Games

Duck Hunt (NES) Review

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Duck Hunt

Funnily enough, out of the black box light gun games for the NES, I had (and still have, boxed on the shelf!) Wild Gunman and Hogan’s Alley, but never owned Duck Hunt. I did however play it around a friends a few times, so I was at least a bit familiar with it growing up. Still, on the topic of Smash Ultimate (as this marathon is!) I was more thrilled for the Wild Gunman and Hogan’s Alley references in Duck Hunt Duo’s moveset than the duo themselves when they were revealed for Smash 4. Anyway, it just wouldn’t make sense to review anything other than Duck Hunt for Duck Hunt Duo’s day in the countdown, so… let’s do it!

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Street Fighter II / Champion Edition / Turbo (SNES) Review

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Street Fighter II

I was tempted to save my Street Fighter V review for this Smash Ultimate countdown, but it just didn’t feel right… When talking about Street Fighter as an overall series, you just have to talk about SFII. Hell, look at most of the Smash references, it’s mostly SFII by design, with a few SFIV moves thrown in. So let’s take a look at one of the most important and influential computer games of all time and its first two follow ups (I’ll save the Super Street Fighter IIs until later…)

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Final Fantasy VII (PS1) Review

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Final Fantasy VII

I have a confession to make: I’m David Hogan and I don’t like turn-based RPGs. It’s not that I look down on those who do or anything stupid, but it’s just not my thing, I find it tedious, especially the older ones where you have to grind and level up and face endless random encounters. So why (beyond this being the Smash Ultimate marathon) am I reviewing Final Fantasy VII? Well, I played through it from start to finish in 1997. Why? Well… mostly peer pressure (EVERYONE at school was playing it…) but the story, setting and soundtrack had me completely hooked. How does it hold up today? Well, it’s funny you asked…

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Super Castlevania IV (SNES) Review

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Super Castlevania IV

I was excited when Simon and Ritcher Belmont were announced for Smash Ultimate, not just because I’ve wanted Simon in ever since Mega Man appeared as a NES-era 3rd party rep in the last game, but also it meant I got to cover a Castlevania game on this blog! I mean, I was going to eventually anyway, obviously, but this is a nice excuse to jump straight to the favourite one that I’ve played: Super Castlevania IV. Let’s take a look, and kick off the actual game review part of the Smash Ultimate countdown!

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Spider-Man (PS4) Review

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Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a lot of people’s dream game, allowing you to properly feel like your playing as the titular hero, swinging across New York, helping innocent people with small crimes while trying to tackle bigger plots from crazy villains… I have to say though, whether you a fan of the hero or not, this game is extremely enjoyable, taken to excellent when you factor in a really well written and acted storyline. So whether this a dream come true or you’re looking for a fun open world game to play, let me tell you why you should pick up Spider-Man…

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Mega Man 5 (NES) Review

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Mega Man V

As we near the end of the original NES run of Mega Man games, we start to see the problem with an action platforming game releasing so many entries on a single system. While there is a new bird companion (if you manage to collect all the slightly-hidden letters on all stages, which for the record, I didn’t… That’s what I get for going in blind!) the game otherwise feel like the same old, same old. Is that a bad thing, though? Let’s find out!

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WWF In Your House (PS1) Review

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WWF In Your House

Now I can’t remember whether I played this first or Power Move Pro Wrestling, but given this is sort of the last gasp of the 2D era (not including Fire Pro games!) I thought it would make sense to do this next. Plus, thanks to a Smash Bros. marathon I have planned, this will likely be the last Wrestling Game Rundown review of this year, giving us 2019 to dive fully into the realm of early 3D games… What’s that? WWF In Your House? Yeah, it’s shit. Don’t bother with it. You want to know more? Oh well, fine then…

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Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition (PS4) Review

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Street Fighter V

When Street Fighter V was announced, I thought I’d wait for a while. I got the most fun out of IV by selling it and buying the arcade edition with more characters and modes than I did when I played the base game, and despite saying they wouldn’t re-release it, here we are! I brought SFV Arcade Edition for less than £30 new and sealed, and had a great time playing it over the summer (alongside Zelda: BOTW, which admittedly ate up far more of my time…) so let’s take a look at it, bearing in mind I’m no professional fighting game player or anything…

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Mega Man 4 (NES) Review

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Mega Man 4

My first play through of the Mega Man series continues with Mega Man 4. It’s pretty Mega Man-by-numbers, though the addition of the charge shot makes it feel closer to later, Mega Man X-style games to me (obviously at the time it was just a new idea in general!) Also Dr. Wiley is gone! Replaced with Dr. Cossack… who was being forced to do bad by Dr. Wiley. Oh well! Let’s have a look!

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WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game (Mega Drive) Review

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WWF WrestleMania TAG

Now here’s a conundrum, what constitutes a wrestling game? WrestleMania: The Arcade Game is actually a VS. beat em up in the vein of Mortal Kombat, complete with crazy moves, effects and digitally captured sprites. I went back and forth as to whether or not include this in the Wrestling Game Rundown but in the end it feels like part of my wrestling game history (due to how disappointed with it I was at the time…) so I’ll be including it and its sequel. With that said, how does WM:TAG stand up? I went into it this time with a fair idea of what it was, rather than the immature “hatred” like my past self, so…

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