Game Reviews

This game fits these requirements.

It is a fun game. My four year old really enjoys this game. It is a game that my two year old can understand. Yet it is still fun as a family game. The game board sets up differently each time so the kids can't memorize where something is for each game. It is not a slow game so you can play a quick round or two in a short time and stop before the kids get bored.

Well worth the money.
Enjoy.

Enjoy.

What can I say? I love it,no complaints...

With this game I find myself taking it easy on the brakes most of the time...if you don't the vehicle has a tendancey to lock up and you'll end up in the kitty litter or the wall!

Damage is fairly reasonable...there is no flipping but you can damage you car enough to retire from the race.

Overall: Great game! Throw out last years because you'll never play it again.

As much as the characters are neat, the real meat of this game is the racing, which is flat out challenging. The goal of Freaky Flyers is simple: Win the race. The game kicked my butt more than once as I worked to figure out the best way to avoid running into trees or pasting myself into canyon walls. There are plenty of powerups and surprises throughout that make getting into the front of the flying pack easier, once you know where they are and how to use them. Some powerups can be won by flying through them, others require very controlled target shooting.

The first level, Bigfoot Mountain, pits flyers against a gnarly twisting canyon bristling with pine trees, villages, dams, waterfalls and tunnels. The program won't let you fly over obstacles, so it takes some real skill in tight corners. The graphics are solid here, as long as you don't get too far off the main course, where things get a little sketchy. I tried flying close to several bigfoot creatures and they weren't quite prepared for me. They kept jumping up and down in an odd, rigid way. Meanwhile, I was running 9th in the race and losing bigtime. At the end of the game, the announcer told me in a kindly but firm tone to put down my controller and “step away from the screen.

Luckily, I didn't take his advice. Level 2 took me to Coyote Canyon, another curvy raceway where the speed picks up in a big way. Powerups ripped by and I found myself under attack from other flyers more often. Every plane has unlimited gatling guns, so squeezing off shots isn't associated with the usual problem of where to find more ammo. Some powerups give you rockets, which let you turn the competition into a satisfying flaming gumbo.

Level three, Bandito Attack, changes the scene completely. Here you have to protect a fort against heavily armed dudes in sombreros. If you spend too much time picking them off on the ground, their bases in the hills will shell your fort into smoking ruins. If you spend to much time attacking their bases, the pesky sombreros on the ground will... turn your fort into smoking ruins. This wasn't easy. The game doesn't give you any powerups at this level and you're almost totally on your own.

The fourth level, Thugsville Chicago, gets more complex and brings in sub characters while notching up the race speed even more. The urban landscape provides tricky canyons of apartment buildings with clothes lines, burning homes (which you have to put out) and more stationary attackers. One subgoal is to get the police chief back to headquarters. Luckily, powerups are everywhere and smart flying rather than shooting seems to be the best strategy.

Level five takes you to an Arab scene that is mostly underground and not easy. I don't know how many more levels there are, since I'll admit I'm kinda stuck at level five for the moment. That's a good sign that the designers didn't build this game to be a throw away. It may look wacky, but the software is every bit as powerful as more traditional guns N violence or sports games.

The contoller is very responsive in Freaky Flyers. I spent a good deal of time learning to limit my stick movements or I'd go screaming off the race course and get hung up in a mountain pass. The music is good, if a bit repetitive, and there are movies locked among the levels that give you more information about the stories of each character.

Each game takes about 5 minutes to play, and if you win, they can be shorter.

Sound was a bit repetitive and I found myself turning down the volume.

All in all, Freaky Flyers is fun and challenging. You won't be sorry you bought or rented it.

I have a couple of nephews that have really enjoyed the game a lot too. IT'S A SAFE GAME FOR KIDS, but has some good tongue-in-cheek humor for everyone old enought to get the jokes. There aren't too many games out there that can entertain across the age groups like this one. Bravo! Buy a couple for the other family members with PS2s.

And I got this for my son and he is happy and has no complaints !

Excitebike once again has a nice and easy to get used to way of playing. You press the B and A buttons to accelerate. The B buonn pushes you along faster but you also have a bar at the bottom of your screen. Once it fills up you have to let your bike sit for a while until it cools down. Not to mention that you also race against three other drivers going over bumps and whatnot. The real task at hand isn't to beat the other three players but to beat the time.

Excitebike was the first racing game to have a track editor. Unfortunately on the NES you couldn't save that track. But on the GBA you actually can save it. My gripe is you can only save one track which bites.

There are a couple of other problems. If you have an E-Reader you can get Excitebike there. The other is simply that the GBA has had to have some of the graphics squashed down to fit the screen. This shouldn't pose any real problems though.

Excitebike is a grand game and one of the true classics in the Classie NES Series. Along with "Super Mario Bros." and of course "The Legend of Zelda" this is what you should get.