A request (a challenge?) - identifying an obscure shmup

[Yashichi]

I've thought about this game for a decade, I've looked at screenshots of hundreds of games trying to identify it, I've asked all of my friends and several forums about it, but I have never been able to identify it. I was recently instructed to inquire about the game here, so here I am now asking the pros.

I can't offer a lot of knowledge about it, but I'm almost certain it's for Sega Genesis or Sega CD. All I know (..I think) are 3 things: 1) it looks Japanese and cartoonish, 2) I'm pretty sure it is a side scrolling shmup (which is why I'm here!), 3) you get a powerup that turns you into a baseball player (perhaps with a baseball as a head?) and you shoot an absurd number of baseballs as weapons which pretty much annihilates the entire screen (no I'm not BSing, this is the most memorable thing about the game to me).

For some reason I thought it had the word "face" or a number in the title, but I'm not positive on that...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-nSOc6ytw

The game at 3:35 looks like it could be it, does anyone know what that game is called (and is it the same game that I have (poorly) described above)?

[Opethian]

3:35 that is Air Zonk/PC Denjin and it was for Turbografx 16/PC-Engine

[Evilmaxwar]

That game in the video is Air Zonk for the turbo Grafx 16 ( or pc denjin on the pc-engine. )

Not sure if its the game you are looking for but it is definitely the game in that video.

[Mortificator]

There is in fact a baseball power-up in Air Zonk.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The American based Toys-R-Us stores sold brand new copies of the TTI released Hu-Card based Air Zonk game for a mere $14.99 USD back in 1994-1995. I picked one up just to see what it was about back in 1994 and it's an ol' favorite TG-16/Turbo Duo shmup title of mine. Not a bad way to spend a mere chump of change (about 60 quarters or thereabouts) for about 35 minutes of solid hard-core shmup action with some crazy player/friend combos to check out. Or you could give AZ a spin on the ol' Magic Engine emulator just to see how it plays but playing AZ on a real TG-16 console is the recommended way to play it with a proper PC Engine arcade stick setup. Accept no substitues.

Just imagine if Hudson Soft, NEC and/or Red released Air Zonk as a bonafide arcade PCB version with more crazy friend combos and two player simulaneous gameplay ability -- that would've been ace. Would've been the usual yen/quarter muncher, indeed, for an arcade shmup PCB release.

The sequel of Super CD-Rom2 based Super Air Zonk running on the USA region Turbo Duo console or optional TurboGrafx-16 CD-Rom2 Interface unit hooked up to a TurboGrafx-16 console (in terms of gameplay and game mechanics) really doesn't match up to the superior Hu-Card release of Air Zonk. SAZ's BGM tunes are noteworthy considering that they're presented in Redbook audio format (which means that you can insert it into a regular music CD player and listen to the cool music compared to the chiptunes on the Hu-Card release of Air Zonk).

Super Air Zonk Factoid: The TTI release of SAZ contains both non-vocal & Japanese vocals on some of the BGM tunes for completeness (but will only play the non-vocal BGMs during gameplay on a Turbo Duo console setup).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Yashichi]

Wow and the mystery is solved, just like that. Seems a bit anti-climactic haha.
I guess I came to the right place to ask, thank you guys a lot (thanks for all of that detailed info PCE Fan X).

I watched an entire recording of the game waiting to see the baseball power-up; it's not quite like I remembered but this is definitely the game haha. Thanks again!

[Trevor spencer]

I like this game