Tag Archives: Japanese

Eight Man, Neo Geo

Eight Man (aka “Eightman” aka “8 Man“) is a one or two-player scrolling beat ’em up based on Kazumasa Hirai‘s manga and anime character of the same name, who is considered one of the earliest Japanese cyborg superhero characters. The game was developed by Pallas and published exclusively for the Neo Geo by SNK in 1991.

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Mr. Driller 2, Game Boy Advance

A conversion of the arcade game of the same name, Mr. Driller 2 works brilliantly well on the Game Boy Advance. It was initially released in 2001 by Namco.

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Tekken 6, PlayStation 3

Namco‘s Tekken 6 was released first – as an arcade game – in 2007, and then later released as an enhanced version on PlayStation 3 and XBox 360, in 2009.

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Dark Souls, PlayStation 3

Considered by many to be a masterpiece of video game design, Dark Souls is an action-based fantasy role-playing game, and was developed by From Software and first published by Namco Bandai Games in 2011.

Dark Souls was so successful, in fact, that it created a succession of similar games, called ‘Souls-likes‘. Not many games can claim to have created a whole sub-genre on its own, but this game did.

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Jump Bug, Arcade

Jump Bug is a 1981 arcade game developed by Alpha Denshi, under contract with Hoei Corporation, and was distributed by Sega in Europe and Japan, and Rock-Ola in North America, and it’s still very much a fun game to play nowadays.

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Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition, Android

Like the majority of Android games (although certainly not all of them), this 2010 mobile version of Sega‘s classic Super Monkey Ball is available as an advertisement-filled free version, or a paid version with no ads.

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Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken, Megadrive/Genesis

Developed by Vic Tokai, and based on the “Magical Hat” manga series by Yōji Katakura, Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken was first released, by Sega, for the Megadrive in Japan in 1990. It is a colourful platform game with smooth movement, easy-to-understand controls, and gameplay that is fairly forgiving overall.

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Decap Attack, Megadrive/Genesis

Decap Attack is a side-scrolling platform game, developed by Vic Tokai and published by Sega in 1991. This game was originally released in Japan, in 1990, as “Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken“, but developer Vic Tokai failed to secure the Magical Hat license for use outside of Japan, so decided to remove all traces of it, and completely re-skin the game. So Decap Attack is essentially a Westernised re-skinning of Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken.

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Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Nintendo Wii

The 2007 release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was something of a milestone for Nintendo, the game’s publisher, and Retro Studios, the game’s developer. For Nintendo this was a landmark release, showing off the Wii‘s impressive capabilities as a games console, and for Retro Studios it was the end of years of experimentation with the control system. In the end, it turned out to be a masterpiece…

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Tōgi Ō: King Colossus, Megadrive/Genesis

Released in Japan only, by Sega, in 1992, Tōgi Ō: King Colossus is an obscure JRPG with real-time combat that has been fan-translated into English (and Spanish) and is therefore playable to gamers outside of Japan.

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