Certainly, I can't be the only one on this site who gets a little jealous when they read slakur's articles and hear about his weekly nights of gaming with friends. As I've mentioned before, I don't have a lot of friends who game and even fewer that actually collect games. However, over the last few weeks, a buddy of mine has been coming over to the house on Thursday nights to game. We have a great deal of fun playing some of the new games I've purchased (some of which I'm playing for the first time) and pulling games off the shelf that maybe he or I have never tried out.  The best part of the night is that he always has a plastic grocery bag in his hand when I open the front door to my house and I feel like a kid at Christmas eagerly awaiting to see what goodies are in that bag. Our game nights are definitely making my wishlist increase and my bank account lessen.

This past Thursday, we had another great night of gaming and played such awesome titles as: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis), Soldier Blade (TG16), Air Zonk (TG16), The Combatribes (SNES), and Choplifter III (SNES).  As is always the case, we played a few stinkers as well and that night the list included The Tick (Genesis) and Tail of the Sun (PSX). However, out of all of the games we played, none of them surprised us more than Mobile Light Force for the original Playstation.



I received Mobile Light Force in the mail last week after Duke came across it in a local game store. I'm a big fan of shmups and had seen the title in a list of PSX shmups I found on the Internet. I researched the price, and at under $10, I determined that if I ever came across it, I'd pick it up.

Looking at the cover of the game (see above), you'd never know that it is a vertically scrolling shmup. At best, you might assume that it's some sort of shooting platformer, a kind of female Contra with a Charlie's Angels storyline. But, like many games that are brought over from Japan, the name of the game was changed, the artwork was altered, and basically the entire plot and ending were removed for American audiences (*insert head scratch here**). 

Mobile Light Force was originally titled Gunbird and was released in Japan by developer Psikyo and publisher Atlus in 1994. It wasn't until almost 9 years later (2003), when it was localized by New York-based value publisher, XS Games, that it came to the U.S. under the guise of Mobile Light Force. The sequel to Gunbird, Gunbird 2, was released by Capcom for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000, and included several familiar faces including Alucard (from the Castlevania series) and Morrigan and Aine (from the Darkstalker series).  Though Mobile Light Force 2 was released on the PS2 in the U.S., it was not a port of Gunbird 2. Instead, it was a localization of Shikigami no Shiro, a famous series some of you may recognize. Though XS Games re-titled the game as a sequel to Mobile Light Force, the games are completely unrelated.

 

From the moment you turn the game on, you immediately get the feel that it's a Japanese title. You can choose from 5 characters to play as, including: Marion (a blue witch and icon of the Gunbird series), MILF 2000 (an odd, bird faced flying robot), Yuan Nang (a female version of Cloud Master, John Suarez (an old man in a wooden rickety helicopter), and Jason Last (a jet pack adorned rocketeer). Not surprisingly, three of the five characters names were altered from the Japanese version and oddly given the names of XS Games employees....  Each character employs their own psychic abilities including an attack, upgraded attacks (earned by gaining power ups), and screen-wiping bombs.  As a result, each character has a special feel and allows the player to decide which one they feel best suits his/her style of play. 

The plot of the game (which is absent from the U.S. version) involves these characters hunting for a magic mirror as they navigate several fantastic stages. The Gunbird universe is filled with strange mechanical devices that walk, fly, and shoot at these heroes. The end of each stage is guarded by an evil trio called "The Trump" (unrelated to a certain GOP candidate) who attack the heroes with a large, relentless, and highly-detailed machine. Once the machine is destroyed, a smaller and faster robot rises out of it as a second challenge, and you battle until The Trump flees and you are allowed to leave the stage.

In terms of difficulty, Mobile Light Force is somewhere in the middle (and you can change the difficulty of the game from the start to suit), but with unlimited continues, it's easy to finish.  Enemy fire differs in size, shape, and frequency, and as a result, it really keeps you on your toes. Sometimes it gets so intense, that the only way to avoid fire is to use one of the three smart bombs you get with every life.  Though I wouldn't describe the game as a "bullet hell," there are instances where the screen is full of enemy fire and you must carefully navigate through a maze of bullets in order to survive.  This variance in style keeps the game fun, fresh, and quite addictive.

The graphics in the game are great, especially for the PSX. Background scenery is incredible and common enemies, and especially bosses, are highly detailed.  Sometimes these enemies are, for lack a better word, very "Japanese," extremely odd, but fun, and are a good mix of cute 'em up and Metal Slug animations. For instance, one boss battle involves a piece of machinery that randomly morphs into a skull, a fish, and finally, a dragon. Another battle has you pitted against giant Aztec heads, and the final encounter has you............oh well, I won't spoil it, but it is pretty unreal!

My buddy and I had a great time playing this game in co-op mode and I think it is best experienced in this fashion. There were numerous moments of overly wowed exclamations, daunted expletives, and copious high-fives flowing in the game room. The only complaint I have about the game, other than the deceiving cover,  is that it will sometimes pause when loading before a boss fight. However, this doesn't detract much from the game and since the screen is clear, it never leaves you in a compromising position with enemies or bullets nearby. At under $10, this game is a steal and for around the same price, it's sequel is available on the PS2 (which I already snagged off of eBay for $8 shipped before you wolverines had a chance to read this article). What more could you ask for?

Permalink | Comments [13] | Digg This Article | Tweet