The Great Playthrough - BONUS ROUND!

So, this gaming blog is a bit different from the rest of the playthrough blogs - it doesn't obey any of the rules! "But why, Brawny?" I hear you ask. Well, because this blog is going to review three games that weren't on the original list, and consequentially do not have numbers - because they are the games I got for Christmas!

All three of these are games that I've been wanting for a while, and they are all current generation games (assuming that we are still counting the Wii as current generation - although the Wii U is out now, so I guess I should be setting it back as last generation now.. but sod it) so without further ado (and in no particular order), let's get on with it!

Resident Evil 4

Released on: Nintendo Gamecube, PC, PS2, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, Mobile, iPhone, iPad

Played on: Nintendo Wii

Release date: 2005

You heard my thoughts on the original Resident Evil earlier in this playthrough, and the 5th instalment was one of the first games Neety and I bought for the Xbox 360 and we had a lot of fun playing together. Resi 4 is always cited as one of the greatest games ever, and I was interested to see how good it was in comparison with how good everyone says that it is. 

Short answer? It's great. The Wii controls introduced for this port work really well, and the game is very well balanced and designed. 

The plot? Well, it's a traditional Resident Evil mish-mash of virus's, evil beings and zombies. WRONG. These are not zombies, they are apparently infected people, not zombies. 

*Mumbles* I don't know what the bloody difference is mind you... *finishes mumbling* 

There are women in distress, (well, women is a loose term. Let's just say that there is one jug-eared blond annoyance in distress) and you run around shooting zombies infected villagers, using up all your limited ammo before coming face-to-face with a mutated boss who has extra limbs and metal claws, and you only have three handgun bullets left, and the only other ammo you have is the rifle ammo, which is particularly useless because you didn't buy a rifle from Rapey Clive when you had the chance!

(Just to clarify, Rapey Clive is the name that Neety gave to the creepy merchant who always greets you in a disturbingly growling voice and then flings open his coat as if he was going to flash you)

However, in spite of a few minor moments of frustration, it's a very well-balanced and addictive game - as proven by the fact that I have so far spent 12+ hours on it, finishing the main game and unlocking the side story etc, and I still want to play more. My biggest bugbear of the game? The proliferation of "Press X to not die" quicktime events. Although, with this being the Wii, it's more a case of "Waggle the Wii-mote inappropriately to not die", which does lead to entertaining (if slightly rude) comments from Neety. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Time Played: 12+ hours so far....

Would I play it again: Hell yeah!

In comparison with Pestilent Weevils the fourth (aka Resident Evil 4), the next game is an almost complete opposite. Whereas Resi 4 is an "adult" game, with a strangely muted colour scheme, the next game I'm going to discuss feels like someone has smacked you around the face with a four foot long cartoon fish! It's...

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing
Released on: Xbox360, PS3, PC
Played on: Xbox 360
Release date: 2010

I love this game. I've had the one-race demo on my Xbox for months and have played it far more than any man should ever play a single demo. I've mentioned before (most recently in my previous post) my love for Outrun and other colourful, unrealistic, arcade racers - and this game represents all of that to me.  It's like someone crashed Outrun into Mario Kart, and this is the result.

Don't get me wrong, it's not the most in-depth of games, but it is ridiculously addictive (It's like the video game version of candy-coated, caffeine-infused smack) and even as someone who usually prefers advancing in the game to obtaining high scores, it really does have that "one-more-try" factor (which is helped by the number of achievements available - at this rate, it might become the first Xbox game that I ever complete every achievement on!)

Now I know what you're all thinking:

"I know who Sonic is. And Tails. And Knuckles. But who are the rest of these drivers. Are they really all-stars?"

To which I would respond: "Does it matter?"

Some of the characters are reasonably well known if you have knowledge of SEGA history or retro games in general - Alex Kidd, Beat, AiAi etc... but some are, I grant you, pretty obscure. But who cares when the game is this much fun?

Plus, you get to run over zombies, sorry, creatures on the House of the Dead, sorry, Curien Mansion tracks. (They can't call them zombies as it is a game for all ages, and they can't call it House of the Dead because firstly that could bump the rating up as well, but secondly, House of the Dead is banned in Germany and they didn't want this banned too!). And who doesn't enjoy hitting zombies creatures with a car???

The driving mechanics of the game are great, and the physics are rock solid (except for the fact that on some of the more outrageous tracks, gravity seems not to exist...) and the music is a selection of Sonic/Sega tunes and is therefore brilliantly annoying and catchy all at once. Plus, in a change from a certain racer I reviewed recently, this has plenty to do in single player - grand prix's and a full on mission mode as well!

Rating: 9/10
Time played: About 6 hours so far
Would I play it again? I'm loading it right now...

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Released on: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PS2, Nintendo DS
Played on: Xbox 360
Release date: 2008

Like Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, I've had the demo of this on the Xbox for a good long while, so it was nice to pop in the full game and settle down to some satisfying destruction of everything you see.

However, straight off, I hit a slight roadblock. The opening level disappointed me slightly, and I'm still not sure as to why. It should have been amazing because of the following 2 points..

1) You play as Darth Vader. And who doesn't love that!
2) It's a different way to do the opening of the story, rather than all being cinematic cut-scenes which I am always glad to see.

But it just feels... slow. Lacking in pace, if you will. And a big part of that is that Vader does not run. I understand why, it is to make him seem confident, and imposing... but it just makes the level feel tedious. (Plus, you are slicing your way through Wookies, and I like wookies damnit!)

After that, though, the game definitely picks up. You play as Darth Vaders hitherto unmentioned apprentice, Starkiller, and you rush through environments destroying Stormtroopers and rebels alike! It's almost as if Starkiller is the opposite of a smart bomb. You send him in if you want to destroy absolutely everything, including people, spaceships, planets...

The game is great fun, not particularly intellectually stimulating, but fun nonetheless. It does have a few flaws - the camera is a little erratic, control of force powers can be a little bit hit and miss, and I have not yet fully embraced the RPG-lite style powers upgrade system... but I'm sure I will.

This section is shorter than the other two as this is the game I have played least so far... but I am enjoying it at the moment!

Rating: 7.5/10
Time Played: About 2 - 3 hours so far..
Would I play it again? Of course

Next time - back to the playthrough!

The Great Playthrough: Game 36 - Star Wars: Racer Revenge and Game 37 - Bit.Trip Runner

I begin, as I often do, with an apology. I know that at the end of my previous entry, I advised you that this next one would be along very soon. And it wasn't.

In my defence, I have been rather busy....

And while I'm in a confessional mood, I ought to point out that I'm not going to complete my initial plan of playing all of these games before the wedding - I still have over a hundred to go on the list! But that's not going to stop me continuing with this experiment, (Just to clarify, the experiment I'm talking about is the game playing - not some weird Frankenstein-style experiment that you think I'm up to), and today I present to you the next two games in the series! First up:

Star Wars: Racer Revenge
Released on: Playstation 2
Played on: Playstation 2
Release Date: 2002

I was looking forward to this game. As derided as Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is, it is universally agreed that the podrace is by far the best part of the film, and I seem to remember that the N64 game that preceded this - Star Wars: Racer - was pretty good as well. These factors, combined with my love for silly arcade racers (remember my disappointment when Outrun 2 didn't work?) gave me high hopes for Star Wars: Racer Revenge.

And then I played it. And honestly? The best comparison I can give is to compare it with the Star Wars prequels themselves. There was initial excitement followed by the disappointment of good ideas being badly handled.

Don't get me wrong, the first race was fun. Handling was a bit strange, but I thought that I'd get used to it. And then, after losing the race (unsurprisingly - due to it being my first go at the game), so I tried again with a different racer and different pod, and then after a couple of goes, I won! And after winning, my reward? Getting dumped back into the track select screen I was in before.

And that is one of my biggest problems with the game - there's no single player mode. Yes, you can play the tracks one at a time, but it doesn't feel like there's any progression or reward for doing well. There's no grand prix, or mission mode, or anything like that. Couple that with the erratic handling and I was fed up with playing the game within 20 minutes.

Sorry Star Wars: Racer Revenge, but you were a disappointment - I'd rather play Outrun any day.

Rating - 4/10
Time played - About 20 Minutes
Will I play it again? - I don't think I'm likely to. 

Bit.Trip Runner

Released on: Nintendo Wii

Played on: Nintendo Wii

Release date: 2010

When I first played Bit.Trip Runner (back when I originally got it), I remember expecting it to be a platformer, and was therefore disappointed with it for approximately fifteen minutes of play, before the game suddenly clicked into place. 

It may look like a platformer. You may need to jump onto platforms and avoid spikes, but it is, in fact a rhythm action game. And the reason I didn't notice? Because it is so well disguised. It'd be like tasting an apple that looked like an apple, smelt like an apple, felt like an apple, but tasted like a 3-course gourmet dinner roasted by Gordon Ramsey whilst he was dressed in a Garfield outfit.

It's not what you expect.

Although, that's not necessarily a bad thing... because it is a very good game.

Basically (in case you didn't know), Bit.Trip Runner sees you controlling Commander Video (a wonderfully blocky 8-bit style man) who continuously runs, and you must make him jump, slide and kick his way through the level, all soundtracked by some wonderful chiptune music.

And the music is the key, because every action you perform with Commander Video makes a sound, and if you do the action at the correct time, it enhances the music, allowing it to build up to an aural soundscape of wonderment. It's almost as if the visual part of the game is irrelevant. You feel like you could play it with your eyes shit. (I don't recommend it though, I died very quickly when I tried that!) 

On the whole it is a very fun game - it can be frustrating when you get things wrong and get sent back to the start of the level when you miss one jump, but because the level re-starts straightaway, not giving you the option to quit, which is a very canny piece of game design. 

My only real complaint about Bit.Trip Runner (apart from the occasional moment of unresponsive controls, which I am assuming is the fault of my wii-mote as it is starting to fall apart from overuse) is that it does all start to feel a little samey after a while, and therefore it's a game more suited to short bursts of play rather than hours upon hours of continuous play. 

It's still bloody good fun...

Rating: 8/10

Time played: 1 hour

Would I play it again?: Definitely.

The Great Playthrough: Game 35 - Cool Spot

Yes, I know this isn't a photo of me with the cartridge.
 I did take one, but now I can't find it... oh well!

Cool Spot
Released on: Mega Drive, SNES, Master System, Game Gear, Amiga, Game Boy, DOS
Played on: SNES
Release date: 1993

Cool Spot is a game that belongs in the category that Wikipedia proudly terms Advergames - Games that are made as an advertisement for a certain business or brand. Can you guess for what brand Cool Spot is an advert for?

Let me put it this way. The main character is a "cool" Red dot with arms and legs who wears sunglasses. And he surfs into the title screen on a green drinks bottle.... Any ideas at all?

This picture is a hint.

That's right. 7-up. (Although, in a bizarre move, all of the blatant 7-up logos etc were removed from the UK version of the game - apparently (according to Wikipedia - so I am aware this information may be about as reliable as a bus timetable) this was because 7-Up had a different mascot in Europe - Fido Dido.

"Now listen here Brawny," I hear you all say, "This seems very interesting, but why have you spent all of this blog discussing the circumstances behind the game, rather than the game itself?"

Good question. The answer? Because the game itself is very, very pedestrian.

It's not an awful game. It's graphics are quite nice, the soundtrack only mildly irritating and the gameplay is 2D platforming, which you all know by now I have a soft spot for.

But it's just so - meh.

Maybe I've been spoilt nowadays. The fact that there has been a resurgence of 2D platformers in the last few years, combined with the fact that I've never re-played Cool Spot since I was about 15 means that where I thought it would at least be entertaining fun, it just rapidly became dullness personified.

And the other thing - no character who has the word "Cool" in his name will ever be cool. Just saying.

Sorry Cool Spot - you are a 2D platformer that I shall be leaving well alone.

Rating: 3/10

Time Played: 15 Minutes

Would I play it again? No. Sorry.

Now I know what you are all thinking. "My Word, Brawny wrote a blog that I could read in just five minutes! I'm happy/sad/relieved (delete as applicable)

Well panic not! I have played the next two games in the playthrough today - so they shall be following on very soon...

The Great Playthrough: Game 34 - The World is not Enough

Wow - I look like Mr Drunken McSquinty-Eyes in this picture!

The World is Not Enough
Released on: Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Colour
Played on: Sony Playstation 2
Release date: 2000

OK. Let's address the elephant in the room. Not only is this a licensed game, which means that it, by rights, ought to be a pile of droppings that the elephant in the room has left in the middle of the rug, but it is also a Bond game that comes after Goldeneye - one of the most successful licensed games of all time - so comparisons are going to be made, which will probably be unflattering, right?

Well yes. Of course they are. But my first statement in regards to The World is Not Enough is - "It's not that bad." (And I feel that is a review that they should have put on the cover.)

As I have mentioned before, my history with FPS's is that I believe they've now got way too complicated for old gamers like me - but luckily, The World is Not Enough is very simple. It's like Goldeneye but without the analog stick.

*NOTE - I had no analog stick as I was playing the Playstation version of the game. The N64 version may have been better, but I don't own that!*

The game is obviously based on the Bond film of the same name - do you remember that one? Bond drove a boat really quickly down the Thames, then fought with Begbie from Trainspotting and eventually ended up cavorting with a nuclear physicist played by Denise Richards in a submarine.

So - as far removed from reality as most Bond films then!

When developing this game, EA obviously looked at the success of Goldeneye, and decided that they didn't want to change anything in order to make the game as successful. So it's a very familiar-feeling game. However, there are a few changes to the established Goldeneye format.

The first (which I assume is primarily on the Playstation version due to the lack of an analog stick) - there's a little bit of auto aiming that helps you out. If you are close enough to an enemy and you point Bond in roughly the right direction, a little red cross appears over the enemy and when you fire, you will hit him straightaway. Now this may be sacrilegious, but I quite like this as an addition to the game, because it means that you can run down corridors shooting people without having to stop and aim side to side because your bullets are just whizzing past his left ear.

The other change from Goldeneye (apart from the pointless, badly rendered cutscenes from the film playing between levels) is the level design. It's not as good. In fact, it's nowhere near as good. The layout of the levels just seems dull - certainly there's nothing as awe-inspiring as the opening level from Goldeneye.

But it is fun - it's always fun being James Bond, and this is no exception. But it's nothing outstanding. And while I played it for the full hour, I don't see myself picking it up again anytime soon, as even if you put aside the pedestrian levels, there are a few minor faults as well - some bad collision detection, strange puzzles and levels that seem linear until one moment, at which point you have to backtrack all over the place once again.

So, it's an average game, which would do better if it wasn't compared with Goldeneye. But it always will be...

(I apologise for the short length of this review, but I didn't really have much more to say...)

Rating: 5/10
Time played: 1 Hour
Will I go back to it?: I don't see it happening to be honest...

Next time - Yet more 2D platforming - but this time with the most unsubtle use of product placement ever. It's Cool Spot on the SNES!

The Great Playthrough: Game 33 - Gran Tourismo 2!

Gran Tourismo 2
Released on: Sony Playstation
Played on: Sony Playstation 2 (Because otherwise I'd have had to dig out and plug in the Playstation, and since our PS2 has complete backward compatibility, it would have been silly to do that...)
Release date: 2000

Going back to GT2 was a big unknown for me. I remembered very little about it, although I do know that some of my friends at the time insisted it was the greatest game ever, which I was unsure would be the case, but I fired it up, expecting some fun driving times.

And then?

Well there was driving, but not a lot of fun...

Let me backtrack a little. On the front cover of the game it states "The Real Driving Simulator". Well, it's not real is it. It's a computer game, that you are controlling with a D-Pad. Yes, it looks very impressive for the time it is from, but it just didn't grasp me as fun.

My biggest fundamental issue with the game was the controls. If I wanted to attempt to drive around a racetrack in something that steers with all the precision of a shopping trolley then I'd buy myself a Sinclair C5 and head off to Silverstone! The problem is that the steering is erratic and, because this is a game from the pre-Analog controller era, there's no gradual steering, meaning that it's very hard to tell how much or little you need...

Well, it is for me anyway. And then there's the other thing. The first race I played, I lost. Therefore the game only gave me the options to retry the race, or quit out of the whole thing and start again. OK, I thought, maybe it doesn't let you proceed without ranking. The second race, I also lost - and fairly obviously the same thing happened again. The third race, I came second! (God knows how!) And guess what? Same options again... now come on GT2. I know I'm playing the Arcade version rather than the massively in-depth and hugely complicated GT Version, but let me proceed track by track won't you?

And then there's my pettiest complaint of all. When you finish the race, before it lets you choose whether to replay or not? It automatically shows you a full replay of the race. Er, why? I played the race, I lost the race, I don't need an instant reminder of it!

So to sum it all up, I didn't really enjoy Gran Tourismo 2. It's one of those games that started the trend of bringing "realism" to computer games - Realistic driving games, realistic sports games, realistic war games.. where does it end? The whole reason I play video games is to AVOID realism, why on earth would I want to play something that has a passing similarity to the dull rules that affect our everyday life? I guess some people must do, and for those people I proudly announce my new game:

"Call Centre Simulator 2012", for all major platforms, in which you get to answer complaints from angry customers for 8 hours at a time. And you can't stop it. Once you load the game you have to play for eight hours, to provide that realistic environment. Play every day and then, in several years, you might get a promotion! - Only £40!

But in all seriousness, Gran Tourismo 2 was not the best game played in this playthrough so far. Maybe I'm just still bitter that I can't play Outrun 2. Now there was a driving game..

Rating: 3/10
Time played: 15 Minutes
Would I play it again?: Nope.

The Great Playthrough: Game 31 - Super Mario Bros and Game 32 - Super Mario Bros 2!

Statistics are a funny thing.

(I appreciate that this is a strange sentence to open a gaming blog with, and it seems that it doesn't have any relevance to the topic at hand, but bear with me and see where it goes.)

When I arranged my 140+ games into their random order when I started this playthrough, the last thing I expected was a game to be followed on the list by it's direct sequel. But guess what? It happened - and that means that this blog is a double dose of Mario Madness!

Super Mario Bros
Released on: NES. Then SNES. Then EVERY OTHER MAJOR NINTENDO CONSOLE EVER!
Played on: SNES
Release date: 1985

So, let's look at the first of these two classics. Super Mario Bros - the original. But is it the best?

Before I even try to answer that question, a bit of history. Super Mario Bros is one of the most famous games ever. It has been released, re-released, ported, pirated, ripped off and homaged more often than any other Nintendo game ever.

(NOTE - This information is based on the information within that great research depository that is my brain. It may or may not be true, but I can't be bothered to do the research to justify the statement, so just agree with me, yeah?)

I own two different versions of this game - one on my 3DS, which is a direct port of the original NES classic
(which I obtained through the oft-mentioned 3DS Ambassador program), and the Super Mario All-Stars version on the SNES, which has updated graphics and sound. (I say updated, they were updated in the early 90's, so it's not an ultra-realistic mo-capped Mario, simply some pretty 16-bit sprites). After a long internal debate, I decided that the version I would play was the SNES version, as the game was designed for a TV rather than the small screen on the handheld.

And for the first ten minutes I had a blast. I played through the way I usually play the game - zoomed through to the warp zone in 1-2, warped to zone 4, then hit the warp zone in 4-2 to world 5, before dying in world 5-3.

So far, so standard. Then, I decided to play without use of warp zones (but still using the save game function that comes with the Super Mario All-Stars version), and spent the rest of my hour happily playing through.

Of course the game has flaws. A lot of levels are very similar to each other, the Hammer Brothers are still rather difficult to kill if they happen to spawn on the same level as you, and the underwater levels are still as irritating as they have ever been. But of course, it's a classic game, and unlike some of the others I've played in this playthrough, it deserves it's classic status.

Is it the best of all the Mario games? No. It's not even the best 2D one. But it is the original, and it does deserve some credit for starting off Nintendo's mascot on a high. It can get boring (mostly due to the repetitive nature of certain levels), and I tended to find that it works in short 10-15 minute chunks much better than a long play in one go, but still, it's fun.

Rating: 8/10
Would I play it again?: Of course.
Time played: 1 Hour.

So from Super Mario Bros, onto the surprisingly titled... Super Mario Bros 2.

Super Mario Bros 2.
Released on: NES, SNES and then many, many others.
Played on: SNES
Release date: 1988

A quick piece of history. The game that we in the west know as Super Mario Bros 2 was not originally a Mario game. The game released in Japan as Super Mario Bros 2 was an extension of the original, and deemed too difficult for Western gamers, so Nintendo of America then took a game called Doki Doki Panic, (which itself was a Japanese game featuring Japanese TV characters that was never likely to be localised to the west) and replaced the characters with Mario characters and tweaked it to suit. This was then so popular that it was eventually released in Japan as Super Mario USA, and eventually (on the Super Mario All-Stars cartridge), the west finally got Japan's version of Super Mario Bros 2, except it was renamed Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.

*Breathes.*

Everybody caught up? Good.

The reason I felt the urge to explain the complex backstory of the game is because it is very different to the original, and indeed, it's very different to the Mario series as a whole. Because of that association, it's the game on the All-Stars cartridge I have played least, and consequentially I was both looking forward to it and slightly dreading it in equal measure.

The good news? It's a very playable game. While some changes take a bit of getting used to (you can choose a character at the start, and each has different abilities, jumping on enemies doesn't kill them, you have a set of hearts for health rather than growing/shrinking), I found myself quickly getting into the game and enjoying the bizarreness of it all.

And yes, I warn you now, it is bizarre. It's set in Mario's dream (which must mean that he sometimes dreams of being his brother, his girlfriend and ... well.. Toad), and this seems to have given them carte blanche to be weird with the whole atmosphere. You can climb inside vases, you pull up radishes and throw them at enemies to kill them, and if that wasn't enough, this game is the debut of not only Bob-ombs and Shy Guys (who are a little bit weird), it also introduces the greatest transvestite pink dinosaur who spits his own eggs.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it's Birdo!

Birdo appears as a sub-boss a lot, and you throw his own eggs at him to defeat him. Which is fine, but still...

All in all, this game has a lot going for it. Unlike my primary criticism of the original, Super Mario Bros 2 has long levels, with restart points all over the place (thankfully). It also has puzzley moments (mostly just figuring out where to move blocks to and how to blow up walls (Hint - find bombs...) ) and so it gives a very different experience to the pure platforming of the original.

Maybe it was my relative unfamiliarity with the game, but I enjoyed this just as much as the original, but for different reasons. I don't think it's going to be my number 1 2D Mario game in this playthrough, but it's certainly not the worst either.

Rating: 8/10
Would I play it again?: Definitely.
Time played: 1 hour.

Next time - A complete change of genre, generation and console. It's Gran Tourismo 2 on the Playstation...

The Great Playthrough: Game 30 - Midway Arcade Treasures

I have a sneaky confession to make. This game wasn't supposed to be my next game on the playlist. A couple of weeks ago I bought a new console - an original Xbox. It cost a pound. Bargain. And over the next few days I picked up 3 games for it. Once I put the games on the list, however, it meant that two of the Xbox games became the next ones on the list. Sadly, the first one was Outrun 2 - and it turns out the disc is so scratched it won't play. Which makes me very sad, as I was desperately looking forward to playing it. So then I plugged in Midway Arcade Treasures...

Midway Arcade Treasures
Released on: Xbox, PS2, Nintendo Gamecube and P.C.
Played on: Xbox
Release date: 2003

Midway Arcade Treasures is a compilation of 24 retro arcade games from the 80s and early 90s. And you know what? It's great fun. I mean, I don't pretend that all of these games are solid gold - and they're all arcade games, designed for short blasts rather than long-term play. So I played all of them in my hours worth of playtime. And here's a game-by-game breakdown of the results.


720°  - An isometric skateboard game which is fun, if slightly awkward to control. Fun, fast and funky - very 80s, but good fun nonetheless. - 7/10

Blaster - Now this is trippy. It's as if someone built an obstacle course of neon Lego blocks and then propelled you at three-hundred and fifty-three thousand miles per hour towards them, knowing that you're going to crash and burn. But it's such fun anyway. - 7/10

Bubbles - You control a water droplet around a sink picking up gum and fighting off spiders. Yes, this game is as awesome as it sounds. Very little longevity but fun 3 minute chunks. - 6/10

Defender / Defender II aka StarGate - It's hard to say bad things about a game that is considered to be an absolute classic, and I will state now, that this version is a lot better than the one I reviewed back in Game 1. It is entertaining, but it's still just nothing special to me - and the sequel is just more of exactly the same - except this time, it has portals. - 5/10

Gauntlet - I feel I didn't give Gauntlet a good chance, as I enjoyed the 3 minutes of it I played. OK, so it may throw more bad guys at you than the patented zombie-fling 3000 ("Flinging zombies at your enemies for more than thirty years), but it was an enjoyable top-down hack and slasher, and it may well see me try it out again at some point soon. - 7/10

Joust / Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest - Just like Defender and it's sequel, Joust is a famous game, and one that I've already encountered on the tiny screen of the Game Boy in playthrough Game 1. Sadly, like Defender, it's a game who's reputation sadly outshines it. It's hard to control, it's a bit bizarre and slightly dull. Sorry Joust. - 4/10

Klax - A puzzle game! And an addictive one at that. It's a classic "match-3" style game, which becomes ridiculously fun and involving. I had a copy of this on the PC when I was young, and I'd completely forgotten about it until today. And it's so awesome! I'm definitely going back to this when I have more time. - 9/10

Marble Madness - It's quite simply fun. Controlling a marble around a course. Yes, the isometric 3D and touchy controls mean that you quite often fall off the edge when you don't mean to, but it's still a lot of fun - I came back to this one more than once in my playthrough! - 7.5/10

Paperboy - I love this game. Always have, always will. It kind of reminds me of doing my own paper round as a teenager (although I didn't just fling papers at people's front doors. Well, not always anyway - obviously it depended on my mood at the time.) Again, like Marble Madness, the controls are slightly flaky, but it's still an entertaining play - 8/10

Rampage - A game that doesn't quite live up to it's concept. You can play as a giant King Kong-style ape! You can smash up buildings! You can pummel soldiers who are shooting at you! Except, the controls are really rather wonky and the collision detection is rather off, so in fact you spend most of the time walking/jumping/punching at random and hoping. Shame really... - 5/10

Rampart - As dull as watching beige paint dry. Seriously dull. Granted, I have very little patience with strategy games at the best of times, and this just held no interest for me whatsoever. - 1/10

RoadBlasters - Now this is deceptively fun. As I stated earlier, I had been disappointed that I wasn't able to play Outrun 2 on this playthrough, and while RoadBlasters is no Outrun, it's still a very entertaining arcade-style racer where you have to keep picking up fuel to keep going. Plus, your car has guns, which is always fun. - 7/10

Robotron: 2084 - A classic that truly lives up to it's reputation. I hadn't played Robotron for many, many years, but on firing it up, I re-discovered everything I loved about it. Granted, it's very basic, visually, and that can cause a little confusion, but it's still one of the most energetic yet claustrophobic shoot-em-ups ever. And it's great. - 8/10

Root Beer Tapper - This is a bizarre game - where you have to keep refilling everyone's glasses and make sure at no point does one hit the floor. It's a good idea, but sadly I was very bad at it, and it didn't grip me enough to have another go. - 5/10

Satan's Hollow - Unmemmorable, un-exciting. No more to say - 1/10

Sinistar - Another shoot-em-up, but again, this one is quite fun. Bouncing around in a spaceship shooting at a whole bunch of enemies. Unlike Defender, you can at least see what's going on and identify bullets as they are fired, so that rates it a little higher for me. - 6/10

Smash TV - One of the best games of the bunch for me. A quasi-sequel to Robotron, it takes all of the good bits of that game and applies some lovely looking graphics to it. Don't get me wrong, there's not a lot in the way of variety, but who needs variety when you have guns that fire grenades, and multi-bullets and you can just mow down people in a hail of gore... wow. I sound disturbed, don't I. Never mind, it's all fun! Although, as Neety pointed out, "If this is a gameshow in the future, who are all the people who volunteer to run in and instantly get shot down by bullets?" - 9/10

SPLAT! - This is the most bizarre game in the bunch. And considering others of them have included filling peoples pint glasses, guiding a droplet around a sink and the neon insanity of Blaster, that says a lot. Basically on this game, you have to catch pies and throw them at your enemies. If an enemy hits you, your head falls off, and you have to chase around to catch it. Yes, I'm not making this up, it's totally true... - 3/10

Spy Hunter - A vertical scrolling driving game where you shoot other cars. It turns out that you're trying to shoot a spy off the road, but I just killed a lot of civillians and then blew up. - 3/10

Super Sprint - A top-down fun driving game, that I am awful at. Really bad. Which is a shame, because I enjoyed playing it - I just couldn't win anything. - 6/10

Toobin' - Now this was a real disappointment. Toobin' was one of the reasons I bought Midway Arcade Treasures 1 (I had a choice between 1, 2 or 3), and I did so because I used to have a version of it on the PC, which I remember loving. Having played it again, with it's awkward controls, I am left to wonder whether the version I had used an entirely different control mechanism, or if my younger self was just deluded. It's supposed to be a fun time racing down a river on a rubber tube, but sadly, it's just bloody frustrating. - 2/10

Vindicators - Sadly, my experience with this game was as follows. Drive a tank around, and then die. - 1/10

So, I know that this has been a huge blog, and I thank you for sticking with it (unless you skipped over all of the middle and have just jumped to this final paragraph, in which case, shame on you! Go back and read it properly!). Overall, Midway Arcade Treasures was a real blast, and whilst I do have three or four obvious favourites (Klax, Paperboy, Smash TV, Robotron), I also got to enjoy games I had never played before (Blaster, 720°, RoadBlasters) and try out a whole bunch of games, the type of which you rarely see nowadays, due to the lack of arcades. I miss arcades. Anyone want to lend me the money to establish one in Bournemouth?

Rating - 8/10
Time Played - 1 Hour 10 Minutes (I had to, to get one go on each game!)
Will I play it again? - Some of it, definitely.

Next time on Brawny's Great Playthrough, it's back to some 2D platforming! Stay tuned...