1991
Welcome to the start of a 10 year rivalry that most likely inflamed the hearts of kids around the world thus beginning the console war. Personality I didn’t get access to either side till they were around for a few years. My NES library gets one last hurrah before it gets knocked down below the new consoles. This year was punctuated in my mind by the release of SMW while it also shows I’m willing to try other genres with Sim City.
Super NES
Did I even care about the fact that this new console had 16bits of power or the ever famous mode 7 graphics when I got it? The answer is no because all I needed to know was that it was the next Nintendo console. After having so much fun with the NES I wasn’t going to skip over this new Nintendo device. Like the time period we are in now the improvement in graphics didn’t really blow my mind at this point. Sure everything looks/sounds better but it wasn’t a crazy leap in how the games actually looked which is what we will see in the next time.
Genesis
Sega does what Nintendon’t. A slogan I still remember no matter how much I try to forget. This was my first time seeing someone else try to make a console. While also racking up a bunch of unique games that could only be played on it. Thus that was the main reason I decided to ask for one around Christmas. If it wasn’t obvious yet I was insanely spoiled. It isn’t like I came from a rich household so at this point I wonder how my Mom managed to buy all these games for me. Anyway Sega always seemed to give off a cool vibe compared to Nintendo. Yet that wasn’t enough to make it my main device since Nintendo will hold that award for quite a while.
Battletoads has to be one of the most unfair beat em ups around. Everyone remembers the turbo tunnel being hard but that is actually fair compared to a level later on. Although I didn’t make it to it during this session level 11 expects the player to input directions perfectly or you’ll end up dead within 20 seconds. Other than the unfair difficulty the beat of up parts are alright. Smashing enemies off into orbit is fun and the game does mix up the gameplay a lot with different types of levels. Yet getting through them will take a bunch of memorization and skill if you want to make it to the end.
This isn’t the version based on the arcade game and is instead is a action platformer. Data East didn’t feel like programing 4 playable characters so instead you get to use Captain America and Hawkeye. Iron Man and Vision have been captured by Mandarin so it is up to the rest of the Avengers to save the day. Cap seems to have more attack power than Hawkeye since enemies die within one throw of the shield compared to 2 hits with arrows.
Oddly both of the playable characters are split up at first so the player has to move them both onto the same level if you want to be able to switch between them. At the start the game tells you that collecting crystals will power up your playable character but I never noticed it affecting anything. Collecting a key is also vital to finishing any stage in this game but thankfully you only need one. I prefer the other version of this game but this one is alright.
Only one Capcom game this year based on the strangest Disney tv show. Somebody took Baloo from the Jungle Book and transplanted him into a universe where he is a ace pilot. Strange but I remember enjoying watching it. The game is a side scroller shooter although the gimmick of this one is that you can go in reverse. Going backwards is also needed in certain boss battles as well. Although a few of the bosses seem like I had to take a few hits to win. Conveniently after every level it is possible to upgrade Baloo’s plane. More bullets, extra heath and a speeder engine are all buy able if you have enough money. All of them help out but I found the rapid shot was the best for beating enemies faster.
This was my first golf game. Although I can’t compare my stats it seems like my virtual golf skills have improved. That isn’t by much since the best I managed to do this time was get par a lot with a ton of bogeys. Which is a lot better than getting a bogey on every hole. This has about everything you would want from a golf game. It has 3 18 hole courses and you can even customize which clubs you can use. Overall it is a well featured golf game that I never really put much time into.
So this is just me inferring this but Metroid II is kinda dark. When you think about it Samus is killing off every living metroid on a planet which seems a bit cruel. Especially after seeing the ending which proves that they could be tamed. Anyway the first thing I noticed when booting this up again was that Samus seems a bit oversized. It's like they went in the reverse direction after Super Mario land.
The game itself is set up in a similar format as every other Metroid game. Other than the addition of requiring the player to kill every Metroid. It really is to bad they didn’t add a map till Super Metroid since this feels more linear although they do have branching paths even if you have to go down them all. Samus may only start out with missiles and her regular shot the game quickly gives you access to a smattering of old and new power ups like the spider ball. If my memories are correct the most important power up is more missiles because the final boss takes a crazy amount of damage before it dies.
The name of the game is The Rocketeer and they don’t even let you use the rocket till the end very end of the first level. Plus it can only be used if the player picks up gas cans. I’m sure giving the player access to infinite rocket fuel all the time would have broken some of these platforming levels. I was once again impressed by the cut scenes introducing the game which I assume slightly followed the plot of the film this was based on. Once I actually got into the game it was rather sub par thanks to a few bad design decisions. Like the fact ammo is a pickup. Running out of ammo and then having to rely on a punch is just not fun when most enemies have a gun.
If you thought I hated having to collect six keys to end a level this game is in another league entirely. Aliens have decided to take over the earth body snatcher style but they need a bunch of purple objects to succeed. Bart hears about this plan and decides to stop it by spray painting everything in Springfield red. Around 25 items per level need to be painted red but you need to find some spray paint before you can even start painting. Along the way the player will need to dodge a bunch of hoping aliens along with any purple humans since they hurt Bart. Different shops can be accessed to buy items but I never got a chance to use them before quickly getting a game over. At least in this era limited resources along with required collectibles leads to a unfun game.
Other than a downgrade graphically this is a good port of the arcade game. They even emulated the arcade set up by letting me use two different NES pads. Which works really well and it let me blast my way to the final boss for the first time. Unfortunately the twin snakes finally did me in. This game seems like it was balanced for normal gamepad control so it felt a lot easier with the 2 controller setup. Otherwise I would have ended up getting a game over a few minutes after beating Mutoid Man. Overall this is a great dual stick shooter that holds up to this day.
This was my first taste of the city building genre. Yet I never quite figured out how to create a self sufficient city. Eventually the influx of cash runs out and the city just can’t grow anymore. At least when things go bottom up it is always fun to start a disaster to wipe out the town. My favorite disaster has always been the monster attack which is just Bowser coming into town to wreak the place.
I was surprised to see that some old saves were still accessible on my SNES. One was just the practice island and the other was a ramshackled city that was just spread out a bit to much. The one I made today had the power plant and industry off on their own. With the rest of the town beyond the edge of pollution it seems like it was going well. At least I was making about $100 in taxes before stopping this session. That doesn’t seem very profitable though.
Here is where the 10 year rivalry begins. Thanks to some great marketing Sonic became a cool blue hedgehog that was all about speed. Playing green hill zone may also give that impression on the player too. Yet going full speed isn’t quite good for actually beating any level other than the first. Jumping blindly into areas later on was just a good way to fall into spikes or a pit.
I actually didn’t pick this up till much later via a used copy in a K-mart. So I actually played this one after the sequel was out. Even back then it was a little rough to go back to after playing the sequel that improved on everything. The bosses in this one are rather basic although at least early on the level design seems to be good. Plus Sonic’s platforming skills are still really responsive in his first outing.
Super Mario World is easily one of the best 2D Mario games around. At this point Mario’s platforming controls have been honed to perfection. Adding in new elements like the cape and even Yoshi gives the player new ways to complete a level. Even the new element of secret exits gave players a reason to come back just to unlock the fabled star road.
Comparing this game to what Sonic was doing makes it even more amazing how Sega managed to cut down the juggernaut Nintendo was at this point. At least from my point of view SMW is easily the better game. Anyway this tends to be a game I pull out to play every now and then because it holds up so well. Thanks to how much I’ve played it over the years I can still remember how to get to almost every secret exit.
At this point it must be very obvious that I tended to want to buy just about any game based on a cartoon. Yet that fact didn’t mean that I owned a lot of bad games. Most of the time they were at least well put together games like this one. Based on the Loony Toon spin off cartoon from this time it stars Buster who must save Babs from Montana Max. Saving someone really is the plot of a ton of NES games huh. Once again this is another platformer but it does have some variety depending on which playable side character you choose before starting a stage. Buster has a crazy high jump and if you pick the duck he has a shorter jump but can glide.
I know this shocking but this game is another platformer. Insert the usual plot point here. The main difference compared to every other game like this is that Jerry must use items to defeat enemies. Jumping on enemies is just too unrealistic for a cartoon mouse so he must throw balls at them. I found other items like the hammer but it is a close range weapon which makes it weaker than the default ranged shot. Going by the first few levels they seem to be focused on making maze like areas that take a while just to figure out where Jerry has to go to finish each one. To put the cherry on the top of the amount of ehhh this game has the first boss is over instant death water.
These next two games are apart of my I’ll buy that for 3$ collection that I picked up from a local pawn shop recently. Kinda wish I didn’t get this one since it is a bad fighting game starring the hero Ultraman. Since the game doesn’t have a intro I assume he must defeat a smattering of foes from his past in 1v1 combat. His moves come down to having one punch/kick along with a special move attack that needs to be charged. The worst thing about that charge is that you need a level 4 special to finish the monster once it's lifebar is empty. Thanks to that I didn’t want to use any special moves since it takes 30 seconds for a full charge. So the entire time I was playing this all I was doing was kicking the monster a bunch before using a finishing blow on him.
U.N. Squadron turned out to be more than worth the minimal amount of money I spent for it. It is a side scrolling shooter that lets the player choose which mission to do next. Similar to Talespin yet a lot more complicated it lets you choose your weapon loadout before each mission. Depending on which fighter jet you choose you will have access to different sub weapons. This game also requires the player to switch between the jets depending on the mission type. For example the cave mission I got to required me to use the YF23 fighter because it was the only one that let me shoot upward. Without it hitting the boss was pretty much impossible. Getting to the stage right before the last one is always a bummer.
Compared to other PC focused games that were ported to NES they did a good job on converting mouse controls to a gamepad. Actually figuring out where in time is Carmen Sandiego takes a lot of knowledge about different time periods. Unless you happen to be a history professor figuring out where to go next in time can still be quite tough. Maybe they planned it that way to give kids a reason to search out the answer in a encyclopedia. After all they don’t go into much detail about each time period.
Conclusion
1991 appears to be the start of a transition. A new set of consoles came out but not until the end of the year. Which would explain why I own so few launch titles. I continued to buy cartoon related games more than anything else at this point. Even in this time period licensed games seem to have a variable quality to them. They could be great while others being complete trash. I’m much more selective now than my I gotta have them all attitude I appear to have at this point. Tune in next time to see another link to my past and Yoshi finally gets his own game.
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