Rival Turf, stylized on the cover and manual with an exclamation point (like Jeb Bush's failed 2016 presidential campaign), is an early SNES beat-'em-up created by Jaleco. Games published by Jaleco were generally sub-standard, and Rival Turf is no exception. It was a bald attempt to capitalize on the success of Capcom's arcade hit Final Fight . The photo art on the box and manual is infamous. Rival Turf is inferior to Final Fight (FF) in every way except one. Unlike FF, Rival Turf supports two players at the same time. FF was a popular arcade game, but (as I noted in my review ) the home version disappointed many fans because it omitted one of the three character options and, crucially, was single-player only. What made FF so popular in arcades was the ability for two players to play together. Rival Turf's sole achievement is including this feature. The two character choices are carbon copies of Cody and Haggar from FF. One is beefy (Oozie Nelson), the other slight (Jac...

Earth Defense Force is an SNES port of the 1991 arcade game of the same name. The title screen places a small "Super" before the title, but the box and cartridge just call it Earth Defense Force, same as the arcade version. I've never played the original, but apparently it has less weapons, a two-player option (sadly lacking here), and some different levels. Earth Defense Force differs from your typical side-scrolling shooter in that you choose your weapon and speed without having to pick up items. The ship, the XA-1, has three different speeds you can toggle between by pressing X (though I always use the highest speed). Before each stage, you select one of eight weapons. You can choose whichever you think is the most fun or useful. Two of the weapons stand out as superior: Homing and the Search Laser. Homing homes in on the enemy (duh). Search Laser achieves the same effect because with it your satellite ships automatically turn toward the enemy. You see, the XA-1 carrie...

Last month Nintendo added an obscure Famicom title called Ninja JaJaMaru-kun to the NES Switch Online platform. It's an arcade-style platformer from 1985 reminiscent of Namco's  Mappy . Each stage has four floors of enemies to clear, and the screen scrolls a little bit horizontally. JaJaMaru can break brick platforms with his head (not unlike Super Mario), which then allows him to jump between floors. Broken bricks sometimes drop a coin (points), an extra life, or a power-up. The power-ups are medicine (temporary invincibility), a speed-up ball, a throwing star that increases attack range, and a tram car that lets JaJaMaru run over enemies! You have to be careful, though, because broken platforms can also leave bombs that cost you a life if touched. If you collect three different power-ups, a giant frog appears that JaJaMaru rides to destroy all the enemies! As you move through levels, the stage's aesthetic changes a little, and the enemies grow more difficult. They're ...