NES – Little Bits of Gaming & Movies

I Have Such Sights To Show You: The Hellraiser Game We Never Got

As part of my Halloween/Hellraiser 30th anniversary celebrations, as well as doing a retrospective of every film in the franchise – I’m also taking a look at the unreleased Hellraiser game that never saw the light of day.

Now there is very little known about this game (and trust me, I’ve looked), but other sites have covered it… yet I found some rather large inaccuracies with the story – which I’ll cover later. There are no in game images to show as the game was nowhere near finished when the plug was pulled. The closest thing I found was a supposed title screen…

Please excuse the poor quality, but this was the best I could find. This image is said to be the title screen for the game which was to be released on the NES in 1990 – I have no idea if it is genuine or not, but there it is anyway. And in case you are wondering, the featured image at the very top is just a fan-made/home-brew project, not from the game itself.

Anyway, I guess I’d better cover what the Hellraiser NES game was all about first?

It was going to be a rather ambitious game that used an updated version of the Wolfenstein 3D engine to put the player into a first person viewpoint. You play a character stuck inside the infamous puzzle box, where you could manipulate it from the inside as you tried to solve the box and escape. However, solving the box would not only free you but also the Cenobites inside it. So when outside of the box, you’d then have to solve it again to defeat the Cenobites trapping them back inside.

It was being developed by a company called Color Dreams – who became quite (in)famous for creating unlicensed Nintendo games on the NES. You see, for a game to be released on a Nintendo console, the developers/publishers had to pay Nintendo a fee so the game could be officially licensed by Nintendo. But some companies didn’t want to pay that fee, so they created unlicensed Nintendo games that bypassed the 10NES lockout chip (or CIC) and released games without Nintendo’s ‘approval’… naughty, naughty.

Supposedly, Dan Lawton (one of the founders of Color Dreams) was a big Hellraiser fan and paid around $50,000 for the Hellraiser game rights. It has been reported that Lawton found that the NES could not handle the improved Wolfenstein 3D engine for the game so he asked engineer, Ron Risley to create a new type of cartridge. This ‘super cartridge’ could hold more RAM than a standard NES cartridge as well as feature a faster Z80 processor and all sorts of other gubbins that pushed its cost much higher than that of a normal NES cartridge. It would’ve been too expensive to manufacture and purchase back in 1990 (estimated around $100 for one game!), coupled with the fact it wouldn’t have been licensed by Nintendo as many retailers refused to stock those games. This is probably why the game never saw the light of day.

Of course it also could be that the game was never being developed at all and all this is just unsubstantiated rumour… But there is a problem with that theory and that problem is that there was a Hellraiser game advertised in gaming magazines of the day. Publications such as Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, and even the mighty Nintendo Power featured ads like this…

This ad boasts about the previously mentioned ‘super cartridge’ with “our advanced technology that pushed the NES further than ever before”. In fact, if you can make it out – it says something like “16-bit performance on the 8-bit Nintendo system”. It also mentions basic gameplay features such as “opening doorways to the dark-realm”, “solve puzzles of the Lament Configuration” and even the “Cenobites”.

This ad is a bit more ‘in your face’ and easier to read. “Over one million worlds”, “The largest game yet for Nintendo” and “Over one hundred demons to escape from”. Sounds impressive for a NES game – but also note the mention of the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and the Atari Lynx too? There was even a number you could’ve called to pre-order the game.

So there was most definitely a Hellraiser game being developed for the NES – but I have serious doubts that it is the game that was mentioned earlier in this very article or the same one other sites have been reporting on. This is where you guys ask “why?”. Well, I said earlier that there are some rather large inaccuracies with the whole thing and here they are.

First, who the hell (no pun intended) would honestly think that the 8-bit NES could handle the Wolfenstein 3D engine in 1990? I don’t care how ‘super’ your cartridge is. I’m no game developer, but even I could tell you that the NES just didn’t have the processing power to do FPS/3D graphics like that in 1990. When Wolfenstein 3D was released, it changed gaming, it was revolutionary and all of that was down to the game engine and just how magically impressive it was. Seriously, go and read up on just how game changing the Wolfenstein 3D engine was for the time – that’s an interesting read in itself.

One of the most advanced NES games in 1990 was Super Mario Bros. 3 and it looked like this…

That was cutting edge for the NES in 1990 and Wolfenstein 3D looked like this…

Yeah, quite a visual difference. And remember, its claimed that the Hellraiser game was using an advanced version of the Wolfenstein 3D engine too, so it would’ve looked even better!

Then there is an even bigger problem with this story. The Hellraiser game was said to be released in 1990 using an advanced version of the Wolfenstein 3D engine… Wolfenstein 3D wasn’t released until 1992. So how could the 1990 Hellraiser game be using a game engine that simply did not yet exist, never mind a more advanced version of it? Something just does not add up here does it?

There’s got to be some confusion with this whole story. There was a Hellraiser game being developed by Color Dreams – the magazine ads prove as much, but there is no way it was one using the Wolfenstein 3D engine because it didn’t exist in 1990 when the game was said to be released. Unless developer Color Dreams had access to a time machine – its just not possible.

Now there are various Hellraiser NES roms that can be found on the interwebs and even YouTube videos claiming to be this unreleased NES game, but none of them are genuine and are most probably fan-made efforts and mods. That is because the Hellraiser game being developed by Color Dreams was not even close to being completed when it was dropped. You see, I found a more accurate quote from Dan Lawton about the game.

“The hardware was done, and the artwork was 20% done, there was no programming. It was a 45 degree down angle view, with a maze of stone and walls and pits”.

There was no programming for the game itself, just some artwork for the graphics (maybe that previous title screen?) and the hardware for the ‘super cartridge’… there was no actual Hellraiser game as there was no programming done. So all the roms you may find and the YouTube videos of the game are not genuine at all. Also note Lawton’s description of the game, particularly the viewpoint? “A 45 degree down angle view” or to put it more simply, an isometric view… which is something the NES could definitely handle.

If you were to do an interwebs search for ‘unreleased Hellraiser NES game’, you’ll find several articles and even YouTube videos reporting exactly what I stated above. That there was a NES Hellraiser game being developed by Color Dreams for a 1990 release that used an advanced version of the Wolfenstein 3D engine. So to finish up, where did this whole Wolfenstein 3D engine powered Hellraiser game for the NES in 1990 come from?

Well I think I can answer that too. You see, developer Color Dreams went through various name changes through the 90s. From being named Color Dreams, they then formed Bunch Games and in 1991, they changed their name to Wisdom Tree and under this name, they developed and published numerous religious/bible based games. They even hold the distinction of making the only unlicensed SNES game to ever be released. And it is this game where I think the rumour of a Wolfenstein 3D engine powered Hellraiser game started…

Super Noah’s Ark 3D – or Super 3D Noah’s Ark as many places erroneously call it was that unlicensed SNES game I mentioned before and for those not in the know, it was basically a Wolfenstein 3D rip-off given a biblical graphical makeover…

Just like Wolfenstein 3D, Super Noah’s Ark 3D was also a FPS game, they both had a similar ‘chapter’ level set up, they both have the same/similar HUD design just with different graphics. For all intents and purposes – they are the exact same game just with different graphics and story, they even feature some of the exact same map designs. Oh yeah, and they are both powered by an advanced version of the Wolfenstein 3D engine.

Rumour has it that id Software who developed Wolfenstein 3D were so annoyed at the censorship Nintendo forced on the SNES version of the game that they willingly gave Wisdom Tree the source code for Wolfenstein 3D for them to purposely make an unofficial/unlicensed clone to mock Nintendo. But then I’ve also found articles that state Wisdom Tree simply purchased the license to use the Wolfenstein 3D engine from id Software. I’ll let you chose which of those two you believe.

Anyway, I think what we have here is a case of crossed wires and unsubstantiated rumours. There was a Hellraiser game being developed for the NES in 1990 – but there is no way it was being built around the then non-existent Wolfenstein 3D engine. The Hellraiser game from 1990 was going to be an isometric puzzle game and not a 3D FPS. I also think the whole Hellraiser game using the Wolfenstein 3D engine came from some misinformation given out by a rather famous and popular internet reviewer, who – when they covered Super Noah’s Ark 3D stated that the game started out as a Hellraiser game, then things just escalated from there.

At least let me put it this way: I have only found slight information that the game was going to be an isometric puzzle game to be released in 1990. Yet I found nothing suggesting that a Hellraiser game using the Wolfenstein 3D engine was ever in development.

So there you have it, the unreleased/unfinished Hellraiser game. Hopefully, I’ve cleared the air a little over exactly what this game was going to be and what it never was.

If you haven’t already – please check out my Hellraiser movie retrospective as part of my Halloween/Hellraiser 30th anniversary celebrations.

7 Of Nintendo’s Worst Ideas

LBoG: Editorials

Nintendo’s latest console – Switch is only a little over 24 hours away from launch (unless you are reading this later and then its most probably already released). Now I’ve not owned a Nintendo machine since the GameCube as the Wii and Wii U just didn’t appeal to me. But I really do like the look of the Switch – yet I’m in no rush to get one as the launch of a new console by anyone is always a disappointment. I prefer to wait it out a while for the hype and crowds to die down and get one further down the line, which is my plan for this new-fangled Switch appliance.

Still, with the release of Nintendo’s new console imminent, I got to thinking about some of the big N’s other products and while they have had some majorly successful products hit the market over the years – they have also had some embarrassing failures too.

Nintendo are often held in high respect when it comes to gaming, mainly due to their gold ‘Seal Of Quality’ that got plastered onto anything Nintendo back in the 80s and 90s. Nintendo can also be credited with creating the modern game controller with their SNES gamepad.

I mean – just look at that thing. The face button layout, the curving/comfy shape, the shoulder buttons, etc. Now look at your PS4/Xbox One pad. Notice any similarities?

The runaway success of their handheld console, the Game Boy and its many brethren is a sales marvel and its record smashing sales of the Wii are legendary. However, not everything Nintendo touched was turned to gold and here I’d like to take a look at some of Nintendo’s biggest FUBARs over the years.

1. Nintendo’s Headache Machine

May as well start with one of their biggest failures, their red devil – the Virtual Boy.

Oh boy, what an unmitigated disaster. Today’s gaming industry is seemingly obsessed with VR gaming. Yet Nintendo were already doing just that in June 1995 when the Virtaul Boy was first released in Japan – it was then discontinued in December of that same year. It had a slightly longer life in the US with a release date of August 1995 to March 1996. But why did it fail?

Well mainly as the games looked a lot like that. There were not exactly virtual reality that people were expecting. There were more like 3D games that used depth and perceptive than virtual reality. Not only that – but the games were bland and uninspired with a total of only 22 games ever being released over the console’s short life. Then it was being marketed as portable console, yet having one of those red abominations strapped to your head was anything but portable. Plus people that used it soon complained about feeling sick and suffering from terrible headaches.

2. Now You’re Playing With Power

As Lucas from The Wizard may say “I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.”

Well he was right, the Power Glove was bad… so very, very bad. Released in 1989 and discontinued in 1990 The Power Glove was a disaster and yet amazingly innovative at the same time. To be fair, the Power Glove was one of the first ever peripherals to toy with motion controls but it suffered from a major problem – it just didn’t work, at least not properly. The following official commercial shows some pretty impressive and responsive controls…

But that ad couldn’t be further from the truth. The Power Glove was far from responsive and would hardly work as your on screen character would do anything except what you actually wanted them to do. Just try to get Mario to run right and jump on Koopas in Super Mario Bros. Or try to knock out Glass Joe in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! while using the Power Glove – good luck with that. The Power Glove was a great idea and motion controls did get better over the years, but this effort just didn’t work well enough hence its 1 year lifespan.

3. The Robotic Operating Buddy

Don’t have any friends to play NES games with? No problem as R.O.B. is here.

Released in Japan and America in 1985. Yet another Nintendo accessory with a very short life, most probably as only 2 games were ever relased that R.O.B. could play – and those games were terrible. The 2 games were Gyromite and Stack-Up. R.O.B. was created in an attempt to try to make gaming ‘different’ after the infamous game crash of 1983. R.O.B. would react to optical flashes on the screen in a similar way to how the light-gun (NES Zapper) would work. R.O.B.’s interaction changed depending on which of the 2 games were being played. It all sounded quite innovative and unique but R.O.B. was a complete joke, just ask this Angry Video Game Nerd fella right here…

Mr James Rolfe can explain what was wrong with R.O.B. with his AVGN character far better in his video than I can do here. But despite the huge failure that was R.O.B. – the little robot is still much loved among Nintendo fans and even by Nintendo themselves as he has made several cameo appearances in other games such as; StarTropics, Kirby’s Dream Land 3, Pikmin 2, Viewtiful Joe, F-Zero GX, the WarioWare series, the Star Fox series, Mario Kart DS and the Super Smash Bros. franchise.

4. The Times They Are A-Changing

Nintendo often lead the gaming market and pushed innovation – sometimes they just lagged behind the competition.

The mid 90s saw a big change in gaming for two reasons.

3D graphics in gaming were on the rise.
Optical media was the future.

Nintendo’s new console, the Nintendo 64, released in 1996 embraced one of those things but pushed aside the other. In 1994, Sony unleashed onto the market their very first gaming console – the PlayStation and the machine was a runaway success, it was the forerunner for the 3D graphics gaming revolution that was going on a the time. The days of 2D sprites were dying out and 3D polygons were the wave of the future. While Nintendo embraced the polygon age, they really messed up by refusing to switch to optical media and sticking with their tried and tested cartridges.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the Nintendo 64 and the console had some of the best games ever made; Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and GoldenEye 007 to name just a few of the many, many highlights of the glorious Nintendo 64. But Nintendo’s refusal to use the rise of CD technology simply meant that their games just couldn’t compete with what its competitors were doing at the time. The Nintendo 64 cartridges could hold a maximum of 64 MB of data, where as the CDs being used by the PlayStation could hold around 700 MB of data, So games on the PlayStation were often bigger, provided CD quality sound/music and impressive video to help push storytelling in games. If games were released on both the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 – then you’d often find that the Nintendo 64 version had content cut to fit on the cartridge. But not only were the Nintendo 64 games smaller, they were also much, much more expensive to produce too and pushed up the price of the games to the consumer.

So you’d think after that mistake Nintendo would learn their lesson for their next console, the GameCube. No, just as before they chose not to jump onto the (at the time) cutting edge DVD technology that the PlayStation 2 opted for. Instead Nintendo created their own discs with the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc. Again, while DVDs could hold much more data, and even more so when dual layer DVDs were created, the Nintendo GameCube Game Disc just could not compete. Granted – they offered faster load times, but much smaller and less detailed games overall.

5. The Wii Was A Success, But The Wii U?

There is no arguing the sales of the super successful Wii. Over 100 million sales worldwide!

Yep, Nintendo’s Wii console is the 3rd best selling home gaming console of all time. With Sony’s PlayStation and PlayStation 2 taking the number 2 and 1 spots respectively. The Wii may not have been as powerful as its competition (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) but what it lacked in power – it made up for in worldwide demographic attraction. Its rivals may have been catering for ‘hardcore gamers’, but the Wii went after the casual gaming market and the console found its way under millions of millions of TVs around the world from young children to pensioners. So what went wrong with the Wii U?

First, lets put things into perspective. The Wii sold over 100 million units. How many did the Wii U sell? Around 13 million. The Wii U is Nintendo’s worst selling home console to date. So what went wrong?

The advertising campaign hardly helped as it was never made clear that the Wii U was an all new console and instead came across as a simple add-on peripheral for the Wii and the similar name didn’t help either.
Lack of third party support. A lot of big name game developers just didn’t release any games for the Wii U and Nintendo didn’t seem to try to get third party support either.
No Zelda or Metroid. Two of Nintendo’s biggest franchises and there never was a Wii U exclusive for either of them. Yes there were ports of games from the Wii, but no Wii U specifically developed Zelda or Metroid.
Short life span. Its only been a little over 4 years since the release of the Wii U and the Switch. Nintendo seemingly abandoned the Wii U because they knew it was failing. So never mind third party support, it didn’t even have first party support.
Terrible launch games. Not that there were no good launch games, more a fact that there were very few good titles. Just Dance 4, Sing Party, Funky Barn, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013. These are launch titles?
The Wii U GamePad was a nice idea… but too many games forced its usage onto games and would often have you trying to look at 2 different screens at the same time. For some games it worked, but for many it just didn’t. Star Fox Zero anyone? The Wii U GamePad just became an unwanted gimmick.

6. Nintendo Used To Be (Word Removed For ‘Reasons’)

Now, Nintendo US and Europe seem to be embracing the adult gamer – but it wasn’t always like that.

It was the NES and SNES era when Nintendo went a little over the top with the censorship, but it still occurs today. But before I get to the modern era, lets take a look at some of the cases where Nintendo edited and cut content from games.

They would change crosses in the Japanese versions of games into anything but a cross (see above) for the other versions and the example above is only one of dozens. Blood would be cut from games like Final Fight and Mortal Kombat. ‘Naked’ statues from Super Castlevania IV in the Japnese version are clothed in other versions. Even simple words like Chun Li’s ending from Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition where some males refer to her as being ‘hot’ in the arcade is changed to them saying she is ‘cool’ in the SNES port – because claiming someone is ‘hot’ is too sexy I guess? Ayla from Chrono Trigger on the SNES implies she likes both males and females and is bisexual in the Japanese version – but in the US version, her lines are changed and even cut completely to remove any reference to this fact. She even has a line removed where she claims that feeding young children milk makes them strong in the Japanese version, because that implies breasts.

While Nintendo have relaxed their censorship over the years and are even allowing pretty damn sexy and more violent games on their consoles. I mean Bayonetta 2 was a Wii U exclusive. They are still editing, cutting and altering gaming content now. With games like; Fire Emblem Awakening, Bravely Default, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water just to name a few that have been censored in various ways from the Japanese versions for the US and European regions and there are many, many more examples of Nintendo’s censorship over the years too.

Nintendo have censored any and everything from religious imagery, pixels of blood and even basic/inoffensive wording. If you would like to read up a bit more of some of Nintendo’s censorship over the years, please check out this article from tanookisite.com.

7. Creating Their Own Downfall.

Nintendo have done some stupid things in the past – but creating their own biggest rival is probably the worst.

I think that Nintendo’s SNES may very well be my all time favourite game console. Oh the memories I have of this beauty and the hours up on hours of time I spent playing some of the best games of my teenage years. Earthbound, F-Zero, Super Castlevania IV, Star Fox, Super Metroid, Super Mario World, The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past. I could go on and on. The SNES was an amazing machine with one of the greatest library of games to ever exist.

But the very worst thing (or best depending on your point of view) that Nintendo ever did was help to create what would become their very own main rival. The early 90’s saw the rise of CD-ROM based technology in gaming. SEGA had released the SEGA CD in 1991 to update their main console at the time, the SEGA Mega Drive and Nintendo wanted to try the same for their SNES console. So Nintendo hired two companies to help develop a CD based add on for their console – these companies were Philips and Sony. Nintendo did not tell either company they were also working with someone else on the idea. In June 1991 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sony revealed a SNES with a built-in CD-ROM drive and this coming together was called the Play Station (with a space).

The next day after the CES reveal, Nintendo broke its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Philips instead. Unbeknown to Nintendo at the time, they just inadvertently created their main rival for the next generation of gaming.

Sony were so annoyed by this backstabbing from Nintendo that they took everything they had learned and developed with the SNES CD/Play Station, founded Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and made their own console – the Sony PlayStation (no space). Released in 1994 and it went on to become one of the most popular consoles of all time. The PlayStation outsold Nintendo’s next machine – the Nintendo 64, and marked the decline of Nintendo from that point onward as they went from market leaders to playing second fiddle to Sony’s runaway success. So much so that even after all these years, Nintendo are still lagging behind Sony’s PlayStation brand.

So there you have it. 7 times where Nintendo probably were not thinking straight and gave us gamers more than a handful of failures and there are plenty more I haven’t even mentioned.

I really do hope that Nintendo’s Switch is a success and gets the brand back on top where they belong. But have they actually learned anything from their failures over the years? They do seem to be repeating some of the same mistakes – no Blu-ray media here and instead Nintendo are going back to cartridge based games which are much smaller data-wise and more expensive to produce (hence more expensive games), very gimmick based like the Wii U before it, etc.

The Street Fighter legacy, part II

LBoG: Retrospectives

So three games in. The original, one unofficial sequel and one official sequel that ended up becoming a separate franchise and yet still no Street Fighter II.
Capcom next release a new Street Fighter game that is set in the future…well it was the future when it was originally released, now its the past.

Street Fighter 2010: Released for the NES in 1990, developed and published by Capcom. This “sequel” was another attempt at doing something different with Street Fighter, unlike the previous Street Fighter 89/Final Fight…this one was not as successful.

The game was known as Street Fighter 2010 in Japan but named Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight (may as well make two tenuous links to other Capcom games for the price of one) for the American and European release. This one really has pretty much nothing to do with the Street Fighter franchise at all and opts for a scrolling/action/platform style more akin to Strider over the beat em’ up, one on one fighting games Street Fighter is known for. Even more so, the English translation changed the name of the main character to Ken and even adapted his back story to attempt to tie this all into the Street Fighter series, where as the original Japanese release had the main character named Kevin.

You play as Ken supposedly from the original Street Fighter game who has since retired from his martial arts career after winning the tournament and has become a scientist…because, why not? Ken has developed a new substance called “Cyboplasm” which provides superhuman strength to any living organism. Ken’s lab partner, Troy is murdered and the Cyboplasm is stolen. Ken sets out to bring Troy’s killer to justice and to get back his Cyboplasm.
Yes that really is the plot to a Street Fighter game.

The objective is to defeat a designated target on each level, sometimes more than one target per level, before you can move onto the next stage. Ken can jump, climb walls, back flip as well as shoot his energy projectile weapon which can be upgraded by finding power ups in the levels…and yes, this is still a Street Fighter game we are talking about here.

The game is a pretty average action/platformer…but it really has nothing to do with Street Fighter. Even if we forget about the English localisation tenuous links to try to tie this into the existing Street Fighter series. The original Japanese version is still titled; Street Fighter 2010, so Capcom clearly wanted it to be considered a bona fide Street Fighter game anyway…and its really not.

Well after all of that mess, can we finally get a genuine and authentic sequel to Street Fighter?

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior: Eventually, in 1991, Capcom did release the REAL sequel to Street Fighter into arcades. Though most people just call it Street Fighter II, its full official title is; Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.

This one was much more like the original game, but with a whole lot on new features thrown in. Instead of only having old rivals Ryu or Ken as playable characters, Street Fighter II added a total of eight playable characters. Back are the original Ryu and Ken but joining them on this world tour of fighting was; sumo wrestler E. Honda (Japan), beast-like mutant Blanka (Brazil), former USAF special forces operative Guile (USA), Interpol officer Chun-Li (China), pro wrestler Zangief (Russia) and finally yoga master Dhalsim (India). Other updates and iterations added more characters later.

What was amazing about this game and elevated above everything else in the arcades at the time was the fact each character was unique with their own back stories, move sets and special moves. Each of the eight fighters had their own personal reasons for taking part in this fighting tournament and all eight had their own endings to the game too.

But there was more then just the playable eight fighters as the game also had four boss fights, though you could only fight against these bosses and not actually play as them…yet. We had; professional boxer Balrog (USA), bullfighter Vega (Spain), kick boxer and original boss from the first game Sagat (Thailand) and mysterious evil dictator M. Bison (???).

I suppose now would be a good time to bring up the name changes. In the original Japanese version, the bosses names are different. M. Bison was called Vega, Vega was originally Balrog and Balrog was named M. Bison. Part of the reason for the name change was due to the fact that the American boxer looked VERY much like Mike Tyson and having him called M. Bison (the M even stood for Mike) was thought a possible legal issue. So they swapped the names around for the English versions.

Street Fighter II exploded and rightly became a worldwide smash hit. It revolutionised the tournament fighter genre of gaming forever and its influence is still found in any one on one beat em’ up today. The game was ported to pretty much every home machine between 1992 up to today. Every home computer/console from the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 to the Super Nintendo, Mega Drive, even the Game Boy right up to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 had some version of Street Fighter II made available. This game was everywhere and still much loved today.

But Capcom didn’t follow up Street Fighter II’s success with an immediate sequel, oh no. Instead they churned out updates and alterations on the main game with; Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, Super Street Fighter II Turbo and finally Hyper Street Fighter II and I’m pretty sure I’m still missing a few other versions thee too. These updates offered various new gameplay options such as new special moves, new costume colours, increased speed, the ability to play as the four bosses, new battle modes and even all new playable characters.

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers added four all new characters to join the original 12 (the eight standard and the four bosses), the new characters were; indigenous warrior T Hawk (Mexico), special forces agent Cammy (England), Hong Kong movie star Fei Long (China) and kick boxing musician Dee Jay (Jamaica). Just as with the previous characters, they each had their own moves, back stories and endings.

But those new versions up there ^^^ were only the officially relased ones by Capcom as there was a slew of unofficial/bootleg ROM chip upgrades made by fans that also found their way into the arcades…but I’m not going to cover all of those here. Just how many official and unofficial versions of Street Fighter II there are, I’m not 100% sure on, but its a lot.

Oh, by the way. Let it be known here that this trend of releasing multiple updates and alternate versions of the same game becomes a running trend with Street Fighter from this point on.

Street Fighter II is also where the crossovers to Final Fight began. Interesting titbit coming up…

That image is from the introduction to the original Street Fighter II arcade. Recognise the blonde fella?

Its actually Cody from Final Fight.
But that is not all as Zangief’s wresting moves and even build as a character is very similar to Mike Hagar from Final fight. In fact, part of Zangief’s history is said to be connected to Hagar’s as they were old friends and former wrestling partners.

But I could sit here and yak on about Street Fighter II all day (did you know a bug discovered in early game testing resulting in developing a combo system which is now common place in these games?), I could probably even write its own separate in depth article. But I have a lot of games to cover and need to move on.

So as we leave Street Fighter II behind, Capcom must have Street Fighter III next…right? Nah of course not, this is Capcom we are talking about here.

Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams: Also known as; Street Fighter: Zero. This is the start of a whole new series within the Street Fighter franchise. Developed and published by Capcom, released into arcades in 1995. Street Fighter Alpha/Zero is set after the original Street Fighter but before the events of Street Fighter II. So I guess its a sequel and prequel?

Maintaining the style perfected by Street Fighter II and throwing in a load of new features along the way. Adding a three level super combo system, counter attacking technique, air blocking and chain combos along with various other refinements. Characters include Street Fighter staples; Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Sagat and M. Bison but new to the roster are; Birdie, Guy (from Final Fight), Sodom (also from Final Fight), Charlie and Rose. Then there is the addition of Akuma and Dan as hidden characters that can be accessed by meeting certain requirements while playing or imputing a specific code.

Just as with Street Fighter II previously, Alpha/Zero was ported to various home machines at the time; Game Boy Colour, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Sega Saturn and Windows all had their versions. Alpha/Zero also spawned its own franchise (within an already existing franchise) and had two sequels. These sequels added more refinements and even more characters including some Street Fighter II and Final Fight favourites taking the count to over 40 characters in total.

I feel its time to move on and end part II right here. But there is a lot more Street Fighter action coming up in part III where we may actually get to see Street Fighter III…after a few more other games series within the same series…

Man Of Steel, Part I

LBoG: Retrospectives

With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice relased in a few days and the fact I did a multi part retrospective look back at Batman in gaming last year. Starting with the very first official Batman game right up to the release of Batman: Arkham Knight.
I think now would be a good time to give Superman the same treatment and take a look at The Last Son Of Krypton in gaming over the years.

Now, I said in my Batman retrospective that The Dark Knight has been pretty well represented in gaming. Yeah he has been in some terrible games, but he has also had some good and even amazing games too.
Has Superman been as well represented as his DC brother in games?

Same rules as the Batman retrospective. I’ll not cover every Superman game and only the ones I have played and remember. Plus I am sticking to games where Superman is the star and main character and not ones where he is featured in a cameo or secondary character.

Lets start at the very beginning with the first ever Superman game and the first one I ever played.

Superman: Released in 1979 for the Atari 2600. This was the very first ever official Superman game relased. The game has you playing as Clark Kent/Superman trying to repair a bridge destroyed by Lex Luthor…we had very simple plots for games back then.

Playing as Clark, you would have to find a telephone box to change into Superman. Then you could use Superman’s flying power to explore the small and very simple play area. While trying to round up Lex Luthor and his henchmen and having to take them to jail. Kryptonite could be found is some areas and you would have to avoid it, it you did come in contact with any Kryptonite then Superman would lose flying powers and you would have to find Lois Lane who you could kiss and get your powers back.

The aim of the game was to find all pieces of the destroyed bridge, capture Lex and his minions and return to the Daily Planet in the fastest time possible. In fact, the game could be “completed” in just over 1 minute…

And people complain games are too short today?

Interesting tit bit. This game was one of the first (if not the first) games to feature a pause option. Something we take for granted nowadays but unheard of back then. However the pause option had a bug as you could pause the game and the game could be completed without having to fix the bridge or capture Lex and his men.
Using this bug, you could finish the game in literal seconds.
It also featured a strange two player co-op where one person would control Superman with one controller and able to move Superman left and right, while the second player would move him up and down with another controller.

Superman was a very well received game back then and praised for its unique gameplay and (at the time) great graphics.
I have many fond memories of me and my brothers playing this one a lot back then. It was one of the first games to feature and actual goal and and end as most games back then were just about getting a high score.

Next up, Kal-El makes an appearance on one of the most popular computers of the 80s.

Superman: The Game: Developed by First Star Software in 1985 for the Commodore 64 and later ported to the Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, Atari 400/800/XL/XE, BBC Micro, Commodore 16/Plus/4 and ZX Spectrum.
This game was designed for 2 players at the same time or 1 player and 1 computer controlled. One player would control Superman and the other (or computer) would play as Darkseid.

The game was set over six sections, three in Metropolis and three set underground. The aim of the game was to collect diamonds and rescue/kidnap citizens all while fighting off either Superman or Darkseid, depending on who you were playing as. There were barriers on each of the levels that could be adjusted to change the direction the citizens would walk in as well as effect the direction Superman’s heat vision or Darkseid’s omega ray. When hit, Superman/Darkseid would lose energy. Lose all your energy and it was game over.
Superman could pick up and carry the citizens while Darkseid could teleport them. One you saved/kidnapped the citizens and collected the diamond, you could move onto the next section. Between each section there were what were called “combat zones”. These areas were kind of mini games. If the player who chose to leave the previous section wins one of these combat zones, the game moves on to their chosen section. If they lose, play returns to the previous section.

The game is completed when there are no more citizens left to save/kidnap or when Superman/Darkseid have no more energy left and the winner is whoever saved/kidnapped the most citizens.

Superman: The Game was an interesting concept as you could play as a villain against another human player in a competitive game mode. The game play itself however was a little dull and repetitive overall and really didn’t offer too much to keep you playing. The six different sections were not that different and the same task of rescuing/kidnapping people became tiresome. The combat zone mini games offered a lot more variety however from simply exchanging hits until one loses, to Superman having to use his super breath to blow projectiles back at Darkseid. Then there was a side scrolling one where Superman would have to activate various traps to harm Darkseid while being shot at and one where Darkseid would try to bomb Metropolis while Superman had to defend it.

Now, Superman makes his début on the NES/Famicom.

Superman: Released of the Famicom in 1987 and then on the NES in 1988. Developed by Kotobuki Systems. This one was loosely…very loosely based on the first two Superman movies.
Using a side scrolling platform concept and even a few puzzle elements thrown in too. Interesting to note that the US/European version featured all new music where as the Japanese version used a synthesized rendition of the classic John Williams Superman theme tune.

Playing as Clark Kent/Superman you are tasked with saving Metropolis from Lex Luthor as well as Zod and his gang. Superman was armed with various powers including; x-ray vision, flight, super spin, heat vision and super breath.
You start out as Clark Kent and have to build your super power before you can change into Superman via a phone booth. If you took too much damage from enemies as Superman, you would turn back into Clark Kent.
The main game play revolved around you taking out various henchmen and helping people that would need it which you could see via the map screen.
The game was split into different chapters with each chapter ending with a boss fight against Lex Luthor and even the exiled criminals from Krypton; Ursa, Non and General Zod himself.

This one met with very mixed reviews and nothing really praising the game at all. It was rather bland to be honest with a lot of back tracking and exploring pointless areas just to have people say mundane and inane things to you. There is even a part where Superman has to get a ticket to ride the subway…why would Superman even need to use the subway when he can fly and even more so, who would charge Superman to use the subway to begin with?
Superman for the NES was not very good at all and just bogged down with loads of filler to pad out a rather dull game, especially the bit where you get to talk to someone about the stock exchange…in a Superman game.

Well that just about does it for part I and Superman’s early appearances in gaming has been pretty poor so far, but there is more from The Kryptonian coming in part II and maybe we will see Superman in a worthy game…but I wouldn’t count on it.

Rare Replay Part III

LBoG: Retrospectives

So here we are in part III of this Rare Reply retrospective and we pick up with the Rare/Nintendo partnership going strong from the last few titles. But can they maintain that momentum and bring us another NES classic?

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll: Released for the NES in 1990 by Rare. An action/platformer game using that tired and tested isometric view…again. The game was later ported to the Mega Drive in 1993.

A single or two player game featuring two snakes named; Rattle and Roll. The object of each level is to eat enough “Nibbley Pibbleys” as the game calls them, small round creatures found throughout each level. As you eat, you snake grows (titter) with the idea being that you gain enough weight to jump on and ring a bell at the end of the level that will open the door you need to progress.
Your snakes length increases more (who came up with the idea for this game, was it one of the Carry On team?) when they eat “Nibbley Pibbleys” of their own colour, and they grow even more when they eat the rarer yellow ones.
Each level have one or more dispenser which will randomly spew out the “Nibbley Pibbleys”. However, they can also randomly spew out bombs which can damage the snakes, so you can’t go around eating everything.

You snake growing works as a kind of health bar as each segment on your snake equates to one hit from an enemy, too many hits and you’ll lose all your segments and eventually lose a life.
You can also lose a life if your snakes fall too far of a distance from a platform, if the timer runs out, if you touch a sharp object, or even if you get squashed by an object from above.
Also of note, if you stay in water for too long, a shark will attack and a parody of the Jaws theme will play.

Enemies can be defeated by hitting them with your snake tongue or by jumping on them Mario style.
Throughout the levels are various items; to extend the length of your snakes tongue, give extra lives, extend the time limit and even items that will speed up or reverse the direction of your snake.

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll received positive reviews and praise. American video gaming magazine Game Players awarded Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll the “Game Player’s NES Excellence Award” for 1990 as one of the best games released for the NES that year.
Nintendo Power praised the game for its precise controls and for its blend of puzzle and action elements.

Next up sees the return of Ultimate/Rare’s original gaming hero.

Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship Returning for the third outing in the Jetman series, developed by Rare for the NES and relased in 1990. Interesting note: early covers misspell the title: Hunt for the Golden Warship instead of the correct Warpship.

A game similar in style to the arcade classic Thrust or Atari’s Lunar Lander. With the player’s ship is subject to inertia, so to stop moving in one direction it needs to thrust in the opposite way and also deal with the constant pull of gravity at the same time.

Solar Jetman has twelve planets and one hidden planet as its levels. Each planet has its own system of winding and maze like caverns full of various enemy types.
The goal of the game is to navigate these maze like caverns via the use of a small jetpod, which is launched from an immobile mothership. On each world, you must bring a piece of the warpship to the mothership and also enough fuel to journey to the next planet. Items are collected with a tow cable which makes the flight control even more difficult as you are now dealing with extra weight on top of the inertia and gravity.
Points are earned by retrieving valuables and items as well as destroying the various enemies you’ll encounter. Those points can then be spent after every other level to buy power-ups. If a jetpod is destroyed, then Jetman ejects in an agile but feeble and poorly armoured spacesuit. But you can return to the mothership for another jetpod.

Solar Jetman met with average reviews and as a result, average sales too. So much so that other planned ports were pulled.

The original Ultimate gaming hero, Jetman is left behind as we are introduced to a new kid on the “block”.

Digger T. Rock: Legend of the Lost City: Developed by Rare in 1990 for the NES and relased by Milton Bradley Company. Digger T. Rock was a change of pace and a new idea from Rare.

With you controlling the titular character of Digger T. Rock exploring caverns for hidden treasure an ultimately The Lost City using a similar game-play mechanic to Boulderdash.
The game is divided into 8 separate caverns all of which must be explored while avoiding enemies, cave-in’s, and fatal plunges. Digger can use multiple tools, such as his standard shovel to dig tunnels and explore more of the cavern as well as climb rocks and even some walls. Other equipment such as; ladders and explosives can be found and then be used to explore and uncover new areas within the caverns. Monsters such as moles and mosquitoes need to be avoided or hit with your shovel.

The goal of each cavern is to locate both the end of level door and a special pillar which unlocks the door. When the pillar is found and stepped on, this activates a countdown timer during which, the door is open. You then must must race past obstacles and enemies to the door before the timer ends and the door re-closes.
Later levels include caveman villages where the player can purchase helpful tools with your collected treasure.

Digger T. Rock was another game that met with average reviews, many reviewers noted the games strict difficulty but praised the game for its exploration.

With the last two Rare games being average at best, they needed something to revive the faith in their fans…maybe a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip off would work?

Battletoads: Released in 1991 for the NES, created by Tim and Chris Stamper. This was the first instalment to the Battletoads series and the game was later ported to several other machines.

As single or two player game with each player controlling either Rash or Zitz (yes, that is their names) on a mission to save their friend and fellow Battletoad, Pimple and Princess Angelica who have both been kidnapped by The Dark Queen.

Battletoads is a beat em’ up/platformer with a great sense of humour. The levels offer plenty of variety from simple beat em’ up sections to abseiling and even vehicle and underwater based levels.
A nice touch is how you could defeat enemies with your morphing body parts; punching/kicking with an enlarged fist or boot, head-butting with ram horns or even transform into a wrecking ball to smash the bad guys.

Often cited as one of the hardest games on the NES, but still Battletoads was met with positive reviews.
Nintendo Power ranked the NES version as the 89th best game on any Nintendo platform, commenting: “The graphics created by Rare were so exceptional by any standard and the game was so challenging and fun.” GamesRadar ranked it the 18th best NES game ever made, stating that it was a fun game but its most notable element was its difficulty.
It was nominated for the 1991 Nintendo Power Awards in nine categories, winning the first place in the categories: Graphics and Sound (NES), Theme and Fun (NES), Best Play Control (NES) and Best Multi-Player or Simultaneous (NES).

We leave the weird and funny world of Battletoads…for a short while, to be greeted with a sequel to one of the better Rare/Nintendo endeavours.

R.C. Pro-Am II: The sequel to the 1988 hit R.C. Pro-Am. Released in 1992 for the NES, developed by Rare. This one offered a more refined and enjoyable experience over the first game.

R.C. Pro-Am II is very much more of the same, but offers many refinements over R.C. Pro-Am.
Four vehicles compete against each other on a series of 24 different and varying tracks: eight standard racetracks, eight cityscape tracks, and eight off-road tracks. In single-player mode, the player races against three CPU controlled opponents. The game also offers a multi-player mode in which up to four human players can race against each other simultaneously.
Before each race starts, players can use money earned from previous races to buy vehicle upgrades and weapons. These can then be used against other competitors. Upgrades and weapons include: motors for increased speed, tires for better turning and traction, missiles, bombs, and freeze beams to hinder your opponents racing and buckshots which will steal opponents cash.

Also returning are the track hazards like; water, oil, bombs, mud, ice, and even bomb-dropping aircraft that will slow the players speed. The game includes two types of bonus stages that award race points and cash. Scattered around the tracks are letters that spell “PRO AM II”, if you can collect all of the letters you’ll receive a new and faster vehicle with tighter controls.

R.C. Pro-Am II was named Nintendo Power‍‍‍s best NES game of 1993. Official Nintendo Magazine praised the game overall and its multi-player in particular. Nintendo Power praised the game’s controls and upgrade options, which made the game strategic, but the magazine criticized the difficulty as unfair.

Well we are at the halfway mark, 15 games in and 15 games left in the Rare Replay collection. In part IV we see the return of the Battletoads and we enter the N64 era of the Rare/Nintendo double act as well as see out the end of the century.

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