I've noticed over the last few months arcade machines appearing in adverts and other popular culture, which seems odd given the rarity of arcade machines now. For example, kids' TV channel Disney XD keep showing a brief clip of a boy celebrating after beating a game in an arcade, surrounded by his high-fiving friends. The arcade they show looks like something from the 80s and certainly not somewhere kids would go to game these days. And one of Disney XD's top shows, Phineas and Ferb even featured an arcade in the episode, Ain't no kiddie ride.
They're not the only examples, let's have a look at some others. First up we have a video for dubstep supremos, Nero, which riffs on Sega, Tron and Final Fight among others.
Next we have an advert for the new series of Dynamo: Magician Impossible, which sees the extraordinary street magician walking down the high street making electrical equipment go haywire as he passes by, including a bunch of coin-op machines in an old arcade. What's interesting here is that they clearly show Bally Midway's classic Theatre of Magic as a reference to Dynamo's abilities.
Next, an ad for the new Orange San Diego mobile phone, which uses a bunch of old arcade and pinball machines standing in the desert as a metaphor for the phone's gaming capabilities, which is odd given the portability and touchscreen controls of smart phone gaming is almost the antithesis of the dedicated hardware of an arcade machine.
This isn't the first time Orange have referenced arcade gaming in their adverts, as this 2010 commercial for their two-for-one movie ticket service, Orange Wednesdays, shows:
So it seems, as rare as arcade machines are these days, there is something about them that is etched in the popular subconscious. Much like the sound of a vinyl record being scratched has no place in modern culture, but still gets used all the time, arcades may be gone, but they are not forgotten.
World War II fighter planes firing lasers, magic and giant ninja swords that are also capable of turning into enormous ghosts of dead teenagers? Sounds like a typical Japanese shoot 'em up to me.
In the 80s and early 90s, Toaplan made some brilliant arcade shoot 'em ups. Tiger Heli, Hellfire, Slap Fight, Batsugun and perhaps most famously Truxton I and II (which I discussed in last January's Classic of the Month) can all claim to be classics in their own right. Sadly, in 1994, shortly after the release of Snow Bros II, Toaplan filed for bankruptcy.
Thankfully, from the ashes of Toaplan rose Computer Audio-Visual Entertainment Interactive, or CAVE for short. Over the past 17 years, CAVE have been been making a variety of games for arcades, home consoles and smartphones, but they're most famous for their series of bullet hell shoot 'em ups, including Guwange, Espgaluda, Deathsmiles, my son's favourite shmup, Progear No Arashi, and the jewel in their crown, the Donpachi series. In 2010 they released Akai Katana Shin in the arcade, which looks and plays like its the spiritual successor to 2001's Progear (although nowhere do they say that). Now, with the help of publishers Rising Star Games, CAVE have brought Akai Katana to Xbox 360 (minus the Shin for the UK).
Like all CAVE's shoot 'em ups, Akai Katana has a complex back story, but with the exception of a few cutscenes during boss encounters (which are in Japanese with no subtitles) the game does not waste the player's time explaining it, so I won't either. Just know there's a bad guy, he's in control of a fleet of World War II era planes, helicopters, tanks and submarines, which all fire lasers and magic rather than lead and explosives. At the start of the game you get to chose one of three pilot and phantom teams, each with their own plane. Tsubaki and Sumire fly the Marigold, which fires in straight lines; Botan and Kikyou fly the Orchid, which has homing lasers; and finally Shion and Suzuran fly the Sakura, which fires in a spread patten. Like other CAVE games, there are no weakest links in the choice of fighters, which means it's all down to play style.
There are three modes in this Xbox version: Origin, which is the original arcade version, Climax, which is a harder, widescreen update of the Arcade version, and Slash mode, which is new for the Xbox and by far the best version of the game. Visually the game has a far higher resolution than CAVE's previous offerings, whilst still being clearly sprite-based. It almost looks like a HD Neo Geo game — which is no bad thing in my book. However, as I've already said it looks like Progear, as well as a host of other World War II-themed games, like Psikyo's Strikers 1945 series or even Metal Slug (which is probably I think it looks like a HD Neo Geo game). Conversely, the music and the front menus actually make it look and sound like a Guilty Gear game, so much so that when my wife saw me start it up for the first time, she remarked, "All these games look the same. Like Street Fighter and Soul Calibur?" So Akai Katana is the Megan Fox of arcade shoot 'em ups: it's very pretty, but it doesn't really stand out from the crowd.
So on to the game play. If you've never played Akai Katan before, what you think of its game play could be affected by which mode you play first. If you decide you want that authentic arcade experience and choose Origin mode, you may think it's game play is as run of the mill as its artstyle; if you play Climax mode you may think the same, plus it's frenetic and hard; if you play Slash mode, you may be left dumbfounded by what's going on at all, because Slash mode is a very different beast to the other two modes. The arcade original was good, but no better than anything else CAVE has offered. If you're a shmup fan you'll still enjoy it, but it may not leave a lasting impression. If you chose Slash mode, take the time to watch the lengthy tutorial video and maybe read the user guide — yes, for a shoot 'em up — you'll find that by tweaking the game's rules, CAVE have made Akai Katana into something very rewarding indeed. You see, in Origin and Climax modes, you fly around, collect energy from fallen foes and use it to switch to phantom mode, which allows you to deflect bullets and provides more fire power, but that seems to be all there is to it. In Slash mode, you have to collect energy to charge up your phantom, but also steel to arm it. You control how you collect these two resources by switching between defence and attack mode. Thankfully, that's all done with one button (although a second can be used if you want). Tapping the shot button fires your general weapon; holding down the shot fires a more powerful weapon, but at the cost of your speed. It's a mechanic that CAVE have employed for years, but here it has more application than previously. As you collect steel red orbs appear around your fighter. When you switch to phantom mode the steel orbs turn into katanas, which float around the phantom and will be unleashed when you switch back to fighter mode. This is key to both destroying mid-bosses and end of level bosses, as well as netting high scores. It means that you can conjure the most powerful attacks in the game when you want, rather than when the game decides to give you a power up. However, that is only part of the Slash's mechanics — there's much more to it than that, but I'm still learning the rest of the game's subtleties and nuances. How many shoot 'em ups can say that?
Between Xbox Live Arcade and all the CAVE ports, the Xbox 360 has a lot of great shoot 'em ups. This is where Akai Katana's £25 asking price, however cheap compared to other boxed games, seems less appealing. For that price if you wanted some classic arcade bullet hell action you could buy Treasure's classics Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun, plus CAVE's other classic, Guwange. If you're open to some modern bullet hell action you could buy Sine Mora, Omega Five and Strania. If you're really open minded (and patient), you could buy about 20 Xbox Live Indie shmups for that price, such as the brilliant Platypus, Shoot 1-Up or Vorpal. This all sounds like I'm trying to talk you out of getting Akai Katana, but I'm not, I'm just trying to provide a balanced review. I guess it all comes down to how much a shmup nut you are. If you're like me, you'll probably own everything I've mentioned and are looking for something with that bit more depth. Many of the games I mentioned above also offer that, but for me, Akai Katana scratches a very particular itch and I cannot stop scratching. Err... yeah, that's not the best metaphor in the world. Let's just say I love it.
Highs
The best looking CAVE port to date and looks great on a big HD TV.
Three versions of the game in one, each with its own subtle differences.
At less than £25, this is a budget price for a new boxed release.
Switching between attack and defence to collect energy and steel respectively provides plenty of scope for tactical, rewarding gameplay.
Slash mode makes this one of CAVE's most satisfying shoot 'em up experiences to date.
Lows
At £25, it is not the cheapest slice of shoot 'em up action on the Xbox this year.
Could get lost in the crowd.
Akai Katana is available for Xbox 360 from all decent retailers for around £25.
Some games have lots of different bosses, while others have just one boss, who returns at the end of every level in different guises, like Altered Beast's antagonist, the demonic sorcerer Neff (pictured right).
During the game's attract screens we learn Neff has captured a princess -- the fiend! In an usual twist, when you insert a coin and start the game, your character is already dead, but is summoned to rise from your grave by a god (who I always assumed was Zeus, but I have no proof of that).
At first it seems you are ill-equipped to deal with the demonic and undead minions sent by Neff to stop you. It's not long before some suspicious-looking wolf wolves appear, which when killed, drop a floating power-up orb, adding some much needed beef to your centurion. Collect two more orbs and you alter your form to become a beast-man. During the course of the game the hero transforms into a werewolf, a dragon, a bear-man, a tiger-man and finally a golden werewolf, but that's nothing compared to Neff's repertoire of bizarre transformations. At the end of every level, Neff stops our heroes in their tracks, grows to the full height of the screen, then in a puff of smoke he transforms forms into some bizarre monster.
At the end of level 1's graveyard Neff transforms into a pile of corpses, with a orge-like head and body. He attacks by throwing his head at you, which respawns instantly, allowing him to throw half a dozen of them in a few seconds.
Level 2 is set in a swamp and ends with Neff turning into a plant with eye-like spores, which it fires across the screen at you.
Level 3 sees our hero travel underground, at the end of which Neff transform into giant snail with a dragon head. This is the first boss to move, although he doesn't move very much. Not that he needs to, as he can launch shells that loop around the screen and burst into flames.
Level 4 is set inside a Greek building and ends with Neff transforming into some kind of baby dragon, that floats around the screen blasting you with fireballs that emit from its swollen belly. If that wasn't bad enough, miniature versions of the dragon you transformed into in level 2 will sometimes appear and hover slowly around the boss, just to stop you getting close.
Thee fifth and final level is set on some surreal alternative plane and features lots of man-beasts, including fauns and unicorn men. Given everything you face up until this point you would expect Neff's final form to be the craziest of all, but instead it's just a giant rhino-soldier, who charges and punches you. Nonetheless, this final boss is the toughest of all and takes a lot of punishment to beat.
After each encounter Neff's disembodied head emerges from the ground, robs our hero of his powers and promptly disappears, making the next level a fresh challenge, no matter how well you did before. Between each level you also learn a little more of Neff's plan, which is to use his powerful magic turn the princess into a bird and keep her locked up in a cage. If you weren't dead set on kicking his ass before, you will be now!
To have any real hope of beating any of these bosses you really need to be fully powered-up, especially as you have no projectiles in your base form. Like most arcade games, Altered Beast was punishing and overall not that fun, but we kept hammering away just to see what our hero and Neff would transform into next.
A couple of weeks ago I posted an article about Pinball Arcade developers FarSight Studios attempt to port Bally's Twilight Zone being thwarted by licencing costs. They decided to set up a Kickstarter project to fund the costs and so far things are going great. They are now a little over $12,000 off their target of $55,000 with a little under 3 weeks to go. If you have any love for this, one of the best pinball tables ever made, click the link below now!
(Update: 08/06/2012) Thanks to the support of pinball fans across the world, FarSight Studios have raised the capital needed to sign the Twilight Zone licence. In fact, they raised more than they needed, so they now have their sights on the Star Trek: The Next Generation licence -- all they need is another $43,000.
Last month, legendary LaserDisc arcade game Dragon's Lair appeared on yet another home console, the Xbox 360. After playing the demo I quickly recognised that even my strong sense of arcade nostalgia could not help me overlook its lack of gameplay. This got me thinking, Were there any decent LaserDisc games? It was certainly all the rage for a few years in the mid-80s, but between Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Fire Fox, none of them were particularly great games. Then I remembered a truly futuristic looking game from my childhood, a game that looked every bit as sci-fi as films like Star Wars, Last Star Fighter and Tron, a futurist motorcycle game called Star Rider.
The cabinet itself looked like a rocket-powered bike had crashed through a traditional upright arcade cabinet, but that didn't stop it from feeling awesome to straddle the thing. Where Star Rider differed from Dragon's Lair was that you were not simply performing quick time events to play the next scene from the LaserDisc. Instead, only the track and environments were provided by the disc; the actual racers were sprites, overlaid on top. In order to simulate control, as you turned, the footage from the LaserDisc panned left and right. It was a simple trick and it meant Star Rider basically played the same as Pole Position or Hang-On (which was released a few years later).
The sci-fi theme meant races took place on different planets, with names like Hexagonia, Cubitania, Crystallia and Stalacta -- names that gave a hint to the overall look of the level. You begin each race in the Cosmodrome with a crowd of spectators seated either side of the track. It's only once you leave this area that the true fantasy and beauty of the game's landscapes are revealed. Your opponents in each and every racer were Gold Rider (yellow bike), Red Hawk (red bike), Sidewinder (green bike) and Thunderbolt (blue bike). Despite the names, they do not have any significant personalities or even game play traits (a la the ghosts in Pac-Man), they were just there to get in your way -- which was pretty standard for the time.
The game was pretty rare and like a lot of LaserDisc machines, it did not last long before it disappeared from arcades. I've heard that the LaserDisc players inside them were prone to breaking, so finding one today is hard. Sadly, the game has never been ported or emulated, which is a shame, because with modern media it would be a doddle to have the original LaserDisc footage with either the original sprites or perhaps some high res polygonal art.
I want to share two videos of this game with you. This first is some shaky-cam footage of the cabinet and the game in action.
This second video is just the laser disc playing, no game play, but it shows just how amazing the game looked and sounded (the music is great), especially when you consider 1983 was also the year of Spy Hunter, Atari's Star Wars and America's great video game crash.
Digital Leisure seem intent on squeezing every last drop out of Don Bluth's legendary LaserDisc arcade game, Dragon's Lair. According to the game's Wikipedia page, it has been released on 65 different home platforms since 1984 and now you can add a 66th with the Xbox Live Arcade version released today. Unlike the PS3 version released in 2010, this version is also available in Europe for the modest sum of 800 Microsoft Points, which works out at around £6.50.
Like this PS3 version, this is in 16:9 widescreen and looks better than ever before. As well as being able to play it with a traditional controller you can also play it "controller-free" using an Xbox Kinect. I don't have a Kinect, so I can't tell you what that's like. Instead here's a trailer:
On Monday, 1st September
2008 I walked through the doors of one of the UK's oldest independent
developers and my career as a technical author in the games industry
began. Today I left that developer and the games industry by those
same doors.
Believe me when I say, however
complicated you think games are to make, they are a lot, lot more
complicated than that. I have never felt so out of my depth as I did
during the first couple of years. People throw around the phrase
“mind blown” all the time, but during the first week my mind was
blown in a such a tangible way it was like a fuse had actually popped
in my head. Just Google 'global illumination', 'radiosity',
'inverse kinematics', 'cloth dynamics' or 'particle physics' and
you'll see what I mean. Nonetheless, the past 3½ years have been
quite a roller coaster ride and I wouldn't change a thing. I got my
name on the credits of 4 released games and 2 others that are still
in development and I've worked with guys who helped create some
genuine classics, including Blur, Warhammer Online, Timesplitters,
GTA, The Sims, Tomb Raider, Lemmings, Micro Maniacs and James Pond.
Sadly, there's little or no future for
me in the games industry and I am unlikely to ever return. When I
started I had dreams of becoming a designer or maybe even a producer.
That idea quickly went out of the window when I discovered “crunch
time” meant working 12 to 18 hour days for months on end in order
to get everything done on time – a problem I was spared in my role.
And so it's time to come back down to
earth, stop bumming around in jeans and a T-shirt and get a “grown
up job”. I start my new job at the beginning of June, which not
only shows there are jobs out there if you look, but also gives me
some time to play few more games before I start.
