General Update.

The month long hassle with the Xbox 360 is nearing a close. It's been shipped from the repair center in Texas and should be here Monday. Which will be one month and three days to the day of the red ring of death appearance. You don't know how much you'll miss something until it's gone.  And goddamn, did I ever miss it. I want my X360 back so I can play some Phantasy Star Universe and Texas Hold 'em along with this season's upcoming titles. And Golden Axe. The freaking arcade version of Golden Axe hit Xbox Live Arcade in the middle of this ordeal and I haven't been able to download and play it. One of my all-time favorite games. And of course Riddel has been chiming in with how much fun it is and all of that every third day or so. That's just torture. She's mean like that. I have been keeping myself relatively busy going through some Virtual Console games in the ten days or so since finishing off Taito Legends 2. Blasted my way through Bonk's Revenge. I've been plugging away at the awesome Punch-Out!!: Featuring Mr. Dream. Which reminds me ... in checking out the message boards on Punch-Out!! to see how people are taking to games like this more than a few have never played it's interesting to note how many topics there are screaming about how Mr. Dream sucks and how they want the Mike Tyson version of the game. First of all, Mr. Dream plays identically to Tyson. He's just a different character model. Secondly, and more importantly, Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist. Hello? Rapist. Let's have a little perspective here people. Nintendo would never want anything to ever do with him again. They'd like to remove any notion they ever even worked with him. This doesn't even bring into account the legal issues regarding royalties and the rest of it.  It amazes me that people can be so entirely clueless. And lastly I went through Ninja Spirit on the Virtual Console. I still have a bunch of Xbox Live Arcade and Virtual Console titles left to go through. Stuff like Kid Icarus and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention. I'm hooked on both services. I've yet to download anything from the PlayStation Network as of yet. Hopefully something catches my fancy. So far I've been able to resist the temptation to download something lesser than just to go through the process and see how it all works with the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. It's also a little over three weeks until Bioshock ships. This title marks the start of the ever earlier busy season for this year. Hell, the week of Bioshock alone sees the release of Metroid Prime 3 and Blue Dragon. With major releases every week or two thereafter into December. This season appears to be monumental. We have Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4 and Super Mario Galaxy. The Nintendo DS sees Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The PSP sees the next Silent Hill and a long awaited Castlevania, one of the Holy Grail missing games up to this point. It's going to be insane. And I still have a sizable backlog. And the trend of major winter releases continues. So there won't be the post holiday season dry spell of yore. Games like Splinter Cell: Conviction, Mario Kart Wii, Alan Wake, Left 4 Dead, and Metal Gear Solid 4 are all filling up the new year. I guess I better get cracking...

Taito Legends 2: Day Twelve & Final Opinion.

The year 1996 sees Raystorm which is a 3D update of the 1993 game Rayforce. They're both vertically scrolling shooters. They both employ the standards of power-ups and boss battles. They both also feature two types of fire. The primary weapon fires out on the level of the ship and the secondary weapon features a lock-on system that allows for multiple ground and air targets to be hit at once. The boss battles play big into the weapon system with both primary and secondary attack points. Raystorm is in 3D. The very early 3D of clear cut polygon edges. You can see how everything was built. The graphics were impressive for the time but come off as looking like a good PlayStation game now. The 3D graphics also allow for the levels to be full of twists and turns and hills and valleys that you go in and out of and around. It made for a far more dramatic and interesting presentation for the genre at the time.

The final two games on the disc both saw release in the arcades of 1997. If you were to take Bust-A-Move and combine it with Break-Out then you'd have Puchi Carat. You control a paddle that moves along the bottom of the screen to the left and right. There are colored orbs in rows above you that move down a row after a set amount of time. The game ends when the orbs reach the bottom of the screen. So you have to keep bouncing a ball into the orbs to remove them. Missing the ball with the paddle causes the rows to instantly drop another row. The graphics feature an anime style background image that's for each of the twelve anime characters you choose at the start of the game. The characters are in the background essentially acting as cheerleaders. Their animation actually can be a distraction. The game features a versus mode and a single-player mode.

The final game of the disc is G Darius. It takes the Darius formula and puts it into 3D. Which makes it look very cool but keeps it in 2D control as it's still a horizontally scrolling shooter. The bosses and enemies come into play from the background and foreground. They make dramatic sweeping entrances. The boss battles have a lot of avoidance gameplay with them charging at you all the time from everywhere to show off the 3D graphics. Other than that it's still Darius. Which means you have you the sea life based technological monstrosities as enemies. You have the path selection system between each stage. You have the same power-up system. G Darius comes off as a lot more cheap than Darius Gaiden though as once you've lost a ship it's near impossible for you to recover and continue on.

And now for the final opinion, finally. This disc contains a massive amount of arcade history. It's an amazing value at the price. Thirty-nine games for twenty bucks. But that's all you're going to get. No history. No bonuses. No extras. Just good emulation and a simple and clean interface. I think the original Taito Legends was more accessible to a casual player offering a wider variety of games. Taito Legends 2 is pretty much only for the historians out there. Those who were around to play the games originally or those who want to get their hands on every last arcade title or collection. I'm giving Taito Legends 2 a 7.

Taito Legends 2: Day Eleven.

The year 1995 saw the release of Gekirindan. The game is a vertically scrolling shooter. The game seems to be an unrelated evolution of the Taoplan developed but Taito published 1988 release Truxton. The game features three selectable ships with their own special weapons. One of those ships seems identical to the ship in Truxton even down to the famous skull smart bomb special weapon. The game features all the genre standards from power-ups to impressive boss battles. The game's screen can be scrolled to the left and right as the game force scrolls vertically. This provides a larger playfield. The graphics and sound are all top notch. The game just feels like a classic shooter.

The year 1995 also saw yet another release in the Space Invaders series in the form of Space Invaders '95. What's left to do with the series? Apparently not much beyond just going insane. So this version of the game has done just that. They've applied the Parodius gimmick to Space Invaders. It plays the same but with a zany nonsensical comic approach to the graphics and music.

The original Bust-A-Move was developed by SNK in 1993. This Taito produced sequel named Bust-A-Move Again saw the dim light of day in the arcades of 1996. The game is the result of crossing the Tetris clone Columns with billiards. The object is to clear the screen of colored orbs by linking three or more of them together. You do this by shooting a colored orb into the field. You can adjust the angle to the point of pulling off bankshots off the walls. The game features a verus computer mode where you go through level after level of AI. The game also features a puzzle mode where you have to clear one-hundred levels. Like all great puzzle games the game is simple to pick up and play but tough to master. It's great fun.

Taito Legends 2: Day Ten.

In 1994 they released Space Invaders DX. This game features pixel perfect recreations of various versions of Space Invaders plus two new modes. When you select Space Invaders you're met with a list of versions to play. The game offers the upright arcade version, the color version, the black and white cocktail version, and the colored overlay cocktail version. Perfect in every way right down to the rainbow glitch. The game offers up a two-player versus mode where your actions have a negative effect on the other player. And the game also offers up a parody mode. In this mode you'll play the game as various Taito game characters on a backdrop inspired by their specific game where you'll be shooting invaders modeled after the enemies from said games.

The year 1994 also saw the release of Elevator Action Returns. The sequel to Elevator Action II evolves into more of the standard action game. You're out to stop a mad bomber by locating bombs and disarming them. It plays with the same basic concepts as the original in that you're going in and out of doors and taking elevators up and down while dealing with enemies by shooting at them. They add in the ability to duck and shoot and a special weapon. You can also select to play as one of three characters with their own speeds and special weapons. If you were to perfectly blend Elevator Action with Namco's Rolling Thunder you'd end up with Elevator Action Returns. It features great graphics and fun gameplay.

Up to 1995 with Cleopatra Fortune. The game is a Tetris variant with an Egyptian motif. You need to rotate the blocks and jewels to position them so you can clear them from the screen before it fills up and ends the game. To clear them from the screen you have to surround the jewels with the blocks on all sides which causes the jewels to vanish leaving the blocks. The blocks then collapse and fill in the space left behind by the jewels. Once you fill up an entire row from left to right the blocks crumble and vanish. So it's a little more complex than Tetris with its twofold concern. It's a fun variant, if Tetris variants are your thing.

Suikoden V: Final Opinion.

The after the credits save puts my total time in Suikoden V at seventy hours and change. It was clearly time well spent. The game is very much a return to Suikoden and Suikoden II and that's a welcome return by me. But there is more to the title than just a return to the original battle system and the return of the true overworld. There are more important things than the exceptionally clean graphics and great Suikoden style music. Of course the real reason to play an RPG is for the story being told. And Suikoden V delivers a great story. A story enhanced by having played the other four games in the series. Suikoden V takes places eight years before the events of Suikoden II. And many characters from the other games show up or are referenced. Just like Phantasy Star, Suikoden isn't Final Fantasy in that you sort of need to have played the other games in the series to fully understand and get the most reward out of the story. The Suikoden series tells the story of one world. Each game telling the story of a different country in said world. And just like the Suikoden games before it, Suikoden V is a tale of politics and nations and the scheming of it all. And just like the other Suikoden games, the hero unites the one-hundred and eight Stars of Destiny and forever changes the world. Suikoden V also delves a little deeper into the overriding tale of the True Runes. It gives a bit more insight in both Harmonia and the Sindar and hints at what may come.  All of this is done against a more personal Suikoden story. It never leaves the human element while painting the broader picture. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. I'm giving Suikoden V a 9.

Taito Legends 2: Day Nine.

The year is 1992 and Taito releases Arabian Magic into the arcades. The game is a sidescrolling brawler that has an Arabian Nights theme. You can choose between four different characters that each have their own moves. The game has decent graphics and horrible sound. The game has you beating the crap out of anything and everything that gets in your way. You can collect healing items and extra magic attacks that take the form of a genie from the lamp. You have to repeatedly press the attack button during the magic attacks to cause the genies to strike out at the enemies. Each level has its own boss to be fought. The game tries to break up the monotony of the genre by adding some slight platform elements.

Moving forward a year to 1993 we find Dungeon Magic. This game is rather cool. It's an isometric perspective hack and slash with a Dungeons & Dragons theme. You can collect experience as a drop from creatures. The more you collect the more you'll level up one of the selectable characters you've chosen to play with. They're the standard archetypes of the theme. You have the elfin archer, the warrior, the wizard, and the knight. They each have their own attacks and magic. You hack and slash and shoot your way through throngs of the standard theme enemies such as the lizardman and kolbold. There are chests that contain treasures and traps alike. A rather cool aspect to the game is that you can choose which exit to take from each room. The map draws in as you go. There are rooms you'll never see without multiple playthroughs. The replay value for this one is quite high. The graphics are great. The game is colorful and well drawn. The sprites are large and have solid animation. This one is a very fun game.

Moving ahead another year to 1994 we have Darius Gaiden. To put it simply, Darius Gaiden is as good as shooters get. It's an undeniably awesome game. The game is a horizontally scrolling shooter. The game features a graphic design that crosses technology with fish. The boss battles are all giant technological monstrosities in the form of some undersea animal. A few other aspects set it apart. You're able to select your course after completing each stage. You start on stage A and have a choice between going to stage B or stage C. It fans out in the same exact way as you would select the courses in Out Run. That provides enormous replay value as each stage has its own exclusive boss. So you'd have to play through all the courses to see all the bosses. And they're well worth seeing. The graphics and art design are nothing short of amazing. They still impress today. The music ranks among Team Zuntata's best. Especially the vocal track found throughout numerous stages.

Suikoden V -- War Happens Live.

I'm closing in on the end of Suikoden as I have two of the one-hundred and eight Stars of Destiny left to find and recruit. One I know of. The other I have no idea. I'm up around fifty-eight hours put in to the game. In that amount of time I've fought my fair share of war battles. War battles are a staple of the Suikoden series. Every entry has had them. Some people love them, some people hate them. My opinion has tended to vary from game to game. So how are they in Suikoden V? They're realtime is what they are. Once the battle starts all the units are moving around the map. No taking turns here. The actual skirmishes within the war battles are still a variation of rock, paper, and scissors. With each unit type being strong against one type and weak against another and equal to a like unit type. The units still have commanders that are able to make use of the runes they might have equipped. So healing and offensive spells come into play. With the war battles being realtime, it opens them up for potential chaos. Especially with a battle split among multiple fronts. You have to watch and react to everything going on all at once and the maps normally scroll for a few screens in all directions. There is a lot to kept track of. Another factor that heavily plays into the potential chaos are the combined land and sea battles. You'll be in command of both army and naval units at the same time. They actually require genuine strategy to successfully complete. Something that was often missing from other war battles of the series. Suikoden V's war battles come off as the most intense and satisfying of the series. I really like them.

Taito Legends 2: Day Eight.

The year 1990 saw the release of the game Super Space Invaders '91. This update to the original Space Invaders adds a bunch of new things to the classic formula. Your ship still moves left and right across the bottom of the screen while shooting at invaders that are eternally edging closer. The game now features colorful backgrounds with the stages taking place in various locations such as Earth and outer space. The enemies aren't limited to their original movement pattern. They can now move in various different ways ranging from Galaga like swooping attacks to Gyruss like flight patterns. The game allows for power-ups and special weapons. They've even incorporated boss battles. The game has a more whimsical nature as evidenced by the stages in which you must protect a herd of cows from the aliens out to abduct them. The colorful but decent graphics and the fun music and gameplay make this one well worth playing.

The year 1991 saw the release of Metal Black in the arcades. The game is the evolution and pseudo-sequel to Gun Frontier. This time around the game has moved from being a vertically scrolling shooter to being a horizontally scrolling shooter. The setting has moved from the bizarre future and wild west weaponry themed Mars to a future post-apocalyptic somewhere. Beyond that the game features the standards of the genre. The graphics are actually quite impressive and the boss battles tend be long and extravagant.

We move ahead to the year 1992 for the final game of this entry with Grid Seeker. The game is another vertical scrolling shooter with all the standards of power-ups and lengthy boss battles. This one is set in the as of then distant future of the year 1999 during the second Persian Gulf War. You can choose between three types of aircraft, a helicopter, a stealth fighter, and a stealth bomber. The game has an intro that gets you ready for some serious modern war action. Except it becomes obvious that their version of the future seems a tad far more advanced than how the year 1999 actually was. The vehicles employ R-Type like vehicle attachments that act as shields. You actually need to catch enemy fire with them to build up your firepower and bomb strength. The game tries really hard for epic boss encounters but they come off as more overwrought and tedious than anything. This one is more for the dedicated.

Taito Legends 2 -- Day Seven.

All three games in this entry saw release into the arcades in 1990. The first one up is Football Champ. This is a soccer game with the field displayed horizontally so the goals are shown on the left and right sides of the scrolling screen. The game allows for eight way movement and features two buttons that vary depending if you're on offense or defense. On offense one button shoots and the other passes. On defense one button allows for a slide tackle and the other allows for rougher tactics like pulling their shirts or tripping. Needless to say using the rougher tactics provides a far greater risk of penalty. You've got a set amount of time to play in which you're going to want to outscore the opposing team to continue playing on. The graphics are pretty good and feature some decent animation. The game is fast and very arcade like. This isn't a soccer sim by any means.

Next up is Gun Frontier. The game is a traditional vertically scrolling shooter. The game has a bizarre aesthetic with the player's ship and a lot of the enemy ships and bosses being styled after weapons from the American wild west. So like... a boss ship that looks like a couple of Colt revolvers. Beyond that strange aspect it's very much traditional fare. You're attempting to shoot down or destroy everything before they can shoot you while along the way collecting items to power-up your firepower and the your bombs. The graphics are decent with some large and detailed explosions.

Lastly for this entry we come to Liquid Kids. The game is just all around awesome. It's the further evolution of The Fairyland Story and Don Doko Don. This time around you're a hippo that can throw bubbles of water at enemies. The bubbles break when they contact an enemy or wall and cause a torrent of water which behaves very much like a flash food. It flows until it can leave the screen. Enemies hit by the water are then stunned and the hippo can come in contact with them and they'll be kicked off screen and defeated. The game evolves beyond the previous game's single screen puzzle element into a full on platforming game. It retains Don Doko Don's very colorful and extremely cartoonish graphic design. It expands with a more full narrative. And also features some creative boss battles.

Suikoden V -- A Return.

I've put in roughly fifty hours into Suikoden V. The game is very much a return to the origins of the series. Suikoden III used a 3D battle space where enemy and character position within said space were taken into account. With characters and enemies alike having to move to their targets it slowed the pace of the battles down considerably and made them far more strategic in nature. Suikoden IV ditched the 3D space and dropped the number of characters in the battle party down to four. Suikoden V returns things to the first two games in the series by returning to the 2D style battle mechanics and returning the battle party size to six characters. Numerous characters and enemies can take their turns simultaneously. This brings the battles back to their blistering pace. Suikoden I and II, and now V have the fastest RPG battles this side of the Tales series. The battles aren't the only thing returning to how they originally were. The overworld is back. Suikoden III's world was a series of hot spots upon a map with paths between them. Very much a connect the dots situation. Suikoden IV features a large and open ocean for you to sail where you would find towns and the like. Suikoden V allows you to roam the overworld upon leaving towns and returns that sense of exploration missing from the previous two entries. They've returned the series to its roots. And I for one am thoroughly enjoying the return to the basics.

Taito Legends 2: Day Six.

Insector X hit the arcades in 1989. The game is a standard horizontally scrolling shooter featuring an all insect theme. It features all the standard weapon and speed power-ups to be collected from defeated enemies. You play through each level until you fight a boss. The all insect theme is quite cool. The arcade version features large and detailed enemies with an overall cartoonish and cute design. The game was ported to the SEGA Genesis by Sage's Creation where it received somewhat of a graphic reworking. The player and enemy sprites were altered to feature a more serious and less cartoonish quality. I owned the Genesis game never having played the arcade original and was more than a little surprised to find the cute graphic style.

 

The final game for the year 1989 is Violence Fight. The game is a one-on-one fighter. You're able to move in eight directions in that it controls more like Final Fight than Street Fighter. You have a button for jump, punch, and kick. Combinations of buttons will result in special moves. You have to win two of three rounds to advance to the next fighter. You'll find a bonus round after every few fighters. You're able to select from four different fighters with different ratings and special moves. The game is simplistic with some sluggish control. The game also features some of the worst translations ever seen in the industry, as if you couldn't tell from the title of the game itself. I will now transcribe the opening to Violence Fight in its entirety. "In the early part of the 1950s in the USA, a game called Violence Fight was in vogue among Mafia, reckless drivers, and businessmen. The Violence Fight was the game to struggle for No. 1 Quarreler with fighters who were gathered from all parts of the USA speaking boastingly of their strength. And of course a lot of winning money and as well as the honor were given to the winner.  Here in a downtown, in L. A., a young fighter named Bat and his manager Blinks seek for the winning money eagerly. As a matter of fact, can Bad take the No. 1 spot of the USA?" ... wow. And yes, the character's name changes in the intro.

 

Into 1990 we go for Growl. Growl isa sidescrolling brawler along the lines of Streets of Rage. Growl is a pretty substandard brawler. The graphics and music are standard for the era. The controls are okay enough. The problem with Growl is its lousy hit detection and its rather broken mechanics of flooding the screen with enemies and allowing them to juggle you around and never let you get a hit in. But the game is actually well worth playing through just because of the goofy theme. You're playing as one of four very Indiana Jones like characters who are out to stop a gang of animal poachers. Half of the gang of poachers seem to be hot chicks in short skirts for some reason. You play through the levels beating the crap out of everyone and you'll come across a scene where the gang will be torturing animals. You'll beat them all to death and free the animals who will in turn help you against the poachers. There is nothing like fighting alongside a rampaging elephant. It's just so cheesy and goofy. This game was clearly inspired by the opening to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the train sequence specifically.

Taito Legends 2: Day Five.

Nastar Warrior is the 1988 sequel to the 1987 game Rastan. The game is the classic platformer. One button to jump and another to attack. You get three weapon types based on collected icons in the game. Sword and shield, broadsword, and claws. The big deal with this one is being able to block enemy attacks, even those from bosses. You can block standard by centering the joystick. You can block high by pushing up and block low by pushing down-forward. The game features very large and detailed sprites. Especially the bosses. The game employs a mythological theme in the design of all the creatures. The game is decent fun but shares the same stiff animation and sort of floaty jumping from Rastan that makes some of the platforming more difficult than it should be.

 

Jumping ahead a year to 1989 for Don Doko Don, which happens to be a pseudo-sequel to The Fairyland Story. Instead of an elf with magic turning enemies into cakes you play as dwarf with a mallet that smashes enemies. A smashed enemy can then be picked up and thrown at other enemies. A smashed enemy not picked up with regain its normal shape. You're able to pick up and stack multiple enemies to be thrown in a single toss thereby doing that much more damage. The game shares the simplistic environmental puzzle aspect of its predecessor.  This time they've added a slight narrative that has you moving around a map to a new section every ten stages. Each new area results in a different graphic theme and enemies. And every ten stages sees an actual boss encounter. The graphics are very cute and cartoonish and they're filled with bright and crisp colors. The music is appropriately fitting the cartoonish look. The Fairyland Story was great and Don Doko Don is that much more impressive. It's a great game.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog hit the Genesis in 1991 and featured exceptionally cool bonus stages. What does that have to do with anything you ask? Well, Cameltry came out in 1989 and it clearly was the inspiration for Sonic the Hedgehog's wonderful bonus stages. Instead of controlling a hedgehog while moving through a rotating maze trying to reach a Chaos Emeraldyou're controlling a maze trying to move a glass ball to the goal. You can rotate the maze to the left and right. You get a jump button and if you hold it you can speed up the ball. You have only a set amount of time to move the ball through the maze. Along the way through the twists and turns and other obstructions you'll find plus and minus blocks that add or take away time. The game offers four courses of varying difficulty levels. The game even has the swimming fish and flying parrots in the backgrounds that show up in Sonic the Hedgehog's bonus stages. Cameltry clearly impressed someone at Sonic Team and it's easy to see why. The game is great fun.

Taito Legends 2: Day Four.

We're still in 1988 for Raimais. The game is a little bit vehicle shooter and a little bit Pac-Man. It's an action game where you control a vehicle as you move around a maze that's filled with dots you have to collect while avoiding the other vehicles. It's not quite Pac-Man alone as you're able to collect power-ups to your vehicle along the lines of shields and lasers. These allow you to take out the other vehicles. Once you've collected all the dots in the level many doors on the outside wall of the level open allowing you to leave the current level for the next one. The game is a decent distraction at best.

The year 1988 also saw the release of Syvalion. The game is actually a pretty cool and original concept. You play as a mechanical dragon that is able to breathe fire. You have a limited amount of fire to breathe and it gradually refills over time. You can move through the maze like levels in eight directions. Your body is actually quite long and represents your health meter. Each segmented section will turn red with damage from the tail to the head. Once it hits the head it results in loss of a life. Your fire attack goes straight out and you're able to move while firing.  You have to kill enemies to get points and restore your health. You also bounce off of the maze like level walls when moving too fast which can send you careening around the level like a pinball. There are bosses to be fought on each level.

Bonze Adventure was released alongside the others in 1988. The game is a standard platformer. Run and jump and attack. The game has you playing as a monk who attacks with orbs by throwing them at your enemies. The orbs can be bounced off walls and the like. You're able to power-up these orbs so they become stronger and larger. You get a magic attack that will be based on the element represented by the color of the orb. The magic attack takes away one of the levels of power to the orb that you've built up. The game has you dealing with the dead. Everything is based on death and hell and the creatures are a representation of that. The game has seven levels with a boss at the end of each one. The game is a good distraction but never steps outside the bounds of being average.

Suikoden V -- A Clean Start.

I have put in nearly nineteen hours into Suikoden V. That's enough time to let me know just how good the graphics are. I'm very impressed with just how clean they actually are. Maybe it's due to the upscailing of PS2 games that became available a couple of PlayStation 3 updates ago. Suikoden just comes off as smooth and clean on the PlayStation 3. The character models are impressive in cutscenes, running around the world, and in battle alike. The game definitely has the traditional Suikoden art style employed. The towns, dungeons, and overworld look impressive and fit the Suikoden universe very well. A very clean design that comes off technically free of any jagged edges or other PlayStation 2 graphic issues. Everything is very smooth and polished. That's not to say that the art direction in Suikoden V is lush. It isn't a world filled to the brim with graphical extras. Everything is kept simple and it seems to be the better off for it. I'm very pleased with the graphics in Suikoden V. That still leaves the music, the combat system, and of course most importantly the story...

Taito Legends 2 -- Day Three.

Moving ahead to 1985 we find The Fairyland Story. This is an action game where you play as an elf with the power to turn your enemies into cakes. One shot from your magic wand and the enemy is transformed into a cake but it takes a little more than that to defeat them. An enemy that's been turned into a cake can reclaim their natural form after a few seconds. You can continue to shoot magic at them while they're in cake form and they'll eventually be destroyed and vanish. Or you can push the cakes off the ledges to destroy them. You can push the cakes off the ledges and on to your enemies and take them out as well. Random items with different powers like brief invincibility and the ability to shoot fire will appear. Each level has an entirely different layout.  After every six or seven levels the game advances the minimal story with cutscenes. The game has a slight action puzzle feel in figuring out how to take out the enemies due to the environmental nature of the level designs. The game is quite fun.

 

Also in 1985 from is The Legend of Kage. The game has you playing as a ninja out to save a kidnapped princess. You can swing a couple of knives around with one button and the other throws throwing stars. You jump with the stick that controls Kage's left and right movement. Kage is able to leap great distances and the playfield extends upwards more than you'd ordinarily expect. Leaping around can prove dangerous as it leaves you open to projectile attacks. You can throw the throwing stars in eight directions but not normally fast enough to stop an enemy from throwing something your way. You need to make it through a forest, a castle moat, up the castle's outer wall and through the castle itself to rescue the princess.  You'll have to do it all twice to complete the game. The game is frenetic and fun.

 

We're moving ahead to 1986 with KiKi KaiKai. The game has you playing as a priestess trying to repel all the ghosts to save seven trapped gods. The game plays out like Gauntlet without the walls. You'll scroll through the levels with two types of attacks. One has you waving a talisman around that works essentially as a sword type attack. The other is a projectile attack. You'll play through the level to a boss. The game is pretty standard stuff except for the theme of exorcising the dead. It's the only thing to really set the game apart. It's decent enough fun although you'll quickly forget it.

 

We jump all the way to 1988 with Kuri Kinton. The game is a sidescrolling brawler. We're not talking Final Fight here, we're talking on par with Kung Fu Master and Vigilante. You get jump and attack. You fight your way through an underground fortress while fighting spacemen and the like. The lowly enemies that make up the waves you'll plow through are uninspired and just there to tide you over until you reach the midbosses and round bosses. There are five of each. They're all pretty distinct fights each needing a different strategy. They're the only saving grace for this one.