Fighter & Attacker (Namco, 1992)

[CIT]

This shooter is rarely mentioned (at all), so I was wondering what people's opinions are on this.

Namco arcade games usually have a very high standard, so it should be good, right? Or has it rightfully slid into gaming obscurity?

[BulletMagnet]

Danny actually had it as a featured game in one of his "just for fun" competitions not too long ago...check here. I'm not a huge fan of older shmups, but this one wasn't too bad, if I recall.

[shoe-sama]

onoz my horrible scores!

It's interesting with the air and ground weaponry, but I hate huge hitboxes.

And the ships are slow as hell. It would be better if there was a wide shot like in Raiden.

[gameoverDude]

It's not bad, but what the fuck is up with that Texas-sized hitbox?

There's no no-point-blank system either, making for an occasional R-Type hit from an enemy tank that has just wandered onscreen right under you when you happen to be there.

Having three ships that each die in one hit Nebulasray style (respawning you at the bottom of the screen) would be better than a damn armor gauge.

[Fighter17]

The good thing about the game was the music.

[gameoverDude]

The good thing about the game was the music.

That music is awesome- somewhat Ridge Racer/Zed Blade like.

[sven666]

i only remember testing it breifly, thought it was hard as hell?!

CIT i think i have a spare PCB off this if youre thinking of buying

[Danny]

The good thing about the game was the music.

That music is awesome- somewhat Ridge Racer/Zed Blade like.

Might be a good reason for that, it was made by Namco after all!

[gameoverDude]

The good thing about the game was the music.

That music is awesome- somewhat Ridge Racer/Zed Blade like.

Might be a good reason for that, it was made by Namco after all!

It is Shinji Hosoe who did the music, I just checked a few minutes ago- I was guessing it was either him or Ayako Saso who did this one.

[yojo!]

I own the PCB. Typical unbalanced Namco shooter.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

PC Engine Fan X here remembers the first time that a new arcade cabinet that sported the famous Namco brand name with "Fighter And Attacker" marquee. It was a Tate'd arcade shmup title as I recall back in the day at my local Funworks arcade hangout back in 1992-1993. It wasn't around for very long -- unpopular arcade titles don't make $$$ but the ones that do, they are kept around for a reason. ^_~

Yep, that damned huge hitbox was fucking huge, I tells ya on the Fighter & Attacker arcade upright cabinet..... ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[CIT]

CIT i think i have a spare PCB off this if youre thinking of buying

Thanks, but I think I'll pass. I guess the game is not that great after all. Better to get some Toaplan instead, lmk if you have something.

[Ed Oscuro]

The good thing about the game was the music.

That music is awesome- somewhat Ridge Racer/Zed Blade like.

Might be a good reason for that, it was made by Namco after all! :lol:

I recall a feeling of my head being pounded with a not-so-rubbery mallet when playing the game. Too many grating noises.

[yojo!]

CIT i think i have a spare PCB off this if youre thinking of buying

Thanks, but I think I'll pass. I guess the game is not that great after all. Better to get some Toaplan instead, lmk if you have something.

If you have the choice between Toaplan's FixEight and Fighter & Attacker then go with the Namco one. Other than that all other Toaplan games are far better.

[Ed Oscuro]

I would rather have FixEight myself. Would be nice not to have to play that buggy piece of shit pirate one in MAME, for one. The game's pretty short and not up to the standards of OutZone, though.

[Despatche]

i think f/a gets a bad rap. so far, it's been a balanced-feeling game with some really neat things that put it above-average. probably one of namco's better shmups, honestly

of course the music is amazing, though i find most of hosoe's songs lacking somehow; more of the songs need to be like stage 6 or those unused tracks. it's a better pick-up-and-play game than its obvious predecessors dragon spirit and saber, and i kinda like how it has the kuhga armor bar even though it's a bit cruel. what they did with planes and weapons is kinda cool because it almost feels like they had some kind of pre-game customization planned, and decided to instead map these to various real planes. i don't know what's with people and hitboxes bigger than a few pixels, but the hitbox has been very reasonable for me so far... something like sonic wings (the original) is a much bigger offender

i like fixeight too, so i'd probably get both of these if given the chance

edit: this was for the record and tackling the problem in general, as it was really meant to be a general thread about the game

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, it's probably about as good as the Xevious-like gets. Only thing that really sticks in the craw - the damn plane selection. Well, that, and sometimes the ground attack is painful to use. Extra pain for anybody who is playing on a keyboard without sufficient key rollover.

Doubt that the FixEight / F/A choice is still a current problem, given the date of this thread.

[Despatche]

whoa, a reply. found your thread!

that is easily solved with the power of custam buttan

idk i just answered it as a judgement call or something

[Mister Midnight]

saw this game for the first time at Try arcade center in Tokyo, a Japanese guy was super playing it so I had no chance to try it....it looked really good, with busy fighting, would love to get a hold of that pcb

[CIT]

For the record: I did end up getting FixEight.

[Ed Oscuro]

Me too! High fives all around. Except for Despatche, he too slow

[Nasirosuchus]

Got the 1CC for Fixeight a few months ago with Ziguragi.

[null1024]

Looked at a video of the game on Youtube.

Not going to lie, giggled a bit at hearing the stab sampled right out of James Brown is Still Alive.
I really need to play this just for the early 90s techno soundtrack, haha.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

To see and play Fighter & Attacker at a local arcade hangout back in the early 1990s was something...despite the huge hitbox issue, it was a fun romp nevertheless. The Dynamo upright cab that it was running on, had the usual Happ controls with a batwing shaped joystick and the usual Happ push buttons in place (typical of arcade controls prevalent in them American arcades during the early '90s, indeed).

The actual PCB that the F&A is based on is notorious for having problems to get it working 100% at times due to it's age.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~