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Guardian Heroes Gets Portable Update, Screenshots
Thanks to TotalVideoGames for its article discussing the announcement of the Treasure-developed GBA title, Advanced Guardian Heroes, a "sequel to the much-loved [cult Sega Saturn] title" According to the story, "up to two players [can] link up and take on the Story mode, whilst four players can link up to see who is the best in the VS mode", and there are also screenshots of the game and an official Japanese-language homepage available, and the portable side-scrolling beat-em-up from the uber-cult developers, also makers of Ikaruga, Gunstar Heroes and Radiant Silvergun, is "scheduled for release in Japan" for Game Boy Advance on September 16th, with no Western release date yet announced.
I've got the saturn version of this. While the graphics are pretty heinous (even for its day), this is some serious entertainment. It was a pretty unique fighting system, very much like Street Fighter combined with Final Fight (in that it was side scrolling but had serious deep combos), and also the ability to control an additional NPC that helped you progress. The story was pretty run of the mill fantasy, but all in all it's one of those games you can constantly return to when you find nothing new or fun currently being released. Great game. Very hard at times. (And LOADS of characters in VS mode).
These guys already mention Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun and Gunstar Heroes... I think these are most of the games they've done:
Bangai-O (*Very* fun N64 / DC shooter. Would be a #1 hit had it been multiplayer)
Sin and Punishment (very interesting third-person style shooter on N64)
Silhouette Mirage (interesting PS1 platformer where Ikaruga-like-gameplay first emerged)
Rakugaki Showtime (interesting Smash Bros-like fighting game on PS1 using very stylized, handdrawn graphics)
They also did Dynamite Headdy (Gen), Light Crusader (Gen) and a boat-load of licensed games ranging from things like McDonalds (Gen), Tiny Toons (GBA), Wario World (GC) and Yuu Yuu Hakusho (Gen). Someone already mentioned Mischeif Makers. That was fun as well.
There was also a title on the PS2 called Stretch Panic. I can't really recall any info on this title other than it was more of a third person experiment with the PS2's processing power, and you more or less ran through an elastic world (with the option of combating women bosses with massive breasts whose nipples you grabbed, pulled, and snapped back at them to cause damage. Not kidding, please correct me if I'm wrong).
From what I have been told before, Treasure was formed from a team from Konami, and were also responsible for the shooter Axelay and the highly renowned/hated Super Castlevania 4. I'd dig more info on that if anyone knows anything, since I've never had it confirmed.
The arena mode was unparalleled, letting up to 6 players duke it out using any character in the game (good or bad, grunts or bosses -- over 40 in all, complete with special moves). You could set up any combination of teams, tweak the attributes of each character, have some characters be CPU-controlled -- whatever you wanted.
Even though the graphics were a bit chunky, the game was an amazing thing to watch in action. The view would zoom in and out based on what was going on, and the magic and tech effects were larger than life. Huge beams would scorch across the field, and explosions would fill the entire screen and hurl people hundreds of feet in the air. The combat was absolutely insane.
It's great to see a sequel coming. Too bad they're doing it on a system I don't own instead of bringing the game to next-gen hardware that could really do it justice...
Steve Bell, Alan Rusbridger, Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot - I choose you!
What? Not that Guardian? Bah, I'm seriously disappointed. Time for another bowl of muesli, I suppose...