If you've followed my genesis shenanigans for my 2 years on backloggd you probably know i'm an asshole about how playing on consoles and crt's is The Real Deal and the reason retro games are perceived as overly-cheap is because of input lag and pixelization fucking up periphery vision. It stands to reason that games made for a different time for wildly different hardware are a lot worse when you take them out of that environment - it's an art medium where tech dictates every facet of design, even today. Most retro games, especially 8 and 16 bit, just have to be played in their original format.
But.
Some retro games are Not Like That! Target Earth is just fiendishly evil no matter what way you play it! So bad that for once in this MD marathon, I gave up and moved to an emulator! I even gasp Broke The Gamer Code and used the evil save states, and it was still a total nightmare!
And it's a shame, because TE is one of those games that under any other circumstance, should be this really cool hidden gem - the concept is miles ahead their budget, aiming for a gameplay/storytelling knot with stages that have varying objectives, time-sensitive events and whatnot. The feeling of commandeering this weighty machine with customizable loadouts through a living, breathing war is COOL, bottom line. It's campy, it has really bombastic music (Jenny and Nightblade said it was bad but they are Wrong and Silly), you even have a Vergil rival named Rance that shits himself whenever you hit him with a missile - it is fun. It's understandable why this game has a JP cult following and how it got not one, but two sequels and a remake across other platforms. It is a cool, quirky kusoge with a lofty spirit.
But goddamn, when every single enemy is shooting aimed bullets and you have no i-frames, it's so bad. No amount of 'taking it slow' prepares you for enemies that spawn in clusters, sit on top of your hitbox invincibily, and frame 1 murder you. Whenever you think the game reaches its peak bullshit, it doubles down and crunches your breathing room further. Somebody desperately needs to make a patch for this that adds in i-frames, and I could guarantee this would be so much more palatable.
I'm at least glad the remake exists - my review of that doesn't say anything about it, but like, the remake is a totally different beast and genuinely great. It has revised mission objectives, dozens of changes to the combat design, a total overhaul of your mech's controls and abilities, and is at least five times easier. If you're a fan of games like Ranger-X that bring the heavy, systematic action of mecha into the run-and-gun genre, you absolutely need to check it out.
But don't play Target Earth!
But.
Some retro games are Not Like That! Target Earth is just fiendishly evil no matter what way you play it! So bad that for once in this MD marathon, I gave up and moved to an emulator! I even gasp Broke The Gamer Code and used the evil save states, and it was still a total nightmare!
And it's a shame, because TE is one of those games that under any other circumstance, should be this really cool hidden gem - the concept is miles ahead their budget, aiming for a gameplay/storytelling knot with stages that have varying objectives, time-sensitive events and whatnot. The feeling of commandeering this weighty machine with customizable loadouts through a living, breathing war is COOL, bottom line. It's campy, it has really bombastic music (Jenny and Nightblade said it was bad but they are Wrong and Silly), you even have a Vergil rival named Rance that shits himself whenever you hit him with a missile - it is fun. It's understandable why this game has a JP cult following and how it got not one, but two sequels and a remake across other platforms. It is a cool, quirky kusoge with a lofty spirit.
But goddamn, when every single enemy is shooting aimed bullets and you have no i-frames, it's so bad. No amount of 'taking it slow' prepares you for enemies that spawn in clusters, sit on top of your hitbox invincibily, and frame 1 murder you. Whenever you think the game reaches its peak bullshit, it doubles down and crunches your breathing room further. Somebody desperately needs to make a patch for this that adds in i-frames, and I could guarantee this would be so much more palatable.
I'm at least glad the remake exists - my review of that doesn't say anything about it, but like, the remake is a totally different beast and genuinely great. It has revised mission objectives, dozens of changes to the combat design, a total overhaul of your mech's controls and abilities, and is at least five times easier. If you're a fan of games like Ranger-X that bring the heavy, systematic action of mecha into the run-and-gun genre, you absolutely need to check it out.
But don't play Target Earth!
2 Comments
Tried playing the Reloaded patch and unfortunate to say, it doesn't really fix the difficulty at all. Lack of i-frames and bubblegum-y enemy behavior still means getting surrounded by 4 or more enemies is an instant game over, and the healing is still way too slow.
chandler
1 year ago
you pretty much need to get the high score on the first mission (from destroying the ship without killing anything else) or else you're gonna have a rough time, and the continue code is frankly... completely mandatory. but beyond that i'd say it's pretty simple overall as long as you have the right weapons and equipment