I'm glad you tuned in again. Welcome back to the Endzeit.
Have no fear, we are not so desperate, that we have to declare a Katamari Damacy as a Hidden Gem.
But it's about the studio that's behind that great game.
And this is not directly Namco.
The actual studio behind it is called NOW PRODUCTION.
They also did a Splatterhouse for big children,
and Splatterhouse for little children.
Rolling Thunder 2 and 3.
Almost every PC-Engine port of a Namco game.
Or Klonoa for the GBA.
Most of the time really good games.
Today we will have a look at a few a Games from them, that are not so well known.
The first Game from NOW PRO we will have a closer eye on is in Japan known as Tabemon.
In the west it is called The Munchables.
And it's basically the successor of Katamari and Pac Man.
It's really a fine Game, and a shame that it's not known better.
License Trash is approaching fast!
Also published by Activison. God have mercy on our soul!
Fortunately NOW PRO had here also a finger in the pie.
Transformers Prime for the Wii U is a well made Action Game.
And the last game for today is called Ikusagami,
published by Genki, and it's a Muso/Dynasty Warrior clone,
with a touch of Pikmin.
Allow me to tell you this much,
From a technical standpoint this one of the most impressive PS2 Games i know.
Then let's get started! ＼( ◠‿◠ )／
Our first Now Production game for today is even published by Namco.
But it's a shame that almost nobody remembered it today.
Also back then, it made no big bang when it was released for the Wii.
Crazy Shit! The intro shows rougly where the journey with the Munchables will take us.
In Japan it's is known as Tabemon.
And like Pokemon, It's a mixture of two words.
But with the difference that there are no Pocket Monster.
Tabe means EAT, so we are dealing with Eat-Monsters.
Disgusting, evil Aliens have taken all fruits, vegetable, sweets, all eatable,
obsessed and awakened to life. And now it's your job to take the law in your own hands.
To take back your home with your biggest weapon. You're appetite!
But thats easier said then done.
Cause you can only eat enemies that are lower or equal to your own level.
But you easily gain levels if you swallow more enemies, and you grow bigger and bigger.
Mmmhh? This formula sounds familiar?
Yep, this may be possible.
Tabemon is not the reinvention of the wheel.
But it's a beautiful mashup of two well known Namco games.
Who was Namcos biggest eater before Tabemon?
That's easy. Of coure it's Pac Man,
and if you eat more and more, and you grow bigger and bigger,
and you can only enemies kill that have the same level like you?
Of course, we now this exactly from Katamari Damacy.
Generally, the whole style from Tabemon is very, very much based on Katamari.
And by that i don't mean only the visual style. Also the music could just be from a not published Katamari.
Gameplay and leveldesign-wise it doesn't stop there, and also offers even more then Katamari.
Cause every of the 7, or was it 9 Levels, which each is split in 3 Stages,
is very rich in variety. And also each world has a special gimmick.
For a example, in this ghost mansion you have to find different keys like in Biohazard/Resident Evil.
And explore the whole level for secret passages.
Like the secret exit in this well, where another key is hidden.
Or before that in the underwater stage, you can only advance if you submerge with a heavy object.
Like an anchor. Till you finally reach the bottom of the sea.
Or check out the sweets factory.
It is a labyrinth with many switches , and platform elements.
They put a lot of effort into it.
What's interesting about the release back in 2009 for the Wii is,
in the same year did Keita Takahashi, the creator from Katamari Damacy made his own new game.
Noby Noby Boy for the PS3.
Which was hyped back then, as the true spiritual successor of Katamari.
But let's be honest, Noby Noby Boy wasn't a good game.
A game like Tabemon shows once more, you don't need a big name like Kojima to make a fantastic game
The Boss fights push the survival of the fittest gameplay to the top.
Just like here with our buddy Broco-Lee. You always start at Level 100,
but of course, the bosses are much bigger, and you can't swallow them wholely.
You have to tackle them at the right spot, and they start to loose there leaves and fruits.
If you eat the parts you grow bigger, till you can after all swallow the whole boss.
Pure genius!
To all you Wii-Haters with a Motion-Controll-Phobia, don't panic.
You can use any Classic Controller.
3 Buttons Arcade gameplay. Splendid.
The only thing bad i have to say about Tabemon,
is after the credits i realized that in 2017 and all the years before that,
was not a single game what points in this corner.
And by that, i don't mean that i want to stag up things an want to become bigger and bigger.
No! I mean these ridiculous funny and colorful games from Japan!
Space Channel 5, Parodius, PC-Genjin/Bonk
Games that shine from start to finish. Indie and Arcade Games can't achieve that.
With the focus to loot-boxes and random generated levels they destroy things i like.
For that reason:
TABEMON! GET IT! GREAT GAME!
Wicked! As far as i know this may be the only Now Production Game with it's own logo.
Well ... published by Activision. May god help us ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ.
It may look like the biggest piece of license crap,
but if a good developer stays behind that this could be actual good.
And you may know by now that i have a sweet spot for license game that are better than the first glance.
It's all about Transformers Prime for the Wuu and Wii.
And by the way, that's the first game i grabbing via HDMI.
As so often, i don't have much background knowledge about the franchise itself.
But the production value is not too shabby.
This feels like watching a Saturday morning cartoon.
Of course this is not for what we are here today,
all we want is a plain simple fan Action Game without much frills.
And in this department Transformers Prime does a good job.
At the core it is a 3D Brawler.
I don't want to go out on a limb, but gameplay wise it reminds me a little on God Hand.
You can do a little of exploring in a level, here and there is a item hidden.
But most of the time you smash enemies.
Every few stages there is a racing level for a change.
Which looks very promising at first glance. Fast paced, and you can shoot things like in Chase HQ.
But ...
I have to warn you, what they really messed up here are the controls.
On the Wii U you can only steer with the Gamepad's 3 axis motion controls.
The good thing is it's not too hard, but it feels like a waste of potential.
In every other normal level you have also the ability to transform into a vehicle.
It's the same as a dash move, and it works really well.
I haven't played Transformers Devastation from Platinum Games yet,
it was released after this,
but i reckon that they have this in common.
If i compare it with all the others Platinum Games that i know really well,
this plays more on the leisurely side.
If i relate it to the action and combos.
Don't get me wrong, i don't mean that negatively.
Firstly there are a lot of Transformers you can play, with different combos, and weapons.
If i have to compare this with a 16-Bit Mega Drive Game,
this would be something like Dick Tracy or Moonwalker.
Games that were mocked from the start, but didn't make too much wrong.
Here and there you can't overlook that there is some room fore improvement.
This canyon levels looks very familiar like the other before.
The level design and the enemies are new, but they just use the same assets at night.
There is noway you can't overlook the recycling.
The half-baked 4 Player Versus Mode doesn't excuse this either.
It is nice that you can unlock all the Decepticons, and also fly around with Star Scream.
Sadly there is only a 2 Player couch-co-op split screen mode available.
Gameplay wise we don't reach Power Stone regions.
The boss fights feel unusual for game like this.
Cause the Decepticons have almost the same move set like you.
It feels more like a Street Fighter or Tekken, in which you to counter and block a lot.
And use the mistakes of your enemies against them.
Nevertheless, or maybe because of that,
sometimes you don't want to get back into the complexity of a Vanquish or Ninja Gaiden.
Especially in between times it is a nice little solid game.
Especially for guys like us, who know "EVERYTHING" already ヽ(´～｀；）
I can tell you already that much, Ikusagami as a game can step up to this quite nice intro.
It's hard to believe, but Ikusagami was published exclusively in Europe as Demon Chaos by Konami.
Now Production tries here vor the first time to make a Dynasty Warriors clone.
One against many! And by many i mean MANY!
I haven't the slightest clue how the achieved this on PS2
Even on the current generation of consoles, like PS4 or Xbox-One,
i don't know of a single Action Game where happens more stuff!
To put it simple,
It is beyond amazing what tricks they use to perform magic like this on the screen.
You don't slay through groups of 100 or 200 enemies like usual.
The body count counter don't lie!
Here you have slain in 20 seconds over a 1000 enemies! And there are still a lot of them standing foes around.
Capcom promoted Dead Rising 3 or 4 that you can fight against 20000 Zombies at the same time.
Her you can fight against 65.000!
That's INSANE! And this runs on a old flea-bitten PS2.
You just have look at all the ant-like red dots on the map.
It's very convenient that you can zoom out with one of the shoulder buttons.
Without that you can't cover much of your surroundings. The english title Demon Chaos is very fitting.
All hell breaks loose!
2000, 3000 kills. Will anyone offers more?
What's neat about Ikusagami, it don't rely completely on the chaos action.
It also tries to mix in a tactical element.
Now Productions borrows the tactical concept from another game.
In a way it resembles Pikmin.
In the battle field you have to rely on yourself, the opposite of Pikmin.
The allied armies are used to tear down doors,
or crystals witch spawn demons indefinitely like gates in Gauntlet.
You can't destroy such crystals or gates alone at all. You have to depend here on the allies.
One very important key gameplay element are these pillars.
For example, i just created a fire pillar here.
With one of these your friendlies are destroying any obstacle much faster.
Also you can fill up your special energy gauge here.
To be honest i didn't get this system at all with my JP version, so i checked out the PAL version.
Sadly it was 50hz only,
I tried to patch the PAL version to 60hz, but after that all the cutscenes had green artifacts (¬д¬)
Stay with the Japanese!
Just like the the big Koei role model,
there are tons of new weapons hidden in chests and breakable vases in every stage.
To be precise, there are 99 weapons you can get.
You don't have to fight all the way with your sword. There axes, hammer, or dual wielding weapons.
With these you also have new special moves, and your stats changes as well.
There is much to get long-term motivation-wise.
The biggest flaw is,
so innovativ and cool the Pikmin strategy part sounds like, it is not well implemented in the later stages.
The game flow suffers a lot.
It's because of your units. You can press L2 so they case you,
you can also give them simple commands, so they go to the next crystal,
but they are so incredible slow! Just look at them ...
This is no fun at all. You could slaughter 2000 foes instead.
Most of the levels are wide open for a strategic approach.
Here you have to take care of a back attack, while your troops guarding a general.
But in the end it doesn't work as you planned,
in the end you have to make the dirty work too, and guard everything by yourself.
A pity.
What also sucks is the AI. You can't expect that 2000 enemies attack individually at once.
But you can ask more for a mid or boss monster.
The boss here just attacks my units while i hit him defenseless in the back, till he dies.
This could be more fun.
Unfortunately, I can not give you a real buy recommendation for Ikusagami.
The combos are to monotonous,
the bosses are dumb as a brick,
and the Pikmin strategy element works not as well has you would wished for.
Even so, it is still damn impressive what Now Production here as a not so well know developer
marvelous made on an underpowered almost 20 years old console.
Who is tired of all the Dynasty Warriors Games, with all their Anime spinoffs,
will find something fun here.
Until the next time:
HARDCORE TO THE CORE! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
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