Ron Simmons

All in all, the graphics and music of the game are good, it's bright, it's lively, and it looks very very fun. Unfortunately it all goes down hill the second you begin the game, and never does it once pick up again, and because the gameplay is what counts most in a game... I'll give it a 2/10.

TWO out of ten?! I'm really surprised at that...I was expecting average scores at worst. I've never played the Mega Drive version so unfortunately I can't really say whether it's a difference in system or simply a difference in opinion.

The next game that I've nominated should go down better though. Simon The Sorcerer II is a game I would imagine/hope will be enjoyed by the majority.

After that I'm planning to nominate either Wiz N' Liz, Megaman II, Another World, Sonic Triple Trouble, Project X or James Pond: Robocod. Choices!

Anyway.

Chuck Rock II (Amiga)

I absolutely love this game, and I'm really surprised to see the average-scored reviews it was given at the time.

Everything about it makes me smile, the animation, the silly-but-funny storyline, the enemies, the music...

First of all, revisiting the game it wasn't as slow as I worried it might be. Sure it was no Sonic or Mario, but the general pace of the game doesn't detract from the gameplay. That's been a recurring theme of games over the past few weeks I've found.

Chuck Rock Jr is a fun character to play, and the world he lives in is equally fun and colourful. The enemies he faces are all imaginative and fun, and although the game is challenging and your primary weapon is a club I don't find the potential short range of attack an obstacle to enjoyment.

Musically the game is superb, it's not irritating, it doesn't try to be "wacky" as oh-so-many games we've visited over the past few weeks made the mistake of doing. The tunes to the game are indicative of everything right musically in the 16-bit era. After completing the game the final song gets you feeling suitably emotive - as if you've actually achieved something. And do you know what, you have. Some of the bosses are pretty solid - particularly Ozric the Octopus. It took me a while to figure out how to beat him, and even when I had I found him difficult.

The mindless sculpting minigames in between levels are great fun too. They don't require any real thinking, just mindless button mashing and speed. They get the adrenaline flowing as you desperately try to get that last piece of rock off to beat the timer. I enjoyed the "apple feeding" mini game too, and although the humour behind it was probably a little puerile I still laughed, such is the quality of the animation.

Maybe I'm being too nostalgic, I don't know. But I think this game is criminally underrated. I think it's one of the best platformers of the 16 bit era - certainly one of the best on the Amiga, I can't comment on the other versions having not played them.

I hope everyone else gets the same enjoyment from the game as me, but time will tell I suppose.

9/10

You could maybe PM a few people who were interested in the thread initially if you want. Triple A might be a good bet, I've always thought his reviews were entertaining.

Anyway, I'll post my review shortly!

Right will update this properly later for everyone who is wondering

For Chuck Rock II? I'll look forward to seeing what people think of the game, I still love it.

I'm looking forward to see what you all think of Chuck Rock II, I still friggin' love it, and so far I'm not sure any game has received praise from all reviewers...

I enjooyed it - but as I said in my review you have to stick with it for a bit. That's not exactly a point in its favour I know, but I gave it a 7, my second highest score to date, so...

Good to have you back, Mike. You didn't miss much as far as Batman Returns goes. The person who nominated it didn't even feel the need to review it - that's how shit the game is.

 

 

Er, it was me, and I did review it

Ooops! I thought it was someone else. I thought you'd nominated Robocop Vs. Terminator, but obviously I got confused!

That's pretty much my issue with it, when I play the game I want to play the platforming section. I can do the puzzle stuff easy enough, I just feel jumping between platformer, then puzzle all the time draws you away from the game rather than into it. I could perhaps see having a puzzle in between different worlds, but between every level is a bit much. But yeah, solid game beyond that

I totally see why you'd dislike it. I found it kind of helpful when it came to completing the game - it split things up so that I didn't have to keep up any momentum and maintain a certain level of skill. Every level seemed like a fresh challenge, rather than a continuing one, if that makes sense.

However, they could work differently for some people in that the puzzles completely destroy a players momentum and make the levels harder to complete.

Good to have you back, Mike. You didn't miss much as far as Batman Returns goes. The person who nominated it didn't even feel the need to review it - that's how shit the game is.

Anyway, Claymates. I think Mike got it pretty much spot on with his review.

I actually enjoyed the game. It's well paced, it's fun and it's a great concept that I'd like to see revisited. Storyline wise it's silly, but that doesn't really matter. I play platformers for the fun, not for an engrossing narrative.

My first impressions of the game, I'll admit, were bad. The "wacky" music reminded me of Tiny Toons, and the short range of the attacks - as Mike previously mentioned - made me think that I wasn't going to enjoy the game.

However, I persisted and I suggest you do too if you feel similarly. The game actually is fun. It's challenging - but not cripplingly so - and very original.

Mike didn't like the puzzle sections, but I actually didn't mind them. I can see why people would have a problem with it but I appreciate the fact the developers tried something different. OK, it's probably not what you'll have bought the game for, I can accept that, but it's far from a game breaker.

I've mentioned it before, but the game's biggest problem is the method of attack. It just gets frustrating at times.

But would that stop me recommending it? Absolutely not. I don't know if it's available on the Virtual Console, but if it is I'd say go for it.

Score: 7/10

What're you going to nominate next, Pat? We're sadly lacking a nomination from you right now, and I'm interested to see what you pick for us!

Skweek was on the Amiga too, and looking at the longplay on youtube of it... was worse than the Amstrad version, and considerably different enough that while the layout is the same, one enemy looks totally different and moves totally different as well. The sounds are god awful on there (and in some cases added needlessly).

 

I would strongly suggest going solely for the Amstrad version once we get to it because that is the best version I've seen of it (similar to Bubble Bobble actually, if you want a truly great version of it, play the Amstrad version, none of the other versions hold a candle to it). The only thing I can see if does better is the screen scrolls (the Amstrad has multiple screens that it flips through). But yeah... I wont say too much for fear of reviewing it early XD.

It's good you say that, because I didn't really like the Amiga game. Didn't want to put you off your choice though, I like the idea of variety platform wise. I have an obscure but brilliant game in mind for a later inspection, have either of you played Rodlands? It's a great little game that has shamefully gone unremembered by most. It's aged well too.

I agree with your review, Pat, though the score's a bit harsh. I found it playable, just tedious. I never noticed the flawed mechanics of it, so I wonder if that was an emulation thing or if I just missed that? Difficulty wise I think a SNES pad makes the world of difference. You need to be exceptionally patient to slog right through it though.

Amstrad game wise... well Skweek of course! It's my favourite Amstrad game period. I may be biased as I spent absolutely hours playing it with my Mum when I was younger, but it really is great. However it would need to be the Amstrad version purely because the various versions differed so much (one of them even had a horizontal scrolling set-up rather than vertical), but if anyone needs it I can easily send the Emulator and rom of the game out to make running it easy enough.

Skweek...wasn't that also an Amiga game?

Also, cheers for the post, Pat. It sounds absolutely awesome and although I enjoyed reading what you wrote I also read further and further with a sense of bitte resentment

I'll shove a link in my sig for what little difference it makes. Hopefully it's just the quality of games over the past two weeks that has killed the thread a little. With the help of a few big guns things will hopefully kick off again. Mike nominated Claymates, so touch wood he'll be back about when that game is to be played.

Superb, I could put my r3paly review in here if people were interested?

Oh, and yeah - I'd be interested.

Good to have you back, Mike! I always enjoy your reviews. It'd be nice to have Triple A back too, he's also a good read. Go for it with the Amstrad game, it's fun to have a variety - that's why I like the idea of this thread, I've not played the majority of games suggested so far, I've not played Claymates either so I'm looking forward to giving that a go. From the videos I've looked at on Youtube it certainly looks different.

What Amstrad game are you thinking about, anyway?

I'll shove a link in my sig for what little difference it makes. Hopefully it's just the quality of games over the past two weeks that has killed the thread a little. With the help of a few big guns things will hopefully kick off again. Mike nominated Claymates, so touch wood he'll be back about when that game is to be played.

Anyone else planning a review of this game? It'd be an absolute shame if this thread was to die

Scotland is terrible for retro gaming. Shop wise your options are incredibly limited, and in regards to events...unfortunately there never seems to be any. It seems like such a glaring thing that would work well in Glasgow in my opinion.

 

Contact the CGEU and see what they can do to help allieviate this situation!

Ignorant question I'm sure, but who?

Scotland is terrible for retro gaming. Shop wise your options are incredibly limited, and in regards to events...unfortunately there never seems to be any. It seems like such a glaring thing that would work well in Glasgow in my opinion.

No Scottish events by the looks of it

Gutted!

There are a few up that way iirc there is a list on Retro gamer of up coming events the whole thing was amazing. Was my first time, looks like next years event if goes ahead will be in the same place !

On their website? I'll need to check that out!

Coo! Ive never played this, but nominated it because its held up as being a good un. Im a bit behind after still trying to write up some R3play stuff. but should get sorted playing it soonish

I really wish a similar retro gaming event would make it's way up to Scotland. I'd absolutely love to attend one.

This game is better than the film it's based on.

Though that's not really a bold statement, as drinking cat piss is better than the film it's based on.

If Robocop Vs. Terminator was a poor mans Contra, this is a poor man's Street's of Rage. One plus point for this game is the fact its characters are less annoying than SOR's. The sprites are probably better looking, and they would quite probably have created a very unsettling and creepy atmosphere seventeen years ago, when the game was first released. As it stands they still look pretty good, and the game has a suitably dark feel to it, even if you do fight a giant duck robot at the end.

The problem I have with the game world is the same that I had with the film. It's Tim Burton's vision of Batman, and as with Tim Burton's vision of anything there are several recurring themes. The most noticable in the game is the fact they try to replicate Danny Elfman's soundtrack. Elfman could only produce something that fit what Burton wanted to project, and in the game they capture that projection well. The occasionally "wacky" tunes don't really float my boat, but I'd imagine some people getting a kick out of them. It's faithful to the film, make of that what you will.

As for the gameplay...it doesn't really translate well to me for the modern day. It's slow paced and repetitive. It's perfectly OK for a quick (well, slow, given the pace Batman walks at) blast, but I didn't feel inclined to play it at length. There are plenty of older games that play perfectly well to this day. I don't think that this kind of game does. It's not a bad game as such, it's just a dull and repetitive one and that's not really how you want to occupy an afternoon.

Plus points: It's as faithful a film adaptation as you could expect of a game of that age, the sprites are well drawn, the mechanics are sound

Negatives: It's slow paced, repetitive, the music is occasionally annoying (though is composed perfectly well)

Score: 4/10

I'm unusually prepared for the next game coming up, my copy of Batman returns arrived in the post today. It better be less shitty than the film...!

I have mixed feelings about this game. It probably would have been great fun to play at the time. Even now the OTT blood and guts nature of the thing is fun. I absolutely love the fact people react to getting their bodies blown to pieces with a simple "ugh." It made me laugh, and made me want to score the game a full ten out of ten. It made me want to like the game more than I possibly could.

The negatives are the slow pace of the game. You're constantly kept busy with people to obliterate, but I felt as though I wanted to sprint on from certain sections and see something new, but I couldn't. I slowly plodded along killing everything in sight, and this got repetetive quite quickly.

I enjoyed the music of the game, it was suitably retro and a great throwback to the 90s. It's catchy and buzzes around in your head for a while after you finish the game - in a good way. It gets you pumped up for some fast-paced murderin' fun...but as I said you just don't get that. Well, that's not entirely true - you certainly get the murderin'.

The game obviously takes inspiration from Contra, except the programmers ramped up the violence and slowed down the fun. And for a modern day gamer that's problematic. I can quite happily pick up the original Contra and enjoy it to this day. And while I can completely accept that Robocop Vs. Terminator would have been a blast back in the day, I just don't think it is anymore. After the initial giggle at the silly deaths I found myself getting bored, and swearing under my breath at Robocop to get on, as though he were a fat person blocking up a hallway and I was in a rush.

Overall I'd give the game 5/10.

There's probably fun to be had for someone in this game, unfortunately I wasn't that person.

Nah, keep Chuck Rock II. I don't think there's a big deal with people having two games nominated at a time, and poor Chuck Rock has been waiting around for ages to be played. The versions on each format of Simon The Sorcerer II are pretty similar, bar the speech so I think any version would be fine. Heck, some people might even want to play the iPhone version, it doesn't really matter as it's the same game anyway.

 

Cool, I dont want games backing up too far incase some one new jobs ( however unlikely) as they will have to wait weeks for their games to come up under the new system and doubling up could mean it takes even longer.

 

There's an Iphone version... Blimey

You could put Simon on the list, but shunt it down as necessary if someone new suggests something, up until Chuck Rock II has been played and reviewed?

Anyway, yeah there's an iPhone version - it's actually a great format for retro games, the iPhone, particularly adventure games if that's your cup of tea.

Nah, keep Chuck Rock II. I don't think there's a big deal with people having two games nominated at a time, and poor Chuck Rock has been waiting around for ages to be played. The versions on each format of Simon The Sorcerer II are pretty similar, bar the speech so I think any version would be fine. Heck, some people might even want to play the iPhone version, it doesn't really matter as it's the same game anyway.