Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platforms: PC-8801, MSX2, PC Engine Super CD-Rom^2, Sega/Mega CD, Saturn, Playstation Years of Release: 1988 (PC-88), 1988 (MSX2), 1992 (PC Engine CD), 1994 (Sega/Mega CD), 1996 (Saturn), 1996 (Playstation)
Snatcher is a legendary game in the modern era. Today it is considered a great opus of interactive fiction, and it largely stands above most of its contemporaries among those that have played the game. In its time, it was heavily overlooked by most of the international audience despite a wealth of rave reviews. Snatcher was originally developed and published by Konami for Japanese computers, releasing on the NEC PC-88 and MSX2 in 1988. Development was quite lengthy and expensive for Konami and shows many of the trademark behind the scenes issues with projects led by Hideo Kojima that would eventually lead to their fallout decades later. The project suffered from an unrealistic scope, as roughly half the story was condensed or axed altogether. Despite this, development still took far longer than most projects of the era. All of this would not pay off in Konami's eye, as the game's initial PC sales were underwhelming. A cult following developed around the game, and this likely led to Konami issuing later ports. The first one being 1992's port to NEC's PC Engine Super CD-ROM^2. What is interesting is that this PC Engine CD release was not just a straight over port, but it included the game's 3rd Act as a mostly cinematic experience. 1994 would see a strangely Western exclusive port released for Sega CD that allegedly only sold a few thousand copies. This Sega CD release further expanded on Act 3, adding some extra exploration and action. The final ports were released in 1996, exclusively in Japan, for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
Formulating a digital avatar, a representation of a player's interaction within a video game, is a construct often taken for granted. Given the importance placed upon player agency in many modern games, from customization and features in Skyrim to vehicle selection and colors in the Forza Horizon series, great effort is often taken to connect the player to what is on the screen. Upon reflection, four games I've played recently paint a fascinating picture of the evolution of where we started and where we are now.
Summer 2001 was an interesting time for me. I had moved out of my home state to the East Coast and was trying something new in the work arena. Previous jobs had come and gone, and nothing really stuck, so rather than continue to flounder, I thought I would change my course. I quickly found out that my newly chosen path was a huge mistake, and within just a few short months, I would move back to my home state and get back on the career path I started on, albeit in a different direction. But for a few months in the middle of 2001, I lived about 45 minutes from the ocean, and had a fairly eye-opening experience learning about the differences between small town midwestern life and what life was like in the south.
During my stint on the coast, I spent a fair amount of time on my off days looking for entertainment. Whether it was browsing music shops, used video game stores, pawn shops, etc., I found ways to occupy my time when I wasn't working. And of course, there were also movie theaters. One of the more highly anticipated releases the summer of 2001 was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which was to be the debut film from Square Pictures. Having played and enjoyed Final Fantasy VII just a year or so prior, I was looking forward to the movie. I thought the idea of using full computer animation for everything was novel at the time and assumed the storytellers at Square had a good chance of coming up with a good story.
Well, it's been a while since I've done one of these! I was replaying Final Fantasy VII recently, and this track really stood out to me when it played in the game. I've heard it plenty of times while listening to the soundtrack on its own, but something about hearing it in the context of the game really made it hit that much harder. On the Other Side of the Mountain is already a pretty straightforward acoustic piece, so my cover is just a 1:1 recreation. Nothing fancy, no frills, just a quick playthrough of a nice tune. A little bit different from my usual metal covers, but I hope you all enjoy this one just the same!
Title: Phantasy Star Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Platforms: Sega Mark III/Master System Release Years: 1987 JP, 1988 NA/EU
In the now rather long history of role playing games there have been a surprisingly small number of examples of science fiction settings. It has become more common in recent years, and there are examples from every era, but it would not surprise me to see the difference between traditional fantasy settings skewed in a near ten to one favor against the smaller sample pool of science fiction. The late 1980s saw a huge growth in Japanese role playing games. They had existed for years, even before Dragon Quest became the consensus Grandfather of Japanese RPGs. However, only small developers really played around with them until Chunsoft struck sales gold with Dragon Quest III, coupled with Squaresoft's Final Fantasy series. Larger developers began looking at this design formula as an emerging market and began developing their own projects. Sega was rather quick to fill this growing niche on its own hardware, developing Phantasy Star for the Sega Mark III or Master System as it was also known as.
In February, get ready for the return of RF Generation's community playthrough and another great title presented by the Shoot the Corecast!
FEBRUARY 2022 COMMUNITY PLAYTHROUGH
After a few month hiatus, the Playcast boys are back with a different kind of James Bond adventure than you might be used to. In February, join the community playthrough as we make our way through one of the limited RPG titles offered on the original Game Boy, James Bond 007. Released a year after the smash hit Goldeneye on the N64, James Bond on the Game Boy is an action/adventure RPG where you play as the famed Agent 007. While most games in this franchise were 1st and 3rd person shooters, this rarely discussed Game Boy title bunked the typical format and created a fresh narrative outside of the film series. However, fans of the movies won't be disappointed as they can expect some welcome fan service via appearances from a few favorite Bond villains! The overhead view and mechanics are reminiscent of the original Legend of Zelda and similarly, your inventory can be assigned to your A & B buttons. Was James Bond 007's lack of popularity due to its late release on the Gameboy, or is this game best left CONFIDENTIAL? Join us in February and find out!
James Bond 007 is available on the original Game Boy. We are very excited about February's pick, so be sure to obtain your copy as soon as possible and join us.
Also, be sure to join our forum HERE to discuss the game with fellow site members.
Sometimes, a game developer comes up with a winner, a real hit. When that happens, and they follow that up with something different, the results aren't always as successful. That lack of success may be creative in nature, or purely financial. Or sometimes, the enormity of the initial success simply uses up all the oxygen in the room, so that subsequent attempts to replicate that success never quite get the same traction. It could be said that Irem's initial success of R-Type was a detriment to some of their subsequent games, because it's difficult to capture lightning in a bottle in the same manner. Such could be said about their vertical shooting game follow-up, Image Fight. While it was far from a failure, it certainly didn't replicate the success of its predecessor, both in terms of broad appeal, and overall success. Even so, the game was a popular arcade title, and saw conversions on a number of platforms, such as the PC Engine, Famicom and NES, Sharp X68000, and the FM Towns computer. More recently, the arcade version has been made available on PS4 and Switch, thanks to Hamster's Arcade Archives line.
On a fateful day in 20XX, the Earth's moon exploded into four large fragments and a multitude of meteors. Aliens from afar had succeeded in destroying the West's moon base. One after another, mankind's other military industrial space complexes were being lost. What mankind dreaded had come to pass. Scores of unidentified fighters were in the area. In addition, the moon's main computer, still intact after the explosion, had a strange vegetation coiled around it. Their trademark evil exploits being a dead giveaway, invaders from the Boondoggle Galaxy had arrived to take over the Earth. To counter these evil forces, leading scientists from all over the globe created the "OF-1" Fightership. Combat pilots depart the Earth to fend off the invaders and earn everlasting glory. Join the RF Generation Shmup Club in February 2022 as we take on the "vertical R-Type" known as Image Fight!
Tetris Effect - Like many before me I wondered "how can they make Tetris worth playing in VR?" before firing this up. I tried it out last year when I acquired my physical copy from Limited Run, but it didn't get its hooks in me at the time. In my search for VR titles to play, I discovered that the main game mode for this game (which is all I have played), is rather short, so I dove back in. The pull of Tetris Effect is that yes, it's the Tetris that we all know and love but set against some beautiful and fantastic backdrops and integrated with an amazing soundtrack by Hydelic.
Now that we are a couple of weeks into '22, and since co-op is kinda my jam, I figured I'd do a quick recap on some co-op games you may have missed last year. This quick list excludes some better known titles such as It Takes Two, The Ascent, and Back 4 Blood, and instead focuses on some that may have slipped through the cracks. Oh, and I won't mention how much I enjoyed Aliens: Fireteam Elite because I've already mentioned it in a few articles, so I won't bring up how much fun I had with Aliens: Fireteam Elite again in this article and how you should find two friends and play through Aliens: Fireteam Elite. Also, I didn't get around to KeyWe or Very Very Valet, both of which I intend to pick up but have yet to do so.
I can't say that 2021 was the best year ever for video games. Many of the games I was looking forward to got delayed. Some came out and just weren't that good. But, there are always gems out there, especially in the indie space. Here are my top 10 games from 2021, which include both indies, major releases, action, racing and a lot of comedy.
Truth be told, I've only dabbled in Final Fantasy XIV a bit, and I'm not sure if I actually heard this theme in the game or not. But when Torn From the Heavens came up as an 8BBG track, I was really intrigued and was looking forward to working on it. I was working on my recently posted Those Who Fight cover at the same time as this one, so that's where most of my creative energy went during that time, so this ended up being pretty much a simple recreation of the original track. Nonetheless, I still think this cover turned out pretty decent, and I hope you all enjoy it!
It is the express purpose of this column to bring light into dark subjects, to bring hope where there is despair. For every great game or game genre, there is a trope, game mechanic, or other characteristic that is often maligned, even hated. I am here to defend the defenseless, to uphold justice where none has prevailed, to give meaning where once none was found. No game is perfect, but not every flaw is glaring. My job is to show that some of these things have redeeming value.
Final Fantasy VII's main battle theme Those Who Fight has always been one of my favorite tracks in all of VGM and was one of the main tracks I wanted to cover when I started my channel. I purposely held off on doing it though because I didn't think I could do it justice at the time and wasn't confident that I would be able to make the cover I really wanted to make until I had some experience under my belt. So fast forward about a year and half later, I've improved and somewhat learned the ropes with making these covers, and I finally feel like I've 'found my sound' if that makes sense. The time finally felt right to create my own interpretation of a very important piece of music. Was it worth the wait? Yes, it was. I can confidently say that I made the cover that I always wanted to make. I still don't consider it perfect, but after delaying it and working on it for an extra week, I knew I would never be 100% satisfied with it. It's time to call it done and move on. It's extremely gratifying for all the ideas I had swirling around in my head for the last couple of years to finally come to fruition, and I really hope you all enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed making it!
