Received: from uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com by s.ms.uky.edu id aa06748; 15 Jan 92 22:57 GMT Received: by uucp-gw-1.pa.dec.com; id AA24539; Wed, 15 Jan 92 14:51:02 -0800 Received: by limbo; Wed, 15 Jan 92 14:41:27 pst Date: Wed, 15 Jan 92 14:41:27 pst Message-Id: <9201152241.AA06535@limbo.intuitive.com> From: Info-Source To: abbott@ms.uky.edu Subject: Re: Your Request For Information X-Mailer: The Info-Source System (send Digital.Games/Digests/Digest.31) Digital Games Review, Number 31 Thursday, September 5th 1991 This issue we look at: GameBoy: Super Scrabble Sneaky Snakes Battletoads (preview) Lynx: Pac-Land A.P.B. Genesis: The Faery Tale Adventure Super Star Soldier (Japan) Spriggan (Japan) Final Soldier (Japan) Japanese (PC-Engine) Games TG-16: Bonk's Revenge [Welcome to all our new readers, and a reminder that reviews are written by you, our faithful readers, so if you've a game that you have particularly enjoyed -- or disliked -- let us know about it!] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: anthony@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Anthony Kapolka) Subject: GameBoy: Super Scrabble Date: Wed, 14 Aug 91 15:19:07 EDT The interface and display for this game are excellent- once you've got it figured out it is no more work then playing scrabble with a regular set. You can pick your tiles one at a time from a pile (or let the computer randomly pick them for you). The computer can be set for 5 skill levels, allowing it to take between 1 and 3 minutes for its turn. The full scrabble board is displayed, and you can zoom in on parts of the board (that is necessary only to see the value written on played tiles). Like any good scrabble player, the computer has an annoying tendency to make closely packed, small but high scoring words. On the highest setting, I only beat it occassionally, on the lowest I beat it consistantly. The computer knows over 40,000 words, and you can override it's challenge if you know the word you've made is a good one. Music is sparse, bells and such for word completion, and can be turned off. I have only four very minor complaints about this game: 1) You have only 3 minutes to make your move and this time restriction cannot be disabled. 2) Only 2 people can play. 3) There is no feature allowing the computer to suggest a move for you. 4) You can't shift your tiles around on your tile rack during the computer's turn. I guess if I was a really serious scrabble player, I might also want a save game feature, which is lacking here. Overall, if you like Scrabble you will love this game- and it isn't going to loose any appeal the fifty-first time you play it. I suspect the interface will impress even people who don't like Scrabble. Graphics: 8 (sedate, but looks just like scrabble) Music: 5 Playability: 10 Fun Level: 10 Overall: 10 Super Scrabble Crossword Game, by Milton Bradley for the Gameboy, ca $30 4 playing modes: Player vs. Computer, Player vs. Player (1 gameboy), Player vs. Player (via link), Solitaire (play against clock). ------------------------------ From: Dave Taylor Subject: GameBoy: Sneaky Snakes Date: Mon, 19 Aug 91 23:01:09 PDT About a year ago I received "Snake, Rattle and Roll" for the Nintendo Entertainment System and was astonished at not only how well written the game was -- fun-wise -- but how beautiful the graphics were, with nary a flicker in sight and audio/graphics on par with the best of the 16-bit systems. And now, under contract to Tradewest, the company that produced "Snake, Rattle and Roll", Rare Coin-It, has now taken the same basic premise and made a GameBoy game out of it! "Sneaky Snakes" introduces a new set of cute snakes, Atilla and Genghis, and their obligatory girlfriend Sonia Snake. Problem is, Sonia has been kidnapped by the Nasty Nibbler, and therein lies the plot of the story: Atilla and Genghis must slither through sixteen different levels of play to rescue Sonia. Modelled loosely after the Mario-style adventures, "Sneaky Snakes" has you as a cheery little snake trying to slither through more and more dangerous levels of action, eating various types of little Nibbleys before time runs out. Each Nibbley eaten adds to the length of your tail and, therefore, your weight, and to escape a level you need simply find the scale and hop on it. If you weigh enough, the adjacent door opens and you're free to move on to the next level. (one surmises that Weight Watchers of America wouldn't approve of this success criteria, somehow!) Generally, this game is one of the nicest examples of GameBoy animation and audio -- especially the "aaauuugggghhhh" of Atilla when he falls off a cliff! -- available. The feel of the title is remarkably similar to the larger NES version, and both have a great sense of amusement and humour about them, making them both very enjoyable playing. "Sneaky Snakes" is fairly difficult, however; perhaps more so than the NES version. I have spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to get past certain obstacles, and, much worse, on some levels it is impossible to eat enough Nibbleys without running out of time on the level. Fortunately in each game you have four lives, and are also allowed three continues without penalty. This game also allows two GameBoys to be linked together, allowing for joint play in the same style as the two player "Snake, Rattle and Roll" (e.g. competitive race through each level, first player through the door gets a bonus), though having but a single copy of the title I haven't tried that option. Overall, if you're looking for a fun adventure game along the lines of Castlevania and Mario, then "Sneaky Snakes" should prove a terrific choice. I know I'm glad to finally have those zany little snake guys on my GameBoy! Graphics: 9 Sound: 9 Fun Level: 10 Playability: 9 Overall: 9 Sneaky Snakes, for the Nintendo GameBoy, from Tradewest (Rare Coin-It) ------------------------------ From: Dave Taylor Subject: GameBoy: Battletoads (preview) Date: Mon, 19 Aug 91 23:02:29 PDT Ever since a couple of radioactive turtles from the sewer hit the big time, everyone and their brother has come out with some variant or other, from Horrible Hamsters to Killer Crickets. Into this veritable maelstrom of weird and dangerous animals is added a new bunch to look out for: Battletoads. Programmed by Rare Coin-It (the group that brought us "Snake, Rattle and Roll" for the NES and "Sneaky Snakes"; reviewed elsewhere in this issue) and distributed by Tradewest, Battletoads should prove to be a popular title in this genre. The premise is startling close to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles storyline. Three Battletoads -- Zitz, Rash and Pimple -- are overpowered by the evil Dark Queen and, while Rash and Pimple are kidnapped, Zitz gets away, to meet up with their mentor Professor T. Bird. The situation is pretty simple: Zitz has to fight it out through various levels and situations on the planet Armagedda to rescue his pals. The animation in this title is very impressive; indeed, the fluidity of motion is a hallmark of Rare titles. With a variety of different fighting moves, Zitz roams the Armagedda landscape, beating up on the likes of Psyko-Pigs, Clubbas, Grogg, General Slaughter, Giblet, Bat-Rat, and more! They're a tough bunch, but Zitz has some pretty slick moves of his own, including the Big Bad Boot, Anvil Slam, Jet Ski Swing, and Nuclear Knuckles! He also gets the opportunity to hop on a Jet Ski, strap on a Jet Pack or leap on a Turbo Wing and really cook through space. The down side of this title is that it's quite hard. In fact, there is a point where it appears that it's almost impossible to survive, when a variety of "power grids" are shooting towards you and you must nimbly maneuver into the small opening on each one before it zaps you. This isn't a game, it's an impossible reactions test! I surmise that someone out there with a younger player in the household will laugh, knowing that nine-year-old reflexes are easily good enough to get past this type of obstacle, and further, that the entire title can be completed in a few hours. If so, well, then that's great. But for me, this title proved attractive in appearance, amusing in story line, yet very frustrating in actual play. Then again, that's almost exactly the same reaction I had when I played TMNT for the GameBoy too, so perhaps there's a moral to this story: if you like the TMNT genre of titles, then you're bound to like Battletoads! Battletoads, for the Nintendo GameBoy, from Tradewest (Rare Coin-It), scheduled for release in September. ------------------------------ From: jjung@aludra.usc.edu (Robert Jung) Subject: Lynx: Pac-Land Date: 19 Aug 91 04:35:31 GMT OVERVIEW: Anyone remember Hanna-Barbera's PAC-MAN cartoon from the early '80s? Yes, folks, before Nintendo's CAPTAIN N. hit the airwaves, the world's most famous video game star had his own television show. The adventures of Mr., Mrs., and Junior Pac-Man failed with the Neilsons, but not before they inspired Namco's arcade PAC-LAND video game, now available for the Atari Lynx. Despite the presence of "pac-" in the name, PAC-LAND has nothing to do with mazes and dots. Rather, Pac-Man is on a mission of charity, who must take a lost fairy back to her home. So he puts her under his hat, then proceeds to run and jump across the towns, forests, hills and deserts of Pac-Land. The way is dangerous, with rickety bridges, quicksand, and deep chasms to cross, not to mention the ever-present ghosts. However, if Pac-Man looks hard enough, he can find tools, powers and secret warps to help him complete the job. GAMEPLAY: Despite the silly storyline and cute graphics, PAC-LAND is not an easy game. There are five "trips" to be completed, spread over 20 levels; you can choose which trip to start at, which lets pros skip the easy parts. Each trip consists of several levels to return the fairy, then a level of guiding Pac-Man home. Along the way, Pac-Man must dodge the ghosts, who chase him in cars, busses, airplanes, and pogo sticks. There are also swimming pools to be jumped, floating ledges to ride, and darkened houses to explore, each with their own tricks and dangers. For extra pressure, each level must be completed within a given time limit. Pac-Man is not completely helpless, naturally. If Pac-Man walks across certain areas, hidden fruit will appear, which he can eat for points. There are also energizer pellets, which enable our hero to temporarily chase the ghosts. In addition, there are goodies such as helmets, invulnerability, and warps to higher levels hidden in the game, and assorted known and unknown point bonuses to try for (can you get the 7,000-plus-point bonus at the end of each level?). While PAC-LAND is an engrossing "run and jump" game, it's not as complex as other titles in this genre. The different levels offer a bit of variety, but each level does not take long to complete. The ghosts are fairly easy to avoid with a little careful dodging; to compensate, their appearances are randomized, which prevents patterns from being developed. GRAPHICS/SOUND: The graphics on PAC-LAND are cute and cartoony, appropriately enough. Pac-Man looks friendly and animated, while the ghosts are silly and amusing. Other items are drawn with bright colors and simple designs. Finally, there is some multi-plane scrolling both behind and in front of the action; however, the positions of Pac-Man and the ghosts are always clearly shown. Game sounds are similarly simple but amusing. The background music is taken from the original cartoon show, though some people may find it irritating. Other sounds come from the ghosts on the prowl and various game actions, but are simply average. SUMMARY: PAC-LAND is a simple but challenging action game. The cute atmosphere masks lots of surprises to uncover, and the game requires attention to beat it. There are a few shortcomings, but they are there because the card is accurate to the arcade original. Veteran video jumpers may breeze through this title, but for other players, a trip to PAC-LAND is worth considering. GAMEPLAY: 7 GRAPHICS: 7 SOUND: 7 OVERALL: 7 PAC-LAND, 1 or 2 player horizontal game for the Atari Lynx, from Atari Corp. $34.95 ------------------------------ From: jjung@aludra.usc.edu (Robert Jung) Subject: Lynx: A.P.B. Date: 1 Sep 91 05:05:57 GMT OVERVIEW: Meet Officer Bob. He just graduated the other day from the Police Academy, and is now ready to serve and protect. It's not an easy assignment; his sergeant is a real hothead, and the slightest mistakes will get Bob into trouble. Still, if Bob works hard and plays it straight, he may someday make chief. But that's in the future; Bob has to go to work now -- after he gets a donut. Preferably chocolate. A.P.B. for the Atari Lynx is an adaptation of the cartoony arcade game of the same name. You play Officer Bob, who patrols the big city in his squad car. Every day, you must catch criminals big and small, while avoiding demerits for actions unbecoming an officer. If you get too many demerits, you are fired (rather painfully, too), though you can erase demerits by hard work. Along your career, you will have chances to earn extra rewards, upgrade your patrol gear, and maybe someday make the big catch. GAMEPLAY: Fans of the arcade A.P.B. will be pleased with the Lynx adaptation, as all of the whimsy and almost all of the original features are translated intact. At the start of each day, you are given a quota of traffic violators, from litterbugs to speeders, to arrest. On certain days, an A.P.B. (all-point bulletin) of an especially dangerous criminal is issued; capturing this suspect is worth more points. Failure to either arrest the A.P.B. or meet your quota will bring the sergeant's wrath, and earn more demerits. The actual patrol takes place on a vast overhead city map that scrolls in 360 degrees. Violators submit easily and can be ticketed by pointing your crosshairs and sounding the siren, but the criminals will put up a fight, and require a chase to take down. Between arrests, you must keep your car filled with gas, grab donuts for more time, and look for various bonuses. Hints and tips will periodically scroll across the screen, giving warnings, game advice, or what mistake you just performed. In all, there is a total of about 30+ levels to play, which keeps this game fresh for a long time. There are a few flaws with the game, however. First, button "B" is used as the accelerator; this means there is no fine speed control, and makes using the siren (button "A") while driving tricky. Second, the arcade bonus sequence, where you take a captured A.P.B. criminal and try to extract a confession, has been removed. Finally, the Lynx version is more sensitive to collisions than the arcade. If you are moving and touch another car when the siren is off, that counts as a demerit against you, regardless of which driver is at fault. While these problems are mostly minor, they do detract from the game somewhat. GRAPHICS/SOUND: The sights and sound of A.P.B. are very well done and entertaining. The graphics, while not always identical to the arcade versions, are distinctive, detailed, and appropriately silly. The 360-degree scrolling is very smooth, and even the cartoon sequences remain intact. Sounds are equally impressive; the music is identical to the arcade, while car honks and other sounds are realistically rendered. Then there are all the digitized voices, slightly scratchy, but very well done: cries for help, complaints from arrested violators, and the sergeant's incomprehensible mumbling when he congratulates you on a day well done. SUMMARY: A.P.B. on the Lynx is a decent adaptation of the original game, and offers a refreshing variety to video gaming. The gameplay is fair, and is enhanced by some very appropriate and entertaining sound and graphics. For people hooked on the arcade title, and players interested in a slightly silly change of pace, Officer Bob is waiting with a box of donuts. GAMEPLAY: 8 GRAPHICS: 9 SOUND: 9 OVERALL: 8.5 A.P.B., 1 player, horizontal game, Atari Corp., for the Atari Lynx, $39.95 ------------------------------ From: milton@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Milton W. Kuo) Subject: Genesis: The Faery Tale Adventure Date: 19 Aug 91 06:06:04 GMT One of the newer games put out by Electronic Arts, The Faery Tale Adventure is a role playing game where the player attempts to build up a character, find stuff, and kill the evil wizard(tm). The player controls one of three brothers to solve the game -- should one brother die, another takes his place until all three are dead at which point the game ends. This insipid storyline is matches only by the game's lack of play value. There are absolutely no puzzles to solve and most of the game involves tediously running around a map in the quest to pick up the items which are necessary to killing the wizard and marry- ing the princess. After playing The Faery Tale Adventure for a mere five minutes, it became painfully obvious that this was another port of a computer game. Electronic Arts apparently put absolutely no effort into trying to make this game good. For starters, Electronic Arts did nothing to improve the sound in this game. Because of their laziness, The Faery Tale Adventure's sound suffers from the same problem as the Amiga in that very few voices are used (I counted three). The result is that the game sounds are cheap and tinny. Top this off with the fact that there are only four different songs used during the game and I begin to wonder how many minutes Electronic Arts took to port this piece of excrement to the Genesis. Being that this game is a port from the Amiga, it is surprising that the graphics are so incredibly bad. Just about all of the graphics are poorly detailed and possess a fuzzy look. Furthermore, the scrolling of the screen is handled in a flaky manner since the screen continues to scroll even when the character is stationary. It is not until the character is centered on the screen does the scrolling stop. Another thing I hate about The Faery Tale Adventure's graphics is the way nighttime is handled. During nighttime, everything becomes a shade of black and objects are almost impossible to discern. The only way that vision can be improved during the night is via the use of a gem. However, by using this gem, the shades of black are turned into shades of orange. While objects are easier to see, this represents at best a minimal improvement. What makes nighttime in this game truly idiotic is the way the character cannot be made to sleep on a regular basis. While it would make most sense to be able to sleep through the night until the morning, attempts to sleep in this game will most probably result in a message saying that the character is not sleepy. I say "most probably" since oddly enough, there are instances where the character will take a brief nap. However, these naps are very few and very far between -- it appeared to me that the character sleeps once every week or so! For a game with such crude graphics and sound, The Faery Tale Adventure manages to find a way to exhibit slow down even when there are almost no moving objects on the screen. While the slow down does not affect the game's playability, it is a noticable and bothersome flaw. Furthermore, the controls felt sluggish and unresponsive. This is especially evident when using the cumbersome interface to control aspects of the game such as talking to people, picking up items, saving or restoring, etc. The single most annoying feature of The Faery Tale Adventure centers around the fact that many important places which must be visited have locked doors which require keys to enter. However, using a key one time causes the key to disappear and I often found myself wandering around waiting for the right key to appear. In my opinion, this is a serious flaw and really renders the game even less fun than it already is. However, during the course of play, I discovered a bug which makes having multiple keys useless. By saving the game just before using a key, a key can be used, the game restored, and the door will remain unlocked while the key used to unlock the door will still be in the player's inventory. Why bother having keys in this game at all when they serve no real purpose other than to waste time? The ridiculous business with the keys aside, another major annoyance is the lack of a battery back-up feature. The Faery Tale Adventure relies on a password back-up scheme using 36 letters. What makes the passwords even more frustrating is the poor choice of fonts. On more than one occasion, I mistook one character for another and ended up losing considerable progress just because I did not copy the password correctly. Considering that there are 36 opportunities to make a mistake, the programmers really should have used a clearer font. However, the 36 letters do allow for a fairly precise back-up in that just about everything is remembered when the game is reloaded. The player's precise location, statistics, and inventory are restored to what they were the last time the game was played. However, there are bugs in the save features which reduce its usefulness somewhat. In the event that the player save with more than 255 gold pieces, reloading the game will result in the discard of all gold in excess of 255 -- this same bug also affects the bravery score except the limit for bravery is higher (512?). With all of these problems and the obvious lack of care in programming, The Faery Tale Adventure is not even worth playing for free. Not only is this game incredibly easy and tedious, it is outright stupid. While playing this game, I found myself making endless comments concerning the utter stupidity of the game. The only reason I played the game to the end was in the blind hope that it might get better. Unfortunately, the game only got worse and I ended hating this game even more than when I first played it, if that is possible. In fact, as of right now, this is the absolute worst piece of trash I have ever played for the Genesis. This game gets a perfect 10.0 for toxicity -- playing for long periods of time will eradicate brain cells. Graphics : 4.0 (Low resolution and poorly detailed) Sound : 4.5 (Monoaural sound and poor sound effects) Gameplay : 4.5 (Game slows down and controls badly) "Funness" : 1.0 (I can't believe I actually played this game) Originality : 3.0 Longevity : 1.5 Difficulty : 2/5 Overall : 1.0 (Not even worth playing for free) Faery Tale Adventure, from Electronic Arts, for the Sega Genesis ------------------------------ From: tonsieng@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Rav Tonsiengsom) Subject: Genesis: Super Star Soldier (Japan) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1991 00:55:04 GMT Super Star Soldier is a shooting game very similar to Blazing Lazers. It is the sequel to Star Soldier (which is on the NES) although it plays so much like Blazing Lazers one would rather call it a sequel to Blazing Lazers. Taken by itself, Super Star Soldier is a very good shoot 'em up, for those like myself who are very into these sort of games. The game play is very hectic and intense. There always seems to be stuff flying all over the place: homing missiles, lasers, and other ordinance being shot at you in such quantities as to put Wings of Wor on the Genesis to shame. There are also enemy formations flying around at the same time trying to ram into your ship. The bosses are a easy at first but some of the later ones are very tough to beat (a real bonus). All in all, this is one of those shooters where you have to remain fully powered up or you are dead meat. Unless, you resort to some very nifty bullet dodging - which helps for a while but the bosses will definitely kill you very quickly at the end of a stage. The power ups in this game are pretty standard. Compared to Blazing Lazers there just isn't enough variety. For your primary weapon system you can pick up a red standard shot powerup (ship will shoot five ways when fully charged), a green electro-laser powerup, a blue ring-laser powerup, and a yellow flame thrower powerup. The secondary defensive/offensive powerups is where Super Star Soldier is lacking. You can pick up homing missiles which speed up as you collect more of the same powerup, or you can pick up what the manual terms the "Starbuck Defense System" which is just two option ships which surround your ship. They can be rotated so that they are left-right or top-bottom. If you collect more they will rotate around you. This is somewhat redundent since you can put the "1" on your joystick/pad on turbo fire and hold it down for continuous rotation. A pretty average selection, but they do the job. I still miss the "Field Thunder" powerup that Blazing Lazers had though :-( The graphics in Super Star Soldier are very good. There is some independent scrolling in some areas but since it is done somewhat slowly you have to look carefully. Not that you have time though. The bosses, in particular, are pretty impressive. The Scorpion boss in Stage 3 is very well animated and the boss of Stage 4 is so huge there is barely enough room to dodge all the things he shoots at you. The backgrounds are nice but not as varied or interesting as in Blazing Lazers. All in all, the graphics are truly excellent but Blazing Lazers has better graphics. The sound effects are a little bit of a disappointment if you were used to the booming explosions and neat weapon sounds in Lazers. They seemed to have skimped on the explosions in particular. Not that the sound effects in Super Star Soldier are bad, they just could have been much better. I also noticed that the voice was gone in Super Star Soldier. The funny thing about this is that they are included in the sound test but are not used in the game? The muscical score in Super Star Soldier is pretty good. There are quite a few really simple but catchy tunes that will take a while to get sick of. Overall, Super Star Soldier is fairly impressive on its own. The game is extremely long and difficult and will definitely have you sweating in no time. The graphics are well done and the music and sound is excellent. However, as a "sequel" to Blazing Lazers, Super Star Soldier just doesn't measure up. Scores Weightings - - - ---------- Playability: 7.7 .50 Graphics: 8.5 .15 Sound effects: 7.0 .10 Musical score: 8.5 .10 Play value: 6.5 .25 Overall: 7.5 Super Star Soldier, for the NEC Turbo Grafx-16/PC-Engine Core Grafx ------------------------------ From: tonsieng@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Rav Tonsiengsom) Subject: Genesis: Spriggan (Japan) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1991 00:51:51 GMT Spriggan is the latest title from one of my favorite software companies: Compile Although Naxat Soft actually markets the game, the programming was done by the people at Compile. This game is a shooter which some people deem a sequel to Musha Aleste. The gameplay in Spriggan "feels" similar to Musha Aleste (and I am not talking about the fact that they are both shooters) but the similarities end there. Spriggan is what can be termed a "fantasy" type shooter, somewhat like Elemental Master. Your "Magic Soldier" uses four different types of power ups: Earth (Yellow), Fire (Red), Wind (Green), and Water (Blue). By combining powerups (you can carry three) you will get different types of weapons. If you allow the game to run, a demo comes up explaining, in Japanese, the different combinations of power ups needed for a particular weapon. In addition to the weapons you can drop the power ups as "bombs". However, this will "power down" your weapons one step. The gameplay in Spriggan, while conventional, is a lot of fun. Like Musha Aleste this is a very fast, very intense game. The different combinations of weapons that you can experiment with makes the game more varied than most other shooters. In addition the mid and end round bosses can be quite nasty, so finding the best weapon to take them out with is an important element of this game. Having so many weapons to choose from makes this process really fun. After every stage you clear, there is a story intermission complete with voices and graphics. The graphics in this game are mind blowing. This is the best looking vertical shooter I have ever played. I can't remember even playing a vertical shooter at the ARCADE that had better graphics. The animations are smooth with no slowdown or flicker - even when there's a lot of stuff on the screen. The bosses are huge and move very fluidly. The attention to the backgrounds is just so much better than anything I have ever seen - each level is truly the work of a superior artistic team. I can't recall any multiple scrolling levels, but the more I play these games the more I wonder whether that is really all that necessary to achieve the illusion of depth. The weapons that you can pick up look really intense. They will draw many "how can you get killed?" comments from people. On the other hand, some of the weapons the bosses and cannon fodder use against you will garner many "How can you NOT get killed?" remarks. The sound effects in this game are pretty good. Excellent shooting sounds and pretty good explosions to rattle your woofers. The musical score in this game is excellent also. Truly CD quality music - one track had such deep and powerful bass I was afraid it blew my speakers the first time I heard it. This is stuff that will get many "will you please turn it down" complaints from your neighbors. Overall Spriggan is one of the top 2 or 3 shooters I have ever played on a home system. The people at Compile have really outdid themselves this time around in creating a really fun, graphically and sonically pleasing game from a very old, but still popular theme. Scores Weights - - - ------- Gameplay: 8.5 .50 Graphics: 10.0 .15 Sound: 8.0 .10 Music: 10.0 .10 Play Value: 8.0 .25 Overall: 8.7 Spriggan (aka Magic Soldier), for the PC-Engine/Turbo Grafx-16 CD-ROM ------------------------------ From: tonsieng@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Rav Tonsiengsom) Subject: Genesis: Final Soldier (Japan) Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1991 00:50:49 GMT Final Soldier is the last game in the Star Soldier series of shooting games. Like Super Star Soldier, this game plays a lot like Blazing Lazers. There are five power ups: 5-way shot, laser, energy, fire, and missiles. Of the five you can "customize" the laser, energy, fire and missiles to your preference in a setup menu. For example, you can have missiles fire forwards backwards, or homing. However, once you choose a configuration for a particular powerup you cannot change it until your game is over. Every weapon except the missile powers up in three steps. This may seem awfully fast, but you need the firepower in order to get far in this game. The missiles powerup in one step. Once you grab the "M" icon you will get missiles. It does not seem that you can grab more "M"s to speed up the missiles or increase their destructive capabilities. In addition to the five powerups, you can grab helper which follow your ship. They fire along with your ship but they do not seem to protect the ship against enemy fire or ramming attacks. Each of these helpers, however, is also a Mega Destruction bomb. Use it and it damages, and usually destroys everything on the screen. The bomb will also destroy any ordinance the enemy has shot at you. You can only have two helpers at a time and they cannot be stockpiled. Based on what I have been hearing about this game, I expected Final Soldier to be extremely difficult. However, the game is a bit of a disappointment until you get to stage 5. Stages 1-4 are very easy to get through as long as you stay fully powered up. The bosses aren't very difficult either, nor are the weapons they use against you very original. There are plenty of things to shoot as the pacing of the game is very fast and intense. Even when you are fully powered up you must be carefull. It doesn't look like anything will get through but they do and with a vengeance. One thing that really disappointed me about Final Soldier is that the laser, energy, and fire power ups do not seem very useful at all. You can go through almost all of the game with five-way shot, missiles, and the bombs. The other powerups are somewhat distracting too, since when they are fully powered up it is very hard to see the stuff the enemy shoots at you. The gameplay, nevertheless, gets much better and much harder later on. I am somewhat certain that there are about 7 or 8 stages in this game although, given the game's difficulty, more would definitely be great. The graphics in Final Soldier are truly exceptional. The artists and programmers seem to have devoted a lot of time to this. The number of colors and shadings are amazing and there is so much detail, even in the small enemy craft. The scrolling is superb and there is no flicker or slowdown, even when there are missiles and enemy craft all over the screen. The bosses aren't HUGE but they are quite big and the detail and movement of the some of the bosses are quite incredible. Sound is fairly standard, unfortunately. I was hoping that the sound effects would be just as good as Blazing Lazers if not better. However, they are not bad and do not detract from the game. The music on this card is quite superb. It is of no surprise to me that they have a CD out in Japan called Final Soldier Suite (kind of a corny title) which contains all the complete compositions of the music in Final Soldier as well as a few additional tracks. Definitely stuff to crank out on a stereo system and not a television set speaker. Overall, Final Soldier is a great ending to a great series of shooting games. It doesn't really stand out all that much from the many shooting games out on the market, but it is still a lot of fun to play. The excellent integration of the graphics and music keeps me coming back time after time. If there are more than 8 levels, I may have to revise my assessment of this game but for now Final Soldier deserves no higher than an eight. Scores Weights - - - ------- Playabilty: 7.5 .50 Graphics: 10 .15 Sound: 7 .10 Music: 10 .10 Play Value: 7.5 .25 Overall: 8.0 Final Soldier, for the PC-Engine (Need an adaptor for use on a TGX-16) ------------------------------ From: ccastbh@prism.gatech.EDU (Brad Hamlett) Subject: Genesis: Japanese (PC-Engine) Games Date: 14 Aug 91 00:21:50 GMT Spriggan Spriggan (aka Magic Soldier) is a shooter, much like Super Star Soldier or MUSHA (in fact I think it's a sequel to MUSHA). There are plenty of different weapon types in Spriggan. As you destroy certain objects, various colored capsules are released. You may carry up to three of these capsules. Your weapon type depends on the number and color combination of the capsules. There are four different colors yielding 13 different weapons. In addition to your main guns, you may also drop bombs that will clear the screen of lesser enemies and do significant damage to larger ones. The only drawback to the bombs is that each time you drop a bomb, the leftmost capsule is removed from your supply, effectively reducing your weapon strength. The sound effects are some of the best I've ever heard coming from a shooter and the background music is stuff you can wake the neighbors with :). Definitely CD quality. The game has long intermissions with plenty of nice pictures. The voices are in Japanese of course. If you let the game sit in "Demo mode" long enough, the game will demo itself, run through the storyline and then display each of the weapon combination. The only drawback to the game was that I found it to be too short (only 6 1/2 stages). The game is moderately difficult on "normal" but the options screen lets you set the difficulty level higher. Spriggan also has the same features of Super Star Soldier...it allows you to play "beat the clock" and "beat the score" versions of the game which are very fun (especially after you've won the regular game). A very fun game overall. Gameplay: 9 Graphics: 9.5 Sound/BGM: 10 Challenge: 7 Manual: ? Overall: 8.5 Price: ~$65 mail-order Road Spirits Road Spirits is Outrun on CD. The basic premise behind the game is to race around the world. As you clear each stage, the game takes you to another part of the world to continue your trek. The game gives you a choice of 4 different cars to race (porche, ferrari, lambourghini (sp?), and one other that I don't recall at the moment). You can choose between automatic, 2 speed, and 5 speed transmissions. The game isn't much of a challenge if you choose automatic though. At the beginning of each stage, the game gives you the option to change the radio. There are 18 different courses to race through, each with its own quirks and hazards as well as different cars to dodge (In Hawaii, the other cars literally try to run you off the road :). The game is well done graphically and musically. It does get tiresome after awhile though. Road Spirits makes use of the RAM in the CD player to save the last stage you completed. This way you don't have to play the game from start to finish every time. If you liked Outrun, you'll like Road Spirits. Gameplay: 8 Graphics: 7 Sound/BGM: 8 Challenge: 6 Manual: ? Overall: 7 Price: ~$65 mail-order RayXamber II RayXamber II is yet another shooter. (YAS for short :). This one is horizontally scrolling though. Haven't played this one much yet so I haven't gotten very far. This is one tough mother of a game...you thought AeroBlasters was hard! RayXamber lacks all the fancy voice and intermissions of Spriggan, but it's still a good shooter. Weapon choices are fewer, but 'customizable'. when you pick up a weapon, you can choose whether it shoots to the front, rear, top, or bottom. In addition to your regular firepower, you can hold the fire button down (ala R-Type) to power up your weapon type. If you release the fire button, a burst-effect like weapon is released. If you press the other button, however, your ship gains a significant burst of speed (useful in getting out of situations that you can't fight your way out of). The graphics are nice as is the music. The weapons don't really offer too much firepower, so you are forced to rely on a little strategy (not necessarily a bad thing). A good shooter, but not great. Six stages long, but hard. Gameplay: 6 Graphics: 8.5 Sound/BGM: 7.5 Challenge: 9.5 Manual: ? (it's all in green, bleech) Overall: 7 Price: ~$65 mail-order ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Aug 91 21:52:29 CDT From: brettw@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Brett Watson) Subject: TG-16: Bonk's Revenge Evil King Drool III, the grandson of Kink Drool, is out for Bonk! And he's building a Monster Kingdom that threatens to destroy the world. As Bonk the Caveman, you're out for revenge. Why? I don't know, you just are! Bonk II has all new characters, 8? different bonus stages (that's all I've found so far), and a wide array of new creatures. Object of Game: Head-butt your way through the Monster Kingdom, facing jungles, waterfalls towering mountains and King Drool III's evil monsters. The above was taken from the manual. Now my opinions. To start the game you can choose from 3 modes. The first mode is Practice. It is a one level game with 3 lives and 8 hearts. The next mode is Intermediate and you play through levels 1-4 and have 5 hearts. Then Expert level which is the normal game with 7 levels and 3 hearts. You can continue on this game up to 3 times. Quite nice but no matter where you died on the level or screen, you always have to start at the beginning of that level or screen again. It kinda sucks. You don't get as many extra lives in this game. You get one at 20K, 60K, and every 50K after that. It's not bad though because there are plenty of extra Bonk's to pick up throughout the game. Reviews I saw before I got the game said Bonk didn't control as well in this game as in the first. That's true but you quickly grow accustomed to the change and probably won't even notice after a few games. Bonk climbs waterfalls much easier this time. You just hold the UP arrow and hit button I every 1-2 seconds. He just glides right up the fall. Climbing trees is easy to. Just hold the UP arrow key and he shimmeys right up. Also, some trees have horizontal branches this time. You hold the UP arrow key, then hit the jump button and watch Bonk swing. It's hilarious and you just have to see it to appreciate it. Then comes the hardest move to master. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of it. It's called the Traingle Jump. There are many places in the game that have a very narrow vertical canyon. You can't just climb them. You have to jump into the canyon then tap LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys alternately while holding the spin button. The effect is Bonk bouncing off one side and jumping up and over to the other side and so on, until you reach the top. I've done it a few times but it's kinda hard. The power ups are great! Eat a small meat and Bonk can freeze enemies with smoke. Eat a large meat and Bonk is again invincible for 10 seconds BUT he can hit the ground to freeze enemies AND breath FIRE! No lie. You have to see it. Hilarious. The game has lots of micellaneous stuff. Propeller Flower Seeds with allow Bonk to fly. Pink ones let him fly while yellow ones take him to a bonus stage. The flowers are just a little different. Orange produces meat and Propeller seeds. Yellow are still jumping flowers. Blue produces a LARGE heart or an extra life! Pink still produces life fruit. I haven't seen any flicker in the game and I've gotten into some pretty heavy action. This game is like the first in that it's not really hard. I think I'm in for a bad time after level 3 though. I haven't gotten to the level 3 boss yet. Level 1 and 2 bosses are EASY to beat which was kind of a dissapointment. The manual says you MUST learn the triangle jump since it is necessary to finish the game. I love it, and you will to if you liked Bonk's adventure. Graphics: 10 - just as good as the first, no flicker Sound: 9 - Some scenes are GREAT, others a little annoying Playability: 9 - a little awkward at first but gets easier Fun: 10 - GREAT fun, more so than the first game! Overall Rating: 9 - Couldn't give it 10, a few bad points but overall a great game! Bonk's Revenge, for the NEC TurboGrafix 16, from NEC and Red $49.95 (prices may vary) 4 Meg cart ------------------------------------- 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@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. Back issues are archived as digests, as well as broken into individual reviews. To receive them via electronic mail, send a note to the address "info@limbo.intuitive.com" (or decwrl!limbo!info) with the body containing the lines "help" and "listall Digital.Games". To obtain them via anonymous FTP, connect to "eklektik.cs.pitt.edu" [130.49.2.135] and look in 'videogames/digest'. 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