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5/5/13
We've been covering a lot of Sega games recently, mostly to prepare for the upcoming Sega Arcade Classics Volume 2 (release date: totally unknown, because I have to finish the Castlevania book one first). First up is Hang-On, Yu Suzuki's motorcycle racing game, which spawned a handful of spinoffs that are basically part of the same series despite having different names. (I heavily suggest checking out the sadly overlooked/unported Racing Hero as a good follow-up to the series.) As an accompaniment piece, we're also featured AB Cop, a more futuristic, combat-oriented take on the sprite-based 3D motorcycle racing formula. And Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (AKA Zoom 909 is essentially the first in Sega's super scaler series, with remarkable sprite graphics that demolish practically every other arcade game out in 1982, even though from a gameplay perspective, it's easy to see why a better game like Space Harrier is far more widely recognized.
We're also finishing up coverage of some more beat-em-ups and fighting games. Comix Zone was developed for the Genesis by the US-based Sega Technical Institute, where an artist is sucked inside his comic book and has to pummel his creations. It's an incredibly creative game, though short, and incredibly difficult. There's also Holosseum, a rather awful fighting game that exists solely for Sega to do something with the hologram arcade cabinets the company had developed for the FMV game Time Traveler. The whole thing loses its purpose when played on MAME, but the game's kinda bad anyway.
Onto other things: Double Switch is essentially the follow-up to Night Trap, the infamous FMV vampire-trapping/voyeur game. The cast of characters and story is totally different, starring Corey Haim and the lead singer from 80 band Blondie, but the gameplay is practically identical. And Satan's Hollow is Bally/Midway's attempt at a Space Invaders clone, though with a more demonic theme. The two 500-Word Indies features include The Adventures of Shuggy, an unfortunately overlooked puzzle platformer from the same guys that brought you Gateways, and A Tale of Two Kingdoms, a rather stunning looking adventure game that works as an ode to Kings Quest.
Finally, the Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 1 book is on sale at Amazon for less than $18. I don't set when/where these sales happen, and I don't see the price dipping much further, so if you've been waiting to pick it up, now's the best time to do it before the price goes back up! B&W edition is also on sale for $9, which is a dollar off the normal price.
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4/23/13
So that malware warning from last weekend - sorry about that! Our site was hacked, unfortunately, but while we got it cleaned almost immediately, Google likes to keep sites blacklisted for an extra few days for good measure. But everything is up and back in order, so hooray!
As a follow-up to our massive Mortal Kombat feature, we have another massive look at another incredibly important early 90s fighting game - Sega's Virtua Fighter, the progenitor of Tekken, Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, and so very, very many others. It's one of those series that was always more popular in Japan than elsewhere, and it's easy to forgot how prolific it was back in the early Saturn days, where it was not only considered the killer app, but also spawned a number of "CG" art discs that were nothing more that pictures of the game's characters. Yet the game has maintained a faithful following, mostly for the incredibly skill that is required to truly master its mechanics.
Anyway, we're never quite timely around here (which is mostly my fault), but LucasArts was closed down by the Disney overlords a few weeks back. To commemorate their passing, I've published the review of Grim Fandango, their last original adventure game title (Escape of Monkey Island was technically their last, though it was a sequel, and honestly not the best of their titles.) This was previously only in the Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures book, but I hope to post some more of these in the future. The game really is quite brilliant, despite its interface issues, and some recent developments with the program ResidualVM make it easily playable on modern machines.
Unrelated to much of anything else is an article on Time Gal, the laserdisc game that's basically Dragon's Lair with a time-hopping green haired anime lass. It's mostly known for its Sega CD conversion, which actually isn't too bad compared to the system's port of Dragon's Lair, but like many it originated in the arcades, where it looks much, much better.
Of the regular features, the (finally) updated weekly kusoge is Franko: The Crazy Revenge, the dreadful/hilarious beat-em-up from Poland that's about as juvenile as they come. The 500 Word Indies article has several new entries, including the pixel artwork survival horror game Home, the puzzle game Little Inferno, and the Abuse-like side-scroller/action game Rework the Dead: Evil. Episode 17 of the Game Club 199X podcast discusses Blue Stinger, the Dreamcast launch title, a survival horror game developed by a partnership between the East and the West. And the latest iOS Shooters page covers twin stick shooters Pew Pew, Isotope, Critical Wave, Particle Wars, and Last Line of Defense, many of which are (of course) inspired by Geometry Wars. Also take a look at the Dark History of JRPGs series over on the blog, an ongoing examination of some of the early Japanese role-playing games on home computers, which haven't really been covered anywhere before in English.
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4/8/13
Just a single article this week, but this one's gigantic - an eight page review of the Mortal Kombat series, encompassing nine main fighting games, three spinoffs, several movies, comics and TV shows, and numerous version comparisons as you'd expect from HG101. While often looked down upon by more serious fighting game fans, Mortal Kombat has always been great for a goofy bit of fun, and the fact that such cartoonishness was ever controversial heralds back to the quainter times of the Clinton administration.
Our Spotlight Article highlights the many, many games that Jackie Chan has taken a part in over the years, including but not limited to, the classic beat-em-up Kung Fu Master (which originally tied in with the flick Spartan X in Japan), sidescroller NES/TG-16 title Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, the silly digitized fighting games The Kung Fu Master and Fists of Fire, and the PSOne action game Stuntmaster. And the 500 Word Indies feature, which is going to be update every Friday going forward, is Perspective, a free experimental puzzle platformer by students at DigiPen.
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4/1/13
Bit of a late update, due to PAX East last weekend and Easter this weekend, but there's plenty of content to make up for it! Beatmania is Konami's famed DJ rhythm series which kicked off the likes of Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, Pop'n Music, Keyboardmania, and many, many others. Of course, most of these (outside of DDR) were relegated to extremely small arcade releases outside of Japan. While one of the PlayStation releases did make it to Europe, Konami only released the series in the USA for the PlayStation 2 to capitalize on the rhythm game boom started by Guitar Hero (itself a ripoff of Guitar Freaks), and by then, it was too late. It didn't help that, like many of Konami's localized music game releases, the soundtrack was bowdlerized, losing many of its greatest songs in favor of tracks "more suited" to the American audience. It had Funky Town, which was okay, at least.
Anyway, we've decided that April is now Kung Fu Month, or something to that extent, as we're going to be focusing on a number of beat-em-ups, as well as two extremely extensive fighting game articles in the coming weeks. This update kicks it off with some older titles, inspired more by the likes of Kung Fu Master and Karate Champ: namely, Konami's Yie Ar Kung Fu, which has been completely rewritten from the site's old article; My Hero, the early Master System/arcade game, whose awful American/European cover art seems to have inspired the packaging for God Hand; and Dragon Wang / Kung Fu Master, another duo of early Sega fighters, the latter having been released worldwide and the former only in Japan for the SG-1000.
Other great articles: Killing Time, a so-very-90s macabre first person shooter that originated on the 3DO; Wiz n' Liz, a cutesy Genesis/Amiga platformer with some excellent music; 005, an early Sega arcade game that featured four spy-themed mini-games; and Wally Week, a bunch of goofy side-scrollers for the British home computers.
The 500 Word Indies feature has been update with Edge Grinder and Giddy 3, while the iOS shooters article covers Space Cadet: Pedometer RPG Edition, Invader War, Sky Warriors / Sky Warriors 2, and Zombie Skies. The Video Game Book Reviews feature has also been updated with Japanmanship, a guide to developing video games in Japan. In getting together this update, I didn't have time to put together a kusoge entry, but there should be a good one coming up soon!
Also check out some of the recent blog entries about the indie publications Scroll and Gamespite Journal, the Retronauts Kickstarter, and the reprinting of the PS2 Devil Summoner games.
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3/10/13
Sega's Penguin Land stands out to me because it was first Sega Master System game that wasn't just a Mega Cartridge (the standard designation for a cartridge using 1 megabit of ROM), but a Mega Cartridge Plus! Why the Plus? Because it had a battery backup, in order to save the user-created levels, showing a level of versatility that was relatively rare in console games back then. Of course, the game, which is an action-puzzler where you need to roll an egg downwards through a cave filled with polar bears, is incredibly difficult, to the point where I can't beat more than a single stage. But, it's got penguins! It's sort of an offshoot of Pengo, in that matter, even though they play differently. (Expect a Pengo article in the neat future too.) Anyway, there are a lot more titles in the series than the SMS game, which this article expounds upon.
Hopper Robo is another unique Sega game from 1983 - it's unfortunate it never caught on because the eponymous character is quite adorable. Bubbles is one of those Midway games that pops up on arcade compilations and no one's really heard of it since it's outclassed by other more popular titles, but is actually pretty good. And Martian Gothic, an overlooked survival horror game in the vein of Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil.
The iOS shooter article features Blast Fighter, Chopper Desert Storm, Orion Fighter (pictured), Codename Cobra Classic DX and Codename Cobra: Desert Storm Deluxe. For the latest episode of Game Club 199X, we have an unusual platformer from Poland. Originally published under the name Electro Body, Electro Man was later picked up and distributed by Epic MegaGames, the shareware distributor who later broke out and delivered such future hits such as Gears of War. Your Weekly Kusoge is Pizza Delivery Boy, which I think might be the first Wii game we've covered under this column, which is surprising given the huge fail-to-win ratio present on last generation's most popular system. And the spotlight article is Treasure's Mischief Makers, because it's one of those neat little side-scrollers that tends to get swept under the rug, both by fans of the company and by fans of the system.
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2/24/13
Bonanza Bros. is an early 90s Sega co-op game ALMOST made it in the first volume of the Sega Arcade Classics book...but I had to cut it for space. It'll be in the next one though (which should be done...sometime this year I hope). I have to admit that I put other games that I favored like Crack Down, because I initially I didn't much care for Bonanza Bros. But like Quartet, Crack Down and Gain Ground, it's more fun in two player than single player mode.
Also up: Crimson Shroud, the very old school-type 3DS RPG designed by Yasumi Matsuno (Ogre Battle, Vagrant Story, FF Tactics), which was released as a part of the Guild 01 project and separated as its own digital release recently on the Nintendo eShop; KickMaster, a late-gen NES game designed by KID, the same folks as the G.I. Joe NES games, as well as Low-G-Man; Jones in the Fast Lane, a Sierra-developed board game similar to The Game of Life; I, Robot, the first game to used shaded polygons, released in 1983 and still looks spectacular today, especially compared to its contemporaries; and Again, a DS adventure game from Cing (Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk), their last game before unfortunately going bankrupt.
On the book review front, we take a look at Hyrule Historia, the fancy but slightly disappointing Legend of Zelda art book; the iOS shooter article includes Seawolf Attack, Neon Wars (pictured), Falcon Raider, Apache Overkill, and Room War Deluxe; and we have a new feature called 500 Word Indies, were we spend 500 words to take a quick look at some of the more interesting games to come out of the independent scene. Your Weekly Kusoge is Saint Seiya: Ougon Densetsu Kanketsu Hen, one of the many low-tier anime licensed Famicom titles.
And regrettably, last week, famed game developer Kenji Eno passed away at the young age of 42. About two years ago, we featured an article on games from his company, Warp, which include the relatively well-known D games, as well as the Saturn cult classic Enemy Zero. We're featuring this article is his memory, for he created some truly unique and unusual games.
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2/10/13
With the incredible success of Virtua Fighter (at least in Japan), Sega capitalized on the 3D fighting game craze as quickly as possible, developing vaguely similar titles like Fighting Vipers, Sonic the Fighters, and Last Bronx, the last of which we have a very detailed article on. Entries in those series were released a few months ago on the PS3...except for Last Bronx, which apparently got the short end of the stick in the popularity contest. Still, it was popular in Japan back in the mid-90s, enough that it spawned a rather sad direct-to-video movie. Predating any of these games, we also have Sega's Dark Edge as part of the "noble failures" department, a 3D fighter using 2D sprites. It's borderline unplayable, but fascinating to see and play nonetheless, just for the crazy 3D effects they try to pull off.
Hotline Miami was one of 2012's indie darlings, and for good reason - it's one of the most stylish games ever made, taking the 80s Miami vibe of Grand Theft Auto Vice City and pumping it beyond 11, then melding it with an overhead stealth/action shooter which demands near-perfect reflexes. Meanwhile, Eryi's Action is a Japanese title published by Nyu Media which is much friendlier on the outside, but is (intentionally) platformer hell on the inside, similar to other masochistic titles like I Wanna Be The Guy and Battle Kid.
Your Weekly Kusoge is Spectral Force Genesis, wherein we take some time to pummel Idea Factory just a little bit more. The latest Game Club 199X episode features Blackthorne, Blizzard's early attempt at a Prince of Persia/Flashback-style of action-platformer. And the iOS shooter page has been updated with Platypus (a clay-themed shooter that also saw release on the PSP), Cobra Strike, P-47: The Phantom Fighter, Blazing Star (an excellent Neo Geo shooter which really needs its own article here someday), and Spacestorm.
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1/27/13
The Ghost in the Shell movie came during that magical time in the mid-90s where anime hadn't really reached much of a saturation point in the US, and it could still wear that "awesome cartoons for adults!" label. Around that time, there was a PlayStation game released - which was actually more closed based off the manga - and followed up with PlayStation 2 and PSP titles down the line. This article covers all three, all focusing on super agent Motoko Kusanagi (and her less sexy buddy Batou, in some cases) as she fights crime in a cyberpunk future, along with the assorted spinoffs.
I'm sure most people nowadays only know the 3DO thanks to the Angry Video Game Nerd and his skewering of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties (which was well deserved) but there are still a handful of exclusives that are definitely worth checking out, especially Electronic Arts' unique first person shooter Immercenary. A more embarrassing remnant of the 90s is Survival Arts, one of the many terrible Mortal Kombat ripoffs, this one coming way by Sammy. And Midway's NBA Jam and NFL Blitz series are well known as two of the best sports arcade series out there, but there were actually precursors to both series, in the form of Arch Rivals and Pigskin 621 AD.
This month's Game Club 199X podcast covers the offbeat NES action-adventure game Dr. Chaos, which we've also prepared an article for. It's a lot like The Goonies II, in that it's exploratory side-scroller with first person point-and-click sequences, though it's not remembered as fondly as Konami's faux-sequel, for reasons that both the podcast and the review make evident. Take note that the podcast is now available on iTunes and now has its own proper RSS feed if you'd like to keep up with it.
The iOS Shooters article has been updated with reviews of Earth Defense Force (one of DotEmu's arcade ports), X3000, the Cotton-esque Blazing Arc: Magical Shooting Game, EnbornX, and the goofy Flying Hamster. Your Weekly-ish Kusoge is A Week of Garfield, a Famicom side-scroller starring the famed cartoon cat, unreleased in the US because it's a very bad game indeed. And the spotlight article is Data East's The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy, a tragically overlooked action-packed arcade game that borrows heavily from Indiana Jones, and is sort of a proto-Uncharted, with all of its crazy sprite scaling setpieces, though done entirely with sprites. It's unported, sadly, so give it a go in MAME as soon as possible.
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1/13/13
The first update of the new year comes through a thick haze, both due to the incredible sickness that's afflicted the household (and most of the US, it seems) as well as the terrible, Silent Hill-style weather. Pathologic is a Russian-developed horror FPS from a few years back, which got middling reviews in the English speaking press yet is greatly regarded in its homeland. It's got its peculiarities (and an awful localization) but is well worth your time. Base Wars is Konami/Ultra's mish-mash of two things kids from the 90s loved: baseball and robots. And the Sega coverage brings up two lesser known arcade titles: Teddy Boy, mostly known to the English speaking world as one of the first titles on the Master System, but was also one of first to be officially endorsed by a singer - the title is a reference to the song "Teddy Boy Blues", sung by then-famous talent Yoko Ishino, though all references of this were scrubbed from the non-Japanese releases. And I'm Sorry is even more peculiar, as it's a maze-type game starring disgraced former Japanese Prime Minster Kakuei Tanaka. The title is a cross-language pun, with "sori" being the word for "prime minister".
The iOS Shooter article has now switched from vertical shooters to horizontal shooters, with this update covering Cell War, R-Type, Deathsmiles, Physics Shoot and Parallax. There's no kusoge article update (official excuse: we were too busy playing good games this holiday season...XCOM and Hotline Miami <3 <3) but the Rival Schools article has been updated with the new format and new screenshots.
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12/21
This will probably be the last update of the year, not because of the apocalypse or anything, but more because I'm moving into a new house, and I have little faith the utilities will get in order until after the holidays.
I actually hadn't heard Aurail, this Sega-published mech shooting arcade game until earlier this year, when I found out it was developed by Westone. It was directed by Ryuichi Nishizawa, one of the company founders and the same guy behind most of the Wonder Boy games, who I also chatted with briefly about the game's development. This game really needs a lot more exposure. It's definitely extremely difficult, but it's one of those games that if you learn its quirks, it's very rewarding. And keeping up the Sega cover is a review of Flicky, an early arcade game about a bird saving her chicks, though it's more largely known through the character's many cameos, particilarly on Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sunsoft's Trip World is one of the most sought after Game Boy games, a cutesy platformer that's light on gameplay, but heavy on personality. Oh My God! is a pretty ridiculous name for something that's just a falling-piece puzzle game, although it's not technically incorrect, since God does make an appearance. And Riot is an extremely over-the-top Cabal clone.
The newest Game Club 199X covers Wonder Project J, where Snarboo, Bobinator, Xerxes, Joseph Joestar, KaL Yoshika and Kristina Potts discuss what it means to be a parent. Of a machine boy. As a fairy. In a video game. The iOS Shooters article has been revamped to include more games per page, along with several new additions. Our spotlight article focuses on Sega's Dreamcast/Gamecube RPG Skies of Arcadia, which is featured in the excellent Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. And the kusoge is Hell Raisers...or actually Liberators. It's hard to say. It can't even get its own name right.
Also, if you guys want to be totally awesome, please upvote/comment on the HG101 Sega arcade book thread on Reddit, or consider writing a review or hitting that little "Like" button on Amazon. Many thanks!
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12/3/2012
HG101 Presents: Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 1 is now available for purchase! You can purchase color and black & white copies from Amazon, for $9.99 and $25 respectively, or download a PDF copy for $4.99. More details can be found at the link, but we've spent the past several months hard at work on this, and I think it turned out quite excellent! It covers a good chunk of long time Sega favorites like Shinobi, Alex Kidd, Space Harrier and After Burner, and the design is patterned after 90s-era video game magazines, at least inasmuch as it's filled with as many images as possible. I think you all will enjoy it!
We've still got a regular update to go along with the book announcement. Ninja Princess is an early Sega title that technically would quality as a "run-and-gun" in the spirit of Commando, except it takes place in feudal Japan, so there's more shurikens and magic than anything. Most gamers probably know it through its sorta sequel The Ninja for the SMS, which regretfully replaced the female protagonist with a generic dude. This article is not featured in the current volume, but we're planning a second volume that focuses on some of the lesser known Sega games, so please support the first volume so this can come to fruition!
In a more typically manly fashion, we also have a review of Bad Dudes and its pseudo-sequel Two Crude Dudes, the famously super American beat-em-up where you beat up ninjas, rescue President Ronnie, and then go out for cheeseburgers. And on the computer side is a look at Little Big Adventure, also known as Relentless to American gamers, a duo of French developed action-adventure games with quite a bit of imaginative charm.
The spotlight article is an overhaul of the Final Fight article, which was initially one of the first articles for the site back in 2004 and was long in need of an overhaul. And Your Weekly Kusoge is the frightening Pogo Bunny, featuring the most unintentionally tragic heroes in video gaming.
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11/19/2012
First things first - HG101 is proud to announce our next book project: Sega Arcade Classics Vol. 1. This 166 volume contains of over seventy classic games originating from the 1980s and 90s arcade scene. All articles have been updated, revised, and expanded from the ones currently featured on the site. Furthermore, you won't very long to get a copy either - it's in its final stages of production, and should be ready for purchase in early/mid December. Both black & white and full color paperbacks will be available through Amazon, priced at $9.99 and $25 respectively (the latter just enough to quality for free super saver shipping) but PDFs will available straight through the site for those with tablets and eReaders.
The biggest thing to note is that the interior looks much, much nicer than the adventure game book. While this volume is substantially shorter, it's also much more carefully designed, with layouts that are designed after the enthusiasm of 90s game magazines. The color volume is pricey, but it's definitely worth it.
This update is more than just a book announcement. Topping the list of articles is a 10,000+ word feature of Sega's Sakura Taisen (also known as Sakura Wars). Somewhere in my apartment, there's a scribbled piece of paper, started back in 2004, that had all of the series I initially wanted to cover here at HG101. Sakura Taisen was one of them. I bought a whole bunch of the games, but the article never took off. So eight years later, William Van Hecke picks up the slack to deliver an expansive look at Sega's unique SRPG series, which heavily influenced titles today like Persona 3/4 and Valkyria Chronicles. The only game in the series to reach American shores was the fifth game, but it came far too late to make much of an impact. Meanwhile in Japan, it was so popular that there was a stage show based on it.
While the upcoming Sega book focuses on mid 1980s and early 1990s arcade titles (and its progeny), Sega has a lot of history before then, much of which isn't covered anywhere in great detail. We have a second volume planned to cover these titles, one of the first of which is a look at Super Locomotive. It's...bizarre. You are a sentient locomotive, who's being chased for some reason? And you have to attack with them steam clouds? Huh. That's interesting. I'd never really heard of this one before, because it never got ported anywhere. But otherwise, it seems to be also recognized for totally ripping off Yellow Magic Orchestra's song Rydeen. It's a great rendition of a great song, in spite of the plagiarism.
Block Out is basically Tetris in 3D (though not affiliated with Pajitnov's own 3D Tetris variant, Welltris). The article also covers Welltris, along with Nintendo's 3D Tetris. Bullet Witch is an early Xbox 360 title was one of the first games developed by a Japanese company and was released by Cavia. Like many of their titles, it has a number of flaws, a few of which were exacerbated during localization, but it remains interesting enough to cover in this extensive manner.
The latest episode of the Game Club 199X podcast focuses on Hybrid Heaven, Konami's bizarre sci-fi wrestling RPG for the Nintendo 64, which we've also posted an article for. Page 21 of the iOS Shooters article covers StarCannon, xFighter 2, Ace Striker and Above the Sky. And Your Weekly Kusoge is Paris-Dakar Rally Special, a seemingly innocuous Famicom racer which is much goofier than it looks. There's no Spotlight Article this update, as I've been busy finishing up the proofs on the Sega book, but you can expect to see some of the updated articles included on the site as well.
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