Hi, I'm Dranzerstorm
Welcome to the Video Game & Music Lounge
This world is dedicated to Video Games and Music as I'll be showcasing the following.
Video Game Reviews set to the same tones as Retro Retrospective's Anime Reviews
Music reviews of Anime Openings & Closings
Western Cartoon music
Vocaloid Classics.
We may even have some Top Tens
I hope this World entertains you.
Post 20 and I'm feeling somewhat sadistic today, (blame a thankless day job and being ill for nearly three weeks) so I'm going to look up some sadistic things you can do in Video Games, there may be more to come as these are not in any order.
1. Tomb Raider: - Deliberately Breaking Lara Croft's Neck
A simple swan dive in the mansion is enough to snap the heroine's neck, back in the days where gaming was much more simple.
2. Lemmings: - Using the Nuke All Button
It's a button that doesn't add anything to the game it just creates a fireworks show of exploding Lemmings.
3. The Sims: - Making a Sim Wet Themselves By Deleting the Toilet
Very cruel thing to do, complete with added tears.
4. Theme Park: - Creating a Disaster by Causing a Rollercoaster Accident
This may result in the dark tragic ending but causing chaos is still fun.
5. Worms: - Using the Most Powerful Weapon and not Giving a Damn About who Dies
This can be a troll move and the type of move that upsets pros but the destruction is still glorious, extra credit to Worms 2 on PC where you can edit the power of the weapons and shatter an entire landscape with a Minigun.
6. Dragon's Lair: - Watching Dirk the Daring Die in Gruesome and Hilarious Ways
Making the wrong decision often ended in various gruesome ways so seeing them all takes commitment to do and a lot of patience.
7. Speedball 2: - Injuring Someone So Badly That They Have to be Stretchered Off
Speedball is quite the violent game anyway but actually injuring someone is rare and makes for a funny scene.
8. Mario Kart: - Blue Shelling Someone on the Last Lap
Watch the rage build as you witness yourself drop from 1st to 8th from one shell and after spending that whole race in the lead.
9. Sonic Adventure 2: - Using Omachao as a Weapon
The happy talking robot chao is only trying to help but he does make for a convenient weapon, he had it coming though, his voice was irritating. Bonus to Shadow the Hedgehog for actually making Omachao a useable weapon.
10. Burnout: - Slow Motion Takedowns
Nothing says pure destruction and satisfaction like a slow motion crash scene.
Post 19 and we look at a game I played a lot in my youth, TIny Troops.
Amiga had the tendency to produce a number of games that would eventually come to nothing as franchises despite the games being reasonably good for their time; Tiny Troops is one of many games like that. Tiny Troops is a tactical warfare game as you take control of either the Klutes or the Furfurians (No side is better than the other) as you battle each other in wars taking place in gardens, toyboxes and beaches to name a few places as both sides are no bigger than ants, what makes this game clever is the variety of troop types you get as you have to plan a strategy that guarantees victory, this can consist from gunners, grenadiers and flamethrowers to tanks, paragliders and dune buggies, for such an early game its surprisingly complex and even has a two player option. I enjoyed playing it a lot as a child and I would so wish to try this game again.
Current State: Information is limited at best, it was released in 1997 and never had a sequel, it's kept alive by Amiga fans who offer emulators to download outdated games.
Why Should it be Revived?: The modern equal to this is Halo Wars, but I think there is more this franchise can offer as it already had so much range for just an Amiga game and since it's fairly common to set up a Tiny world in the vain of MIcro Machines meets Cannon Fodder there's very little to mess up and it was rated very highly on release by Amiga magazines.
Post number 10 sends us back to games with RPG Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure.
Rhapsody is by Nippon Ichi Software, a company more famous for Disgaea. You play as Cornet, a girl who can talk to puppets, during a competition to win the heart of the Prince, he gets kidnapped by a group of demons and it's up to Cornet and her puppets to gather the Heartstones from the surrounding Kingdoms in order to save Prince Ferdinand from his stone prison. What seems pretty cutesy and kid friendly, like for instance the special moves are firing sweets, shortcake and pancakes and Cornet's main weapon is a magical musical Horn the game can actually get pretty disturbing very quickly as you progress, the decisions you make can change the very way the world sees Cornet and certain events can really hit you psychologically.
For instance killing one boss can curse the whole town and make them hate you for the whole game and don't even get me started on the rhetoric that is the Frog Kingdom, but that's a big spoiler, lets just say Romeo and Juliet story and leave it at that.
In the case of moral outlook it can really test you, especially if you were caught out by the result of said actions.
Finally worth noting is the whole Musical Adventure aspect as every so often you get songs sang throughout the RPG, to this day it's the only RPG to be told through Musical numbers.
The game can be quite easy for the veteran RPG player and Kururu in the DS remake is utterly broken to the point that you can finish the game with just her in your team but the story more than makes up for it and there is much fun to have in Rhapsody.
Current State: Originally released on Playstation in 1998 it had two sequels in Japan only as things led into the Playstation 2 era. They are readily avaliable on Playstation Network as late as 2014 and the first game had a remake on the DS in 2008, however no continuation of the main series has been done since 2000, but the game is part of the same universe as other Nippon Ichi franchises such as Disgaea and La Pucelle Tactics.
Why Should it be Revived?: Despite the horrific glitches on the DS remake the game was still fun to play and the musical aspect made it all the more enjoyable so a big time remake would be appreciated.
Post Number 8 and we go retro for a classic side scrolling beat em up in Caveman Ninja.
Caveman Ninja is by Data East, a lost relic of the old Console Wars, it featured Joe and Mac, two colorful caveman as they battle huge dinosaurs and rival cavemen tribes in the bid to get back their girlfriends using a variety of different prehistoric weaponry, so a basic damsel in distress plot but done in a way that's quite original and very colorful.
Your health bar does act as a timer so you do need to keep up the food intake on the way to each boss which makes for the game's greatest strengh as you battle huge dinosaurs. I remember this game fondly having played plenty of times on holiday at arcades as a child and one of the few games I actually finished. It's a little dated but fun none the less.
Current State: Like Data East it's pretty much defunct, last seen in 1995 with a sequel to the original.
Why Should it be Revived?: It's called Caveman Ninja which shouts money maker for any potential tv series and it suits the Retro revival movement so well.
Post Number 7 and we take a break from anime to look at one of my favourite games of all time, Hydro Thunder!!!!! (Between this and San Francisco Rush you have to shout the title)
Hydro Thunder was released in arcades in 1999 and was an instant hit being the only powerboat racing game to ever be released on that level of detail and gameplay, using a number of different boats from standard powerboats and hydroplanes to ones based on top fuel dragsters, World War II aircraft and even an alien spaceship, there was more fun in the bonus boats with an armed Police boat, a fisherman’s boat with a barking dog, a scaled Titanic and a hovercraft; if you thought that was wacky it gets better with the circuits as you race from everything from the Arctic Circle and the Greek Isles to the inner realms of Ancient Egypt and a destroyed flooded New York city heck you can even make the boats jump to reach shortcuts and out of reach turbo power-ups which is crucial for certain victory as the game is quite challenging and the game lets you know that with quotes such as “you’re crazy!” and “experts only” when selecting certain boats and tracks. The game was ported to every console under the sun at time of release but when Midway shutdown, it was thought that the game was going to be lost with it until two sequels came out unexpected.
In 2009 a few former employees of Midway made H2Overdrive to act as Hydro Thunder’s spiritual successor to keep the unique arcade cabinet in most major arcades; but it was a year later when developer Vector Unit not only bought the rights to Hydro Thunder but created a sequel to it dubbed Hydro Thunder Hurricane which to this day is one of the most successful titles on X-Box Live Arcade and still has an active multiplayer lobby.
Current State: Not much has been done to the current game Hydro Thunder Hurricane since its release bar a DLC pack of new events, boats and tracks and with Vector Unit being a very small company it’s very unlikely to expand into mainstream game development especially when the Vector Unit’s staff can be counted on one hand and needed contractors to finish Hydro Thunder Hurricane.
Why Should it be Revived?: It’s one of my favourite games and a third instalment for next gen consoles and dare I say Virtual Reality would give it a mainstream feel that it needs back.
