Brain Breaker (1985)

Look: 7/10 Disappointing look considering Super Mario Bros came out before this, but what can one expect from a Sharp X1... It also isn't bad and they did a lot with so little. (Well, honestly, the more I think about it... the epic Alien at the end seems to be super disappointing looking and the items on the ground are atrociously done.... I do love the Saiyan P-K mode tho lol)

Ahhh, I dunno, it's also so DOS-precursor-y thoooo. I guess I will settle with a 7 instead of a 6 and call it a day. It really doesn't matter that much lol.

Sound: 7/10 Catchy enough tune, gets a bit repetitive, but good. The sound effects are a bit annoying but nothing horrendous for a 1985 microcomputer game.

Play: 7/10 Not the greatest controls, but also not that bad for a microcomputer game (especially one loaded with this much in it). As often happens with early microcomputer action-adventures with item management, I wish it were clearer what item you're dropping/picking up. Indeed, I should have mentioned in Look how atrocious the items-on-ground are. It's soooo unclear what it is lol, I would not have guessed that seeming-stick-glitch on the ground at the beginning was the Laser Gun, etc :-p I do think they did a good job with the F1, F2, F3 etc controls being indicated on the bottom. Just wish a bit stronger controls for jump and shooting, as well as clearer inventory management when it comes to dropping/picking up.

Feel: 8/10 Yesss to the jetpack. I love the feeling of upgrading your weapons (you even, indeed, sacrifice one of your earlier weapons in order to move on at a point, which first made me nervous till I remembered I had unlimited ammo with the honing rocket launcher :-p ). To a large extent, the concept, the vast scope, the action-adventure platformer hybrid--the Feel is what carries this game and made it hard for me to give up even as I was sleepy, sick, and had to start from the beginning repeatedly lol. (yes, even with a built-in immediate-save-anywhere function)

Attachment: 8/10 Arghhhh, I died! After getting the Brain Breaker, and heading further west into the city.... I saved right before a laser hit me! Dumb! Would I be patient enough to go through the long dialog to receive the Brain Breaker again??? Hmmm, the fact I have the urge to do so, despite being super tired and sick (againnnn), says a lot.

After trying 2 more times, I did finally give in at this part when I was stuck yet again. I believe the issue was, I must have dropped my Jetpack instead of my Laser Gun in order to get down here. Plus, when I tried the CTRL+W warp mode with the tank thingie (I thought the point of the Brain Breaker was to disable electric things... whatever), I got super confused. Super elaborate, frankly awesome game that is worth a try. I didn't quite beat it but I'm eager to try it again and again eventually, just not tonight heh. I'm burned out on it for now.. I want so badly to become the Super Saiyan Psyko-Kinetic version tho! Akira vibes there!

Completion: To the screen above (I had gotten in the Tank that can Warp, and gone up the elevators in that building then broke through the ground to get to the computer in the image above, but seemed to be stuck there) Playtime: ~1h 20m