Tengai Makyou II: Manji Maru

~ MANJI MARU ~

Hudson Soft / Red

Super CD-ROM

1992

If you're planning to give Manji Maru a try, be aware that it requires a serious time commitment. Fifty hours went into my first playthrough, and while I like to take my time and bumble about, there's no way around the fact that the Manji trek will be a long one even for the quickest of players. But unlike modern fifty-hour RPGs, Manji places emphasis on true adventuring, not movie watching and endless conversing. You'll visit exotic locations like mermaid villages and travel via sailboat, mecha, transformable submersible tank, huge flying fortress, and drowsy giant turtle. You'll meet hundreds of people and acquire countless items and spells.

But you won't watch all that many cinemas. After some killer opening bits, breathtaking cinematic interludes are few and far between. MM doesn't really need full-fledged cinemas for its story to be effective, however. Dramatic situations like the heroic mutt Shiro putting his life on the line against a billion giant bear mecha... funny sketches like the one during which Kabuki and his rival inexplicably turn themselves into various beasts, weapons, and structures in a hilarious game of one-up... tragic events like allies taking arrows in the back or crumbling buildings to the head in order to save your party... we don't need cinemas for such material to make a significant impact...

...though there are some memorable ones (particularly noteworthy is a sequence depicting a gory ice-cave showdown).

We do need a good battle system to keep the action moving along smoothly, however, and Manji Maru comes through in this regard: its fights are typically resolved in the blink of an eye. You can basically rev up turbo on your control pad and slash your way across the countryside. You won't get great backdrops like you do in Ziria, and you won't see your party members running around like you do in Kabuki Den, but Manji's system works in super-fast fashion, and speed in execution might be the most important thing of all to me when it comes to RPG combat.

And you do get gigantic, animated bosses.

Justin Cheer's great four-part MM FAQ will help you overcome the language barrier if you don't know Japanese. Basic knowledge of the language (and I'm not just talking katakana here) really comes in handy later in the game when you need to warp between towns and provinces and keep track of what all your spells do. But whatever you need to do to play through this awesome game, do it.

Out Run

~ OUT RUN ~

NEC Avenue / Sega

HuCard

1990

Out Run is by far the best looking of the PC Engine's driving games, and it plays better than most of its peers. It also allows players to select from three different tunes to drive to, none of which are objectionable. So it certainly has the basics down.

But... it doesn't do much for me.

I think one reason for this is that I didn't get around to playing it until I'd already experienced many of the other PCE drivers. This is not to suggest that all of those titles are superior to OR. But most of them keep me busy with things other than simply rolling down a road. Final Lap Twin features an incredibly innovative RPG mode, but even when partaking in its standard races, I have my hands full trying to complete each and every course in good standing so as to earn enough points to conquer the circuit. Chase H.Q., S.C.I., and Knight Rider Special have me engage in explosive auto combat. And of course there's Victory Run, in which parts management is a significant factor and changes in road type call for alterations in approach.

Out Run doesn't ask you to do anything, really, besides reach the next checkpoint before the time you're allotted runs out. There are the usual "other cars" and roadside objects to avoid, but with the game's smooth controls, you aren't likely to experience many exciting "close calls" or dream-crushing crashes. Not that smooth controls are ever a negative, but without any hazards other than the relatively unobtrusive aforementioned ones to be concerned with, the game feels easy and not very rewarding... and, for me, kind of plain and empty.

Of course, if all you want is a traditional, fundamentally sound "beat the clock" driving game, then Out Run should make for a great pickup. And I suppose the Darius-esque stage progression (the course splits at the end of each leg, allowing you to travel numerous roads and see different concluding scenes) is something distinctive and worth noting...

...though the various endings really aren't much incentive to explore every possible path.

Rastan Saga II

~ RASTAN SAGA II ~

Taito

HuCard

1990

It's always interesting (for me, at least) to see how games with really huge sprites turn out. I mean, I expect a game with oversized characters to control a little... unusually, so the risk of disaster is constantly present within the "genre"; but I often end up enjoying such titles, and in a variety of ways. Sometimes, I'm lucky enough to stumble upon a Veigues Tactical Gladiator, a title that actually plays pretty darn well and proves itself to be genuinely good. Other times, I encounter China Warrior types, games that are definitely flawed but built on solid enough systems to make for occasional pick-up-and-play enjoyment. And then there are the horror shows like Sword of Sodan that are broken in so many different ways that I can't help but have fun by deriding them.

Having fun is the common denominator in those cases, and I was hoping it'd be the end result when I picked up Rastan Saga II. I didn't expect RS2 to be a quality title, and it certainly didn't seem to be smooth or solid in any particular way, so I knew it wouldn't be making colleagues of Veigues and China Warrior. But the possibility of it being a kitschy favorite a la Sodan didn't seem remote.

Unfortunately, RS2 is not amusing at all. It's just slow, clunky, and, well... dumb. The designers seemed to be on the right track with the enemy designs and stage visuals, but the beasts are feeble and score hits only because your character is so slow to act, and the backgrounds often consist of a single mountain or tree trunk drawn over and over again. This is a disgusting example of awful, awful concept execution.

Taken on their own, the enemies are quite easy to deal with.

The sections where you're supposed to proceed carefully are absurd, as being careful is out of the question when you're dealing with RS2's poor controls.

The bosses might seem cheap at first, but once you figure out the proper "tactic" to utilize against each, you shouldn't have any problems at all... except that there's a stupid time limit for each stage, which actually encourages rushed, mindless hacking rather than shrewd planning.

The "mighty" barbarian reveals himself to be a blubbering baby in between stages.

Even something as simple as picking up a new weapon apparently causes him great pain.

My strategy for the final boss? Hack away as fast as I possibly can and kill him before he kills me. Not the most impressive of stratagems, but by the time I reach this fight, I just want to get the whole ordeal over with.

Asuka 120% Maxima BURNING Fest

~ ASUKA 120% ~

Fill-in Cafe / NEC Avenue

Super CD-ROM

1995

This is far and away my favorite one-on-one fighting game. While technique and strategy are indeed required if you want to get really good at it, there's no need to burn the midnight oil studying move lists or practicing combos; you can jump right into the fray and reap immediate enjoyment. The controls are perfect; the game feels fast and fresh and truly stands apart from the many 16-bit-era Street Fighter II clones. The soundtrack is great, very energetic and exciting, and two-player mode is a blast.

I know many people will write Asuka off based on the assumption that a fighter featuring high-school girls can't possibly be a quality product, but they might find themselves surprised if they simply give the game a shot. It's not "naughty"; the character designs emphasize wackiness and distinctiveness over cuteness or sexiness, and all of the girls have neat techniques at their disposal. Even if you aren't into fighting games (I'm not a huge fan of them, myself), you should give this one a try.

These aren't your usual high-maintenance high-school girls.

My favorite is Karina, the biology student whose explosive pet frog aids her in battle.

Titular Asuka is Karina's main rival. I bet that if the two were to team up, they'd be able to take down Ryu and Ken, no problem.

There are plenty of crazy ways to dole out a beating.

Madou King Granzort

~ GRANZORT ~

Hudson Soft

HuCard (SuperGrafx)

1990

Madou King Granzort is an action game somewhat reminiscent of Blood Gear's sidescrolling segments, which isn't all that surprising considering that Red had a hand in both efforts. That doesn't mean you should expect MKG to match the excellent BG as far as depth and excitement go, but it does boast a cool gameplay feature absent from its aRPG cousin: the availability of three playable characters, each of whom possesses distinct abilities and weaponry and is selectable on the fly.

There's the fearless RED robot, who busts shit up with his earth-shaker technique and awesome energy blade.

There's the slick GREEN robot, who utilizes his handy hover-skills to reach faraway platforms while slaying adversaries with a neat beam bow.

And there's the wimpy BLUE robot, who wields a weak baton-like thing and cowers behind a defense barrier.

Switching at the right times is necessary not only to destroy all of your enemies but also to make it through the vast, occasionally mazelike levels. Granzort isn't merely about plodding along and smashing stuff. There's plenty of room for exploration, and if you take the time to deviate from straight-ahead villain-crushing, you can find LOTS of extra lives.

Sadly, this brings us to a couple of gripes I imagine some people will have about the game. Aside from the occasional shield icon, there isn't really much to stumble upon while exploring except for the copious 1-ups. And once you collect dozens (literally) of those, the adventure might not seem very exciting or challenging. Boring background graphics won't help sustain interest.

Granzort gets off to a good start graphically with nice colors and parallax (though the bushes and ruins look paper thin as they scroll by)...

...but later backdrops are drab. At least the action remains satisfying.

Regardless of how they look, the levels are pretty fun to explore, though you can search high and low without finding anything aside from unnecessary 1-ups.

A few good whacks to the head will take care of this guy in Stage 1...

...but he wisens up for the return bout.

The blue robot is a throwaway character for the most part, but his defense barrier is essential during certain boss fights.

Head shots are in order here.

The last beast isn't very mobile, but it creates other creatures who can cause lots of trouble. Deal with them quickly if they're of the troublesome sort; but when a foe who doesn't do much (like the red goober in the above shot) materializes on the right side of the screen, leave it alone and bust up the boss with ease.