I didn't know this game existed until I saw it in that NSO addition video, and it was something I was curious about since.

The concept is great, a multiplayer party style game with the River City Ransom engine, unfortunately it's an NES game though so there's only two players. I imagine with 4 players this would be a lot more hectic but in an NES game, you gotta take what you can get sometimes.

The story is simple, to make up for the events of River City Ransom, the new president organizes a sports festival...but in reality, it's an attempt to get back at the Nekketsu High School! You and your gang have to win the events, but with how hectic the events are and the weapons to use, they're not gonna make it easy!

The first event I chose was Cross Country, which has the best music track in the game. I loved the music in River City Ransom, and this is just as good! The graphics are very nice too of course, with the excellent shading and clear sprites. The event is just as hectic to boot, running through unexpected places got a chuckle out of me the first time around. Unfortunately this is where the difficulty, the one thing holding this game back, rears its ugly head: The AI is brutal, and double tapping to run every time while the AI just always runs makes things extra tricky and hard to keep up. Rather than just win the race, it's divided into individual screens that you have to win, with the winning players of that screen spawning first on the next in order, until the end of the race. This means 1st place is likely going to stay there for a chunk of the race, and if it's AI, good luck catching up with the late spawn time! The winner of the event is the one who has won the most screens, not just the race, so you have to keep that in mind too!

If you aren't winning by the end of an event, back the the title screen. Brutal.

The next event is Obstacle Course, which is more of the same with a focus on hazards. Protip which is vital to winning this: While if you move forward too much before the starting gun you'll be faulted, but there's no fault for moving up or down. Move up to help you enter the building first! The AI can break during this event, leading to waiting for the timer to run out before you can advance to the next screen. It helps us, at least.

Third event is Ball Breaker, where you must climb one of two poles and break the ball on top open. This feels mostly luck based on if the AI feels like letting you just break it or knocking you off the pole, be it from the pole you're on or atop the pole next door, but at least you can do the same. It's fairly basic.

Final event is Chance, which is a free for all death match. This is where the combat comes into play most, the strategy for this one is to either throw the players off the edge, stand near the edge and hope they willingly jump off, but this is a suitable climax to finally beat the snot out of these guys, so I encourage taking this one on last.

The game is by no means easy, but it is by all means an alright time that would be better with friends!

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Your skin tone is too similar to the background.

I actually love the idea of it and when it gets going it's ok even if it's janky the whole way through. The tech of the DSi just wasn't there, I think if it waited a bit longer it'd be more functional.

I like the idea of hands free gaming on the go like this and seeing the end of event clip-shows and what they do to make you look silly is fun, I took pictures on my phone and saved those, but as a game this just isn't it.

A conversion of MMX and MMX2 to Game Boy. For what it is, it's a nice novelty with really good sprite work both in-game and cutscene, and X even has a tired animation when he's low on health. The music is also well arranged, the transition to 8-bit was good except for the level design, as vertical scrolling doesn't work when X is so close to the bottom, leading to a lot of unfair drops.

Also a weird decision to lock half of the Mavericks behind postgame. The story is the length of Wily Wars, but it has the content of III and IV. Also X doesn't do a lot of damage which sounds fine but then bosses hit like a truck. You do one or two damage while he'll do 4 or 5 before the Body Armor. I started with Chill Penguin like usual and was surprised by how hard of a time I was having with the guy. He also gets invuln on some attacks and his projectiles block yours and why was this dude so tough.

The story at least provides a reasonable excuse for revisiting old foes, and Middy was alright. For all the additions in this game though, it feels like there was a lot of steps back compared to the SNES classic MMX you should play instead.

The enemies move erratically in this Galaga clone, it's hard to shoot when they're so small and all over the place, and if they wanna swoop into you it's a 50/50 whether you're gonna make it or not. Enemies can also vomit bullets super close to you. you have one out per level, called a Warp Drive, but it's no use, as it's super slow and you're not very likely to hit much of the enemies unless they were point blank as you slowly wait to get back into position to get back to the regular game.

The best thing about this game is its name, it's badass, but the game itself is sadly bad and ass. Play Radar Scope or better yet Sheriff instead for your pre-DK Nintendo Arcade experience.

Ah Radar Scope, the game that tripped (in the states anyways) so that Donkey Kong could run the marathon. It's fine by itself, it just dropped at a bad time. A shame that's Radar Scope's place in video game history, but it getting remembered for something is an achievement in and of itself.

It's honestly nothing much, it's got a neat perspective that hides some very basic gameplay. Captain, your mission is to shoot down 48 UFOs. Good luck. You're shooting ships that shoot at you and as the levels go on more will come at you at once, they'll drop bombs, there's a little jumpy guy on the bottom that can come at you if you think you can safespot in the corner forever..my only real complaint is that their angled shots combined with the perspective can make both dodging and shooting a little tricky compared to the straightforward Space Invaders.

It's a shame Nintendo doesn't ever rerelease games like this and Sheriff, glimpses into Nintendo's gaming history before the Kong should be shown more often. Radar Scope is, at the very least, a little novelty.

On one hand (the one holding the pencil) this game is GORGEOUS. Not only some of the best graphics on the Sega Genesis, but some of the best graphics in a 2D game I've seen! It really does feel like a playable comic book, and the animations don't cheap out either as this is some of the most fluid 16-bit movement you'll get, on par with the Genesis Aladdin's animations easily. There's also humorous speechbubbles and you even see your playtime when you pause.

Unfortunately on the other hand (the one holding the controller) the gameplay is still fine but the combat feels mashy despite the wide range of skills Sketch has access to. But maybe that's just me being bad. What isn't me being bad is the game's obtuseness with what you're supposed to do at times. A lot of the solutions involve using your rat friend but the game won't tell you that beforehand, and just knowing about Rat isn't enough in some situations, one I remember was a switch for a lava platform that was so confusing I just damage boosted past the puzzle.

I think if Comix Zone ironed out its gameplay a bit, it would have been far more successful, but as-is it's simply a hidden solid title to play from the Sega Genesis library, and a recommend for anyone who loves sprite animations and gorgeous sprite work in general.

It's actually really impressive how they got a game like Kingdom Hearts to even work on the Nintendo DS. It works near flawlessly and my only real gripe is how the lock on and camera interact sometimes. It may have chosen a mission structure instead of the traditional one, but if you think about it, it's a portable DS game meaning it was designed to be played in short sessions. Not every mission is a winner as I swear to christ if I have to kill another Emerald Serenade it's so boring or as quick as defeat the Deserters, but there are a lot more winners here. The music is mostly recycled from KHII but that's not a complaint. Could you imagine someone going "oh man I have to listen to MASTERPIECE COMPOSITIONS for a whole nother video game"? That'd be bizarre you can put Vim and Vigor and Rowdy Rumble into every game ever and I'll still enjoy it.

The Panel system is pretty fun to use, I love this kind of puzzle power placement system. It starts out simple but becomes more puzzle-like as time goes on and you ultimately determine how you want to build your Roxas.

The story is also compelling, even if it's told a bit slowly due to all the missions. This is definitely the beginning of "The Disney Worlds are just decoration" and there was only two Disney fights: Lock Shock and Barrel (which this is the third time you fight them in this series) and Pete (Who's an easier version of his previous fights in the series). Some worlds are also kind of tired as Square this is the 4th time you've shown off Agrabah and Halloween Town in class, but at least most of the all worlds being recycled plays into the narrative. The one interesting World that wasn't in KH1 was Beast's Castle, which plays as a prequel to its KH2 appearance. The whole story in general sets up for KH2 and worlds really well as a midquel to it with its own compelling characters. The cutscenes also take advantage of the DS hardware, sometimes showing two separate things on both screens, even certain gameplay elements which is impressive!

It's baffling how every game got some sort of enhanced version except this one (which only got translated via HD Cutscenes) as this underrated game definitely deserves another chance.

This has the most basic combat I've seen in ages and thanks to the SP system requiring energy to to anything they still mess it up. Combat slows to a crawl because you're constantly resting before attacking and your partner is useless unless her name is Maria because shooting the gun costed like no energy and did more damage than Rance would ever do. She's also the best girl but I miss the poker chip combat system and card aesthetic from Rance 01 even if this dungeon navigation is better.

Oh, Rance has mandatory sex about 10.5 times, with 4.5 of those times being rape and an additional one of them being kind of rape but Rance not being the rapist in that scenario. There's more consent here and the rape Rance does is conveniently set up by the plot to be a good thing actually. The first time he didn't even know it was a good thing actually, he just raped and it happened to be a good thing. So sex wise it....learned from Rance 01? There's a lot more H here in general by the way, so if that's why you're playing these games, good news! Shame you gotta get through the gameplay for it, real slog that is.

Eskimo Bob, Eskimo Bob
He eats Raw Fish!
Eskimo Bob, oh Eskimo Bob,
He is...

Alfonzo's Arctic Adventure is a major improvement over Eskimo Bob. To make a comparison, Eskimo Bob felt much like an early NES title with its lack of story, repetitive gameplay and frustrating levels, Alfonzo's feels like a late NES game with much more liberties and variety. There are now multiple level tracks, much more unique and fun boss fights, and even more playable characters! The puzzle gameplay is improved by these additions.

Bob, who's moveset was absolutely useless in the last game, is missing here. Instead Alfonzo is joined by: Bob's replacement, Eskimo Magnus, who's downward fist can not only rush him downwards but also damage enemies. Fernwood who has low mobility, automatically breaks blocks, and is impervious to most forms of damage. And...Girl, who has the highest jump, further traveling projectiles, and is basically an upgrade to Alfonzo in every way, which doesn't add much to the levels like the other two do, just makes getting to her a goal unfortunately.

The levels all start as Alfonzo and it's up to you to use the tools given to get to the goal, or find one of the game's many secrets. There's Golden Fish, which are just a 1-up the game incentivizes you to collect (but if you miss it you can't replay previous levels for some reason, but thankfully according to achievements the devs don't ACTUALLY expect you to get all 96 of them.) and secret paths, allowing you to skip levels and in one case most of a world! Gotta keep your eyes peeled. If there is a 3rd Eskimo Bob game I wonder if it'd be 16-bit, and what else they could do to bring the series to games, or if they'll simply let Bob and Alfonzo rest for a bit. Either or, I'm glad they learned their lessons from the previous game for a far more enjoyable experience.

...Cool.

The sequel to Jetpac is needlessly complex, to the point where without reading a manual or looking it up, knowing what to do is impossible. Reading the manual was a lot more expected back in the day, but your game should be intuitive no matter what era it was made unless it was something that really needed an accompanying manual like a text adventure.

You can fly and shoot like before, but it's no use. You have to use the bomb to destroy Alien Bases, but to do that, you have to get your truck over there. To get your truck over there, you have to get out of your truck and build bridges so it can drive over craters. Good luck though as the enemies are ruthless, fast, and unpredictable, meaning lots of cheap deaths are awaiting you.

This was just sad and dull, but not every studio gets off the ground running right away. Sometimes your bump is a super tiny crater you just gotta build a bridge over while being swarmed from all sides, and sometimes it's just Lunar Jetman.

A tricky little bugger that got a lot of 90s kids back in DK64 where this game was required to progress. Not me though, for I didn't have DK64. I instead got Rare Replay in 2023 for the true "grown ass man playing 40 year old video games what are you doing with your life" experience.

Jetpac involves collecting ship parts and fuel while avoiding enemies. Your shot is really long, covering a whole screen and even wraps around, so constantly shooing left and right usually has you covered, but you're still vulnerable from above. The enemies range from simple to unpredictable, and will always spawn from the edges (making wrapping around the screen always a risk). Shoutouts to the UFOs that are small, unpredictable, and fast. Screw U-FO.

It's fun floating around the middle top of the level swinging left to right like a boss from a more modern game, but I do wish there were more level layouts, in kind of like a Balloon Fight fashion. Then I'd have more to think about as I charge on.

My native no cheating high score is 30,000 so if I become "Grown ass man who plays the banana cartridge what are you doing with your life" guy, that Rareware coin is as good as mine.

Life is just driving through a maze, trying to get to your flags. You have an idea of how to navigate things, but can't see till it's up close. You grab flags and then BANG! Gone in an instant. You can sacrifice some of your fuel to slow them down but they WILL catch up to you, usually when you least expect it. Life can be Charaging, but don't give up. Press on and you'll maybe be lucky enough to be in someone else's shadow.

Cryptic writing aside, it's an alright game that'd be a fun little diversion at an arcade.

That sure was a story, huh? I like how it goes off the walls and the cutscene budget was vastly improved from 2's.

The gameplay's like Sonic Adventure 2, but with beat 'em up combat that still isn't great my hands hurt from mashing X and Y, but that's vastly made up for by the speed gameplay being so thrilling. It lets you do whacky things that don't feel intended like use things that'd usually have collision removed work in your favor, makes you feel like you're playing a game rather than be guided on a tour, and it's some of the coolest feelings when you navigate your own way around. Give me more of that in Spark 4 that's the stuff dreams are made of.