Wonder Boy = Adventure Island...Or At Least That's How It Started

In the mid 80's Sega had a little game on the Master System called Wonder Boy. This game centered around the main character, Tom Tom's quest to rescue his girlfriend Tanya from Drancon. Now, This game wouldn't be at all important to video game history if it weren't for a very strange licensing agreement Sega had with original developer Westone. In the agreement, Sega retained the rights to the Wonder Boy name and the characters therein, but Westone kept the rights to pretty much everything else in the game. Meanwhile, Westone had a licensing agreement with Hudson Soft, which led to a knockoff of Wonder Boy being made. This knockoff was called Hudson's Adventure Island. After minor tweaks were made, Tom Tom was now known as Master Higgins in this new game while Tanya was now known Princess Leilani. For whatever reason, Adventure Island wasn't the original of the two games, but it fared much better commercially than Wonder Boy did. This was probably dude to Adventure Island being available on the Nintendo Entertainment System, while Wonder Boy appeared on the Master System, which was in far fewer homes. Sequels to Wonder Boy were quite different from the original, with some being essentially RPGs, completely steering away from the original hop and bop gameplay. Sequels to Adventure Island have pretty much stayed true to the original gameplay formula, and for the most part have been pretty successful. Sadly, the Wonder Boy series fizzled out after the early days of the Sega Genesis, while adventure Island continues to see sequels to this day. With the popularity of download services, the Wonder Boy/ Adventure Island series is sure to see even more sequels as technology gets better and the love of all things old school continues to thrive among gamers.

Barbarians In The Games: Knockoffs PWN The Original

Earlier this week, I considered writing about the Conan games that have come out over the years. The problem with that is they were all by and large horrible games, and two publishers released better Conan games the games actually based on the Conan stories. I'm sure the historically crazy Robert E. Howard wouldn't have wanted his hallucinations converted into horrible video games, but alas, they were.

Taito didn't screw up the barbarian mythos when they released Rastan in 1987. The game felt epic, even if it was simply a hack and slash platformer. The best part was that it never tried to do more than it needed to, therefore it did things well. All of the actual Conan games tried to do a whole lot more than they needed to, and that's where they primarily failed.

When Sega set out to make a barbarian themed arcade game, they actually seemed to draw direct inspiration from the 1981 Conan The Barbarian film. Golden Axe is honestly one the best series of games to directly draw from that line of stories. From the protagonists, who seem to be almost copycats of trio from Conan, to Death Adder's army, which is similar to Thulsa Doom's Snake Cult. Once Again, Golden Axe takes one thing and does it masterfully without leaving room for all the clutter found in the Conan games, especially that MMO.

Underground Games...Literally

So, I've been sitting here trying to decide what to write about today. Then I thought about the biggest news story in the world right now, and inspiration struck. Those Chilean miners survived over 70 days underground, but would they have fared as well if something was down there with them. Over the years, a lot of video game creators have used subterranean canvases to weave their digital tapestries. Some of my favorite old school games are primarily set underground, but their setting is pretty much the only thing that ties them together.

First up is Dig Dug, Namco's classic arcade game. The greatness of Dig Dug has always seemingly been overshadowed by Namco's other two major arcade titles, Pac Man and Galaga. Dig Dug is the only one of Namco's early arcade titles where you could create your own path to beating the assorted monsters in each level. The official world record for the game as recognized by Twin Galaxies is 5,136,150 points which was scored by Ken House in 2009. There is no official back story to Dig Dug, but the main character has been given the name Taizo Hori in assorted games in Namco's Mr. Driller series. He is even referred to as the father of the main character in the Mr. Driller games.

Next up is the spiritual successor to Dig Dug, Mr. Driller. This Namco created action puzzle game takes the best part of Dig Dug, navigating underground, and makes a great game out of it.There are no enemies to fight off, but the blocks overhead have to go somewhere, and that's where the challenge comes into play. Then there is the matter of players making sure they don't run out of air, and it can get tough to do so if when tackling later levels.

Finally, we have Spelunker the classic platformer from Broderbund. It takes the "find stuff, get points" gameplay of Lode Runner, and throws some solid, albeit difficult platforming. It's an oldie but definitely a goodie, and it's easy to find pretty much anywhere.

I'm sure there are other games where traversed underground caverns, but these are probably my favorites that take place primarily underground. I'm glad the Chili 33 got out of that mine, and I'm also glad they indirectly gave me inspiration. Next time you get the urge to play something, why not go underground.

Trackballs And Dribble Buttons: Konami Almost Got It Right

One day, while browsing through the website of an arcade distributor, I came across an interesting listing. Basically, two of the games the guy had up for sale were Blades of Steel and Double Dribble. Being a kid who was primarily exposed to video games early on from the home console standpoint, I was kinda surprised. After actually getting to spend time with them, I'm glad things were switched up for the NES versions.

Blades of Steel was the first I'll look at, since it was, for a long time, the best hockey game on any video game console.The controls were crisp and the action was fast. The arcade version wasn't quite the same experience. Instead of using a standard joystick for control, Konami opted to use a trackball for player movement. the result tended to feel kinda clumsy, but it added a slight feeling of realism to the game. The trackball gave the illusion of sliding across the ice. It was an interesting control mechanic that didn't quite work out.

As for Double Dribble, the game called by many the best basketball game ever released on a home console, the arcade version was a slow, plodding mess. This is contributed many to one major bonehead idea. The Arcade iteration of Double Dribble has a dribble button to a player must constantly tap on offense to avoid being called for ...er...double dribble. So, amateur trivia buffs, that's where the name came from, a penalty for not constantly mashing a button. Without the dribble button, Double Dribble is easily on of the most complete basketball video games ever. it has a real time game clock, full in game stat tracking, multiple full color animations for the variety of dunks a player can perform in game.

Fact is, Double Dribble and Blades of Steel were the two best sports games released for home consoles. Too bad their arcade counterparts had one huge, unavoidable flaw that kept them from being great also.

NES Bible Games: So Bad They're Sinful

Disclaimer: This post is in no way an attempt to disrespect anyone's faith. In fact, you honestly might find this informative


For as long as they've been around, people have been trying to figure out ways to use video games to trick kids into learning. Christians are no different, as there have been many video games published that focus on teaching kids about different parts of the Bible. The primary company that published these games was Wisdom Tree, and they are amazingly still in business. Wisdom Tree started off as a small part of Color Dreams, a video game publisher who made unlicensed games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo pretty much forced unlicensed game publishers out of business by threatening to not send official NES games to retailers if they sold unlicensed games. Color Dreams, in an effort to stay in business, started Wisdom Tree and began producing Christian themed video games. These games primarily sold at Christian Book Stores or through mail order. this ended up being quite lucrative to the point were Wisdom Tree has outlived it's parent company. The games were essentially conversions of Color Dreams' games that fit the biblical theme. The games were generally panned for their poor gameplay, and parents drove their kids further away from the church by only allowing kids to play these very bad video games. The first game released by Wisdom Tree was actually a three game multicart called Bible Adventures. The game took three stories from the Old Testament: Moses being rescued from the river, Noah collecting animals for the Ark, and David fighting Goliath, and shoehorned them into bad copies of Super Mario Bros. 2. This, however was the best of the NES games made by Wisdom Tree, which has to be some sort of crime. Exodus, a game based on the Israelites journey through the "wilderness", was a conversion of an old Color Dreams game, which was a rip off of Boulder Dash. The difference was that Boulder Dash was actually fun. Spiritual Warfare, was a bad Zelda rip off. Joshua was another Crystal Mines rip off, and so on and so forth. The games were notorious for freezing and having numerous glitches, as well as having horrible collision detection, controls and sound effects. They just weren't very good games, and they didn't sell well outside of the uber religious. This has led to these games being rather rare. If you aren't interested in actually owning them, you can play them on the Wisdom Tree website. I'm not a fan of judging folks, but the original intention for this sad cash in company was far from noble. I'm sure the folks behind these games had to have committed some kind of sin here.

Rappers Starring In Video Games: Some Of You Need To Quit Both Jobs

Besides being a gamer, I'm a Hip Hop junkie. I probably listen to more Hip Hop music on a daily basis than I play video games. Fans of both art forms have seem many instances where the two have melded well together, but that mostly correlates to assorted rappers having music in a video games' soundtrack. Every now and then, though, Hip Hop is made a prominent part of a video game, and the results vary from incredible to atrocious. Today, I want to touch on some examples of both.

Rap Jam: Volume One - Motown Games - Super Nintendo: If ever a bad idea was had among a group of Black people, this was it. This game was a bad NBA Jam clone with the visages of assorted rappers thrown in for no reason. None of them played differently, and even though her sexuality has come into question a lot over the years, there is no reason that Queen Latifah should look exactly like Coolio ANYWHERE! I saw this "thing" on Ebay yesterday, and saw that someone called it a rare game. That's because nobody wanted it then, and they don't want it now.

Def Jam Vendetta - EA Sports BIG - PS2, Gamecube: When WCW went out of business in 2001, Electronic Arts was left with a partially completed wrestling game they couldn't sell. What does a good video game company do? They get their hands on a new license for the game, change character models, and publish one of the best wrestling games in a long time. Vendetta features a roster of at the time popular rappers from Def Jam Records, but again, the gameplay is ripped straight from Wrestlemania 2000, which is always a good thing.

Wu Tang: Shaolin Style - Activision - PSOne: EA wasn't the first publisher to do what they did with Def Jam Vendetta. Activision was set to publish the fighting game Thrill Kill, but when that game was cancelled by developer Paradox development, a plan had to be concocted. Enter: Wu Tang Clan, a Hip Hop collective who's main influences were vintage Kung Fu movies and Eastern culture in general. Each member of the group was given a specific look and fighting style, and the game was given a polish to reflect the new change in title characters. It wasn't a bad game, but for whatever reason it never really sold well.

Get On Da Mic - Eidos Interactive - PS2: Take all the hot music from a point in Rap's history, censor the hell out of them, and make it a karaoke game, and you have the premise for Get On Da Mic. Was it bad? When the developers of Def Jam Rapstar use your game as a "what not to do" tutorial, you've made a bad game.

50 Cent: Bulletproof - Sierra Entertainment - PS2, PSP, Xbox: This was bad. I know a 50 Cent diehard who didn't like this, and that guy liked 50's Curtis album. Bulletproof did have two things going for it: a good soundtrack and an okay story. Thankfully 50 redeemed himself with 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand. It was a great game.

These are just a sample of the huge mixed bag you get when fishing through games with rappers in lead roles. Some of them were good , some were bad, but most were amazingly blah. They offer nothing special, which can honestly be said for most popular rap music.

What Should Be On Your Radar This Month

Every gamer knows it can be hard delegating your gaming dollar in the right direction, so I wanna help you out. I got these release dates from ign.com, so if they're off, don't blame me. Also, these games are in no particular order of personal preference.

Fable III- Xbox 360- Release Date: 10/26/2010: I dig Fable. The Second game in the series was utterly phenomenal, and based on what I've seen of it, the third might be even better.

Fallout New Vegas- Xbox 360, PC, PS3- Release Date: 10/19, 10/21: Fallout 3 was an epic resurrection of a great RPG franchise. Hopefully, New Vegas will continue that trend.

Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1-XBLA, PSN, WiiWare, iPhone- Release Date: 10/7-10/13: A return to form for the much maligned Sega mascot is long overdue.

Super Scribblenauts- DS- Release Date: 10/12/2010: The critically acclaimed DS adventure puzzle game has spawned a sequel with even more great gameplay.

Splatterhouse- Xbox 360, PS3- Release Date: 10/26, 10/28: An amazingly gritty, beautifully gory reboot of Namco's classic action horror franchise.

Medal of Honor- Xbox 360, PS3, PC, iPhone- Release Date: 9/30-10/14: EA, taking a cue from primary rival Activision, takes their storied FPS franchise from World War II to modern times. Let's see if their new Medal of Honor can translate into the commercial success that Modern Warfare did.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow- Xbox 360, PS3- Release Date: 10/5/2010: Taking cues from Dante's Inferno,Lords of Shadow is pretty much a God of War clone with Castlevania story elements thrown in. Hopefully that will translate into a decent game.

Kirby's Epic Yarn- Wii- Release Date: 10/17/2010: It almost seems like Nintendo is trying to give fans a major franchise every 6 weeks or so. Hopefully this game is as good as most want it to be.

there's no need to discuss the annuals and almost annuals, because folks who are going to get them already have them on radar. I am intrigued by the idea that Rock Band 3 has a guitar with actual strings on it. That kinda gives Prince no excuse for not having his music in that game. This month marks the end to the "slow season", and with so many big titles coming out, it may have been worth sitting through that dry spell.