Stealth Action Game Mega Review: Metal Gear

Metal Gear for the MSX2 computer is a very different beast from the Nintendo Entertainment System version that international players received. It is also the version that connects to the later games, as the two NES games are ignored by the storylines of the Metal Gear Solid games. The full three-dimensional third-person presentation of the latter made it a bonafide worldwide hit. However, even in the top-down perspective of the original game, many of the stealth mechanics that made Solid so popular were already present.

Metal Gear was released in for MSX2 in 1987 as the first game in the eponymous series. It was released in Japan and Europe, but the latter received a truncated version of the game with nearly half as many radio transmissions and truncated messages. 

A faithful remake of the original version was developed in the J2ME subset of Java and released for feature phones in Japan in 2004. It included an easy mode with a bandanna that gave infinite ammunition, larger text, and end-of-game statistics and related player codenames. This version was the basis of the version that was released worldwide in 2005 as a bonus on Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

Solid Snake begins his mission in much the same manner as he would later in Metal Gear Solid. Snake travels through the water to infiltrate an enemy base and receives a transmission from his mission commander who is known by the codename Big Boss. As the game progresses, Snake will be able to make and receive radio transmissions from other characters as well.

Snake finds keycards throughout the game, which can be used to unlock doors. In these doors, he may find weapons and gadgets to help him in his mission. He can also go into the back of trucks to find items to use, but sometimes enemy guards will be found instead. Snake can punch these guards or use the weapons he found. He can also use rations to refill his health bar.

There are two storage compartments where Snake keeps his items. The first stores items such as keycards and rations, while the second stores weapons. These can be set as active at all times. This allows Snake to enter doors with a keycard without having to manually activate the keycard. It also sets the weapon, which lets Snake fire it while it is active. This is especially helpful with rations, as Snake's health will be automatically refilled to an extent when it reaches zero.

The rations help a lot with the boss battles. There are no memorable bosses as in the Solid series. You won't find Psycho Mantis-style originality here, but the bosses do offer some variety as Snake battles terrifying gun-wielding soldiers and huge mobile weapons. The latter gives the player the first taste of the nuclear-loaded mecha known as Metal Gear.

Metal Gear is not as welcoming as its Solid brethren, but it does offer fun stealth action to those who are open to 8-bit game mechanics. With many of the game mechanics the Metal Gear Solid games would become known for, this is a fascinating game to play to see how the series started, if nothing else. It is also very easy to come by as the 2005 remake version has been ported to most consoles as well as Windows since that came out since it was first released. 

Final Verdict:
3½ out of 5

Fighting Game Review: SNK Gals' Fighters

SNK Gals' Fighters is a chibi-style two-dimensional fighting game, developed by Yumekubo and Paon, that was the first all-female fighting game published by SNK. It was released on the Neo Geo Pocket in 2000, proving to be one of the best fighting games on a console that had no shortage of great fighting games.

Female fighters compete in the Queen of Fighters tournament. Eight characters are available from the start. SNK's most popular fighting game series are represented, with playable characters including Athena Asamiya from Psycho Soldier and The King of Fighters series, Yuri Sakazaki from the Art of Fighting series, Akari Ichijou from The Last Blade series, Mai Shiranui from The Last Blade and The King of Fighters series, Nakoruru and Shiki from the Samurai Shodown series, plus Leona Heidern and Shermie from the The King of Fighters series

In addition, Whip, Miss X, and Yuki, all from the King of Fighters series, are unlockable. Miss X is Iori Yagami in disguise as a female fighter and Yuki is Kyo Kusanagi's girlfriend who makes her only playable appearance.

The Neo Geo Pocket family of systems were unique for their time in that the systems each included an digital micro-switched eight-directional pad controlled with a thumb pad. This made it uniquely suited, at the time not withstanding its mere two action buttons, for arcade-style games such as fighting games. Fighting games benefit from precision control to pull off special moves. 

The port through emulation, as part of NEOGEO Pocket Color Selection Vol.1, to the Nintendo Switch and Steam for Windows support controllers with analog thumbsticks. These lack the clicky feel of the Neo Geo Pocket and feel a bit off as a result, but it is still fun to play. The compilation also supports the directional pad, and I personally used both control methods, with the thumbstick for movement and the D-pad for pulling off special moves. If you have never used the Neo Geo Pocket Color D-Pad, it is possible that this won't be an issue, since both control methods do work quite well.

Like most fighting games, especially at the time of the release of Gals' Fighters, the story is quite simplistic. There is an artifact that is said to grant one wish to anyone who possesses it. Every character has their own story related to the artifact, and their wishes are not always as expected. Some of them are quite comical. These amusing endings definitely go a long way toward convincing the player to play through the game with the other characters to experience them all. Winning matches also sometimes gives items, which can be used to affect gameplay, although some objects have no effect at all.

SNK Gals' Fighters is not only one of the best fighting games on the Neo Geo Pocket Color system, it is one of the best games on the console regardless of genre. The fighting is fast, precise, and smooth, the characters are fun and quirky, and the art style is pleasing. The super deformed characters still look pleasingly cute today, although the two-color palette of the characters stand out more than they did at the time of release. This is mitigated, however, in the fact that the backgrounds use the full color palette available on the console and fit with the art style of the characters well. If you ever get the chance to try this game, it is well worth the play.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Open World Action Role-Playing Game Review: Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the second gaiden, or side story, game in the Like a Dragon series. The gaiden games have been using concepts new to the series and focusing on characters other than the curent main character in the series. This game focuses on the one character that fits into the romanticized version of pirates the most, Goro Majima.

Fans of the series have been hoping for a Majima-fronted Like a Dragon game for years. Western fans have also been clammoring for a game based in the United States. The previous game brought us the latter last year and Pirate Yakuza explores the Honolulu area from that game as well.

The game takes place six months after the events experienced by Kiryu, Kasuga, and company in Infinite Wealth. Majima becomes amnesiac and washes up on a small island where he is rescued be a young boy named Noah who gives him water. A group of pirates threatens Noah, and Majima fights them, surprised by his fighting abilities. He deduces that he is a yakuza from the tattoos on his body, but he has no idea who he is or how he came to be washed ashore.

He soon meets Noah's father, a former treasure hunter, and after some skirmishes Majima takes over a galleon complete with the first mate and the four take off in search of treasure and the elixir of life in hopes of curing Noah's asthma and related illnesses.

As an ancronistic pirate tale, I can't help but compare it to the Monkey Island.series. However, with its excited young pirate hopeful in Noah, it is clearly inspired by the former's inspiration, Treasure Island. It also takes inspiration from other pirate games such as the granddaddy of pirate games, Sid Meyer's Pirates with its ship battles. It's traversal methods are also reminiscent of the recent Rare pirate game, Sea of Thieves.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio also takes some mechanics from its own games, with the classic Mad Dog Majima playing style from Yakuza 0, the grapple mechanics from Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and the sword and gun combo from Like a Dragon: Ishin! The latter two were given a pirate makeover. The grappling now comes from a hook which can be used to move up to higher areas in search of treasure as well as a weapon in battle to pull opponents toward Majima. The sword and pistol are part of the pirate style of fighting, which combines weapons with Mad Dog mechanics. 

There are also special moves that can be used when a hit meter is filled. The Mad Dog special is to release the crazy shadow clones of Majima from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The pirate special is playing one of four dark instruments, which attack all of the enemies by calling on various ocean gods. One of the instruments is found during the main story. The other three can be found from a side quest that has Majima attacking ships and finding treasure to defeat a series of strong pirate leaders.

The game is given the usual music treatment with a fantastic new pirate-themed score. It also has the now-requisite karaoke minigame. A fun new song that is played during regular game play and can also be played in karaoke is a sea shanty sung by the crew of Majima's ship, the Goromaru. The only downside to the karaoke this time is that, other than the afforementioned shanty, all of the music is sung exclusively by Majima. It's a shame that Majima's sworn brother, Taiga Saejima, isn't given a song to sing. There is a missed opportunity there, especially since the karaoke songs DLC contains the Saejima version of the perennial fan favorite Baka Mitai which can be played during gameplay or on jukeboxes, but the Majima Construction Anthem is the only DLC song that is actually performable in karoke.

Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii also has the other requisites for a Like a Dragon game. It has the often silly substories and fun minigames such as gambling games such as poker. Two popular minigames return, although they have modified forms. The batting center now has exploding barrels to hit until a lock is revealed that can then be hit. This one is a lot of fun, and reminds me of the cannon ball slicing from Ishin! but with more explosions. The golf driving range also returns. Bingo and closest to the hole are there as usual, but the latter difficulties have an interesting twist. There are now obstacles in the way in the form ofcardboard cutouts of various objects, such as stars and cows. 

The classic Sega games are also here. It contains the Master System games from previous Like a Dragon games and Lost Judgment. However, it has three new games. Two of them, Poseidon Wars 3-D and Space Harrier 3-D, are Master System games. The third game, Star Jacker, is a Sega SG-1000 game that joins Flicky in being the only SG-1000 games officially available in the Americas.

For arcade fans, the Model 3 games Fighting Vipers 2 and The Ocean Hunter return. Best of all, for those of you wanting the original versions, Virtua Fighter 3 joins Virtua Fighter 3tb and the Daytona 2 rebrand Sega Racing Classic 2: Battle on the Edge joins Sega Racing Classic 2: Power Edition. UFO Catcher 8 Second is also once again available for crane machine stans.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is another fun action role-playing sidestory from away from the usual turn-based RPG mechanics that are now the standard for the main games in the series. The pirate mechanics fit surprisingly well into the game world of the series and, after playing this, it is clear that Goro Majima is born to be a pirate. The only downside is the lack of songs in the karaoke minigame, but that's just a tiny tick off of a very fun game.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review

Open World Turn-Based Role-Playing Game Review: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth brings Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu together as protagonists for the first time. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has also brought in multiple move sets and the occasional freedom of motion for Kiryu from his action role playing games. It blended them into the turn-based RPG style of Ichiban Kasuga's games. Ryu Ga Gotoku  Studio manages to pull this off, despite the odds.

Infinite Wealth has dual storylines that merge into each other, in a similar fashion of other multi-protagonist games in the series. Ichiban Kasuga discovers his birth mother lives in Hawaii and travels there to meet her. While there, he gets swindled and ends up naked on the beaches of Honolulu. Meanwhile, Kiryu is still trying to be incognito as a spy while he is in Hawaii on a mission for the Daidoji, a faction that was explored in Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name.

This is the first game in the series that retains all of the playable characters from the previous game, save for Eri as she was modeled and named after the actor who protrayed the character as a result of a contest. The returning characters are split between the two leads. Kasuga's team has Koichi Adachi the former detective and Tianyou Zhao, the chef and former head of a criminal organization named the Yokohama Liumang. Kiryu's team has Saeko Mukoda, the owner of a cabaret club, Joon-gi Han, the man who had surgery to look like the former leader of the Liumang, and Yu Namba the former nurse.

Both teams also contain characters that are new to the series or playable for the first time. Kasuga's team has Eric Tomizawa the taxi driver and Chitose Fujinomiya the housekeeper. Kiryu's team has Seonhee, the leader of the Geomijul and Yokohama Liumang. She is a character who had a minor role in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The total number of playable characters is eight, the number of the game in Japan (Ryu Ga Gotoku 8). It is also the number which is reflected by the infinity sign, which resembles the number 8. This lines up with other games in the series as Yakuza 4 had four playable characters, Yakuza 5 had five, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku 7) had seven.

Infinite Wealth continues the theme of Kasuga imagining enemies to be characters in an RPG, and this quirk is also now given to Kiryu in his chapters of the game. The game sets up a plausible reason for Kiryu to experience these hallucinations, and continues showcasing Kasuga's naivety and childishness which explains his.

The role-playing mechanics continue to be enjoyable. One new feature of the game improves the mechanics so much that I greatly missed them when I started replaying Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The playable characters now can move freely within the circle around them and can also now pick up items such as bicycles to use as weapons. The latter occurred in the previous game automatically only when the character was right next to an object. Kiryu also gets two playing styles, his Dragon of Dojima and beast styles from previous games. This does a lot to better connect these games to its action-RPG predecessors.

Kasuga and Kiryu also gain a bar which allows them to pull off a special move that deals heavy damage on an enemy. Kasuga uses his entire team to land a hard hit against every enemy, while Kiryu gets a limited-time ability to be free moving where he can land hits just like he would in an action-RPG game.

The music is fantastic, as usual. This game is also chock full of karaoke songs, including returning songs from Like a Dragon as well as new songs sung by both Kiryu and Kasuga as well as their teammates. The amazing thing is just how many Kiryu songs we get here, with tunes from games all across Kiryu's appearances, from Yakuza 0 to Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

The game also includes compact discs that can be purchased or won from many of the locations and minigames. These can be played in bar jukeboxes, as usual. However, this game also includes a music player which can be sorted into a playlist in bars and on the smartphone menu. They then can be played at any time by activating them with the play button. It is great to hear Yakuza 0 songs playing while running across Honolulu or Ijincho, at least until they are cut off by substories or street fights. Thankfully, after these events end, the music player starts up right where it stopped. 

Sega arcade games return, including the UFO Catcher 8 Second crane machine, Virtua Fighter 3tb, and Get Bass: Sega Bass Fishing. It also includes games developed by Sega AM11, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's first form. The first is Virtua Fighter 3tb. The second, and final, Sega AM11 game is SpikeOut: Final Edition. This marks the first time it was released on a platform other than the original arcade release.

The substories are as bonkers as ever, especially two involving parodies of popular Nintendo games. Sugimon, which is an index of enemies encountered in whacked-out forms as supposedly imagined by the protagonists, is expanded from the last game into a full turn-based fighting game. The second is the most ambitious minigame Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has ever created, Dondoko Island. It is a full-fledged Animal Crossing style game, complete upgradable houses and places for the visitors to sleep. The objects that can be placed around the island contain the usual tables and chairs as well as, surprisingly, buildings from Kamurocho and other locations across the world of the series. 

Dondoko Island also includes famous green and red Japanese mascots, Gachapin and Mukku, as the mascots for the resort on the island. They are included in the game for the fiftieth anniversary of their initial appearance. The were initially characters on the 1973 children's television series which aired for 20 years, Hirake! Ponkikki, or Begin! Ponkikki as a literal translation into English. These characters appeared in later Fuji TV television series and radio programs, making them instantly recognizable to Japanese audiences. However, even though I knew nothing about them before the release of this game, I found that they worked as characters in the usually weird substories. Their announcements over the loudspeaker were not translated and their repetition became tiresome after a while. Thankfully, these announcements can be muted.

The above parodies are among the best minigames the series creators have ever produced, and can easily provide hours of play when not experiencing the stories of the main game and substories.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is arguably the best game in the entire series, although some of its story beats don't hit as hard if you haven't played Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Some of Kiryu's substories also are better experienced if you played the games from the Kiryu Saga, which runs from Yakuza 0 to Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. However, even if you haven't played these games, it could still be enjoyable. The story is engaging, and if veering off from the main game, enjoyment can be had in the Nintendo parody substories alone.

Final Verdict:

5 out of 5

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Review

Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Review