Insector X (Arcade, Famicom/NES, MegaDrive, PS2, Taito, 1989)

[Randorama]

Insector X is a little known shmup by Taito that also qualifies as one of the easiest arcade titles in the genre, courtesy of the shmups difficulty wiki. The game received a Mega Drive port that swapped the anime-ish characters with more “serious” characters, a Famicom/NES port, and it and appears in the Taito Memories collection. Readers who want to read a longer version of this review including personal musings can find the corresponding squib here; just in case, this review is 1170 words, or 2.9 pages in times new roman, size 12, single space, in total. Let us proceed:

Insector X (Taito, 1989) is an HORI(zontal) shump that pits an hybrid bee/human soldier, “Kai”, against the evil army of cyborg insects that threaten the delicate balance between humans and insects. The game is possibly Taito’s easiest shmup and one of the easiest HORI’s that players can 1-CC. The game is also notable in featuring manga/anime-like graphics and a relatively cute OST. As a “pedagogical” shmup and obscure 1980s game, Insector X appears to be an ideal first step in the sometimes-cruel world of arcade shmups. Players who may thus wish to spend some time playing a less demanding but still entertaining HORI shmup may thus enjoy Insector X neat presentation and gentle challenge. My goal in this review is therefore to convince my readers that this is possibly a good gateway to achieving more challenging but also more frustrating shmup 1-CC’s.

A bit of context can certainly help readers in framing the game’s appearance. By 1989, shmups in general and HORI shmups in particular could offer quite a wide range of formidable challenges. Players who want to test their tactical skills could try out classics such a Konami’s Gradius, or Irem’s R-Type. Players who wanted to focus more on action could instead play Taito’s Darius and Darius II. Capcom also release the quite solid U.N. Squadron a year before, along with the impressive rotary joystick Forgotten Worlds. Insector X was a minor title that however offered two interesting innovations. First, the main character Kai has no hit points, shields, pods, or other tools to defend him: one hit amounts to one death. Second, the game has cute a 1970 design style, with enemies straight out of a Fujio Akatsuka anime/manga series. It offered some simple and innovative concepts, indeed.

The plot is interesting, though it reverberates the kind of sappy “balance between nature technology” rhetoric that one can find in Hayao Miyazaki’s works, among other creators. Kai is a humanoid bee with some cybernetic implants that takes up arms again the Bee Empire. This horde of cybernetically enhanced bees forms an alliance with other species from the insect kingdom and decides to wage a war to conquer the planet. Judging by the backgrounds and the size of some objects in these backgrounds, all these creatures maintain their insect size. Players may thus wonder exactly how cybernetic bees can be any more threatening than normal bees, even though these cyborg lads have tiny laser cannons. Anyway, Kai sets on his mission to defeat the Bee Empire and bring down the Mantis emperor, perhaps wondering why these guys do not have a Queen Bee as their leader.

The plot may appear problematic, I agree. The game mechanics are however pleasantly simple. The joystick controls Kai in eight directions; the A button shoots the main bullets, flying a straight direction; the B button shoots the secondary attack. The main shot follows a power-up cycle vaguely reminiscent of Darius. Kai starts from a single shot, obtains green laser extra bullets after a few power-up “P” icons, and maxes out at a wave laser shot that can pass through walls. The secondary shot has two variants: blue and brown. Kai hops on a rocket-like vehicle and shoots an extra array of missile-type weapons (blue) or bomb-type attacks (brown). Kai can also become faster (“S” icon), obtain an auto-fire option (“A”), extra lives (“1up”) and retain weapons after death (“?”, before the last boss). No shields or other defences: Kai always dies after one hit, via a fun-looking “fulminated” animation.

The game’s simplicity dovetails with its pleasant audio-visual neatness. The stages take place in Egypt, with a mission in the pyramids (Stage one); in some undefined garden and big city (Stages two and three). The action then moves an amazon swamp (Stage four), and finally deep into the Bee Empire (Stages five). While generally static, background have good colour choices; the Bee Empire is a complex cave in which cyber bees have encroached their hive, a cybernetic creation glowing in the dark. Bosses are huge insects with humanoid features and almost caricatural looks, a far cry for the realistic bugs of Cave’s Mushihimesama. The OST and sound effect provide a solid effort by Zuntata’s lesser known collaborators (e.g. Pinch Punch), and serves the game well, again by pursuing a vague anime-style approach (e.g. a vaguely dramatic boss theme). The game thus also appears “simple but pleasant”, indeed.

By this point, it should be clear that the main theme of the game aside the “technology vs. nature fight” is “simplicity”. The game’s difficulty follows this trend, as well. For this reason, I propose that the main Facet one can experience as providing some difficulty consists of the Stage design/layout. I propose this approach because the game mechanics should be trivial for any player: tap the attack buttons all the time and dodge bullets. Stages one and two, furthermore, are trivial, since enemies shoot only a few bullets that are easy to dodge. Stage three is easy, but the Boss Moth’s main attack may require some practice to learn. The same reasoning applies to Stage four’s Boss Spider and its Stage. Stage five has a final section before the boss that requires some memorization, and the Boss Praying Mantis’s attack is rather tricky to master.

Players may also find a bit hard to recover from deaths, since Kai goes back to the basic shot, loses the auto-fire option and the pod secondary attack. Furthermore, Stages award a fixed number of power-ups: while four secondary weapon power-ups appear quickly, deaths on Stage four and five may result in Kai remaining underpowered. However, the game awards an “?” power-up before the final passage of Stage five, so players reaching this phase can make two attempts at full power to clear the section, the final boss, and the game. Do not worry: a decently skilled player can 1-CC the game anyway with a pea shooter. The last three Stages and the respawning handicap motivate a 4/50 difficulty value: the game should be an easy 1-CC for any mid-tier beginner player, and any player who can simply sit down and try a few credits.

In conclusion, Insector X is a HORI shmup by Taito (1989) that pits Kai, a humanoid bee/cyborg, against the cybernetic bees of the Bee Empire. In a fight to re-establish a balance between technology and nature, players must progress through five Stages and finally defeat the Bee Empire. The game is notable for using insects as a main design concept for character and enemies alike, an almost caricatural anime/manga style and a pedagogically gentle difficulty level, notwithstanding the “one hit, one death” mechanic. Players who wish to downshift a bit in their shmupping journeys and add a simple yet pleasant 1-CC in their CV should try the game. The game can also be a soothing, calming shmup experience for anyone who just wants a break from the more toxic aspects of “hardcore gaming”. Relax a bit: try out the game and snatch the 1-CC at your leisure.