RETRO GAMER 51
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 Following
a splendid 50th birthday issue
featuring a Dreamcast cover, a Making of Gunstar
Heroes and a great interview with Psygnosis and
Yes album cover artist Roger Dean, RG really
pulls out the stops this month with some
incredible content and a gorgeous, gold Zelda
cover. With making of features on Contra 4,
Choplifter, and the brilliant Crystal Castles
plus an in-depth look at the handheld PC Engine
GT there's plenty to sink your teeth into. And
I've been very busy and somehow ended up with
three articles in the mag this month. I chat with
industry legend Hal Barwood in a six-page Making
of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis,
speak to Damon Slye about his remarkable early
vector release Stellar 7, and
grab the lowdown from Irem's R-Type series Chief
Producer Kazuma Kujo for a Making of
R-Type Delta. The issue should be
hitting high street stores on Thursday 22nd May.
Enjoy!
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Gotta
love those smoke trails!
Grab the game here:
http://staniol.extra.hu/
RETRO GAMER 44
I've been
contributing the odd article to Imagine's
excellent monthly retro gaming publication for a
while now, including a feature on Capcom's CPS-2
arcade games and a Making of Colin Mcrae Rally,
but this month's issue has the piece I'm so far
most pleased with. I recently spoke to David Fox
and the rest of the original Lucasfilm Games
Group about the creation of their ground-breaking
first-person flight game Rescue on
Fractalus!, and put together an in-depth
Making Of feature for the magazine, which
features some previously never-heard insights on
the design of the game. It was also the first
time all four main Games Group members have
spoken about the game since it was realeased. UK
readers can grab a copy of Retro Gamer
at WH Smiths and other newsagents now, US readers
should be able to pick it up in December from
Barnes & Noble or Borders.
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PATROL FALCON
A great
little remake of Steve Lee's classic C64
shoot-em-up, this has been entertaining me
greatly for the last few weeks. If, like me you
were a fan of the original, this has a lot going
for it, with some lovely particle and smoke trail
effects (leading to some amusing 'Red
Arrows'-style moments when you narrowly avoid
incoming enemy planes) and some nice updated
features, such as having to defend radar stations
and factories which if destroyed scupper your
Radar screen and ability to re-arm quickly. This
is programmer Staniol's first release, and a
great effort all round. Expect great things to
come.
Retro Gamer Website
Issue 44
full contents listing
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ROGUES GALLERY
UPDATE
SLAP FIGHT
Quite
possibly the most inexplicably-named shootemup of
all time, Slap Fight was one of
a number of early Toaplan arcade
titles produced for industry giant Taito.
With an interesting bolt-on power-up system
casually lifted straight from Konami's Gradius,
and a fairly subtle difficulty gradient, Slap
Fight was noticeably kinder to
your wallet than stable-mates Flying Shark and Truxton. Slap Fight would later
inspire the semi-sequel Grindstormer
aka V-Five, unfortunately a far
less accomplished game. Find out more about them
both here. |
REVIEW -
DARIUS GAIDEN
GHOULS'N'GHOSTS
REVIEW AND BOSS MYTHOLOGY
DAM TWO-PLAYER SHMUPS
OF THE MONTH
| Two-player
competitive shmups are great eh? The
wonderful Twinkle Star Sprites,
one of the greatest 'Vs-shoot'emups'
of all-time, is still a personal favourite
of mine, but what's this? Here come two
all-new pretenders to the throne both on the XBox
360, and dammit if they aren't some of
the most fun I've had gaming in decades.
Probably. Anyway, let's tell you a bit about them
then.. |
'Give me that fuel-pod back
you rocket-powered git'
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Jet Pac Refuelled Rare
- X-Box Live Arcade Anyone that reads Retro
Gamer magazine will have caught the
excellent 'Making Of'
feature on this remix of the Spectrum classic, in
issue 39. A re-skinned update of Ultimate's
classic debut shooter (which also includes a
very nice version of the original game), this was
quite a revelation in two-player mode. Imagine
playing two games of Jet Pac
side-by-side on the same screen, with two players
each with their own personal rocket to build.
It's an all-out mad race to get your rocket
built, fuelled and then to blast off from the
planet before your mate can, at any cost.
Add the ability to sabotage your opponent's
progress by pinching his power-ups and most
importantly, stealing his fuel pods
mid-transport, and you've got something really
very entertaining indeed. After all nicking other
peoples stuff in video-games is always good for a
laugh
(see Jackal). |
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| In fact, by
the end of a long Jet Pac
Refuelled two-player session I was
giggling like an idiot,
as rather pedantic tit-for-tat
fuel-pod thievery became the order of the
day, each of us lying in wait for the other
player as they tried to leg it with their
rocket-juice towards their ship in an attempt
to thwart them at the last possible moment
in a cunningly planned screen-wrap ambush.
Witnessing the ensuing hilarity of two jet
packed heroes in a ridiculous Benny Hill
style persuit across the planet's
surface, acompanied by
impassioned cries of 'Give me that back you
bastard..' from the outwitted player near
brought tears to this aging gamer's eye. It's Jet
Mano-a-Jet Mano and it's great. Get yourself on
XBox Live and give it a whirl, it's only £3.50! |
Senko no Ronde Rev.X G-Rev/Ubisoft Not quite as
downright hilarious to play as Jet Pac,
but still enormous fun is this 'Vs'
mech shooter from G-Rev (at
this point your reporter had to slap himself in
the realisation that G-Rev (a) are still
actually producing shmups in this day and age
when many famous shooter design houses have long
bitten the dust (b) have now made at least three
really rather good games - see Under Defeat and Border Down).
Anyway, Senko sees you fighting
each other 'Virtual On'-style with enormous
transforming Mecha in space,
which as far as this reporter is concerned, is exactly
what we want. Like other G-Rev titles it's a
polygon-based game, but done from a traditional
shmup-style top-down perspective which works a
treat, zooming in and out as required depending
on the distance between the two
protagonists. The game is notable for
allowing players to transform their lowly basic
mechs into enormous screenfilling 'B.O.S.S.E.S'
(sic) and potentially decimate their opponents in
an unstoppable hail of screen-plastering laser
fire. This is most amusing if your adversary is
on the receiving end (not so much so if it's the
other way round).
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The visuals are lovely, if distinctly old-school
(a good thing in my book), with bucket-loads
of those trademark over-the-top
G-Rev explosion, particle and lighting
effects, and there's a whole host of mad
anime-style characters (eight basic mechs with up
to 24 different variations) to battle. Apparently
this NAOMI hardware arcade game was
originally planned for a Dreamcast release
but unfortunately G-Rev were scuppered by Sega
sadly finally ending GD-ROM production so
its been ported to the 360 instead, though as
this means added net-play and online high-score
support I'm not complaining. It's actually
getting a release in Europe and the US as I type
this, so kudos to Ubisoft/Microsoft for taking a
chance on a possible niche-title and giving us
Westerners the chance to actually enjoy
it. So go buy it and support the modern shmup! Mike
B
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SUPER STARDUST HD RELEASED
ON PS3 and REVIEWED!
| Goodness
me. Look at all that. And Bruce Willis is nowhere
to be seen so it's up to YOU to sort it out. Housemarque
provide the tools for the job, in a game that
provides the most spectacular light show this
side of Jeff Minter's Chrimble decorations. From
humble Amiga games do mighty Geometry
Wars beaters grow? Find out here. |
A DUAL WHAMMY OF RETRO CAPCOM GOODNESS!
I've been playing
a fair bit of CAPCOM COLLECTION VOLUME 2
on the Playstation 2 recently and decided to re-visit a
couple of old favourites included in this rather
excellent compilation. Capcom cut its arcade teeth in the
halcyon days of the early to mid 1980s (the so called 'Golden
Age of Arcade Video Games') with fondly
remembered titles such as Commando, 1942, and Ghosts 'n' Goblins.
Intricately designed, graphically captivating and
addictive as hell, these games set the high watermark for
arcade action-games throughout the decade, solidifying in
the minds of fans the perception of Capcom as a
world-class producer of quality arcade output. The demand
for Capcom product escalated with the release of the 8-bit
generation of home computers as players addicted to these
hugely popular games in arcades started to hanker to also
play them at home. There were many financially
successful, if not always particularly authentic,
licensed third party conversions of their more famous
arcade games to Commodore 64 and Spectrum by companies
like Elite and US Gold.
However it was only with the release of the 16-bit
systems that developers were able to start doing justice
to the original arcade incarnations, in particular those
running the newer CPS1 system, which
debuted in 1988 and played host to Capcom's second
generation of arcade games such as Strider
and Streetfighter 2.
Untill the release of Capcom
Collection Vol 2 this little seen gem of a
horizontal scrolling shooter, the last of the
genre to be developed by Capcom's in-house team,
was only officially available for home play if,
like me, you spent vast amounts of cash on the
arcade board!
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I take a nostalgic look back at this classic Capcom
title with particular emphasis on the 'star' of
the 3-in-1 arcade board, the brilliant 'Midnight
Wanderers' |
Truly arcade-perfect conversions of the
CPS1 system games did not appear though until 1998 when
Capcom released its 'Generations'
compilations on Saturn and Playstation. These included
CPS1 titles like Streetfighter 2, Ghouls
'n' Ghosts and Mercs as well as
older hardware titles like 1942 and Commando, all
perfectly emulated from the original actual arcade code.
Many of these game were repackaged in last year's PS2 Capcom
Classics Collection, leading to a certain sense
of disappointment from fans who had already purchased the
'Generations' titles. For volume 2
however Capcom have pulled out the stops by releasing an
enormously entertaining goodie bag of twenty CPS1 and
older hardware titles, some unseen on any home platform
before, and none of which ever appeared on 'Generations',
to form what amounts to the company's greatest retro
compilation to date.
Notable titles offered here are 1941 (CPS1 sequel to 1942 /1943) and Varth, two
beautifully crafted vertical shoot'emups, the classic Strider,
and Three Wonders, a rare and graphically
exquisite 3-in-1 arcade PCB comprising of incredibly
playable Contra-style fantasy shooter Midnight
Wanderers, horizontal-scrolling blaster Chariot
and the Pengo-like mini-game Don't
Pull. We also have three excellent CPS1
scrolling beat'em ups in the form of the Arthurian-themed
Knights of the Round, the Golden
Axe-esque (but superior) King of Dragons
and the very surreal but hilarious Captain
Commando. 16-bit favourites Mega Twins
and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo are two
of the final CPS1 games on this disc along with fantasy
platformer Magic Sword, whose prequel,
the immensely playable Black Tiger is
also found here. Older titles include shooters Last
Duel and Side Arms, scrolling fighters Tiger
Road and Avengers and top down
car-em-up Speed Rumbler. Slightly
superfluous but still enjoyable are breakout clone Bloc
Bloc and RPG-themed quiz game (!) Quiz'n'Dragons.
Last but not least we have the rarely seen superb
scrolling shoot'emup Eco
Fighters,
never previously available on any home format. Running on
Capcom's more advanced CPS2 JAMMA system
it's arguably the best looking title of the bunch.
Had it added another couple of CPS2 favourites of mine
like Alien vs Predator or 19XX this could have been an utterly
untouchable retro collection. But what's here still makes
up a compilation of beautiful classic games which will I
guarantee get played far more than any other retro packs
out there at the moment. Roll on volume 3!
IBARA RELEASED ON PS2
and REVIEWED!
Ibara was released on Playstation
2 on 16th Feb 2006 in Japan so
we can now experience at home Cave's spiritual successor
to
Raizing's cult shooters Battle
Garegga and Battle Bakraid. REVIEW
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DO DONPACHI
DAI-OU-JOU REVIEW
Yes
it's a bit of a mouthful and no, I don't know how
to pronounce it. Shall we just call it DoDonPachi
III? Either way this was one of the
first of a slew of arcade shooter conversions
from the mighty Cave to alight
on the PS2, the last being the
little title listed above. Actually the fourth
game in the Don Pachi series,
(see elsewhere on this site for the previous
incarnations), DDPIII redefines
for a whole new generation such terms as 'bullet
hell', 'manic score shmup'
and 'help I'm going to die horribly in about 1.5
seconds in a torrent of geometric flowering
death' . Stuart Campbell spills the beans on the finer points of
charge meters, chaining and video game war
crimes.. |
DRAGON BLAZE
REVIEW
 
In line with Psikyo's graphically gorgeous
shooter Dragon
Blaze
getting its first ever home port on Psikyo
Shooting Collection Vol 3
on PS2 here's an in depth review for your
enjoyment!
RAIDEN III
REVIEW
Stuart Campbell
wants his Toothpaste gun back
but is otherwise a very happy man. Find out why here.
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GRADIUS V
REVIEW
'Hello Mike, I enjoy your site but it seems to be
missing a review for Treasure's amazing Gradius
V. I'm surprised at this as I know you
are a self-confessed 'Gradius nut'
and wondered why you have yet to cover this..' snip |
R-TYPE FINAL REVIEW
| Stuart
Campbell blasts
off to defeat the evil Bydo
Empire one last time as Irem's
legendary shoot'emup lineage draws to a
spectacular close on the PS2. May the Force
be with him. |
ROGUES
GALLERY UPDATE!
| The
little-seen and even less seldom played R-Type
Leo was the third R-Type arcade game to be
released by Irem A game so rare most fans of the
series probably didn't even know it existed for a
decade after its release, I take a look at the
R-Type that inspired a thousand exclamations of
the phrase.. 'R-Type Who?' |
ROGUES
GALLERY UPDATE -
A TOAPLAN DOUBLE!
GRADIUS GAIDEN
REVIEW
Thanks to Mike Motoda for a great review of this
very special Gradius, one of the very few
advantages Playstation-owning shooter fans ever
had over their Saturn-owning friends was saying
they alone had this game..
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UNDER
DEFEAT REVIEW
Released in March 2006 as the last
ever Dreamcast game and if so a
worthy swan-song to Sega's underrated final
console. LouisG provides an excellent review of this
graphically spectacular top-down helicopter
shootemup.
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SILPHEED -
THE LOST PLANET REVIEW
First Treasure followed up Radiant
Silvergun with the brilliant Ikaruga
and now they bring us another sequel, this time to the
Sega Mega CDs'
Silpheed. Can Treasure do no wrong? Er
well.. actually they can..
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ROGUES GALLERY UPDATE 19XX &
1944
Having had the arcade JAMMA boards
of these two final titles in the 1942 series for
a while I thought it was about time they were
added to the Rogues Gallery
feature I started back in the early days of DAM!
Both running on Capcom's famous CPS2 JAMMA
architecture they are two very visually
appealling shooters likely to attract fans of the
classic original games in the series back for a
nostalgic blast, but one title definitely stands
head and shoulders above the other in terms of
sophistication and playability. Which one you
ask?! Find out here.
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All Your
Base..
 
ROGUES GALLERY
UPDATE: Oh Lordy its.. Zero Wing!!
DAM Mk2!
Thanks to Malc of Shmups! kind web-hosting
DAM now has a new lease of life!
IMPORTANT!: Please set your
bookmarks to http://www.stickycarpet.com/dam
as you will not be able to view any new updates on the
old globalnet server!
I've been working on some extra features for you and a
lot have gone up recently:
 
Ikaruga  It's official! Ikaruga will be
coming to Dreamcast in September 2002.. With this fact in
mind Treasure's sequel to the legendary Radiant Silvergun
is arcade playtested.
DoDonPachi2 IGS takes
a stab at a
sequel to one of the most popular arcade shooters
ever..
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DoDonPachi
3 Cave
return with an
official sequel to DoDonPachi!
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Also Xevious, Mars Matrix, Storm of Progia (Progear), Contra III/Contra Spirits
Gradius
Gaiden, Raiden DX, UN Squadron, Side Arms/Section Z, DonPachi, DoDonPachi
Batsugun, Game Paradise Bubble Symphony and
more. See Rogues Gallery :)
By
the way.. I'm looking for more reviews so if anyone's
interested please contact me!
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