Hagane (SNES)

Everyone likes ninja in video game. Also everyone likes robot in video game. If someone combine that formula into video game that starring robot ninja. That will be killer, right? CA production make that happen in their game: Hagane (1994).

Hagane is Japanese for 'steel'. The background is certainly metallic and cool. But that title's color is kind of baffling. I mean do you usually see brown-like-soil color steel? Exactly! Here's an extra language lesson: Indonesian for 'steel' is baja.

 

There's bit of exposition of what happens in the game before the title. A huge white beam destroys an area. Catastrophe happens!

See! That kind of damage that you often see if huge disaster strikes.

 

The disaster turns on the robot ninja. Inside of him, these two pistons with the shape of old Japanese statue begin to pump. Thus the ninja robot becomes fully functioning.

I have played for 2 levels and i feel the control isn't good, bad even. Especially the weapon cycle buttons: X and select. That's barely intuitive! Thus i remap the buttons: weapon select become Y and X; attack becomes B; jump becomes A; Bomb becomes select. That's much better!

1st stage: Path to Disaster

It's time for real action! What's more appropriate genre for ninja videogame than platformer in 90's? Our robot ninja here can swipes his sword really fast and covers quite distance. The enemy: this mystic-orb-shooting monk, riflemen, running and jumping footman, falcons, and axe-throwing kabuki artist.

 

Of course , sword isn't the only weapon i have. There's this grappling hook that have more range than sword but slow. There's also kunai and grenade. Both of them are in limited number unlike sword or grappling hook. Fortunately, enemies drop kunai/grenade ammo often upon their doom like this. While health-up and screen-clearing bomb are at quite rare occasion and 1up is the rarest. Always save the grenade for sub-bosses or bosses! Trust me!

 

The ninja robot can walk while slashing. Truly perfect killing machine! In this stage, you will meet this flying ship thrice. It drops troops that more like power-up  dispenser than lethal threat. In this case, the enemy drops screen-clearing bomb. Soldier_specialcompleted-assistedkill01.wav

After the 3rd encounter with flying ship, i drop to sewer level, where slimes and monsters reside. Apparently, this future doesn't have good underground sanitary management.

The robo ninja have ability to jump between walls. Like the blue bomber but with somersault thus have greater range and style. To do air somersault, you have to hold jump button after you jump but you can't do it while in dropping section of your jump. It's useful to travel horizontally in mid-air as the default jump is really lacking in horizontal distance.  

 

At the end of sewer, there's this sub-boss. This chubby monster jumps around and occasionally extends his claw. I dispatch him with proper ninja style: slash him in the back until he dies.  

 

Later on, i meet monster from Tremor or whatever this giant worm is supposed to be. As many platformer, there's pick-up that add my live or known as 1up like here. It's helpful especially because you only got 3 hit before perish, no continue, and no password. This is the game with "finish in one sitting or don't bother" principle. Luckily, you will get free health refill everytime you finish a level.

 

You won't be surprised that the game consist platforming section, in fact the game has more platforming section than fighting action by quite big margin especially later on. As i told you before that, the robot ninja's jump has awful horizontal distance making the platforming fairly tedious. You probably know that grappling hook that can be utilize for platforming. Yes, it is. You can throw grappling hook upward than you can cling to ceiling and climb along it. But in this section, there's that 2 broken pillar that will hamper your ceiling climbing. So you have to rely on this slow moving platforms. By the way, you can't swing around using grappling hook. Lame!      

Here i demonstrate how to use grappling hook to take shortcut on platforming. With this way not only feels like cool ninja but also preserve the time. Did i mention that this game is timed? Because that's the case.

 

Next level is auto-scrolling. The robo ninja always run but can't use other weapon while maintain the stiff jump. Not only you have to deal with large gap but also this sudden gap that caused by explosion. So you must master the jump button double-tapping at this point.

1st Boss: Musha-Mukuro

 

You got to admit that these 2 giant undead samurai are awesome bosses or at least appropriate with this bleak setting. They will either punch you or spew firebreath at you. Sadly, you don't have to fight these two giants. What you need to do: kill the floating monk there. He can do magic to defend himself but he's too slow compare to my hopping and slashing ninja here. Next stage!

2nd stage: Fortress of Doom

 

The level starts with faithful meeting with bloke on that giant stone. He comes to my plane...

...then he summons this flying 3-headed demon. It has certain weakness to lobbed grenades. Next!   

 

Oh, darn! This is no Fortress of Doom. This is the staple industry stage on every platformer! Jet flame, boiling liquid pit, conveyor belt, you name it. The health pickup has icon of red flame. While the blue ones like here will increase your health and your maximum health by 1. Neat!  

Then there's this apparatus that can harm and block you. So you have get pass them in perfect timing. Also they're indestructible. I don't whether just me or it's really in the game, i feel that you can't normally cling to ceiling (by holding jump and up button) if you haven't equipped the grappling hook yet or maybe not. I'm not sure.

At the end of conveyor belt where the blocking apparatuses come most frequently, a series of banish-when-perched-for-split-second platform lies on top of hot liquid pit. Truly devious plan by the developer the enemies. Even though the hot liquid doesn't insta-kill you.

In next level, there's this machinery act sub boss. The cannons in corners will shoot bouncing orb while spiked platform move around the core. The core can only be harmed while it's opened. My advice: chuck grenade on the core! Many of them! Don't hesitate.     

 

Here's another heinous platforming section. This rotary rod just like the one beneath me, will drag me down if i get on top it so i need to jump constantly. While that bulged cylinder over there move left or right and harmful to touch. The game likes to knock you down in platforming sections so you waste the timer. -_-#

2nd Boss: En-Mikoshi

 

The bloke who i assume to be the manager of this factory, possesed this machinery and try to kill me. It's hard to describe this machine looks i give the developer credit for boss design creativity. To defeat it: you have to wait for its lower part to separate like this, in which an orb will float and shoot laser on both direction. Either slash the orb or throw grenade at it. Next stage!

3rd stage: Violated Heaven

 

How can you violate heaven? Oh wait! I think heaven here means sky. The level takes place in air fortress. I reckon, you can violate sky by constantly launching missile and shooting  turrets like this.

 

I jump inside the fortress and more enemies here, obviously. This bald bloke attack me by throwing spiked iron ball with chain of him. Also there's deadly laser lamps on ceiling. They know how to treat me nicely. [Medium Sarcasm]   

 

There's also mini flying fortress that you can step on it and it can't do nothing as its cannons can only be shot at low angle. In fact you meet this kind of enemy in earlier level notably in the 1st auto-scrolling where you have to jump on it to pass large gap.

In some level, you will get rewarded if you search every crook and nook of the level. Here's the example. Also this is the effect of my screen-clearing bomb. Forgive me if the sight is unpleasant to you!

 

If you think perchable flying mini fortress enemy is silly, this sub-boss is also silly. The part where i stand is cannon that only can shoot left direction. Okay, the left cannon can shoot me but i can avoid its shoot with ease. To defeat this sub-boss, slash the blue bit in each side until destroyed.  

Next level is auto-scrolling/rotating level. But i'm on big hoverboard instead of running. Plus i can use all of my weapon. Scout_cheers04.wav    

Apparently, that sub-boss is core of the flying fortress that i was in. With its demise, the  flying fortress become falling fortress. *Ba Dumm Tssssh*

 

I thought, i'm the only one with this cool hoverboard. Seems not. I feel less special =c

3rd Boss: Jasei-Jyu

A lady on top of an eagle transform into this flying horse. I slash him a lot in the face then he grows tail like that. I do the same thing again then he dies. He can either spews fire spirit that you can slash out or waggling swinging his tail.

4th Stage: Cry of The Spirits

The level starts with dark gloomy forest that can be setting for Ghosts'n Goblins. There's new enemies like ninja that hides beneath the ground and then jump very high and throw shuriken in multi-direction or ninja that summon spirit/ghost to attack you. But let's talk about somersault, for now. Doing somersault in backward direction only good for evasion. While forward somersault can be chained to extra moves. There's 3 phase on forward somersault: 1st) the early somersault where the robot ninja isn't blinking; 2nd) farther somersault where he's blinking in blue color; 3rd) even farther somersault where he's blinking in yellow color. After 3rd phase, it's back to 1st phase again and so on. You can then press either attack button or jump button while in these phases. Pressing attack button or jump button in 1st phase results in quick thrust followed by back somersault or cool jumping kick like in right screenshot, respectively. Pressing attack button or jump button in 2nd phase results in Guile-esque kick or higher ones, respectively. Pressing attack button or jump button in 3rd phase results in ground thrust that summon dragonic explosion like in left screenshot or upward kick, respectively. They're all cool.

 

The bloke that i met in early of 2nd stage, is back. Let's call him the warrior. Now, he fights me directly. He can charge horizontally, slash his sword in close range, or shooting medium-range energy slash like this. Here i dive kick (which is the opposite version of aforementioned upward kick) him but miss. At least i dodge his attack and he's within my slashing range. To execute dive kick, hold/press down and press jump button. Useful for bouncing on enemy's head which remind me of a platform game where i can do the same thing but as human samurai/ninja. Hey! This game has similarity with Ganryuki, indeed. Grappling hook, sword slash, lobbing explosive, and sliding kick. I forgot to tell you that robot ninja here can do that by holding down button and press jump while on ground. Ooops! By the way, the warrior will flee once he get damaged pretty bad meaning i will meet him again in future.

 

Next level takes place in cave where the sub-boss is this giant snake. He will show either his tail or his head. Beside biting, he harms you with falling debris or stalagmite array by smacking his tail into cave's interior. He's unique and such but i feel that this sub-boss is less interesting than the warrior. Because he's supposed to be my rival and such.

 

I thought we're going to have natural setting in this stage but apparently i'm wrong. Beyond the spooky forest and rather-dull cavern, is another enemy's headquarter. Then i ride on a cart where it ends on lava pit. Not cool!

 

This obstacle/trap definitely looks unnatural and painful. Imagine that big bulged spike shreds your crotch. Uggh!

4th Boss: Jyuso-Dama

 

An old man possess this round thing then it start to fight me. I think i start to get the pattern of the bosses, they're just ordinary human that command supernatural being or bizarre machine. As for this boss, you can only harm him when its rim detract to shoot in multiple direction. I find the safe way to damage it by throwing grappling hook upward while you're exactly under it.

But it's not over yet. It will throw its rims that you have to destroy. After that it will teleport to random spot then crush me from above and repeat the procedure. It reminds me of the final battle between me and Deadeye Joe several weeks ago.   

But wait! There's more. The round thing reveal a demonic face now and it spit blue fireball that leaves trail of tall blue flame to the left and right. Jump and either slash or throw kunai at its hideous face. That's the trick.

5th Stage: Into the Darkness

 

After a section where i have to fight enemies that i have fought before, this demonic tank appears. It shoots laser from its front and plasma sparkle to visible target mark.  When it get severe damage, the warrior give it final blow. You're impatient chap, aren't you?

This time, he takes more damage to defeat, have ability to block projectiles, and he can do diagonal charge. Should he takes another severe beating from you, his hair tassel is destroyed thus his hair draw out and his cloth is shredded. That's fanservice for you, ladies! Whether he's dead or not, i can't tell. He's down but not exploding that's for sure.      

Next level has....oh, god! I really hate maze level in 2d platform game, especially with timer. Thankfully, the solution is easy: always go to top door/teleport. By the way, you can throw grappling hook passing this obstacle and harm that monk. To be fair, he can shoot homing orb that also ignoring obstacle. But deadly ninja trick wins the game.

 

Passing a sub-boss who's floating demon with very spacious body and fairly susceptible to grenade throwing and a level where i'm chased by spike floor from bottom, i reach this level where i can perch on this fire-breathing face ornament.

Oh, goddammit! Turns out this level makes me race with spikes, again! But this time from left to right which requires more accurate platforming skill. My main problem is: how loose/imprecise to execute the aerial somersault. Holding jump button too early, i somersault too low. Holding jump button too late (after the highest height of my jump), i don't somersault at all. It's annoying especially when that fire-breathing git who acts  really smug, seeing me fail to reach him. Did i mention that when you die you start from the start of the level, because that's what happen here. No mid-level checkpoint whatsoever. At least, there's (quite hardly to reach) 1up pickup at the early section of the "racing course".

5th Boss: Shura-Oh

 

The head honcho of the evil organization posses the War God Shura himself, or is it? He can punch on both sides if you're beside him. Or he will conjure this magic orbs if you stand on his saucer. This is the easiest attack to avoid, you only need to jump out his saucer once he start incantating that magic. Don't be fooled by this giant divine figure, though!

 

See that bot's head inside red circle that i draw? That's the weak point. That God is just hologram. The real enemy is that saucer and that tiny thing. After 2 or 3 hologram's attack. The flying saucer moves rapidly left and right then small bits comes out for splits second in 3 possible spot on it: on left-bottom like in screenshot; on right-bottom; or on top-center. Grappling hook can reaches these 3 spots with ease. Later on, the hologram can summons lightning and flame array which is harder to avoid than the magic orbs. So you have to bait that attack by immediately jump on the saucer then jump out to avoid it. This is the closest to puzzle boss in this game.

6th Boss: Amano-Ikazuchi

 

Wait, What? Another boss fight after the other? Oh, well! You have to race with that hideous-looking rocket, navigating through series of platform, and climbable beam. While also deal fire-breathing lion-head statues that are more than happy to harm and knock you down. Your target are those heads on the rocket that can shoot orbs from their mouth.

But, wait! There's more faces on most top part of the rocket. These ones shoot more orbs than the one on lower part. My advice will be: 1) Use grenades 2) Treat the platforms as "stepping stone" for you aerial somersault, most of the time. You will catch the rocket faster and easier this way than climb the platform one by one. By the way this is not the first time i destroy alien thing on launched rocket. I have done one before here.

 

With the rocket defeated, enemy's castle is engulfed with huge white explosion.

 

The robot ninja teleport to safety. But then, he ceases to function and slowly turn to stone. Should use Duracell battery, huh? At least with Armageddon/evil power gone, nature start to grow. That's the end...before going to second loop that is.  

CA production's Hagane (1994) is another ninja-action platformer. Is this the must play one? I can't tell for sure. The action part of gameplay is gorgeous but the platforming part is not good and tedious. If the jumping mechanic is fixed a bit, the game's platforming will be much better. The variety of weapon is good and you need skill to cycle the weapons. The order will be: sword - shuriken - grenade - grappling hook. The enemies have good design in term of technic and graphic, especially the semi-bosses and bosses. . The musics are bit rough but nice. The graphic is fairly gritty but distinctive. The difficulty kind of harsh moreover with 3-hit points system, no mid checkpoint and no continue/saving/password. Even though that's for the sake of padding 5 stages  of this game, which is not so long for SNES game.

I summarize that Hagane (1994) is wonderful ninja-action platformer that's bad at platforming and harsh playability even though has great setting. Like it's ninja robot, come on! But, i prefer Ganryuki as it doesn't have tedious platforming section. Not many just few cases. Perhaps i will give Hagane like B- recommendation. I'm late to publish article again, am i not? So here's stat review as consolation prize:

 

Our robot ninja here made of steel (it's clued by game's title, you see), so his strength supposed to be great. But there's no evidence inside the gameplay that his strength stands out also he's originally fairly fragile (3-hit to kill, remember?). So i assume his strength is 3/5. He's without emotion (obviously) and he thinks straightforward or full of calculation like other stiff heartless robot. He has wide range of weapons and techniques/moves. Thus his main stats: Strength and Intelligence (at 4/5) . His moves is quite slow or leaden si his agility is 2.5/5. At least he's another sample of character that has 2 main stats instead of primary and secondary stats. That's quite something, right?