Dangun Feveron - Cave , 1998

With the dawn of manic SHMUPS that were bought to us by Batsugun in 1993. New challenges and more intense experiences were open to us SHMUP fanatics. Cave with titles such as DoDonPachi and Progear no Arashi among others, consolidated as one of the best exponents of this particular sub-genre.

It's seems Cave was looking for something fresh, something of an alternative to DoDonPachi, but without giving away any of the deep engaging gameplay that characterized the DonPachi series.

And so it comes forth Dangun Feveron, a 70's disco-themed manic SHMUP in the vein of the DonPachi series.

There are three different Fighter-type spacecraft, each one with it's own shooting type and speed:

Type A - Weapon: [Straight Shot] Speed: [Fast] Pilot: Stephanie.

Type B - Weapon: [Spread Shot] Speed: [Normal] Pilot: Afro

Type C - Weapon: [Wide Shot] Speed [Slow] Pilot: McCoy

After you select your Fighter-type, you can also select three different sub-weapons types: A - [Lock-On type] B - [Bomb type] C - [Roll type]

If Cave is good at something is at creating deep scoring systems for their SHMUPS. Dangun Feveron uses a scoring system called the "Capture Score System". As you go on destroying enemies these icons called "Disco Men" will come up and then move slowly towards the bottom of the screen. You must attempt to catch them all in order to build your scoring combo link. If the Disco Men got past you and hit the bottom of the screen, they will bounce once and if you still don't manage to catch them, they will disappear completly. If you fail to pick up even a single Disco Men, it will reset your entire combo link to 0.

Of course Dangun Feveron's scoring system goes deeper than that, however since I don't own the game and haven't seen it again in years, I really can go very deep in this one, since my memory isn't really that fresh about the game anymore.

Since the game has a musical theme, you know a good soundtrack is a must, and from what I remember Dangun Feveron doesn't disappoint. (if you don't dislike Disco-type music at least) However for a game where music is very important I felt the main music wasn't loud enough. Maybe it was just that one Arcade I played the game at, but it seemed to me the music volume was too low compared to the special effects, and I actually had to really pay attention to really appreciate the music in the game.

Dangun Feveron is an excellent SHMUP as it's the usual with Cave, and it's worthy of being remembered. Unfortunately, the game is just one of those odd-games that you may see once if you're lucky but never see again after that. The PCB for what I know seems to be on the rare and pricey side, however I really don't know for how much it goes.

Gunspike - Psikyo , 2000

The year is 20XX A.D. A weak economy wreacks havoc in the world...Terrorism is rampant. With warfare spreading to every city, people live in constant fear...But that's where you come in, as you lead the members of an elite counter-terrorist unit called the Anti-Robot Special Force, whom equipped with a deadly arsenal and their high-powered Mootor Boots are set to kick all the ass they are able.

The character rooster is comprised of an stellar Capcom All-Star cast: Nash and Cammy from the Street Fighter Zero series. Arthur from the Makai-Mura (Ghost N' Goblins) series. Shiba from Roosters in the Wonder 3 Arcade multi-game. Bulleta from Vampire Savior. Simone, the original character for Gunspike. And last but not least, Capcom's game icon: Rockman.

The gameplay in Gunspike is very fast and simple, and not without it's quirks. A balanced use of your character's 4 diffrent main attacks is the key to survive through the game's 10 stages. 8 of which will be ordered randomly.

Rather than scrolling through the stages, you are put in arena-like stages where you will have to destroy all of the enemies and then the stage boss (or bosses) in order to clear them.

If you manage the heroic feat of finishing the game without losing a single life in dfficulty 4 or higher, a new round game will open up where the game will show it's true worth and difficulty. However, only elite players will ever access to such challenge reserved specially for them.

Gunspike is the perfect example of the type of game that you wanted to play at the Arcades. It's flashy, fast, simple and amazingly fun. Developed for the Naomi board, the game was translated perfectly to the Dreamcast console. Due to the game's look and design, the game is often taken as an action game rather than a SHMUP. So most of you console-lubbers, accostumed to 10 hours action games, might find a straight Arcade port like this not up your alley.

Twinkle Star Sprites - ADK , 1996

Developed by ADK, Twinkle Star Sprites is by all accounts a very unique game to this day. It can be best described as a mix of a Shoot 'em-up and a Versus Puzzle.

You pick your character from out of a colourful cast and duke it out against a human or CPU controlled opponent on a half-split screen, just like you would in any V.S. Puzzle.

You move, shoot and use smart bombs like in a normal SHMUP. And just like in one there'll be lines of enemies coming at you. As you keep destroying them you will be sending your opponent a series of balls of fire which act like punishment attacks in a V.S. Puzzle game. If you can shoot off these balls of fire you can send some invincible enemies or even a "Boss" enemy to your opponent's side of the screen, which will make his/her life a whole lot more complicated. Your main objective is to shoot down your rival, so whoever wins two of three rounds wins the game.

Along the rest of the developers that have innovated within the SHMUP genre, ADK has proven how flexible the genre can be should you put some effort into novel ideas an innovation. Twinkle Star Sprites successfully combines the tight and twitchy gameplay of the SHMUP genre, with the high competitive mechanics of a V.S. Puzzle. The result is a very unique game.

Twinkle Star Sprites is available for the Neo*Geo MVS, AES and CD. It was also ported to the SEGA Saturn and SEGA Dreamcast. The game is also included in it's sequel "La Petite Princesse" for the Sony Playstation 2.

Sexy Parodius - Konami , 1996

What better way to end the post than with one of my all-time favourite SHMUPS: Sexy Parodius.

For the uneducated, the Parodius name is the mix of Parody + Gradius. As it was meant to be a parody of the original Gradius series, and later other Konami franchises.

Sexy Parodius is the last and arguably the best entry in the series. The "Sexy" in the title comes from the light sexual overtone of the game.

This time around main Parodius characters Pentarou (a.k.a. the blue God of death) and lecherous Takosuke have turned the Parodius team into a public mercenary agency in order to help those in need, for a modest fee.

The main gameplay addition in Sexy Parodius is it's new objective-based structure. Since you were hired by your employers to do a specific task, in every stage you will given a main objective that you must fulfill in order t successfully clear the stage and satisfy your employers. Mainly this can be either to collect a set amount of objects or defeat a set amount of specific enemies.

Depending of whether you succeed or fail your objectives, you will be treated with either a victory or fail scene at the end of each stage. Also depending of your results you can go through the main route of stages, or through an alternate one. And if you manage the honorable feat to clearing all of the stages successfully, you will be treated with a sweet extra level for your trouble.

Parodius has always been an excellent Shoot 'em-up series that doesn't ask anything of the original Gradius series that inspired them. And in some aspects it's better than Gradius, since it seems it's off-beat premise gave developers more gameplay and design liberties.

Sexy Parodius is clearly the pinnacle of the series. The new mission objective structure gives the game a whole more variety, challenge and replay value. In addition, the excellent graphics and sound as well as it's unparalleled charm, make Sexy Parodius not only the best of it's series, but one of the best SHMUPS of all time.

Sexy Parodius is available for the SEGA Saturn, Sony Playstation and Sony Playstation Portable in the Parodius Portable Collection. It is quite simply a must-have for any fan of the genre.

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Unfortunately there's too many great SHMUPS that deserve a mention, and too few blog space. And while the revenge might never be complete, those glorious games of old will never be forgotten. Then someday, maybe someday the SHMUP genre will rise again and their revenge will be fulfilled.

Once upon a time Shoot 'em ups reigned the Arcade realm supreme as far as the eye could see.

During this golden era, the SHMUP genre was in a continuous upward spiral. Developers were constantly improving, releasing better and better games with improved gameplay mechanics and innovative ideas. The number of quality releases was mesmerizing and it was just an unrepeatable time for the genre.

Now the state of the SHMUP genre is totally different. The best developing houses like Compile, Raizing/8ing, Cave, Psikyo, Konami, to just mention some of them. They're all gone or just don't cut it anymore. The genre has become stagnant and lethargic. Whatever few games that manage to come out nowadays seem to have their developers focusing only in eye-candy graphics and filling the screen with bullets, as if that was all it takes to make a great game. But the sad reality is that most of nowadays SHMUPS have uninteresting and generic gameplay, inferior even to the average games of yesteryear.

The innovative ideas and premises seem to have died out completely. And at least right now there isn't any developer that you could say it could stand up to carry the torch and do the genre justice. Indeed, the future looks dire for the genre.

But to re-live the glorious days of old, the glorious noise and images of dozens of games coming at you simulaneously as you tried your best to concentrate and make your last coin last just one more minute. Indeed the cla$$ics don't want to die. They don't want to be forgotten in the annals of history. They want to be remembered, and they want their revenge.

The revenge of the SHMUP!

Guwange - Cave , 1999

The day I played Guwange at the Arcades for the first time I was truly surprised indeed. The developers at Cave had already consolidated themselves with the DonPachi series, plus games like ESP Ra.De. and Dangun Feveron. With Guwange they sought to give manic SHMUPS a new face.

Set in feudal Japan, you won't be flying an aircraft this time around. So you will have to walk your way through demon-infested Japan.

You can select from three different Japanese characters, each one with their own preferred weaponry and their own guardian spirit.

The gameplay is pure manic SHMUP goodness. Holding down the [A] button will let you control your guardian spirit as you walk around. Your spirit can either destroy or slow down the tsunami of bullets that will be heading your way, turning them colour pink. Mastering this technique and moving fast around slowed down bullets is the key for surviving. The game also had a really great combo scoring system.

I really love SHMUPS based in feudal Japan. It seems they have for norm being super-detailed. Not to mention the use of beautiful traditional Japanese music. Guwange of course doesn't disappoint in this aspect.

The graphics are superb. the game is filled with lots of background detail and truly great enemy design. The soundtrack is no less impressive. traditional Japanese tunes fit the mood of the game perfectly.

Needless to say I really miss playing Guwange. It is truly a gorgeous game with amazing gameplay and musical score. Like with countless Arcade cla$$ics, it's truly a shame it was never ported to home consoles.

Shippu Mahou Daisakusen: Kingdom-Grand Prix - Raizing/8ing , 1994

Talking about the innovation which nowadays SHMUPS lack. The SHMUP masters at Raizing started innovating the genre since their second released game, way back in 1994.

Shippu Mahou Daisakusen, from here after referred as "Kingdom Grand Prix" mixes the tight shooting action of a SHMUP with the speedy competitive gameplay of a racer with impressive results.

You can choose from within eight different characters/competitors, four who are returning characters from the original Mahou Daisakusen. Each competitor has their different attributes such as speed, shooting power and smart bomb.

The gameplay in Kingdom Grand Prix is ingenious. Besides dodging bullets and shooting off enemies like it's the usual SHMUP business. You must also worry about beating your competitors and winning the race. Which is no easy task to do with the no small amount of enemies that will try to slow you down.

The speed meter on the down left corner of the screen shows how fast you're going. There's two ways that you can speed up: the first way is your position. The higher you are on the screen the faster you will go. Of course this can be quite daring, as you will not be able to see the upcoming enemies or bullets. The second way is holding down the [A] button, this will work like your acceleration pedal. This is tricky since the [A] button is your shot button, so you will not be able to shoot enemies while you're speeding up. So in order to survive as well as to actually win the race you must do a good balance of shooting and speeding.

Fortunately, hitting your vehicle/character against enemies doesn't destroy you, so you only have to worry about their bullets. Since you're competing in a Grand Prix tournament, you ultimate goal is to obtain enough points to win the first place.

Kingdom Grandprix plays as good as it sounds. It mixes two unlikely genres together to create a very original and amazingly fun game.

I was fortunate enough to scavenge the old PCB here in France. But fortunately the game was released for the SEGA Saturn console in 1996, which would the optimal version to get. It's a truly great game to own for any SHMUP fan. And it's a genuine amazingly fun game regardless of if you're a fan of the genre or not.

Dragon Blaze - Psikyo , 2000

Throughout the years, Psikyo proved to be a very competent SHMUP developer.Their Gunbird and Strikers 1945 series were excellent. Not to mention the great game that was Gunspike. Dragon Blaze released in 2000 was one of their last released games.

You can choose from three different characters in Dragon Blaze: Quaid with his Fire Dragon, Sonia with her Aqua Dragon, Rob with his Thunder Dragon, and Ian with his cool Skull Dragon.

Dragon Blaze uses the 3 buttons: [A] button shoots, [B] releases your special power, and the [C] button uses the "dragon shoot" which is the special mechanic of Dragon Blaze.

Using the dragoon shoot will allow you to separate from your dragon, making your character fly around on his/her own. Pushing the [C] button again will make your dragon return to you.

You can use the dragoon shoot in various ways: first you can use it as a strong thrusting attack. whenever you separate from your dragon it will launch doing a forward short range attack. Any enemies killed this way will drop gold coins which are worth double than the standard silver coins dropped by the enemies.

You can also use your dragon as an auxiliary firepower. Once separated, your dragon will remain in the same place. You can then use this to your advantage to deliver extra damage, or to let your dragon deal the damage to the enemy while you concentrate completely in dodging attacks. Since your dragon is invincible, you only have to worry about your own safety.

At first glance Dragon Blaze can seem like Gunbird with a medieval fantasy theme. However Dragon Blaze is a pretty good SHMUP on it's own. The dragon shoot was a really good addition and it gives chance to use more varied shooting tactics.

With an excellent presentation and challenge, Dragon Blaze along with Cybern, are clearly the best dragon-based SHMUPS out there.The game was fortunately released on the Sony Playstation 2 console in Japan and Europe.

Armed Police Batrider - Raizing/8ing , 1998

In 1994 SNK innovated the fighting genre with the release of their King of Fighters series, which incorporated 3 on 3 team matches, as well as being the first important cross-over game.

Raizing/8ing always looking for something new to add to the SHMUP realm, decided to adapt K.O.F. ideas to their Shoot 'em up game and so Batrider was born,

You can choose from three different teams consisting of three members each: The Police Team, the Psychic Team and the Criminal Team. You can also choose Team Edit mode, which allows to form your own trio from all of the available characters.

Each character in the game has his/her own unique aircraft, and each aircraft has it's own attributes, options, shooting type and special power. If a character gets shot-down the next character in the team will take his/her place until all three get destroyed, then it's game-over.

Depending of what button you use to select your team/characters ([A] [B] [C] or [Start]) your aircraft will have a different attribute focus: Normal, Option, Bomber and Speed-UP.

Your special power, rather than being stock-based as with most SHMUPS, is ammo-based instead. That means that as long as you have the minimum ammount of ammo required you can pull off your special power. However you must have a set ammount of ammo in order to do your special power at full power. So if you pull off your special power with less ammo, it will have less power and lasting value. Also, not pressing the shoot button will pull out your Aura shot, which is another type of special power.

Batrider is a hellishly difficult game, though it doesn't really appears so but you will eventually notice. It is almost impossible not to get shot-down while playing on your own. The only way to go through the game without getting destroyed constantly is a great 2-player coordination, specially in the use of special powers, which are the key to survive in the game.

The graphics and sound in Batrider are also remarkable. The rough futuristic cyberpunk theme comes alive with an incredible attention to detail and background action. Not to mention the great and distinctive art $tyle used in the game. The enemy and specially boss design is simply terrific.

The music is Batrider is just as good as the graphics. The game soundtrack along with Batsugun remain my favourite Raizing/8ing soundtracks. And who could ever forget track names such as "Lets Ass-Kick Together!"? Of course the sound effects are also top-notch.

Despite already excelling in everything, there's yet another aspect where Batrider also excells. And it's the sheer amount of secrets and unlockables it has. Batrider has to be one of the most, if not the most secret and unlockable-filled SHMUP of all time.

By imputting the ever popular "Konami Code" you can unlock another set of "9" characters from other Raizing games. Most notably the Mahou Daisakusen and Battle Garegga cast. If that wasn't enough, they come with their own special features, like the formations for the Battle Garegga characters.

There's also different courses, Boss-Rush mode, secret and special Boss-battles and more!

Batrider is the ultimate Raizing/8ing SHMUP, and one of the best SHMUPS ever conceived. This is truly the stuff of Gods we have here. Batrider is simply amazing in all aspects.

I actually imported the PCB from Japan for the modest price of US$200 a pop, plus S&H.

The Game Paradise: Master of Shooting - Jaleco , 1995

Now this game has a kick-ass premise: A videogame villain has taken over an entire Arcade establishment. Unfortunately for him, the female attendant isn't willing to take any nonsense on her turn. So what does she do? Easy, she opens up the Arcade boards with a screwdriver and brings out all of the Jaleco SHMUP heroes to her aid. The five available characters come from Jaleco games Exerion, Formation Z, Butasan, Plus Alpha and Momoko 120%.

What's so cool about The Game Paradise is it's amazing all-Arcade theme. You'll be travelling through the Arcade establishment, fight Arcade-related stuff such as coins and Arcade cabinets and even go inside Arcade games themselves.

The game is a Jaleco's fan wet dream, as it's up the roof with fan service stuff. As you travel through the Arcades, you'll notice tons of Jaleco games, characters and posters in the background. Of course some games like the infamous Rival Turf, make me wonder if Jaleco really had to reminds us about them...

Funny enough, The Game Paradise could have been even better maybe if had it been based off another most prolific company than Jaleco. I mean, seriously, has there ever been such a thing as a Jaleco fan? like ever?

However if you're the only Jaleco fan on Earth, this is the ultimate Jaleco fan game, besides being a very good SHMUP with good graphics and production values. The Game Paradise game was ported to the SEGA Saturn console with a lot of extra stuff added, making it a worthwhile purchase.

-- blog post limit overload --

つづく。。。

Princess Maker: Faery Tales come True - aka "Princess Maker 3"

Princess Maker 3 marks a big departure in the series as the developers decided to turn it into a full Simulation game, discarding the adventuring and RPG elements that were present in the previous Princess Maker games.

The main premise of the series has also somewhat changed in Princess Maker 3. Now your daughter is actually a little faery who wished to become a human, but not just any human, a human Princess to be precise. (talk about some wish!) The Faery Goddess listened to her plea and granted her wish, although only half-baked'ly. As she did turned her into a human, but for some reason left the task of making her a princess to you. (how convenient isn't it?) Your daughter's default name is Lisa Anderson.

Like your daughter, the main interface now looks more slick.

This time around you're not stuck being the retired hero and you can actually choose your own personal background from within 6 different ones: Retired Knight, Merchant, Fallen Noble, Priest, Street Performer and Traveling Bard. Your daughter starting disposition towards you is greatly influenced by this. A daughter from a rich merchant starts all arrogant and snobby, while a daughter from a street performer will start pressed for money. Her stats and parameters will also start accordingly to your profession.

What's even cooler about this is that it doesn't only adds more to the depth and variety of the game but also adds to the challenge. A daughter from a retired knight or fallen noble will not have it that hard to become a Knight herself, or a General or some other top spot, since her monetary status will be very good and many of her important stats will be predisposed to increase at a higher rate or decrease at a lower rate due to your profession and her privileged upbringing. However turning the daughter of a street performer or bard into a Princess or even a Queen will be quite a challenge.

The list of Jobs and lessons have been seriously tweaked and only a few remain from Princess Maker 2. They're also now filled with events and sub-events where your daughter will ask for your opinion on what should she be doing. She will also get tests done by her teachers or even square off against some of her c/lassmates. She can also gain a rival for almost every c/lass she gets good at. While for the jobs, she will get incentives like extra money or items by her patrons if she does a really good job, and there can be special occurences as well. The animations are still there, but now they're 2D sprites over 3D backgrounds. Fortunately, they're still as good and hilarious as ever.

The animations are still as amusing as ever.

Your daughter's disposition plays a big role in Princess Maker 3. If she becomes spoiled, she will refuse to do mundane work, and should you still force to, the little brat will disregard your orders and just stay at home. But if she's pressed for money she will work harder and more diligently until you get out of the red.

Like I mentioned previously, Princess Maker 3 now is a full Simulation game. Which means the days of sending your daughter to venture outside of town to fight monsters and claim loot are over. So since there's no fighting at all in the game, it means all fighting stats and parameters are gone. There's no HP,MP, Fighting/Magic Skill stats, and "Constitution" has been changed to "Stamina". There's also no fighting equipment.

While this may seem like a real step back from Princess Maker 2, it isn't really. The game was designed from the ground up to make do without it, and it did so excellently. The exta depth and interaction given to your daughter and the job/lessons she takes more than outweight the lack of adventuring.

Your stats are now a lot more tricky to handle.

Personally, I don't consider the loss of adventuring a big loss as it's the fighting in itself. In the previous Princess Makers games I always enjoyed to raise my daughter to become a Hero or General. In Princess Maker 3 while these endings are still available, I just don't see the point. Raising a General out of dojo lessons alone just doesn't feel inspiring enough to me. On the other hand you're now motivated more than ever to raise your daughter a princess as an actual end-game goal, which can also be considered something positive.

I'm also glad that they kept the great ending variety. There's over 60 different endings in the game, many of them which require special events or actions to be performed.

The festivals on the other hand have been seriously toned down, which is in my opinion the only real downside of the game. While in Princess Maker 3 you actually have 3 different festivals: New Year festival in January, Cherry Blossom festival in April and the c/lassic Harvest Festival in October. These festivals only consist on the single event of having your daughter stand along other girls doing nothing. So compared to the contests available in Princess Maker 2 or even in the original, they're a total letdown.

About the only cool thing about these festivals is the cameo appearances by the previous Princess Maker daughters: Maria and Olive, plus your rivals from Princess Maker 2: Anita and Patricia.

The Harvest Festival is very uninteresting this time around.

While Princess Maker 3 lost something in transition it also implemented a lot of things that make the game feel unique and a challenge to even the most seasoned Princess Maker 2 players.

Princess Maker 3 was first released on the Playstation in 1996. But I would recommend you to avoid that version, since it's missing all the extra stuff that was added for the SEGA Saturn and Win95/98 PC versions. Also from what I heard, the PC version doesn't run on Windows XP at all.

This trilogy is by no means the only set of Princess Maker games available. Princess Maker: Legend of Another World was released for the Super Famicom in Japan not long after Princess Maker 2. But I never did go around playing that version myself.

Due to the series popularity in Japan and Asia, many Princess Maker spin-off games were released for the Playstation and PC. These range in the Puzzle, Quiz and Board type games.

Princess Maker 4 and 5 have been released not long ago for the PC, PS2 and PSP. And there most probably be a Princess Maker 6.

After Princess Maker 3 however, the series lost most of it's appeal to me. The former great Gainax artistic design now looks like your generic modern anime design. The adult innuendo has all been removed and the games have been cute'ned up to a level that they now look like something aimed to be played by girls. Something that the previous games tried to avoid at all costs. But if the series ever go back to it's roots, I would certainly get back to them in a heartbeat.

Overall, my personal favourite game in the series is Princess Maker 2. While the orginal Princess Maker is still by all means a good game, it has nothing that Princess Maker 2 doesn't do a lot better. And compared to Princess Maker 3 which I consider to be at the same level of quality. The fighting elements, the better Harvest Festival as well as all the little details and secrets makes Princess Maker 2 the big winner for me. Plus it has that retro feel that I find so charming.

This is all the Princess Making you will need.

I personally would recommend anybody interested in the series to download the DOS English beta version of Princess Maker 2 first. This is to help you understand and get into the series, specially if you're not used to play Japanese Sims with Japanese menus.

Then if you find yourself liking the game, (whch if you enjoy Simulation games you will probably love) then you should go after the Dreamcast Princess Maker Collection which contains the newest PC versions of Princess Maker 2 and 3 and a bonus Image Gallery. It shouldn't go above the $30 range, and it gives you two of the best Japanese Sims with uncanny lasting appeal and replay value.

But even if you don't want to download the English version, the Princess Maker games fortunately have a very small but determined fan base who have created various fan sites on the internet, in both "English" and Japanese with a lot of in-depth information about the Princess Maker games. From full menu and stats translations, job/school descriptions to ending requirements.

Princess Maker is just a series no Simulation game fan should miss.

Continuing along with the c/lassics. I want to talk about one my old favourite game series that I haven't mentioned before in this space: "Princess Maker"

Princess Maker is a series of Japanese Simulation games created by Gainax who are best known for their Anime works like Evangelion and such. They are a long living game series that continue to be highly popular all over Asia.

The games put the player with the daring task of raising a young daughter from the tender age of 10 years old and until she comes to adulthood at 18. Your guidance in this key timeline of her life with undoubtedly determine her future.

The basic premise of Princess Maker is that you were a valiant hero who vanquished evil and saved the Kingdom. For this, the King rewards you with a place to live within the realm and a yearly pension from the state treasury.

But that's not all. You're also presented with a little orphan girl who therefore is put under your care for her rightful upbringing. After all, what better person to raise this child than the hero of the Kingdom? After this, you retire to your new home with your daughter. Both will have a lot to learn from each other.

How could you possibly say no to this little face.

How you raise your daughter is entirely up to you. Ideally like the title implies, you can aim to raise her into becoming a Princess. Your daughter will be forever grateful to you and she will live happily ever after. That would certainly be a good outcome for your daughter, but it's just one out of the countless future possibilities that await her. As she has the potential to become anything her honored father wishes her to be.

Will she follow afer your footsteps and become a traveling Hero renown all across the land? Maybe a powerful Wizard or a great General that will defend the Kingdom. Why not go beyond the title of Princess and try to make her Prime Minister or Archbishop. If you're truly dedicated you can aim for the highest spot and make her the ruling Queen of the Kingdom. Wouldn't that be something?

But what if neither of you want to carry the pressure or just aren't interested in aiming for such prestigious and so hard to get status? If that's the case, your daughter also has the possibility of doing what she loves the most as a profession. Writer, Teacher or Judge are just some of the many professions your daughter can do to become a productive member of society.

Of course the door to evil, lust and excesses is also open to her. Should you choose to raise her this way, she can become anything from a petty bandit assaulting pedestrians, to a crime boss ruling the city. A shameless high-c/lass prostitute or a Con-Artist. But if evil has totally taken over her heart, then maybe she can become the Queen of Darkness herself and rule over underworld.

But even as much as those life prospects in your opinion may or may not seem dreadful for your daughter. There's even a worse door that is also opened to her: the door to failure. As even being Crime Boss requires work.

If you were a terrible father who never took the time or just didn't know how to properly educate your child. She can end up being something on the likes of a plain maid doing housework for a meager pay. A frustrated divorced woman whose husband has just left her, or a cheap prostitute hanging around the streets at night. So much for the daughter of a supposed hero.

Your guidance will determine your daughter's outcome.

In how you choose to guide and educate your daughter lies her fate and future profession. There's over 60 different endings for your to discover, so actually making your daughter a princess is far from being your ultimate goal in the game.

Like many many Japanese Sims, Princess Maker main focus is that of stat building and management. While many of your choices and actions can help define your daughter's future. Her numerous stats are the main factor which will determine if your daughter ends up being a Ruling Queen or a Tavern Wench.

You can increase or modify your daughter's stats in various ways, but the main two are through work and schooling. As you will soon discover, your annual pension is insufficient to give your daughter a proper education. Not to mention that she also has to eat, get dressed, have birthday presents etc. Needless to say as with real life, money is a necessity in Princess Maker. And so your little girl will have to work and learn the hardiness of life at such a young age.

There are plenty of jobs your daughter can do, depending on what attributes you want her to increase. They range from farming and masonry to baby sitting and hair dressing. At the beginning only a set of jobs fitting for a 10 year old girl will be opened to her, but as she grows up more jobs appropriated to her age will become available. You can even send her to work at the "Sleazy Bar" and make a lot of money. But then, she will lose the faith, morals and temperament she worked so hard to learn when she was young. So she probably will become a woman of ill repute. Nevertheless, the choice is yours to make.

Grave keeping is certainly a normal job for a little girl.

Of course your daughter will only get paid if she performs well at work. On days where she messes up or plainly refuses to work, she will only gain the experience from it, but no dinero.

Kids must not relegate their studies and your daughter is no exception. If you want her to be something in life then you will have to make her study diligently. The lessons she can attend to are very varied. Lessons like fencing will teach her how to fight. She can get in touch with her artistic side with the poetry and dancing lessons. Or she can take theology and increase her faith and morals.

Generally the jobs and lessons you take will increase a set of stats but decrease others, although this is not always the case. The game progresses on a month by month basis. You fill your daughter's schedule with the activities you want her to do for the month and then they will be carried out.

Every action your daughter performs raises her stress level, which is not a good thing for a girl of her age. If her stress goes up too much against her constitution, she will become rebellious and will often refuse to work. In addition she can run away to town and spend her money recklessly or even run away for an entire month wasting it for you. In the worst case scenario your daughter can get really sick and will force you to send her to a sanatorium or else she runs the risk of dying.

To prevent this, it is a good idea to give her some free time to relax, which will greatly decrease her stress. Although this will lower your daughters feelings towards you a bit, since she goes off to town without you, so I guess it makes her become less attached. Ideally you want to go on vacations with her. specially to the beach in summer which will decrease her stress considerably.

Your daughter must also learn the art of ass kicking.

You can't just give her free time or go on vacation every month though. You will not make good progress this way. If your daughter becomes rebellious but you have a very good relationship with her, you can reduce her stress significantly by scolding her.

You can also send your daughter to venture outside of town to fight monsters and find treasure. (after you outfit it properly for the task of course) In October the annual Harvest Festival will take place and you can inscribe her to participate in various events and test what she has learned.

The Princess Maker Series:

Princess Maker 1

The first entry in the series and understandably the most basic. Your daughter's default name is Maria Rindobagu, a war orphan.

There's a good job selection but only 3 school lessons to take: fighting, magic and dancing. They don't have any animations, instead different portraits of Maria will indicate how is she performing in her tasks.

There's a big area for Maria to explore, but it's strictly linear and devoid of secrets. The Harvest Festival also has 2 events for her to participate: Combat Tournament and Beauty Contest.

The graphics and presentation of the game have been enhanced since the 1995 PC-Engine CD version. There's also a newest Windows 98/XP PC version called "Princess Maker Refine". The game has also been released for the PS2. However the core game has remained the same than the PC-98 original in all of the newest versions.

Screenshot comparison:

Original PC-98 version.

PC-Engine CD version.

The PC Win98/XP "Refine" version

Princess Maker 2

A totally overhauled sequel. Princess Maker 2 improved over the original in every possible aspect and then some. Your daughter's default name is Olive Oyl, and she's been entrusted to you by the Gods.

To begin, your daughter's birth date now besides defining her starting stats also attaches her to a certain God. This God will be the one that puts her into your care and will be her patron deity throughout her life.

Making Princesses since 1210.

You can now choose various diet regimes for your daughter. "Robust" for example, will increase her constitution on a monthly basis, but she will also gain weight as well, which will eventually make her chubby and her dresses will not fit her anymore.

The number of school lessons available has increased considerably and new jobs have been added. They are also now fully animated as well, with some animations being hilarious.(specially when your daughter fails at work) If your daughter is truly dedicated at honing her skills. a deity may come and visit her to commend her for her hard work and grant her their favour increasing her skills.

There's 4 areas for your daughter to explore and they are filled with secrets and stuff to do. The traditional Harvest Festival now has 4 events open to participate: Combat Tournament, Art Exhibition, Dance Party and Cooking Contest.

Your daughter battles Anita at the Combat Tournament.

It will take too long to go into detail about Princess Maker 2 as it's a very deep game with tons of secrets. But undoubtedly the best thing about the game is it's sheer variety and amount of secrets that complement perfectly the already amazingly addicting gameplay of the original.

While the original Princess Maker became very popular throughout Asia. Princess Maker 2 was a massive hit and has been ported to 12 different systems over the years. Which makes it one of the most ported games in history, which is quite something for a game that is almost unknown in the west.

Princess Maker 2 English beta version

Princess Maker 2 was actually set to be localized for PC by a developer named Soft Egg. But the game was just too much for western audiences. The fact that you can send your daughter to work as a bar hostess, make her a prostitute or even get her to marry you. This among many, many other explicit stuff that caused the media to the catalogue the game as highly offensive to women and sexist. Eventually Soft Egg yielded to the pressure and the game was canceled.

The English DOS beta version did actually exist and was eventually leaked to the internet. It has since then been distributed as "Abandonware" and you can download it free off the internet, although from what I heard Soft Egg wasn't too happy about this.

I downloaded the beta version a long time ago on my old PC, so I know by first hand that it works perfectly. I could never get the sound to work though. Supposedly I had to download some DOS emulator to get it work, but I never dared to as I thought it wasn't worth it just for one game.

If I remember correctly the game is about 90% complete, with the only stuff missing being a couple of vacation pictures that were supposed to be re-edited but were never finished. Some missing text for some of the rare endings, and some typos here and there. Other than that, the game is pretty much complete. Best of all it's less than 10MB in size if my memory doesn't fail me.

Picture from the Princess Maker 2 DOS English beta version.

If you're interested in the Princess Maker series or in Sim games in general, I highly recommend you to look for it and download it. I don't think it will be too hard to find. It's truly an amazing game with incredibly lasting appeal and replay value. And just one of those games that never gets old.

Princess Maker: Faery Tales come True - aka "Princess Maker 3"

つづく。。。

...Continued from last post:

Rise of the Dragon - Dynamix 1993

A cyberpunk Adventure game originally from the PC. Rise of the Dragon was the game that personally initiated me in the Adventure genre.

We all know most cyberpunk games are heavily inspired by the film Blade Runner, since it popularized the cyberpunk theme. So the real question for games should be on what level do they take their stuff from the cult film. Fortunately, Rise of the Dragon while indeed draws deeply from Blade Runner, it doesn't go so far as being a total rip-off.

You take the role of William Blade Hunter (for real) your cliched wasted cop turning private detective, only funnier and witty. The place is Los Angeles 2053, and the daughter of the mayor has died after trying a new designer drug. but not before mutating into a horrible creature. The mayor devastated, charges you with the job of finding what really killed his daughter and what is behind this new drug.

For the Mega-CD, the game improved over the PC version by adding full voice acting. This greatly enhanced the feel and immersiveness of the game. Most notably the main character Blade is voiced by Cam Clark, who does an excellent work along most of the rest of the cast.

Rise of the Dragon has a rather rustic design, like most of the old western Adventure games. I remember the game was a pain for me to play back then, since some puzzle solutions were very obscure and my English wasn't good. But the game does have many ways to advance throughout it as well as multiple puzzle solutions.

The game has some Arcade action shooting sequences that kinda deviate from the main experience. But thankfully these are few and not long, and can be skipped altogether.

Rise of the Dragon made me love the Adventure genre from there after. A very immersive and moody cyberpunk game, though it does have a very old feel to it by now. More because of it's dated design and interface than for it's graphics or sound. Regardless, the game is highly recommended for Adventure fans and Mega-CD owners.

Sonic CD - SEGA 1993

Labeled by many as the best and deepest Sonic The Hedghog game. Sonic CD made a blast into the Mega-CD with it's novel time-traveling gameplay mechanics and rockin' hard Red Book CD soundtrack.

In Sonic CD you can travel to three different versions of the same level: present, past and future. Each one with a different look, level layout and music. Depending on the actions you do in the past you can affect the outcome of the future, and get either a "Good Future" where there are no enemies. Or "bad future" where Dr. Eggman and his robots rule supreme.

The highly praised game soundtrack was the subject of some controversy at the time. While the Japanese and European versions of Sonic CD featured the original soundtrack chosen by Sonic Team. SEGA of America requested Spencer Nilsen to write a custom soundtrack for the game.

The problem then, was that some of the music in the US version of the game don't really fit well with the stages. The song "Sonic - You Can Do Everything" was replaced by "Sonic Boom" and the song "Cosmic Eternity - Belive In Yourself" was totally removed.

For that reason the original soundtrack is rated higher than the US version one, since it's just the music that the developers planned for you to be listening to.

Sonc CD is an excellent platformer and a flagship title of the system. Best of all, to my knowledge the game has remained relatively unexpensive to this day and one of the easiest games to find. A must-have purchase really, Sonic CD just has to be in eveybody's Mega-CD collection.

Watch Intro

Weird Japanese Game Award

Weird Japanese games are a fact of life of any console with enough developement interest. While these types of games usually come in numbers. Unusual games that are actually good are scarce and so they stand out the most.

This volume best weird Japanese game award goes to:

Mahou no Shoujou "Magical Girl" : Silky Lip - Riot 1992

So lets see what we have here: "Magical Girl: Silky Lip" a game by Riot/Nippon Telenet. Well known developers for many sub-par games covered in mantles of great and charming anime artwork. Designed specially to entrap gamers into impulse buys based solely on the looks of it.

And wouldn't you know it? the main protagonist of this game is Lip. A kawaii pig-tailed school girl that wears a short as-it-can-be mini-skirt and white nylons. A character totally designed and aimed to enthrall young otakus.

Even more, the back cover of the game doesn't even feature any in-game screen shots. A despicable practice done by some publishers. Instead, it features a full picture of our heroine in all of her mini-skirt glory. What a surprise.

With all this, anybody who doesn't fall right in for the cute protagonists would probably stay as far away as possible from this game screaming "run for it it's a trap!" But fortunately, that's not the case this time around.

A rather popular Mega-CD game, Magical Girl: Silky Lip is an Adventure /RPG game that takes a basic Adventure games mechanic and turns it into a unusual gameplay premise.

As mentioned previously, the main protagonist of the game is Lip. Your regular otaku deathtrap. She is a student of magic in the demon world. Lip has been summoned by the supremacy King of the demon world. She has been candidated to become the next term Queen. But first, customs dictate students must spend a year living in the mid world (our world) in order for their character to be judged and see if they're worthwhile, in this case, of Lip being the next Queen, since she's not the only candidate.

The name of our heroine is actually an acronym that stands for: (L)anguage (I)nteractive (P)icture. Which is the name of the gameplay system used on this game.

Basically it works like this: You have 3 main attributes: Angryness, Sadness and Joy. Every time you enter into a relevant conversation with another character you can reply them in an angry, sad or joyful way. Depending of the type of answer you pick, you will increase such attribute and decrease the opposite. If one attribute gets to 0, you can no longer pick that type of answer until you increase it's attribute again.

You will be judged accordingly to how well you carry on your conversations in hopes to increase your rank level and qualify for term Queen.You will also get engaged in a few JRPG type battles, in which your first enemy is a perverted street exhibitionist.

The game progresses in chapters as it was a TV anime show. And just like one, each chapter has an opening intro and ending credits. The mid world city that Lip gets send to, is a quite big sandbox type area, though not as interactive as it could have been, it's still very nice indeed.

Overall, Magical Girl: Silky Lip is as niche a game as it can be. With extreme limited appeal to everybody but avid importers. If you frequented import stores back then, it's most likely you saw this game at least once around . (I used to see it frequently, but it's not the case anymore) However, the game does well what it aims to do, and it's a very pleasing Adventure game if you can dig it's premise.

The next year, in 1993 Riot released another game in the same s/tyle than Silky Lip: A-Rank Thunder: Tanjouhen. A more dark Adventure game that uses a variant version of the LIP system. The game although decent like Silky Lip, with more potential even, it's incomplete. As it was meant to be the birth chapter of a series but ended up as the only game released. So the game is like only the CD 1 of a multiple CD game so you understand.

In 1994 Magical Girl: Silky Lip was set to hit the PC-Engine CD, bu it was eventually cancelled. From what I've heard, Silky Lip has been recently remade for PC with a more "mature" overtone.

Watch Opening - Watch Ending

Hall of Shame

We all know there are bad games, and there are really bad games. I've bought many really bad games for the Mega-CD. Sometimes I fell for the cool-looking cover, other times for blind-faith in developers I had faith into. But if my experience can save others from the same displeasures and disappointments I experienced, then at least something good came out of it.

This volume Hall of Shame award goes to:

Annet futatabi - Wolf Team 1993

Ah, Wolf Team. A developer subject to a lot of different opinions. But they were certainly one of the most inconsistent developers around when they still existed. Making 1 good game for every 3 crappy games they released. Though all of their games even the good ones were of an acquired taste really.

As you can tell by the title, the main protagonist of the game is "Annet Futatabi" from the great Mega Drive Action/Platformer game "El Viento". Platforming days are over for Annet unfortunately, and she now stars in this sub-par beat 'em up along with her foster father "Earnest Evans" who also starred in his own Platforming game.

Annet Futatabi is one of the poorest beat 'em up games I've played. And let me tell you I've played a lot of awful SNES ones.

The hit detection is one if not the worst I saw until then since Double Dragon II. The graphics look ancient and the animation even more. It's almost non-existent level but to the most basic moves.

The game just has an overall broken feeling from the minute you start playing. And the fact that is a rather long beat 'em up game doesn't really help it's cause, since the game is more of a chore and than a fun experience.

Ultimately the worst thing about this game is that it wasted the opportunity for another El Viento game. Instead, we got stuck with this broken beat 'em up game that importers should avoid at all costs.

It's not really funny how the worst games I bought for the Mega-CD were from either one of these two developers: Wolf Team and Riot. which shared one common publisher: Nippon Telenet. One of the most questionable publishers for many Japanese gamers, but a cult publisher for a selected minority.

This is really unfortunate because Wolf Team along Game Arts were the most supportive third party developers for the Mega-CD. Releasing a lot of games for the system. But sadly, unlike Game Arts, all of Wolf Team games for the Mega-CD were just average at best. They were definitively better on the core Mega Drive.

Sometimes I wonder if Wolf Team (along with other Nippon Telenet developers) would have been happier and more successful as an anime studio rather than as a game studio. Since it seems their artwork designs were always top-notch and just plain better than their gameplay ones.

Well, that's it for the first volume of the best of the Mega-CD.

'till the next one!

The Mega-CD was a great system and home of a lot of great games. Some are well-known and some not so much. It is a system that's still worth owning and playing. I will be presenting you with the highlights of the system. The best that it has to offer.

Due to the high amount of quality games as well as limited blog post space. It will take several volumes to feature all the great games the Mega-CD had.

So with that said, on we go with the first volume!

Alshark - Sand Storm 1993

A cult game in Japan. Alshark is a 1991 PC RPG developed by Right Stuff originally for the Japanese PC-98 and Sharp X68000. The game was ported by Sand Storm to the Mega-CD in 1993. and re-made by Right Stuff themselves on the PC-Engine CD in 1994, which version was the one that popularized it among Japanese console gamers.

Alshark is a traditional Japanese-s/tyle RPG. And when I say "traditional" I meant it in every sense of the world. The game has a random battle encounter rate like you've never seen before. The interface doesn't have the user friendliness of even some late 80's/early 90's Japanese RPGs, nevermind what gamers are used to nowadays.

Alshark is a game of serious contrasts. On one hand it has a rustic, archaic even game design. And on the other hand it has some of the most unique and influential design features of it's time. In fact, Alshark could be very well considered the Japanese Mass Effect of it's time.

As a Sci-Fi based RPG, you have command of your own spaceship: the Atlia. Which you can customize and equip it with various weapons, frames and engines. You can use the Atlia to travel throughout space to several Solar Systems, each one with their own sets of planets and space stations. In space, you can engage in dogfights against enemy spacecraft,and even scramble a fighter ship to assist you. On land you can travel on foot, or in various vehicles like tanks, buggies and hovercrafts.

Your party comprises of 5 members out of a colourful and well designed cast of characters. You can equip your characters with the likes of ray swords or all kinds of fire weapons like hand guns, machine guns and bazookas. You can only control your main character "Shion" in battle. The rest of your party controlled by the A.I. that for the most part does an excellent work. You can also talk to your party members to see what they're thinking, or in case you forgot what were you doing.

Sand Storm was the developer in charge of porting Alshark to the Mega-CD, and unfortunately, they didn't do a good job. The game slowdowns when too many sprites are on screen. And slowdown on a 2 year old game that looked as ancient as this in 1993 is just plain unforgivable. And it's nothing else than the sign of bad and lazy programming. The Mega-CD version seems to be a port of the PC-98 version, only it looks less colourful because of the Mega Drive's limited colour palette.

On the plus side, some new cut-scenes were added. and of course, the amazing Red Audio CD soundtrack, which is the best of all of the game's versions.

I have to say that very few games have surprised me in the way that Alshark did. If I remember correctly, I bought Alshark in 1995, though knowing beforehand that it was a revered cult game in Japan, I was put down initially by it's archaic design and mind-boggling amount of random battles. Only to be totally overwhelmed after the first few hours of play. And I remained glued to it all throughout it's great and lengthy quest to a point that I ended up not caring at all about it's flaws.

I've little doubt that had this game came down overseas in a system like the NES/Master System. It would nowadays be regarded as one of the best c/lassic RPGS in history by gamers everywhere.

Alshark is certainly one of the best JRPGs ever. A true JRPG gem actually deserving of it's cult status.

Alas, for most of nowadays RPG gamers, enjoying a game like Alshark is almost an impossibility. Probably only the most dedicated of gamers will give the game a chance, which is unfortunate for a great praised game such as this.

Dark Wizard - SEGA 1993

The best Strategy/RPG game of the system. Dark Wizard is a deep and engaging game as every Strategy game should aim to be. And once you get into it, you won't be out for quite some time. I can't begin to count the amount of hours I spent with this game when I was younger.

At first glance, Dark Wizard looks not even worth of being a Mega Drive game. But what it lacks in graphics it doubles it in the gameplay department. The game does have attacking animations, but after you see them all, you'll end up disabling them, since they take too much time. I personally only enabled them for boss battles for that extra drama!



Some gamers actually used to praise the game's long anime cut-scenes more than the actual gameplay, which is a terrible mistake. Since the gameplay is simply diamond. Dark Wizard it's actually the predecessor of the Dragon Force games for the SEGA Saturn.

Dark Wizard has a very deep learning curve however, and it's very time demanding. Add to that the dated graphical feel and you have again a game that sadly only a certain fans of the genre that didn't played the game when it first released will play it now, which is a terrible shame.

Dark Wizard is certainly one of the best Strategy/RPG games of the 16-bit era.

Dennin ALESTE "Robo ALESTE" - Compile 1992

The successor of the amazing Musha ALESTE. Dennin continued the ALESTE gaiden entries based on an alternative mechanized feudal Japan. How this fictional era came to be is actually explained in the detail in the game. Unfortunately like many localized Mega-CD games of the time, the English versions feature boring and lifeless voice acting.

Dennin is not really the tour-de-force that Musha was. The game has a slower pace, however the gameplay was tweaked to match it, as power-ups no longer shield you. The weapon system also has been tweaked, though if that was for the best could be argued. There's one more power up (shurikens) and they are all much cooler looking but your positionable options are gone. They now can be launched at the enemy, I guess to cover up for the fault in Musha that if you get destroyed you end up severily underpowered without any power-ups. The bad thing is that this ends up being useless unless you do get destroyed. Because if you launch your options you can't shoot your sub-weapon leaving you overly exposed which translates in you certainly getting destroyed. On the good side, your options can now destroy some bullets and damage the enemy by touching them which encourages a more aggresive gameplay s/tyle.

The game has the same amazing shoot 'em up quality gameplay that Compile is renown for. The graphics and attention to detail is unparallelled in any Compile SHMUP, with only the soundtrack perhaps being a little to soft comprared to Musha's.

The real thing that amazes me about Dennin ALESTE more than the game itself is how it has remained so cheap all this time. Had this game been on the PC-Engine CD you can bet your life the game would have been on the $100 range and no less. of that I'm sure without any doubt in my mind.But honestly, Dennin is much better than any Compile SHMUP for the PC-Engine CD.

You can get this game easily within the $30 range. And for a game of this quality that only means "must-have". Dennin ALESTE is the best SHMUP of the Mega-CD. By all means recommended for anybody's collection.

Final Fight CD - SEGA 1993

Anybody unfortunately enough to have played the atrocity that was Final Fight on the SNES probably got on their knees, lifted their hands towards the sky and thanked the heavens for the Mega-CD version. Unless of course you didn't had a Mega-CD and you were left out stuck with that beyond-crap SNES version and it's laughable "Guy" update.

If that's the case, well, though luck...

But those fortunate enough to have a Mega-CD were in for a treat when SEGA saw it to themselves to do justice to this c/lassic of the Arcades.



Ported to the Mega CD specially by SEGA. Gamers finally got the true Final Final experience in all of it's glory as it was meant to be. All 3 selectable characters, 2-Player simultaneous play and all of the original Arcade stages. Plus if that wasn't enough, extended opening and ending cut-scenes, an arranged CD quality soundtrack and an all-new Time Attack mode with new stages were added to this version as the cherry of the cake.

The ever-mentioned limited palette of the Mega Drive shows it's ugly head again this time. The game does look less colourful and vivid compared to the Arcade original. But I doubt many gamers would care about that, when the most important aspects of the game, more specifically the gameplay and fun-factor are spot on.

Although there are far better beat 'em ups than Final Fight, even by Capcom. This is an oldie that just won't die. It's an historical game in the genre, and a must-play for any gamer.

Lunar: The Silver Star - Game Arts 1992

Released in 1992 in Japan and localized a year later by Working Designs. I feel the year-late western release demerited a little how great this game was for it's time.

From a technical point of view, this is your quintessential Japanese RPG. With your teenage boy & friends who must save world, clueless magical gir with hidden powers, swords, dragons etc. and gameplay-wise it was no different.

What made this game so special however, is the whole charm that Game Arts bought not only to this game, but to the genre itself. No Japanese RPG before Lunar had such level of character interaction, and no Japanese RPG after it was ever looked the same. Game Arts raised the standards of what gamers expected their Japanese RPG characters to be.

Characters would talk among themselves, and they would even reply to many of your casual townspeople comments. Townspeople themselves had 3 times the amount of lines than any other RPG. And while the game was strictly linear as it could be, the whole charm of the characters and the adventure made Lunar: The Silver Star one of the most memorable Japanese RPGs. And one for which I personally have very fond memories.

The game was remade for the next-generation 32-bit systems, but it lost something in transition. Especially for the Playstation English version, since it's the one that concerns the most people.

For the sake of longer FMV cut-scenes, half of the original game text was cut. And while the cut-scenes did looked a lot better visually, they are not necessarily better than the originals. The story as well as the soundtrack were greatly altered, and this was also not for the better.

The Silver Star is not quite the same game than The Silver Star Story Complete. And so, the Mega-CD original remains unique and arguably the best version of Lunar.

Watch Intro

Popful Mail - SEGA 1994

An original IP from Falcom for the PC-88 and PC-Engine CD. SEGA transformed the game into a Monster World inspired Platformer/RPG for the Mega-CD. And indeed, the game fits the role of the Monster World game for the system perfectly.

You take the role of Mail, a frustrated bounty hunter elf girl. And Tatt, a young wizard with a pointy hat. Both of them are after the rogue wizard Muttonhead, each one for their own personal reasons. Mail wants the reward money on his head and Tatt as former Muttonhead's apprentice wants to know what happened to his master. You also take control of a small purple winged creature called Gaw.

Like Monster World, the game plays like a side-scroller with some good RPG elements added to the mix. You can buy items and weapons and you can change between any of your three characters at any time. The areas are very long and offer plenty of action.

Certainly one of the funniest games on the system. Popful Mail is a great platformer/RPG game worth of being along the lines of the Monster World series. If you're looking for a game that will undoubtedly please you no matter your gaming tastes. This is your game. You just can't go wrong with Popful Mail.

Watch Intro

Shining Force CD - SEGA 1994

Actually remakes of the GameGear games: Shining Force Gaiden I&II. Shining Force CD brings them to the Mega-CD featuring superior graphics and sound that they deserved. It also features a brand new chapter that mixes both game stories together for a great closure.

Released before Shining Force II. The game offers more of the same gameplay and wonderful character design goodness that made the original famous. as well as carrying on from the original storyline and characters.

Many gamers seem to be stuck being overly negative with the lack of town exploration that was featured in the original Shining Force. But I see that as a trivial complaint as the games being original Game Gear games are quite remarkable as they are. And the whole adventure is one of the best you can play in a Strategy/RPG.

Many gamers were (and some still are I bet) unaware of the fact that to play the final chapter of the game (Book 3) you forcefully require a Mega-CD back-up RAM cartridge. As the internal RAM memory of the Mega-CD isn't enough to save all of the 3 chapters data.

This angried a lot of gamers, most specially late Mega-CD adopters than by the time they got their system and the game, back-up RAM carts were already very rare to find. This of course left a lot of people without the chance to finish the game.

Camelot sorted this issue on Shining Force III. As you can load and erase any previous scenario data from within another scenario and then just save over.

Shining Force CD is an excellent game. as charming and colourful as only the Shining series can be. Not to mention the amazing soundtrack it has. Needless to say, the game is a must-have for the system. But if you do plan to get it, be sure to track a back-up RAM cart as well if you're planning on finishing it.

Continued to next post...