Our trip down memory lane continues with this review from July 2005. Enjoy!
It seems like game companies, when strapped for new ideas, will take some scoops out of the pile of their old steaming crap, package them together with something recognizable, and then release it as a ‘retro’ collection. Konami Collector’s Series: Arcade Advanced comes with six games: Frogger, Gyruss, Time Pilot, Scramble, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, and Rush’n Attack. Each of these games is identical to their arcade counterparts, for good or ill. By putting in the Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A) you can access something different in each game, ranging from Improved Graphics(tm) to Extra Lives(tm). If you’ve played any of these games in their arcade forms, then you know full well what to expect here. The only difference here is that you don’t have to bring a stack of quarters with you to play.
Frogger
I’ve never liked Frogger. I’ve played several versions of this supposed classic, and I just can’t get into it. I understand that there are fans of the game out there, and if you are one of them, then you might consider getting this collection for this game alone. If you’re like me, however, you’ll look for something else. Your goal in this game is to get your frog (who can’t swim) across a busy highway and then across a busy river, picking up girl frogs and flies along the way. Fairly simplistic by today’s standards, but so were most of the games at the time.
Gyruss
For those who’ve never heard of Gyruss (don’t worry, I never heard of it either until I got this collection) the game plays a lot like Galaga with the exception that your ship can move along all four sides of the screen. Enemy ships will come out from the center in waves, eventually landing in a formation where they will peel off and attack your ship. While playing the game, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had ‘been there, done that.’
Time Pilot
In Time Pilot, you have to take your craft through the unfriendly skies shooting down enemies and rescuing parachuters. Do this enough times, and you can go along to the next era of war and get updated ships. I found the game to be a little slow for my tastes.
Scramble
What is up with the flying games? In the third flying game, your goal is to go through a tunnel and shoot the enemy missles, ships, miscellaneous gee-gaws, and fuel tanks. Shooting the fuel tanks will replenish your fuel supply (obviously) and will allow you to continue on your quest to rid the caverns of their missle problem. This game tries really hard to be fun. It has the constantly-draining fuel mater, the ability for you to shoot in two directions (straight ahead and in an arc downward), and wave upon wave of easily destructible foes. The main problem that I found with this game is the lack of action. The missles come from the ground fairly slowly, and the enemy ships just kind of hang out in their predetermined flight paths. The game just turns tedious right away.
Yie Ar Kung Fu
Proto-fighting game Yie Ar Kung Fu should be one of the stand-out games of this collection. It should be one of the games that makes this package, but it’s probably the game I spent the least amount of time with. Perhaps it’s my lack of experience with the game talking here, but I couldn’t find very much to like about it. I cut my fighting-game teeth on Street Fighter II, so perhaps I’m spoiled. The moves in this game are fairly easy to pull off (e.g. push a direction and press a button) and the fighters control well enough. I was just left wanting more.
Rush ‘N’ Attack
Rush’n Attack is one of those classic action games. Your goal is simple and to the point: “Save the Prisoners of War!”. You are a soldier who can take one hit going up against waves of heavily armed enemies (who, thankfully, also can take only one hit) in your quest to protect freedom for another day. This game is sickeningly hard (or I’m sickeningly bad at it) since enemies are placed such that if you don’t have perfect timing/precision, you’re toast. The amount of cheap kills in this game is staggering. This game (along with Yie Ar Kung-Fu and Frogger) is one of the primary reasons to own this collection.
The only extra feature worth mentioning is the multiplayer. You can play multiplayer versions of the games provided that you have another Game Boy and a link cable (only one copy of the game is required). These games are definitely more fun when you can get someone else in on the action and they’re simple enough that it’s extremely easy to just jump in and play if you’ve never tried any of them before. Once again we have a compilation that takes some mediocre, mixes it with some stuff nobody’s heard of, and manages to throw in a couple of extras. Had this collection been more than Konami’s B-list arcade games, it might not have been so bad, but as it stands, it’s just OK.
Game Name: Konami Collector’s Series: Arcade Advanced
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Purchased from: EBGames
Amount of money I wasted on it: $4.99
One word summary: Passable