** Monday MAME Club [8/18/08] - Violent Storm **

[Flack]

{Fancy logo goes here when I make one ...}

RadiantSvgun has selected Violent Storm (Konami, 1993). Download (http://www.robohara.com/mameclub), play, and discuss! (KLOV Info (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=10323))

http://www.klov.com/images/11/1120397368.jpg

Club Rules

01. You do not need to sign up for the club. If you want to participate, simply download the game of the week and post about it!

02. At the end of the week, I will randomly select someone who participated this week to select next week's game.

03. The current MAME Club Pick of the Week can be found every Monday stickied at the top of the Arcade Alley.

Previously Picked Games: Avenging Spirit

Now, MAME ON!

[Icarus Moonsight]

Great beat 'em up. I thought the player characters were not very well done though. One-dimensional and cornball. First off, the names are stupid and grating. Well, at least Wade and Kyle (these names do not bring bad ass brawlers to mind)... Boris is alright as far as generic names go. He passes. Though, the whole spiked suspenders thing is pretty ridiculous. May as well just called Wade 'Punching guy' and Kyle 'Kicking guy'. It would have had about the same effect. Character depth, design and names are hardly the point to these games. Thankfully, it brings everything else in mass quantity and high quality.

You can break, pick-up and use many background objects. Pick up a pig and you have a football to chuck at the baddies (oh I get it, Pigskin! *chuckle*). Walk next to a snail and make him retreat into it's shell, you now have a point pick-up 'SHELL'. Pound on the cell door to let the kidnapped girls out and they throw you a ring (points) and blow you kisses. You first discover these things by sheer incidence and then you start to look for them. Really cool.

The first boss breaks through a brick wall Abodo style... By this time I'm thinking, maybe the cornball stuff is intentional, and I start to let it slide. Besides, I have asses to kick. It borrows from most of the established beat 'em ups before it and manages to add to them as well. It never takes itself seriously and kicks your ass and mocks you if you do. :)

You fall on a ref when you start the Wrestler boss battle, knocking his ass (the ref) clear out of the ring. Later, you come across a guy dressed like a boat captain on the pier in a Capt Morgan pose. You can beat him down into the water and off screen, but you'll notice that his name is the same as the ref you gave the ring out to previously. I tried to look if the name was listed in the credits after the game was beat, but I didn't catch it. It scrolls pretty fast and I may have just missed it. Anyone know about this?

[XYXZYZ]

Flack, can you guys also post what version of MAME the ROM is compatible with? For instance the Xbox port only goes up to .84, and if the ROM is from a newer set Xboxers won't be able to use it. (If it's changed) And upgrading MAME isn't always such a simple task for cabinet users.

Okay, Violent Storm didn't interest me before the MAME club and after playing it I was pleasantly surprised, this isn't a bad game! I like the different attacks you can do by tapping joystick/button combinations, it certainly adds a little more flare than the average beat 'em up. But what I really liked about this game is it's fast pace- Enemies don't take forever to kill, you can mop up a group of three or four thugs and cruise right along in no time. And I love the opening cinema- that chick just comes out of a slum complex with my groceries, she's all like "HI!!!" and then some ex Foot Clan punk drives by and scoops up my food (and the woman). Come Wade, we must rescue our groceries before the thug boss eats it all!

On the bad side the characters are lame and corny, and I don't like the art style of the sprites. And this game loses major points with me because the score doesn't reset to 0 when you continue, I hate that.

I only got halfway through stage 2 on one credit, made 332,350 on default settings. Not too bad for the first time playing it.

[InsaneDavid]

Flack, can you guys also post what version of MAME the ROM is compatible with?

The posted ROM worked fine with my old install (MAME v0.76), my computer is just a hair too slow to run it smoothly.

[RadiantSvgun]

Violent Storm is a really good game. I thought about DJ boy, but you need a newer MAME and I figured no one felt like digging through versions of MAME. The game is really 90s, and I love it.

[scooterb23]

Played one game so far. Nice graphics, pretty generic game, although it did feel a bit faster than your standard beat 'em up. I got into the second level on one credit with a score of 424000 points.

[jb143]

I'll probally be playing these when I have free time. It's a really great idea and so far has exposed me 2 games I have never played before.

I played Violent Storm a bit last night and while I usually don't go for the genra too much but I did like it as far as standard beat' em-ups go. I probally would have liked it to have brighter colors, they seemed to look a bit washed out but it worked for the game.

By the way, what's the dictionary for? I was hoping to hit someone over the head with it becasue it looked like one of the big Oxford English ones that would cause some real damage...but no such luck.

[shoes23]

As others have said pretty standard beat-em-up. I have to admit though some real comedic gold in this game, especially the expressions on some of the background characters faces. As Icarus said this game definitly doesn't it take itself too seriously, and that is one of its greatest charms. Haven't made it though the whole game yet, but I'll eventually get it taken care of. Overall, a nice pick I wouldn't have played otherwise.

[IronBuddha]

I played this game a little bit ago when it was first mentioned. I like it, it's a good side scrolling beat-em-up. It's already been said how the game moves along at a good speed, doesn't take forever to beat the bad guys up and it's fun that you can do different things with some of the backgrounds etc. the one thing I noticed this time playing was on the second level in the train you can jump kick the lights out. Stuff like that makes me want to play more just to find all of the different stuff you can do.

One credit and I got to the second boss, the game was a breeze until I got to him. I ended up with a score of 526,750.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v402/ironbuddha/STP61316.jpg

[Icarus Moonsight]

The cakewalk first level is standard arcade design. Learn your stuff and disarm you at the same time. When things start getting tough your hitting the credits, instinctively... I actually caught myself digging around in my pocket for a quarter to continue. It suckered me in real good. LOL

I never played this games cab, but I suspect it was one of these;

You go to your local arcade to play your favorite round of games. You change for tokens and then you're on your way back toward Simpsons, X-Men or Turtles and then you see Violent Storm. Watch the demo a bit, and give it a go. Before you know it, you're out of tokens and time, but that's alright. Even though you didn't play your standards you got a good game in. :D

[Cryomancer]

Interesting touches here and there. I like how you can break open the cage full of women in the last stage, and how breaking an arcade cabinet causes a small mushroom cloud (but there's gold inside!) I agree with the above sentiment of it being the kind of game you end up blowing you money on unplanned.

Music was interesting as well, although my PC kind of chopped it up unfortunately. Personally I was using mostly Wade buy Kyle's Chun-Li moves are also amusing and fairly useful in some parts. Crazy bosses too, I wonder if the wok guy was supposed to be a TMNT reference of some kind.

[IronBuddha]

breaking an arcade cabinet causes a small mushroom cloud (but there's gold inside!)


Weren't the arcade cabs you destroyed other real games? I can't remember what games they were but I got a little chuckle out of it.

[Cryomancer]

According to history.dat:

"At the middle of the last stage, two cabinets of "Penta" and "Scramble" make an appearance (Note that "Penta" is originally a bootleg of "Pengo"."

[Ed Oscuro]

Glad to see the Club's a going concern again. I'd say something about the game (other than "hey I credited my way through it in MAME once," but brawlers aren't really my bag.

Love the music in this one though. Classic early/mid '90s Konami, and with (some) lyrics too!

[Ackman]

I hate how hard the specials are, if you watch the attract mode there are some awesome specials.... but they are very hard to do imho, still a very cool game but just not as good as Crime Fighters 2, man if only they used the same engine and added stuff I'd be more than happy with it.

Still definately one of the better brawlers in MAME.

[scooterb23]

It's still Monday in western time zones we still have time to not let this fall off schedule in just the second week...is there an official pick, or am I going to have to pick the Journey video game, and torture you all for a week?

[Captain Wrong]

Crap, I had a real busy week last week and I'll be out of town the next two, so I guess I"m sitting out a while. I'm still interested though. :)

[Bloodreign]

If I remember right there's a part in this brawler where you can pick up and throw baby pigs, when you pick them up they turn into footballs, definitely an oddity.

[RadiantSvgun]

If I remember right there's a part in this brawler where you can pick up and throw baby pigs, when you pick them up they turn into footballs, definitely an oddity.

Yup, pun on the term "pigskins" as footballs. So, whats this weeks pick?

[bigdaddychester]

It was actually the first time I've played this game, which is the beauty behind this MAME club - playing something I may normally never play. I spent about 1/2 hr and several virtual quarters to enjoy this one. Pretty good game although it reminds me a lot of the same side scrolling fighters from the past, except for the fact that you get to use a piglet as a weapon. :pimp:

[RadiantSvgun]

Who's going to do the pick this week? I'd like to see something really obscure.

[InsaneDavid]

Who's going to do the pick this week? I'd like to see something really obscure.

Obscure, hmm? How about Cosmo Gang: The Video?

[RadiantSvgun]

Obscure, hmm? How about Cosmo Gang: The Video?

Sounds good to me!

[Icarus Moonsight]

Oh god! I can already hear those little whatever they ares chirping in my head! MAKE IT STOP! LOL

[OMF2097]

I actually just got Violent Storm in one of my cabs. Man I haven't played that game since 1994.

I still think it's a great game.

[shoes23]

So, is the Monday Mame Club once again officially dead?

[Sotenga]

D'OH! I need to get back in on this awesome and belt out random games! I think this might be a violation of protocol, but can I suggest Gaiapolis for the next subject?

... oopsie. I'm probably not getting any points for not talking about Violent Storm. Heh. Anyway, this game is fantastic, a fun, fast-paced, great-looking BEU that may sail too close to infringing upon Final Fight. But then again, Final Fight never had any JULIUS JUSTICE. LOL

I think the music sounds great, but what's with the random vocals in the first stage music? Also, the rap bit in the third level... so beyond the pale that it's awesome. Regarding the game's nomenclature, I personally think of it as the third in Konami's Crime Fighters trilogy after CF and Vendetta, but since I'm neurotic and like to have things in trilogies whenever possible, that's just my quirk on the matter. Hey, it's a beat-em-up where you take on a lot of seedy antagonists, so I guess it's fighting crime. Ranging from 80's metal pastiches and big dumb brutes named after a confection to a thong-clad statues that inexplicably come to life and a Frankenstein Monster-type dictators embued with Super Saiyan powers (aka Geld, one of the cheapest final bosses in forever), this game's got a fine cast. :)

[Icarus Moonsight]

Monday's coming... wtf is up people? Cryomancer, Flack? Who's drivin' the car!? LOL

[boatofcar]

D'OH! I need to get back in on this awesome and belt out random games! I think this might be a violation of protocol, but can I suggest Gaiapolis for the next subject?


Here's another vote for Gaiapolis! I played through two levels tonight, and it's pretty cool!

[Flack]

Sounds good to me -- I will get it posted later this morning.

[Sotenga]

What the?! People are actually taking my suggestions seriously! THE APOCALYPSE COMETH!!! :o

Heh, honestly, I just tossed Gaiapolis out there because of this shiny new article on Hardcore Gaming 101 (a site to which I contribute, so consider this a plug, even though I did not write this specific article): http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/konamibeatemups/konamibeatemups4.htm

Glad to be part of the team again. I'm a MAMEaholic, what can I say. ^_^

[SurfKahuna]

472500 on one quarter. A classic beat-em up. I like picking up the pigs. I also found that you can sweep the background characters off the train. Just hold down and press attack near them. That's fun! Do newcomers ever get to pick games?