PREHISTORIC ARACHNO-MIX UPS
Sorry for delaying this review. It was meant to be the second Project Reviewer alongside CrossCode, but having too many shmups to play and review consumes a hell of a lot of time.
So anyway, here's the review of Spidersaurs.
The first thing to do is to make a wise choice.
Regardless of which mode you pick, you have to make a choice between characters. Like Contra Hard Corps/Probotector, your characters have different weaponry making them useful with a specific weapon unlike Metal Slug where everyone was the same until they picked a weapon with limited ammo. In Story Mode, you're given the option to switch between characters in the Map Screen before selecting a level if you want to give the other character a try.
Three ways to make things go boom.
In the style of the Helios Bomb from Contra III, you're granted a screen clearing bomb which unlike Contra III, is not a stackable special weapon. Instead, you have to defeat enemies in order to unleash this attack. While all three of them have the same screenwide devastation effect, the attack pattern differs. Fireworks Pod unleashes scattered explosions while Rain Pod sends lasers from above. To learn how much energy you need for this is on the status screen, on the left side of your U.N. Squadron-esque portrait there's a gauge that constantly goes up as you take down enemies. That's your Pod Gauge, and once its full, the Pod will arrive. Shoot it and the attack will be unleashed.
The Arcade-packed Nicktoon you won't find on TV.
As a "Run N' Gun" game, Spidersaurs doesn't fail on catch the speed and agility from the Contra series, starting off with the weaponry. Like Contra III: The Alien Wars and Contra 4, you can carry two different weapons which can be toggled on the go and like in Contra III, you can use this to fire both weapons in a quick button switching sequence. While it lacks of the "Hold L&R for the combined weapon attack", it retains the fixed position button like Contra III and Contra: Shattered Soldier for those brief moments you need to stand in one place while aiming, and honestly that's a great concept for a Run N' Gun since adds mobility, timing and coordination all at once just like Super Cyborg did. But the best part is that weapons can be upgraded like in the Arcade version of Super Contra where picking the same weapon twice increases its strength unlike the classic "Spread + Rapid" upgrading from Contra and the NES port of Super C. Simple, basic but skill requiring, the basic rules of Contra are present on Spidersaurs and that's the main key of the game's fun factor.
That was one hell of a close call...
While Run N' Guns like Contra and Metal Slug focus more on enemy engagement rather than obstacles, Spidersaurs throws a few stage hazards like the falling elevators which require a little quick thinking, not as much as let's say Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX, but its still fun to dodge while concentrating on your enemies.
Good for your health, better for your combat skills.
In the style of Megaman and Super Metroid, you'll be unlocking new powers and abilities after defeating a boss, and like in both games, you'll be relying on them a lot of times. Being Climbing, Double Jump and the Web Grapple the most utilized for the whole game once you unlock them, because most of the boss battles will require to use those skills because they're not the classical Contra-like boss fights, but more a bit like the Hard Corps Uprising styled quick thinking, and even platform hopping like the drone boss of the lava stage. These are fast paced battles that if you make a mistake you'll end up losing a life or getting Game Over.
Golem 1 Knocker: ...I said what I had to say.
Mage 1 Clown: About what?
Golem 1 Knocker: Not a girl who'd retreat. Just not in her [Spidersaur-mixed] DNA.
Unlike most Contra and general Run N' Gun games, you are allowed to take a few hits before finally dying and losing a life. Three to be exact and throughout your mission you can recover any lost health with food items scattered across the place or randomly dropped by a killed Spidersaur. This life and energy recover mechanics are more in-par with Super Turrican, but they're very helpful when the Run N' Gun game you're playing is more speed-based like the 16-Bit Contra games. Damage also affects your weaponry. If you take a hit while having a fully powered weapon, it'll be powered down and getting killed will take that weapon away. While I don't have any problem with the "lose weapon after death" rule, getting downgraded by a hit is a little bit arbitrary since HP-based Run N' Gun games allow you to keep your fully weapons until you die (Super Turrican for example), leading to either gradual or complete power down. On the bright side, you can recover a weapon upgrade by picking the same item and even life. Recovering life is a bit random here since every once in a while an enemy will drop a Spidersaur-made food like a burger, pizza slice or a burrito. Regardless of what the meal is, you'll regain HP. Also, since there's no "Hit Rate" like Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra, there's no worries if you lose a life or get Game Over, the only thing that's gonna happen is that your score will be resetted to zero and you'll be back at the beginning of the stage.
Stealth: The Invisible Threat
While the gameplay and its main aspects are excellent and they're definitely a delight for Contra fans, the game has some problems. Time to talk about the "Snakes on Eden" of Spidersaurs: I've already mentioned one of the most annoying things of the game: "Take a hit and your weapon will power down". It might worked on Strikers 1945 III to distinguish between error and death. But the most annoying of all occurs when you are standing in one place for a moderate amount of time (let's say to exploit infinite spawining Spidersaurs to gain extra lives), a creature called Camo-Leon will suddenly appear and hit you. That's an unfair move from the game, especially when the game is played in the higher difficulty levels as you might get stucked in a "stand or move-and-get-hit" dilemma, and trust me, there's nothing more annoying that being ambushed by something that pops out right where you are because you were standing in one place for a long time.
You might need to use a different attack method to defeat this sub-boss.
While most Run N' Gun games imply shoot to the weakpoint when the whole body isn't vulnerable, this game pulls a somewhat cryptic strategy. In the Lava Flow stage, you'll be facing a boss called Ankylo-Poly which at first seems to be invincible to all of your attacks. For newcomers, this means "Permastuck", but guess what?, You have to push him to the lava eruptions in order to turn him and expose its belly, making him vulnerable to your attacks. While this idea works on RPG's and Hack N' Slash action games, this is just frustrating on a Run N' Gun because you have to predict where the next lava fountains will appear.
Something that I've noticed was a couple of bugs in the game. The first one is when I start the game is that the WayForward logo and intro cutscenes slightly pausing on the first seconds, as if the game was running in a bad PS1 copy or a very old game. The second is when you load a saved game after quitting before; the voiced dialogues are played in a very low volume compared with the music and sound and the voice volume returns to normal when the stage begins. I've noticed those bugs in the PlayStation 4 and XBOX Series X ports of the game, but I hope those can be fixed on an update.
There's a dialogue that was "censored" (if we can call it like that) in the console ports. After clearing the Tutorial stage, Victoria asks what was the first boss they encountered and Paulette explains that the monster was the Queen Spidersaur, big enough to feed a neighborhood, a school and a corporate party.
Victoria: By the way, also large enough to EAT an entire neighborhood, school...
Uwe Richter: ...or the InGest Corporation.
Paulette D'Nosh: True.
On the console versions, the game skips those lines for no reason.
Preview of Cuphead's "The Bydo Queen" DLC.
One of the main features of the console ports of the game is the inclusion of a new stage and a new final boss for the Rare difficulty (Hard) which now pits you in combat against Dr. Aracha Sorez and her "Ultimate Life Form", along with reanimated Spidersaur skeletons that takes a few forms before going down. The stage itself is short but provides you good enough weapons to stand a chance if you've lost a life along the way.
If you're after a nice and fun Trophy/Achievement Hunting, then you'll get everything after 2 playthroughs: One in Story Mode and the other in Arcade Mode. You can get 6 of them in the Tutorial level: Clear a level without taking a hit, without dying, using the default "Pea shooter", using a single weapon, clear the stage without standing still and clear the boss without getting hit. If you're lucky enough and an enemy drops a food item you'll get 7 with the "Light Snack" achievement. The rest is clearing each stage, complete the game, complete it without dying, reaching the true ending and clearing Arcade Mode. A total of 18 Achievements in the XBOX port and 19 for the PlayStation as it adds the "Cleared Your Plate" Platinum trophy to the total.
Smooth, No-Pixels required animations.
Best Definition of "Interactive Cartoon" (or "Interactive Anime")
When it comes to graphics, the game can be described with the advertising tag of Strider's arcade flyer: "So sharp and colorful, you'll think you're watching an animated cartoon!", and that can be noticed in the characters since they're not sprites or CG models, they look and move like animated characters, giving the impression of being an interactive cartoon just like Cuphead. Spidersaurs' main premise is the Saturday Morning block. This game is mostly focused on the anime style and the 2000's cartoons lke the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remake. This is very notorious on the main menu, where the colors and artwork are very TMNT-Nicktoons like, while the opening borrows elements of both western cartoon and anime and blends them in one thing. It is worth to mention that the intro sequence manages to catch the style of action-themed cartoons.
The character design also borrows cartoon and anime elements, the western (American/European) cartoon elements are notorious on the male characters like Adrian, Stockton Vester and Uwe Richter, while the anime style is on the girls (Victoria, Paulette D'Nosh and Dr. Sorez). The creatures of the game are completely influenced by Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron (give'em cat ears and they can easily pass as Dr. Viper's monstrosities) along with some Nicktoons-styled enemies like the Jimmy Neutron-ish Combiner boss.
Does Spidersaur food material includes Bydogen?
When you're playing the Story Mode of a game, it obviously requires cutscenes that get you interested in the story and lore. While they're not fully animated like let's say Starfield or Final Fantasy XV, the cutscenes of Spidersaurs features still images backed up with voice acting pretty much like Triggerheart Exelica Enhanced, which is a major step compared with Raiden V's cutscenes.
Those moments when your game session feels like an "Episode of the Day".
For the sake of Saturday Morning nostalgia, each stage has a title card in the style of a cartoon episode, increasing the TV Show like feeling of this game, and makes this job right, even if its on the late 90's-early 2000's.
Present day gaming gets a fully animated "Blast from the Past".
The sound department starts with an energic 80's like narration and a Haim Saban-Shuki Levy styled theme song that borrows influences from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors and Dinosaucers which is great and fits with the TV show setting of the game despite the drawing style is more of the 2000's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The fast action show hard rocking score is the music style of this game, and believe it or not, it was composed by Harumi Fujita (Blazing Star), which is a surprise to see Fujita working on a different style from the electronic paces we knew in both Blazing Star and Pulstar. Not to mention the soundtrack is reminiscent of the 2000's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series with a hint of Megaman X7 and Megaman X8. There's also plenty of voice acting in the game, which for some instances, they feel like an ADV Films english dub: Being the male characters (Adrian included) the most notorious, while Victoria sounds like Tiffany Grant (Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion), being quite fitting for the anime-cartoon setting of the game.
TRIVIASAURS: GENERAL CURIOSITIES
Uhm... "Now, we are about to go into the start sequence"?
- The name of both the game and titular species can be translated as "Spider Lizards".
- This is the third Run N' Gun game developed by WayForward (Contra 4 > The Mummy Demastered > Spidersaurs > Contra: Operation Galuga).
- InGest sometimes is alternatively called "InGEST" and "INGESTCorp".
- The fictional brand "Cenozoic Alternatives" is the only one with a Non-Dinosaurian name, since the Cenozoic era is the "Age of Mammals" (65 Million Years - Present Day).
- A concept sketch of Victoria can be seen in the upper left part of the character select screen.
- Unlike the official art, Victoria's necklace lacks of spikes in the opening cutscene.
- Like Eve from The Outfoxies, Victoria has a star painted around her eye.
- The name "Victoria" means "Victory" in spanish.
- Paluette's last name, D'Nosh is pronounced "Dee-Nush".
- Only Adrian and Victoria are the only ones without surnames.
- Dr. Sorez name is pronounced as the prefix "saurus" which means "Lizard" or "Reptile".
- The Spidersaur creature seen on the logo and on top of Victoria in both artwork and opening cutscene is called Lil' Saur, is a common enemy of the game.
- The Dino Dash is identical to the Dash function of Megaman X2 to X8 as it can be performed in mid-air.
- The Ankylo-Poly's bouncing attack is somewhat reminiscent of Armored Armadillo from Megaman X.
- The stage Lava Flow is very reminiscent of Magma Dragoon's stage in Megaman X4
- Being able to break walls ith the Dino Dash mirrors the charged Speed Booster from Super Metroid.
- Victoria's level 2 Laser Show is very similar to the Wave shot from the Metroid series.
- Adrian's Thether Spin weapon is very similar to one of Shantae's attacks.
- The trophy/achievement "Dance Like you Want to Win" refers to the mid-episode subtitle of "Moment and Heart Together", the 9th episode of the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Aracha's "Ultimate Life Form" term comes from Shadow The Hedgehog from Sonic Adventure 2.
- First WayForward game where Harumi Fujita works as a composer.
- The "New Stage" and "True Ending" were originally meant to be console port exclusives, but they were ultimately included in all Apple Arcade platforms.
- The game's premise shares some similarities and nods to the episode "The Elevator" from the 1985 series The Twilight Zone as it involves a scientist creating giant creatures in an attempt to solve the world's hunger and the protagonists facing giant spiders.
TRIVIASAURS: SATURDAY MORNING SPIDERCURIOSITIES
- For a Saturday Morning homage, it homages more the 90's-2010's era than the 80's.
- Although anime was on its early steps in the 80's on the western audience (Voltron, Robotech, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, etc.), its popularity reached its peak in the late 90's-early 2000's, basically the Pokemon era.
- This Pokemon style is quite notorious on InGest's scientist Paulette D'Nosh, while Aracha Sorez has a slight Dragon Ball Z look.
- Both Victoria and Adrian get their emergency calls through special wristwatches like the Centurions from the 1986 cartoon Centurions: Power Xtreme.
- The "Spidersaurs going berserk after a solar flare" intro premise nods the 1985 cartoon Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, where a solar flare strikes at Audric's laboratory causing mutations on the experimental plants, leading to the birth of Saw Boss and the Monster Minds.
- Victoria holds two references to the 1986 cartoon SilverHawks: First as a rocker with an instrument-weapon like the villian Melodia and the hero Bluegrass, and like both Melodia's Sound Smasher keytar and Bluegrass' guitar Hot Licks, her Thrashburn Perilaxe guitar is capable of shooting like a rifle.
- Adrian's Sport Caster weapons based on balls and improvised projectiles are very similar to some of the inventions of Gadget Hackwrench from Chip N' Dale: Rescue Rangers and even those of KND: Codename Kids Next Door.
TRIVIASAURS: CONTRA REFERENCES
- Being able to power up a weapon was borrowed from the arcade game Super Contra.
- You can switch from two weapons like Contra III: The Alien Wars and Contra 4.
- You can see a portrait of your character in the status-score indicator like in Contra Hard Corps
- Players are granted 3HP like the japanese version of Contra Hard Corps.
- The Double Jump ability is identical to Browny/CX-4 from Contra Hard Corps/Probotector.
- The Web Grapple is a reference to the grappling hook from Contra 4.
- The Rain Pod is very similar to the Heaven's Laser from Neo Contra.
- The "player riding a dinosaur" in the Jungle stage nods Stage 2 from Neo Contra.
- Combiner is very reminiscent of Huge Robot from Contra Hard Corps. Both utilize enemies crafted by them to attack the player.
- The combined Spidersaur created by the Combiner is also a reference to the Monster Genesis Machine, also from Contra Hard Corps.
- The Weaver Siblings puppet is a parody of Gromaides from Contra, Contra 4 and Contra: Operation Galuga.
- The first part of "The Hive" stage is reminiscent of the final level of Operation C.
- The Queen Spidersaur in Stage 5 attacks in a similar way to the Kimkoh from Contra: Shattered Soldier.
- Some of the attack patterns of Dr. Aracha Sorez are reminiscent of Colonel Bahamut from Contra Hard Corps.
TRIVIASAURS: JURASSIC PARK REFERENCES
- InGest is a pun on InGen.
- Jurassic Pork is an obvious pun on the franchise (in general).
- In the jungle stage, the character followed by raptors is a nod to the Jurassic World scene of Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) in a motorcycle followed by his Velociraptors.
Thanks for those words, Nina.
Onto the Next Review.
WayForward suprised us again with a fast, Contra-faithful Run N' Gun action game which, together with Contra Anniversary Collection, Super Cyborg, Blazing Chrome, the Turrican Anthology series, Gunlord X, ACA Neogeo Metal Slug games and the upcoming Contra: Operation Galuga will definitely make us forget the infamous Contra Rogue Corps and the crappy ACA Neogeo Cyber-Lip. There's no need to say that Spidersaurs is a must have for your consoles nowadays.
Now, if only Hamster and Granzella/IREM worked together again to bring the Gunforce series to the Arcade Archives collection, that will complete this collection of Run N' Guns. Even with the IREM Collection out there, standalone Arcade Archives releases are also a good idea (as long as Namco doesn't get in the way).
A great score on the three main scales.