DOWN THE ALIEN SECTOR
Time to tackle another Arcade Archives release.
Also, this is gonna be another Namco game review again. This time: BARADUKE.
Welcome to the new type of HAZMAT unit: The Alien Contamination Situations Unit.
Baraduke, also known as Alien Sector is an horizontal shmup from Namco released in the mid 80's. Actually it is a mix between simple maze and horizontal scrolling shooter, resulting in an interesting twist in both game genres. The objective of the game is to destroy the blue Octy's that block the item containers, and killing them means take them out quickly, 'cos as you take time the stage will throw you more enemies and even bullets out of nowhere. Fortunately, you can take a couple of hits before losing a life, making this game a little bit merciful on the player based on the challenge factor as sometimes you'll be requiring to face an Octy from a specific side since there's the "Shield" type that blocks one side. Clearing the containers aren't just a requirement to complete the level, they carry valuable items from Pac-Dot like items, a stronger Gun or even a Paccetian. The game gives them randomly to you, so you don't know what are you gonna get. Keep in mind, once the container drop a Paccetian, you should avoid firing him, or else, the one-eyed friend will die by a single mistake.
What makes Baraduke different in terms of gameplay is the controls. For a maze exploration based game, your character, Tobi "Kissy" Masuyo is controlled like a space fighter, as you can stand in mid-air thanks to the thrusters on her back, this allows you to take down aerial enemies rather than jumping or aiming diagonally. Back then the idea of aiming in other direction than horizontal wasn't considered, and while it worked on a basic level, it gave advantage to the enemies as they can aim on any direction. This could be troublesome with some of the 3 way firing enemies that are capable to do that. But you can take advantage of the stage layout as a shield and using your flight capabilities. Unlike most games which are stage based, Baraduke's stages are splitted in 6 floors: Four of Alien blasting madness, one item room and the Boss Room. This process repeats until you reach Floor 48.
Looks like High Roller made this game.
At the end of each level, you'll be playing a bonus roulette mini-game where you can either win or lose. While winning could mean getting 1 shield or nothing, losing means lose 1 shield point. In order to gain (and lose betting) a shield, you have to find Paccetians across the levels, the more Paccetians you have, the greater the chances of winning 1 Shield point you'll get. However, if you win, all those rescued Paccetians will be discounted immediately, but you can have another random chance to get more of them in the later levels and have a little more luck on winning another extra shield.
Fighting monstrosities backed up by suicidal Paccetians.
At the bottom of each section of the Baraduke fortress, you'll be facing a boss. The game will throw you three different types: The first one which is like a four eyed wall that will try to crush you, the second is a ball with an eye inside which can only take damage when the eye's open, and the third one is a little more cryptic as it requires you to enter its mouth in order to damage him.
In any of the battles, if you had unused Paccetians, they will provide some support in a very unexpected way: Killing themselves by crashing with the enemy. This sucidial move will immobilize the boss for a few seconds granting you a chance of hitting and even killing the boss based on how fast firing you are.
Pac-Mutation result of the nuclear detonations on the Belkan border.
Sometimes the containers doesn't hold weapons or Paccetians, they can throw you a trap like a purple Pac-Man monster with little time to react, and this is where we talk about the problems of this game. Let's start from less annoying to most frustrating. Being unable to fly diagonally after hitting the ceiling is the most common. When Tobi/Kissy hits the ceiling, you might expect to move left or right when the control is diagonally up, but no, once she's on the ceiling she's stucked until you drop her down. This issue could be fatal when there's multiple enemies 'cos that will give them a free shot. Also, don't get too confident on having an energy bar, since this is one of the first Namco shmups to feature a life bar, they don't had an idea of how to make it work properly (In resume: Adding an afterhit invincibility). As a result, you can go down almost instantly. This flaw would be later carried on Dragon Spirit (soon to be reviewed here) and Dangerous Seed. Combine this with losing the extra shield on the Bonus games and it only adds more frustration to the overall game. The bullet recoil effect is the second worst thing of the game as it can push you to an enemy behind you, but in some lucky instances, move you away from harm. Thus, making this issue a "Effect-Defect" of some sorts. Having your weapon powered up is not a guarantee of "you're gonna make it" 'cos you'll lose your weapon as soon as you take 1 single hit, which makes no sense as you're still alive with 1 or 2 Shield points left. But the mother of all problems is the lack of continues, this is a huge problem considering this is a 48 stage game. There's nothing more frustrating that resetting to nothing after losing your last life on Floor 27.
The only home port of Baraduke was the Japan-only Sharp X68000 computer by Dempa (After Burner II for both X68000 and Genesis) which was the closest thing to the arcade and it made a great work indeed at the point that was arcade perfect. The rest of the planet would had to wait until November 10th when Baraduke was released on the PlayStation 4 and 5 and the Nintendo Switch as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives series. Unlike the Arcade Archives version of Gradius II that included its localization as Vulcan Venture, the Arcade Archives port only features Baraduke, omitting the Alien Sector localization for unknown reasons. I mean this wasn't localized by Midway or Atari, but by Namco themselves. So, why the Alien Sector omission?
For a game based on Pac-Land's hardware, there's a huge leap on the graphic aspect. The scenery relies on the space station theme and the Alien infestation inspired on Ridley Scott's Alien film, so there's a little Nostromo feel in this game during the artificial architectured levels in Paccet. Yeah, I said that 'cos there's the mix of organic with technologic, and that was years before IREM's R-Type. So we can say this game predated the Alien fad years before Sega's Alien Syndrome and Alien Storm. But the best part are the character sprites, especially Tobi, which looks very well animated, even more than Pac-Man on Pac-Land, meaning that the company exploited the hardware to a very high level.
As for the sound part, there's not too much to talk about, aside from the Alien-influenced sinister tunes in the game start and name entry, the game is basically music-less, leaving you with your gun sounds and rocket pack noise while moving around. The digitized "I'm your furendo" and the dying alien hissing sound are an interesting addition to the game and while they're not crystal clear, it is well appreciated to hear these details in the game.
TRIVIADUKE: FUN FACT SECTOR
Believe it or not, she appeared on an RPG.
- At first, the game makes you think she's a he due to the bulkiness of the suit and the mystery factor of the character.
- This detail was borrowed by Samus Aran from Nintendo's Metroid.
- Both Tobi and Samus wear a yellow-orange-red space suit.
- Tobi made an appearance on the Mr. Driller series as the wife of Taizo Hori, the protagonist of Dig Dug. She married and divorced him later. She had three children with him, one of them is the protagonist of Mr. Driller, Susumu Hori.
- Tobi also appears in Namco x Capcom where she's teamed up with Hiromi Tengenji from Burning Force. Because of her divorce, she has a grudge on Taizo, and was mistaken for a boy by Tron Bonne from Megaman Legends.
- Paccet and Paccetians are a reference to Pac-Man.
- The Paccetian's "I'm your friend" and the alien death scream were the only time Namco used one of their programmable sound generators for speech.
- Also, it is the first time in Namco history where Pac-Man is used as an enemy or a weapon, in this case, a purple Pac-Man monster against the player.
- Paccetians also appear on the RPG's Tales of Destiny and Tales of Xillia 2. The first one is as a painting in a background, and the other is as Elle Del Marta's backpack with a small Tobi-shaped charm attached to it.
Just another Thursday Night Arcade session.
Nothing to worry about.
In the end, we have a nice combination of maze exploration with shmup which might be a hell of a challenge for those who are aiming for a no death run. It might take you a few Game Overs to get used to the ceiling problem I've mentioned before, but you'll be challenged with this game.
It'll be fine. Just a couple of Game Overs and you'll get the hang of this game.