MOTU Classics

I first watched He-Man when I was probably 2 or 3, and had watched it religiously (as religious as a kid can get) up until they took it off the air. I remember crisp animation, "out of this world" world, muscles on top of muscles, great music and some of the best looking villains ever created.

Everytime I was with my Mom shopping at Bargain Harold's or Bi-Way, she'd get me a He-Man toy. I eventually accumulated quite a collection. Unfortunately, when we moved out of the house apt., my parents ended up giving them away to a family friend.

21 years later and I'm now collecting the "remakes". www.MattyCollector.com started producing Masters of the Universe toys, in the creative vein of the old classics (not the ones based on the 2000 show). They're better articulated, sturdier, heavier and aesthetically more pleasing without losing the core look and feel of the originals. The first three that were in my possession were birthday gifts from my girlfriend.

left to right: Teela, Optikks, Mer-Man

Scareglow, Webstor, Skeletor

Whiplash, Hordak, Faker

I'v been pretty pleased with the collection so far. There are some stand out characters that haven't been made or announced yet though, like Sorceress, Stinkor, Clawful, Two-Bad, and all the Snake-Men. Sometimes, the auctions can get pricey for these guys from eBay, but with enough patience, they're not so bad.

Just recently snagged a decent priced King Hsss off of eBay. Will take pics then.

Holy Sega Grails

Here are some grails I'm currently looking for, at a decent non wallet breaking prize...

Psycho Fox

This was the last game I purchased for the Sega Master System. They had it on clearance at Consumers Distributing way back when. The game is a interesting, unique platformer where you can switch around your characters, from a Fox to a Hippo and everything in between. The game was pretty difficult, but was completed while on vacation with my family in Viet Nam. Terrific Sonic / Mario clone :)

Streets of Rage 2

This is the only game on this list I've never owned. One of the main reasons why it's hre is because of the awesome soundtrack. I plan on using some of it in my upcoming flash project.

Cyber Shinobi

Another title I owned near the end of the Master System era. I believe this was a gift from one of my cousins living in Edmonton. The game is nothing like any Shinobi game. At first, it'll feel unresponsive, clunky, and downright ugly, but like most 8-bit games, you get used to it through repetition. Finished this one in Viet Nam as well. I wouldn't recommend it, but it does have a killer soundtrack.

SpellCaster

This is my grand daddy. My very first RPG, and an odd one at that. SpellCaster is a hodge podge blend of traditional point and click adventure, platformer and SHMUP. The game is dark, moody and quite creepy at it's time. It has many features that's similar to Kenseiden, mostly taking place in creepy feudal Japan, full of lore and monstrous myths. Again, this one was picked up at Consumers Distribution at Dufferin Mall 20 years ago! Haha, I'm such a fossil...

Shadow of the Handheld Colossus

Here's something that I didn't have to buy!

This Sega Game Gear is actually my girlfriend's console. I've always wanted to try it for the longest time and now I finally get that chance.

Straight from the little lady's mouth, she told me that her sister purchased the console second hand from an elementary classmate of hers, bundled with not only Sonic 2, but Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, and Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion.

Amazing at the conditions of these games and their packages. Each one plays quite well and are beautifully displayed in full colour, which was unheard of at the time for handheld consoles. It's sub-par Sega Master System but it still looks pretty awesome.

The size and weight of this behemoth is no joke. The width, height and volume is probably about the size of a DSiXL that is taped to a DSi. The screen is smaller than the DS Phat, and the weight (including the 6 AA batteries needed to turn on the chubby bastard) is... very heavy.

Now here's the awesome part:

This is the Handy Gear; a massive game case for the already gigantic Game Gear.

Though comically in size, the thing is actually quite functional. The D-Pad is pretty responsive, and although it feels a little squishy, the buttons respond good enough... It's just massively... massive! So much that it's quite uncomfortable in my hands. I can't imagine my girlfriend's tiny little hands on it when she was a poop.

Overall it's a pretty cool console. And though it may be a tad bit of an overkill with the case, I can't help but wonder what kind of reaction I would get lugging this dude around the public transit. Sometimes size does matter :D

New Haul from UK ++

Got these SMS in the mail and the DS games from a closing Block Buster Sale:

Haven't updated in a while, due to Hyperdimension Neptunia, Pokemon Black and Yakuza 4. Another busy year in games =\

Will update this post in a few.

Casio Watch: Space Hero

Space Hero was my second Casio game watch that I've obtained. It's extremely similar to "Space Warrior" in the sense that it's pretty much a SHMUP. The few differences are obviously the aesthetics and the format, where the layout is vertical as oppose to horizontal.

When I received Space Hero for the first time, I immediately thought of Space Harrier, a childhood game of mine. Of course, it's not 3D, but the similarities are there.

My apologies for the poor quality. Decided not to use my gf's iPhone to record this time. Bad mistake.

If you've any interest in retro style watches, including the Casio game watches, I would suggest registering an account at pocketcalculatorshow. Their forum is a great resource in finding deals on watches.

Portrait of a Demon

Was just sitting on my poop chute staring at some of my posters on the wall. Thought it would be fun doodling an obscure character from an obscure title.

The Great Oni was a playable character in Capcom's Saturday Night Slam Masters.

While the game wasn't anything special, some of the wrestlers had (body) explosive personalities.

Art direction was done by one of my all time favourites Tetsuo Hara. Google him :)

Portrait of a Smart Mouth

There is a painful thread on Neogaf at the moment that is provoking me to go play Resident Evil 4 for the 30th run. Unfortunately, I'm a bit stingy on time, but I did have some spare minutes to whip up a messy picture of Leon. What a dream boat! :D

The Best Music You've Never Heard #1: Kenseiden

Growing up on the Sega Master System while everyone else had a Nintendo has a lot to do with my perspective and taste for games. The two consoles may look the same at a glance but are drastically different from one another. For one thing; the Nintendo had an unprecedented amount of titles to choose from. Some of the greatest third party franchises belonged to the Nintendo, such as Mega-Man, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fantasy, Double Dragon, and Canstlevania just to name a few. This alone dwarfs the worth of th Sega Master System. But what the SMS lacked, made up in gaming atmosphere, music, graphics, sound effects and originality.

While Nintendo did have their great soundtracks from Konami and Capcom, I've always found them lacking  sense of aura and originality. Sega, simply put, destroys the Nintendo's library of music (my opinion, of course). 

One of the main reasons why is because, as oppose to Nintendo, Sega embraced it's origins. The console had numerous games that were heavily influenced by Japanese traditional culture. Complimenting Feudal Japan settings from The Ninja, SpellCaster and Kenseiden, were music that was completely unheard of at the time.

Kenseiden puts you in the roll of Hayato, a samurai that goes across the treacherous land of Feudal Japan, collecting scrolls from Warlocks in order to defeat Nobunaga. Along the way you'll have to fight some creepy and odd Japanese folklore demons. The settings of each stages are creepy, depressing and curiously beautiful.

Where the game shines most is it's eerie, unique soundtrack. Each song is layered incredibly deep with many different types of percussions, flutes and "twangs" unavailable in Sega's direct competition at the time. The soundtrack creeped the crap out of me when I was a little kid, and even today as I go through the tracks, some of them provoke the exact same feelings.

Here are some samples of Kenseiden's soundtrack (VGMusic):

Kenseiden - Stage 1

Kenseiden - Boss

Kenseiden - Castle

Kenseiden - Stage 3

Kenseiden - Yonensai

Kenseiden - Map

If you own a Sega Master System, I highly encourage you purchasing Kenseiden. It plays like Metroid / Ninja Gaiden minus the speed, and the difficulty can be brutal at times, but if I cleared it when I was only 7, it shouldn't be a problem right? ;) 

The game only cost me a mere $5 on eBay, and was worth sacrificing my meal from McDonald's.

Here's a pic of a spread from the manual to entice you:

Love that Harlot Lizard... *shudder*

Kenseiden and Space Harrier

The Sega Master System was my first console. I believe my brother bought it back in 1986 and at th age of 3 I was already playing Alex Kidd, Shinobi, Hang-On, Wonder-Boy, Space Harrier and Kenseiden.

I just received these 2 from the good people of Canada Post.

Space Harrier is a very unique game (especially for it's time) where you control a flying space dude carrying a giant cannon like a rolled carpet tucked in his armpits. The game is formatted like a racing game or even an FPS that has you constantly going forward, shooting the oddest and most original enemies (one-eyed mammoths, 2 headed human-faced dragons, alien-like octopuses, and even that flying dog from The Never Ending Story as a companion).

The game was originally an arcade, fully equipped with an elaborate cabinet to simulated the MC's flying abilities. It was a faithful port with some hiccups here and there, but for it's time, it was pretty amazing. Definitely blew my 6 year old mind :)

Here's a review of Space Harrier from Mark of Classic Game Room. You might find some similarities between Space Harrier and Bayonetta. That's because one of Bayonetta's stages is an homage to the semi on- rails, semi shmup classic. 

If you're interested in some awesome, obscure retro games, I would highly recommend both Space Harrier and watching Classic Game Room!

I'll do a short summary of Kenseiden later in the future.

Casio Watch: "Space Warrior"

Back when I was 7, a grade school friend of mine lent me his amazing Ninja Gaiden digital watch for a week. The crazy thing (at the time) was that this watch actually had the Ninja Gaiden game on it (Game & Watch style). It completely blew my mind. Imagine how boring class was while the teacher was going through the answers for math homework and all you wanted to do was to slice some bad ninjas up. That's exactly what I did, and it was the greatest thing ever.

It's hard to imagine now how cool it was, with all the modern technology today... You have handheld consoles that could play games sub-par PS2 graphics, watch movies near HD quality, mutiplayer wifi, etc... Back in the day the only thing electronically portable was either your watch or a set of walkie talkies.

About 2 years ago I decided to go on a massive hunt for digital watches, specifically ones that play games. The very first one I purchased was MIB. It was from a Swedish collector from http://pocketcalculatorshow.com.

The Casio "Space Warrior" watch was made in Japan, 198*. The watch has a time, alarm function and a side scrolling SHMUP where you must control the Gundam-like android printed on the middle right of the screen, and shoot and avoid the enemies. There's also a multiplier if you hit multiple enemies with a single shot.

The game has some wear on it since it's the watch I wear the most. It's definitely a personal favourite of mine.

 

Here's a short clip of me demoing off a few seconds of the game.

Luckily I purchased these watches before the big inflation started. Casio game watches can range from $100 - $300 depending on  the model nowadays.

Hope you enjoyed this post. I'll be uploading more pics of other watches I own in the near future :P