Before John Wick had his dog, there was Shadow Dancer . Released in 1989 as the true arcade sequel to Sega ’s legendary " Shinobi ," Shadow Dancer changed the game by giving the player a lethal canine companion . But why is this masterpiece often overshadowed by its predecessor? In today’s video, we take a deep dive into the history of Shadow Dancer. From its technical roots on the Sega System 18 board to the iconic Mission 2 train sequence , we explore what made this ninja-action game a standout in the golden age of arcades . We’ll break down: • The Dog Mechanic : How the German Shepherd changed the tactical flow of Shinobi’s gameplay. • The Missions: A tour from the Airport terminal to the Space Shuttle launch . • The Locomotive Boss : A detailed look at the legendary Level 2-4 train fight . • The Soundtrack Debate : Why many fans believe the Amiga port actually sounds better than the Arcade original. • The Console Remakes : The massive differences between the Arcade v...
The Game Over Controversy [1987, multiple 8 bit systems] - It's a Pixel THING - Ep.#58
Luis Royo
is a Spanish artist, responsible for many astonishing fantasy illustrations
published in so many media formats that range from art books and magazines all
through music CD covers and video games.
So, in 1987
and in that last area, Dinamic Software hired Royo to create the artwork for
their latest title that was about to be released: Game Over.
Adverts on
magazines, not only in Spain but also in France and the United Kingdom, was all
around and, in this last country, the drawing had a huge negative impact
because of the offending portrayal of this awesomely gorgeous girl that was
showing more than it would be probably allowed. The game was being published by
Imagine Software and it caused a huge controversial wave of negative feedback
that also helped selling the game!
Game Over
is an amazing action run and gun platformer by Ignácio Ruiz, also know as
“Snatcho”, where we play as Arkos, a mega Terminator once faithful to the
beautiful and evil Princess Gremla, yes, that one! Our mission is to kill her
and put an end to her cruel and oppressive leadership. To do that, we need to
fight our way through this linear prison planet called Hypsis engaging these
hordes of enemies and reach the end where a ship will transport us to the next
planet.
Once
arrived into this new world, the planet Sckunn, the challenge is bigger and not
as linear as the first one. Gladly, instead of grenades, we managed to get a
giant laser which destroys all that crosses our path. Unfortunately this laser
is limited. We can only use it twenty five times.
Planet
Sckunn is divided into two stages: the Forest and the Palace. We must be very
careful not to drown in the first one, so we must avoid the lakes at all costs.
Once arrived in the Palace, there are elevators that takes us, you guessed it,
to different floors. Be aware of mines that are scattered around the palace and
will obviously explode when touched!
But, before
we slain the evil Princess, let’s take a deeper look into her controversial
portrait. That original artwork appeared, 3 years earlier, on a cover of Heavy
Metal, an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine that is around since
April of 1977. Because of its “adult illustrated fantasy” content, there was
never any type of fuss around its covers’ possible visual disturbance. But,
when that same drawing ended up on an inlay of a ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX
and Commodore 64 video game, intended for kids, and with Imagine’s quality
seal, the negative impact was huge! Nonetheless, it also helped to sell lots of
copies!
Something
had to be done quickly to reduce that negative impact that Game Over’s cover
made in the United Kingdom, even after a huge poster had been offered to the
readers of issue 21 of Your Sinclair magazine. That meant that almost every
bedroom in UK had a Game Over poster with Princess Gremla in all her glory!
Retailers
demanded that cassette and disk inlays started being printed with Dinamic’s
logo on top of the offending nipple and, as well in some covers with a
screenshot of the game itself. At the same time, art editor of Crash Magazine,
Oli Frey, was working over the original Luis Royo artwork placing a kind of
steel plate putting an end to the controversy.. kind of.
Game Over
ended up winning the award for best advert and best video game cover of the
year by readers of Crash Magazine.
The game
was also available for DOS, but only in Spain. This port was developed by Pedro
Sudón and has graphics taken directly from the ZX Spectrum version.
I’ll soon
be covering with more detail this topic about video game cover art from mid-eighties
to early nineties that was, for me, the most incredible and competitive Era
with so many great artists leaving their mark in the video game industry.
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