Ice Climber: 1HN Cooperative Block Breaker

Back in the late 80s, one of THE first NES games I received from my mom and dad was Ice Climber. It's a simple platformer in which you play one of two parka-wearing climbers named Popo (who wears blue) and Nana (who wears red). You can guess the gender of each, though it doesn't matter.

Anyway, the great thing about Ice Climber (this is back in the late 80s, mind you) was that you could play cooperatively (or competitively) with another player. Unfortunately, as an only child, I rarely got the chance to play alongside someone else, but I was used to that.

The point of the game was easy to understand: break the ice blocks of the floor above your character using your hammer, and then jump through the hole to go up. Do this as many times as it takes to get to the top floor, from which you start the bonus stage. Along the way, you encounter ice-pushing white flightless birds and red bird-like flying creatures (pterodactyls?); the white birds do not try to harm you directly, but do if you touch them, but the red birds (pterodactyls) almost always seem to gun for your character. If that's not enough, there's a polar bear that will appear if you linger too long on a lower floor and stomp to make the screen rise one floor. If this happens while you are on the bottom floor of the screen (or if you fall through an ice hole in the bottom floor), your character dies.

To defend yourself against these baddies, you can use your hammer to bonk them at floor-level, or you can jump into the baddie (especially if it's the flying red bird), as you do when you break ice blocks. To lend to the cooperative intent of the game, you cannot mallet your partner, though you can push your partner through holes (if you are so malicious).

Ice Climber is the type of game that you can pick up and play with a friend for a half-hour of mindless fun, either helping each other or interfering with each other. Each subsequent level adds new difficulties: moving floors and cloud platforms, fewer blocks on which to stand, greater frequencies of creatures, and the like. When my sons play Ice Climber, they neither play cooperatively nor competitively -- they just try to do something with their controllers to make the characters move and survive. Their gaming sessions are hilarious and frustrating in equal measure. Nonetheless, once you and your friend begin to master Ice Climber, you may find the game stimulating, at least for that half-hour.

Battletoads Double Dragon: 3HN Violence

A few months ago, I wrote a relatively lengthy post about violence and how Christians must assess the violent content of any game. Recently, I borrowed Battletoads Double Dragon for the SNES, and by the standards of 1990s videogames, this game is pretty dang violent.

Battletoads Double Dragon is basically a beat-um-up side-scroller that combines two NES games: Battletoads and Double Dragon. Battletoads involved three anthropomorphic toads and Double Dragon featured two muscular dudes. Combined, you can choose from any of the five characters; and, like both predecessor games, you can team up with another player.

What's the point of the game? To kick enemy butt -- that's it. You (and another player) run from left to right punching, kicking, and throwing any foe that crosses your path. From a gameplay standpoint, this game is a disappointment. Out of the six possible buttons, there are only two buttons used for unique functions: attack and jump. It's like Tradewest ported an NES game directly to SNES and upgraded the graphics, but retained NES gameplay. In this way, the game is lackluster.

Otherwise, Battletoads Double Dragon is mindless and oddly cathartic, though it is disturbing that dudes beat up on whip-wielding ladies, as skanky as them may be. I can say with certainty that this game does not exemplify Christ, but if it's any consolation most of the foes are robots and alien creatures... I will be returning this game to the coworker from whom I borrowed it. I am thankful I didn't buy it.

Goof Troop: 3HN Father and Son at Play

Last week, my four-year-old son and I decided to play Goof Troop, a Super Nintendo game based on the animated series of the same name that was broadcast in the early to mid-90s. The basic premise of the game involves Goofy and his son evading pirates, finding keys, using various items, and solving puzzles to rescue their friend, Pete, who has been kidnapped by the aforementioned pirates. The game is played from above with a perspective reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda, except that this game is much simpler and involves teamwork if played with another player.

Much to my surprise, the more I play Goof Troop, the more I am impressed by the gameplay and fun factor, particularly the fun of playing such as goofy character as... well, Goofy. I had initially purchased this game from a co-worker solely on the premise that this was a cooperative game which my two sons could play together, but I have found that the game is better played when one more-skilled player (me, in this case) plays with a younger, less-skilled player (my youngest son) because the more-skilled player can bail out the less-skilled one. How? Well, one of the prominent tactics of Goof Troop involves movement from one screen to the next: if one player leaves a particular screen, both players appear in the next screen. This not only allows one player to save another from imminent danger, but it also allows for additional tactics, like one player luring foes to one corner of the screen while the other player leaves; or, one player runs across the screen to retrieve an important item and the other player leaves shortly after retrieval. Besides this, players can throw projectiles to each other if one of the players needs it, and both players can carry different items that may be useful on different screens.

It took my youngest son and I about 20 minutes to pass the first stage of the game, which was a wonderful accomplishment for him, especially because he is only four years old and he has just started learning how to play video games (specifically, retrogames). I really enjoyed playing alongside him to beat the stage. As a dad, I suppose that is what I enjoy most about retrogaming: watching my sons enjoy and do well with games that were relevant when I was younger.

Gunstar Heroes: 1HN Overrated Mess

Back in my college days in the 90s, I bought a game about which I had read a few very favorable reviews: Gunstar Heroes. This rock 'em, sock 'em shoot-em-up side-scroller was hailed as one of the finest games of its genre for the Sega Genesis or any game system at the time. Initially, the game was fun and amusing with the main characters and their abilities to combine gun types, punch and kick villains, climb across platforms, and even throw foes or each other. At the time, it seemed to be like Contra, but wrapped up in a slightly cutesy, Japanese anime-like look. However (and this should say something about the game), a few months after I bought it, I remember selling Gunstar Heroes so that I could buy some EA Sports game.

Why? Because the game is a farce. Amidst all the explosions, throwing robot bad guys, blowing the tar out of foes, and comically animated bravado, you begin to realize that the game is all about blowing up stuff. Imagine playing a game in which, suddenly, you're mobbed by bad guys. Then, you throw these bad guys here and there, blowing away a bunch more with explosion after explosion happening. After a while, it ceases to be amusing and becomes tedious; no strategy, but just mashing buttons as quickly as you can to wreak aimless havoc. The only amount of strategy you need is when fighting the various end-stage bosses, but after learning the trick that beats each boss, anyone could beat this game and move on.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't have patience for this game so I got rid of it; but, if I had held onto that game, I could've sold the cartridge for close to its purchase price now. Years later (actually, a few months ago), I read about this game again and decided that I wanted to give it another chance. I played it again, and I felt the same way: explosions, bodies thrown, ugh. So, once and for all, I turned my back on Gunstar Heroes. My advice: avoid this cartoonishly violent game, even if it is just throwing robots, and play Super Mario 3 or something more worthwhile like that.

World of Illusion: 3HN Afternoon of Fun

Yesterday, my wife and I gave our oldest son a Sega Genesis game called World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. The game is a one- or two-player game that follows Mickey and/or Donald as they try to find their way out of the World of Illusion. Along the way, Mickey and Donald encounter all manner of bad guys and obstacles, some of which require teamwork to overcome -- obstacles such as see-saws and low-lying crawlspaces (which requires Mickey to pull Donald through them). Mickey and Donald dispose of baddies by waving magic capes, which transmogrify their foes into flowers or butterflies.

The magic of this game, however, is not in the World of Illusion itself, but in the small details that the developers programmed into the game. Watch as Mickey or Donald balance themselves on ledges; notice when one character lands on another, causing the bottom character to teeter and struggle as he holds up the top character. The animation in the game and the teamwork are the big selling points of this game.

As I watched my oldest and youngest sons play, I found that I enjoyed watching them play this slice of nostalgia more than playing the game myself. Watching as they "accidentally" stunned each other with their magic capes and their ensuing laughter proved to me, once again, that there was simple greatness in retrogaming.