Sunset Riders (Super Nes, Genesis)

Buy the Super NES Version Today!

...or buy the Sega Genesis Version!

Konami is known for bringing outstandingly high-quality games to arcades and home consoles for years. They brought us such classics as Contra, Metal Gear, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Rush 'n Attack, The Simpsons arcade game (which, let's face it - is one of the only great Simpsons games,) and TMNT: Turtles in Time just to name a very few. They also are responsible for many sleeper hits, including this 1991 arcade masterpiece known as Sunset Riders.  While it is not the household name that games like Contra, Tiny Toon Adventures or Lethal Enforcers are - it is a fantastic game that is an absolute must for your collection.

Originally released in the arcades in 1991, Sunset Riders was ported to both the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. Like most games brought to both systems, there are differences between each version. I personally have more experience with the Super NES release, so most of this review will focus on that particular version. However, it's important to get the differences between the two versions out of the way; that way you can make an informed decision on whether or not you would prefer the Super NES version or the Genesis version.

Doesn't my Pancho look soooo fashionable?!

The original arcade game allowed up to four players at one time and of course, (being the original release) does not suffer from hardware limitations or strict censorship codes - thus being the truest version of Sunset Riders. However, Lukie Games doesn't have arcade cabinets of it on hand and you're not likely looking for a big bulky cabinet anyway. The Genesis port came first and has a handful of differences from the arcade - mostly due to hardware limitations and localization. For starters, your roster of four characters is truncated to only two: Billy and Cormano. The amount of bosses is also cleaved in half - leaving you four of the original eight bad guys. The levels are rearranged and altered as well. However, something that the Genesis version has uniquely above the other two releases is a versus style gun fight where you and another player can test your quick-draw skills.

The Super NES version is more faithful to the arcade version, but also has a few changes here and there. For starters - your roster of characters is correct; however, only two players can play this game at a time. C'est la vie, multitap! Much of the other changes are due to Nintendo's conservative censorship policies. For example, the ladies in the game are wearing much less revealing attire, your characters no longer smoke or booze it up, and the Native American boss is renamed Chief Wigwam from Chief Scalpem. How this is more politically correct is kind of a mystery, but I'll buy that they were at least TRYING not to peeve the Native community. The graphics, sound and music are all top notch on the Super NES version and are noticeably less impressive on the Sega Genesis port. However, the Super NES version fetches a higher price tag, so it is up to you whether or not these differences will impact your buying decision. For serious collectors - why not get both?!



The gameplay of Sunset Riders is fast and addictive! If you love Contra, you will be well prepared for Riders, because the gameplay is very "Contra-with-cowboys." It takes great skill to avoid those bullets and your finger will constantly be on the trigger button at all times. If you want an extra challenge, crank that baby up to HARD mode and it will really feel like Contra. The western elements are all over this game and it makes you really feel like you're Clint Eastwood or John Wayne wasting a village full of bandits. There's stage coaches, saloons, train-hopping, cattle stampedes, falling boulders, and more. The game is fun by yourself, but even better with a teammate! This is definitely the game you bust out if you have a friend, girlfriend, cousin or whathaveyou come into town that wants to check out your game collection. Unless you're a seasoned gamer or have the difficulty set to easy - you'll really appreciate the extra help another player can provide in getting further in this game.

Yippie Ki Yay, Wagon-chucker!

Some of the highlights for me are the music, sound and humor. The game is full of great wild-west music and sounds that feel ripped right out of an episode of the Lone Ranger. The gunshot sound effects and stampeding bulls are satisfyingly accurate to a good, cheesy old-school western. There are hilarious scenes like the first boss battle where you knock Simon Greedwell out of the window and he bellows "Bury me with my...money!" Which sounds like "Marry me to my...money" through the Super NES' soundchip, but nonetheless is a comically corny one-liner that makes Sunset Riders feel like the authentically American western that only a Japanese game company could produce!

"Angry bees stole my...honey!"

In all honesty - aside from the few localization changes and the absence of a four-player co-op mode, I have absolutely no criticism of this game. It's addictive as all get out, the graphics are colorful and detailed, and the game feels like an authentic arcade port in your own home. It's a pricy game, but it's worth it. Grab a copy and a friend and blast through 8 levels of cowboy goodness. Yeehaw!

Mike’s Gameboy Game of the Week: Guardian Heroes Advance

I have some fond memories of the original Guardian Heroes as I played it way back in late 90’s over a friends house, recently with the rerelease of Guardian Heroes for the Xbox 360 I have been able to relive those great memories of a fantastic Beatem’ up’ RPG with many endings and so many paths that it would take many play-throughs to truly enjoy the game. For comparisons sake the closest game to Guardian Heroes is Golden Axe, but the similarities are entirely superficial as unlike Golden Axe Guardian Heroes has a riveting story that changes based on your actions (I’d say both are great in the fighting aspect though.) Seeing is believing I supposed so here’s some gameplay footage of the first stage:

Unlike Golden Axe or any other beatem’ up you may have noticed that the characters don’t move around a three dimensional plane with enemies coming at them from all directions, instead the characters jump through three zones (one in the foreground, one in the middle, and one in the back) this feature while at first seeming ridiculous makes perfect sense from a design standpoint as in Guardian Heroes there are stages where lots of enemies will come at you all at once and being able to quickly jump to another zone out of their range giving a moment to collect yourself before the enemies all hop over. This feature is even more helpful due to the sheer difficulty of the game as mastering hopping from one zone to the other can mean life or death at points.

 

Look at those generic soldiers, think their tough shit jumpin’ out of the way of my lightning.

It would be impossible for me to fully explain to you the sheer depth of the story of this game with it’s many plot twists, undead, demons, gods, murder, and vampire clowns, however I can tell you this, you can play as any character you defeat in versus mode (in the Xbox 360 version you can play online as well).

Oh yes, even bosses.

Now that you have some grasp of the basic premise of Guardian Heroes lets talk about its sequel Guardian Heroes Advance.

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Guardian Heroes Advance takes things a little differently, it does away with the whole zone nonsense and allows you to move about a three dimensional plane, it also added a homing jump (a jump that automatically takes you to whatever the nearest platform is) and platforming elements to mix things up. It also did away the path choosing element of the previous game where you instead move along a linear path towards the ending of the game, luckily though there are two endings so it guarantee’s you at least two playthroughs. Not one of the things that makes up for it is how much depth they added to the combat system with the addition of a counter that can nullify damage and larger move pools for all characters.

Honestly what more could you want?

Of all the characters though the main three Enn, Ray, and who cares because they are all identical and their stats are the only major differences between them, have the largest move pools with different possible attack combos based on directional movements and how long you hold down the attack button. I personally like the addition of a ground pound attack that does area damage. Magic which in the previous game could only be executed by certain button combos (like a haduken) was a tad hard to pull off when a bunch of enemies were punching you in the face Advance fixes this problem by making it so that magic is charges and selected using the shoulder buttons making it a lot easier to pop-off magic spells when you need them.

The change was pretty shocking.

Now Guardian Heroes Advance follows the adventure of the Undead hero from the first game as he is revived by taking over the body of whichever generic main character you chose to start with. You are immediately tasked with saving the world from the Sky Kingdom as they hope to take over the world and create the “Ultimate Warrior”.

I honestly don’t know why though…

So you battle through stages fighting many enemies and eventually you wind up fighting the cast from the previous series who are apparently being controlled by the Sky Kingdom. You beat them and depending on certain conditions you get one of two endings after fighting the final boss. Now the real fun of this game comes after you have beaten it. Remember how earlier I said that in Guardian Heroes you could play as any character in versus mode? Well in Guardian Heroes Advance you can play as ANY character in both versus mode and story mode. So long after you’ve seen the ending of the games you can go back and decide to play as the best mage in the game and just spam uber-spells murdering all of the things.

The didn’t know what hit them.

I haven’t really touched on what versus mode is yet have I? Well in both games it is a feature in which up to twelve characters (be they human or CPU) can all duke it out. This means that you can either have twelve of the baddest bosses pounding on each other of just one tackling a whole bunch of the weakest enemies and utterly destroying them (or losing somehow [it happens oddly enough]). In versus mode you get to assign stats to each character based on the level cap you have chosen and they can either be preset stat distributions or you can set them however you want, this can amount to hours of amusement.

Dance my puppets, DANCE!

I found that Guardian Heroes Advance doesn’t easily appeal to many people due to the fact that a majority of the mythos of the game is lost upon a person who hasn’t played the first game. Guardian Heroes Advance is a must have for anyone who liked the first game and for anyone who is a diehard fan of Beatem’ Ups. The game has memorable characters and a decent soundtrack, the graphics are alright for a Gameboy Advance game, the controls are amazing, and you can play as any character in the game after you’ve killed them. Seriously, what isn’t there to love? To add even more incentive the game is fairly inexpensive. So why not pick a copy now? You can also grab a copy of the original game off the Xbox Live Arcade for 800 MS points if you don’t have a Sega Saturn.

Pro Wrestling (NES)

Its so American.

Periodically my eyes become clouded and I believe that the NES was one of the flawless systems and all it’s games were classics that needed to be played to be fully appreciated, Pro Wrestling proved that wrong. Pro Wrestling is as shallow as a game can get, you play as one of several moderately identical characters whose only true defining characteristic is a special grab. Once you have chosen who you wish to play as you wrestle opponents until you are the champion, upon becoming the champion you become a winner. The path to being a champion is a long one with over 30 matches, all of which are repeat fights against the same characters in some sort of sadistic loop.

The jokes practically write themselves.

The gameplay is simple, you have a punch and a kick, you also have a special move and grapple; the hit recognition for attacks is shoddy as you need to be spot on for any attack to work. This is significantly harder than it sounds as the perspective in which the fights happen makes it hard to perfectly line up your attacks with your opponent. 

 

A good example of not being lined up.

Though there is some innovation to the game, you can get on the ropes and dive bomb your opponent. If you knock your opponent out of the ring you can get out yourself and knock your opponent around until they lose from being out of the ring for to long. The referee will move around the ring to avoid being hit by you or your opponent as will the  cameraman so it isn’t possible to hit either of them which is neat I guess. Something I noticed over the course of the game is that the stage never really changes especially in multiplayer which is a real drag.

The game has a very limited music list mostly repeating the same songs over and over, the graphics are subpar even for a mid-life NES game. I recall when I ordered this along with a bunch of other NES games to help flesh out my collection, I assumed it would have been somewhat of a decent game being that Nintendo had at the time of its production made quite a few decent sports games. Not surprisingly I was shocked and dismayed at this game, if it weren’t for the fact that it has multiplayer and my friends like to play really bad games I would call this game a waste of a good cartridge. If anything this games only redeeming quality is the multiplayer mode which allows you and a friend to derp around for however long you want until you get bored. The game is generally very inexpensive so buy it at your own risk, if you purchase it expecting a deep fighting game with lots of replay value then you are sorely mistaken. Buy this game only if you and/or your friends derive enjoyment from poking fun at bad games, as that is the only possible positive quality this game has, its ability to be joked about.

I’ll never understand why the Creature from the Black Lagoon made a cameo in this game.

Street Fighter III: Fight for the Future/New Generation/Second Impact/Third Strike (Arcade, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, PSN)

So cool it needs two subtitles!

Street Fighter III is the third entry into the main series and is apparently the ultimate fighting game for the future (It’s their third strike at it to). Along with a new roster of characters along with a few returning faces the game boasts a newer refined combat system from the days of Street Fighter II and its many incarnations. Street Fighter III has a sparse story element to it, though in all honesty who cares about story in a fighting game? The story itself if fairly standard, a cult has formed around some godly dude who plans on destroying the world and it’s up to whomever you chose at the character select screen to defeat him after fighting through seven (ten in Third Strike, but whatever) other fighters. Of the entire series of Street Fighter games Third Strike is by far my personal favorite. The game is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, all the animations are done beautifully and the controls are incredibly tight and well done, however did you know that there were three versions of this game? 

Yessir Street Fighter III had more then one version of itself (how pretentious) just like it’s predecessor, the only home versions of Street Fighter III however were a Dreamcast port and a port to the PS2 in the 15th Anniversary Collection which contained the third version of Street Fighter III and every version of Street Fighter II along with an edited version of the Street Fighter II movie. Now I cannot safely say what the significant differences are between the Street Fighter III games is as I’ve only ever played the Arcade version of Second Impact (the second version) and the console version of Third Strike (the third one). Of the two versions I noticed little to no difference aside from Roster additions (as Street Fighter tends to do). The added roster padding is most notable in Third Strike as it gained a total of five characters as opposed to the three Second Impact gained.

Hey where’s Dee Jay and T.Hawk? D:

Roster-wise I won’t get in to deep as I am reviewing the entirety of the series, so I shall present to you a chart showing you the rosters for each game and I will point out the positives a negatives of them:

(click to enlarge)

Firstly you you note little asterisks next to certain names, those signify that they are exclusive to certain ports of the game; Gill in New Generation (the original Street Fighter III) is only available on the Dreamcast port of the game, and “Shin” Akuma and Gill in Third Strike (the third version) are only available on the PS2 and Xbox Anniversary Editions. Another thing you may notice is that between the first version and second version the characters Yun & Yang go from being one character to two, this is because in the first version they each had the exact same move set and it wasn’t until the second version that they each received a unique move set which essentially made they different characters. So Roster-wise the third version is the obvious superior as it boasts a total of 21 characters, an amount unheard of at the time as not even Street Fighter Alpha had that many characters.

Now the actual fighting system for Street Fighter III went over little change over the course of it’s revamped versions but it did however reinvent the entire fighting system from the days of Alpha and Street Fighter II Tournament Edition. In Street Fighter III air blocking had been done away with and instead was replaced with Parrying, a move which allows you to negate an attack by pressing forward just before the move connects. Another things brought about by Street Fighter III was the Super Arts, they were the ultimate moves of each unique character and each one had three with which you could choose from upon selecting your character, essentially they were super combos only with more variety. You can grab in Street Fighter III which at the time was fairly inventive and no game in the series prior had it before, though the grabs are generally simple throws. I personally found regular combos easier to pull off in Street Fighter III as opposed to the previous games which in my opinion is a major plus.

Street Fighter III has mini-games, well only two of them, A Parrying mini-game where you try to parry basketballs, and crush the car which had been revived from those good old days of smashing dudes things in Street Fighter II. These mini-games however are exclusive to Second Impact and Third Strike. These Mini-games appear in between fights in Single-Player mode and upon encountering and failing or completing them you can play them at your leisure later.

I hope Akuma has finished paying that thing off.

Ultimately Street Fighter III (Subtitle Whatever) is a great fighter, it had tight controls and depending on the version you pick up it will have an expansive roster or a small roster, all three versions are great and in my opinion the only thing truly separating them is the amount of dudes and dudettes in their character rosters. All three have fairly lackluster bonus modes (i.e. time attack, survival, mini-games) but the actual fighting is great with it’s tight controls, it’s multiplayer and single-player modes where the game shines like a star and in my opinion those are the only things that should ever count in a fighting game. This game is worth getting a hold of regardless of whatever console you get if for!

I agree with Akuma, mostly because he could destroy me with fireballs he shoots from his hands.

Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode (NES)

It’s a secret to everybody.

It is not every day I discover a gem while I’m derping around a mall attempting to avoid the hassle of actually clothes shopping for the incoming winter; it was however ordained that the game trader would carry one of the greatest NES games it has ever been my pleasure to play, this game was Golgo-13. Golgo-13 is an action RPG that consistently switches between multiple modes as you journey to clear your name before the KGB manages to kill you. From my research into this game prior to playing it I noted that this particular game went largely unnoticed upon its release, one of the many gems of the console that never truly received the recognition it deserved.

Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode is based upon the manga of the same name, which at the time of the release of the American Localization had never reached North American soil so for the most part the average player of this game would be unawares of many of the references in the game, most notably the main characters moniker “Golgo-13”. American localization and censorship heavily took a toll on this particular game as many of it’s original sexual, and violent references were removed to spare the western audience from such horrors, as such many cut scenes come off as a tad awkward and several sprites were edited in order to remove anything deemed sexual.

It certainly is a beautiful evening.

The gameplay controls are very tight for an early nes title, and the game itself is very solid as there are different modes of play you will go through as you advance throughout the game. Though despite all these modes of play there is one constant, at certain intervals during any given stage you will either see a gun or the like which would startup a first person shooting scene where you must turn around and shoot at your adversaries as they dodge around attempt to kill you.

By the way, he’s shooting all of these with a handgun, that shoots missiles.

Most vidya game use a lives system where when you die you lose a life and after you run out you are treated to a game over screen and forced to restart, Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode takes this differently, instead of lives you have “Episodes” in total you have 52 “episodes” and when you run out you are immediately taken back to the start menu and forced to start the game over again. These episodes do not start at 52 and go down like a normal lives system would, these instead count up as if each attempt were part of a series with the last life being the ultimate conclusion. This game has been well noted for its interesting life system and in my opinion it makes the game more interesting for it, however these lives come at a cost, there is no save or password feature so you are forced to tough out the entire game in one sitting. The game isn’t to long and can be beaten in an hour or so if you know what your doing.

I personally think this is the coolest title screen in the world, oh and the #2 is the life county thing I mentioned.

The stages you traverse through will change as you will go from walking through a town one second and be flying around in a helicopter the next second, later you may even be swimming in the ocean or exploring unending mazes. Throughout all these stages your actions remain largely the same, you move forward and shoot, the only time in which this changes is when you are on foot in which you have the option of jumping and delivering a kick which causes things to explode. An interesting aspect of the game is that your HP consistently counts down but whenever you kill an enemy you gain both HP and ammo, which in my expert opinion is absolutely ballin.

All Green Shirts exist purely to feed your life force.

Remember how I mentioned multiple modes of play? Well there are quite a few of them; they are the standard side-scrolling stages where you are Golgo-13 and you kick and shoot your way across whatever part of the world you are in, the next is the stage where you fly a helicopter and shoot other planes (like in any side-scrolling space shooter), there is an underwater stage where you swim around which controls like a combination of the Helicopter and Walking stages, another mode of play that will honestly be frustrating are the first person maze stages which I will discuss later.

Yes, even these flying contraptions with spinning circlie-doo’s exist to feed your life force.

Before I talk about the maze stages I will mention one of the more interesting facets of Golgo-13: Top Secret Episode, the game has some cut-scenes but what really stands out is the NPC interactions Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode has lots of interactions, whenever you enter a building or station there is an NPC which will engage you in conversation and at certain instances you will be able to talk to NPC’s which happen to be walking by.

 

The NPC’s will commonly give plot related info, or advice for how to move on in the game; sometimes people will just complain to you about how they hate communists.

There aren’t really that many cut-scenes as opposed to the NPC interactions what more the cut-scenes are limited in content.

They are pretty much this, but for about a minute or two.

Now I feel that it is imperative that I talk about the maze stages, as these very stages are the bane of any person who has had to play through this game. These mazes are difficult, if anything they are the most difficult part of this game as they lack any kind maps to help you find your way to the end, and they are typically filled with soldiers and traps trying to kill you. To make matters worse to the unseasoned player there is a maze in this game which was put in specifically to kill the player, this particular maze has no ending and goes on into infinity. Aside from the dick move that is the infinity maze the other mazes require patience, a good hand at mapmaking(or a Google search for online maps), and a quick trigger finger for killing the soldiers before they can hit you. Though I think it’s best that I let you glean a better understanding of what horrors these mazes are, so below I shall include a brief video highlighting the mazes.

Surprisingly enough I found this game while thrift store shopping and was honestly astonished by what a great game this is, I find that it holds a good deal of replayability in it as the game has lost of little odds and ends in it (i.e. the thermal goggles, and NPC interactions) that are easy to miss. This game is hard to pin into any given category such as “Platformer” or “FPS” as the game combines elements of an RPG, with side-scrolling occasional platforming, with beat-em up action with interspersed first person shooter segments. So if you are a fan of any of those things it’s probably a good bet you will enjoy this game. This game has become a personal favorite of mine and I believe that if you (the reader) were to give it a chance it would occupy a special place in your heart as well.

Long story short: This is a good game that is relatively inexpensive so you should get a copy.

Fun Fact: This game has a sequel, so if you enjoyed this you would most likely enjoy the sequel which is an aesthetically pleasing prettier and more finely tuned sibling to this diamond. It is called, Golgo-13: The Mafat Conspiracy.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say this but, my childhood pretty much revolved around three things: Ghostbusters, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and my NES. I watched Ghostbusters I & II just about every week on HBO, made sure to catch the Turtles every Saturday morning, and typically favored playing Mega Man 3 to doing homework. So what is a kid to do when game developers combine two of my childhood loves together? In the case of Ghostbusters - run away screaming. However, in the case of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there's a lot to love about the video game series.

For the uninitiated, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started as a dark, violent-as-heck, action-packed comic book series by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The early comics were gritty and violent - not unlike the works of Frank Miller. This vision of the turtles shifted whenever the franchise was licensed into the exciting realms of television, toys, and film. What were once a team of young mutated ninja assassins became a lovable troop of colorful slapstick - the Three Stooges meets California surfer culture. To most of us, this was the only version of the Turtles we knew; and we ate it up like a big, cheesy slice of greasy Pizza Hut pizza.

Pizza Hut. Sponsoring childhood obesity since 1990.

Konami released four different Turtle-themed games for the NES: An action platformer, two awesome arcade-style beat-em-ups, and a fighting game. The first and fourth game in the series were nice enough - but for my money - the best games in the series are TMNT II: The Arcade Game and TMNT III: The Manhattan Project. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II is based on the 1989 arcade machine by Konami. Having played both the arcade hit and the 1990 NES port; I can say that, while it's not a picture perfect port, there's a whole lot to love about the NES version.

The arcade intro: Similar - but different.

While the graphics aren't 100% identical to the arcade version (obviously,) they look really darn good for an NES title. One of the shining features of the first game were the graphics and this game took that level of presentation and exceeded it. Sprites are big and colorful, with crisp clean lines and detail. Sure, it may not look exactly like the cartoon - but the cutscenes are nicely animated and the level design and sprites do a faithful job of recreating the feel of the arcade version. The sound effects and music also do a great job representing what the arcade felt like. The music is fast and funky - like hard rock music in full retro 8-bit glory, and every slash, punch, and exploding foot soldier sound-effect is there and accounted for. It's nice to hear the iconic TMNT theme song well represented here. The only major thing missing is some of the voice over clips that the arcade version had, but when listening to some of the garggly monster noise voice clips from games like Ghostbusters and Blades of Steel - do you really miss them? Heck, listen to the "Cowabunga" from Turtles III and tell me you really miss those "voice-through-a-tin-can" sound clips.

Worst. Trust fall. Ever.

The gameplay is fast, fun, and addictive. Anyone familiar with the standard Double Dragon-style beat-em-up will be able to pick this game up without any problems. The premise is simple: you smash, slash, slice, and dice countless faceless, nameless foot soldiers in a variety of exciting colors until you reach a boss at the end of each stage. Most of the early enemies from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe are well-represented here: we have Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady, Shredder, Baxter Stockman, and even a few new characters designed just for the NES port. One of the bonuses of having the NES version over the arcade is that many of the levels are longer and there are a couple of new bad guys thrown in the mix.

Rocksteady's packin' some serious firepower.

While some versions of the arcade game were 4-player compatible, sadly this version allows only a maximum 2-players. While it would have been nice to have Satellite compatibility and all four turtles on the screen at once, the two-player feature is a must. This really is a game best played between two people. For starters, the difficulty level is pretty high for a single-player experience. It's nice to have three lives and three continues, but I found myself frequently using all of my lives up at the boss in each level because it's sometimes difficult to dodge or maneuver around their attacks without a buddy wailing on them while you slash away. Which does bring me to one other pet peeve I have with the game which is the hit-detection. This is kind of a notorious problem with a lot of early beat-em-ups, but you will swear that you struck the first blow only to be grabbed by a foot soldier or struck by a flying dagger that you swear you dodged. It can get frustrating - but it adds challenge for otherwise seasoned beat 'em up champions.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II is an awesome 2-player beat 'em up extravaganza. The graphics are great, the game is challenging and fairly long for a beat 'em up, and it's exactly what you need to cure your arcade blues. After all, arcades are a dying breed anyway so you can own a little slice of that excitement right on your very own NES. I not only recommend this game but also TMNT III. It's a great game and it's available right now at Lukie Games!

Woohoo! Another cheesy cart picture!

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (Super NES)

Battletoads and I go way back. It was probably my favorite 2-player experience on the NES and a game so good that I was willing to play it on the black and white tv in my grandmother's room. You know what? It still looked freakin' awesome. The graphics were great, the music was groovy, and the action was outta this world. It was also one of the hardest games I had ever played. Amazingly, I had enough patience back then to at least make it to the final stage before dying. I swear a buddy of mine and I beat this thing. It was years ago - did we really beat it? Was it my imagination? A fever dream? Did Game Genie bless us in our quest? I still don't know for certain to this day.

In fact, a whole slew of gamers have had awesome experiences with Battletoads. It was insanely popular among all of my friends, it was infamous for that crazy difficulty level - heck, it's even the source of a popular internet meme/game store prank. No need to preorder a copy from Lukie Games, they've probably got some in stock as we speak! What started as a cult classic Nintendo game quickly spawned awesome sequels and spin-offs as well as a failed cartoon. They battled evil with Billy and Jimmy of Double Dragon fame in the crossover "Battletoads and Double Dragon," they destroyed rats in an over-the-top gruesome bash-fest for the arcades (my personal favorite,) and blasted onto the Super-NES in this 16-bit beat-em-up extravaganza "Battletoads in Battlemaniacs."

Epic double-fisted pig destroyer

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs was released in 1993 once again developed by Rare and published by Tradewest. It opens with the Battletoads landing their helicopter at a monastery where their trusty mentor Professor T. Bird is demonstrating a new artificial game generator by this company called Psicone. Suddenly a pig riding on the back of a dragon kidnaps the daughter of Psicone Inc's C.E.O. and Zitz, so it's up to Rash and Pimples to get them back. I suspect the Dark Queen might be behind these shenanigans. To anyone unfamiliar with the Battletoads games - I'm sure this plot sounds pretty Fruit-Loops, but that's half of the fun of Battletoads. It's all kinda nutty, but you learn to love it!

A pig on a dragon just stole a lady I barely know. Okay?

The first thing you'll notice when cracking into Battletoads in Battlemaniacs is that it's very similar in presentation to the original Battletoads. It's still a side-scrolling beat-em-up where enemies come atcha from every direction. The graphics are a great improvement over the original, but retain a lot of the original's cartoony charm. It actually reminds me a bit of the Arcade game that would come out about a year later - the action is tighter, the graphics are better, and the big over-the-top finishing attacks like the "battering ram horns" and the smashing mallet fist are big, bold, and hilariously cartoonish. The level design is great. It's neat to walk through the level and have craters form and cliffs and mountains pop from the ground. The music is pretty rockin'. It's like heavy metal in midi complete with squealing guitars. The sound effects are limited but effective - every punch, kick, and super attack emits a nice "Pip!" "Pap!" "Smack!" noise.

This might look familiar

Controlling Pimples and Rash should feel pretty familiar as little has changed since the NES days. That's both a good and a bad thing, I suppose. The controls feel nice and familiar like a comfortable old pair of sneakers. You only need two buttons; one for punching and one for jumping. In order to work your attacks into combos all you have to do is tap forward twice and hit punch to headbutt, or punch multiple times to work your special attack in. Hit detection is pretty close to perfect and the controls/hit detection feel tighter than the original game. The only major problem I have with the controls is the lack of innovation. You guys had 6 buttons to play with and stuck with just the two action buttons and no real deviation from the original control format from the NES. For shame! It's a very competent beat-em-up and the level design is interesting and innovative, I just wish they had worked a little harder on taking advantage of the Super Nintendo's capabilities.

Anyone familiar with the Battletoads series will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that this game is tough. These games are notorious for their difficulty and I would be lying if I said that I beat this thing. It's rough because without another player helping out it really feels like you're getting swarmed with enemies. Most of the enemies are pretty easy to tackle with just a small flurry of hits - but some of the more powerful ones can be a pain to kill. You'll feel like you're having to smack around a Viking pig for 20 minutes before the darn thing bites the dust. Most of the difficult isn't so much in the enemies you face but the obstacles built into the level design. In the first level, there are plenty of pits, broken bridges, fireballs raining from the sky and other hazards that will do much more damage than a skeleton warrior or a raging hog will any day. Sometimes these enemies will come running at you from offscreen and knock you into said pits if you aren't careful.

Level hazards continue in subsequent levels like in stage 2 where you face off with spiky logs on both sides of the screen and descend down a pit ala Battletoads for NES. The real challenge comes when the screen speeds up to a frantic pace and you have to avoid the spikes with all of your might. This is where I have died, and died, and died again. That leads us to what the main strategy for all of the Battletoads games is - play, die, memorize, and repeat. Eventually you'll have fallen through every pit, gotten struck by every fireball, stabbed against every log and will have a better idea how to get through. This strategy would work well if it weren't for the very limited amount of continues you get - 2 continues and then it's game over. Overall the game has a few less levels than the first game and is a tiny bit easier - but you'll still get frustrated by nonsense hazards nearly everywhere.

Helloooo Nurse!

Overall Battlemaniacs is a good (though not perfect) follow-up to the insanely hard and quirky-as-heck original. It's really surprising that there weren't more entries in the Battletoads series since this game. Why weren't there any on the N64? Heck - there was even a Toejam and Earl game for the Xbox. Why no Battletoads? Anyway, this is a more than enjoyable 16-bit slice of beat-em-up toad action! You really ought to add yourself to the waiting list at Lukie Games because it's not often you can control a humanoid toad person and smack pigs with your hammer fist. Trust me - I've tried.