My on-going SMS test thread

[soera]

I do a lot of my reviews on a 5-10 minute tryout. Basically what it would be like if you were sitting at a kiosk and this is the game you selected. I am not using the booklet/manual to figure anything out, Im not reading the back of the box or anything. I put it in, turn it on and go.


With that being said, today I did my "D" and "E" games.

Danan the jungle fighter - A Lord of the sword/Rygar type game. You are (of course) Danan and your goal is to stop the Morasan tribe from waking the ancient evil known as Gilsar (or something like that). You have to attack your way through the jungles to find the 3 "light" items to be able to destroy him forever. Controls are a bit off but nothing horrible. A mediocre title with an above mediocre price. Grade : C+

Dead Angle - This is a game that I assumed would be a light phaser game but its not. Kind of looks like S.W.A.T. on the arcade. Your image is just an outline of a person. Mobsters will come out from alleys and windows and stuff and shoot at you and you have to shoot back. Seems fairly fun if your life bar was more reliable. Sometimes you can survive waves, other times you will drop in a single shot regardless of your health. And hearing the guy say "Ouch" when he dies in a Justin Beiber kind of voice diminishes the badassness of the hero. Grade : C+

Desert Speedtrap starring Road Runner/Wile E Coyote - This is a Sonic like game. You play as the road runner out to pick up stars and make it to the exit. There are various obstacles in your way and a timer. Bird seed is scattered throughout the stages to help refill your health. Jump controls are horrid. When you are nearing the end, Wile will fly back and forth across the screen trying to kill you. Either he will succeed or you will make it to the exit sign and he will crash into the wall. Would be a fun game for kids. Grade : B-

Dick Tracy - W.T.F? Very disappointed in this title. I expect some sort of James Bond-esque kind of game but what I got was a side scrolling mess. You are walking down the sidewalk and mobsters come to attack you. Sometimes you fire a gun, other times you punch, other times nothing happens at all. There are mobsters on the opposite sidewalk shooting at you and you can not do anything to them. You have to just take it and go on. The life bar is pretty pathetic too. Not nearly as cool as you would expect of a game with this name. Grade : D-

Double Dragon - Finally. This game is fun. Its just like the arcade/NES version of the game. I burned through all the continues before I was finally done and had made it to level 4. The hit detection is just as off as the other versions of the game but thats expected. All in all, probably one of the best games on the SMS so far. Grade : B+

Double Hawk - Goofy little shooter that is hard to control at first. It seems like you cant do anything but fire along the line in front of you. But the more you play with it, you realize you have to actually be firing the weapon to move the sight onto other enemies. Once you figure that out, it becomes more enjoyable and actually a decent little title that will be fun to play in the future. Grade : C+

Dragon Crystal - An action RPG that reminds me of Hydlide/Gauntlet hybrid. Attacking is very limited to running into monsters and just hoping you win. Story line of anything was not mentioned at the begining. Also you are being followed by (what looks like) an egg. Im guessing its a Dragon of some sort with the name of the game. I personally am interested in playing this game more but if you are not into action RPGs, I would avoid this title completely. Grade : B-

Dynamite Dux - Weird side scrolling game. You are a duck with a very short range punch attack trying to get from one screen to the next. You can pick up random weapons along the way that are MUCH better than your punch but they dont last long. The story of the game is unknown cause as soon as you turn the game on, it goes straight to title screen with no explanation of anything you are doing. Game definitely has some lag points from graphic overload (such as the 3rd boss for sure). Nothing totally unique about the game though. Grade : C

E-SWAT - Side scrolling shooter. Nothing really too outstanding about this game. Could be fun if you survived longer per life. Grade : C

Enduro Racer - This is what Excitebike should have been. You are driving down a dirt track with jumps and rocks and buggies. You have a limited time to get to the finish line to get to the next race. Decent title for what it set out to be. Grade : C+

[soera]

Today, we tackle the "F" games (also got Assault city in last night and updated the "A" reviews).

F16 Fighter - A game that is definitely a low point in my collection. First off the game looks horrible. Ive seen calculators with better graphics. Secondly the game has no .. anything. I played it twice. The first time I was flying and the screen turned red and all I could do is watch the elevation drop to 0 and I died. The second time I found the aircraft I was looking for. Shot it with both missiles and over 150 rounds from my gun. It did nothing at all to the jet fighter. I was done. Good bye forever. Grade : Z- (yes, its that bad)

Fantasy zone - a "cutesy" shmup. Your ship looks like some weird Easter egg (which sprouts legs as you touch the bottom of the screen). I had issues with this game. You will die for no reason sometimes to stuff in the background that you dont even realize is part of the frontground (new word from yours truly). There is no obvious point to what you are doing either. All I could do was shoot things that kept reappearing and coins would crap out of them although I saw no use in the coins. Death is also not only imminent but sooner than later in almost every instance. Im guessing with practice and recognition of all the frontground creatures, this game could be fun. Grade : C

Fantasy zone II - Sequel to the above title. Same situations (except for the frontground issue). Death is more dramatic and seems more permanent. But everything else is virtually the same. Ship = still an egg. Purpose = still shooting for useless coins. Death = still imminent. Grade : C

Fantasy zone the maze - Spin off of the above titles. You are still the easter egg but this game is like a strange Pac-man. You have to pick up all the pellets on the screen to move onto the next screen. There are no power pellets. Instead you can step on weapons and buy them with the pellets and then proceed to shoot your enemies or whatever else you pick up. There is also a weird little circle somewhere on the screen that gains power (by turning more and more red) and when its full, it will fire at you. If you step on it before its fully red, it resets. Odd game. Very odd game. Grade : C+

Forgotten worlds - Scifi shooter arcade port. Your character is like Brian Bozworth in his heyday yet you have a jet pack and a floating gun. One of the most obvious changes from the arcade and this one is you dont have enough buttons so the guns fire automatically. The two buttons rotate the gun clockwise or counter clockwise. This is a fun game on the arcade and its nearly equal on the SMS. You will get random blue coins out of the creatures/obstacles you destroy and eventually a shop will appear. You can upgrade your weapon, increase your life, buy 1-ups essentially, refill your life bar, buy speed, etc. Definitely worth giving a shot. Grade : B+

[burningdoom]

Forgotten worlds - Scifi shooter arcade port. Your character is like Brian Bozworth in his heyday yet you have a jet pack and a floating gun. One of the most obvious changes from the arcade and this one is you dont have enough buttons so the guns fire automatically. The two buttons rotate the gun clockwise or counter clockwise. This is a fun game on the arcade and its nearly equal on the SMS. You will get random blue coins out of the creatures/obstacles you destroy and eventually a shop will appear. You can upgrade your weapon, increase your life, buy 1-ups essentially, refill your life bar, buy speed, etc. Definitely worth giving a shot. Grade : B+

Wanted to point out to you that there's a Genesis version of this game that you'd probably enjoy more if you liked the Master System version this much.

[burningdoom]

Assault City (phaser only version)- What a phaser game should be! This was entertaining for sure. You are Joe who is trying to stop a robot invasion from happening. The gun is pretty reliable and accurate (except on my TV where the left side of the screen is kind of scrolled away and I havent been able to fix it). You have a survivability which is unlike a lot of phaser games. I got to level 3 or 4 before my time was up. I would definitely play this again. The only downside is the actual price of this game which is by far the rare version and tough to come by. Grade : B

I saw a review of this one on CGR, and it looked like a ton of fun!

A word of advice to those looking for this one, though: There are two versions of the game out there. One version allows you to use the Light Phaser, the other version makes you use a controller only.

[soera]

The controller version is definitely more accessible and cheaper.

And I wonder the difference on the SMS and Genesis version of Forgotten worlds. I know there is at least one other button so it may help more!

[soera]

With this letter being the probably the biggest section in the entire library, I only did the first half of the "G" titles.

Gain ground - Odd title. So far it seemed like Ultima Exodus style battles over and over. Not much else noticed. Grade : D+

Galaxy force - Space flying sim. Not really fun. Can not tell where you are going or what you are supposed to do. I was just blasting rocks til I met my demise. Very blah. Grade : D-

Gangster town - Phaser game. Kind of fun. You start off following a 30's mobster car shooting the gangsters in there. Once you shoot them all (you would swear its a clown car with all the people that seem to be in there), you go through town blasting more gangsters. Not a unique phaser game but worth a shot. Grade : C

Gauntlet - Im assuming I do not have to explain the premise of Gauntlet to anyone here so I wont bother. This is a straight arcade port with worse graphics. Not much else can be mentioned. It does what its supposed to. I personally like Gauntlet titles so this game is cool for me. Grade : B-

Ghost house - Uhhh not sure what to think here. You are an odd looking little kid running around a 4 story mansion trying to pick up tiny ? and not die to everything around. Sometimes you just randomly fall through a floor. Other times you spawn Dracula and he kicks your ass. No redeeming qualities however were noticed. Grade : D

Ghostbusters - This game is nearly as bad as it gets. You are on an overview map of the city with ghosts flying in from the 4 corners. Eventually they get together and spawn the Marshmellow man but no clue on how to do anything to attack him or whatever. He will destroy a building and separate and try to respawn him again. Eventually you pull your hair out and turn it off. Grade : F

Ghouls and Ghosts - Close to the NES version of the game without the insane difficulty. Has promise for sure. You are a knight throwing lances to kill monsters and not die in the process while trying to save your girl. Replayability is high. Grade : B-

Global Defense - Another uhhhh title. You are a satellite without the ability to move, just to move your scope and fire at things. Sadly, it doesnt really matter cause stuff flies at you and your scope is not fast enough to get there to blast it before it blows you up. Pathetic. Grade : D-

Golden Axe - Arcade port. Lacks from having a 3rd button or character choices. You are the barbarian - period. You attack with your sword, selected magic (thats the option at the begining instead of choosing your character) and a shoulder charge. Game feels a bit slower than other versions but still definitely playable. Difficulty is tough with only 1 continue. Grade : B-

[soera]

Here is the other half of the "G" games.

Golden axe warrior - Amazing. A Zelda clone that is arguably better than Zelda itself. Your goal is to get the nine crystals and stop Death Adder. Very easy to pick up and understand. Great game! Grade : A

Golfamania - Plain golf game, nothing outstanding to mention. Shockingly this game has an almost 90 page manual. No idea why. Grade : D

Golvellius: Valley of Doom - Adventure title, sort of along the lines of Zelda. You start off given a sword and a pair of boots by an old woman then are thrust into a cave where snakes and snails will attack you (oddly, the snakes dont move and the snails do). Once you get through the cave, you end up on the top side which moves screen to screen Zelda style. Almost each screen has a hole you can enter to either A) shop B) get clues or C) another cave. Once you clear the main creature of the area (First one is a snow man of sorts), you can progress on to the next area. Pretty well done. Definitely worth trying. Grade : A-

Great Baseball - Sports game. Pretty basic. Other than the pitcher and the batter, nothing else is player controllable. Grade : D

Great Basketball - Sports game. The main thing I noticed is this game has a mass tendancy to foul like crazy. I had 5-6 fouls before I had a single basket. The other team was shooting free throws by the time I had 2 points. No fun at all. Grade : D-

Great Football - Sports game. There is nothing "great" about this game. You can not pick your plays, hell half the time you cant even throw the football. There is no defense and you start in the 4th quarter (wtf?). I was down 26 - 0 when I started. Just bad all around. Grade : D-

Great Golf - Sports game. Lots of options on this one. You start off able to fill your bag with which ever clubs you want (14 total) and then you start on the greens. Pick your club, pick your stance, pick your direction and whack the ball. I did see that sometimes you will hit the ball a hell of a lot harder than you plan to if you fill the power meter (I over shot the hole a few times on accident). Grade : D+

Great Ice Hockey - (Sports pad required game ... if you try to play with just a control pad, it acts all wonky like the controller is broken and upside down) Now that I have access to a Sports pad, I can say that it doesnt matter if you use one or not, this game is horrible. You move at 5% of the speed of the AI computer with no ability to do anything but get your ass kicked repeatedly. This game will make you wonder how the hell it even made it out of the design lab. Just pathetic. Worthless. Grade : Z

Great Volleyball - Sports game. Wish this title was better. Volleyball is a neat game but this one is difficult to control. You have a practice option but it really doesnt seem to help when actually playing against a CPU opponent. Frustrating for sure. Grade : D

[burningdoom]

I have Golvellius: Valley of Doom, and I haven't given it a fair chance. It felt like a cheap Zelda clone when I first played, so I put it back.

I'm wondering, though, did you get Golvellius and Golden Axe Warrior mixed-up in your reviews? Because I remember starting on a green, forest-like overworld in that game, not a cave.

[soera]

Nope. Golvellius starts in a weird cave with snakes and snails and then a big snake that jumps up and down spitting out snakes. Once you exit the cave, you end up on the main world. Golden axe warrior starts one screen next to the first town.

[disgaeniac]

Nice topic & reviews, Brad!

[soera]

Thanks Kenny. I hope others do something like this one day. I may try the NES after this although I have 715 titles as compared to 130ish SMS titles and, honestly, the NES just isnt as reliable every turn on as the SMS so it would take me a lot longer ... We will see. And with that being said, its on to the next day of tests. Unlike the "G" titles, H/I/J/K doesnt have much so I did the whole stack together.

Hang on/Safari hunt - I did this game like this cause A) Hang on has 3 different versions on the NA SMS. Hang on (built in), Hang on/Astro warrior (which I already reviewed) and this one. Since Safari hunt isnt a single release, this was the obvious choice. I will do both games on this one review. Hang on portion = Very basic motorcycle game. Reminds me of Turbo Time from Wreck it Ralph. If you want to play a motorcycle game on the SMS, go with Enduro racer. Much better. Grade : D .... Safari hunt portion = Phaser title. Its like Duck hunt with a boost. You have a limited amount of bullets on the bottom of the screen and a certain amount of points to get before the next level. The hit detection does have its moments but the game can be pretty fun. Grade : C

Heroes of the Lance - D&D RPG. Absolutely horrid. If F-16 didnt exist, this would be the worst game on the SMS so far. Movement of the characters is 2 levels behind a snails pace, "combat" is non existent in the fact that you simply can not do anything. I had high hopes for a D&D game but this is the biggest failboat I could have imagined. Grade : F-

Impossible Mission - Adventure-ish type of game about trying to ride elevators to random locations to do ... who knows what. You seem to have an unlimited supply of lives to try to do whatever it is you are doing too. The 5 minutes it was in my machine were some of the most frustrating moments Ive ever had with an SMS pad in my hands. The purpose here is lost in a weird sea of electronic blasts and odd homing balls. Grade : D-

James Buster Douglas KO Boxing - The white whale of the US SMS collection doesnt live up to its price tag. You are, obviously, JBD and trying to box. That doesnt seem to go so well. There is no option of changing fists, uppercuts, body blows, anything. You simply punch back and forth against the guy on the other side of the ring. Blocking ? Whats that? Strategy? As if. When there are 8 bit options like Mike Tyson's P/O, this game is just not anywhere up to par. Grade : D-

Joe Montana Football - Football title. Compared to Great Football, this is a masterpiece. But thats about all that can be said. Still a basic football title with some short comings. Controls are pretty confusing as to which button does what when which is shocking with only 2 buttons. Throwing a pass can be difficult cause your receivers will just stop moving randomly causing the ball to just fly right past them or get intercepted very easily. For an 8 bit football game, however, this one could be a top contender. Grade : C

Kenseiden - Samurai side scroller. Definitely a fun title. It took a few tries to realize where I was going on round 2 but was enjoyable doing so. The only downside is some of the monsters are pretty tough to target and hit with the sword which means you will get damaged quite often allowing you to die sooner than you should. Grade : B-

King's quest - Text based adventure title. Plays just like all the other versions of the game. You have 2 different text options per screen. One is a basic set of commands for every screen, another is a bit more specific per screen. Not a bad title except once I found an item (some pouch of diamonds) it basically didnt allow me to do any other of the specific commands other than something involving the pouch. Not sure if it was on accident or not. Grade : C+

Klax - Puzzle game. The goal is to stack blox of the same color in lines of 3 either of up/down, side to side or diagonal. There are different goals per wave. Whether it be 3 stacks, 3 diagonals, certain amount of points, certain amount of blox survived or whatever. Pretty fun honestly if you like puzzle titles. Grade : C+

Kung fu kid - Karate action game. Fun title. You are a generic karate guy with the ability to kick and jump higher than the average bear. You kick your way to the end of the screen and move onto the next round. Nothing totally unique about this title but still fun none the less. The game needs a continue option however and when you die, you start the entire round over regardless of how far into the round you were. Grade : B

[soera]

Today, we topple L/M/N!

Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse - Platformer that is identical to Castle. Pretty unimaginative all things considered. Grade : C

Lord of the Sword - Adventure title. Kind of feels like Ys mixed with Zelda II. You are armed with a bow/arrow and a sword. You have to pass 3 tests to take over as king of the land. Game feels good. Controls are pretty exact and has a lot of potential. Grade : B+

Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck - Yet another Disney based game. You are Donald set to rescue the triplets from the hands of Magica De Spell who is after Scrooge's lucky dime. You have the ability to jump and swing a hammer. When you get hit, you lose the ability to swing that hammer for who knows how long. Death in this game is imminent. Weird pathing for some monsters and an awkward hit detection make it tough to survive for long. Replay level is high however as you really do find yourself wanting to save the triplets. Grade : C+

Marksman shooting/Trap shooting - Phaser game. So far, the best phaser game I have tried. Marksman shooting is pretty entertaining. Very simply designed but super challenging once you get up in levels. Trap shooting isnt as fun but its a lot more challenging once you change sceneries. I like this one a lot. Grade : B+

Master of Darkness - Castlevania clone. Pretty fun. Hit box is weird but ehh doesnt really take away from the game. Grade : B

Maze Hunter 3D - Action game. Cant give it much of a grade yet cause its hard to play without the glasses. Grade : Undetermined

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - Action game. The pasty white one is on the hunt for kids in the closet (how ironic). You punch, kick, and throw your hat at mobsters in this really large house full of pinball machines and beds to try to rescue kids. Could be fun but very repetitive. "Smooth Criminal" playing the background was my favorite part for sure! Grade : B-

Miracle warriors - RPG. Very unique RPG title. I enjoy this game a lot. Easy to pick up and play. Storyline is a bit lacking from that aspect however. Fun title that is recommended highly. Grade : A-

Missile Defense 3D - Phaser/3D title. Hard to play without the glasses but doable. I got halfway through the game without them. Difficulty ramps up quite linear where a few levels in, it gets pretty tough. Not a bad game however! Grade : C

Monopoly - Board game. Basic version of said board game. Nothing to mention as Im sure everyone knows what Monopoly is. Grade : C

Montezuma's revenge - Adventure game along the lines of Pitfall. Much better than Pitfall however. You must navigate through tombs to get the treasure at the end. This game is pretty fun. Repeated play is mandatory! Grade : B

Mortal Kombat - Fighter. Mortal Kombat!!!! Weak graphical arcade port with one huge issue - No Kano. Pair that with only 2 buttons and you have a tough time making moves consistant. But it is MK so it has that. Grade : B-

My hero - Action fighter. Ugh, not really much action or fighting going on. The game starts with a "punk" running up, punching you out and taking your girl. You have to rescue her. You can jump kick or punch your way through bad guys. One hit kills them ... or you. Refresh rate of your punch is painfully slow and causes you to die often. Just ... ugh. Grade : D

Ninja - Scrolling ninja game. Mediocre option in the ninja game genre. One hit deaths and bad targetting do not help this game at all. If you can survive all that, the game is kind of cool. But the forementioned problems make the fun hard to acquire. Grade : C-

Ninja Gaiden - Arcade port. Much better than the NES version. You are Ryu and have a katana of asskicking. You will jump, slice, climb, and grab your way through the levels. Controls are precise and very well done. Great game! Grade : A-

[dashv]

Double Dragon - Finally. This game is fun. Its just like the arcade/NES version of the game. I burned through all the continues before I was finally done and had made it to level 4. The hit detection is just as off as the other versions of the game but thats expected. All in all, probably one of the best games on the SMS so far. Grade : B+

Wooo hooo! The only SMS game I own and the reason I own a power base mini got a B+! WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also don't forget SMS had 2 player simultaneous play! Sega does what Nintendon't baby!

[turf]

Ninja Gaiden - Arcade port. Much better than the NES version. You are Ryu and have a katana of asskicking. You will jump, slice, climb, and grab your way through the levels. Controls are precise and very well done. Great game! Grade : A-

It seems like there's somewhere you could see a little bit of gameplay on this title. I remember the video being done by someone that was very bad at this game, but it was fun none the less.

http://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,4482.45.html It's close to the bottom of the page.

[burningdoom]

Ninja Gaiden - Arcade port. Much better than the NES version. You are Ryu and have a katana of asskicking. You will jump, slice, climb, and grab your way through the levels. Controls are precise and very well done. Great game! Grade : A-

That's definitely a matter of opinion. While Ninja Gaiden on SMS looked better, and was an actual arcade port; I felt the NES version's gameplay was leagues ahead of this version. The controls were tighter and there was more of an emphasis on platforming.

And for me, gameplay is always the #1 concern.

Lord of the Sword is one haven't played that sounds cool.