When I was a kid, I finished Pocky and Rocky, and in the manual, they had something that said send us a pic of the credits screen and they would send a shirt. So I took a Polaroid pic I think, sent it in, and got a “Natsume Game Master” shirt!
You may have been the only person to claim the T-shirt! Jokes aside, fair play to the company for honouring it. I’ve never heard of this game before. It looks gorgeous.
@@BrentKilboy true that'd probably why they don't do those type of contest anymore... scammers would be mailing fakes from different addresses and then try to sell the shirts
Great news folks - I was working on this video two weeks ago and Omega Five was not available for purchase and had been delisted. Yet, out of nowhere, this month, it has returned to the Xbox store and can be purchased right now.
I'm part of the larger audience and I don't think it's not OK to not have the original names. Forget the title, I wanted at least the charactes to have their real names. I can't see a traditional Japanese priestes named "Karen", this is not the kind of game to have 'burger names, it's almost offensive. I'm gonna pass on this.
@@souljastation5463 Do you get butthurt every time someone says Godzilla instead of Gojira? God forbid you say Animal Crossing instead of Dobutso no Mori! Do you get unnecessarily mad when someone says Pokemon instead of Pocket Monsters? If the Japanese studio didn't raise a fuss, I really don't think it matters.
Man, my childhood in that game. Played it so much (had to rent it) iirc the store guy just ended up giving it to me the last time I rented it cuz I was the only one that played it.
This is the exact look I wish more studios would pursue, especially when revisiting older IP. It's like if the industry had kept advancing in 2D instead of jumping ship to polygons. I appreciate how even the UI during gameplay adheres to the pixel grid. And the near-neighbor scaling is so clean, I never would have guessed the image was stretched horizontally. There being any slowdown at all is still confounding. I've never understood how Unity could be so poorly optimized to load these 2D assets that have miniscule storage sizes compared to 3D ones. There's a rumor bouncing around that Intelligent Systems wants to remake Fire Emblem 6 & 7, and it worries me. Those games had some of the best art and animation on the GBA, and I have zero faith that IS/Namco/Nintendo would do that style justice, the way Tengo Project has here.
yeah, unfortunately i don’t think there are many artists around now skilled enough in 2d to pull something of this grade off. lush 2d like this is very much becoming a lost art. i hope tengo project sticks around for a long time.
I think what's interesting about the horizontal scaling is that it matches how SNES output was on CRTs back in the day. SNES pixels were slightly wider than they were tall.
Coverage on games like this is always welcome. The usual digital foundry content is nice, but stuff like pocky and rocky adds another dimension to the channel
I would buy both too, but sadly I don't think it's happening. Ninja Warriors came out in 2019 and still haven't materialized on PC. You can emulate both flawlessly, but this is "shut up and take my money" we're talking about.
When Wild Guns was announced as a remake I bought it right away, I love that game on the SNES and the remake is subtle in it's graphical improvement that I thought the game always looked like this. It looks no way primitive but sometimes with these remakes/remasters is that the upgrades look to out of place, cheap or garish.
@@Holammer It's best to just emulate. The publisher for this and Ninja Warriors is ININ Games who have never published a single game on PC. Some of the games they have published like Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World and Star Renegades have released on PC but with a different publisher. I've tried to contact them on all the socials about a PC release for their other games and they either ignore or block so it seems like they explicitly don't want to release anything on PC. This means no Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Turrican or the rest of the Darius series on PC.
wow. I loved this as a kid and I love how they boosted the animation and art so appropriately. Remasters of pixel art/sprite era games should use this as a blueprint. It's like they went back in time and made a Neo-Geo version of the SNES game.
@@donvanvilet8466 i get you, but at the same time, the game is so good... The other remakes never game performance problems. But i get how it's kinda hard to excuse releasing a totally 2d pixelated game in a console from 2017 and still get performance problems. Like, 2d graphics were mastered at most in the 360/ps3/wii. I remember how odin sphere had performance problems in the ps2 but the same devs next game, muramasa didnt have any problem on wii, so i can guess that at that point, rendering huge sprites were not a problem anymore for graphics processors. Wow, what a tangent, sorry.
So happy to see ya guys doing a review of a remake of one of my favorite SNES game. This remake looks really promising. Please do more content like this, thoroughly enjoyed watching it. You really hit my nostalgic nerve. Totally awesome. Thanks DF & especially John for such a KiKick-ass review!
*For the future players : Easy difficulty is lock behind the conditions -- beating normal difficulty or collecting coins. If you wanna play easy mode firstly, Then don`t use "rullet" NPC on screen. He gives you max power up or even 1up, but it consumes coins. In this way, Unlocking easy mode would be a lot faster.
It unlocks easy mode based on TOTAL coins collected, it has nothing to do with how many you spend. Under options>game stats you can see your total coins, you need to collect 3k to unlock easy mode and 10k (or beat game in any difficulty) to unlock co-op
I never played Wild Guns, but it was a revelation to me when I discovered it on Switch Online. My brother and I were both visiting my Mom's, and we stayed up into the morning hours trying to get through to the end on co-op, as if we were back in the 90s. I'll definitely be picking up this one!
When my dad came back from a work trip back in 1992, he brought the Super Famicom (SNES) with him together with Pilotwings and THIS GAME! It was that day when he turned me into a gamer that persists till this day. I didn't know Japanese back then, so I hadn't had any luck finding this game. But this has all changed today. Thank you DF, thank you John. You have brought back my childhood memory and I'm reliving it thanks to you. I feel like my dad's sitting right next to me again as we desperately trying to get through the first stage together. I miss you, dad.
John, I LOVE this type of DF retro stuff. Please do more like this one as well as the more inadept stuff if you enjoy it. Pretty much anything you upload DF retro wise is an INSTANT watch for me (though I watch all DF stuff to really lol). I really can't get enough of this! This game looks awesome and I will be picking it up asap. One of my favorite DF retros you have done recently was Splatterhouse. Insane amount of work and effort and I really appreciated the thought, time and effort put into it. You are and any teammates that help are truly amazing!!!
We need more remakes like these, ones that reproduce the look and the gameplay of these old classics, but enhancing and improving them. Love the 2D Pixel art detail here and the animation is great. Thanks for showing this DF!
I'll be picking up this game from GameStop tomorrow. Getting both the switch and PS4 versions. It's just a shame and disappointing, reading some of the comments of people saying they will wait for it to go on sale and this and that. I wholeheartedly support projects like this over 99% of the same AAA games that come out nowadays that feel soulless. This on the other hand feels like a true work of passion and I want the developer and the publisher to get rewarded the way they deserve to.
@@SomeDudeSomewhere bruh this vid hyped me up and I was about to go buy it but now I have to wait a month! Like dangling a carrot in front of me then yanking it at the last minute haha
I'd absolutely love to see more videos like this. I pre-ordered this a while ago for PS4, mostly due to potential trophies that may add challenge. Really looking forward to it's release next month 💯🔥
I have the SNES version of this game. Loved it back in the day and didn't know about this version and its now on my shopping list! Loved the video too!
I've always wanted to try the original. It looked so good in the old gaming mags, but never got around to playing it. Looking forward to finally giving Pocky & Rocky a shot!
I think of this game as being much closer to something like Sonic Mania than it is a direct remake of the original. It has you start by playing through familiar territory and then branches off into its own new thing. I think it is actually a sequel and not just a remake of the first game, although as I said it has you play through some of the same areas
Really cool to see these industry veterans one up-ing their already originally superbly qualitative pixel art. It has always been one of my most prefered art styles in general and in games even more so. Natsume is synonymous with childhood nostalgia so I'm really happy to see this being realized. Looks dope. This is also the type of content I would like to see more of from DF and why I'm subscribed. Good stuff.
John these DF Retros are what I chill out to at night so I can relax and go to bed. I truly love these. I’m pretty sure we’re almost the same age so what you cover in these relate to me as well.
Not only do I want to see more reviews like this, but these types of your reviews (Sonic Mania, this, other new retro stuff) are some of my favorites that Digital Foundry produces! Keep it up, John! And much respect to Tengo Project!
I had NO idea that this classic was remade. Thx John! I also would like to recommend everyone check out at developer named DYA games. Their Bot Vice games feels similar in aesthetic and feel.
Digital Foundry is really one of my favorite TH-cam channels period. The love for video games and their creation always shines through all the technical language so brightly.
just want to clarify this isn't necessarily a remake but an entire sequel. it LITERALLY is a completely new game that borrows elements and setting from the original.
Yes please! Both to the game, and to making more videos on smaller scale games like this. I'm actually going to go back and buy the other games mentioned in the video as well!
I can't speak for the Snes version, but as someone who was in Japan at the time I do remember the original Kiki Kaikai in the mid 80s. It was a fad of sorts on the arcade and later on on PC Engine for the rich kids. Good old days.
So good to see this game making a comeback. I added this to our library video game collection. So now that we finally got a Switch students will have a chance to check it out. I've done quite a bit of work building that collection up.
Fascinating take on the original game. I feel like there's considerable influence from the cancelled "Kiki Kai World" and later modified "Heavenly Guardian" games too, with the newly introduced content. Does anyone know if any of the same developers were involved?
You guys are the best for coving this. Waiting on my Japanese physical Switch version in the mail. I have both Ninja Warriors and Wild Guns remakes. The more support for these high quality retro remakes the better. Great coverage guys!
Thanks for spotlighting this one, John! I've briefly played Pocky and Rocky on the SNES, but had no real interest in the remake. That's definitely changed after seeing your video, and now I fully intend to pick it up on Switch. Not only does the game look great, but I think it's crucial that we support developers who handle new versions of classic games with love and care.
Recently I started watching these DF Retro videos and I really enjoy them! Entertaining and Informational! One thing that always throws me off is that during a comparison the older game is placed on the right side of the screen. I have to recalibrate myself every time a comparison comes up. This feels backwards to me, because as an English speaker I think we intuitively read from left to right with the assumption that left is before and right is after. Otherwise excellent videos!
Thank you for covering this game, including the history and the developer! Can't wait to play it. I would love to see more, smaller & less known games!
I remember playing Pocky and Rocky years ago when I was growing up, this was one of those games where I would, as you said, just pick up and play. I absolutely loved it back then. This is a must-buy day one for me! I am stoked to see the developers of the original working on this as well. Honestly it completely took me by surprise that there are game developers from back then still making games. I hope they enjoyed making this as much as I loved the original, and as much as I know I am going to love this new one!
You remember this being a 'pick-up-and-play' game? I remember it as a 'spend-hours-being-knocked-back-to-the-title-screen-because-you-ran-out-of-lives-and-you've-been-doing-this-for-weeks' game. Maybe I need to git gud.
Thank you so much for highlighting this title. I absolutely love old school action games. I would’ve missed this completely, will be buying after I watch this!
Thank you. This answers a lot of the questions I had about the remake/remaster, and was super fun to hear about. I'd love to see more videos like this!
Surprised and delighted to see this video as it's not a normal candidate for a tech review. I had a great time playing this game last Saturday afternoon and loved Rocky's tail swing.
Awesome video review John! I love what Tengo is doing and I hope they inspire more Japanese studios to do more 2D remakes/sequels. We've obviously seen an explosion of that in the west, but its strangely overlooked in Japan considering just how many amazing animators they have.
I did not know that these guys were the same team behind Ninja Warriors again, but now that I know, I see it. The explosions are drawn the same way. What a team.
Didn't know this was getting remade. Definitely getting this on Switch. Hoping for a Steam version too in the future so I can play with certain people online (idk if it has online coop but that be nice)
Great review. Fan of the series so pre ordered this 2 months ago. Got it on switch. Had to get a physical cartridge. Even with the slight drop in frames pocky and rocky HAS to be played on a nintendo console.
Just played both original games on a SNES emulator. Soooo ahead of their time 93and 94. I mean part 2 had a training mode. A training mode in 1994. Crazy
Awesome review and would definitely love to see you guys spotlight other efforts like this. Hoping my PlayAsia order gets here soon after watching this!
Thank you John for shedding more light on these Natsume remakes...I am surprised they are not covered or streamed more often given their high quality...I was obsessed with WILD GUNS RELOADED for nearly a year!!
I loved this game on the SNES. It was the Japanese version and had another name ("Ninja Kiki", if I'm not mistaken). This made it hard to find it again in the emulation era, because I didn't know the western name. Anyway, amazing game.
this should be the benchmark for remastered games of this era. modern reimagining that makes use of available technology, capturing the spirit of and nostalgia for the original whilst injecting new creativity and novelty. well done Tengo Project. also an astounding review and retrospective by DF 😁
2D pixel art games that don't adhere to the pixel grid are a pet peeve of mine. This game looks amazingly authentic, like it literally jumped through a wormhole from 1997.
Oh my GOOOOOD, how could this have not popped up into my feed??? This was one of my FAVOURITE action games as a kid. It was so hard, but so much fun. I lost my mind when they announced Reshrined, preordering it immediately. I can't wait to play this with my girlfriend.
Thanks for covering this, I had no idea it was coming out. After loving both the wild guns and ninja warrior remakes it would've been a shame to miss this
tbh, I ordered the version with the Rocky plushie just to have a daily reminder how many good memories I've collected in the past thanks to the Kiki Kaikai games. ♥
Fans of Touhou Project find this game interesting, as Touhou's creator ZUN have mentioned he have made a little test game based on Pocky and Rocky before his first public release.
I'm so used to see cheap western development teams tackle these remakes, I didn't even consider the possibility of a team of japanese veterans creating this... but when I saw the beauty, the skill and the good (and authentically japanese) taste in reimagining the graphics for the new hardware I told myself this couldn't be another cash grab. There's so much love for the old pixel art era in this game I'm almost moved.
I played this a ton on the Super Nintendo. Lol i loved it when playing co op, and getting frustrated with my buddy for not keeping up with me within the game, I'd dash into him and send his ass careening across the screen! Can't wait to play the remaster!
I may be the last human being on the planet with this standard. but, CRT scanlines are a must for any retro game or remake for that matter, it makes or breaks a game for me for sure, so thank you to the developers for putting this much needed filter for those who love playing their games like this.
Just got it on Black Friday sale for $12 via Amazon! Totally forgot about this gem after first watching this video about a year ago, so when the sale popped up this morning as suggested I grabbed it up quick! 😅 Thanks, Digital Foundry. Even though I liked P&R back when I played it on SNES, I probably would've just passed on this rerelease/remaster if not for this video. Cheers!
I was briefly obsessed with this series and the characters when I got into it via emulation in 2004, didn't think I'd be interested in a remake but this looks wonderful
Nice video! Honestly I've never been into scrolling shooters (shmups), but heck you've convinced me dangit! I've been on the fence for a while, but this video pushed me off thanks!
When I was a kid, I finished Pocky and Rocky, and in the manual, they had something that said send us a pic of the credits screen and they would send a shirt. So I took a Polaroid pic I think, sent it in, and got a “Natsume Game Master” shirt!
That's awesome!
You may have been the only person to claim the T-shirt!
Jokes aside, fair play to the company for honouring it.
I’ve never heard of this game before. It looks gorgeous.
it could have been a pic of a screen shot of someone who finished the game. lol
@@Stylez-13 haha, but seeing as how it was 1992, and you had to mail in a photo, I doubt there were like any fakes sent in, haha.
@@BrentKilboy true that'd probably why they don't do those type of contest anymore... scammers would be mailing fakes from different addresses and then try to sell the shirts
Great news folks - I was working on this video two weeks ago and Omega Five was not available for purchase and had been delisted. Yet, out of nowhere, this month, it has returned to the Xbox store and can be purchased right now.
too bad xbox licks balls like stamps
John thank you for covering this absolute gem of a game, this way it can be introduced to a larger audience.
THIS ☝🏽
I'm part of the larger audience and I don't think it's not OK to not have the original names. Forget the title, I wanted at least the charactes to have their real names. I can't see a traditional Japanese priestes named "Karen", this is not the kind of game to have 'burger names, it's almost offensive. I'm gonna pass on this.
@@souljastation5463 Do you get butthurt every time someone says Godzilla instead of Gojira? God forbid you say Animal Crossing instead of Dobutso no Mori! Do you get unnecessarily mad when someone says Pokemon instead of Pocket Monsters? If the Japanese studio didn't raise a fuss, I really don't think it matters.
New member added right here
@@souljastation5463 local man discovers regional differences in video games
This is the kind of content that DF needs to make more of! I loved every moment of this video and now I need to go buy these games hah.
Man, my childhood in that game. Played it so much (had to rent it) iirc the store guy just ended up giving it to me the last time I rented it cuz I was the only one that played it.
What a cool guy
👍
Loved this game as kid as well
This is the exact look I wish more studios would pursue, especially when revisiting older IP. It's like if the industry had kept advancing in 2D instead of jumping ship to polygons. I appreciate how even the UI during gameplay adheres to the pixel grid. And the near-neighbor scaling is so clean, I never would have guessed the image was stretched horizontally.
There being any slowdown at all is still confounding. I've never understood how Unity could be so poorly optimized to load these 2D assets that have miniscule storage sizes compared to 3D ones.
There's a rumor bouncing around that Intelligent Systems wants to remake Fire Emblem 6 & 7, and it worries me. Those games had some of the best art and animation on the GBA, and I have zero faith that IS/Namco/Nintendo would do that style justice, the way Tengo Project has here.
yeah, unfortunately i don’t think there are many artists around now skilled enough in 2d to pull something of this grade off. lush 2d like this is very much becoming a lost art. i hope tengo project sticks around for a long time.
Thanks for letting us learn about this game.
We need more hidden gems like this.
pocky n rocky is a hidden gem? lol
@@cboyslim5490 To a newer generation of gamers? Yes it is...
@@ramonandrajo6348 Bro we get it you don’t have a job. Don’t worry your moms basement is always available to you as long as she’s still around.
@@ramonandrajo6348 I may like Nintendo (even though I pirate all their older games) but at least I have a job and my own place XD.
I mean it doesn't have to be a hidden gem, you just gotta get people to buy it.
The SNES Pocky & Rocky is one of the most underrated action games of all time. I'm very excited for this reimagining.
I think what's interesting about the horizontal scaling is that it matches how SNES output was on CRTs back in the day. SNES pixels were slightly wider than they were tall.
I love seeing SNES-era (specifically 90s 2D) remasters.
Coverage on games like this is always welcome. The usual digital foundry content is nice, but stuff like pocky and rocky adds another dimension to the channel
I've never even heard of these games before, this looks amazing.
Play it
I'd recommend playing the SNES versions. There are 2 games, each available in Japanese or English.
Yeah I think I'm going to, I'm interested in checking out that pc engine game as well
Man, this looks great and it got me to finally pick up Wild Guns on Steam. I’d love to buy this and The Ninja Warriors on PC as well.
I would buy both too, but sadly I don't think it's happening.
Ninja Warriors came out in 2019 and still haven't materialized on PC. You can emulate both flawlessly, but this is "shut up and take my money" we're talking about.
When Wild Guns was announced as a remake I bought it right away, I love that game on the SNES and the remake is subtle in it's graphical improvement that I thought the game always looked like this.
It looks no way primitive but sometimes with these remakes/remasters is that the upgrades look to out of place, cheap or garish.
I agree with your comments , I would buy this right now on pc or xbox the game looks fun and the port is amazing
@@Holammer It's best to just emulate. The publisher for this and Ninja Warriors is ININ Games who have never published a single game on PC. Some of the games they have published like Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World and Star Renegades have released on PC but with a different publisher. I've tried to contact them on all the socials about a PC release for their other games and they either ignore or block so it seems like they explicitly don't want to release anything on PC. This means no Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Turrican or the rest of the Darius series on PC.
@@MrChaladar Terrible news. ININ seems focus on consoles, let's hope Natsume self-publishes the games.
wow. I loved this as a kid and I love how they boosted the animation and art so appropriately. Remasters of pixel art/sprite era games should use this as a blueprint. It's like they went back in time and made a Neo-Geo version of the SNES game.
These guys are killing it with these remakes, hope they keep up. Wild guns remake blew my mind, same with ninja warriors, now this.
is wild guns on sale sometimes?
Uh, shipping a game this simple with slowdown in 2022 is not "killing" anything besides my faith in game developers.
@@maegnificant Pretty sure I got it on sale for $10 USD and have seen Ninja Warriors at the same. It doesn't happen very often though.
@@SuperFirstSecond okay, I got ninja warriors for that price too, today:) I'll wait for the same deal. Thanks!
@@donvanvilet8466 i get you, but at the same time, the game is so good... The other remakes never game performance problems. But i get how it's kinda hard to excuse releasing a totally 2d pixelated game in a console from 2017 and still get performance problems. Like, 2d graphics were mastered at most in the 360/ps3/wii. I remember how odin sphere had performance problems in the ps2 but the same devs next game, muramasa didnt have any problem on wii, so i can guess that at that point, rendering huge sprites were not a problem anymore for graphics processors. Wow, what a tangent, sorry.
So happy to see ya guys doing a review of a remake of one of my favorite SNES game. This remake looks really promising. Please do more content like this, thoroughly enjoyed watching it. You really hit my nostalgic nerve. Totally awesome. Thanks DF & especially John for such a KiKick-ass review!
*For the future players :
Easy difficulty is lock behind the conditions -- beating normal difficulty or collecting coins.
If you wanna play easy mode firstly, Then don`t use "rullet" NPC on screen. He gives you max power up or even 1up, but it consumes coins. In this way, Unlocking easy mode would be a lot faster.
It unlocks easy mode based on TOTAL coins collected, it has nothing to do with how many you spend. Under options>game stats you can see your total coins, you need to collect 3k to unlock easy mode and 10k (or beat game in any difficulty) to unlock co-op
Weird.
I never played Wild Guns, but it was a revelation to me when I discovered it on Switch Online. My brother and I were both visiting my Mom's, and we stayed up into the morning hours trying to get through to the end on co-op, as if we were back in the 90s. I'll definitely be picking up this one!
Yo! My brother and I recently did the same thing at our parents house! Wild times!
Yes, please continue to cover more of these small, but significant, games in the future. Thanks for this.
When my dad came back from a work trip back in 1992, he brought the Super Famicom (SNES) with him together with Pilotwings and THIS GAME! It was that day when he turned me into a gamer that persists till this day. I didn't know Japanese back then, so I hadn't had any luck finding this game. But this has all changed today. Thank you DF, thank you John. You have brought back my childhood memory and I'm reliving it thanks to you. I feel like my dad's sitting right next to me again as we desperately trying to get through the first stage together. I miss you, dad.
John, I LOVE this type of DF retro stuff. Please do more like this one as well as the more inadept stuff if you enjoy it. Pretty much anything you upload DF retro wise is an INSTANT watch for me (though I watch all DF stuff to really lol). I really can't get enough of this! This game looks awesome and I will be picking it up asap. One of my favorite DF retros you have done recently was Splatterhouse. Insane amount of work and effort and I really appreciated the thought, time and effort put into it. You are and any teammates that help are truly amazing!!!
We need more remakes like these, ones that reproduce the look and the gameplay of these old classics, but enhancing and improving them. Love the 2D Pixel art detail here and the animation is great. Thanks for showing this DF!
Man I remember playing this as a kid. Can't wait to pick it up!
Same!
I'll be picking up this game from GameStop tomorrow. Getting both the switch and PS4 versions. It's just a shame and disappointing, reading some of the comments of people saying they will wait for it to go on sale and this and that. I wholeheartedly support projects like this over 99% of the same AAA games that come out nowadays that feel soulless. This on the other hand feels like a true work of passion and I want the developer and the publisher to get rewarded the way they deserve to.
More content like this, John! Your passion for these classic styled games is infectious.
Love what I see. Couldn’t find it in the Switch store though. Is it cartridge only?
it's only out in Japan right now.
@@jowysw dang it, what’s the point of that 😭
@@SomeDudeSomewhere bruh this vid hyped me up and I was about to go buy it but now I have to wait a month! Like dangling a carrot in front of me then yanking it at the last minute haha
@@nadine3189 same. Argh.
@@nadine3189 i bought it on the japanese psn store just now by making a japanese sony account and buying a psn card for japan
I'd absolutely love to see more videos like this. I pre-ordered this a while ago for PS4, mostly due to potential trophies that may add challenge.
Really looking forward to it's release next month 💯🔥
I have the SNES version of this game. Loved it back in the day and didn't know about this version and its now on my shopping list! Loved the video too!
I've always wanted to try the original. It looked so good in the old gaming mags, but never got around to playing it. Looking forward to finally giving Pocky & Rocky a shot!
I would definitely like to see more small games like this covered on the channel! Good work, John, and thank you as always, for all your hard work!
One of my favorite type of vids from DF! John at his absolute best! Would love more of these vids:)
I think of this game as being much closer to something like Sonic Mania than it is a direct remake of the original. It has you start by playing through familiar territory and then branches off into its own new thing. I think it is actually a sequel and not just a remake of the first game, although as I said it has you play through some of the same areas
Really cool to see these industry veterans one up-ing their already originally superbly qualitative pixel art. It has always been one of my most prefered art styles in general and in games even more so. Natsume is synonymous with childhood nostalgia so I'm really happy to see this being realized. Looks dope.
This is also the type of content I would like to see more of from DF and why I'm subscribed. Good stuff.
Honestly I just love when John gets to cover stuff that is near and dear to his heart. That passion really comes through!
John these DF Retros are what I chill out to at night so I can relax and go to bed. I truly love these. I’m pretty sure we’re almost the same age so what you cover in these relate to me as well.
Not only do I want to see more reviews like this, but these types of your reviews (Sonic Mania, this, other new retro stuff) are some of my favorites that Digital Foundry produces! Keep it up, John! And much respect to Tengo Project!
Super stoked you guys covered this one!
I had NO idea that this classic was remade. Thx John! I also would like to recommend everyone check out at developer named DYA games. Their Bot Vice games feels similar in aesthetic and feel.
Imagine if Tengo Project are given the chance to do a HD remake of Gundam Wing: Endless Duel for modern platforms :D
Digital Foundry is really one of my favorite TH-cam channels period. The love for video games and their creation always shines through all the technical language so brightly.
i definitely appreciate y’all covering smaller releases like this
just want to clarify this isn't necessarily a remake but an entire sequel. it LITERALLY is a completely new game that borrows elements and setting from the original.
Awesome review as always. Makes me stoked to play this version and the original on SNES.
Yes please! Both to the game, and to making more videos on smaller scale games like this. I'm actually going to go back and buy the other games mentioned in the video as well!
I like the "I won't spoil things" line drop immediately after spoiling something rather big
I can't speak for the Snes version, but as someone who was in Japan at the time I do remember the original Kiki Kaikai in the mid 80s.
It was a fad of sorts on the arcade and later on on PC Engine for the rich kids. Good old days.
So good to see this game making a comeback. I added this to our library video game collection. So now that we finally got a Switch students will have a chance to check it out. I've done quite a bit of work building that collection up.
Fascinating take on the original game. I feel like there's considerable influence from the cancelled "Kiki Kai World" and later modified "Heavenly Guardian" games too, with the newly introduced content. Does anyone know if any of the same developers were involved?
Oh I hope this comes to PC. Would be perfect for the Steam Deck
My thoughts exactly, fingers crossed!
I love this kind of game.
I hope they remake another classics with this kind of style.
Thanks for making this video, I love the series and watching this is very intetesting and enlightening.
I'm happy to watch many more videos like this on smaller games! Happy to see both content and performance be reviewd. Very nice!
You guys are the best for coving this. Waiting on my Japanese physical Switch version in the mail. I have both Ninja Warriors and Wild Guns remakes. The more support for these high quality retro remakes the better. Great coverage guys!
Yeah I'm thinking about importing too.
I'm sold, looks so much fun. Thank you John love your videos, keep up with the good work.
Thanks for spotlighting this one, John! I've briefly played Pocky and Rocky on the SNES, but had no real interest in the remake. That's definitely changed after seeing your video, and now I fully intend to pick it up on Switch. Not only does the game look great, but I think it's crucial that we support developers who handle new versions of classic games with love and care.
Recently I started watching these DF Retro videos and I really enjoy them! Entertaining and Informational! One thing that always throws me off is that during a comparison the older game is placed on the right side of the screen. I have to recalibrate myself every time a comparison comes up. This feels backwards to me, because as an English speaker I think we intuitively read from left to right with the assumption that left is before and right is after. Otherwise excellent videos!
Thank you for covering this game, including the history and the developer! Can't wait to play it. I would love to see more, smaller & less known games!
I remember playing Pocky and Rocky years ago when I was growing up, this was one of those games where I would, as you said, just pick up and play. I absolutely loved it back then. This is a must-buy day one for me! I am stoked to see the developers of the original working on this as well. Honestly it completely took me by surprise that there are game developers from back then still making games. I hope they enjoyed making this as much as I loved the original, and as much as I know I am going to love this new one!
You remember this being a 'pick-up-and-play' game? I remember it as a 'spend-hours-being-knocked-back-to-the-title-screen-because-you-ran-out-of-lives-and-you've-been-doing-this-for-weeks' game. Maybe I need to git gud.
Thank you so much for highlighting this title. I absolutely love old school action games. I would’ve missed this completely, will be buying after I watch this!
Thank you. This answers a lot of the questions I had about the remake/remaster, and was super fun to hear about. I'd love to see more videos like this!
Surprised and delighted to see this video as it's not a normal candidate for a tech review. I had a great time playing this game last Saturday afternoon and loved Rocky's tail swing.
Awesome video review John! I love what Tengo is doing and I hope they inspire more Japanese studios to do more 2D remakes/sequels. We've obviously seen an explosion of that in the west, but its strangely overlooked in Japan considering just how many amazing animators they have.
I did not know that these guys were the same team behind Ninja Warriors again, but now that I know, I see it. The explosions are drawn the same way. What a team.
thats some top tier pixel art, holy cow. Wish more games released these days had this quality
This is awesome! I was just thinking after playing several AAA games that I’d love to play something retro. Definitely going to pick this up on PS!
Didn't know this was getting remade. Definitely getting this on Switch. Hoping for a Steam version too in the future so I can play with certain people online (idk if it has online coop but that be nice)
I'm glad you covered this game its one of my favorite series. It deserves all the support
Great review.
Fan of the series so pre ordered this 2 months ago.
Got it on switch.
Had to get a physical cartridge.
Even with the slight drop in frames pocky and rocky HAS to be played on a nintendo console.
I LOVED THIS GAME SO MUCH!! I can't wait for it to be released in the west!!
Just played both original games on a SNES emulator. Soooo ahead of their time 93and 94. I mean part 2 had a training mode. A training mode in 1994. Crazy
I just made an upscaled shot of Pocky & Rocky w/ Becky this morning, wtf?? This is so cool!
Awesome review and would definitely love to see you guys spotlight other efforts like this. Hoping my PlayAsia order gets here soon after watching this!
Thank you John for shedding more light on these Natsume remakes...I am surprised they are not covered or streamed more often given their high quality...I was obsessed with WILD GUNS RELOADED for nearly a year!!
I loved this game on the SNES. It was the Japanese version and had another name ("Ninja Kiki", if I'm not mistaken). This made it hard to find it again in the emulation era, because I didn't know the western name. Anyway, amazing game.
What a great video, and indeed, I would LOVE to see more videos like this John!
this should be the benchmark for remastered games of this era. modern reimagining that makes use of available technology, capturing the spirit of and nostalgia for the original whilst injecting new creativity and novelty. well done Tengo Project. also an astounding review and retrospective by DF 😁
14:37
It doesn't beg the question. It raises the question. Those don't mean even close to the same thing.
I could never work out what Kiki Qiqi was called when I played it in a hotel in Portstewart, Northern Ireland in the late 80’s. Cheers John!!!
2D pixel art games that don't adhere to the pixel grid are a pet peeve of mine. This game looks amazingly authentic, like it literally jumped through a wormhole from 1997.
Pocky & Rocky 2 on the SNES was one of my favorite games.
Oh my GOOOOOD, how could this have not popped up into my feed??? This was one of my FAVOURITE action games as a kid. It was so hard, but so much fun. I lost my mind when they announced Reshrined, preordering it immediately. I can't wait to play this with my girlfriend.
Can't wait for the official or "unofficial" port. Loved the original back when.
Thanks for covering this, I had no idea it was coming out. After loving both the wild guns and ninja warrior remakes it would've been a shame to miss this
Pocky n rocky has one of the greatest games I played on SNES great to see it back
One of my favorite videos of late John, I've never seen any of these games and now plan on picking them all up.
tbh, I ordered the version with the Rocky plushie just to have a daily reminder how many good memories I've collected in the past thanks to the Kiki Kaikai games. ♥
Fans of Touhou Project find this game interesting, as Touhou's creator ZUN have mentioned he have made a little test game based on Pocky and Rocky before his first public release.
I'm so used to see cheap western development teams tackle these remakes, I didn't even consider the possibility of a team of japanese veterans creating this... but when I saw the beauty, the skill and the good (and authentically japanese) taste in reimagining the graphics for the new hardware I told myself this couldn't be another cash grab. There's so much love for the old pixel art era in this game I'm almost moved.
DF bringing beautiful games to my attention as usual. Definitely going to buy this!
I played this for só many years as a kid! This is surreal! Never thought this would see the light of the day again!
I played this a ton on the Super Nintendo. Lol i loved it when playing co op, and getting frustrated with my buddy for not keeping up with me within the game, I'd dash into him and send his ass careening across the screen! Can't wait to play the remaster!
I may be the last human being on the planet with this standard. but, CRT scanlines are a must for any retro game or remake for that matter, it makes or breaks a game for me for sure, so thank you to the developers for putting this much needed filter for those who love playing their games like this.
I started playing the SNES version on my Miyoo Mini about an hour before the video dropped. It's an awesome little game.
I love this game, I was very surprised and excited to see this being remade. I can't wait to play it
It's amazing how good the SNES version looks to this day and in comparison to the remastered version. Looks like I will be playing both versions!
The new one is a totally different game (basically only two stages feel close enough to be called a remake) so you should definitely play both.
This new remake, one can say it is more on the Neo Geo graphics than SNES
Just got it on Black Friday sale for $12 via Amazon!
Totally forgot about this gem after first watching this video about a year ago, so when the sale popped up this morning as suggested I grabbed it up quick! 😅
Thanks, Digital Foundry. Even though I liked P&R back when I played it on SNES, I probably would've just passed on this rerelease/remaster if not for this video.
Cheers!
Thanks for covering this. Picked up a physical copy!
Always love seeing you guys cover games like this! Reshrined is looking like an excellent reimagining of a SNES classic.
I was briefly obsessed with this series and the characters when I got into it via emulation in 2004, didn't think I'd be interested in a remake but this looks wonderful
Nice video! Honestly I've never been into scrolling shooters (shmups), but heck you've convinced me dangit! I've been on the fence for a while, but this video pushed me off thanks!