Last Time, at Gaming Hell Headquarters...
20th May, 2016
HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY, GAMING HELL!
Here we go again. Let's get the standard ENEMY OF THE STATE joke out the way and see what we've been up to this year- quite a bit, really! It's been a bit of a return to form with a lot more traditional playthroughs after the drought of them last year, including our first Nintendo game, our first Irem game and a game I've wanted to cover since we started. This was also the year we gave up on life and surrendered ourselves to the Love Live menace (Nico is still the best, y'know), and started another new Gathering of Games hub. Oh, and technically we released our very first video game even if my editor is still fuming about how that turned out. So, y'know, not bad. Quite a few of these are ones we've wanted to cover for ages too. I hope you've enjoyed it as well, as generally that's what these things are written for (apparently).
Also, at the tail-end of this year we opened our Tip Jar, and we've had a few tips, so we thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We know we've been a little quiet on this- to be honest, it's a little overwhelming to think people are willing to tip us. However, we do have plans for it- in fact, we already have our first game from tip-jar donations, Koloomn (PSP), so once we organise ourselves, we'll get straight on that- and there'll be more on the way.
Now, as for this year's birthday surprise, it's our very first 2D fighting game! It's a game that's very close to this rotten ol' heart of mine, and while normally I try and stay as far away from fighting games as possible, I've been playing them with a friend over the past year or so and learning, so hopefully this love-letter to Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire isn't too misguided. This is a special game to me, OK? Let me have this one, please. Sorry if you're disappointed that our favourite Capcom fighter isn't actually Cyberbots- forgive us, Devilot- but c'mon, how can I say no to B. B. Hood?
In any case, we thank you for your continued patronage of whatever kind of website we've been maintaining for the past eight years. Here's to at least two more years of keeping my editor out of mischief, playing games on something resembling a TV screen, and being the strongest website in the galaxy!
12th April, 2016
Our first Xbox 360 game, our first Xbox Indie game, our first Arika game? It can only be Jewelry Master Twinkle. And, technicaly, Jewelry Master (the original we can't play) and Jewelry Master Twinkle Light (which is basically an extra difficulty mode for the game sold separately)! So it's like three reviews in one except that's exactly what it's not.
Just the one update this time (beyond some typo corrections- thanks, Alexander!) but it's an embarassing one!:
* Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd - HA HA HA GUESS WHO DIDN'T KNOW YOU CAN SET THE VITA THUMBSTICKS TO PLAY STAR NOTES? WE SURE AS SHIT DIDN'T (luckily this doesn't really change my opinion on the Vita version of the game- that stuttering is way worse- but we altered the text slightly anyway.
1st April, 2016
... This is Ed the Editor, and I'm not a happy bunny. Not happy at all. I've been stitched up. Pranked on the one day of the eyar I get to have fun. again. If you want to know what's going on, you should play Tea Time of the Soul, a micro-visual-novel that explains the inner workings of the poor souls that run Gaming Hell. I'm talking about myself, obv. See you next y- no, I'm not signing off cordially this year, I''ll have my revenge on the pack of you! Traitors!
18th March, 2016
As Gaming Hell has to be late for everything, we're near the release of Project DIVA X and yet we decided to talk about a game that came out months ago but is also in line with the DIVA games. Please, say hello to Karen Kujo and all the others we don't really care about in Miracle Girls Festival. OK, that's a lie, the Tesagure girls are good too. But not Arpeggio of Blue Steel. Never Arpeggio of Blue Steel. Anyway, this one's a little short but there's not that much to say, really. Hope you enjoy the pretty screenshots anyway!
A couple of older page updates too. Guess this month is idol-themed:
* Love Live! School idol festival x Groove Coaster Zero & Love Live! School idol paradise Vol. 2: BiBi Unit - The School idol festival page got a little update that mentions the game's arcade version (that is actually a thing that is happening), and both of these pages have had their text adjusted just a tiny bit to account for the fact that while we were on the fence when these were written, we have sadly given in to idol hell and we Love Livers now. It's not that bad, really. Why not give ｉｔ ａ ｔｒｙ？ Ｊｏｉｎ ｔｈｅ Ｎｉｃｏ Ｎｉｃｏ Ｎｉｉ． Ｙｏｕ ｃａｎ ｂｅｃｏｍｅ ｏｎｅ ｏｆ ｕｓ．．．
* Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F - Master of Sega trivia Liam Ashcroft provided a Sega reference we had somehow missed! A Game Gear-shaped control panel appears in the PV for Urbandonment/Left-Behind City!
Oh, and thank you to those who contributed to the Gaming Hell Tip Jar! We've already got a new PSP game from your kindness that we'll be covering at some point! Do any of you recognise it?
Last thing, Liam Ashcroft strikes again, as he drew our mascot in the style of Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori. Her favourite Pokemon is Jigglypuff, by the way.
27th February, 2016
Righto, the game this time is one that's actually been requested on occasion, and has in fact been joked about on the front page for several years, in that Coming Soon section. I hope it was worth the wait, because The Speed Rumbler, one of my fave hidden gems from Capcom, has arrived! This was a pretty fun one to do, and I'm so glad I've finally managed to cover it. Enjoy!
Oh, and we commissioned internet pal lunasystem_ to draw our mascot again, and it's the best again, because she's in her witch costume!:
27th February, 2016
Huh. That's weird. This is another update, eh? This one's a little different, so bear with us. After a lot of thought (and setting up a Patreon page and accidentally making it live before we changed our minds, whoops) we have decided to set up a little thing that you'll see on the main page, a tip jar! If you like, you can donate to Gaming Hell now, and that money will go towards site upkeep, weird gamesoft for us to cover- in particular, the PSP, PS2 and Wii era of gaming is one we're interested in covering more of- and better capture equipment so our screenshots don't looke quite as laughable anymore (this one we finally managed, thank you all, so we've changed this to site upkeep- helping with the bill when it comes to renewing the domain / online space). We did consider a Patreon account- thank you to the friends we discussed this with- but ultimately decided it wasn't a good fit for our site. A tip jar is definitely more fitting for this little hole, wouldn't you say?
In any case, we'd just like to say, you have no obligation to tip. If you like our site, that's good enough for us. If you do tip, though, you have our unending gratitude and love- thank you, we really mean that. We hope you enjoy the stuff we've got lined up for the future too, so let's fight on to make this the strongest video game website! The strongest!!
22nd January, 2016
Oh, it's the new year then, huh? I guess it is and there's nothing we can do about it. So we're looking at something terrible this month, with Space Invaders: Invasion Day.Our US and Japanese readers may know it as Space Raiders instead!
Just one update to an older page this time:
* Märchen Maze - A tiny update, we actually managed to find some bonafide Märchen Maze merchandise! Specifically, a gashapon figure of Alice and the White Rabbit, from Yujin's SR Namco Girls Part 1 series.
By the way, while dear, beloved Ed went on holiday to places unknown, I went to Japan instead. It was fun and we managed to acquire plenty of rare material as we went to Comiket! With a bit of luck, we might get to cover some of that stuff down the road, but for now here's three photos we took while we were there.
13th November, 2015
Oh, fantastic, we get to do a double with our 'we miss Halloween each year' gag, because now we have a game that would fit for Halloween! But hey, it's Friday the 13th, so close enough right? It's Corpse Party: Book of Shadows this time, alongside a new Groups page to go with it, Heavenly Host Archives. Not much else to say this time- although don't expect an update next month- my dear Ed is on holiday. He didn't say where he was going except for 'away from you'. What a meanie.
31st October, 2015
In the time-honoured Gaming Hell tradition of always getting Halloween wrong, here is one I've wanted to do for years- Undercover Cops. The Irem love is strong in this one. I hope you feel it too.
Also this month, a little correction for the Bubble Symphony page sent in by @Kak2X- Disco didn't develop the NES port of Bubble Bobble, that was Taito themselves. I got mixed up because Disco made the NES version of Rainbow Islands. Easily done, right? Right?!
16th September, 2015
Oh no. Oh, no. The idols are back! I thought we'd seen the last of them, but Love Live! School idol paradise Vol. 2: BiBi Unit is here. This one was interesting, let's put it like that.
29th August, 2015
Well, we made it, just about. This month we have a look at a charming little game, one that I have an undeniable soft-spot for, Balloon Kid. First proper Nintendo game on here, ya know! To make up for missing June, we also have a tiny bonus article in the form of the baffling Osaka Simulator FINAL which is... Probably not a game, actually. I don't know. Enjoy!
Also, quite a few old articles have been updated lately, so here we go:
* Love Live! School idol festival x Groove Coaster Zero - An extra section added to discuss some of the updates both games have seen- Love Live! had some of its text altered to put back in homosexual references that were originally edited out (and the fans noticed and were not happy, and too right) while Groove Coaster Zero transformed into Groove Coaster 2 with lots of significant updates.
* Nazca Staff - An absolutely massive update here thanks to Youloute who provided filled in a lot of gaps, and provided a translation of pertinent facts fromthe Retro Game Test videos, made by people who emailed Nazca staff- those videos are here (In the Hunt & Gunforce II) and here (Metal Slug). This page has a lot more Nazca trivia now!
* Air Rescue - The game finally has two-player support in MAME, which means the intro is now present. We updated the article to mention this.
* Momoko 120% - Added notes on the mobile game Momoko 1200%, which I finally got to play via Playstation Mobile and it's garbage. Sorry, just telling the truth here.
Oh, and Ultra Powerful Pal of Gaming Hell, HokutoNoShock returns to the updates page with a new Soul Calibur V character... Our secret mascot, Sniper Honey! In both normal and ninja versions. Here's the screenshots below, including two non-canon shots of... A powerful battle?!
... Oh, and there was also this bonus one of our dear Ed the Editor... Kinda.
Thanks again, HokutoNoShock!
17th July, 2015
I know, I know, we missed June. We're starting the eight year of Gaming Hell as we mean to go on, clearly. Anyway, it's our first playthrough in a long time, so let us, together, play theough the wacky world of Dynamite Düx! This was a hard one to write, as you will find out. Please enjoy.
... Oh, and if you bothered to check the update page, we have one page upadte for you- Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd now has a section on the Dreamy Theater 'port' for PS3. So that's something.
20th May, 2015
... Eh? We doing this one again? Ah, it's because late on the 20th, we got some fanart! Resident Sega and Vocaloid fan Liam Ashcroft very kindly surprised us with this piece that contains both 'that one guy from Hard Head 2' and our lovely mascot, among other stars of this tiny website. Thanks so much!
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