Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A Bit of IMPOSSIBLE: Solomon's Key

HOW MANY BITS MERCER? 0/8 bits.

This is pretty much the worst game ever. The only reason I'm covering it is for nostalgia's sake; the nostalgia of hurling, and breaking 1,453,568,345,460 controllers in frustration of this game.

Some of the things that you have to overcome: The main character's SUCKY amount of life, constantly changing puzzles, countdown timers, ENDLESS spawning of enemies, and limited weaponry. Basically, this is a complete equation for how to make a game impossible.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

A Little Bit of Depression: Oregon Trail


HOW MANY BITS MERCER? 1/8



How many of you remember the days in middle school when you would wait for computer lab or library time to play The Oregon Trail? I do, that's for sure. This game (along with Reader Rabbit, etc) was the only thing to break up the banality that was catholic school. It seemed so simple then: eat, hunt, die. Only NOW do I realize that it was a sham, a ploy in order for me to learn about history whilst thinking I was playing a game.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

A Little Bit of Funk: Toejam & Earl

HOW MANY BITS, MERCER?: 6.5/8


This game has had multiple reincarnations over the path of my gaming-career, but none of them were as good, or ever will be as good as the original. I think the thing that struck me the most about this game was how the aliens were consciously created to act like humans/teens from the time that the game was made (the early nineties).