Video Game Blog 048: Retro Corner #4

Welcome back to the Retro Corner, where I explore the vast library of games I’ve acquired for the Duo-R system! There’s a lot of fun to be had going back in time, exploring older games that I missed when I was younger. Below are the previous entries into this series:

So far I’ve covered eight games. This time I have three more for you, and one is a sequel to a game we looked at last time. The other two are games I came across during my research for the previous post. They seemed interesting, so I tracked them down. Let’s take a look!

Cross Wiber - Cyber Combat Police is the sequel to Cyber Cross. (See the previous installment of Retro Corner for more.) It was released for the PC Engine in 1990 by Face Corporation. Like its predecessor, this game is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up featuring a transforming hero. However, this one also includes side-scrolling shooter levels. There are 13 levels in all.

First Impressions: I went into this knowing pretty much what to expect since it’s a sequel. I could tell right away that the graphics were slightly better and the hero’s sprite was a bit smaller. Otherwise it felt much like the same game.

The mechanics of the game are simple. You walk from left to right, scrolling the stage as you go, kicking and punching the similar enemies that appear. Some stages take place on a hover bike equipped with guns. It auto scrolls in these parts, and you can move freely about the screen.

Just as with the previous game, defeating the enemies becomes easier after transforming. When you gather enough of the power-up capsules that float by, you can transform into one of three different forms. The red guy has a sword.

Blue guy and green guy. (Credit: Face Corporation)

The other two transformations I saw were the blue guy, who has a gun, and the green guy, with his trusty boomerang. If there are any others, I didn’t encounter them.

I want a hover bike with a gun. (Credit: Face Corporation)

Graphics: Although the graphics were noticeably improved from the first game, it was only by a small margin. There isn’t much variety in the enemies or backgrounds. Everything blurs together rather quickly.

Music & SFX: The music is repetitive but energetic. Classic retro soundtrack and sound effects.

Gameplay: This is the sort of side-scrolling beat ‘em up I was expecting. The hoverbike levels added some much-needed variety. I did have trouble figuring out how to transform until I finally thought to hit the select button. It wasn’t intuitive at all.

Challenge: The difficulty seemed a bit higher to me than it was in the first game, but I could just be out of practice. Some enemies are difficult to dodge and they attack in groups. Your health bar is long enough and they give out enough power-ups to keep you alive, so it’s not too difficult. I got to Chapter 6 without too much trouble.

Thoughts: Not much to say here. It’s basically a clone of the first game with some tweaks. I liked the transformation aspect, but I didn’t feel like they added too much aside from the weapons. The gun and boomerang provided range and the sword gave reach. The hoverbike level I made it to was fun. The boss battles were underwhelming. I didn’t bother reading the story in the intro and didn’t feel much compelled to keep playing to see all the bosses. Although I may come back to this game at some point in the future, I don’t see myself playing it much more. I had fun with it, but ultimately it was too much like the original to set itself apart.

Gekibo: Gekisha Boy came out for the PC Engine in 1992. Also known as Polaroid Pete, this game tells the story of an enterprising young photographer named David Goldman who, suffering from personal tragedy, works to complete a special test to take 8 unique photos for the Dean of his college in order to graduate.

First Impressions: This game wasn’t translated, so I assumed the kid was a reporter and the bald guy was his boss. I was surprised to see cut scenes of his parent’s funeral. When I got into the actual game, I felt like the mechanics were creative but I had no idea what I was doing.

Why is the memory of his parent’s funeral making him grin like a loon? (Credit: Tomcat System)

Although I couldn’t read all the kanji, I got the gist of the story pretty easily. Take pictures, get scored, move to next level if you reach 10,000 points.

Man fall down, story on page 10. (Credit: Tomcat System)

The gameplay is pretty simple. You aim and shoot your camera, capturing photos of what’s going on around you in a chaotic scene. The screen auto scrolls and other characters pass by or hang around. Things happen at certain moments, like a girl’s skirt is blown up, someone falls down, or a car is abducted by a UFO. every picture gives you certain amounts of points. Good pictures grant you extra film.

One of the dangers you face is obstacles. Balls bounce into you, you can trip over things… taking damage in these ways costs you precious film. When you run out of film, either through hitting hazards or taking too many pictures, the stage is over. You can either jump over the obstacles or snap pictures of them to eliminate them. So I guess it’s a magic camera?

A car gets abducted. (Credit: Tomcat System)

This game, while originally for PC Engine, was ported to PlayStation and even got a sequel on that system. The games never made it to America, though. I find it interesting that the character is American and the game takes place in LA. LA apparently has a lot of Japanese Salarymen and cosplayers.

Graphics: The graphics are very goofy and cartoony. It certainly has its own style. The characters are not all in the same style and the more realistic backgrounds sometimes clash with the cartoony people.

Music & SFX: The music is silly and light-hearted. The sound effects are nothing really special, but add to the quirkiness.

Gameplay: Your character’s sprite is huge and unwieldy, making it difficult to dodge obstacles. He can jump superhigh though. Although the camera target scrolls quickly, it can still be difficult to aim and snap in time.

Challenge: A lot of the game is memorization and trial and error. Knowing when certain things happen and if they’re worth snapping, knowing when obstacles and projectiles are coming up. I was not able to pass Level 1 in my two play sessions. 10,000 points is very steep. The best I could do after several tries was 6400 points.

“I ASKED FOR PICTURES OF SPIDER-MAN!“ (Credit: Tomcat System)

Thoughts: This was a pretty weird game. It was like Pokémon Snap without the Pokémon. While the gameplay is creative and it’s not something you see often in games, I don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been. The repetitive gameplay and the steep requirement to pass each level made it feel less worth it to continue playing. Although I am curious what the other levels would look like. This game just takes too much patience and memorization for my tastes. It didn’t really hold my attention but it was memorable. I could see myself coming back to it some day, if for no other reason than to see what Stage 2 looks like.

Title Screen (Credit: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.)

J.J. & Jeff was released for the Turbografx-16 in 1987. This game is based on the Japanese TV show Kato-chan Ken-chan Gokigen TV which was a comedy skit show that also featured viewer-submitted home videos. The hosts of that show are the playable characters in this game. (Although altered for localization. More on that later.) The story is that two strange detectives take on a case to find a missing millionaire.

First Impressions: I pegged this game right away as being Hudson’s Adventure Island with different characters. (Makes sense… it was done by the same developer.) Also the one with sunglasses (Jeff?) looks like Doctor Octopus. Seriously, check out the shot below.

The deep backstory. (Credit: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.)

The game plays out its story in a brief cutscene at the start. You’re a detective, a rich guy is kidnapped, and it’s up to you to save him. You ditch your annoying partner and set out for adventure. That’s really all there is to it. Your partner follows you and you encounter him in various places as an obstacle or giving hints in the men’s room. (Seriously, the first time I came to a men’s room, Jeff was hanging out in there dressed like an angel. So weird.) I guess your strategy as a detective is to run around at random looking for the rich guy? Doesn’t seem very efficient.

Poopie. (Credit: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.)

The game has six levels with four parts each. You run through the areas, dodging enemies and try to reach the end. There is a mechanic in the game where your vitality reduces even when not hit, so you have to locate and pick up fruit to refill it. Basically a combination health bar and timer. (Just like in Adventure Island.) You can hit various spots— a light pole, a fence, sometimes empty space— to make coins or platforms appear. (Not the signs though. Those hurt for some reason.)

Ugh. (Credit: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.)

What are the coins for? Sigh. In some of the rooms there are slot machine minigames where you can spend the coins to earn… oh, I dunno. Extra lives probably? I spun it once and moved on. I’d rather keep the coins. I’ve talked before about how much I loathe slot machines in old games. (Thank Space Quest and Dragon Quest 5 for that.) You may notice that one of the icons in the slot machine is the Hudson bee.

Localization comparison. (Credit: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.)

The version I have is the localized American release, which changes the sprites from Kato and Ken to American guys and removes some of the cruder content. There is some lowbrow humor in this game, in keeping with the original source material. The bird poops on you. The spray paint can was originally the character farting, the non-player character would be urinating or defecating in the background, things like that. One notable change is that in this version you kick your partner in what looks like the leg to make them go away, where in the original it’s clearly in the family jewels.

Kick that doggo. (Credit: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.)

Graphics: The graphics are fine. The characters are designed like caricatures, with big heads and smaller bodies.

Music & SFX: The music is very mild and cheerful, but repetitive. The sound effects are typical. There is a very shrill, grating noise when low on stamina. I hated it.

Gameplay: Really, Hudson Adventure Island again. The characters skid when you stop and keep moving for awhile after you stop pressing the controls. I didn’t see any gameplay differences between the two characters.

Challenge: As a platformer, the difficulty is in timing your jumps, defeating or avoiding enemies, and knowing when to slow yourself down. Also, you have to continually pick up fruit or you’ll die. Once you have the mechanics down, it’s not too difficult. I made it to Stage 1-3 but I’m sure with more practice I could get further.

What a great friend. (Credit: Hudson Soft Company, Ltd.)

Thoughts: This was probably the better of the three games I chose this time, but that’s not saying too much. This is the one I’d be most likely to go back to some day. I liked Adventure Island just fine when I played it years ago, and this is a clone of that, so it was a little nostalgic for me. While I wouldn’t call it “laugh out loud” funny, it gave me some smiles from its quirky attitude and silliness. But I do appreciate the humor of meeting some dude in a public restroom to recover your vitality.

And now, it wouldn’t be a Retro Corner post without a nice montage of all the entertaining deaths I suffered in making this post.

Ahh, the life of a hero.

The games this time were more oddities than anything, but I had some fun with them. Cross Wiber was just like the original and JJ & Jeff wasn’t much more than an Adventure Island clone. Neither really brought much to the plate that was fresh and memorable, aside from the latter’s silliness. Gekishi Boy was the one I had the least fun with but was also the most difficult— I couldn’t get past Stage 1! With more variety in the gameplay and a different scoring scale, it could have been much better. Contrasting with the previous games I’ve covered, I don’t really see myself coming back to these three much more, if at all.

Kick that robot! (Credit: Face Corporation)

Regardless, I found some enjoyment in these old games and look forward to finding more hidden gems. I’m already compiling my selections for next time, so you can be sure this series will continue. I opened a game up at random that looked promising, but now I can’t find it again. I’ll look some more, because I really wanted to cover it.

Thank you for joining me again as I explore the twists and turns of my Duo-R retro library. These are fun posts and I hope you all are enjoying them. I’ll be back again soon with more obscure games!

Hi.

Apr 14 Video Game Blog 048: Retro Corner #4

Hi.

Apr 14 Video Game Blog 048: Retro Corner #4

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