Volcano! For the Commodore PET

Volcano! For the Commodore PET

Volcano!!!!  Where's Tommy Lee Jones when you need him?

Volcano for the Commodore PET.  I was actually rather surprised with how much enjoyed it!  The game starts by giving your the facts about the eruption of Mt. St Helens.  In case you don't know, on Sunday, May 18, 1980 at 8:32:17 am PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) Mt St Helens erupted.  An eruption column rose 18,000 feet in the air and spread ash across 11 different states.  Fifty seven people died.

Just a peaceful morning camping on Mt St Helens

This could be filed more under the "edutainment" banner, joining such games as Oregon Trail.  It is a text adventure of sorts, though the interface is much more simplistic, giving the player only multiple choice answers.

HOLY HELL!!!!  The pixilated mayhem!  Ohhh the digital madness!

You start as a camper on the side of Mt. St Helens.  The volcano erupts and then it's a mad dash for survival.  If you select a wrong answer, you die a horrible death.  The game does a pretty good job of explaining why it's a bad idea when you select a wrong answer.  Once you make it through the game (which lasts all of about 10 minutes.....5 if you're a fast reader) nothing ever changes....but it is kinda fun going back and purposely selecting wrong answers to see what would have happened to your character had you been foolish.  I only had to restart to game once as most of the multiple choices are fairly obvious.

Hhhhmmm....digging a hole with lava on the way sounds like a good idea!

It was a rather enjoyable 10 minutes spent with my Commodore PET emulator.  The game is well written and it hearkens back to a time when computer games were monochrome and quite basic.  Still, that doesn't make them bad!

If you have a Commodore PET or want to download and emulator (there are a bunch around...WinVice being my personal favorite) the game is fairly easy to track down.  If you are interested in the history of early personal computer games, there are worse things that you could do with 10 minutes!

Captain Fizz Meets the Blaster-Trons for the NES

Captain Fizz meets the Blaster-Trons!

I love video games.  Obviously.  I have a rarely updated blog about them.  I love all video games from Pong all the way up to the Triple A blockbusters that the big boys crank out these days.  I'll tell you what though.....for all the amazing set pieces in modern video games....for all their amazing graphics and voice acting.....sometimes I really miss the old school ingenuity and creativity of the 8 bit age.  Take Captain Fizz meets The Blaster-Trons for instance.  

CFmTB is essentially a Gauntlet clone.  It's a top down shoot 'em-up set in a maze on a space ship or on an alien planet in an alien base (not sure which)....but the point is that you could basically call this Space Gauntlet.  But you know what?  It still feels different.  Back in the day, even when ripping off or cloning another game, developers still put massive amounts of creativity into their products.  Just that title alone makes you want to play!  And don't even get me started on the amazing box art!  Much like the 80's VHS boxes of yesteryear, game boxes had fantastic pieces of artwork on them.  Even Mastertronic, famous for their 1.99 game series commissioned artists to design some killer artwork for their titles.  Take Bionic Granny for instance.  Is the artwork creepy?  Yep sure is!  It certainly ain't no Boris Vallejo.....but it's still pretty groovy!

I've only just started playing but so far I've been having a blast with it.  The music is SIDilicious (if you don't know what SID music is.....go find yourself a C64 emulator and play some games!) and the control is pretty tight.  Interestingly, this is a co-op game.  There weren't a lot of these back in the day and split screen co-op was definitely a novelty.  

As you may or may not have read in my other blog (www.midnightcinephile.com)  I've recently fallen in love with retro games again.   And after getting a little encouragement from a reader (hello Devlon!) I've decided to invest some more time into the ol' Space Dungeon here.  I hope that those who find my little corner of the web enjoy what they find!  

Mega Man X Box Art

Mega Man X Series Box Art

Well, it had to happen.  I can't ignore the stats page any longer....even though nobody has made a single comment on the post, it's gotten almost 14,000 hits, so apparently it's being viewed fairly regularly.  So....being a greedy bastard, I might as well try and double my hits!  And so, I give unto you the Mega Man X Series Box art!

 Taking place 100 years after the original series, Mega Man X starts an all new adventure and story line involving Mega Man (Now usually just referred to as X) hunting down Reploids (known as Mavericks) under an evil robot named Sigma's control.  All the robot masters are now based on animals, which was an interesting concept.  X still takes each defeated master's weapon and game play is still classic run and jump platforming, but there are now introductions of upgrading your armor and mega buster.  The artwork is classic and iconic.  Mega Man X also introduces us to a new ally - Zero.

X2 is a direct continuation of Mega Man X.  A new threat faces X and the Maverick Hunters...a group of robots calling themselves X-Hunters.  They lure X in with parts from Zero, who was destroyed in the first installment.  X must try and recover Zero's body parts to have Dr. Cain rebuild him.  If he fail's Sigma rebuilds him and X must fight his old friend himself.  That's some powerful stuff for a Super NES release!

The final Mega Man X release on the Super NES console.  This installment sees the Reploid threat being neutralized by a Repoloid Scientist named Dr. Doppler, who creates a new technology.  The reformed Reploids form a sort of robot utopia that they call Doppler Town.  All is well until these Reploids revert back to their evil ways and go on an all out attack.  X and Zero head out to destroy 8 new robot masters.  After defeating Doppler, they find out that Sigma is alive and well as a computer virus.  Sigma corrupted Doppler, forcing him to create a new body for him.  Hey.....are you starting to see a trend with Sigma here?

X4 is the first of the MegaMan X series to appear on the Playstation console stateside.  X3 had a PS release in Europe and Japan.  X4 is the first in the series to present Full Motion Video cut-scenes.  An army known as Repliforce is created to assist the Maverick Hunters.  Repliforce is lead by General and Colonel.  General is meeting with shady characters in the background and when the floating city known as Sky Lagoon comes crashing down, killing thousands, X and Zero are dispatched to investigate.  Colonel denies any involvement, but we know betting.  8 new Maverick Leaders spring up and after defeating them and General & Colonel...surprise, surprise...we find out that Sigma has been pulling the strings the whole time!

X5 is a pretty cool edition to the series.  Sigma wastes no time in attacking after the events of X4.  He openly attacks the Maverick Hunters intending to lose and spreading a new virus.  He has a keen interest in Zero in this installment, wanting to "unlock his true power" and taking X down at the same time.  There is a plot to crash a space colony into Earth as well.  X and Zero must defeat eight more Maverick Leaders to collect the parts needed to upgrade a super weapon called "Enigma".  The success of this mission is completely randomized by the game, which is a first.  Another first is the fact that this is the first Mega Man game to feature multiple endings!

X6 was the first time that series creator Keiji Inafune was not involved in the game.  He had intended to end the series with the death of Zero in X5.  X6 finds the surface of the world virtually uninhabitable, Zero is missing and presumed dead.  A new Maverick called Zero Nightmare is causing havoc and X is infuriated that this Maverick would use his friends name.  Defeating Zero Nightmare, we find that Zero is alive and recovering from his injuries.  Together X and Zero seek out the creator of Zero Nightmare.  A Reploid known as Gate who.....wait for it.....also has been rebuilding Sigma!  X and Zero again defeat the nearly rebuilt Sigma.

With X7, the series jumped from the PSOne to the PS2.  In this installment, we find that X has had enough of war and violence and starts to question whether or not the Maverick Hunters are doing the right thing.  He steps down as a Hunter, and this causes a void in the ranks of Maverick Hunters.  A new group arises called Red Alert...who are sort of like Repliforce, but more vigilante with very questionable tactics.  A young member named Axl has had enough of Red Alert and leaves, which infuriates the leader, Red.  Red sends out a Mechaloid after Axl, who is saved by Zero.  Red issues a challenge to the Maverick Hunters, releasing eight Maverick Leaders that he had in custody....who ever manages to take them down first will get control of Axl.  Zero and Axl are your two main characters for most of the game, until X gets his head out of his ass for the final battle against Red.  When we get to Red's fortress we find that yet again Sigma has been rebuilt.  Time to whoop his robot ass again, I supppose.

The final of the numbered X series games, X8 is an odd one.  Humans have finally had enough of this Reploid war and are trying to colonize the moon.  A new generation of DNA based Reploids are created that have special inhibitor chips that prevent them from going Maverick.  These new Reploids can use DNA data to change their shape, which is pretty cool.  We find out that Axl is actually a prototype for these.  All is going well until a resurrected Vile (defeated in X3) kidnaps the lead Reploid project leader.  The Maverick Hunters go after and we soon find that Sigma's DNA is implanted on all the chips put in the new generation.  So all these Reploids that aren't supposed to be able to go Maverick.......they go Maverick.  Sigma is finally defeated once and for all, but then Lumine, the kidnapped Reploid takes his place and launches an all out assault on the Maverick Hunters, stating that in order for evolution to take place, humans and obsolete Reploids must be destroyed.  Lumine is defeated, of course....but at a cost.

This is a spin-off of the X series, but I figured "what the hell" I'll include it here.  Command Mission takes place about 100 years after the events of X8.  A meteorite falls and a new substance known as Force Metal is extracted from it.  This Force Metal is used in the engineering of new Reploids.  Cause, you know....that's a good idea.  A whole floating city called Giga City is created in the middle of the ocean, who's sole purpose is harvesting and smelting Force Metal.  Well, shocker, Giga City is attacked by a group of Reploids led by one called Epsilon.  X and Zero are dispatched along with another Hunter named Shadow to take care of the situation.  Well, Shadow betrays them....cause...you know....Reploids named Shadow sound trustworthy to begin with.  Turns out Epsilon isn't a Maverick.  He's fighting the good fight against the Reploid who sent X to Giga City to begin with, Redips, who IS Maverick.  Sigma is nowhere to be found, thank god.  This is a turn based strategy game, which is a huge departure for the series, but still very cool.


Well there ya have it!  The Mega Man X Box Art series, with capsulized reviews of each game!  Hope you enjoyed this as much as the classic series and.....seriously.....leave me a comment or something.  I don't bite.  Much.

Super Mario Land for the Gameboy

Super Mario Land - 1989

Super Mario Land was a launch title for Nintendo's original Game Boy and is now available on the 3DS Virtual Console.  I decided to download it and give it a whirl.  I had never actually played this game much when it first came out.  A friend of mine had a copy and I played maybe for five minutes, but then by the time I had gotten a Game Boy of my own (I was a little late to the party with that particular system) Super Mario Land wasn't really available at most retailers as it had once been.  I played the sequel (6 Golden Coins) to death, but I really wanted to go back and check out Mario's first hand held adventure.

I found that it is actually quite good!  Classic Mario Bros. action with graphics that closely resemble the first and second (Japanese) adventures.  There are a few differences that I noticed right off the bat:  When you either get a power-up or take damage, the screen does not take a brief pause, the action continues which actually forces you to strategize a bit more when going for a power-up!  Speaking of power-up's, the flower that gave you the incendiary ball of fire in the original adventure now gives you the power of the Super Ball:  A bouncing black ball that can not only damage enemies, but also can be used to collect coins in hard to reach locations!

Super Mario Land takes place in the Realm of Sarasaland.  An alien named Tatanga invades and hypnotizes all the creatures and Princess Daisy....who he wants to marry.  Or probe.  Probably both.  Can't trust them damn aliens, ya know?  Anyway, Sarasaland is divided into four different kingdoms:  Birabuto, Muda, Easton, and Chai.  One of the things that I had always found fascinating about this Mario game is that the enemies are pretty wildly different from any other games (with of course the exception of Super Mario Bros. 2).  Even the Goombas and Koopas are different.  As a matter of fact, the Goomba is actually referred to as a Goombo.  I know, I know....they changed a vowel....ohhh ahhh, ooooh ahhh.  The koopa is also in fact a Bombshell Koopa.  Instead of stomping and kicking him, you instead stom him and then get the hell out of dodge before he blows up.  I'll admit it IS pretty fun to take out an unsuspecting enemy with an activated Bombshell Koopa. 

If I am not mistaken, Super Mario Land is also the first and only time that Mario climbed into a vehicle to complete a level.  In Level 2-3 he uses the Marin Pop (submarine) to navigate the waters and then battle Dragonzamasu.  Mario then climbs into his trusty Sky Pop (airplane) in level 4-3 and battles his way through to Biokinton and then Tatanga.  After defeating Tatanga, Mario and Daisy fly away.  Awwwwww....

There are 12 levels in all....which means three levels per each of the four kingdoms.  Each kingdom in turn is ruled over by a boss.

King Totomesu rules over Birabuto.  He's a fire breathing lion wearing an Egyptian headdress. 

Dragonzamasu and his guardian, Tamao are the rulers of Muda.  Dragonzamasu is like a giant fire breathing seahorse and Tamao is like an eyeball.....thing.

Hiyoihoi rules the Easton Kingdom.  He's a giant stone tossing Moai

Biokinton is the baddie that is the ruler of Chai.  He is very shy and hides behind a cloud.  He tosses chickens at you.  That bastard.

Tatanga is the evil alien mastermind behind the whole thing and you'll face him after defeating Biokinton.








After you complete the game, it will bring you back to the title screen and you can now play the game in "Hard Mode".  Should you complete the "Hard Mode" as well, you then will be able to pick any level to play as you wish from the title screen....which is pretty nifty!

I had a blast playing through Super Mario Land.  It wasn't the most challenging Mario game I've ever played, but it was very fun and (I think) has a lot of replay value if your a nostalgic type of person (which I assume you are if you're reading this blog!)

For only $3.99 you can once again own Super Mario Land and live the adventure of Sarasaland once again.  Download it NOW!

Now let's go Nintendo......let's Get Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins on the 3DS Virtual Console!

Bionic Granny for the C64

Bionic Granny (Commodore 64) - Mastertronic - 1984

Hailed as one of the WORST games of all time for the Commodore 64, Bionic Granny was one of Mastertronics 199 Range games.  It was ranked #3 in the top 100 worst games for the Commodore 64 at Lemon 64.  The plot of this budget title is pure awesome.  You are The Bionic Granny and you are waiting by the town school for the kids to get out.  Why you ask?  SO YOU CAN WHACK THEM!  Yep.  That's correct, you are a psychotic Bionic Granny waiting for kids to get out so you can hit them.  Oh yeah, and there's "The Lollipop Lady" who will throw lollipops at you as you try to whack the kids.  A Lollipop Lady, in case you are wondering, is the equivalent of a school crossing guard.  If you get hit with one of her lollipops then you lose a life. 

Make no mistake, this game is HORRIBLE.  Absolutely, positively HORRIBLE!  Which begs the question:  Why then, do I love to play this game and others like it?  Why, when I have current gen consoles, do I spend my time playing horrible 8-bit games from almost 30 years ago?  Is it nostalgia?  Self loathing?  A refusal to leave the past?   Well, probably yes to all three questions.....but there's something more to it.  I find a certain charm in these types of games.

I used to like to make up short stories about games when I was a kid.  I never shared them with anyone, and I don't know if I even ever really wrote them down....for every game that I had, there was an awesome (in my young mind) story to go along with it.

If memory serves correctly:

The Bionic Granny was a nice old lady who fell into a woodchipper after being chased by a neighborhood dog that belonged to some school kids.  The woodchipper belonged to the neighborhood mad scientist (cause ya know, ALL neighborhoods have a mad scientist!) and he found her and gave her bionic parts and fixed her up.  Now Granny was mad and going for revenge on all school kids for what happened to her.

So I guess she was kinda like a geriatric Freddy Kreuger.....only she wasn't dead....and she didn't get the kids in their dreams.....and she was Bionic.

Anyway....the game play is pretty stiff in this game.  Most characters have about two frames worth of animation and the graphics are quite poor even by C64 standards.  Also the dimensions are pretty off for the game.  The school is the same size as a field, which is the same size as a basketball court.  All the trees are about the same size...or SMALLER in some cases.  Size of foliage and buildings not witthstanding, the screen is pretty simply laid out as well.  There's really not much in the way of strategy needed.  Just go after them kids and WHACK 'EM!

There is only one tune that plays throughout the game.  I single note tune that is pretty catchy.....for the first minute.  Then it becomes a bit on the tedious side.....but that's why God created the Boom Box!  I enjoy whacking children to the soothing sounds of some classic Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.  My wife tells me that there's something not right about pretending to be an elderly woman hitting children while listening to Pour Some Sugar On Me.  I don't know what she's talking about......

So if you are a sick twisted monkey like me and you have a high tolerance for bad games, there are worse things that you could do than play a few rounds of Bionic Granny.....if for no other reason than just to be able to say:

"Yeah man, I've played Bionic Granny!"

Of course approximately 4 people in the entire universe will actually know what your talking about...

Mega Man Box Art

Classic Mega Man Series Box Art

One of my all time favorite video game series is Mega Man.  I bought the original game at The Electronics Boutique with some birthday money I had received.  I had already rented and played Mega Man 2 and I was itching to try out the original and I wasn't disappointed.  

I thought I'd take a few moments and give tribute to the Blue Bomber's classic series.  A look at the evolution of the classic series.....and the evolution of the box art for the games.  For better or worse, these pieces of video game art give me the warm fuzzies all over.  Let's dive in!

Ah, the original Mega Man.  There's quite a difference between the American and European releases of the Blue Bombers first outing against the forces of Dr. Wily's evil Robot Masters.  I'm a pretty nostalgic kinda guy so the American release that I grew up up with is

near and dear to my heart.....but the European art is friggin awesome!  In the American release, Mega Man looks like an old guy with a mustache....with a crooked helmet.  He looks like he means business though!  Then there's the European version with a younger looking Mega Man and Dr. Wily is really looking like a mad scientist.

Mega Man 2 was actually the first Mega Man game that I ever played.  I rented this bad monkey from Video Paradise back in the day.  Alot of people say that the artwork for the first two games is terrible, but I'll tell you what....my twelve year old mind was blown away by the cover of this game.  Though I did ofter wonder in my adult years why it is that Dr. Light is apparently hiding behind Crash Man.  It doesn't really seem as though he's being held prisoner.....but more looking for protection as he witnesses Mega Man and Quick Man battle it out.  The European cover art is just plain bizarre.  Mega Man is all chromed out and looks like an extra from an 80's Human League music video.  It almost reminds me of the artwork for Atari 2600 games or maybe even Commodore 64.

Mega Man 3 is where they started to use the more robotic looking Mega Man on the American box artwork.  The artwork always sorta bugged me on this one.  It's pretty clear that Mega Man is blasting Spark Man here....but Spark Man is looking pretty generic.  Apparently this was before Wily gave him his orange paint job.  Speaking of which....why in the hell is  Top Man green?  I'm sure that it's probably due to the fact that the artwork was created before the finished game...and perhaps while still in prototype stage, Top Man was green....but somehow it bugs me.  The European art is quite interesting on this one as well.  Mega Man takes on more of his (now) familiar anime style as well as the floating heads of the robot masters he must face.  But then there's a less cartoony Dr Wily looking pretty damn freaked out.  The hair standing on end cracks me the hell up too.

Mega Man 4 is another cover that looks pretty cool, but when you actually stop and think about what you are looking at you start to really question what the hell they were thinking about when creating the cover art.
Here we see Mega Man, either jumping in the air, or sliding down a hill.....in the background we see an onion domed castle with a GINORMOUS Pharoah Man firing his Pharoah Shot apparently at random.  Why do I say he's GINORMOUS, you ask?  Well, he is standing on top of the giant onion dome of a castle.  Judging by the picture I would have to say that Pharoah Man is rought the size of King Kong or Godzilla in this particular piece of art.  Why is he standing on a Russian looking building?  Well that's because we initially think that the villian behind Mega Man's headaches is Dr. Cossack.  Turns out Wily was forcing him to do his bidding by kidnapping his daughter.  The European version is essentially the same, with the purple Capcom border missing....and a slightly different expression on Mega Man's face.  His look in the European version looks a bit more like a determined  resolve to defeat Wily......while the American artwork has him making a face like a kid who's up to no good.  I should know....I was constantly up to no good as a kid!

Mega Man 5.  Alot of people say that this is their least favorite Mega Man game.
The game itself is great...just like all the other games in the series, but I think that the artwork here is probably my least favorite of the original NES titles.  No particular reason.....it just.....feels off to me.  I can't quite put my finger on it.  Maybe it's because Mega Man is making an odd face.....which could be due to the fact that apparently he's absorbing an energy shot from Gravity Man.  Huh.  I dunno.  Weird.  Proto Man is also in the background firing down upon Mega Man.  This is the second game to have the ol' switcharoo....where you think that you're facing a new arch enemy, but in fact it turns out that Dr. Wily was running the show all along.  Surprise, surprise. 

Mega Man 6 was the last of the original NES games.  Some of the Robot Masters were a bit silly in this game, but it's still a fun one.  The cool thing about the cover art for Mega Man 6 is that it features Knight Man and Wind Man, which are the two Robot Masters that were designed by North American fans in a contest run by Nintendo Power.  The other six Masters were created by Japanese fans....which was nothing new.....there had been several contests to create a new Robot Master in Japan for several of the sequels....but this was the first time that a contest was run in North American.  Out of  more than 200,000 entries, only 8 were selected.  That's a lot of Robot Masters!

Mega Man 7 was the first and only of the "Classic" Mega Man games to appear on the Super Nintendo (The Mega Man X series was the 16 bit systems focus in the series).   The box art is so-so....nothing really ever jumped out and grabbed me about the artwork.  The background is pretty much monochromatic aside from Dr. Wily and a few assorted mechanical baddies.  Mega Man does look pretty cool though in this one!

Mega Man 8.    Worst.     Cover Art.      Ever.      Period. 

Mega Man 9.  The return of classic Mega man in all his 8-bit glory.  Released as a downloadable game on e VC, PSN and XBLA, this artwork is a return to the humanistic look of Mega Man.  What's insanely awesome is Dr. Wily's new look!  It's like a Darth Vader meets Shredder from TMNT topped off with the obligatory mad scientist look (which of course, he is!).  Mega Man is looking like he hit the robot gym and is charging up the Mega Buster for some action.  I like how in addtion to his Mega Buster, he's also holding a laser gun.  Dig that crazy robot with the buzz saw hands running after him too! 

Mega Man 10 came out in 2010, which could be considred 20XX by Mega Man standards, which is pretty awesome!  Anywhoo.  The artwork to Mega Man 10 is just as awesome as the Mega Man 9 artwork.  This one reminds me a lot of the original Star Wars poster....in this case Mega Man taking Luke Skywalkers pose and Proto Man taking the Princess Leah pose....only he's not clinging ot Mega Man.  Because that would be weird.  I had always thought that Mega Man would make an awesome movie when I was a kid.  20 years later, I STILL think it would make an awesome film and the posters for parts 9 and 10 absolutely prove it!  With the special effects being what they are today, I think that a Mega Man movie is long over due.....and I want Wily to look like he does in the Mega Man 9 poster! 

Well, that's it so far for the classic Mega Man games.  I truly hope that Capcom will bring the Blue Bomber back for more downloadable adventures.....because quite frankly, I never want this series to end.  I don't even care how silly the Robot Masters get, I'll still play.  Some said that Sheep Man was ridiculous....I say BAAAA!  No more ridiculous than Snake Man, Toad Man, or Centaur Man!  I thought they were all pretty cool.....and hey.....they were invented by a mad scientist!  What do you expect?  Dr. Wiley has had  his ass handed to him 10 times thus far and still hasn't given up yet.  I've got a feeling that Wily has got more tricks up his sleeves.  I can't wait to see what new Robot Masters the future holds for fans!

PS:  Capcom, if you're reading this....please, please, PLEASE....I wanna see Cthulhu Man!  Now THAT would be a fierce Robot Master!  SHYEAH!

Monster Party for the NES

Monster Party - NES

Monster Party was (in 1989) the most awesome video game I had ever played in my life.  Period.  Not only did you get to periodically turn into a monster by consuming a giant pill, but you were fighting your way through 8 stages of monster mayhem through The Dark World....each with several bosses along the way.  After completing all 8 stages you face off against the Dark World Master.

The cover of this game is awesome...we've got Dracula, The Gill-man, Medusa, Some kinda Red Bigfoot/Troll Monster, A Giant Venus Flytrap and a knock off of H.R. Geiger's Alien.  Wowwee!  What a collection of monsters!  The only monsters that actually appear IN the game are Medusa (who is actually a giant snake with snake hair) and the Venus Flytrap monster...which looks nothing like the vicious carnivore on the cover.....it's pink and it shoots bubbles at you.

In the game you control Mark...a kid who is visited by a monster named Bert who begs him for his help to save his home, Dark World from the monsters running rampant.  Bert tells Mark that his "weapon" will be useful in the fight against the monsters.  Mark's "weapon" being the baseball bat that he's carrying.  See, he was on  his way home from a baseball game when Bert confronted him.  Before ya know it, Bert uses some kind of alien gargoyle magic and fuses himself together with Mark.  During play, when you consume a giant pill that looks like a colored Tylenol, you will transform into Bert for a short time.

As Mark, you swing your baseball bat to either strike enemies or to deflect their projectiles back at them.  As Bert you shoot, laser bullet things......and you can fly....which is awesome.  The problem is that the two characters are on two different ends of the spectrum when it comes to difficulty.  Mark is a pain in the ass to use sometimes....especially when there are multiple projectiles coming at you.  Bert on the other hand almost makes the game too easy......so I suppose that sort of balances it out.....except for the fact that it often seems like Bert is nowhere to be found when you need him the most.

 

Fried Shrimp Attack!

Monster Party, or Parodi Warudo Monsutā Pātī as it's known in Japan, is truly one of the strangest games for the NES....and that's saying a lot when you look at titles such as Zombie Nation, Kabuki Quantum Fighter and Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom.  But when you get right down too it, everything about this game is simply bizarre.  Where else can you fight a giant cat in a crate?  The damn thing actually chucks kittens at you and you have to whack them back at it to damage it!  That's demented!  Or how about the Cow Man/Minotaur that attacks you by firing little cows at you?  Or the best yet.....when you are confronted by a triple threat boss that consistes of a giant piece of fried shrimp, and onion ring and some other piece of fried food on a toothpick (!?) that bounce around the room and you must destroy them.  There is an evil looking machine that sorta kinda looks like the teleporters from David Cronenberg's 1986 redux of The Fly in the background.  This is truly whacked!

So......much.....blood!

Something that is also really interesting to note, is the fact that there is alot of 8-bit blood on display in this game.  This is pretty interesting considering Nintendo's stance on video game cencorship in the late 1980's.  You can quite easily find this cartridge on E-bay, Amazon and probably at any local video game store that deals in retro games.  Or even easier, you can play it on an emulator or at Retro Uprising. 

You've really gotta play this game to believe all the weirdness that abounds in it.