TwinBee Da!! (PSP)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
2 Difficulty levels
5 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Konami
Published by Konami in 2007

Originally released for the Japanese Game Boy handheld in 1990, TwinBee Da!! has the distinction of being the 4th chapter of the long running bell-juggling franchise by Konami. Besides an European port that appeared a few years later with the title Pop'n TwinBee (not to be confused with the homonymous Super Famicom chapter), the game was revamped into a full-blown colored version included in the TwinBee Portable compilation that came out for the PSP in 2007. Also known as the "Powered Up Arranged Edition", the PSP entry comes with a little bit more than the color makeover you'd expect for a monochromatic older and rather obscure video game.

The first aspect that pops to mind when booting up TwinBee Da!! is how good it looks. The arcade-quality cute'em up graphics are nothing short of awesome, as is the music featuring arrangements of tracks from previous games led by well-known composer Manabu Namiki. Some sources cite the involvement of M2, yet I could not confirm that anywhere from the in-game information. The only feature that did not reach the heights of an arcade entry is the challenge, which is of course understandable. On the other hand, since the game does not loop the carrot on the stick here is the possibility of maximizing your score throughout five stages.

Pink windmills over fluffy clouds

Basic gameplay is very similar to other chapters of the franchise. One button is used to shoot (with native autofire) and another to drop ground bombs (can be set to autofire if desired). By shooting at clouds you release bells whose color can be changed if you continue shooting at them. Mainly colored yellow, they will eventually cycle through blue (speed-up), white (double shot), green (trailing options) and red (shield barrier). If you hit them bells for too long they eventually get wrecked and fall down the screen for good in the form of a deadly bug.

Besides bells, there are also ground items to be collected. Most of them are fruit that give you some points, but you can also come across a star (clears the screen of airborne enemies and bullets), a milk bottle (extra life) and a candy (3-way shot). Collecting the candy a second time makes the character shoots an extra candyball that bounces around the screen. Note that you can't have the double shot (white bell) and the 3-way shot (candy) at the same time, so collecting one disables the other. The same happens with the green and the red bells, which means you are forced to choose between the options or the shield. All items collected are shown in a large status bar on the left side of the screen.

A staple of the series, the ambulance item also returns. If both your arms get shot (the ones that drop the ground bombs), the ambulance will cruise the screen for you to recover them. Miss it and you won't be able to drop bombs for the remainder of the level, being granted new arms only when the next level starts. Also note that the ambulance item appears only once per stage.

Each yellow bell collected in succession without any of them falling off the screen increases in value until maxing out at 10.000 points, in what represents the main source of score for those who shoot for the best possible performance. In a nutshell, it's the same mechanic that's present in every TwinBee game or variation thereof, such as the ones from the Parodius franchise. Juggling bells for points can be spoiled by greed as usual, but TwinBee Da!! behaves a little differently from the other games in the series. For example, it takes several shots to make a bell change its color instead of just one. And instead of disappearing from the color cycle, all bell colors keep coming even if their function is maxed out. Each surplus bell collected is worth 10.000 points.

A brief look into how TwinBee Da!! looks on the PSP
(courtesy of YouTube user Now Loading Please Wait)

With only five stages, TwinBee Da!! is quite a short game. Instead of parading in their own level, the boss rush lifted from TwinBee appears right at the end of the 4th stage, meaning the PSP version is one stage shorter than the Game Boy original. The gameplay in general is very easy to grasp yet the game becomes a royal mess by the time you reach the 4th stage. There's so much going on by then that it's virtually impossible to keep a steady combo of yellow bells, with absolutely no slowdown to be seen anywhere. Hint: since it takes three blue bells to max out the flying speed and maximum speed isn't that fast, it's advisable to just max it out as quickly as possible.

There are other differences between TwinBee Da!! and the original Game Boy title, such as the absence of the Queen Bee boss, the lack of the stage select feature at the start of the credit, the reordering of some boss themes and the fact that it's 1-player only. Does the eye candy compensate for that? I guess in the end it depends if you're a die hard Game Boy fan. For me it was just another basic diversion to be had during a short flight. It's also a rather easy one, especially for those who have some knowledge of other games in the series.

My best 1CC score is shown below, playing in the Normal difficulty. A charming collection in its own right, the TwinBee Portable disc has elementary features such as button remapping and saving.

Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy (Playstation 4)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
5 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Atari
Published by Atari / Digital Eclipse in 2022

Released in 1993, the Atari Jaguar was the last nail in the coffin of the console market endeavors from the once powerful Atari Corporation. A mess of a system that proved to be a failure in both the hardware and software fronts, the Jaguar was home to a meager library that lacked substance and quality. I do not own nor do I ever intend to own such a system, but thanks to the eclectic selection of the compilation titled Atari 50 - The Anniversary Celebration I did get to know some games that came out for it. 

Released for several modern platforms, of which my system of choice was the Playstation 4, this stylish and charming anthology includes nine Atari Jaguar titles, two of them being shmups: Tempest 2000 and Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy. Once considered as the pack-in game for the Jaguar, eventually Trevor McFur was replaced by Cybermorph, yet it did have the distinction of being part of the first offerings for the new system, and supposedly one that would showcase the Jaguar's edge over well-established competitors Sega and Nintendo. Unfortunately, history shows us that's not the case since the game was a commercial and critic failure.

Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy takes place in a universe inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures that fight for peace in the so-called Crescent Galaxy. Trevor McFur is a tiger-like corporal sent to battle in order to defeat an evil entity, freeing planets from its clutches while receiving intelligence messages from other members of the defense squad. Before you move into the enemy's headquarter in the Cosmolite planet, four moons must be freed. They can be tackled in any order, as shown in the selection screen prior to the start of the level.   

Interplanetary Defense Squad in action

Inputs work with shot, missile/bomb, special weapon and another button to cycle between these special weapons. The default controller arrangement can be remapped, which is nice, but strangely it's not possible to set both shot and missile to the same button (missiles are capped to one at a time, but the natural shot autofire rate can be increased by tapping). There are 9 special weapons in the game but they have limited ammo, and every credit starts with one special weapon in stock for all nine variations: magnet (attracts regular enemies and sends them off screen), tracer (bounces off enemies), laser beam, flash (smart bomb), missile (explodes upon contact, but has shorter reach), ring (rotating orbs), bolt (outward energy barrier), shield (invincibility) and cutter (an invincible extra helper ship that stays on screen for a while and increases your offensive attack).

Power-ups for the main shot and missile, as well as extra stock for the special weapons, are released by specific enemies in every level. Each special weapon has its own icon, but there's also an extra icon that increases the stock of the special weapon you're using at the moment. Once maxed out, icons for shot and missile are replaced by a blue sphere that's worth 5.000 points. You might also come accross 1UPs in the form of the face of Trevor McFur, but the bulk of the extra lives is granted by scoring, in a total of 7 extends until you reach 1.050.000 points.

All levels unfold in the same exact way. First you fly through outer space, fighting the enemy armada amidst splitting asteroids. After defeating the mid-boss you patrol the surface of the moon/planet before facing the main boss. Each stage has its own set of enemies, which can be seen prior to entering the level by pressing one of the attack buttons. Specific hazards also apply for the patrolling sections, such as exploding geysers, falling stalactites, huge wall blocks or giant splitting eyeballs. Once the main stage boss is defeated you'll enter a bonus section where you must fly through rings to collect extra items. Crashing against one of these rings ends the bonus intermission. 

Despite having level motifs that are sort of discernible throughout, the game design for enemies in Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy is all over the place. Stages are long and excessively drawn out, with a feeling of repetition that's worsened by the complete lack of any accompanying music. Yes, there's no music at all while playing the game, and the only music you'll hear appears in the opening, high score and ending screens. The emphasis on sound effects eventually leaves players numb as they need to learn how to deal with the unpredictable behavior of meteors and when to safely take the items. McFur's ship has a huge hitbox after all, and this certainly needs to be taken into consideration if you want to see the end of this sorry display of bad euroshmup design.

Descent into the dry desert of the Osseous moon
(courtesy of YouTube user Rodrigo Lopes)

 

It's also important to consider a few gameplay details, such as the way special weapons work, for example. Whenever you collect a special weapon item the selection automatically changes to this weapon, forcing you to constantly switch back to the one you'd like to use if needed. At least they're all useful, just watch out for the magnet since its effect can also wipe you out if you get caught inside the attraction radius. The duration effect of laser, ring and shield is roughly the same, but cutter lasts longer and allows the use of other special weapons in the meantime. Cutter is actually piloted by McFur's female feline partner, the one you meet in a loving embrace at the end of the game.

As for general tips besides the ones I mentioned above, an interesting method to deal with bosses, especially those who tend to squeeze you against the left side of the screen, is to abuse the shield and fire away over them while it lasts. Two shields and a fully powered ship are enough to send most bosses into oblivion. Other alternative is to use one smart bomb (flash) right away, which disarms their most dangerous attacks, and then spam whatever you wish to take them out.

Unfortunately, no matter how you see it or how you decide to approach Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy, we can't escape the fact that the game is not only a chore, but also a bore. I am grateful however and absolutely commend the work done in the Atari 50 compilation. It's an outstanding job in gaming selection and preservation, which in the case of Trevor McFur includes a full scan of the original instruction manual, as well as the ability to apply filters and to save/load at any moment. These features are the same for all titles included, which is certainly more than what most of them were able to offer in their original incarnations. 

Once the game is completed it gets stuck in the screen below, which at least shows your final completion score. This 1CC did require some dedication since I chose to play the game with the natural firing rate only (no tapping, turbo, etc). On a last note, Trevor McFur comes with three continues but it denies the player the right to reject them. An inspiration for DUX, I wonder?

Gamera 2000 (Playstation)

Rail shooter
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
8 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by TYO Productions / Digital Frontier
Published by Virgin Interactive in 1996

Gamera is a giant monster, or kaiju, originated from a series of Japanese films that started in the 1965 film Gamera - The Giant Monster. A legendary colossal turtle believed to have inhabited the lost continent of Atlantis, Gamera was created to compete with the success of Godzilla and appeared in a total of 12 films, and while it failed to garner the same fame of Toho's fire-breathing lizard it is still fondly remembered by kaiju fans all over the world. Given the obscure nature of Gamera 2000, however, I don't think the same statement applies to the world of video games.

Deeply hidden in the Japanese Playstation library, Gamera 2000 is a rail shooter that doesn't veer too far from the norm in terms of gameplay, which in many ways is very close to the likes of Sega's Panzer Dragoon. Polygon-based graphics set the tone for the action, while low-res cinemas with real actors complete the fan service with campy yet genuinely delightful results. Dubbed in English by default with Japanese subtitles, these can also be watched in Japanese, a feature that's rarely seen in the world of shmups even by today's standards.

Introduction and initial stages of Gamera 2000
(courtesy of YouTube user TGApuleius)

 

At the center of the game and the story is an elite member of the United Nations Science Academy called Jack Morton. He's the one piloting the jet fighter and interacting with several other characters and computer machinery in between levels. Gamera flies by his side, providing aerial support during most of the time. Tap button × or ○ to fire regular shots. Hold × to lock on to enemy targets and release it so that Gamera shoots its homing fireballs against them. Hold ○ and watch as Gamera charges its spinning attack according to a vertical gauge on the right side of the screen, and release it to see the giant monster wreak havoc against any on-screen enemy. The more you charge the longer the attack, but then it also takes longer for Gamera to recover from it in order to have another go.

As the stage progresses in four main locations (Tokyo, Hawaii, San Francisco and Hong Kong) an overhead radar shows the appearance of enemies as yellow dots. Since they can come from all directions, it's possible to turn the camera view 90º left or right by pressing L1 or R1. Pressing both buttons at the same time brings the camera back to the default forward view. At first moving around with the camera isn't that important, but eventually you'll find out that wiping out all threats and targeting boss parts as fast as you can is the best strategy to preserve health and survive. After all, each stage comes with only one full health bar with no recovery in sight. If the health bar is depleted the game is over.

A significant change in the gameplay appears in the forest of stage 3, which starts as if you were directly thrown into the hoverbike scenes from Star Wars Episode VI - The Return of Jedi. The effect is neat and you don't need to worry at all about hitting obstacles, focusing solely on the enemies coming from all sides. During these hoverbike phases Gamera is absent, so you can't rely on its attacks to help you out. The hoverbike sections continue inside an underground tunnel full of mutated dogs and laser-firing bats before you face a huge flying creature that represents the first big challenge of the game. That's where avoiding deadly lasers and destroying enemy bullets with your own firepower becomes absolutely necessary since dodging is nigh impossible.

Even though Gamera 2000 is pretty much a straightforward rail shooter where aiming is an important part of the gameplay, a few obstacles appear here and there, such as the debris thrown by the tentacle mid-bosses when they're about to die. Some levels have splitting paths that take you to different mid-bosses, but I found it's very confusing to figure out where the splits are in order to consciously choose the desired path. Fortunately it doesn't make much difference in the end.

Gamera and a two-headed flying friend

Getting used to the rhythm of boss attacks then becomes the main objective of Gamera 2000. Sure, abusing the spinning attack of the turtle monster whenever possible is an absolute must, just remember to unleash it during the most profitable parts of the battle. The 7th stage in particular is quite a challenge since you must get through three long phases of the Bionic Gyaos boss. A huge flying saucer mothership awaits in the final stage, but if continues are used you won't be able to fight it. The game ends right there and then and awards the player with a "bronze" medal.

More noble closures to the game will be achieved if you at least get to the last stage in one piece ("silver" ending) or complete the mission without using any continues ("gold" ending). The instruction manual also mentions that in order to get the best possible ending you need to gather as much information as possible from the movie screen system in between levels. I'm not really sure of the requirements, but suffice it to say I didn't fret over watching all the clips and still got the gold medal.

Since Gamera 2000 has no scoring system, there's no need to get out of your way to kill everything. Some enemies will vanish after they fly past you, so just move along, do your thing and watch Gamera's victory roar at the end of the levels. The journey isn't really an outstanding ride graphicwise, but it certainly gets the job done for kaiju and rail shooting fans. The overacted sappy movie intermissions are harmless, and if you're able to pay attention to it amidst the non-stop action you'll notice the music is rather decent with a few standout tracks.

As mentioned above, here's my golden badge for the ending of Gamera 2000 on the Playstation, playing in the Normal difficulty of the standard game mode. A special "family mode" is actually a cooperative option where one player controls the ship and the other controls Gamera.

Fighting Hawk (Playstation 2)

Vertical
Checkpoints ON
4 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Taito in 1988
Published by Taito in 2005

If it weren't for Fighting Hawk being included in a Taito compilation, many people would certainly think the game was yet another product from Toaplan. Of course there are some underlying signs that don't exactly click, such as the soundtrack that slightly resembles Master of Weapon and that typical font Taito used in pretty much all their arcade games of the time. But everything else screams Toaplan, in an explicit homage that's perhaps even more pronounced than that of Gekirindan.

Taito Memories II Vol. 1 "Joukan" on the Playstation 2 is where you can find a port of Fighting Hawk, also available in full TATE glory. My impression is that this game is quite obscure even among Taito's connoisseurs, a commercial failure that got lost amidst the glut of shmups that took over the scene in the end of the 80s. Although averagely competent, it stands in the shadow of heavy hitters such as Kyuukyoku Tiger / Twin Cobra and Hishouzame / Flying Shark, which in turn are its main sources of inspiration. This means, of course, that players who enjoy the gameplay of these Toaplan shooters will feel right at home with Fighting Hawk. 

Splitting tanks halfway into the 1st area

Getting used to the gameplay is as simple as it gets. One button shoots and another triggers a salvo of homing missiles while melting all on-screen bullets, acting like a variation of a life-saving bomb. As is customary in this series of Taito compilations, both inputs can mapped as you please in the controller, just remember that a turbo function is definitely needed for the shot button unless you'd like to mash the controller (and your wrist) into oblivion. Then it's all a matter of learning enemy and boss patterns, their reload routines and memorizing a few sections in order to get through them with less hurdle.

With six levels of relatively long duration divided in 149 "areas", Fighting Hawk plays out as if it had been designed between Tiger-Heli and Twin Cobra, only with a much less aggressive difficulty progression. And once you get your shot powered up by taking the upgrade items, the game also starts to resemble Flying Shark / Hishouzame. The difference here is that when maxed out the firing stream acquires a spread opening that's very handy to take care of enemy waves approaching from all sides. Besides the power-up, the item gallery also includes extra bombs, bonus medals (1.000 points each) and 1UPs. Extra lives are also awarded by scoring, the first with 60.000 points, the second with 180.000 points and then further ones at every 100.000 points you're able to achieve.

Besides regular memorization, in shooters like this one the most important thing to have in mind is to beware of sniping tanks taking you off guard. Most of the danger in Fighting Hawk comes from below, either from tanks approaching in parallel tandem or from large bombers that enter the screen with no warning whatsoever. That's why from stage 3 onwards it's only safe to hug the bottom of the screen if you know beforehand what's coming next. And in the last stage a sequence of 25 jets arriving from below must be destroyed before facing the dragon bat final boss.

Fighting Hawk's attract mode
(courtesy of YouTube user Replay Burners)

The path to the dragon bat spans all sorts of terrain. Forests, rivers, snow fields, urban and industrial terrains, sea. Enemies include all sorts and colors of tanks, turrets, floating rafts, boats, helicopters and battleships. The overall emphasis is on a military background, yet weird stuff appears every now and then, such as the race cars in the snow stage.

The notion that the game is a much tamer variation of the Twin Cobra formula is definitely helped by the generous assortment of bombs. There are checkpoints, but with five fresh bombs for each new life any of the bosses or mid-bosses can be easily bomb-spammed if you don't want to take any chances. The only advantage of preserving bombs is to take the end-of-stage bonus of 1.000 points for each bomb in stock. In addition to that, whenever you have shot or bomb maxed out (5 bombs in stock), any respective in-game item is automatically spawned as a medal.

Click for the option menus translation for Fighting Hawk on Taito Memories II - Vol. 1

In the balance between survival and scoring, there's also the possibility of exploiting checkpoints, but this has to be well planed. Some of them send you relatively back, others allow the progress of the credit in an easier fashion. In the end, Fighting Hawk grants a final bonus of one million points for completing the game.

Below is my final 1CC result for this mild Toaplan copycat. It was fun for the ease and the diversion, definitely a recommended break of similar style if the likes of Twin Cobra or Flying Shark seem temporarily insurmountable.

Ocean Commander (Playstation 2)

Arena
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
21 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by CyberPlanet Interactive
Published by Phoenix Games in 2007

I little while after I started collecting shmups in physical form, Ocean Commander for the Playstation 2 proved to be one heck of a challenge to get. Originally released for the Windows PC, it came out for the PS2 in very low quantities only in Italy, which meant it wasn't as readily available as the secondary port for the Nintendo Wii (there's also a version for the Nintendo DS, but let's not go there). Anyway, at least it wasn't an expensive find back then. I have no idea how it stands today in terms of rarity.

And lo and behold! I finally took the time to play it after all these years. I was kinda looking forward to it because this serves to end my run of crappy beatable shmups released by Phoenix Games for the Playstation 2, the most legendary company to dish out all sorts of stupidities upon the market during and long after the PS2 was commercially gone.

But hey, is Ocean Commander that bad?

Unfortunately it is. With the crappiest of honors and with no 60Hz mode in sight, meaning you're stuck with that typical shimmering of the native 50Hz European frequency. Graphics and music aren't that bad for a cheap title, but the gameplay...

Ripping through one of the poor bosses

Ocean Commander is an arena side-scrolling shmup where players control a futuristic submarine and battle waves of enemy vessels, water-propelled crafts and mechanical threats in an underwater setting. The idea looks great on paper and in screenshots, with definite vibes from old school classics such as Seaquest and Sqoon. Your mission is to protect territorial waters as a special arms commander, fighting against an evil empire that has been making attempts to conquer the underwater city. You must stop dr. Shark’s evil plans to conquer Federation Earth before it's too late.

Playing the game is a bit weird, but soon you'll get used to it. Move the submarine with the left analog stick and use the right stick to control the target, pressing button R2 to fire. Provided you have it in stock, press R1 to trigger the "thunder strike", a bomb that inflicts damage all over the screen and melts bullets. It's odd that they just didn't transform the game into a twin-stick shmup, which would make a lot of sense, but I guess the developer didn't want to fiddle with the controls devised for the original PC game.

There is a single life bar that gets refilled in every level. If the life bar is gone the game is over. Green orbs randomly dropped by destroyed enemies can be taken to recover lost energy, whereas red orbs increase the stock of thunder strike bombs. Besides the regular score, there's also a counter for money that can be used in between stages to purchase permanent enchancements to the submarine. These include three upgrade levels for maneuvering speed, power-up, shield, rapid fire, torpedoes, homing missiles, laser, defensive orbs, bouncing spheres, lightning, ground missiles and spread shot. Prices increase with each purchase.

Upgrade mechanics are very similar to games like Heavy Weapon, also available for the Playstation 2 and more modern platforms. However, while Heavy Weapon does offer real thrills and challenge, Ocean Commander is nothing more than a repetitive snoozefest that's prone to put anyone to sleep after some time. It doesn't take long for the submarine to turn into a powerhouse that destroys everything across its path with almost no damage taken from eventual hits. Bosses have a few phases as you tear them down, but their patterns are extremely predictable and one or two bombs are enough to leave them on the brink of defeat. Since every level gives out at least two to three spare bombs, you'll only die during a boss fight if the controller fails or if you fall asleep.

A taste of Survival mode in Ocean Commander for the Playstation 2
(courtesy of YouTube user GXZ95)

Regardless of how cheap the whole experience gets after a while, from my brief time playing Ocean Commander it was clear that the best weapons to acquire and upgrade first are the homing missiles and the laser. In general, there's no need to worry though. As if the core game wasn't easy and tedious enough, getting through all sections of that map takes pretty much two hours in Mission mode. At least you're given the chance to divide the torture into shorter sections by choosing "Back" in between the levels, resuming the credit later by selecting "Continue". Just note that successively continuing doesn't reset the score. And if you beat the game the Continue option stays there forever, always giving access to the fight against the last big boss. 

Besides Mission mode, a Survival mode allows you an endless session where torture gets escorted by an utter lack of firepower. If you live long enough blue orbs will fall to start granting you a few power-ups.

The Hall of Fame high score table in Ocean Commander is as stupid as the game itself, since it doesn't allow you to enter initials and keeps adding whatever score you get for PLAYER. The screen below is the final tallying after I dispatched the last boss, the single enemy to be defeated in the 21st and final stage of another unspeakable experience in gaming mediocrity.

Good bye, Phoenix Games! But wait, if you spot any other shmup made or published by them that I haven't tried yet please let me know. I'm a sucker for torture sometimes. :)

Null Drifter (Playstation 4)

Arena
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
10 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Panda Indie Studio / eastasiasoft
Published by Red Art Games in 2022

Regardless of its perceived quality, every video game is a different entity in itself. It's a visual software designed to offer a challenge to players, if possible with some sense of fun and fulfillment derived from gameplay, visuals, story, you name it. Sometimes mindset also comes into play. When you think about a platform like the Playstation 4 and come across a game like Null Drifter, for example, it's difficult not to be amazed by the discrepancy between the system capabilities and the actual design of this little game, which according to the developer is a "1-bit lo-fi shooter".

Whatever that's supposed to mean, in practical terms what we have here is an endless confined twin-stick shooter with extremely minimalistic graphics. However, it actually uses the same stage structure of Void Gore (keep reading), another simplistic romp from Panda Indie Studio, and ties into a particular "universe" that also includes Red Death, Project Starship and Project Starship X. The idea behind the game is that the four characters from Project Starship X are using Null Drifter as a simulation environment before embarking in their mission to destroy the army of Cthulhu.

Trailer for the retail release of Null Drifter on the Plàystation 4
(courtesy of YouTube user and publisher RED ART GAMES)

Levels start out really short, with just a few scattered enemies with very little health. Your firepower comes out in powerful bursts that are initially able to dispatch incoming threats, but as the game progresses every level increases in length and difficulty. And eventually you'll notice that to be able to quickly gain control of the action you'll need to also use the dash movement, which makes the ship invincible for a short time and kills pretty much anything in its path except bosses and a single enemy that appears later on. All shoulder and trigger buttons can be used to dash, and the sooner you get used to it the better. Hints: you can dash in any direction (not only forwards), and in order to escape an expanding arch or a fast bullet (bosses) dashing against the border of the screen is sometimes a better option than dashing forward.

Even though power-ups are randomly given during the game, in line with the roguelite enemy spawning routine, permanent upgrades can and must be acquired with the cash earned credit after credit. Fortunately, this grinding phase doesn't take too long and is atcually good to get used to enemy routines and behavior, as well as boss patterns. You can upgrade starting lives, movement speed, dash cooldown time, stronger firing rate / bullets / damage and, for the very next credit, the ability to grab more items, more cash or to activate a "level 10 error", which actually corresponds to the right of fighting the game's ultimate boss at the end of level/wave 10.

The upgrade mechanics described above are very similar to that of another game of the same developer, Void Gore. And just like Void Gore, Null Drifter goes on forever after the boss in level 10 is beaten. The difference is that Null Drifter has a difficulty progression that's a little more aggressive. It pretty much maxes out after entering the loop (getting past stage 10), so doing whatever you can to preserve lives is a must to reach higher levels. This is important for scoring because the game tracks your points in a very unique way: your best score is the highest level you were able to reach × 1.000.000 + your cash inventory. Simply put, it's all down to the level reached, and also the fact that if you want to see your highest score you need to be online (connected to the Playstation Network). Unfortunately there isn't any offline high score table.

Once you've maxed out the shop upgrades coins become irrelevant, but purchasing "next game, more bonuses" is mandatory to generate more power-up icons as you get through the next credit. In order of likelihood to appear, the item gallery consists of: life up (L), bullets (B), fire rate up (R), damage up (D), shotgun (S), temporary overload (!), shop sales ($) and homing bullets (H). Shop sales probably refers to small discounts in the game shop. As for homing, it's very rare and pretty much absent for most of the runs.

Where do I go from here, captain???

Surviving the onslaught of later levels comes down to one single strategy aim, and that is crowd control. Dispatch every single enemy fast, and by all means avoid allowing them to overlap attacks. This is when Null Drifter tends to become a messy chaos where lives will soon be drained in a snap.  Beware of the happy face that cruises the screen slowly. Even though it is certain to release an extra life, it has a humongous amount of health and won't die with one or two dashes, a situation that often leads you into losing a life in the process.

Chances are most people will be thrown off by the rudimentary graphics, but if you're one who enjoys actual gameplay the good news is that once everything is maxed out the rush provided by Null Drifter is real, and definitely has the potential to pull players back for that one extra try. Sure it's hard to justify a blu-ray disc being home to such a simple piece of software since, frankly, it's like having an Atari 2600 game at hand. An Atari 2600 game on steroids, but still.

Most of the color palettes unlocked while you play are a strain on the eyes, but the AI-generated music is strangely soothing and, why not, relatively relaxing. I left all video tweaks disabled (invasive effects, screen shade, chromatic aberration and shaking/vibrating when firing) and played mostly with palette #22 (Seaweed). My final result is below, having reached level 23.

Macross 2036 (PC Engine CD)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
4 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed, selectable at start
- - - - - - -
Developed by Masaya
Published by Big West in 1992

Immensely popular ever since its creation in 1982, the Macross anime spawned so many related products that keeping track of all of them is certainly a daunting task. Video games based on the series are one such example, yet for natural reasons most of them are shooters. When speaking about home consoles, I believe that The Super Dimension Fortress Macross 2036, or just Macross 2036, is the second release after the rudimentary but surprisingly fun Macross game on the Famicom. It came before Macross - Scrambled Valkyrie for the Super Nintendo and serves as a good preamble for that game in particular. It's not as accomplished, but it's quite decent in its own right.

With the advent of the CD format, it's clear that the story turns into an extremely important part of the game if you're a fan of the show and would somehow want to know how the cut scenes unfold, after all they're supposed to take place after the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie released in 1984. If you're like me, however, it's good to know that it's possible to turn off all animated cut scenes at the first selection screen before starting the game, along with the difficulty and the desired ship speed. All you'll see then are quick images of bosses prior to the beginning of the level and, of course, the ending animation and final credits.

Another differential of Macross 2036 is the soundtrack, now boasting the unmistakeable franchise motif and a collection of equally fitting tunes. In essence, we're talking about decent fan service here. But what about gameplay?

Macross 2036 - Stage 1
(courtesy of YouTube user dfw1234)

As a sidescroller, the gameplay in Macross 2036 is competent. One button shoots, and while the other one seems to do nothing, it finds its purpose in the second stage since in-between levels you can choose a special weapon based on the amount of points you have scored so far. Then this secondary weapon is fired with the second button. Its use is limited though, as indicated by the overheat meter in the lower left corner of the screen. If it goes into the red zone the efficiency of the special weapon is severely reduced, to which you must wait for it to cool down. Different weapons have different heat and cooldown times. They also can't be used twice in a row, i.e., in successive stages.

In order to upgrade the main weapon power-ups are released from specific enemies, most of them with different colors from the others in any particular wave. Orange items upgrade the main shot, whereas blue items power up the missiles. Invisible items can also be uncovered by shooting at their locations, consisting of a Minmei face (extra life) and the shadow of the Valkyrie ship (quite a long invincibility period). It's very handy to know the location of invincibility items since they are an invaluable help in getting through some of the most intense sections in certain levels. As for extra lives, you also earn extends by scoring at the 100, 200 and 400 thousand point marks.

Intensity, by the way, appears in sparse doses. Most of the time enemies will come from the front, with quicker hazards being signalled by a crosshair that pops up over the ship, followed by an attack that can come from any direction (left or right). There are certain areas, however, where enemy attacks will overlap all of a sudden and push you into unwanted collisions and deaths. That's why standing in the middle of the screen is always the best approach. The fighter jet is powerful enough to handle pretty much anything despite the relatively slow upgrading process.

Even though Macross 2036 is a horizontal shooter, the game changes a bit during boss fights. The fighter jet assumes the battroid form, which fires continuously while both buttons are then used to turn the mecha around. The overheat meter becomes a health gauge, allowing you to take two hits before losing a life. It's an interesting concept that isn't that hard to grasp especially because bosses aren't really that menacing, most of them with easily readable attack patterns. The gerwalk form, that intermediate transition that acts as a VTOL unit or "chicken walker" mecha, appears in stage 5 as you navigate through maze-like walls.

Beware, jumping mechanical aliens ahead

With the exception of the 5th stage, all other levels are open areas with tiled backgrounds that in general scroll by really fast. The 4th stage is really short and has no boss, with the ship crashing against something whose nature is certainly explained in the cut scene that follows. As for the 5th stage, there's no harm in touching walls there, but it's important to select a secondary weapon that gives you some ability to protect yourself or to cover the screen while hitting enemies through walls.

Regarding the effectiveness of the assortment of special weapons, it was nice to notice that they're all useful somehow, even the ones that don't seem that effective in the beginning. I tried pretty much all of them, and the only one that felt weak was the one that fires a salvo of needle bullets. Unfortunately I didn't get to the point of using the last one, the guided laser. It's not easy to achieve sufficient points to be able to select it prior to the final stage, but since the game does not reset your score when you continue one way to at least get to see it is dying on purpose at the end of the levels to replay them after continuing (3 continues available).

I beat the game in the Normal difficulty (normal speed) with the result below. Unfortunately there's no score buffering anywhere and the final extra points you get by defeating the last boss will stay on screen for approximately one second only, so take that into consideration if you want to get a snapshot of your 1CC score when playing on a real console. As for the two extra options during the start screen (unrivaled and player), they're actually cheats and can only be accessed by means of a secret code.