Night Slashers (Arcade)

It's like killing monsters... Actually it's just killing monsters.

Data East has a history of hit and miss gaming. This one is more of a "skewed off to the side" kind of game. In the same vein as Final Fight, Mutation Nation, Violent Storm and other such brawlers, Night Slashers takes a sort of Van Helsing approach to gaming and pits three characters (The Heavy, All Rounder and Nimble Minx) against a medly of monsters from various franchises and source materials and you get to beat them up in a variety of fashions and ways.

How's it "uncanny" if he knows lots of martial arts?

You've your strong character, a mix of cybernetics and cheesy rock with a dash of California in there. Capable of picking up monsters and leaping around while using combos and attacks others can't. Your all rounder character that looks very synonymous to Van Hellsing while having a balance of combos and moves and then there's the token bonus nimble character that nobody really wants to pick as they can't take a hit as well as the others and has more moves than most people will bother to try and learn to be effective with them before having to select another character as they've just lost their last life... again. Night Slashers knows its cliches and falls into the same trap as almost every other similar game (Undercover Cops... Monster Maulers... Dynamite Cop 2... I'll stop there...)

...maybe

INTROOO!!! Actual fighting is not as fun/easy.

Plot wise for Night Slashers, you get various monsters roaming the world and these 3 people are going to fix it. By killing everyone and not looking for a cure. Zombies are roaming the streets, Doctors have gone mad, Frankenstein's Monster is stalking in the shadows, a pastiche of Dracula causes trouble, someone gets to punch out a helicopter, a Mummy fights using wrestling moves (not bad for an emaciated guy...girl...dead person), all because some demon is returning to this plane of existence and your characters need to kill it. (No spoils but if you've seen certain episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, you know what to expect. Yeah that episode with the possessed book that got scanned into a scanner...)

Give it now! Cut this 'running away' shit and get to the fighting!

Graphically, Night Slashers is certainly riding high in the blood, guts and gore department. Everything you fight and kill dies (un-dies?) in a violent or gruesome fashion while cut-scene images look impressive and reek of 90s comic book stylings which adds to the cheesiness of the game but not in a negative manner. Likewise, getting critical hits on enemies throws up a comic book style effect to illustrate that you just hit harder than you ever hit before and often resulting in an instant kill with standard enemies. The largest problem, graphically speaking, is that the animations of the creatures and the characters becomes less fluid depending upon which movements the characters are forced to go through, usually getting up or moving more dynamically beyond the point of the generic "menacing walk" down the street.

At least he has an idea of what to do

Having said that, the audio in Night Slashers tries its hardest to give the player an experience with the music that ultimately falls flat in places but ambles along amicably enough to set a suitable mood without the emphasis on being too serious while not being overly slapstick (the graphics and Over The Top violence do that already), and while it's impressive to hear digitised speech and sound samples for the combat, it's rather repetitive to hear the characters repeating the same words over and over, ad nauseam, every time they get up or do a special move. The first few times it's ok, after that it simply becomes dull and monotonous.

Obligatory lift level

There's little here to come back to for Night Slashers, after the first time the game is beaten, aside perhaps to see the excessive violence and cheesy horror setting and in all regards, even that isn't enough to determine more credits from pockets. Repetitive gameplay despite the option for more attacks and combos and an awkward control system coupled with monsters and bosses that get stupidly high levels of priority in attacks, bury any chance of a real replay interest with the very undead it has with its own monsters.

Don't care, kicked your arse already.

Dungeon Magic / Light Bringer

4 People off to kick arse, take names and kill demons.

Basic Premise, take four archetypes from the Dungeons and Dragons gaming series, Warrior, Monk/Thief, Elf/Archer and Wizard/OldGuy, give them all a back-story that is drawn out over four levels and have them save the world from a demon that you know is going to wake up just before the end of the game to be fought. That's effectively what Dungeon Magic is but my brief description is like saying a nuclear bomb is just a big firework.

Your typical choice. Youngish Knight, Dark-Past warrior, Female Elf Magic, Old-man More Magic

Dungeon Magic takes up to four people, and really needs four people if you want to experience the full story, to play through a non-linear set of levels and dungeons. The true mastery in this game is that there's multiple routes, all of which are filled with tricks, traps, enemies and bosses. It's almost guaranteed that you could play this game and every time you play it, you'll face different threats and opponents unless you're someone who only takes the same route every single time. Throw in extra secrets like hidden doors and walls and you've a true glut of gaming potential just in the level design alone.

Really wasn't expecting this.

Each character in Dungeon Magic has a weapon, ranging from Sword to Arm Brace (I've no idea what it's called), Bow and Staff for the main characters respectively and each weapon can range from standard, to fire, ice and lightning giving bonus damage to specific enemies (and bosses) or negating damage from those that are resistant to it. Sadly you can't drop a weapon until you die or pick up another one. Add to this that you can find extra axes, knives, torches, shields (LOTS of them) from chests and other enemies and you've a great selection and potential for causing more damage to your opponents.

UNLIMITED POWAH!

The characters within Dungeon Magic also have your standard melee combo attack, a charged attack which is different depending upon the character and a super charged attack which takes longer to charge but does much more damage and impact. For example the Warrior character has a leaping sword strike while the archer actually fires the arrow, charge it up more and it becomes a flaming leaping sword attack or a high powered arrow capable of skewering multiple enemies. Throw in some grapples and throws along with a finite number of desperation attacks that don't draining your health and you've a large variation between each character that makes the game worth playing through as all of them. Collection of treasures and items will either boost your health or give you experience points and with enough of those, you'll level up, which basically gives you a bigger health bar. But at least they kept the IDEA of experience points in the game for us.

It's got scales, it's also going to be very big.

Enemies in Dungeon Magic have a large variety, ranging from "Mad Box" (It's a mimic for legal), wolf men, lizard men, spiders, snakes, dragons, living plants and animated skeletons. While bosses range from giant snakes, to huge knights, Dridders (Spider/Human combo), demons and more powerful demons. Though hazards range from spears being dropped at key buttons, spikes, pits (non-lethal, just painful) falling rocks (not everyone dies), poison sprays, petrification beams, arrow machines, conveyor belts and plenty, plenty more. Add to all of this a time limit which wipes everyone out if they stay in a room for too long and little ghosts that cause minor damage when the timer is getting low and you've enough of a reason to haul arse and get a move on.

Hmm... I think... Maybe... It's a trap...?

From an aesthetic standpoint, Dungeon Magic looks impressive, although there are times where the dungeons do get rather repetitive within a level, but there's little tips and nods towards the plot where the dungeon steadily becomes darker and more "infected" while the plot progresses and waters that healed and did nothing to the player, now begin to poison and hinder them instead. Enemies all look rather impressive (except the blobs, for blobbish reasons) and the graphic effects of fire, lightning and such are illustrated very cleanly.

Levels get monotonous eventually.

Sounds and music are a mixed bunch in Dungeon Magic, while the sounds and effects are crisp, clean and clearly audible, including even the speech of monsters dying, players dying and the almost memetic "you just powered up" which seems like a large acknowledgement to Altered Beast, the music within the game lacks the volume that such an orchestral fanfare should have. There's the idea behind this of an epic scaled accompaniment piece of music with the game but it's lost behind the battles and fights going on, which is a shame as there's a lot here to be really appreciated if the game itself wasn't almost entirely overshadowed by another Dungeon based game that had a more official backing from the original source material.

Odds on, these chests will attack you.

That's not to say there aren't flaws to Dungeon Magic. The puzzles within the game can be difficult to figure out (I.e. WHERE is that damned switch, oh it's behind the foreground where I can never see it clearly) and some characters are massively inferior to others. Such that the Warrior/Knight character is possibly the weakest while the Wizard is likely the strongest and most powerful character as a result of his charged attacks and special moves. But any player can do well with the other main characters too, if they pay particular attention to the game's hints and clues (if found on their travels).

Lots of rooms, but almost all of them can kill you.

Having said all that for Dungeon Magic, it's a very long game too. Easily taking around an hour to beat and longer if you're finding some of the levels a nightmare to navigate. In particular level 3 which involves finding 4 keystones and destroying them before the game will let you progress. So if you're looking for a fun game that will take you a while and has a great replay ability factor to, you would do well to give this one a try.

Flame Gunner - Arcade

Who's GAPS inc? Should we care? Yes, yes we should.

Gaps Inc isn't that well known for the games they've made, in truth I've had a hard time working it out in the brief spell of research I've conducted, but what they have produced here is rather impressive.

Each arena holds little tricks and traps to drain your health but you can avoid those.

Flame Gunner is a Third Person shooter, to put it very lightly. Not the over-the-shoulder shooter, but more the Resident Evil type of 3rd person where the camera remains fixed and the character wanders around freely. It's an odd take on the situation and it doesn't quite manage to pull off the attempt in doing so but it's still intriguing to see what they've made as a game.

No, really? I WAS the only one playing!

The gameplay in Flame Gunner involves you picking a character that determines the starting point to the mission. The mission being to one-man-army against a nutcase who wants a rocket to go into space. So that means you get to turn up and Rambo your way through the game, shooting people, blowing stuff up and generally causing havoc. Movement is determined by your joystick pointing you the way with you wish to go and also aims your gun. Shooting is just tapping or holding the fire button, the difference between the two being that holding the fire button locks your aim in that direction while you can still move and dodge shots. Grenades/Explosives can be fired as well but take a little while to launch and there's a dodge button.

Wreck it, blow it and destroy it for bonus points!

Enemies in Flame Gunner will aim towards you it'll be OBVIOUS that they are, you're safe until the line of fire turns read and then you'll have to be out of the way. Each enemy has a health bar and as you progress, the odd levelling system in the game will determine enemies to get harder as you go and more numerous in later missions. Levels don't have to be played in order and you can choose (usually) which levels you wish to take next with some having more difficult missions than others.

Mission tasks differ from location to location.

Usually, your objective in Flame Gunner is just to kill everyone and maybe a boss. Other types of mission include destruction, where you blow everything up; escort, where you have to get someone free of an area as quickly as possible without them being killed; and protection, where you stop the enemies from destroying something within a time limit. Unfortunately, it's not always clear which mission will hold which tasks for you to be done until you start playing it. But the variety does keep the game more interesting.

Lots of FMVs and action happening, plot points included.

Interestingly, some arenas are large enough that if you move to a specific point/location, the camera will change a la FMV and you get to see the fight from a new perspective, likewise some levels will have you moving through stages with the FMV showing the progression ebfore it settles at a point and game can be played from there in almost seemless movement between the FMV and the static image showing the game's level.

Huge wall of fire, a.k.a A Big Gun.

As a game, despite the guns and explosives and fighting Armoured Personel Carriers and tough guys, Flame Gunner is almost calm in its delivery of the game. This may be as a result of the slow movement of the main characters, Generic Asshat, Girly Asshat and OneMoreChoice Asshat. Little seems to be different between the characters which leaves the game to fall back upon its multiple choice system and routes for players to navigate their way around and through the levels.

Sounds like my living room after 2 curries.

What Flame Gunner doesn't hold up on, is the control system. Moving and trying to aim becomes a nightmare if you don't develop these skills quickly and you'll soon be overwhelmed by the enemies attacking you. Dodging rarely seems to work and using the explosives is risable at best for the attempt you'll make. Thankfully you can pick up bonus health, new guns and more explosives but it doesn't stop the game being difficult more so as a result of bad gameplay mechanics than any real challenge to the player.

Some fights are very drawn out.

The sounds are your typical gunshots and explosions, while the music is comfortably mild in the background, never overwhelming but also conventional enough that it doesn't grate and it doesn't stand out as being out of place in the game. It could very easily be in place in almost any game from the 90s to today by the grace of its own merits and dulcet tones.

They don't make it easy on the final stages. Not at all.

Overall, Flame Gunner is worth a look and those in the know will recognise the engine and the models used in the way they've been executed, it's a good game but lacks that final spit and polish that would turn it into a great game. The potential is there and while not entirely a 'miss' more a glancing ricochet away from the bullseye of a great game.