Bargain/Bin

From the bargain bins in your high street game shop, to car boot sales and pawn shops, you can find second-hand games cheap as chips all over the place. Our boys, Brian and Phil, have been out trying to find the best, and worst, of them. This week they have gone back a little further and have dusted off an old Super Nintendo to play some proper retro videogames.

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The only rule of Bargain/Bin; if it's under a fiver then it's fair game.

Zombies Ate My Neighbours!

Ah it feels good to plug in a cartridge again. When we slotted Zombies in, the music which greeted us near perfectly defined the game. Funny and well composed at first, by level four we were thinking that we had had enough of it's tinkly ice-cream-van-at-Halloween cheery fun. By then though we had bigger problems, our duffer senses were tingling.

Large, attractive, colourful graphics, lots of different pickups and loads of different monsters scream fun. And it is fun, for a bit.. Starting off with water pistols we soon picked up various other weapons including grenades, fire extinguishers and rocket launchers. These weapons are more powerful but ammo is far more limited. This wouldn't be a problem if we could actually hit anything, but being just slightly off target was enough to miss completely, leaving us open to attack. This could be infuriating, especially with the nastier enemies who gleefully hacked chunks off our health bar as we carefully tried to correct our aim or, more often, tried to leg it!

After picking up our shattered egos and trying again, we were pleased to discover that level four was an aberration and the next few levels were much fairer. We did notice though that the next few levels were pretty much the same as the previous few. Maybe they had different monsters and were daft parodies of different classic horror movies but ultimately all you are doing is running around trying to dodge the monsters because shooting them is too much of a hassle.

There are other good bits, like the "flasks of surprise" that can turn you into a monster or the two player mode, but with little variety in the design, Zombies' humour wears thin pretty quick and that leaves you with an experience that is retro in the bad way.

Bin

Chaos Engine

Frogs! Bloody frogs! Possibly not the most common thing to cry while gaming but they're first in a long run of tough enemies. If, like us, you remember playing this game when it was new then you too have probably had its thumping techno soundtrack pulsing away at the back of your mind for fifteen years. Mum knocking on the ceiling and telling you to turn it down. As soon as we flicked it on that music started up again and joy of joys, the soundtrack at least is as awesome as ever and we can play it loud now. But how's the gameplay after all this time?

Like Zombies, this is a 2D shooter viewed from above. Chaos Engine suffers none of its problems. Everything's precise and solid, the gameplay's slower paced giving you the time you need to choose your path through your opposition. Also, you are forced to remain stationary while shooting which brings in a tactical aspect to the game.

Cash that you collect can be used to power up your characters', abilities; speed, skill, extra lives, firepower and the like. Chaos Engine also features a two player mode and was one of the first with a real sense of teamwork. If a second player isn't available though, your companion is controlled by surprisingly intelligent AI given the platform. In practice though this just means you will be chasing the AI to the cash and health instead of another player!

It isn't an easy game, far from it, but it's fair. If you die it is your fault. Maybe you weren't quick enough, maybe you wasted some special attacks earlier, maybe you panicked, but you weren't cheated. When you do lose your last life you will find yourself jumping straight back in for another try. Maybe next time we'll be able to get those damn frogs!

Bargain!

Flashback

Whatever happened to U.S. Gold? Ah well. Flashback starts with a state of the art cut scene from 1992. The story concerns our hero being shot down in a jungle swamp and waking up with no memories of what had happened. Like the morning after a heavy drinking session but with more swamp, jungle and guns.

Flashback plays much like the original Prince of Persia featuring the same running, jumping, climbing, pistol shooting, robots and Neanderthals with assault rifles. OK Prince of Persia didn't quite have all of that, being set in ancient Persia, but you get the idea. Baddies are easy to beat in general as they are pretty dumb and your character's rechargeable shield gadget weighs things even more in your favour. However it does nothing to protect you from the environment: electrified floors, long drops and other hazards waiting to send you back to your last savepoint at the slightest lapse in concentration.

The game has an endearing plot which is mostly told through imagery rather than words and takes you through a nice selection of Sci-Fi locations with a good deal of of puzzles, all of which helps hold your attention. The puzzles can involve items you collect such as teleporters, batteries and card keys or simple stones that you can use to trigger lift sensors. Unless you throw them by mistake and have to go and find them again. Some of these puzzles are fiendish adding to both the challenge and satisfaction of the game.

Revolutionary at the time, Flashback was a pre-cursor to other 2D adventure-platformers in the PSone era and has plenty of style to be an enjoyable and memorable romp from the past.

Bargain