Ah! Clockwork Knight!
A great game I picked up at 'Toy's R Us' as the Saturn was on it's way out... I remember it was cheap, although I can't remember the price... Probably far more than most of the games I buy today... (I picked up Pen Pen Tricelon for Dreamcast for £4, at the wonderful "Chips" used game shop, coincidentally... today.
"Chips"... I'm going to take a break from the game review to do a quick "shop" review. The Three Gingers have told me about this place for years... It's situated in Chorlton, Manchester, about a mile or two from my house. Although I often visit this rather excellent Manchester suburb for a meal, a beer or a bit of shopping, I've never checked out "Chips". This is very strange behaviour for me, as I'm usually sticking around used games shops like a fly sticks around a freshly dropped turd. For some reason though I never checked out this particular venue.
However today with about 10 minutes to kill before picking up the Littlest Ginger from school, me and the Biggest Ginger decided to pop in and check it out. And what an excellent revelation it was! Instead of the dusty old shambolic second hand tat market I had imagined, this was a nice organised emporium, with the games categorised and presented by console. Not the cheapest of venues, but definite bargains for both the Saturn and the Dreamcast on show. My usual used games venue is the excellent Gamestation. However, as any regular customer will know, the selection of games seems to stagnate for a few weeks, then a gamer selling his beloved stash will replenish the stock, and a hidden gem might be up for grabs...
In "Chips" however there was a nice selection of less obvious titles at a variety of prices... In Gamestation the games I'm looking for rarely cost me more than a couple of quid... Here games ranged from £3 to about £20...
On paying for my Pen Pen Tricelon, I enquired about the rest of the Dreamcast games in the shop... (perhaps hidden gems were stashed behind the counter?) Unfortunately what you saw on the shelves represented stock of software for a particular console... Bah!
Imagine my surprise when the 'uber-geek' (who tend to staff video games shops) asked me if I was after a particular title... "Daytona USA 2001... for the Dreamcast" I spluttered...
"Not too uncommon..." he suggested.
A quick tap on the computer to check on availability of said game revealed that it was not very available after all... Bah!
"Hang on... they might have it in our Glasgow store..." Glasgow Store??? This place was a chain???
Within seconds the guy was phoning North of the Border... "Daytona USA 2001... You got it?
Yes? Send it to us... What? Twelve days... sweet."
He then asked me if I wanted to reserve it... Deposit price £1. He asked me for my phone number and then promised to phone me on it's arrival in the store...
Price? £12!!! Fucking result!! Awlright!!!
How's that for service? Now if you want a bit of "Chips" action, but don't have the fortune of living in Manchester or Glasgow, fortunately this esteemed retailer is enough of a going concern to have a website and you can go straight to it here...
Not sure about international sales but definite UK goldmine...
OK where was I? oh yeah... Clockwork Knight!
At this festive time "Toy" related games seem very appropriate... "Toy Story 2", "Toy Commander" or "Toy Racer" for DC, "Micro Machines" for Megadrive and indeed the veritable "Clockwork Knight" for Saturn...
Let's check out the blurb on the back of the box...
"Stunning cinema-quality SGI-rendered characters and graphics create this amazing 3D toy world. As the clock strikes midnight Pepperouchau springs to life armed only with a sword and split second timing. Tackle treacherous furniture, huge household items and wind up villains to save the kidnapped princess before dawn!"
Pepperouchau is a largely mustachioed Kaiser looking Clockwork Knight... Not the most familiar of toys I'll grant you... and not the most obvious name for a toy either... but we're splitting hairs.
Although this claims to be 3D that is largely confined to the rendered environments. essentially it's a side scrolling 2D platformer... Playing through the many rooms of a typical house our little toy Aryan has to battle a variety of foes. It's fucking great!! The worst thing about this particular game was always being unable to save... In fact I could never save on the Saturn cos I never had a memory card... I always thought the huge slot in the top of a Saturn was for Megadrive games... Go figure... I once left "Casper" (Yes I know...) on for days 'cos I was trying to complete it... Without a memory card... Now I've got one ... a super-duper one that is also a cheat facility and Japanese/import game "enabler". (Separate post altogether..)
I've not done this game justice... it's great. But I've been interrupted by life in my house, instant messages from my good friend across the 'pond Deitrix, showing me very funny video clips and
Peter Kay shouting very funny things from the TV in my peripheral vision...
You see? This is why I need my own blog... to post utter shite! I actually take posting on GGOTG and the DCJY very seriously... but here i can post sub-standard ramblings, read by no-one and not have to worry about it!
Great! 'Cos there has not been anything of worth imparted on this particular blog may I offer any random reader this lovely image as a consolation!
Goodnight children wherever you are!!
16 comments:
Such diligence and devotion to searching the illusive title... and surely the spirit of Santa was with you to find such a reward at the end of your shop hopping.....
nice to see that bum again too!
Elderly welcome!
You know me and Santa are firm friends...
There is all the reason in the world to post the lovely Ivy on both the DCJY and the SJY!! :)
Ah. The Sega Saturn. I love this console. Nice job in creating this site. I have now added it to my favorites and will check in periodically.
I have two children and each time my wife and I came up on her due date, I apparently felt the need to recapture my youth and went on a video game console buying spree. I am currently the owner of a Dreamcast, a Saturn, a Genesis (Megadrive to my wrong side of the road friends), Xbox, Gamecube and Gameboy Adv.
The Saturn has always held a special place in my heart. Maybe it's because I was a HUGE genesis fan but could not afford the $500 Saturn when it was first released or maybe because it has a cool name. Whatever it is, I like it. My current favorite is Rayman. A very good platform game that while liked by critics, I'm not sure that it sold very well.
Anyway, I look forward to checking in periodically. Good on ya mate.
Ah! pierre welcome!
You sound like a man after my own heart! My own console haul consists of a master system, saturn, N64, eight (count'em) dreamcasts, a treamcast, two gameboy colours, one GBA, a DS and a Sega game gear - you'll understand why my wife has frowned at the idea of a Wii!
At some point this holidays I will do a post on my full Saturn games collection.
Glad you could make it over to the Satun Junkyard, will post again soon, although I now have to divide posting time between the DCJY, here and Gnome's Gaming On The GO... Due to post there next...
Take care bud!
(tip toes in.... leaves bottle shaped xmas pressie under FC's christmas tree...)
Ah the firm bum, a Father and an Elderly! And bottle sporting unknown wors under the tree...
And a brilliant post. On a game that seems quite lovely really... Perhaps dear father if you gave *Heart of Darknes* a try?
I LOVE heart of darkness LLOOOVVEE IITT!!
One of the very few PS1 games I ever completed....
Did it come out on Saturn?
Very merry christmas Gnome!
thanks for all your friendship help and support this year!
Awesome site, your link will be posted sooon. The title looks interesing, and btw I dont think that Heart of Darkness came out for the Saturn. And nice image of Ivy too :-) Chalk this up as a great post!
Welcome Ross! Thanks for dropping in, and thanks for the link on your illustrious site. I have reciprocated and added yours to mine.
Merry Christmas! ;)
"eight (count'em) dreamcasts"
I thought I was cool because I had three...dammit.
And a Happy New Year too Father (well, in a few days really)... Don't know much about a Saturn version of HoD but you could check this link:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/heart-of-darkness
An excellent game...
to all of the faithful dreamcast lovers stay strong and may the force be with you peace xxxxxxxx
hello i am the son of farther krishna and i would like 2 tell you of the addiction they call the games console my dad lives for these products and so do i to a extent although not as much as my dad so if you have any suggestion on how to help him with his addiction please leave a comment
Holy Feck! Whilst I was ensconsed in the quite fantastic Channel 5 programme on the wonderful David Icke, the Biggest Ginger has sneaked onto my website and started causing mischief...
You can tell that its a genuine post from a teenager 'cos it's gramatically incorrect, contains spelling mistakes and uses those horrible 'text' abbreviations... Like '2' for 'to'
I thought this blogging world was a haven from their all pervasive teenage intransigence...
Obviously I was wrong... From henceforth, the Biggest Ginger shall now have his own identity and comment space in my world...
Read any posts from 'Sonkrishna' with a liberal sprinkling of scorn, derision, condescension and disgust...
Peace out!
Cheers for the heads up on Chips world Father K. There's a GBA game I've been hunting for like mad and they've got it in stock!!
Glad to be of service!
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