Showing posts with label Famicom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Famicom. Show all posts

Monday, 29 November 2010

Burger Time

I will now try to restrain my English tendencies towards innuendo when I say, there is nothing more humiliating than being attacked from all angles by rampant sausages. I am in fact referring to the game Burger Time for the Famicom where being attacked by angry sausages and fried eggs is a common occurrence.

I'm sure trampling on burgers is a health and safety issue.

You play a chef who's goal is to build giant burgers by running across platforms and trampling on various ingredients (e.g. lettuce, beefburgers, slices of cheese etc.); causing them to drop down to the next platform. Once all burgers have been constructed its on to the next level and more complex platfrom structures. This would be simple if it was not for the forementioned angry breakfast baddies that seem to have a chip on their shoulder (or possibly a french fry) about your endeavors and constantly give chase. Luckily, you have a weapon in the form of a pepper spray that temporarily stuns your enemies and if you time it right, and cause an ingredient to drop from beneath them, they will be defeated entirely (but only to be re-spawned later).

I remember playing the original Burger Time arcade game at a swimming pool in Kingston as a young lad and thinking it was hard back then, but playing it now I realise that it wasn't just my childish inexperience that was at fault, it is a damn hard and frustrating game! The enemies zoom around the platforms and your pepper spray is limited so it makes completing your burgers a real challenge, I only ever managed to get to screen three after much tearing of hair (at my age you need to hold on to what you still have!)

But overall, its a fun nostalgic game and exactly the sort of old school quirky game that I enjoy, its crappy graphics and all!

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Banpaku-Koen park sale

I recently visited a garage sale in Banpaku-Koen park in north Osaka and picked up a horde of Famicom games at 100 yen each! Here is a picture of the cartridges:



From top left, the games are: Burgertime, Ninja Jajamaru-kun, Challenger, a game I am yet to translate, Excitebike, Dragonquest 2.
 
Hopefully I will soon find time to post small reviews of the games.

Non-trainspotters look away now!

Watching a DVD of someone playing old video games probably sounds to some like as much fun as having teeth extracted, the same way I used to feel when my dad would pull out his recordings of steam trains pulling into stations (the B-side of the record contained the same train, different station). However, this is exactly what I did last night when I rented 'Game-Center CX' from our local rental store (100 yen for a week! (about 80p)). The show is presented by Arino, a Japanese comedian, who is set a challenge each week based on a particular old video game, such as completing the game in a certain time limit. There are also sections in the show where Arino goes to investigate far flung locations that contain a treasure trove of old arcade games. I must say, watching this was a guilty pleasure but one I really enjoyed nonetheless, I guess I inherited some of those trainspotter genes!



Game-Center CX 1.0 (menu)


Arino about to play through Makaimura (Ghosts 'n' Goblins)
on Famicom (I feel for him!)

Unleash your geek! Part 2

I gave into temptation again recently (seems to be happening a lot I'm afraid) and purchased a second Famicom game from 'Mandarake' a well known shop specializing in vintage toys, games and manga.

Who needs death and destruction when you can play a game about re-uniting penguins in love? You play the game by controlling one of two penguins, the other one mirroring your moves in reverse. The goal on each screen is to make the penguins meet each other either side of a heart at the top, whilst avoiding spiders and webs. These obstacles can be zapped by a beam each character possess (don't ask me why a penguin would own a laser beam) apart from flames that appear on later levels.

Overall, a recommendation for fans of the 'penguins in love trapped in mazes' genre.





Unleash your geek!

Recently I thought it was about time to unleash the geek in me and head over to Nipponbashi (or Den Den Town) an area well known for its electronic goods. Its a haven for geeks or otaku with many video game, anime and comic stores. My aim was to purchase a second hand Nintendo Famicom, one of the original Nintendo consoles, commonly known in Europe and America as the NES. It has been a long time dream of mine to own one of these consoles, ever since I first saw pictures of one in a magazine whilst on a family holiday to Devon back in the eighties. Alongside the console I bought a copy of Ninja-kun, a game I also used to play in arcades as a kid under the title Ninja-kid. After a few failed attempts at getting the thing working, using the tried and tested method of blowing into the cartridge and switching the console on and off, I was taking a nostalgia trip back to more innocent days and underused brain cells.


Famicom

Ninja-kun

Screen from Ninja-kun

Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Welcome!

Welcome to I Heart Famicom! I started this blog after recently moving to Osaka and purchasing a Famicom, an ambition of mine ever since seeing pictures of one in a magazine whilst on a family holiday in the UK in the mid 80's. I first began writing a blog about my new life in Japan, which you can see here:  http://startinginosaka.blogspot.com/ but then decided that the Famicom related articles deserved a blog of their own, hence I Heart Famicom. I intend to not only post Famicom related information but any general retro game articles that may be of interest. With any luck I will find the time to post on a regular basis with small reviews of weird and wonderful games I come across! The following posts will be taken from my 'Starting Again in Osaka' blog.


 Thank you for watching!