Zombie Revenge

A standard issue Beat’em Up that functions as a side story to Sega’s House of the Dead franchise. Zombie Revenge has one or two players shooting, kicking, and punching their way through a hoard of zombies and mutant monsters.

Unfortunately, there is nothing particularly macabre or gross about killing these creatures as they bleed a parent-friendly green goo and disappear upon expiring. The graphics are sharp but plain. The soundtrack and sound effects are almost nonexistent. The difficulty and number of continues can be adjusted so that as long as your fingers don’t cramp the game can be completed in about an hour.

This is a quick arcade port done with little effort to expand on its insert quarter-lather-rinse-repeat game play. It appears that Sega spent most of their Dreamcast development time coming up with a variety of VMU mini-games that add nothing to the game and that no one will bother to play anyway.

Sega Dreamcast
Sega
1999

game review by J.B. Fleming, 2000

Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise From the Ashes

Take command of a small squad of Gundam mobile suits as they fight their way across Australia in the aftermath of the Colony Drop. Gundam fans will be pleased with the game’s high production values and sharp graphics. The voice acting is professional and the CG work is outstanding. In-game cut scenes are handled by the game’s 3D engine and look great as well. The designs for the Federation and Zeon hardware strike a nice balance between the retro look of classic Gundam and the hard edged designs of recent Gundam films.

Game play is less appealing although there is some fun to be had. Played from a constricted first-person cockpit view, Gundam Side Story 0079 can be confusing and unresponsive. The controller layout is awkward and the Gundam suits handle like overloaded school buses. Each mission is played out in a large 3D environment with multiple objectives and lots of enemies. Set up is extremely basic, with little weapon variety and minimal customizing options.

Assisting in combat are two wing-men and a recon vehicle. Although they are controlled by the computer, you can issue simple orders to the wing-men such as; “move to this location” or “attack that target”. Success in the game often involves using the wing-men as canon fodder to bleed off the enemy so that you can be left free to complete the mission objectives. This kind of cowardly play style can be less than satisfying. If you take a more direct role in fighting the enemy you can be quickly overwhelmed and find yourself staring at a “Game Over” screen.

However, once the trick is learned, progress through the game is fast and the story remains interesting to the end. Bandai has created many Gundam games over the years but Gundam Side Story 0079 is the first to be released stateside. Unfortunately, the franchise stumbles in its American debut. If you are a Gundam fan you will appreciate it but everyone else will probably be indifferent to its charms.

Sega Dreamcast
Bandai
1999

game review by J.B. Fleming, 2000

Demon City Shinjuku

Wicked City may be more shocking and Ninja Scroll may be more sophisticated but Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Demon City Shinjuku has its own charms. Working from a novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi, Kawajiri whips up a phantasmagorical city gothic. He manages to stay ahead of the spotty story by keeping the action fast and the characters cool. Kawajiri is one of anime’s most distinctive character designers and for Demon City Shinjuku his art is clean, sharply animated, and loaded with atmosphere. His style often reminds me of Suehiro Maruo’s clean lines and I can imagine a Kawajiri adaptation of Maruo’s Planet of the Jap (Nihonjin no Wakusei). What a fantastic provocation that would be!

directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
1988

anime review by J.B. Fleming, 1-7-04

Macross Plus

I am constantly surprised by the amount of indifference that people have towards this film. Whenever I meet someone who loves Cowboy Bebop, I mention Macross Plus and get a blank look. Co-Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and energized by Yoko Kano’s soaring soundtrack, this may be Shoji Kawamori’s masterwork. Much more than a Top Gun in space, Macross Plus combines a deeply felt love triangle with a thoughtful speculation on the dangers of artificial intelligence. Macross Plus has angst, romance, sinister conspiracies, grit teeth, giant fighting robots, and a story that ultimately celebrates human friendship and love above all else. Available as an OAV or as a movie, I prefer the shorter movie version because it compresses the series’ emotions into one sharp katana stab to the heart.

directed by Shoji Kawamori and Shinichiro Watanabe
1994

anime review by J.B. Fleming, 1-7-04

Tsumi Ge-mu “Stacked Game”

Japanese term for a game that is initially purchased with enthusiasm but once home is left unplayed, added to an ever-increasing stack of games that the obsessive collector will never have time to actually play. Associated with vague feelings of dissatisfaction and guilt.

32X

Released late in 1993, the 32X was a hardware add-on for the Genesis that would upgrade the aging console into a 32 bit machine. Considering that the Saturn would be released only a year and a half later, the 32X was dead at birth. By the end of 1995, Sega dropped the accessory and stopped making games for it. Not that anyone cared. In the history of consoles, even the most hangdog machine will have one or two games worth playing. The 32X is unique in that there is not even one game to recommend for it.

Tate Monita “Vertical Monitor”

Japanese term. Home console versions of arcade shooters will sometimes feature an “Arcade Mode” that rotates the game screen 90 degrees. This allows serious players to turn their television on its side so that they can enjoy the game in the original vertical format as presented in arcades. Ikaruga for the Gamecube has this feature as does Galactic Attack (Rayforce/Layer Section in Japan) for the Saturn.

Power Base Converter

The first of many hardware add-ons that Sega produced for its Genesis console. The bulky Power Base Converter unit, looking somewhat like an Aztec pyramid, plugged into the top of the console and enabled Genesis owners to play most of Sega’s older Master System cartridges. Really only useful for playing Phantasy Star which was commonly found in bargain bins at the same time.

Old Game Journalism (OGJ)

A term used by NGJ to describe the predominate mode of video game reporting that has been the standard since the industry was founded. OGJ is video game industry news and consumer advice, usually presented with the veneer of objectivity. Disseminated through print magazines and commercial web sites, OGJ can be a powerful influence on popular tastes. It’s downside is that it can easily degenerate into little more than a mouthpiece for industry PR. However, OGJ cannot be so easily dismissed. Critical standards on what qualities make a game good or bad have been defined by OGJ over many years of writing.

Nomad

A hand-held version of the Genesis released in 1995. A neat idea that did not work out so well in practice. For one thing, the Nomad was pretty huge. With a cartridge sticking out of the top and a battery pack attached to the back, the Nomad was about the size of a shoe box. Also, the Nomad’s voracious appetite for batteries would chew through six alkalines in less than an hour. Sure, you could plug it into a wall socket but then you’re not really going portable are you?