GRAPHICS SOUND CONTROL FRUSTRATION FUN FACTOR OVERALL

NES 1-6 Player Sports If there were one word I could possibly use to describe Caveman Games, it would be "unique". At some point in the existence of the NES, someone thought "Hey, let's merge the Olympics with a bunch of cavemen trying to make fire and hitting each other with things!!". And so, Caveman Games was born. And thank Jeebus for that. Caveman Games is quite literally a stone-age olympiad. Events range from the unbelievably hillarious "mate toss", to events featuring dinosaur riding, fire making, and plain old caveman skull bashing. The game has 6 colorful and at times lovable characters, such as Gronk, Glunk, Ugha, Thag, the over-evolved Vincent, and Crudla, the only female character in the game. Graphics ---------- The graphics in this game are admittedly quite polished. The game exhibits a fair bit of visual detail, and the sprites are very large in some competitions. The fonts used in the game, which were tuned to look prehistoric, can be a bit hard to read at times, and some of the little details can be missed in the game's slight lack of color contrast. These, however are only small complaints. The animations are drop-dead hillarious at times, and the characters are drawn in such a way that the gamer has no choice but to let out a little laugh every time he/she sees them. Sound ------- In my opinion, the sound in this game leaves a little to be desired. The music is dull and repetitive, to the point which i usually turn it off after a while. The sounds are your average 8-bit fare, perhaps a little less detailed than average, but passable I guess. There isn't a wide variety of sound in this game, so I'll just call it slightly below average and leave it at that. Control -------- To be honest, the control in this game isn't all that great. It seems a little stiff to me, and I still haven't figured out the intricacies of some of the events. The mate toss, for example, requires a steady rotation of the control pad, which gets annoying after a while. Most events come down to simple button mashing. The 2 bright spots I found, control wise were the clubbing and fire-making events. Both weren't geared towards manic button mashing, so the designers incorporated some intuitive methods of control. The clubbing event had 3 different ways of club-swing, including a little poke, clubs to the knees and a huge overhand swing. All of these had their strengths and weaknesses, and made the events so much more enjoyable. Frustration ----------- This game is a mixed bag, frustration wise. The game has a rather steep learning curve. After many, many tries, I still haven't gotten down the trick to the dino vault event. The fire-making event requires a rather complicated method to achieve the goal. One case of smoke inhalation or a whack on the head by an opponent means back to start for you, mister. This could be a large factor in turning away less persistent players. However, the better events were much more self-explanitory and less frustrating. Fun Factor ----------- If you're without friends, don't buy this game. There's better solitary pursuits out there. If you do have friends (preferably at least 2) who enjoy the NES and party-type games, you're in gamer's paradise. This is unquestionably one of the most entertaining games to play in a group. Nothing beats challenging others to be the best caveman of the bunch. It seems to singlehandedly erase the frustration factor I described earlier. Events like the dino race, which seem dull and pointless while facing a CPU-controlled opponent, become a whole new ballgame. On one occasion, me and a few friends even started making bets on who would win or lose. When it comes to finding a way to hit your best friend on the head as hard as possible with a large, blunt object without being sued, Caveman Games is your trip to Mecca. ......BOTTOM LINE: Although maybe not the classic game some proclaim it to be, Caveman Games is a solid time-waster while in the company of others. Be warned, however, all will not like it. If you're planning to play this game by yourself, or looking for a suitable investment to spend hours and hours mastering, Caveman Games is not for you. However, if you're willing to overlook the flaws, enjoy a little humor, and pound your friends over the head with stuff, Caveman Games is a solid rental. Definitely worth a flea-market purchase to play away an evening or two. -Lanny Cox