Virtual Console Reviews

well at least square has decided to enter the virtual console ring now. maybe now we'll see some better known square games even if they still refuse to give us their top titles.

THIS is a Square Soft game? o.O

A square game? Hopefully that means Super Mario RPG is almost here.

did you all forget about Act Raiser??

i remember this game as a kid. even in the late 80s, or whenever it was that i got it, it was being sold in discount bins (this and that other square nes pre ff racing game that kinda sucked as well)... still, the video makes it look more fun than i remember. maybe i was just coparing it to ff at the time i guess?

WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA! a SQUARESOFT game? This is the greatest news ever!!!! I wonder how the game is like....

The first real Square game Hanjuku Hero is being released on the Japanese VC on 30th October 2007.

King's Knight might be the second Square game.

PS: Actraiser originally was not a Square game. It's from Enix/Quintet.

This game seems pretty ridiculous, I mean the player is a knight that destroys not only enemies, but the entire scenery with his lance. Just think about that!
I'm going off what I saw in the video clip, I've never played it.

Doesn't look very good to me... not judging from the video at least... but I've never been much for shoot 'em ups... The only square game I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing here is Chrono Trigger though... but I'm sure Square won't let us have that one...

Wow, this is so cool. I didn't even know Square made games like these in their early days.

Its so cute!

Just look at the cute little animated knight! XD

and it has a dragon guy in it too! SO ADORABLE!

Don't be fooled, this game was buried and forgotten for good reason. It's hard, it looks like crap, and there is no story either. This game blows!

I remember this game. For today's standards, this hasn't aged well at all.

If only they'd give us Chrono Trigger...

SKTTR - but Square now own the rights to Actraiser...so they will have had a say in the VC release. Hopefully this means more Square games might appear in the future!

No thanks. I would much rather have Chrono trigger or Final fantasy 6. Please Square????

I've never played this, but it looks unique for a top down vertical shooting scroller to me. I may not get it, but at least Square is giving NA a new game on Monday.

Is it going to be one a year from Square-Enix?

I still have the cartridge for this one; picked it up at a thrift store one day, when I saw the 'Square' label. Hoping to discover a lost RPG gem, what I got was oversimple, and hella boring. It's kind of like Space Harrier, if it sucked. Choosing different players kind of superficially changes what's happening in front of you (look of the level, character sprite, weapon sprite), but doesn't offer any ACTUAL change; Characters are essentially identical, with no distinct abilities or changes in the weapon behavior. Also, there are no weapon pick ups or, really anything to break up the monotony. Plus, every time I turn this bitch on, I start on a different level. What the hell is that? Not worth 500 points.

He he he, if you (US) don´t buy this, Square will NEVER release our precious Mario RPG:s and Chrono Triggers!

Sounds like a pretty tragic debut for Square-developed games on VC.

I don't know what your all bitching about. This game represents exactly what is lacking in games today... experimentation & imagination. Square took a risk and tried something a little different and it didn't quite work out. I personally quite like this game (After reading the review I played it on my dreamcast nes emulator) and I could name piles of nes games that sucked more. (but I won't) You know what? I'm going to download it, just to spite all of you whiners who hate it simply because its not ff. Ps. Final Fantasy sucks anyway...

Oh, you're only saying that because you live in Australia.

@Quimby - I've never been to Australia, so I could be off - base here...you DO have some sort of freedom of speech, right? Aren't you being a little harsh on ppl for expressing disappointment in a game release? After all, this is a place for opinions, right? I'm an old-school Square fan (not so much in recent years), and I have to say the this release seems to come out of no where, and with little cause.

As for your point regard fresh ideas, and concepts...that's all well and good if it actually works. I applaud Square for trying something new, but when that experiment fails you don't try to ram it down unsuspecting fans throats to milk a sub-standard game for a few more dollars. You file it awaiy and you take with you what worked. As a corporation they can't be blamed for trying to make a buck. To my mind, though, they've just given me one more reason to tell them to collectively go suck it.

@Quimby - I've never been to Australia, so I could be off - base here...you DO have some sort of freedom of speech, right? Aren't you being a little harsh on ppl for expressing disappointment in a game release? After all, this is a place for opinions, right? I'm an old-school Square fan (not so much in recent years), and I have to say the this release seems to come out of no where, and with little cause. I have the cart, which I picked up for $ .50 at a garage sale a few years ago. It kinda stinks.

As for your point regarding fresh ideas, and concepts...that's all well and good if it actually works. I applaud Square for trying something new, but when that experiment fails you don't try to ram it down unsuspecting fans throats to milk a sub-standard game for a few more dollars. You file it away and you take with you what worked. As a corporation they can't be blamed for trying to make a buck. To my mind, though, they've just given me one more reason to tell them to collectively go suck it. This isn't about it not being Final Fantasy. It's about the game stinkin' it up.

@Quimby - I've never been to Australia, so I could be off - base here...you DO have some sort of freedom of speech, right? Aren't you being a little harsh on ppl for expressing disappointment in a game release? After all, this is a place for opinions, right? I'm an old-school Square fan (not so much in recent years), and I have to say the this release seems to come out of no where, and with little cause. I have the cart, which I picked up for $ .50 at a garage sale a few years ago. It kinda stinks.

As for your point regarding fresh ideas, and concepts...that's all well and good if it actually works. I applaud Square for trying something new, but when that experiment fails you don't try to ram it down unsuspecting fans throats to milk a sub-standard game for a few more dollars. You file it away and you take with you what worked. As a corporation they can't be blamed for trying to make a buck. To my mind, though, they've just given me one more reason to tell them to collectively go suck it. This isn't about it not being Final Fantasy. It's about the game stinkin' it up.

@Quimby - I will give you the final point, though - most of the recent takes on FF do kinda rot.

looks easy

@ manicfatty lol. No, we don't have freedom of speech here technically, as we are still under Queens rule. As for me being harsh, (If the word whiners is a bit harsh I could use wankers lol) it just irks me that people slam games like this because of the fact that the producers made a 'better' (sic) game at some point. If I didn't have my dreamcast (yay!) with my emulators, I would never have played this game due to the reviews. I have become quite addicted to this game now and will download it on it's euro release. IMO this game is exactly what the VC is for - An obscure and enjoyable (if only cheap fun) little piece of gaming history. It is a breath of fresh arse in a medium crammed full of stale, old, and tired space shooters and drab, bog standard platformers.

Long live Rayjack! oh, wait no, he's dead.

@ Quimby - My Dreamcast is one of my prize gaming possessions. It's neither rare, nor particularly sought after but since I purchased it (midnight the day of it's release), it has, pound for pound, given me more gaming joy than any other system I own. I have seen the emulator you speak of as well as a master system version for the DC. I've never used it on my own, but I've played it on others. Go home-brew!

I understand your point, and I love quirky gems. I have some guilty pleasures of my own...scary ones (can you say 'Ronald Mc Donald'? Yes...I enjoy it even if it's nowhere near Treasure's normal quality!) I enjoy Psycho Fox, and his American cousin Chuck D Head. Not SEGA's shining moments, but different and fun. I too believe that the VC is the perfect vehicle for lesser or unknown gems and should be immediately filled with imports that everyone knows would do well here, but do to money, politics, or licenses didn't see western releases.

Heh...wankers...

Quimby - You want quirky and obscure? Try Super Tempo for the Saturn...or Silhouette Mirage in it's pure Saturn goodness.

It would be a lot better if you didn't have rocket skates on your shoes that constantly propel you forward... I don't think this game is a 1/5 though. It's enjoyable to a certain demographic.

Quimby - you don't have freedom of speech because you're under the Queen's rule? WTF?

Last time I check us Brits were allowed to say what we wanted, and I can't imagine it's any different 'down under'...

Question v1.0: Why ze f**** does it still say "Action Adventure" on the packaging if it's actually shmup?

Question v1.1: Is it coming to europe, and when, so I can avoid it?

Question v1.3:Why is everybody comlaining this ain't ff or ct?

To your info: the first three ff's(maybe even every one before VI) sucked by modern standards! There were no graphics, the music in ff1 through3 loops after 20 seconds and the battlesystem was so pre-historic it becomes rock-hard, petrified so to say... I prefere at least the 16bit standards of the remakes, not for the Graphics, but for the whole fun, such as having text boxes more than 4-6 words long: "light warriors, save the princess!" oh please. To me RPGing is about story. Sadly, this is something early NES games lacked in theyr translations, simply because you couldn't fit all the words in the same place that was originally used by whole novels in japanese.

So... you all out there know that the GBA cartridges of ff1&2, 4,5 and 6 do fit in your DS or your NGC's GameboyPlayer as well? That your PSX remakes can be played on PS2 and PS3? That just this year ff1&2 have been released as "anniversary edition" for your PSP? If you only own MS-consoles... why do you bother games like mid-80's ff? Go play mass effect...

As for real pearls like Crono Trigger, Secret Of Mana, Secret Of Evermore etc... I still do know a few guy who would actually buy a Wii just to dl these if they were out, but no matter how often I repeat it, neither Nintendo nor Squarenix listen... °-°

@ Damo - Yes you can basically say anything you like, but my point is that if the goverment wanted to, they could censor you. Unlike USA we have no constitutional right to free speech. Luckily our respective goverments are pretty easy going now compared to say 200 years ago.
@manicfatty - Dreamcast rocks all over any other console of its generation, mainly because of it's lack of piracy protection. The homebrew scene is brilliant and for the price of a CD-R, Beats of Rage? Yes Please btw Ronald McDonalds Global Gladiators holds many fond memories for me (I think I'll go play it now on my DC MD emu lol) although like many games from that era, it is very dated. (Umm. Kings knight is starting to wear thin now, but I will still dl it when it comes Euroside.)

@Quimby - The Queen just phoned to ask me to tell you to stop the off topic discussion!

VC Forums is your friend.

Lol Dazza - righto mate, points been made Kings night isn't for everyone, but it's an interesting, quirky, but slightly broken game.

This looks a lot like the old Konami game Knightmare for the MSX system. Also Actraiser was developed by a group called Quintet (who also did the soul blazer trilogy) who are no longer around, god bless them!

This game is horrible, the last stage is very difficult, borderline impossible. A total waste of money, I don't recommend it at all.

Played it through an emulator for 30 seconds. Excessively hard, and not on par with Square's normal games.

Slionr: Don't expect Final Fantasy 6 to appear on VC until the GBA port stops selling. Chrono Trigger however, might have a chance...

But Final Fantasy has stopped selling on GBA so where is the NES version?

Nostalgia. Enjoyed it a lot when I was younger, more so than the other shmups I had at the time -- it looked great and the music was really catchy. Never could beat it though, since I couldn't figure out what to do on the final stage.

Nostalgia. Enjoyed it a lot when I was younger, more so than the other shmups I had at the time -- it looked great and the music was really catchy. Never could beat it though, since I couldn't figure out what to do on the final stage.