| Waterworld | |||
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| Grade: C |
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Last modified 2006/9/27.
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 VirtualBoy.net.
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Not only is this one of the finest titles for the Virtual Boy, but it may be the most original and inventive pinball game I've ever played! Galactic Pinball features four unique, well-designed 3D tables entitled Alien, Colony, UFO, and Cosmic. Each is loaded with cool targets, multiple flippers, and 3D mini-games. And if you like those cool tubes and passages that run through many real pinball games, you'll really appreciate the ones that run both over and under these tables. Your ball is actually a puck, but it behaves just like a normal pinball would. The skill level is just right and the variety of tables means this game will never get old. Complimenting the sensational visuals is some excellent futuristic techno music. As icing on the cake, the cartridge saves all your high scores. Galactic Pinball is terrific fun, and a real winner for the Virtual Boy.
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This one could have been better, but it still provides some decent, fast-paced sports action. Let's face it - the Virtual Boy's red and black visuals don't lend themselves to the sport of golf very well. The greens, fairways, and roughs are rendered in various patterns of red, and it can be hard to tell them apart, which may be why I found my eyes getting a little dry while playing. Fortunately, you can always reference the easy-to-see overhead view of the course. The main screen steps you through setting your aim, club, stance (for draw and fade), and finally, the swing. To swing you use two meters: Power and spin. The power meter is a moving arc, but there's no golfer below it as in most golf games. Next, a huge ball appears with a dot moving side-to-side across it from top to bottom, and this is used to set the spin. It's a pretty clunky interface compared to most golf games, but it does give you fined-grained control. Once you're finished, you see an animation of a realistic-looking golfer hitting the ball. Actually, the animation is somewhat disjointed, making it look more like he missed the ball completely. While in flight, the ball has a shadow, but following it over the patchwork landscape is hard, so I recommend keeping an eye on the overhead view instead. Golf isn't as user-friendly as most other Virtual Boy games, and there's a steep learning curve, but it's enjoyable once you get the hang of it. Play modes include stroke (for one or two players) and a tournament mode where you compete against 48 computer-controlled players. The cartridge automatically saves records and statistics to internal battery, but for some reason a password is required to save a game in progress. Golf features some nice digitized "crowd reaction" sound effects, and the music isn't too bad either (you can always turn it off if you prefer). There are plenty of other golf games I'd rather to play, but this isn't a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.
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This game is a true showcase of Virtual Boy's 3D technology! Not only is Mario Clash loads of fun, but its unique gameplay really couldn't be duplicated on any other system. Mario Clash is an addictive arcade title that plays like a 3D Mario Brothers. I'm talking about the original Mario Bros. here - the old 1983 arcade game where Mario and Luigi kick turtles and crabs off platforms. In Clash, there's a set of platforms in the background as well as the foreground. The goal of each stage is to eliminate all the creatures using turtle shells. Mario not only can move between both sets of platforms (via pipes), but can even toss shells between the two. Once you get a feel for it, Mario Clash is a satisfying mix of strategy and arcade action. The early levels are fairly straightforward, but the advanced levels require some thought. The controls are responsive, and the crisp graphics make it easy to tell where objects are in relation to the others. This is a must-have for Virtual Boy fans. There are 99 levels in all, and the first 40 are selectable.
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Included with the Virtual Boy system, Mario Tennis is a quality game that provides a fair level of competition. With its unique perspective and simple action, tennis is an ideal application for Virtual Boy's 3D technology. There have been a slew of great tennis video games in recent years, but when this was released, it was easily the best of its kind. The gameplay isn't much different than the excellent Nintendo 64 Mario Tennis that came out many years later. Viewing the action from behind your player, the court has amazing depth. It looks like you're playing at night, and there's even scenery in the background. The ball is large and easy to follow, and the simple control scheme uses A for a normal shot and B for lobs. Shots close to the net and overhead smashes are executed automatically. All your favorite characters are here, including Mario, Luigi, Koopa, Toad, Donkey Kong Jr., Yoshi, and Princess Toadstool. You can play single matches or tournaments, and even doubles! The only drawback to the doubles is that you can't always see what your partner is doing due to the close camera angle. But it's still a nice feature. To excel at Mario Tennis, you really need to learn how to play the net. Overhead smashes and drop shots are the only way to beat the game on the hard level. Mario Tennis is a solid title that set the standard for Virtual Boy games.
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The word "funky" doesn't exactly come to mind when I play Nester's Funky Bowling, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun. Unlike other Virtual Boy games that tend to emphasize elaborate 3D effects, Nester's Bowling is so basic that you'll barely notice the graphics. That's okay, because its fast pace, simple control scheme, and addictive gameplay will hook you almost immediately. After lining up your bowler, there's a simple spin meter followed by a power gauge that initiates your roll. Together these two meters provide a remarkable degree of control. Like most bowling games, your initial point of view is from behind your bowler, but once you throw the ball you get a close-up of the pins. The pins look decidedly flat, but they ricochet around realistically - making it possible to pick up some nasty splits. The soundtrack is very good, and there are some amusing animations when you throw a split, spare, or strike. In addition to normal bowling, there's also a terrific "challenge" mode that presents various pin combinations for you to knock down. Nester's Funky Bowling is a pleasant surprise, and quite possibly the most entertaining bowling game I've ever played.
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Ugh - I don't like this one at all. I expected the Virtual Boy to have a 3D shooter like this, but I can't get over just how bad it is. In Red Alarm you guide a spaceship through underground caverns while shooting wire-frame enemies. The A and B buttons let you speed up or slow down, and R is used to fire. Besides firing straight ahead, there is a confusing lock-on system that automatically shoots homing missiles as well. The L button lets you turn sharply in order to navigate some of the more tricky corridors. Flying under barriers and between posts brought back bad memories of old Star Wars games. Thank goodness you don't take damage for scraping against the walls! But I think Red Alarm's real problem is that it's too ambitious. There are so many enemies and explosions on the screen that you can't tell what's going on. Changing to a third-person view helps, but there are other problems. The screen is cluttered with far too many gauges and indicators, and it's hard to stay in control when you use the L button, due to the choppy frame rate. There are some cool enemies, like the wall that changes into a face, but the boss stages are almost unbearable because they take place in an enclosed arena, so you have to constantly turn around. And when you die, you're sent all the way back to the beginning of the stage - talk about demoralizing! Red Alarm could have been a decent game, but it tried to do too much and collapsed under its own weight.
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This innovative boxing game is the most intense title I've played on my Virtual Boy, and without a doubt the most visually compelling. Sporting a first-person point-of-view, Teleroboxer challenges you to box a series of fearsome robot warriors. Most of them are animal inspired in design, and each has some kind of special ability that alters your strategy. The graphics are stunning - I'd give them an A+. Your opponents bob and weave fluidly, and their fists move toward you in 3D. Your punches are effectively rendered as floating fists, and you can throw jabs, hooks, and uppercuts. Thanks to a clever control scheme that takes advantage of the symmetrical design of the Virtual Boy control pad, you can easily dodge, guard, and duck as well. This game is a perfect fit for the Virtual Boy, but it's very hard. After the first opponent, the game gets very difficult very fast, which kind of turned me off. In my experience, the later opponents require you take a defensive approach, blocking their punches before you get a chance to connect. The cartridge saves up to three records, so you don't have to go back and fight old opponents. By and large Teleroboxer is a game any Virtual Boy fan should own.
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Every system needs a good shooter, and Vertical Force tries to fill that niche for the Virtual Boy. The Video Game Critic loves shooters more than anything else in the whole wide world, but I just couldn't get into this one, no matter how hard I tried. Vertical Force has some cool original ideas, but the gameplay is terribly uneven. It's a vertically-scrolling shooter that's played on two planes - the foreground and background. In some ways, it's like playing two shooters at the same time. The game makes good use of the Virtual Boy's 3D capabilities, but it's just not that much fun. You can move between planes using the A button, which is not only necessary to reach all the enemies, and also to dodge enemy fire and avoid crashing into structures. Instead of lives, you have one damage meter that decreases whenever you run into something, which makes the game a lot easier. Another unique element is the "drones" you can collect. These well-armed remote devices can attack independently, and often do most of your work for you! They zip around the screen and between planes, destroying every enemy like a heat-seeking missile. There are three types of drones that can be swapped in and out on the fly, which sounds pretty cool but can be confusing in the heat of battle. The layered graphics do the job but aren't particularly impressive. For one thing, there's entirely too much "red" in this game, with many large, overlapping, red platforms in the later stages. Some of the bosses are innovative (like the elevator boss in the screenshot), but they tend to repeat. A few sound effects, like the laser fire, are so high pitched that I wanted to turn the volume down. Another annoyance is that the game doesn't bother displaying your score when it's over. What's the point of even keeping score if you can't see it?? Shooter fans might enjoy the novelty of Vertical Force, but once that wears off, you're stuck with a very mediocre game.
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I've read several reviews of this game, and most have been negative, but I see a lot of good in Virtual League Baseball. It has an "old-school" thing happening that I find very appealing. The behind-the-batter view gives you a perfect angle of incoming pitches, and you easily position your batter or pitcher by sliding them around. I much prefer the simple pitching meter in this game over the tedious "pitching cursors" employed in most modern baseball games. Once the ball is hit, the screen changes to a full-stadium view, with tiny fielders and a large, easy-to-follow ball. Despite the size of the players, the graphics aren't bad and the stadium looks terrific, although the moon looks like its hanging just over the center field fence. The bridge and mountains in the background suggest San Francisco. I also really dig the catchy music that loops over and over. The controls are quite intuitive, letting you dive for grounders, bunt, and steal bases with no problem. You can even juggle your roster, pinch-hit, and pick off runners intent to steal. So what's the bad news? Well, it's never easy to position those tiny fielders, and they all move in unison. Move your second baseman right to catch a grounder, and now your first basemen is over near the dugout! Even lazy fly balls can be an adventure. Runners move too fast, and there are way too many homeruns. The teams aren't the major league variety, but foreign countries. Typical of Japanese baseball games, when one team gets ahead by ten runs they automatically win "by domination", but this is not necessarily a bad thing! Play modes include a "versus computer" mode, an all-star game, and a "pennant race" mode that challenges you to beat all of the other teams (it provides a password). Overall, I like Virtual League Baseball a lot, although a nine inning game can run pretty long for a Virtual Boy session. It definitely provides a worthy challenge once you become proficient at it. If the fielding were a little more forgiving, this would be a must-have game.
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Wario Land combines the timeless fun of classic Mario gameplay with amazing 3D visuals that only the Virtual Boy is capable of. You play as Wario, Mario's grumpy alter ego. Like a typical side-scroller, you hop on platforms, jump on creatures, and bump blocks to expose hidden items. Wario can also throw overturned adversaries and perform a "rush" attack. Power-ups allow him to double in size, and some even bestow him with special powers. It all looks familiar at first, but before long you begin seeing 3D elements that wouldn't be possible in a normal Mario game. Not only are these 3D effects visually impressive, but they actually play an integral role in the gameplay. Special springs let you vault to other platforms in the background, and thanks to the Virtual Boy's sharp graphics, it's no problem to control your tiny Wario in the distance. Many adversaries move back and forth between the foreground and background, and you'll need good timing to elude them. The enemies are interesting, and I especially like the charging knights and fish with chainsaw noses. Wario Land is a quality game through and through. The sprites are huge, and the multi-layered backgrounds compensate for the lack of color. There are a few mini-games that let you bet your coins, and an nice auto-save feature tells you exactly how far you've made it through the game. I know the Virtual Boy is only capable of stereo sound, but Wario Land's audio sounds like it's surrounding you - it's that good! The mellow music is also commendable. Wario Land probably never got the attention it deserved, but it's an outstanding platform game, and Virtual Boy fans shouldn't miss it.
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To my knowledge, there are only two people on the entire planet that will openly admit to liking the infamous "Waterworld" movie: Myself and a friend of mine named Ken. Ken was once accused of having a "man crush" on Kevin Costner (by me), but he vehemently denied the allegations. We both suspect there are a lot of other "closet" Waterworld fans out there just waiting go public. Anyway, the timing for this review is pretty good, as I just picked up the film on DVD for six bucks and watched it the other night. I'm telling you - it's awesome! But like the movie itself, most critics summarily dismissed this game without even giving it a chance. Personally, I think it's a perfectly respectable shooter. Each round begins with a group of people waving their arms in the ocean, surrounded by a few metal structures. "Smokers" riding jet skis converge from the outer edges and begin to kidnap the people. By simply steering your boat and firing with the shoulder buttons, you can send those Smoker bastards to a watery grave. You view the action from behind your vessel, and the 3D effect is pretty convincing. I love the rapid-fire shooting action, and the polygon explosions aren't bad either. The end-of-round score tally offers ample eye candy, including villain Dennis Hopper shaking his disembodied head at you in disapproval. While certainly shallow, Waterworld's gameplay somewhat reminded me of Defender. The graphics are sharp, but they do get a bit choppy in later stages. The beautiful but desolate musical score perfectly matches the original soundtrack of the film. Perhaps the game's most glaring flaw is its single difficulty level. It's not as challenging as one would like, so the games tend to run a bit long. That's not good for a system that advises you to "rest" your eyes every fifteen minutes! Overall I had a pretty good time playing this. Like the movie, Waterworld is no classic but if you're in the mood for some action it delivers the goods.
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