JSWAT (Saturn)

[Iron Draggon]

Anybody know anything about this one? I know that it's an FPS where you play as a police officer on a Japanese SWAT team, but that's about all that I know about it. I only found one extremely brief review of it online that said:

"Oh dear, what do we have here? JSWAT is bloody awful. The game is a first person shooter played in a tinny window disguised as the view from a helmet. The 3D is poor with ugly dull textures and low frame rate. The collision detection is also way off. Sometimes shots to the enemies don't even register! The best thing about this game is the FMV cut scenes but they don't justify buying this heap of crap."

Well, being the daring risk taker that I am, I decided to go ahead and buy it on a whim anyway. There's been a factory sealed copy of it sitting on ebay for months now, and I finally got tired of going back and looking at it over and over again. I've only seen a couple of used copies of it elsewhere, and I was hoping that maybe it would be obscure enough to become somewhat of a rarity someday. This tends to be typical of "awful" games, so even if it is as bad as that review says, it may still prove to be worth owning it someday.

So, I was just wondering if anyone else has ever played it before, and what did you think of it? Is it really that bad, or is it OK? I never trust any reviews that say a game is a steaming pile of crap until I've had a chance to play it myself, because I have alot of games that I love that all the reviewers said were a steaming pile of crap, so when I read a bad review like that it just makes me even more curious about the game. That last line about the FMV had me wanting to see it for myself also. If the reviewer felt that it was worth mentioning, then surely there must be a redeeming quality to it, even if they didn't feel that it was redeeming enough. Somehow I just get the feeling that I'm gonna enjoy this game, even if it is bad. I'm kinda quirky like that. I can get alot of amusement just out of the campyness of a bad game.

Anyhow, I'll post my thoughts on it here whenever the game arrives, but I was just wondering if anyone else had anything better to say about it. In a way I kinda hate to spend that much money on it ($25 shipped) but I just had to find out for myself what it was like, and I can't find any used copies of it anymore, so it was either the new one or nothing at all. So it's too late to cancel my order now, even if I wanted to, but I don't want to. I just wanted to know if anyone else had anymore information to share about it.

[dj898]

funny you asked. I have sealed copy myself picked up for 200 yen when I bought sealed Ninja Jaja Marukun: Onikiri Ninpoucho Kin.

haven't bothered to play both and after reading review I have no plan to play 'em...

cheers

[Iron Draggon]

I've been wondering about those Ninja Jaja Maru games, there's more than one isn't there? Is he a superdeformed ninja or a more realistic looking one?

[delafro]

There are tons of Ja Ja Maru Ninja games. There's some info on them up on Red Eye's page, www.lostlevels.org

[flywheels]

I have JSWAT. It's OK, but far from a fun first person shooter. I guess I got what I paid for ($8), a mediocre game.

[Steven]

I've been wondering about those Ninja Jaja Maru games, there's more than one isn't there? Is he a superdeformed ninja or a more realistic looking one?

He's more SD than anything else. It's an OK game. Feels a little too slipperly for my tastes. I posted a mini review here a few months back. That and also for another 1998 3D Saturn game "Ninpen Manmaru."

Both games I scored 6/10.

Neat concepts, flawed execution.

[Iron Draggon]

Well I don't play alot of FPS games, so I wouldn't know a real good one from a real bad one, but JSWAT doesn't seem too bad to me. It has lots of FMV to help along the story, and a decent variety of weapons to choose from for the missions. I've yet to find any ammo or med kits along the way so far, so that may be a minus for you, but as far as I'm concerned, for a game like this it's a plus. It makes it alot more challenging and realistic, and considering that you are supposed to be a Japanese cop, I highly doubt that in the real world there's very many times that you would find more ammo and med kits along the way. You take what you think you'll need, and if that's not enough for the mission then you fail, it's as simple as that. So I think that it's pretty cool.

The graphics are decent enough, and admittedly nothing to drool over, but they set the mood appropriately. It's a little bit disappointing that you don't seem to have any backup or teammates to assist you, which takes away alot from the realism that you're supposed to be a on a SWAT team, but it's still alright for what it is to me. I haven't found any switches or elevators or any stuff like that yet, so it's pretty straightforward and not very much of a big adrenaline rush for this type of game, but there are multiple floors which you explore by stairways. So if you're expecting alot of visceral thrills in it, you'll be very sorely disappointed. Think more along the lines of the earliest days of FPS, like Wolfenstein 3D, with better graphics and more realistic gameplay.

Now, the language barrier is a bit of a problem here, at least for customizing the button functions on the control pad. I dunno what does what without guessing it all by trial and error, but I was able to figure it out well enough to play and complete a level. I failed the mission, but I did complete the level. So, I've only seen the first level so far. It wouldn't let me advance because I failed. This could be a problem with the language barrier too. There's alot of spoken dialog as you play, part of which I assume is your captain giving you orders as you progress through the levels. So unless you know Japanese, there may be some things that you're supposed to do that you'll either have to figure out by trial and error, or you may want to find yourself a Japanese speaking friend to translate for you. But it's still playable enough to enjoy it.

So, you may have heard about the unusual field of vision in this game. Unlike most FPS that give you a full screen view of the levels, this game is made in a way that has you seeing the levels as though you're wearing a helmet and looking through a bulletproof protective visor. This may be a big turnoff for you, but once again this makes it far more immersive and realistic for me. It has a HUD type display inside your helmet as well, which may or may not be realistic for all I know about Japanese cops on SWAT teams, but it's pretty cool as far as I'm concerned. You also have the ability to adjust the colors and contrast to your liking, so you can make it as bright or as dim as you like, if you prefer your FPS games to be more dark and moody or you just want to make it more difficult by limiting your already limited visibility even further.

There are also hostages to rescue, and I believe that you have to be careful not to shoot them. At one point I think that I killed one, and that may be why I failed the mission. I heard some girl scream after I fired a shot from a distance, and I never saw her, so I think I killed her. BTW, speaking of killing, the deaths may be a big disappointment for you as well. As you shoot the enemies, when they die they simply disappear, rather than falling down and leaving you corpses to loot and plunder for ammo or other weapons to use. That was quite a bit disappointing for me, but I guess they had to do it that way to make room for all the FMV that's in the game. There really is alot of it to watch, so if you're into cop shows, then you may even love this game.

So, for what it is, I don't think that it's too bad. It's not too good either, but it's pretty cheap, so no big loss if you hate it. But remember I'm really not into this type of game at all, and I don't play alot of them because of that, so for all I know it probably is a total crapfest like everyone says it is. But I like it enough to keep it, and try to play through it, so I'm OK with it. It's just like watching a Japanese cop show between the missions, and I'm enjoying it, for what it is. So if I can get into it, and I typically hate FPS, you should be able to get into it too. Unless of course you live and breathe for FPS, in which case you'll probably hate it, unless you have to have them all. That's about all that I can say about it. Nothing special, but decent enough.

[dj898]

I didn't like this one so when mate of mine asked about this one when he got the factory sealed one for nick I lent him mine to test and I got hold of his sealed one... he didn't liked it and never bothered to get his sealed copy back so I got stuck with it and it's now at the bottom of cardboarx at the garage with rest of my collection that I don't play much...

[Iron Draggon]

Well I guess that it's alot easier for me to enjoy it because I don't really care for FPS at all, and I don't have very many of them or play very many of them. I would think that would be all the more reason for me to hate it too, but for some strange unknown reason, I actually like it. Now if I was into FPS on the PC, or playing it on the PC, I'd agree that it's a steaming pile of crap. And even as a console FPS, it probably is too. But oddly enough, I still like it.

*SHRUG*