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.

Alpha Mission - Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

    Alpha Mission is an Arcade Port by SNK. It’s a space shoot’em up with your standard weapons upgrades, with the unique gimmick that you can transform your space fighter with the energy pickups. Controls feel tight and responsive. Music is not ear piercing high, so that’s always good. The difficulty is about what you expect from this genre. Nothing really offensive about this game. It’s everything done by the book of space shooters, with its own gimmick that to stand out. It’s just a “Git Gud” kind of game. Can’t complain much about it. It’s fine. 

     If you’re a fan of this genre, this is recommended. You will struggle, but that’s the fun of shoot’em ups. Give it a try and see if you can Master it. 

Taito Chase H.Q. - SEGA Master System

    Chase H.Q. is an arcade port for the SEGA Master System. It is honestly not an offensive port. It’s your standard driving game with car upgrades. Its controls are tight and responsive. The music is nice and charming. 

      I’m gonna be real here guys: This game is way too easy. It’s so easy, it’s kinda boring. If you run out of time, you can just press start before the timer runs out to continue the game with more time. I guess the idea was to replicate the true arcade experience, but it takes all challenges away from the game. 

It is also very short. Only five stages, then it loops. It is an arcade port, so it’s all about points after all. I was hoping there would be more, but no. Just loop again to increase your score. 

    This game is a big Meh. The controls are good and the music is nice, but not much more is going for it. Even if you want to just play for points, it’s kinda an empty victory with the continues. If you’re in the mood for something short and easy to spend time, this game is fine. Otherwise you’re not missing anything.