Obscusion B-Side: The Short (But Memorable) Life of Fresh Games

While it's not necessarily as readily provable today, especially since the sheer amount of "indie" games has diluted that feeling to a large amount, there's always been a belief that if you want to look for the more unique, experimental, & "weird" video games then one should look at what comes from Japan, and especially the stuff that doesn't get localized outside of that country. This was seemingly most true between the mid-90s & the mid-00s, i.e. from the launch of the PS1 & Saturn to (at latest) the early days of HD gaming on the PS3 & Xbox 360, and especially on Sony's consoles due to both the PS1 & PS2 having massive catalogs of titles (~4,074 on PS1, ~4,344 on PS2) that even the original Switch hasn't quite surpassed yet (though it's currently close to the PS1's). Because of that there were many games released that would normally never see international release due to a variety of reasons, one of which would simply be "they're too weird/bizarre" & wouldn't appeal to international audiences.

However, in the early 00s one video game publisher decided to seemingly try their hand at localizing some of these "weird" or "bizarre" Japan-developed games... and failed, but the attempt is still remembered by many to this very day. So, for the 100th Obscusion B-Side (including B-Lists), let's go over the life & titles of Fresh Games.

Not quite a "wonton font", but not too far off, either.

Originally founded in 1984, Domark was a European video game publisher that made its name publishing titles for PC & later game consoles, even establishing a US division in 1993, but by 1994 was in some financial trouble. In September of 1995 Domark would be formally acquired by Eidos, a video compression company, resulting in the formation of Eidos Interactive, and via both the acquisition of other companies (Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, a majority share of Ion Storm, etc.) & some good publishing deals the company would slowly make a name for itself with franchises like Tomb Raider, Legacy of Kain, Hitman, Deus Ex, & Fear Effect. This success seemingly allowed some at Eidos to expand their horizons a bit with what the publisher could potentially put out, and the decision was made to launch a new label for something a bit more... "fresh". So, in late January of 2002, Eidos Interactive announced the launch of Fresh Games, which Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey stated was "a boutique label, created solely to expose gamers to unique and captivating gameplay experiences that traditionally have been unavailable outside of Japan." The person leading Fresh Games itself was Kevin Gill, then a global brand & product manager for Eidos, who in an interview with Gaming Age later that February went into more detail regarding the creation of the label.

In the interview Gill explained that Fresh Games was launched as a way for "hardcore gamers everywhere to be able to buy ['Quirky' or 'Odd' games with a lot of polish & attention to detail] at their local store without having to deal with mod-chips and exorbitant costs", i.e. importing, & that they "wanted to break some rules, and break some of the barriers that exist in this industry in regards to 'What type of games do people really want to play?'" Also, the reason for not simply publishing them under the Eidos name was because "they have their own unique heritage and they needed a label to represent that, a label that represents a standard of excellence in gaming, a label that represents something new and groundbreaking" & that the titles published under Fresh Games were "something out of the ordinary". While three PS2 titles (all originally published in Japan by SCEJ) were announced alongside the label that January, the plan was to be platform (& licensor) agnostic, and while Gill was open to all genres, he did say that Fresh Games likely wouldn't publish "a character based sequel, a license, or a [sic] extreme sports game". Unfortunately, after those initial three titles came out throughout the Spring & Fall of 2002, only one more game (which came from another company) would come out shortly afterwards before Fresh Games became a dead brand by the end of the same exact year it launched. The label would be revived for one last release in early 2004, but beyond that Fresh Games was seemingly just too weird/bizarre/quirky/odd/etc. to continue to stick around... but was it because of the games themselves, or was Fresh Games maybe just too ahead of its time? Let's go over each of the five games released under the Fresh Games branding & find out!

We naturally begin with the two titles that launched Fresh Games, and the first one we'll look at is the game that was (& still remains, to this very day) the poster child of the entire label itself. Founded back in Hokkaido in May of 1988, Zoom is a development studio that seems to still be around to this very day, but outside of a mobile game called Chronicle Gate in 2018 (which was later taken down in 2020) hasn't developed anything new since a trio of WiiWare games in 2009/2010... and even before that their prior last game was back in 2003; at this point I imagine they exist mainly for copyright & license management purposes. Anyway, back when Zoom was regularly active it had some notable titles, like the Sharp X68000 action RPG Lagoon (best known for its altered SNES port by Kemco), X68000/SNES/GBA shoot 'em up Phalanx (best known for its legendary American SNES box art featuring an old man playing a banjo), & the Zero Divide trilogy of early 3D fighters for the PS1 & Saturn (which were all essentially "Virtua Fighter, but with Cyberspace Mecha"). Come the new Willennium Zoom was already slowing down heavily, but would grace the gaming world with one last notable title.

In March of 2001, just prior to the (final) Spring Tokyo Game Show that year, SCEJ unveiled a new PS2 game developed by Zoom simply titled Ka, or Mosquito, and it quickly became a talking point when it was shown off at TGS solely due to its entire concept: A stealth/flying game where you played as a mosquito, with the goal of discreetly sucking blood from the various members of a traditional Japanese family called the Yamadas. Obviously, with such an off the beaten path concept it instantly turned into something English internet gaming publications of the time could write articles about, namely in how it became a perfect example of "Oh, those Japanese devs! Aren't they just weird?!", with many feeling that it'd likely never see release outside of Japan, where it came out on June 21, 2001, simply because of the concept itself. However, Eidos took notice of Ka, and I honestly wouldn't be shocked if this game was the sole impetus for the creation of Fresh Games itself, and on March 12, 2002 (March 22, for Europe) Ka saw international release, though now renamed Mister Mosquito; in terms of reception it was understandably mixed, though more towards positive than negative. No matter what, if anyone brings up Fresh Games I guarantee that Mister Mosquito will either be the reason for it, or it will be the first thing someone else brings up in response, and it's easy to see why. In fact, Sony itself must have taken notice of the game's continued notoriety, because on September 28, 2024 Mister Mosquito actually got re-released via upconverted emulation for the PS4 & PS5 (complete with the Fresh Games logo being kept at the start), making it the only Fresh Games title to ever get a re-release (outside of Japan, at least); "Mr. Mosquito" itself even makes a cameo in 2024's Astro Bot for PS5. Does any of that notoriety actually result in a good game, however?

From a basic conceptual standpoint, Mister Mosquito is actually rather straightforward. The main campaign is split up across 12 stages where the goal of each stage is simply to suck enough blood from the human foe you'll be facing (or foes, in the case of the final stage) so that you fill up the required number of "tanks", with the goal of having enough blood to survive hibernation during the winter. For the most part the Yamadas (father Kenichi, mother Kaneyo, & teenage daughter Rena, plus Rena's friend Ayaka for one stage) don't actively go after you & simply go about whatever they are naturally doing, allowing you to fly around (using some honestly straightforward & simple controls; this isn't Ace Combat, after all) & figure out what spots on their bodies have to be sucked from, though sometimes these spots are only available during certain preset moments or require you to do something to make them appear first (like making Rena's phone ring, so that she picks it up & is distracted). Once a spot is available it can be soft locked-on to & charged at using O, upon which Mr. Mosquito will land. Press R3 to stab into the skin & then rotate the right analog stick to start sucking blood, though the goal is to rotate at a pace that keeps an icon within the blue area of a bar; press any face button to instantly get off & fly again. Also, areas where a Yamada can more easily notice (& reach) you will require you to pay attention to them, as well as your sucking pace, as while sucking you can be instantly killed with a well timed smack of the hand. If your foe notices you for long enough, though, you enter a "battle" where the goal is to lock-on charge at pressure points in order to distract them, and winning a battle fast enough even unlocks a new color for Mr. Mosquito that you can switch to in the menu between stages. Each stage also has a variety of pick ups to find & grab, namely "EX Tanks" to suck more blood into (collecting & filling all of them unlock a harder campaign with new dialog) & "Heart Rings" that award you with a new heart for you health for every 50 rings collected.

That's pretty much the large & small of Mister Mosquito, as the 12 stages shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to get through (if you know what you're doing, so a first time play will obviously take longer), and even after beating all of the stages the game obviously wants you to find all of the collectibles by replaying stages over & over, not to mention getting faster completion times for both stages & battles. While it does start off rather straightforward enough in early stages, Mister Mosquito does slowly get progressively trickier in later stages, especially once the Yamadas start putting down various anti-mosquito deterrents, like burnable coils, that can remove health if you enter their area. Some of the locations you have to suck from can also be remarkably specific & picky in later stages, especially if you have to do something first to activate them, but it was never anything that completely ruined the experience for me, and even if I had annoyances with a stage I did want to eventually go back to the game & try to continue on. In terms of the plot it is amusing to see the Yamadas essentially slowly lose their collective sanity over a single mosquito continually sucking their blood, and the sequences where they talk with each other are purposefully done in this obtuse fashion where up to all three of them are literally just looking down at the camera, almost as if they were talking to Mr. Mosquito itself (though they clearly aren't). The English voice work is honestly fine enough, though Kenichi & Kaneyo are both given rather stereotypical "Asian" voices, while Rena more of less talks like an American; meanwhile, the narrator is so purposefully unemotional that it's amazing.

Really, Mister Mosquito is truly emblematic of what the Fresh Games label & branding was seemingly created for, a fun & unique gaming experience from Japan that would otherwise be left in that country. It's certainly not a perfect game, but it's just so quirky & interesting that you simply can't ignore it, and I'm glad that it was given a second chance on the PS4 & PS5. There's even a bonus two-player mini-game that you can play by rotating the right analog stick 30 times on the title screen called Bousou Baiseko/Reckless Cyclist, where the goal is for two bald men on bicycles to try to push each other off of a giant stone disc, & the bikes can each charge up a rocket boost; it has really nothing to do with the main game, but it's just an amusing little bonus diversion. If games like Mister Mosquito made up the entirety of Fresh Games then who knows how things would have gone for the label, but let's see how things truly played out.

As for Fresh Games' other launch title it's comparatively more "traditional" in some ways, though it still takes a known genre & goes in an unexpected direction. One interesting thing about the original PlayStation was Sony's attempt at welcoming a more "indie" or homebrew scene to a small extent, with most likely knowing of the Net Yaroze, a special PS1 meant for debugging that was aimed at giving private programmers the ability to make their own (small) games, and with a computer & internet connection they could then share their games with other Net Yaroze users & Sony,. In fact, Official UK PlayStation Magazine went as far as including Net Yaroze games on many of its demo discs between 1997 & 2004! However, exclusive to Japan was Game Yaroze!, an auditioning event SCEJ would hold every year from 1995 to 1999 that people could submit their games to, with some of the best games getting officially published, while various programmers either got hired by SCE itself or went independent. Game Yaroze! entries that went on to receive official release include XI [sai] (a.k.a. Devil Dice), Doko Demo Issho (which is where Toro, one of the PlayStation's official mascots, originated from), Sky Gunner, ChainDive, & the game that would come out alongside Mister Mosquito on March 12, 2002 outside of Japan, Mad Maestro!.

Developed by a group calling itself Desert Productions, Bravo Music came out for the PS2 in Japan on October 11, 2001 & was a rhythm game that went with a notably different style of music. Where rhythm games of the time tended to focus on stuff like rap, dance, Eurobeat, electronica, rock, samba, or (in the case of vib-ribbon) whatever the player provided via CD, Bravo Music instead decided to be all about classical music, which was more or less unheard of for the (still relatively young) genre of game. Therefore, the game was filled with arrangements of songs composed by the likes of Dvořák, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Schubert, Bizet, Beethoven, Rossini, & others, giving it a sound that was simply unlike any other rhythm game by the time of its release; in fact, it's slogan was literally "Tchaikovsky in your living room". The game was directed by Hiroyuki Kotani, having previously directed both Devil Dice & Sky Gunner, and later became better known for creating the Patapon series. Bravo Music would actually sell rather well in Japan, & also received two companion releases: November 2001's Bravo Music: Christmas Edition, which naturally featured 12 Christmas-themed songs, & January 2002's Bravo Music: Chou Meikyoku-ban/Super Masterpiece Edition, which included another 12 songs, this time including legends like Strauss, Vivaldi, & Bach. However, the release from Fresh Games under the Mad Maestro! name was simply a localization of the original game from back in October, and the reception towards it was mixed, but mostly on the more positive side than negative. Considering the extra stuff that came out in Japan, though, did we truly miss out on something special, or are rhythm games based on classic music still a rarity for good reason?

Mad Maestro! is an interesting rhythm game, even taking aside the usage of classical music, mainly because the gameplay is best described as "simple, but exact". You play as Takt, a conductor with magical music powers who, with the help of the fairy Symphony, is recruiting people from around town to create an orchestra that can play at the concert hall, in an attempt to prevent it from being torn down due to a lack of use. Across 11 stages the goal is to help conduct the band assisting Takt by pressing buttons to keep with the pace & beat of the song being played, as well as making sure that the button being pressed corresponds with the strength needed at that exact moment: Blue for light, green for medium, & red for heavy. Occasionally you'll have the hold the d-pad in the corresponding direction of the next part of the beat to guide the orchestra in the correct key, and in rarer moments you'll see a star on the next beat, which means that you can hold on that note for a while before moving on. As long as you keep the beat, strength, & key all correct you'll raise a momentum meter & enter "Angel Mode", which is where you want to end the song in, but if you mess up too much while in Angel Mode you'll enter "Devil Mode", and if you end a song while in Devil Mode you'll still fail & have to redo the entire stage over, just as if you mess up so badly that you lose all momentum during the stage. To be honest, Mad Maestro!'s general gameplay loop is maybe a little too simple in some regards, as aside from the occasional d-pad hold there really isn't much variety in each stage, so the appeal really comes down to how much you like classical music... and the admittedly charming yet weird characters & situations you find everyone in. In one stage you're helping a couple make back up, in another you're helping a flutist make their way up a cliff during a rain storm, and in another... you're helping give aliens a welcoming first impression by way of "Ride of the Valkyries". Yeah, Mad Maestro! definitely leans into the odd & bizarre side of things, which was admittedly common for early rhythm games at the time, but overall it sounds like a rather straightforward three-button rhythm game (occasional d-pad usage notwithstanding)...

Unfortunately, Mad Maestro! isn't a three-button rhythm game... it's a one-button rhythm game. How is that possible? Well, a major talking point from Sony about the DualShock 2 controller was that every button (aside from Start, Select, L3, & R3) was pressure sensitive, i.e. it didn't just tell whether or not a button was being pressed, but rather it could tell how hard you were pressing the button; the OG Xbox also had pressure sensitive buttons, but it wasn't touted or utilized much. Unfortunately, aside from racing games & the occasional other title (Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 used them for readying, but not yet shooting, your gun while aiming, for example) most games that actually took advantage of pressure sensitive buttons weren't really praised for their usage, and in later years most games didn't even bother to take advantage of it, or if they did it could simply be turned off. Unfortunately, Mad Maestro! is all about pressure sensitivity, so instead of assigning the strength of the beat to three face buttons (hell, three of the face buttons are even blue, green, & red!) you instead have to physically press a single face button at different strengths. The end result is that, while I really want to enjoy Mad Maestro! for its unique genre of music selection & its enjoyably charming visual style & tone, I feel the reliance on pressure sensitivity absolutely ruins the experience. It's not unplayable by any means, as I did get used to some of the quirks (like needing to press the button before you think you actually should, since the game has to register the pressure you're pressing at), but even once I feel that I dialed in the sensitivity just right (which amounted to tons of leeway for green/medium) there were still plenty of moments where I feel like I couldn't tell any physical difference between my button press being "light" or "medium", or even "medium" & "heavy", which resulted in the game saying that I messed up; in fact, sometimes I wound up pressing the button too light & wound up not getting anything registered at all. Not just that, but since it's a literal one-button game there was the occasional time where I kind of drifted off during a song & lost track of what pressure I should be using, because all I was doing was pressing a single button over and over and over and over, with the differing pressures not being enough to stave off repetition.

If Mad Maestro! was a three-button rhythm game that needed me to switch between buttons for the differing strengths then I'd call this a bit of a hidden gem of a game, mainly due to the usage of classical music & the offbeat but charming story it tells. Hell, I'd probably even give the reliance on pressure sensitivity a pass if there were only two strengths to worry about, since that could be treated as a "light" press & a "heavy" press. However, the decision to have a single button be used for three different types of inputs messes with the game too much for me, and I wouldn't be shocked if it outright ruins the game for some. This isn't an outright terrible game but it's most definitely a flawed one, and while some will probably love it for others its reliance on a specific controller gimmick may be a bridge too far.

It's a good thing that Kevin Gill specified that Fresh Games likely wouldn't publish a "character based sequel" (whatever that really meant), because the third game that Eidos licensed from SCEJ for Fresh Games was technically a sequel, though not a direct one. Co-developed by SCEJ second party studio Contrail (which closed in 2000) & a studio called Prokion (which apparently stayed around until 2010 or so, mainly as an assistance studio), Legaia Densetsu (or simply "The Legaia", as it said on the cover) was an RPG for the PS1 that originally came out in Japan on October 29, 1998, before seeing release internationally as Legend of Legaia in North America on March 16, 1999 & in Europe on May 27, 2000, with Sony Computer Entertainment handling publishing worldwide. While the game would go on to be a bit of a cult classic abroad it did very well in Japan due in part to how the game handled combat, as instead of traditional menu-based combat you instead physically inputted sequences of attacks, and certain combinations resulted in special attacks, almost like a fighting game. With the game performing well (at least in Japan) a sequel was put into production, though this time with only Prokion working on it (something that the late scenario writer Hidenori Shibao would lambast in 2013, as he felt Prokion had no idea what made the first game work, at least in terms of the world & plot), with the end result being Legaia: Duel Saga for the PS2, which came out in Japan on November 29, 2001.

While this was part of Fresh Games' original reveal in January 2002 it wouldn't actually come out internationally until October 1, 2002 (October 11, in Europe), after being originally planned for the Summer, as Legaia 2: Duel Saga (despite not being a direct sequel)... where it would receive a rather mixed reception that often compared it to the first game, which most seemed to feel was the better overall game. It's also worth pointing out that in Europe Legaia 2's cover didn't keep the yellow border motif of the prior two games, instead only featuring the Fresh Games logo at the bottom, and while that normally wouldn't mean much on its own when we get to the next game I think it shows just how quickly the Fresh Games label had died out. But does any of this mean that Legaia 2 is a disappointment, or even ill fitting for the Fresh Games label? Let's find out.

Since this is a full-on RPG I have to judge Legaia 2 on two fronts: Gameplay & Story. In terms of Gameplay, Legaia 2 is admittedly a mostly standard RPG outside of its main gimmick, which is the battle system. While it's still menu-driven & turn-based, attacking requires you to press directions on the d-pad to deliver four types of attacks (Up, Down, Left, & Right), and the trick being that certain combinations result in "Arts", which do more damage than standard attacks. As you level up & slowly gain access to more attack slots for a turn you can perform more complicated Arts (Supers, Hypers, Variables, & finally Mystics), which require more inputs (up to seven), or you can perform multiple standard Arts (3 to 5 inputs), each of which also give you AP that you need to perform the more complicated Arts; Supers can be done at any point once you have enough slots, while the others have requirements, usually story related. Once you've figured out the inputs for an Art (or just look online) for the first time you can bring up a bring a menu of the Arts you've learned at any point, so you don't need to memorize them constantly, which is nice; you can also use the last input for one Art as the first input for another, to create chains. The other main gimmick are Orgins, which are massive, spirit-like companions that each member of your party eventually have access to & can allow you to perform spells (at an MP cost) during battles or allow you to perform on-field skills, when necessary. Beyond those two mechanics the rest is pretty standard, including item synthetization, equipment upgrading by combining them with similar equipment, the occasional grinding for levels, etc.; there's also a weight mechanic which can restrict you from equipping too much at once, depending on your level.

As for the Story, the basic idea sees a young man named Lang head off after a mysterious man with gold eyes (later named Avalon) who steals the water-based jewel that keeps the lake-reliant village he's lived in for the past decade self-sufficient, only to wind up finding himself on a quest to save the world from Avalon, who wishes to destroy the world using the three elemental jewels (like the water one Lang wants to recover) due to the prejudice he & his fellow "Mystics" have received by the world; Lang, & his fellow party members, are (mostly) also Mystics, but want to live in harmony with humans. It's a rather straightforward & simple story, from what I did play of it for this overview (which was about 10 hours, or what seems to be ~1/3 of the average run time), but it's definitely a slow burner both narratively & mechanically. It takes about three hours for Lang to finally discover his own Origin, four hours before you get your first Hyper Art (& your first full party of three), and while Avalon's name is mentioned early on it's not actually 100% associated with the antagonist until around eight hours in, which is around the same time it takes for Maya (effectively the mage of the group) to actually be able to fight during battles; yeah, for a decent chunk of the game all she can do is heal, use items, & guard. It's not a poorly told story by any means, but it does take a while for it to seem like it finally starts feeling substantial, rather than Lang more or less just fumbling around trying to figure out just what exactly is going on beyond his initial goal of saving his hometown; there is a bigger plot, but it's still more or less standard fare. I can understand some of Hidenori Shibao's complaints regarding Prokion not being up to task on their own for Legaia 2, but at the same time he's still the guy who wrote the story for this game, so the faults there still lied with him.

All that being said, Legaia 2: Duel Saga is not a bad game at all & those who find the battle system interesting will find battles to be engaging & fun, as even after acquiring a bunch of Arts it's still up to you to figure out which slots work best (as an enemy's size & the like can result in missed attacks), all while also seeing which Arts you can chain together to maximize damage. It's a really cool system, but it does come at the expense of random encounters quickly becoming a bit of a chore due to how long & slow they can play out, even by the 10 hour mark, & while your Origins do have spells that can attack multiple enemies, comparatively lower MP counts for your cast kind of discourage using them often; either buy a ton of MP recovery items or earn a post-battle MP recovery skill from an equippable item. There is an auto-battle option, & it can respond in ways no human player can (like having someone heal another party member who had been hurt just prior to their action in the same exact turn), but it's also not ideal if you're trying to stock up on AP & MP, and it doesn't speed up combat at all. That being said, though, the game never really feels like anything special overall, as the plot is merely fine, the characters are fun but a bit standard, and the occasional bit of English voice work is honestly more unintentionally hilarious than anything. Really, the biggest problem with Legaia 2 is that the PS2 is home to so many better, or even simply mechanically more unique & interesting, RPGs that one could simply play instead. Whereas Mister Mosquito & Mad Maestro! definitely fit the "fresh" ethos behind the Fresh Games label, i.e. they were likely too offbeat for SCEA to localize themselves, Legaia 2: Duel Saga feels like a game that was just tossed on for Eidos to bring over, simply because SCEA felt it wasn't high quality enough; of the three initial Fresh Games releases it's easily the most "normal", if you will. Really, a more fitting third SCEJ title for Fresh Games would have been something like Rimo-Cocoron (a puzzle game where you "meddle" with the residents of an entire town), Sagashi ni Ikou yo (a beginner-friendly dungeon crawler), Seigi no Mikata (where you play as a tokusatsu hero & have to achieve ratings goals for each episode), or even Phase Paradox (the SF adventure game sequel to PS1 shooter Philosoma; this was even already in English, to begin with!).

So, with the initial three games that were announced back in January of 2002 out of the way, where would Fresh Games go next? Well... how about in a seemingly (if slightly) more corporate way? Founded in 1983, Telenet Japan would go on to be a bit of a cult classic game publisher, mainly due to its games (developed by a variety of in-house studios, like Wolf Team, Shin Nihon Laser Soft, & Reno) often being kind of ambitious in some ways, but also having a bit of what one could call "jank"; in other words, they were either legit classics or somewhat endearingly awkward. By the second half of the 90s Telenet Japan had pretty much shifted completely over to making pachinko/pachislot & mahjong games (i.e. gambling games), except for the still existent Wolf Team, which was developing Tales Series RPGs for Namco (plus one last co-pro with Telenet on the PS1), and come 2002 Telenet was surviving solely off of said gambling games, Wolf Team's work & its iLogos division, which made websites & content for mobile devices & PCs. However, Telenet Japan would release something a little different in 2002, which brings us to the final release of Fresh Games' original run, Swingerz Golf.

I mentioned that this was seemingly a more "corporate" direction for Fresh Games, and that becomes obvious when you look at the order of release for this GameCube exclusive. You see, Swingerz Golf first came out in North America on October 23, 2002, just three weeks after Legaia 2: Duel Saga, and it wouldn't be until a month later that the game came out in Japan, where it was called Wai Wai/Boisterous Golf... where it was co-published by Eidos Interactive. Then, on December 6, 2002, the game saw release in Europe... where it was titled Ace Golf & featured no Fresh Games labeling whatsoever, not even the logo, despite it being a Fresh Games release in America. Yeah, unlike the initial three Fresh Games releases, which all came from a standard international licensing deal, Swingerz/Wai Wai/Ace Golf was seemingly more of a straight up co-production between Telenet Japan & Eidos, or at least a worldwide distribution deal, and it's more than likely that the Fresh Games branding (as well as the MAD magazine-esque art style for the cover) was forced onto it for North America in an attempt to potentially "save" the brand from, what I imagine, was seen as lackluster sales for the initial two games back in March from the higher ups at Eidos. In fact, Kevin Gill's name is nowhere to be found in the credits for Swingerz Golf, which I think says it all. Meanwhile, Eidos Europe had seemingly given up on Fresh Games completely after just the first two releases, and I wouldn't be surprised if Legaia 2: Duel Saga's European release only kept the Fresh Games logo on its cover because of contractual obligation, since it had been licensed alongside Mister Mosquito & Mad Maestro!, i.e. "The contract reads 'Fresh Games', so it has to be acknowledged". That being said, critical reception towards the game was, admittedly, a bit better than any of the previous three games. Telenet Japan would return to gambling games after this, except for their final video game ever, Eagle Eye Golf (Enjoy Golf! in Japan) in 2005, which may have been a spiritual successor to Swingerz Golf... maybe?

Let's face facts here: Swingerz Golf, which very much looked to copy the style of Sony's Everybody's Golf/Hot Shots Golf franchise, really doesn't match the type of titles that Fresh Games was created to publish. But does that necessarily mean that it's a bad game?

First up, a disclaimer: I don't really care all that much about traditional golf as a sport, and likewise golf games don't tend to really interest me. That being said, Swingerz Golf is a rather simple & straightforward game of golf to actually play, which is nice to see. In terms of the actual gameplay itself the main mechanic is based entirely around the C-Stick, so after deciding on the direction of your swing (&, if you want, using the d-pad to select where on the ball you'll be hitting) you simply pull back on the C-Stick to charge up the amount of power you'll be hitting with, and then push the C-Stick up to swing. Depending on what type of land you're swinging from (fairway, rough, green, etc.) the sweet spot of what determines a good swing or not on the C-Stick (which is displayed next to the power meter at all times) will either be large or small, which can admittedly make getting out of a tough situation all the much tougher, but it's a basic swinging mechanic that's honestly really simple to immediately understand. Naturally, the game will try to automatically select the club it feels is best for your next swing, but you can also manually select clubs yourself, and the basic camera control for panning up & seeing a larger view of the course works well enough. While I'm not familiar with the Everybody's Golf series personally, a quick look at even just screenshots reveals that Telenet literally just took that series' entire vibe, feel, mood, & gameplay mechanics wholesale for Swingerz Golf, though I can't exactly fault them for it; it makes perfect sense for a golf game, and this game allowed GameCube owners to get a similar experience.

However, the only real "flaw" with Swingerz Golf is that it's merely just fine. There are a variety of options, with the single-player Tour Mode being essential for any long-term replay value due to the simple fact that you literally only start with two golfers to select from (you need to beat everyone else in individual 18-hole games to unlock each of them), while for multiplayer there's both Stroke Play (for up to four players) & Match Play (for only two), as well as a trio of minigames split up between mission-based challenges, a Survival Mode, & a basic "get your ball closest to the pin" game. The clubs & ball you use both also level up while using them, which slowly increases their stats, but overall Swingerz Golf is really nothing more than a simple Everybody's Golf clone that, while perfectly fine in its own right & with no real major flaws (the design, visuals, music, & whatnot are all good), doesn't really have much of an identity of its own that makes it notable over 20 years later. And for a Fresh Games release, where having a unique identity is effectively core to each game released under the label, this ultimately is what hurts Swingerz Golf the most. Even on just the GameCube alone Swingerz Golf feels so anemic, in terms of personality, when compared to Ribbit King, Outlaw Golf, or Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, and when it comes to giving a more standard & (semi-)realistic golfing experience on the console there was the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series outside of Japan. Hell, even in Japan (roughly two years after Wai Wai Golf) Nintendo & Seta would release Legend of Golfer in mid-2004 for those who wanted more of a proper golf sim.

Again, Swingerz Golf itself is (from my time & experience with it) a perfectly fine & decent golf game in its own right, but aside from aiming to deliver a knock-off experience of an iconic PlayStation series on Nintendo's console there's really nothing else to it... and as what could have very well been the final Fresh Games release it's kind of depressing, in that regard. Just a picture-perfect example of how an interesting concept for a label so quickly turned into nothing more than something for a throwaway game (in terms of business) to be released under.

Following the release of Swingerz Golf, there would be no more titles released under the Fresh Games branding for over a year, which pretty much meant that Eidos seemingly decided to just cut its losses & drop the brand entirely. Over in Japan, though, those initial two Fresh Games-labeled titles did so well that they both got sequels! First, on December 12, 2002, SCEJ released Let's Bravo Music, a full-on sequel to Mad Maestro! (instead of simply an expansion, like before) that featured 44 songs, as well as DLC via the PS2 Network Adapter that allowed players to download an additional 36 songs, for a total of 80, and there was even multiplayer via "Couple Concert" mode; this looks to have been the last game developed by Desert Productions. Yes, I didn't mention it before, but the original Mad Maestro! had no multiplayer whatsoever, which isn't necessarily surprising for a rhythm game but still unfortunate. I have no idea if the "one button is used for all three strengths" mechanic was changed in any way, but I imagine it was the same as before.

Then, half a year later on July 3, 2003, SCEJ released Ka 2: Let's Go Hawaii, which saw "Mr. Mosquito" somehow accompany the Yamadas over to Hawaii so that he (as well as a new "American" mosquito with spikey blonde hair) can suck their blood during a vacation in Hawaii with a new family, the Browns. This would wind up being Zoom's last "major" release, i.e. something that was physically released, as aside from a trio of digital (& Japan) exclusive WiiWare releases in 2009, including a remake of Phalanx, the studio hasn't developed any new games for consoles since; again, Chronicle Gate was for mobile only. Interestingly enough, while the original Ka/Mister Mosquito didn't get a re-release until 2024, Ka 2: Let's Go Hawaii actually did get re-released digitally on the PS3 (in Japan only, of course) in April of 2015 as part of the PS2 Archives; go figure. Honestly, had the Fresh Games label been more successful it's entirely possible that Eidos would have brought both of these games over, probably renaming Let's Bravo Music something like "Mad Maestros!!".

Finally, we reach the end of this overview/retrospective with the final game ever released with the Fresh Games branding: R-Type Final. Debuting back in 1987 in arcades, Irem's R-Type series of horizontal shooters became both beloved & notorious for its unforgiving difficulty, relying more on stage layout & pattern memorization to survive than solely on reflexes & enemy attack manipulation. There was also its unique game mechanic of "The Force", an orb-like object that can provide additional firepower as well as be docked to either the front or back of your ship, allowing you to attack both in front of & behind you, depending on the situation. By the turn of the new millennium there were four main R-Type games (I, II, III, & Delta), as well as a handful of spin-offs (Armed Police Unit Gallop, R-Type Leo, & [at least partially] Super R-Type), but with diminishing financial returns & a waning of interest in the genre itself at the time it was decided that one "final" R-Type would be developed. Now, yes, Irem would later release two R-Type Tactics games for the PSP in 2007 & 2009, but the Japanese manual did specifically state that Irem would not be releasing any more "STG/Shooting Games" bearing the name "R-Type", which was technically true... for 18 years, at least; even then, one could technically say that Irem itself hasn't released a new R-Type shooter since Final.

Anyway, R-Type Final would come out on the PS2 in Japan on July 17, 2003, and then it was eventually announced that Eidos Interactive would be releasing the game in North America the following year... under the Fresh Games label. Again, by the time R-Type Final came out in America on February 3, 2004 it had been 16 months since the release of Legaia 2: Duel Saga & Swingerz Golf, so was this some sort of attempt at reviving the brand? No, not really, and Kevin Gill wasn't even involved in this release at all, outside of receiving a "Special Thanks" credit alongside Renee Pletka, who took Gill's role as product manager for Swingerz Golf. Rather, this just seems like a group of people at Eidos who simply really wanted to bring over the "final" R-Type game, decided that it'd make for a much more fitting final release for Fresh Games than Swingerz Golf, and the higher ups at Eidos America approved the idea; acknowledging both Gill & Pletka in the credits was simply a cool gesture. In fact, Eidos Europe didn't even touch this game in their region, as Metro3D would be the one to release R-Type Final in Europe on March 26, 2004... one month before their US division would file for bankruptcy; the following year Metro3D Europe got sold to the parent company of infamous "shovelware" developer Data Design Interactive. In the end R-Type Final was, by far, the most positively received game ever released under the Fresh Games label, with the only real complaints coming either from the lack of "innovation" (despite the entire point of the game being a celebration of the series, not a reinvention of it) or simply the reviewer not being a big fan of genre (which happened way more often than you'd think during the 00s when it came to reviews of shooters). So, over 20 years later, does R-Type Final still hold up, and is it truly a fitting farewell to the Fresh Games brand, as a whole?

From a general gameplay standpoint, R-Type Final follows the tried-&-true style of the games before it, which means that it's a slower-paced, more memorization-based shooter than anything else. While quick responses are still essential this series has more or less always been more about replaying the stages until you remember where enemies come from at each point, as well as boss patterns, so at high level play there can be a strong sense of consistency, as long as you know what's coming next. In terms of the shooting action you have a standard rapid-fire shot, a charge shot, the "Dose" (a screen clearing bomb that requires charging up first by absorbing enemy shots, & is brought over from R-Type Delta), and finally the most iconic part of any R-Type game: The Force. The first power-up you'll pick up on any new life will always be The Force, which can absorb/negate most enemy bullets (& is essential for the Dose), & allows for one of three types of shots, depending on the successive power-ups you grab during stages. Really, that's R-Type Final's basic gameplay loop, but where this "final" entry differs from all prior entries is that instead of having only ship to use for the entire game... you now have 101 different ships to choose from. You start off with the Arrow-Head, the iconic ship from the original R-Type, and by doing specific things (clearing specific stages, accumulating a total amount of play time [sometimes with a specific ship], having specific ships beforehand, or even simply inputting a password) you slowly add more selectable ships to your roster, and you can have 10 ships on hand to specifically choose from for actual gameplay; you can even swap ships between stages, with your power-ups carrying over. This game includes all of the various ships from prior games, some fun little additions like the Pow Armor (the guys that give you power-ups when destroyed), a few Bydo-mutated ships, a ton of original creations, & even Mr. Heli as a crossover! There's also a giant "R Museum" to look at all of the ships in their full polygonal glory, which allows you to see how the dev team designed them to work as familial or evolutionary trees. You also have a "Vs. AI" mode where you can program a ship to go into 1-on-1 combat with an AI-controlled ship, which is a neat little bonus mode.

In terms of the stages, a single run through R-Type Final will take you through seven stages, but a single run will not let you experience everything. That's because there are a bunch of variations, alternate routes, & even entirely new stages to experience in successive playthroughs. For example, the boss of Stage 2 has red & blue rods on it, and if you destroy one of those rods before destroying the boss then on your next run Stage 2's entire environment changes, with five versions of it depending on how dry/hot or wet/cold it is based on the rod you destroyed in your previous run. Beating Stage 3 with a specific ship (Cross the Rubicon) will give you a special, wholly unique Stage 3.5 to clear before moving on to Stage 4, turning your run into an eight-stage one. The boss of Stage 5 on your very first run will be rather straightforward, but on successive runs will have up to two prongs on it, and destroying a specific prong will move you into a completely different pair of Stages 6 & F, resulting in the game having three different endings to see, with each successive one being more wild than the last. The third ending, Stage F-C, infamously requires you to get through a 10-minute stage in one attempt, i.e. you die & it's instant Game Over; the stage itself isn't necessarily difficult, but more than likely you won't beat it on first try. When combined with excellently fine-tuned gameplay, an immensely memorable & moody soundtrack (Eidos even licensed "Piano Smasher" by Blue Man Group for the North American end credits, which actually kind of fits), and simply tons of style, the end result is a must-play experience for shooter fans, and one of the most replayable shooters of all time, especially if you want to unlock everything. If there's really one major flaw it's that the game's visuals clearly push the PS2 a lot, so it's not uncommon for the game to slow down notably, even during lulls in the combat, but it's never to the point where the game is unplayable & any deaths you experience are because of mistakes you made, not the game; still, being able to play this at a steady max frame rate would be amazing.

Now, to be fair, the more hardcore fans of the series will generally argue that R-Type Delta is the best entry from an overall shooter experience, feeling that this "final" entry aimed a bit more for style over substance, or quantity over quality, though they'll still cite it as a strong entry, overall. However, for a more casual shooter fan R-Type Final remains an absolute masterpiece when it comes to delivering an experience that entices players to learn & memorize its stages by constantly giving them a cavalcade of unlockable ships to play around with, while the alternate stages & multiple endings help keep successive runs from feeling constantly same-y. Admittedly, the existence of R-Type Final 2 today does make going back to this PS2 game slightly redundant (especially since Granzella added in a ton of recreated nostalgia DLC stages), but the first R-Type Final no doubt sent Fresh Games off in spectacular fashion & was a true, proper sendoff for the label.

The concept of Fresh Games is admittedly kind of quaint & amusing to think back on now, as the rise of indie games has forever changed the way people look at what a "video game" is, from a general stylistic & aesthetic viewpoint. Today a game can truly be anything the creator(s) can think of, and the prolificity of digital storefronts (hell, it doesn't even have to be a "store") has made it easier than ever for essentially anybody to release a game. Back in the 00s, though, things were much more restrictive & still relied almost exclusively on physical media, and because of that there were many games that were not able to get the reach that they may have "deserved". In that regard what Eidos attempted with Fresh Games, from a conceptual standpoint, is to be commended & respected, because while I'm sure it was always considered a risky venture it's something that was arguably necessary in some way, even if only in a small way. However, when you actually go through the extremely minute catalog of titles released under the Fresh Games banner, most of which only saw release in North America under that label, you can quickly see that it was kind of doomed from the very start, and it does seem as though Eidos was quick to kill it off as soon as those initial two games saw release.

Still, I wouldn't necessarily say that there was truly a "bad" game in the lot. Mad Maestro's reliance on the DualShock 2's pressure-sensitive buttons didn't work for me, but I still honestly love the concept & style behind it, & the fact that it received both expansions packs & even a sequel in Japan shows that there were indeed people who enjoyed it. Meanwhile, both Legaia 2: Duel Saga & Swingerz Golf are by no means terrible games, but rather are titles that are both held back in some way, whether it's Legaia 2 having a rather barebones story & a really awesome battle system that can just drag later on, or Swingerz Golf simply aiming to deliver a golfing experience known on rival hardware to the GameCube; I wouldn't turn people away from checking either game out, but I also wouldn't think of either as a must-play. However, both Mister Mosquito & R-Type Final are the true standouts, as both deliver fun, engaging, excellent playing, & unique experiences on the PS2, and while Mister Mosquito is probably most emblematic of the Fresh Games label as a whole, R-Type Final is also right up there in terms of being associated with the branding. Eidos would actually sort of return to the idea of a label for offbeat & unlikely titles with Secret Stash Games in 2006 & 2007, but while that label actually saw more releases with eight games it's mostly been forgotten with time & the only title that's really been remembered from it is Escape from Bug Island, a.k.a. Necro-Nesia, for the Wii (& maybe Touch the Dead for the DS?), but even then it's nothing on the level of Fresh Games' best releases.

RIP to Fresh Games, an idea that was arguably just too many years ahead of its time.

Mister Mosquito © 2002 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Mad Maestro! © 2002 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Legaia 2: Duel Saga © 2002 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Swingerz Golf © Telenet Japan Co., Ltd. (now Edia) 2002

R-Type Final © 2003 Irem Software Engineering Inc.