tepidsnake | This Violent Time

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Karate Blazers (Video System, 1991)

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No ACA2 release this time, which means it's back to the old UI / feature set and no PS5 / Switch 2 / Xbox Series release, sorry! You do get both the Japanese and English releases though, and the Preference Settings allow you to adjust game speed and keep a counter of how many enemies you've defeated on-screen, plus the Button Settings allow you to assign the shoulder charge (usually Jump Kick + Left / Right) to a single button.

The Karate Blazers are hitting the streets for revenge! Four students of the deadliest martial arts this side of Hokuto Shin Ken- Mark the nomadic mercenary (this's the finishing blow!), Glen the invincible wrestler (with thunderous fists!), Gil the mysterious fighter (what's justice to him?) and Akira the passionate ninja (with a blundering personality, aw~)- are out to avenge their slain master, recover the scrolls with their secret karate techniques and rescue his kidnapped daughter from the bad guys! (There's really not a lot to work with here outside a wordless intro and the European flyer so I, uh, had to improvise a little). Each of the four Karate Blazers have a deadly array of moves, from low sweeps to fancy jump attacks, as well as their unique secret techniques that knock down enemies around them at the cost of some health (or for free if you can find one of the stolen scrolls!). Hundreds of enemies await the Blazers on their way to the enemy stronghold... Can they avenge their fallen master?

Oh this game is weird! This comes to us from the post-Final Fight era of scrolling brawlers but feels a bit closer to Konami's contributions to the genre, with smaller sprites like Crime Fighters or Vendetta, no enemy health bars outside of bosses and a very loose feeling to combat. The controls are also strange, with kicks as your attack at far range and punches at close range, plus your jump button is actually a jump kick button with you automatically attacking both in front and behind you when you use it, plus a shoulder charge if you tap a direction just after the jump kick button. There's a few other interesting additions like on-the-ground attacks similar to Crime Fighters (the positioning is awkward but kicking enemies while they're down can often send them flying and back on the ground again) and the sweep which is good for knocking enemies down, but there's a lot of things that just feel odd. When you knock enemies down, they fly up into the air first so you have to wait a lot longer than you'd expect for them to land, some enemies can dodge just about everything you throw at them outside of the grab (which doesn't even lead to a throw, just a close-range gut attack) and just in general combat feels very loose and strange. It's unmistakably Video System though, with some excellent animations (especially for the traditional scrolling brawler walking sprites, so many frames) and it has a goofy atmosphere to it... It's definitely not a traditional scrolling brawler and it's got some interesting ideas from a time when the genre was still evolving in the wake of Final Fight, so it's worth a look.

And yes, Karate Blazers is part of the Video System Cinematic Universe- Gil and Glen (alongside a new character, Glinda) are playable in Aero Fighters 3!

Watch on YouTube

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Bomb Bee (Namco, 1979)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Just the one ROM this week (so, predictably, no Bomb Bee N, as amusing as that would've been). No special Preference Settings this time, but like with Gee Bee, if you have a USB mouse, you can plug it into your console to use as a replacement for the spinner control (this feature is mentioned on every storefront but I've only tested it on the Switch release) or use the JoyCon 2's mouse function on Switch 2, otherwise you can adjust the speed of the paddle in the Controls Settings.

You know what, I won't lie, I'm kind of OK with Namco games on Arcade Archives yo-yo-ing between cutting-edge '90s 3D spectacles and their earliest works, especially since with this being the second of Toru Iwatani's Breakout / pinball hybrid trilogy, the next in line is Cutie Q, one of my personal favourites. You get a view of how far the company went across that period of time, which is interesting! Anyway, this is very similar to Gee Bee in that it's a bat-and-ball game with pinball elements with a different table design, and this time breaking the bricks at the side increases the value of the bumpers at the top, and breaking the bricks at the top adds a whopping 1000 point (!) bumper that eventually explodes and brings all the bricks back so you can do it again. This is also a bit of a hardware upgrade from the previous game, as it's proper colour rather than requiring cellophane, and with the exploding bumper, that makes the presentation just that little bit more dynamic, although it still doesn't quite have the visual charm of Cutie Q just yet. Just like the Gee Bee port though, this has somewhat strange controls in that you can't get 'proper' analogue control outside of using a mouse as without it you have to switch speeds by holding a button. Still, this actually works pretty well and on the defaul settings, it never feels like your controls aren't up to the task of returning the ball. Still, analogue controls without plugging in my cheapo mouse would be nice~

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Galactic Warriors (Konami, 1985)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Only one ROM for this game, but since it's on the Bubble System, you get the Warming Up screen! If you're unfmiliar, System 16 has a quick explanation- it used bubble memory that literally needed to be heated up to start working, and proved to be unreliable so only a few games were made for it. Preference Settings allow players to disable the Warming Up screen, if you're some kind of monster. And no, they didn't edit the second opponent, it looks exactly the same and it's still called Giger. Once you see it, you'll see what I mean.

Another game saved from the purgatory of the Microsoft Game Room (until now, that release was its only home version), this is a fascinating relic- a really early fighting game! Konami's second fighting game after Yie Ar Kung-Fu, you can see some of the elements that make up one-on-one fighting games come into place here, but the execution isn't quite all there just yet. Picking from one of three robots- Samson with its beam sword, Poseidon with its hydraulic arms and Gaea with its, ahem, boob missiles- you must defend the galaxy from threats across the solar system from other robots in one-on-one combat!

Each robot has three normal attacks- a kick, a punch and their special weapon- as well as a shield that blocks incoming attacks for less health lost, but fitting all that onto three buttons is tricky so you have to press a button to switch between the three attacks, with shield on its own button. It's awkward to say the least- a bit like playing Street Fighter II on the Mega Drive with a three-button pad- and there's a lot of other weird things like how it has Street Fighter 1-esque movement (you sort of step forward in increments rather than smoothly), projectiles being removed from the field if you get hit while launching them (fortunately, the same applies to the enemies), there's a stage where you can float around freely and skid across the screen... Still, it does allow you to play player vs. player, the opponent variety is neat (the fourth enemy is really tough for me though, that laser is too good!) and completing the first loop earns you a new weapon for your warrior which is a pretty unusual feature. The execution is understandably ropey given its vintage, but it's a fascinating thing to study for those interested in the early days of the one-on-one fighter.

when she's on her steppy, she's unstoppable

From THE iDOLM@STER: MILLION LIVE!, it's Momoko Suou and her stepping stool! Momoko's one of my very favourite iM@S characters. She's a short kid so when she's talking to people, she gets out a stool so they don't look down on her. As a slightly short person myself, I feel that. She's also a former child star and her backstory is actually pretty sad, bless her, but she's a tough kid. Anyway, I make sure to draw her steppy for her birthday because it's important! I did think the one with the smiling face was a fan creation, but no, it's canon!

Anyway, here's an animaton from MILLION LIVE! THEATER DAYS of Momoko bringing her steppy on-screen and stepping on it. You're welcome.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Tokyo Wars (Namco, 1996)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Both the English and Japanese ROMs are included. There's a minor edit, as the Red Cross has been removed from Shield items. No special Preference Settings this time, but the Arcade Archives 2 version has an extra mode- Split Screen. This simulates the link-up capabilities of the original cabinets, allowing for either two player or four player set-ups with their own section of the screen, and it even goes so far as to replicate the behaviour of the machines when idle- when only two players on a four player set-up have selected their stage, the other two cabinets show a panoramic view of the area, and if a player joins in too late to battle, they can just play their own game. Thanks to HokutoNoShock for the details on this (my PS5 is currently in the hands of Sony as it needs repairs!)

A mighty battle is erupting in Tokyo. At least two areas of the city have been evacuated as a full-scale war has broken out between two tank batallions, the Green and White forces. Whoever wins gets control over whatever's left of the city when they're done! Up to four players in local split-screen (originally two twin cabinets linked together, of course) can choose their allegiance and one of two arenas, the Bay Area and Downtown (plus a selection of music) to do battle with a simple control system- one pedal to move forward, one pedal to reverse, a control column to turn, pivot the tank's cannon and fire and a view change button in case you want to see from a more intense, first-person perspective. Each team of four tanks has a certain number of vehicles in reserve at the start of each match (19 in the Bay Area, 14 in Downtown) and from there, the battle breaks out- wipe out the enemy as fast as you can! Don't worry if your tank explodes, you'll just respawn in a reserve one as long as there's any left, plus any enemy tanks you destroy leave behind a health item . Do what you can to survive- roll over parked cars, blast through obstacles, take out the enemy forces in the time limit!

We're back on Namco's System 22, and this is an excellent pick, the tank battle simulation Tokyo Wars. This is almost a callback to Namco's '80s tank games Tank Batallion and Battle City, using the same system where reserve tanks will populate the battlefield once a tank's taken out, but it also owes a little to Atari's Battlezone but with a simpler control scheme and, of course, full 3D environments, something Namco was excelling at in the late '90s. It's a simple game but presented flawlessly, with bombastic music throughout each fight (multiple tracks to choose from too!), a real sense of weight and heft when you fire a cannon shot, detailed environments (especially Downtown, look out for the video screen with Soul Edge on it!), some interactive obstacles on the field like barrels and barricades you can drive into in the Bay Area and arch walkways you can try to drive up but the stairs crumble under your weight in Downtown, and an enthusiastic announcer shouting things like "Enemy tank to the rear!", "On the mark!" and a panicked "Pull out! Pull out!" when your health is critical (one complaint is that, if this video is accurate, some of the voice clips never seem to come up- you can hear things like "Bingo!", "Bullseye!" and "Enemy tank wasted!" that don't occur in the Arcade Archives release, unless there's something I'm missing). You don't get a long game for your credit- the default is two minutes, although you can increase it to five via the settings- but it has a real 'one more go' feel to it, like many of the other 3D Namco games. Perhaps not to the same extent as something like Ridge Racer or Air Combat 22, and this loses a fair bit without the deluxe cabinet which had force feedback in the form of air blowing at you whenever you fire a cannon, but I've put in a fair few credits since I got it, just wanting one more quick blast on the streets of Tokyo.

My one disappointment is that there's no Network Mode. This isn't me just wishing for an online mode out of nowhere, this was an advertised feature for Arcade Archives 2, but the only game to support it so far is The King of Fighters '98, so maybe Hamster were promising something they couldn't quite deliver from. Being able to play this with far-away friends, either as a team against the CPU or pitted against each other, would've added a lot to the appeal. That said, I'm pretty impressed with the implementation of the cabinet's link capabilities in Split Screen Mode, even if it's only local play. The game itself is quite fun on your own though, and the presentation is thoroughly excellent, so if you've got an interest in this era of 3D arcade games, this is an easy pick.

my photography skills have not improved in the years since this was taken

For a bit of fun, here's a real Tokyo Wars cabinet I saw once! I can't remember where, but it was a pretty popular game, so I saw it a few times when on holiday.

From Zombie Revenge, it's Linda Rotta and Rikiya Busujima in their alternate outfits! Zombie Revenge is my favourite Dreamcast game (don't @ me) and the player characters definitely add to the charm. We don't get Stick here, but here's Linda with her fighting skills on display and Busujim with his impressive firearm ready to go. Busujima in particular is based on Yūsaku Matsuda with his distinct hairstyle, and his alternate costume here is just Matsuda from Tantei Monogatari / Detective Story, it couldn't be more clear. It's a good look though, which is probably why this is the outfit he wears in Project X Zone. Anyway, play Zombie Revenge.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Scion (Seibu Kaihatsu, 1984)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Just the one ROM for this, so we don't get the Cinematronics-licensed version. Preference Settings allow players to toggle a bug that, under certain conditions, lets you advance beyond Scene 999 (good luck getting that far!).

It's shmup time again, and once more I'm out of my depth! I'll do my best though, this one's pretty interesting. At first brush this seems to take a few cues from Xevious (as was the style at the time) but this is actually a little different. Taking flight in your Mana Jatatei (that's a fighter jet, the manual says so), you've got to save your fellow citizens trapped inside the super-city Crystal Heaven by digging through the city's layers to get to the core. Each loop is split into four short segments with the first three focusing on you destroying each layer piece by piece. You only start with an anti-air weapon, but special enemies will drop an air-to-surface weapon for you to grab, which you'll use to destroy the weak parts of each layet to destroy it and move down to the next one (which is presented really well, once you blast all the weak points the whole thing crumbles), but if you miss a few targets, the area loops so this is essentially a looping bombing run. On the final layer, a few more ground targets need to be taken out before you can destroy the city's core, and then the game moves to the next loop of four scenes. You have to be careful though- the air-to-ground missile is a physical attachment to your ship, and it can be destroyed by enemy fire so you'll need to grab another one before continuing with your mision!

This is a pretty interesting one- it differs a lot from Xevious in terms of mechanics and structure, the presentation is nice and colourful and there's even some arcane secrets for things like warping ahead by bombing secret targets and extra lives by bombing the weak spots in a certain order. It is, however, quite difficult even for a shooter of this vintage, mostly because your special weapon will get shot down and you have to survive pretty relentless enemy waves until you get another one (if you're lucky it'll appear quickly, and if not you'll have to hold out for a while). If you're interested in early shmup history, this is definitely worth a look, and it's another one I didn't really know existed!

... By the way, they're selling the Dacholer shirt now. It's real. Here's the UK link, here's the US link. Dacholer.

From Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire, it's Lilith in the Denim Pleats outfit from Cross Edge! Cross Edge is a strange crossover RPG kinda thing that has a few Darkstalkers characters, and they gave them a bunch of different outfits that it's hard to find reference pics of. There's a few showcased in this video and the art is in Darkstalkers Official Complete Works but that's it really. So I did my best with this one, and I think it turned out really cute! I also decided to give Lilith the non-binary flag colours on those left hand rings, because I am one and an interview in that book mentions she was designed without being one gender more than the other, so I can say Lilith is a non-binary icon. Anyway, what a cute outfit!

From Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle, it's Rosa! She's probably one of my favourite SNK character designs from this particular era. She's so cool! This is actually a remake of sorts of a very old piece where I drew Maki Nishikino from Love Live! as Rosa because sure, why not. I was looking for characters to draw and it dawned on me that I've never properly drawn Rosa on her own outside of this silly Love Live! gag and a quick doodle for LordBBH's stream so I wanted to correct that. I suppose I've improved a little in terms of drawing, huh...?

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Midnight Landing (Taito, 1987)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Both the Japanese and English ROMs are included. You can play with gyro controls (PS4, PS5, Switch, Switch 2) and the USB CyberStick (PS4, Switch w/convertor) and adjust the game's analogue settings to have a control experience closer to the arcade game.

One of the more imaginative ways to simulate a 3D environment with just 2D assets, Midnight Landing is a pretty serious flight sim that tasks you with landing this plane safely at the airport without crashing, overrunning the runway or straying too far off-course (Taito Airlines have a strict 'no go-arounds' policy apparently). You join the flight just as it begins to approach the runway with command over the control stick and throttle, so use them in tandem with the instruments displaying things like your pitch, height and speed to gauge the correct approach, with each successive round adding more powerful winds and altering things like distance to vary things up. Don't worry too much about getting it dead-on when it comes to landing, as long as you're on terra-firma, the auto-pilot will correct your angle most of the time so you can safely come to a stop, assuming you've got enough runway left!

Of course, the big thing here is that, as the title suggests, it's in the middle of the night... So no need to render any complex buildings or anything that requires fancy 3D, just let the lights guide your way! This is such a clever way of doing it (as pointed out by BadoorSNK on Bluesky, Atari's Night Driver did a similar thing) and, while I don't like to dwell on nostalgia too much, it does remind me of late-night / early-morning car rides when going on holiday, nothing guiding us but the dim lights on the road... Something a little cosy about that, I suppose. Not a game for everyone- it's pretty straight-laced as far as arcade flight games go aside from the friendly radio chatter you get, and Top Landing would have a lot more variety the next year- but it's novel, there's not many arcade games like it, and technically this is the first 3D Arcade Archives game from Taito. I wasn't really expecting it, so hopefully we can see Top Landing and other 3D games from them in the series in the future!

Oh, and the cabinet? Incredible, superb, amazing, 10/10.

From the Gunbird series, it's Marion! In the great pantheon of videeo game witches, Marion has to be among the best of the best, right? She's a brat, she has a cool outfit, she has a long-suffering buddy in the form of her rabbit thingy pal Pom-Pom, what's not to like? Anyway, this time I wanted to do a slightly more dynamic pose for her, so having her fly around on her broom seemed like a good idea. I think it turned out pretty good!

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Munch Mobile (SNK, 1983)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Both the Japanese (Joyful Road) and English (Munch Mobile) ROMs are included, which have slight differences in terms of progression and stage design. No unique Preference Settings this time, but according to Eonostro on the LordBBH Discord server, this release fixes several problems exhibited by both MAME at the time of writing and Digital Eclipse's SNK 40th Anniversary Collection- some music errors have been fixed, you can see the letters to input them on the high score table in Munch Mobile, and you are no longer stuck with a single credit always in the game as is the case with the SNK 40th version.

Mankind's folly has lead to this point. We have given our cars, those wheeled contraptions that take us to and fro and here and there, digestive organs, extended arms and eyes. We asked if we could create a horrific amalgamation of creature and conveyance, but we never asked if we should, and now all is lost. Anyway, this is a weird 1983 vertically scrolling driving game, I guess you'd call it, where as the Munch Mobile itself, you have to drive along the road, avoiding hazards and using your extending arms to grab fuel so you can keep going and bonus food that your car somehow eats and leaves behind just apple cores and fish skeletons- be sure to dump the waste in the nearest-available bin, don't be a litter bug! Be careful not to slam your arms against obstacles or you won't be able to grab things, and don't hit the sides of the road or your car's toast. Don't run out of fuel either! This is a strange game but it's pretty interesting- the presentation is very cute (I like the tpuches like the car's eyes closing as you run out of fuel like it's falling asleep) and it's a non-violent game with no shooting, no real enemies, just obstacles which is nice to see for an action game like this. This is on SNK 40th as a free downloadable game, but if you want the best version with leaderboards and a more robust feature set, this is the one you want.

SUPER COOL BEHIND-THE-SCENES TRIVIA - The Gamesoft Gals is a term used in the Gaming Hell micro visual novels for Sarah S. Sowertty and Sniper Honey, our two site mascots.

Oh, what's this? An actual monthly update on Gaming Hell? Maybe, maybe, And hey, last time I said we could cover anything next time, and I wasn't wrong for once! It's a look at the cancelled 1992 arcade game OOParts, famously referred to as FARTS in an issue of Gamest. This is a strange paddle-and-ball game that went unreleased which is a huge shame, as it's shot up my list as one of my favourites in this particular genre, it does a lot of things right that others don't. Hopefully you find this one interesting!

what's she playin'? only the strongest vampire killers would know

brb making a tier list of love live! characters i would trust on skates, sumire is not among them

Another one of these catch-ups, and one of them is really telling on me, it was done in September! Well, at least we have a variety here, we've got dedicated site mascot Sarah S. Sowertty playing on her PSP, Sumire Heanna from Love Live! Superstar!! celebrating her birthday in a roller diner outfit, and this cute winter coat ensemble for Kasumi taken from Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore. Pretty simple this time, not much else to add here except I haven't been able to draw for a while, so I'm hoping to get back into the swing of it soon~

Watch on YouTube

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Battlantis (Konami, 1987)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Both the Japanese and US ROMs are available (differences include the order of levels, pentagrams being removed from the US version and default number of continues until you're locked out), but there's no unique Preference Settings this time, only ones already available via dip-switches.

In the year 777X, a sacred island known as BATTLANTIS found itself under attack from the forces of evil, unrelenting in their march to conquer the land. However, the young King Cripeuss III refused to yield. Armed with a crossbow and his courage, he took to the many castle walls across Battlantis and defended them from the advancing enemy hordes who marched left to right then down a row in tight formation, with only the parapets as temporary defenses. Demons and monsters would attack the castle and even climb its walls to kill the king, but he saw to them with crossbow skills, as well as the special items some enemies would drop that granted him powers such as faster movement, side shots and even invisibility. Even gigantic boss monsters would challenge the king, but they stood no chance. As for how the legend ends, well, that's for you to find out, isn't it?

Oh boy, Battlantis. This was actually one of the launch titles for the Microsoft Game Room and it's, well, late '80s Space Invaders. Not entirely out of character for Konami, as in this era they were doing updated takes on early arcade games like Head-On with Fast Lane and Pengo with Kitten Kaboodle, so why not try a medieval Space Invaders-alike? This is not one of my favourites unfortunately, this game is probably a bit too difficult for its own good. The main issue is that once an enemy reaches your area, they'll climb the castle wall and then run into you, which is certain death unless you have invisibility or the side-shot, which are both time-limited items that you're not guaranteed to get. That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for enemies that aren't part of the formation you're currently fighting constantly running in from off-screen to climb your wall! The second stage of the game even has flying enemies that make a beeline for you unless you shoot them down in the right order, and what the legends of King Cripeuss III don't tell you is that he's slow as all hell, making this a frustrating endeavour. I think there's a decent Space Invaders-like game hiding here, but it's hidden under layers of somewhat muddy presentation and brutal, somewhat unfair difficulty. I've tried to get into this one a few times and I just bounce off it, but hey, maybe the idea appeals to you, I'm just sorry I can't be more enthusiastic about this one!

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Gee Bee (Namco, 1978)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Just the one ROM for this one, so you don't get the US Gremlin variant, sorry! If you have a USB mouse, you can plug it into your console to use as a replacement for the spinner control (this feature is mentioned on every storefront but I've only tested it on the Switch release), otherwise you can adjust the speed of the paddle in the Controls Settings. Preference Settings allow players to play in either the original black and white or a simulation of the colour cellophane overlay on the cabinet to add colour (this produces colours that appear to be more accurate than MAME, at least as far as I can tell) which is explained in more detail over here.

Oh wow, we are going deep into the Arcade Archives for this one- Releasing in 1978, this is the oldest ACA rerelease, it's Namco's very first in-house developed arcade game, and it's the first of a trilogy of Breakout / pinball hybrids designed by Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani! I'm a little surprised these games haven't shown up sooner, but there is something a little amusing about all these big-hitter 3D arcade games from Namco getting the ACA treatment and then we go all the way back to their beginnings. That's what's nice about ACA, you never quite know what you're going to get in any given week! As for the game itself, it's a bat-and-ball game with some light pinball elements thrown in to spice things up, with blocks to destroy (get the ones in the side pockets for an extra ball), some NAMCO targets to light up (you can earn a double bonus this way) and a spinning bar in the middle that's actually essential to keep your ball in play- your ball will speed up once you hit it with one of your two paddles enough, so roll it through the spinner and it'll slow down briefly. This is one that's definitely iterated upon by its follow-ups (especially Cutie Q) but as well as being historically significant, this is the first time this game's been rereleased as far as I'm aware (I don't think it got any illegitimate ports like Cutie Q did as Pinball Spectacular on the VIC-20 and C64) as it wasn't even in any Namco Museum collections (although Bomb Bee and Cutie Q were). The one complaint I have with this rerelease is that unless you have a mouse, there's no real analogue control option- even using an analogue stick, you have to hold an added 'speed up' button to increase your paddle's speed, although both speeds can be adjusted in the settings and it generally works OK, I just wish I didn't have to plug in my mouse for analogue!

Watch on YouTube

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Dacholer (Nichibutsu, 1983)

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No Arcade Archives 2 version for this, so it's just on PS4 and Switch. Both the earlier ostrich version (Dacholer) and the later human version (Kick Boy) with several gameplay changes (in particular, Dacholer will kill you if you run into a ball you just kicked that still has momentum, whereas Kick Boy will instead kick the ball again, and both have unique bonus stages). No Preference Settings either, but this does fix a huge oversight present in MAME for years, where the game's default lives setting was 1 instead of the correct 3, so you can play on the default settings for more than a minute now! Oddly, this uses the old ACA UI- I can only speculate, but maybe this is a holdover from before the ACA2 UI change that they've been holding onto for a rainy day? Who knows.

Finally, it is time for OSTRICH GAMING. Nichibutsu is back on the menu with the bizarre Dacholer, alongside the later Kick Boy retooling. This is a weird top-down maze-chase of sorts, but without the maze- as the heroic ostrich DACHOLER (I'm assuming), you have to kick the turtles that turn into what look like footballs when you get close to them to take out the other animals that want you dead, including giant mice, rabbits and gorillas, while grabbing worms and other delicious food for extra points along the way. If you're quick, you can get rid of the animals before they spawn from their fried-egg hatching spots (well, they look like fried eggs to me) at the start of a scene! Be careful though, the kappa (referred to on the flyer as the WATER SPIRIT) will kill you if you try to cross the bridge when they're jumping across, and moles will dig killer holes you'll have to avoid. Survive all four scenes and you get a bonus round where you can pick up loads of fried eggs (although in Kick Boy, you just kick balls into goals)! Arcade games are weird!!

It's an awkward game for sure- there's no maze but your ostrich definitely moves on a 'grid' plus there's no diagonal movement which can make manoeuvering around enemies and hitting the ball difficult, and you have to be very careful where you kick the ball, as if it rebounds off something or another ball, it will come back to kill you. Still, it's weirdly charming, and once you get used to the controls you can sort-of get into it, and I can't say no to a game where you play as a silly ostrich. Now, the other revision, Kick Boy, is certainly a bit more forgiving, in that kicked footballs no longer kill you and the kappa's replaced with a non-lethal ship, but the way the football bounces around all over the place once you walk into it is a bit much and, well, you're not an ostrich. Still, you can pick either version here, which is a nice inclusion, so you can decide which is better!

In any case, the most important thing about Dacholer is this flyer, taken from The Arcade Flyer Archive:

This is true art.

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Xbox

Just the one ROM this time. Preference Settings allow players to add two extra digits to the score display so you can make your score even higher, although good luck with that, this game's hard!

"OSHA violation? The hell you talkin' about, pally? Look, we've got a bit of a problem on the job site, so maybe you can help. Ol' Workman over there- long story how he got that name- is a lil' stranded on one of the parts of the building we ain't finished yet. We got a whole bunch of spare girders to place over there though- straight ones, ones that let 'im walk down to go lower and walk up to go higher, that sorta thing. So, you place the girders and he'll walk across 'em to get to safety on the other side. We only got 15 pieces to spare though, you go over and we ain't gonna be able to build this orphanage we're workin' on. Workman really needs to work on his walk though, 'cause he'll change his walking speed constantly. Yell at him to reverse course and he'll double-back, but he ain't so good at listenin' to instructions so he'll only do that so many times. Oh, and watch out for those cranes, we don't wanna knock the poor guy out. Alright buddy, get to it, I gotta go grab my lunch, good luck!"

Oh yes, a vintage Taito sickos classic! Steel Worker is a fascinating early puzzle game, which brings to mind Lemmings of all things, even though this predates it by over a decade, although it doesn't play like it at all. Place the pieces to direct Workman to where he needs to go, being careful not to build into the pillars on the far left and far right or in the middle without connecting them to the walkway properly, and get him safely to the other side. It's that simple, and while the random elements will screw you over at points- when Workman speeds up, he absolutely books it so you need to react quickly, and the two cranes in the middle will be a huge pain to navigate unless you time things very carefully and maybe use a Reverse or two- you kinda want to go straight back in and play it again, just one more try, you can get further next time. This is one I hadn't heard of before it was dumped for MAME and it's a really interesting look at early arcade puzzle design, plus the presentation is pretty charming (a lot of people noting it looks like a ZX Spectrum game, and I mean they're not wrong) so I'd definitely recommend this one!

she couldn't be bothered to put anything but socks on

From THE iDOLM@STER: CINDERELLA GIRLS, it's Riamu Yumemi for her birthday on the 12th! This is based on her outfit for a collaboration with Travas Tokyo- a lot of her other outfits are really complicated and involved, so I decided to draw something a little simpler, and as a bonus it focuses on Riamu's weird heart-shaped mascot. I think she's pretty fashionable here, although maybe next time she should get a fancier pair of socks... Anyway, Riamu is the worst girl (positive, affectionate) so it's always fun to draw her.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Video Hustler (Konami, 1981)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

PSN

Switch

Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

PSN

Switch 2

Xbox

Just the one ROM and no Preference Settings this week, sorry, only the basics!

On the subject of basic...This week's game is an arcade adaptation of pool (sort-of) from 1981, so if you go in expecting Pocket Gal then you're going to be disappointed, try and keep those expectations realistic. You've got a joystick and a single button, with shot power controlled by a three-block bar that flashes between the different shot strengths and direction controller by a target that you move around the edge of the table, so there's no guideline to show where a rebound might go, you'll have to figure that out yourself. Of all things, this system reminds me of Champion Golf from a couple of years later in1983 on the SG-1000 which has the exact same targetting mechanics and it goes to show you that back in this era, developers were still in the process of figuring out how to adapt traditional sports like this into digital form. The way this game works as an arcade title is pretty fair though- each time you pocket a ball, you get given a number of shots to pot the next one before you sacrifice a life (you also lose a life outright if you pocket the cueball) rather than an overall shot limit which is nice. The scoring system is also novel, with higher multipliers for different pockets that change on each shot so you might be tempted to go for a trickier shot if it'll get you close to an extend. Konami would follow up on this many years later with Rack 'Em Up (The Hustler in Japan, making the title inspiration a bit more obvious) so you might want to wait for that game to get a rerelease instead, but this is doing its best for 1981.

On the plus side, this is another Konami arcade game saved from the Microsoft Game Room, we're now down to only 15 games left on there! Well, some of them have ports elsewhere like Gyruss but then there's games like The Main Event and M.I.A. with no home releases anywhere else. I think Galactic Warriors deserves better than that, wouldn't you agree?

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Gaming Hell

Arcade Archives: Karate Blazers

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Arcade Archives: Galactic Warriors

MS Paint World: Short in Stature, Tall in Spirit

Arcade Archives: Tokyo Wars

MS Paint World: There's No Time

Arcade Archives: Scion

MS Paint World: Denim Pleats

MS Paint World: The Crimson Panther

Arcade Archives: Midnight Landing

MS Paint World: Just Fly, The Dreamers

Arcade Archives: Munch Mobile

New on Gaming Hell - OOParts

MS Paint World: Catch Up Time 9

Arcade Archives: Battlantis

Arcade Archives: Gee Bee

Arcade Archives: Dacholer

Arcade Archives: Steel Worker

MS Paint World: The Mascot Drip

Arcade Archives: Video Hustler

DATA EAST FOREVER

November 2025