Game:Road Fighter Format:Nintendo Entertainment System Developer:Konami/Palcom Year Released:1991 Also released on:Arcade, MSX Now available on:Nothing
I've always been interested in bad games. Not because I get some perverse pleasure out of attempting to play them. More that I'm fascinated by what makes them so bad. Is it down to poor design or bad controls? Is it too easy, too hard, totally unfair, completely unfathomable or simply not any fun? What was the reason for games that were so clearly terrible still managing to find their way into shops? Why did nobody at any part of the process between the first code being written to the game being put onto a disc, tape or cartridge say "This is complete shite!" and attempt to stop things from going any further. Was it corporate greed, bad planning, ridiculous deadlines, publisher arrogance or contempt of their customers? In the case of Atari, famous for releasing two of the more notorious bad games, Pac-Man and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial for the VCS, it was probably all of the above. Yes, Atari's apparent "policy" of passing any old garbage off as a video game was partly responsible for the entire gaming industry pretty much imploding in the early 80s in the USA. Arguably, they were helped along this path of self-destruction by Coleco and Magnavox who also appeared to allow their Colecovision and Intellivision consoles to play host to countless cartridges of crap. The inevitable collapse resulted in most console manufacturers exiting the industry, with Atari remaining as the sole survivor, but much smaller and much poorer than they once were.
Nintendo's Fun Box
Filling the void and arriving in America as the saviour of the video game industry were Nintendo with their exciting new grey box of fun, the Nintendo Entertainment System, with Mario and his Bros. in tow and lots of other fab games. The NES quickly became the console that all the kids wanted - mostly because it was the only console available. And to prevent a repeat of what had gone before, Nintendo made the most of their monopoly by restricting the activities of the publishers who wanted to release games for their console. All games had to be released on cartridges manufactured by and purchased from Nintendo, only five games per publisher could be released a year, and the publisher couldn't release the game on a competitor's console for a couple of years. Satisfy the big N and you'd get a gold star slapped on your box signifying that Nintendo had given it their Golden Seal of Approval. As a consumer, this meant that every game released for the NES was going to be of high quality, didn't it? Well, no, not entirely. Although the seal of approval gave consumers the impression that Nintendo had given the game their thumbs-up and that the massive grey cartridge that they had in their hand contained something special, the reality was that the seal was just a way of saying that the publisher had kept to Nintendo's rules. As restrictive (and later illegal) as they were, it can't be denied that Nintendo's measures did definitely result in a marked improvement in the quality of games released and prevented publishers from taking the piss and just shitting out code and claiming that it was a game. The NES is still regarded as one of the best consoles in the history of the gaming industry, and that is largely down to the fact that it had some amazing games released for it, games that remain classics today. This was surely down to Nintendo's tight controls. But, they didn't completely prevent the odd turkey from getting out. Road Fighter, released in 1991, is a good example of a game gone bad. It's also a good example of what happens when publishers find a way around Nintendo's rules, and why the rules were there in the first place. Mean Machines, the UK's most popular console magazine in the early nineties, reviewed the game and gave it a rating of 9%, making a point on the issue's front cover that the magazine contained the "Worst Game Ever". Over two decades later, I still hadn't got around to experiencing the alleged horrors of Road Fighter. Until now. But after taking it for a spin, I have to say that it definitely isn't as bad as the review made out. It's by no means a great game, but it certainly isn't deserving of its 9% score.
Road Fighter is a conversion of an arcade game with the same
name. Developed by Konami in the mid eighties, the arcade game was an overhead vertical scrolling driving game from an era of when overhead
vertical scrolling driving games were all the rage. The idea is simply to drive
along a road, avoid other cars and get to the end of the course before you run
out of fuel. Once you're out of fuel, it's game over.
Ever get the feeling you're the odd one out?
The NES conversion remains faithful to its arcade parent in that
it also requires you to drive along a road, avoid other cars and try not to run
out of fuel. Sounds like my typical drive to work. There are only two
tantalising options to choose from, representing easy or hard but called level 1
and level 2 just to confuse you. Once you've picked your level, you're onto the
open road. After the starting beeps have beeped, your opponents race off, leaving
you behind to start your car and build up speed by pushing down the accelerate buttons. You have a choice of two speeds, slow or fast. Slow in this game is apparently 222 kilometres an hour. Fast is a super speedy 400 km/h. One button allows you to drive "slowly", the other makes you go faster. You can move your car left or right using the d-pad.
Vrmmmmm....
In most cases, cars just let you pass them. But, some of the
drivers are twats and decide to block your way as you approach them to
overtake. They tend to drive blue or red cars. The blue cars are probably BMWs and red ones are Audis. Yep, definitely reminds me of my commute to work. Colliding with other
vehicles usually results in you spinning off to the side of the road, which causes you to explode when you reach it. But your RAC membership helps you to
get back on the road in no time - virtually instantly - ready for you to
continue your journey. It is possible to stop your car from spinning out of control after an accident by steering in the opposite direction to the one you're going in straight after having a bump. It's not easy, but might make the difference between you getting to the end of the course or falling short. You see, the car you're driving appears to be the most fuel
inefficient car in existence and loses fuel at an alarming rate. Collisions, their often inevitable explosions and the time it takes to get back on the track and back to full speed are the main drain on your fuel. Fortunately,
rainbow coloured cars carry fuel and driving into them replenishes a small
amount of fuel. Not by much, but if you collect enough, you should have just
enough to get you to your destination. Unfortunately, driving up the backsides
of rainbow cars tend to be the BMW-driving shitheads so getting hold of fuel
can sometimes be a risky manoeuvre. Superman sometimes makes a bizarre cameo
appearance, flying along the track. He awards extra fuel and points. Or maybe just points. Usually I'm so in awe by his random appearance that I don't really know what he actually does.
At first, the game feels a bit unfair. Your car just doesn't seem
to have enough fuel to complete your journey, so collecting replenishments is
essential. Of course, the game wouldn't be that challenging otherwise so it's a
bit of a moot criticism. Once you get used to dodging the drivers who appear to
be intent on getting in your way and master the art of refuelling, the game
becomes much more tolerable and getting from one level to the next is quite
achievable, if not entirely fun.
Made it to the end with 1 drop of fuel left. Now, how am I going to get it to the garage to fill up?
Kaboom!!
Presentation is quite lacking with just a static title screen to
welcome you when switching on the game and just text on a black background when
picking your options. Its uninspiring but it does the job. Similarly, the graphics aren't
amazing but do change for each course although are more reminiscent
of early NES games than something released in 1991 (there's a reason for this, to be revealed later). The same can be said about
the sound. A tune plays at the start of the first track and when you get to the finishing line of each one, but throughout the game itself, it's just your engine noise and a few effects when overtaking BMWs or Audis, collecting rainbow cars or colliding with something. The engine noise gets a bit grating quite quickly.
Get the rainbow car for extra fuel!! I do that in real life too.
It takes a while to speed up and you definitely
don't feel like you're doing the 400 km/h that the speedo says you're doing, but there is a sense of speed and the game scrolls upwards quickly and smoothly. The
controls are also fairly responsive as you direct you car, although your car appears to move sideways rather than turn into the direction that you send it. Importantly the controls aren't too sensitive or under sensitive.
Already done this screenshot, haven't I? Oh well,
here it is again. Kaboom!
So, what exactly is wrong with the game? Basically, it's too short and isn't really much fun. There are only four courses and it's possible to complete them in about five minutes. The problem is that it is just an upwards scrolling avoid-em-up. Yes, it can be seen as a test of skills and reactions, and the game does reward skilful playing. But, although it doesn't feel like too much of a chore to play it, it just doesn't endear itself to the player in any way. It doesn't look or sound great, the red and blue cars wind you up, as do the hazards like oil slicks or pot holes in the middle of the road. Collisions result in frustration if you don't manage to salvage things before your car spins out of control and off the side of the road. It's also not easy to avoid a collision. Both buttons are used to accelerate your car, so you don't really have any brakes. The only way of slowing down is by letting go of one of the acceleration buttons. Also, your fuel depletes depending on what speed you're going at. Staying in slow gear the whole way means you lose fuel at a slower rate. So, you can quite easily get to the end of each course by just driving slowly. It makes the game easier, but takes some of the enjoyment out of it. What enjoyment there is in it.
The red car and the blue car had a race. And a truck and a yellow car did too.
Road Fighter isn't completely unplayable and will provide a bit of fun and challenge for a short length of time. After two or three goes though, you'll have either completed it or given up and begun looking for something else to play. If you ever need a game to define the word "average" then Road Fighter would be it.
Roadworks and nobody doing any work. Typical!
RATINGS Presentation: 30% A dull title screen is all you get, with in-game presentation lacking. Graphics: 40% The sprites are small and lack suitable animation, and the backgrounds and tracks are uninspiring. Scrolling is fast and smooth though. Sound: 45% A couple of tunes introduce and end games, the rest of the game is made up of average sound effects. Playability: 55% Frustrating at first, but there is a feeling of satisfaction once you get to grips with the game and manage to get to the end of a course with fuel to spare. Overall: 50% Definitely not the greatest NES game ever released, but certainly not the worst. Playable in small doses but not as enjoyable as it could have been.
The title screen from the game's first release.
BREAKING THE RULES
Earlier in the review, I mentioned something about Road Fighter being a good example of what happens when publishers find a way around Nintendo's strict licensing rules and why those rules existed in the first place. One of the restrictions that Nintendo placed was that publishing companies could only release a limited number of games for the NES a year, usually five. In theory, this would mean that the publishers would ensure that their games were top notch so that they could maximise sales. It would also give the NES a library of good quality games. One way of getting around this rule was by publishers setting up multiple companies, and producing games under that name. Konami set up Palcom (which later became Ultra) which doubled the number of games they could release. Konami were the developers of the Road Fighter arcade game, but released the NES conversion under their Palcom label. Incidentally, although it wasn't released in the USA and Europe until 1991, the game had actually been programmed and released in Japan for the Famicom in 1985. So, not only did the cheeky beggars use a loophole in Nintendo's licensing policy to allow them to release more games, they used their extra allowance to rerelease substandard games that they'd made years earlier. In a way, it proved that Nintendo were kind of right. A company being less limited in the number of games they can release would result in them being more likely to release crap games.
A massive sign blocks the only way in to Adventure Island
Game:Super Adventure Island Format:Super Nintendo Developer:Hudson Soft Year Released:1992 Also released on:Nothing Now available on:Wii Virtual Console (800 points)
It's 2014 and the new generation of console gaming is finally with us. Once again, the three main contenders - Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo - have put forward their offerings for this latest bout. It's still very early days, way too early to predict a victor. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One both appear to have got off to great starts and seem to be pretty much neck and neck, while the Wii U, even with the advantage of a year's head start, seems to be wandering around aimlessly like somebody's drunk uncle, not sure of its place or purpose, hoping that somebody will figure out that it is a brand new console and not just a variation of the original Wii.
New technology brings new capabilities, and this will undoubtedly mean that games become more realistic. This isn't just in terms of graphics, gameplay environments, physics and suchlike. Oh no. Developers are adding more depth to the characters in their games, giving them multi-faceted personalities and a greater variety of traits. They want gamers to become more emotionally involved in games, immersing themselves in the world of the characters that they are controlling - characters with human-like flaws, complexities, prejudices, their own set of morals - good or bad. The characters may not always be likeable, but as they possess more real personalities, gamers are likely to be able to empathise with them and understand how and why they behave in the way that they do.
Master Higgins is toast if he doesn't make these jumps
Of course, I've been empathising with video game characters for years. Master Higgins, of Adventure Island fame, is one such character I find myself relating to quite easily. You see, Master Higgins appears to frequent Adventure Island with a bizarre amount of regularity. It reminds me of my childhood when, no matter whether it was the summer holiday, Easter, half term or just a random weekend, I seemed to find myself at a caravan site in North Wales. My mum and dad having a holiday home there was probably something to do with it. I'm sure my adventures in North Wales weren't anywhere near as exciting or treacherous as Master Higgins' are in Adventure Island, but they probably come close. We once nearly got stuck in a flood near Cricceith, and I remember getting lost in the sand dunes on the beach once. I even very nearly had my very first kiss while there. And, this story of youthful romance even has a retro gaming element to it. It was the summer of 1992, and I'd spent three weeks on holiday there. I was at a special age, 13, nearly 14. And I became aware that I'd noticed a young lady with long dark hair while wandering around the arcade of an evening. I also noticed that she appeared to have spotted me too, and it became quite apparent that we spent much of the three weeks there giving each other knowing glances. On the final night, I was standing at a 5p-a-go fruit machine with a friend, watching him pump his pocket money into it in the hope he'd win the £2.50 jackpot. Behind me was the Out Run machine, and standing at it was the girl with long dark hair and her friend. All of a sudden, the friend walked over to me and asked me if I'd "go with" long dark haired girl. I froze on the spot. Back then, I didn't really understand what to "go with" somebody meant. I muttered something about having to go home the next day, which got the response "So?". After what felt like hours of standing there, wanting to say yes but not sure exactly what I'd be letting myself in for, the girl walked back to her friend at Out Run and they went away. And that was it. For years I kicked myself about the missed opportunity. Oh well. Yes, even in the romantic misadventures of my youth, retro games seem to feature. In fact, this wasn't the only time. A few years later, a Nintendo Entertainment System and Duck Hunt hampered another opportunity.
Worst date ever....
Back to Adventure Island where it appears Master Higgins had more luck with the ladies than I did, seeing as one of the reasons for him going there time and time again was to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. Unlike my visits to North Wales, which have never (yet) been depicted in a video game, Master Higgins' visits to Adventure Island were immortalised in a series of games for a range of consoles, namely the NES, SNES, Gameboy, PC Engine, Wii and even the Gamate. Today we'll be looking at his first appearance on the SNES which went under the title Super Adventure Island because it was the fashion at the time to slap Super to the beginning of titles for games on the SNES. But before we do, let's take a quick look at Adventure Island's convoluted, complex but not-really-that-interesting origins.
Wonder Boy - Adventure Island's spiritual ancestor
Adventure Island began life as the arcade platform game Wonder Boy, which featured Tom-Tom's quest to rescue his girlfriend. Being named after a sat nav, Wonder Boy easily found his way to home computers and consoles with ports appearing on the Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore 64, SG1000, Master System and Game Gear. Hudson Soft acquired the rights to produce the game for the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System but legend has it that they decided to change the main character. Instead of featuring a nappy-wearing toddler named after a not-yet-invented satellite navigation system, it instead featured a caricature of Hudson Soft's PR man, Takahashi Meijin. They also decided to change the game's name to Adventure Island (for Westerners anyhow - in Japan the game's title translated as Master Takahashi's Adventure Island). However, seeing as the legend in this case is Wikipedia, there's a good chance that it's wrong. Other sources suggest that, although Hudson Soft acquired the rights to the game from Wonder Boy's developers, Escape (now Westone Bit), they didn't acquire the rights to the name and its main character, which were owned by Wonder Boy's publisher, Sega. Whatever happened, Adventure Island on the NES was basically Wonder Boy with a different name and without Wonder Boy himself and with a small number of creative changes. It's not quite as good a conversion as the one for the Master System, but it's not bad.
Throwing an axe at an innocent looking snail in Wonder Boy (arcade version)
Despite their shared beginnings, Wonder Boy and Adventure Island went on to become two independent franchises - kind of. Whereas subsequent Wonder Boy games contained more role-playing elements, Adventure Island's sequels mostly kept to the arcade platform style of the original. Wonder Boy was first followed by Wonder Boy: Monster Land in the arcade in 1987, which like its prequel received conversions for home computer and consoles aplenty, mostly under the name Wonder Boy in Monster Land, sometimes with a Super at the beginning of it. In Japan, the Master System conversion was named Wonder Boy: Monster World and was the beginning of the Monster World franchise. As with the NES conversion of Wonder Boy, Hudson Soft's conversion of Wonder Boy in Monster Land, this time for the PC Engine, featured different characters and a different name, becoming Bikkuriman World with characters based on those in a Japanese anime. To confuse things further, Hudson Soft's mobile phone port of Wonder Boy in Monster Land in 2005 was called Super Adventure Island, not to be confused with the SNES game with the same name that I'm meant to be reviewing here. I'll get there eventually.
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair was the third and final Wonder Boy arcade game, appearing in 1988. It was converted for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1990 and PC Engine/TurboGrafx in 1988. Hudson Soft handled the PC Engine conversion and this time tampered with the name by just calling it Monster Lair. In Japan, a Master System sequel to Wonder Boy: Monster World (the one known elsewhere as Wonder Boy in Monster Land) was developed. It was to be known as Monster World II: Dragon's Trap. However, as the Master System had been dropped in Japan, the game didn't get a release over there until it later appeared on the Game Gear in 1992. But, over in Europe, where the Master System was still a big seller, the game did get released in 1989 under the title Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. It really is one of the Master System's greatest games. Hudson Soft, once again, had their mitts on rights to this game, releasing it on the PC Engine as, um, Adventure Island. Gah! In the US for the Turbografx, it became Dragon's Curse.
After two different Wonder Boy III games, Wonder Boy's fifth appearance was on the Mega Drive, where, in 1991, he appeared in Wonder Boy in Monster World in the USA and Europe, and Wonder Boy V: Monster World III in Japan. The game also appeared on the Turbografx-CD as The Dynastic Hero. The game was also released on the Master System in Europe in 1993, keeping the name Wonder Boy in Monster World. The final game in the Wonder Boy/Monster World series was Monster World IV, a Mega Drive exclusive released only in Japan in 1994. The Wonder Boy name had been dropped from the title, and the game's main character was a girl. Monster World IV finally made it to Western shores in 2012, appearing on the Wii's Virtual Console service. Since its appearance there in 2012, no more Mega Drive games have been released on the Virtual Console.
So, that was Wonder Boy. I have a headache now. Fortunately, Adventure Island's history is slightly less complex, especially if we ignore the fact that some conversions of Wonder Boy sequels had Adventure Island in the titles. A couple of sequels followed Adventure Island on the NES, namely Adventure Island II and Adventure Island III. A fourth game appeared in Japan for the Famicom, apparently the last official Japanese Famicom game to be released. Two Adventure Island games appeared on the Gameboy, Adventure Island and Adventure Island II. Adventure Island was based on Adventure Island II for the NES, and Adventure Island II was based on the NES game Adventure Island III. Super Adventure Island and Super Adventure Island II appeared on the SNES. Super Adventure Island was released on the SNES after Adventure Island II on the NES so is the third home console Adventure Island game. The fourth was New Adventure Island for the PC Engine/Turbografx. Super Adventure Island II on the SNES went down the role playing adventuring route of the Wonder Boy sequels. This was Master Higgins' final console appearance until he returned in Adventure Island: The Beginning for the Wii in 2009. Coincidentally, I returned to the holiday park of my childhood in 2009 too. And this kind of brings my whole point about empathising with Master Higgins full circle and concludes my quick but possibly inaccurate summary of the Wonder Boy/Monster World/Adventure Island series.
One of the best things about the Wonder Boy and Adventure Island games is that many of them are still available to play on several of the latest consoles. Pretty much all of the Wonder Boy games are available on the Wii Virtual Console, along with the Adventure Island games, while some of the Wonder Boy games make appearances on the Xbox and PlayStation online services.
Totally rad skateboarding skillz here dude
So, after an introduction which went on much longer than I anticipated, it's finally time to join Master Higgins for his first 16-Bit based trip to Adventure Island. The story begins with Master Higgins and Tina sitting atop a tree, gazing at the stars. While Master Higgins occupies himself by rubbing his head, the evil Dark Cloak casts a spell on Tina and turns her into stone. Angered, Master Higgins waves his fist at Dark Cloak as he flies away. A rather large bird picks up Master Higgins and whisks him off to Adventure Island so he can make his way to Dark Cloak's castle and give him his comeuppance. Tina remains at the top of the tree in her stone-like form. That's the plot, a plot which is clearly so great that the writer of it gets first billing in the end credits. Forget about the graphics designers, programmers, musicians and so on. Their talents are nothing compared to that of the author of the story behind Super Adventure Island.
Here's the reason why sealions shouldn't hold their breath.
Climbing a tree covered by snails. Nasty things snails.
Totally destroyed my strawberry plant last year.
Master Higgins arrives at Adventure Island unarmed, but he quickly picks up an axe which he can throw around at will. And at snails and other such creatures. At first, you can only throw one axe at a time but collecting more axes scattered around the level increases its throw rate and power. At maximum power, the axe turns a purple glowing colour and can even destroy rocks. But that's not all. You can also exchange your axe for a boomerang. The boomerang is handy for attacking enemies from long range and above or below you. The axe remains good at short range. Conveniently, the game tends to ensure that the best weapon for the task ahead is usually made available to you just when you need it. Handy.
An end of level baddie with a light saber. Or glow stick.
It's gone mighty chilly on Adventure Island, and Master
Higgins has only packed his grass pants.
Unlike the original Adventure Island/Wonder Boy, it isn't possible to make Master Higgins run faster by holding down the fire button. This can cause a few frustrations when making longer jumps as you don't get chance to build up speed and go for it. It also sometimes feels like although you've timed a jump well, you actually fall short of your target, usually resulting in your death. It is possible to do high jumps by holding down when you jump and this becomes quite easy to pull off when you get used to it. Alternatively, for greater speed, a skateboard is sometimes made available to you. Unfortunately, you can only go in one direction on it and it doesn't usually take you long until you lose it by colliding into something. If you do manage to still have it by the end of the level, you aren't able to take it onto the next.
Special stage a go-go!
Inside the belly of a beast. Looks like he's been eating
pinepple and kiwi, and eels.
Super Adventure Island is split over five stages each containing three areas plus a boss bottle. Most levels are your typical left to right side scrolling affairs, although there are a couple of upwards scrolling and swimming levels, plus that old platform game favourite, a mine cart level. There are also special stages available, although accessing them appears to be by throwing your weapon into an empty space - good luck remembering where you found the special stages when trying to locate them again! Each level, area, or whatever you want to call it is different to each other in appearance- no two levels are the same. Even so, the game does feel a bit repetitive as the basic format remains the same throughout. Run, jump and smash the crap out of the weird and wonderful creatures of Adventure Island with your axes and boomerangs. Each level is also quite short, with most (once you get used to them) taking only a minute or two to get through. This means that you don't really get the opportunity to feel immersed in the theme of the level that you're in - it just seems that you're passing through them. The end of stage boss battle is varied for each one, but they remain consistent in that they're all a piece of piss to beat. The only one that offers any challenge is the final one, but this isn't a battle as such as it doesn't require you to use any weapons. A battle of wits and skill maybe.
The obligitory mine cart level.
Meeting a foe in the forest.
The graphics in the game are great, and remain consistently high throughout. Levels are colourful, sprites are large and detailed and everything looks the part. Music is also fantastic too and is more representative of early nineties dance and R&B than typical videogame music. The man behind the tunes was none other than Yuzo Koshiro, better known for composing the famous soundtrack of the Streets of Rage games. Overall, the game feels very polished, and doesn't bother itself with unnecessary intermissions and cut scenes. It just keeps to the arcade game style of Wonder Boy. In a way, this is one of its problems. It perhaps feels too much like an arcade game for a console. It's addictive (if a little frustrating at first) and easily draws you in, but it doesn't last long at all. You'll keep coming back for more because, each time, you get a little better at it. But, once it's completed, there isn't really any return value. And playing it through doesn't give you a feeling of being part of an adventure in a series of engrossing worlds. It's great that the game tries not to repeat the themes of levels over and over again, but you just don't have time to even feel part of a level before you're on to something completely different. You can have the game done in half an hour, which simply isn't good value for a game that would have cost you £40 on release. It's undoubtedly a fun little game which looks and sounds great, but it's frustrating in parts, a bit too short and it isn't really that captivating. Nowhere near as captivating as my holidays in North Wales were.
After years in the spotlight, Dumbo turned to a life of drugs and drink and general rebellious activity. Here he is at
a particularly difficult stage in his life.
RATINGS Presentation: 80% A title screen and animated introduction are all there really is presentation-wise, but this feels right for the game. Less is more as they say. Graphics: 85% Although they don't push the SNES's abilities too much, the game features large colourful sprites and a great variety of graphics which represent each level's theme well, although the graphic designer's efforts are a little wasted as you don't get chance to look at them for very long. Sound: 90% A selection of funky tunes plays throughout the game and add some coolness to the game. Playability: 80% The game feels a bit clunky at first, especially if you're used to controlling the main character in the original Adventure Island/Wonder Boy, but once you're used to it, it becomes quite an enjoyable game to play. Overall: 82% A true arcade-style platform game. Not the greatest SNES game, and probably a bit too linear and short to retain your attention, but most definitely worth a look.
Super Adventure Island playthrough on YouTube
Oh yes, not only have I spent forever trying to write this review, I've also played the game through, recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube. Enjoy!
Game:Psycho Fox Format:Sega Master System Developer:Vic Tokai, Sega Year Released:1989 Also released on:Nothing Now available on:Nothing
Many people associate the Master System with Alex Kidd. Some associate it with Wonder Boy and some even associate it with Sonic the Hedgehog. Each character featured in multiple games for Sega's 8-bit machine, but there was another platform star whose appearance on the console was well-received at the time and is remembered by those who knew him with fondness today. That character was Psycho Fox who featured in a game which bore his name in 1989.
Psycho Fox throws the bird.
As with most platform games, it's Psycho Fox's job to rid the world of some troublemaker who has some dastardly plan to do bad stuff. I'm sure the troublemaker and his intended bad stuff is described in the instruction manual somewhere, but I really can't be bothered to find out. The text on the back of the box just talks about Psycho Fox being "an adventure game centering around the entertaining and thrilling escapades of a very special fox", who "ventures into many strange worlds to conquer the strange beasts and boss monsters he encounters." It then goes on to say the same thing in other European languages. Well, at least I think it's the same thing. There could actually be six completely different descriptions of the same game on the boxes for European releases. The text on the box for the US release is slightly less generic and asks if you're bored of rescuing princesses, sick of dungeons and "mother brain". What the fudge is "mother brain"??!! It basically suggests that, if so, Psycho Fox is the game for you. It also talks about the world needing saving from Madfox Daimyojin. It also asks if you've heard of Zizo Zizo or Poola. Apparently these are some of the unheard-of enemies that you'll encounter. I suppose they wouldn't be able to be described as unheard-of if you'd actually heard of them. Oh yes, we need more analysis of the descriptions of games from their boxes in the future.
What on earth?
So, the game itself. Psycho Fox must travel through many strange worlds to defeat Madfox. Although the strange worlds don't actually appear that strange - there's your usual desert, ice, cloud, underground levels on offer here - some of the creatures that inhabit the worlds are very bizarre, and there are some unique ideas in the levels to set the game apart from its contemporaries.
Invincibility a go-go.
As his name suggests, Psycho Fox is a bit of a nutter. Like Mario, he can defeat enemies by jumping on them. But, unlike everybody's favourite Brooklyn-based plumber, Mr Fox is not content to just bounce on nasties and move on. He can land on enemies multiple times, pounding on them again and again until they are buried deep underground. If a semi-buried enemy tries to get out, just jump on it another time to make sure it doesn't try to escape again. Alternatively, Psycho Fox can just walk up to an enemy and punch them in their face. Or, if the enemy is too far away, he can throw a bird at them instead. Yes, even for a fox, Psycho Fox seems quite disturbed. The bird that Psycho Fox throws at enemies is called Birdfly. You can find Birdfly in eggs scattered around the levels. Being a fox with clearly psychotic tendencies, Psycho Fox cracks open eggs by thumping them. After being thrown, Birdfly will loyally return to Psycho Fox, ready to be thrown again. Maybe Birdfly is a bit of a hardnut too. Birdfly also acts as a shield. Usually if you collide with an enemy, you lose a life. But if you're carrying Birdfly, he will vanish but allow you to retain your life. Finding Birdfly again is a simple case of smashing open more eggs and hoping he's in one of them.
Spray that insect thing with insect spray and it'll buzz off.
Psycho Fox as Tiger on level three
It's not just Birdfly that you can find in eggs. Other eggs contain special items, extra lives or bags of money. But not all eggs contain Brucie Bonuses. Some eggs are empty, while others contain enemies. The sneaky beggars! The special items that you collect get stored in an inventory which you can access by pausing the game. The items to choose from in this screen are a Psycho Stick (which also goes by the name of the stick of the Shinto Purification - ???!!), a straw effigy and a potion. Using the effigy makes the screen go wibbly-wobbly and destroys all enemies on the screen. The potion makes Psycho Fox invincible for a short period. And the Psycho Stick, or the Shinto Purification thingy, allows you to transform Psycho Fox into another animal: a hippo, monkey or tiger. Each animal has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, the hippo is slow, doesn't jump as high, but has an extra-strong punch, useful for breaking down some otherwise indestructible walls. The monkey jumps high while the tiger runs fast. Psycho Fox in his foxy form is a good all rounder. You will remain as the animal you've changed into for as long as you wish to. Just use another Psycho Stick to change into something else.
Bonus level! Get yer bonus level 'ere!
So, what about the money bags you collect? Well, after each round, you get to gamble it away. In a quick bonus round, Psycho Fox is presented with 5 pathways. At the end of each pathway is a prize. You have to choose which pathway to send Psycho Fox along and will win the prize at the end of the path. As you can collect multiple bags of cash on your way, you can bet on multiple paths. Or you can place multiple bets on one path. So, if you collect five bags of cash, you can bet on each path which guarantees that you win each prize. Be warned though, because one of the prizes is a boobie prize. Not a pair of tits, but a hole which Psycho Fox will fall down if he reaches it. All that happens if he does is that he doesn't win anything for that path, but will still win the prizes at the end of any of the other paths he reaches. The prizes that can be won are the special items found throughout the game plus an extra life, or the chance to play on a number stopper thing (apparently it's a shrine). Whatever number you stop it on will grant you that number of lives. And depending on how many bets you placed on that path, the number of lives you get will be multiplied. The bonus round is a fun little interlude and gives you the opportunity to build up a healthy number of lives. Get lucky and you can get up to 25 extra lives on the bonus round.
Bouncing around on level 5. That thing to above left of Mr Fox is blowing air which will push him to the right.
Levels are split into three rounds with a boss at the end of each third round. For some bosses, you are provided with an item to help you to defeat them. This may be a pesticide spray or an air gun. Some are defeated using more traditional means, and the end battle is a good old 8-bit battle of wits and skill. Unfortunately, each boss - including the final one - only requires three hits to be defeated, so the battles don't tend too last long at all.
Barney the dinosaur has a problem with bees.
Each level in Psycho Fox is full of colour and cartoon-like in appearance, with everything well drawn and animated. The music is of a good standard too, well-suited to the game, although the last few levels seem to use the same tunes for some reason. It is one of the better-looking and sounding Master System games. But it's also good fun to play. At first, Psycho Fox feels a little sluggish to get moving, gradually building up speed as he goes along. And if you play the game cautiously, it will feel quite slow and frustrating to play as you never get the chance to get up to a good pace. It's best just to go for it, running, jumping and thumping your way through the levels and hoping for the best. But even following this strategy can be a pain as it's simply not possible to maintain it. All too often, Psycho Fox will come up against something which will stop him in his tracks and cause him to have to slow down. And when Psycho Fox goes slow, he goes real slow. Heaven knows how I used to play this on my PAL Master System back in the day, but I do remember loving this game! There are also a lot of blind jumps in the game. They don't often lead to deaths, but it would be nice to be able to make informed decisions about where you want to send the crazy fox next. Repeat play does reap rewards though, as the more you get used to the levels, the easier it is to remember what is coming up, and the more fun the game becomes.
There are some nice touches to the game. A way of getting over a large body of water is to build up enough speed and running into it. You'll find that whichever character you're controlling will skim on its ass across the water. Apart from the hippo who just falls in. Well he does whenever I try. There is a wind level with wind blowers which suspend your character in the air, and bendy poles which you can run and jump into which fling you off at speed, height and distance. The key to making the most of these is to hit them as fast and as high as you can. There are also the usual platform game features, such as bridges which fall away as you walk over them and steps that turn into slides, or statues that come alive. There are also hidden bonus stages. These are usually found accidentally by throwing Bird Fly into what appears to be empty space. Bird Fly will hit a point in the emptiness, causing a crack to appear. Throwing him a couple of times will cause the crack to become a hole (should have gone to Autoglass). Go into this hole and you'll find yourself in a secret level. In a blatant copy of Super Mario Bros, Psycho Fox (or Psycho Hippo, Monkey or Tiger) can go down a tube which will bring him out in another level. It's possible to get to the final level in the game through a secret level found in the first level of it. Bit pointless though, but it's possible.
Hmmm.... Not a lot to say here.
The final battle with Madfox. Get him!
Psycho Fox isn't a hard game, nor is it that easy, but the abundance of extra lives and unlimited continues means it is possible to complete it fairly quickly with a bit of persistence. It never gets to the point of being insanely difficult or with any parts where you can get stuck for days without being able to figure out how to get any further. Despite being a bit sluggish at first and having some blind leaps of faith every now again, it doesn't feel too unfair to play. It really is a great title, looking, sounding and playing well, and it's a shame that Psycho Fox didn't go onto have further adventures or achieve greater recognition as he certainly deserved it.
RATINGS Presentation: 90% A bright, cartoon intro screen and a high level of presentation throughout. A great ending sequence too. Graphics: 92%
Some of the Master System's best. Colourful, well-defined and varied. Sound: 85%
It wasn't easy to make the Master System sound good, but this game doesn't make it sound bad at all. Playability: 83%
Takes a little bit of getting into due because of its initial sluggishness and frustrating collisions with enemies that you don't see coming, but becomes much more fun the more you stick with it. The game features plenty of variety, surreal enemies and lots of great ideas which are mostly well-implemented. Overall: 84%
An often over-looked Master System gem.
Being a psycho on other consoles
Kid Kool. Pure turd on a NES cart.
Psycho Fox was a Master System exclusive and the character has never appeared anywhere else. But, the game itself did. Kind of. Games were released on the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Mega Drive by the developers of Psycho Fox which were so similar in design and in gameplay that they are pretty much Psycho Fox in different clothes. And with different level layouts. Kid Kool was the NES version. But it's pretty much unplayable. Kid Kool is able to land on enemies and pound them into the ground, just like Psycho Fox. He is also able to collect a Bird Fly-like creature, although obtaining him seems to be through random luck, and he can throw him around at enemies. But there is no punch ability, and the game has a weird vertical scrolling feature where if you go to the top of the screen, rather than the screen following you and scrolling upwards, it flips upwards. So, if you happen to jump quite high, the screen flips up and then back down. There are too many blind falls and, urgh, the game is just a mess.
The wacky Japanese Mega Drive remake of Psycho Fox.
The Mega Drive was home to two reprogrammed versions of Psycho Fox. Both were actually almost the same game, just with different graphics and characters. In Japan, the game was Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure. In the west, it was Decap Attack. The Japanese version appears to be based in the Middle East and, like Psycho Fox, features colourful, cartoony graphics and similar bonus stages. As it was based on a Japanese anime, the rights of which weren't obtained for a western release, Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure became Decap Attack. This used a horror theme instead. Graphics were less colourful, more in fitting with the game's theme, and the music was changed too. But the gameplay remained pretty much the same. Both games though are highly playable and are worth looking out for. Decap Attack is regularly rereleased on Mega Drive compilations and on download services. You can get it as part of the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and as individual downloads on Steam and through Sega's own website.
The more horrific Western Mega Drive/Genesis remake of Psycho Fox
Back to the Master System, where Psycho Fox saw a rerelease under another guise. In Brazil, where the Master System was massive and is still fairly popular, Tec Toy updated the game in the mid-nineties to feature characters from a comic book series. The game was called Sapo Xulé: Os Invasores do Brejo and in it Psycho Fox became a frog while the other characters were a pig, turtle and a mouse. Despite the character changes, the game played identically to the original.
Playthrough video
Here's a video of me playing Psycho Fox from start to finish, and amassing a huge number of lives in the process, mostly down to a flukey go on the bonus level.
To celebrate the birth of Prince George, the first child of Duke and Duchess Cambridge and the boy who will one day be King, here are some right royal retro games featuring babies. But not royal ones.
Brat Atari ST, Commodore Amiga (Image Works, 1991)
Released for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, Brat is a baby who needs direction, and probably some love and affection. If not, he'll probably get some sort of attention deficit disorder and in twenty years time will become some sort of vigilante computer hacker. In this game, Brat walks in a straight line on a suspended landscape. It is your job to ensure that he doesn't fall off the floating world that he inhabits or come a cropper by hitting any of the obstacles that get in his way. You do this simply by placing objects on his route, mostly direction arrows which tell Brat which direction to take, but there are some other items to place which can be used to combat some of the obstacles. The game is a bit like an isometric Lemmings, quite a simple idea and well-presented, but unfortunately hard and frustrating to play due to being very unforgiving if you make mistakes. Brat is also one of those annoying kids wearing sunglasses, a leather jacket and a sideways baseball cap, a style that has never ever been cool.
Jack the Nipper ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX (Gremlin Graphics, 1986)
Taking the role of a trouble-making toddler, you get to explore various comic-book style locations with the aim to cause as much madness and mayhem as possible. If Grand Theft Auto was a 8-bit computer game featuring babies, then this would have been it.
Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck Commodore Amiga, Amiga CD32, Sega Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, Game Gear, Mega-CD (Core Design, 1993)
A side-scrolling platform game featuring Chuck Rock's son. He doesn't quite have his dad's belly yet so defeats enemies using a club. Pretty standard platform fare from a time when pretty standard platformers were abundant. The graphics and sound are great as you'd expect from a Core Design game, but the game itself was lost amongst its competition so is probably not so well-remembered.
Wonder Boy Arcade (Sega, 1986), Sega SG-1000. Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear (as Revenge of Drancon in USA), ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Mobile Phone, Wii Virtual Console (rerelease of Master System version) Also released as Adventure Island on Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX, Gameboy Advance, Gamate, Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Wii Virtual Console (release of NES version)
We're not sure if Wonder Boy is a baby or just a kid who hasn't yet been potty-trained. Whatever he is, he roams dangerous landscapes wearing a nappy while throwing axes at enemies and beheading end-of-level bosses like some sort of crazed loon in a quest to rescue his girlfriend Tanya. On his journey, Wonder Boy picks up fruit and milk for energy and dolls for bonus points. Sega's Wonder Boy was a fantastically playable arcade game which was converted to consoles and computers aplenty. It was renamed Adventure Island and slightly altered for the Nintendo and MSX. Both Wonder Boy and Adventure Island then continued as two separate gaming franchises with numerous sequels. Whereas Wonder Boy follow-ups became more adventure-based, Adventure Island sequels stuck to being arcade-style platformers.
The Sims PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube (Maxis, Electronic Arts, 2000, 2003)
EA and Maxiseseseses' life sim gave gamers the ability to direct virtual human beings through their day-to-day lives. From the mundane events like emptying the bin and going for a wee (or just leaving them to piss themselves) to major life events like getting a job or building an extension on your house to turn it into a games room. Another large part of the game was forming relationships, especially romantic relationships. You could get your Sims to fall in love by flirting, chatting, telling jokes, dancing or attempting a sneaky kiss. Once your Sims had taken that first step in the path of romance, it doesn't take them long to decide to have a baby. After making the decision, the conception, pregnancy and birth happens in seconds and a baby in its basket suddenly appears in your front room. The game then becomes all about looking after your virtual sprog, feeding, changing and cleaning them in the hope that the authorities don't come knocking to take it away. So, if you want to imagine what life is like for Will and Kate, create your own make-believe Royal couple and get them to have a baby.
Baby's Day Out Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (Hi-Tech Entertainment, 1994)
According to movies in the 1990s, parents were shite. They always seemed to forget their kids. The McCallisters managed to lose Kevin twice in two Home Alone films, and in Baby's Day Out, some infant went for a jolly by itself. I guess anyway. I've never actually seen the film in full. A game based on the film Baby's Day Out was programmed for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis but was never released. In fact, the game was never actually finished, but what does exist of it - you can find it online if you know where to look - is a heap of stinking crap that probably couldn't have been salvaged and turned into anything worth playing. It might explain why a completed version was never put onto a cartridge. The idea of the game is to guide Baby to the exit of each level. You do this by controlling what looks like an angel, who opens doors, moves objects, and basically makes the route safe. The controls are horrible, gameplay is completely unintuative, the graphics dull and depressing, and I don't think there's any sound to speak of. Or I'd forgotten to turn on my speakers when I played it.
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