Bad Piggies (Android)

...with benefits

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Rovio Entertainment -- Publisher: Rovio Entertainment

I feel a little weird reviewing such a "Pop" game considering even I've never heard of most of the stuff I have been talking about, but here it is.  Bad Piggies isn't quite as "Pop" yet as developer Rovio's first game Angry Birds has become, and maybe it actually won't be.

Don't get me wrong though, I love this game.  I have barely ever been able to suffer through a whole section in Angry Birds, and definitely not to 3-star it all.  This game, on the other hand, hits me so much better in so many ways.

In Bad Piggies, you play the role of the green pigs that you are trying to destroy in Angry Birds.  I think I read that this is supposed to be a sort of prequel.  Something like this is what happened to cause the backlash of the birds or something.  Even then, it's not like you are controlling the pigs themselves, like you control the Birds in the original.  What you actually do is build the vehicle/contraption that the pigs ride to the finish line.

It starts simple, add a couple boxes, add some wheels, and let him roll down the hill.  As the level progress, you start to use various other pieces, building bigger and more complicated vehicles.  You might have balloons to make you float, or fans to blow you left or right (or hover upwards, for that matter).  Here and there, you will find engines that will kick some of these pieces into overdrive.

In each level, there are 3 stars to get, like the original.  Unlike the original though, you don't need to get all three on one run, and often you can't.  What you can do though, is build a machine specific to reaching that star box to collect, or making a speed run, or getting through without breaking any pieces off.  Sometimes, the same machine works for all three, sometimes you need something completely different.  Sometimes it needs to be a machine that you can just "set and forget", and sometimes you actually need to "drive" the machine, turning the fans on or off, or releasing balloons to stop your ascent, etc.

Pretty standard vehicle from pretty early in the game

I love when I get to make 4-sided rolly things like this!

What keeps me coming back to this game is the creativity and sometimes genius it takes to accomplish all of the goals in each level.  I've tried playing games like Incredible Machine in the past, and it just never keeps me playing.  I've tried Angry Birds, but there's nothing but angles and seemingly unguessable physics.

In this game, I feel like I'm in control.  I love the way the pieces work together.  Unlike Angry Birds, I will not move to the next level until I have all 3 stars, and I'm actually not upset about it.  I think that's what it boils down to.  In Angry Birds, yeah, you are in control of the angle, and the force, etc, but to me, it ends up ultimately feeling random.  You can aim exactly the same, and something bounces different and causes a completely different result from one shot to the next.  In Bad Piggies, I feel like if I can't hit that goal, it's because I haven't figured something out with my machine yet.  I feel like everything is achieve-able, I just need to find that one little piece to put in just the right place, and it all works.

I haven't been playing quite as much as I was at first, but it's partly because I don't really want to burn through it all and be stuck waiting for new levels.  On the other hand, I also don't want to wait too long and get behind on my levels.  I think it may be just about time to pull it back out and get through a few more levels though!

Heart of the Planet (Flash)

I was wondering how I was going to decide on my next game on Kongregate without being biased by Recommendations or ones that I know already looked good or bad.  I searched for "Random Game" and it looks like someone made something to pick a random game from the site.  And this is what I got....

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2010 -- Developer: ??? -- Site: Flonga (via Kongegrate)

First Impression:  

The description is "Help her reach the heart of the planet to save the world from evil".  A little generic..  Controls:  "Arrows to move, x to shoot".  Okay, I'm thinking something like a top-down shooter?  Except the tag is "Action" so who knows.

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Fooled around for: 5 minutes

Ugh.. Been a while since I really couldn't last longer than 5 minutes.  This is what happens with random flash games.  It's basically a Mario rip-off.  But there's no story explaining anything.  Literally just "Level 1" right when the game loads.  The controls are super loose, sliding all over the place.  The left arrow overrides the right arrow, no matter which was pressed first, so you find yourself turning when you didn't want to.  This also makes the whole platforming aspect super hard, but not because it's hard, just because it's not made well.  I guess eating a mushroom to get big in Mario doesn't make much sense either, but in this it's a carrot.  And then some random shape for "fireballs".  Big You breaks blocks, there are stars for coins, and you jump on pigs instead of carrots.  You could literally just remake Mario in this engine and everything would be there. Except the fun.

Also the music is annoying and a very short loop.

The ONLY thing this game has going for it was the art assets are actually not that bad.  Some of the textures are pretty good, but they don't match the hand-drawn sprites, and it's all probably just ripped off from somewhere else around the internet.

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Hit it or Quit it?

In case it wasn't apparent, quit it.  Reading the reviews on Kongregate, it seems everyone else agrees.  Shoddy controls on an otherwise ripped-off, but still incredibly vague platformer.  Mayyybe this was a first game/demo kind of deal for them to get used to making games, but I don't have much hope for anything else that pops up by this developer.

It looks like Flonga is just a website for Flash games, so I don't even know who to blame for this....

Obsessive Collecting Disorder (XBLIG)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Super Smith Bros -- Publisher: XBLIG

First impression:
This will be the last time I mention it for XBLIG games, until something changes and I do get a description, but this has no description after already being downloaded.  Maybe as I download the demos, I will make note of the their description or something.  Or just keep playing blind with some screenshots as my only source of impression.

Otherwise, the title sounds interesting to me.  I feel like sometimes I have this Obsessive Collecting Disorder.  In most games, I am the one who will make sure to clear out the whole map and get everything I can before I move on.  I hate feeling like I forgot something that might be important later.  The screenshots make this game look more like the "collecting" is just grabbing all of the coins in this crazy deathtrap platforming levels. You are a stickman, which is nice and simple.  The graphics in general are pretty simple, but it looks like some pretty intense obstacles.  Hopefully the controls actually hold up and make this fun.

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Fooled around for:  6 minutes (Demo levels ran out before the 7 minute XBLIG limit)
This was definitely a clever little game so far. Unfortunately, there aren't too many levels to play in the demo, but what is there is pretty fun.  The start screen scrolls a mock-up of the first Super Mario Bros. level, as the stickman reaches the castle, it is labeled Craperture Science, a reference to Portal.  The game is kind of set up like Portal as well, in that you are in a testing facility as they test the effects of Obsessive Collecting Disorder.  As you collect the final coin in each stage, it turns into a Portal and takes you to the next stage.

There are a few other references to other games such as a text reference to GTA4 and shooting the pigeons, but also level design references such as timed "disappearing" platforms ala Megaman.  With so many more levels in the full game, I'm betting there are all sorts of references sprinkled throughout the game.

The controls weren't too bad, considering I was worried about them.  They are almost a littttle too tight, causing some overshooting when trying to make fine adjustments.  Thought not perfect, I wouldn't say they are a game-breaker.  The levels are definitely bound to get insanely hard though.

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Hit it or Quit it? (80 MSP)
Considering I have some OCD myself, I'm not sure this is quite the kind of "collecting" I feel the need to "obsess" about.  This is just collecting for the purpose of finding the right path through level and collecting the coins along the way more as checkpoints that you are playing correctly.  Not really scouring to find them all so you haven't missed something.  That said, it is pretty fun, though a little tricky.  I am really interested in seeing what other references come about in the game though, so I would hit it.  If it caught me at the right time, I might even spend a couple bucks, rather than just the one.

Slick (XBLIG)

I feel like playing some some XBOX360 for a change, so it's time for another slightly new format!  XBOX Live Demos (Full Game/Arcade/Indie) will receive a rating based more specifically on whether it's worth paying to continue Hitting it or it needs to be kicked to the curb without even a tip.

In most cases, I can't watch demo/intro screens to get a feel for the game.  All I get is a text description and some screen shots, like I'm ordering a Russian Bride.  Also, for Indie games particularly, I'm limited to only 7 minutes before I need to decide whether it's worth paying for.  (If only that's how real call-girls worked, amirite???)  In Arcade/Full Demos, I can only play so much before the Demo runs out.  The price is higher, but the quality may be better, so that value will affect my decision.

This week, I will be playing Indie Game demos I already had downloaded on my system before I even started this blog, so they already have a leg up in that they seemed interesting enough to Demo.  In the future, I will just start downloading whatever I find so it will be more of a surprise whether I like it or not.  Lets get to it.  This may also mark the start of following some sort of Theme for the week, so I have an excuse to finally mix up the variety instead of just going alphabetically through the Super NES games.

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Halcyon Software -- Publisher:  XBLIG

First impression:
The XBOX doesn't have any description for this game.  I don't know if it's a hiccup or it just doesn't.  All I can see are some screenshots.  The color scheme looks like it's being played on an old school Gameboy.  It's pretty much green-scale (versus grayscale).  It looks like one of the Mario Land games, just a standard platformer, jumping around, perhaps collecting coins.  I'm a little uncomfortable at the fact that it shows level 2-17.  17 levels in one world seems a little excessive.  Let's see what this is all about.

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Fooled around for: 7 minutes (Indie Game Demo Limit)
It was about what was expected, except sadly just a bit worse.  There aren't coins.  It turns out it's really just a platformer, or what I might call a Death Platformer or Respawner or something.  It's like Super Meat Boy where the level is only so big, you just need to get from Point A to Point B.  The catch is that the obstacles between those points get ridiculous.  If you die, there's no penalty, you just restart the level from the beginning, so they don't care if they get insanely hard, they just expect you to fight your way through it.

For what it is, it's okay, the problem is that it really does feel like a Gameboy game, sucky controls and all.  The hit boxes are too loose, so many times I died when I really should have been able to avoid the enemy in time.  The jump button repeatedly jumps when held, so a few times on short jumps, it caused me to jump again though I didn't want to. If it's this old-school "hard just because" feeling they were going for, great.  The music is 8-bit and old-school.  The enemies are pretty old-school looking.  If not, it just feels like it's their first game and the physics need just a little more polish.

As noted, there are definitely a lot of levels, which is good, since they run pretty short.  If they were longer, you'd be that much more angry when you died right at the end of it.  I bet it gets to that point though.



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Hit it or Quit it? (80 MSP)
For a buck, I would possibly hit it again.  I would at least think about it.  But I would probably first go try some other demos for games like this that I could buy for a buck in case I found something better first.  If I'm going to plan to spend time really getting into a game like this that gets so hard it takes practice, I want to make sure I'm totally into it.  I'm not sure that's this game.  It definitely wouldn't be if it cost any more than 80 MSP.

So.. Hit it, maybe, after another trip around the bar.

Alien 3 (SNES)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 1993 -- Developer: Probe -- Publisher:  Acclaim

From across the room:
I have never seen any of the Alien movies, so I have no idea what to expect with the story, let alone with the game.  There's actually an intro cinematic, not that it's helping much.  It's space.  And there's an alien on the ship.  The music is trying to be epic.  There's some bald guy.  While it's going.. my guess is that this will be something like a side-scrolling platform shooter.  Looks like the intro is done, so let's find out.

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Fooled around for: 8 minutes
Hey look at that, I was right.  Side-scrolling platform shooter.  This is my excited face.  It almost seemed cool at first because the first thing I realized is that I have a flamethrower.  Then I realized I could walk up to a computer terminal and use it.  This is how you select your mission.  There seems to be several, and I wanted to know what they all were, but it took so long to watch the mission information display everything, I just couldn't stand waiting through it.  I looked at one that showed there were hostages to save, and one where there were cracked pipes that needed to be fixed.  I chose to save the hostages and off I went.  To find that you only get to see the map at the terminal, and it looks so generic, it's hard to even tell what it's showing you.  Then you can just go into all kinds of random doors and get lost.

Like I said, I haven't seen Alien, but is GI Jane in it, because this game makes it look like she is.  There are a bunch of little aliens running around, and it's fun to burn them to death, but that's about it.  Running is not fun, jumping is not fun, saving hostages is not fun.  Fire is fun.. but then you run out of ammo and it's not so fun.

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Hit it or Quit it?
Overall, I just don't care enough about this franchise to try to figure out what is going on.  There could be a decent game underneath, if it was given some patience, but patience I do not have.  Quit it.

Double Teamed - Dream TV (SNES)

Year: 1994 -- Developer: BITS -- Publisher: Triffix

3rd game Double Teamed!

From across the room:
Somehow, we happened to pick a bunch of games that just don't have demo screens, so who knows how this is going to be.  With a name like Dream TV, we can't even guess.  They would rather show the credits during the title screen than show us what we can expect during the game.

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Played for: 15 minutes

Hit it or Quit it?
I guess we got sucked into the TV and were trying to collect puzzle pieces to get out?  The coolest part about this game was the way the "camera" worked with two players, and even then, it had it's moments of suck.  You start in the same place, so the camera just takes the whole screen, but as you walk apart from each other to explore, the screen just splits horizontally, so it can track you each separately.  Pretty cool effect, except for when you are just far enough to get the screen split because one of you ends up disappearing as it gets ready to split, and then there is just a weird, uneasy feeling from seeing the screen split by just a little.  Looks way better when you get far enough away from each other.

The controls sucked though. It's a platformer, except it's hard to actually jump from place to place.  The graphics are hideous, and the music isn't any better.

Dream TV?  More like Nightmare TV, amirite???  Quit it.

Aladdin - SNES

Year: 1993
Producer: Capcom

From across the room:
Ah, so nice to hear a familiar splash screen of a decent company for a change, Capcom!  I've played Aladdin before, so this won't be completely new, but it's been a while, so it will be new enough.  The startup sequence is running through the story.  Aladdin and Jafar are trying to open the Cave of Secrets or whatever it was. The animations are nice and colorful, as they should be, being based on a Disney cartoon movie.  Running demo scene now.  Ah, yes, this does look familiar.  I think this is supposed to end up being pretty hard, like The Lion King.  Like they were thinking "hm, Disney movies are nice and accessible.. but let's make the games so even seasoned gamers can't handle this shit... also.. penises."  Sounds like the music should be catchy and referential to the movie as well.

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Played for:  8 minutes

Hit it or Quit it?
Don't let the playtime fool you.  Or maybe do let it fool you, I don't know.  Maybe I'm just having an impatient day, but I just wasn't into dying over and over.  I see that yes, it's difficult, but it's partly only because of the controls.. and level design.. Both of which should be expected I guess, and I guess you would be expected to get over it.  But they just weren't as fluid as they felt like they could have been.  Most of the levels just need to be memorized so you can avoid the awkwardly placed enemies.  It feels like there could be some pretty cool parkour type runs, but then all of a sudden you catch something and it stops you right in front of an arrow.  Also, the controls just feels really loose.  For a platformer with ahead-of-its-time parkour, and very precise jumping needed, the hit/grab boxes just don't feel right.  One time, it seems you'd be fine to grab this or jump on that, but the next time, it feels like the same place, and it just doesn't connect.  Also running is really loose and sloppy, being unsure of when you're going to start and stop speed-running or sliding.

I do feel impatient today, so I would probably come back and hit this again sometime to try to learn the levels a little more and see how much of the movie is involved in this game.  I do remember very similar issues with the Lion King game too though, as I mentioned.  I wonder if that was Capcom too.. hm..  Either way, games like these usually have codes, or you can at least look up the passwords and start wherever you want in the game, so there's some replay in just jumping around and seeing further into the game for the heck of it.  Not right now though!

Aero the Acro-bat 2 - SNES

Year: 1994
Developer: Iguana
Publisher: Sunsoft

Looks like the first game was popular enough, since this next one came out the next year.  I'm not sure what everyone saw in it, but we'll see how this next one goes.  Same people involved, it looks like.  Hopefully it's not just a remapping of the same engine..  Ah, yes.. Then Aero was on the Sunsoft Logo.  Maybe there was really just no other good games at the time, so this looked best in comparison.  Maybe I didn't give the first enough time.  Likely, but oh well.  I'm not here to give games adequate time.  There are too many of them!  Anyways.. Demo screen looks pretty similar to the first.  Definitely upgraded the graphics.  The sprites are all bigger on the screen.  Looks like controls are a little smoother though, but I've thought that before.

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Worth mentioning first, since I haven't officially started:  There's a mini game in the options.  Odd..  It's a shuffle-the-cups game.  Pretty easy, but still.  I'm guess it's to practice for when it happens in the main game.. Doubt I'll get that far though :p

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Played for:  25 minutes

Well, this one definitely kept me playing for longer than most of the games have been.  It's wayyy better than the first.  It's actually so much better, I almost would want to go back and fight through the first one just to appreciate this one that much more.  It starts with a story, which the first is lacking in the game.  It looks like there's some evil clown named Ektor.  That's about all I know.  Except that you think you beat him in the first game, but he ends up saved, and that's where this next game picks up.  Except the graphics are way better, the controls are way smoother, and everything just plays great.  You can attack things with your "drill move" (which I have found it is called).  I'm guessing you can do that in the first one too, which would make things easier, so I may have give that one a Booty Call sometime and take another run at it.

The levels are so interesting in this one so far.  Lots of hidden side tunnels, lots of fun platforming elements, and with the controls feeling tighter, it's really making for a good game so far.  Not good enough to just keep playing right now, but good enough to maybe come back again some day.

Hit it or Quit it?
Hit it, even if I hit the first one first just to make sure I wasn't missing something.  Otherwise, screw the story, this one is way more fun, and I would for sure come back for this one.

Aero the Acro-bat - SNES

Year: 1993
Developer: Iguana
Publisher: Sunsoft

I'm pretty sure I have played this before, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't for very long.  I don't remember if it was because it was bad, or just because I don't play games very long.  If I remember correctly, it's just a collect things platformer, with some gliding because you're a bat?   Seeing the demo now, the graphics are actually not quite as smooth as I was expecting.  Maybe I was thinking the sequel, or the Genesis version or something.  Otherwise.. yeah.  You're a bat, in a circus.  Jumping around.  Everything is actually pretty small on the screen compared to most of the platformers I have played so far.  The music is circusy and annoying. Surprised to see Iguana as the developer.  Let's see how it goes!

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Played for:  15 minutes

Yeah, I really don't remember this, so it was either the sequel, or I've always just seen the game sitting there so often, I assumed I played it.  Really isn't that fun, sadly.  It looks like it could be, but the gliding is weird.  It's either up angle or down angle, and if you hit the ground, you just slide along it.  You can't jump on bad guys.  There are a couple neat circus themed items to interact with, but otherwise, I just didn't really have fun playing it.  The main goal of the first level is just to find 7 star platforms and jump on them until they disappear.  Doesn't make sense, and again, just isn't that fun.  The second level was different, at least.  But I hit Game Over, and it kicked me all the way back to the first level, so screw it, I'm done.

Hit it or Quit it?
Quit it.  Not as "Quit it" as a lot of the other platformers I've been playing, but I don't see any reason to come back to this one again.  Maybe the sequel will turn out better!

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends - SNES

Year: 1993
Publisher:  THQ
Developer: Imagineering INC

First Glance
I had to restart the game and pause on the info screen because there is no splash screens telling me who was involved with this game.  I have a feeling that's going to be a bad sign.  Also, there's no demo footage, just the standard Rocky and Bullwinkle title screen with Rocky flying around.  I never really liked this show that much, so I'm not expecting much.  Especially with what little I have been able to learn so far about the game.

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Played for: 20 minutes

So, this is another first, and I bet won't be the last.  Before playing this, I didn't think that I had played it before.  Pretty quickly though, the memories started flooding back, and I totally have played this game before.. and my memories seem to think I've played it quite a bit.  Like I owned it or rented it a lot or something.  The catch is, my memories don't seem to think I was holding a SNES controller though, so that's probably why I didn't remember.  I'm betting I played it on the Genesis.  Either way, I definitely think I played it a lot.  It was sooo familiar.  Bonking Bullwinkle's head on rocks, gathering and throwing berries, climbing up the mountain in the first level, etc.

That aside, and for whatever nostalgia is affecting my opinion, it actually isn't too bad.  It's tricky, but not annoying tricky like most of the platformers have been thus far.  It feels like when you made a mistake, it was your fault for not seeing it coming, not remembering it was there, or just plan not paying attention.

Also, even though I don't really like Rocky and Bullwinkle, the intro scene was pretty entertaining.  Lots of broken 4th wall stuff like they often do.  Also a "Hey, isn't this how our Game Boy game started?" was pretty funny.

There are a couple mini-games you can play before the level to get an extra life before you go in, and that was super familar too.  So much, that I killed it, and totally got my extra life.  I wonder how much more would seem familiar if I kept going.  I seem to remember playing it alot, but I really doubt I actually made it too far into the game.

Graphics are pretty good, though the animation is a little choppy.  Controls are pretty good.  Precision jumping is tricky, but it usually is.  Could definitely be worse though.

Hit it or Quit it?
Surprisingly, I would actually hit it again.  Probably not as a first choice, but if it fell into the bed, I wouldn't kick it out.  Would be interesting to see how far into the game my memories actually go.

The Adventures of Kid Kleets - SNES

Year: 1994
Publisher: Ocean
Developer: Krisalis

First Glance
I have seen Ocean pop up a few times already for these reviews, and I'm pretty sure I'm usually not happy about it.  So.. it's a platformer.  Except you have a soccer ball.  Except only sometimes, when you can keep it with you.  Looks like you can do a bunch of tricks with it, like balancing on it, or using it to jump higher, or just kicking it into bad guys, but it looks like it's going to be a pain to try to get it all down.  The camera is jumping all over the place.  You're collecting random food items.  Empty hearts doesn't mean you're dead; you still have one heart.   Weird..  I'm not expecting much from this past 10 minutes of something to do.

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Played for:  6 minutes

Not even 10 minutes, and I can't stand it.  It's even worse than I expected, and I was expecting pretty bad, considering you are trying to play a platformer while you are managing a soccer ball.  Who even thought that would be a good idea?  Oh yeah, also.  ALIENS.  How's that for a twist?  The story is that aliens took the world cup trophy, but then their spaceship got blown up, so the trophy broke and fell back to earth, in pieces, all over the globe.  "Who will find them?" they ask.  Apparently Kid Kleets is supposed to, but not while I'm playing.

The music is some cracked out carnival sounding music that just about drove me nuts.  Handling the soccer ball is a nightmare.  You kick it, but then it ends up three screens away, and you have no other attacks.  You can't take it up platforms with you.  Controlling the ball in general just makes no sense.  You only start with 3 hits, and a bunch of enemies all over the place, that you are supposed to use your shitty ball skills to kill, but it just doesn't work like that.  Thanks again, Ocean.  I will be on the lookout for you now.

Hit it or Quit it?
Quit it, and I hope they never find the stupid trophy.  And I hope someone pops this kid's ball.  I hate soccer anyways.

The Adventures of Dr. Franken - SNES

Year: 1993
Developer: MotiveTime
Publisher: DTMC

First Glance
The first thing that struck me was the demo screen music.  It's like a funky remix of some classical music.  There's a good amount of demo footage to check out as well.   Looks like you are a hip Frankenstein (Has to be since he's wearing sunglasses inside AND at night).  There's an overworld map, looks like he will be traveling all over the world.  Lots of platforming.  Has a couple kick moves to fight with.  Castles, houses, etc.  Looks like it should control decently, but that's about all I can pull from it for now, so here we go!

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Played for:  8 minutes

Nevermind.  Funny I should mention the controls, because that's one of the worst parts.  In general, Y is left attack, X is up attack, and A is right attack.  That would be fine, IF IT WAS CONSISTENT.  When you jump, your attack direction is based on the direction you are facing.  When you are running, it's based on which direction you are facing.  But when you are standing still, it's which button you press.  WTF, why would you do that!?

Also, you can jump and land on almost anything.  But not some things.  But you can't tell what, so you sometimes fall and sometimes don't.

Also, bad guys respawn, which is fine, except they don't respawn CONSISTENTLY, so you are always just turning around right into another bad guys.  And they seem to move about 4 frames for your one frame, so they are already in your hit box before you even get a chance to attack.

For as nice as the art and animation looked, it made me think they actually took some good time on this game and it would at least be a little fun, if not more than just a generic "run around the house and collect things" game.  Nope. This is why I've never heard of Motivetime, or this game.

Hit it or Quit it?
Quit it so hard that Dr Franken's super cool hip shades break and cut his eyeball.  Not that they are his eyes, but still.

The Adventures of Batman and Robin - SNES

To add just a little bit more oomph (Google Chrome doesn't think that's not a word.. weird) to these "reviews", I'm going to start tracking the year and the company(ies) that pop up on the splash screens.  Then maybe I can start to get to know who is to blame when a game is terrible, or who to look forward to when it's good.  Also, sometimes a came just comes out too early in the console's life cycle, and it never had a chance because they didn't know what they were doing yet with the hardware.  That said:

1994, Konami

Also, I think I might start giving a little "Book by the cover" judgement before I play.  Seems to fit with the theme, and considering the awesome cover that Actraiser didn't follow through on, and the trap that was Addams Family Values, it seems appropriate.  That said:

The music sounds good, but it's Batman score, so it should.  The "demo shot" is about 3 seconds of Batman punching a couple guys.  Looks like boring level designs, running from left to right.  Punch/Kick repeating enemies, get to the boss that's probably too hard to care to beat.  Maybe you get to use Robin, not that it would make you the game any cooler.. who wants to be Robin?  I'm also betting there won't be anything cool in the way or Batman gadgets.  The art and animation actually look pretty good though.  Let's see what happens!

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Played for:  15 minutes

Alright, well.. Boy, was I wrong.  I guess after a week of shitty, can't-stand-them games, I was jaded and assumed the worst.  I should have known Konami could put out a good game.  That 3 second demo scene certainly did not do the game justice.  First of all, there ARE gadgets!  A bunch of them actually.  It's like the game slapped me in the face with them for trying to think there wouldn't be.  They all don't matter that much at the beginning of the game, but they are there.  There are so many moves, too.  Rolling, wall-jumping, throwing, grappling with your hookshot.  It's just plain fun to play because there is so much to do.  The bad guys weren't annoying, and they went down easy.  The level design so far was pretty fun.

There's actually a story and some direction, unlike most of the games so far,  There should be with Batman, but I was worried they would just leave you hanging, assuming what's going on.

The only reason I stopped now is because of this crazy scene with the Joker while you are RIDING ON A ROLLER COASTER.  WTF!  That's only like the 2nd level too.

Graphics/Animation are awesome, the music keeps you pumped, the cut scenes are entertaining.  It controls great, there's a bunch of stuff to do.  I will definitely say this was quite the surprise.

Hit it or Quit it?
I don't know if I've got bad-game goggles on from so many horrible games before this, but I would hit again with no remorse.  It was so fun to play, I probably wouldn't even care if I didn't get any further and just played the first levels a few more times.

The Addams Family 2 - Pugley's Scavenger Hunt

Played for: 15 minutes

Somehow, in one year, they managed to turn the first game into something so much worse..  It looks like the same engine underneath, except suckier.  The controls feel even looser, the animations are gross, and the game makes no sense.  Pugsley is ugly as hell, and his sprite and animations seriously turn my stomach a little bit.  He looks like Dennis the Menace's deformed cousin.

Also, the sounds are ridiculous.  It's like Fart: The Game.  Everything you jump on splurts away with a fart sound.

The levels are random piles of confusing garbage.  You can gather points randomly from just jumping to random spots in the air. Blocks appear out of nowhere.  Background objects looks like platforms you can jump on, but can't, and end up falling into the death-hole.  It just make no sense, and is frustrating to even try.

On the plus side, they give you three hits now, instead of two.  That's good.. right?

Hit it or Quit it?
Quit it.  Quit it so hard.  I would rather play the first one again.  I'm so looking forward to the third one...

The Addams Family - SNES

Played for:  15 minutes

The Thing animation at the beginning is pretty cool, and then it just went downhill from here.  For being a platformer, the controls are super loose.  If you take 2 steps, you are running so fast, you slide.  The hit boxes are unforgiving and you are left wondering why you got hit this time, but not last time.  The jump distance for how long you press the button is super sensitive, and almost unpredictable.  Lots of bad guys, and you only get two hits. 

You find weapons every now and then, which really help, until you get hit and lose them.  When found, the best tactic seemed to be Continue's ABS tactic: Always Be Shooting. 

Also, you are collecting money when you are supposed to be finding your family, but I'm not yet sure why.  

Overall, it's just hard, but I can't tell if it's my impatience or just a bad game.  With practice, it probably gets better, but there still is some stupid level design/enemy placement all over the place, so I don't know.

Hit it or Quit it?

Quit it.  Unless I found out that by beating it, you get to see Morticia's boobs.  But even then, her nipples would probably have teeth or something.

Actraiser - SNES

Played for:  0 minutes now, but I've beaten it before

So this is the first time during the blog I've already played the game I'm supposed to play, so I'm not sure what to do.  If it were a game I'd just played a little and just needed a reminder, I would probably still play again.  I've beaten Actraiser before, and actually just played a few hours of it again a couple weeks ago anyways, so I will just go off that.

To have actually called a game "Beaten" is definitely something you won't see often on this blog, especially now since that's not the point.  It just show you how much I like this game though.  I rarely beat anything, and this is actually one that I have. Though I wouldn't have without save-state.

Jumping from Sim-City/world builder to Castlevania/generic side-scrolling platform fighter is pretty cool, though this game isn't as good at either of these ideas as each of those are on their own.  It makes for a fun combination; feeling ultimate power, but also being able to get down and dirty with the locals.

I love the music, and have listened to the soundtrack on its own for hours in the past.

The graphics are fairly detailed, though animations are lacking.

The controls are sticky, and make the platforming and fighting a little tough.

Hit it or Quit it?
I've hit it multiple times in the past, and would probably give it another booty call here and there.  But only with protection, a la save-state.  Otherwise, you're just asking to catch something.

Ahh! Real Monsters - SNES

Played for:  10 minutes

Pretty standard platformer, except clunky and annoying.  I never watched the show, so I don't have any nostalgia attached to this show, but the game isn't fun. You are controlling three characters you cycle through, ala The Lost Vikings, but you can barely tell you've switched between them.  They have a "Trio Move" which is either far jump, high jump or look into the next area remotely.  They just take forever to activate, and you need to be standing just right to make it happen.  The controls in general are just loose and hard to control, plus as your main character leaves the others behind, they appear, flashing on the screen and it's distracting.

Level design is "cool and gross" trudging through a bunch of garbage and such, and the art is okay.. Background art is better than the characters, though they pretty much look like they do in the show, just pixelly.  The "scare" animations are pretty cool, but they certainly don't save the game.

Jumping is annoying, throwing things at bad guys is annoying.  Overall, I just couldn't stand this more than 10 minutes.

Hit it or Quit it?
Ahh! Quit it.