5 Minutes/5 Games: Volume 1

On 5 minutes/5 games, I shall randomly choose 5 games that I've never played before from my emulators gigantic collection of old games, and give you my 5 minute impression of these games. Hopefully this will give both of us a chance to see games that we never have before.


1. Captain Planet and the Planeteers
The game starts off as a side-scrolling shooter, like Defender. Wikipedia says that this one of two types of levels in the game. It was actually difficult, I died about 5 times during the course of my 5 minute playing session. The controls weren't smooth, and it was more frustrating than anything else.

Will I play this again? Nope.


2. Castelian
Here's a game I had never heard of before. This is actually really fun. My goal seems to be to climb up this tower, and not die in the process. There are passageways through the tower, falling blocks, elevators, bad guys, and I can shoot. It took a minute of getting used to it, but it's pretty intuitive. There's also a time limit, so you have to act fast. This has been released on the Wii VC as Nebulus. I recommend it.

Will I play this again? Absolutely.


3. Deja Vu
A point and click adventure/mystery game. I wake up in a bathroom not knowing who or where I am, nor where the blood on my hand came from. The controls feel a little clunky, but that's to be expected when you're controlling a cursor with the d-pad. Seems pretty fun, straightforward enough so far.

Will I play this again? Maybe. I wouldn't go out of my way to, but if I came across it again, sure.


4. Genghis Khan
A strategy game where you control the Mongolian armies. It starts off RPG-like, where I'm rolling for my stats, choosing names, etc. I now have the option to give orders, like train, tax, war, etc. I train once, which entails nothing other than being told my skill has gone up. Not very exciting. What is exciting? War! How many troops would I like to send to attack my neighboring country? All of them! Exterminated... me, not them. Next up is an incoming attack from a neighbor. I lose, since I have no troops. This has potential, but it would require understanding the strategy.

Will I play this again? Probably not.


5. Ikari Warriors
It turns out Captain Planet isn't the worst game of the five, Ikari Warriors is. The idea is basic, I'm a commando whose plane crashes, and I have to fight a bunch of bad guys (including ninjas) who shoot at me. How could you go wrong? Awkward controls. It's an NES, so I'm not expecting super smooth controls, but these are just too difficult to play with.

Will I play this again? Certainly not.

Winner: Castelian
Loser: Ikari Warriors

Godspeed.