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TranceJunkie's Eliminate Down (GEN)
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| [February 9, 2007 12:20:48 PM]
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I really enjoy the music in this game. It may sound similar to a lot of the other music in games at the time, but to me it seems more polished than the others. The main theme is catchy and energetic making it perfect for a shmup, and every boss has their own battle music that is suited to their fighting style. It really brings the player into the mood of the game. There is not much of a story, but it is quite clear that it is the classic aliens vs. humans save the world plot. The variety of enemies and enemy weapons also make Eliminate Down unique. For example, a weapon that I had never seen before was a cannon firing 1 pixel width homing lasers. Much like the game Snake, which came out in the early seventies, if the player touches any part of the laser they explode. This might sound simple to get around, but in the third stage there are literally five or six cannons shooting at the player, boxing your ship in. I still have not been able to get past this part of the game because of the homing lasers, along with the insane number of enemy ships that are swarming the screen.
Another interesting aspect of the game that I forgot to mention last time is the weapons system. The player chooses between a front firing gun, a rear firing laser, or top/bottom firing missiles. This decision, especially in the middle of battle, creates conflict in the player. Knowing which weapon to use in which situation, takes a lot of practice, and memorization of bullet patterns and ship patterns. It took me a little over a half hour to get a full handle on the weapons system. Many enemies come from the left part of the screen and fighting them off along with the ones coming from the right, all while dodging asteroids can be a real task sometimes.
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| [February 9, 2007 01:36:00 AM]
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While the title might suggest that this is a poorly executed remake of Space Invaders, this game is a shining example of an innovative and polished shmup. Eliminate Down takes all of the good aspects of previous shmups such as Gradius, R-Type, and similar titles and does them all one better. Many of the levels are quite reminiscent of the Gradius series, for example, the enemies attacking pattern is almost identical to that of the beginning of Gradius. This occurs in many shmups, probably because it is one of the easiest ways to introduce the games mechanics and controls quickly to the player. In the second stage your craft must navigate through an asteroid belt as enemies attack from all sides. This was the second or third stage of Gradius II but I felt that Eliminate Down executed it much better. One of reasons for this brings me to my next point. The graphics in this game are gorgeous. Eliminate Down takes the idea of the three-dimensional sprites found in the R-Type series and combines it with beautifully parallax scrolling backgrounds. The first taste of these backgrounds comes in the transition from the first part of level one to the second. Your ship begins in the middle of a battle above a planet. There are many ally cruisers shooting enemy fighters and also being shot at and shot down. The background has, at least, 5 different scrolling backgrounds which make it look amazing. Your ship then transitions and starts gliding down through the atmosphere as missiles come from the planets surface. The effect is so convincing at times that you are almost lead to believe that it is actual three-dimensional.
The aspect of the game that I feel was most successful is the power-up system. One of the great frustrations of the Gradius series is that once you die once, you lose all of your power-ups, all of them, all the options, missiles, and speed that you spent collecting from the beginning of the game. Gone. The creators of Eliminate Down have fixed this problem by linking power-ups to health and lives. As the player gains a power-up, it takes five [P] tokens, they essentially have that many more lives. When the ship is destroyed, the player only loses a power-up level and not a life, unless they do not have any power-ups to begin with. I feel that this makes the game a lot more enjoyable because it keeps it very difficult without making it don't die or you are totally screwed difficult. It also makes passing bosses after you die once easier and keeps the pace of the game quite fast. In Gradius, it might take a good 1-2 minutes to beat the boss with your dinky little blaster if you were hit by one of the bosses attacks.
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TranceJunkie's Eliminate Down (GEN)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 9 February, 2007
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