Mais Ouija: Predator & Taboo: The Sixth Sense | NES Works 122 

This channel has gone 0 days without a lighthearted jab at Kung Fu Heroes. Unlike Kung Fu Heroes, these jabs are actually effective.

Jeremy, we are all rooting for you to live long enough to finish NES Works.

I remember that you had to be a least 19 years old to rent Taboo from the video store in town that carried it. Such is the power of pixel boobs and tarot.

The main thing you learn in special forces training is the way to save bullets by making them boomerang right back into the barrel of the gun.

I just love the bluntness of "BIG MODE"

Asking Taboo the real questions. Last year I picked up the Predator cart as I had missed playing it as a kid, it was a fresh sensation of getting your weekend rental wrong.

The questions you asked "Taboo" went to a dark place that I was not expecting

I remember wasting THAT $5 off any NES game coupon and a birthday present on Taboo because the back of the box said something like "this game is not intended for children." Curse you reverse psychology.

My therapist sometimes asks me, "Would you rather be a Milky Princess or a John McTiernan?". It kinda makes sense that my insurance doesn't cover these visits.

I have fond memories of Taboo. My uncle had a copy, and I'd play it whenever we visited. I didn't understand tarot (and still don't,) but the music was cool and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen, so it always hooked my attention.

One curious detail about Pac-in-Video is that the company eventually became publisher Marvelous, so it's funny how they went from janky but ambitious low-budget games no one remembers to janky but ambitious low-budget games that would actually reach cult status Quite the glow up

Taboo was a WEEKLY rental, every damn Friday when we was kids...a child's introduction to the occult and our parents had NO clue! It deserves a lot more credit and far less dumping than the Internet zeitgeist gives it.

14:14 And thus, the arc of Kung Fu Heroes becoming the new punching bag truly commences. I mean, I'm not arguing the point as much as noting it, but still. Also, the questions you asked Taboo are priceless.

The coolest thing about Taboo the Sixth Sense is the psychedelic background visuals when your cards are being dealt. It's a genuinely interesting full screen effect, and pressing the d-pad changes its colors (it changes on its own so it's not immediately obvious, but you can compare with save states). It makes me wish they made a trippy interactive visualizer instead. With VJs/ protectionists in the chiptune scene making their own ROMs that run on vintage gaming hardware, it's neat seeing what the closest parallel to what they're doing was, from an actual NES product from back in the day.

Normally I’m not a big fan of creepy pasta but I feel that something like Taboo can work as some sort of NES horror story.

Maybe the bacteria enemies are a homage to everyone on the Predator shoot coming down with Montezuma's Revenge

7:05 Was expecting guerillas, literally lol'ed at gorillas.

I got one game from my parents per Christmas/birthday and I wasted a Christmas present by asking for Taboo. I knew what it was, but I thought doing tarot readings at sleepovers would actually be fun, and it turns out it isn’t. I remember putting in my first question (probably about the potential affections of a classmate) only to get through the whole reading and realize it doesn’t actually give an answer.

I was not expecting you to wring out so much from Predator. But that's what's so cool about this series!

Heiankyo Alien: times are good Kung Fu Heroes: times are bad

Ai Sensei no Oshiete is another strange Famicom fortune telling game. Came in a HUGE box with Mucha-inspired cover art. I love weird non-games like that sometimes.

I remember really liking NES Predator as a kid. The spacey, vibey music with the surreal dreamlike visuals made it memorable.

I think rare might have been doing some tech behind the scenes on taboo. It’s one of those games that often doesn’t run on clone hardware, and really looking good is all taboo does. Aside from wasting a weekend rental when I was a kid.

I do love Rare's output during this era. There really wasn't any job they wouldn't take to make a quick buck - and even then, they typically turned out better work than most outsource/"ghost" studios.

It's amazing that Predator, such an obvious action game with plenty of straightforward gunplay, somehow managed to ignore that almost entirely. To think that someone chose not to include the iconic minigun in the video game.

Pack-in-Video and Subcontractors: "But I was using my *whole* ass!"

PING PALS! Bane of my existence! Got duped by that one thinking it would be like Animal Crossing before Wild World came out and have never been more disappointed. Great episode!

i don't remember whether predator came before punch-out on nes, but little mac in punch-out is also made of background tiles (and the opponents are sprites, much like in predator)

Kung Fu Heroes has become Jeremy's Jekyll and Hyde.

I came close to buying Taboo at a store in Layton Hills Mall last year. Purely for the novelty.

And we get a Mozza cue?! Yeah, badass!

Whoa, minesweeper had a tg16 port? That's why I love this channel: Always learning something new here.

Due to the opponents in Punch Out!! being so big, Little Mac is another (earlier) character who consists of background tiles that scroll around rather than sprites

I had always assumed Pack-In Video felt inspired for Big Mode by Fist of the North Star/Black Belt boss fights on the SMS.

18:46 It's funny because it's deeply unsettling.

I used to have Taboo; sold it to someone in my neighborhood - after they had gotten to play it - and they angrily tried to make me take it back.

That Rare music though! Some of the tracks in Taboo would be right at home in Wizards and Warriors.

Oh hey, it's Genpei Toumaden! I still need to play that someday; its inclusion in Namco x Capcom captured my imagination back in 2006.

If the whole Predator game was “big mode” it would’ve been slightly better than a pink camo Arnold fighting amoebas.

Crazy good catch on that scorpion detail.

Summer 89, we, brother and I, had got our NES in the middle of summer 88 so this was gonna be our first summer where we could play it for the whole summer holidays. Except not cause my parents decided we were gonna go on a two weeks trip in Gaspésie (southeastern region of Quebec, we lived in the northwestern part) It was a fun trip but as we were newly gaming obsessed, all through the trip we looked for arcade machines anywhere we went which tended to annoy our parents cause dammit they hadn't taken us on a trip to play games! Anyway, we're on the tail end of the trip, 3 days left, and we're badly aching to game (we HAD found two arcades on the trip, one of which introduced us to P.O.W which would turn out to be the next NES game we'd buy though wed be disappointed to find out there was no 2 player option) and by that point we're actually coming back through Quebec city. We stop at a mall, we look at NES games, whoa there's a Predator game! We'd seen the movie earlier that year and the behind the box pictures with the big sprites during boss fight make it seem really good to us. There's even a salesman at the store selling us on it... "oh yeah , played that, great game, absolutely" (well he said that in French bit I'm translating) So yeah... we bought the damn thing. And we're so excited to play it we had our parents cut the last three days of our trip into one so we can be home and play this obviously terribly exiting game.. Yeah... within ten minutes of coming back home and rushing to the basement to play it, we knew what horrible mistake we had made (we paid for our games at that point too, pooling our pocket money, most of which earned mowing lawns). To this day this is my worst video game purchase, no question. Today i wish we had taken those three additional days and not cut the trip short so I'd have more memories from it because I always feel very nostalgic about that holiday . IDK if it's the worst game on NES but it has to be in that top ten. F you LJN for fobbing me of those 3 days of memories (yeah, we did it to ourselves, I know)

The Predator game single handedly killed a friend love of video games.

This is my favorite episode to date! Great job!

The Predator game reminds me of Irate Gamer. Now, I’ve always found him entertaining even if in many cases it’s “So bad it’s good.” But one big moment that’s so hilariously out of nowhere involves this game. In the days of old angry gamer sketches, it was custom to “fight” a character from the game you were reviewing now and then, popularized by AVGN in his Friday the 13th video. So of course, that happens in the IG Predator video, you treat it like a bit, that’s it. Fast forward several videos, and turns out there’s some evil master using Irate Gamer’s evil twin to attack his show, and he sent the Predator after him. The words “I sent the Predator to sabotage the show.” are still in my head to this day 😂

I seem to remember Taboo getting several pages in Nintendo Power giving a rundown of the "game."

Rest in peace Carl Weathers...........I don't remember the Predator game being very fun and this review has reminded of why it wasn't very fun.

Pack-in definitely brings the interesting failures and another nice teaser for Turbo Works. Definitely nice that you got a chance to mention a game set in the Heian period. And sneaking in a related JoJo's reference to Taboo is always nice.

I've always loved Taboo and I will continue to do so.

I do love learning stuff like "The NES Predator 1 game is not good but unusually ambitious and contains a surprising amount of technical trickery." I am less fond of learning the answer to the kind of questions that was asked of Taboo.

I was a kid who squandered a birthday present on Taboo. It was fun for a day or two, but not worth the $55 price tag that new NES carts had. Sometimes that little sun on the back of the cards would turn into a skull and snap its jaws at you before the cards were dealt. Questioned my sanity the first time I i saw that. One time i used the lucky numbers to deduce between which class periods I should try to talk to my first crush. I put in 1-8 and said to give me 2 results. It actually gave me 2 and 3. So, after second period I tried to find her but couldn't.

I remember seeing a video that showed how Little Mac in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out was actually using the background sprite layer. And I think that came out before Predator in most places.

Punch Out! was the first game where you control a background object if I'm not mistaken. It's not very obvious while playing it, but Little Mac is a background object. I recommend checking out DIsplaced Gamer's video on the game.

Taboo has a copyright by Rare Coin-It, suggesting it might have been part of the (presumed) effort within Rare to make Vs Unisystem software. Other Rare Coin-It titled include Slalom (which did get a Vs release!), Wizards & Warriors, R.C. Pro-Am and Cobra Triangle, and all of these games have arcade-like trappings, like a cycling attract mode and a high score table. It doesn't seem too out of the question that Taboo was originally planned to be put into a kiosk in some mall, offering 25-cent fortune readings to passers-by. All of this is speculation by me, of course, but that Rare Coin-It attribution has bothered me for decades. I don't remember exactly if I finished Predator on a rental back then, but I _think_ I did. I never bothered trying Taboo, but it at least has Rare's trademark visual flash. They were masters of NES graphic effects.

Fun fact about Pack-In-Video's Minesweeper games is that Arc System Works developed them. Yes, the Guilty Gear, DB FighterZ and Blazblue ArcSys

Those are definitely some spicy pixels 😉

WHAT WAS THE ANSWER TO THOSE QUESTIONS?! 😂

I remember seeing taboo at KB Toys at the mall when I was a kid. I probably would have bought it if I had the money.

Hey Jeremy, It was Ocean software who traced the image of Arnie for their home computer ports of Contra with Gryzor, Konami liked their box art so much, they asked if they could use it too. As for Big Mode, Kensiden on the Master System had it too, and there was also the arcade game, Gladiator.

Rambo looks crazy ambitious

i really enjoy the tone of your videos. very relaxing

Taboo at least has that Rare charm to it?

Oh my god, you actually found a way to escape that Predator gully in the first stage? I always just reset the game and try not to fall down there.

Genpei Touma Den is a game I would love to see you cover top to bottom! If you've already done so, please let me know so I can thoroughly enjoy it.

Aliens Vs Predator by Capcom is a personal favorite of mine. First use of air combos!

This wasn't the first NES game where you controlled a player made out of background tiles. Little Mac in Punch Out is pure bg tiles. Only the other boxers are sprites.

Parrish does british humor with an American accent.

There is something perfectly Reagan-esque about asking a video Tarot game about the fate of democracy.

Will we ever have a game where we play as Carl Weathers ? What if we had a Carl Weathers Simulator ?

Wow. Samurai Ghost?

My local video store had a post-it note on the box for taboo stating that you had to be at least 14 to rent it. I always assumed it was because of the occult theme - I never imagined it could contain nudity.

Predator on the C64 was amazing. No idea why they just didn't clone that game for the NES

Taboo had appeal just for being something unusual as well as being clearance priced at about $10 after a year or two at the likes of Kay Bee Toys when it didn’t move, which happened to a number of other games of varying quality such as Star Soldier and Golgo 13 - Top Secret Episode. Predator was just a frustrating waste of time regardless of the price.

16:51 getting a bit dark here 😅

The sprite in the standard levels of Predator bears an uncanny resemblance to then current WWF wrestler and full-time Canadian Bret 'The Hitman' Hart

How can you make a Predator game that doesn't start with a flashing "GET TO ZA CHOPPAH!!" instruction???

All they had to do was clone Contra with a facelift

Taboo is at the very least _an interesting idea,_ which is more than I'll give for something like Dragon Power, which brought 0 innovation to the table.

Taboo isn't bad, but it definitely isn't a game. "not being fun" is no more a critique of it than it is of a weather app. However, nothing on the box indicates that it's not game, and in fact, just the opposite. So the real problem is people buying it expecting a game and very much not getting what they wanted, and most likely not getting something they could even like if they did know what it was. I don't think it deserves its reputation as being terrible, but it didn't really put itself in a great position to attract an audience that would actually appreciate it.

Kung Fu: The first time you controlled a background element.

I loved renting Taboo as a kid ^_^

Taboo is probably the weirdest game we got in North America for the nes, if you could even call it a game. My aunt had that game. I played it a couple of times, I didn’t understand the idea behind it one bit, and I used to play some pretty complicated games. I still don’t understand the whole astrology or tarot thing anyway, doesn’t make sense to me. Predator sucked but it was at least fairly playable, more than can be said for a lot of the bad nes games.

RIP Carl Weathers

You might want a flashing lights warning for 17:09

I think Taboo may have been, like Anticipation, an attempt at capturing the market of "You bought this machine for your kids but maybe you could use it at a party?" Before actual party games existed someone had to try this.

“Like Contra, but single player and bad.” 🤣🤣🤣🤦🏾‍♂️

Taboo had a ton of ad space running in commic bookc, botht eh nes and teh GB vresion if I remember correctly.

Seeing there's another episode with bizarre Pack-In Video and Rare games in it: "You son of a bitch!"

Did Nintendo use a Luigi board to contact the dead?

That's definitely a Bret Hart sprite

Is Predator NES why dunkey's company is called "big mode"?

Taboo was a very terrible idea. I remember seeing it at a Palmer Video store back then and knowing it was garbage. This is me as a little kid. My radar for noticing crap went through the roof

Angrily flipping my desk over because you didn't include the answer to your Taboo questions.

Hm. So Pack In Video is Japan's LJN.

We really gonna act like Pack-In-Video didn't go on to develop _Harvest Moon_ and _Kawa no Nushi Tsuri 2_ just a few years later? How is it surprising that they brought unnecessary technical sophistication and complexity to what should have been movie license shovelware? (Guess they'd learn polish over the next few years.) 🤔

Hi Jeremy! Is the Sega SG-1000 book ready yet? Has it been released already? I'm almost always late to the party, so I just want to know if I missed it. Looking forward to it!

Kung Fu Heroes can't hurt you anymore...

Your ouija questions were depressing 😌

The C64\Amiga Predator is actually kinda interesting albeit flawed. And most of the Predator 2 games are at least ok.

Lol and just today that the video was released Schwarzenegger got arrested

Pre-commenting on another banger