Kickle Cubele - Arcade

So glad for the translation, makes less sense now

It's an odd form for a puzzler, but Kickle Cubele (Or Cubcicle depending on your version) seems to have a healthy mix of block sliding puzzle, adventure, action and madness that doesn't translate too well. Especially if you can't understanding the game and what it's showing you. However that's not to say that just because we don't exactly get the plot, we can't play a game and keep at it until we're done.

Dream? Nightmare!

At its purest, Kickle Cubele is about a snow-bound character trying to collect items to red bags that house his land's sleeping population after a wizard froze everyone and set them asleep and oddly our protagonist was somehow immune. Using his ability to freeze enemies and kick them around (kicking cubes of ice... there's the title) to form bridges and kill enemies is how you're going to save the day. On top of that, he can also create blocks that will stop the ice cubes from sliding too far and then use those to re-direct the angle of the block in order to fill in other gaps around the level and continue making progress.

Questionable shapes there

Each level in Kickle Cubele has 3 bags that must be collected in order to win the level and progress onwards. Also in each level are an unlimited supply of enemies that will spawn and assault you across the level, up to a set number maximum of enemies on screen at once which can change from level to level. Later levels will have other traps and situations like springs and more enemies, hammers that will rebound blocks around the level. Enemies will steadily evolve over levels to be able to stop blocks, kick them back and even create their own, leading to further puzzles where you'll have to get the enemies to make the bridges for you or face being slammed in the face by a frozen brick.

And there's bosses too!

The difficulty in Kickle Cubele doesn't accelerate or hit a brick wall but is instead a rather gradual and steady increase as the levels progress. Ideas introduced become more critical as the game progresses and usually where a skill or system is essential in the level, the previous level will have been solely about that specific skill or system. Once you've passed the first set of worlds, you'll find the difficulty does begin to ramp up quite significantly. You should be able to get the first set of levels done on a credit or such but after that you may take several credits to get past a single level.

As the levels progress, the traps become more deadly. Exponentially so.

Eventually you'll (hopefully) get to a boss fight and have to use various skills and tricks you've learned in that particular set of levels to overcome and defeat the boss. They usually don't take much to defeat and have fairly predictable patterns of attack. Some might surprise you at first, but after that it's plain sailing and significantly less of a challenge than the previous set of levels would have you suppose the boss would be.

And the butt-faced star says time is up

It's a very charming game is Kickle Cubele, brightly coloured, light music (repetitive to the point of brain-killing) and is happy and cheerful enough to appeal to the younger audience in about as saccharine and diabetes-inducing delivery a game can get. It's not going to be a bank breaker either as you'll eventually stop and decide that enough is enough and move happily on to the next world. Worth a look but not really worth going out of your way to take a look at.

Outrun - Arcade (Yes, that one with the red car)

It's all about the car.

It's a simple idea, car racing through picturesque places and locations, wonderful sights, nice chilled theme tunes to listen to and if you find the right arcade, a big ol' impersonation of a sports car to sit inside and move around while you're trying to drive with a TV screen sat in front of you showing some pixelated tracks and cars. On top of that there's not much here really beyond this scope and aspect of the game.

Lots of choices, some levels harder than others.

Outrun, probably one of the more iconic arcade games of the mid-80s and awarded best arcade of the year by Golden Joystick Awards for 1986, beating out Bubble Bobble (Which I think should have won over this...) involves players driving a Ferrari Testerossa across the sprawling landscapes of Someplace while trying to hit the checkpoints that magically assign more time to the players and at each checkpoint, gives the player the option of going left or right, in search of new scenery and things to look at, as well as crash into.

I... saw this a lot...

That said, Outrun likely will hold a special place in a lot of people's hearts. The simple style of play in getting just to the next checkpoint (and if you run out of time, game over. No continues, no slowing down to try and inch over the finish line here) and racing back and forth through traffic while trying to avoid harder corners that will cause you to slide out and slam into various obstacles, which will cost you more time as you wait for the game to put your car back on track.

Use checkpoints to extend gameplay, or just quit.

The audio is likely the best part of the game, composed and sequenced wonderfully and adding to the overall feel and pace of the game in that while you're trying to gun the engine for all that you can, there's nothing really to compete against other than the arbitrary clock, it almost leaves you feeling that you can take your time playing this game. In truth you can't.

At least the scenery changes from route to route

The time limit for Outrun is tight, very tight against any and all errors if you want to be able to beat it. As such you'll get about 5 - 6 minutes of gameplay if your driving is perfect and a lot less if you crash, bump or generally take too long to get up to speed before switching the gearbox from low to high while driving. Outrun is rather unforgiving in that regard.

Scenic, but deadly trees.

As such, because it is so very unforgiving it becomes difficult to enjoy the game without having to dedicate a lot of time and energy into the situation in order to get much back from Outrun as it is. There's a fair amount to enjoy here and with multiple different endings depending upon the routes that you take and the journey there, there's a level of replay factor for people but getting access to that level in the first place is going to be more difficult for some than others and it becomes a sticking point for Outrun.

Hot Rod - Arcade

There's some rods, they're hot.... Maybe...

Take a television and put in down so that the screen is facing up towards the ceiling. Then take 4 steering wheels and 4 pedals and you've basically got the right layout for this arcade racer. Throw in some colours for the cars, make the tracks increasingly difficult and ensure some short cuts for the cheekier players and you've got Hot Rod.

And nothing happened for ages, then a quick flash of something, then nothing.

The recipe here is perfect for the home console (wait for it...). You've got a top down view racer akin to the old Micro Machines games with similar functionality. Up to four players can race around a track, picking up points and gas in order to race over the finish line and gain more points which can then be spent on upgrades and boosts to the racing car. The grinding is paramount and after winning races, you'll get yourself more and more points in which to buy better things and become an almost unstoppable car. On the assumption you can actually DRIVE the car.

Shopping time!

As a racer, it's bright and bold and flashy, a rainbow spectrum of illustrative prowess brought by Sega here with clearly defined roads and layout, bonus pickups and nice little details in the background from people walking along roads to cattle wandering the countryside while you're driving through it like a bat out of hell. However, there lies a problem with this method of gaming.

On your marks, get set, don't blow your engine on the start line.

As mentioned above, actually driving the car can be a challenge. You're encouraged to floor the pedal and spin the wheel to corner, while there is also NO BRAKES. You can slow down gradually by releasing the pedal but there's no braking at all. So if you're going to lose control, you are GOING TO LOSE CONTROL and likely into a train, or against the wall and bump repeatedly against it while everyone else trundles happily along to the victory line.

You either won or paid enough money to see this shit.

Like the aforementioned Micro Machines, Hot Rod uses the same system of playing. In that it's one screen and whomever is found to be lagging behind (i.e. slipping off the screen) will be bumped to the middle of the screen and a significant amount of fuel will be confiscated as punishment. Do this enough times in a race and you'll be drained of all fuel and out of the game. Fuel pickups are not that numerous and you'll get 10 to 20 points worth each time, while winning a race will get you roughly 80 or so. Win enough races and the card girl gives you a kiss, aww isn't that cute. No.

Despite the image, it's actually quite a smooth game.

In the shop you can buy a whole host of items, from tyres to spoilers, wings and bumpers, engines and beyond. Cash is usually tight and you'll likely only get the change to have one upgrade or less (yes, none at all) when you visit the shop and not every item is available, it all depends upon which shop you go into. Sometimes your engine might blow up and you have to buy another, other times you'll have little clue as to what hazards will assail you in the next level and you'll be left guessing whether to buy the speed tyres, snow tyres, or radials in order to get the most of your control in the upcoming race.

Different tracks with different challenges, sometimes you'll get a clue at the shop.

That said, while the driving can be picky, tricky and finicky at the same time, there's also the fact that there are a LOT of levels in this game. If you can navigate around the tight corners, the horrible chicanes and the occasional traps like rock slides, avalanches, oncoming traffic and such, you might find it's a fun game to play but it does love to punish the unsuspecting player and punish them fiercely. If you can fund the time, it's an ok game, but far too expensive to really get into the meat of the gameplay and discover the marred gem of a game this is.