Miss Angel

Robocop is a fun shoot-em-up, that faithfully recreates the film without the steep difficulty of similar retro games. The sci-fi classic Robocop first hit theaters in 1987. Paul Verhoeven’s vision of an American dystopia took the world by storm, with its powerful drama, over-the-top violence, dark humor, impressive visuals, and of course the haunting score composed by Basil Poledouris. A personal favorite of mine growing up, this violent and bloody film was so popular not only among adults, but also among the many children whose parents were lenient enough to let us watch it (thanks, mom) that it lead to a successful toy line and multiple video games across a number of systems, including the Commodore 64, NES, Game Boy, SNES, Sega Genesis, and its last official game being Titus’ unsuccessful release on the PS2 & XBox. How many other franchises have managed to spawn games on such an array of consoles? Only the most successful ones; Star Wars, Batman, Superman, Spiderman- that puts Robocop in pretty good company. Unfortunately, like these other licenses, many of the games released were sub-par, with the exceptions being the NES game, the Game Boy game, and finally, Robocop vs Terminator on the SNES & Genesis- all sequel games (Robocop 2 & 3) were handled terribly on home consoles and handhelds alike, as was the Titus monstrosity. The game also spawned two arcade titles; the first of which was a serious coin-hog with unforgiving gameplay, while Robocop 2 managed to learn from this, even adding a co-op mode. In a sort of reversal from the home console releases, Robocop 2 was the better arcade game. Thankfully for fans of the first film, we had two great games, one on the NES and the other on Game Boy, and now, it’s finally time to cover the NES game that this whole review is about. From the start, the game’s main menu and attract screen are well-made, the music for both fit the Robocop universe so incredibly well, and the aforementioned idle cinematic goes into detail showcasing Robocop’s inner mechanics. Each level is preceded by an animation of Robocop talking or firing his trademark Auto-9 with the crime he’s investigating at the time described beneath. All of the film’s major scenes, starting with the first crime he thwarts post-mechanical rebirth (the convenience store robbery) and onward, are all faithfully recreated in the game’s levels. Prior to two specific levels you’ll be greeted with a target practice mini-game based on the shooting gallery scene from the film. While there’s no penalty for failure, succeeding at this minigame will grant you a bonus life, which are only obtainable here- typically, dying in Robocop means returning to the main menu and selecting Continue to restart the last level reached. However, the bonus life will revive Robocop on the spot once his health has been depleted. The game isn’t that difficult, so those bonus lives are just a safety net in case you don’t pick up the Cobra Gun to one-shot-kill the mini-bosses. Cobra Guns can be found off the beaten path in other rooms, or obtained by defeating rare blue enemies. The game’s forgiving difficulty is what makes it unique- in an era where most shooter games wanted you to dodge a swarm of bullets, Robocop had a massive health bar, the ability to block any type of attack with the select button, and some extra guns to pick up along the way like a machine gun and the Cobra Gun, the explosive sniper rifle from the first film, and it’s every bit as powerful as you’d want. Sadly, the music for each level is the same, but it’s the Robocop theme, so who can complain? It was my first NES game as a kid, and I will always remember it fondly, as a devoted Robocop fan who grew up playing the arcade at a pizza joint. If you’re a fan of the films, or just a gamer curious to find a fun, simple to learn game that doesn’t carry the often overwhelming difficulty of most NES titles, you can’t go wrong with Robocop. 8/10

Echo Night is a beautiful horror/drama set on a literal ghost ship. Searching for your father, you’ll need to explore this beautiful ship, helping both friendly and terrifying ghosts alike to move on from things that happened in their past. Can you free them from their torment so they can move on? Where is your missing father? What is the nature of this odd vessel? If you're fond of a mixture of mystery, horror, and drama, you'll truly appreciate this masterpiece. One of the first things you'll notice about this game is how hauntingly beautiful and melancholic its soundtrack is, from the very first song in the opening cinematic onward. This music couldn’t be any more fitting for the game, which manages to combine feelings of love, curiosity, despair, and immense fear all together in one place. The atmosphere is super creepy, and exploring the boat can be both terrifying and rewarding, its ocean views and realistic day/night cycle only serve to set the stage even further. There’s something about this ship- you’ll never forget its layout, design, the look and feel of the rooms, there’s a certain beauty to all of it, and again, it sticks with players in a way that very few, if any game environments have managed to do. The story begins with a call from the police who are searching your missing father’s estate. Curious to find clues to the reasons behind your father’s disappearance, you decide to visit and explore his estate, and after examining a few items that draw you into flashback segments, eventually in one of the rooms you’ll find a unique painting- one that draws you inside, and aboard a mysterious ship adrift in the sea. The gameplay resembles an adventure with its puzzle-solving elements, but don't let that fool you- this game is scary. in fact, I can’t remember a game that scared me quite as much as Echo Night, and none that have managed to evoke such deep feelings every single time I play it. Throughout the game, you’ll be helping these ghosts and, upon resolving their problems, collecting their astral orbs- these, if collected entirely (including the game’s optional ghosts) are necessary for some of the game’s endings. Some ghosts are hostile and frightening, and will follow you into any room where the lights aren't on- you'll find yourself wanting to make sure to hit those light switches, and restore power to rooms that lack it in order to avoid these terrifying encounters. I'm a girl who loves mystery and horror, and this game is chock full of both of these things. Echo Night is one of my favorite games of all-time, with a beautiful story, parts that still terrify me to this day, a memorable setting, and an excellent score, all of which will stay with you long after you’ve completed the game and seen all of its endings. If a game’s job is to immerse you in its world so deeply that you never want to return to the real world, then Echo Night not only succeeds but sets the bar. This game gets the rare "perfect" rating from me. 10/10

While Cadillacs & Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm isn't a great game by any means, it has its own charm. The game's premise sees you driving through the jungle whilst trying to shoot obstacles that block your path, a premise that can get monotonous in single-player. However, in the game's multiplayer, where one player drives the car as the other works on shooting rocks, logs, and the occasional poacher, it can be kind of fun... for a time. Those accustomed to Turok and itching to blow some dinosaurs away will be heavily disappointed, as your goal here is to protect these dinosaurs from the poachers; should you accidentally shoot at the dinos, you'll either be attacked (if close enough) or lose time from the game's 60-minute- you read that right, there's one hour to prevent the titular Second Cataclysm- timer. And how do you prevent it? By driving through a long, unchanging jungle, shooting at obstacles in the road until a cutscene plays and actual action happens... then back to driving. It's tedious, and not very enjoyable. The graphics look like you're driving through a grainy Sega CD FMV; as that's essentially what you're doing. The levels' look is created by looping the same FMV-rendered jungle scenery passing by. That's right, six of the game's nine levels look the exact same except for a few new obstacles here and there, otherwise it's like you're driving through the same few miles of jungle over and over again, there's very little in any single chapter to make you feel like you're ever getting anywhere, which can be confusing to players if they don't consciously realize that this is just an on-rails experience with very repetitive scenery. That said, the game's cutscenes, despite the hardware limitations, are rather well-made, and transition into gameplay well- hit a log, a dino, a crack in the road, whatever it may be, and you'll seamlessly trigger a unique death cutscene, which are fun to see... the first time, anyway. The game progresses through 9 chapters, each of which can be returned to from the menu should you lose all your lives. It feels a lot like an arcade game, it even sounds like an arcade machine might sound in real life, with its loud, noisy music (that thankfully can be turned off) and like many other on-rails arcade games that weren't as much fun in single player, the multiplayer experience can be at least semi-enjoyable. It's not a fantastic game, but its unique approach to simulating a pseudo-3D environment using grainy FMV was a novel idea for its time and the cutscenes convey an art style that fits nicely with a game based on a comic. Difficulty isn't terrible; there are two options, Easy and Hard, and the car can take a tremendous amount of damage from obstacles on Easy, but the difficulty that does exist often comes from avoiding the large insta-kill objects, the things the car cannot hit and survive. There are also some tiny dinos to try to avoid running over (like innocent civilians in an on-rails shooter) but the game's graphics are so iffy that you'll probably shoot it thinking it's a rock or run over it anyway, which is fine, unlike the aforementioned insta-kill objects, harming dinosaurs may reduce your time but it won't end your game. If the level design weren't so repetitive, it might not feel quite so much like a chore to play, but shooting rocks or sticks that can otherwise be driven around, or the occasional obstacle that blocks the path altogether, is honestly a pretty boring concept. There also also occasionally poachers to shoot, but it's infrequent, and the game never provides enough feeling of resistance except from the environment itself- it feels less like you vs the poachers, and more like you vs the jungle, which it is, in every way, but it's not the jungle's obstacles that are going to stop you in your path, it's the sheer soul-crushing monotony of driving through the repetitive levels. 4/10.

What looks like a surgeon sim is much more- if a virus outbreak film had a love child w/ "ER”, it'd be Trauma Center. Trauma Second: Center Opinion expands upon Under The Knife (the game it is a remake of) by including a new character, Dr. Nozomi Weaver. In addition, its control style was well-received, and those who had previously become frustrated and disenfranchised with trying to stab at their DS screens in its harder levels will find the controls in Second Opinion much more welcoming. The story centers on Dr. Derek Stiles, a young surgeon trying to gain the respect of his colleagues, all of whom think he’s a joke at first. At the start of the game, the surgeries will all be very standard, the kind of thing you might see at your local Trauma Center. Soon, however, the outbreak of a deadly virus known as “GUILT” (or Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin) will lead Dr. Stiles to become one of a very few doctors capable enough of handling this vicious new threat, thanks in part to his “Healing Touch”, a unique power triggered in-game by drawing a star on-screen, which in most cases can be used only once during a surgery and allows Stiles to operate at a speed much faster than his colleagues- to the player, and Stiles himself, using this power will make time seem to have literally slowed down, while of course everyone else will simply see him working at an inhumanly fast rate. This all seems to jive with Einstein’s “theory of relativity”; to a police officer time may tick at a normal rate, while to the person he has in handcuffs, it slows to a crawl, especially if that person has committed a serious crime and is facing potential life is prison. While time literally slowing down is just a way of demonstrating this to the player, the healing touch, as it is explained in-game, is more a matter of absolute concentration than some sort of wizardry, though it is thought of as a “power” that some doctors have and others don’t, so is absolute concentration. To me, someone capable of matching the pieces in Tetris perfectly once the game has reached its penultimate, fastest speed, would look like some insane superpower, but there are people out there that do just that. Everyone’s brains work differently, after all. The game has some heartfelt drama, as well, on par with something you might see on “ER”. The music is absolutely top-notch and some of Nintendo’s finest; its score perfectly fits the hospital environment somehow, and its final level music is so terrifying that I once used it as my alarm sound to inspire me to get out of bed quickly so that I might shut it off before it terrifies me further. Despite its name, “Second Opinion”, this is a remake of the first in the Trauma Center franchise, and therefore whether you’re a returning trauma surgeon or new to the field, this is a great place to start. The only downside is that, unlike its sequels New Blood and Trauma Team, most of the dialogue is not voice-acted, but this does not detract from the amazing story. The game is also 4:3, while its sequels are widescreen, but again, this shouldn't be a major issue for some, and using a non-Motion Plus wiimote, I found this entry to be much more responsive and less "jittery" than its sequel, New Blood, which is also an outstanding game. I highly recommend this game; it manages to balance fast-paced action and replayability with impressive storytelling, making it like a hybrid visual novel and futuristic surgery simulator. 10/10

Clock Tower, a sequel to the Japan-only SNES game, improves upon the original with a heartpounding score, branching paths, two possible protagonists, and 10 endings. If you’ve played the original (which has been fan-translated, and worth a look if you haven’t) then you should recognize the style of gameplay. It’s a point-and-click horror game, that capitalises on the fear of being chased- randomly, you will hear the music for Scissorman start up, and hear the sound of his shears as he approaches. He can also randomly be hiding around certain objects! Once he’s given chase, you have one of three options- find somewhere to hide, use an item nearby to attack him, or, if you’re cornered with nowhere to hide and nothing to use, you can also mash the “Panic” button, which allows you to attack him yourself, so that you may momentarily escape from him and put some distance between the two of you. This can also be used to effectiveness every so often- doing it twice in a short time will not save you. The game was released in Japan a week before the US release of the classic Wes Craven film “Scream”, and saw release in North America just shy of ten months later, just two months shy of the release of “Scream 2.” Why is this important? Well, American audiences didn’t receive exposure to the original “Clock Tower” game- violent and gory, it would have been shocking to have seen such a game on the family-friendly Super Nintendo, whose most gory North American entry was a terribly slow, watered-down port of “Doom”. So, without any hype from the first game to bolster its popularity in North America, that’s where the film “Scream” came in- much like “Scream”, this game features a strong female protagonist attempting to survive a vicious killer, as well as that general feeling of “there’s a killer loose in the town, anyone can be their next victim”, and with fans of the film Scream eagerly anticipating the release of its next sequel, a game called “Clock Tower” was suddenly hitting retail and rental store shelves. With a pair of large bloody scissors in hand, the mysterious killer strikes an ominous pose on the cover, and even a cursory glance at the back promised consumers a game that wasn’t the typical “shoot zombies, collect keys, use keys, repeat” action-horror game, but instead a horror-suspense title, where your goal is not to kill one of dozens of enemies in sight- it’s to survive one crafty killer who wants to see you and your friends dead. Because of that, North American fans were able to quickly grasp this game’s appeal, despite having only a CGI intro depicting the final events of the first game to catch them up on the previous entry. Anyone who sought a Resident Evil-ish action/horror game will be disappointed, but those who want a more suspenseful horror with mystery elements will love this little game. It improves upon the original in every way, with a more massive scale, multiple environments, branching paths, and 10 endings. If you’re looking for an awesome true-to-cinematic-form horror game with an ominous score and a good amount of replayability, then you won’t be disappointed by Clock Tower (known as Clock Tower 2 in Japan, for obvious reasons) Play it with the lights off. 9/10

Haunting is a unique game- you're a ghost seeking revenge by scaring those who caused your demise out of their homes. This is accomplished by possessing objects within the house, each of which has its own amusing animation, to frighten the house’s residents into other rooms. Some objects can be manually maneuvered, which is not only fun, but affords greater control over which direction denizens are going to flee, while other objects either work on a timer, luring the unsuspecting denizens there before terrifying them, and still other objects react as soon as you press the button to exit them. When people think of retro games, they often associate them with the phrase “retro hard”, used to describe intense difficulty, pixel-perfect movement, and a reliance on lightning-fast reflexes. Thankfully, that is mostly not the case for Haunting. While there is certainly a challenge, it’s not going to leave you frustrated, and that, coupled with the fun, unique gameplay makes this game stand out. Like most games, when left alone it has an attract screen, showcasing portraits and biographies of each of the family members living in the house, and the game’s high-score leaderboard. The game begins with a brief, skippable tutorial explaining the game mechanics. Gameplay itself consists of scaring the house’s occupants into fleeing in the direction of a nearby room- preferably, one that leads to an exit. This can be accomplished by haunting items in such a way as to dictate their path- want them to flee to the left? Possess objects on the right. If they start fleeing to a room that you don’t want them in, quickly possess a controllable object, or one that has an instant effect, to distract and corral them. The residents’ fear levels are indicated in the lower-right corner and in the pause screen. You’ll soon realize that each time a room is vacated by one of the house’s terrified residents, green ectoplasm will fall from the ceiling. How much ectoplasm is released depends on just how much fear you induced- indeed, in many cases it is good to queue up multiple objects, and frighten someone as much as possible before they flee, even if it means briefly distracting them from leaving, as the more terrified they are, the more ectoplasm to collect, which doubles as a time meter, and your ghostly health. Disembodied green heads may try and sap this health inside of unoccupied rooms. While they can be attacked, it’s not necessary, as they’re easily avoided by moving to an occupied room. Once all of your ectoplasm has depleted, or you have successfully scared the family out of their home, the game sends you to a "limbo" to collect ecto. This section of the game might seem trying at first, and every time you return to it, it becomes a little more difficult, but the goal is to avoid enemies, following the trail of dripping ectoplasm to the exit. The longer you take to grab it, the less you’ll get, so scooping it up while fresh is crucial. At the end you’ll spot a grey mark in the dirt, that returns you to the house with the collected ecto. Once they've all fled home, the level is complete, and after a forced trip to limbo, you'll be greeted with a fresh house, with all-new rooms and unique scares. The start button brings up a map/status screen, showing the remaining residents, which rooms they’re in, as well as their fear levels, represented by the expression they have in their portrait. This makes planning your next move easier. At score milestones, single-use bonuses are earned, a notable example being Zom-B-Ize, which lets you possess a resident to frighten nearby family. Once you have scared them out of multiple homes, you’re ready for the final boss, which I won’t go into for spoiler reasons. Haunting is an awesome game with nice graphics, great music, and gameplay that is so refreshingly unique that every gamer, casual or hardcore, is sure to enjoy it. 9/10

Overblood is an underrated sci-fi adventure classic emphasizing mystery, tension and pacing over nonstop slaughter. Sadly, the game’s main opponent when it came to critics was its constant comparison to Resident Evil, of which the game is nothing alike! This game is, for one, a science-fiction game, and secondly, nothing about its story, setting or style even remotely resembles Resident Evil, and third, Resident Evil itself was an Alone in the Dark clone! It’s also worth noting that Resident Evil released on March 22nd of ‘96, and Overblood on August 2nd of ‘96, so for those professional critics who think this game copied Resident Evil, that essentially means they believe that the developers threw together the entire game in less than five months? Worse yet, there’s no other argument than "this guy’s got a beard, he must be Barry, it’s a Resident Evil ripoff”, which was a very closed-minded stance for so-called “pro” critics to take. This game differs from Resident Evil not only in story, style and setting, but also in gameplay and presentation- instead of being forced to have just the fixed camera angles Resident Evil had, Overblood allows the player to switch between first-person, third-person, and cinematic camera angles, allowing for a greater range of exploration and player choice than Resident Evil right off the bat. There are also two other playable characters throughout, and you can utilize their talents to solve puzzles that actually make sense in the story (instead of, I dunno, emblems over fireplaces?) The other complaint mainstream critics had was that this game lacked action, and again, I blame this on the closeness of the release dates, which lead people to judge this game solely on the standards of Resident Evil, of how it would satisfy bloodthirsty, trigger-happy action-horror gamers hungry for another Resident Evil, and not how it compared to other adventure games- as the game’s cover states, it’s an adventure, it only advertises itself as an adventure and only wants to be an adventure, it’s the critics that want it to be something else, which influences their appreciation of it. Overblood is a different game, and that’s a good thing. What it offers is a sci-fi thriller with a sense of mystery, and while it does have action segments, they aren’t the focus of the game, and that’s okay, because that’s what makes Overblood one of the most cinematic videogames of all-time. Allow me to explain.. Resident Evil’s style of horror is to throw one scary thing after another at you, then you kill it. Overblood’s style of horror is more psychological, a foreboding, mysterious sense of the unknown. From your first moment gaining control of Raz Karcy as he wakes up in a freezing room, your life is at risk- not from some horde of monsters, but from the freezing cold, and your very first puzzle in the game is to do something about this before you freeze to death. This game’s horror comes from a cinematic sense of timing and subtlety that most videogames lack. Instead of seeing a zombie eat someone in the first five minutes, and “ooh, scary”, you awaken from a cryostasis pod, suffering from complete amnesia,, and your job in the game is to discover just what is going on. Personally, I enjoy the more realistic puzzles, sci-fi setting, and mysterious atmosphere of Overblood way more than RE, and when it comes to which game I’d rather go back and replay, it’s Overblood. Yes, it’s fun to shoot zombies, but it's been done to death. For those of you who want a game with a memorable plot that doesn’t insult your intelligence or devolve into a silly slaughterfest, Overblood is a game you’ll enjoy. If you’re wanting a gore-fest, look elsewhere. I highly recommend a playthrough for patient gamers who enjoy sci-fi. 8/10

Psychic Detective is a revolutionary FMV game with tons of replay value, something most FMV titles desperately lack. In fact, the game features literally dozens of different endings! Psychic Detective stars Kevin Breznahan (otherwise known as "that guy from Alive") as Eric Fox, a psychic whose talents allow him to glean things one of two ways- from observing objects, which triggers memories related to that object, or from being in someone's mind, which allows him to see and hear through their eyes and ears, as well as to get those memories from objects that they interact with. Eric acquired this talent from Laina Pozok, who, recognizing his psychic talents at a nightclub, teaches him the technique for travelling into others' minds. Laina is the co-star of the game, and is portrayed by Beata Pozniak (otherwise known as Oswald's widow in the film "JFK") What makes Psychic Detective stand out from other games of the genre, is that aside from featuring some very mature subject matter- no, I don't mean the softer, eighties b-movie "Night Trap" mature, I mean the violent, gory, loaded with sex kind of mature- the game is a lot of fun, has tons of video footage to be seen, and has replay value. Seeing new things by travelling in different people's heads affects the way the game plays out, which is amazing, not only for its time, but even by today's standards. This game is incredibly ambitious, you have to consider what went into filming footage from each character's standpoint and editing all that together into one seamless experience- this is incredibly impressive. While there are some good FMV games out there that are worth playing because they're fun but lack replay value- Night Trap, Double Switch, Daedalus Encounter- Psychic Detective actually has an abundance of replay value, because this is a game where your choices really do matter, and shape the way the story unfolds in a way that even future games by companies like Telltale Games and Dontnod Entertainment didn't manage to accomplish. I highly recommend Psychic Detective, there's just something about replaying something again and again and seeing new stuff from different people's perspectives, trying to unlock each one of the game's endings, and there are so many, and it's just a lot of fun, AND interactive, and those two important things are what most FMV games lack, but this game manages to capture both of these missing elements like lightning in a bottle. 8/10