Super Nintendo Reviews T

This shooter was designed for use with the bazooka-shaped Super Scope light gun. I was disappointed with the Genesis edition of T2: The Arcade Game, and hoped this SNES edition would improve upon it. It's actually a step down. The digitized images look sharper than the Genesis, but the colors appear washed out. In stage one you unleash hell on a parade of terminators on a red, post-apocalyptic battlefield. The rapid-fire shooting is fun for a while, and helpful "smart bombs" obliterate everything on the screen. Human reinforcements tend to get in the way, screaming "yelp!" when you accidentally shoot them. The flying ships don't catch on fire when you shoot them, but instead just shatter in a very unconvincing fashion. The end-of-stage tank boss is extremely difficult because he sprays missiles all over the screen. The human hideout stage features one distinctive sound effect (a dog barking) but its visuals are lame. Arnold doesn't look like himself, leading me to believe a less-beefy, digitized imposter was used in his place. The protect-the-truck stage is unintentionally funny as terminators run like chickens alongside the speeding vehicle. Some stages feature "golden" endoskeletons that look like a bunch of C3POs. What the hell is that all about? The Super Scope is slightly more accurate than the Genesis Menacer, but its cursor only appears when you pull the trigger. As on the Genesis, hitting targets near the left side of the screen is a problem. The SNES mouse is supported, but who wants to use a mouse for an arcade game? A normal controller works okay but feels inexact. The game supports coop action which definitely makes it more playable. T2 on the SNES is a serious underachiever, and I actually prefer the Genesis edition. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

I was wondering why it was so hard to find a copy of this game, only to discover it was never released! The best you can do is a reproduction copy. The Shadow is based on the 1994 Alec Baldwin film with the tagline "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" It's a little rough but in general this is a highly playable side-scrolling fighter. On the surface it feels like a generic version of Batman Returns (SNES, 1992). Decked out in a red scarf and black trench coat, you methodically beat up gangsters on the streets of New York City. The characters are large and well defined but slow. You'll also face ancient "Mongol Warriors" decked out in colorful armor, referred to in the cut scenes as "Oriental guys". I love the clanking sound when you pound their armor. Some enemies have scrambled frames of animation, which I'm told is just the kind of glitch you can expect from an unfinished game. Stage two takes place in an elegant hotel where you beat up valets, bellhops, and concierges. I love how you throw rapid-fire punches and can toss bad guys into one another. Weapons include torches which burn enemies to the bone. Cool special abilities let your dash into enemies or become invisible. But the most notable feature is the periodic gun battles. Armed with a pair of pistols, you pump lead into bad guys when targets appear on their chests. If you think it sounds like fun, you are right. The scenery is elegant but you can tell it wasn't completely fleshed out. The back alley stage in the thunderstorm is great, but the amusement park and museum stages look sparse and unfinished. I noticed that when the game indicates you have one life, it does not mean you have one in reserve, which is confusing. But even in its half-baked form The Shadow is enjoyable. It's hard to believe this nearly-complete game was scrapped just because the movie didn't perform well. © Copyright 2018 The Video Game Critic.

Thunder Force III (Genesis, 1991) is widely considered one of the best shooters of the 16-bit era, and at a glance Thunder Spirits looks like a port of that game for the SNES. The more I played however the more the two diverged. What happened to the stage select? Where's the options menu? Apparently you need to press start and select at the title screen to bring up the options. What the heck are they hiding it for?! The rapid-fire is set to "off" by default, which seems inexplicable until you realize this game is mired with slowdown. Mired!! If you've played the Genesis game (which barely breaks a sweat) the erratic pacing of Thunder Spirits can be hard to stomach, and rapid-fire just exacerbates the situation. Looking on the bright side, the rampant slowdown makes the game a heck of a lot easier! During boss encounters it's as if you're playing in slow motion! The first few stages reuse the jungle, water, and fire stages of the Genesis game, although fans will notice a few minor tweaks with the scenery and item placement. Subsequent stages are totally different but far inferior to their Genesis counterparts. I can't get over how weak the audio is. The sound effects lack bass, the explosions lack punch, and the music rings hollow. Finally there's the lack of difficulty. On the Genesis it was extremely difficult to acquire valuable items like the "claw", shield, and "hunter" homing missiles. Here you can equip all three at once and cruise through sizeable chunk of the game. That said, Thunder Spirits has enough playability and variety to make it a respectable shooter by SNES standards. © Copyright 2017 The Video Game Critic.

Most critics would be quick to kick a shoddy, movie-based game like Timecop to the curb. However, I happen to be a huge Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD) fan! Ever since my buddy Eric introduced me to Bloodsport (on VHS tape), I was hooked on those high-flying roundhouse kicks! Positively bad-ass! Did I mention Van Damme can dodge bullets by doing a split!? As psyched as I was about this game, the packaging was a bit of a turnoff. Instead of a movie photo it has a comic-book style illustration, conveying the impression of a generic shooter with the Timecop license grafted on top of it. The game's introduction further perpetrates a fraud, describing a villain and plotline that have nothing to do with the film. With my expectations downtrodden, you can imagine my surprise when I found myself controlling a digitized version of JCVD himself! I am utterly fascinated by the fact that this game uses live characters and digitized scenery. It's a concept rarely seen outside of the original Mortal Kombat games. Maybe there's a reason for that. The armed guards and gang members look great, but their movements look idiotic! They march around like they were robots or tin soldiers or something. The controls are difficult to grasp and hardly what I'd call "crisp". It takes a second for our hero to execute a roundhouse kick, and by then he's usually been punched or shot. The jump kick is effective, but since you jump across the entire screen, it's hard to target an enemy. Your sweep kick is the safest option, as many enemies seem incapable of hitting anything below waist level. You're also equipped with a gun but ammo is hard to come by. Timecop packs all the platform game cliches like leaky steam pipes, collapsing ledges, and floating platforms. The stages include a lab facility, New York City circa 1929, and an ugly futuristic L.A. The Washington DC stage is set in 2005, which means it was the future when the game was released but since has become the past. Yes, I know - I just blew your mind! The weirdest part of the game is an inexplicable underwater submarine shooting stage (apparently set under the San Andreas Fault). Timecop reeks of badness, but it frequently veers into "so bad it's good territory". Once you grasp its quirks, it's fun to play for score. I love how the edgy synthesized soundtrack is peppered with goofy electronic samples. Is this a 16-bit platformer, or a parody of 16-bit platformers? Many regard it as garbage, but Timecop is a fascinating relic that trascends time and space. JCVD fans should definitely bump up the grade by a letter. © Copyright 2011 The Video Game Critic.

With Tinstar I expected a generic platformer starring a wacky tin-man. Instead I got a Wild West shooter... starring a wacky tin-man. Apparently all the characters are made of metal, which explains why they explode into nuts and bolts. Tinstar has the characteristics of a cowboy movie but the light humor of a cartoon. There are shootouts in trains, stagecoaches, deserts, saloons, and dusty streets. Certain stages offer a first-person perspective with a camera panning the landscape as colorful enemies pop up all over the place. In other stages you actually see Tinstar on the screen. He moves automatically but you use a crosshair to aim his shots and protect him from dynamite and swooping buzzards. It's a pretty neat concept! The fact that you can shatter lamps and spin signposts shows an attention to detail. Between stages are verbose intermissions with humorous conversations between characters. You'll be tempted to skip these but I'd advise you watch because they are funny and provide valuable clues. The one-on-one showdowns are a little confusing. First you need to shoot an icon and then you need to shoot your enemy - all in a split-second! That's nearly impossible with a normal controller. Tinstar was clearly designed with the Super Scope light gun in mind. Yes, it's an unwieldy beast but it will improve your score and elevate your enjoyment of the game. I noticed the screen automatically brightens when you use the gun and unlike many light gun games, there are no annoying flashes. Tinstar turned out better than I expected. It's not terribly compelling but that Nintendo quality goes a long way. © Copyright 2015 The Video Game Critic.