|
|
|
|
ファイナルソルジャー
©1991 Hudson Soft / Vol.40
Release: 1991-07-05 (¥6500)
HuCard (4 Mbits) HC91045
Shooter / Vertical
|
Final Soldier is a vertical shooter by Hudson Soft
and is the second installment of the Star Soldier saga to
be released for the PC Engine system. Earth is under
attack from hostile inter-dimensional aliens and it is
the player's solemn duty to stop the impending invasion. Unlike
other games in the Star Soldier series, the player
is given the opportunity to customize his weaponry before
springing into action. The different weapon settings can be changed
by visiting the setup menu at the beginning of the
game - four main weapons are available, namely
the Vulcan Gun (V), the Laser (L), the Flame-Thrower (F)
and the E-Beam (E). The player can switch from one
to another by collecting colored pods and collecting the same
type again increases the strength and range of the active weapon.
Additionally, and in the Star Soldier tradition, secondary
missiles can also be added to this already formidable arsenal.
But the core of the gameplay is built around special
flying pods that follow the ship around and greatly increase its
firepower - these pods can be "sacrificed" in desperate situations
to release devastating explosions. The game features
seven long stages with mid-level and end-level bosses. Because
of the nature of the game (see the info section), Final Soldier
also features a two and five minutes score attack modes.
|
Final Soldier was part of the Caravan Festival
organized by Hudson Soft in 1991 and a limited edition
of the game exists (picture on the left). This Special Version comes as a
single HuCard (see the Omake section) and offers two short Time Attack modes (two and five minutes) in the
Caravan Festival tradition.
The card is extremely hard to find and can fetch high prices.
(See Star Soldier for more
information about the Caravan Festival).
|
Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
STAFF
Program Design
Papa Tomohide!!
Character Design
Hiropon Ojaki
|
|
Assistant Character Design
Crazy Pandora Ishi
Background Design
King
Music Composition
T S Kiyoshi
|
|
Voice
Pretty Woman
Direction
Dionysus Hal
Producer
Uradesu
|
|
Presented By
Hudson Soft
And You...
|
|
O
M
A
K
E
|
|
|
|
|
Click on picture to enlarge |
S
E
C
R
E
T
S
|
|
Stage Select :
Reset the game and press Start to
go to the title screen. There, press Left, Left,
I, Right, Right, II, Up,
Down, Up and Down.
A pink number should
now be visible on the title screen allowing you to pick
a level to start from.
|
|
|
|
|
|
LK
|
|
Add your Pov here !
|
P
O
V
s
|
|
Ok, I'm going to throw Final Soldier under the
bus right now - I think the game is overall disappointing.
I mean, after the excellent Super Star Soldier, I was
somewhat expecting a lot more from Hudson Soft.
Well, don't read me wrong here, Final Soldier is a fun
and intense shooter with plenty on offer for the
shooting fans out there. But I personally think that the holistic/wacky/generic
enemy designs and the colorful palette
never really appealed to me.
The gameplay is also fairly average overall and
the difficulty level quickly ratchets up (the last stage is truly insane!).
All in all and despite its name, Final Soldier wasn't the final
"soldier" in Hudson Soft's series, and it
wasn't the best either. It definitively falls
right in line with the other PC Engine installments but
it is arguably the series's 'weakest link'.
I also still wonder why it was never
released in the United States...
|
|
|
|
