Archive for the ‘SNES’ Category

F-ZERO

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Wii Virtual Console.

Genre: Racing

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release: August 13, 1991

F-ZERO

Want to blaze through futuristic Utopias exceeding 450 km/h (That’s 275 mph for the people who are too “patriotic” to use the metric system) against three other rivals in faux-3D MODE-7 euphoria? F-ZERO does just this.

F-ZERO is a game that you will not want to stop playing, It’s one of those games that finds it’s way into the innermost layer of your soul and takes over, effectively making you want to play it unendingly. It has perfect craft control, and you won’t feel cheated when you hit a wall or any other racer. You are able to choose from four characters: Captain Falcon (Blue Falcon), Doctor Stewart (Golden Fox), Samurai Goroh (Fire Stingray) and Pico (Wild Goose) who all have different attributes to their vehicles like cornering, acceleration, top speed or weight. The courses are very well mapped, with obstacles put in perfectly appropriate places. The difficulty is moderate, it isn’t hard, but it isn’t easy either.

The music is some of the best the SNES can produce, and every single track is a classic. The only thing I didn’t like was that Big Blue was synthesized with accordions.

MODE-7 is a graphics engine that scales an image to look like a 3-D floor. F-ZERO pulls this faux-3D off well, as the graphics were insane at the time.

F-ZERO

Screenshots do not do the game justice.

Gameplay- Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Fast paced, extremely fun gameplay.

Story- No story rating. The only story is in the manual.

Graphics- Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆ Mode-7 makes everything truly look like a 3D environment even though the SNES couldn’t produce the real thing.

Sound- Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Bugs- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ I haven’t found any bugs. The game is bullet-proof.

Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

Verdict:

It’s a very solid game, a must buy for anyone interested in futuristic racing, Captain Falcon and neat MODE-7 effects.

-Kevin

P.S. FALCON PAWNCH.

A game that has Unlimited lives, Without Cheat Codes! The Lost Vikings.

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Platforms: Amiga, Amiga CD32, Game Boy Advance, MS-DOS, Sega Mega Drive, SNES

Genre: Puzzle Platformer

Developer: Silicon & Synapse Inc. (Now Blizzard Entertainment, which is now Activision-Blizzard)

Date Released: 1992

VRC Rating: GA (ESRB Rating: E)

The Lost Vikings is about three Vikings, Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout, who live in the viking ages, who get kidnapped by Tomator and are sent into the future. and have to make your way out of his ship, and on your way home. But there is a twist. If any one of the three characters die during a level, you most likely won’t be able to finish the level. If Olaf dies, Baleog and Erik might be shot by a turret, killed by some monster of some sort, dying, and not being able to finish the level properly, and ultimately, restarting the level. But you get unlimited lives, and each character has 3 hitpoints. But if you hit a laser, you die instantly. There are certain levels (Every single level) where if one dies, the other ones cannot continue. I will not delve deeper, as spoilers would appear everywhere. Anyway, the Characters. Erik, is the only character who can jump or run. Baleog has a sword and a bow with unlimited arrows. Olaf has a shield, than can be used to block any attack, as a hang glider, or a platform for Erik. This game is rated by G4 as the Fifth best Blizzard Game ever created. The Lost Vikings is in a few of Blizzard’s other games, Such as the MMORPG World of Warcraft.

I'm not kidding.

The Ratings:

Gameplay- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Story- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Graphics- Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

Music- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Overall- Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

-Travis M

PS. Buy this game or download the demo. It is amazing. I would recommend it to anyone.