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アーガス
©1986 Jaleco
Release: 1986-04-17 (¥4900)
Cartdridge JF-07
Shooter/vertical
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Argus is a vertical shooter by Jaleco and conversion of an
arcade game originally released in 1986. The players takes control of a
space-fighter equipped with a front laser gun and ground bombs. Although
the game features power-ups, they follow an unusual and unique
formula - tiles on the ground must be destroyed in order to upgrade
the main weapon or trigger special events. However, three of these
tiles must be destroyed to activate such power-ups - B creates
a temporary barrier around the ship,P upgrades the primary
weapon and L gives the player an extra bonus at the end of each
stage. Another interesting twist to the game is the Uoru armor; a
shadow sometimes appear on the ground and if the player aligns his own
shadow with it, then the ship transforms into a powerful robot for a
short amount of time. Each stage ends with the same boss battle; a large
Mega Argus fortress with a slow flashing core at its center, and the only way to destroy
this pernicious mothership is to bomb its core when it is fully exposed.
After the boss is taken care of, the player must successfully land on a
runway and be cautious not to crash the ship. Argus features nine
levels and includes a two-player alternating option.
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Argus was an arcade game originally published by Jaleco in 1986 (picture on the left).
The Famicom version tested here displays slight differences - the arcade
game is a lot more colorful and features a parallax scrolling. The amount of
available weapons was also cut down to only two (three-way shot and
large beam) and bombs don't change (the default ground weapon in the
arcade game was a laser). The arcade game features an extra 'E'
tile that acts as a smartbomb and destroys everything on the screen,
as well as a useful power-up status bar located
at the bottom of the screen. The Mega Argus motherships were also dramatically reduced in size
and all the ones featured in the Famicom port are the same,
whereas they become increasingly more elaborate in the arcade game -
and the landing sequence head-up display is a lot simpler overall. On another hand, the
super-robot-ship attack is a Famicom exclusive (see the secrets section).
The original arcade game was
included in Jaleco Collection Vol. 1 (Playstation, 2003).
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Japanese Guidebook
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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Invincibility:
At the title screen, press and hold select on the second
player controller and press start on the first player
controller.
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The Uoru armor:
In some stages, a second flashing shadow sometimes appears on the ground. If you align
your own shadow with it, the ship will turn into a powerful and invicible robot-ship
for a short amount of time, sucking in enemy ships.
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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The design of Argus is an odd one. First off, the power-up
system is really confusing - you have to bomb three tiles of the same
kind in order to activate them. New weapons are just arbitrarily awarded
at the beginning of each new stage (there're only two of them though).
The giant robot attack is amazing, and definitively was a "wow" moment
for me - it appeared totally randomly in my case, and it took me a while
to figure out how I triggered it. Then the landing sequence that pops up
after each boss battle is entirely unnecessary and utterly
frustrating - you'll most probably crash countless times before
figuring out how it works and waste away innumerable lives.
Once you accept the gameplay mechanics for what they are,
you can really start enjoying the game - well, this doesn't last long
though, and all the levels are almost identical and feature the same boss.
All in all, Argus has some charms, but its overall
difficulty (easier than the arcade game though), boredom and repetitiveness
will likely give you a rather bland aftertaste.
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