This is why I love arcade games from the 85 – 95 period. One look at a cabinet like this, and it isn’t hard to see what inspired this game. Modeled after buddy cop flicks like Tango and Cash, Starsky and Hutch, and Miami Vice, Lucky and Wild is an on-rails shooter/racing hybrid. You set out to catch a series of drug dealers by driving and shooting at them. The cabinet has a steering wheel and two guns attached. The idea is that player one uses the wheel and first gun while player 2 uses the second gun. Of course there are several unofficial ways to play the game as well, either increasing or decreasing the difficulty. Player two can use player one’s gun (thus saving quarters), player two can use both guns (thus freeing player one for driving), or a player can use player two’s gun while player two uses player one’s gun. It’s not the end-all of arcade games, but it was a pretty clever concept, one that could use a revisit in this age of motion capture gameplay.

Time Crisis was, and is still a trendsetter in the Arcades. Along with it’s polygonal graphics (which were pretty cutting edge at the time and still hold up well even to this day), the game also added a key innovation to the light-gun genre: the Duck Pedal. When you pressed the pedal, you popped out from under cover ready to take on enemies. When the pedal was depressed, you hid behind a nearby object where you could reload. However, each section was on a strict time limit, so you couldn’t hide underneath forever. When you played the game with another person in the game’s sequel, they played on another screen that was hooked up to the arcade cabinet, and they saw the action from a slightly different viewpoint. This was in contrast to two people looking at the same screen and being forced to take every bullet shot at them like other light gun games have done for years. Time Crisis Project Titan was a PlayStation-exclusive entry in the series. Playing as Richard Miller of the V.S.S.E, you fight to clear your name for the attempted assassination of Cuba’s President. The game contains the series’ signature duck and hide action, and you can even hide in different places by shooting the yellow arrows while the player is hiding. Oh yeah, and if you didn’t get it with the original PlayStation port of Time Crisis, TCPJ comes with a guncon for PS1. Of course it’s painted in a day-glow orange color so police won’t recognize it as a real weapon. Although TCPJ’s graphics were a bit dated at the time compared to the rest of the series, the game is still a fun light gun shooter with a gimmick that’s still clever even today.

Tokyo Cop is one of those games that remind me of why the arcades are still awesome. Created by [Barcelona-based] developer Galeco (the makers of Big Karnak), it’s fun, but you have to wonder if any of the development team is actually from or has been to Japan. You sit into a seat (with force feedback) and rumbling and drive through Tokyo’s four districts in an attempt to apprehend the city’s most dangerous criminals. You have a small amount of time and you’re careening through traffic at breakneck speeds like a Grand Theft Auto chase mission while some very Americanized rock music is playing. You can pick one of 4 agents. Strangely one of them looks black. You can use the keypad to enter a pin number to keep track of data on the machine. It lets you know how many bad guys you caught, keeps track of stats and unlockable vehicles, and it lets you know if any criminals have escaped from prison. Despite all the advances in technology, motion sensing gameplay, and online networking, you just can’t get an experience like this just sitting at home.

In a follow up to Sindra’s keep playing (read blatant attempt at a 1up), I decided to feature what is undoubtedly the best early Simpsons game, an arcade beat em up from Konami. This also happens to be the first Simpsons game ever made. In the tradition of thier X-men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games, Simpsons is a fun brawler which is even better when you have friends to join in. There isn’t much to the story: Maggie swallows Smithers’ diamond and he kidnaps her in order to get it back, so America’s most beloved animated family (besides the Griffins) goes after him to get it back. The voice actors from the cartoon reprise thier roles here. If you played Konami’s X-men or TMNT, you’ll feel right at home with this game as well. Although EA released an Iphone remake, it’s a surprise that Konami has yet to release this on PSN or Xbox Live arcade a’la TMNT and X-men. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before they do, as fans of the series will no doubt love this game.

Warner Bros was a solid presences at this year’s PAX East in the grandiose Expo Hall, sporting their large logo just above an equally large dragon logo that is the mainstay of the Mortal Kombat series – WB’s product through NetherRealm Studios.

I managed to mosey my way over to the collection of arcade cabinets that had been customized to accommodate the new game, due out in April. Competition was tough for spots to play the games, that had several cabinets back-to-back, and although I didn’t get to play myself and taking video of gameplay was forbidden, I managed to watch a significant amount of matches and garner information and pictures.
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True to its name, MAGFest showcases all kinds of gaming from consoles to pinball, to sweet arcade machines. This one in particular caught my eye — and that of many others. Check out how they customized this otherwise-blank cabinet. (I couldn’t even tell you what the game is, I just really liked the art!)

WARNING: The following images may contain copious amounts of uncensored wang. Alright, just two…

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The Behemoth dev blog posted some great news for PSN users. Tuesday, August 31st. They also mentioned that they would be at PAX Prime with a playable 4-player arcade cabinet of Castle Crashers. That is some pure awesome right there. Here’s the update:

Greetings to the Behemoth Development Blog of which we reside!

I’m here today to present you with the gift of a release date. After many months of certification we’ve finally secured an actual day for USA, Canada, and Mexico for Castle Crashers on the PlayStation Network. This gift is Tuesday, August 31st!!!!

We’ve been working on Castle Crashers for PSN for about a year and a half. In that time I’ve had the fortune of meeting everyone at tradeshows and lots of people will ask me, “C’mon what is taking so long?”. I have to say that we’ve felt the same way – our whole team’s goal is to make you all happy so we want to share it right now!! We’re super antsy. But like all of our games we can never rush anything as it’s necessary to make sure that every little piece is airtight. and fun!

We’ve teamed up with some other sites to give you a full list of contests for a chance to win free stuff. Be on the look out for these dates as we inch closer to the release. Perhaps something wonderful will be obtained?

Finally, we’re going to be at PAX (Penny-Arcade Expo) on September 3-5th at Booth #3102 so come on by and check out both Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater. We are building a 4-player Castle Crashers arcade cabinet which you can use at the show! Look out X-Men/Predator/Simpsons we’re coming after your distant memories!!!!

love,
Dan

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

The sixteen bit era of video games is considered by many to be the bridge between the past and modern eras of video gaming, and there were two kings of the ring: Nintendo’s Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega’s Genesis. Though there were more powerful systems that sprang up around the time, it would be these two that would outlast and outperform all of them, thanks to their accessibility. This was due not only to the technologies that the two systems boasted under the hood, but also with the library of games that were released for the two. It also gave rise to some of those most heated fanboy wars of our hobby. If you think system wars are bad now, you should have seen how bad it was during the 16-bit days, especially when system manufacturers were openly taking pot shots at each other. However, it was pointless for fanboys of both systems to argue with each other, as both systems not only had an equally impressive library of games (even if many multiplatform releases on the Sega Genesis tended to have inferior audio and visual quality to their SNES counterparts), but they outlasted and outsold the more powerful systems that sprang up around the same period. Click below to take a look back at one of gaming’s most exciting eras.
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