Gaming Hell

Only the Japanese ROM is included, but fortunately the differences are minor (the profiles for Bernard White, Professor Ching and Danny & Demi are different, the title is displayed in Katakana on the title screen and cutscenes have Japanese subtitles on the side of the screen) and the game is otherwise entirely in English. No special Preference Settings this time.

Mr. Acme... A shadowy individual, shrouded in mystery. They have concocted a scheme, a plot... And a few killings. He's hired seven contract killers to take out seven prestigious art collectors but, curiously, he's also hired each of those killers to kill each other for a handsome fee (paid in Swiss Francs, of course). These are no ordinary assassins though- John Smith (the man who would do anything from babysitting to agitating a revolution for money), Betty Doe (a businesswoman who, among other things, is a hitwoman), Bernard White (a bio-scientist with hands made of steel), Eve (a fading starlet-turned-thief with a pet lizard), Professor Ching (a master of the Chinese martial arts in a killer wheelchair), Dweeb (a monkey) and Danny & Demi (a pair of murderous children) are all prepared to use any weapons available- guns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, fruit baskets, hot soup- to survive. They don't need to just watch out for their enemy though- the arenas they fight in, from a skyscraper falling apart due to a wired explosive, a fishing boat in the choppiest waters, and even the circus, are full of hazards, traps and dangers themselves, and they might be unrecognisible by the time they're through. What is Mr. Acme's endgame? Only one of the assassins will find out, but before they get there, they have one instruction: kill your enemy by any means!  

Well, well, well. I didn't think this would happen- I, like others, figured that the violence against children would mean it'd never get rereleased- but here it is. Thirty years after its arcade release, The Outfoxies is finally at home. Probably the most requested Namco game for Arcade Archives, maybe even the most requested game full-stop, if you know about this game, then you know what the deal is. It's tempting to call it a Smash Bros. progenitor, but it plays quite a bit differently, with a much larger focus on stages that are either constantly changing or adding new hazards or just throwing you off your feet. Is it balanced? Oh hell no. Is it fun? Oh hell yes, it's a game you can pick up immediately and have fun playing whether against the CPU (who does, admittedly, start to cheat but the Acme Mansion stage is worth it) or a friend, and the presentation is immaculate. There are two issues worth pointing out though. First, the camera moves around a lot and this can induce motion sickness in some people, but there's no real way around that unfortunately (I'm lucky that it doesn't affect me even though I can't use VR for more than 5 seconds without wanting to throw up, but I know not everyone is so lucky). Second, there's no online play, which is disappointing but expected. I'm just happy we have a version of this at home at long last. If you want to know more, this Bluesky thread translates parts of the Hamster stream with the revelation that the game was partly inspired by Ghosts 'n Goblins (!) and was made after the director had to work on a string of quiz games (!!). Also, I wrote about The Outfoxies in 2008 (I got to it first, give me retro gamer cred please) and while this article is very, very old, I've updated it a little to bring it up more up to code, but it's more a playthrough than more usual long articles, so it'll be a bit different. Anyway, play The Outfoxies.

This week's Arcade Archives release is...Roc'n Rope (Konami, 1983)The Roc... A gigantic bird of myth and legend. Marco Polo may have claimed to see the bird, but as a brave explorer, you're about to catch a ride with one, you've found the mountain it lives on! However, the path to the top is treacherous. Not only are there cliffs and platforms to navigate, but hostile creatures ready to stop your ascent. Brave explorers such as yourself are never without the right tools though, so you've got a flashlight to temporarily stun enemies and, more importantly, a rope you can shoot at an upwards angle. Get a solid shot that hits the bottom of a cliff or platform and you can shimmy your way across, but watch out- monsters can shake the rope to throw you off (stop moving to stay on the line) and even start climbing towards you with it! There can only be one rope on-screen at once, so if a monster's using one, shoot out another to get rid of 'em! Once you reach the Roc and take it for a ride, you'll move on to another mountain with new hazards. Waterfalls, moving platforms, rock-dropping birds... Only the hardiest of mountaineers will make it through all four mountains!

Designed by Tokuro Fujiwara before he'd leave Konami to join Capcom and, eventually, help create the Ghosts 'n Goblins series as well as Bionic Commando (the parallels between this and that game's bionic arm mechanics are pretty obvious) and, much later on, Tomba!, this is a great Donkey Kong-style single screen platformer with really interesting movement mechanics. Relying on the angled rope is tricky at first, but satisfying once you get a feel for it, especially once you learn how to avoid being shaken off the rope and using the flashlight to distract enemies mid-rope-climbing. The stages also have a nice bit of variety with some neat little setpieces like the waterfall and the giant rotating ferris wheel platforms. It's a tough game but an excellent example of this type of game, so it's highly recommended, and it's nice to see it show up here as it's been a while since it's been reissued! While not worked on by Fujiwara, Konami would use a similar rope mechanic in their Famicom Disk System release, Arumana no Kiseki, so it's not just Bionic Commando that took notes from this one.

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!

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.

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.
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.

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 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...?

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!

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!