On the premiere episode of Video Games On Video, we took a look at five VHS tapes
from the 80s all the way up to the year 2000--a super play of The Legend of Valkyrie arcade game,
a Ghost in the Shell mini documentary about how the game's digital animation was created,
a Capcom fan club tour of their Spring 2000 Tokyo Game Show presentations,
a tenth anniversary Nintendo Famicom tribute tape and another mini documentary about digital
animation loaded with tons of early 90s gaming commercials from V Jump magazine. But that's
all in the past now, it's time to move on! So for episode two of Video Games On Video,
we'll look at five more interesting Japanese video tapes about video games. Here we go!
First off is another offering from V Jump that covers one of the greatest role-playing games of
all time—Final Fantasy VI, aka FFIII for those of us who grew up in the States. This 1994 “not
for sale” promotional tape has a runtime of 23 minutes, and I believe it was distributed
to readers of V Jump magazine through a mail-in offer, subscription or club membership. More than
just some footage of gameplay with narration, this video went in a more unique and creative direction
with its presentation. The viewer takes part in a group tour led by one or more of the heroes of the
game, experiencing the fantastic world of Final Fantasy VI with its blend of industrial technology
and magic. The party gets to participate in a few key events in the game's story in this dangerous
tour...yes, dangerous, one of the tourists actually falls to his death. Yikes, I hope
he signed a waiver or Square has good lawyers. I can only imagine the hype levels of anyone
who watched this before the game's launch...just think of how excited the young readers of V Jump
must have been, especially. The tour comes to an end at the game's iconic opera house,
where the viewer is treated to something truly special...the game's staff, including series
creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and music composer Nobuo Uematsu, engage in a charming song and
dance routine. When will you see something like that ever happen again with a major video game
release? My God, what a magical time that was! Oh, there are also a couple of trailers for
the Gulliver Boy and the Guardress anime at the end of the tape, which is a nice bonus. Anyway,
for fans of Final Fantasy VI, the Final Fantasy VI Original Video from V Jump is a real treasure.
Coming off of that tape, let's jump ahead three years into the future with the 1997
Mario Kart 64 Perfect Video, part of the “Mario The Video” line produced by the wizards at GTV,
who were responsible for the Famicom Perfect Video covered in the last episode. Available
at retailers for 1900 yen plus tax, this 40 minute tape will introduce all
the fundamentals of Mario Kart 64, but by the end the viewer should have all the knowledge
and tools necessary to become a pro racer in the Mushroom Kingdom. Like the Famicom tape,
this one is also hosted and narrated by Susumu Matsushita's original character Battery the bat,
although his voice has changed a bit in just three years. The tape starts off with the basics,
like player stat and item explanations, but then it goes into general strategies and specifics for
different courses. So many shortcuts are revealed, including the infamous Rainbow Road jump,
of course, but there are so many others I had no idea existed, and I was obsessed with this
game as a child. Ample explanation with real-time and slowed video footage will help ensure you'll
know exactly how to pull off these insane tricks in no time. At the end of the video,
there's a montage of shortcuts that don't work, glitches and other weird little oddities in the
game, all narrated by Battery in a humorous way. Overall, the Mario Kart 64 Perfect Video
is a cool video strategy guide with fun and clever presentation, another hit from GTV.
Imagineer
is a company that might not place among the top names in video games, but if you've been into
gaming for a while, you've certainly played or heard of some of their games. Their most
well known IP is probably the popular Medarot multimedia franchise, though they are also known
for their cutesy licensed titles and bringing over a lot of Western properties to Japan. The
company put out several games for the N64 in 1997, and this tape contains nearly 17 minutes worth of
previews for several of them—it's the Imagineer Soft Line-Up For Nintendo 64 1997. Actually,
this video is still brand new, so lucky you, you get a world premiere unboxing as a
bonus...thrilling. Six N64 games are featured here, beginning with Sim City 2000, an update
on the PC classic, though this Japan-only port includes some very Japan-centric bonus features,
such as action mini games and simulation modes, including the ability to find the love of your
life. Yes, city planning and management meets dating sim, kind of. Game number 2 is the one that
the tape dedicates most of its time to, Fighting Cup, known internationally as Fighter's Destiny,
a very technical fighting game that has some of the most “N64 graphics” ever. It
uses a unique scoring system for things like ringouts, takedowns and counters,
but it's not all serious or realistic, as the many extra modes have you doing some silly things,
like fighting a cow. The next game shown is just one of a million of the cutesy baseball
games released for the system, Pro Yakyuu King 2. Not much to say, it's baseball with chibi
characters. Next is the snowboarding game Snow Speeder...it looks all right, but it's no 1080,
and it's definitely not the Final Fantasy VII Golden Saucer snowboarding mini game,
my fave. After that is a preview of Eltale, more commonly known— or maybe “forgotten” is
the better word—as Quest 64, one of the systems earliest RPGs, one of only a handful. Looking
at the gameplay footage and listening to the enthusiastic narration here makes the game look
pretty good...but if you've played it before, you probably feel the same way I do--Ugghhhhh.
Last is Kiratto Kaiketsu! Sixty Four Tanteidan a video board game with a detective theme,
another Japan-exclusive title that looks...kind of...fun? Just an aside, the audio mixing this
tape is pretty bad considering it was professionally done, the narrator's voice
is way too loud. But whatever, it's a pretty cool tape filled with mostly so-called “minor”
titles from one of the mid-tier game publishers of the era—I think it was distributed to shops,
so it's kind of rare, but kind of not worth watching unless you're really hardcore.
Last episode we took a look at one of Capcom's fan club videos, this time let's dive into a 1998
promo VHS for Star Gladiator 2: The Nightmare of Bilstein. Known as Plasma Sword outside of Japan,
Star Gladiator 2 is, in my opinion, one of Capcom's more underrated fighting games in
one of its more underrated fighting game series, overlooked and overshadowed by a lot of their
other amazing titles that were released at the same time or shortly afterward. This roughly ten
minute tape introduces gameplay mechanics, the large cast of interesting intergalactic
playable characters, and just gives the viewer a general idea of how the arcade fighter later
turned Dreamcast port would look and feel. The person I bought this from says it was
a fighting game tournament prize held at an arcade back in the day. I'm not sure if
that was the only means one had to receive this tape, but either way, that's pretty cool, and
this is still a pretty hard to find video—a great collector's item for Capcom fighting game fans.
Earlier when talking about the Final Fantasy VI tape, I mentioned how magical gaming in
the 90s was, and this next video is a real testament to that sentiment. This
is Digimation 6 Yume Matsuri '95, or the 1995 Dream Festival, a not for sale video that I
believe was given to members of a Hudsonsoft fan club. As the name of the tape suggests,
it's all about the Hudson Dream Festival that took place that year, a special event for fans,
mostly children, consisting of meet and greets, musical and dramatic performances and of course,
games. The tape contains over an hour of footage from the event, and among its stars are Kabuki
Danjuurou of the Tengai Makyou series, Peach Boy from the Momotarou Densetsu-slash-Dentetsu games,
Honey from Bomberman and...well, Bomberman from Bomberman. The big title promoted at
the event was Tengai Makyou Zero for the Super Famicom, which was released late that year,
but each series represented gets their chance in the spotlight. There's something so,
I don't know, pure about the way the attendees are captivated by each performance and activity at the
Dream Festival. There will never be another time like this in gaming, and that's fine,
it only makes the memories of when it was like this more special. As a final bonus,
the video wraps up with a bunch of commercials for Hudson games,
starring the actors and actresses portraying the characters at the event. The Yume Matsuri '95
tape is a must own for Hudson fans and captures a moment in time when video games seemed more than
just another big money making industry. Which it always kind of has been, but you know what I mean.
And those are five more Japanese video game tapes, and that's the end of this episode
of Video Games On Video. If you want to watch any of the videos featured here in their raw,
unedited and admittedly kind of blurry glory, head on over to my second channel,
the Import Gaming FTW Dump, for those tapes and a whole lot more. And stay
tuned for the next episode of Video Games On Video, which will be less random than
the first two episodes. As always, this is Jimmy Hapa, and take care.