Virtual League Baseball 2 (Virtual Boy review)

Developer: Kemco
Publisher: Kemco
Released: N/A

Virtual League Baseball 2 is a sports game that was cancelled prior to its planned release in 1996.

+ Has a comprehensive Team Edit mode, and there's now three stadiums with contrasting dimensions that affect strategy.

+ Semi-automatic fielding option gives you a head-start on tracking down hits, and infield shifts deepen the gameplay.

+ Presentation has been greatly improved, with plenty of celebration animations and voice clips that create excitement.

- Swing timing is very difficult to master, and CPU batters are susceptible to extreme in or away pitches for easy outs.

- Fielders make an inordinate amount of errors on routine plays, and it's tough to differentiate teams when base running.

- There's only two pitch types to try and keep hitters off balance, and the 3D effect is still rather unimpressive.

The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (NES review)

Developer: Kemco
Publisher: Kemco-Seika
Released: 1990

The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout is an action-platformer that's exclusive to the NES.

Your mission is to guide Bugs Bunny to his 50th birthday celebration party by defeating the other Looney Tune characters that are trying to stop him. There's six worlds (with four rounds each) and your method of attack is swinging a hammer with the B button. Carrots can also be collected to earn a chance for extra lives in the Bonus Rounds. The first thing you'll likely notice is the substantially choppy animation and scrolling; this can make it challenging to line up hammer swings correctly and when coupled with the wonky hit detection the game doesn't exactly make a good initial impression. The stage design does feature multiple paths to the exit, but there's no real visual stimulation on offer, or anything that differentiates the start of the level to the end. There are some minor standouts, such as the sand that falls beneath you in Stage 2, but they feel like cheap ways to force trial-and-error rather than incorporating cool set pieces to delight the player. Similarly, enemies often spawn and fall from the sky, resulting in you taking damage when you're making what looks like a clear jump. One thing I do like is that a box featuring the Warner Brothers logo is always left behind when you collect a carrot; these boxes can be jumped on and used to reach higher platforms which is a nice way to encourage exploration. Also, the ability to grab onto ladders mid-jump is a good idea for avoiding enemies with some swift manoeuvres. The same can't be said for the pathetic boss battles though, as they feature basic attack patterns and the only challenge you'll likely have is timing hammer swings with the inaccurate hit boxes.

The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout is hard to recommend over more accomplished (and polished) titles in the genre such as Tiny Toon Adventures (1991, NES), as it fails to excite in most of the key areas. In particular, the stage design is lacklustre and the various technical deficiencies loom large on its overall fun factor.

Random trivia: A prototype ROM is available online that features numerous differences to the released version.

The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (NES review)

Developer: Kemco
Publisher: Seika
Released: 1989

The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle is an action-puzzler that was also released on the Nintendo Game Boy (1990).

There's 60 stages and the objective in each is to collect all of the carrots while avoiding enemies. Bugs Bunny is unable to jump, but can utilise various items to outwit foes such as a Boxing Glove punch and crates that can be pushed off ledges to squash them. By far the biggest issue are the controls, as Bugs' momentum carries him forward after landing from a fall; this usually results in an unfair death, despite you furiously pressing the opposite direction in a futile attempt to avoid an incoming enemy. Similarly, trying to ascend or descend staircases is a nightmare as your inputs are occasionally ignored. Another annoyance is the fact that Bugs needs to be far towards the edge of the screen in order for it to scroll; this limits your visibility and can lead to some cheap deaths when foes suddenly appear from nowhere. Things do unintentionally even themselves up though, as the enemy A.I. is incredibly dumb and you can easily force them to an advantageous position for yourself; in fact, they'll often face you, only to turn around and walk straight off a platform edge! The changing locales after each handful of stages is welcomed, but the backgrounds are so drab and uninteresting that they create little in terms of visual stimulation. I do like the addition of travel-based pipes to add some gameplay variety though, as well as the inclusion of vertically scrolling stages, but they don't mix things up in any meaningful way. The music is also highly repetitious and the animation is poor; for example, it almost seems like the characters are sliding across the ground or levitating in mid-air when climbing staircases!

The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle is a mediocre title that relies on repetition rather than slowly implementing new gameplay mechanics to push the action forward. The core mechanics are passable, but nothing changes, leaving you to endure 60 laborious stages and undoubtedly irked by the awkward, wonky controls.

Random trivia: In Japan, the game was released with Roger Rabbit as the main character (1989, Famicom Disk System).

Rescue: The Embassy Mission (NES review)

Developer: Kemco
Publisher: Kemco
Released: 1990

Rescue: The Embassy Mission is a stealth-action game that was also released as Hostages on a number of home computers.

You control a team of commandos and your objective is to rescue the embassy ambassador and his staff who have been kidnapped. There's three difficulty settings as well as five missions; each consists of four mini-games and you need to complete them all within a time limit otherwise you'll fail the mission. To start you must advance three members of your team by sneaking around the outside of the building. Searchlights can be avoided by either crouching or hiding in doors but if you're spotted enemies will start firing on your location. The action is intense and works well although the controls aren't always responsive when trying to hide. Once your team has reached their position you then enter a first-person sniper mode where you move a cursor to eliminate bad guys behind windows. It's reminiscent of some stages in Golgo 13 (1988, NES) but it's not very challenging and doesn't last long. Next you rappel from the roof and break into the building; when you're positioned over a window the A button allows you to crash through. It's decent but there's little depth and it's over quickly. The final part is a first-person shooter where you need to kill a certain number of enemies on each floor. The great controls make it a blast and the threat of a decreasing time limit adds to the tension. The variety in the game is fantastic and each activity is generally fun to play. However, all five missions are basically the same apart from faster searchlights / enemies and no other gameplay mechanics or environments come into effect; as a result the game can be beaten extremely quickly and replayability is low.

Rescue: The Embassy Mission is an enjoyable game with some nice variety but the experience is far too short and once you've completed one mission there's not really much more to do. It's definitely a unique title though so it's worth a look if you fancy playing something a bit different on the NES.

Random trivia: In 1992, a sequel was released on the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS called Alcatraz.

Virtual League Baseball (Virtual Boy review)

Developer: Kemco
Publisher: Kemco
Released: 1995

Virtual League Baseball was the only Virtual Boy game released by Kemco who later developed Top Gear Rally (1997, N64).

It consists of three modes; Single Game, All-Star and Pennant Race. Single Game sees you playing against the CPU and you can choose from 18 teams. In All-Star Game mode you control the best players from all three leagues to take on a CPU team in a single match. In Pennant Race you try to beat every team in the league on your way to the title. There's no save functionality but a password system is available so you can continue at a later date. The game gives you full control over your team including batting order, pinch hitters and whether you want to use the DH rule. On Offense you use the A button to swing, B to steal bases and the Triggers to bunt. Hitting is tricky because you need to factor in the height of the pitch when swinging (this can be done via the d-pad). Annoyingly, whenever you do make contact it nearly always finds a glove! On Defense you pitch by pressing the A button for a normal pitch or B for a forkball. When doing this it starts a power meter to determine the ball's speed and it's important not to exceed the limit as this will make you throw a bad pitch. Once the pitch has been thrown you can then use the d-pad to add movement. It works okay but I would have preferred selecting a range of pitches via a simple menu. When the ball is put in play the camera zooms out to show the whole field in a similar fashion to Baseball (1985, NES). Unfortunately the red and black graphics cause issues with ground balls as you can't easily distinguish your infielder from the opponent. Catching a fly ball is also an adventure as player sprites are small and it's not easy to line-up with the red dot that indicates the shadow of the ball. The only part the game really excels in is the 3D effect as the stadium really comes to life.

Virtual League Baseball is an uninspiring sports title that looks better than it plays. It doesn't do hitting, pitching or fielding particularly well and if it wasn't the only baseball game on the system there'd be no reason to check it out.

Random trivia: Kemco planned a sequel called Virtual League Baseball 2 but it became vaporware due to poor sales of the Virtual Boy.