In the year 2069, the British ship "Elias Rits" sailed to Kermadec Island on a private investigation mission. Shortly thereafter, satellites reported that beacon transmissions from the ship have stopped. Seeing that further investigation required exploration of hostile environment and deep sea, the authorities dispatched a special team known as W-ODL to find out what has happened to the ship. Navigating a powerful mecha, the American pilot Fredric von Nyuya has to get to the bottom of the mystery and report his findings to the crew. Aquales is an action platformer. The mecha is equipped with a default fist-like melee weapon and gains access to other methods of destruction later, including chainguns, rockets, homing missiles, and more exotic items such as a gravity flamethrower. The stages usually consist of series of platforms and are fairly large, with optional areas and power-ups (health, one-time attacks, etc.) in treasure chests. The protagonist's stand-out equipment is the grappling hook, which must be used frequently to access high platforms. The game also has a light RPG angle: the hero gains experience points from defeating enemies and levels up as a result. Each stage ends with a boss battle, after which the player's progress is saved.
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I am absolutely blown away by this game. It really feels like the type of game that would have needed a $5000 PC to run at the time, using a solid half dozen or so layers of parallax scrolling to convey a sense of screen depth. The Sharp X68000 primarily had games that were ports from other system, so the fact I can finally see a game that showcases the full potential of the system is nothing short of breathtaking. It even has hands down one of if not the most beautiful waterfalls in gaming; screenshots alone can't do this game justice https://youtu.be/-PxIxJUMOjc?t=1306
There are so many details in the game's world. Even shit that would be inconsequential to draw is there to help with the game's approach to storytelling. For example, seeing the sunken ship really cements a sense of danger in the aquatic world https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/427275136635502594/1192860742693691402/image.png
The music really helps sell the game's tone as well. Everything is consistently threading a needle between calming and intense, and every single boss has a unique battle theme to my surprise. This was basically unheard of for 1991! For sure though, this is my favourite track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wgX6uyCF_Y
But of course, the most compelling thing about the game is seeing the roots of a strange subgenre of games. In terms of similarities to Valken and in particular Gun Hazard, there's a lot. There is similar mech with a walking speed relative to those games, emphasis on vertical traversal albeit with a grappling hook, boss fights like the computer cores, the Gundam-inspired anime aesthetic used in the cutscenes, the level up system, hidden weapons, etc etc etc. Hell, the napalm shots even bounce around the screen! Of course, games like Thexder, Metal Storm, Zeta Gundam Hot Scramble, and Leynos predate all of these games as far as mecha sidescrolling action goes, but I would argue Aquales' use of things like RPG elements puts it closer to games like Valken and Gun Hazard.
The game is shockingly approachable. In between levels, the player can adjust their lives to be at up to 7 per level, and the player can continue off of any level desire in case they missed a hidden weapon or want to level grind to make later levels easier, although honestly it's almost impossible to miss any hidden weapons in this game. I was dreading playing this game due to there being 7 weapons to discover, but to my surprise I found all of them without a walkthrough and without focusing on exploration. It's shockingly simple.
The amount of strategy one can use with the sheer loadout is magnificent. Using the grappling hook to cling to ceilings and shoot 1000 homing missiles at helpless enemies, using the super lightsaber to quickly kill the vertical boss gauntlet, hell even taking the bouncing bullet gun and sticking it directly inside of some bosses to kill them insanely quickly (this was the only way I could beat the final boss lol) is rad.
Not to mention, the sheer sense of polish is ever present. This is one of the only games where there are no ambidextrous sprites; the sprites actually change depending on whether the player is facing left or right, so the mech is always carrying a gun with its right hand!
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1193260640941391932/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1193260641327271987/image.png
One thing I will say is that the game is almost too approachable. I didn't really level grind in the game, but even when I reached max level some enemies were kinda damage spongey lol. There are often ways to approach enemies that feel like the "correct" safe ways but take a while to execute since enemies have so much health. Perhaps this could have been helped if the level cap was level 8 or so instead of 10. It still only took roughly 100 minutes to finish the game blind, although perhaps beating the game over a couple sessions instead of 1 is the kind of pace the devs intended. The bosses can be kinda hit or miss as well, with the boring ones just eating shit to a 360 degree chain swing spam while the cool ones make more use out of verticality such as the core boss. IDK, the enemy design just feels secondary to the level design and player controls in general, but it's still pretty fun for at least a couple playthroughs.
Also really neat how the game ends with a rocketship setpiece level instead of a level where one fights any enemies at all. Love the willingness to break the mold.
Great game for mecha fans, I can't rec enough.