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VC Tuesday: Taito Shrine
Before Natsume got hold of the series and made the beloved Pocky & Rocky, Kiki KaiKai was a fairly unassuming arcade/PC Engine shooter from Taito. The graphics aren't as vivid, Manuke the tanuki (Rocky the raccoon) isn't playable, and the levels are more sparse, but it's still a top-down game about a shrine maiden shooting ghosts. And it's on the Japanese Virtual Console as of today.Chack 'n Pop is a pre-Bubble Bobble game that looks, but doesn't play, like Bubble Bobble. Instead, as a chick ... thing ... you climb walls and ceilings and blow stuff up with grenades. Rounding out the week's Japanese releases is Big Tournament Golf, a Neo Geo golf game by Metal Slug developers (and IREM expatriates) Nazca. Chack 'n Pop (Famicom, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points) Kiki KaiKai (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Big Tournament Golf (Neo Turf Masters) (Neo Geo, 2 players, 900 Wii Points)
Rare Fire Emblem sequel on Japanese VC in July
Nintendo has updated their Japanese Virtual Console site with a list of fifteen games coming out in July. That's nine more than we got last month. Even if we don't believe that the MSX games are actually going to come out (Eggy? Released?) that's a lot of games for Japan to enjoy.One of the more interesting titles is Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, which was released on the Super Famicom game download service called "Nintendo Power." Much like the rewritable Famicom Disk System disks, the "Nintendo Power" cartridge was a rewritable flash cartridge that could accept games downloaded from store kiosks. A cartridge version of the game came out later.A couple of retro-tastic Taito games show up this month: Chack 'n Pop is a direct precursor to Bubble Bobble (even including the same Monsta creatures), and Kiki KaiKai is the original Pocky & Rocky (also an ancestor of the recent Heavenly Guardian). The full list of releases is after the break.
