Anybody else notice this?

(No? Just me? Fine, I'll explain.) Ooh, achievement unlocked. Anyway, let me explain: the Nerd made a new video. Nothing special, but look carefully. See it? Yep: Cyborg Justice, the game I absolutely HATE, made a guest appearence. I assume that after this was filmed, Rolfe washed his hand in a vain effort to wash away any horrible memories of this game that he may have. Don't get me wrong, there are games I actually like. Like F-Zero X, which I just beat recently. There were a variety of characters in the game, but I chose Captain Falcon. Why? Aside from a stupid joke I won't mention, there's also the fact that I think he's related to Captain Crunch. And that I'm the type of person who only plays as the character he knows. Anyway, the main thing that separates this game from all others is the ball-busting sense of speed. Now keep that "ball-busting" part in mind for later. Back to the speed, this game is fast. You'll often find yourself blasting at 800 miles an hour, watching the road below you zoom past (which really helps you forget the murder). How do they do this? Well, the graphics had to take a cutback. The ships are simplistic and the backgrounds can be a bit medioce, given the fact that they were 2D sprites. But they still look decent from an artistic perspective, if that makes sense. What I mean is that the sci-fi badass nature of the game wasn't marred by the graphics. The music is the same, consisting of super-badass-macho-manly-Republican-badass-F-Zero remixes from the original. To sum that part up, you should be listening to THIS throughout the race. So there's good music, solid racing, and OK graphics. I guess that wr-no, wait, I forgot one thing. Remember the "ball-busting" part I mentioned earlier? Well, this game is ball-bustingly HARD. Even on the standard difficulty, I was having my ass handed to me. There are 30 cars on the track at all times, you get sent back to the end of the line if you get in first, and the controls are a bit weird. See, the boost button is on the B button (for boost), rather than the Z button, which would make sense. So where's the brake? C-down. That's not even used for main gameplay, that's camera control! But I still managed to beat it, probably because I'm a dirty boost whore. As soon as the second lap begins, I mash the B button until I'm near death. From a broken hand. Because this game is so hard. Ball Bustingly Hard....Award.

Which explains why I went with a somewhat easier game for the second one. Alien Syndrome, an old school shooter for the Sega Master System, NES, Game Gear, Commodore 64, CPC, arcade, abacus, and a few mediocre recent remakes. So it's prolific and has significance in the modern world. Is there more to it? Yes and no. See, your goal is to rescue all the hostages on a certain space station. I don't see why you need to rescue them, since they're already moribund, but whatever, I'll play along. But what are you rescuing them from? Aliens, you fool. And you have to kill them all with a simple gun with three simple modes: pea-gun "please kill me off mid boss battle" mode, laser "please kill me off mid boss battle" mode, and fire "please burn the aliens' faces off" mode. The game is really simple like this, and easy to grasp. The only thing that needs explaining is the controls: the pause button was on the console, so Sega, in all their wisdom, decided to make the unused button a pause button that brings up the status screen. I love this, since it means I don't have to get up to pause the game. Yes, I'm lazy. But the game itself I only like, since there are still flaws in it. For example, when you die, you get sent back to the beginning with the pea-gun. Fair enough, but this is also true for boss battles. There are no power ups for boss battles, meaning you have to kill the boss within the time limit using a piece of crap super soaker. What happens if you don't? THE STATION BLOWS UP. These aliens don't f*ck around; the timer here is apparently some sort of bomb, which explains why you have to rescue these guys. So I give it the Roundabout Explanation Award, since it explained why I'm rescuing hostages. But what the hell's with the title? Alien Syndrome? That sounds like a horrible disease! Imagine what it'd be like to hear your doctor telling you that you have alien syndrome!....