JinrohDev

Game On Thursday! - Holy Diver (Famicom)

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:08:45 EDT

Game on Thursday! Once again!

You guys didn't think I'd leave you hangin' all the time did you? Good. Anyway, this Game on Thursday is all about one of my favorite games for the Famicom, that's the Japanese NES for those not in the know, y'know?

Anyway the game we'll be talking about today is, Holy Diver! "Holy Diver" you say, "The song by Ronnie James Dio!?!". Not quite. Though you're not far from the truth, it's not the song, but the game, and just like the song, it is awesome. Waaaay back in 1989 for those of you who can remember it was a rad time. The NES was going strong, the Sega Genesis was just coming out, and the world was good. Except for like drugs and AIDs epidemic at the time, but still, the world of video games was rad.

The comapny IREM in Japan, the guys who made games like, Metal Storm, were all about Dio I guess, and decided to make a game based on Holy Diver. I don't know the whole story, I'm not sure anyone does, but they made a Holy Diver game. The game was slated to be released in the U.S. I think as well, but was cancelled for some reason or another. It did however, get finished and released on the Famicom in 1989 and the full game is pretty much in English. There's some Romaji for the level names and stuff, but most things are English, including menus and spells and things. It's very easy to get into if you don't speak Japanese.

The Holy Diver cart in all its glory. Taken from my crappy webcam.

The game itself is hard, but not frustratingly hard. It's the "this is a good challenge for hardcore gamers", hard. The game itself plays a lot like Metroid or Castlevania. You bascially control the Holy Diver costumed Dio, and run around levels exploring, using spells, and killing bad guys. At the end of each level you face a boss monster, there are pretty rad. Your spells are kinda multifaceted too, you get a Blizzard Spell after beating the first level, and not only does it freeze enemies, so they can't attack you, but it also freezes liquids so they're easier to traverse. Rad! So yeah, you explore levels, solve puzzles, use spells to solve said puzzles, get to the end, fight a boss, and then get another spell. It's relatively simple, but it's awesome, and challenging. IREM seriously knew what they were doing when they made Holy Diver. It's just a shame it never came out in the U.S. or it would be more available.

Dio Basking in the Full Moon's Glow.
Image Borrowed from Unseen64.net under non-profit fair use.

Playing the game on an emulator is rad, but I like to own the actual cart for games I really like. This one is kinda hard to find if you're outside of Japan. It's not terribly valuable, but just doesn't pop-up online as much as other titles. I got mine in December 2010 and it took like a week or two of scouring the internet and I finally found it at some obscure online game store for like $30 loose with the cart and manual. Not terrible, but I've heard of people finding it much cheaper in the $5-$15 range. If you can find a copy I'd definitely recommend picking it up, because you'll probably be hard pressed to find others that have it around you, and it's a nice little collector's item now that Ronnie James Dio has passed, sadly.

Go pick it up or play it on an emulator, and you won't be disappointed!

Have fun!
-Jinroh

PittsBrony meetup!

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:52:59 EDT

Hey all! Hope you had a good weekend! I did!

This weekend was the meetup for the PittsBronies (Pittsburgh Brony Group) at Kennywood Park! We had a blast, I did anyway, I hope everypony else did as well. XD We met up at 10:30 three diligent bronies got there early, though I didn't get there until 11:30 since I wanted watch the Season 2 premier. Once I got there about an hour afterwards a bunch more Bronies showed up and then it was on.

We introduced and then decided to go out and ride some rides. We broke into 2 groups, Rollercoasters and non-Rollercoasters. I would have liked to hit up the wooden coasters, but I went with the non-Rollercoaster group since there were only two in that so far. We headed out and hit up the log jammer. Which is like a waterlogged rollercoaster. XD So that was rad. Then hit up a what'cha hoozit luge type ride that was pretty rad. It had us whipping around at probably about 70-100 MPH which was wicked. The swings were suggested, but I don't trust spinning around at high speed only to be tethered to a ride, by a chain. XD With the way metal corrodes in our area, I took a pass.

Then we hit up the Carosel which is a pre-requisite considering we're Brony extraordinaierres. We hit up the log jammer again, and then I went off to get the free give-a-ways for everypony else that I had brought. It was only 4 items, but hey, I'm far from rich over here. XD

I'd have joined in the why wub woo face making, but I had to make sure I didn't crush everypony else since I was in the back. XD

I raffled the stuff off first by having everypony right down their name, and who they thought my favorite of the Mane 6 was. It was of course Rarity and I think 3 of the roughly 10 of our group guessed it right. Rad. So I randomly picked names and if you had the answer right you got first pick. After that it was just down to random chance. 2 keychains (1 Rainbow Dash and 1 Pinkamena) were given away along with 2 colouring books.

I had a blast and am planning another meetup in the near future. I hope everypony else enjoyed it too. XD

Ciao!
-Jinroh

Game On! Thursday! - Splatterhouse 2

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Hello everypony! Welcome to another edition of Game On! Thursday! Today we'll be talking about a game I only recently came to love in the past few years. Thanks to the rad dude, Derek Alexander I found out about this game series from his Happy Video Game Nerd video reviews. You should really check them out after your read. Specifically today we'll be talking about Splatterhouse 2 for the Sega Genesis. Splatterhouse 2 is the sequel to the 1988 arcade game Splatterhouse. Its story takes place 3 months after the first game, after Rick kicks flank all the way out of the Splatterhouse.

We're getting ahead of ourselves here though, if haven't played played Splatterhouse, it is a violent, bloody, arcade game that came out in 1988. Aside from it's mature and violent content, it also has an endearing story. Rick has to save his girlfriend Jennifer from the clutches of an evil mad scientist who does experiments, evil, terrible, weird experiments. This is why his mansion is called, the Splatterhouse, because of all these experiments. Well the evil scientist guy steals Jennifer and Rick gets mortally wounded. In his last moments he allows a mask, a death mask of sorts to attach to his face. Imbued with the mask's supernatural powers, Rick becomes a killer dude. He battles his way through the mansion and well, now we're at Splatterhouse 2. Three months after the first game, Rick must journey back to the Splatterhouse, tempted by the mask's promises.

That's about all the plot of the games I want to give away, despite the fact that the game is an arcade port it has surprising amount of plot, twists, and turns. It's a heck of a ride. For a linear arcade beat'em up, it has some very nice, and novel varied gameplay. You walk left or right and punch, shoot, kick, maim, whack, and beat the heck out of anything that moves. You jump over obstacles, climb ladders, fall down, fight bosses. It's all standard stuff, but the way it is executed, along with the wicked art style, and perfect difficulty balancing makes it a game you won't forget after you walk away.

On the front of sound and music, the sound effects are ok, they seem pretty basic to me, you have whacks, screams, and grunts normal beat'em up sounds. The hitting sound effects are rather satisfying. If you swing a pipe you hear a metallich *whump* when you swing it. So there is good detail to the sound, but mostly it's forgettable. The music however, is very well done. The tunes are very fast paced and frantic, yet slow and subtle when it is needed. You always feel the right thing in accordance to the scene you're playing. Slow church hymn tunes or fast rock solos the game raises your heartbeat and then gives you catharsis when necessary. I really love the music, it's become some of my favorite video game tunes.

I can't say enough good things about the game. Splatterhouse 2 is a great game. Awesome horrific visuals, grotesque but awesomely giant bosses, great music, a good story, it's got everything a great game needs. The game isn't overly easy either you won't just breeze through it in an hour unless you're a super gamer. It does have 3 difficulty levels and a password system so you can have plenty of replay time. Heck, you'll replay it again and again just because of how cool it is. If you have a Genesis or a Nintendo Wii I highly suggest picking up an actual cart or downloading it from Virtual Console. Be warned though, it's a popular game so actual carts can get rather pricey. I had to compromise and get a beat up cart and it was still $15. So if you're tight on cash, you might want to get the virtual console version.

Well everypony, I hope you enjoyed strolling down the road towards the Splatterhouse. I hope you'll take the plung, put your hand on the door and open it and find your way into the Splatterhouse.

Have fun!
-Jinroh

NOW GO AND WATCH DEREK ALEXANDER'S VIDEO GO SUPPORT THE HAPPY VIDEO GAME NERD!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE HVGN SPLATTERHOUSE RETROSPECTIVE

We're still around!

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:27:12 EST

Haya all!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Geeze! Can't believe I've not updated since SEPTEMBER! Anyway, I've got some great stuff cooking at the moment, so I'll start updating again more religiously soon. I've been playing around with some different platforms, dabbling in vector art, and just really messing around with stuff other than programming the last few months. I was really burned out after the Iron Pony game. I worked like crazy to get that done quickly, and it shows in a few spots, but I think it's still a pretty enjoyable game overall. Newgrounds seems to think it's pretty good with a roughly 3.5/5.0 score overall. So that's not bad. Makes me happy to know people are enjoying it.

If you haven't played it yet, give it a try, you may like it, as it harkens back to the old NES soprts games of button mashing fun. xD It will at least tide you over until I finish whatever I'm currently working on. ^^

Have fun! Have a safe new year and happy gaming!
-Jinroh

Marty Mallow Updated!

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:05:43 EST

Good afternoon!

Good news too, my old old old game, Marty Mallow's Adventure has been updated to be more compatible with the fast modern browsers we have today. Chrome was a killer for this one, so a better speed throttler has been added to keep the framerate more consistent accross multiple browsers. This means you can enjoy the game again, or maybe for the very first time. ^^ It's 10 levels of Candy Stomping fun!

Click to Play!

Have fun!
-Jinroh