Mike Castle

I intend to play this one, I had planned to play the previous one too, then wound up not getting round to it .

Will try giving this'un a go tomorrow. I'm also considering being a bastard and adding an Amstrad game after Claymates .

Here's one for the conspiracy nuts to go mental over. Simpson's apparently predict something to happen tomorrow.

There was also a rumor going around that he was the boyfriend of a female wrestler and the only reason he was doing it was so he could give her a high position.

and didn't she actually end pretty low down in the list in the end anyway?

Roddy Piper literally fights childhood obesity.

That's brilliant. We need more like that.

If you mean the very first ladder, right after you collect the key, you need to hold the fire button to jump across (number 5 on the keypad if that's how you're playing it), not by pressing up (8 on the keypad), and make sure you hold the button down during the jump.

This way he'll do a diving flip jump which clears more space than a normal jump.

Pat, jump wise hold fire as you jump rather than just pressing it, and he'll jump further (I had to work that bugger out for myself).

Fucking intro.

"Are you ready to guide him on his biggest adventure yet?"

Yes I am, get the fuck on with it.

Right, game itself. It's not actually a bad game, although likely plays better if you try and configure the keys. I couldn't be bothered as I only found an Amiga emulator to play this game (which almost led to me giving up what with the emulator not being originally packaged with the kickstart roms it needs, because hey, that might be being useful for people).

My main issue with it is that it was never really clear what you had to do each time. You find the key, unlock the door to let the little guy out, then mindlessly follow him to help him move to where he has to go, and that's about it. Then you hit the third level and one false move (which is damned easy with shit keyboard configuration on a laptop, what's wrong with Q, A, O, P and Space?) and you land straight in the water and it's restart city.

As a whole the game could be fun, it could indeed be a nice challenge in the later levels but it's just too slow and tedious to make me even care enough to try and proceed, especially when landing in something as simple as water means I have to restart the whole fucking level, yet dropping from three times my height leaves me with barely a scratch.

Graphically it's pretty good when you consider the time. Musically I like it, I even like the idea behind the game, I just feel it fails in terms of actually being fun to play. The controls are clunky and become more of a chore to move your character around, whereas it should feel fluid and easy. You get none of that, just constant annoyance.

That being said, I'll give it 5/10. It has potential but never truly met it thanks to the clunky controls (even with a better control setup it wouldn't change that it sometimes feels like pot luck whether you make a jump of not, especially the ridiculously annoying second level where you spend more time repeating that first series of jumps than the rest of the level combined).

I can't really say much different from the above.

I wanted to like the game as I do like platformers. Unfortunately due to platformers being big things back then with Sonic and Mario, the majority do tend to leave a lot to be desired. This one is no different.

Initial impressions aren't bad, although the graphics leave a lot to be desired. The map screen is typical affair so no flaws there, but then we get to the levels, and it all begins to go downhill.

Holy shit that level music is annoying. Just constant looping of the same track, the only game I've played recently that annoyed me that much was an online truck game which had the music looping after about 5 seconds, which got old after 6 seconds. As just the intro theme to the game this would have been fine, but to for them to force it on us constantly while we play the first few levels is akin to torture.

As for the gameplay, this suffers from the Bubsy syndrome in that it wants you to run fast, but then dumps enemies right in your path to screw you up. Thankfully it does give you a heart system so you can run full tilt into an emeny twice before the third time kills you. The flaw here however is the enemies aren't really spaced out enough to make that any good as you have to get up to speed first, and prior to getting up to speed you actually wonder if Buster will make what should be simple jumps due to a severe lack of forward momentum.

So you just about get up to speed and find yourself running face first into an enemy, or even worse, finding there's a pit in front of you. Now one pit by itself would have been fine, but we don't get that here. Instead we get a series of chasms with pits in them, so actually racing through the level becomes impossible, and you have to carefully jump your way to victory. Again this wouldn't be a huge problem if not for one, teeny little flaw.

You die the very second you touch those spikes.

Which means if you're taking advantage of the fact you can run through the level, you suddenly come face to face with a huge gaping pit, and if you're going at any speed then chances are you will land down one of the three they've stuck in quick succession and so it's right back to the start of the level you go, this time avoiding running at all.

I'm not outright saying the game isn't fun, as it does feel like there's somewhat of a good game under the surface, but I am saying that expecting a game which is any more than a slow moving platformer would be wrong, as while they give you the option of blazing through the level, most of the time you'll wind up down pits or flattened by an enemy if you even try to. What I will say is if you plan to play the game, expect disappointment unless you go in expecting a subpar Sonic.

Need to review the current game, but add Claymates for the SNES onto the bottom of the list.

Think it's fake, but still impressive. Guy plays piano using juggling balls.

Not a fake. He was a regular on entertainment shows when I was little.

Then pray tell, how does he hit two completely different notes, and still get the same sound?

I was going to mention how it's strange that not only is dyslexia so hard to spell, but everyone who has dyslexia seems to be able to spell it.

Then ajmcstyles cocked it all up.

Not really had chance this past week to give it a proper play, so I too, like Ron, will make this quick.

On initially restarting the game I found it to be trickier than I had remembered. I'm sure I remember flying through the first batch of levels, and this time round it took me three tries to even beat the first level. Then I found that instantly trying to build things isn't the best strategy and getting a ton of men works better to begin with which helped a lot.

Game wise, it's fun, if obviously very dated with much better games stepping forward to replace it. but for a Megadrive game it's still solid and well put together.

The music goes well with it, and fits the feel of the game pretty decently.

As a whole, it's not as good as I remember it being, but it's better than I was expecting it to be this time around. If you're after some deeply in depth RTS game, this isn't it. But if you're just after some good retro gaming that is pretty much the early birth of RTS gaming, then this would be where you want to look.

Considering people have regularly said they think Midnight is shit, I highly doubt people are against saying it in here.

I wont comment on the guy as I've never seen him wrestle, but others have been pretty vocal in the past.

I'd say go with the rotational basis, but leave it as it is listed for now, I don't see a reason to pull any, we can just start adding from the bottom now.

Old Spice meets Sesame Street -

Can someone find another link or the tot;e for the scariest commute video? As it has been taken down again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD5cs-TUvmY

Enjoy (or not as the case may be)

The boat battles were a waste of time as there was nothing in them, you fired the cannons once and then couldn't fire them again which left you to charge the ship and have another pointless fight that went nowhere.

 

The guns, on the ships you have to wait, yes, actually wait whilst they are reloaded before you can fire again. and not play it like a shmup with super rapid fire... this being with galleons sloops etc and factors like wind etc being a problem

 

The fight went nowhere because?

So you spend ages just drifting around a screen waiting for the cannons to be reloaded, of which it doesn't inform you that they're taking time to reload nor how long they have left? Sounds like bad programming to me.

Fight went nowhere due to repeatedly tapping the same button constantly.

Then there is this

 

Hell, even if there was a set end target it would be something, but I saw nothing of that.

 

You miss the first screen that lays out the 10 Pirate Quests then? and so forth and so on

Go on then, tell me where it gives me direction. All it said was there were 10 pirate quests, and successfully avoided actually giving me any information as to what they actually are. "You have to do ten things that we wont tell you about" is not good. Incidentally I found out beating a pirate ship was one of them. I found this out by accident when I (easily) beat a pirate ship. Great forward planning for them.

The port stuff, how do you even know where the ports are? You're on the main map and have absolutely no indication of anything beyond "water/land" there's nothing else there. It's just stupid.

 

I found the first port early on (think I started there or something), but afterwards it was just aimless wandering, there was zero information to be gained about what the point of it all was.

 

As you havent clearly read the instructions, when sailing press C to bring up the captains cabin, press left or right 3 times from the continue screen and you have a map of the caribbean. The Red Dots are all the cities and where they are located. The Skull and Cross Bones is your position relative to them all

 

For an even easier reference press A when sailing to get the exact same map.

 

You can then see what information about which places you have and go and visit and attack as necessary

Finding that map was easy, as was the cabin, but the main screen itself is still blank and lifeless which is what my point was. It's still aimless when there's no actual reason to do anything. What is the reason for any of it?

I some how think the point of the game has been missed. As seeing as you dont like it could you do me one favour as I cant find any To provide balance can you find me some negative reviews I can put in the original post Cheers

Sarcy comment about "nobody else dislikes the game, must be you" noted. I like games with a point, this one had none. Rather than being sarcastic and arsey about it, why not accept that just because you (and others) think something is amazing, that others may find it to be a colossal waste of time?

I actually didn't mind Elite, but then there was in essence something to do there (trade goods and get yourself built up). Pirates just didn't have this.

It's not about wanting to be "spoon fed" but a game should feel like a game, not feel like a chore, which this did.

The boat battles were a waste of time as there was nothing in them, you fired the cannons once and then couldn't fire them again which left you to charge the ship and have another pointless fight that went nowhere.

The port stuff, how do you even know where the ports are? You're on the main map and have absolutely no indication of anything beyond "water/land" there's nothing else there. It's just stupid.

I found the first port early on (think I started there or something), but afterwards it was just aimless wandering, there was zero information to be gained about what the point of it all was.

Hell, even if there was a set end target it would be something, but I saw nothing of that.

I get that you like it, but maybe you enjoy it more than most? You definitely find more out of it than I do, and that's fine, but to say I'm somehow in the wrong for finding it to be a waste of time is rather silly. I just find it to be pointless, there should be direction, and there is none, there should be a reason, and again there is none. It's just an entire game of nothingness that leads to apathy.

Funny thing is that I'm finding a few games that I used to love wind up feeling less loved later on when you go back to them and find that there really isn't much there at all (Elite is actually one of those that was like that I found, and I'm worried Mega-lo-Mania will go the same way, but I'm avoiding playing that now so when it comes up I can do so then). I feel this may be one of those games that way back I may have got a kick out of (partly because when I got a game I felt obliged to play it as I'd just paid money for it, and partly because I didn't have two tons of better stuff to play even if it did suck), however now I just wont get into no matter how good it may have once been.

I tried, I really did... but I just couldn't even begin to get into that game, the entire thing felt a lot like a lot of "build your empire up" type of games from the time (as that's the feel I got from it) in that it just had no direction and with no direction you had no real knowledge of where to go, what to do, and it was all just guess work. I found that all I was doing was sailing around the seas, finding some other boat (be it pirate, english or spanish) fighting them, firing the cannons once, then having to ram them as I had nothing else to do, only to just repeatedly jab the A button and win the sword fight without any actual need to play the game.

 

As a whole, it was pointless and a waste of time. 0/10. While I love a game that allows you to go wherever and do whatever, there needs to at least be some direction of what you're supposed to at least be doing, and where you are supposed to be going. This game successfully avoids both, leaving you to wander aimlessly.

 

 

Fair enough dude. 0/10 though.. blimey proper rubbish then like?

 

The whole no real knowledge of where to go is what separates games of yesterday and games of today. No signposting, no making it easy and no giving you the game as it were. afaik stopping at ports and going into taverns and asking governors for information tells you all you need to know. The rest is up to you

 

Its a free spirit pirate sim. you can side with who ever you want. Check the link in the opening post for instructions and the like. The whole point is that you can do what you want, when you want to. You can change what ports are available and what country is in the ascendency by changing the years

 

Want to be a Dutch pirate despite being English or whatever nationality to start then fight away. you may have to sneak into everyport every and may get put in prision alot but thats part of the intrigue

 

Boat Battles get easier and Sloops vs Galleons are always fun its about broad siding and running away. you can damage masts hulls and whatever, plunder the cargo take the ship and so forth and so on. You can do the same for forts and exact regime change as well

 

Its not really an empire building game and if you tire of skirmishes and raiding ports, you can do missions for governors capture other pirates for ransom or information and find your family.

 

All this helps with your final score.

 

Mmm Ill have a ponder I will write a proper inspection if I get time later on..

Thing is, there has to be "some" direction, otherwise there's no point to it to begin with. And I never saw any reason to side with anyone but myself as it was impossible to lose a fight, just tap A repeatedly and have, you've won. So why even bother with boat battles? It gave me the feeling that it had the potential to be a rather decent game, but failed miserably on every level the fighting was piss easy, the boat battle stuff was a waste of time and gave no help or hinderence to you/them, the actual moving around the map was pointless as it was huge but had no reason to go anywhere, and the one time I did spend in a port it was pointless as it gave zero knowledge to what I was meant to be doing.

If you have a day or two free to perhaps maybe get to a point in the game where you might actually have something to do, then it might be worthwhile, and even then I stress the "might", as it is I saw no redeeming features and found that there was no reason whatsoever to play the game, and nothing in it that made me want to continue playing until I had beaten it. Absolutely nothing in it drew me in, and if the game cannot do that, then it's failed at it's job.

Weirdly, I can't see that rule in the UKFF Rules & Guidelines.

It comes under the "general internet ettiquette" guidelines that everyone who uses the internet should be paying attention to. That and the fact if you're linking to an image that you have no control over you have nobody to blame but yourself if it gets changed.

Otherwise known as "tough shit".

I tried, I really did... but I just couldn't even begin to get into that game, the entire thing felt a lot like a lot of "build your empire up" type of games from the time (as that's the feel I got from it) in that it just had no direction and with no direction you had no real knowledge of where to go, what to do, and it was all just guess work. I found that all I was doing was sailing around the seas, finding some other boat (be it pirate, english or spanish) fighting them, firing the cannons once, then having to ram them as I had nothing else to do, only to just repeatedly jab the A button and win the sword fight without any actual need to play the game.

As a whole, it was pointless and a waste of time. 0/10. While I love a game that allows you to go wherever and do whatever, there needs to at least be some direction of what you're supposed to at least be doing, and where you are supposed to be going. This game successfully avoids both, leaving you to wander aimlessly.

I'll throw in Mega-lo-mania on the Megadrive for the same reason as I brought it up previously, would be good to see whether it's aged well, or is a big pile of crap now.

pat, did you ever get beyond the first set of bosses? I will admit the first few levels get a bit samey, but after that it really does pick up when you're dealing with the fleas and such like.

and Ron, the bonus levels I find good purely because if you play the game a few times, they're great to use to skip through the first few levels and get into the meat and veg of the game, when I was playing it on a SNES and was trying to complete the game (which was pretty hard once you get beyond the first few flea levels) there was obviously no saving or password system, so the level warps made it great in that you didn't spend ages getting to where you were before. But also posed somewhat of a challenge to actually do said skipping.