Manual Stimulation: Hany on the Road (PC Engine)

After thinking about it for quite some time, I've come to the conclusion that the manual made for FACE's weirdo platformer, Hany on the Road, is, without question, among the best ever produced for the PC Engine.

That's due in large part to the game's awesomely colorful, clay-figure-populated cover:



Thankfully, those same clay figures (or at least I think they're clay figures) appear throughout Hany on the Road's manual, as is evident from the very first pages (such as the ones below).



Another thing I'm thankful for when it comes to Hany on the Road's instruction manual: It features (in the lower-right corner of the following page) a modeled-out-of-clay 10-ton weight. OK, so the crying dragon--also made out of clay, of course--is kind of cool, too.

Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (Starhawk edition)

Truth be told, I'm not all that interested in Sony's Starhawk, which will be released for the PS3 early next month. (It'll hit the streets of North America on May 8, Japan on May 10 and Europe on May 11.)

My lack of interest in this spiritual successor to Warhawk has nothing to do with me thinking it's a bad game, by the way. On the contrary, what little I've seen of it (erm, this trailer) looks quite good. I'm just not a fan of first-person or third-person shooters--even space-based ones that feature giant flying mechs.

That said, I am a fan of box art (duh!) and I rarely seem to include PS3 covers in these "Which Box Art is Better?" posts, so I've decided to dedicate the latest one to Starhawk's many cover illustrations.

For starters, here is the image that, according to amazon.co.uk, will grace the cover of the European version of the game:

North American copies (which can be pre-ordered here) of Starhawk will bear the same image, apparently. That's a relief to yours truly, as the folks at SCEA used the following (rather boring, in my opinion) box art to promote the game for a time:

The Japanese release of Starhawk, on the other hand, will feature an illustration made by mecha artist Hidetaka Tenjin:

As for which one I like best: I'm going to go with the Japanese cover due to the pop of bright blue that serves to draw a viewer's eyes to the giant flying mech that's being barraged by bullets. That said, I can't say I dislike the slightly-more-straightforward Euro/North American cover.

What do all of you think? Do you like one piece of Starhawk box art more than the others?

See also: Previous 'Which Box Art is Better?' posts

I'm going to be really bummed if Guild01 isn't brought to the States

Don't worry, I'm fully prepared to be bummed--especially after seeing the game's completely WTF-ish Japanese box art.

Even if it sported a better cover image, though, I'm not sure I could see too many North Americans buying Level-5's four-game compilation should it actually see the light of day here.

That's too bad, because the quartet of commercials below make Guild01's contents seem pretty compelling:



(Here's another commercial, featuring the same snippets of gameplay, in case any of you are especially curious.)

Personally, the Guild01 title that I'm drooling over the most is Yoshiyuki Hirai's Rental Bukiya de Omasse, which tasks players with crafting weapons and then renting them to various heroes.

Of course, the other three games that are included in this omnibus release--Yasumi Matsuno's Crimson Shroud, Yoot Saito's Air Porter and Goichi Suda's Liberation Maiden--sound awfully cool, too.

Anyway, here's hoping someone (Level-5? Atlus? Aksys? XSEED?) decides to bring Guild01 to North America--and to other regions, too--in some form or fashion.

(Via andriasang.com)

Acquisition #126: Pilotwings Resort

Full disclosure: This particular acquisition wasn't acquired all that recently. In fact, it was acquired all the way back in January--when Best Buy was selling copies of the game for shockingly low price of $4.99.

I'd been thinking about picking up Pilotwings Resort for some time, mainly because I have fond memories of the SNES original, but I held off on doing so until I came across the above-mentioned sale because quite a few people have told me that the game is a bit thin when it comes to content.

Don't worry, I paid more than $0.00.

Unfortunately, I've been spending so much time with my PSP and with Rhythm Heaven Fever as of late that I've yet to remove Pilotwings Resort from its shrink wrap, let alone play it.

As soon as I do either of those things, I'll let you know what I think of this launch-window release. In the meantime, have any of you played it? If so, what did you think of it? Was it worth whatever you paid for it, or do you wish you would have saved your money for another purchase?

See also: Previous 'Acquisitions #123' posts

Ashley Anderson's 'Cabana Fever'

Remember how I introduced you to the "Alien Goose of Love" a couple of weeks ago? (If not, you'll probably want to check out this post before continuing on.)

Well, artist Ashley Anderson just shared (OK, so he shared it a few days ago) the full, final product on his Flickr photostream and, boy, is it a doozy. Don't believe me? Click on the image to the right and take a good, long look at it.

The piece's official title is "Cabana Fever," by the way, and it's currently featured (as a pull-out poster, I believe) in the latest issue of Atlanta's Young Foxy & Free magazine.

Sadly, I can't tell you at this time which games Anderson, who's also based in Atlanta, plundered to find the sprites that make up this crazy collage. I'll ask him to spill the beans--via his Facebook page--shortly, though, and then share the details here, OK?

Any of you who really like "Cabana Fever," by the way, might like to know that prints, stationary cards and iPhone cases/skins featuring Anderson's illustration can be bought via society6.com.

See also: Previous Ashley Anderson posts