Phosphor Dot Fossils
05-06-2003, 06:30 AM
Just tried out a couple of new ones just in the door from Brazil. Man, am I psyched - it was all I could do to stop playing and file this report before I hit the sack.
Frogger on the O2 is far, far better than I ever would've expected. I have a European Videopac copy of it which I've never been able to get to run past the cool title screen, and when William Cassidy recently put the word out that a Brazilian copy'll work on a US console, I started keeping an eye out. As it just so happens, O2 Frogger rocks! It's got a very cool opening animation, and it's got the music, that Frogger music y'know, and it also skirts one of the biggest complaints folks have about the O2 by barely using ANY of the pre-built character icon set at all. This same attention to detail also went into O2 Q*Bert, and whoever programmed these with that much care, I truly appreciate it and wish you'd gotten to code some more games for this machine. Who knows what we might've gotten out of Spider-Man or Tutankham on the O2 (two other titles Parker announced for the console which never saw the light of day)? Three out of the four Parker games for the O2 are excellent by the standards of this console, some of the best games you can play on the O2. I weep to think that Parker Brothers in particular, and the industry in general, gave up the ghost before we could get Reactor or The Empire Strikes Back on the O2. If Frogger's any indication, they could've pulled it off.
Balao Travesso (a.k.a. Loony Balloon on the Videopac) is one of those near-beer arcade translations that the O2 is famous/infamous for - closely approximate this coin-op, but don't get us sued. Again. In this case, the inspiration is clearly Taito's Crazy Balloon, except you're a kid running around a playground instead of just a free-floating balloon floating through some tunnels. Ride all the rides you can, but keep an eye on the balloon - if you pop it, the kid throws a tantrum. This one is just wicked fun, a nomination for the "digital crack" category. I must've played it for an hour at least. Why they didn't put this one on the North American market is beyond me, unless the similarities to Crazy Balloon sent the legal department at Phillips into seizures after all the fun they had with K.C. Munchkin.
Two games I've wanted to play for years, and I've finally got to play 'em. More to the point, I've played games I've never played before on my favorite machine! I know Loony Balloon's been available on the Dondzila multicart for years now, but I'm a bit of a stickler for having the real thing. These two were definitely worth the wait - expect full reviews with screen/box/cart shots and - in Frogger's case because it's so damned cool - probably a video file fairly soon. If, once again, I can stop playing and get to writing. :-D
Frogger on the O2 is far, far better than I ever would've expected. I have a European Videopac copy of it which I've never been able to get to run past the cool title screen, and when William Cassidy recently put the word out that a Brazilian copy'll work on a US console, I started keeping an eye out. As it just so happens, O2 Frogger rocks! It's got a very cool opening animation, and it's got the music, that Frogger music y'know, and it also skirts one of the biggest complaints folks have about the O2 by barely using ANY of the pre-built character icon set at all. This same attention to detail also went into O2 Q*Bert, and whoever programmed these with that much care, I truly appreciate it and wish you'd gotten to code some more games for this machine. Who knows what we might've gotten out of Spider-Man or Tutankham on the O2 (two other titles Parker announced for the console which never saw the light of day)? Three out of the four Parker games for the O2 are excellent by the standards of this console, some of the best games you can play on the O2. I weep to think that Parker Brothers in particular, and the industry in general, gave up the ghost before we could get Reactor or The Empire Strikes Back on the O2. If Frogger's any indication, they could've pulled it off.
Balao Travesso (a.k.a. Loony Balloon on the Videopac) is one of those near-beer arcade translations that the O2 is famous/infamous for - closely approximate this coin-op, but don't get us sued. Again. In this case, the inspiration is clearly Taito's Crazy Balloon, except you're a kid running around a playground instead of just a free-floating balloon floating through some tunnels. Ride all the rides you can, but keep an eye on the balloon - if you pop it, the kid throws a tantrum. This one is just wicked fun, a nomination for the "digital crack" category. I must've played it for an hour at least. Why they didn't put this one on the North American market is beyond me, unless the similarities to Crazy Balloon sent the legal department at Phillips into seizures after all the fun they had with K.C. Munchkin.
Two games I've wanted to play for years, and I've finally got to play 'em. More to the point, I've played games I've never played before on my favorite machine! I know Loony Balloon's been available on the Dondzila multicart for years now, but I'm a bit of a stickler for having the real thing. These two were definitely worth the wait - expect full reviews with screen/box/cart shots and - in Frogger's case because it's so damned cool - probably a video file fairly soon. If, once again, I can stop playing and get to writing. :-D