Most gamers know the infamous “Konami Code” and 9/10 will say they remember it because of the 30 lives code in Contra on the NES. What many don’t know is that Contra was originally an arcade game and the NES was a port of it. The XBLA release is based on the arcade version, which means… No 30 lives code, sorry guys. Should you still play?
Archive for category Retro Thursday
Just like Root Beer Tapper, this is a review for an XBLA game that is no longer available due to the bankruptcy of Midway, but is still available in the Midway Arcade Treasures collection. Smash TV may be even more appealing to today’s audience as it is a twin stick shooter long before Geometry Wars was around. This is the daddy of them all (the granddaddy would be Robotron 2084) and is still a ton of fun to play.
That’s a lot of consoles listed in the title, huh? That’s because this is a classic Midway arcade game, and in reality I could list a hundred more that it was on, but I will focus on the XBLA version as well as the one found on the Midway Arcade Treasures collection on PS2/Xbox/GameCube. Has the game held up after all these years?
There may be a lot of you out there that are like “Sega Master System? Sonic the Hedgehog? Don’t you mean the Sega Genesis?” Nope, I do not. While not very popular here in the US, Sega had a system out before the Genesis called the Sega Master System that was the 8-bit competition to the NES system and Sega supported it well into the Genesis’ life-cycle so they, of course, made Sonic for the Master System as well. The reason I am reviewing the game is because many people may not realize that instead of a dumbed down port of the Genesis game, it is actually a whole new game and therefore worth a look for platform game fans.
Today’s review title is one of the longest just because of the amount of consoles it is available for. Gunstar Heroes is a classic side scroller run and gun shooter along the lines of Contra. It was Treasure’s first game and the company was formed by former Konami employees that worked on Contra so it all makes sense. If you enjoy classic shooters like that especially playing 2 player co-op you owe it to yourself to get this game, but which version?
Growing up in the late 80s/early 90s you will be familiar with these strange things known as “arcades” and “arcade games.” While sadly this is pretty much dead here in the US, at least many of them still live on in various forms on today’s consoles. Back then you couldn’t go to an arcade, bowling alley, pizza place, comic book store, etc without seeing the TMNT arcade game, and with good reason. Is it still fun and worth the money today?
Here is the first official Retro Thursday review. Instead of going the Virtual Console route as others may have thought I’m going with a game that my friends and I still love to play on XBLA that’s a true arcade classic. I had this game as a kid on the Commodore 64 and no game was responsible for more controllers being broken than Track and Field. That record still holds to this day, but luckily has yet to add anymore casualties in the form of Xbox 360 controllers. So I’m still playing it, but is it worth the time for others?
