Confidential to Kishi: I’m so, so sorry. I was looking for artwork from Psycho Solider with which to promote this latest batch of great write-ups from GameSpite Quarterly 3, and this is all I could come up with. It really kind of undermines, well, pretty much everything you wrote about Athena. Mea culpa. Anyway, hopefully our readers will go ahead and click though to the entries below, because they’re really quite good.
- Arthur (Ghosts ‘N Goblins) by Sean Gandert
- Athena Asamiya (Psycho Soldier) by Nicola Nomali
Confidential to everyone else: Please read our feature on music rip-offs in videogames. We sank a lot of time and effort into making the best article we could. I realize lots of other sites have beaten us to covering this topic, but I’m confident that our take on it features better comparisons, has the best formatting, and (I’d like to think, since I wrote it) features the most informed text. And even if not, it’s still a fun read. So.
The only thing I remember about Athena was a tip in Classified Information that said to kneel on a mushroom in the first stage to get a bunch of power ups in the NES game.
Ye gods, that is one funny-looking sword.
She looks like a 50-something Greek prostitute.
It is kind of interesting how the artist transformed a navy school uniform into that skin-tight sci-fi number. Here’s the real thing, though:
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/snk/images/5/50/Athena-ps.jpg
Man, that picture’s almost as bad. She looks severely brain-damaged or something there.
I don’t mean to pick, but in regards to the Athena right up, it swiftly states, “Even Athena’s official debut was ethereal in its appeal; in 1987’s Psycho Soldier, she…”, then at the very end, acknowledges her debut was the ’86 NES game. It just wierded me how it mentioned all her games chronologically, save for putting the first game last, like an afterthought. P.S. Nicola’s image is for Athena: Full Throttle. OH! So, there’s also that game, it warrants mention. Lastly, aside from her overdone “Psycho Soldier” song, there’s been various “Athena” songs composed and stuck on KoF Arranged Soundtracks, and there was a cassette released in Japan in support of Psycho Soldier with a b-side song, which was remade and put in the PS2 port of KoF XI. Meh, my embarrassing over-rabid SNK fandom of years past…
I dunno Kishi, a girl sailor? That seems pretty sci-fi to me!!!
I don’t mean to pick, but in regards to the Athena right up, it swiftly states, “Even Athena’s official debut was ethereal in its appeal; in 1987’s Psycho Soldier, she…”, then at the very end, acknowledges her debut was the ’86 NES game.
The subject’s official debut was in Psycho Soldier, because Athena Asamiya and Princess Athena are different characters. I thought I made that plain enough.
P.S. Nicola’s image is for Athena: Full Throttle.
No, it isn’t. As a recent game, Full Throttle’s artwork has none of the analog ’80s roughness or earnest chubbiness of Psycho Soldier’s. Full Throttle also stars Princess Athena, not the be-fukued Asamiya.
Shouldn’t this article also mention her appearance in God Slayer/Crystalis? Sure, she was a bit player, but SNK actually used to go to her and Kensou quite a bit…
It does mention Crystalis. The name Crystalis is bolded, even.
Bah, my fault, then. Missed it somehow.
See, I’m paranoid. Before I ever post anything of that nature, I always find myself doing a Ctrl-F on the page.
bahahahaha wtf! I’m having trouble telling if that artwork is perverted ST:TNG Deanna Troi fan art or something from a 60’s-70’s era pinball backglass
“She looks like a 50-something Greek prostitute.” “I’m having trouble telling if that artwork is perverted ST:TNG Deanna Troi fan art or something from a 60’s-70’s era pinball backglass.” Maybe it’s all of the above. But I still don’t have any explanation for the pointy ears.
Solid! Both of these are great reading, even if you don’t know the games in question — which in my mind is the highest goal to have. I love how the Athena article frames all these bits of geek trivia in an amusing and attention-keeping career history. It makes that trivia cool even!
That was the best feature I’ve ever read on 1-up. Great job.
Mmm, true enough, I withdraw and apologize, and give praise for the writing of this character. I realized just after posting that the article probably distinguished the two Athena’s as separate people… As for my miss-citing the image… I just recalled seeing it splashed in an Athena: Full Throttle comic in an Athena CD book. But, looking back at the CD book, I now see that it has Psycho Soldier version Kensu art in it as well. So, darn me.