MJ-12 Majestic Twelve appreciation thread

[Turrican]

The thread title wants to pay homage to the Tatsujin thread of course. Tatsujin gets love, why not MJ-12!

I think there's a story to tell here... Starting with Taito's going completely bonkers with the conspiracy-theory title, which makes this game the legitimate precursor of Hideo Kojima's MGS2 Sons of liberty.

I mean... You have the "Space Invaders" brand and you come up with "Majestic Twelve - The Space Invaders Part IV"... Really? And you pepper it with with an arcade flyer proudly boasting "Kennedy would be mortified!"... Words can't begin to describe how delightfully insane is that. Japanese humour at its best. So they're doing the revamp of the iconic flying saucer game, and they up the ante poking fun at UFO conspiracies and cattle abductions. How awesome is that?

Well apparently a little too much, and in fact the game was quickly rebranded with a more safe "Super Space Invaders '91" title. Was this a conversion kit or what? It isn't immediately clear. The game was out in Japan in November so it's entirely possible that changing to a more recognizable title for the new year's world release was planned from the beginning.

What's clear instead is that the world board makes several gameplay changes: stripped out of level select, it becomes a longer affair, and presents just a single ending instead of two like the Japanese rev.

MJ-12 was the first foray into gaming modernity for the SI franchise, featuring for the first time in the series not only branching paths and simultaneous 2p action, but also stage bosses. It is not the first SI featuring powerups however. If the arcade game chronology serves me right, in fact:

-March 1990: Space Invaders Fukkatsu no Hi (HuCard)

-September 1990: Space Invaders '90 (Sega Megadrive)

The MJ-12 coin-op (11/90) comes only third in this "nineties facelift" collective operation, something that seems often overlooked.

MJ-12, by now "SSI '91" was also a turning point in ports policy, as Taito seemingly lost interesting to develop ports in-house. Instead, it would be the british Domark to secure rights for home computer versions abroad, which would discard the year indication in the title, and becomes just "Super Space Invaders". Although Domark is a name that often sends a shiver to our spines, their developers (Kremlin) must have felt the pressure to work on such an historic franchise and produced at least a couple of valiant efforts, all considered. They must have also grasped the tongue in cheek nature of the game, because they came up with some quite british intro and endings that must be read to be believed...

[Turrican]

Regional differences between PCBs

Oh by the way, as this flyer clearly indicates, the game has a hidden faux 3-D challenging stage. I'm yet to understand if you can access it in both MJ-12 and SSI'91, or if it was excised from the world rev.

[Turrican]

Spot reserved - home computer ports

We might as well start with the spectrum one, which curiously has in its intro the credits for all the other Domark releases as well, as in a manifesto of sort. To get into the mood, this game doesn't have an "high score table" but rather lists "great splendid heads" Jolly good!

[BrianC]

There is also a US majestic twelve revision. If I remember correctly, Taito Legends 2 US PS2 uses this revision, which doesn't have a stage select.

[Turrican]

There is also a US majestic twelve revision. If I remember correctly, Taito Legends 2 US PS2 uses this revision, which doesn't have a stage select.

Yes! That definitely explains the marquees and the flyers from Taito America that you can see at klov.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I played this a lot in arcades as a kid, as Super Space Invaders '91 - so when I found out they'd ported it to the Master System I immediately got it (the child defintion of immediately meaning "at my next birthday"). It's a bit of a mashup of the arcade versions - you can either play stage select with the bonus rounds or all stages but no bonus rounds - which is a shame because the Super Space Invaders '91 we got in arcades was all stages with bonus rounds. Aside from that it's a faithful port - there are some obvious graphical simplifications, some waves have fewer enemies in them and the firing patterns are less dense. Most notable I guess is the final boss is absent but I suspect it's because they couldn't do it justice with the hardware. 2 player is intact though.

I'm guessing the title change was because Space Invaders was a recognised brand and the "Part IV" subtitle would probably read as a Star Wars spoof - given that I don't remember seeing anything in UK arcades between the original and this. Regular Space Invader cabinets were arcade mainstays throughout the 80s and into the 90s, in spite of much more modern games existing and being similarly priced per credit, so the brand was still strong.

As well as bosses, the most notable aspect for me is how well different patterns for enemy behaviour still fit the feel of the original game. Sure some of it is lifted from earlier fixed shooters (enemies diving towards you) but adding asteroids, and enemies multiplying, spinning, splitting down the middle etc. makes each stage feel like a progression beyond simply "new artwork" whilst still remaining faithful to the original concept. Bosses are a nice showpiece and are rationed well throughout the game. I don't think he difficulty is quite as well balanced as it should be - I'm not sure if you can make certain powerups drop on demand, but it has that Smash TV feel in places where if you don't get the right weapon drop you're going to have a bad time.

Side note: didn't realise Domark had a bad reputation. Perhaps this is because it's the difference between stuff developed by The Kremlin and other stuff they published? Domark's output on the SMS was well-regarded back in the day - the Desert Strike port is outstanding, for example.

[Mortificator]

Didn't Return of the Invaders also have power-ups?

I never realized that Majestic Twelve was released after Space Invaders 90 and Plus! With the common elements of this trio, I'd filed away the Genesis and PCE games as (much worse) arrangements of Part IV.

As for the arcade game, it's got pretty strong gameplay and very nice aesthetics. I like the use of the classic Invaders at the beginning and for the finale. The "cattle mutilation" stages go on a little too long and become tedious, though. And I think I would have liked it if the game had incorporated shields as more than an uncommon temporary power-up. I think of shields as something that sets apart Space Invaders from other fixed shooters... but of course, plenty of other entries in the series have gone without, like the Extreme games.

[Turrican]

I never realized that Majestic Twelve was released after Space Invaders 90 and Plus! With the common elements of this trio, I'd filed away the Genesis and PCE games as (much worse) arrangements of Part IV.

You know, I sorta remembered that you hadn't realized that. Incidentally, the official site in Japan has an history page where '90 is put after MJ-12, but I guess it's an inconsistence due to alphabetic sorting. Anyway the two are so close (September and November) that the development must have been simultaneous, although from entirely different division in Taito.

It's a bit of a mashup of the arcade versions - you can either play stage select with the bonus rounds or all stages but no bonus rounds - which is a shame because the Super Space Invaders '91 we got in arcades was all stages with bonus rounds. Aside from that it's a faithful port - there are some obvious graphical simplifications, some waves have fewer enemies in them and the firing patterns are less dense. Most notable I guess is the final boss is absent but I suspect it's because they couldn't do it justice with the hardware.

Indeed, that port is good and I think it benefitted to be one in a long line of attempts from the same team. They even made a pc compatible version supporting CGA graphics! If you look at the spectrum one, the similarities are striking, although luckily the SMS one is the "souped-up" version with all the bells and whistles...

EXCEPT, that, in a curse that reminds me of other Taito classics (Bubble / Rainbow / Newzealand above all else) the MJ-12 game seems to have its share of "secrets" that were never ported with justice. One of them is the last boss you mention. This last foe is fought automatically in the Super Space Invaders '91 International coin-op release: and is also dutifully ported in the 16bit Domark ports.

In the original MJ-12 coin op though, that boss isn't met at the end of the first loop. The Japanese rev has two different endings and guess what, although I found a video of players reaching the second ending (thus fighting that second boss) I still haven't figured out how to do that.

(By this, I don't mean to imply that the second boss is present in the SMS port: they probably ditched the whole secret quest thing altogether.)

The other secret is the special 3D view stage a la Night Striker, which I haven't witnessed personally nor in video, and supposedly triggers with good scoring and fast clearing of stages. It'd be interesting to understand if this challenging stage is present only in MJ-12 or also in SSI'91.

[Mortificator]

Here's that pseudo-3D stage in video, at least, though without a solid indicator of what triggered it.

[BrianC]

I like how the Invincible collection has both MJ12 JP and SSI '91.

There were a coulple of earlier SI games that had 2p simultaneous gameplay, but they weren't made my taito themselves. The Atari 2600 SI and Midway's Space Invaders II (not to be confused with Space Invaders Deluxe/Part II) come to mind. I find it interesting that both SSI91 and MJ12 have an option for alternating or simultaneous 2p gameplay.

[Turrican]

I find it grating that information on old games is so hard to come by in this day and age.

Mortificator, that video you posted comes from the PSP "Pocket" compilation. I hope when more people have access to these thanks to the switch, someone may shed a light on this.

I think I prefer the Japanese branching paths to the "get to see all from beginning to end" of the localised version.

[EmperorIng]

Gotta hand it to this thread for making me want to take a second look at Majestic 12. I had written it off as yet-another-space-invaders game - and since the graphics initially looked identical to the MD/PCE versions in a way, I thought by playing those I had got everything out of it. But looking through some of the links here make it seem to be weird and unique enough to give it a chance. Throwing in unique boss fights is always a big plus in my book.

Music sounds like Raimais which is cool too.

[Turrican]

Huh, I just checked my manual of the Sega master system version and it says "...watch out for hidden stages!" Are they just bragging it, or will the port really contain some elusive hidden stage???

[dark]

I had the gamegear port. It was pretty good but the invaders and your gunner are TINY on the little screen! I was overjoyed when I found it this was actually a port of an arcade game and could be played with a greater resolution on a bigger screen.