Pigeon's Scrapbook Halloween SPOOKTACULAR: Shadowman

Birds, we're back! We had a bit of trouble down here in Pigeon Country, what with all the service outages and Hurricane Sandy breathing down our necks. But that's all done and over with, so I say we get back into the swing of things and get to posting!

October 31st is here, and that means Jack-o-Lanterns, candy corn, and all the little chickadees dressed up and on the hunt for sweets and treats. And speakin' of treats, BP's got a real doozy for y'all! It's time to dust off the old scrapbook, and take a look at another of my fondest gaming memories. In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, let's turn the clock back to 1999, and step into the spooky voodoo lore of....

Released: 1999

Developer: Acclaim Teeside Studios

Publisher: Acclaim

Systems: Playstation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Windows

Front Cover

Back Cover (covers via MobyGames.com )

 Usually, when one reminisces about long defunct Acclaim Games, they're reminded of mediocre licensed property cash-ins and strippers riding around topless on BMX bikes. But, every now and then, they would manage to squeeze out something worth your time. And Shadow Man is definitely high up on that list.

 Now before we get into the game proper, Pigeon's got a little history lesson for you. The Shadowman series actually got it's start in 1992, as the flagship title from fledgling comic book publisher Valiant Comics. The original series focused on a jazz musician out of New Orleans named Jack Boniface. Jack comes into possession of supernatural powers, and ends up butting heads with the various demonic denizens of the Underworld as the Shadowman. The comic series was actually quite popular, and was outselling the likes of The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Batman, and the Justice League of America in it's prime. Wanting to break into the comics business, Acclaim purchased Valiant for $65,000,000. Wasting no time, they got to work on rebooting the Shadowman franchise under the Acclaim Comics banner, with the ulterior motive to have it make the leap from comics to video games.

 In Acclaim's universe, the Shadow Man is known as Michael LeRoi. Ten years prior to the events of the game, he flunked out of his English Literature studies at a prominent university, and had gambled himself broke. To make ends meet, he took up work as a cab driver in Chicago, all the while keeping his failures a secret from his family back in New Orleans. One night, Mike's fare was gunned down in a drive-by shooting, leaving behind a briefcase with $20,000. Sensing opportunity, Mike runs home with the cash, and proceeds to lavish his family with gifts. Of course, anyone who's ever read or seen "No Country for Old Men" knows what becomes of those who decide to run off with dirty money. Fearing for his life, Mike tracks down a Bokor (voodoo priest) and begs him for protection, which the Bokor is all to happy to provide. When the gang tracked them down and opened fire, the protection proved successful.......for Mike. The rest of his family ended up dead. 

 The price Mike paid for his protection was a hefty one. Not only did he lose his entire family, but he was now an amnesiac, forced to serve the Bokor as Zero, his personal zombie assassin. However, Fate would intervene in the form of Mother Agnetta (Nettie, for short), an old and powerful voodoo priestess. Seeking retribution against the Bokor for attacks on her associates, she leads her gang into the Bokor's sanctum and gets to stomping. In the chaos, Nettie snatches away Mike, and implants the mystical Mask of Shadows into his chest. As a result, Michael LeRoi would become the Shadow Man, supernatural voodoo warrior, and the only line of defense against the malevolent forces from Deadside. On July 31st, 1999, Michael LeRoi was poised to make his gaming debut, and Shadow Man was released on the Nintendo 64 and Windows PC's. 

 This memorable intro would set the stage for 
Michael's adventure. Tasked with preventing the Apocalypse,
Mike would traverse the lands of the living and the dead in an
attempt to put the brakes on Legion's plans for humanity.

I think the best way that I can describe Shadow Man would be as a grim and grimy Legend of Zelda clone. Those types of games were quite common in the late 90's. Exploring vast worlds, collecting various weapons and trinkets, finding secret rooms and passageways, and so on. But it would be Shadow Man's spooky voodoo atmosphere that would help separate it from the rest. Each level exuded plenty of doom and gloom. From the desolate wastes of Deadside's furthest reaches, to the twisted architecture of Legion's Asylum, and the chaos and carnage running rampant at Gardelle County Penitentiary, each level offered up plenty of dark corridors and blood stained hallways to slake your thirst for the macabre. Complimenting the on screen chaos was the equally moody sounds of Tim Haywood's soundtrack. Tim created quite an eclectic mix for the OST, with pounding tribal beats working in tandem with off kilter piano chords and gruesome sound effects. He even saw fit to include a bit of Beethoven to sweeten the pot, as the intro above demonstrates.

I have no idea what's being maimed, but it sounds freaky

as all get out. 

Thankfully, the game plays as good as it looked and sounded for the time. Like the adventure games that came before it, Mike has plenty of weapons and tactics to employ against adversaries on both planes of existence. In the living world, Mike relies his arsenal of pistols and assault rifles to beat back the demonic horde. Once he crosses over to Deadside and becomes Shadow Man, he makes use of various voodoo artifacts and abilities to immolate and eviscerate the wicked, and navigate the more perilous paths found in the land of the dead. Various collection quests are also included to help boost Mike's powers and stats. One interesting bit about the game was that Mike was able to wield two of his weapons akimbo, which allowed for some crazy combinations of firepower.

 Another thing that stands out for me were the characters and creatures. On top of the now standard zombies and evil birds, Mike would also do battle with pig men, armed with meat hooks and rifles. He'd also lock horns with two headed abominations, magic wielding voodoo goddesses, and towering hulks of flesh and metal. But the most memorable adversaries were the five serial killers under Legion's employ. Most of these men were heavily inspired by the likes of Hannibal Lecter and the Son of Sam. Heck, they even saw fit to have Mike go toe to toe with a demonically reborn Jack the Ripper. Equally as memorable were Mike's partners in crime. Nettie would always offer up cryptic clues and voodoo wisdom in her Louisiana church,  while a drunken Irish skull snake...thing by the name of Jaunty would enlighten Shadow Man about the trials and tribulations to be found in Deadside.

He also wears a top hat. Classy bloke. 

 Shadow Man would share in the same success as his comic book, with the game becoming a sales success, and finding homes on the Playstation and Dreamcast. This success would earn Mike 'n pals a return trip on the Playstation 2, as Acclaim released Shadow Man 2econd Coming in 2002. But, that will be a story for another time. For now, why not find yourself a decent emulator, click a couple of links, and spend your Halloween evening in Deadside with Shadow Man. Or any other evening, for that matter. 

A WARPed Retrospective: D

Welcome back, birds! It's been quite a while since we checked in with Eno-san and the WARP collective, what with all the hub and/or bub that's been surrounding the Coop as of late. But, the time has come to stop with the procrastinating. Grab on to my feathers, and let's soar into the wild blue yonder once more, as we continue on our WARPed adventure!

 So we've already discussed the birth of WARP, and I've showcased some of it's lesser known works. Now, it's time to take a gander at the heavy hitters in the lineup. If you talk to anyone who has any fond rememberance of Kenji Eno, these games are the ones that will most likely come to mind. Their the ones that helped Kenji find international acclaim, and are still considered cult classics today. While not the official title, I personally tend to refer to them as the Laura Trilogy.

 In the early 90's, the era of the Full Motion Video game was in full swing. Eno saw the potential the genre had, and sought to make his mark amongst the Night Traps and Sewer Sharks. However, instead of putting out a casting call for B-grade thespians and Hollywood has-been's, Eno tossed around the idea of using a 'virtual actress'. One you wouldn't have to feed and pay SAG royalties to, basically. So, in 1994, the crew at WARP grabbed a couple two tree Amiga computers and got to work on what would be the first game to feature their silicon leading lady, Laura.

D aka D no Shokutaku (D's Dinner Table)

Released: 1995, 96, 98

Publishers: Panasonic, Acclaim
Platforms: 3DO, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Ms-DOS, Windows
 



3DO cover art (US)

3DO cover art (JP)

Acclaim Cover Art (US/EU)

Laura's first starring role would be in the 1995 production of D as Laura Harris, a mild mannered college student from San Francisco. Late one evening, Laura is shocked to learn that her father, the esteemed Dr. Richter Harris, has decided to go batshit insane and shoot up just about everyone present at the prominent Los Angeles hospital he works at. Wasting no time, she hops into her sports car and rockets towards L.A. in the hopes that she can try to talk some sense into dear old Dad. After what I'm sure was an amazing bout of negotiation with the L.A.P.D, Laura crawls underneath the yellow tape and enters the hospital. Without warning, Laura is suddenly whisked away to what appears to be a medieval era castle. With nothing but her wits and a magical compact to aid her, Laura must unravel the mysteries of this foreboding estate and get to the bottom of her father's madness before it's too late!

D's premise is very simple. The player is given two hours real time to navigate the castle, solve puzzles, and locate Richter. Much like the classic Dragon's Lair, you're simply pressing directional buttons to move Laura around, and hitting a button to make her interact with the environment or examine her inventory. If you get to a puzzle that has you stumped, Laura can consult her mystical compact for clues. However, you can only do this three times before the compact mirror shatters and becomes useless for the rest of the game.

 While dated by today's standards, D earned a great deal of attention back in the 90's for it's slick pre-rendered presentation, moody and omniprescent atmosphere, and it's somewhat gory subject matter for the time. Indeed, Kenji was concerned that the game wouldn't be published in the US as a result, and came up with a rather devious scheme to ensure it would see the light of day Stateside. During it's initial development, there was no narrative attached to the project. The story was created in secret, and most of the WARP staff wasn't even aware it existed. When everything was finished, Eno submitted this 'clean' version of the game for approval. Since he had submitted the master discs late, he would have to hand deliver the final product to the US manufacturers if he wanted it published. This was all part of Kenji's plan. While on the plane bound for America, Kenji channeled the spirit of Folger's coffee commercials, and switched out the 'clean' version with the complete copy. As a result, Kenji was able to completely bypass the censors. Clever girl.

 While D made little impact in the States (much in part to the 3DO's low user base at the time,) it was well received in Japan. So much that WARP would produce a "Director's Cut" of the game in 1998, featuring new footage, interviews, and all kinds of neat goodies. However, Acclaim took a liking to WARP's little creation, and offered to publish the game for Sony and Sega's 32-bit systems, as well as PC's running Microsoft Windows and DOS. This helped D gain more exposure in the US and Europe, and led to even more sales for Eno and his crew. However, this move would result in Eno having a huge fallout with Sony and it's Playstation brand.

 You see, while retailers were able to secure over 100,000 preorders for the Playstation port, Sony decided to give it's in-house products publishing priority. As a result, only 28,000 copies of the game actually made it into customer's hands. Eno was understantably upset at this move. That's a lot of money that was left on the table. And when you're a small company like WARP, that can really hurt you. Eno wasn't about to take that sitting down. He would have his revenge.

 What nefarious plot did Eno have in mind for the villains at SCE? And what of Laura? What new adventures would she undertake? All this will be answered next time, as the Coop grabs a gander at the second installment in the Laura Trilogy. In the meantime, here's the first part of Supergreatfriend's comprehensive D walkthrough, for those of you who want to experience the game, but don't want to deal with emulators or old, scratched discs. Until next time!

 (SPOILER ALERT: Yeah, D got a sequel. However, that's a tale for another time...)

Pigeon's Quickies: London 2012

Summer is in full swing, and the 2012 Summer Olympics will soon be upon us. Of course, you can't have one of the world's biggest sporting events without an officially licensed video game. And that's where Sega comes in, giving us some of the most popular events of the Olympiad to enjoy alone or with friends.

Players can select from 36 different countries and vie for Olympic gold and glory in a decent variety of events, from the 'meat and potatoes' of Track & Field, to obscure pursuits such as Table Tennis. The control schemes for each contest are done rather well, and won't leave your hands fatigued like the games of yesterday. The visuals are also impressive, with detailed athletes and venues popping off the screen in all their HD glory.

For the more socially minded gamer, there's plenty of multiplayer to be had. From online competitons via your favorite gaming service, to a local party mode where you and three friends engage in different challenges. They even threw in a very basic customization mode, where you can change the names, faces, and ethnicity of your athletes.

Admittedly, the events are not going to hold your interest for very long. But, I honestly don't think they're supposed to. The game, just like every other Olympic game that's come before, simply serves as a quick diversion or a bit of party time fun, as you wait for the Speed Walking finals to start brodcasting. Thankfully, Sega Studios Australia's work here is good enough that the only time you'd throw your controller down in disgust would be when your buddy beats your World Record.

VERDICT: A solid purchase for hardcore Olympic fanatics, and a fun rent for everyone else.

Sega Announces NiGHTS HD. Pigeon Grins Like Small Child.

The good news keeps on rolling in for me today. : 3

Say what you will about the over-abundance of HD remakes and re-releases. But when it's something as enjoyable as NiGHTS, I can't help but get all tingly inside. I just hope we'll get an HD version of Christmas NiGHTS to go along with it.

In any case, I hope this will lay the foundation for more ports of classic Sega titles. Which I'm not too worried about, since that's 80% of Sega's business model these days (points at all twenty Sonic the Hedgehog re-releases). : D