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Image Fight
2011-10-13 17:08:01
edited 2011-10-13 17:13:13 in General
They call me Rate Miser, whatever I see... turns overrated in my eyes...
I've just beaten the first loop of the arcade version today, and here are some thoughts about this game.
1. The presentation is pretty subpar. The 1st and 2nd stages are flat and uninspired, the 3rd and 4th stages are generic mechanical bases, the5th stage is the only odd one featuring alien enemies and background, which is out of place for the rest of the game. Stage 6-8 are typical space areas (Well, Stage 8 is an asteroid belt, but still), and the ninth and final stage is another mechanical base.
2. I think this game's first loop is easier than R-Type I and II's first loops (probably more so if you have rapid-fire, which I didn't use), but I should hate myself for underestimating this game based on the NES port like I did in one of my older posts. The second loop is nasty. I believe this game is the hardest Irem game that's not an R-Type game.
3. Some of the bosses have obvious safe spots. For example first boss has one, at least in the first loop, in the top-left corner, while the third stage's boss has two above the boss itself.
4. If you kill enough enemies for the first five stages to get an average of 90%, you skip stage 6, the hardest stage in the game. However, it doesn't really tell you what enemies count toward the percentage and what doesn't.
5. This game seems to have a similar problem to Darius Gaiden in which the difficulty is based on your tapping skills. Of course, I don't think this game is as egregious as Gaiden in how much tapping affects difficulty, but still.
6. I don't really like it when games count "stay in a corner or side of the screen" to kill all enemies before they attack" as a legit challenge. Stage 2 of this game and the final stage of X-Multiply both have this problem.
As of now, I'll probably give this game either a 2.5/5 or 3/5. Of course, most of the games I've played this year got lower scores (Looking at you, Wild Arms 3 and 4), and I think a 3 is a decent score to get. I'm just cynical.
1. The presentation is pretty subpar. The 1st and 2nd stages are flat and uninspired, the 3rd and 4th stages are generic mechanical bases, the5th stage is the only odd one featuring alien enemies and background, which is out of place for the rest of the game. Stage 6-8 are typical space areas (Well, Stage 8 is an asteroid belt, but still), and the ninth and final stage is another mechanical base.
2. I think this game's first loop is easier than R-Type I and II's first loops (probably more so if you have rapid-fire, which I didn't use), but I should hate myself for underestimating this game based on the NES port like I did in one of my older posts. The second loop is nasty. I believe this game is the hardest Irem game that's not an R-Type game.
3. Some of the bosses have obvious safe spots. For example first boss has one, at least in the first loop, in the top-left corner, while the third stage's boss has two above the boss itself.
4. If you kill enough enemies for the first five stages to get an average of 90%, you skip stage 6, the hardest stage in the game. However, it doesn't really tell you what enemies count toward the percentage and what doesn't.
5. This game seems to have a similar problem to Darius Gaiden in which the difficulty is based on your tapping skills. Of course, I don't think this game is as egregious as Gaiden in how much tapping affects difficulty, but still.
6. I don't really like it when games count "stay in a corner or side of the screen" to kill all enemies before they attack" as a legit challenge. Stage 2 of this game and the final stage of X-Multiply both have this problem.
As of now, I'll probably give this game either a 2.5/5 or 3/5. Of course, most of the games I've played this year got lower scores (Looking at you, Wild Arms 3 and 4), and I think a 3 is a decent score to get. I'm just cynical.
Comments
So, by doing good in the first part of the game... you skip over an entire level? Somehow I feel like that's exactly the opposite of what should happen.
I actually like Sqoon a lot more than I like In The Hunt. It could just be the 8 bit mermaid tits XD
Well, here's a summary of Image Fight's mechanics:
1. You can collect blue or red gunpods. You can hold up to three at a time and collecting a pod while holding 3 turns all your gunpods to the color of the collected pod.
2. Red gunpods turn to fire at the direction opposite to which you're moving. Blue gunpods simply fire up and nothing else.
3. You can speed up or slow down your ship one level by pressing a button. The speed of your ship goes up to level 4, than down to level 1, and repeat.
4. Pressing both the shoot and speed buttons at the same time (easier said than done) fires a cumbersome pod firing attack. I haven't found a way to reliably use this to get a sample of how useful or useless it is.
5. There're special weapons to attach to the front of your ship including a shield, red lasers, blue lasers that turn 90 degrees at enemies directly to the left or right of said lasers, a spread shot, diagonal shots, diagonal bouncing shots, homing missile launchers, and a random directional shot. Problem is, they go away after one shot, and while they may defend your ship from a bullet, most attacks go right through them or fire in directions other than down. They also explode when colliding with a wall, and there're many tight corridors in stages 4 and 9.
Also, what makes R-Type better than this game is as follows:
* The manual for the PSX port calls it an aquatic den, but it looks more like some giant's body with villi and giant red blood cells.
They're in story vr simulations. The last three levels are the actual alien invasion.
Maybe this game, at least in hard mode and up, is harder than R-Type after all. How legit the challenge is, I don't know. Your ship is very weak without the pods, and it seems like the controls are a bit slippery at times.
Image Fight's bosses are more focused on finding tricks and safe spots than skill and complex strategy. True, R-Type is guilty of having easy bosses for most of the stages, but Image Fight's case is more cynical as it seemed Irem tried to make the bosses more challenging but left gaping holes in their designs. I may do a series of pictures of the game with the tricks I've haven't mentioned in spoiler tags, as well as more commentary on the game.