№ 19: Sakura Taisen Hanagumi Taisen Columns (1997, SEGA) — Arcade Apocalypse Ochimonogatari - Video

We recline in the shade of pristine galge character presentation; join us to know the problem with lex, the issue with superlatives, the beauty of butches, the nature of a "glove-wearing personality", and the necessity of "horse tiddies." Streamed 5/3/23

hi! i'm doing a stream and youtube series called Walternate Saga 7: Arcade Apocalypse Ochimonogatari, covering ochimono games (arcade puzzle stackers) released on arcade machines between 1987 and 2004. we'll be playing through 118 games reverse-chronologically every wednesday for the rest of the year (at least)! you can follow along @ https://twitch.tv/bedsores

my thoughts: we'll chew more deeply on the nature of COLUMNS-type stackers next time. the presentation of SAKURA TAISEN HANAGUMI TAISEN COLUMNS is as rich and sweet as 1997, or any year since, could give us. the characters' archetypes held up the structure while their particularities created the glamour. the sheer excess of neutral, sad, happy, and aggressive background images brought the two characters diegetically playing Saturn in the middle of the screen to full presence. we missed many music tracks, failure and success post-game states, the illustrations of our triumph as the one true cinderella. to call the game a puzzle-spinoff cash-grab would elide the careful, gorgeous work that made its presentation so fulfilling, even to a newbie to the franchise. additionally, the more i think about the meter-charge system, with its five possible resultant states (attack w/ 1-3 power, clear blocks with 1-3 power, charge up with 1-2 power, deploy a special combing board-clear by charging with 3 power, or losing 1-3 power by forgetting to press anything) encourage the player to carefully consider their options, their greed, and their overall strategy. with cute girls and high-level strategy, SAKURA TAISEN HANAGUMI TAISEN proves the ol' Puzzle Wednesday adage: puzzle games is fighting games. 8.5/10

art of me by Minasheep! (https://twitter.com/lammyheaven, https://twitch.tv/minasheep) next up is № 20: Columns '97 (1997, SEGA). i hope you'll join us!