3D World Runner

I've rewritten my entry three times now because, really, what the hell does one say about this game? An early game from Square, the company that would go on to dominate the world with Final Fantasy, that is not an RPG--has no RPG elements!--and doesn't feature whiny, bland, spiky-haired protagonists?

Even without taking into account Square's future oeuvre, 3D WorldRunner is a weird game. It's a side-scroller without the side. Your character (called "Jack" in Japan and "WorldRunner" in the U.S. Super clever, those boys at Square), runs ever forward on a faux-3D plane. Occasionally there are pits that you must jump over, some enemies to get in your way, and some items to pick up.

 Oh, and you get items by running headfirst into pillars. And the designers decided that after their entire player base had been indoctrinated by Super Mario Bros. to think that mushrooms are good to make the mushrooms in this game instantly kill you. Awesome. This is why manuals for older games were and are so highly prized: imagine renting this game and trying to play it without access to the manual. Most players see an obstacle and try to go around it. Until I looked it up on GameFAQs it never occurred to me to run into the pillars. Why would you?

The game also had a gimmick. You could hit a button to make it go 3D, which really means the image is split and you need special glasses to make it look half as good as it did before.

I can categorically state no one has ever played 3D WorldRunner in 3D mode.

Wiki has this to say: "The gaming store Electronics Boutique, however, was forced to implement an organization-wide ban on 3D World Runner displays after numerous patrons, confused by the novel 3-D nature of the game, consistently ran into the walls of the store, disturbing the other shoppers." Perhaps people thought they were supposed to move to make the guy move? I dunno. This sounds like a prime candidate for Snopes. 

Still, it would've been neat to combine the 3D bit with the Power Pad, maybe the Zapper for some proto-Time Crisis action.

 This game is definitely on my short list for "Games that looked so awesome when I was a kid, but really, really suck, and boy am I glad I never actually played it 'til now." Or GTLSAWIWAKBRRSABAIGINAPITN, as it's known on the forums.

Time played: 2 hours.
How was it?: Briefly? "This is lame. No, it's actually pretty fun. Whee! Huge jumps! Wait, no continues? Fuck this game." Will you play it again?: No. The core idea's kinda fun, but seriously, fuck this game.

1943

With 1943 Capcom took the solid core that was 1942 and made everything better; the animation in particular received a great-looking overhaul. It also introduces slight RPG elements: your plane has stats (offensive and defensive power, special move power, etc.) that you upgrade by shooting down the red planes. And, eschewing any semblance of historical accuracy you can call down lightning to destroy everything on screen. Not the best shmup on the NES but a great sequel and very good game that holds up twenty years later.








Time played: 15 minutes.
How was it?: Fun. Solid mechanics and great improvements over 1942.
Will you play it again?: If I'm in the mood for a shooter and I'm tired of Ikaruga, sure.

1942

There was some controversy a few years ago when Electronic Arts released a World War II-era shooter that took place in the Pacific Theater. For Westerners it was a nice change of pace as most WWII games are set in Europe. For the Japanese it was weird to kill digital representations of the grandparents.

Or apparently not.

 So it's a little weird that in this game, made by Japanese developer Capcom, has... I'll just let Wikipedia tell it: "...the goal is to reach Tokyo and destroy the entire Japanese air fleet." Yikes. For years I thought that this was rebranding done for the Western market, but no: that is the actual goal.

 For those of you that care about these things, 1942 is a top-down, vertical-scrolling shooter. You control a plane and shoot down other planes, with help from a few power-ups.

  Sidebar: Where did the term "power-up" come from? Again, Wiki has the answer: "'Power-up' and '1-up' are examples of a common form of wasei-eigo (Japanese pseudo-Anglicisms), in which the word "up" is prefixed by some desirable quality. The general meaning of X-up in Japanese is 'this will increase your X' and this construction is regularly used in areas such as advertising. This is similar to another phrase, X get!, as seen in Super Mario Sunshine's Japanese version's 'Shine Get!' phrase." Wonder how it moved over to the West. Also wondering if maybe I should do this by release year and if it's not too late to change.../Sidebar

Capcom games tend to age well, and 1942 is no exception. It does show its age with sticky controls and odd enemy patterns, but the core gameplay is solid: shoot, dodge enemy bullets, repeat. The sound is beyond excruciating, though. It's nothing but sharp beeps and dull drones. Mute it and put on some tunes of your own and you'll enjoy the experience a lot more.
Time played: 15 minutes.
How was it?: Thumbs up.
Will you play it again?: Probably not, since the superior-in-every-way 1943 exists.