Two shmup-worthy articles in issue #220 Oct. '07 of EGM

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I just got my latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly yesterday, 8/30/07, issue #220 of the October 2007 EGM to be exact.

Yep, it's the infamous USA video game "paper-rag" magazine that everyone likes to use as toilet paper for wiping their asses with (yeah, some pissed off American folks who think that they have the "upper hand" when dealing with the IRS have even resorted to using their official 1040 tax payment forms as "toilet paper" to wipe their ass with and mailing it in to them -- the IRS politely sends it back to them in the same condition with no replacement papers ever -- fuck around with the IRS and get yourself fucked "big time" playing that stupid "little" game...true story here, folks).

EGM is noted for their inane commentary about the world of console gaming and the occasional excursionary article delving into the world of arcade coin-op games (which isn't very often these days). ^_~

Anyways, on page 28, there's a 3/4 full-color spread discussing Konami's arcade shmup title of "Otomedius" -- here's the article presented in it's entirety:

> Foreign Object / Japan

Otomedius

Girls and shoot-em-up? Sign us up!

Platform: Arcade

Likelihood it'll come here: The same chance that arcades have of making a comeback here (refering to the current stagnant U.S. arcade scene, my opinion here). Zero.


Article is as follows --

------------------------------------------
Oh, great, another girl game.
Well, not quite. Yes, these cutesy
illustrations seems to suggest
yet another goofball dating sim
from our friends in Japan, one
where you're no doubt defend-
ing Earth from aliens while getting
into the skintight flight suits of all
your female pilots. But no, this is
a shooting game -- a horizontal
blast-em-up from Konami, a com-
pany whose very roots lie in this
almost-forgotten genre. The title's
a combination of Gradius and
otome (Japanese for "young girl"
or "maiden"), and that describes
the game nicely, too -- controlling
one of these chick-ship hybrids,
you shoot at aliens, pick up power
capsules, and manuever around a
million flying bullets without having
a seizure.

Who the heck thought up this
wacky idea? It's all on Takashi
Hamano, game designer at Konami
and producer of the Beatmania
series. "I aimed to make a modern
shooting game, but still have it be
what you expect from Konami,"
he said to Japanese website "Game
Watch". And he may have hit the
nail on the head -- in addition to
the crazy designs, Otomedius also
runs on a giant germ-ridden touch
screen, allowing you to lock on to
enemies with your fingers. Or, uh,
other pervert-approved parts....
----------------------------------------

The second shmup-related article is found on page 69 of this month's EGM issue #220 October 2007:

"Sleeper Hit"

Everyday Shooter

PS3 * Sony Computer Entertainment America * Fall 2007

If we told you "Everyday Shooter's" development team consisted of one person, you'd think it's total crap. If we told you that this one person, Jonathan Mak, got the game up and running on the "complex" PS3 in only three days, you'd probably think there wasn't much to the game. And you'd be wrong on both counts. This downloadable gem features Geometry Wars-like shooting (yet requires a bit more strategy when stringing together combos) with techno tunes that give us "Rez" (for the PS2) flashbacks.

-----------------------------------------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Rob]

everyone likes to use as toilet paper for wiping their asses with

Oh...

(yeah, some pissed off American folks who think that they have the "upper hand" when dealing with the IRS have even resorted to using their official 1040 tax payment forms as "toilet paper" to wipe their ass with and mailing it in to them -- the IRS politely sends it back to them in the same condition with no replacement papers ever -- fuck around with the IRS and get yourself fucked "big time" playing that stupid "little" game...true story here, folks).

As for EGM writing about stuff: no.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

everyone likes to use as toilet paper for wiping their asses with

Oh...

(yeah, some pissed off American folks who think that they have the "upper hand" when dealing with the IRS have even resorted to using their official 1040 tax payment forms as "toilet paper" to wipe their ass with and mailing it in to them -- the IRS politely sends it back to them in the same condition with no replacement papers ever -- fuck around with the IRS and get yourself fucked "big time" playing that stupid "little" game...true story here, folks).

As for EGM writing about stuff: no.

That was just a sarcastic pun aimed at EGM -- I'm sure that the some of the current EGM staff does read up on the latest on "shmups 411" here from time to time... ^_~

Yeah, there was a time when EGM was a great magazine when it used to cover the cool Japanese SFC/MD/PCE games in the early 1990's but that gave way to mainly reporting on just domestic games for the USA market. So today's EGM compared to what it was in the past is a sad iteration of it's old former self...

Only if the indy console/arcade gaming mag of Gamefan didn't go out with a bang (as with the very last December 2000 issue), I'd liked to have seen it continue to this day...but that was "it" (meaning calling it "quits for good") for that cool mag. ^_~

Had Gamefan given the proper kudos to have published a special full spread on Success' Psyvariar Medium Unit running on the Taito G-Net or even the Psyvariar Revision G-Card game -- that would've made my day even better...but it wasn't meant to be, was it? ^_~

When I stop to reminesce about Gamefan, that mag was the only one that really gave the inside scoop when it came to arcade shmup PCB titles -- no other American published video game magazine would dare touch/cover them (even with a 10 foot pole, a pun intended here) considering how expensive newly released arcade shmup PCBs were (and still are to this day) but well worth the $$$ spent to buy them... ^_~

At least, Hard Core Gamer magazine tries to emulate the defunct Gamefan of old and that's a plus. I sure do miss the cool multi-page full-color extravagant arcade shmup articles that were written with a labor of love in the hallowed pages of Gamefan..... ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~