Sengoku (1991) - Horror Video Game Review (Nintendo Switch)

Back in the 90's my favourite type of video game was the scrolling beat-em up, and it was a golden age for those. Having recently purchased a Nintendo Switch I wanted to test the waters of the online store, and so seeing Sengoku there for a cheap price I decided to pick it up. Now the benefits of this port is that you can set how many lives you want to have. I decided right away I would bump up my lives to the maximum of 99, and with infinite continues it came down to not how hard an experience this would be, but more just how much fun is the game? As an aside; apologies for the wonky pictures used, I couldn't find any decent images online of the game so had to resort to taking my own!

A portal to an ancient Japanese version of Hell opens above an unnamed American city, and hordes of demons invade. It turns out that 400 years previously an evil Japanese warlord had been defeated by two warriors and that he had vowed to some day return. It turns out that the descendants of the warriors both live in the city and so they set out to defeat the warlord and close the portal to Hell...

Upon loading this up you are given two options; play the Japanese version of the game, or play the North American version. I played through the game on both these options and as far as I can tell aside from the subtitles changing language I found the North American version to be slightly easier. I guessed the story the first playthrough and was mostly correct in my assumptions. It was sad to see that the English translations are at one both terrible and lazy, so much so that I enjoyed the Japanese version just for the fact I couldn't tell what was being said in cutscenes.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1994) - Zombie Videogame Review (Virtual Console)

I had a copy of this on the Megadrive soon after it was released, even back in the early 90's I loved my horror. The frankly shocking and horrifically scary title was reduced to merely 'Zombies' in Europe which I am glad of as I am sure it would have led to a crime wave of violent proportions had the far better name stayed.

You play as either Zeke or Julie; two teenage kids whose neighbourhood has been over run by monsters created by the evil Dr. Tongue. Your goal in each of the 55 levels is to rescue your neighbours before they are killed by the many creatures. Each level has it's own B-Movie style title card to it and takes place in a whole range of locations.

Played at an elevated perspective each level is set out like a maze in which up to ten neighbours are hidden, rescuing them is merely a case of walking into them, but should an enemy do the same they will die with a cartoon angel floating up to heaven. Once all the neighbours are rescued an exit door appears to take you on your way. Starting off in neighbourhoods levels soon take you to many varied locations. You get super markets, hedge mazes, castles, pyramids and much more each one populated with specific enemy types.

Zombies are the most frequent enemy type but there are a large variety of other monsters taken from the best B-movies have to offer. There are Jason Vorhees inspired hockey mask wearing brutes armed with axes (chainsaws in America, but censored for Europe), Chucky inspired evil knife wielding dolls, martians, blobs, giant ants, werewolves, vampires, building sized babies and countless others. The one thing you cannot complain about is lack of variety. To battle these creatures you have access to a lot of power ups and weapons. Rather than guns you have household items. Water pistols, tomatoes, cutlery, plates, soda cans. These all work best against specific enemy types so constantly changing up your weapon is needed to succeed. power ups include a potion that turns you into a hulking monster or a ghost, inflatable clowns that act as decoys and first aid kits to restore lost health.

Special mention has to go to the music, since I first heard it in the early 90's the level 1 music has permanently been scarred into my brain, all the music is pretty damn good but with 50 levels and only a handful of tunes they can get a bit samey after a while.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a damn tough game! You have 3 lives and your energy bar does not replenish between levels. Starting off with 10 people to rescue if one dies they stay dead which on the plus side makes the level that little bit shorter but on the flip side there is more chance of losing the game as it is game over should all 10 be killed. I admit I did not complete this, I never have been able to but after the first 20 levels I am always a bit bored. I wouldn't usually complain about the length of a game but this is just too long due to the repetitive nature of what you are doing. The weapons don't feel like they have much impact and are fiddly to switch between, and many enemies are too tough meaning you get swarmed by creatures you simply don't have the fire power to beat without taking massive damage.

While I do like this game and the sheer amount of variety you get given it is just too hard for it's own good. A password system every five levels helps with this but I just wish you were given more of a fighting chance when it comes to fighting the monsters. Also occasionally you have no chance to save neighbours before they are killed which is always frustrating. So a rough diamond but the graphics and music still hold up today and I imagine it is less boring in two player mode.

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Castlevania (1986) - Horror Videogame Review

Though I already own Castlevania on the Wii's Virtual Console I just had to buy it for a second time when I saw it on the 3DS E-Shop, who wouldn't want Castlevania on the go?

You play as Simon Belmont who has started an assault on Dracula's castle (fittingly named Castlevania) in a bid to defeat the dark lord and restore peace to the land. That is about it for the story. You work your way throughout Castlevania, starting in the castle grounds, and ending in Dracula's throne room at the very top of the place, each level preceded by a map showing the route you are taking. The game is split up into six different levels made up of a variety of stages and all ending in a boss fight.

Still the best thing about this game is the music, the Castlevania series for the most part has been full of amazing songs and this can be seen even in the original. The years have not been kind to this game, Simon controls very badly, his whip attack is unreliable at times, he walks as slow as a zombie, actually scratch that, he walks slower than the zombies as they are quite fast! Your jump is terrible, unable to move once you have jumped and is just weird feeling. The power ups of axe, holy water, throwing knives and crucifix are all classic and all useful for different situations, while the stopwatch is...well it is the stopwatch.

One of my favourite things about the series other than the music is the horror aesthetic that was quite unique at the time and appealed to me, having the game all wrapped up in a castle gives it a strong theme so that levels don't feel disjointed. Common enemies are bats, bone throwing skeletons, leaping flea men and floating Medusa heads. Bosses are a chance for the game to shine and while they can be cheap to fight against they are memorable and crop up many, many times in future instalments. Death and Dracula are pretty much the same in all the games and both great battles, while the giant bat, Frankenstein's monster, giant Medusa head and mummy duo make up the other ones (also appear in future games as both boss characters and demoted to ordinary enemies).

While Castlevania is a classic game it is just a tad frustrating nowadays, I know this is due to the challenge vanishing from games and my past self would hit me for saying that but I found myself impatiently rushing through the thing, cursing every now and again by the random nature of the enemies attacks. If you like the series and have yet to play the original it is worth it, but otherwise move along, there are far better games in the series.

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Castlevania: The Adventure (1989) - Horror Videogame Review (Gameboy)

I always love Castlevania games (with the exception of Castlevania 2 that I struggled to get into) so when I saw Castlevania: The Adventure on the Nintendo eShop, a game I had not played, I had to get it!

Much like pretty much all the other games in the series this one sees you as a Belmont (family of vampire hunters) who must infiltrate to the heart of Dracula's castle and kill him once again. To do this you battle through stages fighting monsters and avoiding traps as you go.

There is a far greater reliance on traps here than pretty much any other Castlevania game I have played. Spikes in particular are your greatest hazard, spike pits, moving spike walls, collapsing platforms all attempt to take your life. Enemies are kind of sparse, you get plenty of rolling eyeballs, and fireball spitting snakes but other than that there is not much more after you. A gargoyle first appears as a boss and later a common enemy, while boomerang throwing enemies can cause strife.

The game looks crisp and clean on the 3DS, though back on the original Gameboy it would have been less smooth. It is also really quite hard (though difficulty is removed when you are able to save anywhere). Your character moves agonisingly slow, and the speed reduces even more when too many objects on screen cause terrible slow down. The simplest of jumps are made a nightmare as it is so easy to overestimate how far Belmont can jump, he can jump forward about a millimetre, not fun to control. He attacks with a whip which can be upgraded to double strength, and is able to take damage to walk through irritating enemies.

At just four levels Castlevania: The Adventure is quite short, I did expect this though as the Gameboy is not exactly the most powerful handheld. Backgrounds are for the most part sparse but thankfully the music is quite ace. If your a fan of Castlevania games this is worth a try, but if your not then there is little to recommend here.

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