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.
Back to video games for a quick review on a Bullet Hell game with a bit of a history to it. This is Trouble Witches Neo.
Released back in 2007, Trouble Witches, a former PC game made the transition to the X-Box Marketplace under the name Trouble Witches Neo; like with any Bullet Hell game, Trouble Witches has relatively hard difficulty and you got to command an adorable witch ranging from Eastern Samurai, Magical Girls, Female Cardinals, Princesses and traditional Western Witches, the object is to defeat the Amalgam Daughters (And one son) after every stage until the selected character's story is completed, you can also stop by the Pumpkin Shop and mess with the shop keeper until her sister kicks you out.
Now I did say this game has a history and it's the god awful, atrocious dub voice acting, here's but a sample of the terrible voice acting you can listen to.
Me thinks the acting was done by people whose first language is not English or have never been trained to do any acting.
Current State: It's been de-listed from X-Box Live Arcade as of last year of time of writing, the game has faded into obscurity since it's release only best remembered for said Atrocious Dub Acting.
Why Should it be Revived?: SNK would do well to give this still born franchise another shot, if only to clear up the bad voice acting, but voice acting aside, the character designs are very charming and the characters themselves are fun to watch and could easily pass as a competent anime.
I'm old enough to have been through nearly the entirety of the gaming industry and back in my day, we learned our skills through the arcades.
Weston Grand Pier, nearest arcade to my location in the UK
To bring Arcades into the 21st Century, I have compiled an Achievement List, equaling to 1000G in the same style as X-Box. I'll also list my score at the end, so lets take a look. Bold are ones I've achieved.
50G - Complete an Arcade Game on one coin
50G - Tilt a Pinball Machine by Overclocking the Score
20G - Top an Arcade Leaderboard
40G - Complete the Hard Race Course on a Driving Game
15G - Play an Arcade Cabinet Older than you
20G - Win a Claw Game
20G - Win a Multiplayer Game
10G - Earn £10/$10 on a Coin Pusher
15G - Earn £15/$15 on Slots
30G - Win a Pinball Tournament
40G - Complete an Arcade Shooter
10G - Complete a song on Dance Dance Revolution
40G - Complete a song on Dance Dance Revolution on the Hardest Difficulty
25G - Play a Hundred different Arcade Titles
15G - Win at Air Hockey
10G - Play a Shooting Gallery
10G - Play a Punching Machine
10G - Play Basketball Hoops
10G - Play Skee Ball
30G - Play Pachinko
10G - Won enough tickets for a decent Prize
20G - Play Kentucky Derby
5G - Spent £100/$100 on Arcade Games
15G - Play five Namco Games
15G - Play five Taito Games
15G - Play five Midway Games
15G - Play five Sega Games
15G - Play five Atari Games
20G - Played an Arcade Game using a Trackball
15G - Played a Gottlieb Pinball Machine
15G - Played a Williams Pinball Machine
20G - Played Joust
20G - Played Asteroids
20G - Played Centipede
20G - Played Tetris
20G - Played Defender
20G - Played Donkey Kong
20G - Played Pacman
20G - Played Galaga
20G - Played Space Invaders
20G - Played Pole Position
10G - Played Virtua Fighter
10G - Played Outrun (Classic)
10G - Played Space Harrier
10G - Played Super Hang-On
10G - Played Tumble Pop
10G - Played Puzzle Bobble
10G - Played Afterburner
10G - Played Sega Rally
10G - Played Daytona USA
10G - Played Time Crisis
10G - Played House of the Dead
10G - Played Final Fight
10G - Played Street Fighter II
10G - Played Simpsons Arcade
10G - Played X-Men Arcade
10G - Played Alpine Ski
10G - Played Table Stick Hockey
Update: 1st Expansion Pack Achievements
10G - Played Gauntlet
20G - Played a TriForce Arcade Game (Namco - Sega - Nintendo)
10G - Played a Free-to-Play Game
30G - Completed a Co-op Shooter
10G - Played Whack-A-Mole
20G - Won a Race using a Photo of Yourself on any Photo Arcade Feature
50G - Scored a 1000 Points on Pac-Man Multi Puck Air Hockey
Update: 2nd Expansion Pack Achievements
20G - Played Hatsune Miku Arcade
20G - Played a Taiko Drum Game
20G - Played a Pogo Stick Game
20G - Played any Idol Game using Cards
50G - Played a Table Flipping Game
20G - Played Sonic the Hedgehog Arcade
30G - Won a Sega UFO Catcher
20G - Beat a Fist of the North Star Punching Game
Update: 3rd Expansion Pack Achievements European Edition
10G - Played a Sega, Midway and Namco Game in the Same Arcade
20G - Played 10 Games in a Traditional American Style Arcade
30G - Placed on the Leaderboard of any Arcade Game
40G - Defeated a Local at an Arcade Game
50G - Leave the Arcade with a Prize
My Score: 1150G
Take the Arcade challenge and see how you match up.
Back to some gaming as I'll be throwing up some quick reviews for old games, these will come out thick and fast so try to keep up. We start off with Re-Volt.
Re-Volt was made by Acclaim Entertainment, a late 90s company that could compete with the big names but ultimately fizzled out when it found out that it wasn't capable of flogging Turok anymore. The concept of Re-Volt is a Remote Controlled car game in which comically named vehicles race around Suburban Neighbourhoods, Rooftops, Gardens, Supermarkets, Toy Stores, Ghost Towns, Museums and even a scaled down Titanic, the game also included power ups, a battle mode and a stunt track in order to better compete with some real big name racers at the time.
Re-Volt was best remembered for it's stunning soundtrack, realistic RC handling and having a track maker mode; it's difficulty can be anything from simple to outright brutal with some tracks really punishing your mistakes.
It's legacy is still felt now as the PC community constantly strive to build more and more custom tracks and cars for the game, even to this day, allowing the license to be purchased and rereleased as an IOS game.
I have great memories of this game as it was one of my favorite racing games of all time, and I owe much of my skill with racing games to this title.
Current State: It's currently active as an IOS title, even releasing a sequel with reasonable success.
Why Should it be Revived?: Rocket League kind of has the RC thing down at the moment, granted it's car football but it follows much of the same charm as Re-Volt, and I hope it becomes something more if the developers decide on a racing mode.
Time for another game review this time it's Mini Ninjas.
Mini Ninjas is an action adventure game made by IO Interactive who are probably better known for the Hitman series; It was released in 2009 when the likes of Naruto was still popular and everyone loved ninjas so this is very much like it's contemporaries which was a way to cash in. The story revolves around Hiro and a group of other trained ninja attempting to save the world from the Evil Samurai Warlord, as the name suggests everything is mini in size compared to the huge environment the ninjas travel in. Taking a page out of the book of Sonic all the enemies are animals that have been transformed into samurai in order to take over the world and upon defeat they return to their animal forms making the game more family friendly. Hiro also has Kuji Magic, a selection of jutsu on scrolls that Hiro can perform from animal possession to the usual elemental attacks, so for what is an unremarkable looking game actually manages to show some surprising depth, the fun little videos on the characters does a great job of making us understand how each character acts and it shows that all of them are needed to finish the game not just Hiro. The enemies range from the hilarious to the outright intimidating although hearing the samurai shriek ninja all the time does get old very quick. The gameplay is solid and gives you a satisfying experience despite the need to collect things for 100% completion.
Current State: Mini Ninjas has ironically been stealthily releasing some games on Android as recently as 2013 and even more unknown has released a cartoon series, originally picked up by 4Kids but later released last year in France, so we've not seen the last of the franchise by any stretch.
Why Should it be Revived?: Well technically it hasn't been finished but a mainstream return would be welcomed on current generation consoles.
It's been a while since I've graced the Video Game Lounge so lets look at Sonic R.
Sonic R is a racing game using 3D environments that give you freedom to run as all your favorite characters. It was released on the Sega Saturn and is probably best remembered for largely being unimpressive yet surprisingly addictive, mostly thanks to the cheesy poptastic soundtrack along with legends of the Tails Doll being evil and the gameplay being less than stellar.
Sonic R came with a lot of high expectations but never amounted to anything special, mainly because the idea is supposed to work really well, a Sonic racing game without cars just suits him down to the ground and there was no excuse for skipping on characters as there were plenty to choose at the time of release.
What we got really isn't bad, playing it now you can see where they wanted to go with it and it still did things that most racing games are only recently doing which is weather effects. Yeah Sonic R created the concept of weather effects in racing games bet you didn't know that; but overall the experience for most players was just disappointing but you know Sonic has done a lot worst.
Current State: It was last seen in 2005 as part of the Sonic Gems Collection, it's not been seen since but it's main theme Super Sonic Racing is a staple of Sonic History.
Why Should it be Revived?: believe it or not there is still enough potential in the game to give it another try, it can't be any worst than Sonic Boom.
