Game of the Day - Off the Wall

Off the Wall is an Arkanoid/Breakout type game with a twist - literally.  Atari has twisted the playfield so that Player 1 plays up and down on the left side of the screen instead of left and right across the bottom.  It's as if Arkanoid married Pong and they had a love child.  Since most of this genre of games are pretty much the same (and have been since Breakout), it's nice to see all the thought that went into this one to make it unique.

The main gameplay goal of most levels is to have the ball reach the "Exit" - a brick marked as such.  It can be anywhere and is (of course) heavily surrounded by other bricks.  So, you don't have to eliminate all the bricks, just get to the exit.  In fact, one of the main scoring features is that your bonus for each level is based on how fast you reached the exit and how many bricks still remain.

Many cool features and power-ups abound, here are some:
1.  The paddle is curved making the ball come off it in unusual ways
2.  You can speed up or slow down the ball
3.  On many levels, the exit changes and moves around while you play
4.  There are parachuting bricks that fall from the top and intercept the ball
5.  You can catch and or curve/spin the ball - so can some of the bricks
6.  Many brick configs have the bricks rotating around the exit as you play

You get the idea - there are many more features and cool things that happen.

Also, another great aspect of the game is that you can play two players competitively (simultaneously).  You are on opposite sides (Pong!) and each time you hit the ball, it changes to your color - thus, when the ball scores by hitting something, only that player is awarded points.  Very Cool.

There's tons more and 700 bazillion levels, but you get it.

Game of the Day - Revolution X

Take Terminator 2, subtract the Terminators, add Stephen Tyler & Aerosmith and you have Revolution X.  Except you don't play as them, or shoot them, you are saving them (and their fans).

So RevX is a cross-hair shooting game (gun in the arcade, trackball on MAME) with cool, digitized graphics and loads of hilarity.  The action is fast and furious and pretty similar to T2.  You blast with your guns and have a bomb-type weapon - but it's not a bomb or grenade, it's a CD. (The music kind not the banking kind).  So you whip CDs at the enemy and they explode like bombs because...as the game points out constantly... MUSIC is the weapon.

You are supposed to rescue Aerosmith and Stephen Tyler yells out all kinds of instructions and other crap at you as you try.  There are oodles of enemies to take down and the action is non-stop.  As you are blasting, many boxes, windows and other stuff on the periphery is also blastable - and that's where the power-ups and CDs are.  Shoot them to collect them.

On top of the cool graphics and great action and tons of humor, there are other niceties.  For instance, there are many times when you get to choose where you go (left or right - inside a club or outside, etc. - and later, even which mission location) - it gives the game a more open feel.  Also, there are vehicles throughout the game for you to use or oppose.  Another cool addition is the Sweet (Emotion) music since there are several actual Aerosmith songs in the game.

Lastly, there are lots of easter eggs and inside jokes in the game, so pay close fucking attention!

Game of the Day - Space Firebird

Space Firebird is an old school shooter.  It tries to be a little of everything: Galaxian, Phoenix, etc and still add a little of its own element.

The graphics are kinda cool for the era... They are little birds and other creatures that are mostly small and very detailed for their size.  The fact that the enemies and you and the gunfire is all so small makes the game/playfield feel bigger than other games of this era and genre.  There's just more space out there for stuff to attack and more room to maneuver.

The bird-enemies come at you with the jittery action of a game like Phoenix.  Not smooth and glide-y like Galaga.  It's what makes the game a little more challenging since the little stacatto bastards can be hard to hit.

There are two buttons that control the action in SF (along with the joystick).  One is the normal fire button.  The other is your special power - Warp (woo-hoo!).  Once per level you get to use the warp feature.  What happens is that you grow a shield and become invulnerable - meanwhile, you start moving up the screen (involuntarily).  You can control the left and right movement as you slowly ascend the screen and blast (or simply plow into) as many enemies as you can until you reach the top.  Once you reach the top, the warp is over and you reappear at the bottom for more combat.  You get a second or two of invulnerability when you reappear so that you aren't immediately wiped out by something that you appear right beneath.

The enemy armada materializes at different times and in varying numbers - as opposed to all together as a wave like in Galaga.  So, to ensure you know how far along you are, there is a number in the top-middle of the screen indicating how many more you have to kill to end the level.

Space Firebird is not ever going to replace the classics like Phoenix, Galaga and the like, but if you have mastered them or are looking for a new challenge to take on, it's a great game in its own right.  Nice graphics, reasonably frustrating enemy behavior and familiar action mean a good time is waiting.

File It Under Unique Gift Ideas - The Paculele

For all of those living at the busy intersection of Arcade Lover and Ukelele Enthusiast, this is for you...  Cough up $600 and you'll be sure to impress the other seven of you in the world with these mutual interests.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/74011973/pac-man-ukulele-paculele

To see all the posts on cool stuff to waste your dough on click here.

Game of the Day - Chopper I

Chopper I pisses me off - but in a good way.  There are games that are difficult that are just frustrating, unfair and stupid, and there are games that are difficult that are compelling and fun.  Chopper I is the latter.


Chopper I is a vertical shooter where you fly (surprise!) a chopper.  The graphics are nice and sharp although there is not a lot of variety (in the levels I've gotten to).  One thing that is more important in Chopper I than most vert shooters is paying attention to where you are flying.  The land has many obstacles that you can crash into (you're in a chopper, dammit, can't you go up?).  The terrain has hills and mountains that dictate where you can fly, get too close or trapped behind them and SLAM!  Also, starting with the second level, there are girders/bridges/buildings that you also can't fly over.  These bridges actually require as much attention to fly around and avoid as the enemy firing at you.  You are constantly trying to avoid smashing into things and, of course, the enemy is always lying in wait right where the terrain pushes you.

There are many power-ups to garner.  They are usually spewed forth by the big green helicopter that chases you.  Defeat it and go pick up the goodies.  You can power-up your weapon and receive several different types of special weapons/bombs that you will need to complete the mission.

There's some other interesting stuff.  For instance, the enemy can shoot nets at you.  If you get caught in one, your guns won't fire outside the net and you start to go down.  Blast as fast as you can to shred the net and return to normal.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the real hook here is the difficult but fair gameplay.  The attacking army is effective even though they don't totally take over the screen.  The bosses are tough if you aren't powered-up and/or have lots of bombs.  In fact, when you continue after losing a life fighting a boss, you start the fight over - crap.  So now you aren't powered-up and the boss is back to full strength.  That's why it is ridiculously important to beat the boss the first time you see him when you are all powered-up (presumably) from the fight up until then. 

Tough + Fair = Fun

Oh yeah, one other funny thing, when you die and score high enough to enter your initials, you get rewarded with seeing those initials on a grave marker over your fresh grave.  Nice.

Here's a small piece of trivia - there are only two games in the KLOV database with the word "Chopper" in the title - and now they have both been GOTDs.  This one and Battle Chopper.

Game of the Day - Ribbit

An attosecond is one quintillionth of a second.  In fact it is so small, that it takes to one billion attoseconds to make one nanosecond.  So, I'm guessing it took about 3 attoseconds for you to figure out that Ribbit is the (actual and spiritual) sequel to Frogger.  And while it will never come within a mile of Frogger in arcader's hearts, taken at face value (without the love and history of Frogger) it is a very fun game on its own (I think it's better).  One other difference - Ribbit can be played by two players simultaneously for twice the amphibious fun.


There's no rocket science here, the controls work just like Frogger.  A four-way joystick to jump the direction you want (with some cute little jumping graphics).  Where the game excels is in level design and variety of play (considering all you do is jump 4 ways).

The goal in each round is to eat a certain number of bugs, crabs or other yummies.  The scoreboard on top tells you how many remain for you to eat.  Meanwhile you have to avoid many different things that can smoke you.  Sometimes, it's spiders or sea creatures, sometimes it's machinery... and sometimes it's the rolling tide of the ocean.

There are many different kinds of levels.  At the beginning you just jump around and eat stuff.  Then, they throw in the traditional floating logs that span fast moving rivers.  Later, in my favorite levels, they have the tide come in and out on a beach and you have to attack and retreat when you can, or find a floating log for safety.  Later levels also include conveyor belts in factories.  There are also occasional bonus levels where all you do is binge eat (and luckily you don't purge).

If you haven't figured it out from this blog, I love data.  So any games that give statistical feedback and bonuses score extra points in my mind.  Ribbit times how fast you finish each round and ranks and bonuses your time accordingly.  So, your goal isn't just to finish a level, but to do it quickly for more score and to break the record best time.

The main fun of Ribbit is for parties and such.  It is one of those games that non-gamers can catch onto quickly.  Gamers and non-gamers alike can play and the non-gamer doesn't have to have their eyes spin as they try to figure out the controls (or stand there being bored while you play 64 consecutive levels on Galaga).  In fact, I'm going to have a future Hall of Fame for GOTDs that are great at parties for just this reason.

Oh yeah, and when you croak (pun intended) - you hold up a sign that reads "Dead" - sweet.

Game of the Day - Ninja Commando

I have classified Ninja Commando as an Omni Shooter although most of the time you can only shoot forward (like a vert shooter).  It is a fun game with big, bright graphics that plays like a military field shooter, except you usually can't just face any direction, you just plow ahead forward (up the screen).

HOWEVER, there is an exception to this...

There are three buttons to use to control your attacks.  Button 1 is your main weapon attack, button 2 is jump/flip and button 3 is your bomb/grenade/spcl attack.  The ability to shoot other than straight ahead comes into play with the 2nd button when you are jumping around.  You can jump any of the typical 8 directions that the joystick points - so. if you press the fire/attack button at the same time that you are jumping, you wind up shooting your weapon in whatever direction you are facing at the time (incl U,D,L,R and all diagonals).  So you can play the game as a walking around vertical shooter, or spend your time jumping and firing in every direction and play it as a more typical Omni Shooter.  Or, best of all, combine the two for maximum results.

You choose any of 3 characters to start (I always choose the chick in games with a choice - I wonder what that means...).  Of course they all have different weapons and different bombs.


I haven't mentioned the one other really cool/unique feature of Ninja Commando - you are (in a way) awarded for button mashing.  It is the only game I can think of right now in which the faster you push the fire button, the more your weapon becomes powered-up.  In fact if you look at the bottom two pics in the block of four below, there is a series of letters in the first row at the bottom, just to the right of the character portrait.  I think it is the character screaming...???!!!  Anyhoo, the faster you push the fire button, the longer the string of letters (banshee scream) and the bigger and more powerful your shots become.  Stop or slow down your shooting and the letters and your power decrease.  Very cool.

If you look at the upper left pic above, it looks like the evil Pharaoh is giving the finger - turns out it's just an attached cobra.

Ninja Commando has lots of things to shoot that result in food for health and other rewards for score and other power-ups (bombs), so don't leave anything unblasted.

The graphics are good, not great.  But they are big and cheerful and fun.  And the levels have lots of variety.

Original Neo Geo Games in New Portable !!?!!

Saw this post about a cool new portable device by Neo Geo with 20 of their original games on it.

http://walyou.com/neo-geo-portable/

Game of the Day - Thundercade

Thundercade is a vertical shooter that's a little different than the standard jet or chopper fare.  You are riding a motorcycle and fighting enemies that are on foot, in vehicles, in submarines and in tanks.

Because of the theme, the physics and craziness are a little more down to earth than other vertical shooters.  The game doesn't become overly flooded with enemy fire.  But, because you are on land, there are obstacles to drive through, over and around since you are on a motorcycle (as opposed to being airborne).  This makes moving around the screen somewhat more important than other plain vanilla vert shooters.

The controls are simple - just the typical two buttons (shoot and bomb) to go along with your joystick.  What's really more fun in this game is the power-ups.  They mostly come in the form of sidecars that are parked around the landscape.  Pick one up and it is attached to your motorcycle.  It may wind up increasing your shot forward, or adding a left or right shot to your gun.  Pick up more as you go and you can wind up with additions that shoot in every direction.  As there are guys on foot and tanks approaching from every side/angle, these sideways shots are important.

And yes, I said "submarines" despite the fact that you are on a motorcycle... you'll see.

Graphics are good - cute and nice little details.  In fact the whole game reminds me a little of the format and look of GunSmoke (without the western theme and the great button layout that GunSmoke has).

This game was actually the first in a series of three.  The last of which was Twin Eagle II (a previous GOTD to which it bears no resemblance).

Search GOTDs by Year and Company

Now that there are more than 150 GOTDs, I thought it would be nice to have a way to group them so you could see all of them from a certain year or a certain manufacturer.  So, I have labelled each GOTD with the company and year of manufacture.  You can check out the new feature in the right column of the blog just under the "Quick Access to Lists.." links.

They are titled "GOTD by Year" and "GOTD by Company" just click on the year or company you want and it'll show you all the posts related to it.

This is now complete and up-to-date.

So far Sega leads the companies with 13 GOTDs, Taito just behind with 12 and Capcom with 11.

As far as the years go, there is at least one GOTD in each year from 1980-2001.  So far, 1992 leads with 16 entries and 1989 has 14.

Game of the Day - Power Drift

You may have noticed that there aren't a lot of driving games that are GOTDs.  While I enjoy some, it has never been my favorite genre.  Many of them look, feel and play pretty much the same from the same era.  I can't say exactly why, but to me, Power Drift is an exception.

First, I really like the look.  The 3D sprites come at you with lots of motion and flair.  The game has accomplished combining a cute, cartoony look with effective racing.  The graphics are rounded and colorful and add a lot to the personality of the game.  And the game has loads of personality.  From having little pics of each driver and what place they are in, to winding bridges you can zoom up and/or fly off of.  In fact, the quick up and down motion of the bridges and ramps came dangerously close to giving me Ecco the Dolphin Syndrome.  Even the map of the track on the right of the screen just looks a little better and more detailed than most similar games.

The controls are good.  You can be competitive from the very beginning, but you also can't dominate easily.  The controls are intended to be analog (it was a steering wheel and two pedals in the arcade), but I actually used the joystick successfully in MAME and didn't even try the spinner.

Another thing that I like are that the races are short and sweet.  No boring long runs where you don't see other cars.  And the variety is excellent - there are (apparently) 25 tracks in all that you play in 5 groups of 5 races.  (There are also unlockable bonus tracks, though I haven't seen them).

Other than the steering, there's the gas and the brake along with a gear shift (low or high).  By the way, does anyone ever use the brake in most of the racing games?

Play it and keep trying to beat your times and scores, it's quick, good fun.

Game of the Day - Dynamite Duke

Dynamite Duke is the swiss army knife of cross-hair shooters.  The general gameplay is like any slowly scrolling, cross-hair shooter (Cabal or Operation Wolf), but it throws in several other elements to try to be all things to all gamers.  And while it doesn't do any one specific thing great, it does do many things very well and thus all together makes for a very fun and engaging game.

You have three button in addition to your joystick.  The buttons are punch, kick and gun.  So usually you are firing at the enemy with your gun, however when they get up close & personal you have two different attacks to take them out (punch & kick).  There are the standard power-ups, as you can shoot MANY of the items populating the landscape and background and they turn into power-ups for you and your weapons (the machine guns are particularly helpful - as they usually are)!

But Dynamite Duke goes a little farther.  In addition to standard punching and kicking and the souped-up weapons, there is the Dynamite Punch.  It is essentially a charge bomb.  You hold down the punch button until the meter fills and then release.  The Dyna-Punch strikes everything on the screen (killing most immediately).  There are a limited number of these - but you can always collect additional ones.

But wait, just like a TV ad, there's more...  In an effort to make the fighting just a little more detailed and interesting, moving the joystick in certain ways in conjunction with the punch and/or kick button actually throws different kinds of punches and kicks (a little bit like playing a stripped down version of Punch-Out or Title Fight).

So, with the weapons and power-ups and fighting and special moves and Dynamite-Punch, there's lots to try and keep you interested.

The enemies are many and the game gets very intense very quickly.  One slight bummer is that the graphics are mediocre, but they are not weak enough to detract from the fun.  You'll be too busy happily blasting and fighting to worry that it could have looked a little bit nicer.

Game of the Day - Exzisus

Exzisus is a 2nd gen (as far as I count them) horizontal shooter with one distinguishing characteristic.  It is fucking fast.  I mean lightning.  I've played lots of similar games from the mid to late 80s, but there is something about the enemies, attacks and general coding in Exzisus that just ratchets up the frantic and the crazy.

The controls are simple, just a gun to shoot and bombs (that are tossed out behind you).  You can get power-ups that take the form of changing your equipment and appearance as you morph from a dude with a jetpack into more powerful spaceships.  What's cool is that when you are hit by enemy fire, rather than dying, you regress to a previous, less lethal state.

The graphics, while typical of this era, are very pleasant and the backgrounds are especially nice.  The parallax scrolling of the hills add to the nice scenery.

To reiterate, though, this game is all about speed and twitchiness.  It's not necessarily that the enemies coat the sky with gunfire like modern games, just that there are so many of them in so many varieties attacking from everywhere at once.  The speed with which you can move also adds to the frenzy.

There are other small features like a map in the upper right corner to indicate your progress and the fact that the enemies start to arrive from far away in the landscape so you can see what's coming, but all you really need to do is crank it up and start blasting.

There'll be a spelling test on the title of this game next week.

GOTD Hall of Fame - Cool and Unusual Controls

This GOTD Hall of Fame is for interesting control schemes.  Whether it's a new spin on an old idea, or a different way to figure out how to shoot or aim at things, there are really no parameters.  They are just great GOTDs that are distinguished by a cool control design.  (In no particular order).  Click on any to see the full GOTD post and learn more about the control scheme.  New games will be added when appropriate. Some guys have asked about more famous games not being on this list...Keep in mind, this is only for games that have already been "Games of the Day" on my blog.  I don't make the most famous games GOTD - there'd be no purpose to that, I'm trying to help folks find new games they may not have played before or have forgotten about.

 1. Riot
 Cross-Hair shooter with buttons for foreground and background shooting
 2. Forgotten Worlds
 JS to move, spinner to aim - horz shooting goodness
 3. GunSmoke
 Three buttons and combos of them control the direction you shoot!
 4. Title Fight
 Dual JS Boxing game - lots of combo moves - use an Xbox controller for full fun
 5. Mad Planets
 Unbelievably fast old-school JS-move/Spinner-aim madness
 6. Argus
 Trackball to fly your Superhero and save lives
 7. Gyruss
 Tempest meets Galaga
 8. Tac/Scan
 Completely odd but awesome - spinner to fly thru and shoot enemies
 9. Skull & Crossbones
 Combo of JS moves and buttons control swordplay
10. Crazy Fight
 Six buttons in this electronic version of Whac-a-mole
11. B.C. Story
 Caveman version of Track & Field, but you use buttons AND JS in unique ways to compete
12. Soukyuu Gurentai
 Second button brings up wireframe hemisphere that paints targets for missile launch
13. 4-D Warriors
 Not so much the controls, but the physics of the game change with each level
14. Hellfire
Second button selects direction of gunfire - no other weapons
15. Gunlock (Rayforce)
 Move cross-hair over (many) enemies to target them for guided missiles
16. Bal Cube
Arkanoid type game in which you control the ball and not the paddle
17. Black Widow (representative for ALL dual joystick games)
Dual JS greatness in the awesome shadow of Robotron 2084

Game of the Day - Sol Divide

Sol Divide is a nouveau horizontal shooter that throws in a little hack & slash.  The first thing you'll notice about Sol Divide is its graphics.  They are a very nice attempt at quasi photo-realistic blended graphics - combining colorful foregrounds with rich and incredible backgrounds.  Since this was an early attempt at this kind of art, they can sometimes be a bit muddy or unsharp, but that being said, after playing more levels recently, I have an even deeper appreciation for the graphics.

You are a flying warrior in fantasy/medieval times zooming past great landscapes and huge castles.  You fight warriors of many shapes, sizes and colors, and many are very difficult to defeat (they take many hits before croaking).  Bosses and mini-bosses populate the levels and they are often the coolest part - flying dragons, two headed snakes, and all kinds of evil are there to take you down.

The game is played with the joystick and three buttons... Shoot, slash & change magic.  You deploy the pre-chosen magic by pushing the shoot and slash buttons at the same time.  There are many different types of magic to collect, and they have icons that sit in a row near the top of the screen.  The 3rd button selects between them so you can choose which magic to reign down on your enemies.

From what I have played, the slashing does much more damage to your enemies than the shooting - but, of course, it's more risky since you have to be right next to your opponent to hack them.  And there are the (ever-present in these games) power-ups.  You need to get magic power-ups to be able to use your magic, and weapons power-ups make you more lethal.  You can also obtain more lifeforce throughout the game... Sol Divide is one of those games that you play with a life bar that goes down and then the game is over when the bar is empty (as opposed to having a certain number of lives).  You can combat this by collecting all the life power-ups floating around.

It's a visual feast, but with lots of action.  And the hack/slashing makes it a somewhat different game from many horz shooters.  Another gem from Psikyo.

Game of the Day - Bal Cube

There's a classic folk song that (kind of) asks if you would rather be the hammer or the nail.  There's another saying that goes something like "sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug".  In Bal Cube, you are testing these theories out, because it is the only ball and paddle (Breakout, Arkanoid) type game I know of in which you control the BALL and NOT the PADDLE.

Once you use the button to launch the ball, it behaves a lot like all the Arkanoid clones.  You have to get rid of the bricks and collect the bonuses, goodies and power-ups.  But, the way you control the action is by moving the ball left or right as it bounces around.  Your influence over the movement of the ball is not omnipotent, but it is effective.  There is a row of pods at the bottom of the screen that act like the paddle (with a hole in it that you have to avoid).  Each time you bounce of one, it disappears, or they rearrange so that you can't keep bouncing off of the same place.

There is also a handy radar on the right side of the screen showing you what's coming down the pike soon.  The line in the middle of the radar corresponds to the top of the screen on your playfield, everything above that line on the radar is above your playfield and approaching soon.

Of course, all kinds of things happen, your ball changes speeds, sizes and physics.  There are a myriad of power-ups and goodies to collect (which you collect by hitting them with the ball - not the paddle).  Also de rigueur in this genre is the fact that many different types of bricks and blocks behave differently or require many hits to disappear.

You lose a guy when the ball falls through the bottom OR when the bricks scroll down and reach the bottom.  Either way = no good.

Bal Cube is today's GOTD for the one obvious reason of its unique control scheme.  As such, it will no doubt be one of the inaugural inductees when I create the Hall of Fame of weird/unique control schemes in the near future.

Power Up to Run like Pac-Man

 

http://www.firebox.com/product/5061/Pac-Man-Power-Up-Energy-Drink

Game of the Day - Armed Formation

KLOV refers to this game as "Armed Formation F" - I think that's because of the confusing title screen configuration.  But I think the "F" is just the abbreviation for "Formation"... Who knows???

Anywho, AF is a psychedelic vertical shooter that relies heavily on the pod/satellite theory for gameplay.  But you can't start to describe AF without first mentioning the graphics.  In the first stage, the insect stage, they are colorful, weird and different than any other game of this genre.  It looks like someone ate a bunch of Skittles and puked it all over a petri dish.  Don't get me wrong, I think the graphics are very cool as well as very unique, they are just really......zoiks.  And that's really more in the first stage.  In the second stage, at least the background changes to space and it's all a little less taxing on the eyeballs.

Meanwhile, the control scheme is simple but effective.  There are no bombs in AF.  The two buttons are for "shoot" and "arrange armor/pods".  You can obtain four different kinds of weapons and power them up, but you can also power-up your pods (by getting the floating letter "F").  This will make the pods more plentiful and give you more choices in selecting their configuration (protection) around you (by using the second button).  AF is also one of those games that has your ship start out by flying slowly, because speed is one of the power-ups (the most important one).  So gather the "S" whenever you can - but watch out, they try to lure you into traps wherever the "S" floats.  That's pretty much all there is to it, a solid vert shooter with crazy-cool graphics and a focus on controlling your pods.

On a side note, doing a little research on this game, I noticed that KLOV says you can't continue (not true) and that CAESAR's MAME history file says there are three buttons (there are only two).  It just shows how difficult it is to collect info on older, obscure games.  And make no mistake, I love KLOV, MAWS (come back) and CAESAR, they are an unbelievable cornucopia of great info put together by many dudes who were very generous with their time and money - and they are correct 99.9% of the time.

So, put on your shades and play Armed Formation (F).

Another New Pinball Manufacturer

This clip was just released.  Apparently a new pinball manufacturer with design by the famous John Papadiuk - desinger of Cirqus Voltaire, Theatre of Magic and others.

http://www.pinballinventor.org/games/benheck/media_one.html

Game of the Day - Blasted

Not to be confused with previous GOTD Blaster, Blasted is a cartoonish cross-hair shooter, with good action and heavy on the humor.

With graphics reminiscent of Xenophobe, you shoot cyborgs that have invaded buildings and are terrorizing tenants.  There is a broad view where you see the overall building and which windows have cyborgs hanging out, and then the "scope" view that you use to aim and shoot.  The cyborgs have to be hit in their red energy source to be killed.  There are flying ones and humanoid ones.

While you are shooting, you are supposed to be careful not to shoot the human tenants, but there are lots of folks & things in each room to shoot.  Most everything has some sort of reaction when you shoot it, so try to blast everything a time or two.

You have an energy pack that keeps you going.  It stays full until you get hit by cyborg fire (BLAM!).  That wasn't me saying "blam", the game says it when you get hit.  In fact, different audio clues tell you how close the shots came to you.  Anyway, once the energy pack is hit, it starts depleting rapidly.  You have to complete the round before you are out or you lose a guy (actually an energy pack).  The way you complete a round is by killing a predetermined number of cyborgs, the main screen tells you what percentage you have completed.

The game is split screen no matter if you play it as one player or two.  With two, you can shoot each others buildings and apparently, each other.  Good times.

Blasted is quick, simple and fun and they did a nice job with all the details in things to shoot and watch.

There are at least 100 different buildings (levels) to play.

Quiz Time - Alien......

In honor of today's GOTD, Alien Sector, here's a nerdian quiz.

KLOV (Killer List of Video Games) lists 15 games (not including pinball machines) in which the first word is "Alien" (not inc. "Aliens" - just the singular word).  Without doing any research/googling, how many can you name?

Game of the Day - Alien Sector

Alien Sector is a weird little horz shooter with fun action and some unusual charms.  By the way, this game has a sister/aunt named Bakutotsu (actually a sequel) which is a slightly souped-up japanese version.  They play and look a little different, you might like one better than the other.

Anyway, you are the hero, wearing a spacesuit floating down into the area where the enemies are.  There is gravity here, so you can use the joystick to go up (jetpack?), but you will always immediately start slowly falling again.  Using this light gravity effect matters a lot when the screen becomes filled with enemies and enemy fire.  In fact, the games levels are quasi-mazes, and using the gravity effect can help when you are descending vertically around edges and corners where enemies lie it wait.

You simply have a gun to shoot.  It is a one button game.  You can turn to the left or the right to shoot as enemies come from all sides.  You start with a shield that can take three hits, after the last, if you are hit, you lose a dude.  Simple, right?

There are some power-ups.  The most frequent is the shield.  The power-ups come from enemies you kill that turn into what looks like metal (silver) balls with a green rectangle (door).  Fly over it and it releases something.  If it is a cyclopian happy face, then collect it and your shield is increased by one.  It can also be a gun upgrade.  What you have to watch out for is that these little power-up pods can also contain more enemies, so be on high alert when you fly over to open them.

You finish a level when you have killed a certain number of enemies.  The screen will tell you "gate open".  You then have to fly to the exit gate to leave the level.  On the way you need to stay alert because there are still things trying to kill you and upgrades and points to collect.

At the end of the level, there is a weird, random (sort of) wheel spin to see if you collect an extra goody or not.  You simply push the button and the wheel stops.  Whatever it stops on is what you get (including bad stuff like losing shield power).

It's weird and it has average graphics, but the shooting action, gravity effect, level design and difficulty level make Alien Sector a lot of fun.  Bakutotsu, the Japanese version is goofier, has more stuff (vehicles), is more colorful and can be somewhat incomprehensible - but you should certainly give it a try.

Game of the Day - Burglar X

Odds are you haven't seen or played Burglar X.  It has a very low web profile and no listing on KLOV.  But you'll thank me for telling you about it the first time you fart on someone chasing you.  That's right, that's what I wrote, fart.  You can see the fart cloud (event horizon?) behind the chick in the picture on the right just below...

Burglar X is a very unique and fun maze game with crazy, goofy graphics, lots of stuff to collect and three primary ways to battle the enemies.

You run around a maze (a map of city streets and buildings).  Your goal is to collect the number coins necessary to finish each level (the number is indicated at the top next to your score).  The usual way to get coins is to hit one of the spinning dice - they explode and drop coins for you to collect.  As you do, the number you need to still get is reduced accordingly.  What's VERY cool is that the dice spin before you hit them and the number that appears on the die when you destroy it is how many coins it drops.  Very nice addition.

Meanwhile, as you run around, there are dudes trying to kill/arrest you (you are a burglar, after all) - they do this simply by touching you.  You have three buttons to use in your defense.  The first is the fart button (no, it's not next to your colon).  Press this button and the fart slows down the enemy chasing you and sends him reeling for a moment.  Gross.  The second button is the attack button  (If you are playing as the dude, it's a head butt, if you are playing the chick, it's a hammer).  This is how you kill enemies and break open the dice.  The third button is a bomb.  You can drop bombs as you go and they wait a few seconds to explode.  This is an effective way to get rid of enemies without risk (except that you have to get away because your own bomb CAN kill you).  By the way, while all this is going on, a timer is counting down because you have to clear each level in a certain amount of time.  Leftover time upon completion adds to your bonus.

Another important tool is the radar at the bottom left of the screen that shows you where all the goodies and baddies are.  I refer to it often because the maze is many screens wide and tall.

There are temporary powerups that make you stronger and faster and give you goodies.  I'll let you discover them.

Overall, it's just a good old time running around and wreaking havoc.  You won't play another game too much like it.

And, congrats to Burglar X as it is immediately enshrined into the GOTD Hall of Fame for weird games

Game of the Day - UniWar S

 UniWar S (UniWars?) is an old school shooter that crosses Galaxian with Phoenix and throws in your little brother.

The first stage of UWS is pretty much a straight knock-off of Galaxian.  In stage 2, a mysterious dotted line appears below your ship (and remains unused) and the enemies behave like they do in the game Phoenix - appearing from nowhere and shaking, shimmying and dive-bombing their way into battle.

Then comes the 3rd stage.  The aliens are tougher to hit - they have a rotating shield you have to get by and it's the first appearance of "your little brother" (as I call it).  The invading ships drop little aliens down (paratroopers?) and they go below your ship, below the dotted line, and walk back and forth poking you with a spear-thing from beneath.


It's the constant poking from behind when you are trying to concentrate that reminds me of a little brother.  Although they look and act more like little devils (all alien and pitchforky).


So, as you are shooting the aliens in their ships above, you have to look out for the poking from below.  One spear and you are dead.  You never realize how little you look at your ship in games like Galaxian until this game shows up and makes you look above and below at all times.  If you are one of those folks that can pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, then you will excel at UWS.

The way to avoid the little hot pokers is to stay on the line part of the dotted line (as opposed to in-between) or wait 'til they poke and then scoot by quickly (they usually don't poke twice in a row).


If it weren't for this feature, UniWar S would just be another clone from the early 80s, but adding the little prickwads makes it a much more challenging and fun game.

There are only four levels before it repeats - but with a stronger attack force.  By the way, occasionally a King Ship comes by - if you blast it, you can get rid of the poke-dudes.

...I mean I love video games but.....

http://www.etsy.com/listing/91942153/mario-hand-painted-toilet-seat-nintendo

(Click here for all my posts on stuff to buy...)

Game of the Day - Aqua Jack

 Aqua Jack is a lot like Space Harrier - but in a boat on the water.  It's a 3rd person cross-hair shooter with bright, colorful graphics and action galore.

You actually have four buttons to use in Aqua Jack: shoot, jump, missile and thrust.  The thrust is to speed up when necessary to avoid certain enemies and the jump is useful since there are many mines floating around the water as you speed along.

The cross-hair is controlled with the joystick - it is not analog and therefore not a good use for a trackball.  In MAME there is an indication that there is a dial analog associated with the controls but it doesn't seem to be used (even the MAME notes say so).  The joystick is adequate, but not as smooth when whipping around as I would prefer.

No matter, though, Aqua Jack is breathtaking action from jump.  The graphics come flying at you in the form of boats, tanks, planes, choppers - and many of them are big, cool looking sprites.  In many games of this genre, the graphics can look pretty blocky as they come at you, but Aqua Jack does a good job of making everything look good as it starts small (far away) and then gets bigger (blast it, idiot!).

There's not a lot of complexity here, all that matters is how effectively they create the action and if it feels like you are in good control of your arsenal while you whiz around the sea, rivers and other waterways.  Sure enough, Aqua Jack does a good job at all of this and is worth checking out.

Game of the Day - Rohga: Armor Force

Rohga (and its Japanese sister "Wolf Fang") is a mech-themed, side-scrolling shooter with a lot of nice unique touches.

You start of by selecting your mech.  You can select  one of the pre-built mechs, or choose any combination of arms, legs and body to fight with.  The combos are cool and they do fight and behave differently.

There are three buttons working here: shoot, jump/jet pack and bomb/special weapon.  For each mech, (depending on your arms, body and legs) the main weapons, jump/fly style and bomb are different - adding a lot to the strategy.

As you play, more things come up.  There are power-ups for your weapon and your life force.  In fact, one of the cool touches is that by grabbing the little red flying dudes, you charge up your special weapon - they also start to fly as your wing men and fire when you do.  Another great addition is what happens when your mech's energy/life force runs out.  It ejects you.  How cool is that?  Then, you continue fighting as a much smaller dude, still with a jetpack, but with smaller weapons and no protection - so one hit and you're a goner.  Also, the wing men you have collected can follow you in this state and fly around you in formation to help the battle.

You can shoot in most directions, but some of the mechs can't shoot straight up.  So, since most of the stuff is airborne and most of your time is ground based, you shoot up at 45 degree angles a lot - to the left and the right.

The graphics are good, though not spectacular.  And the action is well balanced though sometimes chaotic.  There are lots of changes of scenery, which also keeps things interesting.

Load up and launch a mech, no doubt you'll enjoy it.

Game of the Day - Operation Wolf

 Operation Wolf is a first-person, cross-hair shooter with lots of action.  In fact, the word "Operation" is not a misnomer.  In this game you actually play thru stages (missions) to accomplish an overall goal of rescuing hostages.  Each mission has a specific goal, but mostly it's just shoot the bad dudes and not the good dudes (or chicks).

Like all games of this ilk, I use the trackball instead of a light gun.  The set-up I have does not have a light gun, but most games play very well (some even better) when you are whipping the trackball around.  And you don't have to squint your eye.

You have two buttons: gun and grenade.  The grenade will kill everything on the screen, so don't use it when there are civilians around.  Killing them = Bad.  There are medical nurses, idiot kids, wussy dudes and the ubiquitous bikini-clad girls running around screaming.  There is also some variation in the enemy soldiers as in later stages a guy wearing a bullet-proof vest shows up and you have to shoot him in the head to kill him fast (he grabs his face) - otherwise it takes a lot of ammo to bring him down.

There are also chickens, pigs, coconuts and other things that will give you power-ups when you shoot them.  Luckily, you don't actually kill the animals (that'd be sad), but some of them you have to pop several times for them to cough up a health drink, gun mag or grenade.  The best power up doesn't appear until the last couple of stages - it's a rapid-fire machine gun on a timer - blast away.

You don't even see the hostages until near the end.  When you do, you have to make sure you protect them which means they have to run until they reach the left edge of the screen... if they do that, they are safe until the next level.  Of course you get more points for saving more hostages.  On the next level, they come out of the right and have to board an airplane on the left (you know, to fly home).  Again, you have to protect them by shooting the baddies and not accidentally capping your own.

A lot of the screen is taken up on the right by mission info, but in this case, I like it.  It shows your life force, the number of enemies BY TYPE you need to kill to finish the mission, your number of gun magazines and number of grenades.  The enemies by type is important in deciding when to use your grenades.

One whole operation is just six missions.  But if you finish, you start again and it is WAY harder.  I got smeared on the first mission without a chance when I played it the second time around.

It's good blasting fun, especially with a trackball, but a joystick works also.

Game of the Day - Funky Fish

It'd been several days of GOTD without an old school game - I was having withdrawals.  So I went Funky Fish, a weird and fun old school horizontal shooter.

Funky Fish has the primitive graphics you'd expect from 1981.  They take the form of a big, goofy looking fish that shoots out bubbles (in the first few levels) at alien life forms that are attacking (you die if they touch you).  If you hit one of the enemies, it turns into fruit (of course) and then you have to go eat it.  If you don't eat the fruit, it floats to the bottom of the water and is resurrected in its alien form and attacks you again.  You have to be careful to not be close to it (trying to eat it) when it changes back.  By the way, the fruit on the first two levels are cherries and strawberries (sound familiar?).

In subsequent levels, as time goes by, seahorses and other creatures float up from the bottom and are lethal - so they add to the things you need to avoid.

There is a lot of info at the top to help.  There is a radar that shows where the "Big" aliens are.  The big aliens each shoot out the smaller aliens that attack.  When you have killed a certain number from one of the big aliens, it dies and turns into fuel for you to gas up your fish.  The faster you get to it, the more fuel you get (and bonus).  You need fuel to continue fighting or eventually it'll run out and you'll croak.  There is also a number that shows up every time you kill a small enemy - that number represents how many more of that type of enemy you have to kill before that particular big boss dies.  It sounds a little confusing, but it'll be obvious when you play.

To recap:  Big aliens launch little aliens.  Kill the required number of little aliens AND eat the fruit they turn into and the big alien dies.  Kill all the big aliens on a level to advance.  Get fuel after each big alien dies.

Another change in future levels is that instead of shooting out bubbles to kill you enemies, you use your tongue (insert joke here).  Also, as is traditional, things get busier and harder.

The game is fun mostly because it's quick and twitchy.  You use the joystick to go anywhere, turning back and forth quickly.  There's not a shot limit, and the controls react quickly so there isn't any frustration shooting like in some old school games.  The little aliens twitch and jump and jitter and that makes it hard to shoot them and hard to eat them when they fruit out.

They just don't make whacked-out stuff like this anymore.

Game of the Day - Sorcer Striker

Sorcer Striker is a vertical shooter that is a visual feast.  Generally, when I'm playing a game to make it a GOTD, I take 5-10 snapshots to use in my post.  With Sorcer Striker, I used 59 snapshots (screen grabs).  The nine of them I selected to use below give you some idea of the variety and fun factor of the graphics in the game.

Sorcer Striker is the first in a nice trinity of games that culminates in Dimahoo (a previous GOTD).  It is not nearly as complex in the control scheme as its grandson, but Sorcer Striker is not short on good old blast-'em-up fun.  In addition to the redonkulous graphics, the action has the perfect blend of frenetic and manageable.  There is always crap to shoot and dodge, yet you never feel like its so absurd that you don't stand a chance.

One of the interesting things about the graphics is that they get much better as the game goes on.  The first level is nice, but nothing great.  It isn't until you get to the later levels that the variety and detail increases.  While that's great for gameplay and rewarding the player, if I was making an arcade game I'd want to crack out my best stuff early to make sure players stuck it out.

There are only two buttons, fire and bomb.  And the bomb is finite and directional - it does NOT destroy everything on the screen, so make sure to use it well.  Of course there are lots of power-ups for the weapons and the bombs.  A little bag of goodies with a "P" on it floats around for you to shoot.  Then, it coughs up the goods.

Also, when you lose your last ship and choose to continue, a little fairy shows up with the word "Special" - she drops all kinds of swag on you and you quickly get re-powered-up.  It is an unabashed effort to get you to spend more quarters as she appears as soon as you lose your last ship - just waiting for you to continue to give you the goods.