Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality

The Good
Seeing as it came from a little no-name company in 1990 that's not even around right now, I was surprised at its innovativeness and how it was able to keep my attention.

The Bad
The graphics and sound are a bit jumpy, but not much other than that.

The Bottom Line
All I can say is, read the description on the rap sheet. I wrote it, so if I said anything here it would be the exact same thing.

The Good
It had an excellent box that made it look like it belonged on the store shelf.

The Bad
It was a commercial attempt to capitalize on the earlier shareware version. There were minor updates but not enough to justify a $20.00 game. The 16 bit consoles were just starting to show what the home game market was capable of. This NES clone added to the idea that the PC would never really be a game machine.

The Bottom Line
Simple side scrolling platform action game with clumsy controls and low frame rate animation.

The Good
It was cheap, I was like 7-8 years old when I got it, and I was able to afford its 15 dollar price tag myself, making it the first game I ever bought. When you are 8 years old, bright big bold 8-bit graphics like in Captain Comic II made your little brain trip. The game can kind of be described as Mario Brothers 3 rip-off, which is interesting because both games came out around the same time. You control the Captain in a side-scrolling adventure in a free formed interconnected world. Your power, like Mario, is fireballs that you collect from finding soda cans...the more cans you collect, the more fire power you get. There were also many interesting objects you collected along the way that got saved on the bottom screen in your inventory. Every thing seemed to have usefulness. The thrill of finally getting the jet-pack when you are a little kid and getting a chance to explore impossible to reach areas was great. Also, the cavern world of lava was just a breathtaking testament to what could be achieved with 8-bit graphics. There were many secrets to be found, and the game got increasingly more challenging and confusing. The story was weak, but it was secondary to the large free world you could explore with shiny 8-bit effects gleaming everywhere (especially in the amazing looking green gem white marble temple you discover early). Utterly bizarre game that is actually still playable today, much like like Mario 3 is.

The Bad
A lot of jumping puzzles where a poorly timed jump spelled your doom instantly. Also, the game was kind of a choose your own path adventure, so if you were in a world they required some special key or item to pass, you were given no clue as to what other world to travel to find it, you just had to be lucky. This made the game hard to beat in my childhood. When I picked it up again off the Underdogs site a few years ago, I had to use a walkthrough to beat it...but I did finally get to see the ending after nearly 10 years of being left in the dark.

The Bottom Line
A bright, colorful, well designed side-scrolling platformer that was very interesting and unique in its day. It was challenging and oddly beautiful.