Video Game Review #145: The Lion King

The Lion King

Sega Genesis

My step brother rented The Lion King for the Sega Genesis back in 1994, shortly after the game came out. Despite having never seen the movie, I had great interest in the game. Why? Well, I mean, it was a video game and I liked video games. Duh! But I especially liked 2D side-scrollers based on movies. A lot of movie based games got critically panned, but for some reason I always enjoyed them and would check them out whenever they’d hit store shelves.

It was a Saturday and I only had half a day to play the game with him before I had to leave to go to my mom’s house. Despite the fact that we played this game for hours and hours on end, we were never able to make it past the second stage. Thinking back to that day, the only thing I can remember is a puzzle involving monkeys that would fling you around the stage. Some of the monkeys you could roar at. This would make them change the direction in which they’d toss your character. Despite trying virtually every combination in the book, we could never figure this puzzle out. Not only that, but even simply getting to the monkey puzzle was incredibly tough, too. And this was coming from someone who was good at video games. The Lion King was freaking hard! As much as my 12 or 13 year old self wanted to stick around and continue to work on making it through the stage, I had to leave. This may sound silly, but I never forgot that day. If and when I ever got the chance, I vowed to return to The Lion King someday and vanquish those gaming demons.

Fast forward to, geez, 20 some years later. I have already mentioned my cousin Ryan and his box of Sega Genesis games many, many times throughout the lifespan of this blog. Well, guess what? I am going to do it again. A few years ago he loaned me a box of Genesis games to review for this blog. The Lion King is one of the games that was in the box. It took me a while to get around to playing it, as I had higher gaming priorities. Plus, I am not gonna lie: the challenge of the game was a bit intimidating to me. I knew I would get around to the Lion King eventually, but I was definitely in no rush to do so.

Years passed with this box of games in my possession until finally, the right time came to play it. I don’t know what changed to signify that it was the right time to play. But something clicked in my head. I was ready to take on this challenge. It was now or never.

The first thing I noticed upon starting up the game was of course its presentation. I mean, the game looks really good! The colors are vibrant and bright. The characters and animations are well drawn. Each stage is bursting with life and personality. This is one of the best looking Genesis games you will ever see. The music is fantastic too. The songs are all rehashed versions of songs you hear in the film, minus the vocals of course. But everything is pretty much instantly recognizable from its film counterpart. My favorite track is for the first level of the whole game. I’d suggest giving it a listen when you are done reading this review. Or heck, start it up now and listen while you read along. It really gets you into the mood to play The Lion King. When you couple the game’s outstanding music with its eye popping visuals, you get one really immersive and impressive sensory experience.

As impressive as the visual and audio quality of the game was, would it actually be any fun to play? I went back and forth on this multiple times, but the more I played, the more the game began to grow on me. I may not have thought this way in the beginning, but my answer now is a firm and resounding yes!

Right off the bat, the game is a challenge. The first level is pretty easy. I passed it with no trouble. But the second level... man. The second level. It is not often that I need to access an online guide for help with a 2D sidescrolling game. Especially on just the second level of the game! These kinds of games I have always been naturally good at. But I just had to with The Lion King. It was that hard. Even with a guide, I still struggled. My first few attempts at this game, I burned through all my continues before finally making it through to the third stage. And even then, I only made it with one remaining life and no continues. Two minutes later, I died on stage three, and had to start the whole game from the beginning again.

The game's controls are pretty basic, especially considering that this was made for the Sega Genesis. Controlling Simba as a cub, the only two attack moves you have are jumping and roaring. To kill your enemies, you have to jump on them. Easy enough. Your roar move is not very effective, as Simba is still young and does not have an intimidating roar. As an attack, I only used it to roar at porcupines, as the roar would flip them over and expose their vulnerable belly for you to jump on. Other than using it to change the position of the monkeys on stage two, I didn't see much other use for the roar at all.

The game loosely follows the plot of the movie, so as you play Simba gets older and larger in appearance. I believe that for the first six stages of the game you play as young Simba, and for the remaining four stages you play as adult Simba. Adult Simba is much more dangerous than his young counterpart. He can swipe enemies with his paw, as well as pounce on them and maul them to death. He is also stronger, and can jump higher and longer distances. His roar is fully developed now, but unless was doing something wrong as I played I didn't see much use to even use the roar at all. I wish I had the chance to control older Simba for a few more stages, but alas - the story of the game did not allow for more of them.

Level progression is fairly linear. You start at point A and have to make it to point B to finish the level. Normal enemies include insects, spiders, monkeys, hyenas, vultures, bats, frogs, and other jungle dangers you may encounter. Simply jump on them as young Simba to kill them, or use your claw or pounce attack to kill them as adult Simba. The design of the levels loosely follows the plot of the movie. The first stage has you making your way up to the top of Pride Rock, where at the end you find Mufasa and he tells you that everything you see is yours. The second level has you jumping across giraffes, riding on the back of an ostrich, swinging from hippopotamus tails (damn these things. WHY WON'T YOU GRAB ON???), and getting flung around by monkeys, all set to the tune of "I Just Can't Wait To Be King." This is the aforementioned uber-challenging level that I mentioned earlier. The third level has you moving on to the Elephant Graveyard. The next level is the stampede. So on and so forth. Like I said, it loosely follows the plot of the movie. So if you have seen the movie before, you should be able to tell what kind of stages this game is going to have.

There are random boss battles scattered throughout the game. The most memorable battle in my mind is against a giant ape that throws fruit at you. You have to dodge his attacks and wait for him to stand up, then you can jump on him. He follows a very reliable pattern and is easy to kill once you get the pattern down. But man, I will not lie. That fight took me a LOT of attempts and cost me quite a few lives and continues. It is a toughie, for sure. The other boss fights are not as memorable. You fight a solo hyena in one level. Obviously Scar is going to be the big bad at the end. If there are any other boss fights, they aren't coming to mind. Is that it? Just three boss battles?

Each level contains hidden bugs you can collect. They do things like increase your roar meter (yes, there is a meter for that), increase your health, or can grant you access to a special stage at the end of each level. In these special stages, you must control Timon or Pumbaa and collect bugs. The more bugs you collect, the more extra lives or continues you can score. Trust me, it is important that play these special stages and do well on them. You will need every extra life or continue you can get!

While the game is mainly a 2D platformer, there is one very unique stage in the game: the stampede stage. Rather than controlling Simba from the normal 2D perspective, things shift to a full frontal escape scene where Simba is running directly towards the camera. You have to run back and forth, avoiding getting trampled by stampeding animals. As if this is not hard enough, rocks come at you from off camera with only a second or two worth of notice. Trying to avoid the stampeding animals AND these rocks is no easy feat. I am pretty good at the stage now due to pattern recognition, but again - I struggled a lot with this when I first played it. This stage is another life/continue eating machine. Despite being challenging, it is still a really fun stage, however. And it is a nice break from the normal side scrolling gameplay. A lot of people refer to this as a "classic" stage from the 16-bit era, and I can not say I disagree with that.

It took me an entire weekend to beat The Lion King. All I can say is kudos to the makers of the game for challenging someone like me, who considers himself pretty darn good at these kinds of games. This game is famous for its difficulty, and for good reason. You have to pay attention and learn from your mistakes as you play. You can't just expect to pick this game up and beat it on your first attempt. It doesn't work that way. It is tough, but it does not feel unfairly challenging at the same time. Every time I died, I knew it was my fault and that I needed to do better the next time around. The only time I thought I ever suffered a cheap death was during the second stage. The ostrich double jump is tough to pull off the first few times you give it a shot. I was like COME ON!! WHAT IS KILLING ME?? Turns out that not only do you have to ensure that Simba survives the double jump, but the ostrich does too. Once I figured that out, I was good to go. The other time I felt I died unfairly during this stage was the part when you have to swing from hippo tail to hippo tail as you move over the water. My jumps were aligned perfectly, but for some reason Simba wouldn't grab on and would fall to his death. I know how to do it now, but I'll be damned if I didn't burn through more continues than I can count just on this one seemingly simple part.

Not only is The Lion King hard enough as it is, but I think there is something wrong with the copy of the game that was in my cousin's box. Often as I played, the game would randomly restart to the title screen for no apparent reason at all. There was no option to continue; I would have to start the whole game over from the beginning again. There was never any warning that it was going to happen either. It would just happen. Sometimes it would be on the first stage. Sometimes on stage seven. One time it even happened during the final fight with Scar at the very end of the game. I had him on the ropes and all I had to do was toss him over the edge of the cliff. I was PISSED@@@!@!@!!!!! By this time I had already sunk hours and hours of my day into the game. I had played off and on for three days straight. I did not feel guilty using a cheat code to skip to the last stage and beat it from there. No siree!

While I hate the fact that I had to use a code to beat the game, I didn't consider this my fault at all. The randomly restarting to the title screen was an obstacle that everyone else who had to play through this game did not have to overcome. I was at the very end of the game, about 20 seconds away from beating it when it restart. What was to stop it from happening again and wasting even more of my time? So I consider my completion of The Lion King to be completely valid. I will fight you if you say it is not!

Restarting issue aside, I had a surprisingly fun time with The Lion King. Yes, the game is challenging, but that is part of its charm. Through simple trial and error, you learn from your mistakes and slowly do better each time you play it. This isn't a game you can beat in one sitting, like many movie based 2D games that came out in the 90s. There is a lot of depth to this game. It is really rewarding when you struggle through a level, but finally manage to make it through after several attempts. Not only does the game manage to be fun and challenging at the same time, its production levels are high too. Music, sound effects, graphics, everything is top of the line. One of the best looking and sounding Genesis games I have ever played. This is a very well made game.

Everyone may rant and rave about Aladdin being the definitive movie based game for the Sega Genesis, but I think The Lion King is better. It is by no means the perfect 2D platformer, but it is very good. If you are a fan of the genre, this is a must-play.

Overall:

A-

If you liked my review of The Lion King, please check out some of these other reviews:

Aladdin

Demolition Man

Dynamite Headdy

Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition

Taz-Mania

Video Game Review #144: Sonic Mania Plus

Sonic Mania Plus

PlayStation 4

It was 1994 and we were just a few weeks away from Christmas. I was out with my family at a tree lot, where everyone was looking to find that perfect Christmas tree to bring home. Trees, however, were the last thing on my mind. All I could think about was how I wanted to go home and play my Sega Genesis. I had just rented Sonic & Knuckles earlier in the day, and I had only made it through one stage before being FORCED to leave the house to go shopping: in the snow, in the cold, with my brother and all my annoying step brothers in tow. As far as I was concerned, we couldn’t get home soon enough.

Needless to say, I did eventually find my way back home. I played the hell out of Sonic & Knuckles that weekend, completing all of the many different variations of the game. While overall I enjoyed the game, I couldn’t help but notice how not much had changed between this game and Sonic 3. In fact, not much had changed between Sonic 3 and Sonic 2. Or even between Sonic 2 and Sonic 1! Sure there were some small cosmetic and gameplay tweaks along the way, but overall the core Sonic formula had remained the same over the course of four games. The series was starting to feel just a bit repetitive to me. I was ready for it to undergo a major change. I got my wish. Little did I know, that Sonic & Knuckles would be the last true Sonic platformer I would see in a LONG time.

I would say that this was both a blessing and a curse, but given the quality of most Sonic titles since Sonic & Knuckles came out in 1994, I will say that it is more of a curse. It wasn’t long before I was hoping and praying for a return to the classic Sonic formula, the same one that I had taken for granted after Sonic & Knuckles hit store shelves. After over 20 years of suffering through mediocre to miserable Sonic titles, my wish finally came true. When I caught wind of Sonic Mania back in 2017, I got super excited.  A classic Sonic title made with the technology of today, with the graphics and gameplay of yesterday? Yes please!

As excited as I was for the game, I didn’t get around to playing it in 2017. In fact, I kind of forgot about it. It wasn’t until I saw news of Sonic Mania Plus that the game officially found its way onto my MUST PLAY radar. Its release date was July 17th, which just so happened to be my birthday. It was like it was meant to be. So I got it. 24 years after Sonic & Knuckles hit store shelves, and my 12 year old self stupidly wanted the series to change its formula, I was finally getting my hands on a classic Sonic title once again.

My initial impression of the game was that it was all kinds of awesome. Call it fan service if you want, but I was giddy with excitement at the chance to play not only remixed versions of some of my favorite Sonic stages, but new ones as well. As soon as I started playing this game, I felt like that excited little Sonic loving kid all over again. “OMG, THERE IS SONIC RIDING ON THE PLANE WITH TAILS! OMG THE MUSIC! IT IS JUST LIKE SONIC 3!! WHOAH THIS IS NEW! OMG GREEN HILL ZONE! GAAAH THIS MUSIC IS MY FAVORITE! LOOK AT THE GRAPHICS, IT LOOKS JUST LIKE A GENESIS GAME, BUT BETTER!! SAME SOUND EFFECTS! COLLECTING RINGS, JUMPING, GETTING HIT AND LOSING ALL YOUR RINGS: IT STILL SOUNDS EXACTLY THE SAME!! THIS BRINGS BACK SO MANY MEMORIES!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!”

I knew Sonic games were short, and I didn’t want to beat the whole thing in one night. I wanted to take my time and savor the game. So I spread out my initial playthrough over the course of three days. When I did beat the game, I turned around and played it on “Encore Mode” and beat the whole thing in one day. Now a few days have passed and I have had some time to reflect on the game. Was it worth the long wait?

Yes…. and no. I will start with the positives. I mean, it is a freaking Sonic game! It was a blast to come back and play new content using the old classic formula once again. The graphics, while very similar to the 16-bit Genesis games, are slightly better than they were in the past. More colorful, more detailed, better character models, better animation. The music is just as good as ever. Not only do a lot of classic musical tracks return here, but the game features all new musical tracks as well. Sonic Mania Plus also throws in a few remixed versions of some of my favorite songs. I’d have to say Act-II of the Oil Ocean Zone is probably my favorite remixed track in the whole game. A few other remixed tracks I don’t care for. Green Hill Zone is one of them. It is not that I don’t care for them, it is just that I prefer the original versions more.

Basic gameplay remains the same. Sonic controls just as he did in the old Genesis games. So does Tails. So does Knuckles. This game adds the ability to play as two new characters as well. You can select some yellow creature that looks a bit like Super Sonic, but controls like Mario with the cape in Super Mario World. The other character is some red and black thing that that looks like Knuckles, but can ground pound and repel spike attacks. I liked the addition of these characters, but when I started up my playthrough it was the tried and true Sonic and Tails combo or bust for me. Other than the addition of these characters, not much has changed from the 16-bit days. There are a few small gameplay tweaks here and there, but nothing that immediately comes to my mind.

Level layout: still the same. Beat Act I of a zone, and face off against a mini boss at the end of it. Then you go on to Act II, where you fight Robotnik at the end. Zones seem a little bit longer this time around. The earlier ones are pretty easy, but the deeper you get into the game, the longer they take. It isn’t unusual for an Act to take seven or eight minutes to complete, especially when you are like me and like to take your time and explore. I even ran out of  time TWICE in one of the last zones in the game, which never happens to me in a Sonic game. I won’t complain though. The more there is to see and explore, the merrier I am.

The game is filled with all kinds of Easter Eggs and nods to past Sonic titles. I wish the showdown was a little more difficult, but for one of the boss battles you take on Dr. Robotnik in a battle of good ole’ Mean Bean machine. Other classic boss characters return, albeit under very different circumstances. Remember the final battle with Robotnik in Sonic 2? Well, the machine from that fight is back in Sonic Mania Plus, and you have to fight him at the end of the very first stage! Metal Sonic makes an appearance as well. Other boss characters are very similar to characters you have fought in Sonic games past, but with slight differences. Clearly the makers of this game are paying homage to the original quadrilogy of Sonic games, but without directly recycling old material at the same time.

Bonus stages require 25 rings to activate after you run through a checkpoint. Just jump through the circle of stars above you and you will find yourself playing through all the old Blue Sphere stages from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Beat the stage and you collect a gold or silver medallion, which you can use for unlocking hidden stuff. It was fun to revisit some of these old stages, but uhhh more on that later. As is tradition with Sonic games, you can collect Chaos Emeralds as you make your way through the game. They are completely optional and not necessary to collect to beat the game. Which is good, because I found them to be particularly hard to get my hands on! Special stages are discovered in a similar fashion to how they are found in both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. There are giant gold rings hidden in each stage, and you have to jump into them to activate the special stage. In the special stage, you take control of Sonic from a behind the back perspective. In each of the seven stages you have to chase down a machine carrying a Chaos Emerald. The closest thing I can compare these stages to is Sonic R for the Saturn. Collect blue spheres to increase your speed, and rings to give you more time on the clock. If you can't catch the Chaos Emerald-wielding machine by the time the clock runs out, you fail! These stages are extremely hard and I only managed to collect two Chaos Emeralds by the time I finished with the game. Is there is one weakness in my Sonic playing repertoire, it is that I have always been bad at collecting Chaos Emeralds, and I see that nothing has changed here in Sonic Mania.

All in all, if you discount the bonus and special stages, the game takes about three hours to complete. Add in the bonus and special stages, and it is probably closer to four or five. Herein lies my problem with the game: there are too damn many bonus stages! The Special stages where you collect Chaos Emeralds: those are fine. But the damn blue sphere bonus stages.... ugh! First of all, they are 100% recycled from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Nothing new to see here! My main problem with them, however, is that there are too damn many of then. Each Act of each zone probably has at least, AT LEAST four or five checkpoints in it. Consider that each Act probably takes about five minutes to complete (not a truly accurate number, just my ballpark estimate). If you are hitting five checkpoints in that time span, that means chances are you are going to trigger at least four of them to activate a bonus stage. So in five minutes of in-game action, you are getting pulled into a bonus stage roughly every minute and a half. Of course, these stages are 100% optional and do not need to be completed. But being the completionist that I am, I couldn't just ignore them in good conscience. I had to play them. There are so many bonus stages in this game (because there are so many checkpoints) that I found them interrupting the flow of the main game itself. It felt like I was spending more time collecting blue spheres than I was playing the main game. I'd play until I hit a checkpoint, jump in to the circle of stars, and off to the bonus stage I would go. Win or lose, I would come out of the bonus stage and continue playing. One or two minutes later, I was back playing the bonus stage again. I'd finish up and continue playing. Thirty seconds later, I hit another checkpoint and activate another bonus stage. On and on it went. It was majorly interrupting my enjoyment of the campaign and disrupting the overall flow of the game in general.

When you finish single player mode, you activate Encore mode. This is a remixed version of the original game. There is a slight difference in level layouts and colors in the background of each zone. The main difference is that you are forced to switch back and forth between all five of the game's playable characters. Rather than collecting lives, you simply have these other characters as backups. So let's say have a full complement of characters in your inventory. You are playing as Sonic and you die. Rather than lose a life, you switch over to the next character in your lineup. If all of your characters die, it is game over for you. At least I assume it is game over, I never actually lost everyone all at one time, although I did come close once. If you lose a character, you can get them back by either finding a character monitor and smashing it, or by restocking in the game's pinball bonus stages. Yes, the bonus stages in encore mode are different from the bonus stages in the regular campaign. Rather than playing the recycled blue sphere stages all over again, you shoot Sonic around in a pinball machine where you can collect rings, shields, and bring back dead characters. If your inventory is in good shape, there is really no reason to visit these pinball stages. Plus, you need 50 rings to unlock these stages rather than 25. They are a lot less frequent in appearance than the blue sphere stages too, so they do not interrupt the game's flow as much.

I found playing Encore Mode much more enjoyable than playing the original campaign. I like how you are forced to use each character, and I liked using their different strengths to explore the game's stages. The bonus stages are far less intrusive, and it allowed me to just sit back and play this game the way it was meant to be played. I really got a kick out of Encore Mode, and most of my future playthroughs are probably going to be done in this mode. I do still have to return to the original mode and collect all the Chaos Emeralds and finish up the blue sphere stages I couldn't complete the first time around. Bleh. I am not looking forward to that, but I am a completionist and I will not be able to rest easy as far as this game is concerned until I have unlocked everything there is to unlock.

If you are a big time Sonic fan like me who grew up playing the original games for the Sega Genesis, you are going to want to play this game. It captures the spirit of the original games perfectly. 24 years after Sonic & Knuckles first hit store shelves, those games finally have a worthy successor. It makes me wonder why they haven't just been making Sonic games like this for years and years now. If you are new to the series, you may not enjoy it as much as it won't carry any sentimental value for you. I would still like to think you'd consider it a good game, though.

While this is certainly a good game, at least in my books, I couldn't help but feel a little bit let down by it. I still think all the old Sega Genesis games are better. Most likely that is because I have nostalgic feelings for them as I grew up playing them. But I feel as if this game doesn't quite capture the same magic that those games did. It rides their coattails too much, relying on your nostalgia for past games to try and make you fall in love with this one. I like this game, I really do. But I feel as if it had been its own, brand new Sonic game made in the style of the old ones it would have been much better.

I have heard this game referred to as "one of the best platformers of this generation." While I agree that yeah it is a really fun game, I don't know if I would go that far. Heck, I had a better time with Rayman Legends (which I just beat and reviewed a month or two ago) than I did this game, and I have no sentimental feelings attached to the Rayman series whatsoever. That doesn't mean I am shitting on this game, by any means, it just means that I have played better games in the genre, and recently too! That said, I will not discourage you from getting Sonic Mania Plus, especially if you and the Sonic series go way back together. You are going to like it. Will you love it as much as you did the old games for the Sega Genesis? Only you can answer that. But me: I did not.

Overall:

B+

If you liked my review of Sonic Mania Plus, please check out some of my other reviews:

Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Sonic Colors

Rayman Legends

PS: if they made a Sonic Mania 2 following the same formula as the original, I would like to see the following zones make a return: Spring Yard Zone, Casino Night Zone, Emerald Hill Zone, Metropolis Zone, Carnival Night Zone, Mushroom Hill Zone, and the Sky Sanctuary Zone. What zones would you like to see remixes of?

Video Game Review #143: Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid

PlayStation

About three years ago I decided to start playing all the Metal Gear Solid games in order again. Not necessarily chronological order, but the order in which I am familiar with the games. Rather than play Metal Gear Solid for the original PlayStation, however, I decided to skip over it and play its remake -  Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube instead. That version features updated graphics, new cutscenes, and gameplay tweaks that make it feel a lot more like Sons of Liberty than it does the original title.

After I finished Twin Snakes, I moved on to the aforementioned Sons of Liberty a little over a year later. Yeah, I play through game series very slowly. You don't have to tell me. That was late 2016. It is now mid 2018. For whatever reason, after finishing Sons of Liberty I never moved on to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. When I realized how long it had been since I'd played a game in the series, I made up my mind that I needed to play a Metal Gear game ASAP. But rather than continue on and play part three, I really wanted to go back and play the old PS1 version of the original game. Twin Snakes just didn't cut it for me, and nostalgia was calling me back to play the game again, this time the version I knew and loved.

I got this game back in 1998 when it first hit store shelves. The hype for the game was through the roof, and I knew that I needed to get in on the action. I got the game, and almost instantly I fell in love with it. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the music, I loved the graphics, I loved the game play. It was as close to a perfect game as you could have gotten for me. I played through it a countless number of times.

Life moves on, however. Soon Metal Gear Solid was collecting dust on my shelves as I moved on to bigger (but not necessarily better) things. I have played it randomly a small handful of times since we moved into the 2000s, but if you count Twin Snakes as its own separate entity (which I am doing for this review), it has probably been a good ten years since I'd played the original title. That changed in July of 2018: 20 years after the game's initial release. Did it withstand the test of time?

Before I move on, I feel I need to give a basic recap of the game's storyline. Metal Gear Solid is a VERY story driven title, so understanding its plot will most likely be an essential element to your enjoyment of the game.

The protagonist of Metal Gear Solid is a genetically engineered super soldier named Solid Snake. He previously appeared in a couple of old NES entries to the Metal Gear series. The game references these past adventures quite often, but it is completely not necessary to have played them in order to enjoy this game. Snake has been sent to infiltrate a nuclear weapons disposal facility known as Shadow Moses Island. Unbeknownst to the general public, Shadow Moses is more than just a disposal facility. It is the development site of a new version of Metal Gear - a highly sophisticated battle tank that can deliver a stealth nuclear strike to any location on the map.

Terrorists have overrun this facility and are threatening the outside world with nuclear strikes. If their demands are not met, they will use Metal Gear to throw the world into turmoil. Snake's job is to stop these terrorists at all costs. He is sent in with nothing more than his body and his wits to get the job done. Thus, the game begins. Mind you, this is my extremely bare-bones version of the game's set up. I have barely even scratched the surface of some of the crazy shit you are going to see here. Expect lots of twists, turns, cover-ups, double crosses, and general WTF moments as you play on.

If you don't care about the storyline and just want to play to run around and blow shit up, this isn't the game for you. Like I said, the storyline of Metal Gear Solid takes front and center stage. You are going to have to sit through some long cutscenes and CODEC conversations. The CODEC is kind of like a remote radio link to other characters in the game. You consult with home base through your CODEC frequently, and some of these conversations can be quite lengthy. See the screenshot I posted just above this paragraph? You are going to be looking at screens like that quite often.

So that is the story. Does the game hold up after nearly 20 years? Having played this game many, many times before, I was not put off by its outdated graphics. Heck, I personally think the game still looks great. Yeah, things can get a bit blocky and pixelated at times. The characters' faces lack detail and expression. The game's environments can also look a bit messy if you look too closely at things. But you know what? I don't care. This game came out in 1998. It looked AMAZING for its time. I am still able to look at it now like I did back then. I think it looks great. Not perfect, but great nonetheless.

One of the reasons I am able to so easily overlook Metal Gear Solid's graphical flaws is because of the environment that the game creates. This is a very immersive game. The island of Shadow Moses is one of those locations that, similar to the setting of Rapture in BioShock, almost seems like a character in and of itself. Everywhere you turn, you see something iconic. Perhaps this is a result of me playing this game WAY too many times in the past, but I just love the setting. Whether you are sneaking around through dark warehouses, rummaging through offices and science labs, or crunching around outside in the snow, the game really makes you feel like part of the action.

Not only are the environments of the game both diverse and visually appealing, the music and sound effects blend in with them perfectly as well. It is very easy to just completely get lost in the game. Shadow Moses feels like a place that could actually exist somewhere. It is dark and gritty when it needs to be, high tech and polished when it needs to be as well. Even though it is an outlandish game, there is a certain amount of realism here that speaks to me. Compare the looks of this game to its GameCube remake Twin Snakes, and you maybe can see what I mean. Everything looks so sharp and polished in that game, that it doesn't feel as genuine as it does here when things are dark and gritty. Even though the remake technically (I guess) looks better, it doesn't carry with it the same level of authenticity that this game does.

The gameplay has a few flaws, but for the most part everything handles fine. Point Snake where you need him to go, and hold the D-pad in that direction. You can crawl, you can crouch, you can shimmy against walls, you can enter first person mode to check out your surroundings. The L shoulder button brings up your support items, such as health rations or night vision goggles. The R shoulder button brings up your weapons. Combat is my biggest issue. You can't enter first person mode to shoot, nor does your gun lock on to your enemies. So to kill them you just have to point your body in their general direction and hit the fire button, hoping that you are lined up well enough to kill them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Combat is not really the main focus of the game, so I guess the overall questionable combat mechanics can be forgiven.

I say that combat is not the focus of the game because if you are spending too much time trying to fight your way through hordes of enemies, you are doing things wrong. You need to sneak through the game's areas without being seen in order to be successful. Normally I like a good fight in a video game; it is a nice way to blow off some steam. But I have to admit there is something exhilarating about sneaking past a series of foes undetected to make it to your goal. What happens if you get spotted? You have to either exit the area or hide until the enemies give up looking for you. Rarely does trying to fight your way out of a situation ever work out.

Unless, I should say, you are fighting one of the game's many bosses. This game is famous for its wild, diverse boss battles. Memorable bosses include Vulcan Raven, Revolver Ocelot, Sniper Wolf, Liquid Snake (the helicopter battle is my favorite Liquid fight), Grey Fox, and of course: Psycho Mantis. The Psycho Mantis battle has earned legendary status among hardcore gamers. He pulls out all kinds of fun tricks. If you have a vibrating controller, you put it down on a flat surface and he makes it vibrate - giving you the illusion that he is moving your controller across the surface. He also reads your memory card for Konami games. If you have played certain games, he will comment on them for you. Kind of cool. He can read your mind, which allows him to dodge all of your attacks. It took me a while to figure this out, but the only way to beat him is to unplug your controller and put it into controller port 2. Thus, you dodge his mind control and even the playing field during the battle.

You can probably tell from my comments so far that I really like the game. That is not to say it is without flaws. Mainly: the backtracking! This game makes you backtrack quite often. The first time you have to go back almost all the way to the beginning of the game to pick up a sniper rifle that you need for a boss battle. Okay, sure, whatever. But then not too later on the game picks you up and deposits you back toward the beginning of the game AGAIN after you get captured. You have to escape a pretty intense torture scene by jamming the circle button (you can't use auto fire... or they'll know!) over and over again. Then you have to escape your cell. Then you have to get your equipment back. Then you have to head out back to where you originally got captured, halfway across the freaking game map. You aren't done backtracking though. Towards the end of the game, you have a key that you need to both heat up and cool off to make it change shape. Which means, guess what, you have to backtrack from the key reader to the hot section of the map, heat up the key by standing around for a few minutes with the key out, wait for it to heat up, then head back to the key reader and use the key in its new condition. Then you have to do the same thing for its frozen form. Sheesh!

All the backtracking was not enough to ruin the game for me, however. I still had a really fun time with this title, MUCH more fun than I had with Twin Snakes. In fact, playing this only made me hungry for more Metal Gear. Don't be surprised to see me playing Snake Eater anytime soon.

All in all, this is a great game. Not just great, fantastic! It blew me away as a 16 year old kid back in 1998, and although it doesn't necessarily blow me away now, I still think it is super fun to play. People will criticize this game and say that it is more watching than playing. I see their point, but it is not quite true. In fact, I was surprised by how little watching there actually was compared to what I was preparing myself for in my head. If you want a game that is more watching than playing, look no further than Metal Gear Solid 4, which I am sure I will get to eventually. Yes there is a lot of watching in this game, but it is not anything I consider excessive.

While I normally reserve perfect scores for games that I consider pretty much flawless, I am going to bend the rules a bit here. No, Metal Gear Solid is not flawless. The graphics can be a bit messy by today's standards. The plot occasionally dips into the realm of the nonsensical. The backtracking is truly the low point of the game. BUT! The game is a blast to play. The story, while a little zany at parts, I consider to be gripping. The boss battles are great. The support characters are great. The atmosphere this game creates is truly immersive. I completely lost myself in this game both as a kid and as an adult. Plus it has the whole nostalgia factor thing going for it. This game helped me through one of the tougher times of my life as a teen and it holds a pretty big place in my heart, along with a couple of other games that came out in the same general time frame like FF7, Xenogears, and Ocarina of Time. Metal Gear Solid is a special game to me, and for that it earns a well-deserved A+.

Overall:

A+

If you liked my review of Metal Gear Solid, check out my reviews of the following games:

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Beyond Good and Evil HD

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Tomb Raider 3

Video Game Review #142: God of War II

God of War II

PlayStation 2

When the original God of War came out back in 2005, I was completely blown away by the quality of the game. The cinematic presentation grabbed me, along with the in your face storyline. The graphics, music, and sound effects were amazing. The action was fast-paced, brutal, and hardcore. Kratos himself was a complete bad-ass, the likes of which I had never seen in a video game before. The settings of the game were beautiful, and there were so many fun and memorable moments along the way. I LOVED the first God of War game.

Of course it was only natural that I would get the second God of War game as soon as it came out. However when I look back, I don’t remember much of anything at all about my time with the game. I remember liking it. I remember a few added wrinkles like the ability to fly around on a Pegasus from time to time, but beyond that: not much else.

I thought my opinion would change playing the game in present day. It did not. While this is a good game and I had a fun time playing it – there is not a whole lot about this game that makes it stand out over the original title. I am sure that technically it is an improvement. They had time to tweak the graphics and the controls, after all. But there really were not any big moments or super cool looking environments that made the game memorable to me.

God of War II’s storyline picks up right after the first game ends. Kratos is the new God of War. He has let this power go to his head a little bit, and the other gods feel threatened by that power. They launch a plan to drain Kratos of his power and kill him, and they succeed. Kratos can’t seem to ever stay dead in these games, however. He is resurrected by the Titans, where he is encouraged to visit the Sisters of Fate. The Sisters have the ability to rewind time and allow Kratos to escape the trap that the gods had laid for him. So that is where Kratos decides to go. We’re off to see the Sisters, the wonderful Sisters of Fate! Or something like that. Of course, there is more to the storyline than this, but that is just my bare bones setup for the game. If you want to know more, you are just going to have to play this yourself!

As far as gameplay goes, not much has changed from the first game. There are a few new magical powers and weapons at your disposal, but nothing game changing. On the weapons front, I still only use the Blades of Chaos. They are what I am used to, and I am not going to learn a new fighting style just so I can play around with different weapons. They work. They do their job. Might as well stick with what I am familiar with.

What else is new with God of War II? Not a whole lot. As I mentioned, there is the ability to ride a Pegasus in battle. Truth be told, although it is a fun concept I actually didn’t like these fighting sequences. The hit detection is really poor when you are on that thing. Plus the fights go on for too long and can get boring. I didn’t die on this current playthrough, but waaay back in the day I recall dying on these flying segments over and over again and getting frustrated. It was a nice thought, and I appreciate that they tried to do something different here, but it just doesn’t work for me. There are a few new accessories that add a little bit of a wrinkle to the tried and true God of War formula. You get the Wings of Icarus, which allow you to glide after jumping. Definitely a useful item. You will also pick up the Golden Fleece, which allows you to fire enemy projectiles back at them. This weapon requires a lot of really precise timing to get it to work properly, but it did save my buns on more than a few occasions.

The game itself if as straightforward as they come. You are Kratos. You travel to see the Sisters of Fate. That’s pretty much it. Point A to point B. All action, all the time. There are a few switch throwing or block pushing puzzles, but absolutely nothing that is going to break your brain. As mentioned, there aren’t as many memorable moments as in the first game. The opening battle sequence against the Colossus of Rhodes is a highlight of mine, but that is not a good sign when the first fight of the game is one of the game’s most memorable moments. Since I just played the game and it is fresh on my mind, a few other standout areas/sequences include the rescue of Prometheus from his eternal fate, activating the Steeds of Time, and fighting Icarus and stealing his wings. Memorable for a BAD reason: those freaking tower defense areas where you have to protect the scholars from enemy attacks while they recite the old text. These areas are terrible. I struggled with them in the past and I struggled with them on my current playthrough. Why they have to include these types of missions in games I have no idea. I LOATHE tower defense.

Despite the game not being as memorable as its predecessor, I still enjoyed it. It is fun to play. It is also really hard to stop playing once you pick it up. It is difficult for me to describe. It is fun, but not memorable at the same time. Ever play a game or watch a movie, and really enjoy it – but at the same time try to think back on it two days later and find that you can’t remember a single damn thing about it? That is what God of War II is like for me. I am never going to be like “OMG this game is GreaT!!!!” but I am never going to say the game sucks either. It is good. It’s solid. It is just not memorable. That is about all I can say about it. Fun game? For sure. Does it leave any kind of lasting impression on me whatsoever? Not really.

Overall: C+

If you liked my review for God of War II, please check out the following reviews:

God of War

Gears of War

Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Golden Axe

Video Game Review #141: Thundercade

Thundercade

Nintendo Entertainment System

As a young kid in the early 90s I took video gaming very seriously. I made sure to have a list ready for any upcoming occasion that would warrant me possibly receiving a game as a gift. Every Christmas and every birthday that went by, my fingers were crossed that I would get at least one new game, if not many more. I don’t remember the exact year, but there was a Christmas where I hadn’t received a SINGLE game as a gift. I had made sure to distribute my list among family members. Why did no one get me anything?

My last hope was when I visited my grandfather’s house - my grandfather on my dad’s side of the family. He had become estranged from my grandmother many, many years in the past. He then remarried and started a new family of his own. We only saw him about once a year, around Christmas time. As a result, my brother and I (his original grandkids) were never really that close to him. I was not optimistic I would get a new game.

Surprise surprise, I actually got one: Thundercade. I was happy to get a new game, but at the same time I was a little disappointed because the game was not on my list. In fact, I had never even heard of Thundercade before. I bet he was out shopping and didn’t have the list, so he simply decided to buy whatever happened to look cool on the shelf… or whatever was the cheapest. But you know what they say about beggars and how they can’t be choosers. I was still going to play the game. Of course I was.

Having never heard of the game before, I came into it blind. I quickly discovered that it is a an old school shooter in the vein of Galaga or Galaxian. A more accurate comparison might be the Capcom arcade classic 1942. What this means is that you control a vehicle (in the case of Thundercade: a motorcycle). The game takes place from a slightly top/down, slightly behind the back perspective. As you play, the camera scrolls upward as you move forward. You can move your motorcycle left, right, up, and down on the field of play. You cannot move it off of the screen, however, nor does the camera scroll faster if you move to the top of the screen. Enemies come at you mainly from the front. Your goal is to shoot them and not get shot at the same time. Sounds easy, but this game offers up quite the challenge.

Enemies are going to be coming at you nonstop. Get hit once and you die. Making this even more challenging, you only get three lives (although the game does have continues, thank god!). You are going to be dodging enemy fire CONSTANTLY. At times you are going to be at a loss as to how you can avoid getting hit. Don’t give up though. The enemies appear in a predetermined fashion. It just takes some trial and error. Play through this enough times and these patterns get stuck in your head. This makes it easier not only to avoid enemy attacks, but to know where to shoot so you can kill these enemies before they can even get a shot off.

The game offers a lot in terms of power ups and weapon upgrades. You can pick up things like extra lives and extra special attacks as you play. There are also several different sidecars you can pick up for your motorcycle. They offer a variety of attacks, such as a long shooter, double shooters, side shooters (which shoot left or right as opposed to straight forward), and my personal favorite: the V gun. This gun shoots out from your vehicle in a V-pattern. Meaning your shots don’t go straight, they branch out in front of you. One veers left, the other veers right. This can make aiming a little problematic, but these guns are so powerful it more than makes up for it. Not only do these sidecars offer you a little extra firepower as you play, but they also offer protection. Normally one hit is enough to kill you. But if an enemy shoots your sidecar, the shot simply destroys the sidecar. So it is like a one-hit shield, in a way. Very useful.

Aside from the directional pad, you will only be using two buttons as you play: the basic fire button and a button for your special attack. Press the special attack button, and a jet swoops down and bombs the hell out of everything onscreen. This will kill most basic enemies and do major damage to the game’s bosses. It also will destroy any buildings in your vicinity that can be destroyed. Most buildings you can’t destroy, but there are a few that you can demolish if you shoot them enough times. More often than not, these buildings house secret items you can use to aid you on your quest. So the air raid is definitely a big help when it comes to discovering these buildings and taking them out quickly. I found that the most beneficial aspect to the air raid, however, is not the damage that the attack doles out. It is the fact that when you hit the air raid button, all enemy bullets suddenly disappear from the screen. So if you ever find yourself backed into a corner with bullets coming in and no way out, just use your special attack! This feature saved me more times than I would care to admit. The only downside is that this trick doesn’t work on the game’s final boss, which sucks big time because it is super hard.

Thundercade is not very long. There are four main stages, each one roughly ten minutes in length. All stages end with a boss fight, except for the third one for some reason. After each stage you gain access to a short side scrolling bonus level where you are being air dropped special supplies. It is your goal to catch as many things as you can before they hit the ground. I always made the one-ups and the V guns my top priority.

Even though the game is short, I do recall spending a lot of time with it when I was a kid. I liked to play the 2-player co-op mode with my step brother Kyle. We got pretty good at the game, but I’m not certain if we ever beat it together or not. I did beat the game by myself a small handful of times. But often I would make it to the end in great shape and then die in battle against the final boss. It got frustrating after a while. It took me several attempts to beat the game as an adult, but when I did I must say I felt quite accomplished afterwards.

The graphics for this game are fine, if nothing spectacular. The music is a little grating, I must say. I remember my dad coming into the room when I was playing this as a kid and him making a comment that it sounded like I was listening to church organ music. Really shitty, tinny church organ music. It was not a compliment! At first I didn’t see it, but the more I played the more I began to realize he was onto something. In present day, I think the music is charming and it brings back a lot of memories, but at the same time I would never recommend the game’s soundtrack to someone who likes listening to catchy 8-bit tracks. Because this game's music is not catchy at all.

Thundercade is not a game that is going to go down in history as an all-time classic. In fact, I am willing to bet this review is going to get shit for views, if only because so many people have never heard of the game before. Which is fair. I had never heard of the game either when I first got it. Am I glad I got it though? Heck yeah. It is a fun game and it has given me some good memories. It is short if you know what you are doing, but the game is so challenging that it will keep you at it and at it until you finally finish it off. If you can find a friend to play with, two player mode is very enjoyable too. Thanks, grandpa, for getting me this game. Over 25 years later it is still a staple of my NES collection. It is true that I don’t play it very often (I am willing to bet that the last time I played this game I was in my late teens or early twenties. I am 35 now), but I do take solace in the fact that it will always be there whenever I want to pop it in. Good game.

Overall:

B+

If you liked my review of Thundercade, check out some of my other game reviews:

Guerilla War

Star Fox 64

Contra

Jurassic Park

Smash TV