tepidsnake | Entries tagged with namco

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Ridge Racer (Namco, 1993)

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Surprisingly, the PS4 and Switch ACA versions retain most of the features and menu UI of the ACA2 release on current-gen consoles, but if you buy the previous-gen version first, you'll get a discounted price for the current-gen version, just like ACA2NEOGEO The King of Fighters '98. Four versions are included- Japanese and English versions of the SD model (which used a simple up-down gear shift for changing gears in MT) and the DX model (which had a six-gear shifter and a clutch you need to use to switch gears- in this version, the gears are shown on-screen and you use the right analogue stick to switch gears). Preference Settings include adjusting the difficulty of each course (as far as I can tell, this was a standard option in the game's Test Menu so I'm not sure why they didn't put them in the normal Settings menu, oh well). You can also adjust the analogue control sensitivity although it's a bit hidden- go to Settings > Buttons > Custom Button Settings > Sensitivity Settings and adjust the Maximum Angle of Handle until it feels comfy for you (personally, around 360 works well for me).

Alright everyone, one minute to go, are you ready? The engine's sound like they're ready to go, are you all set? Here in scenic Ridge City, Seaside Route 765 is our racecourse for today, with 13 cars revving up and eyeing up that chequered flag, and you're one of 'em! Our enthusaistic announcer, Micheal Guinn, will be cheering you on the whole way, so get ready! There's four different difficult settings here- Novice and Intermediate cap your speed a little and have a shorter course, while Expert and Time Trials / T.T. expand the course with an under-construction area and use faster cars (with T.T. going up to 220kmph!)- and if you want to win, you'll have master the art of drifting. While turning a corner, let off the gas, tap the brake and quickly go back on the gas and your car will start sliding to make sharper turns without having to brake or slow down too much. Correct yourself before the road straightens and you'll be one genius of a driver! Can you prove yourself as a real ridge racer and beat the lap times for all four difficulties?

Well, here it is, the most important video game release of the year. Only joking a little, really! This is the first Arcade Archives release of a fully-3D arcade game. That's a big deal! 3D arcade hardware from this era is not the easiest thing to emulate, and while there have been rereleases of them across the years, Namco in particular haven't done it that often- while there's outliers like the arcade Tekkens and Starblade on the PS2 version of Tekken 5, they usually go for rereleasing the Playstation ports which are of course excellent but often not quite the same as the arcade version. Ridge Racer on PS1 in particular was an amazing port with a whole load of extras but it was locked at 30FPS and didn't look quite as clean. That PS1 port also has never been rereleased, despite a certain infamous reveal, so the original Ridge Racer has been MIA for a long time.

This arcade version may be missing those extras (mostly the different cars you can select and reverse / mirror courses) but it's got that solid 60FPS and the sharpest texture-mapped polygons Namco's System 22 hardware can muster, and it looks and plays like a dream. Once you mess around with the analogue sensitivity settings in this- by default using the d-pad feels very close to the PS1 version but I think I prefer the analogue controls- you'll be sweving and drifting with the best of them, and even 30+ years later, it's a really satisfying game, one you want to keep trying until you can master those corners and bring those lap times down. It may only be one course with one variation, but there's enough to the drifting that you'll want to get a good handle on it and keep trying. The presentation is great too, with a selection of thumping tunes provided by Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso and Nobuyoshi Sano, the bluest of arcade skies and while not as chatty as later games, the announcer has just the right energy to go along with the whole package. Ridge Racer is great, is what I'm trying to get at. You should play it.

Oh, and if you want to see more Ridge Racer promo stuff, I highly recommend ohfivepro's Bluesky page, they've been uncovering some treasures! Look at the size of that Full Scale cab!

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Super World Court (Namco, 1992)

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Both the Japanese and English ROMs are included, with the original typos (one of the courts takes place in the Franch Open) in-tact in the English version. No Preference Settings this time, but there is an odd edit- every single character name, aside from CAT (the cat), TINS (the robot) and MMM (the weird frog thing) have had their names changed, so MAX is now MAT, YURI is now YULI, etc.. This is actually alluded to in the manual (they mention that some things have been changed for this version but don't specify what) so that makes a change, thanks Hamster!

Sports, sports, sports sports... We'll keep it brief as usual, but this is a follow-up to 1988's Pro Tennis World Court on much beefier hardware- this is on Namco's NA-1 board, also home to Fighter & Attacker and Tinkle Pit and while the game's logo isn't nearly as nice as the original (big fan of that colourful logo), this has a nice presentation and adds to the original's character roster (which had a robot) by adding another robot, a weird frog thing and a cat called CAT who has murdered Pac-Man and will kill again. Just giving this a quick casual go, one thing surprised me- it didn't immediately kick my ass. The previous Namco tennis games I've played have made a point of completely humbling me from the off, but I was actually doing quite well in this one, scoring some points off the opponent and even a set or two! Maybe the cat is just overpowered, that'd make sense. Sorry this one's a little brief, but sports aren't my area, but hey, at least I know not to waffle like I know what I'm talking about when I don't! Ahem.

For Gaming Hell's 17th anniversary, it's time to return to that cursed tower with The Quest of Ki, the puzzle-platformer prequel to The Tower of Druaga created by Game Studio and inspired by Atari's Major Havoc! I'm a big fan of this game, so I hope I was able to articulate that properly in this article. I also cover the Vs. System version with 20 extra stages and other bits and bobs. I hope you enjoy it!

Gaming Hell is still on 'limited operations' with less frequent updates... But it will return.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Nebulasray (Namco, 1994)

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Just the one ROM exists for this game so no other revisions. Preference Settings allow solo players to use the player two side ship. Additionally, Nebulasray costs twice as much as the usual ACA releases, similar to Mazinger-Z and Super Dimension Fortress Macross- in the Super Xevious stream they briefly mention that this took a lot of work to get this one on ACA due to the beefy hardware it's on (Namco NB-1, which is otherwise full of baseball games, one football game and an all-time classic, Point Blank) before calling attention to the price, so I assume that's the reason. Other than that, I don't know, so don't make me tap the sign.

Gaming Hell's natural weakness, the shmup, returns again! I'll do my best. Nebulasray is an interesting vertical shmup with a pre-rendered look, receiving its first home port over 30 years after its arcade release. Here, you have the standard 'weak but wider shot range' vs. 'strong but narrow shot' choice for your standard weapon (and just like Raiden, the game cycles through the two different types when a power-up appears) but the sub-weapons, ranging from homing lasers to a close-range blast and even a shield, are time-limited, so keep an eye on their timer and don't get too attached to them! You've also got a bomb that won't completely clear the screen for you but does a lot of damage to the bosses. I think this pulls off the pre-rendered look pretty well with strong colour use and lots of scaling and rotating (like the space backgrounds, hopefully they won't make you motion-sick) although I did find myself struggling a little to determine what was safe to touch and what wasn't in Mission 3's asteroid field because of this style. Stomping soundtrack though! As usual, I have to disclose shmups are not my area of expertise, not by a long shot, so I've kept it brief, but hopefully this gives you a rough idea of what this one's like.

... By the way, they announced the next Namco Month game is Super World Court, the tennis game where you can play as a cat. That gives me a score of 1/3 on my predictions. Whoops!

This week;s Arcade Archives release is... Super Xevious (Namco, 1984)

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Just the one ROM exists for this game. As well as the enemy guide you would've seen in the ACA version of Xevious, the manual has a pretty robust list of differences between this and the original game, which is very handy! Preference Settings allow players to view the boot screen on start-up, adjust game speed, reproduce the title screen burn-in to different degrees, reproduce the original explosion effect for Giddo Spario, display the area number, show the Sol and Special Flag locations and view an enemy encounter table at all times.

Not to be confused with Vs. Super Xevious: Mystery of GUMP (yes, they localise it as GUMP, let's have a good chuckle about it) which was the Famicom Super Xevious (imagine Xevious with The Tower of Druaga-style secrets required to advance from one Area to the next), the arcade Super Xevious is an updated version of the original game. It makes the game harder. Much, much harder. In fact, by default, the difficulty is set to Very Hard. It changes some other things too of course (there's some new enemies and the locations of Sol Citadels and Lucky Flags have been moved, among other things) but the main takeaway is that this is for experts only. This is a game only for those who've absolutely mastered the original Xevious and want a new challenge, because for the rest of you, GUMP's Xevious forces will crush your spirit. That's me, by the way- I am terrible at Xevious, so this version scares me!! Ahem, this is also the first home version of this game since Namco Museum DS (available as a toggle for Xevious), which surprised me- I thought the last home port of that was Xevious 3D/G+ on PS1 (which also had the original Xevious and Xevious Arrangement) but, as usual, I was wrong!

In other Arcade Archives news, Arcade Archives 2: Ridge Racer is coming to Playstation 5 as well as Switch 2! I expected we'd get this (pour one out for arcade game fans with an Xbox Series X / S, no version for them) but, surprisingly, there'll be a standard Arcade Archives (1) version of the game for Playstation 4! Now that I wasn't expecting, but it's a nice surprise and good for those who don't want to get one of those fancy newer consoles to race the ridgers. Also, the next game of Namco Month has been revealed- the clue was 'first release for a home console', so who out there guessed Nebulasray, the 1994 vertical shmup? I didn't. I guessed Blazer. Swing and a miss! I'm also probably wrong about World Stadium too. Is it too late to change my guess? It is? Oh well.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Assault Plus (Namco, 1988)

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No other ROMs exist, so just the one is included. Preference Settings allow players to adjust game speed, set player one's right stick to player two's left stick and rotate the direction of the player sticks.

It's Namco's twin-stick tank action game Assault, but with a plus! Two new sets of stages are available- Scenario #2 is the Easy Course, "Rehearsal for Core" if you want a breezier mission, while Scenario #3 is the Hard Course, "Battle for Core", a sturdy challenge awaiting those who thought the original Assault was too easy. New music and graphics too!... Yes, I know, I know, they probably should've bundled this with the Assault rerelease. Namco in particular, however, seems to treat updates to games like this (see also: Rally-X / New Rally-X and Sky Kid / Sky Kid DX) as completely separate games- compare this with other ACA releases of games from different companies like Rainbow Islands (included the Extra version) and Omega Fighter (included the Special version) and you can see the pattern. Oh well. If you didn't get your fill from the first Assault (or you decided to wait out for this version) then Assault Plus is for you.

We're not done this week, though! If you saw the Nintendo Direct on the Switch 2, you might've spotted a very important announcement, dropped in the middle of a development partner montage...

It's Ridge Racer! Riiiiiiiidge Racerrrrrrrrr! (Sorry, I had to).

When Dead Connection released a while back, it was accompanied by ACA2NEOGEO The King of Fighters '98 on Playstation 5 and Xbox Series, which added a whole boatload of new features (oh, and it was patched to add support for PS4 fightsticks, yay!). It seems that non-Neo Geo games are also getting the Arcade Archives 2 treatment in the future, with Ridge Racer on Switch 2 (no mention of other platforms, but we'll see) being the inaugural release, and the description of the video mentions the same set of extra features as ACA2NEOGEO (no Network Mode for this game though, it was only one-player in arcades). This is huge news- just by showing Ridge Racer, Hamster's letting us know that 3D arcade games are on the table, and if you thought there weren't enough ports of 2D games of the era, oh boy, there's a lot of 3D arcade gaming history that's just not available at home nowadays. Namco especially made huge technological strides in this era in the 3D space, and this means games like Starblade and Solvalou could be on the table in the future. And you know what, the original Ridge Racer is excellent too, I'm really glad it's finally making it home! It won't be out for a while (it releases in June, same day as the Switch 2) so I'll be rotating in excitement until it arrives.

Watch on YouTube

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Vs. Mystery Tower (Namco, 1986).

The Namco Curse has struck once again, with the game only showing up as 'announced' on PSN, so we'll just have to use US links only this time.

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There's only one revision this time... Sort-of. As explained by ohfivepro, the game will check your console's language and call the game Vs. The Tower of Babel if it's set to Japanese, or Vs. Mystery Tower if it's set to English. This will even change the in-game title screen- I imagine this wasn't too difficult to do as Bandai Namco had already done this title switch-up for the Nintendo Switch Online reissue (and, in a later patch, the Namcot Collection reissue) and since both the home and arcade versions are on NES hardware, it's a much easier thing to do than, for example, changing Marvel Land's name to Talmit's Adventure. Anyway, the reason for the name change on the Japanese side is unclear- the box and title screen would just call the game Babel originally- but overseas is a bit easier to guess as the name The Tower of Babel has been trademarked for use with toys and card games since 2019. I dunno, that's what I'd guess anyway. Preference Settings allow players to remove the black space that appears when character sprites overlap, automatically enter passwords, remove the time-up fireball for Original Mode, display the current speed level and set an optional button to kill your character immediately for Original Mode (thanks, ohfivepro!).

There's also a fair few differences between this and the Famicom version as explained in the Hamster stream at 3:40:30- summarised quickly, you can only select Floors 1-60 rather than Floors 1-64; the Floors are all from the Famicom version but are a jumbled-up mixture of Floors from the normal game and Floors from the unlockable Pro mode (no longer available in this version); the Power limit to picking stones is removed but replaced with a timer; extra lives are given every eight cleared Floors instead of every single cleared Floor; a time-up fireball enemy is added if the controls are left alone (although this can be disabled with Preference Sesttings in Original Mode) and the Grade bonus system has been changed.

The intrepid explorer Indy Borgnine (no relation) has been searching for the mythical Hanging Gardens of Babylon... His adventures take him to the 64-floor Tower of Babel, with the gardens supposedly at the top. However, he can't just take the stairs- each floor is a puzzle that must be solved, mostly through the use of the magical stair blocks. Shaped like Ls, it takes a little strength to pick one up but Indy can haul them around the stage and create staircases with them. As long as they're just about connected by their edges, they'll magically float in place! A good thing too, Indy can't climb anything that's over his head, so he'll need these little steps to get anywhere. Spike pits, monsters and mysterious murals every eighth floor make Indy's climb up the tower treacherous and enigmatic... Is there truly something special waiting for him at the top?

Described by the Famicom manual (available on Gaming Alexandria) as 'Namco's first traditional puzzle and action game', Mystery Tower is an interesting one, and another example of Namco using the Vs. System to advertise their Famicom games in their own game centres (just like The Quest of Ki, the Vs. System version has until now never been rereleased or publically dumped). While appearing fairly simple, this is one I actually find a little confusing and difficult, mostly because I find myself frequently getting mixed-up in how to get the stair blocks to face the direction I want them to- a problem that presents itself from the very first stage! Still, this one's got multiple exits for stages, bonuses to find, infectious music, cute presentation... While this arcade version isn't currently available in Europe, you can try the Famicom version on Nintendo Switch Online if you like, and there's absolutely no language barrier, even the murals you'll need for later on in the game are just images rather than letters or words. This isn't one of Namco's better-known Famicom games it seems, so it's honestly worth a look if puzzle and action is your bag!

Watch on YouTube

Only one way to end this entry though... Oh yes, there is an IDOLM@STER version of this game's soundtrack!

Watch on YouTube

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Märchen Maze (Namco / NH System, 1988)

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This game only has a Japanese ROM with no confirmed English version, so just the one version this time. There were rumours of an English ROM retitled Alice in Wonderland, but many years ago I spoke with btribble of UnMAMEd Arcade Games where this version was listed as a game being searched for, who confirmed that while he had been informed by someone else such a version existed, he hadn't seen any evidence himself. Preference Settings allow players to adjust game speed and shift the directional controls 45° to the right (so holding Up moves Alice diagonally up-right) allowing for slightly easier movement control.

In the land through the looking glass, all is a muddle! An evil queen has taken over and its inhabitants don't know what to do... The white rabbit knows, though. He reaches out through the mirror to Alice, a young girl who loves fairytales and is one of the few out there who can see and talk to the residents of the land. Dragging her into the mirror, she's got to save the land from the dark queen's tyrant! Fortunately, the rabbit also gives her a magic straw that can blow bubbles- mash the button for rapid-fire, or hold the button to charge up a giant bubble to bowl the enemies over. Alice is also a pretty sturdy girl, and won't be killed by just being shot at by enemies, as they just bounce her around. If she falls into a pit though, that's one life lost (unless she finds a recovery balloon that floats her to safety). Many bizarre enemies await her- smoking mushrooms, giant robots, card soldiers... But Alice will have to be up to the task if she wants to go home!

It's been quite a while since we've seen a proper Namco arcade game on Arcade Archives, hasn't it? Well, Namco published at least, as this is by the short-lived NH System who also made Blast Off and Final Blaster for the PC Engine (their entire output got a soundtrack release with really adorable cover art) before shuttering in 1990. In any case, Namco's been doing some stellar work preserving undumped Vs. System games like The Quest of Ki and Family Tennis, but it is nice to see their real arcade games again. This is one that people have been waiting for- Märchen Maze is one of the last holdovers from the Namco games rereleased via Wii Virtual Console Arcade (the only ones left now are Quester, Starblade, Solvalou and Cyber Sled) and it's a pretty interesting game. There's not a lot of on-foot isometric shooters out there (the arcade version of Michael Jackon's Moonwalker, Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters and Prikura Daisakusen are the only ones that really come to mind) and certainly none that have the unique 'take as much damage as you want but don't fall off the stage' mechanics seen here. It can take a little getting used to, can be a bit awkward when it comes to jumps (you have Alice's shadow to judge them except for the chequered platforms at the end of rounds) and it's a little disappointing that the game eventually runs out of round layouts (Rounds 7, 8 and 9 are palette-swaps of previous rounds but have different enemies). However, the presentation really sells it, it's a cute and charming game that might be a bit easier to play with the extra directional control option offered here. It helps that it's based on Alice in Wonderland, a favourite of mine. Anyway, I do have an old Gaming Hell playthrough of this game, but oh no, it's like 15 years old at this point. I probably need to rewrite a lot of this, so please bear that in mind.

As a bonus, I highly recommend the Hamster stream for this one, as alongside some development documents and sketches, they show off a video of a 1987 prototype of the game at around 1:10:20 just titled Alice. As well as a very different, more realistic artstyle for Alice, this seems to be more of an arena shooter with large, open spaces to fight in and the ability to jump down to different arenas. It's clearly very early as a lot of collision detection doesn't seem to be implemented and there's debug information on the side of the screen, but this is fascinating stuff!

Watch on YouTube

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Vs. Family Tennis (Namco, 1987)

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Preference Settings allow players to display the extreme sides of the screen not normally visible. As explained in the Hamster stream for this game at around 3:06:20, the differences between this and the Famicom version are that this only has the Exhibition mode and it also slightly alters the rules of tennis, removing the rule of deuce (presumably to keep games faster and not have people hog the machine all day, this is an arcade game after all).

Sports, sports, sports, sports... It's tennis, by Namco! To be fair, this is the first in the Family Tennis series, one of a few Namco-developed tennis games- if you've played Smash Tennis on the SNES, this is part of the same series (it was released in Japan as Super Family Tennis) as is Family Tennis Advance for the GBA. There's also the World Court games in the arcades (the first of which is also available on Arcade Archives) and the Smash Court games on PS1 and later PS2. This is where Namco's tennis lineage began though, and it has a few advantages over the only other tennis game on the system at the time, Nintendo's own Tennis. Specifically, you have a selection of characters with different stats to play, different courts to play on with different effects on the ball (including one in space) as and you can play versus two player, not just against the computer! This is because of the perspective used, opting for a more top-down look compared to Nintendo's angled view of the court so both players have the same amount of space to work with. It does mean things have to scroll a little, but it works fairly well, just perhaps outclassed by the later Namco tennis affairs.

Surprisingly, this isn't one of the games available on either Namcot Collection or the localised Namco Museum Archives sets, so this is the only option you have for playing this one, plus like some of the other Vs. System games, this is currently not available for use in MAME. You might want to look at World Court Pro Tennis via ACA first, but this has charm too. Might as well take this moment to mention that most of the sports games Namco released on the Famicom had the Family title and had a mascot lady playing the sports, as seen here, and she was even briefly brought back for some Namco slot machines. Big fan of the art of her at the baseball game!

Watch on YouTube

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Vs. The Quest of Ki (Namco, 1988)

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This version of the game includes a full set of maps detailing enemy placements, items and time limits for every stage, available during gameplay at the press of a button. Preference Settings allows players to remove the black space that appears when character sprites overlap, display visuals near the edge of the screen normally not visible and display the score, current floor number, key status and wind direction in-game.

In another time, in another world... The evil Druaga has stolen the Blue Crystal Rod, planning to use it to cast the world into darkness under his rule. The Goddess Ishtar entrusts the priestess Ki with a most difficult task: ascend the 60 floors of the tower Druaga has holed himself in and retrieve the rod! To aid her in her quest, Ki has a magical tiara that allows her to jump as high as she wants and float down gracefully, although she needs to be careful not to hit her head on the ceiling or run into a wall too fast as she'll crumple for a moment... Although that might be useful in some situations. As well as treasures that offer protection, extra lives and even warps courtesy of the adorable dragon Quox, the tower is filled with enemies and hazards ready to kill Ki with a single touch. Mastery of Ki's flight powers are your only hope, but even if you reach the 60th floor...?

While this is a story prequel to The Tower of Druaga, showing how Ki managed to get captured in the first place (although if you ask me, getting all the way up that tower without any armour shows she's way tougher than Gil), it's a completely different game, developed by Game Studio, the company Masanobu Endō formed in 1985 that kept a good working relationship with Namco. Inspired by the jumping mechanics in the Atari arcade game Major Havoc (Atari even gets a special thanks credit specifically mentioning this game in the credits), this is a methodical platform game where Ki can jump as high as she wants, but once the jump ends, she has to float down and can't add to her height again. It starts off gentle, and there's even some warps early on to get you started, but you really need to master these controls to get up the tower, and as the manual for this one shows, there's a lot of techniques you'll have to learn how to do, such as hopping short distances and even intentionally hitting the wall or ceiling to crouch under things. I wouldn't exactly call it a puzzle-platformer as it's very much focused on dexterity, but you will have to think a lot more than others in the genre.

The special stages- unlocked in the Famicom version by beating the first 60 floors- are particularly infamous for being brutally difficult, and you might know about them from their GameCenter CX appearance, but this Vs. System version- currently undumped for MAME- has a few extra features tailored to these special stages. As explained in the Hamster stream, you can start from the special stages right off the bat (and even select which one to start on), hidden backwards warps in there now don't take you as far back (to prevent people playing too long) and... There's twenty new special stages. If you've beaten this game before and want a new challenge, Namco is happy to provide. If you've never played this though, this is absolutely the version to play- you can get it for Namcot Collection on Switch as well, but this version has an extremely useful set of guides, including maps, enemy and item descriptions, so similar to the other Druaga games available on Arcade Archives, this is perfect for those who've never played it before. Anyone remotely interested in platformers that make you think a little (and who have patience, this is a Druaga game after all) should look into this one immediately!

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Gaming Hell

Arcade Archives: Ridge Racer

Arcade Archives: Super World Court

New on Gaming Hell - The Quest of Ki

Arcade Archives: Nebulasray

Arcade Archives: Super Xevious & ACA News Update

Arcade Archives: Assault Plus + Arcade Archives 2 News

Arcade Archives: Vs. Mystery Tower

Arcade Archives: Märchen Maze

Arcade Archives: Vs. Family Tennis

Arcade Archives: Vs. The Quest of Ki

DATA EAST FOREVER

June 2025