Gaming Flashback: Yo! Noid

January 2, 2009January 2, 2009| schommerschommer| 0 Comment| 1:41 pm
Categories:

Yo! Noid was a commercial opportunity for Domino’s Pizza developed by Capcom. This retro style game revolved around Domino’s Pizza claymation style mascot, the Noid, as he adventures through fourteen stages of side scrolling action.

The game sound was much like any other 8-bit action platformer. It reminded me of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the Nintendo Entertainment System, not the cool arcade one. Minus the turtles, Yo! Noid is a battle against Mr. Green, the Noids evil duplicate, a concept used in so many games; remember Shadow Link?

Unlike Link, Noid lost a life when he hit an enemy similar to the Super Mario Bros. style platformer but with a Yo Yo weapon. You could also gather smart-bomb type scrolls to clear the screen of all enemies, another classic side scroller arcade recipe. Yo! Noid brought nothing to the table in terms of uniqueness and relied on the standard recipe of side scrolling conflict.

This retro game may be one of the first true “total conversion mods.” Later we’d see Counter Strike born out of the Half-Life engine and way before that, Noah’s Ark 3D built out of the Wolfenstein 3D engine. Yo! Noid was a re-creation of the game Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru. Oddly enough, Yo! Noid was probably more well known than its forefather game because Capcom didn’t release Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru in the United States. Instead, we got Yo! Noid and a $1.00 off coupon on the back of the manual so we can get ourselives some Domino’s Pizza.

Although a few of us may recall Yo! Noid from our childhood, the title really didn’t create any huge waves in the game industry. Yo! Noid did show developers that a brand named product could be used as a marketing and brand awareness strategy, something we’d later see Burger King try on the Xbox 360 and find some success.

Can you tell the difference between Yo! Noid and Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

PS3 and 360 Price Cuts, Before Holidays EndPS3 and 360 Price Cuts, Before Holidays End

A lot of people have purchased the Xbox 360 and a growing number have had new interests in the PlayStation 3. The summer time is winding to an end and fall will bring us a new host of video games and reasons to keep playing our current generation consoles. Many analysts and industry leaders believe the 360 and PlayStation 3 will undergo a USD $50.00 price cut before the Holidays begin.

With holiday madness comes momentum and sales, a USD $50.00 price cut would help bring new momentum to both consoles, especially with Nintendo lapping them in sales. Nobody has considered the direction of the Wii as it doesn’t need to be priced competitively given this is going to be the third year it’s impossible to find in stores.

Do the consoles really need a price cut? It’s hard to argue the PlayStation 3‘s dire need for cutting in price given its already outrageous costs for a console with the least amount of desired titles. The Xbox 360, for most, has the best lineup of titles with a strong fall series of games. The Wii… well, titles don’t really matter just yet because people still buy the console upon sight. The PlayStation 3 is showing off some impressive graphics for this fall and early next year, it may almost be time to invest in the product.

The fall games will keep hardcore gamers buying titles but it will do little to inspire new console sales. If GTA IV, Halo 3, Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid 4 couldn’t drag a gamer to buy, what fall titles will do so this year? Probably very few.

It’s time for the big console vendors to broaden their audience by opening the console to a demographic of gamers that just can’t afford the higher graphic consoles. No, USD $50.00 won’t bring in everyone but it may inspire those on the fringe of consideration to change their minds. With their new consoles in hand they can use their USD $50.00 savings to purchase a new holiday release title.

Read MoreRead More

Mega Man 9, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ConfirmedMega Man 9, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Confirmed

Capcom has finally come out and stated Mega Man 9 will indeed be available on the PlayStation 3 (PSN) and Xbox 360 (Xbox Live). Capcom may be making a great move by providing everyone the ability to play their new retro title in download form. The game is definitely going to be a smaller title with a niche appeal, you really want to gain as much access to gamers as possible.

Although WiiWare is a great staging point for a new/old franchise there is absolutely nothing wrong with expanding it to the other consoles, even the PlayStation 3, giving all gamers the choice of which platform to purchase the title for.

In many ways, a console gamer with all consoles can chose the version of Mega Man 9 which will provide them the best “controller” experience. You want to play on an Xbox 360 controller? Great! Perhaps the Wii classic controller is more your style? Fine! Wanna stick with the proven PlayStation controller? Excellent!

Hopefully we’ll get a sense of which console moves the most downloads for Mega Man 9, as this will define who gets great gaming DLC in the future. Oddly enough, it might be the Xbox 360 because of its console sales count and total attach rate, even though the Wii has huge volume of users they don’t purchase very many games (if any).

(Thanks, Kotaku)

Read MoreRead More

Bethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn MultiplayerBethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn Multiplayer

Bethesda Softworks vice president of marketing Pete Hines is critzing publishers and developers who shoehorn multiplayer into their games that doing such a thing is “a waste of time” and advises, “Just drop it, don’t bother…it’ll make for a worse game.”

In an interview with Next Gen BIZ, Hines states that using online multiplayer as a tool to prevent used game trade-ins and rental simply doesn’t work, and robs developers of valuable man-hours.

Hines stated:

“(People ask us) for a game like Skyrim or Prey 2, why doesn’t it have multiplayer? Well, our question is always the opposite when we talk to a developer. If you’re doing multiplayer, why are you doing multiplayer? What are you trying to accomplish?

“If you’re doing it just to check a box or because every other publisher says you’ve got to have multiplayer, then just drop it, don’t bother, it’s a waste of time, a giant distraction and it’ll make for a worse overall game.

“We want the best game possible. If that’s a singleplayer game that’s 15 to 20 hours, then make that! Don’t waste your time on features that don’t make the game better.”

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Prey 2 are two Bethesda properties that will lack multiplayer, but one of the tools to encourage games to keep both games will be downlodable content and, even more important, good communications with the game communities and nurturing the fandom for both games.

Read MoreRead More