Tag Archives: Arcade

Famista Evolution Interview with MCU

Features

(The following is a translation from the 06/07/2018 issue of Famitsu magazine.)

Interview With MCU, The First Artist to Sing a Theme Song For Famista!

The Famista series will feature a theme song for the first time in its 32 year history. And we're here with the artist who will sing "Famista Evolution", MCU of Kick The Can Crew!

Born 08/01/1973, and grew up in Sugamo in Tokyo. He's an MC for popular hip-hop group Kick The Can Crew. Continue Reading

Darius

Reviews

Arcade
1986 (Japan)
ダライアス

Darius certainly wasn't the first horizontally scrolling shooter, or probably even the first that comes to mind for most people. It wasn't even the first shooter from developer/publisher Taito. But it was one of the most innovative, and that's mostly because of the arcade hardware involved. Much like Taito's own The Ninja Warriors one year later, Darius was housed in a sprawling setup: Three either 19 or 15 inch monitors (later the 15 inch version would be the only one still in production), a "body-sonic" seat with speakers beneath it to make the player really feel the music, and even a headphone jack (not a common feature on arcade games at this point). Even with modern arcade hardware, it's very rare for a cabinet to be so focused on presenting both a superior audio and visual experience. Continue Reading

Dragon Ninja

Reviews

Arcade
04/1988 (Japan, US)
ドラゴンニンジャ
Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja

Hitting the arcades almost one year after the genre-changing Double Dragon and three years after grandfather Spartan X, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja was Data East's first beat-em-up. Like the recently released The Ninja Warriors, Bad Dudes leans into action movies featuring ninjas for aesthetics, since they were extremely popular at the time. Instead of controlling a ninja (well, a robot one anyway) against an army with the goal of assassinating the President though, this time you control a street brawling tough guy (or two, if you're playing multi-player) attempting to rescue the President from a group of ninjas known as Dragon Ninja. Continue Reading

The Ninja Warriors

Reviews

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

Gradius

Reviews

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

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