NES games I have been playing

Most good NES games center around one memorable character and their journey. Nintendo wouldn't have achieved the success it has if it weren't for identifiable characters such as Mario and Link. It seems game developers knew that audience identification with a character - no matter how tenuous - could make or break a game. Is it any wonder that Ultra's Silent Service (1989) sucks so much? Just a fleeting glimpse of a guy in a beard is not enough. Sure, the controls seem dated today, but on the positive side, they could be considered a pre"cursor" (no pun intended) to the controls we are so used to today with DVD's. But that does not a good game make. Same with Acclaim's Star Voyager (1987). No central character = boring, stultifying tedium. So with that in mind I'm just going to give you a short sampling of some games I have been playing recently. Note they all have the central character thing in common.

1. KID NIKI (1987, Data East)



Bright colors, catchy, memorable music, silly and nonsensical enemies and just a general sprightly, upbeat tone make this Data East entry a winner. Data East was on quite a creative tear at this time, also rolling out the memorable items Karnov, Ring King and Breakthru, as well as Kid Niki, among others, all in 1987-88. Also noteworthy is Robocop from 1989. But memorable baddies such as Death Breath, who, rather futuristically, actually says "ki-yah" when attacking, an enemy that looks like Cookie Monster in a plastic bag, Horned Witch, and Mad Monk keep you engaged in the lightweight fun. And isn't that what it's all about?

2. THE ADVENTURES OF DINO RIKI (1989, Hudson)



Don't get confused by the similarly named hero from the above. This has some of the Hudson trademarks we all know and love: the title involves the word "adventure (s)" as in "Island", it takes a cute central character and drops them in a bucolic environment, and, most obviously, it's really freakin' HARD! As far as I know, this is a vertical scrolling game, I say that because level 2 could be horizontal scrolling, but I haven't gotten that far! Much like Hudson's Starship Hector (1990), level 1 is vertical, and level 2 is horizontal, but level 1 of Starship Hector is so incredibly, unbelievably hard, it is a miracle to get to level TWO, much less beat the game! So there could be more variation to Dino Riki than I am aware of right now.
Dino Riki is a caveman that can get progressively more impressive weaponry, all of the "caveman" variety (rocks, hammers, boomerangs, and fire). You jump on lilypads that disappear. It's fun and addictive, but very hard. But so are most NES games.

3. Whomp 'Em (Jaleco, 1991)



Yet another thing that is great about NES is that it is before political correctness. Characters in Contra (1988), Commando (1986), and Jackal (1988) and others smoke cigarettes and cigars, and ethnic stereotypes and broken english run rampant. This could NEVER happen today. Right along in this tradition is Whomp 'Em, the tale of a young Indian brave that fights the baddies with his magical pole. It's truly a beautiful thing. Of course it's not demeaning or insulting in any way. The Indian is the fearless hero. But still, fun and entertaining games like this would be censored and there would be lawsuits if it was released today. Like the great other Jaleco game, Shatterhand (also 1991), you can pick the levels and and do them in any order you choose, after completing level 1. Great graphics, imaginative levels, an original hero, great music, a taste of a bygone era and even a small dash of the forbidden, add to the fun of this great and worthy game.

4. Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu (1990, Hudson)



Perhaps I have saved the best for last today? Hudson strikes gold once again, proving you cannot go wrong with big, bright characters and backgrounds combined with excellent music. This game takes the "central character you care about" idea I've been talking about to it's logical conclusion - make the central character an actual person. Take a person that truly exists in this world, and who you most likely have rooted for in the movies, and make him the main character in the game. I can only imagine releasing a Jackie Chan game at this point in time in America was something of a gamble, as he was not as well known then. But the game most likely featured him because he was, and continues to be, one of the most, if not THE most, famous person in the world. But that aside, this game definitely lives up to the bigness of Jackie's stature - Hudson pulled out all the stops on this one. I'm sure Jackie himself would approve of the color, the gameplay, the CHINESE-NESS of the game, and, perhaps most memorably, the MUSIC, which is among the best I have heard in all NES's history. A must-have game, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu may have paved the way from the gritty earlier Chan (Police Story, Crime Story) to the goofy, fun Chan (Mostly everything well-known in the U.S.), but it is a testament that that transition comes in the form of a little-known NES title. Great and recommended stuff.

NES Review #4: Chubby Cherub

Chubby Cherub, published in October 1986 by Bandai, is a very fun game of the "cute" variety, in the spirit of Rainbow Islands, Balloon Fight, Clu Clu Land, Mappy Land, Adventure Island, etc. In the game you play a naked, pleasantly plump angel that goes through and eats floating treats in the sky. Once you get the hang of flying, the crazy concept, incredibly catchy music and the overwhelmingly bright, cute colors soon win you over to its nutty, childish charm. Imagine if the newspaper comic strip "love is..." became an NES game.



Bandai probably went into the trend of "fitness games" and power pad games after this as penance for glamorizing being chubby and eating cakes and candy with no ill consequences. Actually, you continue to be lighter than air no matter how many sugar-based treats you eat. You must avoid barking dogs, who when they bark, flying letter "B"'s come out of their mouths and in your direction. Don't get caught inbetween a telephone pole and an angry barking dog! The dogs seem to get more angry and vicious as you go along...when the game starts out you face up against a hyperactive puppy, and as the game progresses, you face a large pit bull with a spiked collar. However, your first line of defense is to shoot hearts at them. Makes sense I suppose. Instead of falling in love, they die. How apt, yet perverse. Before I dive into the freudian mythos behind Chubby Cherub, and its basis in Greek mythology, I should say that he is simply a cherub, not cupid. But he looks like he might know cupid. The second line of defense is to turn momentarily invisible (or blinkingly transparent, as the case may be.)



Not to be confused in any way with Kid Icarus, this lighthearted, sugary game is fun for all ages and represents NES fun at, if not its BEST, close to its best. Regardless of anything else, you've got to appreciate a game that has a screenshot of itself on the cartridge, and has an inexplicable Asian mascot (?) besides Chubby. He appears at the level screens and at the end of each level. Are we to assume Chubby is doing these perilous missions for him? And why? Does he work for him? Maybe it's explained in the instruction book, which I don't have. I strongly recommend Chubby Cherub. It helps if you are already have a proclivity towards the "cute" genre, but it's hard not to "love" this pre-PC, pre-'super-size me' hero and his whimsical, candy-filled adventures.

NES Review #2: Bad Street Brawler

They got the "bad" part right! "Bad Street Brawler", (Not to be confused with "Bradstreet Brawler", the game where female writer and poet Anne Bradstreet ((1612-1672))got her revenge) produced by Mattel in September 1989, is a limp-wristed rehash and very, very silly. Taking the mindless, repetitive beat-em-up style of Renegade, crossing it with River City Ransom without any of the wit, style or playability, and taking the retro-50's rock n' roll soundtrack from both games, "BSB" as I like to call it, is a ridiculous exercise in futility.
Seemingly thinking the kids of 1989 would truly get behind a hero in late middle age dressed in yellow lederhosen but without pants, this inexplicably effeminate and puzzling main hero is truly strange choice for an action protagonist. Every level you get 2 different moves - variations on punch and kick, which breaks up the redundancy somewhat - but you don't get to keep the moves you've earned or come to know. (Not that you'd want to keep the kick move you are given for level one. It is an effeminate slide that I dubbed "jazzercise".To see an underwear-clad man do this to a dog is quite a sight.) They simply change every level. You gain nothing, unlike the excellent Mighty Final Fight, a top-notch NES title I am a huge fan of.





The "bad streets" consist of pleasant parks at night, and you are "brawling" with dogs and apes. Later on, there is a baddie that resembles Michael Richards' Kramer from Seinfeld. It is possible all this is done in a spirit of fun, but that is unclear. A further example of the supposed potential humor of the game comes in the form of the pre-level screen, which always contain some kind of saying. My personal favorite is "Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you" --that's the BEST one. Truer words were never spoken. Why this game needs maxims, epigrams, sayings, poems, sonnets or anything like that is yet another confusing layer to this game which obscures any potential humor value.



You may notice he is a "thug-thrashing defender of freedom." Indeed.



Now that I've trashed the game somewhat, I'd like to say that this game is so bad, to many players, it becomes somewhat fun. Not GOOD, mind you, but, perhaps if you are in the right mood, fun. Kind of like the infamous "Yo! Noid", but not as controller-smashingly annoying. Yes, the controls are erratic and unresponsive (that's bad in a beat-em-up, especially one with a bunch of strikes already against it.) But, mind you, it was part of the "Power Glove series". It is impossible to imagine playing this game with the Power Glove. It is hard enough with your bare hands. Or fingerless gloves. I had a Power Glove. It didn't work. That's all. However, the Power Glove did have something of a post-NES life. In the short-lived TV show of "The Flash", the bad guy in one episode wore the Power Glove as part of his outfit. It's weird to be watching TV and then yell out "hey! that guy is wearing the Power Glove! Who are they trying to fool?", but, even more uninterestingly, the poor, misunderstood Glove appeared, on the box art at least, of the Jenna Jameson/Nikki Tyler porn film, "Virtual Reality 69". (I tried to find a picture of this for you, but I couldn't.) I doubt they have ever played "Bad Street Brawler". How far you have fallen, Power Glove. We hardly knew ye. Oh, and Bad Street Brawler could be considered a masochistic guilty pleasure if you can find it. I apologize for being so hard on it.

NES: gray box of wonderment and joy

Anyone who knows me knows I love NES. I prefer the term "NES" over "Nintendo" because "Nintendo" could refer to the company, or any of the newer systems, like Super Nintendo, N64 or even Wii. There is only one NES.
Sure, the video games of today have "better" graphics and lifelike cinemas, but are overly complex and lack the overall sense of pure fun you get with an NES game. These new controllers have several hundred buttons and are space age and wireless. All I need is a small,square controller and TWO buttons: A and B!
Plus, the concept of cinema sequences between levels was developed during the NES days. One only need look at Ninja Gaiden and its sequels to appreciate this idea in its infancy. That whole idea was cutting edge and there are many games today that are being remade (of course) such as Ninja Gaiden for PS3. I have no interest in this however, and it shows a complete lack of creativity, and even a certain dishonesty. What I mean is, much like the movie industry as it stands today, with its endless barrage of sequels and remakes, is incredibly lazy and takes for granted the ingenuity and brilliance of the past.
For example, what if the filmmakers of the past decided to just thoughtlessly remake what came before, rather that create new ideas? Then what would the lazy filmmakers of today have to remake? They are utterly dependent on the fact that the idea men of the past were original. Similarly, cover bands are dependent on the fact that the bands of the past were original. If THOSE bands of the past chose to be lazy and uncreative, there would be nothing for these modern day bands to cover. See what I mean? It's just irresponsible to take and take from the past - what if the people back then had done that?
OK, enough about that. I think you get my point. Nintendo came in at a low point for video games in the 80's. They marketed it more like a VCR for the whole family (hence the Japanese name, Famicom, or , Family Computer), and, compared to its ancestors, was a quantum leap forward: Bright colors, fun gameplay, 8 bits (all you really need!), and games with plots and recognizable characters. Some, like Mario and Donkey Kong became legends in their own right, whose worldwide popularity still continues to this day. (somehow, lesser characters and knockoffs like Kid Kool languish in obscurity.)









Of course, pure absurdity and even surrealism played a huge part in the appeal of the NES: It must have been a huge gamble for a fledgling (in the U.S.) company to bet the farm on a video game about two Italian plumbers that fight goombas and ride down flagpoles at the end of levels, and games like Stinger (see previous review), Gun Nac, Monster Party, and Little Nemo the Dream Master amply provide evidence for this. Almost every NES game had some kind of absurd element, from the strange enemy here to the endearing "Engrish" mistranslation there (see pretty much any game with text, but the most famous examples are Zelda 2 and Metal Gear).
At its peak, NES was so popular, many things became games that probably shouldn't. What would Robert Lous Stevenson have made of the game "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"? and what about "Yo! Noid", a game featuring that li'l sprite that ruins pizzas? (any game that features the credit "Domino's Pizza Presents" on the title screen should be some cause for concern.) And many movie adaptations have been made as well: everything from Nightmare on Elm Street to Wayne's World to Hudson Hawk have received the 8 bit treatment - all this simply in attempt to ride the coattails of the NES' popularity.
The bottom line is, for kids of my generation, children of the 80's, especially boys, are inextricably linked to this machine. If you could condense my childhood into one single material object, the NES would certainly be it. It truly changed the world - and to be there at the outset of this revolution was quite a thing. Kids in my elementary school constantly talked about it: I remember a kid on my bus had just gotten it and had the poster that came with it advertising all the games with little screenshots, and many other kids crowded around to look at this poster and marvel at all the colorful secrets and potential hours of fun it promised.
One of the fondest moments of my young life, perhaps the most fond, is when my Mom pulled me out of school on a normal day - not a holiday or birthday, nothing - to go buy the NES. I still regard that as a special moment in time. And that's just it: NES simply represents nostalgia as well as fun games. Could there be a better invention?

NES review #1: STINGER

Stinger is a great, and extremely fun game released on the Konami label in September 1987. This was sandwiched inbetween the releases of Gradius in December 1986 and Contra in February 1988, signaling quite a creative tear for the label. Gradius and Contra of course became classics, even archetypes of their respective subgenres (those being space shooter and run n' gun, respectively). This of course to say nothing of further winners such as Life Force, Double Dribble, and the hilariously titled Rush N Attack (let's not forget this was the time of Reagan and the cold war), and misses, however noble the intention, like The Adventures of Bayou Billy.
Somehow, though, the greatness of Stinger fell through the cracks. Much like the lesser known artists during the renaissance, when even being a great artist was not enough in the boom time of Leonardo and Michaelangelo, and later on, when even being a great band in the late 60's was not quite enough, when the public was spoilt for choice with bands like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Who and countless others. Inevitably, material that deserved notice, and would have gotten it under any normal circumstances, had to be in the shadows.



Such is life, and seemingly also the fate of Stinger. I remember playing the game as a child in the late 80's, and being struck by the originality of the game, as well as the attractive bright colors and music - of course a must for any NES game.
In the game, you fly through various worlds and shoot at various household objects: hangers, popsicles, jelly rolls, records and the like. All the while, you shoot at bells that fall from clouds. If you shoot the bells enough times, you can get improved weaponry and power-ups, but you can't spend too much time doing this, or you will lose focus and the baddies will get you. Addiction and constant continues ensue.
The first level is horizontal, and the second vertical, and so on. This breaks up monotony and was a common feature of Konami games (i.e. Contra, Super C, etc.) The bells are in the sky, the baddies come at you fast and furious in various formations in the middle of the screen, and there are secrets and extra points at the bottom of the screen as well. This keeps the game interesting and exciting and constantly replayable. It is also 2-player simultaneous (a feature disappointingly absent from the first Double Dragon, obviously I'm still a bit bitter about that), so to play with someone else makes it easier and fun to find all the secrets and combat the onslaught of evil objects.
The bosses are great: Evil watermelon, Evil hot dog, Evil faucet (which attacks with evil bubbles - a perplexing constant in NES games - expect more on this later) - Evil VCR, only in a later level does a more traditional evil demon appear as a boss. The programmers' ability to turn mundane objects we see every day into aggressive enemies that kidnap your grandfather, is a stroke of genius that would not be equaled until September 1991 when ASCII released the awesome GUN NAC, the semi-sequel to the also excellent ZANAC, when evil carrots and bunnies assailed you.
Just a quick word about the music: it is always bright and upbeat and infectious, just like the game itself. I especially like the music during "Let's Go Bonus Game" - it will surely put a smile on your face. And isn't that what it's all about, people?



In conclusion, Stinger represents a golden time when NES games were pure fun - an enjoyable experience in the halcyon times before Joe Lieberman droned on about how Mortal Kombat corrupts absolutely. If you have an NES, please pick up Stinger on Amazon or Ebay if you haven't already. You will be happy you did.