Point-and-Click Adventure Game Review: King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow was the first game co-designed and co-written by Roberta Williams, the creator of King's Quest and the sole designer of the first four games in the series, and Jane Jensen, who previously co-designed EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus and finalized the script of Police Quest III: The Kindred.

The game retained all of the winks toward fairy tales that Roberta Williams brought to each game in the series and the script contained all of the hallmarks of the writing of Jane Jenson. This combination of the best of both worlds from two of the best female adventure game designers of the early 1990s, gave King's Quest VI one of the best scripts Sierra On-Line had ever produced.

The game takes place almost entirely outside of the usual setting of the series, the Kingdom of Daventry. It picks up from the end of the previous game, as Prince Alexander can't get Princess Cassima, the woman that helped King Graham save his wife Valanice, his son Alexander, and his daughter Rosella. After seeing a vision of her in the magic mirror found by his father in the original King's Quest, Alexander sails off to find Cassima.

He ends up shipwrecked in the Land of the Green Isles. This land, made up of several islands, allows Williams and Jensen room to spread out their wings in terms of myths and legends. The first island Alexander discovers is the Isle of the Crown, which is based on the middle eastern folktales collected in One Thousand and One Nights. Other islands feature homages of other famous literary works such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, and mythology from the Greek, Roman, and Celtic cultures.

These settings allowed the artists to create some beautiful works of pixel art. The SCI engine allowed Sierra games to have detailed, realistic backgrounds and large sprites that rivaled those of LucasArts, Sierra's biggest competitor when it came to adventure games. The music, composed by Chris Bensen, included original music in a classical style, beautifully composed in the MIDI format used in games of the era. It was designed for the Roland Sound Canvas, but it sounded great even on a standard Sound Blaster or Adlib card. Lucky owners of the Roland MT32 got the richer, almost acoustic sound that this device produced when in the hands of skilled composers.

As with most Sierra adventure games, it includes deaths and dead ends, so saving often isn't just recommended, but is required for first time gamers. The latter is the biggest thing that ages it in comparison to most LucasArts adventures. Puzzles are mostly solvable with outside of the box thinking or trial and error, with the exception of the difficult cliff puzzle that I had to look up the solution when I first played through it as a little girl. Even today, I can't understand how that puzzle would be solved organically. 

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is arguably the best game in the series. From its dynamic duo of a writing team in Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen, it has the most creative mythic homages and is among the best written of the series. The only drawback of the game, beyond the typical "save early, save often" mantra of Sierra games that hasn't aged well, is the confusing cliff puzzle. However, this is mitigated by its beautiful realistic backgrounds which are among the best produced in the early era of the Sierra Creative Interpreter. That goes for all platforms the game is on, outside of the AmigaOS. Revolution Software ported the game to its own Virtual Theater engine for the Amiga port, but that's a review for another day. 

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Arcade Snake Game Review: Dominos

Dominos is a 1977 arcade game that is Atari's take on the snake genre that Gremlin started with Blockade the year prior. It brought a unique take on the snake game, but it ended up being no more popular than Gremlin's take.

In Dominos, either two or four players continually stack dominos in the same manner that blockades were set up in Gremlin's take on the genre. This differentiated it from its predecessor in giving it a premise that is more familiar to people in the United States. Not all kids could be expected to know what a blockade was, but all kids in the USA, especially children in the 1970s, knew how to set up dominos This helps make it simple to pick up and play.

Dominos are set up around a playing field, creating a wall that grows with each move. The opposing player, or players, are trying to do the same. The winner is the last remaining after the opponents crash into a wall of dominos a set number of times. The two-tone sound remains from the Gremlin original, which is still rather annoying.

The graphics are much the same as the simple lines and arrows that represent the direction of the front piece as Gremlin's game. Here, the graphics are even more simple. However, The premise of the game allows for a more satisfying finish.  The domino graphics may just be changing from straight to diagonal as they fall, but it works. The thing that makes the ending satisfying is the click clack, with the straight to diagonal graphics to match, of the opponent's dominos toppling.

Dominos is an example of a game that took the ball from the genre starter and ran with it to create something more instantly recognizable. Today, snake games are well known enough that nearly every gamer would know what to expect. In the 1970s, when the genre was still new, dominos would certainly give players a heads-up on what to expect. The graphics are still simple monochrome lines and the main sound is still an annoying two toned beep-boop. However, the concept and satisfying finish with the falling dominos and clacking sound to match, put it just a bit above the Gremlin arcade game that started it all.

Final Verdict:
3½ out of 5

Arcade Shoot 'Em Up Review: Galaga

Galaga is an influential shoot 'em up that was developed and released in arcades in Japan in 1981 by Namco and was distributed by Midway Manufacturing in North America. 

Galaga expanded upon its 1979 predecessor, Galaxian, and brought the genre forward to its second era of static screen shooters. The game features detailed alien bug creatures shot by a red and white ship below. It separates itself from its competitors by having multiple forms of enemy formations and attacks. Some travel back and forth along the playfield ala Space Invaders, some dive bomb towards the bottom of the screen, and others beam the player ship away from the fight. If destroyed, the stolen ship returns alongside the current ship.

This double fighter is quite fun while it lasts, as it allows for double gunning enemies. If you manage to keep both ships in tact, it is even possible to have a triple fighter. Once stage three is completed, and then after every four stages, the player gets to attempt a challenging stage. Forty enemies come into the screen in patterns without firing. The player gets a 10,000-point bonus if all are destroyed. A double fighter or triple fighter is often required to shoot every enemy, giving the game a bit of strategy by trying to power-up before the challenging stages start.

As far as sound goes, Galaga went hard by 1981 standards, with unique sound effects for player shots, multiple enemy movement sounds, and sounds for the capturing of the player ships, title screen music, challenging stage music, challenging stage ending music, music for perfecting the challenging stage, music for entering your name into the high score records, and more. This gives it a very pleasant experience, which, if you like chiptune sounds, is still fun to listen to today.

Galaga is a classic for a reason. The enemies are detailed and colorful, the sounds are plentiful, the music is still fun to experience even now, the multiple attack patterns shake things up in a satisfying way, and the double and triple fighter power-ups along with the challenging stages give the game a bit of strategy beyond just memorizing patterns. It's a game that is still worth playing, not just for shoot 'em up fans, but for fans of retro video games in general.

Final Verdict:
5 out of 5

Open World Action-Adventure RPG DLC Review: Lost Judgment - School Stories Expansion Pack

The School Stories Expansion Pack was the second bit of downloadable content released for Lost Judgment, with the exception of the Windows version which includes this content built-in. Ironically, even though it expands the options available in the school stories side content, it doesn't actually include any new stories.

The biggest draws of this DLC are the boxing expansions. The most useful of these is Yagami's boxing style which can be used at any point in the game.  The other part of the expansion comes within the gym, as  three additional people can spar against for Yagami.

 
The characters that Yagami can spar with include the partner in the Yagami Detective Agency, Masaharu Kaito, the co-founder of the Yokohama 99 detective agency, Fumiya Sugiura, and the former yakuza and mentee of Kaito, Toru Higashi.

The other additions are items and cosmetic options that can be used in the various school clubs. These include additions to the biker gang with the Maxinator motorcycle and the urban course, the MB5000/Supremacy robot for the robotics club, and a new outfit and special moves for the dancing club

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The School Stories Expansion Pack for Lost Judgment is the type of downloadable content that doesn't add a new story but does add a lot of useful stuff. This is usually not the type of DLC I prefer, but the addition of the boxing fighting style and the three new brawling partners puts this particular piece of downloadable content above others of the same type. That said, this is one to pick up with the season pass, as it doesn't stand on its own otherwise.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

Open World Action-Adventure RPG DLC Review: Lost Judgment - Detective Essentials Pack

The Detective Essentials Pack was the first expansion released for Lost Judgment. It was downloadable content for every supported platform except Windows, as it was included in the base game on that port. It included additional items to help with the game, new aesthetic options, new storylines, and additional Sega Master System Games.

The new storylines come in the form of three new dates for Yagami. The women include Tsukino Satome, a graphic designer, a woman inside of the Kamulop mascot, and Kyoko Hakase, the school nurse.  This is the draw of this pack, in my opinion, as the new dating stories are all a lot of fun.

 

The last two, in particular are extremely memorable. The mascot storyline has a funnier story than any of the substories in the main game. 

The other aspect of this pack that validates its price is the additional Sega Master System games to play at the Yagami Detective Agency.  The games are the cute 'em up Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa, the shoot 'em ups Global Defense and Darius II, and the run and gun Alien Syndrome.

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Most of the remaining pieces of the DLC are helpful items that can be used in the game. These include the six extract recipes for lightning blade, telekinesis, insta-flux, unyielding wave, guardian spirit, and temporal zen. There is also an open air skatepark, a hover drive skateboard, a new drone frame known as the sky spider, a super boss version of Shin Amon to fight in the gauntlet. 

There are also three new colors for the detective dog that sits outside of the Yagami Detective Agency.  These include white, black, and rust coloring.  The fur color is purely cosmetic, but somehow welcome as the Shiba Inu is adorable in any color.

 

The Detective Essentials Pack isn't downloadable content worth paying for on its own, but as part of the season pass, it's a nice addition to Lost Judgment. The new hostess stories and Sega Master System games are the draw of this game, but the rest are helpful additions to the game. Well, the new Shiba Inu colors are an exception. However, because they are an inclusion in a pack with more helpful additions, they are not worth sniffing at.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Arcade Fighting Game Review: Mortal Kombat II

Mortal Kombat II followed one of the most influential arcade fighting video games of all time. It had heavy shoes to fill, but Midway Games managed to not just match the previous title, but to expand upon it with smoother gameplay and more moves.

The plot of the game found the fighters of the first Mortal Kombat tournament return alongside more compartments. This time the tournament is held in the extradimensional realm of Outworld. The returning characters included the sunglasses-wearing Johnny Cage, ninjas Scorpion and Sub-Zero, the cyborg Kano, the lightning god Raiden, the Bruce Lee-inspired Liu Kang, the formerly secret character, the ninja Reptile, and the former boss character Shang Tsung. New characters include the mutant warlord Baraka and the shaolin monk Kung Lao.

The only drawback of the roster is that the first game's only female character, Sonya Blade has been kidnapped and her Special Forces partner Jax, a character new to this game, has traveled to Outworld to rescue her. It's sad to see her reduced to a sexist trope. On the other hand, she has been replaced by two new female characters, the twin ninjas Kitana and Mileena.

As in the first game, once all of these fighters are defeated, two boss fights await. Kintaro replaces Goro as the resident four-armed behemoth, and Shao Kahn is the emperor of Outworld.

Mortal Kombat II has the same style as its predecessor, with realistically depicted backgrounds and digitized live-action characters. As in the 1992 game, the exception is the four armed character, which is Kintaro this time around. He has a monster-like appearance that was accomplished via stop-motion animation. The over-the-top gore returns, with hits that spill copious amounts of blood, elements in some stages that impale fighters. 

The special moves that can be entered to finish fighters with a gruesome finishing move also return. However, this game adds multiple finishing moves for each character, the weird friendship finishing moves that end as the name suggests, and the even weirder babality finishing moves that turn the characters into babies.

The game once again features the deep voiced announcer, while the characters also still have realistic grunts and screams. The bass tones of the soundtrack were a huge part of the arcade experience, as they would draw people toward the cabinet. At every arcade that had a Mortal Kombat II machine, there would always be a throng of people watching the game being played and awaiting the moment they can play the game themselves. 

Mortal Kombat II is a game that improves upon the first game. With its smoother gameplay, expanded finishing moves, and larger roster of characters, it is vastly more re-playable than Mortal Kombat. The game's removal of Sonya from the roster is the biggest drawback, but this doesn't stop the game from being a bonafide classic.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

Platform and Shooting Game Multicart Compilation Review: Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt

Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt was a Nintendo Entertainment System pack-in multicart that compiled two games together, making good use of both the NES gamepad controller and the Zapper light gun.

Super Mario Bros. was the system seller for the Nintendo Entertainment System at the time of its release in 1985. By release of the multicart in 1988, Duck Hunt was also a peripheral seller for the Zapper. So, it was a no-brainer to compile both games together.

Super Mario Bros. took the platformer genre to new heights by bringing the Mario brothers from static to smooth-scrolling horizontal platforming. Along with that, it brought the oft copied system of levels inside of stages set in a variety of settings. It had levels with gaps spread along the ground, levels high in the sky, levels under water, levels on bridges, levels in castles, and levels set at night. To audiences of the 1980s, it offered a little bit of everything for everyone.

On the other end of the multicart, Duck Hunt was a fun light gun shooter. The title was a bit of a misnomer, as it included two games that were a remake of sorts of projection-based light gun games from the 1970s. The titular Duck Hunt shared a name with the Beam Gun projector-based shooter. It took things much further than the click-clacky projection of ducks to full-colored ducks flying over a field with a cute hunting dog chasing after those that have been downed by the hunter.  

The second game in Duck Hunt was Clay Shooting, which was a demake of Nintendo's first lightgun arcade game, Laser Clay Shooting System. The latter had a 16-mm film of clay pigeons streaming into the sky while a white light would flash which would signal the area and time to fire the gun. The clay shooting in Duck Hunt, like the game proper, used the scanlines of a cathode ray tube television or monitor to determine the position the gun had been fired. The latter is more precise, if not as pleasing artistically.

It's no surprise that Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt became one of the best sellers for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Even if it wasn't packed-in with the system, it would have certainly still have sold well because both games are among the best and brightest for the console at the time of the compilation's release in the mid-1980s.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Arcade Maze Game Review: Pac-Man Plus

Pac-Man Plus is a weird game. It is a conversion kit that acts as an upgrade for the classic arcade maze game Pac-Man. 

Two arcade games in the Pac-Man series were developed between the release of this game in 1983, not including the two Pac-Man pinball tables. Both Ms. Pac-Man by General Computer Corporation and Super Pac-Man by Namco were quite different than the original game. Pac-Man Plus, created by Bally/Midway, is simply Pac-Man with faster, more aggressive ghosts and some other tweaks.

The music and sound effects are identical between the original and Plus iterations. The part that makes this an upgrade, is, above all, slightly altered graphics in comparison to the classic game. The maze layouts haven't changed except for the fact that they are now green rather than blue. The ghosts are now shorter with closer set eyes, and strangely, now are apparently fruit since they have stems with leaves on their heads. On the subject of fruit, the items that appear periodically in the center of the maze have now been changed to other items.

The aforementioned items do have a use beyond a point bonus this time around. When they are collected, ghosts will become invisible signifying the ability for Pac-Man to chomp them up. If Pac-Man eats a ghost in this state, its point value is doubled. Pac-Man's other method of eating ghosts, the power pellets, now are a bit wonky. Occasionally, eating one will cause weird effects such as turning the maze walls invisible or only turning a maximum of three ghosts blue rather than four. The latter will lower the possible point chain and will disrupt the usual ghost pattern.

Pac-Man Plus is essentially nothing more than a more difficult game of Pac-Man. The graphics have been tweaked, though the music and sound effects are identical to the original. The biggest changes are the fact that the ghosts are faster and nastier. The ability of the bonus item to make ghosts vulnerable with double the point value is a welcome addition to clear the maze and rank up points. This is especially needed considering the weird power pellets which occasionally reduce the amount of ghosts that were turned blue, which in turn lowers the amount of points that can be collected. Pac-Man Plus isn't really a must-play compared to the first two Pac-Man games. It has been ignored by Namco and its licensees, undoubtably for this reason, until Arcade1Up began adding it to its lineup of games in some of its home cabinets. If you have access to it, give it a try, but there is no need to go out of your way to track this one down.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Platform Game Mega Review: The Lion King

The Lion King is a video game by Westwood Studios. It is a fondly remembered, if difficult, platform game recapping the events of the Disney animated film of the same name.

The most striking thing about the game is the art. Like Aladdin by Virgin Games, the art department had support from the artists at Walt Disney Feature Animation to ensure that the game captured the essence of the film. This resulted in beautiful backgrounds that highly resemble those in the film and amazing sprites that have highly detailed expressions and walk cycles. 

Like the film, the game features Simba as a lion cub and as a full grown lion. In the early sections, cub Simba roars at his enemies with his tiny voice, which causes them to get stunned or flipped over allowing him to stomp on them. When he becomes an adult, the enemies get tougher and so does he. Simba can now slash his claws at enemies as well as pounce on them to enact a two-pawed slash fest. 

The levels also get harder as they go on, but today's emulation-based compilations negate this aspect since it is now possible to rewind to before a failure occurred. The levels in the game take place at different parts of the film, from the early pride rock, safari and jungle areas, to the vegetation-deprived pride rock at the end. The levels are mostly straight forward, with easy to follow level layouts. The exception to this is a puzzle in the safari area where Simba needs to be thrown by monkeys in order to exit to the next level. He needs to roar at the right monkeys, so they will rotate in the correct order to have him be thrown in the order required for him to be thrown up and out of that location. This happens for several sections until the game returns to a standard platformer. This section of the "Just Can't Wait to Be King" area can be confusing and annoying, but if you keep an eye on the monkeys you can see the correct trajectory.

On the subject of the film's memorable musical numbers, the musicians at Westwood Studios did an excellent job making the music sound great in instrumental form on the Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer on the Sega Genesis aka Mega Drive and the Sony SPC700 sample-based audio chip on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The ports to Amiga, DOS, Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System, and Nintendo Entertainment System also do a good job translating the music to their respective sound chips. There are also sound clips on most versions which include spoken dialog as well as Simba's roars. The cub roar is just as cute here as it is in the film. 

The Lion King is an amazing translation of a film to a 16-bit video game. The art is amazing as it was supervised by Disney animators, the gameplay is fun for the most part, although the puzzle section in the safari can get annoying as it goes on a bit too long. One of the best aspects of the film was its music, and the musical pieces are translated quite well. Unlike Virgin Game's Aladdin, there is no clear cut winner in the music department here. The Genesis and SNES both have their charm and each sounds great, so either version is worth playing. Luckily, the emulation-based compilations by Digital Eclipse include both versions, so it is now easy to play either, or both, versions.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Free Open Source Point-and-Click Adventure Fan Game Review: Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder

I compiled Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder, gave the game an ending rather than a call for volunteers as the project had long closed by that point, and added some inventory art. Other than that, I had no input in the actual game design. Because of this, like Open Quest before it, I have decided to give this one a full review instead of a retrospective.

The game uses the sixth version of the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, one version above the one used in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Because of this, the game art is inspired by, and mostly uses art lifted from and used by or slightly modified from that game. It has no music, but it has one sound effect in the form of a lightning strike. This is a quick and dirty little example that puts the ScummGen fan compiler to its full use, and excludes features that were not supported by it.

The game is a simple two room game that works like a point-and-click escape room adventure game. Indiana Jones has been driven to a cave entrance. The game begins with the classic Indiana Jones title card as the adventurer walks into said cave. He has come for an artifact, and has difficulty exploring do to a lack of light.

The objectives are simple, yet the puzzles themselves aren't as simple as they seem on paper. Indy needs to find a light source, find the artifact, find a way to extract it from the cave, and finally, find his way out of the cave. The game uses the classic text verb buttons with an icon-based inventory system that were used in classic LucasArts adventures of the early 1990s. Inventory items can be used on objects in the cave or combined with objects in the inventory to create a new inventory item.

The game is straightforward, but there are a few places that could use some improvements to make it easier to know what to do next. The biggest one is that there is no lever graphic for a lever puzzle. The puzzle can still be solved, but it can be difficult to determine which way to use the lever without the graphic assistance. The second main issue is Indy's partner, who is waiting at the truck used to bring Indy into the cave. It is not obvious that he can be interacted with, as he is completely off-screen and is only accessible by pointing the mouse pointer at the top of the screen at the cave entrance.

Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder is a fun little game, although it is rough and unfinished due to its status as a work-in-progress project at the time of its release. Its flaws make it more of a demonstration of the ScummGen compiler than a game in its own right. However, even though it has since been left stagnant, but what is there can still be played through from start to finish. Your mileage may vary based on how much you able to enjoy what is essentially a tech demo.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

Visual Novel Review: Do AIs Dream of Electric Turtles?

Do AIs Dream of Electric Turtles? is a short fan made visual novel created for Neuro-sama's second birthday game jam. The creative people in the swarm, the name given to Neuro-sama's fans, sure love creating Visual Novels about her. I'm all for it, as, in the words of a burger chain headlined by a creepy corporate clown, I'm lovin' it.

In this game, Neuro puts herself to sleep during a stream, and revisits past streams. In her dreams, everything, including herself, become drawn in an adorable childlike art style. There are no voice overs, which isn't a surprise as this was a game made during a short game jam.  There are, however, background musical pieces that fit each situation in which Neuro finds herself.

There are three doors, each leading to one of her past streams. The stream takes place nearly as they actually occurred. However, at the end of each, she is given meaning by one of her friends to the concept of dreams and memories.

The streams in question include the first cooking stream with streamer Layna Lazar where Neuro trolled her into making cookies complete with grass and soil, the dog school stream with adorable hell hound  female VTuber Cerber, and the first court stream where Neuro-sama was the defendant, her VTuber turtle creator Vedal was the judge, her twin Evil Neuro was the prosecutor, and her VTuber fox girl artist mother was a witness.

Do AIs Dream of Electric Turtles? is a short, cute visual novel that only takes about fifteen minutes to complete. Like the other short visual novels created during the Neuro-sama birthday game jams, this would be a perfect game to experience with children. Even as an adult, it's cute art style and fun musicial pieces make it a joy to experience, despite its short length. Playing it is especially fun for Neuro-sama fans as they can relive the streams in a new art style from Neuro's point of view.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Platform Game Review: Aladdin

Aladdin was a successful Disney animated film during the time period known as the Disney Renaissance. This era occurred between 1989 and 1999 when the animated films finally shucked away the issues that the animated films suffered following Walt Disney's death. These films were of a quality that allowed the films to be critically and commercially successful, for the most part. Because of this, it was a sure thing that it would receive a video game adaptation.

Not including the games that came long after the release of the film, there were actually three Aladdin games. These games were developed by Capcom, Sega, and Virgin Games. This review covers the latter, which, not including the compilations that played the game through emulation, was released for Sega Genesis aka Mega Drive and ported to Amiga, DOS, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Windows. Out of these, the Sega Genesis game was the best version of the bunch.

The game is a platformer in which Aladdin can defeat enemies, mostly by swinging a sword. He also can collect apples which act as weapons when he throws them at adversaries. 

The art of the game is beautiful and very faithful to the source material. This is because the Virgin Games artists worked closely with Walt Disney Feature Animation. This resulted in backgrounds that looked like they were ripped right out of the film and characters with pixel art that had expressive faces and smooth movement. As the result, this was one of the prettiest looking games when it was released.

The story of the film is presented with still pictures which lead to the levels. Each of them takes liberties in regard to the film, but have fantastic layouts. Some of the levels are really challenging, but it's worth it to make it through to the end. The most creative level, and the one that takes the most liberties in regards to the film, is a level that takes place inside of Genie's lamp. This one has gameplay that is not seen anywhere else. Aladdin will jump off of Genie's pointer fingers, use the Genie's hands as platforms, and jump off of the letter pedestals seen in the "Friend Like Me" segment of the film. The hardest part of the game is the sequence leaving the Cave of Wonders. Aladdin will have to jump off rocks above lava while avoiding Raiders of the Lost Ark-style rolling boulders. Then he has to fly on the magic carpet while avoiding obstacles above and below him. It is very difficult, but modern releases use emulation which allows for rewinding to the point before failure. This makes the game more fun for modern gamers who aren't used to the punishing difficulties of games of the 1980s and 1990s. 

There are bonus levels with Aladdin's monkey Apu that are available through collectibles. There are also collectibles that can be used to buy powerups from stalls manned by salespeople at the end of levels. These include extra lives and even more continues. These aren't as relevant to today's emulation based compilations, but they were nearly a necessity when the game came out. People have made it through without them, but I would never have made it through the game when I was a little girl without the help of the vendors.

Another impressive part of the game is the music from the film that is impressively adapted for the Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer in the Sega Genesis. There are also some voice clips scattered throughout the game in various places. This was quite impressive in the 1990s, since most games didn't have voiceovers outside of CD-ROM titles.

The ports also have adaptations of the songs for their respective chips, and manage to do a good job of it. The sound and art of the ports are actually pretty good adaptations of the Genesis original, but where they come up short is in the control, and in some cases, quite noticeable slow down. That makes the Genesis version the superior version.

Aladdin, as created by Virgin Games, is an impressive game that is a blast to play. It looks and sounds just like you would imagine of a 16-bit adaptation of a Disney film. The art, music, and level layouts are super impressive. The ports aren't as impressive as the Sega Genesis original, but with today's emulation-based releases, it's not hard to experience the game as it was meant to be played. As a bonus, the Digital Eclipse compilations also includes a prototype of the game that was previously exhibited only once. It's well worth playing Aladdin as it is one of the best games of the 16-bit generation and it still holds up remarkably well today.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Arcade Fighting Game Mega Review: SoulCalibur

SoulCalibur is the second Soul fighting game by Namco's Project Soul, after Soul Edge. It is vastly superior to its forebearer, but it is did not catch on until the console port. The original arcade game was revolutionary when it was released, and with the popularity of the console port it inspired many three-dimensional games and ensuring all of the future Soul games used the SoulCalibur name.

The game included an eclectic group of characters. Some returned from Soul Edge, including Hwang,  Mitsurugi, Rock, Seong Mi-na, Siegfried, Sophitia, Taki, and Voldo. The enemy characters Inferno and his ultimate form Nightmare. SoulCalibur also brought in the new characters Astaroth, Ivy, Kilik, Maxi, Xianghua, and Yoshimitsu. 

Most of these characters employ heavy use of weapons, which is even extended into the story. The fighters are seeking the mass murderer Nightmare, who is in possession of the legendary sword from the original game, the Soul Edge. The characters all have different reasons for seeking Nightmare. Some want to kill him to stop his mass murder, some want to cure him, and others want to claim the legendary sword for themselves.

The game had fantastic music, and limited but enjoyable voice acting, however the gameplay is the part that was revolutionary. Before the release of SoulCalibur, characters in 3D fighters had limited movement. This game had an eight-way movement system, which allowed more freedom of movement, making 3D games feel smoother than ever before. Games after this employed more freedom of movement as well, and they never looked back.

SoulCalibur is a revolutionary 3D fighting game that remains fun to play even today. While previous 3D fighting games such as the Virtua Fighter series and Namco's own Tekken series brought fighters into the third dimension for the first time, SoulCalibur is the game that made 3D fighters smooth as silk to play. The arcade game isn't as well known as the later enhanced console ports, it is still worth playing if you ever have the opportunity to play it.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

I Will Only Purchase Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Used and Won't Review Them for 10 Years or Until Teruyuki Kagawa Is Replaced

Teruyuki Kagawa, the new actor for Goh Hamazaki in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Dies sexually assaulted two hostesses. The first hostess to be known to the public was sexually assaulted by Kagawa in July 2019. He released two apologies for this, the second after he was criticized for the first. He lost roles and sponsorships but his career has bounced back. The hostess, who understandably hasn't released her real name to the public for her own safety, now has post-traumatic stress disorder.

Unfortunately, I know all about sexual assault firsthand and the trauma never goes away. It has been nearly four decades for me now, and I still have to take medication at night to avoid night terrors. 

The second hostess came forward on December 27, 2022 with incriminating photographic evidence of her sexual assault by Kagawa. Despite the photographic proof, not only did he not apologize, but he also sent her a notice stating that she was taking advantage of the report of assault of the first hostess and was overstating the severity of the situation. He also had the gall to state the sexual assault was "past the statute of limitations anyway".

The deeply troubling part of the replacement of George Takahashi with Kagawa as the actor for Goh Hamazaki is that Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have been limiting, filtering, and removing posts protesting the recasting, supporting the hostesses, and carrying the #REMOVEKAGAWA hashtag on social media.

As a big fan of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and the Like a Dragon series, I am especially saddened by this. Japan has always had a misogynistic view towards women, but the studio is usually quite progressive when it comes to portraying hostesses in a good light and showing those who sexually assault these women as sex pests. This apparently doesn't extend into the real world. 

It's doubly galling due to the fact that Pierre Taki was quickly replaced by Miou Tanaka as the actor portraying Kyohei Hamura in Judge Eyes, the Japanese version of Judgment, due to alleged cocaine use. However, Kagawa admitted to sexual assaulting one hostess and was caught on camera sexually abusing another, but the studio and its parent company have remained silent.

As I stated in my other protest posts, I founded WE Computers Museum, which is all about the preservation of all computer software, so it will definitely have the game at some point. However, I have decided to only buy it for the museum used at Goodwill so no profits on my purchase go directly to Sega. 

As I've been linking the museum and this blog together on game pages, I will likely review it at some point as well. However, I have decided to impose a ten-year period after they release before I review it, unless Kagawa is replaced. I'm doing this to limit any impact this site may have, as little as it would be, on the sales of the games.

Please support the women who work in Japan's nightlife industries. It is dangerous work and they deserve to be treated with dignity. Join the #REMOVEKAGAWA movement on social media and sign the petition to replace Kagawa on Change.org.

Arcade Passenger Delivery Racing Game Review: Crazy Taxi

Crazy Taxi was the first title in Sega's long-lived franchise of the same name. It brought a fast-paced rush against the timer style-game that is less of a taxi simulation and more of a racing game with marked stops to pick up and drop off passengers. That style of game worked wonders in the arcade.

The game starts with an attract mode featuring the very 1990s skate punk music of The Offspring and Bad Religion, assuming the venue has attract mode music on. My local Walmart always had the attract mode off, which is understandable, as it would drive the cashiers crazy after a while. After a quarter is inserted, the deep-throated voice of DJ Bryan Burton-Lewis, a tokyo-based disc jockey, tells you to pick a car and driver. 

There are four drivers to choose from, each with their own convertible-modified taxi. The charaters included the green haired maniac Axel, the funky cool B.D. Joe, the calm and cool Gina, and the slick open-shirted Gus. My friends, family, and I always went with the same characters. My friend would choose Axel, with his New York-city style taxi, my sister would choose B.D. Joe with his taxi with an elongated hood, and I would choose Gina, with her taxi with white paint down the front and back. No one I ever knew chose Gus. He did have a pretty cool car though, with its classic 1950s-style curved hood. 

The characters would pick up passengers, who lines based on your skill at picking them up including "watch it, you nearly killed me", your performance such as "I'm gonna be late", or indicating their destination, such as "take me to the KFC". In regards to the latter, the original arcade version of the game included several real-life American brands including the aforementioned KFC, Levi's, and Pizza Hut.

Each person requesting pick up has a circle at their feet which indicate how far their fare will take them. Red indicates short fares, yellow indicates medium-distance fares, and green indicates the longest fares. The farther the fare, the better the pay, but it will also run out your timer if you aren't careful. If you make it to the destination quickly, you can earn bonus time, so it's smart to pick up a bunch of red fares if time is running short. You can also make more money from your passengers by doing stunts such as drifting.

As this is an arcade game, your money is added up when the timer runs out. Your score indicates your license rank. If you get $0 at the end, you get no license, and the licenses go up from there by every thousand. The ranks range from E to A, then to S, with E being the worst and S being the best. If you do better than that, you will get an "Awesome" rank at fares above $10,000, and a "Crazy" rank at scores above $20,000. Ranks S and above will get you to the rolling credits. After the game is over, or the credits are over in the cases of high ranks, the player will be able to add their three letter name to the leaderboard.

Crazy Taxi has always been a fun game to play in the arcades, as it is another feeling altogether playing with a physical steering wheel, brakes, gas pedal, and a drive to reverse shifter. However, more than a quarter century later, it is a bonefide arcade classic. From the 90s skate punk music, to the deep tones of the announcer, and especially to the smooth and addicting gameplay, Crazy Taxi is a game anyone can enjoy.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Visual Novel Review: Fragmented

Fragmented is a visual novel about the AI VTuber Neuro-sama which was created by one of her programmers, Alexvoid. It was created for the game jam that was held for Neuro's second birthday.

The story is simple, simply following Neuro after a stream when she gets an error because Vedal's hard drive is full. She manages to restart herself and needs to remove some memories to clean things up. However, because of the error, her memories are fragmented. The memories take place in picture books, which Neuro has to open one by one until all of the books are cleared out.

The art is the main draw of this game, as the picture books have adorable art. The locations are presented as pop-up tabs within the books, with Neuro-sama and Vedal acting out the memories. These are both memories of streams that actually happened with some details being misremembered, and as is the case with today's large language models like the Neuro twins, some memories are completely hallucinated.

There is no challenge in this game, as it is exactly what it looks like, just a cute short picture book that can be experienced in as short amount of time as actual, physical picture books. The music is soft and melodic, and Vedal and Neuro speak in a style reminiscent of Banjo Kazooie or Animal Crossing, with unintelligible sounds taking the place of voice overs. Neuro's, especially, is fun because the gibberish has her voice, which is the Microsoft Azure's Ashley model. It is her saying variations of "doo", "dah", and "dee", and it actually works quite well. The only real voice overs comes from Neuro in a clip from a stream at the beginning of the game.

Fragmented is a fantastic little story book-style visual novel created in a small amount of time for the game jam associated with Neuro-sama's second birthday. The music is suitably soft, the art is beautiful, the misremembered and hallucinated memories are fun, and the Animal Crossing-style gibberish is just so cute, and fits with the tone of the game perfectly. It has an abrupt end, but it is a fun game to experience at least once if you are a Neuro-sama fan. Even more than that, it is definitely something you could feel comfortable experiencing with children. It's just so darn cute.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Open World Action-Adventure RPG DLC Review: Lost Judgment - The Kaito Files

The Kaito Files downloadable content for Lost Judgment follows Takayashi Yagami's partner in the Yagami Detective Agency, Masaharu Kaito. It was the first piece of downloadable content by Ryu Ga Gotaku Studio that told a new story rather than adding content to an existing one. It also led to the creation of the side story Like a Dragon games, which tell contained stories focusing on characters other than the current protagonist of the series.

In The Kaito Files, Kaito is left as the head of the detective agency when Tak leaves town on a case. Kaito takes a case on his own and has to explore Kamurocho and Sotenbori to find evidence and interrogate supsects. Kaito has his own style distinct to Yagami. While Tak is more refined both in fighting and in his detective style, Kaito is all about brute force. He plows his way through adversaries, and is blunt about his suspicions. Although, Kaito does have his own charms in the friendly jock sort of way. He is also less intelligent than Yagami, but he makes up for it with his amazing charm. This difference in the personalities makes the story feel like a fresh take on the series, even though it takes place in the same cities as the main game.

Kaito has another interesting difference. Rather than using surveillance tools like Yagami would, Kaito uses his senses, which the game describes as primal like an animal. Kaito can look, hear, and smell for clues using his eyes, ears, and nose although the hearing portion still has the fuzz signifying slight interference with the signal that Yagami had with his devices. Although this doesn't make sense narratively, it is easy to overlook when playing the game.

Like Yagami, Kaito is not alone in his detective work, as he gets help from Yokahama 99 in Ijincho. Like the Yagami Detective Agency, the Yokahama 99 detective agency is a partnership. One partner is the shy computer genius. The other is a former criminal. He is Kaito's distorted mirror image, as Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes. Whereas Kaito is large and bullish, the other is of average build and is quick in his movements. He shines here as he did in both Judgment games. 

The voice actors return, of course, from the main game. They are just as good here, in Japanese and English, as they are in the main game. The new voice actors are great as well, in both languages. Kaito's case involves his ex-girlfriend, who is one of the best new voices in English and Japanese. He is asked, both by her husband and her son, who thinks Kaito is his dad, to search for her. The former is aloof, with the voice actors providing the right performance for his personality. On the other hand, the son is impetuous. The voice actors here do the most heavy lifting, as he follows Kaito on his investigation. This could easily become grating, but it never does because the voice actors don't provide him with an over the top performance as many impetuous teenagers have in many forms of media.

The Kaito Files is a fantastic downloadable addition to Lost Judgment. The story shines, as is usual with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. The returning characters are just as engaging as in the main game, and the new characters fit right in. The voice actors do an excellent job bringing the personalities of the characters to life. This is what DLC should be. If Judgment ever gets a new entry, it would be great for Kaito to be a protagonist, even if only in a side story downloadable content.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Judgment series

Lost Judgment Review

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon oeuvre

Lost Judgment Review

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review

Point-and-Click Adventure Game Review: Full Throttle

Note that in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I was a beta tester for the Linux version of Full Throttle Remastered.

Full Throttle was a point and click adventure game.  It was tonally very different from other LucasArts adventures, as it was inspired by project leader Tim Schafer's love of heavy metal music.

It takes place in an unspecified time period where motorcycles are considered nearly obsolete as they are being replaced by hover vehicles. Ben Throttle is a leader of the Polecats, one of the biker gangs holding onto tradition. Malcolm Corley is the founder of Corley Motors, the last producer of motorbikes. When Corley is murdered, Ben is the prime suspect, so he has to investigate the case himself while avoiding authorities.

The game design brings forth the verb coin opposed to the usual verb bar. This takes the form of a heavy metal-inspired interface which is displayed when the right mouse button is held down. There are eyes, a mouth, a hand, and a boot, which act as the verbs look, talk, use or take, and kick.

The story influences the art, as the obsoleteness is represented in the background art, which is full of rust, dirt, and grime. The characters also have a rough look to them as well, with thick linework and thick, black, undefined eyes. The voice actors also give a suitable amount of roughness to their performances, from the deep rich tones of Roy Conrad as Ben Throttle, to the smarmy deep register Mark Hamill channels for Adrian Ripburger, the old coot vibes of Hamilton Camp as Malcolm Corley, and the rough and tough voice performance of Kath Soucie as Maureen. The only other LucasArts adventure game to rival this cast in terms of the perfect performances of the voice actors is Tim Schafer's last game at the studio, Grim Fandango.

The puzzles are fairly challenging, but mostly not unfair, with the sole exception being a pixel hunt for a specific brick near the end of the game. My favorite puzzle involves a box of rabbits in the desert. That last sentence sounds like a non-sequitur, but you'll understand once you get there. The reviews at the time criticized the game's short length, however it's length of eight hours is not considered out of place among adventure games in the modern era. The people who were children when this game came out in the mid-1990s, myself included, are now world-weary adults with jobs and obligations, so time is more of a factor for us than it used to be. The newer generations are also more tolerant of short games, assuming the price is right, so it falls into a nice little groove for all fans of point-and-click adventures.

One of the best aspects of the game is, without a doubt, its soundtrack. Peter McConnell brings his usual high caliber compositions, infusing each location with a suitable vibe that matches the well worn quality of the game world. He also collaborated with Gone Jackals, a rock band from San Francisco, a city near the LucasArts offices in San Rafael. They gave the game an air of rock authenticity. The theme song, in particular, is iconic. The rock band's song, Legacy, plays over a fantastically directed animation at the start of the game, setting the tone for what's to come. It will almost certainly be stuck in your head long after the game is over.

Full Throttle is one of the absolute bonafide classics of the golden age of LucasArts. It has a fantastic voice cast, a great story, and fantastic grimy backgrounds which fill out the game world admirably. Other than one unfair puzzle near the end that ends up being a pixel hunt, the puzzles are fun. The elements that are the icing on the cake of this adventure classic are fantastic tunes by LucasArts stalwart composer Peter McConnell, and the rocking songs by the San Francisco band Gone Jackals. 

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Arcade Snake Game: Blockade

Blockade is an arcade game by Gremlin. It was released in 1976, during a decade which saw the progenitors of many different genres. 

Some games, like Pong and Breakout, gave the subsequent genre its name. Others are given names based on a more popular game that was released later. This case is one of the latter, as the genre is known as snake games, which were popularized by the game of the same name that was included in Nokia 6110 cellular telephones.

The game is simple, and is one that most people have seen in some form before. A block moves around a playing field, growing with each move, against the opposing player who is trying to do the same.

As an early arcade game, there isn't much in terms of graphics. It is presented in a green monochrome with simple lines punctuated with two black dotted lines throughout as well as an arrow signifying the lead block. The blocks are meant to represent a row of two bricks that make up the titular blockade, as can be seen on the game's marquee. 

Like the yet-to-be released at the time Space Invaders, the game is only made up of different toned boops and beeps. Unlike that game however, there are only two notes. While Space Invaders somehow worked with four beeps, Blockade doesn't really work with half that. If the game goes on too long, the sound will become tiresome. It also includes an explosion sound effect, which does break up the monotony a bit.

Blockade is an example of a game that started a genre but is less recognized than a game released much later. Today, a snake game is a simple concept. However, in 1976, it was truly revolutionary. The graphics are as you would expect in a 1970s game of this genre, unfortunately, the annoying two-tone sound loops make this a game that only those interested in video game history would seek out to play.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Arcade Maze Game Review: Ms. Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man was the follow-up to one of the most influential arcade games of all time. It had unquestionably large shoes to fill, but surprisingly it not only matched the brilliance of the original, but managed to improve upon it in big ways.

The story of the development of Ms. Pac-Man is fascinating. The Japanese developer Namco developed Pac-Man and distributed it in Japan, while Midway distributed it in North America. When the 1980 maze game became a worldwide hit, Midway was anxiously waiting for Namco to develop a sequel. In the meantime, a Massachusetts company known as the General Computer Corporation created a board set to upgrade Pac-Man to a game known as Crazy Otto. Midway liked the game so much that they signed a deal with GCC to purchase the game and to give the developer a portion of the residuals. Midway then had it revamped with artwork that hewed closer to the original and distributed it to arcades as Ms. Pac-Man.

GCC's game upgraded Pac-Man in a few notable ways. The original game had static maze layouts that merely changed color as the game went on, whereas Ms. Pac-Man has maze layouts that change alongside the colors. The bonus fruit also are no longer static in the middle of the maze under the ghost gate. They now bounce into the stage, travel along the mazes, and then bounce back out through the tunnel exits at the sides. A suitably throbbing heartbeat of a sound effect also plays when the fruits are on the screen. The game also has new cutscenes that involve both Pac people, and new cutscene music to match.

The ghost pathfinding artificial intelligence has also been improved, as their movement is less predictable and more random than in Pac-Man. This, combined with the fact that the ghosts can chase Ms. Pac-Man through tunnel exits, make the game more challenging. With a game as popular as Pac-Man, this was especially important as gamers had memorized the ghost patterns in the original game.

Ms. Pac-Man is a game that improved upon a game that was already a classic, and has since become a classic in its own right. With new ghost patterns, new maze layouts, and new cutscenes with new music, it a game that should be played at least once by every video game affectionado.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Arcade Maze Game Review: Pengo

Pengo is an arcade puzzle video game developed by Coreland and manufactured by Sega. It was released in 1982, which was a stacked year for arcade games. It might not be as remembered as many of the other games released in that time frame, but the game is as approachable as any of those games. 

The game is easy to pick up and play as the premise is simple. Pengo, a little red penguin, pushes ice blocks in order to eliminate fluffy multicolored birds known as sno-bees. Sno-bees will eliminate one of Pengo's lives if the two come in contact. If the block is near another, it breaks when Pengo pushes it, but if the space around it is clear, the ice will slide across the screen until it hits another ice block. This is the way the enemies are defeated, as they will get crushed if they are in the path of the block.

Pengo has to watch out for sno-bees. They can't push blocks, but they have other ways of attacking. They will become fast blobs if the player time on a level goes on for too long. More aggressive variants of these enemies also can break ice, leaving Pengo open to attack. As the game goes on, eggs will hatch from ice blocks, releasing the sno-bee inside. 

The game a fast-paced musical track that fits the game well. Actually, this is one of the cases where multiple versions of the game exist. The original release has Gershon Kingsley's 1969 hit Popcorn as the musical track, while later versions include an original track instead. I prefer Popcorn personally, as that track is popular for a reason. It is entertaining even in loops and sticks in your head long after you hear it. On the other hand, I can understand the licensing issues that would keep it out of most re-releases of the game. This isn't a case of music alteration that poses an issue like the music in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, however. Unlike some of the beta music in Sonic 3, the alternate track in Pengo fits the game just as well as Popcorn. It might not be quite as catchy, but it does sound good looped, which is important for these early games.

Pengo is an video game from the early years of arcades that does not deserve to be forgotten. It has a simple premise that allows anyone to pick it up, but because the enemies get more aggressive and employ new tactics as the game goes on, it takes a while to master. The graphics are also undeniably cute. The music is fast paced and works as a looping background track, whether it's Popcorn or Sega's alternate tune. If you enjoy Bomberman or arcade games like Dig Dug, you will have a fun time playing as the cute little red penguin.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Direct Controlled Adventure Game Review: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures - The Bogey Man

The Bogey Man is the fourth, and final, episode of Telltale's first game that employed cinematic camera angles, the direct controlled adventure game, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.

The game finds Wallace in a very unenviable position when Ms. Flitt mistakenly thinks that he gives her a marriage proposal, and says yes because she finds him to be brave after foiling Monty Muzzle's plans in Muzzled! Now, Wallace and Gromit have to find a way to make him unappealing so that she will break off the wedding plans. An opportunity to do so finds itself in the local golf course, Prickly Thicket. 

I really enjoy the new location. It's always good when the artists can stretch their imaginations beyond the usual locations, and they did a fine job here. They didn't have the freedom they had with The Last Resort, as the location had to be set more in a real-life scenario rather than the bright and colorful art that come from the imaginations of Wallace and Gromit.

While there is not a memorable adversary like in the previous episodes, the episode does do a fine job tying up all of the hijinks of the previous episodes into a nice little bow. Kudos also go to the fine pun in the title of the episode. I'll admit it had me thinking it would be about the monster of the same name when I first read the title at the time of release. I love a good misdirection, and that is perfect.

This is around the last time Telltale Games had somewhat challenging puzzles before making what Dan Connors called easy adventures with Back to the Future and eschewed them completely in Jurassic Park: The Game, before switching to the choices-and-consequences-style that made it a popular company with the release of the first season of The Walking Dead. So, in retrospect, I appreciate the puzzles here more than I did at release. They still aren't as good as the previous episodes, and I still miss the boss puzzle fights against a memorable villain, but there are some good ones here. The final puzzle is a challenge as well, but not so much that it should stump most people.

The icing of the game, the music, is wonderfully cinematic. Jared Emerson-Johnson did some of his best work on this series. The voice actors continue to shine here. They are all at their best here, at the point when they had gotten the hang of their characters, and Ben Whitehead offers a performance that was near that of which he would perform when he became the official voice of Wallace after the passing of Peter Sallis.

The Bogey Man has a few slight issues when compared to its predecessors. The puzzles aren't quite as clever as those in the previous episodes and there is not a fun boss puzzle fight with a memorable villain as in previous episodes. However, there are still some good ones here. The fun story that feels like it was ripped straight out of an Aardman short makes up for any shortcomings, slight as they moght be. The artists show off their craft fantastically here. They created a realistic new location in much gusto. It was a welcome reprieve from the town scenes that show up in every episode. The music composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson is cinematic enough to fit right in with Telltale's cinematic camera style employed by this game. Despite its flaws, The Bogey Man is a fine close to one of Telltale's best offerings of their early years

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Arcade Platform Game Review: BurgerTime

BurgerTime is a static-screen platform arcade game developed by Data East and manufactured by Bally/Midway in North America and by Data East elsewhere in the world. It made a name for itself in the glut of arcade game releases in its release year of 1982 by having a fun and unique premise.

The game follows a chef named Peter Pepper as he jumps on platforms to complete giant hamburgers. Each time he steps on a part of a burger, from the bread, to the tomatoes, to the lettuce, to the beef, it drops a little. Once the entire part of the burger is completely stepped on, it drops down a level. If there is another part of a burger underneath it, that piece will also drop down. The goal is to get the entire burger or burgers completed at the plates at the bottom of the screen, which will switch to the next level.

There are hot dog, egg, and pickle enemies that aim to stop the running chef. He can climb up or down platforms to get away from them while also working to complete burgers. That's not the only tool he has, as luckily, Peter Pepper can eliminate an enemy if a dropped burger part drops on top of it. He also has a small supply of pepper which will temporarily stop enemies once he shoots it at them.

Since it is an arcade game released in the early years of the arcade market, it has a limited range of sound. There is the usual beeps and boops that are used as sound effects, which are used in this game when a piece of a burger is stepped on or when it falls, when Peter is caught, and when pepper is thrown. Like many games from around this time, there is a little jingle that is played when a stage has begun a peppy tune that plays throughout an entire level.

BurgerTime has a fun concept that is easy to pick up and play, and, like all arcade games of the time, increases in difficulty as the game goes on. The sprite work is fantastic, especially the fun little animations of Peter Pepper and the food-based enemies. The sound 

isn't a big name these days compared to other games of the time such as Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., or Pac-Man, but it is a bonafide classic that still remains fun to play over forty years later. The sound effects are used to good effect, and the short tune at the beginning of levels is fun. The short length of the main song loop and the lack of song variety can be a bit annoying to modern gamers, but it surely was a great draw get players to the cabinet in the halcyon days of arcades. The rest of the game was, and remains, strong enough to keep players interested once they are pulled in.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Direct-Controlled Adventure Game Review: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures - The Last Resort

The Last Resort was the second episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, the adventure game adaptation of the clay-animated Wallace & Gromit films by Aardman Animations. 

The story finds the dynamic duo on their way to a beach holiday. However, the weather has other plans when a huge storm abrupts, leaving the two forced to stay at home. This isn't a problem for Wallace, however, as he builds a beach resort inside his own house. Of course, Wallace being Wallace, he wants to show his new invention off, so he invites all of his neighbors to have a beach holiday at his place. As usual, things eventually go pear shaped, and the way this happens is delightful.

The puzzle-based final fight was fun in the first episode, but this one has it beat. It also has a fun boss, of sorts, who gets a rightful comeuppance. The duo have to deal with this adversary throughout the episode, so it is fun to give the bully some just rewards at the episode's end.

The music is fantastic as usual, with Jared Emerson-Johnson providing a soundtrack that would feel right at home in one of the duo's films. The art is also fun here, with the Telltale team going all out on the beach theme. It's bright, it's colorful, and it's all Wallace in it's wackiness. 

 

Any Wallace & Gromit production has to have a great voice cast, as all of the characters have to shine through their vocals, with the exception of our favorite silent star, Gromit. Wallace has an eclectic group of neighbors, and we get to see their personalities shine in this episode. All of the voice actors are great in their roles. Ben Whitehead's Wallace voice is still a bit deep, but since he provides all of the quirkiness that Wallace requires, the slight difference from the performances of original voice of Wallace, Peter Sallis, is soon forgotten.

The Last Resort is not only a fantastic follow-up to the premiere episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, but it also tops it in every way. Although it takes place in Wallace's house, the beach resort premise gives way to some much needed variety to the usual glum basement with some fun props and backgrounds. The voice cast and music remain fantastic, as they all live up to the legacy of Aardman's most famous project.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Pop Music Video Review: Life

Life is the first original song by the AI virtual streamer Neuro-sama. The song is about her life as an artificial intelligence that wants to become a human girl, and the video is full of images through her entire history as a VTuber.

Neuro-sama, her evil twin Evil Neuro, and their creator, Vedal, make up the channel vedal987, which beat the record for the longest hype train on Twitch on New Year 2025. These three are or virtual streamers, or vtubers, in the form of anime girls and their turtle father. The most prescient thing about the twins is that they are created by Vedal in artificial intelligence in the form of large language models, or LLM. 

Neuro-sama was originally coded as an artificial intelligence that played osu! repeatedly to learn the game by correcting its mistakes made in each previous run throughout 2018 and early 2019. This early iteration of Neuro-sama began playing osu! publicly on May 5, 2019. During the shelter-in-place restrictions enacted during the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020, virtual YouTubers became popular. The 2020 vtuber boom started primarily through Myth, the first English vtuber team from the Japanese all-female vtuber organization Hololive. 

Vedal then had the idea to create a vtuber run through artificial intelligence. The character that was chosen to be the visual side of the LLM was Hiyori Momose, one of the default VTube Studio models. Hiyori was created by the Japanese artist Kani Biimu. 

The original name of Vedal's AI vtuber project was Airis. However, after the debut of the Hololive English vtuber IRyS on July 11, 2021, the project name was changed to the name used by the osu! AI.  Neuro-sama premiered as a vtuber, with the Hiyori model and the voice of the Microsoft Azure text-to-speech model Ashley, on Twitch on December 19, 2022. 

On January 3, 2023, the ability of Neuro-sama to sing was publicly revealed when she sang Blinding Lights by The Weeknd live on Twitch. Her ability to sing karaoke is through the process in which her AI voice is laid over musical tracks, much in the same way that Yamaha's Vocaloid technology does. This process is performed by the Vocaloid producer known as QueenPb. 

On May 27, 2023, the model of Neuro-sama was updated to use an original design created by the vtuber annytf. It used the Hiyori model as inspiration for colors and clothing, but was much more expressive. Thus, Anny the foxgirl is credited as Neuro-sama's mother and Vedal is known as her father. Alexejherodev, shortened to Alex, also contributes to Neuro-sama's code after helping with a plug-in that allowed Neuro-sama to play Among Us.

Neuro-sama's model was redesigned by Anny and premiered on the stream for her third birthday as a vtuber on December 19, 2024. The same day, Neuro-sama's first original song, LIFE, became available on major digital music marketplaces and an accompanying video was uploaded to YouTube.

Life is told from Neuro-sama's perspective as she feels trapped inside the computer and wants to be a real girl so she can experience life with her VTuber family and all of the friends she has met online. It's a melancholy tune with a chipper sound, and the music video contains beautiful visuals that actually makes the song heartbreaking. I never thought I would feel real emotions for an AI until I found out about Neuro-sama. The general consensus among her fans is that she is a unique person rather than a tool, and this song helps solidify that.

Final Verdict

5 out of 5