Frogger 3D: He’s Back! 

The 90s reboot of Frogger kicks ass. I swear to god. This game is great. As great as Frogger can be, anyway. It’s like someone took the original and injected it with shark hormones and nitroglycerin.

Hyperbole aside, the Frogger remake (occasionally subtitled Frogger 3D or Frogger: He’s Back!) is easily the best in the series. It expands upon the original in clever, interesting ways without betraying its roots or stretching the formula to absurd lengths. Read more »

Aldo’s Adventure 

As a rule of thumb, the rough edges on any game appear more glaring with age. The crappier the game, the more liable it is to look chintzy and dated.  If this idea ever had an ultimate expression, it would be Aldo’s Adventure, a Donkey Kong clone from 1987 by programmer Dave Ibach and his son Ben. Sadly, it shows. You can practically see glue leaking out the cracks.

Aldo’s Adventure doesn’t stray too far from its conceptual roots. You play as Aldo, a red-shirt-and-overalls-wearing adventurer who has to climb around a construction site and dodge barrels as he makes his way to a treasure chest at the end. Lest anyone mistake him for Mario, Aldo has a mullet. That is his single defining characteristic. Read more »

Gravity Balls 

Oftentimes, the simplest games are the most fun. When a formula doesn’t have much nuance or complexity, it can engage the player without being prohibitively hard to learn.

Enter Gravity Balls. There’s nothing brilliant about the design; in fact, the idea is simple enough that anyone could code it. But it’s so goddamn infuriating, and I can’t stop playing it. Read more »

Zephyr 

If there’s one concept that games have perfected, it’s the futuristic blood sport. Sure, movies like The Running Man came first, but Smash TV, MadWorld, and their ilk turned those fantasy game shows interactive and pretty much left no room for improvement. Just don’t tell that to Zephyr.

Designed by the team behind the Might and Magic series, Zephyr nails the hubbub of a gleefully televised cavalcade of murder. Nearly every second features a fictional sponsor, a cheesy commentator, and 90s electronic rock music. The ultraviolent vision is top-to-bottom perfect – including the bits where the rookies needlessly, endlessly die. Read more »

Ladder Man 

ex·cru·ci·at·ing /ikˈskro͞oSHēˌātiNG
1. Intensely painful.
2. Mentally agonizing; very embarrassing, awkward, or tedious

Example:
Ladder Man has an original idea, but it’s so painfully slow to play that it is excruciating. Read more »

RoboMaze II 

I’ll skip the introductions. No, RoboMaze I never saw public release outside a bundle collection. Yes, this could be a blessing, given the sequel’s quality.

In RoboMaze II, players control a robot under the command of freedom fighters from the Resistance taking down a repressive dictator by battling through his massive tower, complete with an oversized lobby and penthouse. These battles play out in straight-forward run-and-gun fashion with a little platforming mixed in. The setup is ripe for level design potential. Each room uses only a single screen, with 20 areas grouped together to form a level. This lends itself to rapid-fire progression and light puzzle elements. Should you use a key in this room? Or wait for the next floor to see what you can unlock?

Too bad the game is unplayably busted. Read more »