Steredenn - Binary Stars (Playstation 4)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
7 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed, selectable at start
- - - - - - -
Developed by Pixelnest Studio / Plug in Digital
Published by Strictly Limited Games in 2018

Steredenn - Binary Stars is the expanded revision of a digital game called Steredenn. First released digitally for several platforms, it soon received a limited print run for the Playstation 4. The game preserves the overblown pixelly graphical style of the original title and adds new ships, weapons and modes, keeping the aspect that distinguished it from its brethren: the roguelike gameplay. I confess I'd never really come close to the style ~ or the term itself ~ until now, probably because it is so rarely done in the shmup genre.

One of the fears I had before embarking on this game was the dreadful prospect of having to grind my way towards a playable situation. Fortunately that's not the case. Everything you need to achieve victory is supposed to be granted in each and every run, which ends when the last energy bit is gone with absolutely no continues allowed. Players (re)actions depend on very random factors that affect the spawning, placement and behavior of enemies as well as the selection of power-ups that come along the way. In essence, no run is like the next. That's one of the cornerstones of the roguelike approach originated in RPGs, the genre that actually gave birth to this very specific branch in video game design.

The graphical style in Sterendenn - Binary Stars is definitely an acquired taste, and my feeling is that the emphasis on foreground action kinda diverts the attention (on purpose) from the simplistic design of the backgrounds. That shaking effect when anything explodes can be toned up/down or eliminated in the options, which also allows the activation of a switch called "Cinema" that completely removes the HUD (beware, I did it by accident once and thought the game was bugged!). If the graphics aren't your cup of tea, chances are you'll feel a little better about the energetic, rock-driven soundtrack that certainly pumps things up a notch.

Trailer for Steredenn - Binary Stars
(courtesy of YouTube user and developer Pixelnest Studio)

After the federation mothership is obliterated you dart into your mission all by yourself, shooting your basic default weapon with button ×. Cargo ships pass by every once in a while, bringing new random weapons that can be collected with the Δ button. There are only two slots available for them, so if you want to take a new weapon you'll have to relinquish one of your ocuppied slots. Selecting the weapon to use (or to be exchanged for a new one) is done with buttons □ or L2. Finally, each ship has a particular special ability triggered with buttons ○ or L1. Tempest is the name of the default ship, and its default special move is a short-range melee attack.

There are more than 30 weapons in the game, of which only some will ever be available for use in any run. They are divided into categories that dictate the nature and use of most upgrades you'll come across in between stages after beating bosses. The main categories are bullet (yellow), energy (red), heavy (orange) and bots (purple), but you're also entitled to activate a couple of shield-like weapons and replace your special ability attacks. Weapon behavior varies greatly, so the only real advice to be given here is to try them all and see which ones work best for you in regard to power, reach, autofire, reload/burst mechanic, piercing ability and influence over ship speed. However, coming to terms with a certain assortment of favorite weapons is just one part of the general strategy, after all the choice of upgrades can make or break your chances at surviving the odds.

With each defeated boss any lost health during the stage is replenished and you're given the chance to activate one out of several random upgrades for attack, defense or scoring, as well as a few that provide influence on other gameplay factors. They all have some sort of self-explanatory text to guide you, but figuring them out does take a while nonetheless. Just like the weapon gallery, the amount of available upgrades is overwhelming at first and only becomes more natural after you've clocked a few hours with the game, eventually unlocking new ships and some extra game modes in the process. These new ships represent the most drastic change between different runs, to the point that the game becomes a completely different beast. The Specialist ship, for example, is only allowed to use bot weapon variations, whereas the Red Baron is given only two weapons besides its special ability. Moreover, some of the special abilities, such as the rocket circus from the Fortress ship, take a little time to recharge.

Regardless of the chosen ship, Steredenn - Binary Stars makes no concessions at all in its gameplay, so be prepared to get shafted with bad luck and lousy weapons for several credits in a row, only to be given that favorite weapon for a good while afterwards. Of course good weapons don't necessarily mean an easy ride though, as players are kept on their toes all the time. Blink and you'll be engulfed by successive traps and overlapping waves, not to mention those resilient and unpredictable bulky ships from the last couple of levels. Most hits consume only a health cell, but the ones of the heavy kind can take up to five cells in a single blow. And getting to the battleship (6th stage boss) or the mothership (7th stage boss) while low on health isn't encouraging at all. Speaking of bosses, it's interesting to note that they get bigger and bigger as the game progresses, and up to the carrier (5th boss) they can have at least two different forms, each one with its particular set of attack patterns.

The Red Baron against one of the not-so-large bosses

In the roguelike nature of Binary Stars, moving away from what comes off as luck to something that can be considered proper knowledge of the gameplay definitely takes lots of practice. The simple task of not getting hit and preserving health has another benefit that becomes clearer the more you play and aim for better scoring results: the multiplier rises up automatically as you destroy enemies and reduces a little for every hit you take. The more energy you lose the bigger the dent in the multiplier. That's cool because in the end you don't need to consciously think about the scoring system at all.

My favorite upgrades when trying to go the distance (the ones not related to power increase) are the laser shield (protects the ship from a laser hit and recharges automatically after a few seconds), chain reaction (makes all enemies explode into a short radius burst that damages everything that's close) and shield breaker (shields can be destroyed by your weapons). Only when I've collected those and the remaining that aren't that useful I might pick up the ones that affect scoring (score boost, combo protection). There are lots of other mysterious upgrades to collect and some of them depend on the choice of ship, but much caution must be taken when beating one of the special hidden bosses. All upgrades released right after them have both a good and a bad effect on the gameplay. Note: by pausing the game you can see the upgrades you've already acquired.

Even with all the minor aspects that rub me the wrong way, such as the impossibility to remap controls or adjust the screen size to your liking (it's naturally a little larger than the usual widescreen TV), the need to press the fire button again when you switch to a different weapon (which can be eliminated with the "improved reconfiguration system" upgrade), the random hazard modifiers applied to complete stages (quantum asteroid field, sunburn, bulletstorm), the bogus items released by extra bosses and a few rare occurrences of severe framerate skipping, I had a very hard time leaving Steredenn - Binary Stars behind. It can be extremely unfair at times, but it's still a massively addictive game that will always pull you in if you give it a chance. It's a one of a kind achievement in the shmup genre, that's for sure.

The main game can be enjoyed solo or in co-op, but as I mentioned above the package also includes a few unlockable extra modes. In Daily Run players share the same levels, upgrades and weapons all over the world, Boss Rush is a challenge that changes weekly and Arena is a glorified boss practice mode where you can tweak everything for ship/weapon combinations. My favorite weapon duo for the Tempest ship is supergun + fusion hyperblaster, and that's the ship I used when reaching the 3rd stage of the 2nd loop in the picture below (online leaderboards available). Further loops have suicide bullets and bosses that fire trickier variations of their original patterns.

Philosoma (Playstation)

Horizontal / Vertical / Rail
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
4 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Sony Computer Entertainment
Published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1995

Even before I knew of how Philosoma played I happened to enjoy the game somehow. As a shooter fan, I've always played all sorts of variations of the genre, but my favorite ones were always those of the classic scrolling kind and the into-the-screen titles like After Burner. An ambitious game self published by Sony at the start of the Playstation lifetime, Philosoma dared to mix all the styles I mentioned above in a fully narrated, nicely animated story-driven outer space adventure, and by doing so it kinda catered to this personal dream I've ever had: the one of playing a shmup that changed its orientation frequently for a more cinematic, dynamic, fluid experience.

A lenghty intro details the formation of a special squadron sent to investigate a menace lurking in planet 220. The player assumes the role of a rookie pilot, initially taking the backseat in the action as the more experienced in the group fly ahead. Constant audio communication conveys tension during the battle, which switches perspectives very often and even puts the player in a situation of flying out of the screen, as in a rail shooter where you see the ship from the front instead of behind. Every single transition is animated into the next, in a total of four levels with several bosses and fast, relentless enemy waves. Each life has five shields, so death only comes when all shields are gone. A visible warning tells you when you're on your last remaining shield.

Intro to Philosoma, Western version
(courtesy of YouTube user TGApuleius)

The adoption of an energy bar for every life can be deceiving, for Philosoma is eager to eat away lives in a snap if you don't know what's coming. It's one of those shooters that value memorization a lot, with a strategic touch in the assortment of weapons at the player's disposal. There's a vulcan shot, a laser, a charge shot (A-Break) and a rear shot (Ray-B), all selectable at any moment at the press of dedicated buttons. Each one can be upgraded twice, but you need to be using the weapon for its power to be increased when picking up the corresponding item. All weapons are decent to use at any moment, but it took me some time to properly value the awesome power of the A-Break. Provided you have it maxed out (level 3), larger enemies and bosses yield much faster with well placed/timed charge shots.

Some items are certain to be generated every time in the same place, others are random. A green POW provides one upgrade to the currently selected weapon, while the purple POW maximizes all of them instantly. SHIELD recovers one energy hit, 1UP grants an extra life, BGR adds a bomb (a.k.a. buster grenades) to the bomb stock and only one type of auxiliary missiles can be activated for the current life (SRM for homing missiles, MRM for straight missiles). With an extend also achieved at every 100.000 points, one could say Philosoma isn't stingy at all on extra lives. A tiny detail in the power-up system is that every time you take an item you become invincible for a split second.

Experienced players will surely know where the inspiration for the abovementioned detail comes from. There are many others, including the classic rail shooters from Sega, the Thunder Force series, biological themed arcade titles like X-Multiply and even unexpected stuff like Xenon 2 (which is evident in the main boss fight of the 2nd stage). A particular part of this level throws a special nod to the Macross universe as the ship assumes a Gerwalk-like form and slides over a flat plane that sounds like something straight out of  a horizontal variation of Viewpoint. There might be more throwbacks to other games in there, but these are the ones that stand out the most.

The A-Break weapon in its full glory

On visual merits the game has a mix of standout moments and only a few segments with poorly designed textures, the latter mostly during rail shooting sections. The first stage is particularly tame when compared with the rest of the game, which boasts some rather impressive backgrounds. The level of variety also follows the constant shift in scrolling perspectives, even though the highlights are reserved for the horizontal parts due to the best results in mixing 3D polygons and sprite art. In that sense Philosoma predates more famous shmups like Thunder Force V, R-Type Delta and Einhänder. An excellent example of graphical and musical prowess is the section in the 3rd stage/phase that starts with a descent in a diagonal shaft followed by gigantic fan blades and a fast scrolling area, ending with an awesome revolving background. Most of the time the music is of a subdued nature and works well with the graphical style, but some tracks (like the one of the section above) do shine a bit more.

As engaging and exciting as Philosoma visually is, it's kinda baffling that Sony let players down by finishing the game with one of the most anticlimactic final bosses I've ever seen. At first I thought an enormous, menacing creature would emerge from that huge dome, but the thing just fades away as the end movie starts rolling. The emphasis on the FMV snippets, which are unlocked in a special movie gallery as you advance through the stages, is also another aspect that irks me a little. Why not give some love to the scoring system, for example? Not only does the game ignore high scores completely, but the size and visibility of the score in that transparent HUD are horrible. I had a hard time getting a proper picture of my result as I was fighting the final boss.

It would be amazing if a worthy STG developer looked back at the great possibilities hinted by Philosoma. Fleshing out the graphics and adding a scoring system that goes beyond the kill'em all basic rule would do it for me. Recent titles like Astebreed follow the same structure, but somehow fail to capture the idea of the multiple perspective design like Philosoma did. After all, it manages to deliver great atmosphere with intense action and tight gameplay. It's a rarely seen experience that every fan of the genre should have the chance to try.

My best 1CC result on the Normal difficulty is below. The last sight you'll ever have of your score in any run is this one during the fight against the last boss. Depending on the chosen difficulty, different epilogues narrated by different characters appear in the end. Control inputs can be selected from six distinct preset configurations. I used type E.

L-Dis (PC Engine CD)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by NCS / Masaya
Published by NCS / Masaya in 1991

Fantasy themes where characters are abducted to live a great adventure have always been present in video games since I can remember. One of the most noteworthy entries of this kind of story in the shmup genre is Dragon Spirit. Even though it didn't achieve the success or notoriety of Namco's arcade/console classic, Masaya's L-Dis also has a main character being drafted into a fantastic but perilous adventure, one that certainly does not disappoint if you're a fan of horizontal shooters in general. It's leaps and bounds above Toilet Kids, for example, another PC Engine quirky game that also uses the abduction motif.

Granted, L-Dis is quite an obscure title, and it could never aspire to anything more than that since it was never released out of Japan. The game's story starts when a boy and a girl are drawing creatures and objects on a wall, then the girl gets kidnapped by an evil guy and the boy boards a spaceship that looks like a fish to rescue her. The catch is that their drawings become the enemies across six increasingly longer levels that show lots of inspiration from the Gradius series. Does that get you interested? A word of warning though: L-Dis is inspired by Gradius but doesn't play like Gradius at all, and I mean this as a compliment.

The start of a dangerous journey
(courtesy of YouTube user Old Games Database)

A colorful, cutesy shooter on the outside, this game actually presents a few interesting challenges for the player. One of them is figuring out the upgrade items brought by harmless floating yellow balloons. Since they're only differentiated by kanji characters, it does take a while to know what you're getting. The good news is that they always cycle in the same order when spawned, with three types of items to consider. The first one is the power-up / speed-up. The second one is the auxiliary shot, which has three forms (a straight type, a bomb/missile type and a special shot that passes through walls). The third item is the bomb / 1-hit shield. Auxiliary shots are fired by trailing options (2 max, no upgrades), you can carry only one bomb (it trails behind the options) and a maximum of three shields can be stocked at any given time.

Before starting the game you can choose to watch a tutorial by pressing left or right (in the end of the message はい means YES and いいえ means NO). Then you must choose one out of three weapon configurations. The best advice is to try them all to check which one fits your play style better, but suffice it to say you're bound to see some weird shot sprites, such as women's shoes, hatchets, pointy fingers or crawling toothpastes. Once the choice is made you're ready to go: fire with button II, drop the bomb with button I. Autofire is there by default, as is the possibility of losing lives in a snap with almost no breathing room on respawn. You do get the chance to recover some of the lost power-ups though.

L-Dis holds the distinction of having lots of sections within a level, with one or more mid-bosses prior to the main stage boss. The adventure begins above a city landscape, then descends into street level prior to a scramble outside a huge battleship that leads to an encounter with a revamped version of Big Core. From then on the challenge picks up in an underwater level and inside a factory filled with walker mechas, lasers and tricky hatches, ending in a lengthy boss rush with lots of cramped passageways in between deadly moving cylinders. The sheer amount of variety (stages and enemies), the sudden shifts in scrolling speed (5th boss, escape to the final boss) and the constant need to navigate tight corridors provide a remarkable challenge that's somewhat detached from the cute aspect of the whole package.

Watched by green eyes and guarded by green mechas

While technically very competent, L-Dis chokes a little bit when the screen gets too cluttered with bullets. Though not common and mostly present in the final parts of the game, the slowdown in these moments is actually welcome for survival. The final stages are also quite stingy in upgrade items, so do you best to get there with a fully powered arsenal. An interesting fact about maximum firepower (besides the long time it takes to be achieved) is that while the main shot sprite increases in size its efficiency is actually diminished. It can't get through tight spaces and turns out slightly less powerful, probably due to the reduced firing rate and the appearance of two side shots whose nature depends on the chosen arms configuration. In any case, these late side shots are very helpful and certainly compensate for the main shot power loss. And just for some basic rank routine, note how those mechas in stage 5 start to shoot thicker laser beams if you get there on a single life.

L-Dis isn't overly hard, but does require a good knowledge of what's coming. There's something shady about the scoring aspect though. Bonuses are registered every time you pick up a surplus power-up or bomb, but they seem to be random. Sometimes you get mere 100 points, only to win 100.000 points in the next one for no special reason at all. At times I thought it was the yellow color of the item badges, but it doesn't seem to be the case. 100 grand is a great figure not only for the overall score but also because extra lives are awarded at every hundred / two hundred thousand points, with a couple also granted as you enter the chamber for the final boss. A few bosses might allow some milking, but it's quite tricky to pull it off consistently.

With intro and ending sequences that properly present/give closure to a story that's akin to an urban faery tale, L-Dis also counts with crystal clear voice works, lovely parallax effects in several places and a nice soundtrack to match the wackily cute but solid challenge level. My best 1CC score is below, playing on Normal difficulty with the arms-B configuration. I did not do any milking whatsoever in this run.

King of Fighters - Sky Stage (Xbox Live)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
4 Difficulty levels
5 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed, selectable at start
- - - - - - -
Developed by MOSS
Published by SNK Playmore in 2010

As much as I prefer the likes of Street Fighter and Capcom brawlers in general, I must concede that The King of Fighters also has an enormous appeal within the fighting game community. I had my share of Fatal Fury back in the 16-bit days, but my actual experience with KOF was null until I knew about King of Fighters - Sky Stage (occasional rounds at friendly gatherings don’t count). Having those flashy, cocky characters flying in glorious shoot’em up fashion was right up my alley, if you know what I mean.

Born in the arcades, Sky Stage soon appeared worldwide for the Xbox Live Arcade service. Even though it was met with lukewarm feelings by pretty much everybody, I kept a soft spot for it ever since for a couple of reasons. One of them was its likeness to the Shikigami No Shiro series. The other was the absolutely awesome action-driven soundtrack. I also found the game quite challenging from a few test runs, an aspect that was surely put to the test in my gaming room recently.

The reason why we have KOF characters flying in this game is this: in order to rescue fighters trapped in Orochi's dimensional prison, Chizuru Kagura endowed a group of heroes with the ability to fly through the skies, using their skills to shoot down various demons and wraiths. Fans of the series who're keen on trying this different approach will certainly recognize common attacks and variations, as well as witness characters in new clothing as bosses or in special cameos along the way. The only "problem" is that KOF Sky Stage is a very hard bullet hell shooter, one that demands fierce dedication and more often than not tends to drive away casual players. For a lighter take on the game you can check the watered down secondary port that was included as an extra mode in the PSP title Neo Geo Heroes - Ultimate Shooting.

Iori dropping his level 3 special move

Taking to the skies with any of the six available fighters is accomplished with the following buttons, all configurable: shot, bomb, special move and provocation. The first two are self-explanatory. Special moves can be done in three different manners: tap and you get the basic level 1 attack, or hold and release the button according to the power gauge in order to trigger two more powerful attacks (levels 2 and 3). Every time a special move is used a portion of the power gauge is consumed, then automatically refilled for another use. You can't shoot when using it, and as expected the more powerful the special move the longer the power bar takes to recharge (note that some special moves also have a secondary gauge that measures the duration of the attack). As for the provocation input, it covers the screen with a red hue and puts all enemies in overdrive mode, considerably increasing the difficulty for some time while affecting the scoring system (keep reading).

As a rule of thumb, all characters have some sort of defensive special move, but the girls certainly weren't given the best options on these. Kula Diamond, Athena Asamiya and Mai Shiranui all need to deploy level 2 or level 3 moves to obtain some sort of defensive edge, whereas Iori Yagami, Kyo Kusanagi and Terry Bogard can all nullify bullets with a single level 1 move. Kyo does carry the best defense due to his fireball, an attack that's also excellent for scoring since it's able to obliterate lots of bullets and cannon fodder in a single blow. On the other hand, his bomb has the shortest reach of all and will do no damage if you stand too far from your target. I'm quite fond of Athena's level 2/3 moves (deflecting mirrors, invincibility) as well as Mai's level 2 ricocheting attack, it's just too bad their shot patterns tend to be confusing and lack power. Kula has a great spread shot and cool special moves though, unlike Iori's weak shard pattern and lackluster specials.

Using all these moves to survive the mayhem is nice and fun, but the game takes on a whole new level when played for score. The first component of this is the hit combo: kill enemies within a certain time between each other (~3s) and watch the combo meter rise; if you lose the chain this number is reset; every time you get 100 hits an extra bonus is granted. The second component is the proximity bonus: every enemy releases one or more medals for pick-up, and the closer you are when you destroy them the higher their values will be; gold medals are worth 1.000 points, silver medals are worth 500 points and bronze medals are worth 200 points each.

Getting hit within the level itself resets both the medal counters and the combo meter. Everything from then on (or since the stage start) will be on hold for the end-of-stage bonus. If you succeed in killing the boss without getting hit you'll get the number of gold medals × 2.000, silver medals × 1.000, bronze medals × 500 and max combo × 2.000. If the boss hits you the only bonus you'll reap is max combo × 2.000. This obviously stresses the importance of flawless survival play for your scoring results. The worst that can happen is getting shot right before the boss, a situation that will grant you virtually no bonus at all. A hit at the very start of the level, on the other hand, does not affect scoring that much.

Now for the practical use of the provocation/taunt button: when active, all medals that would regularly be of the bronze kind will appear as silver medals instead. The potential scoring boost is obvious, of course, but be my guest in dealing with the crazy difficulty spike!

Taking Kyo Kusanagi for a 1CC ride in the 1st loop of KOF Sky Stage

By striking a nice balance in the risk × reward ratio, Sky Stage manages to remain attractive to both survivalists and score chasers. The game does start in a moderate tone, but as soon as the second stage kicks in the action gets much more hectic. Going the distance will require lots of practice, and even though the game allows stage select I seriously wish there were other training alternatives, such as a specific practice mode for bosses. After all, in stages 2, 3 and 4 you might face one out of two enemies (boss A or B). Fortunately there is a way to choose which boss you'll face in these levels: in the stage prior, as soon as you defeat the boss park your character on the side of the screen that aligns with the next boss choice (for example, after you beat Athena move left to fight Kyo or move right to fight Iori as the 2nd stage boss). Important: if you don't want to be challenged by Kula Diamond after you beat Orochi Shermie / Rugal Bernstein, do not use special moves when killing off the first three bosses.

Learning how to deal with different boss variations is just one of the things that make KOF Sky Stage quite a significant challenge. Besides that, players also need to cope with an absolute lack of slowdown, no extends / energy recovery of any kind and a bomb stock of only three for the whole credit. The only refreshments you'll get are score-based extra bombs, the first coming with 2 million points and further ones at every 4 million afterwards. The game is always at a default nominal rank, which only decreases a little on boss fights if you get to them after getting hit. Speaking of bosses, a good advice is to abuse point blanking whenever they stay idle. Depending on the chosen character you might inflict lots of damage, thus abbreviating the battle, avoiding some of their nastier patterns and getting better boss crash bonuses. Note that bosses also have a MAX attack gauge that fills up during the fight and might be unleashed at any random moment (you can try to predict them by always sticking to the same strategy though).

One of the traits Sky Stage shares with the Shikigami No Shiro series is the complete absence of ground enemies. The art design is also similar, even though Sky Stage bears a grittier look and has in-your-face bullet patterns that seem a lot more menacing due to the lack of slowdown. There are cool character panels throughout with nice English voicing and well made, concise interactions for a storyline that will make more sense for longtime fans of the regular series (turn Event to OFF if you don't want to see the story bits). Access to a second loop is granted if you beat the game in a single credit while killing all five character cameos and collecting the invitation letters they carry. Suffice it to say, the second loop is a lot harder with suicide bullets and much faster enemy attacks, but if you get to the end again you'll then face Omega Rugal, the game's True Last Boss.

Co-op and a Versus mode with distinct gameplay rules complete the package for those who enjoy tagging along (or against) a friend. I did not venture into these modes at all though. I dedicated myself to the main game ever since I started playing, trying to devise optimal routes and approaches to achieve complete stage chains while collecting the most gold medals. The character I felt most comfortable with was Kyo Kusanagi. Some of his fellows might have better chances at survival or scoring, but the fireball certainly shines for easier possibilities in getting more gold.

Character balance notwithstanding, if there's one thing I wish KOF Sky Stage did differently is the implementation of a focus shot / speed decrease button, simply because it would make dodging busy patterns a lot easier. My final score with Kyo on Normal difficulty is below, reaching stage 2-1. There is an online leaderboard available for the game, but I haven't gone online with my Xbox 360 in ages.

Macross (NES)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF / ON
1 Difficulty level
1 Stage (loopable)
Ship speed selectable
- - - - - - -
Developed by Big West / Namco
Published by Namco in 1985

Given the success achieved by the Super Dimension Fortress Macross sci-fi anime series, which originally aired in 1982, it was just a matter of time for a video game to be released based on it. The Nintendo Famicom had the honor to be the chosen platform. However, since Macross (or Chōjikū Yōsai Macross for completeness sake) came out during the system’s infancy, not much excitement was/is to be expected due to its simple, repetitive design.

Graphics are primitive and lack detail even for 8-bit game standards. The cheesy music is also totally forgettable. In all honesty, only longtime fans of the anime might be thrilled by such a primitive little shooter. And kids who played it back then, of course, after all nostalgia lives forever.

Unique boss

In this first Macross shmup the player controls a transformable VF-1 Valkyrie fighter in a neverending battle against an invading race of giant humanoid aliens known as the Zentradi (yes, I retrieved this sentence from Wikipedia since I know absolutely nothing about the series). The Valkyrie is a very versatile machine that shoots with button B and can assume three different forms with combinations of button A and directionals, as described below:

• Fighter mode (→ + A) – acts as a jet fighter; in this form the screen scrolls the fastest but the Valkyrie has the slowest moving speed, with no autofire at all;
• Gerwalk mode (↑ + A) – acts as a "chicken walker" mecha; scrolling and moving speed are average when compared with other Valkyrie modes, with average autofire;
• Battroid mode (← + A) – acts as a humanoid mecha; moves at the highest speed against the slowest screen scrolling of all modes, and has bidirectional shooting capability with fast autofire.

All forms of the VF-1 Valkyrie fire a single laser shot that cannot be upgraded at all. Limiting the firing rate of the different modes is therefore extremely odd, so my best advice is to use a turbo controller for a slightly better enjoyment of the game. Besides its regular firepower, the Valkyrie can also shoot out a a flock of homing missiles with the SELECT button. The stock for this extra attack is increased by taking the M item. Other items you might randomly come across are energy refills (P), 5.000 bonus points (B) and extra lives (E). Shooting the icons propels them forward, which might be necessary lest they appear inside the mine fields from round 2 onwards.

Each life comes with an energy bar that, when depleted, sends the player back to the very start of the round/loop. The loop is extremely short with only two sections where you fly in outer space until you reach the entry to the enemy fortress that hides the boss. Beat him and start all over again with a slightly harder difficulty and some extra enemies (the abovementioned mine fields, new Zentradi fighters, turrets prior to the fortress entry). Every new loop refills the energy bar and adds two units to the stock of special attacks. The stretch inside the fortress up until the boss is timed, and when the boss is destroyed the player collects a reward for time and energy left. Since you gain a lot more from the time bonus than from the energy in reserve, I always prefer to switch to fighter mode so that I can finish that section as fast as I can. In the initial half my preferred way to go is the Gerwalk mode, because if you choose Battroid the game seems to take forever.

One round/loop of Macross on the Nintendo Famicom

(courtesy of YouTube user germaster22)

All things considered, at least Macross does everything right in its simplicity, except for the unresponsiveness of the special attack on the SELECT button. The challenge increase seems to hit a plateau very early on, but there's a catch. Though very similar in structure to TransBot, released at around the same time for the Sega Master System, the loops in Macross become increasingly longer as the game progresses.

Longer levels are actually what made me think a little higher of this game. On a quick glance it could be considered another neverending marathon, but fortunately the game does become more demanding during higher, longer loops. In round 10, for example, my life stock finally started to go down, simply because it gets harder to get from one P item to the next and also because missile-firing enemies become more frequent. That's also when I noticed that fuel/energy actually depletes by itself very, very slowly.

Don't fret if you notice the score display roll over once you get to one million points. The correct high score can be seen in the brief intro animation after you press start to begin the credit. I was able to reach loop 12 and could've gone a little further, but once the score counter rolled over one more time I decided to call it quits and give away the rest of my lives to the Zentradi. Here's the final result I got:

Airwolf (NES)

Horizontal
Checkpoints ON
1 Difficulty level
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Kyugo
Published by Kyugo in 1988

First of all, let's get one thing straight about this game. This blog post is about the Japanese version released for the Famicom by Kyugo. It's a horizontal shooter that loosely resembles the arcade game of the same name. The Airwolf released for the NES in US and Europe by Acclaim is a completely different title that uses an inside-the-cockpit view for a totally boring experience that has nothing of the excitement the TV series was famous for. This doesn't mean that the Japanese game is the epitome of badass helicopter action though. For all its flaws and overall ineptitude, one could say it's almost as inane as its Western counterpart.

Airwolf is the codename of a high-tech helicopter equipped with heavy armament and stealth capabilities. It takes off from its hidden lair to fulfill secret missions around the world. According to the Famicom game, the ultimate mission is to rescue the pilot's brother, missing in action years ago and held hostage by an evil organization. To accomplish that you'll need to get through six stages of increasing perils armed with a combination of two types of weapons selected at the start of every mission. While this sounds great on paper, the execution unfortunately fails to live up to the legacy of such a great TV show. Slowdown, unstable frame rates, flicker, bad visibility, lack of autofire + capped firing rate, unresponsive controls, inertia... in essence, everything you need for another dose of inglorious 8-bit torture.

Cold, cold war

As mentioned above, prior to starting the level you need to equip the chopper. Button B cycles the primary weapon: chain guns (a 2-way shot that resembles "double" from Gradius), cannon (a very slow straight bullet) and falcon (like cannon, but faster). Button A cycles the secondary weapon: hellfire (a 45° downward shot), red eye (90° falling bombs) and copperhead (missiles fired downward at a 30° angle). Any weapon combination is possible, just note that some of them have similar design: chain guns + hellfire results in a 3-way spread shot, whereas falcon + copperhead combine the same bullet types for much stronger firepower. The only use for the cannon is being devastating at point-blank distance (tip for the final stage!). As for the red eye, it's pretty much useless.

Once the game begins, the player shoots with button B. Button A is of special nature since it toggles the supersonic capability of the Airwolf. When active, the helicopter flies at "supersonic" speed while being invulnerable and consuming the fuel gauge shown at the top of the screen. You don't need to worry about depleting fuel, if that happens you'll just be unable to engage in supersonic flight. The bad news is that unless you're qualified as a grade A button masher you'll need a decent turbo controller. The firing rate is severely capped and the only way to increase it is by taking the POW items left behind by selected destroyed enemies. The game only becomes acceptable after you take at least a couple of those.

Other items to be found consist of smart bombs (stars), extra lives (1UP) and a bonus token of 3.000 points. They are almost always released by destroying single jets that zap from behind trying to ram into you. Approximately halfway into some levels you'll also come across a stronger opponent that flies back and forth and takes a lot more hits to be destroyed. These minibosses are often escorted by lots of other enemies, so don't hesitate to use the supersonic speed if things get too hectic. One example of this is in stage 2, where bullets fired by antennas on the top of the buildings also tend to block your firepower.

Speaking of bosses, the main ones (except for the final boss) must be fought as if you were playing a gallery shooter. The problem is that these parts are plagued with a combination of reduced framerate, apalling slowdown, unresponsive controls, crosshair inertia (!) and just sheer confusion. You can't really tell the reason why your energy gauge goes down, for example. For all it's worth it's at least a harmless chore, for never once did I die in one of these bosses no matter how sloppy I played.

Sample credit of Airwolf, Famicom version

(courtesy of YouTube user 8-bit Days a Week)

Despite all its shortcomings, Airwolf packs a surprisingly decent enemy gallery. It's not all about jets and choppers. Tanks, turrets, submarines, fast-moving missiles, slow bombers dropping rockets, falling missiles that go out in a huge flash, evil faces carved in the mountains. Stage themes range from the lakes and mountains of the countryside, city, caverns, ice and a desertic entry into the enemy headquarters prior to two timed sections where you fight the aforementioned carved sculptures and the final enemy helicopter. It's just too bad the game's execution is so poor. That said, the music is the only aspect that fares a little better. Though technically subpar, it includes the famous opening theme and in general tries to capture the essence of the show.

Since the 1UP will always be there even if you die and get sent back to a checkpoint, there's at least one instance in each level where you can exploit this to boost your score. Yes, the scoring system might be broken, but given the firing rate issues it's not uncommon to see that 1UP go away in between your shots. Note that there are also score-based extends, but these are awarded with successive double figures starting with 50.000 points (next ones at 100K, 200K, 400K, etc.).

An interesting twist in this version of Airwolf is the rescue command passcode gimmick. A combination of 5 numbers is shown at the end of levels 1 through 5. If you want to see the ending after you beat the final boss you must enter all five passcodes correctly or the game will end abruptly with that dreadful view of the Statue of Liberty fallen to the ground. A pen and a sheet of paper should suffice, there's plenty of time to write down the passcodes and to type them in the end. Time, however, is what you absolutely don't have to take note of your final score since it's shown very briefly once you defeat the last boss. After that you'll input the passcodes, see the ending, see the credits and then get stuck in a THE END panel.

Well then, if you just want to see your completion/1CC high score you might as well refuse to insert the passcodes and check it out at the start screen after the GAME OVER. Would failing to see the ending still count as a legit clear, I wonder? Anyway, I did it the hard way and filmed the game's final moments, so here's the 1CC score I got for Famicom Airwolf. I used chain guns + copperhead all the way, with the exception of chain guns + hellfire in stage 3 and cannon + copperhead in the final level.

Tetrastar - The Fighter (NES)

Rail shooter
Checkpoints ON
1 Difficulty level
7 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Home Data
Published by Taito in 1991

We all know the Famicom/NES was huge in its prime period. Even though the wonders of the 8-bit generation are way behind us, kids from the 80s happily enjoyed countless hours of fun with games that are still fun to play today. The mainstream genres were pretty much covered with instantly recognizable classics, an affirmation that sadly cannot be applied to rail shooters. In reality, most people would say that the 8-bit hardware wasn't tailored to handle them at all. At least until you decide to expose them to Tetrastar - The Fighter.

An impressive display of 8-bit processing marvel, Tetrastar is as smooth as it gets and comes filled with effects you wouldn't imagine possible at all on the NES. This excellence is also present in Cosmic Epsilon, another rail shooter released a few years back and co-developed by the same company that's just as good – and obscure – as this one. Even though they're easily the best rail shooters for the Famicom none of them came out of Japan, which is a shame.

In the future world of Tetrastar - The Fighter, Earth is under attack by a former alien ally that has gone evil. The only hope we have is a fleet of powerful spaceships and a navbot that looks like a robot dog. The animated opening, the several in-game cinematics and a slew of cut scenes with Japanese text further detail the story with remarkable depth, which is rather unusual for a shooter. Fortunately all the exposition is very well done, never disrupting and always skippable. It even throws some advice as to how you should behave during the game, to the point that the lack of knowledge in Japanese certainly detracts from the experience. You'll never really grasp, for example, the turmoil behind that segment where the Earth armada flies into the first warp gate or why during a brief passage the ship looks like a tie fighter from Star Wars, among other dramatic moments the pilot duo go through while chasing bad guys throughout the galaxy. All is not lost though, for a translated ROM exists for those who can emulate. :)

The start of a remarkable journey through the galaxy

(courtesy of YouTube user nesguide)

Button B is used to fire your main gun whereas button A is only active after you acquire at least one of the four special weapons. These are switched at the press of the SELECT button and consist of a "wide blaster" spread bomb (WID), an air-to-air homing missile (AAM), a napalm bomb that shakes the ground as it follows its fiery trail (NAP) and a chargeable bio-cannon (BIO). It's very important to take all the items that appear inside pink bubbles and stay on screen for a few seconds if you want to obtain additional ammo for their usage. Even though I didn't get to check that further, these icons might also provide some level of firepower upgrading.

Moving around the screen and never staying put is, of course, rule number one in any rail shooter. However, Tetrastar is different in that most of the time you're given lots of room to move and dodge those spinning 8-shaped bullets. It is, in fact, one of the easiest rail shooters I have ever played, both on the account of the softer challenge and the high number of extends earned as you play (some huge stage completion bonuses totally engulf the extend routine). Granted, you'll still have to face tricky areas where deaths are almost unavoidable if you haven't memorized them yet, such as the spiralling drones in stage 3 or the huge spaceships that ram into you in stage 6.

There are several reasons why I would recommend Tetrastar - The Fighter even to those who're not into this often neglected subgenre. Besides the great scrolling effects, the friendly difficulty and the involving storyline, there's also the outstanding diversity in gameplay. The game starts out epic enough as you need to defend New York from the alien invasion, but then it drifts into outer space, making you fly through blazing fast laser corridors and putting you against several alien fleets. Hazards also include enemies scrolling sideways, quickly-shrinking blockades, energized barriers, vertical rockets and bosses with several protected cores. Boss destruction is particularly neat in that some of them fall apart as if collapsing into multiple energy bubbles. These are the only moments when the game shows some slowdown, or perhaps it's just there for cinematic purposes.

In any case, this game needs to be seen it in motion. Static snapshots such as the one below don't do it justice.

Wide blaster armed and ready!

Tetrastar - The Fighter might not be that tough to beat, but it does pack an interesting scoring challenge. Each life in reserve is worth 140.000 points after you beat the final boss. Speaking of which, be warned that if the timer runs out in the final stage the game ends regardless of life stock. The good news on this is that in the final level you're given unlimited ammo for special weapons, so fire away those AACs and BIOs at will, if possible using a turbo controller for the AACs (there's no autofire at all in Tetrastar, so any kind of artificial autofire is definitely recommended). On the subject of special weapons, I rarely used the ground-based ones (WID and NAP) because I felt the ship's speed is enough to normally target most ground enemies.

If there's an aspect that isn't on par with the rest of this charming little game, that's definitely the soundtrack. You'd normally expect a collection of sci-fi inspired tunes to go along with the action, but instead all you'll listen to are classic songs of public domain. There's nothing wrong with their renditions per se, but it's impossible not to be thrown off a little when the music reminds you of something like Parodius... I wonder if that was a conscious decision by the developer or if they just ran out of money to hire a proper composer. A nice debug feature (check it here) gives access to a sound test, a stage select option and a few other tweaks – that's how I knew the game actually has 7 stages broken down into several checkpoint segments.

After the pilot (or pilots for the alternate ending) returns to Earth for a fireworks celebration over the New York city harbor the display for the final score appears for a few seconds only, so do your best to record it if you want to keep a historic memory of how well you performed in the game. Afterwards the screen halts in an ending panel and you need to reset the console to play again.