Famicom Friday: King's Knight

Last Friday I sat to play some King's Knight.
This game looks like an RPG but it's not. Its purpose is to be a shooter in RPG style. It has some novelty value, but that is probably the only advantage.

To play this game, there are a couple of things you need to know.
If you don't have a  manual, here they are:
1. At the start screen, you can continue by pressing the Select button. See my video below. Choose character to replay and press A then start, or simply press Start to play stage 5 with your existing characters.
2. You need to find all four special items for all characters so you can make it through stage 5.
3. On stage 5, having all four items on the characters, makes it possible to use their special attack once by pressing B. This must be used at the right moment.

Knight:  Cast Zainen to change into a winged horse.

Wizard:  Cast Naizath to defeat enemies in the water. 

Monster: Cast Cetune to change into a dragon.

Thief:   Cast Balbath to destroy monoliths.  

You upgrade your characters with items they take. For each upgrade you get an extra level added to your character for a maximum of 20.

To make it through the first stages, you are almost forced to know where the upgrades are. Without the attack upgrade, the shots are only half as effective for example, and you will die soon. You can see my video below how hard it was to kill the ghosts before I got the attack-upgrade at 0:55.

The good thing is that the upgrades are always in the same position so you can memorize them. This would take a very long time with normal play, and I think that the game is more fun if you follow a stage map. You can see the stage map for the wizard if you visit http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587386-kings-knight/faqs ) so you can follow my path in the video, if you want.



As you can see in the video, I didn't use the map yet, and missed item 1. Actually didn't have all four items with any character and I didn't have any chance on stage 5.

The game doesn't have any save function, but it is pretty short if you know how to play through the stages and know where the items are. If you don't mind playing with a map and maybe a walkthrough, I think you might want to give it a try. The Japanese version is entirely in English. It was also released for NES in the US.

Metal Flame Psy Buster, famicom

So I sat down to play another "crappy" and unbeloved game, Metal Mech.

Metal Flame: Psy Buster, 7$

 

Known in Japan by its longer name Metal Flame: Psy Buster, whatever that means.
Of course I thought the game was awesome. Such an original idea, amazing graphics, and bullets flying everywhere, and you just keep moving fast. Amazing.

I had a lot of problems at first trying to understand what the shit was about. But then I read the guide on gamefaqs (seems like I say this in every blogpost) and really got a good understanding on how to play this game enjoyably.

What I enjoyed the most was how powerful the robot is, so you can walk around with the robot for most of the time and ignore all the enemies. Imagine if Contra had been like that, wow.
_

In case you don't have the manual and have no clue, I will provide for you the basics.

1. You need the key in each level in order to exit it. If you don't know where the key is, you could spend weeks looking for it. On level 1, the key in in the sewers. On level 2, it is at the most top right of the level, in a camera. In level 3, it isn't the far from the exit. In level 4, you need to take a special powerup before you enter the water, or else you will die. Also, there is a teleporter (big black opening) you enter by pressing Up, and the key is if you walk left from there. On Level 5, the key is if you keep going on the left side while you walk down (sort of). Level 6 however, is a very hard shooter stage that I couldn't beat.

2. Press Select while in the machine to change weapons. Unfortunately, it changes automatically back to a weak weapon every time you exit the machine so you have to change back. For example, I forgot this in the video above around 18:30 so I had difficulty killing the enemies.

3. Press Select + A to eject from the machine. If you die your guy, you restart by the mech. If both Mech and Gyu die, you have to restart the level. If only Mech dies, you can continue on your own without Mech for a while.

_

The levels are pretty big and feel advanced. A bit like Metroid. The last level was too hard for me, but at the end of it there is the mother-alien of some sort you have to defeat. I don't enjoy shoot'em up stages with difficult controls though, so I won't be trying more of beating the last level. Up to that point the game was very much fun.

Image Fight, famicom

Another shoot'em up?! First I would like to make a praise to Irem. The had many ideas for very original games with nice graphics and music, and always great playability. The are like Konami, except that Irem always had much smaller release numbers and so their games are usually harder to find.

Maybe Irem games made their games for adults more than other gaming companies did, becaues in general Irem games have a low amount of stuff that only kids could tolerate, such as cheap deaths, lack of continues, painful music and terrible controls.

I also think Irem famicom carts are the best looking because of their screenshot on the back. 

Image Fight has no passwords or save function and needs to be completed in one go (unless you use a cheat). At first it seemed annoying because of the easy deaths, but then I found that the charm is in the infinite continues. In practice you has infinite lives because even after game over you get to restart at the same checkpoint.

The famicom version has a nice black background like flying in space. From looking at youtube videos, the NES version replaced it with a blue background, which to me seems weird.

There may be other changes between the two version but I have not found them documented.

_
The number at the bottom of the screen indicates plane speed. Change with the A button.

You need to accomplish on average 90% on the first five levels. I have tried looking around the net, but no guide informs what this number refers to or how to get 90%. The guides also say that you have to replay the stages if you get less, but on the famicom version I played you'll be taken to a penalty area (at 5:27 in video). This difficult area is where I took up my turbo-controller, at last, because without it my thumb went numb. The game doesn't otherwise require a turbo controller.

The game isn't always easy, but isn't too hard until the final boss. If you die on the boss there, you'll restart at a check point without powerups that makes it almost impossible. It would probably be easier to replay the entire game. Quite a shame that it went so easy with a good powerup, and so impossible without it. There is a stage selection cheat one can use, maybe I'll try that the next time to replay just the last stage.

You can usually find it cheap. 5-7$ loose, and 15$ boxed, or so. It isn't anything special but it also isn't too bad except that it is annoying how impossible it got in the ending... It has some fun powerups, nice graphics and sound and because you have inifinite lives you'll keep on playing.

The game is also on Pc Engine and is usually considered better than the famicom/NES version. A problem with the famicom/NES version is that it feels like it could need more polish. First you have five "training stage", but they still have real bosses and all. Then three "real battles", that are very easy with the right power ups, but if you die at the final boss the game almost becomes unwinnable.

Here is another review that I thought was most accurate. Maybe because it also reviewed the famicom game, unlike other reviews.

* http://www.videogameden.com/fc.htm?imf

Here is another review. Don't just read the first half of it!
* http://www.honestgamers.com/7780/nes/image-fight/review.html

Captain Ed, famicom

Captain Ed is an uncommon famicom game. Incidentally,  Chrontendo wrote about it just a month ago or so. In his usual negative way, he calls it "an extremely strange game", "one of the least visually interesting shoot-em-ups I've seen in a while", and in his video he calls it "crap". (http://chrontendo.blogspot.se/2014_03_01_archive.html)

Luckily, I prefer to play games rather than superficially analyze them, and I played this game for 3 hours on Friday and another 2 hours on Saturday. I had a lot of difficulties with the last stages until I found a simple trick to beat the Medusa boss. The ultimate final boss was also tricky until I discovered that you can simply hold down the shoot button to have continuous fire until he dies.

The gamefaqs review didn't know either of this. Probably because he didn't have to replay the last stage for 2 hours... When you are game over and have to type in the 20 character hiragana password, your frustration level increases. I think it took me 5-10 minutes each time I had to type it in, although I did get better at it after a couple of times.

_
The video shows my gameplay and last stage. The game is a bit unusual to understand and I think it puts people off giving it a chance. I know it has put me off it for over a year now.  Clearly, this is one of the "weird Japanese games" that could mean just about anything. (if interested, see my review of Hana No Star Kaidou a few weeks ago. *shivers*)

Some basic information: you fly around and can shoot as well as hitting blocks to get hidden items. The red blocks take away some energy, and the yellow blocks takes away a little energy in the beginning of the game, but not on the last stages because you have a stronger shield. You can refill your energy either with hidden items or buy filling up at Gas. Important note about the gas station: TAP A to fill up, don't just wait.

After you have found a couple of warp areas and bought enough eggs and items from the shop (buy everything as you get money), you'll go to the boss stage automatically. Most bosses are simple and are basically just about shooting them straight up.

Did I cheat in the end...? That's like asking if it is cheating to use the pause glitch in Blaster Master. To most people that is a part of the game, unlike a cheat code that is by definition a cheat code. Should I not be allowed to press Select to enter the menu, if this is part of the game mechanics?

I was actually able to beat the Medusa without the trick on two occasions. The way to do it is because her balls after a while will enter a pattern of getting stuck from one corner to the other. But they are difficult to dodge until then.

Well, it certainly is a weird Japanese game, for those who appreciate those games as much as I do. The simple difficulty made me continue to play it until the end and certainly I enjoyed it enough to spend 5 hours with it, albeit the last of them in frustration.

Here is the 20 character password in difficult to read hiragana. I think it is cool, although unnecessary, that the password remembers your name too. My name is the top word up there.

Some bosses are Parodius funny, like this hardrocker. Watch out for his guitar.

The game also has some mini-games that allows you to make money. One of them is a simple betting cardgame that will almost guarantee you a profit, and another is some kind of beatmania game with a drum. My max profit for the drum game was 610$, please let me know if you get more than that.


You can usually get the game cheap. For 7$ or so I think it is well worth trying out.

And here is where airplanes come from.

Cobra Command, famicom

Helicopter games are rarely worth anything, no matter if they are scrolling or not. The only exception I can think of is Kyuukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra). But that game is exactly like any airplane shooter.

For all Apple fans, I remember I played a helicopter game on Macintosh sometime in the early 1990s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvh0agHVLHQ . 

Anyways, I played a bit of Cobra Command for a Famicom Friday, then read about how to play it properly and went back to play some more. It helps to learn what the game is about. First, you rescue hostages. You have to rescue all hostages in one area before you can continue on the level.  In the rescue hostages theme, the game probably takes from Choplifter, a simplistic game that does have its charm (also available on famicom, and is cheap like all helicopter games).

You can land on supply depots, as I did twice in the video. There you will get weapon upgrades or other upgrades. Go into the equip menu by pressing Select. The Start button is used to turn around the helicopter.


Most youtube videos have different colors for some reason, but this is how the game looks on my AV modded famicom.

Cobra Command has nice graphics, advanced levels, good looking enemies and stages, and a good strategy element. However, the controls are difficult. The helicopter is sensitive and quickly moves you into a wall for sudden death. And when you move helicopter forward it becomes strangely slow to the point that it will become difficult to avoid enemies. I try to counter that by tapping the forward button, but you can also fly backwards if you feel certain there are no obstacles.

If you can learn the controls and accept them, the game is enjoyable. I read that it has only 6 stages and is beatable without being overly hard. You start with four lives and get more from the supply depots. If you die all lives, there are 2 or 3 continues. I only played the first stage though. I rate the game "decent".

The Japanese version has Japanese text. From what I read on gamefaqs, some hostages give you messages but these messages are virtually useless. So I rate the famicom game 95% playable. As you see in the video, all the names of items in the menu are in English.

ASO (Alpha Mission), for famicom

The game ASO: Armored Scrum Object is a game no one has bought from me in my two years. The game is uncommon (I've only had it twice), is a shooter and entirely in English, so for my Famicom Friday yesterday I was curious about why it is so unpopular.

ASO game was released on the NES as Alpha Mission. On eBay it regularly sells for hardly anything, CIB (Complete In Box) 7$. Since this is a common NES game there are lots of reviews of it. Most of them are hateful it because it is too hard.

Maybe it is another misunderstood game that I need to rescue. It looks cool doesn't it?

I have to admit I bought it by mistake. I thought it was rare and expensive, like these similar looking shooters I once had.

Metal Storm here is worth around 100$, Gun Nac at least 30$. I never understand quite why some games are so much more expensive than others, but I have to follow along and price my games according to market value.

When it comes to vertically scrolling shooters ("shmups"),  I find most of the pure shmups repetitive, dull and uninteresting. There are a lot of simplistic vertical scrolling shooters on the NES/Famicom, such as Exed Exes, Argus, the classic Xevious, Hector '87, Gyrodine, Exerion, Galaga, Dragon Spirit, Star Soldier and Star Force.

I do enjoy shooters if they have some strategy element, like Zanac and Guardian Legend that I have blogged about before. Or Gradius or Twinbee that I have mentioned many times. These are games where you have to think out a strategy and not just madly shoot your way around.


I read that it has a strategy element to it so I thought that maybe I would find some amusement in it.

_

After around 3,5 hours I had found a strategy that took me to stage 5, as you see in the video. A useful strategy is to equip the shield and then collect get E to keep the shield strong. At boss battles I switched to fire that killed them quickly. 

A little explanation of the useful icons: You collect the E icons which will give you energy, up to a max of 24. When you have energy, and possibly collect the airplane icon, you get special items you can use. Change this by pressing Select, navigate to your choice, and press Select again. I soon discovered that the "sheeld" was very useful, while the other special weapons only last for a short time and should be reserved for boss fights.

The M and L icons improve your gun and your missiles. The K icon is useful because it allows you to continue with all upgrades if you die. The W warps you forward. The F icon shows all nearby powerups. S increases speed. Then there is the rare special icon you see at 05:50 that restores your energy to full.

Then the bad icons: The C that takes away all your energy. The inversed K that takes away ALL your ships powerups. The R warps you back (this can actually be useful so you can collect more powerups). Looking at my video, I now realize the inverted E takes away some energy. The C and especially inversed K must absolutely be avoided! It isn't too hard to avoid the negative powerups actually. The inverted K will only appear after you have maxed out one weapon, so after maxing out just be more careful. When your plane is already strong, you have less reason to go around collecting powerups.

Most complaint that the game is bad because it is too hard, except one reviewer who found the game boring because it was too easy http://www.gamefreaks365.com/review.php?artid=1602. I think that is because he played on PSP, PS3 or emulation. On the original NES/famicom hardware, shooters are harder because:

1. The composite video (or worse: antenna!) on NES makes it harder to see bullets
2. The NES controller can't move well diagonally. Look at my video how I mostly move back-forward or right-left.

The game only has 6 stages and then it loops, but the stages keep on counting up to 13 before going back to 1. It might get harder the second time. I think that 3,5 hours of gameplay isn't much for an old school games to make it to stage 5 out of 6. With some practice I probably could make it to stage 6 and then maybe beat the boss there.

Well, I enjoyed it enough to keep me amused for 3,5 hours of a Friday, which is more than most games do. I think I would enjoy keep playing it, as it seems like a game one could master and beat in a short amount of time. Playing to stage 5, as in my video, takes 15 minutes. Looping it once would probably only take 20 minutes. Perfect for a quick fix.

I also enjoyed that the game isn't unfair or has insane enemies. Most enemies and bullets can be avoided without having the die EVERY time you first encounter them (as you would in Salamander / Life Force). The gun turrets on the ground only seem to shoot once, so you don't have to worry about a cheap shot when you are flying over them. The tracking bullets that appear later seem hard at first, but I think they only change direction twice and can be avoided with some practice. I don't think the game has cheap deaths. 

Another complain is that you start slow. Well, you are slow in Gradius too, and the solution is to get speed ups and other powerups, and then avoid dying. The game only gives you three lives and no continues so you do have to avoid dying. According to gamefaqs, there is a continue cheat but I couldn't get it to work and the cheat has three "thumbs down" so I think it is fake.

ASO / Alpha Mission isn't the deepest game but it doesn't deserve the univeral hatred it has. I don't think it is worse than similar NES shooters. 

For some more reviews, see:

• http://www.gamefreaks365.com/review.php?artid=1602 (too easy)
• http://www.questicle.net/2011/01/35-alpha-mission.html (too hard)
• http://www.examiner.com/review/retro-video-game-review-alpha-mission-nes ("For its crimes against the shmup genre, arcade ports, and the act of gaming in general, this mess gets one and a half stars out of five")
• http://www.flyingomelette.com/reviews/nes/alphamission.html (too hard)
• http://www.honestgamers.com/1916/nes/alpha-mission/review.html ("I just can't think of a single shmup I got less enjoyment from than this game and I'd be hard-pressed to think of any game (regardless of genre or system) that provided more negative memories.")
• http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587088-alpha-mission/reviews

Assault Suit Leynos (Target Earth) on Mega Drive

No one ever bought this, even after I lowered the price many times, so I assume it would be an interesting game. Most people only buy familiar games.

Shop link: here

And yes, it is an interesting game.
For me, who don't like scrolling shooters or generic platformers, I enjoyed it at first. It also has a real story mode unlike most MD games I've played so far. But boy, is it HARD. I made to the fourth stage but it gets crazy there.

The worst part of the difficulty is: randomness. Random enemies appear! I beat the second stage the first time I tried it. But three hours later, I die. If the game throws all the hard enemies at you, it will be very difficult. There are two continues and then game over so if I have trouble on stage 2 it feels like it would take a very long time to beat all 8 levels. I know there are 8 because the manual says so.

It can be a bit hard to understand gameplay too, especially in Japanese, but I did manage to figure that out!
On level 1, there will be a huge spaceship you have to blow up. You can use your clusterbomb and hit it 4 times or so, that will take it down quickly. To get bonus weapons, you should get a high score. On level 1 you can get a useful rocket and a tank will give you armor. The armor increases the life by four bars.

On stage 2, you should go to the right. There will be an escape ship there, and if you wait for a while your friends will jump into it first, and when you feel ready you can jump in too.

On stage 3, gamefaqs says you should destroy the enemy space ship but I didn't do that. After flying around for a couple of minutes, the door opens to your own spaceship. Then I wait until around 10 seconds left and get it.

I didn't make it too far into stage 4, and if you look at the end of my gameplay video you will see why.

_

I think I should just have moved forward instead of going back.
In stage 2 I do sometimes stand still or move back. This is because you refill health automatically with time. Doesn't work on stage 4...

The game has eight stages, and the problem is that even after making it to stage four, I still have problems getting past stage 2 because of the randomness factor. As can be seen in the video I almost died already around 04:40. So I give up.

Some good reviews as usually on gamefaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/586520-target-earth/reviews. Reviewer Sandcrab says he beats it consistently so it must be possible. The other reviewers didn't make it past level 3.

Another opinion:

It's such a remarkably difficult game that it's hard to really enjoy it without turning on the invincibility code, which was added to the North American release. (Just hit Start on controller 2 during play.) -- http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/assaultsuits/assaultsuits.htm

Hmmm... I agree that it is hard to enjoy. Right now I feel like a sad failure.

Though I should say that a gamer who enjoys this kind of Contra-game probably wouldn't mind playing until he beat it. I'm sure it can be beaten consistently for someone who has the patience and time.  It isn't impossible and the game isn't unfair. It could be compared to Contra, possibly, but with more enemies coming at you. If you want to give your kid one game only and make sure he doesn't beat it in a day, this could be a good choice (maybe sadistical though). The invincibility cheat in the US version would also ensure you could beat it when you wanted to.

Well, it was a nice experience and nice to play a game that feels original. The controls are a bit stiff, but in a mecha game this is to be expected. As the gamefaqs reviewers said, the game isn't broken or bad, just frustratingly difficult. Funny thing is, the game has two modes that are even harder than the default Normal called Hard and Hyper.

Here is some further interesting reading:
* http://segascrutiny.blogspot.se/2011/01/what-is-this-crap-robocops-ugly-brother.html. (all Sega blogs are black apparently)
* http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/encyclopedia-bombastica-target-earth/2300-6714/

Phelios and Curse on Mega Drive

My previous Mega Drive experience as blogged about wasn't succesful but I have many more games that I can try out. I have to give the Mega Drive the respect it probably deserves, it was popular after all. In Japan it never got more than a few percent market share (far behind Super Famicom and Pc Engine), but in the US it almost had 50% market share. Not sure about Europe.

Last week I made a second, serious attempt. I first plugged in my RGB cable, to get a decent picture, both for the playing experience and for the video quality. I started up Curse, a shooter that seemed decent and not too difficult.

The first problem soon appeared. My controller didn't work properly. I googled around and cleaning Mega Drive controllers seems to be one of the things every Mega Drive player needs to learn. Alright, I cleaned every single part of the controller and tried again. Now all the buttons worked well, but it still seemed like it had a will of its own. I tried a couple more controllers and cleaned them, with the same result. I have to conclude that Mega Drive controllers are more sensitive than other controllers I play with (Super Famicom, Famicom, Game Boy, and Saturn). Strangely, I seem to be the only one who has this problem. Could be that my hands have gotten so used to the other controllers.

The problem is that when I press up, the controllers often moves left-up. When I press down, it often moves left-down or right-down. Annoying, but hopefully I can get used to it and adjust.

As long as I don't have to move around much I could play Curse decently. If you get upgrades in Curse, the game seems easy. However, when you die and lose the upgrades, the game becomes impossible. I have read this being referred to as the Gradius-style.

However, in Gradius the level design is very well thought out. Every enemy and upgrade is there on purpose. It is like a harmonious symphony.

In Curse enemies and projectiles are simply thrown at you. Others may like it but to me the game feels uninspired. Below is a video I recorded with some gameplay from the first few stages. They are simple enough. My objective was to try and beat the game, but if you die on stage four like I did, you might as well reset.I tried a couple of times and made it a bit further each time before I died and practically had to restart.  I restarted at around 12:30, played all the way there again, and continued the recording.


The second game is Phelios. Another shooter game. I have tried it out before just to test it and I sort of knew what to expect. With this game, things went better. I also switched to a six button controller I found. It did work a little bit better but it still felt flimsy and the character didn't move the way I wanted it to at all times. Hopefully, I'll get used it.

It reminds me a little of Dragon Spirit, which i have played on the Pc Engine. I also played it on Famicom ( you can see my comparison video here ). I actually prefer Phelios to Dragon Spirit. In Dragon Spirit, you move slower and the stages are very long. In Phelios, the stages are short and not too hard.

But this is another game with limited continues. If you have followed my blog, you may know that I don't like games with limited continues. Games with limited continues often rely on cheap tricks to kill you the first times you play an area, and they become a test of your patience more than of your skill.
This is a video of my second attempt. I had learnt the early stages by now, but had particular problem when all the horses attacked from behind (around 15 minutes into the video).


I don't think it's a particularly sophisticated game. The enemies are often just there to be shot down like a firing range, and you almost always start with the Option and two Speed Upgrades. They could have just given you that without upgrades. The game itself isn't too bad however.  I wouldn't mind playing this more if I had to.

If you are a Mega Drive fan and you are thinking "what is wrong with this guy?", don't worry. I guess it will just take some time for me to get used to this console. I will try out more games soon. Have put aside Rambo III, Crack Down and Strider Hirou.

Famicom Friday: The Guardian Legend / Guardic Gaiden

My Famicom Friday series is about me picking up some famicom games that I am curious of, and then just sit down to play and see what I think. Last two famicom fridays were very positive experiences.

If you have played The Guardian Legend, you already know how great it is. But you probably don't know about the Japanese version called Guardic Gaiden, so keep on reading. If you don't know about Guardian Legend, then you must keep on reading as well.

Now is this game HOT!?!? Let me know if you know a better looking game cart on ANY console

My promise for the new year is to try and beat more games, if I enjoy them. 8-bit games are good because they are usually not extremely long. It isn't new year yet but I started early. For this reason, I only had time to play one game for this Friday.

It sure was a good one. I played it all the way through. You may chose not to watch some videos that could be spoilers, in case you want to play it yourself. I'll first show you the first 10 minutes of gameplay, with some parts edited out to make it shorter, that you could safely watch.



Sorry about the music being louder than normally!! I played on an AV famicom instead of my usual Twin Famicom.

I tried it out on my newly arrived AV famicom. See how sleek it is?!?! You can hardly notice it is turned on. Awwwaaa !!! The awesomeness.

The Japanese version has some Japanese text. This got me stuck in the beginning, because there is often a puzzle in how to enter the corridor ( コリドー ) that take you to the shooter stage. Sometimes it is about shooting the gate, sometimes you have to arm a certain weapon and fire, at one corridor you have to shoot the sign, or other things. There are clues for how to enter. The clues are easy to find in the caves, so I don't consider them spoilers. However, I couldn't read the hints in Japanese and finally had to look at a FAQ: http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587320-the-guardian-legend/faqs/3027.  Some corridors are more tricky and without a guide you won't complete the Japanese version. You can see me enter the first corridor in this video.

The game is somewhat non-linear. You can explore freely and look for upgrades, but the main missions will unlock new areas and you have to do them in order.

Here is the second problem with the Japanese version: the password.

This password contains your experience points, location and upgrades. For this convenience, you apparently need a 32 character password. Let's see how long it takes me to enter it...


Luckily I only restored from password once. You can either keep the console on, or keep on playing. The game isn't that long that you need passwords, if you are good enough.

Here is the stage after restoring. The boss was difficult. I paused the recorder everytime I died, so you only see the shooting stage once. The rest are the boss battles.
 

It may be of interest that this is the third shooter made by Compile that I have written about. I have previously written about Zanac and last week about Gun-Nac. Great games. You can see how similar the gameplay is in all the three games. With my new years promise, I am considering going back to try and beat Gun-Nac. It would most likely be worth it.

Sure is more frenetic than Xevious, no? Still, Xevious sold more copies than all these three combined, seeing how common it is.
The video below shows the last stage. By this time, I had so many upgrades that playing was a breeze. The last boss took longer but it was mainly about finding the best weapon and a decent strategy rather than shmup-skills.

_
Nice ending. It was a nice experience to play this during the Christmas days. I am very happy that I got to experience it. I am not great at shooters, but when you get lots of upgrades the game is almost just flying through. Try to get a high chips count and then be clever with weapons, trying out the one that works best all the time.

I am still trying to think how to enter that last password you get in the ending, since the password screen only has hiragana characters. In the EU and US version, you get the password TGL , that will allow you to play a special world with only the shooter stages.

Among true NES-fans, this is considered a must-play game. I have seen it on several gamers top 10 NES lists. It is still suprisingly cheap (10$ for the PAL or US version). The Japanese version is a bit more expensive (30$), since it is relatively rare. Personally I think the look of the cart is worth 30$ alone....

One thing that may scare people is that it is a shooter/RPG hybrid with some puzzle elements. I know that NES games where it takes time to understand the gameplay are always more difficult to sell. It reminds me of Labyrinth, a lovely famicom game that I played through 10 months ago and blogged about.

Positive points

One thing that I appreciate, now being familiar with so many games, is the attention to small things that the game has. Such as:

• When you die, your health gets fully restored. No long grindings to restore your health.
• No long walks back and forth. You have a map that indicates exactly were the next corridors are. Even if you walk around on your own, you have the map and it never takes very long to walk around (unlike, say, Legend of Zelda).
• If there are many enemies in an area, they appear gradually instead of all at once. This makes you able to walk passed them.
• When you die, you never have to walk very far in order to play the mission again. (maybe a minute, max)
• The missions are also not very long. If you die at the end boss, replaying the mission up to the boss might take 3 minutes and it is fun, so no complaints.
• No boss is extremely difficult. I am not great at shooters, and the most difficult boss took me no more than 10 tries or so. Take this *3 for replaying the level, plus time spent on the boss and walking to the mission, and no mission took me more than 45 minutes (maybe 60, I didn't keep time).
• You are free to escape from the mini-bosses if you don't have enough health. Just walk out when you hear the mini-boss music, before the gate closes.

Tips

Some tips for playing

• As so often in shooters, upgrades are essential. The upgrade system is complex. You have one upgrade for Weapon, one for Shield, your speed, your rapid fire and shooting spread (not indicated in the Select screen); you can upgrade your health meter, your chips count; secondary weapons can be upgraded to level 2 or 3. Take everything your see and fight all mini bosses to get upgrades. You also get upgrades when your score reaches certain levels.
• Chips. You need them for special weapons, but for max weapon power you don't want it to go below 200 (or 100 depending on how far you've made it). You also use your chips to buy items in the store.  Consider not using the secondary weapon if weapon strength is important.  
• Try different strategies and different weapons. Some bosses and mini-bosses are easier to beat with certain weapons. I think I killed them all, but some were harder than others.
• The "EE". This special weapon kills every small item and projectile on the screen. Very useful sometimes.

This is one reason why the game can be completed rather quickly. That doesn't mean it is short. In terms of rooms and contents it is a very big NES game. I think the number of areas it has is comparable to Metroid, although this was just something I picked up at a message board. 

Super Famicom Friday, four games

It isn't Friday and I didn't even play them on a Friday. As artistical freedom I'll still call this my Famicom Friday (super edition). It is almost Christmas and maybe you expect some Christmas games, but sorry I only celebrate Christmas for two days and don't bother for the rest of the month.

During the week I played a couple of SFC games that you probably are not familiar with.

Blazeon, an uncommon shooter by Atlus.

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At first I was perplexed but then I discovered I could freeze some enemies and fly into them to get their suit. Interesting idea. Usually when I try crazy stuff like that I die but ever so rarely I discover something.

The game looks like Gradius at first. The most distinct difference is that in this game you fly really slowly sometimes without any enemies appearing. Maybe the enemies will appear if you set it to Hard mode.  It does make the levels take a long time.

There seems to be infinite continues. Because the levels take so long, you still have to replay 5-10 minutes of moving along sequences. If you like this peculiar kind of gameplay, give it a try. It is original in the way that I have never played anything like it.
Also, I read on gamefaqs that the game becomes a real challenge later on. The manual tells me there are only five levels though (or six? don't remember).

The game is uncommon and my copy in a fine collectors condition, as new, will cost you 448 SEK (70$). Worse condition or loose cart would obviously be cheaper.

Also played Popful Mail. I was impressed by this game, one of the more playable action/RPG games I have tried. With all that walking and ladders and so on it felt like Castlevania. Maybe it is just my lack of experience with these games that makes me feel that way.

The game is also on Sega CD and Pc Engine with all games being different. This article explains more: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/popfulmail/popfulmail.bak.htm. They recommend the Sega CD game released only in Japan and USA. A working Sega CD does costs a bit these days. I could mention that we offer restoration of Sega CD consoles, and can also rather easily make it region free.

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The levels take a bit long. If you enjoy playing cute hack'n slash games you probably won't mind.

There is some Japanese text in the shop but I quickly guessed my way. There is also a battery save option here. You need to know that you have to trade your Exp for Gold, which you either do in the shop or in some other places.

In the video I made mistake at around 09:30 when I didn't go into town to be health items. Then I died around 13:50 and had to restart. Finally found my way into town and bought the health items I needed by 18:00. I also saved there. At around 21:00 I continued the trip. I played on and beat the boss and then came to an underground level (with bats!).

This game is rather common and can be had for around 175 SEK (25$). I recommend you check it out. As I read on hardcore gaming, this game is rather long and you get more characters you can switch between.  A nice story driven adventure.

Dolucky's A-Leage Soccer.

Another sports game. Sports games are thankful to play because they are easy to into. Some of them have good gameplay, although most have strange problems with controls and I quickly get annoyed. I feel that about modern PS2 and PS3 sports games too. Sports games are fun only if you can beat them, no?

This one I played for some 30 minutes at least, so I would rate it a playable game. After a while the controls got frustrating. You have to tackle all the time and the computer cheats. Also, you can't see much of the playing field. For 48 SEK (7$) it could be worth to try it out. If there is a 2-player mode, and there should be, it is probably fun with a friend long enough to justify the 7$.


When you have charged your power meter, you can press L to go into overdrive mode. This will make you shoot a super shot. A humerous game, and maybe you can play it better than I could.

As a bonus, I will recommend a different soccer game on SFC. Fighting Eleven, by Konami! There is also Fighting Eleven II. The EU/US titles for the games are Internation Superstar Soccer and Internation Superstar Soccer Deluxe. I read on gamefaqs that the Japanese version has more teams, but don't rely on that info. Here is a video I uploaded a month ago where I beat Denmark. I'll include it here as a bonus. More information on how to play is in the video page.
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Finally, during the week I also uploaded this video I made a while ago of Hashire Hebereke.
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It is a racing game with inspiration from Super Mario Kart. This was my first time playing. I didn't do well the first race but I quickly got into it. Another game that should be fun to try it for a while.

I don't know if it can be played multiplayer. If so, that should be fun. I sold the loose cart for 75 SEK (12$) and for an uncommon game like this I think it is worth paying that. Getting it Complete In Box would be more expensive.

Gun Sight on famicom, second look

Two days ago I played Gun Sight. I didn't try it for long but I thought the game probably had more to offer, if I spent some time learning it. So I did. A Friday evening isn't so good for frustration, but a couple more minutes and it wasn't too difficult.

The map on the lower left shows your helicopter as the big solid object. The X shows a base you can refuel. The o shows your objective for the mission.

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I stopped at the X to refuel. A little tricky to land, I think if the down arrow lights you have to press Up. But as you see it worked out several times. I did miss one landing and had to circle.

At the end of the O I met the enemy helicopter. This took some time when I just used the normal weapon, but you can shoot a missle to. I am not sure how, but I think you hold down B and then also press A. Not sure though. With Select you can cycle between the Missile and the Extra Fuel.

After I landed, I played in this Operation Wolf mode. I am not that good at it but am glad I made it. On the inside you walk around in a old-school 3D mode where more enemies appeaar. It was difficult to get them and I died several times. I had to cut the video before 15 minutes, but I made it to the exit not long after and cleared the mission. I also got a password that can be entered in the Option menu.
  
There's several lives, continues and password, something typical of Konami games.
Konami produces quality. Great game considering it is famicom. Probably sounds better on famicom considering the big and heavy cart. I see on http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=4086 that it uses the advanced MMC5 mapper.

I also found out that you can indeed use the famicom lightgun! That's cool. I couldn't record it because the recorder can't show the light properly through the recorder.

Good thing I have a lightgun saved away for a customer.
I think it is hard to play with a lightgun but it could be a practice thing.

Famicom Friday: Fuzzical Fighter and Palamedes II

Yesterday I had myself a Famicom Friday, with some games that have not been sold for a while.


Palamedes II.

125 SEK

I played this game for about an hour. At first it is almost as annoying as Puyo Puyo but there are two good things compared with Puyo Puyo. First, the matches can be over really fast which reduces the annoyance. Secondly, I won sometimes.
The game has some randomness to it, so one is likely to win after a while.

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The gameplay seems complicated but it isn't. You have the die [sv not: "die" är singularform av "dice"] at the top with a number. Your have to place your dice that will make a poker-like number. The best combination is a straight, such as 6-5-4-3. Second best is four of a kind. Also good is three of a kind, or two of two different sorts. When you get some good combination, you will remove 1-4 rows from your screen, and the opponent will get 1-4 rows added. That's the puyo puyo aspect.

The tricky thing is that you can only place a die that has the same or acjacent number as the die on the table. So if the die on the table has 5, you can place 4,5 or 6. Say you place a 4, then the die on the table will change to a 4. This also effects what the opponent can place.
I think the video explains the rest of the gameplay.

The game was fun for a while. The main annoyance is that the die on the table is hard to see when you look at your own board. They should have put it in the middle, and maybe have a sound indicating what it changes to. The second annoyance is that the game feels random. In one moment you are almost dead, and the next your screen is empty and the opponent is almost dead.


The third game I played was Fuzzical Fighter.

195 SEK

Strange that this game hasn't been sold, but I was happy because I enjoyed it very much. I played it for 3 hours. Not only is it uncommon but also a great game.

Sometimes I think many people don't have very good taste, because I keep on getting requests for games like Trip World, that I don't even think is fun, but I now have a loose copy for sale for 795 SEK (125$). That is the lower end of the current price on eBay. Fuzzical Fighter is unsold for 195 SEK. Oh well.
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At first Fuzzical Fighter may be confusing because you start in this Dragon Quest view and might think "oh no, not another weird japanese RPG". But actually the RPG mode is insignificant and easy to figure out. To prove my point, you get passwords that consists of FOUR NUMBERS and is the same for a level no matter how you upgraded. So it isn't an upgrade-heavy game.

It also starts off slow and easy and may seem boring. But there are 8 levels and they get harder and faster.

You get gold when you shoot enemies and you use it to buy stuff in the shop. In the shop with an ship sign you can upgrade Shoot (シュート ? I don't know), Shield (シールド) or Engine (エンジン). The katakana is literally the English word phonetically. Learning some basic katanaka is actually not that hard. I recommend practice on: http://www.realkana.com/

In the other shop you can buy items, literally アイテム.
You use the Item by pressing Select during gameplay. I know one item will take you back to the last castle you won. One upgrade is "Add Power" (パワー means power) to add HP, and one is "Add Magic" (マジック means magic) to add more Magic points.

The magic that is 16 MP will also take you back to the last castle. This is useful if you are almost dead. Use magic buy equiping it, and press the A button.

To equip your ship, simply press Start when playing and select your upgrades.

A special thing about the game is the Fuzzical mode. This is an autopilot of sorts that will avoid obstacles. I think it is useful on later stages when the screen scrolls fast and there is a ceiling and ground that show up. I actually had the Fuzzical mode on in the video because it made it more fun to play. It feels weird at first but is strangely playable. Easier than when I tried Darius II last week with my not-too-functional Mega Drive controller.

The graphics is nice and the music is well made.
To buy upgrades you sometimes have to "level grind", meaning you play a bit of a level until your HP is low, then you use a magic to go back to base, buy an upgrade, restore health, and restart the level. You restore your health by going to Inn, select the top menu item, and then chose the top item that is cheap and will restore your HP and MP.
I didn't mind grindning because I thought the game was fun to play.

If you are one of the people who read my blog posts regularly, you may know that I enjoy action games with a strategy element. That  is so that my brain will do some work and not just my reflexes, and to keep my from falling asleep by repetitive gameplay.

It is also nice with a shooter where you can keep on trying. Keep on collecting gold and buy upgrades instead of getting game over. It doesn't feel super hard either, which is nice for someone like me who is not a mad-skillz button mashing shmupper (who only plays with a custom made Seimitsu part stick).

I show a video from early gameplay only. It gets more fun later on.

And as bonus, a few days ago I also played some more Super Mario Kart ghost valley 1, to show I could beat the time I mentioned in my recent Mega Drive blog post.
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And I made another Goemon video! Now on super famicom: Gokujou Parodius. Wow, some of my favorite games Twinbee, Gradius and Goemon all in one, what a combination! But I feel that parodius is more of a joke than a game. :) I don't play it seriously.

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Hector '87 on famicom

I decided to take another look at this game.
In general I don't like vertically scrolling shooters such as Xevious . Some games just have loads of enemies coming at you with no big variation. I enjoy Twinbee (as I have mentioned about 5 times) because there is a strategy element with the bell system and because the music is nice. I also liked Zanac AI (mentioned in previous blog post) because it was rather intense, had a lot of cool upgrades, and it felt like a genuinely well made game.

Hector isn't as original as these two, but I agree with the article on hardcoregaming (http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/starsoldier/starsoldier.htm) that it is nice with a shooter over land, as compared to others Hudson games such as Star Soldier and Star Force.

After the recent retro-party I wanted to redeem myself just a little and see if it was possible to get a decent score. After searching for a while I found http://instagram.com/hscrhrs and their high score table, which I question because I don't think the SFC game is exactly the same as the famicom/NES game. I don't see how it could be possible to get that high score in this NES/famicom game unless there is a glitch somewhere. But okay, I don't know and I'm not much of a gamer after all.

Anyways, I thought I should aim to get 300 000 points in 2 min to feel satisfied.
After one hour of button mashing my arm was hurting and I decided to connect my Twin Famicom Turbo with auto-fire. Technically this is cheating but I play for my own enjoyment.
It was more enjoyable with auto-fire and much easier, too. I was never good at button mashing.

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The video shows my two last attempts.
Today I went back to play a couple of times without the auto-fire. The best try is added as last in the clip in the video. Not exactly a great high score but it will have to do for this video. If I wanted to improve the score I could focus on killing the enemies that I avoid. For example, in the third clip I had figured out how to kill the two jellyfish looking enemies that arrive at 04:30.

I felt some satisfaction because I don't play 8-bit games often. I felt 8-bit nostalgia. Interesting, because I didn't even play that much NES as a kid. But I could imagine how the kids in those days sat in front of their TV and NES with a difficult game like this. It was frustrating, but also rewarding and fun. The graphics and 8-bit music work well together to creates an experience.

Recently I asked a friend who plays modern games what he thinks of modern games compared to old games. He said the modern games don't have that frustrating challenge that the old games had.

I remember some games on the Game Boy that I could never ever complete. In fact, with more than half of my games I still don't know if they were beatable -- such as Qix, Aero Star and Boulder Dash that I have blogged about before. When I received and beat Kung Fu Master I was surprised that I had come to the end of a game. "Are games beatable? Or am I just so bad that I can't do it with the others?" I thought. That's why I rarely put in real effort to beat a game -- I didn't know if they were beatable.

Maybe modern games really are better, but there are so many of them that I don't feel anything special in regards to them. Now that I have given Hector '87 a try, I feel happier. I don't even know what the second level of Hector looks like, but the first one wasn't so bad. It was like watching some classic movie.

Bonus video! See the music and sound effects in this video I made earlier.
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I wonder if Hudson re-used the sound effects and music on purpose or if they were just lazy.
Bomber King sure is frustrating too. A year ago I sat in a nightly session to beat it and was fully focused, but the game just goes on and on like this for hours and I had to quit at stage 8-1, at 5 AM.

2 player game recommendations

Article by Kristin

We play a lot of games. A lot of them are good, some are not so good, some are downright bad, but there are a few games that we like for a special reason: the co-op feature!

It might not sound like something very special but back in the days of 8 bit, it was not very common. Many games have a 2 player option but that doesn't necessarily mean that you can play simultaneously. Most of the time, like in games like Super Mario Bros or Gradius, you just take turns in playing, and player 2 has to wait for player 1 to lose a life.

So here are some good 8-bit 2-player co-op games that we highly recommend.


Battle City (Famicom)

Not many people might know about this action game but it's really worth a try. You play as two tanks and the mission is to defend the eagle at the bottom while taking out all of the enemies.
We don't have it for sale right now, but if you are interested you can make a request in our webshop and we might contact you the next time it's in stock.

Here is a video from our YouTube channel, you can skip to 00:20 to see our gameplay:



Salamander (Famicom)

This game is called Life Force outside of Japan and has been a well-known favorite for many of us who grew up with the NES. Our most recent cart only auction of Salamander ended at 106 SEK. There is sequel to this game called Salamander II for Sega Saturn, Playstation and Arcade, which was unfortunately never released outside of Japan.

Salamander is a spin-off to the Gradius series and combines horizontal with vertical shooting action. It is similar to Gradius in many ways but has more smooth controls and you won't have to start from the beginning each time you lose a life! And yes, the Konami code works here as well, on the start screen. You might need it before you learn to master this game!

We don't have our own video of this game online yet on our channel,
but here is a clip from someone else playing the western version in co-op mode:




Twin Bee (Famicom)

This Japan-exclusive shooter title is really popular in Sweden and it sells very well from us at Tradera. There are many sequels as well, for example on Sega Saturn and Super Famicom.

We currently have the Famicom version for sale, you can order the game from our webshop. Here is a video from our youtube channel, but in this video we play as 1 player for the FDS version.



Bomberman GB (Game Boy)

If you put your Bomberman GB in your Super Game Boy you can play 2-player with the second SNES controller. This Game Boy game can be played up to four player with a SNES super multitap.

We recently sold this item on Tradera, here is a link: www.tradera.com/item/300201/192308627/bomberman-gb-till-game-boy.
And here is a video from our youtube channel, recorded from an original Super Gameboy:



Puyo Puyo (Game Boy)

This is a classic puzzle game which has been released on multiple console systems over the years. Unfortunately it has not been very popular outside of Japan, and we think it deserves more attention. We currently have this game for sale on Tradera: http://www.tradera.com/item/300201/192308643/puyo-puyo-till-game-boy.

Here is a video from our youtube channel, recorded from an original Super Gameboy:

Sega Saturn mouse

I have some Saturn mice for sale...

95 SEK loose, and 195 SEK boxed.

The mouse is compatibel with a bunch of games. The best list of compatible games seems to be: http://www.sega-saturn.net/mouse.htm
I don't know if all regions of a game supported the mouse though...

Personally it is my preferred way of playing Virtua Cop 2. I don't even suck at the game with the mouse (unlike the lightgun or the normal controller). I made a video of me playing.
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Moero Twinbee for famicom disk system

I played this shoot'em up game. I really like Twinbee as I have mentioned earlier, but I never gave played much of Moero. Mainly because it starts off in a horisontal scrolling and juggling the bells is very difficult.

Turns out that the game is very difficult. I played until stage 6, which is the second the last stage. I later learnt that you shouldn't worry about the bells and instead focus on the stationary powerups that are more powerful. I died many times juggling the bells, and at around Stage 3 I gave up trying to do that...

I recorded some 45 minutes of video (three clips) where I try and try again.
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This game is also known as Stinger on the NES.
I think it might be easier with two player coop. The Japanese version is one of few games that even has a three player coop mode.


Not a bad game. But I think it is too difficult for me to enjoy it fully.

R-Type II for Game Boy

This game was released in 1992 and is the sequel to R-Type. It can be hard to find this sequel.

I never liked the first R-Type on Game Boy, I think it has limited continues and I kept on dying. I was a kid and played on the old brick, all I remember is that I didn't like the game and that I never made it very far.

But I found that R-Type II has unlimited continues, at least the Japanese version which is all I am playing. After a game over, you can ever restart at your last checkpoint! Such a friendly game. And so now I am able to easily beat this game, even if I must have died 20 times before I reached the first boss and a ridiculous amounts of time I died of stupid mistakes.

In R-Type II, your ship is much larger than in a game such as Gradius. It also moves slower. It can therefore be hard to avoid bullets sometimes. But with the unlimited continues, most  could beat it. This is how Salamander (Life Force) should have been like.

Sometimes the game slows down a lot when many enemies and bullets are on the screen. I don't mind that much, but some people do. However, most of the time the game flows just fine.

With the SGB or GBC, it becomes much easier to tell the enemies from the bullets, but it can still be hard sometimes because you have so many powerups. Normal shots, missiles, and shots that go diagonally all at the same time.

If the game wouldn't have had unlimited continues it would have been super hard and annoying. As it is, it is pretty easy. I don't mind beating a game though. But you can press Select at the start screen and choose Hard level whatver that does.

Programmed in Wales by Robert C Pape. The end. I give it 3/5.

Operation Logic Bomb for SNES

I took a break from playing Syndicate for something very different. Operation Logic Bomb is a shooting game in an overhead perspective. My favorite perspective! It's like RoboWarrior that I wrote about earlier. Like in RoboWarrior, Operation Logic bomb allows you to get hit a lot, but you also shoot alot.
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You go around and shoot everything. The one little extra command you will need to know is to press the R or L button to lock your current position. This is essential if you are aiming in some directions and don't want it to change when you move. The guy who made the video didn't know that, that's why the gameplay looks so clumsy.

You have different weapons and pick up more weapons later. Some of the weapons allow you to make further progress. A little bit like Metroid, but this game is shorter and you rarely have to spend a long time wondering where to go.

The graphics is nice, the music is cool, blowing up stuff is fun... Like Contra. But unlike Contra, this game is short and quite simple. I got game over two times, but after that I beat it in less than 2 hours. The bosses might be tricky until you understand which weapon to use against them. Also make sure to press all the computer things that give you power upgrades and maps.

The Japanese version is completely in English, except for the end credits.

Syndicate for SNES, a deeper look

I mentioned Syndicate in my second last post. I wasn't sure if I could play it in Japanese, but yesterday I put some effort to find out.

UPDATE 2013-12-05: We have now uploaded a video about this game:



Controls
Syndicate was first released on a PC with mouse control. Luckily they didn't keep that control function on the SNES. Instead you press a combination of buttons.
To change the menu, press L or R. To enter a menu, press Y. Here you can press A to do something, or B to cancel, or X to switch something (such as between buy and sell). Left and Right change between characters in the menu. In the game, Select makes a team follow or unfollow. Y+Left/Right switches between team member. X+Left/Right switches between weapons. X+Up picks up a weapon and X+down drops a weapon. A fires and B enters/exits cars. R makes it possible to get a temporare boost extra energies you have. L+R boosts all energies at the same time.

It takes a little while to learn the controls but not too bad. The game may not be that great without mouse but it is definitely playable as I will show, even in the Japanese version. I don't know if anyone else would want to play this game in Japanese, but if you do, with some basic Katakana knowledge you'll be able to play with little problems.

How to play
There is a lot that could be said about the game. I made some use of the strategyguide at http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588769-syndicate/faqs/35052 to get instructions, even if the FAQ isn't completely accurate for the Japanese version.

The basics are:

* There is always one of 3 things you have to do: kill someone, persuade someone, or pick up a suitcase.

* Persuade is a very important concept. In order to persuade you have to buy "the persuader" as i did in the beginning of the video. With this item you Persuade others to follow you. Just Equip it and stand close to the person you have to Persuade. There are some other factors to know about Persuasion too, and they are explained in the Gamefaq article above. Important: If you Persuade people, you have to take all of them with you to the exit or else you can't exit. If your persuaded person lose sight of your guy, they will start to walk around. Sometimes inside buildings. And you might have to go around looking for them. This was not explained in the FAQ and got me stuck for 3 hours when I first played.

* You also have to upgrade your cyborg with "brain". You can upgrade your weapons, research ways to improve your cyborg, there are other agents out to get you (which you can kill or persuade to make them part of your team). The upgrades do different things. Upgrade Eye to spot the enemy earlier. Upgrade Body to give a stronger armor. Upgrade Leg to run faster. Arm will make your shot more accurate. Etc.

I found out that the SNES version has a password option, but the Super Famicom version has a Continue option. So there is a battery save after each mission. Even if you fail a mission (such as killing someone you should have persuaded) you can just restart the mission, You can also just wait at the menu to accumulate money so you can buy upgrades you need (it will take a long boring time to use that strategy).

Also, the game has a two player mode. You play at the same time on the screen, controlling different characters. I think this mode could be fun for someone who enjoys to walk around and shoot without too high of a challenge. Maybe for someone who wants to play with their kid.


My impressions
I liked the game, but there are so many countries that I didn't manage to played to the end. After the first 20 or so missions all upgrades will be completed and there are still 20 missions left. The game will get quite simple and there isn't much challenge or variation. I wish they would have made the game 50% shorter, and put in some cut scenes to liven it up. Now it's just mission after mission. Completing the rest would probably take me another 15 hours, but I probably won't do it.

I still think it is a nice game with original ideas. There is too much for me to describe briefly here, but it isn't too complicated. Clearly, since I was able to play the Japanese version. I could mention the graphics, the strategy aspect, the shooting aspect, the freedom to build as you want... I could mention how the SNES and MD versions are the same, but both these 16-bit versions are different than the PC version. A PSP version released in 2006 is actually the SNES version run in an emulator. The PC ( and Mac ) version has a lot of great reviews here, maybe I'll try it out some time. The Amiga version has good reviews too, but at the moment I am into Japanese video games only.

The save function makes this game game not that hard to beat if you have the persistance. So I think anyone could complete this game, japanese version or not.

More Saturn games 2-player. Such as Marvel Super Heroes.

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.
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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).
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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.
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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.