• China Gate Header
    1980s,  Review,  The Quarterhole

    Review – China Gate

    Technos might be better known for the Double Dragon and Kunio-Kun games, but they've gone weirder with their beat-'em-ups. China Gate is a 1988 arcade game about the cast of Journey to the West fighting Oompa Loompas and Danny DeVito. I may be stretching things a bit with my interpretation.

  • Review,  Video Games

    Review – Bionic Commando (NES)

    Just trust me here. The first thing you want to do in Bionic Commando is to use “transfer” to move your helicopter into one of those trucks roaming around the world map. Once you do, kill the guys who look different than everyone else and they should drop little medals. Pick those up. What are they? Continues. Bionic Commando starts…

  • 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.

  • Review,  Video Games

    Review – Super Dodgeball

    I absolutely love the Kunio-Kun series. Over here, we got about 5 titles on the NES, all confusingly branded differently, whereas over in Japan, they got about a dozen, all confusingly branded differently. The unified artstyle, the cartoonish violence; the Kunio-Kun series is a special series for me for quite a few reasons. Super Dodgeball is also pretty special to…

  • Review,  Video Games

    Review – Ghostbusters (NES)

    Out of the small handful of non-gaming franchises that I can claim to be a fan of, Ghostbusters is easily the one that I’m most enamored with. I built my own replica proton pack in high school, I’ve donned a flightsuit for many Hallowe’en nights, and my apartment is littered with related merch. I’ve read the comics, watched the cartoons,…