| Hook | |||
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| Grade: D |
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Last modified 2006/10/26.
The overriding criteria is how fun the game is to play, although control, graphics, and sound are also taken into account. |
Screen shots courtesy of Video Game Museum, GameScreenShots.com, Video Game Advantage.
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When it first burst upon the scene F-Zero was really pushing the envelope in the world of racing games. This futuristic racer utilizes the Super Nintendo's advanced "mode 7" technology to convey the illusion of smooth movement over a flat, bit-mapped surface. The graphics are colorful and vibrant, almost to the point of being gaudy. Although the tracks are detailed, they are also noticeably flat and all tend to look the same. There are some 2D structures in the background to attempt to compensate for this, but in general there's not much eye candy. You can select from four vehicles, each with their own handling and speed characteristics. As you glide around the tracks, you can collect power-ups, boost through straight-aways, and jump small ramps. A one-player game only, the object is to compete in a series of events in an attempt to gain the number one ranking. The early races are surprisingly challenging. Unfortunately, F-Zero has not held up well over the years, especially since the release Mario Kart, which blows it away. It's too polished to get a failing grade, but few players will argue that F-Zero has not aged well.
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Fatal Fury 2 marks a dramatic improvement over the original one-on-one fighter. There are only eight fighters, but you can choose from any of them. The animation is improved, and the background scenery is quite attractive. The controls have been revamped to include high and low kicks, high and low punches, and two additional attacks. Certain moves even let you to move between the foreground or background planes, giving the game a 3D element. The audio is still weak though, with muffled sound effects and tunes you won't find yourself singing in the shower. The main thing that struck me about Fatal Fury 2 is how similar it is to Street Fighter 2. Not only are the controls similar, but the overall presentation is a carbon copy, all the way down the to globe on the character select screen. And one last thing - could they come up with a less attractive group of fighters? I mean, there's only one female, and half of the characters are obese!
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Final Fight is an enjoyable side-scrolling brawler along the lines of Streets of Rage (Genesis, 1991) only with much larger characters. The two playable characters include the hulking, muscular Haggar and the leaner, more agile Cody. I prefer Haggar because he can finish off enemies much faster. But despite its two playable characters and "buddy" storyline, Final Fight is inexplicably one-player only! Final Fight's thugs are decked out in tacky, brightly colored outfits, and you can often see them loitering in the background before deciding to enter the fray. One of the more memorable bad guys is an "Andre the Giant" look-alike named "Andore" (to avoid legal issues no doubt). You tend to face the same set of characters over and over, but a new one is introduced every so often. The action is somewhat repetitive but par for the course as these games go. Combinations of the jump and punch buttons provide all of your moves, and pressing both initiates a special attack. Final Fight is definitely on the easy side, thanks to dumb enemies who line up so you can clock several at a time. Abundant and effective weapons like knives, pipes, and samurai swords also makes your quest easier. The city street and subway scenery is colorfully detailed, and there are even a few bonus stages that let you smash up cars (a la Street Fighter II). The audio is lacking, with muffled sound effects and generic music, but otherwise this is a very respectable fighter. Final Fight didn't turn out to be as "final" as its title would suggest, as two sequels followed.
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You would expect Final Fight 2 to be an improvement over the original, but it's actually less fun. There are three characters to choose from, including Haggar (from the last game), Carlos (replacing Cody), and a shapely blonde named Maki. New features include a much-needed two-player mode, an option menu, and Haggar's new suplex move. Otherwise it's the same side-scrolling action you've seen before, with most of the thugs shamelessly recycled from the last game. They aren't any smarter this time around, although they do perform cheap "chest butt" running attacks. Never in my life have I seen such a boring, uninspired collection of stages. Each takes place in a different area of the world, so you'd expect them to see some exotic scenery, right? But no, you find yourself in an airport in Hong Kong, a construction site in France, a sewer in Germany, and a train depot in England! Ugh! And then there's the difficulty level, which is absolutely pathetic. The first Final Fight was easy enough, but this one is a complete cakewalk, constantly awarding you with new lives and piling on six continues! Far too easy and repetitive, you'll probably switch off Final Fight 2 long before you've gone exhausted your lives.
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It would be hard to imagine a more derivative side-scrolling beat-em-up than Final Fight 3. I still can't get over how spectacularly lame this game is. It borrows so many elements from the Streets of Rage series that it's almost criminal. Four playable characters include veterans Haggar and Guy, along with the electricity-wielding Dean and a lesbian named Lucia (armed with Chun Li's lightning kick). The fighters are huge, well-defined, and equipped with a fair number of moves, but the good news ends there. Final Fight 3 suffers from the worst case of chronic slow-down I've ever experienced in a video game. In the two-player mode, the animation routinely slows to a crawl! It's absolutely appalling! The "Skull Cross gang" characters are completely recycled from previous Final Fight games (including Andore and his ultra-cheap "chest" attack). It's bad enough to beat up the same five guys over and over in one game - but after three games it's just agonizing. But Final Fight 3's worst crime may be the stage locations it shamelessly copies from Streets of Rage. There's the bridge, dock, cargo hold of a ship, and - you guessed it - the obligatory moving elevator. The single stage that's even remotely interesting is the colorful Chinatown, but that's very brief. You'll want to adjust the difficulty to "hard", because at "normal" you can cruise through this game without even breaking a sweat! The shoddy audio features muffled sound effects, and the electronic soundtrack is mostly forgettable, although it does have its moments. A total rehash, Final Fight 3 continued the series on its downward spiral.
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This overlooked vertical shooter lets you play as a tank or helicopter, or team up with a friend to unleash some major destruction! First impressions are important, and Firepower 2000 does not disappoint with a nice intro featuring some outstanding thumping music! Quality audio and crisp, vibrant graphics makes it clear that this is not a Genesis shooter. And Firepower 2000 plays as good as it looks. Each vehicle has its own abilities and advantages. The tank can shoot in all directions, but the helicopter is more mobile and not affected by surface terrain. The shoulder buttons toggle your weapons, each of which has three levels of power. The explosions are quite satisfying. Firepower 2000 is a blast, especially with two players.
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I was a huge fan of "Zombies Ate My Neighbors", an SNES title that parodied every classic old horror film ever made. A sequel was much deserved, but Ghoul Patrol is not what I had in mind. Although Patrol offers more of the same with a few new features, its monumental difficulty and dull stage designs drag it down. Like Zombies, you assume a male or female character attempting to rescue clueless civilians. While many of the monsters look comical, a few (like the Frankenstein monsters) look pretty freaky. The creatures look sharp but the scenery is uninteresting, with generic houses and castles that all look the same. When the monsters aren't smacking you around, you'll have to dodge possessed floating objects like books. I like the new guided missile weapon, but each monster requires about ten hits to destroy, and once they converge there's little you can do. And while I can accept the fact that monsters need to regenerate, I hate how some portals are situated in critical spots such as in front of doors. Ghoul Patrol is too hard for its own good. You collect items like weapons, key, health, and potions, but even some of the potions are harmful! And adding insult to injury, although the instructions claim you get a password after each stage, in actuality you only get one every few stages. In terms of audio, most of the sound effects are recycled from Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and the music isn't nearly as catchy. In fact, these tunes sound like rejects from the first game. It doesn't look like much effort was put into Ghoul Patrol, and the result is disappointing.
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In the arcade, Gradius III was one of the most insanely difficult games you could ever encounter. The SNES version of this side-scrolling space shooter is much easier, which is probably a good thing. The key to the game is collecting pods to cash in for weapons and power-ups. There's quite a bit of strategy involved in selecting the proper power-up for the situation. The graphics here are nearly identical to the arcade, although slow-down rears its ugly head all too often and threatens to ruin the fun. When there are too many objects on the screen, the action slows to a crawl, only to speed up again when things clear out. Not only is this annoying, but it adversly affects the flow of the game. That's too bad, because otherwise this is a solid all-around shooter.
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Based on the critically-disparaged film starring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman, Hook offers beautiful graphics but exasperating gameplay. You play the role of Peter Pan in this side-scrolling, hack-n-slash platform game. You'll sword-fight your way through scenic mountains, forests, and pirate ships. You can even fly for short distances. Hook's production values are beyond reproach. Its bright graphics are bursting with color, and the detail in the scenery is amazing. As Peter leaps into the air his sleeves actually flutter in the wind. The outstanding visuals are paired with a rollicking musical score that really whets your appetite for adventure. My enthusiasm was dampened however when I realized how frustrating and unforgiving Hook is to play. The controls are responsive enough, but you move slowly, so although the stages are modest in size, traversing them is time-consuming. Worse yet, losing a life forces you to restart the stage all the way from the beginning, and you'll be losing your share of lives thanks to the unavoidable projectiles that appear without warning as you navigate tight spaces. Also annoying is how you can "overlap" an enemy - an unfortunate predicament that usually spells instant death. In some sections of the game you'll execute a jump that appears perfectly safe, only to watch Peter plummet to his death. Hook offers unlimited continues, and I think I went through about half of them trying to review this [expletive] game. The lack of a password feature was the final straw. I really wanted to like Hook, but a strong presentation amounts to very little without solid gameplay to back it up.
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An unremarkable shooter with mediocre graphics and rampant slowdown, Imperium was one of those early SNES duds that gave the system a bad rap. Imperium's intro looks fairly heinous (that city looks like a rug!) but the music is one of those catchy 16-bit tunes that you can't get out of your head. In terms of gameplay, Imperium is a somewhat engaging vertical shooter with four types of rapid-fire weapons. Instead of racking up a score, you earn "experience points" which augment your weapons and firepower. It's cool how the top of the screen keeps you posted on how many experience points are needed to reach the next level. The first stage offers some seriously uninspired foes (pods and such), but later you encounter more imaginative enemies, including octopus-shaped beasts and robotic lobsters that detach from their tails. The static background scenery is totally unconvincing, with "water" that looks more like blue silly putty. Those tiny white sea gulls in stage two are a nice touch though. Imperium's biggest flaw is its failure to maintain a steady framerate - the action slows to a crawl when things get crazy. Other issues include indestructible cannons (damn it!), inexplicable lulls in the action, and pods that "sneak up" from behind (cheap!). And why is there no audible noise when your ship takes a hit? Despite these ills however, I did enjoy Imperium's frenetic action and considerable challenge. You'll want to set the difficulty to "easy" if you hope to reach the later stages. Casual SNES players can safely pass on Imperium, but 2D shooter fanatics may find this worth their while.
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I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan, having seen the trilogy about a dozen times. So naturally I was pretty psyched about a game that recreates action sequences from all three movies. Stages inspired by the first film include the famous boulder sequence, the streets of Cairo, and the Well of Souls (snakes!). Stages from the second movie take place in the Chinese Club, an Indian Palace, the temple of Doom, and that rickety rope bridge. For the Last Crusade you'll traverse catacombs, explore a German castle, and ride a Zeppelin, to name a few. The look and feel of this game is very similar to LucasArt's Star Wars games for the SNES. Indy is nicely animated even though he looks like he picked up a few pounds. Your enemies look fearsome but act like idiots, wandering back and forth in their little predefined zones. The crystal-clear background music is lifted straight from the movies, and there are some awesome audio samples including chanting in the Temple of Doom. Three cool 3D sequences provide a welcome change of pace from the side-scrolling action, effectively recreating the snow raft, mine cart, and biplane scenes. Each manages to convey an uncanny sense of speed. Between levels you're treated to photo-quality stills from the movies and a password is displayed. With so much going for it, you're probably wondering why I gave this game a B-. Well, it's mainly due to the constant annoyances not unlike those found in the Star Wars games. There seems to be an endless army of small, annoying animals constantly nipping at your heels and interrupting your jumps. And they're present in every level! In one particular stage you even have to contend with rock-dropping birds! I definitely don't remember that from the movie! Another problem is an over-emphasis on hopping between narrow platforms. These "leaps of faith" really get old after a while. Still, if you have enough patience of overlook these flaws, Indiana Jones gives you a lot of adventure for your money.
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This video game edition of the popular game show is designed for one to three players. All the segments of the actual show are present, including Jeopardy, Double Jeopardy, and Final Jeopardy. Alex Trebek appears in the game, but only to pop up before each question just to say "The answer is..." Oh well, at least those distinctive music and sound effects are included. The first time I played Jeopardy I had an awful first round, earning a score in the negatives. During the second round however I started getting into a groove, and it was fun. The topics make all the difference in the world, so I really appreciate the option to choose a new set of topics if you don't like the ones given. Your answers must be entered letter by letter, but the interface is well designed and will tolerate some degree of spelling errors. If you've seen the show on television, you know the questions tend to be very hard, but the game gives you an advantage by making the CPU-controlled opponents slow to hit the buzzer. It takes a while to play an entire game, but if you enjoy the TV show, you will like this.
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Madden football was an institution on the 16-bit video game consoles, but its first SNES incarnation is just plain rough. Released around the same time as Madden '92 for the Genesis, this version appears to have an edge at first glance. The players are exceptionally sharp and the sound effects are much clearer than the Genesis game. Unfortunately the gameplay is marred by choppy animation, almost to the point of being unplayable. The erratic scrolling is very disorienting, causing players to jump around and making it hard to follow the action. Longtime Madden vets will also remember (but not miss) the three "passing windows" that provide a very limited view of your receivers. Players are constantly substituted before almost every play, needlessly slowing down the action. John Madden Football for the SNES has all the features of the Genesis version - the only difference is, you won't want to play this one.
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This sequel to Desert Strike sends you on a series of "surgical strike" missions in a well-armed helicopter. The 45-degree view of the action nicely conveys the illusion of 3D graphics while providing the best angle of the action. The first few missions involve protecting Washington DC from terrorists, but for some reason downtown DC has no traffic - just acres of green meadows! Apparently none of the programmers have ever actually been to DC. Eventually you'll attack a snow fortress in Siberia before finally starting on the jungle-based scenarios. Your copter is equipped with a machine gun and a limited supply of missiles. Jungle Strike is hard and the action is intense. You need to proceed cautiously, because getting caught in crossfire can mean instant death. In some stages you ride a motorcycle, stealth bomber, or hovercraft, but I found these to be difficult to control and less fun than the helicopter. The SNES edition of Jungle Strike looks more polished than the original Genesis game, with cleaner graphics and smoother animation (less jerky). The explosions look much improved and the tiny terrorists actually scream when shot. On the down side, the music sounds dull and muffled, and your helicopter looks like it's only hovering about ten feet in the air! Jungle Strike is a decent sequel, but you can tell that the series was starting to spread itself a little thin.
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This phenomenal baseball game is even better than the first Ken Griffey game, and that's saying a lot. The pitcher/batter view is now angled low enough so you can see the stadiums in the background, and they look fantastic. Once the ball is hit, you view the field from a much higher angle. This makes the fielders appear small but makes it easy to track down the fly balls. The players look more realistic than they did in the first Ken Griffey game, although Ken himself looks ridiculously buff on the title screen. Winning Run preserves the fast-paced gameplay of the first Ken Griffey, and the crowd and umpire sound effects are noticeably improved. The only faults I could determine are the lack of major league players and no instant replay. Otherwise, this is the best baseball game I've played on the SNES.
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I wasn't a big fan of this 2D fighter "back in the day", but in retrospect Killer Instinct isn't bad at all. Released at the height of fighting-game mania (1995), Instinct sold millions of copies the day it was released, but never reached the level of popularity of a Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Besides being a damn good-looking game, Killer Instinct's claim to fame is it's highly touted combo system. The idea of stringing together attacks began with Street Fighter II, but Killer Instinct takes the concept to the extreme. Thus, with a lot of practice (or a little luck) you can pull off 15-hit combos while your opponent stands there like a chump. Since the combos are not listed in the manual, a lot of research and practice is required to become truly proficient at them, although button mashing can occasionally achieve positive results as well. I'm not a big fan of the whole combo thing, but I do appreciate the easy-to-execute special moves with their Street Fighter-like controls. The game is fun and the one-player mode has a "one-more-time" addictive quality. Visually, Killer Instinct is a knockout. The fighters are probably the most interesting bunch I've ever seen in a fighting game. There's a skeleton, a werewolf, a boxer, a Native American, a ninja, a robot soldier, and a raptor, just to name a few. The single female fighter is a black woman named Orchid. The action is not as fluid as the arcade, but still commendable. I love the imaginative "dizzy" animations, such as the robot short-circuiting or the Indian coughing. But while the fighters look great, the backgrounds are uninspired, featuring dull, static ruins, temples, and city skylines. Before each match, a slick intro screen depicts both combatants up close in impressive 3D. And as sharp as the visuals are, the audio is even better. The digitized voices and effects are crystal clear, and the background music rocks! Just hearing those tunes again brings back fond memories of having my buddies over when still living at home. A CD of music ("Killer Kuts") was included with the game, but the songs aren't nearly as impressive outside of the game. Killer Instinct comes in a jet-black cartridge, and stands as one of the better fighting games for the SNES.
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This obscure side-scrolling beat-em-up is a sentimental favorite of mine. It plays like a classy Golden Axe with no monsters but better visuals. The beautiful graphics feature majestic castles and picturesque medieval landscapes, and a lavishly orchestrated musical score perfectly compliments the theme. You select from one of three legendary characters, including King Author, Lancelot, and Perceval. You accumulate experience levels as you slay knights, barbarians, jesters, and magicians. Money and food fall from enemies you strike down, providing points and health. I have to admit it looks pretty funny when you kill a knight and a big bowl of salad falls out of him. Naturally each stage ends with the obligatory boss battle. Knights of the Round is a fine looking title, but it suffers from repetitive gameplay. You only have two attacks - a standard hack and a "mega crush" attack (which you'll want to save for tight situations). There's a guard move, but it's practically useless. Hacking up endless bad guys gets monotonous, and there's not much diversity between the three playable characters. By far the coolest feature is the ability to knock a knight off of his horse and mount the horse yourself. Unfortunately, there's only two or three opportunities to do this trick in the entire game. The two player simultaneous action is fun enough, but slowdown runs rampant at times. And while the music is excellent, the sound effects are horribly muffled. Knights of the Round is no classic, but fighting fans with an appreciation for 16-bit graphics should take a look.
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This is one of the best-looking SNES titles you'll ever find. Each stage in Lion King's world is bursting with vivid, colorful background scenery and well-animated animals of all sizes. You can interact with many of the animals, and many will help you in your quest. The game closely follows the storyline of the film. You begin as a baby Simba, but eventually grow into a mature lion. One unique feature is your ability to roar, which has different effects depending on what you direct it at. Also included is an exciting 3D stampede stage and some fun bonus rounds that let you play as Timba and Pumba. Lion King is a high quality title, but it does stumble here and there. Certain stages require far too much jumping between ledges, and it's very easy to become lost in the cave stages. There's a bit of frustration to be had, but fans will love how this great-looking game remains so faithful to the movie.
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