Gaming Hell

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Blast Off (Namco, 1989)

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Thought defeated after the 2281 war, in 2289 the Bosconians strike back and once again begin to invade UGSF star systems (find out more about this plot on the official UGSF website). And so, the Blaster FR fighter pilot is deployed to stop the Bosconians at all costs! The Blaster FR's equipped with four main weapons- the red helix, the blue backshot, the yellow reverse-T shot and the green Y shot- that you can cycle between with the press of a button. Each of the six missions is split into three phases- the initial approach, breaching the giant space station and then destroying the core (with this third phase being presented in an up-close view, to bring you right up to the action)- with enemy ships all over the place. Only you can bring peace back to the galaxy!

Developed by N.H. System, some kind of Namco subsidiary or subcontractor that also developed the charming Märchen Maze, if you were looking for a true sequel to Bosconian... This isn't it, I'm afraid. It's got some elements of the original game, but they're all presentation- the original voice-clips show up (including BLAST OFF which is where the game gets its title), the space stations with a core that need to be shot and even the spy ship mechanic is in place (let spy ships slip past you and you'll enter CONDITION RED where more enemies appear)- but otherwise this is a more straightforward vertical shmup. It does look nice, mind- some good detail on the sprites, and I'm a fan of the way it enlarges all the sprites for the interior sections, even if it makes you a bigger target. Not a whole lot else to say really, it's completely fine but definitely not a Bosconian follow-up, if that's what you were hoping for.

... And yep, it's one of those weeks where the ACA release doesn't show up on the EU storefronts for seemingly no reason! I suppose it's fitting for the final ACA game to be covered on this Cohost. More on that in a later post, the future of these posts is uncertain!

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Crime City (Taito, 1989)

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Both the Japanese and English ROMs are included. Preference Settings allow solo players to play as the Player 2 character (Raymond Broady) without having to swap controls and fix an oversight that allows for infinite item drops in Round 5 (this fix is on by default in Hi-Score Mode). There is a slight edit- the instruction card page of the manual says "This instruction card has been partially modified", and while the change isn't obvious, it's pretty funny! On the second card, the little drug baggie was originally labelled "ドラッグ", or drug, and this word can be used to refer to illegal drugs or narcotics (you can see the original card in this auction, I couldn't find a proper scan online). In the Arcade Archives version, this is changed to "スコ ア", or score / points, so the reference to illegal drugs has been scrubbed out, presumably done to prevent the game falling foul of ratings boards for depicting illicit drugs in-game. It's OK, they're just 'points', honest!!

From the files of Chase H.Q.! After successfully arresting the likes of Ralph the Idaho Slasher and rescuing the mayor's daughter, Tony Gibson (P1) and Raymond Broady (P2) hang up their driving gloves for a bit to hit the mean streets of Crime City. Overrun with all sorts of illegal activity, ranging from prison breakers to bank robberies and even the kindapping of the mayor, the regular cops are out of options and call i Tony and Raymond to crush out the crime. They may be best known for their driving, but that doesn't mean they can't get the job done on foot- as well as a service pistol and any weapons they can pick up along the way, Tony and Raymond have an evasive cartwheel that's good for knocking seven bells out of the bad guys. pick up bags of cocaine as 'evidence' for points bonuses, engage in a shootout with a criminal holding someone hostage, leap from car to car along the highway... All in a day's work in Crime City.

So, this has been a long time coming- Crime City has never been given a home port until now, with the exception of its inclusion in the SD card expansion Taito Arcade Memories Vol. 2 for the Taito Egret II Mini which is obviously a bit expensive. It managed to dodge home ports at the time and missed out on the PS2-era Taito collections, so it's finally home... And that's a bloody good thing, this game rules. Crime City is Taito's take on the likes of Rolling Thunder and Shinobi- tall player sprite, focus on shooting projectiles with limited ammo, that kind of thing- but with dollops of Taito charm. It plays well too, mostly because of that evasive cartwheel allowing you to plough through enemies, because the bad guys of Crime City are defeated by just being rolled into. You get a fair few different weapons, plenty of different enemies to fight and there's some nice changes of pace like the into-the-screen gallery shooting sections and being lowered down a building via helicopter, it's pretty good!

Crime City's secret weapon is the Taito charm of it all. This is a game where barrels thrown at you explode to reveal vicious attack dogs, you fight the STICK MASTER and punks with pompadours and goofy face masks, you pick up drug baggies for points, your character will shout out a deadpan "NO" if you kill a hostage with no other punishment (from LordBBH's old page on the game, which is where I learned this game even existed), each stage is concluded with a view of the Daily Taito newspaper with headlines like "CATCH HOLD OF SUMUGGLERS!", the final stage has you rescuing the mayor then fighting his evil twin brother... It also has one of the greatest intros of all time, with Tony complaining "Prison breakers? On my day off?" as he stumbles out of bed, washes his face and mutters "Shucks!" while Raymond just gets his gun and says "Well, let's go for a kill time". It is peak 'serious but also extremely silly' Taito, and I love it. One of the most easily-recommended Arcade Archives releases.

As an extra, be sure to have a skim through the Arcade Archives stream for this one- there's a lot of really interesting things in there, such as revealing the music was done by Yasuhisa Watanabe of Zuntata (pointed out by DevilREI on the LordBBH Discord) and design docs that reveal an alternate ending where the mayor really was the bad guy and Tony shoots him (!). Most interesting is what's shown above, the game was going to be called VICE SQUAD but someone else had announced a game with that title, so they had to come up with a new one. Here are some of the suggestions, and they're all amazing. This also explains why there's unused code in the game to display the amusing text TAITO GAME instead of the game's logo- they were having a hell of a time deciding what to call the damn thing!

... One more Arcade Archives post remains before the end of Cohost.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Vs. Battle City (Namco, 1985)

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Preference options allow you to toggle whether sprites that overlay each other show black space or not, and to display the score during gameplay.

Your last mission in defending the pride of our batallion, the eagle flag, went so well- with you taking out many an enemy tank, and destroying many an obstructing wall- that you've caught the attention of the top brass back at HQ. You might remember in your debriefing that last time, you had to do this alone and with no outside assistance, but fear not, HQ has your back. Your mission to defend the flag from wave upon wave of enemy tanks will continue, but now you can bring a second player into the fight for co-op defensive action and also pick up power-ups like shields, screen-clearing grenades and even tank upgrades that eventually let you destroy the otherwise-impenetrable steel walls. It's a good thing too, as your battle is much more complicated this time- new types of enemy tanks and terrain like vision-obscuring forests and impassable lakes are now dotted around the battlefield. Protect that flag, soldier, at all costs!

We're back to the Vs. System games frrom Namco, and this one's a pretty famous Famicom title, albeit one probably better known in the West for being endlessly cloned and pirated on various multicarts and bootleg systems. It's to Tank Batallion what Warpman is to Warp & Warp, a game inspired by its arcade predecessor but massively expanded with different terrain and power-ups. This completes the tank action trilogy of Tank Batallion, Battle City and Tank Force on Arcade Archives, which is nice! Still, the original Famicom version is also available in Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2, and that version features a level creator obviously missing from the arcade version, but there are differences in the level order and what appear to be exclusive levels in this Vs. System version like the one based on Mappy. Maybe check out the level select option (see the ACA manual for details) to see them all!

... Two more Arcade Archives posts remain before the end of Cohost.

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Lead Angle (Seibu Kaihatsu, 1988)

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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~