I have had the opportunity to dig into this game while at work recently (I play my Lynx at work alot), and my initial impressions of the game years ago was that it was very generic and bland. But, somehow this one is growing on me and it actually has some character of it's own. I mean, it's still kind of 'generic side-scroller', but I've played worse in the genre, way worse.
It's very challenging to start with, but I don't feel like it's 'cheap', like say a game like Batman Returns is 'cheap'. It has very good controls, you need a good amount of precision, but nothing that isn't learned rather quickly. For these reasons I am able to start game after game without getting frustrated by the controls/difficulty. It's a much better game than Dirty Larry and Batman Returns, or Power Factor for that matter. (the latter being a very confusing game)
Scrapyard Dog is loaded with secrets too, which I'm just finding out. I also am impressed with the high amount of special weapons/items, that I just didn't see the first few times that I played the game. I originally thought all you had as a weapon was the aluminum cans, until I accidentally figured out you could duck into the background objects for secret shops and bonus stages.
All in all this is a cool little game and one of the best examples of a classic side scroller on the Lynx, alongside Switchblade II and Shadow of the Beast. Now I'm interested in the 7800 version of Scrapyard Dog, but from the limited videos I've seen on Youtube, that version actually looks mechanically very different, for instance it looks like you can bounce on enemies to kill them like Super Mario Bros, which the Lynx game doesn't have that mechanic at all.
It's very challenging to start with, but I don't feel like it's 'cheap', like say a game like Batman Returns is 'cheap'. It has very good controls, you need a good amount of precision, but nothing that isn't learned rather quickly. For these reasons I am able to start game after game without getting frustrated by the controls/difficulty. It's a much better game than Dirty Larry and Batman Returns, or Power Factor for that matter. (the latter being a very confusing game)
Scrapyard Dog is loaded with secrets too, which I'm just finding out. I also am impressed with the high amount of special weapons/items, that I just didn't see the first few times that I played the game. I originally thought all you had as a weapon was the aluminum cans, until I accidentally figured out you could duck into the background objects for secret shops and bonus stages.
All in all this is a cool little game and one of the best examples of a classic side scroller on the Lynx, alongside Switchblade II and Shadow of the Beast. Now I'm interested in the 7800 version of Scrapyard Dog, but from the limited videos I've seen on Youtube, that version actually looks mechanically very different, for instance it looks like you can bounce on enemies to kill them like Super Mario Bros, which the Lynx game doesn't have that mechanic at all.