Covid 19 was running amuck and no relief in sight as of yet. I was off work for three months and decided to knock off a lot of games that have hounded me. Even as far back as childhood! A whopping total of 75 games were thrashed last year....how can I ever top that?! It won't be easy, but I'll give it a whirl.
And now unto my RETRO GAME OF THE YEAR AWARD!
Given out at the beginning of the new calendar year, I award a retro game that I have completed top honors. Here's a little rundown of the last few winners throughout the years:
2013 - TMNT (NES)
2014 - Blaster Master (NES)
2015 - Robocop (NES) First official year for award
2016 - Abadox (NES)
2017 - Mighty Bomb Jack (NES)
2018 - The Castlevania Adventure (Gameboy)
2019 - Sonic and Knuckles (Genesis)
RETRO GAME OF THE YEAR 2020 GOES TO.....
GAMES THRASHED 2021:
JANUARY:
Midevil (PS4) Lots of great weapons and it's actually quite a humorous game!
Woody Woodpecker Racing (GBC) underrated kart racer! Lots of fun to be had here.
Rachet and Clank (PS4) Excellent game that was a ton of fun to play. Never played back in the PS2 days but I'm sure I would have loved it then.
Archon (NES) - You can beat the game in ten moves! It's a very short game and very interesting chess like mechanics. A lot more fun than actual chess in my humble opinion!
Bionic Commando: Elite Forces (GBC) - A great game and a solid entry into the Bionic Commando lineage. You don't hear a lot of people talk about it, but it is a solid action platformer. Not as good as the NES version, still good though.
FEBRUARY:
Battle Chess (NES) - Had this game as a kid that I got from my best friend Brandon Emms. He gave us his entire NES collection at the time (probably around..20-30 games) and this was one of them. Not a bad little chess game, can be defeated with a certain pattern.
Dead Space 2 (PS3)
Streets of Rage 3 (Genesis) beaten with Super Axel, fun game but really tough.
Resident Evil 3 Remake (PS4) Simply wonderful! Shorter than the original but tons of replay value in unlocking things!
MARCH:
Batman Returns (NES): Good beat em up but kinda clunky. I got one of the bad endings but there's like four of them and I don't feel like getting a better one for a slightly nicer ending. lol.
Adventure Island 3 (NES) Excellent game!
Flintstones: Dinosaur Peak (NES) Another top notch game that's way too rare!
Flintstones: Rescue of Dino & Hoppy (NES) A solid game and quite short!
Toki (NES) Excellent game, lots of fun and humorous too.
Iron Tank (NES) Great game but can get very tough during the last level
APRIL:
Bubble Bobble (NES): Beat the game with the best ending possible, so yes I was playing single player and could add in a second player during the last boss fight! Great game too.
Tag Team Wrestling (NES) After owning this game for well over 20 years I finally finished it. Made it to round 43 and could have kept going but decided to stop.
Classic Concentration (NES) One of the better Gametek TV show games, but that last bonus round can be tricky! Still a lot of fun though.
Yoshi (NES): Defeated Game Type B and all 16 levels.
King's Knight (NES): Fun shmup with a medieval twist. Was a bit of a pain until I did some research on the game. Gathering all the four powerup for each character and finding the four hidden dungeons was the key to the success. And allowing me to unlock and use each characters magic power.
Breakthru (NES): Finally finished this sucker, had it since I was teenager and got it from one of my best friends, Brandon Emms. A quick little game but perfect for that pick up and play style.
Cobra Triangle (NES): Beat this game and a 1CC to boot!
MAY:
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (GB): Fantastic game from top to bottom! Leagues better than the first one too.
Kid Dracula (Famicom) : Cute little game that has some difficult sections to it.
Hydro Thunder (PS1): Excellent arcade racing game by Midway.
D&D Tower of Doom (Arcade) A wonderful beat em up that is tons of fun. Use the spellcasters and you'll have an even better time.
JUNE:
Double Dragon III (Gameboy) Wow, never going to play this game again. Absolutely cheap CPU and terrible hit boxes. Stay away from this game!
Best of the Best Championship Karate (Gameboy): Pretty solid handheld fighter! Lots of fun even though the last gauntlet of challengers is a bit much.
Power Rangers (Gameboy) Quite a challenging little game at first. Once you get the hang of it the game gets a little easier.
Power Rangers The Movie (Gameboy) A lot friendlier to newcomers, this one was a lot of fun! A great side scrolling action game with 6 different characters to play. And each of them have advantages it seems.
King of Fighter's '95 (Gameboy) One of the Takara Fighter trilogy, KOF 95 is great! Beat it on normal with Kyo.
Hammerin' Harry (Gameboy) Great exclusive to Japan and Europe, but the last two levels are NOT FUN. The challenge ramps up really high really quick during those levels. Really brings the fun factor down a bit.
JULY:
Prototype (PS3): Doesn't seem like much except it uses the same game engine from the Hulk PS2 game! Which was phenomenal!
Jewel Master (Sega Genesis): An excellent game that nobody talks about. Mixing and matching rings to give you different magical attacks is a lot of fun to do.
Pit Fighter (Sega Genesis)
AUGUST:
Chiki Chiki Boys (Sega Genesis): Got the bad ending on this one, but an ending is an ending! Great game too.
Thunder Pro Wrestling (Sega Genesis): Beat all the wrestlers on normal mode even though it didn't give me the end credits...if there is any? Fuck this game, way too hard and kills the enjoyment you could have had.
WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game (Sega Genesis) Talk about an underrated wrestling game! This one right here is LEAGUES better than the SNES port (which I also really like). Defeated the game with Bret "The Hitman" Hart too.
SEPTEMBER:
The Three Stooges (NES): My friend Mike used to play this one back in '95. Finally got around to beating this one. Not bad of a game once you get used to the controls. And it has voice samples from the Stooges!
Deadly Towers (NES): Almost 30 years later...finally I have finished this game. Flawed as it is, I found myself enjoying it! That is, with a walkthrough. That's the only way I was ever going to even try to beat it.
Battle of Olympus (NES): A great Zelda II clone, probably the greatest, and it was a ton of fun to play. Although a guide is needed. lol.
Pinball Quest (NES): Finally put this one to rest. Used to borrow this game from my Uncle Marc who had it back around 1992. Derek would take us on his bike to his place to try out all kinds of NES games back then. Decent game with an RPG mode to playthrough, so yes, there is an ending!
Pictionary (NES): Beat this one after I finished up Pinball Quest! Pretty good party game by LJN, although programmed by Rare. Excellent music too!
OCTOBER:
1942 (NES): Finished all 32 stages and managed to pull off a 1CC too!
MTV Remote Control (NES): Whooped the two computer players with 195 points! This game is right up my alley and lots of fun to play. I was quite surprised.
720 Degrees (NES): I must say, once you get used to the controls to the half pipe, this game rocks! Does it have a better soundtrack than Skate or Die? No. But the competitions and the skate park hub world are great. Plus you can upgrade your gear! Beat all 4 classes with 1st place finishes. Well, except the Downhill, I got 3rd there. lol.
Soccer (NES): As my hometeam (France) I whooped Brazil 3-1 in penalty kicks. Also, beat the game on its highest difficulty which is 5.
Ring King (NES): Won all the titles in ranking mode as well as won the tournament mode. Very fun boxing game. This is my winning boxer's password: 86M9YP0FB2S
World Champ (NES): Was in a boxing mood it seems! But World Champ is just as good as Ring King, although I like the actual boxing in Ring King, this one is a lot quicker to play through. Was undefeated too!
NOVEMBER
Wheel of Fortune (NES): Thought I had beat this one but I did not. In fact, I haven't finished any of them until now!
Wheel of Fortune Jr. (NES) More of the same here, but these games are surprisingly fun!
Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White (NES): What else can be said? Fun little games with good replay value!
Phantom Figher (NES): A game I had as a teen but now I finally finished it off. Good game but the controls take some getting used to that's for sure!
DECEMBER
Donkey Kong 3 (NES): Game Mode A, Round 13, 163,000 points. Technically it never ends but, once you've seen everything and achieve a high score I count that as a win. Plus those are the parameters other Nintendo players use so that's a win!
Millipede (NES): Game Mode A, Round 22, 93,000 points. Again a game that has no ending screen so after making it to round 16 the game loops so here's another win and top score. Love this game!
Jordan vs. Bird One on One (NES): Not a bad half court basketball game! Finished all the modes there was and this one was surprisingly difficult. In a good way actually, that 3 point contest is no joke!
Ring Rage (Game Boy): It's a fighting game in the guise of a wrestling game. lol. Not a bad little game and it's saved by the EXTRA MODE, where you can pick your opponent and where you want to fight in. Not bad!
