TRANSFORMS FROM PLANE TO ROBOT AND BACK!
Welcome to the jungle! We got fun and games!
We got everything you want, honey, we know the names.
We are the people that can find whatever you may need.
If you got the money, honey, we got your disease.
Back to reviewing Arcade Archives stuff, and this time I'll talk about a shmup that is as old as me.
I'm talking Konami's Finalizer Super Transformation from 1985.
"Things Change" That's the only rule you have to learn here.
The "Mid 80's". In arcade, this was a scenario where everyone had a plethora of vertical shooters with similar features, being the graphics, sound and developer the only differences. So, how Finalizer Super Transformation would differ from the rest, especially when Konami's previous work Gradius was dominating back then? The key of Finalizer's success was following the 80's major trend: Transforming robots. The main feature of this game is the Transformation and Super Transformation and that's what makes Finalizer Super Transformation different from any other classic 80's shmup. This is exploited on the Power-ups as the pods send you "Fusion Parts" which will transform your ship into a robot as they combine. The first fusion transforms you into a robot with a slightly wider shot and a deployable shield, the second fusion will enlarge your robot again, along with the shield. This game gives you not one, but two buttons for each arm of your robot, and that's exploited on the weaponry of the game once you're the fully powered 'bot. As a concept idea, this was revolutionary for the time being allowing you not just double fire, but also if you want to go all offensive with two weapons or defensive by carrying a shield to defend from enemy fire. When you are "Super Transformed", pods will be sending you a variety of weapons for your arms such as the Rocket Punch which fires a fist with a "boomerang effect", a Spread gun that shoots a very effective five way shot, and the "Fireworks" which splits a bullet into 8 small ones going in 8 directions, but here's the catch: The separated bullets are the only ones that deliver damage, making the large projectile useless. Once you take down an item pod, you have to make a fast choice and pick the upgrade you want to use by shooting at it kinda like the bells on the Twinbee games, but unlike Twinbee, Finalizer's items doesn't go up with the hits, making the "I want to pick this particular item" a rapid no-way-back decision, but the order goes like this: Robot Upgrade > Bonus Points > Time Stopper > Fire Crash.
Transforms from fighter jet to robot to invincible ram and back!
While having a plethora of weapons and support items, the "F" item (Fire Crash) is perhaps the best of all, not just for the temporary invincibilty it gives, but for the score increase on each pummeled enemy. With a maximum of 8,000 points, it is an incredible way to reach the hundred thousand points in a considerably short time.
The ancestor of Big Core.
Unfortunately, the transformation feature goes down very easily. All what it needs is one hit and you'll transform from Super Transformation to "Why are we sticking around?" Mode, and most of the times will be hard to recover as the game will send you shielded enemies and robots faster than you for the rest of the game. To make things worse, items like the "E" (Eliminate on-screen enemies) and the "SP" (Speed Up) are rare even when you're the fully equipped robot. Believe it or not, something as basic as a speed upgrade is rare in this game. One of the worst situations is when four small ships try to ram you from both left to right and one in front of you, because when you take the frontal one down, the others will be chasing you until you go down. This speed problem also affects the boss battles as you have to manuever through fast courtains, predating bullet hells, resulting in cheap deaths as you might not have enough speed and/or firepower to fight back. While you have a good stock of spare ships and the ability to continue when you die, those moments that make you feel outnumbered and overwhelmed by shielded enemies will definitely make you reconsider the idea of continuing the game.
Think you can reach the top of the Leaderboards?
As an arcade title, it had a VERY limited release, being almost a Japan only exclusive game. Its only international release was on Europe by the company Tecfri which distributed other Konami titles such as Salamander and Scooter Shooter. In terms of homeporting, Finalizer didn't had console or computer ports back in the day, until 2010 when the game had a short lived port as part of the XBOX360 and Windows Game Room by Microsoft Game Studios and Krome Studios, which went down on October 31, 2017. Death of a service on Halloween, what a perfect analogy. With the Game Room shut down we would had to wait until August 29th when Hamster and Konami released it as part of Arcade Archives where the arcade emulation is way better than the XBOX/Windows port, carrying Trophy support and the additional Hi-Score and Caravan Modes as well. Something that I've noticed is that you can use the Player 2 Start button on your single player controller. The reason of this is the continue screen, since the game utilized 1P Start for "Yes" and 2P for "No". It was nice to see how Hamster addressed that issue.
Konami thought this was a Risk board.
Graphically it does a quite good job for a game made in 1985 as it manages to do a fairly good satellite view of Earth while you fight your way in this "world tour" of a game. Although the game is Sci-Fi/Mecha based, the key theme is transformation, which was a predominant theme in the 80's due to the boom and popularity of titles such as The Transformers, Macross, Southern Cross, Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, Voltron and Challenge of the Gobots, and Finalizer Super Transformation follows that trend as you start with a ship that turns into a robot by combining with the leg parts and subsequently with the booster unit creating a larger robot. Your enemies are robots and air units that also combine and form larger robots. To put it simple, the game transforms to fight you. But if we compare Finalizer's graphics with those of Gradius, we will realize that Konami didn't make a brilliant job like its masterpiece of shooting, considering that Finalizer was released at the end of 1985, several months after Gradius' February release.
One hilarious note worth to mention is the map-like text at the very beginning of the game. As you can see, the background has the words "FLORIDA" and "CUBA" indicating where you are flying over, poking at the concept of being realistic with the scenery, making it look more like a kid using a world atlas as an improvised playing mat for his toys, or like a Risk board.
Kid #1: *With a Perceptor-like voice* The Decepticons are heading to Florida!
Kid #2: *In Optimus Prime's voice* We have to stop them!
As for the sound department, you'll be "Music-less" most of the time since the tunes you'll be hearing will be like few second fanfares such as "Welcome to the Earth", "Item appearing", boss approaching and of course, Game Over and Name Entry.
TRIVIALIZER: SUPER CURIOSITIES
Behold... Fett-atron
- Finalizer is depicted as a mix between a Gundam and a Boba Fett-like head.
- The game's in-flight altitude seems to be somewhere between 300-400km, making the whole game a low orbit or LEO (Low Earth Orbit). Proof of that is that we can see Cuba and Florida on-screen at once.
- Speaking of orbits, the game's flightpath seems to be a "Polar Orbit" as the game's terrain loops from north to south.
- Finalizer's programmer was Hitoshi Akamatsu who was later moved to Konami's Famicom/NES division where he became famous for being the director of the legendary Castlevania series.
- The Arcade Archives release is the second overall home port of the game and the first in both PlayStation and Nintendo.
- Nichibutsu's UFO Robo Dangar borrows the concept of "Ship turns into a robot".
- Both Finalizer and Dangar were released on December, being a year away from each other in development.
- According to the Japanese magazine Game Machine, Finalizer was the fourth most successful arcade title in January 1986.
- The way Finalizer turns into a robot by merging with a separate part as the legs is known as "Partsforming", a portmanteau of "Parts" and "Transforming" coined by Transformers fans due to the fact that some figures require detach vehicle parts in order to transform into robot mode (Example: G1 Optimus Prime's detachable fists). It is also know as "Partformer" or "Legoformer".
Just having a "Change or Die" day at the arcade.
Arcade Archives: Finalizer Super Transformation is a 39 year old shmup that might look way too simple, dull and sometimes unfair when you're powered down, but it plays with the concept of transformability in the style of Magmax more than switching modes freely (think the Famicom Macross game for example). If you're into obscure arcade shmups, then this is gonna be one of your favorites. It's not a bad game, but its still far from being a perfect vintage arcade shmup.
Transforms from vintage game into a neutral score in the Eda Scale.