A game A year: 1986

 

The Cold War should have involved Sean Bean more often...

 So, another month, another installment of A Game a Year or...A.G.A.Y....if you MUST shorten it.

1986: While yo guys where listening to Burning Heart, I was probably badly trying to walk. So, yeah, I didn't to much gaming. I did however, maybe play a game from this year much later. Well, I remember it somewhat. It was called Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

A miner with a horn is a miracle indeed.

For those of you too young to remember, Alex Kidd, was Sega's earlier attempt at rivaling Mario for that platformer Mascot crown.  An apelike  boy with huge ears, he would go on to be replaced with  Sonic as Sega's mascot. But not before having a franchise that spanned multiple games. 

He's since been in Shenmue  as a toy, in a racing game, and in Celebrity Rehab.

My cousin Beto, who was recently killed, had a Master System, and had this and Ghostbusters(which never worked, no matter how much we begged him to try it.). I don't really recall being let play, but I do remember a boy,  Rock Paper and Scissors and colorful graphics.So, is Alex Kidd any good?

Well it's very HARD, that's what it is.  The controls are slightly slippery, so our Rice cake, Yen obsessed boy can fall right into a one hit kill. Yes, it's a one hit kill game. The game restarts you very close to your point of death, which you's think would be good, except if you respawn near a deadly frog.

The game is also heavilly dependent on money. Alex collects bags of Yen in order to buy items, some which turn stages entirely different.  A staged design for a fast motorcycle is no fun if you walk it. So you use your gigantic fist to open crates and rocks. But some crates hold a hooded figure that will hound Alex and kill him. So here lies a problem: the game makes you choose between grinding early to by items, or slogging later through a boring open field,

The graphics are very colorful. The Master System had nothing on  the N.E.S. in the graphics department. Hey, I bet they could make a great Bart vs the Space Mutants on that.

I didn't get very far. Hmm. Maybe Beto was on to something by not letting me play. Go with God, Man. Jump behind counters for safety away from gunfire in heaven...

Bonus round!

My choice of game for 1985 left a lot to be desired, so it's good I stumbled upon another obscure game from that year. You ever wonder why people make such a fuzz about Street Fighter 2? It's because before it, fighting game's used to be like this:

Konami's Galactic Warriors! Choose your robot!

Marvel vs Capcom 2's selection screen.

You're choices are strong robot, girl robot and pyramid transformer. The controls are simple: you have a laser, a telescopic punch, a regular punch and a block button. However, block is like seconds, man and then you have to push it again.. Is this "realistic"? I'm not qualified to say, as I'm not a martial arts robot. I will say, though once you learn to spam the telepunch, you're almost  a winner.

Music was nice, though. But , yeah, this game isn't getting it's characters made in M.U.G.E.N. for a reason.