METAL STOKER
NEO HARDBOILED SHOOTING
|
|
|
|
|
メタルストーカー
©Face 1991
Release: 1991-07-21 (¥6980)
Hucard (4 Mbits) FA03-009
Shooter / Multi
|
Metal Stoker is a top-down view, multi-directional scrolling shooter
by Face. The player takes control of the CS-05 custom Metal Stoker
fighter and battles his way through several long levels each
composed of several sub-stages.
The ship can move and fire in any direction but its orientation
can be locked at any time by pressing the second action button.
Each stage must be cleared by fulfilling a necessary condition, usually
by defeating a group of enemies or a sub-boss. An arrow and
a Go! sign activate when the condition is met and the
player can proceed to the next stage. Different power pods can be collected along
the way. Most of them activate new weapons, and there is a grand total
of five different types in the game, from the default Vulcan
Gun to a laser beam, force field, mines and
homing missiles. Each weapon can be powered-up by collecting
the same power pod twice. Other items can also be picked up and they
give the player an extra life or refill his life. Each weapon
can also unleash a special attack (activated by pressing Select).
This action however uses one weapon power level. Metal Stoker
consists of seven large areas and is single player only.
|
|
A quick look at the game's staff reveals that Metal Stoker was developed
by Sankindo. There is sadly not much information about Face, and even less
about their subsidiary company Sankindo... but the later also apparently developed
other PC Engine games such as Time Cruise II, Cross Wiber or
Fushigi no Yune no Alice. Another name that is very interesting is director
Nasu Hiroyuki - he was apparently a Japanese film director famous for
his best director award at the Yokohama Film Festival for his
movies Me-Bop-Highschool and Be-Bop-Highschool Kōkō yo Tarō Aika
(both adapted from Kazihiro Kiuchi's popular manga series). Nasu Hiroyuki
sadly passed away in 2005 and it is difficult to know if he actually designed
and directed Metal Stoker (he is also listed as a graphic artist).
Maybe we're dealing here with a homonymous artist, although it is really
unlikely.
|
Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
|
"Metal Stoker"
STAFF
Planning & Director
Hiroyuki Nasu
Programmer
M. Nagasawa
Noboru Naruyama
Masayuki Akiyama
|
|
Graphic Artist
Hiroyuki Nasu
Hiroki Ogawa
BGM & Sound Effect
Hiroto Saitou
Nozomu Takahashi
Business Coordinator
Sadaharu Katori
|
|
Test Player
K. Igarashi
H. Cyber!
S. Katori
M. Yamagiwa
NAK
Phantom Freak
|
|
Special Thanks
Jacket Illustration
Mafuyu Kiroki
Produced by
FACE
|
|
O
M
A
K
E
|
|
|
|
|
Click on picture to enlarge |
|
|
|
LK
|
|
Add your Pov here !
|
P
O
V
s
|
|
Metal Stoker was a nice surprise and the game really
reminds me of Wolf Team's Granada originally released in 1990.
I had no idea
what to expect when I booted up the game for the first time.
Graphics are actually really good and very detailed. The gameplay
is also very well balanced and Metal Stoker is
definitively a game that keeps giving! The first area is nothing
special and I wasn't really impressed at first. But
as I played through more and more levels, I was baffled at the amount
of content the developers managed to pack into the incredibly varied
stages. It is staggering. Each sub-stage has its special touch and
the game keeps throwing sub-bosses at you, especially in
later stages. The only catch is the difficulty level, the
game is tough and the areas very large. I would have
welcomed a password system. Additionally, most of the weapons
are not that useful, really, and you'll probably stick to
the Vulcan gun or the homing missiles as I did.
All in all, Metal Stoker
is a really good shooter with incredible variation. It is
by no means a great shooter but it features some very neat
gameplay ideas and I really recommend it to any shooter
fans out there!
|
|
|
|
