FEATURE: Let's Play: Pacman [NES] & Let's Play: Barker Bill's Trick Shooting [NES]

Gaming Till Dawn plays through one of the most well-known games ever as well as a lightgun NES game...

Pacman is what it is - a brilliant classic video game that is always entertaining once in a while, the NES port is my favourite of the earlier ports of the game, the Atari 2600 version is playable and it's fun but the NES port flows much more and feels a lot like the original arcade code in my opinion.

I always have this memory from high school where I would play a flash version of Pacman constantly, this was for various reasons; 1. I was extremely bored and 2. I wanted to beat all of the scores from fellow classmates, in the end I got caught and was banned from using the computers for a few weeks, either way enough of that, the gameplay can be seen below.

Onto the next game...

Secondly, we have Barker Bill's Trick Shooting - there are quite a few light gun games on the NES, I'm sure you're familiar with the likes of Duck Hunt, but Trick Shooting is my favourite. 

It's not the most difficult game in the world, but it's a lot of fun, there are three main game modes to choose from, each have very similar objectives - to shoot the objects before they leave the screen to gain maximum points, every so often they'll be a bonus target such as a giant shiny diamond, which awards you an extra life.

There is a mode that let's you play all three modes in a row, I imagine this is to see how big of a score you can get through the entire game.  Feature1

FEATURE: Let's Play: Donkey Kong [NES]

This is my first let's play to an extent, I've done a lot of gameplay videos but nothing really like this. It's a quick playthrough of the classic Donkey Kong.

With just three levels, you'd expect this game to get boring really quick but it's definitely the opposite, each level can be challenging enough to keep you wanting to try again because the game is pure fun, but even if you are familiar with the levels, it's such a fantastic game to play over and over. And that's exactly what you are able to do, once you've initially beaten the three levels, you can continue to rack up a high score until you eventually get a game over.

Gaming Till Dawn proudly presents it's first Let's Play. Please note that until I am able to record commentary, only the game itself will be shown. Feature1

FEATURE: Pretty Bad, But Mildly Fun Games #2: A Nightmare On Elm Street (NES)

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Developer: Rare

Publisher: LJN

Genre: Platformer/Movie-Game

Release: 1989

Console: NES 

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Right off the bat, I am a HUGE Nightmare On Elm Street - I'm a sucker for 80s slasher movies, so I want to like this game because I feel I owe it to the franchise, but let's be honest, the video-game adaptation isn't too great. After all, LJN are responsible for the game and they are notorious for creating awful movie-games back in the day, but I give almost every game a chance and after finally beating this game, here's my thoughts. prettybad

It's difficult to tell which of the movies this game is actually based on, it was released in October of 1989, two months after the release of A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: Dream Child, so you would presume it would tie in with the film, but it really doesn't. If anything, the story reminds me of the third movie in the series; Dream Warriors - this is because there are numerous characters, each with different powers that can be only activated whilst in the dream world, and the whole point of the game is to collect Freddy's bones so you can burn him once and for all, which is conveniently similar to the ending of Dream Warriors, except Freddy get's buried, not burnt. However, it is generally accepted that the story is simply a spin-off from the movies, which would make a lot of sense. Play the game, and decide for yourself. It doesn't really matter either way, let's get down to the gameplay.

Up to four players can play the game, but I'd find if very difficult to get anyone else to play this with you - you start on Elm Street, and it is your mission to visit various houses, schools, graveyards, etc and find all the bones of Freddy Krueger, so you can finally destroy him (but we all know the killer never really dies...). You have a sleep meter that once emptied, the dream world takes over - here the enemies are no longer simple rats, but nightmarish monsters that are a little more difficult to defeat, to counter the effect of being asleep, you can collect cups of coffee and listen to radios to keep you awake. Throughout the game, you'll come across power-ups that grant your character more of a chance against Freddy and his minions, these being the Acrobat, which allows you to simply run faster, throw javelins, and perform somersaults - sounds good, and it is a useful power-up, but nothing compared to the Shadow Warrior, who's flying kick will make boss battles a lot easier, then there's the Necromancer who can actually use fire magic but the game's hit detection is terrible and the shots hardly ever register, so it's just best to hold on to the Shadow Warrior.

Each stage pits you against a lot of enemies and a certain amount of bones you have to collect before you can move on to the boss, the jumps look easy enough but it's one of those games where you sometimes just go through a platform randomly even though you've landed on it very safely. You sort of learn to get around it by jumping at very particular angles, and it does become playable.

At the end of each stage, you have to defeat a piece of Freddy in order to get that part of his body - these range from a huge Freddy glove-hand to his ghost, once all of the different parts of Freddy are collected, you are put through all of the bosses again, and Freddy himself in his full form. What is up with that? Games that feel you should defeat the bosses you've already killed - there's nothing wrong with just having one last final boss that puts up a fight, either way the final form of Freddy isn't too hard, and the game ends quite abruptly suggesting that Freddy isn't really dead. Big surprise, huh?

I've got to give LJN credit though, having the balls to create a horror movie-game - for the time there weren't many around, except Friday The 13th (NES), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Atari 2600), and Halloween (Atari 2600), which were way worse than A Nightmare On Elm Street, so in that respect, this is actually a half-decent video-game. I'm never going to play it again, and I wouldn't recommend it, but I think that love for Freddy I have makes me like the game...a little.Feature1

FEATURE: Pretty Bad, But Mildly Fun Games #1: Karate Champ! (NES)

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Developer: SAS Sakata
Publisher: Data East
Genre: Fighting/2-D Fighting
Release: 1986
Console: NES (Also on ARC and C64)
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To begin, I'd like to highlight this game was released in 1986, deeming it one of the first NES games (At least, in the US), so going into this game my expectations weren't high. prettybad

I don't know if there is an actual storyline to this game, especially since I'm playing the game only - I don't have the manual or box to give me any more information, but I presume you're a karate fighter who's trying to be the best by overcoming various opponents to get to the top. I say various opponents, but in reality you fight the same guy simply called "Red" (which is strange because he's very purple in the game) until you reach the 8th Dan, where your opponent finally changes to this God-like fighter - physically he doesn't change but the difficulty in fighting him eventually creeps up to God-like status.

In each fight, you have to "hit" your opponent a total of 6 times to win, or the time can run out and the judge will decide who deserves to win the round - you ("White) or Red. There's this strange guy in the background in every fight that looks like an 8-bit Lionel Richie, I imagine he is your trainer, and it's him you're looking for (sorry, awful joke).

You start the game in the training stages, where the fights are relatively easy to win, I found myself constantly using the most basic attacks to win, but as the training stages finished and I entered the 7th Dan, I quickly found out that I had to actually introduce a tactic to beat the harder stages, so after a bit of practising and learning the controls a bit more, I figured out all the moves or at least I think I did and it was back into the dojo. 

After grasping the controls, the best strategy was to constantly jump over the opponent until you can get in a quick kick whilst they face the other way. Cheap, I know. 

Based on reading that, you might be thinking that this game is relatively good, but don't be fooled - the hit detection is almost completely random, sometimes your punches or kicks will register instantly, whereas other times it seems like the opponent is invisible and all your attacks are going straight through them almost, this might be due to the difficulty increase but it just feels very awkward at times. 

At the end of each fight, there's this very strange mini-game where flowers in vases come from each side of the screen and I still don't know how to win - I've tried punching them, kicking them, jumping over them but no matter what I do, my score stays the exact same. A bit more explanation of how this mini-game worked would have been nice, but maybe it was described in the manual or box, but unfortunately I don't own either. 

Overall, Karate Champ isn't necessarily a bad game, once you learn how the fighting mechanics work it can be a bit fun, but it has some of the worst hit detection I've ever experienced and the gameplay does get old really quick. Feature1