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A Data East Collection

I had mentioned in an earlier post about a recent PedroGames.Com spending spree.  This was mostly specific to Data East games.  Data East was an incredible publisher.  Burgertime doesn't require any further explaination (http://www.salzmafia.com/labels/burgertime.php)  But what about the other gems?  There are plenty, and these are three I received:

The first was Heavy Barrel which I already spoke about here.  There are similiarities between it and Shock Troopers for sure, but my interest in Heavy Barrel actually stems from an entirely different game: Time Soldiers by SNK.  Time Soldiers had a neat plot:  Your comrades were sent back to time, so you need to go back and rescue them.  The problem is you warp right into a battle field of the respective era.  WW2, Ancient Rome, even some weird caveman battle with spears.  Neat stuff.  It's kinda like Ikari Warriors meets Time Pilot.

Next was Side Pocket.  Billiards video games are cool for one very specific reason:  They are timeless.  Think about it... has Pool changed much in say the last 10 years?  25 years?  50 years?  It's still the same game!  So a Pool video game manufactured in the mid-80's is going to be just as relevant as the same game manufactured to day.  Perhaps the fancy pants processor in the PS3 or X-Box can render a cueball to look --OMG- so REAL!

Last but not least, Ring King.  There wasn't many boxing games for the NES, and most people will either remember PunchOut!! or Ring King.  Ring King is something that just has to be experienced.  The between round perversion was awesome, and for Data East (or perhaps Namco) to spit in the eye of Nintendo and release such a spectacle is pretty cool (Don't know what I'm talking about?  Look it up!).  But what I think is neat about this game is the audience and the announcers.  Most sports games from this era had terrible sterile audiences where it was the same head over and over.  In this game there is some variety to it.  And the announcers are extremely animated between rounds (probably outraged over the perversion hinted at above.)