Slap Fight MD (MD, 1993)
Graphics-6.5 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-8 Story-N/A
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-6
Special Mode:
+
Upgradeable ship size is tied to its coverage horizontally and to an extent also firepower (level 2 ship size adds to shot strength but not adding to your ship with sideships, can have up to two side ships attached to either side) - a kind of risk/reward system as you can also voluntarily demote your ship level to use another bomb and to become a smaller target
Difficulty options (easy-very hard/hardest - faster enemies which shoot more on higher difficulties+there might be more enemies and bosses might take more hits to kill?, lives per credit - up to 5)
Remade OST which sounds a lot better and has more memorable songs, Decent voice samples
New levels, bosses and enemies
Lots of sprites on screen and only minor slowdown if not fully upgraded
Decent bosses and one good one (third boss - splits itself into three parts and has the wing parts home in on your ship and try to hit you from the sides)
Side shot sub weapon (can't upgrade it however)
Shield power up (one additional HP)
Music changes during levels
+/-
Checkpoint system - several per level but...*
Gradius style upgrade system (have partial control over what to upgrade and when, works like a more limited weapon inventory of sorts)
Start at level 2 ship size
Your bombs are relatively small and center on your ship rather than in front of it
Somewhat slow rate of fire (can't shoot faster by mashing the button) - quite slow for certain weapons. Also no main shot independent of the chosen weapon
Only two levels of weapon strength and you start at level 2
No new weapons
Repeats the level 1 them about halfway through level 2 (odd)
Can't equip bombs as a sub weapon only (some ground objects can only be destroyed by them - for extra points leading to 1-ups - and the rate of fire is quite slow)
The "wings"/ship levels don't add to the main ship's durability - if the middle ship is hit then you still die in one hit
It would've been cool if you could change the formation of the side ships as well as add even more of them to your ship
-
Upgrading your ship size horizontally only works to an extent and in certain situations - most of the time you just lose the upgrade and it's also harder to keep track of your hit box
There is also some slowdown when the ship is fully upgraded
Gradius style upgrade system (can't go backwards/upwards (for example back to speed from shot), no manual speed adjustment, takes longer to get to weapons that aren't necessarily better in the given situation; it would've been better if you could manually move backwards as far as you wanted as well as back to where you were, also can't choose not to pick up power ups (which makes you move one slot downwards))
Trial & error (various enemy wave patterns, boss patterns, when to use what weapon)
The homing shot kind of sucks here
Too hard to recover after death - *start at slowest speed which is too slow after level 1, with the "shot" weapon and with only one upgrade point. You'll also sometimes start at a point where there are fewer power ups, leading to difficulty spikes
Bombs either destroy or displace power ups
A couple of long pauses in the action
If you take too long during a boss fight you eventually strt moving into the next level and get attacked by its enemies - there is no break between levels, the game plays like one long level (see Truxton for example)
Short (only 4 levels; about 15 mins if you don't die!)
Automatically loops after beating it on Normal - no ending cutscene, just a congratulations message and a staff roll happening while the game keeps going. Feels unfinished
Not enough variety in the level designs besides different enemy patterns (no walls or other hazards to avoid, no high speed segments, no breakable walls/tiles to destroy) and the whole game takes place in space, generally above space stations (while the normal mode has levels taking place near planet surfaces)
Kind of generic art direction and the explosions look 8-bit
Normal Mode:
+
Stronger homing missile overall (still bad vs certain enemies and bosses though)
See special mode
Choose between arranged or original OST
+/-
Start at ship level 1 instead of 2
Easier overall
The laser acts slightly differently (volleys of smaller shots are fired with some cooldown between them, if you don't use auto-fire then you have to hold the button down for them to keep going)
-
No bombs - makes the game quite a bit harder as they don't even happen when part of your ship is destroyed
Worse music overall
A few long pauses in the action
Just as short
See special mode
Level Design-6 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-6
Special Mode:
+
Upgradeable ship size is tied to its coverage horizontally and to an extent also firepower (level 2 ship size adds to shot strength but not adding to your ship with sideships, can have up to two side ships attached to either side) - a kind of risk/reward system as you can also voluntarily demote your ship level to use another bomb and to become a smaller target
Difficulty options (easy-very hard/hardest - faster enemies which shoot more on higher difficulties+there might be more enemies and bosses might take more hits to kill?, lives per credit - up to 5)
Remade OST which sounds a lot better and has more memorable songs, Decent voice samples
New levels, bosses and enemies
Lots of sprites on screen and only minor slowdown if not fully upgraded
Decent bosses and one good one (third boss - splits itself into three parts and has the wing parts home in on your ship and try to hit you from the sides)
Side shot sub weapon (can't upgrade it however)
Shield power up (one additional HP)
Music changes during levels
+/-
Checkpoint system - several per level but...*
Gradius style upgrade system (have partial control over what to upgrade and when, works like a more limited weapon inventory of sorts)
Start at level 2 ship size
Your bombs are relatively small and center on your ship rather than in front of it
Somewhat slow rate of fire (can't shoot faster by mashing the button) - quite slow for certain weapons. Also no main shot independent of the chosen weapon
Only two levels of weapon strength and you start at level 2
No new weapons
Repeats the level 1 them about halfway through level 2 (odd)
Can't equip bombs as a sub weapon only (some ground objects can only be destroyed by them - for extra points leading to 1-ups - and the rate of fire is quite slow)
The "wings"/ship levels don't add to the main ship's durability - if the middle ship is hit then you still die in one hit
It would've been cool if you could change the formation of the side ships as well as add even more of them to your ship
-
Upgrading your ship size horizontally only works to an extent and in certain situations - most of the time you just lose the upgrade and it's also harder to keep track of your hit box
There is also some slowdown when the ship is fully upgraded
Gradius style upgrade system (can't go backwards/upwards (for example back to speed from shot), no manual speed adjustment, takes longer to get to weapons that aren't necessarily better in the given situation; it would've been better if you could manually move backwards as far as you wanted as well as back to where you were, also can't choose not to pick up power ups (which makes you move one slot downwards))
Trial & error (various enemy wave patterns, boss patterns, when to use what weapon)
The homing shot kind of sucks here
Too hard to recover after death - *start at slowest speed which is too slow after level 1, with the "shot" weapon and with only one upgrade point. You'll also sometimes start at a point where there are fewer power ups, leading to difficulty spikes
Bombs either destroy or displace power ups
A couple of long pauses in the action
If you take too long during a boss fight you eventually strt moving into the next level and get attacked by its enemies - there is no break between levels, the game plays like one long level (see Truxton for example)
Short (only 4 levels; about 15 mins if you don't die!)
Automatically loops after beating it on Normal - no ending cutscene, just a congratulations message and a staff roll happening while the game keeps going. Feels unfinished
Not enough variety in the level designs besides different enemy patterns (no walls or other hazards to avoid, no high speed segments, no breakable walls/tiles to destroy) and the whole game takes place in space, generally above space stations (while the normal mode has levels taking place near planet surfaces)
Kind of generic art direction and the explosions look 8-bit
Normal Mode:
+
Stronger homing missile overall (still bad vs certain enemies and bosses though)
See special mode
Choose between arranged or original OST
+/-
Start at ship level 1 instead of 2
Easier overall
The laser acts slightly differently (volleys of smaller shots are fired with some cooldown between them, if you don't use auto-fire then you have to hold the button down for them to keep going)
-
No bombs - makes the game quite a bit harder as they don't even happen when part of your ship is destroyed
Worse music overall
A few long pauses in the action
Just as short
See special mode