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.