Gaming Memories: Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Road Runner's Death Valley Rally

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

November 1992

Bllbllblllblll- beep beep!

...I had to.

In this one, we control Road Runner as he speeds and jumps through five worlds while avoiding Wile E. Coyote's ACME-powered attempts to capture him. Contrary to the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, the focus is on the bird, not on the coyote's schemes. Gameplay could, as a result, feel like a Sonic game, since we control another famed fictional speedster. Emphasis on "could".

This adventure takes us through five worlds: The southwest American Desert, at first, but afterwards we explore giant construction sites, long trains, deep underground mines, ending the chase in space, the final frontier. In every level, the dastardly coyote attacks with a different plan, most of them pulled directly from the cartoons; examples include the wingsuit, the catapult, or the Wile E. Robot. Our carefree bird has two means of attack; the main one is his beak. The second is turbo speed, which you can use by holding down the Y button while Road Runner has some energy left in a gauge, which can be refilled by pecking at bird seed conspicuously left on the road. Each world has three levels, followed by a boss battle. These larger contraptions' weak points can be damaged by the beak attack.

A point brought up by other reviewers, which makes sense now when I think back to my own experience, is that levels aren't designed to take full advantage of Road Runner's speed, being filled with a lot of traps that are too easy to fall into if you run the whole time, as you won't have enough reaction time to avoid them. This also applies to level design, with some stages being labyrinthine - owing to a side-quest involving colored flags, which Road Runner can run by to raise, with each flag found netting a bonus to your score at the end of a level.

The game would have been stronger if its stages were more often designed with the Road Runner's speed in mind. But if we disregard that point, and barring a few annoying moments, we have a decent game here. It's great seeing all these references to the cartoons, and it's even better seeing Wile E.'s plans fail in spectacular fashion - as usual. It's a Looney Tunes game, it would be missing something without the usual slapstick humor! And yes, it IS hilarious. I have good memories of this one, as you can tell. Revisiting these has gotten me itching to retry some of them...

Mario Party Superstars

This one was, and remains, one
of my favorite DS games of all.

I would say I have a love-hate relationship with the Mario Party series... but to get there, I’d need to have played more than three games in the series. I absolutely love Mario Party DS, I am not a huge fan of Mario Party 2 despite it being a fan favorite... and the third was Mario Party Advance, on an emulator, but talking about that one is like talking about the Sonic franchise by bringing up Sonic Chronicles (a turn-based RPG, yes, really).

This sub-franchise went through an awkward period in the 2010s. In its ninth and tenth entries, characters travelled together on the board in the same vehicle. Whatever happened to competing for Stars? It feels like something’s missing if you can’t be cruel to the others on the board as well as in the minigames. This led to an uphill climb, which I’m not entirely sure the Mario Party series has finished – newer entries work to win back the crowd, whether it’s the minigame-only “The Top 100” for the Nintendo 3DS or the back-to-basics “Super Mario Party” for the Switch.

Also back to basics is today’s entry, Mario Party Superstars, which features five boards selected from the first three games in the franchise, as well as 100 minigames. Developed by NDcube and released on October 29th, 2021, Superstars is a celebration of the subseries’ long history, perhaps the best yet. Let’s see how that goes.

You are the superstar!

Ten characters come to the Village Square, formerly known as Mushroom Village in the first Mario Party, to duke it out on boards and in minigames. The classic six present since the series’ inception (Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Wario and Donkey Kong), two regulars who joined early on (Daisy and Waluigi) and two later additions (Birdo and Rosalina).

Only 10 come to the party? That's rookie numbers!

I envy the Yoshi sleeping in the melon slice.

There are five boards: Yoshi’s Tropical Island and Peach’s Birthday Cake from MP1, Space Land and Horror Land from MP2, and Woody Woods from MP3. Would it have been too much to have a second board from MP3? Several items from the franchise’s history have been added, and some boards were updated. As an example, items weren’t in MP1, so its boards are revised to include them, as well as an item shop. In a few cases, a board’s path was modified, with one example being Peach’s Birthday Cake.

Gaming Memories: B.O.B.

B.O.B.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

June 1993

No, not the flat-earther rapper.

I said before that when I got my SNES, it was a gift from cousins leaving for university, so I inherited their collection as well. Some classics, and some stuff I had never heard of. Heck, stuff that's barely heard of. Like today's game.

B.O.B. is a part of the run-and-gun genre - same genre as Contra, but this is the funny cousin in the family. B.O.B. is a teenage robot taking the family car to go on a date. However, the teen gets distracted while driving in an asteroid field and crashes the car, landing on a large asteroid with alien bases and enemies on the way. He makes his way through, finds a new car, and heads onwards to his date. Guess what? Another crash, another landing. This happens a third time, poor guy. Oh, he does get to his date in the end. But he's gonna be a few hours late.

Our protagonist has access to six different weapons, and you can cycle through them with the L button of the SNES controller. All guns have ammunition, and you can run out of ammo... though if you do, B.O.B. can still use his fist to attack. The standout mechanic here, however, may be the Remotes, six items you can pick up and use. One's a trampoline, one is a mini-helicopter, one is a protective force field, one is an umbrella that slows his fall... These add nice variety to gameplay, and when necessary to beat a stage, they'll be plentiful. You can cycle through Remotes with the R button.

You run and shoot your way through 45 stages. It's been a long time since I last played this game, so I don't remember all of it, but I do know there was a nice variety in terms of dungeon types. Further down the line, stages can get downright labyrinthine. Some levels have memorable moments, and I recall the use of a floating ship to get through some of them, so gameplay changes now and then. The bosses all look friggin' cool, as well: Robots, aliens, fire elementals, ghosts... Also of note is the comedic tone from the story, retained in the many ways in which B.O.B. can die. Exploded to bits, melted into a puddle, disintegrated... 

The game worked with a password system­. When you finish some stages, you got a password made of six digits, and you could input that password from the title screen to get roughly where you were at. I don't remember ever beating the game in a single sitting, I do remember playing through its stages and eventually beating it thanks to the passwords. Because, damn, was it really tough. It's a difficult game. I still consider it a point of pride that I did win in the end. Critics consider it average, and maybe with the added time since I would think so as well, who knows. I probably should get an emulator and play it again... But I have fond memories of it, so maybe you'll enjoy it too.

Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves

I don’t get to discuss my culture as much as I’d like to on this blog. The province of Quebec is home to many notable studios, large and indie. I make a point to mention it when I know a game I’m reviewing was Made In Quebec. But even then, very few games show our folklore.

Plaid shirts, beards, axes and determination are a
mandatory part of the package.

I know we don’t have the luster of the more famous mythologies out there, but you’ve gotta give us a chance. Only in this part of the world will you see stories of Christian lumberjacks defending their cabin and sister, in the dead of winter, from an army of werewolves conjured by the Devil himself. That’s metal. We Canadians get stereotyped as nice guys. You see what our ancestors had to deal with? We channel our aggressivity where it matters; hockey, and kicking Satan's ass.

Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves was developed by Artifice Studio and released on April 5th, 2013. Its story was co-written by Quebec author Bryan Perro, known for the Amos Daragon and Wariwulf book series and a major advocate of our folkloric tales for the world at large. The game is now free on Steam and GOG, though I reecall purchasing it several years ago.

Don’t expect us to put on the kiddie gloves. We’re showing our mythology, warts and all. Pack your winter gear, there’s gonna be a lot of snow. Silver bullets and holy water might help, too.

Sang Froid, lit. Cold Blood

In the introduction, we witness a man, Doctor Lamontagne, killed by wild beasts before he could find the refuge of the nearest cabin. When we begin playing, we choose one of the two Irish-Canadian O’Carroll brothers: Joseph (Jos) or Jacques (Jack). Jos, a big, burly guy, has more stamina and higher base attack, while Jacques is more lacking in both. Jos is the normal difficulty option, and Jacques, the high difficulty one.

Considering what we're up against...
I'm gonna go with the muscle.