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Jan 18th, 2007 at 19:39:23 - Air Fortress (NES) |
I recently obtained a good emulator for the NES, RockNESX, and was browsing the list of games. Most of them were terrible and I was rather disappointed at the lack of any good titles. However, I finally stumbled upon Air Fortress, a title developed in 1987 by HAL Laboratories Inc. in Japan and localized by HAL America Inc. for it's 1989 release. HAL Laboratories is probably most famous for their development of the Super Smash Bros series of games for Nintendo. This is a gem of a game not only because of its controls are much tighter than one would expect from other NES titles but also the original take the game has on the played out side scrolling shooter.
Air Fortress takes the idea of a side scrolling shooter and combines it with some aspects of an adventure game. As you enter the fortress, you must first fly to the docking bay of the fortress. This section plays out exactly as you would expect. Hal Bailman is on his flying speed bike and can only shoot forward as a selection of enemies attack him. As he makes his way to the docking bay, he collects Energy tokens and Bomb tokens. Collecting as many of these as possible determines how difficult the next section will be.
Once inside the fortress, Hal Bailman exits his speed cycle and the player may now navigate through series of room via his jet pack. Now the player may shoot either left and right and the enemies each have a unique way to beat them. This allow the game the incorporate some limited puzzles in the game. The energy also serves as a timer, as Hal Bailman looses energy as he is exposed to an unsealed room. Therefore there is also an added speed element to the game as you will loose health the longer you are in any one room. Ones energy, minus the damage taken by enemies is restored when transitioning from room to room. This combination of shooter adventure and puzzle game is what makes this game so much fun. I think it is the link between the first stage, the “charge stage” and the “battle stage.” With these two stages there is always room for improvement because there are some difficult Energy tokens to get and the more health one reserves for the battle stage the easier it is.
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Jan 11th, 2007 at 20:24:10 - Every Extend Extra (PSP) |
I continue to find this game very difficult. I still have only beaten the first stage twice and have only gotten to the boss on the second stage once in the two hours that I have been play the game. However, during my last session of game play I payed closer attention to what I believe has made games such as Lumines such popular titles: Design.
The visuals in this game are absolutely gorgeous and original. Not only does each stage have its own music, which is a beautiful thing in of itself, but the background and enemy ships have their own unique style in each stage. As the enemies change, so do the mechanics of how to beat the stage. For instance in the first stage is called 'Saturday Night Drive' has many influences of the night life such as neon lights and flashing signs. The enemy ships are glowing triangles and the boss is a series of street lights. The music is also reminiscent of the night. With interesting synth lines and a bouncy and flowing rhythm.
The second stage changes dramatically. Named 'Sakura Dreams', this stage has fluttering butterfly like enemies and a flowery, presumably cherry blossoms, background. A cartoon effect, similar to Loco Roco is another aspect of this stage. In this stage, the enemies come in different patterns and are noticeably closer to each other. This changes the range that the bomb and effect and the chains are not as large forcing the player to change their own strategy for beating the game. The boss on this stage are a pair of flowers, which have a different style of attacking than the previous boss. Tri-Mirai used only shooting attacks while the second stage boss uses sweeping attacks.
The more I play this game the more drive I have to beat it. It is truly a great game and is a must have for any fan of puzzle and music games.
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Jan 11th, 2007 at 20:22:46 - Every Extend Extra (PSP) |
From the creators of Lumines and Lumines II, comes Every Extend Extra. An entrancing music game reminiscent of the PlayStation 2 game Rez. The player is given a small ship equipped with a limited number of bombs and is challenged to cause “massive damage” in the game by destroying as many enemies as possible with a single blast. After the blast, a new ship is flown in and the game continues.
The game is so easy to learn that I began playing the Arcade Mode immediately. However, the while the controls and the premise may seem simple, the game is anything but. I lost within a minute. Presumably because I used my bombs to destroy only one enemy at a time. There is a long pause between destroying your ship with a bomb and regeneration and because of this, I, at first, found the game to be slow and uninteresting.
Lacking any kind of skill at the game I decided a quick trip to the tutorial was an order. The tutorial took me through everything from the controls (pressing X to explode) to advanced techniques for taking out dozens of enemies out at a time. An exceedingly helpful feature of the tutorial system was the computers demonstration of the technique followed by the players emulation of the same technique. Monkey See Monkey Do. This contributes greatly to the learning curve of the game and makes one well versed in the games strategies within about 5-10 minutes.
Then it was back to Arcade Mode to test out my new skills. From the tutorial I had learned about the Time Extending Power-Ups and Quicken tokens, which increase the speed of the enemies. Increasing the speed of the enemies makes the game more difficult and also more fun, as there are literally 10 power-ups on the screen, but perhaps only half of which you will be able to collect. The notion of managing resources comes into play heavily in these situations. Should I collect the Quicken, a 1000 Point bonus, or some extra time for later. The game play in this respect is extremely well balanced.
Two losses later I had finished the first stage and was now on to the stage boss, Tri-Mirai, a spinning streetlight ball. This took me an additional two attempts to save enough bombs from the previous stage to defeat it. If there is one game for obsessive compulsive gamers, this is the one. Every Extend Extra has taken collecting all the tokens in a level to a new and incredibly addictive extreme. Now one must destroy all the ships with as few bombs as possible, and, as will probably always be the case, there is always one you miss. I compelled to find the exact moment to detonate my bombs, but also remember exactly what enemies are coming, and in what pattern, so that I may make the next huge combo (Currently 52 is the highest I've gotten).
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| TranceJunkie's GameLogs |
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TranceJunkie has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 15 days |
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| Entries written to date: 11 |
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