I've tried a couple of these and will check out the others you've shown. My favorite lesser-seen ones so far are Money Puzzle Exchanger, Omega Fighter, Radical Radial, and The Return of Ishtar. Great video, I'd love to see more of your picks!
I love the Arcade Archives series for exactly the same reason -- so many games I'd never heard of but have come to love. And more than a few ones to add to the list from this vid! Particularly like the look of Metal Hawk, I really like that kind of multidirectional helicopter shooter. (See also: the Oliver Twins' Firehawk on NES, which I really enjoy.)
Metal Hawk certainly scratches the same itch that Firehawk (and by extension the Speccy/CPC game Operation Gunship which it builds upon) does. I reckon you'll get a proper kick out of it. I'll add you *might* need to tweak the control mappings before it *really* clicks, or at least I felt I had to in this case.
Really enjoyed this review, and agree that the trend around curated collections is most welcome. As a Galaga tragic, I remember being so excited when Galaga 88 came out, shortly followed by being very disappointed (as it felt to me it was too much of a departure from its ancestors). Will definitely give Gaplus a go when I am next in a gaming mood.
I could totally see how the stuff Galaga 88 adds would be enough to disappoint back then - I came to it later through the PC Engine port, so I guess it didn't feel as drastic a difference (seeing it as a tuned for home thing). I reckon Gaplus would be totally down your alley as it plays closer to OG Galaga, just a bit more challenging!
One thing really interesting to me is that you picked two shooters where the world rotates and the craft stays 'fixed' on screen. I feel like I see so few of this style of gameplay, but actually prefer it. Perhaps it comes from my PC gaming background, but the only one I've played from the old days is Axia, which is reasonably good fun, and looks nice. But I think it makes so much more sense to me to have the craft fixed. It's a little like how in Wing Commander and the like your cockpit stays fixed and the world moves around within that view, simulating the whole ship moving rather than your head moving. Just makes more sense to me for action games, and it's cool to see you cover a couple more examples here.
Axia is an interesting looking one, which I'd never seen before hand. For me, the big PC (and Amiga) stand out was Seek & Destroy which was released a couple of years before Axia. I certainly feel it's down to the tech side - having to do all those rotation effects in software, it certainly limited what a PC could pull off, so it wasn't until fast 486's or Pentium systems were the norm that a PC could do what an expensive arcade board could - both Assault and Metal Hawk were released in the same year, so if both weren't on the same hardware, I'd be shocked. Which I guess brings us to the likes of Zone 66 and many a console game (Granada which is a personal fave was so inspired by Assault for instance) which didn't have the hardware abilities to do it. Hence why they offer similar gameplay, but not the rotation. Though there's one SNES Homebrew which I'd love to get my hands on called Hind Strike - which does offer something similar, being inspired by a bit from Pilotwings of all games. Plus of course Arkagis Revolution, which I looked when it came out a couple of years ago, which took that trickery and got it running (with a small window) on a Mega Drive.
@@BeyondTheScanlines Yeah, I imagine it's very intense to do all of that rotation. But I find it quite hard to aim in games like Zone 66 just because it's less intuitive for that reason. I never minded it so much in Return Fire though, just because the pace is reasonably slow. I definitely agree that it was the advent of 486 processors, VGA graphics and Soundblaster and contemporary cards that turned PC gaming from a nice novelty to a serious enterprise that could hold its own again consoles, Amigas and the like. A real turning point for the hobby!
Great video, Rob, and some excellent picks! I was lucky enough to play Metal Hawk with the yoke control as an arcade in Southend had it when I was a kid. One I remember fondly from back then, even, so knowing that it's available on the Switch will make it a must-buy for me! I'm with you on Time Pilot '84 not being up to the original. I've always loved Gaplus because of the C64 version, but that makes it hard for me to play the arcade original as the nostalgia is too strong! The great thing about the Hamster archives is that there are so many games, but research is definitely needed as some are available as parts of compilations from original publishers, too, but it's great to see some 'minority' games being covered. The temptation to 'go for what you know' is hard to ignore when browsing their output, but I'll definitely be trying some out. Also, thanks for alerting me to the existence of Tube Panic, that looks great! Might have to investigate Thunder Ceptor too, for a similar feel.
Yeah, Tube Panic was a real surprise for me when checking stuff out. Another surprise I didn't pick up was NOVA2001, which gives some proto-twin stick shooter vibes, but manages to still feel frantic given the more limited setup. I find myself going to that one quite a bit. And I need to check out Thunder Ceptor (or its sequel/revision), as on the Playstation 4 version, it's planned to work with VR which might be rather neat! That's the fun of the series, with so many titles covered, it means there's surely going to be something new and neat for everyone :D
I absolutely love the Arcade Archives. Satoshi Hamada and everyone else at Hamster have done a very good at bringing arcade classics to the home. I just wish they would acquire the rights to Capcom, Sega, Kaneko, Sigma Enterprises Inc., Toaplan and Atlus for release of the entire library of arcade titles from said developers and publishers. Other than that, I'm very impressed with the lineup of games.
I honestly don't think any of those are going to be likely for a pickup - Capcom seem to be happy reissuing their games in their own way, the same with Sega I guess. Toaplan's could be feasible, but it looks like they're more than happy sticking with M2 on that front (if anything I wish *those* packs could see an official release in the West), and it's hard to know about the others.
I love the Arcade Archives, I've found some obscure games I never thought I'd have so much fun with like Swimmer, Radical Radial, and Guzzler! Grobda seems really interesting and not like how I thought it played so I might pick that one up soon.
Thanks for the picks! I'll have to take a look at them when I'm next checking out the selections. It took a long time to click with Grobda, but once I did, I really found it so distinctive. Certainly one I feel deserves a little more love from the fans of Namco stuff!
Great selection. When I was researching the book Arcade Imperfect, I read up a lot about Hamster's PS2 series of releases - those sound amazing, with lots of extras in the package. But it's great to see them working on Switch and uncovering some lesser-known arcade hits. I've not played Assault or Grobda, they both sound really interesting. Metal Hawk looks like one I need to play too!
Most of the AA releases are also on PS4, it's just that I started grabbing them on Switch and mostly focus there. Those three are certainly well worth diving into!
The death animations in the arcade version of DK3 are surprisingly morbid-Stanley gets stung, swells up from bee allergies, drops dead, and the bugs *FUCKING DEVOUR HIS CORPSE!!* Nintendo: fun for the whole family!!!
100% Rob - Hamster are fighting the good fight putting all these classic arcade games out there for us to (re)discover - they are faithful reproductions as well - and the added play modes are excellent for friendly competitions. Caravan Mode competitions mean that someone who is an expert still has to finish their game in a few minutes and make way for others to compete. I was not familiar with most of the games you reviewed so I'll make an effort to check them out. I have Donkey Kong 3, Galaga, Galaxian, Galaga 3 and Time Pilot on a 48-in-1 board in a cocktail cabinet so I've played them regularly. I remember the early days of arcade when Space Invaders made way for Galaxian and then eventually Galaga which was the sweet spot for me. It's surprising that I have only put a little time into Gaplus. I love Time Pilot but I don't think I ever played the sequel. Keep up the good work bringing interesting titles to our attention.
Hey friends, I have a suggestion for a game that could be very good for the arcade archives, it is a classic arcade beat em up called violent storm that was made by konami, its protagonists are three men, a blonde boy in clothes blue named wade and this character does intermediate damage to enemies when hitting or grabbing them, a muscular African-American named boris and this character is the one who does the most damage to enemies when hitting or grabbing them and I know this from a video that was explained by some players in Spanish, and the last one is a black-haired boy named Kyle who wears a green sleeveless jacket and long black pants and this character is the one who does the least damage to the enemies but this character is the one who hits faster than the other two protagonists to the enemies, a very unfair thing was that the extra lives for points could only be obtained in the Japanese version while in the American version you could not and that according to the video of the players in Spanish and it is true, these things are As I have already told you, it is thanks to the video that I said of some players in Spanish, I suggested this game because I think it would be a good addition to the arcade archives, there are several videos of this game on the internet and I suggest that you look for it, It is a very good game with good music and the characters look very big on the screen according to a RU-vid user who recommended this game a long time ago, just take a look at that game that I think will not disappoint you friends, greetings people of RU-vid and enjoy of the life.
Get the Atari 50 compilation if you want Battlezone and other Atari arcade games. Hamster only puts out Namco, Konami, and Taito games most of the time.
Neo Geo games that will never see Arcade Archives: Mahjong-kyō Retsuden: Nishi Nihon Hen Quiz Daisōsasen: The Last Count Down Legend of Success Joe Mina-san no Okage-sama Desu! Dai Sugoroku Taikai Bakatono-sama Mahjong Manyūki Quiz Meitantei Neo & Geo: Quiz Daisōsasen Part 2 Fight Fever Janshin Densetsu: Quest of Jongmaster Quiz King of Fighters Neo Geo Double Dragon Voltage fighter Gowcaizer Kabuki Klash
