"Curse" for MegaDrive

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raigon50
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"Curse" for MegaDrive

Post by raigon50 »

I've been away for awhile, but I'm back now. Anyways, I had submitted this review for the databse, but I wasn't expecting to see anything, so I'll go ahead and post it here minus the pics. Alright, here we go:

Curse

Micronet - Megadrive - 1989

Reviewed by Raigon50.

OVERALL SCORE: 6/10

So, a word of warning: I have never done a review over a shmup before, let alone any video game at all, but I've been tempted to give this a shot.
I remembered seeing Curse once while skimming Wikipedia's list of Sega Genesis games. The name caught my eye because of the somewhat serious title
being sandwiched between "Crystal's Pony Tale" and "Cutie no something-something-something." It sounded very promising, however, once I started
playing it, I realized that it was a knock-off of R-Type, so I put it off to play another day. It wasn't until recently I decided to give it
another shot. So, there went a good 3 or 4 hours of my life...

Curse, which had a US launch planned, never made it out of Japan (for reasons I don't know, though I have an idea.) Produced by Micronet back in
1989, it was one of the company's earlier games. The gameplay, as I said above, borrows a lot from R-Type, the graphics were only so-so, sound
effects sucked, and the music is GREAT but doesn't really fit the game. Though it has a lot of flaws, I've seen plenty worst.

STORY:
The story is one of the few interesting things about this game. For how simple the game is, the story is actually pretty detailed.

"Somewhere in another universe, in a spiral galaxy, there were once two lively planets whose inhabitants lived in harmony together: planet
Parceria and planet Seneca. However, something happened on Parceria: something caused the Parcerians to shut off all forms of communication,
visitation and activity with Seneca. Over time, Parceria's environment died out, leaving only a planet-wide barren terrain. Hundreds of years
passed and the inhabitants of Seneca saw Parceria as nothing but a dead husk with the concept of life and companionship on it being mere, long
forgotten legends. One day, an enormous attack force flew from Parceria and attacked Seneca without warning. Confirmed to be the Parcerian Military,
the invaders crippled Seneca's defense forces. Using an unknown power, the Parceria Military was also able to manipulate the wildlife to do its
bidding, ensuring no possible escape to safety. However, the desperate people of Seneca eventually discovered an ancient star fighter abandoned by
the Parcerians called The Baldanders. Using its super-technology, the people of Seneca use the Baldanders in a counter-attack against the
Parcerian invasion to destroy their main battleship: a large, mysterious warship known only as 'Mother.'"

STORY: 8/10

GAMEPLAY:
You pilot "The Baldanders"- a slow moving, slightly bulky ship. The Baldanders comes equipped with a nifty shield that can take three hits before
the player's ship blows. Also, The Baldanders can be powered up by collecting upgrades, which are dropped by what I'm going to name 'P.O.W.s"
(Yes, more R-Type.) The P.O.W.s can drop either an upgrade or an Option (which is more like an R-Type Force than a Gradius Option). Options can
be used to block enemy bullets, and they add fire power to your ship. You can use up to two Options at once, and you can change the direction
they fire with the C button. As for the upgrades, there are 4 different kinds: a speed boost, a shield recovery, missiles, and three types of
weapons. There is the V-laser (the spread shot which fires in 3 directions), the Wide Beam (which covers a large area and can travel through
stage decor), and the Crash Shot (a discoball looking thing that fires shards in all directions when it collides with something.) I honestly
hate the Crash Shot because it's slow and ineffective. Also, the bosses are really easy, where most of the time you'll only have to move
slightly up or down to dodge the attacks.

GAMEPLAY: 6/10

GRAPHICS:
The graphics in Curse are kind of blah for the Gen. They could have (should have) paid more attention to detail. The enemies look rather
generic, and the meteors look like giant clumps of meatballs. The backgrounds in the game are fairly nice in the early levels, but as you
progress and make your way into the alien's mothership, or wherever the hell your going, it all starts to look lazy. A major problem is that
the enemies tend to blend with the background, or they move to fast and you can't tell where their coming from. Normal enemy explosions are
pleasant, because they aren't over the top or too wimpy. The boss explosions are boring because the boss may only take up 1/4 of the screen,
but the whole screen bursts with multiple small bangs. Weird...

GRAPHICS: 5/10

SOUND:
Okay, so the sound effects are cheep with nothing new to put on the table (which this game desperately needs). Generic explosion is generic,
and generic laser sound is generic. Where Curse shines, however, is it's music. The music is catchy and well paced for a shmup, with little
to complain about. The only problem is that most of it doesn't fit the game. The music would have work anywhere else, like in any other game,
but not here. I feel as if a game's music is what sets the mood (in other words, the stage can be a post-apocalyptic urban, but if you have the
theme to the Care Bears playing, then the level becomes anything BUT post-apocalyptic.) If a game doesn't have good music, then it can't effectively
create the environment. Curse (from I could tell) is supposed to be somewhat dark, but I don't get that vibe when I'm blasting the hell out of
aliens to a happy song. Regardless, the music is still pretty good. You can access a soundtest by pressing "A + Start" at the title screen.

SOUND: 7/10

AFTERTHOUGHTS:
If your bored, then go ahead and download Curse and give it a whirl, but (please) don't spend your time and money on getting a copy, it isn't
worth it... Also, it appears that Micronet no longer does video games. Currently, they produce 3d modeling software for game design. Ironic,
because a lot of their games were pretty bad, but their going to sell the product they used to make them. It makes sense if you don't think
about it.

Anyway, there you have it! My first ever review! I hope I didn't suck to bad.

- Raigon
When the bullets shoot bullets, you know you have a problem.

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