Double Dungeons

~ DOUBLE DUNGEONS ~

NCS/Masaya / NEC

HuCard

1990

Yeah, the concept is simple: bumble around a maze, level up a bit, purchase some equipment, find the key to the boss's room, and beat the boss. And yeah, the game is very repetitive, as you do the same thing in each of its twenty-two labyrinths, all of which look the same. In spite of those facts, I actually like this first-person dungeon crawler a lot, for a number of reasons:

- The gameplay is incredibly fast paced. You practically fly down the hallways, traversing huge segments of dungeon in mere moments; and with turbo revved up, you can rapid-hack right through almost every fight.

- The title-screen music rocks. Granted, the track sounds somewhat, uh, warbly in the middle, but the drums just never let up, making the number awesomely sinister.

- The dungeons employ a pseudo-scrolling hallway effect that works extremely well. It's accomplished via a very simple trick, but it looks so much smoother and better than the chop-chop-along movement in a lot of other old first-person games.

- I like most of the monster sketches, though they aren't fine works of art. There are some surprisingly huge/grotesque creatures to deal with...

...and it's always fun to find out what sort of beast resides in the boss room of a given dungeon.

- The text messages that pop up as you explore the dungeons (e.g., "ZOUNDS! IT'S DANGEROUS HERE.") are pretty amusing. And the dungeon prologues/epilogues are even more entertaining, as they relay eloquent tales like...

Good stuff.

- The game is an absolute blast in two-player mode. Having another person around with whom to take on the bosses, solve the mazes, and laugh at the text bits makes DD so much more fun to play (even though I like it quite a bit when going solo) and inevitably leads to memorable late-night sessions. And for whatever reason, I always get a kick out of encountering the other player (the two warriors begin play at separate spots and are never actually obliged to cross paths).

- Most people probably don't, but I dig the US version's box art.

Double Dungeons is a neat game that all Turbo owners should grant a fair shot, ideally in two-player mode. Give it a try and you might end up surprised at how addictive and entertaining it can be.

Hana Taaka Daka

~ HANA TAAKA DAKA?! ~

Taito

HuCard

1991

Hana has a good reputation among those who have played it, but it didn't take long for me to realize that, mechanically, it isn't what I'd consider a superlative shooter. One thing I didn't like about it is that if you want to build up your firepower to a useful level, you've got to accept the fact that your hitbox will become ridiculously large. And depending on how successful you are in powering up, the bosses are either farcical characters who succumb to your attacks in seconds or stalwarts who withstand endless pummeling even after you've solved their patterns. Another thing I wasn't too keen on was the incorporation of charge attacks as an essential part of the player's repertoire, as my preference for auto-firing often fell by the wayside. Yet, even with all my biases stacked against it, Hana would stand for nothing less than me having a good time while playing it.

One of the primary reasons I enjoy it is the intricate (for a shooter) stage design. Each level contains two "puzzle pieces" for you to acquire; one falls right into your lap once you knock off the boss, but you won't find the other unless you do a bit of digging around. You've got to uncover the warp point to a special bonus round that contains the elusive piece, and locating the secret spot won't be all that easy since the levels offer you multiple paths to explore. And once you do gain access to the side-stage, you've got to fire away until the obscured object of your mission is revealed; you won't return to the level proper until you've succeeded.

Another reason Hana won me over is that its graphics are just so darn nice to look at. Light tones are implemented perfectly, calling to mind images of Super Mario World in some places and Castle of Illusion in others.

Pleasant music effectively complements the fine visuals. And while you're taking in the appealing sights and sounds of Hana's colorful world, you'll discover auxiliary weaponry that might seem unwieldy or strangely esoteric in function until you figure out the perfect way to use it, which brings no small sense of satisfaction. In fact, Hana turned out to be a satisfying product on the whole despite my initial misgivings.

Cosmic Fantasy

~ COSMIC FANTASY ~

Laser Soft / Telenet

CD-ROM

1990

This is always the first game I recommend when people would like to get into Japanese RPGs but don't know the language and aren't sure where to start. The menus are easy to figure out; the quest is very straightforward (you go from to town to maze to town in strict, linear order; the world doesn't open up to you until you acquire a ship near the end of the adventure, but even then, it isn't difficult to figure out where to go); and you have to manage only two characters, Yuu and Saya (known as Cobra and Sayo, respectively, in US CF2). Other characters join your party, but they, uh, don't do anything.

Of course, CF's simplicity could be off-putting for those who have already experienced the intricate likes of the Tengai Makyous. Yuu's quest boils down to exploring dungeons and leveling up; there isn't much mystery or depth involved. If you don't mind the linearity of the adventure and the rudimentary gameplay, the only potentially irritating factor is the fact that after every battle you have to sit through approximately seven seconds of empty screen before play resumes. I got used to the delay after a while, but some folks may not be as tolerant of it.

As simple as the game is, there are plenty of positive things to note in its favor. As you'd expect from a CF episode, the story is a great blend of crazy humor...

...and quiet poignancy.

As you might also expect from a CF game, the soundtrack consists of only a few tunes. Most of them are chip numbers, but quite a few are very good (particularly the main maze track) and have an appealing old-school sound about them that veterans should enjoy. The in-game graphics are conspicuously primitive, but they certainly aren't revolting.

The cinemas don't even come close to matching the quality and theater of those in many later PCE RPGs, but they're nice in their own right and compare favorably with those in most other early CD games.

Skirmishes can be resolved quickly, and the encounter rate shouldn't prove irritating. For the most part, if you make sure to explore the labyrinths thoroughly, you'll earn enough experience that you won't even have to partake in perfunctory leveling-up exercises.

CF might not come off as an outstanding game when you break it down into its elements, but it does a lot of things pretty well, and it doesn't screw many things up. Tackling it will be a nice way to get your feet wet if you're thinking about getting into Japanese RPGs, and even those who are already pros should find it to be a quality addition to their adventure-game libraries.