Kirby Super Star is a compilation of seven short games (plus two mini-games), one being a remake of the original Kirby's Dream Land ! All the games are enjoyable and add up to much more than your average SNES game. The first game is Spring Breeze, a remake of Kirby's debut outing. As a fan of the original, I was happy to play it in 16-bit graphics and  color , and with Kirby's signature copy ability, which he sadly lacked the first time around. With only five levels, what was once a whole game now feels like it belongs in a compilation. I beat it on my first playthrough after just a few minutes. There's a cool new option: simultaneous two-player. Pressing A turns Kirby's current copy ability back into its enemy, who works with Kirby as a partner. If there is no second player, the computer controls it for you! This is a fun addition, though it makes an already easy game even easier. I also noticed a small control improvement compared to Kirby's Adventure : instea...

Pop culture of the 1980's was marked by a profusion of commercialistic cartoons meant to sell toys, such as Masters of the Universe (aka He-Man). Some were good, especially  The Real Ghostbusters (1986-91),  DuckTales (1987-90), and  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1988-96). Each of these was adapted into an NES game more than once. DuckTales, in my view and that of many, is the best NES game based on a licensed property.  Capcom, which had made the incredible Mega Man and Mega Man 2 , got the Disney license, which led to several popular games. (Hudson, the maker of Adventure Island , had already made the mediocre Micky Mousecapade , but it was published by Capcom.) Capcom wisely drew upon Mega Man in crafting the levels and game physics for DuckTales, as well as the concept of letting the player choose the order in which to play levels. They even recycled a bit of the Mega Man stage-clear music for the same purpose in DuckTales. This Mega Man engine, coated in th...