Takenobu Mitsuyoshi x Masayoshi Soken Interview

Magazine Translations

An Interview With Japan's Best Singing Company Employee, Sega's Takenobu Mitsuyoshi & The singing game developer of FFXIV, Masayoshi Soken - "Under The Weight" Wouldn't Exist If Not For Daytona USA!

Takenobu Mitsuyoshi is Sega's "Best Singing Company Employee": A game music composer having worked on such things as Daytona USA and the theme song for the anime version of Virtua Fighter, a band vocalist, and he's even made his solo debut singing other anime theme songs. Many have probably heard him singing songs such as "Kimi no tame nara shineru" and "Akachan wa doko kara kuru no?" in games such as "maimai", "Chunithm", or even "Phantasy Star Online 2". He held a dinner show for Sega employees back on 10/28/2019, which became highly talked about on Sega's official Twitter account. Someone replied to that tweet with "Can I transfer over to your company by 7:30 tonight?". That someone was Square Enix's Masayoshi Soken. Continue Reading

Looking Back on the Original Resident Evil 3 With the Announcement of the Remake

Magazine Translations

Fans are excited about the announcement of RE:3 remake, so in this special feature we're going to take a look back at the original Resident Evil 3 from 20 years ago! Will Famitsu editor Dedeo and writer Gojira Ota talk about the Famitsu strategy guide articles from back then!? Dedeo (Famitsu Editor) - His first job for Famitsu was writing the strategy guide articles for Resident Evil 3 in 1999. Finding the fun in knife-only runs and speed running the game, he's eager to walk around a more modern version of Raccoon City once again! Gojira Ota (Freelance Writer) - He joined Famitsu in 2000, and has been a freelance writer since 2007. He had a lot of fun with the series from parts 1 through 3 (his favorite), but he's a little foggy on them now. When RE:3 remake comes out, his job will be...just playing the game! Continue Reading

Perfect Performer: The Yellow Monkey

Reviews

Hardware: PlayStation
07/01/1999 (Japan)
パーフェクトパフォーマーザイエローモンキー

The Yellow Monkey (abbreviated "Yemon" or "Iemon") are often described as the band you'd get if you mixed 70's British glam rock and enka (traditional Japanese ballads) together. They started their career as an indie band who primarily played out of a Shibuya rock club called La.mama in the late 80s, which was something of a home-base for the "Japa-Metal" movement that sort of forked off into glam rock. The first several years of their career were spent struggling to find an audience, constantly being misclassified by Japanese media as visual kei. Their third major label album "Jaguar Hard Pain" finally started gaining them that audience in 1994, and their popularity slowly took off from there. After 1997's "SICKS" was released, they were one of the most popular rock bands in Japan. This is viewed by many as Yemon's best album, and is a very influential rock album in general. 1998's "Punch Drunkard" continued that upward momentum, resulting in a tour made up of 113 dates that lasted almost an entire year. Yemon was at the height of their popularity, so it was the best time to release a game that would take advantage of this. The singles for My Winding Road and So Young had been released not too long before this game, and both are featured in some way. Continue Reading

The Yellow Monkey: Trancemission VJ Remix

Reviews

Hardware: PlayStation
04/14/2000 (Japan)

This is less of a game, and more of a multimedia promotion tool for the movie Trancemission and the rock band The Yellow Monkey. For an overview on The Yellow Monkey, look no further than my article about Perfect Performer (the previous PS1 game they were featured in), or my ongoing look into their career if you're interested in more details. Trancemission was the first film by director Eiki Takahashi, and was a science fiction drama released in 1999. Takahashi was the director of "Spark" music video, The Yellow Monkey's 10th single that released in 1996. The band even appeared in this movie as futuristic policeman, and their 18th single "So Young" was used as the theme song for the movie. It also starred Jun Murakami, Natsuo Ishidou, and Chiharu Kawai. Matsudo (played by Murakami) is a regular salary man working in the stock market in forward trading. One day he gets a promotion, but something seems off. He's kidnapped by a mysterious organization, brain washed, and is now under their control. Continue Reading

Our Nostalgic Games: Moon Patrol

Magazine Translations

Our Nostalgic Games ~Retro Gamer Roundtable~ #179

Editors passionately discussing games playable on modern hardware that are just as good as they've ever been!

Arcade Archives Neo Geo (PS4) - Moon Patrol

A side-scrolling action game from Irem. Controlling a moon buggy that shoots up and forward, this game features Beginner and Champion courses. Original Release Year: 1982 Hardware: Arcade Date of Digital Release: 03/22/2018 Maker: Hamster Continue Reading