Cabal

Year: 1990
Developer: Fabtek

Now, this is interesting. Cabal is a genuine 3rd person shooter, with a pretty cool targeting system -- not a mechanic that did really well on the NES, and it actually does really well here. You run with the cross, but when you hold down b, you stop and you're moving a crosshair that directs your shooting. The net result is that you have to make a choice about whether you're going to shoot or run, and the balance is pretty nice, brings some strategy to an otherwise straightforward idea.

Controls were nice, graphics were OK -- nothing special, but given the amount of action on the screen at once (lots) you don't really notice that much. There's a nice mechanic in that you start the level with several walls to hide behind, but these gradually get destroyed, and you have to start running and gunning alternately to stay alive.

I guess the only complaint that I really have, aside from the difficulty, which is more a whine than an actual complaint, is that your progress is measured in a body count. This is way less cool than having an actual objective, and also sort of gross. Other than this, though Cabal was sort of a pleasant surprise -- it took about 10 minutes to figure out, but once we got the run-shoot mechanic, we really liked it.

Rating: 8/10 A really interesting take on the weave back and forth and shoot genre.
Advice: Don't waste your time with grenades. Shoot, shoot, shoot.
Best Moment: The creepy hoe-down walk you do when you clear a level. Sort of, sort of gross.