Jumping Flash! (Sony PlayStation review)

Developer: Exact, Ultra
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: 1995

Jumping Flash! is a first-person platformer that's exclusive to Sony's 32-bit console.

+ Stages feel like large playgrounds that encourage you to explore and decipher how to reach far-off objects / platforms.

+ Draw distance is terrific and the ability to shoot enemies at range from higher platforms gives you a tactical edge.

+ Despite the atypical viewpoint, it's very easy to position yourself for a landing thanks to a handy guide shadow.

+ The surprising indoor levels are a nice diversion and resemble a first-person shooter like Doom (1993, MS-DOS).

+ The bosses are super fun and only get better as you progress due to their shifting attack patterns during battle.

- Features only six short worlds (that contain three levels each), so it's unfortunately an all-too-brief adventure.

- The unlockable Extra Mode (where the location of items is altered) is a rather cheap way to artificially extend play time.

Nightshade (NES review)

Developer: Beam Software

Publisher: Ultra Games

Released: 1992

Nightshade is an action-adventure game that's exclusive to the NES.

As Nightshade, your mission is to save Metro City from the evil crime boss Sutekh. There's over 100 screens and the gameplay involves searching for clues and picking up items to solves puzzles. You can wander freely around the city and pressing Select allows you to access your inventory, examine items and talk to strangers. The game immediately throws you in at the deep end, as you're tied to a chair and need to shuffle to the other side of a wall to avoid an exploding bomb. It's fun seeing developers take some chances by instantly throwing a life or death puzzle at you! Four lives are available and each time you die you're forced to play mini-games in order to survive. In one of these you're strapped to a moving conveyor belt that's heading towards a deadly press machine, and your only option is to quickly figure out how to escape! The city-based action is slow-paced and while none of the puzzles are particularly clever they're not too cryptic either. The world is huge and engaging, with tons of unique areas to explore, and interesting, yet bizarre characters to interact with! There's also some action elements such as having to rescue a girl from the outside of a burning building by climbing ladders and avoiding fire; moments like this break up the slow pace and add some variety. Occasionally you'll take part in combat screens where the objective is to drain your opponents' life-bar using punches and kicks. Some enemies have entertaining attack patterns (especially the bosses) but the controls are clunky and delayed. This leads to many lost lives and it doesn't help that the game has no save option!

 

Nightshade is unlike anything else I've played on the NES and it's great to see a game that would normally grace 8-bit computers find a home on a console. It does have some obvious flaws (especially the shoehorned combat mechanics) but as a whole it's a good adventure game with a large, open world and an intriguing plot.

 

 

 

Random trivia: This was supposed to be part one in a series of Nightshade games, but all subsequent titles were cancelled.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES review)

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Ultra
Released: 1990

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game is a beat-em-up that's based on the 1987 TMNT animated series.

There's ten levels and your mission is to rescue April O'Neil and defeat Shredder. All four turtles have a decent move set that includes a weapon slash, a jump kick and a jump slash that can be performed by pressing the A and B buttons together; the latter kills most enemies with one hit but for some reason it's a little hard to consistently pull off. Comparing it to the Arcade original it's seriously impressive how much was ported over and there's lots of cool touches including one level where April screams for help on a background TV! It's arguable that some areas had an influence on Streets of Rage 2 (1992, Mega Drive) as some sections suddenly scroll downwards and there's even a short elevator ride. Scene 4 sees you jumping on a skateboard and fighting heavily armed helicopters on the highway which adds some nice variety. This NES port has two exclusive levels; Snowy Central Park is gorgeous with its parallax scrolling, slow ploughs and robotic snowmen armed with homing missiles! House of Shogun takes place in a Japanese Dojo and once again it looks beautiful with bad guys jumping out from behind the doors. The game has many enemy types to stop things getting monotonous and some carry weapons such as dynamite, boomerangs and sledgehammers. Each boss is fun to fight and many familiar faces are featured including Bebop and Rocksteady. Despite the lengthy adventure the main downside is that it's incredibly tough as you're always massively outnumbered; even the manual states that there's over 700 total enemies to defeat so seeing later levels is a real challenge!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game is an incredible port with tons of content and some solid beat-em-up action. It is a bit too challenging but it plays well and each level adds something new to keep the combat feeling fresh and exciting.

Random trivia: Another beat-em-up in the series was released on the NES in 1992 called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project.