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Interesting Games

Moderators: Bill Loguidice, David Torre, crcasey, Mark1970, deshrill

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Matt Barton

Fri Feb 13 2004, 05:22PM

Location: Tampa, Florida
posts 2680

I had an idea this afternoon to complile a rather odd list: Games that are really quite forgettable, not really fun to play, not really memorable in and of themselves, BUT for various reasons are interesting in a particular context. Did you get all that?

Let me give you some examples.
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker by Sega. Strangely enough, all the recent hype about Wacko Jacko has not produced any discourse concerning this 1990 Sega title. Given Jackson's questionable association with youth and rather dubious sexuality, some aspects of this game are stunning. For instance, your mission is to save children. You get powerups by touching a monkey. Oh, I forgot. There's lots of dancing.

A Rockstate Ate my Hamster What weirdness. I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that I spent far too many hours with this weirdo videogame during some rather formative years of my late adolescence. The game is so poorly put together that at times it feels like a hack, or perhaps a joke in rather poor taste. It makes fun of just about every popstar of the late 80s, including Wacko Jacko, but also including people like Morrisey and Phil Collins. The graphics are horrible, even for a Commodore 64, but this game has some humor. The song titles are absolutely hilarious. Call me crazy, but there is just something about this game that's special, more or less in the way that a low-budget Monty Python skit is worth watching over and over. Call this one a "cult classic."

Smurfhunt. Again. Don't hunt this down game thinking that you've missed some vital part of your gaming past. This game is definitely not worth mentioning. That said, let me mention that it's probably one of the first well-done parodic use of a shoot'em up construction kit. The smurfs look legit, and there is something satisfying about blasting a whole bunch of annoying blue "Others" into tiny bits. I think that Smurfhunt was a turning point, at least for the Amiga public domain scene. Since Smurfhunt, silly ass shooter parodies are common; only the Great Twinkie knows how many political figures have been the butt of bad videogame jokes.

Terramex. What the heck is this game? A flying vacuum cleaner? Politically incorrect slave-based laborers and buck-toothed Asian? Catchy sound track? This is a game that I've never heard anybody mention, but this little @%@$@ sucked down some major hours of Matt's life. It doesn't help that the game is hard as hell and has no SAVE option. NOTE: I came to this game via Amiga, not C-64, if that helps....?

Albedo. I'll be honest. I never understood a word of this game. That could be because it was in French. However, it sure as hell looked cool. I could never tell if I were winning or losing this spacey game, but it sure was fun. The music was catchy, the gameplay was weird, frustrating, yet captivating. To this day I can't tell you anything about this game other than I sure wish I knew more about it. Translations, anyone??

[ Edited ]

Matt Barton

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