May2022

March2016

  • Review City Connection (Wii U eShop / NES)

    Missed Connection

    If you don't remember City Connection, we wouldn't blame you. In 1985, arcades in the U.S. and elsewhere were booming in popularity, and as a result that particular industry was rather strong. This title came to NES owners a little later, however, releasing in the middle of 1988. It looks and feels like a relic of a bygone era, and...

October2015

June2015

July2014

  • Review Bases Loaded (Wii U eShop / NES)

    America’s 8-bit pastime

    Is there anything more American than hotdogs and apple pie? Yes. Yes there is. It’s baseball. The answer is baseball. It’s a game that has permeated the American culture and inserted itself firmly into so many of our lives. As such, it comes as no surprise that there are a plethora of video games available based on the...

  • Review Bases Loaded (3DS eShop / NES)

    Can this old timer still make contact?

    Back in the mid-to-late 80s, when the NES was the dominant force in video games, cyber sporting wasn’t exactly the complex affair that it is now. With modern controllers having about a dozen buttons and joysticks to manage, it’s common for every one of those to be utilized for numerous functions —...

November2013

  • Review Brawl Brothers (Wii U eShop / SNES)

    Sibling rivalry

    Jaleco released a trilogy of side-scrolling fighters in Japan under the Rushing Beat banner, and while all three made their way to the west, they did so under different titles: Rival Turf, Brawl Brothers and The Peace Keepers. Inspired in no small part by the success of Capcom's Final Fight, the series never really managed to reach...

  • Review City Connection (3DS eShop / NES)

    Crash and burn

    Originally released as an arcade game, City Connection puts you in the shoes of a man who wants to travel all over the world in order to paint its roads white, thus proving that he's travelled across the globe. Sounds like vandalism to us, but that's the '80s for you! Of course, this would be rather difficult to accomplish on foot, so...

February2012

  • Review Maru's Mission (3DS eShop / GB)

    Mission: Unbearable

    Several months ago, the eShop saw the release of Avenging Spirit, a gleefully eccentric title that made us all sorry we missed it the first time around. Lightning doesn't strike twice for Jaleco with Maru's Mission, however, as this time the publisher has dusted off a forgotten title that really should have stayed that way. The...

August2011

  • Review Avenging Spirit (3DS eShop / GB)

    Like Kirby... if Kirby were SERIOUSLY TERRIFYING

    It's a story as old as time itself: boy meets girl, boy takes girl out for a walk, boy is murdered by mobsters who kidnap girl, boy possesses vampires and kangaroos to get her back. Jaleco not only provides us with a bizarre and attention-grabbing backstory for the game, but they made sure to craft a...

July2011

  • Review Fortified Zone (3DS eShop / GB)

    Link goes Commando

    Jaleco seems to be good at making a game of just about any genre. We've seen fighters, sports games, a firefighting game and more, and this one can probably be best described as a mix of The Legend of Zelda and Commando, similarly to the original Metal Gear, in a way. Like many old games there's not much of a story. You play as...

May2011

  • Review The Ignition Factor (SNES)

    It burns, but it doesn't crash

    Ask anybody to name some firefighting games and you'll be lucky if they name one. Despite the games about the profession generally being quite good, there's not many of them, and they're not very widely known either. The Ignition Factor is one of only two on the SNES, the other one being the more well-known The...

April2011

  • Review Brawl Brothers (Wii Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)

    A marked improvement

    Jaleco released several beat 'em ups on the SNES, although you may not know that three of them are actually related. Exclusively in Japan, the games Rival Turf!, Brawl Brothers and The Peace Keepers were all part of one series called Rushing Beat, but for their North American releases they were retitled, and the story and...

October2010

  • Review Super E.D.F. Earth Defense Force ( / Super Nintendo)

    Emergency on planet earth

    Back in the 16-bit wars, the SNES was unquestionably the comfortable winner when it came to RPGs. Sega's Mega Drive (or Genesis, depending on where in the world you're reading this) was completely and utterly outclassed in this area, despite the presence of brilliant titles such as Shining Force, LandStalker and Light...

May2008

  • Review City Connection (Wii Virtual Console / NES)

    Driving round a bend

    City Connection was a moderately popular arcade game in the early '80s. The game stars you as a rather strapping young man driving around the world to paint the roads white in order to prove he's been there. Doesn't make much sense to us, but hey, whatever floats his boat! While doing so you must watch out for cars (including...

April2008

  • Review Bases Loaded (Wii Virtual Console / NES)

    Not quite a home run.

    To herald the start of the new baseball season in the USA, it seems fitting that Bases Loaded should get a Virtual Console release. When this was first released on the NES twenty years ago there wasn’t really much that came close to it. The simple, yet innovative gameplay struck a home run with baseball fans all over the...

September2007