Beyond Shadowgate

~ BEYOND SHADOWGATE ~

ICOM Simulations / TTI / Viacom New Media

Super CD-ROM

1993

This puzzle-centric adventure game seemed like a sure thing to me. Shadowgate is my favorite NES game by far, and I even like the N64's much-maligned Trial of the Four Towers. Plus, back in the day, I dug Sierra's Quest games (which this title is highly reminiscent of) and the TG-16's similar-in-style Loom. So all the ingredients necessary for success seemed to be in place here.

Well, being that I experienced lots of awesome monster encounters while playing through the first Shadowgate, I've expected subsequent episodes to provide plenty of cool creatures to deal with. Shadowgate 64 let me down in this regard, but BS comes through with a minotaur, a troll, a wraith, and all sorts of other beasts and demons.

I also expect a good bit of humor in my Shadowgate experiences, and once again, BS does not disappoint, as it incorporates lots of creative ways to die, lots of silly situations for the protagonist to stumble into, and plenty of amusing NPC utterances. The humor here involves goofiness as opposed to the wittiness displayed by the original, but hey, funny is funny. The only scene that takes the goofiness too far is that of the final confrontation, as the main character looks absolutely ridiculous and the dialogue is remarkably awful ("He offered me everything a man could want. But... I'm NOT a MAN!").

Of course, more important than monsters and gags in a Shadowgate game are puzzles, and BS's are pretty darn easy to solve. They're preferable to the absurd conundrums that Shadowgate 64 presents, but the first game in the series is just about perfect as far as challenge goes, so it's a little disappointing that this one doesn't deliver a few more cleverly conceived brain teasers.

The "challenge" to be found here basically comes in two forms. You need to be careful about what you spend your gold on and whom you kill, at least if you want to see everything the game has to offer. I'm sure the designers were thinking replay value here, but I like it when a title of this ilk requires you to make all (or at least most) of the right moves the first time through rather than forcing you to take shots in the dark during subsequent journeys. Also, at times, items you can pick up blend in so "well" with the background graphics that you may not even notice that they're there.

But whether the puzzles in a Shadowgate are hard or easy to solve, I like to have good music to listen to while I'm working on them. The original's soundtrack is a classic, a perfect mix of eeriness and catchiness; and heck, great music is probably what saved Shadowgate 64 for me. The tunes here... well... I don't know if I can really say. You see, every time you step into a different strip, the game has to load, so the music stops playing. You often don't spend more than a few seconds on a single strip, so even if the musical track remains the same in the next one, it has to start all over again. It's possible to jaunt along through four or five different segments and hear just the first few seconds of a particular tune over and over again. What I've heard isn't bad, but it doesn't really compare with the music in the other Shadowgates. There are plenty of ominous tracks as well as a jolly town number.

The interminable cycle of stopping and restarting the tunes essentially kills the atmosphere for me. It isn't until the final all-too-short journey through Castle Shadowgate that I really find myself immersed in the adventuring. There's an awesome hall of monster statues; a creepy organ room where you meet a wild elephant man; and of course, a gong-and-ferryman scene that'll stir up fond recollections for Shadowgate vets.

Castle Shadowgate isn't the only place that looks good here. Sometimes, the background graphics are a little too static, so it looks like the hero is walking past a painting rather than treading through a real environment. But there are beautiful woods, quaint rustic towns, and appropriately dead-looking marshlands in addition to the aforementioned awesome castle strips.

Unfortunately, navigating these neat-looking locales can prove tiresome, as the hero traipses along at a very slow pace. The slow walking in and of itself doesn't annoy me much, but combine it with said hero's inability to walk diagonally and the fact that he controls kind of stiffly, not to mention that you have to do lots of backtracking, and BS ends up feeling slow and tedious at times. Also, the interface is cumbersome; an additional button on the TurboPad probably would've worked wonders for it. The occasional punch-ups feel awful with the scheme that was implemented.

All in all, BS is a good game, but I don't like it as much as I do the original or 64. To be honest, as far as this sort of title goes, Loom has proven to be a little more enjoyable for me. One last interesting thing to note is that BS's protagonist was voiced by the same guy who did a great job voicing Lykos for Shape Shifter (but he delivered a finer performance in SS).

KiKi KaiKai

~ KIKI KAIKAI ~

Taito

HuCard

1990

KiKi is an intense little overhead-view shooter somewhat reminiscent of Last Alert in its "free roaming" style. It's the type of game you'll gradually feel yourself getting more and more awesome at as you put in practice. The later levels are quite challenging, as they present you with lots of projectiles and small, quick enemies to worry about in tight spaces.

The boss fights are also fairly difficult. It feels great to figure out effective methods for getting through them.

Repetition is definitely an issue here. The levels all look alike aside from a bridge here and a graveyard there. The same few enemies show up over and over again (though they do get more aggressive as the adventure goes on). And a single stage song is used repeatedly. It's an awesome tune, to be sure, but at some point, enough gets to be enough.

The repetition doesn't bug me, as I appreciate the action, the boss fights, the cartoony-Japan setting, and the rewards reaped from putting in practice. That is not to say that you should spend forty dollars on the game, but if you can find it cheap, snatch it up and enjoy.

Legendary Axe II

~ THE LEGENDARY AXE II ~

Victor Musical Industries / NEC

HuCard

1990

A kick-ass hack-and-slasher in the vein of its widely lauded predecessor, LA2 is unique because of its atmosphere: I've yet to experience another game quite as dark and brooding and melancholy as this one. The overhanging feeling of despair isn't conveyed through cinematic events; instead, it's established via elements of in-game presentation. The music is so grim and somber; the enemies, so bizarre; the stages, so bleak and unforgiving. And there's no new dawn to look forward to, as even the concluding sequence is completely fucked up. I know a fellow who doesn't enjoy playing the game because it depresses him. I understand why he feels that way, but I can't say I'm similarly repelled by the darkness. In fact, said darkness is what draws me into the adventure.

The soundtrack plays a major role in establishing that compelling atmosphere. It's received so much praise over the years that additional commentary probably isn't necessary, but I must note its effortless segues from quiet sadness (Stage 2) to strong, heavy riffage (Stage 3) to outright creepiness (Stage 5).

And speaking of Stage 5... what a wonderfully crazy level it is. Within the grotesque "innards" constituting the level's boundaries roam fire-breathing ostrich monsters, slithering worm creatures, and slime men who attack via glorious limb-splitting suicide. It's utter madness, disgusting and eerie and outlandish... and absolutely awesome.

A stormy tower ascent follows the memorably abominable Stage 5 and precedes the game's biggest surprise of all: a high-tech, maze-like final stage, which would be difficult to pass even if its complex layout were your only concern. But you'll have to deal with the brutal robots who inhabit it as well.

Those robots are sure to knock you around quite a bit, but you won't take any particularly harrowing falls during your encounters with them. However, earlier levels that require you to make lengthy climbs to their peaks (2, 4, and 6, specifically) host plenty of enemies and traps that can send you reeling back to their starting points, and steps and leaps must be retraced against tight time limits.

Dark and weird are clearly the running themes here, whereas the first Axe explored a broader spectrum of concepts. I wouldn't change Axe 2 for anything, as I love the uniqueness of it, but I do prefer its multifaceted predecessor overall. Still, this one has its advantages: it provides you with three main weapons to wield as opposed to one and pits you against a giant mega-bastard of a final boss.

R-Type

~ R-TYPE ~

Hudson Soft / Irem / NEC

HuCard

1989

I've always appreciated this sidescrolling shooter's well-thought-out level designs; there's rhyme and reason to every aspect of every one of its stages. And brilliant board construction is hardly the only thing it's got going for it: its enemy designs are legendary, its graphics are remarkable, and its soundtrack is memorable and diverse. Despite all those positives, I've never particularly loved the game, as I find it falls short in many respects when compared with certain other strategy-emphasizing titles, and admittedly, I tend to prefer fast-paced Thunder Force-type shooters to the slow breed that it belongs to. Still, with my affinity for high-level challenges, I can't help but give R-T a play every now and then.

I do enjoy it for the most part. It hits its strategic stride with the stretch that comprises levels 4-7 before wrapping up with a somewhat-lame final mission. The first three stages are rather slow and easy, but they're veritable shooter-hall-of-fame displays considering the bosses and tunes they feature.

While that breakdown certainly indicates that the game provides a quality experience, I feel that it's too methodical and lacks spontaneity. Now, I like a good "thinking man's shooter" as much as the next guy, but some other mind-games-focused blast-'em-ups like Sinistron and Rayxanber II are superior to R-Type in my estimation, as they involve more-prominent "twitch" elements and force the player to make more spur-of-the-moment decisions, not to mention that they're even more aesthetically appealing than their forerunner.

Let's consider Rayxanber II. No matter how much you memorize of its fourth and sixth stages, they will always be challenging and you will always have to play well to get through them. Plus, Ray II plays fast--it's a Thunder Force-style shooter that calls for as much strategizing as an R-Type. Completing the first seven levels in R-T becomes perfunctory once you've figured out the correct paths to take and positions to occupy, and the plod-along pacing certainly doesn't make matters any more exciting.

Now take Sinistron. It doesn't even truly become rigid until its fifth stage begins. Just prior to that point, it demands that you play through an intense and ferociously difficult segment where you need to count on your reflexes more than anything else in order to navigate a gauntlet of asteroids and bullets. The only time R-Type's gameplay approaches this appealingly frantic style is during its final stage, when green baby-like things and dull spinning things kinda float about the screen; and even then, Sinistron's level of action murders R-T's.

I know that the infamous Stage 7 is the apple of every R-Type fan's eye, but even with all of its enemies and bullets and wall explosions, it's not particularly challenging once you discern the correct path to take. The boss is tough, though, and if you get killed in its trash-stocked lair, you'll most likely be unable to rebound, as you'll be placed at a ridiculous, unfairly situated checkpoint--which is surprising, as every other checkpoint along the way is completely reasonable. Any game can go ahead and take away your means of defending yourself and flood the screen with enemies and call itself "tough." That's not quality design--it's crap challenge and a quarter-nabbing tactic, and it's annoying to experience it in a home console game. It would have been nice if Irem had gone the Sinistron route by granting you the option of returning to the beginning of a stage rather than the checkpoint upon continuing.

In any event, I like the gathering of ships that takes place at the very end, and I do enjoy the ride there for the most part. Sinistron and Rayxanber II are stronger titles, though.

Space Harrier

~ SPACE HARRIER ~

Sega / NEC Avenue

HuCard

1989

Inspired by my brother Alexei's heartfelt review and fond recollections of the game, I decided to give Space Harrier a quick play for the first time in a while. Actually, it wasn't so quick; I must admit it took a few sessions for me to regain my space-harrying skills. That's a good thing, as I like it when a game requires practice. And SH is always a nice change of pace for me; there are few Duo games quite like it (the system, like its contemporaries, was low on into-the-screen blasters), so transferal of sharpened skills from one recently played title to this one is generally out of the question. Before too long, I was back in the zone, tearing through enemies and speeding past pillars until I reached the glorious "Epirogue."

It was the kind of good, clean fun that I'm used to having when I sit down with SH. It's always enjoyable to duel with mammoths and gliding robots and the rest of the game's oddball miscreants.

Plus, many of the tunes are pretty darn catchy, especially the track that plays during the second boss fight.

As for negatives, the game is too repetitive. It takes a number of stages and basically rehashes them with obstacles more abundant and enemies quicker to the draw. The gameplay is challenging and enjoyable enough that the repetition doesn't become a major issue, but I feel the designers were a little short on ideas for the eighteen stages they constructed.

Also, all of the bosses are easy to beat, and some are simply underwhelming. Crushing a frail-but-cool-looking fire-breathing dragon makes for decent-enough fun, but defeating a bunch of little blue things isn't particularly satisfying.