Fire Bam (Famicom Disk System, 1988, Hal Laboratory)

Now this is an odd one. An action RPG released on the old disk system that not too many people have heard of. Some people get turned away by it's garish colours and it's somewhat cryptic nature, but there is definitely a solid product here, and one holding much more substance then one would believe.

The final Boss knows how to colour coordinate.

The game stars Bam who has to regain the Magic Sword, defeat the clan of the "evil Domes" and "open up" the world. This later term has to do with an interesting twist in the game mechanic. You have one area that serves as a hub (forest) and you're home town where you can go save your game and regain energy, by visiting.....

They seem to turn human later on. Don't
ask me how they stay floating in the air for so long.

These things. When you start there doesn't appear to be anything else besides your house in this area. You then leave for the woods, which is also sort of a hub, but with enemies. These range from weird pink bouncing things to humanoid giraffs with giant scissors.


Going around here you discover two things. 1. killing enemies makes them drop fire, which is added to your counter and is actualy used as currency (one best not try to think about that too much) and 2. your starting sword is well and truly useless. It has a reach of exactly 0.3 inches and is just as usefull. The sword is your main means of attack (you do get one later with actual range) because although you do acquire ranged weapons later on, these tend to become useless on some enemies later on.

Your main method of transportation: a living elevator.
One wonders how the big red guy got in here when this
is the only way in.

Going around you find various shop doors where giant....things sell you various items for very high prices, and then another type of door.

Which has no deeper meaning at all.

                                                                        Entering this will either lead to an action sequence or dungeon. The action sequences are rather a pain in the behind (especialy if you don't have the better sword yet) due to how the enemies come at you from above, and how colecting extra health or invincibility is made difficult by both how fast it moves, it dissapearing quickly and the fact that should it land behind you you can never get at it before it dissapears. Then at the end you fight a boss, and there are actualy 7 boss types, although they all do get repeated at least once. And after these boss fights a cinematic occurs. Sort of hard to comprehend when you're going into it blind, but it actualy means the world is expanding - literaly, new areas get uncovered not only in the woods but in your town as well, resulting in the appearance of shops where you can buy some much needed gear.

A giraffe with scissors.
Just.....a giraffe with scissors.

After going through a series of these sequences, you'll be left with the task of clearing out dungeons. They are entered through the exact same doors, but these are, obviously, a lot less straight forward. There are dozens of blind paths, elevators going in multiple directions, keys you need to pick up and every place looks pretty much the same. Defeating the boss will result in the same expansion of the game world, with one exception. Once you actualy have to face the final boss, however you need to get yourself killed here because you don't have the magic sword yet (annoyingly this still takes away a life, even if unavoidable).

Getting thrown about in the Action Sequence

Also speaking of the bosses, one of the action sequence bosses gets an....upgrade here.

Does one even have to say anything to this ?

Clearing all the dungeons makes the red lizard thing be replaced by a woman who gives you the Magic sword with which you finaly put that satanic gremlin in his place.

Fire Bam is an interesting game, but the dungeons are mazes that can get ridiculously extensive and annoying to complete without a walkthrough. Interestingly enough this was one of the many games released by Hal Laboratory, makers of Kirby. The game's director and character designer, amongst other things, was Pikio Midorikawa, who'se only other credit was Eggerland: Meikyū no Fukkatsu.