Everybody remembers Zoop as that game that filled bargain bins for a period of time. I mean I don't know how many copies there are out there but considering it was on literally everything there must be tens of millions at least.
I went to Video Game Swappers, made a special trip asking my brother to please take me for days on end, and saw a Japanese Super Metroid with adapter ($99). Figured I'd get a bunch of cash for my games and maybe afford it. My credit ended up being about sixteen bucks. They offered one dollar for Super Mario World. I was too naive to tell them no and traded probably five games for Phalanx. #RegretThatDecision...
Finally caught one early enough to say: Thank you so much for your work, man. As a 41 year old, I can watch your content all day, just for the memories. As a retro gamer, I check your videos before I start seriously playing a game. I appreciate it, quite a bit.
I grew up in the 90's, subscribed to GamePro and EGM, and I collect and play retro games today. I know that Zoop cover art like my mother's face. And this is the very first time I've ever seen gameplay footage of it.
Man I actually miss this. Being young and going rent games and renting them based on the cover art that stood out to me, only for the game to be complete garbage and being disappointed haha. I miss good cover art and awesome instruction booklets.
Yeah N64 games were some of the most notorious at least for me at the time. But there was something truly glorious about being able to check out a game before you buy or not even having to buy it at all. Ah memories.
I genuinely miss it. When I grew up saturated in that era of art assets and everything started changing after the Y2K era, which was its own transition, the 2000's looked SO ugly by comparison.
@@emceeunderdogrising Uglier maybe, dirtier though? I'm not sure what made the 80s dirtier? I was born in the 80s so the 90s are the first decade I really remember.
Même sur une chaine anglophone trés spécifique... on croise le serbe le plus populaire de YT ! Cette chaine est super j'y ai découvert plein de trucs. Bon courage pour la suite 👍
Awesome part about Tuff Enuff was that the cover was used in the first stage of Game Tengoku back in 1995. Jaleco knew how ridiculous it looked and used it as a huge stage backdrop.
The Japanese version is called Dead Dance and has a much better cover. It's funny that Jaleco knew they were giving us a horrible cover and horrible title.
Yeah, between Body Harvest and when the first couple of GTA games first came out under the DMA label, I thought they really had sort of established an MO for themselves there. Shoot-‘em-ups with a _lot_ of cars to drive around, yep, that’s DMA.
Body Harvest made it fun to steal cars and kill civilians. Grand Theft Auto made it feel like eating your vegetables. The game would sabotage you if you didn't play like a sociopath.
I love this because as a gamer of the 90's, this was PRECISELY what we had to guard against on Friday nights at Blockbuster or the local video store when we were renting games. I would add U.N. Squadron, Outlander, and Sword of Vermillon for the Genesis for me.
My brother traded all of our nes stuff for a brand new skuljager when it came out. Still remember the password for as far as I ever got ‘fly home lazy sword’. It was decent enough. However that may be the ptsd of how much nes stuff he traded for that game.
I remember Zoop be of the ads for it and it was so obscure and nonsensical. It seemed to get positive reviews here in the UK but can't really say I know anyone that got it. Saying that Acclaims marketing during the N64 time was just becoming increasingly odd until they tried to get people to advertise games on their own gravestone or changing their names legally to Turok.
The PC version of Forsaken was also remastered for modern computers & XBOX ONE by Nightdive Studios. They're the same company that did the recent remastered Shadow Man port, as well as the remastered ports of Turok 1 & 2, Doom 64 & SiN. They're also working on a remake of System Shock.
Ooooooh OK now the system shock one is the most exciting of all of those. Because everyone sings its praises as being decades ahead of its time and still being a fantastic game, except for the very weird and awkward controls (which is why everyone uses a mod to play the game so that you can use regular pc FPS controls, keyboard and mouse) Also, if I'm thinking of the same company as you are, then this means there's the possibility of getting system shock on the Switch. Because the switch already has all those other games ported, like all the Dooms (including doom 64), the Turok games for n64, Duke Nukem 3D, etc. I'm fine with playing it on the pc instead but it'd be definitely great to have the option to play it on the go. And gyro controls would be very handy, they're maybe the only thing more natural feeling than a keyboard and mouse
@@duffman18 Nightdive also did an Enhanced Edition of System Shock for GOG with Widescreen, as well as mouse & keyboard support. Same basic game, but slightly more manageable. As for the System Shock remake, it's been in development hell for awhile. Thankfully it's been picking up steam lately as the devs decided to stay closer to the original game, but update it with modern gameplay sensibilities. There's a recent demo that added a cyberspace level, maybe check it out. Judging from the recent footage & impressions from the recent demo, reactions have been positive so far. To draw comparisons, they might be remaking it in a style similar to Black Mesa. Rather than say the recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which was more of a reimagining. (Not saying it was bad, it was just a different approach)
Haha hillbilly Simulator. The japanese boxart for phalanx was pretty awesome though. m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2NkMjJjMmEtMzQ4Mi00MTI0LWJhOTItOWYwYmE3NTk0ZWY2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzM4MjM0Nzg@._V1_.jpg
Whenever I used to rent games, you could see Zoop on the shelf from the door. That's how much that cover stood out. I used to turn my nose up..even as a 4th grader lol
Zoop is such an amazing game. I turned it into a speedrun a couple years ago and a few people battled a bit to lower the record. Also sidenote I saw a license plate in my hometown recently that just read ZOOP. Amazing stuff haha
I played Zoop for the first time a month or so ago, even though I'm 40 years ago. I don't mind puzzle games, and I could have seen me playing this a lot at the time. Didn't really stand out at the time, and I definitely wouldn't have wanted £40 laid out for it.
I owned Zoop as a child and never understood how to play it. Understanding it was essentially a color matching game would explain my confusion as I'm colorblind.0
It's one of those times when the game boy versions of games are actually much better. Because they're entirely in black and white and grey (or green and lighter green if you wanna be pedantic). So things like puzzle games like this are designed around the lack of colour, meaning you can actually play them. Like for a game like Dr Mario. Or Tetris Attack. I dunno, things like that.
My parents bought me Zoop one day. It was an interesting puzzle game. I was never really good at it but it was entertaining enough with an okay soundtrack.
I remember playing the PS1 and PC versions of Shadow Man, and its PS2 sequel (2econd Coming). I didn't know that, everyone knew the game from the box art. I hope Nightdive Studios could remaster that PS2 sequel one day for modern platforms.
Yeah, growing up in the 90's was a weird trip. I recall all of these games sitting on Blockbuster shelves collecting dust. You couldn't escape the loud in-your-face marketing back then! I remember seeing Zoop _everywhere_. I love puzzle games, so I rented it along with Tetris Attack. I just couldn't get into Zoop at all as I didn't like the art style and the gameplay was just kind of tedious/dull. I'm still glad I rented Tetris Attack as well so it wasn't a complete loss of a Blockbuster visit!
Man, I really miss Funco Land. I had a great local store that was always friendly and fun to look through. Also, I knew Zoop because my local Blockbuster back in the day had it running on a display tv for public play for a long time. Not a bad game!
I remember renting forsaken back in the day when i was a teen. Naturally, at blockbuster all the good one's were gone or I owned them (and the 64 library was small already to begin with) and I decided to rent it because the chick looked like kate winslet from Titanic and i thought she was smoking. (which came out in 97, forsaken in 98). I remember fondly being surprised how decent it was. I ended up buying it cheap at a yard sale in 2000.
In the 90's, Zoop was marketed TO DEATH. Not to mention ported to every system imaginable. It was trying so hard to be the next Tetris. Playing the game, I was surprised how average it was. And I love puzzle games like Dr. Mario, Bust a Move, and Puyo Puyo (aka Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine or Kirby's Avalanche), but Zoop was just "eh". Nothing addictive about it at all.
I unironically think the NA Phalanx boxart is amazing. The story behind it is actually genius and if irc is the reason it sold many copies. Besides I hate how the EU and Japan boxart made the ship look like... well... y’know.
You'd never heard of Shadowman? Dude, you really missed out back then. I don't even think the cover art is inappropriate either, it shows a closeup of the main character with the mask attached to his chest holding a skull which perfectly portrays how he can jump into deadside.
Shadow Man is based on a Comic book originally published by Valiant. (Turok, XO Manowar). Acclaim bought the publisher in the mid 90s and started publishing games based on the comics. Never knew they did a Shadowman game though.
Funny story: I found a copy of Zoop at a pawn shop that I frequent, and decided to get it so that I could replace the back of a more expensive game. Because I’m a regular, the owner threw it in for free with another game I was purchasing. I finally decided to give it a go last week, but when I turned my SNES on, I realized very quickly that it wasn’t Zoop. It was Mario’s Time Machine, and someone had swapped the circuit boards for the two games. In retrospect, it does make a bit more sense, because one of the screws was missing when I first got the game. Still, I’m not sure if it was a mistake or an elaborate bate and switch, but it surprised me either way.
1:26 I beg to differ Mr. Drunk, I remember the 90s and the 90s ads to usually be way more X-TREEEME than that one. That one is rather tame and reserved for the 90s but I agree that kids these days would see even that and go "WTF?" I remember seeing "Zoop" at the video rental place but I never picked it up so you are right. How do you know these things? my guess is either time travel or magic booze.
Your description of mediocre was downright Shakespearian. I'll bet there was, or will be at least one viewer who was/will be wearing that and completely rethink their choice of fashion.
I had Zoop on my Jaguar. With Zool 2, and a terrible racing game and a neat tile flipping puzzle game. Bought it all for like 30 bucks in 98? 97? Shadowman really sukked... So did Shadowman 2. Sponsored content much?!?! I MAKE KAZOOS!! Errr Nm
There was a _Rockos_ _Modern_ _Life_ game!? How did I never know this? OK apparently it was never released in my country, only in the US and Canada, so not even all of north America got it, let alone other continents. And it was for the SNES, which I never owned, I only had a mega drive then a PlayStation But by now I thought I pretty much knew all the games for the old retro systems because I've been playing them "any way I can" for years and years now It never ceases to amaze me how many games, many of them brilliant games, that I've yet to hear about, even though I "own" every single game for all these old consoles of my childhood. From a few reviews I can see of the Rocko's Modern Life game, most people seem to love it. So I guess I know what I'm playing today then. I wasn't a huge fan of their ren and stimpy games so I'm not hugely optimistic for this one but it's Rocko's modern life, man And it's probably the only snes game with the word "spunk" in the title. Maybe _THAT'S_ why they never released this game in the UK. Because "spunk" means something very different over here. Which was probably the point in the show of the dog being named Spunky anyway, because the TV show was jam packed full of sexual innuendo. Like when they had the lesbian bikers cows come round and they'd begin to chew on Rocko's carpet, i.e. they're "rug munchers".
Zoop was trash. I knew it was a puzzle game. But the ads made it seem like to second coming of Christ. I was smart enough to know ads exaggerate, but the idea of a simple puzzle game being very addictive was entirely possible. I loved Tetris and other puzzle games, so it should have been right up my alley. Columns and Dr. Mario were fun, but Tetris was miles away the king. So when I saw a game that seemed to have no gimmicks, no theme, just straight up game mechanics, with 4 different areas of play, I assumed puzzle freak like me custom designed it for maximum appeal. Maybe it could be in the same league as Tetris. Well it sucks. The idea is something a four-year-old could come up with. The different shapes mean nothing, they just correspond with the colors. So why the ugly ass shapes at all? Don't let this video fool you, it was not average, but significantly below average.
The cover for the ps1 game Bust-A-Move 2 (puzzle Bobble, it's literally the exact same game, they just renamed the series Bust-A-Move in the west for ps1 home releases of the game, for some reason, they didn't even change any of the in-game graphics) is one of the zaniest nuttiest ones I've ever seen Take a look here: www.lukiegames.com/assets/images/PS1/ps1_bust_a_move_2-120314.jpg What are they trying to say? This game is SO boring that you'll need to keep your eyes open mechanically because otherwise you'll fall asleep playing it? It's bizarre. But this was the second half of the 90s, when a cover that actually matched the game inside wasn't a necessity, and they just created whatever weird ass shit they could in very primitive 3D modelling software and a free version of photoshop and called it a day And I mean, why did they change the name from Puzzle Bobble to something else? The arcade games were called Puzzle Bobble in the west too, weren't they? And Bubble Bobble was still very popular in the west, a ps1 port of both Bubble Bobble 1 and Rainbow Islands (the sequel to bubble Bobble 1) was a big seller and introduced the series to a whole new audience of young kids. And they didn't change the in game graphics at all to match this "bust a move" name. They kept the bubble Bobble dinosaurs in it. So it makes even LESS sense really They're very lucky that Puzzle Bobble is one of the best games ever made. So that all they had to do was port them. And that was good enough. They could mess up completely with the box art and the name and all that, but It puzzle bobble, so who really cares I suppose
I played Zoop on a few different platforms back in the day (having worked at a game rental store), and one thing I remember is that the different ports of Zoop to various platforms _played differently_ from one another. You'd think that for such a simple game, one "Zoop" would be like any other "Zoop" - but the semi-randomness of the shape/color patterns (e.g. the distribution of runs of the same color vs. random colors, piling on shapes in one line vs. spreading them out evenly, etc.) seemed to be different in every version I tried. It's like the difference between a "Tetris" with tetrominos drawn from a finite "bag" before being reshuffled vs. a "Tetris" with _completely_ random tetrominos (allowing for long runs of the same one or two shapes). I can only guess that every platform's "Zoop" was programmed by a different team, and that Viacom/Hookstone's design documentation didn't actually specify _how_ the shapes were to be selected/distributed - kind of an important part of a puzzle game's mechanics.
Reminds me of the animated movie, "A Flight of Dragons". For some reason the cover art is s*** and wasn't made by the people who made the movie. That said the movie is excellent It's like the old animated Lord of the Rings style.
For me, it was Rival Turf! Every single time I went to the video store, it would be there. These two 90’s grunge looking trouble makers just staring at my 8 year old self. Still never played it lol
Forsaken was one of my favorite games. It was actually the game I bought with the system. There was nothing like seeing a Titan nuke fly past you and the chaotic scramble to get out of the room before it explodes. Two player was what made it so much fun for me. It was like 007 but flying spaceships.
You should do a video with Atari 2600 box art, the art style always looked pretty awesome but the game themselves were usually pretty shitty and nothing like the box would suggest, renting atari games was usually a big disappointment even when I was 5 years old
The jaguar port of zoop is oddly a lot better than the rest of the games in the series, it has a redone soundtrack which sounds 10 times better, the graphics look incredibly sharp and it is the only game where you can save high scores and settings.
Glad you mentioned Shadow Man’s cover art in the video! Definitely agree, you saw it almost everywhere in promo pics of numerous gaming magazines or at your local video game store at the time even if you never got the chance to play it. The N64 era of cover arts/promo pics marketing definitely were something else 😅
Loved the idea. The exact same thing happened to me involving Dino City, I have only paid attention to it when I saw a friend of mine playing it at the rental store and then I asked "wow, that looks neat actually. Which game is this?" and there it was, available for everyone most of the time with a crappy cover art. Vegas Stakes was also a game no one would pick, ever - neither would I. Had a good time playing Tuff E Nuff (Dead Dance as I got to know at the time) but time hasn't done good to it. One game cover which was onipresent in gaming magazines and also retail advertising here in Brazil was Little Ninja Brothers for the NES, it certainly boosted its rental visibility back then
Shadow Man was based on a comic book series that has been around for a couple of years. The version the game follows was a revamp that from when Aklaim acquired Valiant Comics (which also included Turok, X-O Manowar, and Armorines) in the mid-90s.
Indeed. I remember when Valiant launched and Shadowman looked like/was(?) a generic edgy superhero character for the time. Then they reworked the story with that new look, with his old mask now being the design on his chest.
Honestly, I have always thought a crossover of Shadowman and Turok would be killer! Here you are, a badass native american fighting dinosaurs allied with a voodoo warrior protecting the world against occult menaces... Imagine a coop with them, as they clear their respective types of mission.
Interestingly enough they're from the same comic book publisher. Acclaim was the one who made both series (I mean technically iguana interactive) and they actually made Shadow Man because they had the license due to owning or having rights from the comic book publisher. I watched s video on the shadow man remaster on digital foundry and found that detail crazy interesting. I had no idea both those games were based on comic books by the same publisher.
After a quarter century, I finally know what Zoop is. Thank you.
So many copies of Zoop for Super Nintendo at Game Craze
Everybody remembers Zoop as that game that filled bargain bins for a period of time. I mean I don't know how many copies there are out there but considering it was on literally everything there must be tens of millions at least.
I actually played Zoop on a PC at Office Depot back in the 90s. It was...OK?
@@DrCorndog1 - It was fine. It gets hectic real fast at level 7 and higher at least. If you reach level 10, then you were legit.
There's a copy in everyones' dusty snes box
In case you’re wondering: The old man on the cover of Phalanx for SNES was Bertil Valley who sadly died in 2004.
I went to Video Game Swappers, made a special trip asking my brother to please take me for days on end, and saw a Japanese Super Metroid with adapter ($99). Figured I'd get a bunch of cash for my games and maybe afford it. My credit ended up being about sixteen bucks. They offered one dollar for Super Mario World. I was too naive to tell them no and traded probably five games for Phalanx. #RegretThatDecision...
Uncanny Valley defined
F
See you space banjo cowboy
Finally caught one early enough to say: Thank you so much for your work, man. As a 41 year old, I can watch your content all day, just for the memories. As a retro gamer, I check your videos before I start seriously playing a game. I appreciate it, quite a bit.
Thanks for taking the time to watch Tyler
Cool tyler🎯
You are speaking for many of us :)
Ive gotten some good recomendations from this guy 👍
Couldn't say better
Never heard of Zoop, but the Cover looks so 90s I can totally see the Fresh Prince wearing it on a Shirt.
It was heavily featured in a lot of Sega Channel commercials
I grew up in the 90's, subscribed to GamePro and EGM, and I collect and play retro games today. I know that Zoop cover art like my mother's face. And this is the very first time I've ever seen gameplay footage of it.
Hard same. I've still never played Ardy Lightfoot or Cool World either 😂
@@captainvimes6079 both cool games, ardy is super fun.
Early to mid 90s game pro was peak game pro!
Forsaken 64’s cover itself is the perfect representation of what 90’s marketing was like.
I remember Forsaken having an alternate shot with the tattoo on her thigh. It was pulled from the ads later on.
Even just the name... Forsaken 64
@@ottagol1985 I remember that. They definitely ran it in gamepro for a bit , or maybe it was EGM.
"The future is forsaken" is forever burned in my memory.
@@ottagol1985 I can't find the thigh tattoo, but definitely found the neck tattoo.
Man I actually miss this. Being young and going rent games and renting them based on the cover art that stood out to me, only for the game to be complete garbage and being disappointed haha. I miss good cover art and awesome instruction booklets.
Yeah N64 games were some of the most notorious at least for me at the time. But there was something truly glorious about being able to check out a game before you buy or not even having to buy it at all.
Ah memories.
"Eastern European Looney Tunes" is the best description for brutal paws of fury I've ever heard
Hi hunter
"WORKER AND PARASITE!"
@@samuraikarasu…what the hell was that?
I can confirm, Zoop is what the 90s looked like.
I genuinely miss it. When I grew up saturated in that era of art assets and everything started changing after the Y2K era, which was its own transition, the 2000's looked SO ugly by comparison.
I was there. I lived it. In many ways, I miss it.
@@LeoMidori The 80s were way uglier. Dirtier too.
I watched some 90s ads the other day. What a crazy trip.
@@emceeunderdogrising Uglier maybe, dirtier though? I'm not sure what made the 80s dirtier? I was born in the 80s so the 90s are the first decade I really remember.
you answer so many question that i have from childhood x)
Ça m'étonne de te voir ici XD
Même sur une chaine anglophone trés spécifique... on croise le serbe le plus populaire de YT !
Cette chaine est super j'y ai découvert plein de trucs.
Bon courage pour la suite 👍
@@voidathetos2747 Le serbe avec les meilleurs noms de vidéo
Awesome part about Tuff Enuff was that the cover was used in the first stage of Game Tengoku back in 1995. Jaleco knew how ridiculous it looked and used it as a huge stage backdrop.
The Japanese version is called Dead Dance and has a much better cover. It's funny that Jaleco knew they were giving us a horrible cover and horrible title.
Cha-DING!
The graphics appear to highly imitate the Streets of Rage series.
"Lieutenant Tasha Yar's head on a child's body" made me laugh my ass off.
I missed that lol
"Tasha Yars head on a child's body"
Legitimately made me lol
It is golden!!
Same. Haha 😂
Body Harvest basically laid all the groundwork for GTA3. It wasn't the best game, but it was fun and incredibly ambitious.
Yeah, between Body Harvest and when the first couple of GTA games first came out under the DMA label, I thought they really had sort of established an MO for themselves there. Shoot-‘em-ups with a _lot_ of cars to drive around, yep, that’s DMA.
Body Harvest made it fun to steal cars and kill civilians. Grand Theft Auto made it feel like eating your vegetables. The game would sabotage you if you didn't play like a sociopath.
I love this because as a gamer of the 90's, this was PRECISELY what we had to guard against on Friday nights at Blockbuster or the local video store when we were renting games. I would add U.N. Squadron, Outlander, and Sword of Vermillon for the Genesis for me.
Dude UN Squadron is an awesome game though
@@MagnusVonBlack "for me"
holy shit i forgot that i ignored un squadron my entire life based on the cover art.
Arkana
Skuljagger, for me, was the ultimate example of this.
And then, you take a look at the game and you laugh out loud: A guy making bubbles in an effort to defeat pirates? Is that based on a chewing gum ad?
Idk. I remember renting skuljagger all the time. It was good fun.
and damn Skuljagger was pretty solid!
No, Skuljagger both chewed and blew
My brother traded all of our nes stuff for a brand new skuljager when it came out. Still remember the password for as far as I ever got ‘fly home lazy sword’. It was decent enough. However that may be the ptsd of how much nes stuff he traded for that game.
I fucking LOVE zoop. I played it so much as a kid on my Sega, that I'd have dreams about the colors and shapes flying at me
I know what you mean
There were SO many Zoop ads in EGM for a few months.
Yep between the ads and the aggressive push to put it on literally everything it was clear they wanted it to be the next Tetris. It was not.
In every magazine and on TV.
I remember Zoop be of the ads for it and it was so obscure and nonsensical. It seemed to get positive reviews here in the UK but can't really say I know anyone that got it.
Saying that Acclaims marketing during the N64 time was just becoming increasingly odd until they tried to get people to advertise games on their own gravestone or changing their names legally to Turok.
Once I saw the title and shitty cover for Zoop I'm clicked on this. What a great video idea. Gotta do more of these.
Please beat Tampa
@@SNESdrunk OMG 😂 I hope we do. What's your team? Aren't you a Wild fan?
@@pouncingpantherpucks2779 Huberdeau carried my fantasy team.
Minnesota yeah, but Barkov is great and I'm tired of Tampa
@@AyeThatsHandsomePete Yeah he was a beast this year. I think he's even better than Barkov but man they had an incredible year.
Never had the N64, but i remember the covers of Shadow Man and Forsaken hahaha Good times!
The PC version of Forsaken was also remastered for modern computers & XBOX ONE by Nightdive Studios. They're the same company that did the recent remastered Shadow Man port, as well as the remastered ports of Turok 1 & 2, Doom 64 & SiN. They're also working on a remake of System Shock.
Ooooooh OK now the system shock one is the most exciting of all of those. Because everyone sings its praises as being decades ahead of its time and still being a fantastic game, except for the very weird and awkward controls (which is why everyone uses a mod to play the game so that you can use regular pc FPS controls, keyboard and mouse)
Also, if I'm thinking of the same company as you are, then this means there's the possibility of getting system shock on the Switch. Because the switch already has all those other games ported, like all the Dooms (including doom 64), the Turok games for n64, Duke Nukem 3D, etc. I'm fine with playing it on the pc instead but it'd be definitely great to have the option to play it on the go. And gyro controls would be very handy, they're maybe the only thing more natural feeling than a keyboard and mouse
@@duffman18 Nightdive also did an Enhanced Edition of System Shock for GOG with Widescreen, as well as mouse & keyboard support. Same basic game, but slightly more manageable. As for the System Shock remake, it's been in development hell for awhile. Thankfully it's been picking up steam lately as the devs decided to stay closer to the original game, but update it with modern gameplay sensibilities. There's a recent demo that added a cyberspace level, maybe check it out. Judging from the recent footage & impressions from the recent demo, reactions have been positive so far. To draw comparisons, they might be remaking it in a style similar to Black Mesa. Rather than say the recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which was more of a reimagining. (Not saying it was bad, it was just a different approach)
Also the remasters of Power Slave. Night Dive is on a roll with these remasters and they are all good from my experience.
You do remember that popular Salt n Pepa song, right..?
“You make me wanna
Zoop
Zoobedoo
Zoobedoo bedoo...”
It's references like this 3:40 that make SNES drunk the perfect retro gaming youtube channel for me.
Nothing like a Byron Allen reference.
Ah yes snesdrunk and a cup of coffee in the morning.
Same here
Me three
My exact thoughts haha
For us in Japan it's SNESDrunk at night with milk and cookies.
Same. 😏☕
To this day, I want to see a game that would actually fit the cover art of _Phalanx._
Haha hillbilly Simulator.
The japanese boxart for phalanx was pretty awesome though. m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2NkMjJjMmEtMzQ4Mi00MTI0LWJhOTItOWYwYmE3NTk0ZWY2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzM4MjM0Nzg@._V1_.jpg
Outer Wilds feels like it fits that box art imo.
Tonally, Skullmonkeys fits it perfectly.
Whenever I used to rent games, you could see Zoop on the shelf from the door. That's how much that cover stood out. I used to turn my nose up..even as a 4th grader lol
Ah, I completely forgot about the Shadow Man Remaster!
on sale at GoG
@@KryptKicker5 Awesome
Zoop is such an amazing game. I turned it into a speedrun a couple years ago and a few people battled a bit to lower the record. Also sidenote I saw a license plate in my hometown recently that just read ZOOP. Amazing stuff haha
I played Zoop for the first time a month or so ago, even though I'm 40 years ago. I don't mind puzzle games, and I could have seen me playing this a lot at the time. Didn't really stand out at the time, and I definitely wouldn't have wanted £40 laid out for it.
3:40 "So what does that make us?"
"Absolutely nothing! Which is what Q's relevance to Street Fighter has been!"
I owned Zoop as a child and never understood how to play it. Understanding it was essentially a color matching game would explain my confusion as I'm colorblind.0
It's one of those times when the game boy versions of games are actually much better. Because they're entirely in black and white and grey (or green and lighter green if you wanna be pedantic). So things like puzzle games like this are designed around the lack of colour, meaning you can actually play them. Like for a game like Dr Mario. Or Tetris Attack. I dunno, things like that.
My parents bought me Zoop one day. It was an interesting puzzle game. I was never really good at it but it was entertaining enough with an okay soundtrack.
I remember playing the PS1 and PC versions of Shadow Man, and its PS2 sequel (2econd Coming). I didn't know that, everyone knew the game from the box art. I hope Nightdive Studios could remaster that PS2 sequel one day for modern platforms.
My cousin and I vividly remembered 2econd Coming for the most lolzy reasoning ever:
"I gotta get that bear, man! I got *shit* to do!"
Yeah, growing up in the 90's was a weird trip. I recall all of these games sitting on Blockbuster shelves collecting dust. You couldn't escape the loud in-your-face marketing back then! I remember seeing Zoop _everywhere_. I love puzzle games, so I rented it along with Tetris Attack. I just couldn't get into Zoop at all as I didn't like the art style and the gameplay was just kind of tedious/dull. I'm still glad I rented Tetris Attack as well so it wasn't a complete loss of a Blockbuster visit!
"Never judge a book by it's cover."
"You should judge the idiots who made the cover instead."
Man thanks for giving me a lil of my childhood back in nice short bursts. Never quit. Snnnnnnneeeeeees¹⁰ drunk.
"Don't steal anybody's kidneys."
-SNES Drunk
Ah Phalanx, still the strangest boxart choice. Is he supposed to be a narrator or the playable character? Who knows.
It's a hillbilly playing a banjo with a space battle happening behind him, sort of.
🤣🤣🤣 now every time I see Byron Allen I'm gonna assume he's the Shadow Man
I remember the neighbors spying on the kid in the commercial for zoop and saying "maybe he's double jointed"
The woman on the cover of Forsaken is so you know what you're fighting for back on earth boys.
Oh man, do I remember that Forsaken cover art.
There was alot of nostalgia in this episode for me. Thank you for creating this
Wow man, you hit that intro aggressively
Man, I really miss Funco Land. I had a great local store that was always friendly and fun to look through.
Also, I knew Zoop because my local Blockbuster back in the day had it running on a display tv for public play for a long time. Not a bad game!
"My own pointless, stubborn, willful ignorance" - aka being a male between the ages of 12 and 17. Been there.
Aw man... I was nearly out the door with my body harvesting tools in hand when you said we shall not steal someone's kidney. Thanks for nothing.
I have literally never noticed that Phalanx had a description on box cover. That’s how distracting the grandpa is.
Total length of video: 610 secs.
Total length of "SNES Drunk": 3.5 secs.
.57% of the video was spent listening to "SNES Drunk".
Dude your jokes were on point this video. "Tasha Yar's head on a teenager" had me dying🤣🤣🤣🤣
Man I'd have been all over Forsaken back then if I'd known what it was.
I remember renting forsaken back in the day when i was a teen. Naturally, at blockbuster all the good one's were gone or I owned them (and the 64 library was small already to begin with) and I decided to rent it because the chick looked like kate winslet from Titanic and i thought she was smoking. (which came out in 97, forsaken in 98). I remember fondly being surprised how decent it was. I ended up buying it cheap at a yard sale in 2000.
remember when we used to look at the back of game covers, and be so goddamn dissapointed that it was just 8 bit lmao
This guys makes me go out and look for old snes games I don’t have. Thank you.
I was definitely not expecting a Tasha Yar reference or for it to be so accurate.
Last one kinda reminds me of Yoshi’s Island, where baby Mario was on his back. Except it was bad when Mario fell off, he hadn’t learned anything yet 😂
In the 90's, Zoop was marketed TO DEATH. Not to mention ported to every system imaginable. It was trying so hard to be the next Tetris.
Playing the game, I was surprised how average it was. And I love puzzle games like Dr. Mario, Bust a Move, and Puyo Puyo (aka Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine or Kirby's Avalanche), but Zoop was just "eh". Nothing addictive about it at all.
I thought Shadow Man was Vin Diesel doing Hamlet.
Lol
Was that a Pitch Black reference?
I unironically think the NA Phalanx boxart is amazing. The story behind it is actually genius and if irc is the reason it sold many copies. Besides I hate how the EU and Japan boxart made the ship look like... well... y’know.
Ha so true I literally only know Zoop for the cover.
You'd never heard of Shadowman? Dude, you really missed out back then. I don't even think the cover art is inappropriate either, it shows a closeup of the main character with the mask attached to his chest holding a skull which perfectly portrays how he can jump into deadside.
Shadow Man is based on a Comic book originally published by Valiant. (Turok, XO Manowar). Acclaim bought the publisher in the mid 90s and started publishing games based on the comics. Never knew they did a Shadowman game though.
Funny story: I found a copy of Zoop at a pawn shop that I frequent, and decided to get it so that I could replace the back of a more expensive game. Because I’m a regular, the owner threw it in for free with another game I was purchasing. I finally decided to give it a go last week, but when I turned my SNES on, I realized very quickly that it wasn’t Zoop. It was Mario’s Time Machine, and someone had swapped the circuit boards for the two games. In retrospect, it does make a bit more sense, because one of the screws was missing when I first got the game. Still, I’m not sure if it was a mistake or an elaborate bate and switch, but it surprised me either way.
Eastern European Looney Tunes 😂
1:26 I beg to differ Mr. Drunk, I remember the 90s and the 90s ads to usually be way more X-TREEEME than that one. That one is rather tame and reserved for the 90s but I agree that kids these days would see even that and go "WTF?"
I remember seeing "Zoop" at the video rental place but I never picked it up so you are right. How do you know these things? my guess is either time travel or magic booze.
Forsaken's marketing was absolutely mad. A mix of nearly naked models and THE FUTURE IS FORSAKEN.
for me, it's Ballz. Never cared to try the game, but always saw ads and that cover. Fighting Game at its ballziest, huh?
Ballz is a game that you can only enjoy until you realize how much it rewards not knowing what you're doing.
Remember loving Shadow Man when it came out. It was also the first game I remember hearing actual swearing in.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who is reminded of "The Caretaker" from Star Trek: Voyager when looking at that Phalanx cover.
Your description of mediocre was downright Shakespearian. I'll bet there was, or will be at least one viewer who was/will be wearing that and completely rethink their choice of fashion.
I had Zoop on my Jaguar. With Zool 2, and a terrible racing game and a neat tile flipping puzzle game.
Bought it all for like 30 bucks in 98? 97?
Shadowman really sukked... So did Shadowman 2.
Sponsored content much?!?!
I MAKE KAZOOS!! Errr Nm
Your jokes are top notch today budd :)
There was a _Rockos_ _Modern_ _Life_ game!? How did I never know this? OK apparently it was never released in my country, only in the US and Canada, so not even all of north America got it, let alone other continents. And it was for the SNES, which I never owned, I only had a mega drive then a PlayStation
But by now I thought I pretty much knew all the games for the old retro systems because I've been playing them "any way I can" for years and years now
It never ceases to amaze me how many games, many of them brilliant games, that I've yet to hear about, even though I "own" every single game for all these old consoles of my childhood.
From a few reviews I can see of the Rocko's Modern Life game, most people seem to love it. So I guess I know what I'm playing today then. I wasn't a huge fan of their ren and stimpy games so I'm not hugely optimistic for this one but it's Rocko's modern life, man
And it's probably the only snes game with the word "spunk" in the title. Maybe _THAT'S_ why they never released this game in the UK. Because "spunk" means something very different over here. Which was probably the point in the show of the dog being named Spunky anyway, because the TV show was jam packed full of sexual innuendo. Like when they had the lesbian bikers cows come round and they'd begin to chew on Rocko's carpet, i.e. they're "rug munchers".
I can’t be the only one who interprets the Phalanx cover as “old farmer who sees ufo ship in the sky and looks surprised.”
Zoop was trash. I knew it was a puzzle game. But the ads made it seem like to second coming of Christ.
I was smart enough to know ads exaggerate, but the idea of a simple puzzle game being very addictive was entirely possible. I loved Tetris and other puzzle games, so it should have been right up my alley. Columns and Dr. Mario were fun, but Tetris was miles away the king.
So when I saw a game that seemed to have no gimmicks, no theme, just straight up game mechanics, with 4 different areas of play, I assumed puzzle freak like me custom designed it for maximum appeal. Maybe it could be in the same league as Tetris.
Well it sucks. The idea is something a four-year-old could come up with. The different shapes mean nothing, they just correspond with the colors. So why the ugly ass shapes at all? Don't let this video fool you, it was not average, but significantly below average.
The cover for the ps1 game Bust-A-Move 2 (puzzle Bobble, it's literally the exact same game, they just renamed the series Bust-A-Move in the west for ps1 home releases of the game, for some reason, they didn't even change any of the in-game graphics) is one of the zaniest nuttiest ones I've ever seen
Take a look here:
www.lukiegames.com/assets/images/PS1/ps1_bust_a_move_2-120314.jpg
What are they trying to say? This game is SO boring that you'll need to keep your eyes open mechanically because otherwise you'll fall asleep playing it? It's bizarre. But this was the second half of the 90s, when a cover that actually matched the game inside wasn't a necessity, and they just created whatever weird ass shit they could in very primitive 3D modelling software and a free version of photoshop and called it a day
And I mean, why did they change the name from Puzzle Bobble to something else? The arcade games were called Puzzle Bobble in the west too, weren't they? And Bubble Bobble was still very popular in the west, a ps1 port of both Bubble Bobble 1 and Rainbow Islands (the sequel to bubble Bobble 1) was a big seller and introduced the series to a whole new audience of young kids.
And they didn't change the in game graphics at all to match this "bust a move" name. They kept the bubble Bobble dinosaurs in it. So it makes even LESS sense really
They're very lucky that Puzzle Bobble is one of the best games ever made. So that all they had to do was port them. And that was good enough. They could mess up completely with the box art and the name and all that, but It puzzle bobble, so who really cares I suppose
I played Zoop on a few different platforms back in the day (having worked at a game rental store), and one thing I remember is that the different ports of Zoop to various platforms _played differently_ from one another. You'd think that for such a simple game, one "Zoop" would be like any other "Zoop" - but the semi-randomness of the shape/color patterns (e.g. the distribution of runs of the same color vs. random colors, piling on shapes in one line vs. spreading them out evenly, etc.) seemed to be different in every version I tried. It's like the difference between a "Tetris" with tetrominos drawn from a finite "bag" before being reshuffled vs. a "Tetris" with _completely_ random tetrominos (allowing for long runs of the same one or two shapes). I can only guess that every platform's "Zoop" was programmed by a different team, and that Viacom/Hookstone's design documentation didn't actually specify _how_ the shapes were to be selected/distributed - kind of an important part of a puzzle game's mechanics.
As soon as I read the title, I was like "Phalanx has to be here for sure!"
I was not disappointed.
Lol Zoop - the cover and name is the perfect example of knowing it exists because of that.
Reminds me of the animated movie, "A Flight of Dragons". For some reason the cover art is s*** and wasn't made by the people who made the movie. That said the movie is excellent It's like the old animated Lord of the Rings style.
For me, it was Rival Turf! Every single time I went to the video store, it would be there. These two 90’s grunge looking trouble makers just staring at my 8 year old self. Still never played it lol
Oh man I actually had zoop I think I even still have the cartridge lying around somewhere lol
Ah for the day when you could assume Capcom, Konami, and Square/Enix meant quality games...
Forsaken was one of my favorite games. It was actually the game I bought with the system. There was nothing like seeing a Titan nuke fly past you and the chaotic scramble to get out of the room before it explodes. Two player was what made it so much fun for me. It was like 007 but flying spaceships.
You should do a video with Atari 2600 box art, the art style always looked pretty awesome but the game themselves were usually pretty shitty and nothing like the box would suggest, renting atari games was usually a big disappointment even when I was 5 years old
Of course Dino City is good--it was made by Irem! Check out the Super Famicom cover art. 😎😎😎
I actually enjoy ketchup with my steak, hahaha 😘
Tfw you know body harvest from an FFG episode
Leo from Red Earth looks like what you'd expect from the Brutal Paws of Fury ad.
I got Yoshi's island for Christmas in 1995 and my cousin got Zoop 😂😂
The jaguar port of zoop is oddly a lot better than the rest of the games in the series, it has a redone soundtrack which sounds 10 times better, the graphics look incredibly sharp and it is the only game where you can save high scores and settings.
Spot on. Recognize all these covers and definitely wrote most of as trash. Thanks for the video.
I love Zoop! Spent many hours playing it on my SNES as a kid in the 90's!
shadow man indeed, had to turn thee brightness up just to see the action
Glad you mentioned Shadow Man’s cover art in the video! Definitely agree, you saw it almost everywhere in promo pics of numerous gaming magazines or at your local video game store at the time even if you never got the chance to play it. The N64 era of cover arts/promo pics marketing definitely were something else 😅
Loved the idea. The exact same thing happened to me involving Dino City, I have only paid attention to it when I saw a friend of mine playing it at the rental store and then I asked "wow, that looks neat actually. Which game is this?" and there it was, available for everyone most of the time with a crappy cover art. Vegas Stakes was also a game no one would pick, ever - neither would I. Had a good time playing Tuff E Nuff (Dead Dance as I got to know at the time) but time hasn't done good to it. One game cover which was onipresent in gaming magazines and also retail advertising here in Brazil was Little Ninja Brothers for the NES, it certainly boosted its rental visibility back then
Shadow Man was based on a comic book series that has been around for a couple of years. The version the game follows was a revamp that from when Aklaim acquired Valiant Comics (which also included Turok, X-O Manowar, and Armorines) in the mid-90s.
Indeed. I remember when Valiant launched and Shadowman looked like/was(?) a generic edgy superhero character for the time. Then they reworked the story with that new look, with his old mask now being the design on his chest.
Bro shadowman!!
Not sure why "Uh oh, that's not good" made my day...but thanks
Honestly, I have always thought a crossover of Shadowman and Turok would be killer! Here you are, a badass native american fighting dinosaurs allied with a voodoo warrior protecting the world against occult menaces... Imagine a coop with them, as they clear their respective types of mission.
Interestingly enough they're from the same comic book publisher.
Acclaim was the one who made both series (I mean technically iguana interactive) and they actually made Shadow Man because they had the license due to owning or having rights from the comic book publisher. I watched s video on the shadow man remaster on digital foundry and found that detail crazy interesting. I had no idea both those games were based on comic books by the same publisher.