The Ratings: End of February, March, and into April

So I haven’t posted here in a while, and not to let Tyler dominate our sweet blog, I’ve decided to start writing as well!  Since I’ve sort of continued to give games number ratings at the spur of the moment near the end of each episode, I’ve decided to publish a revised list each month, with each game sliding around.  Ideally, this will work like Monopoly, I can only give a game a number rating if there are an equal number of games with each rating.  The exceptions will be 10/10 and 1/10, which are reserved for the best and worst game we’ve played during the Podcasts run.  Without further ado, here’s the list.

Castlevania 10/10

Castlevania maintains it’s spot at the top, for now anyway, just the right mix of challenge and theme.

Mega Man 9/10

Mega Man moves up, due mostly to having played a whole lot more games, and it’s still the perfect combination of action and jumping puzzles that makes for a near perfect NES game.

Gradius 8/10

The most recent game we’ve played, Gradius is considered a classic by man, and it’s easy to see why.  It has a very arcady look and feel, with all sorts of flashing lights, and it’s crazy hard, but once you start to build some skill in it, it’s a lot of fun.  Even though I still haven’t beaten level 3, each time I give it a try it’s an incredible amount of fun.  I certainly wouldn’t want every game to be like Gradius, but I absolutely love it, and I’m very eager to try Gradius III, Super R Type, and other games in the genre.

Metroid 7/10

Metroid is one of the great landmarks of the NES and really shows what a videogame could be, eschewing the traditional level sequence for a single large world to explore.  It’s not a sandbox in the same way we think of such games now, offering little to do but kill bosses and find items, but it has the same set up, if on a much smaller scale.  The lack of a map screen really hurts this game, making it worse then more traditional games that are executed with precision like Castlevania and Mega Man, but it’s still worth an in depth look by anyone interested in game history.

Super Mario Bros. 6/10

A classic, I’m really not sure what I should say about Super Mario Bros…. easily the most influential game on the NES, probably the most influential of the 1980s, maybe the most influential game ever.  I really like the idea of this being my 5/10 midpoint, of rating games purely on whether or not they’re more fun then Super Mario Bros.  Unfortunately, we’ve played way more games that aren’t as good as this than are better, and thus it sits at 6/10.

Final Fantasy 5/10

While I gave it a very favorable review in the episode we recorded on the game, my opinion of Final Fantasy has sort of fallen off since.  I tried to go back and finish it multiple times, and every time I failed.  I actively tried to avoid playing it when it was the assignment as well, and while the game’s systems are interesting and I really want to explore them more, the combat is just too slow.  It kills the game and makes it boring, and no matter how innovative a game is trying to be, the first thing it should be is fun.

Kirby’s Adventure 4/10

Speaking of games that just weren’t fun, for me at least, Kirby’s adventure takes a bit of a hit due to us playing better games, though it’s still a technical marvel as far as NES games are concerened.

Harvest Moon 4/10

While I kind of savaged it in our episode, Harvest Moon was a ton of fun for the first year or so of the game.  The real problem comes from the fact that I was trying to beat it, and the fun died off long before that point, I should have quit while I was ahead.  It was fun for that first chunk, and while 8 dollars will buy you a whole lot more entertainment elsewhere in this day and age, I’ve boosted its rating here to reflect that.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3/10

Flashy graphics and a “cool” in the 90s sense mascot don’t make up for the fact that this game simply isn’t any fun.  My opinion of it gets a little better every day I don’t play it, and there are so many good ideas in it, but it’s just so counter-intuitive.  I remember Sonic the Hedgehog 2 being much better, so perhaps the franchise will be redeemed in my eyes when we get around to that.

Double Dragon II The Revenge 2/10

The game is better than Double Dragon, but really all they added onto it was Co-Op.  That adds a whole lot to a game, but there are better games (Scott Pilgrim) that do the same (Scott Pilgrim) for about the same price (Scott Pilgrim) only better (Scott Pilgrim).  I recommend you pick up the Scott Pilgrim game on XBLA and the PSN Store instead.

ActRaiser 2/10

Act Raiser, while not a very fun game, tried a whole lot of new things, and that’s resulted in it getting put above at least one game this go around.

Double Dragon 1/10

And here’s the bottom of the barrel.  Poor graphics, reuses enemies constantly, shaky controls, terrible music, I really don’t get why this game is considered a classic, like at all.  And I hope I never have to play anything like this again.

Well, that’s the ratings for this month, with luck April will bring not just May flowers, but some sweet old videogames as well.  Got a suggestion for a game you’d like to see us play?  Leave a comment, or email us at LTOVG@Lasttimeonvideogames.com