EfreetEater

Richard:  Saturday arrived, and this meant going to Tekko basically all day! I was so excited! Kaiti: As we arrived in the convention hall for our first long day of attendance, cosplayers caught our eyes before we even stepped onto the escalator! A tiny plushie inside of a see-through backpack worn by a sērā-fuku-adorned teen stood ahead of us as we made our ascent, and out came Richard’s camera to photograph the evidence. He had some trouble getting some of the lighting to cooperate but snapped away despite the challenge, immortalizing the little anime plush pal. The smell of ramen and pretzels wafted through the convention hallway, despite my inability to locate said pretzels. A little Rita’s stand beckoned, promising the most delicious Italian ice for the most dollars I’ve paid for it. Onward to the vending hall we went, weaving our way about the crowd and costumery, a big display reading “masks are required” below the Tekko 2021 logo at the entrance.  Richard:  We ha...

Richard:  The second day of Tekko 2021 was more eventful than the first. We still had to go after work, but this time we parked right in the parking lot for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center - boy was this awesome! It wasn't even that much money! I was set to do a panel, so I had packed a bunch of stuff: SNES, Japanese PS2, Famicom, Super Game Boy, controllers, cables, and several games. It was not fun to move all of this stuff, but I wanted the panel to be really cool! Kaiti: Arriving at the convention center on this day was a bit of a post-work get-ready frenzy. As soon as I was about to give up trying to park in the incredibly convenient actual convention center garage, a parking fairy appeared and granted us one of the closest spaces to the David L. Lawrence entrance. We scrambled inside with just enough time to set up Richard's panel and even attempted a bit of tech support in trying to connect his gear to the projector. Richard:  When we got to the panel room, it ...

Richard:   A little over two years ago, I submitted a panel application for Tekko 2020. I was excited to go. I wanted to present a panel about retrogames that never got released in North America. It was going to be informative with a small tournament and prizes. “Wow I can even apply for a press pass,” I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to use my blogging skills to write about the convention?” Richard: At the same time, a pandemic was brewing, and it’s still here. I wasn’t paying much attention to it until it was declared as a national emergency on March 13th of the same year. Things changed a lot then. When Tekko got moved around, I wasn’t surprised. I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t happen in 2020. I was actually quite surprised that it was going to happen in 2020, especially in the winter. Once I started watching the announcements from Tekko, things didn’t seem too bad, though. Richard: The Tekko heads seemed to have a good plan. There was a mask mandate, and attendees had to have...

It’s time for another PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go! So summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the street, so it’s time to continue the summer heat with a rhythm game (that is often also considered a fighting game to continue on from last week). Today’s title is Bust a Groove (not Taito’s similarly titled puzzle game, Bust-a-Move ). Bust a Groove was released in Japan, North America, and Europe in 1998 published by Enix, 989, and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, respectively. The game was developed by Metro, who also worked on Bravo Air Race , Burstrick: Wake Boarding!! , and Bomberman Party Edition (apparently their PlayStation lineup only starts with the letter ‘b’). Interestingly, this game was originally titled Bust a Move: Dance & Rhythm Action when it was re...

This review was originally published on the  Console Purist  Facebook group on June 20th, 2020. Another week, another PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go! So summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, and what better way to start this season than with a fighting game? Today’s game is SNK’s attempt at a 3D fighter: Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition . Originally released to the arcade on January 28th, 1999, the game followed on Japanese and North American PlayStation consoles on June 24th and November 30th, respectively. In what seems to be SNK’s attempt at mimicking their rival Capcom’s Street Fighter EX , Wild Ambition re-tells the first Fatal Fury game with some of the mainstay characters from later games such as Mai Shiranui and Mr. Karate except this time they’re all...

This review was originally published on the  Console Purist  Facebook group on June 13th, 2020. Another week, another PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go! This week, here’s another shmup - Soukyugurentai . This arcade game is also known as Terra Diver . It was released to arcades worldwide in September of 1996 and later to consoles on February 7th and December 25th of 1997 for Saturn and PS1 respectively. The console releases were only in Japan. Technically there are two PlayStation versions, Soukyuugurentai: Oubushutsugeki and Arcade Hits - Soukyugurentai . I’m not sure that there is any difference other than retail price at the time of release, publisher and cover art, but I have the latter (which was actually released on May 22nd, 2003).. The former version was published by Data E...