January 5, 2025 • 26 mins
This episode Markivus and Scharonne discuss Konami's 1993 arcade game Metamorphic Force.
About Metamorphic Force:
Metamorphic Force was released August of 1993. The game takes place in 199X, and the evil King Death Shadow, ruler of the Empire of Horror, has arisen from the dead to rule the world. The Greek goddess Athena has summoned the souls of four ancient guardians and bestowed their power upon four heroes to stop the evil once again.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/40-something-gamers-podcast--5073028/support.
About Metamorphic Force:
Metamorphic Force was released August of 1993. The game takes place in 199X, and the evil King Death Shadow, ruler of the Empire of Horror, has arisen from the dead to rule the world. The Greek goddess Athena has summoned the souls of four ancient guardians and bestowed their power upon four heroes to stop the evil once again.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/40-something-gamers-podcast--5073028/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yeah, whatever, man, it's been a hot minute. So allow
(00:25):
me to reintroduce ourselves and gave me good.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
After wherever you are in the world. This is forty
something gamers.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Me and my homeboy. I'm about to bring online Brown Harrington.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
What's up, what's up?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're here to discuss video games.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
We're forty something, your old friends, and we share a
common love of video games. So on this podcast we
discuss video games, and today we're gonna discuss the game
like actually, I've never heard of it came out August
in nineteen ninety three, never played it, but thanks to
(01:02):
emulation and my boy Bill Tendo and then also emulators
such as the Arcade Box, I discovered the game again.
Came out in ninety three, and I describe it as
a mixture between X Men an Altered Beast, and it's
called Metamorphic Force. Right, Sharon, when did you discover this game?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Probably about a month ago, you know. I was just
like messing around and I have the Nintendo switching. I
like to go through the Arcade archives a lot, and
I happen to see that, so like youtubed it and
I was like, wow, look at that, and you said
it's like a mixture between X Men and also Beasts,
and you're right, I kind of see like Golden X
meets Altered Beasts meets X Men, you know, because they
(01:48):
do like the animal shifting and everything, and you know,
it's like a wolf and elephants and all kinds of stuff.
But it's a pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Game though, you know, Yeah, yeah, it's it's a cool game.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And I'm not gonna lie. Like when I first came
across it, the name Metamorphic Force, it intrigued me, but
at the same time it sounded kind of corny. But
so let's take a let's take a step back. So
I want to say, Altered Beasts dropped eighty nine, right
that Sega Genesis dropped eighty nine. And yeah, and if
(02:21):
you've never seen or played Altered Beasts, it's a game.
So back in the sixteen bit era during the console wars,
it was a Sega Genesis exclusive, but as back with
the eighties, it was at the arcades. Game was kind
of my first impression. It kind of tripped me out
(02:42):
because for one year in the cemetery, it's based off
of Greek mythology and the game you're you're a god.
Maybe it's Zeus. I gotta do my research. I think
as Zeus tells you to rise from your grave. Yeah
it was, and you bust out of the you bust
out of a tombstone and you're fighting demons and you
(03:04):
can transform each level. You can transform you like a
werewolf of bear?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Was that a werewolf bear for bear?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Dragon?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, a flying dragon and then a leopard.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So this was a beat them up eighty nine side
scrolling beat them up. So that's one half what we say.
It's part ultra bees. But now we talk about a
powerhouse video game. So back then, also in the eighties,
you had game developers like Konami, Capcom, Data East, Am
(03:42):
I missing anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh the East? Yeah, no, there's a few more out there,
but I can't think of any right now.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So, like our parents, the arcade was everything. That's where
you got to see new video games. And then they
reported to eat there. Earlier they reported to Nintendo Sega
Master System. But these games are sixteen bit, so you're
looking at Sega Genesis and Sega Genesis is Super Nintendo.
(04:13):
And the consoles they weren't one for one. So with
X Men, unfortunately, We never got a port for that
for the sixteen bit during the sixteen bit era, but
Konami ca Yeah, Konami came out with a game X Men.
The arcade game was everything sprites, four player action.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So just think about that.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You take Altraed Beasts eighty nine and you had X Men.
But then in the August of nineteen ninety three, we
have the game we're talking about Metamorphic Force, and I'll
give the listeners a highlight just basically high level what
Meta Metamorphic Force was about. So, like Ultrabeasts, you transform
(04:59):
into to animals and it's based on Greek mythology. So
Metamorphous Force was based on the same hardware as a
ninja themed game called Mystic Warriors. Have you ever played
Mystic Warriors? I never played that.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I discovered that. Yeah, that's a pretty cool game. We
got to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
One too, okay, okay. So it's based off of Mystic Warriors.
So in the game, the year is nineteen ninety. It's
in the nineteen hundred and nineties, and there's an evil king,
death Shadow, ruler of the Empire of Horror. He's a
Risen from the dead, So another dead theme and he
(05:38):
wants to rule the world. So again with the Greek mythology,
the Greek goddess Athena has summoned the souls of our
four ancient guardians and bestowed their power for them to transform.
So again we have risen from the dead Greek mythology.
So unlike Ultra Beasts, which was a two player game,
(05:58):
but you could okay, so you could play two players
at the same time, but I think on could you
do that? Onis?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Okay, So two player game Metamorphic Force four player game.
So we have four characters, Band who's a martial artist
and his guardian soul what he met, what he changes
to is a fighting bull. We have then Clode who's
a swordsman who we'res a I don't know what a
rapier is. His guardian soul is a white wolf or
(06:29):
a werewolf. Max is a fighter who can box. He
turned into a black panther. And then we have Ivan
who's a hunter and he's a wrestler. So that's Metamorphic
Force in a nutshell. So, Sharon, your overall view of
the game, what did you think?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Man? Playing this game?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I liked it, you know, I played through the entire game.
You know, I played with all the all the characters,
and my favorite character was the guy who turns into
the ram Okay, you know, I tend to play very
pretty well with him. And of course the guy with
the rapier rapist is the type of it's actually a sword. Yeah,
(07:12):
so I played pretty well with those guys, and it
was it was all, you know, it was a fun,
fun game.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Now.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
The only thing the difference like between it and Alt
Beats was with me was the colors on this was
a bit more eye poppy, you know, it looked more
comic versus Alta Beasts trying to look a bit more realistic.
So Alta Beasts was kind of creepy when I first saw,
you know, I mean that whole the whole cemetery thing.
I was like, oh wow, this is this is wild.
(07:37):
But it was a fun game. But like say, this
one looked a lot like X Men as far as
like with the colors, and it was just it was
bright and more cheerful looking. And you know, I always
all stuff that was pretty cool. And I guess you know,
when they were releasing like these games and the arcades
back in the nineties, you know, we had Sunset Riders.
I've seen that was X Men and the Simpsons and
(08:00):
Ninja Turtles. But I mean, you know, we we I had,
we had we never had this one over here and
not the jump Ship. But I think that was what
was so cool about Like to say, like with the
Neo g O, It's like they would have like one
arcade machine and they would have like multiple games in
that machine. If Konami had pulled that off, I think
they we probably would have seen this, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And then I think too, around this timeframe, the market
was oversaturated with with fighter games, so you think ninety
three man, we had teenage muting, Ninja Turtles, we had
the Simpsons, and these are just Konami four player games
Sunset Riders, And I was I was actually thinking about
this last night. It wouldn't have It wouldn't have stood
(08:46):
out to me.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Don't think so.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
No, I don't think so, because I think X Men
X Men was everything bro. This game is so similar
to X Men.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I don't think it would have stood.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Out to me even with one of the guys power
it's X Men ish, and then X Men was already
it has a history. This doesn't have a history. Had
it come out before then, it definitely would have stood out.
But it's also an upgrade. I would say it's an
upgrade to Altra Best and the unapparent hair of Altra
(09:24):
Beast because Ultrabest, granted, when it came out in eighty nine,
and think about in eighty nine, you're beat them up
with what double dragon and if we were limited, it
didn't blow up like it did in ninety three. But
one thing that I would say about Ultra Beast was
it's kind of clunky. It's slow, and now in retrospect,
(09:44):
the Genesis.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Version, I mean, I still give them the props.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, I mean to me, it didn't age well, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
For I mean for that, I mean, for that time,
it was you know, that was the closest thing that
we had really gotten into arcade games at home, you know. Yeah,
and we didn't even I mean, with us being so
much younger at the time, we didn't even really notice
the difference unless it was side by side.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, unless it was side by side. Now you're correct,
So I.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Think I think me and ninety three I would have
played it, but with the other beat them ups it
would have it wouldn't have been memorable. I mean it
probably would have been forgotten because now I'm thinking of
like Samurai Showdown.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But that see I've never played your hair. Yeah, now
Samurai Showdown. That was my joint back in the day.
I guess I could say joint, which is not like
you know, but yeah, I used to play. That was
probably like my first New Yo g O game that
I played for sam roash, somewhere between Samurai Shodown and
(10:53):
maybe the Auto fighting. But yeah, I love playing Samurai
sho Down.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
But then see now you now you bring another our
house that was doing this thing back then, especially with
the fighting games Neo Gio. So yeah, it had to
compete with that. But yeah, now so ninety three, so
thirty thirty two years after the fact. Yeah, I will
say that this game, like you said, playing the game,
(11:21):
I like it. It like the colors pop, the sixteen
big graphics are good. My only complaint is, oh, and
it has an element of Golden Acts. Golden Acts because
you have this character that gives you this goal thing.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah he's dropping. The little thing is you pick up
the power ups and everything. Now, I'm gonna tell you
something that I think it is pretty crazy. It's kind
of like a hit point almost thing is the fact
that the timer is the same thing as your energy.
So it's like, you know, the timers counting down and
every time you get hit like you may lose like
ten more points or whatever. And you have to also
(12:00):
and I didn't, I didn't notice it first. But you
don't have like a like a normal energy board, like
you wouldn't say, X men and double dragon. Your energy
is the time counter, you know what.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
And that's uh so some of my complaints about it was, yeah,
I wasn't a fan of the timer.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's like, but it helps.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I guess it helps the game speed through because once
your time is out, yeah, you're done. And another one
of my complaints is, so when I first played the game, uh,
where's the special button? You can't use a special button.
You have to get that that thing from the guy the.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Gold well if you push the like if you tap
the kick, I'm sorry attacking a jump button at the
same time he does pull off a special move.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Okay, but then you know, once you get the gold thing,
you can zip around which one was off the path
that you can zip around?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
And yeah, like once you once you have the you
already have like the animal power up. If you pick
up that golden uh, that golden statue, it does like
this power up zip around the screen, which I think
is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah yeah, and to whereas with with X Men, you
just push a special button and.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Then yeah yeah, yeah, so it also has kind of
like a little bit of a Final Fight element also
because once you do that special move a few time
in correctly and you hit them, you still lose hit points.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
See. And that that my point. So when did Final
Fight come out? Man? Was that like ninety eight nine?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, so I want to say, so even Final Fight,
it would it would be it would be competing against
that and Final Fight is one of those memorable games.
But yeah, and and and to my understanding, the game
is fairly quick, Sharon, you beat it.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Right, Yeah, like fifteen to twenty minutes. Good god, Well
you gotta we're not putting, we're not pushing quarters into
that now, you know versus back then. You know. So
all you have to do is you just hit the
start button and you select your character and you just
keep going.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
But that means I mean, and that's the beauty of it.
But also it's I don't know, it's kind of kind of.
I won't say it takes away from it, it's just
it has to me, it has like a high replay value.
You know. It's something that I could see myself going
back and playing again, especially if I had like three
or four other people in the house, like, hey, let's
check out this game, and everybody gets to play, and
(14:29):
like you just kind of you know, you do your
thing and boom, you know, like end of the day.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So now when we think about it, because now we
gotta circle back to the arcades, the timer mechanism is
perfect because that thing will eat your quarters up. And
let's be honest, I would have I have to put
in and continue continuously, So the timing mechanism is a thing.
(14:55):
What did you think about the What do you think
about the music?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
I know it was pretty cool, you know, I think
that X Men was a lot better. But a lot
of times if you listen to the music, it's basically
it's kind of like they remix the same music and
just say, you know, it sounds a little different. But
I mean I thought I thought that the music was okay,
you know, yeah, what do you.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Think about the characters? And honestly, like Lizard people. I
don't know, I thought they could have done a little
bit better with some of the characters.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Well you know, it probably made the game pretty quick,
you know, just ideas and stuff. But I think it
was pretty cool, like pig people, the big hitchehogs and
like green because people like they came from the ocean.
But you know, I think it was pretty I thought
it was pretty solid. You know, I won't judge for rshly.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, and I think, you know what, it was so
similar to X Men. I think I put it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Up against the X Men.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah, x Men factor.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It's kind of like with Streets of Rage.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah, Final Fight, Like X Men was a great game though,
you know, And I typically I really did like the
soundtrack that they use an x Men. You know it was,
but I mean this one, this one was the soundtrack.
This was pretty solid, you know. I mean, like I said,
like I can I can hear the X Men music
(16:14):
in my head like for each like each level for level,
but this one not so much, you know, kind of
like you know, like the music from Mario, you just
know what it is. But but I also say, we
discovered this game so much later in life too.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So no, we did, and I will say this was
a much welcome surprise. Yeah, because I was like, wow,
like what is this and then playing it like man,
I'm like, is this Altered Beast the sequel? Because we
did get a few Altered Beast reincarnations, yeah, Altar Beasts
for the Game Boy Advanced Skip.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I think wasn't there another one like on A.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
The only one that I'd ever played Altered Beasts would
have been the Arcade or either the one that was
on the Saga.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Gotcha, Gotcha?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
So on the scale of one to ten, what do
you give Metamorphic Force?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I give it a good solid seven.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Seven okay, okay, okay, And you said replayability, so you're
definitely going back and playing the game reability, So replayability
between one and ten.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Oh, I still say about the seven.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Gotcha Gotcha? Okay? So I give it. I give it.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I give it a seven as well. Replayability. I give
it a seven. So we talked about the hardware that
it was based off of m I didn't never I
had never played this game. I gotta go back and
find it now. Mystic Warriors, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
It was, Yeah, it was m H. Yes, based on
the same Hallway as Mystic Warriors. You know, the Mystic
Warriors was also a full player game, you know, the
same similar color pattern. But I kind of related Stick
Warriors a little more to Sunset Riders because it's kind
of like a shooter, you know, you throw all like
little Ninja stars and stuff like that, and it was
(18:08):
a pretty solid game as well. You know. Once again,
that's when I also discovered late you know, because now
having like you know, us having like online capability and
going through like the Arcade Archives and stuff like that.
You know, you go through this list of economic games
like wait a minute, I never heard of that, and
all of a sudden, like you pull it up and
it was like boom, there it is. And I think
(18:29):
that's one of the cool things about YouTube. You could
just I mean this this information is already It's probably
been out there five, six, seven or more years and
we didn't know it, you know. So and that's how
I'm discovering and so like, you know, every month, Arcade
Archive is like releasing some game I've never even heard of.
So I I normally go like the Nintendo Store and
(18:49):
I'll pick it up for like a few bucks, you know,
just like hey, they take up no space, which is
a good thing. So because they're small files and you know,
I just have at it, you know, and you know
seven bucks versus back in the day when you pay
like fifty sixty bucks per game, like, well, these games
you wouldn't even had in the house. You know. If
you had this game, you would have had the arcade machine,
(19:10):
which would probably call it a lot of thousands, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I remember when Superstreet Fighters Too came out and man,
that cabin was like twenty five hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Good lord.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, so it was like, thank goodness for SAKEA and Nintendo.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, we weren't Silverstone, so so uh to my younger listeners.
So back in the nineteen hundred and nineties, the only way,
the only way you see new games is you are
going to either going to the arcade. Yeah, grocery stores
used to have arcades. Casinos used to have arcades, and
(19:47):
that is where you got your latest and greatest. If
the arcade didn't have it, you didn't get to see it.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I remember, unless you unless you read a gaming magazine.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah oh yeah, or you had to purchase a gaming magazine.
There was no internet, there was nothing. We couldn't do online.
There really wasn't cell phones like they are now, so
you were pretty much at the mercy of the arcade
or the whoever owned the building that had those video games.
So yeah, and there were there were games that were staples.
(20:22):
But during this time, there were companies that were very smart,
like Neo Gill. They had an arcade box that had
more than one game that you could see. So and
that's another reason why we never we never never saw
these games. And then now because of the Internet, we
also get Japanese versions and different things, but we strictly
(20:44):
had the American versions.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So now, like Sharon was saying, now, thank for thank
you for online gaming. And then the boom of retro games.
We can now YouTube games that we never heard of
or never got the chance to play, or we can
based on whatever console you have, they have an online
store and a retro flashback.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And the beauty of it is with this, Hey, you
don't have to put in quarters man, We just hit
to continue button and keep it rolling right.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
And you know, I've noticed, like you know, I kind
of missed that pixelation error. Yeah, you know from the
sixteen bit, the bit, the sixteen bit. I'm kind of
I think we've kind of gone back to that now
if we're like, Okay, we can make these games look
so real and that's a good thing, but say, hey,
what happened? I mean, I like these because of the
(21:38):
high playability, like they're just fun. They don't focus on
looking so realistic that you know, it takes away that
replay value. Oh yeah, it's like Signed Hitchall was fun.
You could just pop it in and you play it.
You can probably finish the game at an hour, and
you know.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, that's like that's what That's what I liked about
Metamorphic Force. You just say you need a punch kick,
you can do multiple combinations, and yeah, you just plug
and play.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
It's like two. It's like two. It's like two attack buttons.
One a jump button, ones attack and it doesn't I mean,
you know, it doesn't take rocket signs to play these
games like it would like the games now, and that's
what makes them fun. You know, even if you don't
even if you don't know how to play video games,
you can play these games like pac Man. You know,
it's like even if you don't if even if you're
(22:26):
no good at the game, you can still have fun
at it because you know it's not overly complicated to
where you know, you have fourteen buttons and you're trying
to move like push straight and four buttons at one time.
And then you know some people, some people's hands like
they don't work like they don't work that way.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, And I'm not gonna lie to you man, Like
you got to access with one control, and then you
got the left right with one control, you can move
the camera back and forth. I'm gonna say this, man,
I love the one thing I love about sixteen big games,
Like you said, plug, plug and play. You don't have
to be a rocket sign this. And then there's some
games that I may step away from. Yeah, and then
(23:04):
I'll go back and play, like holy holy crap, let
me reorientate myself, like for one, the first person shooters.
The first person shooters have down.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Nah.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, I'm not no, because it's it's too it's too much.
I appreciate that, the realness, but good lord, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I remember one of the coolest games I ever played
in the rcade was Silent Scope. Do you remember that? Nah?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I don't remember that one.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
It was a Sega game. I wait, no, I'm sorry.
I think it might have been Konami. But you had
a sniper rifle and you had to you had to
snipe the oh, the bad guys out like from the building.
You could like you could like zoom in and out.
I knew it was on the Saga Dreamcast, but I
also remember playing it in an arcade, and the cool
thing about it was like there was just like this
(23:50):
one guy who was so good at the game. Everybody
just sat there and watched, you know, because it also
had a timer that you had the bad guys out in,
so like yeah, but yeah, I'm listening.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
No, I was gonna say it, and mind you, mind
you guys, like these these games are eating your quarters, right,
so your your I mean your mom would send you
with quarters. Let's say like five dollars worth of quarters,
Sharon back in them days, how long?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
How much with five dollars worth of quarters? Last year
in the arcade, if.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
You sucked at the game, you'd probably be done in
twenty minutes. Were just washing everybody else.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Play yep yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep yep.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
So let's say I remember when Gold the Nax was out,
and we went and we went to the mall. My
grandma probably gave me three dollars and yeah, I don't mean,
you know, I had fun, but I didn't do very
well at it.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah, so arcade boxes were everything. So, ladies and gentlemen,
that's me and my co host Sharon Harrington. Yeah, that
was Metamorphic Force Konami. If you never played it, google it,
YouTube's it and you said you saw it on Nintendo Archives, Yes, okay,
(25:08):
you pick it up for like like new about the bucks.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Or you can have an emulator like I have a
Bill Tendo's Arcade Module three thirty five to thirty five
thousand games and then also the arcade box. So any
any closing words on this topic before we end this episode, Chroom.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Oh yeah, go out, get the game, have a lot
of fun, you know, Oh, and give plenty of exercise.
And you're forty something years old, so you know you
gotta have to stay on it.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, forty something to height and listen to your body. Man,
if you got to take a nap, you could always
turn it on, turn it back off, and.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Take your vitamins.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh yeah, take your vitamins. Man and make sure you
guys get them steps in So, ladies and gentlemen, this
is Sharon Harrington and Mark Nias closing it out for
forty something gamers.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
M h please god, mm hmmm, it is great. Please crime,
please claim, please claim, please claim,
Yeah, whatever, man, it's been a hot minute. So allow
(00:25):
me to reintroduce ourselves and gave me good.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
After wherever you are in the world. This is forty
something gamers.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Me and my homeboy. I'm about to bring online Brown Harrington.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
What's up, what's up?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We're here to discuss video games.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
We're forty something, your old friends, and we share a
common love of video games. So on this podcast we
discuss video games, and today we're gonna discuss the game
like actually, I've never heard of it came out August
in nineteen ninety three, never played it, but thanks to
(01:02):
emulation and my boy Bill Tendo and then also emulators
such as the Arcade Box, I discovered the game again.
Came out in ninety three, and I describe it as
a mixture between X Men an Altered Beast, and it's
called Metamorphic Force. Right, Sharon, when did you discover this game?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Probably about a month ago, you know. I was just
like messing around and I have the Nintendo switching. I
like to go through the Arcade archives a lot, and
I happen to see that, so like youtubed it and
I was like, wow, look at that, and you said
it's like a mixture between X Men and also Beasts,
and you're right, I kind of see like Golden X
meets Altered Beasts meets X Men, you know, because they
(01:48):
do like the animal shifting and everything, and you know,
it's like a wolf and elephants and all kinds of stuff.
But it's a pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Game though, you know, Yeah, yeah, it's it's a cool game.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And I'm not gonna lie. Like when I first came
across it, the name Metamorphic Force, it intrigued me, but
at the same time it sounded kind of corny. But
so let's take a let's take a step back. So
I want to say, Altered Beasts dropped eighty nine, right
that Sega Genesis dropped eighty nine. And yeah, and if
(02:21):
you've never seen or played Altered Beasts, it's a game.
So back in the sixteen bit era during the console wars,
it was a Sega Genesis exclusive, but as back with
the eighties, it was at the arcades. Game was kind
of my first impression. It kind of tripped me out
(02:42):
because for one year in the cemetery, it's based off
of Greek mythology and the game you're you're a god.
Maybe it's Zeus. I gotta do my research. I think
as Zeus tells you to rise from your grave. Yeah
it was, and you bust out of the you bust
out of a tombstone and you're fighting demons and you
(03:04):
can transform each level. You can transform you like a
werewolf of bear?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Was that a werewolf bear for bear?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Dragon?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, a flying dragon and then a leopard.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So this was a beat them up eighty nine side
scrolling beat them up. So that's one half what we say.
It's part ultra bees. But now we talk about a
powerhouse video game. So back then, also in the eighties,
you had game developers like Konami, Capcom, Data East, Am
(03:42):
I missing anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh the East? Yeah, no, there's a few more out there,
but I can't think of any right now.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
So, like our parents, the arcade was everything. That's where
you got to see new video games. And then they
reported to eat there. Earlier they reported to Nintendo Sega
Master System. But these games are sixteen bit, so you're
looking at Sega Genesis and Sega Genesis is Super Nintendo.
(04:13):
And the consoles they weren't one for one. So with
X Men, unfortunately, We never got a port for that
for the sixteen bit during the sixteen bit era, but
Konami ca Yeah, Konami came out with a game X Men.
The arcade game was everything sprites, four player action.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So just think about that.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You take Altraed Beasts eighty nine and you had X Men.
But then in the August of nineteen ninety three, we
have the game we're talking about Metamorphic Force, and I'll
give the listeners a highlight just basically high level what
Meta Metamorphic Force was about. So, like Ultrabeasts, you transform
(04:59):
into to animals and it's based on Greek mythology. So
Metamorphous Force was based on the same hardware as a
ninja themed game called Mystic Warriors. Have you ever played
Mystic Warriors? I never played that.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I discovered that. Yeah, that's a pretty cool game. We
got to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
One too, okay, okay. So it's based off of Mystic Warriors.
So in the game, the year is nineteen ninety. It's
in the nineteen hundred and nineties, and there's an evil king,
death Shadow, ruler of the Empire of Horror. He's a
Risen from the dead, So another dead theme and he
(05:38):
wants to rule the world. So again with the Greek mythology,
the Greek goddess Athena has summoned the souls of our
four ancient guardians and bestowed their power for them to transform.
So again we have risen from the dead Greek mythology.
So unlike Ultra Beasts, which was a two player game,
(05:58):
but you could okay, so you could play two players
at the same time, but I think on could you
do that? Onis?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Okay, So two player game Metamorphic Force four player game.
So we have four characters, Band who's a martial artist
and his guardian soul what he met, what he changes
to is a fighting bull. We have then Clode who's
a swordsman who we'res a I don't know what a
rapier is. His guardian soul is a white wolf or
(06:29):
a werewolf. Max is a fighter who can box. He
turned into a black panther. And then we have Ivan
who's a hunter and he's a wrestler. So that's Metamorphic
Force in a nutshell. So, Sharon, your overall view of
the game, what did you think?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Man? Playing this game?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I liked it, you know, I played through the entire game.
You know, I played with all the all the characters,
and my favorite character was the guy who turns into
the ram Okay, you know, I tend to play very
pretty well with him. And of course the guy with
the rapier rapist is the type of it's actually a sword. Yeah,
(07:12):
so I played pretty well with those guys, and it
was it was all, you know, it was a fun,
fun game.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Now.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
The only thing the difference like between it and Alt
Beats was with me was the colors on this was
a bit more eye poppy, you know, it looked more
comic versus Alta Beasts trying to look a bit more realistic.
So Alta Beasts was kind of creepy when I first saw,
you know, I mean that whole the whole cemetery thing.
I was like, oh wow, this is this is wild.
(07:37):
But it was a fun game. But like say, this
one looked a lot like X Men as far as
like with the colors, and it was just it was
bright and more cheerful looking. And you know, I always
all stuff that was pretty cool. And I guess you know,
when they were releasing like these games and the arcades
back in the nineties, you know, we had Sunset Riders.
I've seen that was X Men and the Simpsons and
(08:00):
Ninja Turtles. But I mean, you know, we we I had,
we had we never had this one over here and
not the jump Ship. But I think that was what
was so cool about Like to say, like with the
Neo g O, It's like they would have like one
arcade machine and they would have like multiple games in
that machine. If Konami had pulled that off, I think
they we probably would have seen this, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And then I think too, around this timeframe, the market
was oversaturated with with fighter games, so you think ninety
three man, we had teenage muting, Ninja Turtles, we had
the Simpsons, and these are just Konami four player games
Sunset Riders, And I was I was actually thinking about
this last night. It wouldn't have It wouldn't have stood
(08:46):
out to me.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Don't think so.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
No, I don't think so, because I think X Men
X Men was everything bro. This game is so similar
to X Men.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I don't think it would have stood.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Out to me even with one of the guys power
it's X Men ish, and then X Men was already
it has a history. This doesn't have a history. Had
it come out before then, it definitely would have stood out.
But it's also an upgrade. I would say it's an
upgrade to Altra Best and the unapparent hair of Altra
(09:24):
Beast because Ultrabest, granted, when it came out in eighty nine,
and think about in eighty nine, you're beat them up
with what double dragon and if we were limited, it
didn't blow up like it did in ninety three. But
one thing that I would say about Ultra Beast was
it's kind of clunky. It's slow, and now in retrospect,
(09:44):
the Genesis.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Version, I mean, I still give them the props.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, I mean to me, it didn't age well, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
For I mean for that, I mean, for that time,
it was you know, that was the closest thing that
we had really gotten into arcade games at home, you know. Yeah,
and we didn't even I mean, with us being so
much younger at the time, we didn't even really notice
the difference unless it was side by side.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, unless it was side by side. Now you're correct,
So I.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Think I think me and ninety three I would have
played it, but with the other beat them ups it
would have it wouldn't have been memorable. I mean it
probably would have been forgotten because now I'm thinking of
like Samurai Showdown.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
But that see I've never played your hair. Yeah, now
Samurai Showdown. That was my joint back in the day.
I guess I could say joint, which is not like
you know, but yeah, I used to play. That was
probably like my first New Yo g O game that
I played for sam roash, somewhere between Samurai Shodown and
(10:53):
maybe the Auto fighting. But yeah, I love playing Samurai
sho Down.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
But then see now you now you bring another our
house that was doing this thing back then, especially with
the fighting games Neo Gio. So yeah, it had to
compete with that. But yeah, now so ninety three, so
thirty thirty two years after the fact. Yeah, I will
say that this game, like you said, playing the game,
(11:21):
I like it. It like the colors pop, the sixteen
big graphics are good. My only complaint is, oh, and
it has an element of Golden Acts. Golden Acts because
you have this character that gives you this goal thing.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah he's dropping. The little thing is you pick up
the power ups and everything. Now, I'm gonna tell you
something that I think it is pretty crazy. It's kind
of like a hit point almost thing is the fact
that the timer is the same thing as your energy.
So it's like, you know, the timers counting down and
every time you get hit like you may lose like
ten more points or whatever. And you have to also
(12:00):
and I didn't, I didn't notice it first. But you
don't have like a like a normal energy board, like
you wouldn't say, X men and double dragon. Your energy
is the time counter, you know what.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
And that's uh so some of my complaints about it was, yeah,
I wasn't a fan of the timer.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's like, but it helps.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I guess it helps the game speed through because once
your time is out, yeah, you're done. And another one
of my complaints is, so when I first played the game, uh,
where's the special button? You can't use a special button.
You have to get that that thing from the guy the.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Gold well if you push the like if you tap
the kick, I'm sorry attacking a jump button at the
same time he does pull off a special move.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Okay, but then you know, once you get the gold thing,
you can zip around which one was off the path
that you can zip around?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
And yeah, like once you once you have the you
already have like the animal power up. If you pick
up that golden uh, that golden statue, it does like
this power up zip around the screen, which I think
is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah yeah, and to whereas with with X Men, you
just push a special button and.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Then yeah yeah, yeah, so it also has kind of
like a little bit of a Final Fight element also
because once you do that special move a few time
in correctly and you hit them, you still lose hit points.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
See. And that that my point. So when did Final
Fight come out? Man? Was that like ninety eight nine?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Okay, so I want to say, so even Final Fight,
it would it would be it would be competing against
that and Final Fight is one of those memorable games.
But yeah, and and and to my understanding, the game
is fairly quick, Sharon, you beat it.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Right, Yeah, like fifteen to twenty minutes. Good god, Well
you gotta we're not putting, we're not pushing quarters into
that now, you know versus back then. You know. So
all you have to do is you just hit the
start button and you select your character and you just
keep going.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
But that means I mean, and that's the beauty of it.
But also it's I don't know, it's kind of kind of.
I won't say it takes away from it, it's just
it has to me, it has like a high replay value.
You know. It's something that I could see myself going
back and playing again, especially if I had like three
or four other people in the house, like, hey, let's
check out this game, and everybody gets to play, and
(14:29):
like you just kind of you know, you do your
thing and boom, you know, like end of the day.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
So now when we think about it, because now we
gotta circle back to the arcades, the timer mechanism is
perfect because that thing will eat your quarters up. And
let's be honest, I would have I have to put
in and continue continuously, So the timing mechanism is a thing.
(14:55):
What did you think about the What do you think
about the music?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
I know it was pretty cool, you know, I think
that X Men was a lot better. But a lot
of times if you listen to the music, it's basically
it's kind of like they remix the same music and
just say, you know, it sounds a little different. But
I mean I thought I thought that the music was okay,
you know, yeah, what do you.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Think about the characters? And honestly, like Lizard people. I
don't know, I thought they could have done a little
bit better with some of the characters.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Well you know, it probably made the game pretty quick,
you know, just ideas and stuff. But I think it
was pretty cool, like pig people, the big hitchehogs and
like green because people like they came from the ocean.
But you know, I think it was pretty I thought
it was pretty solid. You know, I won't judge for rshly.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, and I think, you know what, it was so
similar to X Men. I think I put it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Up against the X Men.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah, x Men factor.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It's kind of like with Streets of Rage.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah, Final Fight, Like X Men was a great game though,
you know, And I typically I really did like the
soundtrack that they use an x Men. You know it was,
but I mean this one, this one was the soundtrack.
This was pretty solid, you know. I mean, like I said,
like I can I can hear the X Men music
(16:14):
in my head like for each like each level for level,
but this one not so much, you know, kind of
like you know, like the music from Mario, you just
know what it is. But but I also say, we
discovered this game so much later in life too.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So no, we did, and I will say this was
a much welcome surprise. Yeah, because I was like, wow,
like what is this and then playing it like man,
I'm like, is this Altered Beast the sequel? Because we
did get a few Altered Beast reincarnations, yeah, Altar Beasts
for the Game Boy Advanced Skip.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I think wasn't there another one like on A.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
The only one that I'd ever played Altered Beasts would
have been the Arcade or either the one that was
on the Saga.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Gotcha, Gotcha?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
So on the scale of one to ten, what do
you give Metamorphic Force?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I give it a good solid seven.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Seven okay, okay, okay, And you said replayability, so you're
definitely going back and playing the game reability, So replayability
between one and ten.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Oh, I still say about the seven.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Gotcha Gotcha? Okay? So I give it. I give it.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
I give it a seven as well. Replayability. I give
it a seven. So we talked about the hardware that
it was based off of m I didn't never I
had never played this game. I gotta go back and
find it now. Mystic Warriors, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
It was, Yeah, it was m H. Yes, based on
the same Hallway as Mystic Warriors. You know, the Mystic
Warriors was also a full player game, you know, the
same similar color pattern. But I kind of related Stick
Warriors a little more to Sunset Riders because it's kind
of like a shooter, you know, you throw all like
little Ninja stars and stuff like that, and it was
(18:08):
a pretty solid game as well. You know. Once again,
that's when I also discovered late you know, because now
having like you know, us having like online capability and
going through like the Arcade Archives and stuff like that.
You know, you go through this list of economic games
like wait a minute, I never heard of that, and
all of a sudden, like you pull it up and
it was like boom, there it is. And I think
(18:29):
that's one of the cool things about YouTube. You could
just I mean this this information is already It's probably
been out there five, six, seven or more years and
we didn't know it, you know. So and that's how
I'm discovering and so like, you know, every month, Arcade
Archive is like releasing some game I've never even heard of.
So I I normally go like the Nintendo Store and
(18:49):
I'll pick it up for like a few bucks, you know,
just like hey, they take up no space, which is
a good thing. So because they're small files and you know,
I just have at it, you know, and you know
seven bucks versus back in the day when you pay
like fifty sixty bucks per game, like, well, these games
you wouldn't even had in the house. You know. If
you had this game, you would have had the arcade machine,
(19:10):
which would probably call it a lot of thousands, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I remember when Superstreet Fighters Too came out and man,
that cabin was like twenty five hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Good lord.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah, so it was like, thank goodness for SAKEA and Nintendo.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, we weren't Silverstone, so so uh to my younger listeners.
So back in the nineteen hundred and nineties, the only way,
the only way you see new games is you are
going to either going to the arcade. Yeah, grocery stores
used to have arcades. Casinos used to have arcades, and
(19:47):
that is where you got your latest and greatest. If
the arcade didn't have it, you didn't get to see it.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I remember, unless you unless you read a gaming magazine.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah oh yeah, or you had to purchase a gaming magazine.
There was no internet, there was nothing. We couldn't do online.
There really wasn't cell phones like they are now, so
you were pretty much at the mercy of the arcade
or the whoever owned the building that had those video games.
So yeah, and there were there were games that were staples.
(20:22):
But during this time, there were companies that were very smart,
like Neo Gill. They had an arcade box that had
more than one game that you could see. So and
that's another reason why we never we never never saw
these games. And then now because of the Internet, we
also get Japanese versions and different things, but we strictly
(20:44):
had the American versions.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So now, like Sharon was saying, now, thank for thank
you for online gaming. And then the boom of retro games.
We can now YouTube games that we never heard of
or never got the chance to play, or we can
based on whatever console you have, they have an online
store and a retro flashback.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And the beauty of it is with this, Hey, you
don't have to put in quarters man, We just hit
to continue button and keep it rolling right.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
And you know, I've noticed, like you know, I kind
of missed that pixelation error. Yeah, you know from the
sixteen bit, the bit, the sixteen bit. I'm kind of
I think we've kind of gone back to that now
if we're like, Okay, we can make these games look
so real and that's a good thing, but say, hey,
what happened? I mean, I like these because of the
(21:38):
high playability, like they're just fun. They don't focus on
looking so realistic that you know, it takes away that
replay value. Oh yeah, it's like Signed Hitchall was fun.
You could just pop it in and you play it.
You can probably finish the game at an hour, and
you know.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah, that's like that's what That's what I liked about
Metamorphic Force. You just say you need a punch kick,
you can do multiple combinations, and yeah, you just plug
and play.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
It's like two. It's like two. It's like two attack buttons.
One a jump button, ones attack and it doesn't I mean,
you know, it doesn't take rocket signs to play these
games like it would like the games now, and that's
what makes them fun. You know, even if you don't
even if you don't know how to play video games,
you can play these games like pac Man. You know,
it's like even if you don't if even if you're
(22:26):
no good at the game, you can still have fun
at it because you know it's not overly complicated to
where you know, you have fourteen buttons and you're trying
to move like push straight and four buttons at one time.
And then you know some people, some people's hands like
they don't work like they don't work that way.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, And I'm not gonna lie to you man, Like
you got to access with one control, and then you
got the left right with one control, you can move
the camera back and forth. I'm gonna say this, man,
I love the one thing I love about sixteen big games,
Like you said, plug, plug and play. You don't have
to be a rocket sign this. And then there's some
games that I may step away from. Yeah, and then
(23:04):
I'll go back and play, like holy holy crap, let
me reorientate myself, like for one, the first person shooters.
The first person shooters have down.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Nah.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, I'm not no, because it's it's too it's too much.
I appreciate that, the realness, but good lord, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I remember one of the coolest games I ever played
in the rcade was Silent Scope. Do you remember that? Nah?
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I don't remember that one.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
It was a Sega game. I wait, no, I'm sorry.
I think it might have been Konami. But you had
a sniper rifle and you had to you had to
snipe the oh, the bad guys out like from the building.
You could like you could like zoom in and out.
I knew it was on the Saga Dreamcast, but I
also remember playing it in an arcade, and the cool
thing about it was like there was just like this
(23:50):
one guy who was so good at the game. Everybody
just sat there and watched, you know, because it also
had a timer that you had the bad guys out in,
so like yeah, but yeah, I'm listening.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
No, I was gonna say it, and mind you, mind
you guys, like these these games are eating your quarters, right,
so your your I mean your mom would send you
with quarters. Let's say like five dollars worth of quarters,
Sharon back in them days, how long?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
How much with five dollars worth of quarters? Last year
in the arcade, if.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
You sucked at the game, you'd probably be done in
twenty minutes. Were just washing everybody else.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Play yep yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep yep.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
So let's say I remember when Gold the Nax was out,
and we went and we went to the mall. My
grandma probably gave me three dollars and yeah, I don't mean,
you know, I had fun, but I didn't do very
well at it.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah, so arcade boxes were everything. So, ladies and gentlemen,
that's me and my co host Sharon Harrington. Yeah, that
was Metamorphic Force Konami. If you never played it, google it,
YouTube's it and you said you saw it on Nintendo Archives, Yes, okay,
(25:08):
you pick it up for like like new about the bucks.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Or you can have an emulator like I have a
Bill Tendo's Arcade Module three thirty five to thirty five
thousand games and then also the arcade box. So any
any closing words on this topic before we end this episode, Chroom.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Oh yeah, go out, get the game, have a lot
of fun, you know, Oh, and give plenty of exercise.
And you're forty something years old, so you know you
gotta have to stay on it.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, forty something to height and listen to your body. Man,
if you got to take a nap, you could always
turn it on, turn it back off, and.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Take your vitamins.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Oh yeah, take your vitamins. Man and make sure you
guys get them steps in So, ladies and gentlemen, this
is Sharon Harrington and Mark Nias closing it out for
forty something gamers.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
M h please god, mm hmmm, it is great. Please crime,
please claim, please claim, please claim,
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