Air Buster: Trouble Specialty Raid Unit ( Air Buster , Aero Blasters ) is a horizontal scrolling shooter video game developed by Kaneko in 1990 as an arcade game machine . In the same year, it was ported to the PC Engine gaming console , and in 1991 - to the Sega Mega Drive .
| Air buster ア バ ス タ ー | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Kaneko |
| Publisher | Kaneko , namco |
| Date of issue | 1990 (arcade machine) 1990 (NEC PC Engine called Aero Blasters ) 1991 (Sega Genesis) |
| Genre | Horizontal scrolling shooter |
| Creators | |
| Game designer | Hiroshi Kaneko (Hiroshi Kaneko) |
| Technical details | |
| Platforms | Arcade machine , NEC PC Engine , Sega Genesis |
| Game modes | single-user , cooperative |
| Control | joystick 8 directions, two buttons |
| Display | Horizontal, raster, 256 x 224 pixels, 768 colors |
| CPU | Three Z80 at 6 MHz |
| Sound | YM2203 , OKI6295 |
Content
Story
In the future, orbital space weapons are captured by a terrorist organization demanding a ransom from the world. The heroes of the game, Mike and Holly, members of a special unit, must stop the terrorists at all costs.
Gameplay
The player controls the space fighter. He can shoot current weapons. There are flying containers on the levels, at the destruction of which several prizes appear, which quickly fall off the screen. These prizes change the player’s primary and secondary weapons. The player can also use weapons that destroy all weak opponents on the screen. To do this, he must hold the button until the special scale is filled.
The game consists of six levels. The action begins in the city on the surface of the planet and gradually moves into space.
An important feature of the home versions of the game was the presence of simultaneous play for two players. Most of the popular games of the genre of that time, such as Thunder Force , Gradius and R-Type , were designed for a single game.
Design and release
Both ports for home carriers were a good move, since when Mega Drive / Genesis is closer to the original Arcade game than to the PC or TurboGrafx-16. The port on Genesis works in full screen mode, has more detailed graphics, supports most of the parallax version of the Arcade machine and has the best sound effects. The port on PC and TurboGrafx-16 has a slightly extended final.
Criticism
Magazine “ MegaTech ” gave the game 78%, commenting on “excellent graphics, sound and playability”, but criticizing for the low call factor [1] . Mega put the game on the 13th place in its top games on Mega Drive Time [2] . Mean Machines gave the game 80%, but said that the game could not compete with Hellfire [3] .
Notes
- ↑ MegaTech rating, EMAP , issue 5, page 78, May 1992
- ↑ Mega magazine issue 1, page 76, Future Publishing , Oct 1992
- ↑ Out-of-Print Archive • Genesis reviews • Aero Blasters
Links
- Air Buster on Arcade History (eng.)
- Review of the 1990 game on Solvalou.com ("Air Blaster") (Eng.)
- Review Aero Blasters for Megadrive / Genesis (Eng.)