----------------------- Title ------------------------

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. It's time to review a game. It's called "Ultimate Stuntman". Is this game any good? Let's read on.

----------------------- Graphics -----------------

6 - I guess the graphics are okay (but a bit bland). The animations are okay too. You might want to play Ultimate Stuntman to find out why they're okay (but bland), because I can't explain it any better than that.

------------------------ Sound -----------------------

9 - The sound and music are quite good (which I have to admit that). It DOES sound like a Commodore 64 game (without the Commodore 64 processor). I mean, I liked the music and the sound myself.

----------------------- Addictive -----------------------

4- I'll be honest with you; the only reason I would play this again is hear that sweet music (and I'm sure there are probably . I mean, I suppose there's a fair amount of variety - but you'll see why I gave this a 4 shortly.

------------------------ Story -------------------------

5 - The story is pretty generic. You are Ultimate Stuntman, rescuing Jenny Aykroyd, who has kidnapped by Dr. Evil (no, not THAT Dr. Evil). You also have to defuse bombs and stuff like that. So yeah, the story is pretty generic.

-------------------------- Depth --------------------------

8 - I have to admit; there's a pretty good amount of depth. There's the "racing" stages, there's the platform stages, there's the climbing stages, there's the bosses, there's the vertical and horizontal shooters and then there's the bomb-defusing stages. However, these start repeating during stage 4 and continues to do so for the rest of the game. I had to knock it down 1 point (because of the levels repeating at stage 4). I mean, it might have been semi-excusable had the difficulty not gone upwards (you'll see why soon). I will tell you why below. There's also some power-ups (clocks, which extend your time limit), turbos (which make you invincible during the period where you use it), the shooter (which upgrades your gun and if you get 2 of them it makes it so you can shoot in a 3-shot spreader), health (it either restores 2 blocks of health or 1 block of health), keys (which are only in the plat-former stages and you need to collect a certain amount of them within the time limit), a shield (makes you invincible in the climbing stages and is only available in the climbing stages), the swirl power-up (which helps in the first boss battle and takes a good chunk of it's health off) and a bouncer power-up (it acts like the Super Ball power-up from Super Mario Land and is available in 3-1 and it's repeating equivalent. It also helps with that 3-1 boss). There's also an extra life laying around some of the levels in this game (or it can be earned after every racing stage).

------------------------- Difficulty ----------------------

9 - Oh boy; here we go. Now, during the first 2 stages or so, the game is relatively fine (in terms of difficulty). Once you get to the third stage, though, that's where the game takes a nosedive into the drink. Now, the first 2 stages had reasonable time limits and a fair amount of health. The third stage (especially 3-2) is really cheap (with 3-2 and it's repeating level) being the worst. I think the difficulty is all over the place. For example, 3-2 has bad level design, bad (sometimes cheap) enemy placement and barely enough health to make it through. 4-1 is another example; in that stage (which is almost a carbon copy of 2-1) has NO health in it at all and ONE shooter power-up. Another thing; WHY does 4-1 have a TURBO power-up in it? Isn't that supposed to be in the RACING stages? I felt like the developers didn't care after 2-4 (in some cases). However, 5-2 (which is again, almost the exact same as 1-2 only with more enemies) has a decent amount of health and shooter power-ups. Another thing: 5-1 has BARELY enough time to make it through and only 2 clocks to extend the time limit. Here's another thing: WHY do the vertical and horizontal stages have TIME LIMITS? In every other shooter you probably played (unless it's like one of those bullet hell style shooters), there's no time limit.

Now, 1-2, 5-2 and 7-2 are at a reasonable enough difficulty level. 3-2 and 6-2 aren't (with bad level design, bad enemy placement, cheap hits, leaps of faith and the keys being hidden below the part of the level where you can't see). In 2-1 (and it's repeating levels), you move your plane (or possibly a glider) up and down (to avoid obstacles and left and right. Your plane moves pretty slow horizontally (but moves fast vertically) in the vertical scrolling shooter levels. However, your plane moves pretty slow in the horizontal scrolling shooter levels, both vertically and horizontally and your plane has questionable hit detection at best. It also has a straight shot (which can be upgraded to a 3-shot spreader) and bombs. A is shot, B is bomb. Your weapons seem to be pretty under-powered (which gets worse as enemies and bosses start to take more damage) against the enemies and bosses. The spider in 5-1, for example, took a load of damage before finally going down (even with the swirly power-up). The plat-former stages (well, some of them at least) IS one of the better parts in this game. The plat-former levels have okay control too and semi-reasonable hit detection. However, there are some parts where you have up jump up to higher parts of the plat-former stages (by pressing Up+A, like in Shinobi). A is low jump, B is shoot. The racing levels have okay control and semi-reasonable hit detection, but the later racing levels have a LOW time limit (we're talking like 20 SECONDS here). The climbing stages have decent control. Here you get to shoot various enemies (including turrets, which take a load of damage before being destroyed). The best part about this game is the bomb-disposing stages. I like the bomb-disposing stages the most (because they are puzzles (although not too difficult, once you figure out how to de-solder the bomb)). In the bomb-disposing stages (which are ALWAYS the "end of stage" bosses)

The bosses themselves do vary up a bit (well, to a certain extent, that is). Like the levels, they do start to repeat at 4-1 (where you face the bird again). Some of them get repeated THREE times (like the Techno Beast, for example).

Spoiler alert: All 3 "end of level" bosses (and the others) get repeated at least TWICE. I thought to myself, did they seriously run out of memory or were the developers lazy?

Anyway....here's the bosses here. (Spoiler Alert)

1-1: The van: this boss isn't too bad; PROVIDED you have either the swirly power-up or you upgraded your gun to a 3-shot spreader. It does go left and right, dropping projectiles and barrels. If you don't have either of them...well, you might have a difficult time, considering that the projectiles can alter their paths diagonally left or diagonally right.

1-3: Techno Beast: this boss isn't too bad, either. It just jumps at you (which you go under it) or charges at you (which you use the high jump to go over it). The weak point is the back of the head; it takes the most damage there.

2-1: The Bird: this boss just drops a whole bunch of projectiles on you. You CAN do this UN-powered, but you will need to dodge left and right (to avoid most of the projectiles). The bird goes right, then left (dropping a whole bunch of projectiles in the process).

2-3: Mega Slug: this boss just slithers around (getting closer to you until it finally gives you no more room to maneuver around it's big sprite). The weak point is the eye. This also presents one of the problems in this game: lack of recovery time. While this isn't TOO much of a problem for the first 3 "end of stage" bosses, this will come back to bite you soon enough.

3-1: Sea Dragon: this boss moves left and right (just like the other 2 bosses before it) and drops projectiles. There is an easy way to defeat it: the bouncer power-up. If you have the bouncer power-up, then you can just stay to the opposite side of whatever side the sea dragon is on and just fire until it gets close enough to you. Just dodge left and right and you better HOPE you have the bouncer power-up (the one that acts like the Super Ball in Super Mario Land), because if you don't.....you will probably die (unless you have the 3-shot spreader and even then you might die, due to the lack of recovery time and the sea dragon spewing out a lot of projectiles).

3-3: Sand Yeti: this boss digs underground and appears (for you to shoot at it in it's head (which is the weak point). Just try to dodge and jump over it if necessary.

4-1: The bird 2: this is the exact same as 2-1's boss. No point saying anything here.

4-3: Techno Beast MK2: this boss ISN'T the exact same as it's 1-1 equivalent, but it is pretty similar. Again, it charges at you (which you need to high jump over), fires 4 projectiles at you after the first 2 charges (which you need to either high jump over or duck under), charges at you AGAIN (high jump over), fires a projectile (high jump over) and jumps over you twice (go under it both times).

5-1: The Spider: this boss is actually one of the easier bosses in this game. The spider goes around (in an oval pattern) and drops eggs (which then become baby spiders, of which you can shoot down). Just stay on either side until you can get a clear shot at it. Be patient; this boss takes a LOT of damage to go down. The swirly power-up probably does help to an extent, but I didn't really need it.

5-3: Mega Slug MK2: Remember when I said that the difficulty was unbalanced earlier on in this review? This boss is PROOF of that. Remember Mega Slug in 3-3? Well, Mega Slug MK2 is almost the exact same here. Mega Slug MK2 fires slugs at you (which can be easy to shoot down if you have the 3-shot spreader) and tries to smother you to death (by touching you). The lack of recovery problem will bite you here, because Mega Slug MK2's "smothering" - combined with firing it's slugs - means you will probably take damage (sometimes death if you're not careful). Mega Slug was B-I-G before and it's size does not help in dodging the thing. My advice: take it out, QUICK. Otherwise, you will probably die from the lack of recovery time (which means death can happen very, very quick).

6-1: The bird 3: REALLY? These developers HAD to repeat the bird boss THREE times? They couldn't have repeated the sea dragon? Whatever, this boss is the same, so no comment here.

6-3: Sand Yeti MK2: Yep...this boss is similar too (only this time, it throws out ROCKS every time it comes up). Just avoid the rocks and the Sand Yeti MK2 (with high jumping and shooting the rocks down, if necessary).

7-1: the van 2: Same as before, just shoot down (or dodge) the projectiles and barrels.

7-3: Techno Beast MK3: Oh gosh....this is ALMOST the exact same as Techno Beast and Techno Beast MK2. The only difference is that it fires 2 projectiles after the first charge (which this time you need to avoid it by staying on the extreme right side of the screen). Otherwise, the rest of it's pattern is the exact same as Techno Beast MK2. Just dodge and high jump when needed (and go under it when necessary).

8-1: The Spider 2: It's the exact same as the spider in 5-1, no comment here.

8-3: Dr. Evil: Well, this boss is different (in that, it shoots quite a bit of projectiles). First of all, take out the turrets with your 3-shot spreader (if you didn't die during the climbing stages) and dodge the oncoming shots (if possible). Then try to take out Dr. Evil himself (should be easy, since his turrets are gone). Then you've rescued the damsel-in-distress!

Another thing I have to mention is that you have infinite continues.....BUT you start from the beginning of the stage again after continuing (which can be a real pain in the glutes), considering that the difficulty is unbalanced and hard for the wrong reasons. For example: if you die at 4-4, you're sent back to 4-1.

One more thing: don't try to use a turbo controller or a controller with turbo functionality. If you do, the gun "overheats" and you can't fire for a bit (more like 2 or 3 seconds), but still, the game WILL disable your gun if you use a turbo controller (trust me on that).

There is one thing I have to mention here: the bonus stages. These appear after every racing level. While I can the first 2 or 3 done with a perfect (which awards you an extra life), the later ones are IMPOSSIBLE to do (like 8-1's bonus stage, in which you go so fast, it's impossible to react to dodging stuff in time). Fortunately, this doesn't cost you a life if you do blow up, so it doesn't matter too much.
-----------------------------------------------------

Overall Rating: 5 - I did like parts of this game (the bomb-disposing levels, some of the plat-former levels, the climbing levels, and the first 2 stages, the infinite continues (which you WILL need) and the music and the variety), but I also hated parts of this game (like the cheap hits, the bad enemy placement and bad level design in some of the later plat-former levels, the somewhat questionable execution of some of the variety in this game, low time limits on the later racing levels, questionable hit detection in some parts of this game, your plane moving slow in the horizontal scrolling shooter levels, putting power-ups where they don't belong (like 4-1's example of putting a turbo booster; seriously, they could've put health there and do remember that 4-1 is also a vertical scrolling shooter level) and some of the bosses being cheap). The graphics are in the middle being hating them and loving them; I didn't care too much for them. Now you know why I think (and believe) that this is an okay game at best.

I can understand if you like this game. I mean, I certainly like parts of it.

It would be best if you tried it on an emulator first (to see if you really want this game or not). I do have the cartridge somewhere in my bedroom (which is kind of a mess at the moment) that I bought at GameXChange.

While some people call this a mediocre game and some people call this a great game, I'm in the middle here. I call this an okay game.

Really nice review, very in depth, some people from back in the day may have complained that you made a half-review half-walkthrough in one thread, but like, do you see the state of things around here? I'd totally like seeing more reviews from you in this format. Aside from the Vizzed category listings, this is pretty much a normal standalone review in your own flavor.

The game doesn't sound too bad, like, you have a health bar and continues per stage, by retro standards that's pretty lenient, and it sounds like there's a lot of content. Makes me wonder why we can't get more games like this on Switch virtual console instead of Kung-Fu Heroes.