Act Fancer Cybernetic Hyper Weapon (
Data East, 1989) is a run’n gun game set in a
Dying Earth world with
Nausicäa. Players take control of a mysterious cyborg that starts as a puny small creature with a big tail but that can metamorphose (or, alternatively, evolve) into a towering man/weapon of mass destruction. The cyborg seems bent on a “total destruction” mission against hordes of non-human mutated creatures such as giant snakes, cockroaches, spiders and walls of quivering flesh. Interestingly, the final boss battle hints at some more complex enemy lurking in the shadows: unfortunately, the game provides next to no clarification about your cyborg’s fight. The full story is offered in the MD port and involves big corporations and roach/alien apocalypses: the arcade presentation is barebones, so players will enjoy a more minimalist & brutal mise en scène.
The game uses two buttons: A and B. A is for shooting, and B is for jumping. The more players hold B, the higher the character will jump. Once the character reaches peak jump height, players can hold B to glide in a downward direction; releasing B will let the character immediately fall down. A can be tapped to shoot various attack forms, or it can be hold to have a slow but automatic shot. The use of auto-fire beyond 10hz seems a bad choice, as the game seems to detect it and increase difficulty accordingly. The game features five levels, starting from the dilapidated remains of some big city (New York?), and going deeper and deeper into underground hives and organic-looking nests. The game has an ending only offering credits and background illustrations, and apparently loops endlessly: a loop can be as short as 10 minutes, however.
The power-up system involves blue and pink orbs. The blue orbs trigger the metamorphosis of the character into a bigger, more powerful creature. The character can metamorphose/evolve six times, acquiring increasingly powerful attacks and a bigger sprite. The character starts as a level two creature, so the peak is a level seven badass cyborg with wings, giant tail and homing attacks (i.e. the “Zacross” form). A single hit will revert the character to a level one midget (i.e. the”Nuts” form). A second hit will kill the character. The pink orb extends the duration of a form by ten seconds, without an upgrade; blue orbs trigger a new level and reset the time that a form is maintain (ten seconds). Players must thus be sure that they collect a stream of orbs during stages to keep a power level sufficient to handle enemies, or at least to avoid immediate death.
Death can be cheated as follows, however. When hit, the reverting phase lasts roughly 0.5 seconds per level, and during this “involution” players are invulnerable. Players can collect blue orbs and start evolving again after the involution phase. This entails that getting hit may provide an occasion to sweep a section free of enemies and collect orbs, since the character will evolve again after reaching level one. This technique is certainly tricky. There are no explicit i-frame markers (e.g. flickering), and well-timed hits from enemies are possible, the moment players start evolving again. Thus, players must be rather careful in handling evolving/involving phrases. In a few spots in the game, players can also fall into abysses or into acid pits: be sure to avoid such depressingly dumb deaths. There is only one extend at 2 million points, so three deaths mean “game over”.
The game offers a compact type of challenge. Stages are short but brutal, with one respawn point only present in the first stage: players must learn how to clear stages in one fell swoop. Bosses are also brutal: ideally, players should reach them in Zacross form, memorise the attack patterns, and beat them in as little time as possible. If enemies trigger involution phases, then it’s critical to kills the bosses as soon as possible. Otherwise, get ready to do the stage again. The final stage has a mildly annoying first half and a boss rush as a second half. There will be no blue orbs once the first boss fight starts, so players must be lighting fast. It is likely that in the final battle players will use a Nuts form against the big bad, due to time constrains. I suggest save state-based practice to avoid deeply frustrating situations.
By this point, I guess that you are wondering: is this game any fun? My answer is: Yes, all in all. The game acts as a spin-off to the two Data East
Darwin 4078 games, and plays at a brisk and brutal pace. Players who like swift action when mowing down enemies while moving to the right may find the game frustrating, initially. The game initially seems punishing, if players approach it aggressively. Learning how to exploit the hovering function, how to dodge bullets when in Zacross form, and in general how to tightly control the character is the trick, obviously. The game is ultimately a memoriser with one-two traps per stages, a game mechanic designed to put pressure on players (i.e. time-based involution), and set-piece boss fights. Once players master all of these aspects, stages become easy to handle and stage progression relentless but calculated (and roaches die aplenty).
You may also probably wonder if the game is visually and aurally appealing. Well, the title is an early Data East/1980s title with the “typical” bio-mechanic design of the era (
à la Baoh, for instance). The colour palette is drab, and includes metallic blue shades, copper hues and a few other colours suggesting late autumn atmospheres. Sprites look disgusting enough but not so detailed, and animation level is not exactly superb. The OST is simple and repeats two themes after stage one: the vaguely brooding tones of 1980s Gamadelic works features prominently. There were certainly much better-looking and sounding games for that year, but as a kid in October/November 1989, I enjoyed playing it for the atmosphere. I never reached stage 4, and I only 1-CC’ed it in February 2024, once I decided to actually learn the game. It’s A Data East title: entertaining, challenging and intriguing, shortcomings aside.
(1035 words: the usual disclaimers apply).
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
Maybe someday! It has some rough edges that might bug other people, but speaking just for myself (a Shinobi fanboy), it's about as fun as it gets. It beats both Shadow Dancers in my book. The DC version is a bit of a novelty and I don't think there's any reason to go with it over the PC/modern console version. The sprites are HD and I doubt even purists will think it looks prettier on a CRT. I intend to back the kickstarter for SG Zero once I finish waffling over which edition I want. The little of it that's been shown so far feels like a remake, a tiny bit like the relationship between the two Shadow Dancers, but it's still very very early.
- and GSK mentioned M2's president has beast wood for Ed Randy and The Great Ragtime Show, a great source of optimism!
(to paraphrase HIYA!'s vision of GeoStorm as 
)
(its close sibling, the inimitable Mutant Night, would only make it home generations later via Arcade Archives for PS4/NSW, along with a raft of other goodies, like Ninja-kun II and the remarkably prescient Omega Fighter)