Space Pirates
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 12:49 am
I finally got a chance to hook up my 3DO to a cathode ray tube TV, so it's Gamegun time! I have Space Pirates and Demolition Man, but I decided Space Pirates would be a better test of how much fun the Gamegun is.
I'm very pleasantly surprised with how much I'm enjoying the game. Which is funny, because it's actually much worse than Trev's review had led me to believe, mainly in terms of the accuracy. Mind you, the Gamegun itself is much more accurate than I'd feared; it's not the Saturn Stunner, but it's a solid, reliable light gun, especially for its time. It feels good in your hands over hour-long play sessions, too, which is always desirable in a light gun.
So yeah, the Gamegun is great, and I wish I had a better game to showcase it than Space Pirates. The trouble is that the hit boxes don't line up with the enemies well at all, not so much space-wise as time-wise. Oftentimes I'll manage to load as many as three shots right in the middle of a pirate's chest before he fires, and I still lose a life because the pirate's hit box had disappeared before my first shot. But space-wise it's noticeably inaccurate too, and it works both ways; sometimes I won't land a single shot on a pirate and he'll still collapse.
Despite that, I'm really enjoying the game. Its main flaw is overcome by persistence and learning to shoot the instant an enemy shows his head, and I really dig the whole enthusiasm of the title. The actors are not talented, but they really seem like they're having a grand time. And I love that you get innocent bystanders who thank you when you rescue them. Freeing the colonists from the force field felt so satisfying. Perhaps best of all, the gameplay has great variety and pacing. Tricky scenarios like the pirate who shoots at you as his comrade is falling on him work surprisingly well. The only thing that really nags me is that it doesn't show how many continues you have left.
On a final note, do any of American Laser Games's other titles have more accurate hit boxes than Space Pirates? Oh, and I might as well ask again: Is it really true that The Perfect General has a minigame which supports the Gamegun?
I'm very pleasantly surprised with how much I'm enjoying the game. Which is funny, because it's actually much worse than Trev's review had led me to believe, mainly in terms of the accuracy. Mind you, the Gamegun itself is much more accurate than I'd feared; it's not the Saturn Stunner, but it's a solid, reliable light gun, especially for its time. It feels good in your hands over hour-long play sessions, too, which is always desirable in a light gun.
So yeah, the Gamegun is great, and I wish I had a better game to showcase it than Space Pirates. The trouble is that the hit boxes don't line up with the enemies well at all, not so much space-wise as time-wise. Oftentimes I'll manage to load as many as three shots right in the middle of a pirate's chest before he fires, and I still lose a life because the pirate's hit box had disappeared before my first shot. But space-wise it's noticeably inaccurate too, and it works both ways; sometimes I won't land a single shot on a pirate and he'll still collapse.
Despite that, I'm really enjoying the game. Its main flaw is overcome by persistence and learning to shoot the instant an enemy shows his head, and I really dig the whole enthusiasm of the title. The actors are not talented, but they really seem like they're having a grand time. And I love that you get innocent bystanders who thank you when you rescue them. Freeing the colonists from the force field felt so satisfying. Perhaps best of all, the gameplay has great variety and pacing. Tricky scenarios like the pirate who shoots at you as his comrade is falling on him work surprisingly well. The only thing that really nags me is that it doesn't show how many continues you have left.
On a final note, do any of American Laser Games's other titles have more accurate hit boxes than Space Pirates? Oh, and I might as well ask again: Is it really true that The Perfect General has a minigame which supports the Gamegun?