Game: Front Line
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 1st August 1985
Front Line is scrolling shooter game in which players make their way through a battlefield on foot to their tank and then drive their tank far enough into enemy territory to make them surrender. After this has been achieved, the game loops and so the total playtime for a single completion is around 3 minutes. For any game this is a very short amount of time to be looping around after, and it's really a shame there's not some more levels included at least with some different terrain.
One of the game's main issues is the lack of ability to aim in a different direction than you are moving; with just the single control pad on the NES, players are forced to turn wherever they'd like to shoot, making progress that little bit harder. As a twin stick shooter this game would have felt far better. Players have a choice of grenades or bullets from their gun to defeat enemy soldiers, which I suppose is better than only one weapon choice.
Graphically the game is very simple with most sprites and objects drawn in what I can only describe as somewhat of a wonky style. Soldiers look odd as they walk, and the tanks are very simple shapes which require a little imagination. As for sound, there's only the noise of the player's footsteps, grenades an gunshots to enjoy which get old pretty fast.
Overall Front Line could have done with some technological advances before its release to improve the playability and amount of content featured in the game. While the idea of battling both on foot and from a tank is a good one, it's not enough without tight controls, good music and sound or even a few looping levels.
Rating: 30/100
Grade: E
Game: Tiger-Heli
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Micronics
Release Date: 1986
Tiger-Heli is a helicopter based shooter game where players make their way through some bland and repetitive landscapes shooting tanks and trying to avoid being shot themselves. There are power-ups which can aid players in their mission, and most non-enemy objects are slightly destructible for some extra points.
The movement of the helicopter is a little stiff, and it can be difficult to avoid the tank shots as they occur, since the screen scrolls continuously. The worst feature of the game is the lack of proper checkpoints, with only a few landing pads where players recover briefly before taking off again and continuing. Because of this, the game becomes a slog and its runtime feels like far longer than it needs to be, and less exciting.
Graphically the game isn't much to look at, with simple effects for houses, water and grass. The sprites are slightly better but still aren't great, even for the NES era. The music which accompanies gameplay is surprisingly good and probably my favourite part of the entire experience.
Overall, a little more excitement would have helped Tiger-Heli to be less monotonous. With NES games it's important to present as many different levels, landscapes and enemy types as possible because with most games looping around after a short while, the enjoyment level will decrease with each replay of the game. Instead, Tiger-Heli is just an average shoot 'em up for the time.
Rating: 58/100
Grade: D
Game: Magmax
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nihon Bussan
Release Date: 1986
Magmax is an interesting shoot 'em up game which takes place on 2 planes; there's the above ground level where players can move freely around on the ground, dodging and shooting enemies and collecting parts to make their robot bigger, or the underground/sea level where players do just the same, but this time able to move around in a different 2 dimensions; up/down and right/left. Neither area is harder per se, but there's the option to swap between them at grey holes, though its possible to stay on a level if desired.
There's a boss which appears after a while, only requiring some persistent shooting and dodging to beat before the game loops. While it's fairly easy for a shoot 'em up of it's kind, whilst playing Magmax, you get a sense of fun that's often absent from far harder games of the genre. The upgradability of the your robot, added to the different game levels which occur concurrently make for a fresh experience for the time. A nice feature is that the parts of the robots which are collected act as extra lives, disappearing when they take a hit from an enemy.
Graphically the game isn't much to look at, with the overground level somewhat reminiscent of Exitebike, but the underground sections look much more like a contemporary shoot 'em up. The music isn't the best either, with some fairly experimental and ultimately grating tunes to listen to, but it's nice to see a different accompaniment for both the underground and overground sections as well as some boss music.
Overall Magmax is a breath of fresh air when compared to most other NES shoot 'em ups and as such is more enjoyable as a game today. Whilst there's not a huge amount of replayability and the game loops after an easy boss, the time I spent playing was far more pleasing than many of the other games I've played in the past 2 weeks on the NES.
Rating: 70/100
Grade: C
Game: Star Force
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Hudson Soft
Release Date: 1987
Star Force is the final game I'll be looking at in this NESmas feature; a shoot 'em up with plenty of enemies, bases and bonuses to target, but one where the colours chosen for the player's ship and the background were too similar causing difficulties with actually being able to see the ship. The game features areas, each with their own boss which can be pretty easily dispatched with a few seconds of shooting and dodging.
Unlike many shoot 'em ups, it's hard to tell quite what you're meant to be doing, apart from shooting everything in sight. There are capital letters in boxes, and small letters in boxes which appear from time to time, and get counted at the end of each level. I assume the goal is to pick up all of them, but they don't seem to make a huge amount of difference to gameplay.
Graphically the game is pretty good, aside from the main issue of terrible visibility. The sprites of enemies, and general locations featured behind gameplay are interesting and work well with the space theme. As you can probably see from the picture above, this isn't much good when you can't see enemies or bullets flying towards you.
Overall the game is ruined by one of its few flaws, as game overs occur far more quickly when players can't see what they're doing. It's a shame that no-one in the development team caught this issue before the game's release, as it could have been far better of a game.
Rating: 49/100
Grade: D
As a final round-up of the games I've played in the last 12 days, here's a table featuring everything that's been reviewed, in score order. There's been some great games, and a few that were shockingly bad, but overall most games had at least some promise or sense of unique gameplay and fun.
| #1 | Adventure Island | B | 80.05 | ||||
| #2 | Balloon Fight | B | 75.20 | ||||
| #3 | Joust | C | 73.38 | ||||
| #4 | Hogan's Alley | C | 73.02 | ||||
| #5 | Pac-man | C | 72.02 | ||||
| #6 | Wild Gunman | C | 70.35 | ||||
| #7 | Magmax | C | 70.15 | ||||
| #8 | Mario Bros | C | 68.80 | ||||
| #9 | Binary Land | C | 66.05 | ||||
| #10 | Excite Bike | C | 62.85 | ||||
| #11 | Arkanoid | C | 62.50 | ||||
| #12 | Nuts & Milk | C | 62.30 | ||||
| #13 | Yie Ar Kung Fu | C | 62.05 | ||||
| #14 | Hyper Olympic | C | 62.02 | ||||
| #15 | Battle City | D | 61.95 | ||||
| #16 | Devil World | D | 61.85 | ||||
| #17 | Dig Dug | D | 60.95 | ||||
| #18 | Kung Fu | D | 60.27 | ||||
| #19 | BurgerTime | D | 59.10 | ||||
| #20 | Tiger-Heli | D | 58.80 | ||||
| #21 | Space Invaders | D | 57.35 | ||||
| #22 | Road Fighter | D | 57.10 | ||||
| #23 | Life Force | D | 56.50 | ||||
| #24 | Mappy | D | 55.30 | ||||
| #25 | City Connection | D | 54.60 | ||||
| #26 | Popeye | D | 54.10 | ||||
| #27 | 10 Yard Fight | D | 51.60 | ||||
| #28 | Duck Hunt | D | 50.90 | ||||
| #29 | Circus Charlie | D | 50.90 | ||||
| #30 | Star Force | D | 49.50 | ||||
| #31 | The Legend Of Kage | D | 49.30 | ||||
| #32 | Flappy | D | 46.85 | ||||
| #33 | F1 Race | D | 45.95 | ||||
| #34 | Galaga | D | 45.30 | ||||
| #35 | Donkey Kong Jr. | D | 45.30 | ||||
| #36 | Karateka | D | 45.05 | ||||
| #37 | Spy Hunter | E | 40.00 | ||||
| #38 | Exerion | E | 39.30 | ||||
| #39 | Baseball | E | 36.60 | ||||
| #40 | Donkey Kong 3 | E | 34.20 | ||||
| #41 | Zippy Race | E | 33.60 | ||||
| #42 | Galaxian | E | 33.60 | ||||
| #43 | Chack N Pop | E | 33.60 | ||||
| #44 | Golf | E | 32.20 | ||||
| #45 | Bird Week | E | 31.10 | ||||
| #46 | Bomberman | E | 31.10 | ||||
| #47 | Front Line | E | 30.55 | ||||
| #48 | Urban Champion | F | 28.50 |
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