Robotics;Notes is the third visual novel from 5pb's 'science fiction' series, which began with Chaos;Head and continued with the time-travel adventure Steins;Gate.
Showing posts with label PSN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PSN. Show all posts
Saturday, June 16, 2012
This Week on the J-PSN: Robotics;Notes demo
The PS3's region free access to any PSN, regardless of your location, is pretty great.
For example, it lets you get free demos off the Japanese store, many of which are for games that will never come out here.
Here's one that came out this week.
Robotics;Notes is the third visual novel from 5pb's 'science fiction' series, which began with Chaos;Head and continued with the time-travel adventure Steins;Gate.
Robotics;Notes is the third visual novel from 5pb's 'science fiction' series, which began with Chaos;Head and continued with the time-travel adventure Steins;Gate.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Jet Set Radio – GRAFFITI COMPETITION
Sega are running a competition to design fresh graffiti pieces for the up-and-coming re-release of Jet Set Radio on PSN and XBLA! Read on for the thrills...Thursday, January 26, 2012
PixelJunk games for $1.20 / £0.80
Q-Games of the PixelJunk series of PSN games is having an insanely good Japanese PSN special at the moment. All of their old games for 100 Yen each. That's about $1.20 or 80 British pennies. Log on to the Japanese PSN and find the Q-Games campaign tab. You've got PJ Racers, Eden, Monsters, Shooter and Shooter 2. If you buy a 1000 Yen card off eBay you can pick up nearly their entire back catalogue, plus have change for a PS1 game! Also, while you're on the JPN PSN, grab the demo for Armored Core V before they remove it.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Irem officially deletes itself
Irem is officially deleting itself on 11 August. Read on for details!
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If you haven't bought them yet, get those Irem games by 11 August. These are going to be pulled from PSN:
* R-Type Tactics (PSP)
* Mousukesu based on Carton-kun (PSP)
* Bumpy Trott Beagle Battle Tournament (PSP)
* Ikuze! Gensan Yuyake Daikou Monogatari (PSP)
* R-Type Tactics II Operation Bitter Chocolate (PSP)
* Sengoku Esatsu Yugi Hototogisu Ran (PSP)
* Sengoku Esatsu Yugi Hototogisu Dairan (PSP)
* Narisokonai Eiyuutan: Story of the Sun and Moon (PSP)
* R-Types (Game Archives)
* R-Type Delta (Game Archives)
* Gussun Paradise (Game Archives)
* Irem Arcade Classics (Game Archives)
Also, all Irem demos, wallpapers, games, and anything else connected to Irem is also being deleted, including PSN HOME related stuff.
Personally I am going to now buy all the R-Type game - if you have an interest in Irem's games it's best to act NOW. Might as well archive all their remaining websites while we're at it - they seem to be starting a bushfire in an attempt to remove all records of themselves. Quick internet people, prevent them from doing it!
SOURCE ADRIASANG
EDIT - Correction from Adriasang:
Correction 7/24: This story originally miswrote that Irem is closing all its lounges. It looks like some lounges may not be closing. As noted by Mao in the comments below, lounges for Pachipara and Dokidoki Suikoden are not listed in Irem's list of closures.
PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART:
I seem to recall Kazuma Kujo mentioned something about wanting to bring the Zettai Zetsumei Toshi games back (can't recall the source, may have been his twitter), plus he's been extremely busy lately. Could it be that his new company, Granzella, is buying up the rights to Irem's back catalogue of games? I have no concrete evidence for this, but it's a nice thought. Others speculate Irem is going bankrupt, and yet some one source mentioned a new Pachipara game they announced for 3DS. Still, even if they do die, the rights to their games will be ripe pickings for someone, so with any luck they won't be dead forever.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Monkeygland Sauce Competition results
The entries are in and the winners decided, in HardcoreGaming101 and MonkeyPaw Games’ competition to win copies of Rapid Angel and Yakiniku Bugyou, that meat-grilling puzzler recently available on the import PSN store. Read on to see if it’s you!.
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We had a tremendous amount of entries via Twitter (unsurprising considering this is the digital age), with a distinct preference for Rapid Angel (though the Yakiniku fans were still out in force). In cases where people didn’t give a preference for either game I placed them in the appropriate column that balanced things out more, thereby giving everyone a fair chance of winning something. Likewise with the dual Twitter entries. In the end everyone had one chance, with odds based on their chosen game and entry method, either email or Twitter.
First, a small sample of the creativity people showed with their entries:Carl Salbacka
This gentleman sent in a full-blown song, complete with lyrics in both English and Japanese! Very impressive.
“If I were to have ever tasted it, I'm sure I would love Monkeygland Sauce! To prove it, I wrote this song:”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRZszw7M5mQ
John Barnes
I like Monkeygland Sauce! It’s comfy and easy to wear!
Paul Castro Nava
No monkeys were harmed in its compilation! I love Monkeygland Sauce !!! XD
Shane Peterman
Monkeygland Sauce, I put that shit on everything. (even the laundry? – HG101)
Aaron Rieger
I love MonkeyPaw games for their commitment to bringing over games that frankly we would never know about. I also think the idea of MonkeyGland Sauce as pretty appetizing, and would gladly sample it on a burger.
Joey Cardenas
You know, as much as I love MonkeyGland sauce it makes me wonder who the first person was to think it was a good idea to squeeze monkey glands. Did this person suddenly come across a monkey while he was eating a burger and think, “Hmm, this burger’s kind of dry and...”
(SNIP! I’m not entirely sure we can get away with printing the whole of Mr Cardenas’ story unedited, but we certainly laughed reading it! – HG101)
“I'm sure the monkey came out the winner in either situation. Now if you’ll excuse me, I'm grilling a Zebra leg and I hear that MonkeyGland sauce really brings out the taste of the stripes.”
Daniel Svedh
My brother and I once had a discussion about how awesome it would be if games implemented ice cream limits instead of time limits. The discussion then evolved into Burger Time being a game just like that because of the ice cream power-ups. True story.
Jason Cykiert
While I have never tried Monkeygland Sauce (and likely never will), I must say I love MonkeyPaw Games for bringing us all kinds of great games that we never would have seen (or in some cases, even been aware of) here in the west. It makes me happy to see a company willing to take a chance on stuff that’s been overlooked for years because it was “too hard” or “too Japanese” or whatever, and so I applaud them and their efforts, and say “Keep up the great work!”
Joshua Main
I am Josh Main and I love Monkeygland sauce! To show that I am a big beef fan, the main thing I watch on TV are cattle auctions. I also want the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association to make their own cattle RPG. I also really like Japanese import PS games. (Josh also sent in the above pic, awesome! - HG101)Noise Reductions
This Monkeygland Sauce is making me thirsty.
Mega Moses
I love Monkeygland Sauce! I’m literally bathing in it right now in order to gain eternal youth.
AND
I’m up to seven glasses of it on my lunch break, God help me
Manasteel88
Just making sure that @HG_101 and @monkeypawgames know I love Monkeygland Sauce! It truly is the Rapid Angel of sauces. #ReallyYummySauces
Neil Foster
I love Monkeygland Sauce! Dignity is thrown out the window for a contest!
Armouredpriest Chris Hopkinson
I Love a bit of Monkeygland Sauce in the mornings with my toast and escargot, and kiss my Rapid Angel on my way out.
Zombiemilkman Joseph E. Allen
I love Monkeygland Sauce! I also love Rapid Angel & the fact that said sauce isn’t what caused the Outbreak virus!
xXPoltergeistXx Paul
I love Monkeygland Sauce! I love it because it’s great for the BBQ or with chicken, pork and sausages.
AND
No Monkeys are involved or any of their Glands! XD
matty_125
I love Monkeygland Sauce! I’m growing fur where there was no fur before!
And the winners:
RAPID ANGEL
Jason Cykiert
Joshua Main
rogXue Justin Forsythe
Malev721 Neil Foster
manasteel88 Mana
YAKINIKU BUGYOU
Carl Salbacka
Shane Peterman
AmnionChorion Mike
Jeffmendoza Jeff Mendoza
KDoan90 Kevin Doan
If you entered via email I’ll be replying with your code, and if it was via Twitter check your messages!
Thank you to all who entered – now get grilling!
Monday, July 11, 2011
WIN! 5 codes for Yakiniku Bugyou and Rapid Angel
MONKEYGLAND SAUCE COMPETITIONHardcoreGaming101 and MonkeyPaw Games are proud to present the Monkeygland Sauce Competition, giving you the chance to win a US PSN download code for either 2D action game Rapid Angel or Yakiniku Bugyou (焼肉奉行), a meat-themed puzzler. We have 5 codes for each to give away, so read on for your chance to grab one.
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With MonkeyPaw Games going through a meat renaissance with its up-and-coming BurgerTime World Tour game, plus recent Yakiniku Bugyou sizzler on PSN imports, my mind instantly turned to the simian-named Monkeygland Sauce, used by South African steak and grill houses for burgers and other grilled meats. Ironically it doesn’t contain any monkey glands at all – in fact most recipes are vegan friendly. Still, what an incredible name!
For a chance to win either Rapid Angel or Yakiniku Bugyou, you can enter directly via email or via HG101’s Twitter. The competition is open from today (Monday 11 July) and runs through to Friday 15 July, ending at midnight East Coast time in the USA.VIA TWITTER
Simply follow both @HG_101 and @MonkeyPawGames on Twitter, and make a Tweet saying “I love Monkeygland Sauce!”, then put the name of your preferred game (Rapid Angel or Yakiniku Bugyou) and @HG_101 and @MonkeyPawGames at the end. If you want to use the leftover characters to say something hilarious about why Monkeygland Sauce is awesome, then bonus points to you loyal reader!
We’re giving away three codes for each game via Twitter (so a total of six). Winners will be chosen at random on Saturday morning. Afterwards we’ll message you with the code. If you like you can enter twice, once for each game, but please don’t submit more than this.
VIA EMAIL
If you’re old-fashioned and don’t use Twitter, then you can enter directly via email. For a chance in the draw all you have to do is email your name and something – anything – amusing and relating to Monkeygland Sauce or the games of MonkeyPaw Games. Anything I can post online when announcing the winners.
We’re giving away two codes for each game via email (so a total of four). Winners will be chosen at random, meaning if you’re not feeling creative just type “I love Monkeygland Sauce” in the email and we’ll enter you anyway. Please mention if you have a preference for one game over another.
Personally I’m hoping for some witty lines on why you like it, perhaps pages of poetry, a youtube video of someone singing their love for meat-based games, maybe an oil painting of MonkeyPaw Games’ John Greiner sitting amidst a fort made from bottles of the sauce, or perhaps just a photo of yourself playing Alundra with a bowl of monkey sauce close to hand for emergency refreshment. Be creative! Excessively “saucy” photos might not be published, but will be circulated among staff.
Discoalucard is away for the week, so send emails to:
REMOVED
Just replace the [brackets] with the usual symbols. Please put Monkeygland Sauce Competition in the subject heading.
Winners will require a US PSN account to validate any game codes.
Goodluck!
焼肉奉行!!!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Rapid Angel (PS1), now on PSN Imports
I bought Rapid Angel on the Japanese PSN a long while ago, intending to do an HG101 write-up, but never put much time into it. After seeing THIS entry on Siliconera though, announcing its imminent release on PSN Imports by MonkeyPaw Games, I thought it time to finally play through.
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I’d first heard about Rapid Angel on obscure games website Twin Dreams (which is where I’ve borrowed all but one of these images from), which is/was kind of like a proto-HG101, covering obscure Japanese games. Sadly it stopped being updated years ago. When Rapid Angel came out on PSN I didn’t recognise the kanji name at first, and the 3 screenshots shown in the preview made me think of Guardian Heroes, sort of. Well, it’s nothing like Guardian Heroes (for that you’ll want Panzer Bandit on PS1), but it is pretty awesome.
I seem to be playing a lot of 2D games recently, including Little Ralph and Hermie Hopperhead (planning a proper feature on this for HG101). And I have mixed views on all three of these. Hermie is undoubtedly the prettiest, with Ralph somewhere in the middle and Rapid Angel coming across as quaintly quirky in the visuals department (though it does have some cool scaling effects). Hermie though is proving too samey and awkward to really enjoy playing; it’s OK, but maintaining three hatched eggs is more work than fun sometimes. Ralph I think is overrated, too obsessed with speedrunning its brutally difficult stages – and I absolutely hate speedrunning. Rapid Angel meanwhile, despite or because of its rough around the edges nature, has proven quite charming.
RA actually reminds me El Viento, in fact it reminds me of a lot of various Telenet games. And the thing is, I love Telenet/Wolfteam/RiOT – that whole messy web of subsidiaries and divisions. None of their games were masterpieces, but they had a kind of dirty charm peculiar to a very specific era in gaming history. There’s a classification of games which doesn’t really have a word (and it’s not kusoge), which I equate to eating a grubby hotdog from a street vendor with all the toppings. You know it’s not top quality food, but damn if it doesn’t somehow manage to taste really good. These are Telenet games. This is Rapid Angel.
But I can’t emphasise enough, this is not a criticism. These types of games, with less polish than others, satisfy a very specific kind of appetite in retro gamers. And I would say they’re fantastic, for what they are at the prices they are, but not for the criteria a commercial magazine would judge them by.
Wyrdwad on HG101’s forum actually did a really good write up on Rapid Angel in 2009, which I’m going to reprint some of (unabridged version HERE):
*****
Shelled out the 600 yen from my Japanese PSN "wallet" to download an intriguing-looking old PlayStation game I never heard of before, called Kaisoku Tenshi, or "The Rapid Angel" (actual official English title, according to the game's title screen)... and to my surprise, it's actually quite good! It's a heavily arcade-influenced beat-em-up platformer, kind of along the lines of something like Battletoads. It doesn't really offer anything new over other games of either the beat-em-up or platformer genre, but it has a lot of variety, a lot of story, and short fun levels with lots of checkpoints.
The coolest thing about this game is that you get a choice of 3 different characters to play as from the start (all of whom have very different attacks), and for each one, the story seems to unfold a lot differently. And as you play, you get an occasional choice to make, which influences the story to come, and also unlocks various other playable characters - including villains - for future story-mode playthroughs.
The downsides to the game are that its character art looks really amateurish (though it's not without its charms!), and its music is COMPLETELY forgettable. But the in-game sprite graphics are pretty detailed, the backgrounds are drawn in a well-put-together combination of 2D and fairly nice 3D (for 1998 especially!), the pacing is fast, the controls are a little sticky but overall pretty good (they feel more like beat-em-up controls than platformer controls, but anyone who's played beat-em-ups before shouldn't have any trouble getting used to them), and there's also a lot of crazy humor and over-the-top action, presented very well.
*****
What intrigues me most is that MonkeyPaw are releasing it with the Japanese dialogue choices. I lent my camera to someone for the week so can’t take pics of my PS3, but I did take a photo when I first downloaded it, of one of the dialogue choices (pictured). They’re not game breaking, rather they alter things slightly as Wyrdwad mentioned. I guess this gives a good reason for replays (especially since there are several characters to unlock), and kinda harks back to the old days, when you’d import and have to work your way through a game with broken Japanese, or none at all, which in itself is kind of interesting. They do always provide translated manuals on their website though, which is neat.
Rapid Angel is an extremely obscure title, and also totally awesome if you're the kind of person who enjoyed Telenet's offerings back in the day. Well worth investigating if you’ve not already bought it off the Japanese PSN.
EDIT:
Since posting this MPG has released a press release, which also talks about a meat-based puzzler. I've not tried it, but thought it worth reprinting here.
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There have been many food simulation games over the years. Something about balancing the art of cooking while pleasing your patrons fits video games well. The act has that compelling tension that fosters strategy and quick reaction. So with an extended drumroll we bring you a foodie game of Japanese cuisine and eating etiquette. Yakiniku Bugyou is a restaurant simulation based on that favorite food, red meat. Yakiniku are thin slices of a various meats barbequed over flaming charcoal. Like our upcoming summer project BurgerTime World Tour, this food extravaganza will get you hungry just playing! The frenetic puzzler requires being an extra careful, fast and efficient chef. Just don't overcook the meat and watch your customers for a satisfying result.
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I had to search the kanji to find a picture online - that's how obscure this thing is! Kanji: 焼肉奉行
Friday, March 25, 2011
Mamoru-Kun PSN Demo now available
In happier news there is a collection of free Malicious avatars. I'll talk about the new and supposedly improved Malicious camera soon too.
Mamoru-kun PS3 official site
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Parasite Eve & Tango and Cash?
We're not had an update in a couple of days, so just before we do the HG101 update entry (I've seen some nice articles planned), let me squeeze this bit of ridiculous nonsense in. Parasite Eve was recently released on PSN, which I've been enjoying the hell out of (despite not being able to skip cut-scenes). I first played the Japanese import back in the day when a guy brought his chipped PS1 to school and we spent several lunchtimes at school going through it - this was my first my time playing it in English, and while it somehow seems drastically different from those halcyon high-school days, I did notice something: the whole time while playing, the Missing Perspective theme in PE sounded very similar to the main theme from Tango and Cash. Just a few of the opening chords, maybe if you sped PE up bit... Anyone else agree? No...? Hmm, might just be me then.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force – PS1 (PSN)
After an impulse purchase on the Japanese PSN, I reveal why Mad Stalker on PS1 is one big fat turkey. It went up about a week ago, but whatever you do, don’t waste your 600 yen on it..
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Actually, Mad Stalker is a great game, if you get the correct version. For you see it was available on the X68000, Turbo Duo (or PCE CD-ROM2 if you’re a semantics pedant), FM Towns and PS1. I recalled THIS TOPIC on InsertCredit, where people sang the game’s praises and after which I dabbled in emulating the Duo version. What I forgot was the description of the PS1 game, which said it was a complete remake of the original. If I had remembered this, or looked it up before buying, I would have known to utterly avoid this turkey.
The word demake would be more appropriate, since they took most of what was cool in the earlier versions, stripped it, broke the combat mechanics, and generally changed it for the worse in the PS1 game. To bullet point the changes:
* Combat is slightly more sluggish. Some might argue it’s meant to be like this because you’re controlling huge robots, but things were definitely a bit more nimble in the earlier games. And that’s saying something, because the original wasn’t exactly fast.
* You can’t choose your character. You can unlock more robots by typing in a code, but in the Duo version you had a choice by default. This is unforgivable – why is it the older games allow choice but this doesn’t? I mean, I tried selecting a different character, but it forced me to use the blue guy by default.
* The graphics now suck. The main sprites are pretty cool, I will admit, but gone are the detailed pixel-art backgrounds, instead replaced with large static images that look like they were drawn in MS Paint. They have some nice sprites overlaid on to them, but behind these the far backgrounds are ugly and the whole effect is ruined. I also don’t like the zooming effects it uses. Some people say they prefer how the PS1 version looks, I can’t even begin to comprehend such an opinion. I mean, I like chocolate ice cream, but I guess some people might like raw pork-mince flavoured ice-cream, because hey, it takes all sorts. The earlier versions look gorgeous though (compare the above to below).
* Gone are the voiced cut-scenes and stage intros. The Duo version had a voiced intro and some dialogue intros before the levels, whereas on the PS1 you get none of this. There are cut-scenes but they aren’t voiced and they aren’t properly animated, making the thing appear like a poor man’s Axelay. A lot of people say a story is irrelevant in an action game, but I like them and, more to the point, their existence adds to overall production value of a game. The PS1 is just cheap in every regard.
* The earlier games had a much cooler attitude. You get a portrait of your pilots with stats and you decide who to choose, then you get some intro chatter and suddenly you’re dropped into a cyberpunk-styled night city to fight off other robots. I mean the whole was bad-ass and awesome. In the PS1 game you get nothing – you just start the game and there you are, in the daylight. During the day. A sunny day in a peaceful town. Why would anyone remove a night city stage? Night city stages are always awesome, plus in the earlier games there was a cameo of the bike used by Kaneda in Akira (very cool).
There’s an easy to prove all this to you. Here are two videos, one of the Duo game and the other of the PS1. Keep an eye on the far background for the PS1 version to spot the static bitmap they use. Yuck. Hands down the earlier games are better, and it’s sad that any company would drop the ball with such a cheap update for the PS1. What the hell were they thinking?!Well, I’ve wasted 600 on this crap, which I won’t be playing again, and I advise that you stay away from it too. Get the PC-Engine CD-ROM2 version though if you can, it’s pretty good. The PS1 version though is just awful and nothing at all like the original versions - in fact it's more like cheap nasty sequel which is best avoided.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Galaxy Fight comp winners!
We announce the winners of our Galaxy Fight competition, and showcase the entries!.
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To our pleasant surprise there was actually a healthy diversity of entries, with only one game (Harmful Park) being mentioned by two entrants. Some of these are probably unlikely to see re-release even in Japan, due to licensing issues, but it sure is nice to imagine. Quite a few entries here I’d never even heard of, so well done guys! Finally, I’m fairly sure Ark of Turus and the Admiral gave us fake names – come on chaps, no need for anonymity on here.
Below are the entries (including staff entries), then the winners, then some commentary from myself, finally followed up by an interesting bonus taken from the WAHP podcast.
Enjoy, and thanks to all who entered!
In alphabetical order, with images taken from anywhere we could find them...
Aconcagua
Being a fan of Irem’s Disaster Report games, I think this sounds really interesting. It’s a survival adventure game where you control five characters trapped on a South American mountain. I first discovered it through HG101 actually, and was excited by the fact the voices are in English. (Julie Campbell)Arthur to Astaroth no Nazomakaimura: Incredible Toons
I’d love to see this brought over to PSN. I’m a big fan of the Ghosts ‘n Goblins and The Incredible Machine series and I first found out about the game when I was reading through fansites. The game looks really fun. (Paul Nguyen)Fire Pro Wrestling G
While it’s true that if you have a backwards compatible PS3 you could simply buy Fire Pro Wrestling Returns for less than fifteen bucks, most people don't have those. That being said, the chance to get FPWG for five or six would be a pretty great deal. The last of the series made by series originators HUMAN, it’s a great entry in a series known for being the best 2D pro wrestling games ever made. (Joe Drilling)Harmful Park
Too many ‘serious’ shmups seem to make their way to the PSN. I thinkHarmful Park should be released because it will show people that
shmups aren’t all techno-laden guns-blazing laserpaloozas. Nothing
wrong with serious, but there needs to be some balance. Harmful Park
is a great place to start! (Alice Eidson I)
Harmful Park
If any one game jives with MonkeyPaw Games’ motto of retro games with today’s graphics and intensity, it is Harmful Park. It is a great-looking, great-playing game with lots of style that requires little translation. Also, the range of difficulty settings makes it easy for anyone to appreciate.(Joshua Goldberg)Hermi Hopperhead: Scrap Panic
I remember reading about this in GameFAN and always wanted to try it. It’s a cute platformer which had a lot of praise, especially for the number of parallax background layers it had. The eggs which follow you remind me of Yoshi’s Island, except instead of shooting them they act as platforms. (William Legerton)Mobile Tomodachi
I want to see Hamster’s Mobile Tomodachi on the US PSN. The game can be best described as a communication game with cell phones. This game would be good for fans of the Sims and similar types of games. It would be good for many fans of other communication games. (Joshua Main)Panzer Bandit
I'm a sucker for a good beat-em-up, and the Japan only Panzer Bandit looks to be a great one. Anything that draws comparisons to Guardian Heroes is great in my book, and the music and overall presentation are quite good. I'd love to get a chance to finally play it. (Ark Of Turus)Real Robots
The Real Robots series are Super Robot Wars styled games from developer Banpresto with a focus on a smaller set of four Sunrise properties. Acquiring rights therefore shouldn’t be difficult. Final Attack resembles Virtua-On in design adding a realistic style that should appeal to audiences turned off by Banpresto’s super deformed look. (Christopher Hadlock)Samurai Showdown RPG
Samurai Showdown RPG. 2D graphics, the music was great, perfect character Roster, but without falling into the fanboy category. The only problem is, that I don’t speak Japanese! (Sebastian Gomez)[editor’s note: for those curious, a fan translation for Samurai Showdown RPG is being worked on – so even if it never appears on PSN, we should eventually be able to appreciate it fully. Who knows, is this an opportunity for SNK to officially license the translation for a re-release? Good luck to Deuce and his valiant endevour]
SQ Sound Qube
A puzzle game unlike most others. Given a set of blocks and ability to send sound waves to determine which one is the core and not red, blue, or jam blocks. While too many games are matching colours, this is Marco Polo and should not be ignored. (Ken Pittman)Suzuki Bakuhatsu
This is a mad looking puzzle game with FMV video where a Japanese woman has to disable bombs found in various household objects. In level 1 she has to disarm a bomb inside a fruity orange. To do this she needs to disassemble each item, one piece at a time. (Admiral Pentarou)Velldeselba Senki: Tsubasa no Kunshou
I would like Velldeselba Senki on PSN. It’s an RPG for the PS1. The theme to the game are airplanes and sky travel influenced by Studio Ghibli films such as Castle in the Sky and Nausica the Valley of the Wind. I think this game looks cool and would make a great import game on PSN. (Peter Gormley)BONUS STAFF ENTRIES:
The Divide: Enemies Within
Technically, being staff, I’m not allowed to enter. So I’m not even going to bother following the rules. My vote goes for a game which never even reached Japan, the US exclusive Divide: Enemies Within. It isn’t so much a Metroidvania as a flat-out Super Metroid clone in 3D. As we’ve mentioned, it’s awesome and deserves a re-release. Someone email Viacom! (Sketcz)Ghost in the Shell
While I’m procrastinating in announcing the three winners, I’m also going to mention Ghost in the Shell (which also saw Western release). It was made by the Jumping Flash guys, using the same engine, and it stands as one of my all-time favourite PS1 games. The GitS licence means it’ll never, ever, ever see re-release, but damn, how many games allow you to crawl around on the ceiling like a mechanical spider? (Sketcz)OK, enough time wasting, the winners who were chosen at random are:
Sebastian Gomez
Christopher Hadlock
Joshua Main
Congratulations gentlemen, expect an email with your download code soonish.
As for the entries, they were all excellent, and I’m especially pleased to read about games I’d not know about previously. Of those I did know about, Aconcagua is a great one to mention especially since it has English dialogue. Harmful Park and Panzer Bandit meanwhile are two excellent and also very expensive PS1 games, making them perfect for re-release. Considering the high resale prices for those two, it’s strange the publishers haven’t done this– surely it’s easy money? Suzuki Bakuhatsu is another favourite, though I’m a sucker for anything with FMV film footage in it.
One game mentioned which is on the Japanese PSN already, is Velldeselba. It was the first Japanese PS1 game I bought on PSN actually, and it is an extremely beautiful RPG with an incredible other-worldly feel. As Peter says it’s very Miyazaki – though the language barrier is extremely high. I never completed it, but it has a great atmosphere. People have mentioned it in fan-translation circles, so maybe we’ll get lucky and see a patch for it one day.
One game which is undergoing fan-translation is Samurai Showdown RPG, the uniqueness of which makes me keen to see the results. Beat-em-ups often have interesting back-stories to facilitate all those characters fighting each other, so the prospect of having such an intimate look inside one of SNK’s coolest creations is really exciting. Such a shame it never reached the west back in the day.
While the entries were overall quite fabulous, I must say I’m a little disappointed no one mentioned PepsiMan, a game with no real language barrier. Browsing HG101 there’s also quite a few other games which could have been mentioned, though perhaps people didn’t want to cover old ground. Some of my favourites include the Goemon PS1 games, and two of the best in the series (Uchukaizoku Akogingu and Oedo Daikaiten) are already on the Japanese PSN. I bought them off Play-Asia several years ago, as part of Konami’s budget re-release series, and they were both excellent. Then there’s Gamera 2000, Speed Power Gunbike, and of course the Love-De-Lic games which are covered on HG101.
Which is apt timing, since only just yesterday I discovered my friend and ex-colleague Mr Ash Day, Vice President of GamesTM magazine, has been secretly running a blog detailing all of LDL’s games. Well, maybe not secretly, but he doesn’t tend to brag about it, so I’m going to embarrass him and do so myself. If you’re curious about Moon RPG on PS1, or just LDL’s unique games in general, it’s worth having a read and it’s a great accompaniment to HG101’s own in-depth article.
(above fan art by Ryan Medlock, courtesy of the Lovedelic blog)Oh, and as a bonus, I also discovered yesterday in the WAHP 14 podcast, that in Japan there was a poll to find which PS1 games the Japanese would want remade for PS3. Which is vaguely connected enough to our competition to list them (maybe). If you’ve got the podcast, it’s from around the 1.02 mark. Remember, these are for remakes, not re-releases.
“What PlayStation era games would you like see remade for the PS3”
10. Dino Crisis
09. Klonoa: Door to Phantomvile
08. Art Truck Battle
07. Ghost in the Shell
06. Parasite Eve
05. Valkyria Profile
04. Xenogears (28% of respondents)
03. Final Fantasy 9 (91.2%)
02. Final Fantasy 7 (99.2%)
01. Final Fantasy 8 (100%)
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