Metal Slug Defense - Mission mode - Missions 1 - 10

Have been a little busy since starting my new job, so haven't had the time to come on here often to update. (I tend to update my Youtube channel more often recently.)

Anyways finished uploading the videos for the Mission mode on Metal Slug Defense last night.



Mission 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoKehHfaEMk
Mission 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15g2Fhr2CFE
Mission 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zBXKC7Bvk
Mission 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9mHJZPD_DA
Mission 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0y8igPN24c
Mission 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5BzsU9CVqg
Mission 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Q5hMzTIJs
Mission 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G45S8RNvsc
Mission 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtsyN0NFyqE
Mission 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDElB8o7d6k

I'll try to update on here as much as I can during my summer break, but for more frequent updates check out (and subscribe to) my Youtube channel. 

[iOS / Android] Metal Slug Defense Out Now!

Was supposed to post up about this last night but I think I probably got distracted trying to kill mosquitoes (before they kill me!). Anyways Metal Slug Defense came out recently for iOS and for Android.

I've been testing it out a little bit, unfortunately my iPad is low on power and takes forever to charge via USB, and so far it seems like a fun little app. It's a huge improvement over the previous Metal Slug Wars game, which although I also enjoyed playing for a while was a pretty poor game.

As the title of the game kind of implies it's a bit like a tower defence game, you have to try and destroy the opponent's base whilst trying to protect your own. At some point I'll probably try to do a proper video review, but for now please have a look at the gameplay videos I made. (Apologies for the low volume.)

Shin Koihime Musou Otome Taisen Sangokushi - Kanu Basic [Loli]Combos

Just a quick video I made yesterday afternoon. Discovered this game quite randomly from related videos whilst trying to remember the name of a girl fighting game on the Wii was called (Twinkle Queen).

To be honest I was expecting it to be a bit like other recent girl fighting games (lots of air dashing abd dial-a-combos) but it does play kinda different from those games. The combo system appears to be largely centred around a counter system, where if you hit the opponent with a certain kind of attack (usually fwd+medium/heavy) it puts them into a kind of crumple and then you can bounce them into a combo. (Probably makes more sense if you watch the video.)

I should hopefully be making at least one or two more videos for this game, I've already got some ideas for combos for a different character. 

But anyway it's worth checking out, I'm playing the PC version at the moment but hopefully when I find a job I'll be looking to pick up the PS3 version.

A Quick Look At All About Street Fighter III : New Generation The Fighting Bible and The Characters.

I had a bit of free time today, so decided to make another video featuring the All About books. 

This time the video is about the Street Fighter III: New Generation books, although I'm not quite a fan of the SF3 series I do quite like these books and the artwork from the game.

The narration is a bit off in places as I found a problem using a video recorded with the iPad in that the sound doesn't convert at all when using Movie Maker. So I had to re-record the narration with Movie Maker. 

The image quality is a lot better than my previous video though, so at least next time I'll be a bit more prepared since I know that I'll have to record the narration separately next time.

I think for my next video I'll be doing both SF Zero books at the same time.

Monster Hunter 4G Second Trailer

New trailer uploaded by Capcom today, shows off some of the returning monsters to 4, the new subspecies, and that you can now jump-attack after being knocked into the air by another player!!

Spent a bit too much time playing MH4 (I think my save file is about 300hours!!), but still looking forward to this.

majijam - KOF02 Iori Combo

Just a short video from majijam's Youtube channel featuring a 5 bar combo on KOF02 with Iori.

Not quite sure what happens halfway through the combo but it's a pretty interesting bug.

A Quick Look At All About Garou Densetsu Special [Book]

This is something that I bought quite a while ago, and just haven't really had the time to talk about in the past. So have decided to make a video just going through the book, and trying to explain as much of it as possible. (My Japanese reading ability is still pretty weak.)

I really like these series of books, in the past I already made a video of the All about SNK book, and I'll probably make a couple of more videos about the other books I have in the series at some point or other. 

For some reason I thought I had the World Heroes one, and was actually planning to do a video on that today, but it seems I haven't bought that one yet. (Or maybe I have it in the UK...)

Daigo (Ryu) vs Xiaohai (Cammy) - Topanga World League Highlights

Saw this video pop up on my Facebook feed today, haven't been keeping up with what some of the more famous KOF players have been up to but seems like Xiaohai may well be becoming quite a famous SF4 player too lately.

Just in case you've never seen his KOF play, check out this vid of him playing KOF98UM.

[M.U.G.E.N] Hyper Dragonball Z - Basic Combo Video Pt.2

Spent the afternoon today putting together another little combo video, mainly it's just the things that I discovered right after making the first video. For example; EX moves and SSJ Goku's teleport.

I also decided to add notations to this video, took a bit longer to put together the video like this, but hopefully it's more useful than just watching the combos all playing out by themselves. 

I don't think I'll make any more videos for this game for a while, as there are quite a few other games that I'm trying to play through at the moment, but whenever they update with some more characters I'll probably get back to it again. 

But anyways enjoy the vid!

Garou Densetsu Premium / Samurai Spirits Kengo Hachiban Shoubu Pachislot Videos

There doesn't seem to be very much exciting that's announced lately for SNKP, to be honest even the STEAM release of KOFXIII wasn't very interesting to me. Seems like in the meantime they've already released a new Samurai Shodown (Spirits) pachislot machine, and are due to release a new Garou Densetsu one in June.

Check out a couple of videos below:

Samurai Spirits Kengo Hachiban Shoubu


Garou Densetsu Premium


Whilst watching the video for Garou Densetsu Premium, just made me think it'd be great if they released a beat em up like this. Could be something like this;

Anyways, at least now we know what they were up to when they were looking for 3D artists a while back.
Bloody Pachislots.

Some of the 3D models look great anyway, but just a shame this is stuck as a pachislot machine.

 

Lastly, can't remember if I ever posted it here before but during my first year when I was living in Tokyo I remember seeing a Garou Pachislot billboard in Shibuya and took a photo of it (You can also see a Tommy Lee Jones billboard).

[M.U.G.E.N] Hyper DragonBall Z - Son Goku Z2 Challenge Mode Playthrough

Just made a video playing through the Challenge Mode for Goku in the Hyper DragonBall Z sample game. You get to it by pressing start as the match starts in training mode. (As far as I know only Goku has the challenge mode in the sample version of the game.)

I didn't really plan how to explain the move list beforehand so it might be a bit confusing in places, hopefully not, but anyways hopefully it'll be useful to someone so never mind.

Took me a while to find out all of the motions for Goku, especially since the sample doesn't include a move list. I managed to figure out the majority of them but in the end went off to find a move list on Google Search and came up with this page.

[M.U.G.E.N] Hyper Dragonball Z - Sample Characters Basic Combo Video

Just a quick post before I head off to bed.

Downloaded the Hyper DragonBall Z sample last night, and spent most of the afternoon today playing around with it. Compiled a small set of combos that I've managed to work out so far and made the video you see above.

I've already managed to work out a few more things since making that vid, so might make another vid if I have some time tomorrow. 

Really interesting game from what I've played so far, there are a few flaws but nothing too bad that you can't enjoy the sample version. Check it out yourself here.

A Quick Look At - Jang Pung 3 - Korean Sega Master System Fighting Game

Quite a while ago I came across some information about a Korean fighting game made for the Sega Master System, at the time I think I just came across a few images and the ROM but never got around to actually testing it out until today.

For the most part its much like other Street Fighter clones, which were quite abundant at the time in which this game was made. (1994 if the information I have is correct.) Although I would say that there are other possible influences to the game, such as Fighter's History and possibly World Heroes.

Although not exactly an incredibly deep or well made fighting game, you do have to take into consideration the limitations of the SMS system as well as the fact that it is only a two button controller console. Once you understand that, it is pretty impressive for what it is. 

I did feel that the controls were a bit difficult to pull off moves, as well as some very awkward motions for some characters. For example; One character's move is down, forward, back + button 1, which probably doesn't sound difficult but given the fact that the input sensitivity isn't that great it can be frustrating trying to get things to come out when you want them to.

For the most part although characters seem to have been influenced by various other games they are slightly unique in the sense that they aren't straight clones of them. For example; the Ryu clone "SangHun" has a dragon punch but no fireball, instead he has some sort of dash punch.

Also what is reasonably impressive for an SMS game is that there are twelve unique characters. I haven't had the chance to go through each character individually yet but they all seem to have their own unique move-sets and haven't encountered any particular clones of each other.

The downside of it is that each character only appears to have two special moves each. (You can find the move-list here: http://www.smspower.org/Cheats/JangPung3-SMS )

Anyways it's a pretty interesting game to check out, I don't own a Sega Master System in Japan or even know where I could find a physical copy of the game (I used an emulator on my Wii) but you can grab the ROM at the site below:

ROM (Click the Telecharger link)
Move-list

And finally check out the video I uploaded to Youtube for some gameplay footage.

The Rhythm of Fighters / Metal Slug Defense trademarks registered by SNKP

Saw this over on Kotaku, seems like SNKP have registered trademarks for two games; The Rhythm of Fighters and Metal Slug defense.

Not very exciting in my opinion, but at least they seem to be making something. It's been a while since XIII came out, and although it was a fun game (that I haven't played for a while now due to not living near any arcades/not being able to afford playing arcades) I'm still waiting for the news of the next game.

 

In any case, have been playing a lot of the first One Piece Kaizoku Musou game on PS3 lately. Bought it some time during summer for Y250 and was reluctant to play it at the time because I was so horribly dissapointed at the Hokuto Musou game.

It has a much improved system over the Hokuto game, and is a lot FASTER. So have been enjoying it a lot.

I've also managed to finally get up to Infernal mode on Dragon's Crown whilst commuting to job interviews and getting my arse kicked pretty badly but it's probably the most interesting Vita game I own so probably gonna try sticking to it for a bit longer.

The King of Dragons Revisited - Completed with Fighter.

Been a little busy lately, looking for a new job and moving in to a new apartment but decided to take a little break during the past few nights to go back to playing a bit of The King of Dragons on the Super Famicom.

Was a bit more lucky this time playing through, somehow managed to find all three hidden Yashichi continues and it was enough to help me complete the game. Although I had read there were continues hidden in the game, I wasn't sure where they were or even how many there were so I was quite lucky.

One of them was hidden on I think stage 6 behind the pillar (at the beginning of the stairs section IIRC), and the other two were hidden at the bottom of the screen where you have to fight mummy monsters.

Have included a few images of the ending screen:

Also since I completed the SFC version, I decided to check out the arcade version via MAME to check out some of the differences between versions.

I think the most obvious difference would be that the game looks better, and I thought was a little more difficult compared to the SFC version.

When you pick up items the game shows you the points value of items, and when you hit the arrows/spears that are thrown at you it also shows you the points value.

There's also a thief, that's not in the SFC version, that sometimes pops out trying to steal your treasure. (This reminded me of Dragon's Crown a lot.) If you hit him he drops a gold pouch with a question mark on it.

The Black Knight boss also has two dragons on each side of the screen which shoot fire at you.

There were probably a few other differences but I can't think of them at the moment.

Anyways, managed to complete this version also. (Considering you can pump an infinite amount of credits into MAME, it wasn't such a great achievement.)

Overall, have enjoyed playing this game and would recommend it to anyone. I think if you are going to play both versions it's probably better to play the SFC version first as although it's a decent port there are still a few things missing. I could probably appreciate the arcade version a lot more as it felt more like a 1.5 version of the game lol.

Will probably continue playing it to see how far I can get with some of the other characters, may do another write up in the future with my progress.

Edit: Just went back and played the SFC version again and removed some of the differences that I made a mistake about. Also found out the continue Yashichi seems to have some kind of requirement, couldn't get it this time around. 

(PC) Dungeon Keeper for free

Although not a fighting game I saw this posted over on Kotaku this morning, and thought some of you might be interested. The PC version of Dungeon Keeper is free for the next 48 hours.

All you need to do is sign up on gog.com, they'll send you a confirmation e-mail, and then you can download.

Check it out here.

Street Fighter 2: An Oral History

I came across this article a few days ago, and it's a really interesting read. Basically it's like a series of interviews with many of the people involved with Street Fighter 2. There are all sorts of stories shared about how the game was developed and gives a bit of insight into the people who were behind the development of the game.

It's well worth a read if you get the chance to sit down and need something to read.

Check it out here.

Back In My Play's Look At The Omega CMVS (Consolized MVS)

Saw this posted over on Bordersdown's forums a bit earlier today.

Basically Youtube user Back In My Play has posted up a couple of videos with his hands on review of the Omega CMVS unit which is made by Arcadeworks.

It looks really lush, and it's designed to resemble an AES unit. Looking at their website it appears you can buy two models, one with a virtual memory card installed and one without.

It outputs either via RGB scart, composite or component and I believe the cost for each cable is an additional $15 each.





Looks really nice, and although I don't particularly need a CMVS (as I already have one back in the UK) it might be interesting to those out there who are still looking to dive into the world of MVS.

It's pretty pricey at about $500 but it looks like it's a quality piece of kit. Also it should be worth noting that like many people who own an MVS will tell you, it's a lot cheaper in the long run when you're paying for MVS carts as opposed to AES.

Goddamn Transformers...!!!

Today I bought Kettou Transformers Beast Wars for the Gameboy Color for the second time, because my first copy didn't load past the 'Nintendo' screen, and guess what? It doesn't work either!!

This copy although it manages to make it past the 'Nintendo' screen, it gets stuck on the 'Takara' screen instead...Maybe this is God's way of telling me not to bother with this game lol.

Although to be honest, I'm still gonna buy it if I see it again...Third time lucky maybe...

Anyway, to those curious about this game it's a 2D fighting game. I have a lot of really fond memories playing Takara's ports of SNK games on the GameBoy, in fact my first ever post on this blog was about the KOF96 port, so I enjoy tracking down their GB games.

You can check out some footage of the gameplay on the video below;

Monster Hunter 4G / 4U Announced (3DS)

Pretty much out of nowhere, Capcom has announced both the release of MonHun4G and the Western release as 4 Ultimate.

Apparently the save data from the Japanese of 4 will carry over to 4G, though I'm not sure if that means your entire character carries over or (IIRC) like in the older PSP games you can only carry over a limited set of items.

Also seems like a desert area is making a return, which may mean a return for some of the desert based monsters.

Anyways, 4G has been announced for an autmn or late 2014 release, whereas the Western release of 4U will be out sometime early 2015.

I only just stopped playing recently after about 300 hours game time, so great news. :D

A Quick Look at SVC CHAOS Extreme Encounters Mook - The King of Monsters & Animals / Backgrounds

Following on from the previous post about the SVC Chaos Mook, next up is a few pages featuring the King of Monsters & Animals section of the mook. From what I understand each of the characters if hit by Red Arremer or Athena with a super at the end of match will turn into a monster or an animal respectively. 

 

Not quite as interesting as the Midnight Bliss transformations in my opinion. 

Also although I can understand the choices of monsters/animals of a few characters, I completely don't understand others at all. Maybe there's some kind of in-joke or reference I'm missing.

But anyway, apologies for the sideways pic of the backgrounds stage.
I never really thought about it in great detail but although the backgrounds in SVC are beautifully designed, there isn't really much fan service in terms of background appearances from other characters or anything like that.

I remember reading a rumour that SVC Chaos was rushed out to fulfill the end of the contract between the two companies, so it's a shame that it wasn't really as polished as it could have been.

A Quick Look at SVC CHAOS Extreme Encounters Mook - Sweet Bliss Colliseum

 

It's been a while since I've done a proper write up about goods or mooks, I've picked up quite a few during the past two years in Japan but because of having trouble settling in to a new country as well as being busy with work I haven't had the chance. 

I'm going to start a quick write up of the SVC Chaos Extreme Encounters mook which I picked up a few weeks ago for the bargain price of 105yen at a Book Off near one of my part time jobs. 

As I'm never going to get around to doing a proper write up of it all in one go, I'm going to break up the write ups into smaller ones. So first up I'm starting with just a quick look at the Sweet Bliss Colliseum section of the mook. 

As you can see from the pics, basically this shows the characters after they've been hit and transformed by Demitri's Midnight Bliss super. Even though I'd played SVC a fair bit in the arcades and console, I never played as Demitri so it was pretty interesting for me to look at these.

Violent Ken's eyebrows a pretty crazy though right? lol.

As some of you may know the transformation of Goenitz is to the infamous Goeniko character, I'm pretty sure I have a doujinshi of her back in the U.K. lol...

I'm not quite sure what it says about Hugo's transformation, seems like it can mess up sometimes and you just get Hugo with boobs.

I did quite like that Orochi Iori turns into Miss.X from the Gal Fighters game, and it looks like Kyo turns into Kyoko. 

I'll try and get some more pics and get those up soon, there's still a load of other mooks and a few All About books that I wanna do write ups on at some point too.

Project Y - Megadrive/Genesis and Dreamcast

Just saw whilst browsing Bordersdown's forums that a new scrolling beat em up is being produced for both the Megadrive (Genesis) and the Dreamcast.

Apparently it's by the same guys who made the new RPG for the Megadrive a few years back, called Pier Solar.

The interesting point of this seems to be the RPG elements they want to include in this game.
In any case, you can read more details about it on Magical Game Factory's website.

Dragon's Crown Amazon & Elf Figures

Just saw over on myfigurecollection that the Amazon figure from MegaHouse is due for release in July this year, and will cost 9250Yen. Bit expensive for my liking but knowing from past purchases of MegaHouse's figures it will be a good quality figure.

(If anything at least the Amazon's butt looks robust lol.)

Playasia has the preorder for the figure up at the moment, as well as the Elf figure which is due for release in June.

Check out Playasia's preorder page of the Elf for more pictures.

The King of Dragons (Super Famicom/SNES)

 

It's been a while again since I've last posted.
Was a bit addicted to playing Monster Hunter 4, and I've been a bit busy being back at work again.

Below is my guild card in case you where interested, haven't played for a few weeks but might play it again this weekend since I found out there are some new event quests. 

Went back to London over Xmas and picked up the English version of Dragon's Crown, so have gotten back into playing through that again. Been going through it a bit slower than I did the first time I played the JP version, probably because I've done it before so I'm not as motivated.

Also whilst I was back I decided to bring back a couple of retro games to Japan with me, one of them being The King of Dragons on the Super Famicom.
Although I've owned this game for quite a long time, I have really made much of an attempt to playing through it properly. As I've been getting more and more into playing scrolling beat 'em ups lately, I've decided to play this a bit this weekend.

It's quite nice dipping into the old Capcom beat 'em up games to see where the influence for Dragon's Crown came from, particularly since (IIRC) George Kamitani had previously worked on the D&D games at Capcom.

It's a pretty fun game, and worth checking out. Even if it's just finding the rom and playing it on emulation. Fairly long in length as well, managed to scrape my way up to the boss on the 14th stage and found out after on Google search that there's actually another two more stages!!

Below is my latest score on the game, only wrote my name as 'A' because it doesn't save the score onto the cartridge anyway. (And was a bit pissed off I died tbh.)

Anyways also be sure to check out the Capcom Database website for loads of artwork of the game, have put only a couple of examples below but there are plenty more of great images on that site.