It’s pretty easy to stand out in the Virtual Boy catalog. There were only fourteen games. Half weren’t very good, half felt like tech demos, and half were Virtual Boy Wario Ware. If a game didn’t fit into any of those three halves, it stuck out like a missing tooth.

Panic Bomber was one of those games. It’s a perfectly find match-3 puzzle game, with a heaping of Bomberman charm. It just didn’t benefit from being on the hardware in the slightest. The Virtual Boy had its advantages, but it’s hardly the ideal way to play a puzzle game.

Thankfully, it wasn’t exclusive to the crimson goggles. It originally came out on PC-Engine Super CD-ROM² in 1994 and was ported to a number of platforms. Unfortunately, the only other time it came out in North America was a port on Wii U. Thankfully again, I have an Analogue Duo now, and it plays Japanese games. The Super CD-ROM² version isn’t that expensive, so now I can play Bomberman: Panic Bomber without wrecking my neck.

Not hereditary

I’ve never been terrific at puzzle games of the falling block variety. I’m not terrible, either. I can usually get through whatever story mode they present, but I’m not competitive. My sister, however, is a high-level Dr. Mario player. She and her college roommates got really into it for a time, and she built up skills that I would define as “mad.” I can wreck her at most games, but I’d need a few training montages to compete against her in Dr. Mario.

Most of my affection for the genre comes from my mother. Not hereditarily. I mean, she used to play them a lot. I’d come home from school, and she’d be on my Super Nintendo engaged in Yoshi’s Cookie or Kirby’s Avalanche. I didn’t have much interest in them myself, but my concept of cozy largely comes from my mom. It’s the same reason I often drink my tea with way too much milk.

Anyway, what I’m saying is that Bomberman: Panic Bomber gives off those same vibes. Puyo Puyo did a real number on the genre. This could practically be called “Bomberman’s Mean Bomb Machine,” except that would completely destroy the rhyme.

The point is that you face off against various cartoon monstrosities whose portrait sits in the middle of the screen. When you put three Bomberman heads of the same color in a row, they disappear. The big difference here is that more explosives are involved.

Munitions stockpile

Every time you eliminate a row of heads, a bomb will pop up from the bottom of the screen. Eventually, a pink bomb will drop from the top, and you (sometimes) want to steer it so that it explodes (in the classic Bomberman plus shape) and creates a chain reaction with all the unlit bombs you built up.

I know what you’re thinking, but contrary to what we’ve been taught, the Bomberman heads here are mostly immune to explosions. Like Puyo Puyo, the strategy isn’t to keep your field clean. It’s to cause as much frustration to your opponent as possible. Detonating a bomb sends garbage to their field with the goal, expectedly, to fill up their side of the screen until it overflows. Garbage can only be removed using the bombs, so the game boils down to amassing as many explosives as you can, then detonating it at the right time to both prevent your field from overflowing and fill up your opponents’.

You also build up a gauge as you knock out combos, and when it’s full, a big bomb drops. This one will actually clear out Bomberman heads, so it’s especially useful when you’re about to drown and need some air. It also typically results in a lot of garbage getting flung to the other side of the screen.

This leads to some interesting back-and-forth action as you clear your screen, send garbage to your opponent, and then they detonate their bombs and send it right back. When this gets going, it can be rather exciting, like a good sumo match. 

On the other hand, it seems like Panic Bomber has a single strategy, which is to stockpile bombs and detonate them at the least convenient time. You can still build up combos Puyo Puyo style, which will get you appropriate bonuses, but it all comes down to who can screw the other over the hardest. Just like the business world.

Path of destruction

This is going to sound weird, but the Virtual Boy version of Panic Bomber is better. Not that I really want to assemble a team to set up my Virtual Boy just to play it, but the VB version had more detailed graphics. To the credit of the Super CD-ROM² version, it supports five players.

I was kind of disappointed that it doesn’t really take advantage of the Super CD-ROM² beyond just for the soundtrack. There’s only an outro cutscene, but it’s not as elaborate as I’m used to from the platform. In fact, the story isn’t really set up within the game itself. You just watch Bomberman cut a path of destruction through the world map.

Bomberman: Panic Bomber is far from the best match-3 puzzle game in the world. It probably isn’t going to replace Puyo Puyo for anyone, but it’s decent fun for a while. It’s especially beneficial if you have one friend too many any need a five-player game to keep everyone happy. I don’t have that problem. Being too popular has never been an issue for me.

For other retro titles you may have missed, click right here!

The post Bomberman: Panic Bomber for PC-Engine is a blast, and no one has made that joke before, right? appeared first on Destructoid.

I talked about Pachio-Kun some time ago for my Famicom Friday column because I thought the idea of an anthropomorphic pachinko mascot was amusing. Back then, I noted the staggering number of games in the series: at least 12.

I own more of the Famicom titles, but I wasn’t planning on making a thing of Pachio-Kun. It was fun to spit facts about the Japanese gambling industry, but I couldn’t possibly do that for multiple articles. But then I got the Analogue Duo.

When reviewing it, I wanted to get disc-based games to test, so I ordered a bunch from Japan. They didn’t arrive in time. In fact, they arrived mere hours after my review went live. Typical. I was looking for cheap games and came across two Pachio-Kun titles that confused me. Why does a pachinko game have cutscenes, I wondered. Why is there a weird hammer dude on the cover? I can never find much information on the series online, so I had to find out for myself.

You're patchinkan daioh!

Pachio-Kun: Maboroshi no Densetsu was released in 1991 on the PC-Engine CD-ROM². It starts out much like the Famicom games, where you take your spherical self out to a pachinko parlor to try and win big.

I’m not going to go into the background of Japan’s gambling pastime in this article. I did that (poorly) the last time I talked about Pachio-Kun, which you can read here. Or maybe read this article from Business Insider, which is possibly more insightful. All you need to know is that its popularity exploded as a way to get around Japan’s strict anti-gambling laws. It’s kind of a cross between a slot machine and pinball. You pick the force the balls get launched and try to direct them into various scoring holes to win more balls. The goal is to drain all the balls out of a machine.

Balls

So, yeah, the rest of Pachio-Kun: Maboroshi no Densetsu is traveling from parlor to parlor, playing pachinko. Each one has a set number of copyright-infringing machines you need to suck the balls out of before you’ll be given another piece of the plans. The number for each location feels arbitrary to me. Each parlor stocks a variety of different machines that get repeated throughout the game, and there’s no rule saying each of your wins need to be on different setups.

Not every machine is the same, even when they’re the same theme. I found I had an easy time clearing a table called Telephone, but not every Telephone machine is friendly. The pins are bent in different directions, and that affects where the balls go. You can inspect the pins up close on each table, and initially, I had intended to learn the ins and outs of reading them. Not far into the game, however, I found it easier to just pump in about 50 balls to test if they’d go where I needed them. If not, I’d move onto the next one.

Some machines I found to be generally more willing to payout. As I mentioned, Telephone was one of them, but essentially, any machine where you can trigger little jackpot timeframes has a tendency to give the goods. Like the one where you need to get your balls between a monkey's legs. Inversely, I hated the ones where getting balls in a certain hole would trigger a slot machine. I’m not sure if the odds are different in each of these machines, but I don’t think I landed a jackpot once.

Thunderhards are go!

Even once you’ve got a feel for how to win at pachinko, actually completing a machine requires a lot of time. And during this time, you’re going to spend a lot of it making fine adjustments to the lever and then… watching the balls fly. I’m not a gambler myself, but I didn’t find this very stimulating.

However, it’s surprising how much context can lend to a game. I mentioned that I completed maybe three machines in the original Pachio-Kun, but I finished a great deal more in Pachio-kun: Maboroshi no Densetsu. I kept wanting to see more of the absolutely bonkers story and see what new location would unlock next. And really, there is a lot of variety when it comes to parlors, even though they just have a different mix of the same machines.

Not gambling

The post Pachio-Kun: Maboroshi no Densetsu for PC-Engine CD brings back everyone’s favorite enabler appeared first on Destructoid.

Before they offered to send me a unit for review, I had the Analogue Duo preordered. It would have been the first of the company’s consoles that I ponied up for. That’s because, beyond just being a very nice boutique console, it solves a few problems for me.

The Turbografx-16 is a nightmare to collect for. Sketchy capacitors mean that a lot of them just die on the shelf, and the typical price of a Turbografx game is ridiculous. Pricecharting has the average price of a game for the console at over $100. Forget the best games the console has to offer; if you want anything aside from sports titles, you’re paying out the nose. And that’s not even taking into account Turbografx-CD games.

Because of this, the Analogue Duo is a pretty strange console to produce. Someone who is curious about collecting for the console is probably going to get discouraged quickly. This is almost a “who is this even for?” situation, but there’s an answer to that we’ll get to. It’s extremely niche. The niche-est console Analogue has taken on.

“It isn't really financially viable in terms of development investment,” Analogue CEO and founder Chris Taber told me. Analogue didn't make the Duo to bring in a pile of money, they did it because they love the platform, and you can easily tell.

I have a modest stack of Turbografx-16 games already in my collection, but that isn’t the reason I wanted an Analogue Duo. I want to start collecting for the PC-Engine, which is the Japanese equivalent to the TG16. While the Turbografx was a tremendous flop here in North America, the PC-Engine was a huge success. NEC was able to compete with Nintendo, initially outselling the Famicom before holding a firm second place in the market next to the Super Famicom.

As such, a lot more games were published in Japan, and the market, as a whole, is a lot cheaper. It’s still kind of pricy if you want the case they came in, but it’s not as galling as the North American prices.

But the TurboGrafx-16 and the PC-Engine are both region-locked. I spent a lot of time considering how I was going to start collecting. Was I going to buy a core PC-Engine console and build from there? Was I going to spring for the PC-Engine Duo that comes with a built-in disc drive (and is also where the Analogue Duo takes its aesthetic)? I couldn’t decide on an elegant solution that would cover all my needs.

Then, the Analogue Duo came along and provided that. It can play all the games that the TG16, the PC-Engine, and their attachments can. Plus, if I was planning on springing for the PC-Engine Duo, I would already be putting myself in the price range of Analogue’s offering. More than just a convenient upgrade, the Analogue Duo is exactly what I was looking for.

Out of the box, the Analogue Duo is a slick piece of kit. It’s slightly less wide than a TurboGrafx-16, but it has a lot less height. It’s flat enough that if I turn around and look at the shelf it’s on, I can barely see it. There’s also much less junk in the trunk compared to a TG16 with a Turbo-Booster. It feels sturdy, it looks modern, and I don’t want to touch it too much and ruin its pristine look. Speaking of which, it comes in TurboGrafx black and PC-Engine white. I went with the black because I hate white electronics. They just don’t age as well.

If there’s one downside to the design, it’s that the controller port is on the side of the unit rather than the front. Also, it uses the PC-Engine miniDIN port, so if you have TurboGrafx controllers, you’re going to need an adapter to plug them in. That’s kind of a bummer because those adapters aren’t particularly easy to find.

It’s also worth noting that the TurboGrafx-16 supported 5 players. It only had one controller port, but using a TurboTap, you could plug five controllers in. You can still do this with the Analogue Duo, but there’s a caveat: it only supports 4 wireless controllers. If you want a fifth player for something like Bomberman '93, you need to plug a controller in alongside the 4 wireless ones or plug in a TurboTap and connect all five controllers the old-fashioned way. You can’t have, say, two wireless controllers and three original through a TurboTap. You either have one classic controller or five. There is no in-between.

Analogue shipped two 8BitDo 2.4G PCE controllers alongside my unit. These controllers are (very) slightly smaller and sleeker than the stock TG16 controllers while maintaining the same form factor. The biggest difference is an easily missed home button and turbo buttons rather than switches. The downside to that is there is no way to control the speed of the turbo unless there's a setting that can be tweaked with 8BitDo's software. Unfortunately, the TG16 controller isn’t very ergonomic. The d-pad is small and crammed in the bottom-left of the controller, too close to the edge. My thumbs would always cramp up during long sessions.

Thankfully, you can sync quite a range of Bluetooth and 2.4G controllers, as well as some USB. I have built quite a collection of 8BitDo controllers, and everything from my M30 to my Arcade Stick works great. I also tried a RetroBit Sega Saturn Pro controller, which connected without complaint. The documentation also lists common controllers like the Switch (and Wii U) Pro and DualSense. You might lose some of the authentic feel, but your thumbs will thank you.

Booting into the console gets you a quick walkthrough of the features of Analogue OS. I read the instructions, then promptly forgot them. I only know that Select+Down takes you to the home menu because I keep mistakenly hitting it, leaving me wanting to disable the button combo. Which I couldn't find a way to do so in the OS settings.

The Analogue OS is a pretty neat slice of cheese on the retro console. It keeps track of games you’ve played and for how long. You’re also able to change settings to alter the visuals to suit whatever version of the console you want. There are filters that emulate the Sony Trinitron (a CRT screen), as well as the Turbo Express and PC-Engine LT handhelds. Analogue says these aren’t “Filters” since they’re created on a hardware level through the FPGA, but I really don’t know what else to call them. They also say FPGA isn’t emulation, but really what they mean is it’s not software emulation. I understand why they want to make the distinction clear, because it really isn’t the same thing, but it’s hardware emulation, which is still emulation.

The “filters” are convincing. Anyone who feels that old games only look right on CRT screens will probably appreciate them. Whether I personally prefer sharp pixels or soft glow varies with my mood. I find that the Trinitron mode sucks a lot of the color out of the screen. Other people working with FPGA for this sort of thing have been using HDR to boost the color, but that’s not an option right now. Perhaps it can be patched in with firmware updates, but if not, it's not a huge problem.

Speaking of firmware, the Analogue Duo touts the feature of allowing save states, but it’s not implemented yet. Chris Taber says that the reason is because CD games are proving to be a challenge, but it’s supposed to be added through a firmware update sometime after launch. Likewise, sleep mode is not yet implemented, which I imagine is due to the same complication.

If you don’t want to deal with the OS, there is the option to just boot directly to the HU Card or CD when it’s detected. I think it’s pretty neat, though, even if there’s room for improvement.

In terms of running games, however, it’s flawless. The image that you get is bright and sharp at 1080p, and the screenshots here don't really do it justice whatsoever. Compatibility is also perfect, as far as I know. I have eight TG16 games, so I can only test to that extent. Upon getting offered a review unit, I ordered some PC-Engine and CD-ROM² games in hopes that they’d arrive in time for this review, but alas, they didn’t make it.

However…

The CD-ROM² and TurboGrafx-CD weren’t exactly picky about what kind of disc you put in them. It was a problem with early disc consoles and one of the reasons Nintendo stuck to cartridges for the N64. So, I put together a Little CD-R and, bam, we’ve got Super Air Zonk. The OS even recognized the game. I then tried Tengai Makyou: Ziria with the fan translation patched into it, and while the Analogue Duo just referred to it as “CD,” it ran just fine.

While we’re on the subject, Analogue states that the Duo will run anything the original hardware would, and this includes Everdrives. I feel like buying a console for this is most valuable for people who like collecting the physical software, but I’m not going to judge if you stick an Everdrive in there. It would at least help with running fan translations.

The Analogue Duo is my first console by the company, and I am impressed. It effortlessly does everything it says on the tin with potential to do more in the future. Save states have yet to be implemented, but the store page doesn’t list them as a feature, so I’m not certain if they were ever even announced.

You probably need to be a very specific type of person to really find value in an Analogue Duo. It’s a weird crossover of a retro-loving, TurboGrafx-appreciating, import-willing gamer. It’s such an incredible niche thing, that it’s amazing that Analogue went to such efforts to reproduce the console in such luxurious depth. I’m deeply impressed. I’m also thankful, because it’s exactly the console I was looking for.

There’s only room for improvement because Analogue allowed it to be there. I’d still be recommending the Analogue Duo to my fellow niche-goblins even if there weren’t still forthcoming firmware improvements. It’s a slick modern version of the TurboGrafx 16/PC-Engine that brings the retro platform into the present with a 1080p HDMI output and other modern comforts. You can tell the team was passionate about the project because they were clearly insistent on getting it right on the first try.

The post Review: Analogue Duo appeared first on Destructoid.

Looking for an RPG you probably haven’t played before? Maybe check out Tengai Makyou: Zirai, a 1989 PC-Engine CD-ROM² game that just got a fan translation.

The TurboGrafx 16 was an impressive flop in North America. A console failing is interesting enough, but the fact that it was the localized production of a very popular Japanese console makes it even better. The PC-Engine was huge in Japan. It took a sizeable chunk of Nintendo’s market dominance and outdid the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in North America) overall. We only saw a small fraction of what the Japanese market got, especially when it comes to the CD attachments.

Tengai Makyou: Zirai is the first in the series, sometimes called Far East of Eden over here because that’s the name it was given on the occasions it came so close to being released Westward. Also, it’s subtitled on the disc and title screen. The series is a trilogy of RPGs that were remade a few times, as well as spin-offs covering other genres.

While I’m not intimately familiar with the series, according to the developers behind the translation, the series is “an elaborate joke based around foreigners' misperceptions of Japan.” Tengai Makyou: Zirai is a somewhat humorous warping of Japanese folklore. It doesn’t seem to be on the same level as Ganbare Goemon, but it’s not entirely straight-faced, either.

Being on a CD platform, there’s voice acting, cutscenes, and more elaborate animations. More importantly, it kicked off a popular RPG series that we didn’t really see much of over here in the West. 

The translation of Tengai Makyou: Zirai is the work of user Supper and TheMajinZenki and can be found over here. If you want more, 1995’s Tengai Makyou Zero on the Super Famicom received a fan translation back in 2017.

The post PC-Engine CD RPG Tengai Makyou: Ziria get fan translated appeared first on Destructoid.

You Fool!

I’m not looking to start a fight here. When The Genji and the Heike Clans was released in Japanese arcades by Namco in 1986 as Genpei Tōma Den, it was generally well-respected. However, here at the Destructoid Institute of Critiquing Kusoge (DICK), we have a saying: If it walks like Kusoge, quacks like Kusoge, and smells like Kusoge, it’s definitely Kusoge (crap game). So, are you going to take the word of Japan, the experts on Kusoge? Or would you rather be daring and listen to the brash, upstart DICK?

I don’t know why I’m so hesitant to talk about The Genji and the Heike Clans with the perspective of it being a bad game. If someone trots in with Altered Beast, I’d be the first one to stand up and tell them how much it sucks. It’s perhaps because, culturally, I understand Altered Beast. The Genji and the Heike Clans shows me that I understand Japan as much as I do deep space. I may think I know a lot, but then I see all sorts of things I don’t understand.

[caption id="attachment_389859" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Big Bushido

You play as the resurrected Taira no Kagekiyo, and you’re kind of pissed off that your clan lost the Genpei War, so you’re off to take Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first Shogun. It’s all right. This isn’t just revenge; the guy is more evil than the history books let on, so there are demons and stuff. Kagekiyo must travel across feudal Japan to Kamakura to get their revenge.

The Genji and the Heike Clans boasts three different modes of play. There’s side-scroller platforming, “big mode,” and a top-down view. You’re most often going to find yourself in the normal side-scroller view, with the other two peppered in.

Big mode presents Kagekiyo in huge detail as he traipses across the screen. It reminds me of my old nemesis Predator on the NES. It might actually have been influenced by The Genji and the Heike Clans, since I think it called it big mode there, as well. They both present the protagonist as impractically big, showing off some nice detail but not moving much room for maneuvering. As such, it’s as clumsy as a newborn deer on an escalator. It gets even funnier when Kagekiyo picks up a scroll and just starts swinging his sword around like a windmill.

[caption id="attachment_389860" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Orgy in a tumble dryer

None of the modes work particularly well. The Genji and the Heike Clans’ approach to enemy placement is to just stick a bunch of spawners around and have them dumping bad guys on you. You take so much unavoidable damage as you make your way to the exit and the hit detection is just terrible, so it’s more chaotic than an orgy in a tumble dryer.

The worst part is the platforming. There are a lot of moving platforms that you have to traverse, and Kagekiyo just doesn’t stick to them. If there’s one that goes up and down, he has trouble jumping because he’s technically falling the whole time. Whenever a platform moves horizontally, he doesn’t move with it, which is just so, so strange. If you land on one, you have to physically keep moving with it to stay on top, otherwise, it just slides out from underneath Kagekiyo.

If you fall in a hole, you don’t die instantly. You fall into Yomi, where you then have to fight your way to a circle of crates. You open the crates, and you’ll either be killed instantly or respawned at the last level you were on. I’d rather it just kill me outright. This probably made more sense in the arcade, where luck of the draw would spare you a quarter, but playing it on a console just highlights it as a nuisance.

[caption id="attachment_389861" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

One last Heike

I first learned about The Genji and the Heike Clans from Game Centre CX. The host, Shinya Arino, played the PC-Engine version, which is considered to be a pretty faithful conversion of the game. He failed to clear it so hard.

Part of the problem is that, after you hit the mid-point of Kyoto, you start back there whenever you die, rather than the last level you made it to. He came nowhere near Kamakura, and having played it now, I can absolutely understand why. It’s brutal, and that is completely uncalled for.

For starters, it has a mystifying health system. It’s measured in candles that get burnt down, and you can increase the maximum number of them. However, you get a certain number restored each time you start a new level, but I couldn’t tell you why it gives you that amount. I’m also not totally clear on how much each pick-up gives you in terms of extra health. Generally, this was just a game of trying to blast through a level as quickly as possible before I died.

Your sword also has health, and this gets depleted by hitting “hard” enemies. What constitutes “hard” is less clear. Skulls are pretty soft. Caves that are clearly made of stone don’t weaken your sword. But when Benkei blocks your attack, that’s hard. What a block looks like, that’s another matter. However, there’s a lot of importance put around strengthening your sword. Not only does this make it more powerful, but if your sword gets depleted, it gets bent and can’t do much damage at all. It’s just… ugh, it’s so dumb.

Part of Arino’s strategy was to just focus on building up his sword gauge. This makes bosses a lot easier, but you can also lose your entire gauge by falling down a hole and getting a bad pull in the lottery. So, really, I'm not sure if that actually makes the game any more beatable. It’s just so slapdash.

[caption id="attachment_389862" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Culture shock

I think a lot of the praise toward The Genji and the Heike Clans is aimed at its graphics and sound. There are a lot of voice samples mixed in there. For a 1986 release, yeah, it looks pretty good. I just can’t explain why it plays so badly. Castlevania also came out in 1986, and it had figured out platforming just fine.

It does have a unique visual style, I’ll give it that. It draws heavily from Japanese history and folklore. You’d need to be pretty deeply familiar with both of those things to understand half the references found mixed in here. Even still, it’s pretty trippy and nightmarish. Especially when a towering Minamoto no Yoritomo pops up in the background and smacks you with his powerful spoon.

There are also multiple routes you can take to Kamakura, which kind of makes the fact that it changes the rules of continuing past the game's mid-point. It’s still going to suck the quarters out of kids, and there is a decent amount of replay value that comes from plumbing it for secrets, so why go to the extent of making it impossibly difficult. It just makes The Genji and the Heike Clans feel even more slap-dash.

[caption id="attachment_389865" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Indispensible crap

It first got released over here as an unusual inclusion in Namco Museum Vol. 4 on PS1. It was rather perplexing to contemporary critics at the time. However, nowadays, you can get it on PlayStation and Switch platforms as part of Hamster's terrific Arcade Archives series. There was also a sequel released on PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 called Samurai-Ghost. It only included big mode, and I’ll have to report back on that when I finally pick up a PC-Engine. I’m not paying the hundreds of dollars for a TG16 copy.

As I said in the beginning, The Genji and the Heike Clans was well-received when it came out in Japan. I think this has to do with the palate of Japanese arcade gamers at the time that just didn’t translate in the West as we recovered from the Great Video Game Crash of 1983. Playing it today as a North American, though. Oof. It is just so bad.

But it’s also the good kind of bad. It’s an absolutely loveable bit of suffering to endure. It’s this painful mess of poor execution and culture shock. I sort of love it.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post The Genji and the Heike Clans is a lovable bit of suffering appeared first on Destructoid.

PC Engine Memories

Japanese studio Edia has announced that it is currently developing retro compilation Telenet Shooting Collection for Nintendo Switch. The compendium features a small handful of shmups that jetted out of developer Telenet Japan in the early '90s, finding an audience on Sega Mega Drive and PC Engine.

The new collection is the spearhead of a project by Edia to archive the works of Telenet Japan, a developer/publisher that produced a huge library of games for the console era's formative years. From arcade adventures to platformers, beat-'em-ups to shmups, Telenet Japan would develop and/or publish titles for a wide variety of platforms including Sega Mega Drive, MSX, PC Engine, Game Boy, and the Sharp X68000.

The Telenet Shooting Collection will feature four titles in total: Sega Mega Drive releases Granada (1990) and Gaiares (1990), and PC Engine titles Avenger (1990) and Psychic Storm (1992). No details have been released in regards to any new modes or additional content, nor has a western localization been announced. The collection is set to launch in Japan on Nintendo Switch in the latter half of 2023.

Additionally, Edia has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Makuake to help fund the development and marketing of the title. With an achievable goal of around three million yen (around $22,000 USD), Edia hopes that the money can be put toward additional features, as well as marketing materials for the title's official release. With the archiving of gaming's earliest eras now more important than ever, this project is increasingly important and could bring some long M.I.A. releases to new audiences.

In related news, Cosmic Fantasy Collection will launch in Japan, December 15, on Nintendo Switch.

The post Telenet Shooting Collection compiles some forgotten ’90s shmups appeared first on Destructoid.

Doctor Shmup

If you fancy something a lil' cute 'n' weird for your retro fix this week, then you're in luck, as Hamster has reached into the Namco back catalog and pulled out one of the developer's few horizontally scrolling shmups, the totes adorbs Ordyne, now available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Released to Japanese arcades in 1988 and capitalizing on the high-color, high-goofball attraction of Konami's Parodius, Ordyne sees a highly intelligent professor, Dr. Tomari, take to the skies in order to rescue his kidnapped sweetheart Kana, who has been abducted by his rival, Dr. Kubata. Accompanying the good Doctor on his quest is loyal sidekick Sunday Chin. SUNDAY CHIN. What follows is action exceptionally similar to Gradius/Parodius, with familiar enemy patterns, pacing, and power-ups. Still, the Konami titles are sound examples of the genre, and thus, so is Ordyne.

Check out the colorful action in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber Were1974.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rHIWgljPGQ

As they battle through each stage, Tomari and Chin can gather crystals mid-flight, to be spent at a series of anti-gravity stores, run by a typical doe-eyed anime gal. Much like Sega's Fantasy Zone, our heroes can then purchase speed boosts, extra lives, shields, and many other items in order to give the duo the edge in battle. Oddly, the weapons are time-limited, meaning that you'll only maintain that edge for so long before returning to your default form. What kinda shop offers that service?

Ordyne would eventually receive a port on the PC Engine — a form that would eventually see the game head west for the first time ever. It hasn't featured on all that many Namco compilations over the years, so remains something of an oddity even today. If you'd like to get your wings on in on a bright-eyed rescue mission, then Ordyne is available to download now on PS4 and Switch, priced at around $8.

The post Cutesy Namco shmup Ordyne takes flight on Arcade Archives appeared first on Destructoid.

Western localization in development

Edia, the developer/publisher behind Valis: The Fantasm Collection, has announced a Japanese release date for its next collection of obscurities: Cosmic Fantasy Collection — The double-header of PC Engine dungeon crawlers will launch on Nintendo Switch December 15. A localization is currently in the works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgKpNzoqwG8

As previously reported, the Cosmic Fantasy Collection will consist of two titles: 1990's Cosmic Fantasy: Adventure Boy Yuu, and 1991's TurboGrafx CD sequel Cosmic Fantasy 2: Adventure Boy Van. The latter title was the only game in the series to find its way to western shores, and remains something of an obscurity regardless, so retro gaming fans will definitely want to consider giving this new remaster a space on the radar.

The Cosmic Fantasy franchise would see relative success upon its debut in Japan, thanks to its quirky comedic style and obligatory love of naughty cheesecake fanservice. The series would spin off into several other adventures, and would also receive manga and anime adaptations, as well as a range of toys and merchandise. An intriguing little lost oddity in the annals of '90s gaming. Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign, these forgotten titles will soon be experienced by a whole new generation of anime and RPG fans.

Cosmic Fantasy Collection launches in Japan on Nintendo Switch December 15.

The post Cosmic Fantasy Collection blasts back from the past in December appeared first on Destructoid.

What's Shmup, Doc?

It's c-c-c-cute-'em-up time in the Arcade Archives! This week's offering from the retro lovers over at Hamster Corporation is certainly something of shmup oddity: Bally Midway's Rabio Lepus, which is available to download right now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Launching in the coin-op market in 1987, Rabio Lepus (also known in international territories as Rabbit Punch) is an early entry in the cute-'em-up subgenre and is considered an early precursor to Midway's highly popular '90s franchise Sonic Wings. Rabio Lepus is a high-fantasy adventure that sees two robo-rabbit vessels, (the titular "Rabio & Lepus"), jet into battle on a brave mission to rescue the land's ruler, King Kitashirakawa, and his two bunny girl daughters, Komomo & Kotomi, from a nefarious alien force.

Check out the adorable rescue mission in the video below, courtesy of YouTuber ShiryuGL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyFp3CwZqcg

Like most titles in the genre, Rabbit Punch features large, colorful sprites battlings on equally colorful sci-fi horizons, taking on wave after wave of non-sequitur enemies including golem warriors, metallic cats, demonic elements, and giant demon head with a worm for a tongue. As you might have noticed, this entry isn't quite as cartoonish as Konami's Parodius or NMK's Hacha Mecha Fighter, but it still holds its own in the field of odd design. The international edition of the game removes the bunny girl princesses entirely. Spoilsports.

Rabio Lepus would find its way onto the home market in the form of 1990 PC Engine revamp Rabio Lepus Special, which sports expanded gameplay, new modes, enemies, and weapons. When Bally Midway's Sonic Wings series finally took flight, our long-eared heroes, (and the princesses), were not forgotten, making several cameo appearances in tribute to the franchise's humble origins.

Rabio Lepus is available to download now on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, priced at around $8.

The post Save the bunny gals in Arcade Archives shmup Rabio Lepus appeared first on Destructoid.

Blasts from the Past

Edia, the indie outfit behind the recent Valis: The Fantasm Collection is getting back on board the retro train this week, opening a brand new crowdfunding campaign to secure the budget for a brand new remaster/rerelease of forgotten Nippon Telenet franchise Cosmic Fantasy.

Originally released on PC Engine way back in 1990, Cosmic Fantasy: Adventure Boy Yuu is a dungeon-crawling RPG that focuses on our young protagonist who is forced from a pleasant life of farming to become the leader of an intergalactic space force. As you do. Accompanied by his feline pal Nyan and the beautiful Saya, Yuu embarked upon multiple adventures, with the franchise going on to spawn toys, manga, and anime series. It is renowned for its quirky nature, goofy comedic style, and cheesecake "sexy" content.

Cosmic Fantasy: Adventure Boy Yuu would receive a number of sequels and spin-offs, though it seems that Edia's new collection will only be focusing on the original title and its ultra-rare, 1991 TurboGrafx-CD sequel Cosmic Fantasy 2: Adventure Boy Van. The latter title was the only release in the series to see a localized launch outside of Japan, so fans of M.I.A. titles — as well as the golden age of sci-fi anime — will no doubt be hoping that this collection will find its eventual way to western shores.

Crowdfunding on Makuake, Edia is looking to raise ¥3 million (or roughly $23,000 USD) and seems relatively confident that it will do so, given that the developer has already announced a launch date and price for the finished product. We will be sure to give you a heads up when more information is forthcoming. Cosmic Fantasy Collection is tentatively scheduled to launch in Japan December 2022 on Nintendo Switch.

Cosmic Fantasy Collection announced for Switch [Gematsu]

The post Cosmic Fantasy Collection currently crowdfunding on Makuake appeared first on Destructoid.

One title still conspicuous by its absence...

Japanese publisher Edia has announced its intention to release a second compilation of titles pulled from the retro fantasy adventure series Valis: The Fantasm Soldier.  The new collection, currently in early development stages for Nintendo Switch, will follow on from the recent release of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection, which launched on western shores just last month.

The tentatively titled Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection 2 will add three more releases from the high school hero's escapades — namely Valis IV, which hit the PC Engine in 1992, as well as Sega Mega Drive releases Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (1991) and Valis II "demake" Syd of Valis (1992) which revisioned the PC Engine sequel in a cute "chibi" style.

As fans will have spotted, this new compilation is still missing a few titles, notably the 1993 Super Nintendo release Super Valis IV and the extremely questionable 2006 PC release Valis X, (be sure to Google that particular title incognito). While the latter's absence is somewhat understandable, it would be frustrating to see Super Valis IV left out of the lineup, as it would then become something of an entry left adrift.

We'll be sure to give you a heads up when more information is forthcoming. In the meantime, Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection is available to download right now on Nintendo Switch, for a princely $40.

[Via Gematsu]

The post Valis: The Fantasm Soldier is getting a second collection of classics appeared first on Destructoid.

Heartthrob Memorial is open for lovelorn players in the west

There are still a good few influential gaming classics that have yet to see an official English translation. This includes '90s dating sim Tokimeki Memorial. Downtrodden dating sim fans have something to celebrate: the fan translation of the Super Famicom version is out now.

The fan translation team has published their version of the Super Famicom version. This fan translation, Heartthrob Memorial: Under the Tree of Legends, uses the 1996 version of the original game.

https://twitter.com/RetroTranslator/status/1500318436391817219

Though it came two years after the PC Engine version of Tokimeki Memorial, the Super Famicom version had some notorious limitations compared to other versions, like lack of voice acting.

The Heartthrob Memorial fan translation team actually put some extra work in to spruce up this version, however. The animated intro from the PC Engine version is in the package. So are sing-along lyrics for the intro and ending song, and fully voiced confession scenes.

It's exciting enough to have this classic Konami dating sim available in English. The clamor for it has only escalated over the last year or so, due in large part to a video essay from Action Button's Tim Rogers.

Now, players can try to re-live their high school days, train their mind and muscles, attend club activities, and woo Shiori (or one of the many other girls) in English. It's always a good thing when these games, from early classics like Tokimeki Memorial to more niche games, are made available for more players.

Check out the Heartthrob Memorial: Under the Tree of Legends fan translation patch here.

The post Dating sim classic Tokimeki Memorial has a fan translation out now appeared first on Destructoid.