Zillion (Master System)

Today on Super Adventures I've got good news! Mecha-neko's come back after a seven month absence to write another guest post, so I get to take the week off.

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Hey stranger-folk. I'm mecha-neko and today I'm playing a Master System game I found called Zillion. Or perhaps it's Z⚡LL⚡ON!

Developer:

Sega

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Release Date:

1987

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Systems:

Sega Master System

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Hmm, what to make of this? From the look of the pulsating ray-gun on the title screen, it's probably a light-gun game. But don't be fooled: the cat from Interpose (my very first Obscure-As-All-Hell Animated Cat Game August post!) twiddles ray-guns all over the place on his title screen, and that one turned out to be a side scrolling shooter. Yeah, that sounds right. "Zillion." It's like it fell right off the bottom of the periodic table or something. Gotta be a shooter.

In fact, the 27th of May is the thirtieth anniversary of Zillion! It was released in Japan on 27th May 1987. Happy birthday, Zillion! This post's going up a couple days late, 'cause cats work to their own calendar. (And I'm not making a new banner!)
But even so, why would I ever post another side-scrolling shoot-'em-up? You're just going to have to read on and find out!
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Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (NES)

Developer:

Capcom

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Release Date:

1991 (90 in Japan and NA)

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Systems:

NES

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Super Nintendo by playing a NES game!

Nah, not really. The SNES didn't come out where I live until 1992 so I've got nothing to celebrate yet. A NES game showing up on Super Adventures is kind of an event in itself though, because for whatever reason I haven't played one since way back in April. Of last year.

In the West this came out a few months after Super Mario Bros. 3 and a few months before the Super Nintendo, so I expect the developers likely knew what they were doing by this point (especially as it's made by Capcom!) But it's one of those games that's managed to slip by me entirely, so I've no idea what it's like or even what people think of it.

In fact I'm fairly sure I've never seen an episode of the Chip 'n Dale cartoon either, though if you showed me a picture of the characters I'd recognise it instantly. I'll even be able tell you which of them's Chip and which is Dale in a minute as the game starts off by asking me who I want to play as.

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South Park: The Stick of Truth (PC)

Developer:

Obsidian

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Release Date:

2014

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Systems:

Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

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This week on Super Adventures I'm playing another game based on a cartoon series! It'd be fair to say that South Park: The Stick of Truth is a little better regarded than Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse though, as it's got over twice the score on metacritic.

In fact Stick of Truth gave Obsidian their highest metacritic score since Knights of the Old Republic II back in 2004, beating games like Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol. Which goes to show how broken metacritic is/how rubbish reviewers are, as Alpha Protocol's totally a better game than KotOR 2! It has an ending and everything.

I still can't believe that Obsidian of all developers were working on a 'South Park' RPG, though in retrospect I suppose I should be more surprised that they finished it, seeing as they have the worst luck with their licensed games. The original publisher for Stick of Truth went bankrupt a year before release, Aliens: Crucible and their 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' prequel were both cancelled during development, and in a parallel universe they would've made a 'Wheel of Time' and a 'Star Trek' game as well. We're never going to get a proper single player 'Star Trek' RPG at this rate.

Though we did get a 'South Park' RPG and it's right in front of me, so I guess I should play it already.

(Click the screenshots to examine at their original resolution. It's not a great resolution, but it's bigger.)
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Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse (PC)

Developer:

Heavy Iron

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Release Date:

2012

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Systems:

Xbox 360, PS3, Windows

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This week on Super Adventures I'm playing Family Guy™: Back to the Multiverse! Because suffering builds character.

Actually I'm genuinely curious about the game. I remember that reviewers thought it was terrible, but I don’t remember why. Do the jokes just not land or is the gameplay itself rubbish? I’ve a feeling the answer’s going to be ‘both’ but I’ll keep an open mind.

By the way did you know that 'Family Guy’ has been on air for 14 years at this point? It would’ve actually been 15 but the series took 2004 off due to being cancelled. The PC version of the game has taken a year off too, as it suddenly vanished from Steam back in December 2014. It's not alone though, as publisher Activision have pulled a bunch of licensed games over the years, including Deadpool and 007 Legends (it's like they don't even care about my plans to play every Bond game ever). But Deadpool eventually came back, so there’s still hope for Back to the Multiverse!

(Click the screenshots to view them in their original resolution.)
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Inspector Gadget (SNES)

Developer:

AIM

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Release Date:

1993

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Systems:

Super Nintendo

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This week on Super Adventures I'm finally taking a look at this Inspector Gadget game like I was asked to.

It's obviously based on that famous 80s cartoon about the inspector who has gadgets. You know, the one where his dog and niece do all the work while he stumbles through danger like a cyborg version of Inspector Clouseau... I think. To be honest I haven't seen the series since I was in its target age demographic so I'm way fuzzy on the details, but I can at least remember that the girl's called Penny and his dog's Brian. Or is that 'Family Guy' I'm thinking of?

'Inspector Gadget' was actually the very first animated series to be presented in stereo and... oh hang on I'm looking at the cartoon's Wikipedia page here, just give me a second.

Okay here's some video game trivia for you: this is the third Inspector Gadget game released, it only came out on the SNES, and it doesn't start with the proper cartoon theme tune! Plus it was apparently developed by a company called AIM and published by Hudson Soft. AIM aren't very well known (to me anyway, I'm sure Iron Man's fought them a few times), but they've already had a couple of their games onto my site: SWAT Kats, which was based on another cartoon, and Fausseté Amour, which probably wasn't.
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Gargoyles (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Disney Interactive

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Release Date:

1995

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Systems:

Genesis

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Today on Super Adventures, I'm taking a look at Genesis/Mega Drive platformer Gargoyles, because everyone keeps asking me to. Apparently it's got some fans. Actually thinking about it, this is really just a Genesis game, as it was only released in the US and never made it to the Mega Drive regions.

It's based on the Disney cartoon of the same name that started in 1994, which ran for three seasons but somehow passed me by every time. I only caught the one episode and I don't remember it, so my knowledge of it is kind of limited. I do remember that it stars Keith David and half the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation... but that's entirely irrelevant as it's a 16-bit cartridge platformer so I'm likely to get 4 words of dialogue out of this at best.

Well I'm only assuming it's a platformer to be honest, I haven't actually checked, but it's an early-mid 90s cartoon tie-in so what else is it going to be? Look on my Game Series page, click 'Disney' and see how many of them aren't platformers. And that ain't because I've been deliberately avoiding all the 'Animaniacs' first person shooters.
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