16-Bit Soccer

With the 2026 World Cup in full swing, I've scanned some reviews of Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo soccer games. Most of the reviews are from GamePro's August 1994 issue's The Sports Page column that features a "Soccer Showdown." Also from GamePro (February 1990) is a ProView of the Genesis' World Championship Soccer and Electronic Gaming Monthly's (November 1993) review of Electronic Arts' first FIFA game on the Genesis. I'd consider doing a gameplay video if I had a soccer game on a fully functional platform, but I don't. While I've enjoyed playing various video games of the sport, I only own two retro soccer games. They are both FIFA International Soccer, one for Game Gear and one on Sega CD, and both of my systems have issues.

Starlog's Mark Hamill Interviews (1982/83)

I've gone a bit off topic a few times the past year, and this is another time as this post is not about games or toys. However, it is related to Star Wars, which always gets an exception. Of course, I always try to post something about Star Wars on May 4th because it's Star Wars Day. As I mentioned in February, I now own a variety of Starlog issues, most from the early 1980s, when Return of the Jedi was in production and subsequently released. Within the copies I have, there are a lot of Star Wars articles, and with this post I opted to focus on the Mark Hamill interviews since Starlog interviewed him three times in less than a year, including in back-to-back issues.

Starlog #65 - December 1982

Starlog #72 - July 1983

Starlog #73 - August 1983

May the 4th be with you!

Gaming Ads: Backfilling #23

Before now, I had posted nine game ads for Parker Brothers, and today I have 16 more! I found Parker Brothers liked to advertise in comic books, possibly more than any other game publisher. Four of the ads feature Star Wars, which is why I chose to post these now with another Star Wars Day tomorrow. One of the ads is for the Death Star Battle Home Video Game Sweepstakes, a game based on Return of the Jedi. Something quite interesting about the sweepstakes is that third prize is the unreleased game Ewok Adventure. Developed by Atari Games, it was completed and a prototype exists, but marketing thought the controls were too difficult, so they chose not to release it. In the game players control an Ewok glider while dodging and dropping rocks in an effort to destroy a shield generator. It's likely anyone that won third prize received another Star Wars game in its place, probably Death Star Battle, though Parker Brothers had also already released The Empire Strikes Back and Jedi Arena.

Cartoon Cards

Similar to 1978's Marvel Comics Super Heroes Card Game, Cartoon Cards is another Milton Bradley card game with a licensed property. Released in 1979, this one features cartoon characters from Hanna-Barbera. The instructions printed on the inside of the cover state "This simple but suspenseful card game will keep children amused game after game. Players win or lose chips by matching their favorite cartoon characters." The game does include a lot of white plastic chips, as well as three copies each of ten cards with a white background (flipside is yellow with Yogi Bear), and one copy each of ten that have a blue background (flipside is red with Scooby-Doo) that act as the dealer's deck. There are two blank blue cards too, but they aren't used, so I don't know why they are even here.

Although it might appear to be a memory matching game, it isn't. Players lose chips when they match the card being dealt, and the dealer changes to another player each round with the goal being to have the most chips at the end of the game. My box cover is in good shape and shows it cost $3.79 at Caldor. However, the bottom of the box has some big tears in it. The cards are nice, though they aren't all cut correctly; you can see a white line on the top of some of the blue cards. While the character names are on the cards, I'll list them here: Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Yogi Bear, Jabberjaw, The Jetsons, Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Scooby-Doo, and Scrappy-Doo. Of course, The Jetsons is more than one character, as it shows the whole family in their flying car.

Donkey Kong Junior: Puzzles 1

This puzzles booklet from Nintendo was packaged with Donkey Kong Junior cereal in 1983. It measures 4" long by 2.75" wide, includes ten puzzles, and opens vertically, though the answer pages are displayed horizontally. There were at least three different booklets available and all the puzzles were taken from the Donkey Kong Junior Activity Book, which features the same cover art as each of the booklets. I don't own that book, though I do own the very similar Donkey Kong Puzzles & Mazes book. As you'll see in the scans, I wrote on some of the pages when I was a kid. Also, Mario is sporting white hair and s matching moustache, likely due to a printing limitation or error.