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About this blog

This is arnpoly's blog chronicling his effort to beat and review every licensed NES game plus more!  Featuring links to written reviews and gameplay videos.

Entries in this blog

#151 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Taito)

I have seen all of the Indiana Jones movies, even the fourth one that everyone seems to want to forget ever happened.  I watched them all just once, all in a row, probably 10 years ago or more by now.  It was so long ago that I forgot pretty much everything from any of the movies, but not so long ago that I remembered that I enjoyed this one the most.  That seems to fall in line with the consensus of the series.  This movie had to have been well loved because the NES ended up with two video game
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#150 - Double Dribble

Hey, it’s another milestone post!  Finally made it to #150!  The milestones on the 50s have been pretty kind to me so far.  Let’s recap.  Game #50 was Dragon Warrior, which is a very nostalgic game from my childhood and a nice one for that spot on the list.  Game #100 was Milon’s Secret Castle.  While not the most classic title to remember, it was one I played a lot growing up.  Plus, I got to beat the second loop for the first time which was nice.  So, I was pretty excited to get to #150, only
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#149 - Raid on Bungeling Bay

It’s been awhile since I’ve played a game that brought me to a point of real frustration and anger.  I think as I’m getting older, I am mellowing out a little bit and I put up with a lot more in my gaming.  I have to if I’m going to play all these NES games, and I also need to set a good example for my kids.  Thankfully as I played this game alone late at night, I could vent my frustration a little.  I didn’t go full out tantrum or anything, but I spent a fair amount of time visibly upset at thi
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#148 - Gyromite

NES Black Box games are always worth celebrating for being the fun launch titles that helped propel the NES to great success in the 1980s.  I like to celebrate Gyromite both as a launch title and the introduction of the world to R.O.B.  He was the gateway of the introduction to the NES in the North American market and we should be eternally grateful to him for that.  Unfortunately, beyond his two launch games, he was relegated to closets gathering dust.  I'm here as part of a micro-revival to pu
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#147 - The Ren & Stimpy Show: Buckaroo$!

The Ren & Stimpy Show really came out of nowhere.  At the time, kids TV network Nickelodeon decided to create some original cartoons they called Nicktoons.  The first three Nicktoons were Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show.  We were a Nickelodeon household and I watched those three shows a lot as a kid.  Of the three, though, Ren & Stimpy was the one I was least interested in.  Maybe that says something about me as a person, I don't know.  For Nickelodeon, Ren & Stimpy was
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#146 - Arch Rivals

It's another basketball game!  This one though has a little bit of pedigree as it seems to be the inspiration or prototype for NBA Jam, which I think is still one of the most fondly remembered basketball games.  I don't play many sports games but I did play a lot of NBA Jam.  This was a pretty fun game, but it is lacking a little in substance and not one I think I'll go back to.   Full Review: http://takeontheneslibrary.com/finished/146-arch-rivals/    
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#145 - The Magic of Scheherazade

Today I am covering a game that I was very excited to try out and see what it was about.  I read about and saw pictures of The Magic of Scheherazade in old gaming magazines I had growing up.  It seemed interesting but the game never crossed my path so I never got to try it out.  I was expecting the game to be somewhat like a Zelda clone, and I guess in some ways that's true.  The game definitely has more to it than meets the eye.  Put it all together and this is a pretty neat NES game that often
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#144 - Wheel of Fortune

Wheel of Fortune has become one of the longest running game shows of all time that is still incredibly popular.  You can find it on TV at its normal timeslot like clockwork.  It's nice to have a least a little stability in our lives!  It was popular enough during the NES lifespan that there were four different Wheel of Fortune games.  Most of them don't distinguish themselves in any meaningful way, but since this is the first one in the series and first one I've played for this project, this gam
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#143 - Snake Rattle N Roll

Snake Rattle N Roll is a game that intrigued me from the beginning.  I randomly bought a copy of the game knowing that it was something fun.  I have a sort of fondness for isometric games, such as Solstice, Equinox, and Super Mario RPG.  Before real 3D rendering, especially on console, this was the best we got for these kinds of games.  These games do suffer from perspective issues and no depth perception, but under the right conditions they can be fun.  I had a really good time with Snake Rattl
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The Take On The NES Library 2019 Year In Review

This is my first time promoting one on these on VGS!  This was a long, time consuming thing to put together, but I like how these turn out in the end.  I had the idea at the start of this project to do an awards show type of post where I go over every game played in the prior year and assign them to a bunch of categories.  It's a fun way to go back over some neat (and sometimes frustrating) things that happen as sort of a "best of" of the year.  These articles of mine get bigger and bigger every
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#142 - Metal Gear

I'm not sure there's a lot I can add to the conversation about Metal Gear.  The series was one that took all of video games by storm during the PS1/PS2 era, and here I was way on the outside.  I have always been a Nintendo kid, happy to play Marios and Zeldas forever, and so I was never even really interested in Metal Gear Solid.  I did eventually write my wrongs for at least the first three games in the series, and though I look back on that experience fondly, I did struggle through the games a
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#141 - Bases Loaded II: Second Season

It's the end of January, which means it will soon be February, which means pitchers and catchers will soon be reporting to Spring Training, which means baseball is just around the corner!  Even if things don't get into full swing until late March, it is still exciting to have the buzz in the air, however faint.  For me, in a way, baseball never really ended like it normally does.  Almost a couple of weeks into the offseason, I started up a playthrough of Bases Loaded II.  This is another game th
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#140 - Space Shuttle Project

Space Shuttle Project is one of the more surprising games I've come across for this project.  You wouldn't know what kind of game it was until you looked at the back of the box or read the manual.  This game has a little bit of everything, combined with very nice presentation and graphics.  The bad part is that the game sinks into repetitiveness rather quickly, which is a shame because before that I had a lot of fun discovering this game. Review: #140 - Space Shuttle Project  
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#139 - Wild Gunman

It's time for another Black Box game!  And another Zapper game.  I've played quite a few of Zapper games already and they will run out eventually, but nevertheless, here's a new one for me.  I think most people know that Wild Gunman is a shooting game timed like a wild west shootout.  This game delivers on that for sure in a couple of modes.  There is a third mode that's in a shooting gallery style that I was not expecting to find on the cart.  As it turns out, that mode provided the most challe
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#138 - Tiny Toon Adventures

Tiny Toon Adventures is a fun platformer that is pleasant to look at and pleasant to play.  It is also a game that I somehow missed out on playing as a kid.  I watched Tiny Toon Adventures on TV regularly and I had a large collection of NES carts for the time, so it's a mystery why I didn't get to play it back then.  I'm sure I would have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed it this time. Full Review: #138 - Tiny Toon Adventures  
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#137 - Shadowgate

The MacVenture games are a popular set of point and click adventure games.  There were four games in this "series" and three of them reach the NES.  Shadowgate is the first one I played because it was the first one released on NES, despite being the third entry released on the Macintosh.  In this game you explore the castle, collect items, solve puzzles, and generally make your way deeper to defeat the final bad guy.  This is a well regarded game with great music that I imagine many of you have
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#136 - Amagon

Beating Amagon sure was a rollercoaster.  It went from being straightforward, to tricky, to manageable, to near impossible, to stupidly easy.  I don't think I've had a game go quite that way in this project so far.  The game itself is a decent game.  It feels a little bit dated from when it came out considering some of the high quality titles released around then, but that gave way for the game to surprise me a little bit.  It's not a bad game and one I'm glad I got to play. For those follo
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#135 - Cabal

Cabal is a shoot-em-up, but it's not the kind of shooter that is seen much on the NES.  In this game you fire over the shoulder at all sorts of enemies soldiers, as well as pretty much anything standing in front of them, then do a happy dance once the path is cleared.  The controls are a bit different and take time to master, but I think it's worth it for all the destruction you get to render.  As a bonus, the game wasn't too hard to finish. Review: http://takeontheneslibrary.com/finished/1
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Happy 4th Anniversary

My Take On The NES Library project is meant to be a slow burn, very slow in fact!  I like to celebrate the milestones along the way.  Therefore, I've made it a yearly tradition to celebrate my project anniversary with a post highlighting the past year of playing and beating NES games.  I usually go into some basic project metrics, but this year I took a deeper dive into the year-over-year data along with some findings from Year 4 of my project.  Certainly this is a very nerdy look at what I'm do
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#134 - Genghis Khan

There are several NES strategy simulation games developed by Koei.  For the uninitiated, these games are huge, complex simulations with enough options available to melt your brain.  I'm of course describing myself here!  These games have always been intimidating and ones I thought I might not ever play.  But here's another one!  This is the second Koei game I've beaten so far for this project.  I had some lessons learned throughout my time spent with Genghis Khan that I hope will carry over to f
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#133 - Casino Kid

Casino Kid is a game where you walk around a casino challenging people to either blackjack or poker.  Then you play those same games over and over ad nauseam until you win a bunch of money and beat the game.  Honestly, it's not as bad as it sounds, as the simulations of blackjack and power are quite good.  You just have to spend some time at it.  Pretty much par for the course when beating many NES games anyway.   Full Review: http://takeontheneslibrary.com/finished/133-casino-kid/
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#132 - Kabuki Quantum Fighter

Kabuki Quantum Fighter is a game I've owned since childhood and I know it very well.  It's a pretty great choice for my first completed game blog post on VGS!  There's lot of hair whipping and climbing fun here and it's a game I highly recommend trying out! Full Review: http://takeontheneslibrary.com/finished/132-kabuki-quantum-fighter/  
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Take On The NES Library on VGS!

I have decided to use VGS's fancy new blog system to try cross posting my blogs from my personal site Take On The NES Library.  I'm planning on putting up a companion blog post here for every review I write, plus a few special yearly features.  This seems like a good way to keep VGS up to date with what's going on while letting me share and hopefully discuss some of these great games.  I also plan on starting up a companion thread in The Gauntlet strictly for following game play progress and dis
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