| |
Overview
Vertically scrolling shoot 'em up, graphically reminiscent of Raiden, with a World War II setting. You set out over various enemy landscapes destroying planes, tanks and boats. Power-ups give you increased weapon damage and you also have a special weapon in the form of a squadron of fighters that comes to your aid.
Comment
Daisenpu is another in the long list of vertical shoot 'em ups for the PC Engine, and to make its mark it really needs to stand out from the others. Graphically, it has a similar style to other Toaplan shooters and ends up looking like Raiden and Kyukyoku Tiger, if a little more basic in places. But generally the art is nice, especially things like broken bridges and derelict buildings. Sonically, it fares less well. The music starts off into a fast beat that puts you in the mood for some action, but then just seems to repeat itself with very little variation. It does the job if you are concentrating on playing, but it would have been nice to have had something with a better composition.
Gameplay is where Daisenpu starts to show its cracks. All the enemies are ground based - tanks, vans, bigger tanks, boats, even bigger tanks. While this is an interesting design choice to make, it does hinder the variety, particularly compared with similar games. It's not the fastest paced of shooters, but the action is fairly continuous and it doesn't seem to have any low spots in the levels (which flow into each other without a break - like one continuous level). But the problem is that they just aren't that interesting. On the plus side, the restart points can be quite generous (even skipping some minor bosses that you failed to defeat), which is nice because dodging bullets seems to need a lot more care than in other shooters. In all, I'd call it 'solid' rather than 'spectacular'. There's something inherently dull about it but it should scratch the shoot 'em up itch if you're eager for something new to play. An interesting note is that this version is superior to the CD version, which has cut-down graphics and some areas missing.
sunteam_paul |
|
