Received: from decwrl.dec.com by s.ms.uky.edu id aa04611; 10 Sep 90 23:15 GMT Received: by decwrl.dec.com; id AA12726; Mon, 10 Sep 90 16:08:16 -0700 Received: by limbo; Mon, 10 Sep 90 15:31:07 pdt Message-Id: <9009102231.AA03059@limbo.intuitive.com> From: The Moderator Date: Mon, 10 Sep 90 15:31:04 PDT Subject: Digital Games Review Digest, #10 Reply-To: Digital Games Review To: Digital Games Review Digest X-Mailer: fastmail [version 2.02] Digital Games Review Digest, Number 10 Monday, September 10th 1990 Today's Topics: NES: Vindicators NES: Vindicators NES: Double Dragon II NES: Friday the 13th TurboGrafx: Bonk's Adventure TurboGrafx: Military Madness GameBoy: Gargoyle's Quest [Editorial note: you'll notice that there are two reviews of the same title in this issue. In general, we believe that the more perspectives you get of the same title, the better. If you don't agree, drop us a note letting us know why... -- Dave] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cchan%sal-sun37.usc.edu@usc.edu (Clifford Chan) Subject: NES: Vindicators This is the home version of the tank game you may have seen in the arcades. Basically, you or you and a friend control futuristic tanks with the mission of destroying (what else?) enemy space stations. Game Play I wish it were better. My main complaint is in the arcade version you can steer your tank and rotate your gun turret at the same time. This made for some fun maneuvers you could come up with to defeat the ememy tanks, pillboxes, and saucers you run up against. In the NES version your gun is simply fixed in a forward postion. This means to hit an enemy tank you basically have to steer into it, which means it hits you. I ended up rammoing my tank into the enemy while firing, which takes no skill at all. I still managed to slaughter hundreds of enemy tanks. There is not much variety in game play. You have tanks, saucers, pillboxes, supertanks (whatever), and the occasional boss at the end of a section to defeat. That's it. Of course, you do get power-ups for your tank. You earn these bu collecting stars that are scattered about the battlefield. You can earn extra fuel, shields, shot power, speed, etc. Once in awhile, you enter a bonus room where you have a limited number of seconds to collect stars, extra weapons, and fuel. If you do not drive out of the room in time, you`re history. I should mention one more thing about fuel. There is just barely enough of it in the game to keep you alive if you go at full speed through the various scenarios. What really doesn't make sense, and what I can't stand, is the fact that you burn up fuel just as fast just standing still! That means, if an enemy tank is around the corner shooting at you, you must charge into its line of fire and blast it. You cannot wait for it move, or you will run out of fuel and die. This encourages the ram and fire technique, if you can call it that, that I mentioned earlier. There is no room for strategy or finesse in this game. Disappointing for a Tengen game. GRAPHICS Really terrible. The tanks reminded me of my tanks in the old Atari 2600. Everything lacks detail, looks bland, no creative use of color. Again, a lot was lost in the translation from the arcade version. Extremely disappointing. SOUND You know what's coming, don't you? Very repetitious. Uninspiring. Dull. Ugh. I can't even remember what the music sounds like, that's how forgetable it is. FUN I tired of this game very quickly. My roomate didn't even bother to try it. I should say here I liked the arcade version, and that's why I forked over the $$$ for the NES version. In all fairness to the game, I would say it is concievable that some people would like this game. But, definitely rent it first before buying. Game Play: 3 Graphics: 2 Sound: 2 Fun: 2.5 Vindicators for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Tengen ------------------------------ From: Jimmy Chan Subject: NES: Vindicators GAME DESCRIPTION: The year is 2525, and the planet Earth is in peril. Its destruction is imminent unless you stop an attacking force of evil alien space stations. Riding inside Vindicators, the most powerful battle tanks ever created, you must infiltrate each station, and destroy its control center. Such is the premise for this 1-2 player game by Tengen. Players roam through each station level by level, battling tanks, mines, gun turrets, and assorted baddies with their Vindicators. Sprinkled throughout are extra packets of fuel, stars, and power-up items. Collected stars are used to purchase various options for your tank after each round (i.e. increase tank speed, increase shields, buy weapons, fuel, etc.). Players can start the game with zero, twenty, or forty stars, depending on difficulty level. The first few levels are kind of easy. I would have like the ability to skip ahead, but there is no such feature. In the 1-person game, the player can choose either of the colored tanks. The tank chosen depends on which of the controllers are used. In the 2-person game, one person controls each tank. The left and right buttons on the controller pivots the tank left and right, respectively. Pushing up on the controller moves the tank forward, while pushing down moves it backward. Pressing the "A" button fires your cannon. Pressing the "B" button launches either Smart Shots (able to home in on an enemy) or Bomb Cannons (packs more power than regular shots). When I first saw this game, I thought it was a split screen game where players fought it out with each other. Well, there is no split screen. A tank at the top of the screen must wait for the tank at the bottom to move up before the screen will scroll. And, shooting the other player merely transfers some of your fuel to his tank. Thus, Vindicators can be played either as a cooperative game or a competitive one. You can purposely block scrolling of the screen, waiting out your opponents fuel supply or you can work together, sharing fuel and defense resources. GRAPHICS/SOUND: The graphics and sound on this game are only average. Tanks and backgrounds seem blocky, and there is not much variety in the use of color. Sound mainly consists of a recurring theme, and explosion effects (although I must admit the music does raise that anxiety level when you are down to those last few seconds of fuel). DOCUMENTATION: The instruction booklet that comes with this game is extremely poor. Only the bare bones descriptions of power-ups and enemies are given. It would have helped to know what mines looked like, or what that little pentagon you just ran over did (it raises your shields). As it stands, trial and error are about the only ways to learn anything in this game. SUMMARY: This is an alright 1-person game, but a very good 2-person game. It's easy to learn, and human interaction spices up the game just enough to make it interesting. A good game to have around when entertaining friends. Graphics/Sound: 5 Documentation: 2 Playability: 9 Overall: 8 Vindicators for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Tengen ------------------------------ From: Mark Runyan Subject: NES: Double Dragon II Reviewers: Chris and Mark Runyan If you want one or two hours of entertainment, especially fast-paced and pseudo-violent entertainment, Double Dragon II would be a good choice. It has enough action to keep you occupied, it doesn't require extensive training, reading, or superhuman reflexes (until later levels), and the music is such that it doesn't get on your nerves very quickly. On the down side, the game has no continues, has flawed graphics, and incomplete documentation. In other words, the game is a lot of fun, despite itself. Chris (age: 8) likes to put a game into the NES and start it up without reading the instructions. Double Dragon II is one of those games that you can start playing with only a quick scan of the instructions. It is important to read the instructions and learn that to attack to the right you hit the B button and to attack to the left you hit the A button and to jump you hit both the A and the B button at the same time. With that knowledge, you can start playing and learn as you play. There will be times when you hit some odd combination of buttons and something surprising will happen and you'll turn to the instructions to find out how to do that again since it was so effective, but Chris found and understood many of the special moves through trial and error. When I (age: 30) tried the game, I was pleased to note that you don't have to master all the special moves requiring specific combinations of buttons in order to survive. The special moves decrease the amount of time spent tussling with an opponent, but are not always required to defeat the enemy. While Chris is fond of the "Spinning Cyclone" kick, which requires a dexterity and timing that I haven't mastered, I find that it is possible to defeat an opponent just knowing the simpler moves. Happily, this game does have a two player mode. The two player mode is basically a cooperative two player game, allowing both players to fight the evil shadow warriors. Chris and I were able to combine our separate strengths in this game to cover each others weaknesses, increasing how far we could get into the game. And, since I like to play video games, too, it is always nice to encounter a game which allows Chris and I to play at the same time and not against each other. The game does use a couple of interesting concepts that I really appreciate. The obvious one being the "pointing hand" that indicates that you should move on to the next screen. This comes from Double Dragon I, and shouldn't be much of a surprise to players of that game. Another nice concept is the way the controls work. Once you've played through the practice scene, you sense how intuitive the controls actually are. Since the meaning of a button is dependent upon what your character is currently doing, the button almost always does what you want when you hit it. However, I do wish that they had chosen something besides hitting both the A and B button together to mean jump. There are some bad points which detract from the game. First, I find the lack of continues frustrating. As you penetrate deeper into the game, it becomes harder to stay alive to figure out what to do next. Chris simply sees this as a good reason to keep playing, but I get frustrated upon dying in the lower levels merely because I can't time the jumps without lots of practice. Another irritating point is the annoying problems with the graphics. The game is playable, but sometimes the graphics gets in the way. The scrolling on the game as your characters move along is very rough. This doesn't detract from the game (unless you are just watching it as a spectator). However, the framing of the scenes is off. Sometimes you see part of the top of the scene under the stats that are on the bottom of the screen. Other times, the opponent you are fighting retreats off screen and you have to fight blindly, hoping that your blows are landing properly. Not that having the opponent on the screen means you know where they are. In some of the major melees when characters and opponents are formed up in a tight group, you just punch with everything you have and hope you are making the necessary connections. Usually all you see is a flickering mass of shifting colors representing where the battle is taking place. The final point of frustration I'll bring up is the of information on who it is you are fighting and why. The story line tells you that you are out for revenge because the Shadow Warriors killed your girlfriend, Marion, but there is no explanation of the opponents and who they are (Chris and I made up names for each so we could refer to which type to prepare for next). Some of the characters appear to be from Double Dragon I, so if you want names, you may have to play Double Dragon I first. Of course, you don't need names to fight in the game, but every once in a while I wonder just who the big nasty guy at the end of Mission 1 is and why does he vanish into his helmet after he is defeated? To sum it all up, the game is definitely fun to play. Chris's comment on this was just: "It's fun!" I think he enjoyed the action and the challenge of handling multiple opponents and pretending to face unreasonable odds and winning. While I wouldn't have bought this cartridge for myself, because of my frustration with the lack of continues, Christopher really enjoyed the game. Graphics: 3 Rough and confusing Sound: 8 Good music and audio cues Fun Level: 10 Tends to degrade to 6 after a several plays Intuitive Feel: 5 Can play without extensive training Documentation: 2 Good thing the game doesn't require it Overall: 8 Chris thought it was great! Double Dragon II: The Revenge for the Nintendo Entertainment System By Acclaim Entertainment ------------------------------ From: Mark Runyan Subject: NES: Friday the 13th Reviewers: Chris and Mark Runyan This is a game that at first seems to be rather simple. This illusion is quickly dispelled as you read the instructions and attempt to play the game. One can play the game without reading the instructions, but it is doubtful that the uninformed will survive for very long. The game starts with six counselors, which are your game pieces, so to speak, and 5 children. The counselors are spread out on the game board, and the objective is to defeat the computer opponent, Jason, who will wander at random, attacking both sleeping and moving counselors, and, again at random, the children. Should Jason defeat all the counselors, or kill off all the children, the game is over. The counselors must arm themselves, fight off Jason (he can be chased away if he attacks an "active" counselor who is sufficiently armed) and his minions (various zombies and other critters that attack the "active" counselor), and protect the children, while seeking for the weapon that will ultimately defeat Jason. There are clues and hints on where to find various important power items, and regions of the game board that must be explored and mapped. If Jason attacks a non-active counselor or the children, the player must somehow rush over and protect the counselor or children. Switching between counselors requires the proper rituals, as does passing weapons and materials between counselors. If this doesn't seem complex to you, then you just haven't tried to play the game. There is a 'strategy' section in the instructions, and you had better read it if you intend to defeat Jason. You are not required to try to find all the necessary items, solve the puzzles, or map the unexplored areas, for the game has plenty to keep your active counselor busy (Jason's minions have a tendency to pop up at the worse times), but the game won't last long unless you put a little bit of thought into it. Chris (age: 8) plays only for the immediate challenge. Defeat the constantly attacking minions (zombies, ravens, and wolves) while chasing after Jason, from one alarm to the next. He will, occasionally, wander into the unexplored areas to see what he can find, but hates to get lost there. At first, he was often defeated by Jason because Jason would simply attack and kill off all the children and Chris didn't know to protect them. After some play, Chris was able to locate interesting points in the game, though it seems difficult to stay alive long enough to learn the proper strategies. Mark (age: 30) was constantly frustrated by trying to understand the various types of graphics screens. The game provides a view of the board (and your position on it), a side view as the active counselor moves along the paths of Crystal Lake, and a 3-D view as the active counselor explores cabins and hidden rooms. The 3-D view takes some getting use to, especially if you are trying to explore one of the "large" cabins. In all, this game isn't one you just sit down and play. You've got to play a few times to get some idea of the strategy of the game and then you have to solve the puzzles presented to you. You can play it for the fun of battling the zombies, or you can play it for the serious challenge of attempting to out maneuver Jason. Graphics: 5 Some thought put into it Sound: 4 Fair audio cues; very repetitive music Fun Level: 7 More fun if you put thought into it. Intuitive Feel: 5 Buttons do what you expect most the time Documentation: 6 Describes the important basics Overall: 5 Chris liked it "a little bit". Friday The 13th for the Nintendo Entertainment System By Enteractive Video Games ------------------------------ From: Cliff Yamamoto Subject: TurboGrafx: Bonk's Adventure In Bonk's Adventure, you are the 'caveman dude', bonking your way through mazes and paths to eventually rescue your beloved princess. This game is analogous to Nintendo's Mario Brothers line of games, but with a twist. Everything takes place in prehistoric times and is limited to only one player. Also our hero Bonk can literally 'use his head' to knock-out and destroy his enemies. Bonk's Adventure seems to be NEC's answer to Mario Brothers and accomplishes this quite well. I haven't played Mario Brothers too much, but I'm quite certain Mario can't flip and tumble in the air like Bonk can. In later game play, this becomes crucial as Bonk can actually fly for some distance as he turns and tumbles in the air. This is accomplished by pressing the 'bonk' button repetitively (or setting the auto-repeat as desired on the TurboPad or TurboStick). Like Mario, Bonk can also jump at various heights, depending on how long you hold the jump button. But unlike Mario, the jump button can also allow Bonk to chew his way up the sides of trees and cliffs. Since Bonk will encounter cliff walls too high for him to jump over, he often must chew the rest of his way up. Bonk's Adventure has 7 worlds. There may be hidden worlds, but I haven't come across any yet. At the end of each world, you will encounter a creature who must be thoroughly 'bonked' in order to finish and exit that world. There are many scenes in each world; some in the jungle and underwater, while some in quicksand and among the clouds. A variety of other scenes exist, but each is unique. Of course as you progress farther into each world, the creatures from previous worlds will also be there to greet you. At times it doesn't pay to walk on the ground since it can be poisonous and takes away much of Bonk's strength. Bonk can become invincible for a little while if he manages to eat enough meat in time. All the meat, fruit and vegetables can be found as Bonk makes his way through each world. Now for some technical highlights. The game is very well programmed. I've heard that some don't feel Hudson Soft makes quality software. Well it could be I haven't played any of their other games, but Bonk's Adventure is great! The playfield is very colorful. There is never a problem with flicker or any sudden pause or slowdown during the game. Bonk responds quickly and faithfully to any movements on the TurboPad/Stick. Sounds effects are of regular quality (not bad, but nothing spectacular). There are sound effects for everything (bonking, jumping, running water, etc.) except for the creatures. It would be neat to hear the creatures approaching from the left or right side on the appropriate stereo speaker. But I suppose it would be irritating listening to every "flap", "crunch" and "stomp" that each creature makes. Well some may think I nitpick, but I wish Bonk used the memory capability of my TurboBooster Plus. Since it doesn't, I have to leave my TG-16 on all the time. I'm just to lazy to go through all the worlds again when I'm already up to world 6. This is another feature of Bonk's Adventure, since you can continue from the world you last died in, rather than back from world 1. It also plays some BGM which cannot be turned off. Actually it's not too bad since the BGM changes with each scene, but there only appears to be about 4-5 actual variations in the BGM. In a nutshell, I'd recommend Bonk's Adventure completely. It is fun and addicting. Like Mario, there are many hidden ways of getting more points and lives, which continues to keep it challenging. It has just the right difficulty to keep you playing, *BUT* not so much to get you discouraged. In fact, the main reason I bought my TurboGrafx-16 was to play Bonk's Adventure. Well actually, my SO thought the Bonk character was cute which may have been another reason. ;-) Graphics: 10 Sound: 8 Playability: 9 Overall: 9 (Great cure for Mario syndrome) Bonk's Adventure, for the NEC TurboGrafx-16 by Hudson Soft ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Sep 90 16:22:17 pdt From: wang@hpdmsjlm.cup.hp.com Subject: TurboGrafx: Military Madness The year is 2089. The Axis Empire's surprise attack has captured most of the moon. You, controlling the armies of the Allied Forces, are the only person who can stop the Axis Empire's evil conquest. Military Madness is a military simulation game for the TurboGrafx 16 system. It is designed for either one or two players. Player one controls the Allied armies. Player two controls the Axis armies. When in one player mode, the computer always controls the Axis armies. To clear a stage, you need to either totally destroy the enemy, or to capture the enemy's prison camp. There are 16 basic stages, and 16 advanced stages. A simple stage usually takes about 15 minutes to play. While the most advanced stages could take about 2 to 3 hours to complete. Army units are deployed and moved on a lunar landscape that is divided into identical hexagon zones. When one army unit attacks another army unit, they will battle it out right on the screen. Fires are exchanged; the unlucky units are vaporized instantly! The outcome of the battle is determined by a number of factors. Some of the factors are: relative army strength, past battle experience, and surrounding army support. Same as in real life battle, chance plays a small part in determine the outcome of a battle. The lucky shot of a hand laser can disable a tank, but foot soldiers usually do not survive 203mm artillery attacks. There are 23 different types of army units in total. Each unit has their special strength and weaknesses. Roughly, the units can be separated into the following categories: space crafts, tanks, artilleries, high speed attack buggies, foot soldiers, and transport units. All these complexities can seem overwhelming, but it's not. The game starts out with simple army types. As you gain experience, new army types are introduced gradually. It's fun to learn how a new army type works. It's even more fun to see the enemy being blown up by your Grizzly tanks' pincer attack. The extensive manuel system also makes Military Madness easy to play. There is a comprehensive on-line manuel. By clicking on an army unit, and selecting the 'guide' option, you can get a short summary on that particular army type. The music in Military Madness sounds like electronic version of military marching tunes. It can get repetitive at times. The background music will change when the tide of the battle turns. The sound effect is nice, but nothing to get excited about. The Axis Empire have more army units and fire powers then the Allied Forces. However, you are much more skilled at tactical thinking. At the highest level of strategic gamesmanship, you can overcome computer's 3 to 1 troop strength advantage in the last few stages. The only gripe I have with Military Madness is that there is no way to tell how far exactly a particular enemy unit can go. I end up having to manually measure on the screen to see if my forces can be attacked by an enemy unit in the next turn. For those who are tired of the typical one day appeal shoot-them-up games, Military Madness might be the perfect alternative. With 32 carefully designed battle fields, it can keep your interests up for several weeks. Playability: 9.5 Graphics: 8 Sound: 7 Overall: 9 Military Madness, for the NEC TurboGrafx-16 by Hudson Soft, distributed by NEC ------------------------------ From: dougf@infmx.informix.com (Doug Fielder) Subject: GameBoy: Gargoyle's Quest Gargoyle's Quest is the latest addition to my Gameboy collection, and it is by far the best I've played yet. You are Firebrand, the gargoyle, and your quest is to travel throughout the land of ???? (don't remember. Documentation is terrible. More on that later) picking up clues and weapons en route to the final showdown with the big boss. Overview: GQ is an action/adventure, the first one out for the Gameboy. One of it's greatest features is the password, something that IMHO most of the good games for the G'boy have been lacking. Without the password, this game would be impossible to solve (which I haven't done yet.) The gameplay is much like that of the Zelda series. You start out in one of the castles, killing bad guys, trying to make it to the boss at the end of each castle. Once you kill him, an entrance opens and you walk outside to the overworld. In the overworld, you walk around, checking for items, and talking to the townspeople to get clues. You have to search for an entrance to a small village where there are a couple of rooms. In one of the rooms there is a wizard or something who gives you the password, a la Faxanadu. After getting the password, you can resume the game from that point whenever you start over. Controls: The controls are very simple. In the overworld, you move Firebrand up, down, left and right. You use the a-button to talk to the people in the village. In the castles, and when fighting various enemies, you move left and right, and use the a-button to jump, and the b-button to fire. The great thing about this is that when you jump, you can hit the a-button again to hover at the same altitude, while still being able to move left or right. You have a meter at the botton of the screen that lets you know how long you can hover, and at certain times throughout the game, you can increase that time. You can also climb walls. If you jump up against a wall, you stick to the side of it, enabling you to scale large walls. Makes for some pretty slick screens. This is probably the one feature that sets this game apart from the other shoot-em-up games. Nice feature. Difficulty: This game is probably a 7 on a scale of difficulty, 10 being impossible. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game, but it is just hard enough that you can't easily progress from level to level. It took me about 20 games to get to the first password area, and at least 30 more to get to the second one. That's where I am right now. It's just tough enough that you can't finish it in a couple of days, but easy enough that you don't get stuck on one level and lose interest. Password: Although it doesn't use a battery, the password is the next best thing. There are only 8 letters/chars, and you don't have upper/lower case, so it's pretty difficult to mess up the password. There also isn't the problem of transposing "0" and "O" because there isn't an "0". Sound: Great! Just like so many games for the G'boy, the sound is great. Not much more to say. Documentation: Terrible, period. As is the case with most G'boy games, the instructions are very short, 7-8 pages, and very nondescriptive. You basically have to learn how to do things as you go, and if you forget, you're history. Definitely needs work. Sound: 9 Graphics: 9 (Only Nemesis is better) Difficulty: 7 Playability: 9 Documentation: 4 Overall: 9 Definitely get it! Gargoyle's Quest for the Nintendo GameBoy by Capcom. $27.99 @ Toys 'R Us ------------------------------------- To join this group or have your reviews appear in the next issue, please send electronic mail to Dave Taylor at the following address; digital-games@digital-games.Intuitive.Com We welcome reviews of games for any computer system, including the IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, Atari, Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari Lynx, Sega Genesis, Nintendo GameBoy, NEC TurboGrafix, Amiga and so on. The views expressed in Digital Games Review Digest are those of the individual authors only, and do not represent the views or opinions of Intuitive Systems or any of our affiliates worldwide. The copyright of each article is that of the original author, and the copyright of the digest itself, as well as the name "Digital Games Review Digest" are noted here. ********************* End of Digital Games Review Digest *********************