After the craziness of E3, we were ready to get back to a bit of normalcy. And what could be more normal than some shmups being released on the Virtual Console? Nothing, that's what! So, hit up the video above for the games in motion, then be sure to head past the break for the rest.
Posts with tag shmup
VC Monday Madness video wrap-up 7/21/08
After the craziness of E3, we were ready to get back to a bit of normalcy. And what could be more normal than some shmups being released on the Virtual Console? Nothing, that's what! So, hit up the video above for the games in motion, then be sure to head past the break for the rest.
Bargains on Bully and bullet hell
If you're the type to never pay retail on anything, especially video games, the like-minded misers at the Cheap Ass Gamers community have found two worthwhile Wii deals for you:
If you haven't looked into shoot-em-up Castle of Shikigami III before, make sure you check out the videos we posted a couple of months ago -- there's a flying butler! Amazon also has CSI: Hard Evidence on sale for $19.99, but we have a feeling that not many of you will be too excited to pick up this video game adaptation of a poor man's Law & Order.
[Via CAG]
Thunder Force striking again?
There's very little information on the barebones site -- in fact, you're looking at all of it -- so we don't know which platform or platforms TecnoSoft is planning to release the game on. But it's a shooter, and the Wii is where shooters go this generation. TecnoSoft would be able to release classic Genesis Thunder Force games on the Virtual Console to promote it. We'd love to see Thunder Force II and its indecipherable intro available once again.
[Via NeoGAF]
Wii Fanboy Review: Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
In 2004, Kenta Cho (under the name ABA Games) released TUMIKI Fighters, one of his many freeware polygonal shooters. Then, last year, Majesco baffled us by announcing plans to adapt it to a retail Wii game. Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy is an odd candidate for AAA-ness: it's a game in a dormant, extremely hardcore genre, based on obscure freeware and developed by a company whose previous experience has mostly involved ports and licensed games, without any real input from the original creator. It's also published by a company whose success with Cooking Mama inspired them to go "casual."These disadvantages would lead anyone to the natural conclusion that Blast Works wouldn't end up a great game -- and they would be correct. It is, in fact, two great games. Or, to take the idea to its ridiculous extreme, infinite great games. We'll stick to two for this discussion, and we'll talk about those two separately.
Gallery: Blast Works
Continue reading Wii Fanboy Review: Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
VC Tuesday: Hi!
This week's Japanese Virtual Console releases are, unquestionably, awesome. Art of Fighting 2 may not be as awesome as the others, but just being the least awesome game in this week's lineup is still pretty great. Nintendo of Japan is just now getting around to offering Blazing Lazers, which we got in May. Japan is actually getting the U.S. version of the game; the Japanese version, Gunhed, was based on a movie license to which Hudson apparently no longer has the rights.As great (and interesting) as Blazing Lazers is, the Famicom release, however, is the best of the bunch. It's Super Dodge Ball. It may be extraordinarily flickery and simplistic, but the gameplay still holds up.
- Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu (Famicom, 1-4 players, 500 Wii Points)
- Blazing Lazers (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
- Ryuuko no Ken 2 (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)
Pick up a $10 gift card by purchasing Blast Works
We're still shocked that Blast Works finally came out after all those delays (and according to a few emails that we've been getting from you guys, some retailers are also feeling disbelief). If you can manage to track down this content-packed shooter, though, we recommend trying your luck at Circuit City. This week, the folks at the good ol' city of circuits will hand you a nice $10 gift card with a purchase of Blast Works. Yet, don't fret if you're having trouble finding this game at brick and mortar locations, since you can also head to the retailer's online store. For a game that's only $40 to begin with, we have to say -- this deal is mighty tempting. Any takers?
Gallery: Blast Works
[Via CAG]
Metareview: Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
But, really, how good can a Western-developed remake of a freeware PC shooter, with an editor mode attached, be? The answer is apparently "really, really good."
1UP: A -- Ray Barnholt found Blast Works both a worthy shooter and an awesome game construction kit: "The core game is cute and clever -- probably not a tide-changer, but it's definitely unique enough to be worth something within its genre (it's an awesome sequel to Tumiki Fighters, at any rate). And if you've got the desire to design games (and share them with the world via Blast Works' included online tools), the editor will teach you some basic fundamentals."
IGN: 81% -- Daemon Hatfield heaped more than 81 percent worth of praise on Blast Works: "With BlastWorks, what you get for your $40 is a unique, lengthy shooter, a powerful editor for creating your own levels, plus access to unlimited user-generated content from the game's official website, BlastWorksDepot.com. This is a great package, and although it's not going to appeal to everyone it's great to have something so unique in the Wii's library."
Game Informer: 80% -- Even the lowest-scoring review on the list doesn't have many huge complaints: "It's certainly not perfect; the difficulty balancing is rough around the edges, and the co-op multiplayer is ruined by the fact that the camera doesn't pull back, resulting in total chaos as each player's hunk of junk grows in size. However, I'm pretty addicted to Blast Works, and this addiction might never end due to the amazing level editor and online community functions, which gives players the ability to create anything and everything in the game and share them for free online."
WRUP: Having a blast edition
Hey, did you know that Blast Works released this week? Yeah, it's all up on retail shelves right now, waiting for you to pick it up and buy it. Our copy is out there right now, cold and alone, awaiting our loving embrace. But, what about you?
Nabbing Blast Works yourself? Picking up something else? What will you be playing this weekend?
Gallery: Blast Works
The VC Advantage: Embarrassing Ads of Thunder
By the time the Turbografx-16/CD combo system, the Turbo Duo launched, NEC's American branch had bailed on the Turbo platform and the new Turbo Technologies Inc. was desperate. Their advertising got increasingly ridiculous and antagonistic, as evidenced by the "Johnny Turbo" series of comic book-style ads in which a pudgy superhero saved kids from the horror of having to purchase a CD add-on for their "Feka" systems (another column for another time!)
The best of TTI's amateurish, juvenile ads, however, was this promotional video for Lords of Thunder, which was mailed out through a coupon program. It consists alternately of overenthusiastic teens swearing their allegiance to Lords of Thunder and confused strangers wondering why they're being bothered. Ironically, this kind of advertising may have served to turn people away from the Duo platform. Lords of Thunder certainly can't take any of the blame for low sales. It's amazing.
The hardcore Lords of Thunder (promo tape) audience must not have been what TTI anticipated, because I purchased a copy of this video from a Hastings Video Store in 2000 for .99. It was one of many copies in a clearance video bin. How did they even get there?
The VC Advantage is a weekly look at the secrets inside games -- not just cheat codes, but assorted trivia and oddities. We aim to bring back the feeling of the hint columns from game magazines, except when we do something else.Great Wise King: a new shooter based on familiar material
It appears that the legend is continuing: Starfish is working on a game based on Daiseiou, which is also a 2D side-scrolling shooter with the player as the Monkey King flying on his cloud (though this one also features Space Harrier-style segments). For two games in the exact same genre about the same subject matter from the same developer, the styles couldn't be more different -- Daiseiou's detailed, painted-looking style is a sharp contrast from the colorful chibiness of The Monkey King. There's nothing but a single (but pretty excellent) piece of artwork on the official website right now, but you can see plenty of screens at Famitsu.
Wii releases this week: Blast Works edition
This week's releases are:
- Blast Works
- Backyard Baseball '09
Gallery: Blast Works
Blast Works duo on what didn't make the cut
Blast Works: Build, Trade, & Destroy will finally launch in North America next Tuesday, so now seems like a fitting time for Budcat Creations pair Marcus Brown and Matt Modaff to update their IGN blog and reflect on numerous aspects of the game's lengthy gestation. Fortunately for this post, that's exactly what they did!
Amongst other things, Brown and Modaff discuss the team's motivation for including the game's wonderful editor, the content sharing features that we adore so much, and how they'd like to see the game cultivate a modding community to rival those seen in many PC titles. They also reserve special praise for the Wiimote, noting how it "affords players a near mouse-like interface."
Most intriguingly of all, there's a list of features that didn't quite make the final cut, mainly due to time constraints. These include the ability to play through the Campaign Mode with four players (there's still a two-player function), a "Marathon Mode" (in which players blast their way through an infinite selection of levels randomly chosen from the campaign and rack up the highest score possible), a "Movement Editor" (for editing, yes, the movement of enemies), and the ability to trade high scores.
Despite all of that "missing" stuff, some of which sounds way cool, we'd still probably trade our closest family members in for a copy of Blast Works next week.
Gallery: Blast Works
Wii Fanboy Review: Protothea
The preponderance of excellent shooters means that there's really no reason for anyone to buy a mediocre one -- especially not when it costs more than every other shmup on the system. There is even less reason to buy Protöthea. If you're thinking about putting ten bucks into this, stop and go buy Blazing Lazers or Lords of Thunder instead.
Gallery: Protothea
MSX games get deluxe treatment on Virtual Console
Impressively, you can also swap the two fire buttons via the "Button Change" option. It's a good thing for Nintendo that they'll never bother to release this over here, because the four people who would download an MSX game would get spoiled.
Got five minutes? Hudson announces Star Soldier R tournament
All you have to do is sign up on the website, and then be as awesome as you can between today and June 24th in the game's five-minute mode. The top scorer will get Hudson's "Top 5 Wii Games" and a massive 16,000 Wii Point bonus. Wii Points will also be awarded to the 10th and 16th places -- in honor of "16shot" Takahashi Meijin.
A random drawing will also award prizes to ten players. That means that as long as you have Star Soldier R or don't mind entering tournaments for games you don't have, you could win! But if you do enter, why not go for the big prize? We're going to start practicing not being awful at shooters.
Gallery: Star Soldier R
[Via press release]
