REVIEW: Soldier
|
"In 1xxx, a group of terrorist controlled the XX city. They were in control of the army and threaten the local govern to promise their unreasonable demands. One group of special army were standing by and got the order to fight with the terrorist."
|
|
What with the endless wars, kidnappings and F1 races that have nothing to do with F1, it's little wonder that the citizens of the Gameking's fictional multiverse have long ago contracted some form of wilfull amnesia.
At least this seems to be the explanation for nearly every game being set among time periods and cities littered with more X's than a Las Vegas strip joint.
Okay, we know they are ripping off Mega Man but it's fun to imagine a connected universe full of poorly drawn dot-matrix characters who have no idea as to the horror of their true nature...
Anyway, having rid themselves of the only slightly racist sounding 'Black gang' in the Double Dragon rip-off Street Hero, XX City has now gone and gotten themselves into trouble with some terrorists. There can be only one solution: Rip off Contr...Umm...I mean, send for the special army and fight the terrorist!
Yes. That.
So, Soldier is a massive Contra clone. No real surprise on a handheld full of heavily borrowed ideas, but this isn't inherently a bad thing. Contra is a classic game and its formula is hard to mess with, even when rendered on an ultra low resolution dot matrix screen.
A fairly mundane intro of a lone soldier parachuting into a jungle and then looking all angry on the title screen leads you straight into the action which should be familiar to any run and gun fan. You move your soldier from left to right, somersaulting about the place and blasting the enemy. Along the way your little soldier can upgrade his weapon from a slow firing pea shooter to a rapid fire machine gun or a three way spread gun.
The dot matrix screen does lead to some slightly odd perspective issues, with enemy soldiers being a good foot taller than your little army man and tanks being around half your size, but this is something you have to get used to with the Gameking hardware in general.
At least this seems to be the explanation for nearly every game being set among time periods and cities littered with more X's than a Las Vegas strip joint.
Okay, we know they are ripping off Mega Man but it's fun to imagine a connected universe full of poorly drawn dot-matrix characters who have no idea as to the horror of their true nature...
Anyway, having rid themselves of the only slightly racist sounding 'Black gang' in the Double Dragon rip-off Street Hero, XX City has now gone and gotten themselves into trouble with some terrorists. There can be only one solution: Rip off Contr...Umm...I mean, send for the special army and fight the terrorist!
Yes. That.
So, Soldier is a massive Contra clone. No real surprise on a handheld full of heavily borrowed ideas, but this isn't inherently a bad thing. Contra is a classic game and its formula is hard to mess with, even when rendered on an ultra low resolution dot matrix screen.
A fairly mundane intro of a lone soldier parachuting into a jungle and then looking all angry on the title screen leads you straight into the action which should be familiar to any run and gun fan. You move your soldier from left to right, somersaulting about the place and blasting the enemy. Along the way your little soldier can upgrade his weapon from a slow firing pea shooter to a rapid fire machine gun or a three way spread gun.
The dot matrix screen does lead to some slightly odd perspective issues, with enemy soldiers being a good foot taller than your little army man and tanks being around half your size, but this is something you have to get used to with the Gameking hardware in general.
The soldier starts his journey equipped with a meagre pea shooter but can soon upgrade it to a rapid fire machine gun.
|
This tank presents an early obstacle as well as a good example of the rather odd perspective the Gameking's limited dot matrix screen often forces onto games.
|
Left: The Spread gun is usually available in the latter third of a stage and is shot down and collected in the same manner as in Contra.
Right: The end of level boss for stage 1 is this hovering menace. Stay to the side of the screen and shoot at him diagonally to survive.
Right: The end of level boss for stage 1 is this hovering menace. Stay to the side of the screen and shoot at him diagonally to survive.
Literally everything that can be plagiarised from Contra, has been. The trademark jump and mid air maneuverability,the fly-by power-ups, the ability to lie down and fire to take out ground mounted cannons...it's all there, as are the familiar enemies. There are a couple of unique elements, however. Half way through each stage, a siren will sound and enemies will begin parachuting down from the sky en-masse to up the tension. Similarly the end of stage bosses aren't particularly Contra-esque, being weird floating robots instead and feeling closer to something from a Metal Slug game.
One thing retained from Contra is the absolutely brutal difficulty, although this can be overcome with memorisation.The game has the usual 3 stage limit of nearly every side-scrolling Gameking game, but you'll have to be an acomplished player to see them all as, once your five lives are gone, it's back to square one, with no continues offered.
Soldier plays a curiously addictive low-fi version of Contra. It's one of the Gameking's best action titles and has the exact same addictive, one more go, pick up and play feel as the game it clones.
Now for the love of Gryzor will somebody give one of these cities a name!
Score 8/10
One thing retained from Contra is the absolutely brutal difficulty, although this can be overcome with memorisation.The game has the usual 3 stage limit of nearly every side-scrolling Gameking game, but you'll have to be an acomplished player to see them all as, once your five lives are gone, it's back to square one, with no continues offered.
Soldier plays a curiously addictive low-fi version of Contra. It's one of the Gameking's best action titles and has the exact same addictive, one more go, pick up and play feel as the game it clones.
Now for the love of Gryzor will somebody give one of these cities a name!
Score 8/10
