Crossfire (Genesis)

Ok! I’m back. Today i review vertical shmup on Sega Genesis that's quite obscured. It's time for A.I.'s CrossFire (1991) to shine! 

The logo is legless eagle just like in Fighting Master albeit without lightning bolt. I think that's good sign because i love Fighting Master. Although much like Fighting Master, the game is pretty mediocre but with interesting feature. At least interesting to me.   

The option menu is pretty standard for Sega Genesis game. Good news for those who hate pressing shoot button everytime! There's rapid (auto fire) setting. You should turn that on. 

 

As i start new game, there's monitor call from my employer telling me they (US government, maybe) decide to deploy me back from suspension or hiatus. They want me to rescue some hostages. Isn't hostage rescue mission supposed to be task of special force and not super chopper and the pilot? Whatever. You're the boss

Then you get to choose the level. There's not much shoot em up games with stage select at the beginning. Thunder Force IV is one of them. So Crossfire is already stands out from most of its peers. Although there's not much selection from now. It's between stage A, B, or C. Besides the difficulty, the difference between stage is the money prize. Naturally, the harder the stage the bigger the money prize. But let's take the stage in chronological order to make thing easier for me to tell the tale.

 

After that i get to choose my weaponry but because i'm new in the game, i only have these default weapon. Quite obviously, i can buy more weapon later. Vulcan Valcan and machinegun are the usual gun with straight bullets.

 

Mission A takes place in Guatemala ehm i mean Guatemara. This screen loads pretty fast that i can't see what are the 5 icon beneath the stage's name. Turns out they're choppers that represents my current life reserves.

 

The control is pretty simple. D-Pad to move around and A button to shoot forward. From the beginning i feel envy toward enemy's chopper on the left which can move freely. As for mine, it can only face forward. At least i have more mobility than this cannon sentry that i'm about to destroy.      

There's F-117 Nighthawk flies above and drop 3 power up icons! But don't get too excited there. The power up system in this game is quite tedious because to power up your weapon by 1 level, you need to collect 3 of those icons. So it's not 1 icon collected will upgrade your weapon.     

 

Pressing B button will unleash your bomb. This Hurricane bomb will generate explosion on 4 main sides upon activation. On this screenshot, you can only see 2 of them that's because the explosions are flickering alternatively. You have to take my word for it.

 

As for C button. It's to activate turbo which makes your chopper moves faster and invincible. You can ram your enemies safely when Turbo is active. I have to give the developer some credit to utilize all of 3 buttons on Sega joystick pretty well.

 

The vertical shoot em up section is fairly short. After that, there's this section where the chopper flies low and you guide it to kill as many enemies as possible before it flies through the end of section. During this part, your chopper is invincible so don't worry about enemy's retaliation. I suggest you prioritize sentry turret over enemy soldier as you will see why.

 

Now begin the on-foot section. Without doubt it's top-down shooter but you can't face diagonal back and straight back. So make sure you kill everyone in front of you before moving forward unless you want some enemy plant bullets on your backside. The control is d-pad to move you around and a button to shoot your rifle. When you move backward, you face the opposite direction of your walk direction. For example: if you move diagonal back right, you will face diagonal forward left. This awkward strafing/side-stepping probably useful but you can't shoot enemies behind you. There's some item that you can find on breakable object such as that radio. As what it does, we will see later.

 

Pressing B button will make you jump high. I mean really high like 4 meters (13.1234 feet). But you become locked in one spot. The jump is useful to dodge enemy's bullet.   

 

The jump also useful to destroy those sentry turrets because they're perched on high ground. The turrets aim low so practically you're safe from its bullet while jumping. The process of eliminating turrets still tedious nonetheless. That's why you should prioritize them in close up chopper section.

 

In the end of this level, i have to fight this armored combat vehicle. I'm not sure what is it. A half truck, i guess? But the truck's roof fires bullets anywhere. The design is kind of childish. The most realistic way of attacking me should be firing gun through the window or simply run me over. Anyway, it absorbs lots of bullets before destroyed and you have to dodge its semi-determined bullet pattern. Pretty straightforward boss fight. As for my machine gun, it's weird. The bullets travel in sinusoidal motion. I mean i appreciate it because it allows me cover wider area than the realistic straight bullet move. But Rambo III can make more realistic bullet spray and it's made in 1989, 2 years ago.   

 

Next, we move on to enemy's base from entrance that's guarded by the strange half truck. Some of wall here can be destroyed or rather mandatory to destroy because it blocks your way from exit of this building.     

 

But before you go to exit, you have to rescue the aforementioned hostage. I assume the exit is not available unless you rescue the hostage first like in Rambo III.

 

Of course, getting to the exit is not the end of mission. You have to fly back to safety with the hostage. Thus, 2nd chopper section begins. I think i'm familiar with those planes thanks to my (late) father who like to collect aircraft models. They have delta wings. Perhaps they're F-16XL?

 

There's sub boss on the 2nd chopper section. Its design so iconic but i can't tell what's the name of the plane. Google searching with keyword "Plane with circle on top" give me result "Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye". My way of searching is dumb but you know what they said? If it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid.  

 

The E-2 Hawkeye plane is not difficult to defeat. In fact, i destroy it within seconds thanks to my powered up gun. So i can't tell you how it attacks. Upon destruction, several bank notes fly around! Grab them for bonus income! Soldier_mvm_collect_credits02.wav

 

The boss stage is this oversized plane. It looks too generic to me so i can't identify it. Sorry. Much like E-2 Hawkeye, this fight is quite easy. The boss shoot some orbs diagonally and. I don't remember this fight. Sorry. It's over quickly thanks to my even powered up gun. Soldier_cheers05.wav

 

As he promised, you will get the mission reward if you complete it. I don't think our employer is human. That's not how human move their mouth to speak. He might as well as cheap animatronics in human figure, that's made in China.

 

After selecting 2nd mission to run, we can get access to shop. Let's see what i can buy with $13,500.

 

Let me browse on Billy's equipment section. There's protect, gun and 1up. Protect costs $35,000! While 1up costs $50,000! So my $13,500 is not enough for those item, clearly. Let's see the gun section.

 

Spy_negativevocalization04.wav. My money still not enough to buy new gun. At least the prizes are more reasonable.

 

This is new guns for the chopper and they're still too expensive for my budget too. I'm getting pessimistic here.

 

Oh, ok. I can buy new bomb if i want to. But i reckon i should save money for new gun in future.

 

Mission B takes place in Cuba which is full of cargo ship and offline platform for some reason. I spot Turbo item pick up. But again, i get an extra turbo if i manage to collect 3 of those item instead of -you know- 3 extra turbo.

 

Heavy_jeers03.wav. I have to jump to shoot this cannon sentry even though it's located only in slightly elevated platform.

 

Then there’s enemy’s half truck which behave like enemy jeep in Rambo 3. The shooter lacks of intelligence to adjust his aim to really hit me. Meanwhile, I can shoot the half truck’s front with dozens bullet until it explodes. I barely feel the satisfaction of defeating this sub boss.

Do you still remember about the radio item? By pressing “C” button, I can summon my super helicopter to obliterate any enemy on screen with the cost of radio count as you can see in right bottom corner. It’s like the clearing section before the actual on-foot level begin but the helicopter can only move in the bottom of the current screen while the pilot, me lie on the ground to avoid attack from my own super helicopter. The summon naturally useful against armored vehicle. Mentioning super helicopter makes me thinking of Airwolf. Oh, duh! The Japanese version of this game is called “Super Airwolf”!  Although that pilot guy barely resembles Jan-Michael Vincent.

 

Then I destroyed parked Hind because I love destruction. This act reminds me the day I destroyed any aircraft on enemy airfield in Cabal.

 

Sometime enemy drop a coin upon dead. But it’s not ordinary coin. It’s the size of your torso. Think about it!  

 

Onto the second chopper section. Don’t mind about that oversized plane as the boss level. What catch my attention are those circle drone bots that the boss send at me. They do nothing more than ram at me where any conventional projectile can do the same thing but with less money to produce. But they can move more complex than just straight ahead so there’s that.

 

Ok, never mind. The boss plane also unique because it attacks me with very unconventional way. They detach its wings hopefully to catch me off guard. How it still able to fly smoothly without wing even for momentarily? Maybe that small tail wings do the hard work. Sounds impossible but if any of you are well versed in plane aerodynamic. Feel free to refute me.

 

Next stage takes place in Panama. I have bought new gun called “Disrupt”. It’s like my previous gun Vulcan but with less projectile on the array. Sounds like downgrade however the bullets will burst into fireball on 4 directions upon impact. I don’t think same target can be hit by the fireball so I assume the shrapnel only good to hit other target besides the one that get hit by the main bullets.

 

Some enemy aircraft drop this “?” icon when destroyed. I instinctively pick it up but I don’t see what it does. Maybe it makes cartoon question mark appear on my head because how mysterious is this power up item.

 

Apparently building in Panama has floor with checkboard pattern with color of sugar brown and wet grass. Anyway, I also bought shotgun and it’s the standard 3-way gun. Heavy_specialweapon09.wav 

 

I’m having trouble with this sub boss which is autonomous walking bullet sprayer. Sure, there’s big block for cover there but it’s too close to enemy that it’s hard for me to fire back at it due to its fast projectile speed and short pause between its attack. I could take hours to slowly and safely chip its strong armor or I can just call my automatic chopper. Definitely go for the latter option because I’m impatient.

 

It seems Panama is house of lava or blood ocean, by looking at that red water. Either way, it’s radical.

 

I know it’s another Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye. But this one throws the circle tops at me! Demoman_sf12_badmagic11.wav

 

Finishing A, B, and C stage allow me access to D and E stage which yield bigger money reward upon completion. I’m slightly disappointed that D and E stage is just Guatemala and Cuba respectively again. Should go for new place name, game.

 

I have bought new gun for my chopper. It’s called “laser” but it’s not solid straight laser beam like what you expected. It’s blue reverse triangle wave. But i can’t complaint about it because it’s stronger than the regular bullets. Actually it’s blue long projectile like in any shmup, if it's not powered up. My bad.

 

Oh, joy! The Lockheed F-117 plane drops 1up icons. But knowing the stupid mechanism of pick up icon where it only takes effect if 1 get 3 of the items. I'm slightly disappointed.

The enemy getting antsy that they use rocket hidden underwater and this satellite reject, I guess? The point is the enemy really desperate to get rid of me.

 

This time I bought new bomb called “Typhoon”. Upon activation, I summon a fast-moving fireball (on the right of my chopper) and move around me in counterclockwise direction. It covers roughly more area than the “hurricane” bomb although with less fireball. It’s fairly good upgrade, in my opinion.

 

The last gun in arsenal for personal carry is this one named hypergun which is grenade launcher. It goes without saying that it’s pretty stronger than the regular bullet but with the cost of limited range. As you can see in the screenshot, the range is roughly half of a screen and it feels not enough because every enemy’s projectile travel at full length of screen so I’m always outranged by every enemy. Demoman_jeers05.wav

The boss in this “E” level is this massive ship with 2 helipads on top center. It doesn’t fire any projectile. It only sends small yet fragile helicopter to me. It’s useless attempt but I appreciate the creativity.

 

Now is the time for final level. My employer wants me to defeat the drug lord himself. No more hostage rescue. Good, because the hostage rescue is getting boring. Because this is 90 era, war against narcotic is the trending setting among movie and video game.

The final level takes place in Colombia. I’m immediately welcomed by these spinning drones that looks belong to Xevious instead of shmup with more realistic setting such as this game.  

 

This is the last helicopter’s gun: “Wave”, which is not wave (crescent) shape projectile like I expected from Thunder Force 3. It’s like “Disrupt” but with thick cylindrical beam instead of fireball. Although it has stronger shrapnel projectile than “Disrupt” (albeit with less number of shrapnel projectile), I regret buying this “Wave” gun because “Laser” gun is way better than stronger. Given “Laser” is the most expensive gun that you can purchase (at price $25,000). I wish the new gun is just more than like initial gun but with extra projectile upon impact because that doesn’t add value much significantly in my opinion.

 

I will skip to the final boss. I thought the narcotic king or drug lord is on super plane with many weapon. But no. We got this strange flying box that could be mix of NES console and vacuum cleaner. I doubt the narcotic king is in that weird thing because it looks like sentient alien box that has ability to detach its part to attack. During so, the core is exposed and that’s where you need to hit in order to damage the boss. I don’t think the narcotic king is inside that core because it doesn’t look like comfortable pilot chamber. I assume it’s just the “heart” of the final boss.   

Although the detached parts fill 70% of the screen, the most dangerous attack is these bubbles filled with fire/lava. And if you also take account of the final boss itself that you need to dodge (because like generic shmup, any skin contact is lethal), they cover 85% of the screen. You can use the turbo power up to pass those bubbles harmlessly but there’s way to dodge it.  You can bait them so they’re in more concentrated spot and fly on the gap when you get the chance usually when the final boss stop firing the bubbles. There’s huge difficulty jump here but this is final boss fight so it’s sensible.

 

Once the final boss destroyed, we get this last message from my employer hoping for narcotic will vanish entirely in the world someday. That’s 25% of eternal peace of the world which can be doable, right?

 

Then we get this epilogue screen that’s signed by John Bosh that -I’m pretty sure- is parody of president Bush.

But before we put the closing on this article, I like to show you the last bomb and also the most expensive one (at the price $30,000): “Thunder”. When activated, the helicopter release small orbs on its left and right and they emit this ugly looking lightning. The bomb works good against enemies on the side but it doesn’t cover your front which is terrible in practice. Don’t buy this one! It may look like only 1 lighting orb is working but actually they both work. It’s because they are flickering alternatively that only 1 orb that looks working. I can make the bomb demonstration in motion gif but i afraid it will damage your retina because how horrible it looks. You have to take my word for it.

 

I believe that’s not how real helicopter’s control works.    

A.I.'s CrossFire (1991) is interesting mixture of vertical shmup and top-down shooter game. Although The Guardian Legend (developed by Compile) did that first and works pretty better than this game. My biggest complaint is how the extra pick up works. It only takes effect when you get 3 of the same items at once. Does it keep track between level? I assume no because there’s no HUD indicate that unlike in any Psikyo’s shmup. Then there’s “?” icon that seems has no effect at all when picked up. It goes without saying that there's power down after die and the game is pretty relentless even though you can continue in the same spot where you die, provided you still have life reserve. Then there’s the big feature of the game: shop in between mission. The weapon selection is kind of too pricey. Not to mention there’s new weapon that feel bad or lackluster to have such as hypergun (the grenade launcher), “thunder” bomb, and “wave” gun. You can buy additional life reserve for $50,000 which is very expensive. Merchant at Legend has more sensible price for life reserve. You can also buy 1-hit invincibility called “body” for the chopper and “protect” for Billy the pilot. However, there’s no visual effect or additional icon on HUD to indicate the 1-hit invincibility. Although it’s quite useful especially when the game only provides you with 4 continue. My rule of thumb: If the number continues less than the number of levels, I assume the game is tedious to play. Even though that assumption applies to 85% games on Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. On the bright side, you have 2 special powers at your disposal: bomb and turbo. Sadly, you can’t buy their extra in the shop. The F-117 that drop power up is gorgeous visual feature. Although the screen feels narrow because of lacks of vertical length, the screen can scroll further a bit to left or right to allow you dodge enemy’s attack. In the on-foot section, the jumping is funny because Billy is locked on the spot but allow him to shoot enemies at higher elevation or dodge enemy’s projectile. The lack of multi-directional facing is double-edged sword. On the good side, Billy can lock on his facing forward allow him to counter enemy’s attack swiftly. On the bad side, Billy can’t engage against enemy on bottom side. The sweeping section is interesting idea and enable some layer of strategy. The helicopter call definitely useful. You know what else is useful? Money drop, that’s it. It adds variety on playthrough so Billy’s income is not fixed to mission reward. The sound effect is gritty but it’s natural for Sega Genesis sound chip. The same thing goes to music as well. 

 

So, CrossFire (1991) quite stands out with the 2 genres mixture but it’s quite rough. The helicopter’s weaponry can be better. 1up should be cheaper. Extra stock of bomb and turbo should be available at shop. They should use “hold the shoot button” to lock on Billy’s aim instead of forcing him to face forward straight and diagonally with no hope to aim backward. The enemy’s design is unearthly weird what’s with droid/bot and flying box. I'm pretty amazed with what narcotic syndicate can have/build with all those dirty money from selling drugs. Personally, I prefer Ghost Pilot’s enemy design with huge combat vehicle armed with lots of cannon. And the music sounds better too. This game is pretty tedious to play although there's creative idea here and there. Not even F-117A assist can's change my mind.