This is an uncommon 3D fighting game for the Sega Saturn which was never released outside of Japan. My colleague fredJ played this game on original console and recorded a video, and here is the result. It's divided into two parts because of YouTube's restrictions.
The characters are named after different fighting styles. You have a kick and a punch button. You can aim high or low with the up and down buttons. You block just by standing still, but there is also the extra super block that will try to cancel the opponents attack and make him open for a counter-attack.
This actually works well (unlike in Dead or Alive for Saturn), but you have to guess if he will attack high, low, or middle. FredJ didn't have to use this special block during the first part of the video because the opponents were not very strong, but when he played against the last boss he had to learn how to play the game properly.
This second video shows him playing against the final boss. He says:
"I played the first guys in 20 minutes, then was stuck with this big ugly guy for 1,5 hours while I improved and learnt the moves. He hits you hard once he gets going and you have to learn the removal-block function. His kicks take a lot of health too. I found a weakness that I exploited as you see here. This video shows my last battles with him until I finally won."
It is a very original fighting game which aims to be more realistic. And it actually works, which is unusual for a fighting game. If you're interested, we currently do have the game for sale, right here: at our webshop where you can also find lots of other Sega Saturn games and more.
This game was only released in Japan, at the end of 1996. I only got the cart recently and so I would say it is a uncommon.
A trivia note is that 1996 was the lowest point in the Game Boy lifespan in Japan, with only 37 released titles. 1995 had 58 titles and 1997 had 53. Maybe Pokemon, the Super Game Boy or the Game Boy Pocket made the Game Boy cool again. Anyways, the later games are a lot better than the earliest.
A nice little Super Game Boy support, but as usually only four shades of some color...
The Super Chinese series were long running with games released since the famicom, action games, action/rpg, rpg/fighting, and here a genuine fighting game. All Super Chinese games were fun in a way, but not really very remarkable. There is nothing wrong with this fighting game, but there is also nothing fantastic about it. I have written about GB fighting games before so I have something to compare to.
I think the Super Chinese games were made for a younger audience. In this fighting game you won't have any blood or spine pulling.
The good things:
The movement system works well. Hit detection, jumping, etc.
There are no slowdowns or flickering.
You have a couple of good special moves and combos that are easy enough to learn.
The music is fine and the graphic is nice.
With a super game boy and a second SNES controller you can play 2-player VS mode.
And last, you get to see your characters special moves after you have selected him, which is nice for most of us that don't have the manual nearby.
Something bad:
There isn't any intense action. The rounds are long and I guess you have to fight all other fighters, I think there were 15. There isn't much that separates them from one another and with a computer AI that is not too smart, you can often just walk in and punch them. So it rates low on the fun factor, that is an important factor for me.
In the end, if you have nothing else to play, you can have a good time with this game, with a friend too. I give it 3/5.
I had a friend to visit yesterday and I decided we'd play some Saturn games.
First we played Twinbee Deluxe Pack. I seem to play it with all my friends. It was fun. I have already written about that game in an earlier post ("did we play co-op"). I have this game for 150 SEK, which is 23$.
Then we played Marvel Super Heroes. With my experience from Street Fighter II, I have to say I was superior. Fun game, at least for me.
I went back today and played it 1-player mode. The game has support for a 1 MB RAM cart. Some say it won't work well with a 4MB RAM Card. If that is true, then it probably won't work with the Action Replay 4M because I experienced that the action replay sets itself to 4M mode. But with a 1MB Ram Card, such as the HSS-0150 that is included in several other games, you will get an option in the option menu called "3M Mode" (whatever that means), it indicates that something happens. In my opinion, the game runs smoother in this 3M Mode and there is never any slowdowns.
What I liked about this game
First of all, it has all the Street Fighter II (SF2) move scheme. Block the opponent, use a few special moves, hit opponents on their way down, throw the opponent when close, and all that stuff that a SF2 player would take for granted. (It isn't something that was taken for granted before SF2, as I mentioned in a review of early fighting games (http://japanspel.blogspot.se/2013/02/kieta-princess-and-fuuun-shourinken-for.html)).
Some stuff that isn't in SF2 is that you can jump real high with the R button. With R button I mean the Right shoulder button, that is called R on the SNES/SFC. While high in the air you can punch several times, and you can also throw the other guy in the air if you catch him. I think it works well.
You can press Forward-Forward quickly to run forward, and Back-Back to jump back. This will often surprise the opponent. As with the Jump thing I found it to feel like a natural move that you will soon use all the time.
The cartoon like animation is nice and colorful. The sound and music is as good as you can wish for. Here is a little clip.
_
In 1 player mode, there are only 8 fighters to beat. I like this, because it goes much faster to beat the game. I was able to beat the second highest level today without too much difficulty, I think I died a total of 5 times. 3 on the last boss. So it isn't too hard for someone who knows how to play these games. Your computer opponents aren't too smart. Even on the second highest difficulty level you can often use the same moves over and over, and they often come running right at you so you can attack them.
In the game you can collect gems. This, however, isn't that useful. The gems are like powerups. I think you activate them by pressing a half-round on the D-pad and then the L button, after your Power meter has become full enough. I don't care about this idea, it seems unnecessary.
In the end I'd say this is like a more playful and colorful version of SF2. I have this game for sale at 95 SEK which is around 15$, so it isn't too expensive.
After that, Striker 1945 II, a shootem up game I received recently. I think we played it on Easy mode because we had unlimited continues. We did finish it rather quickly. A nice arcade shootem up with classical airplanes. No complaints there. My price for this one is 275 SEK, 43$. Here is a clip (not of us).
_
After that, a 3D fighter. I thought we would be more even here, and we were quite even. Dead or Alive. I mentioned this game in a recent post. It is a tricky game because you can have different strategies. You have a grab move that lets you grab your opponent if he is too aggressive. And there are a lot of special moves ou can use. The manual lists around 25 for each character, although most are simple. I think it is a good combination of strategy and action, but I think I've only scratched the surface of how to play. This one is 75-95 SEK.
Necronomicon Pinball has a 2-player mode, as it says on its back, so I thought it would be interesting to try it out. Pinball was never my type of game but I have recently learnt that the Saturn has a couple of cool pinball games.
I think I'm starting to understand what pinball is about in general. You select a Mission, then you accept it. Then you try to hit the ball where the board indicates in some way. At this stage, Necronomicon would often throw out lots of extra balls that will give you many extra points.
I suppose that as long as a pinball game has cool music and flashing graphics, and the gameplay is fine, the game is pretty enjoyable. In 2 player mode, you play one player at the time while the other one watches (as you would in Super Mario Bros.), so it isn't that much 2-player mode. But I thought it was fun to watch the show when he played. Here is someone else's clip.
__
I think the story behind the original Necronomicon is interesting. According to Wikipedia, a story of a Necronomicon, a book of the occult, was invented by someone around 100 years ago in a horror story. The book was then believed by others to actually exist. Believing in the occult is silly and only makes for good horror stories. The Japanese people know this, but anything related to "the occult" can be a sensitive subject in the West. But it's just a pinball game, and a good one.
Comparing with the graphics of playing a real pinball game, I can't see how Necronomicon on the Saturn could have been improved really. It's a blast. This one is 125 SEK.
We also played a little Sega Rally in a 2-player competing mode. It's a fun and easy game to pick up and play. But I have to say that the graphics is dated, and when you hit a wall because the road and wall are a mess of pixels from a distance, it is annoying. Other than that, the game is perfect at what it sets out to do. And at 30 SEK, it is cheap. Maybe I'll hook up the graphically improved Sega Rally 2 on the Dreamcast some day, after I feel finished with Saturn games.
I have had hundreds of Saturn games and dozens of consoles, but never seen a Video CD card. It allows you to watch Video CD (VCD) on your Saturn. What VCD is? It is a format developed in 1994 to view full length MPEG movies on CDs, before DVD came.
You shove it into the back just above the battery. It will also improve the video of a few games. I tried the intro of GunGriffon and it is a noticable difference. The animation or more fluid and you don't have the top and bottom borders. But it doesn't make any difference for gameplay so it isn't really useful.
A list of games show some other games. http://segaretro.org/Video_CD_Card
The list says it may not be complete, so I got this idea that maybe lots of games had VCD support. I thought that if it said "TrueMotion" on the back, it could have VCD support.
I found that Dead Or Alive and Virtua Cop 2 said TrueMotion, so I set out to try... I was wrong! But I got to play a lot of Dead Or Alive and Virtua Cop 2.
Dead Or Alive is probably my second favorite fighting game, after Street Fighter II Turbo. I also played it on the PS2 once. I don't think adults should waste time with modern consoles like PS2 or Xbox, but I was at a friend's house, and the gameplay is alright. Coincidentally, the two games have the same rating on gamefaqs: 8,6.
I haven't tried other games in the DoA so I can't compare with for example the Dreamcast version. I assume they are all well playable. Though as usually with fighting games expect the Sat version to play better than the PS1 game if you get to chose between just those two.
I like that the basics play is simplistic: you block and counter attack. The game doesn't depend on long combo moves or weird meters and complicated special moves. You can start off by some button mashing, and after a while you'll find special moves and combos that work.
The characters are also appealing, I mean they are well animated. Here is a random video I found.
__
The manual lists the special moves and they don't seem too complicated. When you improve you can combine your moves. The graphics is nice and the gameplay is fluid. I think you'll enjoy this game. I wouldn't mind playing it some more but as usually with fighting games it will take a while to get the hang of all the moves.
Good thing with CD games that in 95% of the times you will get a manual with your game so you'll get the special moves.
After that I played Virtua Cop 2 with my normal controller. I felt that it was easier to play with a normal controller than with the light gun. Maybe I'm a bad shot. However, I don't think it is technically possible to avoid getting hit with the controller because it moves too slowly. But since the enemies are always in the same spot, you'll be able to memorize them after a while. If it is too hard, you can increase your lives and continues.
As with other arcade ports, your goal is to get a high score. It gets saved to battery memory. Most likely you'll play it just to enjoy shooting around. The game is not that different from Virtua Cop 1, if you happen to own that.
You have to hold the controller like an arcade stick sort of. The A button shoots, B-button speeds up the controller (probably keep this pressed all times), and the C button reloads.
I admire the fluid action and the arcade feeling. It is also fun to shoot all around the place to hit the items and see what happens...
When I get the Saturn mouse I'll report how it plays with it.
As for the video card, I think it was a good idea, but I think there were these problems:
* The developers would need to put both a VCD version and a normal version on the CD, which require extra space.
* Slightly improved cut scenes doesn't improve a game much.
* The Dreamcast was being developed so why bother.
Of course the DC is a much better machine with full 3D graphics, but retro freaks like me continue their dedication to crippled consoles like the Saturn and all their weird accessories.
There are two Ninku games for Game Boy. The one to the right is some board game that the Japanese market enjoyed, but hardly was popular anywhere else.
The one to the left is a fighting game. There are not that many good fighting games on the game boy. I recall that the Takara fighting games (Fatal Fury, Toshinden and others) are playable on the game boy. But I would stay away from Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat unless you are true fan of those series, or for their collectors value. I just read many people saying that Killer Instict for game boy is an impressive game. But I have never tried it, after having played the other two SNES ports I mentioned, I assume Killer Instict would be just as bad.
As for Ninku, there is a well acclaimed fighting game Ninku for Game Gear, and a Saturn game called Ninku with the psuedo-3D that the Saturn often used.
Alright, I'm back to my handheld now... And it isn't pink, it is raspberry.
Many fighting games have the problem that they are either to complicated, such as Street Fighter II Alpha for Super Famicom, or that they play badly, such as Ultraman for the super famicom and many others.
But I kind of liked Ninku because the controls worked well and the game was relatively easy. It took 30-45 minutes, which is around the time i had available.
Ninku is a Japanese anime and manga series. The game supposedly follows the series, although I can't say myself. Ninku is the name of a fictional fighting school and the main character is an odd looking 12 year old boy called Fuusuke of the Wind. ( I have to do a lot of research for my writings... )
The game has a story mode and a 2-player mode if you have two games and
a link cable. In the story mode you follow Fuusuke as he battles some
opponents. You start off by playing as Fuusuke. Later, you get to chose 2 other characters you can play as. The first one is rather weak, but the second one has some good special attacks.
As with many fighting games, the fights are hard until you find an attack that most opponents can't deal with. I discovered that Ninku's "crotch punch" is an effective attack against the opponents. You press Forward, Forward, B to do this special move.
There are other special attacks too. All characters have the same pattern. You can press the basic Down, Down/Forward, Forward + button (A or B). You have Forward, Forward and Button (A or B). And I think there was a down, down/back, back and Button combination too.
There is also a second special attack. After you hit the opponent five times, a little meter will flash up near your life bar. To activate, press A+B. You "special special" move depends on which square the meter is right above. For Ninku, I found that the first square was very powerful.
Your health is a bit odd. You don't recover health you lost during a battle, but there are two mini games that allow you to win some health back. You can also change to one of the other characters that join later. If you die all your available characters you are game over. You do however have two (or three?) continues that restores the health of all characters.
In the story mode there are only 8-10 or so fights to go through. Until I discovered the powerful crotch-punch I had to restart at least once, but after that I came rather quickly to the last boss. He wasn't too hard, but I think I had to use one of the continues to restore my Fuusuke and his crotch-punch.
I enjoyed the Ninku characters and story of the game, even though it is in Japanese and I can't understand it. I guess that the anime must be a non-serious mixture of humour and adventure. In the first picture I am playing as a half naked guy with thongs who has powerful farts and can extend his limbs. (technical note: in the anime it is the penguin who has the farts, not Toji) Fuusuke looks absurd too.
Playing a game to the end means I enjoyed it, and so I rate it 4/5.
