-
Review – Elevator Action Returns
How is Elevator Action Returns not talked about more? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the absolute most obscure arcade game that I’ve covered. It even recently got an enhanced port (of the Sega Saturn version) called Elevator Action Returns S-Tribute, but it’s so much better than its niche suggests. I already love Elevator Action, the 1983 game that is…
-
Review – Zunzunkyou no Yabou
When it comes to arcade games, actually being enjoyable to play isn’t always the most important aspect. To succeed in the arcade – and really, this is still true in what passes for an arcade these days – you needed to be attention-grabbing. Look at the original Mortal Kombat, for instance. It was absolutely shit to play, but the mix…
-
Review – Final Fight
I tend to paradoxically refer to my memory as both a steel trap and completely unreliable. I actually have no idea how my recollection compares to other people; how can anyone? However, let me give you an example of the former claim. Somewhere in the foggy depths of my youth, I remember the first time I played Final Fight. It…
-
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…
-
Review – Metal Slug
Do you know the Tragically Hip song "Bobcaygeon?" That's actually the next town over from where I grew up. There was a bowling alley there (it burned down), and they had a limited number of arcade machines. For a period, one of these machines was Metal Slug. I've been in love ever since.
-
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 – Cruis’n USA
Way, way back when the internet was delivered by telephone, we had to use a lot of imagination. Our only access to information on upcoming games was in magazines like Nintendo Power, which would often tell us that every game was a modern masterpiece right up until it came out, at which point their opinion might switch to “Give it…
