Posts Tagged ‘konami’
Rocket Knight Adventures Initial Run/Quick Look
Rocket Knight Adventures is this month’s game club and a highly regarded part of the Genesis/Mega Drive library. Not only does it show off the hardware tricks that Konami was famous for but it’s also tough as nails. Having never played it, Fred jumps onto his console (and with a web cam so you can see all his goofy faces while playing) to make a first attempt at conquering it. Does he succeed?
Podcast: Code Room X
To wrap up our Resident Evil/Silent Hill series (for a while at least), the GH101 team (with special guest Vos) dive into Silent Hill 4: The Room and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Oddly enough, while SH4 has often been regarded as not originally part of the franchise, it turns out it was always a Silent Hill game and developed by Team Silent but it is a different experience when compared to the games before it. In contrast, Resident Evil: Code Veronica was originally to be Resident Evil 3 and marks the ultimate form of what originally began with the traditional feel and “tank controls”. Fred, Jam, and Vos break down each game and what makes them significant iterations in each series.
Podcast: Jukebox Hero
In 2005 a new gaming fad descended upon home consoles that resulted in lots of rock and roll appreciation, a great fusion of music and games, and lots of wasted real estate with plastic instruments both on store shelves and in homes. That phenomenon was developer Harmonix and accessory manufacturer Red Octane’s Guitar Hero. Taking from Konami’s Bemani series of games the rock/rhythm title had you playing lead guitar for influential rock bands over the decades. From there it grew into one of the biggest selling franchises (and even a second franchise, Rock Band) that helped define the last generation of consoles.
Policenauts Review
Platform: PC-9821, 3DO, Playstation, Saturn (Japan Only)
Released: 1994-1996 (depending on platform, Japan Only)
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Digital Release? No
Price: Unavailable, game never sold in US or UK
Fred’s Take
Building off of what Kojima had started in Snatcher, I feel that Policenauts is an attempt to revise the mistakes and setbacks of that original attempt and create a spiritual successor that flows more like a game. Technically, I guess that’s what Policenauts is, unfortunately the solution appears to be making it a point-and-click adventure and adding in more (and more frustrating) shooting sequences. While I have to commend the efforts by having a more genuine story – although the similarities to the first two Lethal Weapon films is undeniable – that flows naturally and keeps you intrigued, this game has so many walls to break through to get to that story that it’s best read in a walkthrough or watched on YouTube. For this reason, and the countless other reasons that prevent most of us outside of a Japanese speaking region, I can’t recommend Policenauts as a coveted loss treasure we never got.
Snatcher Review
Platform: Sega/Mega CD (only this platform for US/Europe); PC-8801, MSX2, PC-Engine CD, Mega CD, Playstation, and Saturn releases in Japan
Released: 1988-1996 depending on platform (Japan), 1994 (US/Europe)
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Digital Release? No
Price: $256 (disc only), $300 (complete), $1500 (sealed) according to Price Charting (US only prices)
Fred’s Take
I’m an avid fan of cyberpunk as am I an avid fan of the only series I’ve ever played by Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear (both Solid and the MSX titles), so you would think naturally I would love this game. Granted, being an adventure game that is slower in pace was somewhat of a setback for a player like me that doesn’t care for the genre, but the “annoying” light gun sequences helped sweeten the deal. I will confess to having my light gun not hold up to the shooting sequences and since playing through this title I’m fairly certain my Justifier light gun no longer works, but I can safely proclaim that it wasn’t Snatcher that broke it. Anyway, put it altogether in a Blade Runner type game and I’m sold from start to finish, even if the pacing of this title is its biggest weakness.
Podcast: Snatcher and Policenauts Game Club
Hideo Kojima, best known for the quirky stealth series Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid has also delved into the world of visual novels and point-and-click adventure games. If you aren’t aware of them, it’s probably because Snatcher released on the Sega CD only and didn’t clear 10,000 units sold in the US and Policenauts has never released outside of Japan. Thanks to Fred’s lucky ownership of a super rare game and emulation/fan translations for all other instances, the GH101 crew delves deeply into a nearly 3 hour podcast on Kojima’s futuristic adventures with some of the worst shooting sequences in all of gaming.
Partial Longplay: Policenauts (English Translation on PS1)
No one likes to release something that is half finished. It’s even more embarrassing when you know there’s no way to complete something you started. This is one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn with the world of hacked consoles, fan translations, and promising things before you’ve completed them here on Gaming History 101. With a perfectly working copy of Policenauts, the English fan translation that released for PS1, I set out to do a longplay for tonight’s game club just as I had with Snatcher. Unfortunately the game seems to break in several parts of disc 2’s translation despite disc 1 working perfectly (more than half the game as well) and the same disc 2 that broke on my PS1 and PS2 doesn’t have problems playing on my PC through the ePSXe emulator. While I have no idea why this is happening – I can’t seem to find anyone who played on console and the other YouTube videos are clearly from emulation – it rendered my longplay unable to be finished. Rest assured I beat Policenauts on Sunday night and am ready to discuss it in full for tonight’s game club, but I only have the first 2 acts captured on video before the game began to break in Act 3. I used various save data to load parts of Acts 4 and 5, which loaded fine and played fine until certain moments of scripted events that occur within 15-30 minutes of loading a save (same place, has nothing to do with the save point, load point, or amount of time played). Fortunately out of the 12 hours of length that is Policenauts, 7 or so of those hours is Acts 1 & 2, leaving the other 5 hours for Acts 3-7 and the epilogue, oh Kojima. With all that said, I was debating on whether or not to release the videos, but I haven’t released much video content in the last two weeks and I’ve been cranking out videos so I figured you should see where half of this hard work went. Here is the official playlist of the first six videos of my longplay in full upscaled 720p HD with commentary. You won’t get to see me complete the game, but you can get a great feel for what the game as a whole was like. Additionally this playlist is available openly on YouTube, but I’ve put it as “unlisted”, which means it will only be accessed by direct link or searches, not on the main channel page proper. Be sure to listen to our game club for complete coverage on this never released in the US title. We also will have reviews going live on Thursday. Below is the first video of the series, enjoy!
Snatcher Longplay Videos (Sega CD)
The February game club is only a week away and there are two Hideo Kojima adventure games on the list: Snatcher and Policenauts. Haven’t gotten a chance to play Snatcher? Want someone to do all the work for you pre-game club? Well look no further, here’s the entire game from start to finish in seven hour-ish videos. I’ve put the first video in this post for embedded watching here if you prefer.
Retro Game Night: Crypt Killer and Mad Dog McCree
This week for Retro Game Night we go all light gun shooters (yes, they can be captured and streamed).
First up is arcade 3D shooter Crypt Killer, which was horror themed and moved from arcades to Saturn and the PS1 (Saturn version shown). Sorry about the sound on the game being much louder than my voice, it was live and no one told me.
Next up is the 1990 “classic” Mad Dog McCree, one of the first laserdisc arcade games that was almost perfectly ported to the Nintendo Wii. Here it is in all its glory (and in 720p!)
If you want to check out Retro Game Night, we do it every Friday night at 11:30 pm est on our Twitch channel (twitch.tv/gh101). You can also follow us for random live broadcasts and check that page for our ongoing replay of Resident Evil HD Remaster on the PS3, which comes to the US on January 20.
Retro Game Night: Contra 3, Contra Hard Corps, and Contra Rebirth
This week Fred goes 16-bit and beyond with his Contra. Having spent literally decades conquering the first two, it appears he doesn’t fair so well into the next generation.
Gaming History 101 