The Video Game Critic

All new SNES reviews! Hope you like em.

I remember seeing Phalanx in stores. "What the hell is that? An old man playing a banjo? Boy does that look stupid". I never thought much about it again until I read the review. I wonder how many kids dismissed this game simply because of the box. Back then we didn't have the Internet to give us info. Unless you paid for magazines or got word about the game from friend how else would you know? I certainly didn't want to take a chance on a game that had an old man sitting on a porch playing the banjo & I don't remember any of my friends that had the game so they must've not wanted to take that chance either.

Phalanx's box art is so bad... Why would a developer make a shmup label/box look like that? I have to wonder if it was a joke. Still, the game is actually pretty good and one of the better shmups on the SNES.

I saw that Phalanx box at the video store and begged my mom to rent it for me. Then I got home and was so disappointed. Not really sure what I expected from that game, but somehow an old guy with a banjo made me think It was going to be good. For some reason, I feel like that banjo guy was relevant to the time of release. Like there was something similar that was popular, and they were capitalizing off of that with the image. I cant recall what, but I just seem to remember relating the image to something.

As for CG 2, I vaguely remember that. Watching some youtube playthroughs of it, it looks pretty terrible. Seems like the DOS version is much better.

I have phalanx for the gba and I like it. Not great or anything but not a bad shmup. Pretty slim pickings for shmups on the snes and gba and this game helps fill that void a little.

Good reviews. I distinctly remember buying Phalanx when I was living in Japan. I was back in the States for a couple weeks for Christmas holiday, and I saw the game for really cheap, so I bought it. I think I made the purchase because of the hillbilly on the box cover, and I just thought it was a really bizarre choice. I either had a Japanese SNES with an adapter to play American games or visa versa. It was a fun, mindless game. I didn't have too much room for games because my apartment in central Tokyo was less than 100 square feet.

Rookie1 wrote:I saw that Phalanx box at the video store and begged my mom to rent it for me. Then I got home and was so disappointed. Not really sure what I expected from that game, but somehow an old guy with a banjo made me think It was going to be good. For some reason, I feel like that banjo guy was relevant to the time of release. Like there was something similar that was popular, and they were capitalizing off of that with the image. I cant recall what, but I just seem to remember relating the image to something.

Never would've thought that the old banjo guy would be appealing to anyone. I guess if they made a sequel with a picture of an old woman smoking a pipe in a wheelchair then you would've bought it for sure.

Tron wrote:

Rookie1 wrote:I saw that Phalanx box at the video store and begged my mom to rent it for me. Then I got home and was so disappointed. Not really sure what I expected from that game, but somehow an old guy with a banjo made me think It was going to be good. For some reason, I feel like that banjo guy was relevant to the time of release. Like there was something similar that was popular, and they were capitalizing off of that with the image. I cant recall what, but I just seem to remember relating the image to something.

Never would've thought that the old banjo guy would be appealing to anyone. I guess if they made a sequel with a picture of an old woman smoking a pipe in a wheelchair then you would've bought it for sure.

Tron, I actually bought the game because of the box cover. It just seemed really bizarre and funny to me. I read that the developers used that cover to stand out from all the other shooters. However, I was not a child when I bought that game, and I'm not sure how I would have felt about it if I were younger.

I guess I still have a lot to learn about marketing.

Tron wrote:I guess I still have a lot to learn about marketing.

Its like the Old Spice commercials. They pretty much have nothing to do with Old Spice, but have increased sales due to their obscurity.