Monday MAME Club [02/07/05] - G.I. Joe

[Flack]

Feeling like a real American hero? If so, try giving G.I. Joe a spin!

Welcome to this week's Monday Morning MAME Club Posting. Every Monday, a member of the MAME club will pick a new game for you to play in MAME! All you have to do to participate is install MAME, download the ROM of the week from this message, and then post your thoughts about the game! You can post a full review of the game or simply tell us what you liked/didn't like about the game. Have you played this game before? Have you played it in an actual arcade? Do you like the genre? How did it run on your computer? Did you beat it? If so, how long did it take? What was your high score? How far can you get? Did you have any problems emulating the game? When writing your review, post it right here in the sticky topic and include any thoughts you have about the game. Remember, YOU are the reviewer. Let us know anything and everything you think about the game! Just remember, if you want people to respond during YOUR week, you should play along on OTHER weeks!

The ROM of the week is: G.I. Joe (available HERE!)
KLOV Link for the game: HERE



Club Members:

digitalpress (Battle Bakraid)
Gamereviewgod (ESP Ra.De.)
Wisesalesman (Waku Waku 7)
scooterb23 (I'm Sorry)
ddockery (Penguin-Kun Wars)
AlanD (Dr. Micro)
IntvGene (Strike Force)
NE146 (Portman)
jonjandran (Bronze Adventure)
Flack (Rollergames, Yie-Ar Kung-Fu, Liquid Kids, Ninja Clowns, Great 1000 Mile Rally)
IGotTheDot (N/A)
zektor (Battle Bakraid, Haunted Castle)
buttasuperb (Blazing Star)
chadtower (Berkerk)
Sotenga (Caliber 50)
Stark (Mighty! Pang)
christianscott27 (Darius Gaiden)
ECWSandmanECW (League Bowling)
TripppsK (Lady Bug)
vespertillio (Rampart!)
<s>ghsqb</s>
TheSmirk (Bomb Jack)
Flukkake (Elevator Action)
BHvrd (NARC)
ManekiNeko (Battle Circuit)
MarioAllStar2600 (City Bomber)
Ze_ro (Pandora's Palace)
slip81 (Biomechanical Toy)
Qbert (Mysterious Stones)
k8track (Go! Go! Mile Smile)
<s>Hamsnibit</s>
Lady Jaye (Chuka Taisen/Cloud Master)
Sofa King Gud (Crossbow)
Schenley (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
Kaine23 (Super Burgertime)
Arqueologia_Digital (Burgertime)
Jiscan (Withdrew)
-hellvin- (Splatterhouse)
Acidic_Pain (Armed Police Batrider)
Gamemaster_ca_2003 (Block Out)
Vigilante (Pu-Li-Ru-La)
Hovoc (D&D: Shadow Over Mystara)
<s>Mr.FoodMonster</s>
sniperCCJVQ (WWF Superstars)
A Boy (Satan's Hollow)
JibbaJaba (Solomon's Key)
Cauterize (The Simpsons)
youruglyclone (Vendetta)
Ed Oscuro (Alligator Hunt)
Gapporin (Daisu-Kiss)
Graham Mitchell (Ataxx)
RockyRaccoon (19xx: The War Against Destiny)
XxMe2NiKxX (Raiden II)
<s>brykasch</s>
Xtasy (Metal Slug 2)
!!! DJ_DEEM (G.I. Joe) !!!
The_EniGma
DaBargainHunta
cr0n0
Promophile
Cirrus
Stargate
phantomfriar
GobopopRevisited
soniko_karuto
kevates

Remember, you don't have to be a member of the club to download the game and write up a review, but by joining you get the honor of picking a game to share with the group during your week. If you would like to join, simply send me a PM and I will add you to the list!

MAME ON!

[GobopopRevisited]

This game is a blast! Its like the top / down levels in contra... except "grid" style rail shooting. Bosses can be pretty damn hard too. One of my most played games on MAME.

[kainemaxwell]

Intresting how they turned it into a Cabel-like shooter. Lives up to the GI-Joe name, though to note this is the GI-Joe from the DIC version, not the old-school one.

[Flack]

This game is a blast! Its like the top / down levels in contra... except "grid" style rail shooting. Bosses can be pretty damn hard too. One of my most played games on MAME.

Interesting! I haven't had a chance to try it out yet (got my machine like 99% done now) but I will definitely try it out tonight!

[Lady Jaye]

I love this game (I don't think you guys would be too surprised to learn that), even though it can get pretty difficult in one-player mode. It's best played multiplayer.

Too bad they don't have Lady Jaye as a playable character!

[kainemaxwell]

Least they got Snake Eyes though!

[calthaer]

Being something of an expert on the G.I.Joe video games, I thought this one was one of the weaker ones...Taxan and Capcom made two ones for the NES that were better, IMO. This one is still fun, though, because you can blow up EVERYTHING. Oil silos, girders, tanks, Cobra troopers, etc.

It was fairly difficult, but it was pretty fun. My beefs with it are:

-no difference between the characters other than appearance
-you can't drive any vehicles
-too linear

I liked the NES games better because the Joes each had different roles and uses.

Furthermore - Snake Eyes *talks* in the arcade game. What's up with that? No Ninja action, either.

[Gamereviewgod]

I love this one. Talk about video game violence, my god, this one has to have a potential body count far ahead of most games today. There's always something going on, much like last weeks Metal Slug 2. Get a group together for a game and things really get nuts.

If you like this one, check out Rambo 3, the European version (the US one sucks). It's kinda like an inspiration to GI Joe.

[Cirrus]

This game is lots of fun. I never saw this one in the arcades as a kid, and have never played it before now.

Really tough to play on a keyboard, but went down to the MAME machine and had a blast. (In fact, I'll leave it running as my game of the week.) Probably would be great with 2 players.

Originally a 8 way joystick w/ 2 buttons by the way... (I guess I imagined a airstick with 2 triggers, but it wasn't).

[kingpong]

This is one of my favorite arcade games ever, even though it isn't an especially good game. Just loads of fun to blow up so much of the environment, something that wasn't very common in its time. I only ever saw this game at one arcade, but I gave it quite a few plays.

My only real complaint with the game is that it is so easy. After beating it in the arcade I was glad to see that it started over again, but I then walked through the game a second time on that one credit. I don't think I bothered playing it again after that for several years. Easy or not, definitely a game that is worth checking out, and perhaps the most overlooked Konami game of that era.

[stargate]

Reminds me of Space Harrier. However, Space Harrier was a much better game.

This game to me just looks bad. Everything looks messy and the graphics are not as clean as they could have been.

The game is fairly bland. Not much to do, but it does have it's moments.

[Hamsnibit]

Hmmm, been so busy lately I haven't participated, so it's time to give it a run again. This game is ecent. It's better playing 2 player, but it gets pretty repetitive real quick.

[DaBargainHunta]

Love the chaos, hate the graphics. This is one game that really hasn't aged well visually. I'm no graphics whore, but this looks pretty messy. Awesome use of bright, vibrant colors though. If you can look past the ancient graphics, there's a lot of fun to be had here.

[Flack]

Any other real American heroes plan on spinning this game this weekend?

Yo JOE! (No, not you Joe. It's a G.I.Joe thing.)

[Sotenga]

Any other real American heroes plan on spinning this game this weekend?

Eh, I may give it a try if time permits me to. I actually have played a bit of this game in the past, and it's good stuff. I never complain when it comes to generating gratuitious explosions. Heh... this game plays like another Konami arcade title, Devestators. I think that's the one, if I remember correctly, only that game had no license attached to it and featured two rather generic Rambos as the players. But hey, it's about mindless destruction!

Also, I really wished the original G.I. Joe was more of a phenomenon through the 90's... I pretty much missed out on it.

That doesn't mean I can't appreciate Cheat Commandos! *Buy all our playsets and toys!*

[Lady Jaye]

I blame the decline of GI Joe on Cobra-La (not GI the movie in general, just the weirdness factor of Cobra-La that had absolutely nothing to do with the continuity in the series... Add to this DIC's version of the series and, well, it's a wonder the comic book lasted so long before Marvel cancelled it.

(BTW, I recommend all 5 GI Joe Marvel trade paperbacks, which reprinted issues 1-50. The series is more mature than the cartoon series and despite the differences, it's pretty good too)