Tag Archives: Midas Interactive

Sunday Driving: Flagrant Disregard for Civilian Safety – World Super Police

Although there’s still a bit of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed to go, we technically “beat” the game (or saw the staff roll, at least) last week.

With that in mind, I thought I’d change up the format of Sunday Driving a little for greater variety: instead of focusing on one game exclusively, I’m going to cycle around a few games a bit, try out some new things and also act a bit on viewer feedback if there is any.

With that in mind, today I grab something random (but arcade racery) from my shelves and fire it up for the first time. If you want to see more of this particular game, let me know in the comments here or on YouTube! Hit the jump to see the vid.

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Flagrant Disregard for Civilian Safety – World Super Police

Puzzler Essentials: Detonator

You can make games about pretty much anything.

Demolishing buildings, for example, is a theme that we’ve seen a few times over the years, most notably in Midway’s classic arcade game Rampage, though you might not think this inherently destructive activity is the best fit for the rather cerebral puzzle game genre.

You would, however, be wrong, as Kadokawa Shoten’s PlayStation 2 puzzler Detonator aptly demonstrates.

Continue reading Puzzler Essentials: Detonator

Shmup Essentials: Steel Dragon EX

The shoot ’em up genre is one in which it is quite difficult to innovate.

This has, of course, led to a number of games over the years that can quite reasonably called knock-offs of other, popular titles that became well-established, though that doesn’t mean that said knock-offs aren’t interesting in their own right.

One such example of this being the case is Warashi’s Shienryu, a game which unashamedly draws great inspiration from the legendary Raiden series, and which was originally released for arcade, Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation. It was subsequently bundled in with an all-new sequel, Shienryu Explosion, as part of D3 Publisher’s Simple Series for PlayStation 2, and this is the version we’re concerned with today.

Continue reading Shmup Essentials: Steel Dragon EX

PS2 Essentials: Bust-a-Bloc

In many cases the games that are part of D3 Publisher’s sprawling budget-price Simple Series are enjoyably experimental, while in others they simply represent traditional gaming genres brought up to date with modern (for the time) visuals and sound.

Bust-a-Bloc, or The Block Kuzushi Hyper as it was known in Japan, occupies a space somewhere between these two approaches: it’s an adaptation of one of the oldest types of game around, but it adds some interesting and experimental twists on the formula to make it surprisingly distinct from its peers in an incredibly crowded genre.

As you can probably determine from its title, Bust-a-Bloc is a Breakout-type game in which you hit a ball with a paddle in order to destroy blocks — indeed, this genre of game is simply known as “block kuzushi” (block destruction) in Japan, so the title is another example of the Simple Series’ charmingly literal title scheme — but it’s the game’s few additions to the formula that make it noteworthy, and well worth spending some time with.

Continue reading PS2 Essentials: Bust-a-Bloc