THE SEIBU KAIHATSU BOOK OF GENESIS (Part I)
THE STING BEFORE THE LIGHTNING
Seibu Kaihatsu made an occassional return to the Arcade Archives, but not in the way most fans wanted.
I know most of us we're expecting the oh-so-requested Raiden II, but this time, is still a shmup and part of Seibu's "Pre-Raiden" era.
Starting Point.
The "Pre-Raiden" Era.
We all know Seibu Kaihatsu thanks to Raiden (and sometimes Dynamite Duke), but there was other shmups that became part of the company's history and unexpectedly, part of the path to the company's "Opus Magna" called Raiden. Stinger is one of them, in fact its the very first game developed by Seibu Kaihatsu when the company was called Seibu Denshi. So this is historical as we're on the starting point of the company.
It's learn quick or die quicker.
As soon as the game begins, your first problem will be the Giga Sphere because it will try to make you crash with it or with the popcorn enemies with its full screen tractor-beam effect (or gravitational pull), so you can only try to force your way out by dodging the enemies or trying to take it down with several shots, but since they bounce rather than confirming a hit, you'll probably think your bullets are causing no effect unless you keep shooting like a madman until it finally dies or retreats (which will be the outcome most of the times). But guess what, you can use one of your "Bongo Calls" to defeat the Giga Sphere. What's a Bongo? Well, its a spinning robot which will hit anything in sight for a while and whatever it touches it is destroyed. That includes the Giga Sphere. Once you're done with the Giga Sphere you can finally move into the game.
Robot Rescue
Despite being an horizontal shooter with the basic aspects of an early 80's shmup (single shot, no power ups and simple attack patterns), Stinger adds a new feature that reminds me of the Zaxxon era of shmups: Base segments. This is the main feature in this game. The idea here is that you have to take down the enemy towers in order to stop the spinning enemies known as "Spinning Tanks". Taking these out is important to get the Bongo's on the ground or else they will move straight towards you, but sometimes Bongos they show how inept their AI is because they are gonna be stupid enough to crash with Radar towers, fell off the base or collide with the Spinning tanks, so it feels more like a matter of luck to get one because when you get close to the base, your ship's speed will decrease around 50% of your flight speed and what's worse, your weapon will switch to a bullet that makes an arc before hitting the ground (It's just like the rock in Friday the 13th. It arcs over everybody you try to hit). The idea of reaching the Bongos consists on touching the Bongo robot and wait until the gauge fills, once its full you'll get a free Bongo Call (in resume; it's a Resupply).
Sorry, edge of the platform.
Try to rescue them in the next stage.
Picking a Bongo is kinda limited by the "duration" of the ground segment. Once it begins to get narrow until the platform ends, the Bongo pick and "absorb" will stop until you reach the next platform segment.
Basic Defensive Weaponry.
Have you ever wondered what happens when you fill the gauge once you reach the maximum of 5 Bongo Calls?
Here's the answer: It will fill a yellow, then red gauge and once its full and "All Red" your blaster will be able to shoot backwards, that's the power up of this game. It doesn't do too much since basically all the enemies come from the right side of the screen.
Precursor of the Crystals?
The game has five levels: four of them are the common horizontal shmup with the runway sections while the last one is the Biotron fight. The best indicator is the green "fortress" in the background that will gradually increase in size as you progress through the game. Curiously, the Biotron has afterhit invincibility when it takes a hit from your shots rather than being the "bullet sponge" that absorbs your shots until it finally dies, making the boss battle larger than it should be.
Well done!
We dare you to try again.
Did I said levels? Looks like I've made a mistake, this game has stages that loop forever, each one divided in the mentioned sections and these stages have their own enemy formations, breaking the repetitivity that dominated in the early 80's arcade games.
Homeporting not one, but two versions of the game.
Due to its age, the game didn't had ports for the Atari 2600 or the Colecovision, but not even as a bonus on Raiden DX like the demo of Senkyu did. It took 42 years for Stinger to have a homeport on Arcade Archives, even if that means being PS and Switch 1 only. While it onl has the japanese version from Seibu Denshi ditching the american release by Venture Line, but it carries two different versions of the game; being Version B the hard version of the game as it increases the difficulty and removes the afterhit invincibility of the Biotron, but the Hi-Score and Caravan modes use the "Version A" for a more "fair" play session. The B version changes the color of space from black to blue.
Another "Base Attack" weekend.
In terms of graphics, it makes an interesting use of the angle making it look isometric like Sega's Zaxxon but retaining the full horizontality, giving a sense of three dimensionality, combined with the use of an additional layer for the ground surface which was quite new for 1983. Sprite art is also unique as some of the enemies have spinning animations and the Stinger Wolf has blinking effects on the thruster exhaust and the yellow-red blink when it fires. For a 1983 game, there was a considerable focus on details and that's the giant space station the background that increases in size as you approach to the Biotron's hideout. It is also worth of mention the fact that Seibu utilized a vertical screen for an horizontal scrolling shmup, predating Konami's idea with Contra.
The sound department is the simplistic spacey-tune that you will expect of early 80's shmups, but in Stinger's case, it has some Sega Master System vibes that reminds me a bit of Astro Warrior/Sapo Xule S.O.S. Lagoa Poluida, something very advanced for the time being, while the sound effects are quite digitized for the explosions just like Galaxian and Galaga.
STINGING FACTS
- This game is a first in a few key aspects:
-- First Seibu Denshi/Kaihatsu game.
-- First home port and arcade perfect port of the game.
-- First Seibu game that wasn't released in the US by Fabtek.
- Lone Seibu Denshi title published by Sigma Enterprises and Venture Line.
- Last Seibu Kaihatsu game released with the "classic" Arcade Archives interface.
- Do not confuse Seibu Denshi's Stinger with Konami's Stinger, the localization of Moero TwinBee: Cinnamon-hakase o Sukue!.
- Speaking of Konami, the rear shot of Stinger Wolf's blaster was utilized on the Gradius series as the "Tailgun".
- Biotron's name is rendered in katakana as "Bio Tron" (バイオ・トロン Baio Toron).
- If Seibu's shmups are a "Raidenverse" of some sorts, then it is unknown where in the timeline Stinger takes place.
Just a small journey into the Pre-Raiden era of Seibu Kaihatsu.
While the game was outlasted by newer and far better games, Stinger still earns its place in shooting history. Not just because it's Seibu Denshi/Kaihatsu's debut, but also as an experiment on horizontal scrolling and being among the first shmups to introduce boss battles and even back shots. That says a lot already.
It's kinda strange that MOSS didn't included the Stinger Wolf on the list of ships for Raiden Nova. That would work much better as a starter ship than Raiden V's Azuma.
For the first step of Seibu Kaihatsu, Stinger makes a good job, earning 8 R-9's out of 10 in the R-Scale:
