2011/5/10: Super Nintendo: Congo's Caper, Peacekeepers, Strike Gunner S.T.G.

[VideoGameCritic]

Here are some brand new SNES reviews for your enjoyment!  Comments?

[Zenzerotron]

I think the Rushing Beat/Rival Turf series is something of a minor tragedy in the 16-bit era.

With each game in the series, you had a beat-em-up with flawed gameplay but a likable pesonality, and had that "if they fix this and that in the next game, it'll be awesome" feeling. A series with POTENTIAL to be on the level of Final Fight and Streets Of Rage series, but it never happened.

I honestly HATE Peacekeepers and think it's the worst game of the Rival Turf series. I think more than anything, the mixture of digitized graphics with sprites is just ugly. I just can't stand the art direction of the whole game. The major flaw with the whole series is the hit detection...your punches/kicks go right through enemies and it's luck if they register before the bad guys start hitting back. The hit detection is the WORST in Peace Keepers, and on top of that, this is the hardest game of the series...a B+??? Listen to Zen, not the VGC...get Brawl Brothers and Rival Turf for cheap, with modest expectations going in, and pretend Peacekeepers doesn't exist.

[DanZero1]

First and foremost, a HUGE thanks for slamming Congo's Caper as hard as you did Super Double Dragon (2 games on the SNES I do NOT enjoy). I rented it back in the day thinking "Oh cool Data East, it will be like Joe & Mac", boy was I wrong. You might want to mention that the back of the box says its "RECOMMENDED FOR PLAYERS AGE 10 AND UNDER" (no joke!) Sure, if you want to see your controllers smashed! I did not like when you were about to die you turned into the monkey with NO attack power and even when you managed to get "Super" Congo, his extra power wasn't all that great. Terrible game. It takes a lot of effort to get past the first 5 stages.

Peace Keepers was the best game in the Japanese "Rushing Beat" trilogy (Rival Turf, Brawl Brothers, and Peace Keepers were all named that in Japan). There is a code that lets you unlock Norton and Orbot from the start, and they both are much better than the stock characters. Glad to see the wife likes it too.

Never played Strike Gunner, it doesn't look as visually appealing as D-Force (another early shooter with subpar but passable graphics). Thanks for steering me away from another poor SNES shmup.

[Blueguy93]

Finally, some good old Snes reviews! These are hilarious, especially the Strike Gunner [B]STD[/B] (oops I mean STG) "pox quote.

Also, i don't get the peacekeepers B+ grade thing. You criticized the lack of imagination, but what made it so much fun for you? Was it the branching paths or the fact that it had great arcade action?

[PSX1]

What a phophetic game Peacekeepers turned out to be.  But the mention of "Snake Pliskin Ave" is really interesting to me.  Remember, in Metal Gear Solid 2, Solid Snake went under the alias of Pliskin for most of the game.  According to Metal Gear Wiki, one of his first lines was:  "I'm not an enemy. Calm down. My name is S... My name is Pliskin."  Snake Plissken was also the character in the 1981 movie Escape from New York (and later, Escape from L.A.), but the spelling in MGS2 and Peacekeepers are different from that, yet identical to each other.  Intentional or really huge coincidence?  I don't know; the answer is probably really obvious but I'm too dumb to figure it out and I'm just missing whatever in-joke the games intended.

[Adamant1]

[QUOTE=PSX]What a phophetic game Peacekeepers turned out to be.  But the mention of "Snake Pliskin Ave" is really interesting to me.  Remember, in Metal Gear Solid 2, Solid Snake went under the alias of Pliskin for most of the game.  According to Metal Gear Wiki, one of his first lines was:  "I'm not an enemy. Calm down. My name is S... My name is Pliskin."  Snake Plissken was also the character in the 1981 movie Escape from New York (and later, Escape from L.A.), but the spelling in MGS2 and Peacekeepers are different from that, yet identical to each other.  Intentional or really huge coincidence?  I don't know; the answer is probably really obvious but I'm too dumb to figure it out and I'm just missing whatever in-joke the games intended.[/QUOTE]

It's a shout-out. Escape from New York has been cited by Kojima as the biggest inspiration for the Metal Gear franchise, and the franchise drops references to it here and there throughout the games.

The Peacekeepers mention is probably just a funny reference tossed in by a programmer who really liked the movie, though.

[Number1Star1]

PeaceKeepers B+?
No music, stiff animation, long and boring, small sprites yet still only 3 enemies at once on screen. This is a beat em up I would say is below average all 3 Final Fight's on the Snes blow this away.

I agree with Zen the Rushing Beat franchise could just never put it all together. All three of them are okay for a play through but that is it. The animation in all 3 games is trash compared to the Final Fight's.

This game is more of a D with the Japanese version garnering a C- because it actually has music.

[Blueguy93]

Critic, your wife loved this game, so should this include the "chicks dig this" icon?

[VideoGameCritic]

[QUOTE=Blueguy93]Critic, your wife loved this game, so should this include the "chicks dig this" icon?[/QUOTE]

Where did I say she loved it?  I said she "would play it again".  Big difference.

[0-Storm]

I liked Peace Keepers. Nothing special, but it gets the basics right.