Doraemon Nobita no Dorabian Night

~ DORAEMON NOBITA NO DORABIAN NIGHT ~

Hudson Soft

HuCard

1991

This isn't a good game, but it really, really should be. It offers the sort of stage variety one likes to find in a cartoony platformer, as it features disparate environments that include prehistoric jungles, dusky graveyards, and Arabian palaces. Large sprites roam these areas (which look all the nicer when parallax is present), so the visuals are better than adequate (though some of the enemy sketches are quite crude).

You can explore the decent-looking lands to build up your stock of weapons (which will ultimately include a stun gun, lock-on bombs, and a behemoth-shrinking wand) and items (such as a propeller-topped cap that grants you the ability to fly for brief periods). Some trinkets even allow you to unearth secrets held by conquered stages (which you will be given plenty of opportunities to return to). Make a successful march to a world's end and you'll battle a boss (of course), with two tough guys making lasting impressions: a horned knight whose bolts you must deflect with your trusty mantle and a crazy-large bastard at the journey's conclusion.

Along the way, you can take a few breaks and play mini-games for bonus lives and power. This is strictly Gameboy-quality stuff, but hey, there's nothing wrong with offering some simple forms of entertainment here and there.

There are even some comedic "sketches" to relay the story and endow the game with extra personality.

This is all good. Unfortunately, Dorabian Night actually kind of sucks. It's extremely slow and easy and tedious--a flat-out bore, in the end. The pace is set at lackadaisical right at the start, and matters become monotonous when you're stuck waiting for the usual floating platforms to arrive and provide slow conveyance to the next dull strip. Hell, even a task as simple as stepping through a doorway seems to take the slow-footed protagonist an eternity. While you may occasionally find interesting things to do (such as riding a dinosaur--a slow-walking one, but still...), you'll spend most of your time engaged in tired, tedious routines like hopping repeatedly to avoid quicksand's deadly clutches, tiptoeing along in fear of pop-up spikes and falling chandeliers, and utilizing springboards or trampolines to ascend to high places (where you'll often find little but duplicates of items already in tow). It's worn-out material; the game is essentially an outdated slide show that proceeds at a crawl.

The enemies don't help its cause. They can be split into two groups, the first of which consists of small goofs who float about in slow, wavy patterns, basically begging to be picked off. Then there are the larger dopes; they're far too slow and stupid to ever cause any sort of harm, but they can take lots and lots of hits, forcing you to come to frequent stops and slowing things down even further. It all really drags after a while. And while the two bosses mentioned earlier are fun to confront, their peers are easy-to-crush jokes.

I guess this goes to show that designers can put all the nice ideas in the world into a platformer, but if they neglect to make it exciting in some way, their efforts will simply go for naught. It's very sad and a bit baffling that Dorabian Night ended up this way, but that's just how it is.

Godzilla

~ GODZILLA ~

Toho / Alfa System

Super CD-ROM

1993

Alfa System did a wonderful job on this fighting game's presentation. Even the pre-match "stage select" parts are memorable thanks to very cool music, Godzilla's fierce roar, and the large names of the combatants slowly sliding into place. It's stylish stuff that gets me psyched for battle every time.

The battles themselves are also aesthetically awesome. I've seen the backgrounds panned for being "too basic" at times, but they look great to me whether they involve "fancy" stuff like clouds rushing by overhead and dueling giants in the distance or simplistic depictions of faraway seas or planets. The monsters are large and well designed in almost every case, and while most of the musical tracks aren't particularly memorable, they always seem appropriate and effective for the scenes they accompany.

I figured that the superficials wouldn't be bad, but I was worried that the gameplay would prove too clunky for my tastes. After all, reviewers are fond of pointing out that the disc has you control lumbering beasts instead of lithe martial arts experts. But frankly, I can think of a number of fighters starring standard human clowns that don't control nearly as well as Godzilla does with its mighty behemoths. And I'm glad that the game, in one-player mode at least, goes for epic matches rather than quick knockouts. Battles between mega-monsters should be lengthy, hard-fought spectacles and should have a "do or die" feeling about them, and these ones are and do.

With its praise-worthy presentation and surprisingly sound play mechanics, Godzilla proves itself worthy of recommendation. While it doesn't quite rank among the best fighters for the system, it can certainly hang with the second-tier titles. But before you go ahead and purchase it, keep in mind that the Japanese release is much, much cheaper... and that price isn't the only major difference between the two versions. The PCE rendition features quiz bonus rounds that the US disc lacks.

This wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that you need to rack up high point totals to reach the elite monsters.

The US version's lack of bonus stages puts you at an enormous disadvantage, as it's possible to play phenomenally well--and I'm talking the game of your life--and still fail to reach the ultimate boss.

Of course, the assertion could be made that for players who can't read Japanese, the quizzes won't be of much help anyway. But believe me, every point earned is important, and stumbling upon even a few correct responses might make all the difference in the world when tally time comes. Still, if matters of collecting trump the notion of owning the fair and complete PCE release, at least Godzilla is what a lot of other expensive US titles are not: a damn good game.

Racing Damashii

~ RACING DAMASHII ~

Irem

HuCard

1991

Racing Damashii allows you to suit up and hit the road as one of the world's premier "DAREBEVIL RIDERS" (as the game's heartfelt epilogue lovingly refers to them). There's no superfluity of motorcycle games on the PC Engine, and Damashii doesn't play like the system's typical auto racers, so it's different if nothing else. Thankfully, the bike handles well enough to make the distinct gameplay a positive rather than a deterrent; and with decent graphics and some challenging courses, the overall package isn't unappealing after all. It beats Super Hang-On, for sure.

As in Victory Run, there's a parts-management element. You don't have to budget out spares for the entire trip, though; instead, you simply make race-by-race adjustments (such as replacing your standard "Slick" tires with "Rain" or, uh, "INTER MIDIEIT" ones, as dictated by course conditions).

The first order of business is always a two-lap time trial to determine your starting spot for the real deal. Figure out the lay of the land during the first lap, and exhaust your "turbo boosts" for a quick run through the second.

Then head back out for the five-lap main event, which won't feel much different from the preliminaries if you get off to a good start and never look back. Seven laps don't just fly by, so the game feels a little tedious and repetitive at times.

Win by a comfortable margin (as you likely will during the easy opening events) and you'll get to sit around staring at nothing while the losers finish their runs. This only adds to the tedium, but those early-stage victories will prove very important: points are tough to come by during the more-challenging races.

Inclement weather and super-sharp turns are tough to deal with, but your opponents themselves constitute the biggest concern later on, as they suddenly turn into talented speed demons.

Pit stops are a necessary evil. Try to build up a big lead before heading in for work, and don't take it for granted that your competitors will also need breaks (chances are they won't, especially near the end of the game).

Put in enough practice and you can become the greatest darebevil rider who has ever lived...

...but, uh, maybe it's best to leave the game unbeaten after all.

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.