8-bit Fridays: The Backlogs II - August 26, 2016

It's been a disturbingly quiet week for me, but hopefully that means the weekend will be quiet too. With that said I was surprised to get about an hour and a half of play in shortly after getting home from work on Friday, which was a nice change of pace. But before I get into some of my plays...

This Fridays Buy's

Star Trek Generations: Beyond the Nexus (Gameboy) - Yes, I got the PC version last week. Obviously, they're not the same game, but they do share in the fact that they are equally obscure as far as Star Trek games go.

The Raiden Project (PS1) - Basically, although not openly named, this is Raiden II & III, and the only way of getting Raiden II on any system. 

This Weekends Plays

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (SNES) - This is another in the “Strike” series of games, and I believe the first one in the series to appear on the SNES. I had covered the third game in the series Urban Strike in another 8-bit Friday article sometime back. This particular game is a CIB, and I picked up at Midwest Gaming Classics in April, but have just now gotten to play it. Basically this follows the typical “Strike” series format of controlling an attack helicopter in an isometric view, and killing baddies, and rescuing folks, all with a overly serious plot line. With that said they are pretty fun games albeit formulaic, in play and story line. There are three “Strike” titles on the SNES Desert Strike, Jungle Strike, and Urban Strike and they where released in that respective order. I will be covering Jungle Strike later since it is with the SNES games I hope to get to this weekend.

Phantom 2040 (SNES) - This is another Midwest Gaming Classics buy that I’m just now playing. I kind of like the old Phantom comics, and I liked the movie, and the way it was very stylized to fit the era when the comic was popular. As far as Phantom 2040, I don't know much about it. I can't recall the cartoon show it was based on back in the mid to late 90’s, but the game is published by Viacom and it has a game based on show feel to it. As far as the game itself it's actually kind of mediocre at best, I got stuck in some room on the first level and the magnetic rope wouldn't work, so after 10 minutes of trying I gave up to avoid a headache, or throwing my controller across the room. I may check out a playthrough on YouTube later, but for now I will set it aside. Anyway, for the type of game it is, comic book/cartoon show based, it's on par with other similar titles on the SNES as far as graphics, play, and sound. Just a little let down about getting the magnetic rope to work. 

Jungle Strike (SNES) - I couldn't tell or remember if this one was NIB, or just sealed by the seller but I debated whether to open it or not. I always feel bad opening sealed NIB games, part of the reason many of my 7800 games have gone unplayed. I realized that I didn't pay much for it even being NIB, and opened the virgin game anyhow. I decided to give my 13 year old the privilege of playing it since he had been eyeing up Desert Strike well I was playing that. Again it's a fun game, and sticks to the formula of the other “Strike” games. Plus flying an attack copter through Washington D.C. is always fun. 

Note About the “Strike” Series - The SNES is just one place the series appeared, and it went on to live and thrive on the PS1 later. My only complaint about these games on the SNES is that control wise they are a little overly sensitive, and at points it can be highly frustrating. If I had gotten any of these games new as a kid though, I probably would have loved them and played them till I got the controls down. 

Ok, per last week's entry I thought had 4 SNES games but it turns out I only had three, the fourth being Super Pinball: Behind the Mask  which I actually covered a few weeks back. So now on to my SMS titles. 

Black Belt (SMS) - Its like Karateka meet Double Dragon kind of. Basically you walk forward get attacked by hordes of enemies, face a boss, then move on. Perhaps Kung Fu on NES would be a better comparison. It's not a bad game, but it seems like enemies sap health from you even if they don't touch you. Other than that it's plenty of fun, and a pretty good looking game. 

R-Type (SMS) - Ok, you knew this was coming! Which means you also know I’m going to tell you it's awesome. It's a really great port, and fun as hell to play, and probably my favorite SMS games thus far. My only complaint is that it comes up a bit dark, and requires some brightening of the TV screen. Other than that it's a classic SHMUP on a classic system. 

Miracle Warriors (SMS) - This is another Midwest Gaming Classics buy I'm just now getting to. I’m actually proud of myself on this buy since I haggled with the vendor to get him down to $10 on it, and I  reminded myself of my father at train shows when I was a kid. So Miracle Warriors, I have to say I really like this one. It's an RPG, with some Zelda elements thrown in to it giving it a D&D feel, although I don't believe its part of the D&D franchise, but you never know.  Overall, its a pretty good game.  

Time Soldiers (SMS) - This is another really unique and cool one. It will remind you of Commando but the whole time travel element is really cool, and genuinely unique. It's also a great looking game too, everything is clear to see and pretty detailed. It's fairly easy to play too. 

Vigilante (SMS) - This is basically a harder to play Double Dragon clone, minus the “Double” but still with the kidnapped girlfriend angle. Yes, Maria who gets more of her clothes torn off as the game goes on. It's an OK game, great graphics, but the whole element of enemies holding on to you drives me nuts. I understand this game is on the TG-16 too, and actually a little better on that probably thanks to the little extra processing power.  

Thanks to the bonus time on Friday afternoon I actually finished my originally planned plays for this weekend. This has given me some additional time for a few other things one of which is looking at installing Windows 98 on a virtual system like DosBox or Virtualbox, of course doing both has been challenging since both have presented me with minor issues. One of the other things I have had the chance to sit down and do is work on a little collection management as well, and figuring out just what systems I'm backlogged, on with some shocking results. Last but not least I've had the chance to sneak one more backlogged system in with plays, that being the XBox 360.

Keep in mind most 360 games are plot driven games, so I more or less did hit and runs to make sure they work.

Fallout: New Vegas (XBox 360)- Between Steam, the 360 and the One, I have most of the Fallout games sans Fallout 2 and the little known Tactics. New Vegas goes in a slightly different direction plot wise than the other games, in that you don't start out as a vault dweller unaware of the outside world, but rather as a courier nearly killed in the process of delivering something mysterious. Play and concept are roughly the same though. As usual playing any Fallout game is a journey with hours needed to play, but at least this one is tested out and my character made for my return. And yes I did buy it for $3 at a garage sale, well actually $2.50 since I bought this and Fallout 3 together for $5. 

The Orange Box (XBox 360) - Portal, Team Fortress, Halflife 2, and Halflife 2 Episodes 1 & 2 comprise this single disk game collection ported from PC. Basically this is a pre-Steam, Valve collection of games. 

Red Dead Redemption (XBox 360) - This is from Rockstar who had given us the GTA franchise as well as one of my favorite games L.A. Noire. Of course rather than roaming around in 80's Miami or late 40's L.A., we are roaming around the west in 1911. It's a gritty game and pretty much needs its "M" rating, but from what I did play it was fun. Also no, I didn't pay $39.99 for it, considerably less about $6 I believe. 

So I started off to get to nine games got eight instead, but got a bonus three making it up to eleven by the end of the weekend, plus I got some additional work done on this too. So looking deeper into my backlog, I have a number of systems with unplayed games on them so perhaps next week will be a Playstation week since in have five PS1 titles (including these weekend Raiden Project buy), and seven PS2 titles. Perhaps being a holiday weekend I can fit these and a few others in. We'll have to see. Until then have a great week, and a fast one too.