Hyper Dyne Sidearms recording
Friday, May 23, 2008
Click over to see.
This is the sequel to Section Z, and it's got more great action while flying with a special jetpack in the air.
Labels: action, Capcom, shooting games, side scrollers
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 7:30 AM,
, links to this post
Brief cassette of Section Z
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Right after the jump.
One of Capcom's earliest games, this may have been inspired by Gradius, and has some pretty good stages to go through, and music. You need to make your way through 59 levels to get to the final boss, called L-Brain. This is the NES version, which may be even better than the coin-op.
Labels: action, Capcom, shooting games, side scrollers
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 7:33 AM,
, links to this post
Snow Bros. Nick & Tom
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
In 5 recordings:
This is a very cool game where you guide the two title snowmen through 50 single screens and five stages to help liberate some princesses from the clutches of a sinister demon. Similar to Bubble Bobble, you can get extra points from bonus items they leave around after they're done away with. And, if you can finish them off all at once, special yen icons will come down that you can pick up for really big bonus points! A most engaging platform adventure that's strongly recommended.
Labels: action, platform, Toaplan
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 10:58 AM,
, links to this post
Legend of Hero Tonma
First, here's a video of the first three stages:
And here's a video of the ending:
A great platform-based cute-em-up where you're on the typical sojourn to rescue a princess. Simply wonderful.
Labels: action, Irem Corp, platform, shooting games, side scrollers
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 10:48 AM,
, links to this post
A cassette of Mr. Heli
Here's a short recording of an interesting cute-em-up game:
You pilot a kind of robo-copter making its way through amazing worlds and caves, and you can get a hold of special crystals for extra points. A very good adventure indeed.
Labels: action, Irem Corp, shooting games, side scrollers
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 10:36 AM,
, links to this post
AP review of Wii Fit
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Well now, here's a review written by the AP Wire about Nintendo's brand new exercise program:
If someone had pulled me away from "GoldenEye 007" in the late 1990s to tell me that I'd one day be using my video game system to get in shape, I would have likely drawn James Bond's Golden Gun and shot a hole in that cockamamie theory.It does sound great!
But here I am a decade later, trying to hold a yoga pose in "Wii Fit" ($89.99, Wii Balance Board included), an entertaining, innovative fitness game that will help Nintendo further widen the definition of "gamer."
"Wii Fit" is built around Nintendo's new Balance Board, a rectangular, pressure-sensitive platform about the size of a bathroom scale. The wireless, battery-powered accessory measures not only a player's weight but also the center of balance.
According to the game's virtual fitness expert, people with an uneven center will unnaturally compensate for the imbalance, causing unnecessary strain and poor posture.
To improve that balance, "Wii Fit" guides your customized Mii character through a series of mini-games, strength training sessions, aerobics exercises and yoga poses.
But as with any fitness program, you first must take the dreaded "before" measurements so you can eventually achieve "after" results.
I thought I had originally set up my Mii character to look just like me. But I apparently took quite a bit of latitude with my Mii's body shape, and the game used the Balance Board's weight sensors to make some, uh, "corrections."
It was equally hilarious and depressing to watch my Mii look down in horror as his body ballooned to more accurate proportions.
The game then used my entered height to calculate my body mass index before revealing my "Wii Fit" age, which turns out is painfully greater than my real age.
Is this the fun part? Are we having fun yet?
Not quite. It's first time to set up some fitness goals to track on a daily calendar. One great feature here is an activity log, in which players can get credit for light, medium or heavy exercise away from the console.
Finally, it's time to play.
My ego solidly bruised, I continued to the balance games.
One game puts you in the middle of a sports field as a group of fellow Miis line up to kick soccer balls. Your job is to lean back and forth to head the balls into the net while ducking flying cleats and panda heads.
Another fun mini-game involves trying to keep a penguin safely aboard a tilting iceberg.
A ski-jump ramp has players crouch down on the Balance Board to build up speed and then lift their knees at just the right time to achieve maximum distance. (I made the mistake of jumping once and was instantly scolded.)
There's also a slalom ski course in which you must shift your weight from side to side to go through the flags. Here you can begin to see the Balance Board's future as an accessory for third-party skiing, snowboarding and skateboarding games.
It's not hard to burn calories with some of the aerobic exercises, especially the tiring hula-hoop spin. The goal is to swivel your hips at a decent pace to keep your character spinning the hoop, and you can accelerate your scoring pace by continuing to spin while catching additional hoops.
Running games have players step off the board and pocket the Wii remote, while a pacer character leads the way around a scenic Wii Fit Island course. Sure, you could cheat here by sitting on the couch and repeatedly shaking the remote, but then you're missing the point of a fitness game.
The step exercises play like a scaled-back "Dance Dance Revolution" game, with scrolling footprints guiding players' steps on and off the board.
Like many of the "Wii Fit" games and exercises, the step auditorium makes full use of the other Mii characters residing on your Wii console, which makes for some interesting company if you download celebrity Miis from the Internet. I never expected to find myself in a step class with Darth Vader, Ronald McDonald, the guy from "Napoleon Dynamite" and my octogenarian mother.
Your personal trainer — you can choose from a male or female character — guides you through yoga poses and strength training exercises such as push-ups, lunges and leg extensions.
I had never tried yoga and found this aspect of the game a pleasant introduction to the regimen. The challenge here is to try to keep your balance centered while holding various poses, and the game uses an expanding and contracting ring to help guide your breathing.
Coins are awarded in all four categories for completing tasks, and they help you unlock new exercises, yoga poses or games and open additional difficulty levels.
As with most Nintendo games, the menus and graphics are simple and friendly.
Some third-party game companies are already looking at using the Wii Balance Board for upcoming titles.
Electronic Arts and Black Box announced this month that "Skate It" will make full use of the accessory, and an Ubisoft game trailer hints that the company might incorporate it into a "Rayman Raving Rabbids 3."
My kids enjoyed "Wii Fit," but I'm not sure they'd pick it over a first-person shooter if given the choice.
I, on the other hand, wholeheartedly enjoyed the game and plan on returning often during a summer-long weight loss and fitness program. We'll see how that goes.
Three-and-a-half out of four stars.
Labels: health matters, Nintendo
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 9:59 PM,
, links to this post
News about Square Enix
Here's some news on the plans of this vidgame developer:
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese videogame maker Square Enix Co Ltd said it is considering taking stakes in game developers to combat rising competition from established game publishers and other entertainment companies.I sure hope EA does take over Take Two, if it helps to reduce any of the insult-to-injury of their producing Grand Theft Auto. It's about time already that they were "put out of business" if this is what it takes to basically do it.
"Economies of scale and breadth of scope are getting important. It may be a business alliance or it may be us taking a stake in others, but we need to go beyond traditional Square Enix," Square Enix President Yoichi Wada told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Tokyo on Tuesday.
"We face competition not only from Japanese videogame companies but from game companies worldwide. We also see some new players from outside the videogame industry coming in," he said.
Game makers are rapidly consolidating to boost their competitiveness, with Electronic Arts planning to take over rival videogame maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, while Vivendi's game unit is merging with Activision Inc.
Square Enix, creator of blockbuster game series including "Dragon Quest," "Final Fantasy" and "Kingdom Hearts," was itself created in 2003 through a merger of two leading Japanese game makers.
Asked if Square Enix is currently in talks with others, Wada said: "That's part of a CEO's job. That's part of our routine work."
Square Enix said last month it would move to a holding company structure in October, saying it was necessary to move to the kind of organization that could respond to business tie-ups and investment opportunities quickly and flexibly.
Wada said Square Enix has no fixed budget for investing in other companies, but he pointed out that management is allowed to issue about 290 million additional shares without approval at a general shareholders' meeting.
"I'm not suggesting we are going to use up all that. But we have a capacity to do that," he said.
Based on Tuesday's closing price, 290 million shares in Square Enix are worth 960 billion yen ($9.20 billion).
Wada also said he aims to boost the ratio of overseas videogame software sales among its total game software revenues to 80 percent in three years from about 50 percent now.
Following his comments, shares in Square Enix were up 0.9 percent at 3,300 yen in early afternoon, outperforming the Nikkei average, which fell 0.8 percent.
Square Enix is set to announce earnings results for the year ended March 31 and outlook for the current business year on Friday.
Analysts on average expect Square Enix's operating profit to come to 32.4 billion yen in the current business year to March 2009, up sharply from the company's own estimate for the previous business year of 21 billion yen.
Labels: business
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 9:46 PM,
, links to this post
Virtua Fighter recording
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Note: this is the Genesis 32X version.
This was the very first 3-D fighter, and the beginning of the subsequent move by fighting games into the more 3-D arena. You've got 8 characters duking it out on a square ring, and if you fall outside that parameter, you'll be disqualified. The last fighter and the boss, Dural, is one you need to win within the very game session you're playing, or the game will just end without your having won him. It's quite a challenge alright, and of course, you can also try to use the gimmick to jump upon and "tackle" your opponent to cause more damage.
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 1:49 AM,
, links to this post
The decline of arcades in Japan
Saturday, May 17, 2008
It was bound to happen even there, and it looks like that's what must've happened:
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese superhero Ultraman vanquishes an evil enemy during a live performance at a Tokyo games arcade. But Ultraman's real battle is proving much harder -- enticing customers back to the nation's arcades.I think the time may have come already for arcades to retire.
Japan's $6.9 billion arcade industry has been whacked hard by new advances in gaming, particularly Nintendo Co Ltd's wildly popular Wii, the latest big craze to compete for the time and pocket money of Japanese kids.
Unlike many countries where the rise of Sony Corp's PlayStation during the 1990s wreaked havoc on the industry, Japan's arcades were more resilient, helped by a greater variety of machines and plentiful foot traffic in crowded cities.
But now some of the biggest chains are shutting many of their outlets.
"Arcades are expensive, noisy and filled with cigarette smoke," said 15-year-old Gene Sato, adding he'd rather save his money to go to a theme park. "Besides, I can stay home and play NBA Live on PlayStation 3."
The Wii, launched in late 2006, has introduced innovative games that have players jumping around as they simulate boxing, skiing and other sports.
That has robbed arcades of one important advantage they used to have over home devices -- being the best place to play active games such as Konami Corp's dancing hit Dance Dance Revolution, analysts say.
"A large element of the problem is innovation and in Japan, it's pretty clear that Nintendo has been the leader in innovation," said Jay Defibaugh, an analyst at Credit Suisse.
But it's not just the Wii. Industry officials and analysts tick off a long list of culprits.
With widescreen TVs in households across Japan and games with cutting edge graphics and audio standard fare, the traditional video arcade experience can easily be replicated in the home.
Analysts also estimate that the vast majority of Japanese kids own a handheld game player such as a Nintendo DS, or PlayStation Portable.
Even if they don't, games can be played on computers or cellphones. Mobile phones are also blamed for diverting youths away from arcades because a large share of kids' pocket money often goes towards paying cellphone bills.
Others point their fingers at high petrol prices, increased police checks to ensure young teens are not hanging out at arcades too late, and a lack of must-have prizes in one of the arcades' biggest earners -- crane machines.
Whatever the reason, Japan's arcade industry is hurting.
Sega Sammy Holdings Inc plans to close 110 arcades, around one quarter of its outlets, while rival Namco Bandai Holdings has announced that it will close between 50 and 60 stores, or roughly 20 percent of its arcades.
GLOOM BUT NO DOOM
Yet despite the gloomy outlook, industry insiders believe arcades will prosper again if another big trend takes off.
"We need to innovate, especially in the realm of games where people move their bodies," said Jun Higashi, president of Namco Bandai's Namco unit at an arcade expo in Tokyo in February.
"We also need to develop games that can't be played at home."
The last big craze, which peaked in 2006, combined video games and card collecting for kids aged around 4 to 8, such as the fighting beetles in the "Mushiking" King of the Beetles game.
The phenomenon drew families into arcades but the small machines have also done well as standalones in shopping centers and outside toy shops.
"Everyone is waiting for the next big thing, though perhaps the biggest problem is they are all probably hoping that somebody else will invent it and haven't made the proper investments," said HSBC analyst Carlos Dimas.
The arcade slump has hurt earnings but most big arcade operators are also diversified companies with big divisions in other areas of the game industry, whether that be toys, software, arcade machines or Japanese pinball "pachinko."
Analysts also say the industry traditionally goes through a slump when new home consoles, such as Wii, are at the height of their popularity.
But there are concerns that the sector could be hit even harder if the downturn hits the manufacturers of arcade game machines due to a drop in demand for their products.
"Some people in the industry don't think that is so remote any more," said Dimas.
Meanwhile, arcade companies are also trying new tactics and strategies such as the Ultraman live show at Namco Bandai's family-oriented arcade.
Tapping nostalgia, in particular, has become a hot theme as arcades try to attract more adults.
Capcom Co Ltd has launched Street Fighter IV, a new version of a classic fighting game that seeks to bring back old fans and perhaps their kids as well.
Taito Corp, the arcade unit of Square Enix, has revamped its brand design and stores around its iconic Space Invaders alien game.
But Square Enix President Yoichi Wada says the company must do more. Inviting non-arcade business people to open a franchised store to help bring in fresh ideas, developing games for couples or even the elderly -- all options should be considered, he said. "The industry is at a crossroads. We are going to have to change anyway, so we might as well take the lead."
I do however think that even in the home console and computer business, there should come some games that are similar to what was made during 80s and 90s, perhaps prior to when 3-D games took over.
But I guess I can certainly see why even some companies that formerly designed coin-op games, such as Tecmo, got out of that business and went console-only, and why Atari has since continued as a third-party developer for consoles too.
Sure, without arcades, it'd probably be difficult to find games like Crisis Zone from Namco, which are pretty cool. But let's not think advances in technology couldn't help make it possible to play those at home too.
So, if arcades are on their way out, I'd say it's for the best.
Labels: business, Capcom, Konami, Namco, Nintendo, Sega, Taito
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 7:30 PM,
, links to this post
Rival Turf cassette
Click ahead and take a look:
Yup, it's another Final Fight clone, one that was probably just done for home consoles as well, where you battle enemy gangs in California. That scene where the heroes battle on a bus sure doesn't take as long as the subway section in FF, of course, since it's a lot smaller!
Labels: action, Jaleco, side scrollers
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 3:04 PM,
, links to this post
Some news on the new Wii Fit
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Time is reviewing the brand new Wii Fit program, mastered mostly by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto (via Hot Air Headlines).
And here's also a video trailer (I don't think it's the first time I ever put something like this here, but it sure has been long since I last tried that) where they promote the system (also via Hot Air):
Now, you can see for yourself what this is like.
Labels: health matters, Nintendo, sports
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 1:28 PM,
, links to this post
WiiWare will get downloadable games
Oh, look at this: Nintendo is going to provide online games to download for the Wii:
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nintendo is finally bringing original downloadable games to its popular Wii video game console.They're doing the right thing to catch up with Sony and Microsoft by offering these online goodies!
Nintendo's small white box is the smash hit of the video game industry, thanks to its easy-to-grasp controls and simple games that appeal to a broader audience.
But the Wii has lagged Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 in offering original games that can be downloaded right from the couch for as little as $5.
That has changed this week with the U.S. launch of WiiWare, a service that Nintendo says lets game makers experiment with quirky ideas that can be brought to fruition for a fraction of the cost of a regular title.
"The possibilities are great -- many of the most addictive and enjoyable games on Xbox 360 and PS3 are turning out to be the little downloads made by fledgling studios, and giving the power of the Wii controller set to these hungry, creative types will hopefully take the indie gaming movement further," video game news site IGN said earlier this year.
After debuting in Japan earlier this year, the service launched in the United States on Monday, with six new titles ranging from the familiar to the off-beat.
For example, one game is a simulation set in the familiar "Final Fantasy" franchise, while another is "LostWinds," a critically acclaimed adventure in which players use gusts of wind to explore a world and fight enemies.
"WiiWare provides a low-risk environment where developers can create a wide array of compact games for consumers to enjoy at different price points," Tom Prata, senior director of project development at Nintendo of America, said in an e-mail interview.
Games like these are a small but an important piece of the industry these days as consumers show a passion for new experiences, whether in the form of a $180 set of faux musical instruments, or a $5 game played for a few minutes at a time.
Microsoft's Xbox Live has hundreds of downloadable games from the "Uno" card game to "N+," a ninja adventure with doodle-like graphics. Sony's PlayStation Network is getting attention with unique fare like "Echochrome," a series of spatial puzzles.
The service showcases for "indie" games that traditionally might not get made or would linger in some corner of the Internet, undiscovered by the majority of gamers.
"I really do feel that Nintendo democratized gaming with Wii and making it accessible to everyone, and I believe we'll democratize distribution," Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo America's executive vice president for sales and marketing, told Reuters in March.
Labels: consoles, Nintendo, online games
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 1:22 PM,
, links to this post
Short cassette of Goal! Goal! Goal!
Yep, that's the title, in three exclamatory words! Click over to watch the tape.
It's a pretty good soccer game with good graphics, and if you know what it takes to handle it, there's plenty of fun to be had. Enjoy!
Labels: sports
Go to full post
posted by Avi Green @ 9:10 AM,
, links to this post
