Game: Chack'n Pop
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: TOSE
Release Date: 24th May 1985
Chack'n Pop is a platform game of sorts, where players stick to the surface they walk on, allowing for ceiling walking if Chack'n is close enough. The game is considered to be a forerunner to Bubble Bobble due to similarities in both game's enemies and the inclusion of a Chack'n Pop level in Bubble Bobble. I took a look at the arcade version of this game in one of my arcade collection reviews, and gave it a 35/100 and an E grade.
Players try to rescue hearts from their cages before escaping the level, with enemy eggs hatching after a certain amount of time and the enemies inside pursuing players. Chack'n is armed with bombs which have their own momentum when thrown on screen and so are particularly hard to aim, even though they're the only way to kill enemies, and prevent their eggs from hatching.
Graphically the NES version is less colourful than the arcade edition of the game, and because of this it seems particularly bland. There's some basic music behind the game but its not even something you can hum. The controls are strange and the gravity idea doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but bonuses are given to players for either destroying all of the eggs and enemies or none of the eggs and enemies which is particularly clever for the period.
Overall, Chack'n Pop's console version isn't much better than its arcade version as there are various inbuilt flaws in the game. The inability to use weapons effectively, combined with a difficulty in control, aggressive AI and some fairly boring level variations mean that it's difficult to enjoy despite working on a technical level.
Rating: 33/100
Grade: E
Game: Battle City
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 9th September 1985
Battle City is an interesting combat and base defence game where players drive a tank around a maze and attempt to stop enemy tanks from reaching and shooting their base, at the bottom centre of the screen. With 35 levels, some of which are laid out to resemble classic Namco characters from other video games, there's some good variety and players can strategise as to how best to shoot their way through walls and use bushes to hide from enemy tanks.
There are a few different types of enemy tanks which take different amounts of hits to beat, but on the whole there's a creeping hint of repetitiveness to gameplay after the first few levels. It's definitely a good concept but there's not a whole lot more that can be done with tank combat. The game is also reminiscent of Combat for the Atari 2600 with a little more complexity.
Graphically the game is presented from a top down perspective, allowing players to survey everything occurring on the battlefield. The sprites and locations aren't too inspiring, and the action is reduced to simple tank/gunshot combat, but at least its easy to understand what's going on. Music is only featured on the menu, with the game itself only containing the tank and shooting sound effects.
Overall Battle City is a surprisingly fun game with some longevity, until players grow tired of different arrangements of walls, bushes and enemy tanks. There's not too much difficulty in the early levels, and even later levels can be fairly easy to beat. It's the sort of game that holds up well against other early simple NES titles, but can't really compete with the larger and more content heavy releases post 1985.
Rating: 61/100
Grade: D
Game: Binary Land
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: Hudson Soft
Release Date: 1985
Binary Land is a puzzle game which involves a fair amount of multitasking and keeping an eye on two things at once. Players control 2 penguins, one on the left of the screen and one on the right; the goal of the game is to get both penguins to meet eitherside of the heart at the top of the maze whilst avoiding spider webs and spiders which patrol the maze. Both penguins move upwards and downwards together, but in opposite directions on the x axis.
Players have an attack which dissolves webs and beats spiders, but it can still be tricky to keep an eye on both penguins at once, and finally line them up correctly within the allotted time. There's a good number of levels for players to work through, and the difficulty curve seems bearable unlike some NES games. A nice feature of the game is that at the beginning players can choose to be the right hand or left hand penguin, thus setting the controls in the best way for themselves.
Graphically the game is once again fairly simple, as most maze style games on the NES are, and while the penguins featured in the game are cute, the spiders and their webs don't really seem to be a natural enemy for penguins, or really fit with the style of the game. It'd be a more relaxed experience without enemies, and perhaps could then have been developed as more of a puzzle title.
Overall Binary Land is a pretty fun and challenging puzzle game which makes players think a little more than they usually would about their movement and strategy for getting from place to place inside the maze. The bonus rounds which appear every third round are cute, and somewhat more akin to the type of puzzle game this could have been without the enemies, which tend to increase the pace and tension of the game, for better or worse.
Rating: 66/100
Grade: C
Game: City Connection
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Axes Art Amuse
Release Date: 1988
City Connection is a strange little game where players attempt to prove they've visited countries by painting the entirety of their roadways white whilst avoiding the police, cats and spikes. The car cannot be stopped, but instead can do instant 180 degree handbrake turns as well as high and low jumps in order to reach each level of the roadway. The controls are tricky to get used to and don't really seem to work consistently.
There's a good variety of locations for players to visit, but with only three lives it can be difficult to paint the entirety of the roads in any given level, as the very ends usually remain unpainted where jumps have been necessary to clear a gap. As such, a large portion of gameplay time is spent trying to make very specific movements in order to paint a very small section of road. Interestingly the driver of the car was changed from female to male as the game was released in America, from Japan.
Graphically there's some nice shout-outs to landmarks and famous monuments in the featured locations, but the cars and levels are very basic and sometimes flicker when quick movements are made, or when there are many cars on the screen at once. It's also particularly easy to drive into cats and spikes as they appear fairly unexpectedly and seemingly at random. Musically the game features different tracks on each level, which is probably my favourite feature of the entire game.
Overall City Connection is a little too strange as a concept, and its controls too unwieldy to be a true classic, despite releases on the Virtual Console by Nintendo. It's a little bit of fun, which is soon cut short by either the difficulty of avoiding all of the police cars and mice placed on the level, or the frustration of a single square remaining unpainted.
Rating: 54/100
Grade: D
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