Homebreviews - part 3
Entry posted by Nathan Strum
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Only "three" reviews this time - but that last one is a doozy!
Ultra SCSIcide
4/5
Okay, it's time to dust off the paddles and spray a little contact cleaner in there. Fast-paced doesn't even begin to describe Ultra SCSIcide once it gets going. The game takes place in a hard drive, and it's your job to catch (or "read") colored data bits in the correct order as they go speeding by. Read the wrong ones or wait too long to read the right ones, and the hard drive will crash! It's pretty easy for the first few levels, but the bits begin speeding by so fast they essentially just turn into colored blurs. The game requires fast reflexes, and good concentration. Joe Grand did a nice job of keeping the colors different enough so you can tell which is which (even on my old TV), but you still have to pay close attention, since the faster the game goes, the harder it becomes to tell one lightning fast blur from another. Joystick support is also available, which works surprisingly well given the speed of the game, but paddles are the way to go here. One downside of the game is that the score is shown in hexadecimal. While cool in a geeky sort-of way, it really doesn't do much for those of us who aren't used to it. An option to just use numbers would have been welcomed. Also in keeping with the theme, Ultra SCSIcide comes in an anti-static bag, which is a very cool idea.
Solar Plexus
2/5
In Solar Plexus, you dodge a rapidly moving sun, while trying to collect fuel pods as they appear, one at a time. And that's pretty much it. The sun bounces around the screen faster and faster, and usually kills you by the time you've picked up your fifth pod. The graphics are okay, the sound effects are minimal, but gameplay is the real shortcoming. Solar Plexus feels like it's only half-complete. There's just not enough here to hold your attention very long. It's a nice effort, but after a play or two, you'll have experienced everything this game has to offer.
2005 MiniGame MultiCart
5/5
This cartridge is packed with entries from the 2005 Minigame Competition. Most are a mere 1k in size, but a lot of gameplay gets packed into those bits. The cartridge features a nice menu that you can select any of the seven games from, and also features on-screen instructions for every game. There's bound to be something for everyone in this cartridge, so here's the rundown:
Marble Jumper - 24 puzzles to solve, where the object is to end up with one marble in the center square. Fans of puzzle games will keep busy for quite awhile trying to work out all of the solutions. The graphics work perfectly fine for the game, although the sound consists solely of a little congratulatory music when you successfully solve a puzzle. Some in-game sounds or some music when you lost a puzzle would have been nice, too.
Hunchy - Based on the little-known arcade game, Hunchy features 16 screens to work your way through. It takes a lot of practice and precise timing to get through them, but you have unlimited lives to do so. A score would have been nice, or at least a level indicator. Controls are generally good, although jumping onto the swinging rope is a bit questionable. Still, Hunchy has a lot of game packed into a little space, and is surprisingly faithful to the original.
Jetman - You fly a jetpack around picking up fuel for a rocket, while dodging lasers. Jetman is the very definition of what a mini-game should be: simple, addictive, challenging, and fun. The only things lacking are a score, and better gravity simulation.
Nightrider - Maybe I'm just too impatient for Nightrider, but I have a hard time getting into this game. Bumping into a wall kills you. Bumping into a platform kills you. And there's a helicopter trying to kill you, too. I would have preferred a little more forgiveness when bumping into things, because otherwise the game is just start, crash, restart, crash, restart, crash, and so on. Plus, you always have to start back at the beginning - not where you crashed. Nice graphics though, and this game does have scoring.
Zirconium - A death-from-above shoot-'em-up, that manages to pack two screens into 1k. The first screen just rains a minefield down on your ship, and you have to fire constantly (and accurately) to clear a path through it. Meanwhile, you have to keep on the lookout for powerups to keep your shield energized. The second screen features a huge mothership that you have to blast away at before it reaches the bottom of the screen. Get past it, and it's back to the minefield, but with more mines, and the mothership grows larger and faster with each level, too. Zirconium is a blast, and would have made a good cartridge in its own right.
Rocket Command - Now here's a twist on the traditional space game. Instead of one of you vs. an army of them, you have an entire battalion of rockets at your disposal, and you try to shoot the aliens as they fly by one at a time. But it's not as easy as it sounds, since they fly by at different distances and ever-increasing rates. You can't just sit idly by and wait to pick them off either, since every one that goes by deducts points from your score. If you don't score enough per round - it's game over. Nice graphics, and the perfect mini-game for when you need that quick gaming fix.
M-4 - The only 4k game in the group, M-4 is worth the price of this cartridge by itself. An excellent port of the vintage arcade game, M-4 pits you against another tank (computer or human-controlled), where the object is to blast through his defenses and take him out. The player with the most points when time runs out is the winner, so this is a contest against time, as well as your opponent. M-4 has very good AI if you're playing alone, and will regularly beat you if you aren't quick on the trigger. Of course, head-to-head is the way this game is just screaming to be played. After all, what's more fun than blowing up your friends? With 72 game variations to choose from, including scrolling walls and invisible tanks, this game will see a lot of playing time in your 2600. A nice addition is the option to play a black and white "arcade" version of the game.
Just three more reviews to go, including the best homebrew game I've ever played, the most disappointing one, and one game that isn't even a homebrew at all!
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