Destructoid Changelog - Nuclear Gandhi's Island Adventure

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That’s January just about in the books. Personally, my year doesn’t start until Day Light Savings starts again. For now, every hours feels like bedtime.

This isn’t intentional, but I suppose this week’s newsletter wound up being themed around game preservation. It’s been a great week for it with various re-releases, news of re-releases, and the Video Game History Foundation opening their online library for perusal. Just some advice, but if you open your mind up to old games, you never run out of things to play. Actually, you could also take that as a warning. It’s certainly a hole to fall into.

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Don’t forget about new games, though. If you want to be on the cutting-ish edge, you can win a PlayStation 5 Slim through this newsletter. Our giveaway is still going for another couple of weeks, and the only criteria for eligibility is to be subscribed to this newsletter. So, good job for that. You also have to be over 18, but you can enter from anywhere in the world (void where prohibited by law). Just go to this link and sign up through the widget in this article. High five.

If you want more of this newsletter (and, really, why wouldn’t you? This is where I live), you can get in on our monthly special edition. All you have to do is apply a little peer pressure and get someone to sign up for the newsletter. Make sure you use the link below, and you’re all set. Each month, I dole out an exclusive interview with a cool developer. Last month, it was Jack King-Spooner (Judero), and before that, it was Puppet Combo (Stay Out of the House). Learn all about the difficulties and delights of indie and small-budget game development.

Shockman Zero

Shockman is in a pretty cool spot right now if you even know who Shockman is. If you don’t know who he is, that’s understandable. The series lived largely on the Japanese PC-Engine, and because of that, we only saw one entry in North America on the Turbografx 16. That was Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman 2, localized as just Shockman.

Recently, Ratalaika and Shinyuden have been localizing the previously unlocalized games, and now we have official translations of every game in the series.

But Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman Zero is a bit different. It was released on Super Famicom, and not just that, it was delivered through the Satellaview service, which allowed subscribers to temporarily download the games over the internet: early digital distribution, essentially. However, recently, it’s been released on actual plastic. First on Super Famicom by Columbus Circle, and now by Retro-Bit on the Super Nintendo, which is the version I’ve got.

Whew. With that out of the way, the Shockman games kind of suck. Not the worst, and they get better as the series progresses, but, as a whole, the series is hard to recommend. Shockman Zero is probably the best the series ever got, and, truly, while it’s not Mega Man X, it’s fun in its own right.

It is sort of like if you crossed Mega Man with Final Fight. The platforming feels similar, but rather than blast enemies from a distance, you have to walk up and beat on them. It feels really good, since enemies get stun locked for the duration of your combo. The only thing that would make it better is if you could grab and throw your foes.

It’s also strangely good at telling a story. It introduces characters who shout their personalities, and the plot progresses naturally without having to reveal too much at once. The two characters, Raita and Azuki have analog foils that pop up regularly to act as bosses and sub-bosses, and they’re pretty entertaining. It’s not narrative-heavy, so you’re not going to be catching a lot of curveballs, but the minimalistic cutscene intermission style is made the most of.

Retro-Bit’s translation is a little weird, though. It might be because they don’t want to look like they’ve just lifted Shinyuden’s translation, but it resulted in some odd choices. Shinyuden translated Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman as “Cyber Citizen Shockman.” Retro-Bit just calls the game Shockman Zero, but in-game, he’s referred to as “Cyborg Townsman Shockman.” Okay, benefit of the doubt, maybe it only sounds weird because I heard “Cyber Citizen Shockman” first. The two titles mean roughly the same thing… I don’t know. Maybe both are strange names.

Names aside, the translation is also awkward. It might be awkward in the specific way that most translations were in the ‘90s. But the Retro-Bit translation swears. Drops a “dumbass.” I’m clearly not bothered by curse words. They just stand out in an SNES game like this.

The main downside of Shockman Zero is that it’s very short. Took me around 40 minutes to see through. And even though it limits the number of times you can continue after death, it’s still pretty easy. Some of the bosses barely put up a fight. It’s a fun time while it lasts, but… it doesn’t last.

Still, I’m just happy these games are getting translations at all. Better late than never. And I enjoyed my time here more than I did in, say, the first Cyber Citizen Shockman. Even though there isn’t a tonne of reason to, I’d probably play it again. A good excuse would be if I could find a player two, as the whole game can be played co-op.

Elsewhere on Destructoid

Technos Japan’s Famicom RPG, Sugoro Quest, is finally getting official translation next month

See what I mean? I love a good tardy translation. It turns out that Super Technos World: River City & Arcade Classics is getting a North American release, seemingly with some new translations in tow, but Sugoro Quest++: DICENICS isn’t getting that full treatment. However, Ratalaika and Shinyuden have announced that they have us covered with a translation of Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes, the Famicom origin of the series. I’ll take it.

Survival horror classics Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 have been re-released on GOG today

I’ve heard a lot of clamoring for a return of Dino Crisis, and this is not that. However, it’s great to see. Most people know the first two Dino Crisis games as PS1 titles, but they did see PC ports. Unfortunately, like the early Resident Evil games, they don’t play well with modern Windows. GOG, however, has seen fit to give them a substantial update to fix outstanding issues and put them up on their storefront. Love to see it. Beyond that, they also implemented a new community wishlist called the GOG Dreamlist, which allows people to vote on what games they want to see get a re-release.

EA could be teasing a rerelease of The Sims and The Sims 2

I’ve been rather bitter that EA hasn’t had The Sims and The Sims 2 available for years now. The Sims was a phenomenon and shot up to become one of the best selling PC games of all time. It’s massively influential, but EA has kept it off even its own storefront. Annie Thelan explains how EA may be indicating that they’re ready for a re-release.

Listen, I already own both The Sims and The Sims 2 in very accessible ways, but I constantly push for better preservation of video games. EA has sucked at taking care of their own catalog, but maybe that’s changing. It wasn’t long ago that the Command & Conquer games got a big re-release. We can only hope.

The Video Game History Foundation will make its digital library available to everyone next week

This is pretty big, at least if you’re in my line of work. Or, maybe just if you have my interest. I love digging into the history of video games. Digging deep. But finding a good source can be difficult. A lot of myths have become cemented as fact to a lot of people, and even if you want to dig into the source, it’s hard to do so. The Video Game History Foundation has not only gathered a lot of physical publications and press information from yesteryear, they also have development documents.

In particular, a year or two ago, Michael Mendheim donated a lot of the documentation he gathered throughout his years at EA and 3DO. This includes development documents related to the Army Men series, one of my favorite oddities of video game history. They’re not available on the library yet (it went live yesterday), but hopefully, I won’t have to wait long to dig in.

Was Gandhi really a monster in Civilization? Explaining “Nuclear Gandhi”

I love Nuclear Gandhi. As Tiago Manuel explains in this article that gives all the deets on the phenomenon, Gandhi wasn’t more pro-nuke in the Civilization games than any other leader, despite what some myths try to explain. But, anecdotally, dude totally was. I mean this as a real “trust me, bro” statement, but I swear that most of my nuclear exchanges were with this conscientious objector.

Reviews for review this week

Review: Hello Kitty Island Adventure

Okay, weird thing, but my husband has been really into Cinnamoroll from Hello Kitty lately. Not sure how to explain it. However, he should probably check out Hello Kitty Island Adventure, since Madison Bensen says it’s pretty fly. Personally, I haven’t paid much attention to Hello Kitty over the years. But, geez, it’s a merchandise machine. You could replace every bit of houseware you own with it.

Dead Letter Dept.

I guess I really do review a lot of horror games. Dead Letter Dept. is a pretty unconventional approach to the genre, meshing my love of typing with an excruciatingly heavy atmosphere. It’s centered around a dead simple gameplay premise, but a terrific aesthetic makes it one of the best horror games I’ve played in a while. It’s the best horror game I’ve played all year. Don’t look at the calendar.