The Unplayed 66 – Day Two

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.