Wonder 3 [Chariot] (Playstation 2)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
4 Difficulty levels
7 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Capcom
Published by Digital Eclipse in 2006

Three full-blown games in one single arcade title isn't something you see regularly. Three Wonders, also known as Wonder 3 in Japan, was Capcom's take on such an odd formula, featuring a platformer, a shmup and a puzzler. The elf characters of the platformer Midnight Wanderers - Quest for the Chariot (Roosters in the Japanese version) are the same ones that appear in Chariot - Adventure through the Sky, whereas the puzzler Don't Pull features a cute design reminiscent of Pengo and Bomberman. Since this is a shmup-oriented blog, the option I played last week was obviously Chariot. It's actually my second time doing it, since I had already spent some time with the port released for the Sega Saturn in 1998.

Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 on the Playstation 2 is one of the several ways you can experience Three Wonders in the comfort of your living room. It's a perfectly fine version that includes automatic saving, full button remapping with additional autofire and a few related extras. The game itself is extremely colorful with a sweet art design that kinda predates the visual style Capcom would later infuse in titles like Eco Fighters. It's also got a simple rank progression that makes the game slightly harder the longer you remain alive, which is something I didn't really notice back when I played the Saturn port.

First stage of Chariot
(courtesy of YouTube user Oto Mitas)

As you take to the skies with any of the two characters (co-op possible) you’re allowed to shoot and to fire a "crash" attack based on your tail energy. There’s no autofire by default for the shot input but you can activate it the options (set rapid fire to ON). Shot type is dictated by colored power-ups released by floating chests. The wide shot (red, default) has a good spread coverage and generates a single straight blast as crash attack, whereas the straight/rapid shot (green) is totally focused but fires a wide staggering blast for crash attack. 

The basic and most important strategy to succeed in Chariot is to power up as fast as you can. Four consecutive items of the same color are necessary to maximize the shot power level, but chests also release other essential upgrades such as the option that increases the size of your tail (up to seven segments), the bomb (B) that activates a ground projectile (a second B adds a trailing effect that extends the reach of the bomb) and the emblem that gives you a 1-hit shield in the form of a golden chariot (appears only once in selected stages). Regarding tail size, it’s important to mention that the larger the tail the more crash attacks you can fire in succession. Each one consumes 3 tail segments, but fortunately tail energy recharges rather quickly over time. Tail energy is also consumed when you use the tail to deflect bullets and damage enemies coming from behind, so take note of that if you're surrounded by enemy flocks closing in from all sides. 

Remaining items related to survival and scoring can come either from chests or from destroying particular enemies or enemy waves. The first one is the heart that adds to an extend counter: the small heart adds +1 and the big heart adds +5 towards milestones of 50, 70 and 90 for three possible extra lives. The second item is the coin, one of the backbones of the game’s scoring system. The common rule in every stage is that for each coin collected before the next one appears its value increases in nine steps from 100 to 4.800 points. Special situations happen after mid-boss encounters (always take the coin of highest value last) and during sections with lots of coins appearing at the same time, where coin value increases slowly no matter how many of them are on screen.

Throughout the level the most simple way to increase coin value is by killing the enemy waves that give out coins, that's why you need to avoid destroying turrets that spit out said waves (each stage has its own type of coin-generating turret). A few other simple scoring techniques allow for easy extra points if you play well enough, such as speed-killing bosses and collecting all surplus power-ups once everything is already upgraded. Each one is worth 5.000 points, but another extra chariot on top of an active one yields 10.000 points. Finally, upon completing the game each remaining life is worth 50.000 points and all hearts in stock are also added to the score.

Choose your destiny

Within its classic structure and the somewhat uneven duration of stages, Chariot is certainly a charming fun shooter that's bound to please those who enjoy fantasy themed games. While it doesn't really fall into the cute'em up realm, the diversity is refreshing and bosses are a sight to behold with some incredible designs that evoke – or try to evoke – astrology signs. The item shower they spit out when dying is an amusing detail as well. On a broad assessment the game isn't overly hard, but rank does impose more pressure later on because it causes enemies to fire more bullets and bosses to become more aggressive. Remember that it's not harmful to touch walls and surfaces.

Even though the naming of the game is confusing with Three Wonders, 3 Wonders and Wonder 3 being thrown out there without much ceremony, it's clear by the name of the platformer (Midnight Wanderers) that I have played the World/Western version of Chariot. I noticed a few differences here and there when comparing my runs with footage of the Japanese version, such as the smaller size of bullets, slightly diverse movement/placement patterns for enemies and one noteworthy difference in the absence of debris from the moving blocks in stage 2. Some sources state that the Japanese version is harder, but I'd say there's not much to warrant any heated argument on difficulty differences.

My 1CC score was achieved in the Normal difficulty on the player 1 side. If you feel the continue feature is annoying because it registers automatically if you press the shot button during the continue countdown, just switch continues to NONE in the options screen.

Twinkle Star Sprites - La Petite Princesse (Playstation 2)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF/ON
5 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed, selectable at start
- - - - - - -
Developed by SNK Playmore
Published by SNK Playmore in 2004

An unexpected sequel that nobody thought was coming in 2004, Twinkle Star Sprites - La Petite Princesse is actually one of the first games released by SNK Playmore, which was formed from the ashes of the old SNK. Despite carrying the style of the predecessor in its veins, this sequel came out completely under SNK Playmore since the company had by then acquired the rights to all titles developed by ADK, including of course the first Twinkle Star Sprites.

Since almost nothing was changed from the core gameplay of the first game, many people hesitate or even refuse to consider La Petite Princesse a proper sequel. I for one can surely remonstrate this perspective, after all the game adds brand new characters while bringing a few old faces from the original, on top of applying a full 3D makeover to the cute approach to graphic design. In fact, the game is a real treat for anime fans since it's almost unbearably cute, it's just a little underwhelming that all voices and interactions are conveyed in Japanese only. Honestly, even character names are difficult for Western people to figure out.

Players can have fun in three game modes. In Story mode you take the role of a witch named Time Buttermint, fighting six adversaries in order to save the world from a dimensional star distortion rift. She flies a broom and is always followed around by her faithful dog, who also determines the behavior of her magical powers. Time Buttermint takes over the protagonist role from Load Ran, which is now only available in Character mode along with 14 other cute competitors with the most diverse stats for power and speed. However, from my experience no matter which mode you choose La Petite Princesse is definitely easier than its predecessor. Finally, Versus mode is only applicable when two people get together to face each other in glorious shooting combat mayhem.

Riding a powerful guitar to reap the spoils of victory

Even though shooting is the basic input as usual, combat is the core element of the gameplay in La Petite Princesse. In a nutshell, it's exactly the same as in the original Twinkle Star Sprites. The few differences are in the number of levels in Story and Character modes, which is now 6 instead of 7, a new item that can show up in the flipping coin (P), a few new golem wave formations and one single extend registered with 500.000 points (previously it was one extend at every 500K).

You can shoot indiscriminately at will, but that might just not cut it to defeat the opponent on the other side of the screen. Default inputs consist of shot (□ and ○), rapid shot (△) and bomb (×). Gameplay 101: several different waves of colorful minions/golems cruise the screen; destroy them in order to send fireballs to the player on the other side; popping all of them together/faster creates more fireballs; you can deflect enemy fireballs by shooting at them or engulfing them in your own golem explosions, which is even better; if the amount of aggression increases you automatically begin sending character-related special attacks to the other side, inclusing boss attacks; these attacks can also be triggered by using charge shots (hold □/○) powered by an energy gauge that fills up automatically; charge shots at max power (3) trigger boss attacks; when hit, fever orbs preceded by two exclamation marks (!!) increase the efficiency of your attacks for a short time; bomb to clean your own screen and survive impossible odds.

Each character gets a health bar of 5 hearts. Damage comes from getting hit by enemy fire or by touching a golem, which also stuns you for a few seconds and reduces your speed/firepower. The fight is lost if the health bar depletes. If the fight drags for too long cute grim reapers will appear alternately for both players and chase them around the screen, killing at contact regardless of the status of their health bars. Grim reapers can be killed though. Some golems are endowed with shields that add to their health, but these shields can be instantly broken if you collect the star item that comes on a flippling coin. In addition to the star, this coin can also appear carrying an extra bomb (B), extra points ($) or extra charge power (P). Health is recovered partially by successfully hitting your adversary.

Besides head-to-head shooting combat there's also an scoring system in place for Story and Character modes, which share the same high score tracking. Everything you hit lands some points, but you can use several techniques to score higher. Destroying golem waves without wasting a single shot, for example, starts a PERFECT chain that can be sustained for as long as you keep doing it. After each victory you get bonus points for max chain achieved and the time taken to beat the level. Time bonus is trivial though, after all sustaining longer fights is obviously better for scoring, it's just hard to do that in the starting levels because opponents will practically kill themselves.

A cute introduction to an even cuter game
(courtesy of YouTube user Hell Tantrumbull)

All the above techniques are familiar to those experienced with the previous game. However, Twinkle Star Sprites - La Petite Princesse brings a new element that makes all of them pale in comparison. This new element is the $ money sign in the flipping coin: the first one is worth 10 points only, but each subsequent $ you take multiplies the previous value by 10. This means the 6th one will be worth one million points, and so on and so forth! The catch is that this is valid only for the current fight/level, provided you continue getting $ signs consecutively without collecting any Bs, Ps or stars in between. Note: if you're wondering about not seeing the score counter during the fight, just press L1 to toggle its appearance.

Although not outstanding in terms of extras, the PS2 disc is at least competent on a basic level and includes automatic saving, vibration, input configuration, an art gallery and a few special contents to be unlocked. On the first contact with Character mode you'll notice three empty slots at the bottom, which are reserved for Realy Till, Load Ran and Mikoto, the new final boss. To unlock them all you need to do is beat them in Story mode, then complete the game afterwards (Realy Till is the only one that appears randomly in stage 4, so keep trying until you get the chance to fight her). A nice treat is that if you beat Character mode with these three competitors you'll then unlock the original Twinkle Star Sprites, which will be accessible from the start screen. All unlocks can be achieved with continues, so at least there's no 1CC grinding involved in any of this.

Time Buttermint is a nice replacement for Load Ran in Story mode, but except for Memory I admit I didn't try playing with any of the other characters besides the ones needed to perform the unlocks. My best 1CC score was achieved with Mikoto in the default difficulty (3).

Asuka & Asuka (Playstation 2)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
4 Difficulty levels
4 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Taito
Published by Taito in 2005

I’m a real fan of the Playstation 2. An amazing system full of great games for all ages and tastes, it will certainly remain a powerhouse of fun no matter how old it gets. And as far as old school arcade ports go, in terms of sheer value for money there are very few discs capable to go toe to toe with any of those Taito Legends or Taito Memories compilations. They’re simply amazing, and the game selections hardly fail in delivering a handful of interesting titles across all video game genres.

Of course there are exceptions to the above expectations. One of them is Asuka & Asuka, included in the Japanese Taito Memories II - Vol. 1 collection and serious contender for the most annoying vertical shmup the company has ever put out in its entire history. Granted, one of the purposes of these compilations is to somewhat showcase Taito's evolution throughout the years, but Asuka & Asuka certainly takes the cake as the black sheep here. Rayforce, Scramble Formation and Fighting Hawk are the other verts in this particular Taito Memories disc, all of them of clearly higher caliber with regards to gameplay and fun factor.

Well, to its defense let it be known that a few online sources say that the actual developer of Asuka & Asuka was Visco, not Taito. You can definitely see graphical similarities with Ashura Blaster, for instance, but unfortunately Asuka & Asuka lacks the same punch and is far less exciting.

Travelling back in time to meet wild dinosaurs

Anyway, the premise of this primitive shooter is quite interesting, at least on paper. In the near future, alien invaders manipulate space and time to attack Earth in several different timelines. Enter the Asukas, the newest military marvels able to time travel, sent to battle to defeat the enemy and save the planet from an impending doom. Prepare to fly over a modern day metropolis, a jungle filled with dinosaurs, a demon-ridden ancient landscape and a military area with remnants of a World War. Suffice it to say that this idea found a much better rendition in Taito's own Gekirindan, released six years after Asuka & Asuka. By the way, I wonder if this weird title might be related to the fact that you can't play solo with the secondary jet (on the right side of the screen), which means you need to insert two coins to play a mandatory co-op credit if you want to see what the second jet looks like.

Your jet/plane is capable of shooting and bombing, actions that can be configured at will in the PS2 controller. Two types of upgrade items appear floating from the top. The power-up (P) increases your current firepower by one level, whereas the other icon cycles very slowly between S (straight shot), L (laser) and B (wave beam), also serving as a power-up if you stick to the same weapon type. Three upgrades max out weapon power, but while S is the strongest one it also has a shorter reach when compared with the others. Since there's no autofire available, a turbo controller is definitely recommended if you can afford to have one. As for bombs, even though they can nullify nearby bullets they offer no panic function and can't be completely trusted for defense.

The only single ground item you might eventually find is the B for extra bomb, but it's unfortunately very scarce. It doesn't help that the playing field is wider than the horizontal screen span, which demands players to sweep left and right in order to scoop the area for extra bombs or just to get a few more points from killing enemies. That's when the problems with Asuka & Asuka start, for enemies do not care if they can see you or not. They just go about their schedules and shoot non stop, often taking you by complete surprise if you happen to move in front or close to their bullet sprays. This can be really infuriating at first, but on the other hand players can count on the fact that enemy spawning routines are always the same no matter what. This means there's no way around thorough memorization, or the lazier strategy of sticking to one side/area of the screen and absolutely avoiding to venture sideways.

Watch as the game itself cheats in the attract mode for Asuka & Asuka
(courtesy of YouTube user Replay Burners)

Some vivid inspirations from Dragon Spirit and the back catalog of Toaplan aren't enough to give Asuka & Asuka any edge whatsoever. With no extends of any kind, unremarkable sound design, uneven difficulty (the 3rd boss is harder than the last), simplistic but unpredictable bullet patterns and lots of cheap death mine fields, the game can be considered a true representative of shmup kusoge. Besides a sorry lack of real intensity and fun, it throws a half-assed bonus area once a boss is defeated (you can still die and perfect destruction ratios give no extra points at all). And I don't know if it's an issue related to the porting job, but the controls tend to be slippery and unreliable at times, with directionals sticking randomly for no apparent reason. I also came across a few events of complete disc freeze, which didn't happen once with any of my previous Taito Memories experiences.

Just like with all other vertical shooters from Taito Memories II - Vol. 1, at least it's possible to play Asuka & Asuka in TATE mode. Then you might have a better view of when you are unfairly blindsided by enemy fire.

Click for the option menus translation for Asuka & Asuka on Taito Memories II - Vol. 1

For a brief while the enigmatic ending made me believe I could've dealt with the first boss differently, since he's the only one that escapes no matter how damaged he gets. But alas, as much as I tried and bombed him he'd still flee like a real coward. My best 1CC score in the Normal difficulty is below, playing with a turbo controller for great justice. A final note about this PS2 version is that the Normal difficulty is clearly harder than the default setting of the ROMs I tested in MAME. Bullets are definitely faster, thus requiring a higher degree of attention from those brave enough to try it.

Magical Chase (PC Engine)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Quest
Published by Palsoft in 1991

Sometimes video games are so aptly named that almost everything you need to know about them is already in the title. Magical Chase is exactly what its name implies, for example. It’s a chase, and it’s magical. It’s also about a little witch flying on a broom, which is of course the most important design aspect of the game and mirrors the setting of a much more famous shooter featuring another witch named Cotton. Since the witch in Magical Chase is named Ripple, wouldn’t it have been a wise move for the developer to also release the game as Ripple? We could’ve have another similarly long and successful franchise then.

Jokes aside, even though no sequel was ever developed for Magical Chase the game at least got a port for the Turbografx-16 that holds the distinction of being one of the rarest titles for NEC’s console in the West. No differences exist in the core gameplay between both versions, but the Turbografx-16 port translates all Japanese texts and applies a few visual tweaks to character sprites while repainting the whole first level with a new medieval setting. Either way players are bound to experience a charming shooting romp with neat graphics, nice music and great variety from beginning to end. It doesn't take long to see the game's got plenty of personality without sounding too derivative, on top of exhibiting great parallax effects with absolutely no slowdown.

A brief snippet of the first stage of the Japanese PC Engine version
(courtesy of YouTube user Arcade Forever)

Cute little witch Ripple accidentally released six devilish creatures from a forbidden book, and off she goes to undo this with the aid of two star friends/maidens. There’s a total of six levels to go through with increasingly higher survival stakes as you fight mechanized enemies, enchanted forest demons, a huge flying fortress, evil snowmen with hockey masks, a dreadful floating knight and a slew of powerful wizards and other strange beings. Ripple is capable of firing magical shots with button II, as well as have her star options locked in place or freed with a press of button I. A secondary and very important resource consists in pressing buttons I and II at the same time, which then fixes the direction of the bullets they fire. Just do it again to unlock shot direction.

Since the stars can fully block most enemy fire (exceptions are lasers and large ball-shaped projectiles), learning how to use them properly is extremely important in the long run. For every credit you get a health bar with 8 hearts and 6 slots for magic spells. The leftmost spell is used whenever you double tap button II (this is why you can't activate any turbo fire in Magical Chase), and if the hearts in the health gauge deplete the game is over. Health can be recovered by taking the candy lollipop (1 heart) or the cake (2 hearts), which are always left behind by killing specific enemies. Hearts can also be refilled by purchasing the necessary items from the shop that appears at certain points throughout the stage.

Shop purchases use the stock of crystals you're able to collect from every destroyed enemy or as a special bonus at the end of the level. Getting familiar with each item in the shop is important to devise an upgrade/recovery strategy, however the first and most important purchase is definitely maximum speed. Then you're set to experiment with all other items. The gallery of more powerful weapons includes 3-way, wave, staggering, bubble, homing, reflective and piercing shots. While there are no upgrades to these weapons, two specific improvements can also be applied to the behavior of the star maidens (cracker ball and cyclone), thus increasing Ripple's overall firepower. Magic spells consist of heart (recovers 2 hearts), bomb (screen-clearing blast) and × (stars turn green and also inflict damage for 15 seconds). Finally, the medicine completely refills the health gauge, the elixir gives you a full new health bar when the current one is gone and the fruit of life expands the health gauge by one heart.

Certainly not Super Mario Bros pipes!

At first Magical Chase doesn't impose any sort of pressure on the player. There's no damage incurred in touching the terrain, but you can still get scroll-crushed by objects and walls. The difficulty slope is relatively steady, nevertheless the bulk of the challenge is reserved for the last couple of stages. Some boss attacks can drain two and a half hearts, quickly leading to a horrible death if you don't have a good reserve of recovery spells to get back up during the battle. Every stage has a boss and one or more mid-bosses, and some of the later ones are quite demanding in terms of dodging. An interesting detail here is that it's not the main boss that gets quickly glimpsed at the start of every level, it's the mid-boss.

What makes Magical Chase an approachable game for everyone is the shop, definitely a lifesaver for the toughest sections mentioned above. Some of the items increase in value after a few purchases, but fortunately the inflation is nowhere near what you see in games like Fantasy Zone or Forgotten Worlds, which also have a similar shop gimmick. On a different note, if you're interested in scoring higher you absolutely can't purchase medicines, elixirs or extra health slots since each one deduces a good chunk of the final completion bonus. Other factors that contribute to this final reward include the number of crystals multiplied by 10, total life remaining and the chosen difficulty level. Even though some bosses can be milked for a few points, doing it isn't trivial and would take a long time to actually be profitable.

At the start screen the middle option corresponds to the setting for Normal difficulty (わくわく / Waku Waku / Bumpy). When played on Easy (らくらく / Raku Raku / Breeze) the game ends after three stages, whereas on Hard (どきどき / Doki Doki / Rough) players will face more bullets and a few different attack patterns from bosses. On my best 1CC result below I maximized all bonuses in the Normal/Bumpy difficulty. I only purchased swing shot and cracker ball in stage 2, then ×4 before the mid-boss in stage 5 while keeping the magic stock full of hearts at all times.

Strikers 1945 (Playstation 2)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
7 Difficulty levels
8 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed, selectable at start
- - - - - - -
Developed by Psikyo
Published by Taito in 2004

As is usual with companies that aren't ashamed to squeeze everything they can from their brands, Psikyo didn't hold back when deciding to grant the Playstation 2 with collections of its shmups. Three official volumes were released (plus a special edition for the Gunbird series), with the first one highlighting Strikers 1945 and Strikers 1945 II, two sci-fi military themed shooters that had already been out for the previous generation of video games. Having both titles in a single disc is a nice way to experience the classic Psikyo gameplay, even if this particular release fumbles certain aspects in the most awkward manner.

Strikers 1945 is an obvious evolution to Psikyo's earlier Gunbird, sharing many of its features while boosting the challenge level a little. Half the game has shuffled levels, rank increases steeply the more powered up you are and a second loop proves to be in a completely different level as far as difficulty goes. An assortment of planes is available to the player in a mission to stop an alien race from taking over the planet, in a divergent World War II timeline that urges pilots from the most powerful nations to unite. Co-op is possible, which makes things even more insteresting if you care about the historical details of these once very powerful planes.

Experimenting with all planes is essential to find out the one that suits your play style. Each plane behaves differently in terms of hitbox, firepower and speed with controls provided by three fully configurable inputs: shot, rapid and bomb. The purpose of the shot button is to activate a charge attack when you have collected at least one power-up, giving the option(s) a more powerful and useful formation. It’s possible to collect a maximum of four power-ups (P), thus increasing the plane’s firepower and acquiring up to four options. Extra bombs (B) can be stocked up to a maximum of six, while gold ingots at ground level provide extra bonus points.

Japanese plane Shinden takes on the evolved Doramascher mecha

Since this is my third time having fun with the game I didn’t want to choose the Spitfire or the Messerschmidt Bf-109 again, so I decided to go with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the same fighter plane made extremely popular by the 19XX series from Capcom. It even has the same type of looping animation on the bomb. It’s got one of the quickest charging times of the bunch, even though the charge shot lacks defensive capability and concentrated power (options are evenly spaced in a fixed straight arrangement). That’s why at times it’s better to just fire at will due to the extra homing shots provided by the options, kinda like the homing bunnies from Gunbird’s Marion.

One of the most distinctive features of Strikers 1945 is the random order of the first four levels. This of course wouldn't be anything special, however the progressive difficulty makes these stages play out much harder the further they appear. Bullet speed, bullet density and bullet patterns from bosses get increasingly harder. The only way to tone down rank is by dying (not acceptable) or by colliding against a flying enemy, an action that doesn't kill you but rather takes away one power level, instantly reducing enemy aggression. It's a valid resource alright, one that I used whenever possible against bosses during the second half of the game.

On the subject of scoring, this is also another game that has an interesting mechanic based on item collection. There's a varying shining effect on all gold ingots, and if you take them when they're the most bright you'll get 2.000 points (a different sound cue will be heard instead of the regular sound effect when you get 200, 500 or 1.000 points). Timing the collection of gold bars amidst the evergrowing barrage of bullets brings up an interesting risk/reward ratio. Another more simple source of points is collecting power-ups and bombs in excess for 4.000 points each. Don't get greedy on bombs though, it's better to use them than die with a full bomb stock, furthermore they don't amount to any bonus whatsoever at the end of the levels. On a last note, a single extra life is achieved when you score 600.000 points.

Unless you're going for the crazy hard second loop, bombing specific boss patterns is a good strategy to conquer the first loop, especially when you start to encounter those random midbosses in the last couple of stages. During the second half of the game continuing sends you back to the start of the level, which seems cruel but is actually good for practicing and coming back stronger next time. 

Strikers 1945's Original 1 mode on the Playstation 2
(courtesy of YouTube user Arcade Forever)

Originally released for the Japanese Playstation 2 market, Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol. 1 - Strikers 1945 I & II eventually appeared in Europe with a shady art design under the title 1945 I & II - The Arcade Games. The box artwork for the Japanese package is rather beautiful to look at, and if you manage to snag the first edition you'll also get a special DVD with five superplays. The ports themselves are very bare bones with no saving functionality, mirroring the same display modes found in the standalone versions for the Playstation or the Saturn. In the case of Strikers 1945 it's Original 1 (fixed YOKO), Original 2 (wobbling YOKO) and Arcade (real TATE). Strikers 1945 suffers from an incredible oversight though, which is the activation of an immediate continue if you keep any of the shot/rapid buttons pressed when you lose your last life. That's certainly annoying because then you can't register your initials at all. Continues add a single point to the score, which keeps counting when you continue the game. Weirdly enough, this problem doesn't happen with Strikers 1945 II.

Below is my final result with the P-38 plane on Arcade/TATE mode in difficulty setting 5 (Normal), dying in stage 2-1. I know I should focus on the next titles in the series from now on, but if I'm still urged to play this one again there is at this moment at least one more Psikyo compilation waiting for a little bit of shmup love. But more on that when (and if) the time comes.

Gekioh - Shooting King (Playstation)

Vertical
Checkpoints ON/OFF
3 Difficulty levels
8 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Warashi
Published by Natsume in 2002

The best and most desired shmups come from Japan. It’s been a historical fact ever since the genre gained worldwide recognition back in the 80s. That’s why Western ports of these games are always so celebrated by the shmup Community. However, regardless of their actual quality every once in a while the companies responsible for the porting jobs make weird decisions that can be detrimental to the game’s visibility. Gekioh - Shooting King is one such example, since a lot of people aren’t aware that this is actually a port of Warashi’s Shienryu. Of course one could argue that not many people know Shienryu, but I’m quite sure you get my drift.

On the always controversial subject of ports, the Playstation wasn’t graced with a good conversion of this game, unlike the Sega Saturn. Both Japanese and North American releases have no save functionality and lack an option for TATE orientation, on top of suffering uneven slowdown and making minor cutbacks in graphics/music. It’s not an unplayable game, in fact it’s just as fun as you’d expect a tough and decent mix of Raiden and Truxton to be, however it falls short of exhibiting the level of performance of a true arcade title being played at home.

Once you get tired of watching the animated intro of Gekioh - Shooting King, press start and you’ll access a menu with several game modes. The default arcade experience is in Geki mode, in between Easy and Hard modes (more on the contents of the Bonus menu later). Once the credit is started, just pause if you want to turn off that annoying vibration function.

Ahoy, a giant Polypus boss is approaching fast!

The basic gameplay of Gekioh/Shienryu consists of a shot button (□ or ×) and bomb button (△ or ○). There are three shot types defined by colored items: spread vulcan (red), forward + missiles (yellow) and homing lightning (blue). The weapon is upgraded by taking power-ups (P), faster movement is achieved with speed-ups (S) and extra bombs are stocked by taking the appropriate icon (B). Bombs behave according to the current shot type, so for the vulcan you get an energy blast that closes in and fades at the ship’s centerline, for the forward yellow shot you get a localized blast and for the lightning you get a series of vertical laser beams that materialize over the ship’s current position.

Half the game takes place on Earth and half in outer space. There’s lots of diversity in the game design, both in terrains and enemy variety, with the ocasional flair for intense destruction amidst waves of vessels of all sizes and firepower capability. It feels quite satisfying to go on an all-out spectacle of devastation, collecting all those red/blue LEDs, icons/power-ups in excess for extra 5.000 points each and the slew of extra bombs such as the ones available throughout most of the fight against the first boss. There is a catch though.

Just like its spiritual predecessor Daioh, Shienryu/Gekioh gets increasingly angry the more extra bonuses you get within the game. If you keep on taking those shiny 5.000 point badges and racking up extra bombs there comes a point where enemy bullet speed becomes unmanageable, quickly sending your survival chances down the drain. Rank progression is extremely cruel, so do your best to avoid collecting more than what you need to be at full power, which means 9 power-ups, 3 speed-ups and no more than 3 bombs in stock at any time. The only bonuses that don’t affect rank are the ground LEDs (they look like candles), which result in varying extra points at the end of each level.

Score-based extends come with 1,5 million and for every 2 million points afterwards. A single 1UP is sure to get released by the crab midboss in stage 6, but you can also randomly come across other 1UPs (or a very rare 2UP). A very special pink power-up maxes out your firepower and adds a 1-hit shield to the ship’s beak, but note that the game instantly becomes harder if you take it. For a safe rank management you’d better avoid it at all times. Picking it up was only an alternative for me after dying in the final levels or prior to the fight against the last boss. An interesting detail from my experience with Gekioh - Shooting King is that I never came across the alternate version of the pink power-up, which explodes in a multitude or items when collected. I assume I wasn't able to meet the requirements for it or it's just absent from this particular port.

Animated intro and two runs in Geki and Comical modes
(courtesy of YouTube user ShiryuGL)

One important detail about Gekioh is that the game implements checkpoints during the levels and does away with them during boss confrontations (the only exception is the final boss since it’s the whole stage itself). While an interesting approach for people who dread checkpoint-based shmups, special attention must be given for deaths when fighting bosses. Even though you start the game with the vulcan shot, the ship is always respawned with the weapon you were using before dying. The worst thing that can happen, at least for me, is dying against the 6th or the 7th bosses when using lightning. Lightning is great for scoring during stages but downright awful on bosses. Another tip for survival in the long run is to point blank whenever possible. All ground enemies will also not shoot if you stay above or very close to them.

In an effort to provide more content than the bare bones TATE-less port, the Playstation disc includes a bonus menu that has six alternate versions to the base game. Some of them are quite amusing, such as Pocket mode (a heavily downgraded version modeled after Pocketstation/VMU specs) and Ancient mode (the game is presented with an antiquated graphic filter). No Mercy mode is just stupid, but Comical, Stingy, and Slow mode should be tried at least once each, especially the latter since it's got a weird pseudo-danmaku vibe. Unfortunately not much thought was put into these extra modes, which inexplicably share the same high score table of the main game. Another minor complaint about the interface is that to start a new credit from scratch you need to let the continue countdown finish to return to the main menu.

My best 1CC result in Geki mode (normal) is the one below. Beating the game with lives in stock is the best way to score higher in the end, given that spare lives are worth a lot upon game completion (bombs seem to add some points as well). An odd note about the high score table is that even though Gekioh - Shooting King has 8 levels and doesn't loop the stage indication for the 1CC is 10-1 (the second number refers to the area within the stage).

Next in the series is Shienryu Explosion, sequel to Shienryu/Gekioh released exclusively for the Japanese Playstation 2 along with yet another port of Shienryu in a disc titled The Shooting - Double Shienryu.

Spriggan Powered (SNES)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Naxat Soft
Published by Naxat Soft in 1996

Series like Spriggan aren’t what you normally see (or used to see) in the gaming world. Spriggan Mark 2 - Re-Terraform Project had already shifted lots of things around in comparison to the first Spriggan, including pivotal features such as the scrolling direction. Both games were released for the PC Engine CD in Japan and at least complement each other as far as the overall theme goes, an aspect that the third chapter Spriggan Powered inherits. Final game in the franchise and released exclusively for the Super Famicom at the end of the console's lifespan, its development is credited to ghost company Micronics with no involvement whatsoever from Compile.

With Compile off the boat, it’s no wonder Spriggan Powered feels a lot different from Spriggan Mark 2. Even though a couple elements are kept in place in the gameplay, this time you control only one mecha from beginning to end with no story intermissions across six levels of increasing difficulty. Dynamic performance takes a hit and at times the game feels sluggish, especially during some of the boss fights. The music isn’t bad but not remarkable either and in graphical terms the game is serviceable, yet sprites tend to be small. A touch of mode-7 effects in the first level doesn't really add to the overall appreciation, but I do like the excessive use of green. Such an underrated color, especially when it comes down to shmups.

Recurring enemy Quinsquin stars in the opening movie and shows up in the initial stages
(courtesy of YouTube user Game Archive - No Commentary Gameplay)

Overall the stage structure of Spriggan Powered is quite simple, with a midboss halfway the level and a main boss waiting at the end. Interesting design decisions serve to spice up the action, such as the vertical stretches where you go into outer space or approach the surface of a planet, the light beam that allows to you to see inside the dark caves of the alien-themed 4th stage or the constant threat of being crushed by closing walls in the final level. Moreover, each stage is unique in how enemies attack: in the 2nd level it’s recommended to stay far back due to enemies suddenly coming out from the clouds, whereas in the 3rd you’d better stay in the middle of the screen lest you get toasted by enemies coming from behind. The 5th level deliberately throws a confusing background filled with meteors, thus demanding extreme attention from the player. Lives lost are costly in the long run because the game has no extends and definitely requires some dedication to be beaten.

Our powered mecha always arrives to the action in ship form, quickly transforming into a nifty robot capable of firing a brief bullet salvo at the press of button B. This means you don’t need to mash the button like crazy to achieve a steady firing stream, just tapping it at a regular rhythm will suffice. Every now and then a subweapon power-up carrier appears, releasing an orb that cycles colors between orange (fireball), blue (piercing laser shots), red (shot enhancer) and green (homing shot). It takes two consecutive power-ups to maximize subweapon efficiency.

The reason why there’s no autofire in Spriggan Powered becomes clear after you’ve collected at least one power-up. By holding button B you’ll charge the so-called “potential” attack, which triggers a special maneuver according to the active subweapon color: orange (exploding blast), blue (slows down the action for a brief while), red (close-up flare) and green (outward rotating blast). Each potential attack consumes one third of the elemental gauge, an energy reserve that also serves as fuel for the activation of the shield with button A. The shield is a type of electrical deflector that protects the robot from incoming bullets and cannon fodder, and just like the potential attack can be used for as long as there’s elemental energy available.

Lost elemental energy is then recovered by destroying enemies and by picking up the gray orbs left behind by specific targets. Besides filling the elemental gauge faster, these gray orbs also grant score bonuses that increase in value only for the duration of the level in steps of 100, 200, 400, 800, 1.600, 3.200 and 6.400 points (max). If you die these bonuses are reset to the initial 100 points. The same bonus is applied to power-ups if you keep collecting orbs of the same color, but this progression is valid throughout the whole game. It's only reset if you die or if you take an orb of different color than the one you're using.

A giant creature awaits at the end of stage 4

As mentioned above, keeping the same subweapon throughout the whole game is essential to achieve higher scores. However, at the end of each level you’re also granted a few extra bonuses based on stage completion, elemental gauge stock, risky techs (a rudimentary grazing mechanic that rewards tight bullet dodges) and the refusal to use the shield (No shield) or special attacks (No potential). This gives an immense flexibility to the scoring system, but notice that the further you go the hardest it is to avoid using elemental energy, especially when you realize how effective potential attacks can be against bosses. Except for the slowdown (blue) they’re all capable of nullifying all enemy attacks. Finally, another mundane scoring device is in the act of milking the destructible bullets from some of the bosses. Fortunately they all time out, so you can't leech them forever.

While certainly not in the same league of the most accomplished shmups on the SNES, Spriggan Powered delivers some good mecha shooting action and serves as a decent bastard finale to the trilogy initiated by Compile. Regardless of how players see it, it's certainly the best outing by Micronics on the console if you consider the company was also responsible for Raiden Trad and Acrobat Mission.

Given that the final screen tallying after you beat the last boss disappears quite quickly and the game doesn't have a score buffer, it's good to devise some sort of technique to capture your final result. Here's mine, playing in the Normal difficulty. For those who enjoy cranking up the challenge level, an extra setting above Hard can be enabled with a special code.