Delightfulness of the Strange - Quirky Games Project

[Yawackhary]

After some long thinking, I've decided to do a project (yes, I'm still on the ___ em up project, this is just on the side) but needed some help before hand that I'm very thankful for. Even then I was still thinking and testing a few things of failure regarding a couple of DS games and that a certain tool doesn't work on them until it hit me this afternoon.

Anyway to get to the point, basically it is the quirky games that probably the most appealing in terms of complete fictional and fantasy. Now as you know, from around 1980 (before then the graphics were plain due to the technology) to the present day (not as much now though), there are a lot of quirky games. In fact so many quirky games that even Super Mario Bros. fits the bill in quirkyness at least in the graphic style of the game and if I ever went to Sinclair Spectrum (UK home computer that was really popular at the time, existed before the NES but after the Atari stuff) games, I'll be ripping until I'm nearly dead in terms of the amount of quirky games so I've wrote these guidelines to make it easier. Also the word is subject to opinion, what can be called strange for one person could be a common thing to another.

A quirky game can be two things:

1) A game that doesn't fit the standard genre template. Take Pang for an example, is it a puzzle game or an action game?
2) A game that might fit more of a genre but has an unique graphic style or a gameplay hook.

To help, the most quirkiest games are games that are usually developed by developers that weren't popular (such as Jaleco) but some known companies like Nintendo and Sega made some strange games in their time. While having a bright graphic style usually fits, sometimes a dark and muted game can apply like Samurai Zombie Nation. Also if the game doesn't make sense also helps too however it shouldn't be mistaken for a kusoge (rubbish game) or an obscure game since they can apply to any genre really plus quirky games can be quite well known.

It is easier to say what isn't quirky:
* Most sports games (there are a few exceptions like there's a cat soccer game on the SNES)
* Most racing games
* Most fighting/beat em up games (there are a few exceptions)
* Most sandbox games from GTA 3 or later (strangely enough, the first 2 Grand Theft Auto games could count)
* Many run and gun games
* Most shoot em ups (exceptions include Parodius, Fantasy Zone)
* Gambling games related to cards, pachinko and slot machines
* Board games, mahjong games, Shanghai styled games (mahjong solitare)
* Basically anything that resembles reality.

I'm really sorry that I can't explain it clearly enough.

Quick Q&A:
Can I rip from any system and join this project?
Of course you can but only if you want to.

Right to start it off, here's something that I'm working on: http://i.imgur.com/k7DHv.png

It isn't complete since there wasn't enough time and it was the most complete sheet in the project so far (there was another sheet but it's less done). Apart for the palette cycles though, it shouldn't take too long hopefully to finish. The only reason why it's there so the project can start.

[Ton]

Mighty Bomb Jack!
Awesome, I hope this takes off.

[Garamonde]

Mighty Bomb(er)

You rang?
But yeah this is a very unique idea and I hope to see some weird things ripped.

[Magma MK-II]

Hmm, let's see...

(I boot up Mame and look through my extensive list of roms that take some GBs of hard-disk space)

There is Block Hole/Quarth, Circus Charlie, PuLiRuLa, some trackball games, some weird hybrids like Change Air Blade, some vectorial games which are obviously unrippable...

(I look over my collection or roms for every other console, which takes up anothe good GB)

Here, I found Cho Aniki!

Yeah, it could be good if you could give us some examples of what you would consider "quirky". It seems an interesting idea for a project!

[TomGuycott]

The early Ys series kinda fits this bill because it's an action RPG where you can't actually swing you sword, how you damage an enemy depends on how you run into them on them map and how they run into you.

Unfortunately I don't know how to rip from a lot of the formats that the early games used. I got Ys IV on the PC Engine CD to work (though I can't figure out how to use that thing that lets you see PC Engine CD tiles, which would be incredibly useful if I got that to work), but for some reason I can't get any of the first two games to work at all (The third has a more standard action RPG fighting format, so it's not quirky anymore. xD) Boss fights are more like a Bullet Hell game, especially later installments.




-Syvalion is an interesting shooter where instead of a small, sleek ship, you're a golden chinese dragon ship. You need to fly around and compensate for your long, easily hit body.



-The Wagyan Land series is an interesting platformer. You can usually only freeze enemies by shouting at them, although you do get various other abilities or powerups through the games. The bosses aren't actually fought, but they challenge you to various puzzle games, differing throughout the series. The most polished one is Wagyan Paradise on SNES.



-Spanky's Quest: You are a monkey who bounces bubbles off his head and when he pops them they become sports balls. Nuff said.

-The Snow Bros Series is where you play as snowmen throwing ice on enemies, turning them into snowballs and then kicking them through the stage. A lot like Bubble Bobble in a way with different twists, and the bosses are pretty cool.

-The Little Ninja Brothers/Super Ninja Boy/ Super Chinese series are action RPGs where you walk around a lot like a classic Final Fantasy game, but random battles are fought in a beat-em-up format, but main bosses are usually fought in a turned based format. The series also spawned a fighting game in its series, which is less quirky. I actually think that one of the installments has a mode where you actually choose to play Beat-em-up style or Turn Based, but I can't figure out the Japanese menus. xD Incidentally, I was planning on ripping from these as part of the beat-em-up project.


Uhh, can't think of any more off the top of my head. xD

[Dazz]

Time for me to resume Bishi Bashi ripping...

[Garamonde]

@Tom: The third game actually looks interesting. I'd like to see that ripped from.

[Davy Jones]

[Magma MK-II]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7WvZ62Efi4[/video]

Syvalion is not much different from Thexder.

[Ton]

Boogerman would be amazing. The animations are great for what it is.
I'd also like to nominate Robotrek. Also, Baseball Bat Man

[TomGuycott]

I'd be all for ripping more Robotrek. I've already dissected all the bosses from the game, I'm fairly familiar with how to go about ripping enemies and NPCs. The main character and robots are a LITTLE harder.

[Ton]

Yeah, I thought I was doing pretty well on the hero, but... nope.

[TomGuycott]

Do you have progress on him? I'd love to build up from it if you do. In reality he doesn't have THAT many animations unique to specific cutscenes, so most of his graphics CAN be found in just a single area of the game. Not all, but most.

[Ton]

On the site. When I got to the Rat transformation I abandoned it.

[Yawackhary]

Here's the first sheet:

Bomb Jack (Arcade)