Retro Game of the Day is a daily look back at some of the games we loved (or, not so much) during the formative years. Today's entry is Crisis Force by Konami.
Retro Game of the Day! Crisis Force
Crisis Force by Konami, an epic shoot-'em-up released for Famicom (Japanese version of the NES) in 1991. This was never released domestically. Much to my consternation!
First, some business to get out of the way - yesterday's review was a tongue-in-cheek callout to an old joke. In an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, I think it was actuallythe first "real" issue, they'd adopted the Famitsu (famous Japanese game review mag) style of "4-review-crew" blurbs per game, superimposed over each reviewer's 1-to-10 rating of the title in question. This was quite a novelty in US gaming press, and this drama was punctuated by one of the reviewer's blurb about a game called Flying Dragon - the entirety of which was quoted in yesterday's review. So, there's the joke. Some people got it, some didn't. Moving on..
Crisis Force was a late entry into the Nintendo Pantheon of space shooters, so late that it actually never saw release outside of The Homeland. For what reason, I am not sure - it was a graphical tour-de-force with plenty of engaging gameplay for the style of game it was ("vertical shmup") and it featured 2-player simultaneous action. Ohh, that sounds dirty! The point is, the NES was never known for being able to push these types of games (fast-moving shooters with tons of detailed characters on screen) so this was absolutely a remarkable accomplishment.
Even more so considering the amount of special FX going on. Pick up the game and the player will immediately notice similarities to 16-Bit titles like M.U.S.H.A., with several levels of detailed parallax scrolling trying to distract you as enemies fly in to destroy your fighter.
There is a lot of depth to this game (configurable ships, merging with the second player, mutitple weapons systems, etc) and the challenge can be quite daunting. Since it was such a late-day presentation, relatively few people knew it existed and therefore it never achieved the popularity of a Contra or Life Force. That's a shame, as this game was truly a labor of love and absolutely a testament to what the NES (errr, Famicom) could do when put through its proper paces.
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