Action 52 Commercial: This Was Actually Made!

Yeah I couldn't believe it either but Guru Larry seems to have found it:


As excited the Cheetahmen are for it, the Angry Video Game Nerd (part 1, part 2) and Pat the NES Punk would say different.

Active Enterprises must have really thought they had something going on here with Action 52 and the Cheetahmen.

Fremont Street Experience - 80's Video Game Tribute

Wow this is incredibly cool.

Roo from CoTGW and His Earthbound 0 Cartridge

That lucky bastard Roo from Clan of the Gray Wolf got his hands on one of the prototype cartridges for the long lost NES game EarthBound (or Mother if you are so inclined). To be frank, I am insanely jealous and am considering a trip to North Carolina (what I believe is his state of residence) to brutally murder him and take his cart.* But in the meanwhile he shows us what is to be seen from a prototype cartridge.



*Note: I'm only considering, not actually doing.

Playing The Classics: Little Nemo The Dream Master: Vol 1

So I've wanted to write this and play this game again for a long long time. Life got crazy, hence my absence from the site, and while I'm not necessarily back in some full force, it's damn time in my life to get some rest and visit Nemo in his dreamland. So here that goes. I remember playing this a ton as a child. I've had the NES game since I can remember though I have no recollection of how I came to have it in the first place. Still, it's always had a special place in my heart despite me never really getting that far. I've heard this game is very hard, so lets see if that's the case. Lets play a classic! Little Nemo Dream Master!

From the moment I booted it up, that wonderful music graced my ears. I am such a fan of the music from this game. In fact, you should be checking out the Mega Ran & K Murdoch song, Dream Master as well as the The Adventures of Duane and BrandO song Little Nemo. They are both awesome songs that sample this classic tune. The title screen is classic and colorful and well designed. This game already is starting off right. Time to dive in.

Dream 1: Mushroom Forest
A weird looking frog man greets me in his purple suit and shoes. They call him Flip and he feels like he should help me figure this world out. Yep, this is an NES game alright, as if the purple hair sprite didn't help give it away. The art of the game looks pretty great. Just detailed enough. Though, it's not overbearing.

I avoid an easy snail and then find the frog. The infamous frog. The character I remember most about this game. I throw him some candy which makes him nap, and thus I jump into his body! His sleepy mouth is open as my head sticks out and I control his muscles and nerves. Who the hell thought of this game concept? Then again, it is the dream land after all... I now remember what made this game so challenging, initially anyway... the respawning enemies. Wow that's frustrating already. Still, I found a mole and in a weird moment of instinct, I went way left and found a secret area... with a purple lizard... just dying for me to throw candy at.

Like any good salamander, it climbs walls. Too bad the damn thing doesn't stop on enemies though. I died trying to kill the respawned version. How frustrating. Then again, when I restarted I died again when I jumped on a tiny frog. I think perhaps I can't kill these baddies unless I'm in that frog skin. By the end of a challenging level, dodging tiny frogs and pissy flying ants and such, I finally made it to a door with six key holes. Thank God! I had six keys. I was worried for a second there.

Then that amazing little tune plays, the same one Mega Ran initially samples in their song. A cutscene plays. A nice touch.

Dream 2: Flower Garden
The sound of running footsteps... a leap... and SLAM into the bed! Nemo is ready for action again. Time for another weird purple character. This is the extent of my memory of the game I think. I remember this world but not very well. The music is less familiar also. One thing I gotta give to this game is the nice water mechanics. It's like using the Frog Suit in Super Mario Bros. 3 except you have a natural buoyancy. That's surprising. Oooh! I remember the Gorilla. I'm so gonna pwn this world. He is like a mix of the salamander with his climbing but also he punches like Donkey Kong. This dude is the honey badger of the Dream Land and he don't care! However one thing he does care about are these ridiculous spores that hone in on you and your awkwardly moving monkey ass. With the respawning feature, you have to essentially take the hit to get to the salamander again. Damn. Plus they KEEP COMING which makes it nearly impossible to avoid taking tons of hits while nabbing that salamander. Damn. There's a reason as a child I didn't make it that far.

Luckily the continue takes you to the last level you were at. Phew. Finally I nabbed that lizard! After some careful platforming I made it to the bee. Now I went left because the cave goes left... I traversed some tricky spike pathway... and in a dick move... nothing was there. Nice. Nemo you dope. Oh also, as to be expected, the bee will drown. Son of a! I kept drudging through and eventually I made it to another door, with six keys in tow. Yeah... this game is a challenge indeed. But I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth further into it.

What Other Games Could Get the 3D Classics Treatment?

With Nintendo releasing remakes of classic games on the 3DS that utilize a 3D effect into them to give them a feeling of depth, aka Excitebike, I've got to thinking what kind of games would also be neat to have this effect. A general conclusion I've come up with is that games with isometric 3D perspectives (think Super Mario RPG) could use this to great effect but what other games could really make a fun use of the 3D Classics treatment. Mind you this is just speculation on how the 3D treatment would actually affect a game and may have no basis in reality.


- 3D World Runner and Rad Racer - NES

I'm putting these two games together for two reasons: they are both Square made games and also had 3D modes with the classic stereoscopic (blue and red glasses style) 3D. They are also fun games in their own right that have gone forgotten in the 20+ years that each were released. 3D World Runner could make some of the trickier jumping sections easier with 3D and Rad Racer could make it easier to judge distances between you and the cars.

- R.C. Pro-Am - NES

This is one of the first games I thought of when I thought of the isometric perspective thing. 3D could make the cars seem to pop out like you are actually controlling little RC cars.

- Star Fox

This one should seem obvious to anyone. Of course this presumes that Nintendo is going to try this for Super NES games and we haven't even seen Star Fox on the Wii VC yet. But with Star Fox 64 3D coming out Nintendo may give Star Fox the treatment and give a classic game the respect it deserves. That would be a great thing to do to coincide with the release of Star Fox 64 3D.

- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - SNES

Another Super FX game that would use it in a different way than Star Fox. While Yoshi's Island does have many polygonal objects the use of the SFX chip on the sprites would be even cooler. You know those chomps that jump from the background to the foreground at you? Think how cool that could be in 3D? The last fight with Bowser? Awesome. There are many possibilities for this criminally not already on the VC game.

- Super Metroid - SNES

This isn't as obvious as Star Fox or Yoshi's Island but a game as atmospheric and moody as Super Metroid could really increased with some subtle implementation of the 3D effect. Since the 3D Classic treatment seems to include adding new sprites to help, maybe adding more background and foreground sprites as well as putting 3D on Samus' weapons and abilities. Who knows?

These are only a few ideas I've come up with and I'm sure there are even more, better, ideas than mine. So if you got any, say what. Could be cool.

Top 5 Movie Games

Well it is that magical time of year again. The time of year where bloated special FX and spectacle dominates the movie scene. Yes it is the Summer Blockbuster season, which starts in May and usually goes till August.

This summer we have a glut of super-hero movies, the last Harry Potter film, a new Pixar film, another Transformers movie that will probably disappoint and who knows what else. And with this comes video games based on said movies, which are almost invariably rushed and released to coincide with the movie as a cash-in rather than a game that can stand on its own. It is an unfortunate reality that we all have to live with that have plagued games since the earliest days, whether it was the disaster known as E.T. the video game for the Atari 2600, the games that the masters of licensed crap LJN released for the NES or modern day disasters like Iron Man, these games typically only sell because of the name and little else.

But despite this overall bleak view of games based off movie, there is still many good to great movie based video games that are more than a licensed cash-in. And while these are my favorites, there are more out there.

Top 5 Movie Games

5. Batman Returns - SNES

A 2D Final Fight styled beat-um up from Konami, this game had you more or less following the path of the movie as you bashed your way through The Penguin,, his army of clowns and dealing with the mysterious Catwoman. The games has 3 game styles, the standard Final Fight-style stages, 2D platforming stages and 3D-ish driving stages. The best part of the Final Fight-style stages has you kicking the crap out of the clowns, not to mention throwing them into the background to bash against the walls. The 2D platforming is basically the same controls but enemies die in one hit and you have do some kinda clunky platforming. The 3D-ish driving stages usually have you surviving a horde of motorcycles and a boss fight. Not much to say as you just control and shoot. Despite the iffier modes, the overall package is fantastic.

4. Little Nemo: The Dream Master - NES

As you may recall from my retro review of Little Nemo, this is a game based off a movie. Now not very many people knew this because to be honest, how many people actually saw Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland? This game benefited, like many on this list actually, from not really following the movie's story and being its own game. So instead you go into many dream themed environments to rescue King Morpheous from the Nightmare King and save Slumberland. And considering it was made by Capcom who had an almost impeccable 8-bit line-up you really can't go wrong with this great platformer.

3. Aladdin - SNES/Genesis

While I am kind of cheating with this one as the Aladdin games for the SNES and Genesis are very different games. The SNES one, made by Capcom, is more or less a straight-up platformer that focuses on Aladdin's nature as an acrobatic thief to traverse the levels. The Genesis one, made by Virgin Interactive, is a hack and slash with beautifully drawn character sprites and is easily the more well-known of the two. Both games pretty much follow the plot with some amusingly similar plot deviation. While both are good, I prefer the Super NES one for the overall package and also that I feel it is more akin to how Aladdin would actually traverse his world. But preferences will differ.

2. Batman: The Video Game - NES

Yes I have two on here. But I especially picked this one because as far as I know it may very well be the first good movie based game ever. While not following the movie's plot from what I can tell, there are references to the movie in cutscenes but the seem thrown in to give the game a semblance of relation to the movie. The game goes through 5 stages, which barely have anything to do with the movie and Batman plays very little like the movie version of him. Instead of being a walking tank (though he is) Batman, along with his punch, relies also on a gun with 3 attack options and a very useful wall jumping ability, necessary to get through some of the more difficult parts of the game. The game is short but very hard and will kill you many times especially in the later levels. Also the music rocks.

1. Goldeneye 007 - N64

Goldeneye is important for a couple reasons, one being the best movie game of all time and also for bringing a great console only FPS experience to the consoles. What is amazing is that this game was given a lot of time to mature as it was released 3 years after the movie it was based on which given the a nature of movie-based games is almost entirely unheard of. What Rare gave us was a game that followed the plot reasonably well while expanding the narrative quite a bit. Though I'm pretty sure what most people remember is the multiplayer. Many hours were lost playing deathmatch on this game and is typically what people remember the most. It was such a nostalgic game that Activision gave Wii owners an exclusive update of the game, which while different from the N64 game, plucked on the old nostalgia heart strings for many of us.

Honorable Mentions: Spider-Man 2 (GCN, XBox, PS2), Journey to Silus (NES) (it was meant to be a Terminator based game and it shows), Lion King (SNES/Genesis)

Retro Reviews: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Aracde Game

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game was released in 1990 by Konami under the guise of Ultra Games.

If you grew up in late '80s the Turtles were awesome. The cartoon was great, the movie was pretty cheesy but fun and the games were great. Even the first for the NES had its good points. But for many people my age our definitive Turtles game is one of the several beat-um ups that were released starring them. And TMNT II whether the arcade version or the NES version holds great memories for me but the NES version holds a higher place in my nostalgia ridden heart.

One night in New York City, April O'Neil's apartment goes up in flames and it is up to the Turtles to rescue her. Only for her to be subsequently kidnapped by Shredder and the Foot Clan. So it is up to you as one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to rescue April and defeat the Foot Clan.

TMNT II: The Arcade Game is your standard side-scrolling beat-um up that was big during the late '80s/early '90s. You go from left to right fighting a plethora of Foot Soldiers of different varieties and when you get to the end, fight a boss. It really is not a complicated set up but enjoyable nonetheless. Throughout the game's 10 stages you go from April's apartment, the streets of New York, the sewers, a frozen park, a parking lot, a highway, a construction site, a ninja dojo and finally the Technodrome. While all the stages play pretty much the same most of them have some sort of variance that will keep a first timer on their toes. You get a few moves to use; your regular attack, a jump kick and a super move that will kill most regular enemies out in one shot but is a tad tricky to pull off. The game treads a nice line of being hard and fun, it rarely will get so hard that you just stop wanting to play while not being so easy that you can just waltz through the game unabated. There is a tendency towards some cheap hits, especially late in the game but most of those can be gotten around with proper planning and skill. Most notably different from the arcade is the fact that you can't play with 4 players. The NES just couldn't handle that so instead we get 2 new levels, the aforementioned snowbound park and ninja dojo. Both are nice additions to the game and give it a bit of extra length to what is a short game in general.

Graphically the game is quite good for the NES. Sure it isn't the arcade version quality and there is some flickering when the stage is really busy but it looks quite good for the NES as the levels all have their own graphical theme and the Turtles and their enemies are all easily identifiable.

Musically the game is fairly classic. Some good renditions of the TMNT theme plus some great original stuff really keep the energy going throughout the game. Of course Konami was another great 8-bit music composer so this isn't a shock. The SFX are also fairly satisfying. With different kinds of enemies making different sounds depending on their make up. So metal enemies will make a clank sound and so forth. There are even some voice samples which while not special do what they need to do.

In the end, TMNT II is a great NES port of a great arcade game. Sure it may not have the same 4 player game play of the arcade but it is still extremely satisfying and a classic beat-um up.

Pros/Cons

+ Very good graphics
+ Very good music
+ Classic beat-um up gameplay
+ Good variety of stages
+ Well balanced
- Some cheap hits
- No four player mode but come on, this was the NES
- Gratuitous Pizza Hut ads

Retro Reviews: Little Nemo: The Dream Master

Little Nemo: The Dream Master was released in 1990 and developed and published by Capcom.

Little Nemo: The Dream Master was based on a 1989 film, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (which is actually quite good), which itself was based off an early 20th Century comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, created by Windsor McCay. Doesn't that just scream movie and video game adaptation?

Little Nemo has you playing as Nemo. In 1905, while sleeping one night Nemo is visited by an emissary of Slumberland who arrives in a large blimp. He is invited to visit Slumberland to play with the Princess of Slumberland, Camille. He is initially hesitant but after being offered candy (nowadays that would trigger all sorts of red flags), he agrees to go as long as he doesn't have to kiss her. It turns out that Slumberland has been taken over by the Nightmare King and King Morpheus (no not that Morpheus) and it is up to Nemo to travel through Slumberland and to the Nightmare Land to save the day.

Little Nemo, much like a majority of Capcom's NES titles, was a platformer with some exploration elements implemented in most of them. Through first 7 stages, Nemo must find a certain amount of keys to open up a door at the end of each stage. Nemo himself is fairly defenseless and has overall limited abilities. Pretty much all he can do is jump and throw candy. Throwing candy has two uses. The first, mostly useless one, will stun an enemy for a few second but isn't really useful. Where it is useful though is when you find certain animals. Feed them 3 pieces of candy and they will become docile so that you can use them and their specific abilities to find the keys that you would otherwise not be able to find. For instance the frog can jump higher and jump on enemies, the lizard can be used to climb walls, the bee can fly and shoot stingers or the mouse can also climb walls and use a hammer(yeah....) to break down walls and defeat enemies. There are more including the mole, gorilla, hermit crab and fish that are pretty much used in one level and have fairly simple uses. There is one more option that Nemo has that doesn't show up until level 8 and that is the Morningstar. Nemo actually carries it with him throughout the game but can't use it until then. What he can do with it is hit enemies with it and charge it for an energy attack, which is very useful with the 3 bosses you fight in level 8, which are the only bosses in the game.

Nemo's general lack of fighting skill is what makes this game fairly difficult. Not only are some of the enemies incredibly hard to avoid but your animal friends will also hurt you until you feed them sufficient candy. It isn't the hardest game ever but it is a solid challenge.

Graphically this game is standard fair for Capcom. Which can only be a good thing. Especially coming in later in the NES's life the graphics feature nicely animated sprites and lots of colors. The levels all have their own unique themes and look very different from each other with amazingly little in the way of reused stage sprites, though many of the enemies will recur.

The music in the game is also a highpoint. Of course being Capcom this to be expected as well. From the whimsical themes of the early stages, to the dark, scary sounding theme used in Nightmare Land or the extremely fast paced and energetic credits theme, there really isn't a bad song in the game. Some are more memorable than others but they all fit the game wonderfully. The SFX are kind of lacking. Just standard whacks and such. Nothing bad just not great.

In the end, Little Nemo: The Dream Master is a fantastic platformer from Capcom in their NES heyday. It is up there with the Mega Man games and Duck Tales as an all-around great experience and is as fun to play today as it was when I played back in the day.

Pros/Cons

+ Varied Graphics
+ Fantastic Music
+ Varied and large stages
+ Good challenge
- Nemo lack of useful standard attack and lack of great maneuverability
- Inappropriate plying of children with candy.

And as a bonus, a video review by the Happy Video Game Nerd (warning: some swearing):



And a little vanity on my part: A playthrough of the game I did a couple years back and posted to YouTube:

Very Short 3DS Impression

So I was in the mall area today doing stuff (Bought a top loader NES. Awesome.) and stopped at Best Buy with the sole intent of checking out the 3DS display and hopefully get a chance to get play a little. I did and played a little bit of Pilotwings Resort.

And after a few minutes I must say that the 3DS is all kinds of neat. It really did feel like I was looking into a window and seeing a 3D landscape. Pilotwings itself also seemed pretty cool. The analog disk on the system felt good and seems like it'll be a good way to play analog games and such. Outside of that not much else to say. While I wasn't in a hurry, my back was hurting more from bending over to play on the kiosk than any possible eyestrain could have affected me plus my buddy I was with was in more of hurry.

So in short, I must give the nifty qualitiess of the 3DS a thumbs up and may have cemented my getting one at launch (though through Amazon so it won't be at my place till early April). I'd like to have actually held it to get a feel for it in my hands but it is expected that they wouldn't let you do that.

The Great Gatsby for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Your parents help you hook it up!

Seriously though, my friend passed this along to me and it's surprisingly fun! I think it has something to do with the music.

The Great Gatsby (for the NES)

The game so far follows a loosely based plot around the story of The Great Gatsby... of course as if The Great Gatsby contained pissed off butlers walking around near falling chandeleirs. Still, give this new oldie a try. You might leave cultured.

Collect money and martinis and traverse your way through the world of The Great Gatsby.

Gamer Culture: The Adventures of Duane and BrandO

Some of you might remember when I featured a rap group named Forever Famicom on the site many weeks back. They were a group in the hip-hop genre which had a unique blend of video game samplings and great lyrics. Well, I was recently introduced to another hip-hop gamer group who has quite the library of songs already. They aren't as "mature" lyrically but they aren't trying to be. Instead of creating hip-hop songs based on life but using gaming beats, The Adventures of Duane and BrandO use the gaming beats as a backdrop to sing and rap about the games themselves.

This makes for a fun and creative mixture of NES musical greatness. NES music has always affected me at the core. Something about it is just amazing. In the NES' sound hardware's limitations, came brilliance. Now that is being used to create new music and new art. I love this sort of thing...even more so when it's actually good!

Their most recognizable work can be found on their LP Of Devastation album but they have lots more at their download page, found here. Games featured in this album include, Battletoads, Bomberman, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Mario II, Mega Man II, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Sonic, Zelda, and believe it or not, Cheetahmen II. Best of all, the song about Cheetahmen II is leaps and bounds better than the game itself!

What other hip-hop/rock group sings with such energy and flavor about video games? It's pretty great and I highly encourage all you readers to check it out. Two other great aspects about this duo are that not only are the songs long in length, but they feature different songs from the games they're about which definitely help take you on a little journey. I have no doubts that when thinking about the original Super Mario Bros. most people think of the Overworld Theme and then suddenly the Underworld Theme and then most likely next is the Underwater Theme. These songs just naturally go together and Duane and BrandO pick up on this. Below is one of my favorite samples (from Zelda II) as well as a snippet of some lyrics about that song. Judge for yourself if this is for you. It's definitely for me.

Well I made it to the palace, I got nothin to lose.

Ridin' up and down on these elevators (Awesome dude!)

I gotta find the key to open up these doors first.

Before I lift this curse that's been put on this earth.

I'll stab that f*****' Horse Head and put him on my wall.

Helmethead ain't gonna be a f*****' problem at all.

That ghost ridin' Reubenok licks ghost horse balls!

Reflect Carock's spells, brawl with Gooma and make Barba fall!

Gamer Culture: Forever Famicom

Do yourself a favor for a moment and press play on this youtube link below.



Alright. Now listen and read my words. There are two genres of music I don't enjoy. Authentic Country and Hardcore Rap. That's just how I am. I like old-school hip hop and folk or bluegrass if you want some grounding of my enjoyment of the variants. Anyway, that all said, it was earlier this year when somehow (perhaps from the Negative World forums) I discovered Forever Famicom.

Mega Ran and K-Murdoch, as the two lead musicians are known as, have taken something I absolutely love with something I rarely consider in my daily life. The result is amazing music that hits me at my 8-bit heart and resonates with my gaming soul. The sample you're listening to now on youtube is called "Dream Master". The art makes it obvious but this track samples from the NES classic, Little Nemo: Dream Master. The music to this game has fond memories for me and these guys masterfully rap well-written lyrics along side with it. I don't really know how to explain it, better than just listening to it, in order to make you understand.

This album samples from all sorts of excellent classic NES games. This track was from Little Nemo, but my other favorite song, "For The Gamers" takes samples from the excellent DuckTales game. Other games sampled include, Mega Man, Earthbound, Starfox, Kirby's Dreamland, Chrono Trigger, and Metroid. Their album, Forever Famicom, is fourteen tracks long. The album feels very full and satisfying both to listen to and for the price point. A digital download is nine dollars (barely 64 cents a track) while a signed hardcopy and a digital download is fourteen dollars (only a dollar a track).

It appears that after releasing this album in June of this year, they released a bonus CD called "Forever Famicom DLC". That contains eight tracks, with samplings from Zelda II, F-Zero, and even Mario Paint. Then it contains instrumental versions of all fourteen original tracks. Amazing value for seven dollars. Just last month they had a third release called "Thank You For Listening". This is simply one song and this song is free to download off the site. It takes samples from Super Mario Bros. 3. It's the perfect way to test the waters and see if this stuff catches your fancy.

It only takes a mere couple of a seconds for me to geek out over this stuff. Mega Ran and K-Murdoch have created something insanely special and unique. They deserve your dollar and with the holidays just around the corner, this is perfect for that gamer in your life. Visit their page and purchase some tunes. At the very least you can listen to full tracks streamed and find details on which games were sampled in which tracks. Don't game over on these guys... they sound awesome.

Forever Famicom Homepage
(I have problems playing the samples in Safari but it works great in Firefox.)