Day 133: All-Star Weekend 2008 with Reggie Jackson Baseball

Reggie Jackson was a big time baseball star in the 1970's. In the 1980's, his production declined and he became that guy who used to play for the Yankees and alway wore big glasses. By 1988, when Sega released Reggie Jackson Baseball for the Master System, he had retired from the game.


Reggie Jackson Baseball improves slightly on the first baseball game for the Master System, Great Baseball which, for the record, should have been called Awful Baseball. The gameplay remains basically the same, though the 20 home run per game common in Great Baseball has been reduced to a more realistic 10 or so here.

The option of auto fielding included here is nice, but the computer controlled fielders seem to do an even worse job than I would. Outfielders appear to be scattered about at random and have to run in from off screen to field a ball no matter where it's hit.


The stadium's groundskeeper should be fired. The grass is brown. No one should play baseball on brown grass. And no one should look up at the stadium JumboTron and see this:


Is that one of the New Kids on the Block? Are they having a concert after the game or something? Shit. I'd better leave now. This game's a blowout anyway.

Day 111: Golvellius - Valley of Doom

To Whom It May Concern:

The League of Concerned Parents regrets to inform you that your game "Golvellius: Valley of Doom" does not meet our standards for video games and cannot be sold or marketed in the United States until the following changes are made.

The word "Doom" must be removed from the title. That word implies feelings or defeat and hopelessness, which plays right into the hands of the terrorists. We suggest replacing it with the word "Freedom." Also, some there was some confusion as to the meaning of the word "Golvellius." Some members of the board believed it to be nothing more than the name of a fictional location, while other feared it might have some satanic meaning. We suggest replacing it with "America" to avoid confusion and help instill a feeling of patriotism in our youngsters.


We also noticed early in the game testing that the protagonist always faced to the right, even when moving to the left. This is very reminiscent of the "moonwalk" made famous by known child molester and anti-American Michael Jackson. This "glitch" must be corrected before we allow any American children access to your game.

Several members of the board took exception to the protagonist's appearance. They felt his long green hair projected an anti-establishment attitude that would be unhealthy to expose to young children. Instead of a "cyberpunk," we feel you should use a hero with a more traditional, wholesome look.


We sincerely hope you are able to make these changes in time for the upcoming holiday season.

Best Wishes,
The League of Concerned Parents

Day 93: The First Annual Game Project 365 Penguin Parade Proudly Presents Penguin Land

Day 25: Alex Kidd - The Lost Stars

Playing an Alex Kidd game, any Alex Kidd game, for the first time is like playing Super Mario Bros. 2 for the first time. It's not quite what you expected. Lost Stars is closer to the original formula than successors Alex Kidd BMX Trial and Alex Kidd in High-Tech World (the latter, like SMB2, a game from a different franchise rebranded for the American market due to Sega's mistaken belief that Alex was a commodity), but much simpler.


Alex Kidd - The Lost Stars is, in a word, easy. Alex zips through a series of worlds (including the obligatory underwater stage) looking for lost Zodiac signs. Each level is timed and getting to the end is mostly a matter of memorizing the locations of the platforms and enemies and running through without stopping.


I will give Lost Stars credit where it's due in one regard though. The game is gorgeous. Graphically, it blows away all of the 8-bit Mario games. Too bad that in no way makes up for the lack of challenging and diverse gameplay.

Day 24: Transbot

You know what Transbot reminds me of? No, not those episodes of the Maury Povich show where audience members try to guess which of the guests are women and which guests are dudes. It reminds me of pretty much every video game I played between 1986 and 1990. See if you can pick it out of the four screenshots below.



















It's the game on the bottom left. Just another side-scrolling space shoot-em-up from a time plagued with side-scrolling space shoot-em-ups.

The plot is pretty standard. Sometime in the future some aliens have invaded earth (or some earth colony or wherever) and it's up to the intrepid pilot of the Transbot to single-handedly repel the invasion.


Power-ups from passing supply trucks arm Transbot with different weapons and transform in into either plane or robot mode, whichever is appropriate. I recommend power-up "C" which fires a shot half the height of the screen.

The aliens invaders never really progress beyond the "space bacteria" stage. Shooting colorful blobs over varying terrain without an end in sight gets old fast. There aren't really levels or bosses in Transbot, just one big loop. That's not even old school. That's just dull.

Transbot is a nice enough looking game. The graphics are clean and colorful. The endless nature makes it a great choice for a 1983-style marathon session, if it can hold your interest that long.

Day 10: Fantasy Zone - The Maze

The Pac-Man craze was long dead by 1988. That's one reason no one bought Fantasy Zone - The Maze. Released only for the Sega Master System (the other reason no one bought The Maze), it's a departure from the brightly-colored, side-scrolling shooter formula of the first two Fantasy Zone games. The Maze is a brightly-colored maze game. But there's a twist! No, there isn't.


Fantasy Zone - The Maze plays like a colorblind version of Pac-Man/Mouse Trap/Ladybug/Lock 'n' Chase/Solar Fox (let me know if I'm leaving any out) with one exception: you have to buy power-ups using the points you've accumulated. These include a couple of different kinds of guns and bombs and temporary invincibility. The last one is pricey, but can help you zip through a screen in under 30 seconds.


Fantasy Zone wasn't exactly original, but its cutesiness made it stand apart from Gradius, R-Type and other shooters. But cute is a standard ingredient for maze games, making FZTM just another face in an already large and unruly crowd.