Gaming Hell

Despite the title, only the Japanese version, Konami RF2 - Red Fighter, is included. As explained in two posts by ohfivepro, this game was originally released as a Bubble System game (using Bubble Memory that requires literal heating-up before it starts) before later receiving a faster-loading EPROM release that introduces a few errors due to loading data too fast. While the Bubble System version is currently undumped, It seems that Hamster fixed up the errors in the EPROM version to create a better experience than the one currently available in MAME. The ROM release still has a 'warming up' screen though, and the Preference Settings here allow you to skip this if you like.
 

Yet another Konami game saved from having its only home port on the Microsoft Game Room! This is a pretty interesting one too, a first-person perspective driving game with impressive scaling and presentation (I'm a big fan of the car hood overlay, a bit Road Blaster-esque) and a good sense of speed to it. You're not worried about your position in the race though, it's more about your fuel gauge which constantly draining and empties even faster if you crash into another car or something on the side of the road and explode. You can top up your fuel gauge by driving into the giant orbs littered across the the course, and you also get a full refill once you reach a checkpoint, so a bit like Full Throttle, you're always given a good chance of clearing the next stage rather than having to rely on being good at the previous one. The steering takes a little getting used to (you might want to try adjusting the analogue settings a little) but it reminds me in a way of the turning controls in Pole Position, and funnily enough, Konami and Namco made a deal to sell the game as a conversion kit for old Pole Position cabs! Quite a fun racer, this one, but don't let the Japanese title fool you, it's definitely not a sequel to Road Fighter (although it totally is).

 

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Mega Zone (Konami, 1984)


Just the one ROM this time, and no Preference Settings either. I was a bit confused by the year listed though, as the title screen says 1983, as does arcade-history. However, this book, often cited as a reliable source, lists the game's release as March 1984 rather than 1983... In Japan, at least. This is unsourced, but JP Wikipedia lists the European and American release as 1983, specifying October 1983 for the US. Hamster themselves do, on occasion, get the year wrong too- Dragon Buster is officially listed as 1984 but that released early in 1985 (Namco gets this wrong too IIRC)- but seeing as they're likely to defer to the Japanese release date, we'll keep it as 1984 for now. Arcade release years (and release territories too- never say a game was only released in Japan unless you've got rock-solid proof) are confusing!

Once again, shmups are my area of weakness, but as ever, I'll do my best to bumble through. Another game saved from having its only home port being in the Microsoft Game Room, Mega Zone is a completely fine vertical shmup where you control a floating tank, making its way through enemy hordes to destroy their base. It's got a few things of interest that you didn't really see too often at the time. For a start, there's obstacles like walls and bushes that don't destroy you on impact (only if the scrolling of the screen crushes you against them) and this plays into the branching path system, as sometimes these obstacles force you to pick the left or right of the screen. Once you do, the path splits (and sometimes even scrolls diagonally, fancy!) and you'll take a different route, so you won't see the whole game in one loop. Once you do reach the end of the game (which has a gigantic face as the final boss- shoot out its eyes then take out the core!) you do repeat the game, so you can try the routes you missed if you're good enough to get that far!

There's not much in the way of power-ups, but eyeball turrets drop objects that clear the screen and give you a big points bonus, and energy pellets found in the riverbed (that I assumed were landmines the first time I played so I avoided them, oops) spawn a MEGA sign (truncated to just MEG in-game) once you collect enough, and grabbing it doubles your tank's size and triples its firepower at the cost of one of your spare lives, a bit like the Double Fighter from Galaga. It even lets you take a hit without having to respawn, but being twice the size does make your hitbox larger, so be careful. I think some of the enemies are pretty interesting too, like the missiles that fly diagonally to catch you out, the installations that fire bullets between them and only get destroyed if you fly between the gap (according to the manual, they eventually transform into the wolves from Pooyan!), eyeballs that need to be shot directly in the eye and the walls that appear directly ahead of you that you need to react to quickly. I don't have a lot else to say about it but it's, like, completely fine. It is a shoot-em-up you can play, and enjoy. I think that about covers it, sorry I can't say much else~

Just the one ROM this time, and while there's no specific Preference Settings, Original Mode keeps the behaviour where scoring around 1.000,000 points will glitch the game out and continually award you extra lives, while Hi Score Mode fixes this bug. I kinda wish there was a way to toggle it on and off for Original Mode as you see fit, but that's fine.

 

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


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... Super Basketball (Konami, 1984)

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Just the one version for this game, and the almost-standard-at-this-point 'adjust game speed' option in the Preference Settings.

It's been a minute since we've had a sports game, but this is perhaps more conventional than Punk Shot. We're on a regulation court with five players on each team, and we're working our way from the juniour high school leagues all the way to the world championships. This also does something pretty clever that I've seen only a handful of sports games do- rather than play a full game, you start every game in the middle of it, and your team is losing. Close the gap before you run out of time, and a draw doesn't count! You can earn extra time by scoring baskets to reach the target score, but mistakes will cost you a few seconds (thanks for the reminder, ohfivepro!) Its other innovation is perhaps a bit weirder, as this is a three-button game- pass and shoot are on their own buttons as you'd expect (with the passing working quite nicely, as the team member you're free to pass to is highlighted) but the third button is dribble and you have to mash it to move with the ball. It's a bit strange at first but if you're OK with mashing, it works pretty alright and tries to simulate the physical act of dribbling, although it might be a bit of a strain for some, but that's what the rapid fire function of all ACA rereleases is for. Double Dribble would also keep this unusual dribbling system, but scrapped it for the NES home version (only having two buttons there didn't help, I imagine).  

I found myself pretty charmed by this one- it's not a super-advancecd basketball simulation by any means and it does stop and start a lot as it keeps as many of the rules and fouls of basketball as it can, but there's neat touches like a penalty shot system that plays like a micro Track & Field game (get the angle and position right!) and the synthesized voices, a staple of Konami games in the '80s, are really charming, they're doing their best. There's even a bonus shoot-out round from a slightly different perspective where you try to score as many baskets as possible before time runs out! A bonus round in a sports game, can you imagine? 

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Punk Shot (Konami, 1990)

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The Japanese, International (two-player) and International (four-player) ROMs are included. Preference Settings allow players to adjust game speed and, for all versions except International (two-player), select which player side they want to use.

Only one rule on this court- no rules! It's just a little two-on-two street basketball with Stallion (1P) and Basher (2P) as the Ramblers versus their hated rivals, Hair (3P) and Spike (4P) as the Slammers on courts across the city. While it looks like normal basketball with all the long-shots and slam-dunks you can handle and has a fairly-simple control scheme that changes depending on whether you're on offense or defense, there's a few wrinkles here for something a little more violent. For a start, when you don't have the ball, there's no fouls, so you can punch and even suplex your opponent to get possession back! Each of the courts- from the park to the harbour to downtown- also has obstacles like brooms, banana peels and fires, and you can even fall in the drink and get stuck in a shipping crate!

This week;s Arcde Archives release is.. Juno First (Konami, 1983)

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Just one revision this time, nothing fancy. Preference Settings allow players to display an eight-digit score in-game (the normal score display only shows six digits) and adjust game speed.

At last, Juno First escapes from Game Room jail! Aside from some contemporary home computer ports including C64, Atari 800, DOS and MSX, the only arcade-accurate (sort-of) version of this one was Microsoft's Game Room which is real and can still hurt you so it's nice to have an Arcade Archives release for this. As for the game itself, this really doesn't look like a Konami game of the era- this seems really inspired, especially in terms of visuals and sounds, by American arcade games by the likes of Williams, especially Defender and Stargate, and it actually plays a little like that too, albeit with vertical scrolling, a vanishing-point (similar to something like Radarscope) and you save aliens for bonus points instead of humans. It takes a little time to get used to the idea of moving freely since your movement can be slightly slow, but once you adjust to it, this is a fun little shooter with impressive presentation (the starfield background really sells the perspective well), tense shootout gameplay as you try and wipe out all the hostiles without getting blown up and a rather neat warp button, limited to three uses per wave, that can get you out of a tight spot. If you're sore that there's no Western arcade games from the Golden Era on Arcade Archives, this might scratch that itch.

 

In the year 199X... The peace of the world is shattered by the return of the Evil King and his Empire of Horror. His island fortress rises from the sea as he prepares to take over the world. BUT!! The Goddess (identified on the US flyer as Athena, although that thing makes up so much stuff you might not want to take it too seriously) has bestowed upon four humans- Ban the karateka, Claude the fencer, Max the boxer and Ivan the lumber-wielding tough-guy- the souls and powers of the warriors that sealed away The Evil King the last time he tried to take over the world. They now wield the power of the Metamorphic Force, allowing them to transform into powerful were-beasts, strong enough to take on the Empire of Horror's legions of minions and boss creatures across six stages! Now, as the attract mode says, one of the most fierce and desperate battles ever is about to begin...

Well here it is, probably the biggest Konami release for Arcade Archives we'll see in 2024, and it's a doozy. 1993 was the last year Konami would release scrolling brawlers in the arcade, with this game and Violent Storm serving as their last entries in the genre in arcades, and Metamorphic Force is probably (from what I've seen, anyway) one of the most requested Konami Arcade Archives releases, so here it is! The big feature here is in the title, of course, the metamorphosis element, In human form, your characters can handle themselves fine (they even have back-attacks for when you're surrounded and pursuit attacks to kick enemies while they're down) but they're not particularly strong against the wild foes you'll be facing. Grab a Goddess Statue though, and you'll transform into a powerful were-beast (Ban becomes a minotaur, Claude becomes a wolf, Max becomes a panther and Ivan becomes a bear) which enhances your strength, movement speed and jump height plus allows you to grapple enemies (Ivan can even bring them along with him, Haggar-style) and, if you grab another Goddess Statue when transformed, perform a super move to damage anything on-screen. However, take too much damage in beast form and you'll revert back to a puny human, so find another Goddess Statue and get back in the fight!