With the Creators’ Cats: A Cat Games Feature

Features

(The following is a translation from the 03/08/2018 issue of Famitsu magazine. Original page scans can be found at the end of the article.)

A Nyan-Nyan Special Feature: Was That Game Made With the Support of This Cat!?

With the Creators' Cats: A Cat Games Feature

In our February 1st issue there was a feature in which we introduced game creators' dogs. But we suspect there are a lot of creators that are cat people as well! So in honor of February 22nd being Cat Day, cats are going to be running rampant throughout this feature. So take a look at all of these creators' cute partners that support their hard work in game creation from behind the scenes! These pages are also packed full of all sorts of fluffy information on games in which cats appear or are befriended in! Continue Reading

The Ninja Warriors

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Arcade
02/1988 (Japan), 1988 (US, EU)
ニンジャウォーリアーズ

Just a year prior, Nekketsu Kouha Kunio kun and Double Dragon began to change the beat-em-up landscape by taking things off of a single plane, allowing characters to move up and down on the screen. However these sorts of trends usually take time to catch on, and games take time to develop. So The Ninja Warriors follows in the footsteps of the genre's grandfather Spartan X, and remains on "the belt". And if not for the the previously mentioned titles, the advancements that The Ninja Warriors introduced may well have made it as significant to the genre. Continue Reading

Spartan X

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Arcade
12/1984 (Japan), 1984 (US)
スパルタンＸ
Kung-Fu Master

Spartan X was an Irem developed arcade game in 1984, released overseas by Data East as "Kung-Fu Master". It served as one of the earliest example of a side-scrolling "beat-em-up" game (or "belt scrolling action" in Japan), a genre that would absolutely blow up in popularity in both arcades and on consoles over the next several years. It's safe to say that none of the many titles in the genre to follow couldn't have existed without this one. Continue Reading

Nier (Gestalt and Replicant)

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PlayStation 3, XBox 360
04/22/2010 (Japan), 04/27/2010 (US), 04/23/2010 (PAL)
ニーアゲシュタルト/ニーアレプリカント
Nier

Back in 2003, Drag-On Dragoon/Drakengard was a divisive release: It had a very layered and intriguing story, but badly implemented Dynasty Warriors-esque gameplay that just couldn't support it. It had many different endings that that were unlocked by fulfilling various requirements, the last one (ending E) being particularly odd. But it was the events of that odd ending that would lead into 2010's Nier. Though it doesn't take place in what you might think of as the Drakengard universe, the situation in the world of Nier is a direct result of Drakengard's E ending. In-game story details to support this wouldn't really come about until the DLC, but the pieces are there from the start. The Japanese slogan was "一人のために、全てを滅ぼせ" or "Destroy everything, all for the sake of a single person". Continue Reading

Gradius

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Arcade
05/29/1985 (Japan), 1985 (US), 09/1985 (PAL)
グラディウス
Nemesis

Gradius (originally titled "Choujikuu Fighter Gradius") wasn't the first shoot 'em up to grace arcades with its presence, in fact many big names came before it. Space Invaders, Xevious, Galaxian, Ozma Wars, and even western titles like Asteroids and Defender all came first. So why was Gradius significant? Not only did it introduce several "characters" that would reoccur throughout the Konami universe (The very ship that you control called the Vic Viper, Moai heads, etc), but because it fleshed out the details of exactly what the average horizontal shoot 'em up would become: A game about strict power-up management, and pattern observation/memorization, and reaction. This may sound negative, but shoot 'em up fans (myself included) have long since embraced what the genre is, and they really have Gradius to thank for making it that way. Continue Reading