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.
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