Someone over at Sony had their thinking cap on when they thought up Jet Moto, a cross between motorcycle racing, jet skiing, and snowmobile riding. This early Playstation racer offers up a unique, though far from perfect, game play experience by combining elements from games like Hang-On and Hydro Thunder. You start the game off … Read more
Not to be confused with the vastly-different Baseball Stars II on the Neo-Geo, this NES title is the lesser-known follow up to one of the greatest baseball games known to humankind. As was the case with a lot of great NES games, Baseball Stars II didn’t get a lot of ink back in its day, … Read more
Although it had previously appeared on various home computer systems, the Genesis version of John Madden Football marked the first appearance of the franchise on a home console. While other football games like the Tecmo Bowl series and Joe Montana Football were taking the arcade-style approach with bigger plays and more scoring, the Madden series … Read more
My childhood memories of playing baseball games on the Nintendo are dominated by Bases Loaded with its TV-style presentation, RBI Baseball, and the horrible and unimaginatively-titled Baseball. Although I never played it (or even remember hearing about it) back then, in the time since the NES has faded into obsolescence Baseball Stars has risen above … Read more
While the original Streets of Rage was certainly an excellent game in it’s own right, this sequel was not only the pinnacle of the series, but one of the best games on the Sega Genesis. Streets of Rage 2 maintains the same basic feel as the original, but every aspect of the game has been … Read more
When I was a kid, the word on the playground was that while the Super Nintendo could display more colors, the Genesis had better sound. Few games demonstrate the console’s superiority in that category better than Streets of Rage. With a brilliant techno soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro, also known for scoring ActRaiser, The Revenge of … Read more
Golden Axe is one of my favorite games both on the Genesis and in the arcade, so I already knew that I was going to hold this PC Engine CD version to a high standard. The game starts off well enough; an animated cutscene complete with voice over, a title screen than looks more colorful … Read more
When most gamers think of the TurboGrafx, they think of arcade shooters and they think of Bonk. Much like Mario on the NES and Sonic on the Genesis, Bonk became the de facto mascot for the system. Bonk’s Adventure wasn’t completed in time for the TurboGrafx’ North American launch, but as soon as it was … Read more
When reviewing Mega Turrican, the obvious comparisons to be made are between this game and both the original Turrican and Contra: Hard Corps. Mega Turrican is what the first Turrican should have been. The game is actually the third in the series, as Turrican II was only released on select home computer systems. The game … Read more
Turrican is a run-and-gun shooter in the vein of Contra or Gunstar Heroes, that was ported over from the Commodore Amiga. The game has a plot, but (as is usually the case) it isn’t important. Your character is a bio-engineered life form that looks a lot more like an android, or at least like Robocop. … Read more
I bought NFL Football brand new in 1990, having walked from my dad’s place to the downtown mall one Sunday when the NFL football season was in full swing. I was eager to buy the first football game released for the Game Boy, but would have been better served by getting mugged on the way … Read more
Tecmo Bowl and its sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl were big hits on the NES but somehow this Game Boy port flew under the radar. When I found this game in with a bunch of used cartridges at a local store, I had no idea that the game had ever been released but I knew that … Read more
Petrolheads like me might be excited upon first learning of this game, thinking that it is somehow tied in to the UK TV Show. This is of course not the case as this game came out long before that show started. Top Gear is easily one of the best racing games on the Super Nintendo. … Read more
“Gateball” is a Japanese sport not unlike croquet. Players use a long mallet to hit balls through three gates in a particular order and then hit a goal post to score and finish their round. It is a team-based sport, with up to 5 players on each squad. One team wins when either every player … Read more
Caesars Palace is a casino/gambling game that features 8 games – scratchers (more on those later), slot machines, video poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, keno, and horse racing. The horse racing game immediately caught my eye because you don’t normally see that in a casino-based video game. You can look at the stats for each horse … Read more
For sports fans, there wasn’t much to choose from on the Turbo. As was the case with most sports, there was only one baseball game on the system – World Class Baseball. The game tries to sell itself as a baseball simulator but is in reality a very arcade-like experience, with pitches that defy the … Read more
Game companies may have decided that Americans were no longer interested in 2D games in the 32 bit era, but in Japan 2D was still alive and well. Elevator Action Returns is an excellent example of the kind of games that we missed out on due to the 3D craze. The game distills the best … Read more