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| Sakura Wars: Flower Division Battle Columns |
- Released: 03/28/1997 (Japan)
- Developer: Sega
- Publisher: Sega
A mere 6 months after the release of the original Sakura Taisen on the Sega Saturn comes the Sakura Taisen series’ second piece of spin-off software. Whereas the first piece was a somewhat odd digital newsletter, making the second piece a Columns game made all the sense in the world since Columns is also a Sega property. A gut reaction may be that this is going to be a lazily put together game, crossing the two franchises in the most basic ways possible. I would urge anyone who feels this way to suppress this opinion and actually give the game a try though, as it ended up being quite surprisingly good.
The style of play is pretty standard fair to anyone who has ever played a Columns game before, or just about any puzzle game really: Sets of 3 colored jewels fall down from above in columns, and you can switch the order in which the colors are stacked (though not the horizontal or vertical orientation of the piece itself. This is Columns after all, not Tetris!) as the column falls down. If you match three or more of the same colored jewels horizontally, vertically or diagonally those jewels will disappear and you earn points. One new feature that doesn’t appear in basic versions of Columns is the gauge allows you to take special actions. The more blocks you clear, the more your gauge fills up. When it builds up once, you’re given the choice of a few different actions: Attack, Save, or Defend.
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| The details found in this game are very nice. Notice Sakura and Iris actually holding controllers and playing the game. |
The menu that you see when your gauge fills up. |
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| 魔界村 | Demon World Village |
| US: Ghosts 'n Goblins |
- Released: 06/13/1986 (Japan), 11/1986 (US), 03/23/89 (PAL)
- Developer: Micronics
- Publisher: Capcom
Like most great Capcom games from the 80s, Makai Mura began life as an arcade game that was released in Japan in September 1985. It even had a catchphrase: “youkoso irasshai…” (This would perhaps translate to something like “Welcome, come in…”). So even before you start playing, the off-kilter, somewhat creepy feeling of this game is already being conveyed. And no matter which version you’re playing, the introduction that you see as soon as you put in your money or press the start button will be the same.
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| Some of the first enemies you encounter are these flying knights that are supposed to look like ghosts. In the Famicom version though, they end up looking more like burritos that shoot leeks at you! |
The first encounter with the dreaded Red Arremer! He’s not so bad once you figure out his pattern. |
Arthur, a valiant knight and the main character, sits with an unnamed Princess (at least she’s unnamed at this point, she would later be called Princess Prin Prin) in a romantic graveyard just having a great time in his underwear, with his trusty suit of armor nearby. Suddenly the sky turns dark (or at least darker than it already was, everything in this world seems to be grim looking all the time), and Satan himself appears in the sky! He swoops down, grabbing the Princess and knocking Arthur backward, only to disappear. Well at that point there’s nothing for it but for Arthur to don his armor and go save the Princess! I suspect that Arthur has no idea what he’s actually in for though!
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| まもるクンは呪われてしまった! | Mamoru is Cursed! |
| US: Mamorukun Curse! |
- Released: 06/25/2009 (Japan)
- Developer: G.rev, Gulti
- Publisher: G.rev
“Mamonoro” (the shortening of this game’s full title, something that Japanese gamers love to do) is a shooter/shmup that was originally an arcade game running on Sega’s NAOMI hardware, released in July 2008. While the XBox 360 may not have ever sold that well in Japan, it did quickly find its place among hardcore shooter fans not long after its Japanese release. So it really is no surprise that this title was ported to the 360 not even one year after its arcade release.
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| Very nice colorful graphics on the character select screen |
Some of the enemies in this game are just crazy. They include giant fish… |
As was a trend in a good amount of shooters by this time, Mamoru is very anime-inspired. The character designs have a cutesy look to them, and appear as though they could have come right off of the screen of some sort of popular, pseudo-moe anime show (we won’t hold the moe part against this game though). Any shooter fan of old that picks up this game will immediately notice that it owes a lot to Taito’s Kiki Kaikai (or Pocky and Rocky) series in that it is a primarily vertical scrolling shooter, but it doesn’t actually scroll until you move your character across the screen. You’re able to shoot in all eight directions, a small amount of branching paths are present in levels, and the settings and music feature plenty of themes based around Japanese youkai (demons and ghosts) and mysticism in general. All of these features are Kiki Kaikai trademarks. In fact G.rev, one of the developers, were not only well known for high quality shooters at this point but also spun off from Taito originally. So if you’re a fan of that series, this one may excite you even more.
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- Released: 3DS and Vita – 07/12/2012, PSP – 07/19/2012 (Japan)
- Developer: Level-5
- Publisher: Level-5
The Visual Novel genre had seen a renaissance unlike any it had experienced in a long time by 2012. Japan had seen Visual Novels with incredibly high quality writing and sometimes interesting new game play mechanics such as “428 ~fuusa sareta Shibuya de~” (The “428″ is actually pronounced as “Shibuya”), “Danganronpa”, “Stein’s Gate” and “Kyokugen Dasshutsu Ku Jikan Ku Nin Kyuu no Tobira” (“999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors”) in recent years, so it’s only natural that the newest Visual Novel from Level-5, “Time Travelers”, could potentially be the next title to continue the cycle. But its success was not necessarily probable due to it being published and developed by Level-5 (who by this point had certainly had their share of successes, but also plenty of failures), it was probable because of the staff involved in its creation.
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| Kamiya Souma: Detective |
Fushimi Hina: Announcer |
The Director: Ishii Jiro. He cut his Visual Novel teeth on some of the famed Kamaitachi no Yoru games, but really proved himself as the director of the aforementioned hit 428 (Originally released on the Wii, later ported to the PS3 and PSP). It sold incredibly well for a Visual Novel, and was widely renowned for its interesting story. The Scenario Writer: Kitajima Yukinori. By this point he had written scenarios for a ton of different games, but most recently had been involved with 999. The Composer: Sakamoto Hideki. Sakamoto composed for various entries in the Ryuu ga Gotoku (Yakuza) series, Pokemon Fushigi no Dungeon (Mystery Dungeon) series and Aquanaut’s Holiday among many others. What did these three gentlemen have in common? Well they were the Director, Scenario Writer and Composer for 428. That’s right, the old team was brought back together again. And to top it off, Time Travelers even takes place in the same world as 428, just twenty years later in the timeline. As I had mentioned, 428 sold very well. So bringing its three key players together for another game was certainly in Time Travelers’ favor.
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- Released: 05/27/1986 (Japan), 08/1989 (US)
- Developer: Chunsoft
- Publisher: Enix
When you look at the immense popularity of Dragon Quest in Japan these days, it’s hard to believe that it came from anything but itself. It’s often credited as the first and most influential Japanese RPG. While it’s certainly one of the most influential, it certainly is not the first. It owes its design to a handful of different predecessors, a lot of which are western. Its predecessors however, are all RPGs that were released on PCs or other various home computers. The one thing that Dragon Quest can say is that it’s the first turn-based console RPG (the first console RPG was Hydlide).
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| The first enemy I encountered coming out of the castle, a good old Red Slime! |
And here is the irresistible Dracky, showing that a lot of the enemy designs were actually pretty cutesy. |
The Ultima and Wizardy series were both brought to Japan on various home computers, and were reasonably popular as well. Dragon Quest owes more to these series than any others: It borrowed overhead travel throughout a world map, the use of experience points to level up, towns being hubs for everything you need as far as equipment and healing, and separate battle screens from the Ultima series. Then it borrowed interactive battle menus from the Wizardy series. Japan even had some of its own computer RPGs at this point that no doubt influenced Dragon Quest, most notably Dragon Slayer and Xanadu from Nihon Falcom and the aforementioned Hydlide from T&E Soft (all of which were action RPGs). It’s fairly clear though that most of the influence on Dragon Quest came from western RPGs. And like most good innovations, qualities were taken from these western RPGs and improved upon in a way that particularly benefited a console game: They were made more simple. Since Dragon Quest was designed for a console (though it would see ports to various Japanese home computers later in 1986), hence perhaps more for the “masses”, it made a lot more sense to hide the more “hardcore” and “non user friendly” bits like screens full of stats.
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- Released: 05/27/2004 (Japan), 02/09/2004 (US), 04/08/2004 (PAL)
- Developer: Nintendo (R&D 1)
- Publisher: Nintendo
Metroid was released on the Famicom Disk System and NES in 1986, and for its time it was a fantastic game. It really helped to invent a genre, and its influence on gaming in general simply cannot be denied. As the years passed and its sequels were released though (Metroid II in 1991 (US) and 1992 (Japan and Europe) on the Game Boy, and Super Metroid in 1994 on the Super Famicom/Super NES), it quickly began to look and feel its age. It was Super Metroid in particular that really put it out to pasture, for all of the reasons that make it appear on many top SNES games lists. It just did everything that the original Metroid did, but orders of magnitude better. And it added something that the original was not too big on: Atmosphere.
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| Some sort of giant worm, the game’s earliest mini boss and brand new addition. |
Mother Brain is watching you! |
Fast forward to 2002, just about 8 years after the release of Super Metroid. After lying dormant for some time, the series had just seen a revival in the simultaneous release (in the US anyway, nearly simultaneous in Japan) of Metroid Fusion on the Game Boy Advance (which was a more classically inspired, Nintendo developed Metroid game) and Metroid Prime (the Western developed first-person adventure that would, at least for a time, be the new direction of the Metroid series). So needless to say, Metroid popularity was back in full swing again. When working on Metroid Fusion, ideas were already being thrown around as to what the next Nintendo developed Metroid game should be. Since Retro Studios was the star of the console Metroid world, it probably made the most sense to keep the Nintendo Metroid games on a portable platform. The DS wouldn’t be launched until the end of 2004, and since this game was announced in 2003 it probably didn’t make any sense to wait that long. That left making another Game Boy Advance title.
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| ガンダム無双インターナショナル | Dynasty Warriors: Gundam |
- Released: 12/27/2007 (Japan), 08/28/2007 (US), 11/09/2007 (PAL)
- Developer: Koei (Omega Force)
- Publisher: Bandai Namco Games
In Japan, Gundam Musou was originally released on 03/01/2007, only on the Playstation 3. It came to the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 simultaneously in the US on 08/28/2007 and to other PAL regions on 11/09/2007 as Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, with localized voices. Surprisingly, Gundam Musou would also be released in Japan on the XBox 360 later in the year as Gundam Musou International.
This version is essentially identical to the original Playstation 3 version in terms of how it looks, plays and sounds. It still does not include any online play or DLC content. However since it was released after the English localization was done, it includes the option to toggle between the original Japanese voices and the English ones. Why Koei bothered to add this feature into a Japanese release of this game is a mystery, especially given that there was no option for Japanese voices in any of the western releases (which probably would have earned Koei more points with fans than this).
Perhaps they thought that any Japanese gamers that would consider buying this title on the XBox 360 instead of the Playstation 3 might be interested in such a curiosity. Or perhaps they just thought Square Enix’s strange tradition of releasing an “International” version some time after the original was a good idea, though this game features neither additional game content nor the restriction of having only the English voices. For anyone who wishes to play this game in Japanese and prefers to play it on the XBox 360, this is the version to get!
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| ガンダム無双 | Dynasty Warriors: Gundam |
- Released: 03/01/2007 (Japan), 08/28/2007 (US), 11/09/2007 (PAL)
- Developer: Koei (Omega Force)
- Publisher: Bandai Namco Games
Very rarely are two popular franchises combined together in gaming so directly as with Gundam Musou. This is exactly what makes it an interesting case study, even if you don’t care about the giant that is the Gundam media franchise or the long running series of Musou/Dynasty Warriors games. Mobile suits and their pilots were quite literally dropped into the slightly tactical 3D brawler world of the Musou games. However, not all Gundam fans saw this combination as a very desirable one.
There have been a ton of different Gundam games over the years, but the best regarded ones tended to be either fighting games or strategy RPGs. The somewhat less artful, repetitive nature of a beat-em-up likely just felt too far away from those. It really poses the question though, does Gundam really fit so badly into the Musou template? While it may not have the depth of a good 2D fighting game or require the thought of a strategy RPG, I would argue that the fit turned out to be a rather good one.
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| As is usual for the Musou series, the pre-title screen cut scenes look fantastic! |
The usual pre-mission screen, but Gundam style! |
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- Released: 03/06/2014 (Japan)
- Developer: SCE Japan Studio, Marvelous AQL, Comcept
- Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
It has practically become a ritual in the world of Monster Hunter clones (though please see my article on the original Soul Sacrifice to find out why calling this game one may not be fair) to release an expanded version of a game approximately one year after the original has released. Monster Hunter itself started the trend with Monster Hunter G, and has done the same thing for practically every main installment in the series since. You can usually expect one of these expansions to add a ton of new quests and weapons. If you’re lucky, you may get a few new minor features, bug fixes or optimizations. They really are for fans of the first game who just want to play some new content and are willing to pay the price of a whole new game for it. I’m very happy to say that Soul Sacrifice Delta is a huge exception to this rule. Everyone involved really went above and beyond to create what, in many ways, feels almost like a whole new game.
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| Little Red Riding Hood’s character design is just awesome! |
Run in fear from this rather distubring depiction of the Three Little Pigs! |
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| 北斗の拳 | Fist of the North Star |
- Released: 08/10/1986 (Japan)
- Developer: Shouei System
- Publisher: Toei Animation
- Copies Sold (Approximate): 1,500,000
Not even one month after the very first Hokuto no Ken game on the Sega Master System/Mark III comes the first series installment on the Famicom/NES. Those of you who are savvy to either the NES or Hokuto no Ken game history may know that a game was released outside of Japan as “Fist of the Northstar”, however it was not this game. That release actually corresponds to Japan’s Hokuto no Ken 2 on the Famicom. Anyone who read my review on the Master System/Mark III game will know that while it had its faults and oddities, I felt that it was a legitimately good side-scrolling beat-em-up game for the time, and generally was a credit to its source material. Hokuto no Ken on the Famicom is inferior in just about every way.
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| I do love that they’re not called “lives” but rather “Kens”. The one thing this game does right? |
The exploding bodies are much more detailed in this Famicom game than they were in the Mark III game. If only they could have put such care into the actual graphics themselves! |
This is noticeable as early as the title screen: Sega’s Mark III game featured a very impressive rendering of our hero Kenshiro, but the Famicom game features only a logo. However, we certainly can’t fault a game for not having as much care put into it as Sega typically did with their titles. Upon actually starting the game, two things are immediately noticeable: It is a side-scrolling beat-em-up game as well, though it scrolls from right to left instead of the typical left to right. The graphics are also inexcusably bad for a Famicom title released in mid-1986. The game actually looks like it could be playing on an Atari 2600! The character sprites are utterly lacking in detail, and the colors of the backgrounds often make for a very dark and bleedy picture that’s difficult to see on a standard CRT TV. Though not nearly as egregious of a crime as the graphics, the music and sound effects are also very uninspired, particularly when compared to the previous game on the Mark III.
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