It's that time again, dear reader! 17th August 2022, is 77th anniversary of my beloved country: Indonesia. As per usual, i celebrate it by playing "militaristic lone wolf" game. But for this time, the game is...not so good. It's Taito's Front Line (1982).
The title is well designed. You can't argue with fonts with decent military stripe camouflage. I think i have 2 short trouser with military stripes motive so far and they're pretty comfortable to wear. One is M.I.A so i only have 1 more. That missing trouser deserves my eternal gratitude medal. Anyway, the game is made by Taito, which we all know that they're famous because of Space Invader. But don't get your hopes up for this one. Because like i said that this one is not so good.
Everyone. Say hello to John Doe there with blue uniform, red hat, and a pair of flimsy leg that probably made of group of wet spaghetti. How nice of him to look at us while killing his enemies. He will wave at you if only he has another arm. He (and his enemies) only allowed to have 1 arm only (that can shift to left or right depends on their aim) probably due to budget cut. Taito aren't sure with this game so they put strict fund for it.
I think in real arcade cabinet, this game has twin joystick: One for moving and other for aim. At least that's what i can interpret from control scheme in emulator. So i have to manage 8 directional buttons at once! Plus one to fire his itty bitty handgun and another to throw grenade. It's very tedious control but luckily i have unlimited ammunition. Perhaps if i play the version with trackball, i can aim with mouse movement, shooting handgun with left mouse button and throwing grenade with right mouse button. That sounds much better. But i stick with this version. Besides i once said that "True gamer rely their control with keyboard".
I can bind both aim and movement on the same direction buttons but that will make John Doe has less degree on his maneuver and the gameplay will be exactly the same with NES version. If you're curious about the NES version, you can read other's article here.
Look at how graceful his walk! I can destroy mines that planted everywhere in this road. Destroying mines will make hole in the ground. You can fall on it...not quite. There's no death fall in this game. Instead, you will be immobilized upon touching the hole until it's filled by presumably the John Doe himself. But it takes quite forever for the hole to get covered and leaving you unable to dodge enemy's projectiles for long time!
Soldier_paincrticialdeath02.wav. I'm hit! Like in common game, i get outnumbered occasionally. But i still have 1 life, i shouldn't give up yet.
Soldier_negativevocalization06.wav. Game over! Enemy's weapon is as lame as mine. But in situation where both sides have same bad weaponry then the tide of battle will most likely turn to the side with the most men. So i have to play the game smarter. Use the cover of trees, more often use grenade that has longer range than bullet can get past obstacles, and move forward faster and more carefully.
Then Double KO happens. If you fight enemies with the pitiful handgun, there's good chance you end up dead along with your foe. Cm_soldier_pregametie_05.mp3
Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav. That guy get caught in explosion from my grenade. Beware that you can also get killed from your own grenade! Yes, it's possible to outrun your own grenade because how slow it is. But don't do that because that accomplish nothing but your embarrassing death.
Look how careless he is when shooting backward. Also he has questionable pose. But if you can believe a bold white block is a paddle in Pong, you should accept soldier sprite in this game. Besides this graphic is quite major step up than Space Invader, right?
I got another game over. Time to use save/load state. It goes without saying that grenade is capable of destroying multiple enemies, if you can throw it well. Demoman_specialcompleted11.wav
HAHAHA! Look at that dolt killed by falling rock. Don't question why there's falling rock in this frontline. It's just there.
There's end for that road section. It leads to this clearing and i can get my hand on this tank. To get in/out the tank, simply press the grenade button.
Being in the tank doesn't mean you can get big advantage of it because enemies also on tank. There's no feeling of power to overcome enemy on foot while you're in the tank like in Gunforce, for example. Nonetheless, being in tank still better than on foot. It's armed with machine gun that can shoot more bullet with better succession than the handgun. Also the tank provide you with 1 hit protection whereas if you're on foot you just straight dead when get hit once. You can get out of the tank when it's smoking after getting hit. But you have to do it fast otherwise, you get caught in the blast of your deceased tank.
Speaking of smoking, my tank get hit! That enemy heavy tank also get hit but not down yet. My bullets only make it immobilized yet still able to fire its cannon. So watch out for that.
I lost my tank but i can take cover behind this big rock. Any tank's projectile can't go through it by my grenade can. Thank goodness that this "pineapple" grenade which is commonly noted as anti-personnel grenade also act as anti-tank ones because it can decimates tank with single blast. Demoman_positivevocalization04.wav
I find another tank but i'm also surrounded. This is conflicting situation. :I
Heavy_negativevocalization02.wav. My new tank get hit! But luckily there's reserve tank there. Maybe i can get on it safely.
It seems this tank fight will ends up in double KO. On the brighter side, i find this bridge is gorgeous. :)
What is my opinion about the tank section? It's not Tank Force or Mass Destruction, for sure. It's not as intuitive or fun unlike those 2 example of tank games. It get tedious once you lost the tank but enemies seem locked within their tank. So once you destroy their tank, they die along with it unlike you who can freely escape from smoking tank. By the way, i like the graphic on this pink brick wall. It looks like strawberry-flavored wafer but can withstand tank's projectiles. :P
So this is how to end the level/war. I have to destroy this fortified cannon. Because of its thick armor, my tank cannon is useless against it. So the only way to defeat it is get out of tank and throw grenade at it. So i kill the cannon operator and his comrade that happen to be wounded badly raise the white flag. Cm_soldier_gamewon_rare_03.mp3
The next level is the same as before. Only different in color in some part. For example, the road section is concrete now. It goes without saying that the level becomes harder. With more enemies that attack you more aggressively.
Finally, i get my hands on heavy tank. Goodbye, light tank! :P
The heavy tank fires shells that can destroy any enemy tank in single hit. Soldier_taunts10.wav
The brick wall may hinder the projectiles from getting through it. But i still can use the explosion on the wall to destroy enemies. Soldier_KaBoomAlts01.wav?
I think this is the best place to park your tank. You will be covered by the brick walls and you can make quicker and easier retaliation after bit running from there. I assume the opportunity to fight back the cannon is when it finishes firing its shell.
There's nothing new after defeating the cannon. Wounded man raise the white flag. The John Doe shaking his head as if saying "Shame on you!" to the wounded man. The screen goes black then heavy tank fires Bonus Points. That's all.
Next level is the same but with different color and more difficult enemies, again. I forget to tell you that the enemy soldiers can climb/jump out hill on the sides but i can't do that. It's probably for the best because there's little place to dodge there. I think we're done here.
Taito's Front Line (1982) is unique game with war theme. Unique in bad way.
The game consists of 3 section: 1) Large road section, for personnel versus
personnel. 2) Tank battleground, mainly for tank versus tank if you can keep
your tank that is. 3) Enemy's land, which is filled by lots of tank like no 2) but
with brick walls and artillery base at the end. I feel like section 1) is the
hardest because how atrocious to have gunfight with enemies. The pistol's
bullet is thin and travel pretty short. You can hardly see it and due to lack
of range, the handgun is terrible to use. You can outsmart enemies by using
grenade but it travels slow and there's quite long period before you can throw
another ones. Do note that, the grenade travels in some kind of arc and not
straightforward like handgun. I remember when i was very young, me and my old
brother play NES version of this. He reset the game whenever the first tank we
can have is the light one and he insist only want the heavy one as the first
tank that we firstly found. I can see why as heavy tank has the best weapon and
very durable. But as i've said before that being in any tank still better than
on foot. So light tank is not so bad at all because you have 1 hit protection
when inside of it. Although there's strategic advantage of being on foot than
on tank which is the ability to throw grenade that can pass obstacles but
remember that when on foot you will get killed by one hit from anything. So
there's risk-and-reward strategy going on here. The control is perhaps too complex for its time but feels necessary. There's no music at all. While
the sound effects are very classic like *plink* *bwoom* etc. You only get 2 lives per credit and there's no continue in the middle of the game. It's arcade game with never-ending loop and meant to play for hi-score, which is common for its time.
As i mentioned before, Front Line (1982) is not good and tedious to play. But the hardship can be interpreted as how hard the battle for independence is. Or is just me who overthink the meaning of this bad game. :P
There's not much difference in NES version except there's no falling rock and tank shooting screen at the end of the level if i remember correctly. Also the aim and move direction are mapped on same control: D-Pad.
You don't need to bother playing this game because there's dozens of better top-down shooter. For example. The sequel of this game: Land Sea Air Squad or Capcom's take on the game: Commando. They're substantially better than this game and more playable even. But hey! At least it's slightly better tank game than Norman in Action 52 (Genesis). That's kind of something, i guess. :)