Insert Lots of Coins! - G.I Joe (Konami 1992)

Another coin-op I recall fondly from my youth is Konamis "arcade exclusive" G.I Joe Game...

Yeah, this one was memorable for two reasons...

1. I only ever played it once, shovelling about £3 into it.
2. My £3 ran out just before the final boss...and I didn't have any more change to continue...AAARRGGHHH!

The machine itself looked like this...

 Yeah, like most Konami arcade games, it was intended to be a multiplayer jobby, and as is the usual thing with multiplayer intended games...they were FUCKING HARD!

So, the basic plot is that those terrorist bastards over at C.O.B.R.A are up to something suitably evil, cos that their thing obviously, I mean, terrorists would be a bit crap if all they did was write strongly worded letters to their MP wouldnt they?.

Enter Action Force...er, sorry, G.I. Joe, World Police (Fuck Yeah!), who send their 4 top operatives to machine gun down as many Cobra Vipers, B.A.Ts, HISS Tanks and all manner of things represented in 3 3/4" action figures and playsets (sold seperately).
You get to pick from Duke, Snake Eyes (yep, snake eyes for me, both back then and in the emulator replay i just completed) Scarlett and Road Block, who you then use to run forwards through hordes of bad guys, flying lead, missiles, lasers and obstacles, always heading towards the end level boss.

Now, the game play itself is a simple "Run & Gun/Rail shooter" type affair, with the perspective being 3rd person, its sort of like a cross between Space Harrier and CABAL (if you've ever heard of either of them).Your joystick controls both the movement of your crosshairs and where your dude is standing at the bottom of the screen, you'll need to keep jinking left and right to avoid the bullets and stuff zooming towards you.

You start the game with a basic semi auto rifle of some description, and 3 explosive rockets. Now, this is one of my major complaints about this game...your "gun finger" soon gets tired from repeatedly bashing the "shoot" button..so, moral of the story....PUT A FUCKING AUTOFIRE FUNCTION IN THERE... no seriously, with the amount of business that goes on in this game, you need it right from the beginning, and not when you pick up the "Rapid fire" power up...which you lose the second you take a hit...GRRRRRR!
The rocket launcher is a pretty basic "screen clearance" tool, you can pick up extra ammo for it now and then, so its not too bad.

Your guy is also liable to trip over obstacles if you don't smash them, and can also take a hit from running into a bad guy that you failed to shoot, this usually happens when you're trying to dodge the dozens of bullets, grenades etc zooming towards you..pain in the arse and its dead obvious in some places that it was intended for you to lose a life there so you'd shovel more money in.

The visuals though are proper slick, and the game even has some short animated sequences, although these are original bits of animation, and not lifted from any G.I Joe cartoon i'm aware of.


At the end of each stage, your dudes will be attacked by one of the Cobra boss guys, so i hope you saved up those rockets and have a rapid fire cos without them you're gonna be dying a lot. Each one of the bosses is a recognisable character, theres Xamot & Tomax, followed by Metalhead, then The Baroness, then Major Bludd, then Destro and finally, Cobra Commander himself, making for 6 levels of adrenaline pumping and uber patriotic machine gunning action.

My only real gripe with this game is the weapons, as in theres not much by way of variety, just your basic rifle and a rocket launcher, would it have killed them to chuck some other bits in there just for shits and giggles?.

Overall - 7/10

Anime Review:- Yu Gi Oh! Zexal

Yu gi Oh! Zexal (pronounced "ZECK-sul" in the English dub, and "ZAY-al" in the Japanese version) was a 2011-2012 anime series based on the ongoing manga series, and forms the fourth entry in the Yu Gi Oh anime franchise.

Set many years after the events of 5Ds, the series makes a shift back to the more fun orientated days of GX, but still retains some serious overtones, although not half as grim as some sections of 5Ds were.

In this series, Duel Monsters is still a popular game, however by this time, the 3d holograms and duel discs of previous eras have been replaced by an augmented reality system, controlled and viewed via a system known as the "Duel Gazer", which superimposes creatures and battlefields over existing terrain.
Most of the series' action takes place in Heartland City, home to Yuma Tsukumo, a teenage boy who lives with his grandfather after his parents vanished in mysterious circumstances (this is one of many parallels between Yuma and Yugi Moto).
One of the recent crazes in the Duel monsters game is the introduction of XYZ (pronounced "ECK-seez") monsters, a new game mechanic which allows players to fuse their existing monsters to summon a special, and usually very powerful, creature from their extra deck, however, at the beginning of the series, Yuma has still to obtain any XYZ monster cards, never mind play them, which puts a bit of a damper on his ambition to become the worlds number one duellist.
During one duel though, Yuma finds that the pendant given to him years ago by his father contains a secret, it is actually a mystical key which allows him to travel into another plane of existence, which in turn frees a being named "Astral". Astral came to Earth many centuries before but was involved in an accident which erased his memory, and the only way he can regain his memories is by helping Yuma collect the "numbers", a series of 101 XYZ monster cards, each of which contain some of his memories. Matters are made more difficult due to the fact that only Yuma and a handful of other people can actually see Astral, so many people assume Yuma is crazy when he starts talking, and sometimes arguing, with himself during duels. However, Astral and Yuma find that they can combine their bodies and fight as one, which makes defeating some of their more powerful opponents much simpler, as Astrals duelling skill can combine with Yumas enthusiasm and resourcefulness.

Zexals original run of 73 episodes was followed up by Zexal II (Zexal second) which ran for another 73 episodes from 2012 to 2014.
Zexal II continued Yuma and Astrals adventures as they struggle to save Earth from invasion by a race of aliens called the Barian, who are enemies of Astrals people and agents of chaos.

Zexal isn't a bad series, its much more fun than 5Ds but still struggles to recapture the fun atmosphere of GX. The series introduces (and grossly exaggerates) the XYZ mechanic to the game, and as such most of the series' storylines revolve around the search for and use of XYZ related cards, at the expense of many much more popular cards that are/were being used in the real world game, but that is to be expected as the series was basically a long advertisement intended to sell game cards to the viewer.
I don't mind this series, but its certainly not the best one, with over the top characters and sometimes difficult to follow plots (probably something lost in translation), although I must say that the animation quality of the show is spectacular, with some of the duels being fairly exciting to watch.
I think that what they were trying to do with this series was essentially a reboot to the franchise, hence why there are so many similarities between Yuma and Yugi, but it just didn't seem to work terribly well.

Anime Review:- Yu Gi Oh! 5D's

Yu Gi Oh! 5Ds (meaning "5 Dragons") was the 2008 follow up to Yu Gi Oh! GX, and was based on the manga of the same name.
Running for 154 episodes (although not all of them were dubbed for western release), 5Ds marked an, albeit unsuccessful, attempt to make the series take on a more serious tone, this time round being aimed at the older teen/young adult market, this is fairly evident throughout the first three series (episodes #1 to #65), however the "seriousness" was toned down somewhat afterwards.

Set roughly 10 to 20 years after the events of Yu Gi Oh! GX, most of the series' action takes place in and around "New Domino City", a new technologically advanced utopia built on the remains of the original Domino city (as seen in the original Yu Gi Oh! anime) which is powered by a mysterious power source known as "Ener-D". However, all is not good in paradise, as for the most part, the society of New Domino City is a very elitist one, with "undesirables" being banished to a run down area of the city named "satellite", which is located on an island in New Domino's bay, and once you set foot there, you arent legally allowed to leave (although on rare occasions, exceptions to this rule are made, so long as the rich people see some advantage in it for themselves,which doesnt happen often).
In this future time, the power source "Ener-D", or "Duel energy" as it is sometimes called, has been discovered to be a plentiful source of clean, cheap energy, so much so that it literally powers everything in both New Domino and Satellite. Ener-D is is produced by collecting and harnessing the power generated by people both watching and participating in Duel monsters competition, the more exciting the duel, the more Ener-D is created.
This has led to the invention of a new and more risky type of dueling known as the "Turbo Duel", in which participants ride on Ener-D powered motorcycles (called "Duel Runners") around increasingly dangerous courses, all whilst playing a game of Duel Monsters.

Yuusei Fudo is a resident of Satellite, and the son of one of the scientists who first discovered the properties of Ener-D. Yuusei is a tough street smart kid, and a fairly good duelist, who aspires to leave Satellite behind and make a life for himself in New Domino, however circumstances conspire against him, most notably the fact that residents of Satellite are not allowed to leave the island.
Yuusei manages to get off the island, and eventually runs across a former friend turned enemy, but he also learns that he is one of the fabled "Dark Signers", five individuals descended from an ancient people who are destined to use the five sacred dragons to save the world from evil.

Initially the series is a very dry watch, with the overall message highlighting the every day struggles of the disadvantaged to overcome their lot in life and make something better for themselves, but from about series 2 onwards, the tone of the series returns to the fantasy/adventure type storytelling commonly associated with the previous series, with bad guys showing up and trying to take over/destroy the world with their various evil plans etc.

The series was heavily critisised for the invention of "Turbo Duels", which make very little sense, however the series did see the introduction of the "Synchro summon" game mechanic, which changed the strategic options available to players in the real life card game as well as characters within the series (although like previous series, many cards shown on screen and their effects are somewhat exaggerated, or just completely different to how they behave in real life)

I didn't enjoy the series that much, its attempt to darken the storylines spectacularly backfired as storylines became difficult to follow, or just plain boring. None of the characters were particularly interesting, in fact, other than Yuusei himself, I couldnt tell you any of the other characters names, simply because none of them really mattered much.

I would have to say that of all the five (at the time of writing anyway) Yu Gi Oh anime series', 5Ds is most definitely the weakest and least memorable, lacking the epic storyline of the original series, or the fun factor of GX.

Anime Review:- Yu Gi Oh! Arc-V

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V (Pronounced "Arc-Five", the V is intended to be the roman numeral) is the fifth series and fourth spin off of the ongoing Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.
At the time of writing (July 2014), there have only been 13 episodes aired in Japan and it has yet to be dubbed into English.
Debuting on the Japanese TV Tokyo network on April 6th 2014, the series follows the adventures of Yuya Sakaki.
Yuya is a second year student at the "You Show" Duel school, who wants to follow in his fathers footsteps by becoming an "Entertainment Duellist", a form of professional duelling in which thanks to the invention of the "Solid mass" holographic system (basically a machine which creates solid light holograms), allows duellists to put on a show for spectators by physically interacting with the creatures they summon in a realistic 3D environment.
Yuya is a fairly optimistic lad, a lesson imparted on him by his father, however he is also sad as his father vanished for no apparent reason on the eve of one of his most important duels 3 years before the start of the series, so all Yuya has left to remember him by are his memories of spending time with him, and a mystical pendant, and the pendant is where Yuya derives his special powers.

During a duel in the first episode of the series, Yuya discovers that his pendant can unlock a hitherto unknown game mechanic for Duel monsters, namely, the pendulum summon. During the duel with the man whom his father was supposed to duel 3 years previously, Yuya is being beaten quite badly, however he takes solace from his fathers advice to "smile through adversity", and the pendants power transforms the effect monster cards in his hand into a new type of card, the Pendulum monster, which allows him to rapidly summon several powerful creatures in a single turn, winning him the duel. At first he is accused of cheating, however the Duel management system which is running the duel recognises the new game mechanic as legitimate, and pretty soon Yuya becomes something of a celebrity, however, even though he enjoys his new found fame somewhat, it also draws the attention of the "Leo Duel School", a rival duelling academy that is owned and run by the insidious Akaba family.

Although only 13 episodes have aired thus far, I've quite enjoyed the series, as it manages to blend the action of the original series with the fun factor of GX, and unlike 5Ds it doesn't take itself too seriously. Im looking forward to watching the remainder of the series as there have been the starts of what could be some interesting storylines.

Anime Review:- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (meaning, "Generation neXt" or "Generation X") was a 2004-2008 Anime TV series adaptation of the original 2005 manga (which ended publication in 2011), and formed the first spin off from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga/anime.

Set 10 years after the conclusion of the original series (hence "Generation X", meaning "Generation 10") , the series has many similarities with the "Harry Potter" series of books, insofar as most of the action centres around the goings off at "Duel Academy", the most prestigious school for aspiring professional duellists in the Yu-Gi-Oh world.

The series consisted of four complete seasons, although only three have been dubbed into English by 4Kids entertainment, who have stated that there are no plans to dub the final series, which caused some controversy amongst fans due to series 3 ending on an as yet unresolved cliffhanger, which, even though there are numerous fansubbed copies of the 4th series floating about, isn't properly resolved by watching it in the original Japanese, as the westernisation of the series basically made the two versions a little incompatible with each other.

A GX movie was planned, but was ultimately shelved in 2005, with the plot for the movie being developed further and used as the overall plot arc for series 2.

The main character is Jaden Yuki, a 13 year old boy who enrols in duel academy, and who over the course of the series shows that he is at least as talented at Duel Monsters as Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba. Jaden (as well as most of the main characters as it turns out over the course of the series) has the ability to see "Duel Spirits", a concept introduced in the original series and built upon in this series, becoming a very important plot point from about half way through series 2 onwards.

Secondary characters include:-
Chazz, Jadens main rival and secondary protagonist throughout most of the series, who later comes to be a friend of Jaden (in a similar way to how Yugi and Kaiba held a grudging respect for each other throughout the original series).
Cyrus, Jadens best friend, whose dueling skills are overshadowed by his older brother, but who manages to prove himself time and again (similar in some respects to Joey from the original series).
Dr. Crowler, the head of the "Obelisk Blue" dormitory who takes an instant dislike to Jaden, but whom later is forced to admit he holds a begrudging respect for Jaden and his skills (Dr. Crowler is roughly analogous to "Professor Snape" from Harry Potter, insofar as he is initially an elitist antagonist, but later becomes something of an ally to the protagonists)
Alexis, A female duelist and member of Obelisk Blue, although unlike most members of that Dorm, she is not elitist. She spends most of series 1 searching for her lost bother Atticus, but thereafter is relegated to being a "bit part" tertiary character.
Hassleberry, Introduced at the beginning of series 2, and initially being somewhat of an enemy to Jaden, Hassleberry is an aspiring soldier with an interest in dinosaurs, who ends up being won over by Jadens fun loving attitude.
Aster, Introduced along with Hassleberry in series 2, Aster is a professional duelist who arrives at Duel Academy on a secret mission to take down Jaden (which forms an important part of series 2s story arc), however he discovers that he has been manipulated the two become firm friends and team up to fight that series' bad guy.

Initially, the series is played more for laughs than anything else, and includes numerous instances of characters "breaking the fourth wall" and making various pop culture references (films referenced include "Ferris Beullers Day Off", "Return of The Living Dead", "Hellraiser", "Beverley Hills Cop" and many more) , however as the series goes on, the laughs become fewer as the main storylines become much darker and more "anime" in tone, but the series still retains much of its humourous content. 
In addition to this, the series generally features one main story arc, divided into two chapters per season, with the first chapter acting as a "set up" for the finale.

Series 1 - Jaden at Duel Academy/The Sacred Beasts.
Jaden settles in at Duel Academy, making friends and enemies along the way. Then a mysterious group of duelists known as "The Shadow Riders" arrive and Jadens group of friends are called upon to stop them from aquiring the three "Sacred Beast"cards, which are basically evil versions of the "Egyptian God" cards used in the first series.

Series 2 - The GX Tournament/The Society of Light
Duel Academy is chosen to be the site of the GX tournament, a tournament created to celebrate the tenth aniversary of the infamous "Battle City" tournament hosted by the Kaiba corporation. During the course of the tournament, a clairvoyant duelist known as "Sartorius" begins converting people to his pseudo religion, "The Society of Light", and Jaden, along with his friends and former enemy Aster Phoenix, must stop him from taking over the world.

Series 3 - Hunt for the Rainbow Dragon/The Supreme King
Duel academy finds itself being hurled into one of the alternate dimensions where Duel Spirits are real creatures, and only the power of the mythical Rainbow Dragon card can get them back. Later, Jaden and his friends return to this dimension in search of their missing friend Jesse, and find themselves having to tangle with the forces of the supreme king, as well as the ambitions of Adrian Gecko, a power hungry duelist who wants to be king of his own world. Jaden also finds himself up against an old foe from his childhood who he thought had gone forever.

Series 4 - Old enemies/Graduation (This series has never been dubbed into English)
Jaden returns from the alternate dimension victorious, but as a changed man. Over the course of the series he meets and defeats many of his old enemies and finally graduates from Duel Academy, but not before he faces a duel with destiny...against Yugi himself!. 



I personally enjoyed Yu-Gi-Oh GX, initially I thought I wouldn't like it due to hearing bad things on the grape vine, but, the humourous content, combined with the fast paced and more coherent storylines (compared with the original series' first season) and interesting characters won me over in the end.

Game Review - Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters:World Championship Tournament 2006 ( GBA 2006 - duh!)

The rather oddly titled "Yu-Gi-Oh! Ultimate Masters: World Championship Tournament 2006" (why oh why do they need to give these games such long titles?) was the 2006 entry into the hugely popular games series which, at the time, were exclusive to the Gameboy advance (I say this because similar games based on Yu-Gi-Oh! released on other systems usually followed some kind of storyline, whereas the "World Championship" games played as an electronic version of the CCG) 

Released during the "Yu-GiOh! GX era, the game featured nearly all the cards and game mechanics that had been employed in the RL CCG up to that point, however, unlike the previous game , the 2006 edition did not feature any of the characters from the anime, nor did it feature any storyline.

Reflecting the lack of storyline, the game itself made various changes to game play modes, which were selectable through the menu screen:-

Free Duel Mode.
The "Main" game mode, in which you duel against various other players, starting off with players ranked at "level 1", all of whom play a deck themed around the particular card they use as their avatar. Each tier contains 5 different duellists, all of whom use different strategies depending on the type of deck they are playing.

Challenge Mode.
This option consists of  4 sub categories of play:

1. Duel puzzle - You join a game in mid match, and using the cards you already have in your hand or in play, you must win the duel by the end of that turn.
2. Limited Duel - A series of duels in which restrictions are placed on what cards you may have in your deck.
3. Theme Duel - A series of duels in which as well as winning, you have a secondary objective of some sort, for example getting the maximum amount of direct damage to an opponents life points, drawing as many cards as possible, etc.
4. Survival Duel - You face off against random opponents one after another until you are defeated.

 As you begin the game, you get to choose a starter deck, but as you play, you can aquire additional cards by buying them from the in game shop, using Duel Points that you have won from competing in the free duel and challenge modes.
This game has a much wider selection of cards available than the 2003 game, which can make getting the cards you want difficult, as cards from the newer (at the time of release anyway) usually cost 400 Duel Points, whereas booster packs from older sets can cost as little as 150 points.

As a game, it does exactly as it says on the tin, it is indeed an electronic version of the real card game, however, it does present some problems which can put a dampener on new players...

• Difficulty - The game starting difficulty is WAAAYYYYYYYY off whack, requiring advanced knowledge of the card game and its mechanics in order to get any wins. This will, and did, put off a lot of novice players.
• Paying for everything - Earning duel points to buy new cards with is extremely difficult due to the above, and even then, the games strict adherence to the "Forbidden/limited" cards list (which was correct for tournament play at the time the game came out) means that sometimes you will open a booster pack and get an awesome card, only to find that it has been banned, and the game will not allow you to use it in any games. In addition to this, although the game allows you to enter the codes from your real life cards into the game, it makes you pay Duel Points in order to add them to your collection, if you dont have the point, you cant have, simple as. Very frustrating in the early game being as the game saddles you with very few powerful cards.
• Prescience - While playing through this games free duel mode, I got the distinct feeling that the games A.I seemed to know exactly what cards I had in my hand. This may just be me being paranoid, but when your A.I opponent manages to pull just the right card at just the right time 20 times in a row, you know that "the heart of the cards" seems to be giving way to borderline cheating.
• Whats the point? - The games lack of storyline takes something away from the gameplay. Even though the 2003 games storyline was generally weak, the complete elimination of it from this game makes the game a little dull.

 All in all though, the game isnt that bad, while it could have been a lot better, it still provides one of the best electronic recreations of a collectable card game.

Game Review - Yu-Gi-Oh!, Worldwide edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel (GBA 2003)

 Yu-Gi-Oh!, Worldwide edition: Stairway to the destined duel is a 2003 game that was released exclusively for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance.

Based on the popular CCG (that's Collectable Card Game for the uninitiated), which is in turn based on the popular manga/anime series of the same name, the game is basically a way of playing the card game without having to go to the trouble of purchasing packs of random cards and spending time building decks to play with.
This is not the first game based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, as previous games were released on the playstation and gameboy colour, however, this game is what I would consider the first game to accurately replicate the dynamic of the CCG, albeit without the bad losers, cheating and other such occurances that can ruin gaming for most folk (myself included, lol).

The gameplay is simple, provided you are familiar with the original card game, if not, its fairly easy to be able to pick up the rules as you go along, enabling you to decide which strategies work best for you and allowing you to select cards for your deck accordingly.

There are two play modes:-

Story mode

Taking place during the "Battle City" story arc from the anime (series 2) you begin the game by selecting a starter deck from a random selection, and then you move around a map of the city challenging other duellists, who are all characters from the anime, to duels.
Each time you win, you earn points and are allowed to choose a prize from a variety of booster packs.
As you win more duels and aquire more cards for your collection, more duellists and special "side events" become available, eventually culminating in you battling the character Marik Ishtar and his minions who have a dastardly plot to rule the world using the dark magic of the milennium items and the egyptian god cards.
There are numerous achievements to beat over the course of story mode, all of which can be completed with varying degrees of difficulty depending on your play style.

Multiplayer

Using a link cable to connect your Gameboy to someone elses, you can then battle them directly, gaining duellist points and enabling you to trade cards from your personal collections.


Oddly enough, this game was released before the Japanese version, but, at the time of release, it made heavy use of cards which had not yet been made available in the west.
In addition, some cards featured in the game had different names to their "official" western releases, which caused some confusion amongst players.
Also, the western release of the game came packaged with three promo cards in the form of "Sinister Serpent", "Harpies Feather Duster" and "Valkyrion the Magna Warrior", whereas its Japanese counterpart came packaged with one each of the "Egyptian God Cards", which left many fans of the series feeling cheated, but also it allowed people who had managed to get a hold of these powerful cards via other avenues to sell them on for ridiculous amounts of money.

All in all though, the game itself is still good to this day, with its simple to use interface and heavy use of characters from the anime, but it is let down by its rather lackluster storyline which seems to end very quickly.

This game is reall ymore for fans of the anime and players of the card game than for general gamers.