In an era that was enamored with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tradewest’s Battletoads turned out to be a game with perfect timing.
This is an amazing find, Battletoads for the Nintendo Entertainment System, factory sealed on eBay:
Easily one of the best examples of how to rip-off a more popular license only to exceed the original inspiration in terms of quality, Battletoads is still considered by many to be one of the best side-scrolling beat ‘em up actioners of all time.
As not only were the graphics amazing and the challenges high, but the game had plenty of personality too.
Though it spawned a Game Boy port and three sequels for the NES and SNES systems, none of them ever approached mindless perfection as closely as this Rare-developed original.
If you want to shell (no pun intended) out $199.99 USD, you can own this beauty if you want to use the buy it now feature on the eBay auction.
It’s a little… well ok, REALLY pricey for me, so I’ll just stick to enjoying my unboxed version which is in mint condition:
All I need now is to track down an instruction manual for my copy and I’ll be happy.
And now to go play a quick game of Battletoads before calling it a night.
The NES edition of 1942 was pretty lame, but this sophisticated sequel improves upon its predecessor in every way.
Before each mission you’re allotted a certain number of points to configure your plane based on offensive power, defensive power, energy level, and special weapons.
1943’s graphics are noticeably improved, with clouds in the sky and a better variety of enemies on land and sea.
Several effective power-ups are also available, including a devastating five-way shot.
In addition to your normal cannon, you can fire an extra powerful shot, or unleash a “smart bomb” that obliterates every enemy on the screen.
The “evasive maneuver” is performed by pressing both buttons simultaneously.
Unlike 1942, taking a hit won’t instantly destroy you - it just drains your energy. Upon meeting your demise, a password is provided, along with an option to continue.
Do you remember that incessant beeping of 1942… doot doot beep beep. Gah! It makes me want to break the cartridge into pieces.
But there is hope because 1943 features some nice upbeat music without all that freaking beeping… and there was much rejoicing… yay!
A satisfying shooter with surprising depth, the game’s only real disappointment is the lack of a two-player mode.
If you own an NES then you should definitely have this game in your collection. You will not be disappointed.
You can usually find it on eBay for less then $8.00 USD or you might get lucky and find it for less at a garage sale or thrift store in your local area.
As mentioned last week, I’m now the owner of a Nintendo Wii and said that I’d be doing reviews on Wii Virtual Console games in comparison to the actual cartridge versions of the games.
Well today I’m reviewing Wave Race 64 on the Wii Virtual Console.
Back on March 5, 2008 I reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of Wave Race 64. The game is awesome, so I wanted to try it out on the Nintendo Wii VC.
The Virtual Console version of Wave Race 64 is pretty much exactly the same as the N64 version.
The visuals and game play are perfect, so I won’t be going into a full review again, however I did notice a few things different from the N64 version compared to the Wii version.
Apparently Nintendo did some small modifications to anything relating to Kawasaki. All the in-game Kawasaki banners have been removed and replaced with banners showing Wii and Nintendo DS advertisements instead.
I also noticed that the Jet Skis themselves have also been slightly modified and bear no Kawasaki logos. I’m thinking this was most likely done because of an expired licensing deal.
The funny thing is back in January of this year Kawasaki Jetski was released for the Wii, so it seems Nintendo is back into some sort of licensing deal with Kawasaki.
My personal thoughts on this is Nintendo should put the Kawasaki logos and banners back now and make it 100% like the original N64 version.
I’m sure Kawasaki wouldn’t mind getting a little more advertising love.
I wonder how many other games Nintendo will be doing this with as more Virtual Console games come out? Any thoughts?
Hey Nintendo fans, check out this amazing video I found while surfing around on YouTube:
Apparently this melody was put together for a Senior Cello Recital at James Madison University back in March 2006. I love how classical this medley sounds.
First Person Shooters. You gotta love them, but have you ever wondered where it all started? Wolfenstein 3D.
This great PC game was the biggest thing to hit the video game market in the early 1990s.
Most older, retro and classic gamers will remember back to the days when Wolfenstein 3D was king.
The only question that remains is whether an old computer game makes a good Gameboy Advanced game?
I’m hear to tell you that Wolfenstein 3D for the GBA is awesome and totally rad. How’s that for a classic reaction?
Listening to the sounds of Wolfenstein 3D you might think you were back playing on your old 486 computer with your shareware version.
The sound is an exact recreation from the original. From the bark of the German Shepards to the “Halt Stop!” of the guards every detail of sound is recreated perfectly.
As for how the game plays, it’s exactly like the original. You’ll go around killing various types of Nazis while collecting ammo, treasure, and keys to make it to the next floor and do it again.
No matter how great the port is of the game, no matter how well they stick to the original, there is one question that will have to be answered for this to work.
The Recycled Gaming website is about the classics… basically video games and console systems that came out around the early 1980’s to the late 1990’s for the most part.
However, my gaming roots go back much further. As of this post, I’m 36 years old and started gaming at a very early age. My first system was the Atari 2600.
Anyway, this evening I was poking around YouTube and came across this 2 minute and 26 second video that covers video games from early 1972 to late 2007.
As you can see from watching this video, there is a ton of classic video game history covered. Systems like the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis and plenty more.
Even PC gaming is covered. Most would freak out about that but games like Wolfenstein 3D, King’s Quest, Quake and Battle Chess are the roots behind games like GoldenEye 007, Super Smash Brothers and the entire Mario franchise.
I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did. I love the classics and if you’re reading this, I’m sure you do too. Thanks for stopping by and please come back soon.
