With the SNES quickly going out of vogue, games for that system can be picked up at bargain basement prices. Still, most people don't like to throw away money, even if it is only $10 or $15. Here are a few mini-reviews of some games I've picked up. As always, YMMV. Scale is from 0-5, 5 being best; one game is off the scale (-oo). There is also some griping about Gameboy Donkey Kong at the very bottom of this file. [Last updated on May 10, 2008] -------- Aero the Acrobat (4.5) -- A platformer with a twist. Aero battles small and large clowns, spikes, fire rings and several flying enemies while trying to complete a stage. Aero's weapons include a "drill" move (fairly difficult to master) and the ability to shoot collected stars. Bonus stages and many hidden places add to its appeal. Only negative is that the game is broken into Acts, where each Act is composed of different stages. The problem is that "continues" are based on an Act level, not a stage level, so if you die at Act 1 Stage 3 and continue, you start at Act 1, Stage 1. Overall, a good game for < $20. Biometal (2.5) -- An extremely fast side scrolling shooter, similar (in theory anyway) to R-type type games. A fair bit of slowdown when there are many enemies on the screen leads to some frustrating battles. The soundtrack is very techno-pop, performed by 2Unlimited. It's not a great shooter, but a very ok one. Worth $10 (Software Etc.), but not much more. Cameltry (5.0) -- A Japanese (Famicom) Taito game that is one of the best games I've played in years. It is essentially a Marble Madness clone, except that instead of moving a marble across a landscape, you move the landscape around to accomodate the marble. Each "plane" has several levels and each level has several boards, so there is no lack of variety. If you liked Marble Madness, you'll love Cameltry. [BTW, you will need either an adapter or you will have to cut out notches in the back of the cartridge to make it fit in a US SNES. Note: this game did have an early American release as "On the Ball."] I bought mine for $15 used. On the Ball can be found for less. Doh it Again -- (4.0) -- A sequel to Revenge of Doh (which was a sequel to Championship Arkanoid and Arkanoid) that pleases in many ways. Two two- player modes (split screen / cooperative) make this Breakout variant more interesting than previous offerings. The level editor is also a plus. Unfortunately, the power-ups are not as varied, some of the boards are rehashes from previous games, and the bosses may be a tad too frequent. Still, quite enjoyable for $9.99 (Software Etc.). Final Fight Guy (1.0) -- See the Rival Turf entry below as it is very much the same game. Supposedly it is exclusive to Blockbuster Video, so it may aspire to be a footnote in the history of the SNES, but at $4.99 used (with booklet) it's way overpriced. Kid Klown in Crazy Chase (3.5) -- A diagonally scrolling cartoonish game. Kid Klown avoids a variety of enemies while trying to find the four suits (spade, club, heart, diamond) hidden in balloons. It is generally a fun game, with the following exceptions: Kid Klown has a few bits of mini-animation that, while funny at first, quickly become annoying; if you have ever seen Caveman Ninja in the arcade, you'll understand what I mean. Also, you cannot move backwards. On the plus side, there are several hidden stages that add to its charm. All in all, a good buy for < $15. The Lost Vikings 2 (2.0) -- Graphically stunning, this game is a puzzler disguised as a platformer. If figuring out how to get three characters, each with his own set of tools and skills, through level after level sounds appealing, then rush right out and get it. $9.99 at Software Etc. Mortal Kombat 3 (4.5/1.5) -- As a two player game, the MK series is still great mindless fun. Fatalaties (interesting), Babalities (eh) and Animalities (ugh) are here along with gobs of cheats and lots of variety. The game is alas plagued by various and sundry bugs of the annoying, not fatal, type. For two players, it's a winner. Against the computer, however, the game is rather tired and uninspired. Defeating Shao Khan just doesn't rank in my top 1000 things-to-do anymore. $10 at Toys 'R Us. Mr. Do! (1.0/??) -- It continually amazes me how programmers can write ports but still get some aspects of the game so unbelievably wrong. I can forgive Black Pearl for not getting some of the sounds quite right; I can also forgive them for missing the mark on some small details, such as the duration between the end of the game and the initial entry screen. I can almost forgive them for changing how the enemies behave, but I really can't forgive them for the horrible control. I find myself constantly digging one "row" below where I expect to dig, even after switching to a joystick. The game is pretty and even has a 2-player "battle mode," but neither of these things makes up for the control problem. After logging many an hour on Mr. Do! in the arcade and on MAME, the SNES version is a major disappointment. $7 used. Ms. Pac-Man (3.5) -- Ok, so this one is new and not quite cheap (~$30 or so). Still, since Santa brought it, a review might benefit others. In short, if you are looking for an exact port of the arcade Ms. Pac-Man, you will be sorely disappointed. Not only do the ghosts behave a bit differently (you can almost always clear the entire bottom of a maze before they come after you), but in "normal" mode, Ms. Pac-Man is 20%-40% slower than she should be. On any given level, you can eat about 7 dots on a straightaway before a chasing ghost will overtake you. In addition, the music during the intermissions is not quite right, both Pac-Man and Junior have been given an eye, and the noise made when an energizer is eaten does not stop if all the monsters are eaten. Finally, all of the mazes scroll and there is no option for non-scrolling mazes (although the "mini" option has only minimal scrolling). If you are looking for a faithful port, see the Atari 7800 version. [Interestingly, many of the add-on bits are taken directly from the Tengen NES Ms. Pac-Man.] However, if you are just looking for a pac-ish game, it's a lot of fun. There are (so the box says) 36 mazes, many of which are reminiscent of Jr. Pac-Man, Puc-One and NewPuc2 (the last two were alterations of the original arcade Pac-Man). There are also two player modes (both competetive and cooperative), extra "fruits" with values up to 10K, and a "pac-booster" option to increase the speed of Ms. Pac-Man. All in all, probably not worth $30 except for fanatics; it will be a better value as its price drops. [BTW, a joystick is almost a necessity to enjoy the game.] NBA Jam (4.0) -- A good, but not perfect, conversion of the arcade game that captures its spirit very well. It supports the multi-player tap, so four people can play at once. $9.99 at King Soopers. NCAA Basketball (2.0) -- It looks and plays a lot like NHL Stanley Cup (see below). Joypad input seems delayed at times. $6.66 at Camelot Music. NHL Stanley Cup (1.5) -- Also haven't played this one much, as it isn't really my style. The forever shifting viewpoint of the playfield is impressive, but confusing. Was $9.99 a while ago at Best Buy. Out to Lunch (4.5) -- The Mindscape people took equal parts Burgertime, Zookeeper and Super Mario World, added some excellent music and came up with this. As Pierre La Chef, you have 3 minutes to wander along a vertical Super Mario-ish playfield, find a net, capture the many escaped fruits, veggies or eggs, return them to the cage and get out the door before time expires. It's an interesting and fun game, well worth $6.99 used. Q*bert 3 (3.0) -- If you like the original Q*bert and you turn off the stupid backgrounds and music and you use a real joystick instead of a pad, you can do worse than this game. The concept is still fun, although the execution of this iteration is more style than substance. Revolution X (1.0) -- Whenever a game is designed with a band in mind, watch out. It's Aerosmith's turn this time and the result is partly enjoyable in nearly the same way watching an Ed Wood movie is. Revolution X is a "shoot everything" type of game, ala Operation Wolf or Beast Busters complete with a paper-thin plot, lots of slowdown, levels than end in the middle of a battle and bosses that can absorb an indefinite amount of direct damage. Also, Aerosmith themselves are unkillable, a big minus. To go along with these accolades, this game possesses the single most obnoxious sound in the history of gaming. Fun for a laugh, but at $4.50 at Best Buy, it's probably overpriced. Rival Turf (0.5) -- Remember the original Double Dragon? This is it. It may have a different name, some snazzy framing and a few changes, but the game is very much Double Dragon, complete with flickering. It also has several problems that DD didn't. For example, the amount of power remaining for a particular enemy shown on the screen lags behind the actual amount by a couple of seconds; also, it takes several seconds after dying to continue. All in all, probably not worth the $3.97 (Kay-Bee) I paid for it. Rock 'N Roll Racing (4.0) -- RC Pro Am meets George Thoroughgood in space, complete with a play-by-play announcer. Both the announcer and the music (Bad to the Bone, some Led Zeppelin song (Black Dog?)) get tirsome quickly, but the racing is fast and furious, with powerups, shortcuts and obstacles. Two-player mode is a kick. Don't miss this one. $7.50 used. Samuri Shodown (2.5) -- Another fighter. If you liked the arcade game, you should like the translation. $9.99 at Best Buy. Shaq-Fu (1.5) -- A fighting game with very little recognizable merit. It seems to use a Street Fighter derivative engine, although it doesn't seem nearly so smooth. Barely worth the $4.97 (Kay-Bee) I paid for it. Sim City (4.0) -- The classic simulation game, Nintendo-ized and based in Sim Reality rather than actual reality. For example, the most efficient cities have no roads, only mass-transit lines, yet Fire and Police Departments don't seem hampered in any way; planes tend to crash frequently and their frequency seems to be tied to the number of hospitals that one bulldozes; finally, it is not surprising to see 3 or 4 hospitals constructed on the same city block. Still, if you can live in Sim Reality, it's a fun way to kill many, many hours. In the later stages of the game, a book or other distraction is required to pass the time while the SNES chugs through its computations. $9.99 at Target. ***** Space Ace (-oo, that's minus infinity, folks) -- Ok, so maybe this review won't be short, but I somehow must convey to you just how bad this game is. Remember Mythicon games for the Atari 2600? The '62 Mets? Ever see the movies the MST3K guys rip on? The Edsel? SNES SA is worse than all these. If you know anything of video game history, you know that Space Ace was the sequel to Dragon's Lair, the arcade laser game from Don Bluth and Cinematronics. Most people who played DL and their ilk either loved or hated the game. I was in the former category. This is not to say that DL and SA didn't have problems. Not only was the game "scripted" (if you entered the correct move, the animation continued; the animation was the same every time), but there were large delays in disk access. Also, it was expensive (usually $.50, quite a bit for the time), and if you made any mistake on a particular level, you had to start the level over from the beginning. However, the thrill of controlling animation (some amazing animation, at that) with the correct moves combined with quickly moving scenes kept many people (myself included) continuously feeding the machine. What Absolute has done with SNES Space Ace is taken most of the bad characteristics of the arcade Space Ace (including scripting and returning to the beginning of the level after dying), drawn some horrible looking animation (it looks worse than the Saturday morning TV show that Space Ace one time became), added some scrolling, some "elements" from the arcade game and a few snippets of digitized voice and called it quits. If you can imagine the difference between a Cray and a Timex Sinclair, you can just begin to imagine the difference between the arcade Space Ace and this one. I'm not sure what I expected, but what I didn't expect is what I got. If you had any warm fuzzies towards the arcade version of this game, stay away; if you hated it, stay away; if you were anywhere in between, stay away. Did I miss anyone? No, it's not even worth it if you receive it as a gift, or if someone pays you to take it. Torturers should add this game to their list of tools. [Absolute (the company who made this rubbish) recently closed its doors.] Recently, I pulled this game out of the closet again to see if I could have been mistaken. Nope. This game is, without a doubt, the worst ever made for any system. ***** Stunt Race FX (4.5) -- A wild ride. Worth every penny of the $9.99 I plunked down. Probably worth up to $20 or so. Don't miss it. Super Battleship (1.5) -- Battleship in both classic and "enhanced" mode. Perhaps a bit of fun if drunk and nostagalic, neither of which I was while playing. A side note: Majesco, that bastion of the re-released console game put the game pictures on the box upside down. $5 at Toys 'R Us. Super Bomberman 2 (2.5 / 5.0) -- As a single player game, the bomberman concept (strategicly place bombs to blow up blocks and opponents) is fairly tame and mildly interesting. Add a multi-player tap, two additional controllers and three other people, and you have the best multi-player game since Atari 2600 Warlords. With multi-taps available for $10 or less and Toys 'R Us selling extra controllers for $5, you can finance great gobs of fun for about $40 (SB2 was $19.99 at Best Buy). If multi-player gaming is appealing, you can't go wrong with this game. BTW, this game most certainly wins the "easiest to self-inflict death" award. Super Soccer (3.0) -- I had some fun with this one. Probably a bit dated for those who have seen soccer simulations on other platforms, but nice for someone whose last soccer game was Pele's Championship Soccer (2600). A bit of work to get by the learning curve, but a good choice for $6.66 at Camelot Music. Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1.0) -- There isn't much to say about this one. Side scrolling, beat up the bad guys, die often and return to the start of the level. The graphics and music are nice, but the gameplay is awful. $5 at Toys R Us. Super Tennis (4.0) -- If you like video tennis (i.e. Activision Tennis, Atari Realsports Tennis, Nintendo VS. Tennis) you will like this game. Some highlights include: 20 different players, 3 court surfaces, singles and doubles (both 1 player and 2 player) matches, and a circuit mode. A bargain at $9.99 (at Best Buy). Toys (2.5) -- An extremely frustrating game with a large learning curve. Based on the movie, you collect good toys to knock out bad toys and cameras. If you read all the instructions carefully, it's a bit less frustrating; still, the diagonal perspective is annoying. Worth $10 if you're willing to hang in for a while. BTW, if you do pick of this game, discover its small bit of charm and think "Gee, maybe I should rent the movie," do yourself a favor and rent something else. Urban Strike (2.0) -- Fly a helicopter from a diagonal perspective, bomb and shoot the baddies. More of a not-my-style rating than a condemnation. $10 at Toys 'R Us. World Heroes 2 (3.75) -- A Street Fighter II clone with 16 characters. For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. Only real problem is that many of the moves require quarter or half circles, making one's left thumb quite raw. Still for $9.99 (Best Buy), you can't go wrong; it's not MK II, but it's light-years ahead of Shaq-Fu. Zombies Ate My Neighbors (4.5) -- One of the best, ZAMN parodies old horror films. The object is to rescue neighbors who are about to be done in by zombies, aliens, chainsaw-wielding psychos, giant ants, mummies, werewolves and the like. It's great fun, and a steal at $9.99 (Kay-Bee). Zoop (3.5) -- Space Zap meets Tetris Attack. You are a shooter in the middle of a 4x4 grid. On each side, enemies of different colors advance in uneven rows towards your grid. If you shoot an enemy that is the color of your shooter, the enemy disappears; if the enemy is a different color, you switch colors. If any row advances into your grid, you lose. Simple, fairly fun, and very good music make it a nice addition. $6.99 at Best Buy. In the fall of 2007, I started playing Zoop fairly regularly. It's a nice game, but it has two *really* annoying character traits: a) Its short-term memory is faulty. Remembering that I play "level" mode seems to be beyond it. b) If five "bonus springs" are collected, the board is cleared of all enemies and the spring total is reset to zero. As you might expect, at the higher levels the springs are hard to come by. That's ok. What isn't ok is the behavior of the game when four springs have been collected. If the board is mostly full and the player is in desperate need of a spring, they are nowhere to be found. However, if the board is mostly empty, the game will suddenly decide that it's springtime in Springville and springs will appear everywhere. Eventually one is shot, the board is cleared and those extra springs are wasted as the spring total is reset to zero. A game can be difficult without descending into meanness of spirit; alas, Zoop is not that game. --------------------------------------- Gameboy Donkey Kong (0.0) -- if you love and cherish the original DK (1.0) -- if you liked the original DK but preferred Super Mario Bros. (1.5) -- if you hated DK, but loved SMB. Coleco's never-released Super Game Module for the Colecovision was supposed to have brought to the world a 100-level version of Donkey Kong (if the press at that time is to be believed). When that promise was not realized, the world had to wait for the Gameboy version of Donkey Kong ($9.99 at Toys 'R Us) to get the additional levels. It shouldn't have waited. Gameboy Donkey Kong is a travesty. While it "includes" the first four original levels, attention to detail clearly wasn't on the short list of goals. Even the most casual DK players will notice significant differences between the original 4 levels and those included here. But that's not the worst of it. The additional levels are not chock-full-of-action the way DK was; indeed, this game is a puzzler. The influence of the Super Mario Bros. games is apparent. Mario can pick things up and throw them as well as performing handstands and superjumps. Oh, and don't forget to find the key to open the door to the next level. I would pay quite a bit for an authentic 100-level Donkey Kong. But at $9.99 for this tripe, I still feel cheated. The closest we may ever get to a true sequel is here: http://www.arcadeshop.com/multi-pcb/dk2/dk2.htm but it is not for the light of wallet.