Grappler Baki: The Ultimate Fighter (Anime Review)

After being slightly disappointed with the Battle Arena Toshinden anime, I thought I might want to watch something that had come a bit more recommended than that one, and that thought brought me to Grappler Baki: The Ultimate Fighter, because this title came highly recommended by people who have opinions that I tend to trust. Wow, this is everything that I had hoped Battle Arena Toshinden would have been, and then some.

The story opens with a karate competition where a seventeen year old boy with nothing but a white belt and no school to represent, is wiping out all of the competitors. His name is Baki Hanma and he is eliminating most of his opponents with just one move. After defeating and humiliating all of the other competitors, Baki quietly returns to his humble residence, and prepares for the real challenge which will follow the next night.

The real challenge comes in the form of an illegally organized underground fight club. And, when I say underground, I do mean underground literally, as in six levels below a stadium in Tokyo. Baki is the toughest and youngest champion in the history of this sport, where there are no rules, no move is outlawed, and where every fight might just end in death. 

This Original Video Animation (or OVA as anime fans like to call them) is incredibly violent and gory, but oddly not as dark as you might expect. Part of that lighter feel comes from the charmingly innocent and happy-go-lucky spirit that Baki himself seems to bring to even the most brutal of fights. The contrast of some of the more horrific elements matched with lighthearted characterizations is nothing short of astounding. Needless to say, despite the childlike nature of the hero, this film is definitely not suitable for younger viewers.

The program is based on a Japanese manga comic book series that I have never read, but I do hope that it has been translated into English, because I really want to read it now. I'm sure there is way more to Baki's story than what is seen in this film and I'm hungry to find out what all there is to be learned about this intriguing character.

Do I recommend it? Yes I do. But, only for those who find this sort of thing interesting. Be warned, it is violent, and gory.

-Jay

Battle Arena Toshinden (A VHS Review)

I stated when I started this site that I would be writing about more than just video games. So, if you were under the false impression that I'd only be reviewing old video games for the Atari 2600, here it is, my first review of something else. Although, I'm sticking to something that does seem appropriate for a site called the Atari Ninja, in that this is a review of a program based on a video game, it's also a Japanese animation, and it does involve martial arts. So, this review of the Battle Arena Toshinden anime seems like a very good fit for the Atari Ninja.

For the record, I love fighting games, and Battle Arena Toshinden is one of my all-time favorites of the genre. It was one of the American launch titles for the original PlayStation and it was one of the biggest reasons that I broke down and bought that console in the first place. But, this is not a review of the video game (I'll write one of those later), this is a review of the two-part original video animation that was released in 1996.

This is not a dramatization of the actual game, because it does not actually feature the tournament that was featured in the video game. Instead, this takes place one year after the tournament, and gives some background to the reason that the competition happened in the first place. 

The story centers mostly on the characters of Eiji and Kayin and they are clearly portrayed as the real heroes of both the game and this program. Our two heroes are out to stop an evil group known as the Organization. The Organization are hunting down the competitors from the tournament and challenging them to fights so that they can develop a computer program that can predict the martial arts moves of any possible challengers. Along the way we are introduced to all of the characters from the first game and characters from the second game as well.

The story is incredibly convoluted and surprisingly harder to follow than it should be. If any show demanded a simple-minded plot, it was this one. In their attempt to add layers of sophistication to the story, the writers bog down the program in exposition, and unnecessary character development. Ordinarily I would find these devices to be beneficial to a show's narrative, but in this case they are not at all needed, nor are they particularly welcomed.

This show was not well received when it was released. It was panned by both critics and casual viewers alike. But, I didn't find it to be as bad as I had heard it was. Was it good? No, but it was fun to watch. And, at a running length of less than an hour, I can't say it isn't worth a viewing. Particularly if you are a fan of the video game.

-Jay

Demon Attack For The Atari VCS By Imagic

Along with Activision, Imagic was one of the biggest outside developers of games for the Atari Video Computer System, and just like Activision, Imagic was also founded by a group of disgruntled former Atari game designers. Imagic had a number of big hits in the video game cartridge department, one of the biggest of them all was Demon Attack.

Although modeled after the hit arcade game Galaxian, Demon Attack was usually accused of being a rip-off of the video game Phoenix instead. Personally speaking, I really prefer playing Demon Attack on the VCS over both of those other two games. When I was kid, Demon Attack somehow managed to find its way into my Atari 2600 multiple times a day, every single day.

The player controls a laser cannon fighting-off multiple waves of demons as they repeatedly attack from the sky above. According to the video game's backstory, as the player, you are supposedly stranded on the planet Krybor. As a little piece of personal reminiscence, there was a truly creepy television movie from my childhood called Gargoyles, it starred Cornel Widle, and it aired a lot on TV when I was little kid. When I played Demon Attack I used to pretend those demons were actually the gargoyles from that movie. If you come across a copy of it, check the film out, it's dated, but still fun to watch.

The game was programmed by Rob Fulop who while he was still with Atari was the programmer behind the VCS port of Missile Command, those two games alone make for an impressive career, but Fulop had a couple of more hits to his name, and was later responsible for the infamous video game Night Trap. Demon Attack was critically praised at the time of its release and is remembered as one of the best games ever produced for the Atari Video Computer System.

Is it worth owning? What do you think? This is an essential title for all Atari collections.

-Jay

Video Pinball For The Atari VCS

I have this sort of love and hate relationship with video game versions of pinball. I hate the concept of trying to recreate the joy of a manual arcade machine with digitized pixels, but I still love playing games of this variety, and in all honesty, a video game cartridge is a lot cheaper to purchase than a genuine pinball machine, and it takes up a whole heck of a lot less space too.

The Atari 2600 version of Video Pinball was released in 1980 and it was programmed by Bob Smith. Smith would eventually become one the founders of Imagic, a video game company that would go on to create a number of great titles for the Atari Video Computer System. 

The game is fun to play, but the limitations of the joystick controller become very apparent rather quickly. Pulling back on the joystick brings back the plunger and hitting the single button on the controller releases the plunger and launches the ball. The flippers are controlled by moving the joystick to the left or the right to move the corresponding flipper. Sure, the controls work, but they do lack the feeling that one would get using something more akin to the kind of controllers that would be used with more modern gaming consoles.

The game's graphics are really good too, better than a lot of the other cartridges available for the Atari VCS at the time. The game-play is quite enjoyable once you get beyond the awkwardness of the setup of the controls. It's not a great game, but it can certainly be addictive once you have decided to succumb to the game's charms.

-Jay

Berzerk For The Atari VCS

Short of adaptations of board games like Checkers or Chess, or games that have no excuse calling themselves games (Basic Math AKA Fun With Numbers), or something like 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe, you cannot find something more simple looking than Berzerk. It's the very definition of pure visual simplicity in the form of a video game. Which in this case is far from a bad thing. Sometimes, simplicity actually equals pure genius.

A stick figure working his way through what can barely be called a series of mazes, confronting, and shooting a bunch of extremely bare-bones robots. The description of the game sounds as if it shouldn't be particularly any good, but I'd have a hard time naming a video game that is actually more addictive, and incredibly enjoyable on the same level as Berzerk.

The Atari Video Computer System port was delivered to the store shelves in the summer of 1982. The arcade version had been around for nearly two years already and at the time I didn't know any video game fans that didn't love Berzerk. I can't help but think that part of the appeal had to be the stripped-down look that deceptively made the game appear as if it would be easy to master. But, appearances can be misleading, and the frustrating difficulty of the game-play only added to the addictive nature and popularity of the game. Needless to say, this was a highly anticipated cartridge, and most of the video game fans that I knew were fairly pleased with the Atari VCS rendition of this arcade classic.

This is a must-have cartridge for any respectable, or even a bare-bones for that matter, Atari game collection. It is so much fun to play and can even sometimes border on paranoia inducing as the player's level of frustration builds.

-Jay

Checkers For The Atari VCS By Activision

 

Activision's version of Checkers is a bare-bones standard Checkers game. All of the usual rules apply and I'm not going to bother explaining them right now. Because, if you don't know the basics of Checkers by now, why are you reading this? 

The interface is nothing spectacular and is exactly what one would expect from a very old video game version of the classic board game. If you're expecting anything unique looking or groundbreaking, you'll be greatly disappointed.

I never bothered buying this game as a kid, pretty much because if I wanted to play Checkers as a youngster I'd grab the board, the pieces, and bug my grandpa to play with me. The idea of playing the game on the Atari Video Computer System struck me as fairly silly at the time and frankly, the idea still strikes me as rather silly today too.

I ended up with a copy of this game when I bought a pretty large lot of cartridges off of eBay. And, it took me running into a scanned copy of the manual online before I realized that my copy wasn't actually a faulty one.

My biggest complaint about this particular game is something that I kind of just hinted at. Once you make your first move, the screen goes blank for anywhere between a matter of seconds to a matter of minutes while the computer's AI decides what move it's going to make next. And, it does this for every move it makes. The first few times I tried the game out, I really thought that it was a broken, or just a defective cartridge.

Is the game worth seeking out? No, not really. It's fine, but nothing special. Is it worth adding to your Atari collection? Sure, if you can find it for cheap, or better yet, for free.

-Jay

Jungle Hunt For The Atari VCS

I was watching an old Tarzan movie (and, yes, I do mean old, as in Johnny Weissmuller old) and as it was ending I found myself thinking that I felt like playing Jungle King, but of course I can't play Jungle King on the Atari 2600 because Taito, the company that released Jungle King into the arcades, were forced to change the name of the game to Jungle Hunt after being sued by the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs (the author who created Tarzan).

In Jungle King the main character was an obvious rip-off of Tarzan, all the way down to the famous Tarzan call. So, once Taito were met with the lawsuit, they changed the main character into a safari adventurer with a pith helmet. The game really didn't change much beyond that element, but for a Tarzan fan like me the change was enough to be a slight letdown.

When the game was ported over to the Atari Video Computer System in 1983, it was already post-lawsuit and we were stuck with our friendly pith-helmeted, safari-suited hero named Sir Dudley, vine-swinging his way through the trees, dodging crocodiles, and hopping over boulders. 

 

Minor complaint aside (and honestly, that complaint isn't really fair), the Atari VCS port of Jungle Hunt is one of the better ones from the time. You play as Sir Dudley, the first board involves swinging vine-to-vine through the jungle. Miss a vine and you hit the jungle floor, losing a life. The second board consists of Dudley attempting to make it through a river infested with crocodiles, you need to dodge the crocodiles, and regularly return to the surface of the river so as not to run out of oxygen. Hit a crocodile, you lose a life. Run out of air, you lose a life. The third stage sees Sir Dudley attempting to continue moving forward, but having to jump over rolling boulders. The fourth and final stage of the game involves avoiding cannibals and attempting to rescue Lady Penelope who is being held captive by the cannibals and is being lowered into a fiery cauldron. 

It's a highly enjoyable and fairly exciting video game. And, for 1983, it's one of the better looking games for the Atari 2600. The graphics are exceptional, the game-play is fairly slick, and it's fast-paced excitement. If you do not have this cartridge in your Atari collection already, you really do need to add it, the game really is a must.

-Jay

Boxing For The Atari VCS By Activision

In 1980 there wasn't a lot of choices when it came to fighting games, especially not for the Atari Video Computer System (better known as the Atari 2600). In July of that year Activision delivered this very rudimentary (but, highly original in its execution) rendition of competition fisticuffs.

Activision's Boxing for the Atari VCS was about as close as you were going to get to Mortal Kombat for the home video gaming market in the summer of 1980. An overhead view of two fighters, one black, one white, engaging in a two minute round within the boxing ring. 

The object of the game was to land as many punches as possible on your opponent within the two minutes of allotted fight time. If one boxer can land 100 punches on the other before the two minutes elapse, that fighter wins by a knockout. Otherwise, the warrior that delivers the most blows at the end of the two minute round is declared the winner. And, yes, a tie can happen too.

The graphics look kind of silly by today's standards. I believe the Angry Video Game Nerd described the game as looking like two crabs fighting (if you aren't familiar with the Angry Video Game Nerd at all then do yourself a favor and check him out on YouTube). 

A far superior boxing game for the Atari 2600 would arrive seven years later in the form of RealSports Boxing (yes, they were still making new games for the Atari VCS as late as 1987). But, for its time, Activision's Boxing was simplistic, but exciting fun. The game is still enjoyable today and worth picking up.

-Jay

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back For The Atari VCS By Parker Brothers

Like many guys of my age, I grew up with a love for Star Wars, and a love for the Atari 2600. But, in those early days of the Atari VCS, we didn't really have a true Star Wars game to play on the console. Sure, you could pretend you were piloting the Millennium Falcon through that asteroid field while playing Asteroids on the 2600, but it really wasn't the same. What you really wanted was an official Star Wars game, a Lucasfilm endorsed product, and a game where you were really piloting something that really existed in the movies, and really fighting those Imperial baddies. 

Well, in 1983 my dreams came true, and I was given this cartridge. A scrolling shooter, similar to Defender, but nowhere near as good. But, in the game's defense, the ten year old me couldn't possibly have been any happier. You play as Luke Skywalker, piloting your Snowspeeder, and fighting the Imperial AT-ATs. And, that's all there is to it. No, really, that's all there is to it. Well, there is slightly more to it, as you are attempting to protect the Rebel base power generators, but that's really not saying much. 

When I began collecting Atari games again a couple of years ago, this was one of the first cartridges that I really wanted to obtain yet again. Once I found a copy of it, I wondered why I was so desperate to find it in the first place. Because, seriously, so many other video games do exactly the same thing, but in many cases much better than this. There's nothing wrong with this game, but there really isn't anything special about it either. I guess the entire attraction was just the Star Wars name alone. Well, nowadays I'm more partial to Star Trek, and this game has not aged well. 

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was one of a handful of Star Wars related video games that Parker Brothers (yes, the board game people) made for the 2600. None of them are excellent. But, if you can find them for cheap, they are all worthy additions to any respectable Atari collection, if for no other reason than their historical value.

Eventually, I will write a review for the Star Trek games for the Atari VCS too, it's a much smaller list. Officially, I think it's only one game, but with a bit of imagination the list can be considered longer, and better than the official Star Wars games as well.

-Jay

Black Jack For The Atari VCS

Of all of the games that made up the launch titles for the Atari VCS, Black Jack is oddly my favorite. Yep, not Combat, not Air-Sea Battle, not even Star Ship, but a simple faux gambling-based card game earned my number one position. Admittedly, this is my favorite for personal reasons, but I'll get into that later.

This is a fairly basic card game presentation. The rules are not exactly casino accurate, but it does serve as a decent learning tool for anyone attempting to pick up the basics of this popular card game. I've never really learned all of the nuances of Poker, but thanks to this one cartridge I was set on the path to pretty much mastering the game of Black Jack.

The graphics are far from incredible. Honestly, they make a standard Windows version of Solitaire look like a masterpiece of video game programming, but for 1977 they're just fine.

Oddly, the programming also gives a major advantage to the house, but that means that if you get good at this version, you'll have an advantage when you hit Vegas, or Atlantic City. No, don't take my word on that, and don't foolishly follow my advice when it comes to gambling.

The programmer was Bob Whitehead, who was also responsible for Atari's Football, and Home-Run. And, Mr. Whitehead went on to become one of the founders of Activision.

Now for that personal note that made this my favorite of the Atari 2600's launch titles. I was raised by my grandfather and although he usually had zero interest in video games, he bought this cartridge for himself soon after I received my Atari VCS for Christmas. I'd regularly come home from school and notice him sitting in front of the television playing this game. Or, I'd wake-up in the morning, and find that my Space Invaders cartridge that I was playing the night before was no longer in the console, but the Black Jack cart was. I think those memories alone are reason enough for me to give the game some high-marks.

-Jay

Hello, I'm the ATARI Ninja...

My name is Jay, but you can call me the ATARI Ninja, this post simply intended as a quick introduction. I'll be utilizing Blogger as a place to publish reviews of products that fit into my various interests. 

Obviously, one of my many obsessions is retro video games, and I will certainly be writing about that here. But, I'll venture into the realms of film, music, comic books, and just about anything other random thing that enters my easily distracted brain.

All of my reviews/writings will be linked to my homepage: 

The ATARI Ninja

Hit the contact link if you want to drop me a message, or just leave a comment here.

-Jay