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.
Now for another Video Game Review, this time on San Francisco Rush.
Back in the 90s, Midway made a lot of arcade racers, but none so unique as San Francisco Rush, released in 1996 in the arcades before later porting to consoles. Unlike other racing games of the time, San Francisco Rush comes with a slightly more unique feature, if you crash you die, simple as.
While many would consider such a mechanic to be a little geared towards eating up quarters, especially when you consider the difficulty to be a little high. It actually makes it rewarding when played on consoles. The vehicles are a good mix and the tracks take all the good scenery from San Francisco city.
And besides any game with this song in their soundtrack is bound to have a few good laughs in.
Yep the naming screen theme.
Current State: Midway is now NetherRealm Studios and is focused mostly on Mortal Kombat while the Rush series has been left in limbo since the unsuccessful L.A. Rush came out in 2005.
Why Should it be Revived?: The Arcade Racer has been left unguarded for a while and with San Francisco Rush's death mechanic it can still provide a decent challenge for those who still feel that racing should have some difficulty in it that isn't pre-made by Nintendo or neutered by driver aids and rewind mechanics. Proper old school racing at it's finest.
I've been on hiatus for a bit but here's something to keep you going it's Blast Corps.
Blast Corps is by Rare, a former ally of Nintendo back in the early days of the N64 where every game they made was covered in Gold Dust as this company dominated alongside Mario producing some of the best and most revolutionary games ever, until Microsoft bought them and ruined them.
Blast Corps is an interesting game, as it's a puzzle game based on demolition. The object is to destroy the set number of buildings per stage with any number of machines and power suits in order to stop a Nuclear Missile Train from exploding on contact with said buildings. What makes this game more interesting is that the small team of designers were all fresh graduates, this is unique in many ways. 1. A team that small on one game, which I believe there were only seven developers is unheard of in those days. 2. The fact that pretty much the whole team were graduates meaning apart from university project work this is the first real game they would've ever worked on.
In other words this would've been the equivalent of a Steam Indie title back in it's day and has the popularity to go with it, Blast Corps stood well with other Nintendo games and was one of the major kickstarters of Rare's incredible run of successful titles on the N64 which included Jet Force Gemini, Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye among others.
A true testament to how a good game can be made with the right people even if they are freshly trained graduates.
Current State: With Microsoft still very much in charge of Rare, the game is currently playable on X-Box One along with other Rare titles in the compilation Rare Replay.
Why Should it be Revived?: Considering that modern destruction engines in games are very much perfected, Blast Corps should make a dynamic comeback. Modern day graphics suit this cult classic.
Next up is an interesting gem from the 80s known as City Connection.
City Connection is very much a game of it's time, the object of which is to travel to the major cites of the world which is represented by platforms and a neat background and paint the platforms to indicate that you've been to that location using a small Honda City car which was very much the ideal small car of it's era in Japan all the while avoiding police and naughty cats evading them using skill and oil cans. The game can be seen as very similar to the earliest platform titles like Joust and Super Mario Bros and is not shy about it but what is unique is that it contained different music or variations of said main theme in all the levels, while mostly using public domain music you can also hear a track from Deep Purple on the London stage; that might not seem like much but in 1985 it was a unique feature especially when sound files are usually the biggest eaters of space on any game of that time.
Because of it's early release in the gaming era it only got as far as the Nes and ZX Spectrum beyond it's arcade release and became even more forgettable when in the Nes release, the rarely seen female driver Clarice was replaced by a nameless male driver. For a good couple of decades the game went into obscurity along with the company Jaleco who at one point just stopped making games, however it received enough of a cult following for a revival on phones with Clarice returning as lead along with new graphics and added game features.
Current State: Jaleco don't make games anymore so the rights for the title were moved to a publisher who re-released the game as a virtual console game, it's unclear whether Hamster, the current rights holder also did the Cellphone game, as it was recent it's fair to say that there is still interest in this small franchise.
Why Should it be Revived?: Splatoon is the key word in why it should be revived as this is pretty much the Splatoon of the 80s. Clarice is a well designed character to appeal to a mass audience and there's limitless potential just to take the idea and run with it. However because Splatoon is already in the current market, City Connection would have to do something special to win over that audience.
Next up a game about an Alien Invasion in the Dreamcast era, it's Incoming.
Incoming is a vehicle combat game, part simulation, part all out arcade shooter, the object is to complete multiple missions from anything among cargo carrying, destroying set targets or defending a convoy or a specific outpost, the range of vehicles on offer include a helicopter, various flying machines which consist of everything from Fighter Jets and Bombers to Star Fighters, you can even play as a boat, a tank and a gun turret. The game even rewards you with total destruction missions should you finish the entire game by completing every mission and sub mission.
This game was way ahead of it's time and it shows, not so much graphically but what it brought to the genre, it would be three years before Halo would change the rules, in the meantime this game became an essential title for both PC and Dreamcast, it was later released in an arcade form 2003 using a VR interface, not many games can really boast that feature.
The game was enriching and satisfying and came with enough fun to keep our attention for hours, it sort of faded from view as the X-Box started it's era thanks mostly to Halo.
Current State: Rage Software, the original British game publishers went bankrupt in 2003, the franchise is currently with Funbox Media and through help of another group specializing in converting old titles for modern PC have managed to convert the original, sequel and expansion for use on today's PCs as of 2015, however it has barely made any news in regard to this release.
Why Should it be Revived?: I was okay with the game as it was, I think I prefer the gameplay to the actual game itself, I'm very much for a Halo Version of the gameplay with nothing but vehicles and heavy weapons, that would satisfy an old itch to scratch as it would bring some new creativity to a franchise that's starting to lose it's appeal in today's gaming.
