Riot (Arcade)

I said in Thunder Dragon 2 article that i won't play another NMK's game. But here i am playing Riot (1992).

I have to make this introduction screen animated because how stupidly awesome it is . A chopper tries to shoot a lone soldier but to no avail. He retaliates only with his machine gun and the helicopter explodes into title screen and for some reason the hero lost his shirt. 2 points that i want to analyze on those machine gun: 1) The hero seems has very powerful machine gun to destroy the helicopter. It has the strength of Anti-air machine gun that's not meant to be carried by personal or rather should be mounted to some platform. 2) By the configuration of the gunshot, the chopper has double machine gun with noticeable gap and they're most likely installed on the front. That's unusual. I believe nowadays combat choppers have only single machine gun on front. Presumably for accuracy as hinted by that scene where if using double machine gun, target can slip between the gap and also they cost double ammo in rather inefficient way.     

 

There's a bit of backstory before we get into the gun action. There's secret organization named "The Magic Tiger" that employ special weapon and sorcery. If they're just secret warriors, they don't possess serious threat to the world. Maybe i can assume that they're terrorist who's bend to take over the world. But these terrorist has access to magic! If Hans Gruber and Co had magic at their disposal, John McClane wouldn't win against them in Die Hard (1988). Think about it!   

 

After some puff of a cigarette, our hero is ready for action against "The Magic Tiger". Oh look, helicopters! There i shoot them for good. As you can expect from gallery shooter game like this, the control is: joystick to move the hero and also his crosshair. First button to roll sideway and second button to shoot at the crosshair. You can moving the crosshair alone while the hero stand still firing by pressing the shoot button repeatedly. But the thing is the roll seems not make the hero invulnerable from enemy's attack. It mostly to make hero moves faster, out of the harm. Scout_jeers06.wav

 

It's all pretty generic gallery shooter until there's enemy on foreground! There's 3rd button to shoot at the foreground so use it. If you look closely behind me, there's Robocop impaled to show how fearsome "The Magic Tiger" is that the heroic cyborg cop doesn't stand a chance. Poor Alex Murphy. I will avenge you. To the less interesting object is that clinic with sign "Killer" because the building is full of soldier that meant to kill you and not building to treat you to healthy like normal infirmary.

 

Then our hero tumbling down along the slope and end up falling 10 meters to ankle-depth river. But he survives that. Thank the game that there's no falling damage here.

 

I have killed a dozen of man with rifle so these tribal men with blowpipe don't stand a chance against me especially when i got this laser gun. It's quite distasteful of NMK to give them hay pants. Give them military trouser, NMK! No need for overly primitive image like that. Because there's enemies on background and foreground, you feel naturally surrounded. But thankfully, there's some covers that you can use but they only protect you from one side only. And because our hero here always crouching while shooting, he can shoot at enemies safely when he's behind cover. The right cover, obviously.

 

When suddenly there's Hovercraft or -i don't know- magic fan blows the hero out of the waterfall into some kind of temple safely because -you know- no falling damage. Whatever that thing is, i want it to cool myself in this badly ventilated room.    

 

After that some leftover part of Temple of Doom filled with spike wall and Scimitar swordsman, i reach into the first boss. It's that horned Yoda that wrap us all to this pocket dimension with dark clouds and flying castle. This is clearly the magic that the game promised to us. Also, The evil Yoda rise some zombies to attack me. That's clearly necromancy plus he's flying that means "levitation" magic. But he should know about "Bringing zombie to firefight". It will never work well as i got this flamethrower. The boss sometime flies on foreground or background while occasionally conjure blue fireball falls at me. He's not tough to beat.

 

Gonna strange magic! ♪

I'm sorry. I digressed for a while there. I can associate that keywords to one of hits by Electric Light Orchestra. Thanks Jeff Lynne and Co!   

 

Of course, i'm in railway now. Dr. Jones also ends up in railway. It's within a mine but my point stands still. Speaking of mine, there's mine cart that cover me from enemy's attack on foreground. That means i can abandon threat from foreground for a while and focus more on those grunts with scimitar that keen on slashing my backside. Easier said than done. I always let my frenzy get the best of me and shoot random enemies without good plan most of the time.

 

Look, there's some hover bikes on background. That must be the special weapon that the game talked about. But i have destroyed helicopters. So those -so called- special weapons are nothing to me. Speaking of special weapon, i happen to get my hand on shotgun that shoot spread bullets that has bigger hit spot than the standard machine gun. Heavy_specialweapon05.wav

 

Those feeble looking stone bridge naturally crumbles when i set my foot on it for a few step. Now i end up on top of train with more of those scimitar grunts and street punks that throw hand grenade at me from the foreground. And yeah, helicopters also there to kill me. But i can easily dodge their rocket with the nigh-useless dodge. I have to say that Magic Tiger's helicopter division really suck at doing their job to kill me so far.    

 

One of the train car has canvas roof that immediately torn when i step on it and i end up in a cage with giant gorilla! Then we fight. It goes like Punch-Out but with me having gun and combat jeep occasionally shoot rocket at me. I roll out of the gorilla's reach. He hop to close distance to me and i shoot him while doing so. Rinse and repeat.

 

Enemies don't immediately shoot, they cock their gun first before actually shooting at me. But these bald schmuck have 1 more preparation step which is very rude one: they flip the bird before pumping their gun. Scout_misc09.wav

 

Previous boss is evil Yoda. Now get ready for evil Thor and his magic man-bird henchmen. There's Thor the lazy git, being comfortable on his protective bubble. He will occasionally shoot magic ring at me while he opens his magic bubble and that's the only chance that i can hurt him. While i wait for him to lower his guard, the henchmen shoot magic projectile at me from background or foreground. This Thor must be smug about it because he know what to do with minimal effort. Lazy bastard!     

 

With evil Thor defeated, the enemies are retreating. Damn, right! Because i kill the very son of Odin, they should be running while wetting their trouser by now.

 

This wrecking ball crane is just demolishing machine and not special weapon. But it works better than that crane in P.O.W. because 1) it works more aggressively and unmanned 2) There's soldiers that back it up. When the wrecking ball is swung sideway across the screen, you can dodge it by rolling. For once in a while the rolling move gets the job done.

 

Oh, look. The baldy bastards return and this time they're more rude because they jump on bar table. Didn't your mother not teach you about table manner, huh?

 

I swear to God that the boss was normal looking military high officer but soon he flies, changing the environment into these windy field, and he turns into that pale panther accompanied by wolves. The strangeness doesn't stop there, he attacks me by stretching his neck and take a bite at me! I know pouncing his way to me is trivial so he does the more magical method. You can shoot his wolf's minions by shooting to the background even though they will strike at you from the same plane as you. The boss himself doesn't have invincibility state unlike the evil Thor. So there's that.

 

See? The general, colonel or whatever his rank is, looks ordinary with red blood and such. These Draenei druids aren't here before, the boss was just alone when i met him. When? How? Where do they come from? The only answer is simple: "Magic". Nice painting of Death there, by the way.

 

I smoked them out of their hideout and now they escaping by helicopters. We already know how well the hero when dealing with helicopters. This should be easy task for him.

 

So the shootguy take a ride on another helicopter to pursue them. I like to see him use personal hang glider to do that instead. Just saying. As you can see our helicopter is in 90^o position as evidenced by top down view there. It may bores you but the reason for this physical anomaly is obvious: magic! Anyway, The Magic Tiger obviously don't like the idea of me chasing them. So they send paratroopers from background or foreground. Also Scimitar men. God. I hate them without any passion. On the other hand that propeller thing on the right is the item container. It looks cute. Too bad i have to destroy it otherwise i can't pick its content.

 

Then A-10 Thunderbolt plane drop a diver with matador-style wingsuit that able to replicate himself and send all of us to another planetary pocket dimension. This boss is step down in weirdness from the panther general because he's more sensible looking. His attack also sensible: he throws hand grenade. How trivial! I don't mean that as complaint, mind you. If this boss turns into the infamous Sinistar, i'll be faltered and the boss fight will be much harder. Should use more imagination there, buddy!

 

See? The fight is over already. Everyone look at me in slack-jawed shock. They know what i have been through. I like that group on top center. They look like practicing chorus of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. 

 

So the enemies land on department store. Our hero seems questioning their attack plan. I can understand his confusion there. It's too far from attacking president's house or occupying power plant or whatever vital objective from terrorism.

 

The department store's rooftop is filled with lots of children's mural. Oh good. There's another batch of turban-wearing bastards. I almost forget to capture picture of mortar-operating bikers that wear vest with pentagram symbol on its back. They can use it to temporarily summon devil if the time has come.

 

Ignore this elevator that's below safety standard. I want you to look at that book advertisement. "By reading book often you will look fancy although sometime you forget to wear trouser everyday" :P   

 

What department store that display statue of topless woman in public space? Is this why "The Magic Tiger" attacks this place? Given that there's no female cast on "The Magic Tiger" organization, they are desperate to see woman's breast. They should give up being terrorist and settle down instead. Thus the world will be better place to live.

 

There's trapdoor on rooftop that makes me stumble along escalator railing while crashing glass tubes which makes me remember Jackie Chan's stunt in Police Story. The same thing happens again when i reach the end of floor with the topless statue. Why there's trapdoor in Department Store? I should talk to the manager once i'm done with "The Magic Tiger" business.

 

And i end up fighting another giant gorilla again. After defeating him, hovercraft (you can see clearly its body there) blows me up again to great fall. Why hovercraft can get inside of department store? No. I refuse if the answer is "Magic" this time. It bores me.

 

Stage 5 boss is...okay, i get it. High rank of "The Magic Tiger" is filled with magic weirdos who can warp into strange pocket dimension. If you happen don't have any weird magic capability at all, you're stuck being low rank soldier with gun/blowpipe/hand grenade/mortar/scimitar. So, this boss is no different than other boss that have ability to warp everyone into another planetary pocket dimension. To be more precise, the boss is 2 lazy sorcerer that have ability to copy themselves and stand still in fetal position for very long time. Unlike the wingsuit diver, you can't shoot anyone to damage the bosses. You have to shoot the real one which are the one who casting the magic projectile. Wait for them to attack, then you can start blasting them.     

 

One of the magic bastard is alive but later assassinated by hidden sniper. There's so much what our hero can do. Unless the assassination is carried by helicopters, he can obliterate them easily as we all knew before.

 

But before killed, the sorcerer spilled the bean about "The Magic Tiger" leader whereabouts. "He's on mansion on the hill" said the sorcerer. From this view, it's clear that what he means is that Japanese castle. It's as flashy as The Money Bin in Duckburg. I'm questioning the sniper's performance because they kill the sorcerer after he leaks the vital information. They should assassinate the hero first, before euthanize their dying comrade. Just a thought. :p

 

After fighting same old enemies in Zen garden, this circle on the ground begins to descend as i step on it. Then there's this self-exploding ants because why not?

 

The elevator takes me to the door of The Magic Tiger's underground base, guarded with 2 gorillas and more soldier that ready to shoot my backside. Nice lava whirlpool there, by the way. 

 

Then there's forbidden section to all gallery shooter: platforming section. Some part of the platform rises and when you happen on it, it will take you to that spiked board there and instantly kill you. That makes sense. Those spikes will go through your brain directly unlike gunshot or explosion that can be absorbed with your super vest and jeans.

 

Eventually, you come across the evil wizard from the intro who's undoubtedly the leader of The Magic Tiger. There must be some kind of great magic that allow him to withstand this hot room with bad ventilation and lava pool. Or he put dozens of ice bags inside that robe. Whatever the case, let's rumble!

 

So you ride on dragon, huh? How nice. Although he's barely Eragon, the dragon is very lethal thanks to his laser beam come out of its eye. This dragon could be prestigious student in Mutant Academy runs by Professor X but no. He choose evil path and become pet of the evil wizard. His eye laser is nigh unavoidable thanks to my dodge roll that barely work. His weakness is his eyes. How irony. With enough leads to his eyes and spending (imaginary) quarters, the dragon is blinded and the evil wizard left unprotected. There's the cue to shoot the wizard directly! 

 

"Mr. generic protagonist. I don't feel so good."

Then he turns into dust blown by the wind and his massive robe also vanishes. What's left his magic amulet on his throne.

 

I give the evil wizard proper burial even though there's nothing left of him to be buried. But at least i hang his magic amulet on grave's head. I'm off to speak to that department store's manage about those dangerous trapdoor and maybe give him some warning shot. There's no credit roll after this. There's supposed to be thriller before top score sign but it keep being skipped perhaps due to emulation issue. To know what the thriller that i was talking about, you have to read review from another guy here. The review has better quality humor than mine, i think.  

 

NMK's Riot (1992) is unique gallery shooter with enemies surround you from background and foreground but it's pretty tedious game. The crosshair moves too slow for its own good. There's no autofire. No screen-cleaning bomb. Playing this game will make your hand tired pretty fast. It's better if you play this game in 2 players mode so one can focus on background and the other focus on foreground. That way, your hand 's fatigue will be decreased by roughly 50% . One more problem although it's maybe just for me, it's hard to keep track where i am aiming. The crosshair is change slightly whether i aim at foreground or background, sure. However, i have to see the hero for more certain way. That means i can't focus much to enemies and their attack thus dodging become more difficult. But there's some good feature. Special weapon spawn fairly often although your standard machine gun is enough to kill any human goon in one shot. There's no limited ammo for special weapons. They will expires once you die only. There's pills that can refill your health. Hey! If Max Payne can heals himself with painkiller pills, why Riot's protagonist are not allowed to heal with random pill (that may or may not come from Dr. Mario's medic bag), huh? I think the process getting the items is too tedious. First you have to shoot the cute container then you have to walk or roll toward the item to pick it up. Put some cut on bureaucracy. Shoot the item to pick it up like Dead Angle. Simple! The game is pretty generous with health system but it will be drained very fast if you're careless. There's the rolling maneuver, sure. But as i've said before. There's barely invincibility frame while doing the roll. Explosion, magic projectile, or rocket are no problem to dodge. But the generic gunshot is hard to dodge. Also that scimitar. I really hate those Temple of Doom's goons cast off. The cover system is solid but it will be nice if there's more of them. Including in boss fight, perhaps. I suppose i have to talk about the bosses. They're wildly designed. They like to send everyone into their favorite pocket dimension. Show off! They can do fine without doing so. But that will make the experience...less magical. Nevermind. I don't like the evil Thor who are invincible in some period of time but feel fairly eternal to me. The evil wizard with his mutant dragon is obviously huge problem with its eye laser that almost impossible to dodge safely. The music is kind of banal. I only like the one in first stage. The sound effect is quite top notch. The gunshot. The explosion. The magic effect. Golden! The graphic's quality probably to rough for arcade games in 1992. Although i have to give the art/game director for their imagination that define what magic is within The Magic Tiger's disposal.

 

Riot (1992) should be for Independence Day edition. But hey! How often you get to fight terrorist with leaders that capable of warping you into pocket dimension, eh? The game consists of 6 stages and can be finished within an hour. It's the game that will make you exhausted but the process can be fun and...magical! :P