8 Eyes

The Good
8 Eyes has a unique concept with Orin the falconer and his faithful falcon friend Cutrus. A single player can command the falcon to fly out and attack enemies at a range and also hit switches to open doors. The game also did a good job illustrating different the mansions in different parts of the world.

The Bad
The play control in 8 Eyes reminds me of Simon Belmont from Konami's original Castlevania game on the NES. Orin is very slow to move and can not attack very quickly. This makes it more tempting to send the falcon for confrontations in the hope that your character does not sustain as much damage. However, controlling the falcon in the single-player mode is more limiting than in the 2-player mode. In the latter mode, the second player can control the falcon's vertical movement. In the single-player mode, the falcon flies on the same plane where Orin released him.

Certain boss battles were almost impossible. Eventually, I figured out a pattern where I would use the falcon to hit the boss once every 2 minutes or so. Perhaps there was a better way, but I remember that I needed about an hour to defeat one of the bosses.

Another minor point-- when you eventually collect all 8 Eyes, you had better hope that you have a good color television so you can differentiate between the jewels.

The Bottom Line
Think of the original Castlevania with a falcon power-up.