The Gamer's Quarter

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

At my family's place on the Jersey shore.

We decided we needed a PS2 to replace the PSone that had been stolen from the place. So I went on my usual quest for head to head "action puzzle" games ala Tetris for my Aunt and Mom. This is a seriously under-represented genre. And unfortunately, Tetris Worlds is so much fail in head to head mode (hint: multiplayer tetris is about forcing your opponent(s) to an untimely doom, not timed play for score) that it makes my teeth hurt. So my only option was "Lumines" which is quite ok. Other suggestions welcome; I need to hunt up some spare copies of The Next Tetris.

But I picked up Taito Legends 2 because it had Puzzle Bobble 2 on it, which is OK, but seems to be sparse in the Bub and Bob cameo category. But it also has a big representation of Taito's second line.

(Fun wikipedia fact... Taito might be a kanji anagram of "Pacific Ocean" and "Jew")

It was fun sampling each game and seeing some patterns.

First and foremost, Taito was often willing to sacrifice animation and a sense of kinetics for great graphics. "Legend of Kage" seemed to be an early example of digitized graphic, Nastar Warrior (sequel of Rastan) had it in spades....

It was funny noting what I assumed was some bandwagon hopping, like Arabian Magic, a kind of TMNT/Simpsons clone.

There was some innovation there... Raimais was an interesting sci-fi themed Pac-Man meets Targ. The mechanical dragon in Syvalion was pretty cool too, but again hampered by clumsy graphics.

A fair supply of Space Invaders derivatives, including some waves I see made it into that PSX/N64 remake.

Other Observations:
*1979's lunar rescue is pretty darn good
*Chack n' Pop is a kind of proto-Bubble Bobble, some of the same enemies
*Ki Ki Kai Kai, has elements of what I think of as traditional Japanese culture
*Liquid Kids (with what I think is a platypus named "hippo") is the cutest thing ever. Someone should make a bestiary of Taito cute.
* Elevator Action 2 is to the original what the GBC remake of Bionic Commando was to its original.

Another common theme was they weren't shy about giving the player a very decent weapon with unlimited ammo. A few weapons were special-collect bombs, but compared to some other games, they were pretty generous (I'm not sure if its this collection or the originals, but most have builtin rapidfire, which I appreciated)

The first boss of Darius Gaiden reminded me of what I now, for right or wrong, think of as "Shoop Da Whoop". Does anyone know A. where that idea of a mighty energy beam gets its origin in Japanese popculture, and B. where it started to get revived (with its unfortunate minstrel overtones) in 4chan-ish culture?

So, this collection (which was technically well done... aside from odd button layouts, some care went into the menu and settings options) was a trove of Engrish. My favorite was "Violence Fight":

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 4:43 pm Post subject: I am the "No. 1 Quarreler"

DOGON
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Elevator Action Returns is amazing. Possibly the best game on that disc. Other amazing games:

Metal Black
Don Doko Don
...

others too. I don't have it in front of me. But seriously for those three games it's more than worth the entry price.
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:30 pm Post subject:

i'm hesitant to approach this thread because i love taito's library so much and have talked about many of their games at length in other threads. here are some counter-observations:

raimais is the same approach to pac-man that arkanoid takes to breakout.

if you really want to see proto-bubble bobble, you should play the fairyland story.

hippopo and pals are super cute. you should play the new zealand story.

elevator action returns is maybe the best game ever. that and rayforce.

i have always liked the distinctive, almost collage-like visuals of taito games. they straddle a line between photorealism and abstraction that borders surreal. the japlish is good too.
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extrabastardformula · . Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 295

I was really upset by the lack of Bubble Bobble iconography in the version of Puzzle Bobble on my PS2 disc. Bub and Bob are awesome and the cute baddies in the bubbles made the different bubbles easy to distinguish. Being colorblind, the version on Legends 2 renders one of my favorite games almost completely unplayable. Boo!

But I have to agree with everyone that Elevator Action Returns was worth the price of admission. Haven't gotten into Legend of Kage yet for fear of my nostalgia being brutally shattered.

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:28 pm Post subject:

i can assure you that legend of kage is still the most gloriously fast arcade game ever made.
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extrabastardformula · . Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 295

But my memories are of the NES port.

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:13 pm Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:18 pm Post subject:

i think chack'n pop is actually a lot farther from bubble bobble than don doko don, fairyland story, rainbow islands, mizubaku adventure, and the new zealand story. though the aesthetics made it into bubble bobble, i think chack'n is very much doing its own thing.
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:21 pm Post subject:

also extrabastard i see where your fears lie but the real test of maturity in the digital age is the willingness to set nostalgia aside and embrace experience. and the arcade version of kage just plays so fucking well.
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JasonMoses · . Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 407

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

oh man i remember that remake, it was friggin' sweet
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:30 pm Post subject:

legend of shadow, right? i like the shuriken-reflecting and the expanded view of the ninja's surroundings, but some of the level design (and the bosses) wasn't that hot.
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extrabastardformula · . Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 295

I looked at a description of Legend of Shadow and kinda got put off when I saw the words "health bar" which kind of blows the one moment, one opprotunity, one movement, one kill thing the original had going on.

Look at what it did for Demon Sword on the NES. True the game was flawed in some other ways (bottomless death pits in a game where you jump like in Kage is unthinkable) but I place most of the blame for Demon Sword's failure on the unneeded addition of power ups and a life meter.