Last Letter Game - Games in your collection

@“exodus”#3 Thank you so nice! And, of course, now I am really tempted to merdepost on something completely unrelated like Madden 97 or Mr. Bones. But let’s free this writeup rotting in draft purgatory since early July…

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/xtgrfQh.jpeg]

MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER

What a title. Perish the thought you’d mistake him with one of those _consensual_ protagonists. The full romanized title, as written on the spine, is MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER: THE LAST JUDGEMENT so you can follow with either R or T for the next game, whichever you prefer.

Mechanical Violator Hakaider (the literal translation of the Japanese title 人造人間ハカイダー gives a much tamer "_Android Hakaider_") is a 1995 feature film from Toei Studios featuring the titular Hakaider, an android assassin notorious among a certain generation of Japanese children for being the main rival and frequent frenemy of bicolor hero Kikaider in a popular _tokusatsu_ TV series of the 1970s, [Jinzō Ningen Kikaider.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLdRyELB9AY) Both characters are the brainchildren [size=10](this is a good pun if you know the series)[/size] of Ishinomori Shōtarō, the extremely influential creator of [Kamen Rider](https://www.twitter.com/RaihanH98/status/1430362261898481669) and the [Super Sentai](https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/power-rangers-battle-for-the-grid-switch/) series, among many other things.

The movie, if you can find it [size=10](hint: YOU can find it)[/size], is heavily inspired by Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which had released a few years prior. Ditching the unambiguously good guy Kikaider whom the intended audience had outgrown by then, we instead follow the adventures of the [much cooler and 'tuder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0KyZWDD5X4) anti-hero Hakaider who is found emprisoned inside a mediterranean mausoleum of sorts, far into Earth's post-apocalyptic future, by a bunch of hoodlums.

This encounter allows Hakaider to free himself[size=12] (and kill the hoodlums in the process[size=10] (unclear on the _mechanical violating_ situation)[/size])[/size], ride on his indestructible chopper bike, rejoin the babylonish metropolis of JESUS TOWN and kick some metallic ass to recover his memory and maybe find out who left him to rot in that mausoleum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcIfV7yIH1A

The rest of the plot revolves around a pious and authoritative local government intent on keeping law and order via subjugation and lobotomy, their philosophical and very literal clash with The Resistance, and the asocial Hakaider belatedly taking the side of chaos, free will and black leather pants. I wonder which side Insert Credit is gonna root for! In the climatic scene, Hakaider gets to fight an angelic Android superwarrior named Michael as they shred a white chapel to reveal the blood red bowel-looking pipes and cables that keep the monstruous city running. It’s all very subtle. The story is pretty much Kamen Rider meets Terminator 2 meets Shin Megami Tensei, but this exciting description obviously oversells the movie. It's just alright, but clearly made with care.

The director of this feature film is another pretty notorious guy, Amemiya Keita, who had sparse experience and formal education with movie making. A man of many talents, Amemiya is mainly known as the character designer and "world builder" for series such as Kamen Rider Black, GARO, Winspector, Iria and more. He was a very influential character designer of the late Seventies and Eighties, and can be considered the key figure in making the *tokusatsu* genre grittier and edgier. I think a good parallel for the superhero comics fans reading this is how Frank Miller's Batman significantly altered the character's persona and universe among both the average reader and following artists.

Amemiya has also been involved in a few video games. For instance, you might recognize his art direction on the terrific [Hagane for the Super Famicom.](http://www.videogameden.com/sfc.htm?hag) He also guest-designed a bunch of demons for Shin Megami Tensei IV (with varying degress of success) and most recently was involved [in one of the Final Fantasy XIV expansions,](https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/blog/002578.html) in a typical YoshiP move. Etc.

Some of you may have guessed it by now, but Amemiya Keita was also the art director, CG movie director and scenarist of Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari, one of his most personal works. [I mentioned back then](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/610-last-letter-game-games-in-your-collection/1083) that Saturn fans mistakenly expected a hardcore RPG from Enix. What I deviously omitted to say is that Amemiya fans expected something even darker from the perceived Edgy Dudebro in charge of the game's setting and characters. That’s not at all what a creative talent like Amemiya had in mind. He wanted to change groove and tell a nice story for children, with just the right amount of instinctive darkness that gave the game an undertone of dread and mystery. Just another reason Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari did not find its audience back then.

There is no such misunderstanding to be found in the Hakaider movie. It’s a pretty dark and violent story. On top of directing the movie, Amemiya was responsible for most of the armor designs and costume designs in the movie, and they are excellent.

It just so happens that Sega co-produced the Hakaider movie, getting the rights for a video game adaptation in the process. This was the same era when Sega was spending beans into stuff like Blue Seed, Evangelion, or Revolutionary Girl Utena to build a lineup of popular cross-media IPs that could make use of the Saturn’s CD-ROM. One of the producers of the movie is Nakayama Haruki, the CEO’s son, who would end up founding his own company Marvelous a few years later.

The game adaptation of Hakaider released in December 1996 on the Saturn, with the story and characters once again handled by Amemiya. He has therefore been involved in two consecutive yet unrelated Christmas period projects on the SegaSaturn (Hakaider in 1996 then Nanatsu Kaze in 1997), strangely enough.

Actual development was handled by Japan Media Programming, a frequent collaborator of Sega’s Consumer Software division for this caliber of titles on the SegaSaturn. I am not sure whether the game’s design was a creative decision by JMP, or rather a top down request from Sega to promote their Virtua Gun, but they ended up creating a lightgun shooting game set in the messianic boilerpunk future of the movie.

https://youtu.be/DMQSXXxIJF8

Unlike most games in the genre, Hakaider does not come from the arcades and can therefore get a bit creative. There is a strong focus on the story and characters, and even some light "dungeon RPG"-style exploration and dialogue choices which you select with the _Virtua Gun_ (or the _Shuttle Mouse_ which is also fully compatibe). The soundtrack also makes some interesting choices, to say the least: [this is not your average menu BGM.](https://youtu.be/PeLwI5QgqMg)

The game's scenario is not an adaptation but rather a direct sequel to the movie, set a decade later, with a bunch of new antagonists. You would almost wonder if this wasn't originally a story that Amemiya had planned for a movie sequel. Interestingly, the game features way more callbacks and cameos from the original Jinzō Ningen Kikaider series than the movie, so it must have been quite a kick for long time fans of the IP. Not sure what the "Last Judgement" of the subtitle refers to in the story specifically, besides the biblical reference and a wish to hammer home the Terminator 2 influence until the nail hit the neighbor’s brick.

I would not call Mechanical Violator Hakaider: The Last Judgment a “hidden gem” by any means but this licensed game is a bit underrated, if you ask me! It’s in the same school as contemporaries like Horned Owl and Elemental Gearbolt on the PlayStation next door, figuring out ways to refresh the Light Gun experience beyond its carnival roots.

I brought Hakaider with me when I was housesitting for my mom. I had to be there for two weeks so I brought a small CRT, my saturn, my light gun (surprisingly!) and a bunch of games, and Hakaider was one of them. I don‘t think it’s particularly underrated actually, and aside from the wild cutscenes I was pretty disappointed with it. The light narrative stuff is cool, but otherwise it‘s incredibly visually unambitious. I think that even for a young team a light gun game is a great place to cut your teeth on 3D, since the camera is very predictable, and nothing was attempted there. Nothing was attempted in the pseudo 3D department either, and each environment is simply panned across. They just didn’t seem to try very hard to make the game look like anything. Sure, they zoomed in on a bunch of the enemy sprites, but the extra chunky pixel bad guys kinda helps sell the lack of effort more than anything else. I think I was expecting something like Beast Busters but got something more like Lethal Enforcers but with lower enemy variety (and no friendlies to skip shooting, unless I'm remembering wrong).

That's my 6 year old review from staying at my mom's house!

Wow that’s a great write up! You rock @“chazumaru”#146

I will follow up with
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/pG63Cst.jpeg]

Before they ruined this game’s art on 3DS lol

@“sabertoothalex”#p41692 [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/MsotaDT.jpeg]


@“hellomrkearns”#p41709 Giiiiiimmeeee a ‘G’

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/gOwxPjp.jpeg]

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/vTvZscv.jpeg]


@“sabertoothalex”#p41692 Thanks for the kind words!

@“exodus”#p41682 That is a pretty fair assessment! I agree the Lighting Gun sections are pretty uninspired. The only interesting mechanic is a form of weapon upgrade. I do think the game’s merit increases significantly if you approach it from the perspective of an interactive sequel to the movie, and especially can appreciate the connections with the original TV series. And it does have those rather unique town segments.

Since I am here, let’s go from D to M with :

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/iPeE7zT.jpeg]

DRAGON’S DREAM

Dragon’s Dream (Sega – 1997) can claim a few honors in the record books, some more dubious than others. As an online-only experience, it is one of the very first obsolete physical video game releases. The servers shut down in October 1999, sadly a few years before I could get my hands on a copy.

Dragon’s Dream is arguably the first multiplayer online RPG on a video game console. Developed in collaboration with Fujitsu (one of the pioneers of network gaming in Japan), it was in operation for about two years. The game was a complete commercial bust, marred by the fading popularity of the console in Japan by late 1997, but also exorbitant connection fares: 10¥/minute on top of your landline telephone bill _and_ necessary online subscription to Nifty. Nevertheless, some lucky few who had the technical and financial means to enjoy the game obviously share fond memories of the antiquated but promising virtual social experience.

Fortunately, a precious VHS recording of the game in operation was unearthed and digitized a few years ago. The English-speaking channel Shiro! picked up on the original footage and recently narrated a bit of context and explanation on how the game worked, if you are interested, saving you from my own logorrhoea of an explanation.

https://youtu.be/fgz0SjGbqAc

Another fun fact: due to the introduction in 1998 of a Windows version by Fujitsu which connected to the same servers, Dragon’s Dream was also one of the very first examples of "crossplay" among different gaming systems.

Thanks for sharing this video footage of the game - I‘ve multiple times been tempted to pick it up but obviously I can’t play it so what‘s the point! I remain quite curious about it though, so I’ll have to watch it later.

For the next game, let's do Michigan, which was introduced into my collection in an amusing way that I've described enough times on the podcast.

Fun tidbit: I almost got this signed as a remake/remaster but there were no commercial Ps2 emulators at the time. Next letter is L!

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/FlHR3K4.jpeg]

Fun fact which I don’t think is public knowledge: the game is called Michigan because its producer (now #2 at Spike-Chunsoft) is a MSU almuni.

I did not know that! It does also take place around Lake Michigan, though not in the state itself.

Here is the most scuffed CIB game I own. Cart is stained and chipped, manual and map poster in tatters, box turning into dust. I bought it from my old coworker sight unseen when she told me it's in good condition but I was too polite to rescind the purchase when I saw it in person. But I like it now. Old dog gots the character and running fine. Wata/Heritage go eat shit.

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/dNqv9DR.jpeg]

for T, one of my favorite goodwill finds ever!

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/c3SbDbr.jpeg]

@“andrewelmore”#p41940 Wow, the days when that could be found at Goodwill. People have told me that nowadays they have folks filter through more valuable stuff, including electronics, to sell via other non-regular-Goodwill-store outlets. I wonder if that‘s true? Cause I certainly only see Xbox 360 sports & Wii Just Dance-type stuff anymore (the spike in video game collecting certainly doesn’t help either way)

Anyway, here's Etrian Odyssey. It may have been used before, but this is definitely a fake Etrian Odyssey, so I'm saying that counts.
[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/kgpCdwP.png]

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/1kGryMF.jpeg]

YŪKYŪ GENSŌKYOKU HOZONBAN PERPETUAL COLLECTION

Pardon the unconventional angle but this is not the easiest package to handle for a picture. I don’t have much to say (for once) other than this “perpetual collection” has the honor of being the very last commercial piece of software officially released on the SegaSaturn. It came out on December 7, 2000 for the hefty price of ¥15.000 – which I believe also makes it the most expensive new game on the system, _ex-æquo_ with Roomate Complete Box.

Both items came out in 2000 but they are not brand new games – rather, they are re-released collections of earlier games on the system. The final "true" brand new game released on the Saturn was Capcom’s Final Fight Revenge in March 2000.

Yūkyū Gensōkyoku Hozonban Perpetual Collection is a collection of five different Saturn discs formerly sold separately: Yūkyū Gensōkyoku, Yūkyū Gensōkyoku 2nd Album, Yūkyū no Kobako, Yūkyū Gensōkyoku Ensemble and Yūkyū Gensōkyoku Ensemble 2. Only the first two are actual video games; my understanding is they are [fantasy-themed companionship simulators](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhhklRhtfRosYWgI94LZ81jzQkN4wlaN) halfway between Tokimeki Memorial and The Game of Life. You have a year to befriend an entire group of adventurers and not only build good personal relationships but also make sure the different members of the group like each other despite their different personalities. Here is a quick sample of the first Yūkyū Gensōkyoku:

https://youtu.be/jZ9XrPkW0Js

The last three discs are so-called “fan discs” with quizzes, audio dramas, interviews, digital art galleries and so on. Like every title developed by Starlight Marry on the Saturn, such as Eternal Melody and perhaps more famously(?) the bafflingly complex Simulation RPG [Devicereign](https://youtu.be/ca30UR_FogA), the character design was handled by an artist nicknamed Moo. This gives a very distinct visual style to their catalogue.

Unlike Eternal Melody or Device Reign, I have never played the Yūkyū Gensōkyoku games so I’d be hard pressed to give you my own appreciation of their ludic merits – I fell upon this package a few years ago at a stupidly low price and thought it would be amusing to own the very last Saturn game. Who knew its purpose in life would be to let a poor soul find yet another game starting with N from their collection?

Well, “N” didn’t really get anyone excited so let’s move on to a new letter to kickstart the weekend.

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/XjkyApS.jpeg]

NINPEN MANMARU

Released just a couple of weeks after [Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/610-last-letter-game-games-in-your-collection/1083), Enix’s second of its four titles released on the SegaSaturn was the video game adaptation of Ninpen Manmaru, an IP which began as a gag manga from Enix’s flagship manga anthology Monthly Shōnen Gangan (mostly known for having hosted Full Metal Alchemist) in 1995 and got turned into a mildly popular [animated TV series](https://youtu.be/IZdYkeM_448) for kids between 1997 and 1998 on TV Asahi. The 3D platform game was the rather logical Christmas ’97-timed release smack in the middle of the TV show’s original run.

Now, a few chagrined souls might question: why release this as a Saturn exclusive in late 1997 when it would seem a kids-oriented 3D platformer might fit better on the N64, which Enix was one of the few publishers to support? A shrugging Saturn fan shall not look a gift penguin in the mouth and gladly welcome this experimental but perfectly adequate early polygonal action adventure. Here is a quick look at the game:

https://youtu.be/kltZKEulHhI

It’s easy to find refuge in the argument of "historical context" to deflect criticism aimed at a game, but in the case of Ninpen Manmaru, I think it’s worth remembering 3D platformers were still a bit of a new and awkward thing in 1997. The game’s greatest achievement is that it knows not to aim for the stars – or more accurately the power stars of the impressive Super Mario 64, released just a year prior in Japan. Rather, Manmaru is a clever evolution of earlier attempts such as Jumping Flash and Floating Runner, and it learned from its peers’ earlier missteps.

For instance, Manmaru is the least lethal ninja: he literally cannot damage its enemies. The entire game is spent jumping over and running away from danger. I am not sure whether this was influenced by the intended young audience, or a worry to keep things simple and focused inside the already terrifying 3hird Dimension, but the pacifist nature of the game allowed the level designers to focus on platforms and movement, spicing things up with a triple jump (blatantly stolen from Mario) and different terrains impacting the character’s inertia (i.e. the good ol’ slippery ice gimmick). The jump is competently implemented with a lot of leniency as well as the addition of a faithful ground shadow – way before it was understood throughout the industry as a standard trick.

The camera, while far from perfect, also showcases some interesting semi-automated scripts, sometimes zooming up when deemed appropriate, and not changing sides too brusquely when Manmaru is going backwards. The character’s inertia and acceleration takes a bit of practice, but it’s pretty reliable once you got the hang of it.

Due to the pacifist nature of the game, there aren’t Boss Fights per say, but rather special challenges that act as mini-games of sorts: stay alive for a while, collect items in a limited time, etc. Nothing to write home about, but faithful to its design principle, at the very least.

The game was supposedly developed by a single small studio named TamTam who otherwise committed several criminally average releases, such as Hyper Iria on the Super Famicom or the disappointing Valken 2 on the PlayStation. As always with Enix, I suspect a bunch of backdoor developer shenanigans were involved in the whole thing, which might explain why Ninpenmanmaru stands out in their production.

But enough about me, tell me more about "U".

Ufouria: The Saga

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/fTKdzmS.jpeg]

Also the only soundtrack upload of Ninpen Manmaru on youtube is awful, which sucks as some of the song in it are actually alright.

@“chazumaru”#p43475 I know exactly one person who is really into ninpen manmaru, because on the surface it looks to be the “full” version of the Sonic Jam 3D world, and it does have a pretty similar vibe to it. I do find some of the movement a bit obtuse (and the punishment harsh for a kids game) but it‘s pretty decent overall. I bought it for 4000 won in a korean underground market where they were blowing out all their saturn games in like 2016 for that price (less than 4 bucks each)… it was quite literally like dreams I’ve had. I bought like 20 games.

My contribution - Astra super stars.

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/eWS1BHs.jpeg]

This one is particularly interesting to me, not only because it's an air combat-based fighting game before the release of Psychic Force, but also because it was taken as fact within a sphere of nerddom that this game was the first and maybe only fighting game developed primarily by a female team. This "fact" has stuck in my head for ages despite not knowing the origins of it or who began the rumor, but a quick look at the [mobygames ](https://www.mobygames.com/game/arcade/astra-superstars/credits) page disproves the theory, it was pretty much developed majority by dudes like every other fighting game of the era. So where did this idea come from? Why do I hold on to this memory even knowing it's false? Shadow memories are hard to shake.

@“exodus”#p43490

I’ll stick with the theme and follow up with サターンボンバーマン (_Saturn Bomberman_), which just arrived in the mail along with my white Saturn model 2!

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/nifqeOn.jpeg]

I don‘t have any Saturn games so I’m going to have to break that combo and make some people feel old by saying that this was the first game that I ever finished.

I remember the day I beat it for the first time my parents went to a concert and they leaved me and my brother in my grandma's house, and she got mad at me because I spent the whole night playing on my ds while actively ignoring her.

[upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/pxfHI8S.jpeg]