Zauberwald (Magic Forest)

If it isn't obvious from the majority of the games that I've reviewed here in the Dungeon, not that I've reviewed a whole lot at this point, I love obscure little times wasters from the days of yore. There is something that is truly magical about the games released for home computers in the 80's. Designers had a devil may care attitude and released some of the weirdest titles ever. You think that there's some "out there" stuff on the Indie section of the XBLA shop? Games like Zauberwald have got them beat, hands down. See, the difference is that back in the day game designers let their imaginations run wild and because video games were still a new medium, there wasn't a huge backlog of games to be inspired by. Nowadays retro styled games are a dime a dozen. Sure, they're fun and have a hint of nostalgia to them...and some of them are really good.....but man, nothing beats the completely ludicrous premise of these old school games.

 Zauberwald is a fun little puzzle/platformer that sees you controlling a wizard and his skeleton companion. The wizard is limited in the places he can move, but the skeleton is able to walk through walls and other objects that the wizard cannot. The goal is to collect a series of herbs in the order shown at the bottom of the screen. To do this, you must move your wizard and skeleton in tandem to get to the herbs. The screen scrolls to the right and to the left, so you must figure out how to maneuver your team around the various obstacles. Also you must avoid various enemies and objects that are constantly flashing in a psychedelic pulse. It would seem that your wizard and skeleton have a collective life meter, though it's not shown on screen. If you touch the flashing enemies/objects too much they you are both dead.

The music is great as well. There is only one song that plays, but it's a fun little atmospheric groove that really helps to set the mood. It's like dark Electronica and I could totally see this music being played in some dank underground club in Amsterdam by a DJ who is wearing a wolf mask and neon pink fishnet vest.
 

The game's story is pretty much left up to interpretation (in more ways than one, all text is in German!) but it's pretty straight forward once you know what you have to do and how to control the characters.  It is a little frustrating until you get the hang of it, but after that it's a breeze.

This is a fun little time waster that can be completed in five minutes or under.  Perfect for when I'm in the mood for a little something to get me in the October mood on a chilly Sunday afternoon, witch a mug of hot apple cider and some cookies.  Mmmmm, yeah.

Volcano! For the Commodore PET

Volcano!!!!  Where's Tommy Lee Jones when you need him?

Volcano for the Commodore PET.  I was actually rather surprised with how much enjoyed it!  The game starts by giving your the facts about the eruption of Mt. St Helens.  In case you don't know, on Sunday, May 18, 1980 at 8:32:17 am PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) Mt St Helens erupted.  An eruption column rose 18,000 feet in the air and spread ash across 11 different states.  Fifty seven people died.

Just a peaceful morning camping on Mt St Helens

This could be filed more under the "edutainment" banner, joining such games as Oregon Trail.  It is a text adventure of sorts, though the interface is much more simplistic, giving the player only multiple choice answers.

HOLY HELL!!!!  The pixilated mayhem!  Ohhh the digital madness!

You start as a camper on the side of Mt. St Helens.  The volcano erupts and then it's a mad dash for survival.  If you select a wrong answer, you die a horrible death.  The game does a pretty good job of explaining why it's a bad idea when you select a wrong answer.  Once you make it through the game (which lasts all of about 10 minutes.....5 if you're a fast reader) nothing ever changes....but it is kinda fun going back and purposely selecting wrong answers to see what would have happened to your character had you been foolish.  I only had to restart to game once as most of the multiple choices are fairly obvious.

Hhhhmmm....digging a hole with lava on the way sounds like a good idea!

It was a rather enjoyable 10 minutes spent with my Commodore PET emulator.  The game is well written and it hearkens back to a time when computer games were monochrome and quite basic.  Still, that doesn't make them bad!

If you have a Commodore PET or want to download and emulator (there are a bunch around...WinVice being my personal favorite) the game is fairly easy to track down.  If you are interested in the history of early personal computer games, there are worse things that you could do with 10 minutes!

Captain Fizz meets the Blaster-Trons!

I love video games.  Obviously.  I have a rarely updated blog about them.  I love all video games from Pong all the way up to the Triple A blockbusters that the big boys crank out these days.  I'll tell you what though.....for all the amazing set pieces in modern video games....for all their amazing graphics and voice acting.....sometimes I really miss the old school ingenuity and creativity of the 8 bit age.  Take Captain Fizz meets The Blaster-Trons for instance.  

CFmTB is essentially a Gauntlet clone.  It's a top down shoot 'em-up set in a maze on a space ship or on an alien planet in an alien base (not sure which)....but the point is that you could basically call this Space Gauntlet.  But you know what?  It still feels different.  Back in the day, even when ripping off or cloning another game, developers still put massive amounts of creativity into their products.  Just that title alone makes you want to play!  And don't even get me started on the amazing box art!  Much like the 80's VHS boxes of yesteryear, game boxes had fantastic pieces of artwork on them.  Even Mastertronic, famous for their 1.99 game series commissioned artists to design some killer artwork for their titles.  Take Bionic Granny for instance.  Is the artwork creepy?  Yep sure is!  It certainly ain't no Boris Vallejo.....but it's still pretty groovy!

I've only just started playing but so far I've been having a blast with it.  The music is SIDilicious (if you don't know what SID music is.....go find yourself a C64 emulator and play some games!) and the control is pretty tight.  Interestingly, this is a co-op game.  There weren't a lot of these back in the day and split screen co-op was definitely a novelty.  

As you may or may not have read in my other blog (www.midnightcinephile.com)  I've recently fallen in love with retro games again.   And after getting a little encouragement from a reader (hello Devlon!) I've decided to invest some more time into the ol' Space Dungeon here.  I hope that those who find my little corner of the web enjoy what they find!  

Mega Man X Series Box Art

Well, it had to happen.  I can't ignore the stats page any longer....even though nobody has made a single comment on the post, it's gotten almost 14,000 hits, so apparently it's being viewed fairly regularly.  So....being a greedy bastard, I might as well try and double my hits!  And so, I give unto you the Mega Man X Series Box art!

 Taking place 100 years after the original series, Mega Man X starts an all new adventure and story line involving Mega Man (Now usually just referred to as X) hunting down Reploids (known as Mavericks) under an evil robot named Sigma's control.  All the robot masters are now based on animals, which was an interesting concept.  X still takes each defeated master's weapon and game play is still classic run and jump platforming, but there are now introductions of upgrading your armor and mega buster.  The artwork is classic and iconic.  Mega Man X also introduces us to a new ally - Zero.

X2 is a direct continuation of Mega Man X.  A new threat faces X and the Maverick Hunters...a group of robots calling themselves X-Hunters.  They lure X in with parts from Zero, who was destroyed in the first installment.  X must try and recover Zero's body parts to have Dr. Cain rebuild him.  If he fail's Sigma rebuilds him and X must fight his old friend himself.  That's some powerful stuff for a Super NES release!

The final Mega Man X release on the Super NES console.  This installment sees the Reploid threat being neutralized by a Repoloid Scientist named Dr. Doppler, who creates a new technology.  The reformed Reploids form a sort of robot utopia that they call Doppler Town.  All is well until these Reploids revert back to their evil ways and go on an all out attack.  X and Zero head out to destroy 8 new robot masters.  After defeating Doppler, they find out that Sigma is alive and well as a computer virus.  Sigma corrupted Doppler, forcing him to create a new body for him.  Hey.....are you starting to see a trend with Sigma here?

X4 is the first of the MegaMan X series to appear on the Playstation console stateside.  X3 had a PS release in Europe and Japan.  X4 is the first in the series to present Full Motion Video cut-scenes.  An army known as Repliforce is created to assist the Maverick Hunters.  Repliforce is lead by General and Colonel.  General is meeting with shady characters in the background and when the floating city known as Sky Lagoon comes crashing down, killing thousands, X and Zero are dispatched to investigate.  Colonel denies any involvement, but we know betting.  8 new Maverick Leaders spring up and after defeating them and General & Colonel...surprise, surprise...we find out that Sigma has been pulling the strings the whole time!

X5 is a pretty cool edition to the series.  Sigma wastes no time in attacking after the events of X4.  He openly attacks the Maverick Hunters intending to lose and spreading a new virus.  He has a keen interest in Zero in this installment, wanting to "unlock his true power" and taking X down at the same time.  There is a plot to crash a space colony into Earth as well.  X and Zero must defeat eight more Maverick Leaders to collect the parts needed to upgrade a super weapon called "Enigma".  The success of this mission is completely randomized by the game, which is a first.  Another first is the fact that this is the first Mega Man game to feature multiple endings!

X6 was the first time that series creator Keiji Inafune was not involved in the game.  He had intended to end the series with the death of Zero in X5.  X6 finds the surface of the world virtually uninhabitable, Zero is missing and presumed dead.  A new Maverick called Zero Nightmare is causing havoc and X is infuriated that this Maverick would use his friends name.  Defeating Zero Nightmare, we find that Zero is alive and recovering from his injuries.  Together X and Zero seek out the creator of Zero Nightmare.  A Reploid known as Gate who.....wait for it.....also has been rebuilding Sigma!  X and Zero again defeat the nearly rebuilt Sigma.

With X7, the series jumped from the PSOne to the PS2.  In this installment, we find that X has had enough of war and violence and starts to question whether or not the Maverick Hunters are doing the right thing.  He steps down as a Hunter, and this causes a void in the ranks of Maverick Hunters.  A new group arises called Red Alert...who are sort of like Repliforce, but more vigilante with very questionable tactics.  A young member named Axl has had enough of Red Alert and leaves, which infuriates the leader, Red.  Red sends out a Mechaloid after Axl, who is saved by Zero.  Red issues a challenge to the Maverick Hunters, releasing eight Maverick Leaders that he had in custody....who ever manages to take them down first will get control of Axl.  Zero and Axl are your two main characters for most of the game, until X gets his head out of his ass for the final battle against Red.  When we get to Red's fortress we find that yet again Sigma has been rebuilt.  Time to whoop his robot ass again, I supppose.

The final of the numbered X series games, X8 is an odd one.  Humans have finally had enough of this Reploid war and are trying to colonize the moon.  A new generation of DNA based Reploids are created that have special inhibitor chips that prevent them from going Maverick.  These new Reploids can use DNA data to change their shape, which is pretty cool.  We find out that Axl is actually a prototype for these.  All is going well until a resurrected Vile (defeated in X3) kidnaps the lead Reploid project leader.  The Maverick Hunters go after and we soon find that Sigma's DNA is implanted on all the chips put in the new generation.  So all these Reploids that aren't supposed to be able to go Maverick.......they go Maverick.  Sigma is finally defeated once and for all, but then Lumine, the kidnapped Reploid takes his place and launches an all out assault on the Maverick Hunters, stating that in order for evolution to take place, humans and obsolete Reploids must be destroyed.  Lumine is defeated, of course....but at a cost.

This is a spin-off of the X series, but I figured "what the hell" I'll include it here.  Command Mission takes place about 100 years after the events of X8.  A meteorite falls and a new substance known as Force Metal is extracted from it.  This Force Metal is used in the engineering of new Reploids.  Cause, you know....that's a good idea.  A whole floating city called Giga City is created in the middle of the ocean, who's sole purpose is harvesting and smelting Force Metal.  Well, shocker, Giga City is attacked by a group of Reploids led by one called Epsilon.  X and Zero are dispatched along with another Hunter named Shadow to take care of the situation.  Well, Shadow betrays them....cause...you know....Reploids named Shadow sound trustworthy to begin with.  Turns out Epsilon isn't a Maverick.  He's fighting the good fight against the Reploid who sent X to Giga City to begin with, Redips, who IS Maverick.  Sigma is nowhere to be found, thank god.  This is a turn based strategy game, which is a huge departure for the series, but still very cool.


Well there ya have it!  The Mega Man X Box Art series, with capsulized reviews of each game!  Hope you enjoyed this as much as the classic series and.....seriously.....leave me a comment or something.  I don't bite.  Much.

The Most EVIL enemies on the NES

You know them.  You hate them.  These are the enemies in classic NES games that were responsible for many a broken controller.  In no particular order, here are some of the enemies that gave me cause to toss my controller at my TV screen and scream in agony and frustration.

Medusa Heads - Castlevania



These little flying menaces weren't so bad when you were on level ground....it was when you had to deal with them over precarious jumps that they became the stuff of nightmares.  One hit would send you back into the abyss.  Especially in games such as Castlevania, in which there is absolutely no save feature these flying heads because a source of headache and frustration.


Hammer Bros. - Super Mario Bros.





Glorified Koopa Troopas that always come in pairs....wandering around on hanging blocks and tossing hammers at Mario and Luigi in random patterns.  Because there was never any real discernible pattern to a single brother, it was extremely frustrating trying to find and opening in between hammers when the duo is going full tilt.  It always seemed that I wouldn't encounter these goons until I had gotten smacked by something earlier in the stage and had to face them as "Small Mario."




Telly - Mega Man

 Oh man.  These little bastards......an endless supply of them will flow out of holes and tubes in various stages through out the entire Mega Man series.  Nothing frustrated me more then trying to navigate those damn appearing/disappearing blocks while I've got a slew of Tellies on my ass.  If you've got one of the many different shields available to Mega Man, then Telly is much easier to handle....so long as your shield holds out!




Birds - Amagon

Birds.  Have we learned nothing from Alred Hitchcock?  These avian terrors are your biggest problem in the first stage of Amagon.  They love to hit you when you're trying to leap over a hole in the ground.  They're hard to shoot and they generally just make your life a living hell.  I rented this game ONCE when I was a kid.  After playing for over two hours, I finally made it to level 2.  Yep.  It's that kinda game.

Unstoppable Gorg invade in 2012

Looks like Percival Lowell was right about Planet X!  Sure the whole Canals of Mars thing didn't quite work out, but in the alternate history of The Unstoppable Gorg, looks like ol' Percy's suspicions about the mystery planet were confirmed when a deep space survey ship discovered it far beyond Neptune's orbit.  As it turns out it was also inhabited by intelligent beings!

Being the kind good hearted folk that we are, here on Earth, we sent out several ships with greetings and offers of friendship.  As our ships approached the planet, The Gorg unleashed their massive armada, sending them on a direct course with Earth and destroying everything in their way.  

Great.  The neighbors are jerks.

Thus begins the upcoming tower defense game, Unstoppable Gorg coming to PC, Xbox Live Arcade and iPad in 2012.  I have a love/hate relationship with tower defense games.  As a general rule, I truly enjoy the game play.  I love to map out my towers and mull over defense strategies.  However it can also be a great source of frustration to be limited in WHERE you can place your defenses.  UG looks to change things up by having your set up defense satellites orbiting planets, moons and space stations.  Because they are in orbit, they aren't stuck in one place....you can move them about to where you need them.  Way cool.

As you can tell by the back story, this game is pure B-Movie Sci-Fi cheese.  I love me some B-Movie Sci-Fi cheese.  The Gorg are a race of lizard-men looking dudes and there is also a faction called the Sun Bots, which are wonky lookin' robots.  I'm very much looking forward to playing this game and opening up a can of whoop ass on the Gorg, the likes of which haven't been seen since Joan Crawfords daughter used wire hangers for her dresses.

Check out the trailer!

Super Mario Land - 1989

Super Mario Land was a launch title for Nintendo's original Game Boy and is now available on the 3DS Virtual Console.  I decided to download it and give it a whirl.  I had never actually played this game much when it first came out.  A friend of mine had a copy and I played maybe for five minutes, but then by the time I had gotten a Game Boy of my own (I was a little late to the party with that particular system) Super Mario Land wasn't really available at most retailers as it had once been.  I played the sequel (6 Golden Coins) to death, but I really wanted to go back and check out Mario's first hand held adventure.

I found that it is actually quite good!  Classic Mario Bros. action with graphics that closely resemble the first and second (Japanese) adventures.  There are a few differences that I noticed right off the bat:  When you either get a power-up or take damage, the screen does not take a brief pause, the action continues which actually forces you to strategize a bit more when going for a power-up!  Speaking of power-up's, the flower that gave you the incendiary ball of fire in the original adventure now gives you the power of the Super Ball:  A bouncing black ball that can not only damage enemies, but also can be used to collect coins in hard to reach locations!

Super Mario Land takes place in the Realm of Sarasaland.  An alien named Tatanga invades and hypnotizes all the creatures and Princess Daisy....who he wants to marry.  Or probe.  Probably both.  Can't trust them damn aliens, ya know?  Anyway, Sarasaland is divided into four different kingdoms:  Birabuto, Muda, Easton, and Chai.  One of the things that I had always found fascinating about this Mario game is that the enemies are pretty wildly different from any other games (with of course the exception of Super Mario Bros. 2).  Even the Goombas and Koopas are different.  As a matter of fact, the Goomba is actually referred to as a Goombo.  I know, I know....they changed a vowel....ohhh ahhh, ooooh ahhh.  The koopa is also in fact a Bombshell Koopa.  Instead of stomping and kicking him, you instead stom him and then get the hell out of dodge before he blows up.  I'll admit it IS pretty fun to take out an unsuspecting enemy with an activated Bombshell Koopa. 

If I am not mistaken, Super Mario Land is also the first and only time that Mario climbed into a vehicle to complete a level.  In Level 2-3 he uses the Marin Pop (submarine) to navigate the waters and then battle Dragonzamasu.  Mario then climbs into his trusty Sky Pop (airplane) in level 4-3 and battles his way through to Biokinton and then Tatanga.  After defeating Tatanga, Mario and Daisy fly away.  Awwwwww....

There are 12 levels in all....which means three levels per each of the four kingdoms.  Each kingdom in turn is ruled over by a boss.

King Totomesu rules over Birabuto.  He's a fire breathing lion wearing an Egyptian headdress. 

Dragonzamasu and his guardian, Tamao are the rulers of Muda.  Dragonzamasu is like a giant fire breathing seahorse and Tamao is like an eyeball.....thing.

Hiyoihoi rules the Easton Kingdom.  He's a giant stone tossing Moai

Biokinton is the baddie that is the ruler of Chai.  He is very shy and hides behind a cloud.  He tosses chickens at you.  That bastard.

Tatanga is the evil alien mastermind behind the whole thing and you'll face him after defeating Biokinton.








After you complete the game, it will bring you back to the title screen and you can now play the game in "Hard Mode".  Should you complete the "Hard Mode" as well, you then will be able to pick any level to play as you wish from the title screen....which is pretty nifty!

I had a blast playing through Super Mario Land.  It wasn't the most challenging Mario game I've ever played, but it was very fun and (I think) has a lot of replay value if your a nostalgic type of person (which I assume you are if you're reading this blog!)

For only $3.99 you can once again own Super Mario Land and live the adventure of Sarasaland once again.  Download it NOW!

Now let's go Nintendo......let's Get Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins on the 3DS Virtual Console!