WWF Wrestlemania (Genesis)

There's the time of my life (around 90s or 2000) when i enjoy wrestling show just like other. Until the only TV station that broadcast the shows, is forced to cease them due to many case of teens practicing wrestling move on their friend/brother/classmate and many suffers of broken bone or skull even death. Although there's the usual warning "Don't this at home!" and it's already translated. It's "Jangan lakukan ini di rumah!" in case you're curious about Indonesian a bit. Nowadays, we can only watch wrestling entertainment show from international channel. Anyway, here's my review about Midway's WWF Wrestlemania (1995) on Sega Genesis. 

That's hardcore title screen for wrestling game. The fonts are cool except for "Midway®" which is just bold white letters. That harsh opinion is based on their logo on Mortal Kombat 3. I think the logo for WWF and Wrestlemania is right for its time. If that's not the case, i apologize because my knowledge about this sport entertainment is limited due to aforementioned problem. So my said knowledge is mainly based on WWF Smackdown 2 game on PS 1. But at least i know a bit about Randy Orton and John Cena because of meme.

Here's the main menu or rather character selection screen with bit of option menu. The option contain difficulty setting, life/hitpoint setting, Music On/Off, and control configuration which allow you to choose for 3-button joystick setting or 6-button joystick setting but you can't figure them manually by yourself. They're all pre-fixed and you can't change button for run within 1 button press which kind of baffling to me. For the roster, we got

Doink The Clown	Razor Ramon
The Undertaker	Yokozuna
Shawn Michaels	Bam Bam Bigelow
Brett Hart	Lex Luger

 I'll be honest, i only recognize 2 of them which means 25% of the roster. But don't worry! I know who i will pick.

Next i have to choose whether i go for Intercontinental Championship or World Wrestling Federation Championship. WWF is stands for World Wrestling Federation, duh. Of course, i choose the bottom option.

My first match is against Bam Bam Bigelow and Lex Luger. With American Flag pattern around his pants and knee pad. I assume he's as nationalist as Kurt Angle. By the way, i reckon The Undertaker will be everyone's pick so i go with the flamboyant sod: Shawn Michaels.

It goes without saying that to take 2 opponents at once, is really difficult. But these rapid side kick helps me to control opponent more than 1 person. It's executed by down, forward, kick (if it connects keep hitting kick button up to 3 times). Yes, the move input is kind of like any fighter game. But you shouldn't be surprised by that as Midway is well known for Mortal Kombat series.

 

Well, shoot! I thought i had it but no. I lost a round and another round next. Back to character selection, then. But i still pick Shawn Michaels.    

 

This time also not better than before. Enemies tend to surround me from left and right. What happen most of the time: i manage to get 1 enemy and the other will get me. Like in this case where Yokozuna about to press me with his massive buttock after i manage to beat Bam Bam Bigelow once. Ok! No more Mr. Nice Guy. I will no longer rely on my memory instead i will see the full movelist in some FAQ and using save state.       

Turns out i don't miss much by not reading the movelist. It's nice to have good memory. The other way to deal with this handicap situation: to throw one of the enemies out of the ring so you can have little breather for a moment. You think The Undertaker is reluctant to take on handicapped opponent but no. I know that not how real The Undertaker does (except if he's really hate Shawn Michael). At least he should be teamed up with Kane.    

 

Now that's more like it. Thank to savestate. Well, i believe Shawn Michaels is kind of guy who like to use underhanded trick so i stay true to his nature.

Beating The Undertaker and Lex Luger, will take closer to WWF champion title. There's total 7 matches that i have to deal with. Those bold stripes on match list bar represent border to new kind of challenge. So there's 4 matches of 1-on-2, 2 matches of 1-on-3, and the final match is...i will talk about it when the time is come.

 

How do you finish a round? Of course, by pinning the weakened opponent. To pin your opponent, just simply press any of kick button near him when he's out of hitpoints. But there's no count to 3. It just end briefly when you manage to pin your opponent. But there's second wind (that reminds me of Borderland 2) in which pinned wrestler can get another chance to back in action with just a sliver of health bar but any retaliation counts in this game. Second wind can be activated by roughly mashing the buttons. In this case, Razor Ramon escape from my pin but later i can beat him again. Instead of pinning him again, i pin Bam Bam Bigelow instead. It's just coincidence. But i have grudge toward him from first match.  

 

Oh, great. I confront against the fat git again. 2 of them!  

 

Since they're same person with same moves, i thought the match is easier. Turns out, it's not. It goes without saying that later match become harder than previous one. I think that's because the A.I is getting more aggressive and less idling. You can inflict twice if you land first attack. There's also way to inflict twice or even thrice damage if your attack outmaneuvers enemy's. That's the kind my thing. I can't get into Mortal Kombat series because you can only inflict constant amount of damage whereas Street Fighters or Tekken will reward you with extra damage on your hit if you can outmaneuver enemy. It seems Midway learns about that a bit and applies it to this game.

 

This time i go against 3 wrestlers at once and again rapid side kick helps me a lot to keep enemies on one side. Also it's important to make distance between them.

 

Naturally, fighting 3 enemies is harder than 2 enemies. Ramon is down. But i'm surrounded by other 2. Also Yokozuna throws rice at me from behind and for some reason blinding me even though my eyes aren't in the back of my head! So much for Sumo Wrestler's honor.

 

More often than not, enemy hit others even though he want to hit me. Think it like how big monsters in Monster Hunter has little tendency to miss you with their attack although they're really focused to kill you. Or maybe Doink wants shake his hand with his partner there but he forget to turn off the buzzer. XD

 

The final match is Royal Rumble or at least that's what Midway want to create. The match is more like 1-on-3 match but the defeated enemy will be replaced with new one (total 8 enemies). And get this: you don't defeat your enemies by tossing instead by pinning them or just depleting their hitpoints. That's so...how should i put it? Not Royal Rumble! Enemies can just get in the ring once they're out so you have no choice but to beat them to submission. At least you got tiny bit healing for each defeated enemy. By the way, i though i'm free from mirror match but turns out no.

 

Naturally, i saved state a lot and the match is down to me Vs The Undertaker. The announcer said "Is that legal?" when i smack The Undertaker with baseball bat. In my defense, he launch some ghosts (you can see it above Ramon a bit) at me first and that certainly illegal in any wrestling match than me beat him with some sport equipment. At least it's the least sensible. When i read wikipedia about Royal Rumble, i find that Shawn Michael won it in 1995. So i kind of recreating the event from 24 years ago. I'm so proud! :D

Here's the ending. Yep, just this. If you're expecting extraordinary prologue like Johnny Cage will create Mortal Kombat the movie after the tournament, tough luck for you. Well, at least Shawn looks happy and i feel relieved and proud. But wait! I think we miss something. It's his signature super move: Sweet Chin Music!

 

Well, there's none. Instead, we have super combo. If you hit your opponent, combo bar on the bottom of life bar is filled. Once it's fully filled, you can perform combo that can deal hefty damage at the cost of the combo bar but there's no exact way how to pull it out. The best i can come up is this: first you have to hold your enemy's head (forward twice + special punch) then press forward, forward + punch, punch multiple time and end with special kick. It takes a lot of trial and error for me to find this combo. To be fair, 'forward, forward + punch' input is once for arm breaker where Shawn uppercuts his opponent's elbow like what Scorpion do in Mortal Kombat 4 but once my combo bar filled it become chainable front kick. But still, this is no Sweet Chin Music. :c

 

Midway's WWF Wrestlemania (1995) is fast paced wrestling video game as expected of home console port from arcade game. The gameplay is fun and great also difficult. But if you change the difficulty setting to 'Easy' (like what i did in super combo demonstration) , the game becomes fairer and more enjoyable. As in every wrestling game, there's button mashing factor in here but not everytime. It only appears if you get Irish whipped or laying down or hoping to get Second Wind. If your head get held by enemy, you can input any move that follow-up head hold so you can execute reversal. You can climb turnbuckle to initiate aerial attack that unblockable, but i seldom do that because it feels inaccurate but again that's due to my ineptitude. The digitized graphic is fairly good as you as expected from experienced Midway. And if you fight 1-on-1, the crowds moves and there's lots of extra things if the wrestler got slammed like sweats or hearts. But that's not happen in handicapped match. Furthermore there's significant slowdown if you face 3 opponents at once perhaps due to engine limitation. The music while in the match is pretty good and there's also each wrestler's theme for victory music. But most of them are muffled.

Leaving the lack of epilogue and the special super move, WWF Wrestlemania (1995) is worthy to play especially if you're fans of wrestling show. Just turn the difficulty down a bit and you're set. Or you can also play with your friend/relative/family even though the roster is bit small. And remember: Don't try this at home! Unless via home console (or emulator).

Ghost Pilots (Neo Geo)

I'm currently addicted to some vertical shooter game on my phone. Thus, i review arcade vertical shooter game that's (hopefully) generic: SNK's Ghost Pilots (1991). 

That's not ghost. It's Grim Reaper or Death from Castlevania if you will. It has robe of soothing pink but those red eyes. They're scary. Nice font color although seem unrelated ghost.

 

There's bit of story exposition should you're curious or anything. A blonde bloke got annoyed by blaring alarm.

 

Then he runs and get into that plane or maybe he's operator with headset over there.

 

The pilot shoots his way and avoid getting shot himself to find out who's responsible to set the alarm off the mastermind behinds this vague military aggression.

 

As in every game in Neo-Geo board, there's instruction on how to play the game before you can start it. It's as basic as you get: joystick to move your plane around, 1st button to shoot main weapon, and 2nd button to unleash bomb. No third button or other gimmick. So far so simple.

 

After that, i have to choose between 2 bomb type: 1) single focused explosion 2) scatter explosion. My experience from playing many shoot 'em up,  tells me that the first type will deal more damage but cover less area than the second type. So i go with second ones. The timer goes down quite fast, meaning the pilot is really eager to get the enemies very soon. Just look at that grumpy mean face. As if he says "Just get on with it. Fast!"

 

At the beginning of first stage, my plane takes off on water. It's nice change from the usual: takes off from mothership or no take off sequence at all.  

 

Naturally, i encounter enemy patrol ships while i'm still in first stage while other shooter game maybe in like 4th or 5th stage. Aside of Fighter & Attacker, that is.

 

There's also tank on raft. So cute! I like the visual presentation so far. Good work, SNK.

 

Then i fly across dry land where the tank can cover from my shot within those straw hut. Imagine that you're in control of dreadful aircraft but your bullet hail can be avoided by simply hiding inside some primitive small building made of only hay and woods. Spy_negativevocalization03.wav

 

Oh, Wow! They got Patriot Missile? Or maybe SCUD Missile? They're sure up to no good.   

 

Here's the first boss. A tank with flamethrower as main cannon and has 4 mini turrets on its body. As i'm Pyro, i like this tank. Such a shame that i have to destroy it.

 

Once the turrets are gone, the main cannon can move left and right on the rail. And the main cannon can also shoot 3-way bullets that track on you. Guess where i have to hit! It's the moving cannon that periodically shoot flames, of course. The battle will be easier/fairer if my plane can move faster. The plane flies unusually slow from its peer. Like if you compare the protagonist from SNK's P.O.W to any (average) protagonist on any Beat Em Up. You will see what i mean.

There's thick and big cloud as transition between stages and i like that. The 2nd stage start with forest but in the middle there's deforested section with swarm of tank on it. I take this game for graphic safari than a game. But don't get me wrong. The gameplay is quite fine.

 

More talk on gameplay. Initially the plane shoot 2 bullets with quite wide gap while most enemies can be dispatched with 1 or 2 hit. "S" letter powerup is you usual pickup to increase your firepower (by adding 1 more bullet each). "1up" pickup to increase your life like usual. Star pickup for score. "B" letter powerup is pickup that increase your bomb by 1. Speaking of the bomb, i said that 2nd type bomb is supposed to be bomb that cover more area but less damage. Turns out, that's not true. Once the bomb activated, explosions surround the plane and block you for any harm. They're last for few seconds and at the last duration, the explosion circle will moves away and you can alter its movement by moving at the right time. This is more defensive bomb and it's very good to save you if you're really good at it. I'm not though. I wish i can switch to conventional bomb but alas, i can't switch the bomb no matter how many time i die.

 

2nd boss i this generic big airplane that can shoot backward and i envy every enemy plane like that, wishing i can shoot backward too. But so far i don't need that. Yes, many enemies come from behind but they have fair decency to hold their fire until they're in front of me within 2 seconds or so. Also they flies from above me and not go straightly within my elevation that potentially can crash into me. Speaking of the boss, it reminds me of something.

 

Ah, yes! It resembles Ayako Special which is the 1st boss in Capcom's 19XX: The War Against Destiny. But to be fair, Ghost Pilots came out first in 1991 while 19XX came out in 1996. Besides, Ayako Special can flies small plane from its cargo docks on its wings. Anyway, the not Ayako Special can be taken down faster and easier than that tank. But 2nd boss supposed to be harder than 1st ones, right?

 

Then it's the score assessment at the end of stage like usual. Wait! All this time, i play only in 1st stage? So i assume a stage consists of 2 acts or bosses. That sounds exhausting, especially with relatively slow pace of the game. But i shall not faltered to finish the game, mind you.

 

So there's another special feature in this game. You got to choose next stage as oppose to linear stage all the time. But all i can choose right now is either air-to-ground mission or air-to-air mission on the bottom part. The mysterious mastermind can feel relieved for now as i choose the air-to-air mission first and later air-to-ground mission before i get him.

 

Well, i can change my bomb now and (i assume) it's the only occasion i can do that. Yet, i'm tempted to use the new bomb instead of the conventional ones like what i wanted to. You can say that as if i want the game to bite me. 

 

The new bomb cover larger area than the previous i had, roughly most of the centre of the screen and deal significantly larger damage. The way the bomb works: 2 ally planes flies from bottom and proceed to drop 4 bombs. That sounds nice but...  

 

...they take too long to blast the screen! It happens quite a lot that i die before they drop the goddamn bombs like in this occasion! Also the bombs tend to explode in separate time from another. But it's mildly amusing to see enemies die after my demise.

 

There's this sub-boss which is a giant plane with unusually long wings. It's not hard to deal with. So i can practice on how to use the bomb better. By that i mean to train those damned lads to drop the bomb in better way. Sniper_jeers07.wav     

 

The 1st boss of this air-to-air mission is this big zeppelin. What am i talking about, saying as if regular size of zeppelin isn't big? All zeppelin are supposed to be very large, right? Anyway, the boss here introduce you to that twirling fireball that if you shoot it, it will bursts into 5-way fast bullets. So you have to be careful not to shoot this specific projectile.

 

After clearing its turrets, the boss turns 2nd phase. Now it shoots with its large cannon in center with routine like this: fire the swirling fireballs, fire normal bullets, hides, repeat. This phase feels easier than 1st phase as oppose of that flame-throwing tank.

 

On next part, i fly through volcanoes. They aren't harmful hazard. I mention them because they're nice to look into. Especially that smoke effect. I did tell you that my experience on this game is more for graphic safari than game.

 

The 2nd boss stage: this not Ayako Special, again? At least this one has more firepower than before

 

Turn out, it has tag partner with same plane type but different color. They tag each other by flying pass the cloud below and the partner will replace previous ones. To be honest, this is neat idea for shoot 'em up boss rather than just plain big thing that soaks lots of damage plus capable of firing many projectiles.

 

In this stage, there's 2 kind of hole: 1) Cracked and rough hole on left that possibly caused by war 2) Hole with smooth curve on right that maybe crop circle mining hole. SNK is really good with detailed graphic.

 

3rd boss for this mission is just another giant plane that can shoot backward. It's not too special except it's bigger and bulkier than previous ones.   

 

On the other hand, next boss is more interesting because it looks like two plane that's merged into one. Turns out if you finish either left/right part, the other half can fly on its own. It's indeed combination of 2 planes through diabolical experimentation. May God have mercy on them.

 

With the emerged twin plane gone, i can move on to air-to-ground mission. Also i've given another opportunity to change my bomb. Instead of standard bomb like what i wanted long time, i pick napalm bomb because i'm Pyro. Pyro_laughevil04.wav.

 

I can tell that this mission is easier than previous ones because there's less planes that try to ram at me but that doesn't mean i'm totally free from them like this instance. This is my plane moves slow, has big hitspot, and my shoot that can't shoot anywhere else beside in front of me so enemies tend to pile up. Also my poor shoot 'em up skill.

 

Even so i enjoy this mission thanks to this Napalm bomb. It quite close to your conventional shoot 'em up bomb but it has slightly more delay on activation, and leave cone-shaped flame that last quite long rather than just plain big boom. Everytime i use napalm bomb there's warm spark that lit my soul and heart, naturally. Just like drinking a glass of tea.

 

The 1st boss is tank with many cannons and rocket launchers. You can safe from cannon firing by fly besides it but the missiles will get you and you can't hit the tank back. So you have to park in front of it, spam bomb, and pray for the best. By the way, how this soft marsh soil can withstand this hundred tons wonder war machine, is beyond me.

 

Welcome to pain train...on fire! Muahahahaha! The tanks on train are bound by rope. They're cute.

 

It's nice to see some gigantic hovercraft as boss on vertical shooter instead of your usual marine battleship. No, it isn't giant sea ship. It has air cushion/rubber rim, see?

 

After passing some ancient temple site i encounter the 3rd boss is 2 tanks that can either fire some bullets or emit spinning fire that can block your bullets. Sometime they will combined into one tank. Not really, they just clamp together and will move in one direction. That's it. There's occasion when both of them fire dancing around forcing you to forget about shooting and focus on moving between fire just like lion/dolphin that's forced to go through ring of fire.

 

I just realized that if you destroy entire group of red planes (like this gits), you will get extra 1000 scores and 1 pickup that can be 1up, extra firepower, or bomb. Of course i prefer bomb at this mission.

 

Another boss is this tank that has pair of chained iron ball and able to shoot some bullets. The boss launch and retract the iron ball as if it's doing boxing. It's more interesting and bit fairer than 1st boss.

 

Next, i raid their airfield that's filled with huge cargo planes that keep birthing juvenile tanks. That's how military nature at work. By the looks of flag symbol on the planes, the enemies are Spain, i think?

 

Oh, this must be the father! Not much i can say about him. he can shoot from its center, left/right part, and left/right hub. That's it. With this whole happy family die, we can move on to final mission so we know...

 

...the culprit behind  this evil aggression is Rugal Bernstein. Duhn Dun Duhhhhn!

There's no special bomb for this mission so i resort to the usual bomb. I miss the napalm bomb so much but at least this one activates faster. This mission start with gentler difficulty than in previous moment but i know that the game will start to bite me again sooner or later. As the plane moves slow and has large hitspot, it goes without saying that the only viable defensive measure is to spam bomb and if you run out of it just wait till you die to restock 3 bombs. I'm afraid that the game is only designed to suck credit after credit at the point beyond prologue so there's no room for skillful gameplay at all. Just like any Psikyo's shoot 'em up games only slower. But for some reason i prefer this game than them. Maybe because it's considered generous on extra life: you will get an extra live every 50,000 score (which is quite easy to do) although using continue will reset your score to 0. Also because this game has slow pace, you can also see what hit you (although you can't do nothing about unless activating bomb). While in Psikyo's shooter games bullets come at you in flash before you finish cursing. As if Psikyo want to take your quarters as quick as possible with no sense of fair at all.

 

The first boss in this mission is this plane with tandem tail wing. You can or rather must destroy said tail so you can proceed to destroy the entire plane.

 

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that the plane dropped down 2 giant Tomcat before the fight. So it's another tag-team plane battle. It's kind of weird to see that jet thruster use to shoot flame jet at me. Maybe because it's less functional than just usual bullets.

 

I just want you to show you these amphibious ships. I like them. Really.

 

Some of the tanks station inside of cargo ship like this. But the tanks that on raft are lot more adorable to me.

 

All right! Here's the final boss. It's moving fortress or kind of. Once you destroy that hidden cannon and those 2 flamethrower cannons...

 

...you will move on to its middle part where there's tanks spawn on each lane and center turret are ready to deal with you. And if you're unable to destroy all small turret on your way here, you will be surrounded with bullets just like this. >:)

 

The last part is of course the main superstructure. The moving flamethrower from very first boss, is back and it's doubled as left/right part of this superstructure. Since this is the final boss, it absorbs gigantic damage. It's reasonable but the battle becomes really tedious. Even more tedious than other bosses for sure. I don't know whether it's really requires so much damage to take down or you have to destroy the flamethrowers first before get the main part. Thing for sure is i have to spend many credit in this battle and i think there's fair part on this battle even just a bit: you can totally evade this multi-directional swirling fireballs in between the you can return fire very briefly.     

 

BY beating the final boss (where i assume Rugal is there thus he dies along with it), i got juicy 10,000,000 score. I can get 100 extra life with that. But this is already the ending. Demoman_jeers01.wav

Then there's ending: where the plane land on water on some city and crowd cheers on the heroic pilot. He also got confetti shower.

 

Then someone photograph him. Later he toasts on his own photo with iced liquor. Or maybe this guy is his mentor or what have you. Hey! I noticed the brand of liquor is probably Ghost Fighter. They must be acquired the whiskey from ghost in some creepy monastery in Europe country. Check out Koudelka if you don't believe me!

Then credit rolls along with fireworks. Tamaya!

At first i thought SNK's Ghost Pilots (1991) is just your generic vertical shooter game on arcade and it's bit with bit more feature especially in bomb department. I love the napalm bomb, seriously. But the gameplay feels slogging what's with slowness of my ship and the stages are too long that it will sucks my interest pretty fast. Not to mention, i died a lot in the stage due to overwhelming enemy force while i don't have much capability to deal with that (except bomb spamming). The boss battle feels bit fairer...if its part is damaged. Also most of the bosses have really good tracking ability on their shooting. So you will have hard time dodging their attacks. But i can say that some of boss design is good and beyond just damage-soaking giant war machine. I forget to mention that there's no auto-fire feature. The graphic is chunky and detail as you expect from Neo Geo hardware. Also the sound effect sounds so crispy like the sounds of enemy plane's propeller or bomb's explosion. Some of the music resemble the one in Sengoku 2 and there's one that's good enough to me: the 1st battle theme. 

The resume: i can't recommend you to play this game as there's other better arcade game shooter than this. Although i can't say Fighter & Attacker is better than this. I take about one and half hour to finish this game so you can imagine how tiring is this game. Unless you're really hate Rugal Bernstein and wanted to bombard his fortress, then go with my blessing. Be a hero! I mean Ghost Pilot. Even though you don't go with F-117. :P