The curious case of Ken Lobb

[ReyVGM]

Before he had an automatic weapon named after him, Ken Lobb used to to bring nightmares to completionists like me by enthusiastically sneaking in multiple quests in his games through tease-like ending messages.

He's probably the only developer that got away with signing his name in semi-personal ending messages on Japanese-to-USA developed games. It was common for European developers to put really personal ending messages and thanking their whole family (and even their pets), but not so much in Japanese developed games. You'd be lucky if you find a Japanese NES game with credits or using real names even.

He produced and/or created Burai Fighter, Low G Man and G.I Joe for Taxan. Did some stuff for Namco and then apparently left for Taito and made the G.I. Joe clone Kick Master (pretty cool game too). After that, he worked on Super Punch Out and then went to Rare, where KLOBB was born.

Or maybe he had a company for hire? Because in the only 2 Taxan and Taito games with credits, the same people are credited.

Burai Fighter


Oh then I'll just have to see that won't I?


This was it? And who is this Kal fellow? His name doesn't appear in the credits.


Thank you Ken!



Low G Man






Next!


G.I. Joe






Kick Master

[ReyVGM]

Now for a bit of an "interview" with Ken Lobb.


"Hello Ken.

I got a question about your old school NES games from Taxan and Taito.

Who is that KAL guy that gets credited in the ending messages for the games Low G Man, GI Joe, Kickmaster and Burai Fighter?

Does KAL stand for Ken A. Lobb?

Did you have a company for hire or something like it? Because Kickmaster is from Taito but it feels a lot like GI Joe from Taxan. Also Burai Fighter is from Taxan but Taito published it in Japan. Can you give me some insight as to what the whole deal was?

Have a nice day. "


And here's his reply:

"I am KAL, alan is my middle name. I played a lot of arcade games back then, and they forced 3 initials for high scores, so that lived on in my early games. I produced/designed all of those games. The reason that Kick Master was released from Taito was that Taxan was closed when the game shipped. I moved to Namco when Taxan closed.

All of the games had a similar feel because they were all developed by KID, Kindle Image Develop, out of Tokyo. Great guys, I miss that company and working with them!!

Of course, I have done a lot more since then, but those were good times. At least my GI Joe was FAR better than the current one!"

[ReyVGM]

More:


"So you are indeed KAL.

Whose idea was it anyways to put 3 quests? I see a lot of Taxan games did that, but not all of them were designed by you (8 Eyes for one). Why didn't GI Joe Atlantis Factor have 3 quests too? Why was Kickmaster so similar to GI Joe? It was basically GI Joe without guns

The NES GI Joe is one of my favorite games and I was surprised when I recently found out about Kickmaster and how similar it was.

Someone should really find a way to bring those games to Virtual Console. Or maybe even a 2D remake. There's so many great overlooked games from the old days that deserve a second chance.

I'm now playing through the NES Magician, all 3 quests, just to see if you also worked on it.

Well, thanks for taking the time to write back and have a nice day Ken."


And this is his reply:

"I always liked the idea of different difficulties, but I really wanted them to actually DO something, other than just be harder, more enemy types, different level design (as possible with the old tech), unlocks, different endings, whatever... this is also pretty obvious in some of my other early games where I helped and/or had influence... two of the better known being Goldeneye and Blast Corps.

Kick Master was about ½ done when Taxan shut down. I was only able to work on it for a few hundred hours, but I have some great memories there.

Magician was the first game from Eurocom, when we hired them to do the game (because of the game), there were the 3 founders working out of a barn...

Low G Man was the first game I designed completely, and GI Joe is the first I was really proud of. It had special moves, vehicle jacking, multiple difficulty impact, really pushed the NES with the MMC3 chip... good fun.

As with Kick Master, GI Joe 2 was about ¾ done when Taxan went away, and was then picked up by Capcom. I wasn't able to help finish it, but I had a lot of early influence. Personally, I liked the first better.

Would be cool to see them on VC, doubt I could get them on XBLA, pure mechanics based 8-bit games were great fun to make, and to play!

Of course,  I did have a reasonable amount to do with Shadow Complex, so I still have a love for the 2D greatness. J If you haven't played this one yet, hold on tight..."


Questions from other people:

- What exactly did you do on these Taxan games? Did he write up design documents? Did you ever communicate with the Japanese development team?
- Do you know how KID became the recipient of these games?


"I was a producer/designed at Taxan, not marketingJ

We started working with Kid with Burai, and then contracted them to do Low G, then GI Joe, then Kick Master, then GI Joe 2. The development was run from the US, though our friends at naxat helped some. I was making a LOT of trips to Japan back then, and typically for 2 week visits.

I went from Taxan to Namco to Nintendo, then to MS.  No Taito in there, they just licensed Kick Master from Kid after Taxan folded..."

[Jedi Master Baiter]

Interesting.
Burai Fighter was an insane game.  I love the music though.  I still wish someone would do a cover of all the music.  Especially stage 2.

[Nightstar699]

Interesting, both gi joes are some of my all time favorites. Im still looking for a fc pirate of real american hero.