The back of the box states that none other than Mamoru Oshii himself was Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor: 98 Shiki Kidou Seyo!'s director, although whether that's merely eye-catching marketing bluster or a straightforward fact seems to be up for debate. The game takes the form of a traditional adventure game with look/talk/examine commands neatly laid out next … Continue reading Go straight to jail
[We can all see my camera's not exactly great, so please consider these photos more generally illustrative than an accurate reflection of the in-hand experience] I've always been fond of the Nomad, Sega's US-only portable Genesis. It's a pleasantly chunky machine with a great screen for its time (that'll be 1995 - the same year … Continue reading Review: 16Bit Pocket MD Plus
Ah, Mahjong Cop Ryu. Mahjong Cop. Mahjong. Cop. The title alone makes it obvious this game is going to be a lot fun. Who wouldn't want to play a daft Mega Drive mahjong game from 1989 created by none other than Sega themselves? And just to make sure you know you're in for an absurd … Continue reading You must be this cool to play
There's no point pretending otherwise - this box of delights is damned expensive. Even if you can read every last word in the two included books as well as you do your native tongue, and the DVD's contents are everything you ever dreamed of, and you're desperate for an accurately modelled 1/6th scale range of … Continue reading Review: SEGA hard historia
Thanks to the incredible influence of a certain blue hedgehog every company - every company - that wasn't Nintendo back in the Nineties was desperate to have a platforming mascot animal-ish character of their very own, usually a [Something] the [Something]. With attitude. And Konami's was Sparkster, the armour plated, rocket powered, tail swinging, opossum star of Rocket Knight Adventures. … Continue reading Rocket-powered platforming
I've loved Mad Stalker from the moment I stumbled upon the X68000 original while browsing Project EGG's wonderful selection of games, and snapping up the otherwise unpalatably expensive PlayStation remake through Japan's PlayStation Store for about the price of a large coffee only made me adore the game even more (do grab that digital offering … Continue reading Better late than never
Buying the home conversion of an arcade game back in the early nineties was a risky and unpredictable game affair: Entire stages may be skipped, less popular characters mysteriously absent, voice samples were more often than not thrown out at the earliest opportunity, and if a unique enemy or particularly large boss just wasn't going … Continue reading Better than the real thing
It may have had a no-fuss international release and been warmly received by mainstream gaming press at the time but Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium was never an easy title to get hold of, requiring Nineties Kimimi to do more than simply rush towards the nearest copy in a brick-and-mortar shop (specialist or … Continue reading Final Phantasy
This has scared me like nothing else I've written about all spooky season; it's the one game I honestly don't want to look at screenshots of if I can help it, the one heart-stopping experience that eclipses all of Umbrella's zombie disasters and soundly beats any ghost-filled high school. The game I'm about to discuss … Continue reading Forbidden knowledge
It doesn't take any special sleuthing or grand digital detectivry to confidently trace a finger through Vixen 357's impressive family tree: The broad similarities to Langrisser (released the year before, in 1991), PC Engine mech SRPG Hisou Kihei X-Serd (1990), and even going as far back as Gaia no Monshou (1987) are as plain as … Continue reading Masaya’s Mega Drive mechs
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 