Kieren Hawken - The A-Z of Super Nintendo Games: Volume 1

Ocean Software were probably best known for their outstanding output on the many home micros of the late 80s and early 90s. Their forte was licences, whether they be movies or arcade games, and this was one their most prestigious of the time. You play the part of Gomez Addams, played by the late great Raul Julia in the movie, in this Super Mario Bros. clone. Loosely based on the movie, you must make your way around the grounds and many rooms of the Addams mansion trying to find the lost family fortune. Wads of cash and bags of money have been left everywhere and are being guarded by all sorts of spooks and nasty creatures. Gomez can walk, jump and duck and in order to kill the enemies you must jump on their heads in true Mario style. The mansion is huge with many rooms, secret passages and catacombs underneath. There is certainly lots of exploration to be done here before you can complete it. The graphics are very nice indeed with vibrant backdrops, cartoony sprites and a great intro sequence. The classic theme song plays on the title screen but the in-game soundtrack is somewhat more subdued sadly, but still pretty suitable nonetheless. The Addams Family is a long way from being original, especially on a system with no shortage of more than competent platformers, but it does what it does very well and thats what counts most.

8/10

I dont keep it a secret that Im a huge Atari fan. From the moment I first played a 2600 I fell in love and the journey through the Atari ST, Lynx and Jaguar only cemented this passion. Not just their consoles though, as a big arcade gamer I was well aware of their extensive works in this field too, which contains many of their finest titles. So a collection like this is an absolute no brainer for me six classic arcade games on one cartridge for the same price as a normal game? Shut up and take my money! The games on offer here are Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Super Breakout and Tempest . Every single one of them is the very definition of a classic - titles I have spent more time with than I care to count over the years. With this collection Midway have made some slight adjustments to cater for the screen ratio, Centipede and Super Breakout being the most notable examples, but otherwise the conversions are nigh on perfect. They even attempted to replicate the vector-based visuals of Tempest and Asteroids accurately! Midway also added in two-player options for many of the games as well as difficulty modes and high score tables. Many people dismissed these games as old hat when this collection was released in 1997, especially with it coming so late in the SNES life, but there is no doubt these games have aged less than many others on the system!

9/10

If you ask somebody what the best shoot em up on the Super Nintendo is then chances are they are going to reply Axelay . Konamis game has not only built up a reputation as one of the systems best shooters though, its also been famed over the years for its amazing graphical effects too and remains a SNES exclusive. Supposedly the game started off as a spin-off of the hugely-popular Gradius series but soon evolved into much more. However there are still some clear influences there, especially from the second game Salamander (AKA Life Force ), such as the way it combines both horizontal and vertically scrolling stages. The gameplay in Axelay varies quite a bit from similar shooters in that instead of the player collecting weapon power-ups dropped by enemies you actually earn more advanced weapons as you progress through the game. There are three weapon types in total: a standard laser, special weapon and a bomb. You can freely switch between each of these weapons as you play. At the end of each level a new more powerful variation of one of these types of weapons is added to your arsenal. You can then modify your fighter to suit the needs of the next level. I did already mention that the graphics in Axelay are stunning, but I should also add that the music and sound effects are top notch too. I dont think I need to tell you that this title remains a SNES essential.