Override (PC Engine)

Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
6 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed selectable
- - - - - - -
Developed by Sting
Published by Data East in 1990

After playing Override for a little while it’s easy to notice a good amount of influence from two developers that helped shape the 8 and 16 bit console scene back in the day: Compile and Hudson Soft. As far as I know they have no saying at all in this relatively obscure vertical shooter, which has a counterpart for the Sharp X68000 computer system under the name Last Batallion. As usual in the case of obscure titles, both were only released in Japan.

The good news is that Override incorporates some of the best traits from 8/16-bit Compile, such as frantic action and a flashy weapon gallery, all of it exquisitely programmed to run with absolutely no slowdown. On the other side, the game fails to harness the potential to be one of the best shmup outings in the PC Engine library, mainly by looping eternally with little increase in difficulty while still preserving a generous extend scheme of an extra life for every 70.000 points scored. To keep it PC Engine only, it suffers from the same unfortunate fate of Toy Shop Boys, another example of wasted raw material.

Regardless of the above observations, there’s no denying that a good deal of quick fun awaits those who decide to try Override. The story goes that alien creatures once again were threatening the world, invading the underground and building secret bases in order to kill the planet from within. How do I know that? Because I’m a psychic and I have just concocted this story, of course! Outside from the cool display of the spaceship in the ending and the brief take-off animation after you press START, there are no other special frills in this game. So prep your controller, make up your own story and off you go blast aliens across six levels of decently sized duration.

Forests must be protected from alien scum

Command inputs are simple: button II shoots, button I switches between three preset speeds. Special harmless carriers zap across the screen from one side to the other at defined intervals and release items when hit. These stagger down slowly before disappearing, and range from the ever-present power-up (P) to color-coded weapon icons and energy recovery cells (E). Each E refills one lost cell in the energy gauge, which comes with three slots and allows a good survival window before you lose a life. P is responsible for upgrading the main shot, whereas auxiliary orbs are only generated after collecting the first colored weapon item.

Color items always cycle in the same order: blue (trailing options, forward laser), purple (fixed options, side shot), red (fixed options, 45º shot with homing ability at max power), yellow (moving options, directional reverse-shot), green (rotating options, forward wave shot), then blue etc. The first color to emerge is always the next after the one you’re currently using, so if you want to take the same color for a much needed upgrade (maxes out at 4) just wait to take the item as it approaches the bottom of the screen. As a rule of thumb, unless you’re desperate for a specific item there’s no need to rush to get it.

The last observation about the gameplay is actually the most important one. By refraining from shooting you’ll notice a green flare appearing on the tip of the tank-shaped spaceship, and if you wait a little longer the ship will start to glow. Push the fire button and watch as an outward blast of pure awesomeness devastates everything in front of the ship, enemy firepower included. This special charge blast is in fact the most effective way to deal with bosses, especially when you start to notice their attack patterns are built around the recharging time of your ship. It’s also a very useful resource in offensive and defensive ways against a few enemies during the stages, and the best thing about it is that you can use it even with a bare ship.

Attract mode - Overriding evil with justice
(courtesy of YouTube user narox)

If Override doesn’t thrill you on graphics, at least it excels at providing fast moving sprites and several sections with nice parallax levels. The soundtrack is fitting, but the highlight in my opinion is the BGM for the first level. An aspect that bugs me a little is that I found the first speed setting to be fast enough for the whole game, so I never used button I anymore once I figured that out. A clear point of unbalance in the overall challenge lies in the 4th stage - it's much harder than the others, with lots of walls, overlapping enemy waves and turrets firing heat-seeking lasers that pour down the screen while giving you little time to react. It’s an awesome, intense level, but it should’ve been moved to the end of the game since it doesn’t seem to fit the stage order. A boss parade precedes the final boss in the last level.

I haven’t delved deep into the Soldier series on the PC Engine yet, but many people consider that Override bears the same style and vibe of those games. Therefore if you have a soft spot for them you might also end up enjoying this little shooter. Sadly, when you go beyond the basics and start analyzing the game as a whole you can’t help but think it misses many opportunities to be a top shooter. Excess power-ups give absolutely no extra points. Since the health/life system with no checkpoints feels too generous (just like the extend scheme), why not apply special bonuses for extra lives upon completing the game and do away with the loops?

The above paragraph is just some food for thought, even though it's possible to simply break the scoring system by safely milking projectiles from bosses. In successively looping the game I at least tried to get a no-miss on stage 4. I failed it, then took this picture in stage 6-2 before turning off the console.

Paranoia (PC Engine)

Horizontal
Checkpoints ON
1 Difficulty level
5 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Naxat Soft
Published by Naxat Soft in 1990

Paranoia is a very strange little game, starting with the name, and if it wasn’t for its release in the West as Psychosis it would be even weirder due to obscurity. While not exactly engaging by standard definitions, this little shooter tries to offer a dose of surreal action partially inspired by the primordial mechanics pioneered by R-Type, with graphics that tend to use saturated colors and in my opinion visually evoke stuff as diverse as Deep Blue and Thunder Force II. The sluggish default speed of the ship and the adoption of checkpoints don’t allow it be a totally friendly shooter though, requiring an approach that might be just a little more methodical than your average PC Engine horizontal blaster.

Button II shoots and button I cycles the position of both satellite orbs created whenever you pick up one of the power-up items. Items are always released by the fifth enemy within a recurring wave and have a particularly interesting entry animation – as if the game’s fabric was torn and the item was thrown into its reality, slightly floating up and down for you to take it. Besides speed-ups (S) and generous shields (glowing items), three types of power-ups can be collected in order to enhance the firepower provided by the default straight shot: close-range electricity bars (T), wave shot (W) and rear laser beams (B). Firepower is transferrable across all weapons with four upgrade levels until you reach maximum power, whereas weapon firing direction follows the current position of the orbs.

Zip through a Japanese plant nightmare

All five levels (or "causes") have very specific environments, and all of them demand proper use of the satellite orbs as a defense mechanism (these things inflict serious damage and can even absorb lasers!). By moving the ship towards the direction the orbs are facing they spread out to the sides, closing in again when you move in the other direction. This means that if you want to keep them together in place you can only move away from the orbs’ direction or along the corresponding perpendicular line. It sounds a bit complicated on paper, but after a while controlling them becomes second nature. Other than that, realizing their importance for defense is half the battle of looping Paranoia. The other half, of course, is memorizing the stage layouts and how to get back up upon death.

From the first stage, a short stride into and out of a wide cave with backgrounds of sandy beaches and clouds (!), to the last stage inside a much darker cave, Paranoia also takes the player through landscapes of trippy blocks, gloomy Japanese gardens and the insides of an Indian fortress. While it doesn't seem that obvious, the close-range electricity field (T) can actually be one of the most useful weapons. It’s possible to easily get rid of the zipping fast creatures of the 4th stage merely by carrying it and staying low. The advantage of the wave cannon and the laser are their ability to pierce through everything, which is great against bosses that have tiny or shielding weak points. The metallic fox of the third level, for example, can only be hit when it lifts the head at regular intervals, and if you don't have wave or laser 95% of the attacks will be deflected by the armored bodyguards, forcing you to make the fight more personal. The problem with the laser is that you have to keep the satellites on the back of the ship and deal with the awkward firing angle.

I died cheaply a few times in the second level because of the color choices of the blocky walls, which don't make a good job of conveying borders at the absence of parallax layers. Flying behind the foreground vegetation of the third stage can be tricky, so watch out for the little devil that controls an arrow that hints at which corridor the flying faces will come from. By the way, this little creature seems to be the same alien goblin that gives you the finger in between levels while a very muffled sound seems to say "fuck you". How's that for another crazy bit of surrealism in a game that's supposed to take place inside the mind of a psychotic person? Video games were cool back then, I'll tell you that.

Welcome to paranoia world
(courtesy of YouTube user headbangersworld)

Of special note here is the atmospheric music, that manages to be fitting, eerie and strangely appealing at the same time. Speaking of surreal, even though it's not clearly defined anywhere the enemy design is mostly built around an insect theme. It's as if the crazy worlds imagined by the game were infested by little bugs, and the ship is some sort of spray can with its spinning arrow appearance. Watch out for the small caterpillar that appears at the very beginning of the game. If you manage to protect it from being raped by the giant ants without killing it, a flock of butterflies will appear to help you on the fight against the first boss. There's also a turtle that comes to protect you from the falling bricks if you manage to reach the 4th level without dying.

Dealing with checkpoint recovery is fun, in that they're never too hard to handle. In order to recover faster it's better to let some enemies live longer until they spit out one of those power-up little bugs. Examples are the big orange egg in the first stage, the thorn-laden nests that come from behind and the huge spikes hanging from the ceiling, both in the second stage. Avoid destroying waves close to the borders or walls, since power-ups can drift off the screen or inside unreachable areas. For every 50.000 points the player is awarded with an extend, and considering that the second loop increases the challenge considerably an inflated life stock is very welcome once the extra round starts. The main difference in the second loop is the blazing fast speed of enemy bullets and the increased health of bosses.

There is no way to preserve scores at all in Paranoia, so unless you pause before you die your last life you won't be able to register your results. In the picture below I was about to start my final attempt at the second boss on the second loop.

GunHed (PC Engine)

Vertical
Checkpoints ON/OFF
4 Difficulty levels
9 Stages
Ship speed selectable
- - - - - - -
Developed by Compile / Hudson Soft
Published by Hudson Soft / Toho Sunrise in 1989

Those who’ve been around this genre long enough know that recognizing a Compile shooter doesn’t take much effort. Long stages, a multitude of weapons and frantic action: across the couple of famous series it gave birth to, that’s been the norm ever since Zanac saw the light of day. Expanding on the aforementioned aspects, the effectiveness of further Compile games – especially during the 16-bit era – varied quite a bit even though the challenge level often leaned towards the easy side. GunHed (or Blazing Lazers in the West, as released for the Turbografx-16) is frequently ranked as one of the company’s highlights, and if I may say for reasons that today seem more related to nostalgia than actual gameplay merits.

Of course GunHed does have some cool moments of shmup rush. The involvement of Hudson Soft in the development process is probably to blame for the unusual difficulty spike of the last third of the game, as well as the blended scheme of checkpoints and no-checkpoints that plays a pivotal role for those who’re serious about beating it. Hudson Soft is also the intersection that connects the game to the likes of Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier and Soldier Blade, which makes some people consider it an integral part of the Soldier series. As of today I haven’t ventured into those titles yet, but for now I can say that even though GunHed is unnecessarily stretched out, in its best moments the general atmosphere is of a well-crafted 16-bit shooting romp. And slowdown-free to boot.

Fire with button II, deploy bombs with button I and select between four flying speeds with the SELECT button. At first the amount of items and weapons at the player’s disposal is overwhelming, so it takes a little while to get used to all of them. Roman numerals correspond to the main weapons: I (photon blasters, Star Soldier 5-way gun), II (disrupt wave, good spread capability when maxed out), III (field thunder, electric laser beams with amusing visual flair) and IV (ring blaster, regular gun with rotating orbs). Collect the same type to power it up, or do it slowly by collecting the purple orbs. Alphabet letters create and upgrade auxiliary weapons: F (full fire, increases the power of the active weapon), M (multi-bodies, creates up to two trailing options), H (homing missiles) and S (shield). Furthermore, taking any icon for an auxiliary weapon is the way to acquire extra bombs, up a maximum of 16.

Stage 2 onwards
(courtesy of YouTube user Mushaaleste)

Regular carriers are responsible for bringing weapon items and purple orbs, even though you can get these from almost all enemy waves that are completely wiped out or from certain ground spots throughout the levels. However, players are allowed to carry only one type of main weapon and only one type of auxiliary weapon. It’s not possible, for example, to have the F enhancer and the S shield (not the natural single shield mentioned below) at the same time.

The simplicity of this weapon system is deceiving. After all, GunHed is filled with little mysteries that will only unfold for those who spend some serious time with the game. In the process of powering up your main weapon, for instance, a faint shield will naturally form around your ship, providing side protection against one hit at the cost of a power downgrade (the front and the back of the ship are still vulnerable though). For a certain amount of enemies killed special carriers appear bringing cycling power-ups that stand still when hit. Hit them enough or let them reach the bottom of the screen to see them turn into a blinking orb. Now for the catch: there’s more to their screen-clearing effect, since each blinking orb taken also gives you an instant respawn after you die. And that’s how you bypass checkpoints! Stockpiling these blinkers is the safest way to guarantee a chance at beating the tough final level of GunHed.

Another minor detail of the gameplay appears in the way auxiliary weapons work when maxed out. They acquire a temporary final upgrade that enhance their efficiency. A special case I’d like to point is the nature of the homing missiles, which are slow at lower levels but get very fast when maxed out. And they also fire more simultaneous rounds when used with main weapon I, which is an unexpected winning combination. One condition that tops this one in effectiveness is having the special 8-way shot, a secret weapon that’s only obtained by sticking to the following rule: empty the bomb stock and collect 30 purple orbs without dying or collecting any other item (only blinking orbs are allowed). A special power-up that looks like your ship will appear and grant you the 8-way shot.

Managing all these resources is the best aspect of GunHed’s gameplay. It’s harder to notice the gaps and the repetitive bits while you’re focused on finding the best weapon combinations. However, once a plan has been devised you start noticing how unnecessarily stretched some stages are. Some of them have mid-bosses and a few are certainly a joy to cruise through, such as the block-ridden treacherous level 3, the fast scrolling of the brain stage and the bubble area. The bad news is that by the time you get to the bubble level GunHed is already dragging, and the final level is pretty much a rehash of the 7th stage only with trickier enemies and a boss rush. Ultimately, the game just lacks substance to justify its long duration.

Destroy this boss arm by arm

The scoring system couldn’t be more simple. Kill everything you can and beat the game for a final bonus of 10 million points. You get no extra points for surplus power-ups, so use what you have for the sake of your destruction rampage. Going after the 8-way shot shouldn’t help in that regard, and on top of that it’s really easy to lose it – either by getting hit or by taking more than 10 power-ups once you have the weapon. The truth is that it’s much more enjoyable to tinker with the other weapons, especially the field thunder and all the auxiliary kinds. Unfortunately the scoring scheme in GunHed is broken since it allows infinite milking in certain parts of the game (such as during the quick confrontation against the 4th midboss).

If scoring is bust, at least the player’s left with the fun of playing a very long Compile-meets-Hudson shooter. A plethora of extra lives can be amassed by scoring (20K, 50K, 100K, 200K and for every 200K afterwards), and if you can take enough blinking orbs clearing the game on one credit becomes a lot less frustrating (I remember the first time I played it, hopelessly hammering the final stage on checkpoints until I ran out of continues). While the sound design tries to impress by providing voice samples for the weapons you collect, some of the music is at least reasonably catchy. Extra difficulty levels are available by performing a trick during the start screen: hold SELECT and press buttons I and II together at the same time; do it again to see further difficulties (a turbo controller helps); get out of there by soft-resetting with SELECT + START.

I got the best result below after experimenting for a little while and beating the game a few times (Normal difficulty). No milking was done. In between credits I tried to get my nephews to also play the game when they got fed up with the PS3 one evening. :)

Violent Soldier (PC Engine)

Horizontal
Checkpoints ON
2 Difficulty levels
6 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by IGS (Information Global Service)
Published by IGS in 1991

Games and their titles can be deceiving sometimes. For a long time I thought that Violent Soldier was part of the Star Soldier series of shooters. It was then brought to my attention by some fellow shmuppers that not only did it have nothing to do with Hudson Soft’s popular franchise, but it also boasted one of the most intricate difficulty levels within the PC Engine shooter library. I was naturally curious, especially when reading a few comparisons between this game and Rayxanber II regarding their supposedly extreme difficulties.

Come the day and there I was on a Sunday morning, cruising through the first levels of Violent Soldier. Indeed there’s a steep increase in difficulty as the game enters its second half, a very clear point of inflexion that in this case segregates casuals from persistent players quite abruptly. Perhaps a way to warrant the game’s name, I wonder? On an even further assumption, would Violent Soldier be instinctively aiming at teaching players the importance of being proactive? Is it all about fighting violence with more violence then? Jokes aside, this is actually a very straightforward horizontal shooter that drinks from the R-Type fountain but has enough personality to stand on its own. Note that I’m talking about the Japanese HuCard here – the game was also released for the Turbografx-16 as Sinistron.

Undescribable creatures in the biological stage

There are six stages in Violent Soldier. Just like many other PC Engine shmups, shot works on button II. The ship you control is seemingly too long, but only until you acquire the first colored power-up, which by pressing button I allows you to open its frontal hull in order to stretch the side reach of your new gun. There’s a noble reason for the mobility of that golden hull: it protects the ship from incoming bullets. A second power-up allows an even wider opening angle for this “beak”, thus exposing the ship’s hitbox even more at the expense of a wider shielding offset area. Perhaps more important than the beak is the shard-looking item that acts as a shield once you take it, the first one hovering above and the second one below the ship. These glowing shards block enemy bullets and can deflect some of the asteroids in stage 4 (important: both the beak and the shards cause damage by contact).

Your arsenal consists of both the regular shot and a charge shot. By charging button II the player can unleash a circular blast that damages everything within a close radius. This blast is the same for all three types of weapons, which are switchable with the corresponding power-up colors collected from destroyed carriers: red (vulcan), blue (wave laser) and green (homing missiles). My first realization when playing this game is that the charge shot is slow, cumbersome and ultimately useless. On the other hand, if you want to go the whole way you’d better get yourself a turbo controller because the game has no autofire whatsoever. With the beak in the closed position you get a faster firing rate, whereas a full open beak reduces the rate of fire in proportion to how wide the shot becomes. It’s all a matter of how defensive or aggressive you want to get, but you also have to consider that point blanking plays an important role depending on the weapon you’re using.

The last aspect of the basic gameplay is speed. With such an awful default speed the ship can’t do much, but fortunately Violent Soldier always throws a good assortment of speed-up items at every checkpoint. Each level is broken in half by an intermediate checkpoint, and the ease of recovery is one of the aspects that help destroy the myth of this being an impossible game (classics like R-Type and Gradius have tougher recoveries). That absolutely doesn’t mean Violent Soldier goes easy on you, because it doesn’t, and we can all be very grateful for the unlimited continues and the ability to continue from the start of a level instead of the intermediate checkpoint, a very nice feature that should be mandatory in all checkpoint-based shooters.

On graphical and musical terms it’s fair to say that there’s nothing special in Violent Soldier. It is competently put together though, with great use of color and very little, quite negligible slowdown. Starting in outer space and entering a base, the first level deceives you into thinking the game will be a walk in the park. Lightning strikes in the backgrounds of the caves during the second level, while an organic setting dictates the atmosphere in stage 3. The 4th stage is populated with lots of asteroids. Most of them break out in smaller pieces, but the ones with a metallic color will be drawn towards the ship when hit.

My 1CC run of Violent Soldier

Stage 5 seems to be directly inspired by R-Type’s stage 6, with lots of narrow passages and all those block-shaped ships moving about. Even though it feels less claustrophobic here, those tiny green walkers can do lots of damage with those fast bullets they fire. The best way to succeed is by devising a predetermined route and sticking to it. Also abuse point-blanking whenever possible and use walls to protect yourself when needed. A small note on point-blanking: doing it with the red weapon is okay anywhere around the screen, but due to its piercing nature the blue laser can only inflict good damage when you’re very close to the right side; the homing shot is practically useless from stage 4 onwards.

Finally, the last level ramps up bullet count and enemy hazards quite a bit, throwing wave after wave of overlapping enemies and patterns. Good crowd control is the way to go, always aiming for the most powerful enemies first and paying attention to the green globs that follow you around. It's as unforgiving as the last stage of Cyber Core, the other shmup developed by IGS for the PC Engine. At first I thought there would be a boss rush, seeing that you have to fight two very angry forms of the bosses from stages 1 and 2. But no, after that there’s just the final boss. I wonder if the developers went out of time or money to add the remaining bosses or if they thought two hard rematches were enough of a preamble to the final showdown. Unfortunately we’ll never know.

I haven’t tried it yet, but according to the Brothers Duomazov the Western version Sinistron has quite a few differences from the Japanese Violent Soldier. If you fancy something with heavy emphasis on memorization and aggressive gameplay (a.k.a. violence), the game is perfect for you. It’s definitely hard but it’s fun nonetheless and never unfair, with a level of randomness that can be properly controlled without incurring in nearly unbearable frustration, as in (just to close the comparison loop) Rayxanber II. Score extends set at 20.000, 50.000 and at every 70.000 points give you several attempts to overcome the harder checkpoints, also allowing checkpoint exploitation for higher scores.

My 1CC result on Normal difficulty is the one shown at the end of the video linked above (difficulty is chosen with the SELECT button at the start screen). The game halts at the following panel after showing the end credits in a very unusual fashion, and only resumes back to the start screen when you press SELECT + START.

Salamander (PC Engine)

Horizontal / Vertical
Checkpoints ON
2 Difficulty levels
6 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Konami
Published by Konami in 1991

As innovative and fresh as Gradius was, and this will sound weird, I have always wondered if people would somehow think its power-up system was a bit too convoluted for a shooter’s sake. There’s no denying that the weapon array came as a huge leap from the simple shoot/bomb formula of all shmups released prior to 1985, but what if someone found it too complicated? I myself have seen a few bouts of complaints about this, even if the persons involved later refused to admit their reluctance to fully embrace the Gradius way of shmupping.

Enter Salamander, the first spin-off to Gradius. It played just like the groundbreaking Konami classic, but allowed players to power up their ships instantly instead of waiting to get a determined number of capsules. The simpler mechanics relieved much of the focus demanded by the regular Gradius canon, which sounds just perfect for those people I mentioned in the above paragraph. Furthermore, it adds vertical stages while giving away the impression that you’re playing an easier game – which is actually true if you exclude the fight against the 4th boss in the arcade. As a whole, the PC Engine port fits that notion with the finesse expected from Konami, with the advantage of warranting its place in the gallery of conversions that provide an experience that’s very distinct from the arcade original. For instance, while PC Engine Gradius tries to mirror the arcade down to the details (bar the extra level), Salamander certainly doesn’t.

Bionic Germ and Meteorite Space on beginner difficulty
(courtesy of YouTube user 10min Gameplay)

I was a bit disappointed with the fact that all voices are gone from this version, so you need to memorize what each icon does when you take it after you have killed a wave of orange drones (or a single one in special cases). Similar to what exists in the arcade version, there’s a neat tutorial included in the attract mode, so be patient and wait a little before diving straight away into the game. Items to be picked consist of speed-up, missile, option, laser, ripple laser and shield. These upgrades work just like in Gradius, the only obvious difference is the instantaneous effect they provide. And as a means of compensating for the disappointing lack of voices, each stage now has an emblematic name that ties in with a general sci-fi motif instead of the whole organic backdrop seen in the Life Force iteration (which was never released for the PC Engine).

Playing Salamander is a little odd and different from playing Gradius, in that players need to incur in more memorization in order to survive simple sections in the game. The organic walls of the first stage are the prime example of this, but you can also add to that the flaming arches of the third stage and the fast drones of the fifth stage, coincidently all of them in horizontal levels. However, the PC Engine port has a particularly aggravating fourth stage thanks to the iffy hit detection zone close to walls, the more unpredictable nature of the volcano spits and the slightly downgraded efficiency of your missiles. These, by the way, have lost their ability to hit the ground in vertical levels, being restricted to crawling vertical walls only. There are still drones coming out of ground hatches, but these are few and far between.

All other differences in the port when compared to the arcade original are minor and most of them come off as improvements. The most welcome are the correction of how the shield works (here it won't deplete just by touching other power-ups) and the toning down of the 4th boss's ridiculous difficulty. Some areas were fleshed out with a little more action, most notably the 3rd and the 5th levels (fire and outer space). They received more variety in enemies and hazards, keeping the player more on his/her toes instead of turning into a snoozefest once you memorize everything. I have seen claims that the music has been improved on the PC Engine, but that's debatable. I was rather impressed with the sound effects though, one example being the neat cave echoing effect you hear when you kill some of the fire birds in stage 3.

Volcanos! Or is it Volcanoes?

As for gameplay departures, the only one that's worth mentioning is the adoption of checkpoints. But don't fret, ye who hate checkpoints! Checkpoint recovery in the PC Engine version of Salamander is easier and far from the traditional Gradius way of implementing checkpoints (where it's way too hard to recover in some of them). Moreover, there are far more checkpoints in a level then you'd normally expect. There's also a generous extend scheme in place that gives you an extend every time the score cycles through the 50 thousand mark (50K, 150K, 250K, etc.), which leads to cumulating lots of extra lives if you manage to play well enough. Some checkpoints give away so many points that for every two lives played in them you can get an extra life! Scorewise it's important to collect every possible item since each one is worth 2.000 points. I didn't bother taking more than two speed-ups though.

The port preserves co-op play, and a particularly interesting thing I noticed is that with just one joystick you can control both ships if you wish (dual-play lovers take note!). Players can select between Beginner and Expert difficulties at the start screen, and the main difference between both is in bullet count and speed. Regardless of which one you choose, Salamander loops and increases the challenge a good deal in its second round. That's when checkpoints start becoming really demanding. Having a turbo controller around for a faster rate of fire is nice because the default autofire isn't actually ideal.

As expected from other Konami 16-bit shooter ports I tried, I had lots of fun with this version. I played on Expert difficulty and reached stage 2-6, with the best result shown below.

Cloud Master (PC Engine)

Horizontal
Checkpoints ON/OFF
1 Difficulty level
6 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Taito
Published by Taito in 1992

How could anyone not love Taito during the golden era of video gaming? Taito was king, and everyone who says otherwise surely needs to play a lot more games before saying goodbye to this world. Example given: in the process of porting Cloud Master to the PC Engine, the company went beyond the simple task of downgrading the arcade original to the constraints of NEC’s platform and delivered a completely new game that’s more of a sequel than a proper port. Or a re-imagination if you will, since it alters the core gameplay drastically and packs up a tougher challenge by consequence.

The Japanese name of this version is actually Gokuraku Chuka Taisen. Gokuraku translates to something close to Paradise or Heaven, and that goes hand in hand with some of the game’s aspects and the reworked shade of a story. This time around the little boy that flies on a cloud is out to rescue a princess kidnapped by an evil entity at the start of the adventure. Furthermore, all boss fights take place above the skies and amidst a background of parallax-ridden clouds. The port isn’t as colorful as the arcade game, but sprites are all reworked and the animation job is great. If all you care about in a console shooter is visuals, this little game offers great material for the eyes. It reminds me of a mix between what a flying game with Alex Kidd would be like and Namco’s Ordyne.

The mid-boss foxy lady in stage 2

If we look at the bare-bones structure of the arcade game, it’s natural to conclude that the gameplay departure shown in this version is a very welcome improvement in every possible way. Cloud Master on the PC Engine is full of non-linear stretches with different scrolling directions and exclusive bosses that throw lots of unique attacks and patterns. At the player’s disposal is a single firing input with autofire (button II) and a direction switch (button I). Much of the stage design and the boss fights is built around this bi-directional mechanic, so the more comfortable you are with it the higher will be your chance of success. Don’t underestimate the game because it’s cute, chances are you’ll need lots of practice to overcome your foes from stage 3 onwards.

The world of Cloud Master is a surreal one. Waves of animal heads come towards you in between noodle bowls, while winged creatures with human heads alternate attacks with jumping fish and ultra-fast missiles. Archers, rockets, deformed faces, swords, knights, turtles, dragons, onion fans and mid-bosses. Mid-bosses are, in fact, the source of very precious secondary weapons: defeat them, enter the door and select one of the four types available. A characteristic wave of five vertically aligned enemies is responsible for bringing upgrade items if you manage to kill them all. There’s speed-up, power-up, invincibility and sometimes special power-ups that further enhance the boy’s firepower (only available under certain circumstances). The problem is that all these items are represented by kanji, but at least they’re large and fairly recognizable with just a few credits in.

It’s true that the more power you have the easier it is to get through the game. However, this port is keen on setting blind traps that take the player by surprise and require thorough memorization to be properly managed. Hit detection is implemented with very little mercy, so prepare to die a lot until you realize that you’d better have the cloud closer to bullets instead of the kid’s head. The wide spread of the main weapon from the arcade original is replaced by a single straight shot, which puts a lot more importance on the secondary weapons you choose to go along with it. There are no checkpoints during boss fights, but since deaths incur in a severe power downgrade and bosses can take a lot of beating before giving in, well... I’d rather have the checkpoints. Some people might think well of the lack of checkpoints on bosses, but I really didn’t like the idea of continuing to fight with the default combo of pea shot + slow speed after I die.

The music is catchy, isn't it?
(courtesy of YouTube user Encyclopegames)

Other changes in the port appear in the form of an extra stage, a series of underground areas with lots of narrow passages and a few exclusive enemies. Some of the secondary weapons present a slightly different behavior when compared with the arcade version, and if I’m not mistaken they all have more upgrade levels (every time you enter a mid-boss door on a single life these weapons are upgraded). Ground bombs are great in the arcade, but suck on the PC Engine. For brute force it’s always best to go with the dragon, except when it’s fully powered during the air levels (that stupid dragon falls instead of flying forward). I ended up using most of them because I had to devise alternate strategies for the occasions of death, but my favorites were the dragon and the rotating flames that evolve to a nice set of wave blades.

In my opinion the highlights of Cloud Master on the PC Engine are the bosses. They're not repetitive and they're totally different from their arcade counterparts. Dragons are the evil creature of the week and appear three times here, the last boss being particularly nerve-defying. There's even an unorthodox Buddha statue that throws puffs from the cigar he's smoking! As mentioned above, don't forget you don't get back to a checkpoint upon dying on a boss, so beware if you intend to exploit checkpoints. An extra life is granted at every 50.000 points and scoring is as simple as it gets, but note that shooting at seemingly invincible enemies also gives you more points (pause to test and check where this happens).

When you take away all the time you need to invest in learning Gokuraku Chuka Taisen you realize how short it actually is. That's one of the wonders of a challenging game (which often gets more fun the more you learn it) but also one of the reasons most people do not value shmups as they're supposed to (too hard, too short). I'd say try it if you fancy a colorful little romp with a little potential rage factor included. The last screen after the credits halts to show your final score, and my 1CC result is below.

Atlantean (PC Engine)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
3 Difficulty levels
4 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Aetherbyte
Published by Aetherbyte in 2014

In this day and age the PC Engine is all but a footnote in video game history for many people. Real video game lovers, however, cannot help but appreciate it as one of the most charming classic platforms, and having a new shooter released 20 years after its demise is nothing short of outstanding. Developed by an independent little studio, Atlantean has recently hit the market in full retail form with case, manual and the game in a proper HuCard – or AbCard, as baptized by developer Aetherbyte. For all purposes it’s the result of a labor of love targeted at the hardcore fan base, like many other examples that came before it in recent years.

Atlantean doesn’t try anything new or groundbreaking, and at first glance could be mistaken as a pseudo-sequel to the universally pawned Deep Blue. Fortunately the only thing in common between both games is the underwater theme, with actual gameplay being vastly different between each other. The homebrew homage to Defender is clearly evident in Atlantean, and since there’s no game with an equivalent style in the PC Engine library we can all hail this as the first one of its kind for NEC’s video game console. Granted, it only took more than 20 years to happen, but now that it’s here I guess a few more people will get a taste of the old Defender gameplay rush. Then we can all go play Resogun and meditate on all that stands between and at the same time unites the PC Engine and the Playstation 4 in this regard.

Anyway, in Atlantean the player’s mission is to guard the underwater inhabitants of planet Atlantis from being abducted by Aquanoid robotic invaders for unspeakable purposes (never mind the fact that the bad guys look just like sea creatures from Earth and the inhabitants look like statues of Baby Sinclair). In order to fulfill the heroic task you’re allowed to shoot (button II), trigger screen-clearing bombs (button I) and move horizontally at hyperspeed (START). The play field is the expected vertical cylinder, the scrolling speed is dictated by the player and an overhead radar tells you the location of all enemies and also the atlanteans you’re supposed to protect from abduction. Turning left and right needs to take into consideration the ongoing combination of speed and inertia.

Atlantean's release trailer
(courtesy of YouTube user and developer Aetherbyte)

Each stage is comprised by five sections. In the first one you face three consecutive invader waves, in the second you’re brought to the middle of the screen in order to weave through the gaps of incoming mine walls and in the third part you face another invader wave. Then comes the stage “aqualord” boss, followed by a bonus section where you need to catch falling atlanteans for an opportunity to repopulate some of the inhabitants that were abducted or died. This bonus round is only absent in the 4th and last stage, since the game ends when the 4th aqualord is defeated. Besides the regular game you can also choose to play an “Endurance” mode that removes all bosses and supposedly has no ending. This is set in the options screen (note that the difficulty appears under the “speed” setting).

Survival play in Atlantean is quite easy. Extends come loosely at the ten thousand marks and extra bombs are added to the stock at key points, e.g. when a section is completed. Preventing atlanteans from being captured leads to slightly higher scores, I just couldn’t figure out a clear rule for how it works. Since the only type of enemy that’s capable of abducting atlanteans is the jellyfish, watch out for them and act preventively to stop them from taking their prey away. Even if you destroy the kidnapping jellyfish beware not to lose an atlantean by letting it fall from too high. However, a falling atlantean can be picked up, carried around and dropped safely anywhere you want at the bottom of the sea.

Sounds and graphics in Atlantean are fairly average for PC Engine standards. The complete lack of power-ups is a bit disappointing, but at least the core gameplay is enough to keep the interest going. Parallax layers are used throughout and may induce a little jerkiness (particularly in the mines section), while the colorful design feels samey and doesn’t allow any stage to stand out from the rest. There’s a wrecked Statue of Liberty somewhere in the game, but what’s it exactly doing in an alien planet? Jokes aside, while capable to deliver the goods, Atlantean fails to go beyond the basic level of accomplishment. On the whole, the only real downside in the actual gameplay is the considerable slowdown when you come across too many enemies at the same time, which briefly makes controls unresponsive and affects the firing/bombing functions.

Mines on the third stage

On the surface the scoring system appears to be very straightforward, but as I mentioned above you’re bound to score a little higher if you manage to avoid the abduction of atlanteans. Every stage has 9 atlanteans to be protected, and the more of them you lose the less you’ll score in the end. It doesn’t matter whether you carry them around (by recovering them after they’re been lifted) or just let them lie peacefully at the bottom of the sea. If all atlanteans are killed in a level the scenery explodes and you're left to deal with only one type of enemy that approaches from the right in concentrated flocks. In order to return the enemy gallery back to normal you need to start repopulating the bottom of the sea by collecting falling atlanteans in the bonus area.

While attempting to achieve the highest possible score in the game I have come across a weird programming bug: the sudden cumulating of an obscene amount of lives (one for each enemy killed). It usually kicks in by the time I reach the third stage and it seems to be related to how successful I am at keeping atlanteans alive. At one time I even rolled over the life count. Unfortunately I wasn't able to top the highest score in the default ranking table, and unless there's a deeply hidden secret in Atlantean's gameplay I have the feeling it might be just impossible to accomplish that. What a downer, really... Well, at least there are different tables for Normal and Endurance modes.

In the last credit I played I was able to keep all atlanteans alive across all four levels, but nonetheless I couldn't even reach my best result, which is shown below with the yellow arrow. The game was played on Normal speed/difficulty.

Galaga '88 (PC Engine)

Vertical fixed
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
29 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Namco
Published by Namco in 1988

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there was Galaxian. Alien insects twirled, piled and conquered in the vastness of the cosmos as lone spaceships piloted by human arcade gamers endlessly fought for justice. In Galaga, the second coming, alien armies evolved for great injustice. When Gaplus happened every pilot took off with upgraded combat ships, but it was only in Galaga ’88 that the power of travelling to other dimensions allowed humans to finally apply a final defeat on the evil insect army, even if a temporary one – for those evil Galagan bugs never retreat, never surrender. After all, with no chance to survive, they had to make their time.

Jokes aside, there are many sources that will name Galaga ’88 as one of the defining games in the history of the PC Engine. Also released with the title of Galaga ’90 for the Turbografx-16 in the US, the port is still heralded today as one of best home translations to an arcade game. It makes sense, given the way gameplay, colors, pacing and overall vibe were duly reproduced. Another reason for the success is the accessible challenge level, which properly adapts the high difficulty of the arcade original to the console format. Up to that point in time, in the scale of fun fixed vertical shooters Galaga ’88 was unbeatable. Gaplus had failed to get similar recognition, and all Space Invaders games were just slow and wooden in comparison.

Stage 15, 3rd dimension

Basic Galagan behavior hasn’t changed much. Those bugs still swoop into the screen in circular motions, sometimes shooting and darting towards your position while doing it. Once the surviving ones are in formation they proceed to their particular attacks, which consist of shooting, diving, splitting, shielding, expanding, morphing, etc. As usual, dealing with them requires anticipation, reflexes, dexterity and a little knowledge about your own ship’s capabilities, starting with the choice of single or dual ship as the credit begins. Dual ship is undoubtedly the way to go because every player should attempt to acquire the triple ship as soon as possible. Here’s the receipt: (1) allow Boss Galagans (the uppermost bigger enemies) to complete formation, (2) wait for one of them to approach and deploy a tractor beam, (3) allow yourself to get captured, (4) wait for the bug with the captured ships to leave his position and (5) hit only the bug to have them merged with your new ship to form a triple ship. Despite the larger hitbox, that’s more power to you and also more chances to go the distance. If you get hit you lose one ship (triple → double; double → single), but provided you still have ships in reserve it's possible to do the capture process all over again to regain the upgraded status.

Dimensional travel is the defining element to challenge and scoring. In each of the recurring challenging stages / galactic dancing bonus levels (3, 7, 14, 18, 22, 26) you’re given the chance to warp into a higher dimension. To achieve that all you have to do is previously collect two of those blue canisters left behind either by the first stationary obstacle destroyed in any unscrolling stage or by killing one of the bigger enemies formed by the merging of two smaller bugs. Since stationary obstacles only appear from stage 4 onwards, the only way to warp before that is by allowing the bugs to merge anywhere in the first two stages. Each dimension is harder than the previous one and comes with its own set of different bugs. The stakes are simple to understand: avoid warping to higher dimensions and play an easier game with less scoring opportunities.

Galaga ’88 feels fresh even for today’s standards, and for good reasons. As stated above, the stage structure and the approach to powering up are remarkably flexible. The game also manages to throw a few scrolling levels that lead to boss fights, and even these bosses are dictated by the current dimension the player is in. Unlike in the arcade original, here you can spend the whole game in the first dimension if you so wish (originally you were kicked into the 2nd dimension after stage 10 no matter what). By the time you reach the last stage (29) a specific final boss awaits depending on the current dimension you're playing.

Colored insects want to conquer the galaxy
(courtesy of YouTube user shaurz)

If you’re already at the final dimension (4th) the warp canisters will have no further effect when the challenging stage is over. Later on a special type of canister with a different color may be released by the last enemy in any formation, for which you get the triple ship instantly regardless of the actual ship status. That definitely helps since later levels are often too hectic to safely pursue the triple ship, and here’s where most of the difference from the original arcade game lies. No matter how far you are in your warping journey, on the PC Engine things never get too overwhelming if you’re beaten down to a single ship. Other significant differences are the reduced number of dimensions (4 here, 5 originally) and the fact that you get different bosses in stage 10 depending on which dimension you are. Note: score extends are achieved with 50, 140, 300 and 480 thousand points. Hint: whenever you take a warp canister you become invincible for one or two seconds.

Aiming for more points goes hand in hand with reaching higher dimensions, but you can also work on a few other details to improve your performance. Perfecting the galactic dancing bonus levels is important because if you manage to kill all 40 enemies you get increasingly higher rewards, starting from 10.000 points in the first bonus area. Other sources are those bigger escort/leader bugs, bugs that split into secondary bugs, lemon bugs (lemon-shaped ones that shower down in pieces once hit) and falling debris in scrolling areas. As a rule of thumb, the more bugs you allow to stand in formation the more scoring opportunities you have, and that’s where most of the risk/reward balance is the further you advance in the game. Finally, each life in reserve upon game completion is worth 10.000 points.

As I mentioned above, fixed vertical shooters are rarely as fun as Galaga ’88, especially the older ones. It's a great treat even if you don't like the style that much. Upon completing the credit (no continues allowed) you’re shown a map with your progression across dimensions throughout the game. I finished my best 1CC attempt in dimension 4 with the following completion score (using a turbo controller for proper autofire):

Thunder Blade (PC Engine)

Rail shooter / Vertical
Checkpoints OFF
2 Difficulty levels
4 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Sega
Reprogrammed and published by Nec Avenue in 1990

With the exception of the recent Choplifter HD, helicopters have been totally absent from the shmup scene for a long time. But alas! There was a time when it wasn’t so. Sega’s helicopter game inspired by Blue Thunder and Airwolf might have been totally forgotten by the company during the 90’s, but at least Thunder Blade made many people happy during its heyday, be it at arcades or home systems. Well, maybe not so much in the latter category, given how much downgrading had to be done on the ports... However, considering that Super Thunder Blade is a pseudo-sequel instead of a port, the PC engine version could then be classified as the most faithful rendition of the arcade game.

Of course being faithful is a completely relative statement in this case, for the PC Engine could never equal or even come close to the superscaling capabilities of the Sega board. It does resemble the arcade look more than other ports for mainstream video game consoles, most notably the Master System’s (just for reference, the port for the Sharp X68000 computer is considered to be the best conversion). In Thunder Blade for the PC Engine the score displays and the stage progress meter were properly reproduced, but the same can’t be said about graphics and music. At least NEC tried and delivered a rail shooter with reasonable punch, one that’s far from perfect but still fulfills the mission of providing cheap helicopter fun.

The adventure starts in the city
(courtesy of YouTube user Encyclopegames)

With no story whatsoever, Thunder Blade puts the player in control of an attack helicopter armed with a machinegun (button II) and missiles (button I). The machinegun targets whatever appears in front of the chopper, whereas missiles will explode and destroy whatever’s down below (they don’t trail the surface as in other home ports). Each stage starts with a vertical section where the top down view forces the helicopter to fire forward in a slanted direction, causing the regular gun to hit the ground at a fixed distance (movement and overall reach is also limited). The second half of the stage unfolds in a rail shooting environment, and once it’s over you return to the vertical orientation in order to face the boss, which is either a large plane or tank with multiple turret configurations. Only the last boss differs from this pattern, since it consists of a static fortress in the rail shooting section.

There are four stages in Thunder Blade. They’re pretty short, and this somehow mirrors the short duration of the arcade original. Graphical themes are city, caves, river and oil refinery. Each main BGM is used twice: the most iconic one is used for levels 1 and 3 and the other for levels 2 and 4. The scaling effect won't set anyone's world on fire, but it's decent for the hardware. While the first rail shooting level is rather tame and lacks obstacles other than buildings, later on you need to exercise your dodging abilities around spikes, pillars and pipes. With an initial life stock of 5 and no extra lives in sight, the couple of available continues are very welcome for practicing later stages. No power-ups or upgrades exist, but at least the machinegun comes implemented with autofire. I just don’t understand why the developer didn’t do that with missiles as well, so don't forget to turn on that turbo switch for button I. For great justice. :)

Surviving the odds in this game takes some practice. Although the inputs are simple and straightforward, with normal/reverse controls selectable at the start screen, this is another case where the player needs to work around a few quirks in the gameplay. One of them is the slow firing rate of the main gun in the rail shooting sections, which turns the act of hitting airborne enemies a chore. You can’t just react to what’s coming, instead you need to fire in advance while anticipating the approach of the enemy. If you don’t do this chances are you’ll collide against them and die. In that regard fast jets are worse than helicopters because they can easily pass through your firepower. The good news is that they always appear in the same places and formations, allowing for some minor advantage through memorization.

Thunderous blades in action

Another point of concern is bullet visibility during the first top-down boss confrontation. Dancing around bullets is a skill that develops naturally the more you play, but doing it against the spinning fire blasts of the first boss’s middle section is always a nightmare. Strangely so, bosses get increasingly easier level after level. Your hitbox is deceiving in the initial vertical parts, so don't get too close to enemy helicopters that are taking flight and reaching your altitude. Performing constant round movements is still one the best ways to survive a particular tricky part of a rail shooter segment, just be careful not to collide against anything. And if things start getting too cluttered just “land” and wait for the flying hazards to flee the screen as the TAKE OFF message urges you to return to battle.

Killing as many enemies as you can is the key to scoring higher in Thunder Blade. At the end of the level you are awarded with a special bonus that's directly proportional to the kill count. Less than 80 hits yields 100.000 points, 200.000 points are given for a kill count below 100 and above that you get 400.000 points. I wasn't able to hit more than 120 targets in a level, so I couldn't check if it's possible to get an even higher bonus. Unfortunately the only stage where you can safely try to maximize this bonus is the first one, since the others are either low on enemy count or just to difficult to hoard.

The picture below shows my 1CC high score on Normal for this port of Thunder Blade. It plays considerably different from its counterpart on the Master System, but it's equally fun for fans of old rail shooters. For those interested, ports of other Sega rail shooters also exist for the PC Engine, such as After Burner II and Space Harrier.

Hana Tahka Daka!? (PC Engine)

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

What a lovely game this is! Colorful, cheerful and deliciously nonsensical! Sure, I guessed part of this when I tested it a few years ago and came out thinking of Hana Tahka Daka!? as a cute’em up starring a giant flying chicken. In fact, the avatar in the game is a “tengu”: a large creature from the Japanese folklore depicted with human or avian characteristics, often represented in monstrous fashion and above all endowed with a long red nose. So there you have it, I wasn’t completely wrong in my association, but if “flying chicken” sounds too mundane we can always stick to “long-nosed goblin”, which is actually how this relatively unknown game released only in Japan got to be known amongst those who’ve been exposed to it in Western circles.

Even though the tengu of the myth weren’t really benevolent entities, in Hana Tahka Daka!? a fox in distress calls for a tengu’s help in order to get his girlfriend and a stolen sacred scroll back from an evil raccoon. Looking at it this way it’s impossible not to see similarities between this game and Keio Flying Squadron on the Sega CD, which also has an evil raccoon as main villain and even shares much of the same gameplay vibe. Hana, however, has more Japanese culture packed in its design and comes with a softer challenge level. Add the excellent soundtrack to the mix and the result is a sweet shooter that delivers on almost all aspects that matter for a console like the PC Engine.

And that’s not all. More experienced players will recognize lots of things in the influence stew cooked by a very inspired Taito. Konami is the obvious first one (Parodius), but you can also see clear echoes of Irem (R-Type), Namco (Ordyne), Sega (Sonic the Hedgehog) and even pop material from Hollywood. Ever heard of Freddy or Jason?

"Urgh! That's one ugly swollen bellybutton, fella!"

Controlling the long nosed goblin is simple and requires two buttons only. Main shot is fired with button II, special bomb weapon with button I. Hold down main shot and release it after a brief while for a powerful charge blast (check the charge gauge on top). There’s an impressive array of items to be taken from little gift boxes, starting with the meat-on-a-bone that increases the size of the goblin and works as an upgrade for power and health. This means that each of the three goblin sizes has a specific effect on how you’re able to play the game. A large goblin is the most powerful one. Getting hit sends it down to its medium size and removes the ability to use charge enhancers (see below). Another hit shrinks the goblin to its smallest form, downgrading its power to the lowest level and stripping it from all active items or special weapons. Any further hit means death and return to a previous checkpoint where you’ll be respawned with a medium-sized goblin.

Three main kinds of items can be acquired. First there are the special weapons that work as bombs, all of them with limited ammo and fired with button I: lasso bombs (delayed explosion), ball bombs, huge hank balls and anchors. Charge enhancers replace the fully-powered charge shot with more effective functions: three giant spinning tops (top), five-way spread (golden miner), homing birds (bird), sideways crawling streams (dragon). And last but not least we have the functional items: speed-up (green wing), trailing option (little goblins, you can have up to three), rotating orbs (grapes), smart bomb (3-leaf clover), temporary invincibility (golden badge) and score bonus (gold).

Don’t even bother activating turbo fire on Hana Tahka Daka!?, even when you have three options and tapping the button seems to provide better firepower. The game never incurs in wrist pain anyway, and fortunately the charge-based mechanics around which it’s built work quite well, especially when you have one of the charge shot enhancers. Not only does the goblin possess greater destructive charging power, but whenever in this condition a half-full charge blast results in the unenhanced full charge blast. Confusing? I hope not! The result is that it’s always better to use the charge shot with a large goblin. Note: watch how a just-uncovered charge enhancer turns into gold if you get hit before taking it (actually any incoming item that’s somehow useless is turned into gold).

Besides six stages of rather decent length there are also six side quests to be completed. In each level there’s a hidden raccoon that gives access to a parallel room that scrolls in a closed loop, and once inside the objective is to find a special piece of the stolen scroll. That’s no bonus stage at all, since you can still die there and lose all your lives without ever coming out to the regular stage. Secret pieces of the scroll add 10.000 points as a bonus once you beat each boss, but failing to find them doesn’t really affect the rest of the game apart from the ending: there will be no clear view of the stills shown in the final sequence and you'll be denied the end credits (missing pieces appear with a darker color as the goblin puts them in place after beating a boss).

A goblin and his long red nose
(courtesy of YouTube user Jesper Engelbrektsson)

Easygoing is pretty much the definition of how Hana Tahka Dahka!? plays. After all, you’re allowed to touch walls and destroy nearly all enemy bullets. The large hitbox of the big-sized goblin doesn't incur in more difficult maneuvering at all, just beware of getting crushed by the scenery and watch out for cheap hazards in the form of traps, vacuum cleaning witches and hungry whales (getting the goodies inside the traps is possible if you do it very quickly, but overall it’s just not worth the risk). Levels range from mountain landscapes to castles with splitting caverns, skies, railroads, ocean and ice in-between. Secret areas offer other themes such as an upside-down section, a trippy clock-laden cylinder, an ant-infested candy land, a cemetery and an outer space scramble with whacked controls/inertia. Everything oozes with graphical detail, color and sheer creativity. And even though it’s really subtle there’s also some parallax going on almost all of the time.

Normally extra lives are gained with scoring (at 50K, 100K, 200K, 400K points, etc.), but look out for a special item shaped as a pink dinosaur in stage 4. That thing granted me the ludicrous amount of 30 extra lives! How’s that for some extra chances to beat the game? Just remember to suicide right afterwards and take the upper path in order to get the hidden scroll piece. Unfortunately playing the game for score is useless because you can amass any score you want in any secret area if you just refrain from finding the scroll piece. The continue screen is confusing (the active option is the yellow one) and since the game isn’t too long I think the password feature wasn’t really necessary. This password appears on the GAME OVER message and can be entered in the left option at the start screen (middle one starts the game; to the right is difficulty selection and sound test).

Since Hana Tahka Daka!? has no high score buffering of any kind, once again I had to come up with something really clumsy to get the picture below. I beat the game on Normal and collected all six hidden pieces of the scroll, with no milking whatsoever.

Rabio Lepus Special (PC Engine)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF/ON
1 Difficulty level
6 Stages (loopable)
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Video System
Published by Video System in 1990

For a little while I was thinking how rude Video System was to PC Engine fans. Why did the company give them Rabio Lepus Special, a rearranged version of their first shooter, instead of making a port for Sonic Wings? And then I figured the PC Engine was probably out of the mainstream curve by 1992, the year Sonic Wings hit the arcade scene... Rabio Lepus Special is from 1990, and a brief look upon some screenshots doesn’t give away the differences from arcade and console variations of the game starring a flying rabbit. That says a lot about how simple the original is, which leaves some room for the PC Engine iteration to shine on its own merits even if it’s just in a faint glow of obscurity.

No hints to the story exist before you start the game, but the shooting bunny is actually on a mission to rescue a royal family kidnapped by a dark villain. In between some of the stages you get a glimpse of them amidst a few lines of Japanese dialogue (the game was never released in the West). The rabbit’s arsenal consists of a single shot (button II), an assortment of homing missiles (button I) and his bare, glove-clad hands. The single shot can’t be upgraded but you can acquire more homing missiles by taking the correct item, whereas if you’re shooting the act of punching happens automatically whenever an object or enemy is at point-blank distance (hence the original’s Western title of Rabbit Punch). The punching thing is what makes this game unique, but using it requires a certain bit of practice because it’s really easy to get hit and die.

A snippet of the first stage
(courtesy of YouTube user Encyclopegames)

Every life comes with three health cells, so unless you take a carrot to restore an empty cell you’ll die on the third hit and get sent back to a previous checkpoint (there’s no partial damage anymore, therefore no carrot shower at the end of the level). On his way across outer space, satellite caves, a planet’s surface and the enemy’s lair the bunny hero is able to find carrots and other items inside static spinning barrels. You must shoot or punch the barrels to release the items, nothing comes out if you just touch or ram into them. Besides extra missiles and carrots for health there are also money (extra points), a red raccoon (a generously long period of invincibility) and a yellow ribbon (increases the power and duration of the homing missile attack).

Looking at Rabio Lepus Special more closely we can see that it lacks the intensity of the arcade while having fewer details, but nevertheless the game preserves the original style and feel with good results. Not only do the main inputs and most gameplay devices make the transition intact (only the spring effect is missing), but the enemy cheapness is also duly reproduced. This means you won’t go very far just by reacting to whatever comes at you while the screen scrolls. Certain enemy attacks will hit you no matter what you do unless you’re cleverly positioned or use a homing missile to proactively take care of them. There’s no going around this aspect of the gameplay, and in order to enjoy the game you must accept it. When you do that Rabio Lepus Special becomes less of an annoyance, turning into a manageable challenge once you notice that you don’t need to be stingy with the homing missiles.

Stage structure is where the biggest departure from the original lies. Earlier levels are the longest ones, and as the game draws to a close Video System gets shamelessly lazy: the last two stages (out of six) are just made of previously seen bosses (except for the final boss). The boss rush seems to have been split just so we wouldn’t notice how short the game actually is, even with the uneven stage lengths. With three bosses, the 2nd level is the longest one, while the 3rd and 4th go by really quickly due to the fast scrolling. Of course it takes lots of attempts and solid memorization to handle the ridiculous speed of some enemies. Floors and ceilings don’t do any damage but walls are just as harmful as the next jumping fish. At least health is fully restored when you start a new stage, and whatever items you had are properly carried over.

Where have I seen this before?

Digging a little deeper for details gives a bit more substance to Rabio Lepus Special. For instance, preserving health is better for scoring because each extra carrot is worth 2.000 points. Punching a barrel that’s closer to the bottom of the screen is the most guaranteed way to get the corresponding item, otherwise it will just land off-screen or inside a wall. A lost power ribbon drifts slowly to the left, so by all means try to take it again you if lose it: more powerful missiles make a huge difference in survival, especially because they are capable of smashing stuff that’s normally indestructible (such as the crystals in stage 4). And don’t underestimate the power of your fists, even some bosses can be punched in the face for faster and cleaner kills. By the way, the biggest part of the fun is in figuring out boss patterns and how to deal with them.

Even though Rabio Lepus Special is underwhelming in many aspects, it should at least be commended for having a more fitting soundtrack than its source. Given the game’s short duration, the lack of extra lives and extends isn’t such a constraint (more continues and other tweaks can be added by means of simple tricks). Thanks to the absence of any proper message during the end credits, the first couple of times I beat the final boss I failed to notice there was a second loop with a slightly different color palette, more bullets and much stronger enemies.

And this is my best score, reaching stage 2-1:

Side Arms (PC Engine)

Horizontal
Checkpoints OFF
1 Difficulty level
12 Stages
Ship speed by icons
- - - - - - -
Developed by Capcom
Published by NEC Avenue in 1989

Since I haven’t played at least 50% of it, I can’t say I’m versed in the shmup gallery of the PC Engine. But I do know, as a fact, that the only arcade company whose ports really brought the best out of the console was Konami. Konami’s titles (all four of them) are of consistent top notch quality and stand out easily amongst the outings from other companies, arcade-related or not. But why am I babbling about Konami when the subject of the text is Side Arms? It's simple: this version of the game leaves nothing to be desired when compared to the arcade original developed by Capcom, therefore placing it in the same level of porting excellence of Konami even though other companies were behind its publishing in Japan and in the West.

As a game, of course Side Arms isn’t in the same league of Parodius Da! or Gradius. Practical evidence of that is the arcade board never being as famous as Konami’s and the game never seeing any sequel. Forgotten Worlds is as much a technical development over it as Side Arms is to Section Z (which by the way is my favorite of the three). That said, the PC Engine version of Side Arms is impressive in the way it retains virtually everything from the arcade experience, from graphics to difficulty. It even improves it in certain aspects, and the first noticeable one is in the music for the first level. Here it’s replaced with something more energetic and fitting, and if you care about music in a shmup as much as I do you’ll agree that this was no coincidence at all. The first tune in the arcade version is prone to draining the marrow out of the game’s bones before it’s even started.

The battle for survival has started!
(courtesy of YouTube user Encyclopegames)

Side Arms is about a robot on the loose, shooting the hell out of creepy stuff inside and outside of what’s supposed to be planet Earth invaded by aliens. Endowed with the ability to shoot both left and right, this mecha (also called Mobilsuit) is able to fire several different weapons activated by collecting the corresponding power-ups throughout the game. Items are released by selected enemies and cycle through the following when shot at: Pow, bit (an orange orb), SG (spread gun), Pow, MBL (mega bazooka launcher), Pow, 3way, Pow, mirrored Pow (light blue color) and either a star or a yasichi. Contrary to what everybody thinks at start, Pow is a speed-up, not a power-up. It takes three of them to reach maximum speed, and the only way to reduce speed is by taking a mirrored Pow. All other items correspond to actual weapons, which are powered up by collecting items of the same type.

Aside from the absence of a 2-player mode, the biggest departure from the original game is the method to select weapons. In the PC Engine port the player needs to pause the game and then cycle through them (that’s how you’re also allowed to check your speed level). I can’t help but wonder why the developer didn’t choose to have a visible weapon array cycled by pressing START or SELECT, like many other shooters do. Well, at least that makes for a cleaner screen. As for the weapons, the icons for bit and 3way are fairly intuitive (bits circle the robot when the default weapon is being used), all others aren’t. Icons for SG and MBL are very much alike, but these weapons couldn’t be more different: SG is a 5way slow-firing spread, while MBL is a powerful thin laser with low firing rate. The star and the yasichi are worth some points and enable a weapon called Auto, the only one that comes with autofire by default. Of course that becomes irrelevant when a turbo controller is used (it’s definitely recommended to use one).

As the game scrolls you need to be on the lookout for the α/β icon. It’s normally left behind by specific enemies but it can also be found in hidden places. Once uncovered, grab it and watch as a ship comes flying off-screen and docks with the robot to upgrade its armor and provide an additional 8-way shot to whatever weapon you’re using. Never mind the way the robot seems to briefly shrink in agony as he spits bullets from his chest (I always found it awkward). If you get hit while in the upgraded form you lose the extra armor and get back to the original Mobilsuit, and only when hit in that condition you lose a life and the weapon you're currently using. There are just a few frames of invincibility after that, so don’t try to take advantage of a supposedly longer window to ram into enemies. In fact, losing lots of lives in a row because you get overwhelmed upon dying is quite common in Side Arms, especially during the swarms of items and enemies of the later levels.

Weird landscapes in future planet Earth

Refraining to take items in order to collect stars/yasichis for more points is the biggest cause of deaths later in the game. Since all items block firepower until you turn them into stars/yasichis, there comes a point where you need to take the items in whatever form they are to clear the screen and destroy potential threats. By doing that it’s easy to collect successive Pows and start moving too fast, which is also another source of danger (for me any speed above the default is too fast to play the game safely). Balancing item collection with speed management is the key to get through the second half of the game, when creatures approach flying and crawling non-stop from both sides.

Looking out for secret places with hidden items is important not only because of the α/β upgrade, but also to find extra lives and bonus points. The latter category appears in the form of strawberries, cows and golden barrels (don’t ask me about the reasoning behind them). Score-based extends are awarded with every 100.000 points, but they stop coming once you’ve made it past half a million.

Vibrant colors and faithful mirroring of all relevant aspects of the arcade game are already remarkable traits, but Side Arms for the PC Engine goes beyond that and even corrects some things that were originally off. Background confusion, traps in the terrain and that brief period of weapon transition upon armor loss are all gone here, qualifying this version as having improved gameplay over the original. The only crucial changes are the spread gun (SG) being capable of destroying enemy bullets and the addition of two brief extra levels – that is, if you consider every boss fight as being the end of a level (there is no separation whatsoever between stages in Side Arms). Other than that, if for any reason this port fails to excite the only one to blame is the arcade original, since the game itself hasn’t aged that well.

Next in line is checking what’s in store for the upgraded Side Arms Special, released later on for the PC Engine CD. My final 1CC result for Side Arms is below.