American Gladiator - Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

     American Gladiators for the Nintendo Entertainment System is a surprise that subverted my expectations. At first glance, it look like another American licensed franchised low quality game. There is a collection of stages for you to select from at start. Rest assure, these are not throw away mini-games. This is a freaking Gauntlet! Four intense stages that will make the average Marvel Rivals player cry and throw the whole game away. This game is not for the weak. Every stage is a trial of precision, endurance and skill. It took me a hour to master the climbing stage alone. Thankfully, the game throws you some mercy, by letting you have a stage with no losses. You have to dunk a ball into goals, that are super overly guarded by very aggressive muscle men. If you manage to dunk into every goal, you can get a 1up. I don't know too much about this tv show. I am currently 23 and Japanese born, after all. Every stage is a resemblance of one of the games these gladiators participated in this show. All I can say is, Wow. I manage to beat all but one stage in my stream. It took a lot of grit to nail it down. Like I said, this game is not for the weak.       

     To summarize American Gladiators for the NES: GIT GUD. I highly recommend this title, if you're into overcoming difficult challenges. See if you can beat all the stages and get the highest score. It is also 2-players, so bring a friend over to play.    

Choplifter - SEGA Master System

 

     This is Choplifter on the SEGA Master System. Your mission is to rescue hostages and prisoners of war from behind enemy lines. You have two attacks, straight missile and ground bomb. Dodge enemy fire to enter enemy basses. Drop down to pickup passengers and drop them off back at home base. 

     This game is DIFFICULT. 

     The controls take time to get use to, but it’s possible to handle. The biggest hurdle after getting the controls down is the enemies. They are way more accurate than you, and faster too. You can’t even skip over the ground enemies, because they will be there until you destroy them. I had so much trouble with dodging enemy fire, I could not even beat the first level. It is that hard. 

     The controls are very responsive. The music nice. The gameplay is fun. It is just very difficult. It’s the famous Choplifter. It’s cool seeing this game on the Master System. If you’re up to the challenge, I say play it. You just need to GIT GUD.

Amagon - Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

     This is Amagon. A quirky shooter. You are an American Marine, that has crashed landed on a remote island full of monsters. Your rescue ship is way over on the other side of it. You have no choice, but to survive the perilous journey to be rescued. 

     Yeah, not exactly a cake walk. For starters, the enemies spawn in way too fast, so you need to walk carefully to make sure any are not charging right for you at any direction. You can’t just keep firing your gun, because you have a limited amount of ammunition. Once it’s out, you are left swinging your rifle like a club. The music has a fun theme to it. But like many NES games, the pitch is way too high, peaking your ears. The enemy placement is also very unfair. When you’re platforming obstacles, flying enemies will appear and swoop in or shoot projectiles. You have no time to react, so you are really going to have to memorize every enemy and every obstacle in every level to beat this game. 

     The boss battles are practically impossible, without the mega powered up form. They are bullet sponges, so it’s best to just reserve your mega form for the stage boss, if you can. You can change your form by reaching 70,000 points and collecting the power up icon. And with every 5000 points, you get a life bar for your mega form. You can only punch in your mega form, but it is more powerful than your rifle. You can even fire a special attack in your Mega form, by sacrificing one of your life bars. It is the most powerful attack you have in this game. 

     This game is rough, but it’s playable. Not a classic game gem, but it has its charm. If you’re looking for a challenging NES game, I say give Amagon a try. It’s not the worst game I’ve ever played. You just gotta “Git Gud” on this game’s difficulty. 

Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales - SEGA Master System

    This is a Sonic clone. Not necessarily a bad thing to replicate and spin a popular game into your own intellectual property. But, it all comes down in the execution. Speedy Gonzales is just too fast for his own game. There’s no way to avoid enemies when running full speed, especially when they directly b-line for you. Not only that, but there’s leap of faith jumps, cryptic gameplay, and bad hit detection on enemies. I only managed to make to the first boss fight, and it was so confusing to figure out how to attack. The goal is to search each stage to rescue one of Speedy’s friends, then find the exit. Not easy when the biggest obstacle is your clumsy speed and unfair enemy placement. It took a lot of memorization by trial and error to get to the first boss. I can’t imagine trying to beat the whole entire game like that. 

    If you’re going to clone a popular game, at least understand the fundamentals of what made that game successful. Game developing is more intricate than just putting a fast character and enemies in a level. This game failed hard and I really can’t recommend it. Too many flaws bringing it down to be a potentially fun game to play. It was probably a rushed development and cash grab by Warner Bros.