REVIEW: Cyclone Action (4-in-1, Volume 9)
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"There is a secret military base of terrorists hiding in a flourish forest. In order to destroy it, we dispatch a special army to get there secretly and prepare for a large scale attack."
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It's unclear what the writer of Timetop's unusual prose actually thinks an 'army' is, given that Cyclone Action features a solitary soldier taking on some kind of 80's action movie solo suicide mission.
Perhaps the infamous 'story briefs' that accompany all GameKing games were written only as loose inspiration for possible games and the programmer then just watched the Arnie classic 'Commando' and decided to make a game of that instead.
Either way, Cyclone Action won't be stealing Tom Clancy's limelight any time soon as it is an unrepentant run and gun that uses the Street Hero engine to interesting effect, taking what would have been a typical 2d Contra clone and adding a literal depth to the gameplay.
While, as with Contra, It is still a case of running from left to right blasting the enemy to bits, Cyclone Action gives your commando (and the enemy) the freedom to move in and out of the screen as he would in a scrolling beat-em-up rather than restricting him to a linear 2-d plane.
It's this interesting mixture of Double Dragon and Contra that gives the game a fresh veneer and marks it as an interesting attempt to do something new with an engine that already has three scrolling beat-em-ups to it's name on the format.
Perhaps the infamous 'story briefs' that accompany all GameKing games were written only as loose inspiration for possible games and the programmer then just watched the Arnie classic 'Commando' and decided to make a game of that instead.
Either way, Cyclone Action won't be stealing Tom Clancy's limelight any time soon as it is an unrepentant run and gun that uses the Street Hero engine to interesting effect, taking what would have been a typical 2d Contra clone and adding a literal depth to the gameplay.
While, as with Contra, It is still a case of running from left to right blasting the enemy to bits, Cyclone Action gives your commando (and the enemy) the freedom to move in and out of the screen as he would in a scrolling beat-em-up rather than restricting him to a linear 2-d plane.
It's this interesting mixture of Double Dragon and Contra that gives the game a fresh veneer and marks it as an interesting attempt to do something new with an engine that already has three scrolling beat-em-ups to it's name on the format.
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Apologies, but the sheer amount of stuff going on at one time on screen made capturing screenshots for Cyclone Action near impossible.
You'll have to take out word for it that, during gameplay, this all scrolls and plays with far more clarity than in these static shots show.
You'll have to take out word for it that, during gameplay, this all scrolls and plays with far more clarity than in these static shots show.
Unlike other games that utilize this engine, there is no kicking and punching here. Everyone has a gun and it's not just the foot-soldiers you will need to worry about dispatching. Cars, motorbikes and even tanks (rendered in the GameKing's famously off-skew perspective) trundle towards you and need to be blown apart, while from stage 2 onwards, enemies shoot at you from armoured bunkers.
You can upgrade your machine gun to different powered weapons by picking up the appropriate tokens on the way but one hit from an enemy will remove one of your 3 lives and, with no continues, it will be a tough challenge to best the game. In addition to shooting, your hero can also roll into a Sonic-like ball, to avoid bullets and gain precious seconds of invulnerability.
While it's fun to see some invention with a familiar GameKing engine, the execution isn't perfect. Unlike with a beat-em up where you can essentially slide into contact while punching, here you need to be lined up perfectly to hit your target and as contact with an enemy, not just a bullet, will kill you outright, this can lead to some frustrating deaths. Graphically, Cyclone Action does a good job of trying to keep things interesting with the varied enemy types and fun bosses it throws at you, while the sound effects have a nice solid ring to them, particularly the metallic rattle of your gun hitting an enemy vehicle.
Overall, its a commendable effort to do something slightly different with a well worn GameKing engine and another unique genre entry for the system, but once the patterns of its enemies have been figured out, the usual drawback of only having 3 stages and the irritation of cheap deaths mean that it doesn't live up to its early promise.
Score 6/10
You can upgrade your machine gun to different powered weapons by picking up the appropriate tokens on the way but one hit from an enemy will remove one of your 3 lives and, with no continues, it will be a tough challenge to best the game. In addition to shooting, your hero can also roll into a Sonic-like ball, to avoid bullets and gain precious seconds of invulnerability.
While it's fun to see some invention with a familiar GameKing engine, the execution isn't perfect. Unlike with a beat-em up where you can essentially slide into contact while punching, here you need to be lined up perfectly to hit your target and as contact with an enemy, not just a bullet, will kill you outright, this can lead to some frustrating deaths. Graphically, Cyclone Action does a good job of trying to keep things interesting with the varied enemy types and fun bosses it throws at you, while the sound effects have a nice solid ring to them, particularly the metallic rattle of your gun hitting an enemy vehicle.
Overall, its a commendable effort to do something slightly different with a well worn GameKing engine and another unique genre entry for the system, but once the patterns of its enemies have been figured out, the usual drawback of only having 3 stages and the irritation of cheap deaths mean that it doesn't live up to its early promise.
Score 6/10
