The official title is Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters and tells the story of Pit who is off on mission of training. To keep the Three Sacred Treasues safe in case Angel Land was attacked while Pit was away, Palutena sealed them and sent one to each of the Fortress Guardians. She knew that once anyone got their hands on the Three Sacred Treasues, they would not give them up without a fight. After Pit’s mission of training was complete, and he had gained the ability to use the Three Sacred Treasures, the job to defend Angel Land from the Orcos would be his.

Even though this came at on the original black and white Gameboy the graphics are great, near N.E.S. quality. Except for the plain backgrounds the game is well drawn. Pit is crisp and clear as are the enemies and the platforms he must use as he makes his way to the top of each level.

The controls mimic his original adventure perfectly; you move around with the control pad, press the A button to jump, the B button to shoot enemies and rapidly pressing the A button allows Pit to hover. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The music, again, mimics the originals very well despite being on the Gameboy. The tunes are quite catchy and really bring the game to completion. The sound effects on the other hand are not handled as well thanks to the Gameboy’s hardware. After several hours of play you will start to cringe everytime Pit dies.

I’m sorry, but I really just loved the music in this game. Despite the poor quality from the gameboy, the music is very catchy and fits the game perfectly. It sounds similar to the music from the original Kid Icarus (which also had excellent music incidentally), so if you liked that music, you’ll like the music in this game.

Ok lets cover some of the improvements. If you read my review for the original you might remember one of my main issues with it, the dying if you miss a platform and fall below the screen. Thankfully the sequel takes it’s que from Metroid and now allows the game to scroll down when you fall below the screen. Yes! Also the passwords have been eradicated in favor of a battery save! These are two very welcome changes!

My biggest complaint with this game is that there really isn’t any replay value. Unlike the original, which allowed you to play the game through again with new powers once it was completed, this game offers little after completion. After completing it you have very little incentive to play it through again.

My minor gripes aside this is a really great game for the Gameboy. Although I would like to see a GameCube or GBA update soon I did have a lot of fun with this older sequel and I am sure you will too!

Reviewed by GameGuru

Cheats & Strategy

Change Market Prices:
Enter the Black Market, where everything is very expensive. Press Down repeatedly, Left, B, A. The prices may change lower or higher.

Key of Pautena:
At the end of all the levels, use the hammer on the walls until you find the Key of Pautena. All the doors that you entered will be open again.

The story is simple, although a bit more complex than, say, Super Dodge Ball. Actually, it goes like this: Alex and Ryan are two cool young fighters who go to Cross Town High. “SLICK” kidnaps Ryan’s girlfriend Cyndi and is holding her hostage at River City High on the other side of town. SLICK leaves his henchmen all over town to stop you from getting her back. Perhaps this letter from the in-game intro will help you feel the depth of SLICK’s evil:

“I hold your city captive &
RYAN’s girlfriend hostage.
With my gangs of students &
evil bosses, nobody can stop
me now. Meet my demands - or
else!… P.S. Alex & Ryan if
you interfere, you’ll be in
for the fight of your lives!
… SLICK”

Next we’ll talk about graphics. River City Ransom (RCR) has graphics that look exactly the same as other Technos classics, such as Super Dodge Ball, Nintendo World Cup, and Crash ‘n’ the Boys Street Challenge. Large heads, squat arms and legs, and big hair. The colors are perfectly used, and the backgrounds are also well done. When hit with a trash can, a gang member will crouch and his mouth will hang open. It’s great. The stores look great, too.

The sound is good. The music is always just right for the particular situation. There is only one real boss theme, but it sets the mood terrificly. Also, there are different little songs for all the stores you go into.

The gameplay of RCR is what makes it one of my favorite games of all time. You start out with the ability to punch, kick, and jump. You can pick up many items, including trashcans, tires, and lead pipes. It’s just so fun to beat someone three times with a trashcan, and throw it at him for the kill. And what best is that there is no cheap “Final Fight”-esque breaking of weapons. You can carry that trashcan over your head for the entire game if it suits you. Another great factor is money. When you kill an enemy in RCR, it will shout a death cry (such as “BARF!!!”, or “MOMMY!”) and his body will flash and turn into a bouncing coin. Your money is measured in dollars and cents, and
you can spend it at one of many malls throughout your open-ended journey. You can buy sushi, baked goods, toys, boots, medicine, and much more. In fact, technique books, which are generally a more expensive item, allow you to do more than just regular kicking, punching, and throwing. Finally, the two player mode is great fun, too. (Try throwing your teammate at the enemy! HA!)

I didn’t buy the game until I saw it years after I saw it in Nintendo Power, and it is a pretty hard game to find today. Overall, River City Ransom is my second favorite game of all time. What other game can you see a video game character’s butt while he takes a shower? It’s just as good as it gets.

Reviewed by SteamBeaver

Cheats & Strategy

Rename Alex and Ryan:
Press A + B + Select at the one/two player selection screen to rename Alex and Ryan to the name of your choice.

Merlin’s Mystery Shop:
Stand under the fourth light from the left side in the Armstrong Thru-Way Tunnel. Press UP to find Merlin’s Mystery Shop, which sells several powerful but expensive items.

From the story in the manual: “In a strange and magical forest full of danger and delight, where everything is good to eat and jolly round dinosaurs bounce and play in peace, lived two such creatures named Bub and Bob.” I believe that this magical forest was called Bubble Land. Two of Bub and Bob’s friends are kidnapped, and they must travel through the forest (which is, strangely, a vertical forest of rooms of multi-colored blocks) and use their bubble-blowing abilities to save them. Yeah, the story is weak. The intro to the game doesn’t make up for the weakness of the manual, either: “Now it is the beginning of a fantastic story! Let us make a journey to the cave of monsters! Good luck!” In fact, all the game does is disagree with the supposed setting of the game. However, I’m sure no one played Bubble Bobble for the story. I certainly didn’t.

The biggest asset of Bubble Bobble is the gameplay. The action takes place on one screen and you control a dinosaur who shoots bubbles from his mouth. The enemies are always visible right from the start, and your goal is to capture your foes inside the bubbles, which you then pop, killing the enemies. It sounds good because it is good. To top that, the enemies will then turn into food. There are a whole slew of bonus items that you can pick up, including shoes that make you run fast, candy that makes your bubbles better, magic books that destroy everything on the screen, and potions that throw you into a cookie-collecting bonus round. After finishing a round of enemies, a bubble surrounds you and takes you down to the next screen. This goes on for many levels, totaling in at 226 if you play both worlds. This is gameplay that a little kid could really love, as well as an adult. Playing two players makes the game even more fun because you are always chasing after the food and bonus items. This is probably one of the best two-player games available on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The graphics of Bubble Bobble are remarkably good when you consider how early it was released on the NES. It had a black background, so there was no need for a black border around your character at all times. Because of this, the characters are small and detailed, as opposed the the blocky, strange characters of Bubble Bobble 2. The rewards you get for beating enemies are an array of fruit, vegetables, and other food items, all of which are nicely detailed. Also, I always liked the face that the characters made whenever they stepped into the fire.

The sound of Bubble Bobble is definitely an issue. There are those that would say that the music in the game would justify turning the volume down entirely, but these are most likely our parents who had to listen to the same twenty-five seconds of music, over and over. Frankly, I love the song. It’s going on in my head right now, and it probably won’t stop until I go to bed. But yeah, there’s only one song. And it never stops, it just loops, and it is wonderful. The sound effects are adequate as well. I particularly recall the sound of the water bubble sliding you down the screen, or the sound of the lightning bubble cracking a bolt through the enemies.

When it comes to replay value, this game has got everything going for it. The two player mode is very addictive, and there always seem to be more of those magically appearing bonus items to grab. (Remember the first time you got the book?!) In fact, the two player mode is especially great because you must beat the final boss using two players in order to get the real ending.

Although I have gotten rid of some of my older systems in an attempt to clear out space in my closet, I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of my top-loading Nintendo Entertainment System. I’ve kept the twenty or so games that I’d feel wrong in selling, and the one that sticks out of the top of the system most of the time is this game, my favorite game of all time. I really recommend that you get out your old system, hook it up in your living room, find a copy of this game, grab a friend, and enjoy.

Reviewed by SteamBeaver

Cheats & Strategy

Level Select:
Enter DDFFI as a password, and select the one player continue round option. Press A or B to select a new starting level from 1 to 112.

99 Lives:
Enter BACCF as a password.

Expert Mode:
Enter BBDAD as a password. A sound will confirm correct code entry. The monsters in each level will change and make the game slightly more difficult.

Super Bubble Bobble Graphics:
Enter HCICD as a password.

You play as this blonde haired kid that looks like the average teenage boy hero that was in other titles. He wears a metal suit that protects absolutely nothing, runs funny, and is equipped with lots of weapons that most seem basically useless and don’t do what they are supposed to do.

There aren’t as many weapons in this game as in other run and gun games, but that is okay because run and gun games usually have too many weapons anyway. Most weapons are found in trees and to get them you by touching them. You can have up to two weapons at a time and can switch them at any time. Every time you get a weapon, it will replace the weapon you aren’t using.

Your health is a simple system. You start out with three full shields and every time you get hit, you will loose half of a shield every time you get hit. To regain and gain more shields, you need to get them out of crystals out of the trees. If you find one of these crystals sitting in a tree, you can shoot them. A few blue balls will come out that will restore your shields, and a shield will also come out but is only useful if your current health is already full. If you get one of these when your health is full you will get a full new shield.

Graphics
The graphics are probably the best part of this game. They are only average for the Super Nintendo though. The character is alright and so is everything else in the game. The walking and running of characters is pretty good, and there are lots of things in the background moving around that make the game a lot better. A bad thing about the graphics is when you run out of health, you start to catch on fire for some reason. Sounds like something straight out of The Simpsons. Not too bad for an old game.

Sound
Meh. The sound isn’t that great. The background music is quite plain, and the sound effects aren’t that great either. The guns firing don’t sound that good and they are the highlights.

Game Play
The controls are fairly good except for that when you duck it is basically useless because you don’t duck that much. Most of the guns in your arsenal don’t work very well and only make the game a lot harder. There isn’t much replay value in this game either. The game gets very aggravating soon after you start playing because of the bad weapons and controls.

Overall
I think that this could have been a great game, but the makers just didn’t spend the time on it to get the major flaws out of the game play, graphics, and sound.

Reviewed by eolsen

Cheats & Strategy

Cheat Mode:
Hold UP + X + B + R + START at the title screen until the screen fades. You now have unlimited energy. Press START + SELECT during the game to jump to the next level.

Streets of Rage is great fun going solo but add a friend and it is a whole different game. Not only can two players handle the numerous enemy attackers more effectively, but you can work together and do some really great combo moves using both players if your timing is correct. Speaking of moves, Sega originally advertised the game as having dozens of moves that the player can learn to pull off, but Streets of Rage is really a lot simpler than they made it sound. If you find the situation is becoming hairy then you can use a Special Attack where a police car pulls up behind you and launches missiles at your enemies.

Graphic wise, Streets of Rage is very “neon” looking. If I didn’t know better I would swear that Joel Schumacher directed this game! The characters are smaller than those in Final Fight but are well drawn for a Genesis game and there is no slowdown even when the screen gets filled with enemies. Unless you hate “neon” then you shouldn’t hate the graphics at all!

A really big surprise is the music, it is actually good. Even thought the Genesis probably had the worst sound chip in the 16-bit era Yuzo Koshiro somehow was able to create some absolutely brilliant tracks for the game. For those of you who don’t know, Yuzo Koshiro also did music for Y’s, Actraiser and Shenmue. If you are a fan of his you will want this game for your collection.

Like any game in the genre though you will find that Streets of Rage will become repetitive as you progress in the game. I also found the difficulty wasn’t balanced correctly as you will soar through the level only to find your ass being handed to you repeatedly during boss encounters. Save those Special Attacks for bosses!

Overall Streets of Rage is a very good side scrolling fighter and holds it’s own against the arcade boys like Double Dragon and Final Fight. And if that isn’t enough goodness for you then check out it’s two sequels!

Reviewed by Game Guru

Cheats & Strategy

Extra Lives:
Press Left, Left, B, B, B, C, C, C, START at the title screen.

Final Boss Duel:
When you get to the final boss playing 2-player mode, have one player choose ”yes” and the other choose ”no”. You will be forced to duel against each other.

Level And Lives Select:
Go to the main menu. Hold down (A) + (B) + (C) + RIGHT on controller 2 while selecting Options on controller 1 (best if done with two people). You can now select how many lives you start with and which stage to start on.

One thing that is kind of upsetting is that the cool blue one is the PAL version and the pink one is the NTSC version. You might ask “What does PAL and NTSC have to do with a portable system?” Well you can hook these up to your TV and pay it like a regular N.E.S. The cartridges don’t actually go into the system itself, you plug them into an adapter and plug the adapter into the unit.

Why do we in the U.S. always get shat on when it comes to the really cool stuff. I wish we could just go down to the local Best Buy and buy some of this unlicensed stuff. Oh well, on to Ebay again!

One interesting aspect about the system is that many of the games can be played in both English and Japanese depending on how you have the region settings set for your unit. Unfortunately some of the games only have a Japanese aspect and I will explain why later on in the review.

One feature that sets the Neo Geo Pocket Color apart from the Game Boy Color is it’s minimal PDA applications. It has a calendar, alarm clock and even a little horoscope program. Granted none of these will replace even the cheapest of PDAs but it is a nice little added bonus.

Another nice feature which shows that SNK cares about it’s gamers is that it has a built-in battery back-up for save games to. How does this benefit gamers since the battery back-up could just as easily been put in each individual game? Well, not only does it keep the cartridge prices down but say you were 3/4 into Metal Slug and you lost the game. You run to the store and buy another one and instead of having to play it all over again it used the save game from the unit itself. Nice. Think of it like a mini X-Box in that the unit itself stores the saves, not on the game itself or a save card.

For the importers out there you may be happy to know that there isn’t a territorial lockout on the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Now you can play all the latest and greatest Anime inspired games without having to modify your system!

Remember earlier when we were talking about how some of the games could be played in English and Japanese but most are Japanese only now and I said I would explain later. Well, SNK close it’s U.S. door and no longer shipped Neo Geo Pocket Color to these shores in 2000. But select Electronic Boutiques are now selling special Neo Geo Pocket Color bundles. The bundles include the console and six games for around $80 dollars or a bundle of four games for around $40 dollars. This is great for gamers (well except the gamers who just spent $200 for a unit on eBay) and hopefully will see the Neo Geo Pocket Color dipping into the Game Boy Advances profits.

The one thing going against it at it’s launch was that it was priced at $300. This was more than any of the consoles at the time (well not the Neo Geo or 3DO) and one of the main factors of why the system didn’t succeed. Even after a price drop to $199 they still couldn’t get gamers interested in the unit. The TurboExpress and it’s big brother, the TurboGrafx-16, both dropped out of sight by the end of 1993.

This is really sad as there were lots of great games that you could play on it. The TurboGrafx-16 had some of the best action and shooters around and they held up remarkably well on the small screen. I do recommend picking up some rechargeable batteries as this unit sucks them dry in about 3 hours.

This system is highly recommended to anyone who owned the TurboGrafx-16 since they don’t have to purchase any more games. It is a solid unit and what better way to pass the time on those long car trips than playing some Neutopia or Bonk?

One of the best aspects of the Wonderswan Color is it’s 13 buttons which really immerses you in the games. You have the standard A and B buttons and instead of a direction pad you have 4 buttons labeled X1, X2, X3 and X4. They function just like a directional pad so you won’t be missing it. Here is where it really gets interesting. Right above the X buttons you will see the Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4 buttons which serve to revolutionize the console. Instead of games only being played in the wide screen Game Boy Advance style you can rotate the unit 45 degrees and play certain games this way. It’s great for overhead shooters and bowling games amongst many others. This is a feature more systems should have. The remaining buttons are the power, start and sound buttons. That’s right, there isn’t a volume knob on the unit. The system has 4 pre-set sound levels and you toggle through them with the sound button.

You don’t have to be stuck with just the option of one color of unit as there are many different ones to choose from. Some of the standard colors are Crystal Orange, Crystal Blue and Crystal Black that have a see through casing. In addition, there is Pearl Blue and Pearl Pink which are non-transparent and of course several limited edition casings such as Gundam and Final Fantasy.

This is a great system and one that should have been released in the U.S. There is talk about possibly bringing it back to life with releases in other countries but it is just rumors now. Best thing to do is check out eBay or your favorite import sites.

The unit had a 3-inch LCD screen and had a higher resolution than any of the other handhelds at the time. The unit was also backlit like the Game Gear before it. Unlike passive matrix LCDs that were used for the Game Boy and Game Gear, the Nomad screen utilized an active matric LCD that was very sharp and did not suffer from blurring in fast action games. Although this LCD provided excellent visual quality, it contributed to its short battery life. The batteries only lasted three to five hours, but a rechargeable battery pack and AC Unit was availible.

Some of the really nice features of this handheld were it’s ability to hook up to a television and it’s joystick port for two player games. Even though it is hard for two people to see the screen at the same time it is nice for those backseat playing sessions on long drives.

This is one great portable system and I believe is just second to the Game Boy Advance. Although being able to play Herzog Zwei and Shining in the Darkness on the road has really pushes this system up in the rankings in