Weekend Arcade

SNK Killer List 5

2008-08-15T18:03:00.008-04:00

The five SNK Playmore Ps2 game I just can't find.Not the best fighter collection. I can't help but want to have all the SNK fighters, good or bad. Its history.

The huge character sprites in the early Art of Fighting games is a little goofy but spawned some of the more memorable SNK characters.

Now this is a serious fighter collection. Two solid arcade games worthy of being on any fans shelf. Its got 72 characters! This game is at A & C Games on Spadina but they want $50. I'm holding out for a $20 copy at Game Shack.

I've never seen this game for sale anywhere, new or used. Two more arcade perfect Neo Geo games. I can only imagine its more of what made 2000/2001 so good plus a few new characters.

Since I got rid of my PS1 collection I've been missing me some Metal Slug X. For $30 I can get this new at Game Shack on Young St. It has six games! Thats more Metal Slug than any one person should have access to.

A Closer Look At SNK's Arcade Library

2008-07-22T18:30:00.041-04:00

The Future Is Now
With Vol.1 of an arcade collection released earlier this year on PS2 and soon to be released on Wii, SNK have thrown but a tray of appetizers out for ravenous hard core arcade fans to munch on. Before we look towards the obvious Vol.2 lets roll up our sleeves and dig for the treats SNK has buried at the bottom of its freezer.

Images KLOV

The Early Years 1979-1985
Not exactly Pac Man and Galaga
These early games were fun but didn't really stand up to the competition at the time. SNK needed a calling card game, a mascot, anything to stand out and win a few of the quarters destined for the bellies of Defender, Donkey Kong and Tempest. SNK's early years are fairly forgettable. Not much here worth putting on an arcade collection. I, like many gamers, did not own a Neo-Geo as a kid. I played most of these games via PC emulation although my memories of late 80's Saturdays afternoons spent at Electronic Avenue video arcade in the North Sydney mall, loosing many dollars to SNK games are vivid and many. As with all the games I blog about from this moment forward let it be known to all, I use emulation. I payed for a lifetime of free plays as a kid.

Ozma Wars 1979

Satan of Saturn 1981

Main Event 1984

Mad Crasher 1984

Alpha Mission 1985

The late 1970s and early 1980s were pretty much standard fair for SNK. The company pumped out a few dozen games, most of them pretty average and with the exception of Alpha Mission they really didn't produce any exceptional titles in those first few years as a struggling arcade publisher/developer. SNK were creative and resourceful however, and they managed to try and develop for almost every type of genre possible and even helped invent a few along the way.
By 1986 they demonstrated an obvious talent for developing action oriented shooters and were about to tighten the screws on the quality of their games in the face of fierce competition from Capcom, Konami, Data East and Taito. Arcade technology was moving forward in what seemed like huge leaps in the late 80s and SNK's games were about to get a whole lot better.

The Late 1980s
The Calm Before the Storm

The last SNK cabinet style before the Neo Geo hit.

Athena 1986

P.O.W. 1988

Mechanized Attack 1988

Prehistoric Isle 1989

Ikari III- The Rescue 1989

With a strong emphasis now on pushing powerful & expensive technology, SNK really started to pull ahead in the late 1980s. The graphics and art were beginning to hold up against Taito's and Capcom's. Players were treated to high quality sound and state of the art effects on more and more SNK games and most importantly kids were lining up to dump in their money. For the first time the company was turning a solid profit. As good as their games were in the late 1980s SNK was about to get a boost of power incredable enough to make a Libyan terrorist proud. SNK was secretly developing a technology that would forever place them at the pinnacle of hard core arcade and home gaming.

1991 The Neo Geo Hits Hard!Gone are the old style cabinets, the wood finish
and three button controls. The Neo Geo set a new standard.

The early 1990s...

The Home system...

Who cares if no one could afford it? You could buy the same game for the Neo Geo home system that you were playing in the Arcade!

I wanted one of these so bad.

The mid 1990s too many fighters.
Mid 90s cabinet

The late 1990s & the death of arcades...
The last North American Neo Geo cabinets

Much more soon...

Wii Fit Balance Board

2008-07-12T07:00:00.007-04:00

Just in case you weren't familiar with Wii Fit & the Balance Board, Heres how it works:

Wii Punchout

2008-07-11T19:31:00.004-04:00

According to Kotaku and its sources Punchout, the best candidate for motion controls added to an older Nintendo IP, is rumored to be coming out of retirement for one more big fight on the best selling system. The popular speculation sees the balance board being used for dodging and weaving and the controllers for throwing punches. Heres hoping for both Little Mac and Mii's as playable characters, and Bald Bull!

MEGA MAN 9

2008-07-09T14:50:00.022-04:00

The year is 199X!
Everybody loves the blue bomber.

The Facts:

Mega Man 9 will use (or limit itself to) the visual style of the first six NES games. 8-bit graphics, meaning 52 possible colors, 16 colors displayed at once, etc.

The music sounds very similar to the midi tracks found on the NES carts.

The game being developed by NTI Creates, the people who made the Mega Man Zero games.

A few bosses include; Plug Man, Galaxy Man, Jewel Man, Concrete Man, Hornet Man, Magma Man and Splash Woman.

The game is going to be available for download only via Wii, PS Network, and X-Box live in 720p or 1080i.

It will be available in japan in September, no word on the rest of the planet.

A trip down Mega Man memory lane...
Notice how the little guy is jumping in every shot? You do a lot of jumping in Mega Man, a lot of jumping and a lot of dieing.

The opinions are pretty split among the hardcore Mega Man fans as to Capcom's choice to revisit the 8-Bit era rather than continue the series in a pallet closer 16-32 bit graphics. It was no doubt a lot faster to develop this way and for $10 is definitely going to be worth it. If were lucky we'll be playing a new 8-bit Mega Man by Christmases. Now how about a new 8-bit Duck Tales?

Bullets Worth the Trip to Hell

2008-07-07T14:13:00.005-04:00

A classic shooter gets a true port on PS2

The legendary shooter returns alone. Developer Moss only has the one Raiden game under there belts so your shooter fix comes in at a heavy $40! Capcom, Taito and Midway all ask $25 for 15 to 30 arcade games, many better than this. The actual arcade cabinet kit is, however $1550 plus shipping.

It really is a shame about the price but you can get it used for $15 if you look around. Taito didn't include a single Raiden game on either of their arcade collections so this could have been somebody's chance to package a complete anthology but I guess the guys holding the card are having nothing of it. Like an expensive whore this series has been handed off to more than one developer who wanted a go. The Taito series first changed hands in the 1900s. Taito's loved shooter was handed to Seibukaihatsu Inc. in 1996 and the incredable Raiden Fighter trilogy was born. In 2005 Moss Ltd. grabbed the reigns and poured on the 3D visuals and effects with both arcades and PS 2 in mind. The result was a vertical shooter truly worthy of being the 3rd installment of the Raiden series, and definitely ready to give the any bullet hell cabinet in the arcade a run for its quarters.

Click above for a quick history lesson

Raiden 3 is as pure and classic an experience as it could possible be. The game fits in with Taito's past efforts perfectly. The weapons, the power ups, and the brutal challenge makes you swear Taito was involved in its development. Moss really puts the same visual polish to work here that made Gradius V and Ikaruga so popular with shmup fans. Weapons like the laser look very smooth and bosses explode with enough force to destroy your television. The music is also very well produced and increases in quality as the game progresses, by the final stage your sub will have the neighbors calling the landlord. Convince him to pick up the 2nd controller and help you finish the final stage. This game is shit-fuck difficult by yourself and you only get 3 continues!

If you have no friends you can tape the controller to your cat. His/her frantic attempts to get it off will inevitably hit the fire or bomb button. Every little bit helps. Here Capitan Fluffers and I get ready to fight a boss.

You get your weak wide shot, a concentrated, powerful blue laser and a multi-directional green laser for main weapons as well as a slew of missile types. Bombs have a handy way of wiping out all the bullets on the screen, making them a good item to stockpile for the grueling boss fights. You're only hope is to power up your weapons to deliver enough offensive might so as to destroy the boss before it unleashes "hell". If you die you can try to make a mad grab for the weapon containers with your new fighter leading, of course, to more death. As with all vertical shooters I pretty much restart the game if I die in the first couple of levels but I'm only playing on a normal difficulty. Seasoned pros would expect to reach the last boss without loosing a life. Alas, I am a shmup fan but no shmup pro. (except for Life Force on the NES, which I own)

How much longer will game design this old stay relevant?

Even though the game is over in about twenty minutes and I'm basically playing the same vertical shooter over and over regardless of what the name on the box says, I can't help but love this. Its savage and unforgiving but so easy to learn and addictive. Its a lot of self loathing but thats what all good shooters are made of. You die and die and you hate it, but you hate yourself more for having to play again, having to see it through to the end even if you get a big "game over" followed by digitized laughter after the credit roll. Shooters are either in your blood or they're not. This repetitive, flashy, twitch reflex gameplay will kill those can't handle it and constantly reward those who love it. Raiden 3 is for enthusiasts only.

The option Moss has included that lets you rotate the screen to better fit a 16:9 monitor is impressive. Be careful not to break your TV.

Jail Bait Battle

2008-07-05T10:30:00.004-04:00

Schoolgirls, Temple Maidens & the Magic of Elemental Gods

More than a Catfight

My expectations with Arcana Hearts were low. I knew that Atlus would deliver the goods as far as art and animation based on the quality of any of there past efforts on PS2. I in no way expected the actual fighting to be as immersive, challenging or rewarding as it is in Arcana Hearts. A lot off good is here for the taking if you love old school 2D fighting so I'll get the few negatives out of the way before the praise begins.

Atlus has made a solid 2D fighter here. Its kind of too bad they chose a soft girlish direction art-wise. They likely just scared off anyone who would have appreciated its depth.

Wow, the music is annoying. Turn it down, way down. The opening song is so dull its sleep inducing. The names of some of the characters are just completely unbelievable. Who wants to pick a fighter with the name Lieselotte Achenback or Fiona Mayfield and your final opponent is the unfortunately named Mildred Avalon. Quake in fear of Mildred Avalon! Story Mode is silly and dull, full of yawns and "who cares?" from start to finish. Not being able to skip the flashy VS intro leading into the fights was also really annoying and it takes absolutely forever to continue and get back in a fight once you are defeated in arcade or story mode. Arcana Hearts 2 just hit Japanese Arcades, it deserves a release here on PS 2 but hopefully it will be a little more player friendly than this. Speed is important, I like to get into the fight as soon as possible and Atlus has made that very cumbersome. We need to be able to skip the VS intros. The last turd to scrape off the stick here is the difficulty. Even on easiest its going to take some time to defeat good old M Avalon. At least hours and hours of practice will elevate this problem but Its going to take a lifetime of playing to get good enough to stand your ground against the computer on even a normal difficulty.

The graphics and animation are stunning.

The fights in Arcana Heart play out a little slower than you may be used to. The emphasis here is on the precise timing of your attacks. Suppress any button mashing urges you have, acting without thinking will get you slaughtered on the first match. After choosing from one of eleven girls to play as you get to team up with an elemental god or goddess who also number eleven. Choosing one who's abilities once activated suit your style as far as offense and defense go will take some experimenting. Invest some time in the practice mode to get a feel for whats going to be expected of you. Combos are tough to time but incredibly rewarding and don't ever feel cheap or gimmicky. The homing button will hurl you towards your opponent and give you a chance to start a fast devastating combo, dash to keep up with your opponent as they fly across the screen, reeling from your first attack and begin another combo before they even hit the ground. The juggling in this game is done so well its almost unparalleled, creating a unique epic feel to the matches not found in your average Street Fighter game. The effects are flashy but not distracting and never get in the way or take the place of real gameplay. The more you experiment and practice the more this game will truly reward you. The precise, methodical gameplay is not for everyone though. Fans of the speed and edge of say a Marvel vs Capcom style of 2D fighter may find themselves wanting to give up early.

The games fighting is so well executed and animated you'll really wish it had a record mode.

It does feel a bit strange beating the crap out of a ten year old girl and Atlus could have made a few of them a little older than seventeen but thats the way the ball bounces in the land of the rising sun. I was very impressed by what Arcana Hearts has to offer a 2D fighting fan. A good spread of game modes and options, a slew of art to unlock and more original game design than were used to from this genre. Now if I could just convince my friends to play it.

May The Best Neo-Geo Universe Fighter Win!

2008-06-29T16:10:00.009-04:00

Let The Battle Begin.

Not the North American game cover.

Around the same time I managed to track down Capcom vs SNK for the Dreamcast, years ago, I also picked up a X-Arcade two player controller. My library of fighting and arcade games soon grew and before long my friends and I were having evenings of impromptu tournaments, reliving our glory days as teens in the early 90s. Having never really played many SNK fighters in the arcades, I was a little hesitant when it came to using any of them in the vs games. I enjoyed beating the piss out of Geese, or Kim but I would never bother the try any of the SNK characters. I guess I just have Capcom in my veins when it comes to fighters. Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum for the PS2 has changes that bias forever. Here is a true 2D fighter worthy of your time and efforts.

The resolution is pretty good for SNK standards but still falls slightly short of Capcom's efforts.

40 characters! Six of them locked and pretty much useless Urin clones with only Athena as a decent secret playable fighter. You'll have to put up with tag team fighting for the most part but get a fair amount of customization and modes of play, no tournament mode though. Many of the characters from SNK's non fighting games are given a pretty good re-imagining here especially the Metal Slug characters. The art in general both for the fighters and the backgrounds is very well done considering just how low res the sprites actually are, except for the cheesy 3D crap. That shit is unforgivable and unfortunately scattered throughout several of the games backgrounds.

Stunning art, & very smooth animation make this such a rare & far removed 2D experience.

The control is as tight as any SNK fighter to date and that says tons. If you have decent fighter sticks you must own this title. It's as clean and precise as they come. You'll reach your limits as a player long before you exhaust all that any given character has to offer. The games balance may be a little wonky but when you consider the sheer variety of this colorful group its not so bad. You will see problems once you start fighting opponents with swords on harder difficulties, or using characters with swords. It would appear that swords beat fists & feet in the SNK universe.

Terry still gets the job done.

This $30 game is just under the bar set by Capcom but, in my opinion, better than any effort SNK has made in the fighting genre to date. Problems that plagued previous PS2 games like SNK vs Capcom SVS Chaos (muddy overpixleated sprites & choppy emulation) are nonexistent. All you get here is pure, refined, polished, 2D fighting. SNK style.

The Neo Geo Returns

2008-06-29T16:05:00.008-04:00

The Arcade is Dead & Buried but SNK Arcade Classics Vol 1 does a great job of reanimating its maggoty corpse.

Whats wrong with calling it Neo-Geo Arcade Classics 1?

A few years ago, when Midway released Arcade Hits Vol 1 I couldn't help but wonder and hope, would other arcade giants like Capcom, Taito and heaven forbid, SNK also re-release there libraries via greatest hits collections? Since then arcade game fans have been rewarded with release after release from many of the publishers who ruled the arcades and 7-11s in the 1980s and 90s. My own personal prayer to the arcade gods has finally been answered in the form of SNK Arcade Classics Vol 1!

This is what your missing since arcades died.

Including the unlockable World Heroes, you get 16 titles from the arcade powerhouse. Thats almost $3000 worth of games if you were to go hunt down the carts for the actual Neo-Geo home system. (people do it!) The games are from the early years of the systems appearance in arcades so we mostly get young incarnations of games that truly saw there genesis at parts III or IV but the game does say Vol 1, so I'd anticipate far meatier games on Vol 2 and 3. This game is a good "a la cart" way to test run some of SNK's best franchises. If you're not quite ready to blow the bread on Fatal Fury Collection Vol 1, or aren't sure about the upcoming Samurai Spirits Anthology, or find the idea of playing through 7 Metal Slugs a little to much of a commitment, then this $25 PS2 game may be the perfect place to test drive the originals.

Finishing Magician Lord proves only that you hate yourself.

Most noticeable about this disk are the surprises from games you have probably never played. Shock Troopers will leave your "kill button" thumb bleeding and Last Resort will both amaze you and cause you to break a controller in frustration. Remember, these games are designed to get the precious quarters from your pockets. Even with an endless supply and the comforts of home you'll still struggle to finish many of these unforgiving bastards. Unmeasurable fun.

Slow clunky fun.

I was a little surprised to finally experience Magician Lord, a game that had me wanting to import it, and a Neo-Geo system (I got a Turbo Duo instead) based on the screen shots alone back in the early 90s, only to discover that it's actually terrible. Great play mechanics seem to make arcade games endure so much more that just great graphics. Not all the games on this collection are what would be considered by many as "fun". I do see them becoming more significant however, as later volumes of this arcade collection are released.

Shock Troopers is better than M.E.R.C.S but SNK's The Nam 1975 & Viewpoint are no shows sadly.

In my opinion, a good compilation is part history lesson and SNK Arcade Classics has taken us to school as far as special features and unlockable info goes. The game also incorporates one of the best achievement systems in an arcade collection yet, nudging out even Capcom Classics Vol 2. You will earn medals for each of the preset goals that are reached. Be warned, your skills will be pushed to the limits of Billy Mitchel and beyond. Some of these medals will see you scoring millions of points without continuing before you posses them. The medal system uses the same perfect, addictive qualities that made these arcade games so good in the first place, and ups the old replay value. Get an arcade stick or two, get your combos back in action, and grab a copy of SNK Arcade Classics Vol 1! If Your Man Enough!

Resident Evil tight sexy pants!

2008-06-05T23:30:00.004-04:00

...and there she is. The other playable character in Resident evil 5. Faint whispers heard in the halls of Capcom Japan would have us believe that 2 player co-op with Mr. Redfield and this shotgun toting hottie is possible. Apparently A.I. will take over the character your not using in a 1 player game hearkening back to RE 2 & Zero. As incredable as this nameless beauty looks I sincerely hope shes not supposed to be black cuz that design is not even close. You would think with the game set in Africa Capcom designers could have had a full fledged African American playable character. As it stands this game sees one white dude killing thousands of virus infected black people. A little balance perhaps?

Planet Japan

2008-06-05T23:17:00.007-04:00

Its good to see 2D art for games is still being produced at a high level of quality. Japan's System Soft Alpha is the team behind the new RPG Moe Moe Niji Taisen Deluxe for the PSP/PS2. Its about Nazi teenage girls trying to take over the world just like Hitler did way back when, only sexier, and just as wrong. Those crazy Japanese, always good for a chuckle.

Silent Hill is really Sydney Mines NS

2008-05-23T02:10:00.003-04:00

Anyone who's been there can tell you that isn't far from the truth. No release date for Silent Hill 5 but a few pics found their way to Kotaku. After the strange departure Silent hill 4 turned out to be this return to form PS3 game will be a welcome treat for fans of psychological horror. For the first time in the long running Japanese produced series its being built from the ground up in the USA. Americans making a game based on a Japanese game that was based on American Horror films, weird, but Konami is proving that they have more to offer us than snakes in the upcoming year. I can't wait for the unending pummeling of foolish looking undead with sticks and crow bars not to mention opening and closing hundreds of doors. All in 1080P.

Nintendo built my Hot Rod!

2008-05-23T00:23:00.007-04:00

Remember the days back in the mid 80s when video games and Nintendo were synonymous? Contra, Bionic Commando, River City Ransom, kept us playing that tired old 8-bit system years after it should have been retired, but still we played. The Genesis with all its arcade might couldn't live up to the ingenuity and cleverness that went into so many NES games well into the early 1990s. When I look back at the gaming I did in my early teens it seemed like there were too many great games to even have time to play. I remember long afternoons spent in stuffy classrooms in T.L Sullivan JR High in Florence, CB, an issue of EGM carefully hidden inside my math book as I sit at the back of the class, ignoring trigonometry to stare at the blurry screen shots of Castlevania 3 fresh from Japan. Hours of drawing characters and levels from the games all over my trapper keeper. The game geeks were a pretty small group in 88. Outcasts, misunderstood, coveting out secrets and strategies from one another. Photocopying Nintendo power maps and constantly talking about games. We were the only ones who understood this addiction we shared.

Now playing video games is even more common than watching TV. Magazines have been usurped by the internet. There are no secrets to covet anymore. Parents understand the media better. Video games have been dragged out into the light so the Wall Mart crowd can pick at them and molest them until this once magical form of art is nothing more than an obnoxious fat head on the cover of piece of shit. Enjoy your big shit sandwich everyone, the best is behind us.

Pac man explained

2008-05-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

Brilliant design. Really annoying web animation.

Some 60 Gig PS3 owners frozen in time. Sony, shrugs shoulders & pretends not to see.

2008-05-03T19:25:00.000-04:00

Skynet explains: "At the moment, players all over the world are reporting frequent lockups and system hangs with their copies of GTA4, especially in the moments immediately following the game's opening cut-scene. For users affected by the glitch, even skipping the cinematic results in an immediate system lockup severe enough to require an actual physical power cut to the console in order to make it reboot." Mark Whiting-1up

Well, this sure sucks but it will prove interesting to see how fast Rockstar/Take Two get a patch up and available. With apologies to those who invested in a 60 gig PS3, I'm sure.

Jesse Jane - Bionic?

2008-05-03T15:19:00.001-04:00

It would explain a lot. For the last 5 years Jessy Jane's career has been riding high in the "Big Budget" adult film world.
Not the greatest body and a somewhat disastrous boob job cant hold back the obscene level of on screen personality and performance brought to the table in her last few films. In my opinion the adult industry hasn't seen the likes of Jessie Jane since Traci Lords.
If you haven't seen one of her films your kinda missing the point of owning a computer and paying for internet. Get downloading.