This week's Arcade Archives release is... Lead Angle (Seibu Kaihatsu, 1988)
Both the Japanese (Lead Angle) and International (Dead Angle) ROMs are included- there's a dip-switch setting to switch between Japanese and International modes in each but this doesn't seem to change the title, and MAME also treats them as separate ROMs.
At some time in the past (accordig to the Master System version's manual, it's 1931), George Phoenix, gun-toting and law-abiding citizen (who is also made of wireframes and can levitate, don't worry about it) is having a nice holiday with his gal in Napoli when suddenly, she's kidnapped by behatted goons! Multiple crime families have decided they're gonna mess with the wrong guy today, and so George hits the ground running and starts gunning 'em down! From Italy back to America, whole gangster platoons are out to get George, but as well as a standard gun, he can lob grenades and grab machine guns and shotguns with limited ammo to help cut the gangs down to size. Can he rescue the love of his life and gun down the criminals, even at this... Dead Angle?! I might have to work on that title drop.
This is the second of three crosshair-shooter-like games by Seibu- this is a fairly obvious follow-up to Empire City: 1931 but before the currently-not-on-ACA Dynamite Duke- but is still pretty different from the likes of TAD's Cabal. The main change from Empire City is that there's no longer a 'take cover' button as you're represented on-screen by a wireframe, and can only be shot if you're in front of an enemy when they fire. Your character follows the crosshair but there's a little leeway in when you start to move, so you can try and 'lead' your shots so you can shoot the enemy without being shot yourself. It's tricky though, and this isn't a game I'm particularly good at. What I can appreciate though is the style, just like Empire City this game's presentation is amazing, with huge areas to scroll through, large enemy sprites and lots of destruction you can wreak during the shoot-out (including knocking a framed photo labelled Yukai Tsukai off the wall, a nod to a bizarre and currently-not-working platformer also known as Pop'n Run The Videogame). It sure makes an impression! Hopefully we'll get Dynamite Duke in the future to complete the sorta-trilogy~
