Abadox (NES)

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.

Thunder Blade (Master System)

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:

Forgotten Worlds (Playstation 2)

Arena
Checkpoints OFF
8 Difficulty levels
9 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Capcom
Published by Digital Eclipse 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).

Parodius Da! (NES)

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 development 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 (in the JPN version).

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).

Dragon Spirit - The New Legend (NES)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF/ON
1 Difficulty level
9 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Namco
Published by Bandai in 1990

In the original Dragon Spirit for the arcades, the brave knight Amul/Amru was turned into a dragon and went on a mission to rescue a beautiful princess. However, when the game was ported to the NES Amul did not keep his protagonist role. The new warrior dragon - hence the game's subtitle - is actually his son, now fighting against a second wave of evildoers in order to bring his kidnapped sister back home. All of this is shown in a brief introduction and in the gameplay itself: you must go through a short "replay" of the battle against Zawel, the final boss of the arcade game. Beat him and you're allowed to start the actual game in Blue Dragon mode. Lose the fight and you'll play the credit in Gold Dragon mode, which is just an easier game with fewer levels and a different ending.

Regardless of the odd introduction and a few new aspects thrown into the gameplay, Dragon Spirit on the NES is a legitimate adaptation of the arcade game. Given the downscaling of graphics and music and the addition of story bits between stages, it's a decent effort and overall a fun, easygoing game to play. You still get the feeling of a great fantasy setting and recognize all the nice tunes within the simplified 8-bit renditions of the original music. If you consider the fact that this port at least kept all the original stages you could say it's actually more complete than the PC Engine version, which is a much harder adaptation by comparison.

Can a three-headed dragon spit fire underwater?

Derived and expanded from Xevious, controls in Dragon Spirit are down to only two inputs. Fire the main shot with one button and drop ground bombs with the other button. Our mighty dragon flies through all kinds of terrain and faces a handful of fiendish creatures. He’s vulnerable to enemy bullets and collisions, as well as volcano bursts, growing magical plants (jungle level), moving/stationary spikes (cave/glacier levels), obstacles such as rocks and crystals (underwater/dark levels) and spears protruding from walls (last level). At least you can lean against the castle pillars as you’re about to complete the mission in the final stage, prior to battling last boss Galda, the successor to Zawel’s empire of evil. However, just like in the original game if you arrive there with a fire-spitting dragon he will be toasted in no time, making for a very anticlimactic final battle.

The built-in firing rate is okay but isn't ideal, so a turbo controller is definitely helpful on Blue dragon mode (the Gold dragon has turbofire by default). Firing rate notwithstanding, the game isn’t hard by any means. In fact, most of the learning process has nothing to do with dodging nor dealing with the enemy gallery. The three hits you can take for each life are still there, dragon speed is reasonably fast and the hitbox is handled in a forgivable way (his wings and tail aren’t damageable). The main challenge lies in learning what each item in the extensive item collection does - there are so many that you’ll most probably end up screwing your first runs due to sheer confusion. The color palette of the NES is very limited and sprites are so tiny that most items look like each other. Collecting too many speed-ups was my first problem, but once I figured out how to distinguish them I was able to get to the end on the next credit.

A ground egg colored in orange or blue always releases a power-up and an extra dragon head, respectively. You can have up to three heads, and shot power increases until the dragon is able to spit fire. These items might also appear from blinking enemies, as well as speed-up, 3-way shot (white dragon), flame enhancer (green dragon, maximum power at once), shrinker (S), invincibility, earthquake (the screen shakes and all ground enemies are killed as soon as they appear), diamond (bonus points) and a skull (powers down everything, including firepower, number of heads and speed - the same thing that happens when you get hit). New to the NES game are the dual dragons (two mini-dragons flying by your side), power bomb (every ground bomb dropped produces the same effect of the earthquake) and a heart (extra life, replacing the dragon eggs that hatched extends in the arcade version; no score-based extends exist in this version). Extra attention must be paid to items that override each other. For example, you can't have a shrunk character with multiple heads or dual dragons.

A new legend begins
(courtesy of YouTube user KamilDowonna)

Even though the NES port cannot compare with the arcade game in any aspect, there’s a cool exclusive section at the end of the glacier stage: a high speed scramble will make you weave through narrow corridors amongst spiky walls. The sudden change of pace works really well, and it’s a pity that we don’t get to see any more of it for the rest of the game. We do get a brand new final boss though, as hinted by the game's intro.

Besides the high speed sequence mentioned above, the invincible fireballs in the first level and a destructible net in the jungle stage, the main addition to the gameplay in this version are the imprisoned kingdom maidens/fairies, which appear after you beat the boss on the first six stages and tell a bit of the ongoing story. If you are successful in freeing them during the stage they will grant you with health recovery and extra heads/lives. If you fail you’ll only see their shadowy outlines and no survival/firepower bonus will be awarded. According to the instruction manual, to free a maiden you need to hit a specific ground area somewhere in the level. I didn’t care about trying to find these secret spots because from what I read there’s no real reward in the long run besides those survival refreshments. The ending will be the same and everybody in the reign will be happy when the dragon slays the villain for great justice.

Everything in the NES port of Dragon Spirit is just about right, as it inherits the variety of the arcade original and succesfully reworks the design into a game that does not flicker nor slows down excessively. It's a succesful job, even if the challenge gets reduced a bit too much for some. Plus it’s also neat to finally have a name for every stage. Once the game halted at the ending screen I pushed reset to get the following picture with my high score. I'm almost sure you can milk a few bosses for more points, but I didn't do it at all.

Mushihimesama (Xbox 360)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
5 Difficulty levels
5 Stages
Ship speed selectable at start / by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Cave
Published by Cave in 2012

I know that many people consider Mushihimesama Futari to be Cave’s best shooter. On the outside it’s admittedly more intense, flashier and meatier than Mushihimesama. However, I hereby declare my favorite of the two to be the one that’s the subject of this post, and I’m pretty sure Cave must agree with me to a certain degree. After all, this is the only shooter series I know whose first game, having already been available for a previous console generation, was also released for a superior platform years after the sequel. Honestly, when Mushihimesama hit the shelves for the Xbox 360 I thought it was a step backwards business-wise… As much as I loved the game, why not put the effort on porting Progear or Dangun Feveron instead? Granted, if Cave felt they needed to dig up the first game from one of its franchises for the Xbox 360 I can only be glad they chose my favorite one instead of Ibara, Espgaluda or DoDonPachi.

Dearly shortened to Mushi by most shooter fans, what we have here is a game that in my opinion epitomizes and excels at every single design aspect related to the shoot’em up genre. In that sense, the Xbox 360 port is its definitive home version, packing even more extras than the often underrated port for the Playstation 2. It’s got the basic game, an arrange mode, a novice mode and an extra 1.5/MAX mode accessible by means of a free download code included in the first print of the game (or through the DLC disc from the recently released Cave Shooting Collection). You’re wrong if you think this represents an overload of Reco, the game’s protagonist bug princess. Every single game mode/submode offered in the package has its own set of rules, catering to all types of players due to an extensive variety in gameplay, difficulty and scoring techniques. The package follows the great publishing standards set by Mushihimesama Futari, however it lacks an option for the original low-res graphics of the arcade release. That’s why some people refer to it as Mushihimesama HD.

Since many people who’re new to the genre might get confused by all these modes (as I was once), allow me to briefly describe each one of them:

a. Xbox 360 (an HD rendition of the arcade game)
•    Original: faster bullets, simple scoring system.
•    Maniac: slower bullets but higher bullet density, complex scoring system.
•    Ultra: insane bullet count, complex scoring system.

b. Novice: a watered down version of the main game aimed at beginners, with considerably easier patterns for all modes (Original, Maniac and Ultra).

c. Arrange: a special version loosely based on Maniac mode, with stock-clearing auto-bomb, selectable weapons, a fully powered character from the get go (with six lasers) and a new last boss; on the outside it looks like the same arrange mode found in the Playstation 2 version, but it actually isn't.

d. Version 1.5: a special edition released by Cave that contains all three modes (Original, Maniac and Ultra) and rearranges game colors, music, enemies and bullet patterns while elevating the intensity to extreme heights; furthermore, you can choose between regular and MAX power (maximum firepower on start and aggressive rank implemented in response to multiplier count, among other minor gameplay tweaks).

Original mode in high definition

Having beaten Original on the Playstation 2, my aim this time around was to beat Maniac (Xbox 360 mode). Beating the game is one thing, now beating it with a higher score is something totally different. Pretty much apples and oranges, so to speak.

In Mushihimesama the player controls a beautiful princess called Reco. She rides a beetle and fights to stop the evil that has plagued her fantasy world. In all modes of the regular game you must select between three types of shot when starting a credit: M-power (green, medium spread, medium speed), W-power (red, wide spread, slower speed) or S-power (blue, concentrated shot, faster speed). Shot type can be changed in game, it’s just a matter of waiting until the power-up item cycles from the initially chosen type into the next one. A secondary item is an option that looks like a tiny bug and fires lasers – it’s possible to have up to four options in two arrangements: formation or trace, with items that also switch between each type after a brief while. Extra bombs appear every now and then, and if you do it right you can extract a 1UP from the bug's head prior to the fight against the third boss.

Basic inputs are labeled as A (regular shot, hold to focus lasers and reduce speed), B (bomb) and C (autofire), all of them configurable on the controller as you please. Scoring in Original is straightforwardly simple: collect all possible gems, destroy large enemies when more bullets are on screen and don’t lose lives because each one is worth 10 million at game completion. Maniac and Ultra, on the other hand, add so many details to scoring that at some point it just becomes too much. The main difference is the addition of a multiplier applied to every kill, shown on the top left of the screen. It grows as you keep hitting something and decreases fast when you’re not hitting anything, kinda like a less strict but more extreme version of chaining in a DoDonPachi title. Increasing the multiplier faster is loosely achieved by point-blanking enemies as they appear from the top of the screen and by landing your lasers on a stronger enemy, so the more you’re able to laser something continuously (a boss, for instance) the higher the multiplier gets. Dropping bombs, which can be directed with the directionals when deployed, reduces the multiplier by a certain amount.

Techniques to achieve even higher multipliers in Maniac/Ultra exist, but require intricate combinations of slow/mid/fast tapping of buttons A and C. Unless you want to do this by hand, this pretty much adds two new configurable buttons that experienced players refer to as A+ and C+, meaning “rapid shot” and “rapid auto”. When you consider the extra fact that different enemies respond to the same attacks in different ways, it’s clear that Maniac/Ultra modes can only be fully squeezed for score if you care to learn all these complex, non intuitive high level techniques.

Official trailer with glimpses of all game modes - no 1.5 footage though
(courtesy of developer and YouTube user cavecoltd)

As soon as I started enjoying Maniac mode I established my scoring goal at a minimum of 100 million points without fussing with extra button configurations. Once I achieved it I read about all the little things concerning scoring and fiddled around with the rapid settings for a while, then got back to not using them. The only tapping techniques I used were the most simple, such as the one on the second midboss: tap A (increase the child counters from lasers hitting the enemy) and rapidly tap C (cash in or "bank" the child counters into the overall multiplier when they're high enough). Slowly tapping A was also good to get higher multipliers on the giant bug heads of stage 3, and in general I held C while rapidly tapping A in order to damage bosses faster or achieve a mildly better multiplier increase rate.

There aren't many general tips on Mushi since all modes are so different from each other, but I think the most common thing is to not be stingy on bombs when you need to use them - especially in Original mode or if you're not going for all those ultra complex rapid fire things in Maniac or Ultra (there are no bonuses whatsoever for bomb stock in any game mode). Another important hint is the 1UP at the end of stage 3, where you need to destroy all ten bug legs to the sides before blasting his head at the center. Extends for Original are at 2,5 and 5 million, and for Maniac/Ultra at 10 and 25 million. With so much to be learned it's impossible to go deeper into any of the modes I didn't play extensively, but regarding arcade Maniac here's a good slice of knowledge if you want to get intimate with high score play.

Unfortunately Mushihimesama on the Xbox 360 is restricted to Japanese consoles only. Those who bought the limited edition of the game were given a CD with the arrange soundtrack, but in any incarnation available this is definitely a superlative title to own. It's got everything you need to configure any HD display you might want to get and eclipses the Playstation 2 version in its current generation. On the Xbox 360 menu, choose Score Attack if you want to register your score in the online leaderboards while playing at full defaults. Remember that all runs can be uploaded and saved after they're over. Head to Practice in order to do some proper training on all modes, except for Novice.

I absolutely love this game, and still remember the time when I thought Maniac mode was totally out of my league and skill level. It felt good to conquer the 1CC, but knowing that I can improve over my best result below feels even better (Score Attack, default difficulty 2, no rapid fire buttons were used).

Super R-Type (SNES)

Horizontal
Checkpoints ON
3 Difficulty levels
7 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Irem
Published by Irem in 1991

Being “super” was the flagship of many SNES games even though most of them didn't live up to the hype generated by Nintendo, especially during the console's launch period. Super R-Type was included in the initial release waves and represents Irem's adherence to the “super” trend. While not a “super” version of the first game and not a straight port of the second one either, it kinda works as an arrange version of R-Type II. It follows the flow of the second chapter in Irem's most famous spaceship shooter franchise, but most probably due to the difficulty of technically mirroring the arcade game there are quite a few changes on graphics and bosses alike. I guess the inclusion of a brand-new starting level was a way to compensate for the losses, so to speak.

Super R-Type might not have met the expectations of fans back then but it's nonetheless a fine shooter, even more so for those who're fond of the series. A few people might disagree with me on the basis of the single checkpoint system, but the game is definitely not as hard as R-Type II in the long run. Infuriating as it is to die at a boss and start the stage from scratch, overall Super R-Type softens the original challenge because it's a much slower game with fewer bullets, easier bosses and less crowded levels. Changes in the soundtrack are less harmful to the porting job, but the quality is duly preserved and makes for an equally pleasing musical backdrop. There are those who even consider the music in this version to be superior to the arcade game’s. I like them both.

New beginnings in a rocky planet

With the bulk of the gameplay inherited from R-Type II, in Super R-Type we have the same old drill everybody knows and loves about the series. Be it with the pea shot (button Y) or the charge shot (button B), you must blast off and strike all those evil Bydo minions, acolytes, aliens, etc. The charge shot can be charged up to two levels, with the second one peaking and cycling over if you keep the button held down permanently. Release it on its charging peak and you’ll unleash an even more powerful blast, capable of killing large enemies and bosses in a single blow. As powerful as it is though, the R9C (C for Custom) still needs its share of upgrades hidden within the slow-moving walkers. Destroy them to obtain upgrade capsules, starting with the extremely important speed-up (S).

Then we have the colored power-ups, with the first one giving birth to the force pod, an invincible energy sphere that can be docked/undocked (button A) to the front or the back of the ship while providing extra firepower, damage by contact and invaluable defense against regular enemy fire. The next two power-ups you take will activate and max out one of the five available weapons: red (wave cross-laser), blue (3-way ricocheting lasers), yellow (crawling energy streams), gray (short-range exploding clusters) and green (forward bubble shot). Each successive power-up upgrades the ship regardless of its color. Missile is a uniquely powered item and is determined by the color of the M capsule: red is for homing, blue is for ground scatter missile. The last item released by the walker is the “bit”, a small half-sphere made of the same material from the force pod. The first one hovers above the ship and the second one takes the lower spot.

Having two bits + the force pod is the best protection you can get against flocks of enemies that close in from all sides (falling debris of the 6th stage, baby aliens in the last stage). Losing such a fully powered ship is one of the most frustrating feelings you can have in the genre, and only in games like Super R-Type you have the chance to experience this kind of failure. In order to avoid it like the plague, pure memorization is the best advice I can give. On the surface it’s seemingly fine and easy to get through a given stage, but watch out for that slow moving bullet or those enemies that suddenly approach from an unexpected angle due to a slight difference in ship position. They mean death when you least expect it. Ironing out all the possibilities of danger is the name of the winning game, never mind too much about scoring because it’s as basic as it gets.

Going a bit deeper about dying in Super R-Type, special considerations should be made regarding slowdown. While it’s not as over the top as several sources point out, it does incur in problems such as the slingshot effect (transitions from slow to regular game speed making you ram into walls) or bullet timing issues. On the 6th boss, which by the way is inspired by R-Type's 4th boss, it’s often safe to stay close to the bottom of the screen as the blue lasers fired by the moving blocks graze above the ship’s canopy. In the process of beating the game I died twice consecutively in the very same place: moving up from the bottom left of the screen and as I thought the laser had already passed by me, when in fact it hadn’t cleared the screen at all. Totally pissed, I had to take a break after that and instinctively adapt to the slowdown at this particular point in the game.

Wet caves in the third stage
(courtesy of YouTube user Warblefly41)

All original stages from R-Type II are displaced by one level in this port. For example, what was originally stage 1 appears as stage 2 in Super R-Type. Outer space sections aren’t as numerous as the organic or industrial settings, but they all create a nice shooting atmosphere. The first biggest difference from the arcade game is in the space fleet level (stage 4 here), which gets simplified by a good stretch. The maze and moving blocks from stage 6 are completely replaced by a robotic facility filled with mechas and debris falling from top hatches or being transported in conveyor belts. These stages have completely different lay-outs and are pretty much unique to this port, as well as the new opening level and the quick intro that shows the R9C being launched into outer space.

You can also spot other differences throughout the game, but they’re all minor with the exception of selected bosses (which are all fought in separate chambers). What matters most is the new behavior of two of the available weapons. Originally a series of lasers with slight bending capability, green was completely reworked into the forward bubble weapon, definitely losing its post as second best choice after the wave gun (red). That post was taken by the gray weapon, which is now much more effective and is actually capable of inflicting consistent damage. Going the distance is still easier when you’re able to stick to the red weapon, an extremely precious item that’s totally absent from the game after the midpoint in the third stage. By then you’ll probably have acquired the first couple of score-based extends, which are awarded at 40K, 80K, 160K and 320K.

The direct sequel to Super R-Type/R-Type II would be released two years later exclusively for the Super Nintendo under the name R-Type III - The Third Lightning. There's no denying it's a more polished game than Super R-Type, but that doesn't disavow the fun you can have with this somewhat bastard entry in the saga of humanity against the Bydo. My time with the game ended with the following high score, achieved on Normal. I reached stage 2-5.