Radical Rex (Genesis) - Part 1

Valir is released in Mobile Legends. As a man with truest Pyro's soul, i immediately buy the flamecaster sod. Though, i still can't fully get the hang of playing as him. Thus i celebrate this moment with game where you can play as fire-breathing animal. No, not a dragon. It's  Beam Software's Radical Rex (1994). 

That's Radical Rex himself on left dancing cheerfully while the Rex on right is his girlfriend, who's also dancing albeit with different move. You know, those who wear bowtie on their head and wear lipstick are definitely female. You may know that in 90's there's trend of platformer games with animal mascot who has attitude and Radical Rex is presumably one of them. It's because of Sega and Sonic The Hedgehog, you see. There's 2 players option that allow 2 player play the game one at time (turn). Strangely, the 2nd player is The Radical Rex but with pink palette like his girlfriend. Definitely not her, i assure you. As he doesn't wear either bowtie or lipstick. 

Here's the backstory: a magic prehistoric rat out of thin air then hypnotizing the Dinos by using childish oration and/or magic demonstration. Rex isn't affected with that because he's king (as proved with his name) or he simply sleep all along. Anyway, he embark into adventure to stop the rat. Dinosaurs mustn't commanded by a mammal. That's prehistoric reptile pride.

First thing i do is burn an harmless dragonfly assuming he's under that rat hypnotism or just because i can. He's not regular Rex because of his capability to blow fire jet and ride skateboard. Yes, that's skateboard right there and he can ride it skillfully...

 

...or he can just walk and jump because i accidentally bail the skateboard. If he's on skateboard he can travel that half-loop with ease. But fortunately there's springy palm plant that can boost his jump to progress farther. So far the control is generic: direction pad to move and 'C' button to jump.

 

Here's my first real enemy, a sabretooth that can emit a short-range roar. Here's the standard procedure to dispatch enemy: firebreath (by pressing 'B' button) him until he's charred where his color become more reddish and he's stunned like in this screenshot...

... then i can kick (by pressing 'A' button) him that he becomes nothing but dusts. I'll bet the sabretooth is my natural enemy because he's mammal.

 

Passing crumbling platform (that's staple in every platformer game), i meet an unlit torchlight that act as  checkpoint. The way to activate it: by firebreath, of course.

 

Then i meet the Triceratops from prologue. He doesn't hesitate to kill so he deserve death penalty. You may notice that my fire is bigger & longer. That's because i have increased my firepower by picking fire power-up that fill firepower bar (on top-right HUD). Increasing it will not only increase firebreath's range but also its power that i  can stunburn enemy with less 'B' button press. You can also see another power-up that looks like triangle pointing left. It fills roar bar (which is below firepower bar) that will decrease everytime i unleash almighty roar befit the king of Dinosaurs. The roar is fullscreen attack that can be activated by holding up + 'A' button. You can hold it for long time, provided you have collected enough roar power-up. As for the eggs, let's consider it collectible item for now.

 

I found another skateboard. Radical Rex doesn't deserve to be called Radical, if he can't do sick spinning trick like this. I suspect skateboarding section roles as speedy section in Sonic The Hedgehog. Unlike Sonic, Rex can goes "Splat!" when he bump into a wall. But it doesn't damage his health at all. Just for cartoonish feature.

 

Collecting enough eggs will make a big egg appear near exit and then you can proceed to bonus stage. By "enough" i mean aplenty.

 

The bonus stage is collecting eggs again, of course! If you have phobia to egg (especially Dinosaur's), this game's really not for you. As for the bonus stage: collecting all of the eggs will grant you extra continue. Rex can't blow firejet. Pressing any action button will make him put his two arms in front of him that will either push green block along the way or snatch the egg in slightly distance. The other Rex are surely lethal to touch. You can either kill them with pushed block or avoid them.    

 

There's intermission: Rex is picked up by this Archaeopteryx then drop him into that gap. Rex is safe from the fall but suffer pernicious headache even though he land with his butt/tail first.   

 

At each of level start, Rex's bars return to starter so power-up hoarding isn't rewarding on next stage. Thus he has to rigorously burn this frog's feet to burn him which is tiresome.     

 

There's fireball power-up that let me emit fireball that travel across the screen instead of limited-range firebreath. With fireball you can burn and kill enemies from distance, ignoring the "kick" button. But the power-up will be vanish if Rex get hit once. Also fireball shooting needs high accuracy from you unlike firebreath. As demonstrated here, where torch lighting become serious accuracy test.

 

The burnt enemy can be used as temporary platform to reach secret place. The secret place contain eggs and invincibility power-up. Unfortunately, the invincibility duration is really brief.

 

In this stage, there vine swinging sections. The swinging mechanic is quite vine, although  i can't overswing myself to reach that top platform. That last part is absurd assessment, by the way.

 

There's also a pick-up that summons this Pterodactyl to grab me and take me to next safe platform. He's the kind flying creature. We have same color skin, you see.   

 

Dragonflies are decoration creature that can be burned for solely your entertainment. On the other hand, this hornet is really irritating git that keen on sting my head then immediately fly to safety. The easiest way to deal with it: use the roar. But if you can manage to burn it alive, you feel very satisfy. I guarantee. 

 

Finishing the stage, Rex goes on skateboarding until he got swallowed by this giant dinosaur. Makes you wish you grow-up immediately into proper T-Rex and eat this bastard, huh?

So, the next stage takes place in the dino's digestive system. Moving between intestine chambers via colon, isn't gross or anything like that [Mid-level Sarcasm]. The floor is bouncy thus you can use it as spring to reach that fire power-up. It requires rigorous jump-button press, though.

 

Beside lethal gastric juice and these (perhaps) misplaced thorn/teeth/spike, this stage is full of bubbles (that either serves as platform or multiplying enemies) and what appears to be tadpole. Despite the hazards, Radical Rex keeps smile idiotically optimistically. What an attitude.

 

Next stage takes place in barren desert full of bones. It could be a place where Dinosaurs era is over. But Rex isn't alone. Some of the bones are alive and harmful. So the rat is adept at necromancy, huh? This stage introduce you to unkillable enemy like this spin-walking bones though you can jump over it with relative ease.   

In this stage there's another helpful dino. This green guy moves the platform where Rex is standing for free. It's because Rex is the president of wide-smiling dino club where he's in. I mean look at them. They smiling really wide like someone got expensive gift but refuse to open his mouth because he has severe dental problem.

 

In this level, there's highwind that hinders Rex's progress to exit. Actually annoy is perhaps more suitable. It can make Rex miss the platform to ground level. Fortunately there's no falling damage, but you have to wait for him being dizzy for quite moment.

 

Or Rex can fall to secret place that's patrolled by the flying sod. He drops the annoying method of picking Rex then dropping him to high elevation from that cutscene, to more direct harmful approach of rock dropping on his head. The bastard.

 

What's the equivalent of tumbleweed but with full of bones? Tumblebone? Okay. Let's call that thing tumblebone. Firing at it only knockback it. So you have to destroy it with the roar. But be careful! It will spray bones when it get destroyed.   

 

Next stage, Rex got kissed from fish that he didn't recognize. His girlfriend must be jealous when she see him like this. Actually this sudden CPR procedure, is either decrease or increase Rex's air bar depends on fish's starting condition. If it's bloated, it will blows him with air. If it's deflated, it will sucks air out of him. You may know that Rex need to keep his air reservation while swimming otherwise he's dead. 

 

There's bubble pick-up that fill your air bar, like the one near that hydra. It can kill you if you get tangled on its tentacle. Actually there's many insta-kill hazards before this such as: lava pools, gastric juices, sharp plates, squashing organ, and spikes. But you can evade them quite easily thanks to Rex's jump that 's high enough and his ability to control himself while in mid-air. There's also opportunity that he can get Ninja Gaiden'd but his firebreath can cover enough range even though his firepower is at lowest level. So the game's difficulty nicely fit into challenging level instead of frustrating.

 

After through walking, bit skateboarding, and another swimming, i encounter the magic rat himself. Thus begin the first boss fight. It goes quite simple, he shoots lightning, i avoid it then i whittle his health by burning his waist in a brief moment after he finish his attack otherwise he's invulnerable to my attack. If your fire is not big enough (which is very unfortunate), your fire can only reach him if you jump through that short springy mushroom. Otherwise you can just jump and blow firebreath like what i do here. His attack pattern: single lightning shoot, 3-way lightning shoot, 3 succession lightning shoot,... 

 

...or shoot lightning vertically then they fall in random pattern. In my opinion this is his hardest attack to avoid. Maybe if you position Rex below him, he can dodge them . But i'm not sure myself. You can empty whole of the roar bar to deplete his health bar by ± 50%. It's pretty grueling battle but eventually Rex wins.

His glory cut pretty short as the rat revives and Rexanne (his girlfriend) got kidnapped. So the (very common in videogames) "damsel in distress" trigger is on, huh? I don't think she looks troubled.

 

See! She looks as idiot optimist as Rex. Maybe she really believes that Rex can save him in future. But what perils that Rex must through to save his ladylove? Will the rat has better trick on their next faithful battle? Find out in next part that approximately comes out next week!