Family Games 1 Review

You know, its always been a vice of mine to collect demo and sampler cds. I always found it incredibly intresting since the first ones appeared on the TG-16 and 3DO. Its not because I'm cheap and don't want to buy the whole game, more its to see the games as they would be BEFORE release.3DO's PO'ed samples are the best example of a game in progress. This title is what that seems like to me, samples of ideas, and works in progress. Not bad, but not good either.

The case can be made that FAMILY GAMES I is just what the naime implies, tame games that the family can enjoy. Which indeed they are. BUT... the case can also be made that had a few of these titles seen a bit more development, they might have seen release as titles on their own.

But that's just my blue-skying again. As it is though, there is some fun to be had in this title. A loose assortment of games of varying genres, really a bit of something for everyone. Starting with the stuff for the

youngsters, theres an art pad type game, best used with the roller controler or mouse. Then theres WIZARD, a more high definition look to PONG, with a medival theme. A memory game called WHERES THAT SOUND, again, break out the mouse or the roller controler for best results. SUPER SLIDE, a tiles & pictures game, and CAPTAIN ALPHABET. All of which are fine in visual appearance, and seem to control well. Just don't expect alot from them.

Stepping up to the older generations, we have games like FULL ATTACK, which is actually a pretty nice shooter in the R-TYPE or SCRAMBLE vein. This is one of the titles, that given some more development, more cinematics and storyline, could have made it into its own title. I think this is an older project that was just abandonded, and later used in this title. Nice controls, and very good graphics.

Then theres Morphon Invasion, a chessy rip-off of the Atari 2600 classic

MEGAMANIA, with a psycho-circus theme throwin in for some odd- reason. Gameplay in this one is kind of harsh as many of the enemies need to be killed before you ever see them on screen. This is due mostly to the odd nessessity to frame the entire screen with the psycho clown. (see below). Not much fun to be had.

If I could say they fixed anything in this one from the Micro Machines engine, it would be that annoying screen jitter & jerk. It's actually pretty much non-existent. A real plus to the smooth scrolling nessessary in a racer of this sort. Saddly, the control being so oddly proportioned, it makes it less noticable, as on more complex levels, it can be hard to get up to much speed at all.

One odd note, they made no attempt to use the onboard storage in the

machine, rather all games are saved via password. Very unusual. But then again, it just adds to the overall "rushed" feeling the game gives.

	JOKISAN'S ADVENTURE plays alot like the classic TUTANKAM for the old arcades. Run around in a maze, avoid the odd baddies and pick up alot of stuff. Almost Zelda-ish in initial feel, but not much more than a speedy action title. Control, even with the four button pad is hit and miss. Kind of feels mushy, at points, and other times, too tight. SKID KART (see left), is and attempt to cross-breed PAC-MAN and RALLY CROSS. While intresting in theory, it has died in execution.
What you're left with is a moderately intresting title with a mediocre graphics, poor AI, weird sounds (no car sound again, but at least sounds for the pickups), and moderate controls. HOT ROCKS, an attempt at a cross breed of ASTEROIDS and MISSLE COMMAND, but in 3-D. Kind of a neat idea, but needs a story to give some kind of drive to it. Control is pretty good, button 2 cycles between the 4 views your gun can fire in. Great if you hook up the mouse, but it'd be better with some sort of objective.As it is, its a good time waster. But not much above that.
There are a few more titles on this one, but nothing worth too much mention. Its a good title to sample game ideas, and play around with some classic arcade clones.