Dan Geeks Out

1985:

1986:

1987:

1988:

1989:

1990:

1991:

1992:

1993:

The Adventures of Batman & Robin

1994:

Jurassic Park

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

1995:

Clockwork Knight (The review you're reading)

And up next, also from the Saturn:

Astal!

For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click

>HERE<

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Video Game Review #380: X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

Mop Up Duty rolls on, as we are nearly through the year 1994. Jurassic Park and The Adventures of Batman & Robin were the last two games I played, so I figured it would be appropriate to close out the year with another licensed franchise game - X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse for the Super Nintendo.

I've never played this game before, despite owning a copy of it. I probably picked this up over ten years ago and it's sat in storage ever since. I'm a big fan of the X-Men, and I really liked the Genesis X-Men games. Why I never chose to play this, I have no idea. Every serious gamer has a backlog of things they want to play someday, don't they? Well, someday finally came for me.

Story:

On Genosha Island, humans are creating Sentinels and other machines to combat the growing "mutant scourge". Many mutants have been taken prisoner within this facility. Professor Xavier sends in the X-Men to free the prisoners and destroy the facility's weapons. Each character has their own separate mission to complete that is important to the team's success. On the brink of success, it is discovered that evil mutant Apocalypse is attempting to take over the facility for his own nefarious purposes. The X-Men band together to take him out.

But we aren't done! Magnet, outraged over the events that occurred on the island, threatens to destroy it from above. After some Danger Room training where you fight the Juggernaut and a handful of other boss characters, you head into space to do battle with Magneto. In the end, the X-Men are victorious, but Magneto lives to plot against humanity another day.

Gameplay:

This is one of the most straightforward games I've played in recent history. Mutant Apocalypse does absolutely nothing to hide what it is - a 2D side scrolling beat 'em up. There are no frills attached here.

When you begin playing, you're given the choice of five different X-Men to play as: Gambit, Wolverine. Cyclops, Beast, and Cyclops. Each of these X-Men has their own unique stage that they play representing their role in the Genosha mission. Once you complete these stages, the game becomes linear, where it doesn't matter which character you pick, you get the same stages you would have normally until the end of the game.

Controls are very, very simple. You only use two buttons - attack and jump. You can use different, Street Fighter-esque button combinations to initiate special attacks. For example, the classic hadoken combo of down, right, attack makes Cyclops fire his eye laser and it makes Gambit throw his charged up cards. Other combinations like forward, forward attack are effective as well, especially with Wolverine and his lunge attack. Playing around and discovering different special moves is one of the best things about this game.

Each stage has a set beginning and a set ending point. Like most 2D side scrollers of its time, essentially all you are doing is starting on the left side of the screen and making your way to the right. Sometimes you go up or down depending on the changing nature of the landscape, but ultimately your goal is to always find the end of the level, which typically is a boss fight.

The actual stages of this game are pretty easy. Your typical enemy thug doesn't put up much resistance aside from being a punching bag. As you get deeper into the game, there are some more annoying enemies added like the jumping insect creatures and the enemy soldiers who teleport around the room. The real challenge of this game lies in its boss battles. You can't just go into each one and expect to smash your way through it with your fists. You have to pay attention and play strategically.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how similar this game is in its format to Marvel Super Heroes In War of the Gems, which I reviewed back in January of 2022. Everything about it is pretty much exactly the same, right down to its gameplay and its format. They are essentially the same game with two different skins. That said, this game came out first so it is the one that was copied. I can't hold that against it. Plus, I prefer the X-Men to the Avengers, so the theme of this game is more up my alley. When comparing the games side by side, I think I prefer this one over War of the Gems.

Graphics:

Visually, this game is really nice. It seems like many of the characters are modeled after their counterparts from the classic X-Men cartoon, which I can't complain about. It's a visual style that I find quite charming and a perfect representation of the X-Men in the 90s.

Sound:

I wish this game's sound was a little bit better. The music, while serviceable, is generic and completely forgettable in the long run. I played through this game twice before reviewing it, and I can't say I remember a single song from the entire thing. They used the character likenesses of the X-Men cartoon. I wish they'd borrowed from its music as well.

Overall:

Fine. That's the word that comes to mind when I think of this game. It's fine. It's not great. It's not bad either. It's okay. It's fine.

I think the game realizes it, too. It doesn't do anything it doesn't set out to do. This is a game where you control your X-Men character, you walk slowly through the stage, you beat people up, and you fight a boss character at the end of the stage. You do that for every level, the entire game. And that's it.

Although it's a simple and sometimes mindless game, I still enjoyed it. I can't in good conscience grade this game in the A or the B range, but I feel it is better than a C, which is just mediocre. C+ is the best I can do. Which is the exact same grade I gave War of the Gems. As I said, this game is slightly better than that one, but not significantly so to bump it up into the B range.

As I said, this game is fine. It's nothing to get too excited about, but if you are a fan of the source material you'll probably have a good time with this.

THE GRADE:

C+

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984:

1985:

1986:

1987:

1988:

1989:

1990:

1991:

1992:

1993:

The Adventures of Batman & Robin

1994:

Jurassic Park

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (The review you're reading)

Up next, we move onto 1995 with

Clockwork Knight for the Sega Saturn!

For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click

>HERE<

Monday, July 4, 2022

Video Game Review #379: The Adventures of Batman & Robin

The Adventures of Batman & Robin

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

I was a HUGE fan of Batman: The Animated Series when I was a kid. Not only did I love it because of Batman, I loved the setting, the music, the villains – everything. Even to this day, I stand by my opinion that this is possibly the greatest cartoon series of all time.

Due to the fact that I never owned a Super Nintendo growing up, I was never able to play its video game adaptation. I did play The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Genesis, but I never really liked that one. It was too difficult. I didn’t like the shooting/punching mechanics. I also feel it didn’t properly capture the look and feel of the source material.

Turns out I was playing the wrong version of the game. The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the SNES is everything I would have wanted from a Batman game as a kid, and more. Read on for my full thoughts.

Story:

This game basically acts as a compilation of episodes from the animated series. Each level begins with a title card, which lets you know which villain you’re going to be facing (just like in the show). You fight through each of these themed levels, beating the villain, who typically acts as a boss character, at the end of the stage. Then you move onto the next one.

None of these stages are connected. For example, the first stage has you going to an amusement park to battle the Joker, while the second stage has you fighting Poison Ivy in her greenhouse. Like I said before, each of these stages are basically mini-episodes from the show. At the end of the game, you take the fight to your foes, fighting through a gauntlet of boss characters until you face off in the final battle against the Joker.

Gameplay:

This is an easy game to get used to. You control Batman, although he moves across the screen pretty slowly. You jump. You swing from things using your grappling hook. When you encounter an enemy you can punch or kick them to death. It only takes about one or two hits to kill your standard enemy, so the game isn’t too difficult – at least right off the bat. After playing The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Genesis I can honestly say that this game is a lot simpler than I had anticipated. It is very much a traditional platformer by most definitions of the word.

As you play, you’ll notice you have access to a handful of gadgets, like X-ray vision, a flashlight, a spray gun, batarangs, and the ever dependable grappling hook. Play around with these items and see how they benefit you. I mostly ignored them while I made my way through the game, inadvertently making things a lot harder on myself in the process.

The game throws some variety at you from time to time. There’s a driving level (which is terrible and I hate, BTW). There’s a level that takes place in a giant maze. There’s a level where you explore an office building. The remaining stages simply consist of moving your character from the left side of the screen all the way to the right, and then fighting a boss character, in typical 2D platformer fashion.

As far as overall difficulty goes, the game isn't too overly hard. Where I encountered the most trouble was during the boss battles. Many of these battles rely on trial and error, observing your enemy, and taking advantage of their attack patterns. But that is a lot easier said than done. You're going to die fighting these bosses, and when you die you often have to replay long chunks of the entire level over again. The maze/labyrinth stage is one of the most egregious offenders.

Graphics:

This game looks excellent. It captures the overall feel of the 90s cartoon perfectly. I'd be hard pressed to name a game that is as true to the source material as this one. It is like the animated series came to life, and now you are in control of the action.

Sound:

Just as this game captures the feel of the show visually, it does the same with its music as well. I was truly impressed as I made my way through this game that the Super Nintendo could bring this to life as well as it did.

Overall:

This game really impressed me. I came into it thinking it would just be a cheesy 2D platformer and it blew away all my expectations. It pays such a wonderful homage to the source material, capturing the essence of the animated series perfectly.

I'm not going to sit here and say it's a perfect game. The platforming action is slow, clunky, and ultimately flawed. Some of the levels, like the Riddler's labyrinth, overstay their welcome and drag on for way too long - to the point where mucking my way through them began to feel like a real slog. And that driving level? It is pure torture. You can't see what's coming up in front of you, and if you go too fast you'll slam into the wall and lose precious time. If you go to slow, you'll run out of time. You have to be 100% perfect to make it through this level, which to me is ridiculous because there's no way to get through this stage other than trial and error, memorization, and repetition. And even then, the controls are so touchy that one tiny little mistake will doom you. I hate it. If you say you made it through this level on your first attempt, you are lying.

All bad things aside, this game overall left an overwhelmingly positive impression on me. As such a huge fan of the source material, this game was an absolute treat for me. It's everything I ever could have wanted from an adaptation of the cartoon, and more. Why couldn't The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Genesis be this good? I rented that for one weekend as a kid and never bothered to pick it up again. Maybe I'll have to give it another chance. Anyway, I am rambling.

If you like Batman: The Animated Series, this game is for you. If you are just looking for a good 2D platforming experience, this might not be the game for you. Or maybe it is? I'll admit, my Batman blinders are making it hard for me to determine if this is actually a good game or not. But I had a good time with it. And this is my review, so that's really all that matters.

THE GRADE:

B+

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984:

1985:

1986:

1987:

1988:

1989:

1990:

1991:

1992:

1993:

1994:

Jurassic Park

The Adventures of Batman & Robin (The review you're reading)

And up next:

X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse

For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click

>HERE<

Saturday, July 2, 2022

Video Game Review #378: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park

Arcade

Nostalgia Factor:

Despite being an enormous Jurassic Park fan, somehow this arcade game always eluded me as a kid. I only knew of one arcade that had it – the movie theater at the local mall. I remember seeing this glorious arcade unit (where you sat down in the Jeep from the movie as you played) while at the theater with my mom when we went to go see The Sixth Sense sometime in the late 90s. We didn’t arrive early enough to mess around, however, so one longing look was all I was able to give this game. We ended up coming back to this theater a few times later to watch other movies, but the Jurassic Park arcade unit was long gone by then. I’d had one, and only one chance to play this game – and I biffed it.

Well, here we are in the year 2022. This game initially came out in 1994, which means that a whopping 28 years has passed since it was released. I’m finally getting the chance to play it on my Retro Pie. Would the wait be worth it?

Story:

I’m not quite sure if this game really has a story. You start out in one of the aforementioned Jurassic Park Jeeps. The whole point of the game is to just… drive around and blast dinosaurs? Apparently. At the end of the game, Grant and Ellie look on as the dinosaurs are captured and put back into captivity.

Gameplay:

It became evident to me almost as soon as I started playing this game that I wasn’t going to like it. I like rail shooters. Virtua Cop, Time Crisis, those kinds of games are A-OK in my books. But this game? It’s a complete mess.

I’ll start with the basics. It’s simple. You could say it’s too simple. You have no control over the Jeep, you only control the aiming reticule on the screen. You hold down the button to fire a stream of machine gun bullets. Your gun can’t overheat. There is no reloading. Just hold down that trigger, that’s all you gotta do. The point of the game is to aim and shoot at the dinosaurs that pop up on the screen. You can shoot other things in the environment as well, such as signs, to uncover hidden items like health upgrades.

Good luck doing any of that. This has to be the worst-controlling video game I have ever played in my life. The aiming reticule is absurdly sensitive. If you aren’t pressing anything, it settles on an area of the screen just left of center. If you nudge the controller even the slightest direction the reticule just FLIES across the screen in that direction, and all of a sudden you find yourself mindlessly shooting into the corner of the screen. Try to correct it, and you’ll find yourself firing mindlessly into the opposite corner of the screen. You can’t slowly move the cursor around. No no. You can only move it in a lightning fast, herky jerky motion that makes it impossible to aim at anything. My main strategy as I played was just to hold the fire button and rake the reticule back and forth across the screen, hoping to hit an enemy by blind luck.

Now keep in mind that I’m playing an emulated version of the game on my home TV screen, using a standard video game controller. Maybe if I had played this game the way it was intended to be played – in the arcade, sitting in the Jeep, using the correctly supplied joysticks, I would have been able to control the aiming reticule. But I can’t review a game based on hypotheticals. I have to review it based on what I know. And what I know is that this game was nearly impossible to play.

Good thing I could just pump in an endless supply of virtual quarters. It didn’t matter how many times I died or how bad my aim was. Just put in enough quarters and the Jeep will take you to the end of the game, eventually. That’s one of my biggest gripes about this game. It’s mindless and it requires no skill to beat. If I put in enough quarters, can I just put the controller down for 20 minutes and still beat the game?

Ehhhhhhh. As much as I love Jurassic Park and as much as I liked the idea of zooming around the park in your Jeep, almost like you were in a roller coaster, I still didn’t have a whole lot of fun with this game.

Graphics:

This game’s graphics are extremely mixed. At its best, this looks like a Sega Saturn game. 3D environments. Pixelated textures that probably looked good for their time but look horrible now. Some bright colors and some nice environments, but overall nothing too special to look at. At its worst, this game is an absolute joke. I remember the first time I encountered a raptor, a cartoonish 2D drawing of a raptor face popped up on my screen. I didn’t even try to shoot at it because it didn’t even register to me that it was an enemy, it looked so bad. I swear to god I laughed out loud when it swiped at me and did damage to my character. Why does it look like a cardboard cutout? Why is it smiling? So many questions.

Sound:

I guess if this game does anything right, it is in the sound department. I don’t think any of the music from the movie made its way into the game, but the sound effects sure were. Hearing the roar of the T-Rex and the call of the dilophosaurus is always a treat for any Jurassic Park fanatic, I don’t care who you are.

Overall:

I didn’t like this game. I think my review up to this point has made that quite clear. It’s mindless, it’s impossible to control, the graphics are weird, it’s short. I just didn’t derive any pleasure from this. This is easily the worst Jurassic Park game I have ever played.

That said, I find it very hard to hate anything with Jurassic Park in its name. It’s the fanboy in me, and I am totally okay admitting that. Even though the game sucks, I still like the fact that it exists. This is an arcade game where you can sit down in the Jurassic Park Jeep, blast away at dinosaurs, take in the sights from the movie, hear some cool sound effects, beat the game in 20 minutes, and then never have to play it again. So I’m not giving this game an F. It sneaks by, just barely, with a passing grade. Do I feel guilty about giving this unplayable mess a higher score than Blaster Master Boy or Kool-Aid Man? Not in the slightest.

THE GRADE:

D-

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984:

1985:

1986:

1987:

1988:

1989:

1990:

1991:

1992:

1993: