USK Lists "Replay: VHS Is Not Dead" For Wii U

Disc-based media killed the VHS star

by Liam Doolan Thu 12th Nov 2015

The German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) has listed Replay: VHS Is Not Dead for the Wii U.

The title was released by publisher Neko Entertainment in July on Steam and received a positive reception for being a challenging, satisfying and convincing puzzle-platformer.

Taking place in a movie-based universe, players control a character named Harvey Hachess across more than 70 levels and 4 different universes after he is zapped into his own television.

View the existing game trailer below and let us know in the comments if you’re at all interested in this upcoming Wii U eShop title.

Thanks to Ryan Millar for the tip!

[source nintendoeverything.com, via usk.de]

Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief.

1
SwitchVogel
Thu 12th Nov 2015

This reminds me a lot of Super Time Force. I'd love to see that on the eShop someday, too.

2
readyletsgo
Thu 12th Nov 2015

Yeah I'm interested. Might give it a shot

3
SillyG
Thu 12th Nov 2015

@Pahvi : That was a real surprise. HD DVDs barely lasted two years if I recall correctly and yet Betamax are still being produced. Wow.

Blank VHS tapes are still widely available in Australia (though in small quantities), and I assume that they are still used by the over 40 crowd who own HD TVs yet watch nothing but 4:3 VHS and analogue TV stretched out across a 50+ inch 16:9 display. Drives me crazy; especially when I see such garish spectacles in cafés and what have you.

4
Spin
Thu 12th Nov 2015

I like the pixel art. It's really close to the Braid concept though.

5
littlebiggtoe
Thu 12th Nov 2015

Clever song reference!

6
Souflee
Thu 12th Nov 2015

would definitely buy this for the Wii U, hope it shows up on the eShop

7
ThanosReXXX
Thu 12th Nov 2015

@sillygostly Your assumption is a bit on the "it's either black or white" side. Taking myself for an example: I am indeed over 40 (45 to be exact) and I do still own a VHS recorder, and an expensive one at that. It's a JVC with six heads and it's region free.

As an American living in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and suffering from a heavy addiction to all things anime, I've started collecting a lot of series and movies in that genre decades ago when DVD's let alone Blu-rays weren't even a thing yet.

I've got a serious collection of around 400 tapes, both NTSC and PAL and even if some of these titles could now be found on DVD or even Blu-ray, it would cost me a fortune to buy them all again on one of these mediums. Every tape is still in as good a condition as it can be and the VCR is also still in mint condition, having been serviced and cleaned last year. So while I also own a Blu-ray recorder and HDD mediaplayer, I still hold on to that VCR for as long as it will work, so I hope that will be for some time to come. And I don't watch these tapes with a stretched image, by the way. Although I did have to get used to those annoying vertical black borders in the beginning...

I have looked into devices to transfer my tapes to DVD, but the higher quality ones aren't very cheap and I have other priorities right now.

So there, that's just me and there are probably thousands if not millions of people all over the world that have a similar situation, except maybe not because of an anime collection.

And then there are also the people that have made a lot of recordings of their own, with a VHS camera. All those family movies on tape are also a reason to keep a VCR around, unless you can afford to get these movies converted to DVD or buy a converter yourself.

8
SillyG
Fri 13th Nov 2015

@TheRealThanos: Slow down there, friend. I didn't mention anything about keeping a VCR to view old material. I just don't understand people who to this day STILL record on VHS because it will only make it all the harder to archive and move on to superior formats later, especially when the alternatives are so much more affordable, user-friendly and ultimately, cheaper and easier to back-up and/or duplicate for futureproofing.

I don't have much of a VHS collection myself (mostly videos containing public domain cartoons [some with rather unflattering depictions of persons of African descent] and some old family videos). Last year, I digitised all of our and my uncle's tapes (there were somewhere between 70 to 90 tapes) and burned them to Blu-ray discs for my parents' and my uncle's upcoming 30th wedding anniversaries. I haven't put all of the tapes onto Blu-rays yet, but the first set, comprised of 5 discs, contains 46 VHS tapes comprised of over 80 hours of footage, complete with menus etc. A HELL of a lot more convenient considering that my 5 disc box set takes up as much space as just ONE of those 46 VHS tapes. Converting them all isn't so much a matter of money, but patience.

9
ThanosReXXX
Fri 13th Nov 2015

@sillygostly I wasn't offended, if that was what you got from that, just wanted to give you an example of why people cling to VHS.
I completely agree with you on the still recording on VHS part; mine is only used as a playback device.

In our family we have also digitized some family tapes and put them on DVD, which is indeed a lot of work, but in my case it is more a problem of not all tapes being copy-able (as in completely or only with significant quality loss) and some anime series or movies not being available on DVD or Blu-ray, so I will simply have to keep them.