| paleface [sys=PCE; cat=Shooter_Vert; reg=JPN] |
| | | Solid enough insect-themed shooter but the gameplay feels a little dated. Tiny but nicely-colored sprites zip along with no slowdown, in fact if anything the game plays too fast (how anyone could play with the movement speed cranked up to max o this thing, I'm sure I don't know).
The dated parts, as far as I'm concerned anyway, include the separate air/ground weapon systems (Xevious-style, eck), the on-the-fly speed selection, the very tiny sprites used for most of the enemies, and the lack of health meters on the bosses.
The bosses I've fought so far can only be hit with ground shots, and take a lot of these, so it gets frustating because you spend several minutes bombing then and they're still going. You can tell when they take a hit, but how many more they'll take, you have no idea. I suppose that this would improve with repetition but still, it's more guesswork than should be necessary. Without a definite goal in sight I find that my attention starts to wander, then I take a hit or two and it is all the way back to the last checkpoint, blah!
Oh yeah, the powerup system confuses me a bit too. Once in a while a powerup-dropping bug thing flies by, if you hit it it poops out several powerups. But they all seem to shoot the same, and give you the same protection (two additional hits), so I'm not at all sure why there should be different kinds except that they make your own insect/ship character look different. |
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