Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
6 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by NG:DEV.TEAM
Published by NG:DEV.TEAM in 2013
A sci-fi themed shmup designed with a vertizontal orientation (vertical scrolling occupying the whole 4:3 screen area), Fast Striker biggest claim to fame is its crisp prerendered backgrounds, a graphical achievement that also extends to the animation of bosses. Allegedly developed alongside HuCast's DUX for six years soon after NG:DEV.TEAM delivered its first game Last Hope, Fast Striker was released for the Neo Geo MVS in 2010 and received a few updates before landing on the Neo Geo AES in 2013. For this reason I guess it's safe to assume the AES version is the final iteration of the game, even though it would eventually reappear years later for other platforms.
If we exclude Last Hope - Pink Pullets, then Fast Striker is in fact NG:DEV.TEAM's second shooter. While completely different at a conceptual level, the company did strive for something what wouldn't be considered as hard to beginners, hence the presence of not only one, but four distinct game modes that sort of emulate the approach kickstarted by Cave in Mushihimesama Futari. Cave is indeed a major influence in the gameplay of some of these modes, even though the implementation is far from reaching the same standard of intensity and/or execution.
Fast Striker - Original mode demonstration
(courtesy of YouTube user ghegs)
(courtesy of YouTube user ghegs)
Basic controls allow players to fire a frontal shot with button A and a rear shot with button B while activating a temporary invincibility shield (if available) with button C. It's possible to swap the functions of button B and C in prior to the actual start of the game. Even though it's not stated anywhere, button D gives you a frontal shot with autofire, which is very handy because by holding either the frontal or the rear shot the ship's speed is reduced, and in the case of the frontal shot the pattern is also altered. This "focus shot" is of course reminiscent of the gameplay from Cave games, and has a particular purpose depending on the chosen game mode.
Speaking of which, these are the main differences between them:
- Novice mode - rapid shot is narrow, focus shot is a wide 3-way spread, the shield activates automatically if you're hit by a bullet but this depletes the whole shield stock (doesn't work on collisions); game ends after stage 5.
- Original mode - rapid shot is wide, focus shot is narrow with straight nuke missiles.
- Maniac mode - rapid shot and focus shot are narrow, with focus changing into a Dodonpachi-esque laser; the shield does not damage bosses and might increase their health (similar to bomb usage in Espgaluda);
- Omake mode - behaves like Maniac mode, but with a lot more enemy bullets and even slowdown; shields are now released from special enemies; there are no medals to be claimed.
While all modes differ from each other with relation to ship firepower and scoring mechanics, there are aspects that are common to all of them. The astronaut enemy, for example, appears in all modes, but only gives out extra shields in Novice and Original modes. Extra shields in Maniac are obtained by collecting medals without dying, while in Omake they come by destroying specific enemies. Speaking of medals, they are obviously very important for scoring in all modes except for Omake, where they're totally absent. In Novice mode medals take the form of yellow stars. To get medals automatically sucked into the ship all you have to do is avoid using the focus shot.
A defining feature of the game's difficulty that's common to all modes is rank, which fluctuates between 1, 2, 3 and devil (max). The longer you survive and the more enemies you destroy the quicker you raise rank, increasing the number of enemy bullets and making the game overall harder. The only way to lower rank is by dying. It's not possible to reach devil rank in Novice mode, which makes sense because it would be odd to have suicide bullets in a mode that's supposed to be tailored to beginners.
One final detail common to all modes is related to "secrets", as seen in the screen at the end of a stage showing the bonuses you get from items collected, shields remaining, no-missing the level and technical bonus (triggered by destroying specific parts of bosses). Besides indicating the max chain, this screen also tells you how many secrets were found. Secrets actually correspond to the act of uncovering the big NGDEV mascot, which converts all on-screen bullets to medals and temporarily changes medals to NGDEV items that are worth more than regular medals. In a nutshell, almost all secrets are related to destroying one or more of the larger enemies in a row. Sometimes this is followed by a "devilsplosion" tag that appears close to the score counter, but I wasn't able to figure out if this has any extra purpose other than trying to sound cool.
Where have I seen this laser before?
The formula for scoring higher is the ability to get the highest possible chain prior to the boss fight, whereby the chain count is frozen and works as a final multiplier for some end-of-level bonuses. In Novice and Original chains are simply the amount of medals collected, so the challenge is to kill everything and time the destruction of enemies that trigger the NGDEV mascot to get even more medals. In Maniac and Omake chains are increased by killing enemies in pure Dodonpachi fashion, decreasing very fast if for any reason the chain gauge is reset. In Maniac mode medals work as an extra means to score and also to regain shields (if you're able to sustain max rank all medals will appear as NGDEV items). Omake on the other hand doesn't have medals. In these modes point-blanking creates large colored balls that boost the chain counter, an effect that corresponds to the nuke missiles from the focus shot hitting large enemies in Original mode.
It's interesting to note that deaths don't have any impact at all in the chain counter, and this is valid for all game modes. Score-based extends are granted with 300 and 600 million poins in Novice mode, 800 and 1.600 million points in Original mode, and 2 and 4 billion points in Maniac mode. I wasn't able to check the extend routine for Omake. A single 1UP also appears in stage 4 in all modes if you play well enough there.
While the game is visually pleasing and all modes are quite diverse and relatively fun with their own specific little rules, my impression is that Fast Striker lacks the finesse neded to make it stand out. The techno soundtrack is nothing to write home about, common place and generic. The rear shot has an odd delay when used, with a very short pause after the first stream is fired. There are also a few baffling functional oversights, such as "broken chain" being heard all the time in Original mode even though chains can't be broken there. The shield gauge is present in Novice mode but of course it has absolutely no purpose there. Finally, there seems to be a luck-based autoshield in non-Novice modes, which definitely sounds weird but is actually good in any given situation.
My focus on this first experience with the game was to get the 1CC in Original mode, which I was able to do after a little practice with the score below. I missed several secrets and did not squeeze the game to the max, something I'll leave for the ports in other platforms, as well as future attempts in Maniac mode. Maniac and Omake have the distinction of allowig players to fight a True Last Boss if they're capable of beating the last boss on a single credit.
