Alantia (PC 98, 1988, Cross Media Soft)

I've always enjoyed Space Harrier. Sure some of the levels had recycled enemies in them, some bosses were a pain, the bonus levels weren't as fun as randomly destroying everything by ramming into it with a giant centipede-dragon-thing should be because of the controls, but still I realy enjoy this type of gameplay. Space Harrier, Space Harrier II, Panorama Cotton,Attack Animal Gakuen even Yaksa (Jinmu Denshou officialy) , I've enjoyed all of these to some decree. Sure, the last one had some annoying sections that were, in all honesty, pretty annoying (the teleport level comes to mind) and it was weird how you could go backwards and stop....in some levels and in others you inexplicably couldn't. But even so, I liked it, and I played it through to the end.

Level 5
Just.....level 5

Todays offering is more akin to Yaksa. Only where Yaksa was sometimes kind of annoying, this game is sometimes not god forsakingly agravating.

Alantia on the PC 98 is a Space Harrier type game, but more akin to Jinmu Denshou's model of walking instead of flying. That in itself wouldn't be such a bad thing.

But here's where the problems begin. Yes, problems. First and foremost of all, you can't go forward. At all. You can go left and right diagonaly, but you can't walk forward. This is one of the games' cripling flaws, as not being able to simply move straight ahead in this type of game is already going to cause serious issues.

But then we find out that we can only shoot while moving. So one in order to stay in more or less the same spot on the screen, one has to constantly tap right and left while pressing the fire button (shift) , praying he's gonna hit whatever is comming in to smack right into you. And 90 % of the time, your bullets will miss everything on screen.

The bonus level. Getting through this nets you an invincibility item that lets you cakewalk through level 4

Why ? Well, the game is absurdly anal about how precise you have to be to shoot anything. Literaly, your bullets are microscopic and aiming your damn crystal-rod-gun-thing is nearly impossible because of the aforementioned control issues. The only way to hit stuff you can't dodge is to hug either side of the screen, then lightly move forward and then immediately duck so that you'll be ducking in a diagonal position and fire. And even then being one inch off means that while the thing will smash right into you, you won't even scratch it.

So because of this, for most of the game you'll actualy be just trying to avoid all the enemies. Which is possible, unless there's a bigger formation that pops up in the center of the screen. Because even though the game recquires precition on the level of professional snipers to hit the enemies, they will often come in formation with huge camping holes that look like your slender sprite could just easily pass through. But no matter where you stand, you'll always get hit. The only times you can pass through a cluster like that is if you're lucky enough to just weave through diagonaly at the exact time....but realy, the sideways sniping strategy described above is your only real chance to have at least a 50 % sucess rate.

Finaly, the cherry on top of this trainwreck, if you get hit you get frozen for a second, unable to move....but you still take dammage, and taking this will freeze you again, so you can get hit some more. I've had my entiere lifebar taken out by a surprise kamikaze attack in less then a second.

Finaly, the game plays more like Harrier. On level 8

So as you can imagine, the game is mostly unfun, frustrating, unfair and just downright annoying. I was stuck for a long time on level 2, simply because you have the boss attacking you by ramming into you wherever you are, while enemies and indestructible barries get thrown at you from both sides. Level 5 had you having to avoid attacks by two seemingly indestructible genies while trying to kill the boss in the back (acomplished by sideways sniping at the exact position to hit him while also destroying the genies' projectiles). Level 7 shakes things up a bit, in that you character gets put into a golden armour that turns into a plane. You can't shoot, so the whole level is mostly just an obstacle course, which is alot easier then previous levels, simply because you were doing the same thing up to this point, only it wasn't intentionaly programmed that way. Level 8 finaly fully emulates Space Harrier with you flying in the air in your armour, but even this level has shaky controls and hitting the boss isn't that easy.

After killing the guy you get to see the amazing ending and.....

Wish I had a clue what was going on.

.....eh.....the games' over.

Overall, I have to say that I find it tough to hate the game outright, but only because I actualy like the level design, enemy design and graphics. The programming on the other hand is just shite.