Contributor Recognition : Overdrive

Arcade Games

1944: The Loop Master	Maybe you've seen it all before.... but you probably haven't seen it put together this well	12/30/03	8/10
19XX: The War Against Destiny	Apparently the 20th century didn't end this way. So much for video games being able to predict the future.	01/30/04	8/10
Air Duel	If you're going to be unoriginal, at least try to be good...	02/11/04	3/10
Air Gallet	Shooter veterans: prepare to experience a strong feeling of deja vu!	03/05/04	7/10
Black Heart	Economics 101: How to throw money away without any beneficial effects	07/06/04	1/10
Fighter & Attacker	We’re not handing out originality points for this one.	02/11/05	3/10
Final Fight	Pro-wrestling mayors and the crooked cops who hate them	06/22/05	10/10
Guwange	Too cool, but too short	09/24/04	8/10
R-Type	A final tear exits my eye as I die....for the millionth time	06/30/04	9/10
Sengoku	Warp, warp, warp --- saving the world was never this confusing before...	11/10/03	7/10
Sengoku 2	A visual tour de force --- ridding the world of the legions of evil never was so appealing!	11/25/03	9/10
The Legend of Silkroad	This game makes my soul scream.	07/05/07	3/10
X Multiply	X Multiplied by Y equals some messed-up chromosomes in action!	05/04/06	7/10

Atari 2600

Adventure	It might be blocky and crude, but it's still a beautiful thing	12/17/03	10/10
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns	Father Time can be a harsh judge	05/20/04	4/10
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back	No matter how valiantly the forces of good fought, the dark side always won	08/08/05	2/10

Game Boy

God Medicine

The medicine of the gods must be poisonous to mere mortals like me

11/10/06

3/10

Game Boy Advance

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance	When a system’s reach exceeds its grasp.....	07/29/04	2/10
Castlevania: COTM	A bit more tedious than the average trip to Castlevania	09/01/04	7/10
Golden Sun	If I start rambling mindlessly, I’m just getting into the spirit of this game.	10/28/04	6/10
Gradius Galaxies	Some things just weren't meant for tiny screens	11/04/05	6/10
Mega Man Battle Network	Pretty cool idea, even if the execution is lacking at times	02/10/05	7/10

GameGear

GG Aleste	You can't spell Aleste without "ale". Reviewing games is thirsty work!	01/26/06	3/10
GG Aleste II	Not the sort of game that motivates me to say much more than, "Well, this was pretty good!"	08/28/06	6/10

Genesis

Air Buster	Innovative and fun --- but nothing amazing that jumps out at me	09/14/03	7/10
Arrow Flash	The key words for this review are: "If only..."	12/05/03	5/10
Atomic Robo-Kid	Warning: Negativity toward game may be caused by jealousy since reviewer wasn't "atomic" or "robotic" as a kid.	01/14/04	4/10
Bio-Hazard Battle	After being invaded by genetic super-creatures, the planet Avaron was never quite the same...	02/05/04	9/10
Curse	One of those “good ideas, but flawed execution” games. I seem to play a lot of those.	04/09/05	4/10
Divine Sealing	Naked chicks are this one's only redeeming quality	10/06/05	2/10
El Viento	One trend I’m not going to buck....	02/24/05	10/10
Insector X	A disappointment of tragic proportions	06/24/04	2/10
M.U.S.H.A.	Just what I needed....	11/16/03	10/10
Phelios	A world where Greek gods dare to face rock-throwing midgets	12/18/06	4/10
Ristar	Don’t you know that you are a shooting star? Or something like that....	02/02/05	10/10
Shining Force	When entering the Kingdom of Runefaust, beware of possessed nobility.	06/09/06	6/10
Sonic the Hedgehog	Zoom into another warped history lesson courtesy of Overdrive....	11/18/04	8/10
Sonic the Hedgehog 2	Another game I missed out on during my younger years	10/28/05	9/10
Streets of Rage	Streets of Mild Disapproval just didn't work as well	06/15/05	4/10
Task Force Harrier EX	Short, sweet, effective! I'm talking about my review, not this game....	07/11/06	2/10
Thunder Force II	Well, it could have been special....	06/08/05	3/10
Truxton	It wasn’t quite what I remembered....	11/05/04	4/10
Twinkle Tale	A hidden gem deserving of more recognition	02/23/07	9/10
Vapor Trail	So, exactly how is it that one solitary plane is able to obliterate an obsenely huge army?	07/13/07	7/10
Verytex	Almost escaping the vast sea of mediocrity....	08/11/05	5/10
Whip Rush	Copy too much from others and lose your own identity....	09/01/05	6/10
Wings of Wor	Angels blowing up strange hybrids of man and machine? You don’t see that everyday.	04/10/04	7/10
XDR: X-Dazedly-Ray	A name so bizarre that you may not notice how horrid the game is — at least Unipacc hopes that’s the case	12/08/04	1/10
Zero Wing	It’s amazing how some games become cult classics	09/17/05	6/10

Macintosh

The Ultimate Doom	An enhanced version of one of history’s most influential games	08/03/05	10/10
Warlords I	Eight enter, but only one gets out alive!	07/28/05	9/10

NeoGeo

Aero Fighters 2	An improved -- but very similar -- version of the series' first game	11/24/03	8/10
Alpha Mission II	Light years better than the original....in other words, unexceptional	05/03/04	3/10
Andro Dunos	The forgotten child of R-Type and Gradius	05/10/04	5/10
Mutation Nation	I'm supposed to save the world from THAT THING???	11/14/03	7/10
Robo Army	Yet another brick in the SNK Wall of Shame....	10/13/04	2/10

NES

Abadox: The Deadly Inner War	Look, kids! There's the small intestine!!!	08/31/03	8/10
Advanced Dungeons & Drag	It’s not for everybody, but it’s a work of beauty for those who appreciate its qualities	04/24/04	9/10
Adventure Island II	Journey to a place where aimlessly flying birds are deadly weapons of evil	05/13/05	7/10
Alpha Mission	Not a fun trip down memory lane...	11/18/03	1/10
Amagon	And you don’t even get to rescue a princess....	06/17/04	2/10
Athena	You wanted the worst? Well, you got the worst!	10/22/04	1/10
B-Wings	Bland as it is, this game may grow on those who are diehard shooter fans	01/26/04	4/10
Bionic Commando	Those silly Nazi-types never learn, do they?	01/11/07	9/10
Blaster Master	A laughable premise leads to an excellent game	07/08/05	9/10
Castlevania	A difficult and primitive precursor to the more legendary games in the Castlevania series	03/01/04	6/10
Contra	Those confounded aliens have their claws in everything, don’t they?	09/16/04	7/10
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend	A land where men are dragons and ugly is beautiful	10/14/04	8/10
Dragon Warrior III	C’mon kids! That Baramos fellow ain’t goin’ to up and die on his own!	10/06/04	9/10
Dragon Warrior IV	"Let the good times roll!", said Overdrive to the masses	12/02/05	9/10
Exed Exes	How NOT to port an arcade game to a home system	09/30/04	1/10
Faxanadu	You fight gigantic floating torsos in this game! What more do you need?	05/21/06	9/10
Gradius	The game hasn’t aged all that well, but its legacy has!	05/06/05	5/10
Hercules no Eikou II	A transplanted Dragon Quest game	07/31/03	7/10
Image Fight	Some great ideas are here — too bad the actual game didn't always live up to them	11/29/03	5/10
Jackal	One of the “unsung heroes” of the NES	06/02/05	9/10
Karnov	Flawed but fun — a good way to spend an afternoon	01/13/06	7/10
Life Force	A very nice take on the classic Konami shooter theme	01/31/07	8/10
Mega Man	The universe's most resourceful robot in his first encounter with Dr. Wily	12/18/03	7/10
Mega Man 2	The universe's most resourceful robot in his first battle with...memory loss?	01/22/04	9/10
Mega Man 3	It can get a bit repetitive, but it's still a platformer of quality	02/18/04	8/10
Mega Man 4	Even though the formula is starting to get old, Mega Man is still a winner	03/10/04	9/10
Mega Man 5	More of the same....which is not necessarily a bad thing	05/15/04	9/10
Mega Man 6	Feels like I’ve been here before	12/01/04	5/10
Rygar	Journey to a time when dead heroes fought foul demons to save the planet	06/03/04	8/10
Sweet Home	Contradicting Skynyrd and Witherspoon, it’s not in Alabama!	09/08/04	7/10
Tecmo Super Bowl	The ONLY essential football game.....EVER!	09/22/06	10/10
The Legend of Zelda	And for my 100th review on this site, it’s my favorite game of all time!	03/31/05	10/10
Tiny Toon Adventures	Not one of the better examples of cartoons translated to video games	12/26/06	2/10
Totally Rad	Totally Rad is totally ba.....no, sorry, but I just can't lower myself to make that joke.	07/05/06	2/10
TwinBee	You aren’t giving me much to work with here, guys....	01/04/05	2/10
Wizards & Warriors	A blast from the past that made me wish I wasn’t playing it in the present	04/22/05	4/10
Ys	One of those unknown NES games that should have been known	01/19/05	7/10
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link	A lesson on how to completely change a game while maintaining a high standard of quality	10/21/05	9/10
Zunou Senkan Galg	A Bizarro World all-time classic!	03/10/06	1/10

PlayStation

Alundra	An epic quest set in a world where demons walk through dreams...	06/09/04	10/10
Breath of Fire III	Bigger doesn’t always mean better	03/26/04	6/10
Castlevania: SOTN	Maybe it’s too easy, but this is one FUN game!	08/18/04	9/10
Final Fantasy VII	When role-playing games changed....	07/23/04	9/10
Medal of Honor	Jimmy Patterson stars in "Nazi Kill-A-Thon 1999"!	04/28/06	8/10
Shadow Madness	If only the gameplay could even come remotely close to matching the dialogue	12/06/03	3/10
Suikoden	A “collection” game that actually is cool	01/13/05	8/10

PlayStation 2

Champions of Norrath	After spending a couple of weeks vacationing in Norrath, you won’t want to go back home	03/17/04	9/10
Medal of Honor: Rising S	Change for the sake of change is never a good idea	09/08/05	7/10
Silent Hill 3	A great series takes a major step in the wrong direction	02/19/04	4/10
The Suffering	When I started acting like Torque, well....that's when I stopped being invited to family functions....	07/31/06	8/10
The Suffering 2	Most folks really could stand to learn a few life lessons from the Creeper.	06/08/07	6/10

Sega Master System

Aerial Assault	"WOW, AMAZING SKILLS!" I know, I needed them to stay awake through this game	02/03/04	2/10
Fantasy Zone	Look at the pretty colors.....look at them.....	03/25/05	7/10
Phantasy Star	One of yesteryear’s classics becomes today’s exercise in tedium	09/22/04	5/10

SNES

Acrobat Mission	So, how long can YOU cheat death?	09/05/03	7/10
ActRaiser 2	Well, it is pretty....	12/15/04	3/10
Aero Fighters	It'd be great except for one very major detail	09/19/03	6/10
Bahamut Lagoon	A game with a reach that exceeds its grasp	06/30/05	3/10
BioMetal	With Kid Ray serving the beats, how can you lose?	03/16/04	4/10
Captain Commando	Only if you really like Final Fight clones....	03/14/03	5/10
Darius Twin	And on this episode of “Sequels We Didn’t Need,” we have....	08/11/04	4/10
Daze Before Christmas	One of those “guilty pleasure” games	06/25/04	6/10
Donkey Kong Country	Rumble in the jungle!!....and other assorted places....	08/19/04	5/10
Dragon Quest I & II	Welcome to your past	11/11/04	7/10
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest	It should have been called “Role-Playing for Dummies”	07/07/04	2/10
Final Fight 2	Everything a player could want....except heart	06/23/05	4/10
Final Fight Guy	Take Final Fight and replace Cody with Guy. There, now wasn't that easier than actually coming up with and designing a whole new game?	01/15/04	7/10
Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodiu	A dream you won't want to have end	04/06/04	10/10
Joe & Mac	A promising idea falters under mediocre execution	10/07/04	4/10
Kirby Super Star	Even “superstars” can be plagued by maddening bouts of inconsistency from time to time	04/15/05	6/10
Kouryu Densetsu Villgust	A few gimmicks can't shield all this game's flaws	05/27/04	3/10
Magic Knight Rayearth	It does have a solid storyline, but the gameplay is pretty weak	08/13/03	3/10
Marchen Adventure Cotton 100%	Even without a great deal of substance, this game's style is enough to make it respectible	11/17/05	7/10
Mega Man 7	A few little changes can go a long way	02/03/05	7/10
Plok	For every one of my reviews YOU don't read, a kitten dies. Oh! And Plok's a mediocre game!	06/26/06	5/10
RockMan & Forte	It’s got difficulty, but little else	03/18/05	5/10
Rocky Rodent	The reason we have exterminators	03/04/05	3/10
Rudra No Hihou	From back in the day when us Americans always seemed to miss out on the good games	06/16/04	8/10
Run Saber	A game where you run while swinging a saber (Creative, aren’t I?)	10/01/04	5/10
Sengoku Denshou	A perfect example of a good arcade game ruined by a shoddy console conversion	01/28/04	3/10
Soul Blazer	Reclaiming a land that was lost....by killing everything	03/24/05	8/10
Tales of Phantasia	As the hours passed, joy turned to tedium....and the battles never ceased	01/06/05	4/10
The Pirates of Dark Water	Kick-boxing pirates? Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!	11/24/04	8/10
Zelda: Link to the Past	Excellent effort that still seems a bit lacking	03/17/06	8/10

TurboGrafx-16

1941: Counter Attack	The joys of watching a classic series mature	03/30/04	7/10
Darius Plus	A game for the marine biologist in all of us	08/09/04	8/10
Final Blaster	If only the first three stages had been better....	10/06/05	6/10
Heavy Unit	This Heavy Unit really could use a Viagra and Enzyte cocktail	07/16/04	1/10
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones	How to insure your system limps out of the gate	03/10/05	2/10
Legend of Hero Tonma	Good, clean fun that's too vanilla to even be remotely memorable	02/13/06	6/10
Neutopia	Feels like I've been here before....	02/17/05	7/10
Saint Dragon	How to fail when there is unlimited potential for success	09/10/04	2/10
Super Star Soldier	A late Christmas present from Overdrive	01/03/05	9/10
Toilet Kids	Do you really want to know what lies beneath the shimmering waters of YOUR household toilet?	04/15/04	2/10
W Ring: The Double Rings	Short, easy and boring — not the most rousing of endorsements	09/23/05	3/10