The first Gradius game to introduce the concept of the ‘weapon bar’. During the game, many enemy craft leave behind icons or ‘pick ups’ when destroyed. Collecting one of these will shift the selection cursor along the weapon bar at the bottom of the screen. T
he player can then select the weapon highlighted if they want it. The cursor then resets.
In general, the more useful ‘power ups’ are towards the right hand side of the bar, so the player may decide to stock up on pickups until the better item is available.
This innovation allowed for deeper tactics on the part of the player and for greater freedom of weapon choice rather than relying on the pre-determined power ups common in other games in the genre.
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Some game play
When the player defeats the guardian and gains entrance to the palace, the game switches to a side-scrolling perspective, in which the player moves towards their goal on foot (by walking, crouching, and climbing ladders, as well jumping) until reaching the boss at the end, in which the player character will begin to fly with their wings again.
In addition to the regular levels there are two optional levels that are accessible from the vertical-scrolling segment: a trap level in which the player is forced to escape from if they’re sucked by the giant mechanical face on each area; and a hidden bonus level where the player can obtain various treasure chests to increase their score.
The player can improve their gun by destroying certain enemies or weapon capsules and picking up the “P” item stored inside.
The player can power-up their character up to five levels; the first power-up will increase the player’s speed; the second will change their gun to a twin shooter, as well as further increase their speed; the third power-up allows for continuous ground attacks; the fourth power-up improves the player’s gun so that it shoots in three directions; and the fifth and final power-up will upgrade weapon to the “Psycho Flame” gun, which can destroy most enemies with a single shot.
When the player is shot by an enemy, they will lose a life and revert to their initial power level
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Some game play
Raid on Bungeling Bay is a 2D shoot ’em up. The player controls a helicopter launched from an aircraft carrier to bomb six factories scattered across islands on a small planetoid occupied by the Bungeling Empire, while fending off attacks by gun turrets, fighter jets, guided missiles, and a battleship.
There is also a hidden island for the player to reload on. Failure means that the Bungeling Empire develops a war machine to take over the planet Earth. Players have to attack its infrastructure while defending the aircraft carrier which serves as home base.
Over time, the factories grow and develop new technologies to use against the player.
In order to win the game, the player must prevent the escalation by bombing all the factories as quickly as possible, keeping them from advancing their technology. If left alone for too long, the factories create enough new weaponry to overwhelm the player.
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Some game play
At the start of the game, the player can choose from five tracks in which to race.
The player controls the position of the red motorcycle with the Y-axis of the directional pad, and controls acceleration with the A and B buttons. Using B causes greater acceleration, but also increases the motorcycle’s temperature shown as a bar at the bottom of the screen. When the temperature exceeds safe limits the bar becomes full; the player will be immobilized for several seconds while the bike cools down. Driving over an arrow will immediately reduce the bike’s temperature.
The pitch of the motorcycle’s airborne trajectory can be modified with the X-axis of the directional pad: left raises the front, and right lowers the front. In the air, this rotates the bike, but can also be used to perform wheelies on the ground. Pushing up or down turns the handlebars left or right, respectively, when the bike is on the ground.
If the player crashes by colliding with an opponent or ramp, or by landing badly from a jump, the rider is knocked off the bike and lands in the field. Pushing A repeatedly allows the rider to run back to the bike and continue the race.
Excitebike has three modes of gameplay.
In Selection A, the player races solo.
In Selection B, CPU players join the player. They act as another form of obstacle.
In Design Mode, the player has the ability to build racing tracks.
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Some game play
In the game’s plot, “Baron Von Blubba” has kidnapped the brothers Bubby and Bobby’s girlfriends and turned the brothers into Bubble Dragons, Bub and Bob. Bub and Bob have to finish 100 levels in the Cave of Monsters in order to rescue them.
In the game, each player controls one of the two dragons. Players can move along platforms, fall to lower ones, and jump to higher ones and over gaps. Each level is limited to a single screen, with no left/right scrolling; however, if a screen has gaps in its bottom edge, players can fall through these and reappear at the top. Each level has a certain number of enemies that must be defeated in order to advance.
The players must blow bubbles to trap the enemies, then burst these bubbles by colliding with them. Each enemy defeated in this manner turns into a food item that can be picked up for extra points. Defeating multiple enemies at once awards higher scores and causes more valuable food items to appear.
All bubbles will float for a certain length of time before bursting on their own; players can jump on these and ride them to otherwise inaccessible areas. Magic items appear from time to time and grant special abilities and advantages when picked up. Special bubbles occasionally appear that can be burst to attack enemies with fire, water, or lightning.
Furthermore, if a player collects letter bubbles to spell the word EXTEND, a bonus life is earned and both players immediately advance to the next level.
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The plot follows high school students Alex and Ryan as they cross River City in an attempt to reach River City High and rescue Ryan’s girlfriend Cyndi from the clutches of a villain called “Slick”. Along the way, they battle with gangs of students (with names such as “The Generic Dudes”, “The Frat Guys”, “The Jocks” or “The Squids”) and several gang leaders which act as bosses or sub-bosses.
River City Ransom is a beat ’em up game with action role-playing elements.
The player can move freely around the screen while pressing buttons to punch, kick, or jump. Objects such as brass knuckles, steel pipes, and trashcans can be used as melee weapons or thrown at enemies.
There are a total of nine gangs in the original NES version whom the player will encounter during the course of the game, each with their own characteristics and attacking patterns.
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Some game play
Tetris is primarily composed of a field of play in which pieces of different geometric forms, called “tetriminos”, descend from the top of the field.
During this descent, the player can move the pieces laterally and rotate them until they touch the bottom of the field or land on a piece that had been placed before it.
The player can neither slow down the falling pieces nor stop them, but can accelerate them in most versions. The objective of the game is to use the pieces to create as many horizontal lines of blocks as possible. When a line is completed, it disappears, and the blocks placed above fall one rank. Completing lines grants points, and accumulating a certain number of points moves the player up a level, which increases the number of points granted per completed line.
In most versions, the speed of the falling pieces increases with each level, leaving the player with less time to think about the placement. The player can clear multiple lines at once, which can earn bonus points in some versions.
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Some game play
Contra was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in February 1988. This version was produced in-house by Konami and features several differences from the arcade release in order to better suit the NES’s hardware. For example, sprites for effects (like explosions) are shown at 30fps instead of 60fps to work around the sprite limitations of the system. Another game to use this technique is Recca. The Famicom version contains cutscenes, an additional music track, and environment effects which were removed from the NES version.
The game can be played by one or two players, but due to the graphical limitations of the NES, Bill and Lance lost their individualized character designs. Instead, they are both depicted as shirtless commandos distinguished by the colors of their pants (blue pants for the first player and red pants for the second). When one player loses all of their lives, they are given the option to use the other player’s stock to keep fighting.
The power-up icons for the Machine Gun and Laser Gun are represented by letter-based falcon symbols (M and L) used by the other weapons. The Rapid Bullets and Barrier power-ups are also more common in this version, since unlike the arcade game, the flying item capsules now appear regardless of which weapon the player character currently possesses. The NES version introduces a seventh item that clears the screen of all on-screen enemies when obtained.
The NES version recomposes the seven stages of the arcade version into eight stages. Stages 2 and 3 were combined into one stage, resulting in the renumbering of the Waterfall level from Stage 4 to Stage 3, while Stages 5 and 6 were combined into the new Stage 4. The final four stages of the NES version are based on the different areas featured in the arcade version’s final stage.
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Some game play
Spy Hunter is a vertical scrolling driving game with the player in the role of a spy driving an armed sportscar. The object of the game is to travel the freeway destroying as many enemy vehicles as possible while protecting civilian vehicles.
The game begins with the player driving the fictitious G-6155 Interceptor. Various enemy vehicles try to destroy the player’s car or to force it off the road, including a helicopter that drops bombs from overhead. A counter increments the score while the car is moving and on the road. Additional points are earned destroying enemy vehicles using weapons or by forcing them off the road.
Following periodic forks in the road, players can enter new regions with different terrain or weather conditions.
Three special weapons are available: oil slicks, smoke screens, and surface-to-air missiles. Each has limited ammo and are lost if the player’s car is destroyed.
The in-game road is endless and the game itself has no ending