King of Demons - What are you willing to sacrifice to save those that you love?

You have to love the times that we live in today. Normally, an obscure game from Japan would only stay in Japan and we would never know about it. But with the era of fan-released English patches, we get to experience a whole new world of games we never got a chance to experience before! This happens to be one such game, it's easy to guess why this game never got released in the states, we weren't so open to demonic subject matter back then, or at least for Nintendo of America.

This isn't even the first boss.

King of Demons, known as "MajyuuOu" in Japan, is an action-platformer by KSS released in 1995. What makes this game worth talking about is it's premise. A guy named Bayer sacrificed the wife and daughter of a man named Abel in order to revive the King of Demons and be granted tremendous power. Abel doesn't look upon family abduction too kindly and sets out to rescue them before he's notified in the beginning that his wife is already dead but his daughter is still alive. With the spirit of his wife taking the form of a guardian pixie, Abel sets out to rescue his daughter.

Armed with only a handgun, Abel can handle himself against the demons of hell pretty well. His pixie wife can attack demons while you focus on those in front of you, and if you happen to fall in battle, she will sacrifice herself just so you can keep going. Now that's true love right there, but now you're without a pixie so the game gets harder! After a boss fight the game will present you with an interesting situation: Do you want more power? The boss will drop a mysterious orb, if you grab it, you'll be transformed into a demon and your attack options improve considerably with each orb you gather. But you'll be sacrificing your humanity for this power and you can never go back. Of course the game gets more awesome when you accept the demons power to save your daughter, and your choice will ultimately change what ending you get. The obvious answer might not always be the one that leads to the best ending ending however, so be sure to choose wisely.

Being a demon does have it's perks.

If you look at the game's atmosphere, you'll might find it really creepy. It's not entirely terrifying like something out Silent Hill, but the mood is definitely there. You're facing horrible abominations, and the idea that you must become an abomination yourself just to even the playing field is a bit unsettling especially when you check out the "good" ending. The music is actually a bit on the catchy side, I quite enjoy it especially during sub-boss fights. The stage map has the most disturbing tune, however, it just reminds you that you're going deeper and deeper into hell.

This game is pretty fun, I'm glad I got a chance to play it. Also, unlike most of the games I recommend to you guys, the game is actually pretty forgiving in terms of difficulty. It was actually pretty hard finding info about this game, so I'm not quite sure about the game's popularity in Japan. Still, if you got an emulator on hand, be sure to try it out.  It's not too hard to find if you know where to look!  See you guys tomorrow.

Shin Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun - Kunio Tachi No Banka - Get framed for a hit and run! Break out of jail and beat up police officers!!

Playing Rage of the Dragons yesterday sure made me feel like playing another old school beat-em-up, so I did! That's right we're going to talk about Double Dra-NOPE! Instead we're going to talk about Japanese import title: Shin Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun - Kunio Tachi No Banka, and there's no way I'm typing that title again. You can roughly translate it as "The New Nekketsu Tough Guy: The Elegy of Kunio and Co.", and even that is a mouthful!

This game was released only in Japan in 1994 and is part of the long-running "Kunio-Kun" series. The series will seem unfamiliar to you right now but you might already be well acquainted with the guy if you played the popular NES title "River City Ransom". Yes, he was the star of the game too but the changed the names and Americanized it to the game that you know today. But that's neither here nor there, we're here to talk about this super famicom title instead.

Luckily, a fan has went through and translated the game into English, which is great because this game is surprisingly story heavy. As it starts out, there's a motorcycle hit and run by two guys who look suspiciously like our heroes Kunio and Riki. As a result, the two are framed for the crime and thrown into jail. Immediately, Kunio and Riki are informed that since their incarceration all hell has broken loose at their schools. It then becomes apparent to Kunio and Riki that it's no coincidence and somebody wants them out of the picture. They then proceed to break out of jail to figure out just what the hell is going on and to clear their (mostly) good names.

Being a Technos game, this game plays a lot like Double Dragon. It starts off with simple punches and kick combos, but as soon as you get your clothes back you're suddenly able to do a lot more like pinning a guy to the ground and punching him in the face repeatedly. For sure, Kunio and Riki aren't the most graceful or honorable of fighters but they get the job done. Later on in the story, they're joined by their girlfriends Misako and Kyouko as playable characters with their own set of moves. If you're playing by yourself, you get to switch between all 4 characters on-the-fly, and you'll need to since the enemies will put up a good fight. The scenarios are all pretty dynamic, there's a particularly memorable moment early on in the game where you have a showdown with a gang boss on top of the high school building. The building crumbles as you keep fighting, making things quite exciting as you try to avoid your opponents attacks AND suffering damage from the crumbling school.

Sure, it's kind of a goofy looking game with silly looking sprites, but they animate nicely for a super famicom game. Music is catchy as well, of course don't take my word for it at all since my taste in tunes is decidedly bizarre to most people I talk to. Overall, the game is worth checking out, especially if you got the english translation patch. The translator had a hell of a time writing this game as there's plenty of foul language in it, most of it coming from Kunio-kun himself!

Super Noah's Ark 3D - The greatest survival horror game ever made...

How's the rapture treating you guys? I figured I play something religious today just in case things really went down! So what better game to play then the best religious game ever made? Super Noah's Ark 3D!

I'm sure plenty of you have heard of this game, but for those who haven't the game takes place on Noah's Ark and uses the Wolfenstein 3D engine. That instantly makes the game awesome, because you already got a great first person shooter in your hands. The basic plot is that there's 6 days left in the ark and the animals are all pissed off as hell so they break out of their cages and start wrecking Noah's sh*t. With all the animals against him, Noah bust out his slingshot and begins to kill every animal who stands against him. Or, more accurately, put the animals to sleep by feeding them food pellets through a slingshot. You don't actually kill anything, you merely put them to sleep, but I'm sure the animals have no qualms killing Noah. Goats will kick him, Camels would spit at him, Ostriches will peck at him, etc.

OH F*** ME!

Yeah, the game doesn't really sound much like the bible story at all. In fact, I doubt Noah had 200+ goats instead of two. The game is oddly entertaining though, but that's only if you're a fan of Doom or Wolfenstein. I'd argue it's better than BOTH OF THOSE GAMES COMBINED! (Not really.)

As I was playing the SNES version, the game was looking pretty bad and suffered from pretty awful slowdown. The music is awesomely repetitive and would drive any person to insanity. I've long since past that point though, since I'm writing about a game that no normal person should ever consider playing. And even worse, I'm enjoying the game in a non-ironic way. I play it on hard mode, of course, because I'm hardcore and it really brings a whole new element of fear to the game when you have no ammo and a camel is gunning you down with it's own saliva. Truly a terrifying way to go.  Later.

BioMetal - Get ready for this! This is the Twilight Zone!

I can't do it. I just can't beat this game. And I'm not talking about my lack of skill or the game difficulty being too high (even though both are a factor!). It's just that I can't play this game without laughing at the crazy soundtrack. Even if you never heard of this game, I guarantee you heard its' music some time in your life ESPECIALLY if you go to sporting events. This game is none other than BioMetal.

Released in 1993, this is a side-scrolling shooter made for the Super Nintendo. If you played one shooter in your life, then you already know how this game plays out. It's difficult, even on Easy, with bullets flying in every direction that you're bound to be hit by ONE of them. The game does utilize a guard function to protect you from the heavy curtain fire, but it's limited so use it wisely!

But let's be honest here, the game is completely unremarkable except for one little thing. The American and European versions has a soundtrack composed by 90's techno group "2 Unlimited". When I first started the game and suddenly heard "Get Ready for this" my jaw hit the floor. This game, despite it's mediocrity, is now a video game gem! All the songs in this game were lifted from their first album "Get Ready!" which was made only 1 year prior to the release of this game. The choice of music is absolutely insane, and oddly appropriate to the chaotic nature of the game but it's far too distracting! I'm too busy reliving the entire "Space Jam" movie instead of focusing on all the bullets heading my way! DAMN YOU 90'S NOSTALGIA!

As for the Japanese version? It has an entirely different soundtrack, it's actually the original version that we were all probably meant to hear. But, you know, some 90's CEO jackass was probably high on "2 Unlimited" at the time and demanded the original music stripped and replaced with Eurodance music. For the purist, it probably pissed them off. But you know, the original soundtrack was pretty mediocre compared to the greatness of 2 Unlimited's timeless masterpieces of 90s sports arena background music. You're honestly not missing much you Japanophiles.

Ok, that's enough about this game. Seriously. Just listen to the TITLE SCREEN:

Still watching the video?  It has some game-play in it too!  I'm sure you recognize level 1's music as well!  Truly BioMetal is one of the greatest video games ever made all thanks to "2 Unlimited".  Thank you "2 Unlimited", your repetitive 90's Eurobeat music has saved a Japanese video game from a life of total obscurity. 

Kamen Rider - Super Famicom Edition!

Internet went down this afternoon for some silly reason, so I had to rely on offline entertainment to pass the time. Thankfully, as mentioned way back in April, I decided to dive back into the folder full of SNES games and lo and behold I found a Kamen Rider game! What better way to spend an afternoon than playing a classic beat-em-up, right?

Well, this game isn't the greatest ever by any means. There are plenty of games in the beat-em-up genre that easily top it in quality. Kamen Rider does have two things in it's favor though: The Kamen Rider name, and the charm of the original TV Show.

And for Kamen Rider fans, that's all you pretty much need! The game does the TV show justice by bringing back all the classic background music from the show. The nostalgic tunes make you feel like you really are playing a scene right out of a TV episode. It even has the commercial cutaway appear every time you clear a stage! Love the little details like that.

If you got a buddy to play as Kamen Rider #2, I'm sure this game could kill a good hour or two. Nothing amazing sure, but it's a cute little game that I had a bit of fun with because of how well they imitated the show straight down to a digitized version of "RAIDA! RAIDA!". Check out the game intro here:



Now, back to Dynasty Warriors....later.

Game that surprised me: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - The Fighting Edition

I was cleaning out files on my computer today, suddenly found a folder that had every SNES game ever in it, and I never even did anything with it. So for laughs, I fired up my emulator and picked a random game. That game was, assuming you read the title of this blog entry, MIghty Morphin' Power Rangers - The Fighting Edition.  I expected your typical below average licensed title that I'd spend maybe 5 minutes at most playing, but instead I found an overlooked gem!

As the subtitle might imply, it's a 1 on 1 fighting game featuring the Megazords and giant monsters of the Power Rangers series that ran in the 90s.  This game was developed by a Japanese company for the American market so it has a style all it's own.  Great sprite design shows off how great the mechs really look in this game with a fast paced fighting system that keeps battles rapid and exciting with a fun soundtrack based on the show (you know "go go power rangers....")



All in all, a very fun diversion at the very least. It certainly kept me away from blogging for a bit! But when I was playing this game....it reminded me of another I played a long time ago, so I did some research (ie: google: power rangers) and found out that the company that made this game used the exact same engine to create another favorite game of mine: Gundam Wing: Endless Duel!

Almost the same fighting system, similar sound effects, and same style of music samples. Of course, Gundam Wing was never released overseas, but that's not a problem these days.  Here's another youtube video you can try comparing both the power rangers and the gundam game and you're bound to notice some similarities!  That or I just gone crazy confusing games for other games...



I think video games are fun. Later.