mini game corner

Mini Game Corner: RoboCop 3 (Mega Drive)

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 1993
Developer: Digital Image Design
Also Available For: Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Game Gear, Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Entertainment System (SNES), ZX Spectrum

A Brief Background:
Director Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop (1987) proved profitable enough to earn a sequel, one that was unfairly met with mixed reviews. Both RoboCop and RoboCop 2 (Kershner, 1990) were accompanied by videogame adaptations courtesy of Ocean Software, a British developer known for adapting film and television franchises, and Data East. While RoboCop 3 (Dekker, 1993) was a critical and commercial bomb, it also received a handful of tie-in videogames. Unlike the other versions of the game, which were again published by Ocean Software, the Mega Drive version was developed by Digital Image Design, who had only one game under their belt at the time. RoboCop 3’s delayed production also meant that many played the game before seeing the movie. Not that it mattered since Orion Pictures kept the specifics of RoboCop 3’s plot a secret, so the developers had to make educated guesses based on rumours and production stills, leading to them wasting weeks of time creating motorcycle sequences that weren’t included in the movie. Although the Amiga and ZX Spectrum versions of the game have been praised for their cinematic atmosphere and gameplay mechanics, the SNES and Mega Drive versions were criticised for their unfair difficulty, uninspired environments, and crude graphics, and the game was ultimately labelled as being one of the worst videogame outings for the famous cyborg cop.

First Impressions:
Similar to the first two RoboCop arcade games, RoboCop 3 is a sidescrolling shooter with some minor platforming mechanics. Players must lug RoboCop’s notoriously bulky ass across six levels filled with street punks and robotic enemies all looking to turn him into scrap metal. Like all the best Mega Drive games, RoboCop 3 allows you to set your life count (between one and three), the amount of continues you have (between none and two), and the game’s difficult (Easy, Medium, or Hard; I opted to try out the Easy mode for this play session), but there are there’s no option to disable the in-game timer. By default, A allows you to switch between RoboCop’s different weapons (acquired from item drops during gameplay), B fires his current weapon, and C allows him to jump. These controls didn’t work for me so I took advantage of the customisation options to change them to something that actually makes sense: A to fire, B to jump, and C to change weapons. I should also note that you can hold the fire button to continuously shoot, but this will burn through your ammo pretty quickly (when you run out completely, you’re left relying on RoboCop’s weak-ass punches until you grab some ammo), and you can also shoot upwards, diagonally, and while crouching and jumping. Although the options also include a music and sound effects test, the iconic RoboCop theme is missing and, in its place, are a series of generic, cyberpunk-style rock tunes.

RoboCop is beset by tough enemies and tricky platforming sections that his bulky frame struggles with.

Although we’re treated to a big, detailed graphic of RoboCop and the RoboCop 3 logo, there’s no story graphics or even text here; we’re simply dropped right onto the streets of Detroit, which actually makes a pretty good first impression. You can see the city in the background, RoboCop’s police cruiser, dilapidated buildings (with eviction notices slapped onto them), flickering lampposts, and even signs advertising the impending arrival of Delta City. RoboCop also looks pretty good, far better than the generic and uninspiring enemies he faces, though he has no idle poses and remains an unwieldy and bulky character. You’ll need to make use of the various crates piled about to take cover and avoid incoming fire, but enemies can simply walk and shoot right through them and it’s almost impossible to avoid taking a bullet or rocket to the face as RoboCop is so chunky, meaning you’re liable to see him downed in a dramatic explosion if you’re not careful. RoboCop can pick up a couple of additional ammo types as he goes, including a helpful three-way shot and a powerful laser (that even alters his sprite to include his new gun arm attachment from the movie), and replenish his health using rare pick-ups, but you’ll have to be careful of stage hazards. Falling wrecking balls and bottomless pits are abound and RoboCop’s platforming skills leave a lot to be desired. There’s only one checkpoint in the stage, meaning you have to be really on the ball hopping to small moving platforms and taking out the bullet-sponge tanks and drones that patrol the streets and skies above.

My Progression:
I’d heard RoboCop 3 was a difficult game but I didn’t really have many expectations; I vaguely remember playing an polygonal, first-person shooter version of the game on the Amiga (I think…) and enjoying the arcade versions of the previous two adaptations, but there’s one advantage to playing games like those: emulation generally allows you infinite chances to succeed. Mega Drive games don’t always have this luxury and RoboCop 3 is one of those titles where the only cheat available is a level skip, so I decided to go into it with as much of a pure experience as I could and ended up getting quickly frustrated. I really don’t understand why developers had such a problem making RoboCop videogames back in the day; Contra (Konami, 1985) would’ve been a good source of inspiration, hell they could’ve just copied from Turrican (Factor 5/Various, 1990) and been on the right track. Instead, we got these awkward, aggravating platforming/shooter mash-ups that just didn’t work with a character as ungainly as RoboCop. RoboCop Versus The Terminator (Virgin Games USA/Various, 1994) remains the best of the bunch so far and even that game plods along thanks to how unwieldy RoboCop can be. Here, he has no chance against the barrage of enemies (with more appearing on harder difficulties) and you can’t afford to waste too much time as there’s a damn timer ticking down overhead!

Some vague movie references and a top-down shooting section help bolster the mediocre gameplay.

So, no, I didn’t even get past the first stage. With a great deal of patience and abuse of save states, I reached the first boss with full health and armed with RoboCop’s three-way shot and laser, but I stood little chance against the wave-upon-wave of rocket launcher-toting baddies since they attacked from both sides and RoboCop’s crouch is next to useless for avoiding incoming fire. I’ll admit that I kind of rushed a bit and lost patience with the game a lot faster than normal just because of how cheap some of the platforming and challenges were, but I had to tap out in the end as I just couldn’t be bothered to fight my way back to that part. It’s a bit of a shame as the game looks pretty decent; there’s a lovely, detailed graphic of RoboCop on fire and the Enforcement Droid-209 (ED-209) when you die (that even includes a voice sample) and there’s some visual promise to the game, and playthroughs of the game show that it can easily be beaten in less than fifteen minutes if you’re able to stick with it. Looking ahead, there’s more voice samples (all of them from the first movie) and RoboCop fights up and across rooftops, battles waves of Rehab mercenaries alongside a reprogrammed ED-209 (Nikko Halloran even pops in for a cameo), acquires a flame burst, and even encounters a gigantic robotic Satan in a parking garage! Other movie locations include the church (where RoboCop must find keys to open doors and fight the agile robot ninja Otomo in the sewers) and the Omni-Consumer Productions (OCP) tower, where players must defeat two Otomos to finish the game and finally earn some story text. The gameplay is even broken up by some fun-looking, bullet hell overhead shooter sections where RoboCop flies above the city streets in his jetpack blasting at demonic-looking robots and drones, but I honestly can’t be bothered to fire up this drek of a game to try and play them.

I admit that I probably didn’t give RoboCop 3 a fair shake of the stick. Since a boxed, complete version of the game can fetch quite a high price, I settled for emulating the game, but I couldn’t be bothered to hook a second controller up to my Raspberry Pi to input the level select code and I kept accidentally overwriting my save state, so I grew very frustrated with the game myself very quickly. But as I say, even when I reached the first enemy swarm that masqueraded as a boss battle, I couldn’t beat it even with full health, though I’d wager that I might be able to get a little further now that I know what to expect from the game. However, I have no desire to; there are far better similar games on the Mega Drive, the RoboCop arcade games are a much better use of your time, and there’s no way you’d ever pick this game over RoboCop Versus The Terminator. But maybe my opinion doesn’t count as I gave up too quickly. Maybe you actually enjoyed this game. Maybe there are some positives that I missed, or I just didn’t connect with it like you did. If so, I’d love to hear about it. tell me your experiences of RoboCop 3, or RoboCop games in general, in the comments and go check out my other RoboCop reviews across the site!

Mini Game Corner [Ghostbusters Day]: The Real Ghostbusters (Arcade)

Dr. K1 Comment

Throw on your proton pack and get ready to bust some ghosts because June 8th is, officially, “Ghostbusters Day”! Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984) was first released on this day back in 1984 and, since then, has become a major pop culture franchise that includes comic books, a popular cartoon and line of action figures, and videogames and it is, easily, one of my favourite films and franchises from that era.

Released: 1987
Developer: Data East
Also Available For: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum

A Brief Background:
After Ghostbusters became a big hit, it spun off into a pretty significant franchise comprised of an under-rated sequel, a questionable reboot, some okay modern follow-ups, and a handful of videogames. The first Ghostbusters-branded videogame was a multi-platform release from Activision that was a huge success despite being wildly different across each home console and containing humorous grammatical errors. This was followed up by an arcade title loosely based on one of the most memorable Ghostbusters spin-offs, the much-loved cartoon. Licensing issues saw the game released as Meikyuu Hunter G in Japan, which included redrawn sprites, the removal of the iconic Ray Parker Jr. song, and the multi-player stripped down to two players instead of three. Unlike the beloved cartoon, The Real Ghostbusters attracted mixed reviews across its various iterations; while some praised the fun gameplay and graphics, many others disagreed and criticised it as an ugly, repetitive, unfair and undemanding, and overall unimpressive shooter.

The Review:
I’m doing things a little differently for my review of the Real Ghostbusters arcade game. It’s a naturally shorter review but that’s mainly because the game is so short and simplistic that I don’t see the point in dragging it out too much, but I was also able to finish it so I want to touch base with everything I saw and give it a proper rating. The Real Ghostbusters is a top-down, semi-isometric shooter not unlike its successor, Smash TV (Williams, 1990), perhaps the most popular of this genre. The game allows up to three players (because, once again, Winston Zeddemore gets the shaft) to play simultaneously, but your character is never identified onscreen by name (they’re just “1Up”, “2Up”, and “3Up”) and their sprites are just palette swaps, so you have to go by the colour of their uniforms (blue for Doctor Egon Spengler, yellow for Doctor Ray Stantz, and orange for Doctor Peter Venkman). They also all play exactly the same; there are no stats or attributes to differentiate them, so it really doesn’t matter which character you play as (though “2Up”/Orange/Venkman stands out a little more against the backgrounds). The Real Ghostbusters offers basic, arcade-style gameplay; you simply move your character around the ten stages and blast at monsters with your proton pack using two buttons: one that fires a slower, infinite projectile shot and one that unleashes your proton stream. The proton stream is tied to a yellow meter under your character’s name and score. As you fire it, the meter depletes and you’ll need to grab power-ups or insert a coin to replenish it, which is necessary as the proton stream is the only way of sucking up the ghosts that pop out from defeated baddies and earning points to both out-do your friends between stages and work towards earning extra lives, which are awarded for every one hundred ghosts you capture.

Players compete against each other to grab power-ups and capture the most ghosts.

Following the big title font and a fun scene of Ecto-1 pulling up outside of the Ghostbusters’ headquarters, you’re dropped into the first stage and tasked to “Capture the ghosts, collect the keys, save the city” which is done by zapping the bizarre monsters and ghouls that swarm every area and confronting a boss at the top of the stage. This earns you a key to move on to the next stage, but the game very quickly recycles its environments; you’ll explore the dilapidated rooftops on the first and final stages, then play through a canyon (with bones scattered all about), a graveyard (containing gravestones and tree stumps), a moss-infested catacomb, and a more Hellish variant of the graveyard over and over between the first and last stages. While the environments are quite repetitive, the action is thick and fast. Ghoulies, goblins, and nightmarish creatures infest every screen, constantly respawning, shooting lightning bolts or other projectiles, and making a beeline towards you. As if that wasn’t bad enough, laughing spikes pop up from the floor and the excised spirits will steal power-ups if you’re not fast enough. You’ll also have to climb (well, just walk up) ladders and cross tree trunks to progress, sometimes by blasting rocks or trees to make them appear. Be careful, though; there are a lot of things you can blast, like toxic waste bins and barrels and such, but some of these are just as likely to spawn more enemies as they are power-ups! Power-ups include upgrades to your proton stream and projectile shot to make them more powerful and replenish your meter, an “aura” shield that protects you from damage, and a “Green Ghost” (because, apparently, Slimer wasn’t a popular name just yet?) that both protects you and takes out enemies for a short time. There is also a power-down item, helpfully indicated by its skull-and-crossbones symbol, that debuffs your shot, so watch out for that, but two or more players are able to cross their streams for a more powerful attack. You also have to deal with a timer; you have five in-game minutes to clear each stage, but you can earn more time by inserting a coin or grabbing a power-up. Finally, The Real Ghostbusters is classic coin-muncher if I ever saw one; it’s one-hit kills here and you’ll die a lot throughout the course of the game as the enemies just never stop coming. It’s actually quite impressive how many appear onscreen at once and the sheer variety on offer; it’s a shame that the music didn’t get the same attention as the chip-tune rendition of the iconic Ghostbusters soon wears out its welcome after a few minutes.

The gruesome bosses are recycled and poor substitutes for more iconic Ghostbusters foes.

The Real Ghostbusters is similarly limited in its gameplay variety; between each stage, the Ghostbusters deposit the spirits they’ve captured into the containment unit for bonus points and extra lives, but this is purely a non-interactive cutscene and there are no bonus games to break up the action here. The same goes for the game’s bosses; sure they’re bigger and tougher than the regular enemies and are accompanied by a boss theme, but they don’t require any more skill on your part than to keep blasting and avoiding taking a hit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the game both recycles bosses and substitutes a boss battle with a gauntlet against swarms of enemies. I gave this a pass at first since the first two introduced two new enemies to the game (weird rotund bird-things that extend their beaks and scythe-wielding demons), but the third gauntlet is simply against the bulbous purple bolt-shooting monsters you’ve been busting all along. The first boss is two large, cloaked figures that resemble the Grim Reaper and bop about shooting spooky napkins. The second is a disgusting, blob-like monster with a gnashing face in its stomach and a single, disgusting eye at the end of an extendable neck, and both of these guys appear again at the end of stage nine. Extendable appendages and swarms of projectiles are commonplace with The Real Ghostbusters’ bosses; the two wall-mounted demons in stage four, the scarier robed priests of stage six, and the lava/rock golems of stage seven all featured these tactics though the priests mix things up a bit by being able to teleport and the golems come armed (literally) with swinging maces. Rather than taking on the iconic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, your final challenge is to fight to the end of the rooftops and battle two of these golem-like giants, something that’s barely a challenge at all since you can easily make mincemeat of all the game’s enemies with three players. Defeat them and you’re treated to an odd scene of the ghosts and monsters all escaping the Ghostbusters’ firehouse (it’s almost as if the intro and outro cutscenes should’ve been reversed to show the ghosts escaping and the Ghostbusters returning home victorious), a bit of congratulatory text, and the chance to enter your initials into the high score table.

The Summary:
I love a good, mindless arcade title, especially one where you can just keep pumping in coins and mowing down waves of enemies to achieve victory. I actually have memories of playing the Amiga version of The Real Ghostbusters back when I was a kid and quite enjoying it, especially compared to the more confusing and taxing Ghostbusters (Activision, 1984), and I could definitely see myself and other kids blowing our pocket money on this fast-paced action shooter back in the day. Having said that, the game is painfully basic; the lack of bonus stages and gameplay variety is staggering, even for an arcade title, and things quickly become repetitive and chaotic. I was obviously emulating the game, so I had unlimited credits, making it a breeze to blast through; while enemies swarmed the screen and took me out again and again, I was back in action at the press of a button but all this tells me was that The Real Ghostbusters was unfairly cheap and designed to rid you of your hard-earned coins with its one-hit kills, strict timer, and sheer amount of enemies. While the chip-tune music gets grating and the semi-isometric perspective can be a little confusing, the game looks decent enough. The Ghostbusters might look awful, but the monsters are all suitably bizarre, Lovecraftian creatures, though this visual appeal is diminished by the fact that most of them just bounce, fly, or wander about shooting the odd projectile. The power-ups are kind of fun but, again, basic; why not change up the projectiles the Ghostbusters shoot or have a screen-clearing bomb or something? Also, the lack of Mr. Stay Puft really diminished the appeal and finale of the game; he was the obvious final boss, but The Real Ghostbusters chose to play it cheap and safe and cycle previous bosses instead. Overall, The Real Ghostbusters was a decent enough arcade game, especially with three players, but nothing massively memorable or innovative.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever played the Real Ghostbusters arcade game? If so, what did you play it on and did you enjoy it? Which Ghostbuster did you play as, and were you upset by Winston’s absence? Were you disappointed by the recycled bosses and environments? What are your memories of The Real Ghostbusters and how are you celebrating Ghostbusters Day today? Whatever your thoughts and memories of Ghostbusters, feel free to share them below and be sure to check out my other Ghostbusters reviews across the site.

Mini Game Corner [X-Men Day]: X-Men (PlayStation 3)

Dr. K4 Comments

To commemorate, the culmination of their long-running and successful X-Men movies, 20th Century Fox declared May 13th as “X-Men Day”, a day to celebrate all things Mutant and X-Men and celebrate Marvel’s iconic collection of superpowered beings who fight to protect a world that hates and fears them.

Released: 14 December 2010
Originally Released: 31 January 1992
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Original Developer: Konami
Also Available For: Arcade, Mobile, and Xbox 360

A Brief Background:
After Stan Lee and long-time collaborator Jack Kirby introduced the X-Men in 1963, Mutants have featured prominently not only in Marvel Comics but also in videogames. The first X-Men videogame was essentially a vertical shooter on the Nintendo Entertainment System, but the characters saw their greatest early success in arcade ventures and team-based brawlers. Indeed, in 1992, the arcade scene was still a popular staple of the industry and beat-‘em-ups were at the forefront of that; the biggest names in this genre were Capcom and Konami, who pumped out licensed and first-party titles and defined a generation. X-Men was one of Konami’s most celebrated efforts; based on the vastly different pilot episode of the incredibly popular X-Men animated series (1992 to 1997), X-Men’s widespread acclaim was matched only by its scarcity. The title never made it to home consoles and it would take about twenty years for it to finally be ported from the arcades. This digital-only version was praised for its nostalgia, though criticised for being far too easy, and was sadly delisted from digital store fronts in 2013 due to licensing issues and hasn’t been seen since.

The Plot:
Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto leads an all-out war against humanity with an army of Sentinels and his human-hating loyalists, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, even kidnapping his old friend and rival, Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X, and the X-Man Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. It’s up to the X-Men to use their unique Mutant powers to topple Magneto’s forces, rescue their allies, and put an end to his mad schemes!

The Review:
X-Men is one of the quintessential arcade beat-‘em-ups from the heyday of the era, allowing up to six players to battle it out across eight stages beating the crap out of an unending series of robotic or animalistic enemies and vying to be top of the leaderboards. The controls are as simple as you could want from a game like this: you use Circle or Square to attack, landing a series of combos with each button press and attacks that are unique to each character, jump with X, and perform a jumping attack by pressing Circle or Square in mid-air. When enemies are on the ground, you can press Circle or Square to pound on them or press Square when close to most enemies to throw them across the screen or into other enemies for good crowd control. Unfortunately, there’s no dash attack here and few other attack options available beyond pressing Triangle to unleash your character’s Mutant power, which will drain a bit of your health or cost you a “Mutant Orb”. These attacks are unique to each character and will wipe out all enemies on screen, but have some limitations; James “Logan” Howlett/Wolverine and Scott Summers/Cyclops’s Mutant powers are great for clearing what’s right in front of you but you’ll want to pick Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler of Piotr “Peter” Rasputin/Colossus if you want to target enemies all around you. Unlike other beat-‘em-ups, there are no weapons to get, no crates or barrels to smash, and no interactive objects to aid you (there are no explosive barrels here, for example); hell, there aren’t even any health pickups to find. Supposedly, the Japanese version of the game does have them, and other pick-ups that are dropped by defeated enemies, and I didn’t see one when I did a quick check after my first playthrough.

Plough through endless robotic enemies using the X-Men’s uncanny Mutant powers!

Indeed, despite its much-deserved reputation as one of the greatest arcade games of all time, there’s not much that makes X-Men particularly innovative. Its appeal comes down to the enjoyable mindlessness of its action, the colourful visuals, and the atrociously entertaining voice acting. The goal here is little more than to travel from the left side of the screen to the right, ploughing through disposable enemies until you reach the boss of each level. You’ll need to watch out for hidden turrets, cliff drops and lava pits, and a bunch of palette-swapped Sentinels who throw rocks, detach their hands, or fire projectiles. They’re joined by bulkier robots armed with cannons who fire missiles, low fireballs, or high laser shots, lizard men who attack with their tails or breathe fire, and even anthropomorphic mud and plant monsters and robotic arms, though these enemies are constantly recycled and become quite samey quite quickly, even when they’re riding in on trucks or these weird gun-toting cyborgs on treadmills. The environments are a bit hit and miss, too; the opening city is suitably wrecked, there’s a thunderstorm raging in the background of the cave stage, you’ll see the Giant Sentinel, X-Jet, and the captured Professor X and Kitty in other stages, but few levels were as visually interesting as the wild jungles of Island M and lava-filled dangers found in “The Trap”. You’ll be transported up and down lifts, as is expected in a beat-‘em-up, but won’t really be battling a host of enemies in these sections; there is one part where you’re confronted by a missile-spewing wall, but you don’t actually have to destroy it, and the only character with anything close to an idle animation is Wolverine, who sheathes and unsheathes his claws when left standing (but don’t linger too long or the game will punish you with an explosive death!)

Magneto’s monstrous Mutant minions are itching to welcome you to die!

Yet, the character and enemy sprites are big, colourful, and evoke both the comic books and the pilot of the animated series. The story, paper-thin as it is, is related through large, partially animated cartoon-esque sprite art and in-game graphics, with Raven Darkhölme/Mystique’s deceptive tricks and the Brotherhood’s explosive, boastful entrances being as notable a highlight as Professor X’s many words of wisdom. Of course, one reason X-Men is so fondly remembered is the awful dialogue, lovingly recreated here so as not to rob us of such meme-worthy statement as “X-Men! Welcome to die!”, “Magneto is in another place”, and “You’re dead, X-Chicken!” In terms of bosses, X-Men doesn’t offer much in the way of challenge or strategy and you can generally get by with a simple technique of jumping in for an attack, landing a quick combo, and jumping out of harm’s way, maybe landing a special attack if you have a spare orb or enough health. This is established from the first encounter with St. John Allerdyce/Pyro and is largely true of all bosses: they’ll burst into the scene, taunt you (leaving themselves vulnerable to an early attack), and use their various powers to whittle down your health. While Pyro is quite nimble and spams screeching flame projectiles and roasts you with a flame burst, Fred Dukes/The Blob is much slower, plodding about and landing big punches or swings with his spiked mace, causing the screen to shake when you knock him down for a few seconds, and tanking your hits. A version of the Wendigo is also fought, with it pouncing at you and performing a head grab/throw combo shared by subsequent bosses, such as Nimrod, another large, clunky, slow boss who’d rather waste time taunting you than attacking in an interesting way. Cain Marko/The Juggernaut is similarly large and cumbersome but makes up for it with a screen-crossing charge and a huge cannon that fires a large blast across the screen. There are also a couple of mini bosses to contend with, such as the mental bolt-throwing Emma Frost/White Queen, a battle against three Egyptian statues, several Pyro clones, and additional encounters with all previous bosses when battling through Asteroid M. You’ll fight Magneto twice; the first time, it’s Mystique in disguise and he/she’s limited to punches and kicks but defeating her sees you battle the true Magneto. This is the toughest fight yet thanks to his impenetrable shield, but his attacks are still limited to slightly faster and very powerful punches and kicks. He also likes to mock you, though, so you can get in a good combo in those moments, and you’ll be immediately trust into another playthrough after the ending and credits roll when playing the American version of the game.

Colourful visuals and fun bosses were offset by some repetitive backgrounds and enemies.

Yes, this version of X-Men allowed you to pick between the American and Japanese versions; the main difference between the two was that you get a free, non-health-sapping Mutant Orb after every boss in the American version, but you start each new life with one in the Japanese version, and there’s apparently more to pick up from defeated enemies in that version, too. X-Men also allowed for local and, at one time, online multiplayer, allowing up to six players to fight together like in the arcade days of old. You can head into the “Options” menu and turn smoothing on or off, set whether you want a wallpaper to fill in the gaps around the action, show or hide the in-game timer used for speed runs and such, change the screen size, and change where the player’s health and lives and score are displayed. Every time you clear a stage, it’s unlocked to select for next time, allowing you to pick up where you left off or freely jump to any level. While you strangely can’t change characters when you die (or, at least, I wasn’t able to; there was no way when the continue countdown appeared and the option was greyed out on the pause menu), you do get unlimited credits and you can test your skills on three difficulty stings: Normal, Hard, and Hardcore, with even more enemies swarming the screen on the harder settings. X-Men had twelve Trophies for players to earn, with Trophies popping when you used a Mutant power five times, earned at last 250 points in one game, completed it on Expert difficulty, and defeated Pyro without using your Mutant powers. Tougher challenges included beating Magneto with every playable character, finishing the game in 25 minutes or less, and being fooled by Mystique in a six-player game (which I achieved by mapping all six characters to one controller). Otherwise, that’s it; there are no skins, no new characters to unlock, and no additional game modes here; just the classic arcade machine in all its punchy, ridiculous, and colourful glory.

The Summary:
It’s such a shame that X-Men got delisted and hasn’t been made widely available for download since 2013; almost as much of a shame that it never came to home consoles back in the day and we were stuck with all those mediocre X-Men platformers. It’s a really fun game that ends just as things are about to become too repetitive and mindless, with a surprising amount of variety to each character despite the lack of pickups and power-ups. Each character plays a little differently (Nightcrawler is fast and has lots of elaborate attack animations while Colossus is much slower and bulkier, for example) and has some fairly good special attacks, though the lack of team-based moves and temporary power-ups is a bit of a shame. Similarly, the environments are quite bland and uninspired, especially compared to other beat-‘em-ups and even the colourful sprites on offer here. Considering the vast library of X-Men characters and enemies, there’s very little enemy variety (potentially because it’s more appropriate to have players smash up robots than people) and, while the bosses make up for this, there’s not much strategy to defeating them. I liked that there was a lot of voice samples used here, and in the engaging tunes, and the quality of the cutscenes was very much like a cartoon, which was very fitting considering the source material. Although X-Men doesn’t offer anything new to the genre and is, in many ways, inferior to other titles that don’t have the luxury of such a big licensing name being attached to them, it’s a short burst of entertaining fun that’s best enjoyed with a couple of friends. I’m really hoping Konami work out some kind of deal to make this accessible to new players sometime soon so I can revisit it again, maybe as a collection of titles or something, and add in some additional materials like concept art, the option for HD graphics, and maybe a couple of extra characters and game modes. If you missed out on playing this version of the game, which is nevertheless the definitive version, there’s always the Arcade1Up cabinet or…you know…emulation, the latter of which I’d highly recommend as this is a great game that should be more easily available to play despite its lack of core features.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Were you lucky enough to play X-Men when it came to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360? Have you ever played it out in the wild? Which character was your favourite and were you surprised by Magneto’s polite welcome to die? Do you agree that the levels and features were a bit sparse, or do you think there was just enough here to compensate? Would you like to see X-Men more widely accessible for modern gamers? What’s the worst (or best) videogame tie-in you’ve ever played? Which X-Men videogame is your favourite and how are you celebrating X-Men Day today? Whatever you think about X-Men, and arcade games in general, feel free to share your thoughts below or leave a comment on my social media.

Mini Game Corner [May the Sith]: Star Wars: Dark Forces (PlayStation)

Dr. K1 Comment

While May 4th is known the world over as Star Wars Day, many also choose to extend the celebrations of the course of three days, with one of them being the “Evil Star Wars Day” of May 6th (as in “Sith”).

Released: 28 February 1995
Developer: LucasArts
Also Available For: Macintosh and MS-DOS

A Brief Background:
First-person shooters (FPS) existed before Doom (id Software, 1993) but, thanks to its incredible success and accessibility, it not only defined the genre but also inspired a wave of FPS titles on PC and home consoles. LucasArts got the Star Wars franchise in on the action after seeing a fan mod of Doom that recreated the interior of the Death Star. Originally planned to feature Luke Skywalker as the main character, the developers created a new character, Kyle Katarn, who went on to become a firm fan favourite. Star Wars: Dark Forces expanded upon Doom with new control options and mechanics, and a specially-created game engine allowed for fully 3D objects and atmospheric effects, such as fog and animated textures helped to make the game unique. Star Wars: Dark Forces was well received upon release and has become popular among the fan modding community; the fidelity to the franchise was highly praised, as was the challenge offered by the title, though some criticised the presentation and for being derivative of Doom. Still, strong sales saw the release of a critically-acclaimed sequel two years later, one that introduced Jedi mechanics and kick-started a popular sub-franchise that many have called to be officially canonised.

The Review:
I’m giving Star Wars: Dark Forces a shorter review not necessarily because there isn’t much to say about the game, or because of its length, but primarily because my playthrough ran into a few roadblocks that even the super useful cheat menu couldn’t help me with. Even if this wasn’t the case, I would’ve still blasted through it with a series of cheats enabled (including invincibility and all weapons), so I feel it’s better to just give an overview of this Doom clone, a game I’ve long coveted due to its obscurity in the vast tapestry of Star Wars videogames. Anyone who’s played Doom will find the control scheme very familiar, but there are a few differences here: by default, you can swim and Triangle lets you jump, for example, and you can run by holding R1, two elements you’ll need to incorporate in later levels (referred to as “Missions”) to clear gaps. Square fires your primary shot, Circle cycles through your available weapons, and X allows you to activate switches and open doors and such. The PlayStation’s analogue sticks are useless here; it’s all about the directional pad and tank-like controls. Still, while there’s no aiming reticule, there’s a mild auto aim system and you can look up or down by holding L1 and strafe by holding R2, allowing a slightly greater range of movement when in a firefight. L2 acts as a toggle; if you hold this down and press Triangle, you’ll crouch to pass through smaller gaps, pressing Square fires your weapon’s secondary shot (usually a cluster shot or proximity function or emptying an entire clip), and pressing Circle cycle backwards through your inventory.

Kyle has an impressive array of weapons and options to help him achieve his objectives.

You play as mercenary and Han Solo proxy Kyle Katarn and are tasked with completing fourteen Missions, each with certain objectives that need to be accomplished (with many of these being repeated across the game, such as finding something or placing explosive charges) before you’re generally forced to backtrack to the start to exit on your ship (or, more accurately manually from the pause menu when prompted). Kyle has a decent array of weaponry available to him throughout the game, including a slow-firing pistol, an inaccurate Stormtrooper blaster, thermal detonators and a grenade launcher, and an assault cannon. If you run out of ammo, you can always default to your fists, but ammo seems pretty plentiful, though some weapons are quite large and obscure your vision and also have less ammo than others due to their power. You can occasionally blow open walls, crates, and explosive barrels to take out enemies and access secret areas, either to find shortcuts or caches of useful items, such as ammo, pick-ups to replenish your health and/or shield, or extra lives, brief invincibility, and temporary power-ups to your weapons. By pressing ‘Select’, you can activate a number of useful items, such as a small wireframe map that’s placed right in your field of vision, or activate a gas mask, night vision, or a headlight if you have enough battery power. You can also access Kyle’s PDA from here, which provides a larger map (when you find the appropriate item to enable this, though, it’s very confusing to look at), an overview of your inventory and objectives, and options to abort or restart the mission. Before you start the game, you can pick from three difficulty settings (“Easy”, “Medium”, or “Hard”) and you’ll need to find coloured keys to open certain doors and complete objectives such as locating clues or certain items (like the Death Star plans), placing explosive charges, and escaping your current location.

While the visuals can be repetitive, some locations and cutscenes do stand out.

One reason I struggled with Star Wars: Dark Forces, even with the cheats enabled, was that it sadly borrows the worst aspect of Doom: large, nearly identical, labyrinthine environments. While some locations faithfully recreate the aesthetic of locations like the Tantive IV or feature little details like those chirping Death Star droids, Imperial symbols, wireframe holograms, and the visuals of the Original Trilogy are recreated as faithfully as this generation of gaming allows, this is quite possibly the greyest game I’ve ever played! Almost every Mission takes place in an Imperial facility or on an Imperial starship, meaning everything is a dull military grey or a stone-grey shading, so it’s really easy to get lost and run into dead ends as you try to figure out where to go next. You’ll be activating a lot of switches to open doors but, like in Doom, it’s sometimes hard to tell what these switches activate. Locations also include stairwells and lifts, which can turn you about quite easily, and you unfortunately can’t destroy many of the monitors you see lining the walls (though the bodies of your victims do stay strewn on the ground, helping to show where you’ve been). Even when there is some visual variety, like the dark, towering skyscrapers of Coruscant or the disgusting sewage system of Anoat City, or the muddy hue of Jabba’s Kell Dragon-infested ship, things aren’t especially attractive. You’ll occasionally take a break from the endless grey to see purple or red-hued skies, dodge flaming pipes and crushing hazards, navigate industrial-esque mines and avoid giant fans. You can find and equip the ice cleats so as not to plummet to your death on frigid, narrow platforms and blast your way through a Star Destroyer to put an end to the Dark Trooper program, but it’s incredibly difficult to navigate each area and it’s disappointing how repetitive the visuals become. Each Mission is proceeded by a veritable wall of text to read but there are some amusing cutscenes on offer. Of course, the game begins with the classic Star Wars story scroll and distorted versions of the iconic music (including an “Imperial March” remix) feature during the game, but you’ll see decent CGI scenes whenever the story’s focusing on ships or planets and partially animated pixel art whenever characters are talking, which really evokes the DOS games of the era.

With only two bosses to contend with, you’ll have to settle for some tougher enemy variants.

Because I quickly became hopelessly lost and confused, I was only able to clear one Mission in Star Wars: Dark Forces and that was more by accident. Instead, I was forced to manually skip to the next Mission on every other level of the game, meaning I never found Crix Madine or Moff Rebus and Boba Fett only appeared in a cutscene in my playthrough. As you explore the repetitive environments, you’ll gun down incalculable Stormtroopers and Imperial officers, all of whom cry out when they see you and when they’re killed, which is fun. Imperial probe droids and other robotic enemies are also present, including (oddly) the Jedi training sphere and that spherical torture device, and these wicked sword-wielding robots that take ages to put down. Pig-like Gamorreans also show up, carrying large axes for a long reach, as do grenade-tossing, three-eyed Grans, disgusting squid-like monsters in the sewers, the gigantic and voracious aforementioned Kell Dragons, and even Trandoshans (who are all just copy/pastes of Bossk. Your most formidable recurring enemies are the Dark Troopers, large, dark-garbed Stormtroopers who can hover overhead and fire missiles and devastating plasma blasts at you. You’ll have to destroy ceiling-mounted turrets, avoid damaging liquid, and even see TIE Fighters flying out into the abyss (though they’re no threat) but I wasn’t able to complete Mission 11 enough to trigger the battle with Boba Fett. However, from what I can see, he’s very much the same as a Death Trooper as he flies about shooting missiles and blasting at you, meaning the Death Troopers and those droids are the closest the game has to boss battles. I did go head-to-head with General Rom Mohc, the man behind the Dark Trooper initiative, who’s also garbed in Death Trooper armour. His strategy is mostly to spam assault cannon shots and defeating him sees Kyle’s potential catch the eye of Darth Vader and the man himself be awarded for his services to the Rebellion. Unfortunately, there’s not much else to Star Wars: Dark Forces; there’s no multiplayer or deathmatch mode, so you’re left with challenging the game’s harder difficulties or messing about with the passwords and cheats, which also allow you to skip to different Missions, change your size, “pogo” up to higher platforms, and seemingly reflect enemy shots.

The Summary:
I’ve had vague memories of playing Star Wars: Dark Forces as a kid; I’m sure I played it on DOS way back in my youth and, as a fan of Star Wars, Doom, and Doom clones, I’d longed to get my hands on it and blast my way through countless Stormtroopers with reckless abandon. Unfortunately, Star Wars: Dark Forces quickly threw up some annoying roadblocks that meant I was far more reliant on the cheats than I initially planned to be. The game focuses way too much on its maze-like aspects, forcing you to backtrack to the start of most locations to be picked up by Kyle’s ship rather than having a traditional end goal like other FPS games from the time. This is bad enough but just trying to find your way around is even more frustrating thanks to the terrible map system, repetitive environments, and confusing level layout; everywhere looks the same and it’s easy to get lost, confused, or just aimlessly run around in circles searching for where you’re supposed to go next. The game also has a disappointing lack of boss battles; those droids and the Dark Troopers are formidable enemies, but I would’ve liked to see more battles against bounty hunters, or maybe a showdown with an AT-ST walker, or just something to break up the journey back to the level start. Although the game is slow, clunky, and runs very poorly, the sound effects and voice samples were fun; the cutscenes, while often terribly drawn, had a certain visual appeal and I quite liked the array of weaponry on offer. Unfortunately, the game is too dark, too confusing, and lacks any visual variety for me to really recommend it all that much. It’s a decent Doom clone but it could’ve been a lot better and you’re much better off just playing one of the other, more notable Doom knock-offs that came out around this time.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Have you ever played Star Wars: Dark Forces? Were you a fan of Kyle Katarn and his adventures? What did you think to the level layout and game environments? Did you also get lost and confused or were you able to easily best this title? What did you think to the Dark Trooper plot and lack of proper boss battles? Which Doom knock-off is your favourite? Whatever your thoughts on Star Wars: Dark Forces, or FPS games in general, drop a comment below or let me know on my social media.

Mini Game Corner [May the Fourth]: Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles (PlayStation)

Dr. K2 Comments

May 4th is known the world over as Star Wars Day thanks to being one of the most fitting and amusing puns ever devised (“May the Fourth be with you” in place of the traditional “May the Force be with you”). The first and most popular of what can easily become a three day celebration of the influential science-fiction series, the day stands as the perfect excuse for Star Wars fans to celebrate the beloved franchise in various ways.

Released: 4 April 2000
Developer: LucasArts
Also Available For: Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance

A Brief Background:
Almost immediately following its 1977 debut, George Lucas’ science-fiction “space opera” became a massive multimedia juggernaut that expanded to include sequels, prequels, spin-offs, novels, videogames, comic books, and more. After wrapping up his Original Trilogy, Lucas was hesitant to return to the franchise, but the success of the “Expanded Universe” books led to a revived interest in Star Wars and Lucas not only produced “Special Edition” versions of the Original Trilogy in 1997 but also the divisive first chapter in his Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (Lucas, 1999). Despite many lacklustre to average reviews, the film made over $1 billion at the box office and was accompanied by a huge marketing campaign. All these new toys, books, and comics were joined by ten different videogame adaptations released across numerous platforms, though this is the one I most remember playing as my friends and I used to muck about with it back in the day. The developers of Jedi Power Battles used paper cut outs to design the layout and features of the game’s environments and strived to give each character their own unique appearance, abilities, and lightsaber colours. Although numerous fixes and improvements were made to the subsequent Dreamcast version, this version of the game was received rather poorly; reviews criticised the game’s high level of difficulty and awful controls, though the co-op mechanics and arcade-style gameplay was highlighted as a positive.

First Impressions:
Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is a 2.5D, arcade-style hack-and-slash adventure game that includes a little light puzzle solving, some aggravating platforming sections, and a touch of role-playing functionality. Up to two players can play at any one time, which can be useful for taking on the droid army of the Trade Federation but can cause some serious gameplay issues; for one thing, players share the Credit pool, so your game can end pretty quickly if you get defeated too many times. You also have to be mindful not to stray too far behind; if you linger or get left behind when your friend gets too far ahead, you’ll lose a life, and the game will end that much faster. Players can pick from five Jedi characters – Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia and Plo Koon – who all share the same basic control scheme. There are five control schemes to pick from, but the default sees you using Square, Triangle, and X to swing your lightsaber horizontally, heavily, or vertically, respectively, and Circle being used to jump and double jump. There aren’t any jumping attacks here, but you can string together combos using Triangle, X, and Circle and you can also run by holding R2. If you hold L1, you’ll block incoming attacks; tapping it will deflect laser bolts, which is a great way to defeat faraway enemies but keep an eye on your block meter as this depletes (and automatically fills) over time. You can lock on to the nearest enemy with R1, which also sees you circle that enemy and perform a dodge roll but be sure to disengage the lock on if you’re near an edge or hazard as you’re likely to get hurt or lose a life.

Team up with a friend to double the frustration and difficulty of this clunky hack-and-slash game.

Holding L2 allows you to use each character’s four unique Force powers; this also depletes a meter, and you’ll need to grab power-ups to replenish it, and these powers allow you to perform short, defensive, long-range, and special attacks by holding L2 and pressing Triangle, Circle, X, or Square. To start with, Obi-Wan has a saber dash and tosses a thermal detonator, Qui-Gon unleashes a shockwave to send enemies flying and tosses a pulse grenade, Mace Windu protects himself with a saber shield and also tosses a thermal detonator, Adi Gallia can mesmerise foes and protect herself with an energy shield, and Plo Koon has a saber cyclone attack and stim pack. As you defeat enemies, you’ll gain “Jedi Points”; defeating enemies with style, different combos, or with a variety of attacks rewards more Jedi Points while attacking protocol droids or local Naboo wildlife costs you points. These points are tallied up at the end of each level and can be traded in to extend your health or Force meter and also award new combo attacks and Force abilities, though the game doesn’t list these anywhere, so you’ll just have to remember or make a note of them. Finally, you can also find some helpful power-ups dotted around; beyond the usual health and Force-restoring items, you can grab an extra Credit, hit checkpoints for when you inevitably die, add a special item (like the thermal detonator) to your inventory, extend or power-up your lightsaber, and either refill all your meters or halve them for an added challenge. There are two difficulty modes to pick from, “Easy” and “Jedi” mode; I tried “Easy” and the game still presents quite a challenge. While regular battle droids go down pretty easily, their coloured variants are surprisingly tough and they can send you flying with melee attacks up close or absolutely wreck you with laser bolts from afar if you’re not careful!

Hazards, tough enemies, and annoying platforming sections drag down this ugly-looking title.

The presentation on offer here is pretty good by 2000 PlayStation standards; we get the traditional Star Wars opening and story scroll, pixelated screenshots from the movie, and a full score that is ripped right from John Williams’ orchestral suite. After being treated to a CG opening sequence that strangely places the five main characters in a black void, you’ll behold some of the ugliest polygonal representations of these characters ever created; I don’t begrudge Jedi Power Battles too much for this as this is genuinely what a lot of games looked like back then and, to be fair, the character models don’t look too bad once you’re playing the game and the camera isn’t zoomed in on their blocky faces. They don’t have any idle animations, but their combat moves are pretty swift and satisfying; it’s a shame, then, that the controls are so awkward. Despite allowing analogue control, the game feels very clunky; if you’re not locked on to a target, you’ll swing wildly (and slowly) at thin air and, when you are locked on, you’re trapped in one-on-one combat with the target and vulnerable to other enemies. Where the game really falls apart, though, is in the platforming; in the first stage (a pretty decent recreation of the Trade Federation’s battleship), you’ll need to jump across gaps in bridges, avoid electrified floors and hazards, and hop across pistons. In the second stage, the jungles of Naboo, you need to jump up giant mushroom-like platforms and across large branches and treetops, which is especially difficult to do because of the immovable camera. It can be very difficult to judge where you are and how far away things are from you; while characters do grab ledges to give you some leeway, it’s all too easy to just slip off to your death, be shot out of the air, or miss-time a jump and have to start all over. Gameplay is mixed up a little in the second stage, where you must run away from the Trade Federation’s droid carriers amidst a stampede of dinosaur-like creatures towards the camera in a shameless rip-off of Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog, 1996). The game’s environments, while detailed and very true to the movie, are very ugly at times; again, this is just how games were back then but it’s a bit of sensory overload at times as textures warp around you and the game world struggles to stay in one piece.

My Progression:
As I mentioned, I’ve played Jedi Power Battles before in my youth; it was a long time ago but I knew I wanted the game in my PlayStation library once I started seriously collecting for the console, so I was excited to get into it and sure that I’d be able to finish the game one way or another. I picked Qui-Gon Jinn on “Easy” mode and got to work and, to start with, things weren’t too bad; when you’re running through corridors slicing up droids, the game is quite fun. But then you see the gaps, experience the awful jumping mechanics, and see how the game’s graphics are used against you; there’s one point where it looks like you need to jump between these electrical currents, but you actually need to jump along the side of the screen and will die if you drop down, which isn’t clear at all. Later, your path is blocked by some Droidekas, but they’re actually not that difficult to defeat, and you need to battle through some control rooms full of destructible elements to get to the hanger. After avoiding dropping to my death, I battled two bosses; the first was a large droid with two long, spiked arms and a platform for a head and the second was a droid ship that flew around firing lasers at me on a small gantry as droids distracted me. The first was definitely a challenge; the droid is quite large, and it can be hard to outrun or jump over its charge and spindly arms, but the hardest part of the second boss was dispatching the battle droids before they could ruin my chance to parry the bolts back at the ship.

Sadly, the game proved too frustrating for me to experience its later levels and battles.

Things fell apart in the second level, though; after being trampled to death in the opening stampede, I managed to get to safety and was charged with “protecting” Jar Jar Binks, who you’ll spot flailing about in the backgrounds. Before you can do that, though, you have to wade through a small army of battle droids (or, as I did later, simply race past them as it’s faster!) and take to higher ground. This was extremely frustrating as it was really hard to jump to the mushroom platforms; if you fall from too high up even in this section, you’ll die, to say nothing of being pummelled, blasted, or falling as you traverse the higher path. This sets you back quite a bit but there is an extra life you can snag before the mushroom tree, effectively giving you infinite continues; once you pass it, you enter a cave and must battle a giant worm creature. This thing appears to only be vulnerable on its underside, but it spits out these homing projectiles that can stun lock you, slams into the ground, and spins around with a tail attack. Deal enough damage and it retreats to the side and spits out small termite-like creatures, but this was where I had to call it a day as the worm just decimated my health bar in seconds and I didn’t want to have to play through the frustrating jungle section to try it again. It’s a bit of a shame as well because I know that later levels of the game represent other aspects of the movie, such as infiltrating the Naboo capital, utilising vehicles, and battling Darth Maul. There are also additional characters you can unlock after completing the game, such as the aforementioned Darth Maul and even Queen Padmé Amidala (who plays differently since she doesn’t have any Jedi abilities). Unfortunately, there are no passwords or cheat codes to help with progression in this game, doubling frustration and disappointment; once all your Credits are exhausted, you have to replay the last stage from the beginning, which is very tedious with the stunted camera and janky controls, all of which meant that I was barely able to limp through the first mission let alone even consider trying to conquer the Naboo jungles again!

I waited for years to play Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles again; I had fond memories of it from my youth and was really excited to get into it, but it seems that my memories were tainted by time. Although the game has a bombastic score and aspects of the lightsaber combat are exciting, it looks atrocious, even by PlayStation’s standards, and the controls are sluggish and awkward. This probably wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been a mindless hack-and-slash with simple push/pull puzzles and a bit of jumping, but placing such a great emphasis on platforming when your depth perception and game engine are already frustrating is just asking for trouble. The game offers quite the challenge, even on “Easy” mode and even more so in two-player; just targeting and attacking an enemy without being blasted by another or slipping to your death is hard enough, to say nothing of the needless limitation on continues and messed up controls. It’s a shame as I was really looking forward to slicing my way through a fun melee title, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back to Jedi Power Battles any time soon. But perhaps you’ve beaten it without any issues. Perhaps I’m missing something, like playing as a different character or not sucking so hard? Maybe you know of a better Episode I­-branded videogame? Whatever the case, there’s a comments section below and my social media is always open to hear your thoughts, good or bad, so feel free to share them and go check out my other Star Wars content!

Mini Game Corner: Alien³: The Gun (Arcade)

Dr. K6 Comments

Released: 1993
Developer: SEGA

A Brief Background:
The Alien franchise (Various, 1979 to present) has certainly had a long and complicated history with videogame adaptations that includes real-time strategies, crossover titles, survival/horror experiences, and a fair number of first-person shooters. Similar to how director James Cameron more than met the challenge of delivering a sequel to Ridley Scott’s commercial and highly influential Alien (ibid, 1976), Konami produced a popular arcade port of Aliens (Cameron, 1984) that came to be regarded as one of the best games in the franchise. However, Konami lost the rights to the Aliens license by the time the divisive third film was released; hampered by production woes, delays, and script problems, it took some time for Alien³ (Fincher, 1992) to become a cult favourite for many fans. It was, however, accompanied by two videogame adaptations, the first being a decent, if confusing, run-and-gun adventure, and the second being this arcade-exclusive rail shooter. In many ways a precursor to SEGA’s later success with the House of the Dead series (SEGA/Wow Entertainment, 1996 to 2022), Alien³: The Gun was lauded as one of the best light gun shooters around at the time, one that successfully merged the atmospheric horror elements of the film with the action-packed enjoyment of a rail shooter.

The Review:
I’m tackling my review of Alien³: The Gun a little differently to my other game reviews; it’s still going to be a shorter review because of how short the game is, but I did finish it so I want to go over my thoughts in a little more detail and give it a proper rating. The first thing I need to say is that the game’s title is pretty ridiculous; yes, Alien³: The Gun tells you everything you need to know but could they really not have come up with something a little more interesting and exciting for a subtitle than just The Gun? Secondly, I emulated this game and the ROM I played was a little buggy; elements like the heads-up display (HUD), aiming reticule, foreground, and background would often be invisible or appear corrupted, which was a bit of an issue but I was still able to power through the game thanks to the gift of unlimited credits. Finally, Alien³: The Gun is an Alien³ game only in the sense that it takes place on Fiorina “Fury” 161 and contains locations and Xenomorphs that mirror the film, but it’s actually more like a sequel to the movie and has far more in common with Aliens than the third movie. Rather than playing as Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, you and a friend take on the role of two United States Colonial Marines charged with investigating the Sulaco and cleaning up the rampant Xenomorph infestation on Fury 161, though movie stills are used at certain points to convey story beats like the Alien’s demise from the end of the film. Your standard issue pulse rifle has two basic fire modes; the first is a rapid-fire function tied to a firepower meter and the second sees you tossing out a limited supply of grenades (or “bombs”) to clear all onscreen enemies. If you simply hold down the trigger, you’ll run out of firepower and be left vulnerable as the game automatically moves you through the various corridors and locations; when you input a coin to continue, your bombs will clear a path for you and you acquire a flamethrower to mix things up or restore your health by shooting supplements.

You’ll gun down swarms of Aliens in a game whose action is closer to Aliens than Alien³.

Your main objective is to survive each stage of the game, wipe out any Xenomorphs, robots, or androids in your path, and take out the boss waiting at the end of the stage. There are five stages but, at various points, you’re asked to pick a floor or door or need to shoot through a door to reach a different area, which leads to different routes, thus adding a bit of replay value to the game. You start off on the Sulaco, which is now infested with Alien eggs; Facehuggers leap at the screen and Xenomorph warriors scuttle about on the floors, walls, and ceilings, slashing at you and being left a quivering mess of green goo as you blast off their limbs. Sentry turrets also take shots at you, dead bodies are everywhere, and you’ll be treated to the familiar squeals of defeated Aliens and a few voice samples as you progress. While the Sulaco is obviously based on the location seen in Aliens, right down to the cryo-sleep chamber, the rest of the game’s stages take place either on the storm-swept surface of Fury 161 or in the prison and refinery on the planet. You’ll blast through the mess hall, infirmary, tunnels, and furnace as you go but watch out for the prisoners; not only do you need to avoid shooting them, but you’ll also have to try and save them when Aliens grab them from the vents. Other memorable moments from Alien³ are also surprisingly recreated, such as the scene where the inmates use themselves as bait to trap the Alien in the corridors (they even explode like in the movie), you encountering a Xenomorph in the bowels of the prison, and a final confrontation with the Alien in the lead works. The amount of enemies or prisoners you killed and the damage you took is tallied up at the end of each stage; do well and you’ll gain a higher rank and score higher on the high score table, though this is mainly for bragging rights.

Alien variety is a bit lacking, and nowhere is this clearer than in the final, unimpressive boss.

Although Alien³: The Gun doesn’t feature any of the recognisable music from any of the films, the action comes thick and fast; since it’s a rail shooter, you’re given very little time to breathe and, unlike other light gun games, there’s no cover or reload options so you’re left ploughing ahead into the claws of swarms of Aliens. Weyland-Yutani androids and robots pad out the enemies you’ll encounter, and you’ll see other Alien variants, such as bipedal ones like in Alien³ and “warrior” Aliens like those from Aliens and even Chestbursters (with some even exploding out of the chests of the prisoners!) Each stage ends with a boss battle that basically amounts to you being guided around an enclosed space and blasting at a larger foe until their health bar is depleted; the first boss you’ll face is the “Super Face-Hugger”, a bigger variant that scuttles about, pops back up time and time again no matter how much it appears to be dead, and spits acid at you. After escaping the flaming wreckage of your shuttle and braving the harsh landscape of Fury 161, which is swarming with Aliens and salvage robots, you’ll battle a massive tank-like vehicle. Target its cannons and turrets and it’ll eventually detach and hover in the sky shooting missiles at you! After passing through a pitch-black area with your infrared goggles, you’ll fight a larger Alien drone at the prison entrance. This critter is pretty fast and agile for such a big bugger; it also slashes at you, whips you with its tail, and charges at you with a headbutt and basically sets the standard for the subsequent Alien boss fights. You’ll battle Alien³’s bipedal creature, the “Super Dogburster”, in the bowels of the prison; this one also charges at you and likes to hide behind the many pillars but has the added threat of spitting purple goop from afar to damage you and briefly obscure your vision. After surviving the tunnels, you fight another large Alien by the lead works; this time, you’re stuck in place but it’s pretty simple to stun-lock the Alien until it flees. You catch up to it at the blast furnace and must unload everything you have to force it into the lead works; though it appears defeated, it’ll claw its way back out and you’ll need to shoot the pipes overhead to rapidly cool it and finish it off. After that, you have one last challenge to beat and, thankfully, it’s not a Xenomorph Queen! Instead, you’re confronted by an “unidentified man” (who I assume is Bishop II from the movie) who unloads on you with a flamethrower after learning that you destroyed all the Aliens; simply shoot at him until he stops getting up and you’ll earn yourself a bit of text to wrap things up and a place on the high score table.

The Summary:
I love a good, action-packed light gun game; they’re mindless fun but, sometimes, that’s exactly what you want and Alien³: The Gun certain delivers in this regard. Unfortunately, like its home console cousin, Alien³: The Gun is a little restricted by being associated with the Alien³ movie. It’s pretty obvious that this is an Aliens game dressed up to resemble Alien³; you have all the same weapons, sound effects, and even a few locations from Aliens featuring prominently against the background of Fury 161 to bolster Alien³’s far more subdued and bleak narrative. I can understand that, as it’s hardly exciting to make an action-shooter based on a movie with only one Alien in it, but it begs the question of why anyone thought a videogame adaptation of the slower, more contemplative Alien³ was a good idea. Still, that aside, this is a really fun game; it’s painfully short and light on additional weapons and such, but there’s some great attention to detail sprinkled throughout. You can blast off Alien limbs, destroy many parts of the environment (both for fun and to damage foes), and it’s interesting that the developers added in a limited branching path system; it doesn’t change the game that much, but it adds replay value, if nothing else. The Aliens are fun to blast into smithereens, the weather effects on the planet’s surface add a bit of atmosphere, and I enjoyed how aspects of the film were recreated, especially in the mess hall and candle-lit corridors. The bosses could’ve had a little more variety, for sure; as much as I applaud the game for not wheeling out an Alien Queen, it feels like Alien³: The Gun has less Alien variety than other Alien videogames from around this time and plays things a little too safe by just offering bigger, scarier versions of the Xenomorph. In the end, there are obviously better rail shooters out there, but you could do a lot worse than giving Alien³: The Gun a shot; of all the Alien³ videogame adaptations, it’s the best (though not the most faithful) simply for its brevity and the fast-paced, explosive action it offers.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever played Alien³: The Gun? If so, how do you think it compares to the home console adaptation of Alien³? Were you disappointed to see the bleak, atmospheric Alien³ adapted into an all-action shooter? Which of the branching paths did you take and what did you think to the boss variety on offer here? Are you a fan of Alien³? While Alien videogame is your favourite and how are you celebrating Alien Day this year? Whatever you think about Alien³: The Gun, or Alien³ in general, share your thoughts below or drop a comment on my social media, and go check out my other Alien reviews across the site.

Mini Game Corner: Alien³ (Mega Drive)

Dr. K12 Comments

Released: October 1992
Developer: Probe Software
Also Available For: Amiga, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

A Brief Background:
Over the years, the Alien franchise (Various, 1979 to present) has had a long and complicated history with videogame adaptations; from pixelated garbage to first-person shooters, real-time strategies and crossover titles, to survival/horror experiences. Just as director James Cameron more than met the challenge of following up on Ridley Scott’s financially successful and highly influential Alien (ibid, 1976), so too did Konami produce a popular arcade port of Aliens (Cameron, 1984) that is widely regarded as one of the best games in the franchise. Unfortunately, Konami lost the Aliens license by the time the divisive third film hit cinemas; fraught with production issues, delays, and script troubles, Alien³ (Fincher, 1992) might not have been as critically or commercially successful as its predecessors, but in time it became a cult favourite for many fans and it spawned two videogame adaptations: this multi-platform run-and-gun adventure and an arcade-exclusive rail shooter the following year. Unlike its contentious source material, Alien³ was quite well received at the time; reviews praised the presentation and fidelity to the movie, as well as its arcade-style gameplay though some did struggle with the troublesome controls and music.

First Impressions:
At first glance, Alien³ seems to share many similarities with the Aliens (Konami, 1990) arcade game; the visuals, especially the sprites, onscreen text, and environments, are strikingly similar and Ripley even wields many of the weapons featured in that game. However, the moment you actually start playing the game, you realise that it’s an entirely different beast, one that has a bit of an identity crisis. For starters, as mentioned, Ripley is armed to the teeth; she’s got the iconic Aliens pulse rifle, a flamethrower, a grenade launcher, and regular grenades, making her decidedly more formidable than she was in the source material, where the entire point was that she and the inmates had to come up with out the box solutions to deal with the resident Xenomorph. Secondly, and most crucially, the game isn’t just a mindless run-and-gun; instead, you’re given a strict time limit to complete a specific objective in each stage and reach the exit, and the game’s locations take on a far less linear, much more labyrinthine structure that closely mirrors the panic and claustrophobia of the movie. Ripley is tasked with rescuing inmates and destroying the Xenomorph infestation, objectives that are somewhat aided by the onscreen Aliens-style motion tracker and the various vents and ladders that help her to get around each location.

Although heavily armed, Ripley’s greatest challenges are the timer and maze-like levels.

Alien³ utilises a simple control scheme, but one I had to shuffle about a bit; by default, A switches your weapon, B jumps, and C fires, but I swapped fire to A and switch to C as that was more comfortable for me. You can pick between one and nine continues, but these are actually how many lives you have, and whether you want to play on Easy, Normal, or Hard mode. I chose nine lives and the Easy difficulty and still found the game to be quite challenging; the timer is a constant headache, meaning you need a lot of trial and error to find the optimal route around each stage, something that is hampered by dead ends, hazards (such as fans and my pet hate, fall damage), and the Xenomorphs. Aliens will crawl out of the ground and along the ceilings and walls, dropping on you and charging at you, though you thankfully don’t have to worry about them constantly respawning or acid damage. Later, Facehuggers apparently also show up and you have to shake them off with the directional pad, though I never saw any in my playthrough. You’ll occasionally have to make some blind jumps to avoid slippery slopes or make use of moving platforms to reach new areas, as well as activating consoles to open doors (or simply blowing them open with a grenade). If you fail to rescue all of the prisoners in time, a gory scene plays out showing them, and Ripley, succumbing to their Chestbursters, and you’ll have to replay the entire stage from the start all over again, which is a real pain in the ass.

My Progression:
As I said, Alien³ has a bit of an identity crisis. Judging by Ripley’s weaponry and the way the Aliens are presented, it seems like the developers wanted to make something more akin to the action-orientated Aliens but were stuck adapting the most recent movie. The game impresses quite well with its arcade-style graphics; Fury 161 is recreated nicely, including a wasteland up top and different layers within, and Ripley has a basic alternative pose when left idle. Each stage is preceded by a drooling Alien face and the music is quite jaunty, which is at odds with the bleak source material but helps keep you engaged in the action. Sadly, the gameplay and steep difficulty curve are where Alien³ falls apart; the time limit is way too tight and health and ammo pickups are so scarce that it’s a chore just getting through even the first stage. I was just about able to tank my way through to the third stage, where the layout just became too confusing to continue and I was forced to quit.

Sadly, the game’s difficulty, stringent timer, and lack of passwords make progression a chore.

This wouldn’t be a problem if Alien³ incorporated a password system, but it doesn’t; there are cheats out there, but I couldn’t get any of them to work so I’m not sure if I’ll ever progress further into the game, especially as you can’t seem to earn extra lives or continues. Looking ahead, the game sees Ripley venturing into the blood-stained medical wing, a cargo area and butchery also feature, and the game even includes an Alien nest that is, again, visually ripped straight out of Aliens. Xenomorph eggs pop out Facehuggers, slime drools from above, and various ridge-headed versions of the Xenomorph act as “Level Guardians”, spitting acid, jumping about the place, making use of higher platforms, and players will need to fend off two at once in a large industrial area in order to get their final score tally and earn the extremely lacklustre text ending in with Ripley simply leaves the prison without any repercussions. I’m surprised that the developers resisted the urge to have Ripley fight an Alien Queen, as is often standard for Alien videogames, though these boss battles seem to increase in difficulty simply because the area you battle them in increases in size, giving them more places to hide and surprise you with some acid projectiles from behind the prominent foreground images.

Alien³ is a  strange entry in the franchise to adapt into a videogame, and it seems like the developers shared this philosophy; there’s a reason why the game has more in common, in terms of action and gameplay, with the Aliens arcade game than the actual movie on which it’s based and that’s the fact that Alien³  would work much better as a point-and-click adventure or a survival-horror style title, two genres that probably wouldn’t have been successful at the time or on the Mega Drive. It’s not a bad game, really, it’s just the difficulty curve is way too steep; either the game needed a password system or the timer needed to go, but without either it’s a real test of your skill and patience to get anywhere beyond the first few stages. I liked the level of detail, even though things were a bit stiff and janky at times (Ripley sometimes struggled to go down ladders), and the use of gore when you inevitably mess up. The lack of enemy variety was a bit of an issue, though; Alien games, especially  around this time, tended to go a bit bonkers with Alien variants but Alien³ plays things way too safe. In the end, it was a largely forgettable and disappointing experience for me, especially as it could’ve been so much more if the Aliens arcade game had simply been ported instead. Still, maybe I just suck; maybe you actually really enjoyed this game. Maybe you had no issue rescuing all the prisoners and navigating the maze-like levels. Or, maybe, you prefer a different Alien³  videogame, or a different Alien game entirely. Whatever your thoughts and feedback, feel free to drop a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Alien content on the site.

Mini Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Judge Dredd (Mega Drive)

Dr. K1 Comment

January sees the celebration of two notable dates in science-fiction history, with January 2 christened “National Science Fiction Day” to coincide with the birth date of the world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and HAL 9000, the sophisticated artificial intelligence of Arthur C. Clarke’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), being created on 12 January. This year, however, I’ve been spending every Thursday of January celebrating sci-fi’s toughest lawman, Judge Joseph Dredd!

Released: 16 June 1995
Developer: Probe Software
Also Available For: Game Boy, Game Gear, PC/MS-DOS, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

A Brief Background:
Still published to this day, British science-fiction comic book 2000 AD first appeared in February 1977 and, in March of that same year, introduced readers to the uncompromising lawman of the future, Judge Joseph Dredd. Created of John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, and Pat Mills, Dredd became one of the most popular and iconic British comic book characters of all time. Accordingly, the character has expanded beyond the comic book panels and into the realms of videogames on more than on occasion; his first videogame outing was a largely repetitive platform shooter, a concept expanded upon by its bigger, more graphically impressive Amiga follow-up. Dredd’s relationship with videogames is largely considered to be hit and miss but, when the time finally came for the character to make the jump to the silver screen, an adaptation was put into development. While the movie would become a notorious box office bomb, developers Probe Software sought to be as faithful to the production as possible by digitising the film sets to be featured as locations in the game, however their efforts resulted in mixed-to-negative reviews across the board. While some reviews praised the gameplay and fidelity to the source material, others criticised the difficulty and lack of variety, and the game failed to make a lasting impression regardless of which system it was played.

First Impressions:
Judge Dredd is a 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun that, for the most part, emulates the plot and visual aesthetic of the bombastic movie. Players assume the role of Judge Dredd (whose sprite more resembles his comic book counterpart than Sylvester Stallone’s look from the film) and play through twelve stages taking out street punks, mutants, and even Dredd’s fellow Judges just like in the movie. Players are given three lives to start with and can collect more by picking up extra life icons, and each stage has a primary a secondary objective, both of which are relayed to the player using sprite art modelled from scenes of the film and traditional text. Primary objectives range from destroying ammo supplies, locating Dredd’s mentor, Judge Fargo, reaching the council in the Hall of Justice, and defeating specific enemies. Secondary objectives appear to be option, but you must complete the primary objective in order to exit the current stage, something which can prove problematic given how maze-like and strangely designed many of the game’s stages are.

Though often cluttered, the game certainly makes an effort to marry the visuals of the film and comic book.

Judge Dredd is armed with his trust Lawgiver; tapping or holding the A button will see Dredd fire a variety of shots, from unlimited regular bullets to heat-seekers, grenades, and missiles, and you can even hold down the button to fire uninterrupted. Dredd can also sprint by tapping the directional pad (D-pad), and shoot while running, jumping, and crouching, and in all directions (including diagonally!) Although some objectives tell you not to shoot certain enemies, you’re free to be as trigger happy as you like; however, you’ll score more points if you use Dredd’s melee skills (A up close or X if you have a six-button controller) to disarm and arrest perps when “GUILTY” appears over their head. Dredd can jump with B and even fly about for a few seconds if you find an Anti-Grav Belt; you’ll be doing a fair amount of platforming but Dredd can’t jump very high so you’ll often need to make use of ladders, monkey along overhead lines, or even a running jump to reach new areas. Dredd can also crawl about, push some objects, and access terminals to see his current mission progression and health and ammo stats or lock doors in certain stages. Dredd controls quite well but is a bit clunky; pressing up will scroll the screen, which can be disorientating, and there’s a few too many frames of animation at times, meaning there is often a delay between button presses. Dredd is quite sturdy but can replenish his health with small and large hearts, pick up additional ammo, or even grab a temporary forcefield and invincibility to help even the odds.

There’s some variety on display in the different Dredd’s objectives and gameplay mechanics.

After completing each stage, you’re given a score tally and a password to help you skip ahead; while there don’t appear to be any useful passwords for this version of the game, such as infinite health or ammo, it is a handy feature to pick up where you left off or try out different missions. In my case, this is almost mandatory; it took quit a bit of trial and error to complete even the first stage as you can get stuck in an area with no way back. While Dredd will nip up on the spot after being killed, it’s quite easy to get stuck as ladders and hazards aren’t always immediately visible, and while you can duck and shoot most enemies, you’ll be majorly outclassed by the wild mutants in the Cursed Earth and the Atomic, Bacterial, and Chemical Warriors (A.B.C. Warriors) you’re tasked with destroying later on. The game certainly looks good; sprites are a bit small but Dredd has some fun idle animations, such as twirling his gun and cleaning his badge (there’s even a little squeak-squeak sound effect), and there’s some splashes of blood when you off enemies. The environments are visually very faithful to the movie, including trucks, futuristic skyscrapers, and the Statue of Liberty as in the film, but can be cluttered and a little too large for their own good. Gameplay is somewhat broken up by one stage that has you flying through the skies on your Lawmaster while fending off pursuing Judges (Herman Fergusson/Fergee fires at the rear while Dredd fires ahead) and by the fact that some enemies will be possessed by the four Dark Judges; you’ll know when they are as they’ll have an aura about them and a spirit will fly out that you can catch for bonus points if you have some Boing ammo.

My Progression:
Judge Dredd is a surprisingly tough game; at first, it reminded me of classic run-and-guns like Turrican (Factor 5, et al, 1990) or Duke Nukem (Apogee Software, 1991), especially with the placement of the heads-up display and dystopian, sci-fi setting. Seconds into the first stage, I hit a literal wall and had to think for a minute as the ladder I needed was so difficult to see and things only got more confusing from there; vents randomly damage you, trash falls from above, and you can’t even step in a small puddle of water in the Cursed Earth without taking damage. Just destroying the ammo crates in the first stage is a chore as they can only be destroyed by your explosive weapons and you need to explore the stage in a specific way so you don’t miss any and get stuck. Rather than running past terminals in Aspen, you need to access them to initiate the lockdown procedure, and enemies can take a few shots before they go down even before the clunky A.B.C. Warriors enter the picture. It appears that most stages end with a boss battle, too; the first is a guy who looked a lot like DC Comic’s James Harper/Guardian and who constantly blocks your shots with his shield while firing at you with a machine gun, tossing Molotov Cocktails, launching an almost unavoidable energy wave, or bashing your head in when you get close. You can use nearby barrels for cover but he absorbs shots like a sponge and the timing required to jump and duck under his shots meant that I couldn’t actually beat him!

Sadly, the game’s difficulty meant I couldn’t get very far and I wasn’t motivated to skip ahead much further.

Using a password, I jumped to stage two and fared much better n the Aspen Penal Colony. There’s some neat effects on the waters of the sewer area and I was actually able to beat the stage the boss, a brute with a big club who rides an elevator that he tries to crush you with, tosses grenades and Molotov cocktails, and smacks you silly up close. It was a slog, but I did beat him, but I couldn’t get past the Cursed Earth for the life of me. Here, the mutated inhabitants live in the ruins of society and Judge Hunters patrol the wooden walkways, but the leaps of faith and confusing level layout got the better of me. I skipped ahead to the Hall of Justice and that wasn’t a problem, nor was the chase on the Lawmaster, but the A.B.C. Warriors stomping about on the construction site around the Statue of Liberty were enough to have me calling it quits. They’re immune to your regular shot, so you’ll need a healthy supply of missiles or other explosives, but their missiles and the stage’s bottomless pits were the last straw for me. it was a bit of a shame as the game’s layout and objectives actually got easier the deeper I got and, from what I can see, there’s a bit of a post-game that looks right up my alley. After dealing with Dredd’s psycho clone brother, Rico, players head to Deadworld, an alternative dimension where all life was deemed a crime, to do battle with Dredd’s reaper-like spectral counterpart, Judge Death! I could’ve used passwords to jump ahead to this point but I decided that enough was enough, but I am impressed that a videogame adaptation from this time actually expanded on the film; the game does a decent job of following the movie’s narrative but infuses it with more elements from the source material, including my favourite Dredd antagonists, the Dark Judges, which is pretty rare for a game of this era in my experience.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Judge Dredd; videogame adaptations of movies tended to be more hit than miss back in the 16-bit games, at least in my experience, but sadly there were some issues here that kept me from really enjoying the experience. Visually, the game is both impressive, bland, and confusing all at the same time; the horizon and backgrounds aren’t always very detailed but the foregrounds are almost too detailed, making things a bit cluttered and messy at times. Dredd looks great and plays okay, but I find it amusing that the developers included the ability to arrest people when Dredd is far more likely to just sentence criminals to death for even more infractions. Since the game doesn’t really penalise you if you kill everyone, I recommend taking a traditional run-and-gun approach, especially as you’ll be distracted by vague objectives and the maze-like areas. Overall, it was a mediocre experience, one that I struggled to get through thanks to the difficulty spike and clunky presentation. It’s a shame as I feel the concept could have legs if it was more like Contra (Konami, 1986) or Metal Slug (Nazca Corporation, 1996) and leaned more into arcade-style action rather than tedious exploration. Still, maybe I’m being too harsh? Maybe you actually enjoyed the gameplay on offer here? Perhaps you prefer one of the movie’s other ports or a different Judge Dredd game entirely? Either way, I’d love to hear about it so leave a comment below or on my social media and be sure to check out my other Judge Dredd content.

Mini Game Corner: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game (Mega Drive)

Dr. K1 Comment

This review has been supported by Chiara Cooper.
If you’d like to support the site, you can do so at my Ko-Fi page.

Released: November 1992
Developer: Tiertex Design Studios
Also Available For: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, MSX, Master System, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), ZX Spectrum

A Brief Background:
In 1981, legendary director Steven Spielberg joined forces with George Lucas and Harrison Ford to bring the first Indiana Jones film to cinema screens; inspired by both old serial films and the James Bond franchise, the three crafted an action/adventure film that was so critically and commercially successful that it kicked off one of cinema’s most beloved franchises, helped launch Harrison Ford to superstardom, and fundamentally changed the cinema rating system. Naturally, given the franchise’s success, the Indiana Jones films and character have been adapted into books, comics, and videogames; the first Indiana Jones videogame was a simple 8-bit adventure for the Atari but it was the third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Spielberg, 1989) that received the most love back in the day, with three titles released across multiple platforms between 1989 and 1991. This particular game was the more action-orientated version and was met with divisive reviews that praised the presentation but criticised the content, combat, and difficulty of the game.

First Impressions:
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game (boy, is that ever a mouthful!) is a 2D, sidescrolling action/adventure game in which players assume the role of the titular archaeologist and adventurer. The controls couldn’t be simpler; by default, you press A to punch, B to attack or swing with your whip, and C to jump, but you can customise these inputs as you desire. Indy can also duck and crawl through tunnels, attacking as he goes, climb up and down ropes (lashing out with his whip to take out enemies), and can swing from certain objects simply by whipping near them. Although Indy doesn’t seem to utilise his pistol, his whip can be used to take out enemies from afar, but the more you use it, the weaker it becomes, as indicated by the whip icons decreasing with each button press. Luckily, you can replenish this by finding whip pick-ups in suitcases and you can still use the whip even after exhausting your supply. Indy’s mission is to travel across a number of levels (referred to as “Scenes”) from the movie, exploring hazardous environments and reaching the exit before the timer runs out. Players can pick between “Easy” and “Hard” difficulty modes and are given two lives and two credits on Easy mode, which you’ll quickly realise is nowhere near enough to help you get through his unforgiving title. Literally everything around you is out to get you; Indy will even lose health if he jumps and hits his head on the ceiling, to say nothing of the falling stalactites, boulders, and armed enemies looking to quickly drain his health and leave him little more than his trademark hat.

Don’t be fooled by the graphics or your love of the franchise: this game is absolutely merciless!

Gameplay is given a little bit of variety thanks to the gimmicks found in each Scene; you’ll get to jump in a minecart in the caves, for example, but will need quick reactions to hop from one cart to another, and to a rope, to avoid plummeting to your death. The second Scene sees you running across train carriages jumping over telegraph poles, ducking through tunnels, and avoiding giraffe heads and snake pits as you desperately try to progress without falling. You can also grab flaming torches to light up dark areas, but you’ll need to watch out for spikes that instantly kill you, bursts of flame from the ceiling, and make precarious jumps up a castle wall in rain-swept Venice. Enemies are all largely generic and look the same in each Scene and can punch and shoot at you, though they’re easily defeated in a few hits. Unfortunately, Indy’s punch is pathetically short and you’re more likely to take damage engaging with them, so it’s best to just avoid combat or use your whip wherever possible, though none of that will save you from the game’s many instant death traps or the fact that you take damage from jumping! Water, snake pits, train tracks, and skeletons will instantly kill Indy, meaning there is very little margin for error, and you’ll not only have to deal with some merciless knockback but often need split second reactions to dodge damaging (or instant death) traps after besting each Scene’s boss. Indy can find goblets to replenish his health and sand timers to increase the time, but you’re constantly walking on eggshells as so much can either hurt you or out-right kill you that it makes playing the game a frustrating chore and Indy, one of cinema’s toughest action heroes, weak as a kitten.

My Progression:
Technically, I couldn’t even get past the first Scene; I inched my way onwards only to fall victim either to accumulated damage or an instant death trap, made all the worse by how large and unforgiving Indy’s hit box is. Thus, I used the one and only cheat for the game, which is a level select code; this not only lets you pick the Scene to start on, but the starting point as well (the game is filled with hidden checkpoints), which is very handy for seeing later areas of the game or battling bosses. I fought the first three bosses, the first being a strongman with a huge piece of wood that he swings at you to knock you to the instant death water and smashes on the ground to cause rocks to fall on you, the second being a bulbous fire-breather whose flames you need to quickly duck or jump over while frantically whipping him, and the third a Native American who shoots high and low arrows at you, but I shut the game off shortly after besting this boss.

I was really hoping for a challenging, but fun, action/adventure title and instead what I got was a torturous and ridiculously difficult title that no doubt had many kids pulling their hair out back in the day. When you struggle, or can’t, get past the first level, to me that’s the sign of a bad game and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game reeks of being cobbled together to cash-in on the movie by having kids rent it over and over just to get past the first damn level! It’s a shame as there’s a lot to like here. Graphically, the game looks really well; Indy doesn’t really have an idle animation, but he looks and controls pretty well, and games environments are all nicely detailed. The sound is pretty good too, with a decent rendition of the iconic Indiana Jones theme, but the game is just too difficult to really enjoy. It’s a shame as I’m a big fan of the franchise and was hoping this would be a decent little action platformer, but it kicked my ass the moment I pressed the jump button under a low ceiling and Indy is just way too fragile for the game to be as enjoyable as I would like. But maybe I just suck. Maybe you’ve beaten this game multiple times, or really enjoy it. Or maybe you prefer a different Indiana Jones videogame. Whatever your thoughts or experiences on the subject, sign up to share them below or leave a comment on my social media.

Mini Game Corner: Indy – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game (Master System)

Dr. K3 Comments

This review has been supported by Chiara Cooper.
If you’d like to support the site, you can do so at my Ko-Fi page.

Released: February 1992
Developer: Tiertex Design Studios
Also Available For: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, MSX, Mega Drive, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), ZX Spectrum

A Brief Background:
1981 saw legendary director Steven Spielberg join forces with George Lucas and Harrison Ford to bring the first Indiana Jones film to cinema screens; inspired by the serial films of yesteryear and the James Bond franchise, the three crafted an action/adventure film that was so critically and commercially lauded that it marked the beginning of one of cinema’s most beloved franchises, propelled Harrison Ford to superstardom, and fundamentally changed the cinema rating system. Since the franchise was so successful, Indiana Jones has been adapted into books, comics, and videogames, with the first being an 8-bit adventure for the Atari. It was the third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Spielberg, 1989), that received the most love back in the day, however, as three titles were released across numerous platforms between 1989 and 1991. This particular game was the technically inferior version of its 16-bt counterpart that scored rather well at the time thanks to its colourful graphics and gameplay, but was also criticised for its difficulty and collision detection.

First Impressions:
Indy – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game (yep, somehow the developers found a way to make the title even longer!) is a 2D, sidescrolling action/adventure game that puts you in control of the famous archaeologist and adventurer. Since the Master System only uses two buttons, you wouldn’t believe how simple the controls are in this version: Button 1 allows you to punch, crack your whip, and swing while Button 2 allows you to jump. These buttons can’t be switched around, but Indy can duck down to avoid incoming bullets and punches and attacks from below, and climb up and down ropes simply by jumping to them. It doesn’t appear that Indy can use a gun of his own this time around, and his whip is limited significantly here; you need to pick up a whip icon to even use it, and you only get a few swings before you lose it until you get the next power-up. As in the bigger 16-bit title, Indy must journey through six levels (referred to as “Scenes”) that recreate environments and situations from the movie, but there are no difficulty settings here; instead, you start with six lives and three credits and face a super tight time limit to clear each Scene, gaining additional time by picking up hourglasses and aiming to accrue a high score and some precious extra lives. As in the Mega Drive game, Indy has a daunting uphill battle ahead of him as he’s practically made of glass; not only does he take fall damage, but hitting the ceiling will drain his health, and he’ll crumble to his knees in seconds from dodgy hit detection and instant death hazards such as water.

Don’t let the impressive visuals fool you, this game is tough as balls!

While the game recreates the train scene from the film and eventually sees you scaling a castle and airship as in the film, you’re unlikely to see this as it’s more than a chore to progress any further the first few screens of the first Scene. While the game delivers a fair attempt at recreating the iconic Indiana Jones theme for the title screen, levels are completely silent save for the sounds of attacks and your continuous death, though the graphics are surprisingly impressive. Sprites aren’t exactly the most expressive but they’re colourful and quite detailed; Indy grabs his hat when he jumps, wooden platforms crumble beneath his feet, and the environments contain a decent amount of detail for a Master System title. The first Scene is primarily based around traversing the caves using ropes; you’ll need to hop to them (avoiding hitting your head, of course) and shimmy down, avoiding gun fire, and then precariously jump across lethal water to progress. As in the Mega Drive version, there are a number of hidden checkpoints in the Scenes, and you’ll even restart from these after continuing after losing all of your lives, but the constant injury you’ll take form everything around you and the ludicrously tight timer make just playing the game one of the most difficult experiences I’ve ever had the misfortune of suffering through.

My Progression:
While I couldn’t get past the first Scene in the Mega Drive game, I was at least able to give it a decent shot; here, though, there was absolutely no hope. Indy’s six lives will disappear in a blink of an eye and, before you know it, you’ll be staring at the game over screen again and again having made little progression. There aren’t even any cheat codes to help you jump ahead to other Scenes, either, so I have absolutely no idea how anyone is ever supposed to see anything other than the first Scene as the game absolutely bricks you right out the gate. Looking ahead at the game (which can apparently be beaten in about ten minutes…), it seems like you’ll face a lot of the same challenges as in the 16-bit title, including avoiding Native Americans on a circus train, fireballs and skeleton pits, even trickier jumping and swinging up the caste’s stone walls, and be faced with avoiding buzz saws and bottomless pits in a pseudo-isometric rendition of the Temple of the Sun. Although you’ll collect artefacts from the movie, there are absolutely no bosses to contend with this time around, making for an extremely frustrating and lacklustre experience, I would imagine.

After the struggle I went through with the Mega Drive version of this game, I didn’t exactly expect much from Indy – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game; I guess part of me was hoping that it would be easier, since it would obviously be a scaled down version of its 16-bit counterpart, and it certainly offers a lot less than that version of the game but ramps up the difficulty to a ridiculous degree. The longplay I watched to get a sense of the rest of the game made it look so easy but this really was a kick in the balls to play, and I imagine would have really disappointed kids who rented (or, heaven forbid, bought) it back in the day. Indy is so fragile that the game may as well have one-hit kills, the sound is basically non-existent, and all the impressive visuals in the world can’t make up for the fact that this game is basically unplayable and not enjoyable in the slightest. I’m curious, though: what did you think to this version of the game? Did you prefer it to the Mega Drive version? What’s your favourite Indiana Jones videogame? Whatever your thoughts or experiences on these games, share them below or leave a comment on my social media.