Resident Evil, known in Japan as Biohazard, is a survival horror video game by Capcom. The inaugural title and first installment in the Resident Evil series, it was originally released in 1996 for the PlayStation and has subsequently been ported to the Sega Saturn and PC.
It was one of the first games to be dubbed a "survival horror", borrowing from the "ambient survival horror" genre coined by Alone in the Dark. Accordingly, Game Informer refers to "the original Resident Evil" as "one of the most important games of all time". The inspiration for Resident Evil was the earlier Capcom game Sweet Home. Shinji Mikami was initially commissioned to make a horror game set in a haunted mansion like Sweet Home.
GAMEPLAY
The player's character is a member of a special law enforcement task force who is trapped in a mansion populated by dangerous mutated creatures. The objective of the game is to uncover the mystery of the mansion and ultimately escape alive. The game's graphics consist of 3D polygonal characters and objects superimposed over pre-rendered backdrops with pre-determined (or "fixed") camera angles.
CHARACTERS
The player has a choice between Alpha team members Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine as the main character. Chris, the male hero, has greater firepower and can take more damage from enemies, while the heroine Jill has a greater carrying capacity, as well as a lockpicking tool that gives her earlier access to some of the mansion's areas.
DEVELOPMENT
The game was originally called Biohazard in Japan. However it was decided to change the name in the US and Europe after Chris Kramer, the Director of Communications at Capcom, pointed out that it would be impossible to trademark "Biohazard" in the US. Among others, another game and a band already were using the name. Capcom therefore decided to run a contest within its company to find a new name. They eventually settled on Resident Evil, since the game takes place in a mansion. Interviewed by GamesRadar, Chris Kramer said:
"I thought it was super-cheesy; can’t remember what I felt was a better alternative, probably something stupid about zombies - but the rest of the marketing crew loved it and were ultimately able to convince Capcom Japan and Mikami-san that the name fit."
Pokémon Stadium is an RPG-styled strategy game developed by Nintendo EAD with the assistance of Creatures and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released on April 30, 1999 in Japan, February 29, 2000 in North America, known in the United States and Europe as Pokémon Stadium the game itself is actually a sequel to a Japan-exclusive title released in 1998.
GAMEPLAY
Pokémon Stadium does not have a storyline. Progress in the game can only be made by winning "Cups" in the Stadium and completing the Gym Leader Castle. When all Cups have been won and the Gym Leader Castle completed, Mewtwo will appear in the sky over the Stadium. Defeating Mewtwo will unlock Round 2, in which the player must re-challenge the Stadium, Gym Leader Castle, and Mewtwo in order to complete the game.
STADIUM
Pokémon tournaments take place in the Stadium. There are four Cups to participate in. Players choose a team of six Pokémon, in any combination of pregenerated rental Pokémon and Pokémon imported from a Game Boy cartridge. Each round consists of eight three-on-three battles, and the Poké and Prime Cups consist of four rounds, named after Poké Balls, that must be cleared to win that Cup.
Mario Party (often referred to as "Mario Party 64") is a party video game for the Nintendo 64 game console, developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on December 14, 1998, followed by a North American release on February 8, 1999, and a European release on March 9, 1999.
It has been noted that for a short while upon the release of Mario Party 3, many video stores and some retailers had to conceal the "3" on the block Mario is hitting on the cover art due to lesser knowing people becoming misinformed and confused as to which game was which.
GAMEPLAY
Consisting of 50 mini games, Mario Party takes the form of a traditional board game, with players taking turns to roll the dice block and move ahead the number of spaces shown. There are many different types of spaces players can land on, each producing a different effect. The primary objective of the game is to collect more stars than any other player. The winner of the game is the player with the most stars after all the turns have been completed.
A secondary objective is to gather coins as well, for they are necessary for buying essential items such as stars and determine the game winner in the event of a tie. Coins are earned by landing on blue spaces or winning mini-games. Coins are lost by landing on red spaces, landing on a Bowser space, or losing certain mini-games.
At the end of each round of play (ie. after each of the four players have taken their turn) a random mini-game commences. The mini-games are generally short (about a minute in length), and fairly simple. There are 56 of them in total, divided into 4 different categories.
PLAYABLE CHARACTERS
Players can choose to play as either Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Peach, Wario, or Yoshi.
Sequels
The popularity of Mario Party has led to seven sequels: Mario Party 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8
Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. is an arcade-style baseball video game produced by Nintendo and developed by Angel Studios for the Nintendo 64 platform. It was released on May 25, 1998, and allows players to choose any contemporary Major League Baseball franchise and play through an exhibition, a complete season, or a World Series. Players can also choose any player from any team to compete in a Home Run Derby. The player can also select up to four individuals to play as in Home Run Derby. The game also featured all 30 MLB team's stadiums. The game was seen as a faster, more arcade-like baseball game compared to its rivaling product, the more realistic baseball simulation All-Star Baseball '99.
According to the game introduction, he prefers that he be called "Junior".
GAMEPLAY Batters: Batters and fielders abilities are measured with 5 different statistics: Batting, Power, Speed, Defense, and Arm. Batters use the analog stick to move a batting circle to where the pitch is shown to go before it reaches the plate. The batter then presses A to swing. If the batting circle is placed where the ball is thrown, and the swing is on time to when the pitch goes over the plate, the ball will be hit.
Pitchers: Every pitcher in the game has 4 pitches. The first pitch, which is used by pressing the A button, is always a fastball. The second pitch, a breaking ball, is thrown by pressing the B button. Pitches thrown with the B button include curveballs, sliders, and screwballs. The third pitch is the changeup, and is used by pressing the Z button and the A button simultaneously. The fourth and final pitch is the "special." Special pitches include the super fastball, super changeup, splitter, cut fastball, and knuckleball. The special pitch is used by pressing the Z and B buttons at the same time.
Other Features: Other features included in this game are injuries and real time fatigue, seen most clearly through pitchers. This is especially true if the pitcher uses their "special" pitch too often. Another feature in this game is the audio which Griffey personally composed. On it he played drums, keys, guitar, and funk bass. Griffey was said to be upset with the last few games soundtrack and felt that the bass just wasn't funky enough to do a good selling job.
Castlevania is an action-adventure video game developed by Konami's Kobe branch for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released on a 64-megabit cartridge in North America on January 26, 1999, in Japan on March 11, 1999, and in Europe on May 14, 1999. It is commonly dubbed "Castlevania 64" since it shares the same title with the original Castlevania video game.
Castlevania is the first 3D game in the Castlevania series. The player selects one of the games protagonists to control: Carrie Fernandez, a young orphan gifted with magic powers, or Reinhardt Schneider, the whip-wielding heir to the Belmont clan (the series' trademark protagonists). Carrie and Reinhardt set out on a quest to stop Count Dracula's impending return to power after a century of dormancy. The characters travel to and explore Dracula's grand estate in their mission to defeat the count and his hoard of undead minions.
GAMEPLAY
The cartridge does not have a built in save feature; all saved games are stored on a memory pack.
The heroes may also need to battle Renon, the Demon Salesman in his true form. This depends upon if thirty thousand gold or more is spent with Renon over the course of the game.
Difficulty settings
Castlevania has different settings to adjust the challenge posed by the game. In "Easy mode", the player will only be able to play until the end of the Castle Center level, at which time the game will ask them to try "Normal mode" to advance to the subsequent stages. Upon fulfilling certain conditions a 'hard mode' will be unlocked. In this mode enemies take more hits to defeat and subweapons require more jewel points to use (e.g. 2 jewel points for the knife instead of 1).
DEVELOPEMENT
While in development at Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe (KCEK), Castlevania was originally known as Dracula 3D early in development. United States news media referred to the game by this title as well as Dracula 64. When the English name was revealed to be simply Castlevania, fans and media alike nicknamed it Castlevania 64 to differentiate it from previous games bearing the same title.
The Villa's exterior is based on one of the façades of the French château d'Azay-le-Rideau. Dracula's castle was based on Mont Saint-Michel.
AUDIO
The music for Castlevania was composed by Masahiro Kimura, Motoaki Furukawa, and Mariko Egawa. Tomokuni Katayama performed the violin solo, a rendition of "Bloodlines" from Devil's Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, that greets the player on the title screen.
*Note* The images used in this game below were used from the websites listed in our links page. Characters pics by www.localditch.com and the Controller image from http://www.el33tonline.com..used without permission.
Nights into Dreams... (trademarked NiGHTS into Dreams...), is a video game released by Sega in 1996 for the Sega Saturn video game system. The game's story follows two children entering a dream world, where they are aided by the main character, Nights. Nights was developed by Sonic Team, with Yuji Naka as producer and lead programmer, and Naoto Oshima as director and designer of the character. The developers' intention was to make the sensation of flight the central gameplay element, achieved through 3D graphics and a combination of both 2D and 3D gameplay.
GAMEPLAY
Nights into Dreams... is split into seven levels or "Dreams", each divided further into four "Mares" and a boss battle. The levels are distributed equally between the two child characters; three are unique to Claris, three to Elliot, and each play through an identical final seventh level, "Twin Seeds".
In the Nights sections, the player flies around a particular linear route through the Mare. The gameplay as Nights is not completely 3D: players can only fly in the 2D plane of the screen, with their actual motion through the level determined by the automatic camera angle at that point in the Mare. The player has only a limited period available before Nights falls to the ground and turns back into Claris or Elliot, and each collision with an enemy subtracts five seconds from the time remaining.
CONTROLLER
Nights was introduced alongside an optional game controller, included with most copies of the game. This gamepad featured an analog stick, among the first on any game console (launching just after the release of the Nintendo 64, which featured an analog stick on its standard control peripheral, although the Atari 5200 preceded it by a decade). The stick, D-pad and shoulder triggers were located in an arrangement similar to that of Sega's later Dreamcast controller.
Characters & Enemies
Elliot Edwards:
Age: 15 - Elliot is a budding basketball player, enjoying a game with his friends one day. A group of older high school students arrive and challenge them to a game, causing Elliot to suffer a humiliating defeat on the court. That night, a nightmare replays the events, and Elliot runs blindly into the world of Nightopia, where he discovers the imprisoned Nights.
Claris Sinclair:
Age: 15 - A talented singer, Claris' ambition is to perform on stage. She auditions for a part in the events commemorating the centenary of the city of Twin Seeds. However, upon standing in front of the judges, she is overcome by stage fright and does not perform well.
Claris loses all hope of getting the role, and when she falls asleep that night, the evil spirits of Nightmare seize upon that fear, placing Claris in a nightmare version of the audition. Fleeing from the stage, she suddenly finds herself in a lush spring valley, with Nights calling to her.
Nights:
Age: 15 - Nights is a Nightmaren created by Wizeman to steal Red Ideya. Nights wears a purple jester style hat and outfit, with a red jewel shaped like a diamond on his chest. Nights' gender is purposely left ambiguous, although generally referred to as a male. Nights is not known to speak in the game, although he does make noise when he is injured. In the story, Nights betrays Wizeman and is sealed in the Ideya Palace until Elliot or Claris dualizes with him & get the Ideya back.
Silent Hill is a 1999 survival horror video game for the PlayStation. The first in a series about a mysterious town of the same name, Silent Hill generated a direct sequel, three indirect sequels, a prequel and a film adaptation.
The plot focuses on Harry Mason as he searches for his daughter, Cheryl, who has disappeared following a car accident which left Harry unconscious. He finds Silent Hill to be largely abandoned, shrouded in a thick fog, snowing out of season, filled with monsters and being over taken by a hellish otherworld. As Harry scours the town, he begins learning about the history of Silent Hill and stumbles upon a cult ritual undertaken to bring a God to Earth.
GAMEPLAY
The goal of the game is to safely guide the player character, Harry Mason, through the dilapidated town of Silent Hill in search of his lost daughter, Cheryl. A major threat to Harry's survival are the hostile creatures wandering along the streets and inside buildings, and poor visibility means that Harry will almost always be surrounded by thick fog or darkness.
Silent Hill is typically shown from a third-person perspective. In pre-scripted areas, the camera occasionally switches to other angles for dramatic or disorienting effect; this contrasts to older survival horror titles which used such camera angles throughout the entire game. Because Silent Hill does not feature a heads-up display, the player must check the game's menu to determine Harry's health.
DEVELOPMENT
The game had issues in passing censors before it could be released outside of Japan. The "Grey Child" monster went through between two and three design changes for the NTSC (North American) and PAL (European) releases, respectively, before it was finally approved by censors. Originally a faceless, humanoid monster which resembled a nude child, it was deemed too graphic for audiences, particularly in a game which forces the player to kill them, and so the NTSC edition of the game featured a modified version with larger body and altered head. In contrast, in the PAL release of Silent Hill, the Grey Child monsters do not appear at all, and were instead replaced by the "Mumbler" monsters that appear later in the NTSC game; however, near the end of the PAL game, the Grey Child monsters can still be seen as a transparent silhouette similar to the "Larval Stalkers".
MUSIC
The original soundtrack for Silent Hill, composed by Akira Yamaoka, was released in Japan on March 5, 1999 and its catalogue number is KICA-7950. Track 41, "Esperándote", was composed by Rika Muranaka.
*Note* The images used in this game below were used from the websites listed in our links page. Characters pics by www.goemon.info ..used without permission.
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is a video game released by Konami for the Nintendo 64 on August 7, 1997 in Japan and April 16, 1998 in North America as the fifth entry in the Ganbare Goemon series.
The story follows Goemon's struggles to prevent the Peach Mountain Shoguns gang from turning Japan into a fine arts theater. The plot calls for three cinematic musical features and battles between giant robots; like other Ganbare Goemon games, it's peppered with surrealist humor and anachronisms.
GAMEPLAY
Players navigate Goemon through forests, fields, dungeons, and other three-dimensional models of medieval Japanese places. Goemon and his friends can walk or run, jump, attack, and use special abilities to cross terrain, pick up money, and defeat adversaries. Players control only one of four characters at a time but can cycle through them with the press of a button.
CHARACTERS
Goemon:
The protagonist of Mystical Ninja, a hot-blooded, kiseru-wielding ninja with blue, bushy hair.
Ebisumaru:
A strange, gluttonous fat man who wears a blue bandana. Ebisumaru is defined as lazy and perverted.
Sasuke:
A kunai-throwing friend Sasuke is a mechanical ninja (made by the Wise Man of Iga) who enjoys hot baths and Japanese tea.
Yae:
A fierce sword-wielding kunoichi, who happens upon Goemon's band in Zazen Town.
DEVELOPMENT AND AUDIO Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon was first titled Ganbare Goemon 5, then Legend of the Mystical Ninja. The Japanese producers wished to break the series' numerical naming pattern to stress that Mystical Ninja differed from its forefathers. Originally made with a two-player mode, this feature was scrapped months before the Japanese release.
Mystical Ninja featured a cartridge size of 128 megabits, designed much larger than most of its peers and predecessor games to allow high quality musical numbers and voice samples. In total, there are three musical numbers-Theme of Ganbare Goemon, I Am Impact, and Gorgeous My Stage.
The song's main soundtrack is composed of a mix of traditional Japanese and modern instruments integrated in original arrangements. The dungeons feature minimalistic songs which grow in complexity and length as the player proceeds deeper into the lair. The soundtrack on whole is a collaborative effort by four composers
