Game 39: Another World

Another World (Out of this World) is a cinematic platformer released on just about every system back in 1991. Now the phrase, "cinematic platformer" gives me shivers because of its sheer potential of awfulness. When I hear those words I think of terrible gameplay and ugly, "realistic" looking graphics. The games are typically rotoscoped to give them a unique graphical style, which usually doesn't bother me, it's more the style of gameplay that makes me experience nasty flashes of nostalgia. If you've ever played the original Prince of Persia games, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Another World is known as Out of this World in the United States. Much like Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit, the game is renamed for some stupid reason that leaves people confused and wondering whether the stone is the sorcerer's or the philosopher's. Either way, the game supposedly influenced Fumito Ueda, who went on to create Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. So at least this game was good for something, but let's check out the first hour of Out of this World to see if it can properly defend itself and (in my opinion) the thankfully lacking genre known as the cinematic platformer.

I'll be playing the 15th Anniversary Edition for the PC released in 2006. The game features higher resolution graphics and more detailed backgrounds.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the first hour of Another World begins. We're looking at a lonely building under the night sky. Suddenly a car screeches to a halt in front of it. A man gets out of the vehicle and enters the building. An elevator door opens and our orange haired driver steps out.
01 - He types in a code on a keypad and gets scanned. All his vitals match and the computer types out, "Good evening professor." It even knows what car I drove here from the key I'm holding.

02 - The professor is sitting at a workstation now and enters CDOS. He types in the command, "Run Project 23."

03 - He's running a particle acceleration experiment.
04 - Once that is complete he starts a practical trial, pops a soda and watches the fireworks. Literally! A storm outside shot a bolt of lightning into the cyclotron, opening up a portal on the professor! Him and his entire desk is gone!

06 - Woah, the professor landed in a deep pool of water and it was almost too late before I realized I had to swim him up and out of the water! At the last moment it looked like tentacles were reaching out to me. As I crawl out of the pool, a strange creature runs away.

07 - Well, for better or worse I now have total control. I walk right, kicking slugs along the way. One falls on me and stings me! I fall dead! Wow, that was fast!
08 - I crawl out of the pool again... a moment later I'm dead from another slug!

09 - Well what the frak? (Battlestar Galactica is back by the way!) The giant monster that was watching me climb out of the pool just pounced on me and killed me! How was I supposed to fend that guy off?

10 - Stupid slugs.

11 - Well, I figured out how to run so this time I run from the monster, but when I enter that screen again I immediately get killed. This is going to take a lot of trial and error I believe. Man, I wish I could just run over these slugs.
12 - Okay, the monster follows me from screen to screen, looks like I'll have to run and jump over the slugs and get back to the pool? No idea.

13 - Ugh, I got away and the monster tripped, so I became lazy and stopped. Bad idea, I was dead a moment later.

15 - WOW! Epic! I ran all the way to the left from the monster, jumped off a cliff, swung from a vine to the other side of the brute, ran all the way back to the right, and then the beast got blown away by some guys cloaked in black! Then they shot at me! Now I'm hanging in a tiny cage with some ugly looking dude.
16 - I actually have control so I start swinging the cage back and forth using my momentum. Ha, owned! We land the cage on a guard's head and take off running.

18 - Whoops, I got shot. Now I have to do the cage sequence again. This time I notice that the guard dropped his gun and I grab it. Awesome!

19 - Ugh, I got shot in the back. No idea where that guard came from. Cage sequence again.

21 - You can make a shield with your gun. And that's exactly what an enemy just did. This is tough!
23 - I finally make it past the shooting sequence and we hop on a lift and head down... Oh, by the way, the guy who I was in the cage with is chilling out with me. Luckily I can't shoot him!

25 - Dang, I get shot. This time I head up on the lift, nope. Dead end. We head all the way to the bottom of the lift and I shoot a guard in the back. Nice. There's some flashy thing on the wall so I shoot it, I think it shorted something out.

27 - Man, this game is brutal with replaying sequences!

28 - Odd, I just fell down a hole and now I'm rolling around. Geez, I keep dying brutal deaths in here, nasty! Falling too far isn't a big deal for most video game heroes! I think I keep getting killed by water rushing down on me. This is really weird.
31 - Well, I finally made it out and into some force field room. As I enter the force field my hair stands on end and I get zapped! I didn't die though so it must have triggered something...

32 - As I head outside and kill a guard, my buddy runs by in the foreground and is being chased by three guards! Cool! Hahaha! I just got impaled by a spike when I failed to jump a ledge!

34 - I've been impaled two more times... I am able to jump down to a ledge further down but I have no where to go. Hmm...

37 - This is getting really annoying. I wish I knew what that force field area did. The game keeps returning me right there after I die.
40 - Oh, I was supposed to shoot the wall with my powered up gun. Oh. Wow, the backgrounds in this cave are beautiful!

41 - As I head further right I can hear water running. Geez, it's like a waterfall in here! I try to walk on the platform, and well, that doesn't work.

42 - I head up some stairs out of the cave and am on the other side of that massive jump. All right! Well, another waterfall room. Doesn't look like I'm supposed to be going this way. Deeper into the cave I guess.

43 - Oh man... I'm in the room underneath the pool of water that the waterfall rushes into. I am so tempted to blow away the small piece of rock holding it all up. Okay, I'm going to do it. Haha, I died immediately. But it looks like I might have been able to run away?
45 - Well, you can run away, but I'm not doing a very good job at it. Honestly I don't even know why I would want to do this in the first place?

46 - Okay, that was funny. I made it over a jump and watched the water rush into the pit. Then I just stood there, all of a sudden the whole cave below me must have filled up because the water was rushing up right at me a moment later! Awesome!

50 - I'm starting to wonder if that water sequence was just a red herring as I found another part of the cave where it seems you might be able to proceed differently. But there are a bunch of rocks falling on my head and I keep getting squashed!

51 - I somehow time the rocks amazingly well only to get squished immediately on the next screen.
53 - Phew, I've made it past the falling rocks, but now there are many eating tentacle monsters trying to get me!

54 - Man, these guys are really bastards. You have to time all these lame jumps perfectly well and since this is a "cinematic platformer" you also have to deal with all the crappiness that goes with that!

57 - If I make it past the tentacles I just fall in the pits anyway. Grr...
58 - I'm going to have nightmares of these tentacle monsters eating me.

59 - Finally, I have made it to a room with no tentacles and no pits! Too bad it's empty and there's no where to go.

60 - Yeah, that's a great place to stop. In an empty room.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 6
Another World's story was intentionally left vague, so I kind of have to wrap my own details around what I'm playing. Personally, if I got teleported to an alien world where I was getting shot at, chased around by giant man-eating beasts, and getting devoured by tentacle beings, I would be pretty freaked out. The guy in this game (Lester, can't actually figure that out from the game as far as I can tell) is holding his composure pretty well. I think the most interesting aspect about the game is not Lester being transported to "another world," but his immediate friendship with his fellow cage-mate. I wish the game would have paired us up together a little longer in its first hour, but it redeemed itself about half way through when I saw him running in the foreground. I was reminded that we're both unwelcome in this land and if we're going to get out, it's going to be together.

Graphics and Sound: 7
The 15th Anniversary Edition of Another World brings a remarkable graphical improvement over the game's original release. In my opinion, the game looks so much better and is even pretty passable as a 2D platformer. The backgrounds have evolved the most, and benefit greatly from the higher resolutions, but the characters are also a bit smoother. The animations haven't changed as far as I can tell though, but that's more of a gameplay issue, which I'll get to next. Another World is light on sound effects but the music I heard in its first hour was excellent.

Gameplay: 4
I guess the thing with cinematic platformers is that you either love them, hate them, or have never even imagined such an atrocity of a sub-genre. Because of the way the animations are recorded and rotoscoped, you can't take tiny little baby steps because the game has specific step lengths already programmed in. This is most frustrating when running and jumping, because you really have to plan your jumps far in advance and if you started your running animation at the wrong point, you will probably fail at your jump.

As you can tell, I'm not really fond of these types of games, and I was honestly starting to get into Another World. That is, until I realized the game was obsessed with trial and error and making me replay sequences over and over again. There are plenty of checkpoints, but they're generally placed directly before time-sucking scenes so you waste a lot of time just doing the same thing over and over again. I bet you could beat this game in less than an hour, probably far less than that, but first time gamers will be frustrated. I do think that if you're good at this game you'll have fun and blaze through it in a short afternoon.

Fun Factor: 6
Though I rip on Another World's gameplay pretty harshly, there are some incredibly awesome sequences that when you pull them off, you'll pump your fist in the air and come away with a big smile on your face. Of course, these all come after many attempts and lots of time trying to figure out exactly what to do. It is satisfying moving on from a level knowing you've figured out the game's behind-the-scenes puzzles, but it's not all fun and laughter.

Minutes to Action: 6

Overall: 6
In my opinion, Another World's first hour suffers most from the genre it was developed for. Cinematic platformers probably sound great on paper as you get realistic looking animations, but the gameplay usually suffers from being unnatural and just not fluid. I've personally never played one that I really enjoyed, but I think I might actually continue on with Another World. The story is intriguing enough and I think I can put up with the frustrating gameplay to finish it, I'm pretty sure the game isn't too long. I guess that's a good feeling to have when coming out of playing the first hour of a video game. Undoubtedly the most important. To have the will to finish it.

The game's creator, Eric Chahi, has a great site detailing Another World's development from start to finish. I highly recommend it.

Game 37: Bible Adventures

Bible Adventures is an old, unlicensed NES game made by Wisdom Tree. Since it was unlicensed and not approved by Nintendo, they were able to do cool things like have a baby blue colored cartridge and even featured their own Wisdom Tree Seal of Quality on the box. The game is a popular target for "Worst Game of all Time," mostly thanks to Seanbaby, but honestly this game was not that bad. Definitely not even in the bottom 10%. Compare it to other officially licensed crap like Deadly Towers or Bebe's Kids and you actually have a decent game going. Anyways, Bible Adventures features three Bible stories: Baby Moses, David and Goliath, and Noah's Ark told through platformers. They all pretty much play the same, but the Baby Moses game is actually pretty bad.

Since today is the last day of March, the month is supposed to be end like a lamb, which basically means it will be a calm Spring day. Instead, we have a heavy snow warning and are expecting 6-8 inches of slushy snow. Ugh. I reviewed The Lion King at the beginning of the month when March was supposed to come in like a lion (it was a nice day) and Bible Adventures is one of the only games that features sheep in even a small role. The other game I considered was Sheep for the PC but decided to do the more well known Bible Adventures. Well, let's get to the review.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select Noah's Ark and the first hour of Bible Adventures begins. A Bible verse appears, with lots of ellipses skipping the unimportant parts. God flooded the world and told Noah to collect two of every creature.
01 - Well, the game has started! I'm playing as a bearded Noah, and I guess I have to collect animals. There's something in front of me... a cat? I'm not really sure.

02 - Nice! I have just hoisted the animal above my head! I don't know what to do with it though. I'm just running along, so far I've also seen a horse and a pig.

03 - Ah, it was a cow! I have collected the female cow and put it in the cave underneath the blinking arrow. A checklist appears detailing all the animals I need. Cows, horses, monkeys, snakes, pigs, and oxen. What the... a monkey just tossed some poop at me or something.
04 - I've stuffed that fecal monkey into the Ark now, so it's all good. Next the female ox.

05 - I pick up something that looks like a tablet and a Proverbs verse has appeared on screen.

06 - Noah is trying to pick up a pig but it's too slippery or something.

07 - I think I dropped a bale of hay on its head to knock it out. The female pig has been delivered.
09 - I was chasing after the other pig, but the horse ran by so I grabbed that! Wow, Noah must be buff to be lifting equine above his head. Plus he has a six foot vertical while carrying animals too. I have all the female animals except the snake. Oh, the male pig! Got it!

10 - For whatever reason, the male cow was chilling out on top of the Ark. How did it get up there?

11 - The male horse has a pink tail, not very manly. Just need the male monkey and ox, and both snakes. There are snakes climbing around the trees but I don't know how to get them. Woah, I can climb trees too!
12 - Haha, I grab the male monkey and he's holding a banana above his head, hilarious!

14 - I have reached the far right wall of the level. Still don't know where the male ox is or how to get the snakes. Birds keep pecking me when I'm climbing the trees. Shouldn't we be bringing the birds too?

16 - Oh, the male ox was just hanging out on the far left, but he head-butted me as I approached! Now for the last two snakes... I just went inside a cave. Not much in here though. I do pick up a tablet, and instead of getting a Bible verse I get a game hint. Pressing up will let me climb. Duh.
17 - Interesting, there's some different snakes over here. I deliver one to the Ark and all I have left is the male snake.

20 - Well, I have successfully delivered all the animals, now Noah is double checking his checklist as I watch all the animals run by. One by one.

21 - Just received a warning, "Get ready to climb those trees." Nah, think I'll try one of the other games. Time for Baby Moses! A long Bible verse appears, Pharaoh has ordered all little baby boys to be killed, but a Levite woman saved her boy by floating him down a river.
22 - The game starts off with me as the woman and a baby right in front of me. Must be Moses! I pick him up.

23 - Wow, this game has mini trampolines that launch me way up high. Good stuff.

24 - I got hit by a spider and the woman chucked Baby Moses into the river! Wasn't that the whole point though?

25 - I'm climbing around some pyramids, but this game is hard! There's soldiers all over hitting me with the spears and throwing stuff at me, and the big eyed spiders! Plus the game doesn't have any invincibility period after you get hit that I can tell, which makes things harder.
26 - Well, the woman and Moses make it to the end of the level. This new level is very purple.

28 - Wow, owned! The woman falls into the water and we die! Baby Moses is down for the count! I get the option to restart, continue, or choose a different game. I think I'll stick with this one for a bit. For kicks I start off the level again by throwing Moses in. Heh. He reappears though.

30 - Some bird just picked me up and lifted me off the ground, but I lost the baby on the way up. Ugh, these jumps are too long to be vaulted very easily.
32 - This freaking bird reminds me of the Sun from Super Mario Bros. 3. Annoying! Lame, I just fell in the water again.

34 - Yay, finally beat the second level. You know what's crazy about this game is that all the enemies interact with the stage just like you do. They jump off the trampolines, fall off ledges into the water, and other crazy, unexpected stuff.

35 - Well, the last level was purple, this one is an ugly yellow gold. The platforming elements have been upped though too. There's this soldier that is horribly placed so that he always knocks you and Baby Moses into the water.
37 - Okay, beat the third level. There are so many enemies on the screen at once, but the game is pretty much just a race to the far right of the level. I think I'm done with Baby Moses.

38 - Time for the game that I came here for: David and Goliath! Another long set of Bible verses, this time talking about David keeping his father's sheep, and when attacked by wild animals, he struck them and rescued the sheep! Sweet!

39 - Oh, right at the bottom it says my objective is to find four sheep and bring them to the corral. Right at the start of the level I have squirrels throwing nuts at me! HAHA! One of the squirrels just knocked out the other one!
40 - David found a sheep, but I'm not sure where to take it yet, guess I'll just keep heading to the right. Woah, a lion just leaped at me!

41 - The lion got knocked out by a squirrel nut so I just picked him up along with my lamb. A big giant, flashing arrow points me to the spot I have to drop the sheep.

43 - These lions are just ignoring me when I'm not hauling around sheep.

45 - A wandering squirrel has just knocked out: my sheep, a lion, and another squirrel. Not only that but my sheep is now in an unreachable position!
46 - Wake up you stupid sheep!

47 - Now there's a goat harassing my sheep. Well, that goat was annoying enough but David rescued his third of fourth sheep.

50 - With all four sheep collected now, I proceed to the next level, which I guess is just David carrying four more sheep to the corral.

51 - Sweet, this level is laid out pretty vertically, but it allowed me to quickly collect and deliver three sheep.
52 - Ugh, my fourth and final sheep is on a small platform with three other head-butting goats. Nothing for me to do but die.

55 - I beat the second sheep level now with David. Now bring on Goliath! Woah, instead of Goliath the game throws scorpions at me! Nasty!

56 - Haha, just delivered all four sheep at once, it was tough though because I was getting mauled by lions and stung by scorpions. The first enemy I see in the next level looks like an anteater.
59 - I have all four sheep but I can't make the last jump up to the corral! Ugh, I just lost two of my sheep and they flung off to who knows where.

60 - All right, I'm sick of this. I wanted to fight Goliath! But that's all the time there is for Bible Adventures for the NES.

Now for some scores out of 10.

Story: 3
The three stories in Bible Adventures are introduced quickly to the player by a screen long summary and then are quickly forgotten about. I have no problem with this as most people playing Bible Adventures are familiar enough with the Old Testament stories of Noah, Moses, and David. There are a few Bible verses scattered throughout the first hour but they don't seem too applicable to the game at hand.

Graphics and Sound: 5
Bible Adventures does not look that bad, but the sound is definitely below average. Graphics wise, the characters are drawn pretty good, but sometimes I had no idea what animal I was dealing with. The animations are good and some of them are actually pretty funny. There are quite a few unique backgrounds but they later just start palette-swapping them with really crazy colors. The music was nothing special and the sound effects could have used a lot of work. Animals should make animal sounds!

Gameplay: 6
The Baby Moses game was pretty awful, but the Noah's Ark and David and Goliath games were definitely tolerable. If anything, Bible Adventures is an absolutely great example of a game where all the characters on the screen are interacting with each other. The squirrels are tossing around nuts that knock out anything that touches them, including other enemies. This is something you don't even see very often these days. It was pretty hilarious watching the characters interact with each other. The game also had no problem placing lots of characters on the screen at once (well, if you don't consider the NES sprite flicker a problem), which made it a tough go sometimes.

Fun Factor: 5
I can't really complain about the fun I had while playing Bible Adventures. It's a simple platformer wrapped in a light religious package. The three games were similar and basic, but they did their job and though it was frustrating at times, I was still smiling. The Baby Moses game was frantic, while the other two were more balanced, though they all became tedious.

Minutes to Action: 1

Overall: 5
I'm giving Bible Adventure's first hour a very average 5. Compared to other NES games at the time, it wasn't that horrible. A lot of people seem to compare it to Super Mario Bros. 2 (U.S.) but besides picking stuff up above your head and running around with it, I don't really see the connections. Either way, Bible Adventures is one of those unique games in video game history and worth checking out if only just to say, "I played Bible Adventures."

Game 34: The Haunting Starring Polterguy

The Haunting Starring Polterguy is a 1993 Sega Genesis game all about scaring a rich family out of their snazzy home any way possible. This is a pretty obscure game and the only way I know anything about it is from my deep past where I used to read any video game magazine I could get my hands on. One of them was Game Players, and in one of those issues lies a review for The Haunting. I have no idea what score it got but it stuck in my mind as "this game sounds cool and someday I would like to play it." Well, that someday has finally arrived 15 years later, and it's pretty much as cool as I vaguely remembered wanting it to be.

I really don't know anything else about this game, except that it is probably the goriest 16-bit game I have ever played. There are severed heads, tons of blood, and lots of other crazy stuff that kept surprising me. Just check out the screenshots below and you'll see what I'm talking about. On that note, let's get right into the review.

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I press the Start button and the first hour begins. A cutscene begins showing off a family moving into their "snazzy new home." Whoever is narrating (text at top) has a surprise for them!
01 - Now we're looking inside their house from a Sims-style isometric view. The wall of the house if cutout to show the inside. Polterguy introduces himself as the "green dude hangin' on the left." The woman in the room with me is Flo Sardini. I guess she can't she the green zombie guy in the room.

02 - Haha, Polterguy looks like he's on rollerskates the way he's moving his legs while just standing there, and he just did a few laps around Flo to boot. Polterguy moves around the room and shows me "fright 'ems" which he uses the scare the family. Fright 'ems show up as glowing orbs on nearly every object he approaches. For the record, this is still the intro, I'm not controlling anything.

04 - Pressing the A button makes Polterguy dive into a fright 'em and A again has him jump out, this triggers the object. Haha, the demo has him jumping in and out of objects making them quiver, Flo walks over and gets scared as they transform into something crazy!
05 - These character animations are really good, well detailed and they seem quite varied. Flo runs out of the room screaming and some green goop appears on the floor. Polterguy has to collect that for whatever reason.

06 - Now it's a scene of the Sardini family eating, the kids are throwing food at each other. Awesome! The chandelier just fell from the ceiling freaking everyone out!

07 - I now have control over Polterguy, sweet. I'm in the family room and my first target is the father. I jump in and out of the dartboard. As he approaches it, the board turns into a blood dripping eyeball! Nasty! Next the armchair starts licking him. Vito Sardini's fear level begins to rise.
09 - Wow, this game is pretty creative. I turn Polterguy into a small rocking chair and start chasing Vito around the room! His fear level is so high he just runs right out of there!

10 - There's a green bar that is continually depleted, I guess I have to scare the family and collect the ecto goo balls to keep it up. The ecto is only released after the family member runs from the room. Pressing the Start button brings up a map of the house and shows where the family members are.

12 - Next up I find the son, Tony and begin freaking him out. He has a Ninja poster on his wall and that's my first object of manipulation. Oh man, this kid screams like a little girl! He also has quite a few things to take over in this room such as a model plane and a skull in his drawer. They certainly freak him out good. Though the plane crashed and I think Polterguy lost a bit of health.
14 - Tony runs out of his bedroom in horror and I collect the ecto. On the map it looks like I'll be harassing the daughter, Mimi next.

15 - Well, after a minute of torturing her with oversized ballerina dolls and moving teddy bears, Polterguy's health runs out and I'm in a brand new place. It's somewhere underground, poltergeist hell maybe? Guess it is called the Dungeon. Anyways, I have to collect ecto drops to continue. They're just dripping from the ceiling.

17 - Geez, I have to collect every drop in linear order or else an arrow will tell me to go back, and there are a lot of drops and a lot of things that want to kill me down here. Hairy arms trying to grab me from the walls, bursts of steam from the ground, and bats that escape from coffins. Nothing too horrifying, not like in the house...
19 - After collecting all the drops, Polterguy starts breakdancing. Hilarious. I'm back in Mimi's room now with a full health bar. Well, she just ran out. I'm not really sure what my end goal is? To scare everyone in the house at the same time? Not really sure. Time for some Flo action.

20 - I find the mom in the kitchen, should have some fun in here... Well, I just chased her out of there in record time. Polterguy jumped in the freezer and for whatever reason turned into a black cat and chased her from the room. I follow her into the lounge.

22 - Woah! Mama Flo got so scared her dress fell down revealing her 16-bit black panties. That was a frightening moment for me! There seem to be three colors of orbs that designate different types of objects. Blue orbs attract the person over and scare them when they approach, orange orbs don't attract the person so you have to time it when they're nearby, and green orbs are flying objects that you can chase them around the room with.
24 - Flo ran out and checking the map, Vito looks seriously not scared right now, time for some more action with him.

25 - Just scared Vito with some orange orb swamp monster, good timing by the Polterguy! Vito runs out of the room in supreme horror. Tony is nearby and looking calm...

27 - After frightening Tony kind of lamely, he runs out of the front door and has disappeared from the map! Is he really gone?
28 - I scare Mimi in the living room and have barely half of my life left. I think I'll keep chasing Mimi and maybe end up banishing her from the house?

31 - Awesome, after chasing Mimi around through a bunch of rooms, I have kicked her out of the house! But now I'm getting chased by a floating green head, and it hurts me when it touches me (that didn't sound that good...).

32 - Mama Flor was back in the lounge and it was time to banish her for good! A few timely orange orbs has me sending her out the back door in a jiffy. Only Vito is left, but my green ecto bar is nearly out.
34 - Vito is in the kitchen and there was a pretty gruesome scene where I inhabited a chopping block and a severed head appeared dripping with blood! This caused Vito to literally jump out of his clothing.

35 - Oh man, I think I scared Vito enough to get him out of the room, but I ran out of life and am back in the dungeon. Now I'm getting a bunch of skulls chucked at me! But a moment later I'm break dancing with the best of them.

37 - Back in action with full life and Vito the only one left in the house. Crap, the loser just ran back into the kitchen where he was before. I also forgot to grab the ecto balls in the room I scared him in, whoops.
39 - Ah, there goes Vito out the back door and Polterguy does one last break dance for the heck of it. Polterguy taunts the family as they run out saying "I'm right behind your sorry butts!"

40 - Some rock riffs start playing and we see some art of Polterguy proclaiming his victory over those slimeballs. Haha, he just said that they dissed him. That's classic.

41 - Nice, another cutscene plays showing the family moving into their new home! Awesome! But I'm back in the underground world to collect ecto, not so awesome.
43 - The Dungeon is a lot harder this time, I get beat up quite a bit, but I don't die. Never! Well, now that that's over with, looks like I'm in the Sardini's brand new house now. The layout looks different but it's still all the same concept. Ah, Mimi is in the same room as me! Haha! She just wet herself!

45 - What the... looks like a dog just walked through the room. Dogs usually detect ghosts, don't they? Well, he made it through harmlessly.

47 - I'm going to continue hounding Mimi, her snide looks annoy me. I create a Grim Reaper apparition in the doorway, that freaks her out to the max, but then the dog wanders in and her fear goes back down to high. Stupid mutt. Okay, she keeps running between the same rooms, so I'm going to target Vito now.
49 - Well, this game is getting kind of monotonous now. Scaring people over and over is interesting, but the animations are certainly repeating themselves. Though Vito did just lose his pants, good stuff.

50 - Speaking of monotony, I just lost all of my ecto bar and I'm back in the Dungeon.

52 - Geez, I have basically no health left down here. If I end up down here again I'm going to die for sure.

53 - That green head and the dog are chasing me now. But I'm chasing Vito... Ooh, he's in the bathroom now, I've never scared anyone in here.
55 - Now Vito is just running between the same rooms over and over. Lame.

57 - Tony gets so frightened he does the classic Exorcist head spin and careens out of his bedroom. Tony has left the building!

59 - Oh crap, my health bar is gone and I'm sent down under...

60 - It doesn't take long for me to lose what's left of my life. Polterguy wonders why the dungeon was trying to kill me when he was just trying to get some ecto, but that's that and the credits start to roll. The Haunting's first hour is complete. My high score was 32,271.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 2
Okay, what bothers me about The Haunting is that we have Polterguy, a poltergeist who is for whatever reason ticked off at this family and wants to cause them as much trouble as possible. The Sardini family may be rich but there doesn't appear to be any motive behind Polterguy's antics. Once again, maybe this is the case of the mysterious instruction manual story similar to Turok, but maybe a short flashback showing the family somehow causing the death of Polterguy would have helped. Also, what is the Dungeon and why does Polterguy get sent there? And what are these floating green heads doing chasing me? Man, there sure are a lot of questions!

Graphics and Sound: 8
I saw a few screenshots for this game and wasn't really impressed, but I was super impressed by this game after seeing it in action. The isometric view works perfectly for the gameplay and the sprite animations were simply great. There are only five characters but there is a lot of variety in terms of movement, reactions, and responses. All the objects morph smoothly into their evil counterpart and I was constantly smiling at all the surprises this game had for me. There is so much original content in The Haunting, great stuff. As for the sound, none of the music stood out but the sound effects were pretty good. The family's screams were quite memorable and the objects sounded real. I feel like the game could have used some voice acting though, plenty of Super Nintendo games did at the time but I'm not familiar enough with Genesis games to know if it was really possible for them.

Gameplay: 7
What The Haunting has going for it is some great original gameplay that I've really never seen anywhere else. Jumping into objects to make them come alive and scare people is simply awesome. I'm trying to think of games that have ever even come close to what The Haunting does and the only one that comes to mind is Mister Mosquito, a game where you play as a mosquito terrorizing a family in their house by sucking their blood. Anyways, like I mentioned near the beginning, Polterguy controls like he's on rollerskates and that just doesn't feel right. Picking up ecto goo is inconsistent and the whole Dungeon sequence just plain sucks. It totally removes you from the real fun and I'm not sure what the point of that was.

Fun Factor: 8
The Haunting is simply a fun game for the one hour I played it, though I honestly don't think the fun would last much longer. This is a problem for these arcadey games, the first hour is typically pretty fun but sessions that last longer than that can grow to be really repetitive. I was starting to feel that repetitiveness kick in at around the 50 minute mark and was ready for the hour to end. But what I played was original and very fun. There are a ton of objects to mess around with in the game and the family's reactions are classic. Great stuff.

Minutes to Action: 7

Overall: 8
This game really surprised me, I was thinking going in that this would be another bomb like the last few weeks, but The Haunting's first hour gave me a solid game. There's a short tutorial at the beginning that pretty much told me everything I needed to know, though an explanation on the orb colors would have been helpful. The Dungeon sequence was pretty bad and seemingly unnecessary, and pretty much the only blemish on this game. This is a unique and quirky experience that I would recommend checking out, even if it's just for an hour.

Polterguy is green but his nose is quite Caucasian.

Game 33: The Lion King

The Lion King was the video game released to accompany the Disney movie of the same name. Games based on movies were nothing new in 1994, especially Disney tie-ins, but this is actually my first movie game review. It was released on literally every platform available at the time, including three Nintendo (NES, SNES, and Game Boy) systems and three Sega (Master System, Genesis, and Game Gear) systems, undoubtedly a feat unequaled by any other game.

Really the only reason I'm reviewing The Lion King is because of the saying: "March comes in like a lion, out like a lamb." If you're unfamiliar with the adage, it basically means March will open up with bad weather and end calmly with Spring fast approaching. Here in the upper-Midwest though, lots of snow typically begins and ends the month. Where's our lamb? Back to the review though, here's March roaring in, now I have four weeks to find a game about lambs... could be tough. Anyways, let's get right into the first hour of The Lion King (Super Nintendo version).

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I choose Start and The Lion King begins. That meerkat Timon appears and says "It starts." Wow, right into the game! Simba moves pretty quick, he's an aggressive little cat. All I can do though is jump and roar, no slashing... yet.
01 - So I'm just jumping around some rocks right now, Simba can hang off ledges and roar to flip porcupines. Then I can jump on their bare belly to kill them.

02 - Woah, I just roared and exploded a dung beetle! I'm down to half my life already!

03 - I jump on a beetle this time and he flies around for a moment and then explodes. Almost dead... until I find a yellow beetle health item.
04 - Just grabbed a red beetle which extends my life a bit, nice. Then I find a symbol that kind of looks like Simba, he yells "cool" and it flashes, but I can't tell if anything actually happened.

05 - Geez, there is a whole assortment of items I'm finding, one extended my roar bar, and another one... not sure what it did, but it was multi-colored.

06 - Boss! I just defeated one of those hyenas from the movies! He went down in only two hits though. He would pounce at me and then become tired and start panting so I could jump on him. A short cutscene plays with Simba's dad, Mufasa saying, "everything the light touches, is our kingdom." Man, this guy has a big ego.
07 - Oh hey, a minigame. I'm controlling Pumbaa as Timon throws bugs down at me. Against all laws of gravity, some bugs fall really slow while others are quick. I end up eating 36 bugs.

08 - I am now in a level called either "Roar at the Monkeys" or "Can't Wait to be King." Probably the latter. There don't seem to be any enemies in this level, just rhinoceros that spring me into the air, monkeys that throw me around, and giraffes that I can use as temporary platforms.

10 - This is almost kind of a puzzle as I have to roar at the pink monkeys to get them to face a different direction so when they toss me I fly in the correct direction. After that sequence I land on an ostrich and it starts belting across the plains. I have to jump over pigs and duck bird nests, all of a sudden two arrows appear... and I die because I didn't jump high enough, or double jump or something. I only have one life left!
12 - Now I just fell in the water and die again. Crap, no lives left. Hardcore. I'm back on the ostrich now, I can "double jump" by jumping with the ostrich and then jumping again with Simba.

13 - You have got to be kidding me. I double jumped too high when I needed to and hit my head on a bird's nest. Lame. Wow, I used my only remaining continue.

14 - Back on the ostrich and I died on the first jump because I jumped too early. Now I fell in the water again.
15 - Fell in... again. Game Over. The old monkey with the balls hanging off his stick looks sad.

16 - Well, looks like I have to start all over again. I'll be back when I get past that ostrich sequence.

19 - Just "played" the bug toss. Timon screwed me over by tossing bugs at opposite ends. I caught one.

21 - Died on the double jump again.
22 - And again. Did anyone seriously playtest this game?

24 - Holy cow, I made it past the freaking ostrich part. What the heck, that pissed me off so much. How was I supposed to know you had to do your second jump really late. Who knows.

25 - This part seems almost worse. I have to swing around on these hippopotamus tails over some water. This is extremely unforgiving.

26 - Hey, a 1UP. That will come in handy. Meh. Now I have no idea where to jump to next! There are no more tails! And I can see that there is another ostrich sequence after this.
29 - Wow, I had to jump like straight up onto a hippo's head, that was clear. Not. I did collect some kind of sun item though, maybe that's a free continue.

30 - Another ostrich run, and this time I don't have arrows telling me what to do. Somehow I pulled off two double jumps in a row without dying.

31 - Another monkey tossing "puzzle."

33 - In one of gaming's most unclear moments ever, I had to get tossed from the first monkey puzzle to the second, flip a pink monkey switch, then cross back over the water on some water colored logs, then do the puzzle again. Why did the art team paint the logs the same color as the water?
34 - Wow, done with that and straight into the next level, "The Elephant Graveyard." Looks creepy. Good music though.

35 - Woah, something about fighting two hyenas at once seems unfair, but I do it with little health to spare. I just ate a bug that hurt me, seriously guys. Piss me off more.

38 - Now I've got two vultures swooping at me, I don't even know if I can hurt them.

39 - Simba has to out climb two gushing geysers as he claws his way to the top of a vertical tunnel.
41 - Now I'm just outrunning enemies as there's no point to stay and fight except to lose health. This is an unforgiving game. Simba was forced to just face off with three hyenas there though.

42 - As I finish the level we get a look at Scar, Simba's evil uncle. Another bug toss, another screw over served by Timon.

43 - Holy Mode 7 Graphics! Simba is running at the screen with a stampede behind him. I have to anticipate their patterns and speed dodging them. This could be really tough.

44 - Now there are rocks coming at me! So I've got wildebeest behind me and deadly rocks in front of me. Sucky life for Simba.
46 - Oh man, my heart is racing but I beat it. A short cutscene has Mufasa telling a hyena, "kill him." The next level is called "Simba's Exile."

47 - This level is laid out similar to the first level with the same basic enemies, but now there are rocks tumbling down on me too.

48 - Geez, I just got killed in an Indiana Jones style boulder rolling sequence. I seriously don't know how to even handle this part because I'm running from the boulder and there's a porcupine right in front of me and it doesn't look like I can jump.

50 - The moment you get hit by the boulder, you die. It seems you have to get hurt by the porcupine and during your invincibility run through him?
51 - Just tested that theory and it doesn't work. Hey, I just accidentally rolled through what appears to be a hidden passage that led me past that boulder. Odd. But now there's another boulder chasing me, and I die.

54 - Now I can't find that secret passage again. LAME.

57 - Who does this game think it is? How are kids supposed to play this? How is anyone supposed to play this? This part is literally impossible as far as I can tell.
58 - Maybe this boulder is the final boss?

59 - Does roaring at the boulder work? No. Woah, I made it through the rolling passage again. I guess there's this secret rolling technique that the game doesn't feel like explaining.

60 - My final challenge is an impossibly long jump over spikes. I wonder where I have to secretly roll this time? Good riddance to the first hour of The Lion King.

Now for some scores out of 10.
Story: 3
Being a movie based game, The Lion King relies heavily on familiarity with the film to drive the story. There was about 30 seconds of in-game story with everything else being delivered through the levels and their settings. A bad story score doesn't necessarily mean that the story is bad, and I'm actually kind of torn on whether or not I would have wanted more. Honestly, probably not. Most people playing The Lion King have seen the movie and know the basics: Simba is a light-hearted cub, his evil uncle kills his father and drives Simba out so that he can become king. There's more information than you'll get out of the game. Maybe the story is developed more later on, but I doubt it.

Graphics and Sound: 8
The Lion King honestly looks and sounds just like a Disney game should: just like the Disney movie. The music is midi versions of the original soundtrack and are well chosen for the levels I played. We have the carefree "Can't Wait to be King" playing over the enemy-less (but still incredibly hard) level of the same name, and the dark, bass driven Scar themes playing during the later stages I encountered. The sound effects work and there's even a little voice acting with some one-liners. The graphics really shine though, the levels are colorful and the sprites are really well detailed. The animation is superb, my only complaint is the Mode 7 stampede level. In my opinion, Mode 7 graphics were way overused on the Super Nintendo and The Lion King is no exception; the level simply feels out of place among the platformers and really doesn't look that good.

Gameplay: 4
The game may have had Disney artists to provide the sprites and animations, but The Lion King could have used some extra work on the gameplay. A lot of extra work. Pretty much everything I played in its first hour except for the first level was unbalanced, difficult, and dare I say, unfair. Some of the jumps necessary were insane, especially in the second level. It is really not easy to swing from hippopotamus tails to avoid death. The ostrich running sequence astounded me with how difficult and frustrating this could be. I kept thinking that this is supposed to be a kid's game but yet they're punishing me for not getting the timing down perfectly. Plus if you mess up, that's another ten giraffe heads you have to hop around on.

The stampede level didn't bother me too much, though the hit detection was rather poor. The real gameplay killer was the last level I played with the constantly falling boulders and the impossible boulder sequence. It still ticks me off and I've put the game away forever. The Lion King seems only suitable for incredibly patient, perfect memory ten year olds who will put up with have so few lives and even fewer continues. On the bright side, Simba did control pretty well when not jumping over water or being chased by boulders. It really could have been a lot worse and my distant memory of the game made me think it was.

Fun Factor: 3
I did have fun the first level, but after that I really didn't care for the game. The second level was deceptively difficult with the ostrich run and all the small platforms you had to hop around on. Basically this entire game was too hard for its own good and really ruined it for me. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy the levels and characters, but all I really could enjoy were the excellent animations. Disney games should be as fun as the movie they're made for, The Lion King fails at that.

Minutes to Action: 0

Overall: 4
After playing just the first level of The Lion King, I believe I would have given this game a pretty good score, probably around 7 or even 8. But I review the entire first hour, not just the first ten minutes, and the rest of the hour is below average. The gameplay was disappointing and the only thing that saves it from total crap was the really good graphics and sound. I'm sure this won't be my last Disney game review as I have some fond memories of games like DuckTales and Goof Troop. But that's it for my review of The Lion King's first hour. March has come in like a lion all right, I was just dumped on.

Game 28: The Lost Vikings

The Lost Vikings was released in 1992 and was one of Silicon & Synapse's first games. Never heard of them? They are now known as Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of many, many good games that end in Craft. Anyways, The Lost Vikings was released on the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and various other systems throughout the years, and gives gamers nowadays a really interesting look at the early history of Blizzard. The game itself can be described as a puzzle platformer, where you have to use the different abilities of three Vikings to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and progress through the game's levels. My minute-by-minute update should help describe the game better. I will be playing just the first hour of the Super Nintendo version of The Lost Vikings, so let's get right to it.

In case you're a World of Warcraft veteran, you may recognize the three Vikings: Erik the Swift, Olaf the Stout, and Baleog the Fierce. They all make a cameo appearance in Uldaman, an ancient dwarven complex that serves as a mid-level dungeon. If you play as a Horde character you can even kill them for some unique items!

(minutes are in bold)
00 - I select New Game and the first hour of The Lost Vikings begins. Quick note, what's up with this hip-hop soundtrack? A small, snow-covered village appears and Erik the Swift introduces himself, he can run like the wind and jump high. He's gotta go meet his friends Baleog and Olaf for some hunting.

01 - Erik says goodbye to his Viking wife and kids and runs off. Olaf the Stout comes out of his house, he can block anything with his shield.
02 - And finally Baleog the Fierce appears, he is the toughest of them all.

03 - Our hairy friends run around and show off their skills. It's kind of like a tutorial that I can't play.

04 - After running far enough right, the Vikings arrive back at their village. Small world. Erik foreshadows a bit saying he hopes he never has to leave his village...

05 - Later that night... Oh geez! Our heroes are getting sucked out of their homes by a giant spacecraft! That didn't take long. At least they didn't destroy the village.
06 - I now have control of Erik on the ship. Time to find my friends.

08 - Well that was a simple enough level, the L and R buttons allow me to take control of a different Viking and guide them to the exit. Hey, a password... GR8T.

09 - In the next level I approach a friendly alien who tells me I need to destroy the ship's computer. Erik doesn't believe this is a ship.

11 - Baleog seems the most useful, being able to kill enemies and all. I find some bombs with him and have to locate the place to plant them.

13 - I take an elevator downstairs and plant the bombs, kaboom!
14 - I guide all three Vikings into a gravity lift and shoot the switch, up we go! Ouch, Baleog gets shot twice in the back by a laser, I need to use Olaf to block the shots.

16 - Wow, a lot longer level than I thought, but since you basically have to go through it three times, it seems longer than it is. Password TLPT.

17 - I use Erik's hard noggin to knock out a wall.

18 - I send all three Vikings through a teleporter, these guys are definitely out of their element here. Hey, a door with a red keyhole, I wonder what color key I'll need to open it.
19 - Another alien tells me that someone brought us here to display like animals in a zoo. Creepy, but kind of makes sense.

21 - The next puzzle has me using Erik to jump on Olaf's shield to reach higher heights.

22 - Along with a yellow key I pick up a device that kills every bad guy in the area. The only problem is that I used it way too early... the next area has three laser toting nasties. Whoops. Olaf's shield plus Baleog's bow and arrow should be enough though.

23 - Another level finished, another password: GRND.
25 - Erik's long jump finally comes in handy as I leap over some spinning spikes!

26 - Oh crap, Olaf just got killed! He got thrown from a gravity lift into some nasty electrical current! What if I need him? Oh man, Baleog just died too. And Erik... tough spot.

27 - The game over screen features a Viking ship on fire, pretty sweet actually. I continue and our heroes are sent back to earth via lightning bolts.
30 - I'm replaying the level and back where I was before.

32 - Phew, I made it this time. I had to grab some special anti-gravity boots (or magnetized) and I was able to get past the gravity lifts then with Erik. Turning them off was a snap and then I took our trio into some kind of portal. Hey, is that the Spore logo?

33 - Woah, Mode 7 graphics! Next password is LLM0. Our friends are now in some sort of prehistoric land...
34 - I guess Vikings can't swim... Erik is dead and I can't proceed. I suicide Olaf and Baleog. The enemies here are stronger, take two hits to go down instead of one!

38 - The game is requiring a lot more preparation to fight enemies, basically setting up Olaf to block projectiles, getting Erik out of the way, and shooting them down with Baleog.

40 - After every level the Vikings talk a bit about what just happened, nice little bit of writing to flesh out some shallow characters there. New password is FL0T.

42 - Geez, now instead of dealing with deadly water I have to deal with deadly lava. There's a particularly nasty portion right now where I have to blindly fall and dodge platforms of lava. Evil! Luckily I only have to do it once with Erik.
43 - Next challenge is a rolling blue monster, Olaf to the rescue!

47 - I'm starting to realize that The Lost Vikings is much more of a puzzle game than a platformer. It's definitely requiring more and more strategy as the game progresses.

48 - Next level's password is TRSS.

51 - The next level is pretty big, full of trees and lots of water. This is a predicament considering Erik is the only one that can jump... but I use this to my advantage and have him explore the whole level, including finding the exits. Too bad I need to get all the Vikings there to win.
53 - I find the blue key in the upper right corner and use that on the bridge. I haven't even used Olaf or Baleog yet.

54 - Erik gets killed by a rogue snail shooting spit. You got to be kidding me!

56 - Long, tough level, but we make it. The Vikings even make a joke saying they need one of those waterfalls that float in mid-air back at home! The next password is PRHS.

60 - Well, in the last minute I discover the secret of the purple cave level: you have to shoot spikes with Baleog's arrow onto the deadly lava so you can guide Olaf and Baleog over it! Nice! But that's it for The Lost Vikings' first hour.
Story: 4
Not much of an actual story present in The Lost Vikings, but I do like its quirkiness. Too much of a story for a game like this would be a bad thing so Blizzard made the right decision to introduce the three characters with a few lines and then move on. Besides our three heroes, about the only other thing going on is Tomator, the leader of the Croutonian empire. He's captured our trio to represent the human race in his inter-galactic zoo, a noble cause if you ask me.
Graphics and Sound: 6
The Lost Vikings uses relatively simple sprites but the animations are well drawn and add to the game's uniqueness. I found it kind of odd though that both Olaf and Baleog wear green, it would seem to make more sense to maybe draw one in blue so they're more distinctive and easier to pick out on the fly. I think Blizzard made some excellent color palette choices too, and some scenes like the Game Over scene are really beautiful.
Gameplay: 7
It took me about 45 minutes to realize that The Lost Vikings is much more of a puzzle game than anything else, and I think this game really requires that mentality. Often I would find myself thinking that I can just take Erik and jump over all the enemies and pits and reach the exit quickly, but the goal is to also navigate Olaf and Baleog there too, typically a much more difficult task. The game throws a wide variety of challenges at you within the first hour and expects you to adapt and learn quickly. I think the game suffers from some odd quirks though like if you jump (or fall from) too high you take damage, this makes sense usually, but the fall distance is not very forgiving. Also, most of the enemies I encountered would quickly defeat me if I didn't have Olaf around to block their path or projectiles. This is a puzzle game that takes a lot of preparation and experimentation, kind of similar to Lemmings but with more direct control.
Fun Factor: 6
The Lost Vikings was pretty fun, until you started dying. I'm pretty sure you need all three Vikings to beat a level, so if one dies, for any reason, you're screwed. Since the game does take a lot of experimenting, I died quite a bit and restarting a level can take about a minute, not to mention the time it will take to get back to where you were before. I think the game has a lot of great ideas but they're executed in a way that can be frustrating at times. Completing a level though makes you feel like you really accomplished something, especially the later ones I played where the stages seemed HUGE!
Minutes to Action: 6
Overall: 6
The Lost Vikings is kind of a hybrid puzzle game, similar to Portal in where you don't realize you're playing a puzzle game until you stop and think about it. That is definitely a good thing and both of these games are examples that developers should look at. The Lost Vikings' first hour is not necessarily tough, but it punishes you harshly for small mistakes made or chances taken. Your Vikings dying is an unfortunate reminder that you are playing a puzzle game in a platformer environment; you still have to deal with lava and deadly water and nasty electricity when trying to work out which Viking to control. I believe the first hour would have been better if Blizzard would have focused more on the puzzles early on and less on the platforming aspects. All around though, a decent first hour and a promising experience ahead. Blizzard's pre-Warcraft era is really quite interesting.

Art by David Dupuis - used with permission.