Update: Scoring Games, Missing Scores, and Score Listing Added to Contents

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Brian

After posting the new Zero Wing (TCD) review and adding it to the Contents page, I thought that it would be a good idea to add the scores next to the names of games I have reviewed in the Contents page in the link in the top bar.  So, I added scores to the list.  Sites usually do list the score next to the link to a game’s review article, and that page is where I have such a list.  While doing so, I found that a few reviews didn’t have scores, so I went to my game-collection database and used the numbers I’d put there as a basis for a score.

Here are the five game reviews which now have scores:

  • Pod (PC) – A
  • Power Piggs of the Dark Age (SNES) – C+
  • Ninja Crusaders (NES) – B-
  • Tempo Jr. (GG) – C-
  • Rock ‘n Roll Adventure (Wii) – D+

The scores have been added to the review articles.

As for how I score games, I’m probably an easy grader, my “average” score is probably a bit above average.  I’m okay with that though, games are often fun!  My scores use a variety of formats — most are letter grades, but some have a 10-point scale, and some use a percent scale, but whichever format the score is in, the way I grade does not change, so I don’t think there’s any reason to redo all the old reviews into one format.  I generally grade with a school-grade-style system, regardless of what point system I’m using.  I use the grading system I grew up with in school.  So:

  • A+: 98% and up
  • A: 93-97% or 9/10 – An A score is great, for very good games.
  • A-: 90-92%
  • B+: 88-89%
  • B: 83-87% or 8/10 – A B score is good, an above-average game that I probably like.  I probably put a lot of games into the B grade level.
  • B-: 80-82%
  • C+: 78-79%
  • C: 73-77% or 7/10 – a C score is considered average, the level that I expect a decent game should be able to reach.
  • C-: 70-72%
  • D+: 68-69%
  • D: 63-67% or 6/10 – A D score is below average, for bad games that are not entirely irredeemable, and might be entertaining despite their issues.
  • D-: 60-62%
  • F: 0-59% or 0 to 5 out of 10 – An F is for very bad games that fail to achieve the basic level required to be a fun or quality game.

In school, if you got less than a 60 it is considered failing, and I score games the same way.  I don’t use the “5 is average” scale, I prefer this one.  I switched from always using a percent-based score to mostly just giving letter grades in part because it should help alleviate the issue of people reading percent scores different ways — what a C or D is is clear, while the equivalent 75% or 65% score will be read differently by different people.  Also while I do like specificity, the difference, for instance, between a 73% and 77% score isn’t enough to need to list it with the review, really; the review texts hopefully will make those differences clear.

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Review: Zero Wing (Turbo CD) – A Very Good Shmup, even without CATS

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Brian

This is a new review of a game I just beat yesterday.  It’s a great game that doesn’t get enough respect for its high-quality classic shmup gameplay.

Game Data

  • Title: Zero Wing
  • Developer/Publisher: Naxat Soft (licensed from Toaplan, the developer of the original arcade game)
  • Released: 9/18/1992
  • Platform: TurboGrafx-16 CD (PC Engine CD; this is a regular CD-ROM2 game, no Super/Arcade Card needed)

Box cover(Note: See the video and links sections at the bottom for screenshots and footage of the game.)

REVIEW

Zero Wing is an infamous game thanks to how amazingly entertaining the badly translated introduction to the European Sega Genesis (Megadrive) version of the game is. The game isn’t just “All Your Base”, though, it is also a horizontal-scrolling shmup from Toaplan, one of the masters of the genre, the company which Cave would descend from after its collapse in the mid ’90s. I did not buy the European Megadrive version of Zero Wing, though. Instead, a few months ago I got a good deal on the Japanese Turbo CD (PC Engine CD) version, if a bit under $40 is a good deal (it seems to be!). The infamous European MD version costs a bit more. I like shmups, particularly horizontal ones, so I was hoping that the game would be as good as it seemed to be from my playing bits of the Genesis version here and there. It did not disappoint; as a shmup, Zero Wing is somewhat under-rated. It’s actually a good to great game, no question. This is a good version of the game, too. CATS is missing, but it does have two added levels, one a full stage and one a new final bossfight, and a fantastic CD audio soundtrack as well. They are nice additions.

STORY

So, what is Zero Wing? First of course, it’s a cutscene, the intro to that Genesis version of the game. There are three versions of Zero Wing, though, each with a somewhat different story. There’s the original arcade version by Toaplan, released in 1989, where you fight the evil CATS in your Zig fighter; Toaplan’s Genesis (MD) version, released in 1991, of the infamous intro where CATS, now seen in person on screen (unlike the arcade game, as far as I know, where I think it’s just text), threatens and destroys your base just as the Zig launches; and this version, Naxat Soft’s 1992 Turbo CD version of the game. Brace yourselves, CATS fans — CATS is not in this game. Naxat Soft replaced the original story with a new one. The levels are the same (with some additions); you still pilot a Zig fighter, which looks the same as before; but the story and characters are different. There’s a big more story now. It’s a bit like what was done to the Turbo CD version of Hellfire, Hellfire S, except without as disastrously, insultingly bad a story as the Turbo CD version of that game has, but I’ll discuss that another time.

You play as a guy, off to save the day in your Zig fighter. The villain is a bishounen-looking blond guy. I dxon’t know his motivations, I can’t understand much Japanese. His name seems to be Ludavig-sama or something like that, though that’s probably wrong; the name is Luda-something, anyway. In the intro, he talks with some cohorts of his while a woman who is spying for your side listens in. She appears in most of the cutscenes, and is either the hero’s relative or love interest, I’m not sure. Near the end of the game, naturally, because she’s female in a game with a male hero, she gets found out and you have to rescue her. In the end you save her, this game has a happy ending (unlike stupid Hellfire S). You don’t kill the main villain in the end, but he is clearly defeated. After learning the mission, the hero is off in his Zig with a nice classic launch animation. No attack is shown, but as in the other versions of the game your base ship is exploding as the Zig launches from it; maybe this is explained in the script somewhere, though the attack wasn’t shown on screen? That was a bit weird.

In addition to the intro and ending, there are also short scenes between most levels. They are thankfully short, so they won’t interrupt the action for long at all. Shmups should be about the shooting, not the story; I find the cutscenes in Macross 2036 for Turbo CD too long, for example. Overall, the game has a very cliche but okay story. I wish it had CATS from the Genesis version, but this new story is fine. It is unfortunate that they added in a girl to rescue, but at least she has an active role in the story through most of the game, before getting captured late. That’s a little better than just a basic “rescue the kidnapped girl” plot. I would like to see a translation of the game to know the details of what they’re saying; the basics are easy to understand, but I’m sure there are things I’m missing.

GRAPHICS

Graphically this is a fairly nice-looking game. When comparing this version to the Genesis version, each one has some plusses and minuses, but I might prefer this game despite its drawbacks. The more colorful art on the Turbografx looks a bit better than the somewhat drab Genesis visuals. It would have been nice to see Turbo versions of Toaplan’s three Genesis-only shmups that generation, Slap Fight MD, Grind Stormer, and Fire Shark; I think the Turbo or Turbo CD versions of most of their other five shmups, the five that are on both platforms (Hellfire, Zero Wing, Kyuukyoku Tiger/Twin Cobra, Truxton/Tatsujin, Daisenpuu) look better. More CD versions of the games would have been nice too, the three there are all have great CD audio soundtracks! Ah well. Anyway, Zero Wing is a good but not great-looking game. Interestingly, for a 1992 game, this game does not use the Super System Card for additional RAM: instead, it only uses the usual basic 64KB of RAM built in to the Turbo CD. For a regular-CD title, this game looks nice. It’s not the best looking regular-CD title, but does have good visuals and a good amount of graphical variety. The sprite work is good, better than Genesis as I said.

The game does have one graphical downside, though, and that is, as usual for TG16 games, lacking parallax scrolling. As with the Genesis and colors or the SNES and CPU speed, the Turbo has a design problem, no hardware parallax scrolling support. It’s very noticeable when you compare the Genesis and TCD versions of this game, the Genesis version has at least one more scrolling layer at pretty much all times than this one does. All foreground parallax objects from the arcade and Genesis versions, which they have some of, are also entirely gone on the Turbo CD. However, Naxat Soft did put in parallax where they could. They managed a nice scrolling starfield effect that appears on several levels, and there is some use of horizontal-strip parallax as well. Most levels have at least a bit of parallax, which is more than you can say for plenty of shmups on this system. It’s great to see. Still, seeing the ground you can hit and first background layer always scrolling together is unfortunate, I wish Hudson had realized parallax was needed in their system.

MUSIC

As expected from a CD game, Zero Wing for Turbo CD has a great CD-audio soundtrack. The soundtrack is better than the soundtracks of either the arcade or Genesis versions for sure. All three versions have great soundtracks, but the CD quality makes this one a bit better than the other two. I love the sound of early CD system music, it’s a distinctive style you don’t hear anymore. This game is a great example of good early game CD music. Each level has a unique music track, which is good. I don’t know if any of the songs are truly memorable, though, and they might get old if you get stuck on a level for a few hours as I was in one level in this game. I never wanted to mute the audio though, so the music held up well enough. Zero Wing has very good music, and I will definitely be listening to it more in the future.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEM

Finally, we get to the most important thing about any game, the gameplay! Zero Wing is often accused of being a very, or perhaps overly, average shooter, but that’s unfair; it’s a good, above-average game with some unique design elements. It is quite hard, but it’s a doable hard, if you are willing to learn the game. It isn’t the most original game, but it is better than most. In the game, you control the stubby Zig fighter. The controls are good, and ship movement is precise and accurate. When you die, it’s usually because you missed a bullet, not because of the controls. The only issue is your ship’s hitbox (where you can get hit to die), it seems like it might be slightly bigger than the ship, but you do get used to it; just stay away from bullets! Certain ship types drop powerups; all powerups will come from these ships. The first powerup will give you two invincible helper drones above and below your ship, then after that the other powerups will appear in order, as you destroy the powerup ships. The helper drones are a bit smaller than you, though, so expect them to regularly fail to protect you from bullets you’re counting on them to protect you from; I died many times because of this, and when you die in this game you go back to the last checkpoint, or the beginning of the level if it was a game over. Also, they can damage some enemy types by bumping into them, but not others. Generally enemies attached to the ground, such as turrets or such, seem to take damage, but not most flying ships. I really wish they could hurt everyone, it’d be a huge help. The other items are a quite useful speed-up item, and a very powerful single-use bomb that can attach to the front of your ship.

On that note, the most unique thing about Zero Wing is the tractor beam. One button shoots in this game, and the other uses the tractor beam. This beam will grab smaller enemies and hold them in front of your ship as a shield. By hitting the button again, you can throw the enemy at other enemies, to do more damage than basic shots. A bomb works similarly, if you have one — hit the button to toss it at the enemies and watch the explosion unfold. The grapple beam is nice, but not as central to the game as the enemy-takeover mechanics in BlaZeon (Arcade/SNES) or Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000 (Sega 32X), for example, and you can only have one enemy at a time, unlike the later PC/Wii title Tumiki Fighters (aka Blast Works: Build & Destroy, on Wii). Still, for its time this might have been a new idea, those other games are newer than this one. It is a good idea which works to give you a bit more protection. You’ll need the help!

You have three weapons in this game, with three power levels each. There is a spread shot, a straight laser, and a homing shot. It’s a serviceable arsenal, but feels a bit under-powered without enough powerups. Later levels have enemies and obstacles that are nearly impossible to get past without a certain level of firepower, so particularly in level 9 I found myself almost always having to suicide multiple times to get game over just so I could get another chance at the game, because progress from the checkpoint was completely impossible without powerups the game doesn’t give you. Yeah, it’s cruelly designed. Fortunately, you have infinite continues, which is great! I much prefer games to allow infinite continues and saving, it makes games better.  Zero Wing doesn’t save, but at least you can keep trying until you either win or give up.  There are no difficulty level settings, though, typically for the Turbografx, and unlike the Genesis version. There also are also no additional loops, unlike the arcade and Genesis versions — finish it once and it’s over. Having at least one additional loop would have been nice, but it’s not really needed; this is a plenty hard game as it is.  The Genesis version has three difficulty levels, three loops per difficulty, and varies the continues based on difficulty.  You get infinite continues only on Easy difficulty, 10 continues on Normal, and 15 on Hard.  The odd ‘more continues on higher settings’ setup is similar to that in the Genesis version of Toaplan’s Twin Cobra (Kyuukyoku Tiger).  But anyway, for Zero Wing, overall I wouldn’t say either version (Genesis or TCD) is better in terms of difficulty or continues, they’re just different.  Both versions are a serious challenge, but on TCD you get two more levels, while on Genesis you get multiple loops and difficulty levels, though you also get frustration from limited continues on that version if you play above Easy.

THE LEVELS

As in most horizontal shmups, Zero Wing has both enemies and walls to contend with. If you touch anything, you die instantly. Your two helper bits are invulnerable, but you need to be careful or bullets will slip past them. Most areas are fairly open, but you will have to navigate some narrower spaces here and there, and contend with waves of bullets to attempt to avoid as well. Some bullets home in on you, others fly straight. I love horizontal shmups, so I think this game plays great! It’s a bit like Gradius or R-Type but not quite as good and with a more conventional powerup system. Even if it doesn’t match those all-time classics, though, this is still a great, and very well-designed, game. Each level looks and plays quite differently, and has unique enemies to face as well. The variety is a strength of the game. Zero Wing has a great difficulty curve; almost every level is harder than the one before it, which is how things should be but not always are.  The game often challenges during the first eight levels, but it’s a fun challenge through to that point.  The more constrained levels, like level 6, are particularly cool; that stage reminds me of something out of R-Type, but not as hard.

There is a big difficulty cliff in level 9, though — it is significantly more difficult than any other stage in the game, appropriately for the last full level. I made steady progress up to level 9, but that level is HARD and took me hours of frustrating replay to finally get past. It was very satisfying when I finally got through the level, though! It would have been nice had the checkpoint locations not been impossible to progress past more often than not in level 9, as I said earlier, but the level isn’t so long that getting through is impossible; it just requires a lot of practice. This is a hard, hard game, but the infinite continues really help take the sting off of it. I hate having to replay parts of games I’ve beaten repeatedly, and you don’t have to do that here. It’s too bad more Toaplan 4th-gen shmups don’t have this option. Even without the continues this game isn’t as hard as Truxton or Twin Cobra, either. It’s a tough game, with challenging levels to learn and tough bosses, but not one of Toaplan’s hardest games. In those encounters, a lot of classically Toaplan enemy patterns appear. Anyone who has played Truxton will definitely recognize some of the ways enemies attack you, but it’s slightly easier here than there. Each level has a miniboss and a full boss, and they are all huge and threatening. The final level, level 10, is just a bossfight, but it’s a hard one! Fortunately it dies fairly quickly, but it shoots a lot of fast bullets. It’s a good addition to the game, the ending feels more complete with it than on the arcade or Genesis version where it ends with the last boss of what here is level 9 (there 8). The new level is good too. It’s not the games’ best, but it does have weird, creepy graphics and solid design.

For flaws, other than the difficulty for those who dislike hard games, there aren’t many. Most notably, this game has some weird bugs, if that’s what they are, about progression in bossfights. Sometimes, if you die in a bossfight, you will go to the next level, instead of being sent back to where you should be! I read about this happening in the Genesis version in a GameFAQs review, and the same thing happened to me in the Turbo CD version. So, I’m not sure if it’s some bug with the arcade game they intentionally kept or what, but it is real. In one of the later stages (7 or 8), I died after killing 2 of the 3 big enemies that made up the final boss that level… and I was sent to the next level, not back! That was odd. Then in the final stage, level 10, I died moments after killing the final boss, but it counted as a win anyway, something most games would not do. I don’t know if these two issues are bugs or features, but they do happen. I also wish the game saved your scores and a level select. That’s about it for flaws, though. This is a great game, I like it a lot!

OVERALL

In conclusion, Zero Wing for the Turbo CD is a very good shmup. One of only two horizontal shmups from Toaplan, it shows that they could do a great job with this type of shooter. Zero Wing is a nice-looking game with good, interesting art design and a great soundtrack. It’s not the best-looking regular-CD shmup on the Turbo CD, but it definitely is an above-average game visually, and well above average in terms of gameplay. This is a really fun game to play, with highly polished controls and level designs. Sure, it was tough and took some time to beat, but it was a fun experience beginning to end. I definitely recommend Zero Wing to anyone who has an interest in horizontal shmups. This Turbo CD version of the game may be obscure and may not have CATS or hilarious Engrish in it, and it’s not cheap either (though the EU MD version costs at least as much or more), but it’s very well worth searching for, because it’s the longest version of a classic shooter. Zero Wing’s gameplay shouldn’t be nearly as under-rated as it is. Recommended! Score: A-.

VIDEOS

PC Engine CD Longplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x_fsEdK2q0

Genesis Longplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_WaqY7vMgw

Arcade Longplay (loops 1 and 2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIT3OvfDlyk

LINKS

PCEngine.co.uk Page: http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HTML_Games/Zero_Wing.htm -This page has screenshots and some nice version-comparison images between the three versions.

http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2…zero-wing.html – The Brothers Duomazov review. They’re a bit harder on the game than I am. The review has more screenshots.

Posted in Classic Games, Full Reviews, Reviews, Turbo CD | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Opinion List: My Favorite Game For Each Platform I Have (No Late Ports Included) & For Each Platform (True Exclusives Only)

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Brian

Inspired by this NeoGAF thread, I wrote up this list: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=171036686  First I made the list from the thread, and then second a list of only true exclusives, that is games that are only available on that platform and no other.  Making lists of games I like is fun.  Choosing which games to put in these lists was easier for some platforms than others.  In general, I mostly stick to only counting games that I own.

My Favorite Games By Platform-No Late Ports Included
That is, this first list is only including games either first released on the platform or simultaneously launched on this and other platforms, but not later ports of a game from a different system.  Games first released on the listed platform but later on released on other systems do count for this list, though.

Handhelds / Portables

  • Game Boy – The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
  • Game Gear – Super Columns (it’s a GG exclusive, so it should count.  But otherwise,
  • Crystal Warriors.)
  • Virtual Boy – Virtual Boy Wario Land
  • Game Boy / GB Color (dual mode) – Hexcite (it’s a board game conversion, but hadn’t had a console release before I think… otherwise, Montezuma’s Return.)
  • Game Boy Color (only) – The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
  • Neo Geo Pocket Color – The Last Blade (it’s a remake, but feels different from the console games.  Otherwise, Metal Slug: 2nd Mission.)
  • Game Boy Advance – Fire Emblem (7)
  • Nintendo DS – Picross 3D
  • PSP – Class of Heroes II (or for US releases, ie not counting previous Japan-only versions, Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time)TV Consoles
  • Atari 2600 – Megamania (also on 5200, but the 2600 version came first)
  • Odyssey 2 – UFO!
  • Atari 7800 – Desert Falcon
  • NES – Super Mario Bros.
  • Sega Master System – Zaxxon 3-D
  • TurboGrafx-16 – Blazing Lazers
  • Genesis – Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
  • Turbo CD – Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood
  • SNES – Super Mario World
  • Sega CD – Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (the PS1/SAT remake isn’t quite the same… but otherwise, SoulStar.)
  • Sega 32X – Shadow Squadron
  • Sega CD 32X – Fahrenheit
  • Saturn – Panzer Dragoon (the first one)
  • Playstation – Threads of Fate
  • Nintendo 64 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • Dreamcast – Skies of Arcadia
  • Playstation 2 – Gradius V
  • Gamecube – Eternal Darkness
  • Xbox – Panzer Dragoon Orta
  • Xbox 360 – The King of Fighters XIII
  • Wii – Super Mario Galaxy

 

My Favorite Games By Platform – True Exclusives Only
This second list is more restrictive — it includes my favorite game for each system that has never been re-released on any other platform.  Virtual Console or other downloadable re-releases disqualify games for this list, only games only on this one platform and no other count.

Handhelds / Portables

  • Game Boy – This should be Gradius: The Interstellar Assault, but I probably technically shouldn’t count it because of the Europe-only colorized GB/GBC version in one of the Konami collections, so… Wave Race, maybe?
  • Game Gear – Super Columns (or otherwise, Royal Stone)
  • [Virtual Boy – still Virtual Boy Wario Land]
  • Game Boy / GB Color (dual mode) – Montezuma’s Return (a classic remake, should this count?  It does have new level maps and more features.  Otherwise, probably the B&W version of Conker’s Pocket Tales.)
  • Game Boy Color (only) – WarLocked
  • [Neo Geo Pocket Color – still The Last Blade]
  • Game Boy Advance – Summon Night: Swordcraft Story
  • [Nintendo DS – still Picross 3D]
  • PSP – similar to before, Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time, or if you don’t count it because of the Japanese PS2 release, Class of Heroes.TV Consoles
  • Atari 2600: Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (yes, it’s based on an arcade game, but it plays differently from any other version — it’s the only one that plays on a 2d plane.)
  • [Odyssey 2 – still UFO!]
  • [Atari 7800 – still Desert Falcon]
  • NES – TMNT III: The Manhattan Project
  • [Sega Master System – still Zaxxon 3-D]
  • TurboGrafx-16 – W-Ring: The Double Rings
  • Genesis – The Adventures of Batman & Robin (second: maybe Eliminate Down)
  • Turbo CD – Alzadick: Summer Carnival ’92
  • SNES – Firepower 2000
  • Sega CD – If we don’t count Lunar 2 because of the remakes, then SoulStar, unless you don’t count that either because of the unfinished Jaguar CD and 32X prototype roms, in which case… Silpheed!
  • Sega 32X – Shadow Squadron
  • Sega CD 32X – N/A (all games are also on Sega CD)
  • Saturn – Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei
  • Playstation – Wipeout 3
  • Nintendo 64 – Wipeout 64 (followed by Goemon’s Great Adventure, for those that don’t want to count Wipeout 64 because most of the tracks are remixes of old ones)
  • Dreamcast – 4 Wheel Thunder
  • Playstation 2 – Final Fantasy XII
  • [Gamecube – still Eternal Darkness]
  • [Xbox – still Panzer Dragoon Orta]
  • Xbox 360 – Hydro Thunder Hurricane
  • [Wii – still Super Mario Galaxy]
Posted in 32X, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Classic Games, Dreamcast, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Game Gear, Gamecube, Genesis, Lists, Modern Games, NES, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Odyssey 2, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Playstation Portable, Saturn, Sega CD, Sega Master System, SNES, Turbo CD, TurboGrafx-16, Virtual Boy, Xbox, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

List: Capcom Fighting Games – A list of all fighting games published by Capcom

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Brian

Returning to the subject of ‘near-useless lists’… here’s another one!  I made this because I was wondering if Capcom had released more fighting games on the Dreamcast than they have since.  Well, that was true through the ’00s, but thanks to their numerous digital re-releases of old games, it isn’t anymore. Capcom did release more 3d fighting games that have 3d movement (that is, not games that play on a flat plane like the Street Fighter IV/V series all do) on the Dreamcast than on all other platforms combined, though, so there is that; after the DC Capcom mostly abandoned 3d fighting games.

In addition, for 2d, 2.5d (SFIV/V style 3d graphics on a 2d plane games) and 3d fighting games combined, counting only original titles and console ports of games originally released (in arcades, generally) within the past five years, though, the Dreamcast still has the edge, I think… it goes to show how Capcom has faded, and how the fighting game genre doesn’t see anywhere near the number of releases now that it once did.  It’s too bad.

The list below really illustrates how Capcom mostly gave up on fighting games after 2001.  After releasing 18 fighting games on the Dreamcast between 1999 and 2001, Capcom only released 10 on the Playstation 2 between 2000 and 2010, four of those games also available on Dreamcast, and several of their later PS2 fighters are licensed anime games developed by outside teams.  Meanwhile, the Xbox, GBA, and GC had only 1 to 3 Capcom fighters each.  And the next generation, on the PS3, 360, PSP, and Wii, aside from the numerous classic re-releases and HD updates, Capcom released only four entirely original fighting games, with four versions of one of those games releasing (SFIV) and two versions of the other three (MvC3, TvC, Fate/) seeing release.  And one of those four series is a licesned anime property, developed by an outside team.  ’90s Capcom is long gone, now, because of Capcom’s weakened position today and because of the high development costs of development today.  But at least all of the games below exist!

 

Capcom Fighting Game Releases

Key:

* = external release (someone else ported and released the game, licensed by Capcom)
– = Digital re-release or HD remake of an old game
() = Collection release, no new titles included
Note: US console names used.  The year listed for console games is the year the game first released in any region.

1989
—
Street Fighter (Arcade)
*Fighting Street (TurboGrafx-CD)

1991
—
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Arcade)

1992
—
Street Fighter II (SNES)
Street Fighter II’: Champion Edition (Arcade)
Street Fighter II’: Hyper Fighting (Arcade)

1993
—
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Arcade)
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting (SNES)
Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)
*Street Fighter II’: Champion Edition (TurboGrafx-16)
Street Fighter II’ (Sharp X68000)

1994
—
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES)
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Genesis)
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Sharp X68000)
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (FM Towns)
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (CPS Changer)
Street Fighter II’ Turbo (CPS Changer)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo (Arcade)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo (3DO)
DarkStalkers (Arcade)
X-Men: Children of the Atom (Arcade)

1995
—
Night Warriors: DarkStalkers’ Revenge (Arcade) [Darkstalkers 2]
Night Warriors: DarkStalkers’ Revenge (Saturn)
DarkStalkers: The Night Warriors (Playstation)
Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness (Arcade)
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams (Arcade)
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams (Playstation)
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams (Saturn)
Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade) [different from console version]
Street Fighter: The Movie (Playstation)
Street Fighter: The Movie (Saturn)
Street Fighter II (Game Boy)
Super Street Fighter II (PC)

1996
—
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (SNES)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Playstation)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Saturn)
Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (Arcade) [revision of SFA2]
Street Fighter Zero [Alpha] (CPS Changer)
Star Gladiator: Episode 1 – Final Crusade (Arcade)
Star Gladiator: Episode 1 – Final Crusade (Playstation)
X-Men vs. Street Fighter (Arcade)
Street Fighter EX (Arcade)
Red Earth (Arcade)

1997
—
Street Fighter III: New Generation (Arcade)
Street Fighter EX Plus (Arcade) [revision of SF EX]
Marvel Super Heroes (Saturn)
Marvel Super Heroes (Playstation)
Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire (Arcade)
Street Fighter Collection [1] (Saturn)
Street Fighter Collection [1] (Playstation)
Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness (Saturn)
Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness (Playstation)
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (Arcade)
X-Men vs. Street Fighter (Saturn)
Pocket Fighter (Arcade)
Vampire Hunter 2 (Arcade) [revision of Vampire Savior]
Vampire Savior 2 (Arcade) [revison of Vampire Savior]
Street Fighter Alpha (PC)
Rival Schools (Arcade)

1998
—
Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein (Arcade) [Star Gladiator 2]
Vampire Savior (Saturn) [DarkStalkers 3]
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Arcade)
DarkStalkers 3 (Playstation)
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact – Giant Attack (Arcade)
Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (Playstation)
Pocket Fighter (Saturn)
Pocket Fighter (Playstation)
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (Saturn)
Rival Schools (Playstation)
X-Men vs. Street Fighter (Playstation)
Street Fighter Collection 2 (Playstation)
Capcom Memorial Collection Vol. 5 (Saturn) [Street Fighter Collection 2]
Tech Romancer (Arcade)
Street Fighter EX2 (Arcade)
Street Fighter Zero 2′ (Playstation) [revision of SFA2]
Street Fighter Zero 2′ (Saturn) [revison of SFA2]
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (PC)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade)
Gekitou Power Modeler (Game Boy)

1999
—
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (Playstation)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Saturn)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Dreamcast)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Playstation)
Shiritsu Justice Gakuen Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 (Playstation) [revision of Rival Schools]
JoJo’s Venture (Arcade)
Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Arcade)
Street Fighter EX2 Plus (Arcade)
Street Fighter EX2 Plus (Playstation)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Arcade)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Playstation)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Dreamcast)
Final Fight Revenge (Arcade)
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Dreamcast)
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Playstation)
Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein (Dreamcast) [Star Gladiator 2]
Power Stone (Dreamcast)
Street Fighter III: Double Impact (Dreamcast)

2000
—
Final Fight Revenge (Saturn)
Tech Romancer (Dreamcast)
Project Justice (Dreamcast)
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams (Game Boy Color)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Arcade)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Dreamcast)
Capcom vs. SNK: Millenium Fight 2000 (Arcade)
Capcom vs. SNK: Millenium Fight 2000 (Playstation)
Capcom vs. SNK: Millenium Fight 2000 (Dreamcast)
Super Street Fighter II X For Matching Service (Dreamcast) [SSFII Turbo]
Vampire Collection For Matching Service (Dreamcast) [DarkStalkers Collection]
Street Fighter Alpha (Game Boy Color)
Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Dreamcast)
Power Stone 2 (Arcade)
Power Stone 2 (Dreamcast)
Street Fighter EX3 (Playstation 2)
Capcom vs. SNK: Millenium Fight 2000 Pro (Arcade) [CvS revision]
Project Justice (Dreamcast)

2001
—
Project Justice (Arcade)
Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper (Arcade) [SFA3 Upper]
Capcom vs. SNK Pro (Dreamcast)
Capcom vs. SNK Pro (Playstation)
Spawn: In the Demon’s Hand (Dreamcast)
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millenium 2001 (Arcade)
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millenium 2001 (Dreamcast)
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millenium 2001 (Playstation 2)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival (Game Boy Advance)

2002
—
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Playstation 2)
Capcom vs. SNK 2: EO (Gamecube)
Capcom vs. SNK 2: EO (Xbox)
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Game Boy Advance)

2003
—
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Xbox)
Onimusha: Blade Warriors (Playstation 2)
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition (Arcade)
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition (Playstation 2)

2004
—
Street Fighter III: Third Strike (PS2)
()Street Fighter Anniversary Collection (PS2) [Hyper SFII + SFIII:TS]
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection (Xbox) [Hyper SFII + SFIII:TS]
(Cancelled: Capcom Fighting Jam (Arcade))
Capcom Fighting Evolution (PS 2)
Capcom Fighting Evolution (Xbox)

2005
—
DarkStalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (PSP)
Shijyou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi: Gekitou! Ragnarok Hachikengou (PS2)

2006
—
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Double Upper (PSP)
-Street Fighter II: The World Warrior [SNES] (Wii – Virtual Console)
-Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting (Xbox 360 Digital Download – XBLA)

2007
—
Fate/Tiger Colisseum (PSP) [externally developed]
-Street Fighter II’ Turbo: Hyper Fighting [SNES] (Wii – Virtual Console)
-Super Street Fighter II [SNES] (Wii – Virtual Console)

2008
—
Sengoku Basara X (Arcade) [externally developed]
Sengoku Basara X (PS2) [externally developed]
Fate/Unlimited Codes (Arcade) [externally developed]
Fate/Unlimited Codes (PS2) [externally developed]
Street Fighter IV (Arcade)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Playstation 3)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Xbox 360)
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes (Arcade)
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes  (Wii)
-Street Fighter II: SCE [Genesis] (Wii – Virtual Console)

2009
—
Fate/Unlimited Codes Portable (PSP) [externally developed]
Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360)
Street Fighter IV (Playstation 3)
Street Fighter IV (PC)
-Marvel vs. Capcom 2  (X360) [arcade port]
-Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (PS3) [arcade port]
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Wii)
-Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (Mobile) [rom port]
-Fighting Street [TCD] (Wii – Virtual Console)
-Street Fighter II’: Champion Edition [TG16] (Wii – Virtual Console)
-Street Fighter Alpha 2 [SNES] (Wii – Virtual Console)

2010
—
Street Fighter IV (iOS)
Super Street Fighter IV (X360)
Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (Arcade)

2011
—
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (PS3)
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (X360)
Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (3DS)
Street Fighter IV Volt (iOS)
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (PS3)
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (X360)
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (PC)
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3)
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (X360)
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Vita)
-Street Fighter III: Third Strike – Online Edition (Xbox 360 – XBLA)
-Street Fighter III: Third Strike – Online Edition (PS3 – PSN)
-Super Street Fighter II [Genesis] (Wii – Virtual Console)

2012
—
Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3)
Street Fighter X Tekken (X360)
Street Fighter X Tekken (PC)
Street Fighter X Tekken (Vita)
-Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (iOS) [rom port]
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. (PS3) [HD remaster]
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. (X360) [HD remaster]
Street Fighter X Tekken Mobile (iOS)
()Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set (X360) [includes SFxT, SSFIVAE, SSFIITHDR, and SFIIITSOE with extras)
()Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set (PS3) [includes SFxT, SSFIVAE, SSFIITHDR, and SFIIITSOE with extras)

2013
—
-Street Fighter II: The World Warrior [SNES] (Wii U – Virtual Console)
-Street Fighter II’ Turbo: Hyper Fighting [SNES] (Wii U – Virtual Console)
-Super Street Fighter II [SNES] (Wii U – Virtual Console)

2014
—
Ultra Street Fighter IV (PS3)
Ultra Street Fighter IV (X360)
Ultra Street Fighter IV (PC)
Ultra Street Fighter IV (Playstation 4)
-Street Fighter Alpha 2 [SNES] (Wii U – Virtual Console)

2015
—
None?

2016
—
Scheduled: Street Fighter V (PS4, PC)

Posted in Classic Games, Dreamcast, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, Gamecube, Genesis, Lists, Modern Games, Nintendo Wii, PC, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Playstation Portable, Saturn, Sega CD, SNES, TurboGrafx-16, Xbox, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sega Saturn Game Info Box Color Codes & List of if Saturn Shmups Support Saving

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Brian

I made this list back in early 2009, a while after I got a Saturn, because I wanted to know exactly which Saturn shmups save, after learning that Darius Gaiden and In the Hunt don’t.  This version of the list is largely unchanged, but I did improve the first section.  Most shmups on the system do save, but there are a few that do not.  In order to easily figure out which gaems do and which don’t, I looked at those yellow boxes on the back of all Japanese Saturn games which tell you some info about the game.  So, this list will have two parts, first my analysis of what those lines in the yellow box mean, and second a list of all Saturn shmups sorted into ‘do save’ and ‘no saving’.

Sega Saturn Japanese Case Back Label Dot Color Codes

Notes: These colored dots are found in the yellow box on the back of every Japanese Saturn game.  The box tells you information about the game.  Each line in the box starts with a colored dot, and then has some Japanese text after the dot with the details.  They appear in a set order, and the list below is in the order that they appear on the cases.  The first two of these appear on all game cases,  but the rest only appear when they apply.

Blue — Number of Players — All games have this, with a number between 1 and 12, for the number of player supported.

Red — Genre — Yes, each games’ genre is listed in the info box.  All games have this.

Purple — Backup Save (ie the game supports saving) — Games that have saving have this.  Games that don’t save to the system or backup RAM card won’t, so a game with password-only save, for example, would not have this — it only refers to actual save files.

Green — Accessories Supported — this category will list the System Link Cable, 3D Controller (“Multi Controller”, it’s called in Japan, though here these listings are all in Japanese of course), Mission Stick, Arcade Racer, Mouse, Keyboard, Virtua Gun, and such.  There is no listing for the standard controller, since all games support it.  If alternate controllers or accessories are supported, they are listed here. Each accessory gets a separate green-dot listing, so games that support multiple accessories will have several of them.  You’ll need to know Japanese to be able to tell which accessory is supported by just looking here, but it’s usually not too hard to guess — the wheel for a racing game, joystick for a flight or mech game, gun for a lightgun game, and such.

Yellow — ??  I’m not sure what this one means.  Hopefully someone can answer this question, what does the yellow dot line mean?

Black — Black — Multiple Discs? But some with it seem to be one disc games… maybe those are games that also come with a soundtrack disc, a demo disc for another game, and such. It says “CD-ROM something”.

Saving in Saturn Shmups

Notes: Games are Japanese-only releases unless noted with a (JE) or (JUE) to note the other regions.  All games are listed by their Japanese release name; other region titles are in (parenthesis).  Games are in alphabetical order within each list.

Saving
—
Blast Wind: Ultimate Destroyer
Batsugun
Battle Garegga
Capcom Generation 1
Capcom Generation 3
Capcom Generation 4
Bokan to Ippatsu! Doronbo Kanpekihen
Cotton 2
Cotton Boomerang
Darius II (JE)
Detana Twinbee Yahho! Deluxe Pack
DonPachi
DoDonPachi
Dezaemon 2
Galactic Attack (JEU) (Layer Section/GunLock)
Game Tengoku – The Game Paradise
Gokujou Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack (JE) (Parodius)
Gradius Deluxe Pack
Guardian Force
Gunbird
Hyper 3D Taisen Battle Gebockers
Hyper Duel
Keio Flying Squadron 2 (mostly a platformer) (JE) (Keio Yugekitai 2)
Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius: Forever with Me
Kyuukyoku Tiger II Plus
Layer Section II
Macross: Do You Remember Love
Planet Joker
Radiant Silvergun
Sega Ages: Fantasy Zone
Salamander Gold Pack Plus
Sengoku Blade
Sexy Parodius
Shienryu
Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen
Skull Fang
Sol Divide
Sonic Wings Special
Soukyugurentai
Soukyugurentai Otokuyo
Steam Hearts
Terra Cresta 3D
Strikers 1945
Strikers 1945 II
Thunder Force Gold Pack 2
Thunder Force V
Tsuukai!! Slot Shooting
Twinkle Star Sprites (has black symbol)
Wolf Fang: Koukiba 2001 SS

No Saving
—
Cho Aniki: Kyuukyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyou Otoko
Darius Gaiden (JEU)
Gekirindan – Time Travel Shooting
Gun Frontier (has black symbol)
In the Hunt (JEU) (Kaitei Taisensou: In the Hunt)
Konami Antiques MSX Collection Ultra Pack
Prikura Daisakusen (has black symbol)
Thunder Force Gold Pack 1

Posted in Classic Games, Lists, Research, Saturn | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

My Thoughts on E3 2015

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Brian

E3 was this week, and it was pretty awesome to watch!  It’s great that so much stuff from E3 gets streamed now, there was so much to watch.  I’m sure I’ll be finding stuff to watch from E3 for quite some time, you can’t watch it all during the show.  I watched all of the press conferences on Sunday through Tuesday, but during the show mostly watched Nintendo’s Treehouse stream and Giant Bomb’s after-show streams, only occasionally watching other streams during the show such as Twitch’s, IGN’s, or Youtube’s.  I love Nintendo, so it got first priority.

Ratings: The Press Conferences & Games Shown
(and Nintendo World Championships 2015)

First, my thoughts on the press conferences.  They will be organized from best to worst.  I’m judging each conference mostly based on whether they had games I want to play.

Nintendo World Championships 2015 – A. This was a great show! I hope that in the future Nintendo goes back to live press conferences (with more reveals), but this tourney was great fun, I really liked watching it.  The tourney was structured well, they showed off a lot of games, there were even a few new games shown, and Mario Maker looks really great, it has improved a lot over last year.  If they do more events like this in the future, though, it’d be nice to see more places holding qualifying tourneys — this had only eight, which really isn’t many.  Otherwise, great show!

Nintendo – A-. Nintendo showed almost nothing for next year, but their library for this year is great, stronger for 3DS than Wii U but the Wii U has some good-looking games as well — Star Fox and Mario Maker look fantastic, and hopefully Xenoblade Chronicles X as well. Yeah, I also wish that the conference had had a big reveal of some major upcoming Wii U game, but otherwise it was quite good. The hate Nintendo is receiving here is crazy. The 3DS got some great stuff announced — new Zelda! New Mario RPG! And maybe the Metroid game too, MP Hunters was fun.  The Treehouse stream later on made the Metroid game look a lot better than it came off in the initial trailer in this conference, so I am optimistic about the game (more below).  The Mario RPG game is by the Mario & Luigi team, which does make me a bit cautious — those games are okay, but I strongly prefer the Paper Mario games over M&L.  I hope this is better than past M&L games.  And the Zelda game really looks awesome; it’s basically a followup to Four Swords Adventures, which is a very good game.  This year’s Wii U library is pretty good as well, with Star Fox, Mario Maker, and Xenoblade Chronicles X as the headliners.  The Wii U Mario’s Tennis game looks good as well  All three major Wii U games looked fantastic in the press conference, and in the Treehouse afterwards as well.

Sony – B to B+. Yeah, the three big reveals are a big deal, and they showed some other great stuff that’s a ways off too (Horizon could be good), but Sony showed NOTHING for this year. Sony and Nintendo really are opposites here, and while shocking reveals are great, why wait all that time for the games with nothing until then, when Nintendo has good games now AND will surely also have other good games in the future, even if they haven’t announced them yet? And as for those three reveals… FFVII isn’t a game I’ve ever found interesting enough to stick with, but it is cool it’s getting a remake; TLG looks okay but dated; and I found Shenmue 1 quite boring so I doubt I’d like this new one either. So yeah, as cool as it was to see them, for me personally the games aren’t my favorite things.  As for the rest of the show, it was the usual mixture of stuff; Sony conferences are always long and unevenly paced.  This time the first half was loaded with reveals, but the second half had few to none and was less interesting.  Sony finished with Uncharted 4; the driving stage shown looked fun, but I’ve never had much interest in that mostly third-person-shooting-focused series.  The highlight for me at Sony’s show, as far as a game I might want to try, is probably Horizon.  It’s got a female protagonist, an interesting long-after-the-robot-apocalypse setting, people with primitive weapons fighting against robots… it looks pretty cool! Robot dinosaurs are awesome. :)  The Last Guardian also could be better than it seemed here, we’ll see.  And FFVII… well, the trailer was good, even if the original game never has held my interest.  I’ll certainly be following the remake, though I imagine it’ll be a long time before it releases.

Square-Enix – B. Square’s conference was pretty impressive, loaded with pretty good-looking games that look pretty interesting. The main thing holding back this conference was that the biggest titles were already shown yesterday at other conferences — FFVII Remake, World of Final Fantasy (is this an F2P game, or a traditional RPG? I can’t tell.), Tomb Raider, etc.  Still, they showed some games I’m interested in.  I hope Star Ocean 5 is good!  Star Ocean 2 is my favorite PS1 game, so though the series hasn’t come even close to that high since, I still hope each one will be great.  Apparently it’ll be set in between the second and third games, and might say more (or maybe retcon or explain-by-weird-metaphysics) SO3’s crazy plot twist.  That could be interesting, or just dumb, we’ll see.  Kingdom Hearts 3 also could be good, though I’m not a big fan of the series; the games get repetitive, and Sora isn’t the most interesting character.  I really wish this one would have other playable characters, but all they’ve shown is Sora.  The Nier 2 reveal was also interesting for how little it said.  I haven’t played the first one and from what I know about the story I don’t think I want to (it’s incredibly dark and depressing!), but I’m glad a sequel is being made for its fans.  As for their Western games,they talked about the new Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Just Cause games.  They all look good enough, though I’m not really looking forward to any of those; I’ve never been a Tomb Raider fan but turning it into a third-person shooter made me like it even less; I don’t care for open-world games; and Deus Ex… who knows, we’ll see.  Still, it was a pretty good show overall, though they could work a bit on their presentation; it was a bit slow and low-budget.

Microsoft– C+. This was one of MS’s better conferences, but still was a bit thin on games. MS definitely has a better 2015 library than Sony, but they didn’t have the big reveals Sony did, and we already know about their major titles for this year. Armature’s Recore and the Rare pirate MMO game look very promising and could be good, but I want to see more of them. Armature was founded by some people from Retro Studios, so I hope this game is good, Metroid Prime is one of the best ever!  MS also showed off their AR headset, Hololens.  I’m not a fan of VR stuff, though I do like my Virtual Boy, but it’s interesting to see at least.  But I don’t think all games will be better in VR, and certainly as long as it’s a big bulky headset I won’t want to be wearing those things for long.  And how will they feel over glasses?  However, I really find it annoying that MS won’t talk much about PC in their conferences. Microsoft, so long as you show that PC isn’t important by not talking about it in your conference, I’ll never believe your “we care now about PC gaming, really!” talk. And trolling PC gamers by, at the PC Gamer conference, announcing that KI and the Gears remaster are getting PC ports but not Halo or Forza is kind of annoying; I’m not really a fan of any of those four franchises, but still, if you’re going to support the PC, release your major titles for it. The PC IS a Microsoft platform after all.  Their excuses for why they barely mention it at their press conferences don’t hold up.

Ubisoft – C. The conference was well presented and as entertaining as ever, but they showed very few games I really want to play. I like Ubisoft’s racing and platformer games the most, but they had almost none of those apart from a new console Trackmania game and maybe the new Anno game. Trackmania will probably be cool, but otherwise the conference was just way too much Tom Clancy stuff I’ll probably never play. They showd like three Tom Clancy games… blah.  There was Assassin’s Creed as always, of course; as a history major I wish I loved that series, but I just can’t get into it, the gameplay is too simple and lacks depth or challenge.  The story is weird as well.  Still, Ubi does always have one of the funniest conferences, and that is worth something.

EA – C-.  Mirror’s Edge 2 and the yarn game were the highlights here, and those look great. The yarn game is a 2.5d platformer and I’m hopeful it’ll be as good as it looks in the video.  Also, I am particularly happy to hear that Mirror’s Edge 2 won’t have guns, that’s a step in the right direction!  The guns were the weakest part about the first game.  The new Mass Effect game could be good too, but they showed little of it.  I still haven’t really played the series, either.  However, apart from those few games, this conference was mostly bland.  EA talked a lot about its sports games of course, and such.  There wasn’t much interesting here, but nothing completely terrible either.  Oh, and as a longtime Star Wars fan maybe I should care about the new Battlefront, but I’ve never played the series before and don’t particularly care for that kind of (Battlefield-style) game, so I don’t really.  The original Battlefield 1942 demo was alright when it first released, but I never was interested enough to play any more of the series after that.

Bethesda – D. Dishonored 2 could be great, but nothing else here was at all interesting. Doom, looks pretty seriously disappointing (where’s Doom’s speed, graphical design, and level styles?  Gone, that’s where, it seems.), and the only Fallout games I care about were made by Black Isle. I don’t like Bethesda much, and this conference was a good example of why.  Their parent company ZeniMax has done some pretty scummy things to developers, but even just looking at their games, as someone who does not enjoy open-world games it’s hard to find much in their library of any interest.

The PC Gaming Show – I can’t rate this PC Gamer conference for sure because I didn’t watch it all.  It’s a good show, but long.  The show is interesting, but low-budget and light on reveals. Still, it’s great that it happened at all. MS showed their usual lack of interest in the PC, so someone had to step up! And they had lots of great and interesting PC games to show, even if they were’t new. So yeah, B-something grade probably.

More thoughts on some games shown on the show floor

No Man’s Sky (PS4/PC) – This was shown at the Sony conference, the PC Gaming Show, and during E3, and it’s a game that has gotten a lot of buzz, but definitely does not look interesting to me; it’s all about incredibly open-ended design.  This looks like a product that is not for people who want to play a game… it is for people who want to experience life, explore, find things, and shoot at them if you want. It’s massive with no real clear gameplay hook unless you LOVE near-purposeless exploration, a 100% procedurally generated world, and such. Is it a game? Yes… but there’s barely any point to it.  I don’t see a hook to actually make me want to play, and their talking about the games’ complex crafting system reinforces that– I hate crafting!  This is not a game for me design-wise, that’s obvious. Also no date was mentioned for release, for those who are interested in the game.

Street Fighter V (PS4/PC) – Based on the first reveals I basically had thought of this as ‘SFIV but with better graphics’, but after watching people play the game, there is a bit more to it than that.  Capcom have mixed up the game system a bit here — parries seem to be back in for example, and movesets are different.  The art is also a bit different.  Still, the game is very much based on Street Fighter IV.  Just like that game it is a 2.5d fighting game, with polygonal graphics but gameplay strictly on a flat plane.  The graphical design is also similar to SFIV, but with better graphics.  SFIV is a good game, but never has grabbed me like KOF XIII.  Still, I’m sure this game will be good.  It’s already very playable, clearly.

The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes (3DS) – Watching some Nintendo Treehouse stuff, the new 3DS Zelda game really looks like great fun. I’ve been thinking that it’s a shame that Nintendo hasn’t made another Four Swords game, because FSA on the GC is a great game, but they’re finally doing it! And it looks really fun, too. They are emphasizing cooperative play more this time, so the three players share a health bar. This definitely makes things more challenging, but making people work together isn’t bad. The graphical look is similar to the previous 3DS Zelda game, but it looks good enough. The different costumes are interesting as well, each one has different abilities. Different costumes will definitely change how you approach some things, and I’m sure there are better costumes for certain stages. Plus it’ll have online play too, which is fantastic (FSA relied on GBA links only, of course, and that connectivity thing… wasn’t exactly an answer for online play, that’s for sure.). It’s looking great.

Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS) – After watching some footage on the Treehouse stream, Metroid Prime: Federation Force looks pretty good, basically like Metroid Prime but with cartoonier art and 4-player co-op. The character and mech designs definitely could use some work, and hopefully they improve, but otherwise this game looks quite good. The environments look great, very Metroid Prime-styled. The music sounds like MP stuff as well, and the interface and controls also, which is awesome because Metroid Prime is one of the best games ever. So yeah, they have some things to work on, but the game definitely looks quite promising.   So yeah, another thing where the hate is massively overdone. I’m sure they will eventually make another single player-focused Metroid or Metroid Prime game, but this game looks good too.

Star Fox (Wii U) – I’ve seen some criticism of this game, both visually and in terms of controls, but at least for the graphics, I think the game looks pretty good.  And in terms of the gameplay and story, what they showed here aimed straight for the Star Fox 64 fan, and Star Fox 64 is my favorite rail shooter ever so I like that for sure.  The gyro controls could be good or bad, and I’ll need to play the game before I know if it’s fun to play that way or not, but at least based on graphics, design, story, and levels, I’m really excited to play this game!  It looks good.  That Platinum Games are working on the campaign is good news as well, they do great work.

Mario Maker (Wii U) – Mario Maker is probably the most improved game that also showed at least E3.  Last year the game looked fairly basic, but now this is a polished, full-featured Mario game creator.  From the NWC’15, conference, and Treehouse this game got a lot of focus this E3, and it’s easy to see why.  This game looks simple enough that making levels will be easy; the complex editors in some games don’t make me want to try to learn how to make levels, and that interest drops even more when the physics and design have unfixed issues as well (see Little Big Planet), but this game doesn’t have any of those problems, the footage shown made this obvious.  This game has only tile-based graphics, which limits you, but it also makes design easier.  That’s also how the games actually look, of course.  Both making your own levels and playing other peoples’ stages look like great fun.

On the Harsh Criticism of Nintendo This E3

So, Nintendo’s E3 Direct got a lot of (overly-) harsh criticism online, because it didn’t show much new. I think the critics are going too far, even if they have part of a valid point. The contrast between Nintendo and Sony’s conferences this year really was interesting. Nintendo had a very good conference for 2015 games, but showed almost nothing for next year and had no big reveals. Meanwhile, Sony had a very good conference for 2016-2017 games, but showed almost nothing for this year (apart for some multiplatform third-party titles), and had some big reveals that are a year or years away.

Which is better? I’m not sure, both have their merits. Had Nintendo had even a single hinted major Wii U game reveal, I think it’d be easy to say they won, because for E3, the game releasing later this year should matter more than games that are a year or more away. Of course, the problem is that they didn’t have that, they had only some handheld and minor titles to reveal. And yeah, that’s a problem, but I think the haters here are MASSIVELY overstating how bad the conference was. It was, for the most part, a great conference, with no major bad sections, lots of interesting games shown, and some interesting reveals — the three new 3DS games announced all look good, for sure. Yeah, it was sadly lacking in reveals for the future, but still, it’s an okay conference overall.

After watching, I thought ‘I wish there had been some more new games shown, particularly for Wii U’, but overall I think it was a good conference. And yeah, anyone saying “worst” did not watch 2008 — this one was many, many times better than that thing was.

Last though, I really do hope that the absence of any major reveals was just because Nintendo was too focused on showing only 2015 stuff, and not because they’re giving up on Wii U in favor of NX sooner than they should.

Game of Show

The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes.  Zelda is my favorite series, and this game looks like a lot of fun.

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Sega CD games and “Bit Rot”: A worse problem than on other disc-based platforms? Why is this?

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Brian

Sorry for the lack of updates, but here’s something important. Hopefully I can get back to a more regular (at least weekly) update schedule after this.

Introduction

I know that this has been mentioned plenty of times around the internet, particularly with reference to the Sega CD, but to check the status of my collection in particular, I recently checked all my Sega CD games, and here’s what I found.  It’s really bad, unlike anything for any other console I own.

First though, by “bit rot” I mean when you look at a CD, looking at the back of the disc and pointing the label towards a light source, and look to see if you can see any light through the disc.  If you can, that’s either bit rot or bad label-side surface scratches.  There isn’t really any way to tell the two apart, but it doesn’t matter really which it is, the end results are the same: dead discs.  The data on CDs is much closer to the label than the back of the disc, so scratches on the label side are actually worse than scratches on the back.  I will call any points where I can see light through the disc “bit rot” here regardless of what it actually is, because that’s a common term used for this kind of thing.

Now, I got a Sega CD in mid 2006.  Interestingly, as the list below should show, almost all of the games I own with bit-rot problems are games I bought between ’06 and ’10; few games I got since 2011 are affected.  I wonder if this is because of something that happened, or if it’s just that I got much better at checking games for damage before buying them… because that did happen, but it could be both, I’m not sure.  I do know that there are some SCD games that worked better when I got them than they do now, and others that always did have issues.

An argument against there being some kind of thing that happened, whether it’s bad storage or what have you, is that no other console’s discs, or my PC CD game collection, are similarly affected.  I do have a bunch of dead Gamecube discs, but none have ‘bit rot’ — all are just not working even though there’s no visible damage, or visible damage that I got professionally buffed out but the discs still don’t work.  Yeah, those nonworking GC discs are weird, but there are only five of them, and all are among my most played games for the console; it’s not random stuff, it’s games I played a lot of.  Also I kept many GC discs in a holder case thing instead of their jewelcases for years.  It’s an nice one with actual things to clip discs into instead of just sleeves, but still, it still was harder on them than the cases I imagine.  I was also at college during the GC generation, so I carried it around a lot.  Anyway, I mention this because it’s the only other thing I have with many nonworking discs.  I got a Playstation in January ’06, before the Sega CD, but the only nonworking PS1 discs I have are games that I got that way, I don’t have any that once worked but now don’t.  I don’t have any similar issues with any of the disc-based consoles I’ve gotten after that, either.  Oh, and as for the PC, I’ve had a PC with CD drive since ’95, but the with only a few exceptions, most of the few PC CDs I have that used to work but don’t now are discs that physically broke.  And the one or two that are actually scratched too badly to read are games I played a LOT.  It’s nothing like the Sega CD.  As for disc-based consoles I got after ’06, most have few to no nonworking discs in my collection.  I do have a some bad Dreamcast discs, but all are discs I got that way, none worked and then failed on me.  Other systems I have are not like the Sega CD, not even close.  This includes the Turbo/PC Engine CD and early to mid ’90s PC CD games, so it’s not just age.

So yeah, why is this?  Why are Sega CD games so likely to have that ‘you can see light through the disc’ issue that irreparably damage them?  Did Sega just use bad CDs or something?  I’d love to know if anyone knows anything.

Key & Definitions

Below is a list of my SCD games, followed by a note saying what I saw when I looked at the back looking towards the light.

Format: Gamename Date Purchased (Approximately, these are not all accurate) – Status

Notes: By “pinholes” I mean places where you can see a spot of light through the disc.  By “scratches” or “blobs” I mean larger areas with light shining through.  “Clumps” of damage mean bunches of pinholes and scratches together.

(J) means that it’s a Japanese import game.

32X CD Games

Fahrenheit 11/26/2007 – 32XCD disc – several pinholes and 1 clump with damage.  The game seems to work based on what I’ve played, but it’d probably crash somewhere I imagine.
Night Trap 12/09/2014 – Good
Slam City with Scottie Pippen 07/13/2011 – Good (all discs)
Supreme Warrior 12/09/2014 – Good (both discs)

Sega CD Games

Adventures of Batman & Robin, The 06/12/2010 – Good
Adventures of Willy Beamish, The 01/15/2010 – 1 pinhole.  The disc works, though I haven’t gotten far into the game.
After Burner III 07/13/2011 – Good
AH-3 Thunderstrike 08/01/2007 – Not working.  There are many pinholes all over the disc.  This disc never worked for me.  I can get the game to start on my PC’s DVD drive, but it can’t read the whole disc.
Aisle Lord (J) 03/13/2014 – Good
Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm 06/12/2010 – Good
Arcus 1-2-3 (J) 04/01/2014 -Good
Arslan Senki (J) [The Heroic Legend of Arslan] 04/13/2015 – Good
Battlecorps 08/09/2006 – 1 pinhole, 1 scratch, and 2 clumps of pinhole and scratch damage.  The game works though, at least through the first few levels; I would expect it’ll fail at some point though, with all this damage…
Bram Stoker’s Dracula 08/08/2006 – Not working.  11 pinholes, a clump of pinholes, and 2 scratches are on the disc.  This game worked back in ’06 in my SCD, before failing several years later.
Brutal: Paws of Fury 08/18/2011 – Good
Chuck Rock 06/12/2010 – Good
Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck 06/12/2010 – Good
Cliffhanger 08/26/2010 – Good
Cobra Command 08/26/2010 – 3 pinholes (disc works, as far as I’ve gotten into the game)
Demolition Man 07/13/2011 – Good
Double Switch 08/17/2008 – Good
Earnest Evans (J) 03/13/2014 – Good
Ecco the Dolphin 12/02/2012 – Good
ESPN Baseball Tonight 08/22/2014 – Good
ESPN National Hockey Night 07/13/2011 – Good
Fahrenheit 11/26/2007 – 11+ pinholes and clumps.  This disc probably doesn’t work, but I haven’t used it much beyond using it as a key disc to play the 32XCD version, which has less damage (see above).  When I did play this version some in the late ’00s I did get partway in without it crashing, though.  Not sure if that’d still happen.
Fhey Area (J) [Faeria] 04/01/2014 – Good
Flink 02/24/2010 – 1 pinhole.  As far as I’ve gotten the game works fine.
Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit 03/30/2011 – 1 pinhole.  There’s also a scratch near the center (maybe not on data?).  The game seems to work fine.
Games Can #1 (J) [Game no Kanzume Vol. 1] 04/01/2014 – Good
Games Can #2 (J) [Game no Kanzume Vol. 2] 04/01/2014 – Good
Ground Zero Texas 11/26/2007 – Disc 1 – 3 pinholes near ring.  Game seems to work though.  Disc 2 – 3 pinholes near ring, 1 on disc.  Not sure about this disc, I haven’t finished disc 1.
Jurassic Park 11/26/2007 – Not Working – Game will not play.  There are 7 pinholes, plus a clump of damage in the center ring.
Lethal Enforcers 03/29/2011 – Good
Loadstar, The Legend of Tully Bodine 08/08/2006 & second copy several years later – The first copy doesn’t work, it did at first but failed after a few years, and has lots of pinholes and such.  The second copy has no damage and works great.
Mahou no Shoujo: Silky Lip (J) 04/13/2015 – Good
Mansion of Hidden Souls 10/08/2010 – 1 pinhole (the game works as far as I’ve gotten into it, though)
Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse 02/24/2010 – Good
Midnight Raiders 08/01/2007 – 1 pinhole on disc and 3 in ring.  The game seems to work fine though, though I’ve never gotten to the last level, level 3 (it’s so hard!).
Mortal Kombat (1993) 08/26/2010 – 1 pinhole.  This disc also is scratched up a bit.  I don’t know which is the cause, but it crashes during the intro FMV, though when I first got the game it could play it without issue.  If you skip it the game works fine though.
NBA Jam 11/05/2014 – Good
Racing Aces 04/06/2011 – Good
Record of Lodoss War: Eiyuu Sensou (J) 04/13/2015 – 1 pinhole in center ring.  Game works fine.
Rise of the Dragon 05/25/2010 – No real damage, but the center ring looks a bit ‘chewed’ — it’s uneven.  Game plays fine.
Road Avenger 02/04/2015 – 3 pinholes in center ring.  Game works as far as I’ve gotten.  I saw the damage in this before buying the game a few months back, and it seems to be fine.
Robo Aleste 06/12/2010 – Good
Sega Classics Arcade Collection 4-in-1 07/18/2011 – Good
Sega Classics Arcade Collection 5-in-1 12/02/2012 – Good
Sewer Shark 04/06/2011 – Good
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective — Volume I 07/18/2011 – Good
Silpheed 06/12/2010 – Good (the center ring is a bit chewed, as with Rise of the Dragon, but the game seems unaffected.)
Sol-Feace 04/06/2011 – Good
Sonic CD 07/21/2008 – 3 pinholes in a clump in the center ring.  Game works fine.
Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin 06/12/2010 – Good
Star Wars Chess, The Software Toolworks Presents 11/26/2007 – 1 pinhole on disc, 5 in center ring in clump.  The game seems to work.
Star Wars: Rebel Assault 08/08/2006 – Not working.  11+ pinholes on disc, plus more on the center ring.  The game will start, but crashes at certain points in multiple levels.  This disc initially worked fine — I beat teh game back after I got it, before later on the disc stopped working for whatever reason.
Starblade 11/26/2007 – 1 pinhole near ring.  The game works fine.
Stellar Fire 10/08/2010 – 1 scratch on disc, 2 pinholes in center ring.  It works as far as I’ve gotten though.
Surgical Strike 02/16/2011 – (Sega CD disc) – Good
Third World War 08/08/2006 – Not working.  The game will start, but it crashes partway through a game.  There are many pinholes in and near the center ring, and 5+ on the rest of the disc.
Tomcat Alley 05/25/2010 – 1 pinhole
Wing Commander 05/16/2015 – Good
Wirehead 02/16/2011 – Good
WWF Rage in the Cage 08/26/2010 – 5 pinholes and a (maybe deep) scratch.  The game works as far as I’ve gotten though.
Yumimi Mix (J) 02/07/2014 – Good

Conclusions

– I have no games I got since 2011 with damage bad enough to make the game not work, and few with damage I’ve gotten since then.  Pointing this out is why I put the dates above.

– All of my Digital Pictures games have no damage, and only 1 of the 10 Japanese import games has even a single pinhole and the one that does has only one, and it’s in the center ring where it doesn’t matter.  Huh.  Did the sellers just not sell discs with this kind of stuff, or did Sega of Japan use better discs?  Could be either one really.

– Again, no other CD game collection I have is anything REMOTELY like this in terms of damage.  The others have either no or maybe one or two games with any games where you can see light through the disc, not counting discs I got nonworking (and for Sega CD that would really only eliminate ThunderStrike, the other nonworking games used to work.).

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Doraemon: Nobita no Dorabian Nights (TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine) Review – A Surprisingly Good Platformer

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Brian

I played and finished this game recently, and wrote up a short-ish review of my thoughts.  I’ve expanded it a bit here, but it’s shorter than most of my full reviews.  Hopefully it’s a good review.  This game is obscure, but it’s actually reasonably good, and is definitely fun and worth playing for any platformer fan.

Box Cover

Game Info

  • Title: Doraemon: Nobita no Dorabian Nights
  • Publisher & Developer: Hudson Soft
  • Released: 1991, Japan Only Release
  • Platform: TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine)
Title Screen

The title screen, and one of the few times all characters are seen in their Arabian outfits. It’s a nice title image.

Introduction and Story

This is a game I got fairly recently, and decided to try out.  At first the game seemed simple and average, but it actually gets pretty good, so I stuck with it and finished the game in a few days.  This game’s fun stuff!  Dorabian Nights is a fairly standard Hudson platformer, so it’s not one of the greats of the genre — Hudson platformers never were — but it is a good, solid game that’s fun to play. This game is a licensed platformer based on the popular, long-running childrens’ comic series Doraemon.   As usual in Doraemon games, you play as Doraemon, the silly blue cat/alien/robot guy, and have to save the day.  Unlike the SNES or N64 Doraemon games, you cannot also play as Doraemon’s human friends, only Doraemon himself.

In specific, this game is loosely based off of the animated movie of the same name as the game.  One odd thing about this game is that even though it’s a licensed game based on a movie, from what I’ve read about the movies’ plot, almost none of that happens in the game.  The movie is almost entirely set in the fantasy Arabian setting of the title; Doraemon and his child friends go on an adventure there.  The girl character gets kidnapped and the others have to rescue her, etc.  I hate ‘rescue the girl’ as a plotline, and you still have to do that here, but it’s different.  In this game, in the intro cutscene the four children jump into four different storybooks, and Doraemon has to go into the books to rescue them.  Each book is set in a different time period.  The first is dinosaur-themed (just dinosaurs, thankfully, no cavemen!), the second ancient Japan themed, the third creepy/’horror’ themed, and the last Arabian themed.  You rescue a child at the end of each book, with the girl last, but as they’re not playable in the game, this doesn’t matter as much as it would in the SNES games.

So, as far as the Arabian, or “Dorabian” (heh), setting goes, on the title screen Doraemon has a turban on and the four children are in Arabian outfits as they fly on a magic carpet, fitting the Arabian setting, but ingame he only wears this in world 4 and the final level.  Similarly, his human child friends only have their Arabian outfits on on the title-screen image and in the second part of the end cutscene, too.  It’s a little odd, but there’s only five levels in Arabia in this game.  So yeah, don’t expect much of the movie here.  Of course, games that try something different often end up better than movie games that strictly follow the plot, so it’s okay.  Plus, I like the variety of the four worlds.  Every level has a different setting, and they’re interesting to see as you progress.  I’ll get back to that, the level variety is a strength of the game.

Level 1

The first level. Doraemon starts out with just the stun gun, in the age of the dinosaurs.

Level Setup and Items

Another good point of the game is the mostly well-designed difficulty curve that starts out easy, but gets much more difficult in the second half of the game.  By the end, the game’s a legitimate challenge.  Dorabian Nights uses a map screen between levels, with a new map for each of the five areas.  You can go back and play earlier levels whenever you want.  The game has four worlds of four levels each and a final level at the end, so it’s not long, but it isn’t overly short either.  The first world is very easy, the second fairly easy, the third pretty tough, the fourth about on par with the third or maybe slightly easier, and the last level is hard.  Overall I had the hardest time with level 3-3, I died more in that level than any other.  It had me stuck for some time; beating that level took a few days of leaving my TG16 on.  I had to do that because you can’t save in this game, sadly, though you do have infinite continues… from the beginning of the world.  Die in a level and you start it over, lose all your lives and it’s back to level 1 of the world.  This may be a kids’ game, but it’s not as easy as you might think.  The first SNES Doraemon game is a lot easier than this game, for sure, and all of the SNES Doraemon games have password save too.  Still, I like the challenge in this game, and it’s probably more fun to play than most of the SNES games as well.  The game is by a more prominent developer and it shows.

While the game is fun, replay value is somewhat limited.  You can go and play the levels again after beating the game so long as you don’t turn it off, because the map screen is accessible if you start the game again, but there is little reason to; there are a few areas in earlier levels you can only access with items you get later in the game, but these only give you extra lives and such, so they probably aren’t worth it unless you really want to replay the game right away, or see absolutely everything.  Ah well, it’s fun while it lasts.

In the game, you have 4 hits per life.  Green things you can dig up give you a hit point back, if you’ve been hit, and these do respawn… but so do the enemies.  Doraemon has five different weapons, one of which you only use during the final boss fight.  You’ll get a new weapon in each world, pretty much.  The four weapons you use through most of the game have some nice variety.  The starting gun stuns enemies, the second is the best all-purpose gun, the third is a homing gun which fires slowly but the shots will curve to hit a target, and the last is a cape which sends enemies flying back to damage other enemies, which can be fun.  You also can collect some other items which give you a shield, invincibility, and more.  You get these items from doors; hit Up at a door to go in.  Doors either have a powerup, a bonus minigame (for an extra life or health), or in a few cases some other usually-silly scene in them. There are never enemies in these rooms.  The bonus rooms are amusing and add more variety to this already varied game.  This is a slow-paced game, though — Doraemon moves slowly and there is no run. I don’t mind, though some people do.  I think the game plays well despite its slow-ish pace.

Box Back

The back of the case shows some the games’ level variety.

Visuals and Level Design

Graphically, the game looks like a standard late ’80s to mid ’90s Hudson platformer, with Doraemon in it. As with all of their platformers from the era the game is cute and cartoony and looks nice.  The art is well-drawn and there’s more graphical variety here than in many cartridge games.  Visually, the one downside is that, as usual on the system, there isn’t much parallax scrolling, unfortunately — only two stages have any, the rest are flat.  one of these two is the first level, and it looks good, but you won’t see parallax again until one of the last levels, and that’s its only other appearance.  The graphics are better than I thought they’d be; I was expecting something maybe more like the mediocrity of Bakusho Yoshimoto Shingeki, but this game looks better than that one for sure, and it’s also a lot longer and harder than that game is. The music is good, but not hugely memorable. Still, it’s catchy, fun stuff, and it held up well throughout my time playing the game.

As I said earlier, the game also has some nice gameplay and enemy variety. Almost every one of the 17 levels in this game is visually unique!  Every single level has multiple enemy types you will only see in that level as well, and no enemies return when you go from one world to the next.  As a result, Dorabian Nights is always mixing things up by introducing new enemy types and level styles.  Many levels have one-off challenges or stage-design gimmicks that only appear in that one level.  For example, there is one (and only one!) underwater level, one level where you ride a dinosaur for part of the level, one level where you shuffle along platform edges where one hit knocks you back down (this is 3-3, the hardest level), one level is loaded with these pots you can break, some of which keep spitting out enemies at you, and more.

The variety is great, but I kind of wish some of the better ideas appeared more than once — more later levels with platforming as hard as 3-3 might have been a good idea, for instance, or an animal or vehicle to ride on after the first stage other than those flying-carpet bits in the last level — but still, it works, and the game is challenging even without more levels like that. The final boss is definitely a good challenge, for instance.  This is one of those games where the final boss plays differently from anything else in the game, and it uses that special 5th weapon as well, but I won’t spoil how it plays; I’d recommend playing the game instead!  The boss took a while to beat, and I finally beat the game with 1 hit point left on my last life.  Yes, really; it was pretty tense! I thought that a death would send me back to 4-1, but I think that actually you might be able to start from the last level, since it has its own screen on the level-select map, though fortunately I didn’t test it. That was close, though… I had to survive for quite a while with only that 1 hit point left! Tense stuff, but it was fun.  The ending’s decent.   A bit short, but good enough.

Doraemon Nobita No Dorabian Night Screenshot

This is from the CD version, but the HuCard version looks the same here. This is the first level in ancient Japan.

 

Conclusion

Overall, Doraemon Nobita no Dorabian Nights is a simple but fun platformer, and I like it a lot more than I thought I would.  I didn’t think this would be all that great, but it’s a fun game for sure.  It’s not as good as the Bonk games, but after them it’s better than some of Hudson’s other platformers for the system.  The game has decently nice graphics, lots of variety (I really like that every single level has a unique look and feel to it; that’s not common in a game like this!), and good level design.  It’s a good game.  The main flaws are that the game should have had saving (having to leave the system on for this long is annoying), I’d have liked to see parallax in a lot more levels than just two, and the difficulty is uneven — why is 3-3 the hardest level (other than maybe the final boss), for instance?  And why is the desert stage, 4-3, super easy, while the other levels in world 4 are a reasonable challenge?  Ah well.  The game is pretty good, these issues aren’t too bad.  The game is also slow paced, something some people really dislike, but I don’t mind this; as with, say, the Bonk or Tempo games, the slow pace fits the design well.  I give the game a solid B.

On one final note, there is also a Turbografx CD Super CD version of the game that released in 1992, a year after this HuCard version.  Sadly, it is an INCREDIBLY lazy port — Hudson just redid the intro and ending with voice acting and more animation, redrew some graphics to make them look a little better, put in vocal songs on the title screen and in the new end-credits sequence (yes, there are actually credits on the CD version), and added some voiced sound effects. That’s it, no other changes. It even still has chiptune music ingame. That’s not an issue with this version, though, just with Hudson failing to improve the later CD port much at all. Anyway, this game is fun, try it out if you like platformers.

Videos

PC Engine / TG16 version longplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zxw1gJ3k_A

PC Engine CD / TCD version longplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyWOVpMsXCI

Posted in Classic Games, Full Reviews, Reviews, TurboGrafx-16 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

TI 99/4A Function Key Listing

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Brian

This is just a little list I made based on looking online for this information, after failing to find a link online showing the order of the function keys for anyone like me who has a TI 99/4A computer (Texas Instruments’ computer from the late ’70s to early ’80s) but doesn’t have the manual or the key strip of paper (or plastic) that goes over the number keys that tells you what pressing FCTN + a number key does.  The problem is, TI 99/4A games and software will just say “press Back to restart”, but the keyboard doesn’t tell you what the Back key is, you need the key to figure it out.  This made the games somewhat frustrating, until I managed to find a video I could see the key-strip in.  Maybe there are copies of this online, there probably are, but I didn’t find them, so here’s my version.

Just print out the line below, cut it to fit, and put it over the top of the keyboard.  Hopefully the spacing is right, but the spacing was right for me as it is below.  Most importantly, though, the functions are all in the correct order and are worded as they should be.

TI 99/4A Functions
Press FCTN plus the number key below each function to activate each one.  They are in order, so DEL goes over the 1 key, INS over 2, to BACK over 9, REDO over 0, and FCTN over + =.

DEL    INS    ERASE    CLEAR    BEGIN    PROC’D      AID    REDO    BACK    QUIT    FCTN

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List: Hudson & NEC’s 3rd & 4th-Gen Platformers: Watching Hudson Shift Platformers from TG16 to Nintendo

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Brian

I love platformers, so I was wondering, why did Hudson give up on platformers on their own console?  And just how bad was this switch, anyway?  So, here’s a list of all Hudson platformers on 3rd and 4th generation consoles, with commentary.

Contents: First, a commentary; second, the list backing up the point, broken up into categories.  And last, a short list of the platformers published by NEC on the Turbografx and Turbo CD.

Hudson and Platformers, TurboGrafx or Nintendo?

The now-dead Hudson (dead because Konami shut them down) was a significant developer of platformers from the mid ’80s until the late ’90s, and made some more here and there in the years after that as well.  In the middle of that period, Hudson released its own console, the TurboGrafx-16, aka the PC Engine in Japan.  In those post-Super Mario Bros. days platformers were one of the most important genres, so Hudson released platformers on their new console.

At first, Hudson supported the console.  Hudson released almost no platformers on the NES between 1987 and 1990, versus some on the TG16, SuperGrafx, and Turbo CD.  Hudson released two games in the genre in 1987, one each in ’88 and ’89, and four in ’90.  However, after the Super Nintendo’s release in Japan at the end of 1990, Hudson began to move their platformers over to Nintendo platforms.  Between 1991 and 1996, Hudson released many, many more platformers on the NES, SNES, and Game Boy than they did the TurboGrafx and Turbo CD.  It’s easy to look at this and forget that this came after several years of them almost exclusively supporting the TG16 for this genre, but that shouldn’t be forgotten!  It’s sad that right after upping their TG16 platformer development numbers in 1990, they moved a lot of that focus over to Nintendo.  I wonder if the system would have done better had Hudson continued to focus their platformers on their own system, and put a bit more focus on the genre than they mostly seem to have?

What seems to have happened is that in the early ’90s, Hudson looked at Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog, and instead of continuing to try to attract people to their own console as they had before with platformers like Bonk’s Adventure, they gave up and started shifting their platformers over to Nintendo platforms, without trying to make games on Super Mario World’s level, while at the same time focusing more on “CD-style” games for their own system, such as digital comics, RPGs, adventure games, action-RPGs, and such.  Their decision makes sense; while the TurboGrafx sold okay in Japan and was the leading 4th-generation platform there until 1990, selling over 5 million PC Engine consoles in Japan, it never caught on overseas, never was really released in Europe, and faded quickly once the Super Nintendo released.  The Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) went on to sell over 17 million systems in Japan, while the PC Engine, PC Engine CD addon drive, and PC Engine Duo line all combined were only around 7.5 million, maybe 6.5 million of those able to play HuCard games, and 2 million CD games (approximately half CD addon drives, half Duo systems).  This did beat out Sega’s numbers in Japan, but, for a North American-market comparison, sort of like the Gamecube and Xbox when compared to the PlayStation 2, while the other two systems were close to eachother, both were crushed by the top system of the generation.

So, seeing the impressive strength of the Super Nintendo right from launch, Hudson reacted by starting to move some of their games over to the platform, which they did starting in 1992.  But, while it may have increased sales of those games, this move surely hurt their own console, since anyone who had bought a PC Engine for Bonk’s Adventure, Bomberman, or Adventure Island had little reason to stick with the console after 1992-1993.  Though Hudson released PCE CD titles until 1995, 1993 the last year major titles in any of those three top franchises released on PCE.  Maybe this was more of an overall positive for Hudson than a negative, but I can’t help but think that giving up and moving your biggest mass-market franchises over to the competition while leaving mostly more niche games on your own platform is unfortunate.  I love the SNES, and the Genesis, but I like seeing people continue to support their hardware, and it’d have been great to see versions of Super Bonks 1 and 2, the later Super Bomberman titles, and Adventure Island II on TUrbografx or Turbo CD.  Hudson did release more games on SNES than just platformers, but their abandoning the TG16 is more noticeable with platformers because the other genres Hudson focused on were better-covered on the TG16 and CD, including shmups, RPGs, digital comics, and the like.

On that note, another unfortunate thing is that Hudson never really put effort into CD platformers.  The Sega CD did not have a huge number of platformers either, and few are exclusive, but Sonic CD, Sega of Japan’s one platformer for the system, was a major exclusive that really showed off what the Sega CD could do and surely sold consoles to some people.  But Hudson… well, just look at the list below.  It’s a pathetically thin list consisting of only three games — two basic and shoddy cart-to-CD ports that add little to the HuCard originals (and one of those two, Doraemon CD, doesn’t even have a full CD-audio soundtrack, it’s still mostly chiptunes!), and one incredibly short and easy game I find pretty disappointing.  Excepting their 1989 port of Westone’s great arcade game Monster Lair, Hudson did not ever put much effort into making CD platformers.  I know the CD userbase was smaller, but Hudson could have done more than they did.  The best platform games Hudson published on Turbo CD were Westone titles –  that Hudson port of Monster Lair, and Westone’s 1994 sidescrolling action-RPG Blood Gear.

In conclusion, it kind of feels to me like Hudson didn’t do as much with their 4th-gen platformers as they could have.  The NES stylings of ’87 ot ’90 TG16 platformers are understandable, but Hudson didn’t change as quickly as their competition did.   Unlike the SNES and Genesis, the best platformer on TG16/CD is a third-party game, Konami’s Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood, not a first-party one; Hudson’s games, as fun as they are, weren’t quite on that level.  Still though, JJ & Jeff is a pretty good game for 1987!  And Bonk’s Adventure and Momotarou Katsugeki in 1990, and Bonk’s Revenge and Doraemon: Nobita no Dorabian Nights in 1991, are also good games that hold up reasonably well for the time, though the ’91 titles do show Hudson’s tendency that generation to continue making their same cartoony platformers, not something more like Mario World or Sonic.  Still, those games have good art, clever level designs, and more.  But where were the Hudson platformers that really went all-out, and had a sizable volume of content as well?  Super Bonk 2 looks and plays a lot like the first TG16 Bonk from almost 5 years earlier, for instance, while Nintendo or Sega showed more improvement.  I love platformers so I wish that we’d seen Hudson pushing things more often, as the good parts of their games show that they could when they tried.  They did have some more ambitious later titles, such as Super Adventure Island II or DoReMi Fantasy (Milon 2), but of course those were on SNES as well.  It would have been great to see Hudson stick to its platform more while they were still supporting it.

The next generation Hudson would make their only few attempts at 3d platformers, and they actually ended up pretty good — Bomberman 64 (N64), Willy Wombat (Saturn), and Bomberman Hero (N64) are quite good games. It’d be great to see what Hudson could have done putting that kind of effort into some later Turbo CD platformers!

Note for the lists below: I use Japanese release dates here, since all games except for one game released there first, and many games only released in Japan.  The one exception is Jackie Chan (NES), which released in the US one month before Japan; it has an asterisk below.

List: Hudson Platformers, 1984-1990

Famicom / NES
———-
These games all released between 1984 and 1987, excepting only one game, which is noted.  They are in chronological order from earliest to latest.
———–
Nuts & Milk – 1984 (puzzle/platformer)
Lode Runner – 1984 (Western puzzle/platformer game they ported to the NES)
Championship Lode Runner – 1985 (sequel to that game)
Challenger – 1985 (only partially a platformer)
Adventure Island – 1986 (a port of Westone’s arcade & Sega Master System game Wonder Boy)
Milon’s Secret Castle – 1986
Ninja Hattori Kun: Ninja wa Shuugyou Degogiru no Maki – 1986
Mickey Mousecapade – 1987 (Capcom published this in the US, but it’s a Hudson game)
Takahashi Meijin no Bug-tte Honey – 1987 (only partially a platformer)
Xexyx – 1988  (part platform/action and part shmup)
*Jackie Chan – 1990 (US release in December 1990, Japan release in January 1991)

But there were no more after that on NES until ’90/’91’s Jackie Chan.  Hudson’s platformers in the TG16’s early years were on their console.  From when the PC Engine released in Japan at the end of 1987 until mid 1991, excepting only Xexyz, Hudson exclusively released platformers for its own consoles.

TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine
———
These games released between 1987 and 1990.  They are in chronological order.
———
JJ & Jeff (Kato-chan & Ken-chan) – 1987; Hudson’s first TG16 platformer.  It plays sort of like Adventure Island, and set a cartoony graphical standard Hudson would return to a lot on the platform.
Bikkuriman World – 1987 (platformer action-RPG) (this is a port of Westone’s Wonder Boy in Monster Land, also released in arcades and on the Sega Master System)
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (Eiyuu Wataru) – 1988
Aoi Blink – 1990
Momotarou Katsugeki – 1990
Bonk’s Adventure – 1990
———-
PC Engine SuperGrafx
———-
Madouou Granzort – 1990 (plays sort of like Keith Courage)
———-
TurboGrafx CD (PC Engine CD)
———-
Monster Lair – 1989 (platformer/shmup)

It’s not a lot of games in absolute numbers, but again, they had even fewer on Nintendo during that period, only one and it’s just part platformer.  Bonk’s Adventure particularly was a hit, and Bonk was for a while Hudson’s top mascot character, before being upstaged by Bomberman.  Bonk’s Adventure isn’t quite as great as Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog, but it is a good game well worth playing.

List: 4th-Gen Hudson Platformers, 1991-1997

As detailed above, after the SNES released in late 1990, Hudson began to shift their platformers away from their console, unfortunately.  As much as I love the SNES (and Genesis/Sega CD), it’s sad to see Hudson give up on their also-great system and move over to the competition.

TurboGrafx-16 (PCE)
———–
Jackie Chan – 1991
Doraemon Nobita no Dorabian Nights – 1991
Bonk’s Revenge – 1991
New Adventure Island – 1992
Bonk 3: Bonk’s Big Adventure – 1993
———–
TurboGrafx-CD (PCE CD)
———–
Doraemon Nobita no Dorabian Nights (CD) – 1992
Bakushou Yoshimoto Shingeki – 1994 (this pitifully easy and dated game is it’s kind of fun, but looks and plays like a game from years earlier, and is insanely easy.)
Bonk 3 CD – 1994 (North American-exclusive release, sold by mail order only)

Hudson released no platformers on the system in ’95, though they did release one side-scrolling beat ’em up with a few platformer elements on the next-gen PC-FX that year, Zenki FX.

Hudson Sidescrolling Action-RPGs, 1991-1994

I put a category for this in the list because some of Hudson’s more significant sidescrolling releases on their console during this period were sidescrolling action-RPGs.  These games are not exactly platformers, but they are sidescrolling and do involve the player doing some platforming.  Hudson released no games in this genre on the other 4th-gen consoles — the multiplatform titles here were released by other companies on those platforms.

TurboGrafx-16 (PCE)
——–
Dragon’s Curse – 1991 (this is a port of Westone’s Monster World 2: The Dragon’s Trap, aka Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap, also released on arcades and Sega Master System.)
——–
TurboGrafx-CD (PCE CD)
——-
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys – 1991 (a port of the Falcom game of the same name, also on Genesis and SNES)
The Dynastic Hero – 1994 (a port of Westone’s Genesis game Wonder Boy in Monster World, aka Monster World 3)
Blood Gear – 1994 (an original title, TCD-exclusive, from Westone)

Hudson Platformers on Nintendo Consoles, 1991-1997

NES
——
These games released between mid 1991 and 1994.  They should be in chronological order.
——
Jackie Chan – 1991 (US Dec. 1990)
Adventure Island II – 1991
Felix the Cat – 1992
Adventure Island III – 1992
Bonk’s Adventure – 1993 (down-port of the first Turbografx game)
Beauty and the Beast (Western-developed) – 1994
Adventure Island IV – 1994
——–
Game Boy (GB)
——–
These games released between 1992 and 1994, with one more title in 1997 (noted).  They aren’t all in order.
——–
Adventure Island – 1992 (remake of Adventure Island II)
Bonk’s Adventure – 1992 (semi-original, not a port)
Felix the Cat – 1993
Milon’s Secret Castle – 1993 (a remake, not port, of the NES game)
Adventure Island II – 1993 (remake of Adventure Island III)
Bonk’s Revenge on the Game Boy (original title, not a port) – 1994
Bomberman Pocket – 1997 (yes, this is a platformer)
——–
Super Nintendo (SFC)
——–
These games released between 1992 and 1996.  They are in release order.
——–
Super Adventure Island – 1992
Inspector Gadget – 1993 (Japan developed, but a US-only release)
Super Bonk – 1994
Hagane – 1994 (1995 in the US)
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Western-developed game) – 1994
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West – 1994
Super Genjin 2 (Super Bonk 2, had it gotten  Western release) – 1995
Super Adventure Island II – 1995 (one of Hudson’s last US-released titles before shutting down their American publishing arm that year)
Zenki: Rettou Raiden – 1995
Zenki: Denei Raibu – 1995
DoReMe Fantasy (Milon 2)  – released in early 1996

And that’s the last.

Hudson Platformers: Releases Per Year, By Platform

So, overall, ordered from most to least within each year:

1987: 2 NES (both released before the PC Engine’s release), 2 TurboGrafx-16
1988: 1 TurboGrafx-16, 1 NES
1989: 1 TurboGrafx-CD
1990: 3 TG16 (+1 TG16 SSARPG), 1 SuperGrafx, 1 NES (1991 JP)
1991: 3 TG16 (+1 TG16 SSARPG), 1 NES (2 JP), (1 TCD SSARPG)
1992: 2 NES, 2 GB, 1 TG16, 1 TCD (port of a 1991 TG16 game), 1 SNES
1993: 3 GB, 1 TG16, 1 NES (port of a 1990 TG16 game), 1 SNES
1994: 4 SNES, 2 TCD (1 is port of a 1993 TG16 game), 1 NES, 1 GB
1995: 4 SNES (and 1 beat ’em up/platformer on the next-gen PC-FX)
1996: 1 SNES
1997: 1 GB (and in 3d platformers on on next-gen platforms, 1 Saturn & 1 N64)

I said it before, butit would have been great to see Hudson put a serious effort into some later Turbo CD platformers, as they did with RPGs in AnEarth Fantasy Stories or Gulliver Boy, or shmups with Gate/Lords of Thunder and Sapphire, or fighting games with their SNK ports.  I’m sure they could have done something cool, even if that generation Hudson never did manage to match Nintendo, Sony, or Konami’s best efforts in the genre.

 

NEC

As for NEC, the other first party on the TG16 and Turbo CD, they didn’t help matters, because NEC in Japan released few platformers of any type.   NEC did not release any games for other consoles that generation, but their library in the genre was thin; NEC mostly focused on visual novels, RPGs, and other games for their niche otaku core fanbase.

NEC Japan releases

TurboGrafx-16 (PCE)
——
Genji Tsushin Agedama – 1989
Son Son II (by Capcom) – 1989
Altered Beast (sidescrolling beat ’em up, port of a Sega game also on Genesis and Turbo CD that same year; not as good as the Genesis version) – 1989
Tiger Road (port of a Capcom game) – 1990
——-
SuperGrafx
——–
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (port of a Capcom game) – 1990
——-
TurboGrafx-CD (PCE CD)
——–
Altered Beast (sidescrolling beat ’em up, port of a Sega game on Genesis that same year; worse than the Genesis version) – 1989
Bonanza Bros. (port of a Sega game released on Genesis in ’91) – 1992
Horror Story (TCD-exclusive autoscrolling run & gun game maybe you could call an “action-platformer” of sorts) – 1993
Chiki Chiki Boys (another port of a Capcom arcade game; ported to Genesis in ’92) – 1994
Strider Hiryu (another port of a Sega game) – 1994 (not as good as the 1989 Genesis ver.)

TurboGrafx-CD Sidescrolling Beat ’em ups and Puzzle games from NEC
———-
Also add Renny Blaster (1995) and Mad Stalker (1994) if you want to count those sidescrolling beat ’em ups, but they really shouldn’t count.  Bazaru de Gozaru No Game Degozaru (1996) is also worth mentioning, but while it has a side view, the actual gameplay is purely a puzzle game, not a platformer.

Overall it’s a thin library made up of mostly ports, there.  Son Son II is great, but it’s from ’89.  Following Mario World and Sonic’s releases after that, about all you have are a few old ports, an apparently not-great run & gun, several beat ’em ups, and that’s it.  Some of them are good games, sure, but it’s not many games total, and third parties were most definitely not making up the slack.  Konami’s Rondo of Blood was amazing, but it was Konami’s only platformer for the system, for instance, while Konami released many platformers for the SNES and Genesis.

NEC USA & TTI releases

Unlike NEC Japan, NEC USA may have cared more about platformers… but they had zero budget, so their games were worse.  There are seven platformers for the system only released in the US, and most are mediocre to bad.  Turbo Technologies, Inc., or TTI, took over from NEC in 1992.  They had little money, but did release a few good Western-developed games, including Shape Shifter and the sidescrolling adventure game Beyond Shadowgate, as well as the subpar platformer Camp California.

TurboGrafx-16
——–
Night Creatures – 1991
TaleSpin – 1991
Impossamole – 1991
Ghost Manor – 1992 (TTI-published)
Darkwing Duck – 1992 (TTI) – The worst game of this bunch by far.

TurboGrafx-CD
———-
Addams Family – 1991
Shape Shifter – 1993 (TTI)
Camp California – 1993 (TTI)

Side-view adventure game on TCD: Beyond Shadowgate (1993, TTI-published)

Low-budget third-party-developed games don’t usually end up good, that’s what we learn from this NEC list here.

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