Gaming Hell

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Bakutotsu Kijūtei: Baraduke II (Namco, 1988)

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This was only released in Japan so all in-game text is in Japanaese but the game is perfectly playable without any Japanese language skills. One of the debug dip-switches, a stage select, is available under Preference Settings. Additionally, something MAME seemingly got wrong for years is corrected here- the factory setting for the number of lives is 2, not 1!

In the Space Year 2388 (according to the UGSF timeline, three years have passed since the fierce Battle of Baraduke in which Masuyo Tobi of the UGSF Space Cavalry fought against the vicious Octians and saved the peaceful Paccetians. However, the Octians have risen from the ashes of their defeat and are on the offensive again, capturing yet more Paccetians. Masuyo is once again called into action to fight this terrifying enemy force, but this time the Paccetians join the fight alongside her, as well as her new weapon, the lightweight and pedal-powered gunship. Can she wipe out the Octians for good this time?

Oh boy, this is a weird one. The original Baraduke is one of my favourite Namco games from that era- an intense sci-fi action game with eerie environments you really have to explore and sometimes unsettling enemies, complete with a heartbeat soundtrack that speeds up the closer you are to death. There's some criticisms for sure- the movement takes some getting used to and I don't like the roulette between stages that can really screw you over if it wants to by taking one of your shields away- but for the most part I really enjoy it. It was released on Arcade Archives

Baraduke II is... None of that. The tone is a lot goofier (among other things like jaunty music, Masuyo now has a propeller hat) and while later stages do become more mazelike, exploration has been de-emphasised mostly because you can no longer turn around and the shields have been removed- outside your gunship, this is one-hit deaths. The Paccets now serve a purose outside the roulette and boss fights as they'll circle you as you rescue them and you can even arm them with guns! However, they only protect you from bullets and not contact damage, and the ones with guns can shoot down other Paccets out in the open, which is frustrating as you can't control their rotation around you and scoring is centered entirely around the huge bonuses you get for saving multiple Paccets in a stage, so you will absolutely shoot some of the adorable little things by accident.

Playing it a bit more for this release I can sort of start to appreciate it- it's more shmup-like this time around- and maybe you will too, but it's still a bit disappointing. If The Cutting Room Floor's page on the game is anything to go by, seeing how much was cut it wouldn't surprise me if this was a little rushed...

... Yep, this is a little different, huh? Sorry if this wasn't really what you were expecting. See, my old article on The Tower of Druaga was the first proper 'short' article I made and it's always been in desperate need of rewriting. It was missing a lot of information and it wasn't really up to the standards I hold my site up to nowadays. So, I completely rewrote it with 95% new content- new review text! All the home ports covered! As much merch. other media and cameos I could reasonably cover! And maybe there's a secret on that page too, could the original page still be out there...?

I understand this might be a little disappointing. I've been meaning to rewrite this one for a long, long time and so I wanted to do the job properly and give it a highlight rather than just note it as an update alongside something else. Don't worry, while there are definitely some old pages that need updating and they will be in the future, only a select handful will get this kind of update-of-the-month treatment. We'll be back to covering new and exciting video games (that are over 25 years old) next month, so please look forward to it.

Seeing as a certain bird website is currently in flames, I assume you lot won't mind if I post my MS Paint nonsense here, right?

Here's the Goddess Ishtar from Namco's The Tower of Druaga series. She seems nice and affable but if you reset The Nightmare of Druaga, she's gonna yell at you.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... King & Balloon (Namco, 1980)

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Only the Japanese version is included, the difference being the voice clips used- both the Japanese and US sets have the voice clips in English but they have different voice actors and the Japanese on has more of a Japanese accent. If you want to play with the US voices, this version can be found in Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PSP and Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360.

The KING is in danger. The nerfarious BALLOONS of unknown origin are out to kidnap him, and have arranged themselves in a Galaxian-esque pattern to realise their evil ambition. As his faithful royal attendants armed with a mobile spear-launching cannon and blessed with the power of infinite respawning, you must protect the KING from the BALLOONS. Should the BALLOONS breach your defensive line, they will kidnap the KING and you have to shoot him down to bring him back to safety. Our kingdom is counting on you.

Silliness aside, this is a pretty interesting Galaxian variant in that your cannon- literally just two guys pushing a cannon around- has infinite lives and is just taken out of action temporarily when shot. No, the real threat is the advancing balloons sneaking past you and capturing the King- when they get past you, they'll sit on the bottom as the King mills about, and if he touches them, they try to whisk him away, complete with him screaming HELP! in an actual voice clip, a rarity for this era! A careful shot will rescue him with a resounding THANK YOU!, failure will result in a lost life and a mocking BYE BYE! which is pretty funny. It's a shame the GamePlan-distrbuted English version isn't here, but if you have a taste for vintage gallery shooters and haven't heard of this one, it might be worth a try, assuming you don't already have it on another Namco collection!