Nov 11, 2021
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Samurai Shodown Slash
SNKP has a long history of licensing their IPs to Korean studios, so it's not surprising that Samurai Shodown would end up on smartphones in form of a free-to-play infinite runner game. But it wasn't just running alone - the franchise would have been wasted on something that, after all. That's where the "Slash" in the title came in. In addition to a range of (mostly) indestructible traps like spikes pits and salves of burning arrows, you would frequently find yourself forced to hack down opponents in order to avoid collision. Most of them were inanimate - literally just wooden sword training dummies - but there were also demons that threw projectiles at you or hopped up and down to throw you off when trying to jump over them.
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F-Zero (Part 2)
After completely dominating the market for nearly a decade, Nintendo entered a long struggle to properly get its consoles backed by third parties starting with the N64, so it was no small surprise when the Mario factory announced the Triforce, a GameCube-friendly arcade hardware developed in cooperation with former rivals Sega and Namco. As part of the deal, Nintendo borrowed a few of its prestigious franchises to the new partners. Namco co-developed Mario Kart Arcade GP, while Sega put its subsidiary Amusement Vision to the task for F-Zero. Where Mario Kart Arcade GP was a distinct game from Double Dash, the most recent console outing at the time, Amusement Vision built essentially the same game for both Triforce and GameCube.
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Magic Kid Googoo Annotated Longplay (5/7)
Magic Kid Googoo is an unlicensed, rare and (so far) undumped Famicom game that was only published in Korea. Hopefully the bad video quality here will be obsolete soon, but until we manage to arrange the game's preservation, this longplay will be the most comprehensive footage you can find. Turn on annotations for explanations about the gameplay, development background info, and more.
F-Zero (Part 1)
Even though F-Zero is part of Nintendo's long list of franchises that are only dug out from their vault for new Smash Bros. characters and trophies, it used to be one of the big names identified with Nintendo in the 16- and 64-bit days. As one of Nintendo's launch titles for the Super NES, it was a showcase of the system's capabilities as much as it was a sharply designed game, and essentially codified what people would get and expect from a futuristic racer - insane speeds, rocket engines, crazy jumps, and murderous race tracks.
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Magic Kid Googoo Annotated Longplay (4/7)
In world 4, Googoo and Sese enter a realm above the clouds - but that doesn't mean the obligatory underwater and fortress stages are missing here.
Throwback Thursday
The Ultimate History of Video Games
The Ultimate History of Video Games is a bold title for a book to carry, and as if determined to keep that promise, author Steven Kent starts his book at the very beginning - the Pinball industry. The entire first chapter is dedicated to these forefathers that paved the way for an arcade industry to blossom in their wake. Another chapter deals with those pre-industry pioneers that didn't really get the recognition they deserved until much later, Space War und Ralph Baer's Odyssey console. Then the book really kicks of with the rise of Nolan Bushnell and the founding of Atari, following the history through the crash and its revival, courtesy of Nintendo. This era is no doubt the strongest focus of the book, by the time we reach the 1990s, we're already a good 400 pages in. After that, it gets a bit more spotty. The book tells about the 16- and 32-bit console wars fueled by Sega's and Sony's ambitions, respectively, but also spends an entire chapter on Mortal Kombat, Night Trap and the debate around violence in video games. It ends a bit on a low on Sega's departure and Microsoft's entry into the industry. Those final chapters seem a bit less interesting than the rest of the book, for the sole reason that video game history had become a bit less interesting.
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Magic Kid Googoo Annotated Longplay (3/7)
Things get a little tricky in world 3, so we're resorting to use of the expensive transformation that essentially breaks the game.