Day two was a successful one, only one game really sucked, and you're probably not going to agree with my assessment. Either way, I throw a classic NES game under the bus... for good reason.

Game 1 - Nintendo World Cup (NES)

Fun fact: This game is known as "Nekketsu Kōkō Dodgeball Bu: Soccer Hen​" in Japan, and instead of world teams being represented, they're High School teams and the entire tournament takes place in Japan.

This game is actually pretty fun, which is surprising because I purchased it for $0.99 and bought it mostly because I liked the artwork on the cartridge (and usually when I do that the game ends up being a big piece of shit... like "Hook"). It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I did I found myself soundly throttling Cameroon (I picked Brazil) in the nascent rounds of the World Cup. The lack of fouls is a boon, I was a tackling fool. By the end of the game, Cameroon's entire offense was laying, what I can only presume as dead, on the ground.

One remarkable trait of this game is the control scheme, it's nearly identical to how modern soccer games are played except much simpler thanks to the limited amount of buttons. The one niggle I have is you only control one player and can't switch. You can, however, tell your teammates to pass the ball or shoot, two moves in advance. Pretty Trick.

Another feature I liked was the strategy screen you get at the beginning and at halftime. I initially had it set up to only allow me to shoot, and had players marking on defense instead of tackling, leading to a 1-1 tie at halftime. I changed my offensive plan to allow other players to shoot (and shoot often) and changed my defensive strategy to focus on tackling. The rout was on, I ended up winning the match 6-1 with half the Cameroon squad laying paralyzed on the field with nary a card pulled.

Overall, I like this game. It would be a fun 2-player game with your buds on a Friday night over some cold adult beverages. I do think this game would get a little boring playing game after game due to the limited strategy and control options. When you consider when the game was made (1990) and the system it was made for (NES) it is remarkably advanced.

Game 2 - Skate or Die (NES)

Skate or Die, this game is highly recognized among those who grew up in the NES era, but I can't really see why. I attempted to play it for about 15 minutes and found the controls infuriating, sometimes you had to push down and rotate the d-pad to move, other times you pressed up. I found myself constantly running into walls, fences, and falling down holes (or dumpsters, couldn't really tell what they were). It literally felt like I had been handicapped and had completely forgotten how to even operate a video game. I must've looked like what my mother does when I put a controller in her hands (Hint: my on-screen player looked epileptic at worst, and drunk at best).

I tried the "Jam" which is apparently just a race through a dangerously littered street. I figured out how to do an olly, successfully pulled off two of them, then my player inexplicably stopped doing them. It all kinda fell apart from there, I was running into fences, going backwards, or not moving at all.

The next area I tried was the high jump (or whatever) in a half-pipe. I got stuck slowly moving back and forth in the half pipe. I tried and tried but couldn't for-the-life-of-me figure out how to gain speed. What's worse is the game has no way to just quit an event, so I had to reset. Once I reset I decided to just quit. Lame.

I'm not entirely sure why people were so gaga for this game, it sucks... hard. Also, the skate shop owner is a really creepy looking purple-haired former US Marine. Weird.

Game 3 - StarTropics (NES)

Another surprisingly decent game, but not without some downfalls. This game is pretty much a Zelda rip-off with jumping added. I didn't play for very long, and since it's an RPG that means I didn't really get into the guts of the game. What I did find was a decent little puzzler with ok controls and colorful graphics.

At first I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do, but like in all RPG's I began talking to the townspeople and found out I needed to talk to the Chief. The Chief then told me I had to rescue my uncle from a laboratory or something. I then needed to find a tunnel entrance located within the village somewhere. This took me a while because the game glitched and the guard who was supposed to move aside after talking to the Chief decided not to move and told me to scram. That left me wandering C-Island (stupid name) for a good 10 minutes before talking to the Chief again. After that the guard relented and let me pass.

Once in the caves I found a mix of "Adventures of Lolo" style play with more of a focus on combat. Most of the puzzles I encountered were just finding the right tile to land on to enable a switch (which then would open a door to the next room). Rinse and repeat.

The only really glaring fault with this game is the controls. They aren't terrible, but Mike (I know, super creative name for the protagonist) can be slow to react to inputs, leaving you vulnerable to attacks from evil slugs and rats. At least the yo-yo, the first weapon you get, fires pretty rapidly and makes quick work of most enemies.

All in all, not bad. I'll probably revisit this one sometime. I can't help but think a revamped HD version with slightly better controls would be a fantastic addition to XBLA or PSN.

Game 4 - Stinger (NES)

Today was a good day, this game is a gem too. Though I'm not usually one for shmups, mostly because I suck horribly at them, this one is a little more friendly. It's a nice break from the cyber-snakes and dark tunnels type environments most shmups seem to take place in. Some of the enemies are flying tomatoes, one of the bosses is a watermelon slice, and another a ghetto-blaster. I like it.

This game is actually a part of the TwinBee universe everywhere outside of North America. For whatever reason they chose to rename it for North America, I don't know why because I'm pretty sure the TwinBee series exists in some form in NA. Guess they thought us 'Mericans wouldn't have liked the real (translated) name "Burn! TwinBee: The Rescue of Dr. Cinnamon." Ok, yeah, that's a mouthful. "Stinger" is better, more succinct, more badass.

I don't really have too much more to say about this one, it's a shmup. Gun and health powerups, flying enemies, bosses, and you die in one hit (unless you get a force-field which lasts long enough for you to think it's infinite only to run out when you face a boss and get nuked in seconds). One unique thing about this shmup is the alternating perspective on each level, one level is side scrolling, another is top-down with you flying up.

Stinger is a quality game, highly challenging and with a unique array of enemies and environments. I fear all of my playing of current-gen systems has spoiled me and I end up expecting more from these classic games. When you take it for what it is, it's just a fun, straight-up shooter with a quirky story, fun music, and colorful graphics.

Today I decided to tackle some of my unplayed NES games. I took the easy way out and played them on my modded Xbox since my NES is finicky, the games are buried in the back of a drawer, and the NES controller cords are far too short to allow me to sit comfortably on my couch.

On today's installment, a plumber becomes a doctor, Peter Pan sucks at stabbing pirates, Luigi gets horrible advice from the townspeople, and Little Mac gets throttled by a cheating Spaniard.

Game 1 - Dr. Mario (NES)

I played this game way back in the day when it came out so technically I HAVE played it before, just not recently. This game is pretty much how I remember, line up the colored pill sections with the matching virus to eradicate it. Seems simple enough right?

Yeah, the concept is simple but the game quickly ramps up the difficulty... at least for me anyway. I didn't spend too much time on this one as I'm not one for puzzle games unless I'm just trying to burn some time in a waiting room or spending quality time on the porcelain throne. That being said, Dr. Mario is a decent puzzler but it gets old pretty quickly (to me).

Game 2 - Hook (NES)

Attempted to play this game. I say attempted because it got off to a bad start. The compass system used to pick levels is stupid and I spent probably two minutes trying to figure out how to start a friggen level.

Once I finally managed to start a level I found it nearly impossible to actually stab any of the enemies. This perhaps has to do with the wussy little "sword" you have, but probably more to do with crap-ass programming and hit detection. I was able to stab the first guy, but after that it was hit and miss as to when the pocket knife sword was actually effective. Also you can't jump on the enemies heads to kill them. And they have guns. And you sustain fall damage from meager heights.

This game sucks ass, I turned it off before even making it past the first section of the first level. I had to look up another review to figure out what the point of the game was (collecting random crap like cupcakes and seashells, just like in the movie!).

The only saving grace for this game are the graphics, which are pretty impressive given the limitations of the hardware.

Simply put, this is one of the worst games I've ever played.

Game 3 - Mario is Missing (NES)

I played this game as a youngster as well, back in the days when you could still rent consoles from video stores. I remembered this game as being pretty fun when I rented it back in my elementary days though after revisiting this "gem" I feel as though my mind has betrayed me.

EDIT: Turns out there's an SNES version of this game, I'm almost positive that's the one I played as a kid. No doubt it's just as stupid though.

I'll be honest, I didn't really give it much of a chance, but I don't think it really deserved one. This game was an impulse purchase by me and I never really intended on playing it that much.

The game starts of with a little pictorial about Mario going missing, or at least that's what I think it was. Then the game starts and it all goes downhill from there. It's just boring, and I really didn't have a clue what was going on. Luigi went through a locked door, down some pipes (accompanied by a really horrid attempt to recreate the Super Mario World pipe-travel-sound) and ends up on some street in the barrio where all of the doors have metal bars on them.

I got to the street level pictured above and a phone was ringing, but since I couldn't figure out how to answer it I don't know what it meant. I finally figured out how to talk to people to get clues, but the first person I talked to didn't even answer my question. Luigi asked a passerby where he was and she spouted some cryptic nonsense about needing special shoes to scale the Alps or something.

To continue this game would have been mental punishment.

Done.

Game 4 - Mike Tyson's Punch Out! (NES)

This is no doubt one of the more popular games on the NES. It was definitely the talk of the playground for many months in my elementary school years.

First, I must say I suck at this game, Glass Joe positively hammered me in the first bout. After deciding the game was far too difficult to give it a proper go on my hour-long lunch break I consulted the Game Genie database and proceeded to cheat my ass off. Even with the "One Punch Knockdown" cheat enabled I was only able to progress to the Spanish fighter (4th or 5th fighter you encounter) who quickly made chorizo out of me with his flashing-super-punch bullshit... cheating bastard.

Other than that, I don't think I need to go too in-depth for this game as it was one of the most popular of its time. I personally never saw the appeal then and I don't see it now. Maybe I'll revisit it again after I finish going through my unplayed list to see if I can figure out what the hype is/was all about.

I've decided to set out on a quest to play the 66 unplayed games I have in my video game collection. Many haven't been played simply because I know they are garbage, some I can't play because of peripheral restrictions (light gun doesn't work with HDTV's, don't have the ROB robot, don't have the Super Scope etc.). Other games have been neglected simply because I've been occupied with other games (Forza 4, Portal 2, Mercenaries 2...). Hit the jump to see the list it all its unplayed glory.

So here it is, "The Unplayed 66." As I play each game, links to the article where it's discussed will be added.

System - Title
Atari 2600 - Circus Atari
Atari 2600 - Donkey Kong
Atari 2600 - Donkey Kong Junior
Atari 2600 - Missile Command
Atari 2600 - Pac-Man
Atari 2600 - Pitfall
Atari 2600 - Space Invaders
Microsoft Xbox - Beyond Good and Evil
Microsoft Xbox - Time Splitters 2
Microsoft Xbox 360 - Bioshock 2
Microsoft Xbox 360 - Fallout New Vegas
Nintendo 64 - Perfect Dark (Requires N64 Memory Expansion Pak)
Nintendo 64 - Wipeout 64
Nintendo Game Boy Advance - Classic NES Series: Donkey Kong
Nintendo Game Boy Advance - Classic NES Series: Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo Game Boy Advance - Classic NES Series: The Legend of Zelda
Nintendo NES - Big Nose
Nintendo NES - Dr. Mario
Nintendo NES - Gyromite (Requires ROB)
Nintendo NES - Hook
Nintendo NES - Mario is Missing
Nintendo NES - Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Nintendo NES - Nintendo World Cup
Nintendo NES - Skate or Die
Nintendo NES - Solar Jetman
Nintendo NES - Star Tropics
Nintendo NES - Stinger
Nintendo SNES - Battle Clash
Nintendo SNES - Boxing Legends of the Ring
Nintendo SNES - Final Fight
Nintendo SNES - George Foreman's KO Boxing
Nintendo SNES - Lufia & The Fortress of Doom
Nintendo SNES - Super Game Boy
Nintendo SNES - Super Scope 6 (Requires Super Scope)
Nintendo Super Famicom - Battle Robot Retsuden (Requires Super Famicom or Modded SNES)
Sega 32X - After Burner
Sega 32X - Doom
Sega 32X - Kolibri
Sega 32X - Metal Head
Sega 32X - Shadow Squadron
Sega 32X - Space Harrier
Sega 32X - Virtua Fighter
Sega 32X - Virtua Racing Deluxe
Sega Game Gear - Taz-Mania
Sega Game Gear - Winter Olympic Games
Sega Genesis - Ecco the Dolphin
Sega Genesis - Golden Axe II
Sega Genesis - LHX Attack Chopper
Sega Genesis - NFL Quarterback Club 98
Sega Genesis - Soldiers of Fortune
Sega Saturn - Daytona USA
Sega Saturn - Soviet Strike
Sony PlayStation - Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Sony PlayStation - Ridge Racer Revolution
Sony PlayStation - Spyro the Dragon: Collectors Edition
Sony PlayStation - Toy Story 2
Sony PlayStation - Warhawk
Sony PlayStation 2 - Final Fantasy X-2
Sony PlayStation 2 - Half-Life
Sony PlayStation 2 - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Sony PlayStation 2 - Onimusha
Sony PlayStation 2 - Viewtiful Joe 2
Sony PlayStation 2 - Virtual-On Marz
Sony PlayStation 3 - 3D Dot Game Heroes
Sony PSP - Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

I'm going to try and tackle 3-4 games each during my 60-minute lunch break. Sometimes it's sure to be less, especially once I start getting into the newer generation games that have lengthy cutscenes and intro levels/tutorials.

I invite you along on my journey, even though I'm pretty sure hardly anyone will actually read this.