Dangerously Cheesy!

When I was scanning game ads quite a few years ago before ever launching the blog I happened to notice Frito-Lay's Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah nabbed two video game magazine covers in the same month. Atop his motorcycle, the cool cat is impersonating Santa Claus on the December 1992 issue of GamePro and replacing Rudolph on the November/December 1992 issue of Game Informer so this is sort of a Christmas post, even though the game has nothing to do with the holiday. Platform games starring mascots were quite popular during the decade and they weren't all original characters as there were a handful of food mascots that made the jump to video games, including The Noid from Domino's pizza and even Spot, the red dot from the 7UP logo. 

Chester actually starred in two titles, both 16-bit side-scrollers. Kaneka USA published Too Cool to Fool in 1992 and Wild Wild Quest in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis consoles. I've scanned reviews for both games, though I didn't actually see any from GamePro as the issue above only has a preview which I did also scan. From Game Informer are a review of Too Cool to Fool and winners of a Chester Cheetah contest. There are also reviews for each game from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and as I tend to do with that magazine's reviews, I edited the pages to line up the review crew next to them which is why those scans look off. Normally the reviewers are only on the first page of reviews next to the game of the month (Mike Weigand is not part of the scores for the second game). 

 

Gaming Ads: Game Magazines

This ads post is a bit different than most of the others in that it's not about the games but rather the magazines most of the game ads are from. Magazines were a significant part of gaming in the late '80s and early '90s because without the Internet this was the way to learn about a game outside of a brief television commercial or reading a game box while at the store. Not all of them are only about video games though, as some are computer/tech related too. I've got more than 200 ads of this type and just over half of those are from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) as I opted to scan the contest pages it ran each month. If you've been reading the blog since it launched then you've probably noticed I read a lot of EGM and Video Games & Computer Entertainment, plus a fair amount of GamePro in the early '90s. I also have a handful of old issues of Game Player's, Game Informer, and Commodore Magazine. In the late '90s I primarily stuck with Next Generation and some magazines dedicated to specific consoles.

Game Magazines albums: Facebook - Google Photos

Year 3: August Update

Has it been a month already? Once again I didn't get a whole lot done but I have been working on those Dreamcast ads! Maybe I'll get a "Let's Play" video up tomorrow if I have time; I did try to record one last week but didn't like it so I need to try again. Last week I used a He-Man image on my update and this month there was some good Masters of the Universe news so here is another to the right. Kevin Smith is bringing a new version of the cartoon to Netflix that will pick up where the show from the '80s left off. Netflix also has a She-Ra cartoon though I don't expect this one to be in the same animation style as that which doesn't look anything like the original She-Ra.

Since I've been putting 2-6 hours/day into editing the Dreamcast ads I've not been gaming much at all. After a three week break of almost nothing beyond some quick looks at five games to get screenshots for work, I put Wolfenstein: Youngblood back in, lowered the difficulty, and beat it. I was stuck on the last battle which is probably easy with a co-op partner but with the AI character it can be frustrating. The European game show known as Gamescom was this past week so there was a variety of news though much of it was new trailers, screenshots, release dates, etc. Sega did announce a Yakuza remaster collection for parts 3, 4, and 5, and showed a new strategy game called Humankind from Amplitude Studios that gives off some Civilization vibes. Electronic Arts finally unveiled the next Need for Speed game that releases in November. Google showed a bunch more games coming to Stadia, something that is also not far off at all as it is expected this November too. Intellivision Entertainment released a new trailer for the Amico console that is coming October 10, 2020.

I was reading comments at Game Informer (GI) and, well, reading comments on Internet articles is never a great idea (and responding to a dumb comment is probably a worse idea) but I do it anyway. People tend to say stupid things and like to believe they're being funny by being negative. While the Amico may very well be unsuccessful, there really is no reason to hate on it. It's self-funded and Tommy is clearly excited about it which I think is great. However, despite my love of the original Intellivision, I'm not exactly the target audience. It aims to appeal to families with a strong focus on local co-op and simple gameplay. The controllers have screens similar to a smartphone which makes sense as that would not intimidate those that don't normally play games. Parents will certainly have an easier time picking up on Amico games than something on PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch. Another appealing factor to parents is that games will be inexpensive too ($2.99-7.99). I'd guess the biggest hurdle will be the price of the Amico itself which is expected to be $149-179. Atari is actually releasing something similar this year, yet it's the Amico I'm always hearing about.

Speaking of Game Informer, its owner GameStop laid off a bunch of staff including 7 of the 38 people at GI. I don't have a subscription to GI but I do regularly visit its website and was surprised by some of the folks that were let go. They're definitely skilled writers and possibly half (or at least a third) of the reviews/features writers GI had. The editor-in-chief said the print magazine will continue though I can't help but wonder if it will shrink dramatically. It's too bad as most video game magazines are long gone and I don't know that there are any others still around in the U.S. aside from maybe a couple fan-made retro gaming mags. Hopefully everyone that lost their jobs can find work quickly, and a job that's just as fun as I assume working at GI was, though I expect it's difficult to get good paying jobs when it comes to writing about games these days.

Look for that Dreamcast coverage on 9/9/19! (...or maybe the day before which is a Sunday!)

-Jonathan

Dragon Warrior Reviews

With the upcoming September 4th release of Dragon Quest XI from Square Enix I thought these older reviews would be a fun read for fans. However, I wasn't sure if I should call this post Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest reviews. Of course, since these are from 1990's North American magazines all of the games are titled Dragon Warrior as the game name was changed with each release up until 2005. Enix America must have thought "warrior" would make the games sound more appealing and thus lead to more sales. If you're not familiar with the series the first Dragon Quest, developed by Chunsoft, released in 1986 on Nintendo of Japan's Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short) and is one of the longest running Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) series.

However, the first wasn't released in the U.S. until 1989 and since three of the games had already been out in Japan before 1989 they rolled out quite fast here. From 1990-92 the next three parts released though I'm not positive of the dates. Multiple sources online state part three released in March 1992 but the two reviews I have indicate late 1991. GamePro even says available now at the end of the review though it's possible they simply expected it to be out when the issue hit newsstands. In any case, the first four did release on the NES with the series continuing on the Super NES after that. There have also been numerous re-releases and spin-offs, such as Dragon Quest Heroes from Koei's Omega Force (Dynasty Warriors) which is the only Dragon Quest game I've actually played any of since I grew up with Sega systems and for a long time the series was only on Nintendo platforms, and I rarely play JRPGs these days.

The reviews I scanned are for parts two, three, and four as the first game predates many of my issues or the magazines I have simply did not review it. Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) was, perhaps, a bit harsh in its reviews of two and three while GamePro rated all three games a four out of five on "FunFactor." Three of the Game Informer staff reviewed Dragon Warrior IV rating it a 7.5, 7.5, and 9. It's not surprising that most publications rated the sound and graphics rather low since these are NES games that, as mentioned above, were already a few years old by the time they reached North America and the 16-bit generation had begun by then as well.



Dragon Warrior II

GamePro - November 1990

VG&CE - November 1990

Dragon Warrior III

GamePro - December 1991

VG&CE - November 1991

Dragon Warrior IV

GamePro - November 1992

Game Informer - Nov/Dec 1992

The Games That Shaped Video and Computer Entertainment (VG&CE - December 1989)

This is a six-page article that appeared in the December 1989 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) magazine. I came across it shortly after Game Informer (GI) released its top 300 games list and I thought it would be interesting to see what a magazine thought were the important games nearly 30 years earlier. Of course, GI's list, which I wrote a little about here, is a mix of staff favorites, well reviewed games, and those that are historically significant, whereas VG&CE's article is not the writer's favorite games or best selling games, simply games that had the biggest impact on the industry (through 1989 which for consoles is around the time the 16-bit generation hit North America).

If you don't want to read the whole article, I'll list the 12 games below. However, you might not understand all of VG&CE's choices without reading it. There are the usual arcade classics and early computer games but there is also a very odd choice at #8.

 

 

 

1. Pong
2. Space Invaders
3. Pac-Man
4. Defender
5. Zork
6. Flight Simultor
7. Wizardry
8. Smurf Rescue
9. Miner 2049er
10. Impossible Mission
11. Micro League Baseball
12. Defender of the Crown

If you're curious, the GI list includes half of VG&CE's choices: Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Defender, Zork, and Wizardry.

All-Time Game Lists

I started posting at Game Informer's (GI) website recently as an attempt to attract a little more traffic to this blog and so I wrote a bit about the magazine's top 300 games list that was published in GI's 300th issue and decided to add some thoughts here. Obviously lists like this will be subjective, though I still found it to be rather disappointing. The list favored modern games over 30-year-old games and JRPGs that appeared on Nintendo and Sony platforms. Being someone who grew up with Sega consoles and RPGs on the Commodore 64, I simply cannot relate very well to GI's list.

Admittedly, putting an all-time list together is quite difficult as I struggled to make my own favorite 100 games list. Personally I keep a list of favorite games per platform which is much easier to do and at the very least, I'd say it's better to make separate lists for decades or split the list somewhere in the '90s, when games transitioned from 2D to 3D and the console format went from cartridges to CD-ROMs. When making my own list I found it quite difficult to rank a Genesis game versus a PlayStation 4 game, and impossible to compare classic arcade games from the '80s to modern day games that feature realistic graphics and voice acting. The modern games are more memorable in part because they would be more recently played but also because they can have more of an emotional impact on the player.

While GI did choose games from two series of games from my top 10 list (NHL Hockey and Sid Meier's Civilization), none of my top 10 favorites of all time appear anywhere on their top 300. The most puzzling omission is Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987) as that is an amazing game for its time and is still fun today, and it got an update in 2004. It's an open world game where you are a pirate and basically do what you want as you can ally with any one of four nations, sink enemy ships, invade towns by sea or land, search for treasure, and even get married. Another game that I feel is deserving is StarSiege: Tribes. Normally I have a hard time selecting online-only games for a top list but the Tribes series -- specifically the first two from developer Dynamix -- are too significant to overlook despite not being as popular as games like Quake and Unreal Tournament.

The first Tribes (1998) is an online shooter with jetpacks and large, wide open maps when most shooters of the '90s were still focused on combat in tight spaces. It also has the chat program IRC built into it and a great server browser to help players find teams and organize matches. Tribes 2 added a built-in community with team management, email, news, video recording, and voice chat (didn't work well but it was an early attempt). Fans of the game even created an application called T2TV that was used to stream matches and had people shoutcasting. These games were made for online competition and did things better than many of today's games vying for the eSports spotlight do. I'll write more about Tribes later this year as December marks its 20th anniversary.

Here are my top 50 but the rankings beyond the top 20 or so don't really matter much; they're simply games I enjoyed or still enjoy playing:

1. Sid Meier's Pirates! (Commodore 64)
2. StarSiege: Tribes (PC)
3. Sid Meier's Civilization II (PC)
4. AD&D: Pool of Radiance (Commodore 64)
5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC)
6. Wasteland (Commodore 64)
7. Shenmue (Dreamcast)
8. NHL Hockey (Genesis)
9. Utopia (Intellivision)
10. Golden Axe (Genesis)
11. Tribes 2 (PC)
12. Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)
13. Deus Ex (PC)
14. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PlayStation 2)
15. Star Wars: X-Wing (PC)
16. Max Payne (PC)
17. Snatcher (Sega CD)
18. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360)
19. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
20. Bully (PlayStation 2)
21. Age of Empires II (PC)
22. XCOM 2 (PC)
23. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Xbox One)
24. Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360)
25. SimCity (Commodore 64)
26. Baldur's Gate (PC)
27. Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (PC)
28. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Intellivision)
29. Yakuza 0 (PlayStation 4)
30. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PlayStation 3)
31. The Sims (PC)
32. Phantasy Star II (Genesis)
33. Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Master System)
34. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (PC)
35. Warsong (Genesis)
36. Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox 360)
37. Summer Games (Commodore 64)
38. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Xbox)
39. John Madden '92 (Genesis)
40. Shenmue II (Xbox)
41. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (PC)
42. Max Payne 2 (PC)
43. Valkyria Chronicles (PlayStation 3)
44. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)
45. Shinobi (Master System)
46. Hot Shots Golf 3 (PlayStation 2)
47. SSX  (PlayStation 2)
48. Airborne Ranger (Commodore 64)
49. Call of Duty (PC)
50. Hitman: Blood Money (Xbox 360)

Like I said, I had Sega consoles, not Nintendo, so my experience with Mario and The Legend of Zelda has been too limited to include. Of course, if you've been following the blog since the start you'll know I've mentioned that quite a few times. I don't dislike Nintendo or any game companies but nobody has time to play every game and Nintendo is one I've had to miss most of to this point. However, I did get a Game Boy when it released and did play Super Mario Land and Metroid II, and I've tried some of Nintendo's other games, albeit briefly. 

Two-Minute Drill

Today is the first Sunday of the 2017 NFL season that kicked off last Thursday night. There were numerous football video games released in the '80s and '90s but I didn't have time to do a large project and this is very last minute. I've posted a YouTube video today of the Sega Master System's Walter Payton Football as well and was able to find a review of that game from GamePro that I've included here. While I hope to put together something more complete for the Madden series in the future, this time around I was only able to scan a couple reviews of John Madden Football '92 for the Sega Genesis along with its main competitor that year, Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football. Lastly is a review from Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) for John Elway's Quarterback on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

GamePro - February 1990

Game Informer - Jan/Feb 1992

Game Informer - Jan/Feb 1992

VG&CE - August 1989

Electronic Gaming Monthly #30