Horizontal Checkpoints OFF 1 Difficulty level 9 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - - Developed by Sachen
Published by American Video Entertainment in 1990
Sachen, a well-known Taiwanese spurter of cheaply made games (most of them for the NES), should really be hailed for their accomplishments. In a sense they were more succesful than many legitimate companies, since their games saw releases all around the world. Brought to the US by American Video Entertainment, one of their most faithful allies, Double Strike also made it to other shores, having been rebaptized as Twin Eagle in Australia - not to be confused with the licensed arcade port of Twin Eagle - Revenge Joe's Brother. No matter what the name is, you can't escape the fact that this game comes out as primitive as a barely improved Atari 2600 shooter.
Up front you notice there's something really outstanding about the craft you're flying. After all, it looks like a space shuttle! I can't even imagine the crazy technology that's behind this, but whatever firepower the space shuttle has must be enough to face one of the most vicious terrorist organizations on the planet, which has seized some of the most beautiful islands on Earth in a violent attempt at world domination. The "double" in the title is probably a hint at the fact that this game allows two people to play cooperatively, but you also get a double play demonstration during the attract mode (double play = one player controlling both crafts). As a curiosity, the start screen displays the subtitle Aerial Attack Force.
No pains, no gains
I admit cooperative/double play must have been quite a feature if you were coming from a previous gaming generation, or even during the NES heyday for that matter. But what about solo play? You do "strike" stages and bosses more than once, so I guess that counts as a double strike. But then again, if we were to see it this way the game's name should've been changed to Triple Strike. There are three levels with tiled backgrounds that repeat in different orders and with different color palettes, all with a very limited enemy gallery and almost no variation in attack patterns. The uninspired music is the same from start to finish, you can't see your score while you're playing and absolutely no effort was made at providing at least an ounce of excitement.
If you're still in the mood to get back in time and enjoy Double Strike for what it is, brace yourself for a very repetitive gaming session. Planes, tanks and helicopters approach in simplistic ways for what seems to be the longest time, then you enter the boss fight. Power-ups are released by red/pink enemies only and include double shot, triple shot, spread shot, temporary invincibility, ground bombs (D) and 1UPs. Button A fires the main weapon while button B starts dropping bombs as soon as you take the first D item. Abusing the bombs will deplete their ammo but you can't see when this will happen. Fortunately there's no outage of Ds for you to take, and that also happens with all other items. Though totally random, 1UPs start appearing more frequently when you're about to run out of lives. By the way, every credit starts with 6 of them (pause to see how many lives are left).
Picking up the spread shot is good for the levels themselves, but its low firing rate isn't really useful against bosses. Every stage theme has its own type of boss (sky → airplane; jungle → nazi castle; sea → battleship), and all bosses have many turrets that must be taken down one by one. The problem with boss fights is that some of the turrets appear at point-blank distance and start shooting at once, giving little to no room to react as the screen goes back and forth around the boss. By then bullet density is at its highest, that's why having one of the straight shots is best to destroy the closest turrets. If you do it right the battleship can be defeated before the screen retreats even once.
A quick peek at Double Strike's attract mode
(courtesy of YouTube user MrGameDivision)
Besides the boring repetition, Double Strike is also irregular in the AI for enemy spawning. For example, the most dangerous enemy is a larger airplane that approaches from behind, parks at the middle of the screen and continuously shoots two bullets in a V-shaped pattern while moving up and down. As it overlaps its attacks with other minor threats the game almost acquires a minimum of intensity. Therefore, it's just sad that this only happens during the sky stage, meaning it will be absent from most of the game. The rest of the gameplay is reduced to staying sharp and avoiding to fly low in the sea/jungle levels. Well, at least collision detection isn't atrocious, if that counts for something. Several layers of parallax add a rather dynamic aspect to the backgrounds, too bad they are tiled and never change to something remotely engaging.
I'm done with Double Strike with the 1CC high score below. I used a turbo controller because going through the game without one would be stupid, maybe even more "stupid" than playing it in the first place. Truth is these subpar products had their importance in certain markets, and must have made many kids happy. If I had been exposed to it back then I would've probably liked it.
Horizontal Checkpoints OFF 3 Difficulty levels 7 Stages
Ship speed selectable
- - - - - - - Developed by Victor Interactive
Published by JVC in 1993
Take Cotton, mix it with Parodius and infuse it with a wacky storyline. Keio Flying Squadron could pretty much be the result of this combination. Since the original Japanese game contains heavy doses of Japanese animation, text and dialogue, the fact that it also came out in other regions with decent English translation/dubbing is nothing short of astonishing. The North American version in particular is quite rare, but any of the Western releases is worth the search if you value anime design with humorous storytelling. Of course the shooting part of the game remains the same for all versions, and that’s what matters most if you’re into shmups.
The name “Keio” refers to a brief span of Japanese history during the
19th century, a time when industrial development was blossoming and
Japan was in friction with many foreign countries.
The story of the game is supposed to take place in that era, but of course it doesn't take itself too seriously (for example, you
need to fight a crazy general from the United States navy in stage 3). A 14-year old teenager named Rami is the star of the show - never mind the Sega CD version saying she’s 20, that's censorship at work and no 20-year old woman would behave the way this brat does. She’s supposed to be the guardian of a sacred golden key that’s stolen by Dr. Pon, a super intelligent raccoon who wants to turn the world into a raccoon paradise. Rami’s grandma goes nuts and tells her she’ll have no food until she gets the key back, so there goes Rami and her pet dragon Spot (Pochi in the Japanese version) on a mission to recover the golden key. She’s childish, lazy and totally unaware of the danger she constantly runs into. Grainy FMV sequences open and close the game, whereas colorful cut scenes make it evolve from stage to stage. These animated intermissions create a lighthearted, lovely atmosphere that works well as a complement to the main game.
Racoons are everywhere
Being a dragon, it’s only natural that Spot shoots fireballs. That said, he’s able to fire two types of them, a straight one (default) and a spread pattern. This primary weapon is changed or powered up by taking the corresponding icon released by hitting a fan-propelled monkey, the bringer of all items in the game. Secondary weapons appear as three types of missiles: air-to-ground Darius-like bombs, directional explosives and homing baby dragons (which look like parrots to me). Both main and secondary weapons are fired simultaneously by pressing B, and are upgraded by successively collecting the same item. These keep circling and cycling as they leave the screen slowly, so take your time to snatch them when it’s safe. Once Spot is fully powered up, any extra item will be converted into 2.000 points.
Besides knowing your weapons, in Keio Flying Squadron it’s very important to use the two helpers/options that are automatically created once you stop shooting. Each one takes around three seconds to materialize, but once they do you’re given an extremely important firepower aid. Helpers trail you around like the options from Gradius, and can be “sacrificed” in a kamikaze special attack. By pushing button C one of the helpers is sent forward in a spread pattern of fireballs that can even block enemy bullets. Afterwards you need to refrain from shooting for a brief while to get the sacrificed helper back.
When you go a long stretch in the game without sacrificing any helper, the impression you get is that the game is easy. However, depending on where you die things can easily get out of control, with massive loss of lives and shameful credit termination. Because dying powers you down one level and strips you off your helpers and secondary weapons, an instant problem is presented if you’re surrounded by lots of enemies and bullets: quit shooting and wait for the helpers to materialize or face the mayhem with the main weapon only? Once I got to the last boss with over 10 lives in stock and lost all of them because I died as soon as he fired its first laser attack. Honestly, this was probably the most ridiculous GAME OVER of my recent shmupping career.
Keio Flying Squadron is totally old school in its gameplay, with no special tricks in scoring besides milking bosses and not dying to reap the bonuses of 2.000 points from surplus items. It's quite fun and easygoing for the most part, but it also requires memorization and a certain dose of strategy (it's good to switch to ground bombs before the barrier of spinning toys in stage three, for instance). Avoid staying too close to the borders, as mid-bosses tend to suddenly ram into the screen. Don’t stay too centered either, sometimes they’ll just fall over your head or appear out of nowhere (granted, everybody dies at least once in these cases). The last input in the controller is provided by button A, which switches between two speed settings (slow/fast). On default settings they were both very useful to me – I mention default because before starting the game you can adjust how fast you want to fly. Other tweaks in the OPTIONS screen allow you to choose your hitbox position (nice!) and to toggle all in-game cinemas on and off.
No key, no dinner!
(courtesy of YouTube user kingarthurpendragon)
Graphically the game offers good variety with a basic design and almost no effects. It does shine on its enemy roster, which is full of crazy creatures and all kinds of animal and mechanic foes, a good portion of them derived from raccoons. In fact, raccoons are to Keio Flying Squadron what penguins are to the Parodius series. All stages are considerably long with a few empty stretches and clearly defined sections, sometimes abridged by transitions or cut scenes. The difficulty curve pretty much divides the game in two parts, as from stage 5 onwards it does require more careful dodging and positioning. Thankfully there are a few score extends to achieve (30.000 + every 150.000 points) and lots of 1UPs to get, often triggered by fulfilling easy tasks within the stage or by simply finding them (examples: fly over the fish swimming upwards against the current in stage 2, shoot the lower edge of the big ship as you start stage 6). Though it seems to be possible to milk bosses forever, I was relieved to see that they eventually time out.
Much like other Sega CD titles, Keio Flying Squadron has an excellent sound design. The soundtrack ranges from bubblegum to somber, with a few very catchy tunes towards the end of the game (the first theme reminds me a lot of Parodius). Song loops are also longer than usual, and sometimes I let the bosses live longer just to listen to the best part of the boss theme. Lots of different animal sounds can be heard as you play (barks, moos, etc.) and strangely all in-game voices were left undubbed.
Don't let the relatively simple graphics fool you, this game should not be missed if you're into wacky cute'em ups. It's deceptively challenging and ocasionally infuriating. I had a wonderful time with it, playing at full defaults (medium/normal difficulty, default hitbox, slow 2, fast 3), with the 1CC score shown in the picture below. The game does not buffer high scores, so remember to pause once Dr. Pon is defeated to take note of your final score. Note: a hidden catch mini-game can be accessed by inputting a secret code at the start screen, and by using a similar code it's also possible to perform stage select (good to practice since continues are limited).
Vertical Checkpoints OFF 1 Difficulty level 6 Stages
Ship speed selectable at start
- - - - - - - Developed by Cave
Published by Cave in 2010
Back in 2009 Cave decided to port one of its shooters to the Xbox Live Arcade service, so the company ran an online poll to get feedback from the STG community. The winner of the poll was Guwange, seconded by ESP Ra.De. (Progear was my choice and finished in 4th, also losing to DoDonPachi). I admit that I didn’t have that much enthusiasm for Guwange at the time of its release, and the little scandal that followed didn’t help either. Long story short, the game came out with forced widescreen on all resolutions, no HD graphics and no real 3:4 TATE mode. Of course only die hard shmup fans really cared about these contradictions, but fortunately they were properly addressed by Cave a while later.
Okay, but how about the game itself? It’s difficult to judge its appeal if you’re not into the genre. Guwange is probably the most unique title within Cave’s library, in both aesthetical and functional ways. It doesn’t play like a normal shooter, yet the company's style is written all over it. Also it doesn’t look like the rest of Cave’s output due to the basic influence of classics such as Commando or Gun.Smoke, yet the art design clearly establishes ideas that would be used in later titles such as Espgaluda. As the player, you must choose between three characters and walk your way across several villages of ancient Japan in order to take down an evil wizard. The story is supposed to take place in the 15th century and has more complicated and darker undertones, but I won’t delve into those. Suffice it to say the whole game design reeks of the Japanese culture of old. No visual frills should be expected, but watch out for some of the most gorgeous 2D sprite artworks ever designed for a shooter.
Playing Guwange is a different shmup experience because of the dual control gameplay scheme. Regular shot is complemented by the so-called “shikigami” attack. The shikigami is an entity/spirit that possesses the character and can be deployed to attack enemies at any time. When the shikigami is summoned you’re able to control where the spirit must go around the screen, but your character is restricted to horizontal movements at a slower speed and can't use the regular shot to full effect (only sparse bursts will be fired if you keep the shot button held). Besides attacking, the shikigami is also capable of slowing down enemy bullets and wiping them out if they’re close to the explosion of a destroyed target (bullet break). Once you let go of the button the shikigami gets sucked into the character and you’re again free to move around at regular speed and resume using the regular shot. Boss fights work differently because the shikigami will remain permanently deployed even if you don’t use it (it just sits there and waits). The third and final control input is the bomb, which makes the character float as a huge burst of energy is discharged from his/her chest. Invincibility is in effect during the whole bomb animation.
Shishin, Kosame and Gensuke
Coming to grips with the unusual control scheme is good for survival, but essential for scoring. The challenge in Guwange is built around the combination of regular shot + shikigami. As the game unfolds enemy placement and bullet patterns increase in complexity, often leading to overwhelming situations where taking damage seems unavoidable. Lives are implemented as a health bar consisting of three “lives” and a chunk of health per life. Three kinds of refilling items can be triggered at specific points in the game to recover lost health (all other items are power-ups, scattered upon death). Damage is proportional to the size and the consequence (health/life loss) of the bullet that hits you, and that also applies to the coin chain/counter, the main objective of all people who accept the challenge of playing this game for score. Collecting coins builds a multiplier than can be carried over from one stage to the next and even maintained during the whole game if you’re skilled enough to do so.
In order to not lose the coin chain you need to keep the skull meter alive. This meter measures how stable your chain is, and depletes as long as you’re not killing anything or holding at least one bullet with the shikigami attack. Once the skull meter is depleted the multiplier is reset. If the meter is kept at a flashing state (at least more than half full), killing ground enemies with the regular shot makes them leave coins behind. This is, in fact, another hint on how to extract more coins from enemies: regular shot works better on cannon fodder, but the shikigami is definitely recommended for all enemies that fire more than a couple of bullets. It takes a good amount of practice to come up with the best mix of shot + shikigami for optimal scoring possibilities. Beware though, the higher your chain and the longer you survive without being hit the harder the game gets (rank!).
Even though the nature of the shikigami attack seems perfectly suited for defense, using it aggressively and according to a good plan is the best way to go. Knowing when enemies are about to fire their weapons is excellent because then you can just park you shikigami over them and reap all those shiny coins. Besides, all coins generated with a shikigami attack are automatically sucked into the character. Other advantages of shikigami usage: it collects all coins standing on its way wherever it goes; if the skull meter is full, additional coins are steadily added to the multiplier. However, the primary rush in Guwange’s scoring system is reserved for when you get more than 1.000 coins, because then you gain even more coins just by hitting an enemy with shot. Additionally, bosses can be milked by keeping the skull meter flashing and hitting them with shot – a technique that works really well by keeping shot pressed at all times (autofire) and tapping shikigami to constantly switch between a flashing and non-flashing skull meter. This is also indirectly useful to induce slowdown and achieve extra speed control when dodging certain bullet spreads.
In keeping with the ancient Japanese mythology theme, the creepiest bosses are also the most fun to battle and milk. The caterpillar (stage 2) can be milked for the side worms it expels when parked vertically on either side of the screen. In one of the attacks of the catspider/spidercat (stage 3) the spores it releases leave behind a trail of coins if you destroy them accordingly. All boss strategies must take into account the fact that each successive attack gets increasingly harder the more it loops. It’s important to note that during boss battles the lower half of the skull meter depletes at a
slower rate, which is good to breathe when you need more time to dodge at regular
speed. Skull meter depletion relates intimately with bomb usage, since whenever a bomb is used it’s impossible to fill the skull meter. If you don’t want to lose the chain while bombing, get the skull meter as close as possible to maximum and only then use the bomb. In the case of Guwange panic is only an option after the coin chain has been lost, but here's a good treat for survival play: all extra bombs you get aren't lost when you lose a life, and every time you die your next life comes with two new extra bombs. Thanks, Cave!
Drunk Shishin can't hold his coin chains in the first stage
(courtesy of YouTube user PSUkbit)
Yet another case where the real thrills of the game lie deep within the gameplay, I believe Guwange is often bound to disappoint the casual player. Despite the good atmospheric music and the exquisite 2D graphics, the price of admission is a bit too high and demands a lot of dedication, either when playing for survival or playing for score. I loved how absorbing it is, but for me losing the multiplier before the demon/zombie section leading to the final boss is always extremely frustrating (watch out for the food item that refills the whole life meter, released by killing the spiders in the horizontal corridor of stage 6). Gensuke, the 15 year-old teenager, was the character I
chose to play the game. He’s got a straight wider shot and is the
slowest of the bunch. Shishin, the oldest one, wears a demon mask and
his weapon bends towards the side he’s moving to. Kosame, the 17-year
old girl, is the fastest character, an archer endowed with a thin
straight shot. Shikigamis follow character’s speeds but differ slightly
in size and shape, and each character also has his/her own start
sequence and ending.
Besides the main arcade game, Guwange on XBLA also comes with a special arcade limited release called Guwange Blue and an exclusive Arrange mode with twin stick controls, developed exclusively for the port. Different gameplay and scoring rules apply to both extra modes, but the Arrange one is severely toned down in difficulty, almost like one of the Novice modes included in retail Cave releases. For other hints on how to approach Arcade mode and gain a better understanding of the game's details I recommend reading this excellent article.
On the XBLA port you can't input your initials when the credit is over, but in each game mode the Score Attack option allows you to register your results and upload replays to the online leaderboards. At least all Japanese text/numbers were duly translated into English, so there's no more need to decipher the high score screen (as is the case of the original arcade release). As for the game itself, there are lots of display tweaks available, sadly buried in a series of extremely unfriendly menus. You can adjust position, zooming, smoothing, transparency, rotation, etc., but the only setting I cared about was the one related to TATE on a CRT set. I had a hard time doing it right, here’s my quick guide on how to do it: go to Settings → System Settings and switch Wide Mode to OFF; go back to Screen Settings → desired game mode → Extra Display → Preset 5 and push button A; go to Game Window, push button A again and adjust the zoom as you wish (the ideal setting for my TV was 1,76). The same setting can be used in any other game mode just by selecting Preset 5 in Extra Display. It's complicated but it works perfectly, the only problem is that features such as high score tables and replay screens get chopped off on the sides.
As planned, I finished Arcade mode with Gensuke. In this 1CC run I lost the chain stupidly before the spider corridor in stage 6. Since it's so damn easy, I also 1CCed Arrange mode on my very first try, also with Gensuke. Note: in the arcade original you couldn't see your 1CC result until you got to the high score screen, and this also applies here. Several bonuses are added to the score you achieve when you beat the final boss, based on things such as maximum coin chain, remaining lives/bombs, etc. My final result for the Arcade mode in highlighted in blue below (run uploaded to the online leaderboards):
Horizontal / Vertical Checkpoints ON 1 Difficulty level 7 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - - Developed by Natsume
Published by Milton Bradley in 1989
An evil alien galactic creature named Parasitis is swallowing planet after planet in the distant future. When planet Abadox is devoured and all military resources are crushed by the enemy, the only hope left is to send a single soldier in a flying suit into Parasitis itself. Instead of blowing it from the outside with the expected fireworks of the shoot’em up lore, brave warrior Nazal must enter the planet’s mouth and dig deeper and deeper into its inner defenses. It’s no surprise that The Deadly Inner War appears as a subtitle in the NES box, but as gross as the idea might be at least Nazal gets to rescue a beautiful princess while fulfilling his mission.
The description above would make you think that Abadox might be similar in style to titles like Air Fortress, Section Z or Dropzone, but it’s actually more akin to the classic standard of the scrolling shooter. It’s Innerspace in outer space, and while our hero resembles the likes of a Turrican soldier with permanent flying ability the game immediately reminds us of Konami’s Salamander/Life Force. Odd stages are horizontal and even stages are vertical, but there’s a rather unusual twist: instead of going up, in all vertical sections you fly downwards. It makes perfect sense, given the story and the way everything is laid out. And the similarities with Konami’s classic don’t stop there. Watch out for spikes, bosses and music cues that seem directly lifted from Salamander.
Far from being a cheap copy though, Abadox oozes with originality. On the matter of cool graphic designs for the NES, this game is a winner. Surely the quirky theme helps a lot in this case, but how not to like a game where you fly over the creature’s gigantic tongue, penetrate its intestines and inner organs and come out in one piece from its rectal cavity? Yes, it’s that awesome.
"I don't like the look of this... Where will this path take me?"
Skulls, reptiles, tentacles, bacteria, eyes, mutated organs and wall rashes aren’t the only resistance you find in the seven stages of Abadox. They’re mixed with mechanical hazards and laser barriers, clearly implying that Parasitis is, in fact, an artificial creation. Exerting justice is carried out with an arsenal defined by icons released from blue scorpions. Beyond the default pea shot it’s possible to acquire four different weapons: 3-way shot, 5-way shot, bubble shot and laser. Right here and now I point out the only bad aspect of the gameplay: the icons for all weapons look the same, making it hard to distinguish which ones you should take. Fortunately this is not that harmful in the long run since no weapon is downright bad (despite the capped firing rate of the 3-way gun). Sticking to bubble or laser is best though, especially for the vertical stages.
Those blue scorpions also release other items for pick-up, such as the essential speed-up (S), missiles (M), rotating options (B) and P (power barrier). Take a second M to get missiles with homing ability, stock up to 4 options for extra protection against incoming bullets and collect the P to get a 3-hit shield (the shield is active while the flying suit is glowing). Shooting is accomplished with button 2, with button 1 expanding and contracting the radius of the options. After a while I realized this radius adjusting feature is pretty useless, so eventually I stopped fiddling with button 2. Another note about the options is that they disappear once they’ve taken enough damage (or maybe it’s a timed thing, I couldn’t really tell). What I did notice is that options turning blue is a sign of their imminent loss.
Losing the options isn’t such a big problem because the player is well served of them throughout the whole game. Maybe the only part where I missed them was against the mid-boss in stage 3. Regardless of options, the vertical stages are definitely harder than the horizontal ones, to the point where it gets really hard to recover if you die there. There are no extra lives or extends in sight, so Abadox is another shmup where finishing on one life is strongly encouraged. Frustration might kick in depending on how you deal with a couple of enemies in the shaft towards the last boss. There’s this mud ball that blocks your weapon, a bear (!) that pulls you down if you let it grab you and a phoenix bird whose particles chase you around if you hit one of them before they assemble in the middle of the screen. The good news is that the difficulty curve is reasonable, hit detection is decent and continues are unlimited, therefore this isn’t an 8-bit shooter where it’s okay to blame controls or design for not performing well.
Entering the creature's mouth
(courtesy of YouTube user NintendoComplete)
Unfortunately the scoring system in Abadox isn’t valid because many
safespots during boss fights make it possible to easily counterstop the
game. Besides, the last glimpse you’ll ever have of your score is during the fight against the last boss. The score isn’t even displayed as
you weave through the corridors in the escape sequence (yet another nod
to Salamander). This oversight – sadly very common in this particular
gaming generation – is the only real stench in an otherwise great little
shooter. The lack of autofire can (and should) be bypassed with a turbo controller.
Anyway, I would love to see a sequel or a similarly themed shmup released for
today’s machines. I had a previous 1CC score on Abadox,
but comparing it to this new one is useless due to the nature of the
game’s scoring system. I cleared it again on one life and had good
fun for a lonely afternoon, as a break from the dire clutches of Guwange.
Rail shooter / Vertical Checkpoints OFF 1 Difficulty level 4 Stages Ship speed fixed - - - - - - - Developed by Sega Published by Sega in 1988
There are lots of reasons why I feel sorry for Sega. Some of them aren’t that obvious, like the personal grudge I have with the company’s absolute disregard for the Thunder Blade trademark. From all great sprite-scaling titles Sega developed in its prime arcade days, Thunder Blade was the only one left out of later reworkings such as the Sega Ages series. Once the 16-bit era ended After Burner, Space Harrier and Galaxy Force received gala treatment across several platforms, but what of Thunder Blade? Seemingly swept under the carpet as if it were a disease! All we had to savor were a couple of downgraded ports such as this one and the PC Engine’s, as well as the pseudo-sequel Super Thunder Blade.
Thunder Blade in its arcade form is a visually stunning experience, even more so than any of the abovementioned sprite-scaling rail shooters. Obviously an 8-bit port like the Master System’s isn’t technically comparable to the source material, therefore serious compromises must be made if you want to enjoy the game as it is: a pretty basic shooter that "tries" to mirror the structure and the look of the original title. The scaling effect and the frame rate might be poor, but seeing as the port is perfectly able to handle the task imposed by the simplified gameplay rules, under some aspects it actually ends up being a more cohesive take on the arcade game than Super Thunder Blade. It certainly feels harder, maybe even faster.
An evil oil refinery during the night
All stages in the Master System port of Thunder Blade start with a common vertical orientation. Airborne enemies must be destroyed with the machinegun (button 1), ground targets can only be taken down using missiles (button 2). Once the vertical part is over you enter an area where you fly into the screen with enemies coming towards you. The same inputs apply to these sections – jets and helicopters approach by air, tanks and boats will try to crush you from ground level. Later on you return to the vertical scrolling area to destroy a large aircraft/shuttle turret by turret. The only exception to this second vertical part is in the 4th and last stage, since the final boss needs to be defeated in the rail shooting environment.
What the game proposes as challenge is pretty simple: infiltrate enemy terrain and survive, reacting to each and every wave with what’s given to you as weapons. There are no power-ups in sight and absolutely no way to control flying speed (unlike the arcade game or Super Thunder Blade). Resistance gets increasingly tougher as you advance through the stages, starting in city streets and going through forests/caves, a river raid and a final strike in an oil refinery. The vertical parts with bosses from stages 1 to 3 are jokingly easy, but all other sections have their own sets of hazards.
Common vertical parts can be deceiving. Flying formations and tanks are arranged in such a way that you might get yourself cornered when trying to kill everything that shows up. When the action shifts to the rail shooting perspective the main concern is with the lines of tanks that can’t be engaged because you’re not close enough to them, which forces the helicopter to move around and be subject to cornering, especially when aerial waves overlap. Speaking of which, each type of flying wave attack has an optimal strategy to be dodged. The most problematic one for me was this jet flock that fires a blazing fast horizontal bullet spray. You need to go up and down to avoid it, pretty much basing the movement on graphic cues and sound effects alone. When stage 2 ends you’ll have seen every single enemy attack, then things get really busy in the third stage, by far the hardest level in the game. The pipes in the oil refinery are only for show if you stay glued to the ground sweeping from side to side. If you do this you’ll never hit any of them! Let’s not forget that tapping is the king maneuver during busy parts.
Is it Blue Thunder? Is it Airwolf? No, it's Thunder Blade!
(courtesy of YouTube user Vysethedetermined2)
Of course the scaling on the Master System version of Thunder Blade isn’t perfect, but the trees in the third stage look so awful that at first sight the graphics seem to be broken. Thankfully the rest of the game looks fine for 8-bit standards. As challenging as it is, some shortcuts made in the port allow for more freedom of movement and consequent ease in the gameplay. You don't die by colliding against an enemy in the rail shooting parts, for instance, and all scenery such as pine trees and buildings are just as harmless. Beware of pillars and pipes though (remember to stay low in the oil refinery stage). Note: that last section of pillars inside the caves reminded of Battletoads and its infamous hoverbike level.
There’s only one song playing during the whole game, but it’s so fitting that you hardly even notice that. It’s also nice how the coolest bits of music seem to be synched to key points in the level design, like when you come out of the second cave in the second level. A rudimentary scoring system awards bonus points based on the number of enemies destroyed when you finish a stage. The lowest bonus is 10.000 for at least 50 kills, and the maximum bonus is 400.000 points for 160+ kills. Getting 500.000 points gives you the first extend, further ones are granted for every extra million. Unfortunately the only times you'll see your score are during level transitions and when the game is over. Normally there are no continues, however by pressing diagonal down to the right and button 2 on the GAME OVER screen you’re able to continue twice.
I enjoyed this game more than I had expected, probably because it’s actually a short playable romp and because I had a rapid fire unit inserted between the controller and the console (you definitely need it, the game has no autofire whatsoever). Besides, anything with helicopters is cool by default in my book. Leave it to Sega to ignore the Thunder Blade legacy completely, for now this is the 1CC outcome of the time I spent with the Master System port:
Arena Checkpoints OFF 8 Difficulty levels 9 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - - Developed by Capcom
Published by Capcom in 2005
And with Forgotten Worlds I have finally beaten the last chapter in the unofficial trilogy of multidirectional shooters developed by Capcom in the 1980s, which started with the great Section Z and continued with the somewhat weird Side Arms. Therefore I returned to the first volume of the Capcom Classics Collection on the Playstation 2, a no-brainer acquisition for everyone who’s into the golden age of arcade games. This particular package has 22 Capcom titles covering all gaming branches, 9 of them belonging to the shoot’em up genre. Pair it with its second volume and there you have it, a great gift for any old school gamer/collector. Don’t forget to give me props when you see the smile on your buddy’s face, okay?
Set in the distant future, the story of Forgotten Worlds involves two unknown soldiers fighting to free the planet from the clutches of an evil god known as emperor Bios. The graphic design changes considerably every three stages, starting on desolate wastelands full of lizard-men and running robots. It shifts to a series of Egyptian-themed chambers populated with indians and floating heads on the 4th level, with later stages taking place above the clouds. By then you’ll be faced with even more dangerous flying enemies, deadly statues, creepy zombie heads and all sorts of laser turrets as you reach Bios’s tower of doom. Getting there takes a good deal of practice, suitable strategy and proper usage of Zenny, Capcom’s official intergalactic money collected either by taking blue orbs or by finding special items.
I believe the two soldiers are genetically engineered to fly because they carry no jetpacks: player 1 (left side) is a white guy who fires a straight bullet stream, player 2 (right side) is a black guy that shoots a three-way spread gun with reduced reach and firing rate. Each one can sustain a determined amount of damage, as indicated by a health bar. Note: Lost Worlds, the Japanese counterpart to the westernized Forgotten Worlds, has a regular 1-hit life system and as a result is a much harder game. Other minor differences exist, but I didn’t bother to check them.
"Hey man, I just found the... hm... guy?"
Unlike its spiritual multidirectional predecessors, in this game Capcom decided to go full arena, so it’s not enough to shoot left and right anymore. The original arcade release of Forgotten Worlds – which was also the first one in Capcom’s famous CPS arcade board – has a control scheme that uses a joystick to move the character and a rotating switch to adjust his aim in sixteen directions and shoot. I never came even close to the arcade cabinet, so my guess is that the game “should” control better on the PS2 controller due to the twin-stick scheme: move the character with the left analog stick, rotate his aim with the right analog stick and shoot with a separate button, configurable as you wish (it’s also possible to use two separate buttons to rotate the aim). Everything else in the gameplay is dictated by a plethora of upgrade items hidden within shops spread across a series of alien fortresses and landscapes.
Spending Zenny wisely inside the upgrade shops means half the task of conquering the game. Sylphie the gorgeous shopkeeper will offer the following types of upgrades:
satellite – a special device that hovers around the character and provides several sorts of additional firepower, including v-cannon, napalm, guided missiles, all-direction bomb, laser, burner, (re)bound shot, vulcan/valcan cannon, wide shot, super laser and homing laser;
weapon booster – upgrades the main weapon (booster, booster 2, super booster);
armor – 3-hit and 5-hit (special) armor, as well as armor repair kits;
unit stone – single item that upgrades the power of the main weapon and the satellite at the same time;
flying stone – allows speed change between three steps;
health – treatment (recovers full health), bowl of life (increases the health bar), potion of resurrection (self-explanatory);
information/advice.
Once you get the flying stone and select your desired speed there’s no more need to do it for the rest of the game. Actually, no power-up is ever lost once you activate it. Some of the items bought in the shop increase in value as you successively purchase them (all health items work this way). The later the satellites appear the more expensive they are, as well as all weapon boosters. Much of the fun in Forgotten Worlds comes from testing these upgrades to see which ones work best for your play style or for specific enemies. You can also find a few of these shop items (and other hidden goodies) in the stages themselves by killing certain enemies or shooting secret locations, hence why it’s always a good practice to never stop shooting at any time. Hidden goodies can yield extra Zenny, health or points. Zenny items include small orbs (100), medium orbs (500), large orbs (1.000), barrels (3.000), cones (5.000), a miniature of the robot from Side Arms (8.000) and giant orbs (10.000). Health items include the yasichi (full health recovery), Pow24 and Pow48 (partial health recovery). Bonus points might appear in the form of cows (10K each), strawberries (30K each) and stars (50K each). For a pretty informative inventory on all items check this great little webpage.
Forgotten Worlds can be a relentless challenge, with enemies swarming from all sides as you take successive damage. However, the gameplay also allows for a few defensive capabilities many starting players take for granted, such as the satellite being capable of blocking regular bullets. A particularly non-intuitive input known as “megacrush” can be used to damage all on-screen enemies at once at the expense of a little health. To trigger it you need to quickly double tap the firing button, which is achieved more easily when you stop firing. I did the megacrush by accident a few times before finally figuring out how to do it properly, and that’s when the tougher sections of the game became more manageable (sacrifice health safely if you know you’ll be able to recover it soon).
Credit feeding in co-op
(courtesy of YouTube user goodcowgames)
Besides the shop gimmick (inherited from Fantasy Zone) there are also other aspects in
Forgotten Worlds that strike me as quite refreshing for a game
originally released in 1988. One of them is the gigantic scope of some
bosses, such as the war god in the third stage (who’s worshipped by none
other than Vision, who by that time was already dissatisfied with the
attention he was getting in the Avengers). Multiple paths in the
Egyptian levels add variety and scoring opportunities (take the lower
section in stage 5 and destroy the laser turrets to get lots of giant
orbs - be on your guard, they take lots of damage). The life system is
well implemented in regards to scoring, since the more you practice and
refine your game the more Zenny you’ll be able to spare. And pure old
greed is all it takes to get higher scores: bosses give higher Zenny bonuses when killed faster, and all remaining cash is converted into
points once the game is beaten (final bonus = 1 million + Zenny × 10).
Even
though there are moments of relative calm the action is
often very hectic, with brief claustrophobic moments that can be worked around if you’re able to keep your cool. For example, it’s always best to wait
until the last moment to enter the shops because all on-screen enemies
will die instantly once you get out of them. Other than that, using the megacrush attack
wisely is essential to control enemy swarms. Forgotten Worlds is great when
played alone, and many people also deem it the most fun co-op shmup
ever made. Truth be told, it never feels repetitive due to the
relatively varied stage design, and the only complaint I could point out
is the botched balance between music and sound effects. The sound of
explosions and guns firing is so loud you can barely hear the
music (which fits the alien setting but doesn't stand out otherwise). As for the digitized voices in the short dialogue intermissions, well... It's all about old school cheesy charm!
The
game was successful enough to generate a handful of ports, including
versions for the Mega Drive, the Master System and the PC Engine CD. My
overall strategy to clear the arcade rendition included in the Capcom Classics
Collection was to get the fastest flying stone and napalm in stage 1,
switch to “valcan” cannon in stage 4 and get the homing laser in stage
8, while also buying all bowls of life and booster enhancements. The
protection provided by the potion of resurrection was often used (if
ever) during the fight against Bios, since you never know when he’ll get
angry and abuse those unavoidable lasers. My best 1CC results are shown below
(Normal difficulty).
Horizontal Checkpoints ON 3 Difficulty levels 7 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - - Developed by Konami
Published by Konami in 1990
Lovers of the Gradius family of games will never be orphans if they stick to the old school ways of video gaming. The Otomedius titles aren’t exactly a success in this day and age, and as of now Konami simply refuses to continue with its main series, ignoring the genius approach taken with Gradius V. Long story short, Vic Viper’s legacy is practically null for hardcore players (who shun Otomedius based on design/challenge) and casual gamers alike (who might get scared of the sexually stylized anime characters). For all of you out there who fall into either category and is not afraid to tread obscure waters in order to get an extra Gradius fix, here’s yet another port of Parodius Da!, the second chapter in the spin-off series that parodies everything about Gradius.
Parodius Da! came out for the Famicom in Japan and the NES in Europe under the simplified title Parodius – not to be confused with the first game in the series, originally created for the MSX computer system and much later ported to the PSP. On the footsteps of Gradius and Salamander/Life Force, both of them released a few years prior, Parodius Da! provides shooting fun with the same basic elements of the arcade original, even though it’s a less faithful port than its predecessors in the Gradius universe. As a starter, the original game is 10 stages long, whereas here you only get 7 stages, one of which has a brand-new theme. Besides the missing levels (volcano, pinball, bubble and graveyard) there are other minor issues that take it down a bit when compared to Gradius and Salamander.
A duck with a joystick is the boss of the new carnival stage
Perhaps Konami was a little lazy with 8-bit developing by the time this game came out, since it’s riddled with slowdown and flicker. I can live with slowdown, but when the slowdown gets associated with poor programming decisions the gameplay suffers with boredom. Take the galactic dancer at the end of the circus stage, for instance. The thing is so slow that this single part seems to last forever. He goes about the screen four times before disappearing, testing the player’s patience as penguins arrive from the left in pairs. Seriously, why not have the dancer go back and forth once and be done with it? That part kills the flow of the game, especially if you slip there and die. I didn’t even die and it almost made me want to quit the sessions.
Fortunately there are no more similar horridly boring parts for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, slowdown remains and flicker abounds more frequently than I’d like to admit. For me one of the most important differences from other ports is that in this one I needed to activate two speed-ups in order to make things playable, and even a third one inside the ice cave level due to slowdown (the water has no holding back effect here). This means Konami managed to make all characters even slower than they already were at default conditions. Vic Viper, Takosuke the Octopus, Pentaro the Penguin and Twin Bee preserve all of their original abilities, encompassing missiles, double/tailgun, laser/spread, options and shield types. As per tried-and-true Gradius tradition, acquiring upgrades is performed by taking power-up capsules and activating the corresponding slot in the weapon array with button A (not if you choose auto power-up though, in this case the game decides for you). When starting the credit you need to choose the character, the power-up scheme (auto/manual) and the difficulty. During the course of the game you can activate a maximum of three options.
Every now and then a capsule will serve as an instantaneous smart bomb (different color), but beware of the roulette item disguised as a regular capsule, which makes the weapon array go crazy and turns it into a slot machine. The last piece of the gameplay is the bell, a feature inherited from the Twin Bee franchise. Bells are sometimes released in the place of power-up capsules (not at regular intervals, sometimes they come spaced by only one capsule). Initially appearing in yellow, you can shoot them in order to get other colors with special powers. Yellow bells give cumulative score bonuses provided you don’t let any of them go by, starting in 500 and maxing out at 10.000 points. Unlike all other ports though, the value for yellow bells doesn't carry over to the next stage. Special powers from other bell colors include a smart bomb, three energy bars, growth + invincibility and a 1UP. Due to the lack of buttons in the controller, active bell powers (smart bomb and energy bars) are triggered with the firing input (button B). Since this version lacks score-based extends, the 1UP scheme is unique among all ports of Parodius Da!.
I always wondered what went on inside this battleship...
(courtesy of YouTube user wittlericardo)
The lack of extends is probably the main source of difficulty in the
game besides the ice cave level, the only stage where the game decides
to really get angry at you – and where slowdown practically reaches its
peak. All other levels (beach, circus, CARNIVAL, candy pyramid, battleship and fortress) are considerably easier, but you can still be
surprised by something. This is a Parodius game after all, isn’t it? I
capitalized “carnival” because this particular stage was developed
exclusively for this port, complete with roller-coasters you can ride
once you destroy its occupants (just beware when leaving it because it’s
very easy to crash against the rail and die). Those who enjoy secrets
will also like to know that a secret passage exists in the battleship
level: destroy the ship’s mouth and go into it to see what’s inside the
vessel.
Given all its little issues, I must admit only hardcore
Parodius fans might be enthusiastic about this version of Parodius Da!. It’s a fun game,
but it can also be boring and unfair. I can’t be sure if there’s
actually any increase in difficulty once you loop the game, if such
increase exists it’s pretty minimal. On the second loop the only real
difference I noticed is the midboss of the carnival level being circled
by a different type of enemy. As I started the third loop I
refrained from shooting to see what would happen, but no bullet or enemy
hit me during the pre-stage. I guess one could play the game forever
and die from screw-ups only, but at least this isn’t as challenge-inept
as Gradius II and its ridiculous extend routine.
My character of
choice this time was Twin Bee, since it was the only one I hadn’t used
across all ports of Parodius Da! I played so far. In my opinion it’s the
hardest character to play with because his bombs are replaced by
forward punches and his options have no trailing ability, getting sunk
into the character if you stop moving (same as Pentaro). I had reached
stage 3-3 when I accidentally picked up a ride in the roller-coaster and
died my last life (Normal).
