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Avengers |
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1987, Capcom
It's a shame that the first ever review on this site should be of such a game as this, but this is what the Random Game button gave me.
Avengers is a vertically-scrolling beat-em-up. I've seen a few vertical beat-em-ups, and they're mostly pretty bad; I would have hoped they'd learn from this game.
In short, it's awful. From the bog-standard "kidnapped girlfriend" plot, through the flawed control system, to the ridiculously terrible A.I, the whole thing stinks to high heaven of lack of effort. Gameplay is completely unbalanced, with scores of basic enemies either walking in circles or running straight past you, followed by an unfairly difficult boss fight.
One button delivers a short-range punch, the other delivers an equally short-range but slower kick. Pressing both buttons at once results in a roundhouse kick that wipes out enemies in a circle around you, but is so slow to deliver (and has such a tiny increase in range over the standard attacks) that it's pretty well useless. So, it's the Punch button all the way, then.
This game has an awful lot of problems, but the biggest ones are the A.I. and the collision detection. Enemies seem determined to run away from you at all costs rather than attack you, but will throw the odd punch back if you choose to engange them; if you walk away after coming close enough to an enemy to prompt a reaction, then the enemy will walk in a wide circle until you give it a smack. Or rather, two or three smacks, until the collision detection kicks in (usually when you and the enemy are occupying the same space) and the bad man flies away against the nearest wall.
After dying three times at the hands of the first boss, it prompted me for another coin. "What the hell," I figured, "I may as well give it one more chance and see what's after this boss."
Realising that this game had a start-back continue system (if you lose a life, you start from where you left off, but you're punished for giving the machine more money by being forced to retrace your steps from a few hundred yards back), I walked past the twenty or so standard enemies and back into the boss pit. The level one boss is a big fat bloke with a flail, who delights in swinging it around his head so that you can't get close enough to punch him.
After he wiped me out again, I hit the "Escape" button. Some games just aren't worth a third chance.
FUN
2. To be fair, there was a sort of challenge in this, albeit a poorly-balanced and unfair one. I've played worse, but not by much.
NOTABILITY
1. Absolutely nothing about this game merits any sort of notability or acclaim. The only thing that makes it stand out is how crap it is.
PRESENTATION
2. Reasonably good graphics for 1987, and even some digitized speech (or rather, grunts). Bugs in the A.I. and collision detection take this mark down to a two.
ADDICTION
1. You must be joking.
SURVIVAL
1. There's nothing that would possibly make this game survive today; it's too deeply flawed, and too half-assed.
OVERALL
1.4 out of a possible 5.
KLOV data here.
It's a shame that the first ever review on this site should be of such a game as this, but this is what the Random Game button gave me.Avengers is a vertically-scrolling beat-em-up. I've seen a few vertical beat-em-ups, and they're mostly pretty bad; I would have hoped they'd learn from this game.
In short, it's awful. From the bog-standard "kidnapped girlfriend" plot, through the flawed control system, to the ridiculously terrible A.I, the whole thing stinks to high heaven of lack of effort. Gameplay is completely unbalanced, with scores of basic enemies either walking in circles or running straight past you, followed by an unfairly difficult boss fight.
One button delivers a short-range punch, the other delivers an equally short-range but slower kick. Pressing both buttons at once results in a roundhouse kick that wipes out enemies in a circle around you, but is so slow to deliver (and has such a tiny increase in range over the standard attacks) that it's pretty well useless. So, it's the Punch button all the way, then.
This game has an awful lot of problems, but the biggest ones are the A.I. and the collision detection. Enemies seem determined to run away from you at all costs rather than attack you, but will throw the odd punch back if you choose to engange them; if you walk away after coming close enough to an enemy to prompt a reaction, then the enemy will walk in a wide circle until you give it a smack. Or rather, two or three smacks, until the collision detection kicks in (usually when you and the enemy are occupying the same space) and the bad man flies away against the nearest wall.
After dying three times at the hands of the first boss, it prompted me for another coin. "What the hell," I figured, "I may as well give it one more chance and see what's after this boss."
Realising that this game had a start-back continue system (if you lose a life, you start from where you left off, but you're punished for giving the machine more money by being forced to retrace your steps from a few hundred yards back), I walked past the twenty or so standard enemies and back into the boss pit. The level one boss is a big fat bloke with a flail, who delights in swinging it around his head so that you can't get close enough to punch him.
After he wiped me out again, I hit the "Escape" button. Some games just aren't worth a third chance.
FUN2. To be fair, there was a sort of challenge in this, albeit a poorly-balanced and unfair one. I've played worse, but not by much.
NOTABILITY
1. Absolutely nothing about this game merits any sort of notability or acclaim. The only thing that makes it stand out is how crap it is.
PRESENTATION
2. Reasonably good graphics for 1987, and even some digitized speech (or rather, grunts). Bugs in the A.I. and collision detection take this mark down to a two.
ADDICTION
1. You must be joking.
SURVIVAL
1. There's nothing that would possibly make this game survive today; it's too deeply flawed, and too half-assed.
OVERALL
1.4 out of a possible 5.
KLOV data here.
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