#246 - Galaga: Demons of Death

I didn't even know Demons of Death was the subtitle for Galaga until a couple days ago. Oh Galaga, you still have much to teach us after all these years!

Nothing like some double-ship action to ruin some space bees plans for the evening.

From the opening credits where the title screen rises amidst a sea of twinkling colored pixels, to the sound effects which range from the space bugs dive bombing you, to the steady hum of your ship preparing for imminent battle before each stage begins, I friggin love Galagalike a fat kid loves cake. It's the steady-as-she-goes gameplay that drew me in as a child. I loved the concept of ever-increasing waves of insect enemies and the ability to have your spaceship captured, only to recover it – and have it fight alongside of your current ship! - by destroying the enemy that took it. Like all arcade games from the early 80s, the emphasis was on how many points you could rack up during each play and how far you could get in the game. Shout-out to my readers: what is the highest level you've ever gotten to in Galaga? My own personal best would have to be the upper teens-to-low-20s, but it's been many years since I've reached such heights. There's nothing like a simplistic, addictive game, particularly from the shooter genre, that you can return to time and time again, regardless of new consoles, innovations in gaming, what-have-you, and have it still be as fun as it was when you were a kid. For me, Galaga is one of the few games that can still do this on the NES, I wouldn't rank it above any of the bonafide, NES-born classics like Castlevania and Mega Man, but it holds a special place in my heart for its reliability and fun. Galaga... will you marry me?

A+

#104 - Bucky O' Hare

I wouldn't buy the game based on this cover, but trust me, it's awesome!

What you should take away from this image is that the game ain't frontin'. It's tough.


I'm pretty sure I watched every early 90's cartoon back when I was a child and judged them all with an eagle eye. I definitely weeded out "Bucky O' Hare" as something that did not interest me. The concept of an interstellar space rabbit and his justice team against a band of toad ruffians (the enemies should have been tortoises - GET IT?! THE TORTOISES AGAINST THE HARES IN A RACE AGAINST TIME!) was played out new-jack horse crap. Give me "Rocko's Modern Life" or "Inspector Gadget" any day of the week! Nevertheless, Konami, nimble developers that they are, have made a fantastic platformer out of said crappy license.

Yes, it's simple run, jump, and shoot action, but with enough variety to make your head sprout rabbit ears! First, in one of many Mega Man references, the game gives you a choice between levels in the form of planets. Each planet contains a different number of "acts" and, once you defeat the boss, you acquire one of Bucky's crew and all of them have their own useful abilities. Blinky the robot blasts through blocks made of ice and stone, Deadeye can scale walls, Jenny has a homing bomb, etc. Their specific attributes help you get through the ridonkulously hard levels to follow. Seriously, these levels are controller-rattling tough and you better sing praises be for the unlimited continues that Konami gives you. They also have a password system, for those who have been worn out by the toad menace and just need to set the controller down for a spell.

In traditional platforming fashion, there is a traditional green planet, a fire planet, an ice planet, etc, but that ain't all folks. The first four levels seem to shoot by in a breeze, albeit a breeze designed to rip your earmuffs off your head. As you progress, though, more levels keep coming... then more... and more. The game won't end and it just keeps getting harder. For a game based on a children's cartoon, Konami really pulled out all the stops with the difficulty. Much like Mega Man, though, it's manageable difficulty that requires you to really learn each and every character in and out in order to progress. It's difficulty that makes you want to keep going, which is an attribute found in only the finest of NES platformers.

I don't know what it is about the misadventures of Bucky O' Hare for my Nintendo Entertainment System, but I couldn't put it down, even though I kept dying. Each of the levels within the respective planets had enough challenges and variety in the layouts to keep me going. The references to other classic NES games are awesome, as well: the aforementioned Mega Man, of course, but also Konami's own line of classics, like certain weapons from Contra and an homage to the level in Turtles 2 when you're on the boogie boards. Also, the toad enemies look like squattier versions of the Battletoads. Radical! If it's sadistic platforming action you crave, but you've Megaed all the Men and Ninjaed every Gaiden you can think of, give Bucky O Hare a whirl. It will toast your eyeballs.

A-