Thunder Blade

~ THUNDER BLADE ~

Sega / NEC Avenue

HuCard

1990

Thunder Blade is a hybrid blaster that alternates between vertically scrolling fare and "into-the-screen" sequences. Both of its play modes are afflicted with the same disastrous flaw: they're choppy as hell. Honestly, I'm not one to allow visual elements to make or break a deal, but the jerkiness here is revolting, and it impacts the gameplay significantly. Hit detection is way off during overhead play (which actually often works in the player's favor) while it can be hard to judge the positions of environmental hazards during the behind-the-'copter scenes (which, of course, is not beneficial to the player at all).

Still, TB is not difficult. Unless you're actually concerned about your score, you can easily steer clear of enemy flocks throughout the overhead strips, and there's a peculiar gameplay quirk that, if discovered, will allow you to cheese your way through the sub-levels that follow. The game also isn't epic in length, but by the end of its fourth and final stage, I'd had my fill anyway.

As hard as I am on it, Thunder Blade is not terrible. It's, uh, functional, I suppose. But I see little reason for anyone to go ahead and purchase it, as neither of its play modes stands up well. Space Harrier and After Burner II are faster and more challenging than the forward-flight levels here, not to mention that they feature smoother visuals and better tunes (though TB's music actually isn't bad). And we don't even need to look to CD to find about a billion PCE verts that crush TB's traditional blaster segments.

The choppiness in the vertical levels is completely unjustifiable. The bland, ugly terrain; small, simple sprites (the same few of which appear over and over again); and wimpy weapons don't comprise an adequate explanation. We're not talking ambitious stuff here.

I'm not letting these parts off the hook either, as Space Harrier, After Burner II, and even Jimmu Denshou show that stages of this style can be pulled off pretty well on the system.

Most of the bosses are large machines that require you to weave amid periodic blasts and annihilate cannons.

The final fight is reminiscent of boss confrontations in Burning Force, though BF's bosses are cooler and tougher than this thing. BF, of course, is much better on the whole, as are many other similar titles.

Ganbare Golf Boys

~ GANBARE! GOLF BOYS ~

NCS/Masaya

HuCard

1989

Ganbare doesn't make the greatest first impression. A mere two courses to choose from at the outset seems to indicate a lack of variety right off the bat, and matters only become grimmer once an actual round of golf begins. It's not that the graphics are poor, per se, but everything looks so tiny, and even prodigious drives appear to get little lift. The distant view will make most players feel detached from the action, and it doesn't help that this "action" plays out very slowly.

There's one thing that gives Ganbare a shot at success after its unceremonious start. A sweet on-the-course number made me think this would be yet another early-days NCS/Masaya effort that features good music but struggles mightily in other respects (think Energy and the first Schbibin Man). As I tried out the various play modes and advanced through a sequence of tourneys, I found that the soundtrack is no one-cool-tune wonder.

I also discovered that Ganbare's play system is actually quite solid. The targeting system is as simple as can be, and while the game's shot mechanism always feels fair, you won't master it without a little practice.

Blessed with nice music and satisfactory mechanics, Ganbare makes players comfortable within its simplistic confines to the point where issues regarding the game's speed and visuals are easily forgiven and forgotten about.

And while Ganbare initially seems opposed to the idea of letting anything that happens during play seem all that exciting...

...it eventually lightens up and has a little fun.

In fact, there's enough fun to be had here that the chip actually beats out a number of its respectable PCE peers. It's more polished than the Jack Nicklaus titles, and its shot-to-shot action flows more smoothly than Power Golf 2's. Of course, it's far from perfect and anything but a life changer, but it's a likable game and a viable option if you're up for some HuCard golf.

Appare Gateball

~ APPARE GATEBALL ~

Hudson Soft / Azuma

HuCard

1988

I'm not going to explain how the game of gateball works, as that would be boring, but suffice it to say it's a ball-and-mallet croquet sort of thing and its rules are easy to pick up on in this video context.

It's a straightforward kind of competition, but Appare here lets you "customize" your experience, offering two types of playing surfaces, three play modes, and a dozen nutty characters to choose from.

Despite that remarkable cornucopia of options, the game lacks charisma and can be quite boring. The characters look like wackos in their "close-ups," but they're all business when they hit the court. There are no celebrations when a tough shot is nailed, no displays of frustration when a foul-up occurs, no sideline-clearing brawls when one player screws over another. Yeah, I'm being a little silly here, but something could've been done to liven up the proceedings.

Sadly, a lot of players will find Appare not only boring but awful through and through. Its graphics are dreadfully primitive, and its targeting/shot-power system never truly feels reliable or precise.

I'm no gateball fan, but I do know that someone doesn't need to follow or enjoy a particular sport to have a good time with a video-game representation of it. I'll never be able to sit through a round of golf, but I poured plenty of hours into PGA Tour. There are many people (read: fools) out there who dislike hockey, but everyone played and loved NHL on Genesis. Unlike the aforementioned classics, Appare isn't going to make a convert out of anybody; but I wouldn't say that it makes a mockery of gateball (which is actually considered quite exciting by a lot of people who know the ins and outs of it), and I do get some enjoyment out of playing a good round and using a little strategy to screw over my opponents.

World Sports Competition

~ WORLD SPORTS COMPETITION ~

Hudson Soft

HuCard

1992

I've never been into these "summer games" types of titles. For one thing, I don't care for summer games. For another, they all instantly bring to mind NES Track and Field, which I feel is utter crap. I don't like it when a game forces the player to partake in rapid button annihilation to the degree that the process becomes a cardio exercise in and of itself. And in the almost-never cases where I've been willing to use a turbo-blessed controller to earn a cheap triumph in such a game, I've preferred to cheese my way through something a bit more entertaining, like Pro Wrestling.

World Sports Competition doesn't act ignorant of the fact that there are lots of folks like me out there, players unwilling to mash their thumbs and joypad triggers into oblivion. So while most of its events do call for some old-fashioned smashing, you can activate an "auto-fire" option pre-play. (Of course, with a TurboPad you can just flick the turbo switch and, voila, problem averted, but I digress.) And the designers tried to make even the call-to-smash events a little more interesting by incorporating other elements (which will be covered momentarily). But really, unless you're truly into this summer stuff and you feel compelled to set records for each type of trial, you'll probably find that there just isn't much to these mini-games. And while eighteen events sounds like a lot, don't kid yourself: there's plenty of redundancy from one to the next. With decent graphics and not-so-good music in tow, WSC rounds out to an average title.

The gun-based events are probably my favorites, as they don't involve button hammering and they do involve good timing, especially the pistol-firing trial. Small crosshairs make practice necessary in clay blasting.

Archery actually plays like a lot of golf games: you have to aim your shot while considering the strength and direction of the wind, and you have to utilize a quick-filling "accuracy meter." It's a decent, if not particularly hard to master, event.

The "throwing stuff" games require you to make your tosses at precise angles and power your efforts via button bludgeoning.

Most of the track dashes place heavy emphasis on mashing, as you might expect, though timely leaps are sometimes required for success.

Rafting and swimming competitions demand that you get into a rhythm of refraining and hammering lest you deplete your energy/oxygen supply. Getting the timing down can be challenging.

The game presents records for you to break--a little incentive for mastering everything, I guess. I couldn't find many other good reasons to stick with WSC for long.

Snatcher Pilot Disk

~ SNATCHER PILOT DISK ~

Konami

Super CD-ROM

1992

Load up this Snatcher promotional disc and you'll be given five options. Let's cut to the chase and take a look at each of 'em:

You can play through the game's first couple of scenes. Considering you get to view the opening cinematics, become familiar with the menu system, see a bit of gore, partake in a shooting sequence, and listen to some great music, this is one heck of a sample.

There's a long trailer that quickly moves through images from the adventure to the tune of cool musical tracks. A few scenes are displayed with different coloring here than in the actual release. Some might complain that this montage actually shows too much--it contains even more spoilers than your typical Duomazov review! But at this point, I think most people who'll watch this are Snatcher fans who have already played through the game anyway.

Then there's what amounts to a Snatcher encyclopedia. It provides lots of information on everything from the game's plot to the vehicles the characters pilot. The character profiles feature some nice artwork (tip: sometimes it pays to give a profile a second look...).

You can listen to interviews about the making of the game. This is where things get a little goofy, with the digitized photos and all, but I bet this makes for a pretty cool feature for people who can actually understand everything that's being said.

The music mode allows you to listen to three red book tracks. Very cool stuff, but I wish the game's excellent chip numbers were included too.

You'd think an old promotional item like this wouldn't serve much purpose at this point, but this one is fantastic and defies all that conventional wisdom stuff. I'm not the world's biggest Snatcher fan or anything, but I was thrilled with what this disc has to offer, and I imagine that people who are really into the game will love it. I kinda wish there were something like this for every cool game that's out there.

Snatcher CD-ROMantic

~ SNATCHER ~

Konami

Super CD-ROM

1992

People never hesitate to call Snatcher a classic and present it with the PC Engine digital comic title belt, whether they've played through its contemporaries (or even the game itself) or not. It's easy to discern how the title has been able to make such an impression on players, even those who have experienced it only through a small share of screen caps. Snatcher's boldness, manifested in all the blood and bare skin it flaunts and the many terrifying actions of walking mechanical monstrosities it depicts, has made it the legend that it is. I'm not one to allow a title to garner my reverence and eternal allegiance merely by featuring a few shocking moments, but I do appreciate Snatcher, as it plays a stylish game of suspense and actually gets more and more interesting as it goes along (for the first two of its three acts, at least). Also working in its favor are intense chip tracks that make the proceedings extremely exciting at times.

The formula wouldn't work, however, if it involved only shock and gore (and to be honest, the game does get somewhat predictable later on, when you're all too prepared for the odd events that take place with almost every move). While Snatcher does its job mainly with heavy atmosphere, it's bold enough to have a sense of humor, juxtaposing ultra-intense scenes with goofy segments that somehow manage to fit right in.

It also offers brief shooting scenes that make for reasonably enjoyable changes of pace and are definitely preferable to the worthless maze sequences that many other adventure comics force players to endure.

The only thing really disappointing here is that the final act is a total momentum killer, indulging in ridiculously long periods of nonstop babbling.

Well, at least most players will be able to enjoy the thrills that lead up to that dull last stretch even if they aren't fluent in Japanese. Now, make no mistake about it: you won't get through the game sans assistance if you don't know the language. But there's nothing that should completely stump someone who's willing to experiment a little and pay a few visits to GameFAQs.

I've experienced the entire adventure multiple times now myself--and I'll say that I don't consider Snatcher the best PCE comic. It's not as entertaining as Cobra II or as shocking as 3x3 Eyes or unendingly enjoyable like Galaxy Fraulein Yuna. But it's a great game with an effective soundtrack and more than just a few truly exciting moments.