5/8

Our big feature this week is an epic look through the entire 194X series from Capcom, so that’s 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 19XX, plus all the variants and offshoots for all the machines. If you like vertical shooters, then you’ve no doubt played at least one of them. In addition to this we also have part 8 of our iOS Shooter Coverage, examining Buster Red, Shoot the Magic, Lightning Fighter and Ultrablast. Our triple-whammy of blasting action finished off with Alantia, an unusual and very difficult anime-inspired Space Harrier clone for the PC-88.

If you want cute and RPG-like, we’ve got you covered with Gunple: GUNMAN’S PROOF, a fantastic but overlooked gem from Japan that now has a fan-translation. Imagine Zelda: A Link to the Past, except set in the wild west, with guns instead of swords, an adorable horse to gallop around on, plus space aliens and a focus on high-scoring. Yes, it’s that kind of awesome. There’s also a look at The Wing of Madoola, an interesting and rather obscure Famicom platformer from Sunsoft. It’s not their best title, but it spawned a number of cameo appearances, merchandising tie-ins, plus a few doujin games too. It also fills our mandatory ladies-in-metallic-bikinis quota for the week.

For our regulars there’s another Metal Gear interview, this time with Chuck Ernst, who developed the IMB port of the original NES game. He reveals some really cool trivia about Konami America, gives a definitive answer about the legendary unreleased version of Metal Gear for the Amiga, and we speak about the cancelled Akira game. In a change from our usual Your Weekly Kusoge format we’ve got an extended feature on DogDay, a curious CG-based adventure from an Australian developer which ended up released in Japan. It had a lot of potential, which was wasted with poor design, the arbitrary need to play crappy minigames to proceed, plus some truly awful puzzles.

Our spotlight of the week is Night Trap. Gamasutra recently ran a detailed feature on its development, which we link to, and we’ve also got a PDF of the Making Of article that was featured in Retro Gamer issue 63. This was made available on the original author’s website, so we have no qualms spreading it around further.

Finally, the sixth episode of Game Club 199x has been posted. For May 2012, Snarboo, Sotenga and AceWhatever discuss Landstalker, Sega/Climax's isometric Zelda-style action-RPG for the Genesis.

4/29

This week we have a look at two arcade fighting games from Psikyo, a company traditionally known for their shmups. Battle K-Road and Daraku Tenshi (aka: The Fallen Angels), aren't the greatest examples of the genre, but they've got some rather fascinating quirks (including Mr Bear!) – plus the first game goes the usual route of ripping off the likenesses of known celebrities.

For something a little more light-hearted there's a look at all the Samurai Pizza Cats games. Well, both of them. Well, the Famicom game, and an LCD handheld, anyway. It's easy, but still rather fun. For more cartoony shenanigans there's also Coryoon on PC-Engine, an excellent hori-shmup involving a cute baby dragon trying to rescue a princess. For more shmups there's also part 7 of our iOS Shooter Coverage. This week there's AirAttack, A Space Shooter For Free (or 2 bucks), A Doodle Flight, and Absolute Instant.

For something a little more sophisticated there's also Ihatovo, which may look like a typical JRPG but is actually a fascinating arthouse adventure, based on the works of renowned writer and poet Kenji Miyazawa. There's no fan-translation (yet), but this is one of the more unusual Japan-only games we've covered - it does seem rather special. Alongside this we cover THE BOOK OF WATERMARKS, an unusual Japan-only Myst-style adventure, apparently developed jointly between a western and Japanese team. It's based on a Shakespearean play and is entirely in English.

As part of our regulars we have an interview with Tomonori Otsuka, programmer on Metal Gear for the MSX. It’s part of our growing Metal Gear coverage, given that this year marks its 25th anniversary. Your Weekly Kusoge is Fear Factor Unleashed for the GBA, a series of lame minigames which attempts to replicate the TV show, but seriously - how could anyone be afraid of their videogame avatar eating bugs, inside the game? Our spotlight is Noitu Love, since the sequel was recently released on Steam. Sadly the planned WiiWare version seems dead.

4/19

The big feature this week is a look at the Rayxanber trilogy of hori-shmups. Made the by the defunct developer DataWest, the first two were awful while the third was quite excellent. Next we have some JRPG lite coverage with Dream Master on the Famicom – not to be confused with Little Nemo: Dream Master on the NES. It’s really cool and there’s a fan-translation available. Proving that we also don’t just cover classic games, there’s an exuberant examination of Go! Go! Kokopolo - Harmonious Forest Revenge, for the DSi/3DS download services. It’s a rambunctious little arcade-style game which channels a lot of classics you’ll probably recognise.

For our regular slots we have further shmup coverage for the iOS, with part 6 of our epic rundown. This it’s Hypership Out of Control, Shooting Game KARI, iStriker: Rescue & Combat, plus Boss Battles. For our Metal Gear fans there’s also a candid interview with David Hayter, the iconic voice of the English Solid Snake. This interview was conducted privately via his agent, without any input from either Konami or Sony, so what you’ve got is raw and uncut - with some fantastic anecdotes (there's a reason the guy writes film scripts - he's funny!). Your Weekly Kusoge is Vanslug, which keen-eyed readers may recognise from our Korean coverage. But a game this bad, on so many levels, deserved a second look. The spotlight article for the week is Exile, which has been overhauled in the new site style, has updated links, and we've finally solved the problem of where the alembic was in the PC88 release. It's also a really great series if you like action RPGs.

4/9

Just a small update this week, since many will be at PAX East, but well balanced between RPGs, brawlers and shmups. We’ve got a look at Lucienne’s Quest, one of the few Japanese RPGs to be released in English for the 3DO, then later ported to the Sega Saturn. It’s really simple, but that’s part of the charm. For fighting fans there’s The Crystal of Kings, a super rare arcade game for an obscure hardware board. It uses CG rendered graphics to surprisingly good effect. Our shmup quotient is Net Guardian, a fun vertical shooter for the PC98, set inside your computer and a pseudo-internet. Despite this there’s no adult material, so it’s totally safe for work.

The weeks’ regulars include more shmup coverage with our ever expanding database of iOS Shooters, this week looking at Sky Force, Sky Force Reloaded, Roswell Fighter, and Hotfield. Following on from last week’s Richard Ham interview there’s more Metal Gear/Syphon Filter coverage, as we chat with Scott Youngblood of later releases. Also, standard Your Weekly Kusoge coverage resumes with a look at Critical Path, possibly the worst designed FMV game we’ve seen – which is really saying something.

Finally, there's also Episode 5 of Game Club 199X. For April 2012, Snarboo, Sotenga and Bobinator, along with Xerxes and Discoalucard, chat a bit about King's Quest V: The Heart Grows Yonder, available for Amiga, DOS and NES. It was one of the best selling DOS games of the time and won several awards. It also features some rather obtuse puzzles! Also, join us this month for our playthrough of Landstalker on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It's a rather excellent isometric platformer/JRPG from Climax, which at one point was planned to be updated for PSP.

4/2

Our big feature this week is an comprehensive look at all things Wolfenstein. It covers both the original stealth computer games, and the bigger FPS series which shared the name. We also have a big feature on the SeaQuest DSV games - that's right, based on the TV show. Despite obscurity they're rather interesting, and we've got interview answers from three members involved with development.

In addition we have smaller pieces on Nowhere, a surprisingly creepy Mobile Phone game which disproves the notion that phones don't have any excellent games. There's also a look at hori-shmup BlaZeon, for both the arcade and its SNES port. If you've still got an urge for shmups there's our continuing look at those available on iOS. The mini-interview of the week in our ongoing Metal Gear series is with Richard Ham, the father of the Syphon Filter series. As it turns out, there were more similarities to MGS than anyone realised!

This week there's a change of plan for Your Weekly Kusoge, with an enitre article dedicated to Shaq Fu, that group of awful beat-em-ups released on several systems, which tried to combine Shaquille O'Neal with Mortal Kombat, but didn't quite work. The spotlight article is Rhythm Heaven, since the newest entry came out in North America a few weeks back for the Wii.

3/25

This week we have an expansive look at the Eternal Champions fighting games for Sega systems, including the spin-offs they received. Our main interview this week is a conversation with Wizardry creator Robert Woodhead, the first taste of what will eventually become comprehensive coverage of the entire series. Next is a short piece on Devil World, a Miyamoto game which has never officially been released in the US. For fans of the GameBoy we also have AeroStar, an interesting vertical shmup where you're restricted to moving on roads. From the same author is another shmup, Devastator, for the Japanese Mega CD. It's based on an obscure anime, but is rather quaint, especially if you like WolfTeam games. As a small bonus there's a second interview, with Masahiro Ueno, who ported Metal Gear to the Famicom/NES. It's just a short chat, but it explains changes to the opening and the final boss.

Your Weekly Kusoge is Arena, an atrociously designed maze-hunt for the Game Gear, and we also have the third update to our iOS Shooter coverage. We look at two rRootage shmups, plus PicoPicoFighters and EXEXE Rebirth. Our spotlight article for the week is Ghosts 'n' Goblins, which now mentions some of the mobile titles, and also features improved GB screens using the correct color palette.

We also have a new Copy Editor joining us, Insidious on the forums, which should ease things up for bigger updates in the weeks to come.

3/18

A slightly smaller update than usual, but hopefully this will allow us momentum to update a little more often, at least until some things settle.

Released quite recently, Katawa Shoujo is an erotic Japanese-styled western-developed visual novel about disabled girls. Seriously though, it’s actually very good, is well written and handles the subject matter with tact – the detailed write up should reflect this. Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm is a decent hori-shmup exclusive to the Sega CD, and featured in our shmup music video from a while ago. Also for shmup fans is the continuation of our iOS coverage, with Phoenix, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, Super Laser and Danmaku Unlimited. Another iOS game is Bean’s Quest, a surprisingly excellent platformer born from the control limitations of the hardware, which was just released on computer plarforms as well.

Following on from last week’s Jeremy Blaustein interview, we have an interview with Shinta Nojiri, who was recently in charge of developing NeverDead. He started at Konami with Policenuats and has been involved in almost every Metal Gear Solid title – along with these he discusses Ghost Babel on the GBC extensively. He also describes the difficulties facing Japanese developers. In the coming weeks we plan to publish a selection of Metal Gear themed interviews, given that this year marks the series’ 25th anniversary.

Your Weekly Kusoge is Top Banana for the Amiga, which is anything but, and the spotlight article is Lagrange Point, Konami's incredibly ambitious Famicom RPG, which has been greatly expanded by awesome reader Emanuele Rodolà.

3/7

Okay! Sorry, things have been super hectic lately, and I don't forsee them slowing down for at least another month or two, so please bear with me!

As a follow-up to last month's interview with Agness Kaku, we have another extensive interview with Jeremy Blaustein, the translator of the original Metal Gear Solid, as well as Snatcher and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (the Cube of Zoe item in that last one was actually named after his daughter - didn't know that!) Also up: Heart of Darkness, Eric Chahi's ill-fated follow up to Out of this World; Silverload, a first person horror/western-themed adventure game; and Fortune Summoners, the latest RPG doujin game from localizers Carpe Fulgur. We're also starting a new column revolving around shooters for the iOS. It's a massive undertaking, and this update is only the tip of the iceberg, featuring a few of Cave's arcade ports to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad trio. (The Deathsmiles and Espgaluda articles have also been updated with stuff about the mobile games along with various other updates.)

The fourth episode of Game Club 199X is also up. For February 2012, Snarboo, Sotenga and Zogbog chat a bit about Square's Vagrant Story, an incredibly atmospopheric and moody dungeon crawler with an elaborate series of statistics to keep track of and an advanced weapon crafting system to keep up with it. Do join us for this month's game, Sierra's King's Quest V. Your Weekly(ish) Kusoge is some FPS drek based on Mr. Pibb, and the Another Centrury's Episode article has been expanded to include the recent portable entry.

2/20

Most retro gamers are familiar with Christian themed games like Bible Adventures, but for awhile there were actually a number of biblically-influenced first person shooter, trying to capitalize off of the popularity of Doom and Quake? This update's article includes a look at five of them - the most noteworthy is Super Noah's Ark 3D, which infamously licensed the Wolfenstein 3D engine and was one of the only unofficial SNES carts out there, but the rest are of the PC, and there's some interesting history behind them.

Continuing the coverage for "decent but slightly overlooked NES titles", read about Conquest of the Crystal Palace, one of the first games developed by Quest, who would later go on to create Ogre Battle. The other articles are for more recent games, cult classics that deserve to be picked up immediately though they've been out for awhile. Deadly Premonition is one of the most divisive games of the generation, with both criticisms for its awkward controls and praise for its incredibly bizarre atmosphere. There's also an extensive interview with SWERY65, the game's developer. And Ghost Trick comes courtesy of Shu Takumi, the guy beyond the Ace Attorney series. It has been growing a little bit stale lately, so he changes up the forumula with something brilliant, and, of course, it flops. The DS games hasn't gotten TOO expensive though, and the slightly nicer iOS version was released in English not too long ago, which you can buy for $10, which is easily worth it.

The third episode of Game Club 199X is also up - this talks about The Maze of Galious, the second in Konami's Majou Densetsu series. It's an action-RPG that takes place in a rather expansive maze, although despite its exploratory structure and side-view perspective, it has more in common with the original Zelda than Metroid. Your Weekely Kusoge is Taiketsu Rumiizu!, an old Bomberman clone that gets it horribly wrong, and the featured article is a re-look at the innovative but clumsy SNES title SOS, an ode to The Poseiden Adventure with numerous endings.

2/3

Mascot platformers from the 90s get a bad rap, as they largely should, but a scant few can still be remembered fondly. Jazz Jackrabbit was one such series, developed by Epic Megagames before they morphed into a dudebro studio. A shareware title like Commander Keen, it was part of the unique breed of console-style games for the platform that were actually, you know, good. I remember seeing it demoed at computer shows when I was a kid, where they used it to show off the VGA graphics and MOD music.

The rest of the update is rounded out with Obscure, a survival horror game where a French development tries (and sort of succeeds) at mimicing teenage slasher flicks; Low G Man, a slightly above average NES platformer notably made by KID, who also did the (somewhat better) GI Joe NES games, as well as the underrated Kick Master; Jets 'n' Guns, an indie shoot-em-up from a few years back which introduced the world to SID rock (heavy metal backed by Commodore 64 music, similar to the style used by Anamanaguchi in the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World game soundtrack); and Granada, one of the many titles from the prolific Wolfteam during the 16-bit era.

Our spotlight article is Elevator Action, with a review of the PS3 game added in (which still can't touch Elevator Action Returns, sadly), and a Famicom game based off the gag manga Utsurun Desu is your kusoge. The third episode of Game Club 199X will be up soon, where we discuss Konami's Maze of Galious, but in the meantime, please join us this month to play Vagrant Story, so we can talk about how much we love/hate next month!

Outside of Game Club 199X, we haven't done the standard podcasts very often - the index indicates that the last one was in Spring 2009 - but were briefly resurrecting it for another two hour episode. Audun Sorlie (author of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Donald Duck, Asterix, Jackie Chan and YU-NO articles), joins us as a special guest to talk a bit about the convention MAGFest 2012, before discussing the history of gaming in Europe, and how the continent has lost its unique identity over the last decade or so. It's available to download on Mediafire.

1/22

We've been teasing it for a little awhile now, but we're finally ready to post it - an extremely long interview with Agness Kaku, the translator of Metal Gear Solid 2, amongst the other titles we've posted translation files for lately (Hybrid Heaven, Metal Gear Solid GBC). It's a bloody fantastic interview, if mostly because you don't see this kind of candor and honesty in an interview about old video games. Also in the interview are links to the translation documents for MGS2, which may provide for some very interesting reading.

On the usual article side, I've followed up my review of Dynamite Dux for a few weeks ago with Dynamite Deka, which functionally has not much to do other than sharing a similar name (and being beat-em-ups, and being made by Sega). This is a series more commonly known as Die Hard Arcade in North America, with the sequel being known as Dynamite Cop. I have a special relationship with this game, because the movie theater I worked at in high school had this game in the lobby, so I heard the attract screen ("I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE SWAT MEMBERS...WHERE IS THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER?") countless times over the course of at least a few summers. The main reason I wrote this article now is because I discovered that Naomi emulation is pretty good nowadays, so I could play the "lost" third game, Dynamite Deka EX, which was only released in arcades in Japan. As it turns out, it's not a new game so much as a reskinning of the second game to take place in Hong Kong, but it's super bizarre and worth reading about.

Also up is Little Samson, the NES Mega Man-style platformer which is one of the most valued official US release games (not counting ridiculous stuff like Stadium Events), and is actually quite good, as well as Hungry Ghosts, a first person horror game only released on the PlayStation 2 in Japan. Your Weekly Kusoge is Corpse Killer, another FMV game by Digital Pictures. This article bummed me out a bit because I didn't realize Vincent Schiavelli, prolific character actor, had passed away. Our spotlight article is Syndicate, mostly because the game was recently released for a mere $6 on GOG.com, which is undoubtedly part of the marketing plan to prep everyone for the new reimagining coming in a few months courtesy of Starbreeze.

Finally, added a few new book reviews, including Replay: The History of Video Games, Masters of Doom, and Family Computer 1983-1994.

1/14

A handful of brief but interesting articles this week: Rusty may sound familiar to anyone who really keeps up on Castlevania lore, since it's basically a huge ripoff/homage developed for the PC98, although it stars a scantily clad anime chick as opposed to a hulkman barbarian; Hatoful Boyfriend has been making the forum rounds lately as a source of great comedy, considering it's a visual novel where you date pigeons; Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru is one of those "lost" Nintendo titles that they never bothered to localize, even though it's quite charming; and most NES fans probably know Kabuki Quantum Fighter for being that weird game where you infilitrate an organic computer and whip enemies with your hair, but you may not know it was actually a tie-in with a movie around the same time called Jipang, which in turn got a few video game sequel several years back, published by Konami, called 7 Blades. Very odd story behind all of this!

Anyway I spent a good chunk of my Friday night playing this week's kusoge, Perfect Weapon, or at least trying to. It's not really as obscure as some of the awful games we feature here, as it's pretty well known to be an atrocious game, I was really just confirming it, plus it was lying around my room for some reason. I was under the impression it used digitized sprites, but it's actually set up like Resident Evil - of course a game focusing entirely on melee fighting using tank controls is already doomed to failure, and yet this one somehow goes several steps worse. And we're featuring Azure Dreams this week, since we released some localization files for a few Konami games over the past week. Keep your eyes out for more soon.

1/5

Oh crap, MAGFest is tomorrow! Well, it started today technically, but I'm not making the drive down to Maryland until Friday. Anyway, real super quick update here - first off is VVVVVV, an indie platformer that I really rather liked when it came out back in 2010, and didn't realize how much I loved it until the 3DS version came out last week. The other article is a review of Trap Gunner, a unique, vaguely Spy vs. Spy-type action-combat game for the PSOne. And the kusoge is the dreadfully boring Bird Week for the Famicom. Keep an eye out on the Facebook and Twitter feeds for reports from MAGFest. And do check out the blog for some really cool translation documents from various Konami games, as well as rumblings of some very, VERY cool stuff to come in the next few weeks.

12/23

The results of the Best Western Video Game Music of All Time Poll are in! We've compiled a list of 250 songs from numerous composers that seem to be overlooked by much of the VGM community at large, including tons of stuff from the Commodore 64, Amiga, NES and Genesis, along with numerous indie games (and a few AAA titles even) that stand out from the crowd. If nothing else, it should help get rid of that perception that all Western music is generic Hollywood-type stuff!

Updates are going to be slow for a bit due to the holidays and everything, plus other Big Happenings Coming Soon, but in the meantime here's a few shorter articles. Every once in awhile I'm possessed to write about obscure Sega minutae - this time it's Dynamite Dux, which I believe is one of the first cutesy-type beat-em-ups. Overall it's rather average, but it's got a great graphical style, and it's one of those games I'd always read about in magazines for the Sega Master System but had never really played since the system had largely dried up in America when it came out. In other mediocrity news, we also have a review of Blake Stone, two first person shooters from the shareware era that licensed the Wolfenstein 3D engine and took the adventures into space. They also had the bad luck to be released within weeks of Doom and Doom II, respectively, which means they looked and played terribly outdated, but in spite of that I (and probably a few other people out there) have some vaguely pleasant memories of them.

A bit away from the usual norm is an extensive review of all seven versions of Last Action Hero. Why, exactly? Well, every one of us has some kind of game that marked our transition from naive kids who loved everything placed in front of us into cynical bastards aware of commercial exploitation. For me, that game was Bubsy. For Audun Sorlie, it was this. We don't have a proper kusoge article ready this week, but this will more than suffice for quite awhile. There's even a short interview with one of the guys involved that helps explain the ridiculousness of what went wrong, despite a solid design document.

The only truly great game featured in this update is Skygunner, an incredibly fun early PS2 created by a studio called PixelArts. It's a cutesy air combat-type game with irrespresibly cute Japanese-style artwork mixed with a fantastic European-style setting, with some really excellent music. It's light and breezy, and something of a cult classic.

Finally, a bit of book news. Just for the holidays, from now until Wednesday, December 28th, the Kindle version of The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures will be 50% off. That means $4.99 for US buyers, and assorted similar discounts for other regions based on whatever conversion metric Amazon is using at the moment. This is only going for a week, so it's a good time to pick it up, especially if you get a Kindle this holiday season!

Additionally, the book is also enrolled in the Amazon KDP Select program. This means that if you have a Kindle and Amazon Prime, you can borrow the book, for free, although you're limited to one title a month. Keep in mind though that when they mean "Kindle" they mean "an official Kindle device". I only own mobile decides that run Kindle software, and this doesn't apply if you're using an iPhone, Android or the PC reading software. I made the mistake of purchasing my own book to test it out, and based on the refund numbers, it seems like at least one other person did too. Sorry! It's a neat program although initially a little vague.

Finally, the book has always been available in America, the United Kingdom and Germany, but Amazon has expanded its Kindle store to include Italy, France and Spain, so do check that out as well.

Also, thanks to Adventure Gamers for cataloguing my stupid game Que Pasa Perro? in its database, and covering it on their November 2011 Freeware roundup, vaguely legitimizing some random goofiness I threw together over the course of the week. Extra double thanks to the guy who recorded a whole walkthrough and posted it on Youtube. He's doing a Let's Play of the terrifying Bubsy 3D so you know he's an alright kinda guy. And super triple thanks to the folks behind its TVTropes page. I do hope you check out the whole ordeal if you haven't already.

12/17

Quick update - do check out our Child's Play Marathon!

Link: http://www.twitch.tv/cj_iwakura

Hours: 10AM to 10PM EST, Saturday, 12/17.

Games (viewer input highly encouraged!): GOD HAND, the Castle Shikigami Trilogy, FMV Games galore, dating sims, whatever the viewer's twisted heart desires. It's all for your deranged amusement. And the kids' benefit.

12/12

About a year ago or so, we published a massive article covering the many, many Asterix games. This time around is a similarly themed article covering the entirety of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. There are roughly 30 games in total, spanning from the original Konami NES game all the way up until the recent Ubisoft titles, with numerous highs and lows throughout. It's thirteen pages long and includes a brief history of the TMNT franchise itself, making for very comprehensive reading.

Since that particular update is huge, there are only a few smaller articles to post up. One is one which I couldn't think of a proper name for, so I called it Vic Tokai - Speed Tengoku Jump Jigoku. It's a series of four (technically, three and a half) platformers developed by Vic Tokai which are all technically part of the same series, seeing how they have largely identical play mechanics, despite there being no thematic links between them. The first is Kid Kool, which I think the Angry Video Game Nerd (righfully) tore apart earlier this year. However, most of the major issues in that game got fixed for the Master System title Psycho Fox, which then evolved into the Mega Drive/Genesis games Magical Hat no Turbo Buttobi Daibouken (in Japan) and Decap Attack (in North America and Europe). It's sort of cool to see ideas go from total unworkable garbage into a minor classic.

We're finishing up the single game coverage with Martial Masters, an incredibly nice looking arcade 2D fighter made by IGS, who I keep wanting to call the "SNK of Taiwan" just based on its adherence to classic spritework and traditional genres around the turn of the century despite both the hardware and the audience evolving in different directions. None of their games seem to have ever been ported, so they mostly live on through MAME. Their work is generally worth checking out, including this one.

Also up is a new podcast called Game Club 199X, started by members of the HG101 forums and IRC channel. The idea behind this series is to play games as they were originally intended - that is, no FAQs, no cheats, no save states, just the support of the local community - to get through some rather old and obtuse games. Last month's game was Snake's Revenge, which is discussed in this episode. December's game is the Interplat classic (and predecessor to Fallout) Wasteland, so check out the forum thread if you're interested in joining in.

And Your Weekly Kusoge is the Amiga version of Akira, which is largely regarded as the second worst game on the computer. So very much lost potential, there.

12/6

If any English speaker knows the name YU-NO, it's probably from an awful hentai anime translated back in the late 90s. This was a bad way to get introduced to this game, a rather excellent visual novel with some outstanding music. The game's recently been fan-translated, so do check out this expansive article detailing why it's so fascinating. (And a vague NSFW warning on it, since it is technically an eroge.)

HG101 is normally a retro site, but occasionally we cover recent games that tend to get overlooked or are least worth addressing. This is the case with Alpha Protocol, Obsidian's action/stealth/RPG epic from last year. It definitely didn't hit the same level of success as Mass Effect did, but it does some rather clever things in regards to storytelling, even though the plot itself is fundamentally ridiculous.

Other articles this update include Quest for the Rings, a release for the Odyssey² that attempted to combine video and board games; The Fool's Errand, one of the first attempts to marry Games Magazine-style puzzles with a narrative, paving the way for The 7th Guest and Myst; and Revolution X, the incredibly stupid shooting gallery game starring Aerosmith. Your Weekly Kusoge is Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport, one of the many absolutely terrible fighting games developed for the PC after the success of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat in the arcades. And our spotlight article updates our piece on the Korean brawler Eojjeonji Joheun Il-i Saenggil Geot Gateun Jeonyeok and its sequel (and much more succinctly named) Storm.

11/28

The final part of the Ultima article has now been posted, which finishes up by giving a quick briefing of Ultima Online, a handful of cancelled games and fan works, several books and guides, and most importantly, an exclusive interview with Lord British himself, who also recently had a documentary made about his journey into space. The article in total is 15 meaty pages long, putting it up there with the Shin Megami Tensei article in sheer length. Also of note is a preview of the Ultima Collector's Guide by Stephen Emond, a massive 800+ page catalog of Ultima memorabilia and trivia. You can read a bit about it at his Rockethub page, although it's already got enough donations to put it into production. And keeping up with the WRPG theme, please enjoy a review of the Eye of the Beholder series, a trilogy of first person dungeon crawlers.

At any rate, what have you spent your precious holiday gaming time with? Uncharted 3? Arkham City? Skyrim? I spent the past few weeks with Otomedius, to cover the recently released Otomedius Excellent, which somehow got localized despite being a very, very Japanese series. The only reason I got so enamored with it is due to Konami shooter fanboyness, which these games deliver in droves. It is a bit odd, though, considering they reference so many titles that never got releases outside of Japan, but this article should help sort all of that out. Even as someone who spent far too long with it at the expense of much better games, they're...really not all that great. I've seen it get torn to shreds in some reviews, which is harsh, but perhaps not unfair. Beyond the Konami love, its focus is largely on boobs and grinding for weapons, whereas the core games are fairly mediocre by Gradius/Parodius standards.

Additional articles this post-Thanksgiving update include 3D Ultra Pinball, a series of, well, pinball games put out by Dynamix in the 90s; Baruusa no Fukushuu, a side-scrolling action game for the X68000; Electronic Popple, an amusingly goofy Korean beat-em-up; and Giftpia, a Japan-only Gamecube from the guys that would eventually develop Chibi Robo, and has that same outright bizarreness to it. They also created the (similarly Japan-only) Captain Rainbow for the Wii, which Nintendo silently buried before focusing on exploiting its franchises for the dozenth time (although doing it reasonably well, at least) and ignoring anything that isn't guaranteed to sell a million copies. Oh, and the weekly kusoge is Battle Construction Vehicles, a...construction vehicle battle simulator where you can attack your opponent with giant bees. You may remember it being posted on the blog a few years back, but something this bizarre is worth catalouging for the ages.