Colecovision Critic Web Site

Back in 1997 when I first got on the internet full time at home, I began toying with the idea of creating a web page. I had absolutely no idea how to do it, but I began trying to learn through various web sites. I'd always wanted to write game reviews and knew that if I did indeed create a web site, that's what I would do with it. I picked out one of the Geocities pages to start with. Those who used the site back then might remember how it was set up. You picked a neighborhood such as the one I used called EnchantedForest. Inside that neighborhood you had a home which I believe was named Cottage followed by a number. It wasn't terribly practical for remembering a web site, but it was all I had at the time.

I created this really simple web site called "Colecovision Critic." The Colecovision was the system I always wanted while I was growing up but never got. My best friend got one but would never let anyone play it for more than a minute or two at a time. He was a selfish ass that way. So when I got the internet and discovered eBay, I set out buying up every piece of Colecovision hardware and game title I could get my hands on. After amassing quite a collection, I thought it would be a good idea to focus my first web site around a system I was thoroughly in tune with. The page was about as basic as you could get. It had the logo at the top and then one screen shot and a short review below it. No fancy fonts, tables, or frames. In fact it was pretty bad now that I think about it. I left it up for about a year but I was only getting a paltry three or four hits a day on it. I finally left it alone for a few months and Geocities deleted it. That was the end of Colecovision Critic. Of course over the years I've done tons of game reviews for various sites, and I even have four web sites of my own. But I got to thinking. Every web site I've done so far has pretty much been because of requests from other gamers around the net. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but I thought it might be time to do a site for me. And thus Colecovision Critic has officially been resurrected.

It's very early, but I went ahead and put it up as to hopefully get some feedback on it. I wanted a "quick-fix" type of atmosphere with this site. There's not a lot of filler or extra stuff, it's just a short review of the game along with the box art and two screenshots. So many have complained that the reviews on SUPER-NES.COM and VIRTUAL-TURBO are just too long-winded, so I fixed that right off. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to email them to me. You can click on the graphic above to visit the site.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #1 Megamania

There has been no video game, past or present, that I've obsessed about more than Megamania. I saw the commercial for this game on television one night and I knew right then and there that I had to have it. I called up to the local hardware store that carried Atari 2600 games here and was told that they would have the game that Friday. That gave me 5 days to get the money together. I mowed lawns, raked leaves, and sold several other games I had until I had enough money to buy it. On my lunch break at school I walked 15 blocks to this store and I bought the game. It was then that my judgement became very clouded on the way back to school and I decided I just couldn't wait to play Megamania. I then turned around and walked the two miles to my house and began a playing spree that would last just long enough until the school called my mother at work and told her I was nowhere to be found. Can you guess who showed up at home a short while later and took my Megamania game away from me. While those were two of the best hours of gaming I've ever enjoyed, I got grounded for a week and didn't touch Megmania again during that entire time. Was it worth it? Probably not. Would I do it all over again? You bet I would. Because there is not game in this world that I still love to this very day like Megamania. In fact I hear it calling my name now. : )

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #2 Dragonfire

As I've said before, I've always been a huge fan of the Imagic titles and Dragonfire is my all-time favorite Imagic game. I saved up for weeks to buy this game when it came out after seeing the television commercial for it. Every friend I had wanted this game and flocked to my house the day I finally bought it. You'd think that simply walking across a castle drawbridge and robbing a treasure room would be an easy task, but that fast-moving fire breathing dragon made it quite difficult. I loved the way the action got more intense the further into the game you progressed. In later years I've picked up the Intellivision and Colecovision versions, which are both much better, but I still find myself going back to this Atari 2600 version just for old time's sake. If you've never played Dragonfire, you don't know what you're missing. But if you choose to track it down, go for the Colecovision version if you can find it. It's honestly the best overall version of the game.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #3 Kaboom

Very few games can test one's eye-hand coordination quite like a quick game of Kaboom. You had to bring your "A" game for this one. While it started out slow, the pace with which the mad bomber began dropping bombs became insane and after awhile you would just have to react on sheer instinct alone. The game was also one of the few that actually made solid use of the Atari Paddle controllers. Trust me, this game could never have been pulled off with any other controller, just ask the developers that have tried to accurately emulate the game on other systems minus those very Paddle controllers. If you're looking to test your skills, give this game a go. It can be a very humbling experience, but a very fun one. There are very few games that hold up as well as Kaboom all these years later. It's the one and only reason I keep my Atari around.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #4 Pitfall

Now what Atari 2600 list would be complete without the ever popular Pitfall? I wanted this game with a passion but about the time it was released, I was broke. Then a friend across the street got the game for his birthday. I went over to play it and he told me that he hated it and asked me if I wanted to trade for it. I couldn't get to my house to grab my case of Atari 2600 games and run back to his house fast enough. And get this, the game he ended up taking of mine was Circus Atari. I couldn't believe my luck. I stayed up that night until after midnight playing Pitfall until my hands just couldn't play anymore. Over the years I still play Pitfall and it's just as much fun now as it was back then. You can't say that about too many games that are this old. This game pretty much invented what would become the "side-scroller" and it just seemed like such an endless game when you played it. There's not a gamer from this era that doesn't have the sound of Pitfall Harry grabbing ahold of that rope permanently etched inside his brain. If you've somehow missed Pitfall along the way, do yourself a favor and track it down. If only to see just how far ahead of its time this game truly was. A true classic in every sense of the word.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #5 Demon Attack

When I got this game for my birthday, I wasn't terribly thrilled about it. I was hoping to get Laser Blast, which I had relentlessly hinted about during the month leading up to my birthday. Obviously it didn't work, but Demon Attack would turn out to be an outstanding game. It was pretty much like every other shooting game out there, only this time the demons that were attacking used such varied attack patterns and movements that it was tough to shoot them down. Not to mention the fact that as the levels progressed these demons became more powerful and could even split in half and leave you with not one but two demons to deal with. About the only gripe I had with Demon Attack was the somewhat bland visuals the game sported. That being said, the great sound effects helped make up for this slight drawback. I don't play this one as much anymore, but I've often wondered why no one ever updated this classic. If you've never tried out Demon Attack, track a copy down. It's the game that basically put Imagic on the map and it won't take you long to figure out why once you begin playing it. It's still one of the best.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #6 Frostbite

Here's yet another Activision title that I still play to this day. There wasn't a lot to this game as all you really do is hop from ice block to ice block and back up to the top. Each time you touch an ice block it adds that block to your igloo. You have to complete your igloo before the temperature reaches 0 degrees. It starts off easy but soon you have a lot more enemies to deal with in the water and on dry land with the polar bear chasing you around. The action gets really frantic after awhile and you have to hop around almost constantly just to keep from getting pulled off of the ice blocks. Once the igloo is completed you have to make your way to the door of the igloo and hop inside. I got this game about the time the video game crash was coming on in full force and this electronics store was clearing out all of their video games. I ended up getting Frostbite, Plaque Attack, and Spider Fighter all for $5.99 each. Although I only bought Frostbite because it was so cheap, it turned out to be one of my all-time favorite Atari 2600 titles. A perfect example of how even a simple game idea can be made very playable if executed correctly.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #7 Yars Revenge

Now this is a game that I probably spent more time with overall than any other Atari 2600 title I owned. Got this game at a garage sale that my mother took me to for $5 and it was worth every penny and more. Very simple premise with this one in that you play the role of a space fly, at least that's what it looks like. You have to head across the screen to nibble on and shoot at the shield that's guarding the alien cannon. One you reach the cannon and touch it, you can then fly to the other side of the screen and place your missile of the wall. Then you have to launch this missile so that it directly hits the cannon that's constantly moving up and down on the far side of the screen. Of course you have to deal with this pod that chases you around the screen, not to mention the cannon that will occasionally spin and shoot off at you. You're only saving grace is a force field in the middle of the screen that you can hide in. While this entire scenario may sound insane, this is one of the most enjoyable games to come out of this era and one that I still come back to still to this day. This is easily the best game Atari put out for their own system, in my opinion and one that everyone should at least try once in their life.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #8 Cosmic Ark

The first time I saw this game in action I thought it was the dumbest looking game I'd ever seen. But when my buddy left the game at my house, I had a chance to play it a little more and soon I didn't want to give it back. Luckily I was able to trade him my Dragster game for it so it all worked out. The premise was simple. The first part of the game put you in charge of a giant flying saucer. Meteors were coming at your ship from all four side and you had to zap them with your cannon fire before they crashed into your ship. This was easy at first but soon the meteors start coming at really fast speeds making it much more difficult to defend. After a few waves of meteors your saucer would then take off and travel down to the planet's surface where you'd have to leave the mother ship in your tiny flying saucer and use your tractor beam to save your alien friends who are trapped on the planet's surface. Of course you had to deal with the laser cannons that were firing at your ship from both sides of the screen as well. There was something so simple yet gripping about this game that still brings me back to it to this very day. Cosmic Ark might look a little goofy on the outside, but it's a game that will really win you over if you just give it the chance. I can vouch for that personally.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #9 Keystone Kapers

Yet another Activision title and one of my favorites. In Keystone Kapers you take on the role of a Keystone cop as you chase a burglar through an empty department store. Of course you'll have to duck and dodge all of the many hazards that are thrown your way including runaway shopping carts, flying toy airplanes, and antique radios. You'll also have to run from one end of the store to the escalators at the other end in order to move up to the next level in your crazy chase for the crook. You've got to grab him before he reaches the roof. There was just so much playability to this simple game that made it an instant classic. I don't think I left my bedroom for two weeks after I finally got this game as a reward for a good report card in 7th grade. I had wanted it since it came out that year and was pretty stoked when I came home from school and it was sitting on my bed. If you haven't tried this game out, track a copy down or better yet pick up one of the Activision Classics titles for one of the current game systems and give it a go. It's still one of the most playable games from that era and one I still drag out from time to time just for one more run through.

Corbie's Atari 2600 Top Ten - #10 Plaque Attack

I was a huge Activision fan back during the Atari 2600 era. In fact, the majority of my game collection was comprised of Activision titles. After the success of Megamania, designer Steve Cartwright basically took the game engine of Megamania and quickly reworked it to create the game Plaque Attack. It featured the same great game play design of its predecessor but this time you had full freedom of movement and you could fire both upwards and downwards. The movement patterns were insane and so was the action in this amazing shootfest. You had to protect the teeth on the top and bottom gums from wave after wave of sugar-coated goodies. Everything from donuts to ice cream cones came flying in from every direction possible. Your only arsenal was a simple tube of toothpaste. You had to fire bursts of toothpaste at the goodies before they could touch the teeth and decay them away. As goofy as it sounds, there was something so addictive about this game. As I said, it was basically Megamania but with a unique twist. If you've never tried out Plaque Attack, track it down. It's still one of my all-time favorites on the old 2600 and one of the most unique games I've ever played.

Klonoa Coming to Playstation Store!

That's right platformer fans, one of the greatest platformers ever made is coming to the Playstation 3 Store and before long you'll be able to play this timeless classic on your Playstation 3 or PSP systems. The PEGI has just recently rated the classic Playstation One title so it shouldn't be too long before we see it pop up on the Playstation Store. Maybe if people will fork over the money this time around we might actually get a Klonoa 3 someday. Since the original PS1 game disc goes for in excess of $60 on ebay, this download will seem surprisingly cheap in comparison. Don't miss this outstanding game when it does become available. it's one of the best!

Densetsu no Stafi 2 review up!

I finally took a break from the Densetsu no Stafi 2 FAQ to write up the review for the game. It's now live on the Salt Water Stafi site so take a look at it if this game interests you. It was a great sequel to the first title. I'm going to finish up the Stafi 2 FAQ and then I'll get the Densetsu no Stafi 3 review up. Click on the Stafi 2 box art above to visit the Densetsu no Stafi 2 review on Salt Water Stafi.

Densetsu no Stafi 2 FAQ/Walkthrough

Well after 6 months of working on it here and there I have finally finished the complete walkthrough for Densetsu no Stafi 2. I took on this work at the urging of a fellow online gamer who agreed to do the second half of the game if I'd take the first half. Well needless to say, after a week or so I never got anymore replies back from him so I had to end up finishing the entire FAQ myself. I've now got every regular level in the game done and now all that's left is the bonus levels. Once you complete the game it opens up 22 new bonus levels for you to play. I'll add those to the faq in the near future. But at least Stafi 2 finally has a FAQ. Click on the FAQ logo above to visit the Densetsu no Stafi 2 FAQ/Walkthrough.

Omega Five and Tron hit Xbox Live Arcade

Get ready for two great games making their way to the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. First off there's the hotly anticipated shoot em' up Omega Five from Hudson. This game looks incredible and if the gameplay is as intense as that found in the trailer, this should become one of the hottest Xbox Live Arcade downloads to date. Old school shooter fans have a lot to look forward to with this side-scrolling space monstrosity. Next up is the classic arcade coin-op Tron. Anyone who spent any time at all in arcades back in the early 80's knows what a fantastic arcade title this was. Now the game comes home with updated high-definition visuals and a CD-quality soundtrack to go along with it. Omega Five will set you back 800 MS Points while Tron will only cost you a mere 400 MS Points. Both are well worth every penny, in my opinion. This is truly an outstanding week for the Xbox Live Arcade. I'll post impressions of both games on Wednesday. Until then...enjoy!

High-definition format war already over?

While it might be a bit too early to declare an outright winner in the high-definition media market, it's safe to say that HD-DVD might not be out the door just yet but it's definitely being handed its hat. It's hard to believe that the HD-DVD format started out so strongly but has since began to slowly fade the way of Beta. Today Warner Bros. announced that they would no longer be making their movies available on the HD-DVD format starting in May and plan to only release future movie titles on DVD and Blu-Ray disc. This is yet another devastating blow to Toshiba's HD-DVD format and, in all honesty, could be the final nail in the coffin for the HD-DVD. Blu-Ray now has five movie studios on their side to HD-DVDs two. Not good odds at all considering we're still less than a year into this format war.

It would be easy to throw a bunch of stuffy sales figures around or talk about different exclusive movie titles, but I think the overall picture can be just as easily assessed by looking at the movie selections of each format in video sale and rental outlets. I've visited various stores that carry movies over the past week and there's no question in my mind that Blu-Ray is winning the war and winning it big. Most stores have a much larger Blu-Ray selection compared to their HD-DVD counterparts, and some stores have given up selling HD-DVD titles altogether. There was not one single retail outlet that I visited that didn't have at least twice as many Blu-Ray titles as they had HD-DVD movies. It reminded me of the VHS and Beta war many years ago. I had just blown almost a $1000 on a brand new Sony Betamax video cassette player only to see the Beta movie selection at rental stores gradually reduced to nothing. About the only difference this time around is that this time Sony is on the winning end of things. How times have changed.

it begs the question, "Would HD-DVD have had a better chance if Microsoft had included an HD-DVD drive in their Xbox 360 console the way Sony did with the Blu-Ray drive in their Playstation 3 console?" As of December 2007, less than 15% of Xbox 360 owners actually own the external HD-DVD player. Of course every Playstation 3 owner has a Blu-Ray player as it comes built-in. I guess now we know why Sony was so stubborn in their costly decision to include a Blu-Ray drive inside each and every Playstation 3 console, especially since Blu-Ray is Sony's proprietary format. Maybe that's what has propelled Blu-Ray to the early lead, and maybe it's the studios that decided to ultimately go with Blu-Ray for their movie releases. At this point it doesn't really matter as HD-DVD is slowly fading and I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done to turn things around for the slumping format. Maybe it's time for these two remaining studios to accept the fact that they made a mistake and let's narrow this down to a single format and get on with our lives.

I still believe that having two competing formats is what has kept many people from moving up to the high-definition medium. For a long time these companies have blamed poor sales of high-definition movies on the high price tags of the players but that excuse is no longer valid. Now that the players are extremely affordable, sales are still not picking up the way many of these companies had hoped signifying that there's still other obstacles to overcome, namely the fact that most people don't want to choose a format and end up being wrong about it. There's still too many consumers that got burned during the VHS/Beta wars and people don't want to spend $30 a pop for these movies only to have to turn around in a year's time and have to re-purchase all of their movies on the format that ended up winning out. Maybe once we get this thing narrowed down to one single format more people will jump aboard the high-definition train and we can get this new format rolling along. One thing is clear, it's obvious that this format war is going to come to an end a lot sooner than many predicted.