GSQ3: S is for short, sweet (and possibly snarky)

The newest batch of GameSpite Quarterly 3 content shows off the strength of this volume, in my opinion. They’re all concise entries about fairly obscure character, rooted in the lore and mechanics of each game yet which venture well beyond the realm of simple, factual explanations. The book has taken some criticism in certain quarters for being insufficiently, I dunno, anecdotal. But it was never meant to be! We put together a breezy encyclopedia of 8-bit videogame characters spanning the gamut of years, systems, and popularity, and these guys here are fine representatives of our mission statement.

  • Spelunker (Bob Mackey): The star of his own eponymous game, Spelunker just might be responsible for my most humiliating game moment ever as I tried the PS3 remake at Tokyo Game Show and did such a terrible job that the booth girl broke her mask of implacable bland good cheer to express pity for me.
  • Steve Hermann (Justin Hoeger): Do you remember Shatterhand? Neither do I, really, but I figured we should include its hero on our list anyway. Because someone out there surely does.
  • Super Ace Lockheed P-38 (myself): This is possibly the first article about 1943 ever to appear on the Internet that doesn’t go for the standard joke of, “LOL Japanese making game about killing Japan hurf durf.” I’m sorry for abandoning this tradition, but there wasn’t enough space.

(If you want the anecdotal stuff, hold out for GSQ4, which will have a needlessly elaborate 10,000-word essay on Etrian Odyssey, among other things.)

5 thoughts on “GSQ3: S is for short, sweet (and possibly snarky)”

  1. I have to agree with the sentiment on the 194x series in general what with a Japanese game company making a game about attacking Japan in WW2. The choice of having Japan’s entire imperial naval fleet eradicated by a solitary P-38 makes the game’s conceptual plot twist especially shocking.

    Seriously tho. Of all the American air craft the US used in WW2, why the P-38? WTF!

  3. i have to be the jerk that remarks that Shatterhand is actually a REALLY GOOD GAME™.

    if you feel as though its barf-inducing cover art is reason not to play it, i have a question for you involving Mega Man 2.

  4. If Capcom [i]really[/i] wanted 194x to ooze sarcasm, they would’ve had the game star a B-25 being flown by a pilot that looks suspciously just like Joe Don Baker.

  5. I will echo the retort that Shatterhand was indeed awesome. Natsume is probably the most underrated action game developer during the NES/SNES era. Even their most derivative stuff was really fun to play. Wish they would release some of their older stuff on the virtual console.

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