Author: John Legendoffzelda Capcom in the 1990s was nothing if not a skilled practitioner of genre games and accordingly, their established reputation would seem less believable if their high-concept smashes didn’t come with some good also-rans. The case in point here is their Middle Ages brawler King of Dragons, a…
Author: John Legendoffzelda The box art to Beavis and Butt-Head, in lieu of an ESRB rating, has a small rectangle warning that the game is “Appropriate for Ages 13 and Older”. The message is more of a statement about the title characters’ knee-jerk reputation than it is an indicator of…
Author: John Legendoffzelda Some terrible video games let you know exactly what you’re in for. It isn’t simply that the game is a pile of dreary, uninspired gameplay elements Scotch-taped together by the developers – there’s always some kind of extra warning signal. This game’s case of red alert awfulness…
Author: John Legendoffzelda There are higher stakes to racing on a motorcycle than some other modes of transportation. There’s less of an engineered safety barrier within the vehicle’s unsteady, open-faced design. And with the capability of reaching incredibly high speeds, the situation of injuring yourself by getting into an accident…
Author: John Legendoffzelda Three years after the end of the Back to the Future film series, long after America gave up on the notion of a good video game adaptation, the Japan-exclusive music label Toshiba EMI released Super Back to the Future II. The game’s quality might remind players of…
Author: John Legendoffzelda For all the edge and shimmering visuals apparent throughout Castlevania: Dracula X, you can still see its creators reinstating the series’ strict roots and doing so with relative panache. No swinging from hooks, no whipping in a direction that isn’t directly in front of you, and…
Author: John Legendoffzelda In its own uncommon and assertive way, First Samurai demonstrates a lot of potential. With a shirtless samurai warrior at the center of its fantasy mix, Kemco and Vivid Media’s platformer could make its hodgepodge of 2D action-game elements succeed with the radical confidence of something like…
Author: John Legendoffzelda A great video game presents immaculate execution of its ideas for interactive entertainment. A great video game sequel uses this feat to override its existence as a follow-up. When the sequel re-configures its established gameplay concepts with enough skill and perhaps even some accidental genius, it changes…
Author: John Legendoffzelda In a regular sci-fi scrolling shooter, the sleek weaponized spacecraft being controlled by the player earns power-ups. They enhance the main weapons, or else stick close to the hull and multiply the firepower. Atlus and AI try for a novel twist on this convention with their arcade port BlaZeon,…
Author: John Legendoffzelda (Revieweris Nonprofessionalum) What Capcom had done for Disney, Sunsoft attempted to do for Looney Tunes: craft a series of fine games that would help those characters make an indelible impression on the video game world (at least in the early 1990s). Working with developer ICOM, they gave…