The Tanooki » arcade

X-Men Arcade – Review

Rhody Tobin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:00:21 +0000

Arcade games and console/PC games are not the same. Aside from the obvious length differences, the penalty for losing is also very different. In PC and home console games, losing usually sends you back to a checkpoint or the beginning of the level. Years ago, the “Game Over” screen actually meant something, as you would be thrown back to the title screen to start over for losing all of your lives! It’s true!

Arcade games, however, don’t work this way. In arcade games, the penalty for failure is the loss of money. If you want to continue playing after dying, you’d better be willing to jam a few more coins into the slot. That’s fair enough, right? Arcade machines are expensive, and arcade owners have to make their money back somehow. Both of these philosophies are similar in that they encourage the player to improve and try their best not to lose.

When arcade games are ported to home consoles, necessary changes are usually made. Continues (credits) are limited, or continuing will send the player back to he beginning of the stage. There has to be some penalty, right? Well, not according to Backbone Entertainment, if the PSN version of the 1992 X-Men arcade game is anything to go by. This version is basically a straight port of the arcade version with a few bells and whistles thrown in. It keeps the arcade version’s credit feeding penalty system, but it doesn’t work. The credits aren’t real any more, so neither is the penalty.

One of the things that makes the X-Men themselves so interesting is the amount of diversity within the team. Among many others are a tiny feral Canadian, an African wind goddess, a Russian farmer made of metal, and a parapalegic telepath. It’s a shame that this game fails so badly at capturing that diversity. All of the characters play almost exactly alike. Everyone has a basic combo, an attack against downed enemies, and two aerial attacks. They all work the same way for each character. The speed, power, and range don’t vary at all. The only thing each character has that sets it apart from the others is their mutant power. Mutant powers are powerful attacks that can kill most enemies with one hit. Unforunately, even there, the only differences are the speed and field of effect of each power. Their strength is the same and they all drain the same amount of health to use. On top of all of that, the lack of a real penalty for death leaves the mutant power attacks incredibly overpowered. There’s no reason not to just spam them until you’re out of health, die, continue, and repeat the process until you reach the end. It’s boring, but it’s less boring than punching a hundred enemies ten or twenty times each. At least spamming mutant powers leaves some small impression of variety among the characters.

This new port adds a few new features. The awful Backbone smoothing filter is present and enabled by default. As always, it turns the sprites into hideous paint-by-number-looking messes. Thankfully, you can turn this filter off from the Options menu before you start playing. Unfortunately, the character portraits and menu screen are permanent victims of the smoothing filter and can’t be saved. One cool little feature is the ability to switch between the American and Japanese ROMs. The biggest difference is that the American ROM drains health for mutant powers before using mutant power items once you no longer have enough health to drain, while the Japanese ROM uses mutant power items first. The Japanese version also allows enemies to drop health and mutant power items, but those are very rare. The most significant addition to this port is online play — up to six people can play together online. Too bad the lag with as few as two players makes online play more of an annoyance than anything of any worth.

Really, there are only two reasons to play this game. The first is nostalgia. If you played the arcade version 18 years ago, playing this new version will probably make you feel like you’re watching an old cartoon or playing with an old toy. (My nostalgia for the early 90′s X-Men team didn’t help me enjoy this game, though, since they’re basically different skins for one generic character.) The second reason is the novelty of playing a six player beat-em-up offline on one console. Not a lot of games take advantage of the PS3′s ability to read more than four controllers at the same time. Any fewer than five players, though, and you’d probably be better off playing Castle Crashers, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, or any other PSN beat-em-up, since they all offer a lot more depth and value for your money than X-Men. This game has almost no replay value, can be finished in less than 30 minutes, and is so boring and repetitive that even that even those 30 minutes feel way too long.

The Tanooki Rating – 3.0/10

These opinions are those of a single reviewer, and may not reflects the opinions of other writers from The Tanooki nor the site as a whole.

Mediamatic opens Arcade collection; celebrates with cupcakes!

Christian Ponte — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:00:14 +0000

Those in Amsterdam have the luxury of being close to the home of Mediamatic, an art society interested in new media and technology. A new Arcade exhibit is being hosted at the Mediamatic Bank through March 27th, and the newest collection features vintage arcade cabinets in working order. The other levels, focusing on different times of gaming history, are already open or will open soon.

To celebrate the newest Mediamatic level opening, a ton of retro-themed cupcakes were made by Zoe Elizabeth Gottehrer. You can check out some of Zoe’s creations in the photo after the break, with a few more photos found on her Flickr page.

Mediamatic
Zoe’s Flickr

Crazy Taxi (XBLA/PSN) – Review

Jason Leavey — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:00:23 +0000

Sega will always be the house of the Hedgehog, but the developer/publisher actually thrived throughout the 1990s in the arcade racing genre. Hits like OutRun, Sega Rally and Daytona U.S.A. dominated during much of the slap-bracelet decade. Near the tail-end of the nifty ’90s, Sega published the frantic cab racer Crazy Taxi, a game that was met with wild success in both arcade and port form – I grew up obsessed with both the Dreamcast and GameCube versions. Now a decade later, Sega’s re-releasing the game in HD on PSN and XBLA. So how does this dusty arcade game hold up?

Nothing has changed in the gameplay department from the original console ports, and that’s a good thing. Players choose between four taxi cab drivers working in a San Francisco-inspired city. Your task is to pick up pedestrians with floating dollar signs over their heads, each pedestrian depending on you to take them to their destination. To assist you, Crazy Taxi was the first game to introduce a revolutionary new GPS mechanism for racing titles, where a giant arrow hovering above your vehicle pointed you in the direction your goal. Of course you’ll have a sea of jaywalkers, crappy drivers and trolley-cars trying to get in your way; clearly they think the city is a giant parking lot. It’s a race against the clock where the quicker you deliver your passenger, the better your score and the more money you make. You’re also rewarded by driving crazily, earning additional coinage when swerving between cars, jumping off ramps, and executing drifts.

The game is broken down into different modes: Arcade Mode stays truthful to the arcade game’s more straightforward landscape, while Original Mode features a course layout developed for past console releases (which includes the abilities to drive underwater, in train-filled tunnels, or jump drawbridges). Both modes allow players to choose between set time intervals or playing in traditional arcade fashion with incremental time rewards given based on stellar delivery service. No matter which mode you select, the gamplay is incredibly addictive and still just as fun today as when the game first released. The wide-open city landscape offers players a different racing experience every time, taking passengers through busy streets, up grassy hills, or into crowded outdoor eateries. There’s something incredibly satisfying about delivering a passenger on time while knowing the shortcuts and despite the near-fatalities, ten-car pile ups, and mass destruction of property that took place along the way.

The game also includes Crazy Box challenges, essentially a collection of mini-games ranging from high jumps for distance, to timed delivery challenges, to using your car to knock down bowling pins. These mini-games are a hell of a lot of fun, but equally serve as a tutorial, teaching you to become a better driver. It won’t take long to master a crazy drift or a crazy boost, both necessities for improving your overall score grade in the main game modes.

So with all that’s returned, what’s actually new, you ask? Sega has increased Crazy Taxi’s competitive edge by adding online leaderboards, allowing players to submit their own scores or view how their opponents rank. The game also supports earning trophy achievements. Unfortunately, these two additions serve as the only new features added to the game.

Visually, the graphics have been completely remastered in HD 720p for a cleaner look, with added Surround Sound audio. Aside from the visual polish, Sega didn’t try to improve any returning environmental glitches or bulky character models, instead opting to retain the dated charm of the original title. Within menu operations, you’ll have a choice between setting the video display to “Full-screen” mode, which stretches the display causing pixilated text on the menu screens, or “Wallpaper” mode, which offers a crisper display but adds decorative panels on the left and right sides to make up for the lack of widescreen support. Despite the shortcomings of jarring menu text, full-screen is your best choice and looks great, offering the best visuals Crazy Taxi has ever had. Yet with every step forward, it seems Sega took two steps back by removing a lot of what made all previous versions so charming.

For starters, the game used to feature several tracks from ’90s alternative rock group The Offspring (of “ya-ya-ya-ya-ya!” fame). The HD port instead uses generic rock tunes that, while adequate, don’t come close to achieving the frantic fever that songs like “All I Want” brought to the open road. Another shameful oversight was the exclusion of several notable franchise locations. Famous shops and fast food joints like KFC, Pizza Hut, The Levi’s Store and Tower Records have now been replaced by generic brands like “Clothing Store,” and “Record Store.” Product placement in the original brought a sense of familiarity, bridging the real world with the virtual world. Neglecting to include any brand names in the game was a major let down, and seemed lazy considering they opted to keep Pizza Hut’s building structure — with signature red roof – but plastered a “Pizza Parlor” sign in front. And yes, believe it or not, I am faulting the game for not including product placement. It’s understandable that these changes were likely made due to expired licenses, but a disappointment nonetheless.

Crazy Taxi will likely go down as one of my favorite arcade racers of all-time. However, this version is not much more than an HD port of the original. It’s actually less than an HD port of the original, with several key omissions that made the arcade classic so charming. Ditching The Offspring was unfortunate and substituting real locations with cheesy knock-offs reduced this game to seemingly little more than a quick cash-in. Despite the added appeal of HD graphics, leaderboards and Trophy support, it’s hard for me to recommend this version over one of the many past console ports that fully captured that stellar arcade experience. This just doesn’t feel like the Crazy Taxi I know and love. The original gameplay is the only redeeming aspect, since it’s just as fun as you remember it being. Even for those that have never played the original, Crazy Taxi is still a must-play for all racing genre fans. For many, having the game in convenient, downloadable form may be too good of an offer to pass up.

Crazy Taxi is available now on PSN for $9.99, and is set to release on XBLA on November 24.

The Tanooki Rating – 7.0

These opinions are those of a single reviewer, and may not reflects the opinions of other writers from The Tanooki nor the site as a whole.

Billy Mitchell and his menacing mullet in tattoo form

Jason Leavey — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:27:23 +0000

Because sometimes, the former King of Kong just needs to be permanently embedded in the skin. Team Wiebe!

Break

Taito presents new digital distribution based arcade cabinets

Jason Leavey — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 06:00:28 +0000

While the arcade business in North America is dying faster than Lindsay Lohan’s acting career, it’s surprising Taito’s recent revelation at the 48th Amusement Machine Show hasn’t been done before.

The Bubble Bobble makers announced a new arcade cabinet that is capable of receiving software via download. Dubbed the NESiCAxLive (rolls off the tongue, amiright?) Taito boasts their new cabinet lets owners download the software of their choice, which can be stored directly within the unit.

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II is the first game to be released on the new cabinet, with confirmed software support from companies including SNK Playmore and Cave coming as well.

Pretty incredible if you ask me. While arcades still thrive in select markets outside of North America, saving money is universally an ideal business plan. Being able to purchase arcade cabinets that aren’t locked to one measly arcade title could make the prospect of maintaining an arcade quite attractive. Let’s just hope these bad boys get the proper support they need to get a

Andriasang

Toru Iwatani shows off original 1979 Pac-Man drawings

Holly Green — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:38:11 +0000

At the recent Festival of Games in Utrecht, Netherlands, Pac-Man series creator Toru Iwatani had a little secret to share! No, not that kind. A speaker at the event, Iwatani decided to surprise the attendees by whipping out the original Pac-Man concept drawings from 1979.

What coincidental timing! Pac-Man just celebrated his 30th birthday, an event celebrated at E3 2010.

LaughingSquid

E3 2010: Pac-Man Battle Royale impressions

Jason Leavey — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 07:30:36 +0000

You really have to hand it to Namco Bandai for once again reinventing the wheel. Pac-Man made his pellet-hungry debut 30 years ago, yet the company has created a brand new arcade title set to enhance the original game’s competitive qualities tenfold.

Pac-Man Battle Royale is a cocktail style arcade game that allows up to 4-players to compete head-to-head. Each player controls their own colored Pac-Man character, across familiar grid stages while eating all the pac-dot cookies you can. This time however, instead of trying to gobble up your blue ghost enemies for arcade supremacy, you’re now trying to eat your competitors.

Once you eat a power pellet, your Pac-Man character will grow in size, putting your opponents in the shoes of the franchise’s fearful ghost. Fleeing like mice, opponents must escape the super-sized Pac-Man, or else they’ll get eaten and lose the round. The only way to counter a giant Pac-Man is to gobble a power pellet yourself, or to eat a fruit piece. This time around, eating fruit will change the layout of the puzzle board, likely saving you from an inconvenient demise (this is also achieved by eating all the pac-dots per stage). Simply put, the last man standing wins all.

During my time playing the game, I was quite impressed by just how addictive Battle Royale became. Players are all huddled around the same screen, each controlling their Pac-Man character across a shared screen. The pressure was on, and the crowds were forming, something easily achieved due to the waist-high flat table.

If competition isn’t all you’re after, you can still try and gobble ghosts and pac-dot cookies as part of a personal points game, but I was focused on crushing my competitors. After the end of every round, a winner is decided, with an ultimate winner chosen at the end. Ultimately, I came in second. Each of the four players are then given a title based on in-game achievements, such eating the most items.

Pac-Man Battle Royale is set to release this fall in arcade form, and hopefully in console form too. Regardless of whether or not an at-home version will release, I think Battle Royale could very well be the game to save arcades in America. Quote me, it’s that fun.

Pac-Man: Thirty years of a pizza shaped icon

Jason Leavey — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:18:27 +0000

It was thirty years ago this month that Pac-Man first released in Japan, and later abroad. The game introduced players to one of the world’s most addictive arcade games of all time. To celebrate the success of the franchise, the game’s creator Toru Iwatani (pictured right) gave some insight into the creative process of creating one of the world’s more notorious gaming icons. Here are some of highlights.

Pac-Man was introduced to the world as one of the first “cute” video game characters. The arcades were mainly filled with shooters and more aggressive action oriented titles, so Iwatani set out to create a game that could be universally enjoyed by girls and boys.

The Pac-Man cartoon was highly successful, at one point with a rating at 56%.

While Pac-Man was designed to resemble a pizza, his yellow color was to give him a neutral look, that would suit a friend or foe.

Pac-Man got his name from the eating sound “Paku” which means “chomp.” Initially titled “Puck-Man” the game eventually dropped “Puck” for “Pac” in the U.S., and eventually to Japan, due to its similarities to the F-word.

The game is more friendly than many think, where the premise is described as a battle of Pac-Man’s cookies. It’s similar to Tom and Jerry, where they aren’t enemies, just competitive.

To read even more, check out the entire interview below.

Pac-Man

The Glowing Void features lots of glowing, lots of voids

Brian Hefele — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:12:37 +0000

The Glowing Void is an upcoming iPhone title by Assyria Game Studio which looks pretty promising. It doesn’t have any fancy graphics to speak of – just large glowing orbs, and what looks to be a strange interlacing effect. It has a very simple premise – build voids by touching a point on the screen, holding longer to grow the voids larger, and ultimately fill up 70% of the screen. Of course any simple premise needs a simple obstacle, like a bunch of bouncing red dots. Tilt your iPhone to affect the in-game gravity if they’re getting to close to your growing void. Simple controls, simple gameplay, simple graphics. So I hope that this game ends up being one of those deceptively simple ones, addictive because picking them up and playing them is the easiest task in the world, but mastery is elusive. Perhaps I’m hopeful because the overall premise – filling up the screen, avoiding a bouncing enemy – reminds me so much of Qix, a game which I spent countless hours of my youth attempting to conquer. Ah, memories. Pricing and release date have yet to be announced, though we do know that leaderboard support will be implemented via Agon Online.

The Best Presents Always Come In Small Packages!

From Assyria Game Studio, the developer who also brought you the popular Future Racer, Picnic Panic and Woolly The Jumper, also for Apple iPhone™ and Apple iPod touch®, comes “The Glowing Void”, a simple yet highly addicting game where your objective is to create voids!

To play the game you must fill up at least 70% of the screen with as large circles as possible while avoiding a number of red dots of an unknown entity. The game is made harder because the red dots are dynamic and bounces around all over the display. The control mechanism is highly unique: You touch the screen to begin, avoid the dots at all times, and the longer you keep pressing, the larger the void (circles) become, and the more points you score before letting go! Tilting the device will alter the direction of gravity, allowing the red dots to be trapped by circles or voids already created! If you get hit by a dot, a life is lost, and by completing 70% of the screen you progress to the next level. It’s entertaining; it’s simple, and its fun!

As you become better at the game and progress throughout the levels, additional red dots appear making the game increasingly difficult. The game includes a unique “Burst” mode in which the circles or voids fade away after being created, and your focus is on achieving the maximum score with only 3 lives.

Additional features include high-score tables using Agon Online, and support for Twitter and Facebook. (a)void the red dots at any cost when The Glowing Void becomes available on the App Store!

A limited number of exclusive preview builds are available prior to release. Journalists interested in writing a first-look preview are encouraged to provide their UDID to Adam Green from Assyria Game Studio:adamgreen@assyria-game.com

Additional information about the games from Assyria Game Studio is available by a visit to their website:www.assyria-game.com.

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John McAllister tops 27-year-old Asteroids high score

Christian Ponte — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:00:59 +0000

The previous Asteroids high score was set on November 14, 1982 at 41,336,440 by 15-year-old Scott Safran. Safran passed away in 1989, but his record stood for over 27 years. At 10:18pm PDT, Scott’s record was finally broken.

John McAllister, who is seemingly still playing, has been broadcasting his marathon via Justin.tv at the Aurcade link below. His score of 41,338,740 (as of 10:18 last night) won’t be official until it’s recognized by video game referees, but it is a milestone in a journey that began when McAllister sat down on Saturday to play.

I’m having trouble pulling up the video feed at the moment, but you can head on over and see if you can access it for yourself.

Aurcade
via Wired | Game Life

Super Street Fighter IV coming to Japanese arcades

Christian Ponte — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:20:21 +0000

Good news for Japanese Street Fighter fans! Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono has announced at the Japanese National Street Fighter IV Tournament that Super Street Fighter IV will be seeing an arcade release in the future.

It’s not as sure a bet here in the U.S., however there does seem to be a glimmer of hope. Joystiq points out that Arcade Infinity is expecting the SSF4 release later this summer.

EventHubs
via Joystiq

Will the real Donkey Kong master please stand up?

Christian Ponte — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:00:47 +0000

Billy Mitchell. Steve Wiebe. Hank Chien. …Eminem?

Rapper Eminem looks to be getting into the running for his own Donkey Kong. He may still have a long way to go to catch up to the world leaders (Chien boasts a score of 1,061,7000), but as you can see, he’s not too shabby – topping the high score listing on this particular machine with a score of 465,800. This pic was taken from the artist’s Twitter account, which he followed up by saying:

“To my fellow Kongers, peep the new high score. Just imagine if I had more free time…”

I’m impressed. I’m not surprised that Eminem grew up a gamer – actually, I think I knew that before. But I am surprised at how good he actually is.

Twitter
via Nintendo Life

Say hello to Hank Chien, the new King of Kong

Christian Ponte — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:00:34 +0000

In case you’re still wondering who in the world Hank Chien is, this might be able to help you out. The young, out-of-nowhere, new Donkey Kong record holder had a few words to say in an interview with Details.

“When I started playing, I wasn’t trying to set the world record. I had pretty much never played before in my entire life, so when I started it was just for fun… I always said that after I reached a million I was going to retire because this game was taking up way too much of my time. But with my first million-point game, I was only 12,000 points shy of the world record, so I was like, ‘I can’t retire now!’”

His current record is 1,061,700. You can click on through to read the whole interview, especially while he still holds the record. You don’t know how long it’ll be his – but you do know that Billy and Steve are coming after him.

Details
via Joystiq

Spy Hunter getting the game to film treatment

Jason Leavey — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:54:33 +0000

From Street Fighter to Doom, gamers are used to their favorite titles being transformed into movies, and usually failing in the process. The next game to get this treatment is the arcade classic Spy Hunter.

At one point, Universal was behind the project with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the lead. Eventually that deal fell through. Even Paul W.S. Anderson tries to resurrect the project, which failed. Now, Warner Bros. is backing the film, after purchasing the game’s owner Midway Games last year.

Spy Hunter follows a spy set to destroy enemy agents after becoming liabilities to the government. Naturally, this includes high speed chases in fancy cars.

What do you think about the latest game set to launch on the big screen?

HollywoodReporter

New footage of Pac-Man Battle Royale released

Jason Leavey — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:27:18 +0000

Although last week’s Game Developer’s Conference definitely overtook media headlines, those at the Las Vegas Convention Center were able to take in all the excitement at this year’s Amusement Expo. The expo allowed exhibitors to showcase some of their upcoming titles and innovative products to the attendees.

This year, Namco Bandai was on hand to demo their latest Pac-Man title, Pac-Man Battle Royale. The game celebrates the 30th anniversary of the franchise, and will offer fans a more competitive experience. Despite a teaser trailer, not many have seen the game in action, until last week’s expo.

The folks over at Arcade Heroes got their hands-on some gameplay footage of the game being run in an school bird’s eye view arcade cabinet. Aside from the blatant similarities to nearly every Pac-Man title ever released, the footage does show off some impressive new competitive elements, including eating other Pac-Man characters. The game is scheduled for an arcade release later this year.

ArcadeHeroes

The Tanooki » arcade

X-Men Arcade – Review

The Tanooki Rating – 3.0/10

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