So I've been on reddit for some time now and every once in a while I visit /r/tipofmyjoystick. Over there people give descriptions about games they're trying to remember. I thought I had good enough knowledge to answer most threads, but 95% of the time I have no idea what game the poster is talking about.
Recently this one came up and the description sounds interesting. Is anyone familiar with it?
Hello /r/tipofmyjoystick there's a game I used to play on coin operated stand-up arcade cabinet when I was a kid. Late 90s, 16-bit graphic vertical shooter. The thing that made this shooter very unique was that while enemies would fly at you, on the ground underneath an entire story took place that would eventually reflect the boss at the end of the level. I remember on the first level there would be a guy who ran vertically up the level and eventually began praying on top of a Teotihuacan-like Aztec pyramid and summoned a massive flying tribal man who would cast fire at you. There were thematic stories on the ground you could follow on each level.
The bosses had specific time limits and if you could outlast the time limit instead of defeating them they would self-destruct. Notable in the demo was an eventual boss that was a massive serpent dragon that would swing around a flying castle.
When inserting a coin you could choose which type of aircraft you wanted and they each had different lasers/weapons. I've searched for literally decades for this game and cannot find it. Has anyone on reddit heard of this?
Probably too obvious an answer, and not entirely accurate, but what's written there brings to mind Dragon Blaze's fifth stage (pyramids, praying guy, "flying tribal man" and Psikyo's lethal boss timeout).
BIL wrote:Probably too obvious an answer, and not entirely accurate, but what's written there brings to mind Dragon Blaze's fifth stage (pyramids, praying guy, "flying tribal man" and Psikyo's lethal boss timeout).
That's what I was thinking as well, I posted that answer in the thread. If that's not it then I have no clue.
Whoa! Looks like that might be it. Such a wildcard, pre-Neo Geo SNK (plus ADK). They published some bizarrely characterful stuff. Incidentally I was going nuts trying to recall ADK's beltscroller "Gang Wars," a while back... could only remember the first stage's enemies' distinctive way of laughing their heads off at nothing in particular.
Cool! I'm going to have to give this one another chance, I've never been able to look past the sprite quality for both the shots and the enemies and it would seem I have never played far enough in to appreciate some of the game's nicer qualities.
There is more than one version of Sky Adventure. In mame and most youtube videos, you select a ship and grab powerups to change shot type. On my pcb, there is a third button (not in the mame version) that switches shot type on the fly. Also on my pcb bosses timeout super fast, so I have to be very aggressive to kill them.
I don't know if it's a region difference or revision or what.
