Every Thursday Defunct Games wants to take a moment and reflect on all of the classic games that were given new life. Thanks to video game compilations, Nintendo's Virtual Console, the Xbox Live Arcade and even the PlayStation 3, fans of retro games are able to find all sorts of crazy old games. But what games are good? How well have these games held up? Which ones should you spend your money on? In This Week In Defunct Games we plan on answering those questions in both written and audio podcast form. So without further ado I give you the podcast version of This Week In Defunct Games, followed by our full guide to the best (and worst) classic games of the week.
ActRaiser (Virtual Console)
What Is It?
When the Super NES launched back in 1991 early adopters had a lot of good games to play, including Super Mario World, F-Zero and SimCity. But one game stood above the rest; it was a solid action game that offered just the hint of city building simulation. This game was ActRaiser, a weird Enix title that couldn't be pigeonholed into some easy to explain genre. On the one hand ActRaiser is an action game, you control a statue that comes to life and must fight his way through a bunch of amazing 2D environments. But just when you got sick of hacking and slashing, ActRaiser turned into a SimCity-style game where you have to shape the world, build a new city, keep the citizens safe, and balance your resources. Not only was this combination of genres fresh and original, but it was also extremely successful. ActRaiser is easily one of the best games of all time, a game that is full of imaginative battles, some great writing, and some of the best music I've ever heard come from a cartridge. While Enix would only release two ActRaiser games (the second being a pure action game), the game's legacy continues to live on. Level 5's popular PlayStation 2 adventure series, Dark Cloud, owes a lot to ActRaiser. With its great story, inventive gameplay, and great action sequences, ActRaiser is an easy game to recommend.
Does It Still Hold Up?
Even though I consider ActRaiser to be one of the greatest games of all time, for some strange reason I decided not to play the game between its initial 1991 launch and now. Only recently have I gone back to rediscover this classic, and I was surprised at how well the game held up. The action is a bit stiff and not very deep, but that won't keep you from wanting to see what you do next. The SimCity stuff is also pretty shallow, when it comes right down to it you don't have that much control over what happens. But that's okay, just going through the motions and seeing how those sections play out is good enough reason to experience the whole game. While the graphics and gameplay are a little dated, the music in this game is still absolutely fabulous. It's hard to believe that these tunes are coming out of a Super NES cartridge. At the end of the day ActRaiser still manages to impress ... hopefully this leads Square Enix to take a risk and give us ActRaiser 3 on one of the current generation consoles.
Is It Worth The Money?
Regardless of whether you're a seasoned pro or never heard of it, ActRaiser is a must own Virtual Console game. Both the action and the simulation is fun, and the game is actually quite long for a game of that era. While I have been critical of the $8 asking price in the past, ActRaiser is absolutely worth that price.
JJ & Jeff (Virtual Console)
What Is It?
True story: When I first bought my TurboGrafx-16 back in the early 1990s, JJ & Jeff was one of the first games I got. Although I was excited about this bizarre 2D platformer, my younger self just couldn't figure what to make of it. The game was full of things that should have been humorous (birds pooping on you, men peeing in trashcans, etc.), but for some odd reason it just never felt like it all came together. Flash forward 17 years and I discover that JJ & Jeff didn't make sense for a reason: it's based on a popular Japanese TV show TV Fun with Kato-chan and Ken-chan, the show that Vin Di Bona Productions used as its inspiration for the popular television show America's Funniest Home Videos. Unfortunately this information is more enjoyable than the actual JJ & Jeff video game. This is essentially a pointless 2D action game where you run on a flat surface and kick objects, dodge enemies and play some boring mini-games. There's nothing quite like JJ & Jeff on any other systems ... and in retrospect maybe that's a good thing.
Does It Still Hold Up?
I'm not sure the game held up even back when it was released, but then again, this American release is heavily censored and makes almost no sense whatsoever. The worst part is that it feels like it should be really funny, but nothing about it is. You sit there just waiting for a punch line that never comes. The game play is weak, the graphics aren't very good, and the humor isn't funny at all. I'm almost embarrassed that somebody decided to re-release this game on the Virtual Console.
Is It Worth The Money?
Absolutely not, this is an absolute waste of your time. I suppose there's something to be said about the game's over-the-top nature; some of the jokes are so outlandish that you want to laugh out of pity. Unfortunately there are no real laugh-out-loud moments, and most of the bizarre charm of the game wears off after you complete the first level. It stands to reason that if we understood the original source material this might have been a funnier game, but at the same time it still would have had bad control and boring levels.
Kid Chameleon (Virtual Console)
What Is It?
Back in the early 1990s Sega advertised Kid Chameleon as the type of action/platformer we had never seen before. They talked up the fact that it had hundreds of levels and "180 screens of eye popping graphics." But take away all of those levels and the supposed "eye popping graphics" and what you are left with is nothing more than a Super Mario Bros. 3 clone. While it doesn't have an Italian plumber or a great sense of style; make no mistake about it, Kid Chameleon is nothing more than a more serious Mario game. You go through the game jumping on your enemies heads, you break floating boxes to collect treasure chests, and you spend most of your time looking for different suits that change the way you play the game. Unfortunately all of this was done better in Super Mario Bros. 3. What sets this game apart is that you play a smart-ass kid who goes into a holographic world to destroy the evil that is trying to escape. Instead of eating mushrooms and a frog suit, you can turn into a samurai, a guy in a tank, and somebody that looks a lot like Jason from those Friday the 13th movies (or Splatterhouse, if you prefer). Too bad none of this gels long enough for this game to become an enjoyable experience.
Does It Still Hold Up?
Let's face it, if you're going to rip off any game it might as well be Super Mario Bros. 3. But the problem here is that nothing about this game feels right, the play mechanics are terrible and the levels are the epitome of boring. For starters, the character jumps extremely high in the air which should be a good thing ... but this aspect makes judging exact jumps difficult and makes the entire game very frustrating. I would also add that while there are a lot of different levels, none of them are especially interesting to look at. Between the unruly gameplay and the terrible level designs Kid Chameleon really comes up short and simply does not hold up all these years later.
Is It Worth The Money?
Considering you can't buy Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Virtual Console (yet), you might think this is a good alternative. But you would be wrong ... very, very wrong. This game is overpriced at $8 and most people will get bored of the game only a few levels in. That's not to say that this is a terrible game, but there are better ways of spending your $8. And I know I say this all the time, but there's no reason to buy this version at $8 when you can get it (and almost 30 other games) in the Sega Genesis Collection for a mere $20. Kid Chameleon has some interesting ideas, but nobody should have to spend that much money to discover them.
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