Out Live

~ OUT LIVE ~

Sunsoft

HuCard

1989

Even if Sunsoft's PC Engine games weren't generally enjoyable, they'd still be worth checking out thanks to their music, as the company always seemed to come up with high-quality numbers for its HuCard soundtracks. Out Live doesn't disappoint in this regard. And I'm always up for spending a few hours with a good, solid first-person dungeon crawler, and, well, Out Live is indeed a first-person dungeon crawler. It is not a deep RPG, nor is it some sort of epic science fiction adventure. Quite reminiscent of NCS/Masaya's Double Dungeons, Out Live is a simple, fast-paced dash through a series of look-alike mazes.

The tunnel network is your way of getting from one town to the next. As you might expect, towns are where you can heal up, buy equipment, and talk to people about the next leg of your quest.

Townsfolk will occasionally challenge you to do battle in an arena. These closed-off fights are chances for you to earn lots of dough and, sometimes, special new equipment.

Of course, you'll spend most of your time not in the towns but in the dungeons. And there isn't a whole lot to do down there besides beat up the fools who get in your way and look for either the gate to the next town or a particularly tough monster to batter. It's simple stuff, but it's handled well, as the scrolling is very smooth and the combat is fast. And there's lots and lots of English and katakana, making Out Live a very easy game to play.

Not that it doesn't have some issues. The later mazes are huge, and while Double Dungeons' labyrinths have inns and shops here and there as "landmarks" of sorts, Out Live offers no such convenient way of keeping track of where you are. Sure, the walls themselves change shade depending on the type of area you're traveling through--blue represents cold, for instance--but when you come across every area type multiple times in a single maze, the colors don't help much. At least you can almost always utilize the tried-and-true method of hugging the left or right wall to eventually find your way.

There's no similarly simple method that can be utilized to evade the required, sometimes monotonous grinding or the general repetition of the experience. Double Dungeons alleviates such tedium with a fantastic two-player mode, but Out Live is a one-man journey. And while some of its creatures and robots are very cool, Out Live doesn't contain nearly as much variety in its enemy cast as DD does in its own.

Still, OL is a fun game that just might keep you zoned in and up very late for a night or two--provided that you're not inclined to despise it in the first place (if you don't like Double Dungeons, stay away from this).

(I must conclude with a warning. When my Attack Level reached 50 [which I believe is supposed to be the max], a glitch occurred: the "level up" window came up and would not go away; it simply reappeared every time I pressed the damn button. So, uh, you might want to avoid leveling to the max. Note that I don't know if a similar glitch occurs if you max out your Defense Level, as mine never reached 50.)

Super Darius II

~ SUPER DARIUS II ~

Taito / NEC Avenue

Super CD-ROM

1993

My first experience with Darius' second chapter was provided by the Genesis title Sagaia. It wasn't a game that I believed to be exceptional, but I appreciated its sweet music and smooth gameplay and ended up playing through it lots and lots of times. So I was quite excited when I first obtained Super Darius II, as it appeared to boast visuals far superior to those sported by endearing little Sagaia. The graphics lived up to expectations, but I noticed a bit of a problem with SD2's gameplay right off the bat. The relatively slow speed that the screen moves along at and the relatively large sprites that the game employs make SD2 reminiscent of R-Type and Sinistron in pace and appearance, while the intense bullet-dodging action screams Thunder Force. This merging of conflicting styles was the result of NEC Avenue's desire to stay faithful to the three-screen-wide arcade original visually, but it leads to some awkward moments, even after one eventually becomes accustomed to it.

But SD2 actually ends up excelling despite its gameplay issues. Its success has a lot to do with its bosses and mini-bosses, ferocious behemoths who are special not only because of their size but also because of the clever tactics they employ. A gargantuan swordfish utilizes its razor-sharp beak not to slice you apart but to slash up the ceiling in hopes of crushing you with falling debris. And then there's Revenge Shark, an absolutely unforgettable two-screen-long battleship. It swamps the playfield with bullets as fighter jets take off from its backbone, squid-like soldiers emerge from its underside, and gun-bearing warriors and laser-spewing cruisers attack from its flanks (as if the big metal beast needs any help).

You'll battle your mighty aquatic enemies across a total of twenty-eight stages. Actually, the trip from the sun to Jupiter, including a stop at our planet’s moon, constitutes a seven-level affair, but SD2 offers up multiple paths for you to follow, with various goofy endings standing as your reward for returning to the game and taking different courses through the adventure.

Accompanying the action is a quality soundtrack; T's Music gave this episode's solid tunes the PCE CD’s trademark rock-and-roll treatment. Some of the most charming tracks didn’t make the transition particularly well, as overly indulgent guitar solos annihilated their simplistic appeal. But for the more subtle numbers, the tracks that concentrate on establishing atmosphere and are essential to the success of later levels, the power chords and snare drums do their work admirably.

As alluded to earlier, SD2's visuals are nothing short of outstanding, with the excellent artwork not limited to the various sea monsters described above. The backdrops are gorgeous, particularly the first level's wall of undulating flame.

The scenery is so attention grabbing, in fact, that it actually leads one to discover another of SD2‘s shortcomings. Soaring over a serene rocky landscape leading to gorgeous blue caverns can be plenty of fun, but imagine the shock of an aspiring Johnny Turbo upon making a startling realization:

“Hey... wait a minute. This is the same serene rocky landscape leading to gorgeous blue caverns that I soared over THREE PLANETS AGO!”

Such is life with a Darius game. Yes, backgrounds do pop up more than once throughout the twenty-eight stages. Actually, so do certain bosses and musical tracks. But hey, something has to be working well for one to be willing to replay the game enough times to discover the repetition, right? Indeed, with fantastic visuals, bullet-packed playfields, atmospheric music, and amazing boss creatures, Super Darius II has plenty of things working in its favor. And we shouldn't forget about the endings themselves--what a matter they are!

Cyber Knight

~ CYBER KNIGHT ~

Compile / Group SNE / Tonkin House

HuCard

1990

I bought Cyber Knight only because it was priced at a mere two bucks and I was looking for some cheap throw-ins while wrapping up a huge transaction. I had no idea what it was about, but going by just the name, I suspected it to be an awful, archaic action title. It's actually a mecha RPG; I guess you could view it as sort of a "prehistoric" Xenogears.

Once I discovered the truth, I wasn't exactly more eager to play the game, as I didn't expect much from ancient chip RPGs at that point. But I was compelled to give it a fair chance by its incredible opening, which depicts spaceships locked in combat.

The sequence isn't particularly special visually, but it's extremely intense thanks to the accompanying tune, which absolutely rocks and features some of the best drum sounds to be found in a chip game. In fact, CK's soundtrack impresses from start to finish, with a number of other excellent tunes included in the high-quality batch. The game is worth playing through just to hear some good (and atypical) HuCard audio. But before you get going with it, you'll want to make sure that you've got two things:

1) A good guide. There's a great web page devoted to the Super Famicom version, and 95% of the walkthrough it links to is applicable to the PCE game, so you'll know where to go and what to do when you get there. There are a couple of areas mentioned in the FAQ that I either didn't have to or wasn't allowed to visit, and some cited events occurred at unexpected points in the adventure for me; but everything that you need to do to beat the PCE version is covered.

2) Knowledge of katakana. I'm not usually one to try to dissuade folks from experimenting their way through an import RPG, but I really don't see it happening with this one. The game is just too complicated for people to fiddle their way to victory.

How complicated is it? Well, you know how annoying it can be when you're wandering around a town in a Japanese RPG and you're just trying to talk to the right person to trigger the next event? Well, imagine if you didn't have to bumble around a mere six-house village but THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE instead. Cyber Knight has you travel not only to different planets but also to separate solar systems. And there isn't a defined path through the stars. The game grants you access to lots of different locations at once, and you often have a number of separate quests that you can set off on at any given time. Yes, the aforementioned FAQ does tell you where to go, but it won't help much if you can't read the in-game katakana.

The Cyber Knight play system is not simple by any means. You can select three of the six available characters for any given quest, and you'll want to take into consideration their respective classes (each character specializes in a particular field, such as science or mechanics), as certain skills are needed for certain missions. You've also got five different mecha (each with its own respective strengths and weaknesses) and many different weapon types to select from. You can lug along everything from lightsabers and plasma guns to rocket launchers and nova-flame emitters, and you'll need to experiment with all of them to figure out which ones work best against which foes. There are also assorted defense fields to mess around with. And even aboard your home base (a starship), you'll have lots of different menus to work out.

It might seem like a lot to contend with; Cyber Knight comes off as a modern RPG trapped in the body of an old one. But as is often the case with quality modern games, once you get rolling with CK's system, it'll seem pretty simple after all, and then you'll get to enjoy the finer points of the adventure. You'll rush to the aid of cavemen, robots, and large pink whales...

...while utilizing your mighty weaponry to annihilate foes ranging from fearsome dinosaurs to bizarre, indescribable aliens.

Actually, the adventure itself might prove to be a bit too simple for some. You usually aren't asked to do much exploring once you arrive at a planet. You just talk to a particular person or solve a simple maze (only two locations have labyrinths that are at all complex) and then move on to the next area of importance.

The appeal of the game, outside of the audio elements and the interesting acquaintances you make, mainly lies in the strategic combat, as you get to position your mecha on the field while considering the weapon selection/experimentation aspects. But while the enemies you run into are conceptually intriguing and can put up a fight, they don't look very good. CK isn't a top-tier title visually by any stretch of the imagination. You don't even get to fight any sizable creatures aside from the berserker queen at the end of the game.

But CK should still prove to be a very enjoyable RPG for those who are up for the reading requirements. From what I gather, there's a translated rendition of the Super Famicom version somewhere out there. But we all know that the cool way to play the game is on the PC Engine in a language we can't understand.

Faussete Amour

~ FAUSSETE AMOUR ~

Naxat Soft / AiM

Super CD-ROM

1993

This colorful action-platformer reminds me of Super Castlevania IV (with its multidirectional attack system and "hook-and-swing" gameplay sequences) and Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts (with its "take a hit, lose your armor" damage system). Now, SC4 and SGNG are certainly the best SNES games ever made--yet Faussete Amour outdoes them both. FA has no unnecessary spinning rooms and no adventure-halting slowdown, and its stripped-when-hit star is a cute girl rather than a hairy fellow. So, with this one game, the PC Engine officially defeated the entire SNES library.

Seriously though, I enjoy Faussete a heck of a lot more than I thought I would upon reading the many lukewarm (at best) reviews of it. Yes, the heroine (a lass named Corque) walks quite slowly, and the first three levels move along at a rather lackadaisical pace. But things really start to pick up during Scene 4, which presents some extremely tricky platforming gauntlets to navigate. And the last few stages drive the slow walking element completely out of mind by constantly having the player utilize Corque's chain-and-blade weaponry for hacking, swinging, spinning, and bounding.

The graphics are bright and appealing from beginning to end...

...the bosses are monstrous and memorable...

...the cinematics are abundant and nicely done...

...and the music is, er... interesting. Really, it's very different from anything you'd expect to hear in this sort of game... and I like it! I know that some folks will HATE it, though.

Some folks might also find themselves under the impression early on that FA will be easy. Indeed, it is very easy... for a while. Its later levels, however, feature a number of tricky spots and wily creatures. The two bosses at the very end are particularly tough and sure to give players fits.

Aside from its pacing issues (which most people will view as negligible by journey's end), Faussete Amour is a very cool platformer, one that action-game fans should pick up if they can do so at a reasonable price.