Captain Novolin

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Sculptured Software

Ever want to play as a character that dies if he collects too many items on the screen? Ever want to give that same character shots of insulin between stages? Ever want to take dieting tips from a doctor so overweight that he has a double chin? If you said yes to all of those questions, then you, my friend, are one of the one people that might love this game. I’m not joking about the doctor, either. He’s a dumpy doctor…a fat physician…a meaty medic…a hefty healer…a swollen surgeon…a corpulent quack….okay, I’m done. You get the picture. If his knowledge of diabetes matches his girth, then it's probably best to listen to the elephantine expert. Anyway, Captain Novolin is a total mess from beginning to end with controls that feel so delayed and bad that you may just stab yourself in the neck with a nearby pair of scissors to end the pain. That may be the goal – diabetes can prevent good blood flow. A nice scissors to the neck will probably get that blood flowing again. I guess these developers knew what they were doing after all. I've seen people lose limbs due to diabetes...If you want to think positive, if their arms were removed, then they can no longer play this abomination...So, that’s probably the only plus to that situation.

Review added: 08/10/2019

Chrono Trigger

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: SquareSoft

When people discuss the greatest game of all time, Chrono Trigger is almost always brought up and thrown into the discussion. Back in 2008, I ran a video game website and Chrono Trigger actually found its way to number one on that year's "Top 500 Games of All-Time" list that I would hold annually. Looking at the "Average Score" on here, it's pretty easy to see how it got there. While I prefer some other games over this one, including Chrono Cross (yes, I’m fully aware that I'm in the minority with that opinion), you can't deny the number of people that absolutely adore this game. Between the likeable characters, the fantastic story that takes place across various time periods, and its solid take on the turn-based combat formula (including the elimination of random battles – if you can avoid the enemies on screen, you can avoid a fight), Chrono Trigger really was just an extremely well-made game. It is widely considered as one of the best RPGs ever created and one of the best games in any genre ever released. If you haven't played it yet, give it a try - you'll probably fall in love with it just like the rest of us who have played it already have.

Review added: 05/31/2020

Clay Fighter

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Sculptured Software

Clay Fighter was a guilty pleasure of mine growing up. I knew It wasn't as good as Street Fighter, but it was fine for what it was and I always enjoyed the cartoony aspects of it. Fast forward thirty years and I can honestly say that my opinion has pretty much stayed the same. Clay Fighter is a passable fighting game, but it lacks anything in the gameplay to really make this game stand out in any way. Unless you count the ridiculously cheap final boss, N. Boss, that is. I can't think of another boss fight in a fighting game that feels as cheap as that ring of spheres is…I'd personally love to kick N. Boss in each and every one of his balls. Anyway, beyond the final fight, Clay Fighter is a pretty fair game. You probably won't jump in and start winning immediately…it takes some time to figure out the computer's strategy in fights, but once you've got that down, you should be good to go. A larger cast of characters would have been nice, since in the "arcade mode" you have to face a few of the characters twice, but that's a minor gripe. If you want a so-so fighting game with a cartoony twist to pass some time, then Clay Fighter can fill that void.

Review added: 08/17/2025

Clay Fighter: Tournament Edition

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Visual Concepts

It only took Interplay about six months before re-releasing Clay Fighter on the Super NES as a "Tournament Edition." The tournament mode, as well as slightly-tweaked gameplay, help make this the definitive Clay Fighter game, if one must choose a game in the series to play. For those that haven’t played it, Clay Fighter basically plays like Street Fighter II, except everything isn’t quite as tweaked to perfection like Capcom’s flagship fighter. It also has Claymation-like visuals (which is why it’s called Clay Fighter) and a pretty cartoony theme to it. If you were looking purely at gameplay, Clay Fighter isn’t necessarily anything special, but the fighting is passable. The wacky fighters and visual style are the reasons to play this game. Anyway, the tweaked gameplay mechanics and the new tournament mode help improve this game enough where I give it a slightly better score…but let’s face facts, Clay Fighter at its best (this would be the best in the series) still can’t keep up with the better, more beloved fighters of the time.

Review added: 07/28/2019

Clay Fighter 2: Judgment Clay

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Interplay

The original Clay Fighter was a favorite of mine when I was a wee lad. Always a fan of cartoons where anvils get dropped on heads and such, Clay Fighter was essentially the fighting game equivalent of that, though it wasn’t without its flaws. Clay Fighter 2 should also have been a favorite of mine…but it never quite captured my imagination like the first one did. Only three characters from the original carried over, so favorites like Blue Suede Goo and Ickybod Clay were replaced with head-scratchers like Nanaman and Octoface. Needless to say, the majority of the new cast of characters are nowhere near as enjoyable as the original cast. Also, while the graphics had technically improved over the original, it simply doesn’t look as nice to me. While the majority of stages are impressive graphically, they also aren’t exactly nice to look at. Improved graphics while also making things ugly is a weird direction to go art-wise. Anyway, the tournament option from Clay Fighter: Tournament Edition carried over, so that’s a plus…but it could have benefitted from more characters…like maybe the rest of the original cast returning. There’s not much else to make Clay Fighter 2 worthwhile and it even seemed to take a step backwards in the gameplay department in comparison to the first game. C2, as it’s dubbed, is still a passable fighter, but this would later become a trend for the franchise, as the next game (and last) would take more steps backward, making everyone wish that Interplay would have called it quits after the original and/or left the game in Visual Concepts hands instead of taking over development like they did here.

Review added: 08/25/2019

Clock Tower

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: Human Entertainment

For the most part, people don't generally consider point-and-click adventure games to be amongst the greatest games of all-time, but a few have managed to break through that barrier. In my opinion, Clock Tower is one of them. The survival horror aspect is really what makes this game shine, in my opinion. In most point-and-click adventure games, you want to inspect everything to find items and such that you need in order to solve puzzles…in Clock Tower, you quickly find that inspecting everything can potentially put you in danger. In fact, inspecting certain things can actually lead to an untimely death. It gives you an uneasy feeling as you play…you'll see something to inspect and you'll question whether you should or not. If I inspect that shower curtain, will I find something that will help me escape the mansion or will I find a demented child wielding a giant pair of scissors trying to murder me? When being chased, it also adds a different element of panic than you'll find in other games. In most games, you can simply press a button to attack or run away…in Clock Tower, you sometimes have to maneuver the mouse pointer to specific areas in a short amount of time to survive. And if you panic and click in the wrong area, you could find yourself trapped and viewing a Game Over screen. Everything in this game is just done so well…you wouldn't think that a 2D point-and-click adventure would do a better job of giving you anxiety than the 3D survival horror games that were released around this same time period, but it does. Add in the multiple endings to discover and you've got a fantastic game for its time that has plenty of replay value. If you're a fan of horror games, this Japanese-exclusive classic is definitely worth checking out.

Review added: 10/06/2023

Contra III: The Alien Wars

Also known as:  Contra Spirits (Japan), Super Probotector: Alien Rebels (Europe)

Developer: Konami

Contra III: The Alien Wars very well may be the best, in my opinion, in the Contra franchise. It doesn't really innovate anything in any way, but it simply tweaked the formula found in previous games and added a fresh, 16-bit coat of paint. The most noticeable tweak was the difficulty - this game is still plenty difficult, but once you get the hang of everything, and with a little patience, you can essentially give yourself unlimited lives by just finding a "safe" area and firing away at the enemies as your points (and eventually extra lives) start racking up to your content. This makes Contra III one of the easier games in the series to beat, despite it still being rather difficult. Also added are new gun types as well as the inclusion of bombs that will clear the screen of any enemies and/or do heavy damage during boss fights. The boss fights are also well done, with many of them being giant and memorable…and sometimes ridiculous, like the fight where you have to hang from missiles being fired at the boss, and jump from missile to missile to survive while using your puny-in-comparison firearms to take the boss down instead. Overall, though, there aren't many run-and-gun games that are done better than this game. As I said at the start, this isn't a particularly innovative game in the genre, but what it does do, it does very well and it's well worth checking out for fans of run-and-gun shooters.

Review added: 12/29/2023