Reviews by aschultz, page 5

Reader NES

Defenders of Dynatron City review

As bad as Defenders of Dynatron City was, it was just a totally unfair judgement call away from being middling to good. Somehow, though, a game that tries so hard at being weird just wouldn't WANT to be average, if games had feelings. The…

aschultz · May 15, 2009

Reader NES

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight review

As a kid I liked Bard's Tale 2(BT2) and dreamed of getting an NES. But I never imagined someone would put the two together. So imagine my surprise twenty years after playing the game that, indeed, someone else had had the same idea I did!…

aschultz · April 26, 2009

Reader NES

Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise review

Lots of games give you characters that kick butt, but only Secret Scout forces yours to. If you groaned at this pun, it is not as painful as trying to solve this game. The game almost could be good. It has a sizable map, items you have to…

aschultz · April 24, 2009

Reader NES

Gegege no Kitarou 2: Youkai Gundan no Chousen review

Gegege no Kitaro 2(GGG) starts as a simple quest to rescue your girlfriend, but you know how it is in RPGs. The scope gets bigger, and to get her back you have to banish a dragon-fellow named Kyubi Kitsune to save the world or, in this…

aschultz · April 17, 2009

Reader PC

Progress Quest review

Have you ever played an RPG for two hours and not managed to get anything done due to trying one more fight before your next save, or just losing your way in a maze, winding up worse off than you started? Perhaps you've spent frustrating…

aschultz · April 15, 2009

Reader Apple II

Beyond Zork review

Being an RPG and Zork fan, I was thrilled to learn of Infocom’s plans to combine the two in Beyond Zork (BZ.) You get levels and player stats instead of the usual points for a text adventure, but even crazier, there’s no elvish sword or…

aschultz · April 15, 2009

Reader Apple II

Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz review

The Zork series spawned an impressive group of knock-off products which, although never destined to make a killing, made Infocom notorious. The packaging itself was always worth savings, with its jokes and going so far beyond the expected…

aschultz · April 15, 2009

Reader Apple II

Zork III: The Dungeon Master review

Sadly, Zork lost its humor and spontaneity somewhere between II and III. The final game, in which you must seek to take over the Dungeon Master's mantle, was a disappointment for me even discounting that the packaging wasn't as cheery as…

aschultz · April 15, 2009

Reader Apple II

Zork: The Great Underground Empire review

One of the first computer game series ever starts in front of a white house. You need to discover twenty treasures and find the passage to the sequel, Zork II. There's not a ton of plot, but you'll have to deal with two odd mazes, a…

aschultz · April 15, 2009

Reader Apple II

Jawbreaker review

When I was a kid, I liked playing with a calculator. I had enormous fun finding out that 1/9 was .111 repeating. Then I got brave and found that 1/7 was, in fact, .142857 repeating. Which I made sure of it several times. One crazy day I…

aschultz · April 15, 2009

Reader Apple II

Galaxian review

It's hard to imagine an arcade game I hate more than Galaxian. In fact, after completing a couple of levels on an arcade machine(free, no less,) I walked away out of exasperation. The Apple version, however, is patently different. It's…

aschultz · April 8, 2009

Reader PC

Champions of Krynn review

The AD&D Gold Box games never evolved terribly much, but on the other hand, they never did anything too wrong, either. And though the Krynn series moved to a different continent, you really have more of the same. You have a new race and…

aschultz · April 7, 2009

Reader Apple II

Gamma Goblins review

So many early Apple games copied arcade games that weren't much good, and I am sorry to that Gamma Goblins is not a successfully entertaining port of Astro Blaster. It almost makes it, though. The idea is straightforward and sensible, with…

aschultz · April 7, 2009

Reader Apple II

Taxman review

Pac-Man, in a sense, has lasted beyond just its name. You have the occasional conversion to 3-d bearing the name proper, but you also have a lot of games where the object is to find everything. The fun of avoiding four palette-swapped…

aschultz · April 6, 2009

Reader Apple II HG exclusive

Miner review

Anyone who's had a favorite author and really wanted to learn more about him probably read that author's juvenalia. Which was not very good, but you could make excuses about how it shaped what was to come if you wanted, or you can say…

aschultz · April 3, 2009

Reader PC

Secret of the Silver Blades review

My AD&D computer experience stopped a game too soon, as I laid out several weeks' allowance on the first two, Pool of Radiance(PoR) and Curse of the Azure Bonds(CoA). Most of the fun from them was probably because my mother had warned me…

aschultz · April 3, 2009

Reader NES

Wally Bear and the No Gang review

Few games invite self-parody from first impressions as readily as Wally Bear and the NO Gang. You may have bad or frustrating games, such as Hydlide or Action 52, didactic efforts with a legitimate streak of imagination such as Bible…

aschultz · June 15, 2004

Reader NES

Bubble Bath Babes review

Bubble Bath Babes(BBB) is well-known in hard-core NES gamer circles for featuring frontal nudity. It's a puzzle game featuring bubble tetrads that rise up into a formation, and if you get a clump of four or more connected bubbles of the…

aschultz · June 11, 2004

Reader Dreamcast

Mr. Driller review

I never liked to play with plain blocks as a kid, and I wasn't terribly destructive either, but knock me over if I don't find joy in the ways game developers allow the populace to bash endless computerized blocks together and make them…

aschultz · June 2, 2004

Reader Apple II

Ceiling Zero review

As I became slowly disenchanted with Space Invaders, I looked to the Apple for new variants. I just wanted to shoot things up, which was good, because many early Apple games offered nothing more. Ceiling Zero(CZ) had lots of shooting and…

aschultz · June 1, 2004