Chrontendo Episode 51

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Hey folks it's me Dr. Sparkle

back again with Episode 51 of Chrontendo

Now I'll be honest

I've actually had a pretty rough

last couple of weeks.

Those of you who follow

my Twitter account or check

the blog will know that our

dog Molly passed away recently

at the age of thirteen. And it

was all very sudden. She seemed

fine, healthy, then one day she

acted a little tired. We took her to

the vet and within a week it was -

it was all over. And she really was

an amazing dog. She discovered

breast cancer in two different people, and you

know it's really going to be

difficult without her. And then

almost immediately afterwards

my wife actually lost her wedding

ring. Not lost as in misplaced but

rather gone forever. And even

though it's only a ring she had

a great deal of attachment to it.

You sort of think of your

wedding ring as something you'll

carry with you for your entire life

and she was just so broken up

over it. But regardless Chrontendo

Episode 51 is finally done

and one last thing. I have some

changes planned for Chrontendo in

the near future. Hopefully changes

people will like. More details about

this will emerge soon. For today

we have fifteen games from late

November to early December

1989, including some US-only games.

Prepare yourself for another

Beam-devloped game. And one of the

most obscure US games

published by Nintendo. Also a couple

of military strategy games and two

very unusual RPGs, including one

from Square. So, let's get started.

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Yep, the first of two games

from November 17th, this one's from

Irem, apparently developed by Tamtex.

Gekitotsu Yonku Battle - this is the

second mini Yonku game

we've seen for the Famicom, and the

last - I think. Mini Yonku, as you

might recall, were those little

highly customizable racing cars that

were quite popular among

Japanese kids at this time

and maybe still are. We've

previously seen a Mini Yonku game

from Konami a couple months

back. That one actually

licensed the name of

Tamiya, the most popular

maker of Mini Yonku cars.

This one, however, is totally

generic. Gekitotsu Yonku

Battle is a very minor

slight game. It's a simple

top-down, arena battle

racing deal. Your object

here is to collect Teki

which you do by collecting

flags and you get flags

by destroying the other cars.

Ramming into cars will

destroy them. Getting rammed

or hitting an obstacle will

damge your car. You can see

your vehicle's health on the

bottom left there - it's

Life Meter. So the object is

to ram enough cars to generate

a flag. When this happens the

flag will show up on the main

map. You then need to rush over

to the flag, trying to

destroy cars along the

way. This will raise the

number on the flag.

When and if you flip the

flag you will get the number

of Teki as are on the

flag up to the maximum of

five. There is always the

chance that another car

will collect the flag first.

And then once you've

collected enough Teki

you win the round and

move on. And that's

actually it. Oh yeah,

there are these lame

animated scenes between

the rounds. I'd

hesitate to call these

cut scenes exactly.

So a couple points about

this game. Each round adds

to the selection of cars

you can pick but despite

some rad names like

Battle Super Sabre, the

only difference is these

sprites. The cars all function

exactly the same as far as

I can tell and there's no

customization options

or anthing like that. It's

a very simple game. There

are a few special items

you can pick up on each

level - the turbo thing

that makes you go faster

and much more importantly

a star that gives you

temporary invulnerability.

Other than that there's

really not much here

other than smashing into

cars. There are these

bonus stages where you

drive around picking up

flags for points which have

no end-game purpose other

than aiming for a

high score. And the weird

thing is, there is

no two player mode. That

would seem like a good

idea for a game like

this but I guess it would

require cutting the

screen in half. Bottom

line is, it seems like

a well-done game in

many ways but it's

just a very, very simple

one with not a whole

lot to do.

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It's been a few months

since we've seen a

Taito game's release

in Japan and this episode

we have two. First up is

Ninja Cop Saizou. Though

the Japanese version

was published by Kyugo

Boueki, the same guys

who published the Japanese

version of Air Wolf -

is this about a ninja

or about a cop? What if

I told you it was about

a cop who was also

a ninja? Well, the police

comissioner has been

working on his forearms,

as you can see here.

Apparently someone is

kidnapping some kids

and they need to find

out who. Now if this

sounds a little bit like

Shinobi, then congratulations

on your perceptiveness.

I suppose we can safely

call Ninja Cop Saizou

a ripoff. You have a lot

of enemies shooting

at you from behind

crates and things - really

the exact same mechanic

as Shinobi has used for

attacking. At a distance

you throw a dart of

some sort. Up close you

automatically switch to

a blade and you have

ninja magic as well.

Now one new feature here

is you can walk up to

the guys in red and grab

them, triggering a little

scene where you interrogate

them. This doesn't contribute

to the game as far as I

can tell, but it does

add details to the story.

In April 1990 Taito

released this to the US

under the name of

Wrath of the Black Manta.

Manta, by the way, simply

means mantle, you know

like a cape or something,

in Portuguese though I

assume the name Black Manta

is lifted from the Aquaman

character, who you might

recall from the Superfriends

cartoons and such. The

Black Manta here is no

longer a cop, he's just a

regular New York civilian

ninja. What's interesting

is if you know he's

hanging out at his home,

he's still wearing his

ninja outfit. All the

cut scenes were changed

in the US version. Actually

quite a bit in this

game has been altered.

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For the life of me, I

don't understand how the

kid left a note at the

scene of the kidnapping

saying he was being held

at the waterfront,

since obviously he was

taken to the waterfront

after he got kidnapped.

The game mechanics are

pretty much the same as

in the Japanese version.

Here you see the new

art for when you

interrogate a thug. It's

not known who's responsible

for the US version, but

they lifted a few

drawings from the

old How to Draw Comics

the Marvel Way which

was a book that Marvel

put out in the 70s, I

believe. Here is a

Mindscape game called

Infiltrator, also stole

stole an image from

that very same book.

One unique feature in

Black Manta is doors.

Tons of doors to enter.

Each door leads to

a small room either

containing a note with

a hint or a powerup

or some sort or

a few enemies. Rooms

do have one helpful

function. Killing the

enemies inside a

room restores some

of your health. In

theory, though, what

we want are the rooms

with the kidnapped kids.

Now, the art here

is rather obviously

traced from a photo

art - someone else's

drawing. I don't

know where they stole

this image from. The

bad guy's organization

is called DRAT

(Drug Runners and

Terrorists), and there

is sort of an anti-drug,

you know, cleanup of

streets theme going

on here.

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By comparison, here

is the much more

cutesy, kawaii version

of the kid in

Ninja Cop Saizou.

Here is the first boss,

his name is Tiny. Using

the shadow magic

against him which

creates a duplicate

ninja on top of you,

you can easily shoot

his head, so that

magic is quite helpful.

By contrast, here

is the Japanese version.

He's shorter, for one.

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And this is the

Japanese in-level

cut scene, whereas

the US version has a

sort of slightly more

cinematic cut scene.

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Black Manta and NInja Cop

slightly diverge in

the second level.

Manta has an air

level where you fly

a ninja kite, believe

it or not, then

a jungle scene

and some more

subterranean sunnels,

where in Ninja Cop

Saizou you have

these scenes where

you sort of jump around

in the city landscape

and find like a giant

warehouse or something.

I can't really call

Wrath of the Black Manta

a very good game.

The levels are pretty

repetitive with a few

exceptions. A lot

of time is spent

opening doors and

looking in rooms. Your

character moves slowly.

Just like Shinobi

you have to do a lot

of ducking in order

to avoid any fire,

which gets irritating

after a while. So it's

not a terrible game but

I would hesitate to

call it good.

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Ah, yes, another

entry in the who-cares

file. This was the first

of two games we have today,

published by Asmik Ace.

His logo was a cute

little dragon, and this

was developed by

Home Data, a rather

undistinguished company

whose credit to this

point included Sqoon - that

was that submarine

shoot 'em up game,

and Kanami's Astroboy

game as well as a

few other things that

you probably do not

remember.

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This is a cool intro, and

the whole mech suit

launching itself using

rails was sort of a cliche

that originated in one of

those Japanese space

cartoons. Well this is

obviously a Space Harrier

clone. You know, I like

the look of this.

Rather than going

with the checkerboard

pattern on the

ground they used

airport runways. I'm

really not sure. And the

destroyed city in the

background looks cool.

You have two

weapons - dual

laser beam things,

which you can power

up if you hold down

the fire button, and

a ball of energy

thing that is supposedly

a honing missle

but doesn't seem to

hone in on any

enemies whenever

I fired it. This

is also a 3D game.

Pressing select

activates the 3D

mode. You might

recall Nintendo sold

something called the

Famicom 3D system

which were these

electric shutter-based

3D goggles. Hardly

any games were released

for this things, but

Square put out a few

like Rad Racer

and the second

3D Worldrunner game.

I believe Comic

Epsilon is the last

game that used to

Famicom 3D system.

Nintendo obviously used

the 3D concept a

couple more times in

the future. Other than

that there's really

not much interesting in

this game. Here's the first

boss, which looks like

the thing that

dropped the bomb

in the opening cut

scene. Cosmic Epsilon

alternates between

levels that take place

in outerspace and

those that take place

on the planet's surface -

eight levels altogether.

The anime designs are

kind of cool, I guess,

but unless you can't

get enough of Space Harrier clones,

there's not much reason

to play this.

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