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10 days ago


jtduckman finished Wai-wai World 2: SOS!! Parsley-jou
NES sequels are always hella interesting because you really never know what you are gonna get. Sometimes ya get a mario 2, sometimes ya get a zelda 2, sometimes ya get a mega man 2-6. The first Wai Wai world game was a fun adventurey romp gathering playable friends to explore levels and solve puzzles and whatnot, and this game throws pretty much all of that away to just be focused on linear action. You play as some robot named Rickle or something and rather than being able to switch between different konami characters, the characters work as limited power-ups where you transform into them for a brief period of time, with their health working as a timer. It's neat, but it loses the whole ragtag "getting the gang together" vibes that the first game had, and even then the roster here is nowhere near as insane as the first game. The levels are still fun homages to Konamis output at that time, with goemon, bio miracle bokutte upa, castlevania, contra, twinbee, getsu fuuma den, frogger, gradius, and more all getting some time in the spotlight. My only gripe is that there are a lot of mandatory auto-scrolling levels that just go way too slowly to be interesting, and it makes me not want to replay the game to try the other level paths or character selections, and the game for the most part is quite easy with the exception of the shmup sections which are your typical bouts of gradius-isms. Overall it's pretty bland but still a good time especially if you are a konami fan. The whole game is also playable in co-op, too!

I wish konami would make a waiwai world 3 with all their modern IP but that would require them to actually have to do something. Where's my fan-made doujin Wai Wai world game where all the konami characters have to break into the konami HQ and defeat the people preventing them from getting new games? ill direct it lemme at em

10 days ago



jtduckman finished Forgotten Worlds
eh. Interesting concept with a scrolling multidirectional shooter, but as a consequence of being able to shoot in any direction it basically means ya get floded with enemies and projectiles from every which direction, and that can be really overwhelming. You do have a satellite that you can lock by shooting and it does function like a shield which can help in some situations, but I feel like the games pace is way faster than the positioning speed of the satellite so I couldn't really use it to the best effect. There's also a money system for upgrades too! It's very mechanically dense, but idk I couldn't really get into it ngl. The game has a strange "kill the gods" theme to it and the visuals can get quite grotesque at points which ain't really my thing. It's a game!

10 days ago


10 days ago


jtduckman commented on jtduckman's review of Tapper
@electrode ikr! I was surprised to learn that the game central station announcer had not just a real game, but a whole series

apparently its called "sonic hedgehog" or something, might need to check it out

10 days ago


jtduckman reviewed Tapper
Definitely a personal favorite of mine out of Midways 80s arcade lineup. The game is just so goddamn hectic with having to juggle counting shots to send the right number of beers and catching empty glasses while scanning the screen to course out the next plan of attack, it hits that ADHD multitasking brain real good. It definitely seems like there's an amount of luck to the game, as it seems like its entirely RNG how far a customer slides back and how quickly they finish their drinks, and that can just sometimes put you in a bad state where there's just too much going on to feasibly handle. But hey! It certainly gets me wanting to keep trying again and again to see what happens every run. If this is what actual bartending is like though imma start praying for every barkeep on earth out there. And also the ones in space too, apparently, as this game proves that even aliens need their fill of Bud.

If I ever see this at an arcade you know that's an on-sight play. I think there used to be an arcade around me that had this game, but they died a few years back...

11 days ago


jtduckman completed Tapper

11 days ago


jtduckman finished Dottori-kun
Definitely has a more interesting backstory than game itself tbh. So Sega made those Astro City-style arcade cabinets in Japan that are designed to be a one-size JAMMA machine to throw whatever PCB into to play games on. Thing is, there's a law in Japan which mandates that all arcade machines come with at least one game, so this game was made essentially to comply to that law and be the default game that comes with every interchangeable arcade machine made by Sega.

Because of that, this game was designed to be as cheap and disposable as humanly possible. You get NO sound hardware, NO colors, 256x192 resolution, it's literally just a head-on clone using the most primative graphics imaginable. I will say that compared to head-on, there's at least some sauce in movement as you essentially have free movement in any direction (except backwards) and the AI isn't as hell-bent on smashing into you to make juking enemies out more possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the AI programming follows a seemingly random path with as little lines of code as possible though. There are also no continues, or even credits to begin with which is honestly a bit surprising, if you were a cheapass arcade owner that couldnt afford any actual games for your cab you wouldnt even be able to make any change back on just dottori-kun.

It's certainly fascinating to see a game designed with the purpose of being replaced. Sega told their team "don't try too hard with this one" and they followed through. It's mid by design, but i guess in that case then mission accomplished? It also kinda makes this game extremely rare out in the wild, since the only way you'd be able to find this would be if an arcade operator fucked up and didn't actually put an actual game in their machine, or if its intentionally left inside a cabinet as either a historical curio or gag or something. I do appreciate how it is included in the astro city mini cabinets, giving people at home the wonderful experience of playing something that you'd really rather be best off playing anything else over.

12 days ago


12 days ago



jtduckman reviewed Lunar Lander
It's a solid time, definitely is a more interesting use of physics than stuff like asteroids imo, especially since it gives you the direct info on how fast you are going in each axis so you know how to adjust and land safely. I don't know if the emulated versions I've played are just simplified in controls or if I'm just cracked at lunar lander, but I always felt like the game is either too easy to land on the high-scoring targets. The main objective is to score as much as possible, but since the game lets you add extra fuel at any time simply by throwing more quarters at the machine getting a high score is trivial. Truly the first pay-to-win video game. But I guess the real fun comes from the simple act of moving the lander and playing the game, so really who cares about score. If you find it at an arcade, I'd suggest throwing a quarter into the machine, it's def worth a few plays.

14 days ago


14 days ago


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