Review by Clark A.
Not all 2D shoot ‘em ups are created equal. If you’ve ever played Action 52 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, you’re no doubt familiar with that game’s penchant for taking quirky character sprites, slapping some enemies atop a generic space background, and labelling them as unique shooter experiences. While it pains me to admit it, some lesser titles since then have aped that cynical mindset to a lesser degree. Yes, they boast higher grade visuals and vapid mechanics to prop them up, but they’ve thrown the art of level design to the wolves.
Following in the footsteps of 80s and 90s genre big names like Gradius, R-Type, and Darius, independent Spanish developer Locomalito knows what it’s like to design a 2D shooter. I realise there’s a bit of caution exercised against western shoot ‘em ups made outside of Japan, but in this case any trepidation is unwarranted. From its freeware origins back in 2010 as Hydorah, it’s instantly discernable that Super Hydorah is a labour of love. Coupled with retro visuals and a killer soundtrack from Gryzor87, Super Hydorah has that delightful sense of style that sucked me in immediately.
While few modern shoot ‘em ups are as shoddy as the Action
52 titles I mentioned earlier, many still miss the boat in other respects. Some
try to build themselves around boss fights but neglect to program ones that
demand greater aptitude than holding down the fire button and twitching
periodically. Others trumpet their lengthy stages, but feature cheap deaths
galore due to lacklustre enemy placement or poorly conveyed fire patterns. Super
Hydorah gets most of these elements not just right but aces them.
Bosses have weaknesses to specific weapons, must be hit in
certain regions telegraphed by their sprite design to be damaged effectively,
and boast oppressive-but-fair bullet patterns that generally make fighting them
a riveting process of discovery. Levels hit that sweetspot in length that makes
replaying them after dying satisfying but not a chore for those who are
struggling for the hundredth time. Terrain factors into where players fly their
ship since there’s the ever-present threat of bumping into a ceiling, wall, or
obstacle to die instantly before you even get the chance to shoot an enemy in
the first place. There are ins and outs, vantage points, and careful use of enemies
in all the right places so as to be challenging but not unpredictable. To describe
it as merely competent does Locomalito a gross disservice; this is fine
craftsmanship.
Super Hydorah understands why these games work and exploits that
for the entirety of its running length. It then goes onto feature nearly two
dozen stages, a number that surpasses the genre standard by a sizable margin,
and blows them out of the water with the dynamic duo of quality and quantity. Yes,
this game’s “weaker” levels surpass many 2D shooters that only have five or six
levels. It does help slightly that horizontal scrollers often get the better
end of the stick compared to vertical ones as far as designing terrain for the
player to traverse. The variety in bosses and enemies alike is also something
to behold, constantly surprising player with setups that can be both traditional
and more experimental when the time is right. The cherry on top is the addition
of branching pathways in story mode (to use a rail shooter example, think Star
Fox 64), meaning subsequent playthroughs have something new to offer beyond the
expected.
Besides sheer girth, Super Hydorah presents some concepts
that the world of shoot ‘em ups would be wise to embrace on a broader scale. For
instance, the game has penalties for bombing civilian homes or otherwise
compromising the lives of the innocent. In addition to providing an extra layer
of challenge and forcing the player to adapt to tight scenarios, it subverts
the presupposition that 2D shooters are about annihilating everything you can see
and touch. It’s logical that so many games have you hold down the fire button given
the arcade and score-heavy origin of these games, but so rarely do players of
this subgenre have to genuinely question their actions beyond practical strategy.
I really can’t stress my fondness for Super Hydorah’s level
design enough. Each level presents scenarios that have to be navigated around
before, during, and after you deal with enemies. Enemies are meticulously
placed in stages with this surgical precision that demands simultaneous problem-solving
and sharp reflexes. While some games simply pull the wool over the player’s
eyes to convince them that having to memorise level layouts constitutes true
challenge, the stage structures and enemy placement allow skilled players to potentially
thrive during their first run through…maybe.
That hesitation marks the only aspect of Super Hydorah that
I’m iffy about: the challenge. Make no mistake – as a retro game aimed at a
niche, it makes perfect sense that the game packs a punch at times. As I just mentioned,
the level designs themselves are brilliant. The controls and the clarity of enemy fire get
the job done comfortably. I’m more concerned about some underlying factors that
impair these otherwise standout elements.
The game is hampered somewhat by its implementation of player
growth, by which I mean both in-level power-ups and the equip weapons that are
accessed outside them during your downtime. The former are not potent enough to
be reliable since bulk is required to make them effective, but they are compromised
upon death. Super Hydorah is not the first game to penalise you for dying like
that by any means, but when you’re dealing with one-hit kills and the loss of
the game’s proper ending when you use continues, well, it’s a little more
controversial. If the power ups stuck around until you got a game over, the experience
would be more palatable. As is, it kind of sucks the life out of you to
approach a robust boss with the right equipment, slip up once, and then be
expected to win in impossibly worse circumstances. Even some of the most brutal
games from the 80s and 90s were more forgiving at times.
Meanwhile, the optional weapon variety is promising on paper
but often weak in practice since some are blatantly inferior or catered to overly
specific scenarios. Being situational would be fine if you could swap between
weapons during a stage or at least pluck from a smaller pool on the fly. A
deeper element of strategy would be injected as a result and many of the
toughest 2D shooters have some variation on that system to provide players with
a fighting chance. The weapon system and certain aspects of the challenge level
actively work against Super Hydorah’s otherwise balanced and fair challenge by
giving higher value to memorisation.
That’s a shame because, besides this, Super Hydorah has the
makings of a tricky but fair outing. Getting hit once without a shield results
in instantaneous death and you aren't given the courtesy of restarting where
you died. It's back to start of the scene or boss fight. That said, the game is
benevolent enough to let you save between each stage. The game rewards skilled
players by allowing them to keep their goodies if they can survive forever, but
the omnipresent threat of losing them creates tension. Should you die
repeatedly, there's always the chance you'll wind up frustrated due to the loss
of upgrade. However, levels are well paced enough that repeating them several
times doesn't feel discouraging. If Hydorah were slightly less stingy, its
demand for precision would be inviting. The flip side is that casual players will
find themselves encouraged to bring their A game 100 per cent of the time, even
if that means resorting to dozens of continues.
If a polar opposite of the cynical “conveyor belt” approach
to game design exists, it’s in the form of Super Hydorah and its slew of
dextrously designed levels. Though it can be challenging in the wrong ways at
times, it serves up a solid challenge for shoot ‘em up aficionados. On the
whole, it’s a game that embraces the teachings of the genre behemoths while
offering its own thoughtful tweaks.
- Clark A.
Anime Editor
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