Air Buster has its roots in such scrolling shoots as R-Type, Gradius and Truxton. Its two-player simultaneous action is a relatively unique twist on the genre.
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Solid visuals, sound and controls, but an otherwise typical arcade shooter.
Went from liking this to disliking to liking again, it's probably Kaneko's only good game. Creative level design, varied and intricate bosses, stellar tunes, and its infamously herculean difficulty is easier to chew on thanks to 6 lives/6 continues mode. I just wish the ship designs weren't as balnd.
Cleared on July 9th, 2023 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 23/160)
How in the hell do you make a game that feels exciting to play and then decide to shoot yourself in the wings at the second half? If you've played other shoot em up 2D side scrollers, you know how the game plays. You dodge projectiles, you strike back, and here, you collect power-ups and new weapons to empower yourself. What all do they do?
You have the Glowing P which empowers your primary shot and it's very valuable as it improves your damage output immensely. You have the Striker which adds additional firepower which is not too bad for that extra damage, the Reverse shot which fires two shots backwards and it's very situational at best so you should probably avoid, the Six-Way Shot which fires an automatic shot that rotates around and it's ok, it covers a bit more ground, but rather situational. The green homing missiles which have excellent steering while the red homing missiles can lock on close to enemies with impressive damage making it the best weapon in the game. You also get a massive AoE explosion that you can charge up and use periodically that clears out most projectiles and deals damage to all enemies, sometimes even clearing them out.
The problem is that this game willing takes away all the power you worked towards if you get hit, and if I'm not mistaken, I don't think even Sol-Deace pulls that on you and only loses your power-ups when you get a game over and Wings of Wor only gradually decreases your power as you lose lives, so this feels very punishing compared to those games, but that's not the worst part.
The first three levels have about the control feel that I expected from a game of the genre. It's fairly precise and I can see myself getting good at the game enough to not warrant save states... but then, the game does something inhumanely stupid, something that if this problem was there the whole game, it would've got a 2/10 in my score because it's that bad. When you go to space, the controls become so scuffed because of "gravity", but I mean, if Sol-Deace can take place in space and control just fine, then what kind of absurd excuse does this game have to make the controls that slippery. It's like working with slippery ice physics and in a game that demands precision, that's really bad.
It's like the developers either thought they were being clever by having gravity scuff the controls. or they were genuinely trying to make this as anti-fun and unfair as possible because the game itself would take less than 30 minutes to complete if one were to play the game perfectly. The game does let you regain the normal controls during the penultimate boss and the final level, but it feels jarring that they demand you to get better at dodging as is, scuff the controls, and then give it back. Like if the game wasn't that scuffed during the 4th and 5th level, then maybe it would've better helped the player to be able to dodge the super precise block sequence that came in the final level. It's just straight up bad game design.
The music is at least a highlight, though. It's upbeat and nice to listen to, but I would not go out of my way to play this game again.
How in the hell do you make a game that feels exciting to play and then decide to shoot yourself in the wings at the second half? If you've played other shoot em up 2D side scrollers, you know how the game plays. You dodge projectiles, you strike back, and here, you collect power-ups and new weapons to empower yourself. What all do they do?
You have the Glowing P which empowers your primary shot and it's very valuable as it improves your damage output immensely. You have the Striker which adds additional firepower which is not too bad for that extra damage, the Reverse shot which fires two shots backwards and it's very situational at best so you should probably avoid, the Six-Way Shot which fires an automatic shot that rotates around and it's ok, it covers a bit more ground, but rather situational. The green homing missiles which have excellent steering while the red homing missiles can lock on close to enemies with impressive damage making it the best weapon in the game. You also get a massive AoE explosion that you can charge up and use periodically that clears out most projectiles and deals damage to all enemies, sometimes even clearing them out.
The problem is that this game willing takes away all the power you worked towards if you get hit, and if I'm not mistaken, I don't think even Sol-Deace pulls that on you and only loses your power-ups when you get a game over and Wings of Wor only gradually decreases your power as you lose lives, so this feels very punishing compared to those games, but that's not the worst part.
The first three levels have about the control feel that I expected from a game of the genre. It's fairly precise and I can see myself getting good at the game enough to not warrant save states... but then, the game does something inhumanely stupid, something that if this problem was there the whole game, it would've got a 2/10 in my score because it's that bad. When you go to space, the controls become so scuffed because of "gravity", but I mean, if Sol-Deace can take place in space and control just fine, then what kind of absurd excuse does this game have to make the controls that slippery. It's like working with slippery ice physics and in a game that demands precision, that's really bad.
It's like the developers either thought they were being clever by having gravity scuff the controls. or they were genuinely trying to make this as anti-fun and unfair as possible because the game itself would take less than 30 minutes to complete if one were to play the game perfectly. The game does let you regain the normal controls during the penultimate boss and the final level, but it feels jarring that they demand you to get better at dodging as is, scuff the controls, and then give it back. Like if the game wasn't that scuffed during the 4th and 5th level, then maybe it would've better helped the player to be able to dodge the super precise block sequence that came in the final level. It's just straight up bad game design.
The music is at least a highlight, though. It's upbeat and nice to listen to, but I would not go out of my way to play this game again.
Hey, I know what that is! That's the movie about the dog who plays football
(is promptly killed for making two shitposts in a row)
(is promptly killed for making two shitposts in a row)
Horizontal shoot em up. Decent but bland, you have a fairly generic ship with a straight shot attack, destroying a carrier ship will drop sub weapons and powerups that fly launch out and fall off the screen. Powerups improve your main gun to increase the spread and damage, sub weapons give two kinds of homing missiles, two shots behind you, some more forward shots, etc. You can charge an attack that slows your ship before unleashed that clears weak enemies and shots then recharges.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1563979384650072064
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1563979384650072064