Data East Arcade Classics

[Nester the Lark]

I never did come across this game.

But according to Siliconera, the door is left open for a volume 2.

[parrothead]

Why won't they include the first two Magical Drop titles? If they are going to include Fighter's History Dynamite, they should also include the original Fighter's History arcade for historical purposes.

Despite the controversy surrounding the court case that followed it, the first Fighter's History arcade (1993) was an out-and-out success for Data East in Japan, but a flop outside of Japan. So it was great to see the game return in an all-new, tweaked-to-perfection update on Neo Geo hardware.

[Nester the Lark]

I finally stumbled upon this game at a Toys 'R' Us. It was on clearance for $12.73+tax. You might want to check there if you're still looking.

[Wildcat]

I wish the Toys R Us nearest me didn't go out of business now. XD

I tried to order one through my distributor, but it didn't work, unfortunately. I'll have to either order one online or get lucky stumbling upon one. Let me know what you think!

[Nester the Lark]

The only places I've seen it at in the wild are Toys R Us and GameStop. I didn't buy it at GameStop because it was at GameStop.

So far, it's a pretty decent arcade collection. Not bad, but nothing special, either. The emulation seems to be pretty good on all of the games included. There are some slight scaling issues that make some of the text look a little weird, and there's some rippling when the screen scrolls, but I don't think that's too uncommon in collections like this. It doesn't hurt the experience in any significant way.

Controls support the Remote sideways, Remote+Nunchuck, Classic Controller and GameCube Controller. Buttons are configurable, which is good because the default layouts can be a little awkward.

You can also tie your high scores to a Mii. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this is. I'm guessing that when you load a Mii, it also loads the scores associated with that Mii, so that if you load two different Mii's, it combines both sets of scores within the game. That's just a guess, tho.

My biggest complaint is that you can't modify the in-game options at all. You can't uniquely adjust difficulty or any other setting, which sucks (especially for the Neo Geo titles). However, it's possible to unlock a "Special Mode" that supposedly makes the games harder. I haven't tried it yet, tho.

Also, it doesn't save games and settings automatically, so you have to remember to save manually every time, but that's not a big deal.

[Wildcat]

Heh. Nice jab, there.

I'm glad to hear it's a decent comp. I'm very unfamiliar with Data East's arcade catalog beyond Burgertime and Dragon Ninja vs. Bad Dudes, so I'll remain hopeful that I can find a copy somewhere.

[Nester the Lark]

It's been interesting playing Data East Arcade Classics, and I thought I'd post a few thoughts here.

I never really played much of Data East's games in the arcade, except for maybe dropping a few rare quarters into Bad Dudes. I never found it that much fun, tho, especially compared to other beat-em-ups. Based on this collection, a lot of Data East's games feel kind of ruff around the edges, and many of them are blatant rip-offs of other games.

A few games have surprised me, tho. I had never actually payed Burger Time before, simply because it looked kind of boring. It hasn't blown me away or anything, but it's actually pretty fun.

Secret Agent (or Sly Spy) is kind of like Rolling Thunder, but it's much faster paced and has a lot of set pieces. It's almost like a Treasure game, which I guess makes it the James Bond equivalent to The Cliffhanger: Randy Edward's Indiana Jones.

Wizard Fire is supposedly an RPG, but it's about as much like an RPG as Golden Axe, or Capcom's King of Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons games. I don't think it really plays as well as those, but I was impressed with its presentation. It's got cool anime cutscenes and full English voice acting. That was enuff to hold my attention.

The one Data East game I actually spent a little time on in the arcade was Caveman Ninja. I still never played it anywhere near as much as some other arcades games of the era, but I might have if I'd had more opportunity. I still really enjoy it here, and it's probably my favorite game in the collection. It makes me wish the rest of the series was on the Virtual Console.

[Wildcat]

Me want. I really want to stumble on this. REALLY. XD

[Wildcat]

Well, my wife was kind enough to let me open a present early, and lo and behold, I now own this. And thus far, I'm quite happy with it. I've beaten Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja and Secret Agent, and both were fun. I like the Shinobi-esque beat em up/action games, and both of these were in that line. Caveman Ninja is fun, too, but I haven't beaten that one. Burgertime is a classic, and it's better than the NES version, so that's great. Crude Busters is...crude, really. It's stupidly fun with some intriguing boss designs, but it's not all that good. Lock N' Chase I haven't tinkered with enough, but its music seems to not work right, or perhaps it was always a little glitchy? And Peter Pepper's Ice Creme Factory isn't as fun as Burgertime, although jumping is novel. I've yet to try the others.

[Nester the Lark]

It's cool you finally got a copy of this.

I didn't really bother with Lock and Chase enuff to remember if it had audio glitches.

I still like Caveman Ninja the best. It's fun and colorful, and it's actually not a quarter muncher. It's possible to play it with finesse.

I also like Heavy Barrel, Magical Drop, Street Slam and Wizard Fire.

[Wildcat]

Street Slam/Hoops is surprisingly fun, actually. I quite enjoyed it. Wizard Fire and Magical Drop were pretty fun, too. Heavy Barrel is a little sluggish for me, but I can see why you like it. I was digging Super Real Darwin, despite not liking vertical shooters all that much (the way your ship evolves is pretty neat). Express Rider is Karate Champ set in the West with more action, from what I gathered. I haven't tried Burnin' Rubber or Side Pocket yet,

[Nester the Lark]

Retroware TV just put up an episode about BurgerTime for those that are interested. The video does have a very bizarre opening sequence (language warning), but once you're past that, the rest is more sober.