Cosmic Fantasy 3

~ COSMIC FANTASY 3 ~

Laser Soft / Telenet

Super CD-ROM

1992

Cosmic Fantasy 3 does everything it can to move itself along at a fast pace and make the player's life easy. It prudently provides a dash button, so you needn't lurch your way across the countryside. As your fleet-footed characters proceed from one area to the next, they partake in random battles that occur at appropriate intervals (i.e., frequently enough to keep your warriors at an adequate experience level but not so often that they drive you mad during environmental reconnaissance). The combat system is simple and effective and grants you many different ways to go about slaying your enemies, enemies who can be taken care of quickly and painlessly if you bother to learn the advantages particular to each weapon you wield. And rather than having you focus on single objectives for long stretches of time, CF3 continually charges you with fresh tasks. You'll go from challenging the local fistfighting champion to donning an animal mask and making friends with the neighborhood felines.

And as you'd expect from a Cosmic Fantasy title, CF3 features cool characters, emotional moments, hilarious bits, and lots of great cinemas.

The game does have some flaws though, mostly minor things:

Field and town screens are no longer kept separate, meaning that a close-camera view is maintained at all times. Most of the overworld environments are simple in design and appearance and look similar to one another, and since you can see only a small segment of terrain at any given time, it can be a little difficult in some spots to figure out where exactly to go next. Sometimes, you just need to stumble about blindly in the hopes that you'll happen upon something interesting.

The game doesn't feel as epic as CF2, which features lots of large dungeons to explore and plenty of people to meet and recruit. You do encounter some interesting folks in 3, and a few of them do tag along with you for a while, but the adventure seems shorter and less expansive on the whole than the one that precedes it.

The monster art is cartoony, which doesn't sit well with me. The creatures aren't drawn poorly by any means, but smiling tomato-like things and such are not the sort of fiends that are much fun to fight. At least your own characters look pretty cool in their battle-screen portraits.

Maybe I've always had my characters at super-high levels or I've just happened to use all the right techniques and equipment, but I've always found the bosses to be ridiculously easy to beat. And there's a terrible "Cosmic Fantasy" vocal number that plays during the boss fights. Most of the game's other tunes are pretty good, but as is the case in every other CF game, there just aren't many tracks to listen to.

Despite the issues I have with it, Cosmic Fantasy 3 still rates in my mind as an excellent RPG, one that provides a fairly short but very sweet questing experience.

Download 2

~ DOWNLOAD 2 ~

NEC Avenue

CD-ROM

1991

The Download series was full of surprises for me. Having long held the belief that DL2 would be right up my alley, I was a little disappointed when I had to "settle" for playing its predecessor first. Talk about serendipity: the HuCard blew me away with its incredible background graphics and challenging action. Then, of course, I was even more excited about the prospect of playing the sequel, even though my cautious cousin Zigfriedeltinov had administered a grave warning:

"Download 2 is the anti-Download!"

When I finally got the chance to try the followup, I found that... well...

Things are indeed different in 2. Its backdrops are sometimes drab but often very pretty (or at least interesting), but at no point are they as impressive as the effect-heavy marvel-lands in the first game. Selectable ship speed has been jettisoned; icon grabbing is now required if you have aspirations of outpacing a sloth. You have access to your craft's full range of weaponry right from the very beginning, which isn't really a terrible thing, but the fun to be had experimenting with different gun-and-auxiliary-item combinations in the previous episode is absent here, as is the emphasis on strategy. You'll still need to do some thinking, but you'll be using your noggin for mundane matters such as memorizing the safest paths through dull block gauntlets. And the enemy cast disappoints: for every cool ice dragon, there are dozens of small, silly miscreants.

The bosses received better treatment than did their minions. While there are some gateway-guarding duds to be encountered, the creepier demons and stouter behemoths make up for their meek mates.

You'll enjoy a rockin' tune during fights with those bosses; but, unfortunately, that's the only exciting number to be heard in the game. NEC Avenue had good intentions with the DL2 soundtrack, placing a welcome emphasis on catchy riffs that are supported by occasional lead work, but while most of the material is decent, none of it is special; and there's a lot of crappy PSG to be endured during the intermissions. Although the cinemas receive no help from the accompanying audio, they do somehow manage to merge goofiness with stylishness effectively enough to remain interesting (except for when particular scenes are repeated unnecessarily). The character designs found here are a little lame compared to those featured in the first episode, however.

Download 2's pretty backgrounds and cool bosses make it worth a shooter fan's while, but it falls far short of excellence; and its failure to live up to its heritage made it a letdown for me.

Rayxanber II

~ RAYXANBER II ~

Data West

CD-ROM

1991

Famous for its high level of difficulty, Rayxanber II will dispose of casual players with little ado, but skilled shooter veterans should find only its fourth and sixth stages demanding to an extreme extent. The challenges presented by the rest of the game are all quite surmountable, and the whole quest is enjoyable (for those who don't give up easily, at least). The graphics are fantastic, and the soundtrack is brilliant (and quite interesting in that it gets mellower and more melodic as you advance). This blaster is right up there with Violent Soldier when it comes to the toughest PCE horizontals, and it's almost as much fun to play. Consider it a must-get for the manly shooter player.

Like the level it resides in, the first boss looks really cool but is easily passed.

Things get tougher in Stage 2, as some of the enemies (including the puny jets) can take a great deal of punishment. The boss is another big pansy, though.

Stage 3 is one of the coolest shooter stages ever, as it features an enormous mechanical spider wreaking havoc on a charred city. Avoid getting stepped on as you blast up the beast's minions.

Most of Stage 4 is blanketed in a shot-resistant web-like substance. Fight off erratic, super-fast rock-things; relentless chaser aliens; and gigantic worm-like creatures as you deal with the inhibitive environment. All of that action causes extreme slowdown that can even affect your shooting (make sure to have the turbo switch in the "middle" position to maintain a stream of fire).

Stage 5 features a wonderfully gruesome cast of mutated horrors. When you reach the boss's chamber, position yourself as shown above, and fire away with a vertical shot before the fight even commences.

The final level hurls you into intimidatingly narrow passageways that are decked out with cannons. Dodge projectiles and fend off your swift, dangerous enemies as large cement blocks hurtle down the corridors. You'll have to memorize the entire stage to stand any chance of winning; and even then, you'll need lots of luck to make it through.

Position your craft off to the side to avoid the sudden deluge of orbs. When the worm appears, make careful use of your speed burst to stay alive.

R-Type Complete CD

~ R-TYPE COMPLETE CD ~

Irem

Super CD-ROM

1991

R-Type fans in Japan must've been thrilled with this when it first came out, as it eliminated the need to mess around with two separate HuCards, not to mention that it features cinemas and a remixed soundtrack (as a CD remake should). Of course, as a longtime owner of the R-Type TurboChip, I already had access to the entire adventure without having to resort to any card-swapping stuff, so my acquisition of this disc was based solely on curiosity regarding its intermissions and audio. The core game itself is the same, with the same memorization-based gameplay and the same famous bosses.

I knew coming in that the cinemas wouldn't exactly put all other PCE cutscenes to shame, but I'd actually set my expectations a bit too high by believing they would be dull, basic products of obligation. They're actually bad enough to warrant derision at times, especially when the horrifically ugly human-character designs are involved.

The "scenery" shots aren't quite as laughable or repulsive as the people-plagued ones, but they're crude (check out the rough borders of the water and clouds). At least the space-battle scenes, while simplistic, are fairly cool; I just wish there were a lot more of them.

Quality music might've made up for the poor interludes (which can be skipped entirely), but R-Type Complete's racket seldom approaches any level of goodness. As soon as I heard a robotic voice droning "AR-AR-ARRR-TYPE" over upbeat mutilations of Stage 1's classic melodies, I knew I was in for something wholly inappropriate. The "dance" takes on these tunes fail for the most part, though the boss track is, uh, "kickin'" aside from its gratuitous "vocals" and sirens. Oddly enough, the tunes I feared would be affected most adversely actually turned out all right: the Stage 2 and Stage 4 themes, effective originally because they created feelings of suspense with relatively slow progressions, serve a different purpose in their sped-up forms, as they make the rather rigid action seem more spontaneous than it really is. But only the Stage 6 track was done full justice, as it's the most traditional red book remix of the lot. Even then, however, I prefer the chip number.

Being that I was let down by both the cinematics and the soundtrack, I had to get whatever enjoyment I could out of the best part of the package: the good ol' game itself. R-Type fans will certainly want to check this out and might even find the cutscenes and tunes quaintly appealing. Those who aren't quite crazy about the game should stick with the US chip version, as the original music is far superior to the new nonsense, and the gathering of ships at the card adventure's conclusion is much cooler than any of the cinematic "drama" presented by the disc.