Platform Game Review: Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers was a platform game by Capcom. The Japanese video game developer proved that they could make an excellent game based on a Disney Afternoon series and they continued to prove that with the release of this game.

The plot sees the villainous Fat Cat kidnap Gadget so that she has to work for him. Up to two players, with Chip as player one and Dale as player two, take off to rescue her. They travel along a rodent-sized world picking up blocks and crates half their size and shooting them at enemies that they encounter.

They can also duck to hide inside of the crates to keep themselves unseen by enemies until they can get a chance to attack them from behind or merely avoid them altogether. Along the way, they will find hazards other than enemies such as electric surges from powerlines.

The chipmunks will sometimes get help from the other Rescue Rangers. Monterey Jack will break down some barricades, enabling the duo to get to places they otherwise couldn't. Finding and interacting with Zipper will grant temporary invincibility. Even Gadget, despite being held captive, will provide advice at the beginning of each area.

Capcom's Disney games always looked amazing, and this game is not an exception. The art staff was once again given art assets by the Disney animators so that the character sprites of both the heroes and the villains remained true to the series. As with DuckTales before it, this allowed the animations to be very expressive.

The music and sound effects are also up to the level of Capcom's other Disney output. The sound effects provided as memorable sounds as were possible with the NES audio hardware, while the music was fantastic. The Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers theme was faithfully translated to the trademark boops and beeps of the classic Nintendo 8-bit hardware, and each piece of stage music matched with the action well.

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers was another Disney hit by Capcom, and it was well deserved. The level design, music, and sound effects were excellent. The sprite work, as supervised by actual Disney animators, was absolutely fantastic. The animations are very expressive, and stand up with the best of Capcom's output for the Nintendo Entertainment System. If you are a fan of Disney, platformers, either, or both, you should try this game.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Limited Run Games Announces Marvel Maximum Collection

Limited Run Games has announced their newest Carbon Engine release, the Marvel Maximum Collection. It will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Windows.

It contains seven classic games that were licensed Marvel games for arcade, 8-bit handheld and home consoles, and 16-bit home consoles.

The biggest of these is Konami's X-Men arcade game. Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge for Game Boy, Game Gear, Genesis, and SNES, Captain America and the Avengers for arcade and Genesis, Captain America and the Avengers for NES, Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage for Genesis and SNES, Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety for Genesis and SNES, and Silver Surfer for NES are icing on the cake.

There is no release date set yet for the Marvel Maximum Collection. It's still only early 2026, so chances are that it will be released later this year.

The only game that I wish they had on there that hasn't received a current-gen port through emulation is the 32X game The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire. Maybe that will be released in DLC. Here's hoping.

Platform Game Review: DuckTales 2

DuckTales 2 was the sequel to the phenomenal DuckTales by Capcom. Because it was released late in the lifespan of the Nintendo Entertainment System, it didn't sell as well as the first game and is lesser known as a result. This is a shame because DuckTales adds in features that were not in the original.

The story is standard Disney duck universe fare. Huey finds a piece of a treasure map drawn by Scrooge's father Fergus McDuck. 'The pieces of the map are scattered all around the world, so Scrooge goes to each spot to find them. Scrooge's archenemy Flint Glomgold is searching for the treasure as well.

The memorable sound effects returned, and the music was of the same high quality as well. There's no moon level song with soaring motifs, but the music that is here certainly meets the standard of the other songs in the previous DuckTales game. There is also a map now for level selection, and the map screen music is quite enjoyable all on its own.

The levels are just as well laid out as in the previous game. Scrooge still has his usual skills. He can jump normally or jump higher with his cane. His cane can also allow him to jump on some surfaces that would normally hurt him. Scrooge can use his cane to whack items like treasure chests, but now he can swing while jumping. 

DuckTales 2 also adds in a new use for his trusty cane. It can be used to hook onto objects that Scrooge can hang on or to pull levers and objects. This gives the game more creative ways to conceal areas, put ledges out of reach of normal jumps, and hide treasure. The new hook abilities makes them more challenging, but not overly so. The hanging hook parts are a lot like Darkwing Duck, and they work as well in this game as they did in that one.

DuckTales 2 is a lesser-known sequel that suffered its fate due to its late release in the lifespan of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It certainly didn't deserve to be underplayed. It's new jump swing and hoop grab and hanging abilities with Scrooge's cane adds a lot to the formula. It's level design, music, and sound effects are just as engaging as the first game. If you enjoyed Capcom's DuckTales, you owe it to yourself to try DuckTales 2.

Final Verdict: 

4½ out of 5

Fighting Game Review: Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters

Mega-Man 2: The Power Fighters was a two-dimensional one-on-one arcade fighting game that was released in 1996, one year after its predecessor Mega-Man: The Power Battle.

Whereas The Power Battle was one of the last four games released for the first Capcom Power System arcade board, or CPS-1, The Power Fighters was released for its successor, the CPS-2. The primary purpose of the CPS-2 was to add encryption to the games that ran on the system board to prevent piracy. The graphics and sound were essentially the same, as The Power Battle also employed the three-dimensional sound processing algorithm known as QSound.

That's not a bad thing however, as The Power Battle already stood toe-to-toe with the graphics seen on the Mega Man games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The cartoon-style is really beautiful. It remains a treat to see the blue bomber in all of his fighting glory. The mundane punching and futuristic sound effects return here. The music also remains a fantastic blend of Mega Man and Street Fighter II, making great use of the QSound technology. 

The real draw to this game compared to its successor is the addition of a fourth character. Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass return, but this time they are joined by Duo, a robot that made its debut in the then-upcoming Mega Man 8. The shooting and the capturing and firing of boss weapons also return. New moves make their premiere here in the form of unique special moves for each character which can be activated by holding the direction of the joystick up and releasing a full buster attack.

Assist characters also make their debut here, appearing when the enemy health is halved or after using a credit to continue. Mega Man has the assistance of Rush, and Bass fittingly has Treble. Proto Man and Duo both gain the assistance of Beat. These assist characters will use their blasters against the enemy, but the drawback is that special moves can not be used while they are active.

Like its predecessor, there are three stories in the game. The first involves fighting through robots to find Dr. Wily. The second has the heroes battling to rescue Mega Man's sister Roll. The third involves finding robot parts that were stolen by Dr. Wily.

As before, each story contains six robots and a penultimate boss. The first story pits the heroes against Bubble Man, Heat Man, Shadow Man, Gyro Man, Centaur Man, and Plant Man with the boss being the Mad Grinder from Mega Man 7. The second story has the abominable Yellow devil as the penultimate boss after the heroic robots defeat Cut Man, Elec Man, Dive Man, Stone Man, Slash Man, and Shade Man. The final story contains Guts Man, Air Man, Quick Man, Gemini Man, Pharaoh Man, and Napalm Man. The boss for this story is the Mecha Dragon from Mega Man 2.

Like the game that came before it, Dr. Wily is the final boss. He must be defeated in one of his robotic inventions, as always. The Wily Machine returns. It once again must be defeated in multiple parts before finally revealing Dr. Wily floating around the room in a Wily Capsule. Defeating the evil doctor reveals the ending, which is different for every character.

Mega Man: The Power Fighters is a fantastic follow-up to the unique Power Battles. It is still a lot of fun to play the robot battles from various games in the Mega Man series as a one-on-one fighter.  The artwork, sound effects, and music are just as excellent as its predecessor. The biggest draws of this game are the new-to-the-subseries character Duo, the unique special moves, and the assist characters. Those alone make this one as much worthy of play by both Mega Man and fighting game fans.

Final Verdict: 

4½ out of 5

Arcade Beat 'Em Up Review: Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-Kun

Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-Kun, later localized as Renegade in the West, is an arcade beat 'em up by Technōs Japan. It was the game that started the series that known as Kunio-kun in Japan and primarily known as River City in the West.

The story of the game is simple. Kunio-kun is a new student at Nekketsu High School. The name of the school is a reference to the attitude of Kunio himself, as it translates to passionate, courageous, or hot-blooded. There is a student there who is always bullied named Hiroshi, whom Kunio befriends as he can't stand bullies. When Hiroshi is kidnapped, Kunio goes off to rescue his friend.

Kunio fights various stereotypical Japanese gangs as he progresses in his quest to save his friend. He has to clear six areas of gang members and fight a boss before he can move on. The first area is at the train station at Shinjuku. He fights members of a rival high school, Hanazono, which literally translates into English as flower garden. The boss fight there is Kunio's rival Riki. The second area is at the seaport in Yokohama. He fights against members of the Yokohama Funky bōsōzoku gang, which is a youth culture in Japan that is into customized motorcycles. The boss fight here is against the gang's leader Shinji. The third area is a dark alley near a disco store. Here, Kunio fights girls from Taiyō Academy. The final fight here is against the Misuzu, the sukeban, or boss girl. The final area is at a car dealership that is a front for the Yakuza crime organization known as the Sanwakai, or Sanwa gang. Riki is freed after Sanwakai's leader, Sabu, is defeated.

The original arcade game didn't quite have the cute super deformed style characters that the Kunio-Kun games would become known for once they were brought to the Family Computer. The sprites have more colors and are taller than their 8-bit console counterparts, but they did share a lot of the style in terms of the anime-inspired sprites and exaggerated facial expressions.

What it did have in common with the rest of the Kunio-kun brawling games and its spiritual successor, the Double Dragon series, was its fantastic beat 'em up gameplay. Kunio has the ability to jump and to perform a multitude of moves using only two action buttons and the right and left direction on the joystick. There are actually a whole range of actions he can make with such a small amount of buttons, a running hook, a jump kick, a collar grab, a knee bash, and a shoulder throw. He can also perform a beat down on enemies and defend himself when grabbed. The limited amount of buttons actually made this a perfect game to port to the Famicom, which is where the Kunio-kun series really flourished.

The music in this game is fast-paced which fits the action perfectly. There are sound effects for things such as hitting and kicking. There are a few compressed voice clips here, including a female Japanese announcer at the game's start as well as sounds of exertion from Kunio and screams from the enemy fighters. It's all a fantastic mix of audio, especially at the time of its release in 1986.

Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-Kun is notable as being the premiere of the Kunio-kun series, which is still going strong today. Beyond that, it remains enjoyable despite its sharp difficulty, which was common in arcade games of the time. The modern re-releases that use emulation are a great help here, as this type of gameplay isn't as popular as it was then and the ability to save a state and replay it makes it a lot more palatable. Later games, such as Double Dragon and Kunio-kun's own River City Ransom take the formula and improve upon it in big ways, but it is still interesting to see where everything began.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Platform Game Review: Commander Keen - Invasion of the Vorticons: The Earth Explodes

The Earth Explodes is chapter two of Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons, a three-episode platform game developed by iD Software and published by Apogee Software.

Commander Keen flies his Bean-with-Bacon mega-rocket home from Mars, only to discover that the Vorticons have a cannon aimed at Earth. Commander Keen must go to the Vorticon mothership to stop the destruction of his planet. 

Episode two continues Commander Keen’s fight with the Vorticons, as he explores the caves of the Vorticon planet, does battle with the top Vorticon ninja fighters, and discover the secret of the Grand Intellect.

Compared to the first episode, this one does have a steep difficulty curve. The levels are harder both in terms of enemies as well as in terms of level design. When I played this game as a little girl I got stuck near the end because I couldn't traverse one of the later levels. Even as an adult, I had to check YouTube for the way to the exit. There's only one level that is truly that dastardly, but it does bring the quality of the game down a bit as it's never fun to fight against the design of the game.

Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons is the second episode of a trilogy, but sadly it is not as well designed as the first. It has a steep difficulty curve, and one level in particular is difficult to get through without an external guide. As this is part of a trilogy of games based on the same engine, the lack of music is one of the real drawbacks in this game. Like the first episode, however, this is solved by using the excellent fan-produced music pack in the modern interpreter of the game, Commander Genius.

It pains me to say it, as I love the Commander Keen series, but this episode is just not worth playing unless you want to play through the entire trilogy. The other two episodes are better than this one, so it's worth picking up the trilogy bundle, but I would recommend giving this one a pass.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

Arcade Fighting Game Review: Mega Man - The Power Battle

Mega Man: The Power Battles is a very unique arcade game. Mega Man is a platforming game icon. The mid-1990s brought him to other video game genres including board games, soccer, and racing. 1995 brought him into a genre that Capcom had mastered at that point, two-dimensional one-on-one arcade fighters.

Mega Man's boss battles are essentially one-on-one fighters themselves. So, Capcom stripped away the platform game aspects of Mega Man's most popular games and left just the battles. There are three fighters to choose from, each with their own bosses and storyline. There are three stories each with six boss battles. The first story has enemies are taken from his Mega Man's first two games. The next story takes bosses from Mega Man 3, the first appearance of Mega Man's brother Proto Man, as well as 5 and 6. The third story has bosses from Mega Man 7, which was the game that saw the premiere of Bass.

The gimmick of the Mega Man series thankfully returns here. When a robot boss is defeated, the current playable character earns it. That weapon can then be used on other robot bosses with the press of a button.

Once the six robot bosses are defeated, a penultimate boss appears. Mega Man and Proto Man both face the Yellow Devil from Mega Man's first outing as a hero, while Bass faces VAN Pookin, a boss that appeared in his first appearance in the series. As is usual with Mega Man games, the final boss for all three characters is Dr. Wily, who appears in a killer robot that he invented. This time around it is a giant floating Wily Machine which must be defeated in three different forms.

The artwork is spectacular, bringing the Mega Man to life in all of his 16-bit glory. It looks very much like Mega Man's Super NES outings, which is a good thing indeed. The SNES games contain some of the best sprite and background work in the entire series The soundtrack is spectacular, taking full advantage of Capcom's venerable CP System, or CPS-1, board. The music is just the right mix of Mega Man and Street Fighter II, and using the board that powered the latter was a stroke of genius. The board was discontinued in 1995, the year that Mega Man: The Power Battles was released. It was long in the tooth but still contained enough bite to bring the blue bomber to arcades a game that was one of four final games for the CPS-1, and was a great capper to that system's legacy.

Mega Man: The Power Battles is an arcade game that takes one of the best aspects of the Mega Man games, the boss battles, and presents them in the form of a one-on-one fighter. The venerable CPS-1 arcade board is utilized fantastically here. The artwork, gameplay, and music are all fantastic. The fact that all of the nuances are here, including the capture and use of boss weapons, makes this an arcade game that will certainly entertain fans of the Mega Man series and fighting game fans alike.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5