Toronto Thumbs

BYTE-SIZE REVIEW
Zillion II: The Tri Formation

When I was younger, a game that let me jump and shoot while riding a bike that transformed into a flying exo-suit could be nothing but completely awesome to me.

In fact, I’m pretty sure I’d be inclined to like any such game even today. Zillion II: The Tri Formation was based on the anime Zillion, which I have never actually seen nor was I aware of as a kid. Turns out the Sega Master System’s Light Phaser was designed to look like the guns used in the anime, which is pretty damn cool.

As JJ, the commander of the White Knights, players are tasked with navigating through eight levels to both rescue comrades Apple and Champ while defeating the goons of the evil Norsa Empire. Stages alternated between auto-scrolling cycle/exo-suit stages and on-foot levels. The Tri Formation is the name of the three-wheeled (and tri-mode) cycle. The on-foot levels each had a boss at the end of them. The boss at the end of the eighth stage, Baron Ricks, was (and still is) a dick. I just played the game today, made it to the end, and he killed me quickly.

Posted in Byte-Size Reviews, Retro Reviews, Sega Master System | 2 Comments »

Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!
Tail Concerto

Good morning, fellow Thumbs! Do you know what day it is? It’s Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!

We here at Toronto Thumbs know that there are so many ways you’d prefer to spend today rather than going to (or being at) work. Perhaps running a power drill through your frontal lobe comes to mind? But before you start puzzling over which bit size might best penetrate your skull, why not allow us to distract you with the fun remembrance of games past…

During the storied reign of the PSOne, Atlus truly established itself as both a developer and publisher of uniquely epic RPGs, offering gamers vastly new experiences during an unparalleled RPG renaissance. But one title that slipped passed many was CyberConnect 2’s 3D platformer, Tail Concerto. While Sony was pushing for more mature titles to expand sales, Tail Concerto harkened back to a simpler time. Do you remember when dogs and cats lived in a world of floating islands called Prairie? When robotic suits assisted police dogs in chasing down mischievous kittens, capturing them with bubbles? Doesn’t sound familiar? Well Pepperidge Farms remembers!

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Posted in Retro Reviews, Reviews, Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday! | 3 Comments »

BYTE-SIZE REVIEW
The Amazing Spider-Man

Spider-Man gets a call from Mysterio. They’re both using gigantic cellular phones. This is normal, because villains always call heroes over the phone. And their phones are gigantic because the year is 1990.

The Amazing Spider-Man for the Game Boy was one of my first Game Boy games, alongside the awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan. Spider-Man was likely the only other licensed game available in the store the day I got it.

Premise-wise it’s the tale of the girl getting kidnapped and the hero having to rescue her. Each level started off with a phone call from that level’s end boss where Spider-Man would get increasingly irritated that Mary Jane was gone. The game consisted of side-scrolling stages and vertical, wall-crawling stages with side-scrolling elements tossed in afterward.

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Posted in Byte-Size Reviews, Game Boy, Retro Reviews | 4 Comments »

BYTE-SIZE REVIEW
Thunder Blade

Thunder Blade was one of the bigger “Arcade” titles on the Sega Master System. Essentially a top-down shooter with some pseudo-flight sim levels peppered in, it provided hours of entertainment to my nine-year-old self. Like with Shinobi, my cousin Mike and I would try to best each other at the game remotely. We’d call one another upon reaching milestones.

“I got to level five – the one with the caves,” was something he got to say before me. The game had its problems, even back then. For one the controls were completely different for the two types of stages. In top-down levels the helicopter moved too slowly. In behind-the-copter stages it moved too fast. There was also a dead zone in these stages where you could stay, not fire a shot, and still pass the stage.

This isn’t a game I’ve ever been able to finish, and even trying to today with my wealth of gaming expertise, I find myself unable to do it. Thunder Blade has ultimately defeated me!

Posted in Byte-Size Reviews, Retro Reviews, Sega Master System | No Comments »

BYTE-SIZE REVIEW
Rampage

I somehow came into possession of three copies of Rampage for Sega Master System thanks to lot purchases. However, I’ve had Rampage since its release in 1988. At the time all Sega Master System games came in white boxes. Rampage, to my knowledge, is the only one that had a red box design. I’ve also seen it with the traditional white-with-grey grid box design, too. Oddly enough the box I received the game in was a cardboard one.

My dad and I would make a trek to Toys R Us when it came time to get a new game. Oftentimes I’d go with nothing in mind, only knowing that when we were done, I’d have a new game. The evening we came home with Rampage was different than others.

The way Toys R Us was set up back then, the game aisle actually had no games in it. There were only game box arts in plastic sleeves stuck to the displays. Flipping a box art over would reveal other details about the game, mostly just the back of the box art. Below each box art was a purchase ticket. To buy a game, you’d have to take a ticket up to a cash register, pay for the game, and then take the receipt to a game kiosk where an attendant would check it and slide your newly-purchased game through a tiny slot in the glass.

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Posted in Byte-Size Reviews, Retro Reviews, Sega Master System | 9 Comments »

BYTE-SIZE REVIEW
Vigilante

Since my last Byte-Size Review was for Shinobi, I figured I’d follow it up with the game that I most often associate with it: Vigilante. It’s another part of my Sega Master System game collection, and it’s one of the last Master System games I received when the system was still in its prime. It, like Shinobi before it, was a gift. If my memory is as good as I hope it is, it was the only game gift I had received for the 1989 holiday season.

What made me want Vigilante was not its bright, sharp graphics. It was the fact that the cover looked so cool. The game only has five stages and five bosses (two of which are exactly the same). But what I really liked about it was that it offered a lot of enemies and that each stage had nunchucku somewhere in it, which turned the character’s quick punch into a slow flick of the ‘chuck.

The premise of the game was that rogues had invaded my turf and kidnapped my girl. Naturally, I’d have to walk slowly after them wearing a white t-shirt and overalls. Some of the punks had chains while most were just fond of running up to me and trying to choke me to death. Pleasant! The bikers in the third stage presented most of the game’s challenge at the time. Sadly, it doesn’t hold up today despite it stirring older emotions of childhood.

Posted in Byte-Size Reviews, Retro Reviews, Sega Master System | 2 Comments »