Cleared on May 10th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 66/160)

The Sega Genesis is a system that boldly claimed itself in 1991 to have "blast processing". Sadly, this game was made in 1989.

At a glance, you might think its just another horizontal shoot em up, and if this were your first, you might suspect anything out of the ordinary, but if you've played a good chunk of them on the system, something doesn't feel right. The frame rate feels off and this isn't something that I usually take offense to since after awhile, I can adapt to games with suboptimal frame rate, and I've definitively played worse in that regard.

That said, a more pressing matter is when you combine frame rate with the amount of shit that goes on on-screen. There are so many enemies, so many shots, and there's just an unusual amount going on at a time. That does not feel fun. The obstacles can also feel narrow with Stage 1 having trees that are unclear that you need to dodge because of how seamless it blends with scenery. It wasn't until I caught on to the shot collision when I realized you have to go above the tree. Stage 4 has these meteors that feel like a speed check as if you don't have enough speed icons, you will not be able to get by without foresight. Also, Stage 5 is indoors which is to say that tight corridors are plentiful.

Here's a list of even more inconveniences.
-The third boss having a very specific tiny spot that is blocked by its neck
-Losing all of your power-ups when you lose a life. Your missiles, your drones, and your weapons along with its upgrades.
-Stage 5 specifically forcing you to the very beginning of the level if you lose a life which really feels like padding to conceal just how short the game actually is.

Mechanically, it's about what you'd expect a shoot em up to play. There are weapons you can collect, power ups, speed boosts, and all that stuff. You do have a shield meter, so smaller attacks won't just OHKO you which I think is reasonable although some bigger attacks can chunk a good amount of health or even still take you down in one hit. There are also these E icons that do refill your shield meter as well.

Honestly, Curse is just really forgettable. It'll leave your mind faster than you cleared the game, and you'll wonder if you did anything interesting in the past hour after the fact.

It's awful, but I had some fun. Nothing in this game is individually 'favorable', but the parts come together mostly fine.

I think the point of contention is how striking and powerful the bio-distorted woman on the box art is. It sets this expectation for a certain kind of visual language and pathos, and then you turn it on and get a 30fps kusoge sludgefest, with designs right out of a C-tier PC shooter. The version of this that actually tries to commit to its cover would be worthy of a lot more respect.

Me and Micronet have a bit of an odd history, because it felt like I kept stumbling upon their ineptitude out of sheer coincidence or perhaps those above just have contempt for me for reasons only known to them. I played their shitnum opus known as "Heavy Nova" many many moons ago when I first discovered emulation and used Gens as opposed to better things out now like Fusion. It would be a defining moment for what it means to truly be an inconceivable mess deserving of the most amount of scorn possible. If your game is as unplayable as Heavy Nova, or as gross and offensive as Square's Tom Sawyer then it deserves capital punishment to the nth degree, no exceptions.

I've written essays that dragged for way too long on Black Hole Assault (also known as "Butt Hole Assault" in certain circles) and Revengers of Vengeance, meanwhile I simply compared Heavy Nova to a battery acid bath. Needless to say my opinion didn't change when I first joined the site, I doubt it changed now. It was massively funny for me to find out they made a shmup before any of these mistakes of mankind thanks to fellow BL user Jenny, which of course piqued my interest since I'm a weird person who enjoys digging through garbage, because I've explored retro libraries to the point I couldn't care less about so-called "hidden gems" because I've discovered them ten years before Little Joey Baloney on Youtube claimed to find them and made them mainstream and normie.

Upon booting Curse on my handy dandy Everdrive Pro I went into gameplay and thought I was playing an MSX game with how choppy it was running. With some practice I probably could've counted the frames it took for the enemies to cross the screen and do their little choreographed patterns. Needless to say, thanks to this the game was like taking multiple candies from multiple babies. I'm actually ashamed to admit I kinda liked the option system, I'm sure it was hocked from another shmup, and I'm just blanking on where it was from prior since I'm not exactly in my "Cold Comfort Zone" so to speak. I apologize to whom I've alluded to on the off chance they read this.

It's worth note that the game runs so terribly and is so badly optimized that I couldn't pull up the in-game menu of my Everdrive. Which is too bad, because apparently the boys at Micronet realized their game was too easy, and instead of doing a proper difficulty curve they instead made the final stage do an R-Type impression of blasting the player with lasers and changing the rules by making them redo the stage instead of respawning like normally. Save states would've been appreciated, but I guess even my hardware was trying to tell me that this game really wasn't worth the time. A shame too, because I was actually ready to go a bit easier on it, but I guess I really shouldn't be surprised by the lads who thought becoming slower and more useless as you took damage would translate well to enjoyable gameplay in a beat'em up/fighting game. I'm afraid to say Earth Defense/The Earth Defend still sweeps as Curse didn't softlock on me after killing the first boss, nor do the sprites look like a toddler's first outting in MS Paint.

May Micronet's whimper of a legacy carry onward to remind us what garbage truly smells like. For this, I salute you.

I actually had no intention of playing this game tbh. I knew it existed and how poorly it was received in Japan. I'm pretty sure it's like the 2nd worst rated shmup on the console over there. But I've seen a few people I follow play this game so alright I'll bite, I'll see how bad this truly is.

Curse reminds me a lot of that Heavy Unit game I played where it doesn't seem like it would be the worst thing ever made but it's more bad on just how incompetent it is. This was an early game for the console so maybe I should cut them some slack but Thunder Force II had already existed and was much better even if I have issues with it.

First off this game is easy. The only time I died was like those parts where you have to go inbetween meteors and I swear it's harder for me then it should. Even the bosses barely have any challenge to them. The 4th stage also just have the team say screw it just throw everything. It still somehow isn't a challenge and all it did was just make me question the design choices the game makes.

The framerate is also bad, like it just feels like it's going at a slow rate. I noticed as early as when I started playing, it's just not that good and none of the stage design or environments impresses me. They barely try to make any of it interesting. Stage 4 is the equivalent of looking at something like Gradius on the Famicom.

Now I will give it this, at least it ends quickly and doesn't make me suffer when playing. But it just goes to show how bad and low budget the game feels. I felt nothing once I beat the game, the most interesting thing was learning the cover art thing was actually the final boss.

I really wouldn't recommend it at all, the only reason you really should try it if you're persistant is the fact it won't take long at all. I honestly wonder how many people in Japan felt ripped off playing this. Its also never gotten a rerelease to my knowledge and it's probably for the best.

Before I go, some fun facts. Did you know this could have had a US release? It was featured in EGM and even got reviewed. Wait someone gave it an 8? Wasn't this the same magazine that hated Herzog Zwei? This is why old magazine reviews can never be trusted!

I also went to look at GameFAQs reviews for the lols and someone not only gave this a 9/10 but goes on to say it's better than Thunder Force and R-Type. Oh GameFAQs reviewers, never change. (wait I review stuff on gamefaqs I just insulted myself.)

Below average shmup by the doofuses over at Micronet, who are also responsible for Heavy Nova (which is honestly so bad I'm not sure I'll ever get around to it). Very underwhelming and unrewarding, it's hardly longer than Slap Fight MD even. Feels way choppier than any game in the genre really should, bosses are way too easy, and the final level puts you back at the beginning of the stage instead of instant respawn like everywhere else. One major plus is the final boss' design, which is genuinely chilling and definitely one of the coolest I've seen in a shmup, but it goes down easy as hell just as previously mentioned. I dunno, man. It's a letdown on all fronts, but when you consider who the developers are it's far more playable than their subsequent games for the Genesis and the Sega CD.

Curse is not one of the best shmups out there but it’s a shame that it became all but forgotten.

The Good:

Fun and versatile option mechanic - Varied weapons really make a difference - Beginner friendly for the most part - Very busy visuals that never slow down

The Bad:

Overpowered arsenal and generous safe areas makes most stages too easy to traverse and bosses too easy to kill - Dying even once on a few stages can make it almost impossible to recover - The final level is a ridiculous test of memorization with no errors allowed

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Curse is a barely known shoot’em up for the Mega Drive that was only released in Japan in 1989, making it one of the earlier shooters for the system. Despite not being particularly famous it’s a worthy playthrough for any fan of the genre, especially R-Type aficionados. The game is not a button masher, coming with an excellent autofire function right out of the box and looks and sounds really good, especially noteworthy is the fact that it never slows down, regardless of how busy the screen is with enemies and bullets.

The main gimmick in Curse is that you will acquire two option spheres that can be freely rotated in 90 degrees increments around the ship. On top of blocking enemy bullets, they can also be upgraded to shoot a useful spread shot forwards and backwards or up and down. This makes them more versatile than other vertical fire modes in games such as Gradius where no correction on the fly is possible without collecting different powerups. By letting you freely rotate your options, Curse allows you to defend yourself from attacks from different directions or to attack where your main weapon can't reach.

The other standout characteristic of the game is the shield mechanic: instead of dying in one hit you can sustain a number of impacts, much like Super Aleste, only instead of receiving a weapon downgrade like in that game you simply lose part of your shield bar, which can be replenished via fairly frequent powerups, though impacts with the scenery or particularly strong weapons will kill you immediately, keeping you on your toes. This works fine, though it feels like a missed opportunity that the shield is recharged through simple powerups and not by more creative means, like slowly replenishing itself by absorbing enemy bullets with your options.

The arsenal your ship can acquire consists of three main fire modes: a pretty standard three way wide attack, a sphere that explodes into shrapnel when colliding with something and a wave beam that can pass through solid matter, such as the scenery. Navigation of said scenery plays a huge part in the game, like in R-Type and Gradius you will be required to navigate tight areas with great precision, such as flying through caves avoiding rock formations or dodging asteroids in space. This is generally manageable, though the game likes to throw obstacles your way that are impossible to avoid without dying at least once to them. This becomes supremely evident in the last stage, where you will feel like you're playing a shooter version of Dragon's Lair, such is the amount of rote memorization required. Furthermore, this is the only one of the five stages that doesn't respawn you in place, but rather sends you back to the start of the level upon dying.

That's where you realize the wave beam is by far the best weapon in the game, since firing through walls permits you to wipe the screen before even getting into a room, making navigation of that space much easier, especially when adding the obligatory screen-clearing bomb and the homing missiles you will acquire, which do a great job of seeking out and destroying up to three enemies before they become a threat. Conversely, the spread shot and sphere attack are blocked by the scenery, meaning you will want to use the wave beam as much as possible. Powerups are abundant enough, however, that swapping between weapons can be done very frequently.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the game is how unbalanced the difficulty is: it is far too possible in some stages to just find yourself a cozy spot at the top or bottom of the screen, set your options in a vertical position and avoid 90% of the obstacles in the middle of the screen. Likewise the bosses go down far too quickly if you reach them with a fully powered ship, some of them in mere seconds, so much so that you'd be excused for never even seeing some of their attack patterns at all. As such, no death runs of the game are very possible, until the last stage that is, and even required almost, since like the games that inspire it (once again R-Type and Gradius) dying can see you respawn in too weak and slow a state to recover, making it quicker to just reset and start over. This is one of those games where you need to collect speed powerups or you are too slow to do much, so dying in the wrong spot can be a disaster.

In conclusion, Curse is worth playing at least once for fans of the genre: it's a fun ride if you play by its rules, it's only a shame that it's so exploitable and then decides to stop you in your tracks right on the finish line.