There have been plenty of games out there that like to take elements from other, more popular games, and combine them together to make something more “inventive” and “unique”. A lot of the time, this doesn’t work as gracefully as one would imagine, but there are those few cases that do make all these different elements come together to work in beautiful harmony, such as the case with Forgotten Worlds. It had been a minute since I had gotten my usual Capcom fix, so I needed to take care of that somehow, and after looking around in the Capcom Arcade Stadium, I found this title. Going in, I thought it would just be yet another generic space shooter that has you playing as Contra-like characters. However, I ended up being pleasantly surprised, because yes, as a whole, it it can be seen as yet another generic space shooter, but it does like I mentioned earlier: taking many different elements from plenty of other successful games and brings them together in harmony. Therefore, I found this game to be great, and yeah, it may not bring that many new elements alongside all the other elements, but it still creates a pretty solid experience that any arcade nut can enjoy.
The story is extremely generic, one that has been done many times before, so there is no use in talking about it anymore, the graphics, of course, are pretty great, which is to be expected from a Capcom arcade title, the music can be very enjoyable… at least, I say “can” because it will constantly be drowned out with the sound that your bullets make, so that’s fun to listen to, the control is mostly solid, but there are some issues that I had with it that I will get into later, and the gameplay feels familiar, yet new, with all of these different elements combined together to create a fun experience.
The game feels like a mix between Contra, Gradius, and Fantasy Zone, where you take control of one of two beefy Contra-esque super soldiers, go through a plethora of different stages, shooting down any enemy that threatens you on your mission, gather plenty of money for powerups along the way, and take on deadly bosses of all shapes and sizes. It plays pretty much like your average space shooter for the most part, but there are quite a lot of changes and additions that make this game stand out from others. In terms of the simpler stuff, you control a dude rather then a ship, and you have fully directional movement rather then being stuck looking one way the whole time. It isn’t much, but it is a neat difference, especially since so many other games in the genre keep you fixated in the same position all the time. Alongside this, there are also more unique levels to find within this game that you wouldn’t see in others of the same genre, such as Egyptian and Greek themed levels, which is pretty nice to see.
In terms of the main gameplay gimmicks, it is about what you would expect, but like I mentioned earlier, it combines elements from past popular titles to make something fun and somewhat memorable. From Contra, the game takes both the designs of the central protagonists, and the general style of Contra, having voiced lines of dialogue, and cutscenes and graphics that would look straight out of one of those games. From Gradius, it takes the general progression through stages and the shooting mechanics, with you generally moving on an automated path, and having different options that you can use to help out in combat and increase firepower. And as for Fantasy Zone, the game takes the shop mechanic, where you can collect money from a lot of the enemies you take out, and use it to purchase plenty of different helpful upgrades, such as more powerful shots, different kinds of shots, armor for your character, and plenty more. Sure, it isn’t confirmed if all of these games and mechanics were direct inspirations for this title, but you do feel the influence from all of these titles when you play these games, and you wouldn’t think it would work all that well together, but it surprisingly works pretty well.
I really don’t have too many complaints about the game. Yeah, it did get repetitive at points, and arcade syndrome makes an unwanted appearance once again, but for the most part, I was having a pretty grand time… but again, that’s only for the most part. This goes into my main issue with the game, and I’m not even sure if it is the game itself is at fault for this. Whenever I died in the game, and I came back in using another credit, it made the controls for aiming get pretty… wonky. There were plenty of times the directions I would aim in were not properly mapped to what direction I was turning in, whether it being off just by a few inches, or if it was completely backwards. Needless to say, this made combat situations much more stressful, given how I have to figure out what direction the game wanted me to tilt the joystick in just to defend myself. I was playing the game on the Capcom Arcade Stadium, so that may have something to do with it, but again, I can’t confirm that for certain.
Overall, despite not being too creative, and having some pretty awkward control issues, I still had a pretty great time with Forgotten Worlds, with me really enjoying the combination of all these different elements seen in other games, as well as the other new elements brought into the concoction. I would recommend it for those looking for something new, yet short to check out, as well as for those who generally like all of the other games that I just mentioned in this review. But alas, now that I reviewed the game, I guess it can go back to being a yet another FORGOTTEN gem… yeah, alright, that wasn’t my best work.
Game #298
The story is extremely generic, one that has been done many times before, so there is no use in talking about it anymore, the graphics, of course, are pretty great, which is to be expected from a Capcom arcade title, the music can be very enjoyable… at least, I say “can” because it will constantly be drowned out with the sound that your bullets make, so that’s fun to listen to, the control is mostly solid, but there are some issues that I had with it that I will get into later, and the gameplay feels familiar, yet new, with all of these different elements combined together to create a fun experience.
The game feels like a mix between Contra, Gradius, and Fantasy Zone, where you take control of one of two beefy Contra-esque super soldiers, go through a plethora of different stages, shooting down any enemy that threatens you on your mission, gather plenty of money for powerups along the way, and take on deadly bosses of all shapes and sizes. It plays pretty much like your average space shooter for the most part, but there are quite a lot of changes and additions that make this game stand out from others. In terms of the simpler stuff, you control a dude rather then a ship, and you have fully directional movement rather then being stuck looking one way the whole time. It isn’t much, but it is a neat difference, especially since so many other games in the genre keep you fixated in the same position all the time. Alongside this, there are also more unique levels to find within this game that you wouldn’t see in others of the same genre, such as Egyptian and Greek themed levels, which is pretty nice to see.
In terms of the main gameplay gimmicks, it is about what you would expect, but like I mentioned earlier, it combines elements from past popular titles to make something fun and somewhat memorable. From Contra, the game takes both the designs of the central protagonists, and the general style of Contra, having voiced lines of dialogue, and cutscenes and graphics that would look straight out of one of those games. From Gradius, it takes the general progression through stages and the shooting mechanics, with you generally moving on an automated path, and having different options that you can use to help out in combat and increase firepower. And as for Fantasy Zone, the game takes the shop mechanic, where you can collect money from a lot of the enemies you take out, and use it to purchase plenty of different helpful upgrades, such as more powerful shots, different kinds of shots, armor for your character, and plenty more. Sure, it isn’t confirmed if all of these games and mechanics were direct inspirations for this title, but you do feel the influence from all of these titles when you play these games, and you wouldn’t think it would work all that well together, but it surprisingly works pretty well.
I really don’t have too many complaints about the game. Yeah, it did get repetitive at points, and arcade syndrome makes an unwanted appearance once again, but for the most part, I was having a pretty grand time… but again, that’s only for the most part. This goes into my main issue with the game, and I’m not even sure if it is the game itself is at fault for this. Whenever I died in the game, and I came back in using another credit, it made the controls for aiming get pretty… wonky. There were plenty of times the directions I would aim in were not properly mapped to what direction I was turning in, whether it being off just by a few inches, or if it was completely backwards. Needless to say, this made combat situations much more stressful, given how I have to figure out what direction the game wanted me to tilt the joystick in just to defend myself. I was playing the game on the Capcom Arcade Stadium, so that may have something to do with it, but again, I can’t confirm that for certain.
Overall, despite not being too creative, and having some pretty awkward control issues, I still had a pretty great time with Forgotten Worlds, with me really enjoying the combination of all these different elements seen in other games, as well as the other new elements brought into the concoction. I would recommend it for those looking for something new, yet short to check out, as well as for those who generally like all of the other games that I just mentioned in this review. But alas, now that I reviewed the game, I guess it can go back to being a yet another FORGOTTEN gem… yeah, alright, that wasn’t my best work.
Game #298