GROW - DuckTales

Review by Clint 'ThoRn' Thornton
                  @RetroGameRevive

Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom Disney Interactive Studios
Producer(s)	Tokuro Fujiwara
Designer(s)	Yoshinori Takenaka
Programmer(s)	Nobuyuki Matsushima
Artist(s)	Keiji Inafune Naoya Tomita Hironori Matsumara Miki Kijima
Composer(s)	Hiroshige Tonomura

Source: Wikipedia

Release date(s)	Famicom/NES NA September 14, 1989 JP January 26, 1990 EU December 14, 1990
Genre(s)	Action platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

DuckTales! Woo-oo!
Everyday they're out there making
DuckTales! Woo-oo!
Tales of derring do-bad and good
Luck Tales! Woo-oo!

Remember those lyrics?  Well I sure do!  It was one of the catchiest cartoon theme songs to come out of the 80's.  Come to think of it, it was one the better Disney cartoons to come out of the 80's as well.  Can we get the Trifecta with one of the best NES Disney games to come out of the 80's?  Well.....  That depends who you ask but most will agree that this is one game that left an impression on most kids.  Let's go find out why and play some DuckTales old school Nintendo style!

STORY

This is one of the simplest stories for a video game yet somehow creates a game that is far from simple.  Scrooge McDuck has decided to travel around the world collecting treasure to become the worlds richest duck whilst rivaling against Flintheart Glomgold....  Yep!  That's it.  It's basically the whole premise of the DuckTales cartoon all wrapped up in to one neat little package....  A little package that will kick your butt every time!!!

GAMEPLAY

Remember Mega Man?  Remember that guy and the games he was in and how as a child you were  first introduced to a world of frustration by playing those games?  Well guess what, this game isn't much different.  Yet somehow still retains fond memories for most of us who played.  DuckTales is essentially a Mega Man game with a different skin.  It's built off the same engine, consists of the same platform style and has a million and one reoccurring enemies.  But even after taking all that in to account, this game still feels like it's own unique game if you don't try to compare it to that little blue guy with the helmet and is a very enjoyable experience.

Scrooge's travels take him to five different locations to not only find diamonds on his journey, but to also search for the five different treasures scattered throughout the five locations which are The Amazon, Transylvania, African Mines, The Himalayas and the Moon.  During the stages Scrooge will encounter enemies and platforms that are only there for one thing, to see you die.  So when these two combine and when you're trying to platform and there is a bee flying your way....  Good luck with that!

Scrooge has two attack styles both useful but both requiring the right time to use them for success.  The simplest of the two is the 'golf swing' with his cane.  This can be used to launch rocks at enemies as well as open chests and throw different objects.  The second is the Pogo stick attack, again with his cane.  This is a very effective attack and enables you to continuously take out enemies as long as you keep the Pogo momentum going.  The only problem is learning the button combination that enables the attack so it works all the time, every time.  But we'll look at that later.

You can play each level in any order and can also revist them to find new areas that have been unlocked from the other levels.  This can sometimes feel a little repetitive but at the same time doesn't feel like a cheap way the programmers added longevity to the game as you are visiting new areas so it tends to balance itself out in the end.  Each level ends in a boss battle that you must defeat in order to retrieve the treasure for that location.  After you have completed all five levels you return to Transylvania one last time for the Final Fight (Like my Capcom pun.....lol).  After you have finished the game you will get to experience one of the three endings.  Each ending is dependent on how much money you make throughout the game as well as finding hidden treasures.

AUDIO & VISUAL

The music is definitely a strong point for this game with each levels' melody being very catchy without it sounding like it's on a continuous loop.  Although it is catchy music it doesn't really suit the stage environment it plays in except for 'The Moon' level and possibly 'Transylvania' depending on what music you think Ghouls and Ghosts would listen to (Wow....  Another Capcom pun..lol).  This can be easily looked past but take notice when you play it next.  My only real gripe is with a few of the sound effects, most notably the sound when you Pogo attack an enemy.  After the 50th time it starts to sound like nails on a chalk board and this I can't look past.  The graphics are all nice and colorful with each level having its own unique feel.  The animations are smooth and each character has been well drawn and all have been given their own personalities.

CONTROLS

This is one of the few NES games that really would have benefited greatly from a third button.  The controls are tight and responsive with zero button lag and Scrooge stops moving on a dime as soon as you take your fingers off.  But unfortunately even with 99.9% of the controls being spot on, learning the skill to use your cane as a Pogo stick can be very, very, VERY frustrating.  Some people don't have any issues, but many do and I did.  Its combination of both buttons and down on the directional pad and although there are a couple of combinations to make it work it's still a pain as it just doesn't feel natural.

OVERALL

When people talk of this game being a must have for your NES collection I certainly wouldn't argue.  Yes, it's a very difficult game and will require many attempts to learn the patterns, but it's still a fun experience learning everything.  If you are a Mega Man fan (and who isn't) then this is the game for you.  You are met with challenge but also met with reward if you succeed so it is a very satisfying experience once you get the hang of the game.  It has replay value as you can always go back and challenge yourself to get more money if you haven't been awarded with the best ending and even if you have seen the best ending, you will no doubt be called back subconsciously to pop this cart in to your NES as time goes on like you do with Mega Man (II), Super Mario Bros 3 and Contra.

There might be a remastered version of this game out there, but in my opinion it really doesn't compete with the original.

Until next time...  Stay Retro!

GROW: Heart of the Alien

Developer: Interplay Entertainment
Platform: Sega CD
Year: 1994
Design: Jeremy S. Barnes, Michael Burton & Doug Nonast
Genre: Platformer / Action adventure

Picking up where Another World left off, Heart of the Alien puts you in control of Buddy, Lester's alien friend. At the end of Another World, Lester is carried away in Buddy's arms on the back of a pterodactyl heading for Buddy's home village. If you pay attention in the first minutes of the game, what you are shown are the events that led to Buddy being captured in the first place, how he ended up in a cage together with Lester, and some small glimpse of what he was doing while you were controlling Lester in the last game. I especially like the part where Buddy crashes through the colored glass mosaic and joins Lester, because that scene had a strong impact in Another World, so stitching the two games together in this manner is genius.

Sadly Eric Chahi, the creator of Another World, had nothing to do with the design of Heart of the Alien, and I guess that shows in a lot of ways. The storytelling is much less potent, the level and puzzle design not as finely tuned, and as a result the overall game is not nearly as strong as its predecessor. That being said though, if you're a fan of Another World, you should definitely give this game a go; and while Chahi may be missing, this game does bear the name of one of the veterans within the industry: Brian Fargo of Fallout fame. Fargo was credited as being the executive producer on Heart of the Alien. Initially Eric Chahi was on board, and was asked what he would do in a sequel. His answer was that it could be interesting to redo Another World from the Alien's point of view. The developers from Interplay may have misinterpreted this, or simply found the idea to be uninteresting, since they instead chose to continue the story where Another World left off. Subsequently Chahi made a public statement saying that the game did not represent his vision of the world.

The story of the game is as follows: Once Buddy returns Lester safely to the ruins of his village, he sets out to recover his weapon, a kind of laser whip that doubles as a laser blaster, and then returns to the prison to free his people from the oppressors. Strangely enough Lester joins you twice on this adventure, even though you just left him unconscious and badly wounded in your village... Of course Buddy succeeds in his quest to free his people, and the end scene is a happy picture of aliens enjoying life in their village which has been restored to its former glory. As for Lester though - well I'll let you find out about Lester's fate yourselves. Suffice it to say that the ending is way less open than it was in Another World, leaving nothing for the player to interpret and build new stories upon.

If you know what you're doing, and you have got luck on your side, you should be able to complete this game in about 25 minutes, but don't think that means the game is easy! This game is hard, even harder than its predecessor, but I found it to be also fair, so when you die for the 100th time you still only blame yourself and not the game. There is this one point though, where you are facing two guards at once... Boy, if I hadn't used save states for that I would never have gotten past that place. Taking care of a single guard soon becomes second nature, but taking down two guards that are positioned such that their shields protect the both of them is damn hard.

The gameplay builds on what was established in Another World, but it further extends on this by introducing Buddy's laser whip, which can be used Indiana Jones style to swing over gaps and other dangers. There are also some places where Buddy can jump upwards and grab onto ledges, reminiscent of Prince of Persia.

All in all I rather enjoyed Heart of the Alien and it is definitely a title that I'd want to find for my Sega CD, but that could just be me, a huge fan of the prequel, looking at it through the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. If you enjoyed Another World, and would like to see what Interplay could do with that license, please give it a go. You'll probably be a bit disappointed with the story, but gameplay wise it's still a good game I think. If Another World was a 9 out of 10, I'd say that Heart of the Alien is a 6 or 7. It's definitely one for the fans ;-)

Until next time... stay retro!

GROW: Knight Games

Title: Knight Games
Developer: English Software
Publisher: English Software (later Mastertronic)
Year: 1986
Systems: C64 (reviewed), Amstrad, DOS (CGA/EGA)

Knights in shining armour, damsels in distress, chivalry, quests, kingdoms.... all the things we have seen a million times in gaming.  From Dragon's Lair to Skyrim, the trappings of the middle ages, with the immediacy of pre-fire powder weaponry and a world in which danger lurked around every corner, the dark ages call to us even today, enticing us to dream of adventure and danger, fame and fortune!

Of course the reality of the medieval knights life was a bit less swashbuckling and a bit more mundane.  It was mostly posturing, killing peasants that dared to rise up and the rules of chivalry gave great leeway for sacking, pillaging and raping.  So how would one show off as a real knight?  Why with tournament shows of skill!

This brings us to today's gem from years gone by: Knight Games.  Coded and designed by John Williams, with graphics by Colin Brown, it brought the expositional martial arts of medieval knights to our 8 bit computer screens.  At a time when sports games were all the rage, Knight Games added an innovative twist to the genre.

There are eight events (even though two of them are basically what Ryu was to Ken, simple graphical remixes of one another).  There are five weapon based one-on-one contests: Swords (twice), Quarterstaffs, Ball and Chain (no... you don't club each other with your spouses... ZING!  Ok... that joke was just horrible, I'm sorry), Axes and Pikes, in addition to two shooting galleries, once with long bows and once with crossbows.

The one-on-one contests are great two player fun, with a myriad of offensive and defensive moves available through a combination of the eight directional points of the joystick (horizontals are defensive moves, up, down, left and right are offensive) and the fire button activates walking.  An at first awkward choice from a modern standpoint but at the time a very unique solution that gave the action a feeling of immediacy through translating movement into combat as opposed to the pressing of a button.  The moves at times seem slow and plodding, but given that you are wearing full plate in all but the quarterstaff event, this seems perfectly legitimate and appropriate.

The shooting galleries involve multiple moving targets, with reloading times and wind factors coming into play.  Nothing spectacular, but still good fun when competing against human opponents.

The graphics are quite stunning, especially for 1986, even if the backgrounds are stationary.  They do invoke a rather epic feel.  Considering this was released the same year as Defender of the Crown, it truly can hold its own on a tiny little C64.

While it does feel a bit slow today, it remains a unique experience.  No magical special moves, no wild jumps through the air.  Knight Games gives us medieval one-on-one combat like it never existed before, or since on home computers. (the closest comprison I can draw is Square's PSX classic Bushido Blader)  If you have a buddy, plug in some old one button joysticks and have a few rounds.  I guarantee you'll have fun and wonder just how much brain damage a quarterstaff to the noggin' really would do.

--Trantor

Computer Game Museum Berlin - Visit

Hi guys,

In December, I took a trip to Berlin to visit the Computer Game Museum there.  It was a really awesome little place, curated with a ton of original hardware, recreations of classic games, a replica 80's arcade, recreated period rooms and a bunch of displays on the history of gaming.  So here are some pics to share with ya all.  :)


This is a recreation of a machine from the 50's being demoed with TicTacToe.  The input was a telephone dial.  Really fun and smart.


Recreation of a 60s computer demo from a world's fair, playing a line crossing game.  Damn good AI.
 
Display about the old Winky Dink and You TV show, that had kids sticking a piece of plastic on their tv screen and then following the announcer's finger with a crayon to create pictures.  Basically the first interactive TV program.  Very cool and weird.


Recreation of the original Brown Box designed by Ralph Baer.  Not sure if this is one of the many replicas he built himself or not.


Computer Space... sadly not up and running... still... Computer Space.  The sign said "Do not touch".  I touched. 


And more Computer Space... seriously, is that not the coolest cabinet EVER?!?!


Original Pong Arcade cabinet.


Innards of said Pong cabinet.

Apple II Plus signed by Woz.


One long wall of the museum was dominated by a set of displays with classic consoles and computers, organized by year, with pull out boards giving info on each of the systems.  There were a lot of them, so just a few highlights here.

And another massive wall was this display.  Using a small joystick, you controlled a green target pointer across the wall and this would trigger a demo of the game in question as well as a screen with game information.  The games were given markings related to their societal impact, technical innovation, originality, etc.  Some pretty interesting choices that all made a lot of sense, inclusing Mystery House, E.T., Elite, Lemmings, Leisure Suit Larry and Pokemon.  Here some highlights:

There were also a ton of games to play, usually highlighted for specific game play experiences. 

Wipeout in 3D

A car racing game where the acceleration was connected to a stationary bike.

Five Player Pong

Poly-Play, a multi-game arcade cabinet, and the only arcade game ever released in East Germany.  It is running on what was then standard Z80 based computer hardware (got to play it for the first time a few weeks ago at a museum of East German computer tech, that's here in my town of Halle... probably should have written a post about that as well).  The games are all completely atrocious and/or derivative.  But still interesting to see it.

Then they also had display corners set up to recreate period gaming scenarios, including a 70's living room with a Pong clone console:

An early 80's game room (with a C64 running a Galaga clone) and home office (with a Hercules graphic PC and a weird little ASCII graphics game):

A late 80's kid's bedroom (with an NES running Zelda):

 

 And finally a mid 90's college dorm room (with a PSX running Tomb Raider):

There was also a mock Arcade, with four player Gauntlet, Super Hang-On, Centipede and Puck-Man (yes... the original board, not the US Pac-Man release) as a table top game.

And a quick video:

There were also a ton of displays, covering history, industry personalities, controllers, etc.  All with little interactive video displays, interviews with creators (very cool interview with the curator of the MAME project, talking about preserving data) and old news footage.  There was even a really cool ad video for Habitat the first graphical MMO by Lucasfilm (which looks to be running off of the Labyrinth engine)
I found the film on youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVpulhO3jyc

Ok, so if you're in Berlin, definitely check it out.  Also all displays are both in German and English.

GROW: Another World

Review by @madsdk

Developer: Delphine Software
Platform: Amiga
Year: 1991
Design, graphics & programming: Eric Chahi
Music & Sound: Jean-Francois Freitas
Genre: Platformer / Action adventure

Another World is not just a brilliant Amiga game, it is by many considered a landmark example of cinematic storytelling in games. The game was created as a single man's vision of how a cinematic platformer should be; how it was possible to tell a story through the actions of the game, rather than merely telling it in cut-scenes in between periods of action. In many ways, Another World is what Dragon's Lair should have been, a tightly scripted action-adventure, where you actually feel in control, even though you are most of the time following a very narrow path of actions that the designer wants you to follow. Not until in recent years have I played platform games that could mimic the filmic style of Another World, and even then, in my opinion it has yet to be bested.

Apart from the excellent cinematic storytelling, what really sets Another World apart from its contemporaries is its use of rotoscoping, an animation technique where animators trace over real footage frame by frame, in order to get realistic looking movement in the animated characters. Eric Chahi recorded footage of himself jumping, falling, crouching, walking etc., and then he traced over these recordings to create the polygonal representation used in the game. The love and care is immediately visible in the game, just take a look at Lester's movements throughout the game - he, and the other characters, have a massive amount of realistic frames of animation, and discovering these are an absolute joy. Chahi was also not afraid of creating whole animations that were used only once, adding to the filmic nature of the game when character suddenly burst through walls, crawl through narrow passages, help each other climb to high places and more.

 

The protagonist of the game is a young scientist, called Lester, working within the field of particle physics. One late night while Lester is working on an experiment using a particle accelerator, lightning strikes and the electricity enters the accelerator, sending some sort of shockwave of energy at Lester, which teleports him to a strange alien world. Lester reappears under water and as the player you have to start the ascend immediately, otherwise you'll die less than five seconds after the game has started. And die you will in this game - a lot! If you know the path through this game, you can complete it in something like 25 minutes, but the challenge of the game is finding that path. You have to learn when the enemies will appear, how to fight using the versatile laser gun, and how to solve the environmental puzzles along the way. This is done by trial and error, so you'll watch Lester die in a myriad of ways, before you finally find the correct way through to the end.

 

The laser weapon, that Lester picks up early on in the game, is very versatile. It has three firing modes: a quick tap of the button fires a single laser shot, holding the button down a short period of time, until a small orb of energy appears at its muzzle, will create an energy shield that protects you from enemy fire, and holding the button down for a long period of time collects a massive amount of energy, that can be used to break down walls, metal doors, and energy shields. Learning to use this gun is paramount to your success in the game, so start playing around with it as soon as you pick it up.

Spoiler warning for a 23 year old game: The game's ending is rather ambiguous and sees Lester carried away by his alien friend on top of a flying beast of some sort - a pterodactyl I think. Lester is badly wounded and whether he survives or not is left to the player's imagination. One thing is for sure, he does not return to his own world. Chahi wanted the ending to be ambiguous so that fans themselves could make their own conclusions. Chahi didn't get to decide that though, and a sequel named Heart of the Alien was released for Sega CD in 1994, picking up the story from right where Another World left off.

If you want to experience this masterpiece yourself, you can take your pick of platform. The original was designed, developed, and drawn on the Amiga by Eric Chahi, but it proved such a success, that it has been ported to numerous platforms. It has even been re-released a number of times, most recently for its 20th anniversary in 2011, and this edition has now been released on iOS, Android, PC, PlayStation 3, 4 & Vita, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and Xbox One. But if you, like me, enjoy seeing the artist's true creation, you'll have to pick up the Amiga version. The DOS version also comes highly recommended, as it contains an extra level designed by Chahi just before the amphitheatre scene.

Until next time... stay retro!