Master of Weapon (Taito, 1989)

[Randorama]

In this review we focus on one of Taito’s perhaps more obscure and maybe even maligned shmups: Master of Weapon. Some of my readers may know this game via its Taito Memories PS2 port or perhaps the PS4/Switch Arcade Archives port. A port to the MegaDrive also exists, though its quality is not so brilliant. The game is probably one of Taito’s lesser known shmups, even if the developers who created the legendary Rayforce ultimately wanted to create a sequel to this title. Let us also consider that the game recycles game mechanics and fonts from Taito’sTokyo/Scramble Formation, and readers might understand its role within Taito’s legacy of shmups. Let us proceed with the review (1734 words, or 4.4 pages long in times new roman, size 12, single space; the longer squib version is here):

Master of Weapon (Taito, 1989) is a lesser known (ro)TATE shmup with a post-apocalyptic setting, interesting game and scoring mechanics, and a rather brooding OST. The game chronicles the adventures of “Yukiwo”, a young man who is escaping from prison after Japan becomes a brutal dictatorship, after a nuclear holocaust obliterates most of the planet. The game is notable for being difficult often in unbalanced or poorly designed manners, and for having a triggering narrative event on September 11th, of year 199X. It also features an OST that veers into creepy tones by its ending themes, even if starts with an almost cheerful theme. Add some bosses looking like flying heads of Greek statues, and a recipe for a genuinely weird shmup is ready. The goal of this review is to convince my readers that the game provides an interesting and educative shmup experience, if only because of its “unfair” difficulty.

For this title, it is useful to concentrate the discussion of the context of release to Taito’s final output of the 1980s, plus some connections to earlier releases. Namco’s Xevious in 1983, plus 1987’s Dragon Spirit and Nichibutsu’s Terra Cresta, among other shmups, proved that “dual plane” shmups were viable. That is, players appreciated shooting enemies on the plane of players’ ships and the background plane scrolling below the ship. Taito entered this micro-genre via their 1986’s Tokyo/Scramble Formation, and offered an interesting take on the genre. Taito’s main shmup release for 1989 was however Darius II, a game that would go on to become a legend of the genre together with rail shooter Night Striker. Taito also published Toaplan’s Zero Wing, Hellfire, and Twin Hawk solid if lesser celebrated titles from this company. Master of Weapon thus acted as the other Taito’s in-house shmup “intermediate level” production.

The game’s plot is perhaps notorious among the fans. In 199X, the 11th of September, a nuclear war explodes and destroys more than 90% of the planet. In a week, the world because a nightmarish radioactive hell. Somehow, Japan holds a semblance of stability as a ruthless dictatorship takes control and steers the country in the new wasteland. At the helm of this dictatorship, however, there is a half-organic, half cybernetic and spider-looking AI plotting to completely enslave survivors. Helping this AI are other AI’s appearing as giant marble busts of divinities from Greek mythology and acting as the military’s field generals. In 200X Yukiwo Ishikawa, a young boy, escapes from one prison and decides to battle against military forces, mutants, monsters, and the renegade AI’s. The world may end up in a final bang without the AI’s guidance, but Yukiwo prefers short-lived liberty to eternal slavery.

The game’s plot certainly melts together various sub-genres of S(cience)F(iction), like post-apocalyptic, dystopian and a dash of cyberpunk, too. At the Facet of game mechanics, the game also includes some peculiar game choices. Players control Yukiwo’s ship in eight directions via the joystick; The A button control the main shot, and the B button controls the secondary attack. Players can collect up to four “S(peed)” power ups and “F(ire)” power ups, increasing the fire power from one frontal stream to five wide-shot bullets. There are four secondary weapons: the default “P(iercing” missile, the “L(aser)” beam, the “W(ide)” energy shot, and the “G(uided)” (homing) energy shot. All four weapons can hit land-based enemies appearing in the ship’s crosshairs, but also aerial enemies placed in the virtual line of fire. Secondary weapons have four power levels, restocking at maximum every two seconds, and with power level correlating to damage level and attacking range.

The game has thus rather simple “dual” plane mechanics that fuse two aspects from the virtual predecessor Tokyo. This because land attacks based on secondary weapons operate more as mixed type attacks. Players can however forsake charging and use the basic secondary attack, which is a stream of shots directly hitting land enemies in the crosshairs. Though weak, this attack has the advantage of automatically hitting only land enemies, so that players can instead use the aerial shot to destroy aerial enemies. Players can also collect a “H(ydrogen)” special bomb attack, which wipes out all enemies and bullets on screen when reaching the surface. Notably, players can destroy most of the scenery across Stages via the secondary attacks and can hit bosses with both attack types. The game thus displays a certain flexibility to the dual plane mechanics that also anticipates its spiritual successor Rayforce.

The game’s mechanics have an immediacy that finds a match also in the aesthetic presentation. The game runs on Taito’s F1 board; Graphics feature a washed-up palette but big, mostly detailed sprites. Post-apocalyptic Tokyo and the surrounding regions come in hues of brown, green, lots of steel grey and other dark colours. Most enemies are retro-futuristic in design, echoing thus Tokyo’s design: Stage five is notable in including a huge bombardier as the main enemy flying in the background. Some enemies, however, are horribly mutated humans and other creatures, to remind players that they are fighting one week after a nuclear holocaust. Bosses, as we have foreshadowed, provide the most peculiar Facet in design. Players fight giant busts purportedly representing Greek gods (e.g. Zeus) that, once destroyed, reveal flying pulsating brains with cybernetic implants. The final boss, the renegade AI, looks like a giant Facehugger hiding in a pitch-black cave.

The bizarre combination of possibly metaphorically designed enemies (remember, Yukiwo is fighting against authoritarian AI’s) combines with a matching soundtrack. The OST is highly representative of Zuntata’s external collaborator(s) Pinch Punch and their style. The game opens with Desertion for the short Stage one (“Act I”, in-game) creating a sense of urgency. Stage two’s Freedom offers a brighter theme than Stage three and four’s dramatic Distortion/Wipe Out. Stages five, six’s Cry and Implosion have a fast, oppressive tempo suggesting that Yukiwo’s battle may be doomed, after all. The rather dated 8-bit style sound effects also add to this atmosphere via its metallic sounds. Overall, Master of Weapon features a design that introduces players to a brooding world in which Yukiwo’s battle for freedom emerges as a lost cause. It thus anticipates the majestically dark atmospheres of Taito’s Metal Black and Rayforce, and Taito/UPL’s Acrobat Mission.

We are now ready to discuss the game difficulty that, in my opinion, stems from three Facets: the game mechanics, Stage design/layout, and rank. I propose to partition the 50 total points into 20, 20 and 10 points per Facet, respectively, and to start our discussion from the third Facet. The game has a simple form of “survival rank”: the longer players survive, the faster bullets become. Enemies do not seem to have more H(it)P(point)s as rank increases, but some enemies’ movement seems to increase with rank. If players reach Stage six on one life, bullets’ speed becomes a constant source of threat: dodging point-blanking enemies is next to impossible. The game mechanics provide a similarly simple set of challenges. Players must master the use of secondary weapons to kill enemies on both planes: using the basic secondary shot does not suffice to destroy all enemies in time.

Furthermore, players must master Yukiwo’s ship’s movement at maximal speed, as lower speeds render the ship a near-sitting target. When losing a life, players must learn to survive at least one minute before the game releases new F power-ups; multiple successive deaths are a serious risk, in this game. Stage design/layout, the second Facet, offers another considerable contribution to the overall difficulty. Stage one is a short preamble, but Stages two to six are relatively long Stages (around four minutes) with various mid-bosses and tricky sections. Boss fights can be relatively short (at most one minute) if players learn how to point-blank the bosses with primary and secondary weapons. In general, though, players must develop good strategies for each stage especially when sniping enemies appear and must have a firm grasp of how to handle bosses. The final boss offers no challenge: the “Greek AI’s” are veritable bastards.

Overall, I would suggest that the first Facet motivates a 6/20 points of difficulty, as players need to master four secondary weapons, plus quirky main shot, and speed mechanics. Stage design/layout motivates a 10/20 points of difficulty, due to Stage one being an easy preamble. Rank offers a subtle contribution: if players learn to recover from deaths, rank is not a crucial source of difficulty. However, players will find Stage six treacherous once they learn to reach it on the first life, and with four lives in stock (extends are 500k and 1M points). The game thus reaches a minimal score of 17/50 difficulty points if players can handle multiple deaths across stages, but a maximal score of 22/50 points at maximal rank. Basic 1-CC’s are a challenge for top-tier intermediate players; 1-LC’s are the province of low-tier expert players, and rather frustrating experiences.

Let us wrap up. Master of Weapon is a Taito TATE shmup released in 1989 that features a post-apocalyptic setting in which a young boy, Yukiwo, fights against an evil AI-driven dictatorship. The game features a dual plane game system in the line of Taito’s earlier release Tokyo but includes secondary weapons that can operate on both attack planes. The game is notable also for implementing other some 2.5D effects, huge sprites as Stage five/Act V’s flying carrier, and an OST that veers into paranoid territory by the game’s end. The game is notable for featuring a simple but challenging survival rank system, a moderately intense 1-CC challenge, and fast-paced if sometimes rather frustrating action. Players who wish to challenge themselves in 1-CC’ing a shmup that certainly has shortcomings in its mechanics but also provides a remarkably peculiar if brooding ambience can certainly enjoy Master of Weapon.

(A short coda of ramblings, if I may. The game also has a prototype version simply called Yukiwo in MAME in which Yukiwo himself rides on some kind of flying bike. In the main game, trigger it with a dipswitch setting. I am not sure on how Yukiwo can survive the purported vastly irradiated and radioactive Tokyo of the game, however. I do remember other kids watching me playing this game and wondering how I could actually stand all the sniping cheap shots and the final two themes. One guy also conjectured that Cry/Implosion was the theme that drove programmers mad and forced them to suicide. The final boss, according to him, was the revenant form of these programmers fused into a super-intelligent organism. Yes, as kids we had highly creative and impressionable imaginations. We all agreed that the ending was really, really creepy: How can Yukiwo survive his newfound freedom?).