Gundeadligne

This time, I'm going for another slightly older doujin title, "Gundeadligne." If you're familiar with Progear no Arashi for the arcade, you should feel right at home with this game. Gundeadligne is basically a horizontal scrolling 2D shooter. The kind where bullets swarm in on you from all directions. Being more used (though not that good at all) to vertical shooters, it took me a while to adjust to the gameplay.

The game features high quality character artwork, smooth-scrolling graphics and snes-style sprites coupled with 3D effects. What is most noticeable about this game is the amount of depth (or potential depth) it has for hardcore gamers. I have yet to even figure out half of what the bars and numbers on the gameplay screen stand for. Fortunately, it's easy to pick up and play for casual gamers as well. The game features an auto-bomb system which automatically detonates any bombs you might have whenever you're in a pinch. The collision detection is very forgiving and you can actually do some very risky dodges without getting hit, unlike the hair trigger collision of most other 2D shooters.

The levels seem to rely more on memory rather than fancy dodging, especially the bosses whose bullets can trap you into a corner if you don't know what to expect. The action is extremely fast-paced even though enemy bullets travel relatively slowly. Thankfully, colliding with enemy sprites doesn't seem to do any damage to your character. Controls seem to be the standard Z,X,C. Holding down Z makes your character focus-fire for more damage (probably at the expense of your score). There are intitially three characters to choose from. The first two control normally while the third one, Nagi has one of the wierdest control schemes I've ever seen. Her line of fire rotates in reverse correlation to where you move her (ehehe! It's kinda hard to explain. It's best if you try it yourself.) I suppose this character is able to hit enemies who move in behind her more easily, though I'm not sure how to control her line of fire. Two players can play the game simultaneously.

In the game's instruction manual, there are explanations of the deeper gameplay aspects like reload time, flip turn, and slow mode (unfortunately, I have no idea what they're talking about and I'm to lazy to try translating it.)

Each character also seems to have a story (written in ZOMG mostly kanji).

Lastly, the bgm tracks are fantastic. They sound like modern remixes of old-school nes shooter themes.

homepage: http://www.murasame.com/

Liberation Army - Shooter/Strategy Game Hybrid

Liberation Army is the Gundam game for gamers on a budget. While, it's a bit dated, I don't think this game gets the attention that it deserves compared to other freeware titles like Warning Forever. It's a real-time-strategy/shooting game hybrid that plays like a 2D Dynasty Warriors clone. This game also reminds me of an old dos shareware game called Gladiator. You control a single unit while leading an entire army of humanoid mechs that look distinctly like mobile suits and engage an opposing army on a 2D battle map.

The gameplay is divided into the preparation and combat phase. During the preparation phase, you are shown the map of the next battle showing your formation as opposed to the enemies. You can buy upgrades for your allies, technology, new units, ships and choose the mobile suit pilot who will participate in battle. You can also customize your pilot's mobile suit by changing/adding/upgrading his/her equipment. In the combat phase, you control your own unit while having the ability to issue commands to your allies. Going rambo straight into a swarm of enemy fighters is the fastest way to get killed, thus, if you're thinking of showing off your Seed Mode or Newtype shooting skills, the game punishes you severely. Zooming straight into enemy territory makes it easier for enemy fighters to land critical hits by shooting you from behind. While your own unit is considerably tougher than normal units (with stronger upgrades), and is equipped with one sub weapon of your choice(even includes the beam saber... though it's kinda hard to use without taking damage), it does not have the ability to take down the entire opposing army all by itself. If you find yourself in a corner of the screen surrounded by enemy units with no allies in range, you'd best retreat to save your pilot from suffering too heavy damage to fight in the next battle.

Umm... this is what happens when you try flying in solo. The one being focus-fired on near the upper-left of the screen is me

Your territory grows in percentage as indicated in the preparation phase every time you win a battle by either making the enemy retreat or destroying all enemy units onscreen. The focus of the game is on slowly gaining ground and destroying enemy ships that deploy more enemy units while keeping your own ships protected. As your territory increases, the difficulty level also increases, with elite enemy mobile suits equal to your own joining the battle, each equipped with their own special subweapons. Luckily, you also earn powerful allies called escorts with their own special weaponry depending on the number of battles you've participated in. That aside, the AI for your escorts is not very good at dodging enemy bullets nor as powerful as the special enemy units, so you'd best not rely on them too much.

The battles seem to go on forever as I've yet to reach anything that indicates that there's an ending to this game. This gives Liberation Army a high replay value but unfortunately, after the novelty has worn off, it can get a bit repetitive.
The graphics are nothing special but work well enough for this type of game. Up to 600 units can fight onscreen at once, which effectively gives you the feeling of being inside a great gundam or macross type war. There's also a variety of midi tracks included in the game and you can manually replace them with your favorite mech-anime theme if you want. Surprisingly, the character art is a bit subpar for a japanese anime-type game as I've noticed that some of the facial proportions on the character portraits are a bit off. Luckily, it's not too noticeable and is not something that will distract you from having fun with this game.

The version of Liberation Army reviewed here is freeware visit the author's homepage here.
http://www.infoseek.livedoor.net/~koushi_okada/

The game has been completely translated into English by Aeon Genesis
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=libarmy

Idinaloq - Commercial Quality Vertical Shooter

More screenshots plus downloads for the game here:

Game Homepage
http://www.namikaze.org

Ah! Idinaloq! A game that I'd recommend more for its aesthetic appeal rather than the actual gameplay which is actually quite bland. Featured prominently on freeware gaming sites a few years ago; the controls are a bit sluggish and the collision detection is unforgiving. However, you do get unlimited continues, so you can beat this game at any level of play and there's at least 1 unlockable character. Just expect to die a lot if you're more used to the dodge-fest of danmaku games like Tohou Mountain of Faith.

This game is total eye-candy. The anime-style characters are professionally drawn, the 3D graphics (though a bit dated) look stunning, and this is about the only freeware game I know that comes with it's own vocal opening theme complete with a fmv sequence.

Over-all this is game is more of a collectors download for occasional play rather than anything else.