Xenon 2 Megablast - Atari ST & Commodore Amiga - 1989

After Xenon, the Bitmap Brothers released the decent (though completely overshadowed by its sequel) futuristic sports game, Speedball.  They then went about designing a follow up for their debut game.  With Xenon 2 Megablast the Bitmaps decided to forego their usual metallic looking graphics and instead went for an organic theme for all but the final level.

The graphics in Xenon 2 Megablast are some of the best to appear on the Atari ST

The best versions were for the 16-bit Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.  As is usually the case, the graphics and gameplay are identical on both computers.  The Atari ST has much, much weaker music than the Commodore machine but has meatier sound effects in my opinion.  Although the music is better on the Amiga, the drums use the same sound channel as the spot effects so keep cutting out.  You also have to wait for data to load on entering and leaving the upgrade shop – this is especially irritating at the mid-level shop.  The ST has no in-level loading so the game flows much better.  Taking all this into account, the two are about equal so I have included them both on the blog.

The wafer thin plot says the defeated antagonists from the first game, the Xenites, are trying to wipe out the players history.  To this end they have planted bombs in several time zones.  It is up to you to conquer these zones - for some reason each bomb is diffused by destroying an end of level boss.  Needless to say the plot is not mentioned again in game.

Xenon 2 is set over several vertically scrolling levels, each with a particular theme (underwater, insects, dinosaurs, technological).  As well as the gorgeous graphics the game features three layers of smooth parallax scrolling.  Unusually your space craft has reverse thrust to allow you to back up a limited distance.  This comes in especially useful where sections of scenery have dead ends and when tackling particular bosses.

Reverse thrust can also be useful for slowing the game and regulating the appearance of enemies or, as in this case, reaping money from the endless supply of flying squirrels.

The scenery scrolls by slowly but the enemies come in thick and fast.  When waves of smaller enemies, or certain larger enemies, are shot they drop a bubble.  The smaller bubbles are worth 50 credits and the larger ones are worth 100 credits.  The credits can be spent at the mid and end of level upgrade shop.  Upgrades can be bought as well as sold and must be picked up wisely as some weapons can’t be used together (eg side and rear lasers) and certain weapons are more effective on particular levels.  Some of the weapons can be upgraded several times to increase their firepower.  A couple of the items are effectively useless such as the Bitmap Shades (dims the screen) and Super Nashwan Power (gives you all the weapons but they are so short-lived they are gone before any enemies appear).  As well as weapons you can also purchase health and extra lives.

Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Additional upgrades occasionally appear during the level in the form of pods.  Shooting the pod reveals the upgrade to be collected.  At the start of one level several side lasers can be picked so it is worth remembering to sell any side or rear lasers you already possess for extra cash. 

If your ship is hit by an enemy or their bullets you lose energy.  This can be replenished at the upgrade shop or by collecting a health pickup when one appears.  If the energy bar disappears completely you lose a life and restart at one of the many checkpoints with upgrades still intact.

Bosses appear at the end of each level and most have a mid level boss.  These bosses are suitably large and, again, are very impressive in terms of graphics for the Amiga and ST.  Each boss has obvious weak points and drops a lot of credit bubbles when destroyed.  These have to be collected quickly before they drop off the screen.

The first boss

Xenon 2 Megablast has been criticised for being too hard.  The Bitmap Brothers purposely did not want to make an easy game and in fact went out of their way to make it more difficult.  A common feature on many joysticks in the 80s was an autofire switch which took the pain out of a lot of shooters.  The Bitmap Brothers used some kind of programming trickery which disabled these and even went as far as creating a less effective autofire as a power up.  Little did they count on my cheap but fragile Cheetah Mach 1+ joystick.  I had mainly used it as a second stick for two player games and was the only one I could find where autofire worked in Xenon 2.  It had weak microswitches so I had to buy a second stick and used the first one as spares when they failed.  If it wasn’t for the Mach 1+ I would now have a stump where my left thumb should be.

As I said, the game is very difficult and to get anywhere near completing Xenon 2 you will need either a bionic trigger finger or a (working) autofire joystick.  Other criticisms?  The game is exactly the same each time you play it – power ups and enemies appear in the exact same places so it can turn into a memory game.  Having said that, Xenon 2 Megablast has to be one of my all time favourite shooters - better than a lot of the excellent titles I have already featured on the blog.  It’s loud, good looking, has great gameplay, numerous power-ups and is polished to the n^th degree – everything I look for in a shoot 'em up.

The final level, the only one not to have organic looking graphics.

Example gameplay - music off, autofire on

R-Type - PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 - 1989

Dobkeratops - The archetypal R-Type boss.

Along with Gradius, R-Type is one of my favourite shoot ‘em up franchises.  I have enjoyed every game I have played in the series, from the 1987 arcade classic to the excellent R-Type Final on the Playstation 2. 

In 1988 I had already dismissed the Sega Master System and 8-bit computer conversions of the original game.  Now in 1989 it’s the turn of the big guns – the Sharp X68000, the Commodore Amiga and the NEC PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16.  Each has major flaws compared to the arcade original so do any deserve a place on my blog?

I had great expectations for the Sharp X68000 conversion and knew it could handle a pretty accurate rendition of the arcade game.  Arcade quality graphics? Check.  Arcade quality sound? Check.  Fast moving, flicker free sprites? Check.  Accurate gameplay?  Erm…  Now, I like challenging games and R-Type is already a tough game so why make it even harder?  In this version you spend more time dodging bullets than you do shooting enemies which is not much fun.  There are also two difficulty levels – normal and hard.  The only difference I can see with normal mode is that the hit box of your ship is made smaller so bullets can pass through parts of it without registering.  Why mess up the collision detection when a reduction in the number of bullets would suffice?  Disappointing to say the least.

R-Type on the X68000 looked and sounded the part.  It was let down by the hike in difficulty level.

Contrary to the X68K conversion I didn’t have high hopes for the Commodore Amiga.  I used to own the subpar Atari ST conversion of R-Type and was expecting another lazy port.  To my surprise it turned out to be much smoother and faster than on the ST.  Having a limited palette, the graphics can’t hope to compete with the Sharp and NEC machines, and some backgrounds are missing altogether.  Additionally, with only one fire button you have to take your hand off the joystick and use the spacebar to control the ‘Force’ pod - not ideal in this shooter.  Having said that, the Amiga version of R-Type is a pretty good game in its own right.

A good shooter for the Amiga but out-classed in this company.

Finally we have the legendary conversion of R-Type for the PC Engine/Turbografx-16.  The Engine wasn’t released in the UK but screenshots of the game appeared in several magazines of the time and practically kick-started a grey import market on their own. R-Type on the PC Engine was released in Japan as R-Type I and R-Type II with the eight levels split equally across two Hu-Cards. Lucky Turbografx-16 owners got the game in its entirety.  The issue with this version is that instead of reducing the size of the graphics, the developers decided to have the levels scroll slightly in the vertical plane.  This is easy to become accustomed to but does mean you can’t see, for example, gun emplacements at the top of the screen if you are in the lower half.  Nevertheless, the game gets through since this blog is about my favourite video games, not how accurately they were converted.

The NEC console makes a good stab at the graphics.  Only a few shades are missing.

In the game you control an R-9a “Arrowhead” starfighter and must take on the mysterious Bydo – an amalgam of biological and mechanical components.  The R-9a is initially armed with a quick fire laser.  This weapon can also fire a powerful laser pulse by holding down the fire button for a few seconds to charge it.  The Arrowhead can also be upgraded by collecting power-ups.  Upgrades include ‘bits’ (help protect the top and bottom of your ship and fires weak lasers), speed ups, homing missiles and three different lasers (by picking up coloured crystals).  The most famous power-up has to be the ‘Force’ pod.  The ‘Force’ is an indestructible pod that follows the up/down movement of your ship and fires small laser bolts.  It can also be attached to the front or rear of the R-9a where it provides protection and allows the upgraded laser types to work. As it is indestructible it can soak up bullets and harms any enemy it comes into contact with.  Astute use of the 'Force' is needed to successfully navigate the eight levels of the game.

Each of the stages I completed ended in a boss.  The only exception was the third where the boss is a giant ship that takes up almost the entire stage.  Each has one or more weak points that need to be hit several times to take them down.

This boss splits into 3 parts.  The first one has just exploded

If your ship gets hit or you touch the scenery you will lose a life.  You restart a game at the last checkpoint passed but any upgrades you were carrying will be lost.  Depending where this happens restarts can often be frustrating.  And short-lived.

So, although it’s not perfect, R-Type on the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 is the best version I have found so far.  The graphics are pretty close to the arcade original losing out due to fewer colours and lower complexity in places.  There is the occasional slow down, flickering sprites, and that annoying vertical scrolling but it still deserves a place on my blog.  I guess I’ll have to wait for R-Types on the Playstation for the definitive conversion.

Level 3 is basically one huge boss.

Example gameplay....

Populous - Atari ST - 1989

Populous may not have been the first 'God-sim' nor the first game developed by Bullfrog Productions, but it did put both the genre and the company on the map.  Bullfrog's maiden game was a mediocre shoot 'em up called Fusion which I think was largely ignored by the games buying public.  The British company really burst onto the scene with Populous and have since produced a host of well received titles.  The Bullfrog label eventually disappeared a few years after the company was absorbed by Electronic Arts.

I tested Populous on the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and PC.  They all look and play more or less identically but both the PC and Amiga versions have issues with the audio.  The DOS conversion loses out first as it has inferior sound compared to the 16-bit computers.  The Amiga version has exactly the same sound effects as the ST.  In addition it has an incessant, headache inducing heartbeat playing throughout.  This can only be turned off by muting the sound effects which play an important role in the game. The Atari ST lacks the heartbeat so, perhaps surprisingly, comes out on top.

In Populous you take on the role of a god.  Your aim is to destroy all the followers of an opposing god while they try to do the same.  Once a world has been conquered you move on to another, more difficult level.  There are 500 worlds in all but one or more are skipped depending on your score for the previous level. 

The main screen shows a close up view of the landscape.  Above this is a map which can be clicked on with mouse pointer to move the view around.  Each world is be made up of one of four landscapes – Grass, Rock, Desert and Ice.  I don't know what difference the Rock world makes but your followers die quickly in the Desert and reproduce slowly in the Ice world.

The randomly appearing swamp monster leaves a deadly trail across the land.

The most important aspect in defeating your opponent is by increasing the number of your followers.  To this end you need to raise or lower the land in order to create flat spaces where your followers can settle.  When a follower finds a square of flat land they build a dwelling.  After a while the dwelling produces another follower who wanders off looking for another flat area to populate.  A follower will eventually die if they can’t find somewhere to build.  Creating a larger flat area allows the people to build bigger buildings.  Bigger buildings take longer to produce followers but these followers are more powerful and last longer.

Influencing your followers is performed by using the icons on the interface.  You can order them to build, merge (to create more powerful followers), fight if there are any enemies nearby, or travel to your Papal Magnet.  The Papal Magnet is an ankh and is your religious symbol. Your most important follower is the leader who carries a mini ankh.  If you use the ‘go to Papal Magnet’ command, all your followers merge with the leader to create a powerful character.  The Papal Magnet can be moved around while you have a leader so you could even place it in the middle of enemy territory.  If the leader is killed, the Papal Magnet stays in that spot until another leader is created by touching it.

The ‘?’ icon allows you to place a shield on any building or follower (friend or foe) you want to keep track of.  Their stats appear in the shield to the top right of the screen.  Either side of this are two graphs showing the relative power of the opposing forces.

As your population increases so does your mana.  Mana allows you to perform acts of god and is depicted by a bar towards the top right of the screen.  Each divine act uses mana which is also depleted after a loss in combat.  Divine abilities begin with simple acts such as raising and lowering land and moving the ankh around.  As you become more powerful you can create earthquakes which disrupt your opponent’s buildings and swamps which can drown your enemies.  Depending on the level, swamps can be shallow (they disappear after swallowing a person) or bottomless.  You can turn your leader into a knight who marches off into enemy territory killing opponents and burning buildings as he goes.  The volcano icon causes the land to rise and creates rocks.  The rocks disrupt building and can only be cleared by lowering the surrounding land to sea level.  Creating two or more volcanoes on top of each other is particularly devastating.  The flood act raises the sea level causing people on low lying land to be pitched into the sea.  Sea can be either fatal where the followers drown immediately or harmful giving you a chance to save some.  The final act of god is Armageddon.  Armageddon moves both Papal Magnets to the centre of the map.  All the followers travel towards them where they fight to the death.  Each divine act is accompanied by a distinctive sound – for example, if you hear slurping sound you know your opponent has created a swamp on your land.

Flood can devastate large areas of land.

Before each world you are given a description of the next world to conquer including the landscape type and the number of followers you have to start with.  It also includes the divine acts you have available and if you can build land up, down or not at all.

Populous is probably the game I spent most time on when I had the Atari ST and would definitely be in my top 3 games for that machine.  I upgraded my ST to 1mb in order to play Populous II: Trial of the Olympian Gods in 1991 but found the sequel disappointing in comparison.  Besides being great with a single player, two STs, two Amigas or even an ST and an Amiga can be linked up to make an excellent two player game.

It’s telling that this game was still in my disk drive when I had to take my Atari out of storage earlier in the year (and it still worked!).

Populous: The Promised Lands

Due to the success of Populous, a data disk was released containing five new types of landscape.  Wild West and Révolution Française are graphically similar to the Desert and Grass landscapes of the original game with more appropriate looking buildings and people.  Bit Plains has a landscape made up of line printer paper and replaces the buildings with computers.  Block Land looks like it is made of Lego.  Silly Land is, well, silly.  The game behaves differently with the new landscapes but I can only recall that the pacifist Block Land decreases mana when you win battles, and that certain types of building decrease your mana in Silly Land.

Two landscapes from The Promised Lands.  From days when you could have cigarettes in a game and no one would bat an eyelid.

Pipe Mania - Commodore Amiga - 1989

I do enjoy puzzle games so it strikes me as odd the only one on my blog prior to this is a game written in BASIC from 1983.  I'm not keen on games like Solomon's Key or Sokoban where one wrong move can get you hopelessly stuck.  I prefer puzzle games where the game gets progressively more difficult, where reflexes count, where quick wits can help you recover from a seemingly hopeless situation.  Games like Tetris.  Or this.

Pipe Mania was designed in the UK by The Assembly Line who would later program one of my all time favourite shoot 'em ups.  The US publishing rights were bought by Lucasfilm Games who renamed it Pipe Dream.

The 16-bit Commodore Amiga and Atari ST computers are the best versions I have played.  They also have the advantage of being able to use the mouse as a controller.  The Amiga has cleaner sound than the ST so gets the nod.  (The very best version belongs to the Acorn Archimedes but I am not featuring that computer on this blog). 

One of my better efforts.

Like all good puzzle games the objective is very simple - connect pieces of a pipe from the dispenser on the left hand side of the screen to make the longest pipeline possible.  The game begins with an empty grid containing only a start pipe.  A bar to the right of the grid decreases and once it reaches the bottom the 'flooz' starts to flow.  By this time you should have the beginnings of a pipe already in place.  The D: counter at the top of the screen indicates how many pieces of pipe the flooz must pass through to complete the level though making it go further means more points.  If the flooz reaches an open end of pipe before the counter reaches 0 then it's game over.

The dispenser is filled with random sections of pipeline and shows the next 5 shapes.  Pipes can be placed anywhere on the grid and you can replace a pipe already laid as long as the flooz has not yet reached it but at the expense of time and points.  At the end of each level points are deducted for each unused section of pipe left on the grid.  

After every 4 stages you get a password and a bonus level appears.  On the bonus level a section of pipe moves back and forth across the top of the screen and can only be dropped downwards.  The goal is just to make the longest possible pipe for extra points - there is no minimum length here.

On later levels there are obstacles in place which you cannot build on.  Special sections of pipe also crop up such as bonus pieces (you get extra points for directing the flooz through these), reservoir pieces (slows down the flooz), and one-way pieces.  Sections of the grid wall can also be missing to allow the flooz to flow from one side of the grid to the other.  Still later end pieces appear where the pipe must terminate after being built to the required length.  The flooz also moves faster as the game progresses.

I remember having this game on the Atari ST.  At the time a puzzle game was not something I would have spent my hard earned money on so it must have come on a compilation or been a budget buy.  Pipe Mania is not a game where great graphics and sound are needed (although some levels are a bit garish) and it remains as addictive today as the day it was released.
 

A secret bonus is awarded for making 5 crosses.

 
Sample gameplay...

Earthbound Zero (aka Mother) - NES - 1989

Until I started compiling the shortlist for this blog I had never heard of the Mother/EarthBound series of RPGs.  The first Western release in the series was EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan) on the SNES which, although not commercially successful, has become somewhat of a cult classic. 

The original game in the series was known as Mother.  It was released in Japan in 1989 for the Famicom console.  Unusually (perhaps uniquely?) for the time, this was an RPG set in a contemporary United States rather than in some fantasy world.  Psychic powers replaced magic and everyday items replaced weapons.  The game was officially translated into English as Earth Bound but for whatever reason was never released.  The translated code subsequently found its way onto the internet and this is the version I am playing.  To prevent confusion it was renamed EarthBound Zero.  

Before you start playing you have to name the four protagonists of the game and enter your favourite food!.  You are then presented with the introduction...

Due to the lack of a manual I am going to try and work out what’s going on as I play.  My first combat was with a table lamp so this may be more difficult than it seems.

You are cast as a pre-teenage boy and the action starts in your bedroom where you are attacked by the afore mentioned lamp as you try to leave.  In one of your sister’s bedrooms you are accosted by another lamp followed by a doll in your second sister’s room.  When examined the doll plays a melody.  I guess one of the tasks is to collect these tunes as a musical note appears in your stats.  If you talk to your sisters they give you orange juice which replenishes your hit points.

Downstairs you find your mother.  Talk to her and she suggests calling your dad on the phone.  He said it sounds like the work of a poltergeist and that your great grandfather George's diary in the basement may tell your more.  The basement contains the diary, a plastic bat (your first weapon) and loaf of bread.

At the start I was using the house as a base and the designer implemented some great ideas here.  Speak to your mum and she gives you dinner and tells you to rest which fully replenishes your HP and PP (Psi Points).  You can leave items from your (rather limited) inventory with one of your sisters for safekeeping.  If you speak to your dad on the phone he deposits money into your bank account and tells you how many XP you require to level up.  He also gives you the opportunity to save the game.

Heading out of the house I could only go in one direction and was attacked by a hippie.  Combat is turn based and a simple process of mashing the Fight button or using magic psi-power when you gain some effects. Psi-powers seem to be gained through combat, not when levelling up.  I can’t mention the hippie fight without commenting on the combat music – it is fantastic and some of the best I have heard on the NES.  In fact music on the whole is great throughout the game.

Some opponents have special attacks that can render you helpless for a few rounds and not all of them fight on their respective turn…

If you are defeated in combat your character faints and can take no action until they are brought around.  If the whole party falls unconscious you are returned to the last location you saved with only your main character 'alive'.  Other party members need to be healed before they can be used again.  There are no deaths Earthbound Zero .

The first house I came across had a woman saying her daughter Pippi was missing and I should tell the mayor.  I eventually reached the town of Podunk.  Instead of having to enter towns, they are the same scale as the world map making it rather large.  The building interiors are, however, a different scale.  Buildings in Podunk include a burger joint, a hospital, the city hall, a hotel and a department store.  The department store has a cashpoint allowing access to your money and a payphone to call your dad.  It was in Podunk I got my first quest from the mayor.

The first quest involved rescuing Pippi from the zombie infested cemetery.  I found her in a coffin in the bottom of a crypt.  The mayor gave me a measly $100 reward and tasked me with investigating the zoo where the animals had gone mad.

The path through the zoo was pretty linear.  At the end there was a capsule containing Starman Jr.  He was a tough opponent and it took me two attempts to beat him.  Once he was defeated the animals calmed down.  That leads me to believe aliens are behind the goings on and  I’m not looking forward to facing Starman Sr.   I picked up my second melody from a singing monkey.

Back in town a couple of people mentioned a canary city to the northwest of Podunk.  I noticed earlier the pet section of the department store only had one animal left to sell – a canary.  I bought this and at canary city it was reunited with it's mother.  This gave me my third tune.

The only place to go next was Merrysville to the east.  The river bridge was blocked off by orders of the Mayor but the guards said I may be able to cross further north.  The guards there were more lax and let me through.  The path winded up at a cave which led me to Magicant.  Magicant is weird….

Magicant is an ideal place to grind at the beginning of the game.  Like your house, you can hand in items for safekeeping, save the game and get healed and resurrected for free.  For grinding you can recruit the Flying Men to help you out.  They can't be healed though, and when they die a grave stone appears next to their house.

*Sniff*

In Magicant Castle my quest becomes clear as Queen Mary reveals she is trying to remember an 8 part melody and begs me learn it.  On the way out of Magicant I found a sleeping dragon which I couldn't wake.  I also discovered the Onyx Hook which can be used to return to Magicant from wherever you are.  I used this a lot when a party member went down for the free resurrections.

The exit from Magicant led to Merrysville where I recruited my first party member - Darren the bullied geek.  He can be found on the roof of the school in a dustbin.  He takes you to Duncan's Factory where he launches a rocket to clear a rock slide that has been blocking the railway line.  This opens up a lot more of the map. 

The nearest town was called Reindeer where an old lady gave me hat to return to a girl in the town of Snowman.  The hat belonged to Annette who joined the party to seek her missing mother.  Like Wingnut, Annette has access to psi powers.  She gained the abilities faster and was the only character capable of using offensive psi skills.  Towards the end of the game she could cast PK Beam ƴ which instantly killed any target.  For opponents that were immune to the Beam spell, PK Freeze ƴ reduces their HP to critical levels where they could be killed with just one more hit.  Of course, some of the enemies have the same powers.

With a full party we continued on to Spookane.  A haunted house there contained a piano that gave us our fourth tune.

The fifth melody was to be found in a desert.  I totally missed this one and had to consult a walkthrough when I noticed a gap in my stats.  In the desert I came across an oasis where a man offers to give you flights in his plane.  Being unobservant I failed to notice we flew over a cactus with a face which is where the fifth tune came from.  After a few flights you can take a ride in the man's tank.  You can't leave the desert and can only exit the tank at the oasis so it is not very useful.

South of the desert was a railway track that led to Youngtown.  Near Merrysville the bridge had been destroyed preventing the train from running so we had to follow it on foot.  Youngtown was full of kids who said their parents had been abducted.  A baby with psi powers gave Wingnut and Annette the ability to Teleport to any town they had previously visited.  This came in very useful when having to go back to Magicant for resurrections.

At Ellay we were joined by the Colin, leader of the notorious Bla Bla Gang.  He replaced Darren which is no bad thing.  Like Darren he has no Psi skills but is a stronger fighter.  Our final destination is Mount Itoi (named after the game's designer) which has much tougher opponents and required lots of teleporting between Magicant and Ellay.  At least our our party was now powerful enough to take on the sleeping dragon on the way out of Magicant.  He gave us our sixth melody.

As I said Mount Itoi was very tough going with frequent deaths.  We did gain a lot of levels but eventually met an unbeatable giant robot which easily kicked our collective arse.  The gallant  Darren came to our rescue with the tank from the desert.

This battle put Colin out of action so Darren rejoined the party.  Further up the mountain there was a lake where a broken down speedboat was moored.  Once Darren had repaired the boat we sailed into a whirlpool which seemed like the obvious thing to do.

We were sucked into a secret underwater base where we discovered a giant robot.  It introduced itself as EVE and said it was built by my great grandfather George. It says George was taken to the ends of the universe and then brought back and that it's purpose was to protect me.  With EVE disposing of most enemies with a single hit our continued ascent of Mount Itoi went swimmingly until we encountered another giant robot which was a match for EVE.  Both robots were destroyed in the ensuing battle.  In the wreckage of EVE we found our penultimate melody.

Our party eventually reached the summit and came across what looked like a grave stone.  Checking it revealed our eighth and final part of the tune.  I used the onyx hook to return to Magicant and to Queen Mary.  When we sang the tune, Queen Mary said she loved Giegue (whoever that may be) as if he were her own child.  And that it would happily wag it's tail until she tried singing lullabies.  She also revealed she is Maria, my great grandmother, and that Magicant is an illusion created by her consciousness.  As she fades to join George, so does Magicant and our party is returned to the summit of Mount Itoi.  
 

There is now a cave we can enter were we find the adults from Youngtown.

We also come across Giegue who turns out to be an alien.  Giegue explains that he was raised by George and Maria, but George stole information from his planet that could have been used to betray his people.  He goes on to say that I am obstructing his plans and I should perish with the rest of 'the ugly Earth people' (he doesn't explain what his plans are).  After our final visit to Magicant we now have SING among our commands.  This is used to harm Giegue who escapes in a spaceship vowing to return. Wingnut heads off to bed for a well-earned kip and everyone lives happily ever after.  The ending video….

Until….

I really enjoyed Earthbound Zero.  Although the game is fairly linear it doesn’t really feel like it.  You have a clear path to follow from town to town, but do not know what to expect or what you have to do until you get there.  There are also quite a few optional side quests to take on – some I did, some I didn’t.  The game is not tile based so your party can easily move in eight directions – something you can’t do in Final Fantasy or Phantasy Star.  I think the graphics are well drawn and animated for the NES.  The sound is very good, especially the music (even my wife was humming along to some of it).  The game world is vast - one of the largest games I have played so far (with the possible exception of Ultima V).  I have to confess I used a map from the internet which saved me weeks, if not months, of tedious mapping.  There is an in-game map which shows the relative location of the towns but no detaiI. 

This is no criticism of the game but a lack of manual hindered me slightly as I couldn't work out what some objects did or were supposed to do.  I picked up a ‘Flea Bag’ early on but it didn’t have any effect when I tried to use it on an enemy so gave up.  I still have no idea what a PSI Stone or a Noble Seed does. Psi powers were easy to work out by watching what effect enemy attacks had on my party.

I'm in disbelief as to why this wasn't released after the translation had already been done.  It is an excellent, if quirky, game and I'm sure it would have been a success.  Towards the end of Phantasy Star and the Final Fantasy games I was willing for them to finish.  That did not happen with Earthbound Zero.

Ghouls'n Ghosts - Sega Mega Drive - 1989

It may have had mostly monochromatic graphics and farty sound effects but I used to love Ghosts 'n Goblins on the Sinclair Spectrum.  Until now I had never really tried its sequel, Ghouls'n Ghosts.  All I knew is that it has basically the same gameplay and a reputation for being as hard as nails.  I have already excluded several games from the blog for being too difficult but I’ll let this one pass as it is so damn addictive.

The conversions I tried from my shortlist were for the Commodore Amiga and Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis if you prefer) from 1989.  From 1990 I sampled the PC Engine and Sega Master System adaptations.  

• First to get cut was the Master System.  Ghouls'n Ghosts was on my shortlist as one of the best games for that particular console.  In this company it is understandably out of its depth. 
• You’d think a scrolling platform/shooter game would be something the Amiga would be perfect for.  Apparently the developers at Software Creations must have thought differently.  I’ll be generous and simply say it wasn’t very good. 
• On the PC Engine the game was called Daimakaimura and was released only in Japan.  This could go some way to explain the difficulty level.  It’s harder than the professional level on the Mega Drive and is much more frustrating than fun.  A paucity of credits doesn’t help its cause.  It has nice graphics though.

Ghouls'n Ghosts on the Amiga (left) did not use the machines potential. Daimakaimura (right) has the best graphics but is too hard.

This just leaves the Mega Drive conversion of Ghouls'n Ghosts.  It came early in the life of the console and is often cited as being one of its best games - something I find hard to disagree with.

Once again you are cast in the role of Sir Arthur the knight.  This time his quest is to restore souls, including that of his beloved Princess Prin Prin, that were stolen by Loki (or Lucifer on the non-Sega versions).  To this end you must make your way through 5 levels of nasties including zombies, buzzards, fiery bats and other demonic monsters.  Each level ends in a boss fight.

Ghouls'n Ghosts starts you off in a graveyard armed with a throwing lance.  Despite wearing a suit of armour, Arthur is quite spritely.  He can leap, duck, run, and shoot upwards and downwards (while jumping).  If Arthur is hit he loses his armour and has to continue on in his boxers.  If he is hit again he turns into a pile of bones and loses a life.  Each stage has a time limit and you also lose a life if the clock counts down to zero.

The main enemies in the graveyard are zombies which shamble up from the ground.  The occasional zombie, as do some other monsters in the game, carries a pot.  Once killed these monsters drop objects such as different weapons or items for bonus points.  Aside from the lance, weapons include axes, flaming torches and a sword. 

At certain points a chest bursts forth from the ground.  These can contain extra armour (if you’re down to your underwear), golden armour (if you’re already wearing some) or an evil magician.  The golden armour upgrades your current weapon to give you a charge shot.  The magician can turn you into a shuffling geriatric or a harmless duck for a few vital moments.

As for the difficulty….. hmm.  Yes, it is very tough but practice can get you a bit further each time.  There are some unfair moments, however. For example on the second level where sections of rope bridges collapse without warning above ant lions – even a full suit of armour won’t stop you losing a life here. After a few hours playing I can usually get through the first level and most of the second without losing a life.  If you do lose a life you start again from either the beginning or midway through the level.  One thing I didn't notice at first is the word ‘Practice’ at the bottom of the screen.  This is the default setting but from the options menu you can select a ‘Professional’ mode which makes the game even harder (not as hard as Daimakaimura).  The real kicker, though, is that once you have completed all 5 levels, you have to do them once again in order to collect a special weapon with which to defeat Loki.

I don't like hidden traps.  This section on level two has lots of them.

I don’t know how the Mega Drive game compares to the arcade version in difficulty.  Daimakaimura on the PC Engine version is certainly closer in terms of graphics but in the playability and fairness stakes the Sega has it licked.  It therefore deserves a place on my blog.

Sir Arthur soldiers on in nothing but a pair of boxers.

Example gameplay