Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

Today I will do a review about Power Blazer, the Japanese equivalent of Power Blade.

Is it worth it to buy Power Blazer?

Read on and you will find out.

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Graphics - 10

All right, Power Blazer's graphics are about the same as Power Blade's - that is, they are great-looking with lots of detail and stuff like that (although the HUD and some of the graphics are different from Power Blade's).

Sound - 10

The sound is just as good as Power Blade's, so there's not much to say here (aside from the fact that Power Blazer has THREE soundtracks that are not in Power Blade).

Story - 3

I can't read Japanese.....however, the goal is to stop the villain (as usual) from destroying (or taking part) whatever part of the world it's on. Some Mega Man-like person decides to throw a boomerang.....and that's it (yawn).

Depth - 5

OK......this is where Power Blazer starts to falter. You can select the first 6 stages in any order you want.....BUT the levels are linear (just like ANY Mega Man game), so no "Metroid-Vania" like levels in Power Blazer. That's not the worst part of Power Blazer. Read on to find out what is the worst part of Power Blazer. Because of the levels being linear, there is also no ID cards that you have to pick up (which might SEEM like a good thing to see people, but you will see).

Difficulty - 9

This is the worst part of Power Blazer. The level design is really bad (with frustrating precise jumps that will make you question WHY the designers designed really mediocre level design and mostly UNAVOIDABLE damage) and a REALLY short jump (which compounds the frustrating precise jumps that you will have to make) that does not help any. Oh, and if you get hit, you jump slightly! In some cases, they expect to make the jumps with absolute precision or you will die. The controls are fairly mediocre (although they are the WORST controls in the world). Now you can duck in this version, but it still doesn't help that much. Now, just like Mega Man, you can fall down some screens below. However, in at least one case, you can get stuck and have to RESET! Isn't that nice? The developers could not be bothered to prevent unwinnable situations by design (sigh). I'm not done yet, though. The level design is also cramped - in some situations - making dodging enemies's projectiles even less likely (in other words, impossible)! Seriously, do the developers not know how to make DECENT level design, at least? The worst part, is that, Taito made this game! That's right: Taito developed Power Blazer! I'm actually surprised, because most of their library of games that they developed is at least DECENT (with the majority of their library of developed games actually being good to great)! I guess Taito isn't perfect after all.

Now, the power-ups are shown like this:
- N power-up (which is basically a DOWNGRADE if you have the red boomerang (thanks for that))

- G power-up (makes your power bar go up by a little bit)

- P power-up (powers up your default blue boomerang to the red boomerang)

- Little Heart (recovers 2 bars of health)

- Big Heart (recovers 4 bars of health)

- "E" Power-Up (it's basically an E-Tank, you can have to 4 of them at any given time)

- and finally, "B" Power-Up (these are bombs and these are ABSOLUTELY useless against bosses)

Great, so now we got a downgrade (in the form of the N power-up). You're probably thinking, why is it a downgrade? Well, the blue boomerang doesn't automatically multi-hit enemies (and it also stops when it hits an enemy). The red boomerang (in the form of the "G" power-up) automatically multi-hits enemies and goes through them. The red boomerang is better than the blue boomerang (most of the time). However, in certain instances, it's actually WORSE than the blue boomerang (we will get to that in a bit). It is possible to multi-hit enemies (through overshooting your boomerang) with the blue boomerang, but takes far more effort than simply getting the red boomerang. There is another problem, though: power-up drops are super-stingy. You're either more likely to win the lottery or getting struck by lightning than to get any power-ups dropped from defeated enemies or you will have to spend at least 10-15 minutes or more just trying to farm the power-ups (especially health power-ups, because the enemies simply don't drop power-ups half the time). The good thing is, is that, there's no time limit (so you can sit there, trying to farm power-ups from defeated enemies until doomsday, if you want to do so or need to do so). Again, Power Blade's power-up drops are considerably less stingy (though Power Blade does have a time limit, so you can't farm power-ups from defeated enemies until doomsday).

Another thing, is that, you can't throw your boomerang in 8 directions (unlike Power Blade, which lets you throw your boomerang in 8 directions). Also, there's no double-boomerang or triple-boomerang power-ups (unlike Power Blade), so you're stuck to only ONE boomerang throughout the whole game. You can throw boomerang through walls in Power Blazer, but the enemies can fire through the walls too, so it's a trade-off. Some enemies can take 10+ hits too! You will really wish you had the double or triple-boomerang power-ups in Power Blazer (because of some of the enemies taking 10+ hits).

The bosses are not much better. The alien and robot bosses are easy enough (with their simple patterns and attack), but the dragon boss.....oh boy. That dragon boss is a PAIN. Trust me, it's patterns are RANDOM. It may fire downwards, upwards, decide to do the saw attack above you (both slightly and higher up) or decide to do the saw attack in a straight line at any given time. Plus, the dragon boss takes at least 30 hits to go down! The squat Frankenstein boss is somewhere in the middle of easy and hard. Now, remember when I said that the red boomerang is not ALWAYS better than the blue boomerang? Well, that rings true for the beehive boss and the second-to-final boss. The red boomerang, like I said beforehand, goes through enemies. In the case of the second-to-final boss, I had to LITERALLY die, because of the fact that I was barely hitting the second-to-final boss at ALL (with the red boomerang).

This brings me to yet another problem with this game: the hit-boxes. While some of the hit-boxes are fine, others are not. The second-to-final boss is such one example: even with the blue boomerang, it felt like I was hitting it less than I should, because of the messed up hit-boxes. The second-to-final boss is easy but tedious, because of the hit-boxes being messed up. Yes, it IS easier to hit the second-to-final boss with the blue boomerang (because it stops upon hitting an enemy), but my point is, is that the hit-boxes are messed up on that boss. (It's possible to defeat the second-to-final boss with the red boomerang, but that would take at least 10 minutes and I did NOT want to do that). Plus, the second-to-final boss also takes at least 30 hits to go down (so that makes the second-to-final boss even more tedious). Another example came when I had to pass through the vertical flame jets in one of the stages (in Power Blazer). The hit-boxes on those vertical flame jets are so big that you can get hit EVEN if you didn't see them come out yet.

Another thing: the beehive boss and the final boss have enemies that can drop power-ups (including that "N" power-up, that you probably should avoid for most of this game). You can get that "G" power-up back, but wait, the red boomerang doesn't multi-hit some of the bosses. Power Blazer can't even be consistent. The second-to-final boss, the final boss and the dragon boss are such examples of the why red boomerang (the one power-up that is usually better, but not always) doesn't automatically multi-hit some of the bosses. This makes the second-to-final boss even more tedious (sigh).

I also have to mention that there is no way to figure out how many hits a boss has to take before it croaks (not even approximately), which sucks (unless you count the number of hits the first time you reach the boss and some people don't want to do that). Taito, if you were going to rip off some things from Mega Man, why did you not give us boss life bars? In fact, why did the developers of Taito not even give us ANY indication at ALL on how much life the boss has? Even Konami (with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project) gave us SOME indication on how much life the bosses had (with bosses blinking and/or flashing as indicators). This might have been excusable, had some of the bosses been tuned down in difficulty (among other things), but nope, it's not.

You do get 1UPs. Passwords are available for every level, but you probably won't care enough to use them.

Also, another thing: who thought it was a good idea to put a score counter in Power Blazer? Considering it is absolutely pointless and useless (it doesn't give you any extra lives, abilities or anything like that), I am glad that whoever developed Power Blade took that score counter out of Power Blade. I do NOT care for any high score, period.

This makes Power Blade the superior version, because all boomerangs do multi-hit enemies and all bosses automatically. There's double and triple-boomerang power-ups. There's MUCH better level design (to the point that frustrating precise jumps are nonexistent and unavoidable damage is nullified). The controls are far better in Power Blade, because your character has a higher (and better) jump and the character can throw boomerangs in 8 directions. Plus, the enemies and bosses take less hits in Power Blade (with most of the bosses going down in 5-10 seconds, with the rest of the bosses going down in maybe 30 seconds at most). Another thing: bombs actually work on bosses (in Power Blade)! Life bars on bosses are actually seen on Power Blade (so you know how much life bosses have, at least).

Addictive - 3

So is Power Blazer worth a buy? Probably not, unless the cart's really cheap (like 5 dollars or less, which is ironically the approximate price of the cart of Power Blade, of which I bought from Game X Change). Knowing how Power Blazer came out only in Japan, it's probably a safe bet to assume that it isn't that cheap. Now, it IS interesting to see the differences between Power Blade and Power Blazer. However, it is NOT interesting at all to play Power Blazer (because of all those things I said above earlier). I would probably not want to play Power Blazer anytime soon. I suppose you can play it to see the differences between Power Blade and Power Blazer.

Overall Rating - 5

Fine, this isn't the worst Japanese-developed or American-developed or European-developed game in existence (there are worse Japanese-developed and American-developed and European games than this). However, it is pretty mediocre in game-play and level/game design (with the good things being great sound and great graphics). The difficulty ruined Power Blazer for me (and it might run Power Blazer for you too). Just be sure to use save states (or farm enemies for power-ups until doomsday) if you do play this game.

This is Kenneth$2, signing out.

Have a good day.

----------------------- 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.
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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.

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Title - Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith (GBA)

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I will tackle Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith for GBA.
On to the review (although I can explain how I managed to get this game in cartridge form).
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Not-So-Related Stuff:

One day, I was walking to Game X Change (that's a mom-and-pop video game store that sells retro video games - this was at least 7 yrs ago; possibly longer) from my house (which is a decently long walk; but I have walked farther than that before) and I got there in approximately an hour. I was looking around for a Game Boy Advance beat-em-up game. Then I actually found one (that I didn't get bored within the first 5 to 10 minutes of playing it). (No, it's not Final Fight one or Double Dragon Advance or River City Ransom EX; but it IS up there in terms of graphics, sound, addictiveness, story, depth and difficulty). That game is Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith. Now, allow me to tell you why I liked this game right off the bat. (If you haven't seen the movie Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, then this game is the equivalent of said movie in beat em up form).

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Graphics - 9

I was actually impressed with how fluid the animations and how well the graphics look; the characters in the game look like their movie counterparts (you know who they are)! I can't say too much besides that the graphics are pretty impressive.

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Sound - 8

Now I know that the sound and the music (from the movie) cannot be perfected; but what is there does sound pretty good - I have to admit to that. At least it's not super-repetitive and ear-bleeding unlike SOME beat em ups before and after this.

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Story - 8

If you have seen the Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of The Sith movie, then the story's extremely similar to the movie (except for the Anakin missions, but even those eventually reach the point to the movie's end).

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Depth - 8

WOW; I was REALLY impressed by just how much depth there is in this game. First of all you have 2 characters to pick from: Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker. Now, you may think it doesn't have that much to offer. Well...let's list of the reasons why I think this game has quite a bit of depth.

One: The 2 playable main characters have quite a few combo attacks (if you actually have played a good beat em up like Alien Vs Predator for the Arcade or Super Double Dragon for the SNES). Obi-Wan and Anakin do have different kinds of melee attacks (because they use light-sabers - because they are Jedi) which does help up in beating up the various enemies that will surround you.

Two: Both Obi-Wan and Anakin have force powers (again, this isn't particularly surprising). They do have different force powers (except for both of them having Force Push and Force Pull) that will help you defeat the various enemies in this version.

Obi-Wan's force powers are:

Force Heal (which REALLY helps in a bind - especially if Force Heal is maxed out),

Force Protect (this one also helps a lot - especially if Force Protect is maxed out),

Mind Trick (which stuns enemies on the screen; including droids - just how many depends on what level Force Stun is at (I don't understand HOW Mind Trick is able to stun droids, but if it works, it works))

Force Speed (which slows down every enemy on the screen so he can get to them without taking too much damage)

Force Push (which pushes enemies on the screen - how many depends on what level the force push is at)

Force Pull (which pulls enemies - how many depends on what level the force push is at)

Anakin's force powers are:

Saber Throw (throws his lightsaber at enemies; how far it goes depends on what level the Saber Throw is at)

Rage (increases the damage of his attacks; how much it increases his attacks depends on what level Rage is at)

Choke (chokes the enemies to death; how many enemies can be choked depends on what level Choke is at)

Absorb (absorbs the life force of enemies; how many enemies can be absorbed depends on what level Absorb is at)

Force Push (same as Obi-Wan's)

Force Pull (same as Obi-Wan's)

Three: You can upgrade the 2 playable main characters's force powers to level 3 (which is the max for every force power). You can also upgrade their stats (making the GBA (and PS2) Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge Of The Sith games have RPG elements. Upgrading your stats happens at certain points in the game.

The stats are: Stamina (which makes the playable 2 main characters have more health the higher the number is), Strength (which makes them deal more damage the higher the number is) and Intuition (which makes their force bar (which is below their health bar) regenerate faster. This makes for unique play-throughs; do you want a Obi-Wan with a high level of intuition, high health or high strength? The choice is up to you. Same goes for Anakin as well. While I typically upgrade Obi-Wan's Intuition Level to at least 4 and Anakin's Strength Level to at least 4 (leaving their other stats at a moderate level), you can either do that or the complete opposite of doing that; like I said, the choice is up to you. The maxmium level for any stat to be upgraded is Level 5.

Four: There are customization points hidden throughout the various levels in this game (10 of them, to be exact). You can use these customization points to upgrade the 2 playable main characters's force powers by 1 level.

Five: The game also gives you customization points for doing certain things throughout the levels (like speed-running them, using every force power, focus/fury attack, blocking/deflecting blaster bolts, every combo and stuff like that). You'll probably figure it out - I did so pretty quickly.

Six: Speaking of which....this game also has Focus and Fury attacks (which are the equivalent of super moves in this game). I'm not going to tell you how to fully do them, since the game has a way for you to look them up IN the game....however, these Focus and Fury attacks do help against the various enemies in this game. Note that each playable character (Obi-Wan and Anakin) has 4 of those super move-equivalents each. If you start playing this game (even in the beginning) you'll notice the Focus/Fury Bar right next to your character's portrait. To fill that Focus/Fury Bar up, you need to do certain things (for Obi-Wan's it's using your force powers and for Anakin it's attacking a lot - being aggressive). Also, just like upgrading with your stats, you are given 1 of the 4 Focus/Fury Attacks at certain points throughout the game. Another thing...some Focus/Fury attacks cannot be done unless you have a certain percent of your Focus/Fury bar.

Seven: If you complete the Padawan (and the Master) difficulties, you are given 50 customization points!

Eight: There quite a few enemy selections (although not as many as the PS2 version).

As for multi-player....I have never played it; one - because I don't have a second working Game Boy Advance and two - I don't have anybody else in my house or anywhere in my area to play with...so I can't really tell you how well that works.

There are also duels (just like the movie) that this is based off on and they work pretty well. Now, I thought these duels were going to be like Cutthroat Island's duels (which do not work that well and those duels in Cutthroat Island were mediocre at best), but no, I was proven wrong. The block button
is very useful here. The 2 main characters can also block high or low in the duels. The minor boss battles also work pretty well; I had no trouble with them.

There are some timed missions in this game (which you'll probably have plenty of time to complete them anyway) or kill/destroy a certain amount of enemies at certain points throughout the game.

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Difficulty - 6

As for the game's difficulty; it is challenging (especially on Master difficulty), but not so frustrating that you will want to break this game in half or throw it away or something like that (or give up). This game does give you help, at the very least (unlike a certain SNES/Genesis movie-based beat em up, but I digress). It isn't easy, though, so be aware of that (although it IS easier (and far more fun) than Last Action Hero on the SNES and Genesis). See THAT review to find out how mediocre that game is.

One: This game does give you tutorials on how to do the various force powers and the Focus/Fury attacks throughout the game on the Padawan difficulty if you play this game for the first time (in a new save file). Tutorials are shown for the duels and boss battles if you play the Padawan difficulty for the first time (in a new save file). So, this game's VERY user-friendly. (This is like how Spider-Man 1 and 2 (for the Gamecube) had tutorials for first-time players).

Two: You can save throughout the game.

Three: There are power-ups which do help the 2 main playable characters throughout their adventures in this game (like an extra life, invincibility (in the form of Yoda's face, no less), force orbs (which refill part of the force bar), bacta tanks (which refill part of the health bar).

Four: In case you forget how to do the various Force Powers and Focus/Fury attacks, you do have a built-in manual to check on what buttons trigger the Force Powers and Focus/Fury attacks (no GameFAQs, nothing like that). (Again, this is like Spider-Man 1 and 2 (for the GameCube) and it's built-in manual).

Five: The 2 playable main characters have a LOT of attacks at their disposal.

Six: Certain Force Powers and the Focus/Fury attacks (plus the back-flip attack) negate any damage done to the 2 playable main characters during their full animation (which can really help out in a bind).

Seven: You do re-spawn exactly where you died (if you have any lives left).

Eight: You can throw rocks and other stuff at enemies (with Force Push or Force Pull).
I will say this: there can be as many as SIX enemies (or more, in some cases), which can shoot (or even stun or attack you to death), so be careful. Also, the difficulties are: Padawan, Jedi and Master.

Padawan is the easiest of the three difficulties, because you have 5 lives on that difficulty.

Jedi is the middle ground between Padawan difficulty and Master difficulty. You have 3 lives on that difficulty.

Master is the hardest of the three difficulties. You get 1 life on that difficulty (so be careful if you hope to conquer Master difficulty).

Yes, this game can be a little repetitive. It's not nearly as repetitive as some of the beat em ups that were made before and after this game, though.

There are locations (which are taken from the movie) that the 2 playable main characters go into (which I will not discuss since the game will show you them).

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Addictiveness: 10

Would I play this game again? Definitely, because I like tearing through enemies with an over-powered Obi-Wan with his Intuition Level set to max (with his other 2 stats being level 3 and level 2) or being aggressive with Anakin and having his Strength Level set to at least 4 (with his other 2 stats being both level 3). I also like Mind Tricking enemies (even when they're knocked down - which you can do that as Obi).

The fact that the Focus/Fury attacks exist in this game impress me. While I have seen special attacks make you invincible to damage during the full animation of said special and while I have seen super moves in beat em ups, the fact the the Focus/Fury attacks (and certain Force Powers and the Back-Flip attack) allow you to No-Sell any attack in this game is pretty much one of the reasons why I keep coming back to this game. While the difficulty is moderately challenging, it isn't stupidly hard or cheap, it's fair.

The duels are also one of my other reasons why I keep coming back to this game. The duels in this game remind me of the duels in the movie that this game is based off on (and it's done well).

It is definitely my 4th favorite beat em up on the GBA (behind Final Fight One, Double Dragon Advance and River City Ransom EX). It is also definitely my favorite Star Wars beat em up that I ever played (since Star Wars: The New Droid Army is boring and mediocre at best and Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles isn't too great either and Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of The Clones is apparently terrible (at least, that's what I heard)). Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge Of The Sith is a must play (at least for people like me who like quite a bit of depth in these games). If you can find a copy somewhere (preferably Amazon or Ebay (if you have to go that route)), purchase it (preferably for a fairly cheap amount).

My copy was around seven or so dollars (give or take 1 or 2 bucks) at Game X Change (if you can find any mom-and-pop video game store near where you live).

This is Kenneth$2, signing out. See you later.

The next game I'll tackle will be Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith for GBA.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.   

I managed to beat the second driving stage in the game - the one which I said had a glitch in it; well, it turns out that the game is apparently obtuse: reason sixteen why this game is extremely unfair and extremely unforgiving.

Seventeen: This game likes to waste your time (especially in the last stage) by making you going BACK and FORTH for no reason other than to WASTE YOUR TIME!  

Eighteen: There is ABSOLUTELY no mercy invincibility while getting hit (so you can get cheesed to death by 2 to 3 enemies pummeling you repeatedly).

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See you later, people. 

Hi, ladies and gentlemen.  This is a review about the often bashed and critically panned SNES game "Last Action Hero". 

Is this version ANY good?

Read the review to find out.

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Graphics - 3

Oh boy.....this is not a good start.  The graphics look bland and mediocre and not very detailed at all (especially Jack Slater, who doesn't
even LOOK like Jack Slater in the slightest).  The graphics almost look like an NES game for Pete's sake.  This is an SNES game; you would
THINK that the graphics would be at least on par with other 2D Beat Em Ups, but no, I guess Sony Imagesoft didn't care about quality in the slightest.  If it wasn't for the fact that pretty much every SNES game (including this one) has parallax (that's multi-layered scrolling for those of you who don't know what parallax scrolling looks like), I would've thought that Last Action Hero on the SNES belonged on the NES - I mean, it certainly comes close to looking like an NES game.

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Sound - 4

I guess the sound TRIES to replicate that of the movie's soundtrack.  While it isn't the WORST SNES soundtrack I've heard, it's definitely mediocre-sounding at best.   Last Action Hero on the SNES does at least have several soundtracks (which sound fairly mediocre by SNES standards).

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Story - 3

Here's how the story goes: some magic ticket takes Danny Madigan (who's a protagonist, by the way) and Jack Slater (the character you're
playing as) back between the movie world and the real world.  Benedict (the antagonist) tries to stop Jack Slater and kidnaps Danny Madigan in order to lure Jack Slater into a place of his choosing.  Then stuff breaks loose.   It's about as generic as you can expect.

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Depth - 2 

If you expect a high amount of depth in this game.....you're wrong.  All you get is a punch and a kick (unless you're playing the European version, which gives you a split kick and a duck kick in addition to the punch and kick.....NOTHING ELSE.  You don't get ANY weapons, NO special moves, NO combos - NOTHING.  Guess how useful the kick is?  It is absolutely useless - the kick takes a second longer to activate than the punch (which you'll be using on every enemy AND boss that you come across (that is, if you care to play this game any longer than five minutes).  Another thing: there's no split paths or RPG elements or anything like that.  There IS the driving stage that comes during Stages 2 and 4, but we will talk about that in the "Difficulty" section.  Not to mention that the repetitiveness of this game can drag on for far too long.  The enemies themselves come in 4 versions: the baseball bat wielding enemy (who suspiciously looks like Ash Ketchum - because of the enemy's red cap, blue jacket/white shirt and blue jeans), the knife-wielding enemy (who has black hair, a white shirt and jeans and looks like a thug), the Molotov-throwing enemy (who's blonde and he wears a green shirt and black pants and acts like he's drunk or something) and the gun-wielding guys (who look like board directors gone bad).   Now, it's true that most (if not every) 2D and 3D beat em up recycles (and reuses) the enemies and gives them colors.  The problem is that this game uses 3 OUT OF THE 4 enemies you see in this game IN THE FIRST LEVEL!  

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Difficulty - 10

Do you expect a fair 2D Beat Em Up?  If so....do not play Last Action Hero for the SNES.  This game is extremely unfair and extremely unforgiving (for ALL THE WRONG reasons).   Let me tell why. 

One: you don't get ANY weapons during ANY part of this game.  You can't even PICK UP weapons from defeated enemies. 

Two: the enemies ALWAYS have a longer range of attack than you do (because they have weapons and you don't). 

Three: Like I said above, you get 2 moves (or 4 moves in the European version) at MOST. 

Four: the hit detection is suspect at best - if you're too close to an enemy, you can't touch them. 

Five: you barely get ANY health restoration power-ups at all. 

Six: the health restoration power-ups you DO get barely even bump your health at all. 

Seven: The time limit is strict and unforgiving (unless you're playing the European version).  You may THINK that 255 seconds is more than enough to complete the beat em up/platformer parts, but no, because of the fact that you're CONSTANTLY punching enemies and the fact that they take SIX punches to go down, you'll probably (more likely than not) ACTUALLY time out the level and die as a result.  Even if you do manage to get to the boss, I ALWAYS had like 40 or so seconds left on the clock.  The bosses are easy enough, but the time limit will be low by the time you get to the boss (that is, IF you get to the boss). 

Eight: In the driving stages, you can (and probably will die) in 1 hit from touching trucks and enemy cars .  What you're SUPPOSED to do in the driving levels is to try and avoid the enemy cars, letting them blow up (which is ALWAYS lame), because if you even SCRATCH an enemy car, you'll die. 

Nine: If you die for ANY reason (whether it's due to being timed out from the strict time limit or getting pummeled by 2 or 3 enemies at once or by being bored or by running into those trucks in the driving stages (which WILL happen), you go back to the VERY beginning....EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Naturally, this would make most players actually use save states, because that's just stupid and unnecessary (not to mention, it makes this already ultra-repetitive game even MORE repetitive).    

Ten: you don't even get ANY special moves - you don't earn specials, you don't steal specials, you don't even BUY specials!  The point counter could have been used to BUY special moves and stuff (like in Spider-Man 2: The Movie for the Gamecube and PS2, which IS a very good movie-based beat em up - but I won't compare THAT beat em up to THIS one, because I believe that's unfair).  

Eleven: Jack Slater controls sluggishly and is sluggish to respond (as if he was constipated and fat and had cement shoes on his feet).  His attacks are fairly slow compared to the enemy's attacks.

Twelve: once 2 or more enemies start showing up, you're gone (unless you save state or jump around like a madman TRYING to avoid their blows).  Like I said up above, the enemies ALWAYS have a longer range of attack than you and they ALWAYS have weapons).  Also, be careful of the gun-wielding guys: one hit from their bullet will take out Jack Slater in 1 hit.  

Thirteen: you only have 2 continues.  (You do have 5 lives, but it's probably not going to matter, because you'll probably get bored within the first 5 minutes anyway).

Fourteen: You do have a big life bar, but the enemy's attacks do a significant amount of damage (which WOULDN'T be a huge problem IF
the other 13 reasons didn't TEAM up on you).

Fifteen: All 14 reasons I said up above WILL team up on you.  

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Addictiveness - 1

This game is the OPPOSITE of addicting - it's super-boring, ultra-repetitive and not even REMOTELY fun.   Not to mention, you're just going PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH constantly to the enemies in the beat em up/platformer stages (and driving around like an idiot in the driving stages).  Here's the thing: it does get ANY better, either.  The point counter is ABSOLUTELY useless too (then again, I don't care about high score to begin with, so it's not a loss to me).  

Another thing: if you happen to use ZSNES to play this game, be warned: there's a glitch on stage 4 that WILL kill you in 1 hit NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO - the car that you drive BLOWS up for no reason at a certain point (I suppose it's due to bad emulation - which is not the game's fault (I THINK)), but it's a reminder of how mediocre this game is.  I lost whatever interest in this game when that happened; I was fully done playing at that point.  I might post the ZSNES Last Action Hero SNES glitch on my YouTube channel called "Video Game Glitch/Trick/Bug/Exploit/Quirk Man" to show it off.

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So, is this game worth playing?  NO.  It does not do ANYTHING to help the repetitiveness at ALL (or anything different).  I can name SEVERAL SNES beat em ups right off the bat that are better than this: Final Fight, Final Fight 2, Final Fight 3, Rival Turf and the like.  Avoid this game like the black plague.   

Another thing: I TRY to see the positives of every game and I TRY to enjoy them.  However, this game is as enjoyable as getting a root canal while an moderate-sized earthquake happens (which THANKFULLY doesn't happen very often where I live).

See you later (for another review).

I am a nice gamer (in general).  I am a selective video game collector (meaning I collect games that are worthy of being in my collection).  Generally speaking, I give ANY video games three chances to prove that the video games are worthy of being in my collection).  My hobbies are: video game collecting (of the selective sort), drawing and reading.  

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is Kenneth$2.   Today I will do a review about Twin Cobra for the NES (the port of the Arcade version of Twin Cobra).   This version was developed by Micronics and published by American Sammy.

However, I want to explain about Micronics.

Micronics is a game developer studio thingy that did a LOT of early arcade-to-NES/Famicom ports (Capcom's and SNK's early ports, to be specific) like Exed Exes, Son Son, 1942, Athena and the like.  Micronics is infamous for making MOST of those ports terrible with REALLY choppy scrolling, bad/terrible graphics, terrible music, glitches and bad/terrible controls.    While I think 1942 and Son Son are decent enough ports, the rest of their ports are mediocre to terrible because of the bad/terrible graphics, choppy scrolling, bad/terrible controls, terrible music and the glitches...except for one.   What is this port that manages to be a cut above the rest of Micronics's Arcade-to-NES/Famicom ports?  Read the review and find out.

Graphics - 7

Okay, the graphics aren't too bad considering that Micronics developed the NES port of Twin Cobra.  I mean, the graphics of Twin Cobra on the NES are a little on the bland side, but otherwise the graphics are not too bad....considering.  I will say that when I first played this game, I thought this was a food-themed shooter (like I thought that the helicopter was shooting out BLUE blueberry spread shots, RED hot-dog missiles, GREEN green bean machine gun shots and my personal laughingstock.....the BROWN homing waste weapon.   (Yes, I have an active imagination).   For some reason, when I look up play-through videos on YouTube, I still think that Twin Cobra is a food-themed shooter (probably because of the bland, but decent graphics).   I also thought the enemies shot "meatball" bullets (that are red, no less).   (Again, blame my active imagination for that).     Stage 1 is a base, Stage 2 is mostly over water (with a few battleships), Stage 3 is a factory water place, Stage 4 is a mountain place and Stage 5 is a desert place.  Stages 6-10 are just repeats of Stages 1-5.  

Sound - 3

Yikes!   The sound is pretty bad (though this IS Micronics we are dealing with, so it's not a surprise at all).  It's not AS bad as Exed Exes for the Famicom's terrible sound quality, but it can be borderline ear-bleeding at times.  There's 5 stage themes, the stage clear theme, the ending theme and continue theme.....and they all sound at least very bad and MAYBE borderline ear-bleeding.   If you do decide to play this game, mute the sound on your TV or computer, because it might hurt your ears or replace the soundtrack with Twin Cobra for the Arcade's soundtrack.   

Story - 5

You are supposed to bomb enemy strongholds and stop the enemies from taking over the nation/world/whatever it is called in the game.  It's just like any other generic story on the NES.

Depth - 8

The depth in Twin Cobra for the NES is surprising, to say the least (well, for a Micronics Arcade-to-NES/Famicom port, that is).   The things (or weapon changers, whatever they are called) in Twin Cobra for the NES provide you with quite a bit of depth.  The weapon changers act EXACTLY like the weapon changers in the Raiden games on various systems - they cycle through red, blue, green and brown.   Now, those Chinook-looking helicopters that appear shortly after you start the game drop the "B" power-up (which are bombs - those bombs look like drill bombs to me, so I'll call them drill bombs - they block the red shots), the "S" power-up (which increases your firepower) and the weapon changers which I said up above in the second sentence, in this paragraph.   The regular white stars are bonus points that are collected at the end of every stage and the red stars are invincibility stars (which make you invincible for at least 20 seconds or so).    The 1UPs that appear whenever you shoot/bomb the battleships's turrets are shown (either green or red) when your bomb counter is at 9 (which is the max in this game).   Also, every certain amount of points, you will be awarded an extra life (which you need).   

As I said up above in the previous paragraph, the weapon changers cycle through red, blue, green and brown - which is exactly like the Raiden games on various systems - this game is very similar to Raiden Trad or whatever Raiden game you've played on various system, because of that feature.   The first (and default) weapon I will talk about is the RED hot-dog missile weapon, which is pretty decent and can cover a good amount of the playing field when it's powered up fully (which is 6 levels).   Second is the BLUE blueberry spread shot weapon, which (in my opinion) is the best weapon in the game (when it's decently powered up to fully powered up), because it spreads (yes, like the Spread Gun in Contra for the NES) and takes out normal enemies like files - it would be hard for the enemies to get anywhere near you because of a fully powered up BLUE blueberry spread shot weapon.    Third is the GREEN green bean machine gun weapon, which does a LOT of damage to enemies and bosses when fully powered up - it doesn't cover the whole screen, though, so watch out for enemies.   The fourth (and final) weapon I will be talking about is the BROWN homing waste weapon - this thing stinks!  Yes, it may home in enemies and it does fire in 4 directions when it's powered up to level 4 and above, but the funny thing is, NO enemies appear behind you (yes, some of the enemies can turn around when you pass them and fire at you while you're ahead of them, but NO enemies appear behind you).  Also, it's power is the weakest of the 4 weapons.   Do not grab the BROWN homing waste weapon unless you want to die or are looking for an artificial challenge (not that this game lacks any challenge, but I stand by the fact that the BROWN homing waste weapon sucks).   

Some of the enemies in this game are helicopters (of course).  The big Chinook-looking helicopters are the ones that drop the "B" and "S" power-ups and the weapon changers and shoot in a 3-shot spread shot.  The green, blue and red helicopters shoot only one shot, but they can turn around and be right behind you and can be a real nuisance in large numbers.  The turrets on the battleships shoot periodically and can be destroyed by a simple shot from your weapon or a drill bomb.   

The bosses are tanks and emplacements.  Stage 1's and 6's tanks just shoot in a very predictable pattern (downwards and somewhat diagonally downwards).  You can take it out by exploiting it's large hit box or by having a level 3 blue spread shot at your disposal.   Stage 2's and 7's tanks fire in a circle pattern (which you can avoid).   Take it out by dodging and then firing every so often (or use a drill bomb).
Stage 3's and 8's emplacements just move left or right and fire periodically just like the battleships's turrets.  Stage 4's and 9's tanks are a bit tough to dodge it's bullets - they fire like crazy.  Use whatever drill bombs you have left to block their red shots/bullets.   Stage 5's and 10's tanks are the toughest of all the bosses to take out - they fire in a random circle pattern!  Again, use whatever drill bombs you have to take them out.

Difficulty - 8

Ooh boy.....you want a challenging shooter?  You got it with the NES port of Twin Cobra.  Now, this game's not THAT bad, but it is certainly challenging enough for a person who likes challenging shooters.   The later stages have LOTS of helicopters that can turn around and fire right behind you and some stages have as many as 3 or 4 of the Chinook-looking helicopters.   Now, the controls are fine (the helicopters moves at a reasonably fast pace, hit detection is decent and there's no glitches (that I know of) UNLIKE the early ports of Micronics's Arcade-to-NES/Famicom's ports.   You do re-spawn right where you died (unless you use a continue, of course, in which case, you re-spawn at a checkpoint).   However, you lose all the upgrades you had and you go back to the default red weapon.  So keep the blue spread shot weapon as much as possible or the default red weapon as much as possible and fully level up.  Also, like I said in the previous three paragraphs up above, your max level is 6 (the Arcade version and the Genesis version of Twin Cobra had 10 levels to level up and the 10th level of your weapon is the max you can go in those versions).   So yeah, while the NES version of Twin Cobra is downgraded, it's not THAT downgraded in terms of game-play, graphics and sound.    You also have 5 continues at the start of the game and will earn an extra continue for every stage you clear, so you have 14 continues to go through this game and 3 lives per continue (plus the opportunity to earn more lives).   Oh, and I BARELY managed to beat this game (with 1 life and 0 continues remaining).     

Addictiveness - 8

I don't know EXACTLY what makes me like this game and make me play this game over and over and over again, but it's probably the weapon changers that remind of the Raiden games on various systems.  It's also the stages and the enemies that probably inspire me to play this game multiple times.  Whatever it is, it always makes me want to play Twin Cobra on the NES multiple times (though it's hard for me to get tired of playing the same game 300 or so times, so I suppose I have more patience than most people).  Another thing I forgot to tell you in the previous paragraphs is that the game can scroll from left to right manually (although this can be a detriment as well as an a advantage to you, so be careful).   

Overall - 8

Yes, I'm a fairly lenient person towards video games (most of the time, that is), so I suppose a score of 8 in the overall category might be a bit high for most people (towards Twin Cobra for the NES).  However, the fact that Micronics managed to make a port that's their best port ON the NES and managed to make it fun is a pretty high mark for them, considering that MOST of Micronics's Arcade-to-NES/Famicom ports are garbage.  Yes, the sound is a bit bad/repetitive/maybe slightly ear-bleeding at certain points, but the graphics aren't too bad and the game-play (though it IS a bit downgraded compared to the Genesis version of Twin Cobra) in the NES version of Twin Cobra is actually pretty good despite the somewhat weak sound.  I suppose that some people may not like the music - that's entirely fine, because they can mute the music or replace the soundtrack with their own soundtrack or the Arcade's/Genesis's versions of Twin Cobra's soundtracks (which I actually RECOMMEND you do so unless you want your ears to hurt or unless you do like the music in this game), but the game-play is definitely there along with the decent graphics (although, like I said in the graphics paragraph up above, the later stages (stages 6-10) are at least VERY similar to stages 1-5).   Then again, I'm one of those people who prefer game-play over graphics, so I will play a game with bad or bland graphics if it means that the game-play is actually reasonably good.   

Should you buy this game?  If it is reasonably cheap (like MY copy was, since I bought Twin Cobra for the NES at 2 dollars and 95 cents (or something like that) at Game X Change), then yes, you can buy it.  If the copy is ridiculously expensive....then you can emulate it (by going on Vizzed).  I'm not telling you to buy this game (because I'm not a pushy gamer or anything like that - I'm actually the opposite of pushy, actually).   If you have to emulate it, do so.  You can play this game and if you don't like it, that's fine too.   

This is Kenneth$2, signing off.  Later.




 

Hello, ladies and gentleman, this is Kenneth$2 and today I will do a review of Felix The Cat for the NES.   
Let's get on with the review.

Graphics - 8
For a 1992 game, the graphics are actually pretty good.  Felix, the enemies and the bosses are pretty well detailed.  The background graphics are pretty good and detailed as well.Sound - 9 
The sound in Felix The Cat for the NES is among the best in the NES library. 
Stage 4-2 & 6-2 & 9 (the underwater levels and the final level in this game), in particular can actually
sound a bit scary/spooky and this lets you know that the bad guy in this game isn't messing around.  
Story - 7

It's your damsel-in-distress kind of story here. 
In this case, The Professor (seriously, that's what he's 
called in the 1958 TV series) wants Felix's magic bag of tricks.
He kidnapped Kitty Kat (Felix's girlfriend, which as far as am I
concerned, wasn't in the 1958 TV series) in order for Felix
to hand over his magic bag.   While this story may
be decent for a NES game, let it be known that I generally
don't care about story that much since it doesn't 
directly affect the game in any way.

Depth - 7

The depth is actually pretty decent here.  In the land stages, you get to be a 
a regular cat (Normal Felix), a cat with a magic wand (Magic Felix),
a rocket car (Rocket Car Felix) and a tank (Tank Felix).  In the air stages, you
get to be a umbrella cat (Umbrella Felix), a balloon (Hot-Air Balloon Felix) 
and a airplane (Airplane Felix).  In the above water stages, you get to be
a cat in a boat (Boat Felix) and a cat riding a dolphin (Dolphin-Riding Felix).
In the underwater stages, you get to be a cat diver (Diver Felix), a cat
riding a turtle (Turtle-Riding Felix) and a cat in a submarine (Submarine Felix).
In the space stage, you get to be a cat in a space ship (Space Felix).
Also, the stages have enemies like trees spitting fire at you, enemies
that move on the ground, et cetera.  
One more thing: land stages have Normal Felix, Magic Felix, 
Rocket Felix and Tank Felix, in that order.
Air stages have Umbrella Felix, Hot-Air Balloon Felix and Airplane Felix,
in that order.
Above water stages have Boat Felix and Dolphin-Riding Felix,
in that order.
Underwater stages have Diver Felix, Turtle-Riding Felix
and Submarine Felix, in that order.
The space stage has Space Felix (that's it).
The stages themselves are quite different from one another, too.
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Stage 1 is your typical stage that's like Green Hill Zone (Sonic The Hedgehog)
and Super Mario Bros 3 (Grassland, World 1) in that it's a happy world.
Stage 2-1 is the first air stage of the game.
There are cannons in this part of the stage.
Stages 2-2 & 2-3 are pyramid stages where Rockbottom's face appears
and spits out dog faces.  (Stages 2-2 & 2-3 have the same forms
as Stage 1 does).
Stage 3 is a mountain stage (it isn't slippery, however) and Stage 3-3
is an air stage.  Stage 3 also has the cannons return from Stage 2-1.
Stage 4 is a tropical stage with 1 land stage (4-1), 1 above water stage (4-2)
and 1 underwater stage (4-3) with enemies like jellyfish and crabs and other fish.
Stage 5 is like Super Mario World's Yoshi's Island 1, except in the evening and with 
dinosaurs spitting out projectiles similar to the trees in Stage 1.  
Stage 5-3 is also an air stage (with green things throwing stuff at you)
and stuff like that.
Stage 6-1 is the first snow/ice stage (believe it or not there are 2 snow/ice worlds
back to back in this game) with the fish throwing snowballs and stuff.
Stage 6-2 is the second (and final) underwater stage in the game.
Stage 7 is the second snow/ice world with both stages
being land stages.
Stage 8 is a space stage with Metal Slimes in UFOs attacking
you and meteors that you can shoot down.  This is probably
the hardest stage in the game, since there is NOTHING below Space
Felix (meaning it's a one-hit kill in this stage) and the fact that the milk bottles
float higher due to the lower gravity in this stage.
Stage 9 (the final stage) is on Mars (or, at least, I believe it's Mars).
This is where you'll meet the fireballs (which take 4 hits to go down
as Tank Felix, by the way).  (Every other enemy takes 1 hit to go down
as Tank Felix).  
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The bosses are from the 1958 TV series (which are pretty easy, actually).
Stage 1's boss is Poindexter (he throws balls which are easy to cancel
out with your projectiles).
Stage 2's boss is Rockbottom, The Professor's second-in-command (he bounces on
a thing that's like between stilts and a trampoline and shoots at you periodically).
Stage 3's boss is Master Cylinder (he shoots lasers at you periodically).
Stage 4's boss is Gulpo, the amoeba-like green thing (he throws bubbles
at you and shouts "GULP" at you).
Stage 5's boss is a "Fake Felix" which has a gun, which he shoots at you
periodically and charges at you after he shoots at you.
Stage 6's boss is Master Cylinder 2 (he shoots bubbles at you this time).
Stage 7's boss is Poindexter 2 (he throws snowballs at you, which is 
very similar to Poindexter 1's pattern of throwing balls at you). 
Stage 9's boss is "The Professor" and he's probably the hardest boss
in Felix The Cat for the NES (although, he's not much harder than the bosses in this game). 
He throws diamonds at you and homes on in (tryingto hit you with his machine, that is)
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The power-ups are a heart (which gives you more hit UNLESS you're at the final form in any stage,
in which that case, it'll give you an extra life), milk bottles (these replenish 2 hearts in your magic meter),
Felix heads (which act like the coins AND like the coin blocks in the Super Mario Bros series),
and extra lives (hidden inside a cloud that looks like The Professor) and 500 points
(hidden inside what looks like a cloud which resembles Kitty Kat).
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The Magic Meter is another fun mechanic to the game.  The meter's
basically equivalent of the fuel meter inside cars (in which, that if the car's 
fuel meter is on "E" (that's empty for those of you who don't know
about the "F" and "E" fuel meter) the car doesn't move. 
The magic meter downgrades Felix by one form (for example, 
if he was Tank Felix and the magic meter runs out, he goes 
down to Rocket Car Felix).  In most cases, you cannot die from
running out of magic on your magic meter (though there IS one exception 
to that rule; Stage 8 (the space stage)).   
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If you do game over (which isn't likely considering
how easy this game is), you do have 3 continues at your disposal.
You probably won't even come close to using them, though.
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Addictiveness - 10

I would play this game again and again and again, simply because it's THAT fun.
I mean, the worlds are varied, the different forms are varied and even the enemies
and bosses are varied.
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Difficulty - 3

This game is pretty easy, because of the fact that you can build up a
LOT of lives by the end of the game.  I had my life count
in the 50-plus range or higher by the time I got to the end of the game.
Some of the bosses can be pushed back REPEATEDLY and they
have predictable patterns that a 6-year old can see coming
from a mile away.  The only challenging part is Stage 8 (the space stage).
That stage is a one-hit kill stage with the magic meter
as an additional thing to worry about (because there's
nothing below Space Felix).  If that magic meter
runs out on Stage 8, you die (it's that simple). However,
the power-up hearts do help you in that stage quite a bit,
because they not only give you extra lives
(like I said, you have only one form, Space Felix),
but they fill up you magic meter ENTIRELY.
(Also, try to get the milk bottles as much you can (although,
you won't be able to get all 3 easily, if at all, because of
the lower gravity in the stage).
Other than the space stage, this game's pretty easy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall - 9.2


Would I recommend playing this game?  Yes, I would
because this game is different from the NES Mario games
in many ways.  This game is fun without a doubt and
the lack of challenge probably helps that.

This is Kenneth$2.  See you later.

Hello, people, this is Kenneth$2 and I'm going to review Koneko Monogatari - The Adventures of Chatran for the Famicom, made by FCI/Pony Canyon (or, as some of us call it, The Adventures of Milo and Otis in the United States).    Now, I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be cool to have a game based on The Adventures of Milo and Otis on the NES (or Famicom)?    Well.....you'll see.    Let's read on.


Graphics - 5

The graphics for Koneko Monogatari - The Adventures of Chatran look pretty average for 1986 (then again, it IS an early game, so I can excuse the graphics).  I will say one thing though: the HUD looks a LOT like Super Mario Bros's HUD (if you played Super Mario Bros and then Koneko Monogatari - The Adventures Of Chatran you will probably see the comparison between the two HUDs in those games.    There are day and night stages in this game, but those have blue and black backgrounds.

Sound - 2

Oh boy.....this game has some of the WORST sound/music I have ever heard on ANY 8-bit console.   I mean, it's REALLY irritating to have listen to the music in this game for more than MAYBE five minutes at max.  Actually, I think five minutes is too generous for how irritating this game's music is - It takes TWO minutes at best for me to shut the music off, because it's irritating on your ears.   I mean, there's maybe THREE main tracks at max in this game.....and they're ALL borderline ear-bleeding music at best.   Technically, I have heard WORSE from other NES/Famicom games, but this is not a good soundtrack at all to listen to.   Fair warning: if you want to play this game, TURN THE VOLUME DOWN TO EITHER LOW OR OFF, BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE YOUR EARS BLEED.

Story - ?

You SHOULD know the story of The Adventures of Milo and Otis by now (or, in this case, Koneko Monogatari, so I'm not even going to explain this to you.   

Depth - 3

This is where the game takes a u-turn into mediocrity.   Now, the game (Koneko Monogatari - The Adventures of Chatran) has some depth, but not very much, due to the fact that there's hardly anything to do in this game.   It doesn't offer much of anything, unlike Super Mario Bros.  Speaking of which, THAT'S the one comparison that this game is compared to: people say it's a poor clone of Super Mario Bros.   While I don't think it's a clone of Super Mario Bros, it seems that the inspiration of Super Mario Bros is perhaps heavy and thick in this game.   There is a difference between THIS game and Super Mario Bros, though; you can't jump on enemies.  Well, you can't jump on MOST of the enemies.  You CAN jump on the bears, though.   That's fine.....IF Chatran (or Milo) had any attacks in this game (you know, like claw attacks, meowing or anything that a cat would do).   The funny thing is, though, YOU DON'T HAVE TO ENTIRELY JUMP ON THE BEARS TO DEFEAT THEM! If you jump on them enough (but not jump on them to the point where they sink into the ground), YOU CAN STILL BEAT THE LEVELS!  I mean, really, these bears are REALLY anti-climatic boss battles at beast (if you can call them boss battles).   Now, the bears DO stars to throw rocks later on in the game, but it doesn't change the fact that YOU CAN BASICALLY BYPASS THEM AFTER JUMPING ON THEM ENOUGH TIMES.   Now, the bears in this game don't do anything aside from stand still and take a swipe at you every now and then (and throw rocks at you later on).   THIS is all you do throughout this game (avoid enemies, jump on bears and get items)......well, that's MOSTLY all you do throughout this game.  You do actually ride a crate (from the movie, no less) for a fair bit of the game, but again, it's just avoiding enemies and collecting power-ups.   Another thing is that the levels really don't change that much (meaning that the later levels will start to look similar from earlier levels).     The enemies in this game are: rats, birds and.......fighter files that burrow out from underground?    There's also horned beetles and chickens that can come out of trees if you bump into them.   Again, doesn't bumping into trees sound similar to how you bump question blocks and bricks with Mario's head (or hand)?  Again, though, you can JUMP onto the trees and STILL release items (or enemies) onto the ground.   Speaking of which.....an invincibility potion can come out of the trees (which makes you invincible, obviously), apples (which you can collect 100 for an extra life (or use them to kill enemies)), white eggs (you can also use these to kill enemies OR defeat the bears), red eggs (these give you an extra life) or the H-E-L-P eggs (which summon Otis).   Now, Otis CAN kill enemies......but he CAN kill you as well in 1 hit (which doesn't happen in the movie The Adventures Of Milo and Otis, because Milo and Otis are friends).   Then again.......EVERYTHING can kill you 1 hit, so why would that matter?     There are ice levels in the middle of the game, too.    There are 24 levels in this game, but the levels don't do much aside from MAYBE add more enemies and MAYBE slightly change the level design.

Difficulty - 7

This is another reason why Koneko Monogatari - The Adventures of Chatran is mediocre and underwhelming; the difficulty.   I'm not against challenging games IF the challenge isn't cheap.  I'm also not against games with one hit kills IF it's done correctly.  However, this game's "challenge" is rather cheap, mostly due to enemy placement and level design and the one hit kills are not done correctly.  Not to mention, you don't get ANY continues if you happen to run out of lives.    Also, Milo ISN'T the fastest character on the NES (he's pretty sluggish to control).  While he does have a fairly high jump, some of the jumps that you're required to make is ridiculous and frustrating.   You have to be on the edge in order to make some of the later jumps in the game.    I mean, if Milo could just move a bit faster then perhaps those jumps wouldn't be ridiculous and frustrating to make.   Also, those burrowing fighter files keep on burrowing and the enemies keep on coming, too....that's something to watch out for.   Now, the time limit is at least reasonable (unlike some other games which have ridiculously low time limits to begin with) and it isn't an accelerated timer unlike Super Mario Bros's timer, so it is possible to wait for the enemies to get out of the way, but that's boring.   The enemies are really slow, too.     You do start at a checkpoint every time you die too.

Addictiveness - 2

Well, I WAS interested.....for a little while.   My interest to play this game was kind of shot after seeing the bad level design, bad enemy placement, stupidly frustrating and ridiculous jumps that you have to make, boss battles that are VERY anti-climatic (I mean, seriously, you don't even need to completely incapacitate the bears to pass the level) and just waiting around for the super slow enemies to get out of the way.    The only reason I can see anybody playing this is if they like cats....and they probably won't want to play this for very long for the reasons above.  

Overall - 4

OK, fine, it's not the worst movie-to-video game license I've ever played....but it's certainly mediocre and underwhelming at best.   The controls are not THAT bad, but they can be better.   Milo should have had direct attacks (like hissing, meowing and clawing and stuff like that).   Also, Milo should've been moving a little bit faster.   Some of the jumps in the game should be less frustrating.   The enemy placement can be a bit better.   The waiting around for enemies should've been cut back a bit.   The music should've been improved, because it's borderline ear-bleeding at best.   There could've been a life bar or some kind of power-up that makes Milo take more hits.   The boss battles should've been either omitted or improved.    The level design could've been improved.   This game is sub-par playable, but not worth going out of your way to get (unless you can get this game for a really cheap amount of money - like 5 dollars or less).   

This is Kenneth$2 and I will see you people, later.

Title - Power Blade: A Great USA-exclusive Game

Hello, people.   This is Kenneth$2 ready to review Power Blade for the NES.   First, I will tell you my story of how I got this game. 

My story of how I got this game:

My story of me getting this game is that one day, I was at GameXchange (which is closed now from where I live, which the store was at least 3 or 4 miles from where I live) hunting NES games that I never got a chance to experience before.  I was hunting and hunting and hunting until I finally found Power Blade for the NES.  I noticed the price sticker said $2.95, which was practically a steal (and I'm sure that the low price of $2.95 for an NES game is still cheap).  So, I bought the game, not knowing whether this game was going to be good or not. Now, I played it, and sure enough, I was very satisfied (and I'm STILL satisfied with this game, especially considering I bought this game for the low, low price of $2.95).  Now, I liked GameXchange (which is a mom and pop video game store), because with every 10th game that they stamped on this GameXchange issued piece of paper, you actually get a game for FREE (it can be ANY game you want, it doesn't matter)!    Needless to say, I was quite happy with that store.  It's unfortunate that the GameXchange near where I live went out of the business (probably due to the GameStop being RIGHT across it).   I don't know how many GameXchange stores are left, but I imagine it can't be too many left due to whatever's going on across the world (but that's enough of my story).  Now, I will also point out the differences between Power Blade (USA) and Power Blazer (JPN).   Let's get on with this review.

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Graphics - 9 

Power Blade's graphics are actually very good, considering this was made in 1991.   They are very colorful and detailed.  Now, the graphics DON'T need to be good to make a game good, but this game has very good graphics for 1991 NES standards.   I mean, the enemies are very detailed and very colorful in this game; the enemies are not "blobs" or random "shapeless" things due to bad graphics or anything like that; this is why I consider Power Blade to be graphically appearing because of the detailed and colorful graphics in this game.    

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Sound - 10

Holy Moly, Power Blade has some of the BEST sound in the NES library!   I love the sound in this game, because it makes me pumped up to destroy random robots running rampant around the 7 sectors in Power Blade.  Whenever I start to play this game, I actually hum the tunes found in the 7 sectors, because it's THAT good!   I especially love Sector 7's music, because it feels like a final level with chaos and the character has to stop the enemies in order to save the world!    Not that I don't like the rest of the sectors's tunes too; I love the rest of the sectors's tunes just as much (because the music in the sectors has that "oomph" that Contra has).    

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Story - 8

Let me tell you something; I don't play games for plot (unless it's an RPG).  However, this game's plot is pretty decent (though a bit generic and obvious).   You're this character named Nova and you have to stop the "Master Computer" from taking the world (because it gained sentience and started to go crazy).   Then, you have to locate "contacts" (they're this game's friendly NPCs) to get "ID Cards", to access boss chambers.   Then, after you defeat the 6 bosses in the first 6 sectors, you gain access to the final level, Sector 7.   Then you have to stop the "Master Computer" and destroy it.  Then you (as Nova) gets honored for destroying the "Master Computer" and the people who made the "Master Computer" say they won't surrender control to a computer again.   The ending is also quite good as well.   Now, I suppose you can just play the game to exact details of the plot, but I just gave you a recap of Power Blade's plot.  Now, mind you, I'd still play Power Blade even if the plot was bad; but the plot is pretty decent.   However, that's not why I play Power Blade.   The next reason will be coming up in the next paragraph.

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Addictiveness - 10

Wow, this game is REAL addicting, because of the way Power Blade's 7 sectors are laid out.   The 7 sectors are like Metroid, in that the levels are actually quite big and you can explore for various power-ups or for the contacts that give you the ID Cards (which you need to access the boss chambers, by the way).   This is why Power Blade is known as a "Metroidvania" game, because of the levels actually being quite big and nice.   The enemies are also varied (there's one enemy which looks like ED-209 from Robocop; there's a group of 5 enemies (they look like Xs) that appear and attack you, which you can farm for power-ups).  There's also an enemy that is probably inspired by the Walker Joe (from Mega Man 2); that enemy even hops like the Walker Joe from Mega Man 2 (although it can duck, so be careful).   Now, there's a "power" meter (which is basically range for your boomerang(s); it's like Legendary Axe and Astyanax, in that the axes in those games did more damage the farther you let the "power" meter), which determines how far the boomerang(s) can be thrown.   That adds strategy; do you want to throw your boomerang at it's max range or do you want you to throw 3 boomerangs like a crazy man?   The choice can be yours.   The boomerang(s) can be thrown in 8 directions, which REALLY helps out, considering there are enemies that are above you and floating in Power Blade.   Now, the power-ups are varied too.  The first power-up you will probably see in Power Blade is a star, which increase the range of your boomerang(s).  Collect 3 stars to increase the range of your boomerang(s) to max.   The second power-up you will likely get is a different blue boomerang which the makes the boomerang(s) do more damage; not that it's a necessary thing, because your boomerang(s) automatically multi-hit by default.  The third power-up you will get is the double boomerang power-up, which lets you throw 2 boomerangs at once.  The fourth power-up you will get is a hamburger, which restores 4 bars of energy (you have 16 bars of energy at max).  The fifth power-up you will get is a grenade, which kills MOST enemies in 1 hit (the bigger enemies take 2 grenades to be destroyed); the grenade also destroys bullets (which CAN help in tight situations); you can have a maximum of 4 grenades.    The sixth power-up you will get is an orange (or red, whichever) which is the strongest boomerang in this game and does even more damage than the second blue boomerang.  The seventh power-up you will get is the triple boomerang, which lets you throw 3 boomerangs at once.    Now, the star, the different blue boomerang, the double boomerang, the hamburger, the grenade, the orange-red boomerang and the triple boomerang power-ups can be dropped (and farmed) by enemies, since the enemies re-spawn infinitely (like most of the NES games in the NES library).   The eighth power-up is a Power Suit, which lets you fire an "energy wave" that goes through walls and is even stronger than the orange boomerang (because it does even more damage); however the Power Suit cannot be dropped by enemies; another thing about the Power Suit is that it has it's own life-bar (it supersedes over the character's life bar), which has 3 hits per Power Suit; however the Power Suit cannot be healed by hamburgers; only another Power Suit can restore the Power Suit's life bar to a full 3 hits (making both the character's life bar and the Power Suit's life bar 19 life bars at max (added together, that is)).  Now, some enemies can take off 2 or more life bars, so 19 life bars isn't always 19 hits.  However, collisions and bullets take 1 hit off the Power Suit's life bar.  So, the fact that you have 2 life bars means that you can take some damage, before biting the bullet.  The ninth power-up is a ration which is basically the E-Tank from Mega Man 2/the ration from Metal Gear and Snake's Revenge on the NES; the ration restores all of your life bars to max; the ration cannot be dropped by enemies either.  The controls are 100% perfect; you can jump, immediately turn around, throw a boomerang and immediately turn back around to make it to safe ground without any delay.  This is good, because there's a LOT of floating platforms (with occasional enemies) and stationary platforms (with enemies as well).  There's even those darn "Yoku Blocks" (you know, the ones from Mega Man) that show up; fortunately those "Yoku Blocks" show up in 2 areas in Sector 6 and 2 areas in Sector 7 (making the total that the "Yoku Blocks" that show up in Power Blade a total of 4 times).  The "Yoku Blocks" can de-sync, but since they don't show up until Sectors 6 & 7 (and even then, only a total of 4 times in specific areas of both Sectors 6 & 7), this isn't really a problem.  Oh yeah, there's the ID Cards (which are necessary for accessing boss chambers); also, the ID Card must be a specific ID Card;  for example, ID Card 1 will work on Sector 1's boss chambers, ID Card 2 will work on Sector 2's boss chambers, et cetera. ID Card 1 will NOT work on any other sector's boss chambers, so ID Card 1 must be used on that sector's boss chambers (to give another example).  

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Depth - 8

Now, the fact that you can explore the big areas, that fact that you can throw your boomerangs in 8 directions, the fact that the controls are 100% perfect and the fact that the enemies and the power-ups are varied makes Power Blade actually pretty big in depth.  Oh, and there's an expert mode in addition to the normal mode.  The Normal Mode has the timer set at 999 seconds (for all sectors) and the Expert Mode has the timer set at 300 seconds (for Sectors 1 and 2) and at 350 seconds (for Sectors 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7).   Also, the Expert Mode has knock-back (which the enemies CAN knock off platforms and into pits in Expert Mode, but sometimes this doesn't happen).  

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Difficulty - 3

Yes, I will admit it; this game is pretty easy (even in Expert Mode).  The time is more than enough to explore the level and since you can throw your boomerangs in 8 directions (and they multi-hit by default) and you can upgrade your boomerangs to max, you can make short work of the enemies really easily.   Now, if you die, you do get your boomerang strength, your range and your triple boomerangs downgraded by one level (unless it's a game over/continue, in which case, you start in your default state), but since the controls are 100% perfect and the level design is more than adequate for the character (and fair), this shouldn't be a problem.   It's really fun to watch the enemies explode because your boomerangs easily multi-hit them to death.

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Overall - 9

Yes, this game is easy, but it's fun and addicting to play Power Blade over and over again to watch the robot enemies explode and the levels, like I said, are big and are like Metroid's levels, in that you can explore Metroid's level the same way you explore Power Blade's levels.  The multi-directional ability to throw the boomerangs helps too.   However, I am done yet with this review. Read on to see the miscellaneous stuff below.

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Miscellaneous 

I did say I was going to list the differences between Power Blade (USA) and Power Blazer (JPN), so I'm going to point out the differences between the two versions here.

- In Power Blade, you can throw your boomerangs in 8 directions, but in Power Blazer, you can only throw your boomerangs left and right (one of the reasons why Power Blade is superior to Power Blazer).

- In Power Blade, you can farm your enemies for power-ups pretty easily, but in Power Blazer, the enemies don't seem to drop power-ups nearly as much (even from repeated farming attempts).  

- In Power Blazer, you do gain a life upon completing the level, but in Power Blade, you don't (not that you need them in Power Blade).The levels are big and you can explore the levels in Power Blade (like Metroid's); however, Power Blazer's levels are straightforward and they're just like your typical mediocre NES game.  

- The level design is entirely different between Power Blazer's levels and Power Blade's levels.  This is one reason that it makes Power Blade the superior version to pick up over Power Blazer, because the level design is considerably better in Power Blade than in Power Blazer.

- Both Power Blade and Power Blazer have passwords (not that you need passwords in Power Blade; however, Power Blazer might be a different story).  

- Power Blade's controls are far better and far superior over Power Blazer's controls (another reason why Power Blade is superior to Power Blazer).

- The HUD is different in Power Blade; the HUD in Power Blazer isn't too bad looking, actually.

- The graphics are great in both Power Blade and Power Blazer (though different between Power Blade and Power Blazer).

- Most of the music is the same in Power Blade and Power Blazer (with maybe a couple of different tracks in Power Blazer) and still awesome.  

- The Yoku Blocks show up far too much in Power Blazer, whereas they show up only 4 times in Power Blade (making Power Blazer aggravating to play; also the mediocre controls and mediocre level design in Power Blazer doesn't help either).  

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Conclusion

Whew.....there is a LOT of differences between Power Blade and Power Blazer.   This is also the first time where the USA version (Power Blade) is superior to the JPN version (Power Blazer).  Now, granted, the JPN versions of NES games are superior to the USA versions of NES games most of the time (Mad City being an example of how the JPN version is superior to the USA version, The Adventures Of Bayou Billy).  Not Power Blade, though; Power Blade's superior to Power Blazer, because the controls in Power Blade are 100% perfect, the level design is considerably better and you can throw your boomerangs in 8 directions and Power Blade's a lot more fun than Power Blazer, because of those reasons I listed above.  So you can (sort of) consider this a double review/comparison between the two versions (in this case, Power Blade and Power Blazer).  

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End of Review

So, should you buy Power Blade, rent Power Blade, or emulate Power Blade?   Well....since you can't rent Power Blade (unless you're REALLY lucky to have a store which lets you rent NES games, which is probably next-to-impossible to find anywhere in the USA), I would suggest to emulate this game to see if you like it.  If you do, then buy it.  If not, then don't buy it.   Considering my copy only cost $2.95, if you buy this, you won't regret it.

Whew.....I am done.   See you later, people.

Hello, this is Kenneth$2 and today I'm going to do a review on The King Of Fighters 97 (NES, Rex Soft).   Is it good or is it a piece of junk?
Read the review to find out.

Graphics - 8

Okay, the graphics aren't too bad - the graphics are actually reasonably good for a NES pirate.  The characters LOOK like the characters seen in the King Of Fighters 95 game and both the graphics and the characters are reasonably well detailed.

Sound - 9 

Wow.......the sound (on King Of Fighters 97, NES, Rex Soft) is actually really good for a NES pirate (and that's saying a lot, considering how pirated video games sound like (most of the time)).  I actually felt like dancing to this, because it's actually THAT good.  There are six main themes in this NES pirate: the Women Fighters Team Theme, the Garou Densetsu Theme, the Ryuuko no Ken theme, the Arashi no Saxophone theme, the Saisyu Kusanagi Theme and the Desert Requiem Theme (never mind that they're the themes from KOF 95, but whatever, they are still pretty awesome to listen to).  There's also the Title Theme, the Character Select Screen Theme, the Opponent Defeated Theme, the Rugal Cutscene Theme and the Rugal Defeated Theme.  That's 11 pieces of music in total!    My favorite soundtrack in this NES pirate would be a tie between the Arashi no Saxophone theme and the Women Fighters Team Theme and my least favorite soundtrack would be the Saisyu Kusanagi theme - because THAT theme's kinda repetitive (for my tastes, though it's still pretty good; at least I think it's pretty good).   The Title Theme also got my attention because THAT theme is also pretty awesome to listen to.   

Addictiveness - 7

Yes, there's EIGHT characters to select from; they are Kyo Kusanagi, Mai Shiranui, Ralf (from Ikari Warriors), Clark (also from Ikari Warriors), Andy Bogard, Choi Bounge, Robert Garcia,  Chin Gentsai and Eiji Kisasagi.  They are different in moves and movesets - but there is one problem with that, as you will see if you try to play this game.  There's Single VS (which pits a human against a human), Single All (which pits you against all the characters that are available in KOF 97 for the NES), Team Mode and Team All (which I probably don't need to explain what they are).

Story - 7

The story is that Rugal Bernstein (or just Rugal in this game) has organized a tournament containing the most powerful fighters and you, as the player, have to defeat Rugal (which can be easy or not so easy, depending on the character you chose).  The story is also in surprisingly good "engrish".  

Difficulty - 5

I'm going to say this right now - the difficulty REALLY depends on whenever you choose the character or not and the character you're fighting against.  If you're Andy Bogard or Choi Bounge, then you'll generally have a really easy time.  If you're not either of those two characters - you might have a harder time.   However, while the regular moves work, the specials DO NOT (either that, or they require some really precise moves to pull off).  That isn't too much of a problem if you're Andy Bogard or Choi Bounge, because Andy can duck under his own projectiles (despite it clipping his head), Robert's and Rugal's.  Choi is a force to be reckoned with in this game - he's short enough that he doesn't even need to duck under Rugal's, Robert's and Andy's projectiles - Andy's, Robert's and Rugal's projectiles completely MISS Choi even when he's standing up - he's that small!  To sum it up, Choi Bounge is probably the most to be reckoned in this NES pirate - that is, unless his opponent is Mai or Kyo (because those two fighter's projectiles are low enough that they can hit him).   The funny thing is, that, if you block, any projectile goes through you without damaging you (most of the time, anyway).   So yeah, blocking does work reasonably well.  
However, I was able to go through the entire game with Andy Bogard (by duck kicking the opponents to death) without losing once.  I was also able to go through the entire game with Choi Bounge (because, seriously, he's THAT short in this game) by just walking up to the opponent and by clawing them to death (I only lost once; it was against Kyo).  The A.I. in this game is pretty stupid, too - if you position yourself just right (and you're not facing Mai or Kyo), the A.I. will continuously jump against the wall or punch/kick at the air like the A.I's an idiot (until time runs out).  I guess A.I. should stand for Alzheimer's Initiative in this game, because the A.I. reacts rather poorly to duck kick attacks and claw attacks.  Even A.I. Rugal is really easy (as long as you aren't Ralf, Clark or Robert), because he'll continue to let himself be kicked around like an idiot by your duck kicks or claw attacks.  A.I Rugal is even easier as Choi -  because, remember, Choi's short enough that he can stand up and have Rugal's projectiles completely miss him and since A.I. Rugal is just as stupid as the rest of the A.I. characters, that means he'll get knocked out easy-peasy!   I suppose if you do TRY to play it properly, it might be frustrating (or try to play as anybody other than Choi).  Most characters's standing kicks and punches MISS Choi too - the only way Choi can get hit (by most of the characters in this game), is by duck kicking, duck punching or by jump attacks.  One other thing: you walk really slow but jump really fast (some people might think you jump TOO fast).  Yes, everybody jumps differently.  However, I do have to mention one thing: the glitches.  Oooh boy.....the glitches - they're kind of bad in this one.  In Team Mode, the characters morph into RANDOM CHARACTERS (because the game is apparently really glitchy in Team Mode) and other random glitches too.  It's like the Game Graphic Glitch Gremlin (of AVGN fame) decided to inhabit THIS pirate and mess up the game - not too badly, mind you, but I thought I'd warn you of it.

Depth - 3

I do not rate the depth very high (because of the fact you can just claw through everybody as Choi without much resistance) and the fact that the endings do not differ at all.  Yes, everybody has their cutscenes, but I don't really care about that too much.

Overall - 6

If the controls had been smoothed out and the glitches fixed, then this would've been a decent game. I mean, most of the music is pretty awesome and the graphics aren't too bad (provided they don't glitch out in Team Mode).  As it is.....it's just meh.