Forgotten Old Games – Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems

Hello everyone. Welcome to another Forgotten Old Game!
I’m sorry for my absense. I’ve been pretty busy lately and couldn’t even find time to play anything! But I’m back now, and ready to hit you with another blast from the past.
Today I’m gonna tell you about a game from the Marvel universe. And no, it’s not a fighting game, but a 2d platformer with hints of beat-em-up for the SNES. I’m talking about Marvel Super Heroes – War of the gems!

Released in 1996 by Capcom, one year after it’s arcade fighting counterpart, this game is also based on the same comic books series as the Arcade one, “The Infinity Gauntlet”. By acquiring the six Infinity Gems which controls Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality and Power and becoming a God, Thanos proceeds to exterminate half of the sentient beings in the universe, which includes most of the heroes, just because of his love for Death (the being, not because he likes to kill err…maybe he does). The remaining heroes(Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk and Wolverine) guided by Adam Warlock unites to battle against him, retrieve the Infinity Gems and undo all this crazyness.

Graphics 

 This game has good graphics, huge and well drawn backgrounds with lots of stuff and enemies on screen at the same time. The characters are also very detailed and the animation is good.

The Stage Select screen

Sound
The game music is just okay, nothing that really stands out. The same can be said about the sound effects.

Gameplay
Plataform + Beat-em-up = Fun! The controls are simple, responsive and fast!
Also for the game basics controls:

D Pad: Moves Characters
Y: Attacks
B: Jumps

Well drawn and animated scenarios!

On the start screen you can choose if you want to start a new game, adjust options or enter a password. Yes, this game does not have a save option, instead it uses passwords to keep track of your progress.
In the Options menu there isn’t really much to set. You can adjust the control setup and if you want Stereo or Monoaural sound.

Choose wisely, some stages requires skills from specific heroes!

This games works basically as any other 2d platformer, but as I said it’s kinda of a beat-em-up as well, allowing you to use special attacks of your heroes, and even combos! Don’t think it’ll be easy though, once you die, you lose that hero you’ve chosen and have to choose another one.  There are specific attacks for each hero, using simple sequences like  pressing Down, Forward and Y.

This item lets you perform a special attack once if you already have one of the Infinity Gems.

While looking for the gems on every stage, you’ll find lots of differents enemies and bosses. There are also items that recharge your health, allows you to use a special attack if you already have one of the Infinity Gems and even ressurrect a fallen hero.
Equipping one of the Infinity Gems will give your character a special ability. They are:

Time Gem: Hero moves 2 times faster.
Space Gem: Gives the hero the double jump ability.
Reality Gem: Shows hidden places/items.
Soul Gem: Doubles HP.
Power Gem: Doubles attack power.

You’ll be visiting lots of places in your quest for the gems, at first you can choose one of the following stages: The Avengers Base, Boston Aquarium, Amazon, Alaska and Dr. Doom’s castle, but more places will show up as you progress trough the game.

Conclusion
Marvel Super Heroes – War of the Gems is a real GEM for that time. It could be better if it had better songs, but otherwise it’s still a good game, and I truly recommend you to play this one! ‘Till next time!

Forgotten Old Games – Colony Wars: Vengeance

Hi everyone! Today, I’ve chosen a great spaceship simulator from Sony Playstation, it’s Colony Wars: Vengeance.

Hum… The right thing to do was probably make a review of the entire Colony Wars franchise, however I don’t like the third game “Red Sun” and the second game is my favorite, so here we go!

Before I start talking about the plot, I would like to mention that both this game and the first one have a lot of endings, therefore, a lot of plot variations, so I’m just going to summarize the “winning plot”.

The League of the Free Worlds, who were the good guys of the first game, were able to liberate mankind from the Tzar Empire, with the exception of  the Sol system (our system, to be exact), so instead of going in there, they just sealed the entire Sol system from the rest of the galaxy, leaving it at its own fate. As the years pass, Sol starts to become very poor and society begins to crumble.

So, in desperate need of a leader who would reunite them all, Kron, an enigmatic figure, rises promising vengeance against the League of the free worlds. Using fanaticism and building a fleet called New Navy, he is able to reopen Sol’s warp hole, and so begins another Colony Wars.

As you may have guessed by now, you play with the “bad guys” from the last game. Player’s character is called Mertens, and he is part of the so-called New Navy, whom proves to be one of the most important pilots of the plot, unleashing a lot of plot twists, some even envolving Kron.

This leads to even more plot twists, I mean, this game’s plot is great, and you should see how it unravels by yourself, I’m not giving you any spoilers for this one.

The controls look a bit complicated at first glance,  as you know, this looks more like a space ship simulator then a 3D shoot ‘em up and it reminds me of the Wing Commander game or Freelancer, but it’s nothing extremely complicated as the X’ series.

You have access to three types of weapons at the beginning of the game, one is for Shields, which is not very effective against the hull, another is for destroying the hull, which obviously wont cause much damage against a ship’s shields, and the last one is for collecting minerals, which is a “sword” like beam, you’ll be using them all the time, and as the game progress, you’ll be unlocking new weapons, including a hook gun that allows you to grab stuff in space.

shield disable gun

laser gun

mining laser

hook

You also have Foward and Backward thrusters, and when you use both of them at the same time, you activate Afterburners (which, by the way, have a very nice effect) and in no time at all you’ll be participating in some cool dogfights.

Missions are very well done. While in most console spaceship games player only advance going straight ahead, destroying everything  in screen untill you reach a boss, in this game missions range from gathering materials of asteroids, destroying huge space ships, scouting freighters, uploading viruses to satellites, rescuing ships from hostile and much more, and just like I said before, this game has a lot of endings which are influenced by these missions.

 That is why I think it falls more like in the simulation category than in the “3D shooter” category.

Not to mention the game’s great physics, you can notice it when you use the grappling hook, destroy a vessel and it’s bits fly off like they were in space, or the way your ship behaves floating like it’s actually in space, very well done indeed.

The graphics are amazing, the ships are extremely well done, high quality models, with minor details, specially in large frigates, you can gaze the space scenes and planetary surfaces, for they are very cool, also this game offers a lot of nice effects, like the gloom effect, which is used a lot, gives you the sensation that there is really a huge vessel exploding right in front of you, or that the sun is really burning, it’s very awesome.

The CGi scenes are well done too, and believe me when I say there’s a lot of them in this game, which adds to the experience.

The sounds and musics are awesome, specially the intro music, you can actually feel the drama they are living, that combined with the already mentioned CGs.

Sound is pretty good too, with good sound effects and voice actors.

I’m just going to leave the intro for you, so you can admire both the CG and the incredible music, as for that beggining, I believe it’s Kron crashing into Earth, you’ll understand what I’m talking about when you play the game, and believe me, it is awesome.

‎”The urge to survive is strong, but if it hadn’t been for Kron we would have given up long ago.”

Forgotten Old Games – HARD DRIVIN’

Hello and welcome to another FOG!
Today I’m not gonna bring you another hidden treasure from the golden era of gaming. Instead I’ll show you a bad port. Yeah, a bad driving simulator game, called HARD DRIVIN’ for the SEGA GENESIS.

Released in  1991 by TENGEN this was originally an arcade game with 3D Polygon graphics. The reason why it got released for the Genesis? No idea!

Straight from the manual:

“Sure, driving a real high performance car can be quite a blast. But where can you go to do vertical loops, high-speed races and high flying jumps? In Hard Drivin’, that’s where! Hard Drivin’ is so real you’ll feel like you’re burning up the road in a high-powered car. Two tracks provide plenty of challenge – put the pedal to the metal on the Speed Track or get airborne on the radical Stunt Track! Jump a drawbridge! Do a 360 loop! The true 3D screen display will have you hanging on for dear life! If you lose it, you get to see an instant replay of your accident. Like the incredible arcade hit, this Hard Drivin’ is looking for a few hard drivers. No license – or cars – required!”

Unfortunately these are all lies. The arcade game had it’s merit. But this horrible port is far away from all those promises.

The first hint that shows you're playing a bad port...

Graphics: Awful. I mean there’s plenty of good 2D racing games for the Genesis, this one features really bad ’3D’ graphics running very slowly compared to the original arcade game.

Slow game + Time attack = FAIL

Sound: Not so different from the original (which wasn’t great by the way). But it’s not as bad as the graphics

Gameplay: This is one of the main reasons why this game shouldn’t have been released for Genesis. The main reason you would play this game back then, was to get the feeling of driving a real car, which you could barely achieve by playing the original arcade. Even if Genesis had a Steering Wheel and Pedals it would still suck, because the controls lack response and precision. And since the game feels like you’re playing in slow motion, you’d have to steer slowly as well. Cool huh?
There’s another thing I should mention, despite they having said the game features TWO TRACKS, you have only one, divided in two: Speed and Stunt.

As for the default controls:
D-Pad LEFT/RIGHT – Steers car
D-Pad UP/DOWN – Gear change (manual mode only)
A – Accelerate
B – Brakes
C – Clutch (hold and press UP or DOWN to change gears)

It doesn't matter if you were hit on the back, your windshield will always get damaged.

Just don't ask me...!

 

But I’m gonna tell you something. I knew the game was terrible, but I played it quite a few times when I had a Genesis. The reason? THE REPLAYS! Everytime you crashed an instant replay starts, showing you from a far camera, what happened to your car. And seriously, I found that quite hillarious. I could spend hours, just crashing, watching the replays and laughing. Yeah I know, silly me…

This is one game to keep very away from you. Unless for completeness of your collection, of course. A true “FORGOTTEN OLD GAME” with lots of reasons for that.
And as always, a video for your delight. This time I’ll show you videos from both versions. See you next time!

GENESIS Version:

ARCADE Version:

Forgotten Old Games – The Flintstones

Hi! It’s been a while huh? I’m sorry for my absence. Lots of things happened, including me getting presented with a SEGA SATURN! Hell yeah! I’ll be posting reviews for this awesome console as well! Thanks to my friend Aline!
Well let’s get to work huh? Today’s game is a platformer from the past (duh?). Straight from the prehistoric era, I present you: The Flintstones for the Sega Genesis!

Released in 1993 by Taito this game is based on the famous Hanna Barbera cartoon show of the same name.
While capturing the essence of the TV show, this game has some little flaws that makes the experience less enjoyable.

Plot:
Playing as Fred, I’d be surprised if the game followed any of the TV Show episodes, but this is not the case. You just do some tasks related to the other characters, like saving Pebbles who got herself lost or helping Wilma find her necklace. Sure not as thrilling as saving the world, but hey, helping friends counts too!

This quest will avoid him from having to sleep on the couch tonight!

Graphics:
In order to mimic a cartoonish style the game features colorful graphics, but while the characters appear as detailed as they could be, the background doesn’t. Most of the scenery is generic, specially the ground, which, apart from the bottomless pits, features nothing more than a straight, smooth and flat path. Sure those STEAM ROLLER looking cars did a good job!
Another thing I should be mentioning is the poor enemy design, most of them are pretty generic, while some doesn’t make any sense at all. On one of the last levels you’ll be facing some enemies that resemble demons. Wtf? Stone age demons?

Clear path ahead, except for that bottomless pit...

He should have paid attention to that "downhill" sign...

 

Sound:
Most of the sound effects are simple. The average “Boing”, “Plop” and “Crash”. As for the songs, apart from being quite repetitive, they are ok.

Gameplay:

The average platform scheme, attack and jump. You can hold on to some cliff edges and give a more powerful attack by holding the attack button.
The good thing is that you’ll be playing in lots of different levels, from the slow and frustrating water levels, to the not less frustrating “killer scrolling” ones!
As for the game default controls:
D-Pad: Moves Character
A/C Button: Jumps
B Button: Attacks, hold for increasing power (Makes Fred moves slower and not being able to hold on to cliffs)
Start: Pauses the game

Shark surfing! Like a boss!

I hate water levels...

...and water rising levels as well!

I’ve played lots of platform games, and I think this one has quite unresponsive controls. Which IMO is the major flaw of the game. The game itself is not hard, but the controls make sure you die a lot.

You're gonna die...

...and die...

...and...whoa, close one!

The game features 6 Stages divided in three levels. The levels are not separated, but often marked with a numbered sign. Each Stage has a boss you must defeat in order to proceed to the next level.
At each level you’ll be finding a variety of items and power ups, including an invincible.
A good game if you like The Flintstones TV show, but unfortunately not with a very good replay value, unless you like finishing on each difficulty level!
I’ll finish by showing you a gameplay video. See you next time!

 
 

Forgotten Old Games – James Bond 007

Hi. It’s me again, bringing you the old titles that we hold close to our hearts, specially when it’s a portable you could carry in your shirt pocket, like today’s game! We’re talking about James Bond 007 for the Nintendo Gameboy. Released in 1998, one year after the famous 007: Goldeneye for the N64 came out. It’s not a FPS of course, but a good action/adventure game for an awesome 8-bit console. The plot, straight from the manual, says: “An arms smuggling ring threatens to create a new world order. The peace and security of the entire planet is at stake. MI6 sent agent 008 into Turkey to dismantle the operation. Soon thereafter, all contact was lost with 008. M makes a decision to send their best agent, James Bond, to investigate the whereabouts of 008. As Bond carries out this latest order, he becomes entangled in his deadliest mission yet.”
I’d say it’s an average secret agent story haha. But well let’s see how the game plays!

You can have up to 3 save games.

As you can see, just after pressing the start button, you’re presented with a game selection screen, where you can choose which of the 3 saves you want to use/start. At this screen you can erase and copy save games as well.

If it wears a bamboo hat, it's a chinese!

The first level is on china, and there you can see the basic game screen as well. Below the game screen there’s icons showing what you have equipped for button B, A and your  energy bar.

The basic controls are:
D-Pad – Moves character
A/ B – Varies on what’s equipped
Select – Opens Sub-screen
Start – Opens Save Screen

On the sub-screen you can assign equipments or actions to B and A buttons. The basic ones are  blocking and punching.
The energy bar shows your character’s health. To heal, you must use med kits or bandages.

In order to progress through stages, you’ll have to find some key items and solve misteries. You may have to talk to some people, defeat enemies, or search every corner of the stages to find them. So, if you’re stuck, be sure to talk to everyone and check everything.

The graphics are simple. Despite being a 1998 game, you must remember that the Gameboy itself is a 1988 hardware! There wansn’t really much they could do about it.
As for the songs, they’re repetitive, just like any 8-bit game. No I’m not saying 8-bit songs are bad, but some, like this game aren’t really catchy or even cool. So there’s not much to say about it.

Once you get to the cassino, you can play 3 mini-games: Baccarat, Blackjack and Red Dog! They’re required to some missions, but you can play them for fun as well.
That’s it for now. If you own a gameboy I’d recommend you try this one, it can keep you entertained for quite some time, specially if you, like me, love Blackjack haha!
See you next time!

 

Forgotten Old Games – Undercover Cops

Hi there! Welcome to another FOG!
Today we’re going to take a look at another beat ‘em up game. This one is called Undercover Cops for the Nintendo SNES.

Originally an arcade game, this game made it’s way to the SNES in 1995 by Varie in Japan, unfortunately the US release got cancelled!

We’re at the 21st century (LOL, we really are). With the inability of ordinary police to contain
the devastating increase in crime, the government sees no other option but to use unorthodox methods to combat crime. That’s where Zan, Rose and Matt, three citizens with knowledge in fighting and martial arts, are turned into undercover cops, and begins fight face-to-face with all kind of thugs.
Yeah I know. The plot is now awesome. Indeed is pretty generic, but it’s okay.

The graphics are good. It’s one of the best looking of it’s genre to the SNES in my opinion. The Arcade version have a crisper and more detailed look, but even so the SNES port delivers good and fluid movement.

The soundtrack is good enough, with each song fitting well into every moment of the game. The sound effects and voices are really good too, not to mention they’re funny!

If that's one of her attacks, I wanna be a bad guy...

The gameplay is sweet, you’ll have no problem punching the crap of your enemies. As any other beat ‘em up, not only they can use special moves (that drains your energy as well), they can also use lots of items you find through the stages. By the way, there’s something quite disturbing about this game: The recovery items! Seriuosly, they vary from a living chick, to hogs and slugs! And when you grab them, depending on who you’re controlling, for example: Matt, he yells “DELICIOUS”… Gross!

The basic commands for the game are:
D-Pad – Moves character around the screen
B Button – Jumps
Y Button – Normal attack
X button – Nothing
A Button – Special Attack (Drains a little of your energy if it hits)

The enemies are dumb and slow, you manage to get rid of them in no time. The bosses are kinda easy as well, except for a few ones, and there is where a new flaw arrives. The game is too short, featuring only five stages! Undercover Cops is a good game nonetheless, it just had too many competition for that time.
If you’re tired of beating Final Fight and Streets of Rage,  this might be a good one for you to try! See ya!