This Week In Defunct Games - April 12, 2007

What Is It? Is it just me or does Galaga feel a little out of place on the Nintendo Virtual Console? This is the kind of game that feels like it deserves to be on the Xbox Live Arcade for 400 Microsoft Points. Perhaps that's because it IS on the Xbox Live Arcade for 400 Microsoft Points! This is essentially the same experience Xbox 360 owners have been privy to since last July. Galaga an overhead shooter where you shoot at the top of the screen and try to take out all of the creepy alien creatures before they swoop down and kill you, that's pretty much the entire crux of this classic arcade game. It's all very simple, but it needs to be because it's all about getting more points and having your high score (and name) at the top of the leader boards. Unlike a lot of Nintendo Entertainment System games that have made their way to the Virtual Console, Galaga is an old arcade game (from 1981) that was ported to an NES cartridge. The good news is that it plays a good game of Galaga, the bad news is that by the time this came out on the NES most 8-bit games (and 8-bit shooters) had moved on from this primitive (albeit fun) state. That's not to say this isn't a fun game, but you have to admit that this does seem a bit out of place on the Virtual Console.

Does It Still Hold Up? I suppose it does, but only in the most nostalgic sense of the word. You can have a lot of fun playing Galaga, but at some point it's going to hit you that there have been some massive improvements to the genre since 1981. Considering that genuine classics like Gradius and R-Type are already on the Virtual Console, Galaga just comes off feeling primitive and maybe even a little boring. Gamers who completely missed the 8-bit era will no doubt be confused by why this was good in the first place, everybody else will enjoy it for a few minutes and then move on to some other game they downloaded with their Wii points.

Is It Worth The Money? As much as I appreciate Galaga, this is a hard sell for just about everybody. Let's face it; almost a year ago Microsoft released this game on the Xbox Live Arcade for exactly the same price ($5). When you can look at two identical games side by side it's easy to see which ones is a better deal, and sadly it's not the Virtual Console version. When it was released on the Xbox Live Arcade you got leader boards, HD support, and achievements. This Wii port is nothing more than the original game, no extras or anything to speak of. It still plays a mean game of Galaga, but there are so many other games on the Virtual Console that there's no reason to by this. Go and choose something that was originally designed for the NES, leave these classic arcade ports to the Xbox Live Arcade.

What Is It? When it comes right down to it there are some really great games on the TurboGrafx-16, but Bravoman is not one of them. This is essentially a 2D platformer that feels like Contra mixed with Dhalsim from Street Fighter II. In Bravoman you play a superhero that has the ability to extend his arms and legs (and head) for several feet, that way he can hit enemies long before they have a chance to attack him. If that sounds familiar it's because it's very reminiscent of Dynamite Headdy, and infinitely more enjoyable 16-bit action game. But I digress, you rush through a bunch of levels extending your bionic body parts and beating up other villains. Between levels you are rewarded with a cinema of the main bad guy telling somebody to go and kill you. Usually this wouldn't be worth mentioning, but in this case the bad guy has a head of hair that looks an awful lot like a nuclear mushroom cloud. He's also holding a knife or a scepter or something and thrusting it like he's masturbating. But I digress, the game is short and easy to play, the moves are limited to punches, kicks and using your head, which in turn makes this game very repetitive and not a lot of fun.

Does It Still Hold Up? This is the kind of game that wasn't even good back in the day when it first came out. The graphics aren't very good, the game play is a little too simple, and it's all over before it even gets started. The idea behind Bravoman is solid, the idea of throwing your body parts is a good one (as demonstrated by Rayman and Dynamite Headdy), but the execution here is horrible. While this is hardly the worst TurboGrafx-16 game on the Virtual Console, it won't keep you interested for very long.

Is It Worth The Money? If you like to laugh at silly Japanese to English translations then maybe it's worth a play through, but when it comes right down to it Bravoman just doesn't deliver. There are things to like about this game (the villain is great), but it feels a bit expensive at 600 points. With so many great TurboGrafx-16 games yet to come to the Virtual Console I have to wonder why they decided to feature this and not something better. Bravoman is worth playing, but not worth spending $6 on.

What Is It? Before Sonic the Hedgehog Sega was doing everything they could to find an appropriate mascot character; somebody that could go toe to toe with Super Mario and all of his friends. Their first two attempts were Wonder Boy and Alex Kidd, neither of which was of the same caliber of Nintendo's icons. This is the one and only Alex Kidd game found on the Genesis, and for good reason - it sucks! You play Alex Kidd, a strange monkey-like kid with spiky ears and terrible fashion sense. You play this much like any other 2D platformer of the era; you jump around, attack (by punching or jump kicking) and battle bosses. There are a few cool game play elements you don't get in the Super Mario series (such as a motorcycle, airplane, etc.), but by and large you've done and seen everything this game has to offer before even playing it. When you're not jumping and attacking (and opening treasure chests) you're playing Rock, Paper Scissors with bosses and townsfolk. While it's not the worst game around, it's certainly not worth reliving on the Virtual Console.

Does It Still Hold Up? There's a reason that Sega ditched Alex Kidd when Sonic the Hedgehog hit the scene. Had this been a Sega Master System game it still wouldn't have been any good, but it would be easier to justify. As it is Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle is a disappointing 2D action game that is excruciatingly painful to play. The game does have one or two flashes of brilliance, but everything in this game had been done better by other games. If this was Sega's answer to Mario, then there's a good reason the Master System couldn't compete with the NES. Thankfully Sega retired this character before Nintendo gave us the Super NES.

Is It Worth The Money? If you've read this feature before then you already know that I think that $8 is too much for a Genesis game. Although there are a few that are worth it (Gunstar Heroes springs to mind), most aren't worth more than $5 at this point. Alex Kidd is definitely in that camp, it's a terrible game that nobody should buy for the asking price. To add insult to injury you can buy this game with the excellent Sega Genesis collection and get 25 other games. Depending on which version you get, Alex Kidd on the Sega Genesis Collection will run you somewhere between 70 cents and $1.07 ... which is still too much to pay.

What Is It? Mortal Kombat II marks the peak of Ed Boon's violent fighting series. While some might argue that the third installment (and its expansion pack, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) are better, those people would be wrong. Instead of going all silly on us, Mortal Kombat II was a mostly serious exercise in brutality. The levels were dark and moody, the fighters looked like they were born to be in this game, and the story wasn't so silly that it took you out of the experience. But even better, it improved on the original game in every possible way. While the first game was groundbreaking for a number of reasons (mostly technical), the sequel was actually a good playing fighting game. Couple that with the dark tone and the great characters and you have one of the best fighting games of the 1990s. It's a shame that Midway took everything that was so great about this game and squandered it with a bunch of terrible sequels. These days Ed Boon is saying that everything we know about the Mortal Kombat series (including the fighting styles and characters) will change when it reappears on the next generation consoles, hopefully it will have the tone of Mortal Kombat II, because to this day this 1993 classic is my favorite.

Does It Still Hold Up? There's a couple of ways you can look at this, on one hand if you compare it to the modern day 3D fighting games (and even 2D fighters that hit towards the middle and late 1990s) you'll find that the game play kind of chugs along. There's nothing fluid about the overall game play, it's all very motorized and not very appealing. But then again, this is what we were working with back in 1993; this offered everything you could want for the time. But just because it's a little choppy in places and not every special move wants to work every time, that shouldn't keep you from experiencing a great fighting game. It won't keep up with new 3D fighters, but it's still a solid title worth your time.

Is It Worth The Money? When Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was released on the Xbox Live Arcade a few months back it cost $10. Mortal Kombat II (which I consider to be a much stronger experience) is only $5, half the price. This version retains everything that was good about the Xbox Live Arcade release, including online play and leader boards (no achievements though) at a fraction of the price. At $5 it's hard to go wrong, especially if you're a PlayStation 3 owner looking for something (anything) new. This is a great diversion from Virtua Fighter 5 and Tekken: Dark Resurrection.