This is what I used to say while I was playing Tag Team Wrestling. A game I unfortunately bought at a yard sale. Getting into the upper levels of that game was like pulling teeth. And that was a good day. Running me haggard and worn out from the quest of golden titles, I swore bloody vengeance on...wait, let me see it. There it is! Data East! Damn you for making a crappy wrestling game!
Good cover, suckered me in...
I was done with them. The graphics, the controls, the overall design...no more from that gutter company!
It wasn't a few years later when I changed my tune. I went over to a friends place and he was playing "an awesome game where you fight ninjas!" Needless to say it was a beat em' up, and I was interested. He told me the game was Bad Dudes. Cool!
Now this is a good game!
He let me play what felt like hours. And hours in a good way! I had so much fun. The game had its graphical glitches sure, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. And that's what I remembered most. Well, that and the kick arse sound track. Man oh man I loved that intro track, and that boss theme was so sweet. Yes, I'm humming it right now as you read this (sue me humanoid!).
After a few hours he popped the game out and that's when I realised the front cover had that dreaded insignia! DA-TA EA-ST...data east...WHAT?! How can this be? I assumed all of their games were complete trash. Well humanoids I was wrong. And here's a quick breakdown of each game with grade, and, a final grade for the company itself.
- Bad Dudes (A) Awesome music, graphics and controls
- Breakthrough (C) eh, its an okay game
- Burgertime (A) excellent game, great music, controls are good too
- Cobra Command (B-) nice visuals, music is meh, gameplay is solid though
- Heavy Barrel (B+) one of Data East's best, great run and gun game that gets really tough at the end!
- Joe and Mac (A) Interesting game here. A very solid run and gun game with an interesting twist.
- Karate Champ (D) Ugh...bad sound, horrid controls, ugly graphics. Stay clear people!
- Karnov (C) Visuals and music are okay. Just an okay game.
- Kid Nikki (D) There's better games of its ilk to play. Pass on this one.
- Rampage (B) a pretty solid rendition of the arcade game. Considering this is an 8 bit system, very nice.
- Ring King (B) despite the between round scenes this is a great boxing game that gets NO love.
- Robocop (A) Just fantastic, music is catchy (but a bit repetitive), graphics are awesome, controls too.
- Side Pocket (C) eh, its billiards, what can you really expect. Solid, by pool standards lol.
- Tag Team Wrestling (F) Sucks, bad everything. Stay away.
DATA EAST (B-)
A pretty solid company. It had some great games on the NES (Burgertime, Bad Dudes, Heavy Barrel, Joe and Mac). But it had its fair share of stinkers. And their stinkers stunt REAL REAL bad! So that was my little review of an often forgotten company of the 80's and 90's.
In the meantime, in between time!
-Will ^>^
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