Jack Red reviews... Part 1

Hi everyone this is Jack Red, now I wasn't sure how to entitled this blog entry because I'm not reviewing one series but a handful of them.

The reason for this was I couldn't make their reviews as well as putting them altogether which is a tough job to do.

Most the games I am going to talk about are from my child hood that I have replayed recently to make this entry.

There a few expections that I recently found out that I wanted to add to this because to me it would be a more complete review.

Let's start with the two games that followed the horrible Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge.

LJN is a notorious bad video game company that's known for taking good licenses and making some of the worst ever made.

They are the publishers while Software Creations that wasn't in the United States actually made the games.

Spider-Man and Venom series is considered a gem among those who enjoyed beat em up games such as myself.

Most people who know of that series think about the two games with the original being a game recommend to many fans.

I actually considered Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge a part of the series because it was made by the same team with the only story being told like an comic book.

After they released Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge they decided to keep making games with Spider-Man while changing the overall gameplay.

What followed such a bad game from my past was Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage that's known as the best game LJN is responsible for.

I do agree with the majority it's one of my favorite beat em up games I ever played despite not actually beating the game.

I did watch the Longplay on both games for Sega Genesis and I got half way on em which surprised me a lot.

The first thing I want to say is unlike most Genesis cartridges this one was red which fits well with the game itself.

I did some research to find out it's based on the comic book series of the same name now after all those bad games they finally nailed one wow.

It has good music with great sound effects that fit the action of the game itself so I do treasure this game a lot.

It also got a great story which makes you feel you were reading the comic though in reality you are playing an game that's pretty good.

You get a lot of support from other heroes especially if you play as Venom who can get Spider-Man with the super sonic gun that weakens Carnage to where you can beat him.

I love the levels designs in fact those were some of the best you will ever seen in an beat em up game.

One criticism I must bring up is when you are fighting the Super Villains it gets pretty tough especially later in the game.

Carnage was done so much better than he was in Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge so that's a big improvement.

He leads his own team of Super Villains that most of them aren't going down without a fight though he is the toughest one to beat.

I do like you get to fight him multiple times in the game I think that's a good idea because he is unlike a lot of bosses in beat em up games.

At least he isn't Death Bringer in the Genesis port of Golden Axe where if he hits you sometimes he will use magic to get in another hit which isn't fair but it makes the game challenging.

You must time your times on him or you could lose a lot of lives trying to defeat him now the only boss I seen that's like was The Riddler in Batman Forever which I also had on the Genesis.

I don't really mind waiting at a point where you can now play as Venom because the story actually changes direction depending on which one you choose now that's unique.

I thought the enemies were done perfectly with some strategies working better than others on the regular bosses.

Now let's talk about Spider-Man and Venom: Separation Anxiety this was the sequel to Maximum Carnage that wasn't as good.

The music wasn't as solid as the enemies being easier to beat which could tick off a few people playing the game who want a challenge.

I do like it has a password system which the original on the Genesis didn't have so that's an improvement.

They change switching back and forward with the main characters to a storyline for each which is nice to have but it makes you wish they could let you change it up a bit.

I want to go back to the enemies I did noticed you fight a lot of the same bosses which is true with the original but it's more often then it should be.

The levels play out more how I wanted them now that's an improvement because I wasn't much for climbing up the building like in the first two games.

This one is also based on the comic book however the title of the game isn't based on that series surprising right.

It's actually based on Venom: Lethal Protector though the stories have similar between the two.

I didn't like you got the entire game not knowing Carnage will be the final boss though a lot of you guys thought he had to be in the game.

He wasn't as good as he was in the last one that's pretty clear because he attacks you like those skeletons in Golden Axe series that cheat often.

He's better than how he was in Spider-Man and X-Men: Arcade's Revenge which was a fucking joke.

In conclusion it wasn't as great as the last one but still a pretty fun game to play though many often criticize it not being a solid sequel.

Now let's go to the next series on my list Golden Axe now I played the first two in my child hood then I found out not too long ago there was another game I didn't know about.

Golden Axe is a damn good port of the original Arcade game which I did play that version now that stands as one of Sega's greatest games ever.

They were some sacrifices but they decided to make the game longer than it's supposed to be which I got to say was a great idea.

You can pick out of three characters though most people love the dwarf the most and to be honest he was my favorite despite having the lowest magic in the game.

You can beat up thieves to get magic potions or food which you will be doing a lot even through out the levels of the game.

The bosses are well through out it's a good beat em up game for those who want a challenge on the Genesis especially the final boss.

If you have played the original Arcade game it was supposed to end when you defeated Death Adder but that's where the port tops the classic.

Originally you were supposed to fight him with two slightly stronger than him skeletons with strong magic though that was change to make him a easier boss.

That magic I am talking about is similar to your magic except he can do it what ever he wants.

So did they remove that difficult boss fight from the game well guess what in this port Death Adder was an henchmen of someone worst.

You play two more levels to fight Death Bringer who is actually tougher than Death Adder in the original Arcade classic.

He has those skeletons that were with Death Adder in the Arcade version plus they made a bit smarter so be careful.

There is a new ending from the one it originally had though I prefer the Genesis version more since it didn't break the fourth wall unlike the other one.

Duel Mode is pretty fun to play now what you do after you have selected a character is you keep fighting enemies including bosses until you lose or you beat it which will take some practice to do.

There's also a easier version of the game that's three levels long with Death Adder Jr who is way too easy but of course they had to include now try the main game.

I like they added that mode because it helps some people get better that the game who aren't as good at it as others.

I love the music it's so good in fact it's better than Altered Beast another Sega classic that was created by the same man Makoto Uchida.

Let's talk about Golden Axe II it does follow the original and was released before the Arcade sequel Golden Axe: The Return of Death Adder which looks like a great game.

That game never got ported even to this day so if you can find an Arcade machine somewhere you might be lucky to find it.

Anyway you play as the same three characters from the original though I do think they look better here but that's my opinion.

Duel Mode is back but I think it's slightly easier to play than the previous one though the line up is better thought out.

The bosses are pretty good in this one however Dark Guild can be a pain in the ass to beat because he keeps making skeletons plus he does try to stay out of your way more than Death Bringer.

He barely uses their strong magic which is a good thing because if he did use it more often you might not be able to beat the game.

The overall difficulty is notably lower than the last one which did get criticism as well as a lot of them actually thought it was a reharsh of the original.

I don't agree with that one because it has a different story with some good changes with the music being the best.

Now it's time to talk about the black sheep of the Golden Axe family unless you had Sega Channel at the time you wouldn't know of the game until just recently.

Let me explain what Sega Channel was at the time there was a service on the Genesis where you can download exclusive games.

Golden Axe 3 was a good game but the question here is can it compared to the first two games I think yes it can.

You do see the Dwarf from the first two games however he's a saga in this one meaning he got killed off.

That proves Golden Axe: The Return of Death Adder is a part of the series without question sadly I haven't played that.

You play as four new characters which none of them are from the Arcade sequel now I found this fact interesting by mistake they named two of the characters of those from the last two games.

They decided to make the controls more interesting which is a good idea however some bosses are really tough to beat.

I still don't get how you unlock the real final boss with Damud Hellbringer though you still fight with him at the end of the game.

The hidden final boss is another fight with him wielding the Golden Axe now from what I seen in videos it looks similar to fighting Death Bringer on the original.

You can go multiple paths which came directly from Golden Axe: The Return of Death Adder however it could make the path easier or harder to get through.

I was disappointed when they replaced Duel Mode which was popular enough to inspired a bad fighting game with fighting all the playable characters including yourself.

Let me tell you it's tough to beat and it doesn't matter who you play as or you pick to fight each time you win.

I once again love the music when it comes to beat em up games it ranks up there for me as I did grew up playing the Genesis a lot.

Next up I am going to talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the console now I did own one of them while renting the other.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist is basically a modified port of Turtles in Time that's pretty good.

In comparison with the SNES port it may fall short but it's a tougher game to beat especially where you fight three previous bosses then you fight Dr. Baxter who was an okay boss.

It has good music maybe one of the best on the console itself I remember a lot of them growing up listening to them as I play the game.

You do get to play as all four turtles now doesn't that kick ass and considering I'm actually a fan of the turtles I fucking love it.

I always have fun playing it with a lot of times I lose while being far into the game but we all can't be natural born perfect gamers.

I was surprised that there was no Bebop but we still got Rocksteady now that didn't sit very well with their fans.

I kinda agree but I think it was to make the game easier since they wanted it to be good on the console.

Konami sure knows how to make a great licensed beat em up game with this being one of the best they ever made.

The story was changed a lot however it was more bad ass let me explain instead of time travel Manhattan with other popular areas are shrink down.

The Shredder found a way to do this so he can flushed out the turtles to settle the score once and for all.

He plans on getting money to hope he will return the places back to normal though every turtles fans knows you can't trust The Shredder.

The level designs are the best I ever seen in an game so talking about this right now for you guys means a lot to me.

After this great game they decided to make one game however this one is the first bad Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game I played.

Konami actually made a bad Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles oh yeah you better believe it now I did play it once on my Genesis not liking it very much.

Now I can see why it takes places in entirely in Dimension X rather than Manhattan, New York what the fuck man.

Dimension X looks more like a weird outer space than just an alternate world that parallels the one they live in.

You once again play as all four turtles however you get to play as Casey, April, Ray and Sisyphus now I did some research on the two new characters well here's what I found out.

Sisyphus is an original character made exclusive for the game bad call then Ray originally came from the comics.

I will agree that Sisyphus could be the worst name they ever came up though it sure isn't the worst character they ever created.

A lot of us didn't read the comic books so we didn't even know who that was until we played this horrible piece of shit.

Oh it gets worst the game was a Street Fighter 2 clone that's has cheating opponents making the game virtually impossible to beat.

Shaq Fu is pretty bad but this to me has got to be one of the worst fighting games I ever played for any console.

Are you ready for the most fucked up thing about this game there's actually three different versions with each one having a turtles with a character an original one.

I sadly got to say the case was easily the best thing about the entire game I am dead fucking serious it's that bad.

I came to realized besides majority of the characters none of the villains from the show or movies appeared in this except Krang and an Triceraton are you fucking kidding me.

By the way those two with Karai who was Shredder's adopted daughter are the bosses of this version bullshit.

Where the fuck is The Shredder everyone knows you need him to be in an game to help make it good without him it's fucked there I said it.

Another thing I didn't get at the time was those clone turtles who look awesome but why are they even in the game.

I just seen the opening for the first time and I got to say it sucks I mean they did that so good in The Hyperstone Heist.

The levels in this one compared to the last one fucking sucks I mean come on is this the best you guys could come up with.

This game was released in that time where all these fighters are trying to rip off Street Fighter now only a handful that I played are good.

Most of them sucks and majority of the fighting game fans knows that but now that's ancient history.

Konami how could you go from making a good game to one of my least favorite fighting games of all time why god damn why.

I am going to review a series that's pretty good to help calm me down let's talk about Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers games on the Genesis.

You would think at least one console had to have a bad Power Rangers but this was one of the lucky because these two games are pretty material.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was released on multiple consoles each one being more different than the last one but I think this is the best of them all.

It's a fighting game based on episodes of the first season now I got to say I do remember this game a lot.

It's the best licensed fighting game I remember playing I mean it has everything you need such as good character selection with a great story.

The music is based on that of the show which makes me quite happy to own it at the time with each level looking solid.

You can play as Tommy aka The Green Ranger after you beat him plus you can use either zord for the second round.

There is an expection on the last level you fight this monster in two forms in what ever zord you picked.

The ending was pretty good at the game in fact I still kinda remember it as it reminds me at the time I watched the show.

There is a versus mode however I did find out they made a code to play as the evil version of Tommy though I never got it right.

I would say it's a lot better than the fighting on the SNES for numerous reasons though to be fair I did play that one more recently as well it wasn't very good.

Have you ever wondered if there was a game better than the movie it's based on well here's one of them.

At the time I was a fan of Power Rangers but not anymore and I am staying with the good shit meaning I wouldn't mean playing this again.

It's a pretty good beat em up that's based on both the movie and parts of the second season which was well done.

You get to play as all the Power Rangers again plus Tommy from the start as the White Ranger now that's awesome.

Before I go on a lot of critics hated the SNES version because it wasn't based on the movie at all what are you fucking kidding me.

That's directly ripping off a lot of fans who wanted to play the game to find out it had nothing to do with the movie.

Now that's horrible in fact I kinda feel insulted that they even did that to people I am glad I kept Genesis longer.

Let's get back to the Genesis version it has great graphic like the last one with some good boss battles this time around.

You also get the Zords from the second and third season of the show holy shit that's awesome though to be fair the movie isn't canonical.

The movie does show the third season outfits as well as those awesome zords though for some reason they didn't bring those ninja outfits into the game.

You do get to fight in your zords plus two more like in the last one with the fights being better including the final boss Ivan Ooze.

Well that's fine as long as the levels are well designed with one of them having a secret boss fight with Lord Zedd.

The music is once again great though I kinda have to give it to the first Power Rangers game on the console it was pretty close.

This was one of the series to be made by a different team that turns out good the only one I know that's on the console was X-Men.

Speaking of X-Men that's what I want to review next now I grew up with the first one which is known to be difficult then eventually playing the sequel.

You get to play as Wolverine, Gambit, Cyclops and more with some of the X-Men being your support to help you out in the game when you need it.

The boss fight will take some practice but it can be done with some good level designs making this one of the best ever made.

They must have watched the show around the time making the game because nearly all the villains are here now that's fucking awesome.

The music is pretty good for it's time though I don't like Wolverine uses up energy for his claw but that's okay it's only a minor set back.

It has great graphics that reminds me of the show watching it as an kid loving every minute I did out of this game.

There exist a level you must beat by press the reset button on the console no other game in history ever did that but it prevents the game being ported.

X-Men 2: Clone Wars is easily the best X-Men game on the console for so many reasons.

Unlike most Genesis games you must beat a level before everything else loads up to play the game.

You sadly lose the support characters but the ones that came from the previous ones are better especially Gambit and Wolverine.

You can many chances to play as every character now that's better than the original one though it isn't by a whole lot.

It has great graphic that look closer to the show than any game based on the hit show with some bosses back.

It isn't as difficult but it still has challenging level featured through out the entire game which is a big improvement.

I love the music now Genesis fans this is another classic that must be added to your library of games.

I figured to make this into multiple parts so you can see what I did play in my child hood plus sequels that I didn't get to play until just recently.