NES Alphanumeric! #032: THE BUGS BUNNY BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT/CRAZY CASTLE
3I live stream 8-bit Nintendo games at least once a week, usually WedNESdays from 10–11 p.m. Eastern, and sometimes on Friday nights.
REVIEW: BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT is clearly the superior game, though it merely attains competence and some small measure of fun. The controls felt pretty good, and the graphics are pretty clean. The level design feels fairly straightforward, but as I continued to play there was a bit more diversity and some surprises. It felt relatively easy with lots of opportunities for 1-Ups and not very tricky platforming, but the difficulty did seem to be ramping up by the time I quit the game in Stage 2. I kind of wanted to keep playing, and I wouldn't mind popping this one in again one day just to get through it.
CRAZY CASTLE on the other hand is a totally different, and slightly more challenging experience—and not only because the controls are more slippery and actually broken. This feels like an okay puzzle platformer (without any actual jumping, even though Bugs is a freaking *rabbit*), and I can see why it has inspired so many sequels. I'm just not that into it.
More than anything, playing these two games made me want to pop in one of Konami's TINY TOON ADVENTURES games instead. Onward.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EQUIPMENT LIST:
Console: NES-001 (Front Loader)*
Controller: Hudson Soft Joycard Sansui SSS/Hyperkin Cadet
Monitor: RCA E13320 - 13" CRT
Capture: Dazzle DVC 100
Software: OBS Studio
Mic: Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB
Headphones: Sony MDRZX100 ZX
--
*Famicom support via Everdrive N8 + Chykn's ENIO EXP Board