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The VC Advantage: Square's Knight
King's Knight is fairly bizarre, much like anything else Square did before, say, Final Fantasy. A medieval shooter is at the very least more original than Square's takes on OutRun and Space Harrier. What is most interesting to us is how related it seems to be to what eventually became Final Fantasy. We wanted to provide just the endgame sequence here, but we were limited to what YouTube would provide. If you'd like the ultimate spoiler, you're free to watch the entire video (or, hey! Gameplay strategy: do exactly what this guy does) but our interest is around the 17-minute mark, when the final boss fight is about to begin. By now, the four player characters -- the knight, the wizard, the monster, and the thief -- have united to form a party, moving in concert, and have all leveled up significantly. Each character has gained the ability to use powerful spells -- the knight's, shown here, is a Pegasus transformation that is extremely similar to a summon. The final boss is a giant dragon who seems to have crawled up through the floor.We like to imagine King's Knight as an evolutionary relative to Final Fantasy, and think of what would have happened if Hironobu Sakaguchi had decided to continue down this path instead of lifting Dragon Quest's gameplay wholesale. Would Square have turned into a hardcore shooter company? Would they be making games with flashy graphics, memorable characters, anime-like storylines, excessive cutscenes, baroque character leveling systems -- and blazing-fast arcade gameplay?
VC Monday Madness video wrap-up 3/24/08
Today's Virtual Console offerings aren't all too good. We get yet another shooter and it comes packed with a crummy sports game to back it up. Hit up the video above for my complaints and head past the break for the rest.
ESRB lists a Square classic for the Virtual Console
Right now, the North American Virtual Console has only one Square Enix game (though it's quality): Actraiser, and that was from the Enix side. According to a new listing on the ESRB's page, a Square game will finally be available for download -- an alliteratively-named classic that takes place in a swords-and-sorcery fantasy setting and allows players to play as a magic user, a warrior, and even a thief, all to the strains of composer Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack.That's right, it's King's Knight.Also newly listed: Final Soldier! Yeah, it's another TG16 shooter, but you don't have to buy it. We've been waiting for this one.
VC Tuesday: Poor King's Knight
We have a soft spot in our hearts for King's Knight. Not enough of a soft spot, we don't think, to pay 500 points for the thing, but it's still just such a weird product. It looks pretty much like Ultima in screenshots, but it's totally a vertical scrolling shooter. And the Square nostalgia crowd just has no interest in shooters -- unless they're Einhänder. Square couldn't even get the title right in the game's own title screen. Something as maligned as this, you just have to love a little. By the way, this brings the number of Square Enix games on the VC worldwide to three. And only one of those is really any good.King's Knight faces tough competition this week in the weirdness category. Panel de Pon is pretty normal, although we suppose that being remade as Yoshi, Tetris, and Pokemon games is kind of weird. Still, it's just a great puzzle game. But Legend of the River King is a fishing RPG, and Langrisser is a strategy game from Masaya. And, as a Masaya game, it features cameos from Adon and Samson from Cho Aniki. In fact, they appear as hidden bosses, and, once defeated, grant you the ultra-powerful "Aniki" summon. Cho Aniki is basically the weirdness-in-games trump card. King's Knight (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Panel de Pon (Super Famicom, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) Langrisser (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 700 Wii Points) Kawa no Nushi Tsuri (Legend of the River King) (PC Engine, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
Japan's November VC releases: Nuts
... and also Milk. November's Virtual Console outlook for Japan looks pretty excellent, with a lot of delightfully niche stuff. That includes King's Knight, the medieval-themed vertical shooter (!) from Square(!) that nobody likes but us ( ....) It will also bring Sega's Eternal Champions, the goofy Mortal Kombat-influenced fighting game that we poured hundreds of hours into. But it also includes stuff that non-us people will enjoy, like Panel de Pon, which, released in the U.S. as Tetris Attack, is the most popular version of the Puzzle League puzzle games. Light Crusader is notable for being an RPG from Treasure, and not much else.Of course, the big news for a lot of us is that SNK has turned the King of Fighters faucet on, ensuring a constant stream of fighting games with overdone storylines and ridiculous outfits for at least a year. Here's the full lineup for November, assuming some of them don't get bumped or pushed back into December (they will): Famicom: Ganbare Goemon, Balloon Fight, Makaimura (Ghosts 'n Goblins), Nuts and Milk, King's KnightSuper Famicom: Panel de PonMega Drive: Ecco Jr., Light Crusader, Eternal ChampionsPC Engine: Dynastic Hero (Wonder Boy in Monster World), Dragon Spirit, Take the A-Train 3, Kawa no Nushi Tsuri (Legend of the River King), Gradius II GOFER no YabouNeo Geo: The King of Fighters '94, Baseball Stars 2, Top Hunter
