fuck water, fuck springs.
3 stars
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Lost Odyssey
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Final Fantasy 12
Final Fantasy is bought for the story. Even in the 16 bit days when it wasn't seven of the same character with different looking weapons sharing the same magic and armor, it was still far more about story than it was about any mazing innovations in gameplay, ATB or no.
The story? The story in this game is, well, it's Star Wars. Star Wars, only instead of Luke having everything he knew destroyed and no place to go but into his adventure that he had been unknowingly tied to since birth, Luke just had nothing better to do that day. There's lots of intrigue and assassination, which would be totally sweet were it not for the fact that no one in the story has any reason to hang around. Even Han Solo tried to leave every chance he could till they froze him.
Barring story however, it's the best Final Fantasy since the 16 bit days. The world and specifically the main city feel alive. The art direction--outside of the pig-nosed ladyboy lead character (who fortunately due to the complete interchangeability of the characters you almost never have to use)--is awesome. Against Final Fantasy 7's goth convention, 8's Minnesota teenagers and 10's beach eveningwear, 12's costumes look like they came from an orignal place; a place with culture, art and history all it's own.
The battles are a great improvement. No more "line up across the street and come over one at a time" nonsense, you get an open field full of enemies who'd rather be left alone. If you don't walk into their area of influence enemies will keep to themselves. While you can give commands to all three party members, you can also script different actions, such as "attack the enemy that the leader is attacking" and "if someone's HP go blelow 40% cast cure on them". This takes even more of the bland out of RPG fighting but at the same time is an autopilot. For example, i beat the last guy with the controller on the table in front of me. But that's A-OK with me. RPG battle systems have always been a chore, so the ability to have my team T C of B while I make a sandwich is pretty sweet. I'm still missing the "auto battle" command from Phantasy Star 3.
Small confession: all those collect-a-thon games I talk such shit on? I play the hell out of them. Got all the souls in Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. Have a 200+ hour Disgaea save file. It's like the game doesn't even begin until the last guy is dead (or might as well be in the case of my Final Fantasy 10 save: all my characters can kill it in one hit)
For every guy who's ever thought the worlds most insipid question, this game is the reason girls date assholes. Sitting there killing my hundredth fiery dog, hoping it would drop whatever it's rare item was I could barely remember why it was I was even playing. There was a vague goal of that sword I didn't need, but why wasn't I playing something else? There were other great games out at the time, but here I was in my dark cave doing the same repetitive thing for a goal I knew would not reward my effort.
Worst Story. Best Gameplay.
3 stars
The story? The story in this game is, well, it's Star Wars. Star Wars, only instead of Luke having everything he knew destroyed and no place to go but into his adventure that he had been unknowingly tied to since birth, Luke just had nothing better to do that day. There's lots of intrigue and assassination, which would be totally sweet were it not for the fact that no one in the story has any reason to hang around. Even Han Solo tried to leave every chance he could till they froze him.
Barring story however, it's the best Final Fantasy since the 16 bit days. The world and specifically the main city feel alive. The art direction--outside of the pig-nosed ladyboy lead character (who fortunately due to the complete interchangeability of the characters you almost never have to use)--is awesome. Against Final Fantasy 7's goth convention, 8's Minnesota teenagers and 10's beach eveningwear, 12's costumes look like they came from an orignal place; a place with culture, art and history all it's own.
The battles are a great improvement. No more "line up across the street and come over one at a time" nonsense, you get an open field full of enemies who'd rather be left alone. If you don't walk into their area of influence enemies will keep to themselves. While you can give commands to all three party members, you can also script different actions, such as "attack the enemy that the leader is attacking" and "if someone's HP go blelow 40% cast cure on them". This takes even more of the bland out of RPG fighting but at the same time is an autopilot. For example, i beat the last guy with the controller on the table in front of me. But that's A-OK with me. RPG battle systems have always been a chore, so the ability to have my team T C of B while I make a sandwich is pretty sweet. I'm still missing the "auto battle" command from Phantasy Star 3.
Small confession: all those collect-a-thon games I talk such shit on? I play the hell out of them. Got all the souls in Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. Have a 200+ hour Disgaea save file. It's like the game doesn't even begin until the last guy is dead (or might as well be in the case of my Final Fantasy 10 save: all my characters can kill it in one hit)
For every guy who's ever thought the worlds most insipid question, this game is the reason girls date assholes. Sitting there killing my hundredth fiery dog, hoping it would drop whatever it's rare item was I could barely remember why it was I was even playing. There was a vague goal of that sword I didn't need, but why wasn't I playing something else? There were other great games out at the time, but here I was in my dark cave doing the same repetitive thing for a goal I knew would not reward my effort.
Worst Story. Best Gameplay.
3 stars
Friday, February 8, 2008
Metroid Fusion
I love Metroid. I love that you can do all sorts of goofy shit and do things out of order if you know tricks. I also love the lonely space vibe it gives off. The closest thing it has to story is those animals in Super Metroid teaching you how to wall jump.
Then there's Fusion. "Metroid for Dummies" Samus giving you her thoughts on stuff and a computer telling you exactly where to go.
The one redeeming feature cos even most of the boss battles sucked, is the crazy dash charge jump business where you can carry a dash charge through multiple screens to get some special thing. And no one knew about it or cared.
1 star.
Then there's Fusion. "Metroid for Dummies" Samus giving you her thoughts on stuff and a computer telling you exactly where to go.
The one redeeming feature cos even most of the boss battles sucked, is the crazy dash charge jump business where you can carry a dash charge through multiple screens to get some special thing. And no one knew about it or cared.
1 star.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Echoes is right. A paler, distorted version of a once clear sound.
Metroid Prime was nothing short of a miracle. Taking that series into 3d was impossible and Retro did it.
4 stars easy
So, um, let's take Metroid Prime, but make it a Light and Dark world, like Zelda. Then we don't have to design as many maps and the game will be longer dude to all the "shoot object in light world, go to dark world, door is open" puzzles. Then let's take the beam weapons, make them suck and have them run out of ammo.
So we go from a supremely executed tribute and sequel to Super Metroid with zero missteps, to a fucking purple and black world full of teenage tribal tattoo monsters and me having to worry about ammo conservation?
1 star
Metroid Prime was nothing short of a miracle. Taking that series into 3d was impossible and Retro did it.
4 stars easy
So, um, let's take Metroid Prime, but make it a Light and Dark world, like Zelda. Then we don't have to design as many maps and the game will be longer dude to all the "shoot object in light world, go to dark world, door is open" puzzles. Then let's take the beam weapons, make them suck and have them run out of ammo.
So we go from a supremely executed tribute and sequel to Super Metroid with zero missteps, to a fucking purple and black world full of teenage tribal tattoo monsters and me having to worry about ammo conservation?
1 star
Super Castlevania 4
Castlevania 4 is a remake of Castlevania 1. You may not know that because like Castlevania 1, there is zero dialog or in-game story. Dude shows up at the gate to Dracula's castle, kills everything inside, castle crumbles. For all we know, Dracula was minding his own business.
But fuck that guy because laying waste to his property is the most fun you can have with a game titled "Castlevania"
4 stars.
But fuck that guy because laying waste to his property is the most fun you can have with a game titled "Castlevania"
4 stars.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night +
Symphony of the Night was awesome. I've played it through at least ten times, and gotten the Duplicator twice. I had a character with two Runeswords and two Heaven Swords. I beat it with Richter. I played the shit out of this game. And I loved it.
The game also ushered in everything that sucks about 2d Castlevania. It's a collect-a-thon. A MMORPG for the Metroid set. You run around and kill enemies over and over in order to get all the useful gear, then you use it to kill bosses easily.
Sure you can avoid the Crissaegrim, but then you fall victim to the game's larger problem. In order to accommodate for the huge variety of levels and weapons that can be brought into a fight, the bosses have simple patterns and take way too long to kill. The fights feel loose. No longer are battles restricted by what weapons you can pick up in the level and a lifebar. Sky's the limit, so you end up doing the boss patterns over and over and over and over. There's a lot of this. Tedium for tedium's sake. You've got the patterns down, but you have to keep doing them.
Which is why I always rush to the upside-down library as fast as I can and spend as long as it takes to get a Schmoo to drop the Crissegrim so I can run through the rest of the game like it isn't even there. It's not real gameplay, but It's good fun, even if it did ruin Castlevania
3 stars
+
I posited to Gorgeous Hair that the score should be 4 stars divided by the number of times Koji Igarashi has ripped off the game on DS. We decided that Igarashi should release all the sprites he keeps reusing so we can all make our own Castlevanias.
Igarashi recently did us a favor by releasing Rondo of Blood for PSP. He had nothing to do with the game but got himself elected "Mr Castlevania" over at Konami, apparently for his ablity to knock off Symphony of the Night. So here we are playing the most sought after Castlevania. The one that still costs over $100 on ebay. It was great back in the day, but it doesn't hold up all that well (CV4 does) and PSP makes everything harder to play so it double sucks. I'm glad they included the old 2d version, but the inclusion of SotN makes me think Igarashi's trying to convince people he made Symphony.
One game he is responsible for is the PS2's Lament of Innocence. Devil May Cry was originally intended to be Resident Evil 4, but it comes across as a much better attempt at 3d Castlevania. Lament is the biggest insult to the series, as it tries to be an origin story. It's got some neat ideas: the origin of Dracula and the Belmont rivalry with him was cool. The origin of the Belmonts' primary weapon was not. The Vampire Killer is a chain whip with a morning star on the end. Supremely badass and definitively Castlevania. In Lament you get to create it by killing your recently vampire'd girlfriend and turning her into the whip. But instead of turning into that metal pinnacle of destruction, it turns purple. Purple leather whip.
WHAT
THE
FUCK
I know it's a small detail and I should probably beat on the game for the fact that I had to check the map twice per room because of the horrible design, or for the fact that when I go looking for healing potions the game doesn't pause. I should be pissed the most about those things, but it's the purple whip that kills me. All the whips in the game suck (fire, ice, lightning and alchemy) and the Vampire Killer was to be my salvation. When I got it I had to double check that i was in fact equipping it. Purple suckage.
Then King Castlevania got back to his non-roots and got into the serious business of making us forget the potential Circle of the Moon had by making the shittastic Harmony of Dissonance. A return to Ayami Kojima's ladyboy heroes (between Konami and Square, i'd be amazed if there's a straight dude in the entire Japanese industry), and the exact gameplay of SotN, only with less weapons and less fun. I don't know how that game is so bad, but man it is.
(Minus 1 star for every game other than A Link to the Past that uses a "dark world" btw)
Stella got his groove back with Aria of Sorrow. It played much better and had way too many things to collect. Halfway though you get the ability to run through the game stupid fast. It is awesome, but begs the question, what kind of game should you enjoy skipping through at great speed? Dawn of Sorrow and Portal of Ruin have deviated from that formula not an inch. Seriously: level editor.
Rondo of Blood: 3 stars
Rondo PSP: 2 stars
Lament of Innocence 1 star
Circle of the Moon: 3 stars
Harmony of Dissonance: 1 star
Aria of Sorrow: 2 stars
Dawn of Sorrow: 2 stars
Portal of Ruin: 2 stars
The game also ushered in everything that sucks about 2d Castlevania. It's a collect-a-thon. A MMORPG for the Metroid set. You run around and kill enemies over and over in order to get all the useful gear, then you use it to kill bosses easily.
Sure you can avoid the Crissaegrim, but then you fall victim to the game's larger problem. In order to accommodate for the huge variety of levels and weapons that can be brought into a fight, the bosses have simple patterns and take way too long to kill. The fights feel loose. No longer are battles restricted by what weapons you can pick up in the level and a lifebar. Sky's the limit, so you end up doing the boss patterns over and over and over and over. There's a lot of this. Tedium for tedium's sake. You've got the patterns down, but you have to keep doing them.
Which is why I always rush to the upside-down library as fast as I can and spend as long as it takes to get a Schmoo to drop the Crissegrim so I can run through the rest of the game like it isn't even there. It's not real gameplay, but It's good fun, even if it did ruin Castlevania
3 stars
+
I posited to Gorgeous Hair that the score should be 4 stars divided by the number of times Koji Igarashi has ripped off the game on DS. We decided that Igarashi should release all the sprites he keeps reusing so we can all make our own Castlevanias.
Igarashi recently did us a favor by releasing Rondo of Blood for PSP. He had nothing to do with the game but got himself elected "Mr Castlevania" over at Konami, apparently for his ablity to knock off Symphony of the Night. So here we are playing the most sought after Castlevania. The one that still costs over $100 on ebay. It was great back in the day, but it doesn't hold up all that well (CV4 does) and PSP makes everything harder to play so it double sucks. I'm glad they included the old 2d version, but the inclusion of SotN makes me think Igarashi's trying to convince people he made Symphony.
One game he is responsible for is the PS2's Lament of Innocence. Devil May Cry was originally intended to be Resident Evil 4, but it comes across as a much better attempt at 3d Castlevania. Lament is the biggest insult to the series, as it tries to be an origin story. It's got some neat ideas: the origin of Dracula and the Belmont rivalry with him was cool. The origin of the Belmonts' primary weapon was not. The Vampire Killer is a chain whip with a morning star on the end. Supremely badass and definitively Castlevania. In Lament you get to create it by killing your recently vampire'd girlfriend and turning her into the whip. But instead of turning into that metal pinnacle of destruction, it turns purple. Purple leather whip.
WHAT
THE
FUCK
I know it's a small detail and I should probably beat on the game for the fact that I had to check the map twice per room because of the horrible design, or for the fact that when I go looking for healing potions the game doesn't pause. I should be pissed the most about those things, but it's the purple whip that kills me. All the whips in the game suck (fire, ice, lightning and alchemy) and the Vampire Killer was to be my salvation. When I got it I had to double check that i was in fact equipping it. Purple suckage.
Then King Castlevania got back to his non-roots and got into the serious business of making us forget the potential Circle of the Moon had by making the shittastic Harmony of Dissonance. A return to Ayami Kojima's ladyboy heroes (between Konami and Square, i'd be amazed if there's a straight dude in the entire Japanese industry), and the exact gameplay of SotN, only with less weapons and less fun. I don't know how that game is so bad, but man it is.
(Minus 1 star for every game other than A Link to the Past that uses a "dark world" btw)
Stella got his groove back with Aria of Sorrow. It played much better and had way too many things to collect. Halfway though you get the ability to run through the game stupid fast. It is awesome, but begs the question, what kind of game should you enjoy skipping through at great speed? Dawn of Sorrow and Portal of Ruin have deviated from that formula not an inch. Seriously: level editor.
Rondo of Blood: 3 stars
Rondo PSP: 2 stars
Lament of Innocence 1 star
Circle of the Moon: 3 stars
Harmony of Dissonance: 1 star
Aria of Sorrow: 2 stars
Dawn of Sorrow: 2 stars
Portal of Ruin: 2 stars
Gods of Wars
While Devil May Cry showed a great example of how 3d Castlevania could look, it wasn't until God of War came out that we saw how amazing it could have played.
This game is the perfect example of limiting things in order to make everything sweet. Only two weapons, both very different and usable in different situations. Sure the Chaos Blades are way better than the sword because they are the coolest action weapon ever given to any character in a 3d game, but the sword was still good times.
There's only three bosses, but each fight is very memorable and fun (except for the last last Ares fight, but whatev. Small potatoes for such a perfect game)
4 stars
Then the sequel came out and gave us what we "wanted": More weapons and more bosses. While my memory is good enough to remember what most of them are, I don't remember the battles themselves. I never used that hammer or spear. Ever.
The "brutality" was also cranked up, which is just gobs of stupid, cos while Kratos is a complete asshole in the first one, it's all grounded in how Ares fucked him over. In the second one, he's just like, mad and smashing random dude's heads for not much reason. He's way less of an interesting character. I'm not saying he's god's gift to writing in the first one, but all the cool things about him are gone in #2 and he's just a whiny mad teenager yelling "ZEUS!" a lot and killing as many mythological characters for arbitrary reasons as possible.
Speaking of smashing heads those "press X now" minigames have to go. Mother of god. I dunno if it was because of wireless PS3 lag or because I suck at Simon, but it took me near 80 tries to beat Zeus at the end. You get to the end of the game and they ask you to play fucking Simon. No. I want a well thought out boss that is challenging via the actual gameplay, not some lame attempt to make the story sequences more interactive. I want a victory to come from my God of War skill, not from my eye's ability to tell my thumb "time to hit the X" correctly. If I wanted that game, I'd have bought it.
This game is solid in the gameplay department, but all the additions to the core gameplay are letdowns. Flying is boring, the hammer sucks, and the magics are all rehashes of the first one. Not a bad game by any means, but much like so many sequels these days, it's more of a version 1.1 than a true sequel. See also: Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto, SSX, Tony Hawk, Halo, etc...
2 stars
This game is the perfect example of limiting things in order to make everything sweet. Only two weapons, both very different and usable in different situations. Sure the Chaos Blades are way better than the sword because they are the coolest action weapon ever given to any character in a 3d game, but the sword was still good times.
There's only three bosses, but each fight is very memorable and fun (except for the last last Ares fight, but whatev. Small potatoes for such a perfect game)
4 stars
Then the sequel came out and gave us what we "wanted": More weapons and more bosses. While my memory is good enough to remember what most of them are, I don't remember the battles themselves. I never used that hammer or spear. Ever.
The "brutality" was also cranked up, which is just gobs of stupid, cos while Kratos is a complete asshole in the first one, it's all grounded in how Ares fucked him over. In the second one, he's just like, mad and smashing random dude's heads for not much reason. He's way less of an interesting character. I'm not saying he's god's gift to writing in the first one, but all the cool things about him are gone in #2 and he's just a whiny mad teenager yelling "ZEUS!" a lot and killing as many mythological characters for arbitrary reasons as possible.
Speaking of smashing heads those "press X now" minigames have to go. Mother of god. I dunno if it was because of wireless PS3 lag or because I suck at Simon, but it took me near 80 tries to beat Zeus at the end. You get to the end of the game and they ask you to play fucking Simon. No. I want a well thought out boss that is challenging via the actual gameplay, not some lame attempt to make the story sequences more interactive. I want a victory to come from my God of War skill, not from my eye's ability to tell my thumb "time to hit the X" correctly. If I wanted that game, I'd have bought it.
This game is solid in the gameplay department, but all the additions to the core gameplay are letdowns. Flying is boring, the hammer sucks, and the magics are all rehashes of the first one. Not a bad game by any means, but much like so many sequels these days, it's more of a version 1.1 than a true sequel. See also: Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto, SSX, Tony Hawk, Halo, etc...
2 stars
Earth Defence Force 2017
If this planet was ever invaded by giant bugs, and the Marines fought them off and saved earth, and years later I ran into a veteran of that great war, you know what I'd say to him?
"Hey,"
Cos I'd know what he'd been through.
Game of the Decade.
4 stars
"Hey,"
Cos I'd know what he'd been through.
Game of the Decade.
4 stars
Magician Lord
I was obsessed with this game in the arcade. I spent however much money it took and got to like level 6 where there's two moving platforms and like, flying eyeballs knocking me off again and again till I ran out of money. Then I came back and actually beat it.
This is amazing to me. More amazing than the fact that I beat Ghouls N Ghosts on Genesis.
it wasn't at the time, it was just something I had to do, but I got a hacked Xbox a few years ago, and even with savestates I gave up after 3 levels. I was saving after like EVERY enemy and had all the dipswitches on "easy as hell".
Then, for reasons that currently escape me, I bought it on the Virtual Console. I played it this morning and got to level 2, but goddamn if everything about this game isn't shitty. The dude controls horribly, you die in a fucking second and start way far back. It's been making me wish my hacked Xbox still worked, cos for whatever stupid reason, I want to see if I can beat this game again.
I seriously don't know how I beat it back then. It's completely beyond me. I must have been a video game god. Like those 5 year olds who completely own at Guitar Hero, only with shitty Neo Geo games. The only reason I got into it is because I thought the combination of the guys' witch hat and ninja mask was the coolest thing ever.
I wanna stick it with 1 star because it's so damn terrible and so damn difficult and if I had done anything else with what I'm sure now was $100 in quarters by the end, I'd be better for it. But the game and I have history. Like Emenim and Kim, there's always gonna be something there.
2 stars.
This is amazing to me. More amazing than the fact that I beat Ghouls N Ghosts on Genesis.
it wasn't at the time, it was just something I had to do, but I got a hacked Xbox a few years ago, and even with savestates I gave up after 3 levels. I was saving after like EVERY enemy and had all the dipswitches on "easy as hell".
Then, for reasons that currently escape me, I bought it on the Virtual Console. I played it this morning and got to level 2, but goddamn if everything about this game isn't shitty. The dude controls horribly, you die in a fucking second and start way far back. It's been making me wish my hacked Xbox still worked, cos for whatever stupid reason, I want to see if I can beat this game again.
I seriously don't know how I beat it back then. It's completely beyond me. I must have been a video game god. Like those 5 year olds who completely own at Guitar Hero, only with shitty Neo Geo games. The only reason I got into it is because I thought the combination of the guys' witch hat and ninja mask was the coolest thing ever.
I wanna stick it with 1 star because it's so damn terrible and so damn difficult and if I had done anything else with what I'm sure now was $100 in quarters by the end, I'd be better for it. But the game and I have history. Like Emenim and Kim, there's always gonna be something there.
2 stars.
Space Megaforce
HotnessX2.
The pinnacle of Compile shooters. Blazing Lazers with better graphics, double the weapons, different layouts per weapon and awesome usages of mode 7. Also a little easier but that's not a plus, cos I think Blazing Lazers has just about the perfect difficulty.
Could very well be on my top five list of games.
Tons of genius business in this game. Level 5 where you have to not kill the drills till they get you out of the rocks is totally sweet. Almost every weapon can be completely badass (I like numbers 2,6 and 7 the most, but even 3 which is basically the shittastic IV from BL is way more workable this time out. Flattening the screen with a full on 6 blast is something else.)
I love it. Needs to be on VC, and until then is the reason I still have my SNES.
4 stars.
The pinnacle of Compile shooters. Blazing Lazers with better graphics, double the weapons, different layouts per weapon and awesome usages of mode 7. Also a little easier but that's not a plus, cos I think Blazing Lazers has just about the perfect difficulty.
Could very well be on my top five list of games.
Tons of genius business in this game. Level 5 where you have to not kill the drills till they get you out of the rocks is totally sweet. Almost every weapon can be completely badass (I like numbers 2,6 and 7 the most, but even 3 which is basically the shittastic IV from BL is way more workable this time out. Flattening the screen with a full on 6 blast is something else.)
I love it. Needs to be on VC, and until then is the reason I still have my SNES.
4 stars.
Blazing Lazers
The Hotness.
I remember when this came out for the TG16. I had a TG16, but it took me like a month to earn enough cash to buy games, and after only getting Legendary Axe, I sold the system so I could buy a SNES. It wasn't till college and ebay that I could revisit this gem of a game.
Basic deal: it's a Compile SHMUP. That means it's amazing. I don't remember why, but I had ZANAC for the NES. I think it was the only game I could afford. I never beat it, but I did love the tons of different weapons and weird crap hidden in the game ( like shooting that little statue on LV3 that made you mega powerful--WTF?). Blazing Lazers is pared down, as there's not as many weapons, and one of them totally sucks (i'm looking at you #4), but the gameplay is tighter and it's on teh TG16 which makes it kind of magical to me.
Mostly though, it's a Compile shooter, and there just aren't enough of them. No one's ever done another one and the current trend of these bullet dodging games coming out of Japan is just boring to me. Choose between the spread weapon and the forward lazer, then dodge pink bullets. Booooriiing.
Ikaruga's tight, but I'm missing that ability specific to the Compile games, the ability to power up your ship to ungodly levels. Screen filling lighting lasers or whatever that V laser is called. (the other two weapons pretty much suck). There's nothing out there like that. Complete dominance over the screen.
Of course, if you die, you're gonna have the shittiest weakest ship (see also Gradius 1-4) in the universe and are gonna have to unload all your bombs in a desperate attempt to get at least a level 2 lightning laser or a shield powerup, and that sucks. But shit. Totally worth it to have those moments of just leveling things onscreen.
Compile needs to make more games like this. I read on wikipedia that some of the crew is still out there but Chaos Field and Karous look more like the new style shooters than old Compile. They may very well be fine games, but not the same. Not since Space Megaforce has the glow of this brilliance been upon us.
3 stars.
I remember when this came out for the TG16. I had a TG16, but it took me like a month to earn enough cash to buy games, and after only getting Legendary Axe, I sold the system so I could buy a SNES. It wasn't till college and ebay that I could revisit this gem of a game.
Basic deal: it's a Compile SHMUP. That means it's amazing. I don't remember why, but I had ZANAC for the NES. I think it was the only game I could afford. I never beat it, but I did love the tons of different weapons and weird crap hidden in the game ( like shooting that little statue on LV3 that made you mega powerful--WTF?). Blazing Lazers is pared down, as there's not as many weapons, and one of them totally sucks (i'm looking at you #4), but the gameplay is tighter and it's on teh TG16 which makes it kind of magical to me.
Mostly though, it's a Compile shooter, and there just aren't enough of them. No one's ever done another one and the current trend of these bullet dodging games coming out of Japan is just boring to me. Choose between the spread weapon and the forward lazer, then dodge pink bullets. Booooriiing.
Ikaruga's tight, but I'm missing that ability specific to the Compile games, the ability to power up your ship to ungodly levels. Screen filling lighting lasers or whatever that V laser is called. (the other two weapons pretty much suck). There's nothing out there like that. Complete dominance over the screen.
Of course, if you die, you're gonna have the shittiest weakest ship (see also Gradius 1-4) in the universe and are gonna have to unload all your bombs in a desperate attempt to get at least a level 2 lightning laser or a shield powerup, and that sucks. But shit. Totally worth it to have those moments of just leveling things onscreen.
Compile needs to make more games like this. I read on wikipedia that some of the crew is still out there but Chaos Field and Karous look more like the new style shooters than old Compile. They may very well be fine games, but not the same. Not since Space Megaforce has the glow of this brilliance been upon us.
3 stars.
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