Super C

Do you like Contra?

Want to play a sequel with upgraded graphics, sound, and difficulty?

Then check out Super C, a game which I’d guess was the cause of many broken controllers back in the day. Holy cow this sucker is HARD…

But thanks to modern technology old folks like myself can enjoy this game with a little less frustration and play them through.

The premise, shoot as many bad guys/aliens as possible, continue the Contra tradition of being a mix of one-part Rambo, one-part Aliens. The weapons, the controls, pretty much everything in this game is the same as its predecessor, which isn’t a bad thing.

Enemies fly at you in swarms from every direction. Newer enemies, like these floating bubbles, are a major PITA too. The inclusion of slopes, and some HUGE boss battles are highlights (I won’t spoil some of them).

However, I’ll caution potential players that the “overhead” level they added is pure hell to be avoided at all costs. It’s incredibly difficult and removes the ability to jump.

I really, really enjoyed this game. Check it out!

Super Mario Bros. 2

Shortly after getting my Nintendo my uncle took me to Children’s Palace to buy more games for my system (since of course, I only had the Mario/Duck Hunt cartridge). He didn’t realize the cost of games when he blurted out he would get me “several” and ended up settling on this and one other game that was on sale. (Gold star to anyone who could guess the other!)

Even as a kid, I thought this game was… bizarre. It didn’t fit the first Mario game at all, and the entire series was turned upside down. (Anyone who knows the backstory knows why this game was released the way it was.) Regardless, it holds a special place in my heart and I absolutely loved it… except for the fact that my dad was the only one of us who actually beat it!

I got to beat it years later, but wanted another stroll down memory lane, playing every single level beginning to end. I had forgotten about some of the enemies (Fry Guy, Clawful) and boards (riding the Albatoss across the entire level).

The final castle is mammoth too, especially if you’re not familiar with where to go.

Mortal Kombat II (Genesis version)

While Nintendo finally backpedaled on violence in video games with Mortal Kombat II, Sega maintained the status quo, albeit without the stupid “blood code” from their version of MK1. Unfortunately, as with MK1, the SNES version is a lot closer to the arcade version than on the Genesis.

Yet to its credit, Sega’s MK2 was more polished than their MK1 version with better visuals and upgraded sound. Some of the translations in gameplay and style were more authentic to the arcade version on the Genesis. Therefore, I don’t loathe it nearly as much as MK1. (Which I honestly don’t care for at all on any of the consoles.)

As for gameplay, MK2 was a major update over MK1. The roster of playable characters was expanded, as were the number of finishing moves. However, it wasn’t just the amount of fatalities that could be performed by each character, but the addition of “babalities” and “friendships” which increased the appeal of MK2. Former hidden fighter Reptile became another palette swap playable character as did MK1 boss Shang Tsung (who retained his ability o change into other characters!)

A number of series staples such as “Toasty”, more pit/stage fatalities, and a handful of other secrets bring this to the forefront of fighting games. In my opinion, MK2 was the best of the series and still hasn’t been topped since.

TimeSplitters

A launch title for the PS2, this was the first game I purchased for it. For those unfamiliar, TimeSplitters is a spiritual successor to Goldeneye and Perfect Dark as many of the old developers from Rare split and created their own company.

The game itself is… dated. A lot of the levels draw inspiration directly from those two games mentioned. It was a great game back then and it still has some fairly groundbreaking ideas it introduced. The in-game graphics aren’t a problem, but you can tell it’s an early title by the menus and lack of options (which the sequel more than adequately addresses).

For starters, this game ran at 60 frames per second and still ran smooth as butter on my PC as well as my PS3. In fact, the speed is blistering and the goal in each level is to retrieve a “key” and return it to essentially your “base”. The frame rate adds to the fast-paced action and gets your heart pounding as to whether you can get back before all of the “TimeSplitters” start appearing and attacking out of nowhere!

The game also offered an in-game level editor which allowed you to create your own boards to be used in multiplayer (locally) as well as a multitude of playable characters a la Goldeneye.

As such the game is worth checking out but be warned it has a very short campaign mode. It truly shines with multiplayer, where completing the story mode levels on each difficulty will unlock more goodies for use in multiplayer.

An extra challenge mode feature is also included and is like the one in Perfect Dark: but with some fun twists, such as shooting at monkeys carrying watermelons or smashing windows by throwing bricks.

I also want to go out on a limb and say the entire concept of shooting heads off of a zombie’s body (the only way you can kill them in this game) originated with TimeSplitters as well.

Overall, this was still a great journey back into time with good memories of multiplayer games around the TV before online play became a thing.

Nintendo World Championships

One of the rarest cartridges in circulation, I’m not even sure how this ROM exists! However, it’s such a short game to play (and requires the use of emulated cheats to get it running) but was really cool to tackle.

It’s quite amazing how it’s put together and just the thought of trying to compile a high score is really fun.

I could end up playing this over and over again for hours!

Mortal Kombat II (SNES version)

Nintendo finally backpedaled on violence in video games with Mortal Kombat II. Having a longstanding policy for being “family friendly”, Nintendo neutered the original Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo by replacing the blood with “sweat” and changing all of the game’s fatalities.

With MK2, Nintendo left the game alone and didn’t censor any of it. I recall pre-ordering this game and buying it at Hills Department Store!

As with MK1, the SNES version is a lot closer to the arcade version than on the Genesis. (To its credit Sega’s MK2 was more polished than their MK1 version.)

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight

No joke, this is the game that is technically Street Fighter 1’s “sequel”. Capcom had created the first arcade Street Fighter and then re-badged this game for the North American market as some pseudo-sequel to that game by renaming characters and implying that Ken in this game is the same as the one from the arcade fighter. (Note: This game actually came out before Street Fighter II fever swept the world.)

I can’t honestly fathom a world where this game was actually popular. I do recall one of my best friends had it, but it felt like a knockoff of other games at the time such as Contra. (And equally as frustrating to play!)

The levels consist of “targets” which Ken must take out. They’re small boards, and in many cases, just a single screen. The targets repeat often and there’s not a lot of variety. Littered between levels are cutscenes similar to the Ninja Gaiden series. They’re just as cheesy, suggesting futuristic technology in the year it takes place (2010) and also includes a heavy dose of outer space and aliens.

Each stage you must kill the target to gain enough power to open a portal, which then only stays open for seconds. Miss the opening and start over. (Like other games you only start with a small number of lives too.) The main character, Ken, can also gain power-ups to strengthen his “Hadoken” which looks more like a laser/wave weapon than how we’ve come to know it.

Mega Man 2

This almost ended up with being on my dreaded blacklist!

After playing the original Mega Man, I can see how part two was a genre/series defining title. Several improvements were made to this sequel, but none more than the graphic makeover. Capcom really found a way to squeeze some life out of the old NES hardware (and would continue to do so with other Mega Man iterations after).

I also imagine the difficulty of this game squeezed the life out of many children! This game is just setup for your to fail at every turn. However, the better bosses, the storyline, and the graphics mesh well with how hard this game is, and really leaves you with a sense of depth and accomplishment.

I’ll have some notes for the NES sequels in the coming days.

Mortal Kombat (SNES version)

Prepare for a deluge of fatalities and body-ripping reviews on one of my favorite series of all-time… well, at least the 2-D versions.

Mortal Kombat was a trendsetting series in many aspects. Each console version has its strengths, weaknesses, and differences, plus Acclaim (who released the home versions of the game) had different developers help depending on which console the game was released on. They also hashed out a ton of variations over the years, milking the cash cow for what it’s worth.

MK itself caused a ton of controversy with blood and guts and gore. As such, Nintendo neutered the blood and original fatalities from the original game when releasing it on the Super Nintendo. For example, Sub Zero’s spinal cord rip became a freeze and smash fatality (which actually made its way into sequels).

There was sweat instead of blood and while the Super Nintendo version had superior graphics and audio and was a closer arcade translation than that of the Genesis version (due to Sega’s inferior hardware) it was still a monumental success, but also inadvertently sent fans flocking to buy a Genesis console for the more violent version.

Stay tuned as I review the other versions, including Sega’s MK1 plus Nintendo caving and allowing the blood and gore in Mortal Kombat 2 for the SNES.

Final Fantasy

This one is many years in the making. I finally beat Final Fantasy.

I had the original cartridge for Nintendo and twice, I played through the entire game only to have it crash upon entering the final board. The only way out of it was to power off the console, which subsequently, both times, erased my saved game.

I nearly didn’t invest the time in replaying this but having not finished it in my youth made this all the more worth it. (Even if a combo of cheat codes and/or save states may have been used!) I absolutely loved this game (always did, even with it crashing, as noted). It was like having Masters of Universe, my childhood version of Dungeons & Dragons (since I was born after that era) Willow, or just pick one of the 80’s fantasy movies that were out in that era and Final Fantasy wrapped it all nicely in a neat bow.

My only gripe with this game, and it was corrected and then some in the sequels, is that the menu-based combat was super slowwwwwwwwwww. I seriously could’ve beaten this game hours sooner if not waiting for every little dialogue box to painfully scroll through. In fact, I broke my first Bluetooth controller I bought to complete my bucket list because of pressing the A button too much!

In all, this is a classic game in which everyone should give a try, provided it’s your cup of tea.