Vimana

 

Vimana - Arcade (1991)

Developed by Toaplan 

Published by Tecmo 

Vimana is probably one of Toaplan's lesser known titles, mostly because to this day it has yet to receive a console port since release (hopefully M2 will fix that soon though!). The game takes place on the planet Vimana which has been completely destroyed in a war against machines. The enemy machines continue to take fragments of the planet and fortify them as their bases while the planet's original inhabitants struggle to take back what's left of their planet. The player is tasked with assaulting these bases and take back the remnants of their planet from the enemy forces. The player takes control one of a pair of ancient space craft and heads into battle as one of the Vimana Warriors.

While there are several points in the game where the music changes, maybe signifying a stage change, the game plays as one continuous scrolling battle with very little downtime for the player. The player ship is equipped with a relatively narrow standard shot achieved by tapping the button (or autofire) as well as a charge shot that covers a wide area when holding the fire button down. By picking up power-ups throughout the game, the player weapons increase in width and power. Instead of your standard screen clearing bomb, pressing the second button surrounds the player's ship with a protective layer made up of several circles which then automatically home in on surrounding enemies making it a great way to get out of a jam when completely surrounded. 

Extends are rewarded to players every 70,000 points and seem relatively generous throughout the game, especially if the player is effective with their alternate "bomb" weapon when getting crowded. The best tip I can give for someone wanting to achieve the 1-ALL is to conserve most of these items for the late game but don't be afraid to use a few early on. They can be picked up throughout the game and it's much better to use one of those up in a hairy situation rather than lose a life and a large stock of them at once. There are certain times in this game where there are many bullets on the screen simultaneously and one could possibly consider it a small stepping stone in the direction that eventually lead to the "bullet hell" style of shooter that Cave pioneered. That being said I would still say that the game has much more in common with older Toaplan shooters than games like DoDonPachi. 

My final score where I cleared the first loop and made it 37% through the second loop.

Overall I thought this game was a solid release from Toaplan. It's difficulty is toned down compared to some of their more popular releases (on the first loop anyway) and it's a pretty manageable 1-ALL after some practice. Here's hoping we will see a console release of this title from M2 in the near future!

GG Aleste II: Lance Bird (Aleste Collection)

 

GG Aleste II (Aleste Collection) - Switch (2020)

Developed by COMPILE / M2

Published by M2 

GG Aleste II is a direct sequel to GG Aleste that was originally released in Japan for the Sega Game Gear in 1993. The game also saw release in Europe as Power Strike II for the Game Gear (not to be confused with the Master System game of the same name which was a completely different game). You play as a character named Alice who is testing a new prototype aircraft called Lance Bird when she suddenly is forced into battle after a sudden attack on the "space plant" which serves as the game's opening level.

The game consists of six short but frantic levels as well as two bonus levels where the perspective shifts to behind the player ship as the player shoots targets from a third person perspective for bonus points in the main game. The Lance Bird is equipped with a standard automatic weapon that fires straight ahead of the craft. There is also a selection of 4 sub weapons that the player can choose from to start the game, as well as throughout the game by picking up the drops with the corresponding letter. N for Neo Napalm, H for Hammer Hawk homing missiles, D for Delta form (defensive weapon that circles the player ship), and R for Rising Masher (a laser weapon). These weapons can be powered up by collecting the "P" icons that are dropped my various throughout the game. In addition to this the player also has access to a screen clearing weapon called the G Strike. These are added to your inventory by collecting a set number of icons that are dropped by drones throughout the game as you shoot them down. It seems that collecting a certain amount of these in a short period also generates a shield for the player that allows you to take one hit without losing a life.

I found that the best sub weapon is by far the Neo Napalm weapon and if you're looking for a smooth 1CC this weapon is a no brainer. Not only is it very powerful but it also cancels out a good amount of enemy bullets making large portions of the game quite a bit easier. I would recommend saving your G Strikes for the last couple of bosses as those are by far the most challenging part of the game. While this title is relatively generous with extends, it's not nearly as generous with them as the first title was. If you're not careful, the last couple of bosses can hit you a few times making it difficult to come back from as your power level goes down with each miss. I would say that this game is a nice progression in difficulty for players coming from GG Aleste 1 but still very manageable for players who are experienced in the genre.

One thing I noticed was that the enemy attack patterns can be pretty repetitive and you'll be seeing some of the same enemies and patterns in the final stages as you did on the first level. This does allow one to learn most patterns in the game pretty quick but veterans will have no trouble at all with most of the game. Due to the limitations of the original hardware there is also quite a bit of slowdown if you choose not to disable it in this new release. This slowdown serves to aid the player in managing some of the more hectic parts of the game but if you're looking for a bigger challenge this can be disabled. That being said, considering that this game was developed for the Game Gear it's quite an impressive feat for that hardware. The graphics, sound and music are top notch as would be expected from Compile and no doubt pushed the Sega Game Gear to it's limit when originally released.

My final score on the default difficulty.

My online rank as of this post.

Overall I enjoyed this one quite a bit, M2 have done a fantastic job bringing these titles to newer consoles and making them much more accessible than they have been. I will soon be looking toward GG Aleste III which was newly developed by M2 in 2020 and included in this same collection!