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8 / 10
Legend of Success Joe

Legend of Success Joe

Wave, SNK

Legend of Success Joe puts players in the role of Joe, a young boxer aspiring to make it up the ranks of the boxing world. But all is not well in Joe's world, and between boxing matches he may have to contend with street thugs out for his blood. The game is viewed from a side 2D view, and Joe can move up and down within the backgrounds as well as forwards and backwards. Fighting consists of using the four basic boxing punches, the straight, the hook, the body blow, and the uppercut, to take opponents down. During boxing matches each boxer has three health bars on screen, with the second smaller than the first and the third smaller than the second. When a boxer's health bar is drained he gets knocked down, but can get back up. When the third health bar is drained that boxer is knocked out and loses the match.

FightingSport
The Irritating Maze

The Irritating Maze

Saurus, SNK

The Irritating Maze quite literally lives up to its name. It's a maze, of sorts, and it's one hell of an irritating game. In fact, it is one of the most irritating games that most will ever come across. But it does have its charms, namely its offbeat gameplay. The graphics are bright and colorful, with a lot of eye candy everywhere. Depending on your point of view, this may or may not be a good thing, as all that coloring and eye candy has been designed specifically to distract you from beating the level. All that glitter is isolated to the areas immediately surrounding the track, and if you look off the beaten path you'll notice that the graphics there are quite sparse and simplistic. The sound and music are passable, though not particularly good. The Irritating Maze's songs sound like generic puzzle game music and are generally pretty forgettable, but they do fit the game's mood. You'll hear an announcer's voice at certain points of the game telling you that you've passed a checkpoint or something like that. The announcer sounds reasonably excited, though if you listen you can hear a little bit of electronic fuzz distorting the voice clips. One sound clip stands out above the rest though, and that's the electric zap effect that plays when you lose. When this clip is combined with the associated graphics, the effect is literally shocking. One of the biggest reasons why the game is so irritating is that you have to control your character's conducting rod with a trackball. For most people, the trackball is not an ideal input device for precise control, especially when put under the stress of time limits. A digital joystick or D-pad would actually allow you to have more precise control, but then having to deal with unfamiliar controls is part of the "fun." At first you'll find the innovative gameplay to be a lot of fun, much like Marble Madness. But unlike Marble Madness, The Irritating Maze's gameplay gets old relatively quickly, and you'll find yourself not caring enough to give the level another go. The Irritating Maze is different enough to be entertaining for a couple of minutes but not quite polished enough to be a lot of fun for the long haul. Give it a quarter or two and see how you do.

Puzzle
Satomi Hakkenden

Satomi Hakkenden

Alpha Denshi, SNK

A Famicom RPG based on a famous Japanese novel series of the same name. It was developed by Alpha Denshi and published by SNK. Satomi Hakkenden (usually translated as "The Eight Dog Chronicles") was a long-running 19th century novel series about eight samurais from the Sengoku period and their various adventures. It was in some ways partly inspired by the ancient Chinese epic The Water Margin, which has itself seen video game adaptations in the form of the Suikoden games. Receiving numerous TV and film adaptations, including the 1983 film known in the west as Legend of the Eight Samurai, Satomi Hakkenden would be its first video game adaptation. Makai Hakkenden Shada for the Turbografx-16, also released in 1989, would be a later adaptation. The game itself plays much like Dragon Quest; a common source of inspiration for 8-bit RPGs. The player can walk around towns conversing with NPCs, equipping themselves with weapons and armor and receiving quests and directions to new areas before leaving the safety of the town to fight random encounters on the overworld map that links locations together. Combat follows the tactical turn-based pattern, allowing the player input their characters' desired actions before watching each turn play out. Most of the enemies in the game are based on classical Japanese monsters, usually youkai.

Role-playing (RPG)
Super Sidekicks

Super Sidekicks

SNK, SNK Playmore

Published in 1993, the original Super Sidekicks (known as Tokuten Ou, "Goal-Scoring King" in Japan) was SNK's first soccer video game. It features 12 teams divided into two groups which compete for the "SNK Cup" (the main differences between teams is their formations on the field): Group A: Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Mexico, Japan Group B: Argentina, Holland, Brazil, France, United States, South Korea The players' team plays against all the others in their group, then it goes into an elimination tournament's semifinals and then the final to win the cup. There was also a hidden feature in the game, which wasn't documented, and affects a single player game. During a free kick for the CPU if the player has tapped button A for player two, the CPU performs a short-shot, while pressing the button A performs a longer kick.

ArcadeSport
8 / 10