12Sep03 (Monthenor): The word of the week is Cocoron. My cousin clued me in
to this hidden NES gem a couple days ago, but was
ambiguous about what it actually was. I picked it up and was instantly assaulted
by the most hideous background ever. The game picked up
after that, though. The closest analogue I could come up with is early Mega Man (I've
also heard comparisons to Little Nemo). But get this: you get to build your own
character, and it actually has an effect on gameplay! Like, if you put a heavy robot
head on tank treads and give it the shruiken weapon, you'll have a super-armored
beatdown character. If you put a ghost head on a dragon body with a baseball weapon,
it's a super-light flying character. And if you put a pumpkin head on the spring body
and give it a parasol, you get...UGLY. I would recommend getting the Japanese version of the game, actually. None
of the plot text is important, and the game text is easily figured out. Since the plot
is so weak, the fun comes when you make your own plot to go with your characters. My
poor UGLY (?-?-parasol) was just searching for acceptance in a hostile world. He
struck something approximating fear into his enemies' hearts with his battle cry of
"I'm a pretty lady!" He's...a little slow. His friend FYGR (ghost-wing-baseball) was
searching for another flame-headed dragon to mate with. I even had a character that
looked a lot like Cyborg
009 (hero-cyborg-shruiken), and he just did a lot of whining. Also, my cousin and I spent about an hour yesterday discussing the merits of
various body combinations...and by his own admission he's "a terrible
gamer". Everybody likes making a team of heros. Joy!
13Sep03 (Monthenor): Do you watch Adult
Swim? If so, you might understand where
I'm coming from with this. I posted that link in the official AS Merchandise
Request thread, and if I don't hear anything within two weeks I'll probably throw it in
our own store. All hail the Ellipse tool!
