Retro Redux: Mega Man

Howdy folks and welcome to yet another Retro Redux. This week we’re going to take a look back at a game that I only played for the first time a little over a year ago, Mega Man. The first installment in the series. I never played the Mega Man games when they originally came out. I don’t know why they were just never ones that I put into my system. It wasn’t until the release of Mega Man 9 when I really got interested in the Mega Man franchise and decided to try them out on the Virtual Console.

Designed by Keiji Infafune, Mega Man was released back in December of 1987 and set the tone for what the franchise would become. There would be some tweaks to the overall formula, but designs such as having a set number of stages all guarded by a robot master that would give you their power after you defeated them would be kept in every subsequent entry in the series. In this instance there were six robot masters that you needed to best; Ice Man, Fire Man, Elec Man, Guts Man, Bomb Man and Cut Man. There was a pattern to the way they could be defeated and if you found out the correct order each boss would be much easier to defeat. Once you bested the six robot masters you were sent to the Wily Stages where you had even tougher guardians on each level, including a section where you had to beat each of the six robot masters in succession.

Mega Man was not the prettiest game to look at and there were a number of times where the action on the screen would slow to a crawl because there was so much going on at one time. I can remember playing Cut Man’s stage for the first time and seeing that opening section with the teal blue walls and thinking this game did not hold up very well over the years. Much of this was just from the game being a product of the early NES era and it was corrected very quickly with Mega Man 2 which looks vastly superior to the original.

Sound is where Mega Man really shines. The games score was composed by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, who was credited in the game as Yuukichan’s Papa, and Manami Matsumae. The original themes for this game are still remembered by many as some of the best in the series and there aren’t many games from that era that have soundtracks that are remembered as fondly as Mega Man.

If you were looking for a game that challenged your skills as gamer Mega Man is a good place to look. These games are famous for their difficulty and many games today are compared to the “Mega Man hard” level of difficulty. Some of the design elements of the game would be considered cheap by today’s standards and some would consider it bad game design. Things like enemies being placed on a ledge that is just barely big enough for Mega Man to fit on or enemies that could shoot in multiple directions hitting you when you’re over a pit of spikes. If you really wanted frustration, the moving platforms in Guts Man’s stage would drive you crazy. The infamous Yellow Devil, which could be defeated very easily if you wanted to cheat. If not, the pattern of his movement and attacks was really, really difficult to time and it took a lot of trial and error before you were able to beat him. There was even a scoring system that awarded you points, and it’s the only game in the main franchise to ever see a score attached to your progress. It was pretty much useless and was removed in Mega Man 2.

There were some issues when Capcom wanted to bring the game to America. Nintendo of America, at the time, had strict rules against any religious references in their games and this affected a number of games, including Mega Man. When the game was first released in America the Yellow Devil boss had his name changed to Rock Monster to avoid the devil reference. It’s known today by its proper name. Mega Man’s name also went through a change. In Japan the game is known as Rock Man and when you combine that with his sister’s name, Roll, you get a nice play on the term Rock ‘n Roll. There was an amplifier in the states known as Rockman and Nintendo, in order to avoid a lawsuit, told Capcom to change his name and Mega Man was born. Probably the most famous, or infamous depending on how you look at it, aspect of Mega Man’s release was the cover art for the box. The terrible art depicting a middle aged man wearing blue power armor and carrying a pistol did not give you any idea of what you’d expect in the game and is considered, by many, to be the worst box art of all-time.

What’s not considered on anyone’s worst of all-time list is the game itself. Though Mega Man 2 is considered a far superior game in a number of aspects Mega Man still ranks very highly on many peoples top NES games of all-time list. Because of this, the game has seen a number of ports, remake and re-releases throughout the years. The game saw release on Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld, and was ported to the PSP in the form of Mega Man Powered Up. That game was essentially a re-make featured enhanced, cuter graphics and new level design, but also had a mode that retained much of the original level design with the enhanced graphics. It was released on the Wii’s Virtual Console in preparation for 2008’s release of Mega Man 9, a game which would take the blue bomber back to his 8-bit roots.

Mega Man is remembered fondly by many people and after playing it last year I’m sorry to say I missed it all these years, but everyone should experience the game that was Mega Man. It will make you appreciate many of the games we have now and test your skills in ways you didn’t think possible.

Retro Redux: Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 2 is the first game in the series that has really caused a large amount of debate in the community. It’s one of those games that you either really like, or really don’t like. I, personally, happen to fall in the camp of those that don’t like the game. Before I talk about that, though, let’s discuss the game a little bit.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is the first game in the Mario franchise that was not a truly original Mario game, rather it was a redesign of a Famicom game known as Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. That game centered on a family that was trying to rescue two children from Mamu, who would be known as Wart in the American redesign. Those family members were replaced by Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach, who was known simply as Princess in the game. Each of the characters had abilities that made them different from each other. Mario was the all around character who was pretty good at everything. Luigi was able to jump very long distances, Toad was smaller, but was very fast and Princess Peach had the ability to hover in the air for short periods.

This game came about famously because the executives at Nintendo during that time thought the original sequel to Super Mario Bros. was too hard for American audiences and decided, instead, to redesign Doki Doki Panic for the west. The original sequel would be released in America years later on the SNES in the compilation game Super Mario All-Stars under the title Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels. This America version of the game was released in Japan under the title Super Mario USA. Because the game was not a true entry into the Mario franchise it featured a number of characteristics that had never been seen before and many that would be carried over to the Mario franchise. Rather than having ? blocks above your character you would instead pull vegetables out of the ground that you could then throw at enemies. Sometimes these plants held surprises such as doors to secret areas. Other power ups would randomly appear during game play that you could catch and take advantage of.

Many of the characters in the game would see their roles moved over to the Mario franchise. Enemies like the Shy Guy made their first appearance in Super Mario Bros. 2. You could not jump on a lot of these enemies that you had been able to, so instead you had to throw the vegetables you pull out of the ground at them. Some of the enemies, such as Wart have not been seen again, but are highly sought after by fans of the series to make a return.

The game featured eight worlds with three levels each, rather than the four seen in Super Mario Bros. This made the game’s length shorter than its predecessor, but the game was also a bit more difficult. Many of the levels contained a mini-boss, usually in the form of Birdo, that had to be defeated before you could finish the level. This game also set the precedent of having to hit an enemy three times in order to defeat them, a trait which has carried over into a number of games outside the Mario world and is a staple in the game industry that continues to this day. There were warps areas that you could access by finding a hidden rocket ship that would shorten the game even further. You also had the ability before each level to choose which character you would use and that added a bit of strategy to the game. Some of the levels were better suited to the abilities of a particular character. For example, one of the worlds features a large area where you have to dig down through layers of dirt and this was one of Toad’s best abilities. He was much faster digging down than the other characters so it was best to have him while playing that level.

The music was one of the most memorable parts of that game and was used in a number of different ways by Nintendo. The soundtrack would be used prominently in the live action Super Mario Bros. Super Show, starring Danny Wells, and Cpt. Lou Albano. It’s still to this day, outside of the themes from the original Super Mario Bros., some of the most well remembered themes.

This was the second game in the main Mario series, but it’s one of the few games that I just didn’t like. The departure from the formula set in the original, and returned to in Super Mario Bros. 3 was too off putting and I just couldn’t get into it. It did feature some things that I really do like, and would like to see brought back such as the ability to choose different characters. The introduction of some new enemies that have become huge additions such as Shy Guy and the first sightings of Bob-ombs, though they didn’t walk yet are some of the aspects I really like about the game. The differences allowed Nintendo to explore the Mario franchise a bit more than they did with the Japanese version of the game, which was essentially a slightly enhanced graphical overhaul of the original. It’s not a bad game, by any means. It controls well, had some memorable levels, a catchy soundtrack and some really welcome additions to the franchise, but I’m one of those people that says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I thought the original Mario game was about as close to perfection then as you could get and they fiddled with it. I do own Super Mario Bros. 2 and do occasionally pop it in and play it, but when deciding on a retro Mario game to play it usually is a choice between Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World.

If you have any thoughts on this game, or want to tell me how wrong I am, leave me a comment or head on over to the forums and let me know. Are there any games that you would like to see featured? Leave me a comment and let me know that as well. There’s a good chance it could show up here in the future.

Retro Redux: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

This game am hard. Real hard. That's the first thing you should know about Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. If you've never played that game before you are in for one of the hardest, most frustrating things you've ever played. That's pretty much all you need to know about Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, but I'll try to explain a little more.

The game starts out during a festival where the towns folk are all milling around on a bridge. The scene pans to a castle where our hero, Arthur, and his lady friend Guinevere are in an embrace, him in full armour. A member of Sardius' Red Guard bursts through a window and kidnaps said lady friend, which sets Arthur on his quest. This game is the sequel to Ghosts 'n Goblins, both games were featured in arcades as well as the home console versions. Most of my experience with the game came from spending WAY too much of my parents money in bowling alley arcades on this game, but I do own and have played through (part of) the game. I can't say that I've ever finished the game, because it's just too dang hard.

The game does feature some improvements over its predecessor such as the ability to have Bronze Armour, which allows Arthur to upgrade his weapons as well as the ability to double jump. Much of the game's difficulty comes in the fact that Capcom were just mean S.O.B.'s back then. While you can double jump, you can't change direction in mid air like most games allow you to do. You can change direction with your second jump, but once you've committed you can't stop Arthur. This will lead to a number of situations where you've jumped and an enemy will burrow out of the ground right where you will land and you've just taken one of the two hits you're allowed before you die. Enemy placements are equally devious. For anyone that thinks Mega Man is hard, pop in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and you'll think Mega Man is a cake walk. Enemy's will show up right where you need to be, but you won't see them until it's too late. Flying enemies pop into screen in the middle of your jump path and more. There will be a LOT of trial and error until you learn all the enemy paths.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts features a number of weapon options that will come in handy during the game. You start out with Arthur's trusty lance which he can throw straight ahead. Throughout the game there will be treasure chests that you can open that may contain a weapon upgrade, armour upgrade, armour that gives you a large number of points or an enemy. These are all random and you never know what you'll get until you open it. It's always a great relief when you're in your underwear and you open a treasure chest and see a suit of armour in it. It's equally frightening when you're in your underwear and an enemy pops out of the chest that you can't run away from and you're dead or have been turned into a frog. This game features the crossbow that will allow you to fire in multiple directions, the dagger that allows you to throw weapons faster than the standard lance, a scythe which flies low to the ground and a torch, which you should never, EVER pick up because it's a useless piece of junk.

Zombies will burrow out of the ground in their coffins throughout the opening level and there are a large number of different enemy types all with movement patterns that must be learned in order to best traverse through the levels. Parts of many levels will be randomly removed by an event that happens when you reach a trigger point and you have to be in a safe position or you will be killed. Many times you won't know these safe positions until you've reached that point of the level at least once and died because you were standing in the wrong area.

Once you've reached the final area of the game and saved the princess, get ready for this, she tells you that the evil baddy of evil, Sardius can only be beaten with an item known as the Goddess Bracelet, which by the way you don't have. So you're transported back to the VERY BEGINNING of the game and you have to do every over again, find the bracelet and beat Sardius for real. If that's not the definition of evil, I don't know what is.

So if you haven't been able to tell by reading this, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is hard, very very very hard. If you manage to beat this game you deserve all the gamer cred in the world because you've just made a major accomplishment. Buy yourself a trophy and put it on your mantle. You earned it my friend. Capcom were the masters of evil in the late 80's and early 90's, but they made some truly memorable games that people still pop in and mess around with today. If you're looking for a real test of your skills and you don't own this game, go out and find it and play through it. You'll soon understand.

If you've played this game, or even if you haven't and you want to discuss it, leave a comment or head over to our forums and chat with others about their memories of the game. 

Retro Redux: The Missing Edition

Howdy guys.  I just wanted to let everyone know that I wouldn't be putting up a Retro Redux today.  It's been a bit busy at Nintendo Okie this week.  I've put up three reviews this week alone and I've got three more that have to get out and rather than doing some half baked from memory edition I hope you'll understand and enjoy all the content I've had this week.  I have two more reviews coming up probably Monday and Wednesday.

I really like to play through all the games I do for Retro Redux and I didn't want to screw it up and give you guys content I didn't feel happy with.  I hope you'll, instead enjoy the review of Muramasa we have today.  We've got a review for the DS game Battle of Giants: Dragons coming up on Monday and a review of Gravitronix for WiiWare soon after that. 

Also, don't forget to enter the contest for Spaceball Revolution.  The winner will be announced at 1:00pm CST today.

Retro Redux: Super Mario Bros.

With the recent passing of Nintendo’s 120th birthday I thought it only appropriate to discuss the game that is credited with giving them the most success. Mario had been around for a few years before this game, but it wasn’t until he switched professions from carpenter to plumber, and Bowser decided to kidnap a princess that he got his biggest claim to fame. Super Mario Bros. released in 1985 was probably the biggest title of that decade and arguably the most popular title of all-time. The game introduced the Mushroom Kingdom onto an unsuspecting world and those characters have been with us ever since.

This game was definitely a product of its time and has created the most iconic character ever to grace a home console or handheld. Mario was created the way he was because of the limitations of the system. He wears a hat because his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto didn’t know how to animate hair very well. He has a moustache because without it, it would have been hard to recognize his facial features and he wears overalls because without it his arms would have blended in with the rest of his body. They may have been unique and unintended design choices, but without them Mario might not have been the character he is today.

In Super Mario Bros. our hero sets out on a quest to rescue Princess Toadstool, who is also known as Princess Peach, from the clutches of the evil Koopa King Bowser. He must journey through eight different parts of the Mushroom Kingdom, only to find at the end of each world that the Princess is “in another castle”. Along the way he must defeat the minions of Bowser; the Koopa Troopas, Goomba, Piranha Plants and more. The world of the Mushroom Kingdom is littered with platforms, huge chasms, vines and more. It brought us the genre known as the platformer and set the stage for hundreds of games that would follow. There were coins to collect, secret items hidden in a number of different places. It even featured multiple paths through some of the levels if you found a hidden vine.
The actual gameplay mechanic of running and jumping has been tried in many games since Super Mario Bros. and many of those games will be compared to it, even today. The jumping mechanic was about as perfect as it could have been. You were able to control the length of Mario’s jump by how long you pressed the A button on the NES controller. He always seemed to jump just right. It didn’t feel too floaty and out of control, but it wasn’t as tight as Mega Man. The designers created what could be the sweet spot of the video game jump. Even years later it’s very easy to load up Mario and speed through the levels because you know just exactly how the game controls.

Visually it brought games into an era that, at least in my opinion, is one of the best in the history of video games. For the first time, at home, players were able to without having to stretch their imaginations see what was on screen and recognize it instantly. The blocks that made up the characters were so good you could distinguish features in a way that wasn’t possible on the home consoles from Atari and others. Super Mario Bros. has some of the most iconic characters ever created and their designs haven’t changed much since that time because they were so good. Koopa Troopas and Goombas look today exactly like what you would expect if they had depth to them. The 2-D worlds created by Nintendo back then were some of the best and continue to develop as the years go by.

Super Mario Bros. was, for a long time, the best selling console game ever. It was only recently surpassed by another Nintendo franchise, Wii Sports.Throughout its many different iterations, Super Mario Bros. has sold over 40 million copies world wide and it’s quite possible to walk into any gamers house and find multiple copies of the game on a number of different platforms. There hasn’t been a Nintendo console or handheld released that doesn’t have some version of Super Mario Bros. and I think it’s simply because people enjoy playing the game. I know even today there’s probably not a week goes by that I don’t play through it at least once. It takes about 15 minutes on a casual play through if you’ve played it as often as many of us have.

This is just a quick look back at a game millions of gamers have played, probably billions of times. There’s not much about Super Mario Bros. to say that hasn’t been said before. It’s simply one of the greatest games ever created and holds up wonderfully to this day. New generations of gamers are experiencing this classic every day and it’s well worth playing, even now.

Retro Redux: Wario Land 2

Here it is folks, as promised. Our second Retro Redux this week. Don't get used to it. I play through all of these games the week they show up on the site and some of them take a while to play through. I hope you enjoy this look back at Wario's second trip for treasure; Wario Land 2.

Wario has had a very colorful past when it comes to his appearances in video games. He’s been the antagonist in Mario platformers. He’s been the protagonist in his own titles, usually not by his own design. He’s a bit of the reluctant hero, and only a hero because his greed somehow manages to do something good. Wario Land 2 was the last game developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy and would also be redone to take advantage of the Game Boy Color.

1998 saw the release of Wario Land 2, the sequel to 1994’s Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. This game saw the return of Captain Maple Syrup and her Black Sugar Gang. When this game starts the gang has broken into Wario’s castle, stolen his treasure, set of his alarm clock and left the water running. It might remind you a bit of the Wet Bandits from Home Alone. Wario wakes to the revelation that his gold is missing and sets off to find it. His first mission is to shut off that annoying alarm clock.

What follows is an adventure that makes a very nice swansong to Nintendo’s efforts on the original Game Boy. Wario Land 2 is full of branching paths through levels, multiple endings, Wario torture and more. This was Nintendo’s second attempt, after Wario Land, to branch the Mario series into something different and it completely works. Wario’s greed is the perfect start for a platformer and is the perfect counter balance to Mario’s wholesome goodness. Wario is out for money, he just got his new castle and now people are messing with him.

You’ll begin inside Wario’s castle and your first task is to turn off the aforementioned alarm clock which you will hear buzzing constantly along with the catchy Wario tunes that are built into this game. Enemies, unlock in traditional Mario games do not hurt our “hero”. They simply bounce off of his enormous girth and he’s able to pick them up and use them as projectiles. If the enemy doesn’t have some sort of spike or weapon on them, chances are they can’t hurt him. This is used to great effect through out the game and these enemies will be used to dispatch more dangerous foes, break open blocks that Wario can’t reach and help bounce him higher than he normally would be able to.

There are also, in traditional Wario Land fashion enemies that will cause something to happen to Wario. There are some blocks in the game that can only be destroyed with fire. Wario can’t carry a torch, but enemies with torches can light him on fire. While he’s engulfed in flames you can break the blocks in your way and wait for the fire to go out or find a source of water than can put him out faster. There are some enemies that will feed Wario cake causing him to double in size. He can then proceed to run over enemies that would otherwise cause him to just bounce backwards or destroy blocks below him that need a little more weight before they give up the fight. These enemies replace the hats that Wario used in the first game and would make appearance many years later on the DS in Wario: Master of Disguise.

There are a number of different paths in each of the levels. Many of them contain hidden treasures that are used to unlock things throughout Wario’s adventure. Some hidden treasures are simply bigger amounts of gold or hidden deposits of gold. Collecting all of the hidden treasure will reveal a different ending. After each level Wario has the ability to play a guessing game where a number is covered up by 9 squares. Paying 50 coins from the treasure you’ve accumulated allowing you to take a guess at the hidden number. You can keep paying these coins to uncover another part of the number. The more coins you pay, the easier it is to guess the number. If you guess correctly you receive a tile that uncovers part of a picture. Gain all these tiles and the Simon Says game unlocks.

The music in this game is some of my favorite from the Game Boy era. Granted, that history is relatively small as my original Game Boy library was very limited. It’s slowly getting bigger, but that’s a different story. The bleeps and bloops that system could put out created some very catchy tunes. The Tree Maze area is probably my favorite in the game and they use it to great effect, taking the same basic concept and molding it a little differently every time.

Wario may be the bad guy to Mario’s hero, but he still has been in some memorable games that are the perfect flip side of the coin to our favorite plumber. He started out as a villain in Mario’s adventures, quickly received his own game and has won the hearts of millions throughout the world. This second adventure of his sets the stage for the many different games that follow. They may all follow the same basic style of play, but you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. Nintendo has been perfecting a great game over the years and Wario Land 2 is simply put a great game. You owe it to yourself to find this game in a vintage store if you can. It will play on the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, or the Game Boy Advance, so you probably don’t have much excuse to not get a hold of this game.

Retro Redux: Duck Tales

What was the best thing about the 80’s? Was it parachute pants or bangles? Flock of Seagulls or Duran Duran? The answer is, of course, none of those. It was the resurgence of video games thanks to the NES and the fact that licensed properties made good games back then. They weren’t made to take you through the same adventure the character in a movie or a TV show had. They simply took basic concepts from the property and threw them in a video game.

Our Retro Redux today is probably the best example of that. Duck Tales for the NES was, in my opinion, the best game based on a movie or TV show and rivaled many games of that era. There aren’t many people who owned an NES who didn’t love this game if they played it and it’s for good reason. The game is simply classic platforming at its best.

Released in September of 1989 by Capcom, it was one of the few titles that didn’t have the word Mega Man at the front they were involved with. It took many of the elements of the Blue Bomber’s adventures and put them in a setting people would instantly recognize. Duck Tales featured some unforgivable platform elements set in a beautifully rendered version of Scrooge McDuck’s world. The basic premise of the game was simple. Scrooge wanted to be the richest duck in the world and it was your job to help him. There was no elaborate set up to get involved with the story. You simply were given a title screen then a list of five areas to play through and you set off collecting as much treasure as you possibly could.

Duck Tales featured five worlds; the Amazon, Transylvania, The Moon, African Mines, and The Himalayas. You could pick any of these you wanted and play through them in any order. Each of the levels featured a very non-linear path that you could follow and many times you would find yourself going back over places you had previously been just exploring everything there was to see in the world. The end of each of these levels also contained a treasure worth $1,000,000 that Scrooge was trying to find. They were guarded by bosses, who were mostly generic and unforgettable. The one exception was the villain Magica DeSpell who awaited you at the end of the Transylvania level. Once you accumulated all the treasures each of the worlds contained you were transported back there for the final showdown with Magica and Flinthart Glomgold.

The big hook with Duck Tales was the cane mechanic. Scrooge carried a cane with him that he could use to hurl large boulders at enemies like a golf ball. It could be used to bounce over thorny areas that you would otherwise get hurt trying to cross. It could be used to fling treasure chests into walls and break them. It was one of the most versatile “weapons” of that gaming era. It was a simple item to use, but in order to master it you spent a lot of time practicing. You would have to jump and press down on the D-pad as well as the B button in order to use it as a pogo stick. You could then launch yourself high in the air or land on the head of enemies to kill them. It was a great item that people still remember fondly to this day.

The levels themselves rivaled anything you would find on the system at that time. Everything was extremely well designed; brightly lit and vibrant. There were hidden paths everywhere that you wouldn’t think to look and most likely stumbled across accidentally. It was the closest thing you could get to watching a Saturday morning cartoon and I can bet you spent almost as much time playing this game as you did watching the show it was based on.

There were cameos by a number of characters in the show. Most of them were simply to tell you little things, like maybe one of your nephews had been kidnapped and you needed to find them in another level. Launchpad McQuack was available in every level to take you back to Duckburg early for whatever reason it would be. Maybe you just wanted to replay some of the level to get more money or you found an item that was useful in another level. Mrs. Beakley would give you health replenishing items. It was a virtual who’s who from the TV show.

Probably most well remembered is the audio from the game. The music from the Moon Level has been redone more times than Kathy Griffin’s face has. Every level had a song that you couldn’t get out of your head and even years later if you heard a small part you could hum the rest of the tune from memory. It was some of Yoshihiro Sakaguchi’s most memorable compositions.

There were even multiple endings that could be gained based on how well you did in the game. IF you collected over $10,000,000 and found both the hidden treasures, which I won’t reveal even today, you got an ending that showed Scrooge in the newspaper with a crown on his head and a new headline. There was a bonus that you could get with Launchpad that would make this much easier to accomplish.

Now let’s move on and talk very briefly about the Game Boy version of the game.

Released a year later this version has everything the NES version had scaled down a bit. The levels were not as big and didn’t have as much going on. This was simply something that had to be done to get games onto the smaller system. This didn’t diminish the quality of this game any. It was just as hard, but just as fun as it’s console counterpart. It really gave you the ability to take Duck Tales on the road with you.

The graphics for this game were just as good as the NES version of the game and had just as much quality even though the screen was smaller. Everything was just as detailed, the only difference was this was done in the monochrome fashion of the Game Boy. You just didn’t get the vibrant color palette.

The controls were actually a little bit easier in the portable version. In order to do the pogo jump with Scrooge’s cane you simply had to press the B button rather than doing to combo of B and down on the D-pad. This made the platforming a little easier, but the jumps were still just as unforgiving as the console version. Also gone were some of the enemy placements that made jumps hard on the console. It was just not possible to get bees flying over every gap in the Amazon because it would cause the system to slow down too much.

Duck Tales is a very hard game to come by in a vintage store and if you do find one it’s going to cost you a bit of a premium. This is because it is just simply remembered so fondly by everyone that played it and if they own a copy they’re not going to get rid of it. There aren’t many games in a console library that can lay that claim to fame, but Duck Tales is one of them. It simply combined everything that gamers wanted back then into one brilliant package that was the best the system could offer.

This was a licensed game made for gamers and enjoyed by gamers everywhere. If you’re listening Capcom, do whatever it takes to get this game on the Virtual Console so a new generation of gamers can enjoy it.

Note: Due to this Retro Redux posting early I will have another posted tomorrow, Friday, when you should normally be getting them. So you get a bonus Retro Redux this week.

Retro Redux: Rachet & Clank or Why I Hate Console Exclusives

This week's Retro Redux is going to be a little bit different. I will tell you that I had originally planned on doing a sort of double feature look at DuckTales for the NES and the Game Boy. Unfortunately UPS runs caused that to not be possible so look forward to that for next week's edition. This week, instead, I'm going to talk a bit about Rachet & Clank for the PS2 and why games like this cause me to really dislike, if not downright hate console exclusive titles; yes I'm even looking at you Mario. Don't worry. I won't normally be doing retro looks at games from other consoles. This is strictly a Nintendo article. This just happened to coincide with an open spot in my Retro Redux schedule.

I have, for the most part, in my past been a one console guy. That mainly came about because I've never been able to afford more than one console at a time. That, also, has always been a Nintendo console. This comes about mostly from my intense love of the Mario and Zelda franchises, but also because they've typically been the console that was on the lesser end of the price range. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I am a fan of Nintendo's consoles, otherwise I probably wouldn't run a Nintendo website. That being said I also see the benefits of the other players in the market and respect the type of games they bring to the table. I'm not as fond of the fans of those consoles, but that's a different story.

Recently I was given a PS2 phat as payment for some work I did. It came with a large stack of games, mostly with Final Fantasy in the title. I've played a number of games in the Final Fantasy series and am generally a fan of those games, but because they've appeared on multiple consoles from different companies, this article isn't directed at them. Instead I'm looking at the original Rachet & Clank. Developed by Insomniac Games, this is the type of game that benefits from the system it was on. This game came out in 2002 and was one of the franchises that drove the PS2 to the popularity it has seen. It is also the type of game that would have benefited even more than it did by being on multiple consoles. Insomniac is not a Sony 1st or 2nd party developer. They are independent, but have chosen, for whatever reason to develop games exclusively for the PlayStation consoles. R&C is the perfect example of a game that would have fit perfectly into the family friendly nature of Nintendo's consoles and because it was a single platform game I am just now getting to enjoy the benefits of having played that game. I will also now be going back and playing through the entire franchise because I've enjoyed the first game that much.

Anyway, there are any number of reasons that games benefit from being single console style games. Brand recognition and fan loyalty is one of them. Publisher based income for an exclusive title is another and there are many more. Those are all valid business reasons that a developer puts a game on one companies console exclusively. Another, in the case of Mario is that it is developed by the platform holder themselves and they generally would never have their games appear on another system as it would pull sales away from themselves. Many people, and it seems more relevant in an economy like we have now, are forced to choose one platform over another. They weigh the pros and cons of whatever systems they are considering and they make their decision. Many times that decision may be loyalty to one company over another. They've had good experiences in the past with the company and they want to support them. Many times it's the recommendation of a friend. I can tell you I chose Nintendo this generation as both a loyalty thing and because they offer more family friendly experiences than Microsoft or Sony.

The problem comes when there are titles out there that I would love to play, but don't have the ability to because I don't own the system they come on. The Rachet & Clank franchise is a perfect example. I would also love to be able to play games like Gears of War, Viva Pinata, PixelJunk Monsters, Little Big Planet, or the new Final Fantasy titles. I won't be able to enjoy those titles this generation though because I can only afford one console. Perhaps in the future I'll have the opportunity to purchase one of the other systems of this generation. Most likely that will come during the next generation of consoles. There are huge bases of players that play exclusively one platform or another and don't get to experience all the gaming they would like.

Platform fanboys love to tout the console exclusive. It seems to justify their purchase or they just like to rub it in the face of other people that can't play the games they do because they chose the wrong system. The word port is an expletive among gamers because that means that a game has gone to another system. Many times those games come out at the same time. In the case of games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare the port will come two years later and people will put it off as a cash in or something. Many Wii owners haven't gotten to play one of the best shooters to ever be released because they didn't own a 360, PS3 or a high powered PC. That's going to change and I, for one, think it's a wonderful thing that they'll finally be able to experience that game. The previous title and the latest edition of the franchise both were million sellers on Wii and now after two years and a developer change the game will finally come to the last system of this generation it can be ported to.

I would love to see the day of console exclusives disappear. I know that won't happen and I know the reasons why. I don't begrudge companies from making money. That's what they're created for in the first place. That's the beauty of the country we live in. I just want, as a single console owner, to be able to experience more games in the current generation than I can currently. And is that really such a bad thing?

List of Retro Redux's

Welcome to Retro Redux. Here you'll find a list of all the articles we've done in this series. Retro Redux is a look at the history of gaming on Nintendo consoles. We'll cover every Nintendo platform, with the exception of the Virtual Boy, because we don't own one of those. As always if there is some game you'd like to see covered drop us a comment and let us know. Check out the articles we have here. You might learn something you didn't know or find out about a game that you want to go back and play. This article will cover everything from the good, to the bad, to the ugly. Nothing is sacred in Retro Redux and if it's terrible we'll let you know.

The Game's We've Covered So Far

Batman Returns
Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers
Duck Tales
Mega Man
Mega Man 6
Rachet & Clank or Why I Hate Exclusives
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Wario Land 2

Retro Redux: Mega Man 6

Welcome again, folks, to Retro Redux. Last week we got things started off with Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers. This week we take a look back at a game that many people are split on what they think, Mega Man 6

Released in March of 1994, this was the last Mega Man game to appear on the Nintendo Entertainment System and also the only game of that era not to be published by Capcom in North America. They had moved on to focus on marketing Mega Man X and Nintendo took over publishing duties on the continent. It also featured two bosses not designed by someone from Japan. Capcom held a contest for North American children to design two of the robot masters. Knight Man was designed by Daniel Vallée of Canada, and Wind Man was designed by Michael Leader of the United States. The plot for this game centered around a “Robot Masters Tournament” where designers would send entries to participate to see who was the best robot designer in the world. Dr. Light did not enter the tournament, but sent Mega Man as a sort of “police man” to ensure the safety of participants and spectators. The tournament was hosted by the mysterious Mr. X, who at the end of the tournament announced he had reprogrammed the eight victors to do his bidding. Much like the previous games in the series, Mega Man was then tasked with taking down Mr. X, who had revealed himself to be Dr. Wily, and his new minions.

Mega Man 6 did not deviate from the formula set up in all the games before it. You were asked to defeat the eight robot masters before going on to face the final boss levels and ultimately defeat Dr. Wiley. If you knew the correct order to defeat the robot masters, the subsequent boss fights would be much easier to accomplish because of the weaknesses the antagonists possessed. Mega Man also possessed new powers that had not been seen in the franchise up until this point. The Rush Jet Adapter allowed Mega Man to jump up and rocket into the air giving him more height and length to his jumps. The Rush Power Adapter allowed Mega Man to bust through sections of the level to get to previously inaccessible areas. Certain bosses had two entrances to their lair, with one much harder to reach than the other. If you took the harder route you would gain access to a "Beat Part". There were four of these throughout the world and if you collected all four, Beat would do damage to enemies that he came into contact with. Meeting up with Proto Man in Tomahawk Man's stage would also give Mega Man access to the Energy Balancer. This gave Mega Man the ability to power up weapons without having them equipped. The powered up Mega Buster as well as Mega Man's ability to slide were retained in this game and were incorporated into the design of the levels.

As Mega Man 6 came late in the NES's life cycle it also featured beautiful details. The same sprites for enemies that had appeared in previous games were used and Mega Man hadn't changed since the very first game in the installment. New enemies, though, seemed almost out of place as they had more detail to them and a greater range of animations. The worlds themselves were brilliantly colored and full of life. Enemies were able to hide in the background, making them hard to see, and would jump out at Mega Man in a surprise attack. These were the glory days of the NES and developers were beginning to move on -- if they hadn't already -- to the more powerful Super Nintendo. Mega Man would make that jump as well, but not before one last hurrah on the platform that started it all. If featured beautiful levels, tough level design, creative (if odd) bosses, and multiple paths through a number of the levels. It had everything you could want in a Mega Man title.

The Robot Masters, as many gamers would note, were not the most memorable in the franchise and were beginning to border on the weird. You had some of the typical bosses you would expect to see, such as Flame Man, Wind Man, and Blizzard Man, who had appeared in some form or another through many of the games in the franchise. You also had some more bizzare characters, such as Yamato Man, who was named after a country and styled after the Samuari of ancient Japan, or Tomahawk Man who was styled after the American Indians. Centaur Man was, I believe, the first boss to feature four legs. There were very few new ideas in terms of differences from previous bosses. Many of them were seemingly easier than bosses in the previous games in the franchise. Plant Man was more or less a rehash of Wood Man from Mega Man 2. Flame Man was simply another version of Fire Man from the original Mega Man, and Blizzard Man was not much different than Ice Man. The traditional ways to defeat them also applied. You would use Wind Man's power to defeat Flame Man, while Flame Man would bring down Blizzard Man. You just needed to figure out the new guys and then the Robot Masters would be a breeze to get by. You could also use Mega Man's Rush Power Adapter to deal a large amount of damage to opponents. This was not as easy as it took a small amount of time to recharge and if you got hit you had to start again.

The difficulty had also not changed much from the beginning. The levels were still brutally hard throughout the first playthrough, but many players were able to very quickly understand how things worked and the levels became much easier as you learned the enemy placements and behaviors. You could almost guarantee that if you came to a series of chasms between platforms that something was going to jump out of the hole, most likely some form of robot fish. You still had the little guys on the ground that would move faster if you were on the same level as them. The construction robot, Met, was back as well, this time in a dispenser that you had to get rid of before being able to continue on in the level. Every few seconds it would drop a new robot that you had to destroy or be shot by. The difficulty level of Mega Man games has been one that many people who haven't played them before may be turned off by. They were created in an era when games had to be difficult to increase their playtime and justify the expense. If you were really good at the game you could beat it in under an hour, which was typical of the franchise, but the enemy placements and patterns that needed to be learned meant it was more likely to take you three or four hours your first time through.

While the series was not evolving, it was a new Mega Man game, and getting more Mega Man wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Mega Man 6 gets a bad rap for being so generic and unfailingly loyal to the traditions set up before it. If you could get past the same enemies being reused for the sixth time then what you had was another really good Mega Man game. They've always really been more of an expansion on the first game rather than new games in and of themselves and I think that's what really attracts players to the franchise. There are so many different types of Mega Man games out there now that there is almost undoubtedly something out there for everyone. The core games have always been hard at first, but once you understood what you were getting into they became easier and were generally just fun to play. There's always a fine line that developers have to tread when extending a franchise. If you don't innovate and make things new people are going to be upset.

At the same time, if you mess around with something that people are familiar with they're going to say it's not what they wanted. Mega Man 6 simply gave people the ability to play more Mega Man and I don't think that was a bad thing. We would see more of the same in Mega Man 9 fifteen years later and gamers everywhere applauded it for bringing the original formula back. I think the thing that caused many gamers to dislike this game was that it had been done so many times before in a short period of time. If this had been the reboot of the franchise that Mega Man 9 was then it would have been praised more and I think it's a shame that it's not as well liked.

There ya' have it. What did you think of this look back? Is there anything you'd like to see featured in this column? Leave me a comment and let me know, or just let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear from ya.

Retro Redux: Chip 'N' Dale's Rescue Rangers

Welcome, once again, to Retro Redux, our look back at games past. This week we'll be looking at Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Originally released in 1990 by Capcom, it was a side scrolling platformer based on the popular cartoon characters, and specifically the cartoon series by the same name. It starred the chipmunk duo of Chip, the level headed "brain" of the two, and Dale, the red-nosed, goofball. If you never saw the cartoon, the show was based around the two and their team of investigators, Gadget, Monterey Jack and Zipper, solving a new crime each week, as well as foiling the schemes of the villanous feline, Fat Cat. It's a slightly different take on the traditional damsel in distress scenario. You play as a small character in a big world and the environments are scaled accordingly.

Fat Cat has captured the team's technology wiz, Gadget, and it's up to Chip and Dale to rescue her. The adventure would take you through a series of levels and ultimately a fight against the mob boss himself. The different levels were laid out on a map, similar to Super Mario Bros. 3 and you had the option of choosing the path you took through the game. This was mainly deciding from one level or another since the branches ultimately brought you back to the main path. Rescue Rangers, as previously mentioned is a side scrolling platformer, and is a very easy one at that. From the title screen you could choose which of the titular duo you preferred to play as, though this choice was merely cosmetic as the two characters played identically to each other. From there you would enter the first level of the game and proceed to uncover the plot hatched by Fat Cat. As chipmunks are fairly non aggressive in reality, the two characters had no ability to attack outside of picking up objects in the game and throwing them at the various enemies trying to stop you from reaching your goal. You could pick up apples, crates, or bricks and throw them. Also littered throughout the levels are flower cards that you could collect, but I never really understood if they did anything.. You were given three hearts that constituted your life bar and each time you got hit you would lose one heart. Lose them and and you lost a life. You could replinish lost health by picking up acorns found in the world, and this was the only way to regain your health.

From the beginning you begin to understand this game might have been created simply to get fans of the show to buy it. You are greeted with the familiar theme and even after all these years I still remember it and can sing along with it. The level design is amazingly simple, and they don't take very long to traverse. Enemies are placed very sparsely throughout the levels and the only thing to do other than move to the right was pick up crates and throw them. These crates are everywhere and you can find collectibles under a few of them. While the levels were sparsely populated there was a lot going on in each level. There were multiple paths that you could take through the levels as well as a lot of stuff going on. Jack in the boxes would pop up during the level in a toy factory, poker chips flew back and forth in the casino, and water faucets had to be turned off to progress through the kitchen area. None of the tasks you had to undertake were difficult by any means, but they added a bit of interactivity no found in many games previous to this one. You could also carry the crates in levels around and duck under them to give you a brief shield. If you got hit while under a crate you would lose the crate, but would not take any damage. Other interactive elements were live power lines that had electricity moving back and forth that would cause damage to you if not jumped over and switches that needed to be activated to shut off obstacles. There were some puzzle elements to the game such as the aforementioned water faucets, but also occasionally you would have to create a sort of bridge from one part of a level to another. The boss fights in the game were all very similar. When you entered the boss area they would be on a platform of some sort and there would be a random object on the ground. You would need to pick up the object and thrown it at the boss five times in order to defeat them. Sometimes the boss would be static, but there would be traps on the ground you had to avoid, and other times the boss would move and fire different themed objects at you. Ultimately, though, all the boss fights were very much the same and if you could defeat one boss, none of the others were very hard. After defeating the boss you would be taken back to the world map and into the Rescue Rangers blimp to choose your next path towards Fat Cat's Lair.

If you didn't want to play alone a second player could join in on the fun as the other chipmunk for some co-operative play. This could be a double edged sword because if you got hit by a crate thrown by the other player you would be briefly stunned and vulnerable to attack. Dasterdly players could also throw their partners into enemies or down pits causing them to die. It was very helpful for families who enjoyed playing together because you could pick up your partner and carry them along if they were having difficulty getting through an area. There were not many games that had true co-op modes back then, but this one added a bit of fun to the adventure that could otherwise have been dull for one person. The other two members of the Rescue Rangers were not playable, but did make appearances to aid in the adventure. Monterey Jack would occasionally be lured into the action by the smell of cheese and during his trance like walk he would smash through walls that would allow you to continue to the next area. Zipper could be found stuck inside crates and if he was found he would fly ahead of you smacking enemies giving you a brief moment of invincibility. It would have been nice to be able to play as these characters and could have greatly increased the fun of the game. Zipper could fly and that could have made it possible to reach levels otherwise inaccesible to the team and Monterey Jack could have been used as a bit of a tank or just brute muscle and created a bit of diversity in the team.

While the game was simple, it was fun to play, especially if you had a friend along for the ride. Licensed properties based on movies and TV shows were and still are generally very generic, but every once in a while there are a few that stand out above the crowd. This one along with the Duck Tales game were two of the NES era that really stood out in my mind. Looking back on this one, though, I wonder why I liked it so much. Going back today it's not as much fun as I remember it, but I still enjoy it. I don't know if it's because the game is just generic and I've seen it a hundred times before or if I've just moved on and appreciate a different style of game. My children all really enjoy it, especially if they get the chance to throw dad down a hole and maybe that's part of it. They don't really know these characters, other than Chip and Dale, as they've never watched the show, so it can't be nostalgia for them. It's a complete trip down memory lane for me and that's why it's still part of my gaming collection. It's good for an hour of play every once in a while and still gets pulled out and popped into my NES. The interactivity of the levels, the bright environments and two of the cutest playable characters ever combine to bring you an experience you should play at least once. If you can find this game in a vintage store or online for a decent price it should be part of anyone's NES collection.

What are your thoughts on Chip 'N' Dale's Rescue Rangers? Was it one of those games you remember fondly or did you hate it? If there are any games that you would really like to see talked about in this feature or games you just want me to know about e-mail me and let me know or head over to the forums and let me know there.