Makai Hakkenden Shada

~ MAKAI HAKKENDEN SHADA ~

Data East

HuCard

1989

Shada is an unabashed Ys rip-off, and it was going to have to be a heck of a lot of fun in order to impress me, as I'd already experienced not only the magnificent Falcom bump-and-run titles but also a very successful Ys clone in Xak I & II. Well, the little HuCard managed to come through. Its music is absolutely fantastic, and some of its bosses are extremely cool.

The crash-into-your-foes gameplay here feels a bit different from Ys' in that there's no "bouncing" upon collision; instead, your enemies basically run right through you, taking or dealing damage in the process. It feels slightly weird at first, but it's quite easy to get used to. There are usually a good number of enemies to deal with at any given time (not as many as you'd encounter in a Xanadu foe flock but enough to rival the roving Ys gangs), so there's a fair amount of brawling to keep you occupied as you scour the countryside and its labyrinths, and the gameplay is nice and fast.

The quest can be completed incredibly quickly; I played through the whole adventure in one day, and I certainly didn't need a huge chunk of time to do so. But that's no big deal considering this is a cheap chip game (and a fun one at that). There's XP grinding to do, just as you'd expect in an Ys-type game, but it doesn't take very long to advance in level, and the process never becomes tedious or dull.

Shada isn't a difficult game. You can really set yourself up for success by hanging around the first town and saving up a lot of cash so that you can buy the best equipment in the next town. Most of the game's secrets aren't very difficult to uncover (especially for Ys fans, as some of the conundrums here were lifted right from Falcom's flagship series), but they're just obscure enough to make the discoveries enjoyable.

Here's a good guide (written in Japanese) in case anybody needs one.

This large creature's tough exterior repels your attacks and forces you to run inside his mouth (when he's not exhaling flames, of course) and kill him from within (kinda reminiscent of the whale fight in The New Zealand Story).

The menu is really easy to figure out, and there isn't much equipment to mess around with.

This centipede thing moves really quickly.

The non-boss enemy graphics are quite crude, but the environments don't look too bad.

This scene is reminiscent of Ys with its graphic style and mirrors. You have to equip a certain item to see that "special" mirror, a process also reminiscent of Ys.

Reach this part and you'll be very close to the end. ^_^

Exile

Telenet/Working Designs - 1992 - U.S.A.

CD-ROM

Hit and miss effort from the venerable Telenet, localized for the US by Working Designs. Exile is an adventure RPG where most of the game is played out in sidescrolling action areas that are linked together by world/town maps. The game has nice, bright, well-shaded graphics, some parallax where it counts, good to great music and an easy to navigate and use menu system.

This guy offers lots of helpful commentary throughout your journey. Pay very close attention to his words.

You can't help but ponder the thought process that led up to this comment.

The game falters in the one area that really counts, though-- the gameplay. I played through this game for the first time in about 4 hours and never once really felt challenged. Some of the level designs are kind of nice and maze-like (I liked that aspect), but on the whole the game felt very short and perhaps somewhat rushed during the design and planning phase (although what IS there, looks nice and polished). Leveling up is pretty quick and painless, and you are usually always strong enough to defeat your foes without much effort whatsoever. After such epic adventures like Anearth Fantasy Stories and The Legend of Xanadu, this game almost feels like a joke, but at least the superficials keep it a bearable one.

Exile isn't a total disaster. It's a mildly fun game capable of providing a nice diversion for a lazy Sunday afternoon. But it's hard to get really excited about a game like this when the vast Duo library, rich in RPGs, has so many other fantastic adventures awaiting your attention.

Download

NEC Avenue - 1990 - Japan

HuCard

Download is about as good as it gets for a cartridge-based horizontal shooter on the Turbo. It's up there with the likes of R-Type, Air Zonk, etc. Rockin' chip tunes as you blast your way through a futuristic city being overtaken by a cybernetic brain. I couldn't put it down 'til I conquered it. One of my personal favorites, and I'm a tough room when it comes to shooters. Download is the epitome of a perfect balance of fun and difficulty.

Features a unique powerup and life system you won't find in any other shooter.

Great graphics with lots of parallax are just icing on the cake. Download features some pretty bad-ass cinematic cutscenes, which is a rare thing for a non-CD game. As a matter of fact, Download's cutscenes are actually better than a good number of CD games.

Possibly more famous than the game itself however are the hilarious GAME OVER blurbs. Just when you thought it was, this review IS NOT A OVER YET.

KLAX

Tengen - 1990 - U.S.A.

HuCard

I got this game recently as a gift over the Christmas holiday. I've never been a big fan of KLAX, but it was a necessary acquisition in my seemingly neverending quest to acquire all the TG-16 US releases.

The TG-16 port is actually a really, really good facsimile of the arcade original. As far as TG-16 arcade ports go, KLAX is up there with the best of 'em. "Great," you're probably thinking, "KLAX must be a home run." Well, KLAX's arcade-perfect blessing is also it's biggest pitfall.

See, the trouble is that KLAX is a lousy fucking game to begin with. Keep in mind I'm probably the biggest puzzle game whore on the face of the Earth. KLAX is inane, it's slow, and it's boring. The most excitement in KLAX comes when you meet certain criteria that allows you to "warp" ahead a certain number of stages. That excitement is short-lived however, as soon as you actually reach the stage you're warping to and the doldrums of the gameplay set in once again. Audio in KLAX consists of "clicks", "clacks", "beeps" and "bloops." There is actually a "sound test" option available from the option menu where I was able to "test" all four sound effects and a couple poorly-digitized speech effects. This would be all well and good, except the game actually lacks any sort of in-game music. It doesn't take long before the clicking and clacking gets reaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllly fucking old.

The silver lining, if you can call it that, is that the game "options" screen really lives up to it's name. Just about every aspect of gameplay is adjustable, from the screen resolution right down to how random the colors of tiles you are given are. Unfortunately, there is no switchable option available in the options menu to toggle ass suckage, so despite the configurability factor, KLAX still remains a first-class KLUNKER.

I was a little excited about picking up the TG-16 version of KLAX, since I've seen many-a-gamer rave about it. Let me just say that unless you already know yourself to be a big fan of KLAX (in which case I'll say you ought to expand your horizons), you're better off spending your money on Puyo Puyo or Implode. You'll have a shitload more fun and get a fancy soundtrack to listen to while you play (imagine that!). Fuck, even Hatris has in-game music.

What an honor.

I'm pretty disappointed that this was the domestic effort we got from Tengen, though they did a fine job with what they had to work with. I would, however, have been much more excited to see the rumored port of Marble Madness come to fruition than this pile of crap. I'm a major Marble Madness fan, and I bet a Turbo port would've been just awesome.

Shanghai

Activision/Hudson Soft - 1987 - Japan

HuCard

For what's essentially a launch title, Shanghai brings the goods. It's lean, it's mean, and Shanghai lovers will find all the essentials here.

(Tune 3 is the best.)

Music is impressive chip fare, all of it very fitting and atmospheric. You have a choice of 3 different heavily Asian-inspired tunes to match tiles to. For a cart that came out in '87, the soundtrack still holds up technically well against many later titles.

Graphics are no-frills, but they get the job done and are crisp, clear, and easy to read. Unfortunately the background is a never-changing green color, but it's pretty nondescript and inoffensive.

Gameplay is classic Shanghai action. You can access the in-game menus at any time and an on-screen counter informs you of how many tiles you have left to clear. There is only one tileset in this first installment, but there are dozens of different board sequences available to conquer. There is also a "HINT" option in the in-game menu in case you get stuck, but only dirty cheaters would use that.

Victory is mine.

Somebody had the brilliant idea to create a patch that translates the in-game menus because, you know, Shanghai is extremely text-heavy. Either way, the patch is out there, and if you've got a flash cart for your Turbo there really isn't any reason NOT to download the patch and play the game with English menus.