kiki-kaikai

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  • VC Tuesday: Taito Shrine

    by 
    JC Fletcher
    JC Fletcher
    07.08.2008

    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

    by 
    JC Fletcher
    JC Fletcher
    06.30.2008

    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.

  • E307: Furu Furu Park minigame list

    by 
    JC Fletcher
    JC Fletcher
    07.12.2007

    Say what you will about Majesco's Furu Furu Park, but it's got taste. Taito and 505 Games picked some fantastic games to adapt into minigame versions. If everyone made minigames based on stuff like Cameltry, we would never have a problem with minigames.We thought it would be useful to post the full list of included games, because we hadn't seen it yet. If at least five of these are fun, we'll consider the game a winner. Arkanoid can't possibly be non-fun, so that's one in their favor!In our bleak world of cancelled Pocky & Rocky sequels, we must take what we can get. And at the moment what we can get is a Pocky & Rocky-themed shooting minigame. We can smile a little, thinking that there's still some Pocky & Rocky in the world.[Via press release]