Arcade Archives: Scramble Formation (PS4|5 - Switch)

[Sturmvogel Prime]

DANGER ZONE (PART LXVI)
THIRTY MINUTES (AND MANY HOSTILES) OVER TOKYO

The "Danger Zone" series of reviews so far.
DANGER ZONE VOL. I

Spoiler

I: REVVIN' UP YOUR ENGINE, LISTENIN' TO HER HOWLIN' ROARING - (E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
II: IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF FUN, MAV? - (Binarystar Infinity)
III: PLAYING WITH THE (ARCADE ARCHIVES) BOYS - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon 2)
IV: THAT'S RIGHT! ICE...MAN. I AM DANGEROUS (SEED) - (Arcade Archives: Dangerous Seed)
V: THE ELITE. BEST OF THE BEST. WE'LL MAKE YOU BETTER. - (Super E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force)
VI: GONNA TAKE YOU RIGHT INTO THE DANGER ZONE - (Star Hunter DX)
VII: IT TAKES MORE THAN JUST FANCY FLYING - (Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wing Diver The Shooter)
VIII: INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION - (Devastator by Radiangames)
IX: ¿WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD TUBES? - (Arcade Archives: Tube Panic)
X: SWIMMIN' IN THE FLOODS, DANCIN' ON THE CLOUDS BELOW. I AIN'T WORRIED 'BOUT IT - (Arcade Archives: Fighting Hawk)
XI: PULLING A RABBIT OUT OF THE HAT - (Arcade Archives: Rabio Lepus)
XII: WINGS OF SILVER, NERVES OF STEEL - (Arcade Archives: Darius)
XIII: FULL SCALE ASSAULT - (Arcade Archives: Assault)
XIV: WE'RE GONNA NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF BUGSPRAY - (Arcade Archives: Gaplus)
XV: DOWN THE ALIEN SECTOR - (Arcade Archives: Baraduke)
XVI: WHEN YOU'RE DRAWN TO THE GROUND BY THE DRAGONS - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Spirit)
XVII: SOME RETICENT GODDESS PUT THE CHILDREN TO SLEEP - (Arcade Archives: Metal Black)
XVIII: I SHOT THE WILD LIZARDS - (Arcade Archives: Gun Frontier)
XIX: HOW WE GONNA GET THIS MUSEUM PIECE IN THE AIR? - (Arcade Archives: Galaxian)
XX: SHATTERED KAWAII SKIES - (Arcade Archives: Ordyne)
XXI: ENTER THE DRAGON (SABER) - (Arcade Archives: Dragon Saber)
XXII: SEEMS LIKE WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES HOLDING ON TO OLD RELICS - (Arcade Archives: Galaga)
XXIII: OLD WARBIRDS, RETRO ARCADE ACTION - (Arcade Archives: USAAF Mustang)
XXIV: ARCADE STYLED HELICOPTER BATTLEFIELD - (Arcade Archives: Metal Hawk)
XXV: CLASH OF THE GODS - (Arcade Archives: Phelios)
XXVI: BACK IN (METAL) BLACK - (Metal Black S-Tribute)
XXVII: NAMCO'S TAKE ON THE NBA - (Arcade Archives: Grobda)
XXVIII: DOUJIN SHMUPPING "GM" STYLE - (Graze Counter GM)
XXIX: MIXED AND REMIXED - (Raiden IV x Mikado Remix)
XXX: EXPLICIT DIFFICULTY - (Arcade Archives: Gradius III)

DANGER ZONE VOL. II

Spoiler

XXXI: HAVING THE EARTH IN MY SIGHTS - (Layer Section & Galactic Attack S-Tribute)
XXXII: FAST, FURIOUS AND DANGEROUS - (Arcade Archives: Turbo Force)
XXXIII: CHORUS AND CHORES - (Chorus)
XXXIV: SAVE THE SUN - (Sol Cresta)
XXXV: NAMCO WHISPERS IN OUR EARS AND SAYS THAT "YOU ARE IN NAVARONE" - (Arcade Archives: Navarone)
XXXVI: A SHORT (ASTEROID) BREAK TIME - (Space Scavengers by Xitilon)
XXXVII: GIVE ME A "REZON" TO HOLD ON TO WHAT WE'VE GOT - (Arcade Archives: Rezon)
XXXVIII: A COSMIC TROUBLESOME GANG - (Arcade Archives: Cosmo Gang The Video)
XXXIX: WHAT'S THE PLAN? SAVE THE MOON, SAVE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Moon Cresta)
XL: A HERO FOR THE EARTH - (Arcade Archives: Terra Cresta)
XLI: BACK TO THE '88 - (Arcade Archives: Galaga '88)
XLII: SUPER ROBOT SMASH - (Arcade Archives: Mazinger Z)
XLIII: FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF THE FUTURE - (Arcade Archives: Thunder Dragon)
XLIV: HAMSTER SAID "IT'S SHARK WEEK ON ARCADE ARCHIVES" - (Arcade Archives: Mad Shark)
XLV: MESSED UP NETWORK - (RayCrisis)
XLVI: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION - (Ray'z Arcade Chronology)
XLVII: AN INC-RAY-DIBLE COLLECTION II - (RayStorm x RayCrisis HD Collection)
XLVIII: 99 NAMCO BALLOONS GO BY (Arcade Archives: King & Balloon)
XLIX: ATTACK ON BOSCONIAN - (Arcade Archives: Bosconian)
L: MIXED AND REMIXED II - (Raiden III x Mikado Maniax)
LI: ALLUMER'S TOON SQUADRON - (Arcade Archives: Zing Zing Zip)
LII: GO STRIKE! - (Arcade Archives: Strike Gunner S.T.G)
LIII: A THING CALLED TUNA SASIMI - (Arcade Archives: Darius II)
LIV: RAIDER ZONE: YOU KNOW, IT IS WHAT IT IS - (Arcade Archives: Raiders5)
LV: COMET OF DESTRUCTION - (Arcade Archives: Halley's Comet)
LVI: FORCE AND BURN: NO FLY ZONE - (Arcade Archives: Burning Force)
LVII: THE SHENANIGANS OF SHENANDOAH - (1993 Shenandoah)
LVIII: GREAT, JUST LIKE A KING - (Arcade Archives: Daioh)
LIX: THE TIMELESS CLASSIC - (Arcade Archives: Gradius)
LX: A NINTEN-SIVE ARCADE PORT - (Arcade Archives: VS. Gradius)

DANGER ZONE VOL. III

Spoiler

LXI: THE (LIFE) FORCE AWAKENS - (Arcade Archives: Life Force)
LXII: THE TIMELESS CLASSIC RETURNS - (Arcade Archives: Gradius II)
LXIII: HEARTFUL TRIGGERHEART (Triggerheart Exelica - Switch Re-release)
LXIV: RETURN OF THE AERO FIGHTERS - (Arcade Archives: Aero Fighters)
LXV: THE POWER OF THE (TASK) FORCE - (Arcade Archives: Task Force Harrier)

Taito is back.
After helping Rastan to overthrow a corrupt amazonian king, Taito returns to the shooting scene.
This time is the vintage shooter Scramble Formation, known here in America as Tokio.




To unscramble the situation it requires a powerful combat formation.

Scramble Formation at first seems like a clone of Namco's Xevious, as the gameplay involves frontal fire for aerial enemies and a short ranged bomb for ground targets, but what makes Scramble Formation different from any other Xevious clone is the concept of "Formations". This requires you to take down red ships to make them drop small drones which attach to your biplane. Once you get two of them, you can activate any of the three Formation options.

FORMATION 1: The "Default" setting. Leaves the Ally Planes behind the plane in a single line while the biplane shoots the basic twin shot and single bomb.
FORMATION 2: Air-to-Air. The planes begin to form a "V" formation focusing entirely on Air-to-Air firing, increasing the width of your bullets.
FORMATION 3: Air-to Ground. By assuming a cross shaped formation where the biplane is in the middle, all the planes will fire Air-to-Ground missiles.

But gathering 4 drones is not the end of the feature. First one is that you can self-destruct your drones. By pressing the fire and formation buttons simultaneously, the drones will explode in a spiraling blast capable of taking down a few enemies within a small spiral radius. Second, if you have 4 drones and you gather another one, it will be added to a "Spare Stock" which can be racked up as much as you can get, acting as reserves in case one is destroyed, or all of them if you lose a life helping you to re-arm yourself instantly and stand a chance much easier. There's also a bonus mechanic on ground based targets and it works like this: Your Air-to-Ground missile will pass through enemies on its flight trajectory. Taking down enemies simultaneously will trigger bonus scores of 8,000 and even 16,000, making weapon switching important to reach the last one.
While having interesting features, the game suffers from flaws. The first one is the somewhat slow movement of your ship, making you an easy target in tight situations. Second, there's no power ups for your ship, the lone item in the game aside from the drones is a hidden 1up placed randomly in one of the first levels. Speaking of drones, these go down in one hit, making them look like "Disposable Options". But the worst flaw of the drones is that they lack of a particular weapon on each formation. Formation 2 will leave your plane bombless and Formation 3 will disable any Air-to-Air weaponry, this vulnerability is well exploited by the AI, forcing you to switch constantly from Air-to-Ground to Air-to-Air nonstop due to this unexpected flaw from your ship.




We've just learned that Erusea is utilizing the Arsenal Bird.
Those bastards. They had that thing combat-ready this whole time.

After flying across a few Japanese cities, the game will occasionally throw a boss fight. A flying wing which can be defeated by taking down its engines. But this will require to use the bombs and make sure the bomb lands on the engine. Otherwise the boss will escape, but nothing will happen, you'll just continue with the game as usual until you meet the boss again.




Fast reaction is required to survive when the swarm trap appears.

One of the worst problems is what I call the "Sphere Swarm" which gives you very little time to react to attempt an evasive maneuver, all because the spheres are scattered in random patterns, making them very unpredictable, so most of the times you'll be losing a life or the whole game in your first plays.

The game had very few home ports. The first one was on the Japanese MSX2 computer where it was a "mixed bag". While the background was arcade faithful and the music was recognizable, the enemy sprites had a lot of flicker and the sound wasn't as great. The FM Towns Marty was the second version of the game, and we know what to expect about it: Arcade perfection. Unfortunately there's no videos on the 'net to see the gameplay. It would take years up to 2005 for the game to be released on consoles as part of Taito Legends and in Japan as part of Taito Memories II Vol. 1. 18 Years later, on 2023 this game reaches the PlayStation 4 and Switch consoles as part of Arcade Archives, where we're given the option of playing either Scramble Formation or Tokio. Curiously the English Tokio version has the same copyright disclaimer from the Japanese version. The original said "TAITO AMERICA CORP. LICENSED TO ROMSTAR INC. FOR U.S.A.". Like all the Arcade Archives ports, you are also given the option of playing a 5-minute run in Caravan Mode or go for the high score on the top of the global leaderboards in Hi-Score Mode.




Releasing Infinitely

Graphically, it has a limited color palette, which kinda reminds me of SNK's obscure shmup HAL 21 (also, another Xevious clone) as it uses a sometimes dark tones rather than the bright palettes from Xevious. Unlike Xevious and HAL 21, Scramble Formation is more city based, which helps on the graphic aspect of the game. It may had limited colors, but that doesn't mean it can't bring a massive detailing on the scenery rather than the game sprites, and that's what this game does; having impressively detailed lanscapes, making it look more ahead than its competitors.




Make a Home-Run or get Striked Out.

It is worth of admiration the accuracy on the depiction of Tokyo's key buildings like the National Diet Building (Capitol Building) where your plane takes off or the Yoyogi National Gymnasium. Rather than inventing a fictional setting on a real world city, they've recreated Tokyo's landmarks the best they could despite the limited color palette of the game at the point of making the majority of buildings faithfully recognizable. One thing to notice is that the Arcade Archives release is based on the "New" PCB since the old version had an area called "Amusement Park" which was Tokyo Disneyland, so that would be another instance of corporate censorship due to copyright.




The Tokyo Tour is gonna be wild.
So get ready to get into the action!

After checking on a map, we will notice that all the locations mentioned are located on Tokyo, Japan. While this sounds like a small location for a shmup, we will realize that Tokyo is actually a giant city, big enough to hold a battlefield and each province is a frontline.

The music had a space-oddity that can best be described as the predecessor of Darius space trippiness in the style of "Captain Neo". While it sounds superior to Wyvern F-0's music, it becomes very repetitive as it is the only song you'll hear throughout your entire gameplay, being the boss theme and the Game Over theme the only times when you'll hear something differnet.


SCRAMBLED CURIOSITIES / TRIVIA FORMATION



Looks like we had familiar faces here.

- One of the enemy ships is a rip-off of the Solvalou ship from Xevious.
- For some reason, the localization spells Tokyo as "Tokio" which is the spanish writing and pronunciation of Tokyo.
- The translation wrongly names Shinjuku as "Shinjyuku"
- Romstar's Tokio flyer depicts the biplane engaging against F-15's. Curiously, the jet's are depicted with F-4EJ-like red stripes on their fuselage implying they're JSDAF F-51J's, which don't have those stripes or yellow nosetips.
- While the Japanese artwork depicts the player's plane as an aircraft that uses both propellers and modern thrusters, the American artwork is more game accurate by depicting it like an ordinary biplane.
- The formation mechanic was repurposed for the Silver Hawk Murakumo in Dariusburst CS: Chronicle Saviours.
- The Arcade Archives release of the game is the fourth overall home port and third Arcade-perfect port.


THE STADIUM THAT NO LONGER EXISTS



Many memorable events took place there.

- The stadium that appears in the "Stadium" area is the Korakuen Stadium, built in 1937.
- It was the home of many Baseball teams: Mainichi Orions, Kokutetsu Swallows and the Nippon Ham Fighters.
- Along with Baseball, it was home of other events like the Mitsubishi sponsored Mirage Bowl, an NCAA College Football Game played in Japan.
- In 1976, the first NFL game outside of the United States was played there: The St. Louis Cardinals VS San Diego Chargers.
- Concerts were also held there. The Japanese groups Candies and Pink Lady are among them.
- American artists also held concerts in Korakuen. Artists such as Grand Funk Railroad in 1971, Madonna (Who's That Girl World Tour 87) and Michael Jackson (Bad World Tour 88).
- Jackson's "Bad World Tour 88" kicked off there on September 12th in 1987.
- The stadium was demolished in November 9th, 1987, 1 year after the release of this game.
- Its demolition was completed in February, 1988.
- While the stadium is gone today, where was once the right center field became the Tokyo Dome Hotel, and the rest of the area became a plaza for the Tokyo Dome and the Hotel.





That was an unusual tour around Japan.
But taking down the enemy was fun enough.

While being one of the "B-Tier" or "obscure" Taito arcade game, Scramble Formation/Tokio had some interesting ideas that make it differ from the traditional Xevious clones that tried to hook on the success of Namco's vertical shooter. Xevious fans will definitely like this one.




Does the Eda Scale have to lie? Of course not.
This was a nice and fun shmup obscurity.