Nintendo Wii Fanboy http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com Nintendo Wii Fanboy http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/media/feedlogo.gif Nintendo Wii Fanboy http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com en-us Copyright 2008 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Virtually Overlooked: Skate or Diehttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/15/virtually-overlooked-skate-or-die/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/15/virtually-overlooked-skate-or-die/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/15/virtually-overlooked-skate-or-die/#commentsFiled under:

Much like Madden and other sports games lost features in the transition between the last console generation and the current one, EA's skateboarding games have been downgraded rather than upgraded as technology has improved. Skate on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 offers only one option in its title (the imperative "skate") versus the two options found in their 1987 skateboard game Skate or Die. Perhaps in the next year's iteration, EA will be able to reinstitute the "dying" feature, although we're doubtful -- the latest skating game from the company, Skate It, goes so far as to tell you what to skate (it) instead of allowing you to specify the object of your skating.

Skate or Die, for the four people who didn't play it on NES, is a skateboarding game comprising two halfpipe events, two downhill events, and a pool joust. The downhill events are obstacle courses, basically -- "Race" is a slalom down a trail in a park, with a winding paved road and puddles and potholes to avoid, and "Jam" is a race against the mohawked Bionic Lester down an alleyway. The halfpipe events include a high jump, in which players have ten passes to clear as much height as possible, and a "freestyle" competition, in which the goal is to perform tricks by messing with the buttons randomly. The pool joust is the centerpiece of Skate or Die, a competition between two skaters in an empty pool, rolling by each other and attempting to hit one another with oars. You have the option to practice any of these individually, or "compete" in all of them.

These options are all available from a hub world of sorts: a skate shop run by Rodney Recloose, who keeps the registers for competitions, and enjoys talking about his Marine Corps tattoo ("Semper Fi or die!")

For someone who didn't have any skater friends in the late '80s, and who lived in Texas, and who didn't go outside, the entirety of skateboard culture is represented by this one goofy NES game. While I learned in high school that real skaters mostly hang out in parking lots and smoke cigarettes while failing to do ollies, I always imagined a world of giant halfpipes, battles in empty swimming pools, and colorful mohawks.

The most baffling thing about the lack of Skate or Die on the Virtual Console is that it is available in Europe, as of December 2007. There's been plenty of time for Nintendo of America (or Konami, or EA) to get around to making this NES classic available. We suspect that the culprit is the original developer. While Konami has been happy to release Virtual Console games (including those published under the same "Ultra Games" name as Skate or Die) EA is currently represented on the VC by ... nothing at all.

Virtually Overlooked is a weekly feature that spotlights games that aren't yet on the Virtual Console, but should be. JC Fletcher sat in his chair in "goofy foot" style to write this up. Want more Virtually Overlooked? Check out the first year (or die)!
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]]>eakonaminesskate-or-dieskateboardingJC Fletcher2008-05-15T20:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Super Mario Bros. Specialhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/08/virtually-overlooked-super-mario-bros-special/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/08/virtually-overlooked-super-mario-bros-special/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/08/virtually-overlooked-super-mario-bros-special/#commentsFiled under:


We've missed out on a lot of gaming culture in the U.S. due to the fact that Japanese computer systems never caught on here. We didn't see the sequel to Metal Gear until 2006, because there was no MSX. We didn't see the superior X68000 Castlevania remake until it appeared on the PlayStation. Falcom's Ys made its first appearance on the NEC PC-8801, as did countless RPGs and arcade ports that we'll never see.

Perhaps most notably, the lack of support for the PC-8801 outside Japan means that we missed the sequel to Super Mario Bros. No, not The Lost Levels. Even lost-er.

Hudson Soft made an agreement with Nintendo to port their arcade/Famicom hits to the PC-8801 system. It was in this way that fairly ugly, slow versions of Mario Bros., Ice Climber, and Excitebike appeared on the computer system with Hudson's name on the title screens. For the most part, they kept the games as accurate as they could. But for Super Mario Bros., for some reason, Hudson decided to create a new game. They retitled it Super Mario Bros. Special and went about designing new levels and inserting enemies from other games. The hammer weapon, barrels, and fireball enemies from Donkey Kong appear in this game, as do elements of Mario Bros. ... which actually leads us to wonder why that stuff didn't appear more in the Nintendo-developed Super Mario Bros. series.

The PC-8801 was clearly not designed to run Super Mario Bros. Hudson's Special is slow, choppy, flickery, and has a severely reduced color palette. Most importantly to gameplay, it no longer scrolls smoothly, instead moving one screen at a time like The Legend of Zelda.

There shouldn't be any need to explain the appeal of a largely undiscovered Mario game in general, but there's a certain compelling quality about one that's not quite right. It's the same feeling that we get from seeing things like the Kaizo Mario remixes or Nintendo's own Super Mario Bros. 2 (the Japanese version). The basic nature and rules of the game -- stuff we take for granted -- is all messed up in games like these. We can't trust the innate sense we develop for understanding Mario's world. Also the Hudson bee's in there, and that's pretty weird.
Virtually Overlooked is a weekly feature that spotlights games that aren't yet on the Virtual Console, but should be. This week's column was written by JC Fletcher Special, who is just like the normal JC Fletcher, but much less well-known and also quite a bit slower. Want more Virtually Overlooked? Check out the first year!
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]]>hudsonpc-8801platformremakesuper-mario-brossuper-mario-bros-specialJC Fletcher2008-05-08T20:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Castlevania III: Dracula's Cursehttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/01/virtually-overlooked-castlevania-iii-draculas-curse/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/01/virtually-overlooked-castlevania-iii-draculas-curse/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/05/01/virtually-overlooked-castlevania-iii-draculas-curse/#commentsFiled under:

So far on the Virtual Console in North America, we've got Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Super Castlevania IV. Now, these fancy-schmancy Roman numerals may confuse the issue a bit, but it looks like something just might be missing from that list. Upon checking and re-checking, only one conclusion can be reached: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is, in fact, missing.

Okay, it's understood that every classic game can't appear immediately, as that would disrupt Nintendo's releases-every-week mojo, and we're only just now getting excellent titles like River City Ransom. But it almost seems as though someone at Nintendo had all the early NA Castlevania titles pasted to a dartboard, and a few drunken tosses determined which would be released and when. Where's Castlevania III? It's a mystery! You might as well tell us the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, or answer the question of just what a man is.

Gallery: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse



If we were following any logical system here, Castlevania III should already be out; its predecessors and follower are all present on the Virtual Console, and if we want to look at the timeline for the series, it actually takes place before these other games. One (that one being me) might argue that it is an essentially title and the fact that it has been overlooked is a travesty. But if you're not a Castlevania fiend from the old school, you might be wondering just what the fuss is all about.

Castlevania III is a starting point for a lot of things in the series, including the basic story. The championing of the Belmont family and the conflict with Dracula has its major roots here (though this isn't the earliest title in the timeline). But it's important for other reasons, as well: after Castlevania II took the series away from the platforming and sidescrolling action of the original, Castlevania III brought it back, and added a number of incredible new features.

With Castlevania III, you got the chance to choose your own adventure; at an early point in the game, you have the option of deciding how to proceed. And this isn't just a question of direction -- you've got the option of companions, or spirit helpers, (Sypha Belnades, Grant DaNasty, and the infamous Alucard), and the choices you make here (and later) determine how the game unfolds. It was a fantastic touch that added a whole new level of replayability, and collecting the different endings is a wonderful experience. Using each of the companions and capitalizing on their unique skills added a lot of depth and dimension to what could have been a very simple game.

Of course, you also have series mainstays, such as beautiful (for the time) graphics, and a wonderful soundtrack. The latter isn't quite as strong as that in Castlevania II, but it's still far and away the better soundtrack when compared to many other NES titles. But that's all just gravy; where this particular title really shines is in the aforementioned gameplay. Even now, the game stands the test of time in difficulty and amount of content, and would be a near must-buy for the Virtual Console.

Finally, this game is being adapted into an actually exciting project, and one that Paul W.S. Anderson isn't going anywhere near: a direct-to-DVD animated film adapted by Warren Ellis. But since that film is still in the beginning stages, let's hope no one is waiting for its release before we see this game on the Virtual Console. There are a lot of games we'd like to see added, but this one falls firmly into the category of games we need, and with a quickness.

Virtually Overlooked is a weekly feature that spotlights games that aren't yet on the Virtual Console, but should be. While it is usually written by retro-nut JC Fletcher, this week, Alisha Karabinus whipped him into submission, stuffed a pork chop (from behind a brick, naturally) into his mouth, and hijacked the column. Interested in seeing our other recommendations? You may peruse past editions here.
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]]>actioncastlevania-iiikonaminesplatformAlisha Karabinus2008-05-01T18:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Kart Fighterhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/24/virtually-overlooked-kart-fighter/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/24/virtually-overlooked-kart-fighter/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/24/virtually-overlooked-kart-fighter/#commentsFiled under:


What if a bunch of Nintendo's world-famous franchise characters stopped adventuring and just got in a big fight? No doubt that would be an awesome game. You can just imagine the dollar (or appropriate currency) signs in the eyes of the person who came up with a surefire idea like that.

That was the idea behind Kart Fighter, created ... some time after Super Mario Kart was released, by an unknown Hong Kong developer. It's a 2D fighting game starring Mario and friends, in familiar settings based on the Mario games.

Nintendo totally ripped these guys off. Have they no respect for intellectual property?

Gallery: VO: Year One

SnatcherSD SnatcherPhotograph BoyNinja SpiritCave Story



Kart Fighter is an unlicensed game for the Famicom, based on Super Mario Kart in looks and Street Fighter II in gameplay. The whole cast of the original Kart game is here, out of their tiny novelty cars (and also out of proportion with each other), under their Japanese names, or silly variations thereof: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Koopa (Bowser), Kinopio (Toad), Nokonoko (a Koopa Troopa), and the very cutely-named Yossy. The odd transliteration of Yoshi's name did more to make him (her?) a likable character than anything Nintendo ever did. Peach's skirt has been shortened significantly, either because the developers couldn't figure out how to animate high-kicking in a long skirt or in a misguided attempt to make the flickery, nondescript sprite look sexier and thus push a few more loose cartridges out of the shops in Hong Kong.


As your standard Famicom Street Fighter clone, Kart Fighter involves exceptionally flickery sprites (there's a reason NES sprites were usually small!) and fireball moves for everybody. The good old down-forward-punch sends a crescent-shaped fireball across the screen (or some variant, like the awesome mushroom Kinopio throws); other moves include a spinning pirouette thing, Nokonoko's great shell-spin, and Yossy's awkward aerial forward ... wiggle of some kind. They're not terribly easy to pull off. Sometimes your bashing of the controller may coincide with what happens on the screen, but don't expect to be pulling off frame-perfect combos with your custom arcade stick. You can't expect some hard-working pirates to make a game and test it as well!

It's not like Kart Fighter is the only crappy 2D fighter on the NES. In fact, every one-on-one fighting game on the NES sucks. Probably the high point of the genre is the extra mode in Double Dragon, and that's only because it's so weird to see everyone else's sprite blown up, but Abobo's left the same size. The NES isn't the system for fighting games -- even ones with budgets.

In fact, in the limited scope of 2D fighting games on the NES, it's almost possible to view Kart Fighter as decent. If they had drawn some original characters instead of drawing Nintendo characters, which wouldn't have taken any more work, this would be a pretty good unlicensed game instead of a pirate game. They still could have named somebody Yossy.
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]]>famicomjoystiqfeatureskart-fightermario-kartmario-kart-weeknesJC Fletcher2008-04-24T15:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: The Three Stoogeshttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/17/virtually-overlooked-the-three-stooges/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/17/virtually-overlooked-the-three-stooges/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/17/virtually-overlooked-the-three-stooges/#commentsFiled under:

There is approximately zero chance of Cinemaware's The Three Stooges ever making it to the Virtual Console. Nobody's going to bother to reacquire the publishing rights to the likenesses of a comedy act of (sadly) decreasing relevance, just for the purpose of reselling an awful game for five dollars.

That's what we thought, before we remembered that The Three Stooges, originally an Amiga game, had actually been resold recently on both the Game Boy Advance and the PlayStation, and even remade for the PC. Who knows? Maybe there is a market for antiquated licenses!

The Three Stooges tells the story of three ill-tempered, violent derelicts drawn together by extreme poverty and desperate for money. In the game, their need for cash is driven not by survival, but by a promise to raise money to protect an orphanage from foreclosure. Being unskilled (and probably homeless), Moe, Larry, and Curly have no choice but to take whatever opportunities they can get, from boxing and cracker-eating contests to, uh, part-time jobs as ER doctors. This is in keeping with the plot of the short films in which they appeared, and in fact the jobs (and the images from which many of the graphics were poorly digitized) come directly from classic Stooges material.

The Boxing Contest, for example, is Punch Drunks retold. After discovering that the normally mellow (in this instance) Curly is driven into a violent, uncontrollable rage by "Pop Goes the Weasel," Moe enters him in a boxing contest. The plan is for Larry to play the song ringside on his violin, causing Curly to batter his opponent ceaselessly. This airtight plan goes awry when the violin breaks, and Larry must find another way to play the song before Curly is knocked out. In this minigame, you control Larry as he runs to the radio shop to pick up a radio (that happens to be playing the song), avoiding the sleeping homeless people, fire hydrants, and ladders that line the street -- and failing, most of the time. It's about one minute of humiliating, jaw-busting pain, which seems like a pretty accurate simulation of what it was like to be Larry -- every bit as abused, but not as well-recognized, as Curly. This game completely scoops the crime simulation of Grand Theft Auto by showing the harsh reality of a man forced to steal a radio in order to provoke his mentally ill friend.

The other standout game is the cracker-eating contest, in which Curly must pick up oyster crackers before one of the oysters does. This thrilling game about eating soup was based on Dutiful but Dumb. Other games involve trivia, navigating the Stooges (in wheelchairs) down a hospital hallway, and throwing pies. Over time, the hand icon that selects the games moves faster (making it harder to stop it where you want), and you can slow it down by successfully slapping and eye-poking Larry and Curly in another short game. In essence, The Three Stooges is a prototypical minigame collection, and thus quite appropriate for the Wii.

Really, though, we'd like to keep the Stooges in the public consciousness however possible. The references and the circumstances of their lives in the shorts seem so out-of-date now to someone not used to the unique Stooges world. Playing this game reminds us that there were these three guys (at a time), and they schemed for money, and beat the crap out of each other, and accused one another of being wiseguys.
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]]>activisioncinemawareminigamesnesthe-three-stoogesJC Fletcher2008-04-17T22:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Astro Boy: Omega Factorhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/10/virtually-overlooked-astro-boy-omega-factor/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/10/virtually-overlooked-astro-boy-omega-factor/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/10/virtually-overlooked-astro-boy-omega-factor/#commentsFiled under: ,


Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Yeah, there aren't any Game Boy Advance games on the Virtual Console, and there probably won't be any time soon, but that's not important! This column is about games that should be on the Virtual Console, and this game should be everywhere.

Treasure is known for producing super-hardcore action games, from frantic run-and-guns like Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes to clever shooters like Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun. Between original releases, they sometimes take on licensed works, seemingly to pay the bills. One of their best games -- and possibly the best game on the GBA -- combines all of these aspects of Treasure's style. It might be slightly strange to say that a licensed game based on a kids' show is one of Treasure's best, but it absolutely is.

Gallery: Virtually Overlooked: Astro Boy: Omega Factor


Astro Boy: Omega Factor was developed by Treasure in concert with Sega's Hitmaker division (Crazy Taxi). It's based on the Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu) character created by Osamu Tezuka, Japan's analog to Walt Disney (except with interesting characters). The game was specifically created as a tie-in to the 2003 Astro Boy anime which didn't really take off, but it works perfectly well as a standalone Astro Boy work. It follows Astro Boy from his birth through an original adventure based on years of Astro Boy manga, anime, and even other Tezuka works. Astro must prevent a war between humans and robots, and learn about emotions and humanity, as well as the motivations of his mysterious creator, Dr. Tenma, along the way.

The storyline serves as a primer to Tezuka's characters. 50 characters from various works have been woven together to create Omega Factor's cast, from Unico the wish-granting baby unicorn to the immortal Phoenix. Three-eyed Sharaku serve's as the game's major antagonist. Other characters like Big X show up as bosses, helpers, or just bystanders. Cleverly, the act of meeting these Tezuka characters is folded into a gameplay mechanic: as Astro meets people and learns about their personalities, his own robotic "soul" (the "Omega Factor") grows in complexity, and the game represents this with another stat point that can be applied to Astro's abilities. A profile is also unlocked for each character.

While the characters have been rewritten or given new jobs to appear in the game (Don Dracula, rather than being a vampire living in Tokyo, is now Sharaku's henchman 30,000 years in the past), Tezuka himself would have approved. He frequently "cast" characters from one manga as distinct characters in others. This reuse of characters is known as the Osamu Tezuka Star System.


Mechanically, the game is a brawler. Astro has a punch combo, a kick that knocks enemies into each other, and a weak ranged attack (his finger laser). In addition, he has jets that operate as a multidirectional double jump, and three super attacks which are charged up by hitting enemies. Playing Omega Factor involves stringing these abilities together in order to deal with large crowds of generic enemies. For example, in order to deal with an enemy shooting at you from far away, you can kick another enemy into it, or you can jet through the projectile and then attack directly. Most of the time, with so many enemies, you'll be combining such tactics. You may jump in the air and kick enemies away from one side, then punch the enemies on the other side until dead, and laser the original enemy as you fall. The super moves help you get out of tight situations, but are limited (well, limited in name only in easy mode since you can store 99, but you max out at 5 in normal and 3 in hard mode). Other levels play out as horizontal shooters, with an airborne Astro shooting lasers at patterns of enemies.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor seems to be the perfect licensed game. Not only is the gameplay more than strong enough to make the game worthwhile separate from the license, but it makes sense in the context of the license. Even more importantly (for Astro Boy) in tells a great story in the source material's universe and instills a strong desire to seek out more of those stories.
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]]>actionastro-boygbahitmakersegatreasureJC Fletcher2008-04-10T21:00:00 00:00A year (and change) of Virtually Overlookedhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/03/a-year-and-change-of-virtually-overlooked/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/03/a-year-and-change-of-virtually-overlooked/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/04/03/a-year-and-change-of-virtually-overlooked/#commentsFiled under: , ,


Sure, it's been more than a year since the first Virtually Overlooked column on February 22nd of last year, but then Virtually Overlooked is about more than what's currently available on the Virtual Console. Eh? Eh? It's virtually a year of Virtually Overlooked. Think of it this way, more VO columns makes for more value now, because we've been able to present more stuff at once in this feature.

In that year-plus of columns, we've successfully predicted six games that would end up on some region's Virtual Console, and one awesome one that is about to:
  1. Ninja Spirit: The only bad part about Ninja Spirit coming out is that it means we can't write more Virtually Overlooked about it. The good part is that Ninja Spirit still exists! Also, now it's accessible.
  2. J.J. & Jeff: Since we told people that it was great, it has come out to overwhelmingly unfavorable response. We don't understand why people who love Wonder Boy and Adventure Island would so vehemently hate the same thing when it's about two idiots in suits instead of one kid in a grass skirt.
  3. Super Mario Bros. 2: It's hard to believe that a major Mario series game was ever absent from the Virtual Con-- oh, wait, Yoshi's Island. Aw, now we're sad.
  4. River City Ransom: Both Japan and Europe have it now, and all we can do is cry BARF! (and play the NES cartridge). Expect a major freakout upon U.S. release.
  5. Renegade: Actually, this one can stay in Japan. That's fine.
  6. StarTropics: Not only is this one out (to Alisha's delight), you have a shot at getting it for free!
  7. Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo: Just announced for Japan, this is probably the most-wanted game from the PC Engine's lineup. It's definitely the most-wanted by us. Castlevania is serious business.
Not every Virtually Overlooked has been a success, however ... unless you consider just talking about awesome (or not awesome, but interesting) old games a "success." Which we do!

We've collected the whole set of VO columns in an easily navigable interface, ready for your random browsing. Each entry in the gallery features a boxart and an excerpt from that game's column, along with a link to the full column. Just click on Nora to check it out!

OKAY, OKAY. LET'S GO ON A TRIP.
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]]>jjandjeffjoystiqfeaturesninja-spiritrenegaderiver-city-ransomstartropicssupermariobros2JC Fletcher2008-04-03T21:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Dragon Powerhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/27/virtually-overlooked-dragon-power/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/27/virtually-overlooked-dragon-power/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/27/virtually-overlooked-dragon-power/#commentsFiled under:

There is no way Dragon Power could have been good. It's a collection of awful components that amounts to more awfulness than the (negative) sum of its repulsive parts. Bandai (strike one, amirite) created a Dragon Ball game in 1986 (i.e. before third parties were really making decent games), and then, for whatever reason, decided to bring it to the American market. The problem, of course, was that in the mid-'80s, nobody in the U.S. had any idea what the hell Dragon Ball was. We had yet to even enter the "$20 for two episodes on a VHS tape" phase of anime fandom, much less the "Dragon Ball on cable" phase. So Bandai did what must have seemed like the logical thing: they didn't release the game hacked out all the recognizable Dragon Ball parts.

What was left was a licensed anime game with no license -- and, therefore, no reason to exist.

I'm going to discuss the "story" as I understood it in 1986 (insofar as it was possible to understand): Goku and Nora went searching for Crystalballs, I think because they felt like it. Nora immediately got kidnapped by ... something, and Goku had to fight bear-headed guys to get her back. They got help from a turtle and his friend, a hungry old homeless guy who just wanted a sandwich. Then they met Pudgy, who was hiding under an animate statue (and is also represented in-game as a head with two arms attached). That's ... as far as I ever got -- not that the game would have become any more coherent had I continued.

This was the early days of game localization, when (apparently) not only did the localization team not know English, they didn't know what the games they were assigned to were about, either, and wrote the story by guessing at the events on the screen. Here's the game's dramatic introductory cutscene:

Nora: "OKAY, OKAY. LET'S GO ON A TRIP."
Goku: "HOW DO WE SEARCH?"
Nora: "USE THIS! DRAGON RADAR. NOW, LET'S GO."

I love how the idea of "going on a trip" immediately lets Goku know that the pair will be searching for something, which he never has to specify, and for which Nora already has the equipment -- a Dragon Radar, which kind of looks like a purple steak. Nora is then, of course, immediately kidnapped. She periodically pops up in the middle of gameplay to remind you that she's been captured. This pretty much sets the tone for the game.

At the end of this level, the Turtle Hermit offers to give Nora a flying cloud like the one he gave Goku in exchange for a "sandwich," which looks suspiciously like a pair of panties flipped upside down. Of course, it is a pair of panties flipped upside down. The original Master Roshi character negotiated a peek at Bulma's unmentionables in this scene. When I was 6, however, I just thought this guy loved sandwiches (and who could blame him?)

Bandai's effort to de-Japanify the game backfired spectacularly. Dragon Power makes absolutely no sense in its current form. At least had it been a Dragon Ball game it would have had a chance of a story, even if it was a story from some unknown Japanese comic. As it is, the dialogue, locations, objectives, and even items (there's some kind of wobbling half-melon thing that, it turns out, is actually a turtle shell, and gives you one Wind Wave attack) are totally inscrutable most of the time.

The gameplay doesn't stand up in either version, of course. It's good to know that in this way Japan got almost as bad a game as we did. It's a 3/4 view action game with a lot of nonsensical secret passages -- from the Deadly Towers school of "how the hell did I end up here" design. It also shares with that game the "moving up means both moving north AND rising vertically" thing that makes jumping enemies basically impossible to avoid.

Boss encounters suddenly switch to side-view, and take place against bear-headed, sword-wielding guys. Since their swords are almost always directly in front of them, and since their reach is much longer than Goku's, they drain your life even as you're hitting them. Boss fights, then, become battles of attrition with no room for skill. Awesome.

Much like most of the terrible games covered on VO, I admit a certain fondness for Dragon Power. I don't think it's nostalgia, but rather appreciation of the pure randomness of it. Something so haphazardly translated would never make it out the door these days. Trying to construct some kind of storyline out of the half-melons, legless pigmen, and sandwiches here is a lot more entertaining than just a Dragon Ball game.
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]]>bandaidragon-balldragon-powernesJC Fletcher2008-03-27T20:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Bionic Commandohttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/20/virtually-overlooked-bionic-commando/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/20/virtually-overlooked-bionic-commando/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/20/virtually-overlooked-bionic-commando/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

This is the second time that Bionic Commando has been the inspiration for a Virtually Overlooked column. And just like the last time, I'm not really going to talk much about Bionic Commando's gameplay! As well-known as this masterpiece is, I may as well be describing an obscure Russian game about making horizontal lines out of falling blocks. You've played Bionic Commando. Dude with metal arm swings around, shoots soldiers. Nerds get the heck out of the way.

Instead, I'm going to focus on the issue of its absence from the Virtual Console, and a possible (sensationalist) reason for that omission: A reason called Adolf Hitler.



That's right, Hitler. Or, as he's known in the American version, Master D -- who just happens to be a fascist dictator who looks exactly like Hitler. It took me a few years to discover the terrible secret of Bionic Commando (which isn't much of a secret anymore!) simply because it took me a few years to finish the game on the NES, and there was no Web at the time to spoil the ending. Now, though, everybody knows about the final boss. If you didn't, here he is! Enjoy the ending to Bionic Commando. Which, by the way, was called Top Secret: Hitler no Fukkatsu (Hitler's Revival) in Japan. Just in case the game wasn't Hitlery enough.

Now that you've seen that clip, you see why the game isn't available on the Virtual Console. That's just Hitler. Even if Nintendo somehow let a Hitler clone slip by in 1988, the Nintendo of today would catch that right away. And that's not the only issue relating to Hitler's appearance that would hold up a Virtual Console release. The animation of Hitler exploding into mush alone would push the game into an M rating, now that we have a rating body. There are currently no M-rated games on the Virtual Console.

If the hexagram portals in Devil's Crush had to be edited (for some reason) before that game could be made available, how do you think Nintendo would react to a scene of history's most infamous dictator, exploding? That's a lot of editing to do for a Virtual Console game -- more than the simple name changes or tiny background elements we've seen so far. Basically, in order to render Bionic Commando suitable for a re-release, they'd have to either edit that scene, or -- hey! Why not edit the whole game, right? That's Capcom's extravagant solution to the problem of how to release Bionic Commando on other systems. It may seem like Bionic Commando Rearmed is an attempt to modernize the 2D classic for HD consoles, but it's really just an excuse to go in and Master D's appearance (actually Generalissimo Killt! We don't know what Master D will look like yet). Capcom continues to acknowledge the head-explody in the new game, even if it's a different-looking head.
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]]>bionic-commandocapcomhitlernesplatformJC Fletcher2008-03-20T21:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Keith Courage in Alpha Zoneshttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/13/virtually-overlooked-keith-courage-in-alpha-zones/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/13/virtually-overlooked-keith-courage-in-alpha-zones/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/13/virtually-overlooked-keith-courage-in-alpha-zones/#commentsFiled under:


Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

For every system currently represented on the Virtual Console, the launch pack-in title is available for download. Super Mario Bros. on the NES, Altered Beast (and later pack-in Sonic the Hedgehog) on Genesis, Super Mario World on SNES, and even Magician Lord on the Neo Geo, though the Neo Geo Gold system pack-in, NAM-1975, has yet to appear. The Nintendo 64, of course, lacked a pack-in title at launch, probably due to the fact that a pack-in of Super Mario 64 would literally have meant a one-game retail presence, which is ridiculous compared to the two-game choice available in stores upon the system's release. The only system whose pack-in isn't available is the Turbografx-16.

Could it be because Keith Courage in Alpha Zones isn't actually that good? We don't think so. Lots of really bad games are available. Keith Courage is Virtually Overlooked in the purest sense, an obvious addition that has, for some bizarre reason, not been made available yet.

For whatever reason, NEC and Hudson decided that the game based on some anime (Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru) would be the perfect choice as the flagship title for their Turbografx-16 system. This is despite the existence of brilliant launch games like Blazing Lazers and Alien Crush. So as was the custom at the time, they rewrote the story, or, rather, removed the story, and redrew the promotional art. The game itself remained unaltered other than English text and changed names. The new Americanized art is pretty amusing; it takes what is clearly a somewhat cutesy game and tries to make it look totally serious, with predictable results. The cover art features the same character (basically) in the same pose, but in a different style (a fact I just learned during research for this post). NEC even created a comic book to help explain the ad hoc storyline of Keith Courage -- the struggle between the Nations of International Citizens for Earth and the Beastly Alien Dudes.

The game itself is, for the most part, a middling platformer, or more accurately two middling platformers. Every level is split into two parts: an overworld and an underworld. In the sunny overworld, Keith defeats little puffballs to earn gold, with which he can buy weapons and bolt bombs from a friendly merchant, and recover health with visits to Nurse Nancy. When he reaches the end of a stage, a rainbow lifts him up, accompanied by a sweet little jingle.


Then he puts on the Nova Suit and descends into the underworld. The music changes, the grassy landscape gives way to a rocky, lava-flooded cave, and the enemies change from bouncy spherical creatures to flying skulls and people who are also pistols. Robotic enemies abound, including all of the bosses. Keith's movements are much faster, and he even has different movement sound effects in the Nova Suit. It really does feel like two games grafted together.

Keith Courage isn't as terrible as people make it out to be. We're pretty confident that most people would have some kind of fun playing it, especially in the quick-moving underworld stages. It suffers from being compared as a pack-in to Super Mario World, though it holds up fairly well to Altered Beast. It also suffers from its own marketing -- much like we're quite certain Johnny Turbo actually prevented more Turbografx purchases than he promoted.
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]]>hudsonkeith-couragemashin-eiyuu-watarutg16JC Fletcher2008-03-13T19:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Flashback (SNES)http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/06/virtually-overlooked-flashback-snes/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/06/virtually-overlooked-flashback-snes/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/03/06/virtually-overlooked-flashback-snes/#commentsFiled under:


Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

It's been awhile since I've thought about one of my most favorite games of all time. Flashback not only was an important game to me because of its graphics (polygons, oh mai gawds!), but because it showed me that in-depth story telling in a video game was a reality and something totally possible. Sure, there are other, probably better, examples of amazing story in video games prior to this title's release, but there's just the one thing: I didn't play them.

So with JC being away from our blogger stronghold deep within the dark confines of your attic (we're watching you) this week, I managed to convince him that I wouldn't totally ruin his weekly feature. While that has yet to be seen, I still ask that you head past the break and read why I want Flashback on the Virtual Console.

As I said, this game has an amazing story. You start off as nothing more than a man with a bout of amnesia and some weird cube. It's set in the year 2142 and stars Conrad B. Hart, and has you traveling throughout a variety of amazing locales. The future presented in the game is very bleak, home to government conspiracies and general civil unrest that play themselves out throughout the entirety of the game.

The majority of your time in Flashback has you running around on Earth as you uncover an alien conspiracy that threatens the planet. The only problem is that you don't have all of the pieces to the puzzle, so it really helps to establish a bond between the character and yourself as you both progress to find out more about exactly what is going on. And once you do, it's pretty damn shocking.


From a control standpoint, Flashback is less amazing. It plays almost exactly like the old Princes of Persia. Moving around can be a pain, and there's a lot of trial-and-error in finding out what kind of jumps you can and can't make. Because of this (among other things), you'll die a ton. Conrad has the health equivalent of a wet paper bag. Did you every play Abe's Odyssey? Yeah, you die a lot.

But the cumbersome controls can't get in the way of how amazing the story in this game is. Perhaps it's the sci-fi themes or the bleak outlook on our future, but something about this game just stays with me. It's a game that has been one of the most thought-provoking experiences of my life and, as I've said, showed me that games can be more than just a quick diversion or something to waste a few hours on.

If there was anything that could prove games should be classified as art, it would be Flashback.
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]]>flashbacksnesDavid Hinkle2008-03-06T19:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Street Combathttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/28/virtually-overlooked-street-combat/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/28/virtually-overlooked-street-combat/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/28/virtually-overlooked-street-combat/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Once again, we're turning to a crappy game for our weekly recommendation, due to its historical (or hysterical, amirite) notability. We've proven that we kind of enjoy bad Street Fighter II-era fighting games; now that time has passed and the awful clones didn't lead us into another crash, we can enjoy them as bizarre and hilarious curiosities. Well, "enjoy" is a strong word.

Street Combat on the SNES is one of those curiosities, mostly because of its origins. Don't be fooled by the "IREM" on the label -- this game dates back from when good old IREM had enough money to publish other people's games. Don't take it as the mark of quality it usually is.
Street Combat was actually developed by NCS/Masaya, who are known for bizarre, but not necessarily great, shooters like Cho Aniki and the Langrisser strategy series. They made a Cho Aniki fighting game, Cho Aniki Bakuretsu Rantouden, but that's not exactly a wonderful fighting game pedigree.

Like Fighter's History, Street Combat has one of the words in the Street Fighter II title in its own title. Whether this tactic drove any confused or overenthusiastic sales remains to be seen, but we're going to go ahead and say "no." What makes the use of the very evocative title even less defensible is the fact that very little of the game's combat takes place on the street. Yes, Street Fighter II has the stage on top of the buildings, and wherever the thing with the elephants was, but also? Streets.


The reason for the weird non-street environments? Street Combat, in its original Japanese form, was a Ranma 1/2 game, Ranma 1/2: Chounai Gekitou-hen. Back in 1993, Americans didn't know what half a Ranma was, so it was apparently a better idea to replace the culturally unfamiliar characters with, uh, cyborg dudes. And robot dudes. And military dudes. The stuff of video games. You can still clearly see animeness in the characters and (especially) the backgrounds.



This means, however, that even as an "original" fighting game, Street Combat is a licensed fighting game at heart. And thus not very good. How not-very-good? Well, it's got a jump button. Also, like the first (awful) Street Fighter game, your character choice is limited in single-player, to Steven, the mulleted, visored guy. Wouldn't want people to have too much fun with the other characters!

[Screen via VGMuseum]
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]]>fightingiremmasayancssnesstreet-combatJC Fletcher2008-02-28T20:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Rygarhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/21/virtually-overlooked-rygar/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/21/virtually-overlooked-rygar/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/21/virtually-overlooked-rygar/#commentsFiled under:

Rygar is absolutely one of the best side-scrolling action games on the NES. It's also popular enough to have spawned one and a half sequels on the PS2 and Wii. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that I love the game, since my enjoyment of "Metroidvanias" is well-documented. I expect that everyone in the Virtually Overlooked crowd is at least familiar with the wonderful NES game, if not also the arcade game. So I won't waste any time outlining the basics of the game.

Instead, I'd like to present a list of five of my favorite things (that I could think of) about Rygar.


5. Olbis
These guys are really annoying, flying up from the bottom of the screen to some random location, than circling around to your level and flying straight at you. If you're climbing a rope or something, you pretty much are stuck getting hit. But I can't hate these things. I don't exactly know what kind of frightening gargoyle Tecmo's artists tried to create, but the end result is just so jovial and winsome that you just want to give them high-fives instead of killing them. They look more impressed with their own rad pecs than interested in attacking you.


4. TONE, LAST, and MIND
RPGs on the NES have a history of nonsensical stats. Even once you've figured out what CON and INT are, there's no telling what they'll actually mean in the game. But Rygar's stats are absolutely my favorite, and it's not even an RPG. There are only two stats that build up in this game: TONE and LAST. What do they do? TONE increases Rygar's strength, and LAST increases his life. They kind of make sense, but only in that bizarre idiosyncratic Engrish way that, somehow, we've all managed to get used to over the last 20 years or so. MIND is your store of power to be used for magic like ATTACK & ASSAIL. Wait, doesn't "assail" mean "attack?"



3. Bargan
Rygar has a bunch of weird enemies. There are giant slug things, rolling red worms, the aforementioned ptero-dudes, and all manner of walking and flying critters. There's an upright snail boss. One boss is something between a turtle and a raspberry, with two fireball-shooting bear heads. There's a miniature dinosaur on tank treads. The final boss, Ligar, is the torso of a green lion-man with dragons for arms.

Bargan the robot, then, is intensely out of place for just being a robot. When it shows up, ROBOT OUT OF NOWHERE is more unexpected than the appearance of, say, a red, bat-winged, worm-tailed bird with a unicorn's horn. It's just so ... normal that it's jarring. Also it gives you a lot of TONE and LAST when you kill it.


2. The Air Squat
Rygar sort of jumps up onto a platform after reaching the top of a rope. If you crouch during this jump, he will float in the air, crouched, until you let go of the button. You can turn and attack, but you can't stand up or jump again. This is, at best, useless, since all you're doing is standing still. But it is also really damn funny. Sometimes I get so distracted by Air Squatting that my game takes longer than it needs to. This is especially true when you get the "Grappling Weapon," which opens up more possibilities for climbing, and therefore Air Squatting, locations.


1. Epolcon
These things scared the crap out of me when I was 7, and they scare the crap out of me now. The first time you encounter one of these things, the scariest enemy you will have encountered up until then is a tree with a face. What is this thing? Some kind of armored, bearded, egg-dropping dragon monster. Why is it segmented? And why is its midsection half a leg? Really, what is this and why does it exist? Who thought of this guy? Tecmo's unintentional (or twistedly brilliant) design for this one random enemy has left more of an impression on me than any Bowser or Ganon fight.

[Enemy names found at RPGClassics' Rygar shrine]
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]]>actionmetroidvanianesrygartop5JC Fletcher2008-02-21T20:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Sega Master System)http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/14/virtually-overlooked-ghouls-n-ghosts-sega-master-system/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/14/virtually-overlooked-ghouls-n-ghosts-sega-master-system/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/14/virtually-overlooked-ghouls-n-ghosts-sega-master-system/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

You can play three different Ghouls 'n Ghosts games on the Virtual Console right now. For just 500 points, you could have the most difficult game in the series, Ghosts 'n Goblins for the NES. Or you could play the two 16-bit sequels on the Genesis and Super NES, with different weapons, levels, and powers (and still plenty of challenge). They're all great.

But why play those great games when you could be playing a weird, downgraded, unfaithful version on the Sega Master System? Because it's totally unique!



Well, okay. It's not extremely unfaithful. It's still Ghouls 'n Ghosts in most ways, which is pretty incredible for an 8-bit port of a CPS1 game -- especially considering that Sega made it and not Capcom. It still looks pretty much the same, if scaled down, and most of the levels are still there. Jumping and throwing javelins is still accurate to the arcade and Genesis versions (without the double jump found in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, of course). Sega's SMS port diverges from the original in ways it doesn't have to.

For example, the weapons. In every other Ghouls game, Arthur is constantly switching from javelin to dagger to torch to various other stuff. That's out here. There are some spells that emulate the magic-enhanced weapon functions in the other games, but no weapon swaps. That's an artifact of the biggest change in the game: the treasure chest system.

Like every other version, chests constantly pop up out of the ground. You have to backtrack and jump up and down on random spots to trigger their appearance. Unfortunately, in this game, about 90 percent of the treasure chests contain magicians. These guys are as huge of jerks as ever, turning Arthur into a duck or an old man, and pretty much guaranteeing death or armor loss. But the payoff for the remaining 10 percent is almost worth the risk. When a chest doesn't reveal a magician, it reveals a door. Inside, you're given the option to upgrade your helmet, armor, or boots. The armor increases Arthur's life, the boots increase speed and jumping, and the helmet actually gives Arthur access to spells that range from the upgraded weapons from the other games to armor-healing to special attacks. In theory, this is really cool, but in practice it's oh God another magician.


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]]>capcomghouls-n-ghostsmakaimurasega-master-systemJC Fletcher2008-02-14T21:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobihttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/07/virtually-overlooked-shadow-dancer-the-secret-of-shinobi/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/07/virtually-overlooked-shadow-dancer-the-secret-of-shinobi/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/02/07/virtually-overlooked-shadow-dancer-the-secret-of-shinobi/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

This game isn't particularly obscure, being a first-party Sega release in one of its major (at the time) franchises. But it doesn't matter, because this game is also the most awesome release in that franchise. Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi answers the question of what could possibly be cooler than a ninja stalking around a gritty urban landscape: that ninja's dog. Seriously, you'd have to be a pretty cool dog to keep up with Joe Musashi (or his son, depending on the region).

This game violates an implicit Virtually Overlooked rule by having been released on the Virtual Console in Japan. This happened way back in December of 2006, so we actually feel more than justified in whining about its current unavailability outside of Japan on the Virtual Console. It would be incredibly easy to release it, since it's already been released on the Virtual Console, and Sega just refuses to get around to it.




Shadow Dancer is a spinoff or sequel or something of Revenge of Shinobi, starring a very Joe Musashi-like ninja (who, in the U.S. is Joe Musashi, but is Joe Musashi's son in the Japanese version) who is on a mission to avenge his friend Kato's death by killing as many other ninjas, green-armored discus guys, and sci-fi marksmen as possible. Joining him on his mission is Kato's dog Yamato, who also seeks revenge, or is just a helpful dog.

Shadow Dancer plays much like its predecessor, except that Joe can only sustain two hits at most and has unlimited shuriken. There is also more of an emphasis on two-tiered design; by pressing up and jump, Joe can jump to a higher platform or, in some cases, deeper into the stage (behind a fence in one memorable example). The goal of the game is to rescue hostages throughout the level, much like another famous Sega sidescroller of the time. There's also an enjoyable bonus level in which Joe jumps off the side of a building and throws shuriken at other ninjas as they climb up. It's like Galaga in reverse, with crazy people.

Most importantly, there's a dog. By holding the attack button, Joe can release Yamato, who goes after the nearest enemy and gets into a struggle. While the dog is fighting, you can walk right up and kill the guy. This is especially great for jerks with pistols, who hide behind crates and pop up to shoot at you. It doesn't work so well for tougher enemies, who render Yamato useless by hitting him and turning him into a puppy for some reason. Getting a powerup item (which also turns Joe's shuriken into fireball-like things and powers up his hand-to-hand skills) restores Yamato's full size. It's important to note here that unlike weak old Joe, Yamato cannot be killed. He is an invincible ninja dog.
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]]>actiongenesisninjasegashadow-dancershinobiJC Fletcher2008-02-07T21:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Karnovhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/31/virtually-overlooked-karnov/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/31/virtually-overlooked-karnov/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/31/virtually-overlooked-karnov/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Talking about Fighter's History last week put us in a bit of a Karnov kind of mood (which we didn't realize existed until we were in it). Data East's Karnov is something that seems to have gotten into our NES collection by accident. Everybody seems to have a copy, but the game is too weird to have been intentionally popular. It's one of those games that someone lends you and then moves away, or that you get in a bundle at a garage sale, or from a closeout at a video rental store. There's not anything particularly attractive about Karnov, nothing that would cause kids to pick up the bald-fat-shirtless-Eastern-European-guy game off of the shelf. But, then, this was a system whose best-known mascot was a miniature plumber.
Karnov is an NES port of an arcade game, both of which star a guy named Karnov who ... flaps his arms around and spits fireballs at monsters in a rocky, ruinous landscape. Okay, having no idea what's supposed to be going on, we checked Wikipedia, which says that he is a circus performer "on a quest to search for treasures." Oh! Well, at least that illuminates one aspect of the game for us -- the story, indeed, does not matter.

What matters is that you're jumping around, collecting K symbols for extra lives and weapons for extra abilities (also you get a ladder for ... climbing up areas) and shooting fireballs. You can pick up stationary fireball symbols on the ground that allow you to shoot formations of two or three fireballs at a time. These fireball items also restore health -- Karnov can take two hits, after the first of which he inexplicably turns blue, and the fireball item restores his human-like coloring.

Karnov is one of the most unintentionally creepy games on the NES. The enemies don't have any consistent visual style -- some have outlines, some don't, some are detailed-looking, and others are cartoonish -- and don't even really make sense. The first boss is a floating fish monster who throws projectiles out of some kind of seed bag around its shoulder. The game's single repeating stage music is a roughly thirty-second loop that alternates between upbeat circus-type music and a more urgent, nerve-wracking tune. This song repeats over and over again through every second of the game except when you complete a stage or die. The death theme is the happiest tune in the game, and the least annoying.

The creepiest thing about Karnov -- something that takes a long time to pinpoint -- is that the monsters make no noise. Karnov's fireball-shooting makes a noise, and using items makes a noise, but the enemies' movements are totally silent. Which, along with the generally bizarre character of the game, lends a horror-movie sense of something just being wrong. The fact that weird technically-motivated decisions like that can affect the feel of the game so much is something we love about the NES. Also that it was, at one point, financially viable to publish this game in large quantities.
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]]>actiondata-eastkarnovnesJC Fletcher2008-01-31T22:30:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Jaki Crushhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/24/virtually-overlooked-jaki-crush/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/24/virtually-overlooked-jaki-crush/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/24/virtually-overlooked-jaki-crush/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Whenever possible, I like to freak out on the Internet about how awesome Naxat Soft's Crush series of pinball games is. Alien Crush and Devil's Crush are not only the best pinball games ever made for a not-pinball-machine, they also happen to be the best games on the Virtual Console (I am allowed to have opinions!) When we gave away a bundle of VC games, I made sure that Devil's Crush was part of the bundle.

Jaki Crush is another one of those. It's another Crush game. That's really the only motivation I need to freak out.


Alien Crush had an Aliens/H.R. Giger kind of techno-organic theme; Devil's Crush was creepy-occult-metal-album. Jaki Crush (Jaki translates to "demon" or "evil spirit") uses traditional Japanese monsters as its visual theme. For the most part, this manifests as a game that looks like a mixture of the previous two: like Alien Crush, much of the architecture is made up of bones, creepy bug-things (including the two coccoon creatures directly above the flippers) and reptilian creatures; like Devil's Crush, werewolves and other demonic creatures wander the playfield. The iconic face that is the most familiar visual trademark of the series is an illusory devil who becomes more opaque as you collide with a small slime creature directly above the face. When he becomes fully corporeal, as expected, his mouth opens. If you land the shot, he moves into the top tier of the board, where the walking fish-head things from Devil's Crush circle him.

Jaki Crush's playfield is roughly three-tiered; it's hard to define it precisely because the tiers are larger than one screen tall, and scrolling is constant. It's hard to count the number of screens. Flippers are found basically all over the place, in at least one traditional configuration per screen plus an extra flipper now and then. Like the other games, creepy-crawly stuff is all over the place to hit with a pinball. Often you'll be sent into a bonus stage containing some boss creature; occasionally (as when you destroy the devil face at the top of the field) you'll be sent into a multiball mode. In video pinball, which requires the screen to scroll to follow the ball, multiball is chaotic. You just can't see one of the two pinballs most of the time.


Speaking of seeing, despite the hardware upgrade (Jaki Crush is a Super Famicom game), the newer game fails to stand up visually to the superior PC Engine games. I have no idea if there was a budget issue or if Naxat just failed to learn the Super Famicom hardware, but both Alien Crush and Devil's Crush are more interesting visually, more colorful and more animated, than Jaki Crush. But with the crazy bonus stages and the usually excellent pinball physics, Jaki Crush is merely the third best video pinball game.
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]]>jaki-crushnaxat-softpinballsnesJC Fletcher2008-01-24T21:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Fighter's Historyhttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/17/virtually-overlooked-fighters-history/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/17/virtually-overlooked-fighters-history/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/17/virtually-overlooked-fighters-history/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Perhaps the best way to see the influence of Street Fighter II in early-to-mid-'90's gaming culture is to look at the other fighting games that sprung up overnight. Capcom is, of course, almost directly responsible for the rise of SNK, who made a longterm business from 2D fighting games. And Mortal Kombat is most assuredly a direct response to Street Fighter II, adding features the latter omitted, like ugly digitized graphics, over-the-top violence, and Claymation.

But of all the copies, derivatives, and clones, the most clone-like may just be Data East's Fighter's History, otherwise known as "The game that Capcom tried to sue Data East over."

Capcom saw Fighter's History as, well, uncomfortably similar to their own Street Fighter II. Uncomfortably, infringingly similar. That's why, in 1994, Capcom filed a motion in a California district court to prevent Data East from distributing Fighter's History arcade machines. They were able to prove that SF2 was a significant influence on History by referring to Data East's design documents, which were rife with references to Capcom's work. They were unable to prove, however, that the characters had been copied directly, and thus lost the lawsuit. Capcom's loss (and, really, they only lost legal fees here, because nobody in their right mind bought or played Fighter's History instead of SF2) was our gain, as Data East released the SNES version of the game that same year. Data East was then free to continue the series, with Fighter's History: Mizoguchi Kiki Ippatsu! and Karnov's Revenge/Fighter's History Dynamite.



While not legally proven to be infringing, it is quite obvious in a subjective view that Street Fighter II was on the designers' minds during the development of this game. While SF2's characters were basically stereotypes, Fighter's History's characters were slightly remixed versions of those same stereotypes. Jean was Vega dressed as Guile, for example. Marstorius was Zangief with a shirt on. Mizoguchi was Ryu without a shirt on. The special moves were distinctly familiar, and even the music and (especially) the announcing suggested a close relationship with Capcom's flagship product.

Luckily, by sticking so close to the source material, Data East accomplished what most second-tier fighting games could not: decent controls. It was actually possible to play the game, pull off some special moves, and have a basically okay time, unlike something like Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle. Most people focus on the ripoff aspect, and miss that Fighter's History is a not-awful fighting game.

Fighter's History bests Street Fighter in a way that Street Fighter can never outdo, unless they buy the rights to Data East's characters like, uh, SNK has: Karnov. The bald, portly, fire-breathing Russian strongman who was something of a Data East mascot appeared as the final boss in this game, doing what he did best: breathing fire. He was outfitted in some desert headwear, presumably so the player would have something to knock off other than his pants. FH featured a system in which specific accessories could be knocked off of fighters after sufficient damage, triggering a dizzy.



Fighter's History, while a more enjoyable game, contrasts with Data East's first fighting game, 1984's Karate Champ. They innovated by publishing one of the earliest one-on-one side-view fighting games, which was also one of the first games developed by Technos. Flash forward nine years, and they're aping Capcom.
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]]>data-eastfighters-historyfightingsnesvirtually-overlookedJC Fletcher2008-01-17T21:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Spider-Man: Lethal Foeshttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/10/virtually-overlooked-spider-man-lethal-foes/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/10/virtually-overlooked-spider-man-lethal-foes/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/10/virtually-overlooked-spider-man-lethal-foes/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

I am aware of how terrible licensed games are. This has always been true, from E.T. on. Just about every time a Spider-Man game has come out, I've been suckered into at least renting it (until around Spider-Man 3 this generation -- I'm not stupid.) I'm not like a huge Spidey fan or anything. What keeps me coming back?

In my estimation, there is only one important aspect in a Spider-Man game. It's not a variety of missions and objectives. It's not an accurately-modeled city. It's not the number of classic Spidey villains that make their appearance. And it's not the fighting mechanics. The only thing that matters at all can be summed up in this question:

Can he swing from a web?

Developer Epoch nailed web-swinging in Spider-Man: Lethal Foes, more than anyone else did until Neversoft's PlayStation Spider-Man game, and then ... they didn't release it outside of Japan. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the best Spider-Man game would come out of Japan: Japan-exclusive Spidey stuff has always been magical. For example, there was the tokusatsu TV show about a motorcycle-riding Spider-Man who fights aliens with the help of a transforming spaceship called the Marveller.


Other webhead games on the SNES missed the mark variously: Spider-Man: The Animated Series used web shots as an attack and limited their use severely, both in terms of number and what you could swing from (also it was made by LJN, which is a failure of its own). Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage and its sequel Separation Anxiety were pretty good Final Fight clones with the ability to swing on webs, but there was nowhere to go with your webs. You could swing from one end of the screen to the other, but that would just get you punched by a guy in a green trench coat.
While not an exceptional platform game, Lethal Foes is wonderfully fun to play because it lacks these restrictions. Pressing L or R will shoot a web into the air in the direction of the button, grabbing on to some unspecified structure in the sky. You can basically fly over the whole level in such a way if you'd like, swinging from web to web like some kind of, you know, web-shooting superhero.

The game is actually pretty standard otherwise: Spider-Man can punch, run, and shoulder-charge; he has an overpowered jump kick and a projectile attack; the enemies are generic robots and aliens. None of that matters. This is Web-Slinging Simulator.
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]]>epochlethal-foessnesspider-manJC Fletcher2008-01-10T21:00:00 00:00Virtually Overlooked: Shadowgatehttp://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/03/virtually-overlooked-shadowgate/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/03/virtually-overlooked-shadowgate/http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/01/03/virtually-overlooked-shadowgate/#commentsFiled under:

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

While replaying a little Resident Wiivil Evil 4 over the holidays with the man of the house, a great realization came unto me, and I demanded the right to take JC's place on the Virtually Overlooked soapbox this week. The inability to do silly things like jump into the river, shoot the drivers, and stab random people at the beginning of the game really bugged me, even moreso than on my first outing with the title. I need free reign for suicide and a little friendly fire! I need to be able to do all the things you're not supposed to be able to do, and if I have to start over, hey -- that's okay. It's about freedom, baby, yeah. And I was reminded of a game that allowed just that: Shadowgate.

Gallery: Virtually Overlooked: Shadowgate



Like all great things, Shadowgate originated on the Mac as a point-and-click adventure, and that interface carried over to the NES, despite the frustration of trying to point and click with the NES controller. By the third or fourth screen, however, problems with the interface seem to melt away as the player not only gets used to cruising around from menu to screen and back with the D-pad, but also, gets sucked into the weird and wacky world of Castle Shadowgate.

Shadowgate is your typical adventure game: you do a lot of reading, examining, and puzzle-solving, but what makes it really great is the game's sense of humor. Just as with franchises like Sam and Max and Ace Attorney that have captivated gamers in recent years, Shadowgate offered a tongue-in-cheek approach to adventuring that was completely irresistible.



But what gets me, every single time I re-play the classic NES title, is the ability to suicide. As a gamer who epitomizes the idea of curiosity killing the cat, I'm always the one who falls to her death or ends up in the jaws of the big ol' monster, because I just have to try everything -- and a lot of that was born from playing Shadowgate as a kid. When the puzzles are mystifying? Just "use" your "sword" on "self" and see what happens. Not only does the game not prevent you from doing something so monumentally stupid, it laughs at you.



Luckily, you can save any time (though you don't always restart exactly where you saved; be prepared to re-open bags and re-examine objects), so you're free to stab yourself with any number of objects and open all the slime-filled coffins you'd like. Good times.

In an era that has seen the rebirth of the text adventure, it's a real mystery that Shadowgate has not been released for the Virtual Console. The game has appeared on a number of systems, including the Game Boy Color, and a few sequels appeared (though they failed to live up to the original). The game is packed with puzzles that send you trekking all over the castle, moving forward and back as you collect objects -- many of which are red herrings or part of traps. If you know your way around, Shadowgate can be completed in the space of a few hours, but there are a few moments that guarantee hair-tearing frustration for even hardened adventurers.

An additional bonus comes with the fact that, as an NES game, Shadowgate would roll in at only 500 Wii points, which is a small price to pay for a classic adventure -- especially this one. Trust.



And there's always the humor factor when it comes to replayability. Shadowgate may not have a lot of fun, quirky characters, but there's always a joke waiting around the next corner ... and that's kept this adventurer coming back, again and again, for years. Plus, you can stab yourself with abandon (or with a spear, or an arrow ... ), all without that messy clean up. It's a win for gamers of all ages!