idea at all here?

My last review on the Gameboy for this month, especially as it's partly in the start of the next month but so what, my choice and I'm doing this game. Super Mario Land, the very first game in the series on the Gameboy. It's not quite what some might expect, that much should be made very clear.

Bonus rounds do tend to try and throw lives at you, not that you really need them

If anything this game is something different from the other Mario games I might find on the NES and such. The in game physics are slightly different, the flower-power-up is very different in that it bounces off at all angles and isn't affected by gravity, it can also pick up coins if it hits them which makes for a wonderful help on the special room where it's FILLED from top to bottom of the screen with about 230+ coins (2 bonus lives at least) there's a change in the idea of the flag at the end of the level where taking the lower exit gives you no rewards while taking the higher exit will get you a bonus round of "get some lives or a power up". Which is great unless you get the flower and already have it, then the game makes a noise at you.

Not sure who has the bigger moustache here...

The actual game play seems the same on paper. You play as Mario and run, jump and sometimes shoot your way through enemies as you progress to the right and play through various lands and worlds (4 worlds) in order to rescue Princess Daisy (not Peach), where you'll encounter some familiar enemies and some very different enemies ranging from the Goombas and Koopas (which explode now) to rocks that run, giant spiders, sea dragons, dead Chinese spirits, robots and some guy in a spaceship. Each world has a rather unique boss (i.e. it's NOT just King Koopa throwing fireballs) Where you can also attack the boss or hit the blow-it-up button (except on last boss) and kill them that way.

Now.. How are you supposed to work out THIS secret unless you were suicidal?

Every 100 coins is an extra life and the game seems to throw them at you, lives available as hearts (mushroom graphics were difficult to differentiate between back then apparently) and coins and power ups are fairly plentiful. Dying isn't much of a punishment as the checkpoints are very regular although perhaps a little TOO regular in which you may restart far sooner than you realise. Often missing a power up you recently had collected and were expecting again...

A quick change in gameplay and now it's a scrolling shooter!

The running and jumping is a little erratic in places, the movement of Mario as he runs across the ground is fine, as it is when he jumps, it's when he falls from running or from jumping that the gravity of the situation gets a little awkward. Yes that was a very bad pun and I don't care. However, back to the point, jumping up onto platforms and running straight after can result in unexpected movement and speed leading you to go running straight back off again and plummeting to your untimely death, or worse, missing the bonus areas. 

Secrets AHOY!

 

In some cases with the game, how you move before and after bouncing off an enemy can be a game of roulette in trying to ascertain just what the hell is going on and leave you crashing into an enemy rather than killing it. The collision detection with some enemies bounding boxes doesn't quite match the sprites and some enemies move a lot faster than one might expect, causing some real issues with working out just how accurate you really need to be.

Top floor: Bonus level! Bottom floor: Next level...

That said, it's a fun game, steadily paced and rarely will there be a moment where you're in a rush, letting you take your time aside from two particular levels where the game play changes up and you're either in a submarine or in a plane and you'll be flying through the infamous... AUTOSCROLLING levels and shooting down enemies and blocks that are obstructing your path. It makes for a welcome change in pace and there's been enough forethought in the process to make sure the first few moments in the level are fairly enemy-clear to give players a chance to adapt and learn from the new control method.

Only if you're small will you get this one, and betting get big before you leave.

The music is fairly catchy too, except on the dungeon levels while the over world levels are far more upbeat and memorable, to the point where you could easily hum along to the music in fairly short order. It's not quite as famous and popular as the NES Mario music but little is from video games at least, except for perhaps Tetris music. The background beep and noises add little the game in truth other than to provide an audio feedback to events happening within the game, given the original screen of the Gameboy it's likely more useful than it is today with clearer screens.

WHOO! Goomba! It's almost a trademark!

It's fun, I don't deny that at all, it's flawed too but it's still a good solid game and an odd but poignant entry in Nintendo's library of titles. Not like it really needs it given the huge fucking cash cows it has grazing on the front lawn and as soon as the company looks like it'll go into distress it'll just pump out another 100 or so Pokémon and encourage people to buy a new game to catch more of them. I give it a few years before Spunkemon, the evolved Jizzmon, is "released" on the public and I really lost the plot on this one.

Nemesis (GB)

Looks ominous, but Easter Island head??? Konami you've some explaining to do

More Gameboy reviews and this time it's a lovely little quaint side scrolling spaceship shooter called Nemesis. Sadly that's not the Nemesis from Resident Evil punching his hand-dick through idiots faces. Nor a righteous designation of retribution or punishment, personified by a "roight 'orrible khant, me", though the wonderfully lyrical stylings of BrickTop would be amusing anyway. Perhaps if we can do it to the trackline of Darth Vader... No it's been done already.

I... should have paused before taking this image.

Nemesis, is part of the Gradius series though released on the gameboy rather than in Arcades and on the NES. Retitled for some reason and made all the redundant when re-released later with the other game's title instead. Makes you wonder what the point of it was really. However while it's here, I'm reviewing it and despite a few flaws it's a good game overall. There are problems as usual with games but then nobody has made the perfect game and this isn't it because it lacks an ability to nuke-slam people from orbit. What we do have is a side-scrolling game with variable items to collect and use as powerups.

KONAMI!!!!!!!!!!

The distinct difference that Nemesis has over games like R-Type is that you choose your power up. Speed, missiles, double shots, lasers, extra ships (options) and Force Fields are all collected by simple power up objects and you select which one you want when you want. The problem with that is you're restricted to having to collect 6 items to get a shield that lasts 3 hits or one BIG object that may or may not kill you outright anyway. If you're continuing from a checkpoint there may not even BE enough objects to get the shield. You also cannot have double AND laser at the same time.

Kinda defeats the point really...

Given the lack of available colour, the detail and such for the levels is astounding for what was possible and what was achieved. Sometimes the enemies get a little difficult to differentiate between each other, the projectiles they're firing and the background/foreground, while it does seem that nearly every effort has been made to try and keep these objects and items separate and discernable enough for the player to recognise as enemies or things that need to be avoided.

Missiles, Double, Speed, but I need more, MUCH more POWAH!

The music is upbeat enough that it becomes memorable and while not entirely in fitting with the theme and style of the game (one boss music in particular is very out of nowhere and makes it sound far more dangerous and sinister than one might expect from a side-scrolling shoot em up. Else the usual beeps and plinks of the gunfire, laser fire, explosions and power ups are clear enough to know which is which (the fact they're being played when you do key things anyway is often the biggest giveaway at that point) and it all goes hand in hand together for the game.

Shields are out, boss just arrived, it's go time!

The controls are fairly solid, one button to fire and one to use your power ups and the well recognised D-Pad for movement. However you'd be advised to NOT sit at the back of the screen (i.e. the left edge) as you'll likely be smashed apart by enemies approaching from the rear and you'll have no indication of it happening until you actually explode, lose all your power ups and have to restart from a checkpoint. Quite the unfair instance of gaming there and it will happen more and more often as you progress through the game towards the final boss. (A blob with 2 guns... bit anticlimactic there. Imagine the CyberDemon turning up in Doom2 with a fucking water pistol and you're on my wavelength now for disappointment).

Even in the future, Margaret Thatcher haunts us.

Sometimes in games like this you'll encounter things like Easter Island heads (It IS Konami after all) and it makes no sense. It doesn't here either but at least the graphics artists made it look like it fits in well enough to have them hurl large hoops the size of your ship. Likewise with other levels, everything fits within that level and the fluidity of the scenery is impressive all the same. Each level also has a sub-boss of sorts (which in some cases is HARDER than the actual boss, but oh well) and it all makes for a good sized challenge with a decent level of replay value. Well worth playing at least once all the way through.

The Konami code works here too, I should add. But just once...

Contra/Probotector (GB)

Such a familiar font, I do miss the old games a lot at times.

Given the last review, I thought that it'd be nice for me to review a few more Gameboy games in this month. My next being Contra/Probotector on the Gameboy. It's certainly an interesting game given the Gameboy's processing power and management of resources. Considering what the old 'boy was capable of, it's quite impressive as it stands.

It's creative, I'll give the designers that much.

Konami took it upon themselves to make what seems to be a mix of the first Contra/Probotector game, elements of the second Contra/Probotector game and throw in a lot of original content to the mix for it to becomes something quite impressive. There's some of the bigger elements thrown in such as musical renditions of level music from the original, some of the boss music makes it in there too and it's a nice return to the originals in that capacity.

Not sure if this should have been the first boss as it depends upon firing in a direction not previously used.

Possibly an issue with the game and size of the carts, but there's only five levels and none of them are particularly long nor infested with multitudes of enemies. You've three of the 2D side-scrolling platformer levels and two that use the pseudo-top-down view of the second NES game rather than the almost 3D tunnel view of the first game's alternative levels. While there's a lot borrowed here, there's also a LOT that's new and unexpected.

It can be difficult at times to identify the enemies, especially when they're shooting at you

The levels follow a similar pattern, going from city/industrial, military base, jungle, alien mesh and then alien mesh corridor, skipping a few of the more redundant and repetitive levels. There's no ice/factory levels (thankfully, I hate ice levels in almost any game) and the final boss is... curiously non-reactive but having said that, the pen-ultimate boss is rather a challenge. I'm getting ahead of myself however.

Roll in, get blown up, join the army!

The controls are very solid for the game, very responsive and very fluid, while jumping is a little out of sorts from the other game, in that you jump a little higher than one might expect for the Contra series, the emphasis is mainly on navigating the level, shooting the occasional enemy that pops up and then going toe-to-toe with the boss. What's refreshing in this game is that ALL of the bosses are unique and not encountered elsewhere in the other games of the series. So there's the thankfully good news that you'll experience new things.

Despite the lack of colours, the detail remains impressive for the alien architecture

Weapons wise, you start with a machinegun which is auto fire enabled, probably to stop people hammering the buttons on the Gameboy, and can upgrade to the scatter/spread gun, a homing bullet series of weapons which is actually quite overkill on bosses, or there's the fireball gun which thankfully is more like the second NES game in terms of use and effectiveness and not the first. So it actually DOES something rather than make the player want to end themselves just to go back to shooting standard bullets again.

Ok, Geiger can't be sued any more... what? Too soon?

The bosses range interesting from a submarine, to a chain-link tank, flying robot combos, a laser toting spider and a blob in a jar. Yes you did read that last part right and thankfully, while it does nothing, the "not quite end of the game" boss before it, is quite the challenge. Even mid-point bosses are nothing like anything in any of the NES games or Arcade games for that matter and as such, you'll get to see new things in this game rather than recycled bosses and sprites.

It does nothing...

It flows fairly well and the gameplay is easy enough that most of the difficulties are rendered moot by the control system. That said, there is the occasional problem with jumping over gaps in that the first few you jump over most likely will cause you to do in that you've got to be really close to the edge in order to make the jump. It's not quite the annoying level of pixel perfect landings but it's close to it. The oddness of the jumping physics in this game makes it a little awkward in that particular regard. Otherwise, a fun game if a little short on the fun and goodness.

A winner is you!

Tetris

Nearly everyone has played this one. If you yourself are too young to have played it, I can almost 100% promise that your parents have. Originally made in 1985 and world popularised in 1989 by being released with the "new at the time" Original Gameboy, Tetris was THE addictive puzzler in computer gaming and by god was it.

The premise is fairly simply, as should be with all puzzle games that want to welcome in anyone and keep them a long time playing the game. You have a blank area that's about 9 blocks wide and about 30 blocks high (depending upon versions, some go to STUPID lengths of having thousands of blocks wide). Within this area, Tetriminoes (Check the official company for the spelling, they don't like "Tetrominoes"), descend from the top of the area and fall steadily towards the bottom. These are shapes made up of arrangements of 4 blocks to form 7 unique shapes. Once they hit the bottom, they stick and become immobile, where upon a new shape will fall from the top again.

The game is about making entire full rows of blocks line up by fitting, slotting and shifting the shapes into an appropriate position so that a whole, horizontal line can be completed from one side to another. Once this is achieved, that line disappears and everything above that line drops down to fill the now-empty space. Giving the player more space to keep playing. The score goes up depending upon the number of lines cleared (a maximum of 4 lines from using a 4x1 shaped piece) and while the score goes up, the speed of the game goes up too.

Different game modes allow for playing either to get to 200 lines and by extension, level 20 in speed which leaves you virtually NO time to shift falling blocks into place or rotate them. Or the other mode where you have to beat the game by getting 25 lines but starting with arenas that have randomly filled walls-with-gaps already in place. Other variations of the game include things like having special blocks within the shapes that act as bombs, or using the ability to store a piece for later use, or getting specific back-to-back combinations of line removals for further bonuses. Or even a vs. mode where getting rid of sets of lines will bump up your opponents lines but in such a way that they could quickly reverse the lines being sent to them and send them back with interest.

Other games and variations have Wordtris where the blocks are made up of scrabble shapes and you have to make words rather than making lines, or you have the ill-conceived Sextris where you're dropping in naked people in various positions and have to remove them by getting them into hump-able positions (I had a very odd childhood didn't I...) before they vanish and allow for more naked people to fall into the fray. Or it could be that you're playing the game in 3D and have multiple layers in the Z-Axis to fill too, or you're playing it in First Person Mode or it's about using shapes to create platforms for a platform jumping character (Mario usually...) to progress across the level in some fashion or another.

Later iterations of the game would play online and allow people to compete around the world in 8way games and having team modes and such. Basically as the technology increases and new elements of gaming are found, someone somewhere is going to add in a Tetris effect along the lines from porn to faces, hats, 3D shapes, rotating the arena rather than the pieces, gravity/physics effects and so on.

The base game however, is still just dropping blocks into an area and filling up a space neatly. It appeals on a LOT of levels and in particular, the OCD group, as this is the ultimate cleaning up game.

It's because the game is so simple and accessible that virtually everyone and their parents have played this at one time or another in some fashion or another. Even adventure games have variations of sorting and arranging spaces, such as Resident Evil 4 where in the inventory, you had to make sure everything was neatly packed away or you'd have difficulties buying new items and such. A bit of a weak example, I know, but the influence is still there and can be found in a great many other games through the ages, even parody examples in games like I Wanna Be The Guy (Press R now, just do it)

As such it's hard to just review Tetris given that it's the phenomenon that it has become, but perhaps that should be the focus rather than the game itself. This is a game that started as a puzzle game and ended up transcending time space and the 4th dimension in some versions of the game where a 2D plane has 4D shapes represented by 3D displays in the 2D plane and changes through versions of itself bending inside and outside to form tesseracts (Hyper cubes) and then fitting THOSE into the area to clear out lines.

How the hell someone is going to get their head around that one ... Actually it's quite a fun game once your mind starts to see things in 4 dimensions.

But this just shows how adaptable a player can become from such humble beginnings within a game. There's no save function it's just you and the area. While there have been a GREAT many contenders to the throne, from columns to bean games, to puzzle fighter and so on, Tetris remains such a firm staple of video game history that very rarely can a falling block puzzle game be made that doesn't owe something to Tetris. It's quick, easily playable (especially the original versions, new versions sometimes over complicate things) and of such a pick-up-and-play focus that you can sit down for a session or two and be done within 5 minutes or find that you're looking outside and the 4 Horsemen are looking over your shoulder and waiting for you to catch up with the rest of the apocalypse because you were too busy to join the rapture.

And I bet they'll want to play it before claiming your sorry soul, and they'll likely be better at than you.