Retro Review Tuesday: Vegas Stakes

Introduction

Nintendo is a company that never ceases to surprise us. Amidst all the Mario, Zelda, what have you, you forget that they do indeed have other great games. And one of those other titles would be Vegas Stakes. Perhaps you're not in the mood to save this princess, or that one. Perhaps you just want to tell both of them to figure it the hell out, and relax over in ol' Vegas, trying your luck on Poker, Roulette, Craps, Blackjack, and of course, the Slots. A real "just sit down and play" kind of game, Vegas Stakes offers the fun and interaction that [their interpretation of] Las Vegas has to offer. Place a bet, buy a lottery ticket, insert a coin, get your pocket picked, do it all in this very fun, classic gambling simulation.

Overview



The premise for Vegas stakes is five friends headed out together on a long planned trip Vegas. The main character is whatever you put your name in is , we played as Mr. Cooteller (No I don't why we named ourselves that either). I'm not sure of the motivations of your friends, but your completely reasonable and rational goal is to turn your 1 thousand dollars in to 10 million dollars before leaving Vegas. The game doesn't end until you hit that goal or spend every last dime trying.

This probably the worst approach to gambling

Controls are very simple. This is one of the few games that supports the SNES mouse and obviously we all know how to use a mouse. If you use a control it's not much different as you only use 3 buttons anyway. They're responsive enough, though it honestly doesn't matter much as it's not an action oriented game.


Graphically it's pretty dated. The graphics aren't bad, but they reek of the early 90's limited Palette VGA "realism" graphics that are more commonly seen in PC games of the era. They were mind blowingly realistic at the time, but not so pretty by today's standards. However this game does feature some of the best facial expressions on NPcs in any game ever. Johnny's smile is my personal favorite.

Keep an eye on Silver, He may have beat the Elite 4 when he was 10 but life's been hard since then and he's a desperate man.

Soundwise it's memorable if not a bit repetitive. Each Casino has it's own theme song that you'll constantly be hearing in the background. the songs correspond to theme of each casino IE the Buffalo head has a western song playing and the Laurel Palace has a generic "classical piece". In my opinion the best music is easily the electronica in the 2020, though I'm rather fond of Laurel Palace's music as well. Regardless of which music you personally prefer, it is probably going to get annoying after awhile as it will play no matter what game you're playing and there's no way to turn it off.

Gameplay

Cliff's right to be irritated 5 people is too many for a car trip in this car.

You start off in the car with your friends all having a conversation about how excited they all are to be going to Vegas. Once you make it to the hotel you put in whatever name you choose and head up to your hotel room. From the room you can choose one of your friends, Cliff, Maria, Isabelle, or Richard to go out gambling with. We always choose Richard because he's so cute and non-threatening. Whomever you choose will give you info about the locations and games.When you want to take a break from gambling or just get tired of looking at whomever you've gone out with you can head back to the hotel room. Here you can save your progress and choose a new friend to go out with. Once you're prepared to hit the strip, you get 4 Casinos to choose from each with their own theming and table limits.


The Hideway: The Casino equivalent of a dive bar. This is the cheapest Casino you'll find with $1 minimums and $50 maximums. You won't lose a lot , but you won't make a lot. This is probably only a good bet if you've spent almost all your cash elsewhere.

Richard just doesn't appreciate a good deal

The Golden Paradise: Your standard generic looking casino. This is the Casino your hotel is in and the one you start off in. It's right in the middle, not to high and not to low. Table minimums at $20 and the maximum $250. Definitely a good starting point to amass your vast fortune.

The Buffalo Head: The wild west, Vegas style! It's another middle of the road casino, with slightly higher minimums at $50 and Maximums at $500. Another good spot to start off amassing your fortune.

I'm a little sad there's not actually a Casino with this aesthetic

The 2020: Futuristic post apocalyptic sci-fi gambling. This is the last casino you can visit before reaching your high roller status. The table minimums start at $100 and go to $1000. This is probably going to be where you're going to make it to high roller status, but you're going to want to avoid it until you've got a good cash cushion built up or you'll eat through your cash in short order.

Once you've effectively gambled your way to $100,000 you're elevated to High Roller Status and you'll get new swanky hotel room and you gain access to the Laurel Palace.

The Laurel Palace: The creme de le creme of casinos with ornate detailing including marble statues on the slots. Even though you can gamble here as soon as you've reached $100k, it's a better idea to wait until you're at around half a million as the minimum starts at $1,000 and there's no limit. It's very easy to blow through money here, but when you hit, you hit it big. Once you're at a million or better you'll probably be constantly playing here if you want to make any real headway towards your $10 million goal.

Of course you don't make money just hanging out in Casinos so you've got your choice of 5 games which you can use to make your fortune.

There's a joke in here about how a BJ is always a win but I'm too classy to make it.

Black Jack: Your standard rules game of 21. Beat the dealers hand or get 21 to win. You won't make a lot of money playing BJ, but your odds are pretty good.

Slots: You choose from 1 of 4 bet denominations. Depending on the Casino you get different machine style and a different choice of limits. Slots are probably the quickest and easiest means of making money also the easiest means of losing. Slots require no skills or planning just a lot of good luck.

Roulette: Another luck game. Bet on your lucky number and hope for the best. You can get the odds for each bet from whichever friend you've decided to go with.

Snake Eyes, You LOSE

Craps: A game of odds. Mostly toss the dice and hope for good luck. But there's a good amount of skill involved in knowing and playing the odds in your favor.

Poker: 7-Card Stud. The Most Complex game. You play with 4 other people random selected from the pool of 8 NPCs + 3 of your 4 friends (you can't play with whomever is with you) for total 11 potential players. Each NPC has their own unique playing style, bluffing style and tells. It takes a good amount of skill, research and luck to be successful. This is the most engaging and interesting game because of the other players and complexity of the game itself.

As if playing exciting Vegas games on your SNES isn't enough there are several random interactions with NPCs that happen while you're playing your games. In every case an NPC who magically knows your name will approach you and ask for something or offer something. Sometimes these are very good for you, sometimes they're very bad and sometimes they do a whole lot of nothing. They are however some of the most memorable and interesting parts of the game.

The Diamond: Occasionally someone will approach in need of money and asks if you're interested in purchasing a diamond appraised at $5000. You can make an offer for it, the lowest we've gotten someone to accept is $700. You can have one of two outcomes: The diamond is fake. After you've bought the diamond someone else will come along and offer you $100 for the diamond and tell you you've been conned. This is what happens roughly 9 times out of 10. The second, the diamond is real and someone will offer you $10,000 for it. In spite of the potentially high pay off this is probably a interaction best avoided.

I know Vegas is expensive by $200 for cab fare seems pretty high

The Watch: Someone will come along saying they need money for cab fare and asks if you'll spare $200 for a watch. As far we've seen this is always a safe bet. After purchasing it someone will come along and offer you between $400 and $1000 for it.

Sick Child: Someone will come along and ask you to help them paying for their sick child's bills. There are two outcomes, it's a con or it's legit. when it's a con right after you've given the money a police officer will approach you to tell you about a scam happening. If it's legitimate you'll get $200 back. It's only $100 so it's probably not going to hurt you unless you're just starting out, but the return isn't really great either. It's probably just best to say no unless you can't live with the guilt of not helping a child in need.

Oil Well: You'll be approached and asked if you're interested in investing in an oil well and you'll get double you investment. It starts off at $5000, but you can haggle it down to $3000. However, if you strike oil you still only get double back so you invest less, you get less. You can also strike water in which case you obviously lose your investment. It seems to be roughly 50/50 odds.

A three digit lottery ticket seems a bad bet for the casino frankly

Lottery ticket: Someone will come up to you and ask if you're interested in buying a a lottery ticket for $500 that was a potential $10,000 payoff. Odds seems to be pretty good for this one, it's generally worth going for unless you're really strapped for cash. Sometimes when someone asks to wipe a spot on your shirt they'll give you a lottery ticket which will always win. The catch to this is they could be a pick pocket or they could do nothing.

Sports bet: Sometimes the person your with will say they're headed off to make a sports bet and ask if you're interested in making a $500 bet. If you win you double your bet. Odds seem completely random.

Check your meter: This only happens while playing slots, occasionally a casino worker will come by and ask if they can check your meter. You can send them away, but if you let them do their thing you'll get a free max bet pull on your slot machine.

Remembering the face: Someone will come up and ask if you remember them. Always say yes even if you've never seen them before that moment as they'll always give you what you for "being so nice" to them.

Returning the wallet: Whomever you're with will occasionally tell you that they found a wallet with cash and asks if you should keep it or return it. I suggest returning it not only because it's ethical, but because it can lead to a payoff much greater than whatever was in the wallet. Occasionally you'll get nothing, but it's a safe gamble given you're not out anything.

Even when doing high rolling gambling keeping tens of thousands of dollars in cash in your pockets is asking for trouble

In a class of their own are the loads of Pickpocketing scams. They include: twisted ankles, bad luck and a spot on your shirt. While the claim changes from incident to incident, in each of these cases the perpetrator will come up to you and ask for something that requires them to get close to you. Most of the time they'll be walking away with half you current cash if you decide to aid them. Sometimes however, they'll be legitimate and will reward you handsomely for your help. Depending on how much cash you're currently carrying around really depends on whether or not you want to chance them.

Overall you just keep casino hopping, playing the games and dodging the scams until you hit 10million. It's actually quite engaging and entertaining.

Conclusion

Vegas Stakes is so much more than your standard gambling game. Sure all the games are there and you are in Vegas after all, but it's the interaction of that sets things apart. Maybe modern gambling games include pickpocketing scams and intelligent unique poker players, but this was revolutionary for the time period and has managed to stand the test of time admirably. I haven't noticed any real decrease in fun factor from playing Vegas Stakes years ago until now. I'm still just as happy to spend a lazy afternoon of gambling, scams and quick money.

~Stephanie

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Retro Review Tuesday: Super Ghouls N Ghosts

-Introduction-

With the playstation coming out in the mid to late nineties, the aspect of unsaveable, unforgiving games was beginning to fade away. During the days of the SNES, the early end of the decade was reserved only for those with serious will, and plenty of time on their hands. Some games will just never be forgotten long after their time, and in the case of Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, the struggle and pain that it put its players through will resonate with them until the end of time.

-Overview-

Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, sequal to Ghosts 'n' Goblins on the NES, is a side-scroller/shooter with a medieval-horror theme. You run through the levels and hurl your projectile-only weapons at zombies, demons, and of course, Ghouls and Ghosts, having nothing but a rather unreliable suit of armor and in special cases, a shield to protect you. Neither item with protect you for long, and your only true tool for survival would be the amazing maneuverability and more specifically, jumping and double-jumping capabilities of Sir Arthur, the protagonist. His quest is to save the princess he loves from the clutches of the demons. He will do this by trudging and toiling through 7 long, extremely difficult levels, a journey which can only continue as for as long as you keep your Super Nintendo powered on. And one more thing - you'll have to do it twice.

Arthur takes the phrase "kill it with fire" to heart

Graphics, Controls and Music:

Graphically, it's a pretty nice looking game with highly detailed backgrounds, vibrant colors, smooth animations, and complex level designs. However, during heavy sprite activity, the games will slow down, often times considerably. Sprites and characters are well rendered with clear actions. The controls are smooth and easy to use, with a simple jump and shoot premise, which is good as the game requires sometimes insane amounts of maneuverability to survive. The music is well composed, well executed, and quite distinctive, making it hard to forget even years after you play. Although to be fair, that could also be because of how much time you'll spend in each level before progressing.

There's a doins' transpirin'

-Gameplay-
Start up:

When you begin, you can decide to plunge with in with "Game Start" or check out the options, and see what it has for you. You can choose how many lives you get per continue, ranging from one to nine. You can also change controls and the difficulty of the game.

Playing the Game:

This graveyard seems to have been used for some sort of cloning experiments as every zombie looks exactly the same

As stated above, the gameplay is relatively simple in light of the infamous difficulty of the game. You start the game, and you're ready to go. Start running, and throw your weapon at the enemies as they come at you. Normal enemies can take anywhere from one hit to far too many to count. You can collect new weapons as you go, each with different strengths and uses. There are also pickups that award points which can help you to retain lives/continues (although it's actually rather hard to run out of continues).


Most levels have two areas, with a check point at the beginning of the second. Usually, both areas are vastly different from each other, exhibiting two very different styles of gameplay or enemies or both. There is a timer on the game, giving you just five minutes to reach the next checkpoint or to beat the level. At the end of each level there is a boss character, always huge compared to your character, and withstanding any barrage you can throw at them for a good long while. If you can manage to defeat the boss, you will be given a key to the next level. Once you've completed level seven, you will have to go back and do it all again, this time collected the Goddess Bracelet that will grant you the power to defeat the main fiend, Sardius. If you were playing on Beginner, the difficulty will be bumped up to Normal.

-Equipment-

Armor: A big part of this game would be Sir Arthur's suit of armor. Much of what makes it a big part of the game is how little it protects against attacks. As soon as an enemy or enemy projectile strikes you, Arthur will be thrown back from the impact, and his armor will crumble, leaving him in just his boxers. Yes, it's wonderfully absurd, but it also serves as a very effective feeling of powerlessness. You can still do all your same basic maneuvers, but in a game like this, it's rather a rather uneasy feeling knowing that you've got nothing protecting you from enemies, their fireballs, or just simple dangerous parts of the level, such as spikes. If Arthur suffers a hit when his armor is gone, he is instantly reduced to bones, and not surprisingly, you've lost a life.

Oh, I've wasted my life

However, you can upgrade your armor by finding better suits in hidden treasure chests. While upgrading your armor doesn't make it any more apt to withstand attack, it does significantly boost your attack abilities, turning your ordinary weapons into powerful relics of mass destruction.

Armor Levels:







Normal (Gray) - It protects you for one hit and...that's about it. Still, you feel tons safer with even this armor on then none at all. If you defeat a boss while suitless, you'll gain this one back upon collecting the key to the next level.







Green: - A ridiculously complex looking armor, it changes the functions of your weapons and makes them more powerful.









Gold - The best suit in the game, this does the same thing as the green suit and more - by charging the attack button, you can build up your power and unleash a devastating Special Attack, unique to the weapon you're wielding. It also comes with an upgradable shield which will block certain attacks just once before it too will crumble, just like your suit.

Treasure Chests: A very important part of the game, treasure chests can hold weapons, armor, shields, enemies, bear trap, or even an enemy who can change Arthur's form. Once you get used to the game, you can have a slight idea about what might be in a chest before you open it, as its usually the same order, depending on the circumstances. Chests are usually found by jumping in certain areas, or sometimes they're just given to you. You can also try to explore a corner that seems otherwise useless. Whatever it takes, once you've done the secret action, the chest will pop up out of the ground. The only way to open a chest is to strike it with your weapon until it breaks open. It seems annoying, but honestly it makes sense. After all, treasure chests are usually locked. Even if most games wish to ignore that fact.

Sure you can't use weapons now but at least you look pretty isn't that what's really important?

Weapons:

Each weapon boasts different attack power and different uses. If you know what you're coming up on, it may be pertinent to change your weapon (if you can find a new one) to what you think would be better.

Lance (Default) - The weapon you start the game with, you can
throw two in a row. It's rather slow and not considered too useful in any situation. And with its length, it's also rather difficult to avoid picking it up if you don't want it.

Upgrade: Flaming Lance - More power, but less function

Special Attack: Bolt - A bolt of lightning will strike Arthur, which he then shoots outward in both directions. Very powerful.

If  a 10 foot tall zombie pops up Arthur is definitely gonna hit it

Torch - A weapon of great power, these will fall to the ground soon after you throw them and burn, allowing you two different methods of attack. Straight-on attacks will highly damage the enemy it hits, or you can throw the torch to the ground and burn the enemy with the burning fire, which will lightly damage them many times at once. The only downfall to this weapon would be its lack of range, but that is usually made up for in its functions. Not always, however.

Upgrade: Fire Ball - Now featuring amazing power, this works just like the normal Torch, with a much large burn when it hits the ground.

Special Attack: Orbs of Protection - Three orbs will revolve around Arthur, killing weaker enemies as they touch them, and damaging strong ones. It's not complete protection however, so you shouldn't get over-confident when you use it.


Arrows - These are a little hard to use, as they always shoot at an upward angle. They have a decent rate of fire, and speed. They are thrown two at a time, with is good because an individual arrow is very weak.

Upgrade: Homing Bolts - Three of these are shot at once, and will home it on enemies for you. It's useful but sometimes one of the bolts can continuously circle an enemy for a long time without actually landing an attack, disabling you from throwing any more until it finally disappears.

Special Attack: Chest Finder - This will cause any chests in the area to appear, without having to find them, yourself.

Dagger - These are weak but have great rapid-fire capabilities, allowing you to partially immobilize stronger enemies as you bombard them with these. Since they still kill weak enemies in one hit, they are plenty useful in areas very populated with these enemies.

Upgrade: Energy Beam - These first fire as a normal dagger
and then are magically turned into a long, white beam with a nice sharp point on the end. They boast an even better rate of fire than the old ones, and are more powerful. They also pass through enemies, allowing you to hit targets in a line. A rather nice weapon for all situations.

Special Attack: Fire Dragon - Charge this up to unleash a blue-flaming dragon that will shoot out of Arthur, himself, and whip around the screen. It's a very powerful attack but the Dragon's path makes it a little hard to hit a lot of enemies with it.

It might not be the most effect special attack but it is the coolest looking

Scythe - This is a very interesting weapon, and the only one that can change directions. These can be thrown straight or downward at the player's discretion. Also, if they come into contact with an incline, they will actually travel up the hill. When they hit an enemy, they will actually strike the enemy twice.

Upgrade: Twisted Blade - Similar function to the normal Scythe, these are basically just more powerful

Special Attack: Whirlwinds - Power this up to unleash a very effective attack where two large cyclones will attack the entire screen's worth of enemies. Pretty good for clearing out hostiles.

Axe - A reasonably powerful weapon which spins in a wide circle. This allows it to hit enemies slightly above or below you. However, in tight, tunnel-like areas or inclines, this becomes a very ineffectual weapon.

Upgrade - Discus Blade - The axe turns into a huge, round object that, when thrown, flies straight up, and then forward in a very shaky motion. Very powerful, and passed through enemies so you can hit many targets with just one throw, but even more prone to ineffectiveness in even not-so-tight areas. Also, the rate of fire is slow.
Special Attack: Beam Burst - This will shoot off beams in all directions, hitting anything around you.

...Thing - Not quite sure what this is. Makes its debut in level 5, which is reasonably far into the game. These very strange items move extremely erratically, shooting straight up, going forward for a quick second, falling downward, and coming back towards Arthur.

Upgrade - Basically a stronger version of the above, but it will pass through enemies.
Special Attack: Aerial Bomb - This causes a series of explosions of energy which can effect the enemies in the area, even if they don't actually touch the blasts.

Literally everything happening in this level is terrible

Goddess Bracelet - A very important weapon, you can only get this on your second play-through of
the game. You need it to defeat Sardius, but you can collect it as early as level one. It allows you to obliterate enemies with a very, very powerful magical blast. From point-blank range this will destroy most enemies and open chests with just one throw. But it loses strength as it flies through the air, so at it's weakest state, it will prove less effective than anything when hitting targets from afar.

Upgrade: The weapon is always the same no matter what suit you wear, but it does change in deceptively significant ways. It gains more strength and range as you collect better armor for example, it can snuff out some fireballs right out of the air.

-Conclusion-

There's a strange amount of amusement offered in this Capcom classic despite its abusive difficulty. If you can muster up an admirable amount of patience, this is a game that will give you challenges to last for as long as you're willing to take them. So go ahead. Close this window. Find this game. Put in in your SNES. Turn it on. And see if you can accomplish something truly worth a lifetime of pride and boasting.

But make sure a friend is there with you, or nobody will ever believe you.


~RM


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Retro Review Tuesday: Mario Paint

Introduction

Mario Paint is a game that makes absolutely no sense at all to those who didn't grow up with it. On
the surface it seems like an early version MSPaint, only with Mario branding. Which honestly a lot of the drawing portion is, though it's filled with all sorts of fun extras that make it way more exciting and addictive than sitting at your desktop. Along with the drawing portion there's an animation program, a coloring book, a custom stamp maker, a coffee break mini game and a composition program. In short it was a whole world of digital creativity at our fingertips long before there was MSpaint on our desktops or windows music maker,  or most of us even had home computers for that matter.

Overview

Controls
Mario Paint is one of the few games that utilized the SNES mouse. You use it like you use an ordinary computer mouse, you make selections with the left button. The right button has a few different context sensitive controls, but mostly it's used for going backwards while looking through the color palates. As you would expect you move around using the entire mouse. Like old computer mice it controls via a ball in the bottom and isn't terribly sensitive. It also gets dirty quickly so you'll often find yourself taking it apart and cleaning stray cat hairs and dust off the ball. Additionally the game offers three different mouse response speeds so you can experiment with which works best for you.

Music
In the sections that aren't specifically the composition program, Mario paint still offers plenty of musical excellence. You can select what you'll be listening to  in the "paint" screens. You can select the main recognizable Mario paint theme (which I've oftentimes found myself humming in the grocery store),  by selecting the man doing push ups. A generic fun song, by picking the three monkeys. Or some "relaxed" new age style music, which is the staff filled with various things instead of notes . The thing that looks like a nose (but is actually a dog...maybe) is silence.

The coffee break fly swatting game has several background themes depending on the level you're on. The stamp creation screen has it's own music as does the save screen.

In the composing section there are three pre-programmed songs including a version of the original Mario theme. However, you've got almost no limit to the songs you can create on your own so long as it's within the confines of 3 notes per beat and 25 measures.

So your game in particular can have either a great Nintendo soundtrack with the kind of outstanding quality you'd expect from a first party Nintendo game of this age or you can have a fantastic personalized one depending on your skill and patience level.

Gameplay

The game has several parts.

1. Paint

The main part is a digital paint as the title would lead you to believe. As I said earlier at first glance it's an early version of your standard computer paint program.

Your main page gives you several basic options at the bottom of the screen, a movement tool to reorient any and stamps, a pen in three thicknesses, a spray can tool, a stamp tool, copy tool, a shape drawing tool and an erasing tool. The top of the screen gives you 14 pre-programmed color/pattern/stamp palates and a 15th row for your original stamp creations. For paint functions second page offers a letter box tool, which simply removes the tool bars and frames your creation.  There's also a page fill tool which fill the canvas with whatever you'd like without having to wait for the paint brush fill. And finally it also contains the text tool and custom stamp creation tools which I'll go into a little more depth about.

The text tool is exactly what you'd expect, you can use the full English alphabet in lowercase uppercase and italics, as well as what I believe is a full set of Japanese Kanji. You can change the colors and make them small or large.

In stamp creation you get a 16x16 grid with which you can create your own stamp images to use anywhere in the game. It works pretty much like the pattern editor in the Animal Crossing games, just with fewer functions.

There are also 4 coloring pages (which are for some reason located in the save an load screen) Which feature: an image of Mario on Yoshi, a collection of animals, a birthday cake, and an undersea scene. They're exactly what you'd expect black and white pictures you color using either the pen tool or the fill tool.

Depending on your level of skill and your patience the paint functions allows you to make everything from a few minute silly scene involving baby heads and flowers, or use the save feature to create a multi-hour multi session 16 bit Mona Lisa. However, all that could still be accomplished in a normal paint program that most of us have at our fingertips whenever we use a computer. What makes Mario Paint different and more fun is the little surprises. There are 9 different ways to do a full screen erase each with it's own animation, the paint brush dances while it's filling, and the dog runs around the screen when you ignore him. There are Tons of other fun things, but they're best discovered by playing the game.

2. Animation

On the second screen you'll find the animation tool which is represented by the person jumping rope. The animation screen lets you first select the desired number of frames for your animation 4, 6 or 9. You can free hand your animation within the box or use stamps. There are several stamps already set up for animation so making a walking Koopa, BaBomb or Spiney is quick and easy. This is also and excellent place to use your own custom stamps. There's a copy tool here as well so it's easy to copy from one frame to another to make sure you've got your positioning right as there aren't any grids to help you.

Once you're finished making your masterpiece you choose the path you wanted it take across whatever you've left on the screen. The path will take into account any starts and stops you make so you may want o be aware of that. Once you've decided on the animation and it's path you can view the animation you've made. On the view animation screen you can put the frame on and set your masterpiece to whatever musical composition you last had up in the composition screen making for a full cinematic experience for the ages! You can even save your full creation by using the handy save robot, be sure to enjoy the hot techno beats while you wait (I died with happiness when I realized this same save music was used in Mario Maker).

3. Composition

One of the most memorable parts of the game is the composing program. As I said earlier it comes with several preprogrammed pieces of music but you have almost endless possibilities on what you can create with it as many a YouTube video will demonstrate (though it's worth mentioning that most of the YouTube videos aren't made using Mario paints base program, but rather a computer program based on it that offers a few more features). In the composition program you start your new Magnum opus by first selecting a 3/4 or 4/4 time signature. From there you get a selection of 16 "notes" which range from a Starman to a baby's head to a boat, each with its own unique sound. You can put no more than three notes per beat 3 or 4 beats per measure, depending on your time signature choice, in a maximum span of 25 measures. Should your composition ended up shorter than the full 25 there's a a staff end tool which allows you to end early. You can also loop your creation which is a especially useful if you're going to set it to a long animation. Overall the composer is something you can have a lot of fun with and if you're musically inclined at all and you will very likely lose hours of your life to it.

4. Coffee Break


This mini game seems absolutely random compared to the
rest of the game as it has nothing do with any sort of creativity. It is however the only part that really seems like playing a regular video game. It seems as though it was primarily included simply to get players used to their using the mouse instead of a controller, but it really is a great mini game. Your cursor becomes a hand holding a flyswatter and your goal is to swat 100 mosquitoes,dragon flies,houseflies and bomb bugs. You then get a giant mecha bug you must hit several times while trying to avoid his projectiles and clouds of killer bugs. Once you defeat the bug master you move on the next stage which rewards you with a different background, different music and more of a challenge. You follow the same pattern until you beat all the giant bugs.

It's honestly a lot more and addictive than it sounds (which you already know if you've got the first Wario Ware), when going through the game in order to better write this review I got myself stuck playing it several times. It's also a heck of a challenge to keep your hand from getting stung/exploded/otherwise mangled and screaming (yes, the hand screams), I don't think I ever managed to beat it as a kid, but I know for certain that I spent hours attempting it. I'd like to take this moment to suggest that we all write letters to Nintendo asking them to include this game in their next set of mini games for the Wii.



Conclusion

Mario Paint is a fantastic game at the time was quite unique, (though there was at least one coloring book style game on the NES). There were very few games coming out for any console in the US that didn't have what would  be considered normal formulaic gameplay. Mario paint challenged you to make your own game, and use your imagination to create what you wanted to see. Even more amazing than the concept itself is that it worked so well. Named one of the top 200 SNES games ever released, even now, 20+ years later people still remember this program fondly and still use it. If you've got a creative side, or just enjoy smacking bugs, Mario Paint won't disappoint.

~Stephanie

Retro Review Tuesday: The best Contra III review ever part II

Today's Retro Review is Part II of The Best Contra III Review Ever. Shorter than the last segment, but this part covers Contra III's most well known feature, it's insane difficulty.

So on to Part II: Difficulty, Details and Conclusion.



DIFFICULTY

Contra III - The Alien Wars is a relentless assault on your reflexes, your determination, your devotion, and your self-esteem. Enemies come at you from any which way, firing anything from energy blasts, missiles, lasers, man-sized drills, everything. The classic "Shot in the toe, ya die" principles apply in this game, and have never been more pronounced. Nearly every level is choked with mini-boss after mini-boss, complete with their much-more-difficult-than-the-actual-boss cronies, a law that has reigned over many video game Boss characters throughout the history of time (roughly thirty years). Don't believe anything can get worse than those hours you spent crying over Super Ghouls and Ghosts? Here are some specific examples of the heartlessness that is Contra III.

Stage Three First Mini-Boss: As you hang above the oblivion from a high railing, a spiked-mech-pod with rotating arms floats up, revving its giant drill at you, swaying left and right. Unless you have the surface-piercing Fire weapon, you need to grab onto the spinning arms to get a vantage point of the vulnerable area, located underneath the pod. Touch the pod, or more obviously the drill, and an unforgiving death. Once you've defeated the mini-boss, the arms will spin very furiously as the pod goes down, trying to take you with it. You must jump from its arms, back onto the stationary railing, and try to avoid latching onto the arms again (the character does it automatically when he comes into contact with a graspable object). Once the pod has disappeared from view, it will shoot about 5 homing rockets up at you. And you're not even halfway done with this boss yet.

You jump up to a few more rails and then latch onto a wall. Your pod buddy is back, flying back into play, growing two robotic legs and joining you on the wall (he does this whether or not you're on the wall...and you'd better be there if you don't want to die, right then). The Boss with then scale the wall as you climb with it, trying to stay within the confines of the area between its legs as it frequently shoots two rockets at you. When it gets to a certain height, two spiked panels grow out of the wall and the pod latches on, relocating to the far left side of the screen. As you try to, once again, blow thing thing to hell, It tries to line up with you on the wall, and when it's confident that it's got a shot at you, it viciously charges at you, now erecting TWO huge drills, and smashing into the wall, taking your sorry ass with it if you don't get the hell out of its way.

Stage Four: This entire level is the absolute incarnation of what Contra III is about, easily the most notorious part of the game. You spend the majority of the level on a futuristic motor bike, battling what look like flying jet skis, tanks, and a giant, half-mile long flying gunship, attacking you with energy blasts, lasers, fireballs, and its own crew. When you progress past this point (after another mini-boss), a helicopter floats in above you, prompting you to hop onto the missile it is carrying. Once you do this, the helicopter ascends high into the air with nothing between you and the ground but imagination. Some little fruit looking like a medieval warrior with a sword and grapple hook latches onto the missile with you for a mid-air battle. Once you defeat him, the missile is launched - with you on it. Several other regenerating missiles from inexplicable sources come into view. Get acquainted with them...they are now your only means of movement. A large ship comes into view at the right side of the screen. A giant red core is protected by a yellow forcefield, powered by two units on the top and bottom of the ship. You must take out these units as you ride the missles - as they detonate upon contact with the forcefield. If the missile you're riding explodes, you drop. Hope there's a missle underneath you when this happens. Oh, and a swarm of bombs shoot at you from the shielded core as you hop from missile to missile.

But just in case that's just an insult to your Contra abilities, the units powering the shield also shoot at you. Once both power units are destroyed and the shield is down, you can now begin to work on the core. The bombs are now replaced by balls of fire shooting from the core, instantly detonating the missiles they hit. Good luck.

CONCLUSION

Contra III - The Alien Wars makes the the difficulty of the classic Contra games look like that of Ernie's Magic Shapes & Astro Grover. When you first throw this into your SNES (Or more likely, download it on your WII or click it into your Emulator), you will be killed 7 times before you hit the ground. If you've got the patience, and more importantly, the structural integrity of your controller and console, Contra III - The Alien Wars will prove to be a strange kind of abusive fun, and perhaps in time, your life's greatest accomplishment. So give it your best shot.

It will never be enough.

~RM

That's all for this week's review. Next week's review should be written by yours truly on an as yet to be determined gaming classic. (I should probably start moving my butt on that...)

~Stephanie

Don't forget to stop by our shop vintage gaming collectibles:

Retro Review Tuesday: The best Contra III review ever

Something I've wanted to do for a long time is write vintage game reviews for a blog. So, in order to make my dream a reality, we're going to be attempting to post a new review every Tuesday. Our first one is a guest review by my awesome brother(though I helped a tiny bit with some wording and editing), mentioned previously in this blog, and focuses on one of the hardest games ever to grace the SNES, Contra III: The Alien wars. I can say without a doubt (and without bias) this is the best, most comprehensive Contra review you will ever read. It is so full of awesome that you would be overwhelmed if you were to read it all at once so it will be split into two parts.

So without further dawdling here's part I of the best Contra III review ever written:

PROLOGUE

Around fifteen years ago on a wet and gloomy morning, a main video game developer at Konami woke up late. He was in such a rush that he accidentally put body-wash in his hair, instead of shampoo. Getting out of the shower, he slipped on the edge of the tub, totally racking himself. In his haste, he spilled piping hot tea all over his outfit. He missed his train and ran a mile to his office. There, he got a call from his wife. Shame or not, she was leaving him and taking their son after his immense loss from the stock market. It all became too much. The world would feel his vengeance for this unbelievably unbearable day. They would all pay. At the weekly brainstorming session, the disgruntled developer begins to put his vindictive plan into order.

Contra III is introduced.



INTRODUCTION

First, a bit of Nostalgia, Contra III features many cameo appearances from past enemies. These instances include: two incarnations of the Stage One boss, the final boss from Super C, and a newly tricked-out version of Super C's Stage Six boss. The warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia are nice before you realize that these enemies have now subscribed to Contra III's policy of "Take no Prisoners or Distinguishable Corpses."

Contra III - The Alien Wars is easily the most difficult chapter the already trying Contra series has enjoyed within its legacy. It will take you, hurt you, abuse you, and laugh in your tear-drowned face. Even the all-new even deadlier weapons and the luxury of being armed with two interchangeable guns won't soften the blow to your self-esteem that this game brutally delivers. With two fewer levels than the Original Contra and Super C, Contra III - The Alien Wars does to you in six levels what its predecessors couldn't do in a sum of sixteen.

Oh, and the Konami Code, that guardian angel of vintage gamers everywhere, has no power in this godless realm.



GAMEPLAY

--Layout--



Contra III follows the basic side-scroller game layout of the earlier games in the series, down to the occasional top-down view levels a' la Super C. Both level types display number of lives, weapon type, and number of smartbombs. On the main, side-scrolling levels, the classic "gun-'n'-run" principle applies, with a boss waiting for you at the end of the line.



On the top-down view levels, you are granted full control of movement (Forward, Backwards, left, Right), and you must located and destroy certain targets before you are given access to the level's boss. A map flashes onto the screen before you begin to play the top-down levels, allowing you to choose where in the level you would like to begin, and showing you where the main targets are located throughout the area. When playing two-player, you have the option to play these levels Split-screened, allowing both players to wander, freely (2 Player mode A) and with both players confined to the view of one full screen (2 Player mode B).

--Options--

Unlike the previous Contra games, Contra III allows you to choose the difficulty of the game (Easy, Medium, and Hard), and the amount of lives per continue. Easy is damn-near impossible, Normal is virtually impossible, and as far as I know, Hard is just impossible.

You may also alter the sound style (Stereo/Mono), Which is probably the only part of the game where you're really in control, ever.

--Maneuvers/Actions--

As in the classic Contra Games, your character can run forward, turn around, jump and duck. New to Contra III, your character can also hang onto and move along railings and ceilings, and climb up the sides of certain structures (it's not always clear which ones you can and can't climb).

In top-down levels, you can move forward, backwards, strafe left and right, and turn to the left or right. These levels can be difficult to get used to do to the strange controls.

Pushing left or right on the Directional Pad will cause you to strafe in the respective direction. To actually turn and aim that way, you need to push L or R (left and right, respectively). Jump has been replaced by the less-effective crouch in these levels, disabling you from movement while you're on the ground.

You can shoot ahead, up, down, diagonally up and diagonally down. You can also shoot in any of these directions while in the air, or hanging. You now carry two guns which you can change between to decide the best weapon for the given situation. You could use the perennial Spread Shot for clearing out a group, or switch to the unrelenting power that is the Laser for a concentrated attack on an enemy's core. When the player loses a life, the gun that was highlighted is also lost, but not the one in reserve. So for example, if you have both the Laser and the Spread Shot, and you're using the Laser, if you die, you will lose that gun, but the Spread Shot will still be available. You can then choose to switch to that gun, or just continue your battle with the default gun. If you push both L and R and the Fire button, your character will jump in the air, firing both guns in a spinning-attack*, with rounds flying every which way.

On a top-down level, this attack is a stationary spin from the ground. If the player holds down the dual-gun command in these levels, the attack is non-stop until the player lets go of the controls. Beware - if you die while highlighting both guns at once (It can be down without attacking) you will LOSE BOTH GUNS.

You cannot perform this technique if you're hanging on a railing/ceiling/wall or crouched in a top-down level.

*It should be noted that while is does turn you into a whirling ball of death, I've never found a realistic or useful time to perform the dual-gun technique however, performing it with Fire loaded in each barrel does look pretty spectacular.



--Weapons--

Contra III exhibits the classic weapons you remember from the past games, along with some of its own new arsenal. Here, the weapons are all listed, in order of their appearance, and broken down into their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the alternate effect(s) that some enjoy (or rue...) in the top-down areas (levels 2 and 5).


Default: Contra III finally figured out that if two guys are going to save the Earth from diabolical, ruthless invading Aliens, they're probably going to bring more than just a semi-automatic rifle. And thus, there is no Machine Gun pickup in this game, as it is your default weapon, firing at about 3 times the rate as the old Machine Gun. Don't get too excited, however. Although this gun does have a truly incredible rate of fire, it is still very weak. However, you will find more than one situation where the default weapon proves more useful than the others, even the Spread Shot. Like the original Contra games, you start off with this gun, and when you die, it resets to it.

Level 2 & 5: Basically the same thing. The shot travels for a bit then disappears into an unfilled circle, like any classic shooting game has taught us.

Shield: Going all the way back to the original Contra, nobody, probably not even the game developers, knows what the hell "B" stands for on this pickup. Nevertheless, in this updated version of the shield will surround your character in a blue aura, protecting you from all enemies and attacks, and destroying the hostiles that touch it. The aura will turn red when it's about to expire, a feature that would have been very convenient in the old games.

Level 2 & 5: Other than an inexplicable change to a different, less-cool color, this is essentially the same thing.

Smart Bombs: The falcon-shaped, flashing, classic smart bomb that destroyed all on-screen enemies in the classic Contra games now takes the shape of a small nuclear bomb that is collectible and detonated at the player's discretion. An alternating red and yellow energy sphere forms around you and gradually spreads throughout the screen, destroying/damaging all enemies on the screen until it is spent. These are generally a desperation weapon, used when you're surrounded with nowhere to go, need to hit an extremely elusive target, or, more commonly, when you accidentally press "A." Be aware though that your count goes back to one when you lose a life, nice if you had none, not so nice if you had four.

Level 2 & 5: Same thing. Virtually no change.

Spread Shot: If you've beaten Contra or Super C, this gun is why. Appearing in a pair early in the first stage of Contra III, you have the option of equipping both barrels with this classic multi-shot bad boy. Unlike the original games, the Spread Shot is now somewhat automatic, firing in very quick bursts of two to three belts (fully automatic in close-quarter situations). There is a slight pause after this, which, due to the high-speed environment of Contra III can be a very fatal quarter of a second. Due to that, it's sad to say that the Spread Shot, the gun that saved your ass (admit it) in the classic NES Contra games, doesn't quite live up to the demands of Contra III's relentless onslaught. It is still a useful pickup, good for close-range battles with high-HP enemies, but in multiple situations, this gun is easily traded for another.

Level 2 & 5: Strangely, it's commonly seen releasing three-shot belts to the usual five, the top-down Spread Shot's lack of radius is made up for in its newly acquired fully-automatic properties only truly enjoyed in these levels, making it a noticeably more useful weapon here.

Heat Missiles - A gun new to the Contra series (Unless you count Contra Force, but nobody else did and you shouldn't either), the Heat Missiles prove useful in many situations with their fully-automatic nature, considerable rate of fire, and their homing qualities. The main drawback here is that when battling a boss with multiple targets, these guys don't exactly go for the target you'd prefer, so it's best to use these doing normal gameplay, and trade up when approaching a boss.

Level 2 & 5: You're basically dealing with the same thing. Not much changes here, other than the view.

Laser: Like its classic incarnation, the Laser is a gun of exceptional power, great for use on the core area of boss enemies. The beam damages stronger enemies several times before disappearing, and passes right through weaker enemies. However, with this great power comes foreseeable sacrifices in other areas of performance. The Laser's rate of fire is the lowest in the game, and its beam moves notably slower than the rounds of other weapons, leaving the player vulnerable to enemy attacks between shots. Though it is still much swifter than in Contra and Super C.

Level 2 & 5: This gun is nothing short of a beast in these levels. The slow, separate beams have been transformed into one everlasting, steady beam, quickly eradicating any hostile that crosses it. With all of its original power, the shortened range of the Laser's shot is a small price to pay for this kind of devastation.

A final note on laser, it cannot be ignored, that the new sound has been reduced to an electronic whine, a lamentable change from the classic MUCH more "badass" sound of Contra and Super C.

Cluster Bomb: Contrary to the opinion of the annoying man from the PSP commercials, Cluster bomb is not always the answer. In fact, in Contra III, it is arguably the most useless weapon in the game in most situations.
This gun, on average, shoots in bursts of three to five rounds then pauses and the bombs don't generally span the entire screen's length before detonating. Although quite powerful, more so than the laser even, with its less-than-desirable rate of fire, and lack of range, the Cluster Bomb is a weapon that's usually collected by falling on it.
However, there are very specific situations where the Cluster Bomb proves absolutely invaluable, such as the Boss at the end of the first stage, or the fourth Mini boss on the final stage of the game.

Level 2 & 5: The main difference here is that this weapon might be even MORE useless now, although it is pretty good for use on the giant centipede things.

Fire: First available in Level Two, the weapon that was possibly the most useless special weapon in the earlier Contra games has now proven to be possibly the most potent weapon in Contra III. Designed like an actual flamethrower for the first time, this gun boasts the ability to fire non-stop and pass though surfaces, making difficult targets nothing to blink at. The Fire's short range rarely proves to be much of a problem, although its slow changing of direction can occasionally prove detrimental.

Level 2&5: Only in these levels can the Fire be topped by the nearly unstoppable Laser. However, this gun should still be sought after here, exhibiting great performance clearing out many small enemies to taking down stronger hostiles. It's especially useful for its valuable surface-disregarding properties while fighting Level Two's boss.


Tank: For a brief time in Stage One, you have the option to ride some of it out in a tank. The tank will function until it is destroyed by enemy fire, or until it gets to a certain point - whichever happens first. Pressing the fire button shoots the tank's large gun, a blast so powerful, it blows your vehicle back a few feet, and levels the vintage Contra base-bosses in one shot.
In my opinion, it's best to just run down enemies, and not waste time firing the gun. Then take one shot at the upcoming base.



That's it for Part I come back next Tuesday for part II featuring more screen shots, more details, more bosses and more punishment. PART II NOW POSTED

~Stephanie