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Subject: Digital Games Review Digest, #1
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                     Digital Games Review Digest, Number 1
 
                            Tuesday, April 17th 1990
 
                                 ** Editorial **
                             NES and Gameboy reviews
                  GameBoy: Golf, Kwirk & Solar Striker (reviews)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
From: Dave Taylor <taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Subject: ** Editorial **
Date: Tue Apr 17 11:05:32 PST 1990

Well, we've finally got our first issue of the digest out the door
and into your mailbox as you can see!  It looks like it'll prove to
be an interesting mailing list for all.  Some few of you might have
received an earlier version of this first issue, for which I apologize,
but the list has been growing dramatically and now includes people
on MCI Mail, and CompuServe, as well as BITNET, and various sites
around the world...

One thing you'll notice that this particular issue is exclusively
devoted to Nintendo, either the NES or the GameBoy.  This isn't so
much any sort of grand design but rather simply due to these being
the only submissions we've received here at DGRD.  If you have a 
favorite computer game that you'd like to rave about, please do submit 
a review to us!

Alternatively, since we've a bit more editorial freedom than the 
traditional press, if you've played a game that you just really
didn't like at all, bad reviews are okay too.  Please, though, try
to substantiate through example the problems you cite.

	Submissions should be sent to:

		digital-games@digital-games.intuitive.com

	as always.

						-- Dave Taylor
------------------------------
 
Subject: NES and Gameboy reviews
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 90 16:32:19 -0500
From: leo@tds.lcs.mit.edu

The following are comments and ratings for some Nintendo and Gameboy
games.  Including also are a few indirect comments from Kyoko
Watanabe, who played most of these games with me.  I've included the
name of the company after the game; (A/B) means that the game is under
A's name but B made it (to the best of my knowledge).  The guidelines
I've used for my ratings are: 
8-10 worth buying at full price 
6-7  worth buying at a discount, or if you're particularly interested
     in this kind of game
3-5  only worth renting
2    only worth playing for free, and only for a few minutes
1    worthless
In any case I'd always recommend renting a game before you buy it if
you can.

NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

Super Mario Bros.   (Nintendo) 10
Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo/Fuji TV) 10
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo) 10
 When I was younger I played a lot of the now-classic video games such
as Pac Man, Asteroids, Defender, and so forth, some of which I liked
and some which I didn't.  But the first game that I found truly
awesome was SMB, a game I'd barely heard of when I bought the NES last
summer.  I chose the Nintendo because there were plenty of games
available and I could rent them, but due to SMB and others I became a
real fan.  It's hard to describe why SMB is so fabulous...it has a
sort of sense of fantasy and wonder that no game I'd played before,
and surprisingly none since (save the SMB and Zelda series, and
probably MOTHER, another Miyamoto creation) has captured.  Aside from
that it has excellent graphics (I prefer the simple, clean, colorful
graphics to detailed graphics which are becomming more popular),
music, and most importantly an excellent feel that makes it so much
fun to play.  This is a game I'll still play again and again (and it's
hard enough that I still haven't won yet), and it's fun to see even
friends who normally don't like video games have a great time with
this one (the only game which I've seen beginners like more is
Tetris).  Truly an incredible game.
  Nintendo decided not to bring the original SMB2 to this country but
instead adapted Fuji-TV's "Dream Factory dokidoki Panic," and somehow
that game fits right in with the series, although the game play is
different (and the feel not quite as good).  The originality is
perhaps even greater than SMB, and Kyoko and I would emit screams of
delight every time we discovered something new (which was often).  I
finally won it a while ago, and I don't think it's as easy as people
have said, although getting lots of extra lives helps a lot.  Still
worth playing again and again.
  I wondered if Nintendo could even top SMB2, and they did with SMB3.
This is easily the best videogame I've ever played.   With the movie
Spinal Tap in mind, I originally gave this game an 11.  However after
playing more I'd have to now give it a 12.  The imagination and variety
are staggering, and everything was designed to make the game extremely
fun to play.  Every aspect of this game is exceptional, and I could
spend many pages raving about it.  It almost seems unfair to compare
other games to it.  A true work of art.

Legend Of Zelda, The (Nintendo) 10
Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link (Nintendo) 10
 Two more beautiful games from the Miyamoto team, these blend together
action and adventure (as in role-playing games) better than any other
games I've seen.  And Zelda II is completely different from Zelda I.
Both are extremely challenging.  I like Link a little better, and the
"pre-ending" (the last scene before the ending) is remarkable.  Zelda
is probably Kyoko's favorite game.

Dragon Warrior (Nintendo/Enix) 9
Ultima (FCI/Richard Garriot) 4
 I honestly can't say why I like Dragon Warrior (DragonQuest in Japan)
so much, but the game manages to be perfectly addictive.  I played
during all my spare time for a week until I solved it (and Kyoko later
did about the same).  I can't wait to play DragonQuest II, III and IV!
A couple people described Ultima as being even better, but so far I
really don't like Ultima.  There is so much tedium (I guess it was
meant to make the game "realistic") that I haven't enjoyed playing at
all.  Instead I went back and played Link all the way through again,
and then Dragon Warrior again (still really fun as I'd forgotten
almost everything).  [postscript: I eventually gave up on Ultima.]

Donkey Kong Classics (Nintendo) 6
Mario Bros. (Nintendo) 8
Pinball (Nintendo) 5
Donkey Kong 3 (Nintendo) 4
 Early fun games by Nintendo.  Mario Bros. is especially fun with two
people since you can play cooperatively or competitively (for some
reason we've been only able to do the latter).  Unfortunately it's out
of print now, although some Toys R Us may still have copies.  Pinball
is a lot of fun, but gets repetitive after a while, so I only
recommend renting it.  Donkey Kong 3 was a bit of a disappointment at
first, but it seems better the more I play so this rating is still
tentative.  Suprisingly, the game is a little like Galaga (!),
although with many twists.  Also out of print.

Rad Racer (Nintendo/Square) 8
RC Pro Am (Nintendo/Rare) 8
 Two really good racing games.  Rad Racer is from the perspective of
behind the car, while RC Pro Am is an overview of the track.
Different enough that it's worth getting both if you like racing games.

Faxanadu (Nintendo/Falcom) 9
Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo) 9
Metroid (Nintendo) 8
Kid Icarus (Nintendo) ?
Blaster Master (Sunsoft) 7
Bionic Commando (Capcom) 7
 Some really good action games for the NES.  Faxanadu actually has
some elements of role-playing games, but it's mostly action.  Ninja
Gaiden is a terrific game with a great feel, and the cinematic
intermissions make it even better.  Metroid has the usual great
Nintendo feel, and some nice touches (Kyoko especially likes maru
mari--become a ball).  Kid Icarus too seems really fun but it's out of
print and we've only been able to play it in a store.  Blaster Master
has a great bouncy feel, but with no passwords or continues gets very
frustrating.  Bionic Commando has its unique method of movement and a
good feel, although quite hard for us.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Konami) 4
Willow (Capcom) 6
 This section is for "obvious Zelda series ripoffs," with Simon's
Quest based on Link, and Willow based on Zelda (some of the
similarities are embarrasingly obvious).  Simon's Quest is a pretty
bad and unfun game, but Willow is actually decent and worth trying.

Mega Man II (Capcom) 4
Monster Party (Bandai) 5
Wizards & Warriors (Akklaim/Rare) 6
Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (Akklaim/Rare) 5
Castlevania (Konami) 4
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Konami) 4
Contra (Konami) 3
Adventures of Bayou Billy, The (Konami) 2
 Unfortunately there are plenty of mediocre games for the NES, and
here are some I've rented.  Actually almost everyone seems to love
Mega Man II, so you can ignore my opinion, but I didn't like it (and
Kyoko liked it even less, refusing to play after a short time).  The 8
mini-boss stages are all quite easy, and I'd defeated them all in a
couple hours (and that was when I was really bad).  But it was only
this easiness that kept me going that long, as I didn't enjoy myself
while playing at all.  The graphics and music are both quite good, but
the feel isn't.
  Monster Party has worse graphics and sound, but is a little more fun
to play.  It's also very easy and it took only a day to win, but I
wouldn't want to play again.  You can change into a monster like in
Altered Beast, and the only real strategy is to become this monster
and blast everything.  There are some cute bosses (such as being
attacked by various Japanese delicacies) and I give the game an extra
point for the excellent scene in which zombies dance to taiko music.
  Wizards & Warriors is actually a pretty decent game which involves
mostly jumping, and has a good feel (once you get good you can hold
down the A button and have fun!) but I'm not sure I'd recommend buying
it since it was easy to win in a day.  The sequel Ironsword is harder
but not as much fun, and I actually prefer W&W's primitive graphics
(which were more, say, surreal) to the latter's.
  Castlevania has the apparently typical bad Konami feel to it, so
despite the nice graphics (also typical of Konami) I didn't enjoy
playing much at all. TMNT was fun for a little while and quickly got
boring.  The feel isn't very good, typical of Konami.  Contra is about
the same, and isn't much better with two people (although we both hate
mindless destruction games in general).  Bayou Billy is your basic
terrible kung-fu game, although it does also have shooting and racing
games built in.  None are any fun.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Nintendo) 10
Tecmo Bowl (Tecmo) 8
Ice Hockey (Nintendo) 8
Double Dribble (Konami) 7
 I never ever thought I would like a boxing game (I can't stand the
sport) but Punch-Out is incredible.  Nintendo twists boxing around to
make a really fun game.  The opponents and their ideosyncracies are
great, and every new one is a challenge.  I wouldn't be surprised if
this is another Miyamoto game.  Tecmo too takes liberties with
football to make an excellent and very playable game.  Ice Hockey is
also lots of fun, and Double Dribble is decent as well.

Mickey Mousecapade (Capcom/Hudson) 4
Milon's Secret Castle (Hudson) 3
Hudson's Adventure Island (Hudson) ?
 I've yet to see a decent game by Hudson for the NES.  I've only seen
Adventure Island being played so I can't rate it, but it looks similar
to Secret Castle, which was no fun at all.  Mickey Mousecapade is a
little better, but quickly gets boring.

Life Force (Konami) 8
 Konami might make terrible action games, but they make great space
games.  I'm terrible at space games but really like them; in any case
Life Force (and R-Type in the arcade) is enough for me.  It's nice
that two can play at once as well.  Haven't tried Gradius yet.

Tetris (Tengen/Alexy Pazhitnov) 8
 I hate the arcade version of Tetris--the joystick is very
unresponsive--but no such problem exists with the Tengen version.
Defintely one of the best versions of the game I've played, with a
good feel and plenty of options.  Unfortunately no longer on the
market, but you may be able to rent it.  Haven't tried the Nintendo
version.

Wheel Of Fortune (Gametek/Rare) 5
Anticipation (Nintendo/Rare) 5
 The former is good game if you like Wheel of Fortune, but
unfortunately (at least in the copy we rented) there are numerous
programming bugs.  And most annoyingly the random number generator is
not very random at all, so we kept seeing the same puzzles again and
again.  Worth renting once, though, and it was amusing that we played
this right after Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, and the first puzzle was
"heavyweight champion."  Anticipation is another fun game in which you
have to be the first to guess what picture the computer is drawing.
It also suffers from the problem that puzzles turn up again all too
often, although if you play with the same group of people this could
become part of the strategy.  A good party game, but with more than
two you need to share controllers, which causes problems.

Duck Hunt (Nintendo) 2
Hogan's Alley (Nintendo) ?
To The Earth (Nintendo) 6
 Nintendo rather meanly makes you buy at least the light gun if you
want Super Mario Brothers, and includes the boring Duck Hunt with it.
Most of the other light gun games look similar, and although we
enjoyed playing Hogan's Alley in the store I'll bet it gets boring
fast.  However To the Earth is pretty decent.  The idea is so
straightforward I'm surprised no one did it before:  Make a typical
space shooter with levels and bosses and so forth, have the
perspective be from the ship and use the light gun.  The result is
quite a fun game, although extremely difficult for those of us with
bad aim (we haven't even seen the first boss yet!).  Very tiring on
the eyes, but worth playing again after some rest.

World Class Track Meet (Nintendo) 7
Super Team Games (Nintendo) ?
 For an extra $30 or $40 over the action set you can get the power
set, which includes the power pad and World Class Track Meet.  For
just this game it's worth it unless you don't want a bulky pad.  A
really fun game, definitely intended to play with friends rather than
against the computer.  Unfortunately it seemed this type of game was
about all the power pad is good for, and almost all games so far are
basically running games.  We rented out Super Team Games, but it
didn't come with instructions and we couldn't figure out the strange
movements you have to make.  It wasn't fun at all, but maybe with
instructions (and more people) it could be.  Nintendo's new "Short
Order/Eggsplode!" looks promising as a differnent, if silly, kind of
game for the pad.

Friday The 13th (LJN) 1

The worst game for the Nintendo, this one is to be avoided at all
costs.  Actually I'd guess the other LJN games, all of which are movie
adaptations, are equally terrible, but I refuse to even try them.

GAMEBOY

Tetris (Nintendo/Alexy Pazhitnov) 9
 Perhaps the best version of Tetris around.  The two player game quite
different and especially fun, well worth searching out someone else
who has a Gameboy.

Super Mario Land (Nintendo) 10
 One of the reasons I bought the Gameboy; along with Tetris this game
alone makes it worthwhile.  The feel is even better than the original
SMB, and the game seems specifically tailored to the Gameboy.  The two
shooting stages play like a really fun space game!  Lots to discover,
and worth playing over and over.

Tennis (Nintendo) 8
Golf (Nintendo) 9
 Both excellent sports games, with many options reflecting the sports
and excellent feel.  Tennis is very challenging even on the easy
levels.  Golf has especially excellent graphics and is very addictive.
There are two courses (with some quite imaginative holes) to choose
from, and a battery so you can save the game at any point.

Alleyway (Nintendo) 6
 I never liked Breakout that much, but Alleyway, using the B button,
has a much better feel.  A good mindless relaxing game.

Kwirk (Atlus) 7
 Fun puzzle game in which you try to get through an obstacle course
cluttered with movable blocks, pits, and turnstiles.  Thirty main
puzzles, which start out fairly easy and quickly get extremely
complicated, and numerous easy puzzles for a 10-puzzle timed run
(which can be done as a race between two players).

Solar Striker (Nintendo) 8
 Very good vertically-scrolling space game.  Has a nice feel like the
shooting sections of Super Mario Land.  You can hold down the fire
button for rapid fire which makes the game easy on your right hand;
however the left hand will get quite a workout with this one.

Revenge of the Gator (HAL America) 8
 Comical and very fun pinball game with four main screens and three
bonus stages.  A good feel, great music, and lots to do.  In the two
player games players are on opposite ends of the screen with their own
set of flippers, making for a very different and also great game.

John Leo
                leo@tds.lcs.mit.edu  -or-  leo@athena.mit.edu

------------------------------
 
From: Dave Taylor <taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Subject: GameBoy: Golf, Kwirk & Solar Striker (reviews)
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 90 9:39:01 PST

   Solar Striker 

	This game is clearly in the same vein as Galaxian and other space 
	shoot-the-bad-guys games.  Lots of strange and violent ships fly 
	down from the top of the screen in various formations, and you must 
	shoot them before they smash into, or shoot you.  There are power 
	pods that give you double (or even triple) side-by-side missile 
	launchers to aid in killing the evil ones.
 
 	This, however, is merely the first of six levels of different 
	environments that you must shoot out the bad guys within.  Other 
	levels include a desert terrain, and some on-planet terrains too 
	(though I haven't gotten past the beginning of level two at this 
	point).
 
 	Basically, this looks to be a fun game if you're into space shoot 
	out type games; lots of strafing runs and forays to the top of 
	the screen, and a nice feature that if you hold the A or B button
 	down it'll repeat fire (thank goodness!).
 
 				FROM NINTENDO, $24.95 @ Toys-R-Us
 
   Kwirk

        The adventures of "Kwirk, the Chilled Tomato" is far and away the
        best of the early pre-release cartridges I have currently, and I
        predict this will be a hands-down success in the Nintendo market.
        A pre-production cartridge that has only one obscure bug that I've
        found (in "heading out" you can't seem to always get back to the
        selections menu when pressing the "A" key; instead you end up with
        an automatic "select:reset" pair happening.) it's overall quite the
        closest to production and shelf quality.

        The premise of Kwirk is that our hero, the chilled tomato, and his
        "gal" Tammy (like, you got it, Tammy Tomato) are out on a date and
        decide to explore an underground labyrinth.  Problem is, Tammy
        vanishes, and Kwirk has to get through all the puzzle rooms to get
        back to her...fortunately, Kwirk has a couple of friends that pop
        up on occasion to help with particularly challenging rooms.

        Basically, each room consists of a maze-like layout of brick wall,
        turnstile objects (e.g. objects that can rotate out of the way (or
        into the way) if their path is clear), deep holes and movable blocks
        that can be pushed into the holes to create a walkway.  Some levels
        are pure turnstiles, some are just blocks without holes or anything
        else, and some are intimidating combinations of all of them in
        a strange, and twisted fashion.

        This is a TERRIFIC game!  There are at least 340 different rooms
        to figure out in this game (where the 10 easiest took me about an
        hour to get through; partially because I didn't bother to read the
        (draft) manual first to figure out what the friendly other characters
        were for :-) and it's also possible to Video Link it up to another
        GameBoy for multiplayer action.

        The rooms are broken into different areas, where the most
        straightforward is the "Going Up" level, where you show up in
        a room with stuff in the way and a small staircase somewhere
        on the far side of the obstacles.  There are 10 of these per
        each of the three difficulty levels (easy, average, and hard).
        The rest of the 300+ rooms are part of the "heading out" section,
        where the rooms are connected horizontally; basically it's like
        you're going along a tunnel and keep encountering rooms with the
        obstacles that you must figure out and get past to keep journeying.

        I don't know what's at the end of the journey, but so far, at least,
        it's quite worth the trip!  Now if we can just rescue Tammy... ;-)

			FROM ACCLAIM, $24.95 @ Toys-R-Us

   Golf

	Though I've had this one a while I've only had the chance to play
	through the USA 18-hole course once.  My score? Something like 45 
	over par (not too good, eh? :-).  This is an incredibly cool game, 
	and I can already tell that I'm going to be spending many hours 
	whittling down my shots to where I can start to feel that I can
        master the courses.
 
 	There are two different 18-hole courses available for play, a 
	Japanese and an American.  According to the instructional notes, 
	the Japanese course has "smoother" greens than the American...
 
 	Each hole has many obstacles to overcome, including bunkers (sand 
	traps -- I didn't know what a bunker was until my roommate told 
	me! :-), water traps, rough areas, forested areas, and even some 
	fairways to help things along a bit.  There is also a choice of about
 	15 different clubs to choose from at each stroke, including three 
	'woods', eight 'irons' and a few special clubs for escaping some 
	of the traps.
 
 	Further, the game takes into account much of the complexity of 
	real-life golf too, including indicating and keeping track of 
	wind, by direction and speed, and having obstacles affect the 
	path of the ball, including trees being in the way and rough 
	or pitched angles on the final green!

	One frustration I did have on the 14th hole, I think, was that 
	I tapped the ball with a 6 iron and it actually smacked off the 
	flag stuck in the hole!  It might have ended up on the green, 
	but instead it made a weird noise and bounced back.  ;-\
 
 	Overall, though, the controls are pretty easy to use, though you 
	DEFINITELY need to read through the 25+ page instruction booklet 
	to figure out what's going on.  Also, the instruction booklet 
	talks about a training mode to learn specific holes, as well as 
	how to play when you've VideoLink'd two Golf games together.  I
 	haven't tried that yet, however, so can't report.
 
 	Perhaps the best and most amazing thing about this cart is that 
	it has independent RAM and memory!  That's right, if you want to 
	stop your game in the middle of a hole, or just want to have it 
	keep track of your best scores, then it's all there, and all 
	automatic!  It was, I admit, most disconcerting to flip on the 
	power to this cartridge the second time and have "DAVE" as 
	player #1 already!  :-)
 
 	Overall, I would have to foam at the mouth a bit and say that this 
	is not only the best demonstration of the technologies available in 
	the GameBoy, but it's also easily one of the most enjoyable games 
	too!  Excellent!!
 
 				FROM NINTENDO, $24.95 at Toys-R-Us
 				   Supports VideoLink hookup
 
 							-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
 
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com    or   {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor

-------------------------------------
 
To join this group or have your reviews appear in the next issue, please
send electronic mail to Dave Taylor at the following address;
 
		digital-games@digital-games.Intuitive.Com
 
We welcome reviews of games for any computer system, including the IBM
PC, Apple Macintosh, Atari, Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari Lynx, 
Sega Genesis, Nintendo GameBoy, NEC TurboGrafix, Amiga and so on.

The views expressed in Digital Games Review Digest are those of the 
individual authors only, and do not represent the views or opinions
of Intuitive Systems or any of our affiliates worldwide.  The copyright
of each article is that of the original author, and the copyright of
the digest itself, as well as the name "Digital Games Review Digest"
are noted here.
 
*********************
End of Digital Games Review Digest
*********************

