One-Shots

Gal*Gun Returns on Switch, Xbox and PC in 2021

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Good morning! I’m here bright and early today to share some exciting news with you, fresh out of the 2020 Tokyo Game Show and courtesy of the lovely folks at PQube and Inti Creates.

The original Gal*Gun — the direct prequel to Gal*Gun Double Peace, and a game which was never previously released in the West — is finally coming to English-speaking audiences in 2021, as part of the series’ 10th anniversary celebrations. This newly remastered version, known as Gal*Gun Returns, will be released on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC via Steam. PlayStation 4 is, quite understandably, being left out in the cold, presumably due to Sony’s amorphous and nonsensical content policies with regard to sexually provocative content.

This is exciting news! So let’s take a closer look at what we can expect from the newly localised version.

Continue reading Gal*Gun Returns on Switch, Xbox and PC in 2021 →

Atelier Arland

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland – High Impact Sexual Violence?

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cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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We’ve already talked about how Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland marked something of a return to the “traditional” Atelier format in terms of its concept and structure. But its follow-up Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland shows that this return to Atelier’s roots was more than just a one-off.

Specifically, Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland re-establishes the early series’ formula of having several games unfold in the same (or at least a similar) geographical area and showing how that area changes over time — along with how the people who live there change, too. Atelier has, after all, always been a series about people at its heart.

Before we dive too deep into specific talk of mechanics and narrative, though, let’s take a first look at where this game came from — and one particularly interesting story surrounding one of its various releases over the years.

Continue reading Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland – High Impact Sexual Violence? →

Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Ninja Golf

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It’s a new video series! With me pressing “pause” on the long, multi-part playthroughs a while back, I’m now free to do some more varied stuff.

And, to complement the articles I’ve been writing about the Evercade retro gaming platform here on MoeGamer, I wanted to start making some videos on its myriad games, too. So here’s the first of those for you to enjoy, with more following every Friday.

Ninja Golf is one of the most distinctive, memorable titles on the Atari 7800. And it’s also one of my favourite games from the Evercade’s launch lineup. So let’s enjoy it together in the video below — don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Evercade, Mega Cat Studios Collection 1

Log Jammers: Less Wind, More Log

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One of the most common arguments in favour of pocket-sized handheld gaming devices is that they’re eminently suitable for bite-sized nuggets of gameplay that will keep you distracted for a few minutes at a time.

The Evercade retro gaming platform is no stranger to this concept, with plenty of the games across its complete library ideal for a quick rag on while you wait for your Pot Noodle to finish festering, your significant other to get out of the bog and/or Amelia Watson to start streaming. And many of these “quick hit” games can be found on the eighth cartridge in the library: Mega Cat Studios Collection 1, a compilation of “modern retro” titles where today’s developers make new games for yesterday’s systems.

A fine example is Mega Cat’s self-developed Log Jammers, an exceedingly unsubtle homage to Data East’s Neo Geo title Windjammers, originally released for NES in 2017 and now available for fun on the go thanks to the Evercade. Grab your axe and let’s get rolling!

Continue reading Log Jammers: Less Wind, More Log →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Zoltar

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Mandarin Software’s STOS marketed itself as “The Game Creator”, but really it was a lot more than that — it was a whole programming language based on the conventions of BASIC, meaning you could do a wide variety of things with it.

One of the showcase titles included with the STOS package was Zoltar, a simple shoot ’em up that tasked you with taking down pre-scripted waves of aliens as they swooped, bobbed and weaved around the screen. As a game, it’s not great, but it’s a good showcase of what STOS is capable of — particularly as it includes a fully functional built-in level editor!

Check it out — and hear about my lost ST game ZAPP — in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Ninomae Ina’nis

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Since we’re moving on to Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland next in the Atelier MegaFeature, I was all set to celebrate Atelier’s twelfth main heroine today, but then I checked the recent top searches, just out of curiosity.

It seems that multiple people have been dropping by with an interest in seeing something about Ninomae Ina’nis from the Hololive English crew here on MoeGamer. And who am I not to give the people what they want?

All right, all right, I like Ina a lot too. So what better reason to celebrate her and all the fanart of her by all the talented people out there? There is none. None. So let’s do just that!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Ninomae Ina’nis →

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Moero Crystal H

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In the mood for a great dungeon crawler filled to the brim with gorgeous monster girls? You should definitely check out Moero Crystal H from Idea Factory and Compile Heart, then, especially since eastasiasoft has worked so hard to bring this title to English speakers.

I absolutely adore this game, as you’ll know if you’ve read my review over at Nintendo Life, but since I was under a lot of time pressure to get the review out for an embargo, I wanted to spend some more time with it after getting that post up! This video will give you a look at the game in action, and you can expect some more in-depth articles on the game in the near future.

In the meantime, enjoy this episode of short;Play below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Evercade, Interplay Collection 2, SNES

Prehistorik Man: Titus Made Good Games Sometimes

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Titus, it’s fair to say, is not one of the most fondly regarded names in classic gaming — though a fair amount of their work was at least memorable for one reason or another.

That doesn’t mean it was a company completely incapable of putting out a good game, however. And in fact, when Titus was on top form, they actually made some really good titles that still hold up very well today.

One of those games is Prehistorik Man, originally released for Super NES and now brought to a whole new audience as part of the Interplay Collection 2 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming platform. Let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading Prehistorik Man: Titus Made Good Games Sometimes →

Videos

Atari A to Z: Flip and Flop

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Today’s Atari 8-bit game is one of my favourites from back in the day — and, I’m pretty sure, one of the earliest video games I remember playing as a kid.

It’s Flip and Flop from Jim Nangano and First Star Software, a take on the Q*Bert isometric “painting” formula with a few interesting twists — most notably some more complex level design, an emphasis on outwitting enemy behaviour, and some peculiar changes in perspective just to throw you off every so often!

If you’ve never checked out the Atari 8-bit’s library before, this is definitely one of the games you should give a shot. Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Evercade, Namco Museum Collection 2, Shmups

Dragon Spirit: The New Legend – In Case of Emergency, Use Dragon

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The shoot ’em up genre is, it’s fair to say, fairly dominated by spaceships. It makes sense — a sci-fi tale allows for pretty much unbridled creativity, taking the player on a journey through the stars into the great unknown, battling off hordes of unimaginable horrors from many light years away.

But the fantasy genre is ripe for exploiting in this way, too; much like the more outlandish side of sci-fi, a lot of fantasy has never seemed too concerned with respecting the usual laws of physics, time and space. And as such there’s no good reason why we couldn’t have just as satisfying a time blasting our way through a fantasy tale as we could if we were behind the controls of some sort of comically overpowered spaceship.

Namco evidently felt this way back in 1987 when they released the fantasy-themed vertically scrolling shoot ’em up Dragon Spirit to the arcades. And then they remembered it was still a very good idea a couple of years later when they released quasi-sequel Dragon Spirit: The New Legend for Famicom in 1989, with a North American NES version following in 1990. And this 8-bit home console version can now be enjoyed by a whole new audience today, thanks to its inclusion on the Namco Museum Collection 2 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming system. So let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading Dragon Spirit: The New Legend – In Case of Emergency, Use Dragon →

The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.