@gamer_lafan I was never that talented with fighting or racing games; I gravitated to scrolling action or shoot ‘em ups, but I remember being hypnotized watching these games being played with their incredible graphics.
Now that the DEMO IS OUT, even more people are calling us a "Shock-like," which is great, of course, since the Shock games had the biggest influence on us. But honestly... we can't wait for people to experience the full game and realize just how different it is overall.
【R・TYPEのボス『ブロンク』を描いたときの話】
初代『R・TYPE』の開発が始まった頃、アイレムにはまだドット絵エディターが無く、私は方眼紙と色鉛筆でドット絵を描いていました。
当初は『R・TYPE』に必要な絵をすべて私一人で描く予定だったんですが、さすがに作業量が多すぎたため、開発の途中で導入されたドット絵エディターを使って、プランナーのABIKO君が敵や背景を描くのを手伝ってくれたんです。
このボスステージの背景もABIKO君が描いてくれていて、私が描いたのは、ゴミ、ハッチ、『ブロンク』、監視ロボ等のオブジェです。
それでも全体の作業量は多く、私には大きなボスを描く余裕がありませんでした。
その影響で、後半ステージのボスはどうしても小ぶりなものになってしまったんです。
この7ステージのボス『ブロンク』も、その一つでした。
このボスの着想は、初代『スター・ウォーズ』の有名なシーンです。
デス・スターの独房から脱出したルーク、レイア、ハン・ソロ、チューバッカの4人が、シュートへ飛び込んで行き着いた先のゴミ処理場なんです。
ルークを汚水に引きずりこんだ単眼のクリーチャー『ダイアノーガ』が、『R・TYPE』では、溜まったゴミの中からひょっこり顔を出す、ゴミ監視ロボになっています。
実は、このボスステージには『デス・スター』のゴミ処理場と同じように、巨大なゴミ圧縮機を設置する予定だったんです。
ゴミを押しつぶすための巨大な壁が迫ってくるので、その壁を撃って押し戻しながら、落下してくるゴミや『ブロンク』を破壊するというゲームになるはずでした。
English below
【When I Drew the R-TYPE Boss “Bronk”】
When development began on the original R-TYPE, Irem did not yet have a pixel art editor, so I was drawing pixel art on graph paper with colored pencils.
At first, I planned to draw all the graphics needed for R-TYPE by myself, but the workload was simply too large. Partway through development, a pixel art editor was introduced, and our planner ABIKO used it to help draw enemies and backgrounds.
ABIKO also drew the background for this stage. What I drew were objects such as the trash, the hatch, Bronk, and the surveillance robots.
Even so, the overall workload was still huge, and I did not have enough room in the schedule to draw large bosses.
As a result, the bosses in the later stages inevitably ended up being on the smaller side.
The boss of this Stage 7, Bronk, was one of them.
The idea for this boss came from the famous scene in the original Star Wars, where Luke, Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca escape from the Death Star detention block, jump into a chute, and end up in the garbage compactor.
The one-eyed creature Dianoga, which pulls Luke into the dirty water, became a garbage-monitoring robot in R-TYPE, popping its head out from the accumulated trash.
Actually, this boss stage was originally planned to have a giant garbage compactor, just like the garbage compactor in the Death Star.
A huge wall for crushing the trash would close in, and the player was supposed to shoot that wall to push it back while destroying the falling trash and Bronk.
#RType #GameDev
【秘密のアイテム】
『メタルスラッグ2』の遺跡ステージには、数あるアイテムの中でも私がお気に入りの『魔法のランプ』を隠してあったのを、皆さんはご存知ですか?
あれは、ハンナ・バーベラの『大魔王シャザーン』へのオマージュなんです。
『シャザーン』といえば、「出てこいシャザーン!」「アイアイサー!」で、お馴染みですよね。
もっとも『大魔王シャザーン』は、日本では1968年に放送が始まった、私が小さい頃に大好きだったアニメなので、さすがに今では元ネタが分かりにくいと思います。
そこで、見た目は当時まだ記憶に新しかったディズニー映画『アラジン』のジーニーみたいに、肌を青くしておいたんです。
元ネタは『シャザーン』、見た目は『ジーニー』……。
これは結局、『ジーニー』なんですけどね。
【English below】
Did you know that in the ruins stage of Metal Slug 2, I hid one of my favorite items among many others, the “Magic Lamp”?
That was an homage to Hanna-Barbera’s Shazzan. When you think of Shazzan, those familiar lines are “Come out, Shazzan!” and “Aye-aye, sir!”, right?
Shazzan originally aired in Japan in 1968, and it was one of my favorite shows when I was a child, so I think it may be a bit hard to recognize the reference nowadays.
That’s why I gave him blue skin, so that visually he would look a bit like the Genie from Disney’s Aladdin, which was still fresh in people’s memories at the time.
The original reference was Shazzan, and the look was the Genie...
So in the end, he ended up being the Genie after all.
#MetalSlug30th #メタスラ30th
@gamer_lafan I love 3 so much, and really appreciate the art and gameplay features, but X edges it out to be my favorite. What a fantastic run they had with 1,2,X,3.
These teams really set a high bar, and not just at Nazca, but their whole career to that point.
METAL SLUG marks its 30th anniversary.
I was around 30 myself when I conceived METAL SLUG, in a reckless attempt to strike a blow against the dominance of fighting games at the time.
Back then, I never imagined that idea would still be going strong 30 years later.
I worked on METAL SLUG 1 through 3, but after that, many more Metal Slug pixel artists carried the baton forward and kept the game running across generations.
For a single game to continue for 30 years is not something its creators alone can achieve.
METAL SLUG exists today because of the passion of its creators, the teammates who carried it forward, and above all, all of you who played it again and again and loved it.
Your battle record in the long war against Morden's Army is what has sustained METAL SLUG for these 30 years.
The game I poured my life into back then is still so eagerly awaited, even now, 30 years later.
As a creator, that makes me truly happy, and very proud.
And now, the METAL SLUG video that SNK released for the 30th anniversary, hinting at the next phase, has not yet revealed the full picture.
Just thinking that a revolutionary, never-before-seen METAL SLUG is finally about to reveal itself makes my heart race, and I can hardly sit still.
When that moment comes and its true form is finally revealed, I want to witness it with my own eyes alongside all of you and shout:
"HEAVY MACHINE GUN!"
#MetalSlug30th
#MetalSlug
Kogar and the Old Man. A few weeks ago, Facebook’s algorithm showed me an epic illustration by John McKenzie. His style is quite unique, so I recommend checking out John’s account to appreciate it.