All in Article
Every major Japanese development company has established their own major fighting franchise over the years, sometimes more than one if they lean into the fighting genre. Sega has Virtua Fighter, Capcom has Street Fighter, Namco has Tekken. Nintendo has Hogan's Alley. There is one major player missing though, Konami…
The main thing everyone remembers about this commercial is the big chandelier dragon, which is pretty cool, if you don't think about how fragile a glass dragon would be. That dragon was the entire 15 second ad spot you might have seen between cartoons on TV back in 2001. In the 30 second commercial there is a lot of lead up to the dragon, but I definitely won't call anything that happens as context for anything else. This is going to be a more serious effort than I was anticipating for a quick joke article…
It's finally the end of the DS/3DS era. Somehow it was fantastic but people still talk about the Game Boy. Remember the three pillars of Nintendo, Home Console, GBA, AND DS? There is an alternate reality where the DS bombed, Nintendo frantically shifts back to a new GBA, and all the while PSP sales just launch into space. No, the PSP could never do that. What a piece of junk.
I hate Final Fantasy VII.
Well, I love Final Fantasy VII, but don't tell Final Fantasy VII I said that. FFVII doesn't deserve my love, but I often find myself thinking about all the good times we had together. It's such a toxic relationship.
It's going to take a few more therapy sessions before I'm comfortable digging into all that though. Today I simply want to discuss a small portion of the very rich meal that is Final Fantasy VII. There are a lot of layers to this RPG onion, and I want to focus solely on the dry skin, slowly fading under the produce section lights. I'll be dissecting Square's game changing game commercial which appeared on US television ahead of the games stateside release.
I love hip hop and brightly colored Japanese video games with novel game mechanics. That is a pretty good description of Parappa the Rapper. This must be the game of my dreams! You'd think this is the moment that I've been waiting for. It's the 20th anniversary of THE original rhythm game. Hit the road Beatmania, Dance right the fuck on out of here DDR. Don't even look at me Rock Band you pile of overcooked garbage. Parappa the Rapper predates all that.
Remember Lunar Knights? Of course you don't! That's why I'm talking about it. Everyone is like, "Kojima made Metal Gear Solid" "Kojima made Snatcher and I'm all about obscure future noir CD based games." Well no to both of those, Kojima is the man behind Solar Boy Django, and subsequently, the even more obscure game I present to you now. Lunar Knights.
