amphibious_ReViews

To be completely frank, fighting games aren't really my thing, so my interest in Yie Ar Kung Fu was almost purely for its historical value. Although not the first game in its genre, it was the progenitor of the health bar that would soon become a staple in series like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat . The feature is pretty simplistic in its debut here, broken into eight equal segments that detract one by one with a hit of any kind, but as an early title, I wasn't expecting something super advanced. That mindset was good to have going into this, as the rest of the game matches the health bar in complexity. In Yie Ar Kung Fu , you can jump, crouch, and walk as you would expect from a fighting game, but your actual combat potential is pretty limited. You can punch and kick, but the segmented health bars mean the only difference between the two is where they hit. There's no risk-reward balance for heavy and light attacks, there are no combos, and there are no other playable

Combining the gameplay of Namco 's Galaga with the perspective of Atar i's Tempest , Gyruss ends up feeling like a perfect evolution of both. Since most of my early-childhood arcade experience was actually through various iterations of Namco Museum , games like this didn't just pass me by, they virtually didn't exist. If this game wasn't on the list of 1001 Games to Play Before You Die , I probably wouldn't have ever played it, and that's a huge shame. With the Galaga series being some of my favorite arcade titles, Gyruss fits snuggly as a favorite as well. You've probably guessed already, but if you're familiar with Galaga , you'll likely be pretty comfortable with Gyruss . Practically everything is recreated here, from the way enemies fly on screen in formation, giving you a chance to take out a few before they fall in line with the rest of their crew, to the bonus stages that give you a chance to earn some extra points without threatening

When I first picked up Time Pilot , I wasn't sure what to expect. Most of Konami 's arcade games escaped my attention up until recently, so they tend to be a surprise every time I pick one up. Although the game's title kind of gave away its concept, I was only seconds in before I started geeking out over traveling through time and battling weaponized aircraft from five different decades. It's still just as basic of a story as any other arcade game, but the concept just did something for me that shooting aliens without an origin didn't. When you boil it all down, Time Pilot is a game about shooting and surviving. You are given what seems to be a horizontal view of the sky with 360 degrees of navigational capability in which you must maneuver to avoid enemies and incoming fire. However, you won't be able to win as a pacifist. The game requires you to take out a certain amount of opposing aircraft before it spawns the boss-like enemy that you must defeat in order

Scramble introduced the world to level-based side-scrolling shooters and inspired the development of legends like Gradius , but has since faded into relative obscurity. Like most firsts in the video game world, Scramble is impressive more because of what it started than because of what it is. Playing this game now, it's easy to see why it was a big deal when it released, but why nobody is really talking about it anymore. In Scramble , you are tasked with surviving as long as possible while your ship automatically flies to the right. You have free range of motion on the left half of the screen, which you absolutely have to take advantage of in order to avoid both enemies and the terrain. To help, your ship is also equipped with two types of weapons. A regular blaster that fires straight forward, and a bombs that arc towards the ground. The blaster is especially useful for clearing your path, but proficiency with the bombs is about the only way to keep your ship in the air. As you

  If the pictures didn't make it painfully obvious, I am bad at this game. Classic arcade games usually give me trouble (that's their quarter-eating job), but Frogger kicked it up a notch. Other arcade legends eased me into the intense difficulty by making simple adjustments every level. However, just the second level of Frogger added faster vehicles, more diving turtles, less frequent logs, and two kinds of alligators. There's no room for learning - this game is a trial by fire. Each level tasks you to escort five frogs across a street and over a river while avoiding obstacles and, optionally, grabbing some extras for bonus points. With nothing deliberately seeking to kill me, Frogger did end up being a more "zen-like" experience than I'm used to from the genre. Unfortunately for me, zen and simplicity are not synonymous. Frogger  wrecked me, and like most other arcade games, I lack the dedication to improve. If you have a chance to play this game, by all m

Although it was a relatively short experience, feeling a bit simple at times, The Sacred Cards somehow managed to keep me engrossed from start to finish. I admit, I had my nostalgia glasses on, as this was the first game that I ever actually bought for myself, but the fact that I played it all the way through most be some sort of testament to its quality. The Sacred Cards creates a unique character for the player and sends them through the majority of the show's second season. You visit a variety of locales in order to duel different opponents in the hopes of securing six "locator cards" that will gain you entrance to the finals of Kaiba's Duel Monsters championship. I believe that this biggest draw of this game is the fact that it forces strategy. Although buying or winning powerful cards isn't very difficult, higher value cards require a certain level of skill to be put in your deck. As a result, I found myself forced to plan my deck out between ever