The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants

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Overview / Review of Acclaim’s 1991 NES game, The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants.

After three years of starring in short animated segments on The Tracey Ullman Show, Fox Broadcasting readied the pointedly absurd yet telling antics of the famous yellow family for the spotlight. First airing over the 1989-1990 broadcast season, The Simpsons met with immediate success, breaking all previously existing Fox rating records. The Simpsons, however, was more than just…
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Legend of the Ghost Lion

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Overview / Review of Kemco’s 1992 NES game, Legend of the Ghost Lion.

Kemco’s 1992 release of Legend of the Ghost Lion’s was as an obscure and unlikely a candidate for English translation. The perceived appeal of a Western release is difficult to imagine, and a confluence of several factors inevitably contributed to the commercial failure of and apathetic feelings toward Ghost Lion. Limiting any significant market… Continue reading →

Super Mario Bros. 2

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Overview / Review of Nintendo’s 1988 NES game, Super Mario Bros. 2.

Super Mario Bros. 2 has long since been considered the “odd-duck” of the Mario series, eschewing many of the gameplay elements that its older brother established when released with the NES in 1985. Unbeknownst to the American public when Super Mario Bros. 2 appeared on US shelves in 1988, the true sequel to Nintendo’s smash launch Continue reading →

Mega Man 2

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Overview / Review of Capcom’s 1989 NES game, Mega Man 2.

Despite the original game not selling enough copies to warrant an immediate follow-up, Mega Man 2 saw its initial release on the Japanese market a mere twelve months after Mega Man’s initial publication. Completed over a hellishly short four month development cycle, Mega Man 2 was to become an industry-wide symbol of the passion and dedication that went into many early NES projects: Capcom… Continue reading →

Jeopardy!

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Review / Overview of GameTek’s 1988 NES game, Jeopardy!

The venerable American trivia game show staple Jeopardy!, sitting atop the Merv Griffin Enterprises throne alongside Wheel of Fortune, originally aired to a lukewarm debut on US television in the spring of 1964, and though it garnered enough popularity to keep it on the airwaves for the next eleven years, it was eventually cancelled in 1975. After a failed attempt to reclaim its relevance in a short-lived reboot… Continue reading →

The History of Hudson’s Adventure Island

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Hudson’s Adventure Island series has one of the most complex and easily confused histories of any line of games to appear on Nintendo’s 8-bit system. Eventually ported to nine different platforms (excluding rereleases, such as those on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console), the original Adventure Island was a graphically altered version of Sega’s 1986 arcade hit, Wonder Boy. Continue reading →

Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars

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Overview / Review of Ultra’s 1991 NES game, Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars.

At the turn of the 24th century, American baseball team owners are fed up paying the astronomical salaries demanded by even the worst players on their teams. At a board meeting, the owner of the Boston Banshees suggests robots as a replacement to traditional human participants, confident that cheaply produced players that do battle… Continue reading →

Twin Cobra

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Overview / Review of American Sammy’s 1990 NES game, Twin Cobra.

Originally released in the arcades in 1987 as the sequel to Tiger Heli, Twin Cobra bolstered Toaplan’s already notable reputation as a top-tier developer of coin-op shooters. Significantly improving on its predecessor in nearly all respects, Twin Cobra featured state of the art 16-bit graphics, a raucously infectious FM-soundtrack, and an intense difficulty level… Continue reading →