Wanted: Feedback For Sentinel & Ninja Golf

[nosweargamer]

I'm looking for feedback for the next episode of the Atari 7800 Game By Game Podcast (you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube or use this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/78gbg )

What are your memories and/or thoughts on Sentinel & Ninja Golf on the 7800?

Also, how would you rate them? I use a system of 4 choices (From Best to Worst):

Hall of Fame Game (Top 5 game on the system out of the original, non homebrew games)

Solid Game

"Meh" Game

Trash Game (Bottom 5 game on the system)

These games will be covered on Episode 28

You can also e-mail text or audio to atari7800podcast@aol.com

If you get it in by Friday, it should make the show, but late submissions sometimes get squeezed in too, so send it even if it's late.

Just keep it family friendly

You can also send feedback on previously covered games or the system itself.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Ninja Golf: "Hall of Fame Game". I absolutley enjoy Ninja Golf! A great golf game with an excellent twist to it. You hit the ball while timing the distance meter and as you go up to the ball you fight ninjas, frogs, sharks, and gophers. And at the green you have to fend off a huge dragon by stunning it with shurikens. A great fun game that is addicting.

 

Sentinel: "Trash Game". Too repetitive, boring, and slightly difficult for my liking. The music will give you a headache. And the light gun support in shooting could be a little more accurate. This game is rare and should be sought after by collectors but not your library. I played it by emulation.

 

I just noticed I called Sentinel "Sinistar".

[+sramirez2008]

Sentinel: "Trash Game". I almost don't want to trash this game just because it's a light gun game and there aren't that many for the system. Having said that, this game is repetitive, which leads to boredom and something seems to be missing. This is a game that will get played once or twice and permanently put away.

 

Ninja Golf: "Hall of Fame Game". Even though I can't get past the 7th hole, I love this game. What other cart combines ninjas, frogs, snakes, sharks and gophers with golf? This game is hard (at least for me), but it makes me want to play it "one more time".

Edited April 6, 2016 by sramirez2008

[Inky]

Ninja Golf: "Hall of Fame Game". I absolutley enjoy Ninja Golf! A great golf game with an excellent twist to it. You hit the ball while timing the distance meter and as you go up to the ball you fight ninjas, frogs, sharks, and gophers. And at the green you have to fend off a huge dragon by stunning it with shurikens. A great fun game that is addicting.

 

Sinistar: "Trash Game". Too repetitive, boring, and slightly difficult for my liking. The music will give you a headache. And the light gun support in shooting could be a little more accurate. This game is rare and should be sought after by collectors but not your library. I played it by emulation.

 

 

Sinistar: "Trash Game".

 

Sinistar?

[DracIsBack]

Ninja Golf - Solid game. Great graphics. Quirky twist. A little on the repetitive side. Original title.

 

Sentinel - Meh. Tried it a couple of times. Couldn't get into it. Playable but not a ton of fun, IMO. Honestly, don't find any of the gun games except Alien Brigade and Crossbow to be all that great.

[phoenixdownita]

.... Honestly, don't find any of the gun games except Alien Brigade and Crossbow to be all that great.

There's 5 of them total and you like 2, that's what? 40% .... by any means the 7800 light gun games are an awesome bunch

 

But I agree with the rest of your assessment on these 2 games. I did try to play Sentinel until the end, I believe I have reached the final boss couple of times, as light gun games go it's not that much fun though.

[+save2600]

Sentinel = trash. Doesn't deserve any special props just for being a light gun game. Like Meltdown, not worth the hassle of fetching and plugging said gun in. lol

 

Ninja Golf = meh. Give me a golf game or give me a ninja side scroller. Have tried a few times throughout the years, but could never get into this repetitive and relatively simple hybrid for very long.

[Shawn]

I have a soft spot for Sentinel as I love lightgun games and I find it to be a unique and fun game to play. I call it a solid title for sure. Ninja Golf is solid also even though I don't play it much.

[Trebor]

Sentinel = "Meh". Being a PAL only release, I had to obtain a region converted image to see if it was worth playing on my NTSC console. As far as being a collector of the 7800, sure it is worth the purchase and owning a cart. From a pure gaming perspective, you are not getting a Crossbow and certainly no Alien Brigade here. It does not rank with the worst the 7800 has to offer, holding some value, especially for lovers of Light Gun games. Many may dive right in without realizing there are options that can be set in the game, including the difficulty switches on the front of the console determining whether the background music is on or off. Still, can't see this placing much better than a "Meh" and understandable if some perceive it to be worse than that.

Ninja Golf = Hall of Fame. Arguably the quirkiest and weirdest combination of all time: Ninja action plus golf playing - and the crazy thing - It works...Works splendidly. Controls for both golfing and ninja fighting are handled quite well and very responsive. Don't like golf and can't stand Ninja fights - this game may not be for you. However, like either one of those things, even remotely, and the seamless blending of sport challenge and arcade fighting action, paired with some awesome graphics, will keep you coming back for more. You’ll battle in sand traps, (under) water traps, in the rough, fairway, and the dragon on the green. Start it on easy, or the most difficult challenge, or perhaps somewhere in between. Whatever your choice, find the skill setting that is right for you, and then find yourself coming back for a unique, challenging, yet fun game…Highly recommended.

[+Rick Reynolds]

I can't claim to be any kind of 7800 oficionado, I've only had mine for less than a year. But Ninja Golf is the reason I got it! I really enjoy this game, have to call it Hall of Fame.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[gambler172]

Ninja Golf Hall ofFame

Sentinel MEH

greetings Walter

[SoulBlazer]

Sentinel -- I got to play this game by using the ROM in emulation and mapping the mouse to work as the light gun. I know you're against emulation, but it was really the only way I could play this. Once I finally got it running, I found the game to be a average light gun shooter. The graphics and music are both quite nice by 7800 standards, and there's a nice amount of options you can set with the switches and in the enemies attacking the Sentinel. However, the game gets repetitive after a while and the difficulty cranks up too soon too fast. There's just not enough variety in this to keep you coming back to it...it feels like a poor clone of Crossbow, where again you are protecting something from enemies. It does have a original setting and game idea, though, which scores some points with me. Ranking: meh

 

Ninja Golf -- what a strange and quirky game this is, but I love it! Hybrid games can be very hit or miss, but the combo of golfing mixed with ninja fights really works well in this game. I first played this game a few years ago when I started checking out the 7800 in emulation and kept playing it till I beat it. Once you get used the weird gameplay and controls it's a blast to play. Both parts of the game handle very well, sound effects and graphics are among the best the system had, and it's so unique I can't think of anything even close to this. It's a shame this is 'locked away' on a system like the 7800 and no ports of this exist. If I had heard of this game back when it came out I'm sure I would have loved it then as I do now. If this had been on the NES I'm sure the game would have done very well and would be on a number on 'top 10 games' lists for the system. As it is, it's one of the (I admit, few) reasons to play a 7800. Rating: hall of fame

[Dauber]

Never played Sentinel. Yeah, I could download the ROM and emulate it, but for some reason I just haven't really been digging the idea of emulating a 7800...and this is coming from a guy who uses MAME a lot and loves the 7800; go fig.

But ahhhh, Ninja Golf. Let me tell ya...I've always been attracted to bizarre-sounding games. It goes back to about 1986, 1987 when I saw a copy of the 2600 game Tax Avoiders in Kay-Bee. It sounded weird enough, and it was cheap enough, so I believed I spent my seven bucks wisely. I read the manual and played the game, and...it was bleeping weird, let me tell ya. Confirmed: I had spent my money wisely. Ninja Golf just continues my curiosity for the bizarre. You cannot deny that the golf mechanics in Ninja Golf are truly excellent -- and this is coming from a guy who can't stand golf unless there's a windmill involved. And the realism! The REALISM, man! You drive your first stroke, and then you fight off ninjas on your way to where your ball lies. You get to the green and you have to kill a dragon thingy. My dad used to golf all the time, and boy howdy, I can remember all the stories he told about fighting those dragons, and how he avoided having to ninja-fight for one hole when he went to the Chi Chi Rodriguez course in Florida about twenty years ago and hit his first (and so far only) hole-in-one. Next time my parents are over, I just might fire up Ninja Golf and ask my dad -- and maybe my brother, who golfs occasionally -- to tell me more of their golf-combat stories.

 

Because of Ninja Golf's surprisingly good playability in terms of golfing, bizarreness, and that (as far as I can tell) it's unique to the 7800, I really think this game deserves a Hall of Fame rating.

 

And my trend of being attracted to weird-sounding video games continued through this past Saturday when I picked up an Atari 2600 homebrew at Midwest Gaming Classic...I know that you like to keep things, uhmm...couth...on your podcast, Phil, so I'll just say this: it's a two-word title, and the first word is "Explosive."

Edited April 13, 2016 by Dauber

[Inky]

 

But ahhhh, Ninja Golf.

 

I see what you did there.

[Inky]

I've only briefly played Ninja Golf in emulation. So far, it doesn't seem to be a bad game at all -- even the Angry Videogame Nerd likes it -- but it's screaming for a modern update or a sequel. Seriously, it could have been a franchise.

Hmm. I can envision all the networked Golden Tee machines replaced by networked Ninja Golf arcade machines in bars, arcades and steakhouses all over the country.

Someone get on that!