MONTHLY 5 - March 2023

Awards season is over (and this is the first time ever where my personal favourite coincided with the Oscars), but movies will always be on my mind. As DreamWorks have been having a bit of a resurgence of late, with both Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Bad Guys washing out the stink that was Boss Baby, I thought I'd treat myself to some of their earlier game tie-ins. Pick of the bunch is Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado (2000 DreamWorks & Revolution Software), a 3D adventure game by the folks behind Broken Sword. Antz: Panic in the Anthill! (2001 Light and Shadow Production & DreamWorks LLC) takes the movie's characters and places them in a Bomberman clone. Chicken Run (2000 DreamWorks LLC, Aardman Chicken Run Ltd & Pathé Image) is a decent Baby's First Metal Gear Solid while Shrek: Game Land Activity Center (2001 TDK Mediactive, Activision & DreamWorks LLC) mimics Disney's edutainment offerings of the past. Lastly, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003 Atari Interactive & DreamWorks LLC) is an underrated movie tie-in of an underrated movie.

There are a few updates too. James Cameron's Titanic Explorer removes the need for mounted discs completely removing one of my biggest qualms about it (I should read the readmes more thoroughly). Galapagos: Mendel's Escape has now been updated to official patch 1.2 which gives the option to save anywhere. I've also changed DxWnd to a lesser version which solves the intro video distortion, but considering that was just a company logo it's a minor fix. I had thought I solved some issues in Sanity:Aiken's Artifact by forcing a reduced framerate through dgVoodoo, but it appears not. I'm beginning to think the issue stems from the NoCD patch itself so I'll have to figure out an alternative before I update again.

Until then, check out this month's games after the jump.

THE CHRISTMAS CATCHUP - THE FESTIVE FINALE

In the sage words of a singing Wizzard; IT'S CHRISTMAAAS!!! And with that comes the last entry of my Christmas Catch-up; Lemmings - or a compilation of the original Lemmings Trilogy (1991-2000 Psygnosis). Included in the massive bumper package along with the first game is Oh No! More Lemmings, Lemmings 2: The Tribes and The All New World of Lemmings (aka Lemmings Chronicles). Not to mention the oh-so-festive themed demos the future-GTA-developers put out back in the day. With all the console, handheld and computer ports in tow, that's 32 games in total! Whew!

Now to find time to (not) make a video about it all...

Merry Christmas!

SCOOBY-DOO COLLECTION

Not too long ago, the Scooby Gang turned 50 years old and it's still as much a part of the pop culture as ever. To kick off this October, let's take a look at the majority of their video game adaptations. Spread over 11 systems, there are 19 games to get through in this Scooby-Doo collection so let's get started!

BATMAN V SUPERMAN Vol. 1

It's been quite an eventful year so far. So much so that juggling work, life and passions have been something of a struggle. Then came Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to prove that I'm not the only one with a lot on my plate. Imagine being given hundreds of millions of dollars to create a film many comic book geeks like me have been waiting to see for decades and ending up with this confused mess of a movie! Makes finding the time to review classic games seem trivial...

ROBOCOP VS THE TERMINATOR

In the hope that Terminator Genisys will prove my doubts wrong and be an action movie worthy of the franchise (something that's not been achieved since Judgement Day), I've collected a plethora of games from the franchise. It's closely linked to that other robot movie - RoboCop - so I've added his games too. There are over 50 games here so let's have a look at them...

THE ADDAMS FAMILY COLLECTION

The Addams Family's immense popularity has always been short lived. The iconic TV series only lasted two years and the 70s animated show has mostly been forgotten. The early 90s saw two great films be released and was again hugely popular. In light of the revelation that a new stop-motion film is being produced, let's take a look at the many games based on the mysterious and spooky family.

KID KLOWN'S CRAZY COLLECTION

 Catch Kid Klown in a klutzy new kaper!

"Hey Kid! Help me out! I've got to run for my life from evil space pirate Blackjack. He wants to conquer the planet with bombs, banana peels and booby traps. And I need all kinds of balloons and Klown Coins to escape! It's the spookiest, kookiest race can run. 

With new diagonal scrolling for pie-in-your-face action! Plus hidden zones, power-ups and bonus stages that make it a riot to play every time. So get off your keister! Let's go klown around!

• Blackjack's booby traps!
• Bizarre bad guys
• Avoid obstacles...
• ...or you'll get burnt!

 ~ from the back of Kid Klown in Crazy Chase US Super Nintendo box

After a morbid couple of releases, let's move on to something a bit more light-hearted for Mother's Day. And what could be more light-hearted than a clown! A child clown to be precise, who goes by the name of Kid Klown...