Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

The true sequel to Metal Gear, directed by God himself, Hideo Kojima. To say this game is an improvement over the first (which I'm sure you've all played) is quite a serious understatement. This game is badass. Perhaps you've heard the story behind this game through Metal Gear Solid and its Previous Operations thingy or whatever. Still, though, there's no better way to experience it than to live it. Well, not actually living it, but you know. The graphics, while not mind-blowing (especially for today's kiddies), do the job marvellously, and the sound is really great, thanks to Konami's SCC sound thingy.

The story goes like this: Dr. Kio Marv creates OILIX, a new microorganism that can refine crude petroleum into a much more purified form, thus effectively ending the world's energy crisis. On the way to the U.S. for a conference though, Marv and all his data on OILIX were taken to Zanzibar Land, a military state in central Asia. Solid Snake is called back out of retirement (again) to rescue Marv and retrieve all the stolen data. Dropped off right outside the main complex, and armed with nothing more than a pack of smokes, Snake has to infiltrate Zanzibar Land and, you know, kill a bunch of mercenaries and stuff.

Without hopefully giving anything away, this game plays an awful lot like Metal Gear Solid. Basically, the only new thing that MGS brings to the table is an extra dimension and a much-improved storyline. Some of the bosses even give long-winded death speeches after you defeat them. Fortunately, though, most just kind of blow up without any extraneous back story. The game's surprisingly easy to play, especially given the system it was made for, that American-unfriendly MSX. Crawling is sometimes a pain though; I've often shot a guard in the back by accident when I was meaning to duck. But other than that, I mean.

Game Review - originally written by Deathlike2

Honestly, I want to smack everyone who even dares think of saying that this is simply FF2 in Japanese. Well, they are wrong.

You will find that most of the game is pretty much the same, say 90%, but the similarities end there once you reach the moon. (editor's note: this sentence originally said differences where it now says similarities, but I altered the wording because that doesn't make sense)

There’s an ample number of weapon changes/tweaks plus a sword you can use in the Magnetic Cave, which also happens to be the same sword that was reintroduced into FF4A. The Ribbon could arguably be overpowered, but the monsters on the moon have had their battle scripts massively tweaked as compensation, if not rewritten, and are sometimes unrecognizable from the original.

Zeromus is simply not that easy, if anything, it is arguably harder than the original.

For those of you who want to see something different, something that kinda resembles a hack with a few bugfixes, this is what you should try out.

Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

I can not say enough good things about this game. I love it. A lot. I didn’t think I would, but look what happened! Yeah, so this game is a hell of a lot better than the first two Final Fantasy games, in almost all respects: vastly improved graphics (on par with those of FF4), a kickass soundtrack (including the coolest boss music EVER).. Basically it’s just a helluva fun game. Think FF5 with less plot. When you win a battle you get Capacity points, and you can use those to change Jobs. Whenever you get to a Crystal you have get more Jobs that you can use, and, uh, stuff. This is probably my favorite Final Fantasy game out there (except for possibly FF7, but we won’t get into that), and is definitely one of the best 8-bit games I have ever played. It starts out kinda rough, but once you get past the beginning, it’s great. Really

Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

Poor, poor America. We never had the luxury of the Famicom Disk System, like in Japan. We were forced to use passwords and battery saves. BAH! Disk games such as Metroid could have their data saved directly on the disk for easy retrieval, but everyone else in the world had to use PASSWORDS! Bah! Hmph. Oh! Anyway this is the same ol oldskewl game that everyone loves. Now you can save your game! And because the FDS had an extra sound channel, a lot of the tunes now sound super sweet. Go try it out at least.

Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

I can clearly say, without any doubt, that this is the greatest game ever. To hell with MGS, move over SotN, Umihara Kawase is the game of choice for me, thank you very much. And why, you ask? Because you’re a girl with a fishing line for a weapon, that’s why! All the enemies are fish, and you have to hook on to them and reel them in! Pretty cool eh? Well the coolest part is that your fishing line is also used as a grappling hook. So you can swing around and do all kinds of fun crazy things. Of course, this makes for some pretty endless replay value. It’s even fun to die, for reasons that just can not be explained. I always laugh maniacally when she dies, because it’s just so much FUN, and it makes this hilarious “sploosh” sound when she falls in the water! Of course it kind of sucks when you’ve wasted all your lives goofing around. So, for the benefit of our loyal visitors, here is a ZSNES CHT file I made, which allows for infinite lives. Now you can screw around all you want! (editor's note: lol)

Game Review - originally written by TheRedEye

Have you ever just sat back, stared off into nothingness, and contemplated just what it is about life that keeps you going? I haven't. I'm usually too busy contemplating my laundry, mentally sorting out which shirts look clean enough to wear to work tomorrow. But if I did manage to put any thought into it, I have a feeling that I'd come to the conclusion that there's nothing in life I enjoy more than shooting stuff.

Yes, that's right. Give me a delicious orange-flavored Nintendo Zapper and I can keep myself entertained for hours. Fuck, I don't even need a video game to play. That clanging spring sound is enough to make me giggle like a schoolgirl every time, without fail. It's like a drug, really, and if cops didn't automatically shoot anyone holding a toy gun, I'd take the thing with me everywhere, teaching the world how to laugh and love and dream again...for the first time!

Luckily, companies like Bandai realized that folks such as myself probably shouldn't be allowed out of the house, and were intuitive enough to make games as distracting as Shooting Range, this evening's ROM release.

Shooting Range isn't a great game by any means. The stages are short and uninteresting, offering nothing in the way of hidden extras or interesting distractions. The game itself is both short and easy, like myself, and offers almost no replay value. Like myself.

However, the character designs and animations are sharp and witty, the background graphics are well done, and the game has a lot to offer in a party atmosphere. Then again, if you pulled this out at a party, I'd probably laugh at you and sleep with your girlfriend.

But I digress.

Game Review - originally written by (wraith)
(editor's note: this was written before a fan translation existed)

I’m not sure exactly what type of game this is due to all the text, but it looks really neat. There’s some nice cutscenes for some of the dialog with some totally sweet looking backgrounds (as far as Gameboy graphics go), and they have this neat effect for text display where a huge-ass portrait of the character speaking scrolls in from offscreen and it’s like BEWM and then the person talks. When you’re done with the cutscene thing, you’re in this run-of-the-mill overhead view type thing where you examine lots of stuff in these three rooms, but never turn up anything that lets you go to the next area. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s obvious what you’re supposed to do when you understand the dialog, but I’m sure you know how it goes when you can’t. But I digress. This game has lots of promise. Check it out!

Game Review - originally written by (wraith)

Being produced in Japan in 1986, I had very low expectations of this game. But God dammit, this is a fun game. Fun in that simple kind of way. You just run around, fixing all the wirirng in various buildings, making sure that inchworms, rats, and spiders don't undo your work. Occasionally, you have to stop the occasional looting, as well. And between levels, you have to run through the sewers of Washington and New York. Just don't ask me how you enter a building in Washington, and exit it in New York. Or even better, don't ask me how the building interiors are all decisively Japanese.

Sure, it feels like any old-school Atari or arcade game. But that's what's great about this game. A little man runs around, wiring buildings and frolicking through sewers. Meanwhile you forget about all the troubles of the world. Great huh? At what point did videogames decide that we needed to do all sorts of thinking and remembering. Probably around when Reader Rabbit was released. Damn you Reader Rabbit. Damn you to HELL.

Game Review - originally written by mil

We join the blue blob for a third time in his ongoing series of puzzle-solving adventures. This time on the Famicom Disk System. A remake of Eggerland 2 on the MSX, this “Eggerland” provides 22 more levels than the original and uses different graphics and music.

Basically, this starts the Eggerland series in a direction in which I like to call the “cave years.” That is, everything in the game looks like it takes place in a cave. Then another Eggerland comes out, and everything takes place in the very same cave the last game did. Same graphics, same music, different puzzles.

What’s nice about this particular cave puzzle game is that like its cave sequel (Revival of the Labyrinth), it has an amusing ending. Unfortunately, also like its sequel, it has nigh unsolvable “hint rooms” which break the rules inherent to every Eggerland puzzle seen in the series thus far. All you need to know about these “hint rooms” is that they aren’t actually puzzles at all. If you can exercise the restraint to occasionally use an FAQ when you know you should and aren’t frustrated because of it, then you will be fine with this game.

One thing this game has that its sequel does not, is well-rounded difficulty. It is the fairest of the non-linear Eggerland games. And in case you’re wondering, yes, despite its horrible graphics and idiotic hint rooms, I consider this a better game than each of the Adventures of Lolo titles brought over to the West on the NES.

Now, you’re about at the end of this review and perhaps you are puzzled as to why I do not recommend this game. Well, I don’t recommend any of the Eggerland series games to a general gamer. You really have to like puzzle solving to enjoy these kind of games because that is by and large the only redeeming aspect to them: the sheer accomplishment you feel from solving a clever puzzle.

Every other aspect is noticeably lacking. The music is constantly looped and recycled, everything looks like a cave, and 99% of the rooms are just puzzles. What’s nice about this particular entry in the series is that it sports some non-linearity to slightly break up the continuous puzzle-solving and it’s got an amusing and interactive ending which most of the Eggerland games lack as do almost all Famicom endings.

Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

People who watch the show should love this game. For everyone else, though, it’s just a platform game. It ain’t bad, but nothing to drool about. You have five different cats, and can switch them out at any time, and I can only assume that they do different things. One of them breaks rocks, that’s all I can figure out. It’s all very nice and colorful and the control is pretty good, so have fun with it. Oh, and there’s a hell of a lot of storyline in this game for a boring ol’ platformer.