Welcome back! What an issue I have in store for you. This month I will be reviewing some of the most memorable games in my collection! Well I mean the Mark of Kri was an impulse buy but hey two years is a LONG time, right? Well lets see what the thumbs have to say.
The Mark Of Kri (PS2, 2002)
This game had all the makings of being great. It has very smooth graphics and some great new features like stealth and your handy pet bird. So it looked really good and seemed that it would be really fun. It starts off good with a good training level that lets you get used to the controls, which is a plus because they aren’t that easy. However the game tries to do too much. It tries to make use of all its features, requiring you to do them to finish levels even when more simpler means will get you through. The controls even after training with them tend to get tricky, especially when trying to navigate your bird and hide from enemies at the same time. The game also gets rather tedious after the first few stages and doesn’t really entice you enough to want to continue onward.
Captain Eric’s Super thumb says.. Thumbs Down
Uniracers (SNES, 1995)
Uniracers is a very simple game where you and a opponent either friend or computer race through a track using unicycles. You do various stunts and tricks to gain points and make your unicycle move faster. Whoever crosses the finish line first wins! The tracks are organized in different categories and each category also has one stunt course where the object is to rack up as many points possible just doing stunts. It is quite a fun multiplayer game. It features a wide variety of different colored unicycles which let you change their names. Another very fun feature is has is that you can set up leagues and such so you can keep track of you and all your friends scores. The game is limited as single player quickly gets old beating the same cycles over and over but the multiplayer aspect always made it a favorite of mine.
Captains Eric’s Super thumb says… Thumbs Up!!!
MegaMan X (SNES, 1993)
Ah MegaMan X, the first in the new (now old) line of MegaMans! It’s hard not to like MegaMan games; while they are all basically the same there is just something about that blue guy that leaves you wanting to keep coming back! This game plays a lot like all the previous MegaMans but with some nifty new features. First off, now all the enemy boss’ names dont end in “Man”! They have names like Storm Eagle and Chill Penguin. And they look more like their namesake than, well, giant robot man. Also aside from collecting the weapons from the enemy bosses that you defeat you can also find some upgrades to your robot self! These change your appearance and also give you some skills like bashing stuff with your head, the uber cool slide and the ability to charge your weapons up even longer. All in all i found this game very stratifying!
Captain Eric’s Super thumb says… Thumbs Up!
Street Fighter 2 Alpha (SNES, 1996)
I was always a big fan of the Street Fighter series. I even watched its lame movie and had the Ryu GI Joe figure! This game will always be remember to me as the game that introduced me to the most awesome video game character EVER.. and that would be Dan Hibiki; he is just one awesome goofball. This game is a lot like the other Street Fighters, however it’s Alpha because it takes place before the other games,
so Blanka isn’t a beast yet but a solider named Charlie and there are lots of other characters you haven’t met yet. There are also a few from other Capcom games. It;s basic, it’s fun, go kick ass! There are some problems however; the SNES version has serious loading issues and since this isn’t PlayStation it doesn’t really tell you its loading so sometimes it just seems as if the game has frozen up on you, quite lame. The PS2 version also has these but they are much more manageable. It’s a good game but as far as Street Fighter games go, its not the best.
However, any game that features DAN, has to deserve a thumb.
Captain Eric’s Super thumb says… Thumbs up!
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64, 1996)
This is a game based of a popular Star Wars book taking place after the original three movies. You control Dash Render, one dude with a spiffy, spiffy name. The graphics are ok but they always seemed a bit to dark for me and many of the levels where you had to do stuff like go underwater or such are always murky and hard to see. The camera angles of this game always give me problems; I would shoot something down only to be shot at by something I couldn’t see and then couldn’t find before taking serious damage! The game for the most part is a third person shooter with a few assorted levels thrown in, like piloting Dash’s ship and such. It’s a very difficult game for me and I died many many MANY times and it would frustrate me to no end but I would still continue to play so it had that going for it. I could never manage to get through the last stage though they just kicked my ass. The game features some good times but it is much too awkward and there
are much better games from this genre and from star wars in general that are much less frustrating.
Captain Eric’s Super thumb says.. Thumbs down
This edition featured a lot more games that I was on the fence about than my others. These are some games that I spent lots of time playing in my youth and replaying them just brings a whole new idea of how good or CRAPPY these games truly are! Well folks that’s it from the magical thumbs this month. Check in next month to see another super SPECTACULAR edition of the Super Thumbs!
