May 1988 Computer Entertainer
As we gear up for the summer CES trade show next month, some third party licensees are already letting loose some of their announcements. Konami and Ultra have revealed their lineups for the rest of the year. Perhaps most exciting is that Konami is bringing out Simon’s Quest, a direct sequel to Castlevania! This time around you must round up Dracula’s body parts to vanquish him once and for all. We’ve been told this one will be more of an adventure game than a straight up action title like the original.
Also on deck from Konami is a pseudo-sequel to Gradius: Life Force. You’ll find some of the same power-ups and intense space battle action, but this time around you can invite a friend along for the ride! That’s right, another co-op game from Konami! Let’s hope it’s as good as Contra.
Konami also has Track & Field 2, Blades of Steel (hockey game), and The Adventures of Bayou Billy in the works. All of these games are supposed to make it out this year, but we have a feeling that the chip shortage may bump a few into next year.
Ultra (a subsidiary of Konami) is bringing us Metal Gear, Skate or Die (a popular skateboarding game), Defender of the Crown, and something called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Apparently these turtles are set to take over the world with marketing across every imaginable space: toys, cartoons, clothing, and video games!
Other new game announcements include: Platoon from Sunsoft, Willow from Capcom, and Paperboy & 720 from Mindscape. We expect a bunch more games will make waves at the CES.
On the review side of things, Computer Entertainer has rendered its verdict on Super Pitfall, and we couldn’t disagree more. They gave it a 3.5 out of 4 in graphics and 3.5 out of 4 in entertainment. Sorry, but this is just so outrageously high that we just had to comment. Not only is the game ugly by any standards set in the last year for the NES, but it’s just not a fun game to play. There are way too many cheap deaths and the exploration aspect of the game was done better with the Commodore 64 version of Pitfall II. Stay far away from this one and get The Goonies II instead.
As we reported last week, Nintendo and its third parties have discontinued a wide swath of NES Game Paks. This is due to the chip shortage and the lack of retail space. So be sure to grab these before they’re gone forever.
You can download the full issue right here.
Computer Entertainer - May 1988
Computer Entertainer Review Guidelines:
THE RATING SYSTEM:
4 SYMBOLS = EXCELLENT
3 SYMBOLS = GOOD
2 SYMBOLS = FAIR
1 SYMBOL = POOR
♦ = ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS (1st set of diamonds = quality of graphics; 2nd set = quality of game play and entertainment value)
Any program for a given system is compared only to other programs for the same system. In other words, all C64-compatibles are judged separately from Apple. Some programs, which are virtually identical for multiple systems, will be so noted. When we review software for more than one system, we will note differences and which system we reviewed.
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
