MMMC #14 - Moonwalker / Black Widow

[scooterb23]

Yes, you read that right. Games. We're gonna do 2 games this week.

If you remember to last week's thread, I hyped up the fact that I finally got a gamepad, and wanted to play something that had a two joystick control scheme. Then Michael Jackson died, and the idea of playing the awesome Moonwalker game as a tribute came up.

I started a poll, and if I would have hit the right button (guh, it's been a long week). The two main options would have tied...so we're splitting the difference.

This week's games are Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and Black Widow.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/scooterb23/mameclub.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 a game from a list of nominations.

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

Game one, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. I have memories of playing this in the lobby of the Hill's store in Chillicothe, Ohio. I was never very good at the game, but I thought it was pretty goofy and a lot of fun.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8686

http://www.klov.com/images/11/1181242137339.png


Game two, Black Widow. I never really played this one much back in the good old days, but a few years ago at Cinciclassic (how I miss that show) they had a high score tournament. I was in second place when the time ran out, but they let two more people play, and they both beat my score...so I didn't win a prize. :( I think I'd like a chance to redeem myself, so we're going to have a high score challenge. High score by Saturday night (midnight Eastern) gets game choice next week. If you can, post a screenshot of your high score in the thread...and, of course, no cheating, please :)

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7139

http://www.klov.com/images/11/1181242060373.png


You know who's bad? Our ROM sources...

Flack will be hosting at http://www.robohara.com/mameclub/

and 2DSkillz will have the games ROMs at http://www.retrogoggles.com/


Previous MMMC choices: Jump Coaster, Rampart, Jungler, Ninja Emaki, Port Man, Psycho Soldier, Metamoqester, Gunbarich, Sengoku (series), Snacks'n Jackson, Metro-Cross, Moon Shuttle, The Real Ghostbusters.

Have a great week.

[Ed Oscuro]

Augh, Micheal Jackson's Moonwalker broke the Forum for about an hour! Black Widow first since I knows that one a bit (I'll have to try again for highscores on both).

Rob of Shmups commented on Black Widow here (http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23749&start=128) and I think that covers the vital points. It's good for the era but fails compared to Geometry Wars. I can only speculate it's influenced by Centipede (I would wager so), but it's very different (refreshingly so) from the "obvious" military-themed / "running man with a gun" games that fill this particular genre. The insects barely have enough character to make them distinct from the arbitrary shapes and colors of GW, but they aren't as functional.

All told, though, I still reserve a special place in my heart for it given that it is the first game of this type that I know of, and, despite its issues, it's still a good game.

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker:

Interesting to see he's got a design credit - I guess I knew that from reading a review of the Spectrum port in Your Sinclair or some other classic mag.

The attract seemed a bit flat and cheesy, with rather simple credit lines. If you took away the music, and the character of the ingame sprites, it would definitely feel like a by-the-numbers Sega System 16 type game with colors leaning towards purple and balanced use of backgrounds. The license (and not just the music) really do kick it up a notch, but it's ultimately up to the gameplay to make it a winner.

The game actually is pretty fun, with a rather diverse cast of characters put into a number of situations - kind of like if Wario Ware was a top-down shooter. It does herd you down a path but hasn't felt very cheap so far (I'm only a short ways into the game though). I feel pretty sheepish at never having played this before, since it's in one of my favorite genres. I guess the usual assumption that "trendy name attached = stigmatic of junk" struck again there.

Some of the yells are off-key and seem out of character, but nothing seems creepy to me. Yeah, MJ apparently has a preoccupation with changing into awesome things, but who doesn't?

The game doesn't quite capture the magic of the "Smooth Criminal" video, but I can't imagine that won't be achieved in a game. Thankfully, as a game this one seems to stand up - sure it's just one along with so many other, but it doesn't strike me as relying so much on its mechanics like Black Widow does. That said, it seems carefully balanced (i.e. a line of the big robots didn't start moving or shooting until I got pixels into range of being able to shoot them; and the Donkey Kong-inspired sections just require good reflexes).

p.s. the CVC is watching "The Wiz" Wednesday on Mogulus, it should be awesome. I'm a liiiion!

First score in the game:
39,450

[TheDomesticInstitution]

So just finished Moonwalker and a few rounds of Black Widow. I couldn't sleep late this morning so I and downloaded them.

Moonwalker- ended up with 290,xxx (maybe more- that was the score the last I checked). It would be a by the numbers shooter, if it wasn't for Michael. That said, it was pretty fun and I loved the "Oww!" exclamations. Also it was fun to see the enemies dance right before they're blown away with Michael's special move. The music in the game is great, which is sorta expected. I also like the boss and robot design, and the final boss is the best designed and most challenging- as it should be. All in all the game is good cheesy fun. Wish I would have gotten a chance to play it back when I was younger.

The robots that ram people with the giant rods, are definitely a little questionable though.

Black Widow- It's actually quite a bit more fun than I was expecting. The 1st two rounds or so, my controls were set up wrong on my gamepad, so I died pretty quickly. It has quick and responsive gameplay, and I like the two stick control layout. It's also the first vector game I've played, as most vectors were gone by the time I got to go to the arcade for the 1st time (probably around 1990 or so when I was 10-ish). My high score so far is only 11xxx, as I've only played it 3 or 4 rounds. This game is pretty cool, and I see myself playing this one quite a bit more than Moonwalker. Thanks for picking this one, or I might have never known about it.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Well we have company coming over a day earlier (tomorrow), and I really need to clean this place up and mow the damn yard again. As much as I'd like to sit around and play video games in my underwear all day, I can't, and I may not get a chance for the rest of this week (to use the downstairs TV for MAME anyway). So here are my submissions... everything MRH or AAA is mine.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3610/3674785617_3161f1f114.jpg


They're not great, but whatever

[Arasoi]

Back when I was a kid, my family moved around quite a bit cross country due to Dad changing jobs a bit. While this may sound bad(pun intended) this was during the era when arcade games were ubiquitous and I got a chance to play a hell of a lot of cabinets all over the nation. I distinctly remember playing the Moonwalker arcade cabinet in a theater somewhere, on a move from Ohio back to California in 1991 and I loved it. So I was super pleased to fire it up on an emu and try it again. (Wish id bought pcb before he passed, now its gonna hurt to own it..)

The 3/4 down style view benefits this game a lot, as well as the distance of the characters. The intro is pretty decent, but nothing spectacular, and I would say the same for the ending. but the original Moonwalker movie had this problem too. The artwork, the same. The game has a very weird visual presentation with the artwork now that I've looked at it again. The gameplay, well it's average too I suppose but quite entertaining. What really makes the game shine for me is the dancing moves. Thats the cosmic glue that keeps this game together for me. Sure the robot is cool, but nothing beats going into stage two at Club 30s, gathering up a bunch of suits, and re-enacting Smooth Criminal at your liesure. It's just a blast.

My only real complaint on this game is that the graveyard stage does not have the Thriller music in it, in fact it is not even in the sound test. Damn shame, would have been perfect. Apparently the Genesis Moonwalker has the same problem which makes me think copyright issue.

Overall, damn fun game. 7.5/10

I'll give Black Widow a shot later on in the week.

[Ed Oscuro]

So here are my submissions... everything MRH or AAA is mine.
Good grief, I got higher than that score on my first play. Jus' sayin'.

One thing I do not like about Moonwalker (it may be adjustable with DIP switches) is that it doesn't wipe out the highscore, leading to credit feeding, meaning good players aren't really at a major advantage over folks with deep pockets.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Good grief, I got higher than that score on my first play. Jus' sayin'.

Just cause I like video games doesn't mean I have to be good at them. I've never been good at button mashers or shoot-em-ups anyway. I've always been better at games that favor strategy and problem solving over killer reflexes.

[jb143]

Black Widow: I got 26500 on my first try. These games are really hard to play with the keyboard but it was still pretty fun. KLOV did a pretty good job of explaining the game play mechanics so that helped a lot. Hopefully with better controls and more practice I'll do better though.


Moonwalker: I really didn't know what to expect from this one having never played a Michael Jackson game before. It was much better than I thought it would be. The graphics are nice and colorful and the dancing and music add quite a lot. It's pretty funny making the robots dance. I'll have to put some more time in it later though since I didn't get too far.

[Ed Oscuro]

Just cause I like video games doesn't mean I have to be good at them. I've never been good at button mashers or shoot-em-ups anyway. I've always been better at games that favor strategy and problem solving over killer reflexes.
I'm no good at games either though. I'm sorry :puppydogeyes:

[Ed Oscuro]

Update: Here's a roundup of some views on Moonwalker. Pretty positive!

http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=12351

and

http://blogsquirrel.blogspot.com/2009/06/moonwalker.html

(Whoever wrote the VUE article is a god amongst men for the Herzog comment...spot-on!)

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I'm no good at games either though. I'm sorry :puppydogeyes:

No harm done sir. Not embarrassed or mad, as I was prepared for a little ridicule when I put it up anyway. (Insert Favorite Smilie here)

[scooterb23]

I guess I should have mentioned when I started the Black Widow high score competition that you have to start on the first wave...I don't think that's been a problem though.

I'm going to raise the game a bit. Don't let me pick the games again next week folks! You've got til Saturday at midnight to school my 59,300.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/scooterb23/0002.png

The joypad I bought is not as accurate as I'd like, my score at Cinciclassic was around 90k if I remember correctly.

[Cryomancer]

Sorry I haven't been doing these guys, had some PC trouble. Hopefully I can get in on the next one.

[scooterb23]

You know, even yesterday I forgot that today was the 4th of July. So, tell you what. Let's extend the deadline a bit...if you post a screenshot that beats my score of 59,300 on Black Widow, put in a game recommendation in your post...whoever's got the high score when I get up Monday (around 9 AM) gets their game chosen.

Tonight, I hope to get to dig into Moonwalker more.

[Ed Oscuro]

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/6388/0002g.png

The Cliffhanger - Edward Randy (JPN set)

[Arasoi]

I'll nominate either Midnight Resistance or Alien vs Predator.