• Street Rod Header
    1980s,  Review

    Review – Street Rod

    My dad probably would have loved Street Rod if we had it on our old DOS Shell/Windows 3.1 machine. Now, he's just going to have to live vicariously through me as I live out the '60s car culture dream. Unfortunately, said dream doesn't include a 427 cu. in. engine.

  • Hoshi wo Miru Hito Header
    1980s,  Kusoge,  NES

    Review – Hoshi wo Miru Hito

    I’ve spent quite some time mired in the sticky pits of kusoge. Crap games are becoming an area of expertise for me. That’s not simply to say that I know of a lot of bad games, but rather that I know how to appreciate them. That’s right. Did you know you can enjoy bad games? Not just in an ironic…

  • Ben Bero Beh Header. Image via FlyerFever.com.
    1980s,  Bakage,  Review,  The Quarterhole

    Review – Ben Bero Beh

    I have a confession to make: I’m attracted to weird Japanese arcade games. There’s a word for it: Bakage (Ba-kah-gey, not ba-cage). It means stupid game. It’s not to be mistaken for kusoge (koo-so-gey) which means crappy game. I have made the mistake before, but merely because I didn’t know there was a name for bizarre games. 1984’s Ben Bero…

  • Monster Party Bert talking to, uh, I think his name is Mike.
    1980s,  Miscellaneous,  NES

    3 Child Endangering NES Intros

    Rescued from the now sunk Destructoid community blogs, this article harkens back to a time when I was desperate for attention. I mean, I still am, but I was then, too. It's about how 8-bit children threw themselves headlong into danger, sometimes for the promise of candy, other times through coercion.

  • Castlevania NES Header
    1980s,  NES

    Review – Castlevania

    I still remember the day after I first completed Castlevania. I met with my friend and said to him, "Okay, you're really not going to care or even understand what I'm going to tell you, so just pretend to be excited: I beat Castlevania." He was very convincing in his performance.

  • Robocop NES Cover
    1980s,  NES,  Review

    Review – RoboCop (NES)

    RoboCop is a great movie, but great movies don't always make for great games. In fact, they rarely have. Especially in the '80s. But does RoboCop break from the standard and become an exception? No, it doesn't, but it's also not that bad. I guess I gave away the review in this excerpt.

  • Ducktales NES Header
    1980s,  NES,  Review

    Review – DuckTales (NES)

    I played DuckTales rather early in life, so I have an unshakeable fondness for it. It shows Capcom when they were showing how licensed games didn't have to be mediocre claptrap. DuckTales is easily the best game about a geriatric duck pogo sticking around on his way to find treasure.

  • Dragon Warrior 3 Header
    1980s,  NES,  Review

    Review – Dragon Warrior III

    For quite a long while, I couldn't stomach JRPGs at the best of time. However, in order to acquire a taste, I jumped in at the deep end with the Dragon Warrior (Quest) games on NES. Dragon Warrior 3 was the one I heard the most praise for, so I was very curious.