Black Label Games: Donkey Kong Jr.

What is a Black Label Game, you ask? Well, they're the first several games released by Nintendo for the NES. They're described as the Black Label Games because the label's are black, and the pictures are pixelated images of the game. Here is what Donkey Kong Jr. looks like:

Donkey Kong Jr. is a great game. It was released in 06/1986. It's not too complicated, but it gets pretty hard. At the beginning it's pretty easy to dodge enemies, but as the levels progress they get much harder. I used to think I was pretty good at this game, but I've been shown that I can't last nearly as some as others. That's okay though, with practice I could get that good! Just you watch! Each level has different enemies and progressively get crazier. You'll have to excuse the pictures. When you pause the game all the people disappear. Guess that prevents you from cheating!

Stage one is pretty easy. There's some Snapjaw's that Mario releases from the top of the screen to crawl down the vines to get you. Those Snapjaw's always make me think of aligators or crocodiles. You can make the fruit fall down to get points and get even more points if they fall on a bad guy. All you have to do it get to the platform above Mario and you continue to the next stage.

Stage two, to me, is the worst stage. If you time it just right, you can hit that spring on that bottom left platform to land on a platorm that is floating in the air. If you don't, you have to get over to the bottom right platform, climb up the chain, and attempt to jump on the floating platform. There are chains that move back and forth as well as up and down going across that line that you have to take to get to the left again. Mario is releasing birds at the same time that fly around and drop eggs on you. Again, all you have to do is get to the platform above Mario to pass the stage.

I like the third stage. Watch out for the Sparks all around the stage. There is one going around each platform, but Mario also releases one that travels all around that you have to dodge as well. This stage is easy to point scab on by just hanging out on the top platform and jumping over the Sparks without dying. 

This stage is also great. In Stage Four, Mario is releaing birds again but these ones don't drop eggs on you. They just go back and forth across the stage and you have to watch out. At the same time, Slapjaw's are coming down the chains to get you. While you're dodging all that, you got to get all the keys up to the top to rescue Donkey Kong.

Now you can play this game on the NES. Either you can play it on the original Donkey Kong Jr. cart or you can play it on the Donkey Kong Classics cart. I always wondered why it was called Donkey Kong Classics when you only play Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. It didn't come out before Donkey Kong 3, so did they think it wasn't worth it to put it on there? Who knows. Either way, play it. It's awesome.

Cooking Mama Cook Off for Wii

This was the first game I owned for the Wii. In fact, I got this game before I even owned a Wii. My Mom bought the game because I recommended it, and she hated it so much she gave it to me. I recommended it because I have the game for the DS and I like it. But this game isn't as good as the DS version. Maybe it's just the motion control that makes it not as good. I don't know. I still like it though.

The basis of the game is simple. You get a bunch of recipes to pick from to make. As you complete recipes, you unlock more.

As you see here, you do a little bit of each recipe to make it. You can chop, grate, crack eggs, mix ingredients, and so forth. Obviously you have to move your controller in different motions to do each thing. Now I don't have a horribly steady arm, so some of the "preparing" can be a pain. Like peeling, you have to move your controller up and down across the food on the screen and you're timed. It's crazy.

After each "preparation", you get graded based on how quickly you passed it and how "correct" you did it. Like when your cracking eggs, if you did it before time was up and you didn't break any of them before getting it all over the place, you'd get a gold medal. As you can see above, I didn't get a gold medal cause I broke a few eggs, but managed to get the amount I needed within the time limit.
And that's that. Rinse and repeat. It's fun, but others would consider it work. And it's not too far from the truth.

Rolling Thunder for NES

Rolling Thunder is a fun, yet hard game. If you have ever played this game before you already understand how frustrating it is. It teases you into thinking that it's going to be a simple side scrolling shooter game, but it is so easy to die it's unbelievable. Those guys dance around the screen and punch the air. It's funny to watch.

You attack these goofy looking guys with hoods on their heads. This guy is red and he only takes one shot. There are blue guys that take two hits (most of the time). I've also come across guys that are all white that either shoot at you or throw grenades at you. Those guys suck.

There are a billion doors along your mission, but most of them do nothing. You have limited ammo, but there are doors along the way that give you ammo. There are also doors that give you upgraded weapons. It helps. There are random doors you can go in that I've gotten extra time in, but they weren't marked.

If you get a game over, this guy laughs at you. How rude.

5 games from my wishlist

I don't have a fancy separate page to post my wishlist. That will have to wait until I get my domain after Thanksgiving. Until now I'll just list a few games that I want with some photos that I'll have to steal cause obviously I don't own them to photograph them myself.

1. Bart's Nightmare for SNES or Genesis

I know that I've played this game before. I'm pretty sure it was the SNES version, but I'm sure they're pretty much the same game. I remember this game being ridiculously hard, but I'd love to give it a shot now that I'm a bit older. This game usually goes for around $10. After the holidays I will probably start up my Ebay saved search for this game again so I can try and find it cheap.

2. Mega Man 5 and 6 for NES

I'm terrible at any Mega Man game except 2, but I would love to complete my NES collection of Mega Man games. Eventually I will start on other systems, but for now my hope is to get this one done eventually. These two usually go for a lot, so finding them cheap may prove to be a challenge. I'll have to be patient.

3. Contra III for SNES

This game is so much fun even if I am terrible at it. I loved playing this game with my brother cause he would help keep me alive. I love the different areas and the different points of view you could have. It can really throw you off, but it is done quite well in my opinion. Last time I played it was a few months ago and it wasn't as hard as I remember, but that could be cause I'm a bit older now.

4. Super Castlevania 4 for SNES

Castlevania is just awesome in my eyes, and I find this one to be the best one that I've played (which I guess isn't saying much since I've only played this one and the first one). I love how you can whip all around and the control seems so much better. I got to borrow this game for awhile and it was great. I wish I had played it more.

5. Venture for Atari 2600

I remember playing this game when I was younger. This game was incredibly simple. You're a little happy face that shoots arrows. You go into each room and collect a treasure and try not to get attacked by the enemies in the room. You can avoid them or shoot them. But don't stick around for too long or esle a green ghost comes in the room, along with some freaky music, to come and get you. That used to scare the bejesus out of me. I'm sure it would be fun now.

These aren't in any paticular order, but there you have it.

Castlevania for NES

This game is awesome. I'm terrible at it, but I love it. The game has a simple concept (although somewhat awkward controls) and has awesome music. I like the music so much that it is my ringtone for my phone!

The basis of the game is pretty simple. Get to Dracula's castle and defeat him. Along the way you fight hoards of other nasty beasts, but you get to use a whip on them!

You can get some powerups by whipping candles. You can get a special weapon or points. The special weapons each have their own effectiveness, but my favorite so far is the cross.

In order to use your special weapons, you need to collect hearts. The hearts give you ammo (for lack of a better word). Kind of weird, isn't it? Usually hearts give you health, but not in this game! In this game you find porkchops in the wall that regenerate your health. Let me say that again: porkchops in the wall. Sounds like tasty life, right? You can also find Roman numerals in the walls that allow you to shoot your special weapon more than once before they disappear. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, hearts either give you one or five, uh, uses of your weapon.

This is the part that always gets me. It usually takes me quite a few tries before I get through it. Those stupid Medusa heads get me each time! I know this isn't very far into the game, but what can I say? I'm not very good at games like this. I want to practice more and get better at it, but I always seem to get wrapped up in other games. Castlevania defintely deserves more attention from me.

Passwords and Continues

My original idea for this post was to discuss how using passwords and continues are for wusses. But I think I'm going to change my opinion about that.

I've always thought that if you're going to beat a game, you got to be hard core and beat it on one run! If you can't do it, you might as well give up. Continuing from a saved game is different since usually those games are freakin' long! I don't have the patience to sit through a long game in one sitting. But I've been trying to beat Tiny Toon Adventures and Dino City on one run and I haven't been able to do it! I'm getting to the point now that I might be able to do it for Tiny Toon Adventures, but since I hardly get to the last stage in Dino City, I'm so shocked that I fail!

So I guess I'll change the theme of my post to discuss the different types of password screens. I only have three cause they're the only three I can think of.

This one is for Dino City:

Not too complicated to enter it, but there are some weird symbols. Like the "O" is a triangle, and the "Y" is some odd shape, goodness knows what it's supposed to be. This password will start you off at Stage 5 with 9+ lives. I say 9+ because I don't know how many it starts you with, but the counter only goes to 9.

Next is Punch Out!!!:

I love the sound it makes when you pick a number. It's the same sound it makes when a character in the game talks. This is a nice example of a simple password screen. Nothing complicated and it's not too long.

Last is Mega Man 3:

Talk about complicated! Not only do you have to keep track of which ball goes where, but you have to keep track of the color too! I remember when I was younger, my Brother would draw a graph and keep track of the passwords. Thinking about that now makes it seem so silly, but it worked for him back then! Seriously, though. Is there really any reason to make it so complicated? If the game developers didn't want you to continue, then don't have a password screen!  (BTW: This password will start you at Wily's Castle with every weapon and like 9 energy tanks)

I'm just messing. It's not that serious. Hope you enjoyed my simple post.

My Collection to date

Not much to say. Here's all my stuff. Enjoy it's beauty.

Three random SNES titles

Two of the three games pictured above I have actually had for a little while, just never blogged about. Those would be Alien3 and some Madden football game. I got Donkey Kong Country earlier this week. They all are in great shape. Alien3 and the football game looked like they had never been played. On the other hand, Donkey Kong Country needed some serious cleaning. I haven't tested it yet, but I'm sure it'll work fine. I'll go into more detail about these games at a later time I'm sure (except for the football game, which I'll probably never play).

You haven't won yet. :)

Metal Gear for NES

I got this game in the mail a few days ago along with another game I didn't hold on to a few days ago. I won them for a decent price. It looks good, as you can see, and just needs a bit of cleaning.

I honestly don't really have an opinion of the game. I've never played too much of it and I hear that it's nothing special. But this is one of the few games that I actually remember my first exposure to.

Back in 2001, Metal Gear Solid 2 came out for the PS2. I was seeing a boy at the time that was a fanatic about the series. He would always proclaim that he had been a fan of Metal Gear since the original. He had a gym bag packed with NES games that he never really touched, but once Metal Gear Solid 2 game out, he dusted off his NES and pulled out this game. I remember thinking that the game didn't even compare to Metal Gear Solid 2 (not that I was interested in that game). The PS2 game was much more enjoyable to watch. Funny, now that I think about it, this game and the MGS2 were the only two Metal Gear games that he owned. Quite the fanatic.

I know that's not a very exciting story, but hey. It's my memory of this game.

WarioWare Smooth Moves!

I remember way back when, before I owned a Wii, I used to see this game ALL OVER THE PLACE. I swear, Wal-Mart would have, like, 40 copies of this game sitting on the shelf. After I finally got a Wii, this game was nowhere to be found. I knew what this game was about and I wanted it, but I couldn't find it.

Looking around on Ebay and such, I saw this game was worth quite a bit. Like most Wii titles released by Nintendo, this game has not depreciated in value. Videogamepriceguides.com has the average price of this game at around $30. I didn't think I was ever going to get this game for a reasonable price.

That was until I was randomly searching Craigslist. I was browsing the Video Game section and I saw this. I quickly opened up the ad and saw the person was selling it for $10! And to make a long story short, I now own it.

It's a quirky mini-game based title. You do a bunch of random things on the spot. I really like it. It's simple and you look like a dork doing it. This would be lots of fun to play with others. I recommend picking it up if you don't own it already.

Why would a seller lie? Pt. 2

Dear Ebay Buyer,


Sorry about that. I thought my description was fair, but I will give you a full refund. I tested the game and it worked fine. I have no idea about the label and what it shoud look like.

- Ignornat Ebay Seller

And there you have it. I got my refund. I don't believe this seller didn't realize it was a glued on piece of paper and that it was supposed to be that way. I also don't believe that the game is tested because it is in terrible shape. I opened it and the case broke (in a way I can't describe without possibly giving the item away), but it will still work if it does in fact work after I clean it. It will require some comet and some thumb rubbing. Hopefully it will work, although it doesn't really matter. I guess I'll keep it, but I'll want a different one for my personal collection. At least this seller didn't give me any trouble like my first poor experience with Ebay and Mega Man 2. You can read about all my bad Ebay experiences by clicking here.

Time to win that game again!

Why would a seller lie?

Dear Seller,


The condition of this item is completely unacceptable. Nowhere in your description does it say that the label is just a print out that is glued or taped onto the cartridge. Acceptable implies that the label is intact and may have a scuff or minor wear to it, not that the label does not exist. This item is supposed to be a gift and there is no way I would give out something of this poor quality to anyone. I demand a refund of the item and have no issue returning the item to you, but I must be compensated for the return shipping. If you do not wish to pay for return shipping, then I will keep the item and I will still require a full refund of the item. I refuse to eat any cost for this item because of the lack of accurate description. If I do not get a reply from you within 3 days I will be filing a report with Ebay and Paypal. I would appreciate your cooperation.

- Me

This is what I get from buying from a seller with a very little sales on Ebay. I am so disappointed and mad right now, I don't know what else to say.