(This is the 36th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Hey, we made it to 1991. This is the first game in my challenge that released in 1991, as Street Fighter II: The World Warrior graced console players (SNES) on February 6th of that year.

This game needs little introduction, as it changed the fighting game landscape forever. How has it aged though? Well, my subjective opinions on that are down below. Spoiler Alert: Plenty of games from 1990 aged poorly, some however aged really well. I would put Street Fighter II somewhere in the middle, though closer to the "aged poorly" side of things.

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STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS
The game does actually have storytelling, but only a very brief cutscene when you win all battles with a character. Then you will be shown how the characters react to defeating M. Bison. The oddest one? Chun Li goes to her father's grave to tell him that she has avenged him by defeating M. Bison.... and that she can now go back to being a young single girl! WTF! So 90s.

So this does add some recognizability beyond their gear and special moves to these characters, but it's pretty limited of course and you only get the one cutscene per fighter. Despite this, some of the characters have "icon" status in video gaming, like Ryu or the aforementioned Chun Li. Hell, I've never played a Street Fighter game before this in my life (Tekken only back in the day) but even I recognized them immediately.

The manual includes a short bio on all of the 8 main characters and a list of their special moves and how to execute them.

There is good variety among these characters. Chun Li is speedy, Ryu is a martial arts expert who can also do a cool fireball attack (Hadouken!), Honda is a big sumo wrestler, Blanka has a low center of gravity, Dhalsim is a lanky piece of shit and Ken ... is another Ryu? Not sure why they made them so similar. If you listen to the experts, there are differences between the two, though I'm not sure how much that applies to Street Fighter II. I didn't play this game that much to be able to tell you whether there are slight differences in footwork and pace or whatever. But to conclude, there are a bunch of different characters here overall with different abilities.

There are also bosses, one of whom looks like Mike Tyson (which he didn't know about until recently funnily enough). Even more funny and interesting: Mike Tyson's character in the US is called Barlog. There is a different character called M. Bison who is wearing a red military uniform or something.

In Japan, M. Bison actually stands for Mike Bison and is the name given to the character that looks like Mike Tyson. They've changed names around when they localized the game out of fear that they'd be sued.

Less funny story: The M. Bison in the US version can fuck off kindly, man is he tough to beat.

GAMEPLAY
In this game, you can either play simple 1v1 fights or choose a character and then travel the world to fight all the other characters plus some bosses that are non playable characters, like Barlog, Vega and M. Bison.

Each character has a few special moves and their own stage. You fight until someone wins two rounds. By now this formula has been repeated a billion times, but of course by then this concept was never done as well as Street Fighter II did it.

And while I can see a young me putting a lot of time and effort into this to get better, the current me simply can't shake the fact that this game hasn't aged as well as some other titles have of this time, including F-Zero and Super Mario World, two other very early SNES titles.

Movement of characters is stiff and pulling off special moves was really tricky because a lot of the time I didn't feel like my inputs were recognized correctly. Or I was doing it wrong, I don't know. But even when I put the difficulty to damn 0, there were some enemies that just didn't let me breath for a second. Hit up, hit low, hit up up up, uppercut and while I learned to block attacks after a while, attacking windows felt so small sometimes and the opponent was able to block so many of my attacks that I had to resort to doing specific OP moves to get them off me. This is actually a gripe I had about fighting games back in the day and I guess will always carry with me, is that abusing the mechanics and quicker trigger fingers will often be decisive of outcome. Maybe this was done better in later entries, but once I got hit in a specific way, especially once I dialed the difficulty up a little bit, I often felt like I was hopelessly at the mercy of my opponent to ever get a chance to hit again. The game also has a feature where you get dizzy for a few seconds, which I think is really silly for a game like this and one I didn't like at all.

Animations and the different attack styles of all characters definitely do feel pretty advanced for a game of this time, so I gotta give credit for that. And now that I've played this, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how other fighting games that released in the coming years will compare.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE
Voice acting is limited to damage noises and "Hadouken!", which is enough to have it be iconic. Sound design I thought was solid and the soundtrack is about 40 minutes long and includes music for each character. Some of my favorites include the tracks for Guile, Ryu, Blanka and M. Bison.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN
I like the character design and the different styles of the backgrounds of the arenas that the characters fight in. I'd say the graphical quality is pretty good overall but nothing that will make you go "wow".

ATMOSPHERE
Seeing groups huddle around to watch you and your opponent fight is always awesome. But the stages themselves are otherwise very static, you can break a few barrels here and there but otherwise the environment you fight in doesn't change anything. The best thing the game does atmospherically during fights is have the tracks fit the "boss" of the arena. For example, Vega fights very fast and his track is also very fast.

CONTENT
You got 8 characters + 4 bosses. You can play any character in Battle Mode and face every other character. This will take you a good 20-30 minutes and you will be rewarded with a short cutscene that suits the character you fought with. When you win with Ryu for example, you get a cutscene where Ryu is supposed to be given an award for winning, but instead he is shown walking off into the horizon because ceremonies mean nothing to him and he is off to the next fight.

In addition, you can fight locally against a friend and adjust difficulty in the Options menu. Plenty of content here, as you get 8 different character "stories" to play through and will need to spend many more hours to properly learn how to fight with each character.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN
The structure of fights is pretty simple by today's standards. One v One fights, the first to two round wins, wins the fight. It's simple, but effective. You also can choose to play any character's story as I mentioned previously, and what I just said about the structure of fights applies here too.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION
Can't really do anything but give full grades for a game that has changed the shape of a genre like this. Few games accomplish for their genres what Street Fighter II did back in the day, even if it was the Arcade version and not the SNES version that I played that had done the deed.

REPLAYABILITY
Endlessly replayable to learn how to master this game, though that probably applies to back then more than it does to new players today.

PLAYABILITY
It works well from start to finish.

OVERALL
I can't say it aged as well as some other games from that time period but fighting games were not established at the time like platformers, so to have Street Fighter II take such a leap is to be respected, and it's not like you won't have your fun with it if you decide to play it today. The game delivers beyond expectations in the storytelling department thanks to endings for each character (and a hilarious/ridiculous one for Chun Li), has created characters that are still iconic to this day and has delivered multiple sequels since. And those sequels I'd probably recommend to you more than this game in particular, which I doubt will live on as a great game by today's standards rather than simply being an iconic old-school video game that propelled the medium forward in a big way.

(This is the 35th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

The final game I played for my 1990 play-list is Actraiser, the fourth SNES game to ever release, which released on December 16th and is unique for combining two genres that you don't see combined often: City building and platforming.

There are multiple towns that you have to liberate from monsters in order for humans to live in them. You then help them establish themselves there and help them out with all their needs. Basically, you play god. Each town has a few monster lairs that you need to close and then a final one that you need to venture into in platforming sections to kill the boss. Once a town has no monsters left, you can move on to the next one.

Each town tells its own little story, which adds a lot of motivation to playing this game to completion. The gameplay itself offers a fun loop for a few hours, but due to its age and limitations does get repetitive after a while, at least it did to me.

But the mix of these genres works pretty well here and this game was yet another standout for the SNES, which looks to provide a lot of fun as I move on to 1991, where the world was greeted by classics like Street Fighter II, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Castlevania IV, among others.

OVERALL
Should be in your play-list if you're looking to find out what some of the better games of the early 90s were. It has a unique mix of city-building and platformer that is pretty simple in execution due to the time it released in, but overall pretty successful in offering the player a fun 10 hours or so of gameplay.

(This is the 34th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Zombie Nation, released initially on December 14th 1990 for the NES, is one of the weirdest shoot 'em ups you will play in your life time, because the character you play is the severed head of a samurai traveling to the USA to stop a meteor called "Darc Seed" from destroying the USA completely. The reason why he does that is because Darc Seed has the ability to control a powerful samurai sword.

So you control this severed head called Namakubi and vomit projectiles on jets, buildings, turrets, people, whatever gets in your way. Yes, really. It's such a weird premise but actually not a turn-off on its own.

What was actually the bigger turn-off for me here was that, all told, the gameplay is just not that fun and game doesn't impress in any area apart from its weirdness. The music is alright, the graphics meh and the level design essentially very average. You don't really get to find any fun new abilities or power ups, there are no secrets to uncover and the enemy variety is low. You pretty much do the same thing over and over again in each level with very limited options. To top it off, the later levels include so many projectiles on the screen at once that the game can't handle it and starts lagging.

OVERALL
Suffice to say, this game is not worthy of a suggestion if you're looking for a fun game. It might be worth checking out if you want to take a look at a very weird game at least. Despite my opinion, I think it's funny and worth a mention that the damn "St. Petersburg Times" (now Tampa Bay Times) ranked Zombie Nation tied for 10th among the best games ever list in 1992. That's some weird taste they got over there.

(This is the 33rd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

I don't really have much to say about this game, so let's rapid-fire this. Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu is a platformer starring well-known martial artist and actor Jackie Chan that released on December 14th, 1990 for NES.

The special thing about this game is that Jackie can do special kicks that can target enemies behind you, in front of you or above you. The game also has a solid soundtrack with some great songs. As far as its gameplay goes, it's one the easier side of 1990 platformers, but also on the unimaginative side. It's really an average fair through and through in that regard, and it gets pretty repetitive through the five levels this game has to offer.

Don't get me wrong, it's easier accessibility and no existing fetish for placing enemies anywhere and everywhere, plus not supplying the player with just one hit point like some other games of its ilk makes Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu a member of the better half of platformers of the year according to me.

It also boasts good graphics in tune with the Martial Arts theme and China setting, plus the game has nice animations for Jackie Chan's attacks. And the face he does when he falls on lava and touches his butt resembled the real Jackie's "pain face" really well and was pretty funny to see.

OVERALL
Very average and almost forgettable platformer / run & gun. That's neither bad nor great, it's just not a game you will hear anything about amongst the great platformers of the 90s. The soundtrack might have its fair share of fans still though.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- Ed Semrad for EGM, Issue 16 (Nov 90): "Jackie Chan is another average jump and kick game."
- Martin Alessi for EGM, Issue 16 (Nov 90): "It's not highly original, but the game plays better than most similar titles."

(This is the 32nd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Usually when I am this negative on a game, the reviews online reflect that somewhat, by having the score be something like 2.xx/5 (though every game has its nostalgic fans under a YT walkthrough calling it amazing no matter how shitty it is in hindsight, and more power to them, nostalgia is a beautiful thing). This time, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is a game that scores much better than I would have anticipated, because in anything related to its gameplay, I disliked this very much. Though due its critical reception as well, I wouldn't say the game is necessarily objectively bad.

This game released on December 1st, 1990 for the Sega Genesis and is a platformer/hack&slash game. There is a tiny story explaining the setting, but nothing worth playing the game for. And that's fine because the game was always meant to be played for its gameplay and its gameplay alone.

The game has a soundtrack that is not bad but not a memorable one in my opinion if we compare it to the OSTs of all these other games I've played in 1990. Still, it's nice enough to listen to and overall, the game does plenty right in just about every way apart from its gameplay, at least in my opinion.

The graphics and special effects are pretty good for its time, the animations are well done and the boss design is great for the most part.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't ever get acclimated with the gameplay and the design of the levels. First off, you are this bad ass Ninja that dies after his heel is touched slightly because you only have one hit point. That's already something I dislike (see Silver Surfer) but it's something I could live with if death didn't come so cheap as it does in these games.

The first 10-20 minutes were filled with death after death after death with every new step I took because enemies would come from the front, the back, the front and back, have wild attack patterns etc. This is fine of course, that's the intention behind the start of the game and you're supposed to overcome that. But as I neared my end of a 1 hour attempt to slog my way through this, I kept dying to the way these enemies were being positioned. Jump down into one enemy and immediately duck because someone else is firing at you. He does that every 2 seconds, so you better time your get-up right or else you'll die. Gotta fend off the other guy though, so better make sure you have your eye on both guys. Kill them, take a step to the left and there is this green dude who throws his shield at you. Jumping over it is not gonna work because you'll touch the tip of the shield with your toes and die. Instead, die, restart the whole level, go back to the same spot and make sure you go exactly to the point where you can see him, but where he can't reach you. Now send your companion dog at him so he distracts him while you come in for the kill. Oh wait, your dog is useless because he has both shields up, which knocks out the dog for 15 seconds.

Ugh, even if I know I will get through this part with repetition, it just is not fun. Gameplay is in many ways similar to Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, but just worse because of insta-death, and without the charm.

OVERALL
Again, I'll give it props for graphics and animation, but it's not a game I enjoyed as someone who had no prior experience with this series. It received praise at the time of its release though, so I guess I might be overly critical here? Nah, this just was bad.

(This is the 31st game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

You'll see many people compare StarTropics to The Legend of Zelda, and while I never played the first two Zelda's released in 86/87, I too can see the resemblance slash inspiration. Another game I would compare this to is something like Crystalis, a JRPG from earlier in 1990 that too had some unique mechanics similar to this game that was half-fun, half-detrimental to the gameplay and we'll get over that later on in the review. A big similarity my ears noticed when playing this however was the soundtrack and late-game level design. I was wondering if the game's had the same composer but nope, doesn't look like it. Either way, listen to some of the late game songs of StarTropics and the early game overworld track of Crystalis and you probably will hear the similarities as well. In addition, in both games you find yourself in a futuristic dungeon late-game.

Of course, StarTropics has none of the RPG mechanics, as it's an Action Adventure game, and ... did you know that this is a rare Japanese developed game that only released in the West? Yes, seriously. In NA in December 1990, and in EU in August 1992.

I'm not sure what the idea behind that was, because apart from calling every town something-something-cola, giving characters generic American names, mentioning 1492 and 1776 as ID codes and referencing Indiana Jones (?), nothing really screams "lots of appeal in the West". The game has a tropical island theme, your character literally has no recognizability (Mike, brown hair, blue shirt, your average kiddo) and, while I actually appreciated how the storytelling was more geared towards children (NPCs ask you if they should repeat "complicated" story parts, so that you can read them over and over again to get the story), the gameplay on the other hand is so difficult that I'm not sure who their target audience was exactly.

Let's take a step back. What do you do in StarTropics? You play Mike, an average kid who arrives at C-Land (shaped like a C, you see. And each village name ends with cola) in a damn helicopter. Village people say that you're an "ace pitcher", a reference made at the start twice and never again, and you find out that your scientist uncle has gone missing. In 8 chapters, you gotta try to find him and figure out what happened. Each chapter has a dungeon and potentially some overworld puzzles in it. All told, you'll probably spent around 10 hours with this game if you don't use any save states. If you use save states like me to "adjust" the checkpoint system in this game, you'll probably beat it in the time I did, which was around 6 hours.

There are two parts in this game, the overworld and the dungeons. In the overworld, you walk around the bland island and enter villages to talk to NPCs. Sometimes villages are harder to get to and you have to find secret passages to get there. You get a submarine later on to travel on water and get a robot buddy as well.

In the dungeons, there is a unique mechanic in this game, which is that there are special green tiles that you have to step on to either activate buttons that open doors, or you have to jump on them in a specific order to avoid falling into water or other liquids that lead to your death. It's a neat puzzle mechanic when used right and not an issue in itself, but the controls in this game are annoying and require some getting used to. When more enemies appear at once later in the game, it also becomes clear that the controls/mechanics weren't properly balanced with the enemies, because it becomes near-impossible to avoid getting hit.

Basically, to turn somewhere, you first press the button to look that way. Only by pressing it once more or holding down the button for a second longer does your character start walking that way. With the green tiles, you can actually chain jumps better, but it gets really repetitive after a while to jump, jump, jump, unlock a button, jump, jump over to the button, jump on it to press it and jump all the way back to the now-open door. Plus you have to jump one by one, but many enemies can simply walk over them, so it often happens that they outpace you and touch you to deal damage. Finally, there are a few awful sections where these tiles disappear for a second and then reappear for a second. That itself is OK, having to time your jumps is a nice challenge. But in these instances, three back to back tiles disappear, and the only way to jump through all of them is by PERFECTLY timing your first jump and mashing the jump button as fast as you can. Chances are, you'll fail your first 10 attempts anyway because it's that unforgiving.

Combat itself, if enemies are not so aplenty that they get on your nerves, is actually fine. You start off with a yo-yo, but get access to guns, ninja stars, reflecting shields and so on later on. There are also roller-skaters that attack every enemy on screen at the same time and illuminating staffs that reveal hiding ghosts. Lots of cool stuff that loses some of its magic due to the game's odd desire to be more challenging than it should be.

The story has a satisfying conclusion but is very simple otherwise. Something a kid will definitely enjoy as it's more fleshed out than many similar games and less prone to filler-talk. The soundtrack is solid. Graphics are too repetitive and bland in the overworld especially, but don't look bad.

Between the 8 dungeons, there are multiple that look unique (like the ghost town and final dungeon) and there is a tiny bit of reward for exploration, which is nice, in the form of health potions and permanent health rewards.

OVERALL
If you're into this sort of game and the old school look doesn't bother you, StarTropics is definitely a 2D Action Adventure worth adding to your play-list. It not being an RPG is great because with the stories these games had back in the day, those complicated RPG-features often drag games down for these retro-playthroughs. StarTropics is much more efficient in its gameplay as a result, even if being repetitive and unnecessarily difficult (especially late game) are flaws that pop up here.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
Couldn't find anything apart from a Walkthrough/Guide by Nintendo Power

(This is the 30th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Silver Surfer is a scrolling shooter released exclusively in NA regions for the NES in November 1990. It was developed by Software Creations (defunct since 2004) and published by Arcadia Systems and it's based on the Marvel Comics character "Silver Surfer".

I have watched my fair share of Marvel movies, have played my fair share of Marvel hero games, but I'm by no means a Marvel expert or anything beyond a novice in Marvel lore. Just a quick glance of Silver Surfer's description however already tells me that the game doesn't really seem to fit the character.

The game is a slow scrolling shooter where you have to fight hordes of enemies from all types of angles, and a single hit kills you. You'd think the sections where nothing happens for a few seconds is great because it gives you a breather, but instead it creates a dichotomy where, in one moment, your forehead is sweating and your finger hurts from pressing A all the time, and in the next, you are bored to tears from sloooowly waiting for the screen to scroll far enough for enemies to appear.

Looking at the Silver Surfer description on Wiki, it says that he can travel faster than light on his surfboard-like craft. Looking at his Marvel Fandom description, it gets even worse. Under Powers, they list "Godlike Strength". In this game, my guy dies by lightly tapping any wall or obstacle, not to mention that, again, HE ONLY HAS ONE HIT POINT.

It is such a weird way to design a scrolling shooter like this and, if it weren't for emulators and their save state capabilities, I definitely wouldn't have been able to experience every stage and the ending of this game. It wouldn't have mattered either way, because the ending sucks, but still.

Wanna know how the ending sucks? Well the story of this game involves Silver Surfer, Galactus (who gives him orders) and an unidentified villain who apparently will destroy the world if Silver Surfer doesn't stop him and some Cosmic Device that Silver Surfer has to assemble. Beat the final boss and Galactus drops a line like "now the Cosmic Device can be ALL MINE", which is a classic final-boss-twist-reveal type of line, right? Instead, Silver Surfer says "No, no one can have it, it's too dangerous, I will hide it" and the game just fucking ends. This game is insignificant enough for this to not matter but it is a fitting ending to a bad game.

Despite the one-hit wonder that is Silver Surfer, I think this game isn't as difficult to beat as some other games I've played out of 1990. I think through enough repetition of maybe 10-15 hours or so, you'll beat this game, but it's really not worth the effort and it doesn't hide the fact that the devs idea of a challenge was to simply make their game unfair and death your first time through inevitable at nearly all moments.

What I did like about the game though is the sound design and a kick ass soundtrack. Graphics didn't look too bad either but most levels didn't look too realistic and especially the over the top levels just were a jumbled mess of assets and colors.

OVERALL
Hard for the sake of being hard without providing a fair or fun challenge. If you want to experience any of this game, I'd recommend just going to YT and looking up the OST of this.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- Martin Alessi or EGM, Issue 17 (Dec 90): "The graphics are nothing special, but the soundtrack is absolutely awesome." | A different reviewer from EGM said the "cinema storyline is cool", there literally was nothing in here other than 10 lines of "I've seen this a billion times before, and a million of those did it better" type storytelling, even from a 1990 perspective
- Slo' Mo for GamePro, Issue 20 (Mar 91): "To beat Silver Surfer, you probably have to be an outer space being yourself." | Or have save states

(This is the 29th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Game #2 of the release day offerings for SNES release day in Japan. F-Zero is a futuristic racing game developed by Nintendo EAD - developers of the early Super Mario games and Legend of Zelda games as well - and F-Zero is just yet another example of how much talent Nintendo had at the time (still has of course). It released on November 21st, 1990 and seemingly was used to as a tech demo of sorts to show what the SNES is capable of.

Going into this, I had heard of F-Zero before but to be completely honest, though it was a JRPG or something like that and not simply a racing game. To see it mentioned that often for 'just' being a racing game, I thought this must be pretty good. Opening the game up and looking at the title screen, I then started to think that this game was probably popular based on nostalgia and the advancements in technology for racing games will probably make F-Zero a frustrating and bland experience.

Oh boy, was I wrong.

F-Zero has a total of 15 tracks in 3 different "leagues" of 5 tracks each. You choose the league and the difficulty and face off against multiple other cars, though I'll get into that a bit more later. You start with 3 continue's, a full life (power) bar and on track #1. You have to go through 5 laps to finish a track.

During the race, your car can crash into the walls, you can lose power by driving over the edges, which are filled with power-zapping tiles of sorts, and you can bump into other cars, which either throws you into the sides or at worst, has you almost reverse as well.

There are other cars that drive with you, both cars that actually participate in the race and others that just seemingly drive on the track for fun, just so you can bump into them when they stand in your way all the GODDAMN TIME. GET OUT OF THE WAY JACKASS, THIS IS A RACE TRACK!

I can't really say if I enjoyed the existence of these cars for the additional challenge, or if I despised the fact that they made me lose both my speed and my life bar by being so annoying. Oh wait, I can say how I feel, and that is that the existence of these sucked.

The other cars in the race are not that present as these non-racing ones, because the non-racing ones keep spawning and keep doing so in front of you, no matter what place you're in. Out of the other cars that are actually participants, the fastest car (the yellow one) is usually the only one you see after the 2nd lap, unless you crash really bad.

But the game doesn't actually have these cars drive at a certain speed once you get past them, but rather has them show up as soon as you lose your top speed for as little as a second. And once they overtake your spot, they start driving at slower speeds than you again. This means that in reality, you should be 20 seconds in front of the second spot by Lap 5, but instead a tiny crash means you can lose the race even though you just broke your record and had won the race the previous time you tried, where it took you 10 seconds longer. This was pretty annoying because having any car in front of you in these tight tracks meant that you could lose your full power bar within the last two laps simply because the other cars love to screw with you. The controls don't really allow you to crash them into the sides to gain an advantage yourself because unless you're incredibly skilled, it will be YOU who loses control from any kind of contact.

To get one more bad thing out of the way about this otherwise really good racing game, there were a couple maps that I didn't really like but none were as frustrating as the White Land maps. Especially the second one. 10 tries and I still can't make that one jump.

But enough about the bad, let's talk about the good. And there are two things about this game that are really good.

First, it's the pace. The game does a great job of translating pace and if you'd ask me about anything about this game that is timeless, I would have said this is it. However, there is something even more timeless here, and that is the soundtrack. Almost every song here is so good, and I'd almost be inclined to put some of them in the GOATed tier. The Port Town song immediately became a favorite of mine, and after listening to the entire OST on YouTube, I've become a big fan of Big Blue and Fire Field as well.

But going back to the gameplay, the game has really tight controls and plays at a smooth 60 FPS (played it on Steam Deck), and it's really up to your skill on how you perform, though again, those stupid non-racing cars did get me annoyed a lot.

I found myself starting this game up about once a day even though I've "beaten" it for the purposes of this challenge 3 days ago, that's how much fun I'm having with it, and I'm sure the sequels build on this in all the right ways, though I was saddened to see no new F-Zero game in almost two decades.

Finally, I quickly want to mention that the game records your best times for each map, which I think is a great little feature to add to this game, because it gives even more incentive to play these tracks over and over again, and I can only imagine how many hours kids of yore put into beating their own records back in the day.

OVERALL
If you're looking for an old school, fast paced racing game with a great soundtrack, this is it. Especially on a portable device, this is a lot of fun overall.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- Ed Semrad or EGM, Issue 25 (Aug 91): "The perspective used really gives [...] a sense of speed and the scrolling is superb."
- Speedy Buns for GamePro, Issue 30 (Jan 92): "F-Zero shows what the SNES can really do, with futuristics racing action and head-spinning 3-D graphics."

(This is the 28th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Hey, finally a game I can remember playing as kid. Super Mario World is a game that some of you may have heard of. It is one of two games that originally released with the SNES on November 21st, 1990 (the other: F-Zero). It was kinda popular. It sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Yeah, so that means I've played the best-selling SNES game ever already.

I mean, I don't need to explain Super Mario games to you, so I won't. What made this one stand out of course is that it was the first Mario game for a 16 bit console and one that used a much larger color palette, so it looked really good when it came out.

Plus, this game has a big difference over Super Mario Bros. 3, and that's of course that you have an ally in Yoshi. But before I get into that, I just gotta start with my conclusion for this game.

Because yes, this game is amazing STILL and honestly, not just easily the best game I've played out of 1990, but one of the best games I've played period. The best part is, I played this on my Steam Deck and not only did it run well, but it was a super smooth experience from beginning to the "end" (didn't beat the game yet). The controls are super responsive, the game looks fantastic, the sound quality is crisp and I was constantly in awe with how well this game aged in pretty much all areas.

The game has a ton of uniquely designed levels. That's a compliment of both the quality and quantity of them. I knew the game was good in that regard, but having played a couple dozen platformers that released in the same year previously, I can't believe how big of a jump in quality Super Mario World makes over every other game. Not only can you enjoy a variety of different levels, not only can you enjoy the challenges for well over a dozen hours for one playthrough, but the game is also just crammed full with features and secrets that allows for your future playthroughs to play out very differently over your first.

It starts with the power ups. Granted, not each power up will be as useful as some others, but you got the power up to increase in size, you got the ability to shoot fire, you can fly, you can turn invincible for a few seconds and you can even combine these when you are with Yoshi.

It took me a little while, but then I discovered that you can sprint, I discovered that you can spin in the air which allows you to destroy blocks below you, I discovered that Yoshi can eat enemies and shoot some of them back out even, and I discovered a bunch of other secrets, like special paths that you can take to finish a level, which opens up hidden paths. These aren't just there for padding, but completing them then adds new colored platforms to all other levels and makes them easier. This adds tons of replayability for multiple reasons.

OVERALL
I could really go on and on here, but I think I made my thoughts clear by now. The game was not just revolutionary at the time, but is still a damn fine video game by today's standards. That's the biggest compliment we can really give to games of old and this game deserves it and more.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- Steve Harris for EGM, Issue 25 (Aug 91): "While Super Mario World may not be the ideal cart to show off al the fancy things that the SNES can do..." | and the game goes on to be the best-selling game of the entire console. Not sure what was expected but expectations certainly were high
- ? for Nintendo Power, Issue 27 (Aug 91): "Mario's latest adventure is gigantic."

(This is the 27th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

After giving up on the game some 5 years ago, I gave The Secret of Monkey Island another chance thanks to this challenge I'm currently doing, and I can take this away right now: I'm glad to have seen it through.

This game released all the way back in October 1990, 32 years ago now, and has released in multiple editions for multiple platforms. To play it today, the easy recommendation would be to purchase the Special Edition that came out on July 15, 2009 and is available for PC and PS3/Xbox 360.

The Special Edition added voice acting, improved the graphics, a remastered musical score and even added hints for those of you that are like me and either can't think outside the box enough to figure out a puzzle and/or don't have the patience to think about a single solution for hours.

I played the Special Edition myself, which goes against the idea of the challenge slightly, but not only does the game seamlessly allow you to switch between Classic and Special Edition mode, but this way I also got to experience the full experience, including the voice work, which adds so much to the whole thing.

In this game you play Guybrush Threepwood, who makes his way to Mêlée Island in hopes of becoming a pirate. A group of pirates make him take on the Three Trials and that's where the game, a point & click adventure in case you didn't know, begins. Immediately in the first location, you can find a guy who talks about LOOM, a different LucasArts game from the same year that I actually played a couple months ago when I started the challenge, so that was a fun little surprise and pretty meta.

And breaking the 4th wall is a frequent occurrence in this game. It's one that doesn't take itself too seriously and jokes are at the forefront of every conversation. Even the three trials all end up putting you in humorous situations. For example, you need to hunt for treasure. You need to seek out the map to find the treasure, but when you get it, it actually has dancing lessons on the piece of paper. What that means you need to figure out yourself. For another trial, you need to beat the Sword Master. But turns out, sword-fighting isn't just about sword-fighting, but it's much more important to be able to drop witty insults (or comebacks) during the short breathing breaks. [Have you stopped wearing diapers yet? // Why, did you want to borrow one?]

Stuff like this makes the game comical at worst, hilarious at its best. I can't say everything fully hit my sense of humor like it likely did with others, but I laughed out loud plenty of times, which is more than I can say for many other games that are meant to be funny. There are many jokes I don't want to mention so that you can hear it in game yourself, but here is one silly thing that I laughed more about than I should have. When a guy teaches you to insult during sword fights, he asks you what you would respond with, if someone told you: "Soon you'll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab". And one of the options you could respond with was "So's your mother!". Same with the next question. That line itself works with everything and will always make me laugh, but the voice work by Dominic Armato (voice actor for Guybrush) just was the cherry on top.

In general, the voice acting in this game is phenomenal and so varied. Characters are all caricatures and over the top, so it's really a job well done to have all of them have different personalities like that, though of course many at the end of the day have one combining trait: They're stupid.

The game is divided into four chapters, and the puzzles remained clever throughout, though that's not to say that I didn't find some areas a bit tedious. The third chapter in particular became really tiresome, because you had to go from A to B to C to D multiple times over and the track was slow each time. Being stuck on a puzzle during that part was like a vacation almost, because it meant you could just stay in one place and keep your brain active instead of clicking the mouse to your destination and look as Guybrush took 15 seconds to get there.

That and the fact that some of the puzzles were a bit silly or required you to do things in a certain order are probably my only two complaints here. For example, for one puzzle, I did one thing first, the other next and then wanted to do the third part but it never worked. Finally, I checked a guide and it turns out, I had to do the one thing second, and the other thing first, to successfully be able to do the third part. The thing is, either way should have worked.

That said, I think there are these adventures out there that can be way more tricky and way worse with its puzzles, so it's not that bad here. I think overall the game did a good job of incorporating its areas and puzzles into an overarching story that was actually fun to follow, even if it felt like there could have been a bit more, especially in the second half of the game.

OVERALL
Overall, The Secret of Monkey Island is a great point & click adventure and one any fan of the genre should play. If you're curious about the genre, I'd recommend this, Day of the Tentacle or Grim Fandango as starting points personally, and I'd not shy away from using a guide or a hint (if available), in case you're stuck. All of these games have a ton of charm and even if you do find yourself being stuck here and there, to me it's just really a comfortable and relaxing time to play through these games that all have this chill vibe to them.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- Otter Matic for GamePro, Issue 43 (Feb 93): "The dialogue is funnier than a simian's uncle."
- Ed Dille, Issue 27 (Apr 91): "The control interface for Monkey Island is superb."

Played this about 3 or 4 months ago, thought I'd drop this review from somewhere else here now :)

I gave Yakuza Kiwami a 10/10 when I beat it in late 2018 or early 2019. Probably would change that to a 9/10 now, but the gist of it is, I loved the game. I love games that have a good story and are more on the grounded side (though I don't at all mind the occasional supernatural JRPG story, I mean Persona games are among my favorite ever). I also like it when games are funny. But I like it the most when these two parts are strung together by fun gameplay mechanics.

There aren't many games that work really well in all three aspects (GTA games would probably be the closest, but the story in those isn't as noteworthy as the very memorable characters are). So for someone always interested in games that combine those three aspects, it probably doesn't get much better than Yakuza games, so I always facepalm when I think about how long it takes for me to play through this series.

For those of you who still do not know what Yakuza games are about, it's about Kazuma Kiryu and his life in the Japanese mafia (the Yakuza). The game usually has serious and badass story bits including politics, betrayal, drama and scenes that will simply make a grown man cry. Meanwhile, there are also tons of side characters and especially side stories that can be found in the world that usually include some ridiculous requests and hilariously weird things happening in them. Somehow, these games manage to mix the serious in with the ridiculous very well, especially since the player himself can mostly decide how much of the ridiculous he wants to experience. These side stories and silly mini games can almost entirely be ignored if one wants to, to me they are what make these games that much more special.

Yakuza 0 itself is a prequel to Yakuza Kiwami, so we experience Kazuma Kiryu's first footsteps as a Yakuza. In addition, Kiryu's rival Goro Majima, who plays a role in the other games as well, is featured as a playable protagonist in Yakuza 0 too, so you play through both Kiryu's and Majima's story.

I really don't want to say much else about the story. Just know this. Shit gets real. I don't think you can create a prequel much better than this one, excluding you, Vince Gilligan. Despite many events being pre-determined through the story of Yakuza 1, the story had me on the edge of my seat, especially for the entire second half of it. I was hyped, sad, excited, happy, shocked throughout this game in a way that only my favorite games have ever made me feel. I'm talking The Witcher 3, RDR2, The Last of Us, Persona 3/4 and God of War. As far as I'm concerned, that's the GOAT list right there and Yakuza 0 fits right in.

If you've never played any games in this series, I have a hard time choosing which starting point to recommend. Yakuza 1 (Yakuza Kiwami) introduces you to the characters and will create intrigue as to what happened to them before. However, starting with Yakuza 0 and finding out about the battles all of them faced before will surely make the events of Yakuza 1 feel more impactful. But just like with Better Call Saul, maybe the impact of the prequel itself will just be slightly lower if you didn't know about the characters through the original game/series before.

While I can't figure this one out, I do know that I CAN recommend the entire series either way. I have yet to play Yakuza 2 myself, but I can't imagine being disappointed by that game either. The series follows a winning formula and everything I've witnessed in Yakuza 0 makes me trust in the writers ability to create thrilling scripts and stories.

PS: Yakuza 1 is relatively "short" at 20-30 hours depending on how much side content you choose to do, while Yakuza 0's main story itself is already going to take you 30+ hours, never mind the side content that you shouldn't miss. So if I were you, I'd probably start with Yakuza 1.

To conclude this, Yakuza 0 is a masterpiece worthy of 10/10, 5 stars and 90+/100.

(This is the 26th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Quick word on the challenge I'm doing. This will be needless for those of you who are looking for a review of the game, but it's still something I'd like to mention quickly for those following along (those +-0 of you).

The Sega Genesis obviously launched in Aug 1989 in NA already, so it's not like Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse is the first 16 bit game to come out since I started this, nor is it even the first Sega Genesis game I've played. So far I've played Batman and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker for the system.

But we're now in November 1990, and this game actually released on the same date as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which would be November 21st, 1990. That console, as is well-known, is the best-selling 16-bit home console, so that's why we're starting to really get into 16-bit territory here, and I am incredibly excited to try out a bunch of classics for the first time from an era many still call the best for console games - if not games in general.

Is this game, developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis, the highlight of the era already? Some say it's right up there with Super Mario World as one of the best platformers of this time (SMW also released on November 21, 1990) but to spoiler my conclusion a little bit, I don't really think it's close. This game is fun but has plenty of flaws, so let's get into it.
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STORYTELLING
The story is explained at the beginning and in the manual. Minnie is kidnapped by the evil witch Mizrabel (great name btw), because she is jealous of Minnie's beauty. So Mickie makes his way to the Castle of Illusion to save Minnie. An old man there tells him that he needs seven gems of the rainbow to rescue her. Why? Who knows.

There will be an epilogue as well but no other form of storytelling in between from what I can tell, so nothing worth talking about here.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is very simple and basic. You move from side to side in this 2D platformer and can either jump on enemies or shoot projectiles (often fruit) at them. If you jump on them, it catapults you up and enables you to reach otherwise unreachable platforms. That's definitely the most unique part about this game's gameplay.

Levels are heavy on platforming and the likelihood that you will fall to your death increases with each level you pass. One cave level where the next platform was so easily miss able if you jump a milli-second too early was especially frustrating.

The game starts you off with three health, 3 lives per continue and 2 continues. Your i-frames after taking a hit only last a second or so, so it's very easy to die within seconds. Since hit frames are sometimes too big, enemies sometimes just pop out of the ground with almost no forewarning and a jump on the enemy's head doesn't get recognized properly (you get damage for missing it), you often lose health unfairly. This is precisely where any comparison to a game like Super Mario World is just not reasonable. I'm playing Super Mario World as we speak and the difference in quality is so high that it actually surprised me quite a lot to see people actually comparing the two.

I've also encountered a bug where I somehow jumped over a tree during a boss fight and couldn't go back to the other direction, meaning that I was stuck.

Gems are acquired by beating bosses after the end of each level, which aren't too difficult, but I failed the second one twice because my jumps on his head just didn't register for some reason. I decided to abandon the game some time after the third boss because while I was doing platforming on tiny tiny platforms, I realized the game didn't immediately register that you let go of the forward button, which made me slip off the platform and fall to my demise.

Apart from these issues it's not a very difficult game, but there is also nothing really exciting about it. There is plenty of stuff you can argue for here apart from its gameplay, and I'll likely agree with you, but I must say that this was not that fun to play.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE
No voice acting. Sound design was mostly pretty good and I liked how a lot of actions actually got a sound to accompany them, like even jumping or throwing stuff, which doesn't happen in a lot of platformers I've played recently. The music was fine overall but I can't say I liked it that much. My favorite track definitely was the one used for the boss fights but the soundtrack just didn't get me into a playful/whimsical kinda mood like I would have expected.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN
Lots and lots of colorful, bright worlds are present in this game, with plenty of variety between them. To mention something a little more lowkey, I liked how the clouds outside kept moving even if you were standing still and how much detail was put into the horizon, even if it's not something a player will really focus on a lot.

But simply graphically, this is definitely one of the best one's you will find from this entire year.

ATMOSPHERE
I didn't always feel like the music used for a particular level necessarily fit the mood, but overall the colorful levels and their overall designs managed to do a solid enough job of putting me in the mood of playing a Mickey Mouse platform adventure. If someone is reading this: Sometimes I feel silly seriously critiquing a game like this, at the end of the day it's a game for children that isn't meant to be taken apart this way. Right? I don't know, I'm definitely going to be glad when a lot more mature games start coming up on the playlist.

CONTENT
There is some fine content here for platformer enthusiasts. This game should take about 3 hours for your average gamer and lead you through a variety of different worlds. But the game overall has pretty basic gameplay and plenty of frustration to come with it, even if there certainly is much worse out there in that regard.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN
Mostly the levels are designed pretty much as you would expect. The difficulty is definitely lower than for many comparable platformers. Most of the time you just go into a specific direction and are offered with very little choice in how to deal with the dangers. Move, kill or avoid, beware of gravity, find the exit at the end of the screen.

Some levels also include underwater sections, and these just frankly sucked. A piranha would usually wait for you in there and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to move past it without taking damage.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION
The worlds are definitely lookers here, and there even is one part where you have to trigger a button to flip the level over. Your character can then still walk upside down, while all others fall down. Nothing major but a nice changeup. Other than that, this is a pretty basic licensed platformer, though it does look pretty good graphically for its time.

REPLAYABILITY
Apart from trying to beat your high score, there also are some secrets to discover, which might warrant a second playthrough for you.

PLAYABILITY
The game works well at pretty much all times, but I did encounter one bug and I disliked how letting go of the forward button would only register like a second later.

OVERALL
The game looks great for a 1990 game, and certainly it was a big deal when it released. You'll be hard-pressed to find a review below 9/10 back in the day. But in today's day and age, we have a game that simply shows its flaws and can't wow in the same way with its strengths. And turns out, its flaws, at least to me, are worse than in many other games I've played from this year recently. And if we just compare to Super Mario World, we can also see that a big difference in quality exists on pretty much every level. Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse is fine and should probably be played if you're looking to go through gaming history like I am, even if in a much more condensed way. Why? Because the ratings tell me you shouldn't look into my thoughts too deeply. But at the same time, I've played too many comparable games to really feel bad about standing where I do on this game.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- J. M. for VGCE, Issue 24 (Jan 91): "Castle of Illusion is, quite plainly, one of the most fabulous run-and-jump games ever created."
- Sushi-X, Issue 17 (Dec 90): "Music... a 10+!"

(This is the 25th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

It's milestone time. Stunts is a 3D racing game developed by Distinctive Software and initially released on October 5th, 1990 for IBM PC compatibles. It's also the 25th game I've beaten for this challenge and the 1st racing game.

It's by the same devs as for The Duel: Test Drive II, which is a very similar game to Stunts, but the big difference is that Stunts focuses on, well, stunts during its courses. I had some fun during my short time with this game, and I can confidently say that for better or worse, Stunts is a game ahead of its time.

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STORYTELLING
No surprise that there is no actual story here. But there are 6 characters in total that you can choose as your opponents for a race. I gotta give the game credit here, they could have have phoned it in here but the devs actually did much more than necessary. Characters have clever names and strengths and weaknesses to go with it. For example, there is Joe Stallin, who is slow on straightaways. Next to that, there even is a little bio on each of them that often explains their weaknesses. With Stallin, there is speculation that he "rear-ended another car on a straightaway" and has therefore developed a restraint. Pretty neat stuff, and they all perform differently during races based on their strengths, weaknesses and the track you choose, not to mention the car you choose to give them. Ahead of its time.

GAMEPLAY
Before a race, you pick an opponent (one of the characters or the clock), your own car and the track. Then the race begins. You gotta beat your opponent (you can see the opponent's car as well) and you gotta try to survive. Because once you crash, it's game over.

You can use mouse, keyboard or a joystick for controls. I used my mouse, which was pretty simple to use. You click the right mouse button to accelerate and just move it to turn. The control of your vehicle seems pretty fair. Drive too fast and you'll lose control. Pretty straightforward. And yet, I've crashed more often than I can admit, and that's mainly due to how tracks are designed.

There are tons of stunt pieces on each track, and not only did I find myself flying out of a loop, but I often was driving too fast into a jump while I couldn't keep my car straight, so I'd fly off to the side.

It never really feels unfair, but it also shows its age at the end of the day. Turning feels stiff, the motion is not really smooth. This is to be expected, but it's hard to hide that one is spoiled by racing games of today, or even of the late 90s.

That's a complaint that will pretty much make or break this game for you. Do you need a fresher experience? Then look a few years ahead. Do you enjoy old school racing games? Then you should have already given this game a try. Because here comes the best part.

You can build your own tracks! Yes, seriously. Did I mention that this game is ahead of its time? You can change road surfaces, you can add road pieces like ramps and crossroads and you can add a bunch of stunt pieces to your hearts content. You can do some pretty wild stuff and I can only imagine how hilarious it must have been to build tracks for yourself or especially friend back in the day.

And finally, the game actually saves your replays! That's right, you can actually re-watch your performance. I don't know if this stuff is a first for racing video games or not, but it's definitely pretty advanced stuff either way.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE
No voice acting. Cars sound pretty good for a 1990s racing game I'd say, though I don't really have any comparison as of now. The sound's a bit weird on curves, but otherwise it doesn't sound too bad. There isn't much music here but what is there is... alright.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN
I like the design of the cars and there is some detail to the scenery during races. The world is drawn with 3D polygon graphics and it translates speed pretty well.

ATMOSPHERE
Not necessarily the game's strength. I would have liked a bit more of an aggressive atmosphere for a game focusing on risky stunts. As it stands, this is a pretty basic racing game's atmosphere.

CONTENT
There is no career mode or online play, and almost no car customization. Naturally, there is only so much you can expect from a 1990 racing game, so none of this is a big deal. What you do have are about half a dozen pre-made tracks, an ability to make some of your own, and races that can be tweaked by choosing opponents with different abilities, not to mention all those test drives you can make to familiarize yourself with tracks, where you can take multiple routes and have a bunch of obstacles to overcome. It's a good racing game for the time.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN
Really impressed with how the game managed to add variety to races by adding unique strengths/weaknesses to opponents. I know I mention it a lot but it really is impressive and it's funny to see opponents crash when the track is unfavorable to them.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION
A replay system, opponents with strengths and weaknesses and a damn track builder are all in this game, which is pretty impressive.

REPLAYABILITY
Lots of replayability thanks to multiple different opponents, multiple tracks, multiple cars and the ability to create your own tracks.

PLAYABILITY
The game works well at all times.

OVERALL
The theme of this review was "ahead of its time", because the game had some really fun ideas, and plenty were executed well, but with more technical leeway, the features could have really been fleshed out. As it stands, this is a game that shows its age but is pretty fun anyway.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
Couldn't find anything.

(This is the 24th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

I've never been a skater, which I think is pretty important as a disclaimer before I review Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble, which released in September 1990 in the US only (according to Google results) and was developed/published by Electronic Arts for the NES.

This is a sequel, obviously, and I did not play the first game before playing this, which would introduce you to some of the characters here. It tells its own story though, so playing the first is by no means necessary.

In this game, you ride a skateboard from side to side and can also shoot with a paintball gun. That will be necessary as there are plenty of enemies who shoot you back or simply run into you.

While I dive into a bit more detail below, let me tell you that I would have probably been less forgiving of the game's rougher parts, of which there are plenty. As it stands, some potentially more low key presentation of skater-life has definitely flown over my head and I will simply judge how I experienced it. If you're all about the skater lifestyle, I'd keep this in mind when reading the review.

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STORYTELLING
The part that positively surprised me the most, the storytelling in this game - or at least the attempt - is definitely above average compared to all other games of this year I've played so far. The game starts by introducing you to the cast with pictures and lines of text. There is you (the hero), CJ (your girlfriend), Rodney (who sells skateboards) and Lester (who teaches you tricks), among others. There is also an antagonist, Icepick, who even has a catchphrase (he calls you a Poseur a lot).

But even more admirable is that there are several cutscenes in the game, one playing at the start and end of the game and one after each level is complete. They actually tell a full story with ups and downs, there is a little bit of character development present and there is the antagonist, Icepick, who gets in your way a few times and practically asks for a beating. Some of the scenes I did find to be humorous and I learned a new insult in "Poseur". Granted, the game never got me to laugh out loud and it never even was "exhale out of my nose" like funny, but it helped set the tone. And having a story unfold definitely provided some extra motivation. I have to say though that I wouldn't have beat this game if it weren't for the short length of the game overall and the fact that I used a guide. The story itself definitely wasn't nearly enough motivation for that, but it helped a little bit.

GAMEPLAY
There are 4 levels in this game. In the first, you skate on a street and can finish it by finding and killing an old woman. Yes, really. During this level, you can collect food items like tacos, but also CDs, which you use as currency. The currency is useful for whenever you find Rodney and Lester during the levels, as they give you new skateboards or teach you new skills. During this level, you go into a bunch of areas, where you either find enemies or items, until you find the old woman somewhere and kill her to finish the level. Enemies run into you (like dogs) or shoot at you. You can dodge them by placing yourself above or below the projectile (still am not used to that) and you can defeat dogs and such by jumping on top of them.

In the next level, you are in a shopping mall and have to go to a bunch of stores and deliver something, as you get a job as a delivery person to collect some money as part of the story. This is literally the same thing over and over again until you lose your mind or the level ends, whichever comes first. During your run, you are attacked of course and this is where I started using a guide because I was losing my mind.

This is also where I should mention that the game controls like ass. The worst part about it is that once you stand still. Turning around and starting up your skateboard again literally takes 5 seconds every time. This makes the game an incredible slog. It doesn't help that it's really hard to figure out where exactly you are supposed to stand to dodge stuff, because it's projected so poorly (check graphics/art design for my thoughts).

The third level then has you collect 16 (?) blueprint parts on a beach, which, again, is very repetitive. Oh and by the way, both this level and the last have timers, which makes it worse.

The final level is probably the worst level I have played out of all games in 1990. You have to find the building permit somewhere and fight the final boss, but you have to go through a maze of about 7 billion screens that you can easily get lost in. Plus there are enemies everywhere. Again, I used a guide to get through it and just have another "YES" under "Beaten?" on my spreadsheet, but I otherwise recommend to not even force yourself through this. It's so bad and not fun at all.

Finally, let me mention that you use a paintball gun to shoot, but can also throw firecrackers and eggs at enemies.

Overall, gameplay sucks and the awful controls are only the second worst part behind the mission objectives.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE
There actually are some digitized lines in this game, which, hey, fair enough. I've only played three other games with voice acting so far and one of them was Loom, and the version of the game with voice acting wasn't even available in 1990 (the others: Michael Jackson's Moonwalker where the single line that was said was "Michael", and Elivra: Mistress of the Dark, where Elvira just said some gibberish that didn't align with the dialogue). So props to EA for including a few lines like "Major Bummer, dude" in this game.

Sound design was meh but turned into horrifying after the final level with all those elevators. Music was alright but can't say I liked the soundtrack that much.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN
While it doesn't look to bad graphically, I do have a few complaints. Namely it's the issues I've had with the perception of depth in this game. It's a 2D game, sure, but platforms that are supposed to be higher don't really feel that way, it just seems like you're moving wider rather than higher up. Also, to avoid crashing into others, you can't stand right in front of them, you have to move aside. Unfortunately, it is incredibly hard to tell when you actually are in collision course with someone. And sometimes others will walk/skate below your position and your entire sprite will still show up on top of them as if you were the one in a lower position.

Finally, as mentioned plenty of times, it's just important to understand that over half of the story will take place in that god awful warehouse, so it matters much less to me if the beach level actually looks pretty good, since that part is over relatively quickly.

ATMOSPHERE
For the most part the game sets fitting atmosphere but it's hard for me to praise it anymore than that when over half the game takes place in a warehouse with the same rooms over and over and over again, just with a different color filter plastered on top.

CONTENT
Again, over half the story mode takes place in the same place and is incredibly boring. Overall, the story takes about 2-3 hours (longer if you don't use any guide, but not in a good way). There also is a freestyle mode where you can do some tricks, which is a welcome addition but not that much fun.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN
The first level is actually well designed all things considered. You have no time limit, you can get acquainted with the controls, collect some stuff, go into garages and manholes to do things, find a couple guys who give you items/upgrades and then finish the level whenever you are ready to. Then you get a bunch of levels that have time limits and are incredibly repetitive, before you find yourself in the worst level of all, the warehouse level, which is simply there to push the playing time of this game.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION
Skate around a level and do a bunch of optional stuff and stumble upon a few guys who are willing to trade you skateboards and tricks. You almost think that you're playing a sandbox game in those levels, though on a much, much smaller scale than you're accustomed to when hearing "sandbox". Still, that's probably what I enjoyed the most about the game. Other than that, the game certainly is unique in that it's a skateboarding game, but mostly in a negative way.

REPLAYABILITY
I didn't get all moves and skateboards, which is something you can try to achieve in a subsequent playthrough. Other than that, there is no reason to replay this, and after that final level, it's unlikely that you will want to.

PLAYABILITY
The game works well at all times.

OVERALL
In general, this is not a good game. If you play this today, you will probably not even care enough to finish it as a non-skater. If you are part of the skater-life, you'll probably at least appreciate the game, but it will still take a lot of determination to finish this without using a guide. It just has too many holes in gameplay and level design.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- Slo Mo for GamePro, Issue 13 (Aug 90): "You don't have to be a die-hard side-walk surfer to get into S or D 2" | I respectfully disagree
- Howard H. Wen for VGCE, Issue 20 (Sep 90): "Skate or Die 2 doesn't take itself too seriously but rather does what's fun. And after all, that's what video gaming is all about, right?"

(This is the 23rd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

Did you know? Journey to Silius was originally meant to be a Terminator game. As Sunsoft lost the license mid-development, story and graphics were changed. In more recent news, the game was ported over to Nintendo Switch in 2019 for Switch Online subscribers, in case you're curious.

Journey to Silius is a run & gun video game developed by Sunsoft and released on August 10th, 1990 for the NES. The composor is Naoki Kodaka, and I mention that because he was the composer for a game I reviewed more recently: Batman for the Sega Genesis (I was a big fan of the soundtrack).

Whether the soundtrack is good here too, what the game is even about and whether I liked it I will discuss in more detail below.

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STORYTELLING
You play Jay McCray, who is the son of a scientist who was responsible for the development of space colony #428 at a time where emigration to space colonies has become necessary due to overpopulation of the Earth. Jay's father dies during development and leaves behind a floppy disk, where he's recorded a message. He says that terrorists are looking to destroy the colony, so Jay sets out to protect the colony and avenge his dad.

This is where the story begins and the storytelling pretty much ends. From here on out, you find yourself on the space colony and kill terrorists / aliens and once you defeat the final boss, a few-second long cutscene plays before the end credits roll. So if you're here for any sort of story, you'll get a setting that is slightly more detailed than usual but nothing beyond that.

GAMEPLAY
This is another pretty average platformer in just about every way. You use a hand gun to start the game and get up to 6 by the end of it, the most unique being the homing missile. There are 5 stages, each side-by-side platforming stages with a boss at the end. That's a formula that has worked very well at that time but it is really simple, not innovative at all and since the game really doesn't have enough features or a fun enough gameplay loop, it grows stale quickly and the reliance on the same formula is not really justified.

The way the levels are designed (I'll crap on that a bit more later) is just so frustrating because it makes it very, very hard to reliably dodge enemy attacks. There are so many of them that just are at spots that you can't reach, which means you will most of the time just tank the damage and move forward.

I also can't say I got much out of the 6 weapons on offer. Once you knew what to do, the hand gun did just fine, but you only knew what to do after suffering through a part multiple times.

In the end, I did beat the game in about 3 hours, and the formula DOES work in that it offers a little bit of fun next to all the frustration. But it would have been a lot less fun without the great soundtrack on offer, as I describe below.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE
No voice acting. Sound design ranged from OK to good, with the weapons sounding satisfying enough. The soundtrack is great, similarly to what the composer managed to do for the Batman Sega Genesis game. Banger after banger almost throughout. Unfortunately all boss fights use the same track and I would have definitely enjoyed more variety there, especially since the track that exists loops pretty quickly and isn't the highlight of the OST.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN
The game looks pretty good. It was actually designed with a space colony in mind (plenty of games didn't always stay true to their setting among the games I've played so far). The game makes good use of colors, the enemy design is mostly solid (apart from the bosses) and especially the outside stages allow for some great, detailed background work. Unfortunately, some of the boss fights simply took place with a simple black background, whilst the final one for example showed distant planets, stars and space stations. Not sure why they did that.

ATMOSPHERE
The game does a good job here. The way the levels are designed artistically suit the theme.

CONTENT
The game is on the shorter side - it took me roughly 3 hours to beat it - and there isn't much to it. All levels are pretty much: move side to side, choose one of 6 weapons to fire and do some (not so great) platforming until you get to the boss. No other content to mix it up, no power up items or the like and no real story progression. What does exist is fine but this is a fairly skippable game as far as the history of video games is concerned.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN
It's a pretty simple concept as far as the level design goes. A level starts and you have to go through a bunch of enemies, do some platforming and hope you don't die to gravity and then fight a boss. You do that a few times and then you beat the game, but the game is purposely frustrating to make it harder to beat within a rental time, which hopefully leads to the player (or their parents) to buy a copy outright.

The game doesn't shy away from this formula and there just aren't enough features here to justify it being so stale. Also, one of my biggest minor complaints, is that the game requires you to jump down a lot without being able to see what's there. And what's there usually is an enemy, so I very often either would step on them and take damage, or they would shoot a millisecond after I landed and I would take damage from that. It's just bad.

In its whole, level design isn't necessarily bad, it's just bland.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION
There isn't really anything that I can think of that this game did that you didn't see before. Science fiction as a theme for a platformer, based on my experiences so far, were on the rarer side at the time, so there is that. Plus the soundtrack is definitely well above average and if you check the game's wikipedia page, you can read a bit about how the composer did some different stuff there, but other than that, this is a pretty forgettable game.

REPLAYABILITY
The game doesn't even have a high score system as far as I can tell, so the only reason you would want to replay it is for the sake of wanting to play it again. On its own the game doesn't incentivize this however.

PLAYABILITY
The game works well at all times.

OVERALL
"Make an average platformer, hire a great composer, slap the Terminator license on it and boom, you got a great seller. Oh but wait, you can't use the license anymore - Crap! Well then just make it its own world and release it." That's what I feel like the game's development looked like. This game is certainly playable and as I said, average, but I doubt many people remember it fondly for being a classic rather than a nostalgic and fun experience, which is fine if that's the case.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- Andromeda for GamePro, Issue 16 (Nov 90): "Journey to Silius features great graphics and a dynamite sound track. However, in terms of substance, the game doesn't quite live up to the way it looks."
- Steve Harris for EGM, Issue 14 (Sep 90): "This game is not going to win any awards for being new or innovative, but Sunsoft does manage to introduce some new twists to the standard action/shooting theme." | Steve agrees with my opinion of 30+ years later as far as innovation goes, but I'd like to know what those "twists" are that the game apparently introduces