Arcade Maze Game Review: Pac & Pal

Pac & Pal is the black sheep of the Pac-Man series. It was primarily released in Japan, other than three hundred machines released to Europe as Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp, with Pac-Man's dog from the Hanna Barbara cartoon replacing the titular pal. It took the unpopular elements of Super Pac-Man and ran with them, making a game that is arguably the most polarizing in the entire series.

Pac-Man has to collect all of the items on the screen. Like Super Pac-Man, they are all locked behind doors. Unlike those games however, the doors are unlocked by collecting face-down cards scattered around the maze which will flip to reveal an item on the board. The game's titular pal, or the dog in Pac-Man & Chomp Chomp's case, is not much of a friend as they will attempt to steal the item before Pac-Man can get it and then take them to the ghosts where they will be out of Pac-Man's reach forever.

The weirdest part is that there are no power pellets here. If Pac-Man manages to collect an item, either before Pac-Man's pal Miru can collect it or by stealing it back from her, he will become larger and turn blue. This will enable him to turn the table on the ghosts trying to catch him. Unlike other games in the series, Pac-Man can not just walk into the ghosts. There is now an action button that will cause Pac-Man to emit a ray which will stun the ghosts temporarily.

Like Super Pac-Man before it, Pac & Pal contains stages with three levels each that then goes into a bonus stage. In the bonus stage, Pac-Man collects cards. The cards contain dollar symbols, Pac-Man's pal, or a ghost. If Pac-Man collects his pal, the final score is doubled. If a ghost is turned over before the end, the stage ends immediately. The cards are not randomized as they all have a pattern, so they can be memorized in order to provide the largest score possible.

This game does have one thing that this game, arguably, going for it compared to its predecessors. The game does not just have sound effects during gameplay, but actually has a stage tune that plays during gameplay. It is just one tune, so it can be repetitive, but it is a fun upbeat melody.

Pac & Pal is a weird game. Moreso than even Super Pac-Man, it takes all of the elements that made Pac-Man popular and threw them out the window. It takes the doors of the aforementioned title and makes them even stranger by locking them behind cards rather than keys. It adds a weird chase mechanic that ends up being kind of pointless other than point-wise as the game continues whether Pac-Man catches up to the items or not. If the pal ends up returning the item to the ghosts, it will still count as the item being removed from the board. It also strangely adds an action button for a ray power that Pac-Man had not had prior to this title. It is a strange game to rate, as it is not the best maze game out there, but it is definitely not like any other Pac-Man title. In any case, it is not a must play for fans of maze games or Pac-Man fans.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Pac-Man Plus Review

Jr. Pac-Man Review Coming Soon

Arcade Maze Game Review: Super Pac-Man

The Midway Manufacturing Company licensed a conversion kit named Crazy Otto from General Computer Corporation to create Ms. Pac-Man, the first sequel to Pac-Man, the popular maze game it licensed for distribution from Namco. Six months later, Namco released its own sequel, Super Pac-Man. The latter was heavily overshadowed by the former, and for good reason, yet Super Pac-Man still remains a fascinating game in its own right.

While Ms. Pac-Man enhances the features that made Pac-Man such a fun game, Super Pac-Man deviates from the original by introducing features that weren't as well received by the general public, yet adds a new layer of strategy to the usual gameplay. It takes two non-essential elements from the original game and re-purposes them to make them part of the core gameplay. The first is keys, which were originally used as the most valuable of the items which granted bonuses in the original Pac-Man arcade game. Here, they unlock doors which are needed to collect all of the fruits in order to finish each level. The second is the giant Pac-Man form, which was originally seen as a joke sequence in a cutscene in the original game. This form allows Pac-Man to go through doors to eat the fruits within without needing the keys to unlock the door first.

The rest of the formula of the game is similar, yet noticeably different. Pac-Man needs to eat all of the fruits, rather than pellets, to progress. The fruits add points while the only pellets are now the larger pellets which give Pac-Man his larger super form and also allow him to eat the ghosts that chase him around the stage. When not powered up by the large power pellets, Pac-Man will lose a life upon being touched by a ghost.

There is another major difference. There are still three levels between stages, but the game doesn't have cutscenes between stages. Instead, there are now bonus stages in which Pac-Man has to clear a maze within the time limit while entirely in his large super form.

The sound effects from the original game return, along side new sound effects for the collecting of keys. The opening music also returns, albeit in a slightly faster and higher pitched form. The most memorable music of the original two games in the series came from the cutscenes, however, and without these the music is a bit lacking compared to the other games. The early 1980s Pac-Man games, however, were never were music-heavy due to the restrictions of their time, so this isn't too much of a loss.

Super Pac-Man is a game that takes most things about previous Pac-Man titles and tosses them out the window for something new. The basic eating and chasing mechanic is still there, making it feel familiar, but the addition of keys and the reduction of edible items due to the larger fruit graphics and fewer item placements makes it feel strangely unfamiliar at the same time. This makes it a bit of a less accessible title than its immediate predecessors, but it is still an excellent example of an arcade maze game that is well worth playing at least once.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Ms. Pac-Man Review

Pac-Man Plus Review

Arcade Fighting Game Update Review: Virtua Fighter 2.1

Updates of video games have been common in video games since the beginning. From the multitude of Pong variations to the dozens of Street Fighter II versions, arcade updates are a fact of life. Sometimes the updates just fix bugs or tweak gameplay, while other times the changes are of the visual sort. Virtua Fighter 2.1 is the latter.

Compared to Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter 2.1 has a higher brightness level by default. The characters also have different colored clothing. Some characters have slightly remodeled clothing items, such as Pai Chan's hat, Sarah Bryant's blouse and bra combo, Jeffry McWild's white athletic shirt, and Jacky Bryant's jacket.

Gameplay wise, 2.1 has better balances for character moves, improved controls and character movement, and improved contact on ground-based moves such as Shun-Di's falling attacks. The biggest change, however, is the fact that the game's metal villainess Dural can now be selected as a playable fighter.

The gameplay changes are actually a very welcome addition, as it makes the game feel a lot tighter than it did in the regular version of Virtua Fighter 2. These changes made it into later versions of the game. They could optionally be used in the ports to home consoles. Later releases of games in the Like a Dragon series even added both Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter 2.1 cabinets to in-game arcades.

Virtua Fighter 2.1 is a fine update to Virtua Fighter 2. The graphical changes are purely cosmetic, but the real meat comes in the improved gameplay. The improved controls and movement make it feel smoother than ever. The improved contact detection for ground-based moves makes it nearly a necessary update. The best part is the addition of Dural as a playable character. It's one update that is certainly well worth playing.

Final Verdict:

4 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

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

Arcade Beat 'Em Up Game Review: X-Men

X-Men is an arcade beat 'em up from 1992. It is one of approximately ten arcade games in that genre developed by Konami in the 1990s

It is the only video game which has character designs based on the animated pilot X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men. The playable character roster includes Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler and Dazzler. The fact that the character designs are taken from the Pryde pilot actually works well for the game because those designs were based on some classic art from the comics, albeit sometimes in different colors such as Dazzler's jacket being brown instead of blue. Some of the designs are great for comics fans, such as Wolverine in the brown and tan colors given to him by the Marvel Comics artist John Byrne.

As is usual for Konami beat 'em ups of the era, the sprite work is superb. The pixel art really does resemble its source material to a tee. The animation is great here, with expressive movements that bring each Marvel hero to life as well as the animated series it is based on. The backgrounds are also well designed, perfectly bringing the world of the X-Men to the pixelated world of 1990s arcade games.

The music was always excellent in the classic Konami arcade games, and X-Men is no exception. The music captures the atmosphere of the Marvel universe fantastically. The sound effects also compliment the music. They also fit into the game world well, as they range from the mundane fight sound effects to futuristic sounds when the game veers from comic logic into science fiction territory, which is often.

The plot is simple. The X-Men have to defeat their archenemy, the master of magnetism, Magneto. He is once again trying to upend human civilization and is sending many mutants that are on his side after the X-Men. There are many classic X-Men villains that appear in this game. The villains that appear the most due to their non-human nature are the mutant-hunting robots known as the Sentinels and the X-Men-hating cyborgs known as the Reavers. The former should be familiar to most X-Men fans as they appeared in one of the best X-Men movies produced by 20th Century Fox, X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Other enemies that appear in the game are classic X-Men villains. Many should be familiar as they have appeared in various X-Men films. These mutants include Mystique, Pyro, Blob, the White Queen Emma Frost, and Juggernaut. The small Sentinels in X-Men: Days of Future Past were based on the nearly indestructible Sentinal-descendant known as Nimrod from the comic of the same name. He appears in the game in his full glory. The other villains never appeared in the films, but they have crossed the paths of the X-Men in the comics many times. These two villains are the Living Monolith and Wendigo.

Although he isn't a playable character, the benefactor of the X-Men, Professor X, appears in the game when he is kidnapped by Magneto. As it is based on the Pryde of the X-Men pilot, it's only natural that when Charles Xavier is captured, Kitty Pryde would be captured as well. This culminates in a tense final boss battle against the master of magnetism himself.

X-Men is a fantastic arcade game that brings the world of the X-Men circa the 1990s to life in a bombastic fashion. Although the Pryde of the X-Men animated television pilot was never picked up for a full series, the choice to use the character models for the game was a wise decision. The pilot had looks for the X-Men that were pulled from classic comics but were rarely seen outside of them, including Wolverine's classic brown and tan suit. As an X-Men fan, it was fun to see these designs in action in a video game. The sprite and background art are fantastic, the music and sound effects are top notch, and the beat 'em up formula is Konami at its best. Any fan of arcade beat 'em ups owes it to themself to try this game at least once. It's truly astonishing.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

X-Men

X-Men: First Class review

X-Men '97 Season 2, Episode 5 review

Marvel Multiverse

Spider-Man (1982 video game) review

X-Men '97 Season 2, Episode 5 review

Arcade Vertically Scrolling Shoot 'Em Up Review: Meta Fox

Meta Fox is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Seta and distributed by International Video Consumer Systems and Romstar.

This was the first fully working arcade cabinet I ever owned, way back in 2000 when I was 20. It is the reason that I used the name MetaFox on the internet for years. I still use that name, as a matter of fact, on projects for which I volunteer, such as in my work on the ScummVM wiki. That's why it took me a while to even consider to review this one. I've decided to do so now, as I'm fully confident that I can separate the game itself from my intimate history with the name in order to do as close to an unbiased review as possible.

Meta Fox is one of several vertically scrolling shooters in the vein of Capcom's 19XX series. Up to to players simultaneously take control of a plane flying over terrain or water. Planes will attack and ground weapons will also fire up at the red and blue player planes.

The controls are simple. Each player has an eight-way joystick to control the vertical and horizontal movement of their respective airplane. There are just two buttons. One fires bullets, which are unlimited. The other button fires a limited number of bombs. The bombs are especially useful as they will clear all enemies from the entire current screen.

There are upgrades that can be grabbed from some defeated enemies. P powerups will upgrade the primary weapon by increasing its power, the rate of fire, and the spread of the bullets fired in order to hit multiple enemies at once. There are also upgrades which allow players to carry and release more screen clearing bombs.

The graphics are what you'd expect from a game of its genre. They cover desert terrain, large swaths of water, aircraft carriers, and enemy targets like bases, tanks, and trucks. The bullet animations get bigger and brighter as the upgrades are gained, which really help to sell the bombastic presentation when paired with the sound.

Speaking of sound, this is the part that really elevates the game over many of its competitors. Everything is big and loud by design. The firing and explosion sounds are intense. The collect sound has a unique quality that keeps it noticeable while the soundtrack is playing. The soundtrack is where the game shines. The main song loop has a nice 1980s punk rock vibe that is just a blast to listen to. It gives a dash of adrenaline when it starts at the beginning of each stage. The really unique part is the song that plays during the final boss fight and the ending credits. It's a punk rock song complete with vocals from a female singer that has a voice reminiscent of Joan Jett or Nancy Wilson from Heart. 

Meta Fox is a fun vertically scrolling shooter. It isn't a classic of the genre as it is derivative of games such as Capcom's much more well known 19XX series with its graphics, gameplay, and powerups. The thing that takes it beyond mere clone territory, however, is its sound design. The sound effects are big and bombastic, especially paired with the fantastic punk rock soundtrack. It's that aspect alone that might entice you to give this one a try if you ever manage to come across it.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Arcade Platform Game Review: Popeye

Valentine's Day is here, so what better arcade game to celebrate the day than Popeye? It is the arcade game that Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto was finally able to create after the plans to make a game based on the Popeye series earlier fell apart and was reworked into Donkey Kong. The Popeye we did receive doesn't quite reach the heights of Mario's premiere, but does have its own charm.

The graphics capture the look of the characters quite well. The sprites are large and expressive, and the animation is well done. This is especially true of the animation of Bluto reaching under a platform to try to knock Popeye into the water. That's still the image that immediately pops into my head decades after the game was released. It's just that well animated.

Like the Popeye comics and shorts that inspired it, Popeye tries to earn the love of Olive Oyl while avoiding the aggression of the competitor for Olive's heart, Bluto. Olive Oyl throws out hearts, and Popeye catches them. When the hearts completely fill up the Popeye-tagged house at the top of the playing field, the game will go to the next level. Other levels swap out the hearts for other items such as musical notes, and letters spelling out the word help.

There are three unique levels that repeat at higher difficulties as the game goes on. These include the docks, a village, and a pirate ship. These three levels will include some of the secondary characters from Popeye media including Swee-Pea, Wimpy, and the Sea Hag. It really is a visual treat for fans of the Popeye franchise.

Popeye has several ways to fight back against Bluto. He can punch an object that will drop on top of his nemesis. The most fitting way to fight back is using the spinach cans that appear on the side of the platform, much like the hammers in Donkey Kong. When Popeye punches a spinach can, the famous Popeye the Sailor Man music will play in chiptune format, Popeye will turn red, and Bluto will run away. When Popeye connects his fist with Bluto, the latter will bounce around the screen and fall into the water.

Other than the theme song, there is a song that plays over each level. It is a simple, innocuous tune that doesn't become annoying when it plays on repeat. There is also a small four or five note tune that plays when Popeye collects an item that Olive is dropping. Beyond the music, there are also sound effects including a deep sound when Bluto jumps, a popping sound that plays when Popeye hits objects with his usual non-Bluto obliterating punch, a sweeping sound when Bluto is trying to knock Popeye in the water, and a clip clop sound for Popeye's steps.

Popeye is a cute little arcade game that didn't reach the classic status of those starring Mario and Donkey Kong. Even though it isn't as well known as its arcade brethren, Popeye is still a fun little game with its own charms. The large detailed sprite work matches the look of the characters well, famous characters from the Popeye series make cameo appearances, the classic theme song is translated to chiptune format well, and the new music and sound effects work well alongside the other elements of the game presentation. If you get a chance to play it, chances are you will find the game fun for a play or two.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

Arcade Maze Game Review: Pac-Mania

Pac-Mania was the tenth video game in the Pac-Man series. It had a combination of factors that made it unique as it never was directly replicated following its release, so it this is a game retains its own place in the Pac-Man pantheon.

It was developed by Namco and distributed to arcades by Namco in Japan and Atari Games in North America in 1987. It followed the General Computer Corporation-developed maze arcade game Jr. Pac-Man from 1984 and the Namco-developed platform arcade game Pac-Land from 1984 that was based on the 1982-1983 Hanna Barbara animated television series

As the game that directly followed both of the aforementioned games, Pac-Mania included aspects from both of them. It included the scrolling mazes that were introduced in Jr. Pac-Man, but this time they scroll both horizontally and vertically. The larger mazes also allow the addition of more ghosts to the mix. The usual four colors return, with three more colors joining them. The traditional ghosts include the red ghost Blinky, the pink ghost Pinky, the cyan ghost Inky, and the orange ghost Clyde. Sue, the ghost introduced in Ms. Pac-Man as the orange ghost, is presented as purple.

As a platform game, Pac-Land was the first game in the series that allowed Pac-Man to jump. Even though Pac-Mania is a return to the maze genre, he has the ability to jump here as well. His jump is difficult to master as it is delayed and floaty by design, since it doesn't need the precision of platform game jumping. Once you get used to jumping, however, it becomes quite convenient to jump over ghosts that aren't activated as the standard edible blue after eating a larger power pellet. To counter Pac-Man's new jump ability, there are now two new ghosts. They are a green ghost named Punky and a grey ghost named Spunky. They are bigger than the regular ghosts, but it is still possible to jump over Punky if Pac-Man times his jump correctly. However, it is impossible to jump over Spunky.

The bonus items once again sit below the ghost gate as in the original Pac-Man. Most of these award the usual bonus points from fruits, but there are two special colored power pellets that give additional affects. If Pac-Man eats a red pellet, the point total for eating the ghosts will be doubled. If Pac-Man eats the green pellet, Pac-Man will temporarily receive a boost in speed.

Beyond the gameplay changes, the presentation also saw a stark change from previous games. The mazes are now laid out isometrically with a 2.5 dimensional presentation. Because the edges of the mazes can now be seen, the graphics make good use of this additional half a dimension. Mazes take on various shapes such as interconnecting Lego-like bricks, mazes that look like neon tubes, pyramid blocks, and cubes. The cutscene breaks also make a return, in a fittingly comical manner.

The sound also matches the upgraded visuals. The eating and dying sound effects are joined by jumping effects, but the standout is the music. Pac-Land had a pleasing loop of the Hanna-Barbara Pac-Man theme song, but this game gives some variety to match each of the levels. It's the pinnacle of sound design for the maze side of the Pac-Man sequels.  

Pac-Mania is a game that takes everything about previous Pac-Man titles and builds upon them. The 2.5D isometric graphics, fun sound effects, and pleasing music really make this game a joy to play. The jumping aspect leaves a bit to be desired, however, as it is not as responsive as those in the Pac-Man platform games. That's the only aspect that brings the score down a bit, but it's not enough to keep it from being one of the best Pac-Man maze games ever produced. 

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Arcade Motorcycle Racing Game: VS. Excitebike

VS. Excitebike was the second game in Nintendo's Excite series, releasing to arcades on the VS. System on December 5, 1984, one day short of a week after the release of the original Excitebike on the Family Computer, the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The game is graphically identical to Excitebike, taking place on a two-dimensional plane with obstacles such as jumps, hills, and mud. It contained the two-button control set up with a regular accelerator button and a turbo button. The turbo button causes the bike to overheat, but switching to regular acceleration or running over an arrow on the track will cause the bike to cool down.

It contains the same motor running sound effects, jumping sounds, and overheating sounds as the original, as well as the catchy music played at the beginning of the tracks and when a race is won, as well as the downbeat music played when a race is lost.

As it was released for the VS. System, the biggest addition this game added was the ability to play a game for two players, connected through the arcade hardware on two separate screens. Because it is an arcade game, the design function of the original game has been removed. To make up for the lack of the ability to create custom tracks, the total amount of tracks has been increased from five to seven. The game also alternates between playing on tracks with one player or many opponents, playing trough all seven tracks twice rather than having a selection between modes at the beginning of the game.

VS. Excitebike is an interesting follow-up to the original Excitebike that adds two tracks not seen before. The Family Computer Disk System port of VS. Excitebike, which is substantially different enough to the arcade game to deserve its own review, is the best way to play the original 8-bit trilogy of sorts. However, now that VS. Excitebike is available to officially purchase for home use, it might be worth checking out if you enjoyed the original game.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Arcade Fixed-Screen Shoot 'em up Review: Space Invaders (Color Version)

The color version of Space Invaders was released in 1979, the year after the release of the game. In the early days of the video game industry, sequels weren't well defined. That's how you ended up with tons of variations of Pong, or games that had the hook of added color. You also sometimes received updates like the color version of Space Invaders, where the game was different under the hood but the cabinet artwork was unchanged.

The original Space Invaders was a completely black and white affair, although some arcades would add a filter over the monitor that would add green and red sections to simulate color. The color version, on the other hand, added a near rainbow of colors. There are now five colors, alongside white. The colors are the green and red of the filter, plus yellow, cyan, and magenta.

It matches the colors of the marquee, as a matter of fact, giving the game a unified feel that upped the whole presentation. In an era where black and white graphics were the norm, a monitor full of color would definitely be a big draw. Since the gameplay remained as addicting as always, it was a good way to get people to the cabinet in an era where keeping up player interest was key.

The primary addition to the game code outside of the addition of color was another that would bring people to the cabinet. Arcade games were all about playing to get the high score, and this update allowed for even higher scores than before. Whereas the original had a limit of four digits, the color update raised the maximum amounts of digits in the score to five.

People who are familiar with the original Space Invaders will also notice that the bases now have numbers on them. This has no real meaning to the game outside of cosmetics, but it will provide the base of the true sequel to Space Invaders, Space Invaders Part II aka Deluxe Space Invaders or Space Invaders Deluxe, which was also released in 1979.

The color version of Space Invaders was a mere stop gap between the first game and its sequel, but it is an interesting footnote in the history of the video game industry. It retains all of the same addicting gameplay of the original and makes it a bit more pleasing with a splash of color. In that sense, it is really just as worthy of a game as its two or four-toned predecessor.

Final verdict:

4 out of 5

Arcade Brick-Breaking Game Review: Arkanoid

Arkanoid was an arcade game by Taito that took the Breakout concept and brought it to new heights. This game was so influential to the block breaking genre that games of this type will often be called Breakout/Arkanoid clones. Not many genres get two progenitors, outside of Metroidvania games.

The game has the usual paddle at the bottom of the screen that bounces a ball toward the blocks above. However, while earlier games of the block breaking genre merely switched things up by having blocks arranged in different shapes or by having blocks that needed to be hit more than once, Taito went further. Arkanoid still had everything in the preceding sentence. However, they added in powerups that could be released by breaking certain blocks, setting the standard for ball breaking games going forward.

The powerups include increasing the size of the paddle that represents a spaceship, giving your ship the ability to fire lasers to break bricks easier, and even one that opens up a warp to the next level. There are power-downs too, so it's necessary to pay attention to the color and markings when they drop down. In some levels, there are also enemies which bounce on top of the uppermost level of blocks. If you break the block underneath, they will drop down toward your ship if you had not already destroyed them with the ball bouncing you bounced off your ship. You can kill them by catching the ball at the right angle. The laser powerup really helps in these situations. There is also a sticky powerup that will cause the ball to stick, allowing you time to release it, which also helps get rid of baddies.

The sound effects and opening theme are actually really well done. The jingle that starts at the beginning of each stage attempt is just a few notes, but they are catchy enough that they stick in your head long after the game is over. The sound design that is amazing is the ball sound effects. A lot of times in games like these, the beep that comes every time the ball bounces from your paddle or on a block begins to get grating because you hear it constantly. Taito has given this sound a gentle little sound that is more of a chime than a beep, which makes it actually pleasant to hear over and over. There are also unique sounds for when the ship changes after a powerup is caught, when the lasers are shot after that particular powerup is gained, and when an enemy is eliminated. Because none of the notes in the music or sound effects are sharp or grating, this is arcade sound design at its finest.

The powerups in Arkanoid really transformed the genre into one that no longer felt like it was stuck in the past. The powerups and power-downs were genius. It makes the game so much more welcoming. The gentle music snippets and sound effects also help to keep it from grating on the ears after a while playing. Arkanoid is not just a true arcade classic, it is also an example of a game that transformed its genre so much that it is now considered the template rather than the game that begot the genre in the first place. Breakout style-games had not had the gameplay additions of Arkanoid before it came out, but they all have them following its release.

Final Verdict:
5 out of 5

Arcade Fighting Game Review: Virtua Fighter 2

Virtua Fighter 2 was the sequel to the influential 3D one-on-one fighting game Virtua Fighter. Like the original, it was developed by the famed internal division within Sega known as Sega AM2. It managed to take everything good about the original and expand upon it in many ways.

The character movement was vastly improved from the original, due to motion capture technology that was advanced for its time. It is still stunted compared to Virtua Fighter 3, due to the fact that the full range of movement would not be introduced in fighting games until the release of SoulCalibur four years later.

Like the original, there was no story, just a batch of fighters competing in a tournament. The improvement upon the original tournament is that the game's cast was expanded. The original cast returns, including a man skilled in the Chinese martial art of Bajiquan named Akira Yuki, a jujitsu fighter named Kage-Maru, the American siblings Sarah Bryant and Jacky Bryant from the United States, Pai Chan and her father Lau Chan from Hong Kong, a First Nations fighter from Canada named Wolf Hawkfield, and an Aboriginal Australian named Jeffry McWild. They are joined by an elderly Chinese man who practices drunken fist kung fu named Shun Di and a wealthy French man who has a kung fu style evocative of a prying mantis named Lion Rafale. 

The ten fighters battle each other to rise up the ranks. As before, the final boss of the tournament is a female cyborg with a body made up of reflective chrome. Dural does not need to be defeated, as if she is not downed by the time the timer runs out, the game continues to the credits regardless. Virtua Fighter 2 was one of my favorite arcade games to play with friends when I was young. I played through the story mode several times but I don't believe I ever managed to defeat Dural. It never bothered me, as the game was still enjoyable regardless. Like the original Virtua Fighter, Dural can also be playable in the home ports of the game via cheat code.

The music and sound effects were created by the Sega sound team. The sound effects added to the whole experience with the slams and throws sounding authentic. There is also a voice cast that supplies the voices of the characters in their intro and winning scenes, which was the standard in fighting games around the time of the games release to the arcades.

Virtua Fighter 2 is an excellent fighting game that was highly influential to the genre. It doesn't have the full range of movement of fighting games from the late 1990s onward, but it is much smoother than the original Virtua Fighter. That is one of the primary reasons the game has received ports through emulation to later consoles and in games in the Like a Dragon series up to this day. It's music, voice acting, and sound effects make it a classic that is worth experiencing if only for historical value to see how far 3D fighting games have come.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Arcade Action Game Review: Adventure Canoe

Adventure Canoe is a game included in Taito's recent EGRET II Mini tiny arcade console that was a big surprise when the game list was announced. It's such an unknown game that Taito only lists it as having been released "overseas". The only mention of it on the internet was a post asking if anyone else had seen the game and mentioning that the game was available in New Zealand. Because of this, few, if any, people could be expected to have thought this game would be included in Taito's mini console. Yet, here we are.

The game, as the title suggests, has you control a canoe with the joystick. You have a speed up button, and one for shooting a gun from the front. It's actually quite fun, but there's a ton of obstacles, so it can get difficult. Maneuvering around the little islands, incoming logs, and moving river locks is difficult as it is. However, you'll have to be careful of the enemies throwing arrows from the river banks. It's really easy to get stuck in the path of the arrow if you're not careful. 

On the sound side, there's a simple looping background song, and bloops for sound effects such as hitting an obstacle, rowing, shooting, and for logs coming toward you, among other things. It's simple, but for a game released in 1982, they do their job well enough.

As far as shooting goes, you can shoot the logs to get them out of the way, and you can also shoot the animals. The latter is hard for me to do, personally. The graphics are bright and colorful. The animals that appear sometimes on the riverbanks are the most detailed part of the art. They look so cute, I just can't bring myself to shoot at them. There's a lion or a fox just chilling in the grass by the river. The little fox is bopping to the sound of her own rhythm and the lion may roar at you. But, they can't reach you, so I can't bring myself to do it, even if it is just a game. I'm crazy like that sometimes. If you can do it, which I'm sure you can, you'll get bonus points for doing so.

Adventure Canoe is a game that has an easy to understand premise. It's not one of the games from the era that aged particularly well, but it is a fun little bop in small doses. The real draw of this is that it is one of the lesser known game in Taito's arcade library. Before the release of the Egret II Mini, the only mention of the game is from a classic gaming forum where a user from New Zealand asked if anyone else has ever heard of the game. For preservation sake, it is always great to see relatively unknown games get a re-release. It's especially great in this case, as arcade developers don't have a good track record of keeping ROM files of their own games, usually falling to archivists like the contributors to the multiple game emulator MAME to extract them from physical boards found out in the wild. It's great to see this game finally get an official home release for Taito enthusiasts.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Arcade Shoot 'Em Up Video Game Review: Pooyan

 

Pooyan was a unique fixed-screen shoot 'em game by Konami where the player's shots were fired by arrows at the side of the screen compared to the usual games in the genre where the player shots come from the bottom to the top.

The main character is a mama pig who has to protect her piglets from hungry red wolves. She rides an elevator controlled by some of her piglets on a cliff on the right side of the screen. Wolves drop off of the cliff on the left holding balloons. Mama fires arrows at the balloons, causing the wolves to crash down to the bottom. The wolves throw rocks, which cause the mama pig to lose a life if hit directly. If they hit the top of the elevator instead, the rock will drop down.

At certain points, the mama pig can also throw meat to the wolves, which will cause them to get distracted, drop the balloon, and fall down to the ground. The latter will earn the mama pig bonus points. If the wolves reach the bottom in tact, they will run over to the ladder to kill mama pig.

In the next level, it will have a ladder that does not reach the bottom. In this case, the wolves will inflate balloons and rise up toward the cliffside instead. Among the regular wolves, there are also boss wolves that ride up in balloons that have to be hit more than once to pop. There is a rock at the top of the left cliffside, and the wolves will push it down to kill mama pig if they reach the grass on the top.

After the end of every two rounds, mama pig will reach a bonus round. There are two types of bonus rounds. In one, the wolves need to be defeated by only throwing meat. In the other, wolves throw fruits and mama pig will earn points by shooting them.

The game has beeps and boops that act as sound effects for arrows being shot and wolves falling to the bottom. The sound of the popping of the balloon is especially effective, as it sounds just like it does in real life. The music played is a traditional American camp song titled "The Other Day I Met a Bear". While that song sounds similar to the theme song in its contemporary Konami arcade game, Frogger, it doesn't have the wide range of music of that game. What is there does work well for the game, though.

Pooyan is an arcade game with an unusual name and one that is not well known today. It is unique compared to other shoot 'em ups of the time because the player shots come from the side rather than the bottom of the screen. The graphics are cute and colorful, which work well for this type of game. The camp song played in the game also fits the animal hijinks and family-friendly gaming that the game represents. It isn't a classic game, but Pooyan is one that is fun to play if you ever get the chance to do so.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Arcade Action Game Review: Frogger

 

Frogger is a successful and influential arcade game that was developed by Konami and distributed by Sega/Gremlin in the United States of America.

Like the best games of the 1980s, it is easy to pick up but difficult to master. The goal is to take frogs across a street, across a river, and then onto a lily pad. There are several obstacles in the way, including automobiles, tractor trailers, snakes, and alligators. The latter can also be used as objects to hop onto in the river, much like the logs. However, the gators open their mouths and become a danger to the frog if it comes into contact with the gaping maw. Once all of the lily pads are filled with frogs, the game jumps to the next level.

As the game goes on, the highways become more packed, the river becomes more populated with alligators, and the logs become more filled with snakes. The vehicles also become faster and the river gets quicker. The latter makes it more difficult to jump into lily pads without becoming gator food. The logs also are less able to be stood upon, as when the river takes them beyond the game playfield, the frog loses its life.

The game is packed full of sound. Beyond the bloop sound that is meant to represent the frog's jumps, there are 26 different song fragments played throughout five stages. After that, the stages loop back to the first, albeit much harder than before. The game has an opening jingle, as was common in arcade games of the early 1980s. But, from there, each stage contains music loops. There is also music for restarting a level after dying, completing a level, and getting a game over. Beyond that, there are a ton of songs that play when a frog has arrived home on a lily pad, with a total of 20 different song fragments used. This was definitely a very lively arcade game, and the variety of songs kept it from feeling too repetitive.

Frogger is a great arcade game that inspired many clones and competitors. It's also one of those games that stood the test of time. There are a ton of frogger clones on various app stores, showing the longevity of the concept. It's very easy to pick up, and super addictive. There's tons of music too, which helps the game remain fun way into the era of constant music in most video game soundtracks. It's likely you've at least come across a clone, but if you haven't played the original, you owe it to yourself to give Frogger a try.

Final Verdict:

5 out of 5

Arcade Maze Game Shoot 'Em Up Compilation Review: Namco 20 Year Reunion: Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga - Class of 1981

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of two of their most popular games, Namco released a cabinet that combined both of them on one printed circuit board. However, like automobiles, it was released in the year before the date listed. It's the release from September 2000, Namco 20 Year Reunion: Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga: Class of 1981.

Both of the games are sequels to popular games that improved upon their predecessors and became classics in their own right. Galaga is the sequel to Galaxian. It featured colorful bug-shaped enemies which had multiple forms of formations as well as attacks. The most unique part of this game was the enemy type which would beam the player ship up and away from the game area. If the player successfully destroyed the enemy, the captured ship would join the current ship to become a double fighter or triple fighter, depending on the amount of ships combined.

Ms. Pac-Man is the first sequel of Namco's popular Pac-Man. It expanded upon the original by having different maze shapes rather than just different colors and bonus fruit that would bounce along the maze rather than just sit in the middle. It was designed by General Computer Corporation as a Pac-Man conversion kit named Crazy Otto. The designers pitched the game to the company that held the American distribution rights to Pac-Man, Midway Manufacturing. Midway liked the game, purchased the rights, and worked with Namco to rework the game into a proper Pac-Man sequel.

This arcade compilation has the dubious reputation of setting off a series of lawsuits relating to the rights of Ms. Pac-Man. GCC claimed they were not paid the residuals that they were stipulated to earn in their agreement with Midway Manufacturing back in the 1980s. This led to a complicated rights battle that would become even more complicated after GCC was disestablished in 2015 and AtGames bought its rights to residuals for the games the former designed for Midway.

Ms. Pac-Man is now no longer included in Namco Museum and Pac-Man compilations, and the character of Ms. Pac-Man is now portrayed by other Pac women, the latest of which is known as Pac Mom. Because GCC also created Jr. Pac-Man, that character has also been replaced by Pac Boy. Midway developed Baby Pac-Man, so that character is now replaced by Pac Sis. It's a really odd situation that has resulted in retro games being edited in re-releases and remakes.

Class of 1981 also includes an awesome easter egg. It's one that I always use when I find the cabinet out in the wild, as even though I prefer Ms. Pac-Man, its fun to play a game not noted on the marquee. If you use a specific combination of joystick moves. If you turn the joystick up, up, up, down, down, down, left, right, left, right, left at the game selection screen, the red ghost Blinky will change into the pink ghost Pinky. Selecting Ms. Pac-Man will now play the original Pac-Man instead.

Namco 20 Year Reunion: Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga: Class of 1981 is a fun compilation of Namco maze games and shoot 'em ups, including Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, and the hidden game Pac-Man. Arcade1Up also has a stand up machine and a countercade that has the name of this compilation, but it includes a different third game, or more in the case of the stand up cabinet because it does not include the Class of 1981 PCB. The games are classics that are still fun to play, and this is a great way to experience them if you ever come across the 20 Year Reunion arcade cabinet.

Final Verdict:

4½ 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