Search results
77 results, page 1 of 2
My Stinkor Story
He-Man and The Masters of the Universe is less a toy line or a cartoon than it is a case study in ruthless, well-timed marketing. The rush of…
Tailenders: Catching Up
I have to pity Tailenders. It’s one of those perfectly entertaining, subtly fascinating creations that was abruptly buried and forgotten due to superior competition. Here that competition was…
Emerald Dragon: Updates and Cows
I wasn’t planning on returning to Emerald Dragon quite so soon, but I’ve seen two important developments. One is a complete fan translation of the PC Engine version,…
Emerald Dragon: A Magnificent Cut
He’s a dragon. She’s a human. They’re in love. That’s not all there is to Emerald Dragon, but it’s the initial hook for this undervalued RPG from Glodia and…
Armageddon, Cosmic Fantasy, Girl from Phantasia, Legend of the Crystals: Final Fantasy
Vice: Project Doom's Laser Whip
You won’t catch me saying many unkind things about Vice: Project Doom. It’s one of the best side-scrolling action games on the NES, and boy howdy, there are…
McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure: Truth in Advertising
To continue last month's unwavering nostalgia current, what might be your favorite McDonald’s thing? Should you even have one? Criticism of the fast-food titan is nearly as commonplace as…
Battle Beasts: Animal Collecting
If you asked me to pick my favorite toy from my childhood, I would consider that question carefully and wonder if you were surreptitiously sizing me up for…
Golden Axe: Playing Favorites
Golden Axe is perplexing in the Sega catalog. It’s not a mammoth name like Sonic, but it’s often trotted out for classic reissues and merchandise. To be fair,…
Three Sentences About Three Gundam DVDs
You and your friends were really into Gundam Wing midway through high school and when they picked out their crushes from the show you went with Trowa even…
Little Things: Fire Shark
I admit it: I neglected Fire Shark for a long while. You can’t blame me that much. It seemed mundane when I sampled it during my trips through…
Lunar Remastered: Hope Springs Eternal
Hey, the Lunar games are back! There’s a new collection with Lunar: the Silver Star Story and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue ! What should I say abo...
exception, Legend of the Crystals: Final Fantasy, mono, Ranma ½, Cyber City Oedo 808
Valis Analysis
The Valis series is far more interesting than it first appears. Yes, it’s a line of side-scrolling games with anime heroines and fantasy wor...
Little Things: Pop Breaker
Pop Breaker could have very well ended up forgettable. It’s a puzzle-shooter for the Game Gear, putting together its stages with basic grap...
Moving Signs
A quick notice: this site will move to a new host shortly, so the images and the old site archive may not work for a brief period. The…
Shinesman: Still Bright
Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman is the rare anime seemingly remembered for its dub. That’s not to disparage the original Japanese versio...
Hellsing, Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman, Virtua Fighter, Ghost Stories, Hells
Updates and Updates
It's time for that annual post about myself—or at least one about the stuff I’m doing elsewhere. Life is busy, yes, but I sometimes find eno...
Super C's Superb Surprise
Super C is among those rare NES titles that replicate arcade games while improving them. Many games of similar origins cheated a little: Bi...
Ardy Lightfoot: Addendum
I was perhaps too brief in covering Ardy Lightfoot and the unexpectedly grim fate of Catry. It turns out that there’s a little more to the ...
Ardy Lightfoot's Dark Side
It’s tempting to swiftly set aside Ardy Lightfoot . You might give it the same fleeting glance you’d give any other semi-obscure Super NES a...
Dive Alert: Sub Average
Dive Alert keeps underappreciated company. It’s on the Neo Geo Pocket Color, a fantastic handheld system unfairly cut down when the pachink...
Future Boy Conan, Mega Man, Time Fighters, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad
The Odd Depths of Dig: A Journey Into the Earth
It’s always a relief to rediscover some bizarre cartoon you vaguely remember from your childhood. Beyond nostalgia, there’s a comfort to fin...
Dynamite Headdy's Horrors
Dynamite Headdy has a secure yet easily sidelined role in Treasure’s catalog. It’s not unfairly maligned like Advance Guardian Heroes or L...
Important Freeon-Leon News
This coming month looks to be a busy one for nerds of my stripe, what with Unicorn Overlord , Princess Peach: Showtime! , a new Contra , and...
Ufouria: Bring Back Freeon-Leon
A look through this site reveals that I enjoy going on and on about minor concerns. Yet I assure you that this entry involves no trivial com...
Vegas Dream, Analyzed
I mentioned my fascination with casino games a while ago. While they’re often cast aside as cheap distractions, many gambling-themed title...
Five Notable Unused Enemies
I don’t hesitate to recommend The Cutting Room Floor for many purposes, from in-depth research to the casual offing of an hour or two. The s...
Final Fantasy VI's Jump Scare
October usually brings up spooky things, but I’ll resist any discussion of Silent Hill, Clock Tower, Siren, Resident Evil, Power Piggs of th...
NES Games We Hated
I try not to buy physical copies of games these days. It’s a promise easily kept thanks to old games being expensive and new games being jus...
Dragon Warrior, Golgo 13: The Professional, Golgo 13, Mega Man, Mouse
My Five Favorite Game Company Logos
Game companies may need a lot of things to survive in the industry, but in my book they need only one thing to be memorable: a good logo.…
Ace Attorney, Legend of the Crystals: Final Fantasy, Jumping, RADIANT, Tactics
Little Things: Archon
I wonder why Archon: The Light and the Dark wasn’t a bigger deal. It was a success on home computers in the mid-1980s, of course, but it…
El Viento Returns, Sorta
El Viento remains one of the most fascinating titles in the Sega Genesis library. Like many early 1990s games heavy on anime style and reso...
Bounty Arms: Going Data West
Uh-oh. I haven’t written about Bounty Arm s in over a year! That’s perhaps understandable, since an unreleased PlayStation action game from ...
Mechanized Attack: The Mystery of Maiko
Anyone who praises the innocence and honesty of children has never heard them discuss video games and invariably lie. This was especially co...
News: Full-Motion-Video Classics Become the Next Great Game Adaptations
(Hollywood, California) No longer the beeps and bloops of Pac-Man, video games are growing up. Cable and streaming services, emboldened by H...
Journey to the Center of Wurm
Those of cynical mindset could deem Wurm: Journey to the Center of the Earth a messy game, but they’d be wrong. At the very least it’s seve...
Cyborg 009, Cyborg 009, ETERNITY, Golgo 13: The Professional, Golgo 13
Bunny Girls Interrupted
The Playboy bunny girl costume is an unavoidable fixture of sexist pop culture—and a persistent one in video games. Showing women in rabbit ...
Macross, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Variable Geo, FLCL
Notes for the Gravity Rush Movie
Gravity Rush is getting a movie, if you remember. It was announced four months ago, so that’s plenty of time for us to forget all…
Super Mario Bros. 2: Pity Poor Pidgit
There’s a lot to enjoy in Super Mario Bros. 2. It took all things Mario from a revolutionary but straightforward action game to an endearing...
Phantasy Star IV Disarmed
It recently came to light that Rieko “Phoenix Rie” Kodama passed away in May of this year. Kodama was a pioneer among women in the game indu...
The Mystery of The Missing My Little Pony Music
I am always intrigued by deleted scenes, especially when they’re possibly lost to time. It ties into my fascination with unreleased media in...
Old Games and New Questions
There I was the other night, playing Eco Fighter s on the new Capcom Arcade 2 nd Stadium collection. Eco Fighters is a creative and unfair...
Journey Into Darkstalkers
I usually can tell immediately when I’ll like a game. It may take a little while to fully seep into place, but even then there's something t...
Video Game Rental Stickers Tour: Part 2
I discussed my fascination with rental stickers a while ago, and I haven’t let go of it. As physical media grows scarcer and the last remain...
Unlimited Continues and Limited Enjoyment
Cotton Fantasy arrived this month. It’s a cute, colorful, charming little shooter in all respects, and I said as much in my full review . I...
Arcade of My Youth: Cap'n Bogey's Golf & Games
A woman knocked on our door one summer evening in 1992. She was circulating a petition against the planned construction of a huge arcade and...
Steel Angel Kurumi, Steel Angel Kurumi Encore, Street Fighter Alpha, Virtua Fighter
Valkyrie Elysium: The First Profile
Gosh, I really wish someone would make another Valkyrie Profile game. It's been over a year since Valkyrie Anatomia shut down, and that wa...
Bounty Arms: The Hermie Hopperhead Connection
So what's new with Bounty Arms ? Nothing major, as you might expect when it comes to a PlayStation action game canceled back in 1995. Howeve...
Little Things: Quarter Back Scramble
Lately I've grown interested in football games of the NES era, specifically those developed in Japan. At that point football (that'd be Amer...
Clockwork Aquario: Emerging From The Depths
Clockwork Aquario is finally out. It's been a long wait, and I'm not just talking about the 28 years since the game went through some awkwa...
Fuga: Melodies of Steel, Memories of the Middle Ground
Fuga: Melodies of Steel belongs to the endangered species of middleweight video games. Neither a lumbering blockbuster nor a small-scale in...