Tanjou: Debut

~ DEBUT ~

NEC Avenue / HEADROOM / Tenky

Super CD-ROM

1994

Debut's language barrier is harsh--not as difficult to circumvent as Princess Maker II's, but far more troublesome than Tokimeki Memorial's, which is about where I draw the line denoting the limits of practical accessibility. You must manage a group of teenage songstresses, sorting out their weekly schedules as they strive to achieve stardom. I did a poor job: two of my girls were constantly angry, sick, or sad, and one decided that becoming a nun was preferable to dealing with me any longer.

The would-be icons participate in quiz games, swimming races, photo shoots, and dance contests. None of this is all that funny or entertaining or endearing, and interaction is always at a very low level.

Obviously, you should stay away from this game if you don't know Japanese, but even if you do, you might still want to avoid it. The presentation is lackluster, the in-game music is mostly boring, and even the vocal numbers fail to impress.

Shanghai II

~ SHANGHAI II ~

Hudson Soft / Activision

CD-ROM

1990

Shanghai II comes through in the ways that most players would expect a Shanghai CD sequel to: it offers multiple stack sets and tile types, red book music, and, well, fancier dragon art. The first element, I believe, is the one that will be of greatest significance to people who view the HuCard original as simple and dated. You can still play with standard pile arrangements and typical tile-face designs...

...but you can also change things up quite a bit.

Not being an enormous Shanghai fan, I was more interested in S2's soundtrack than in any of that variety-in-gameplay stuff. The tunes are certainly very nice, especially the Scorpion/Panther track, but they don't get me pumped up or bring me into the experience like the best of the HuCard numbers do. So, disappointed with the music, I was essentially left to reap whatever enjoyment I could from the tile fields themselves.

This didn't turn out to be such a bad thing. It's pretty common to pick away randomly at matching tiles and make a quick, painless first-time run through a given Shanghai board, but here you sometimes encounter devious arrangements that require a little more forethought and experimentation, and conquering these challenging setups can feel very satisfying.

While its music doesn't quite have the chip soundtrack's magic, Shanghai II greatly improves upon its predecessor in every other respect. Of course, since you can probably buy them both for a combined cost of under ten bucks, there really isn't any need to choose between them.

Shanghai

~ SHANGHAI ~

Hudson Soft / Activision

HuCard

1987

A Duomazov never turns down a PCE freebie, but Shanghai was far from the most thrilling Turbo toss-in I'd ever received. I mean, I already had a fancy version of the game on my PC, and I'd determined ages ago that if I were ever bored enough to fuck around with such frivolous extras, I'd play reliable old Hearts instead. So the HuCard seemed a long shot to entertain me, and its chances took a severe hit when I discovered how little it offers as far as play and presentation options are concerned. The only way to find variety in the experience is to alter the tile arrangement. So if you don't like, say, this board...

...you can go with, say, this board...

Sadly, each and every board left me very, very bored. The music was quite pleasant but so peaceful and slow that it only hastened my descent into sleepiness.

But then I messed with the menu options a bit more and found that I could play to the beats of two other tracks. Melody #2 shocked me: it's really fast and upbeat and got me so pumped that I actually... kept on playing.

And as I played, I found boards that proved tough for me to conquer, challenges that I simply could not back down from. Before I knew it, I was returning to the game for the enjoyment I was getting from taking on the harder levels. And I eventually discovered that the third melody is quite nice too: it's a mellow-yet-catchy number that brought to mind Son Son II's fantastic music.

If you enjoy the game of Shanghai and are willing to make do with a bare-bones rendition of it, you'll probably rate this chip satisfactory. I think it's worth shelling out the $2.50 or whatever extremely low amount the card goes for just to hear the music. If not for those quality chip tunes, I never would've bothered to spend enough time with the game to discover the fun to be had with the trickier tile setups.

Mami Inoue

~ MAMI INOUE ~

Hudson Soft / SOFIX / Red

Super CD-ROM

1992

Do yourself a favor and check out my disgruntled cousin Zigfriedhopov's Mami Inoue review, even if you're not the slightest bit interested in the title (and I don't suppose that anyone is), as the piece is quite good and very funny. I don't really have anything to add to what my thorough kinsman says about the game except that I find it to be so bad and so dumb that it actually ends up being pretty damn funny; and the "point and laugh" moments just keep on coming, as it moves along a lot more quickly than many of the other bad comic-style games for the Duo.

As perceptive Zigfriedhopov observed, there is an ever-so-slight difference between how Mami is presented and how all the other characters are.

Crudely sketched or not, the shades-wearing "coach" and the time-machine-eating dinosaur are impact characters who will never be forgotten.

Your destinations are presented in refined full-screen portraits.

Sometimes the two amazing art styles are melded seamlessly, as in this riveting scene.

Should neither style do much for you, there's some brilliant extra artwork to check out.

The plot is quite the exciting up-and-down ride. Scenes of brutal violence are followed by uproarious antics.

But yeah, to be serious for a moment, if you absolutely must have one of these "teen idol" titles, walk away from this crap and go for Kagami no Kuni no Legend instead, as it's actually a pretty good game.

Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys

~ YS IV: THE DAWN OF YS ~

Falcom / Hudson Soft

Super CD-ROM

1993

Fans of Book I & II get a treat right off the bat here, as Adol's confrontation with Darm is recreated in a thrilling opening cinema.

They also get the chance to romp through Esteria (the land that hosted the events of Ys I), visiting familiar locations, seeing familiar faces, and reveling in familiar tunes. I got chills as I played through the revisitation stretch for the first time. Ys IV will bring nostalgic tears to the eyes of I & II veterans as it effectively pays homage to its glorious predecessor, and it deserves a lot of credit for that.

Of course, IV has some money moments of its own, including fantastic "history lesson" scenes that feature moody, dramatic music and extremely cool artwork.

It also offers its own take on old-school-Ys-style combat. You can't simply have Adol lower his shoulders and bulldoze through everything now; you have to pay a little more attention to the impending collision spots if you're going to avoid taking damage. Despite the modifications, the bump-and-run method still lends itself to speed and convenience, and the Samson shoes (which turn Adol into a slow footed but nearly invulnerable wrecking machine) make late-game leveling a not-very-arduous task.

More impressive than the combat tweaks are the puzzles and challenges involving the environment, including a course of shifting desert sands and a bizarre warp-tile trial.

The graphics received the upgrade treatment and now flaunt slightly larger sprites and more background detail. I wouldn't call the visual improvements major, as I found Book I & II nice looking to begin with, but they contribute to the game's general appeal all the same.

The anime-style close-ups of the characters benefit from a new refined style: Lilia, for instance, looks much better here than she does in I & II.

Of course, despite Lilia's improved looks, Adol, as usual, finds a few new ladies to cavort with.

While I'm fine with the gameplay and graphical amendments, I'm not completely satisfied with the soundtrack. Sure, there are some brilliant tunes to be heard here, among which are the new rendition of Adol's hook-laden theme, the immensely catchy number featured during a late-game tower stretch, and the appropriately odd-sounding track that accompanies the warp-tile escapades. There are some forgettable and even awful moments, however: one of the field tunes, a repetitive electric-guitar-driven number, is horribly grating; and I always want to cover my ears when I hear the high-pitched shrieking that goes on within the flood-gate labyrinth. There are quite a few remarkable chip tunes included, however.

The humdrum villains constitute a greater concern than the hit-or-miss music. I would've preferred foes more intriguing than the cartoony lot we get here, as these miscreants would be more at home in a Schbibin Man game and seem particularly unfit when viewed as successors to the legends that were Dark Fact, Dalles, and Darm.

I don't like the fact that Dark Fact's old chambers are occupied by a chubby blonde oaf; and while the conniving girl looks cool on occasion, she doesn't do much aside from stealing a tactic from Dalles' old playbook. Evil bladesman Guruda does earn his place in PCE history with one shocking moment of treachery, but he isn't very memorable design-wise; he's just a generic blue-haired anime dude.

A lot of folks consider Ys IV to be the Duo's greatest action-RPG. While I do think it's very good, I don't agree with praise of that sort. I believe the game is outmatched in many respects by a number of its peers, even within the Falcom fraternity: Book I & II has the greater soundtrack and cooler villains, Legend of Xanadu is more challenging and features superior puzzle design, and Xanadu II boasts better visuals and more-satisfying combat. However, Ys IV does indeed offer up a fine overall package and stands as a worthy successor to I & II (which is truly the greatest PCE game of all time).