Ad - The higher energy video game system

I love the TurboGrafx, I really do.
I adore this such underrated almost-unknown system.
Loads of fun games, great visuals and sounds. (in a way, closer to arcade games than the Megadrive or the SNES did later)

Here's an old commercial for the TurboGrafx 16 through the eyes of people in 1989:



Extreeeeeme!!~

Drawing - On The 22nd Day Of Christmas

...On the twenty second day of Christmas...
 

asked for Bomberman, so here he is!

I'm taking YOUR ideas, all your ideas, into consideration!
Just drop them on this NEW poll~

Drawing © Eyz.2011
Character © Hudson Soft

FanFilmFriday: BOMBERMAN The Movie

Here's a pretty fun take on Bomberman.

Bomberman turned into a stereotypical Hollywood action flick!



From the guys at TheGameStation

Gamin' NEWS! HUDSON IS DEAD! LONG LIVE HUDSON!

I just learned Hudson is no more...

The end of an era.

Hudson Entertainment will be shutting down at the end of the month.
All the future games and projects they were working on were canceled.

Some of the quoted reasons have been the bad communication and collaboration between Hudson's Japanese and American divisions and the growing indie movement (which, most Hudson titles, aimed for the same audience).

And what about the Japanese house Hudson Soft? They were aquired by Konami earlier in January 2011. They will now work on some Konami adaptations and focus on social gaming.

So it is the end of an era for me.
As a fan of the Arcade titles Hudson created during the 80s and 90s and Bonk, Bomberman and the PC Engine... It is sad news for us fans :(

I didn't had any proper fanart of Bomberman I did on my hands

apart from this little pixel-art experiment.

Source: a blog announcement by brand manager Morgan Haro

VGR Bonk 2

After a heckuva long time, I decided to finally go back to one of my earlier reviews and move on the sequel of Bonk!

VGR: PC Genjin 2 a.k.a. Bonk's Revenge
From Red Company / Hudson Soft
Played on PC Engine
Also available on Game Boy, Virtual Console & PlayStation Network


Type Sidescrollin' platformer
Year 1991

Only a year after the original game's release, Hudson didn't want Bonk to take a vacation, specially with a Sonic shaking the whole gaming market and the perception of mascots' role to establish a brand.

PC Genjin 2 was also made specifically for the PC Engine system. Red was back as developers behind the Pithecanthropus Computerurus. This time, they got a better handle of the console's hardware and could start playing around a bit with the graphics (where Bonk 1 was pretty simplistic in tone and used a limited color palette).

Now, about the "plot"...

I admit it, I just luuuuuv drawing Bonk!

Bonk is back, with a revenge!
Half of the moon was stolen! Yeah, the Evil King Drool has decided to go on full-evil mad scientist this time!

Bonk will have to travel all around the Dinosaur Kingdom to find were the pieces are guarded, defeat Drool's various "generals" and put back the moon in one piece!
Yeah.
Just that.

All in a day's work!

PC Genjin 2, game-wise, was built around what the first game already was, and tried improving over all of its aspects.

Bonk still controls the same. Button 1 to jump, Button 2 to bonk!
We can play around with these two abilities to either make Bonk slam his head violently on the ground, try to hover for short distances, juggle defeated enemies, bounce from enemy to enemy, etc..
Bonk can also use some other extra-abilities from the original game as well as new techniques.
He can still climb walls with his teeth, his TEETH, man!!
Oh, and he can climb a waterfall like salmon, no kiddin'.
And many more neat little tricks that will help Bonk survive in these dangerous prehistoric times.

Bonk's dino minions come now to life in all sorts of forms!

On the visual side, it has all been improved since the first one.

The game now sports a better richer color palette.
After getting their hands on the PC Engine hardware in the first game, they were able to play around with tricks and techniques making this game a better rival to other games of that era. ('91 platformers)
Bonk isn't as red-ysh as he was in Bonk 1, now he is more pink-ysh with a nice brown coloring for his clothes.
The sprites are all quite cartoony, even expressive.
They all have a lot of various animations.
The backgrounds also aren't as simple as they were in the first game (single color backdrops) but now are quite rich featuring trees, volcanoes, animations, effects (in the volcano/hot segments), little darker shades near the ground, northern lights in sky, etc...

The best upgrade has been on the enemy's side.
We still confront various brainwashed dinos by King Drool with Egg Shells(TM).  But now they all come to life with a ton of variations in their sprites.
You'll often find them playing around, sleeping, fishingm, wearing scarfs making snowmen...and they also come in all sorts of genres; Hunting/Safari fashion, wearing spelunker clothes, with climbing gear...etc!
A precursor of what the more famous apes from Ape Escape would do years later?

Bonk - Transformation, GO!!

Bonk's gimmick, apart from his headbonking around, is his transformations.
Remember the first game's mechanic?
Well, it's still mostly the same..
Bonk uses food to replenish his health.
Small items restore his hearts. A huge piece of meat will upgrade Bonk into his fully-powerful invincible form or his intermediary girly form. (the middle zoku-form has been scrapped)
They've been a bit tweaked around.
The invicible form loses its invicible aura after a while. It shakes the level around, can destory everything on its path and shoot fire from his mouth.
The girl form can now projects hearts and uses an heart-shapped super-aura while headbonking the ground.
Basically, it's a bit stronger compared to what it was in Bonk 1, to balance out both super-form stats.

This time the boss are full-time King Drool employees, no more brainwashed nice dinos!

Bonk will have to travel all over the island to retrieve the pieces of the moon and defeat various mid-bosses and bosses.
King Drool is back as the final epic boss.


On the island you'll go through a lot more varied places than last time, and using more distinct level design, such as a forest, jungles, the beach, snowy mountains, volcanic caves, a giant battleship... until Bonk arrives in King Drool's domain. There he'll be able to find the rest of the moon... put back as part of his royal pyramide!!
All over 7 Rounds, pretty long enough and containing several "screens".
At the end, in the pyramide, all the bosses (!!) will need to be faced again!
(which doesn't come as a surprise since mid-bosses will also appear in-levels, weaker of course)

Bonk still collects smiley-items as currency.
Also the bonus stages are back, although less original than last time. This time it's more basic, collecting items falling from the sky/without falling off the stage/etc.. It doesn't play as much with the game's concept and premises. (Bonk one offered "baseball", comets-ricochet, etc..)

All in all, it's another exemple of a perfect sequel.
Keeping the original as basis, improving every aspect of it (the music is even more catchy this time and a bit more memorable than Bonk 1's soundtrack honestly) and offering more new and interesting challengs!

Overall, it's a great sequel!
Fun without being too easy, funny without ending up without charm, not too long not too short.
Not too difficult either.
It's quite simple to go through this one without losing to many lives (apart when the game will throw a new enemy/pattern at ya!)

A great platformer of the 8/16-bit era.
And for an 8-bit game, it doesn't have to shy away amongst 16-bit of that tme, it looks decent enough!
I've seen worse SNES/MD games from the platformer-craze of the 90s!

I personally prefered it over Bonk 1, and it's only sad that the PC Engine was totally overseen back then.
Gems such as the Bonk series truly shined as some of the system's best (perhaps not the more original...), and we didn't even scratch the surface of the PC Engine's greatest titles.

Anyway, it's easy to get your hands on nowadays, with digital re-releases.
Give it a try, specially if you like retro-gaming/platformers!
However avoid the Game Boy port, not done by Red! It's a mess, mixes around elements from Bonk 1 & 2 with a less inspired level designed (which was sort-of adapted).

I give it:

 2.5 / 3 Bruces!

What did you do this weekend?!

Long time since I did one of those on the blog, heh?
Anyway, here's another WDYDTW!

I know it's already tuesday..but I wouldn't have been able to write this yesterday..
So, how've you been?
Did you do anything original this weekend, play anything good or read anything nice?
Let me know in the comments, don't be shy!
I know you read thus blog according to the pageviews!

I'm currently playing through the new Splatterhouse (or as I like to call it, Splatterhouse 4).
It's pretty cool, faithful to the classic ones yet still bringing in new stuff for this new generation.

I'm sure some of you are already waiting for a proper review like I did with the other ones...and I will...
When I'll finish it!
Hey, I'm not IGN, I finish the games I review! I'm not one to scream "First!!".

Anyway, you want an early impression?
So far I'm loving it.
It's pretty similar to another modern gory 3D beat 'em all I love, Evil Dead Regenration, which I wanted to also review on this blog...but won't make it in time before this new Splatterhouse (because I wanted to finish the movies and start from the first Evil Dead games before).
Meaning, it's funny, even the story is surprising good for a splatter beat 'em all.
The game mechanics may look dated if you only play modern action-RPG or sandbox type of games.. it's a pure old school beat 'em all, linear levels and cut down to stages. But I like this!
Enough with the sandbox!
Other than the gameplay itself, it's quite impressive to look at! Next gen graphics that's for sure!

More on this game later on...

I'm also currently playing through A Shadow's Tale.
It's from one of my all time favorite developers, Hudson Soft.

Known in the US as Lost in Shadow, it's an old school-like sidescrollin' platformer for the Wii.
How would I summarize it?
It has the esthetics of ICO/Shadow of the Colossus with a gameplay similar and pretty close to the original Prince of Persia/Another World/Flashback.

People may say their favorite game this year to be the new Assassin's Creed, or Kirby Epic Yarn or even the new Donkey Kong Country. But those are already popular and established franchises.
My biggest gamin' surprise of 2010 is this very one!
Fun, original and very very difficult! A game where you have to use your brains to progress!

Other than that?
I have two "oldies" I'm trying to finish too.

Star Wars: Republic Commando on the Xbox.
A very fun FPS set in the Star Wars universe where you and your clone squad has to make it through the War. Pretty kickass!
Sadly overlooked back then (that's why it never got any sequel), despite being pretty well done gameplay-wise and graphically.

The titular Delta squad will appear soon in the current CGi Clone Wars series!

And a second Star Wars videogame!
I'm also trying to finish Star Wars: Lethal Alliance on the PSP!

I do not play a lot of PSP, not because of a lack of good games, but interest...
My bro pumps a lot more hours into this little Sony handled system!

Anyway, I'm loving Lethal Alliance original story and lack of a Jedi/Trooper/Soldier/Bounty Hunter as main character. This Twi'lek can kick butt!
The story's nice too, she's the one trying to get the plans of the Death Star to the rebels!

Besides games, I've been ready a bit too much Deadpool any sane man could.
I've finally the whole complete Cable & Deadpool run, been meaning to find all the issues I missed back then...
And also most classic Deadpool issues, from Nicieza to Joe Kelly, Udon and more!

Now, more than ever, I see how bad Daniel Way writes the merc' with a mouth...sigh...

And finally, on a complete separate note, I've finally had, officially, my diploma!
FINALLY.
Gosh darn.. I had to wait a whole year, to complete a little exam (or two) while working already...anyway...

I've got like 3 different titles nows and 3 separate diploma, one for the school, an european one and an international one. Yahoo!
"Given by a Libano-Canadian University" what the...?!?
I don't know what contracts and legal procedures the school did..but this sounds...so fake??

I've already been working for SL&C Supercomm Language Training Centre for a few months now, but with this paper...heh..it doesn't change much.


And  that's all for t'day!~

VGR Felix the Cat

And finally, here's the very first NES review on teh blog.
I wasn't going to review your usual super-popular gaming franchise or cult game.

Instead I went for a little game by Hudson that didn't really made people talk about it either back then or nowadays.

Warning: Review for Retrogamers and game collectors, since this is exactly the kind of game you can only play on the original system and won't be republished nowadays on the digital market :/

VGR: Felix the Cat 
From Hudson Soft
Played on NES
Also available on Game Boy


Type Sidescroller plateformer
Year 1992

Felix the Cat is one of the very first cartoon animated characters.
He was created around 1919, a long time before Looney Tunes or Mickey Mouse came out to be.

I won't hide it to you dudes and gals that Felix is actually one of my favorite characters of all time.
The lil' guy managed to survive the various eras.
Cartoons came by, times changed, animated styles evolved and yet, Felix still survived along the years.
Even if he isn't as present nowadays he's still remembered by many, adults and kids. An icon, it has been long since Felix felt in the public domain. Now, anyone can use him, royalties free. He still appears on many merchandising items, shirts, bags, any country, everywhere...like Mickey only Felix doesn't require any approval.

His last cartoons were the Twisted Tales of Felix in the 90s and more recently, Baby Felix, an anime from the 2000s.

Even so, with such a long running "franchise", it is a bit weird that so few games of Felix have been produced over the years.. (maybe because of the lack of profits people would make on his marketing image, since anyone would be able to also use him around such game if it would be produced...).
Apart from a pretty bad Playstation 1...wasn't there a more successfu gamingl entry for the grandpa of all animated cats?

 The objective is simple. Felix don't answer to hostage-takers.

The evil Professor kidnapped Felix's girlfriend, Kitty, once again!
He wants to steal his famous magic bag of tricks.

But Felix isn't going to give it up easily. So he goes after the Prof himself.

The plot is simple. Basic you'd say.
And that's all I require from a fun ol' school sidescrollin' platformer.

A bag, that's all he needs to explore all the 8 large worlds and defeat all the enemies and bosses on his path.

The game looks like your standard late-8-bits plateformer.
Colorful, decent sprites and well done (animation and gameplay)
Felix controls sort of like Mario. He jumps with A. He can however also attack with B.

It's not a super long game. Not because of its content. But difficulty-wise.
It's quite easy, at least once you try it once or twice and get the hang on Felix's control (more on that below)
The game is composed of 8 worlds, each made of 3 sub-levels. (well, there's actually a 9th world but since the 8th is also shorter I don't really count it as a separate world)

Across his path will be a dozen of different enemies and at the end of any world, a boss. One of the Professor's minions.

Power-ups! Power-downs! Magic Felix is on the scene!

So what's this game gimmick you're asking me?
It's all in the health/lives system.
Felix doesn't use an health bar like most games back then like, say, Mega Man.
Instead he uses an hybrid system which is basically a mash-up of both Mario and Sonic's health system.
Basically, Felix can die if he's harmed once. Like Mario, he needs a boost/power-up.
Like Sonic, he can grabs something that powers him and will be lost at once if harmed.
Hearths.
Felix grabs one and, like Mario again, will be transformed into a powered up form. Grab another hearth, another better power-up. Etc, etc... Get hit, go back to the previous form. If harmed in the basic non-powered-up form, you die!

Understood?
Anyway, Felix has many powered-up forms.
A magician, a tank, a plane, etc... I'll let you discover them by yourself.

There's also Felix's head to collect in the levels. For score and upgrades. Every 10 collected, you'll win an hearth/power-up.

The game also throws at the player various original segments, to shake things up and for the experience. It never gets dull nor repetitive that way.
There's the usual "walking"-type levels. But also "flight" levels, "swiming" levels (like in most 80s/90s games) and "boat" levels. Each come with their own transformations for Felix and with their own set of enemies/obstacles.
Also, there's little bonus rooms (sort of like the underground rooms in Mario Bros) in the form of Magic Bag Rooms.
In brief: it's a pretty decent platformer who tries to offer an original, even if simple experience.

Overall, it's a wonderful game, well deserved entry for the wonderful cat!

I really like this game!
Sadly, it's super simple, specially if you're used to good ol' games of the same era.
The levels are many, and even a bit long sometimes, but too simple.
Felix's power-up system is original but it gives him such an edge on enemies... :/
The bosses can be tricky sometimes.

The more powerful Felix gets (and the more layer of lives he adds), the clumsier he plays and attacks enemies...which is a nice trick to balance the difficulty (or else, Felix would grow stronger and more invicible each time).

If you find it in a bargain bin, garage sale, in second hand, anyway, get it!

Try it!
For Felix fans and 2D platformer lovers~

I give it:

 2 / 3 Bruces!

Gamin' NEWS: A Shadow's Tale recap

I already talked about this one not long ago, in this post here.

Time for a little recap, shall we?!

A Shadow's Tale is an upcoming game from the cult software studio Hudson.
It is a 2D/3D hybrid platformer for the Wii which will be released around Winter.



It has gone under at least three names: A Shadow's Tale, Lost In Shadow and Tower of Shadow.
They seem to have stuck with "A Shadow's Tale" now (but some places still show "Lost In Shadow" in preorder websites)



Why am I talkin' about this game? Because I'm afraid people will miss out this little original game for the more blockbuster, popular or commercial upcoming (sequel) games!
Like the recent Boy and his Blob on the Wii, which was a very amazing and beautiful hand drawn modern excellent remake. But, nooooo, you all had to buy God of War, Mario Galaxy or Tekken 6!

Give a chance to the more creative "smaller" games! Before they go unnoticed, become "cult underrated classics" and it will be to late to find it/help the dev teams! Like Beyond Good & Evil or Psychonauts on the last gen!

Anyhow... Watch this, and don't lie to me saying "this doesn't seem interesting":


Signed -Eyz. A big "Hudson Soft" fan, forever a Bomberman fan & Bonk fan and proud owner of a PC Engine, Hudson's own gaming system.

Gamin' NEWS! Some more obscure little gems to follow

Everbody's got all their attention to the big Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo future games...
But there's always some more obscure little gems that deserve our attention.
Since I'm always for these kind of "underdogs" in our modern blockbuster era of gaming, let's have a look at two games YOU SHOULD be awaiting!

First off, a little under everybody's radar, cause nobody seems like Hudson Soft anymore these days : (
there's a new nice little game coming to the wii which was until now knew as Lost In Shadow or Tower of Shadow but will finally be called A Shadow's Tale.

It will be released later this year under Konami.
I love the guys at Hudson! Being a big fan of the Bonk and Bomberman series. Those guys know how to make a gameplay fun, original and addictive.



This looks pretty beautiful. And I'm not that afraid of the final product, even knowing that their last disc-based game was Bomberman Act Zero on the Xbox 360. (come on! It was a "next gen" over the top take on Bomberman, which yes kinda looked bad and off, but played as good as the originals!)
A Shadow's Tale will be released only on Wii, and looks amazing!!


Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage from Koei is exactly what you'd expect it to be.

BADASS.



This one will be pretty similar to other past manga adaptations "Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage" on the Dreamcast and "Berserk: Millennium Falcon" on the PS2. That is, modern beat'em all fun gaming experience.
Only this time, with the power of the PS3 and Xbox 360, it will look pretty realistic and gory.


I cannot wait to try either of those two very different games~
That's what we, me and you guys, should aim for, playing different original stuff instead of the ton of identical sequels most developers seem to put out each year!

VGR Bonk 1

Here's a game I really like, a underrated cult favorite of mine.
Despite it being almost forgotten nowadays, I consider it as one of the nicest 2D old school platformer!
The sequels are kinda better, but that's for another review another time!

The system is known as the TurboGrafx-16 in the USA but I always use the official names or international names in my reviews!

PS: YEAH! I know there's a new BONK 2,5D game coming on Xbox live. But THIS is about the first, the original Bonk!

Edit29/12/2010: Edited this old review with my current template, instead of the huge jpg picture I previously had... 

VGR: PC Genjin a.k.a. Bonk's Adventure
From Red Company/Hudson Soft
Played on PC Engine
Also available on NES, Game Boy, Amiga, Virtual Console, PlayStation Network & Arcade Console and remake available on Gamecube & PS2.
 
Type Sidescrollin' platformer
Year 1990

First, quick informations about the PC Engine!

In the late 8-bit era, japanese developer Hudson Soft (known for the Bomberman series mostly) joined the Japano-American Company NEC to create their own system, which is known today as the "PC Engine".
(TurboGrafx in the usa).

Like all the other companies, they decided to create an icon to represent them, their very own mascot and
not recycle Hudson's Bomberman. Thus was born the "Bonk" series!

The very first Bonk game was released for the first model of PC Engine system as an "HuCard"
(the system would have a 16-bits revision later, supporting CD games, better music quality and more colors on screen).

I always play this game on a "PC Engine Duo" which is the japanese equivalent of a TurboDuo. A combo of the PC Engine HuCard & CD systems.

Now, on the game itself:

The original name of this game is "PC-Genjin". It's a pun on "PC Engine", genjin meaning barbarian.
Our heroic character, Bonk, is a prehistoric kid, or as they call him, a "Pithecanthropus Computerus".
Sometimes he's also called P.C. Kid for short!

It's a very straighforward kind of old school 2D platformer.

But it has his own gimmicks too which makes it quite interesting!

Bonk's role is to save a reptilian princess from the evil King Drool. He is trying to conquer the dinosaur kingdom manipulating other reptiles with brain-washing egg shells!!

 Actual game plot represented on picture.

Sounds pretty much like any other platformer, right?
You'll travel through several worlds divided in smaller levels with a unique boss at the end.
Once you find the boss' gate, face him, understand his technique and patterns, break the evil king's control and help them!

Die too much time, use a continue and you'll have to start from the beginning of its world!

Simple. A bit unoriginal maybe... but the game gets better in its most important aspect...
The gameplay!

Ready? Bonk defeats his enemies...with his head!

You get it? "BONKING"! and it's pure genius when it's in action!

Some enemies will take more damages... but you can hit them twice or more times!

You can keep them in the air, juggle them around... you can hit all sorts of stuff with your head as well!

You also have all sorts of other movements.

Bonking many times in the air you can sorta float for a while. You can grab walls simply with your teeth!He's a pretty strong little caveman! Nothing stops bonk!!

He kinda reminds me of this sort of more popular similar game "Chuck rock" from the 16-bit era.
But PC Genjin truly shines in it's basic platforming and unique gameplay. :D

You obtain score with "smileys" dropped out of enemies.
The smileys replace the usual rings or coins currency you would have in Sonic or Mario games.
For your health you'll have to eat food dropped from enemies too and various prehistoric flowers found in the levels. Some flowers will hide other surprises insides...

There are bonus stages.
They will have you try using Bonk's unique gameplay in every unusual way.
"Bonking" lava rocks away, "floating" to obtain food items, "climbing" the highest you can... this will help you win you extra lives or continues...

And you'll need all the extra help you can to finish this pretty difficult platformer!

In a similar way to Mario, Bonk can transform into different super forms.

With huge meat pieces come greater powers! (huh...what?? lemme explain!)

Eating a huge piece of meat will boost Bonk's confidence and strengh, he'll go rampage and be invicible for a while. When he'll calm down, he'll be strong enough to break stuff and take a hit without losing any hearth.
then he will drop into his last form, girly Bonk... after that you're back to normal bonk who can't take damage without losing health.
Some smaller meat will boost you into a post invincible state (strong or girly bonk).
 

I'll try to explain it to you with this kickass graphic!

Overall, it's a very nice platformer, one of Hudson's unsung heroes... :/

Really underrated. Most kids nowadays won't know anything about it, but already back in the day he  was ignored because of the other more mainstream titles (you know me, -if not- I always go for the underdogs and love these sort of hidden gems more than the uber popular stuff).

Bonk can seem quite strange at first, and seems less polished than any Mario or Sonic, but it's the kind of game that really grows on you. It's also quite difficult, beating a boss or reaching a later level will take you time, but that was pretty common back in the day, before games got easier and full of tutorials for everything.
You know what I'm talkin' about!

The game uses a very limited color palette (even more than most PC Engine titles), it isn't the system's fault, other games (and even Bonk's sequel) are way more colorful. But if you ignore it simplistic approach, can see past that or embrace it's retro feel you will love it!
(I'll talk about the sequels another time)

Nice game, sadly not very well-known. there was also a later SNES series which aren't the same as the PC Engine originals.
The game has been released for virtual console and the likes if you, like most the rest of the world, don't own a PC Engine...
Back then, a pretty decent Nes port was also officially done as well as a Game Boy port which took elements from the sequel and mixed up a bit the level design. And in Europe there was another port, the best version as fans put it, on the Amiga which was quite popular in many countries. This version ended up being a complete graphic remake with better sprites, more colors and better sound effects.

I give it:

 2.5 / 3 Bruce!