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Games Shown: Frogger, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Arkanoid, Tron, and Asteroids.

Facebook viewers check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhkR-vHXO28
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(Facebook users click “original post”

2010. -C

Mega Man 2 NES Box Art

I am on a streak of excellent game reviews, to give you the reader an idea of how I take into account certain things about a game.  By showing you what I think the BEST games are, I can show you some mediocre and horrible games later.  But not today!  Today we have one of the greatest entries in what may be one of the top 5 video game franchises ever, Mega Man 2.  A little background, the original Mega Man arrived on the Nintendo Entertainment System 18 months prior to this entry, and was well received by critics, but virtually unknown by players.  However, with the incarnation of Nintendo Power, Capcom made it quite clear that Mega Man 2 was THE game to have in the summer of 1989.  Full page spreads, maps, posters, colorful artwork; this game could not go unnoticed.  The game stars Mega Man the protagonist fighting off the evil Dr. Wily and his 8 Robot Masters: Bubble Man, Air Man, Crash Man, Wood Man, Heat Man, Quick Man, Metal Man, and Flash Man.

The Mega Man games were unique at the time, because it allowed the player to choose what level to start with. (Although if you started with Quick Man, he lives up to his name, and you quickly die.)  After a robot master was defeated, Mega Man could acquire his weapon to use against future enemies in other levels.  Trial and error was needed to find out what weapons the 8 robot masters were weak against.  There are energy and weapon power-ups scattered throughout the levels, and Energy Tanks which the player could collect and save when they needed an extra burst of health during battle.  A password feature using a unique grid system was also implemented, allowing the player to continue later and still leave the same robot masters as defeated.  This obviously takes away the challenge presented by the original Mega Man game, but I think Capcom may have done this on purpose….

Capcom knew that as a second entry in the franchise it had to do EVERYTHING right.  Marketing, gameplay, soundtrack, difficulty.  It all had to be balanced..  If something wasn’t right, it would get lost in the sea of other NES games that flooded the market at the time.  

Mega Man 2 - Stage Select for the 8 Robot Masters

You have to think, this game was going up against some big names at the time!  Super Mario 2, The Legend of Zelda, Ninja Gaiden, and Contra were all out before Mega Man 2.  This game had to be the best.  And it is.  The graphics are impressive by NES standards, giving us HUGE sprites, some bosses taking up the entire screen!  The gameplay is solid. Mega Man controls exactly how you want him to control, if Mega Man falls into a pit of lava, it’s because you made him fall. The soundtrack is excellent.  So excellent that I have it playing in my iTunes right now as I am writing this. All stages have a catchy tune from start to finish, there isn’t a dull one in the bunch.

The difficulty varies.  Most stages allow the player to blast through the level with basic run-and-gun tactics to get through, however others require the player to utilize logic such as to find the correct path of disappearing blocks over the Heat Man lava pool, or the correct pattern to navigate through those damn laser beams in Quick Man’s stage.  There is even one part in Dr. Wily’s castle where if you don’t conserve a certain weapon for use on the Turret Boss at the end of the level, Mega Man cannot defeat his rival and must start the stage over.  When you first play any Mega Man game it can be very overwhelming on what stage to choose first, what weapons to use on the boss, etc.  However, I think Capcom encouraged magazines such as Nintendo Power to include the level maps, secrets, and boss weaknesses on purpose.  They wanted you to progress.  They wanted 7-year old Chris and 5-year old Sean to see the giant dragon in Dr. Wily’s castle.  They wanted the public to say “This game is awesome, you have to try/rent/buy it.”  

Mega Man 2 - Wood Man's stage battling the Fire Dog.

And they succeeded. It was just right.  The password system worked well and had players coming back for more. However, Capcom was smart and added in a “difficult” game in addition to the regular mode.  This allowed pro-players to run through the game with harder enemies, and potentially take more damage.

The game as a whole is a masterpiece, and I hope that everyone who worked on it got a raise, which I am sure they did after sales of the game were phemonemal and eventually spawning many successful sequels on almost every console some of which include SNES, Game Boy, Game Gear, Saturn, Playstation, Nintendo 64, and an all new downloadable game on Wii, 360, and PS3.  This game is relatively easy to find as it sold millions of copies.  The NES cartridge will run you about $10-$12 but you can also find it on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for Gamecube, Xbox, and Playstation 2.  Also, Mega Man 2 is available on the Wii Virtual Console for download for a measly 500pts. ($5)  Get equipped with Mega Man 2. 10/10 -C

Donkey Kong Country SNES box

Donkey Kong Country is one that is close to my heart. I believe that it was received by my brother for his birthday in November of 1994. Nintendo did a great job promoting this game for months, making me want it more and more every day that came closer to release. Finally, the month before the release of the game, a VHS videotape arrived in our mailbox covered in jungle green leaves. As I saw it was from Nintendo, we popped in the video and were dazzled. Before the Internet had streaming video, all we had seen of the game were pictures in magazines. This marketing tactic was the best idea that Nintendo had at the time. Seeing this game in full motion video had sold not only me and my brother on the game, but all the other neighborhood kids that had seen this video. It was better looking than any game we had ever seen, and at least twice as good as anything SEGA had put out on the Sega Genesis.

Donkey Kong Country VHS Tape

Now about the game, this game is a 2-D platformer that uses 3-D wireframe models to give the illusion of the game being three dimensional.  The game holds a basic premise that any player can understand: Donkey Kong (formally a bad guy in most previous games) has had his entire banana hoard stolen by the lizard Kremlings.  He grabs his buddy Diddy Kong and they need to get their bananas back with help of some animal friends around the island.  The entire adventure is fresh from start to finish with standard platform levels, barrel levels, mine carts, ice, swamp, jungle, and tons of bonus levels.  The number of secrets in Donkey Kong Country is astounding and all of them would be found unless assisted by a guide of some sort.  Collecting Bananas, letters that spell “KONG”, and golden animal tokens has never been so much fun.

Donkey Kong riding Rambi the Rhino

The music in the game is catchy and the ambience whether it be in a cave, water, or the jungle makes the soundtrack one of the best of all time.  (It can be purchased but it is quite rare, do an eBay serach for “DK JAMZ CD”)  There is a two player feature that allows two players to switch off like a standard platformer, or have one player control DK and the other Diddy. 

Overall this Nintendo designed and published game was revolutionary and sold over a million copies of the Super Nintendo cartridge alone.  It was so popular that Nintendo even packed it in with some versions of the Super Nintendo system.  It spawned two SNES sequels, three Game Boy versions, a Game Boy Color port, a Nintendo 64 unofficial sequel, and three ports of the SNES games back onto the Game Boy Advance, not to mention the Wii Virtual Console downloads of the SNES versions.  Most importantly, it revived a ten year old franchise and put Donkey Kong back on the map.  This game is one of the best that Super Nintendo has to offer, I highly encourage you to check it out, the SNES cartridge can be had for about $10 or you can download it from the Wii Virtual Console for 800 points ($8).  Now excuse me while I go eat a banana. 10/10 -C

Dave setting up our booth at MGC

I recently took a trip to Wisconsin to vend at the Midwest Gaming Classic convention in Oconomowoc, WI. Going in I had low expectations, especially after comparing cons to the old days of Philly Classic 3, 4, 5, etc. as well as CGE back in San Francisco & Vegas. I was reassured by many in the online classic gaming community that it was worth the trip. After working some details out with my friend Dave, I decided to help load & unload as well as run their booth in exchange for some table space.

I shipped three boxes of random retro gaming goodness out to Wisconsin, packed up some clothes and hopped a plane to Green Bay. We loaded a 26 foot Penske truck full of Arcade machines, cartridges, boxes, manuals, discs, memorabilia, and more. After arriving at Oconomowoc, I immediately sensed something different. Vendors were actually vendors! Now what I mean by this, is that the vendors who had tables actually sold items. Recently, I have noticed the disturbing trend at cons where a vendor will pimp out one or two products, or even just try to promote their business, with selling little or no items at all. However at Midwest Gaming Classic, there was none of that. Every vendor had parts, games, and/or memorabilia at their table, very impressed. Arriving at the show, the staff was very helpful in helping us unload and directing us to where we were supposed to go.

As the show floor opened on Saturday, I could immediately tell that this show was going to be different. This show is a buyer & sellers show. Deals were to be found everywhere. Vendors giving discounts, free games, and more. People had the money. I don’t care what the economy is like, there are still a lot of people who have a lot of disposable income to burn on copies of Shaq-Fu and Mario Party 3.

Some of the Arcades at MGC: Punch Out!, Street Fighter II, Area 51, Ms. Pac-man, Dig-Dug, Galaga, and a ton more.

If you had no money, that was okay, because there were over 25 arcade machines to play for free, as well as over 30 or so pinball machines to play as well. This doesn’t count the 20 or so console stations that were setup to play anything from classics to XBOX 360. There were a bunch of tournaments including Guitar Hero / Rock Band, Pinball tourneys and a bunch more!

All in all I would say that MGC 2009 may be the best game show of the year, and that CGE is the only show that could potentially give it a run for its money. I definitely would go back again, and be in as a full force vendor. I hear they sold the floor space of the show out quickly, and that there are rumors of a larger venue being acquired. I am all for it, especially if they move it closer to a major city like Milwaukee or Green Bay! -C