March 9, 2022
Wow, I actually posted something. Long time no see!
Combining a midlife crisis, slice of life, science fiction, and comedy is quite the mish mash. The Legend of Black Heaven attempts this with decent results in this 1999 anime series.
October 23, 2020
The Darius series was a staple of the shoot 'em up genre. When G-Darius came along it was a nice upgrade with polygonal graphics and a cool enemy capture system.
October 2, 2020
Through the 1970s, Locke the Superman got a decent following as a manga about humans with ESP, and eventually got a movie based on it here.
September 22, 2020
Capcom hasn't made a huge number of RPGs over the years, but when Breath of Fire came along it turned a lot of heads for trying new things and having some nice character design.
September 18, 2020
Occasionally, anime covers on the events of World War II, but it is rare that one mentions that Japan may have done bad things during that time. Rail of the Star is one that briefly touches upon the subject.
August 21, 2020
Vic Tokai had their fair share of hidden gems back in the 80s. Clash at Demonhead was one of them, making for a fun action platformer on the NES.
August 14, 2020
Often an OVA based on a manga series is meant draw more people in, but Joker: Marginal City is more for existing fans of the manga because they're the only ones who will understand what's going on because of all the gaps in the story for this video.
August 6, 2020
Japan had a lot of dungeon crawlers coming out in the 1990s. While most of them stayed on that side of the Pacific, Chocobo's Dungeon 2 on the PlayStation managed an international release, and was a cute, casual, enjoyable experience.
July 31, 2020
While much of Akira Toriyama's work in the 1990s revolved around Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball, he did have time for the occasional side project, like Pink: Water Thieves Rain Thieves.
June 26, 2020
Before Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Hirohiko Araki created several other short works. Baoh was one of them. The story wasn't at all original, but wow was the thing gory.
May 15, 2020
There are plenty of space pirate-themed anime out there, one such example being The Enemy's the Pirates!. However, it's extremely unremarkable, with far better shows more worth one's time to watch.
May 8, 2020
While Microsoft's more recent series gets most of the attention, Sega made its own game called Crackdown in the late 1980s (no relation).
May 1, 2020
Sometimes criminals make the best crime fighters. This is certainly the case in the three episode anime OVA Cyber City Uedo 808.
April 17, 2020
There are some quite enjoyable but sadly overlooked games in the PC Engine library. Veigues Tactical Gladiator, an action shooter featuring giant robots, is one of them.
January 3, 2020
It's not often that a super hero spoof anime comes along; however, Moldiver is very disappointing with its lackluster story. Even its action scenes can't save this OVA series.
December 30, 2019
Of the many imports on the GBA to never release outside Japan, Nintendo's platformer Densetsu no Stafy was one that people really wished had gotten a Western release.
December 28, 2019
While it may have been a decent manga in the early 80s, when Cosmo Police Justy was adapted into an anime OVA, it was an incoherent mess.
December 26, 2019
The Xanadu series has been going for a very long time, but for many Faxanadu on the NES was their first exposure to the action RPGs, especially in the West.
December 20, 2019
Some people refer to Crusher Joe as a predecessor to Cowboy Bebop given the overlap in character archetypes in both. However, they are very different with Joe's team having nowhere near the character development, as the emphasis was put on action instead for these OVAs.
December 12, 2019
There has been discussion happening for years about whether developers should simplify controls in fighting games to make the genre more appealing to newcomers. Evil Zone on the Playstation was an example of a game attempting this 20 years ago.
December 8, 2019
A lot of science fiction anime of the 80s centered around alien invasions, civil wars, or some other form of conflict. What made Space Fantasia 2001 Nights so special was that it eschewed this in favor of a story of humanity's first attempts at space colonization.
December 6, 2019
When the Saturn came out, Sega had to work hard to get people's attention as a new generation of consoles began to come out. Panzer Dragoon was one of the best games to come to the system, turning a lot of heads.
December 3, 2019
Amidst the deluge of anime coming out during the mid 80s, it was easy for shows to slip between the cracks. Take Tobira wo Akete for example. It was somewhere between okay-ish and terrible, but this combination worked to its favor, creating a charming show that was surprisingly entertaining.
Dominion Tank Police
Conquest of the Crystal Palace (NES)
Photon: The Idiot Adventures
The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (SNES)
Tokyo Babylon
El Viento (Genesis)
Idol Defense Force Hummingbird
Philosoma (PlayStation)