AIR BUSTER [A REVIEW OF RETRO VIDEO GAMES]
Happy Weekend!
How is your weekend? Did you plan something good? Hope you have the best one. Ok, today, I want to continue to review a video game. Yesterday, I reviewed a video game which is named Road Rash from Sega Mega Drive/Genesis platforms. It was the first racing video game that I've ever reviewed. Today, I'm about to review a shooting video game which is named Air Buster. Ok, don't waste your time here and let's review this video game.
This article is aimed to review classic games on various platforms. Then, the important thing is to recall your childhood memories. Please follow me @zulfan91 to make sure that we still keep in touch.
Air Buster
Shoot 'em up is the genre of Air Buster. It implements a horizontally scrolling. This video game was developed by Kaneko and co-distributed by Namco in 1990. This video game was aimed for arcade machines. Then, later, the video game was ported to other platforms such as PC engine and Sega Mega Drive in 1991 in Japan. In this video game, the player pilots a jet fighter to fight the enemies.
The Information Details
- Developer: Kaneko
- Publisher: Kaneko
- Designer: Hiroshi Kaneko
- Platforms: Arcade, PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, and Mega Drive/Genesis
- Release: Arcade (JP: 1990), PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 (JP: November 2, 1990 and NA: December 31, 1990), and Mega Drive/Genesis (JP: January 31, 1991 and NA: 1991)
- Genre: Horizontally scrolling shooter
- Mode: Single-player and multiplayer
- CPU: Zilog Z80
- Sound: Yamaha YM2203, OKI6295
- Display: Raster, 256 x 224 pixels, 768 colors, horizontal orientation
Gameplay
The mission of this video game is quite simple but it's hard to do id. The players must shoot the enemies as many as possible. In this video game, the enemies are aliens. The players must pay much attention while playing the game because there are too many the enemies that appear at once time. The players must dodge from the enemies fires and ships because if the players get hit by them, the jet fighter will collapse.
In this video game, you play as a jet fighter pilot. Then, the player can select which Blaster fighter that they want to play with to pass six stages. One of seven weapons can be utilized by The Blaster fighters. The jet fighters can release many fires from different parts of the jet. For example, The striker weapon can fire from in front of the jet. Then, the reverse shot can fire two diagonal shots from the back of the jet. A six-directions shot can be done by a semi-automatic weapon that the Jets have, and all enemies on the screen can be tracked by a Homing shot.
The other three weapons are Missile based which change from Red straight-discharging Rockets and Green Homing Missiles. There is likewise the Border thing which encompasses the front of the ship, shielding it from colliding with closer view objects. The main different Items incorporate Power-Ups which increment the ship's standard shot power and Bonus Points that show up in the indication of Dollar signs.
PLOT
The time setting of Air Buster in 2021. In the beginning, the planet Earth is peace and everything is going smoothly. Suddenly, a mysterious space which equipped with sophisticated weapon appears. This space is not alone, it is accompanied by other small ships that also can release the fire. Together, they attack the Earth and chaos happen anywhere. No one knows what is their mission and where they come from. Then, two the greatest Jet fighters pilots named Mike and Holly come to help the Earth. They must stop this alien invasion.
Reception
This video game got some responses from video game magazines. Most of them give good responses but not too high. For example, MegaTech magazine gave 78% for this video game. They praised the graphics, sound, and playability but they said that the video game is lack of challenge. Then, Mega put this video game on the 13rd place for Top Mega Drive Games of All Time. The last is Machines that gave 80% for Air Buster but it cannot compete for another video game that has the same genre named Hellfire.
Where to Play
Have you ever played this video game? If no, click this link. The manual control of the game can be seen in the picture below. Please remember the function of each button thus you can play the video game smoothly.
My Opinion
I have explained some important information about this video game and also played this video game. Now, it's time for me to write what I'm thinking about this video game. This video game is very interesting for me because the video game is very challenging. The players must shoot the enemies while dodging from getting hit by the enemies. It's not easy as the players think because the number of the enemies that appear at the same time is more than ten. In nutshell, I give 7.5 of 10 for this video game. I hope you enjoy reading my article and see you in the next post.
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