Cover Art: Mega Drive - Part 2

For many of us oldies, the world of Japanese gaming first became apparent as a Mega Drive owner. Virtually all the games we had available were released there as well (usually first) and they generally had different (better?) cover artwork too. It might have taken me a good while (three years!) to get around to comparing some more fine examples accordingly, but feast your eyes on this selection!

Arrow Flash (1990)

This is not one of the MD's more fondly-remembered shooters these days and it's not one of my favourites either, if I'm honest. But it does have some pretty interesting cover artwork. Both actually have similar designs depicting a brave female mecha pilot apparently floating, one in orbit, the other over a cityscape, but both in front of their big mecha ship thing, though the Japanese one seems to be partly faded out. Both use the same logo/font too, but the art styles are very different as you might imagine, with the European cover using a Western comicbook style while the Japanese example unsurprisingly uses an anime style. Which is best? I suppose that depends on which style you prefer. I think I like the European one more, mainly because it shows the mecha properly, and the planet with presumably-hostile aliens in the distance is cool/foreboding, but both are pretty good. There is actually a third cover for the US version which is decent too. (full review here)

Wifey's Watches #2

Gentleman Jack (2019 - 2022)

A while back, my wife had one of her old friends staying with us for a while. This friend is a lesbian, so naturally, everything we watched while she was with us had to be lesbian-themed or have a lesbian character too. Occupying much of this TV time was Gentleman Jack which is another 'dramatisation' of the life of Anne Lister, a landowner and industrialist in 19th century England who has since come to be known as the 'first modern lesbian' thanks largely to the extensive diaries she wrote which detail all aspects of her life, including her romances and love affairs, all with other women. While we see a couple of old flames here and there, the focus in that regard is on shy but wealthy heiress Ann Walker (the magic-boobed Sophie Rundle) who Lister (Suranne Jones) meets upon returning home to her Yorkshire estate brokenhearted after her lover leaves her for a pesky man.

Computer Platform Games #9

Bomb Jack II (1987)
By: Elite Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: ZX Spectrum First Day Score: 10,400
Also Available For: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64

I was a big fan of Tehkan's classic bomb-collecting platformer, Bomb Jack, and as detailed in a previous post, I spent a great many happy afternoons playing the excellent CPC version at a friend's house on the way home from school. As you might imagine, I was therefore keen to acquire the game for my Speccy too, but I never saw it in the shops for some reason. I did see Bomb Jack II though, and soon bought it hoping it would be more or less the same as the game I had been enjoying so much. Sadly, I quickly learned that aside from using the same name and main character, it bore little resemblance to the original. Okay, it was also a single-screen platformer and there were still small platforms dotted around the screen and you still had to collect stuffs and there were still enemies to avoid. But it still didn't play much like the mighty Bomb Jack (no, not Mighty Bomb Jack). But was it enjoyable in its own right?

PS4 Purchases #15

Aggelos by Storybird Games / PQube / Look At My Game (2018)

Not only have I actually owned this game for several years now - that's normal for me with these posts as it takes me ages to get around to posting about them - but I've even played it quite extensively which is less normal for me! I can't really remember how I first discovered it now. I think I might've just been browsing Amazon one day and the pixelly graphics on its cover caught my eye, but however it happened, I'm sure glad it did as it turned out to be exactly the kind of game I hoped it would be. Namely, a Wonder Boy III clone. The story is the usual fare - you play as a brave warrior who must gather 'the elements' in order to defeat some flange called Valion who wants to destroy the kingdom. Or something. What matters is that it's a vast adventure set over many different areas filled with monsters and tons of stuff to collect including many different swords, armour, and magic rings and scrolls.

Film Reviews #126

The Killer (2023)
Director: Ridley Scott Starring: Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, Tilda Swinton

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 118 Minutes

Tagline: Excution is everything.

There are a number of film directors I would call myself a fan of but David Fincher has never really been a name I'd put on that list. Looking though his filmography, he probably should be - I love Seven and The Game, and I've seen six (I think) more of his films, most of which are excellent - but no, I didn't really follow his career and/or works in progress like I do with a few other directors. It was therefore a surprise when I saw someone on social media excitedly talking about The Killer's upcoming release, but I soon found myself sharing this person's excitement for some reason. "Oh yeah", I thought. "Fincher... He has a new film and it seems likely that it's about a killer - could be good. Maybe I'll even go to the cinema for this one!" Imagine my surprise, therefore, to find it staring at me on Netflix a couple of nights later. My viewing plans for the evening were swiftly cancelled and I pressed 'play'.

Arcade Shmups #29

Ashura Blaster (1990)
By: Visco Corp / Taito Genre: Shooting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 126,000 (one credit)
Also Available For: Nothing

There can't be a huge number of arcade shooters that never left Japan (they were one of the most popular genres in the West, after all), and even fewer that never received any home conversions, but I managed to find one in the fairly splendidly-named Ashura Blaster, developed by Visco Corp and released by the mighty Taito just as that most wonderful of decades had drawn to a close. Due to this somewhat restrictive release I can't tell you too much about its backstory, but I can tell you it's apparently set in the far-flung future of 2020 (chortle). As you may have noticed, it's a vertical scroller, and a very familiar type too. It doesn't take a genius to work out the probable vague outline though - some dictator or heinous regime has threatened national/global peace and only you (and a friend) can save the day for some reason. Better dig out that chopper license!

Intellivision A-Z

I had never even heard of this console when I was growing up and didn't see one in real life until about 12 years ago - I guess it wasn't too popular here in the UK! It was pretty popular elsewhere though, and has remained a favourite for many to this day. Despite its moderate success, it didn't receive that many releases either, so I'll be featuring all of them here. Bear in mind, however, that all will have been played via an emulator and not therefore with the Intellivision's notorious controller. This is one of five posts to that end and features all games beginning with letters D through L:

Deep Pockets (1990)

No, this late release isn't about some really generous guy, it's actually a pool game. The table isn't green (probably due to the Intellivision's limited colour palette) and the balls flicker, and the controls aren't nearly as precise as many would want either, but there are tons of options and it's pretty good fun for two players.

TV Shows #34 - Part 1

The Night Agent Season One (2023)
Developed By: Shawn Ryan
Starring: Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan, Hong Chau, Fola Evans-Akingbola, D. B. Woodside, Sarah Desjardins, Eve Harlow, Phoenix Raei, Robert Patrick, Enrique Murciano, Kari Matchett

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 45-56 Minutes per Episode (approx), 10 Episodes

Tagline: "Heroes aren't born. They answer the call."

I've watched a lot of films and shows like this over the years. I would call them spy dramas but they don't always involve actual spies. They do always involve government agencies though - the 'three letter' agencies, as some like to say - and usually some conspiracy or other, mostly the work of some terrorists and often also a 'inside man' or corrupt member of one of these agencies. Most examples feature real agencies like the FBI, CIA, MI5/6, etc, but there are a few that make up their own, and this new 'Netflix Original' show features the latest - Night Action. Seems a bit of a weird name, don't you think? It sounds like the name of a swingers club or something. Hmm, anyway... I think it's meant to be a super secret branch of the FBI but it seems to operate much more like the CIA. Either way, it's so secret that other agencies don't even know it exists. That must make things tricky.

Non-Speccy Homebrew Games #2

Electrobots (2021)
By: OxCode Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: BBC Micro First Day Score: 1,800
Also Available For: Nothing

There are quite a few retro formats that receive deserved attention from the homebrew community but for what I'm disappointed to say is only my second review in this series of posts here, I've gone for another BBC example. I've had it for at least three years ago now (if you watch the video below on YT you can see a comment of mine from that long ago!) and played it quite extensively at the time, but didn't get around to reviewing it then for some reason. The title screen to the right here saves me the trouble of relaying the game's brief backstory but what I probably should mention is that it takes the form of a flickscreen platform adventure which is set over three zones - Land Zone, Water Zone and Space Zone. The ancient objects mentioned in the story are dotted around all three zones. As are various enemies too, naturally, which appear to be robots as well, or security droids or something.

Gaming Memories - Part 18

The mid-to-late 90s were a painful time for me as a gamer. While I wasn't giving the scene my full attention during the year that saw the wonderful 16-bit systems replaced by the dazzling new 32-bit examples with all their polygons, I was still a Sega fan and I knew of the difficulties they had faced while faffing around with the 32X, Nomad, CDX, TeraDrive, and lord knows what else, and I also knew of their troubles concerning the development and release of the Saturn itself.

These collective woes ultimately led to the premature downfall of the Saturn. I still remember one day when I had just bought the latest Official Saturn Magazine on the way home from work and was sat on a bench flicking though it. Times were grim and the magazine staff did their best to give us hope, but there were only a handful of new reviews at best. The news pages brought faint glimmers of hope that some of the PS1's popular games might see release on Sega's ailing system, but I knew they wouldn't (which proved correct) and I think that was the moment when I finally accepted that the Saturn was on its way down. Did I put aside my sadness and frustration and step foot into the enemy's camp? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em - right? I'm ashamed to admit my desire to play new games eventually outweighed my loyalty to Sega and I went in search of a second-hand PlayStation console.

TV Shows #33

A Teacher (2020)
Developed By: Hannah Fidell
Starring: Kate Mara, Nick Robinson, Ashley Zukerman, Shane Harper, Marielle Scott, Dylan Schmid, Adam David Thompson, Jana Peck, Rya Ingrid Kihlstedt

Certificate: 18 Running Time: 21-30 Minutes per Episode (approx), 10 Episodes

I guess it's a dangerous subject to even talk about these days but I'm sure most of us had the hots for a teacher or two back in our school days. I know I did! For the overwhelming majority of us, that's as far as it ever goes, of course, which is as it should be. Startlingly, however, that is not as far as it goes in this FX miniseries which stars Nick Robinson as Eric, a 17 year old student who becomes infatuated with Claire, his 32 year old English teacher. Claire is played by Kate Mara who is, dare I say it, rather attractive. I know it automatically makes me a misogynistic pig for acknowledging that, but she is, so it's not hard to see why Eric finds her appealing. Apparently unaware of this, after a chance encounter outside of school, she offers to tutor him for his SATs. After a couple of study sessions and a probably-unwise guided tour of her old university where Eric is hoping to study, he tries to kiss her.

Licensed Games #5

Robocop (1988)
By: Data East Genre: Platform/Fighting/Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 56,800 (one credit)
Also Available For: NES, Game Boy, PC, Amiga, Atari ST, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Apple II, TRS-80

In my younger years when much of my gaming was done on my trusty Speccy, many of the biggest and most successful games, or at least most hyped games, were adapted from major movies of the time. A lot of these sucked donkey balls, naturally, and were rightly derided, but I always remember one of them being a monster smash hit that topped the Speccy sales charts for many, many months. It was a game based on one of the best movies of its time which starred Peter Weller as a slain cop who was given a new lease of life after being repaired/augmented by electronic devices and assorted mechanical doodads. This would, I believe, make him a cyborg rather than a robot, so technically the film should've been called Cybercop, but name inaccuracies aside, it was a bit of a stonker. The tie-in game was originally found in arcades which was a little unusual, and as good as the Speccy version was, it can't have been as good as the arcade version, surely? Sadly, I didn't find out as I never encountered it.

Spectrum Round-Up #2

Budget games were great, a real lifeline for kids my age back in the mid-to-late-80s. I fondly recall my good friend Luke and I frequently visiting our local Blockbuster video store and browsing the rack of budget games they had for sale, but both there and featured heavily in the magazines that covered the 8-bit micros at the time were games bearing the name of Joe Blade, but for some reason I never played them. They are a trilogy of flick-screen arcade adventures - a type of game that appeals to me, and they were always near the top of the budget charts and were well received by most of the magazines too, so I really don't know why I never gave them a try. Time, then, for this pitiful blog to do its job once again. Behold:

Joe Blade (1987)

This first instalment sees Joe as a lone commando sent into an enemy fortress to rescue six hostages, then set a few bombs, and escape before they blow. Sounds like a cinch! There are guards patrolling most rooms though, and you have limited ammo for your machine gun. Luckily you can pick up more as well as keys, guards uniforms (temporary invincibility), and food to replenish Joe's health metre which depletes rapidly from contact with guards or other enemies. You will also find the aforementioned bombs here and there (there are six in total). Touching one brings up a mini-game where you have to put letters in the right order. If you do, you'll have 20 minutes to find the other bombs and arm them in a similar way before escaping. If you don't, the bomb will blow, killing you. It's a good idea to find the hostages before messing about with these! It's simple like most budget games, but the monochrome graphics are really nice (colours change now and then), there are tons of screens, it's good fun to play, and would be addictive enough anyway, but the placement of all the items (hostages, bombs, pick-ups) is randomised every time you play which makes it even more addictive, not to mention great value for money... 8/10

Film Review #125

Gladiator II (2024)
Director: Ridley Scott Starring: Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Lior Raz, Derek Jacobi

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 148 Minutes

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking Gladiator is one of the best films ever made. Chances are, if you are reading this, you've seen it and have your own opinion and you probably think it's at least half decent. There has been word of a potential sequel since the original film was still showing on the big screen, and several possible story ideas were floated, but I never thought any of them sounded like they could possibly live up to the first. The idea seemed to get forgotten and it was probably for the best. BUT THEN!! After many years of silence it was not only back on but had been cast and was being filmed, with Ridley Scott in the driving seat once more! It seemed like years of silence, anyway, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention. In any case, it seems one of the first story ideas proposed 20+ years ago would form the premise behind this much-belated sequel. Unlike some, I don't mind these so-called 'legacy sequels' we've been getting in recent years but I was worried it would completely fail to live up to the original. Was I right? Probably not but let's find out.

NES Shmups #6

Over Horizon (1991)
By: Hot B Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES First Day Score: 322,860
Also Available For: Nothing

I used to greatly enjoy reading the multi-format games magazines back in the 80s and early 90s and getting a taste of what delights were available to lucky owners of systems I did not own. Sometimes it could be frustrating, admittedly, and other times it gave me ammo for mocking said owners, but now and then, seemingly unremarkable games from these pages would get stuck in my head forever. Many of them were NES examples since I never owned it in its day, nor knew anyone who did (it wasn't popular here in the UK for some reason), and one such game that has been making its presence well known in my brain lately is Over Horizon which I have oddly-specific memories of seeing in the mighty Mean Machines magazine. As I recall, it received only a mediocre reception from Jaz and the gang, but, as sacrilegious as this may sound, I've become aware increasingly in my advancing years of just how often their opinions did not necessarily correspond with mine. Let's see if this is another example of that!