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!

Projects were voted last week and after a huge public manifestation, both of them were rejected [for now]. Many kinds of manifestation appeared, from traditional petitions and street protests to more contemporary manifestation forms as videogames. Anti SOPA and PIPA games poped-up everywhere stating a point against the soon-to-be voted legislation, specially after a special edition of the Ludum Dare took place themed against the projects.

Here are some of the most interesting ones results.

Sopa/Pipa

Quite dystopic [you will remember Orwell's 1984] but graphically and muscly beautiful.

[Play Online]

Super Sopa Brothers

photo by tech2

Simple platform game that states a formal protest.

[Play Online]

Congress Chainsaw Massacre

Amazingly gruesome and strangely satisfying.

[Play Online]

Get Informed

Before we take a look at the game itself I would like to point out that there is a Game Boy port for this game, released in 1993 in Japan only, renamed as Makaimura Gaiden: The Demon Darkness, which had two new levels, eventually it was supposed to be released in the US too, but it was later canceled.

Now, to the PLOT, the game starts at our hero’s hometown, Etruria, Firebrand is a young gargoyle who is training to become a true warrior, and dude, do they point that out in the game, every dialogue in the beginning is about you becoming a true warrior. The King of the ghoul realm tells you to go to the Warrior’s training center to test your skills, so, once firebrand finishes his quest he would be rewarded with the Spectre’s Fingernail, and the title of, guess what… True Warrior.

Anyway, while firebrand was in the Warrior’s training center an evil entity called Black Light appeared and destroyed his hometown, leaving the King at the brink of death, only with enough energy to give Firebrand his reward and send him to unravel the mysteries of the Black Light.

As you may have noticed this game pretty much have the same gameplay mechanics as its predecessor, you have an overhead view in which you can walk in four directions to travel through the Ghoul Realm and you also have the side scrolling parts, that are used when you enter an action area, like the dungeons, bridges or caves.

The biggest change in this game is that there are no random battles, which for some may be a relief since they can be a real pain, this time you actually see the enemies standing on the world map usually blocking your way, then when you talk to them, you enter an action area like the ones you see when you enter a dungeon, these are the best parts of the game, they are fast paced, full of enemies and quite challenging.

This game also incorporates power ups and upgrades for Firebrand, which can increase his health or allow him to perform new feats required to pass a certain area, not to mention there are some puzzle solving, they are not a big deal but they do add to the game experience.

Let’s take a look at the visuals, when you are using the overhead view you can see the graphics are nice and colorful, nothing too amazing but
it’s clearly well drawn. When you enter an action area you can admire the graphics at their full potential, the background is simple yet very nice to look at and the characters are well detailed for a NES game, not to mention that in certain areas the game is able to give that shadowy atmosphere which fits perfectly for the dark fantasy genre.

The soundtrack I expected it to be more “scary” and “creepy”, after all, you are in a place called Ghoul Realm and you control a freaking demon, but still the game has some good tracks however the first game tunes are way better.

That’s all for Gargoyle’s Quest II, if you haven’t played it yet I recommend you to give it a try, after all, it’s an awesome action RPG.

Released in 1994 by Virgin Interactive, this game features our favorite action movie characters against each other. For those who don’t know Robocop, he were once a Detroit City policeman called Murphy. After being tortured and almost killed by drug dealers, they somehow fused his consciousness and organic parts with a robotic body. I think I don’t need to explain Terminator, do I? Since they made a new movie not long ago…

Just like the Robocop movie, this game has lots of violence and gore. When shoot, the enemies explode in a pulp of flesh and blood, which is very nice! The graphics are good, but the characters animation leaves to desire. Especially Robocop. I mean, he was really kind of stiff while moving, but in game he looks ridiculous. Some of the enemies are pretty generic as well.

As for the gameplay. I’ll resume it using a few words. It’s Contra with worse gameplay and a health bar. In Contra you could precisely control where you wanted to shoot. You can’t exactly do the same here, and since Robocop’s hitbox is kinda huge, you’re gonna get hit…a lot…

A funny fact. The health item is… baby food. It’s just like in the movie, where they had to fed him that so the organic parts could survive.

The basic controls are:

D-Pad – Moves Robocop, crouchs, climbs.
A Button – Changes weapon
B Button – Shoots
C Button – Jumps

Notice that the weapon inventory looks exactly like the one in Contra games. You can have 2 weapons, by pressing A, you switch between them. If you get another weapon, the one you’re not equipping will be replaced.

Not the best soundtrack around, but they’re good action songs that goes well with the levels. When I was a kid I even managed to create dirty lyrics for some of them hahaha.

Featuring 10 stages, you’ll go from the streets of Detroid to the heart of Skynet. As you progress through the game, as expected, it gets harder, with lots of enemies firing at you at the same time, which can be very frustrating, so save up as much lives as you can!

Overall, Robocop vs Terminator is the kind of game you should play when you want lots of blood, fast action and some frustration. I didn’t try to finish it while writing this post, but I remember that when I was a kid I only managed to do so by using a 3rd party Turbo controller, which raised the firerate making Robocop’s handgun fire like a machinegun! Sweet good’n old hardware cheats :P

Gargoyle’s Quest was a RPG released in 1990 for Nintendo´s Game Boy. I think that was one the first game boy titles I ever played as a kid and it blew my mind! During my childhood I played a lot of Ghosts´n Goblins and I already was a fan of the series. When I put my eyes in Gargoyle’s Quest I loved it! After all, you play as Firebrand, one of the main villans of king Arthur in Ghosts´n Goblins. So, can you imagine how cool can be this game? I mean ,nothing can be boring when you fly around with your demon wings and spit fireballs!

Let´s take a look on Gargoyle´s plot.

Gargoyle’s Quest  take place on the Ghoul Realm, the demon dimension. Many years ago, creatures from another realm attacked the Ghoul Realm and destroyed everything. Several hundred years have passed and the realm is threatened once again… You get the role of Firebrand, a gargoyle-like demon who is predestined to be the savior of the Ghoul Realm.

That´s all about the plot, now you´re problaby thinking “er… this game is a RPG… and THAT was the plot!?” Hey, hey, slow down dude. Gargoyle’s Quest may be a RPG, however it´s most like an action RPG. Let me try to explain in this way, this game is like Pokemon, BUT when you face a random battle or an enemy, instead to of a turned based battle screen you´re thrown into a sidescroller stage, with enemies and stuff so… IT´S FREAKING AMAZING!

So in Gargoyle’s Quest you has  an overhead view where the main character is displayed in a very similar way to Dragon Quest. During the random battles you face your enemies in short and simple stages in a sidescroller view. When you wipe out all enemies you´ll go back to the overhead view.

When you´re in the overhead view you can walk into 4 directions, talk with characters, access menus and stuff. When you´re in sidescroller view You can walk, jump spit fireballs, grab into walls and even fly for a short period of time.

Ok so how the RPG elements affect the in-game mechanics? Simple answer, Metroid! Gargoyle’s Quest use an almost identical standard for upgrades. You start the game with a limited range fireball, short jump and a short flying abilities. As you progress through the game you´re gonna collect items that provide more attribute to your standard abilities, some items provide new projectiles and new abilities. You can also pick up useable items like potions and stuff… Gargoyle’s Quest is a RPG and a sidescroller action platform game at the same time so besides the enemy encounters there are some major stages that provide lots of challenge. There are 13 big stages in Gargoyle’s Quest and every stage has a boss. You´ll gonna need to explore every single inch of the Gargoyle’s Quest world map in order to find all those stages and collect items and abilities. Pretty complex for a game boy classic game, don´t you think?

Gargoyle’s Quest also has awesome graphics, and in my opinion is among of the best in the classic game boy. It is amazing how good backgrounds and creatures can look considering the extreme limited color palette (black/white).

The soundtrack is freaking amazing. All tunes has a nice gothic touch that work perfectly with the dark fantasy atmosphere that this amazing game can delivery.

This is my favorite one:

Man, I love Gargoyle’s Quest soundtrack…

I really hope that someone who never played this game give it a chance,  Gargoyle’s Quest, is in my opinion, one between the best Game Boy titles that I ever played and surprisingly I hardly see anything about this game or even from the other two games from the  Gargoyle’s trilogy. This is such a shame…