3D world runner by square is a blatant tech demo, a mode 7 prototype in appearance with 3D. Much like Argonaut got involved with Nintendo through impressive tech, I would not be surprised if there were much closer deals with square because of 3D world runner. I remember seeing reports of a first person Mario demo like 3d world runner being produced and scrapped, then turning into a virtual boy title that may have been produced. From design 3D world runner looks like a first person Mario. run, jump, ratchet scrolling in a new perspective. Its interesting when then Sega, creates the same exact game, and makes it a mini game in their Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Like an arms race of code and innovation between the two. Jeremy, you're a great reporter and storyteller. These have been great to watch.
SkyKid is one of my favorite games...very quirky and fun. Not mentioned in the video is the abundance of Easter eggs in the game that makes it even more enjoyable.
I'm not sure if this is true of the NES version, but probably the most interesting thing about Sky Kid is that while going into a tailspin, you can tap the button to right yourself and save your life.
Great video! Little error I spotted : at 9:13, when you present Atlantis no Nazo, you are displaying the Lode Runner title card instead. Keep up the good work!
Regarding Sky Kid, this is a classic example of how the arcade version is superior in terms of graphics and audio, and how it does make a difference if the gameplay is identical. Thank you for sharing this particular piece of history, Jeremy!
I have a theory that Simon Belmont in the Capital N cartoon was designed to be Baron from Sky Kid. Then the Konami license came too late to change the pilot design.
Oh snap! WorldRunner is my favorite game on the NES! To give you an idea of how much I love this game, I have the Japan-only sequel (JJ Tobidase Daisakusen Part 2) with a Famicom-to-NES adapter fitted to it and the Japan-only headset accessory that works with it, modified to plug into the expansion port on the bottom of my NES. I've also loaded WorldRunner onto my NES Classic... but, unfortunately, the emulator doesn't handle the red/cyan 3D effect properly. Not that I really care to play the game in 3D, but I have 3D glasses that I use on NES and it would've been nice to show people the effect with all the portability and other conveniences that come with the NES Classic. Alright, big ol' paragraph out of the way, time to watch the video.
I remember “3D WorldRunner”. This was the first game I played for the NES as a kid, and it was the first game for Acclaim, one of the most decent gaming publishers to come out from the heals of Capcom and Konami. Acclaim did put out a series of good and bad ones for the NES during that time. “Tiger-Heli” was the first NES game that sucked and that was Acclaim, and then “Winter Games” was a no-brainer, and it was an Olympic style game which was horrible. They also made other bad titles like “WWF Wrestlemania”, and that one was bad, “Total Recall” which was also bad that has a “Terminator” reference after you lose a life saying “I’ll be back” which was not in the movie, plus others. By the early 1990’s, Acclaim joined forces with LJN as one of the worst gaming publishers to put out more titles for both NES, SNES and Sega Genesis. The only good LJN game was “Spider-Man in Maximum Carnage” and the Sega Genesis version was by Acclaim.
Pretty much everyone knows the story about how Final Fantasy was so called because it was going to be Squaresoft's last gasp release before they went out of business, only for it to explode with popularity and shoot them to the top of the gaming world, making their name synonymous with the JRPG genre forever more. But nobody ever seems to talk about the games they made _before_ that which were apparently failing so badly as to bring them to the brink of bankruptcy.
Aaaaah you missed an important feature in SkyKid! It's much more obvious in the arcade, which displays what you're supposed to do on-screen when it happens, but when you get sent into a spin, you aren't dead yet! Hold up on the controller and pound on the buttons, and you can pull out of it! If you manage to do it before you strike the terrain you survive and can continue playing as normal. This is an essential thing to learn to get far into the game. You can do this repeatedly, but every time you go into a spin, it becomes a little harder to recover. Also, as someone else mentioned below, there's a lot of easter eggs you can activate by doing loops in specific places. Like, you can turn day into night or vice versa by looping in front of the sun or moon, and you can blow the Statue of Liberty's robes by doing a loop around her legs. Doing a loop above a Pac-Man sign makes an item appear; don't pick up the bottle if it appears, it'll make you spin and probably die from crashing into the sign.
I was obsessed with 3-D World Runner as a kid. I wasn't aware of Space Harrier so the game was just a neat fun game with a real earworm. Which shouldn't be a surprise considering who wrote that earworm. I puzzled out all the patterns and eventually beat it.
Skykid is a fantastic game that I'm surprised you were so low on. Plenty of other commenters have already mentioned the recovery mechanic and I think that's pretty key for what made Skykid such an engrossing experience, at least for me. With the mission-based structure to the levels it's definitely less a standard shooter where you're trying to survive and complete the mission rather than just rack up points blasting foes.
How in the world did I never know that Square published an Aliens adaptation? I'm gonna have to find a way to play that. Also... and this is going waaaaayyy back... am I the only one who gets "Sopwith" vibes from Skykid?
Not sure if you ever got around to playing it, but the Aliens game was canceled, and it's prototype revealed around the time this episode aired. It was also an FDS title, adding to its obscurity. What's surprising is the prototype looks to be just about complete. Maybe some tweaks to balance difficulty and some of the weird jump physics, but it's a complete game you can win, and it'll run you about half an hour from start to finish. Very weird it didn't get released.
Sky Kid: Loop around the sun, and several other out of place objects for bonus points and 1-Ups. I was very good at it as a kid. Horrible at it now. Grandma got it for me. R.I.P Nan. =(
I never really took the opportunity to listen to the 3-D WorldRunner music before. It's very catchy, and a good fit for the ever-moving-forward nature of the gameplay.
Hmm... I'm not a specialist in anaglyph 3D, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the effect is kinda "inverted" in 3D WorldRunner to what it should be. What I mean is, from our eyes view the closer the object is to us the bigger the offset (difference) in perspective between the left and the right eye. And as the object goes further away from us the difference in perspective between the left and right eye becomes less and less noticeable, and on the horizon it should be practically negligible. You can test this effect simply by putting a finger in front of your eyes and closing left and right eye while moving the finger closer or further from your face. Now look at the red and blue images of 3D WorldRunner anaglyph mode. It's exactly the oposite of what it should be. The closer objects have less offset than the objects on the horizon.
I was one of those people who not only managed to master Worldrunner back then, but I even finished the "second quest" you get a code for in the ending. Don't think I could do it now though.
Hey Jeremy, big fan over here with a small correction. Sky Kid pitches his plane's nose up and down for the firing angles. Banking is the act of rolling the plane left or right. Funny enough, the animation on Gradius is a bank/roll. when you change altitude, despite that being what turns an actual plane. The ship in Gradius is both fictional and flies through space so what do I know. Anyone curious beyond a google search should consider taking $50 to their local airport's flight school for a 30 min intro flight. Cheers!
Did you know there's an Easter egg in the Namco game, Ace Combat? In Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, three of your fellow pilots have the call signs of Red Baron, Blue Max, and Sky Kid! I really enjoyed Sky Kid! The game becomes more forgiving if you figure out that you can recover from a tailspin, which is a really interesting mechanic. Most shooters would just have you blow up upon taking a hit. It's fun in two-player co-op as well.
I thought 3D WORLD RUNNER was a really fun game, if not bizarre and somewhat repetitive. I used to love running and making sick cuts, like Barry Sanders.. And the music was definitely catchy and fun
I enjoyed 3D World Runner, for it being different and it was one of the first Nes games I played. Though it took me years to figure out how to pass World 3. The other world's gimmicks weren't that hard to figure out, such as World 4 requiring you to move between fire pillars to jump across pits safely. The main theme song, I could have sworn I heard it somewhere long before playing the game, because it sounds very familiar. Kind of like many other Nes games that sound like they were used or at least inspired by something else.
I did not get passed World 3-2 which has full of long pits and jumping platforms. When I grew up, I finally got passed World 3. And then World 4 came, I got passed there and avoid the moving hands. And then World 5, sort off, and then World 6 it’s just a series of pits and fire poles to avoid, and then World 7 gets even worse. It starts at turbo speed, and it has too many fire poles, and I have to get pass them to avoid them, and 7-1 has no power ups except for 7-2 where you can fight them at hyper speed and avoid dog faced characters but you can’t shoot them, and that cloud looking object at a microsecond. The final stage was World 8 and 8-1 has to be the most difficult stage in the game where you can jump or jump on top of the fire poles to get passed. World 8-2 is to watch out with the moving hands and pits and random enemies. 8-4 was a quick one before it goes into the final boss and I defeated 7 of them. After I beat the whole game, it has an ending where it gives you a code from all of the bosses. I can’t get able to get a code while “The End” screen appeared, but it never happened. I reset the game, it would replay the same ending again. That’s odd.
Did they remove the feature in the NES SkyKid where if you hammer the buttons after being hit by an enemy, you can sometimes recover the plane before crashing?
Another great video. I have the Switch version of Namco Museum so I can play the arcade version of Sky Kid. Interesting controls, will have to try that when I play it. Getting closer to that 40th anniversary of Pacman too. I think it's next year? Looking forward to the Pac Man episode and how Heiankyo Alien somehow ties in.
Sky kid was actually ported to Gameboy via one of the Japanese exclusive Namco Gallery. 3 collection carts were released pretty sure it's on number 2. Anyone played the GB version?
I like both of these games, even if they're not particularly well regarded. Sky Kid is pretty fun with co-op. Also you could never tell in the game itself, but it's actually anthropomorphic birds flying the planes. World Runner has a cute pause animation where the runner takes a seat and sips some tea. It's pretty fiendish they made the mushroom items /kill/ you, though. C'mon now, you can't do that!
Jack was unlockable in chocobo racing on the Ps1. While not quite the same, it does give us a glimpse of what a modern version could look like. finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_(Chocobo_Racing)
I remember back in the 90s I bought a copy of Sky Kid from Funcoland I took it home and it wouldn't work. I cleaned it a couple of times tried it on 3 different NES consoles and it still wouldn't work so I ended up throwing it on the roof of my house and have seen it since. Not a big loss I only paid $1.79 for it this was long before I knew that you could change out the 72 pin connector.
Say what you will about the mixed offerings under Acclaim's label, but they still became one of the more prolific publishers for Nintendo's consoles. That's why it was such shocking news in 1992 when they announced they were going to publish games for the rival Sega Genesis.
Rad Racer, also by Square, has a 3D mode that you activate using the Select button and that requires those 3D glasses. Unfortunately, although I've been playing Rad Racer a lot these days, I haven't been able to try, since my copy came without glasses
you can easily purchase replacement blue and red 3d glasses lol. or even make your own! cardboard and a sheet of red and blue theater light gels. just search up 3d anaglyph glasses. 10 bucks for a solid plastic pair
The bonus punchline to the "Acclaim called themselves that to get in front of Activision in the business listings" bit is that that's exactly why Activision called themselves Activision in the first place: to get in front of Atari! In fact, I have no doubt the founders knew that and were following the established example!
Now I'm imagining an alternate timeline where this plays out to its logical conclusion, where a publisher calls itself "AAAASoft" to get ahead of "Aardvark Entertainment."
How strange you didn't mention that on Sky Kid with a flip you could recover from a fall so you don't loose a life. If you ask me is a key mechanic that differenciates it from other shooters. It was my favorite feature as a kid because I wasn't good at shooters but could keep myself alive if I spam the flip button enough.
Anyone ever notice the similarities between 3D world runner and Rad Racer? I believe RR uses the same kernel. Aside from similar HUD design and both having the 3D effect, they both use the exact same level skip cheat code.
I wish you would investigate all possible explanations of why a company -Brøderbund for instance-would toss so many different styles of products into the software world. If you already have then you can lambast my own psyche as someone who commented before searching your video series.
The closest thing to 3D World Runner I played back then was Eliminator on the C64 and even though that was a thoroughly BS game with plenty of blind jumps into instakill obstacles the effect was fancy enough in the day to keep me playing.
Tetra Star is another super obscure famicom only release that does the space harrier psuedo 3d effect probably the best as a shmup: ruclips.net/video/Zn9SXT8_B6Y/видео.html
I give a pass to games like 3D world runner since they are competing with the greatest game ever made. Space Harrier really is the perfect game to me: easy to pick up, difficult to master, insanely good controls, amazing music, great visuals which are timeless, point based, and of course needless voices which enhance the game tenfold. How do you not feel great when he tells you that you're doing so? Even after finishing a game on a single credit, I can't get enough of it... Er, but yeah...back on topic. 3D world runner was decent enough for a game that tried to go against the king. Too bad it ultimately missed
I can only assume you mean the arcade version, because every experience I've had with the console versions of it have all been quite consistently awful.
@@KuraIthys That and the Saturn version. The 32X one isn't too bad, either. Just takes some getting used to. If the 3DS version counts, then I'll throw that in, too. I will agree that the ports that came out near the arcade's launch were awful though...at least the ones I played.
"Acclaim, a name chosen because it came before Activision in buisness listings" I couldn't help but laugh at that one. I don't think I ever really got into 3D World Runner as a kid but this might be one to think about revisiting! SkyKid I never really played but I believe that IS a bird flying a plane, funny enough!
11:08 I love how Pacman "debuted" in this game before his actual appearance. 😂
3D world runner by square is a blatant tech demo, a mode 7 prototype in appearance with 3D. Much like Argonaut got involved with Nintendo through impressive tech, I would not be surprised if there were much closer deals with square because of 3D world runner. I remember seeing reports of a first person Mario demo like 3d world runner being produced and scrapped, then turning into a virtual boy title that may have been produced. From design 3D world runner looks like a first person Mario. run, jump, ratchet scrolling in a new perspective.
Its interesting when then Sega, creates the same exact game, and makes it a mini game in their Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Like an arms race of code and innovation between the two.
Jeremy, you're a great reporter and storyteller.
These have been great to watch.
SkyKid is one of my favorite games...very quirky and fun. Not mentioned in the video is the abundance of Easter eggs in the game that makes it even more enjoyable.
Yes, SkyKid is great! The only place it really lacks is the arcade has rather better music.
I'm not sure if this is true of the NES version, but probably the most interesting thing about Sky Kid is that while going into a tailspin, you can tap the button to right yourself and save your life.
Great video! Little error I spotted : at 9:13, when you present Atlantis no Nazo, you are displaying the Lode Runner title card instead.
Keep up the good work!
Ah I was just about to note that as well.
Hey! In Sky Kid you can save yourself from death by button mashing during your spiral downward. try it out!
beat me to it, but it's true
Keep up the good work Parish. Especially enjoying the NES retrospectives and your fine command of language and delivery!
Regarding Sky Kid, this is a classic example of how the arcade version is superior in terms of graphics and audio, and how it does make a difference if the gameplay is identical. Thank you for sharing this particular piece of history, Jeremy!
I have a theory that Simon Belmont in the Capital N cartoon was designed to be Baron from Sky Kid. Then the Konami license came too late to change the pilot design.
Oh snap! WorldRunner is my favorite game on the NES! To give you an idea of how much I love this game, I have the Japan-only sequel (JJ Tobidase Daisakusen Part 2) with a Famicom-to-NES adapter fitted to it and the Japan-only headset accessory that works with it, modified to plug into the expansion port on the bottom of my NES. I've also loaded WorldRunner onto my NES Classic... but, unfortunately, the emulator doesn't handle the red/cyan 3D effect properly. Not that I really care to play the game in 3D, but I have 3D glasses that I use on NES and it would've been nice to show people the effect with all the portability and other conveniences that come with the NES Classic.
Alright, big ol' paragraph out of the way, time to watch the video.
Your passion for 3D World Runner brings me joy. n.n
I remember “3D WorldRunner”. This was the first game I played for the NES as a kid, and it was the first game for Acclaim, one of the most decent gaming publishers to come out from the heals of Capcom and Konami. Acclaim did put out a series of good and bad ones for the NES during that time. “Tiger-Heli” was the first NES game that sucked and that was Acclaim, and then “Winter Games” was a no-brainer, and it was an Olympic style game which was horrible. They also made other bad titles like “WWF Wrestlemania”, and that one was bad, “Total Recall” which was also bad that has a “Terminator” reference after you lose a life saying “I’ll be back” which was not in the movie, plus others. By the early 1990’s, Acclaim joined forces with LJN as one of the worst gaming publishers to put out more titles for both NES, SNES and Sega Genesis. The only good LJN game was “Spider-Man in Maximum Carnage” and the Sega Genesis version was by Acclaim.
Pretty much everyone knows the story about how Final Fantasy was so called because it was going to be Squaresoft's last gasp release before they went out of business, only for it to explode with popularity and shoot them to the top of the gaming world, making their name synonymous with the JRPG genre forever more. But nobody ever seems to talk about the games they made _before_ that which were apparently failing so badly as to bring them to the brink of bankruptcy.
Aaaaah you missed an important feature in SkyKid!
It's much more obvious in the arcade, which displays what you're supposed to do on-screen when it happens, but when you get sent into a spin, you aren't dead yet! Hold up on the controller and pound on the buttons, and you can pull out of it! If you manage to do it before you strike the terrain you survive and can continue playing as normal. This is an essential thing to learn to get far into the game. You can do this repeatedly, but every time you go into a spin, it becomes a little harder to recover.
Also, as someone else mentioned below, there's a lot of easter eggs you can activate by doing loops in specific places. Like, you can turn day into night or vice versa by looping in front of the sun or moon, and you can blow the Statue of Liberty's robes by doing a loop around her legs. Doing a loop above a Pac-Man sign makes an item appear; don't pick up the bottle if it appears, it'll make you spin and probably die from crashing into the sign.
13:10 always stay for the after-credits scene
I was obsessed with 3-D World Runner as a kid. I wasn't aware of Space Harrier so the game was just a neat fun game with a real earworm. Which shouldn't be a surprise considering who wrote that earworm. I puzzled out all the patterns and eventually beat it.
Skykid is a fantastic game that I'm surprised you were so low on. Plenty of other commenters have already mentioned the recovery mechanic and I think that's pretty key for what made Skykid such an engrossing experience, at least for me. With the mission-based structure to the levels it's definitely less a standard shooter where you're trying to survive and complete the mission rather than just rack up points blasting foes.
How in the world did I never know that Square published an Aliens adaptation? I'm gonna have to find a way to play that.
Also... and this is going waaaaayyy back... am I the only one who gets "Sopwith" vibes from Skykid?
I hear you about Sopwith. I played an awful lot of it on my dad’s IBM-PC when I was seven or eight years old.
Not sure if you ever got around to playing it, but the Aliens game was canceled, and it's prototype revealed around the time this episode aired. It was also an FDS title, adding to its obscurity. What's surprising is the prototype looks to be just about complete. Maybe some tweaks to balance difficulty and some of the weird jump physics, but it's a complete game you can win, and it'll run you about half an hour from start to finish. Very weird it didn't get released.
Sky Kid: Loop around the sun, and several other out of place objects for bonus points and 1-Ups. I was very good at it as a kid. Horrible at it now. Grandma got it for me. R.I.P Nan. =(
I had no idea there was a sequel to World Runner in Japan. I need to check that out!
I never really took the opportunity to listen to the 3-D WorldRunner music before. It's very catchy, and a good fit for the ever-moving-forward nature of the gameplay.
And it's one of Nobuo Uematsu's first game soundtracks.
Hmm... I'm not a specialist in anaglyph 3D, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the effect is kinda "inverted" in 3D WorldRunner to what it should be. What I mean is, from our eyes view the closer the object is to us the bigger the offset (difference) in perspective between the left and the right eye. And as the object goes further away from us the difference in perspective between the left and right eye becomes less and less noticeable, and on the horizon it should be practically negligible. You can test this effect simply by putting a finger in front of your eyes and closing left and right eye while moving the finger closer or further from your face.
Now look at the red and blue images of 3D WorldRunner anaglyph mode. It's exactly the oposite of what it should be. The closer objects have less offset than the objects on the horizon.
I was one of those people who not only managed to master Worldrunner back then, but I even finished the "second quest" you get a code for in the ending. Don't think I could do it now though.
So thankful Nasir did such a great job on all these games. Gaming would be much worse today without him.
I don't know if you realized that you can recover in SkyKid by holding up and mashing the buttons
I thought he missed that feature.
Hey Jeremy, big fan over here with a small correction. Sky Kid pitches his plane's nose up and down for the firing angles. Banking is the act of rolling the plane left or right. Funny enough, the animation on Gradius is a bank/roll. when you change altitude, despite that being what turns an actual plane. The ship in Gradius is both fictional and flies through space so what do I know. Anyone curious beyond a google search should consider taking $50 to their local airport's flight school for a 30 min intro flight. Cheers!
Gee, whenever I see NES Sky Kid I just can't stop thinking of the Mappy web series. Always willing to give a helping hand.
Did you know there's an Easter egg in the Namco game, Ace Combat? In Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, three of your fellow pilots have the call signs of Red Baron, Blue Max, and Sky Kid!
I really enjoyed Sky Kid! The game becomes more forgiving if you figure out that you can recover from a tailspin, which is a really interesting mechanic. Most shooters would just have you blow up upon taking a hit.
It's fun in two-player co-op as well.
Sky Kid is hard, but its REALLY hard if you don't know about saving your tailspins.
I thought 3D WORLD RUNNER was a really fun game, if not bizarre and somewhat repetitive.
I used to love running and making sick cuts, like Barry Sanders..
And the music was definitely catchy and fun
It was one of Nobuo Uematsu's first soundtracks.
I agree with you. It was fun and enjoyable. I don't know if it's worth finishing, but a few worlds now and then would be refreshing.
_Sky Kid's_ combat reminds me of Star Fox 64.
I enjoyed 3D World Runner, for it being different and it was one of the first Nes games I played. Though it took me years to figure out how to pass World 3. The other world's gimmicks weren't that hard to figure out, such as World 4 requiring you to move between fire pillars to jump across pits safely.
The main theme song, I could have sworn I heard it somewhere long before playing the game, because it sounds very familiar. Kind of like many other Nes games that sound like they were used or at least inspired by something else.
I did not get passed World 3-2 which has full of long pits and jumping platforms. When I grew up, I finally got passed World 3. And then World 4 came, I got passed there and avoid the moving hands. And then World 5, sort off, and then World 6 it’s just a series of pits and fire poles to avoid, and then World 7 gets even worse. It starts at turbo speed, and it has too many fire poles, and I have to get pass them to avoid them, and 7-1 has no power ups except for 7-2 where you can fight them at hyper speed and avoid dog faced characters but you can’t shoot them, and that cloud looking object at a microsecond. The final stage was World 8 and 8-1 has to be the most difficult stage in the game where you can jump or jump on top of the fire poles to get passed. World 8-2 is to watch out with the moving hands and pits and random enemies. 8-4 was a quick one before it goes into the final boss and I defeated 7 of them. After I beat the whole game, it has an ending where it gives you a code from all of the bosses. I can’t get able to get a code while “The End” screen appeared, but it never happened. I reset the game, it would replay the same ending again. That’s odd.
Man, I know it's still a ways off but I can't wait for the NES Works Vol 3 book. You put so much effort into all this content!!!
Thanks! I've decided to power through the rest of 1987 ASAP. My ideal is to get three books out by the end of next year... we'll see how that goes.
At least Jeremy will have Punch Out and Mega Man to look forward to. And of course more bad ports by Micronics.
Did they remove the feature in the NES SkyKid where if you hammer the buttons after being hit by an enemy, you can sometimes recover the plane before crashing?
Larry Bundy Jr Other commenters has said it was in the NES version.
Another great video. I have the Switch version of Namco Museum so I can play the arcade version of Sky Kid. Interesting controls, will have to try that when I play it. Getting closer to that 40th anniversary of Pacman too. I think it's next year? Looking forward to the Pac Man episode and how Heiankyo Alien somehow ties in.
Sky kid was actually ported to Gameboy via one of the Japanese exclusive Namco Gallery. 3 collection carts were released pretty sure it's on number 2. Anyone played the GB version?
I like both of these games, even if they're not particularly well regarded. Sky Kid is pretty fun with co-op. Also you could never tell in the game itself, but it's actually anthropomorphic birds flying the planes.
World Runner has a cute pause animation where the runner takes a seat and sips some tea. It's pretty fiendish they made the mushroom items /kill/ you, though. C'mon now, you can't do that!
would love to see a modern take on 3D World Runner
Jack was unlockable in chocobo racing on the Ps1. While not quite the same, it does give us a glimpse of what a modern version could look like. finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Jack_(Chocobo_Racing)
I remember back in the 90s I bought a copy of Sky Kid from Funcoland I took it home and it wouldn't work. I cleaned it a couple of times tried it on 3 different NES consoles and it still wouldn't work so I ended up throwing it on the roof of my house and have seen it since. Not a big loss I only paid $1.79 for it this was long before I knew that you could change out the 72 pin connector.
Say what you will about the mixed offerings under Acclaim's label, but they still became one of the more prolific publishers for Nintendo's consoles. That's why it was such shocking news in 1992 when they announced they were going to publish games for the rival Sega Genesis.
Rad Racer, also by Square, has a 3D mode that you activate using the Select button and that requires those 3D glasses. Unfortunately, although I've been playing Rad Racer a lot these days, I haven't been able to try, since my copy came without glasses
you can easily purchase replacement blue and red 3d glasses lol. or even make your own! cardboard and a sheet of red and blue theater light gels. just search up 3d anaglyph glasses. 10 bucks for a solid plastic pair
This is so educative, and adicting....What I do with this knowledge?
Sell it to the Russians
These vids have become the thing I most look forward to in my sub inbox. Love them so bad.
I guess that makes sense why I’ve always confused Activision and Acclaim.
Sky kid is pretty original and fairly fun...
But I don't have the years it'd take to get good at it, lol😂
The bonus punchline to the "Acclaim called themselves that to get in front of Activision in the business listings" bit is that that's exactly why Activision called themselves Activision in the first place: to get in front of Atari! In fact, I have no doubt the founders knew that and were following the established example!
Now I'm imagining an alternate timeline where this plays out to its logical conclusion, where a publisher calls itself "AAAASoft" to get ahead of "Aardvark Entertainment."
That’s how HAL labs came upon that name as each letter is one letter above IBM
Absolute Entertainment did this too for the exact same reason, and they, too, were a bunch of former Activision employees (including David Crane!)
Oh! It is like Metrocross, I'd never made the connection
Silly old Sky Kid... King of Ghosts!
How strange you didn't mention that on Sky Kid with a flip you could recover from a fall so you don't loose a life. If you ask me is a key mechanic that differenciates it from other shooters.
It was my favorite feature as a kid because I wasn't good at shooters but could keep myself alive if I spam the flip button enough.
He's definitely a bird.
Are all my favorite youtuber uploading today.
Awesome as always
The sky kid looks similar to Sqoon
Anyone ever notice the similarities between 3D world runner and Rad Racer? I believe RR uses the same kernel. Aside from similar HUD design and both having the 3D effect, they both use the exact same level skip cheat code.
Sure. They were both programmed by Nasir, and I don't see why he wouldn't have just reused his (impressive) code.
7:59 Varia Suit!?
I wish you would investigate all possible explanations of why a company -Brøderbund for instance-would toss so many different styles of products into the software world.
If you already have then you can lambast my own psyche as someone who commented before searching your video series.
Hey, the original Turok was great.
Ehhhhh.
The closest thing to 3D World Runner I played back then was Eliminator on the C64 and even though that was a thoroughly BS game with plenty of blind jumps into instakill obstacles the effect was fancy enough in the day to keep me playing.
Tetra Star is another super obscure famicom only release that does the space harrier psuedo 3d effect probably the best as a shmup: ruclips.net/video/Zn9SXT8_B6Y/видео.html
Thoroughly acceptable😂👍😂
I give a pass to games like 3D world runner since they are competing with the greatest game ever made. Space Harrier really is the perfect game to me: easy to pick up, difficult to master, insanely good controls, amazing music, great visuals which are timeless, point based, and of course needless voices which enhance the game tenfold. How do you not feel great when he tells you that you're doing so? Even after finishing a game on a single credit, I can't get enough of it...
Er, but yeah...back on topic. 3D world runner was decent enough for a game that tried to go against the king. Too bad it ultimately missed
I can only assume you mean the arcade version, because every experience I've had with the console versions of it have all been quite consistently awful.
@@KuraIthys That and the Saturn version. The 32X one isn't too bad, either. Just takes some getting used to. If the 3DS version counts, then I'll throw that in, too. I will agree that the ports that came out near the arcade's launch were awful though...at least the ones I played.
"Acclaim, a name chosen because it came before Activision in buisness listings" I couldn't help but laugh at that one. I don't think I ever really got into 3D World Runner as a kid but this might be one to think about revisiting! SkyKid I never really played but I believe that IS a bird flying a plane, funny enough!
Other Activison guys did the same thing when they founded Absolute.
Acclaim started in 1987 with “3D Worldrunner” before a toy manufacturer turned game publisher LJN bought it in 1990.
I will play 3d world runner. 😀👍🎮