-
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
- The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
- Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
I think you had, but I've been aware of it for many years and previously played it on my mega everdrive. It's thoroughly my jam.
Iiiiinteresting...sending you a PM.
Yesterday I received in the mail not one, not two, but three obscure (but perhaps not unloved) SMS games! Two of these games came from the kind and scholarly @Yimothy who sent me Psychic World and, to my surprise and delight, Donald Duck's Lucky Dime Caper, a PAL-region game that I knew nothing about and wasn't expecting! Master of Darkness was a game I purchased. In an odd coincidence, both of these shipments arrived from Australia, and arrived on the same day, even though they were mailed out at least a week apart from each other.
So greatly was I looking forward to Psychic World that I've already played through it once. This game is just a treasure from start to end. Master of Darkness I'll probably dig into today.
Thanks again, Yimothy!
Psycho/Psychic World has excellent box art whether you go to the MSX2 original or the later Sega ports. Particularly tickled by the loud and proud "Character Action Game" label that gets applied to an entirely different sort of game by English-language forumgoers of the past fifteen years or so.
The SMS cover art isn’t as good as those, but it’s above average for an SMS game:
The western game gear cover is pretty odd:
You wonder if it was made by someone who knew the name of the game, but nothing else about it.
Glad to see the games arrived safely, Drac.
(Images from my Let’s Play, if anyone wants to see far too much of these games)
The western game gear cover is pretty odd:
You wonder if it was made by someone who knew the name of the game, but nothing else about it.
Glad to see the games arrived safely, Drac.
(Images from my Let’s Play, if anyone wants to see far too much of these games)
I'm often a stickler for Japanese box/cart art in games of this era, especially on things like Famicom and Super Famicom, and I used to feel the same way about Master System in particular. I'm not exactly sure what changed, but nowadays I completely love it. All the grids, the anemic serif typeface, the stiff-collared navy blue, and the way the burgundy label matches the top of the SMS cart slot. I love seeing all this stuff on my shelf, even though I think it's empirically worse than what was produced in other countries.
The same goes for Psychic World - at least by then, they'd started putting full illustrations on the packaging, and they'd moved away from the unified typeface to give the title room to sell itself. The blood-red "ACTION" spatter helps make it feel more exciting, too, worlds away from, say, the cover of Zillion, which might as well be a learn-to-type program for all the buyer knows. And the illustration is full of action, but still kind of misaimed, sapping Lucia's cuteness in favor of evoking something more muscular, more Hollywood. At least they let her keep her skirt.
Still though, I can't pick a favorite between the European cover art or the Japanese art for either MSX or Game Gear (the Euro Game Gear art is the clear loser). I love graphic design success, but I also love an interesting failure, which is exactly what all the marketing for the SMS amounts to.
The same goes for Psychic World - at least by then, they'd started putting full illustrations on the packaging, and they'd moved away from the unified typeface to give the title room to sell itself. The blood-red "ACTION" spatter helps make it feel more exciting, too, worlds away from, say, the cover of Zillion, which might as well be a learn-to-type program for all the buyer knows. And the illustration is full of action, but still kind of misaimed, sapping Lucia's cuteness in favor of evoking something more muscular, more Hollywood. At least they let her keep her skirt.
Still though, I can't pick a favorite between the European cover art or the Japanese art for either MSX or Game Gear (the Euro Game Gear art is the clear loser). I love graphic design success, but I also love an interesting failure, which is exactly what all the marketing for the SMS amounts to.
I’ve been playing SpellCaster. I was expecting a platformer with cutscenes, but it turns out it’s more of a menu/point and click adventure game with platforming segments. You play as Kane, a guy who’s been training as a magical warrior at a temple in Japan. Various other temples get attacked by mysterious forces, so you’re sent out to investigate. This generally means platforming to a temple, where the game switches to a first person view and has you investigate with a menu - move, look, talk, take, use, and spell. Usually you look around a little and find either an item or a person, then take on a boss fight before getting a clue or key item, then go back to your home temple so your mentor can tell you where to go next.
The platforming isn’t great, to be honest - almost all of my deaths have come from falling in holes because of how precise you have to be with jumps and how knockback works, but it’s adequate. You get access to a bunch of spells from the pause menu, though they are mostly unnecessary (I probably could have stood to use the flight spell a bit more when I kept falling in holes, though). I’m thankful to be playing on a Mega SG, which allows me to pause with my controller rather than pushing a button on the console.
The adventure component is mostly pretty basic - go somewhere and poke around, and if you get stuck just try all of your commands (there aren’t that many). You have access to the same spells in adventure mode as you do when platforming, which can make for interesting puzzles, though they cost spell power and it’s possible to run out (you get a bit back on death, so a couple of times I’ve deliberately game overed to get more MP - not ideal).
I got quite stuck in one of the adventuring bits - you have to cross a 5x5 sea area that’s got several evil spirits in it and an area you can’t approach because of waves. I tried all my spells to beat the spirits and/or calm the waves, but none of them worked. This was the point where I ran out of MP and had to let the spirits kill me to get some back so I could try more spells. Eventually I gave up and looked up what to do. Turned out I needed to get x-ray specs from a boathouse by the shore, which would allow me to look beneath the waves for the key items needed at sea. I had looked at the boathouse, but it turned out I needed to look at it, then talk to the person in the same scene to get the option to go in, then go in, look around, then leave and go to a different house and talk to the occupant and be told about the x ray glasses, then go back to the boathouse where they now appeared and take them.
Otherwise I have mostly been able to make progress on my own. The narrative is slightly confusing, but the lead character often seems confused so I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be that way. I think at the point I’ve reached I’ve switched allegiances and the guy giving me instructions (and reviving me after each death) is now the villain.
The localisation is interesting. The Mark III version of the game is based on a manga, which was taken out for the SMS release and some of the character designs changed (the main character wears pants and a singlet instead of robes, for example), but it’s still based in Japan. Despite that, there’s a guy running a spaghetti stand which I imagine was probably some kind of noodles in the original. I thought at first it was set in some historical period, but one of the houses has what looks like a TV in it, plus it makes the almost obligatory SMS late-game switch to sci-fi when you climb through a pot into a passage and end up in a spaceship.
Here’s the Summit Temple, your home base, and the guy who gives you directions throughout the game (at least to the point I’ve reached). Unless you have something specific to show him, each time you come here he’ll tell you what to do, maybe give you an item, and then whatever you try to do he’s like “hey idiot, get to it!”. For this reason I have not been able to examine the statue behind him.
The text is a password - most of the photos I’ve taken of the game have been for password recording purposes. They use all upper and lower case letters, numbers, and a couple of special characters. I’m glad I’m not writing them down by hand.
Here’s a fairly typical temple scene - most of the platforming stages end in temples and boss fights. Most of them attack in their armour, but this woman transforms into a dragon for the one boss fight that I’ve died in so far. The game is pretty generous with death - die in a boss fight and you revive at the same fight.
The next two pictures feature a plot twist, so I’ll put them in a spoiler pop:
Here’s the inside of the spaceship. I wasn’t expecting this, but a sci-fi turn is never truly a surprise in a game from the late 80s. I wasn’t actually able to do anything here, so I assume I’ll be back later.
And here’s a shot of actual dialogue. These guys have been trying to revive their serpent god, and I’ve been trying to stop them, but at this point my last instruction was to revive it and they seem unsure of whether they want to revive it or not. What a transplant to a computer means for a god I don’t know.
The platforming isn’t great, to be honest - almost all of my deaths have come from falling in holes because of how precise you have to be with jumps and how knockback works, but it’s adequate. You get access to a bunch of spells from the pause menu, though they are mostly unnecessary (I probably could have stood to use the flight spell a bit more when I kept falling in holes, though). I’m thankful to be playing on a Mega SG, which allows me to pause with my controller rather than pushing a button on the console.
The adventure component is mostly pretty basic - go somewhere and poke around, and if you get stuck just try all of your commands (there aren’t that many). You have access to the same spells in adventure mode as you do when platforming, which can make for interesting puzzles, though they cost spell power and it’s possible to run out (you get a bit back on death, so a couple of times I’ve deliberately game overed to get more MP - not ideal).
I got quite stuck in one of the adventuring bits - you have to cross a 5x5 sea area that’s got several evil spirits in it and an area you can’t approach because of waves. I tried all my spells to beat the spirits and/or calm the waves, but none of them worked. This was the point where I ran out of MP and had to let the spirits kill me to get some back so I could try more spells. Eventually I gave up and looked up what to do. Turned out I needed to get x-ray specs from a boathouse by the shore, which would allow me to look beneath the waves for the key items needed at sea. I had looked at the boathouse, but it turned out I needed to look at it, then talk to the person in the same scene to get the option to go in, then go in, look around, then leave and go to a different house and talk to the occupant and be told about the x ray glasses, then go back to the boathouse where they now appeared and take them.
Otherwise I have mostly been able to make progress on my own. The narrative is slightly confusing, but the lead character often seems confused so I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be that way. I think at the point I’ve reached I’ve switched allegiances and the guy giving me instructions (and reviving me after each death) is now the villain.
The localisation is interesting. The Mark III version of the game is based on a manga, which was taken out for the SMS release and some of the character designs changed (the main character wears pants and a singlet instead of robes, for example), but it’s still based in Japan. Despite that, there’s a guy running a spaghetti stand which I imagine was probably some kind of noodles in the original. I thought at first it was set in some historical period, but one of the houses has what looks like a TV in it, plus it makes the almost obligatory SMS late-game switch to sci-fi when you climb through a pot into a passage and end up in a spaceship.
Here’s the Summit Temple, your home base, and the guy who gives you directions throughout the game (at least to the point I’ve reached). Unless you have something specific to show him, each time you come here he’ll tell you what to do, maybe give you an item, and then whatever you try to do he’s like “hey idiot, get to it!”. For this reason I have not been able to examine the statue behind him.
The text is a password - most of the photos I’ve taken of the game have been for password recording purposes. They use all upper and lower case letters, numbers, and a couple of special characters. I’m glad I’m not writing them down by hand.
Here’s a fairly typical temple scene - most of the platforming stages end in temples and boss fights. Most of them attack in their armour, but this woman transforms into a dragon for the one boss fight that I’ve died in so far. The game is pretty generous with death - die in a boss fight and you revive at the same fight.
The next two pictures feature a plot twist, so I’ll put them in a spoiler pop:
Here’s the inside of the spaceship. I wasn’t expecting this, but a sci-fi turn is never truly a surprise in a game from the late 80s. I wasn’t actually able to do anything here, so I assume I’ll be back later.
And here’s a shot of actual dialogue. These guys have been trying to revive their serpent god, and I’ve been trying to stop them, but at this point my last instruction was to revive it and they seem unsure of whether they want to revive it or not. What a transplant to a computer means for a god I don’t know.
I've been curious about this one ever since I watched Hungry Goriya's review of it a while ago. It had a sequel for the Genesis/MD, a side-scrolling action game localized as "Mystic Defender," and similarly stripped of its licensed identity.
The next bit after where I was in my last post was a long series of platforms over a bed of fire. Partway along there stopped being enough platforms so I had to use the flight spell to get across. When you're flying one hit makes you drop, and I didn't have enough MP to fly twice, so I died quite a few times. I exited the stage and went to an earlier one to grind up MP drops (which sucked) to make it easier, and then after a few more failed attempts I made it through on a single cast. Ah well. After that there was a double boss fight:
I mentioned that I thought the guy telling me what to do was becoming the villain: I'm now less sure of that. His name is Daikok. This image shows the hand of Daikak after I defeated him. I might have the names back to front. Anyway, either they are different guys (I can still visit Daikok at this point), or it's a typo (of which there are many in this game). Daikak was a puppet of an alien looking dude I fought before him but didn't get a shot of. Anyways, I took the remains of his armour, that hand, back to the spaceship, and:
Check out the emotion in Kane's face as this happens. Apparently the Iwato, the villains for most of the game so far but who I am now working with, sealed away some evil thing in a pyramid. By putting my hand in the hand-shaped space in the ship while wearing the hand from the shot above I was able to activate this ship and get flown to the pyramid. I had to burn some grass to expose a side entrance which led to a hallway where I got the point of the pyramid. Back outside, I used magic to fly to the top, where Kane accidentally dropped the point but it landed in the correct place, and that opened the main entrance to the pyramid. Which is a huge maze of near-identical passages and doorways, several of which seem to lead to the same place. I found a big enemy that dropped a hammer when I beat it, increasing my attack power (though not really noticeably - enemies seem to take as many hits to kill as they did before) and also letting me break certain walls, beyond which I have not found a clear path. I think I'm going to have to map it out, which is something I like so that's good news.
I mentioned that I thought the guy telling me what to do was becoming the villain: I'm now less sure of that. His name is Daikok. This image shows the hand of Daikak after I defeated him. I might have the names back to front. Anyway, either they are different guys (I can still visit Daikok at this point), or it's a typo (of which there are many in this game). Daikak was a puppet of an alien looking dude I fought before him but didn't get a shot of. Anyways, I took the remains of his armour, that hand, back to the spaceship, and:
Check out the emotion in Kane's face as this happens. Apparently the Iwato, the villains for most of the game so far but who I am now working with, sealed away some evil thing in a pyramid. By putting my hand in the hand-shaped space in the ship while wearing the hand from the shot above I was able to activate this ship and get flown to the pyramid. I had to burn some grass to expose a side entrance which led to a hallway where I got the point of the pyramid. Back outside, I used magic to fly to the top, where Kane accidentally dropped the point but it landed in the correct place, and that opened the main entrance to the pyramid. Which is a huge maze of near-identical passages and doorways, several of which seem to lead to the same place. I found a big enemy that dropped a hammer when I beat it, increasing my attack power (though not really noticeably - enemies seem to take as many hits to kill as they did before) and also letting me break certain walls, beyond which I have not found a clear path. I think I'm going to have to map it out, which is something I like so that's good news.
Last edited:
Here’s my map of the pyramid. It’s not particularly to scale and the room arrangements are haphazard, but it got me through. There are a lot of long empty corridors in there, and they all look pretty much alike. Fortunately it’s all kind of hubs and spokes rather than having passages reconnect with each other further along, so it was just a matter of going to each juncture and trying each path until it dead ended, then going back to the last branch and trying the other way. I got a bit confused by door E, which leads to another doorway in the same corridor, and by L and K, which each have openings in the same two corridors, but otherwise it was straightforward.
There are a couple of paths I didn’t fully explore because I stumbled on the exit before taking them, but unless it turns out I missed something essential I won’t be going back. Mapping out the pyramid was interesting, but I’ve had enough of it for now. All the enemies in there left me with a tonne of MP which is nice.
At the end there was a demon, who sent his possessed puppet Regina to fight me. Kane refuses to fight her, so after trying my items and the exorcism spell to no effect I just talked to her repeatedly until she came to. Not sure if I’m supposed to know who she is. After that I fought and beat the demon, but as is so often the case killing him didn’t stop him releasing the demon lord, so it’s off to the underworld for me next.
I beat SpellCaster. It’s a pretty wild ride, there’s a lot more to it than I expected. The box art looks a lot like Captain Silver, I wasn’t really expecting to end up in the underworld.
Speaking of which, here’s what happened since I reached the underworld, as I remember it:
-The guard at the gate refused me entry because I was alive (obviously unaware of the many many times I’ve fallen in pits and died so far). Then I showed them the Sword of Kusanagi and they were like, “Come on in, sir”.
-The ferryman was asleep and unrousable, so I turned back to the gates, where the guard told me to get some nectar from princess Toyo in the Chizu Sea, so I go there.
-Kane describes the scene there as some people having a party. There’s a woman at the front holding a flask. Talking to her gets Kane a drink of nectar. Choosing “take” in the menu gets me another drink, this one topping up my HP. This is all well and good, but doesn’t wake the ferryman. I try using the only item I have, the sword, and Kane is pressured by the partygoers into doing a sword dance, which they applaud joyously. Eventually I figure out I need to choose “look” and move the cursor to the flask to get some nectar to go.
-I wake the ferryman with the nectar and he takes me to the next platforming area. Near the start is a hollow tree, so I step inside and meet Amano, some kind of monster who tries to kill me. I use the sword and defeat him, which renders him friendly but has no obvious use beyond that for now.
-Carrying on with the platforming I reach a temple where I meet Izanagi, who tells me that to defeat the lord of evil I need to go to another shrine and find a sacred mirror.
-I return to the platforming and reach another shrine (beyond which, for now, is an impassible rock wall), this one guarded by Cerberus. I can’t get past the dog, so I leave.
-On the way back I stop by the hollow tree to visit Amano, who says to go to some field to look for a harp to play to make Cerberus sleep. I have no idea where this field is, but the ferryman does. There’s a big rock in the field with something under it, but it’s too heavy to move. I go talk to the ferryman again and he gives me his oar (then pulls out another for himself). With the oar I move the rock and find the harp. Nice!
-I use the harp and Kane hits a few random notes. The game tells me it sounds terrible, but whatever, I’m sure the dog is less critical.
-I hike through the platforming segment again to reach Cerberus, who only growls at my hard playing. I go all the way back through the platforming bit and revisit the party with the nectar, where the princess teaches me to play better. Then back through the platforming (by this point I’m using the flight spell to mostly bypass the level), and off to sleep for Cerberus.
-Some guy emerges from the temple and tells me that to get the mirror I need eight sacred swords, and the thunder god has one. Cool, but where’s the thunder god?
-Back through the platforming to the ferryman, who takes me to the thunder god. I’ve read that if you don’t beat this guy quickly he runs away and leaves the game in an unwinnable state, which is surprisingly harsh for this game. I beat him quickly and get a sword. So great, seven more to go?
-It’s back through the platforms to the shrine where Cerberus was. The guy there tells me to take my new sword to some other temple I don’t know the location of. I set off through the platforming again, but fortunately stop at Amano’s place. He tells me that the temple I’m looking for is in a rock wall. I remember there was one past the Cerberus temple, so I head there again and sure enough there’s a door that wasn’t there before.
-Inside are a heap of pedestals with swords sticking out. I stick the sword I got from the thunder god into the one empty pedestal and a door appears. I go in and find myself fighting a boss. Medusa, maybe? There’s an indestructible body running back and forwards and a floating head that swoops down at me. Enough shots fired and the head and they die, after which the mirror comes down from the sky.
-I take the mirror back to Izanagi, who tells me I need to wake the serpent god, concentrate its power with the mirror, and then absorb the power using the sword of Kusanagi. The game mercifully then automatically moves me back to the summit temple where the game had started. The guy there gives me back the branched sword he took off me ages ago. And takes away my harp.
-From there I have no real idea where to go, but the game only gives me two options and by process of elimination I wind up in a room with a rock in it. Again I’m kinda stumped, but I start using my items. The branched sword smashes the rock and the serpent god appears. I throw the mirror at it and then use the sword of Kusanagi to absorb its power.
-Suddenly it’s an STG! Kane has grown wings and is now in a vertical shmup. My HP max has also almost tripled to 200, but enemies are doing a lot of damage per hit so I’m not that far ahead of where I was. Fortunately I still have a tonne of MP from all the enemies I killed in the pyramid, so I can use the healing spell when needed.
-After killing various minor enemies and dodging fire from a whole lot of eyes, I reach the demon lord. It fires a heap of lightning at me but it’s all pretty easy to avoid, and before long I’ve beat the game.
-The reward is a couple screens of text about how so long as there is suffering the evil lord might come back, so I should work to minimise suffering, and then a picture of Kane standing on a cliff watching the sun rise. Or set. Dunno.
-Roll credits. Hey, Phoenix Rie (Reiko Kodama) worked on this!
That’s a bit more than I intended to say about this game. It had some frustrations, but I really enjoyed figuring it out (and occasionally looking it up). It’s a big, complicated game, which I was not expecting. I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone else, but I had a good time.
Speaking of which, here’s what happened since I reached the underworld, as I remember it:
-The guard at the gate refused me entry because I was alive (obviously unaware of the many many times I’ve fallen in pits and died so far). Then I showed them the Sword of Kusanagi and they were like, “Come on in, sir”.
-The ferryman was asleep and unrousable, so I turned back to the gates, where the guard told me to get some nectar from princess Toyo in the Chizu Sea, so I go there.
-Kane describes the scene there as some people having a party. There’s a woman at the front holding a flask. Talking to her gets Kane a drink of nectar. Choosing “take” in the menu gets me another drink, this one topping up my HP. This is all well and good, but doesn’t wake the ferryman. I try using the only item I have, the sword, and Kane is pressured by the partygoers into doing a sword dance, which they applaud joyously. Eventually I figure out I need to choose “look” and move the cursor to the flask to get some nectar to go.
-I wake the ferryman with the nectar and he takes me to the next platforming area. Near the start is a hollow tree, so I step inside and meet Amano, some kind of monster who tries to kill me. I use the sword and defeat him, which renders him friendly but has no obvious use beyond that for now.
-Carrying on with the platforming I reach a temple where I meet Izanagi, who tells me that to defeat the lord of evil I need to go to another shrine and find a sacred mirror.
-I return to the platforming and reach another shrine (beyond which, for now, is an impassible rock wall), this one guarded by Cerberus. I can’t get past the dog, so I leave.
-On the way back I stop by the hollow tree to visit Amano, who says to go to some field to look for a harp to play to make Cerberus sleep. I have no idea where this field is, but the ferryman does. There’s a big rock in the field with something under it, but it’s too heavy to move. I go talk to the ferryman again and he gives me his oar (then pulls out another for himself). With the oar I move the rock and find the harp. Nice!
-I use the harp and Kane hits a few random notes. The game tells me it sounds terrible, but whatever, I’m sure the dog is less critical.
-I hike through the platforming segment again to reach Cerberus, who only growls at my hard playing. I go all the way back through the platforming bit and revisit the party with the nectar, where the princess teaches me to play better. Then back through the platforming (by this point I’m using the flight spell to mostly bypass the level), and off to sleep for Cerberus.
-Some guy emerges from the temple and tells me that to get the mirror I need eight sacred swords, and the thunder god has one. Cool, but where’s the thunder god?
-Back through the platforming to the ferryman, who takes me to the thunder god. I’ve read that if you don’t beat this guy quickly he runs away and leaves the game in an unwinnable state, which is surprisingly harsh for this game. I beat him quickly and get a sword. So great, seven more to go?
-It’s back through the platforms to the shrine where Cerberus was. The guy there tells me to take my new sword to some other temple I don’t know the location of. I set off through the platforming again, but fortunately stop at Amano’s place. He tells me that the temple I’m looking for is in a rock wall. I remember there was one past the Cerberus temple, so I head there again and sure enough there’s a door that wasn’t there before.
-Inside are a heap of pedestals with swords sticking out. I stick the sword I got from the thunder god into the one empty pedestal and a door appears. I go in and find myself fighting a boss. Medusa, maybe? There’s an indestructible body running back and forwards and a floating head that swoops down at me. Enough shots fired and the head and they die, after which the mirror comes down from the sky.
-I take the mirror back to Izanagi, who tells me I need to wake the serpent god, concentrate its power with the mirror, and then absorb the power using the sword of Kusanagi. The game mercifully then automatically moves me back to the summit temple where the game had started. The guy there gives me back the branched sword he took off me ages ago. And takes away my harp.
-From there I have no real idea where to go, but the game only gives me two options and by process of elimination I wind up in a room with a rock in it. Again I’m kinda stumped, but I start using my items. The branched sword smashes the rock and the serpent god appears. I throw the mirror at it and then use the sword of Kusanagi to absorb its power.
-Suddenly it’s an STG! Kane has grown wings and is now in a vertical shmup. My HP max has also almost tripled to 200, but enemies are doing a lot of damage per hit so I’m not that far ahead of where I was. Fortunately I still have a tonne of MP from all the enemies I killed in the pyramid, so I can use the healing spell when needed.
-After killing various minor enemies and dodging fire from a whole lot of eyes, I reach the demon lord. It fires a heap of lightning at me but it’s all pretty easy to avoid, and before long I’ve beat the game.
-The reward is a couple screens of text about how so long as there is suffering the evil lord might come back, so I should work to minimise suffering, and then a picture of Kane standing on a cliff watching the sun rise. Or set. Dunno.
-Roll credits. Hey, Phoenix Rie (Reiko Kodama) worked on this!
That’s a bit more than I intended to say about this game. It had some frustrations, but I really enjoyed figuring it out (and occasionally looking it up). It’s a big, complicated game, which I was not expecting. I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone else, but I had a good time.
I’ve been playing Power Strike, the first Aleste game/2nd (I think) Zanac game. I played Power Strike II a few years ago and had a great time, but at some point I took a shot at the first game, saw the power-ups floating upward off the top of the screen instead of downwards and dismissed it as impossible. When I got the Aleste Collection on switch I played all the Game Gear games and didn’t bother with the first SMS one. Well, I recently came across a physical copy of it for a relatively reasonable price and I’m a sucker for physical copies so I bought it and I’ve been playing.
The game has a few design features that I consider player-unfriendly. As mentioned, power-ups move away from the player, meaning if you want to collect them you have to avoid shooting the things that drop them too early (not very compatible with my just-hold-the-fire-button-down shmupping style). It turns out that only one of the two types of power up do this, though. Regular shot power ups fall downwards for easier collection, it’s only the secondary weapon ones that go up. This is arguably a blessing, as there are eight types of secondary weapon and this makes it harder to accidentally switch to one you don’t want, though doing so would be less of a problem if it let you carry over your power level instead of starting back at base power when the weapon changes. Also all secondary weapons other than the default have limited ammo so you have to keep collecting them to keep using them. Also dying takes you back to the default secondary weapon and takes both your weapons down to the lowest power level. I’m sure in Power Strike II dying cost you power but not all of it, you had infinite secondary weapon ammo, and when you switched weapons the new one started at the power level you’d reached with the old one.
Anyway, complaints aside this is a pretty good Compile shooter, even if I’m rubbish at it. I rarely beat stage one, and until today I hadn’t beaten stage two at all. Today though, I beat stage two (after several continues) with the primary weapon and the default secondary weapon both somewhat powered up. I was able to get them fully powered up on stage three, and managed to make it to stage six (the last stage) without dying, racking up like fifteen or twenty extra lives in the process.
I’ve seen differing opinions online over whether this game has a rank system, but I’m pretty sure it does. Stages five and six had huge numbers of enemies and bullets on screen at all times when I got there in one life. Once I finally died roughly halfway through six, and then immediately died another half a dozen times, things calmed down significantly. I still struggled to recover, though. My only hope was that my large stock of extra lives would carry me through, and they almost did.
But not quite. I checked a longplay after this, and I’ve died here having almost beat the first phase of the final boss. If I’d just managed to hold it together a little better I might have pulled it off.
The game has a few design features that I consider player-unfriendly. As mentioned, power-ups move away from the player, meaning if you want to collect them you have to avoid shooting the things that drop them too early (not very compatible with my just-hold-the-fire-button-down shmupping style). It turns out that only one of the two types of power up do this, though. Regular shot power ups fall downwards for easier collection, it’s only the secondary weapon ones that go up. This is arguably a blessing, as there are eight types of secondary weapon and this makes it harder to accidentally switch to one you don’t want, though doing so would be less of a problem if it let you carry over your power level instead of starting back at base power when the weapon changes. Also all secondary weapons other than the default have limited ammo so you have to keep collecting them to keep using them. Also dying takes you back to the default secondary weapon and takes both your weapons down to the lowest power level. I’m sure in Power Strike II dying cost you power but not all of it, you had infinite secondary weapon ammo, and when you switched weapons the new one started at the power level you’d reached with the old one.
Anyway, complaints aside this is a pretty good Compile shooter, even if I’m rubbish at it. I rarely beat stage one, and until today I hadn’t beaten stage two at all. Today though, I beat stage two (after several continues) with the primary weapon and the default secondary weapon both somewhat powered up. I was able to get them fully powered up on stage three, and managed to make it to stage six (the last stage) without dying, racking up like fifteen or twenty extra lives in the process.
I’ve seen differing opinions online over whether this game has a rank system, but I’m pretty sure it does. Stages five and six had huge numbers of enemies and bullets on screen at all times when I got there in one life. Once I finally died roughly halfway through six, and then immediately died another half a dozen times, things calmed down significantly. I still struggled to recover, though. My only hope was that my large stock of extra lives would carry me through, and they almost did.
But not quite. I checked a longplay after this, and I’ve died here having almost beat the first phase of the final boss. If I’d just managed to hold it together a little better I might have pulled it off.
I’m still playing Power Strike, though sometimes I set my console to Japanese region and play Aleste instead. By default I’m on PAL, so switching to Japan speeds the game up a fair bit, which is counterbalanced by a lot more slowdown - it might actually take longer to play through at 60Hz than 50Hz because of the slowdown.
Anyways, I have not yet made it back to the final boss. I might not even have reached stage six again. I feel like I’m getting better at the game, but I can’t seem to repeat my first big success - I can pretty regularly get up to full power with the default secondary weapon, at which point it starts cancelling enemy bullets and puts the game into relatively easy mode, but I can’t hold it together like I did that first time and make it to stage six unscathed. One time I tried just sticking myself in the corner and relying on the secondary weapon to cancel any bullets that got near me. This got me through stage two with no problems, but halfway through three a shot made it through. I wasn’t too upset because it’s a very boring way to play the game. Even just sticking with the default weapon is kinda dull, actually - it’s more fun to use the other weapons, it’s just that doing so leaves you very vulnerable when they run out and you’re back to the default at its lowest level.
I think I’ve sort of worked out how the rank works. It’s just a matter of what weapon level you’re at. Get fully powered and even stage one gets wild. I think the stages have a baked in set of enemies that always appear at certain points, and then the player power levels adds more enemies and increases the firing rate of them all. That being so, it might be easier to play at a lower power level, except that the bullet cancelling is so useful it’s worth having. Also, I often find if I’m facing bosses after the first couple of levels with only the base weaponry they time out before I’m able to beat them.
Anyways, I have not yet made it back to the final boss. I might not even have reached stage six again. I feel like I’m getting better at the game, but I can’t seem to repeat my first big success - I can pretty regularly get up to full power with the default secondary weapon, at which point it starts cancelling enemy bullets and puts the game into relatively easy mode, but I can’t hold it together like I did that first time and make it to stage six unscathed. One time I tried just sticking myself in the corner and relying on the secondary weapon to cancel any bullets that got near me. This got me through stage two with no problems, but halfway through three a shot made it through. I wasn’t too upset because it’s a very boring way to play the game. Even just sticking with the default weapon is kinda dull, actually - it’s more fun to use the other weapons, it’s just that doing so leaves you very vulnerable when they run out and you’re back to the default at its lowest level.
I think I’ve sort of worked out how the rank works. It’s just a matter of what weapon level you’re at. Get fully powered and even stage one gets wild. I think the stages have a baked in set of enemies that always appear at certain points, and then the player power levels adds more enemies and increases the firing rate of them all. That being so, it might be easier to play at a lower power level, except that the bullet cancelling is so useful it’s worth having. Also, I often find if I’m facing bosses after the first couple of levels with only the base weaponry they time out before I’m able to beat them.
I wound up switching to a system with save states to finish Power Strike. I played as usual but whenever I beat a stage without dying I saved state. If I lost a life, I would play on and take a more varied approach to the powerups than just using fully charged default weapons, but I never managed to reach the end that way.
The ending, amusingly, has a “people and events featured in this game are fictional” line. I wonder if that comes from the MSX version, which had cutscenes. On SMS you get a brief backstory in the manual and a few stills of the pilot and ground crew in the ending, and that’s it.
The ending, amusingly, has a “people and events featured in this game are fictional” line. I wonder if that comes from the MSX version, which had cutscenes. On SMS you get a brief backstory in the manual and a few stills of the pilot and ground crew in the ending, and that’s it.
I’ve been playing:
It’s kind of like choplifter. Apparently there’s an arcade version that’s like a first person Choplifter, but on SMS it understandably goes back to a side view.
Here’s my helicopter at its base at the start of stage 3 (of five), and also the reflection in my TV of my living room lamp. The aim of the game is to rescue people from terrorist attacks - each stage starts with a graphic showing what’s ahead - the first is an amusement park, the second a burning building, this third one is at an airport, the fourth is ships at sea and the last is some kind of underground cave complex. My copy of the game is cart only and the only version of the manual I can find online is in Portuguese, so I’m not really sure of the full politics of the situation. In normal difficulty you only have to rescue seven people per stage, so some get left behind. I think on hard you have to get them all. You can only carry four people at a time, so at least two trips back to base are needed per stage.
You can rescue either by landing the helicopter next to people (like in choplifter) or by dropping a ladder to pick them up.
You also have to deal with terrorists, who come in various forms - here I’m about to be shot down by the guy on the lower left. There’s also a flying orb at the upper right - I’m not sure what these are supposed to be but they move around a little and crashing into them kills you.
Here’s the weapon selection screen - as mentioned, I don’t have the manual so I played my first few sessions not knowing it was there. You press either button while landed at the base to bring it up. The upper left weapon shoots straight out horizontally and is generally the easiest to aim, if you can get into a suitable position to use it. The lower left goes out and to the front in a falling arc and is only useful so far as I can tell for putting out fires in the burning building stage. The other two both shoot out in a straight line down and forwards, with the exact angle seeming to be influenced by your momentum. You have to hit enemies pretty much bang on to kill them, and because a lot of enemies fire upwards at pretty much the same angle you have to put yourself in the line of fire to use them. The bottom right one seems to have a small AoE effect that stuns some enemies but doesn’t kill them, otherwise I’m not sure of the difference between them.
Each level has an intro screen - this is the one for the last stage, Breakdown Darkstar. Looking at it now, I’m realising the map the guy is pointing to is accurate to the stage, which required you to pilot the helicopter through a series of tight passages in a cave.
Here’s a slightly blurry shot of the last stage - it says map because when you first start a stage the camera will pan across it to let you see the layout. This final stage is way harder than the rest of the game because of the tight space you have to navigate and the enemies shooting at you. The helicopter controls are a bit loose - momentum is a real factor, but also turning is erratic. Unlike choplifter, there’s no dedicated button for turning around, it’s just a matter of holding left or right, though sometimes you can go backwards a little bit without turning (and sometimes you can’t). Given the angle most weapons fire at and how precise you have to be with them, this can be infuriating, especially when enemies are firing back. Turning has an animation that takes some time, so if you’ve gone slightly past where you want to be you have to go back a fair bit and then turn around and try again. In this tight cave, with enemies shooting at you, it’s pretty tough, especially because if you take a hit or crash you have to start the stage over, even if you’ve dropped some people back at base already. I wound up switching to a system with save states and making one after dropping my first load of people back at base before managing to beat the game.
It’s kind of like choplifter. Apparently there’s an arcade version that’s like a first person Choplifter, but on SMS it understandably goes back to a side view.
Here’s my helicopter at its base at the start of stage 3 (of five), and also the reflection in my TV of my living room lamp. The aim of the game is to rescue people from terrorist attacks - each stage starts with a graphic showing what’s ahead - the first is an amusement park, the second a burning building, this third one is at an airport, the fourth is ships at sea and the last is some kind of underground cave complex. My copy of the game is cart only and the only version of the manual I can find online is in Portuguese, so I’m not really sure of the full politics of the situation. In normal difficulty you only have to rescue seven people per stage, so some get left behind. I think on hard you have to get them all. You can only carry four people at a time, so at least two trips back to base are needed per stage.
You can rescue either by landing the helicopter next to people (like in choplifter) or by dropping a ladder to pick them up.
You also have to deal with terrorists, who come in various forms - here I’m about to be shot down by the guy on the lower left. There’s also a flying orb at the upper right - I’m not sure what these are supposed to be but they move around a little and crashing into them kills you.
Here’s the weapon selection screen - as mentioned, I don’t have the manual so I played my first few sessions not knowing it was there. You press either button while landed at the base to bring it up. The upper left weapon shoots straight out horizontally and is generally the easiest to aim, if you can get into a suitable position to use it. The lower left goes out and to the front in a falling arc and is only useful so far as I can tell for putting out fires in the burning building stage. The other two both shoot out in a straight line down and forwards, with the exact angle seeming to be influenced by your momentum. You have to hit enemies pretty much bang on to kill them, and because a lot of enemies fire upwards at pretty much the same angle you have to put yourself in the line of fire to use them. The bottom right one seems to have a small AoE effect that stuns some enemies but doesn’t kill them, otherwise I’m not sure of the difference between them.
Each level has an intro screen - this is the one for the last stage, Breakdown Darkstar. Looking at it now, I’m realising the map the guy is pointing to is accurate to the stage, which required you to pilot the helicopter through a series of tight passages in a cave.
Here’s a slightly blurry shot of the last stage - it says map because when you first start a stage the camera will pan across it to let you see the layout. This final stage is way harder than the rest of the game because of the tight space you have to navigate and the enemies shooting at you. The helicopter controls are a bit loose - momentum is a real factor, but also turning is erratic. Unlike choplifter, there’s no dedicated button for turning around, it’s just a matter of holding left or right, though sometimes you can go backwards a little bit without turning (and sometimes you can’t). Given the angle most weapons fire at and how precise you have to be with them, this can be infuriating, especially when enemies are firing back. Turning has an animation that takes some time, so if you’ve gone slightly past where you want to be you have to go back a fair bit and then turn around and try again. In this tight cave, with enemies shooting at you, it’s pretty tough, especially because if you take a hit or crash you have to start the stage over, even if you’ve dropped some people back at base already. I wound up switching to a system with save states and making one after dropping my first load of people back at base before managing to beat the game.
It is spoooooooooky season, so I am once again stumping for Master of Darkness.
I'm only familiar with Cobra Command for Mega CD, so you had me confused for a moment there.
Anyways, I've moved on to another SMS title:
Astro Warrior. I wasn't really interested in this one, to be honest, but it comes as part of a compilation:
And Pit Pot seemed quite interesting, so I picked the two up. Pit Pot is also pretty complex, so I started with Astro Warrior, the simpler game.
It's a vertical shmup. The ship looks a bit nicer on the title screen than here. It's called the ASTORO RAIDER according to the manual - it appears that a lot of stuff in the game had English names in the Japanese version and whoever wrote the English manual often transcribed the katakana phonetically rather than using the English words.
It's pretty standard stuff. Waves of enemy ships, etc. There is autofire, but it's pretty slow so I spend most of the game hammering the fire button to get shots out more quickly.
I am bad at shmups. Also, you start out pitifully weak and very slow. The thing descending down the middle of the screen as I die here is a speed powerup that I desperately need.
I'm not sure why this sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't. Maybe because my usual spray of fire means I don't often hit only the first enemy of the wave.
Here's another powerup, the TRIPLE SHOT CANON. You get these powerups to appear by shooting the ground targets (FORTRESSES on the enemy PLATFORM). The triple shot is pretty good, but it gets blocked by the large pointy things on the ground.
Here's the BEAM CANON powerup. Now we're talking:
This weapon pierces through enemies, ground targets, and the pointy things. We are now at a fairly comfortable level of power, aided by the appearance in this GIF of an ASISTOR (SMALL SHIP). You can get up to two of these invincible allies, and they follow you around and shoot when you do. I have had games where I only got one - I think if the powerup appears and you fail to collect it, it doesn't appear again.
Here's the stage one boss, ZANONI. As you can see, it's pretty easy, though it will SURELY REVIVE after this battle. To defeat it, you have to take out the four small targets on the sides, after which the larger target in the centre will start firing but also become vulnerable. Unlike the later bosses, I have successfully taken out ZANONI while at the base power level after dying.
Stage one done, we're on to ASTEROID ZONE. Seems like a step down from stage one's GALAXY ZONE and stage three's NEBULA ZONE. I guess this is as good a time as any to mention that we're fighting the DEVIL STAR IMPERIAL FORCES from their advance base on the fixed star, "ALPHA KENTOWRY".
Not sure what makes this an asteroid zone. Maybe the enemy platform is build on a long red asteroid? The cute little enemy here is a UFOLICK. The seem to appear on whichever screen edge is further from your ship, move to the bottom and fire a spread shot at you. Not a problem with a few speed ups under your belt, but pretty tough if you die and are back to default speed.
Stage two's boss, NEBIROS, is coming.
And it has the BEAM CANON! I've managed to take out the four peripheral targets, but it got me before I hit the main target. Unlike the first stage boss, NEBIROS' weapons are independent of the targets.
It can be taken out with the pea shooter, but the beams go pretty fast and your ship is very slow on default speed. And I'm not great at shmups.
I'm not afraid to cheat, though. Hit button 1, then 2, then 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2 while the ZONE screen is displayed and you get the two ASISTORS. Sadly, this doesn't remove the need to dodge enemy fire.
Alas.
At this point I'm actually two thirds of the way through the game. Stage 3, NEBULA ZONE and its boss BELZEBUL are all that remains. After that, it's back to GALAXY ZONE (stage 1) for a second loop, which seems to have the exact same enemies but a lot more enemy fire. I'm not big on second loops in shooters, so the one time I made it through the first three zones, I played until I took a hit in ASTEROID ZONE and I consider the game beat. Apparently if you finish the second loop it just keeps looping at the same difficulty from there. That's probably why it came bundled with a second game.
Anyways, I've moved on to another SMS title:
Astro Warrior. I wasn't really interested in this one, to be honest, but it comes as part of a compilation:
And Pit Pot seemed quite interesting, so I picked the two up. Pit Pot is also pretty complex, so I started with Astro Warrior, the simpler game.
It's a vertical shmup. The ship looks a bit nicer on the title screen than here. It's called the ASTORO RAIDER according to the manual - it appears that a lot of stuff in the game had English names in the Japanese version and whoever wrote the English manual often transcribed the katakana phonetically rather than using the English words.
It's pretty standard stuff. Waves of enemy ships, etc. There is autofire, but it's pretty slow so I spend most of the game hammering the fire button to get shots out more quickly.
I am bad at shmups. Also, you start out pitifully weak and very slow. The thing descending down the middle of the screen as I die here is a speed powerup that I desperately need.
I'm not sure why this sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't. Maybe because my usual spray of fire means I don't often hit only the first enemy of the wave.
Here's another powerup, the TRIPLE SHOT CANON. You get these powerups to appear by shooting the ground targets (FORTRESSES on the enemy PLATFORM). The triple shot is pretty good, but it gets blocked by the large pointy things on the ground.
Here's the BEAM CANON powerup. Now we're talking:
This weapon pierces through enemies, ground targets, and the pointy things. We are now at a fairly comfortable level of power, aided by the appearance in this GIF of an ASISTOR (SMALL SHIP). You can get up to two of these invincible allies, and they follow you around and shoot when you do. I have had games where I only got one - I think if the powerup appears and you fail to collect it, it doesn't appear again.
Here's the stage one boss, ZANONI. As you can see, it's pretty easy, though it will SURELY REVIVE after this battle. To defeat it, you have to take out the four small targets on the sides, after which the larger target in the centre will start firing but also become vulnerable. Unlike the later bosses, I have successfully taken out ZANONI while at the base power level after dying.
Stage one done, we're on to ASTEROID ZONE. Seems like a step down from stage one's GALAXY ZONE and stage three's NEBULA ZONE. I guess this is as good a time as any to mention that we're fighting the DEVIL STAR IMPERIAL FORCES from their advance base on the fixed star, "ALPHA KENTOWRY".
Not sure what makes this an asteroid zone. Maybe the enemy platform is build on a long red asteroid? The cute little enemy here is a UFOLICK. The seem to appear on whichever screen edge is further from your ship, move to the bottom and fire a spread shot at you. Not a problem with a few speed ups under your belt, but pretty tough if you die and are back to default speed.
Stage two's boss, NEBIROS, is coming.
And it has the BEAM CANON! I've managed to take out the four peripheral targets, but it got me before I hit the main target. Unlike the first stage boss, NEBIROS' weapons are independent of the targets.
It can be taken out with the pea shooter, but the beams go pretty fast and your ship is very slow on default speed. And I'm not great at shmups.
I'm not afraid to cheat, though. Hit button 1, then 2, then 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2 while the ZONE screen is displayed and you get the two ASISTORS. Sadly, this doesn't remove the need to dodge enemy fire.
Alas.
At this point I'm actually two thirds of the way through the game. Stage 3, NEBULA ZONE and its boss BELZEBUL are all that remains. After that, it's back to GALAXY ZONE (stage 1) for a second loop, which seems to have the exact same enemies but a lot more enemy fire. I'm not big on second loops in shooters, so the one time I made it through the first three zones, I played until I took a hit in ASTEROID ZONE and I consider the game beat. Apparently if you finish the second loop it just keeps looping at the same difficulty from there. That's probably why it came bundled with a second game.
