D.A.S. the biggest video game bad guys you've probably never heard of

Hello friends, and visitors to the blog. The other day a random question popped into my head. What was my favorite evil organization in gaming history? Did I even have a favorite? Have you ever thought about the bad guys in your favorite video games? I didn’t mean the villains in game, but the evil organizations. The ones that returned more than once in a series? Evil groups had always appeared in the comics books, and cartoons. When I was a kid G.I. Joe fought against Cobra. The Autobots fought against the Decepticons. The Ninja Turtles fought against the Foot Clan. But could you think of a game series that had a recurring evil organization?

Since I wrote mostly on fighting games it might be Shadowlaw / Shadaloo. That organization got its start in 1991 with Street Fighter II. A dictator named Vega / M. Bison ran his own small nation near Thailand. This group, its soldiers, spies, and generals would pop up again, and again all throughout the series, and even some crossover games. Currently a rival group was introduced by the team at Capcom called Neo Shadaloo. Would they become major players in the franchise, or were they only going to be a part of Ed’s back story in Street Fighter V, and 6?

Shadowlaw had a great name, but I didn’t care to see them keep popping up in the SF franchise. Nor did I care about NESTS showing up in the King of Fighters franchise. I believed that fighting games were more unique when they focused on the fighters, their forms, and the challenge of facing the best. It was more interesting to me to see who could be the next great challenge rather than figure out a way to connect them all to a cartoonish villain again, and again.

One of my favorite enemy groups might be the Unknown Intellectual Mechanized Species (UIMS). They were just one of the many alien species challenging humanity, and the United Galaxy Space Force (UGSF). The Bosconians, and Galagans were also memorable enemies across the various Namco franchises. As cool as those bad guys were I thought that one of the rarest groups ever featured in any game series deserved more love. The D.A.S. (Dark Anarchy Society) in the international releases, Destroy And Satsujin (Satsujin means murder in Japanese) was a recurring villainous force from Irem's Arcade games.

The group appeared as the main antagonists in several titles by Irem, they include In The Hunt, Gun Force II/Geo Storm and Undercover Cops. There were a few things that made the groups, and games they appeared in unique. Primarily that none of the games were in the same genre. Air Duel was a SHMUP, a shoot ‘em up or shooter featuring a jet, and attack helicopter. The game was set in a near post apocalyptic future. D.A.S. would try to take over the world, and it was up to the arcade players to see them destroyed. They would lay low for a few years, and then try to set up their totalitarian regime through violence. Each game mentioned above would be connected by the same group. Probably the closest that D.A.S. came to world domination was with In the Hunt aka Kaitei Daisensou (Great Undersea War) in Japan. The submarine shooter was set in a version of the Earth where the bad guys had just about conquered every nation. With the melting of the polar caps, and the major cities underwater it was easy for them to clear out opposition using their superior naval forces. The last ditch effort to destroy their ocean-based super weapon came with the creation of a super attack submarine called the Granvia. 

The submarine that players controlled could dance circles around its opposition. I had talked about In the Hunt, and Air Duel on the blog previously. This conflict was serialized in a Gamest Manga by Masato Natsumoto. His vehicle design, and presentation were influenced by Masamune Shirow. He was a perfect fit for the world created by Irem. The series explained that the reason the sub was such an amazing weapon because its design was based on stolen plans for a D.A.S. sub-orbital attack ship. The weapons, and unique magnetic propulsion system was repurposed technology that would liberate the worlds from the oppressive regime.

The manga featured the brave pilots Jin, and Rei against the D.A.S. captain Sharking. Every encounter in the game was recreated, and the adventure was greatly fleshed-out. It was a shame the series didn't get a follow-up. These games were important in the history of arcade gaming not only for their content, but for their style of presentation. Visually there were no other studios that crammed as many details on their sprites as this team did. To this day no other studio could claim to have created sprite-based titles with as high a level of detail, and animation. The studios that came close like IGS, and their game Demon Front still fell short of that high mark. The members of that team applied the same amount of detail to everything they worked on. The D.A.S. gunships, tanks, copters, drones, and bases oozed with style. Now that they had covered the air, and sea shooters, they decided to make things interesting with a side-scrolling shooter.

Geo Storm was their response to popular franchises like Konami’s Contra, and Data East’s Midnight Resistance. The challenge was getting even closer to D.A.S. vehicles, upping the amount of detail, and letting us see the individual soldiers. They hit it out of the park, and no other studio could even compare to the work that went into Geo Storm. This group would get tired of waiting for Irem to start new projects, so they left and formed a new company called Nazca. The next gem for the Neo Geo was called Metal Slug. They were the only company capable of topping themselves. Metal Slug, and the team at Nazca were part of a massive legacy in gaming. Before they left Irem the Nazca team flexed their muscle in yet another genre. I talked about Undercover Cops during my history of the brawler series, it was one of the more unique titles of 1992. The fact that they were able to apply the same amount of detail in a brawler, and add new features to the genre meant that this team were made up of critically underrated game designers. Other studios that bounced around different genres were rarely good at multiple ones. They instead specialized in one type of game. The Nazca staff could seemingly do it all.

I would like to think that they started with D.A.S., and then worked backwards to figure out who were the heroes that could stand up to this unstoppable evil force. In the oldest games we were looking at massive D.A.S. ships, planes, and tanks. As Nazca learned to make games we started getting closer to the bad guys. By the time they released Undercover Cops we were able to see the monsters, mutants, and villains in a one-on-one setting. No other company had given us the big picture, all the way down to the individual foot soldiers for the evil organization. The nearest thing to that type of world building could be seen with the Rebel Army in the Metal Slug series. It made me appreciate the bad guys that went into the creation of a great series. I’d like to know if there was ever any evil group that you admired in your favorite games. Were they from a well established universe like Star Wars? Or from a horror series like Resident Evil? I’d like to read about them in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

A good dream - A 1UP classic from August 25, 2005

About 20% of my dreams are about videogames. Some of them classic, many on the arcade, some of them new, but the majority are about games that have never existed. Two nights ago I had one of the most vivid game dreams I've had in a while.

Now you have to use your imagination because I can only draw in 2D. The game in my dream was all in 3D and high definition I might add!

It all started out with these soldiers running up a hill in a quiet suburban neighborhood. There were few houses, a great mountain range and nothing but wide open spaces.

I don't play RTS games and especially not war games. My older brother loves RTS games and his favorites have been Advance Wars and he's looking at getting Batallion Wars now.

The character designs of the soldiers were stylized. Somewhere in between the Advance Wars and Metal Slug designs. Are you starting to visualize my game a little better? Great. Now back to my dream.

As I pan the camera back I notice that the soldiers are advancing to something way in the background. The draw distance in my dreams is always exceptional! The ground was shaking and about 3 miles away Godzilla was fighting with Rodan!

In my dreams I have about 4 seconds to figure out the control scheme before the game ends. I pushed some buttons and noticed that I could zoom into the troops, select them and move them around with a few button presses. I guessed that my job was to slow down the advance of Godzilla and keep him from wandering into residential neighborhoods. It seemed easy enough since Rodan was keeping him busy and we were fighting way out in the boonies.

I clicked on the soldiers and noticed that there were specialists mixed in with the infantry. These are the characters I remembered. A demolitions specialist, a medic, machine gunner, flame thrower and general.

As the game progressed (there was no loading time). Godzilla and a different monster would begin a new fight and they'd drop the troops in the middle of the action. Way off in the distance I could see the lights from the city. I figured that sooner or later the harder levels would be taking me closer and closer into the city.

I would get to call in air strikes and artillery against the rampaging monsters. As the levels progressed I was able to get more special weapons to use such as the electric cannons on the beds of diesel trucks and even the flying Super-X.

The units under my command became more and more advanced the closer Godzilla got to the city. Eventually I got to use G-Force members, the elite task force called in when everything seems hopeless. They had access to special weapons that regular army folks didn't have, such as phaser rifles, the Super-X and even Godzilla's son Minya.

There was even a way to control the alien invaders that had brought some of the monsters to Earth. If you've ever seen the old Godzilla movies you'll remember the aliens were the people with curly toe shoes and razor thin sunglasses. With access to their UFO's, lightning rifles and ability to move some monsters around they added a whole new dynamic to the game.

Right before I woke up one of the last levels was starting up. King Ghidora flew into Tokyo to challenge Godzilla. Right away buildings were being toppled as monsters were being tossed through them. Too bad I woke up because the camera angles and particle effects of the buildings collapsing were great.

I can trace where most of the concepts in my dream came from. Aside from Godzilla movies, Metal Slug and Advance Wars I was a big fan of the King of the Monsters games from SNK - Neo Geo. I liked the first one more because it was a wrestling game, the second was more of a side scrolling brawler like Final Fight.

The second game that influenced my dream must have been War of the Monsters by Incognito. I've played that game backwards and forward and have unlocked everything and figured out all of the combos by myself. So there's no way I could give you and exact amount of hours spent playing that title. Needless to say the scale and scope of my dream was much bigger than what ended up in any other game. Ah, too bad I couldn't have recorded it!

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A look at IGS, Demon Front - A 1UP classic from December 27, 2011

IGS had developed a handful of memorable titles only a few of which were ever released outside of the arcade. The best titles featured on their PGM arcade system never saw home release. That would be one of the biggest tragedies in all of gaming. The one featured today was easily one of the best titles they ever produced. Like Martial Masters, the first title featured was copying the artistic style and mechanics of a rival studio. In this case they would be copying SNK and Nazca's masterful Metal Slug series. The perpetrator in question was Demon Front. The game came out in 2000, around the time of Metal Slug 3. The pictures featured here are courtesy of NGGames.

Artistically and design wise the games were so similar that arcade visitors were likely to overlook the title. Just like Martial Masters though players often did a double take when they realized this was a completely different studio. This curiosity would cause them to take a closer look. As they dug in they realized that the game had slightly different mechanics and a slightly different take on the genre, which was actually refreshing for fans of the Metal Slug series. The game took place on the alien planet Andres, some 20 light years away from Earth.

Every three years the planet had a lunar eclipse. According to legend during the eclipse the inhabitants could become demons. This was just a myth as none of the inhabitants had turned to demons during the previous eclipses. That was until one eclipse lasted for 3 months causing most of the population to mutate into horrible creatures. Few escaped before going mad. One of the main characters, Maya, had survived his mutation and was drawn back home to clean out the demons. That was where the adventure began for players.

The game featured four main characters, each highly stylized and with the familiar Metal Slug proportions. Two were humans from Earth, Jack and Sara. The bearded humanoid Dr. J from the planet Loukai and Maya from Andres. What separated these characters from the MS ones were the additions of tiny pets. Each character was accompanied by a small avatar that could form a protective shield around their owner but also possessed a special attack power. Jack had a red ghost-looking creature called Rage. He could perform middle distance attacks. Sara had an alien-rabbit type creature called Bunny which had long range attacks. Dr. J had a one-eyed robot called Chip that had a powerful close range attack and Maya had a bat-like creature called Flip which could perform middle-distance shots.

These pets closely followed the players through the levels and were always available to use. The addition of pets actually improved upon the Metal Slug mechanics.

In Metal Slug players had to carefully manage their weapons and ammunition There were ways in which to unlock unlimited ammo in the game, however these techniques were not common knowledge to players. Most gamers would just run from location to location hoping that more powerful ammo would be available.

In Demon Front players could get different ammo types, but they could also supplement a lack of a weapon upgrade by using the special attacks from the pets. More important, the pets could form a protective shield around their masters. This shield energy could be replenished or deactivated by the player during the course of any level. Anybody that has ever played Metal Slug could say how much they wish characters could have had some sort of defensive or energy absorbing mechanism. Players also had backpacks that formed energy wings, allowing them to glide for short moments and clear massive gaps.

The characters and pets could all be leveled up, depending on how many opponents were defeated and which player did the most damage to the boss. A player could have more tiers on their health bar and the pets could have stronger attacks or have their shield last longer. In fact the pets themselves would physically change and become larger and more aggressive-looking as they leveled up. This leveling system was unique among run-and-gun titles.

The world of Andres was fun and fanciful. Because it was based in part science fiction, part alien and part demonic incursion, the artists were able to design levels and vehicles that were unlike those featured in other run-and-gun titles. The balance between animated humor, action and monsters was well struck. None of the bosses or monsters was ever too gross or visceral. None of the five stages poached those featured in Metal Slug. The game offered a sixth and final stage against four possible demon bosses, each one was a sort of gigantic, and gross looking version of the pets of the main characters. The only way to reach the hidden boss was if players could collect the demon claws hidden in each level. Otherwise they would just get to enter their initials on the leaderboard and it would be Game Over.

The game was great but the differences between it and Metal Slug were obvious as players went through it. The opponents were not as diverse or as numerous as they would have been in a Metal Slug game. Nazca and SNK would go out of their way to pack every level with scores of enemies. Some even riding in tanks or other vehicles, all raining gunfire, mortar shells and grenades down onto players. During the most hectic battles in Metal Slug there was actually very little breathing room for players. Of course the same thing could be said of most shoot-em-up titles. They catered to a certain type of player that thrived on nonstop action.

In Demon Front players could select which order they were going to do the levels in. This allowed players to save themselves for the harder stages, especially once the pets and characters had increased statistics. By comparison Metal Slug had always been a linear experience.

Demon Front had great themes, details and solid art direction but it was by no stretch of the imagination as hyper detailed as any Metal Slug game. The difference between level designs, details and the enemy types between the two games was not apparent the first time I played the title. It was not until I looked at a side-by-side comparison of it with Metal Slug that I realized Demon Front was slightly anemic. Not that it was a bad thing. The game certainly had more polish and work put into it than Martial Masters did when it was compared to Street Fighter III. While Demon Front didn’t have the diversity or details from the SNK series it more than made up for those elements by adding a winged backpack, pets, and a level up system.

 

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The Abridged History of the Brawler, part 23

The mechanics of the brawler had been a part of the gaming history at least a decade before Double Dragon. Before arcade players could fight wave after wave of opponents with their bare hands they had to defeat wave after wave of aliens in a spaceships in titles like Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) and Galaxian (Namco, 1979). When those ships were replaced with humans, usually made up of a few pixels, the genre began to evolve. Starting with Kung-Fu master the "Beat-em-Up" was the earliest of the Brawler formats. A year later the "Run-and-Gun" and "Hack-and-Slash" formats were born. Really the only difference between the gameplay was that fists were usually replaced with either guns or swords. In some games players could use fists, guns and swords to combat opponents. What I would like to do in this series is highlight how the graphics, gameplay and genres were constantly evolving. How these titles borrowed elements from each other, explored different formats, visual styles and mechanics The first titles I would like to mention were among Konami's earliest arcade hits.

Largely forgotten by most arcade gamers, Rush'n Attack was the 1985 title that really established the side-scrolling run-and-gun action for Konami. In the game a special-forces agent could fight with his bare hands and take weapons from defeated opponents. From flame throwers to laser rifles, each weapon had its own advantage and ammo supply. This game laid the foundation for a more popular title and one which has received countless makeovers since its debut.

Contra became famous for the Konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left right, B, A) which allowed gamers to have scores of lives on the home console version of the game. The 1987 arcade gem featured two-player action which had improved on the Rush 'n Attack formula. Players could jump up or down on platforms and shoot in 8 directions now. In portions of the game players could even advance in a behind-the-back POV. The diversity of weapons and nonstop action made the title very popular in the arcades and at home.

Before Contra had taken off in popularity the run-and-gun had been experimenting with different camera points of view. One of the earliest titles was Commando by Capcom. This 1985 title was set in an overhead perspective. For many developers this approach made sense. The formula had been used with great success previously. The only thing developers had to do was replace the spaceship with a soldier and space with a battlefield for them to advance on. Players could move around the screen in several directions and shoot at opponents but the screen mostly advanced up.

In 1986, before they developed their own arcade platform, or became heavily invested in fighting games, SNK had released the Ikari Warriors. The game allowed two players to control the mercenaries Ralf and Clark as they made their way through some unknown jungle. The game introduced a joystick with an octagonal handle that could be rotated to shoot in 8 different directions. With commando players could shoot forward and to the sides but not behind them. Ikari Warriors proved popular and like Contra several sequels were made. Today most players are familiar with the Ikari Warriors thanks to the King of Fighters series.

Through the 80’s most of the studios would try to see which format worked best for the run-n-gun shooter. Data East tried a variation of the overhead shooter first with Heavy Barrel in 1987. The game also made use of the octagonal handled joystick. The “Heavy Barrel” itself was a super rifle capable of mowing down the strongest opponents. It was a precursor to the BFG 9000 featured in Doom. Players had to piece it together by locating keys from fallen soldiers and corresponding chests scattered throughout the levels. My older brother had played the game so many times he had the locations of all the keys known by heart. He could speed run through the game before that concept was even invented.

A couple of years later Data East released a sequel. The 1989 game Midnight Resistance was presented in a side-scrolling format, similar to Contra. It kept the octagonal handle on the joystick and allowed players to assemble the mega-weapon from the original game as well. Little by little the side-scrolling format began to shift away from the overhead view. The genre seemed to work better for run-and-gun as well as beat-em-up brawling.

In recent years several major and independent studios had been using the overhead camera to create remake or classic-inspired run-and-gun games. Capcom found great success updating the graphics by preserving the classic gameplay in Bionic Commando for Xbox Live and they Playstation Network. They also released Commando 3: Wolf of the Battlefield for the downloadable services. Developed by Backbone Entertainment in 2008 the game actually borrowed the full name from the original 1985 arcade hit. The game preserved many of the classic run-and-gun mechanics over improved 3D visuals. Unlike the beat-em-up brawler which mostly suffered the migration to 3D the overhead shooting titles worked well with newer technologies.

By using a fixed camera perspective several developers were able to create new gaming experiences with a moderate budget and release them across several platforms. Space Marine: Kill Team, released by THQ in 2011 showed that the gameplay could still be as entertaining as it was 26 years ago while the dedicated Space Marine console game used a third-person perspective and was designed for a more modern experience. The side scrolling format would still remain popular for many run-and-gun titles and the best of these would be the Metal Slug series, developed by Nazca and released on the SNK Neo Geo systems through the mid to late 1990's.

The Metal Slug games were a work of art, as difficult as the best side scrolling run-and-gun titles and more beloved than Contra, Ikari Warriors or any other long running title. The contributions of the game and team at Nazca to the run-and-gun genre were so profound that they deserved (and would get) a blog of their own someday… It turned out that side scrolling camera worked well for beat-em-up, run-and-gun and even hack-and-slash titles. We shall explore these transitional titles in the next blog. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!