A port of Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman
Slash and shoot your way through robots rampaging in Shockman's town!
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This game must be doing something right, because despite being pretty awful to play, I still felt compelled to finish it. I guess it has its charm, but it's really uncomfortable to control and its level design is anemic. It won't really satisfy but the most faithful of retro gamers.
Now I bet if you’re reading this right now, you’re going “Arle you liar! You said no more reviews after the Famicom Valis review!” Yeah yeah yeah yeah I know I’m breaking my rule here but hey I got my reason. So, this rerelease kind of felt like it came out of nowhere. This was a game I played last year because I was starting to play PC Engine games for the first time. I can’t recall how early this one was because I know it was one of the first 10 games I played. I remember being disappointed with it and even wrote a crappy review and like the third game for that series, the review has been deleted by now so don’t bother checking what I said. I’ll go into it later why I’m rereviewing it.
You know can I just say it felt kind of nostalgic just buying an old game again? I know people like to say now that NSO is a more definitive way to play retro games compared to the likes of VC but buying this for my Switch felt kind of fun just having it on my game’s menu and stuff. Like I wasn’t even a fan of this game and I was thinking about buying it for like 30 minutes and then got it ASAP.
So if you don’t know, the original title for this game is Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman and is part of a series that would get 3 more games with 2 of them being on PC Engine, 1 being on PC Engine CD, and finally the last one being part of the Super Famicom’s Satellaview service. I thought they were all just OK except for that last one which ended up being very good. This game was relocalized as Cyber Citizen Shockman for this release. This was developed by NCS. They made stuff like Langrisser, Cho Aniki, Gynoug, Assault Suits, and even Gleylancer which I played not too long ago. They would also make the rest of the games in the series.
This game was very early into the PC Engine’s life, so early that the CD add-on was only like 3 months old by this point so hucard games were still relevant. The game doesn’t really have too much of a plot besides this Doctor who I can’t remember the name of (sorry) turning two humans into cyborgs with the guy named Tasuke and a girl named Kyapiko. They become what is called the Shockman. Yeah they don’t actually have unique names for their cyborg forms. The Doctor promises them that he will change them back but they have to save the town from Dark Skull. Yeah, this was still that time where plots weren’t too big in platformers and action games for the most part, later games would try to have more story but here it’s pretty basic stuff.
One thing you’ll notice right off the bat is the weird map progression system. One of the defining features of this game is how you travel. Now this is why I wanted to rereview this game. When I played this on an emulator in Japanese, I had no clue what to do and was now finally able to understand it. You can choose to move to one of the levels near you, repair any lost health for a fee, buy something, or buy a hint if you need one. Now this feature is pretty interesting as it encourages replayability and just seeing what routes you find good or just changing it up for once. You can beat every level if you feel like it but that also comes to another feature where saving a part of town will offer a new building. It ranges from stuff like buildings that offer an item like upgrades or healing items, hospitals to upgrade your health and heal you and even just generic buildings where they will let you rest. This offers some strategy for what you wanna tackle first like do you want to save the healing ones for later? Maybe you wanna get a specific upgrade first! It’s really up to you.
Once you’re in a level, you will do platforming and action till you reach the end to fight a boss. The Shockmen both use a sword for their attack and while they have different animations, they are the same attack. For what you start with, that’s all you really got and it’s pretty simple. You also can get a projectile attack however you need to not only buy it from the Doctor for 300 yen for the first one and then 900 yen for the second one but you need to beat a specific level to be given a pass by the police to be allowed to use it. (If you want to know which stage it is, it’s the top right one you can choose when you start the game.) The projectile has to be charged from a stand still and takes a second to charge but it can destroy enemies and some of the bosses. If you go to the shrine first, you can get an upgrade that makes it even more powerful but if you go to the Church first, you can have an instant charge on your attack which I find more useful.
I gotta say, levels are pretty basic themselves as they not only feature repetitive set pieces, I think there’s only like 3 or 4 different locations but platforming is done in a lot of the same ways. A lot of it will have you avoiding lava floors with platforms that move, platforms that disappear, platforms that fall, and even platforms that look like they are on speed. Gonna be honest, nothing about the level design is impressive and yes I know the PC Engine was quite young but the standard was already high thanks to titles like Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Famicom. While getting to levels is fascinating, the game does nothing to make levels feel too memorable.
Your controls are also something you have to get used to as the way they move kind of has this weird slippery start up and end time which is rather odd as they don’t move fast at all. They also got heavy feeling jumps making platforming at first feel hard to do. Hurtboxes are also really wack as you will cry foul many times of what will hit you at what distance. While this benefits you, it also benefits enemies and especially bosses. Bosses, my god can feel like you’re just either defeating them easily and maybe even quickly or just wailing on them till they go down and just tanking hits and no one likes that now do they? Maybe they do. Even the final boss is weird because he’s either erratic as all hell and I just mash attack and eventually win or he gets stuck in this loop of getting hit by my projectiles while I stand in the corner.
Surprisingly the game isn’t challenging either as once you get the items especially the attack up and defense up upgrades, you’re basically unstoppable. There’s even one building that can get you a drink that basically gives you a second health bar. Once you figure the game out, you’ll be beating it very fast, especially if you don’t do every level. Though if you do die once, you have to continue back at the start though you don’t lose anything besides money. I should mention you also have an 18 day limit and every 2 levels equals a day gone. Thankfully time won’t pass if you travel to places you’ve already saved so unless you just die a lot, you should never reach 18 days. If you do manage that then the game gives you one more chance after day 18 and if you game over, you’ll have to shut off the game as it gets stuck on the game over screen for some reason.
So with all the problems we have, it’s a game that’s Ok or maybe even bad for some and was probably for the best that the US never received this title for the Turbografx 16…so what’s with the score? Well you see about that, when I replayed this game I still thought it was okay but better now I could understand everything and was just gonna give it a 5/10. I was testing stuff just to check things. Though this is when something inside me just got…addicted. Something about it clicked, knowing what routes to go, acing all the levels, knowing the strategies of what items to get, and knowing boss strategies. I was having a lot of fun. I even got used to the controls and was playing the game like a pro and it felt so shocking to me to go from “ehh it’s okay I guess” to “This is really fun.” I think the game has become one of those kind of flawed games that I just seem to love to replay like Sonic 1, Rockman 1, Sailor Moon MD, Valis I MD, and Kirby’s Dream Land (ok that one isn’t flawed but it’s not the most popular Kirby game). I’m not even sure what you would call this kind of thing for me liking this game. Is it just a guilty pleasure? Is it just because it’s easy? Is it just me being a stupid idiot? Probably…
I haven’t really mentioned the presentation which is fine for what it is. The game looks like an early PC Engine game that’s for sure. A lot of the portraits look pretty bleh and I swear some of the normal female residents look like Kyapiko! Nothing will wow you with its looks. The music isn’t too bad but I can’t see myself remembering it after a while but there’s some good tunes here. There’s even some voices in this game though I still don’t know what they’re saying for their charge move. Overall it’s pretty standard for the console at the time.
Let me now talk about the rerelease itself. This is the first time the game has ever been brought over here and in English too. This release for the Switch is pretty standard and works but has its problems. The emulation seems to be good and never really had any issues with it. I did talk to a friend about the aspect ratio and it seems none of them get the pixels right? I remember they told me none of the aspect ratios got it correct which kind of sucks though I’m too stupid to notice when playing or even briefly looking. This port allows for rewind and fast forward if you like that stuff along with the usual save states. There’s even cheats for infinite health and 9999 yen though be careful as this game isn’t programmed to stop at 9999 so getting more will put you back at 0. You can also look at a gallery for the artwork, the hucard, and even the manual.
With that said however I have one big gripe with this release. The game gives you no instructions. Now the game is easy enough to know what does what but having nothing is just not a good thing to do. There is a manual but it’s just a scan of the original Japanese one which isn’t helpful for anyone outside of Japan that lacks the ability to read it. I also should mention that when viewing the gallery, it crashed the game one time but it never crashed when actually playing the game thankfully. There’s also just no sound test which is really lame, I know the music wasn’t amazing but come on this is such a basic feature. It also seems to have no way to map a select button? There were cheats in the original like committing suicide or skipping to the boss in a level but I can’t seem to do them as there’s no mappable button for select which you need for the cheats. It’s a shame these weren’t recreated for the cheat menu.
I think playing this game felt like a weird ride as I really feel like I shouldn’t give it the score I did but I can’t help but enjoy it. While the game is something I can’t recommend even at $6, it’s still nice to see games like this even get a rerelease. I do wonder if they’ll ever do the other games, I’ll buy them if that ever happens and who knows maybe I’ll like those more too. For now though I’m glad I gave this one another try and found some genuine enjoyment from it and I swear for real this is the last review…unless I one day play another game I find to be a 10/10. Edit: Lol that sure didn't age well. Also Kyapiko is awesome and deserves more fanart! Byeeee!
You know can I just say it felt kind of nostalgic just buying an old game again? I know people like to say now that NSO is a more definitive way to play retro games compared to the likes of VC but buying this for my Switch felt kind of fun just having it on my game’s menu and stuff. Like I wasn’t even a fan of this game and I was thinking about buying it for like 30 minutes and then got it ASAP.
So if you don’t know, the original title for this game is Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman and is part of a series that would get 3 more games with 2 of them being on PC Engine, 1 being on PC Engine CD, and finally the last one being part of the Super Famicom’s Satellaview service. I thought they were all just OK except for that last one which ended up being very good. This game was relocalized as Cyber Citizen Shockman for this release. This was developed by NCS. They made stuff like Langrisser, Cho Aniki, Gynoug, Assault Suits, and even Gleylancer which I played not too long ago. They would also make the rest of the games in the series.
This game was very early into the PC Engine’s life, so early that the CD add-on was only like 3 months old by this point so hucard games were still relevant. The game doesn’t really have too much of a plot besides this Doctor who I can’t remember the name of (sorry) turning two humans into cyborgs with the guy named Tasuke and a girl named Kyapiko. They become what is called the Shockman. Yeah they don’t actually have unique names for their cyborg forms. The Doctor promises them that he will change them back but they have to save the town from Dark Skull. Yeah, this was still that time where plots weren’t too big in platformers and action games for the most part, later games would try to have more story but here it’s pretty basic stuff.
One thing you’ll notice right off the bat is the weird map progression system. One of the defining features of this game is how you travel. Now this is why I wanted to rereview this game. When I played this on an emulator in Japanese, I had no clue what to do and was now finally able to understand it. You can choose to move to one of the levels near you, repair any lost health for a fee, buy something, or buy a hint if you need one. Now this feature is pretty interesting as it encourages replayability and just seeing what routes you find good or just changing it up for once. You can beat every level if you feel like it but that also comes to another feature where saving a part of town will offer a new building. It ranges from stuff like buildings that offer an item like upgrades or healing items, hospitals to upgrade your health and heal you and even just generic buildings where they will let you rest. This offers some strategy for what you wanna tackle first like do you want to save the healing ones for later? Maybe you wanna get a specific upgrade first! It’s really up to you.
Once you’re in a level, you will do platforming and action till you reach the end to fight a boss. The Shockmen both use a sword for their attack and while they have different animations, they are the same attack. For what you start with, that’s all you really got and it’s pretty simple. You also can get a projectile attack however you need to not only buy it from the Doctor for 300 yen for the first one and then 900 yen for the second one but you need to beat a specific level to be given a pass by the police to be allowed to use it. (If you want to know which stage it is, it’s the top right one you can choose when you start the game.) The projectile has to be charged from a stand still and takes a second to charge but it can destroy enemies and some of the bosses. If you go to the shrine first, you can get an upgrade that makes it even more powerful but if you go to the Church first, you can have an instant charge on your attack which I find more useful.
I gotta say, levels are pretty basic themselves as they not only feature repetitive set pieces, I think there’s only like 3 or 4 different locations but platforming is done in a lot of the same ways. A lot of it will have you avoiding lava floors with platforms that move, platforms that disappear, platforms that fall, and even platforms that look like they are on speed. Gonna be honest, nothing about the level design is impressive and yes I know the PC Engine was quite young but the standard was already high thanks to titles like Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Famicom. While getting to levels is fascinating, the game does nothing to make levels feel too memorable.
Your controls are also something you have to get used to as the way they move kind of has this weird slippery start up and end time which is rather odd as they don’t move fast at all. They also got heavy feeling jumps making platforming at first feel hard to do. Hurtboxes are also really wack as you will cry foul many times of what will hit you at what distance. While this benefits you, it also benefits enemies and especially bosses. Bosses, my god can feel like you’re just either defeating them easily and maybe even quickly or just wailing on them till they go down and just tanking hits and no one likes that now do they? Maybe they do. Even the final boss is weird because he’s either erratic as all hell and I just mash attack and eventually win or he gets stuck in this loop of getting hit by my projectiles while I stand in the corner.
Surprisingly the game isn’t challenging either as once you get the items especially the attack up and defense up upgrades, you’re basically unstoppable. There’s even one building that can get you a drink that basically gives you a second health bar. Once you figure the game out, you’ll be beating it very fast, especially if you don’t do every level. Though if you do die once, you have to continue back at the start though you don’t lose anything besides money. I should mention you also have an 18 day limit and every 2 levels equals a day gone. Thankfully time won’t pass if you travel to places you’ve already saved so unless you just die a lot, you should never reach 18 days. If you do manage that then the game gives you one more chance after day 18 and if you game over, you’ll have to shut off the game as it gets stuck on the game over screen for some reason.
So with all the problems we have, it’s a game that’s Ok or maybe even bad for some and was probably for the best that the US never received this title for the Turbografx 16…so what’s with the score? Well you see about that, when I replayed this game I still thought it was okay but better now I could understand everything and was just gonna give it a 5/10. I was testing stuff just to check things. Though this is when something inside me just got…addicted. Something about it clicked, knowing what routes to go, acing all the levels, knowing the strategies of what items to get, and knowing boss strategies. I was having a lot of fun. I even got used to the controls and was playing the game like a pro and it felt so shocking to me to go from “ehh it’s okay I guess” to “This is really fun.” I think the game has become one of those kind of flawed games that I just seem to love to replay like Sonic 1, Rockman 1, Sailor Moon MD, Valis I MD, and Kirby’s Dream Land (ok that one isn’t flawed but it’s not the most popular Kirby game). I’m not even sure what you would call this kind of thing for me liking this game. Is it just a guilty pleasure? Is it just because it’s easy? Is it just me being a stupid idiot? Probably…
I haven’t really mentioned the presentation which is fine for what it is. The game looks like an early PC Engine game that’s for sure. A lot of the portraits look pretty bleh and I swear some of the normal female residents look like Kyapiko! Nothing will wow you with its looks. The music isn’t too bad but I can’t see myself remembering it after a while but there’s some good tunes here. There’s even some voices in this game though I still don’t know what they’re saying for their charge move. Overall it’s pretty standard for the console at the time.
Let me now talk about the rerelease itself. This is the first time the game has ever been brought over here and in English too. This release for the Switch is pretty standard and works but has its problems. The emulation seems to be good and never really had any issues with it. I did talk to a friend about the aspect ratio and it seems none of them get the pixels right? I remember they told me none of the aspect ratios got it correct which kind of sucks though I’m too stupid to notice when playing or even briefly looking. This port allows for rewind and fast forward if you like that stuff along with the usual save states. There’s even cheats for infinite health and 9999 yen though be careful as this game isn’t programmed to stop at 9999 so getting more will put you back at 0. You can also look at a gallery for the artwork, the hucard, and even the manual.
With that said however I have one big gripe with this release. The game gives you no instructions. Now the game is easy enough to know what does what but having nothing is just not a good thing to do. There is a manual but it’s just a scan of the original Japanese one which isn’t helpful for anyone outside of Japan that lacks the ability to read it. I also should mention that when viewing the gallery, it crashed the game one time but it never crashed when actually playing the game thankfully. There’s also just no sound test which is really lame, I know the music wasn’t amazing but come on this is such a basic feature. It also seems to have no way to map a select button? There were cheats in the original like committing suicide or skipping to the boss in a level but I can’t seem to do them as there’s no mappable button for select which you need for the cheats. It’s a shame these weren’t recreated for the cheat menu.
I think playing this game felt like a weird ride as I really feel like I shouldn’t give it the score I did but I can’t help but enjoy it. While the game is something I can’t recommend even at $6, it’s still nice to see games like this even get a rerelease. I do wonder if they’ll ever do the other games, I’ll buy them if that ever happens and who knows maybe I’ll like those more too. For now though I’m glad I gave this one another try and found some genuine enjoyment from it and I swear for real this is the last review…unless I one day play another game I find to be a 10/10. Edit: Lol that sure didn't age well. Also Kyapiko is awesome and deserves more fanart! Byeeee!