Otocky, a musical shooter (Famicom Disk System)

[falcord]

Thumbs up if after watching the video you looked elsewhere and say the screen as if it was drifting slowly to the right.

[akumacornflakes]

This was an absolute pleasure to watch. People hailed REZ as such a revolutionary idea when it came out, but I'd go so far as to say that this did it better. From what I've seen of REZ it doesn't look like it really gives you much flexibility in how the music plays out, but you really made this your own. That was probably the best 7 minutes I've spent in a very long time.

[ganon95]

looks pretty shweet but i don't understand how your supposed to play this

[KeijiKG]

@ganon95 Usually when that happens, you play the friggin' game yourself.

Or just watch JewWario's video.

[ganon95]

@KeijiKG

to play the friggin game requires you have the friggin game console which i do not ;)

i shall look at this wario jews videos

[XinBiDe]

very cool but... can you lose? i am not sure what the goal is by watching this.

[KeijiKG]

@XinBiDe

The mode I'm showing in the video requires you to beat levels in the main mode first.

So yes, you can lose.

[muhqmuhq]

rofl, nice vid

[gaidenashtar]

Damn awesome! I want that game!

[tehcosmicexplorer08]

This game is the definition of "cute".

It raises questions in my head...if someone took it upon themselves to remake this on current hardare, would it lose its charm? I wouldn't want this game to sound like Rez. As cool as Rez is, it's way too serious.

[Superphilipp]

Rez was thought up by the same guy.

[KeijiKG]

@Superphilipp

That was Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

[tehcosmicexplorer08]

@Superphilipp

No, it wasn't. Rez was conceived by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Otocky was conceived by Toshio Iwai.

[Superphilipp]

You're right, I got it mixed up.

[GiantMoth]

I'll give it 5 stars. This was awesome and made me feel playing all retro :D

Good music and this world really need more music based games. For example I really enjoyed Audiosurf. I Made A Game With Zombies In It on the Xbox360 is not anything like this and I'm not even comparing but the enemies appearing with a sync with the music was awesome. I'd really want to see something like... Gridwars do that :D

And a possibility to add own music...

Nonetheless, great game :D

[VickyBit]

Oh my goodness, it's like a deliciously 8 bit version of Rez. I'd love to see more games that uses generative music like that

[eduxito182]

ñ_ñ

[KeijiKG]

If this video has brightened your day, then I know I've done my job.

=D

[WaxHeadroom]

A Boy and His Blob is good as it is.

[DivisibleByWaffle]

Thanks for showcasing this game! I'm now slightly addicted to it.

[ekoweee]

so cute!!

[nadavnaz2]

That's adorable. I love those vintage console addon stuff that nintendo always did.

[KeijiKG]

Glad to help.

Now that I look back, this game DOES have quite the "feel-good" effect

: )

[notjustanotherface]

If only this game were remade for the Wii and if it had real shooter game elements, too. Also, A Boy and His Blob needs a serious overhaul and one hell of a promotion with Jelly Belly, too.

[KeijiKG]

Otocky: You do realize this is a game made by Toshio Iwai whose idea is to get people to have fun making music. I think you might be missing the point of the game heavily. Also I doubt SEDIC or ASCII care enough to remake the game, nor would Iwai care to revisit old projects.

Boy and his Blob: The game should be accepted for what it is, aside from however the DS remake was going to turn out. You have to be careful about rights these days, companies can be all the more disagreeable.

[notjustanotherface]

I get the damn point, but my point is that certain enemies, when they are put in certain places on the screen, should make different tunes, as they do in this game. However, they should also be more varied in their shapes and there should also be more power-ups in this game as well as more varied enemy attacks, whch could theoretically lead to deeper and even more creative music. As for the NES A Boy and His Blob game, it needs a 3-D remake with combining different jelly bean flavors.

[jerkhiefkellaway]

It's not that I'm trying to mean, but I think you have to understand that Toshio Iwai is a composer first and game designer second. His aim is to encourage people to try their hand at making music in simple methods (the Tenori-On is proof of this)

A remake of Otocky would not only require his approval but involvement as well. The man only has so much time and would rather create new projects than revisit old ones.

So I don't think you get the point you're just stubborn with your ideas.

[notjustanotherface]

I damn well get what you mean, jerkiehiefkellaway, and I also know damn well that I am indeed stubborn with this video game idea (as well as a serious upgrade to A Boy and His Blob), but history is on my side. Have you ever seen the somewhat new hybrid genre of the action puzzler on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP? When I see Otocky, I see those newer games in here. When I see how well those games did, why NOT take a gamble and upgrade both the music and shooter game concepts more in this title?

[notjustanotherface]

Furthermore, you can also attack enemies with either the boy or the blob instead of merely avoiding them and you could also combine them with new attacks as well as letting them attack wth their own attacks and special skill sets. Also, there should be set stages like an old-fashioned 8 or 16-bit Mario game, too, complete with boss stages. It would truly make the title come alive, too.

[ChibiFighter]

I finally got to try this out and I have to say this game is fucking awesome I just love all of those sound effects god I go into a fangasim complete over Classic System Sounds and Sound Channles.

[cutthecameras]

Toshio Iwai is the man, this game was really ahead of it's time.

[indask8]

Nice game.

Reminds me of Rez a little.

[mrkoolnerd]

bad graphics i heard the graphics were improved

gratly on the disc system

[KeijiKG]

The disk system would be the only system it appeared on.

To be fair, Famicom Disk was only pushed so far due to it being shorter lived than the Famicom itself...what with all the copy protection being exploited.

Who knows what game development could have advanced on the disc system.

Although I'm not all that curious with sound capabilities since Namco and Konami already showed us what could be done on standard Famicom hardware.

[robivy64]

Namco and Konami used their own sound chips in certain JP games. 3rd party hardware add-ons were prohibited to use with the NES. Check out the US and JP versions of Castlevania III and you will hear the difference.

[KeijiKG]

Yes, I think I already mentioned that.

Thanks for informing me on what I already know.

[scratch799]

@mrkoolnerd

Bitch shut up.

[ApolloBoy]

You're forgetting that the FDS was made in 1986, so obviously it's primitive wavetable synthesis.

[KeijiKG]

It sounds like FM to me...

[qmriis]

The FDS added a FM sound chip to the system.

[mrshiz111]

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing. The music gets really enjoyable in the last minute.

[ApolloBoy]

Nice use of the FDS's wavetable sound channel there.

[Resetti64]

If it's wave table then why does the piano, guitar and brass sound like shit?

[TieFighterDragon]

Hey man- just wanted to say that your "playing" (no offense, but I don't know how to classify this) is pretty freakin' amazing. I've been playing the violin for 10-somethin' years, and I could hardly believe the versatility you present with such simple sound apparatus. Practice or no, you cranked out some pretty sweet tunes, I enjoyed it a lot. Great game and great vis- fav from me for sure, and much kudos.

[KeijiKG]

Thanks.

I'm currently trying to learn how to play the piano seeing how I just purchased a Yamaha YPT-310.

I'd very much like to be able to sequence with older digital instruments.

There's not a lot I know about synthesizers, but I'm PRETTY sure I can get samples of Yamaha DX7 to work with.

[Jtaylor1]

Otocky was never released to the NES.

[KeijiKG]

Captain Obvious called, he wants to thank you for taking his sick day.

[Why227227]

nice

[Sk8emopunkassassin]

thats a new one =]

[S0ulfire84]

How many controls does this game have? and how does it work? do you control the fire of the ball? the direction is random? how does it work?

[KeijiKG]

Press A (whatever button is mapped on your joypad or keyboard that's registered as "A") in tandem with the directional pad to shoot. Hold the A button and you'll stay in some spot, able to shoot the ball depending on which direction you press the Directional Pad.

B uses bombs.

In Music/Edit/Stage mode, pushing select will move the bottom cursor to Pause, Instrument, Bombs and Exit. Pushing start will toggle the pause function or change your instrument/bombs and exit you out of the mode.

[Jomkiatz]

So, how much musical training do you have?

[KeijiKG]

8th grade saxophone. Electronic Music in Community College.

No piano though, would love to since many musicians recommend it despite using a synth in the latter.

[TrueSoreThumb]

No upgrades? Hm :/  Kinda cool though

[KeijiKG]

Well this is just BGM mode. You upgrade your instrument which also changes the distance and/or speed of the ball. You also have a noise bomb that has many different patterns. I didn't bother with arcade mode because it's keeps me from jamming so well. ^_^;

[ChibiFighter]

Oh yeah I saw a video of this it looks fun I need to look for a Famicom Disk System emulator I Have a Famicom Emulator but it does not play FDS games.

[KeijiKG]

FCEUltra's good. But be sure to press Ctrl+F8 (or just F8 for some versions) to eject and Ctrl+F6 to change sides (or again just F6 for some versions)

Could be the other way around, but changing disks is a must to play.

[ChibiFighter]

So would I use real disks to play or just would I press the button anyways thanks for the info.

[KeijiKG]

Just a simple button press would do.