Boy a lot can happen in half a year, and looking at this blog, a lot can “not” happen as well. A couple of times now i’ve claimed to keep this blog updated on a regular basis and failed miserably. Most of this was caused by personal matters on which I won’t go into any further on this blog as this is about the history of videogames, not my fumblings with this mythical “outside world”. But I just wanted to give you an explanation on the lack of updates, and try to make up on lost time by posting more articles and reviews and hopefully the aforementioned video’s. (see previous posts).
With my goals vaguely on order, I can assume my role as self proclaimed know it all on videogames memorabilia… but what do I know you say? I have played videogames sinds the dawn of time (that was around age 7-8.) and have since been enthralled into that world making it my hobby, education and daytime job. Though I have been out of the business for a while, I kept my interest and continued filling my brain with gaming knowledge and since I can’t shut up about it, I created this blog to take note of the ever growing legacy of videogames.
As the next generation of videogames is upon us, we must never forget to look back and see how it has gotten this far, as there is much to learn from the past, I will expand this blog beyond reviews and articles to include new features filled with interesting knowledge and opinions of gaming past, but more on that later, to get back into the feeling let’s start off with a Classic Game Review.
Classic Game Review – Cyber Troopers Virtual On.
-Get Ready-
Enter the mid-90s, The Sony Playstation and the Sega Saturn were just released and we were slowly transitioning from the 16 bit to the 32 bit era, games became bigger and more emphasis was put on that curious thing called “3D graphics”. Now 3D graphics weren’t new, Starfox showed us a sample with help of the FX chip on the Super NES and the PC was already sporting games with eye poppin polygons. But there was still one powerhouse that reigned supreme over every platform on this matter, the arcade!
Yes, the now legendary realm of the arcade from forgotten ages once reigned justly in the videogame world, these Titans brought us the best in cutting edge gaming technology and people were always looking forward to when the gods would step down and grace us with a console port of their games, only to find out they were mostly inferior. Not that they weren’t any fun, on the contrary, but there was seldom a game from that time that was granted the honor of being “Arcade Perfect”.
There weren’t a lot of arcades in the Netherlands, even during their high times, in fact I think there were only 2 big ones. The good thing about that was that most of the best arcade games were gathered at one of these locations, a Titanmoot if you will. So when my Dad took me and my brother we got to bask in all the splendor of these lost Shangri-la’s.
Now I can tell you all about all the great things witnessed there, but I’ll go into detail about that another time. Amidst all the sleek black arcade cabinets there was a White 2-seater unit sticking out, adorned with bright pink and blue colours and an odd sounding digitized voice beckoning like the siren’s call. Upon further inspection the next curiosity popped up, the control panel featured no buttons, and two joysticks. No not the simple balltops sticks found on regular arcades, no these were actually reminiscent of fighter jet sticks, and two of them! So I tilted my eyes from the control panel and stared at the screen to see for what game these twinsticks served. Now I don’t know how long I was staring there but at some point I noticed my brother standing next to me gazing at the screen with similar awe. Giant robots rendered in clean, sharp and stylised graphics were fighting eachother using all manner of weaponry in enclosed arena like environments, dashing at eachother at blazing speed unleasing screen filling, retina scorching destruction. I managed to tear my eyes of the screen and leaned back to peek over my brothers shoulder at the side of the cabinet to check out the Title: Sega’s Cyber Trooper Virtual On.
Now Sega had a lot of “Virtua/Virtual” games out there in the arcade, There was a Virtua Racing, Fighting, Soccer and so on, but I never heard of “On” Before. So the only logical explanation is that “On” Stands for Giant Awesome Robot Battles.
As we clambered into the seats our dad provided the machine with the required coinage and the machine beckoned us to choose our Virtuaroids for battle. As our selected machines were launched from a giant carrier onto the big blue ocean, our surroundings faded as we were pit against eachother on a docking pad coloured by the orange glow of a setting sun. As you know most kids are fairly proficient in driving giant robots and the tank-like controls of the virtuals worked perfectly with the twin stick controls. Our dad kept fueling our matches with coins as we blew eachother to smithereens and as we left the arcade at the end of the day I knew this game would rank among my favorites.
Unfortunatly Virtual On was only released on the Ill-fated Sega Saturn, and I never got to play the game beyond the arcade, however word reached me of a PC release, and with the via that then new “internet” thing I managed to aquire a copy with the help of my cousin’s and his allmighty credit card.
The PC version is actually a port of the Saturn version, and while the conversion is inferior to that of it’s arcade counterpart it still captures the feel of original. Virtual On’s graphics sport that unique Sega-Feel that most Sega Arcade games featured at that time, crisp colourfull graphics, high framerates and that blocky aesthetic defining the Virtua series. This works perfectly in the square surroundings of the battle arena’s but even more on Virtuaroid design. The blocky features of the robots only enhance the style and create a good harmony with the surroundings, the use of bright colour makes them stand out clearly and create a good contras with the backdrops. if I could describe Virtual’s visuals in one word, it’s Polygons, Polygons everywhere. The game doesn’t use any fancy particle effects, even the explosions are made of big circle shaped polygons and it perfectly defines the look of the game and makes it stand out among the rest.
During each bout the players are dropped into Arena’s with varied sizes and settings, featuring ancient temples, giant space elevators, moon hangars and whatnot. Littered around these battlegrounds are obstructions like containers and walls that help you avoid enemy fire and gives you breathing time for your weapons to reload. The goal of the game is basically to blow eachother up, two mech’s enter one mech leaves. Each Virtuaroid varies in size and strength, similar to a beat em up. All mech’s are fitted with 3 weapons, a close range strike, a ranged attack and something with a big explosive range, like mines or grenades, when pressing both fire buttons a special is unleashed and when timed correctly can turn the tide of any battle. Along the fire buttons are the boost buttons, which allows you to zip arround fast to avoid enemy fire and gain an advantagious position. This makes every battle fast and frantic, but fun, and when giant robots are finally called into service, i’ll be the first to sign up.
In the arcades the game works perfectly with the twin stick controls, however on the consoles and PC the controls are tricky and hard to get a hang on, you will get the hang of it on the long term, but it can get a tad frustrating at times. unfortunatly, the twin stick controller was only made for the saturn, so I had to fumble with the keyboard, but I didn’t let that spoil the fun.
Another gripe I have with the game is the music, in all fairness they are true Sega arcade style tunes and are kind of a staple of the series, but the game features very cheery upbeat music that you wouldn’t really expect during epic hardcore robot battles. They are recognisable i’ll give you that, and when you hear those ear wrecking tunes, you know you’re playing Virtual on.
In the end Virtual On stands out, and in a good way, it’s fast, frantic and fun if you can overcome the controls The first Virtual On is hard to find these days, but the Sequel, Oratorio Tangram is available on XBLA/PSN and it features more Mech’s and better graphics, be sure to check it out even if it’s just to cringe at that typical music.
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