VGH 101: The Real Super Mario Bros. 2

As odd as it may seem to most gamers who either have a high affinity towards the Super Mario Bros. series or those who who may simply respect it from afar, this title was not originally a Mario game at its inseption. To start from the beginning, the first Super Mario Bros. game was a huge commercial victory for Nintendo as a company, but also had a hand in rebuilding the video game industry in the North American territories after the crippling effects of the Video Game Market Crash of 1983. It helped turn Nintendo into a household name. With that, Nintendo went on to ride the coat tails of their new success by doing the first game justice by making a sequel to it. The following year, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. 2 domestically in Japan for play on the Famicom Disk System (FDS), a moduler adaptor for the Famicom (Aka the Family Computer, which was the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S.).  
This game was less of a full overhaul of the previous game’s formula, and more served as an expansion of what the first game was. There were more diverse levels, a couple new power-ups, as well as a substantial increase in difficulty. However, the graphics were only marginally better than the first game. The original plan, like what was done with other first party titles like The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, was that this game would later ported to a solid state cartridge so that it could be released in Amaerica. However, the current president of Nintendo of America, Howard Lincoln, felt that this game was simply too difficult a game and did not offer much innovation when compared to the first Super Mario Bros. game and advised that something be done to it before releasing it in the United States.
Meanwhile, in Japan, other interesting things were happening. The year was 1987, which was marked by a major event in Japan, most specifically the Dream Factory Festival which was being broadcasted and hosted by Fuji Television. This fact is significant as it factors into one of Nintendo’s current major endeavors of that year.  Shigeru Miyamoto, the founding father of Mario as a game and franchise was hard at work on another game; one that had absolutely nothing to do with Mario… yet. The game was known as  夢工場 ドキドキパニック, which literally translates as, “Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic!”. Nintendo was designing this game specifically for the festival and created the setting, levels, and game play. However, Nintendo did not invent the characters. The four playable main protagonists were the main mascots of the Dream Factory Festival and consisted of Mama, Papa, Imajin, and Lina. 
After the game made its debut in Japan, making a release on the FDS, Nintendo of America looked at the game and noticed that it was a platformer like Super Mario Bros. 2, but was not nearly as difficult as it. Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic was then slightly modified to exclude any story any characters related to the festival and include Mario in the place of Imajin, Princess taking over for Lina, Luigi replacing Mama, and Toad substitutung for Papa. There some other alterations to the game such as the ending being redone so that it suggests that this new Mario adventure was simply a dream that Mario had. Also, Speed in which the waterfall water flowed was slowed a bit in some stages. Lastly, the Fifth world’s boss character was changed to Clawgrip. 
Though this was to be the official Super Mario Bros. 2 in North America, many caught on to what Nintendo did most reacted with disgust and anger over what happened after dicovering the truth. Most felt that no one outside of Japan would ever get to play the true version of this game. Some even go on to even say that the American version is not a true Mario title. It is interesting how America would never get the original game for the NES, even though Japan saw the release of Super Mario USA, which was a translated version of the North American Super Mario Bros. 2 put out on the Famicom.
However, the United States would eventually get the original Super Mario Bros. 2 game in some way with the release of Super Mario All Stars for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. this game featured graphically enhanced versions of the thre Super Mario Bros. game released in America as well as a fourth titled Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. This fourth game is actually the original Japan-only release of Super Mario Bros. 2. Another instance of a release was seen in the game Super Mario Bros. Deluxe with an unlockable mode called “For Super Players”.

Game Review: Journey to Silius (NES)

Game Title: Journey to Silius
Release Date: 1990
Developer: Sunsoft
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre/Type: run and gun, platformer

Game Rating: [V/V]

Journey to Silius is a fantastic culmination of challenging run and gun and platform game play, immense difficulty, a well varied arsenal, as well as a stellar soundtrack. This game is simply greater than the sum of its parts. 

Journey to Silius is very interesting, yet obscure run and gun game. Developed and published by Sunsoft, the game falls into an odd space graphically, musically, and mechanically. This title focuses mostly on shooting and traversing the environment through jumping from one platform to the next in a ‘stage to stage’ structure. However, it does not function at all like its peers in the genre.
In Journey to Silius you play the role of Jay McCray. The year is 0373 of the space faring era. Jay’s father, a prestigious scientist, is working on a project to develop and create a space colony within the Silius Solar System (SSS). Unfortunately, he and the rest of his research team are killed in a nuclear explosion that completely obliterates the entire station. Jay is told that his father’s death was simply a freak accident. However, after searching through his father’s room at home, Jay finds a floppy disk with a text file explaining that terrorists had been planning an attempt on his father’s life to stifle the creation of the space colony. Jay decides to follow in his father’s footsteps to develop the space colony, but not until he makes his way to Silius in order to find these terrorists and kill them, thus avenging his father’s murder.
The story is very disjointed and some areas of it are ambiguous, but not in a way that makes it seem like it was intentional. As a result, there’s a bit of disconnect between the narrative and the core game play of Journey to Silius. Also, there is only one cut scene which explains this and there are no other scenes that carry the story along throughout the game, so there is no real character or story development. This would not be necessary in normal cases, but this game made the start and does not have any follow through. In the end, the game’s story is pretty weak.
However, the other aspects of Journey to Silius are most likely to make you overlook this one shortcoming. The shooting portion of this title is solid as it takes a cue from other Nintendo Entertainment System games like Bionic Commando and Rolling Thunder. There is no aiming upward or in diagonal directions. This could normally cripple a run and gun game made after the game Contra, but each of the stages in Journey to Silius is designed to cater to Jay’s shooting capacity. Another aspect of this game that makes the shooting more accessible is the inclusion of an inventory where Jay can access any guns he finds after killing enemies. Jay starts out with a simple hand gun and a shotgun, but can eventually acquire weapons like a laser cannon and grenade launcher. All the other special weapons have and share a limited amount of ammunition as where the hand gun has unlimited ammunition. Some of these weapons will make some sections of certain stages much easier to get past without taking on damage.
One interesting thing to point out about the enemies in Journey to Silius is that most of them are environmental hazards like distant missile silos, ceiling and floors mounted laser cannons, land mines, flame throwers, motion sensitive spear contraptions, and so on; not necessarily just sentient enemies. There are sentient enemies that range from slow to fast and some are armed and this combination both sentient and level centric dangers combines to make a great challenge for gamers who seek to test the mettle of their game playing prowess. Another core aspect of Journey to Silius is the platform game play. This is the very thing that requires getting used to, as it does not function like any other game of the genre that uses a jumping mechanic. Jay is able to run, crouch and go prone, and jump to the right and left. The surprising aspect about the jumping physics is that while in the air you have little control over Jay, which is much more realistic than other games that came out around this time. Also, if Jay runs off an edge he will fall in a diagonal direction rather than falling straight downward, again going with the grain of realistic movement.
With increased realism in movement comes increased difficulty. With that, Journey to Silius has a significantly steep learning curve. This is not for anyone who is not willing to unlearn movement and jumping mechanics of other popular platformers like Mario and Mega Man. Most first time players will find themselves falling on top of enemies and hazards that they were inherently trying to avoid. Another part about the jumping in the game is whether or not you are in the middle of a jump, getting injured will make Jay shunt backward. If you were in the middle of jumping over a bottomless pit and get injured in the process, chances are you will be met with instantaneous death. Journey to Silius’ difficulty is substantial, but it is not cruel; it is just unforgiving. The controls in this game are solid and responsive for the most part. The only weird part about the game in terms of control is that while changing direction or going into a prone position you cannot jump. However, this is just a small issue and can again be chalked up it being because of this game’s theme of mechanical realism.
The graphics in Journey to Silius are fantastic and exceed the watermark left by other games that have come out during the same year. Everything from character sprites to the stage environments to the bosses that takes one half to the whole screen, the artwork crammed into this 2 Mbit cartridge meets the current standard at the time. Jay’s animations have three frames at the very least with ducking, but can range up to five frames when he turns from left to right and vice versa. Each action stage is more unique than the last with one of them having some automatic scrolling action. You will not see the same enemies from one stage in the next, so there is not a lot of rehash when comes to the level design making the experience fresh.
The high point of Journey to Silius has to be well made and exhilarating musical score. The music of this game is quite possibly the best you will ever find on a Nintendo Entertainment System title or any 8-Bit platform from both a technical and entertainment perspective. Journey to Silius is one of the few games of the time that has actual base tones in the music. Sunsoft uses this sound technology to create the most heart-pumping and dynamic soundtrack that will provoke and convince you to press forward through the frantic action of shooting mechanized enemies while trying to traverse the tricky pit and hazard riddled level environments. Actually, the music in this game is more bound to drive you to play it from start to finish than the story the game tries to have. Though the soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, there is a bit of rehash with the music. The first stage’s music is also recycled for the final stage. However, the overall quality of each of the tracks sort of makes this a moot point.
One thing that cannot be overlooked in terms of the audio in Journey to Silius is the sound effects. Nearly all of the sounds in it are recycled from previous games developed by Sunsoft. They are not altered or improved in any way to complement the soundtrack in any sense. This aspect, like the story telling, gives off the impression that no one involved made any attempt at making the effects original. Another issue is that most off the sounds are so low in in volume that they are drowned out by the bass heavy music featured in Journey to Silius.
There are a couple of minor issues that may rub some gamers the wrong way. To start, if Jay is in the middle of a ducking or turning animation, pressing the ‘A’ button to jump will yield no response. Another quirk in Journey to Silius has to do with health and ammunition power-ups. The inclusion of both can hypothetically aid you in the game. Unfortunately, these pickups (specifically the health) are so woefully seldom that you will probably forget that these power-ups even exist. Though this is the case this goes along with the overall difficulty of this title.
With that being said, Journey to Silius is an unforgettable experience. Despite a few kinks in this game it stands well with is immense difficulty. With its breakneck and frantic shooting side scrolling action, challenging platform game play, a robust arsenal of weapons, and absolutely phenomenal soundtrack Journey to Silius is bound to delight both the hardcore and the general game enthusiast. On the subject of collectors it would also make a great addition to anyone’s NES library.

Game Rating: [V/V]

Content Write-up: Kid Icarus (NES)

Game Title: Kid Icarus
Release Date: December 1987
Developer: Nintendo (Gunpei Yokoi)
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre/Type: 2D Platform Vertical Scrolling Adventure

Game Rating: [TEENAGE AUDIENCES][13YRS+]

In terms of precarious content within Kid Icarus, there is not much to be worried about. The violence in Kid Icarus is pretty basic and does not reveal anything gratuitous. No profanity exists is; for the most part, there is not much language in the game to begin with. However, the sheer difficulty of Kid Icarus makes it a game that most kids will find painfully difficult. With that this is a game that would most likely be more suited toward early teenage audiences.

Game Rating: [TEENAGE AUDIENCES][13YRS+]

Game Review: Balloon Fight (NES)

Game Title: Balloon Fight
Release Date: 1985
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre/Type: Arcade Style 2D Platformer

Game Rating: [IV/V]

While the game play might not be entirely original, Balloon Fight clearly makes up for it with solid game play, challenging levels, as well as charm.

Balloon Fight is an odd, yet fascinating game. It uses some core game play features as well as some modes from previous games. The aesthetic qualities are original, but on the simple side. With these facts laid out up front, it can be pretty hard to think that there is not much that Balloon Fight has to offer. However, the well implemented adopted features coupled with some extra features make Balloon Fight greater that the sum of all these elements.

Balloon Fight does not have a story of any sort and the point of this title is pretty straight forward. This game is all about groups of enemies and the player dealing with them. The game is pretty non-linear when comes to how the player gets the job done. The player plays the role of a fellow with two balloons attached to his back. By flapping his arms, he can fly and traverse any part of a level environment within reason. However, all is not well for there are gremlins who use loose team tactics to pop both the player’s balloons. Once the player looses both balloons one life is lost. Once all lives are lost the game ends in arcade like fashion.

In essence, Balloon Fight is a game that borrows a core game play mechanic from a previously released arcade classic. Aerial combat is the main focus of Balloon Fight which is adopted from Atari’s Joust. Though maneuvering through level environment is important, the primary focus is taking down groups of gremlins by popping all the balloons on their backs. The level is completed after all gremlins are defeated.

The style of play is a bit on the difficult side because of how well the artificial gravity is implemented in Balloon Fight. However, this is not a problem as the game has just the right pace as well as progression of difficulty. There are no unfair leaps in difficulty from one level to the next and, for those who feel the pacing might be to fast for them, will be happy to know that there are casual bonus stages in between small stretches of levels to further break up the action.

Though there is much fun to be had from the single player mode in Balloon Fight, the multiplayer component of the game earns its place at the highest point of the experience. The multiplayer is structured in the same fashion as the single player mode, but does have some substantial variations. One of the most noticeable changes is that the base of difficulty for Balloon Fight’s multiplayer mode is higher. This might seem like a bigger challenge, but it actually balances the challenge to the same degree as the single player mode by compensating for the presence of another human player. Another interesting aspect of the multiplayer mode is that both players can either cooperate to get through as many levels as possible or compete to the death; the choice is theirs. This definitely makes for a fun shared experience.

While The first two modes offer some fun game play with moderate difficulty, the last mode does not share these characteristics. The adventure mode is a single player segment where expert maneuvering is the primary focus. There are no enemies in this mode, but there are stars that align to form randomized paths that the player must traverse with precision. Coming into contact with these path forming stars is fatal and results in the game coming to an end. There are no extra lives like in the first two modes, so the player only has one shot to make it the furthest to earn a high score. This mode is fantastic for those looking for a bigger challenge after proving their worth in the first two modes.

The graphics as well as the music are both on the simple side. Neither of them could stand well alone or together. The two aesthetic elements that truly culminate with the game play are the animations and the sound effects. All the sprite animations have a unique flow to them which adds to the notion of flying around and drifting through each level. This is accompanied by the odd and quirky sounds that helps give the game some extra charm.

Not one of these elements mentioned above would carry weight on its own. The visuals and audio qualities of Balloon are great in some ways, but simple in others. The game play is not necessarily original. However, with the solid game play coupled with proper pacing, the game plays very well. The multiplayer is a total blast and will most likely be the part of the game that most players are bound to revisit. Animations along with fitting sound effects help to bring the experience into a cohesive package that delivers in a big way. With much fun to be had with all the significant aspects of Balloon Fight as well as sheer challenge, this is a game well worth your time.

Game Review: Kid Icarus (NES)

Game Title: Kid Icarus
Release Date: December 1987
Developer: Nintendo (Gunpei Yokoi)
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre/Type: 2D Platform Vertical Scrolling Adventure

Game Rating: [III/V]

While this game has a some ambitious ideas along with a fantastic soundtrack, Kid Icarus ultimately suffers from various technical problems.

Kid Icarus is an interesting game primarily because of what it tries to achieve. It definitely takes a cue from three iconic games. In the game, an angel by the name of Pit is called upon by Platenia to save Angel Land from the evil Medusa. However, that will not be an easy task as Pit is trapped in the realm of Hades, and must make his way up there, fighting minions of evil on the way.

The game play in Kid Icarus is interesting and almost unique in a sense. It adopts its side scrolling platform game play from Super Mario Bros., its vertical scrolling platform game play and combat (and password system) from Metroid, and its dungeon crawling adventure game play and item collecting from The Legend of Zelda. In theory, this ambitious idea to culminate these vastly different styles of play into one game seems like one of the greatest ideas for this game or even gaming in general. In practice, however, Kid Icarus does not quite come together in a cohesive or functional way.

In terms of character control, Kid Icarus is below mediocre when at its best. The things Pit is physically capable of are fairly limited as a result of design and not of technology. In Kid Icarus Pit can can shoot his bow and even aim upward, but cannot jump while aiming upward. Issues like this have been solved by this time with Metroid. Another issue concerning control is ducking in Kid Icarus. Ducking down to avoid enemies is a very useful feature in the game, but when on a semi-solid  platforms ducking while standing on them makes Pit pass through the platform which, more often than not, ends up with Pit falling to his death. Also, Pit has wings on his back and yet he cannot fly without a special and expensive feather powerup which is still not so great as it is only temporary. In the end, the control comes up as being unnecessarily crippled.

The game starts out with some levels designed after Metroid’s vertical scrolling platform game play. This level and game play style is by far the most unplayable part of the game. When Pit jumps to a higher platform, the level environment scrolls downward. However, the level’s geometry cannot move back up, so falling or moving back down is not an option and results in death if attempted. There is a problem with this. If the floor beneath Pit is not visible on screen, then it does not exist in the game’s logic. An example in which this is an issue is if Pit climbs up just enough where the level scrolls down just enough to make the floor not present on screen. It could be the ground floor that pit started on. If Pit were to drop to that floor (that is not present on screen only by an inch) Pit “falls to his death”. That is pretty lame considering that floor is just a little shy of existing on screen. That is not to say that this is the only technical issue that hurts this game. With how the level’s geometry scrolls, the levels play as if what is shown on screen and what is a solid platform are two different entities that have little or no cohesion. This results in Pit’s unintended ability to clip through corners of platforms and even through solid entities. This coupled with the fact that level design calls for some precise platforming does not help as certain level sections play as if they were not designed to accommodate for this technical anomaly. An other design flaw has to do with how enemies generate and exist in the level’s overall environment. Only a couple of enemy types exist native to a platform within the level. This is fine on its own, but enemies sometimes spawn within solid entities in the level’s architecture. On top of that, the other monsters will just fall from the sky. The problem with this is that there could be a ceiling above Pit where the enemies are coming from, but since it is not present on screen, it does not exist. This makes very little sense and makes the game more frustrating because of this illogical feature. The game does not get more difficult when done with these levels.

Kid Icarus contains boss battles, but require you to do lots of dungeon crawling to get to those fights. This is where the game The Legend of Zelda comes in as another one of the three core competencies of this game. Like The Legend of Zelda, Pit has to traverse a series of rooms on a dungeon map. One of these rooms contains the boss of a particular world. It plays like a 2D platform game, but it is fairly standard. Another adopted feature is the currency and item portion of Kid Icarus. In the game, the currency is hearts. every level has a store in which Pit can bring his purse of hearts and purchase goods. This all seems well and good. However, there is no real proper balance between how much life Pit loses versus the cost of store items (which is unnecessarily high). This just turns the dungeon crawling levels into a long and tedious grind to get enough hearts to buy the bare bone items required just to survive and get by in the dungeon, let alone hammers to free the petrified soldiers of Platenia. The difficulty from one room to another is also something that seems vastly unbalanced. some rooms are a breeze to traverse as where the next room could contain enemies that are among the toughest to defeat. The previously mentioned sprite collision issue as well as the environment clipping are also substantial issues in this segment of Kid Icarus. Expect to spend anywhere from forty minutes to an entire hour when attempting to beat one of these dungeon crawling levels.

The third and last significant game play style is exhibited in the side scrolling levels that pay homage to Super Mario Bros. in a big way. The level designs of these particular stages are fine, but the way they all play out is standard of any generic game that features any platforming. However there is something good to be said about this particular level style as the only serious technical problem that seems to be present is the shoddy sprite collision with items.

Now, all this does not mean that Kid Icarus is a terrible game. One of the things that may keep someone going back to this game is the role playing game like persistence in Kid Icarus. While clearing levels and killing monsters, Pit will come across some upgrades that add to his overall attack power and life capacity. This will something that is bound to attract some people because it’s a part of Kid Icarus that is not broken nor is it unbalanced.

Another fantastic aspect of Kid Icarus is its Soundtrack, which seems to capture the essence of the ancient greek mythological trappings in which the game takes place. There may not a terrible amount of songs in the game’s entire musical score, but the quality of the compositions overrides the physical size of it. This is clearly the high note of the experience this game has to offer.

Lastly, the general art direction of of Kid Icarus is one thing that makes the game so inviting initially. The depictions of the Greek landscapes, Hades, and Angel Land. The visuals stick in the mind long after playing it. The sprites are nicely designed, but the animations could have complemented that.

It is abundantly clear that Kid Icarus has issues. That does not mean the game is horrible. It does have its high points with some of the graphics and all the quality music. However, every time game brings itself up, it just puts itself down all the time with its game play and balancing problems. With that, Kid Icarus is okay, but its questionable quality makes it impossible to recommend to just anyone.

Game Rating: [III/V]