12 Days of NESmas: Balloon Fight, Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr. and Pac-man (#11)

Game: Balloon Fight
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1984

Balloon Fight is a classic NES title which is almost instantly recognisable, and is incredibly easy to pick up thanks to its concept. In the main game, players face-off against opponents with their own balloons, in an attempt to collide with them from above in order to pop their balloons and eliminate them. Once popped, enemies parachute down to the nearest platform and if they're not intercepted begin to take off once again with another balloon. In this respect, the gameplay is somewhat similar to Joust, but it feels far easier to control.

Balloon Trip mode is also very interesting, presenting a one hit game over journey through obstacles in the same vein as the main game. This mode has been featured as a Warioware microgame and is at least as fun, if not a little more than the main game, even if it gets pretty tricky very quickly. One of the best things about playing Balloon Fight is that each time I lost a life, it felt like it was truly my error, rather than bad game programming or design.

Graphically the game looks nice in both modes, despite its simple character sprites and black background. The music of the game however is almost unbearable in the main mode, between the almost random sounding bleeps and bloops and sound effects there's no semblance of a tune, and it'd be better off without most of the distracting sound. The music for Balloon Trip mode suffers no such issue, and has great music with balloon pop sound effects which are maybe just a little too loud.

Overall Balloon Fight is a solid and enjoyable NES game which deserves much of the praise and recognition it has had over the years. With two equally enjoyable game modes, great controls and classic music in the balloon trip mode it's certainly one of the best games of its type.

Rating: 75/100
Grade: B

Game: Mario Bros.
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1983

Mario Bros. marks one of the earliest appearances of Mario in video games. It's a simple title where he faces off against various enemies and defeats them by bumping the ground underneath them, to flip them upside down before kicking them off screen. Some of the elements in the game influenced parts of Super Mario Bros, the classic platformer released just 2 years later.

The game is very much in an arcade style and presents its levels and bonus levels as such. There's a few different types of enemies which appear throughout the game levels, and can become enraged if not dealt with quickly. Mario also collects coins for defeated enemies; yet another snippet of game which was later turned into a Warioware microgame.

Graphically the game is very much in the style which we recognise today as "Super Mario"-esque, but obviously was yet to be coined and ingrained into the public conciousness at its time of release. The music is generally pretty good, and with the big deal that Mario went on to become, it's not hard to see why Mario Bros. is considered a classic NES game.

Overall while simple, the game does play very well with only a slight bit of refinement needed on Mario's jumping, so that his momentum carries over properly. Other than this though, it's one of the better arcade style platforming games, and is definitely easy to pick up and fairly addictive.

Rating: 68/100
Grade: C

Game: Donkey Kong Jr.
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1983

The original Donkey Kong was a fun, albeit short platformer which saw players controlling Jumpman, later known as Mario across three levels in order to rescue his girlfriend. Donkey Kong Jr. turned this concept on it's head as players control the titular character in a bid to rescue Donkey Kong himself from Mario's grasp. There are a total of four levels in Donkey Kong Jr., each of them featuring a single screen with vines to climb and platforms to jump across.

The main issue with the game is that the climbing and overall moving speed of Donkey Kong Jr. is so slow that three enemy attacks can be launched by Mario whilst climbing a single vine. His small crocodile minions are at least twice as fast as the player controlled character. The levels aren't particularly hard to figure out, but putting your plans into practice with the control as it is isn't so easy.

Graphically the game is simple as can be, and eschews the early NES style of a black background with simple shapes and sprites. There's simple mono style music behind gameplay, with the first level's soundtrack being bearable, the second and third levels not so much, and the final actually resembling better music, despite being super repetitive.

Overall Donkey Kong Jr. is somewhat of a disappointment compared both to its prequel and the masses of better games that it was succeeded by. In the NES era, it wasn't long before this sort of game had an unacceptably low level of content and so represents the earliest period of NES gaming.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

Game: Pac-man
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 1984

Pac-man on the Atari 2600 was a hugely destructive blow to the game industry in America, with such a poor resemblance to the arcade original that millions of copies went unsold. Pac-man on the NES however is almost an arcade perfect port of the game, and plays really well. Everything from the way the game feels to how it sounds and looks is impressively similar to the original game.

Players make their way around the maze, collecting all of the power pellets and attempting to get a high score. There's a cutscene after every few levels which shows a plot of sorts, but really it's the arcade gameplay that players are after. Personally I've always found Pac-man somewhat repetitive after a while, but that's more of an issue with the game itself.

Graphically the game is almost identical to the simple but iconic stylings of the arcade version, with the instantly recognisable blue maze, coloured ghosts and fruit power-ups. There's not a lot in the way of music, but once again the sound effects are pretty classic and are reproduced well.

Overall if you're looking to play Pac-man on console, the NES version is as good a choice as any, since earlier versions didn't quite have the power to play like the arcades and later versions tend to overcomplicate what is a simple and enjoyable, if somewhat repetitive formula.

Rating: 72/100
Grade: C

12 Days of NESmas: Donkey Kong 3, Popeye, Spy Hunter and Burger Time (#10)

Game: Donkey Kong 3
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1986

Donkey Kong 3 is an arcade style NES game with very little content for a title of its time. Players control Stanley the gardener as he looks to take care of some plants, with only a giant ape and swarms of insects in his way. The game plays like a mix between a platformer and a shoot 'em up, with players able to move Stanley around the level and shoot upwards only.

The goal of each level is to force Donkey Kong up to the top of the vines he's hanging off before he comes down to attack Stanley. If any insects make it to the bottom of the screen, they can change one of the flowers into a flying enemy. The insects must be avoided whilst this is going on, and there's a shot power-up which makes Stanley's shots significantly more powerful. There's a few level layouts which repeat endlessly until players lose, as the speed of the game increases.

Graphically the game is simple but stylistically enjoyable. It's easy to tell that the game is set in a garden, but some insect sprites, and Stanley's own sprite aren't very detailed. There's music resembling Flight Of The Bumblebees at one point, but it's fairly standard for the NES. The sound effects can be a somewhat repetitive, as can the game as a whole, but each play session tends to be fairly short so it's not too much of an issue.

Overall Donkey Kong 3 seems to be a bit of a cop out when compared to the original Donkey Kong and especially when compared to later Donkey Kong games. Even its arcade style can't can't excuse the short length of the game; it's lack of content would be more highly criticised in any other franchise.

Rating: 34/100
Grade: E

Game: Popeye
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1986

Cartoons which got their own NES games are often unlucky in that during the NES era it was difficult to make a game which truly featured the events and concepts of the cartoon. Platformers were common in that it was easy to include characters from the series, and work with the simple concept of getting to the other side of the screen. Popeye however, is an arcade style game set on a single screen for each level.

Players attempt to collect various items dropped by Olive Oyl, whilst avoiding Bluto unless a spinach can has been collected, allowing Popeye to punch and stun him momentarily. Once all of Olive's items have been collected, the level ends and the game moves on. Moving around isn't particularly easy; there are stairs at the edges of most levels, which can't simply be climbed by pressing a directional button; easily trapping players if they're not careful.

Graphically the game doesn't look particularly inspired by the Popeye cartoon. Despite having the characters, the levels aren't based on any locations from the cartoon and are generally simple. A platformer might have been a better option for inclusion of more recognisible items. The music is very simple and bassy, with dissonant sound effects when items are collected.

Overall Popeye is a particularly average game which needn't have really featured the characters from the Popeye cartoon. The concept is generic, and the audio and visuals are fairly uninteresting and so as such the game becomes of interest only to hardcore Popeye and NES fans, who want to experience everything their chosen medium has to offer.

Rating: 54/100
Grade: D

Game: Spy Hunter
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Sunsoft
Release Date: 1987

It's no big secret that I'm not a big fan of the Spy Hunter games. I gave the arcade version of Spy Hunter II a score of 8/100, but what about the original game on the NES? The concept of Spy Hunter has been seen in many other games and it's hard to say which game first featured the "drive fast and avoid cars coming towards you" formula, but there's certainly better examples. Granted that in Spy Hunter you can shoot at cars that are in your way, but one hit won't clear them from your path, and some are even indestructible.

The main problems with the game are that the car moves way too fast onscreen with any application of the accelerator. The only alternative to this is to let off the gas and move at a snail's pace which is hardly exciting. The other cars on the road are divided between non-aggressive traffic, indestructible enemies who'll try and force you off the road and a variety of trucks, most of which have no effect, but some of which players can enter for a bonus.

Graphically the game is pretty average; the car sprites are fairly tiny and with the speed the game moves it, it's as good as impossible to tell what's actually going on. Soundwise there's not much to enjoy either, as turns don't tend to last particularly long, and there's very little in the way of music or good sound effects.

Overall Spy Hunter is a poor example of it's game type, with Road Fighter and Action Fighter being far better examples of the concept. Although the game was popular and well regarded in its time, it's aged pretty badly and can be consigned to the group of NES games that are more disappointing with each passing year.

Rating: 40/100
Grade: E

Game: Burger Time
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: SAS Sakata
Release Date: 1987

The concept of Burger Time is a good one; you're a chef traversing platforming levels, knocking the components of burgers down a floor each time you pass over them. Enemies run about the level too, who can be stunned with a quick shake of pepper, or beaten by trapping them underneath an ingredient. There are 6 levels in total, and a level is won when all burgers are completed at the bottom of the screen.

Unfortunately the game suffers from a few big issues; firstly getting on and off ladders can be very tricky; sometimes it'll look as if you're at the right level to dismount a ladder, only to get stuck and lose a life as an enemy makes contact. Secondly there's way too many enemies running about the levels; at one point I was being pursued by 8 enemies on level 1, and there's really nowhere to hide on any of the levels. Lastly the pinches of pepper used to stun enemies are finite and run out after a certain number of uses, leaving players effectively defenceless.

Graphically the game is pretty boring and definitely has a home computer feel to it, rather than the exciting look of a dedicated games console. I understand that the game came from home computers, but with the added power of the NES, something could have been done to spice things up a bit. Soundwise the game is decidedly average, there's no classic theme to keep players enticed or anything that'd make the game stand out.

Overall Burger Time could have been so much better as a game, despite having a solid and original concept. The difficulty level ends up being far too high as players are chased by many enemies from the outset, and the levels are set up in such a way that there's little room for error. It's a shame that these flaws drag down a game with such potential, but they clearly get in the way of player enjoyment.

Rating: 59/100
Grade: D

12 Days of NESmas: Nuts & Milk, Flappy, Devil World and Bomberman (#9)

Game: Nuts & Milk
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: Hudson Soft
Release Date: 28th July 1984

As the first third party game ever released on a Nintendo console, Nuts & Milk had a lot to live up to. It's a puzzle platformer where players control Milk (oddly the latter character in the title), on a quest to collect fruit and then meet up with his girlfriend, Yoghurt. Only his rival, Nuts and some small airships can stop Milk in his quest. Also there's a level editor which is a pretty nice feature.

While the home computer versions of Nuts & Milk featured a top down view, Hudson Soft went all out on the Famicom version, as it's a full 2D platformer. Milk has the ability to jump across platforms and climb ladders to get to his fruit. Nuts and any other obstacles must be avoided or jumped over in order not to lose a life. It's pretty simple stuff, but across the game's 50 levels it works nicely.

Graphically the game looks nice for 1984, though the characters are essentially just coloured blobs. The screen is wrapped so that going off the left hand side will result in appearing on the right, which can be useful in evading Nuts and his allies. Musically there's not only a theme before and after levels, but to accompany gameplay also which is rare for such an early game; the tunes are enjoyable and add to the playability.

Overall while Nuts & Milk isn't technically or visually impressive, it does a lot of things right and would definitely have stood out as one of the better games of the time. To have 50 levels, even if they're just single screens is impressive and the bonus levels offer a nice change of pace every 3 or 4 main levels. For the cuteness factor and for being ahead of its time, Hudson Soft did very well with the little game.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Game: Flappy
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: dB-Soft
Release Date: 14th June 1985

Flappy is a simple puzzling platform game that's notable for having 200 levels, far more than nearly any other NES game I can think of. Despite the simplicity of most levels, there's a good difficulty curve throughout the game, and codes to continue to progress once all lives have been lost. The aim of the game is to get a blue boulder to the blue platform, avoiding enemies and using regular boulders to your advantage to transport and protect the blue boulder or to squash the roaming enemies.

While there's probably too much of an AI presence in later levels to adequately solve the ever more complex puzzles, the game starts out fairly simple and those who enjoy this type of problem solving have plenty of work to do here. Personally I got a little bored after 10 or so levels, thanks to the single screen nature of the game and little attempt to change the visuals as the levels progress.

Graphically the game is dominated by the brickwork, with its repetitive colour and pattern. While its clear enough to see what needs to be done, there's definitely a hint of home computer style graphics rather than those of a dedicated console. There's looped music of a decent length behind the levels, although it's a little high pitched for my tastes, and the sound effects are fairly inoffensive.

Overall Flappy fits into the early category of games before the NES had really found its feet with blockbuster titles, back when the world was starting to move on from home programmed titles and small software companies releasing games. It's stuck inbetween the two worlds and perhaps a little too puzzle based for my liking.

Rating: 46/100
Grade: D

Game: Devil World
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 15th July 1987

Devil World is a game that's as simple as you want it to be. If you can accept that it's a bit like Pac-man, except that players collect a cross to shoot enemies and at some point jam bibles into a central thingy then that's that. If you're looking for a deeper meaning behind it all then I'm afraid you'll have to come up with your own theory as to what's going on. The devil at the top of the screen points his finger in the way he wants the maze to go, and his minions shift it, meaning players must consider their movements so as not to get squashed.

Once all of the dots have been eaten in the first stage of play, there's then a round where 4 bibles, or books of some kind must be pushed into the central column. If this is done successfully then players move onto the bonus round where they collect more artifacts before the whole process restarts on a slightly more difficult level. The gameplay itself is pretty nice and easy to get used to, but there's no clue as to what we're trying to achieve.

Graphically the game is bright and colourful, with lots of things going on in all corners of the screen. At the top the devil directs the direction in which his minions (at the bottom) move the maze. Inside of the maze enemies patrol, and the light blue dots and crosses are there for collecting by the player who hatches from the green egg into a Bubble Bobble looking character. Soundwise the game has an interesting introductory tune, but sadly no music behind gameplay.

Overall Devil World is an interesting and somewhat unique game which incorporates many concepts and is, at the very least more fun than Pac-man. That said, there's still not a large amount of things to do and after a few levels the gimmicks will tend to wear off.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D

Game: Bomberman
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Hudson Soft
Release Date: 1987

If you're a fan of slow and methodical gameplay which repeats over and over, then Bomberman is the game for you. I'm aware that this is where the Bomberman series started and that it's a popular games series, but I've honestly never seen the appeal. If the gameplay wasn't simply methodically bombing everything until you can find an exit, then trying to eliminate all of the enemies, then it might be more exciting, but the action here is almost non existent.

The controls aren't a problem; they're exactly as you'd expect, but the enemies are so slow and predictable in their patterns, it's almost too easy to avoid them. There are powerups for the player's bombs which make their range a little better, but even with the upgrade there's hardly any improvement in game speed.

Graphically the game is an unappealing mess of green and grey with a few red blobs moving around to signify enemies. There are unlicensed games which look better, and even Bomberman's own sprite is fairly unimpressive. The musical accompaniment develops somewhat as time continues, but the level doesn't end when the timer hits zero, so there's little point in building up to it.

Overall there's not a lot of reasons to enjoy Bomberman; the game is slow, the action is boring, the graphics are some of the least interesting on the NES and to complete the game takes at least half an hour at the slowest, and around an hour and a half at normal pace. This would be a good amount of content if there was actually something to enjoy.

Rating: 31/100
Grade: E

300th Review Bonus: NES ROMhacks, Unlicensed and Pirate Multicart games

The NES enjoyed an incredibly long lifespan in Japan and thanks to the relative ease of reproducing games on cartridges at the time, it's most likely the console with the most piracy and unlicensed games and hacks that's ever existed. Whilst playing NES games for the 12 Days of NESmas, I've been using a combination of a real NES console, a 100 in 1 Game Boy Advance Multicart with a variety of NES games on, and some Powerjoy Famiclone plug and play console which also accept Famicom cartridges.

(From top to bottom; NES console with GBA 100 in 1 cart, NES controller and Zapper, Twin LightBlaster Joypad
PowerJoy Famiclone console, Powerjoy 64 in 1 cart, Yoshi No Cookie and Mappy Famicom carts, 100 in 1 Famicom chip
Blank NES cart housing a Honeybee Famicom to NES converter and Rolling Thunder chip, and Castlevania for the NES)

Of course many of the games on pirate multicarts are indeed the games which they purport to be, and are exactly the same as their licensed counterparts. What I'll be covering here though is those games which aren't so legit. Some of these have already been covered in my 2014 April Fools review of the GBA 100 in 1 cart, but there's plenty of interest across the other pirate goodies. Notably in that review; Mario and Luigi was a ROMhack of Nuts & Milk, which I'll be reviewing later today. We'll begin on the Powerjoy plug and Play unit, which has 7 games built in. 6 of which are legitimate NES games.

Diamond Tetris

If you've ever felt that Sega's Columns was lacking in monuments to liberty, then look no further than Diamond Tetris. All the fun of Columns, with the Statue of Liberty watching over your every move, and taking up almost as much room as the entire field of play. On the left hand side there's what's presumably the New York skyline, but surprisingly the game plays pretty well apart from the random monument insertion. There's a definite theme in pirate games of wanting to play Sega's games on Nintendo or vice versa.

Moving on to the Powerjoy 64 in 1 cart, there's plenty of misnamed games and sprite hacks including Dig Dug ft. Hello Kitty, and of course at least 4 versions of Circus Charlie, cleverly disguised as Gladiators, Charlie and Pony and Big Top! But of course I'm only interested in legitimately ROMhacked or pirate games.

Aladdin III

Having missed out on hearing about Aladdin's apparent sequels, I was surprised to find Aladdin III on this cart, featuring a small turban-clad boy in shoot 'em up action against birds, ninjas and various other enemies. Particularly of note was the 3 second music loop which I can only assume represents the number of wishes a genie grants. There are actual bosses in the game if you can get far enough and it plays like a regular shoot 'em up, albeit with poor hit detection.

Pendamar

Have you ever wished Mario was a Panda? Ever think the music behind Super Mario Bros needed to be 1000% worse? Well then I've found the game for you. It's literally a horribly coloured, unnecessary and wholly offensive sprite hack of Super Mario Bros. This is the least fun you can have with the code that makes up a classic and enjoyable game.

Fire Dragon

The first truly enjoyable unlicensed game; Fire Dragon is only a simple port of Snake, but there's so little that can go wrong that the creators have actually released something that's at least playable. Unlike many other versions of Snake, the player is required to collect a certain number of 'things' (no clue what they're meant to be) before moving up each level. The controls are surprisingly responsive and for this sort of thing, it's best to savour the bearable titles.

There'd be a few more here since I have the Powerjoy chip as well, which contains even more games, however at least 60% of the games on that cart either feature a blank screen, Circus Charlie, Twin Bee, a random level of Adventure Island, or look like the picture below. Something that I've come to accept with pirate NES carts is that some things just won't work. Like 2 player mode.

The final set of games are from the Twin LightBlaster Joypad and seem to be a collection of Famicom ROMhacks amongst other things. Pendamar makes another appearance here, there's Circus Charlie with Bonk as the main sprite, and various versions of F1 Race. Unfortunately here I could only find two games of interest to round off this 300 review celebration.

Matching

Apologies for the picture quality on this one, but I couldn't find much on the internet simply searching for "Matching" so I can only assume this is a pretty specific pirate game. The aim is to match all of the cards in the time limit, and players are even treated to a nice 8-bit rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star whilst playing. The game sucks, but there's a cute anime witch girl on the left, so I guess it can have some bonus points.

Strange Pop Pop

I was intrigued by the title, and so slightly disappointed to find that Strange Pop Pop was literally just a version of Tetris where the bricks are nearly the same colour as the game background, making it almost impossible to strategise. The music is repetitive and annoying, and Tetris literally exists on the NES and every other console under the sun anyway, so someone choosing to play it on here would have to be so out of gaming options that even a Virtual Boy is not available. 

Overall from this experiment we've learned not to trust games by their name; lest we be surprised with yet another version of Circus Charlie, Adventure Island, Twin Bee or any other small game that can be crammed onto a multicart. We've also learned not to trust the amount of games advertised on the cart, 100 in 1 is more like 30 in 1, 30 that don't work, 30 that are the same game, and 10 which we just made up and programmed in the last 5 minutes. 

Still, if nothing else NES pirate multicarts are fun to look through, and that's what gaming's all about. Thanks to anyone who's read any number of my 300 reviews so far, we're going to keep going until there's no more games left to review!

12 Days of NESmas: Circus Charlie, Legend of Kage, Adventure Island and Mappy (#8)

Game: Circus Charlie
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: Soft Pro
Release Date: 4th March 1986

Circus Charlie is a platform game where players control a circus performer through 5 different circus events; riding a lion, tightrope walking whilst jumping over monkeys, balancing on large balls, riding a horse and swinging on high ropes. Each of the events controls a little differently, but the controls remain the same, the control pad is used to move with the button used to jump. Stages 1 and 2 are particularly easy, and shouldn't trouble players too much once they've passed them a few times.

Stage 3 and 4 however are slightly poorly designed in that it's much more difficult to judge the jump length and what's required not to lose a life. The last stage in the game seems more like the first in its difficulty, so it's strange to see such a change in difficulty in the middle period of the game. If players manage to clear all 5 stages without losing all their lives then the game loops and each stage is played again.

Graphically Circus Charlie is simple, yet manages to effectively show off the theme of the game. The crowd are displayed as the classic NES repeating pattern, and flash to simulate applause. It's a shame that the background of the circus tent is simply black, but this does mean that the onscreen action can be displayed clearly. Soundwise there's some good music to accompany gameplay, but all other effects are white noise, which can become grating after a while.

Overall Circus Charlie is a simple game, but one that understands its own simplicity and offers responsive controls, a good concept and a fair level of difficulty, save for a single level. Having only been released in Japan, this game is part of the earlier crop of Famicom titles which bore a closer resemblance to home computer titles than post 1985 NES games.

Rating: 50/100
Grade: D

Game: Legend Of Kage

Console: Nintendo Entertainment System

Developer: TOSE

Release Date: 1987

As an arcade title, The Legend of Kage felt pretty great, jumping about through trees and throwing shuriken around at enemies. On the NES, the experience feels not only a little watered down but somewhat more difficult. Having definitely got a few levels into the arcade game, it took many tries to even clear the first level of the game, and it's not really clear when the first level ends; as far as I can tell there's an opponent that randomly appears who must be defeated to continue, but he seems to arrive when he likes. 

The other levels are also basically the same as the arcade version with slightly worse sprites and less detail overall. The controls are also somewhat irritating as the jump button has been mapped to up on the control pad, due to Kage having both a shuriken and a katana attack. Aside from this though, the game plays almost as well as the arcade version, though there were issues with that too.

Graphically the game features faceless sprites, basic shapes and a lack of interest in its backgrounds. Later on in the game there's some repetitive walls which are used as backgrounds and overall it's pretty unimaginative. Soundwise however, there's a nice track or two behind the game and it's refreshing to see an NES game with music all the way through the action.

Overall The Legend of Kage is pretty average as a game, the controls are a bit fiddly, the levels boring, the difficulty level somewhat uneven and the plot fairly cliché. It's something that most players should try once, and need never play again.

Rating: 49/100
Grade; D

Game: Adventure Island
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Hudson Soft
Release Date: 1988

Adventure Island had a strange start to life; originally supposed to be a port of Wonder Boy to the NES, Sega's license to the Wonder Boy series meant that the characters and story had to be changed in order to remove any similarities. What was left was a surprisingly solid platformer with some original elements and plenty of charm. Players take control of Master Higgins, who is on a quest to rescue a female on a pacific island.

With 8 areas of 4 rounds each for 32 levels total, and checkpoints throughout each round the game is pretty expansive for an NES cartridge and rivals Super Mario Bros. in terms of content. While the platforming isn't quite as spot on as in the Nintendo classic, Adventure island still manages to provide a good feel to the game, with an axe weapon which can be thrown, a skateboard power-up to speed through levels and some other fun goodies hidden within eggs across the game's levels.

Graphically the game is bright and interesting, featuring many different locations throughout the levels of the game, and providing a fairly relaxed feeling except for maybe the boss battles. The music changes as the levels change and the tunes featured are enjoyable and fitting for the game. The only real downside is the inclusion of a depleting health meter which must be topped up with fruit constantly throughout the levels, encouraging players to keep moving through the levels, when a simple timer would have sufficed.

Overall Adventure Island is a classic NES title, and probably the best game I'll be looking at within this 12 Days of NESmas feature. The platforming is solid, and the controls are great, allowing players to feel as if they're in full command of their actions. The levels are varied and plentiful, the enemies are inventive and brightly coloured and the boss battles are fun and exciting. If you like 8-bit platformers then this is definitely a game to check out.

Rating: 80/100
Grade: B

Game: Mappy
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 14th November 1984

Mappy is an interesting game where players take on the role of a police mouse, collecting stolen property from around a house using trampolines of sorts to boost themselves up to each floor and doors to stun enemies. It's pretty quirky and takes a little getting used to, but having been an arcade game, there's some fast paced and fun action to be had.

Once all of the stolen goods have been collected for the round, players progress to the next house which is laid out a little differently to the last. This means that gameplay can become a little repetitive, as the game's main concept remains throughout with only the level layout changing. As a fairly early Famicom game, it's better than a lot of its contemporaries.

Graphically the game is fairly simple with each house laid out in a 2D cutaway view, with different roof and floor colours in each level. As the game progresses more and more stolen goods must be recovered, and there are more enemies also. The game's soundtrack is light hearted and fitting for the game, but can become a little repetitive as the only accompaniment.

Overall it's fairly obvious as to why Mappy never made it to American or European NES consoles; because it's such an early game, by the time the NES came out in the west, there were far better games and platformers to choose from. The unique concept can still be appreciated, and I personally enjoy having a copy of the Famicom cartridge, though it has no real rarity or value.

Rating: 55/100
Grade: D

12 Days of NESmas: 10 Yard Fight, Hyper Olympic, Baseball and Golf (#7)

Game: 10 Yard Fight
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Irem
Release Date: 1985

There are plenty of early American Football games on the NES and other consoles of the time, but perhaps the most often included on multicarts and other collections is 10 Yard Fight. Players take control of the offensive part of a football team who've just received the ball, making their way down field in a formation to get the best possible start for their first down. It's possible to score a touchdown from the off, as the AI isn't the smartest but it's not always guaranteed.

Once players have scored a touchdown on a particular level (there are two halves to each game level, and the game levels are High School, College, Professional, Play-off and finally Super Bowl), they're given one more chance to score again either via a kick or another touchdown, before the game moves on. If players are unable to score in time, then the game is over. Controlwise 10 Yard Fight is very simple; the control pad moves the player with the ball and the two buttons are for passing.

Graphically the game is very basic; with colours and direction of travel being the only ways to tell players from opposing teams apart. The player with the ball has a green jersey and this changes when the ball is passed, but overall it's not too easy to see what's going on. Soundwise, the game features possibly the least enjoyable sound effects I've ever heard from an NES game; white noise is used to simulate just about everything and if you finish a level with more than 10 minutes left on the clock then you're in for what sounds like an alarm adding bonus points onto your score.

Overall 10 Yard Fight is a tough game to give a score to because while it does at a very basic level allow players to have some fun with American Football, the early AI can easily be beaten, even though your players move far slower than the opposing team, the sound is offputting and there's nothing to entice players graphically. With the frustrations and lack of replayability it's not something I can recommend.

Rating: 51/100
Grade: D

Game: Hyper Olympic
Console: Nintendo Famicom
Developer: Konami
Release Date: 1985

Hyper Olympic and 'Track & Field' have many similarities, and in some places they are even the same game, however Hyper Olympic was only released on the Famicom and features less events than Track & Field. This version features the 100m Sprint, Long Jump, 110m Hurdles and Javelin throw. After all 4 events have taken place, they repeat again, in order with slightly harsher targets to continue.

For any sort of running, players must alternate between the A and B buttons on the controller, but holding both down at once provides the fastest possible speed with the minimum effort. Any event which requires an action such as jumping or throwing uses the control pad, which sets the angle of throw or jump, unless it's the hurdles event.

Graphically the game is basic and reminiscent of Olympics games on home computers, but the use of a controller is much more convenient than bashing away at a keyboard. Soundwise there's a lot of white noise used as spectator cheering, but there's also quite a few musical interludes between events which are bearable.

Overall Hyper Olympic could obviously be better with more events, and if I'm able to play Track & Field at a later date, I'm sure it'll receive a separate and higher score, but the same fundamental issues will remain that the world records are a little too easy to beat, many events can be beaten by exploiting the issue with holding instead of alternating the buttons, and the difficulty curve is nowhere near high enough.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Game: Baseball
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1985

While I've never had a particular interest in baseball as a sport, I understand the fundamentals and what should be expected of a game featuring the sport. Baseball for the NES is enjoyable in places but also frustrates on some control aspects. Players pick a team and then dive straight into a 9 inning per side game. There's no real indication from the start as to whether you're batting or fielding and I'll admit that I spent the first innings laughing at the incompetence of the fielding team only to realise that they were being controlled by me.

Sometimes the controls work great and you can time a hit or run a batter out with ease, but other times chasing a ball or trying to get your batters to run before the fate of a catch is decided is near impossible and this leads to giving away many runs and outs, usually costing players dearly. Add this to the fact that 18 innings in total is far too long for any game to go on, and you've got a recipe for frustration and boredom for the most part.

Graphically the game is fairly well laid out; it's easy to see which players are doing what, and which team they're on. While basic, the only real complaint I have of the visuals is that when batters are run out, often they seem to be home, and there's no way to tell whether it's a fair call or not. Soundwise there's some more of that good old white noise to simulate a crowd and not much else.

Overall Baseball disappoints as a sports game in many respects; the controls and gameplay don't allow players to be in charge of what their team does as much as they'd like, and the difficulty level rises because of this, often making games far harder to win. In all my time playing the game I never saw a home run, and a baseball video game without at least a few home runs is going to be pretty dull.

Rating: 36/100
Grade: E

Game: Golf
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1985

As part of the basic sports series on the NES, Golf is probably the least exciting sport to make an 8 bit video game out of. Anyone who likes golf can pretty easily go out and play it for real, and people who aren't fans won't be too bothered. My main issue with the game is the lack of help the games gives to players who don't know how to play. Players are left to choose their own club and decide what sort of shot is appropriate. At first I didn't realise this and spent a few holes trying to drive the ball everywhere; even when I rectified the error I had little idea which club would provide the best shot and distance for the situation.

Even with the correct club it can be difficult to estimate how much power to give a shot, and putting is a nightmare also. With so much guesswork involved in the game, it's hard to have a good time, unless you're competing against another human player in a battle to see who does least badly. It's a shame that Nintendo didn't realise at the time that the technology just wasn't around to make a decently enjoyable golf game yet.

Graphically the game shows both an overhead shot of the hole, and the golfer's current position and yet still manages not to clearly show what's going on. The green and any obstacles can be seen in the overhead shot of the hole, but avoiding any bunkers or other hazards is a matter of shot selection and judging the wind, rather than avoiding the hazards by moving in real time. Sound wise there's very little going on, but what more do we expect from Golf.

Overall Golf is probably one of the least exciting games on the NES due to the ease of playing it in the real world. Even so the game manages to omit fundamental features which would have helped it to have more widespread appeal. With a fair amount of practice I'd imagine that things might improve, but there's really little appeal in getting better at such a game.

Rating: 32/100
Grade: E

12 Days of NESmas: Arkanoid, Dig Dug, Joust and Space Invaders (#6)

Game: Arkanoid
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1987

Arkanoid is a simple and much loved NES game where players break bricks using a paddle to bounce a ball up to the top of the screen and keep the ball in play, much like a single player version of Pong. I was a big fan of this sort of game in my childhood, and knew of a few different versions of it, including the original 'Breakout' but looking back on the game now, it does seem to lack any real progression and feeling of true control over the paddle.

The game is kept interesting by the inclusion of various power-ups which aid the player such as a larger paddle, the ability to launch the ball each time it hits the paddle, multi-ball mode and a skip to the next level of the game. Sometimes collecting the falling power-ups can turn into a risk/reward situation where players don't want to miss the ball, but also would like to get the power-up.

Graphically the game is basic, with the backgrounds featuring the most interesting graphics in the whole game, since the block are simply coloured rectangles. As is often the case in Taito games, a few of the levels make the shape of famous video game characters. There's no music to accompany, aside from the semi-musical sound effects of the ball hitting the paddle and blocks.

Overall Arkanoid is a simple but effective concept which is hard to expand upon, like many of the classic arcade games. Any sequels would be criticized for either changing too little or changing too much, but there's some fun to be had before the game's lack of true action and expansion on its theme hits home.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Game: Dig Dug
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 6th April 1985

Dig Dug for the NES is a pretty faithful representation of the arcade version of Dig Dug; players dig down into the earth where enemies are hiding in order to inflate them and win the level. Enemies can move freely through the ground and exit the level before the are destroyed by players, and if the manage this, then players will score less points for the level.

Players can also dig tunnels in order to drop rocks onto the enemies, but this is harder to time and also relies on enemies closely following behind the player. The gameplay concept and controls are good, but players must keep in mind what direction they are facing in order to successfully strategise and inflate the enemies.

Graphically the game is basic, as was the arcade version in many respects but there's some classic and recognisable sprites in Dig Dug and his enemies. Oddly, there's only music when players are moving, so there's a fairly sporadic soundtrack as players need only move when hunting enemies and not when when inflating them.

Overall Dig Dug is a better arcade game than it is an NES game as the complexity never really reaches a level which justifies the game being on home console. The lack of weapons and power-ups for beating enemies with means that there's little variation between levels save for changing colours of dirt and this hurts the overall replayability.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Game: Joust
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Hal Labs
Release Date: 1988

Joust is an example of a game which initially puzzling and difficult to get into but that can be fairly rewarding once players work out what they actually have to do. The aim of the game is to control a jouster atop a large bird, fighting against other jousters on large birds. Players can only defeat another jouster by hitting them from above; if they are below when contact is made then a life is lost.

Once an opponent has been defeated, they drop an egg which is presumably the jouster who was once riding them, as the egg can hatch if left for too long into another jouster who re-mounts a bird and comes back into play. If the egg is collected before it hatches then players score bonus points for collecting. After a few normal rounds there's an egg bonus round where players race to collect many on-screen eggs before any hatch.

Graphically the game is a little basic, and in fact becomes more and more so as the game continues, with platforms being removed from play every few levels. The main technically impressive point of the game is the momentum of the player's bird, which handles much like the ship in Asteroids, but in bird form. Soundwise the game is pretty noisy with the flying and footsteps of birds all represented by various amounts of white noise.

Overall Joust is an addictive game once the main concept and controls have been understood and it grows somewhat on players as they become better. Unfortunately there's not quite enough variation in enemies and attack types for it to be truly classic and replayable, but it's definitely one of the better arcade style titles on the NES, and an early effort of Hal Labs who brought us some great games later on in Nintendo history.

Rating: 72/100
Grade: C

Game: Space Invaders
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: TOSE
Release Date: 17th April 1985

Space Invaders for the NES, nearly every version of Space Invaders is the same thing; the real points of difference between versions are the smoothness of gameplay, any changes in difficulty and any additional features that have been added. This version sits in the middle of all of these categories; there's everything you'd expect from a port of Space Invaders to home console and nothing more.

Gamplay is standard; you shoot invaders until they either reach the bottom of the screen or are all defeating, starting a new round. Points are scored for hitting invaders and there are a few different shapes, which change colour as they descend down towards the player's bases.

Graphically the sprites are perhaps a little smaller than in some versions, meaning that the top row of invaders can be somewhat difficult to hit, but aside from this its the same game as ever. There's a very basic soundtrack, as with the arcade version but it seems to be even more simplified, sounding hollow and tinnier than normal.

Overall this is Space Invaders on the NES, there's little more to say; it plays like regular Space Invaders, and there's little difference to any other version of the game on any other consoles. I've never really seen the appeal of the game in the modern day, but this is about as good as it's going to get.

Rating: 57/100
Grade: D