sega – Exhibit'V

Box Art Cover: Toki Going Ape Spit

A cover of a cover, plus associating a game with place you’ll never visit again.

A recreation of the early Sega Genesis box for Toki: Going Ape Spit

Toki: Going Ape Spit was a game I never owned as a youth but had played several times at a friend of my parents house. It was owned by the only adults I knew that owned a video game console but did not have any kids. As far as I had known to that point no adult had any reason to own video games for their own enjoyment (this is circa early 1990s). My parents never played games minus a few Christmas-related scenarios, and neither did the parents of any other kid I knew. These people were hip apparently and owned a Genesis with 2 games for it — one being Toki. The Sega Genesis was always a bit foreign to me so I would get excited by any chance I had to play it, but Toki: G.A.S. is not a super well honed platformer, nor does it really jump off the screen at you when comparing it to what else had been coming out (my experience with it was several years after it was released), but I was more than happy to consume any game presented in front of me.

Decades have passed since then and I’ve been revisiting the mish-mash of Toki titles that had been released in that era; spurred by my playing of the 2018 Golgoth Studios remake of the original TAD Corp. Toki arcade title. It was via this remake that I learned that there even was a Toki arcade title, and that the Genesis game is more of a semi-sequel / expanded port (and also the only one with the Going Ape Spit sub-title). The Genesis game is really the runt of the litter compared to other releases that are more faithful to the arcade game (like the NES port, and the arcade remake). Toki: G.A.S. just simply does not control as well, has a duller color palette, and the level design is far more frustrating.

I’ve always managed to keep old games as part of my current interests that I don’t necessarily have a lot of nostalgia or sentimentality for games of bygone eras, but Toki: Going Ape Spit does seem to have managed that to some small degree because any and all memories ive had with it are super specific. It was a real surprise to me that it jogged such a vivid memory of playing the game, at most two times, at the home of a co-worker of my fathers. These weren’t long lasting friends of my parents either but I can remember visiting them far better than several other people my parents knew who I had probably visited or met with more times. Thats a bit lame in a way, but thats the power of an orb-spitting Ape who wears a football helmet, I guess.

Fighters Portrait: Vol. 6 Aoi

Aoi Umenokoji, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Mountain Stream stage

Aoi Umenokoji was one of the two new fighters added to Virtua Fighter roster in VF3 and her character design was meant to take advantage of the new Sega Model 3 arcade board it was running on. When VF3 and the Model 3 arcade board were shown off in a video demonstration at the AOU show (Amusement Machine Operators’ Union) in 1996, Aoi was shown first and foremost in the demonstration with long flowing sleeves meant to move and react like real fabric. However, when the game finally arrived in arcades and later on Dreamcast, her flowing sleeves had been chopped off. I have to assume there was just too many issues with them clipping through other characters and other potential problems.

Virtua Fighter 3 1996 AOU tech trailer, posted by Dave Freeman

Fighters Portraits: Vol. 3 Lau Chan

Lau Chan is the canonical winner of the First World Fighting Tournament in Virtua Fighter 1, however, the honor is short lived because he is by default the first character you will fight in Virtua Fighter 2. Even if you pick Lau himself as your character in VF2 you are forced to face yourself, the reigning champion, in the opening match of the tournament. Sega has ensured that Lau will be the character to be defeated the most times in single player matches. Its one thing to win the belt, its a whole other thing to defend it.

Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol.6 Lau Chan
One of the more unique releases by Sega during the Saturn era was a series of “CG Portrait” discs, one for each character in Virtua Fighter 2. These discs were essentially a multimedia chapter of an art book for the game that featured a series of CGi Renderings of the character and other elements mixed with photos displayed along with the characters theme song, and also a Karaoke version of that same theme song. The Virtua Fighter series has always had a bit of a sparseness to it beyond the central gameplay, so these acted as (slightly) more robust extras. However, at ¥1280 a piece (roughly $13 usd), and 10 retail releases its maybe expecting too big of a stretch from the fanbase. But hey, that was like 25 years ago, now you can just watch it on YouTube:

Lau Chan – Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series Vol.6, uploaded by Game Archive

Alex Kidd 1: In Miracle World

Ive been attempting to beat the Sega Ages release of Alex Kidd 1 on the Switch. For such an early platformer the final castle is far too masocore for its own good. A lot of “Ah, what? Come on.” has been said with each new bit of progression. Every aspect of the game is loaded with quirks, which as a whole I feel work for me even if its frustrating at times. They certainly weren’t the only ones throwing a lot of paint at the wall to try and compete with Super Mario Bros.

Shenmue 1: Diary 2

Detective Ryo: Im on the case! The mystery is really starting to take shape and Ryo is getting deeper and deeper into what lead to his fathers death. Ryo is so enraptured in searching out his fathers killers that he blindly walks into a Travel Agency scam and gives away all his money and Fuku-Sans savings as well. Just so happens the scammers were associated with the exact gang he is trying to track down, WHOOPS. As the player you can see it all happening from a mile away, but Ryo is naive and desperate. Its pretty punishing to walk around town while waiting for the travel agency to open back up and have Ryo ask everyone about the place. Every single person seems to have some anecdote about how AWFUL the travel agency is and that Ryo should avoid it at all costs (too late, whoops).

Ryo isn’t playing dumb, he would have no idea what Sonic is since it won’t exist for 5 more years.

Mirror Mirror: The other main focus of Disc 2 is tracking down a pair of ancient Mirrors (they look like fancy marble coasters, but I guess thats what mirrors used to look like before … regular mirrors). You have to solve a series of various locks throughout the Dojo and Hazuki residence which eventually leads to Ryo crawling down into a spooky hidden basement. Flashlight in hand its the most survival horror that I recall Shenmue ever getting. Its pretty exciting because its so different from everything else you’ve done in the game so far. Lots of the puzzles are just conversation strings but now you are moving objects and looking for clues hidden within the environment. The game does a good job of peppering different changes of pace throughout to keep you intrigued.

Disc 3???: There is a dramatic conclusion to Disc 2 and I am totally JACKED to put in disc three, but, the brakes get slammed and I skid to a stop. The Dreamcast cant read Disc 3! Disc 2 has been functioning perfectly fine after needing to use a burned CD-R for Disc 1. Ill be doing the same for Disc 3 it seems. This is a documented problem so I am not worried its my 20 year old Dreamcast, but its so confusing why this never happened when I played the game the first time. Thankfully im stuck enough in the past to still have the ability to burn CD-Rs. The journey will have to continue once this burn finishes up!

Puyo Puyo etc.

Puyo Puyo is making quite the come back the past handful of years. I never had much of a taste for it in its first handful of decades, but after being reintroduced via the mashup puzzler Tetris Puyo Puyo when it came to the Switch I felt it click in. However, I was turned off by the presentation of T.P.P., so I went dormant a bit again until M2 ported the initial Arcade release of Puyo Puyo as part of the Sega Ages Switch line — its 90s arcade aesthetic being more my tune. Plus its been translated for the first time and really has a nice weird vibe without being annoying (like T.P.P. is). Of course my luck would be the following week SNES for Switch Online arrives and inexplicably brings along an untranslated Super Puyo Puyo 2 to the service that I already pay for. Its different enough that I don’t mind having both titles; but maybe its the Celestial Lords of Puyo telling me I should make up for lost time?