Metroid (Disk System)

Metroid for the Famicom Disk System in 1986 by Nintendo

Playing with Bat Power

 

It's been 30 years and I'm still not over Batmania. To this day, it's still my favorite era of Batman. One of the best flavors of it's time was the 8 and 16 bit video games. I love a good action platformer and they certainly were. The doom and gloom of the Tim Burton movies matched up with the game play to create something special. I still enjoy going through the motions and playing them. Jump, punch, and throw a dirk at one of Joker's gang.

Fighting the Quantum via Kabuki

 

Unfortunately, not everything works out. Case in point- Kabuki Quantum Fighter (Jigoku Gokurakumaru in Japan). Clearly HAL and Nintendo planned to make this a series. You've got a very recognizable hero who says "I'll be back. Watch for my new adventure." in the end credits. Not to mention a premise that lends itself to those future adventures. Our hero, Colonel Scott O'Connor, whose transferred his brain into the main defense computer system to fight a rouge program. Of course that rouge program resents itself as various monsters and other bad guy types for our hero to fight. As a computer program, Scott's self image is a kabuki as he is the descendant of a kabuki actor.

The Japanese version is a little different. Instead, the game is a tie in to the movie Zipang with a boy named Bobby entering a computer system. Inside the system he's a samurai. The setting got switched up a little to make Quantum Fighter. It's a solid premise, not too unlike Gridman. I do wish they'd made more as it's a good game as well. I was just replaying and having just as much fun as ever. It's an action platformer, which is a favorite type of mine. Scott uses his hair as a melee weapon and various projectile/bomb attacks are obtained as you progress. It's a weird and fun sci fi setting with some scary visuals mixed in. Unfortunately it's also been 30 years since the release and no sequel. I'd love a figure of Scott, unofficial or not. I'd love a new game as well, but at least the original is still fun when revisiting.