Spring Training Reviews

On 04/22/2022 at 06:25 PM by Cary Woodham

It’s time to work out and get buff with a strict regimen of reading my recent reviews over at GamerDad.com! Please click on the links and read as many as you can and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d really appreciate it. OK let’s begin!

Taito Milestones (Switch)

Video game maker Taito has a lot of history behind it. Just as much as other long-time developers such as Namco and even Nintendo! Some of the games they’ve made you’ve surely heard of, like Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Bust-A-Move, and many, many more. And now there’s a collection of classic Taito games on the Switch, so let’s take a look at what’s on there!

Pac-Man Models and Figurines

A while back I bought a couple of Pac-Man model kits and figurines that I found on sale, so I though I’d write about them here. You all know how I like Pac-Man!

Time Loader (Switch)

In the mid 90s, a boy named Alex slips on a toy car in his tree house and falls to the ground, causing him to be paralyzed and bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He grows up to be a scientist and invents a time machine so he can send a robot back in time to destroy the car that he slipped on so none of that would happen. In Time Loader, you control the robot he sent back in time as you explore a giant house and surroundings. The robot has wheels and a claw arm, but you can gather upgrades as you progress. But when you destroy the car in the past, the present is still the same, but a cat causes Alex to fall from the tree house instead. So when you get rid of the cat, you make the timeline worse because a house fire happens later because rats chew through wires because the cat wasn’t there to chase them away. So you’ll travel back and forth from the mid to late 90s as you try and set the timeline right again. Time Loader is a 2-D physics based puzzle platformer available for nearly all current game consoles, but reviewed on Switch here.

Wife Quest (PS4)

Humble farmer Fernando happily lives with his devoted, yet hot-headed wife Mia. But one day, demon girls decide to kidnap Fernando and try to tempt him away from Mia, but she’s not having any of that! Mia takes up her sword and goes after those licentious demons in Wife Quest, a 2-D platformer with pixel art style graphics.

Big Bang Pro Wrestling (Switch)

Regular readers of my reviews and podcast may know that I’m a big fan of SNK and their handheld NEO GEO Pocket Color. It came out in the late 90s to compete with the Game Boy Color and had some awesome games on it. Including one I even liked more than Pokémon (SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash). A lot of NGPC games have been re-released on the Switch in the past couple of years, and the newest one to enter the ring is Big Bang Pro Wrestling. I had never heard of this one, which surprised me, but then, I’ve never been into wrestling games. I figured it was one that had never been released in the US, but the game is in English so maybe it was!

Thunder Kid: Hunt for the Robot Emperor (PS4)

Thunder Kid is a 3-D run and gun action game with retro-styled polygonal graphics that make it look like a PSOne game. The story has something to do with a future war between the US and Canada, and robots taking over, but all you really need to know is that you are Thunder Kid and you must shoot all the robots.

Flat Kingdom: Paper’s Cut Edition (Switch)

In a pop-up book paper kingdom, magical jewels keep things in balance. But when a ninja steals the jewels, it’s up to a little brave hero to save the day. This little hero can fold into different shapes to solve puzzles, bypass obstacles, and defeat enemies. Flat Kingdom: Paper’s Cut Edition is a 2-D puzzle platformer and is available on nearly all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

Fingun (Switch)

Fingun is a silly and quirky Japanese style horizontal shooter. You control a gloved hand pointed in the shape of a gun (think Master Hand from Smash Bros.) as you fire bullets at crazy bosses. It kind of reminds me of a mix of WarioWare and Sexy Parodius.

And that’s all for now! You should all be super buff from reading all those reviews now! Thanks for reading and posting ‘likes’ and comments. Later! --Cary

KnightDriver

04/23/2022 at 07:44 PM

I'll take a Taito Milestones and a Pac-Man model please.

Cary Woodham

04/24/2022 at 08:36 AM

I wasn't really impressed with Taito Milestones. We were spoiled on the PS2 with Taito Legends 1 and 2, which had nearly triple the games on each one!

You know Pac-Man had arms and legs in the original arcade artwork for Pac-Man, right? And if he didn't have arms and legs, we wouldn't have such great games like Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures and Pac-Man World. But then, the really good Pac-Man games are him just being a ball, like Pac-Man Arrangment, Pac-Mania, and Pac-Man Championship Edition. All of which are going to be on Pac-Man Museum+.

Thanks for reading!

04/27/2022 at 02:57 PM

Me neither but I'll take it.

Yeah, I know he's been secretly a humanoid from the start but it gives me nightmares. Why can't he be just like that beholder creature in DnD. Ha ha.

Seeing this now makes me wonder what a horror themed Pac-Man game would look like. I wouldn't have to be super scary, just a Halloween style spooktacular.

04/27/2022 at 03:19 PM

Well there's already ghosts in Pac-Man, so a horror game wouldn't be too far off. Maybe they can make it be Pac-Man's take on Luigi's Mansion?

04/27/2022 at 03:31 PM

Yeah, I'd love that for Halloween!

SanAndreas

04/24/2022 at 04:12 PM

The Taito Milestones collection was lacking. Where were Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Arkanoid? What about classics like Space Dungeon, Zoo Keeper, Rastan, Jungle Hunt?

I've heard that Bandai Namco is pretty much abandoning Ms. Pac-Man because of all the legal hoops they have to jump through with ATGames. That sucks. I'd have also liked to see Jr. Pac-Man on a collection.

04/24/2022 at 08:40 PM

I've been reading about Namco changing Ms. Pac-Man to be Pac-Mom, too. It's crazy. You'd think Namco and ATGames could come to an agreement.

04/28/2022 at 05:23 PM

Apparenty ATGames did a Namco plug-in game that Namco felt was far short of its standards, and ATGames got a little snotty about their criticism. So I think Ms. Pac-Man is probably long gone.

PixlBit