SIMPLE SERIES

Hello I’ve been reading SB infrequently for a few years but never made an account. Nice to meet you.

This is a thread about SIMPLE SERIES games !!!
I think I’ve settled into believing that the simple series scale is just about the best scale for the videogames that I like. I sometimes fantasise about making quick little commercial games in a small team, even though I’m sure it was probably terrible working on a lot of these games (hmm now I’m looking at job openings on Tamsoft’s website and sheesh, they don’t pay much).

Anyway my favourite one is Simple 2000 Series Vol.54: THE 大海獣 (aka DEEP WATER in Europe). You’re a little dude who spends the entire game on his little boat, walking between the wheel and the engine and the harpoon, cruisin’ through the ocean, shooting sharks when you can be bothered, doing scrappy little missions, until eventually you do a big mission where you kill a giant sea monster, then unlock a new part of the sea etc etc.
Here’s a still of a gif I stole from Lunatic Obscurity

And a couple crap pics I took



I like the two different scales: walking on the boat vs driving on the ocean. I like the UI. I like the birds and long-but-not-too-long stretches spent driving in a straight line from a to b. Only thing it’s missing is a fishing minigame.

Anyway uhhh I’m looking forward to seeing which games you all bring up!!

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i was gonna post a link to my blog but i guess you’re already on top of that :joy_cat:

but yeah, i love the simple series and also tamsoft~!

also i totally agree with this. smaller teams and smaller budgets allow for bigger risks and more creativity

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Oh hey!

When I bought Monster Attack (the PAL version of EDF1) way back in 200X after reading a review on ntsc-uk, it singlehandedly restored my faith in video games.

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I haven’t played any of those games but i do love small scale stuff in all kinds of media. your description of DEEP WATER reminds me of this little indie game made by a lone turkish developer recently called Soul Searching.

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I’ve always been fascinated by these, but I’ve never really played any of them due to the import barrier. I guess I should burn some isos. Which are the best ones to play if you don’t know japanese?

Man, if I had a jp PS2 I could fill a shelf with these and the Sega Ages games.

My favorite was vol.64: The Splatter Action.

Not a great beat em up but it has cool art design and the sound effects are hilarious

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here’s the simple series tag on my blog, so you can see what i thought of the ones i’ve reviewed so far. here’s also a handy guide to the series in general, so you can see which games have had european releases, negating the language barrier.

rememeber that you can easily emulate the ps1’s simple 1500 series and the psp’s simple portable 2500 series, and put the simple ds series games on your r4

generally, though, unless they’re rpgs or adventure games, most of them are pretty simple and can be got through with a bit of intuition.

i’m surprised that zombie vs ambulance/zombie virus isn’t more of a cult hit: it’s crazy taxi, but in an ambulance, with zombies everywhere that you’re encouraged to run over. it outstays its welcome pretty quickly, but i would’ve thought the concept alone would have got more people’s attention.

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I should try that zombie vs ambulance game. Splatter action looks fun too. Thanks!

Isn’t this where the EDF series started? I really loved 2017 and 2025. Really great games. I’ll have to check the other simple series stuff

Another one I’d recommend is Simple 2000 Series Vol.54: THE 合戦 関ヶ原 aka SHOGUN’S BLADE in EU. It’s just a crap dynasty warriors type thing based on the battle of Sekigahara between Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyori and some other people, but it has some great details. Since the whole game is based on one battle, it’s the same level every time. Each consecutive level recounts the next hour of the battle (I guess it’s one of those “documentary games” kinda (not really)).

The title screen is great:

It has these little descriptions before each level that I quite like.

Not sure if the “melancholy mist” is something they conveniently made up or if that’s in the history but they sure go all out on it and it rules (this pic not by me, obvs)

It’s a totally numb hack n slash that I expected to play for 10 minutes but ended up going for about 4 hours, propelled by its little details. Maybe get a podcast or something to keep you going during the combat though.

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I own it! I think you can safely not try it.

They’re all CD based games and should all run when loaded from USB stick.

I have banned myself from diving into the black hole that is the Simple 2000 series, because that would consume way too much of my time right now.

It really bugged me how the game froze for every combo hit. And the loading was pretty bad too, iirc. But yeah, the concept is great and I’d like to give it another go at some point.

This weekend I played through SIMPLE2000シリーズ Vol.35 THE ヘリコプター (AKA Radio Helicopter in EU) by Tomcat Systems.
You fly around a couple tiny hub areas getting missions like spray cockroaches in the kitchen or put books back on their shelves in the school library. The controls are super delicate, like if you push the analog stick all the way right at the beginning (like I did) you’ll crash into a wall immediately. Never played a game with helicopter controls like it before (I wonder if it’s similar to a radio helicopter IRL). Also, it’s only like 3 hours long! Would recommend it!!

Really struck by the sincerity of its environments. Been playing EDF lately too and I think that kind of low polygon, simple texture environment style is v adept at depicting quotidian urban/suburban spaces (is there a thread on SB about that?). Here’s some pix from Radio Helicopter:







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i don’t know if it’s becasue i’ve played so many of them, but there is something i really love about low budget ps2 games set in suburban/urban japan.

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it’s not in the simple series anymore (because the simple series is long dead), but onechanbara z ii chaos is pretty fun.
it’s totally different to earlier games in the series, you can airdash around and each character has tons of different attack options and as you fight bosses, there are mid-battle qtes to sever the boss’s limbs that use the ps4 controller’s touchpad thing. of course, it is still a totally shameless and constant display of boobs and gore, too.

there’s this one simple game on the ds that’s like Assault Suits Valken, i forget the name but i wanna own it
EDIT: The Soukou Kihei Gunground
thanks for linking your blog loki

Dragon Sisters is the one I liked the most.

in case anyone missed it, simple 2000 series vol. 78 was added to my blog yesterday. (and another will be added in a few weeks)

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that other has now been added, and it’s the tousou highway 2 ~road warrior 2050~

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