Tets goes to T-Spark Zone 2025

 

 I don't like going to the Tokyo holy trinity of tourism; Shinjuku, Shibuya and Akihabara because aside from Akiba, there isn't much going on (for me).  The previous weekend I hit all three with a friend form overseas and it was enjoyable enough, but I rather wasn't all that excited about having to hit Akiba again on another weekend.  

Sundays are always worse than Saturdays, so for this wonderful T-spark Zone trip, I chose Saturday.

But what is T-spark?  Well, it is a celebration event of Takaratomy and they have various collaboration products going on, which makes it kind of exciting.  Their very own promotional materials say:

“T-SPARK” is the unified brand name for hobby products for adults developed by TOMY Company. As a hobby brand that offers an experience of boundless energy, the name T-SPARK means innovative and sophisticated adventure. 

I will now chronicle my adventure.

Toys & Games of 2024

Normally I separate games and toys on these lists, BUT 2024 has been a pretty lean year for me gaming wise.  Sure I bagged a fenrir for my Sega Saturn which was a worthwhile purchase, but since it has opened up many games, I am in two minds as to whether to include them here.  Mainly because I can't remember the ones I played.  And despite having amasse a rather nice collection, I find myself spending all my time playing the translation of Grandia on it.

Androgyne's Toys and Games of 2024

It’s that time again. This one’s a long read so i’m skimping on the intro, let’s get straight into it!

A text review of F-Zero Maximum Velocity for Game Boy Advance

 So if F-Zero X made me a fan for life, how did this game slip under my radar?

A text review of F-Zero X for Nintendo 64

Come to think of it, probably one of the other reasons I never bought F-Zero in the SNES era was because I only got to play it near the end of that generation, and by then the hype for the then called Ultra 64 was at fever pitch! All my pocket money was being saved for those tasty Silicon Graphics. Nintendo was on fire with their early N64 releases and so when F-Zero 64 started to appear in lists of upcoming games, you can bet I was excited!

A text review of F-Zero for Super Nintendo

Who else misses old games magazines? I would read and re-read my magazines as a kid and truly miss those days. A video review is nice sometimes too, but often there isn’t as much detail about the game as you’d like in these reviews. This review of F-Zero aims to be a bit like an old one you might read in a magazine, with a bit of personal history thrown in for good measure.

Konami Brawlers That Didn't Make the Cut.

You know, I remember a day when I used to see the Konami logo and hear the little tune and immediately think to myself:

Oh yeah, good times are coming baby

Rocket Knights, Tiny Toons, Sunset Riders (in the arcades), Contra and a bunch of others.  It was a mark of quality.  Now though.... Let's move on shall we?

So continuing on with my Brawlers list, I will add in Konami games here.  They made a fair few and initially this was going to be a post about why the Turtles games didn't make it, but I decided to broaden the spectrum for reasons which will soon be very clear.