All 16-Bit

Review #4649 Viewpoint Play it on Neo Geo instead Genesis 1994 American Sammy Shooter Shooter › Isometric F 53 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay I've never liked the isometric view for most games but a twitch shooter is the worst genre for this viewpoint. Pun intended. It's so difficult to figure out where you are in relation to enemies and bullets. Movement is slow and there are no powerups or does boosts. Ultimately that's the biggest problem - the game is just so simplistic. Actually the biggest problem is slowdown. This game makes Gradius 3 look like a high performance sports car by comparison. In the SNES shooters slowdown happened when a lot was happening on screen. In Viewpoint it pretty much never stops. ...

Review #4643 Urban Strike Much better than the SNES version Genesis 1994 Electronic Arts Shooter Shooter › Isometric F 50 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay None of the problems present in the SNES version are here. The game performs beautifully and movement is better than in Jungle Strike. It's still the momentum based movement without the ability to strafe but at least it's not a dumpster fire like the SNES version. 2 / 5 Level Design Ok props for keeping the same basic formula of the previous games. I guess. No improvements, refinements, or any changes to speak of, so I'm taking points away for laziness. 2 / 5 Theme Even more edgy than the previous game. Thi...

Review #4470 Red Zone Play Desert Strike instead Genesis 1994 Time Warner Shooter Shooter › Isometric H 38 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Two modes - overhead Pilotwings helicopter levels-style, and on-the-ground overhead shooter like Smash TV. Interesting, but neither one is fun. Awkward tank controls. No ability to strafe. Impossible to avoid taking damage. Very slow movement in both modes. Taking damage results in localized damage. ex. ram into an obstacle and your nose is damaged. Get shot from behind and the tail rotor is damaged which makes your copter harder to control. The damage system is novel but awful. It makes bad controls 10x worse. Few health pickups. Impossibly difficult to kill enemies. Only one life. Die and the nuclear war occ...

Review #4290 Jungle Strike Washington D.C. Strike Genesis 1993 Electronic Arts Shooter Shooter › Isometric E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay ARRGGHH! The good controls are gone. The only option is the tank-like controls that are relative to the direction your chopper is facing. I was shocked and overjoyed with Desert Strike's "From Above" control scheme and now I'm mad that they removed it for the sequel. Grrr With the new control scheme I'm a dead duck. Everything hits me and I die so much I can't complete the first level. Huge drop in playability. They also didn't fix the map/pause screen issue from the original. You had three years to fix it guys...come on! 3 / 5 Level D...

Review #4146 Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf Better on the SNES Genesis 1992 Electronic Arts Shooter Shooter › Isometric E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay The controller let's this game down big-time. Strafing is only possible by holding down the A button so it's hard to fire while doing so. Strafe is mapped to L/R on the SNES controller which feels so much more natural. Flying around is slow and deliberate and seems when shower here than on the SNES. Just like in the SNES version the main downsides are the high difficulty and the utter lack of a HUD. The map, objectives, and even ammo and fuel readings are hidden on the pause screen. Add in a long load time and it becomes a major nuisance. Better than average but could...

Review #666 Urban Strike Strike 3. You're out SNES 1995 Electronic Arts Shooter Shooter › Isometric H 28 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay What the heck happened here? Seriously. Desert Strike was awesome. Jungle Strike wasn't far behind. But this game is an absolute dumpster fire in comparison. I got nervous when Black Pearl's logo popped up in the loading screen and my fears were all confirmed. This he is awful. Not bad. It's certifiable awful. As is tradition for this series the controls are different and worse than the previous game. Turning your core is painfully slow and they removed strafing altogether. Huh? Why would you remove the only thing that makes the game playable? Beyond nerfing the controls the other gameplay not wort...

Review #260 Jungle Strike Washington D.C. Strike SNES 1995 Electronic Arts Shooter Shooter › Isometric E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay ARRGGHH! The good controls are gone. The only option is the tank-like controls that are relative to the direction your chopper is facing. I was shocked and overjoyed with Desert Strike's "From Above" control scheme and now I'm mad that they removed it for the sequel. Grrr With the new control scheme I'm a dead duck. Everything hits me and I die so much I can't complete the first level. Huge drop in playability. They also didn't fix the map/pause screen issue from the original. You had three years to fix it guys...come on! 3 / 5 Level Desig...

Review #134 Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf How did I not know this? SNES 1992 Electronic Arts Shooter Shooter › Isometric D 76 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay My eyes have been opened. For almost 30 years I've thought Desert Strike was a great concept with shotty controls that make it unbeatable. But after spending time with it I discovered that it has a control scheme called "From Above" which not only eliminates the momentum-nased physics of your movement but also the orientation-based turning controls. With From Above the direction you press on the D-Pad is the direction your helicopter moves and it starts and stops on a dime. Not only that but holding L or R let's you strafe. This is now a completely different game than the one I s...

Review #24 Air Strike Patrol Desert Strike with horrible controls SNES 1994 Seta Shooter Shooter › Isometric H 37 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Weird controls. The isometric movement is relative to the direction you're facing, so doing a 180 turn requires you to turn 90 degrees with one d-pad direction and then the other 90 degrees with a different d-pad press. Not intuitive. Turning is painfully slow as well. Map is useless since it doesn't show your location! No way to know what your target is. No indicator. The objective of the first mission is to destroy all radar sites and I blew up what looked like two sets of radar dishes but I didn't get credit for having completed any of the mission. There were a bunch of buildings around the...