#cannon dancer osman

[pixelgrotto]

Cannon Dancin' In The Middle East

If the Strider series represents a Japanese team making a blazing action game set in a Soviet futurescape, then Cannon Dancer is the same but for the Middle East.

Prevously unknown except to the handful of people who either touched the arcade cabinet or downloaded the ROM for MAME, Cannon Dancer flew under the radar for nearly 30 years until it got a surprise remaster earlier this year. I have the pleasure of reporting that Cannon Dancer's 2023 Switch port is just as batshit as the 1996 arcade original, and I'm glad that a wider audience can now experience the joy of an assassin in floopy trousers rampaging through the streets of future Dubai, kicking tigers in the face and battling giant goddesses for control over the planet.

Cannon Dancer is a spiritual successor to the original Strider, made by designer Kouichi Yotsui after he left Capcom and decided to channel the same energy that birthed Strider Hiryu for Mitchell Corporation. He did this despite the fact that arcade platforming action games were pretty much dead in '96, and as a result Cannon Dancer never did well financially. But I doubt that anyone who played this visual kaleidoscope back in the day forgot it. Cannon Dancer bursts with bright colors and killer sprite art, depicting some of the most vibrant levels I've ever seen.

It starts out in Agadan, a cyberpunk UAE-style metropolis on the Persian Gulf, and continues to a temple, a sprawing desert, the Indian Ocean, some forest near Aleppo, Prague, and a weird final level that may or may not take place in the Earth's upper hemisphere, except that it's red and nightmarish instead of freezing cold. Throughout all these arenas, Cannon Dancer's protagonist, a dude named Kirin, exquisitely beats ass by kicking things until they explode and getting powerups that shoot after-images of himself across the screen. How do you know you've gotten a power up? The color of Kirin's pants change. It's great stuff.

Visually, I've appreciated Cannon Dancer's aesthetic ever since I first glimpsed it in emulated screenshots. Just as the Strider series' unusual penchant for Soviet-era futurism feels dated yet novel at the same time, Cannon Dancer's depiction of Western Asia populated by robots, techno troopers, oil rig mechs and pyamids rising above skyscapes is rad. It's rare to get a Japanese game (or any game from the '90s and 2000s, really) that channels the Middle East in a way that isn't just an Arabian Nights retread or some drab, browish setting for world militaries to make a mess in. While I wouldn't exactly call Cannon Dancer's "representation" good, it's at least fun and memorable.

One missed opportunity is that Kirin doesn't appear to be Middle Eastern himself, despite the English version giving him the Turkish name "Osman." (In fact, Cannon Dancer was released outside of Japan as Osman, and the new re-release generously goes by the title Cannon Dancer Osman. But let's be real, Cannon Dancer is 100% the better name.) Instead, he seems to be your usual Japanese action game badass who serves on Teki, a mercenary squad. He takes orders from Jack Layzon, the attorney general of the WORLD who desses like a 1930s gangster, because Cannon Dancer's vision of the future is wild. After a routine mission to take down cultists goes haywire, Kirin is left in the desert to rot and forced to seek revenge on his old Teki comrades and Mr. Layzon. Along the way, the deity Abdullah enslaves him as her personal avatar of justice...until Kirin breaks free and goes to beat the crud out of her as well, presumably becoming a deity himself by the end of the game.

This is my own interpretation of the plot as gathered from the various Cannon Dancer entries on the Strider wiki, by the way. There is a surprising amount of story bubbling around the edges of this game, but it's all stuff cobbled together from interviews or magazine articles. There are actual cutscenes, sure, but they feel like the work of a development team tasked to create a game based on an 80-episode 1995 anime about a cyber ninja in Baghdad that nobody else watched. Obviously, most Japanese games in the '90s had something lost in translation. But Cannon Dancer takes it to a new level, relishing in its incomprehensible nature yet offering the curious a treasure trove of lore if they bother to dig around online. It reminds me of the underrated Strider NES game, which was also baffling yet at least had a manga to fill in the gaps, and I respect it for that.

As far as its status as a Strider spiritual successor goes, I'd say that I actually prefer Cannon Dancer over both Strider 2 and Double Helix's 2014 Strider remix. Those are decent games held back by poor pacing, whereas Cannon Dancer is just as tight as the original 1989 Strider, if not more so thanks to the additional years that Kouichi Yotsui and his team had to improve on gameplay mechanics. And while you could dismiss Cannon Dancer as too much of a clone to win such praise, as some did in the years leading up to its re-release, I think there's more room out there for mashups which can best be described as "neon-drenched Dubai nightlife meets Jojo's Bizarre Adventure." Cannon Dancer is a garish Middle Eastern fever dream, and the world is better off for its existence.

[hardcoregamer]

Review: Cannon Dancer: Osman

Cannon Dancer: Osman isn’t a perfect port due to some clunkiness, but it’s the definitive way to experience a long-forgotten classic that can finally get its just due. It never got a console port and would have been a nice fit on the Saturn, but having it come out now when the market is more open to spiritual successor-style games, it almost feels like the best possible timing. 

Read more!

[randomisedgaming]

Screenshots from the 2023 release of the classic arcade from Mitchell Corporation:

Cannon Dancer / Osman

You can watch our playthrough video here: https://youtu.be/mJcvd8b496Y

Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also find us on YouTube, Twitch & Twitter for even more gaming & video content! Buy us a tea on Ko-fi

[thesplintering]

Review: "Cannon Dancer" (Nintendo Switch)

Review: "Cannon Dancer" (Nintendo Switch) | #retrogaming #NintendoSwitch #retrogames #PlayStation #Xbox

Osman, huh?  That’s the name that they went with for the English release. I feel like Cannon Dancer is a way cooler name than Osman, although I guess this release is trying to rectify that by tagging on the Cannon Dancer name this time around.* I figured “Osman” had to mean something, though. After some quick internet research, I found that Osman was the name of the guy who started the Ottoman…

[gengamer110]

Cannon Dancer – Osman Review (on Switch, PlayStation, Xbox)

A “now” retro game released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1996, Cannon Dancer, also known as “Osman” in the US, has become an absolute legend in arcade history. Cannon Dancer (Osman) is an Action Jump & Run set in a dystopian late 21st century, in which the world is under the control of a single federal government. One day, a new threat known as “Abdullah the Slaver” – an evil sorceress who…

[universo-nintendo]

Por si tenías la duda, ya es conocida la fecha de salida de Cannon Dancer: Osman en la eShop de Nintendo Switch. Y de paso el creador de este juego arcade reveló por qué parece inspirado en Arabia.

[nomorepixels]

Cannon Dancer / Osman

©️  Mitchell Corp 1996

Image sourced from pushsquare.com Finally ported and released on consoles a couple of weeks ago, this title was a sorta spiritual successor to Strider. It was a pretty game running on the Data East Simple 156 hardware, which only had a handful of games developed for it and thus contributing to this game’s obscurity.

[metaljesusrocks]

Almost an HOUR of GAME PICKUPS w/ Reggie!! Including a special edition game console I've been trying to find for YEARS! WATCH >> https://youtu.be/dp_gPcLR8Vk

GAMES SHOWN: Cannon Dancer Osman Tales of Destiny Special Edition PS2 Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted Akai Katana Shin Supercade (Book) Wanted: Dead Smashing the Battle: Ghost Soul The Letter Wife Quest Phantasmagoria Star Wars Jedi Survivor Resident Evil Shadowrun Trilogy Gal Guardians: Demon Purge Retro Inside PC stickers : https://geekenspiel.com Drainus Hogwarts Legacy Bullet Soul Mr. Run & Jump Kudzu Xeno Crisis Jamestown+ GrimGrimoire OnceMore Disney Illusion Island Snow Bros. Special Toaplan Arcade 2 ( Evercade ) Team 17 Collection 1 Piko Collection 3 The C64 Collection 2 UnMetal Scourge Bringer Brotherhood United American Hero The Valis Collection - Complete Set The Non-Playable Characters: Post Earth Episode 1 Autosaving Nail’d Resident Evil 0 ( PS1 ) Resident Evil 1.5 ( PS1 ) Wavetale Trinity Trigger Islets The Last Blade 2 साइबरपंक 2077 एक्सबॉक्स वन एक्स Nefasto's Misadventure: Meeting Noeroze

[hksddr]

Cannon Dancer – Osman The Lone Killer PLAY READY GO

[44gamez]

‘Knights of the Rogue Dungeon’, Plus Today’s Other New Releases and the Latest Sales – TouchArcade

Hiya mild readers, and welcome to the 12 months 2024. In as we speak’s thrilling New Yr’s Day version of the SwitchArcade Spherical-Up, we now have… not a complete lot. However I had some spare time, and any trash I take out as we speak is trash I don’t must take out tomorrow. We do have one respectable recreation to take a look at as we speak, and we’re going to just do that. The Bin Bunch has lots to supply as we speak, as you would possibly count on. We even have some respectable gross sales to take a look at, and that’s one of many causes I made a decision to place fingers to the keyboard as we speak. Let’s get to it! New Releases Knights of the Rogue Dungeon ($9.99)

This recreation comes from Atooi, who you would possibly know because the developer of Mutant Mudds and Xeodrifter. Extra related to this recreation, it is usually the developer of Totes the Goat, a Q*Bert homage that provided respectable arcade motion. Knights of the Rogue Dungeon appears to be like quite a bit like that recreation, with the dungeons taking the type of Q*Bert-style pyramids. It's important to “paint" all the block surfaces by stepping on them, with combos incomes you armor upgrades that aid you defeat the enemies that litter every stage. There are completely different characters to make use of, six dungeons to discover, and quite a few upgrades to earn. If you happen to loved Totes the Goat or are simply searching for one other recreation with obscure similarities to Q*Bert, you would possibly wish to look into this. The Bin Bunch Ski Simulator: Winter Sports activities ($9.99)

MisBloody ($9.99)

Fantasy Blacksmith Store Simulator ($7.99)

Warzone Chronicles: Digital Warfare Shooter ($11.99)

Gross sales (North American eShop, US Costs) We see Taito/ININ gross sales pretty continuously, however there are just a few video games right here that I wish to name some consideration to. Particularly, the Darius Cozmic Collections are at new low costs. At their regular costs these are a bit powerful for lots of oldsters to swallow, however now you can successfully get the total set for a mixed whole of simply over thirty bucks. If you happen to’re feeling fancy, you possibly can seize G-Darius and Dariusburst to spherical out your Darius set and get away with a complete value not far off from Cozmic Assortment Console‘s common value. Different attention-grabbing gross sales: Yggdra Union with its greatest value since launch, No Man’s Sky matching its lowest, and Cannon Dancer being on the Arcade Archives-adjacent value it in all probability ought to have launched at. Over within the outbox, the Jurassic Park Traditional Video games Assortment is ending up its sale, and so is Kao the Kangaroo. Verify each lists to see what grabs you. Choose New Gross sales

To The Moon ($7.19 from $11.99 till 1/12) Discovering Paradise ($7.19 from $11.99 till 1/12) Yggdra Union ($19.99 from $24.99 till 1/15) The Grasp’s Pupil ($11.99 from $14.99 till 1/15) Cogen: Sword of Rewind ($12.49 from $24.99 till 1/15) Cannon Dancer: Osman ($8.99 from $29.99 till 1/15) Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! ($2.99 from $29.99 till 1/15) Taito Milestones ($15.99 from $39.99 till 1/15) Bubble Bobble 4 Buddies ($15.99 from $39.99 till 1/15) House Invaders Invincible Assortment ($17.99 from $59.99 till 1/15) Darius Cozmic Assortment Arcade ($13.49 from $44.99 till 1/15) Darius Cozmic Assortment Console ($17.99 from $59.99 till 1/15) G-Darius HD ($11.99 from $29.99 till 1/15) Dariusburst: One other Chronicle EX+ ($15.99 from $39.99 till 1/15) The Ninja Saviors ($7.99 from $19.99 till 1/15) No Man’s Sky ($29.99 from $59.99 till 1/16) The Forest Quartet ($3.99 from $9.99 till 1/19) MisBloody ($1.99 from $9.99 till 1/20) Figment 2: Creed Valley ($11.24 from $24.99 till 1/22) Gross sales Ending Tomorrow, January 2nd

Aireo FlightSimulator ($19.99 from $24.99 till 1/2) Bomb Rooster ($5.99 from $14.99 till 1/2) Born of Bread ($23.99 from $29.99 till 1/2) BroodStar ($4.40 from $11.00 till 1/2) Crash Drive 3 ($1.99 from $19.99 till 1/2) Full Quiet ($4.99 from $9.99 till 1/2) Gem Crash ($1.99 from $5.99 till 1/2) Golf With Your Buddies ($9.99 from $19.99 till 1/2) Gunbrick: Reloaded ($5.99 from $14.99 till 1/2) Headbangers: Rhythm Royale Deluxe ($22.49 from $29.99 till 1/2) Howl ($11.99 from $14.99 till 1/2) Invasion of Alien X: Earth in Disaster ($1.99 from $9.99 till 1/2)

Jurassic Park Traditional Video games Assortment ($26.99 from $29.99 till 1/2) Kao the Kangaroo ($11.99 from $29.99 till 1/2) Kao the Kangaroo A Properly Good Bundle ($13.19 from $32.99 till 1/2) Kao the Kangaroo Anniversary ($20.34 from $36.99 till 1/2) Kao the Kangaroo Bend the Roo’les DLC ($5.19 from $7.99 till 1/2) Kao the Kangaroo Oh Properly DLC ($2.74 from $4.99 till 1/2) Nora: The Wannabe Alchemist ($4.99 from $19.99 till 1/2) Paper Sprint: Ghost Hunt ($4.99 from $9.99 till 1/2) Undead’s Constructing ($1.99 from $5.99 till 1/2) Wingspan ($9.99 from $19.99 till 1/2) WorldWide FlightSimulator ($11.99 from $14.99 till 1/2) That’s all for as we speak, mates. We’ll be again tomorrow with a extra ordinary article, that includes some new releases, opinions, gross sales, and maybe some information. I hope you all benefit from the first day of the 12 months, no matter chances are you'll be doing. As at all times, thanks for studying! Source link Read the full article

[zou-pa]

Cannon Dancer: Osman - Official Launch Trailer

[gertlushgaming]

Beyond The Long Night Review (Steam)

For this Beyond The Long Night Review, where we explore a whimsical underground world whilst being chased by a mysterious corrupting force in this charming twin-stick action roguelike! Befriend loveable characters, fend off enemies with chaotic abilities, and uncover the secrets of this subterranean kingdom caught in a time loop.

Beyond The Long Night Review Pros:

- Decent pixel art graphics. - Download size. - Steam achievements. - Full controller support. - Graphics settings - resolution, v-sync, screen mode, brightness, and highlight enemies. - Twin stick shooter gameplay. - Pick up and equip superpowers. - Tutorial pop-ups as you play. - Run based. - The map uncovers as you play. - Find and shoot loot boxes. - Collect gems that are currency in the game. - Unlock new hats by hitting certain milestones. - Maps and layouts randomize every run. - Encounter many different characters. - Multiple choice questions. - Slight puzzle elements. - Gets very bullet hell. - You play on a screen-by-screen basis. - The journal fills in with stories, upgrades, and challenges as and when you discover them. - Simple controls. - Loadout - bullet type, super power, super power upgrade, passive, and your buddy. - When you clear the screen of enemies all gems go straight to you. - The balloons that fly around you represent your health bar and collecting a heart brings back a balloon. - Pick up new equipable items. - Very easy to get into. - The controls feel tight. - Discover shopkeepers to upgrade your Loadout slots. - End of a run breakdown showing kills, time taken, gems collected, and items you found. Beyond The Long Night Review Cons: - Cannot rebind controls. - Not that great to play with the mouse and keyboard. - Minimal graphics settings. - The early part of a new run is slow and tedious as you have crap weapons etc. - Slow to get going. - Loading can be slow. - Gets tiring talking to the same people over and over. - The enemies are so small and annoying. - Gunplay is not as fun as it could be. - The rooms are small. - Rooms repeat a lot. Related Post: Osman Cannon Dancer Review (PlayStation 5)  Beyond The Long Night: Official website. Developer: Noisy Head Games Publisher: Yogscast Games Store Links -  Steam Read the full article

[randomisedgaming]

Japanese & Europe arcade flyers for the 1996 title from Mitchell Corporation:

Cannon Dancer / Osman

New home version is out today.

Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, for video game, art, reviews, features, videos and more. You can also find us on YouTube, Twitch & Twitter for even more gaming & video content! Buy us a tea on Ko-fi

[thesplintering]

Retro Arcade Rarity “Cannon Dancer” Coming to Consoles on 13 April

Retro Arcade Rarity “Cannon Dancer” Coming to Consoles on 13 April | #retrogaming #PlayStation #Xbox #retrogames #NintendoSwitch

ININ Games recently announced that Cannon Dancer (known as OSman in the West) is releasing both digitally and physically for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PS5 on 13 April 2023. The Xbox version will receive a digital-only release. A side-scrolling action game in the vein of Shadow Dancer and Strider, Mitchell Corporation’s Cannon Dancer was certainly a rarity upon its arcade release in 1996. This new…

[smbhax]

Osman (aka Cannon-Dancer) Mitchell Corp, 1996

Directed by Kouichi Yotsui, who also directed Strider (Capcom, 1989). Lead artist Utata Kiyoshi, with whom Yotsui had collaborated on The Karate Tournament (Mitchell Corp, 1992).

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Top 47K - Cannon Dancer (Osman)

Join the HG101 gang as they discuss and rank the Strider-creator’s pseudo sequel about a dude in MC Hammer pants who fights big giant ladies.