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Sharp Metal Blades

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TB_flyerBoS_Flyer

‘Thunder Blade’ or ‘Blades of Steel’ – what’s in a name? Hang on; are we talking about helicopter gunships, ice hockey or a samurai sword fighting game here? Don’t you just love mysterious titles?

Of course you know these games have nothing more in common than the reference to ‘Blade’ in their titles.

TB_gameplay

‘Thunder Blade’, possibly borrowing from the movie, Blue Thunder (Ed: not confirmed!), is about a high-tech attack helicopter trying to save mankind from some evil-doers. Sega’s 1987 arcade shooter was housed in two arcade guises: a stand-up cabinet with a force feedback joystick; and the awesomely cool sit-down cockpit version with the seat moving in tandem with joystick movements. The conversions sadly lacked this aspect. On the other hand, Konami’s 1987 ice-hockey game, ‘Blades of Steel’ is about dudes trying to play a game of ice hockey while breaking out into a bare-knuckle interlude (or should that be the other way around?). The arcade controls were unique for this game – a back-lit optical trackball to control players and three buttons, one dedicated for punching! Apart from both games being released in 1987, they could not be any more different from one another.

BoS_gameplay

So there you have it, confusion clarified (Ed: really?) – Two very different games with very similar titles. You are more than welcome. Now go and play some video games!

Top 5 Games Charts: March 1996

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March 1996 saw the release of the brilliant Coen brothers movie, Fargo. In the same month, we were bopping away to Take That’s “How deep is your love” (we did?!) and the Prodigy’s “Firestarter” (that’s more like it!).

The Sega Mega Drive and Saturn were embroiled in their own 16-bit vs 32-bit war, while Nintendo’s SNES was being stretched to it’s maximum capability.

These were the top games that had us glued to our consoles in March 1996:

 

SNES 1) Donkey Kong Country 2 (Nintendo)
2) Yoshi’s Island (Nintendo)
3) Killer Instinct (Nintendo)
4) FIFA Soccer ’96 (EA)
5) Street Racer (Ubisoft)

 

MegaDriveGen 1) FIFA Soccer ’96 (EA)
2) Premier Manager (Sega)
3) Sonic & Knuckles (Sega)
4) Micro Machines ’96 (Codemasters)
5) Mickey Mania (Sony)

 

SONY DSC 1) Virtua Fighter 2 (Sega)
2) FIFA Soccer ’96
3) Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2 (Core Design)
4) Virtua Cop (Sega)
5) Daytona USA (Sega)

 

Golden Axe: Swashbuckling Arcade Action

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GoldenAxe_header

The powerhouse that was Sega in the late 1980’s indulged us in some awesome arcade hits. Towards the end of that decade, Sega released memorable arcade games: Crack Down, Dynamite Dux, ESWAT Cyber Police, Scramble Spirits and Power Drift. To keep up this pedigree of arcade hits, Sega unleashed Golden Axe in 1989. Once again, Sega proved that they were the king of the arcade hill.

GA_screen1

The big rage back in the late 80’s was two player co-op, horizontal-scrolling fighting games, or in this case, slashing evil minions to pieces and getting to the final boss. The medieval theme of Golden Axe implements the hacking and slashing game play to perfection. The storyline is pretty much run of the mill – the evil Death Adder has kidnapped the King and Princess of Yuria and it is up to the protagonists to rescue them and also seek revenge on the evil that was done to their families.

GA_screen2

To set off after Death Adder, the player controls one of three characters, Ax Battler (a Conan The Barbarian lookalike),  Gilius Thunderhead, the viking dwarf, and Tyris Flare, the Amazonian goddess (my first female video game character crush – sorry Lara!). Even though Tyris is a great character to use, her long-sword is no match for the battle axe that Gilius Thunderhead wields.

Anyway, on with the adventure – there are lots of different enemies to slash and if things get tough on screen, each of the protagonists can call upon their unique magic power – Tyris Flare has the coolest magic, she uses fire to incinerate everything on screen. There is finite magic power, so the player will have to pick and choose when best to use it. But wait there is more – mounted enemies riding creatures can be knocked off and the players themselves can then hitch a ride on the creatures and use them as weapons (swiping with their tail). The other neat attack is to charge and ram Death Adder’s henchmen by double-tapping the joystick right or left.

GA_screen3

The level design is simply awesome – from Turtle Village (which is on a shell of a turtle), to the back of a giant flying eagle. Last but not least, there is the castle where you must defeat Death Adder and reclaim the Golden Axe.

SPOILER ALERT: Once the game is beaten, the ending shows a view of an arcade where the characters “jump out” of the game, run out of the arcade and down the street.

I have always been a huge Sega arcade fan. Whatever they pumped out, it was an instant hit. Golden Axe was no exception.

 

Graphics Using the Sega System 16 board, this was the pinnacle in visuals at the time. Great sprites and awesome looking levels.

87%
Sound The background music and digitised effects and grunts add perfectly to the axe wielding and sword swooshing atmosphere.

88%
Playability Sega knew what they were doing when adding an Amazonian beauty to the mix. Golden Axe remains easy to get into, but its best played with a buddy.

87%
Lastability It is a run of the mill side scrolling hack and slash, but hey, there is nothing wrong with that.

88%
Overall In 1989, I pumped the equivalent of my body weight of coins into this game. It was also one of the reasons I bought a Mega Drive when it was released. Best played with a friend, Golden Axe has it covered – great graphics, awesome sound effects and great game play.

89%

 

 

 

GoldenAxe_machine

Manufacturer: Sega
Year: 1989
Genre: Platform
Number of Simultaneous Players: 2
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Collaborative
Control Panel Layout: Multi Player
Controls:
– Joystick: 8-way
– Buttons: 3 [Jump, Attack, Magic]
Sound: Amplified Mono (single channel)

 

 

 

 

GoldenAxe_Flyer

 

 

Video Games Graveyard

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Survival of the fittest or just plain bad business decisions. Just as Betamax was left in the wake of the VHS behemoth,  the video games market is strewn with carcasses of systems and games that just never made it.

Jaguar

Some of history’s most spectacular gaming console flops come from two of the industry’s heavy hitters, Atari and Sega. The hardware manufacturing death knell was getting quite loud at Atari – they decided to throw in the towel and quit making games consoles after the Atari Jaguar was caught in the crossfire of the Sega versus Nintendo battle of the 1990s. The Jaguar was rushed to market and suffered the consequences. Selling fewer than 250,000 units just wasn’t going to cut it. Perhaps Atari should have done the math (get it!) before they embarked on the Jaguar.

dreamcast-console_arg

A few years after Atari ceased making hardware, it was Sega’s turn to wave the console making white flag. Once a pillar of the video games console industry, Sega’s Dreamcast was met with initial enthusiasm but Sega also abandoned making consoles after the Dreamcast was smashed by the new kid on the block, Sony’s PlayStation 2.

Atari_ET_arg

As for gaming flops, Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial takes the gong. The game was rushed (it took 5 weeks to develop) to retail stores for the 1982 Christmas season but was such a disappointment, that millions of unsold game cartridges ended up in landfill in the New Mexico desert. Atari ordered more E.T. cartridges to be made than there were installed Atari VCS 2600 units! Again, Atari should have DONE THE MATH.



Best-Selling Video Game Consoles: 1972 to 2002

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Atari2600       NES       SMD

Do you remember those school-yard arguments you used to have with your friends about which video game console was better: Atari vs Intellivision or Sega vs Nintendo ?
Finally, you can check out the best-selling video game consoles from 1972 to 2002 figures below and put an end to those endless arguments – or will this just reopen old wounds ?  [Read more…] about Best-Selling Video Game Consoles: 1972 to 2002

Off The Beaten Path: Saturn Edition

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Written by: Kimimi

When people think of Japanese Saturn games, they quite rightly call to mind classics such as Capcom’s 4MB-enhanced beat ‘em ups, shmups like Battle Garrega and Radiant Silvergun, and the sequels the West wanted but never got (I hate to bring up old wounds, but I must mention Dragon Force 2 and the remaining Shining Force 3 scenarios). The Saturn had far more Japanese games than just these cult classics though and while the quality naturally varies from game to game there’s still plenty of interesting titles waiting to be played, often for $10USD or less. [Read more…] about Off The Beaten Path: Saturn Edition

Space Harrier: An Arcade Blast

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Yu Suzuki, Sega’s answer to Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, has produced some of the most iconic arcade games ever. How does Out Run, After Burner, Power Drift, Super Hang-On and Virtua Fighter (to name a few) grab you ? Before all these superlative arcade titles, it was the 1985 hit Space Harrier, that propelled Yu into the stratosphere of legendary game developers. [Read more…] about Space Harrier: An Arcade Blast