Contra (1988)

When games hit the arcade, players are only given a handful of lives with each quarter they put in a machine. To make up for this meager amount of lives, the games themselves get progressively harder and faster, usually pitting the player against a screen full of enemies and limited resources to fight them. While this can be fairly frustrating, the point is to make a quick turnover of players; they will keep pumping in quarters until either they are satisfied with their score or they're done banging against the console and leave.

Ah, look! Another satisfied gamer!

Contra was an example of one of these arcade games that made it over to the Nintendo Entertainment System but while making a few aesthetic changes to accommodate the smaller memory and hardware, was still just as challenging. Is it as bad as Ninja Gaiden? Short answer: No. Long answer: Yes but knowing the infamous Konami Code makes it less so.

Get ready to shoot any and everything that moves!

You start out with four lives and a rifle that will practically require the use of a turbo button if you're to survive. The initial platforming is simple enough, running from left to right while shooting everything. If you can make it to the first base, however, the game takes a perspective from behind as you shoot down a hallway in an attempt at reaching the boss battle at the end, again taking the side-scrolling perspective again. After this stage you then go on to a vertical traveling stage. Most of these stages would be very difficult if not for the ability to point your gun in seven different directions.

Nobody is safe while I can shoot in every direction!

While these concepts were somewhat new and original to the NES, what made the game so popular especially in the arcades was the two player co-op. The game was incredibly difficult with the number of randomly appearing enemies so having additional help was sublime. But another player wasn't the only assistance available; what also became essential in surviving Contra especially when tackling the game alone were twelve buttons.

The Konami Code, otherwise known as the Contra Code, was one of the earlier instances where a code was intentionally put in the game in order to make the gameplay easier. In this instance, putting in the Konami Code at the title screen would entitle you to thirty lives at the start of the game and every time you continued after losing all of them. In my opinion this was almost necessary in order to survive long enough to reach a continue point, a feet that usually took me eight lives just to reach the first base.

While many of the original NES games could easily put me on the edge of sanity, Contra just happens to be one of the few that really push that line. It has one of the harder difficulties where one hit will kill you, an interesting reality in this game considering the amount of bullets you inevitably send and alien foes. That said, Contra does provide the means to beat it; once I figured out the enemy patterns and utilize the code and power ups, I was able to start chug through the game and manage to have some fun along the way.


Final Judgment: 7/10

Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)

A long time ago, the creators of Super Mario Bros. created a sequel intended to be more of a rigorous obstacle course than the simple platformer the original was. This game was so hard, that the Japan didn't think it would catch on in the United States. So instead they took an existing game (Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic) and refurbished it. Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988) was a wonderful little gem that, other than having Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad, looked and played almost NOTHING like a Mario game. You picked up objects to kill things and if you jumped on them you could actually ride on top of them. It was the kind of madness that no one was prepared for and yet left it's mark on the franchise. So much so that Japan saw their own release of the American SMB 2 and incorporated some of the characters to the Mario Universe.

Where would we be without you shy guy?

After the continued success of the Super Mario games, a third one was in the works but the developers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka decided to add even more changes like how SMB 2 though not as drastic. Like being revealed from behind a grand red curtained stage, Super Mario Bros. 3 brought more diverse and creative changes, many of which have been used continually throughout the Mario franchise. This also happens to be one of the games that defined and started my video gaming career and a childhood relic. So much so that me and my sister picked it up two years ago after dusting off our old NES and kept at it for a straight two hours (one of the few things I know that can keep her attention for that long).

And this grand reshowing of my childhood begins!

What the game did for platform games was revolutionary. Long past were the days of moving through each level mindlessly; now you had this thing called and "overworld." You moved your guy to where ever you wanted to go. If you look to the right, that means you could actually skip level 3 and 4. The catch is skipping certain levels can cut off access to particular points of interest i.e. the mushroom hut which could bestow a power up. Also new to the games were special mini games to help gain extra lives or new power ups and the idea of mini bosses inside the castles and a boss for each world that you could only get to by reaching the castle. Helping the king out at the castle gave you special gift from Princess Peach herself.

Speaking of power ups, you now had something new to Super Mario called an "inventory." With it, you could keep power ups that you receive as gifts and use them before entering a level. These power ups were also expanded from the simple mushroom and fire flower though at the cost of reason. You now had super leaf power ups that gave Mario a raccoon tail and matching ears on his hat; before you question why, also consider that this power up can help you temporarily fly.

Remember in the first Mario where his movements were not as crisp and he had this tendency to stumble a bit forward? Well now that has a real reason to be in the game; if you hold the B button and run, you'll start charging the power bar (seen at the bottom of the screen) and, once filled, can leap farther distances. With the super leaf, you can actually engage in momentary flight. The tanopki suit (or as I used to call it the teddy bear costume), as an added bonus, can make you an invincible stone statue temporarily to let certain enemies pass by. While these make absolutely no sense to anyone, I'm actually pleased that none is completely lost with the hammer power up which lets you dish out pain like a hammer brother. Not than anything was really meant to have any rationality in the Super Mario games but I digress.

These added elements added new elements to the two player gameplay: cooperation and competition. Both players fought for whoever could make it to the end of the world first and could even fight head to head over end level rewards a la the original Mario Bros (1983) style.

Nothing says "co-op" like beating the snot out of each other!

What I found in playing the game recently was that actual cooperation was necessary. Example: A friend and I were playing through with me spearheading the game with my more lengthy experience (playing on the old NES and on the GBA port help a little bit). When I stumbled on a level that I was ill-equipped for, I would skip it and allow my friend to try with a power up he had in his inventory and, later on, he would sacrifice one of his lives so that I would rush in and try to beat a level that I had a power up for. The game changed the dynamic from, "How much farther can I get than you?" to, "How far can WE go working as a unit?"

The levels themselves were always a treat as well. No longer were you confined simple land, cave, or sea levels. Locations were now diverse plains with new and different enemies and difficult challenges along the way. One world is full of levels where everything except you is over sized requiring you to use the full height of your jumps to accomplish the same tasks. Some of my least favorite levels involve the camera moving to the left, forcing you to keep moving or get smashed in between objects and the left side of the screen. This was even worse with the introduction of the giant, man eating fish that incessantly tried to eat you.

Very cool level

Not so much.

I could drool on for hours about how SMB 3 was so AMAZING and what it did for NES games and the platforming genre and the gameplay of Mario games to come and etc. The game was built on an already solid foundation and continued to set the bar higher for gaming. Typical running and jumping wasn't good enough anymore and this game defined what conventional platforming was all about from now on. If you've never played, stop what your doing and play this beauty online. If you have, stop what you're doing anyway and relive this classic. NOW!


Final Judgment: 9/10

Galaga (1981)

I'll go ahead and say it: Galaga is a rip off of Space Invaders. It's the same objective, the same control system, etc. The real concern is whether that matters.

Oh, cool colors and no barriers! Look out guys! We've got a badass over here!!

The short answer is a resentful and factual no. Galaga is actually an improved version of Galaxian (1979) who is the real ripoff of Space Invaders. However, even Galaxian brought a new concept or two. Yes, it's the same formula of shoot the all the aliens in your ship limited to left and right movements. This continues until your either bored or you run out of your allotted three lives.
Awesome.

But what Galaga does different was honestly revolutionary. Namco, who saw the prowess of Space Invaders, had to bring something new to the table. With Galaxian and Galaga, they added something that had not been in many games at the time: COLOR. And not just overlays that gave the illusion of color, we're talking individual colors that would be displayed for the ship, each enemy faction, even the score counter. These games also added theme music for when no one was playing, much more engaging and exciting music for when you shot the bugs out of space with different and cooler sounds. This was immediately a reason for people to be attracted to these games.

Proven fact: flashing lights and music will attract/entrance 75% of the world population.

The Gala-games also had this new concept of not only the ships shooting at you (albeit in a fixed formation that wasn't closing in on you) but also breaking formation to try to either shoot you back or at the very least take you down with them in a suicide bombing run. It was this sort of madness that takes by surprise and keeps them more on their toes; this kept them more engaged than, say, ships with mechanically predictable movement slowly moving down. The random attacks from Galaga and Galaxian was a bit more interesting than the slow, imminent doom of Space Invaders.

On top of that, Galaga would improve on Galaxian simply because it could and wanted to. Gameplay was sped up by giving you the opportunity of shooting, *gasp*, two projectiles onscreen and the ships all moved a bit faster. Enemies would actually do a circle pattern upon reaching the bottom of the screen when on a fire run as a way to try and entrap you. There were more diverse enemies like the ones that would split into three smaller guys when destroyed or take two shots to destroy and come in close to try to catch your ship in a sort of tractor beam. The game kept track of the shots fired and how many were just you going gun crazy and how many you actually nailed someone. They even added this new thing called a "Bonus Round" where all you do is fire like crazy at enemies without consequence but for raking up some points. These changes were groundbreaking for the time and made the game fun because, again, it was more interesting to be surprised and preoccupied.

Of special note is a fairly intriguing concept brought thanks to Galaga involved the tractor beam enemies. If you got caught in their beam, they would steal you ship and hold it as collateral as you went to fetch another one. If you could manage to destroy the thief without harming the hostage ship, the other ship would combine with yours and allow you to have twice the firepower as well as let you take a free hit. Memory isn't one of my strong suits but I don't recall very many games that reward you for achieving payback on an enemy save for the Burnout games for example. In fact, it's actually a legitimate strategy to let yourself get captured specifically for the extra ship.

"When a Maaaan loves a Womaan..!!"

As technology improves and cool breakthrough games come, there are sure to be a couple of freeloaders and copycats. However, sometimes other people have improvements that are always invited and encouraged; I'll gladly forgive a title for being a knockoff if it can wow me in a way that the other one couldn't.


Final Judgment: 8/10

Pac-Man (1980)

An interesting thing that I noticed is that of all the games I've reviewed already, Adventure and this game, Pac-Man, are the only two that don't involve you shooting the hell out of people/aliens/tanks/missiles. I've also noticed that everything else about Pac-Man doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

You tell me about one Pac-Man interpretation, and I'll show you ten more.

I'm not sure where to begin with Pac-Man. You're a yellow ball running around munching on smaller yellow balls or various fruits while evading multicolored ghosts. Unless you can get to the bigger yellow balls that apparently lets you eat the ghosts, these ghosts don't just pass through and leave you sitting on the ground covered in ectoplasm. You actually become possessed and eat yourself alive. Or something to that tune.

I was not prepared for this anarchy!

Why is this game fun? Because we like being the mice running around in the maze looking for the cheese? If you ask B.F. Skinner we are. We like being rewarded (getting a high score, reaching the kill screen, etc.) for certain actions (playing the game) especially if our reward is given in random increments (or just not guaranteed unless we try again). Dying in Pac-Man is easy because there's only one way to combat the enemy; problem is it's limited to four times a round, for a short window of time, and only practical in situations when you're cornered or need a way across the maze. On top of that, eating an enemy doesn't even put them out of the game. They just return to their starting box and come right back out for revenge. That makes evading enemies that much more necessary and that requires you being able to watch the movements of four enemies simultaneously including when they're close to using the warp tunnel that can put them in real close, real fast.

Run, little dude! That's all you can do! Run!

Pac-Man has such a simple yet original concept in how the only goal is to collect all the dots but the phantasmic tormentors are, for all intents and purposes, invincible; this game becomes much more complicated and requires more coordination and strategy than initially thought because of this. It's for this reason that Pac-Man belongs in the pantheon of classic games.

That and reading into it too much is just fun as hell.

Final Judgment: 7/10

Donkey Kong (1981)

As I'm starting to notice about this list of videos games I "have" to play, there happen to be several games that I used to play as a kid that happened to be arcade/console classics. Donkey Kong is no exception. Not only is it the origin of two of Nintendo's most memorable characters, it's also more proof that arcade games were unforgiving as hell.

All that lies at the top is disappointment every time

This also goes to show evidence of how porting games can change gameplay entirely. In my day, Donkey Kong on the Game Boy was actually a combination of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) as well as original puzzles of its own. You could back flip onto your hands and then flip back to your feet, giving you a farther jump, or stay in standing on your hands to bounce certain objects, pick up and throw certain objects at enemies, and you could throw you hammer up in the air in order to resume use if caught again.

Though the resemblance is uncanny.

You'd think that those few changes wouldn't change the gameplay of the original seeing how even in the first few levels you can only use half of those abilities. You'd also be dead wrong. Tossing a hammer up to the next level was a Godsend in the Game Boy port because of how small the level was but the first time I tried playing I actually lost a guy trying to do just that. When the barrels would be two deep, being able to flip over them would have been awesome and the bouncing objects in the second level wouldn't need the amount of precision to avoid them if you could bounce them in a headstand instead. But no. Donkey Kong makes me work for every pixel leading to him.

He looked a lot smaller from down there...and all I brought was this hammer.

This really is one of the hardest games I've played though honestly is there a classic arcade game that isn't? Developers had to make sure people kept those machines full of quarters by pushing the gamer's limits and patience. Is Donkey Kong impossible without the additions in the Game Boy port? No but it tests the player in recognizing patterns and being able to make quick judgements such as doubling back or attempting to jump two consecutive barrels. The game is fun in trying to get a bit farther; it just loses appeal with me because I'm used the same challenge but with more options in approaching them.


Final Judgment: 6/10

Space Invaders (1978)

Nothing screams video game nostalgia like Space Invaders. My dad would tell me stories about this one place where you would sit down and play the game through a glass screen in the table (which made me wish all arcade games could be like that). When my dad taught me about the shoot through the barriers for cover tactic, I felt like I had been imparted the most practical wisdom a man could ever give his son. I still have a Game Boy adaptation (with new music, stage introduced enemies, boss fights, and power ups dropped randomly from the bonus UFOs), a copy for the computer with fancy three dimensional graphics, and a PSP version released for the 30th anniversary but with a more trippy, unpredictable gameplay and cool techno music. What makes Space Invaders so durable through the years is because of its simplicity.

Some things never change.

The concept is simple: shoot enemies that usually follow a certain pattern (to the left, down a row, to the right) and sometimes UFOs that provide a bonus. The more you put away, the faster they get. They reach the bottom, your dead. They hit you without a shield, your dead. Lead your shots so you can guarantee a perfect hit.

Okay. I'd buy that.

No overall story. Hardware was custom made for what was at the time unique enemy movement despite being painfully predictable. Yet this game is an arcade classic because literally anyone can pick it up and play. It's straightforward and entertaining to see how many levels you can progress. Sometimes you just can't beat a tried and true system.


Final Judgment: 8/10