Spring Cleaning Time

Hi there!  Alana here J  It’s finally time for my new post.  This one isn’t very long but I’m trying to get my game collection in order and I’ve having a couple issues so I thought I would get your opinion on it.

Today I am going to talk about a problem I’m sure a lot of game collectors have, how to organize your games.  The biggest problem I am having is with my NES and Famicom games.

NES games seem like they should be really simple, they have the nice end labels with the name clearly displayed.  They are all totally flat and are easily stackable.  The issues arise when you are trying to put them in order.  If you try alphabetical it’s fine until you get to the letter T.  There are so many games starting with the word The, so do you include it as the first word in the title or do you ignore it and use the rest of the title? ie. The Last Ninja vs Last Ninja.

What if you have multiple titles in the same series of games.  An example that comes to mind is Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link, for me I would put them together but it kind of messes up the alphabetical order.   Plus if you include the Wisdom Tree games or the Tengen games then you don’t have end labels.

Now working with Famicom games you have a different problem.  Not all of the games have end labels so when you stack them you don’t know which game they are, plus you don’t have just play grey carts you have a multitude of colors, so do you group them according to color or just randomly stack them? Maybe I should make my own end labels for the games that don’t have any.  Plus a few of the companies have different shaped cartridges so that makes a bit of a mess too.

Thenn the N64 games, that's just a whole other issue...

Not that this is super essential but it’s a problem that’s been bugging me as I’m trying to display everything in the “correct” way.  How do you guys do it?  Have any suggestions?

Game Article - Little Samson/Lickle

THE LITTLE SAMSON THAT COULD
 

When I say the name Little Samson what's the first thing you think of?  Chances are you think of the story of Samson and his superhero strength from his hair in the bible.  Well unfortunately for the NES game Little Samson I think this is what most people thought of.  Unfortunately they didn`t think to keep the name given to the game in Japan, Lickle Legend of the Holy Bell, sure it`s a little odd but it might not have made people think of games like Bible Adventures.  Because of this for the most part people avoided this game like the plague, which is really a shame because it is one of the best looking and just best games available on the Nintendo Entertainment System and not based on Samson from the story of Samson and Delilah or anything religious at all. 

Little Samson is reminiscent of other awesome games like Mega Man, which makes sense as it was created by two employees who left Capcom to make their own company Takera. For this game they teamed up with the artist from Cocoran and Ghosts `n Ghouls and Taito which most people know from Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble to put out this game. Luckily for us we got an awesome game, even if not many people realized it at the time.

When you first start up the game you watch cutscenes showing us The Dark Prince (wearing green) escaping from captivity.  He threatens to take over the land and takes out all the king's soldiers.  The King quickly summons help from four unlikely heroes to defeat the evil Dark Prince and save the kingdom.  The really cool thing about the story is it is told without any dialogue or text just a few cutscenes. Which is awesome because you can still play the Japanese version and feel like you aren't missing out on anything because of the language barrier.

You play as four different characters while on your quest.  Little Samson the one human character who can climb on walls and the ceiling and throw bells as projectiles, Kikira the Dragon who can breathe fire and float for short periods of time, Gamm the Golum who moves slow but has excellent health, can walk over spikes and has powerful attacks and K.O. the little mouse who has a smaller health bar but makes up for it with his speed, his ability to climb walls like Samson and drop powerful bombs. The game gives you the option to switch characters at any point in the game, so if you jump and are going to fall on spikes, no problem just switch to Gamm. You could beat the game with just one character but it would be a lot harder and it's a lot more fun to switch depending on the situation.  

This game offers an "Easy" and "Normal" difficulty to choose from, so it shouldn`t be too stressful to get through. At times it does give you a good challenge especially towards the final levels, but it won`t be so hard you want to destroy your controller. It also helps that the controls are tight and precise so you won`t ever feel like you died because of bad controls which is so important especially in a platforming game. Plus it has a nice short 4 character password system so you can continue where you left off!

This game features over 20 different stages ranging from jungles, rivers, caves, to castles and each level looks incredible.  That's the nice thing about it being released so late in the console cycle, they really knew how to push the limits on the graphics so you get an amazing looking game that tries to rival the new 16 bit games that were just released on the SNES.  One of the most impressive visuals is when you fight in a boss battle.  The bosses are huge, dark and scary compared to the bright and colorful graphics of the main characters. They almost look like they walked out of a Castlevania or Metroid game to hunt you down. 

There is so much more I could say about this game, but do yourself a favor and make sure you check it out!  Due to the timing of it`s release, lack of advertising save a small 5 page feature in Issue 40 of Nintendo Power and unfortunate name change this has become one of the harder games to find for the NES.  If you are lucky enough to find it, don`t be surprised to see it upwards of $200!  If this is too expensive for you, which it would be for most people, just do what I did and grab a version of Lickle for the Famicom.  If you don`t have a Famicom to play it on, then just get yourself a Famicom to NES converter then you are set.  Trust me, you don`t want to miss out on this game, it`s definitely one of the best to be released for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Game Article - Kirby's Anniversary

THE SUPER TOUGH PINK PUFF CELEBRATES HIS 20TH BIRTHDAY

This article is from a couple years ago but is still relevant as Kirby Star Allies came out on March 16 of this year for the Nintendo Switch.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the super cute pink puffball Kirby.  I like many people have spent most of my life playing his games starting with Kirby’s Dreamland on the Game Boy.  I instantly fell in love with Kirby he was so cute, the music in the game was really catchy and the game play at the time (remember I would have been 8 at the time) was easy yet challenging enough to keep me engaged.  Ever since then I’ve owned all the other Kirby games.  Even though a lot of the games are quite easy there is always something in them that makes me smile and puts you in a good mood, the game play was rarely frustrating and with a lead character as cute as Kirby you can’t go wrong.  Plus the game appeals to a huge age range of game fans, not only can younger players enjoy it but older players can too.  The nice thing about the Kirby franchise is there are a huge variety of games out there, if you like puzzles they have Kirby's Avalanche, sports type games they have Kirby's Dream Course, they have pinball with Kirby's Pinball Land and even racing with Kirby's Air Ride.  Doesn't matter what you like there is a Kirby game for you!

Surprisingly enough I hadn’t played the NES version until a couple years ago, and I was surprised that Kirby could now steal abilities from the enemies that he would swallow, well I guess not steal “copy”.  Instead of just spitting them out now, he would copy specialized powers from each different enemy like ice attack, fire attack and even crazy ones like the needle attack that makes Kirby a walking pin cushion.  The game came out at the end of the NES consoles life, so like other games that came out around then it looks awesome.  Not only did the environments look great but all the baddies were unique, the main level bosses were cool and there was a huge selection of different themed levels.  They had even incorporated awesome mini games for the player to complete so Kirby would gain extra lives.  It was little details like this that really made the game, so be sure to pick up this game for your NES if you don’t already have it!

Kirby wasn’t always the cute pink blobby ball that we know him as now.  Apparently Kirby was originally named Popopo and his current “blob” design was created as a placeholder sprite as they were making the first Kirby game.  After a little time had passed Kirby’s creator Masahiro Sakurai grew to love the blob and decided to use the placeholders design instead of the original idea they had for him.  So why did Popopo become Kirby?  Well no one really remembers apparently lol.  Some people thought it was to honor Nintendo’s legal counsel who helped them through some copyright infringement problems they had with Donkey Kong or the other theory being because of Kirby vacuum cleaners.  I like this theory more, it makes sense considering how Kirby inhales everything in sight, can expand like a vacuum cleaner bag and can shrink down again when he spits it back out.

Besides a name change he also underwent another makeover.  Back on the Gameboy Kirby was shown as being White on the box art, this made sense at the time since the game was monochrome so he seemed white.  But Sakurai wanted Kirby to be pink, but Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario creator) pictured him as being yellow.  So because of this when the game was brought over to the west they just left Kirby white, whereas the Japanese box art has Kirby being a light red color.

So just in case you aren’t familiar with the Kirby games, I would be pretty shocked if someone wasn’t but you never know I’ll fill you in on the story.  In Kirby’s Dream Land, King Dedede (apparently a self made ruler) decided to steal everyone’s food and to be even more mean he stole the Sparkling Stars that they need to get more food.  Of course it’s up to Kirby the cheerful little puffball (a symbol of the light world) to get the food back along with the stars and teach King Dedede (dark world) a lesson.  For a lot of the games the story is similar, like in Kirby Squeak Squad, mice steal Kirby’s desserts and this makes Kirby mad, he loves his snacks and won’t stand for this.  This also explains his food related attack in Super Smash Brothers too.  It’s pretty goofy, but the Kirby franchise isn’t exactly known for its deep story arc :p  I would argue it’s more for the bright color scheme, cute graphics and catchy music.

Besides just video games Kirby has also had his own anime.  It used to air on Fox on Saturdays, but you can find episodes on Youtube now if you wanna check it out.  Kirby’s creator Sakurai was deeply involved so the way Kirby is portrayed in the way he envisioned Kirby’s character.  He preferred Kirby would not speak, so Kirby has a very limited vocabulary basically consisting of the word puyo!  The anime is a lot darker than any of the games Kirby starred in.  I can think of one episode off the top of my head that was really sad and dealt with death, there is also violence, war and some blood.  At times it’s a little cheesy but totally worth checking out just to see Kirby’s character.  He’s so cute it’s hard not to watch.  Plus it gives Kirby a fleshed out background so even just that part is worth watching as a supplement to the games.

So give it up to Kirby the super tough pink power puff and the awesome 20 year run he’s had so far, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for him.  If you haven’t checked out some of the games and you have a 3DS check out the 3D remake of Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby’s Dreamland in the Game Boy section.   The really exciting news is that there has been a Kirby Collection for the Wii (which you can still play on the Wii U) that has some of the most popular games in the franchise on it and a soundtrack which is awesome if you can find it to pick up!

Power Hour Review - Final Fight (Famicom)

Welcome to the first “Power Hour”!  Thanks to my hubby for the name idea J  I have a lot of games so figure if I play them for at least an hour I could give my thoughts and feelings based on that first impression I got.  Plus it’s a lot easier for me to find an open hour in my schedule than a full day to dedicate to playing one game.  I’ll go over the usual things like graphics, sound, story, and controls and I will also talk about if this game within this first hour made me wanna play more or put it back on the shelf to collect dust.

The first entry for Power Hour is Mighty Final Fight on the Famicom.  It was released on both NES and Famicom, but the Fami version was cheaper to pick up so that’s the one I have.

Unfortunately I don’t have much of a personal history with the Final Fight franchise. I never played it as a kid but luckily I saw it featured on one of Nathan’s blog posts on videogamesarerad.com.  Wow I’m so glad I finally picked it up and gave it a try!  In my mind Final Fight is a better version of the original Double Dragon, from the 1 hour I put into it on Saturday.  Looks wise it reminds me of games like River City Ransom with the kind of chibi like deformed characters.  Then the experience point system is reminiscent of the one used in Splatterhouse and a better version of the Double Dragon one. 

The story is nothing really unique.  The mayor Metro City (Haggar’s) daughter Jessica, who apparently is so amazingly beautiful she gives the citizens the power to survive, and a villain (Belger, the leader of the Mad Gear Gang) decides he wants this beacon of light all to himself, how selfish! Apparently he loves her too.  Man when I see her she better be drop dead gorgeous, nothing like setting the bar for my expectations super high!  It’s a 1 player game, which kinda sucks but the game gives you a choice of three different characters, Cody, Guy and Haggar.  All three control very different so it really matters who you choose to play the level with, it’s not just a different looking sprite who is exactly the same.  Cody is a tough street fighter who is good with knives, Guy has great agility as he is descended from ninjas and Haggar is a hot tempered wrestler.

I really appreciate how they show exactly how many more experience points you need to level up, and how it makes a chime sound when you level up. The amount of experience points you earn is all based on what attack you use to finish off the bad guy.  The stronger attacks will earn you more points than using a weak one to finish them off.   Whenever the character gains a level they become more powerful and their vitality is increased. There are 6 levels in total.  When you start the game with Cody or Guy you start at the first level, but if you start with Haggar you are automatically started at  level 3.  As you gain level you will learn a new special attack when you reach Level 4.  Each character has their own unique attack that can be performed by pressing the directional pad left or right rapidly and hitting the attack button at the same time.

The game was made by Capcom and based on the catalogue of games they put out on the NES such as Mega Man you know at the very least the controls will be good.  They definitely don’t disappoint.  The controls are very easy to pick up on and it’s very easy to do combinations and pull off the moves each character has.  You can do flips, throws, punches, flying kicks, use weapons and special attacks.

The interactions you have with the bosses.  I have the Famicom version so I’m not totally sure what they are saying so when they asked me a question, but I would always answer hai (which is yes in Japanese).  After looking on YouTube I was apparently agreeing to bow down to them.  Despite this they still wanted to fight, you think they would be happy I was agreeing with them.

I like the variety of bad guys that you have to fight during the levels.  It’s not the same two bad guys you fight for the whole level.  There is a guy in a toque who looks like a bum who throws knives at you, some tough purple haired chicks with high heels, spiky haired guys, guys in capes and the usual huge buff dudes.  The level bosses are pretty cool too with a guy dressed as a samurai, long haired dudes with sunglasses and no shirt,  

In going through the levels you don’t get health energy from the guys you are fighting but from barrels that are being rolled at you.  When you break open the barrels sometimes it will drop food or things like meat that you can pick up and top off your energy, and other times you will earn a bunch of experience points to use towards leveling up.
This game is really good and it's addictive to play so you always come back for more!  I highly recommend picking this one up, you will not regret it!

Welcome to my new retro gaming home!

I've been away for way too long! Just got so busy with my boys who were super young at the time when I had my website and work, just found it hard to find time to game let alone write and make videos about it! But now that my boys are older and getting into classic games themselves it feels like the perfect time for a comeback. Plus I realize that I really need to spend more time on myself, doing the things that I love! 

I'll be using this blog for a lot of stuff, sharing videos about games I'm playing, reviews on new and old games, video game themed artwork and more I'm sure! So if you ever have a request for something you want to see, or a game you want me to review, just let me know!