That darn dog (Barker Bill's Trick Shooting)

Game: Barker Bill's Trick Shooting
Released: 1990
Status: n/a
Rating: 6/10

Well, here it is, the long awaited sequel to duck hunt. Well, kind of a sequel anyhow, that dog from duck hunt is still here to laugh at you. This game has a carnival theme though, so PETA can chill out, we're only shooting at balloons and hammers and cans and such. It has 4 different mini games to play, but it gets old really fast. How long can you shoot plates that are thrown into the air? There's is nothing wrong with it really, just limited amount of games for me equals a limited amount of fun.

Tales of the Unknown (The Bards Tale)

Game: The Bards Tale
Released: 1991
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 8/10

Say what you will, but I'm a sucker for a lot of these old RPG's. Sure, a game like this doesn't hold up to well after you've played a game like Oblivion, but it still has it's charms and it surely paved the way for the RPG's we have today. This is a port of the PC game and some things have changed to make it more streamlined for a more limited input device. They did manage to port over the fun though. The quests are pretty basic as are all of the systems at work in the game. It is simplistic in many ways, but it was a good stepping stone for the games of the future.

Life in plastic, it's fantastic (Barbie)

Game: Barbie
Released: 1991
Status: Beat it.
Rating: 2/10

Why, oh why would I beat this game? I don't know the answer to that. It was 30 minutes of my life I will never get back. But now I know that if you work real hard, you can obtain shoes and a dress and a tiara so that Ken will love you. Oh Barbie, bane of my existence, why would you put me through this. At it's core it is a loathsome platformer that will drain you of the will to live, thank goodness that story was really great! Your main line of defense is a ball that you throw at stuff that causes it to move or shoot weird things or sink ice cream? I don't know, but you do get to change outfits every level... kill me now!

The art of war (Bandit Kings of Ancient China)

Game: Bandit Kings of Ancient China
Released: 1990
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 6/10

This is a game for hardcore strategy game buffs only. It involves so much work to get anything accomplished in this game. Now, I won't totally hold that against it, but it is very tedious to get things done. If you are patient however, there is a deep strategy game here. But you have to wade through endless menus to hire on an army and build resources and fight wars. I loke strategy games, but this one is a bit too much for me to handle.

Eat your greens (Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach)

Game: Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach
Released: 1989
Status: 13 over par
Rating: 5/10

Well, I took a whack at it and it was alright once I got into the swing of things. The first hole did kinda kill my score, it looked like me trying to play golf in real life. It's a pretty typical golf game of this era which is okay, but, it just doesn't age well. You can play the course a few times to master it, but then there's not much replay value. It is fun enough to kill a couple of hours on though.

You call that an attempt? False. (Banana Prince)

Game: Banana Prince
Released: 1992
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 6/10

Well, this is truly one of the strangest translations I've ever played. It is very much like a strange dream or acid trip. The bulk of the game is made up of side scrolling platforming levels which are fairly typical. You collect rings and can get items out of treasure chests, like a strange guy that floats above your head. You have a sword with which you can strike down your foes and the ability to make plants sprout out of the ground so you can climb them and get to higher areas. All of this works pretty well and is not too strange. Between levels you can shop for weapons, gamble at the casino, or go to the bonus game. All of this is pretty typical, but the fun starts when you go to the bonus game. It's a trivia show where they ask you about all kinds of strange things, like shopping. Here is where the translation is really fun because everything that is said is very strange. So it's a pretty decent game, just a little weird.

Joust, er... (Balloon Fight)

Game: Balloon Fight
Released: 1986
Status: n/a
Rating: 7/10

This game takes a lot from the previously established Joust, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It has a very cartoony style which suits the game. It adds it's own little twists to the formula like having two balloons to burst, so you get more of a second chance that way. There is also another game mode where you try to navigate through electrical charges without getting shocked. Either way, the goal of the game is a high score, since there are only 12 original level designs in the normal mode and then you start back at 1. All in all, a fun release game for a classic system.

Key word: bad (Bad Street Brawler)

Game: Bad Street Brawler
Released: 1989
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 4/10

This is a good example of a bad game in the beat em up genre. The controls feel very clumsy making it very hard to play. I do love the main characters sense of fashion though. I too go out on the town in my yellow tank-top and matching yellow short shorts. I get attacked by people too. Perhaps if I were wearing something different... I digress. On top of the controls, the user interface has too much wasted space. So much pink. If you want something bad-ass instead of just bad, stick with Bad Dudes.

Good news for people that love (Bad News Baseball)

Game: Bad News Baseball
Released: 1990
Status: Beat it!
Rating: 8/10

I may have said it before, but I will reiterate, I am not a big fan of sports games. That being said, baseball is one of my least favorite type of games. Which means I am in trouble, because there are a lot of baseball games in the B's. All that aside, this game is good. Yes, I am trying to be objective about this, but if all the baseball games are this good, then I may change my tune on the whole affair. It is a simple game, doesn't deviate from the norm really, but the fun and silly animations do a lot to make it fun. You can play against the computer or a friend. It just does one game at a time, no season mode, but it does it well enough that it doesn't necessarily need it.

Whatcha gonna do? (Bad Dudes)

Game: Bad Dudes
Released: 1990
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 8/10

In an era of side scrolling beat em ups, this is one of the good ones. There are better ones, but this one is pretty darn good. The plot alone makes it awesome: The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. Ninjas! Always a useful plot point in video games. So what is the country to do? Send two muscle bound dudes after the ninjas. Makes sense to me. It's always nice when you get to play good brawlers with your friends too thanks to 2 player mode. Sometimes the ninjas move too fast and get in some pretty cheap hits, but hey... it is a Nintendo game.

A new direction (Back to the Future Parts II and III)

Game: Back to the Future Part II and III
Released: 1990
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 5/10

Well, they did try to do something different with this one. They completely changed the gameplay for this game as compared to the first. It is more like a strange Mario game. You can jump on enemies to kill them and must jump across pits and collect fuel and pizza. It had a good idea too, open world exploration and you have to collect objects and get them back to their right time. But it fell apart because it is far to hard to navigate the world. The background looks the same everywhere you go, so you are constantly lost. This drains all of the fun out of this game that could have been pretty good.

Send me back to 1985 (Back to the Future)

Game: Back to the Future
Released: 1989
Status: Did not beat it.
Rating: 5/10

The overhead walking part isn't terrible, it's the diner part that ruins it for me. I can't get past it because it's stupid. I love the Back to the Future movies though, so maybe 2 and 3 will have some improvements. Because I really want to like this game. I like having to do things fast or your photo disappears. So in order to prevent this you have to collect clocks. It's an interesting gameplay mechanic. Well, on to the next one!