Winner Of the Neo Geo Pocket Contest

When we started the Secret Santa everyone was entered into a drawing for a Neo Geo Pocket. I love the Neo Geo Pocket! It's a wonderful system with a great collection of games that you can get cheap on ebay. The winner of the Drawing from the secret santa event this year is JBOYPACMAN! He received his Neo Geo Pocket and a copy of card fighters clash today.

Card Fighters Clash is an awesome rpg/card battle game that has some great graphics and gameplay. Hope you enjoy it JBOY! Look on ebay for more great games! I highly recommend all the fighting games. and again Congrats and enjoy! Merry Christmas!

By Windancer

Anime Freak Vol 1 By MissaFX

The Anime Freak series was the PC-FX’s version of a DVD Magazine and was a bi-yearly CD-ROM only publication by NEC which detailed current anime releases as well as allowed anime fans to watch Anime movies as well as to demo PC-FX games much like the much later created Playstation Magazine. The AF creators also included some other interesting things on these discs since they were pretty much the only demo discs made for the system and sold in stores as time went on. Some of these things are NEC store locators, FX game character (usually or always female) artwork, game info, anime info, mini games and even an original anime series only on the FX. It’s too bad no fan made FX-GA games were ever included as playable games/demos, but had the FX taken off more, I think we might have started to see some.

The first feature on the disc is their always included inside feature on some anime. This month it is that Japanese Little Red Riding Hood show. I don’t know what it’s called and I don’t care too much to try to find out. It’s pretty long and shows you behind the scenes stuff on the show as well as some random clips from the show. The video is 1/2rd screen but the audio is a little overly compressed at times.

The PC-FX original animation Private Eyedol is the second feature on the disc. It features a magical girl with multiple powers including the ability to conjure big guns at will. She is called a Hyper Maid or Hyper Maiden and while she is actually playing a character on TV, she in real life has the same fairy friend her TV show character also has. This little fairy can float right in front of people’s faces and they often act like she isn’t there yet will respond vocally to her at times giving away the fact that they can se her too. I guess maybe everyone is just a perv and trying to stare at her fairy bum while she hovers there. From what I can tell the main character actually keeps in shape like a real idol star and doesn’t totally pig out like so many anime heroines. Shortly after eating a drug laced riceball she begins to see more fairies, but after a shower scene (probably so she could shake off some of the effects) danger strikes when some dude is caught going through her clothes basket. You have to watch to see what happens next. The video is full screen, near lossless but the audio is fairly low quality.

The third feature is a series of video clips from Megami Paradise. Beware the Softcream! … lol. For some reason after eating ice-cream the girl becomes hot and to cool off she feels it best to stretch out in the sun before nearly jumping into the water…but not quite. After a fun filled day at the park the date literally turns into some bastard mix of Dragon’s Lair and Fatal Frame, somehow though after the trauma is over and you are enjoying the sunset together, she actually thanks you for the date! What a poor woman. I mean what were we all planning taking her out to an abandoned Japanese shrine in the middle of nowhere at night? We’d all just met the girl. It’s all pretty shady if you ask me. The video is full screen, high quality and the audio is passable, a little better than the first 2 clips at least.

The fourth feature is Voice Freak vol 1 featuring the voice actress who played the main character in Wedding Peach. She related the number of abusive boyfriends she has had by having to use 2 hands to count them all and relates how her husband used to smash her hands when she didn’t make dinner fast enough. She goes on a shopping trip buying food after food item and by the end they show a list of about 10 things, I can only assume it is a complete list of everything on her binge. After a hard day of eating she goes to a very non-descript studio and sings some song for a few seconds. After a stroll on the harbor to relate all the warehouse fires she started as a child and the one time she had to stab a homeless man to death because he saw her in the act, she quickly runs off. To fill the rest of the time they show us some goods. Later that day they catch her shoplifting everything from disturbing masks to pointed sticks and the segment finishes off with her passing counterfeit currency off on an old lady. She overpays the old lady to throw her off but can barely keep from laughing about it as she steps away. It sure it hard work being an idol star! It varies between 1/3rd screen and 1/4th screen. Considering how freaking high her voice is the audio compression isn’t bad.







The fifth feature on the disk are two Karaoke songs. On each AF disc there are two songs generally with words at the bottom so you can sing along. I highly doubt you will know both songs well enough to sing along, I sure don’t. The video is full screen and looks great. The audio is strangely high quality and I am guessing these songs really eat up disc space.

The sixth item contains several things as well. One of them seems to be an anime release schedule and the other seems to be a directory of planned PC-FX games. 41 game are present on this list including some I am pretty sure never came out, which is pretty impressive since Anime Freak 1 came out in 1995. Anime Freak 2 and 3 are on the disc as future titles interestingly enough. The PC-FX icons on this screen are hilarious btw.

The seventh item contains a really brutal version of paper-rock-scissors. I have never had so much trouble winning at this game. The funny thing is that when you do defeat the woman she bonks a star out of her head for you…or at least that is how it looks on screen rofl.

The eighth item has a “Making of animefreak FX”, “User’s Voice” and a “Staff List”. The staff list shows off some interesting graphical effects and is the most worth looking at out of these three options even though it is only mildly entertaining.

Overall Entertainment Value: 6.5/10

Language Barrier: 4/10

(It is easy to navigate but all the text info will be useless to the non Japanese reading person)

Spread love and peace! - Missa

My long pause comes to an end....soon.

I know I have been gone for awhile, but I will soon return guys, promise. I have been putting in tons of time at work, starting off my photography career slowly but surely on the side, and playing World of Warcraft again with my girlfriend. I also moved in the last couple months and need to get my PCE here ASAP! 

I will return, and reviews from me are coming. Now I gotta drop off Windancer at his Ballet Lessons so see ya later!

-PCEngineFan

Pachio-kun FX By MissaFX

Pachio-kun FX is one of the more forgotten FX titles. It was released in the first real year of the FX (’94 don’t count) and was an upgraded version of a PC-Engine CD game which normally would be things going in favor of a title. But it was 8,800 yen instead of 6,800 yen like most other “board” games on the FX and sold in November, well after the Japanese summer break famous for selling so many copies of so many games. These two factors plus the fact it was a PC-FX exclusive title all but guaranteed its epic failure and ensured that it would be well forgotten under a mountain of much more appealing console games. Pachio-kun FXs other hindrance in really taking off is that at its heart Pachinko is an elaborate scam where parlors change the payout odds of the machines daily and where people with inside information stand to benefit most in the best of circumstances and in the worst the parlors manipulate the pachinko machines on the fly from a central computer to either cheat or benefit a customer. Pachinko is about the endless assault of the sound of billions of tiny metal raindrops falling, the countless lights and cacophony of a hundred digital songs all competing to be heard. It’s about wrist pain and strain, having to dress not in your big-girl panties, but in a diaper just to keep the balls going during a kakuhen streak. And most of all, about having to quit your job, to go pro. There’ s really a lot any gambling game has to make up for when it is converted into the digital realm and it is understandable why so many fall short. It all comes down to the simple truth though of “is it fun?”.

Well Pachio-kun FX isn’t terribly fun, but the odd thing about it is that it isn’t boring either. Playing Pachio-kun FX is like being in a very intense state of apathy. Sure you have several things to concentrate on at once, and to keep the throttle at the optimal level you do have to adjust it a lot, but given the sometimes very random nature of how the balls fall, at times you just begin to wonder if it is worth the effort to keep the throttle optimal. Just about at the point you stop caring, usually you begin loosing balls fast enough you suddenly care again and fix everything…but I guess in the end, you have to ask yourself, “does my victory feel hollow?” Maybe it is the lack of any real risk, or the lack of any real prize, but then again, this is not something easily overcome by most electronic gambling games. I have put quite a few hours into another gambling game called Neo Cherry Master on the Neo Geo Pocket B&W and to be perfectly honest, digital gambling machines in real casinos feel about as exciting to me as Neo Cherry Master. If I were in a Pachinko parlor in Japan and there were only digital Pachinko machines, I imagine I might feel a very similar way.

Gameplay: Pachio-kun FX features a story mode and a “free” mode for play. The story mode lets you be one of the Pachio-kun characters and wander from place to place in the town of Pachio-kun seeking battles with Pachinko masters. You can also play pachinko machines with your starting allowance of 500 balls to gain more balls and special points. Special points are used in Pachinko battles to stop the opponent’s balls for a period of time. When you choose a special move it superimposes a FMV of your character doing an attack over the pachinko table thus showing off the FXs ability to use FMV and real time game graphics at the same time. You must defeat 7 people and one final boss before they declare you the Pachinko-mon…err Pachinko master, and since this will take a lot of time probably, they have luckally included a save feature located at a central fountain/park with an umbrella.
Free mode lets you just do one single Pachinko battle and in this battle as you earn more balls, you earn more special points. This allows you to do multiple special moves per battle and is the easiest way to see your different animations.

Graphics: The tables in Pachio-kun are generally pretty interesting looking and someone obviously put some time and care into them. The animations are quick and responsive, everything looks clean and you can turn the status graphics on and off at your choosing. They probably could have used some more animation in the background of the machines themselves, but maybe the developers thought that would make the game feel like something other than Pachinko. When the character talk before battles their faces are adequately animated. The one thing you will notice however is that Pachio-kun seems to be missing an intro before the menu. The way the menu loops it seems to me like they intended there to be an intro playing between the loops. Maybe the animation studio didn’t have it done in time for the game’s release? It’s hard to say.

Music/Sound: The majority of the songs in Pachio-kun are entertaining to listen to and well done, however whenever the machines are in any kind of reward mode, they usually play a very short looping song, sometimes for minutes at a time. This looping song is often annoying and one of them really, really sounds like the Indiana Jones theme playing on a broken DVD menu. If only there was a way to turn this reward song off it would have greatly helped as I often find myself turning down the sound whenever the game goes into this mode and turning it back up whenever it leaves it. The sound effects are very basic gambling machine sound effects which do the job. More sound effects would have just been clutter, less would have made the game feel too dead.

Is Pachio-kun a great game? No. A good game? Probably not. But is it a bad game? No way! Pachio-kun FX will probably appeal most to the Japan enthusiast, not the console gaming enthusiast as it allows you to taste the Pachinko experience without having to sit through a 12 hour flight on Korean Air to just be able to afford to play Pachinko for real. If you’re looking for something different, Pachio-kun FX might just be the title for you.

Gameplay: 6.0

Graphics: 6.5

Music: 8.0 for the songs / 2.0 for the loops = 3.5

Sound: 8.0

Difficulty: 5.0

Language Barrier: 1.0

Keep spreading the Joy! By MissaFX

The galaga 88 Club High Score Contest Hosted by RisingStuff

Welcome to the Galaga 88 Club High score contest Hosted by RisingStuff. This will be the first high score contest ran here at PCEnginefan. It will be pretty simple or should be. The contest will run till November 31st at midnight. There will also be a prize awarded to the highest score. The winner will receive a complete copy of Street Fighter II. If you don't win the high score contest do not fret, your name will be entered into a drawing for 2 other games after the winner has been decided for Galaga 88. Just entering the contest could score you some goods. So even if you do not own Galaga 88 you can enter the contest to get your name in for the drawings. This is a christmas promotion so everyone have fun and have a Merry Christmas!

The Following rules will apply:

1. (Do Not Talk about Galaga Club 88) LOL If you have seen fight club you know why im laughing!

2. (Do Not Talk about Galaga Club 88) Missa couldnt resist a fight club theme!

3. Anyone can enter the contest for Galaga 88 but only those who take a screenshot of their tv will be eligible to win Street Fighter II.

4. Emulation is not allowed for this contest

5. If you do not own a copy of Galaga 88 you may still enter to have your name entered for the Christmas Drawings. The winners of the drawings will receive either Ganbare Golf Boys (hucard) or Human Sports Festival (Super CD)

6. In the event that our winner of the high score contest owns a copy of Street Fighter they may choose to accept either Ganbare Golf Boys or Human Sports Festival.

7. You must sign up to participate. Signing up is simple just email me or pm me at pcefx or rising stuff forums for entry. I will get addresses later when winners are chosen for prizes.

8. The high score contest will run until november 31st at midnight. there will be no late entries or day after score submissions. Get your scores in before november 31st

9. Screenshots from an emulator will not be accepted


10. Galaga 88/90 Only new screenshots will be accepted. You must take a screenshot of the TV with your entry score on the screen. Hold up any publication which is from the last 2 months over part of the TV, like a magizine, comic book, recent DVD release, anything to prove it was taken in the last month or two at the oldest.


11. if you currently own the 3 games offered as prizes im sure I can come up with alternates for you choose from if you win the high score contest.

12. Use of any cheat codes is strictly forbidden if it is found out that a cheat code was used you will forfeit.

Dont forget to Visit the sponsor of this contest! they have some great stuff for sale for anyones collection. Also sign up for the forums and blog and start posting also if you do not own Galaga 88 alex or sensei can hook you up so just email them or pm them from the forums.

Spread the Joy of Pcengine! By Windancer and Missa