NCS New Jamma Boards

NCS New Jamma	July 28, 1998

Blocken	Published by Visco 1994	Horizontal	Sale $75
Great Arkanoid-style puzzle game where you play breakout competition against an opponent. The screen is split horizontally, much like Puyo Puyo and two characters compete by moving a paddle and breaking blocks. Special blocks that hold stars will release them when your ball hits. You have to collect 8 stars to effect a power-up which energizes your ball so that it cuts through entire walls of blocks. Main player character in the game is a red-haired girl who travels the land in search of challenge and opponents. Your first adversary is a witch who scowls and frowns as you take the upper hand. Game plays surprisingly well with a joystick and control is solid. A single wall of bricks underneath your paddle affords you some measure of error since you're bound to miss a couple of times. Do well and you can re-inforce any broken blocks that you may have underneath you. Fun diversion that plays well and gives an interesting new theme to the Breakout genre of games.

Dancing Eyes	Published by Namco 1996	Horizontal	Sale $225
Cool game where you are a tiny creature that has to outline squares and rectangles on clothing, barrels, umbrellas, etc to reveal a girl's body inside. Some cool effects and awesome animation quality make this a visual feast. To play, hold down the A button to lay down a line and then move around an square. Once you have outlined it, release the button to explode the block and view the girl underneath. The game's mechanics are versatile where a block will not explode until you release the button. This allows you to surround a series of blocks and then explode them all for big bonus points. Two pesky enemy creatures follow you around the screen in the first couple of stages but they increase as you get up into the higher levels. One way to destroy these enemies is to outline a block and when the creature gets on the perimeter, you explode the block, taking the creature with it. Power-ups that are scattered throughout the screen is another way to gain offensive power against your pursuers. There are roughly 80-90 different girls and characters to check out, ranging from a moppet girl to the muscle bound guys of Cho Aniki fame. The cat girl is sexy in her leotards and bikini underwear (and tail). Then there's the airline stewardess who stands in the plane as you uncover her blue uniform to reveal her bikini-wear. After you uncover a girl, she'll do a little play or dance for you. Other models include a sailor moon suited girl (in her slip) and a blonde girl (wears a bikini) who looks through binoculars and stands in front of a tank. Both will frolic a bit when you win. Many, many other girls and other characters to check out and uncover. Dancing Eyes is an innovative 3-D take on the early strip games such as Conta the Diver where you uncover 2-D playfields to reveal the girls underneath. Namco takes this format one step further with incredible 3-D effects and fluid animation. Fun, and a definite crowd pleaser when showcased in import shops.

Oni: The Ninja Master	Published by Banpresto 1995	Horizontal	Sale $150
Spectacular fighting game where you battle different monsters one on one. Six creatures lie in wait in different world locations such as the Incan flavored techno-bot and the Japanese were-wolf creature with a roof on it's back. Game looks very much like a Neo-Geo game with bit-mapped graphics and great looking backgrounds that move and shimmer. All of the enemy monsters consist of beasts and robots that animate beautifully. The name of the game comes from the ONI beast that your warrior can transform into when pulling off a special attack. Cool move for the Hensuroh character: FWD, FWD, A for a spinning blade attack. Other moves are pulled off in semi-circle, punch and the usual Street Fighter inspired joystick combos. In the Antartica level, a fluidly animated blue ice creature (ICE BITER) hops up off the screen and then plummets down on top of you but has a very monotonous attack pattern otherwise. Penguins wander in the icy background, oblivious to the carnage as the two of you fight each other to the death. Impressive fighting game with little exposure in North America.

Parodius	Published by Konami 1990	Horizontal	Sale $60
Classic arcade shooter that was ported over to the Super Famicom. Humourous game to look at with it's comical themes and hilarious bosses. Parodius is a spoof of the all too serious Gradius series of shooters. Beginning the game will give you a choice of four ships, from the Gradius Vic Viper to creatures from the Twinbee game such as the blue Twinbee jet, a pink Octopus, and a blue Pentarou (Penguin). First level bosses include a ship with the head of a cat that meows when hit and a parrot that's dressed up like a pirate. The parrot's protruding belly button is his weak point and you'll have to shoot it to dispatch him. Fans of the Super Famicom version will find that Konami did a stellar job in converting this arcade board to an 8-mbit SFC cartridge. Everything is perfect on the SFC version. The arcade JAMMA has nicer, more robust sound but it is hardly noticeable if you don't have them side by side. A fun, humorous shooter that doesn't take itself seriously but still, a technically sound game that even includes a reprise of the Gradius series in the intro demo of the game. Top notch and a joy to look at.

R-Type	Published by Irem 1987	Horizontal	Sale $75
Quite simply, in our opinion, the best shooter of the heady 80s when consoles were in transition and new ideas in gaming were beginning to take fruit. From the H.R. Giger inspired monster designs to the cool weapon power-ups, this one had it all. The first power-up is a sphere that joins your ship. This sphere can be further upgraded into a mini weapon that you can attach to the fore or rear of your ship. This weapon can serve as a battering ram against enemies as well as a shield that will absorb any shots that head your way. As another testament to it's versatility, the mini-weapon can be attracted to your ship by pressing B and then fired off to inflict damage against bosses or lines of enemies. Our favorite level remains the one where you blast off parts of a big mega ship bit by bit. Even though the Playstation R-Types compilation is a fine conversion, nothing beats playing R-Type on original JAMMA, with a big ol' arcade class joystick and the flashing insert coin lure in your face. One of our all time favorites and one that we'll always keep a copy of in storage, for the grandchildren to enjoy one day.

SDF Macross	Published by Banpresto 1992	Vertical	Sale: $95
Vertical shooter based on the popular Macross brand. Game begins with a number of animation stills and a demo begins with the valkries blasting away with heavy artillery. Minmei sings a song amidst a light show is one of the attract animations as well as an animation with "Max Sterling" piloting one of the mechs and giving the player a thumbs up. Gameplay is fun. The first level begins with picture of Minmei carrying a plate that holds a large fish-head; which was a theme in episode #4. Shooter action is of the standard sort with animations that begin each level to tell a running story. There is no choice of player or fighter craft at the beginning of the game. Your fighter fires a standard tri-shot that covers a 30 degree arc in front of you. Power ups may be picked up which convert your mech into gerwalk, battroid or back to standard jetfighter. Power-up canisters consist of little circular globes that will yield extra bombs, weapon power-ups and the like when picked up. The Gerwalk mode is one level in firepower higher than the jetfighter. In addition to the standard guns, the gerwalk comes with a laser that fires off from the middle of the mech. The battroid is the ultimate fighter with billowing missles that fire off and cover a 180 degree arc when powered up 4 levels. These are guided projectiles that will track down enemies on screen. The first end level boss is a green airship that comes with a spinning top portion that fires off scatter shot. This boss is a patsy and not much of a challenge as his shots are easily avoided and his mobility is limited. Some cool effects in the first level: Enemy mecha that fall from the sky, land and then start firing at you. Some other mecha that fall and you destroy will show their pilots leaving the crushed mech and running off to safety. Bottom line: Fun shooter with the Macross theme in tow. Animations add to the license draw of this game and the shooter action is of good quality.

SD Gundam Neo Shooting	Published by Banpresto 1987	Vertical	Sale $40
Vertical shooter featuring the Gundam robots and assorted enemies. Game begins with a selection screen of different robots that have different strengths in firing and speed. When the game begins, enemies appear from the top of the screen and special power-ups drop often that you'll have to shoot to reveal the special items inside the canisters. Power-ups include speed up and weapon upgrades. Fun, simple shooting game that should appeal to fans of the Gundam series of games.

Surprise Attack	Published by Konami 1990	Horizontal	Sale $65
Side scrolling platformer that draws comparisons to Treasure's Alien Soldier and Sega's Shinobi. In this game, you're a commando that infiltrates a Moonbase that has been taken over by a terrorist group. This game is very similar to Shinobi and Rolling Thunder but has it's own unique strengths such as suit power ups which allow you to drift over the enemies and attack them from above. In the first screen, there are two levels to the platform where you can jump up and enter the 2nd level or jump down to enter the first platform level. Enemy soldiers scattered throughout the game will crouch and fire periodically across the screen. There are some impressive enemy weapons that track you down. One guy fires off a guided missle that moves across the platform in search of you. After certain levels there is a quiz where you have to answer as many questions as possible for bonus points.