Original Release: Konami, 1994, SNES

Another entry in the “isometric racer” sub-genre founded by RC Pro-Am, Biker Mice is competent but grindy

Biker Mice From Mars (SNES, Konami, 1994)

Where to Buy: eBay

How to Emulate: SNES Emulation Guide

Review by: C. M0use

If you’re playing a Konami licensed title from the 90s based on some anthropomorphic animal property, like 99% of the time it’s a beat-em-up. This is one of that other oddball 1%. Konami’s spin on Biker Mice From Mars, a flash-in-the-pan Ninja Turtles-alike of the early-mid 90s, is instead a racer in the lineage of RC Pro-Am (with Rock n’ Roll Racing being a more contemporary SNES … uh … contemporary).

One element that’s a bit unusual is that the structure is more like what would become common in the CD-ROM era of racers a few years later; you grind the early races over and over for money to upgrade your car pieces and parts before you can proceed. The gameplay is simple, with not a lot to remark on if you’ve already played RC Pro-Am or similar titles. You pick from one of six characters from the cartoon, each has their own little stats and special powers, there’s a slew of Mario Kart-esque powerups and weapons. One little unique quirk is that you need to pop a wheelie to maintain your speed over various rough and wet patches along the tracks, but otherwise this has all been seen before.

I feel like it’s a mediocre title. It isn’t any real specific failure of gameplay, or track design, or graphics, all are at least adequate and occasionally impressive. It’s more that it’s a difficult grind to play, between replaying the same levels a lot and the computer’s top three racers driving nearly flawlessly in every race right from the beginning. After a lap or two they all gain the ability to shit endless bombs with lethal precision, and guess who they aim all of them at? You’re also constrained by the structure, which starts you out in one “cup” so to speak and won’t let you move on until you place in the top three overall, otherwise you’re just kicked back to the first race of it to continue grinding.

The whole thing is a bit of a letdown only because it was a later-life SNES title and because Konami set the bar so high with their other licensed cartoon titles, if this had come out in the early system life it would probably have got more traction. But it’s ultimately frustrating and a grind to play. Rock n Roll Racing is the superior title if you want a racer in this style.

Links

FAQs

Videos

Gameplay Video

TV series

Original Release: IGT, 2005

Join Moon Man Pharaoh in a quest for Egyptian riches with this fairly low-roller-friendly slot

Pharaoh’s Fortune (IGT, 2005)

Review by: C. M0use

Pharaoh’s Fortune is the cheapest “penny slot” I’ve encountered still out there in the wild on casino floors as of 2026, asking a mere 15 cents to cover all its lines with the minimum 1 cent bet (seemingly with a max bet of $3.00 at 20 cents per line being common).

Anyway, it seems a fairly low volatility slot and a decent low-roller grinder if you are seeking such things. Has a fair amount of line wins, and a straightforward bonus feature that has you pick from several stone blocks which can result in up to 25 free spins with up to 5x in win multipliers if you get lucky. And you get a little random “Walk Like An Egyptian” audio clip during the bonus game if you’re a Bangles enjoyer.

Not much else to say, other than there seems to be an “updated” version of it with much more modern graphics that is an option in IGT’s multi-game Money Mania cabinets. This review is for the old original version from the mid-00s, I haven’t tried that update, but the general pattern with these more modern “revivals” of these old games is that they’ll both be more expensive to play and less favorable (or at least way more volatile).

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: Play Links, 2017, Android/iOS

A “just for fun” social casino that ranges far and wide in fielding competent off-brand versions of about 300 slots

Rock n’ Cash Casino (Android, Play Links, 2017)

Where to Buy: Freemium on the major app stores

How to Emulate: Android Emulation Guide

Review by: C. M0use

Rock n Cash is in the general “social casino” mold, but it’s not a “sweeps casino” where you can play for real money. It’s also not a MyVegas-style social casino where real prizes are offered … there’s no purpose here but playing presumably legally distinct copies of popular slot titles for the love of the game (and collecting music boxes for some reason … it’s not rock but I guess it’s in the ballpark of the theme?)

However, there is one indirect way to make real money at it … it’s all over GPT sites, and quite often is one of the highest-paying offers available. However, a lot of that money comes from rebates on purchases and/or reaching absurdly high levels (like the 800-1000 range). Is it worth taking a run at?

Well, let’s start with the fundamentals. Despite being from a relatively unheard of Korean company with few apps under their belt, it is a polished and professional product that mostly functions very well. The only quibble I had with its coding and performance is that if a bonus game crashes out on you, you don’t automatically get whatever you would have won delivered to your inbox. Instead you have to go back into the same game and MAYBE it’ll pick back up where it left off … or maybe it’ll just forget about it and you’re out whatever bonus wins weren’t already collected. This doesn’t happen often, but it did happen to me a few times playing here and there over a few weeks … MOSTLY it picked back up where it left off but I did have two instances of it jipping me out of money I should have won.

At first there are no mandatory ads, but after a few days of play it’ll start requiring you to watch an ad every time you start up a slot title. Irksome, but not a dealbreaker if you’re not changing games very often (which you probably won’t want to if you’re playing for GPT goals). I notice it also starts pushing its $5 No Ad Pack aggresively right afterward.

There’s a guide linked below that indicates free-to-play players can expect to get up to level 100 or so within 30 days, but beyond that it’s going to require investment of real money to maintain the bankroll needed to absorb variance at the bet level you need to gain EXP at a reasonable rate. Par for the course for these things. While it’s possible you can lose bonus feature funds to a crash, I can’t say that happens all that often. So it’s down to whether or not you trust your GPT site enough to honor their offers to make an investment. But otherwise I see no real reason to play this, it’s all just kinda inferior clones of real-world games and no other types of casino games beyond slots (though it does have an absolutely huge selection).

Links

GPT Site offers guide

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: Playtika, Android/iOS, 2012

Probably the most popular “just-for-fun” bingo game going for over 10 years now, Bingo Blitz has had an astounding run despite being rather basic and dry

Bingo Blitz (Android, Playtika, 2012)

Where to Buy: Free-to-play via the Android or iOS app stores

Review by: C. M0use

If you’re not familiar with Bingo Blitz, you may know it from the commercials with Drew Barrymore orgasming over it (a prospect that would have been much more intriguing 30 years ago). But it’s been rolling along for over a decade now despite being one of the most boring games ever put to pixels, making money hand-over-fist and even captivating normies to the point it recently got a themed show on Game Show Network.

It’s certainly not due to any secret grandma gambling going on in here. No real money, no prizes, no nothing. It’s not one of those “sweepstakes casino” type games. You just play very straightforward bingo matches, only spiced up by limited use of “special powers” that you charge up as you tick off called numbers. But there’s no real strategic deployment to these, the game just forces you to use the next one up in your queue.

I mean it’s just so mundane I’m at a loss for anything to say about it. It’s polished, it plays bingo just fine, there’s a little chat area and you’re actually playing with other people you can talk to (though it seems to mostly just be begging for collectibles at any given time). I wouldn’t think this many people would be this into bland bingo without real money play, but it’s normie catnip. If that doesn’t float your boat the only other reason to mess around with it is that it frequently appears on GPT sites and sometimes with some very good offers considering how easy it is.

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: IGT, 2014 (?)

The themed Alien slot was a big hit in casinos for its attention to detail, atmosphere and fun bonus rounds

Alien (IGT, 2014)

Where to Buy: eBay

Review by: C. M0use

Alien is one of those rare slots worth giving at least one spin just for its design and visuals, at least if you’re a fan of the older movies. While some of these licensed slots just have a cursory paint job of the IP slapped over them in a basic way, this one actually went out of its way with the general atmosphere and a couple of elaborate bonus features.

It’s a basic 5×20 from IGT similar to many of their early 2010s games, but the base game is better-looking than usual with detailed graphics and its little sometimes creepy messages across the top of the playfield. It really shines when it gets to the bonus features with the rendered aliens crawling about and attacking you. There are two of these, and the less elaborate one has you pick from eight alien eggs until you hit the loser with the facehugger hidden among them (on my test run both times it was the bottom-right nearest the spin button, probably just a coincidence but maybe worth keeping an eye on for increased prevalence I dunno).

The really cool bonus feature is the six-level “ship escape.” Each round has you pick from one of six cards, if it turns out to be a weapon of some sort you fend off the attacking alien with it … if not you lose and you’re done. It shows you the options not taken after you make your choice, and you start with a 5-1 chance of getting a weapon in the first round but this gradually tilts against you until it’s 3-3 in the penultimate level and 2-4 in the final one.

As far as value goes, if you find the original cabinet with the analog buttons you can minimum bet just 20 cents to cover all lines. As far as odds, this one is totally by subjective feel as I can’t even find a RTP listing for it. But it does seem to lean fairly reasonable and non-volatile, the bonus features appear fairly often and line wins are not uncommon. Worth checking out just for novelty alone, but you might get some value out of it as well.

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: Konami, 1990, Arcade

Konami’s knockoff of Arch Rivals didn’t gain anywhere near the same amount of traction, thanks mostly to limited options and being pricey to play

Punk Shot (Arcade, Konami, 1990)

Where to Buy: eBay

How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide

Review by: C. M0use

Konami hit it big with Double Dribble in the early days of basketball video games, but somehow Punk Shot is a follow-on that slipped through the cracks … I think lack of variety in the gameplay was a factor, but even more so the fact that it just kinda randomly keeps charging you more quarters to play no matter how good or bad you’re doing.

This one is absolutely nothing like Double Dribble, it’s two-on-two street hoops with a very different gameplay feel. Not the least of which is one of the two buttons is, when not used for passing the ball, instead used for legal punches and kicks on the opponent. One good smack usually jars the ball loose, though it may or may not go directly back into your hands.

It makes a nice first impression with its colorful graphics and Japan take on the US inner city scene of the 80s-90s (usually entertaining), but you also quickly start noticing the limitations. One is that there are only four players to choose from, you pick two and you battle the other two into eternity. The gameplay structure is also weird; you play five periods of a few minutes each, but each one roams over a variety of different courts each with their own little obstacles strewn about.

The killer is that, unless I’m missing something, you’re just charged at intervals to continue playing regardless of whether you’re winning or losing or what. It costs like $2 to $2.50 just to complete a game. Obviously with modern emulation that’s not such an issue (though it’s irritating how often it interrupts the game), but you can see how it drove people off in arcades. The game also seems to hustle you too, the computer doesn’t play too well in the opening periods but then pours it on in the last two.

The game is pretty clearly a response to Bally’s Arch Rivals, which came out about a year prior. But while that evolved into the famous NBA Jam, this one just kinda petered out for Konami with seemingly little arcade penetration and not much of a shelf life.

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: Gear Games, 2024, Android/iOS
Other Releases: PC (2024)

A fairly unsubtle Hearthstone knockoff that came out in late 2024, Arcane Rush nevertheless offers up some fairly fun casual card battler gameplay and (at least for now) the opportunity to make some money while trying it out

Arcane Rush (Android, Gear Games, 2024)

Where to Buy: Free-to-play from the Android/iOS app stores

How to Emulate: Android Emulation Guide

Review by: C. M0use

Arcane Rush is an entry into a small but highly active field of free-to-play Hearthstone Battlegrounds derivatives on mobile. The main distinction is that the developers have put this one up on “get paid to” (GPT) sites like Swagbucks and Freecash, essentially allowing you to get paid for giving it a try. That’s noteworthy as GPT games are usually not particularly fun to play on their own merits, just trying to get their addiction trigger hooks into you instead and get you buyin’ that Canadough; this is one of the rare exceptions that’s actually enjoyable for its own sake, though serious card battler genre fans may find it too limited for their tastes.

Fortunately I’m not a serious card battler, so this is kind of right up my alley. The main thing more serious genre fans might find confining is lack of true head-to-head play; at least as of this writing, you can only battle bot-controlled versions of other players’ accounts (they bring all the player’s little perks and defensive hand choice, but it’s entirely CPU-controlled). It’s also technically a “pay to win” format, though the structure makes it not all that much of a nuisance or hindrance for “free to play” (F2P) players.

If you’re already familiar with Hearthstone Battlegrounds it’s almost a direct copy, but here’s the core gameplay for those who are entirely new: each match puts you up against eight CPU-controlled opponents in a group stage. You play five rounds against these foes, getting 3 points for a win or 1 point for a draw in each round, and the top four points leaders move on and enter a final group of eight (with the other four drawn from some unseen alternate group stage). In this second and final phase you have three “lives,” lose a round to a foe and you drop one, last man standing wins the whole deal.

You can eventually pick from one of about a dozen dealers for these matches, each of whom has their own set of deck types. You start the game with just the slightly irritating Fiddle as a dealer, however, and his not-at-all Blizzard-inspired decks of Orcs and Dwarves. There are two main currency types you earn over time that upgrade dealers and cards and make new dealers available: gems and gold. All the other dealers can be unlocked trivially with a minimal amount of gems, in fact with just 100 of them you start a loop where unlocking one pays out more than enough gems immediately to unlock several more. Gold is used to upgrade individual dealers, doing things like upgrading individual card stats and giving them more deck types, and is more hard to come by.

So what does a match actually look like? If your dealer has more than three deck types available to them, you’ll see a random spin that picks out three made available for the entirety of the match. You then have a non-timed preparatory period before each round. You’re presented with three random cards, drawn from your three available deck types plus an omnipresent set of “neutral” units. With each round you get a slightly increasing amount of gold with which you can put cards in your hand, refresh the available cards, or upgrade your shop (through five tiers of increasingly powerful units). When you’re done with prep you go up against the opponent’s current hand, win lose or draw as your cards auto-battle each other, then on to the next prep round.

So there’s a strong randomized element to all this, you don’t know in advance which three of your deck types you’ll be working with, also you don’t know what cards will be available in the shop with each refresh (save for a limited ability to “lock” the current selection for the next round if something you want shows up but you’re low on gold). The game thus stresses broad knowledge of at least one good build strategy for the majority of your deck types to aim for. For example, if you get the Undead you’ll probably want to try to move to the Tier 4 shop faster to get their juicier units while stacking up the cursed/respawning mooks that feed them along the way, while Aztecs and Gnomes tend to benefit more from sitting on a jabbering mob of lower-tier units.

The other main gameplay mode available at this time is the Arena, essentially a weekly leaderboard contest. The strongest three units from each of your 24-hour play sessions are saved here, and you choose one as a defender against other players and can use each of them for an attack up to three times. Earning points and placing in the higher ranks of the leaderboard brings some added consumable rewards at the end of the week.

There is also a Clan system that offers slightly more direct head-to-head competition, but unlike some other games it’s very difficult to get accepted to one. Clan sizes are small and seem to be entirely the province of “whales” paying to win and seriously grinding away at the game all day.

The “luck of the draw” element makes it simpler than other card battle options, but it’s also part of what makes it addictive and replayable as you strive to make do with what you’ve been dealt in a poker-esque manner. The game also doesn’t shove ads down your throat; it has its own little internal pop-up offers here and there, but third-party video ads are 100% optional to gain some additional gold, gems and Arena turns daily. It’s also been sitting at a fairly respectful size of around 1 GB for me, it’s not one of those that starts out at under 1 GB from the app store but then quickly bloats itself with updates to like 20 GB.

The main appeal of the game is likely going to be making money off of GPT offers, at least in its early going, but it’s a solid choice if you want a mostly single-player card battler with zero time pressure. It also seems like a good entry point for getting your head around card battlers in general if you’re new, between the total self-pacing and the relatively simple rules and limited set of deck types that don’t really interact with each other in terms of building.

Links

Official Reddit sub

Simple guide for GPT offer goals

More in-depth strategy wiki

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: IGT, 2002 (? – definitely pre-2010)
Other Releases: PC/Mac (part of IGT Slots Collection), 2010

A slot that’s probably considered “vintage” now from the early video era, but remains a presence on casino floors due to relatively low volatility and low-roller generosity

Wolf Run (IGT, 2002)

Review by: C. M0use

One of IGT’s bigger hits from the 00s early era of video slots, Wolf Run’s simplicity is part of the ongoing appeal. It’s a 5×4 with only 40 possible paylines, but regular line wins are pretty frequent as are bonus games. For my trial run of it I went up 200% in just 10 minutes, so it definitely made a positive first impression!

Of course, as with all slots, that’s not a typical play session. But it does seem like a very good one for low-rolling grinders looking to minimize loss possibilities while sitting on comps, drinks or whatever for a while. Just make sure you get the right one; while the original beat-up old “shorties” from 20 years ago are still scattered about on casino floors, there is a newer version in a taller and shinier cabinet (just spotted it at Vegas Planet Hollywood recently) that has a much higher minimum bet and not-as-favorable odds. The original is a true penny slot, with its analog buttons allowing for as little as 1 cent for the center line going up to 20 cents per line.

I’ve seen numbers around claiming its a 94.98% RTP, which is VERY high for casino floor slots, but I can believe it after trying it out. But the other thing that makes it appealing is that you don’t have to chase rare big wins in a bonus feature to even out to that RTP, it’s more of a steady state than any other slots. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for if that prospect floats your boat. It’s as “unfancy” as it gets but you really make up for that in value!

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: Konami, 2013 (?)

Another oats and horseys slot from Konami, this one implements the feature where vertical rows with three winning symbols can potentially copy themselves to other rows to quickly create a big win

Winner’s Shot (Konami, 2013)

Review by: C. M0use

Another early ’10s-era Old West themed slot from Konami? Yep, but this one adds the twist of a new bonus feature in which the first column can randomly repeat itself up to four more times, creating the potential of a massive full-screen win (not an entirely new feature in the absolute sense, it was in at least a couple other games before this, but the first I’m aware of it being used in a Konami title).

Anyway, the bonus feature is really “feast or famine” so to speak. Either you get four or five columns copied and some huge win, or you get pretty much nothing. Regular line wins are just so-so at absolute best. The three symbols that trigger the bonus game have to be on a payline, so it’s fairly rare to see it pop.

Konami was known for good value and low-roller grind-friendly titles in this period, but this one isn’t as good as others that use the same trappings. Kinda volatile in requiring you to hang in for those very rare screen-filling bonus wins to get anywhere.

Videos

Gameplay Video

Original Release: Electronic Arts, 1988, Commodore 64
Other Releases: PC (1989), NES (1990)

So you thought the first Olympics was in ancient Greece? No, it was founded by ancient Grunk … dinosaur riding, wife tossing, fire making and more are all on the schedule.

Caveman Ugh-lympics (PC, EA, 1989)

Where to Buy: eBay

How to Emulate: MS-DOS Emulation Guide

Review by: C. M0use

An early product from Jeff Tunnell, co-founder of Dynamix and developer of a number of noteworthy titles for Electronic Arts and Activision on the side, Ughlympics is a cute prehistoric Olympics parody that suffers from odd gameplay and general clunkiness.

This was one of the games I had for my first computer as a little kid, and I remember being frustrated with not being able to figure out exactly how the controls worked for some of the events; I’m not sure if I ever even made it through a full Ughlympics. Coming back to it decades later … pretty much the same story! The threadbare manual included with the game gives you just enough instructions to work with, but not enough to tell you exactly what you’re doing wrong when they don’t seem to work. But without the manual, you’re REALLY in trouble and probably not even getting off the ground with certain events like Mate Toss and Fire Making.

The basic gist of it is that it works like popular Olympic arcade titles of the time such as Track & Field and Hyper Sports. It was designed for the one-button joysticks of the time, but you can also play with the directional pad and the “Insert” key as the substitute for the fire button. You’d think that would make things simple, but not really, because certain events rely on full and complete rotation (Mate Toss) or very specific input combinations and timing (Fire Making, Dino Race). At times it feels like the prototype of entering fussy fighting game inputs, except that’s all you do over and over.

A smaller issue is that it was also designed expressly for hotseat play. It is neat that it has a split screen in some events and two players can race simultaneously, that’s not a bad feat at all for 1988 computers and it all works pretty well aside from the iffy controls at times. However, if you try to play an Ughlympics solo you’ll find that you’re just “score attacking” each event to beat your own prior records rather than actually competing against other computer-controlled players. And as far as multiplayer goes, not every event is balanced, some have a simple trick to exploit, for example endless foot-sweeping is by far the quickest way to win in the club fight.

Add in the obnoxious honking internal speaker sound and you’ve got a package that looks cute and interesting in screenshots but is a pretty rough experience to actually play. There was an NES port two years later (as “Caveman Games”) that you would think might have improved the control issues, but various internet reviews indicate it really didn’t … but we’ll leave that one for another day.

Links

Game box and disk shots

Videos

Gameplay Video

TV commercial