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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…
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Review – Earthbound Beginnings
Earthbound is an extremely meaningful game to me, so of course it feels right to branch out to the other games in the series. Mother (Earthbound Beginnings) was the first game I ever imported on Famicom. However, whether or not I like it is more complicated than just yes or no.
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Review – Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
The follow-up to Maniac Mansion drops the horror/sci-fi pretense to attempt full comedy. It features a tabloid writer looking for an escape from his job. Or something. Honestly, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders could do with a head shake. But it is a SCUMM adventure game, so it's not all bad.
