SNES review 129: The Great Circus Mystery/ Disneys Magical Quest 2

So The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minnie also known as Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey and Minnie, and Mickey to Minnie Magical Adventure 2 is a Capcom developed Disney game for the Super Nintendo. Well as some of the above titles have clearly given away it is the sequel to another game I reviewed quite some time ago, I am obviously talking about Disney's Magical Quest. I owned the original Magical Quest as a kid but I have to be honest and admit that back then I didn't even know the game got a sequel, I never saw it, never played it and as far as I can remember I never even heard of it. When I did start hearing bits about it as an adult thanks to the internet I incorrectly assumed that it never got released over here. 

The game is very much one of those well if you enjoyed the last game here is more of the same sequels, it doesn't really bring much of anything new to the table. The story is a simple one Mickey and Minnie arrive at the circus to find that something has happened, and everything has gone wrong and they set out to uncover the Great Circus Mystery. Its hardly a Shakespearian work of wonder but its not like it has to be if people brought this back in the day it would most likely have either been for the mouse or because they enjoyed the original.

The first thing I thought when starting this game up was that the graphics looked a bit like Magical Quest but I thought they were just a little bit more colourful and sharper, so I did what you might expect and popped the cart out and quickly looked at Magical Quest and yes I do think there is a slight improvement in this area. Playing it though it feels very similar, I am not complaining I loved the first one, and they have tried to keep it fresh to a degree because despite jumping and grabbing and throwing objects in the same way as well as keeping a suit power up based mechanic but to try and keep it fresh they have changed the suits. Each suit has an ability and they are the Sweeper suit which can suck up enemies. A ranger suit which helps you to climb walls. Then there is a Cowboy/Cowgirl costume which lets you ride a horse. The neat thing about the costumes is that although they provide the same power up for both Minnie and Mickey they look different on them, this is both a neat touch and stops you from getting confused when playing this game in two player. Yep that's right I said Two player, this is the main thing this game brings to the table over its predecessor and its a pretty darn good thing to.

I find the music in the game pretty darn enjoyable, there are not only different tunes for different levels but there's that thing where the music gets tense when your fighting a boss and the sound effects although at times a little plinky plonky suit the game and what's happening perfectly well.

OK so the most important thing the gameplay, well I think it controls well and is reasonably fresh at least for a me too sequel. I think overall the game controls well and is for the most part rather easy however I did notice that sometimes the enemies bosses in particular can get a little cheap towards the end of the game, in fact the difficulty does seem to spike at certain points but that's sort of a spike from super easy to more normal so unless its a kid playing or someone who doesn't usually play this kind of thing it should provide too much of a problem.

OK so I guess now its time for me to give this game a score, If you remember I scored the original 7.5 out of 10, well I think despite having gained a two player mode and a slight increase in graphics this game actually just feels a tiny bit worse, its strange all the bits are there and it should be better but it just doesn't quiet click together so I am going to give this game a 6.5 out of 10. If your interested in this game but haven't played the first one then go for that first it will be much cheaper and if your anything like me your likely to enjoy it more. If you need this game then loose pal carts seem to go online from £20 and up, if you can play imports then a Japanese cart will cost you around £10 which is much closer to what I personally would want to pay for this game.

E3 2017 My Oppinion on Nintendo's showing

So I didnt want to dedicate post after post to E3 but I do want to touch upon it and do a handful of posts which basically say what I think about this years E3 in general and what I think about some of the games announced and shown. Now I have to start this off by saying that I did go into this with pretty low expectations, I didnt watch everything live and I kind of had my expectations set to low, but in total honesty I was blown away by E3 2017.

So lets start with Nintendo no idea why but I needed to start this somewere and this is as good a place as any. Well ther is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on Switch, and its looking beautiful, but the best part of this is that Nintendo Europe has continuously reassured everyone, it's still set for release this year. So if you like RPG's with great graphics and own a Switch then this might be the game you spend the better part of the end of this year on.

A new Kirby game was shown which Simply had the title Kirby, it looks like you can play it in either single player or four player co-op and its a platformer, but it has great cute graphics that awesome kirby sound and it just looks like its going to be an absolute treat to play. Seeing this instantly made me think of all the fun I had playing Kirby Epic Yarn and has wetted my appetite for this game.

GameFreak repeated the news from last week confirming that there would be a Pokken game coming to Switch before the end of the year. Having only just picked up the Wii U one half to play half to collect part of me was a little annoyed with this, you see that part was wishing that Pokken would disapear and the original would become something intresting to own, having not really played it yet I am not sure how excited the other half of me is, guess I better jump on that Wii U one before this is out to find out. This wasnt the great bit of news from GameFreak though no the great news was that the company is working on a proper Pokémon RPG for the Switch, it won’t be released this year and I have no idea if they mean an rpg like the regular pokemon games or something more like the gamecube games but either way this has me very excited.

One of the big announcments of this E3 for me was the following, the announcment of Metroid Prime 4,pretty much nothing was given away about it, but just the very knowledge that it is coming was enough to get people excited and its just one more thing to get people looking at and wanting a switch, it shows the machine has a future so well played Nintendo. I think this was a real stop the presses announcment but strangly I was more excited about the latter announced second Metroid game Metroid Samus Returns for 3DS. It's a re-imagining of the 1991 Gameboy game Metroid 2: Return of Samus and it's being made by MecurySteam the people who developed Castlevania: Lords of Shado, I am super excited for this as I am a much bigger fan of the old style of Metroid games, dont get me wrong I am happy about prime because it will attract fans in there droves and help put the switch on the map its just that I am certain that Samus Returns will be more my kind of game.

Nintendo also showed a new Yoshi based platformer and following in the footsteps of Kirby it currently has the simple title of ''Yoshi'' I really like the look of this and its great to see another Nintendo platformer heading to the switch if the switch needed anything it was this sort of show of power from Nintendo, we needed to know that it planned on pumping as many of its known IP's on to the system as possible.

So Koei Tecmo, the makers of Dynasty Warriors, are bringing us a Dynasty Warriors Fire Emblem style game to the switch called Fire Emblem Warriors, this had been known for awile but E3 gave us a fresh look at it... so what do I think, in honesty I am not a big fan of there Warriors style of games and yet I know I will still buy it as I am a massive Fire Emblem fan, I admit the game looks good but the majority of there games are just giant repitition simulators thats just how I feel about them as a developer most of the time saddly

The Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC was talked about, which well it looks ok but in all honesty the game is massive and I dont really feel I need any DLC for it, for those intrested though Nintendo has revealed that the first pack will feature Trials, Hero's Path mode, new armour (including the Korok Mask) plus the tougher Master Mode and will be heading out way June the 30th, with the second bunch still scheduled for winter this year.

We got a look at the Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle game which is coming to the Switch. It’s coming out on August 29th,and to be perfectly honest it looks awesome, its like the rabbids and Mario have come togther to give us a sort of cartoon whacky version of XCOM, its one of those titles where I never would have guessed it was coming, I never would have asked for it to be made but now I have heard about it and seen it I just simply need this in my life. For me this is one of the best things coming to the switch at present and it may have to be a day 1 purchse for me, which is something I dont tend to do very often.

Rocket League is coming to the switch. It’ll have cross-platform support (so you can play with people on other machines) and a bunch of other new features. It looked great but then its been out on the PS4 and Xbox One so long and I have already enjoyed it so much I just dont think I am all that botherd, if you own less consoles and the switch is your main go to or only machine then I strongly advise you jump on this but if you own a PS4 or Xbox one you can proberbly either grab a second hand copy ofg the physical release or wait for the digital to go on sale and save yourself a whole bunch of money, oh its on steam as well if you have a pc and has been on sale various times.

And, finally, there is Mario Odyssey. Mario Odyseesy looks both weird and fantastic, what we were shown showed a dinosaur stomping onto screen wearing Mario’s hat. So basically it seems that you can possess stuff in the game using Mario’s hat. From living characters to taxis. Yes it sound strange but brilliantly strange and I am sure this game will shift Switchs.

All in all I think I would have to give Nintendo a 8 out of 10 for there part in E3 and I think they have laid some pretty solid foundations here for the Switch, I personally can not wait to see how the machine does heading in to the christmas period latter this year. At the moment it all seems much more Wii than Wii U and this was a darn good showing on there behalf.

Bonanza Bros: why I think it should have been the start of a series of games.

I have previously talked about Alien Storm and Gain Ground as being games which Sega made which I feel should have been the start of franchises, well here is another game I feel falls in that category the game is Bonanza Bros.

Bonanza Bros is a game which I find a little hard to explain I guess, I have seen it described as a shooting platform game but I dont think that really does it justice. It has something in common with Gain Ground and thats the fact that it was originally on the Sega System 24 arcade system board.

So in Bonanza Bros you take on either the role of Robo, or Mobo (they are referd to as Mike and Spike in some PAL versions), who were apparently modeled after Jake and Elwood The Blues Brothers. Robo and Mobo are basically expert burglers and the objective of the game is for the player(s) to make there way through the various levels which include a bank, a casino and an art gallery amongst others and steel the loot and make your get away with it by making your way up to a blimp which is on the roof. Sure you can shoot, but you can also try to be stealthy. I am not going to say that this game was the first of its kind both the plot and the gameplay is very simmilar to an older title on the Atari 2600 called Keystone Kapers but I feel that Bonanza Bros just hit all of the right notes in the right ways, it was a particularly good game mostly due to the atmosphere it creates with its look and feel. I find this game particularly enjoyable in Two playe mode where you play cooperatively at the same time.

There is a slight regional diffrence when it comes to plot which I feel I should mention this is that in the Japense version the players characters are simply thieves attempting to steal valuable treasures for there own personal profit whilst avoiding the law; in other regions they are instead merly experts who are recruited by the Police Chief to test security facilities, its kind of funny really how back then there seemed to be such regard for wether the player could really play what essentially is a villian or not when now days you can easily pick up games in any region where your a criminal.

So as Robo or Mobo basically you walk around the various levels using the limited skills you have but mostly with your wits to try and get the goods and get away with it. You can jump, you can shoot and you can move in to the background, hiding behind columns or furniture, in the shaodows, you cant actually kill guards you can only stun them for a few seconds to get away from them, either by shooting them or by slamming a door open onto them. The game is very simplistic but that works for it, its quick to pick up and play and always good for a quick burst of fun especially in two player mode.

The arcade version was the original but clearly it was popular enough to get around enough back in the day it was ported to the Sega Mega Drive which is the version I am most fammiliar with but it also found itse way on to the Sega Master System, many home computers such as the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad in Europe at least as well as the Amiga and Atari ST and proberbly a whole host of conversions I am unaware of. The game despite this popularity never got a proper sequel but there was a few spin off games, they are spin offs because they dont follow the gameplay style of the original they are instead puzzle games so in my oppinion at least they dont count, they along with the characters inclusion as playable characters in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, a cameo in the "Race of AGES" track in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. alongside them getting there own "Bonanza Bros." slot machine shows that the characters havent been completly forgotten. To be honest its not just the characters that have remained in peoples minds it the game too. Its popularity doesnt seem to have gone away as in recent years it has cropped up here and there, it was included in the Japanese version of Sonic Gems Collection, It also got a Sega Ages release on the PlayStation 2, and that version was included in the English compilation Sega Classics Collection. It was in the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Collection for the PlayStation 2 and PSP. The game next appeared in Sonic's/Sega's Ultimate Genesis/Mega Drive Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. As well as making its way on to various online stores such as the Wii's virtual console and Steam and some models of mobile phone.

So one of the reason I think we need more Bonanza Bros is because there is nothing quiet like it, I also think that we need far more offline multiplayer co-operative games, now days mutliplayer tends to mean online, it also tends to mean competitive a lot of the time, I think that a download title for modern consoles which takes what was in the original Bonanza Bros and builds on it would be something to behold.

Now I want to go off on a slight tangent and mention a game I played recently which I feel has an element of Bonanza Bros in it and that game would be Not a Hero. It shares a degree of its graphical style with Bonanza Bros, it also has a lot of humour and very simple but tight gameplay, it differs from Bonanza Bros in the fact that it throws in a darker type of humour, bad language and mega violence at the screen, its like Bonanza Bros meets Hotline Miami and while I very very highly recomend it its not one to show your kids, thats why I would like a new Bonanza Bros and why I think it should have been the start of a series, as long as there are new machines and new kids getting in to gaming then we could do with more of this kind of thing.

August 2016 Retro Game Purchases

Last month I kind of tried to spend less money on retro games but it didnt exactly go to plan sure I might have spent a little less than the month before but in general it seemed to be around the same ball park figure that I usually spend, this month I didnt really set out with any goal in mind other than to just see what was out there and what I could get my hands on for a fair price.

My first few purchases of the month were on monday the 1st of August. It started when I walked in to a charity shop and found Dancing Stage Party Edition complete for the PS1 for £1. I wouldnt have got it as I know I already own it but it was in such great condition and the price was obviously low so I thought what the heck. I carried on with my some what pointless spend by paying £2 for 3 complete PSP games Lara Croft Tomb Raider Anniversary, Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories, and Ratchet & Clank Size Matters, again I am sure I own these buut the price was great and with the PSP stuff I am kind of grabbing what I can now while its just old enough for people not to want it anymore and before it becomes popular to collect.

I also recieved something through the mail which I had paid for a few days before (I always count mail stuff like this on the day I recieve it rather than when I buy it, I guess so I dont brag about something for it to then not turn up or for the wrong item to arrive or something) I got a loose Japanese N64 cartridge of Flying Dragon for £3 with free postage. I was intrested in this cause a local indy shop has the European version and wants £36 for it so I just wonderd if it was actually any good or if its one of those games thats lame but rare so commands a high price. I still havent played it, maybe it is because I havent currently got a N64 set up, it would be easy to set one up but I know I am going to a good friends house to play games in a week, so I figure if I find my convertor that makes imports work on a UK N64 I can take it with me and we can both try it for the first time togther.

On Wednesday August the 3rd, I went in to a small inderpendent video game store and got Pokemon link complete for DS for £3 and R-TYPE Final complete for PS2 for £6. The prices seemed fair and with the way the popularity of Pokemon seems to be on the rise I figured it was worth getting any game with the name attached to it for such a small sum.

On the 5th  a boxed complete Japanese version of Eswat for the Megadrive I had orderd arrived it cost me £5 including postage.I already have an english copy but I grew up with the Japanese version and I saw it for cheap so I decicded that I wanted it. Latter on during the day I poped in to an indy store and spent £5 on a small bunch of unboxed N64 carts, Virtual pool 64, F1 world grand pri (twice) and F1 world grand pri 2. They might not be the best carts but the price was certainly right.

I then went around a week before making another purchase, on Saterday the 13th I walked in to an inderpendant games shop and found myself a complete copy of Hybrid Heaven for the N64 for £10 ,well I say complete as in there is the cart the box and manual all in awesome condition including leaflets and bits and pieces, but its missing the center of the box though the white bit that holds the cart in place, considering its wonderful condition I will have to try and track down some form of replacment.

On the 14th I popped in to my local CEX, I had heard that they would possibly be selling some retro items again and was quiet happy to find Toy Story for the SNES cart only for £5 so instantly got it. There was quiet a few N64 carts as well but most of them seemed to be being sold for around the expected going rate and in a lot of cases I already own them.

On the 15th I went in to a local pawn store and got Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets complete for gamecube for £1.50 and The simpons road rage complete for gamecube for £6. I was certain I dont own road rage but was unsure with harry potter but figured for the price it wasnt too big of an issue.

On tuesday the 16th I visited an indy store and after a little haggling I paid £6 for 3 boxed complete PSP games Final Fantasy VII Crisis core, Meievil resurrection and Space Invaders Evolution. I was frankly surprised to get this price as plenty of places would want that or more for the final fantasy title alone.

On the 19th I walked in to a charity shop, it was absolutly filled with games but on closer inspection very few of them were worth purchasing as they were so damaged, however I manged to pick out some of the only ones in a good condition and in the end I paid £3 for 3 PS1 games boxed complete Smackdown 2, Castrol honda superbike racing, and Motocross mania

On the 21st I returned to CEX to find that they had a few new titles  I managed to grab MonsterTruck Madness 64 cart only for the  N64 for £4 and Herbrekes popoon cart only for the Snes for £8, which I wwas very happy with, I had heard a lot of good things about the game but every time I had seen a loose cart of it in the past it had been much closer to the £20 mark.

On the 22nd I Spent £14 on a bundle including

hack: Infection (Part 1), box game disc and anime disc but missing manual (for ps2)
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story complete for the Nintendo DS
Dragon Quest IX complete for the DS
Legend of Zelda Spirit tracks complete for the DS
Wario Master of Disguise complete for the DS
Final Fantasy XII Revenant wings complete for the DS
Pokemon Ranger complete for the DS

I think it is rather safe to say this was my purchase of the month my last purchase of the month was made on the 25th however  when I spent £3 on a complete copy of 688 Attack Sub for the megadrive in a shop I had taken my daughter in to grab pokemon cards.

So this month I spent £85.50 if my calculations are correct, actually once again putting me in my usual ball park. I think this month in particular though I got quiet good value for my money, if I had to make a prediction I would proberbly guess next month will not be such a good one for retro stuff.

SNES REVIEW 104

Well I haven't touched a Pinball game for the SNES since I reviewed Pinball Fantasies (which as I mentioned in my review was a port of an Amiga game)also ported to the Super Nintendo). At the time while listing a few other pinball games on the system (not the one I will be talking about today) I basically said that for your pin-balling needs you'd be better of looking at the megadrive well will this game change my opinion at all? I guess you will have to read on to find out.

Well the game I have been playing is Super Pinball: Behind the Mask a pinball simulator for the SNES that was released in 1994 in North America and Japan (I cant find any details on a European release, yet there seem to be pal copies being sold from various European countries so maybe it was just never brought out in the UK). It was made by a company called KAZe  a video game developer whose headquarters were/are in Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1987, KAZe is mostly known for developing various pachinko and pinball video games. In fact the last game they were involved with to my knowledge was a pinball gameShin Megami Tensei Pinball: Judgement which was released in 2006, published by Atlus. As far as I know they still exist they have just diversified into areas such as the development of Web sites,  IT consultation and the cell phone industry. My favourite game they are responsible for would be a Japanese PS1 exclusive Power Rangers Zeo: Full Tilt Battle Pinball, a game I actually menttioned in my Pinball Fantasies review, when I wrote that review I had no idea Super Pinball Behind the Mask even existed but learning it did and who had made it I was obviously excited especially as it only cost me £2 for a loose cartridge of it including postage.
OK so to get in to the game a little bit Super Pinball: Behind the Mask features three different tables, a clown based one called "Jolly Joker", a pirate one called "Blackbeard and Ironmen", and a fantasy one called "Wizard.". All of the tables are shown in a way where you can see the whole table on the screen without the need for any scrolling. The issue however is that all of the tables are basically very straightforward and there design while very functional doesn't really show any real imagination. The ball physics are good, the controls are pretty much perfect but Its just not that interesting in the long run I am afraid. The graphics are functional but not exactly amazing, and the sound is well its a mixed bag they effects are good but the music gets very annoying very quickly. There is very little to the game other than trying to get the best high scores you can get but then there is no battery backup so unless you want to go old school and grab a pen and paper there is no real way to know if you have managed to improve in the long run. I guess I have ended up at the same point I did when I reviewed my last SNES pinball game, I cant call it a bad game, I can recognise that it does some things well but ultimately in this particular genre of games your just much better of looking at what the Megadrive has to offer.

Having rated Pinball Fantasies as a 6 out of 10 and feeling that while decent this game is not as good, I feel I have to give it the very average 5 out of 10. No its not a bad game, but there are a lot better games out there. I have seen a fair few copies of this on ebay and in other places but they are seldom being sold from inside the UK, if you want a pal copy they seem to be going for about £8 after postage with Japanese copies being closer to around £6, but then as these are coming from outside the UK there is the extra waiting and such and I just dont think this title is worth it. If you see one for as cheap as I did then jump on it, it is after all a perfectly playable game just not something to get excited about or go running to try and find. If you get a chance to try  Power Rangers Zeo: Full Tilt Battle Pinball then I would strongly recommend that you do.

On my soap box: Game Shop sales assistants

Ok so I wont be the first to post about this and I am darn sure I wont be the last but right now I want to talk about the opinions of staff who sell video games, the stuff you hear them say and cringe and how they will at times will seem to actively try to sell someone the wrong machine or wrong game and what I feel they should be doing.

Now I am currently working in retail and in all honesty I am dealing with products I don't know very much about so if someone doesn't know something about a product due to the fact they haven't used it/played with it then I am not going to give them too hard a time as long as they don't try to fake it and make wildly untruthful claims, I also do understand the fact that certain machines or games will have a higher profit attached to them so employees may be encouraged to try and up-sell certain things however some people do it in such a way and to such a degree that they just come across as total and utter piss weasels. I guess I should clarify what the wrong game or system is, the wrong game or system is a game or system that is wrong for the person who is purchasing it. So for example if someone told me they hated RPG games I wouldn't try to persuade them to get a Final Fantasy title, if however someone told me they wanted something that was like Resident Evil but wasn't a part of that Franchise I would recommend them The Evil Within. Right and Wrong depends upon the individual, you have to listen to what they want and then try your best to match product to person.

Speaking of The Evil Within I was in a CEX store when someone took a copy of it up to the counter it was pretty darn cheap like £10 and the guy behind the counter physically groaned and then asked the customer ''are you really going to buy this shit?'' This wasn't the end of it, the sales advisor literally went on and on about his own dislike for the game which was a mix of both criticism and made up rubbish. For one he claimed that the game was only four hours long and controlled so badly that the guy would be brining it back the following day either completed or out of frustration. Now I haven't finished it In fact I am only 4 hours in to it myself but it feels like I have only just scratched the surface with a quick search on various websites telling me its an around 15 to 20 hour game. In the end he persuaded the customer to instead spend £22 on Resident Evil Revelations 2 (interestingly both games have more or less the same Metacritic score). Some people might see this as a success as he sold him a higher priced product but then I never see a sales assistant groaning at a consumer and either lying or making stuff up with no real idea of the truth as a positive thing

It is I feel important here to point out that I own a PS4, Xbox One and a Wii U and that my love for them is pretty balanced, all of them have titles I really enjoy for example on my Wii U I love Pikmin 3, where as I find myself hammering Rare Replay and Dead Rising 3 on the Xbox One and then will very happily jump on to the PS4 and really enjoy a bit of Drive Club or Little big Planet 3. If I was to sell someone a console out of these three I would ask them questions, questions which would asses the type of games they like, what they feel they need or want out of a system and then take it from there, maybe if I was ordered to mention certain things I would say them but ultimately I would want the person to leave with the right product for them after all a happy customer is a customer who comes back and shops again. If you enjoy your choice of console your going to buy more games for it.

I have seen people ask about the Wii U at my semi local game shops this includes two games and a Granger games and you know when asked about it all they tend to say is ''yeah its OK if you want to play Mario but other than that its rubbish compared to a PS4/Xbox One'' Now if I was asked about the Wii U as a friend of mine who had been a big GameCube fan did then I would sell it with a whole range of facts, I would give you a whole pile of both positive and negatives. To start with the positive its fully backwards compatible and with a wii-Mote and nunchuck you can play literally all the wii games on it as well as your Wii U games. The games if brought on disc are played directly off the disc with no installation needed, meaning that unless you plan on buying games digitally there is very little need to worry about storage space, If you do want to digitally buy games there is a massive back catalogue of games from old systems available. Also you don't have to pay to play online. As for weaknesses well it has less raw power than the other systems, less third party support, the online side of things although free is very simplistic compared to its competitors.

I don't think a sales assistant in any field should ever be there to try and push and bully people in to believing what they believe the key to the title is the word assistant. You are there to assist someone with there shopping, your there to offer what knowledge you have and to try to give them the information and tools so that they can make a good decision which places there own needs and desires first and foremost. Maybe some people just get in to it because they enjoy games and really want to be games reviewers and see pushing there own opinions as the next best thing, or maybe some people are just in it because its a job and really don't care about the people they serve in there day to day role?

Snes Game Review 100: Pop'n TwinBee Rainbow Bell Adventures

Ok so for my one hundredth SNES review what have I picked? Well I have picked Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures, or as it is known in Japan TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventure. I had all kinds of ideas for what I should do for my one hundredth review if it should be specially or normal and in the end I think I just decided I should pick a game and get down to it or it would never happen. One of the interesting bits of trivia about this game is that it wasn't released in the USA at all, it was strictly speaking a Japanese and European exclusive, something which didn't really happen that often in terms of the SNES. Usually it seemed like a game would get a Japanese release which might then see it get an American release which would only then filter down to us if it had done OK in both of these previous markets. Why this game skipped the US I have no idea at all.

So other than obviously the Japanese version being in Japanese is there any differences between it and the version Europe got? Well actually there are more than you would expect. The level order in the Japanese version is a little bit more open allowing you to choose at poits what stage to do next, some stages have alternate exits, similar to Super Mario World allowing paths to be drawn that otherwise wouldn't open up. In the European version, though the order is laid out for you in a strictly linear fashion, you simply finish a level and then move on to the next one.There is dialogue between Dr. Cinnamon and the main characters Light, Pastel and Mint (the Pilots of Twinbee, Winbee and Gwinbee) at the level select screen in the Japanese version but this was cut from the European version for some reason. The European version uses passwords to save your progress where the Japanese one offers a battery back-up as well as the choice of using passwords. And last but not least the Japanese version has multiple endings depending on the player's performance (which the game rates) the European version just has one set ending. Now I might be wrong but to me I feel that a lot of this has to do with the way a bright colourful game like this was perceived in Europe, if its bright and silly looking here then its seen to be kids’ stuff, the Japanese are different though they tend to see a bright cartoony style as just one of several legitimate choices for how a game or animated film can be, I think they thought we would see the game as childish so they stripped out some of the more adult challenge and story based aspects and maybe they had a point in doing it. I got this game on release as a present I actually asked my parents for. A lot of my friends didn’t even give this game a second thought, they saw the graphics in magazine previews and pretty much straight labelled it babies stuff. I on the other hand have always been in to things like Anime and know that even with the brightest of colours and the cutest of looks sometimes there can be a lot more than just that held within.

Now there are probably three types of people reading this, the first will be those who already know about the game and want to find out my opinion, the next will be those who have never heard of the title or the characters leaving the last group those who will know that the characters belong to Konami, who will know who Twinbee is but will be going wasn't he that ship from those vertically scrolling shooter games. Well the quick answer is that yes Twinbee was from a series of shooting games in fact one of these games was on the Super Nes one year before Rainbow Bell adventures.

Pop'n Twinbee the snes game was in fact the sixth game in the TwinBee series and a direct follow-up to an arcade game The European version of this snes game was the first TwinBee related game to be localized for the European market. You might ask why I am not reviewing that game first, well there is a simple answer to that question and its the fact that I don't own it. Not to get too sidetracked but alongside sega's Fantasy Zone game Twinbee is pretty much the game responsible for the creation of the "cute 'em up" sub-genre of shoots. Its a shoot em up space ship shooting game with beautiful cute colours, upbeat cartoon style music and, snippets of voice acting I wont review it do to my rule of not reviewing things I don't own on the SNES but I will say its a delightful breath of fresh air that brings a smile to your face as you play it. I only mention it because this is one of the things that really made Rainbow Bell Adventures a surprise, you see with there being a whole series of shoot em up games featuring these characters it was a real shot from left field to see them suddenly release a platform game instead of doing what everyone expected and quickly rehashing a quick SNES sequel to the title from the previous year, you know minimum effort maximum cash style. So old Konami definitely get a bonus point from me here for doing something different.

Ok so let me play story teller here and give you a brief idea of the story (in game this is told to you via the intro sequence). So there are these ''Rainbow Bells'' right and somehow these bells keep the peace throughout the whole galaxy, they seem to do this by keeping a green haired princess alive. So all is good right? No as an evil scientist and his troopers steal the Rainbow Bells and take over the world. You play as the previously mentioned Twinbee, Winbee and Gwinbee and you have to stop him. Yeah its not about to win any book of the year awards here for story telling but its good enough to give you a reason for what your doing.

So you get to choose between the three character Twinbee the blue one, the pink Winbee the pink one, or the green Gwinbee the green one. They are all pretty much the same in how they move and how they control but there are some small differences. First and most importantly there is a charge punch move you can do and there is also the ability to charge your ship so you can shoot off at whatever angle your pressing at the time you release your jets, well the charge-up times are different Winbee charges her flying ability quickly but is slow to charge her punch, Gwinbee charges his punches quickly but takes a long time to charge up his jets, and Twinbee is the middle ground character his punch and flying ability have a medium charge making him the most rounded character. There is another minor difference between them but I will get to that in a little.

The game is absolutely chock a block full of different power-ups, something it takes from its shoot em up heritage. Your basic moves include both a punching attack and jumping, the jumping itself can be used as an attack as you will harm enemies by landing on top of them. Power-ups though come in the form of various coloured bells which appear after you have defeated an enemy. Obviously different colours give you different things. One coloured bell will give you a laser gun power-up another will give you a character dependant physical weapon with Twinbee getting a hammer, Winbee getting a whip, and Gwinbee getting projectile baby rattles. Then there is a bell which will give you a shield, a belle which gives you a mini ship which will follow behind you and a belle which will give you time limited invincibility.

OK so the basic idea in most levels is to find and enter the exit gate. This is no simple keep going right and you'll find it thing like in some games though or at least not all of the time, sure In a few levels, finding the exit is rather straightforward, but in others it can involve a whole lot of exploration. Then every so many levels you are met with a boss. There are the above mentioned bells to pick up for power ups but there are also score related bells which you can sort of consider the equivalent of Mario's coins. You will need to use your charge moves to either blow through a wall or to fly up in to the air. Something in this game I love but is actually pointless is the fact that if you charge up and rocket in to the air again and again eventually you can reach all the way in to space, there is nothing to do up there other than let go and see yourself plummeting downwards but the very fact they allow you to do this without putting some invisible ceiling in place or making you die if you go to high feels very liberating, its like they knew people would want to try it.

The graphics in Rainbow Bell Adventure are so darn cute but its more than that they are so full of colour that there a visual treat especially if you have played a lot of Xbox 360 grey chest high wall shooters recently, if you go from something like that back to Rainbow Bell it will just lay you on your ass and make you think back fondly to the good old 16bit era. The playable characters have lots of animation to them, they feel like they positively pop to life on the screen this coupled with the music just brings everything to life. The music is light and bubbly while also being fun and upbeat, I cant say that you will leave the game humming it but it certainly does put you in the right mood to enjoy this kind of game.

I think the game controls like a dream, its quiet simply awesome, it doesn't just control well its also so much fun to rocket around and bounce off walls and see what tricks you can do. The game is very fun but I also feel it works best in small bite sized chunks, I would advise you to play four or five levels jot down the password and then come back to it rather than trying to do all 33 in one sitting. I know that compared to the likes of super Mario World 33 doesn't sound like a very high number and well its not. If you were to attack this game with a I must complete it attitude you would knock it out of the way very quickly but that would ignore how fun this game is.

So what would I score this game? Well I think I would give it a nice solid 8. Its a nice fun game, its a bit different but I do think that it could do with being a little longer, I do think that some of the things that were removed from the Japanese version were removed to the games detriment and I do think that there are better games out there even if this is a darn fine game. How much are you going to spend if your considering this game though? Well the cheapest I could find at the moment was an English cart only copy for £20 with people asking up to £40 for a loose cart in some instances, a Japanese loose cartridge is closer to £10 but of course you'll need a modified system or a converter, its not like the in game text or anything is really needed so you could easily play and finish a Japanese copy. It might be worth looking at wrongly labelled auctions as I actually got my copy cheaper due to someone listing it as the previous Pop'n Twinbee game (they gave the name of that game but a picture of this cartridge).

On My Soap Box: #PigGate does it matter?

Yes I am very late to this dance, some may even ask why I am bothering at all. Well I am late mostly because I wrote an article about Corbyn and Cameron the day before this news broke and I didnt want to jump back in to simmilar waters the very next day, after all this is a forum which tries to takle a lot of diffrent subjects and keep things a bit fresh and diffrent so if I barked up the same tree day after day I would be failing at that.

For those under a rock who have crawled out in to the bright light of an LCD screen and seen my blog here is an explanation of what #PigGate is basically about. Its about the allegation made in Lord Ashcroft's unauthorised biography, that, during an initiation ceremony for an exclusive Oxford society David Cammeron our Current Prime Minister stuck his penis into the mouth of a dead Pig. The story goes that basically he did it in order to secure himself a place in the Piers Gaveston Society, a mens only dining club named after the supposed lover of Edward II. A society which is all about debauchery. So basically the usual Sex, drugs, and, apparently performing sweet sweet love to the mouth of a dead farm yard animal. Now the Prime Minister wont comment on it, he is taking the road that if he basically says its to stupid to comment on and ignores it then it will go away. To a degree this is true as recent survey results already show that a large number of people simply don't give a toss if he did or did not do it but then there are also those who are never likely to let it drop.

Does it actually matter though? Does it effect his ability to run the country or in any way undermine his power? Well there are arguments for yes and for no. Look at some of the ways the press have gone mad at Corbyn, he gets criticised for dressing old, or for not wearing a tie, for not singing, its almost literally gotten to the point where the man cant breath so yes clearly even the smallest and stupidest thing can be used as a tool to try and throw doubt on to an individuals ability to do there job, particularly if it is an important one. So the press or parts of it could use this allegation to attack Cameron although in most cases they have let him putting his dodger in a dead pigs mouth drop, this could definitely be seen as a large degree of bias at work.

Now I was a big fan of Bill Clinton, I thought that he was much better than some of the presidents the United States had and have since had so when it came out that he had been getting blow jobs from his my opinion rather attractive plump secretary and had also been playing hide the cigar I thought him ending up loosing his job over all of it was a crock as apart from thinking that he could play space invaders with his sperm and her tonsils I thought pretty much every decision he had made in lines of his work were good ones and I was sad to see him gone for something which had very little to do with the job. So if I was about to start shouting and screaming that David Cameron should be fired over PigGate I would be a darn big hypocrite.

So David Cameron may have stuck his jolly little solider in the mouth of a dead pig during an evening of university society hilarity yet it has to be pointed out that while shagging dead people clearly isn't on because well its just not respectful and its highly illegal and shagging live animals is also a serious no no well when it comes to Dead animals as far as I know as creepy as it might be there is no law against it, is there? Does the dead pig care whether it's head is going to end up sat in the local butchers, thrown on to a police officers car or if it is going to end up as a mixing bowl for various weird university students sex milk?

I hate Cameron, I think he is a giant toff toss pot conservative wank shaft and that is me trying to be polite about him. Yet on the other hand I know a local butchers were they have a competition where they fling dead animals eyes at the wall to see who can make them stick the highest and for the longest. I have seen University students taking it in turns eating bars of chocolate knowing that one in every hundred contained human shit. Lots of people do crazy stupid things to fit in with this club or that club and I am not going to overly judge the man for that, there are already enough reasons I hate him and his polices, so I don't want to see him sacked over PigGate but I am happy to see him have the piss taken out of him. I do think that there are certain areas where it has a little more context though, for example at one stage Cameron was trying to make the sexual act of face sitting illegal, well if the allegation is true how can a man who porks pork really say what is normal or conventional in regards to sexual activity. I think in this regard he would need to back off and if something is between consenting legal adults leave it up to them to come up with there own personal ideals on what is right or wrong other wise he risks being a hypocrite.

I had a look on a leading alternative life style website at the time to see if there was a group of people who loved the feeling of dead pigs mouth around there never regions and well there were groups for people who love to wrestle in jelly, people who liked to eat sushi off of naked ladies but as for the dead pig thing it looks like people don't enjoy it they just do it to get into weird freaky clubs and cults while at university, so if he enjoyed it then David Cameron is on his own.
There were other things mentioned in this biography including drug-taking, including asking KGB agents to score some coke for him I believe and his knowledge of Ashcroft's non-dom tax status which unfortunately probably will get ignored with the dead pig thing having been used as a bit of a joke to take the attention of your average person away from the far more important matters

Now if David Cameron fucked a dead pig, well it didn't hurt anybody did it? However, his party's current policies of slashing various benefits including Disability Living Allowance are really hurting a great deal of vulnerable adults and children right now. It doesn't matter what Cameron did or did not do to fit in at university, that made him who he was then, but it doesn't make him who he is now.
At the end of the day lets face it if your best friend in a moment of drunken stupidity had sex with a dead pigs face you would never let him live it down, Piggy would become his new semi affectionate nick name for the next eight years, you would oink in his face and what's more he would expect it. So I don't think the man should be sacked or there should be an inquest or anything but I do think he should accept that he is going to have to listen to it for a long time and he is going to have to take it how most people take there roast pork, with a pinch of salt.

What is more important than PigGate or how old Corbyn's jumper makes him look is what we do after we all laugh at the various stories or shake our heads. That we take the politics behind the show seriously that we don't let our only involvement with politics to be us looking on from the sidelines when something wacky happens.People need to learn to think about the deeper matters , to look into things and not just take the little slices of information newspapers and the TV give out without thinking about them in more depth. 

It doesn't matter id David Cameron fucked a dead pig but it does matter if we all just laugh and carry on while he fucks the poor and the misfortune by taking away there only life lines.

Why do we have only one real type of movie medium and yet a whole bunch of competing consoles?

The world of Video Games is very different to the world of films. Sure both of them contain lots and lots of different products for sale but the real difference is the platforms that these products are sold on.

In the world of films there was initially a fight between several types of media for dominance but eventually VHS became the dominant tape based medium for viewing films, then we progressed on to DVD's and now we are in the process of moving on to Blue Rays even if the transition seems to be a slow one. Sure there were some abandoned mediums along the way Beta Max, VCD's. Laser Discs, HD DVD's but it has mostly been a fight for dominance with the loser simply fading away a million films to watch but only one dominant medium on which to do it at anyone time, with maybe the last big medium just hanging around for those who cant afford the newest thing or are resistant to change.

Gaming has never been like this there has pretty much always been two or more competing platforms which have been at each others throats for there whole lifespan, usually with each of these being replaced by its successor with things carrying on much as they were before. Sure sometimes a competitor has bowed out and another has taken its place on the dance floor, Sega has gone 3rd party and stopped producing its own machines, and Microsoft has entered the market etcetera.

There have been attempts at approaching the idea of a single format for Video games with the most notable attempt being The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer or as it was better known the 3DO. The 3DO Company, founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins was created with the objective to create a next-generation, CD-based video game standard.

The idea was that people would be sold the license and specifications to manufacture there own version of the 3DO, so you would have a Panasonic 3DO, a Sony 3DO, a Samsung 3DO and etcetera. The 3DO company would make most of its profits via the royalty rate they would receive per game sold, apparently the royalty's paid were going to be much lower than those that you had to pay to sell a game on either Nintendo or Sega platforms.

Pretty much every electronics manufacturer was approached. However, Sony had already begun development on their own console, the PlayStation, and so they choose to peruse this angle rather than go down the 3DO route. With Manufacturers needing to make a profit on the machines where as Sega and Nintendo could happily sell there machines at a loss and recoup there expenses through game sales this led to the various types of 3DO being too expensive to adequately compete.

Will we ever have one platform? I really doubt it at least any-time remotely soon. For a start with have Nintendo who when you look at there last few consoles seem to like the idea of controlling there hardware. They like to shape it directly for the kind of experiences they want to offer, I also believe that both Microsoft and Sony prefer calling the shots on there hardware. The only way one platform works is if it is in every-bodies best interest and everyone agrees to it.

The closest thing we are likely to see to single platforms is the current system some companies have where by it is advantageous to try and have matching hardware. What do I mean by this? Well With Microsoft the creators of the Xbox brand also owning Windows which is on computers, as well as also now being on phones and tablets, they can provide strong incentives for you to try and keep to there brand. You can have a Windows laptop which will talk and share data with a windows phone both of which can talk to your Xbox One. The same can be seen with Apple Mac's talking to Apple phones, talking to Apple Tablets. Sony Has the PS4 which can interact with the Vita or beem itself to the Sony Vita TV or be controlled by your Sony Phone. 

At the moment there will be several companies trying there best to sell themselves to you but not just as the best game company but as the best overall lifestyle company capable of offering you home and portable gaming,both communication and work based devices. They would rather fight the war for each and every market sector by trying to show you a future whereby everything you own can come from them and can communicate for your ease and comfort and while this is happening the video game market will never settle on a standard. Personally I think this is a good thing as I like competition I think it is good for the consumer but I also find it neat when my laptop can talk/sync with my phone to my benefit.

How I became a horror writer.

I first started trying to write stories when I was in Junior school. I would sit there with small exercise books and I would try to think of something to write, in fact it was at this early age when I first tried to form a collective of writers. Me and my friends would all sit down and try to write stories nothing much every came of it but it was something which helped me to get through the days. 

I had my one and only brush with fan fiction at the age of around 15. I had read some of the what they now call expanded universe Star Wars books and enjoyed them. There was an exercise we were set by school where we had to try and write something within a world created by another so for some reason I gravitated towards Kyp Durren an apprentice of Luke Skywalkers and from there built up what I seem to remember was a reasonable sized tale. This was before I owned a computer though so it has been lost, maybe it will turn up in a draw or cupboard one day but in all honesty I am pretty sure it is long dead. I enjoyed writing it but I could instantly see a million problems in it, principally the fact that no matter how bad or good it was there was nothing much I would be able to do with it, I had wrote about a copyrighted character in a copyrighted universe. ( At this time I didn't really know how many places existed online for posting fan fiction if I had I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it as I did not yet have access to a PC).

I think a lot of my early attempts at writing were met by me simply holding a pencil and nothing happening because I had neither seen or experienced enough. I hadn't read enough books nor had I experienced enough things myself as a person. By the age of 16 I had seen more films than anyone I knew, I also hadn't done bad as far as reading went. There was a sudden obsession for Quentin Tarantino Reservoir Dogs and this led to a lot of my friends being interested in trying to replicate the film, I was known as the one with some writing talent and so I became the one to write the scripts. Looking back they were not my best work, they were incredibly plagiarised borrowing mostly from Dogs but with a sprinkling of various cop shows running from Miami vice to TJ hooker. These films were recorded on to these old half sized VHS video camera cassettes and are now also long lost. Most of them are in all honesty best lost but we did make one called ''The Evil that Men Do'' which although heavily influenced by the films and shows I had watched did feature some considering are age decent acting and impressive stunt work. It wasn't feature length it was about twenty minutes in length but it was something we were all very proud of. It was the high point of all of our work but instead of it being built upon we all ended up going our separate ways pulled away by jobs and higher education

So why has a lot of my writing been horror based? Well to answer that we need to start with another question and that is what do you get if you add the writing talents of Stephen King, the directing skills of George Romero and the special effects work of Tom Savini with just a pinch of Leslie Nielsen, Ted Danson and sprinkle of other actors? You get Creepshow a compendium of five short horror tales contained within a single full-length feature film.

Creepshow wasn't the first horror film I came across in fact by the time I saw Creepshow I had seen most of the old fashioned universal classics but this is one of the films I would recognise as the beginning of my real love for horror.I first came upon this film when I was about 12, the film had the right combination of tame scares and gross moments tempered with humour to help introduce me into the world of horror. This film was my gateway to the books of Stephen King, as soon as I had watched this I began looking at his books. and deciding which ones I would read first. This is somewhat amusing considering that the main inspiration for this film clearly comes from the original E.C. crime and horror comics of the 1950's. Creepshow was written by King as a tribute to these comic books which he has often spoke about as being one of the things that helped him become a horror writer. I would latter find myself enjoying both reprints of EC's horror comics as well as frequently watching the TV show Tales from the crypt and the old British film version of Tales from the crypt without at the time truly realising and appreciating the connection between all of these pieces of work.

There is a common theme which seems to run through most of the EC Comics stories, the stories in Tales from the Crypt (many of which were adapted from the comics themselves) and to some degree the tales in Creepshow and that is that they are in some way morality plays where by some twist will happen which will see someone get there comeuppance at the end of the story. I guess having spent my early years in a church of England school I was used to the morality play aspect, the whole idea of those who sin shall be punished. I didn't see much of this in real life, in real life people would seem to get away with being arseholes with seemingly nothing happening to them in return. These stories planted the seed in my mind which would go on to germinate in many of my own stories latter on. I might have first watched Creepshow at 12 but I certainly watched it more times than that, in fact to me it was a classic I would watch again and again.

Sure there were other books and films that interested me, I would go so far as to say that Lord of the Rings was my favourite book of all time but it wasn't a book I felt I could replicate the style of on any level. Tolkien created these thick worlds filled with all new languages and cultures, he seemed to juggle so many balls that I just couldn't grasp how a person could do this. I felt intimidated by them.  Yet I felt I could write stories with a horror twist stories which dealt with morals and with justice.This is how I became a horror writer. I began to play with stories in which a sense of justice existed where people got what they deserved. All that needed to happen from this point was for me to gain the courage to put my work out there and this courage came from two places it came from the kind words and support of my Mother and my Fiancée. I wrote my first proper piece that I was proud of while sat waiting for my Fiancée while she was in a university lecture. I showed it to both my Fiancée and my Mother and they told me it was good. Unfortunately not long after this my Mother went in to hospital and passed away. It was a huge blow to me as my Mum meant the world to me, but it made me decide that it was now or never, I had to self publish my story and get it out there and so I did.

I might not be famous but I know that people have read my work, I might have only made a little cash out of it but I can happily say that I am a writer and no matter what anyone says I gave it my best and I tried. I am still writing and still trying to make an impact and maybe I will or maybe I wont but I dont think that is what really matters, what matters is that whoever you are , whatever you love and wherever you are you chase your dreams as that's the only way to really be happy.