Remember Night Slashers? The 1993 arcade beat-’em-up by Data East? Do you remember that it’s getting a remake? Well, that’s out on September 26.

If you haven’t played it, Night Slashers is a solid beat-’em-up. It has the melty, goopy gore of Splatterhouse and the combat of�Um, I was going to say Final Fight, but it’s a lot looser than that. The Konami X-Men arc?ade game, maybe. It’s a nice mashy time. It was also avai?lable digitally last year from Johnny Turbo’s Arcade, but it got delisted.

I hope this remake isn’t the reason. I don’t mean to be dismissive �it has a decent art style, and it adds some additional features �but part of Night Slashers�app??eal was its pixel art style. It was a good-look??ing game for the time, and its graphics hold up. As much as the modernized art looks fine, it still takes away from the original.

On the other hand, it now supports four players instead of just three. This is enabled by a new character lifted from 1993’s Fighter's History, Liu Feilin. She’s cool, but kind of a disappointing pick. Hong Hua Zhao is already a female Chinese martial artist. So, now we have a cyborg dude, a waiter, and two female Chinese martial artists. I’m sure they control differently and have their o?wn strengths, but diversity, please.

On top of that are some custom modes and modifiers that you can wrap into the experience. The original is a so?lid game, and the remake looks competently done. It’s $9.99 USD, which seems more than reasonable. Just hard to get excited about.

Night Slashers: Remake is coming to Switch, PS4, PS5, ?Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC September 26,?? 2024.

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SNK has announced that they’re bundling up a selection of Hamster’s ACA NEOGEO titles into a couple of physical volumes. Right now, they’re only announced for Switch in Japan (thanks, Gematsu), though I personally expect that they’ll probably make their way over here eventually. If not, they’re very i??mportable as, judging from normal Arcade Archive releases, you’d be able to select from Nor??th American and Japanese versions.

Do you own none of the ACA NEOGEO releases and want to own all of the ACA NEOGEO releases? Well, too bad because each collection only has 10 of them. The selection on them is diverse but also kind of bizarre. Only two of the Metal Slug games appear in the collections, but while Metal Slug X is an obvious choice, the second one is Metal Slug 4, which is sort of the bastard of the series. Diversity is great, but why Metal Slug 4?

They also mix some spo?rts titles into the mix, which probably wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice either, but at least that makes a little more sense when it comes to diversity. You may not have played them before, and it’s a good reason to try them. 

On the other hand, this might also be a way to make up for slow sales. Like when a grocery store takes a pork cutlet that has gone grey benea?th the fluorescent lights, throws it in some bread crumbs, then puts it back on the shelf for another week as ready-to-cook schnitzel.

Anyway, ??here’s a closer look at the two collections:

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 1

• The King Of Fighters '94
• Metal Slug X
• Garou: Mark of the Wolves
• Samurai Spirits V (Samurai Shodown V)
• ASO II Last Guardian (Alpha Mission 2)
• Riding Hero
• Top Hunter: Roddy and Cathy
• Top Players Golf
• FĹ«un Mokushiroku: KakutĹŤ SĹŤsei (Savage Reign)
• Shock Troopers

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 2

• The King Of Fighters '95
• Metal Slug 4
• Samurai Spirits (Samurai Shodown)
• Fatal Fury 2
• Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
• Ghost Pilots
• Baseball Stars Professional
• Mutation Nation
• Big Tournament Golf (Neo Turf Masters)
• Stakes Winner 2

The? Japanese release date is December 12, 2024 on Switch. They’re selling for 5,940� which is roughly $41 USD at today’s exc?hange rate if the internet isn’t lying to me. No word on a North American release.

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I can’t say I normally pay close attention to the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC), but this year (as spotted by Twitter user gosokkyu), it is presenting the Engineering Division Award ??for Excellence to Hitoshi Iizawa for their very important work in arcade emulation. Not just any arcade emulation, but emulation o??f the early 3D-era Sega Model 2 and Model 3 platforms.

In terms of game preservation, arcade games are a difficult area. Each game could be on its own hardware or hardware variation. While console emulation focuses on recreating the hardware in a way that can run its library of games, a lot of arcade games have to be approached individually. Add to that the fact that 3D game hardware is much harder to emulate, and it can be a struggle.

The emulation was done specifically to fill out the arcades in the games by Ryu ga Gotoku studios. Games in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon/Judgment series had full recreations of Sega’s old arcade titles, such as Fighting Vipers, Virtua Fighter 2, and Sega Bass Fishing. Not only are the games present, but the cab??inets themselves (such as the Sega Blast City) are presented in painsta??king detail.

The award states that it’s in recognition of Iizawa’s technical expertise, as well as for presenting the buried games for today’s players. His work in porting old arcade games goes back to the �0s where he worked on Sega Ages 2500: Virtua Fighter 2 and later helped port Daytona USA to PS3 and Xbox 360.

Ther?e has been some progress in emulating Model 2 and Model 3 games by fan communities. However, having an official means to play these games is always a plus. I would like to see some titles from these platforms make their way to storefronts, rather than being con?tained as games within a game. Hopefully, this work will eventually lead to that.

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Taito Japan has announced via Twitter the remaining games for its Taito Milestone 3 collection. We previously knew of seven of the ten games. The two Rastan sequels were announced a little while ago. But it looks like the last game will be Dead Connection. We only have the Japanese release date of November 28, 2024, with?? a planned Nor?th American launch this Winter.

Here are all?? the included arcade titl?es, as shown on the banner:

• Bubble Bobble
• Rastan Saga
• Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2
• Rastan Saga 2 (Nastar Warrior)
• Champion Wrestler
• Cadash
• Thunder Fox
• Runark (Growl)
• Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode 3
• Dead Connection

It’s a great mix full of games that you should try if you haven’t played previously. Runark (Growl in North America) is something of an Indiana Jones beat-’em-up that has been getting a lot of reassessment and celebration. Cadash is a strangely generous attempt at a sidescrolling arcade RPG. Bubble Bobble needs no introduction.

Then there’s Dead Connection, which is seeing a console port for the first time. It’s a strange little beat-’em-up/shooter where the entire scene is depicted on screen, and you’re free to navigate your little guy around it, taking out thugs. It’s a bit like Wild Guns but without the Cabal-like shooting gallery setup. Somehow it didn’t land on the Taito Legends despite everything else on this list making it.

The Taito Milestones collections compile ten of Hamster’s Arcade Archives releases, usually including some that aren’t available individually yet. They’re pretty accurate ports of the original versions. I reviewed Taito Milestones 2 a while ago, but that wasn’t quite as stacked as this one.

Taito Milestones 3 is set to re?lease on Switch. Only the Japanese release date of November 28, 2024 has been announced. It will be released in North America sometime this Winter.

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Blaze Entertainment today has announced the newest member ??of the Evercade family, the Evercade Alpha. This version of the hardware takes the form of a tabletop arcade with a dedicated screen.

The Evercade is a retro-focused family of consoles and handhelds. What distinguishes it from mini consoles, is the fact that its games are stored on cartridge. The collections Blaze releases have included games from consoles, classic microc??omputers, and modern digital games, but one of the most important facets of its preservation efforts is with arcade games from developers like Toaplan and Data East.

So it makes sense to have one of its form factors be more arcade-like. It includes an 8�4:3 screen and “competition level�arcade buttons and stick. The deluxe version comes with Sanwa buttons, but I?’m assuming that you can probably replace them yourself if you're savvy. You can also plug in external controllers for two players.

If there’s one feature I’m missing it’s the ability to plug into an external display. It’s a fairly big unit to just p?lug into your TV, but it would be nice to have.

The Evercade Alpha is coming in two versions. There’s the Megaman Power Fighters version, which comes with the two titles in that series, as well as some classics like Final Fight, Strider, Knights of the Round, and Carrier Air Wing. The other is Street Fighter branded and has Street Fighter II�Champion Edition, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, and Street Fighter Alpha 1-3. The marquees are swappable, and the deluxe edition of e??ach comes with six different ones.

I’m interested in the Evercade Alpha because I love the Taito Egret II Mini and Sega Astro City M?ini, but I like the idea of being able to just slot in easy-to-obtain cartridges for more games. My only issue is the size because I don’t have a lot of surface space.

The Evercade Alpha will be up for preorder on June 4, 2024, and will ??be priced at £199.99/$229.99/�29.99 for the normal?? versions. The Deluxe versions will be more expensive, but the US price hasn’t been announced. In Europe it will be £249.99/�89.99.

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I technically never stopped playing retro games. When I had my Gamecube, I was still playing games on my SNES. However, around that time, I also bought an NES. The games I got with it �games like Total Recall and Kid Icarus �had me convinced that I just hated games on the NES. It wasn’t until I was introduced to a couple ??of games on this list, that retro gaming truly opened up to me.

I do believe that games age, but mostly on a technical level. Poor framerates and blurry graphics can make it difficult to return to an early 3D game. Their design, on the other hand, is rarely completel?y superseded. Video game development really just goes through trends. Right now, there’s a particular style of game ?that is favored by gamers, but this was different 10 years ago, which was different 10 years before that.

As such, it’s more of a matter of acclimating to the design climate of the time period, which can be difficult if you don’t know where to look. Maybe I can help. The following is a list of games that may provide you with a gateway into retro?? gaming. These aren’t necessarily what I consider to be the “best�games in general, but they’re ones that??, if you’re reluctant but curious to try older games, might be a good place to start.

Ms. Pac-Man (1982, Arcade)

Have you not played Pac-Man? Games of the golden era of video games (before the 1983 crash) can be a little dry for newcomers since they are more about competition through repetition. Whether you’re playing by yourself or challenging others, you’re still doing the same thing repeatedly, building skill??s, ??and trying for the best outcome. They tend to lack the progression that helps keep you glued to more modern titles.

Pac-Man is one of the retro arcade titles that are still easy to enjoy today, and ??tha??t’s partially because, on a surface level, it’s more dynamic and harder to predict. Instead of simply learning patterns and strategies, you’re also decoding the personalities of the four ghosts that chase you.

Ms. Pac-Man is an improvement over the first game in just about every way. There are more mazes, more dynamic ghosts, and a more attractive protagonist. Yum. It’s just too bad it was made without Namco’s permission. Now, because of various rights issues, Namco prefers to pretend it never happened. But we know better. And if you’re able to get your hands on a port of it, it’s a great jumping point for getting into the earliest d??ays of gaming.

The Making of Karateka (2023, Various)

Karateka on its own, is probably not going to sway you to playing?? retro games. Originally released back in 1984 for the Apple II, it looks and feels its age. That is to say, it's relatively basic and short. It was landmark for its? time, but it's a bit harder to appreciate through modern eyes.

Digital Eclipse's The Making of Karateka, however, puts the title in a new light. It's a digital documentary that supplements the game with behind-the-scenes information and interviews. In this way, it frames Karateka in a way where, rather than just being a game that you play, it's the result at the end of a journey. It helps build an appreciation for the industry, for the creative process, and for the creators w??ho make them. There's a story behind every game, and by learning these stories and understanding the process, you can foster a more meaningful appreciation?? of not just retro games but video games in general.

Punch-Out!! (1987, NES)

The gameplay in the NES port of Nintendo’s 1984 boxing game is so refined and so unique that it’s timeless. Outwardly, you might be expecting a competitive boxing title, but Punch-Out!! is actually a much simpler game of pattern recognition and reflexes. It’s a series of battles where you must memorize the tells and movements of a progression of stereoty?pes until you come out on top. Or probably not. I’ve been playing the game for years and haven’t been able to beat it.

If you’re hesitant, there is a less old 2009 version of Punch-Out!! for the Wii. The kicker is that they barely had to change anything aside from th?e graphics. However, it might give you a taste of what you’re in for.

Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988, NES)

The Super Mario series has long been considered a great entry point for newcomers, not just for the genre but for video games in general. As such, it’s hard to beat Super Mario Bros. 3 wh?en it comes to?? easing into the bygone generation of platformers.

Quite simply, it hasn’t aged like other platformers of the �0s. Nintendo pulled out all the stops when it came to working around the limitations of the NES, which allowed them to become a lot more creative with the level design. There’s an endless amount of variety across the worlds, and while the later stages of the game can get pretty difficult, by then, Super Mario Bros. 3 will probably have its hooks in you.

If I have one reservation, it’s that Super Mario Bros. 3 will only superficially help you get into retro games. Mario 3 is sort of in a league of its own. There’s no real way to gracefully go from this to, say, Castlevania, because, while I consider that to be a better, meatier game, it’s a completely different ballgame.

Out Run (1986, Arcade)

Polygonal 3D racing games have largely superseded the quasi-3D raster effect that powered some early racing games like Out Run. The raster method was, after all, a visual trick to give the impression of a 3D environment, and once you can do that for real, you don't need tricks anymore. However, Out Run differentiates itself from modern racing games just t?hrough its basic?? concept.

While most racing games are about, er, racing, Out Run is simply about driving. The only thing you're racing against is the clock as you speed down the highway, attempting to reach the next checkpoint before your time expires. There are other cars on the road, but they're merely obstacles. They aren't competing with you. And with a joyful and relaxing soundtrack that sucks you into the experience, it's so much more about vibes than challenge. Other games have tried the same thing, but none have nailed it quite like Out Run.

The Sega Ages release of Out Run on Switch includes the option to turn off traffic altogether, making it simply an experience about?? driving your Ferrari along the scenic route at high speed without a care in the world.

River City Ransom (1989, NES)

Beat-’em-ups or brawlers are often a safe bet, as the core gameplay of the genre hasn’t really changed much since the beginning. The same is generally true about River City Ransom, as much of the gameplay is largely just throwing fists and feet at ??yo??ur opponents.

The big difference is that River City Ransom puts you in an explorable city and has you level up by eating food. The only real punishment that comes ??with death is that you lose half of your money and are sent? back to the last shopping area. If you’re having trouble in any specific fight, you can always grind out a few coins and improve your stats before trying again.

I often say that River City Ransom is as much about shopping as it is about fighting, and in that way, it’s something of a precursor to the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series.

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990, PC)

The point-and-click adventure genre had its heyday in the â€?0s, died in the early â€?0s, was resurrected a few years later, and now has fallen to the side while more narrative and choice-driven adventure titles take the wheel. One of the best pockets of retro titles you can delv??????????????????????????e into is the Lucasarts SCUMM adventures of the â€?0s. Iâ€?™m speaking on anecdotal evidence, but I feel like these games are a sort of pilgrimage for anyone stepping into retro gaming.

The best place to start with these is 1990’s The Secret of Monkey Island. Technically it’s a follow-up to games like Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken, but here is where I feel they hit their stride. The Secret of Monkey Island is funny, surprising, and doesn’t lean too heavily on cryptic puzzles. As a warning, these sorts of games can be extremely overwhelming when you first drop in and find yourself inundated with all kinds of interactive distractions. However, if you stick with it for just a little while, you?’ll most likely grow comfortable.

Retro Game Challenge (2007, DS)

Sometimes, you need to build up your context for retro games before you can really appreciate them, which is very difficult to do in a modern world full of collections and subscription services. Retro Game Challenge for DS has you transpor??ted back to the '80s and the Famicom's heyday. While a?ll the games in this collection are fictional, they were made to represent what was popular at the time, as you advance through the years.

Each game presents a number of challenges which ranges from dead simple to a bit off the beaten path, which allows you to progress quickly without needing the skills to completely topple the games. However, the most important part of this is the way it captures the time period. Its depiction of history is more based on the Japanese experience, having been based on the Japanese show, GameCenter CX. However, the way it drags you back to the era and immer??ses you in it through magazine is?sues and rumors provided to you through child-version Arino can help build an appreciation of how things were back then.

Street Fighter II (1991, Arcade)

Fighting games changed forever after the arrival of 1991’s Street Fighter II, and they really haven’t changed all that much since then. Because of this, Street Fighter II plays just as well today as it did in the �0s.

I’d say it’s impressive that any game got its formula so perfect on the first attempt, but it really didn’t. The original 1987 title relied too heavily on an arcade gimmick where the strength of your attacks relied on how hard you pressed the buttons. As a result, it was really inaccurate and not all that much fun to play. Street Fighter II, on the other hand, made incredible use of its six buttons, giving its handful? of characters a varied array of moves. 

Street Fighter II was so popular it kicked off a boom in both arcade titles and fighting games in general. The marketplace was quickly swamped with pretenders trying to live up to this game, and admittedly, some did. But while there are flashier, better-looking, and more advanced fighting games to play, it’s hard to deny that the best place to start is with the Godfather of them all, Street Fighter II.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991, SNES)

It’s hard to do wrong when picking up a Legend of Zelda game (though, I’d at least recommend you stay away from Adventure of Link), but The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is arguably the entry that is most timeless. The NES titles tend to be unfriendly to newcomers, while the N64 games have the early 3D barrier. Link to the Past, on the other hand, contains everything that makes the series great without comprom??ise.

Moreover, it contains colorful graphics, joyful controls, and one of the best soundtracks of the era. Its presentation is downright legendary. There’s very little to complain about with Link to the Past, which makes it the best?? way to ge??t into the series.

Mega Man X (1993, SNES)

The NES Mega Man series is the gold standard of platformers, but they can still be a bit intimidating if you’re new to the series. So, instead of jumping into Mega Man 2 (which isn’t a bad choice, honestly), Mega Man X on the SNES is your best bet for not only getting into the gre??ater series but for this particular flavor of platformers in general.

Mega Man X took the hop-and-shoot gameplay of the classic series and made slight tweaks that had significant repercussions.? The simple addition of more verticality in stages changes the flow of the game entirely, and the Blue Bomber’s new dash ability makes everything faster.

But, more importantly, itâ€??™s less difficult than most of the classic series. This isn’t simply because the bosses are easier or that there’s less instant death; it’s because there are more options for you to get out of trouble. You have more ways to recover from small mistakes. As such, it’s a great way to ease your way into the platforming genre in general.

Banjo-Kazooie (1998, N64)

The early 3D era of video games is arguably the hardest one to get into. While there was a great deal of experimentation as the industry adjusted to the new dimension, it also came with a lot of missteps, technical issues, and intrusive jank. There are some great experiences in that era that don’t get the spotlight very ?often, so learning to ada??pt to the shortcomings of the time period can be extremely rewarding.

Banjo-Kazooie is one of the few games of its genre that doesn’t suffer from a lot of control and camera issues. Well, truthfully, the camera isn’t great in the original N64 release, but it isn’t bad. It’s fixed in the Xbox 360 HD remaster, so that might be something to consider.

Rare built Banjo-Kazooie on the foundation laid by Super Mario 64. A lot of the eponymous bird and bear’s techniques are almost exactly copied from Nintendo’s exploratory work. However, for their title, the developers simplified an?d refined the controls. The result is an extremely beginner-friendly 3D platformer. It’s not without its frustrations, but it’s a good starting? point for newcomers.

Metal Slug (1996, Arcade)

The run-and-gun sub-genre of sidescrolling games is notoriously brutal. They typically require fast reflexes and keen pattern recognition skills. In a lot of ways, Metal Slug is no different. Originally developed for the Neo Geo MVS a?rcade platform, part of its design is based around eating quarters. As such, there’s instant death, relentless enemies, and tricky boss encount?ers.

However, this is eased in a lot of console ports. Usually, there’s an option for unlimited continues, which removes much of the punishment for death. In this way, it’s easier to appreciate ??some of the best pixel art to ever hit a CRT screen.

It’s hard to go wrong with choosing a Metal Slug game to start with. My suggestion is to at least play the first, X, and 3. They’re generally 45 minute to an hour-and??-a-half to complete, so you can burn through all three in an afternoon.

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Developers Cradle Games and Raw Thrills as well as publisher GameMill Entertainment revealed today that the classic arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is coming to PC and consoles on April 23, 2024. This expanded version of the arcade beat-em-up marks the first time Wrath of the Mutants is available outside of arcade format.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants, players can jump into the action solo or local co-op as Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, or Michaelangelo. Based on the 2012 Nickelodeon series, Wrath of the Mutants takes place across a variety of environments including Coney Island and Dimension X as players try to defeat the Foo??t Clan and arch-nemesis Shredder.

All the turtles are voiced by thei??r original voice actors: Seth Green, Sean Astin, Rob Paulsen, and Greg Cipes.

I'm not gonna lie, I've in??vested some quarters—who am I kidding, dollars—into this one at Dave and Busters over the years. I?t will be tempting to just knock out a few levels from time to time. However, even though local couch co-op is a nice touch, It's a bit of a bummer not having the option for online co-op.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants launches on April 23, 2024 on PC, Pl?ayStation 4, PlayS??tation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch for $29.99.

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On paper, 1995’s Cool Riders sounds great. It was the follow-up to 1993’s Outrunners, which itself was a multiplayer follow-up to 1986’s Out Run. Only this time, it’s on motorized bikes. Then you see it, and you realize Cool Riders is one of the least cool games to exist.

Let me back up a sec here. Cool Riders is absolutely one of the best retro games I’ve been introduced to this year. It’s a year where I feel something finally snapped in my head, and I’ve come to legitimately enjoy a lot of kusoge. But the thing about Cool Riders is that it certainly looks like kusoge, but it doesn’t play like it. 

It’s sort of a Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game situation. While the game’s graphics give you that whiff of kusoge, the mere fact that it’s built on the bones of a better game means that it’s still enjoyable. Better than enjoyable, actually, Cool Riders is a riot.

The fat is in the fire

By 1995, following some tentative hesitation, Sega was well into its conversion to 3D arcade games. Cool Riders is a bit of a strange latecomer. It was one of the last games to use Sega’s Super Scaler effect, pairing it with your typical raster effect to create 3D visuals. To put this into perspective, that year would have it competing against Sega Rally Championship for floor space. It was also the only game to be produced on the Sega H1 Board, which meant that the MAME community had quite a struggle getting it emulated properly.

The strangest part of Cool Riders, however, is the game itself. I’d love to see what the development pitch was like. It looks like something that was thrown together, but when you really dig into it, you realize that the whole thing was deliberate. A whole bunch of digitized actors and photo manipulation to create something that looks like an unholy union of Katamari Damacy and early �0s animutation.

It’s a bizarre maelstrom of ideas, with drivers that include a lady on a Vespa, a cowboy, and a devoted father. It’s obvious that the developers at Sega AM1 weren’t taking this very se??riously, but how such a mish-mash of ideas came together, I’d like to know.

Seriously, I would like to know what the development of Cool Riders was like. There’s precious little behind-the-scenes information I could find. Not that it’s usually easy to find background information on â€?0s and â€???0s arcade games unless they’ve made a massive impact, but Iâ€??™ve never been this curious before.

Grandpa Is Still Alive

What separates Cool Riders from Outrunners and, well, most games at the time is its use of digitized photography. That wasn’t entirely rare at the time, with Mortal Kombat famously utilizing this approach. But games like that and Pit-Fighter were earnestly trying to look good. Futuristic, even. The art in Cool Riders obviou??sly isn’t trying to ac?hieve that. It fully embraces its ridiculousness.

People who have worked with porting the game have said that it uses a lot of assets from Outrunner, but I would never believe th?at the two were related. It’s hard to really describe the visual style.

It’s like if walkedoutneimans decided to travel back in time and get a job at Sega. It’s like someone dropped a travel magazine in a blender and hit Frappe. It’s like a Bible game that gave up on ??Jesus partway through development.

The game’s premise is essentially the same as the Out Run games. You’re given a time limit to reach the checkpoint on a continuously splitting sprint.? This time, however, you have the option of traveling West or East across the world or just keep your journey in the Americas. However, the world is depicted through the eyes of someone on psychedelics who never left their apartment.

Here Come Queen of Hurricanes

Even Japan, the country this game originated from, is depicted with sprinting ninjas and old castles. One of my favorite courses is the East Indies, where you travel across the ocean floor while flanked by sharks and giant octopi. You zoom through these stages at a blisteringly fast speed near the edge of control. Part of the challenge is just being able to read the obstacles that are constantly streaming by the edge of the ?road.

The drivers are incredible. A backstory for each of them is hinted at, and they’re given a lot of fanfare for characters we have never met before. There’s the aforementioned woman on a Vespa who is aided by official-looking dudes in suits. There’s a Frankenstein’s monster of a robot and an old man riding a souped-up, old-fashioned moped. One that I mentioned is this biker-looking ?dude who rides on a tricycle with his two children. Who are these people?

The game opens with Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf, which sounds like it fits more with a Harley Davidson stuffed in the corner of a movie theatre. Then you get into the game, and each of the characters has their own theme, and they frequently feel completely divorced from what is happening on-screen while also being kind of good.

The cabinets usually came in a pair, allowing you to race agai?nst a friend or unwelcome stranger. It doesn’t really affect much in gameplay, as the timer is your primary adversary, but whoever wins in any leg of the race gets to choose which branch is taken next. It’s a?? nice but unnecessary addition.

A Little Good

I’m not sure I can really express how much fun Cool Riders is. I got into it mostly because I lo??ve exploring Sega’s Super Scaler games, but I quickly found myself hooked. I played it over and over, ??trying to reach the game’s absurd finale. I’m no doubt going to pick it up again after this.

It’s an absolute sugar rush of a game, with bizarre, eye-catching scenery flying by. Endless basketball players in Chicago, Dracula in Romania, Mount Rushmore in the Rockies for some reason. It’s incredible it begs you to try and explore all the tracks, to test out every driver, to dive further and further into the mind of a broken genius. It helps that it was built on the bones of Outrunners and is made better because it is ??absolutely in on the joke.

The fact that Cool Riders has never been ported is a travesty. Nothing on the Sega Saturn, not even a nod anywhere else. It feels like Sega doesn’t even know it exists, buried deep down in its back catalog. For that matter, Outrunners hasn’t been ported outside of an absolutely abysmal Gen?esis/Mega Drive version. 

I don’t have much hope for it getting ported now, especially given how much trouble it gave MAME developers, but I’m going to make it my mission. At every possible opportunity, I’m going to bring up Cool Riders. I’m going to talk about it until everyone knows ?about it. Whenever I’m face-to-face with a Sega rep, I’m going to bring it up, searching for that spark of reco??gnition or watching them squirm as they try to figure out what I’m talking about.

Cool Riders must ride again.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post Cool Riders for Arc??ade is just a beautiful, captivating mess appeared first on Destructoid.

Primal Rage maybe wasn’t the best fighting game to hit arcades in 1994, but I have some fond memories of playing it with friends. I wish we could get some sort of re-release, or maybe even a release of the canceled (but apparently finished) Primal Rage 2. But we’re not talking about Primal Rage. We’re here to look at DinoRex.

Released by Taito in 1992, DinoRex has a lot in common with Primal Rage. There are dinosaurs animated by stop-motion and humans in the foreground. I would use that same description for both games when trying to explain them to someone who hadn’t played them before. However, while Primal Rage is an “okay, not great�game, DinoRex is more of a “so bad it’s kind of good�kind of game—the very best flavor of kusoge.

It is just incredible.

Ancient Anger

DinoRex is a fighting game where you play as a mostly-naked dude in a mask. He’s got a whip, but it’s not what it looks like, I swear! Your dude wants to become the DinoRex or something, which supposedly means being the best at forcing a dinosaur to fight another dinosaur. While you’re stuck with being a buff naked man, there are seven dinosaurs you can pick from, ranging from chubby to annoying. Each on??e is extremely different to control, so maybe don’t try to switch midway through a game. It’s like learning to roller skate again after a severe head injury.

Apparently, there’s a part of the world where archeologists apparently have never been, where dinosaurs existed well after their alleged extinction. Long enough that people were able to ride them. DinoRex sees humans doing what humans do, as we take these critically endangered creatures and make them fight for our amuse??????????????????????????ment.

There’s a prize for whoever manages to coerce their dinosaur into winning the tournament; they get to become King. I think. The text crawls that try to tell the narrative are hilariously mistranslate?d to the point where I don’t think I fully understand what’s going on. There’s some sort of queen involved, but I don’t really know how she plays into this. I think it might just be an excuse to have a woman in a loincloth?? on the attract screen.

I’m not even being facetious or disingenuous here. DinoRex has more expositional cutscenes than you usually see in this sort of arcade ga?me, and I still can’t really tell what’s going on. It starts out simple enough, then you blink and find it rolling down the steep slope into madness. I still can’t tell if the Queen is some sort of overlord or a prize for winning at dinosaur abuse. It’s very eager to tell you nothing at all.

Primitive Fury

It’s also really difficult to describe the gameplay. It subscribes to the general idea most fighting games following Yie Ar Kung-Fu did. You hold a direction, pr??ess a button, and your dinosaur does a thing. However, I’m not sure how many different moves each one has or how they relate to th??e combination you’ve pressed.

Here’s how you win, though: find the button/direction combo that makes your dinosaur latch onto its opponent’s? throat. Keep doing that? until someone dies. You win.

If you want to cinch the win, you can force your dinosaur to do its special move. Your special bar is segmented into three pieces. You fill it by holding up, which makes the dinosaur throw its chubby head back and give a mighty roar. Then, once it’s filled, you can hit the special button and then just walk away. So long as it doesn’t get interrupted, your dinosaur will pull off one attack for every segment of the bar you have filled. So, if you have one bar filled, it will knock its opponent back once. If all three are full, your dinosaur will?? hit the other dino once, wait until it stops skidding along the ground, hit it a second time, wait for it to stop skidding again, and then �you guessed it �hit it again.

The three-hit process takes literally 10 seconds, ??which,?? when put in the context of arcade games in general and fighting games specifically, is approximately a decade. In these 10 seconds, no one needs to press a button. The sequence cannot be interrupted. You are a slave to the dino-combo.

Primordial Animosity

On the other hand, the special combos are kind of cool. If there’s one thing that DinoRex does legitimately well, it’s the de??struction of its environments. Amazonians scatter, cages are crushed, and dust flies up as structures gi?ve out under the ample bodies of the dinosaurs.

It’s not the absolute best part, however. The best part is that every few battles, there’s a bonus stage. These are framed as being dreams, but they involve your portly pal marching through modern cities and wrecking buildings. These don’t really play any better than the fight scenes, but the mere fact that you’re kicking army dudes and knocking hel??icopters out of the sky makes them worthwhile spectacles.

?There are two city bonus levels, but the last one is k?icking Amazonians for some reason.

Weirdly, the dre?am sequences seem to tell a side story. Your dino pal is wrecking up Ho Lee City, which is run by Mr. Ho Lee. Beyond just running a city, Mr. Ho Lee als?o has some sort of tower that he’s really protective of. He hires the police and military to protect that building in particular from the rotund reptile wreaking havoc, so your ultimate goal is to knock it over.

What that has to do with anything, I have no idea. However, succeeding, you’re rewarde??d with the “Collopse of the cIvIlIzatIon�[sic, obviously]. Simply incredible.

Uh... Past Vexation

At the end of the fight, for absolutely no reason, a pterodactyl swoops down and snatches up the Amazonian dude as they grieve the loss of their best dinosaur friend. Sometimes, they just fly off with the guy, but every once in a while they’ll just swallow them whole. Th??is sort of player shaming was what made this era of arcade games the best.

It’s hard to tell if the developers were in on the whole ridiculous spectacle �if it’s intentionally humorous or accidentally funny. There are times when it seems like they were trying to make something cool that might pull people away from Street Fighter II, but other times, it’s just too ridiculous to be accidental. Exactly like Deadly Premonition, is what I’m saying.

And like Deadly Premonition, I absolutely love DinoRex. For a long time, it was never ported. It did land on a Taito compilation for PS2 in 2007, but only in Japan. I probably wouldn’t have discovered it if it hadn’t landed on the Taito Milestones 2 col??lection for Switch. More recently, it’s also available as a standalone Arcade Archives rele?ase.

Every once in a while, I come across a kusoge that just is so fascinatingly inept that I practically fall in love. DinoRex was one of these games. I’m so enthusiastic about its terribleness that this is the third time I’ve written about it and each time, I extoll how incredible it is to experience. This is one of the best parts about art across all m??edia. Whether something is well-executed or not doesn’t matter in the least. What matter?s is how well it connects with you.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post DinoRex for Arcade is a ??spectacle o?f portly dinosaur violence appeared first on Destructoid.

An arcade fighting classic of the '90s is about to return to game centers in Japan. Sega announced an updated version of Virtua Fighter 3tb, which is set to debut on November 28. 

The new arcade iteration is, appropriately enough, titled Virtua Fighter 3tb Online (via Gematsu). O?n top of updated balancing and new skills, the meat of this version is the addition of online battles.

Thanks to Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown's technology, 3tb Online lets players take on others throughout Japan. Players can also put their ??names and records ??on display and edit and view them on the official website with the use of Aime cards. 

What is Virtua Fighter 3tb?

Virtua Fighter fans in Japan got their first crack at Virtua Fighter 3tb when it made its arcade debut back in September 1997, a little over a year after Virtua Fighter 3 launched. Like the Online addition to the new version, the tb in the title is pretty straightf??orward. It refers to the thre?e-on-three team battle mode that served as the arcade update's default state.

A flashback to those halcyon arcade days serves as the introduction to the new trailer. The preview also showcases the aforementioned Aime card compatibility before rolling into some of the sound?track options and flashing through the playable roster, from Akira to Jeffry McWild.

The whole thing looks like a treat for fans of the earlier entries in Sega's long-running series, but for now, it's a Japan-only delight. There is currently no announcement a?s to whether Virtua Fighter 3tb will make its way outside ??of Japan or to home consoles.

The post Virtua Fighter 3tb Onli??ne brings the f??ight back to arcades appeared first on Destructoid.

How’s your week been? Mine? Horrible. Worse than normal. So, it’s time for some self-care. Get in your pajamas, order some pizza, and let’s get into some Super Smash T.V.

Smash T.V. was originally released in arcades in 1990. It was designed by the legendary Eugene Jarvis, the guy behind 1981’s Defender. More importantly, he created 1982’s Robotron: 2084, which is the godfather of twin-stick shooters. Smash T.V. was built as a spiritual successor ?to ??that game, so it has all the features you’d expect, which is to say, it is also a twin-stick shooter.

Super Smash T.V. is the title used by the SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive, Master System, and Game Gear versions. What makes it “Super?�N??othing. Absolutely nothing. It’s just a straight port of the arcade title.

Go! Go! Go!

The SNES version is what I’m most familiar with, and it’s the one that is closest to the arcade version. For the Genesis and other versions, you can use the second player controller’s d-pad to work as a second stick, but the SNES has the now-standard four face button configuration, s??o the buttons just act as a second d-pad.? It works well, providing 8-way aiming that matches the arcade.

It also sounds the closest, even when it comes to voice samples. On the other hand, when played through the Genesis�FM synth chip, the soundtrack is amazing.

Smash T.V. lifts pretty heavily from �0s dystopian action flicks. Specifically, its premise is about a game show where contestants bet their lives to win big prizes, which is similar to 1987’s The Running Man. However, it also lifts from 1987’s RoboCop, with the rampant consumer themes and the host of the show frequently spouting, “I’d buy that for a dollar!�/p>

I feel like the �0s were the point where everyone was becoming wise to the fact that modern comforts and excessive consumerism were doing harm to humanity. While a lot of media at the time sincerely bought into the decade’s excess, others were looking at it with cynicism. It was a theme that ran under a lot of media at the time, resulting in the best era of cyberpunk and other dystopian narratives. Ideas like Max Headroom and The Terminator are emblematic of the times, and Smash T.V. captures that perfectly.

Total Carnage!

The actual game show, the eponymous Smash T.V., is equally glitzy and violent. Hordes of enemies pour in from the doors on all sides of the arena. Each one dies in an explosion of blood, though the console v?ersions, unfortunately, don’t include the dismembered body parts that added a splash of color to the carnage.

Meanwhile, pick-ups of all types appear at random as you wade through the relentless m??asses. Enticing things like money, VCRs, keys, and power-ups keep popping into existence to distract you from the walk-and-chew-gum gameplay of a twin-stick shooter. Worse yet, for each carefully wrapped present that you pick up, it will tell you what you’ve just won beneath your score. Did you find a 2600�Television, or was it a toaster? Don’t take your eyes off the shrapnel guy; he’s about to blow, and you need to get out of the path of his projectiles.

The feeling of excitement as you don’t just rack up points but also toasters is supplemented by the end-of-round tallies. As your buff dude in the dumb-looking helmet stands behind a podium, your VCRs and TVs get converted into points, stacking up behind you, accompanied by a buzzing noise building to a crescendo. If you manage to collect enough keys throughout the game, you win the ultimate prize: a trip to the Pleasure Dome. Except you don't, because the Pleasure Dome doesn't actually exist in the game.

Meanw??hile, the show’s host pops up every so often to spout a one-liner, flanked by outrageously buxom women. “Big money! Big prizes! I love it!�or “Total Carnage!�among others. Unfortunately, the SNES version doesn’t show him taking overt glances at the women’s cleavage, but he still wiggles his eyebrows.

I'd buy that for a dollar!

The gameplay itself is dumb fun. There ??isn’t a huge variety of enemy types, but there’s always a lot of them. Typically, there are the ones that arrive in swarms, while others will just complicate ??things by adding deadly projectiles to the mix. There are tank cyborgs and guys that explode, sending shrapnel in eight directions.

If you’re familiar with twin-stick shooters, or generally any shoot-’em-up, you know that it’s about finding a flow state amongst the chaos. Being able to watch where you are while still keeping aware of the situation. That’s Smash T.V.

Then there are the bosses, who are every bit as ridiculous as you’d expect from the game. The first boss, Mutoid Man, is a giant man melded to a tank. Your pea-shooter is useless, so you need to grab whatever power-up you can to simply damage him. Thankfully, he can’t shoot behind himself because he has no neck. You blow his arms off, and when you destroy his head, it explodes in a shower of heads. Then, when you destroy the body, there’s another head underneath it. Simply incredible.

Good luck! You'll need it!

On the other hand, it’s extremely difficult. Smash T.V. in arcades was a no?torious quarter-muncher. The SNES version adds to this my favorite bugbear: limited continues. You have only a very small number of lives and continues before you’re starting the whole thing over again.

I’m not saying it’s impossible. There are three stages. On my first try, with the default number of lives and on the normal difficulty, I made it to the end of the second stage. For my second atte??mpt, I used a cheat that adds additional lives and continues, and with that, I made it to just before the boss room on? the third stage. I could maybe/probably slice that down, but it is very difficult.

Luckily, you c?an also recruit a second player to join in, which is an absolute blast. I once tried to pressure someone into playing repeatedly until we could beat it with the default number of continues, but th??at didn’t last long before they escaped my basement.

Digital Prozac

Feel better? No, me neither. But Smash T.V. is one of those games that force me to hyperfocus to the ??point where I can’t hear the things bouncing around my?? head. It’s effective relief, if only temporary.

Speaking of which, Smash T.V. did get a sequel called Total Carnage. Whereas I feel like Smash T.V. leverages its tacky satire to great effect, Total Carnage just feels plain tacky. It’s mostly a humorous take on the 1991 Gulf War, which feels pretty gross to write out. It’s probably made even less tasteful because of more recent conflicts. It also feels like they’re lifting another running joke from RoboCop, where the news would play off devastating events like they’re just the daily business, then pivot directly to feel-good fluff pieces. The difference is that RoboCop is using actual satire, and Total Carnage feels like it’s simply making light of war. But again, that may just b?e in the light of more recent events.

Smash T.V., on the other hand, plays perfectly fine. I just wish we could get a port on modern systems. There was a port on Xbox 360, but it got delisted in 2010 after the company went bust. The last time we saw it on a home console was 2012’s Midway Arcade Origins. Without digging through the used section, the only way to play it now is on Antstream Arcade. Why? Because Warner Bros. bought all of Midway’s properties and seems to think that the only one of value is Mortal Kombat. But then, they’re also pivoting more to live service games, apparently, which is somehow ??even more depressing.

I think I’d better play some more Smash T.V.

For othe??r retro title?s you may have missed, click right here!

The post Super Smash T.V. for SNES is a great way to unwind af?ter a crappy ?week appeared first on Destructoid.

[Update: The full song has been released! You can find i??t on YouTube as part of this Game Changer album playlist, as well as via the embedded video below. The album can be found on iTunes and BandCamp. And you can find the full music video here.]

The Grammy award-winning The 8-Bit Big Band and Lawrence are releasing a new cover of the Marvel vs Capcom 2 song "I Wanna Take You for a Ride." It's been covered many times by the VGM community, but in this inst??ance, new verses and a bridge accompany the adm?ittedly repetitive tune.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 jam gets taken for a ride

Despite the original release from Marvel vs Capcom 2 repeating the same line over and over again, it's one with a special place in fan memories with a funky beat too delicious to ignore. Thankfully, The 8-Bit Big Band and Lawrence ?bring their own vision to the bop with a full song based on the loop. This version adds new lyrics, verses, and a bridge next month on November 10.

The 45 seconds released on social media from The 8-Bit Big Band has an outstanding suite of brass instruments and thrilling vocals. Almost time for MAHVEL, baby.

Last year, the 8-Bit Big Band (and Button Basher) won a "Best Arrangement - Instrumental or A Capella" Grammy for its cover of "Meta Knight's Revenge" from Kirby Super Star. Since its release in 2021,? the theme received over 1 m?illion views on YouTube.

Perhaps with this upcoming Marvel vs Capcom 2 cover, they'll get another Grammy. Nevertheles??s, The 8-Bit Big Band has an upcoming show in New York?? on December 15. Its fourth album, "Game Changer," accompanies the Marvel jam on November 10.

The post The 8-Bit ??Big Band and Lawr?ence transform popular Marvel vs Capcom 2 song (Update) appeared first on Destructoid.

There aren’t enough games that you can play as a Centaur. Or Centaurides, I guess. Or Centauresses, if you prefer. There aren’t enough games where you play as people with butts that are also horses. I’d have to think very hard to name a single one, which is why it’s unfortunate that it’s taken me so long to find Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder.

I’m familiar with the Golden Axe series, but I mostly know them from the games on Sega Genesis. My cousin and I used to play the original quite a bit, though we preferred Streets of Rage. I later discovered that the Japan-only Golden Axe III let you play a?s a ripped, shirtless panther-man. So, that’s pretty gr??eat.

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is a bit unique, however, in that it was arcade-exclusive. It has, to my knowledge, never been ported to a home console. The closest thing we have now is the Sega Astro City Mini, which isn’t exactly available all o?ver the market. I’m not sure why Sega is trying to keep all the centaurs under wraps.

[caption id="attachment_403173" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Me and my Centauride

It may be important to point out that Dora the Centauride isn’t the only character to choose from, but the only reason why I can imagine anyone choosing someone else is if they’re playing co-op and someone already picked Dora. It’s like playing Final Fight and not choosing Mike Haggar. You can choose someone else, a?nd they may even be easier to play as, but you??’re clearly not having the best experience.

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder has four-player co-op if you happen to be on a cabinet that supports it. The Astro City Mini only supports two players, but I’m sad and alone, so it’s just me and my Centauride. That’s a shame, because co-op looks so cool. There are tag-team moves you can pull off, sort of like the Road Warrior’s Doomsday Device. So, if you have someone around who’s weak enough to bully into playi??ng as someone other than Dora, it looks like a fun time.

Dora, on the other hand, comes equipped with one of those big cotton swabs from American Gladiators. Her attacks are kind of cute. Sometimes, she’ll just jab someone with the end of her cotton swab, whereas other times, she’ll rear up and pummel them with her front hooves??. For whatever reason, her dash attack is one of the worst of all the characters. I figure all the weight from the extra horse meat would make her more deadly in motion, but that’s not the case. Even?? more strangely, however, is that she has a jump kick that’s really effective. I guess horses can jump, I just don’t expect it when there isn’t a fence in their way.

[caption id="attachment_403174" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Horse meat

If you’re unfamiliar with Golden Axe, most of the core games are belt-scrolling brawlers. The first one was released in 1989 for arcade and Genesis/Mega Drive, and was unique for having monsters you could steal from enemies and ride around. Final Fight would be released later that year and immediately establish the standards for brawlers with its tight gameplay, but Golden Axe still stands on its own for its fantasy setting.

Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is honestly not too far off from that. There’s still a weird floatiness to the combat, and attacks don’t really feel all that impactful. Likewise, there’s still no grab function, and I absolutely hate it when a brawler doesn’t have grab attacks.

On the other hand, the magic system has been revamped and is much easier to quickly understand and strategize around. There are branching paths to take through the game. There are sections where the perspective changes, and you walk away from the sc??reen as things scale towards you. It looks both bizarrely off-kilter and fantastically Sega.

One weird feature is the inclusion of mountable weaponry. Things like little miniature catapults and ballistae. Enemies drag them onto the screen and then can only hit you if you’re standing on the same horizontal plane. If you knock them off of it, you can then control the weapon yourself. Once again, you can only hit things in two directions, but enemies don’t have a problem lining u??p to take a boulder in the face. The whole thing looks? goofy, but it’s also completely awesome.

[caption id="attachment_403175" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Disappearing horse butts

Really, though, this is the best Golden Axe in the series because you can play as a Centauride. Pony peop?le make everything much better.

Another bizarre facet of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is the fact that Dora can still ride on beasts, but to do so, her horse butt ??disappears, and she just has a pair of human legs. That’s pretty cowardly. I w?ant to see a horse lady straddling a gigantic mantis. Having her magically grow a human backside is cheating!

There’s also a scene where the party is briefly captured and confined by being strung up by the wrists. So, Dora is hanging there by a rope, and her whole back half is off the ground. That seems painful; all that horse meat held up by her shoulders. I mean, she’s muscular and all, but horse butts are pretty heavy. I’m sort of making an assumption here. I’ve never tried to lift a horse, I just kind of assume that I can’t, and ??that I probably wouldn’t like it.

[caption id="attachment_403176" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Centaur bias

I talk a lot about the Centauride, but that’s only because that’s the only feature you need to sell me on a game. But beneath the horse-butted woman, Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder is a pretty great brawler through its other merits. I mentioned that it’s not a whole lot different than Golden Axe, but that’s largely underselling it.

What I love most about it is its personality. It has a sort of fantasy B-movie vibe to it. There’s some subtle humor packed in aside absurd magic that brings it to life. The anim??ations are incredibly detailed, and the backgrounds are varied and impressive. You maybe don’t ride on the back of giant birds or adventure through towns on the backs of giant turtles, but there is an obnoxiously long ship, and you do catch a ride on a dragon. The little gnomes from the first game that you kick around to steal magic from are back in this one, alongside the camping intermissions between levels.

In a lot of ways, I prefer Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, even to Capcom’s Dungeons and Dragons ??arcade brawlers. But, once again, that just might be because of t?he Centauride.

[caption id="attachment_403179" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Raiders of the Lost Arcade

My recent purchase of a Sega Astro City Mini has demonstrated to me that, while Sega is hardly the worst company when it comes to handling its arcade classics, there’s still a lot buried in its catalog that doesn’t get a lot of recognition. Considering that Golden Axe is one of their more renowned franchises and there’s a huge gap in the market for Centaur games, it’s rather surprising that we’ve seen so little of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder.

That’s a shame since it’s easily the best entry in the series, even beyond the presence of half-horses. So, hopefully, Sega will eventually get around to giving it a wider re-release. But while I’m asking for unreasonable things, can we also have more games with Dora the Centauride as a playable character? I know the last attempt to revive Golden Axe went terribly, b??ut maybe that’s just because it didn’t have ?enough pony-people.

For other re?tro titles you may have missed, click right here!

The post Golden Axe: The Revenge ??of Death Adder gives us much needed ??Centauride representation appeared first on Destructoid.

Sonic the Hedgehog first appeared in 1990’s Rad Mobile for arcade a few months before the first Sonic the Hedgehog game. He appears a??s an ornament dangling from the ceiling of the car.

I wanted to get that bit of trivia out of the way because it’s often all anybody knows about Rad Mobile. That is, if they even remember the name. I say that because I could never really remember it. Not until I becam??e interested in pre-3D racing games.

This is mostly because Rad Mobile was only once ported to console and never in North America. That is, until it was chosen as one of the games for the Sega Astro City Mini. That’s still a pretty niche platform in this part of the world, so I’m still wa?iting for it to finally get the spotlight over here.

[caption id="attachment_399105" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

That pesky hedgehog

Rad Mobile is interesting to me because it uses the “Super Scaler�pseudo-3D technique that Sega built their hardware around. It’s best remembered for Space Harrier, but it was used in OutRun and Hang-On. However, both OutRun and Hang-On used raster effects for their pseudo-3D road, whereas Rad Mobile just makes heavy use of scaling sprites. This is the same technique used by 1988’s better-remembered Power Drift.

So, rather than your car driving on a bac?kground layer or single sprite, you’re actually riding across a steady stream of overlapping sprites that gradually get bigger to simulate parts of the road getting closer to the screen. It’s as obvious as it is effective. Because it was easy to create bridges and hills using Super Scaler, racing games that used the effect typically had a lot of variation in elevation, to the point where they can sometimes feel like roller coasters.

Despite being designed by Yu Suzuki, Rad Mobile is hardly the best racing game of its era. The floatiness o??f the car and the difficulty in gauging depth with 2D sprites combined with the first-person pers?pective makes it feel quite janky. However, it still has a lot going for it and I love it all the same.

[caption id="attachment_399103" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Are we there yet?

Rad Mobile is your typical story about a race across the United States, from West to East coast. This would also be seen in Turbo OutRun and Cruis’n USA, among others. The journey is separated into 20 short tracks, each depicting a different location. Like many racing games at the time, you have to make each checkpoint within a short time limit to replenish your clock. However, ?on t??op of this, you compete against other racers on the same trip. If you’re careful, you can drive across the U.S.A. in less than half an hour, so I’m not sure why planes exist.

I’m not sure that Rad Mobile was ever intended to be played with a digital controller. The Astro City Mini version allows this, but most cabinets I’ve seen have a steering wheel. It’s a Sega System 32 ??board, so it most likely could have been installed in a real Astro City arcade cabinet, but the car controls are so sluggish and pressing an ?arcade button to accelerate is so uncomfortable it feels like a racing wheel is necessary. Still, it plays okay with a normal arcade stick.

[caption id="attachment_399102" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A long drive for someone with nothing to think about

A lot of Rad Mobile’s appeal comes from the variety it has stretched across the continent. Some tracks play at night, and you have to activate headlights to get a better view of the road. Meanwhile, it rains on others, and a pair of wipers keep your windshield clear. My favorite, however, is one that forces you to drive on train tracks and puts an impending locomotive in your rear-view mirro??r, threatening to clobber you if you clip a wall.

Speaking of clobber, there are police in some legs of the race. I’m not totally clear on why, but sometimes, if they get ahead of you, they’ll pull you over. Then, a police officer walks up to you and absolutely crushes your?? (formerly) radical automobile w?ith one punch. It was a weird era in video games where people beat up a lot of cars, I guess.

One of the strangest parts, however, is the Rocky Mountains. If you slip off the edge of the track, you fall through nothingness for a few seconds before the road reappears beneath you and catches your car. It wrecks your ca?r, but it was at least nice of the level to loop back around to give you something to land on.

[caption id="attachment_399100" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Scaling for consoles

The Sega Saturn version of Rad Mobile, Gale Racer, is something of a strange conversion. Largely, it’s a pretty reasonable port of the arcade game, but it’s also not as good. Mainly, this is because every track is separated by a loading screen, whereas the arcade version feels like o?ne continuous journey. This not only kills the feeling of long-distance travel, it also eliminates the competitive feel of the gam?e. You still pass cars on your journey, but it seems more like you’re doing it for score rather than to win a race.

Also, your speed tops out at around 300km/h for some reason, compared to the arcade's 170km/h. You still move at the same clip, the speedomet?er just?? reads differently.

The other vehicle are rendered in polygonal 3D, for some reason. The car also handles a lot crappier. There are police vehicles, but I don’t thin??k they can pull you over anymore. The worst part about it, however, is the draw distance. It’s a lot smaller than the arcade version, which I’m guessing is because the Sega Saturn doesn’t have the same dedicated sprite scaling hardware. However, it could also be because it released in 1994, and most games of that time were rushed for the new hardware.

On the other hand, there’s a two-player mode. The soundtrack is a lot better. It’s also interesting that it didn’t come to North America, because it’s entirely in English. There’s ev??en a text crawl at the beginning that is complete??ly in English, but has Japanese subtitles.

Still, Rad Mobile is better than no Rad Mobile.

[caption id="attachment_399106" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Sega Arcade Arena

Sega seems to be having trouble figuring out what to do with all its arcade classics. They’ve provided a slow trickle of their best games through series like Sega Ages, but a lot of them are still inaccessible. The Sega Astro City Mini is nice, but it’s expensive and works better as a showpiece than as a? m??ini console.

They need something like Capcom Arcade Stadium. Some sort of bigger compilation of their arcade titles that don’t absolutely need online connectivity. That, or they need to let Hamster dig through their back catalog for the Arcade Archives series. Or something. I j??ust hate having to scour through old ports to try and find specific titles.

Rad Mobile is worth scouring for. It pokes me directly in my love for road trips and appeals to me through its weirdness. Too often, racing games are ju?st monotone and serious. It’s no wonder I just cling to any driving game that offers more than just four wheel and an engine.

For other retro titles you may hav?e missed, click right here!

The post Sega’s Rad Mobile deserves to be remembered for more than just its dangling keychain appeared first on Destructoid.

Taito and Inin have announced that a port of 2005 arcade title, Spica Adventure, is coming to Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox One sometime in Sprin?g 2024.

Never heard of Spica Adventure? That’s not surprising, considering it was only released in Japanese arcades in 2005. It’s a twee sidescroller that is sometimes considered a spiritual successor to Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III (also with an upcoming port). Y??ou play as Nico, who beats the crap out of robots with a magical umbrella. It’s an interesting platformer in the classic arcade style that came out when t?hat particular niche had gone all but extinct.

//youtu.be/HP7rF_d8j64

This is really good news for another reason. It might mean Taito is eyeing some other Taito X board games that were never released outside of the arcade. Chase H.Q. 2, maybe? Or, heck, we could use a Chase H.Q. collection. It’s exciting to have Taito mining through its back catalog of arcade games with things like the Taito Milestones collections.

The arcade platform benefits heavily from preservation efforts. Even if there were home ports of a given game, they were often inaccurate. Because the hardware was often extremely different from game to game, emulation can be difficult, so some companies just don’t even ??bother. It’s nice when someone makes the effort.

Spica Adventure will be coming to Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox in Spring 2024. Physical editions for Switch, PS4, and PS5 will al??so be up for pre-order on November 14, 2023.

The post Obscure Japan-exclusive Spica Adventur??e coming west with modern port in 2024 appeared first on Destructoid.

I have to wonder if the fighting game boom of the �0s would have lasted longer if companies didn’t pump out sequels at such a dizzying pace. When you have Street Fighter Alpha 2 and X-Men vs. Street Fighter alongside Street Fighter III: New Generation and Street Fighter EX, what do you choose? These all came out in a roughly two-year span. The arcade mentality generally meant you dedicated yourself to a particular cabinet so you could dominate all competitors. A lot of people still weren’t willing to move away from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

Of course, I wasn’t part of that scen??e at the time, ?so I’m kind of just talking out of my ass here.

But with that mindset, Bloody Roar 2 arrived just over a year after the first game. This was not at all uncommon. In fact, if Hudson didn’t have a new version of Bloody Roar available so soon after the last game, they’d be left behind by the Tekkens and the Virtua Fighters they were in direct competition with.

I don’t have to worry about that now. I just discovered the Bloody Roar series for myself. So I got to move on to Bloody Roar 2 when I was ready for it.

[caption id="attachment_395081" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Fighting in flip-flops

Bloody Roar 2 is largely a refinement ??of the first game. However, a lot of big changes were made. Only four of the eight playable characters from the original roster return (technically five if you count Bakuryu). Seven are added, but two have to be unlocked, which roughly brings the roster up to 11 fighters.

Once again, these fighters have their regular human flesh mode, but during the battle, they can build up a gauge that allows them to transform into a furry. While some of the more interesting transformation??s from the first game, like Mitsuko the Boar and Hans the genderfluid Fox were removed, we do get Busuzima the Chameleon ?and Stun the “Insect.�You win some, you lose some.

The ones that do remain have had their movesets rejiggered. My main girl Alice lost easy a??ccess to her deadly spinning roundhouse, but she st??ill has her Frankensteiner grab. Her roundhouse is now part of a combo (down-back+kick, back+kick) and isn’t quite as vicious. So, I instead made friends with her dropkick as a way of launching foes across the arena.

Also, Alice is like, a nurse now. But she doesn’t dress in scrubs. She has on what is essentially a sexy nurse outfit with thigh-high stockings and a skirt that is way too short to be ??throwing kicks in. I dunno, I’m not big on it. You can unlock a black alternate version that puts pants on the girl, but I still prefer her sportier look from the other games.

Return of the roundhouse

The general gameplay is the same. It’s an era-typical 3D fighting game, but the ring is boxed in with fencing. This is sort of like Sega’s Fighting Vipers. You can break the walls, but unlike the first Bloody Roar, which gave the option to have walls breakable just by knocking an opponent into them enough, they’re only breakable in Bloody Roar 2 when you finish off yo??ur opponent. K?ind of a drag, actually.

However, they added the all-important block button. You can still do a “light guard�the same way as the first game by just not moving. However, heavy guard is now mapped to the R1 button. After playing so much of the original, it was heard to make my brain learn to use this in Bloody Roar 2.

Finally, Rave Mode has been repl??aced by a “Beast Drive�special attack. Each character has this super powerful move in beast mode. This expends beast mode immediately, which really sucks if you don’t manage to land the atta?ck. However, it can also be a really flashy way to empty the rest of your bar if you’re about to get kicked back into human form.

[caption id="attachment_395083" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Furry rights

The biggest addition to the PS1 port is a story mode, but the narrative is, at least, very poorly told. The Tylon Corporation that made the zoanthrope??s was taken out in the first game. Now, there’s a Zoanthrope Liberation Front who claim to fight for furry rights, but are actually just following in the footsteps of Tylon.

However, each character’s story ju??st has a lot of dialogue between fighters and serves as a really weak basis for them to fight. Alice’s story, for example, has her trying to help Yugo find Bakuryu, and then, for some reason, Gado decides she’d make a good leader and fights her. It’s the kind of story that is just kind of unremarkable and dumb, which is typical for a fighting game of the era. However, trying to describe it?? in shorter terms makes me want to vomit.

Still, a story mode is a great addition to add alongside the arcade, survival, and time attack. Fighting games are at their best ?when you have someone to compete with, but having ways for unlikeable people such as myself to get enjoyment is always appreciated.

[caption id="attachment_395084" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Come back when you're ready

Aside from some give-and-take and a lame narrative, I don’t have any significant complaints about Bloody Roar 2. I wish it didn’t take? me so long to finally?? try this series out because it has really clicked with me.

While I liked the simplicity of the first game, Bloody Roar 2 feels much more solid. Landing a deadly combo feels a lot more earned, and the strategy doesn’t lie solely on how well you manage yo??ur beast mode. I mean, choosing the right time to slip into your fursuit is still a big, big part of it, but it’s not quite as pronounced.

People have already been warning me that Bloody Roar 2 is where the series peaked. However, my local purveyor of retro games says it was Bloody Roar 3, while others have said Bloody Roar: Primal Fury. I haven’t heard anyone say Bloody Roar 4, so that’s worrisome. Unfortunately, I don’t have such easy access to any of the remaining titles in the series, so I’m going to have to take them as they come. Hopefully, Bloody Roar 2 is able to keep me satiated until then.

For other retro titles you may have miss?ed?, click right here!

The post Bloody Roar 2 for arcade and P?S1 exp??ands the fluffy fighting appeared first on Destructoid.

Totally Studly

I have an affectionate fascination with video games that look fictitious. Whenever a TV show, movie, or even cartoon wants to depict a legally distinct video game for their characters to play, they always show something that looks familiar but is entirely wrong. It’s like the uncanny valley of vi?deo games.

It shows a charming unfamiliarity with the medium. However, when it happens in an actual game, you realize that couldn’t be possible. Some?one who has to be familiar with other games made this. Looking like an accident was, in fact, an accident.

1990’s Pit-Fighter has an excuse. It was one of the first attempts at using digital images of actors in a video game, a technique that would be made popular by 1992’s Mortal Kombat. There is also an excuse for it being about as much fun as eating a bowl of glass. It was released before Street Fighter II came along and demonstrated how fighting games should be made. On the other hand, I’m not sure what its excuse is for looking like a tournament held at the local neighborhood sex dungeon. Someone in 1990 thought Pit-Fighter looked cool, and they were tragically wrong.

[caption id="attachment_392163" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Awesomely done

Pit-Fighter is about an underground fighting tournament. A tale as old as time. What makes it stand apart is its hairless, baby-oil-slathered protagonists. You’ve got three choices: a kickboxer, a karate guy, and a wrestleman who looks like he pooped himself. They’re macho in the way that bodybuilders are macho. That is to say, not at all, but I wouldn’t say that to their fa??ce.

Meanwhile, your enemies are a bunch of leather daddies and one woman who has decided to fight in thigh-high stilettos. The big bad boss is literally this big dude in a leather mask and bondage harness. I’m not one to kink-shame, but I feel that Pit-Fighter must have confused the development of a lot of young teena?gers.

You fight your way through 10 rounds. This doesn’t last long, but Atari Game?s made sure to create it in a way that necessitated pumping in a few quarters thr??oughout its playtime. You only have one health bar for the entire game, so unless you can somehow manage to never get hit, you’re likely going to need to slot a few more coins if you want to give Big Daddy Masochist a spanking at the end.

[caption id="attachment_392165" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Confusingly erotic

A lot of Pit-Fighter's actual mechanical issues are related to the timeframe it was released in. 1990 was pretty early for its digitized graphics. As such, there is absolutely no artistic flow to anything. There are few frames of animation, so there’s a jerky quality to everything. It uses a lot of sprite scaling to make things more dynamic, but it just makes things even more sickly and fake-looking. I never really liked the method of digitizing actors for games, even when it was done well in games like Mortal Kombat, but they had to start somewhere.

The whole product is just so viciously ugly. There are levels where cars are parked in the arena (for some reason), and you can jump on them and crinkle their hood. However, these are very plainly drawn and not digitized pictures, and boy, can you tell. They look like they were ripped from Top Gear and clash against the more realistic crowd ?and fighters.

Meanwhile, Pit-Fighter was a pre-Street Fighter II fighting game, so fun had yet to be incorporated into the genre. In many ways, it reminds me of 1989’s Street Smart, bu??t somehow even tackier. It’s a three-button setup, and all this oily muscle bashing takes place on a 2.5D area. You can combine buttons to create fancier moves like grabs, but there’s so little reason to do so. It’s extremely difficult to hit an enemy without them immediately hitting you back, and likewise, they have no defense against you. You sort of just chase them around the arena and hope that you deal more damage than you take.

[caption id="attachment_392166" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Leather daddy

And then there’s Mad Miles, who looks like someone who won a bet and forced the developers to put them in. Unlike some of the other beef mountains you fight against, this guy looks like my dad could take him in a fight. I think maybe he’s supposed to make up for that by being kind of crazy, but that never comes across in the game. Instead, he just has a mustache that says, “My ex-wife won custody of the children.�The way he flops on the ground, I kind of feel sorry for him. He also only turns up in one fight, which makes him feel like an accident. Or a secret mode, like when you beat up the car in Final Fight. He’s not threatening, he’s just not wel?come in th?is BDSM dungeon.

Then, once you finally climb a mountain of shaved cattle, you fight the biggest bottom to frequent this particular establishment. Pit-Fighter isn’t the only piece of media to think that?? wearing nothing but boxers and a leather harness is a sign of toughness, but that is absolutely not what it communicates to me. Especially not when partnered with a leather mask.

If you’re playing multi-player, you have to fight all your teammates to decide who gets to top the competition. I’m not sure why this is necessary, aside from the fact that maybe they didn’t want to p?alette-swap the leather daddy to make things fair. So the losers of this match pumped in all those quarters and don’t get to end the day as king of the S&M club. That’s a confusing sort of disappointment.

[caption id="attachment_392167" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Brutality bonus

Just to top this whole, writhing container of oiled flesh, Pit-Fighter also has an awful fascination with money. It’s as if Smash T.V. wasn’t exaggerating the depraved depths of human greed. Instead, your fighter gets to stand on a wooden skid as money is piled beneath them. Then at the end, you get t??he? typical view of scantily clad women clinging to your leather beef sack.

Pit-Fighter is just a hilarious and unfortunate amalgam of all the worst parts of �0s style. All those embarrassing things that people once thought were cool are stuffed into this game. Because the internet came along and has told us all what those leather harnesses are actually for, Pit-Fighter just looks like a cluster of uncomfortabl?e eroticism.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post Pit-Fighter sure looks different in the l?ight of an internet-connected word appeared first on Destructoid.

[Update: Taito has confirmed via Twitter that the Taito LD Game Collection will have an international release. That's what I l?ike to hear. They haven't given any date or details beyond that but are saying, "Stay Tuned for news." Our original story follows.]

Everything is better on LaserDisc

Taito has announced that they’ve got another arcade collection on the way, but this one is extra special. The Taito LD Game Collection not only compiles but also remasters three of the publisher’s classic arcade LaserDisc games: Time Gal, Space Battleship Yamato, and Revenge of the Ninja.

If you’re unfamiliar, these games are essentially interactive movies. The most popular example is the Dragon’s Lair games. You could also look at the various FMV games that came aro??und in the early �0s. Essentially, you’d watch a short clip, choose an action, then the arcade would eat your money because you chose the wrong action.

The??se were made popular by the LaserDisc. These were the predecessors to the CD and were the first commercially available form of optical media. Essentially, imagine a DVD, then make it grow to the size of an LP record. They were available for a time as a way of storing home video. You’d get a much better picture than you would with a VHS, but you’d have to flip the disc halfway through unless you had a particularly fancy LaserDisc player that could automatically read both sides.

Anyway, the technology was popular in arcades in the mid-80s, but it kind of lost its edge quickly once people realized they were all graphics and very little substance. We got Time Gal and Revenge of the Ninja over here in the West on the Sega CD, but I don’t think Space Battleship Yamato ever got a port.

[caption id="attachment_390664" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Taito[/caption]

Whatever happened to the LaserDisc?

Taito LD Game Collection currently has a release date in Japan of December 14, 2023, but nothing is mentioned about an international release. I feel like the chances are good that we’ll see it, but not guaranteed. Space Battleship Yamato ha?s dialogue in it, for example, but it could conceivably recieve subtitles ove?r here. We’ll just have to wait and see. And hope.

Taito has been doing a pretty excellent job preserving their back catalog. Beyond the Taito Milestone collections that compile some of Hamster’s excellent Arcade Archives ports, we just got the Ray’z Arcade Chronology by M2. Getting the Taito LD Game Collection here in the West would be a big win, so fingers cross?ed that we get to see it??. If not, I’m 100% going to import a copy.

The Taito LD Game Collection will release on Switch in Japan on December 14, 2023. No word? yet on other territories or pl??atforms.

The post Taito LD Game Collection remasters classic Laserdisc ?games (Update) appeared first on Destructoid.

You Fool!

I’m not looking to start a fight here. When The Genji and the Heike Clans was released in Japanese arcades by Namco in 1986 as Genpei Tōma Den, it was generally well-respected. However, here at the Destructoid Institute of Critiquing Kusoge (DICK), we have a saying: If it walks like Kusoge, quacks like Kusoge, and smells like Kusoge, it’s? definitely Kusoge (crap game). So, are you going to take the word of Japan, the experts on Kusoge? Or would y?ou rather be daring and listen to the brash, upstart DICK?

I don’t know why I’m so hesitant to talk about The Genji and the Heike Clans with the perspective of it being a bad game. If someone trots in with Altered Beast, I’d be the first one to stand up and tell them how much it sucks. It’s perhaps because, culturally, I understand Altered Beast. The Genji and the Heike Clans shows me that I understand Japan as much as ??I do deep space. I may think I know a l?ot, but then I see all sorts of things I don’t understand.

[caption id="attachment_389859" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Big Bushido

You play as the resurrected Taira no Kagekiyo, and you’re kind of pissed off that your clan lost the Genpei War, so you’re off to take Min??amoto no Yoritomo, the first Shogun. It’s all right. This isn’t just revenge; the guy is more evil than the history books let on, so there are demons and stuff. Kagekiyo must travel across feudal Japan to Kamakura to get their revenge.

The Genji and the Heike Clans boasts three different modes of play. T??here’s side-scroller platforming, “big mode,�and a top-down view. You’re most often going to find yourself in the normal side-scroller view, with the other two peppered in.

Big mode presents Kagekiyo in huge detail as he traipses across the screen. It reminds me of my old nemesis Predator on the NES. It might actually have been influenced by The Genji and the Heike Clans, since I think it called it big mode there, as well. They both present the protagonist as impractically big, showing off some nice detail but not moving much room for maneuvering. As such, it’s as clumsy as a newborn deer on an escalator. It gets even funnier when Kagekiyo picks up a scroll? and just starts swinging his sword around like a windmill.

[caption id="attachment_389860" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Orgy in a tumble dryer

None of the modes work particularly well. The Genji and the Heike Clans�approach to enemy placement is to just stick a bunch of spawners around and have them dumping bad guys on you. You take so much unavoidable damage as you make your way to the exit and?? the hit detection is just te??rrible, so it’s more chaotic than an orgy in a tumble dryer.

The worst part is the platforming. There are a lot of mo?ving platforms that you have to traverse, and Kagekiyo just doesn’t stick to them. If there’s one that goes up and down, he has trouble jumping because he’s technically falling the whole time??. Whenever a platform moves horizontally, he doesn’t move with it, which is just so, so strange. If you land on one, you have to physically keep moving with it to stay on top, otherwise, it just slides out from underneath Kagekiyo.

If you fall in a hole, you don’t die instantly. You fall into Yomi, where you then have to fight ?your way to a circle of crates. You open the crates, and you’ll either be killed instantly or respawned at the last level you were on. I’d rather it just kill me outright. This probably made more sense in the arcade, where luck of the draw would spare you a quarter, but playing it on a console just highlights it as a nuisance.

[caption id="attachment_389861" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

One last Heike

I first learned about The Genji and the Heike Clans from Game Centre CX. The host, Shinya Arino, played the PC-Engine version, which is considered to be a pretty faithful conversion of the game. He failed to clear it so hard.

Part of the problem is that, after you hit the mid-point of Kyoto, you start back there whe??never you die, rather than the last level you made it to. He came nowhere near Kamakura, and having played it now, I can absolutely understand why. It’s brutal, and that is completely uncalled for.

For starters, it has a mystifying health system. It’s measured in candles that get burnt down, and you can increase the maximum number of them. However, you get a certain number restored each time you start a new level, but I couldn’t tell you why it gives you that amount. I’m also not totally clear on how much each pick-up gives you in terms of extra health. Generally, this was just a game of trying to blast through a level as quickly a?s possibl?e before I died.

Your sword also has health, and this gets depleted by hitting “hard�enemies. What constitutes “hard�is less clear. Skulls are pretty soft. Caves that are clearly made of stone don’t weaken your sword. But when Benkei bl??ocks your attack, that’s hard. What a block looks like, that’s another matter. However, there’s a lot of importance put around strengthening your sword. Not only does this make it more powerful, but if your sword gets depleted, it gets bent and can’t do much damage at all. It’s just�ugh, it’s so dumb.

Part of Arino’s strategy was to just focus on building up his sword gauge. This makes bosses a lot easier, but?? you can also lose your entire gauge by falling down a hole and getting a ?bad pull in the lottery. So, really, I'm not sure if that actually makes the game any more beatable. It’s just so slapdash.

[caption id="attachment_389862" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Culture shock

I think a lot of the praise toward The Genji and the Heike Clans is aimed at its graphics and sound. There are a lot of voice samples mixed in there. For a 1986 release, yeah, it looks pretty good. I just can’t explain why it plays so badly. Castlevania also came out in 1986, and it had figur??ed out platforming just fine.

It does?? have a unique visual style, I’ll give it that. It draws heavily from Japanese history and folklore. You’d need to be pretty deeply familiar with both of those things to understand half the references found mixed in here. Even still, it’s pretty trippy and nightmarish. Especially when a towering Minamoto no Yoritomo pops up in the background and smacks you with his powerful spoon.

There are also multiple routes you can take to Kamakura, which kind of makes the fact that it changes the rules of continuing past the game's mid-point. It’s still going to suck the quarters out of kids, and there is a decent amount of replay value that comes from plumbing it for secrets, so why go to the extent of making it impossibly difficult. It just makes The Genji and the Heike Clans feel even more slap-dash.

[caption id="attachment_389865" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Indispensible crap

It first got released over here as an unusual inclusion in Namco Museum Vol. 4 on PS1. It was rather perplexing to contemporary critics at the time. However, nowadays, you can get it on PlayStation and Switch platforms as part of Hamster's terrific Arcade Archives series. There was also a sequel released on PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 called Samurai-Ghost. It?? only included big mode, a??nd I’ll have to report back on that when I finally pick up a PC-Engine. I’m not paying the hundreds of dollars for a TG16 copy.

As I said in the beginning, The Genji and the Heike Clans? was well??-received when it came out in Japan. I think this has to do with the palate of Japanese arcade gamers at the time that just didn’t translate in the West as we recovered from the Great Video Game Crash of 1983. Playing it today as a North American, though. Oof. It is just so bad.

But it’s als?o the good kind of bad. It’s an absolutely loveable bit of suffering to endure. It’s this painful mess of poor execution and culture shock. I sort of love it.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post The Genji and the Hei?ke ??Clans is a lovable bit of suffering appeared first on Destructoid.

Rick-rolled

We've had some real treats join the humongous Arcade Archives range this past month. Not only did we get rare puzzler Tetris: The Absolute Grand Master 2 and run 'n' gun classic Rolling Thunder 2, but this week sees Hamster delve back into the Namco catalog and emerge with its controversial horror scrapper, Splatterhouse!

Released to Japanese arcades in 1988, before heading west the following year, this ultra-iconic release has managed to retain its brand power over the ensuing decades, despite ultimately being a series of visually exciting, but fairly average titles. Inspired b?y an array of hyper-violent horror franchises, Splatterhouse sees hero Rick sally forth? into the mansion of Dr. Henry West, on a do-or-die mission to rescue his girlfriend, Jennifer, from the truly unholy creatures that reside within.

Imbued with the power of the mysterious "Terror Mask", and armed with?? an array of improvisational weaponry, Rick presses on through seven surprisingly tough stages, (though this is frequently down to his sluggish movement rather than challenging design). Going beyond your regular ghouls? 'n' ghosts, Splatterhouse boasts a disgusting array of enemies, from strange-skinned fetuses to creepy water ghouls, possessed furniture, limbless demons, and grossly vulgar body horror monstrosities.

You get check out all the guts 'n' gory glory in the trailer below, courtesy of Hamster itself.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRlxd6O1CW8

Splatterhouse is hardly a deep or even competent title, but it is, undeniably, arresting from a design standpoint. Shamelessly horrific and as unashamed of its own violence as much as its plagiarism. It also features a monster wielding a chainsaw and wearing a sack on its head before Leon S. Kennedy had even brushed his first fringe. Splatterhouse walks a line be?tween being repetitively easy and hard-as-nails and, while flawed, is oddly compelling in its own clumsy fashion.

The arcade edition of Splatterhouse would receive heavily censored home ports on the PC Engine and several Japanese computers, before receiving two sequels on the Sega Mega Drive. Perhaps one of its most enjoyable iterations is the very silly Famicom version, known as Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, which is well worth checking out. In 2010, Splatterhouse returned in a hack 'n' slash remake f?or PS3 and Xbox 360. This release was critically panned, but fans of the series were able to find fun in its janky nature, which seemed oddly fitting given its predecessors.

Whether we ever see Splatterhouse again remains to be seen, but i??t?? would be a shame for the franchise to remain undead and buried for too long.

Splatterhouse is available to download now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, pric??ed at around $8.

The post Namco’s iconic gorefest Splatterhouse hits the Arcade Archives appeared first on Destructoid.

Mars Needs Cheerleaders

Following a fortnight of run 'n' gun action and top-tier puzzling, we're going back to the stars with Hamster's favorite genre, the shmup �Available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, it's the Arcade Archives' newest entry, Taito's Megablast!

Released to the coin-op market in 1989, Megablast is one of a tidal wave of (admittedly forgotten) shmups that filled out smoky arcade centers up and down the country. While the action is fairly typical of the era, the storyline is one for the ages. Essentially, World Peace has been achieved on Earth, but the planet has been ravaged by an en masse disappearance of women. As it turns out, a dying intergalactic populace known as the Zancs cannot interbreed, and is inste??ad abducting Earth's women in order to help it repopulate its own race. Big ol' yikes on that one, Taito.

And there's no sign of Roddy Piper anywhere.

Check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber World of Longplays.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlaXGd-SUbY&ab_chan?nel=Worl??dofLongplays

And thus, fighter pilots Dawnson and Bogey are dispatched to confront the Zancs, speed up the extinction process, and bring back the planet's ladies, one of whom is Dawnson's own gal pal. What follows is standard horizontally-scrolling shmup action, depicted in Taito's typically oversized and kinda vulgar fashion. Power-ups can be gathered in order to boost the players' weaponry. Not explained is how our heroes plan to bring all of the women back to Earth in their two tiny, one-man vessels. But if ask too many questions, then the minute of this ?carefully crafted narrative begins to co?me undone. So don't.

Megablast is available?? to download now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, priced at $8.

The post Rescue Earth’s women in Arcade Archives’ oddly-plotted Megablast appeared first on Destructoid.

Bravo, man

There's nothing a love more for a Saturday than giving you all the good word on a particular oddity joining the Arcade Archives range �And this week's entry sees "oddity" doing some heavy lifting, as Hamster unleashes Bandai Namco's Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman onto PS4 and Switch.

Released to the Japanese coin-op market in 1986, Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman, (also known by the far less interesting name of Bravoman), is a simplistic side-scrolling actioner in the vein of the tokusatsu genre, as a mild-mannered salaryman dons the costume of a powerful superhero in order to stop the mach??inations of the evil Dr. Bakutu, (Dr. Bomb). Utilizing his telescopic limbs, Bella Bowman battles an army of minions across 33 stages, gathering powerups, defeating bosses, and receiving? occasional assistance from his super-heroic friend, Lottery Man.

Check out the very sill action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber World of Longplays.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSKS5U5b9o4

On release, Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman was highly praised for its colorful and satirical visuals, cute animation, as well as its fun score, and use of pressure-sensitive buttons, (wh??ich frequently broke). Today, however, it's frankly pretty terrible, although there is no denying the absolute charm with which it depicts the tokusatsu aesthetic.

While frustratingly difficult and not a whole lot of fun, it's still pleasing that this rarity is now finally available in the Arcade Archive catalog, as?? it represents not only a window into gaming culture, but also one of Japanese pop culture. As such, it retains a level of intrinsic value in spite of its gameplay shortcomings.

Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman is available to download now on PS4?? and Nintendo Switch.

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The true test of ergonomics returns

Another pretty special release has joined the Arcade Archives release, as publisher Hamster rolls out the intensely puzzling and bizarrely titled Tetris The Absolute Grand Master 2 Plus �now available to download on PS4 and Nintendo Switc??h.

Developed by Arika and published by the last bastion of the coin-op, Psikyo, Tetris The Absolute Grand Master 2 Plus, (known in the community as simply "TGM2" or "TAP"), hit Japanese arcades in 2000, launched as a last-minute update to the original TGM2 board. Much like its predecessor, Tetris The Grand Master, TGM2 is an expert-level iteration of Alexey Pajitnov's classic block-busting puzzler, and tasks players with using adaptation and forward-thinking to manage a rapidly filling pla?yfield of Tetrominos.

Check out a bout of TGM2 T.A. Death in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber Masterjun3.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcjqNkiT8q0

TGM2 retains the complex gameplay of its predecessor but adds a casual player-friendly "Normal" mode, as well as an evolved edition of "Master" mode, which features huge acceleration after level 500. Also part of the update is the incredibly challenging "T.A. Death" mode, which features fixes 20G gravity settings, as well as a consistently high speed from the get-go. It is considered one of the most difficult challenges in Tetris history. The arrival of TGM2, (and previously TGM), on the Arcade Archives plugs a gap that has been in the collections of Tetris fans the world over for generations.

Well, at least in an official capacity... Now get droppin'!

Tetris The Absolute Grand Master 2 Plus ?is available to download now on PS4? and Nintendo Switch.

The post Tetris The Absolute Grand Master 2 Plus drops into the ??Arcade Archives appeared first on Destructoid.

No quarters necessary

Veteran coin-op developer Taito and publisher ININ Games announced a release date for a second compendium of arcade classics �Taito Milestones 2 launches on Nintendo Switch August 31.

Taito Milestones 2 revisits the studio's golden era, and contains 10 titles from the late-'80s and early-'90s. Among the games on offer are the excellent platformer The NewZealand Story (1988), the super cute Liquid Kids (1990), and the cult classic Kiki Kaikai (1986). Joining these hits are shmups Metal Black (1991), Darius II (1989), and GunFrontier (1990), and frankly baffling fighting games Dinorex (1992) and Solitary Fighter (1991). DOGOOOON!.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmWboBjoIoo

It's a neat little collection of classics, and it will be rad to have some of these releases on the go, but I still feel we're chasing the ultimate Taito compilation, that marries the excellent Taito Legends games of the PS2 era with the addition are the hard-to-emulate releases such as Chase H.Q., Special Criminal Investigation, and Under Fire. We live in an era where retro comps and re-releases are per??haps more common than they have ever been. But there are a lot of gaps and a lot of crossover between them all, and it all gets a little exhausting after a while.

Regardless, for completionists, Taito Milestones 2 launches August 31 on Nintendo Switch. The original Taito Milestones is available on the same platform right now.

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We've been expecting you, Mr. Bont

Hamster has brought a real gem to the Arcade Archives this week, with the arrival of Namco's awesome run 'n' gun sequel Rolling Thunder 2, now avai??la??ble to download on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Released to arcades in 1991, as a release for Namco's popular System 2 hardware, Rolling Thunder 2 sees a returning Agent Albatross once again taking the fight to the villainous GELDRA organization, who plan to seize a colony of satellites for domination of the star?s. Assisting Albatross in his mission is the beautiful agent Leila, who steps out of her original damsel-in-distress role to throw a little lead in harm's way.

As the WCPO agents, one or two players battle through flat-planed, two-level platforming action, taking on an army of evil henchmen and ensuring that laser-fast reactions and forward planning while preventing the fr?agile duo from biting the dust. Much like in the original, extra ammo and weaponry can be picked up on-site, and refuge can be found by ducking into handy doorways.

Check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber Media Pool.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0mKuRN3axQ

Rolling Thunder 2, while maintaining near-identical gameplay to its predecessor, is a surprisingly enjoyable title even today, thanks to its breathless game 'n' gunplay, necessity for fast reactions, and cool, jazzy soundtrack. The se?quel would receive a nicely handed Sega Mega Drive port shortly after its arcade debut, which is how most fans will have experienced the sequel.

A second sequel, Rolling Thunder 3, was released for Sega Genesis in 1993, but this was limited to North America and represents the series swansong. I'm a big fan of the series, particularly the first two titles. And I hope that, ?somewhere down the line, a new sequel, remaster, or remake can be considered for this pioneering action series.

Until such a day, Rolling Thunder 2 is available now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, priced at?? around $8.

The post The wicked Rolling Thunder 2 runs ‘n’ guns into the Arcade Archives appeared first on Destructoid.

Shmup No. 5,483 hits retro range

It's Saturday, and that means it's time to take a look at this week's Arcade Archives offering �Once again, publisher Hamster is looking to the stars to save it, with the arrival of another galaxy-blasting shmup from yesteryear: Ark Area, ??now available to download on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Developed by UPL and released to the coin-op market in 1987, Ark Area is a multidirectional shmup that chooses not to follow any strict horizontal/vertical plane to provide full 360, alien-zapping action. A loose sequel to UPL's own Nova 2001, Ark Area puts one or two players in the pilot seats of cute lil' ships, which must fend off extensive waves of enemies, which can attack from all directions. In typic??al shmup fashion, power-ups can be acquired to increase firepower, and meaty boss battles are pep??pered throughout the game's 23 stages.

Check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber SBH Gameplays.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJqDE7pAJpE

Following a fairly standard run on the arcade market, Ark Area simply faded into the annals of time, only to be resurrected by this here Arcade Archives release. It's a fun, formative little trip into shmupland, but even on release,  Ark Area was already being eclipsed by some of its flashier and more exciting contemporaries. Still, for complet??ionists, you now have another finger-mashing zapper to add to your collection, no doubt bursting at the seams by this point.

Ark Area is available to download now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, priced at $8. Next week's Arcade Archives release will be Namco's excellent run 'n' gunner, Rolling Thunder 2.

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Go Nagai's legendary series hits the shmup scene

Something a bit special from the retro funsters of Hamster this week, as Banpresto's coin-op adaptation of the much-loved manga/anime series Mazinger Z has joined the Arcade Archives, and is now available to download on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Released to the Japanese arcade market in 1994, the vertically scrolling shmup is an adaptation of Go Nagai's iconic mecha franchise, which spawned numerous manga, anime, and theatrical films. Players choose from one of three vessels �Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, or Grendizer �before embarking on a mission to defeat the endless forces of The Mechanical Beasts, Mycenae Forces, and The Vegan Empire, which have combined their powers in a joint plan to conquer the world. What follo??ws is eight stages of frenetic arcade action, as the Mazinger forces battle the three factions and the mastermind, Dr. Hell.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ1EgpzTEjU&ab_channel=HAMS?T??ERCorporation

While the arrival of Mazinger Z is very much a welcome one, it comes at something of a price, quite literally. In order to secure the license to release Mazinger Z, Hamster was pressed to roll out extra Yen to the license holders. The publisher is looking to pass this cost on to the player, as Mazinger Z will retail for twice the price of all Arcade Archives entries. This is the first time that Hamster has had to pay the additional licensing fee, ??which suggests that any future re-releases based on popular and lucrative brand??s might also see a lift in their retail costs.

It's rough, especially given that many Arcade Archives releases are already a little princely for their longevity, but for Mazinger fans, the?? extra buckeroos will probably be seen as a bill worth footing.

Mazinger Z is available to download now o??n PS4 and Nintendo Switch priced at around $15.

The post Mazinger Z blasts off of the page an?d into the Arcade Archives appeared first on Destructoid.

Do the Wild Fang

Draw your swords, pick up your spellbook, and take my axe, as this week's entry to the Arcade Archives sees Hamster treat us to Koei Tecmo's high-fantasy brawler Tecmo Knight, now available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Released to arcades in 1989, hot on the heels of Tecmo success Ninja Gaiden, Tecmo Knight, (known in Japan as Wild Fang), sees the titular, muscle-bound hero battle their way through the Kingdom of Valdik, on a quest to rescue the townspeople from the clutches of the terrifying Beast Demon Army, (Beasts? Demons? Nah, both). Tecmo Knight is ably assisted by his tiger pal, "Tiger", who absolutely isn't Cringer, and Smokeman, a deity who provides additional attacks and a?bilities.

Additionally, Tecmo Knight can call upon the power of a dragon, who can defeat any opponent with a single blast of fiery breath. Check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber Punch Pedia.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWHuuRt_lh??o&ab_channel=PunchPedia

While Tecmo Knight at first glance appears to be Tecmo's take on Sega's own hit, Golden Axe, (and in many ways it is), Tecmo's offering is a little more finicky and precise in its controls, ala Ninja Gaiden, which makes it a trickier challenge and thus kept it from becoming a truly well-remembered classi??c.

Oh, and like Ninja Gaiden, it has an anxiety-inducing Continue? screen, which sees the Tecmo Knight being eaten by a giant monster as he screams in pain. Failing to add a credit in time sees a helmeted beast hack through the screen, yelling "NO FUTURE!" like a 1978 British punk. A famously violent attract sequence was also ultimately censored before releas?e, with further bloodletting, (decapitations in particular), ensuing throughout the game.

Tecmo Knight is definitely worth checking out, though it certainly lacks the pace and energy of other brawlers of the day. It is available to download now on PS4 and?? Nintendo Switch, priced at $8.

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Take 2 on an all-time classic

This week's Arcade Archives entry sees us take a look at one of the very earliest instances of a remaster in the gaming sphere �As publisher Hamster offers up Namco's Galaga '88 on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Released to Japanese arcades in 1987, before making its way west at the start of the new year, Galaga '88 is a revamped edition of the legendary Galaxian spin-off, released at the dawn of the golden age of arcade gaming. Galaga '88, operating as both a remaster of the original Galaga and a sequel to 1984's Gaplus, players take control of the iconic Blast Fighter vessel for more space-based warfare against the forces of the titular enemy. As one would expect, Galaga '88 features much-improved? audio/visual elemen??ts, including more detailed character sprites and a variety of background images.

Check out the action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber World of Longplays.

//www.youtube.com/watch???v=62h9LUt3OQg&ab_channel=WorldofLongplays

Despite receiving much acclaim from critics and Japanese arcade goers, Galaga '88 would receive slight home ports, appearing via the PC Engine as the confusingly renamed Galaga '90, as well as on the Sharp X68000 home computer. In later years, ?the shmup would find itself packaged as part of numerous Namco compendiums, while also appearing on the Wii Virtual Console and even Japanese mobile platforms.

Galaga '88 is available to dow??nload n??ow on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, priced at around $8.

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