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~ ALZADICK ~
Naxat Soft
CD-ROM
1992
No multistage journeys are to be taken here. Alzadick delivers vertical shooting in the contexts of quickly completed timed modes and single-strip adventures. Expect to do a great deal of back-and-forth wending and drifting as you blast up lots of small villains and plenty of floor tiles.
Whether you're shooting for a high point total or playing for victory, suffer no misgivings about wrecking the game's scenery. Neither the rust-colored area nor the green-and-gray zone is particularly appealing, even when left undefaced.
The minute enemy sprites are uninteresting and unimpressive. Even the few large contraptions that get thrown your way are hardly worthy of being viewed as vintage PCE-shooter boss machines.
Those responsible for the title's audio enjoyed more success than did their graphics-department counterparts, but as there are so few modes and areas to experience, the tunes tied to said modes and areas are bound to wear out their welcomes quite quickly. The main scoring strip's loungy theme will likely be the first to become irritating.
As overstretched as it is, the soundtrack was done up in red book form and thus justifies to an extent the game's subsistence on disc. Expect no cinemas to provide further justification. Mere text blocks act as bookends for the one-level-and-done "story" segments.
No one should have much trouble reaching the text-screens of triumph, despite the meekness of the Alzadick craft's guns. Four different primary weapons can be acquired and utilized, but they differ merely in the directions their stick-shots spread out in. Also on offer are four super-powerful one-off auxiliary weapons.
What's not on offer is variety. But everyone who purchases the disc should be well aware of its limitations going in, as it's no great secret at this point that Alzadick is not a proper full-length shooter. Unfortunately, even when its assorted mini-modes are judged on their own merits, they fail to stack up against Cychorider and the score/time attack modes presented by the likes of Spriggan, Nexzr Special, and Soldier Blade. Alzadick doesn't boast the speed, depth, impressive enemies, appealing visuals, or cool weapons that many of its peers do--peers that in most cases provide not only superior score-based events but also excellent multilevel experiences.
~ BLOOD GEAR ~
Hudson Soft / Red / Westone
Super CD-ROM
1994
Noting that it was designed by the estimable Westone and that it boasted awesome cover art and one of the coolest titles in gaming history, my brother Duomitri (a venturesome prospector of video-game gold) took a chance on Blood Gear before practically anyone else had even heard of it. The game didn't remain obscure for long after that, as Duomitri raved about the effort, often comparing it to Zelda II, an amazing old-school action-RPG in its own right. Indeed, BG not only succeeds in providing satisfying combat and questing elements but also presents a thrilling story that revolves around the strike-and-counter rivalry between a diligent, likable hero and a memorably malicious antagonist.
Like The Adventure of Link, Blood Gear places heavy emphasis on sidescrolling action scenes. But rather than having you assume the role of a scrawny elven lad brandishing a tiny blade, BG provides you with giant mecha capable of wielding lightsabers, mega-bazookas, shotguns, and a wide variety of other devastating arms. And instead of poking around mere woods and palaces, you get to explore factories, tundras, storm-lands, underwater bases, mechanized caverns, and the depths of outer space.
You even eventually pay a visit to a strange little village inhabited by phantoms.
Like Exile's, Blood Gear's town sequences represent a departure from its action scenes in that they're viewed from an overhead perspective. While they do ask that you partake in the usual RPG acts of commerce and clue garnering, they often also have you perform amusing little tasks, like breaking out of a prison and subsequently stealing an enemy soldier's uniform to engage in a bit of espionage.
Found in most of the villages are factories in which you may strengthen your mecha. You begin with a slow, clunky trash heap of a robot and end up with an absolute killing machine (and you decide on the manner in which to power it up, as you earn points for upgrading by slaying your adversaries). Even after your robotic warrior has attained god-mecha status, you won't simply be able to plow through the enemy forces; you'll have to plan as you proceed, switching up weapons when necessary and even pulling some acts of chicanery to fool a few awesomely powerful contraptions that'll bust you up in no time if you attack them head on.
Said contraptions (especially the largest ones) and most of the backdrops (particularly the ones boasting multilayer scrolling) are very detailed and colorful and look absolutely fantastic.
The last boss is an insane two-screen-tall terror machine, and right before you can attempt to deal with it, you have to annihilate a huge starship hovering about in space.
It's a fantastic conclusion to an adventure that never slows down. Don't expect all the fun to be backed by red book brilliance, however, as the tunes are mostly chip fare. The tracks are excellent, though, and very memorable, particularly the invigorating primary action-scene tune, a swingy composition reminiscent of certain Final Fight numbers, a dirty dungeon dirge, and the sentimental town theme.
I've held Blood Gear in very high regard over the years, viewing it as one of the twenty or thirty best video games I've ever played. Amazingly, it proves whenever I revisit it to kick even more ass than my memories tend to indicate. It's absolutely outstanding, one of the greatest Duo products of all time and a must if you enjoy adventure games along the lines of Zelda II, The Legend of Xanadu, and Exile.
~ FIEND HUNTER ~
Right Stuff
Super CD-ROM
1993
I often liken Fiend Hunter to Blood Will Tell, a favorite of mine for the Playstation 2. BWT features a dark, compelling theme and solid 3D combat, but its main attraction is its boss cast. The colossus-confronting hero must hunt down and annihilate forty-eight incredible fiends, among whom are club-wielding lion-men, enormous armored minotaurs, bellowing demon ogresses, and a sinister six-armed deity who steals people's faces and tattoos them to his torso. FH's beastly villains aren't quite as impressive as BWT's yetis, golems, and specters, but there are over forty of them for you to engage in hack-and-slash combat, and their respective attack methods are varied enough to require you to devise fresh tactics for each bout.
Squaring off with all those skilled, striking creatures is the unfortunately named Feed Sluster, a lanky, goofier-than-he'd-like-to-admit Earnest Evans emulator whom women just can't seem to keep their hands off.
While Feed takes after Wolf Team's legendary treasure hunter in matters of appearance and temperament, he comes off as a mimicker of the Prince of Persia protagonist in action. Stretches separating fights have him dash, leap, crawl, climb, and ledge-grab PoP style.
Accompanying the hunter every hop, heave, and step of the way is a timid little demon named Exy.
The poor, diminutive fire fiend never seems to want much to do with monster hunting or devil battering but exhibits valor and skill by warding off attackers, illuminating dusky areas, nabbing out-of-the-way items, and flipping distant switches.
Feed himself is hardly a klutz. He's capable of performing myriad flips, swipes, and magic-based attacks in battle, and he controls well enough that pulling off any of his assorted moves is seldom difficult. In truth, the unlikely partners complement each other so marvelously that many of the cheap-tactics-prone fiends can hardly help but end up being clobbered. Stacking the odds further in the duo's favor is the fact that items can be bought in shops, found in niches, and won from villains that strengthen the warrior and his demonic chum in aspects of melee and magic ability.
It's unfortunate that Right Stuff couldn't make Feed animate nearly as well as his Persian predecessor, though the ungraceful manner in which the fellow goes about his business belies the general adequacy of the controls. The fiends themselves aren't graphically impressive, but many of them are intriguing in design, while the backdrops are generally dark but rarely revolting and occasionally look quite nice (particularly those utilized for outdoor sequences). The soundtrack also has its impressive moments, as it delivers both catchy and appealingly wacky numbers and gets serious and dramatic when it really needs to.
Despite the high number of respectable-enough ingredients that went into the title, whatever allure Fiend Hunter has is almost entirely attributable to its cast of creatures. It's never particularly ambitious with its exploratory elements or perplexing with its environment-based conundrums. It isn't aesthetically brilliant, and it can feel a bit rough at times. But the fun that comes with finding and battling distinctively designed devils makes players keep right on questing until the blood of the final fiend has been spilled.
~ FACEBALL TAIKENBAN ~
Riverhill Soft / BPS / Xanth Software
Super CD-ROM
1993
It isn't uncommon for video-game demo discs to contain extras of some sort, but Faceball Taikenban sticks to being a "sample" in the strictest sense of the word. Options are certainly not aplenty in this slice of the main game's Battle mode. You decide if you'll be waging yellow-head war with the computer or another human and choose a face-man avatar to represent you in combat...
...and then you get hurled into a labyrinthine arena to devastate your opponent.
You get no say in matters of stage structure or difficulty level. You're granted neither the opportunity to invite ghost-folk to the fights nor the option to try out the finished product's Race mode (which, in my estimation, presents a superior rendition of the sport). You merely hammer or get hammered by your foe... and then likely move on to some other pursuit.
The lack of bonus material makes this an item that only the most ardent of Faceball lovers and the most indiscreet of PCE collectors will wish to purchase. For those who qualify as either, I recommend ignoring the old wives' tales of the disc invariably costing a fortune. I'd have ended up rather vexed had I spent much cash on it.
~ FACEBALL ~
Riverhill Soft / BPS / Xanth Software
Super CD-ROM
1993
The first order of business when preparing for battle in Faceball is to select a head. I usually go with the gruff, thuggish cube-carven fellow, but a globular guy, a star-shaped guy, and a mushroom-like guy are also available.
Then it's death-match time. You zip about a small mazelike environment while pelting your cranial adversaries with little red balls. The contest can be a one-on-one affair to be resolved between you and the computer or a battle royal should you be able to assemble a drove of Faceball-loving friends. As damage is dealt and received, cracks appear in the participants' viewing windows, and the characters themselves begin to show damage and shatter.
Should you tire of the cat-and-mouse games of combat mode, you can opt to partake in timed trials that call for the heroic heads to scour mazes for eggs and escort strange little hatchlings to flashing exits.
Whether you're racing or scuffling, you won't find much substance to the scuttle-and-blast events, but plenty of options are available as far as labyrinth layout and difficulty level are concerned.
You can even allow ugly pink bubblegum ghosts access to the fray to make matters more chaotic.
Faceball is a simple sort of thing, but it's also an entertaining sort of thing, as its snazzy soundtrack and amusing voices lend liveliness and charm to the cut-and-dried proceedings. The game is unlikely to hold your attention for days on end, but it's enjoyable in bursts and worth picking up for the player who'll be satisfied to reap once-in-a-while rewards from it.
