In case you forgot, Old Games That Don’t Suck Thursday are morsels of flashbacks to games that have really influenced the way I look, make, and play games.  And while I am not one for upright arcade machines but this one takes the cake.  On this week’s Old Game That Doesn’t Suck, it’s Gunblade NY.

What.  The.  Hell.  Gunblade NY is one of those games that really make you wonder about “what just happened” and makes you crave more.  It’s a rail-shooting helicopter game about shooting ninjas, missiles and other brutes that are shooting at your helicopter.  You take control of a crosshair, pointed by a giant plastic gun that shakes violently each time you pull the trigger.  You shoot and shoot and shoot guys in small checkpoint areas until they explode and melt into the ground.  Here’s what the machine looks like:

The flythroughs are not controlled by you; the camera is automatically controlled to allow you to focus on shooting the bad guys.  The enemies backflip and strafe their way away from your gunfire so at times the camera must quickly flip behind the copter to allow you to finish a guy off.  Constant helicopter hover, flipping camera, and enemy dance moves definitely make it a hard battle.  On top of that, if an enemy shoots a missile or bomb at your helicopter you must shoot the explosives before they hit the screen.

You get three lives for a few quarters and you can get more lives by dumping in more quarters (always seems to work that way, huh).  So the better you play the better off you’ll be. The game is not really that long… I could probably beat the entire game in about 20 minutes for about 6-7 continues.  There’s also a hard mode which takes you on an alternate path through the streets of New York and offers up a different battle.

The thing that really reminds you you were playing the game is that the giant plastic guns have such a violent gun shake that your hands and upper body will be ringing for the rest of the day.  It’s fairly intense.

Sega is the wonderful creator of this game and luckily this upright arcade machine isn’t that hard to find.  A lot of arcades (at least in my area) seem to have some version of the game.  If you seek it out and find it, PLAY IT.  Good luck!

I’ve got so many flying games coming out this month that its only fair that we make it Space Harrier this week.  Old Games That Don’t Suck Thursday is a revisit to classic gaming and a way for me to write a lot about nostalgic games in a weekly fashion.

Space Harrier.  The epitaph of awesome arcade in full fake 3D.  It’s a 3rd-person-behind-the-back shooter where the enemies are coming at you from a distance.  Shoot them or let them go by… either way don’t get killed. You have just a handful of lives and a massive amount of enemies to shoot down.  There are several stages, each changing colour and style to indicate “you are on a different level” as most older games do.

One thing I can take away from this game is multiple sprite sets.  It was the first game I realized that my player had a flying animation when in the air and a running animation when on the ground.  The programmer could have easily just made the whole thing flying but instead took the initiative to discern ground from air.

And there was this creature that looked like Falcor.  I remember that thing too.

Wikipedia has refreshed my knowledge about this game in such a way that I can tell you that it was made in 1985 by Sega and released on a few different platforms.  I never had the luxury of playing this game in an arcade (apparently the best place to play it) but I did play it on Sega Master System.  I have heard the SMS version of the game doesn’t eat your quarters to death mostly because its a bit easier.  I am also assuming it’ll be easer to find SMS or Game Gear versions of the game if you are looking to play it yourself.  If you have the chance, check it out!

Ridiculous games are fun. Especially ones with non-official cartridges and missing Nintendo Seals of Approval. This week’s Old Games That Don’t Suck is Toobin’.

First off I have to say that this game isn’t by any means originally an NES game but that is where I played it. It was originally launched as an arcade game by Atari, but never really had the chance to play in the arcade (although I have seen a machine or two).  I first experienced Toobin’ when I rented it at a video store.  When I was handed the cartridge I was puzzled.  I had rented an NES game, but the cartridge was a jet black colour, misshaped, and looked nothing like a normal NES cartridge.  I was reassured it would work, and sure enough it did.

The game is pretty simple: You roll down a river in an inflatable tube.  Avoid things that pop out of the water and get to the whirlpool (yes, whirlpool) at the end of the level.  Once you do you win!  To get through difficult parts you can chuck cans of [pop, beer, water] at the obstacles on the left and right side.

This game is just goofy fun.  On the outside it’s an avoider game, but in the gooey centre you realize its just a whole lot of nonsense and ridiculousness.  I feel like such a lowlife floating in an inner tube down a random river chucking cans at people.  The music complements this shameless act.

It’s hard too.  I could only beat the first level when I was younger, and a later revisit let me get to the second level.  I am honestly not quite even sure what’s past the second level.

I’m not saying by any means that this is my favourite game.  But it’s a funny look at a leisurely activity, and even funnier now that someone made a game for it.