SOS! SOS! Opi Is In Trouble! Playing Cratermaze for the First Time

Wouldn't you know it? You're on a friendly little trip through time with four of your best friends when suddenly - ZAP!

The latest game in my TurboGrafx journey is Cratermaze! I had never played (or even heard of) this game before, so it was a brand new experience for me.

Like a lot of the TurboGrafx games I've played so far, Cratermaze looks great with colorful, well drawn graphics. 

It opens with a series of cinema scenes to tell the story of how your friends have been captured, and the drawings are wonderful.

The game itself looks similar to Bomberman, from a point of view perspective and the cartoonish graphics. You can even unlock bombs at one point, and they function very much like the bombs do in Bomberman.

But, interestingly, the gameplay is actually closer to Loderunner than Bomberman, with your character able to open holes in the ground for enemies to fall into. Once you open a hole you wait for the enemy to fall into it, and then you have to close it to defeat them before they can escape. 

You also have to be careful not to fall into a hole you created, otherwise you get crushed and lose a life. Once an enemy is defeated, a small cross is placed where you defeated them, kind of like a grave marker, but then you can't create holes in those same places, which means you have to be strategic about where you place holes and lure enemies.

There is a locked orange (red) door in each level, and to open it you have to collect all the treasure chests (there is a counter so you can keep track of your progress), which then spawns a green key that in turn opens the door. Go through the door to progress to the next level, rinse and repeat.

You can watch gameplay from my initial run on standard difficulty in the YouTube video below:

You can also watch gameplay from my first run on "Difficult" mode:

Overall, I really liked Cratermaze, much more than I thought I would. The standard difficulty is really easy, almost more like a training run, then there is "Difficult Mode", which does make the game much more difficult and interesting. 

For some reason, EGM crapped all over this game back in the day, giving it a 5, two 4's and a 3. 

They complained the game was either too easy or too hard, and generally dismissed it. I disagree however. I really like the game, and its one of my favorite TurboGrafx games so far.

Now that I've played Cratermaze quite a bit, I'm ready to move onto my next game. 

The next game I'll be playing is...

Deep Blue!

I don't really know anything about this one, and I'm excited to give it a try.

Until next time...