Human Tetris - the Video

You've probably seen this, it's several years old but still very cool.  If you haven't, it's a student group that made a stop action film imitating a game of tetris using folks in theater seats as the falling pieces.  If you like it, the same guy who posted this on youtube has a few others, including a good one of Space Invaders.

Game of the Day - Biomechanical Toy

Biomechanical Toy is a very colorful and fun-playing side-scrolling platform game.  If you've followed my blog at all, you know I like rich visuals and BMT is loaded with them.  The animation is particularly good and the game has lots of humor.  Our hero, (the BMT) is being chased, attacked and pursued by evil toys of all types.  There are flags throughout the game for you to reach that function as checkpoints.

There are the typical weapon power-ups and ammo to find, in addition to friendly toys that give you a variety of items.  And lots of the enemies leave good stuff when you kill them.  Of course, as usual, there are bosses waiting for you at the end of each section/level.  It may not be the greatest platformer ever coded, but solid gameplay combined with a crazy visual feast should keep you entertained for a while.

Game of the Day - The Game Paradise - Master of Shooting

The Game Paradise - Master of Shooting is a vertical shooter with a unique look/theme.  The whole game takes place inside arcades, pinball machines and video games.  The enemies that come toward you are parts, boards, joysticks, pinballs, characters, etc.  It's not the best shooter you will ever play, but the look and graphics are so unique, it is very enjoyable.  Another great touch is the detail in the background as you fly by.  There are many games/screens in the background that are playing/displaying classic video games, it's really a great detail.  Because of the unique and loud graphics, the screen can be cluttered and it can be hard to see what's going on.  But if you play it, you'll think it's worth it, you won't see anything else like it.  Below is a youtube of the startup and gameplay...

The Best Miscellaneous Games

Some games aren't easy to categorize.  There are some in this genre that I could put in other genres and games I put in other genres that I just as well could have slapped here in miscellaneous.  Remember when I rate games I'm comparing them to other games in the genre, so these comparisons were a little harder than comparing vertical shooters to each other or platform games. 

So, take it for what it is, some strong game recommendations of stuff I enjoy playing...Keep in mind I have lots of games I played and rated that fall below these, these are just the upper tier.

Several games in this genre are hard to control in MAME.  Discs of Tron can have a complicated control scheme.  Q*bert is weird without the Joystick on the diagonal, etc.

And yes, I still have several genres left to rate (sports and fighting games among them).

PLEASE keep in mind that these are the best of the best at the top of my list.  There are hundreds of games I've rated that fall below these games that aren't included in this list.  This is just the highest tier of great games.

Click on the chart to make it larger... If it still isn't readable, right-click and choose "view image" - then you can zoom to full size.

Here's the chart...

Game of the Day - GunSmoke

 

Call it Gun.Smoke or Gun Smoke or GunSmoke depending on who you believe.  It's one of my new favorite games.  A game I never knew in the arcades, but have lots of fun with now on MAME.  It's a combo walk around / omni / vertical shooter - a new genre I'll call Womnivert.  The thing that makes GunSmoke special is the button/shooting scheme.  Your dude always faces forward (you use the 8-way JS to move around), and you use the three buttons to fire at all different angles - depending on which button or combination of buttons you press.  Here is an excerpt of the original flyer...

So there are 6 different ways/angles to shoot. Including pushing each combo of two buttons simultaneously (even the outside two).  It makes for a completely different game experience than most other shooters. So, to reiterate, there are no bombs or grenades, etc., all three buttons fire your gun - but which button or combo of buttons you press is what controls the angle your gun fires at.

After being so used to using the JS to choose where I'm firing, it took a little getting used to, but totally worth it.

The game play is challenging and there are a few power ups (speed, bullet speed, bullet range).  The graphics are simple, but fun and effective.  Play it and see.  I've linked a video someone posted on youtube of the gameplay.

Q*bert on Letterman

Below is a cartoon that my lovely wife Wendy & I made for GameRoom Magazine a little while back.  Thought it was appropriate for the blog...

New Poll Today - The most you've paid for a game

Take the new poll in the right column.

Last week's poll is ending today.  Galaga is beating Tempest, Track & Field and Centipede in that order.

Game of the Day - Tengai

Tengai is a graphic feast of a side-scrolling (horizontal) shooter.  There are five diff characters to choose from, all with diff weapons, power-ups, sidekicks and endings.  You can see in the pic above that the sidekick weapon/charge weapon is some sort of lemur.  Very, very cool graphics, weapons and sound dominate the game.  And the action is also top notch.  It is challenging without being ridiculously chaotic like some modern shooters.  You have several attacks: Your main weapons (lots of levels/power-ups), bombs, charge weapon/sidekick and the powered-up charge weapon which is usually quite different than the non powered up type.  Quit reading and go try it.  Tons o' fun.

Arguechart - How the Classics Have Held Up

Some games are as fun today as when I played them 30 years ago.  Some, I scratch my head and wonder how I fed it so many quarters.  So, thought I'd create a chart of old school classics indicating how much I liked them in the arcade in the 80s and how much I like them now.  Here's how to read the chart.

The vertical axis (Y) is how much I liked the game then (80s arcades).  The higher the game is vertically on the chart, the more I liked it then (regardless of how left or right it is).

Thus, I didn't like Crystal Castles or Tapper much back then  (bottom) - but I loved DK, Omega Race, Tempest and others (top).

The horizontal axis (X) indicates how much I like the game NOW.  The more to the right the game is, the more I like playing it TODAY.

Thus, I don't like Gorf, Crystal Castles, etc. NOW (left side) - but I love Tempest, Robotron and Black Widow NOW.

So, here are some examples...

Gorf is in the upper left.  Anything near here means I loved it then and don't like it now, so Gorf and other nearby games had the biggest fall off in how much they held up.  I loved Gorf in 1980, and now I play it and think - this bites.  You can see that Donkey is another game I think did not hold up too well.  It is very high (I loved it then), but much more to the left than to the right (don't love it so much now).

Tempest is in the upper right - I loved it then and I love it now.

Crystal Castles is in the lower left - Didn't like it then, still don't now.

And games that surprised me the most recently, games that I did not like back then, but do like now, are in the lower right quadrant... Black Widow for instance.  Hardly paid attention to it back then, now it's one of my favs.  Just above that is Robotron.  I liked it okay then (it's in the middle of the up/down axis), but I loooovvvvveeee it now (all the way to the right.

Go ahead and comment or email me and tell me what a buffoon I am.

Game of the Day - Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters

 

EFTPOTRM for short.  It's a great platform/quasi-isometric shooting game.  You play through different levels rescuing humans and killing the dreaded Robot Monsters.  There are three buttons (fire, jump, duck).  In addition, it took me forever to figure out how to throw the bombs you can collect throughout the game.  You have to push all three buttons at once to do so.  There is some puzzle aspect in the game as you have to throw switches and break open lockers to collect things, get power-ups and operate escalators and other props around the levels.  Strangely, every few levels the game changes into flying a spaceship through an obstacle course - really weird.  In all, the action in the game is great and the graphics are awesome-comic-booky.  Good stuff.

Game of the Day - Black Widow

Here's my description of Black Widow... it's Robotron 2084 Lite with Spiders and Vector Graphics.  It's a dual joystick game that plays a lot Robotron (or Smash TV or Total Carnage).  You move around the web with the left JS and shoot with the right.  Enemies come from everywhere and when you kill them they turn into dollar signs (why???).  The faster you collect the dollar signs, the more they are worth.  Also, another enemy is the eggs they leave.  You have to use your spider to push them off of your web (either to the inside or outside of the web) before they hatch into full blown enemies.  There are also grenade type enemies who explode when you kill them and you have to avoid their blast radius as it expands or you die.  It's not nearly as chaotic as Robotron, but if you like one, you'll like the other.  By the way, like Tempest, you get to choose your starting level (and your choices are based on where you finished in the last game).

Game of the Day - Prehistoric Isle 2

 

Prehistoric Isle 2 is a great side-scrolling (horizontal) shooter by NEO GEO.  Set in modern times but with prehistoric monsters (mostly dinosaurs), the graphics are unlike any other game I've played.  The game play can get busy and chaotic, but is still very satisfying and knocking off the big Dinos and flying Pteracactyls is awesome.  Better yet, you get to save people from the Dino's clutches and they dangle down from your helicopter until you find a place to put them down safely and have them run for shelter.  Awesome.

Game Controller of the Year - And a new one for Next Year???

 

Okay, it's been around for a while, but I do have to point out what a good controller the XBOX 360 Wireless Controller for Windows is.  I still like to play most MAME games with the arcade joystick and buttons built into the control panel, but for some games, the XBOX controller really adds to the experience.  The ability to map any button in the MAME software makes for some really creative uses and the analog sticks and trigger controls really help on some shooting and driving games.  I use it the most on fighting games as the joypad (hat button) is very smooth and helps with making combos.  If you don't have one with your MAME setup/PC, get one.

 

The more interesting news is that Microsoft is coming out with a new WIRELESS steering wheel.  It's called the XBOX 360 Wireless Speed Wheel.  It's out in October.  I've tried a couple of different steering wheels and wasn't thrilled (I returned them).  Some of the problem with them was the way they clamped on just wasn't convenient or stable.  That's why this new device seems awesome.  Just being able to hold it how you want and play the games wirelessly with all the buttons right there on the handles seems very cool.  There aren't a lot of details to be found online about it, but Microsoft claims that all new wireless controllers (including this one) will work with the windows/PC wireless receiver that came with the original 360 contoller for windows.  I'm certainly gonna get one when they come out.

Out Zone

Omni (Walk-around) shooters is one of my favorite genre of games, and Out Zone is one the best.  The graphics are phenomenal and the play is finely tuned.  It is very challenging, but not because of complete chaos, just because the enemy programming is well done.  The game is very playable.  You can cycle thru two main weapon types for the first area of the game...  One with which you can face and shoot at any angle, and one that shoots a triple shot straight ahead only.  They are both useful depending on what section you are in.  Also, in addition to having to avoid getting killed by enemy fire, you have an energy gauge that decreases over time that can cause you do die if it goes empty.  You replenish your energy by finding the "E"s that are placed all around the area. If you are playing two players, the energy pods are color coded so that you can only get the energy for your guy and can't steal away the other guy's energy.  Certainly the basic game play is like many others of this genre, but if you play Out Zone, you'll see that it's just a cut above most other games.

Game of the Day - Warlords

MAME version

Warlords is a great old Atari game that plays like breakout.  You have a paddle and have to defend your castle against incoming fireballs.  The fireballs increase in speed and number as the round goes on.  Your castle chips away some with each hit you take and if a fireball hits the colored section inside your castle, you're dead.  Up to four can play and the computer plays all the castles that humans aren't manning.  The computer can play very well and be hard to beat.  It's also fun to decide whether to play cooperatively (take out the computer castles first) with other human players or against them.

One great feature is that you can use the button to catch an incoming fireball and then move around your castle and release it in another direction (aim it).  To add to the drama, when you are holding the fireball to aim it (you can hold the button indefinitely), the fire coming of the ball damages your own castle, so you can't hold it too long.

Plays best with a spinner, but fun with a joystick (best if analog), joypad, arrow keys or trackball.

Best Misc Shooters

These are all the shooters that I enjoy that don't fall into another category (vert, horz, cross-hair, omni).  Many of them are Old School types when programmers actually tried to do new stuff.

PLEASE keep in mind that these are the best of the best at the top of my list.  There are hundreds of games I've rated that fall below these games that aren't included in this list.  This is just the highest tier of great games. 

Click on the chart to make it larger... If it still isn't readable, right-click and choose "view image" - then you can zoom to full size. 

Game of the Day - Boogie WIngs

It's difficult to describe how good Boogie Wings is.  It's a horz shooter with unbelievable graphics and gameplay.  Tons of weapons, tons of diff vehicles you can occupy and enemies of all types.  At the beginning, you have a hook dangling from your airplane and you can pick things up with it (almost anything) and they dangle below you (you can see this in the above pic where another airplane is hanging from the hook).  Then you can speed up or slow down to have the hook swing around and hit things.  Early on, there's a great graphic of a ferris wheel that comes apart that you have to avoid.  Later there are zeppelins and a trojan horse to name a few cool things.  In all, it's great for every important reason including smooth and compelling game play action.  Just go play it and see.

ADDITIONAL LATE NOTE!  I just went and played Boogie Wings again.  I had forgotten how many great things there are.  You can pretty much pick up anything with your hook, including enemy men that you can than use your momentum to throw all over the place.  I picked up a fire hydrant and a Santa.  It's crazy.  BUT, the other main thing is that when you lose your plane, you run on foot and can shoot in all directions like Metal Slug, etc.  You also get to choose your next level after you complete the first one and they are all very different from one another.  Oh, and the music is good, too.  Incredible game.

Take the Poll on the Right

Ecco the Dolphin Syndrome

File this post under "Things that diminish my manliness".  In 1992 I bought Ecco the Dolphin for Genesis (no, that's not why I'm less manly).  I popped it in and began to play and in a few minutes I had a terrible headache and felt wonky.  Apparently, the movement of the background (scrolling back and forth) gave me some sort of motion sickness.  What's weird is that I never got motion sickness before... Not from cars, planes, roller coasters, etc - nothing.  But every time I tried to play Ecco - headaches and wonkiness.

Turns out this was a harbinger of things to come.  As consoles went to 3D environments, many games where the background moved all over boned me the same way.

Maybe that's why I still love MAME, pinball and old school games so much, long live 2D.

Game of the Day - Block Hole

Block Hole is an interesting puzzle game I just discovered for the first time recently.

Think of it as Tetris meets a Vertical Shooter.

Essentially, shapes fall down on you and you use a spaceship to fire blocks at them to fill the empty space in the shapes into full rectangles before they hit the bottom (the shape disappears when you complete a rectangle).  If you shoot too fast or too many shots, you might make one area of the shape too long and then have to go fill in the rest.  It's very well designed and gets very hectic.

Block Hole also has the great feature of 2 players side by side play to increase the sense of competition.

Game of the Day - Ultra X Weapons

I just played Ultra X Weapons.  Maybe I need to move it up my list of Best Vertical Shooters.  It is very unique graphically.  Monsters and buildings come to life.  It looks like some Ultra Man cartoon meets a 1970s Godzilla movie.  On top of the cool look, the gameplay is very sharp and non-stop without being ridiculously chaotic like some other modern shooters.  The best part is the special support weapons that are called in - different version of Ultra Man/Robots that are giant and take over the screen.  Have fun.

Best Platformers

 

Below is the list of my favorite platform games.  Sometimes this genre is a little hard to define so there may be some games missing because I put them into a different genre (beat 'em ups, horz shooters, or miscellanous).  The Metal Slug games are awesome and I could have put them collectively as one entry, but I left them as individual games.

PLEASE keep in mind that these are the best of the best at the top of my list.  There are hundreds of games I've rated that fall below these games that aren't included in this list.  This is just the highest tier of great games. 

Click on the chart to make it larger... If it still isn't readable, right-click and choose "view image" - then you can zoom to full size.

Game of the Day - Rail Chase

 

Rail Chase is a first-person Cross-Hair Shooter that is total chaos.  It's like a cross between the scene in Indy Jones and the Temple of Doom where they are in the mine carts and a first person roller coaster ride.  The graphics are cool (especially the snow) and the action is completely non-stop (and sometimes a little hard to follow).  The original game had an analog joystick, so you need one or a trackball.  Playing with an 8-way joystick is very difficult.  Let me know if you play it.

Game of the Day - Strike Force

 

Strike Force is actually the 3rd in the series that started with the classic "Defender" and continued with "Stargate".  Strike Force is a little easier to control than its predecessors because there is no thrust button, you simply fly in the direction the joystick is pointing.  Strike Force is awesome for several reasons...  First, the graphics are great and hilarious.  Second, there are a billion (I counted) weapons and power-ups, and you get to control which weapon and special weapon you are using at any time.  Third, you deploy rescuers and save humans (they dangle from the ship).  Lastly, the game play is totally frenetic, just like the other games in the series.  You may not think Strike Force is the greatest game of all time, but I dare you to play it and not have fun.

Arbitrary Fact of the Day (AFOTD) - MP3s in Hyperspin

Hyperspin is ridiculous.  I can't express how thankful and impressed I am with what this group of programmers has accomplished and what it has added to the gaming community.  I could go on forever about the benefits and fun of running Hyperspin, but I won't.  I'll assume you already have heard of it, or will go check it out soon.  What is the craziest, is how much you can customize with your own art or sound.

Today's arbitrary fact of the day is that you can assign ANY MP3 (sound/music file) to any game in any Hyperspin menu - so that it plays when the menu stops at that game and has it on the main screen.  So, for instance, you could have the system automatically play "Pac-Man Fever" when Pac-Man is up on the menu or "Grenade" when landing on Total Carnage or "Green Berets" when landing on Cabal - Or maybe "She's a Beauty" when on Ms. Pac-Man.  You get the idea.  Some might consider doing this a little defeatist and blasphemous because It replaces the default sound from the Hyperspin menu for that game which is usually actual sounds from the game, but in the right situation, it's hilarious and cool.  I have it playing "Somebody call 911" when Firetrap is on the screen.  Keep in mind, this is only when the menu wheel lands on that game, as soon as you select it and start the game, all sounds from the game are normal as they should be.

Game of the Day - Mars

 

Mars is largely a poor man's Scramble.  And I love me some Scramble - it helped me almost fail lots of classes during my freshman year of college (there was one in the basement of our dorm) (Yes, I am old).  So Mars is slightly less attractive and slightly less well designed than Scramble, but it has one BIG addition...instead of a fire button, you shoot in any direction with a second joystick (a la Robotron or Smash TV).  It changes the game play drastically and makes Mars a lot of fun.  If you don't have a dual joystick setup (or use some sort of dual analog game controller), you could set up your keyboard to have buttons that fire in all eight directions.  That'd be crazy hard, let me know how that goes.

The Best Cross-Hair Shooters

There's one GIANT caveat in this genre.  These are all my favorite cross-hair shooters whether they were designed for a joystick or a lightgun, but I do NOT have a lightgun, so I've played them all with the trackball (or joystick).  Remarkably, some of the games play better with a trackball than a lightgun, but many play worse.  So, clearly my ratings are affected by this fact.  I'm sure if I had a lightgun on my system, some games would move up (and subsequently, some would move down).

PLEASE keep in mind that these are the best of the best at the top of my list.  There are hundreds of games I've rated that fall below these games that aren't included in this list.  This is just the highest tier of great games.

Click on the chart to make it larger... If it still isn't readable, right-click and choose "view image" - then you can zoom to full size.

Game of the Day - Change Air Blade

Yes, Change Air Blade is a fine looking and playing shooter, but the reason it is today's GOTD is because it's the only one I know that has a Vs. mode.  That's right, you can go one-on-one versus another player or the computer.  One of you at the top of the screen and the other at the bottom.  It's even best of 3 rounds, just like a fighting game.  There are power-ups, and support aircraft.  It's unique fun and difficult to get a leg up on the opponent while he's shooting at you.

Here's a great review on another site...

http://www.shmups.com/reviews/changeairblade/index.html

Game of the Day - Nitro Ball / Gun Ball

Nitro Ball (or Gun Ball depending of what country/version you are playing) is hilarious.  It is very similar in style and play to Smash TV, but without the dual joystick action.  You play as a contestant/warrior and shoot everything in sight and collect prizes.  Mostly, the game is fun because of the crazy graphics, gameplay and power-ups.  Give it a try.

The Best Omni Shooters

This is a mixture of "Field Shooters" and "Walking Shooters".  Basically these games are the ones where you can walk and shoot in any direction.  Here are my favs... Click to zoom in and make it larger.  This is probably my favorite type of game to play on MAME.

PLEASE keep in mind that these are the best of the best at the top of my list.  There are hundreds of games I've rated that fall below these games that aren't included in this list.  This is just the highest tier of great games.

Click on the chart to make it larger... If it still isn't readable, right-click and choose "view image" - then you can zoom to full size.

The Best Horizontal Shooters (Side Scrollers)

Forgotten Worlds

Here are my favorite Horizontal Shooters...(unlike the previous list, the old school games are mixed in)

PLEASE keep in mind that these are the best of the best at the top of my list.  There are hundreds of games I've rated that fall below these games that aren't included in this list.  This is just the highest tier of great games.

Click on the chart to make it larger... If it still isn't readable, right-click and choose "view image" - then you can zoom to full size.

The Best Vertical Shooters

So the first list is Vertical Shooters - Click on it for a bigger version (and then you can probably magnify that also)...If you want to see what the columns mean, visit the first post of this blog ("About the Ratings").

PLEASE keep in mind that these are the best of the best at the top of my list.  There are hundreds of games I've rated that fall below these games that aren't included in this list.  This is just the highest tier of great games.

Click on the chart to make it larger... If it still isn't readable, right-click and choose "view image" - then you can zoom to full size.

About the Ratings

This blog is for sharing great games in MAME.  To start with, I'm going to post some of my rankings by genre.  There are a few things you should know first...

The ratings has a separate section for "Old School (OS)" as it is hard to compare the quality of something like Galaxian with DoDonPachi.  Graphics and Gameplay ratings are TOTALLY subjective based on how much I enjoy them.  Some graphics are simple but cool (Galaga) - some are modern but cruddy.  Gameplay can be great for many reasons and different games can play simply/complex/deriviative, etc. but all I care about is how fun it is and how good the controls and gameplay are.  For instance, Gun.Smoke is simple, but different button combinations have you shoot in different directions, and that makes it more enjoyable and playable.

There are several columns in my ratings they are from left to right...

Game Name

Genre

Sub-genre

Spinner (does the game use a spinner)

Trackball (does it use a trackball)

Dual Joystick (does the game play with two joysticks like Robotron 2084)

Old School (an arbitrary categorization based on the look and feel)

* = one of my favorites

Graphics (1-5 - keep in mind you are only seeing my highest rated games, there are many hundred more with lower scores that didn't make the cut)

Gameplay (see graphics)

Chaos (1-5 based on how crazy things get on the screen)

Special (arbitrary extra points awarded by me for special circumstances)

Overall - weighted total score

# of players - Used to indicate games that can play 3 or 4 plyrs simultaneously

Notes - Stuff I wanted to remind myself of (good luck interpreting some of them)