Stunt Race FX Thoughts and Review

Hello again everyone. I guess you could say I'm slowly trying to make up for some lost time here as I look at another game in the span of what? One week or so? Anyway. Today I'll be looking at a racing game that I personally do not think gets nearly enough attention, Stunt Race FX for the Super Nintendo. On a personal level, Stunt Race came into my life right around the same time that Super Mario Kart did, probably within a month of each other. Honestly for me it was a big toss up as to which game I liked more. Overall I think Super Mario Kart is the better game, but I found Stunt Race to be, and still do find it to be more of a challenge.Both are great games, but today I'm going to focus on Stunt Race FX as not nearly as many people are familiar with that game. Super Mario Kart I'll look at another time for sure though. So here we go!



Stunt Race FX is a racing game produced by Nintendo released in October of 1994. It was the second game for the Super Nintendo to use the 3-D FX chip, which obviously was a big selling point. Unlike Super Mario Kart, the game features no weapons and an arcade racing feel. By that I mean when you are racing there is a timer and you will pass through checkpoints to get more time just like in arcade racing games such as Cruisin USA. There are 5 cars in which you can control in this game. I'll go over each of them as they all do function quite differently from one another. As you play this game you will have to be careful as your car can take damage from long falls, crashing into other cars, hitting walls, and other hazards that can be found on the tracks. For now though I'll look at the vehicles and get back to the tracks later.


I'll go through these vehicles in order from my favorite to least favorite. I enjoy all of the vehicles in the game honestly, but as with any other racing game I do have my favorite.

: 

F-Type is a formula 1 car that as you can see has slow acceleration, a weak frame so he takes a lot of damage, and a game high max speed of 140mph. His turning is also heavily dependent on the player. Taking turns to fast will slam you into a wall or other hazard so you'll either need to drift or play around with the brake to find the right speed to quickly get through the corners. I forgot to mention earlier that you can take damage in a couple forms. You can slowly take damage from brushing along things or landing a little awkward from a jump. When you take heavy damage your car will literally blow up and pull itself back together. When that happens you do lose a good chunk of time and well.... You can guess what kind of damage F-Type takes more often... So yeah. My favorite car goes to the hardest to drive... F-Type!



Coupe is from what people tell me, most people's least favorite car. Personally I enjoy him a lot. He is literally the middle ground of all the cars. Medium body strength, acceleration, and a top speed that sits right in the middle of everything. He handles well... medium as well... Really it's a nice and relaxing car to play... Just a pain to hold off a hard charging F-Type in later levels.



2WD is the unlockable car... bike.... thing... I mean it's a two wheeler with a windshield... I dunno... Anyway. 2WD matches F-Type in speed, has the same strength as Coupe, and the same acceleration of 4WD. He's literally a mix of all the other cars and has the handling of a car trying to stop on black ice going 140mph. Needless to say 2WD is all over the place most of the time, but he is very very fun to play as simply because of that. As I mentioned, 2WD is the unlockable character and can be unlocked by beating SPEED TRAX on Master. (More on that later).



4WD is a monster truck that has the toughest frame, the fastest acceleration, and the truck's top speed is the slowest of the racers at 100mph. His handling is so so as players will want to be making sharp turns with this truck. Despite that being the case, it will hardly ever spin out which is a huge challenge for F-Type and 2WD players. 4WD is considered the beginner vehicle of the game as well as the best vehicle to use in Stunt Mode. That is largely thanks to his very tough frame. It is also the only vehicle that can be used in Test Run.

There is one other vehicle that does not see any racing action. Rather it has it's own bonus stage.


Yes that is an 18 wheeler that is loading Coupe. In this bonus stage you'll drive the massive truck that is so big it has it's own special camera through markers in an effort to add time and get extra lives. As you might expect, driving Trailer is not the easiest as it's back end does not really want to go with the front end. Truck drivers will get a hang of him very quick, but for people like me that wouldn't know how to turn an 18 wheeler, it is a very difficult truck to handle.

So that is the little cast of characters in this game. I mentioned a couple game modes that I'll quickly hit now. In Stunt Trax you take your vehicle onto a stunt track. As you go through the course you will want to hit as many star balloons as possible to get the highest score possible. There is an unlockable course that is a demolition derby in which you are a part of a demolition derby... Poor F-Type on that level...


Speed Trax is the main game mode. There are novice level tracks and expert level tracks for players to try and conquer. Similar to Super Mario Kart you will be given a set of lives. Failing to finish a race due to running out of time or having your car destroyed or coming in last place will cost you a life. Run out of lives and it's game over. There are a few fun little things to keep an eye out for in addition to racing such as posters of Mario, Kirby, and Star Fox. You can also find an Arwing from the Star Fox series in the game. On a certain level it will fly just in front of you and drop off repair and boost boxes. In another level the Starfox Team will fly in front of you in an airshow formation. Kinda cool!



Battle Trax is for 1 on 1 racing between computers, humans, or a human and a computer. The tracks in Battle Trax are not regular tracks from Speed Trax. Instead there are 4 different tracks.


Test Run is designed for beginners to the game to get a hang of how to play while playing as the game's beginner vehicle, 4WD.

Free Trax is basically Time Trials. You can choose any level that you have completed and practice on it. This is also where you will first meet 2WD until you unlock him for use in the other modes.

Overall the tracks I found to be easy or tough. The grouping of the tracks into Novice and Expert tracks is certainly a good call as the expert tracks do tend to be quite difficult and the Novice tracks are easier, something that can't be said for all racing games, especially today.



There are a lot of people give this game flak for it's graphics. Much like Starfox, the game makes use of polygons, squares, etc quite a bit. While the Arwing (see above picture) my look like a bunch of flying triangles, the vehicles in this game actually manage to look like they are supposed to.


Sure sometimes it becomes difficult to see things and watching box shaped animals run across the track may look ugly, but the tracks themselves seem to maintain themselves very well despite some having some pretty big twists and turns. I mean trying to get a completely underwater scene in this game using the FX chip was probably not the easiest thing to do, but to me they did a decent job with it.


While certainly not on the level of other racing games for the SNES, I did not find the graphics in Stunt Race FX to be a big issue. The soundtrack is nothing special. There are a few catchy tunes that may get stuck in your head for a few minutes, but they are far from as memorable as Super Mario Kart's or even F-Zero's for that matter. This is probably my favorite song out of them all.



Overall I still find Stunt Race FX to be a very well put together game that showed off what the FX chip could do. While the lasting appeal of this game may not be as strong as Super Mario Kart, I would rank this game in the top 3 of racers on the Super Nintendo. The other two being F-Zero and Super Mario Kart. This game kind of reminds me of a cross between the crazy racing of the Mario Kart games and a standard racing game. Again, there are no items to use to defeat your rivals, so your driving skill alone will be what wins you the race or loses you it. There won't be any last second red shells to secure or cost a win which is kind of a nice change of pace. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give Stunt Race FX a solid 8.5 out of 10. The upsides of the game I have gone on about and the negatives are few and far between. The reason I can't give this game any higher than an 8.5 is it's graphics, a camera that will sometimes be as wacky as the racing (usually when wrecking), the inability to play the Speed Trax courses in multiplayer, and a soundtrack that is pretty mediocre in my opinion. The big ups are the different game modes, the way the vehicles are designed and handle, the tracks themselves, the overall presentation of the game, and the way the game makes use of it's blocky graphic.

Final verdict: 8.5 out of 10. Really a great game that doesn't have the vest visuals, but is really just a blast to play!

Jaws for Nintendo Entertainment System Review

Hey everyone. Today I'll be looking at the NES game that is based loosely on the Sci-Fi  thriller, "Jaws".

As you can clearly see from the box art, this game meant serious business. You've got the classic movie poster like title and image with a quote of no escape. Despite the name, the game ties in more with the fourth movie "Jaws the Revenge" than it does the original...So.... that's a thing... The game was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1987 by Ljn. 

Ok so where do I begin with this game. Honestly I love sharks so when I saw that there was a Jaws game on the NES, I had to play it. After beating it I kinda stared at the TV screen with a look of confusion and disappointment as the game just seemed so... I dunno... groundhog day like? Allow me to explain. In the game you start off on your boat looking for the monster shark, Jaws. 

As you sail your ship around you'll collide with seemingly nothing on the map a bunch of times triggering a diver to jump in the water. At this point the game will change to a side view and you'll have to kill off things such as small sharks and jellyfish. Crabs, shells, and stars act as upgrades and currency that you can use at two ports to power up your ship against Jaws. 

Eventually as you aimlessly sail around you'll see a fin sticking out of the water which will as you probably have guessed be Jaws. The battle against Jaws is nothing overly challenging. You'll fight him in the water first and then you'll be shifted to a first person view of your ship where you'll have to time 3 strobe blasts (which was honestly the hardest thing in the game to do) to finish him off. So that's the basis of the game. Sounds exciting right? Well not so much on the NES.

The music that goes along with this game, outside of the title screen music, bears no similarity to the music in the movies. In fact the title screen is the only real reference to the music in the movies. The little side view game when you jump into the water is fun at first, but personally it got boring pretty quick. The game can be as short or long as you'd like. I've seen it beaten in under 10 minutes. Really, outside of the little diving game and actually hunting Jaws himself there is nothing to do. Sadly no multiplayer exists in this game, but there is a fun minigame you can play if you kill enough small sharks. You'll actually be able to use a plane that looks like the plane in Jurassic Park and bomb jellyfish cause why not?! 

I really can't think of anything positive to say about this game. I was saddened when I played it after being so hyped about it at a young age and now I am annoyed that I even wasted the 15 minutes it took me to beat it again. I'd be generous to give this game anything more than a 1 out of 5, and I am! I'm going to give this game a 2 largely thanks to the jellyfish bombing mini game, the fact that you can end the nightmare of the game quickly, and the underwater side view game handles pretty nicely.... which is a plus considering the rest of the game... Perhaps I'll rethink this...

Final Verdict: 1 out of 5

Stick to Jaws Unleashed for Playstation 2 or Jaws Revenge on mobile devices.

The Kirby Series Intro

Hey everyone! tonight I am going to be starting a series of blogs that will be focused on one series of games. I'll be blogging about each game in the series, reviewing some and just talking about others. Depending on how this goes, I may opt to do more of these in the future. The guinea pig series for this will be a series that I hold near and dear, the Kirby series. This is a series that I have had a ton of fun with and if my personal collection of Kirby games is not enough evidence of that... I don't know what is...


For those of you who have never played a Kirby game before I'll break down the majority of them for you. You play as Kirby, a little pink bottomless pit. As Kirby you will eat enemies, blocks, food items, etc etc etc and use them to your advantage. Kirby's biggest claim to fame is his ability to copy enemy abilities. For instance, if you eat and swallow a sword wielding enemy, you will gain a sword. If you don't want a certain ability you can always ditch the ability and go with simply spitting the enemy back out and into other enemies. The rest of the plots for the games I'll dive into in the game's individual blogs.

Despite this being a retro gaming blog, I will be doing the games that came out on the Gamecube, Wii, and DS. I will not be doing the new 3DS or Wii U games as I have not played them so I cannot give an honest opinion on them. The image may be a little bit hard to see but the games that I will cover include in no particular order...

Kirby's Adventure (NES)
Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (Game Boy)
Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES)
Kirby's Pinball Land (Game Boy)
Kirby's Star Stacker (Game Boy)
Kirby's Tilt N' Tumble (Game Boy Color)
Kirby's Block Ball (Game Boy)
Kirby Airide (GCN)
Kirby's Return to Dreamland (Wii)
Kirby64: The Crystal Shards (N64)
Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)
Kirby Canvas Curse (DS)
Kirby Squeak Squad (DS)
Kirby's Dream Course (SNES)
Kirby's Avalanche (SNES)
Kirby Mass Attack (DS)
Kirby Superstar (SNES)
Kirby Superstar Ultra (DS)
Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland (Game Boy Advance)
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (Game Boy Advance)

So you can see that there are quite a few games to get through. I have no timeline as to when these blogs will be coming out, but they will begin very very soon. They will not take over the blog however as there are many other games that I would like to discuss as well as top 10/20/whatever lists to make and so much more to be done that simply doing every Kirby game in a row is not going to happen. After the final Kirby Series blog has been posted I will try to compile them all into one page on this blog. For now though I hope you enjoy the Kirby Series!

Update/Donkey Kong Country 2 Review

Hey everyone. It's been a while since my last post and to say that it's because my life became completely crazy is an understatement. I changed positions at work, more recently got engaged, and have had just a ton of other things going on. With all that being said I have been able to get some gaming in and a lot of it has been quite enjoyable. The most recent game that I have completed for like the 50th time is the game I'll be reviewing tonight, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. I'm going to be changing up the way I do reviews too. I feel like the way I was doing it was too vanilla I guess if that makes sense? I'll also be working on an actual layout for the blog as I've just had an image of Majora's Mask there for forever...So that's the little update here. I'll be doing more blogs in the near future, but for now let's take a look at Donkey Kong Country 2!



Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is the sequel to Rare's Donkey Kong Country and was released in 1995 on the Super Nintendo. In 2004 a port of the game came out on the Game Boy Advance in 2004. The plot of the game was quite simple. Donkey Kong (the hero of the 1st game) is kidnapped by Kaptain K. Rool (King K. Rool). It is up to Diddy Kong (the sidekick of the 1st game) to try and save Donkey Kong. Joining Diddy in his quest is his girlfriend Dixie Kong (no relation?). The two set off on an epic journey with help from other members of the Kong Crew. Funky Kong returns from the first game in the same capacity, an airline service that allows players to travel between stages. Cranky Kong (the original Donkey Kong from the 1981 arcade game) makes a return in the same fashion as he did in Donkey Kong Country. That being an old advice giving ape. Wrinkly Kong, Cranky's wife, assists the young Kongs by both giving hints and saving the game. Swanky Kong debuts as a sideshow bonus trivia level where players can potentially gain coins, extra lives, and bananas.




On your quest you'll encounter these characters as well as animal friends! These friends include Rambi the Rhino (returns from Donkey Kong Country), Enguarde the Swordfish (returning friend), Squawks the Parrot (returns, but can now shoot nuts!), Rattly the Rattlesnake, and Squitter the Spider. All of these animal buddies have different abilities that will help the Kongs reach new heights, bust open bonus rooms, or pick off normally difficult enemies. In some cases the Kongs will actually transform into the animal friend, in others, they will ride the animals. Note: There are 2 other animal friend, Glimmer the Angler Fish is one. He appears in only one level and provides light for the Kongs. Unlike other animals the Kongs do not ride or become him. Clapper the Sea Lion is the other. He appears in two levels and will either cool or freeze water depending on the level when the Kongs jump on him. He is a stationary buddy so he never leaves his spot.



The number of collectibles has increased since the first game. There is now a currency system in place. These banana coins can be used at Cranky's, Wrinkly's, Swanky's, and Funky's.


Also new are the DK coins that appear in each of the levels. There are 40 of these coins to collect (68 on the Game Boy Advance.



Lastly, there are 75 Kremkoins (bonus coins) that can be found throughout the levels. The only exception to this is in the Lost World where bonus levels will award DK Coins instead of Kremkoins.



So there is a good amount of new stuff to collect in this game that was not present in the first game. Returning collectibles include extra life balloons, the K O N G letters, and bananas, There is a couple new barrels that appear in this game. One is a barrel with a ! on it.

This barrel with cause the Kongs to become invincible for a short period of time. There are new animal buddy barrels, and barrels with either Dixie or Diddy's face on them. Those barrels can only be entered by the Kong that matches the face.

One of the largest changes between this game and first is the addition of Dixie Kong. Diddy Kong remains basically the same as he was in the first game. Dixie uses her hair like a whip and can twirl it like a helicopter to decrease her falling speed and cover long distances. You can get through a lot of tough spots in the game with this technique. Also new is a team attack where the Kong's will actually hop on the each others shoulders and use each other as a throwable weapon!


Finally with all of that out of the way lets look at the world and the game itself now that most of the new features are out of the way!


The world in Donkey Kong Country 2 is, in my opinion, incredible! I wont go into too much detail, but you'll be exploring pirate ships, lava lakes, swamps, bee hives, a carnival, haunted woods,mines, a castle, and more. Each world has their own maps of levels as well. The end of each world has a boss. None of them are really that difficult at all, but that was something that I felt in the first game as well.


Graphically speaking the game is beautiful.Given the year this game came out, the graphics really push what was the norm of the day to new heights.
   
The picture on the left is from Donkey Kong Country 2, the right from Donkey Kong Country. Notice the background of the DKC2. It looks like there are actually layers. You can see the blue sky and clouds which pass you by, then the bramble in front of it, and then the bramble you are trying to avoid. Yes, the original graphics are also good, but the improvements made for the second game are easy to see!

The crisp gameplay from the first game returns. After playing this game again and again and again, I can say that I've never had an issue related to the gameplay, the responsiveness of the character, or anything else for that matter. The only thing that feels kind of awkward is Rattly's super jump. It feels slow to charge and sometimes I think it's charged up but it's actually not. Other than that though I have literally zero complaints.

One of the best things about this game is the music. Every single bit of music in the game is I feel, amazing. You'll hear each of the songs a few times, but the levels are all so different that say a mining level with the same music will feel completely different, making the music fresh in the process. I'll leave a few videos of the music to give you guys a little taste of what I'm talking about here.

This is the Stickerbush Symphony that plays during the bramble levels. One of my favorite tracks in the game.


This is the Mine Theme (actually name is escaping me at the moment), another one of the great tracks in the game.

Overall I love this game. I really do. It has so much good going for it and in my opinion this is one of the top games that Rare ever made and one of the best games on the Super Nintendo. If you are looking for a challenging side scrolling experience with a good number of collectibles and hidden things to find, pick this game up. It is only for the Super Nintendo, but can currently also be purchased on the Wii U's virtual console. If I had to rate this game on a scale of 10 I'd have to give it a 10. I can't think of really anything wrong with this game. Some people say there isn't enough story, but I don't think there needs to be. The objective is clear and that's what matters. The two player co-op mode is another thing that some people will criticize the game for. No two players do not play at the same time, but back in 1995, how many games like this did 2 people play at the same time? Not Super Mario World, not any of the other Donkey Kong Country games. Nope I can't think of any that did it or at least did it well. The bottom line is this game is virtually flawless and will and should be remembered as one of the SNES and Rare's greatest achievements!

Final Verdict 10 out of 10!

Eat Your Heart Out: Yoshi's Island Review

Hey again everyone. The most recent game that I have again gone through fully is a Super Nintendo classic entitled Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.


This is the game where baby Mario, Luigi, and Bowser were introduced into the Nintendo world. At this point have they gone overboard with the babies bringing in baby Peach, Daisy, Wario, Donkey Kong, etc. Probably, but the original three were involved in a truly interesting game.

So the basis of this game is that the stork that was delivering baby Mario and Luigi to their parents got kidnapped by Kamek

and brought to Bower's Keep. In all the commotion baby Mario dropped from the stork and landed on Yoshi's Islands. So the Yoshis decided to help the baby get his brother back, free the stork, and send them on their merry way back to their parents. Sounds simple right? Well overall the game is not too terribly difficult. There are plenty of challenges if you choose to challenge yourself. An example of those challenges is the game's scoring system. It's pretty simple. What you find in the game adds to your score.

As you can see you are scored on stars (life), red coins, and flowers. Having max of each will net you a 100 and inch you closer to unlocking the world's bonus levels in which there are two of in each world.

So to fully complete the game you need to score 48 100%s. 6 worlds with 8 stages each. There are also bonuses along the way that can net you extra lives and items which work in a similar fashion to Super Mario Bros. 3 item system. The big difference being you can use these items in the game as opposed to just on the map screen.  So the game while appearing cute and fuzzy can actually be quite the challenge.

So lets look at some more things about this game. The gameplay is nothing like any other Mario game you will ever play (unless you are looking at a post SNES system). So as opposed to playing Mario, you play the game largely as Yoshi. There are times where you play as Mario, but I'll get back to that in a minute. There are multiple ways Yoshi can defeat enemies. One is the traditional jump that is pretty standard in Mario games. Another is that Yoshi can eat his enemies.

Once an enemy is in his mouth, he can either spit it back out as a weapon against other enemies or swallow it and turn it into an egg. There are a few enemies that Yoshi cannot turn into eggs though and some just get swallowed automatically without an egg being made. Yoshi can also use three different watermelons as weapons. One is just a standard watermelon that uses the seeds as a weapon.

The other two are fire and ice respectively and you can probably figure out what each of them do. The most famous way that Yoshi goes about defeating his foes though, is the egg toss. Yoshi can hurl his eggs at his opponents and eliminate a great number of them this way, including bosses.

Each world contains a half way boss and a main boss. Oh yeah, I forgot to continue what I started before. From time to time you do play as Mario... Super Baby Mario! No photo spoiler on that one :). You will also occasionally be transformed into various vehicles. The controls are excellent in their responsiveness and as is the case with many SNES games, the button layout is fairly easy to remember and execute. Yoshi's famous hover was introduced in this game as a second jump along with his ground pound ability. Sound familiar Super Smash Bros fans? Yes the majority of Yoshi's moveset seems to have originated in Yoshi's Island. You lose lives in a few different ways. If you touch molten lava, you die. If you fall off a ledge, you die. If you land of sharp, spikes you die. Pretty basic platform style play right? Well there is a new way to die introduced to Mario fans in Yoshi's Island. When Yoshi gets struck by an enemy baby Mario will enter a bubble and start to float away crying.

The longer the baby is off Yoshi's back, the lower the clock will get until it hits zero. At that point Bowser's minions capture the baby and bring him to the keep. You can increase the timer by collecting the stars that were mentioned earlier. Great things happened in this game in terms of gameplay and really in developing Yoshi as more of a character than what was seen in Super Mario World. Gameplay rating: 10 out of 10

Graphically, this game is simply put, different. This game looks like it completely takes place in a child's toy-box or something of that nature. The colors are bright, cartooney, and very very happy.


 
Some people have an issue with the graphics being like this, but given the whole story of the game and the fact that it is Yoshi we are talking about, I think this style does great and helps the game to even further stand out from any other Mario game that was out at the time. My only question of the graphics was why are things in the boss levels so happy? I mean seriously look at the hills below. Why would they be happy with a monster existing right next door? Whatever. Graphically this game gets a solid 9.5 out of 10 from me. Just about flawless in that department.



The Yoshi's Island soundtrack is actually very well done I think. The music is for the most part very upbeat and bouncy. Perfectly complementing the happy nature of the graphics and the Yoshis themselves. The boss level music does take a turn however and is quite mysterious feeling. Something that's welcome when the unsuspecting dinosaur has no idea what he's going to be up against.Probably the most epic thing soundtrack is the music that plays as you have the inevitable battle against Bowser. I mean seriously. Listen to this.


That's gotta be by far my favorite Bowser theme. The opening right to the end just screams Bowser and once you play the fight, you'll find the music even more epic. Soundtrack for this game. 10 out of 10. I have it on my ipod it's so good.

All of the above adds to the replay value of this game. Fun graphics, smooth gameplay, a great soundtrack, challenges to finish if you choose to do so just scratch the surface as to why I keep coming back to this game. Replay value 10 out of 10. It just does not get old.

So before I throw down my final verdict on the game I just want to throw out a fun fact. This game was recreated on the Gameboy Advance as Super Mario World 3: Yoshi's Island. The game is largely the same as it was the first time around and is a very respectable remake of the game. Keeps the old charm and adds in a couple things here and there.

Yoshi's Island Fianl Verdict
Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 9.5/10
Soundtrack: 10/10
Replay: 10/10
Overall Rating: 10/10! Just a perfect SNES experience.

Bubsy II: What Did I Just Do?

Hey everyone. Boy has it been a long time since I did one of these. Well I am blowing the dust off this blog and will be now be continuing to post some reviews of older games I have played. Alright lets get to it.

 

Oh boy. Here we go with a train wreck of a sequel. If you have ever played this game...

you probably have a good idea of the horrors that await you in Bubsy II. First off let me get this out there. Was I was far younger I actually enjoyed playing Bubsy II. I mean come on a bobcat jumping around, floating, etc to a little kid sounds kinda neat right? Well now not so much. So.... Bubsy II. Bubsy is back with a few of his friends like a little armadillo are off on some quest that I have no idea as to what it is about. Shutting down a theme park ran by a pig or something.

Alright so lets get into the game.

Scenes like this can be found at the start of every level... Clever right? Well that's about as far as the cleverness of this games goes.

Graphically the game isn't too far off the train. Sure some SNES games of the time had better graphics, but Bubsy II maintained that cartoon look that it needed and did a pretty okay job with it. Rating the graphics on a scale of 1-10 I'd probably give them a 6 or so. Right around average, nothing special. Despite not too bad graphics, the game suffers from horrendous level designs. Each level is basically a maze. Often times you'll feel like you are going through the same levels again and again. Well you basically are as many of the levels are very similar to each other.


These are two completely different levels, but in the end, they are very similar.

Musically, the game I don't think is too terrible either. The music can sometimes get a tad annoying, but in general I found no problems with it, just repetitive. I'll give it another 6 out of 10 largely due to the selection not being all that broad and some of it does get repetitive and annoying. Again, not terrible by any means in my opinion.

Welp that is about the only good things that come out of this game. Let's look at the ugly now.

If you want to use an SNES controller for this game or a Genesis controller, you might as well throw them out the window. The controls in this game are beyond bad. The button layout is simple and what not, but the responsiveness is far from there and Bubsy just does not cooperate most of the time. This alone makes for a beyond frustrating experience. There are some mini games within the game. Only one of them I feel is remotely entertaining and that's a kind of digital version of a carnival frog bog game. 
Outside of that game, the mini games are pretty much pointless and worthless for that matter. This game also suffers from a severe lack of difficulty outside of getting Bubsy to do what you want. Each of the three "levels" of levels you go through are supposed to go from easy to hard. Well the hard is not really at all different from the easy and when you have a Nerf gun at your disposal (yeah... that....) that allows you to take out enemies without having to risk Bubsy getting hit. Gameplay I have to give a whopping 1 out of 10. Simply awful.

Final Verdict: The sound and the graphics are not terrible at all, but they are heavily eclipsed by downright awful gameplay, a pointless at best story, and a multiplayer (yeah that's a thing too) that serves little purpose since two people I don't think can physically play through this game at the same time without bashing their heads into a wall. So if this ever shows up on your television

Run far away. Do not hit left or right. Drop your SNES or whatever system the game is in into some holy water or something. I give Bubsy II a 2 out of 10. It's a game so bad that I had to own it.