Super FamiComplete #116: Space Football: One-on-One

 

Title: Space Football One-on-One (NA), Super Linear Ball (JP)

Release Date: June 1992

Developer: Argonaut Games 

Publisher: Triffix

Space Football is the final US developed game for June 1992, and the last game in general that we are covering for the month. Sadly, as often is the case for the blog, this last game of the month is not very good. 

Background

This game really doesn't have a story to it. Sometime in the far off future, a form of entertainment is made that is an evolution of football, but instead of playing with teams or running around on feet, it is a one on one game played in hovercraft like spaceships. Competitions take place in weird pinball like arenas, with the game making use of the system's Mode 7 to provide an F-Zero like perspective to the game. 

The game was developed by British Developer Bit Studios and Argonaut games. Bit Studios made a bunch of licensed titles from around this time, such as Wolverine: Adamantium Rage and Last Action Hero. It was not known for making quality games or selling well with them, and they were shuttered in 2008. Argonaut games had a bit more success, as they were the co-developers of the original Star Fox, specializing in the faux-3D created for that game (some of which you see on display during the character select screen). Recently, they even helped bring Star Fox 2 to the SNES classic. 

Gameplay

So this game is a take not on American Football, but uses football in the way that the entire world aside from the United States means it: soccer. Each player has a goal that they have to defend, and they are trying to maneuver a little puck/sphere/ball/robot around the arena with their hovercrafts. If you manage to touch the ball with the front-ish area of your hovercraft, it sticks to the front for about for seconds, after which it will launch off in the direction you are facing. Unlike soccer, you cannot launch the ball into the rival's goal, but instead have to carry it into the goal yourself. If you score higher than your opponent by the end of the round, you win and move onto the next stage, rinse and repeat. 

This sounds simple enough, but the controls are utterly wretched in the hands. The B button sends you moving forward, while the A button sends you flying backwards, while left and right points you in the direction you want to move; this creates an incredibly fast style of tank controls, which are awkward to control to say the least. The first person perspective, as well, makes the game very disorienting and rough on folks if, like me, you suffer from motion sickness. There is just a LOT of spinning around. 

The mechanic where you can only hold onto the ball for four seconds makes a sense if you are used to sports like basketball or soccer where you have to shoot or pass after a certain amount of time, but this would make more sense if you could score by shooting the ball into the goal. The fact that you have to carry it into the goal leads to some frustrating moments where you are approaching the goal, and then the ball goes flying, careens off a wall, and your opponent catches it. Luckily, the enemy AI is pretty stupid and just kind of goes all over the place. 

Finally, in another baffling decision, they decided to add hazards to the arena: there are bumpers which send you flying in a random directions, spinners which spin you around incredibly quickly (another blow to motion sickness), or boosts which send you jumping upward. This just adds a layer of chaos which makes the controls of the game much more difficult. Add into this the rival player who can bumper kart into you and send you flying too, and the ice like hover physics, and you have a game that is not fun to control, makes you sick to watch, and frustrating to actually win. The game has 32 levels, each with a different layout to the arena, but I can't imagine anyone playing through each of them. 

Music

The music is exceptionally forgettable...

Ads

Overall

This game goes in the category of "slight and forgettable." It is half a game concept that is taken as far as it can go over the course of a playthrough. It reminded me, both in art style and in gameplay, of games like Hyperzone and Cameltry in its slightness. Could you imagine being a kid who gets this for a gift and this is all you have to play? That would be incredibly depressing. Overall, skip this one!

Super FamiComplete #115 Krusty's Super Fun House

 

Title: Krusty's Super Fun House (NA), Krusty World (JP)

Release Date: June 1992

Developer: Audiogenic Ltd.

Publisher: Acclaim

Our first Simpsons game, and boy what a weird one at that. I could have sworn that our first one would be Bart's Nightmare, but sadly not the case. This was a game that I was always vaguely aware of as a kid, but knew it more due to its Gameboy port. I knew it was a puzzle platformer, but didn't know too much beyond that. Weirdly enough, I would say this is tied for the best US developed game we have encountered thus far (that being Super Smash TV of course). Anyways, let's get to it. 

Background

While I don't think this paragraph is really needed due the the cultural prevalence of the Simpsons, but perhaps there is someone who is interested in the history of the Super Nintendo or 90s culture but doesn't like cartoons in the least...The Simpsons is an animated sitcom created by Matt Groening, that started as a lampoon of 90s United States and American culture in response the the neo-conservatism and "traditional" values brought about by the Reagan/Bush Sr. era of the 1980s into the early 1990s. You had a "typical" american family of an obese lazy, alcoholic but well meaning Dad, a stay at home Mom who is overly moral, a delinquent son, the know it all daughter and a baby. You also have the characters of the town of Springfield as well each mocking a different aspect of American life. 

While the show has since become a mockery of itself, at the time this game was coming out it was only around the Simpsons 3rd season, and the property was incredibly popular. This was the peak era of commercializing on the "brand" that was the Simpsons.  You had Homer and Bart shilling "Butterfingers," the "Do the Bartman" single off the terrible "Simpsons Sing the Blues Album," and a whole bunch of other tchotchke merchandise. Of course, you also had video games of all shapes and sizes: from the good like the Konami Beat-em-up, the mediocre like...well this game, the bad like Bart vs the Space Mutants, and the weird like Virtual Bart or Bart's Nightmare. 

This game features the eponymous Krusty the Clown, the local children's show emcee who is willing to sell his brand to the highest bidder, and puts his mug on any product regardless of quality as long as he gets paid. The story of this game leans into that: Krusty Land (a theme park that is more like a cyclopean horror house), has been overrun by rats. These rats are going to cause the park to get shut down by the health inspectors if something isn't done, so the new "Krusty Recruits" (Bart, Homer,  Sideshow Mel, and Corporal Punishment) have to help exterminate the rats. 

 Audiogenic isn't a developer I have much background with, and it seems like they didn't do too much. They are British developer who got their start during the home console programmer era of the 1980s. Acclaim was one of the big American publishers from the 1990s that is now defunct after some pretty bad mismanagement. We will continue to bump into them throughout this blog. 

Gameplay

You play as an adorable Krusty the Clown as he navigates the backstage area of Krusty Land, which is a horrifying maze of corridors, pipes, and machinery. The rats start pouring out of their holes when the stage begins, and will walk forward slowly until they hit an object that they can't mount (the rats are able mount blocks and ledges that are their own height), and will then turn around and walk in the opposite direction. They are impervious to harm, except for if they collide with the devices manned by Bart, Homer, or one of the other characters; when this happens, the rat will be smashed, zapped, or ground into powder, thoroughly exterminating them from the level. Once you have exterminated all the rats, Krusty must return to the entrance in order to end the level. Thus, the puzzle aspect of this usually revolves around moving blocks, pipes, or spring boards in order to move the rats to the extermination machines, in a similar style of puzzle to Lemmings. 

Krusty himself must also contend with the perils of the level: snakes, robots, and sometimes the shoddy upkeep of Krusty Land itself will try to hurt Krusty, and he can die if he sustains enough damage. He is pretty mobile, and can pick up weapons such as pies or the fucking superball from Super Mario Land to help defend himself. Each level usually has a ton of secrets which you can explore to get more power-ups and extra lives. The game has a "high score" system as well, which is popular amongst the speedrunners of this game. 

The game is split into a series of areas that don't have really a huge thematic difference, in that you will get a new song for the area and generally a different helper. The overworld is a long hallway with rooms that lead to the "stages" of the game (more rooms). Once you complete the levels in a room, Krusty will get a clearance from the health board, allowing the next section of the hallway to be accessed.

The levels do get more complex as the game continues, with difficulty usually being cranked up by adding more moving parts. Some levels will have more starting holes for rats to pour from, more blocks that must be juggled, and more hazards in the middle of critical movement areas. You can easily work yourself into a situation where you just can't win, either trapping the rats or yourself in a location with no way to exit, which is why you can actually cause Krusty to kill himself with the tap of the "give up" button (Krusty just goes "good grief" and sits down on the ground in defeat). 

Music

The music is very clown polka and not very good. Definitely grating if you are frustrated with a puzzle.

Ads and Artwork

Overall 

The game is a fun diversion, but it is quite long for a puzzle game, without enough variation in the puzzles or gameplay to make it worth a complete playthrough. There is a lot of love for the property apparent though, with deep cut characters such as Corporal Punishment and Sideshow Bob having a presence. Worth playing? Kind of! If you are a Simpsons fan it is certainly worth checking out, though I would recommend the Gameboy version personally; puzzle games just play better when they are portable.