SNK: The Video Game Industry's Pheonix

Ikari Warriors, Baseball Stars, Alpha Mission, Guerrilla War...I could go on for a while listing the Classics published by Shin Nihon Kikaku Corporation. SNK, as they became known, developed some of the greatest games to come along after the crash of 1983, and their proprietary arcade technology, The Neo Geo Multi Video System, became the stuff of video game legend and video game collectors' dreams. Long before the Neo Geo, though, SNK broke into the video game business with a game called Micon Block, but they achieved their first major success with Vanguard. Vanguard was groundbreaking for two major things; it was the first scrolling shoot em up in video game history, and it allowed players to fire in four directions while moving. SNK followed the Success of Vanguard with the opening of their North American offices, and then with a string of highly popular coin op titles like Athena, Alpha Mission, Psycho Soldier, and Ikari Warriors. The last of those, Ikari Warriors was so popular that it was ported to several systems. Ikari Warriors also spawned two sequels in Victory Road and Ikari III: The Rescue. For the rest of the 1980s, SNK was one of the industry's best arcade and home console game publishers, and all the while they were preparing to unleash something that nobody saw coming. In 1990, SNK released its all new 24-bit arcade system, the Neo Geo Multi Video System, or MVS. The Neo Geo was an arcade operator's dream, since the cabinets used cartridges and were sold in 1, 2, 4, and 6 cartridge slot varieties, it cost a fraction of the initial cost to replace games. There was also an incentive for gamers to play since the Neo Geo arcade cabinets had memory card slots that players can use to transfer scores and save data from the arcade games to their home Neo Geo consoles. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that SNK released the first chip for chip arcade perfect home console in the form of the Advanced Entertainment System or AES. Gamers were generally excited about the AES, but there was a big factor that kept many from buying one, namely the price tag. The Neo Geo came in two flavors, with the base model costing $499 while the high end package costing $649.99. Suffice it to say, many gamers never got to play a Neo Geo AES. Which is sad, considering how excellent the library of game was for the system. SNK had bonafide classics on the Neo Geo, including Baseball Stars 2, Super Sidekicks 3, Viewpoint, and Fatal Fury among many others. SNK started to experience a financial meltdown towards the end of the 90s, and folded in 2001. All was not lost however, and the original founder of SNK, Eikichi Kawasaki started Playmore, then that company acquired SNK's assets. From there, Playmore sought out and successfully rehired most of SNK's old staff, and SNK Playmore was born. Over the past few years, SNK Playmore has been gradually reviving a number of old Neo Geo franchises like Metal Slug and King Of Fighters, while bringing back old favorites through a number of compilations. Playmore has struggled to keep pace with mega publishers like EA and Take Two, but SNK Playmore has garnered quite a cult following among retro gamers and they aren't going away any time soon.

Smart Guy Gets The Girl: A Look Back At Lolo

1989 was an interesting year for video games. The Sega Genesis was introduced into American gaming lexicon, the second Mega Man game was getting good reviews, and a little guy named Lolo was proving that smart guys can get the girl in the end.

In Adventures of Lolo, you play as Lolo, a little round blue thing that must rescue Lala, which is a little round pink thing from King Egger, which is a dragon type thing. Like a Nintendo rep said when this game came out, "Lolo is designed to let a kid use their imagination". Now the whole "rescue the damsel in distress" has been done to death by this point in gaming history, but the folks at Hal America did it in an interesting way this time.

In Adventures of Lolo, you guide Lolo through 50 brain teasing puzzles before you can set Lala free. How do you know if you've solved a puzzle? Well, in each room are little white boxes with hearts inside called "heart framers" all Lolo has to do is outwit the enemies in each room and collect all of the heart framers in each room. This opens the door leading to the next room. Lolo has to remain alert, though, since most of the enemies he will face on his quest can instantly kill him. There are ways Lolo can screw up a puzzle irreparably, and when that happens, Players can simply press select and have Lolo kill himself. It may sound all kinds of messed up, but considering that Lolo has 5 lives and those lives reset at the start of every level, you get ample chance to call the occasional "mulligan".

Considering how different Adventures of Lolo was to everything else on the NES at the time, it was a bit of a shock that it became as popular as it was. How popular was it? So popular that two sequels were released on the NES as well as a Game Boy version. The first game in the trilogy was released on the Virtual Console service on June 8, 2007, and copies of all three NES games as well as the Game Boy game can be found on ebay.

It has always amazed me how creative some members of the video game development community can be. The Adventures of Lolo series is a prime example of that creativity in that it was the first time a game's hero has been able to be that while only using his intelligence to conquer his foes.

Epic Shows Us The Future, But I'm Not Sold Just Yet.

Game developers are always looking for a way to push a console's limits, and no developer has done more in the last 15 years to push graphic innovation than Epic Games. Their Unreal Engine has powered games of almost every genre, on multiple platforms. So, when they decided it was time to show the world what "the future of video games" looks like, I was mildly puzzled. I was puzzled not because I wasn't aware of good their tech demo of Unreal Engine 3 would look, but I was puzzled because it was running on current gen technology and it was basically an extremely pretty cutscene. The folks at Epic claimed that actual gameplay would look like the footage in the demo, but the folks at Sony said the same thing about Killzone 2 when the PS3 launched, and while it looked good, it was nowhere near what they claimed. I know I might sound like a cynic, but I'm a gamer and tech demos are nice, but I'd much rather have a gameplay demo any day. I'm sure Epic is fully aware that while they have wowed publishers with this demo, they will have to unveil actual gameplay before gamers are impressed with anything. I will say though, that demo was pretty awesome.

Artist Spotlight: D. Francis

This song is part tribute to Ryu, the legendary character from Capcom's long running Street Fighter series, and part declaration of lyrical superiority. the song is entitled "I Go", and the artist is New Orleans emcee D. Francis.



you can download the song from: http://dfrancis.bandcamp.com/track/rayzzor-d-francis-i-go-ryu-tribute

Some Of My Favorites

I get asked pretty regularly what some of my favorite all time games are, and I always used to find it difficult to answer that, considering how that list can change based on what's out there at any given point. I am at this moment, okay with publicly saying what 10 of my favorite games are, but keep in mind that this list is in no particular order, and whit the game industry not dying any time soon, this list is subject to change.

MetalStorm -NES -Irem: No one can ever claim Irem made the greatest games ever, but Metalstorm might be one of the best platformers on the NES. It was the first game I ever played that allowed a player to manipulate gravity as they needed to, and that novelty added a lot to the gameplay in this one.

Saturday Night Slam Masters -Arcade, SNES, Genesis -Capcom: In the early 90s Capcom could do no wrong, and the mashup of pro wrestling atmosphere and fighting game control worked better than the WWF and WCW games were at the time.

Parasite Eve -PS1 -Squaresoft: Square used to be about new IPs that were good, and not crap like Mindjack. Parasite Eve was one of their best RPGs not called Final Fantasy, and it seems to be all but forgotten now. a travesty if you ask me.

Gunstar Heroes -Genesis -Treasure: Gunstar in my opinion is quite possibly one of the three greatest old school action games ever. Everything about Gunstar felt perfect gameplay wise, and it was one of those games that defined the 16 Bit generation for me.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night -PS1 -Konami: The Castlevania series is my all time favorite series of games, and Symphony is my all time favorite game in the series. Konami took the exploration of Castlevania 2, the boos battles of Castlevania 4, and the seamless game layout of Super Metroid and churned out a game that has been hard to follow up. Which might explain why Lament of Innocence was so poorly received.

Guerrilla War -NES - SNK: Before SNK was known as the fighting game company, they made a lot of great arcade games, and most of those arcade games made great NES games. Guerrilla War was one such game. It took the gritty gameplay of Ikari Warriors and made it grittier and faster.

Ikaruga -Gamecube, XBLA, Dreamcast - Treasure: No powerup system, epic boss fights, and an extreme test of reflexes sums up exactly what the highly stylized bullet hell shooter is all about.

Strider 2 -PS1 -Capcom: Capcom took their original Strider game and gave it a graphic overhaul, tightened the contorl, and sped things up, you get this action game masterwork that looks as good today as it did in 2000 when it was released.

Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner -PS2 -Konami: Hideo Kojima's third game for the PS2 did not disappoint, and it surpassed it's predecessor and every other anime based game in the process.

Robotron 2084 -Arcade -Midway: Robotron is probably one of the most tense video games I have ever played, and after playing games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising, I understand why. Robotron puts players in a box shaped room and tells them to save humans and kill aliens. It's simple and pure as far as games go, but it can be nerve racking once a player starts to advance a few waves and realizes there are far more aliens than there is free running room in the small space you inhabit.

There are more games that inhabit my list of favorites, but these are a few I think you guys would gets a kick out of playing if you haven't tried them before.

Quick Gamer History Lesson: What's A Rail Shooter?

I recently learned of a remake of the classic Atari 2600 game Yars' Revenge for XBLA and PSN. I was excited about that, but then I learned what type of game it would be and got even more excited. If any genre of game fits what this new vision of Yars' Revenge is, it is a rail shooter. For the uninitiated, rail shooters are games where you don't control where your character moves, just where that character aims and shoots. It's an extremely simple concept that if done correctly can make for a deceptively deep and incredibly fun gaming experience. The first example of this type of shoot em up is arguably it's greatest. Sega released Space Harrier in 1985, and it was groundbreaking in looks and mechanics. The game was capable of running at an extremely high frame rate, scaling was seen for the first time in a video game, and Space Harrier used Sega's "super scaler" technology, which allowed sprite scaling at very high frame rates. This allowed characters to virtually fly from the extreme foreground of the game environment until they are right in the player's face. it also handled quite well, and nearly 30 years later, Space Harrier stands the test of time with fast exciting gameplay. Sadly though, rail shooters seemingly never caught on beyond Space Harrier, at least in the US they didn't. Other notable rail shooters include the Panzer Dragoon series, which added an excellent narrative to the typical "shoot everything that moves" gameplay, Rez, which combined solid shooter gameplay with a soundtrack that blends techno music with the games visuals for quite the unique experience, and the Sin and Punishment series which takes the best parts of Space Harrier and combines it with the almost frantic pace of Contra or Gunstar Heroes. While this brief post wasn't meant to give readers the full history of rail shooters, I am all about feedback in this space. If you can think of any other rail shooters, feel free to include them in the comments section.

Artist Spotlight: Renzo

I usually don't post music on this blog, but considering the direction this joint is taking, I feel it's appropriate for this blog. The artist is a Houston bred MC by the name of Renzo. The song is called "All In The Game" and when you hear it, you'll know why that title is so fitting. If you dig this track and want to contact Renzo, you can do so via twitter ( @Renzeeo ) or via email
( renzo.cur@gmail.com )

Any other artists with video game themed work, feel free to contact me via twitter ( @8bitanimal ) to have your work showcased in this blog


All in the Game by renzeeo