Gaiares (MD, 1990)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-8.5 Challenge-9
Level Design-8 Frustration-9 Fun-8 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-8
+
Innovative power up system (steal weapons from enemies by sending out the TOS pod and trying to hit the enemy with the front of it, can't fire while doing it - risk and reward)
Intense and varied action overall (several scene transitions in every stage)
Nice anime cutscenes
Difficulty options (normal or very hard, they're in a hidden options menu - a+b+c+start on the title screen)
Mostly good bosses
Mini-bosses
Secret weapons
Very little slowdown
Some innovative level design (black holes in stage 3)
Alternate paths through some levels
Enemy patterns aren't always the same (based on your current location)
Manually adjustable speed (slow, mid, fast)
Shields (three additional hits)
Smart bombs (activated when grabbed - usually placed well though)
You can use the TOS to block most projectiles
+/-
Limited continues (4)
Can't quite reach the right edge of the screen (not a problem with the other directions)
Time limit on mini-boss battles (they'll escape if you don't kill them fast enough)
Somewhat easy final boss
Borrow some things from Gradius
-
Trial & error (some cheap hits, somewhat loose vertical scrolling, one segment autosteers your craft towards the middle, wrecking ball in level 3 fortress requires near perfect timing)
Some weapons are underpowered and some overpowered
Somewhat disappointing end boss
Some bosses go down too fast (most of them go down faster than in TF3 with the right weapon)
Unforgiving checkpoint system (you can end up right before a boss/mini-boss without any upgrades or get thrown annoyingly far back)
Can't switch between acquired weapons nor can you discard a weapon (such features would've removed a lot of trial & error and smoothed out the difficulty curve, it's sometimes very hard to hit a boss with certain weapons (the wide laser weapons))
Slow transitions/pauses between most segments and before bosses (sometimes up to 12 seconds!; perhaps for suspense or the game loading the next palette)
No easy mode
Sometimes generic enemy designs
Can't switch weapons between bosses during the boss rush, some bosses take forever to kill with the wrong weapon
Weak explosion sfx overall and annoying enemy block sfx (high pitched psg sound that you'll hear often)
The soundtrack doesn't make full use of the hardware (weak FM drums and lack of PSG)
Notes:
-The title is a mixture of the words Gaia and Rescue
Level Design-8 Frustration-9 Fun-8 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-8
+
Innovative power up system (steal weapons from enemies by sending out the TOS pod and trying to hit the enemy with the front of it, can't fire while doing it - risk and reward)
Intense and varied action overall (several scene transitions in every stage)
Nice anime cutscenes
Difficulty options (normal or very hard, they're in a hidden options menu - a+b+c+start on the title screen)
Mostly good bosses
Mini-bosses
Secret weapons
Very little slowdown
Some innovative level design (black holes in stage 3)
Alternate paths through some levels
Enemy patterns aren't always the same (based on your current location)
Manually adjustable speed (slow, mid, fast)
Shields (three additional hits)
Smart bombs (activated when grabbed - usually placed well though)
You can use the TOS to block most projectiles
+/-
Limited continues (4)
Can't quite reach the right edge of the screen (not a problem with the other directions)
Time limit on mini-boss battles (they'll escape if you don't kill them fast enough)
Somewhat easy final boss
Borrow some things from Gradius
-
Trial & error (some cheap hits, somewhat loose vertical scrolling, one segment autosteers your craft towards the middle, wrecking ball in level 3 fortress requires near perfect timing)
Some weapons are underpowered and some overpowered
Somewhat disappointing end boss
Some bosses go down too fast (most of them go down faster than in TF3 with the right weapon)
Unforgiving checkpoint system (you can end up right before a boss/mini-boss without any upgrades or get thrown annoyingly far back)
Can't switch between acquired weapons nor can you discard a weapon (such features would've removed a lot of trial & error and smoothed out the difficulty curve, it's sometimes very hard to hit a boss with certain weapons (the wide laser weapons))
Slow transitions/pauses between most segments and before bosses (sometimes up to 12 seconds!; perhaps for suspense or the game loading the next palette)
No easy mode
Sometimes generic enemy designs
Can't switch weapons between bosses during the boss rush, some bosses take forever to kill with the wrong weapon
Weak explosion sfx overall and annoying enemy block sfx (high pitched psg sound that you'll hear often)
The soundtrack doesn't make full use of the hardware (weak FM drums and lack of PSG)
Notes:
-The title is a mixture of the words Gaia and Rescue