Draw your gun (Anticipation)

Game: Anticipation
Released: 1988
Status: Beat it.
Rating: 8/10

I can't help it, I love this game. It's not for everybody I'd say. You have to know how to spell things correctly or you won't be able to guess the answers right. It's just so much fun though. You can play with multiple players or by yourself against the computer and either way it's fun. The music is fun and every time I hear any of the songs in this game it makes me tap my toe. The object is to figure out what the computer is drawing before anyone else does, so it is like game shows and the like, and I love that stuff. I'm anticipating fun!

So, many, muscles (American Gladiators)

Game: American Gladiators
Released: 1991
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 4/10

Alright, I get to compete in all my favorite events from the TV show and it's gonna be bad-ass! Oh wait a minute, whats happening? Ooops, I mean, its gonna be bad. There we go. You do get to compete in 5 different events: joust, human cannonball, the wall, powerball and assault. I thought that power ball and assault were decent mini-games to play, but the rest were just cheap and stupid. Far to hard to pass even level 1. Well, the show could get away with being cheesy and bad, because that's what made it awesome, but a game needs to be fun and this game isn't.

Totsuzen! Machoman (Amagon)

Game: Amagon
Released: 1989
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 6/10

I can't hate any game where you get to turn into an invincible giant sized version of yourself that shoots crazy pulse waves at enemies. I didn't know marines learned how to do that in their training, but...awesome! I mean, sure, it's all fun and games running around with your machine gun shooting bats and birds and other wildlife in the face, but when the lion man comes, you gotta turn into Megagon and just knock the crap out of him with your bulging muscles. Right?

I died in the vacuum of space (Alpha Mission)

Game: Alpha Mission
Released: 1987
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 6/10

I may be getting weak in my old age, but man this game is hard. It was kind of strange about it too. It lulled me in and then when it had me...BAM! Some boss that's completely impossible. I mean, come on. This is the first level. Space shooters of this variety are notorious for being difficult, but this is just too much. The graphics seem alright for 1987. It controls well and is fair, just ridiculously hard.

Shot-caller (All-Pro Basketball)

Game: All-Pro Basketball
Released: 1989
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 5/10

The nuts and bolts of this game are a pretty regular basketball game for it's time, with some useless additions, faulty parts, and a couple of nice touches. The basic controls are simple, pass and shoot when on offense, and block on defense. It's not always easy to tell who you are going to pass to and shooting is often frustrating. That's not a good start. It can also be jarring since every time you cross half court everything flips to show you the other end of the court. Though when you slam dunk the ball you do get a nice little cut scene close up of your guy putting it away. If only I could figure out how to score any other way.

Saving all prisoners (Alien Syndrome)

Game: Alien Syndrome
Released: 1988
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 6/10

It's not too strange that while playing through games alphabetically, two games back to back are about aliens. It is a little strange that the objective of both games is to save all the prisoners before time runs out. Though I have to say this is a vastly superior game to Alien 3, yet it still has it's flaws. The game is played from a top down perspective and seems like a predecessor to games like Smash TV. You can pick up different types of weapons which have varying degrees of usefulness. After saving all of the prisoners in a level, you are pitted against a boss alien. It's fun, but sometimes you can't move fast enough to get away from all of the chaos, giving the feeling of cheap deaths sometimes. With a little more time and energy, this could have been a very cool game, as it stands it is merely mediocre.

Aliens Vs. Prisoners (Aliens 3)

Game: Alien 3
Released: 1993
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 3/10

Ugh. It's getting harder to play boring stupid games. I'm still in the A's and I've encountered many bad games already. Just think how many more lurk in the other letters of the alphabet. One of my childhood friends absolutely loved the Alien movies and anything at all having to do with Aliens. I'm pretty sure he would like this game. I could understand getting into it. You have to save prisoners before aliens hatch out of them. So there is a time limit and limited ammo and lots of aliens. So it's setup pretty well, but the execution seems clunky. A 3 might be kind of harsh, but I just couldn't get into it enough even to beat the first level.

Why did the chicken peck the balloon? (Alfred Chicken)

Game: Alfred Chicken
Released: 1994
Status: Beat It
Rating: 7/10

Alfred Chicken to the rescue! There is some space alien who wants to take over the earth and only one chicken can save us. Alfred. I know, lets set some balloons free. That will surely foil their plan. Ha ha ha, I am so smart. Alfred Chicken is fun with all it's puzzle like platforming levels. I beat it, but apparently got the bad ending. If you get all the watering cans you get the good ending. It's nice to have incentive to replay games, and it's a fun enough game that I might think about doing that sometime.

Princess Jasmine, you're very punctual (Aladdin)

Game: Aladdin
Released: 1994
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 5/10

Apparently, every release of Aladdin was different. Each system got it's own twist on the game. While they are all similar, some are better than others and this is the worst one. Graphically obviously the SNES and Genesis are going to have an edge, but they were also a lot more fun. The control was a bit weak in this game. It was fairly responsive, but the animation tended to get you hit a lot of times you probably could have avoided. So it's fun, just not as good as it's counterparts.

3 2 1 GO! (Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing)

Game: Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing
Released: 1990
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 7/10

Some random dude's racing game. Woo-hoo. Perhaps you know of Al Unser Jr. I personally had no idea who he was and had to google him. He's some race car driver. Go figure. The game itself has a similar look to many racing games of the time. It has 16 different courses to race on. You can do time trials to practice courses either with or without other racers. Then in the Grand Prix mode you first do a qualifying lap to determine your spot in the starting line up, then race against everyone for points. It's a fun game.

More stupid flying (Airwolf)

Game: Airwolf
Released: 1989
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 2/10

This game just sucks. I already said I'm not a big fan of these old first person flight games and this one is worse than most. You are trying to figure out where you are going while gunning down planes. From what I can tell, you can't turn fast enough to shoot incoming missiles. You are trying to save prisoners so all of a sudden the screen switches to side view so fast you normally just crash. Awesome! Some people might have the patience to figure this out, and there might be something worth finding here, and with other genres I can usually stick it out a bit longer, but this game was no fun for me.

Space adventures (Air Fortress)

Game: Air Fortress
Released: 1989
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 7/10

This game is kind of fun. It's a side scrolling shooter crossed with a strange platformer. But both parts play well. The side scrolling shooter part of the game is pretty typical. Your ship is a bit over sized, but this isn't a problem for the most part. Then once you get into the Air Fortress, you dismount your ship which you are riding on and enter. Once inside you play as a little space dude. You have energy and bombs which you collect in either part of the level, but only affect you in this part. You can jet around and your shots propel you backwards. There are enemies and eventually the core of the fortress which must be destroyed. All in all, a fun little game.

Before Burner, Burner, (After Burner)

Game: After Burner
Released: 1989
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 6/10

I never felt these games translated well from the arcade. Especially once they had the rotating cockpit models in the arcade. That being said, this game is alright. It just always feels cheap to me when I die. But you get to fly around gunning planes down, and really, what more can you ask for. It's better than other similar titles, but I've just never been in love with these games.