The worst of the worst?

[Superfamifreak]

Only got a dozen games for the PCE so far (relative newbie to owning the machine!), but I'd have to go for Knight Rider Special! How they had the nerve to release this I don't know!

Five minutes and the game was switched off, back in the case and never to see the light of day again!

I'll buy it off you

[esteban]

Legendary Axe II is one of the greatest HuCards of all time. No joke. I won't repeat myself here, but I really love it. It is best experienced at nightime, with minimal room lighting, and with the volume on the stereo / t.v. ALL THE WAY UP (I suggest folks do the same with Silent Debuggers -- it really allows you to immerse yourself in the game).

Many of the crappy games had a ton of potential but were limited by either stupid.incompetant programmers, low budgets, or general laziness. So, here's my list of the worst, coupled with the reasons:
...
This is one of the more unique games available, although it does suffer from some subpar graphics (sprites are rather poor, although the backgrounds are very well-detailed) and a few gameplay glitches (especially with the sword). Great potential but could have been more...I think it was just limited by the tiny 64k of memory...an SCD version of this would have rocked.

Splendidly put. Seriously. I did know anything about Addams Family concerning the programming -- it was interesting to hear about it. Care to elaborate in a manner I could appreciate (i.e. dumb it down ).

I have yet to play Addams Family, but I recently picked it up along with Camp California. Again, it was great to hear that only one character, Byron, is messed up (therefore making a big chunk of the game playable), as opposed to Impossamole, in which you're stuck with good ole' Monty and the horrible hit detection (among other things), for the ENTIRE friggin' game.

Allow me to wax prophetic on the virtues of China Warrior...
China Warrior, as I have often said, is a FUN, addictive game. Sure, it requires some memorization skills -- BUT IT IS NOT solely a memorization game. When you truly "get in the zone", and if you have good "twitch skills", you have just enough time to kick or punch all of the obstacles thrown at you. In the past, I've described this as a "rhythm game", kind of like DDR, in which you have to follow a rhythm (you create it yourself; I hum along to the chiptunes) AND quickly respond to visual cues (sprites).

When I play China Warrior, I DON'T use turbo, because this prevents me from "getting into the groove." All of my friends used rapid-fire, but I don't think the game is nearly as fun that way. It's pretty tedious, actually (I feel the same way about Vigilante). In other words, timing your kicks and punches efficiently is part of the rhythm.

The bosses in China Warrior have different tactics and you have to figure out the best combination of techniques to beat them. I've beaten the game countless times, but I have never figured out the last boss: he IS cheap as hell and hacks you to pieces with a few hits.  I use rapid-fire on him and let him lunge at me. I get to him with tons of health (you can build up a huge supply, even though the display really doesn't indicate how much you have in reserve... though the colors of the bars to change). It's sad, but I can't figure out how to beat him properly. There's another fearsome foe who is very tough to beat -- he's uses traditional "karate" moves on you -- and I can't remember if I ever figured him out. I might have cheated with rapid fire on him too (you face him a few times).

Darkwing Duck has horrible controls. I want to play the game to see what the later stages are like, but I don't have the patience due to the controls. I know I will revisit this game, but I can't believe how LAME it is compared to the AMAZING Disney-licensed platformers that Capcom made for the NES. Seriously, just imagine how amazing Darkwing Duck would have been if it was only a quarter as great as all of those Capcom NES titles.

TRIVIA: If I'm not mistaken, China Warrior was one of the first few HuCards Hudson made for the PCE.

[vestcoat]

Legendary Axe II is one of the greatest HuCards of all time. No joke. I won't repeat myself here, but I really love it. It is best experienced at nightime, with minimal room lighting, and with the volume on the stereo / t.v. ALL THE WAY UP (I suggest folks do the same with Silent Debuggers -- it really allows you to immerse yourself in the game).

Darkwing Duck has horrible controls. I want to play the game to see what the later stages are like, but I don't have the patience due to the controls. I know I will revisit this game, but I can't believe how LAME it is compared to the AMAZING Disney-licensed platformers that Capcom made for the NES. Seriously, just imagine how amazing Darkwing Duck would have been if it was only a quarter as great as all of those Capcom NES titles.

I came down with a terrible cold the day after i got Legendary Axe 2 so the very first feelings i have attached to that game are of sickness.
Maybe it was that.  maybe it was the 14 inch, black and white, monaural TV i had hooked up to my Turbo back in 92, but i never really liked that game.  i played Deep Blue more often than LA2 back then.

Was Rescue Rangers a Disney game?  I remember having a lot of fun playing that.  especially two-player.  A PCE version would have been sweet.

[Keranu]

I couldn't agree more with nod's post, especially for The Addam's Family. I also totally agree what Steve said about the setting you should play Legendary Axe II or Silent Debuggers in. In fact, for Silent Debuggers I recommend playing it with headphones in the dark since the stereo sound takes part of the gameplay. The first time I played Silent Debuggers was in a situation like that and the game actually scared the crap out of me :O !

By the way, there were tons of great Disney games for Genesis, NES, and Master System. My all time favorite is Quackshot Starring Donald Duck for Genesis .

[vestcoat]

I couldn't agree more with nod's post, especially for The Addam's Family. I also totally agree what Steve said about the setting you should play Legendary Axe II or Silent Debuggers in. In fact, for Silent Debuggers I recommend playing it with headphones in the dark since the stereo sound takes part of the gameplay. The first time I played Silent Debuggers was in a situation like that and the game actually scared the crap out of me :O !

hell yeah, nothing is cooler than when stereo sound becomes important in a game.  getting a little off topic here, the first time i played Metal Gear Solid i had just entered the first building and i had crawled under a tank on the ground floor.  I knew there was a guard still walking around me but i couldn't use my radar because i was lying on my belly.  However, with my stereo headphones on i was able to listen to his footsteps and determine which side of the tank he was on.  i managed to successfully escape without triggering another alarm.

have you guys noticed that on some of the horizontal shooters like Soldier Blade the sound of your ship shooting comes out of the left and right speakers more or less depending on which side of the screen you're on?

[Keranu]

Awesome MGS story, vest!

I have noticed what you said about Soldier Blade's stereo sound in some other games, specifically for the Turbo (just can't think of them right now). I might have also noticed that last time I played Soldier Blade actually. I love it when they wisely use stereo sound for the gameplay .

[nodtveidt]

@steve:

The Addams Family is very interesting from a technical point of view. The soundtrack plays while the game loads, which keeps the player's interest. All the background music and voices for cutscenes was done with the ADPCM buffer, iirc. And while it was certainly not a "new" thing at the time the game came out, the appearance of the crowd at the bottom of the screen (a standard h-int technique) made the game look more interesting. The gameplay itself was very unique (what other game lets you shoot unidentifiable projectiles from an umbrella?) and it must have been mad fun to code.

The easiest way to do Camp California is to take Byron through the first level a couple of times (to build up lives and gas for the Woody), then head north to pick up Shred. Once you have Shred, you'll never have to use Byron again, and the game is much more enjoyable.

Good old China Warrior. I think the boss you're thinking of is the first boss of the third area, who then gets reused for the third boss of the third area and then either the first or second boss of the last area. He uses one of the Wushu fighting styles using a lot of open palm strikes. One strategy I found for beating him is to do a low punch-high punch pattern. It seems to open him up. Kicks don't seem to affect him, and even punches are hard to land. He's probably the toughest of the bosses. The final boss though can be beaten with well-placed kicks. In fact, I once got him locked into a repeating pattern where he would just recover from the kick, take a step forward, and get hit by another one long before he could use his little "I think I'll take a drink and get some of my life back" cheap-ass thing. The clone boss can be a pain too because he's so fast (the one that looks like your character). To beat him, I use the flurry punch, because it can really screw up his lifebar (I've taken on 7 life with this before!). You can also use the flurry punch to beat the really tough boss as well. (Flurry punch: allow yourself to be hit 3 times in succession, then counterattack with a punch...you'll execute a dizzying number of fast punches, taking off considerable life from your opponent if they all hit...the move is unblockable but you have to be close enough to hit, and each hit knocks them back a bit so let it go when you're in real close to really bring the pain!)

@Keranu:

A lot of people dismiss Silent Debuggers because they say "it tries hard to be a FPS". But this is yet another example of a unique game we got that no other console got. And yeah, it's much more fun to play with headphones and a dark room. The music is kinda low-quality but you don't hear much often so it's no bother...yet it's also somewhat memorable (especially the opening track).

Legendary Axe II is one of my favourite hucards of all time. Right now, it's actually the only hucard I own.

[esteban]

I couldn't agree more with nod's post, especially for The Addam's Family. I also totally agree what Steve said about the setting you should play Legendary Axe II or Silent Debuggers in. In fact, for Silent Debuggers I recommend playing it with headphones in the dark since the stereo sound takes part of the gameplay. The first time I played Silent Debuggers was in a situation like that and the game actually scared the crap out of me :O !

have you guys noticed that on some of the horizontal shooters like Soldier Blade the sound of your ship shooting comes out of the left and right speakers more or less depending on which side of the screen you're on?

Ha! Yeah, when I played SB back in the day, I got very nervous when I went into the "outer ring" where you first encounter the aliens. Since you don't run into an alien too often in the beginning, the suspense is kept high for a long period of time (i.e. you don't become de-sensitized too quickly). Pretty damn kool.

I didn't know about the use of stereo in SB, though! In fact, I never knew that stereo was put to use in Tubo/PCE games because I've been using a mono tv for ages.

So, I never noticed the stereo in Soldier Blade or shooters of that ilk. Very kool! Needless to say, I love observations like this.

[sunteam_paul]

Dungeon Explorer does the same (even has a little 'stereo' icon on the title screen.

[esteban]

@steve:

The Addams Family is very interesting from a technical point of view. The soundtrack plays while the game loads, which keeps the player's interest. All the background music and voices for cutscenes was done with the ADPCM buffer, iirc. And while it was certainly not a "new" thing at the time the game came out, the appearance of the crowd at the bottom of the screen (a standard h-int technique) made the game look more interesting. The gameplay itself was very unique (what other game lets you shoot unidentifiable projectiles from an umbrella?) and it must have been mad fun to code.

Aha! When I didn't find any Red Book tracks on Addams Family, I was bummed. While I've encountered games that use Red Book *and* the ADPCM buffer (often for cutscenes, like in Vasteel: soundtrack is Red Book but cinemas are ADPCM), I can't think of many that were entirely ADPCM. Maybe there are some Japanese RPG's that used this technique, though (i.e. in the same manner that programmers saved space by having hybrid Red Book + chiptunes (PSG?  PCM?) soundtracks). Sorry, I'm not savvy with the technical terms . I'm throwing them around like a retard .

Good old China Warrior. I think the boss you're thinking of is the first boss of the third area, who then gets reused for the third boss of the third area and then either the first or second boss of the last area. He uses one of the Wushu fighting styles using a lot of open palm strikes. One strategy I found for beating him is to do a low punch-high punch pattern. It seems to open him up. Kicks don't seem to affect him, and even punches are hard to land. He's probably the toughest of the bosses. The final boss though can be beaten with well-placed kicks. In fact, I once got him locked into a repeating pattern where he would just recover from the kick, take a step forward, and get hit by another one long before he could use his little "I think I'll take a drink and get some of my life back" cheap-ass thing. The clone boss can be a pain too because he's so fast (the one that looks like your character). To beat him, I use the flurry punch, because it can really screw up his lifebar (I've taken on 7 life with this before!). You can also use the flurry punch to beat the really tough boss as well. (Flurry punch: allow yourself to be hit 3 times in succession, then counterattack with a punch...you'll execute a dizzying number of fast punches, taking off considerable life from your opponent if they all hit...the move is unblockable but you have to be close enough to hit, and each hit knocks them back a bit so let it go when you're in real close to really bring the pain!)

Yes, that's the boss I was referring to! When you said "Low-Punch , high-punch" I instantly remembered him.   Since he's pretty fast when he strikes (not a lot of warning time, IIRC), I used to cheat with rapid-fire when I first got the game. I don't recall if I ever got good enough to do the low-high-punch w/o rapid fire though...

The funny thing is that I haven't played China Warrior for ages, but since it was one of my first Turbo games, my brothers and I played the hell out of it. It's been tattooed in my brain .

I always hated that *all* of the bosses in China Warrior can get stuck in a cheap spot where you just hold down rapid-fire and they keep getting hit. This is what motivated me to stop using turbo switches altogether when I played the game. Keith Courage suffers from the same problem -- many bosses are easilly dispatched by jumping / slashing on rapid-fire when they get stuck in certain spots. LAME!

Anyway you figured out how the flurry-punch works! That's awesome!!!!!!! I honestly thought that it was a random event, just to add some spice to the game. I remember discussing this many moons ago on some forum (someone asked if it was activated by a combination of buttons). We never came close to figuring it out.

So, here's the $64,000 question: how do you activate the super-huge-hand-punch? This awesome move occurred even less frequently for me than the flurry-punch, IIRC. And it is accompanied by a funny sound effect -- it rules! It looks like Bruce Lee's hand is a balloon that is inflated to huge proportions, the animation isn't too smooth, if memory serves, perhaps 3-4 frames...

Speculation: maybe getting hit 4-5 times, then punching, results in super-huge-hand-punch!

nodtviedt, you rock!

[nodtveidt]

The "iron fist punch" as some call it in China Warrior is executed by being hit twice in succession, then counterattacking with a punch. His hand grows huge and hits for 2 damage, causing that demented sound effect and making the screen shake and the action slow down temporarily. Unfortunately, unlike the flurry punch, the iron fist punch is blockable.

[Ninja Spirit]

Knight Rider Special was a terrible game, but the music soundtrack was freakin' awesome!

Someone mentioned Disney stuff? Yeah I have to agree, Capcom and Sega were the best in that range.

The Capcom ones were too easy. I've beaten EVERY SINGLE Capcom licensed Disney on the NES and SNES, half of them on my very first run at them. I honestly would have to exclude Mickey Mousecapade since it's really by Hudson, Capcom USA localized it. Actually not all of them were easy. Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, Talespin and Darkwing Duck for NES and Aladdin, Bonkers and Goof Troop for SNES were moderate in difficulty.

I would love to get my hand on that one last third game in the Mickey Mouse Magical Quest series that never made it out of Japan for Super Famicom. In this one you could play as Mickey or Donald unlike Mickey and Minnie in Magical Quest and Great Circus Mystery.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/snes2.htm

[esteban]

The "iron fist punch" as some call it in China Warrior is executed by being hit twice in succession, then counterattacking with a punch. His hand grows huge and hits for 2 damage, causing that demented sound effect and making the screen shake and the action slow down temporarily. Unfortunately, unlike the flurry punch, the iron fist punch is blockable.

Yes, precisely! Did you figure this out, or is this common knowledge amongst the "Kult of the Kung Fu" (i.e. fellow turbo fans)?  

I ask because I am wondering if this info was available from Japanese-language resources (i.e. original Japanese manual, magazines, tip books) or if it was something that was never officially documented and fans just figured out?

I love it when a company keeps some things a mystery and allows fans to figure them out ... which is what happened with China Warrior, whether it was intentional or not ...

[Keranu]

Hey I thought Silent Debuggers had some pretty cool music!

[nodtveidt]

Yes, precisely! Did you figure this out, or is this common knowledge amongst the "Kult of the Kung Fu" (i.e. fellow turbo fans)?

I figured them both out myself...took years.