Schubibin Man Zero (Shockman Zero) was a Satellaview-only release way back in the mid-90s, which guaranteed that the game would remain obscure and hard to play. But retro hardware company Columbus Circle has obtained the license and is making physical copy reproductions of the game. That's right- a new-ish SFC/SNES game in 2017.
The on-sale date was supposed to be June 30th, but a certain Super store in Akiba is already selling the game, so I picked up a copy and just tried it out. Here is the early verdict:
**Note: I have no idea why the lovely Digit Press posting system will not let me post vertical images, if anybody can provide tips, let me know**
Quality- the packaging is overall nice, box is attractive and well-done, and the manual is short, but full-color and also attractive. It'll hold up in comparison to actual SFC games of the original period. (There was one exception- the cart case dimensions itself were almost too big to fit into the SFC cartridge slot- you have to force it a little bit.)
Cart details with standard SFC "casette" for comparison:
How does the game play? So far, early impressions are good! The graphics are colorful and attractive, and the music's pretty good for this type of game. Perhaps the game's greatest advantage is the smoothness of the gameplay- you can move and dispatch foes quickly, which give the game a nice tempo. It helps that the responsive controls are up to the task.
On the downside, it seems like the gameplay might on the simple side, and could become repetitive over time. We'll see. But so far, I like it, and if it seems like you would be interested in this kind of game yourself, then you should probably check it out.