T is for....

Teddy Boy

Master System

Teddy Boy is another one of those games that seems simple on the outside but once you get into the later levels it gets a bit tougher on the inside.

It’s a simple enough premise with you controlling the aforementioned Teddy Boy while you go around a repeating maze shooting enemies to make them smaller and then collecting them all up to move onto the next maze. Each level has dice which the enemies come out of with each dice having the number of enemies on inside. To give the developers credit they do stick in a wide range of enemies which include snails/slugs, green blobs, a dragon type thing and human like figures. As mentioned the maze is repeating which in the beginning can be a little disorientating when a section you just ran through suddenly appears on the other side again but eventually you get used to it.

It’s a fun little game which isn’t too demanding and the mazes are very varied with dissolving floors and walls that need to be shot to progress and different enemies on each level that move in different ways meaning that it shouldn’t get repetitive too quickly.

Within the 15 minutes: Round six

Will I play it again? I am really tempted.

Tom and Jerry: The Movie

Master System

As far as I can recollect I’ve never seen the Tom and Jerry Movie but I can imagine that it wasn’t based on Prince of Persia like this game seemed to be.

Honestly, if you have never played this game it really is like the original Prince of Persia. You control Tom, naturally, who has to chase Jerry through the ridiculously long levels whilst avoiding the likes of spikes in the ground (in a kitchen!), flames, leaking water and collapsing platforms (again in a kitchen!). Tom jumps like the Prince, climbs platforms like the Prince and falls to his death, again like the Prince. The second stage takes you out into the garden which involves a little bit of swimming but still the same amount of platform climbing and jumping.

The game also has the most annoying and repetitive music that I have possibly ever heard in any game I have ever played, I had to turn it down after a while. Despite what may be perceived as a negative write-up I am actually in two minds whether to play it again. As mentioned previously the levels are ridiculously long and it is just a Prince of Persia clone but something about it makes me want to go back and try it again.

Within the 15 minutes: Stage two

Will I play it again? I really don’t know at this point in time.

Tomb Raider

Saturn

I have a confession to make, until this point I had never played a Tomb Raider game and in all honesty this one didn’t do much to endear me to the series.

In all honesty I’m half and half about this game. I wanted to like it and I felt it had the potential to draw me in but unfortunately all the little niggles really started to grate on me after a while. The inability to run or even walk quickly was driving me mad as Lara felt so slow to move and talking of moving the controls to turn and move whilst walking were just terrible and trying to jump forward whilst walking was a bit of a joke. Also it just felt like the game had no atmosphere. I don’t know whether it was due to the lack of music or seeing people/animals but whilst wandering around the cave the game just felt so quiet and soulless.

Like I said earlier I did want to like the game but like Panzer Dragoon it just didn’t grab me. I also own a Tomb Raider game on the Dreamcast so might give that a shot first to see if I like it any better than this version.

Within the 15 minutes: Wandering around a cave.

Will I play it again? 50/50 at the moment.

Transbot

Master System

Transbot, robots in disguise...... But I suppose if you are going to homage/rip-off something there could be worse things in life.

Let’s get it out of the way before continuing, the game is called Transbot, there is a giant robot on the front of the box and you play as a ship that turns into a robot for short periods of the game. Yet despite that the game isn’t actually that bad. It’s a basic shoot-em-up with you controlling a ship shooting enemies and trying to kill the end of level boss. There are slight differences to the average shoot-em-up which include an energy bar meaning that just one shot doesn’t kill you, it now takes about three to four shots to die and when collecting a power up a row of letters light up and you have to press the button to stop on a letter to receive the power-up with A being your normal weapon and E-G being a robot form.

Despite the blatant comparison to Transformers it is still a decent enough shoot-em-up and if you are a fan it’s definitely worth at least a go, purely for the fact that you half a chance of surviving a level or two.

Within the 15 minutes: Level one boss.

Will I play it again? I will give it another shot.

Tunnel B1

Saturn

The only reason I got this game was because someone was giving it away on the Retro Gamer forum due to it being too hard, really couldn’t resist a challenge like that.

Off what I played the game play was fairly simple with you controlling a hovercraft in a first person shooter view meaning that you don’t see the hovercraft, in fact you don’t actually see anything except for the explosions of the bullets that you are firing from your machine guns. The view is quite low and almost looks at the level of a snake which can take some getting used to at first. The premise of the game is that each level is a series of tunnels filled with sentry guns and vehicles that have to be destroyed or avoided whilst hitting switches to open doors to continue on through the tunnels.

At the beginning of each level you are given a list of missions to complete but as far as I could see you didn’t have to complete the missions 100% to progress onto the next level. As for the difficulty, well yes it was a bit on the difficult side so if you like a challenge then this is a game to pick up in the future.

Within the 15 minutes: Level 2

Will I play it again? I will again at some point.