Konami Beat-em-ups
Sept 6, 2008 16:42:50 GMT -5
Post by zzz on Sept 6, 2008 16:42:50 GMT -5
S.P.Y. - Special Project Y (1989) Arcade
S.P.Y. - Special Project Y could be called Konami's most obscure beat-em-up game. That is, if you'd even call it a beat-em-up at all. Y'know how Bayou Billy, was kinda like an attempt to make the ultimate late 1980's video game by combining a bunch of genres that were popular at the time? Well, S.P.Y. pretty much stems from the same motivations. You've got your Space Harrier level, your Rolling Thunder levels, your Devastators levels, and a couple of stages that might be best described as "light beat-em-up levels". It takes that whole ambitious mess and puts it all into a Hollywood spy flick setting. It even has an intro that's an homage of sorts to the famous opening credits sequence from the James Bond films.
The good thing is that it plays much better than Bayou Billy. The bad is that, just like with Bayou Billy, it still doesn't do any one thing particularly well. The lone Space Harrier knock-off stage that opens the game is, at best, mediocre. The biggest problem with it being that it's kinda hard to aim. This doesn't just make it fall way short of Sega's classic, but also keeps it from matching up to more competent Space Harrier clones like Cosmic Epsilon. Stages 3 and 6 are played Devastators-style, where you run "into" the screen blasting away at an oncoming horde of goons. These are far from a disaster, but it would be a bit much to call them good - probably the most boring parts of the game, actually.
Levels 2 and 4 are where it turns into a beat-em-up. Though it actually plays kinda like Irem's classic Kung-Fu Master set in a beat-em-up playing field. Not only are there no combos, but most of your foes go down after a lone hit. However, you can throw, and a playthrough will reveal that it does technically meet the requirements for the genre, but it just doesn't really feel all that much like a beat-em-up. The Rolling Thunder knock-off stages (5 and 7) are basically the same thing as the beat-em-up levels, only on a lone plane. The fact that they're absolutely NOTHING like a one-plane beat-em-up just emphasizes the other levels' iffy beat-em-up status. These aren't too hot either, but I can't say that they're terrible.
In any of the seven stages, if you take out an orange jump suit wearing grunt then you'll nab yourself whatever weapon he happened to be totting around. This is without any doubt whatsoever the highlight of the game. You can grab anything from a laser gun, to a machine gun, to a pistol, to a shotgun, to a pack of grenades, or even a crowd-obliterating giant ball of flame (!).
Also, I was kinda disappointed that they didn't do more with the spy film theme. The in-game sprite art doesn't really feature any notable genre referencing motifs, so you could easily miss the whole spy movie concept from just glancing at a given stage. At the very least, it would have been nice to see some more direct allusions to the genre - even humorously - but there's really nothing worth speaking of. The music is reasonably appropriate for the theme, but, much like the graphics, only in a vague sense. Lastly, I should probably also mention that the game ends very confusingly. After you take down the final boss' henchman, he flies away in a rocket-powered chair never to be seen again, and then the game loops back to the first stage with no explanation whatsoever. Anyhow, it may not really even be a pure beat-em-up, but it's an interesting experiment, for sure. It's just too bad that it's not a particularly great game.
S.P.Y. - Special Project Y could be called Konami's most obscure beat-em-up game. That is, if you'd even call it a beat-em-up at all. Y'know how Bayou Billy, was kinda like an attempt to make the ultimate late 1980's video game by combining a bunch of genres that were popular at the time? Well, S.P.Y. pretty much stems from the same motivations. You've got your Space Harrier level, your Rolling Thunder levels, your Devastators levels, and a couple of stages that might be best described as "light beat-em-up levels". It takes that whole ambitious mess and puts it all into a Hollywood spy flick setting. It even has an intro that's an homage of sorts to the famous opening credits sequence from the James Bond films.
The good thing is that it plays much better than Bayou Billy. The bad is that, just like with Bayou Billy, it still doesn't do any one thing particularly well. The lone Space Harrier knock-off stage that opens the game is, at best, mediocre. The biggest problem with it being that it's kinda hard to aim. This doesn't just make it fall way short of Sega's classic, but also keeps it from matching up to more competent Space Harrier clones like Cosmic Epsilon. Stages 3 and 6 are played Devastators-style, where you run "into" the screen blasting away at an oncoming horde of goons. These are far from a disaster, but it would be a bit much to call them good - probably the most boring parts of the game, actually.
Levels 2 and 4 are where it turns into a beat-em-up. Though it actually plays kinda like Irem's classic Kung-Fu Master set in a beat-em-up playing field. Not only are there no combos, but most of your foes go down after a lone hit. However, you can throw, and a playthrough will reveal that it does technically meet the requirements for the genre, but it just doesn't really feel all that much like a beat-em-up. The Rolling Thunder knock-off stages (5 and 7) are basically the same thing as the beat-em-up levels, only on a lone plane. The fact that they're absolutely NOTHING like a one-plane beat-em-up just emphasizes the other levels' iffy beat-em-up status. These aren't too hot either, but I can't say that they're terrible.
In any of the seven stages, if you take out an orange jump suit wearing grunt then you'll nab yourself whatever weapon he happened to be totting around. This is without any doubt whatsoever the highlight of the game. You can grab anything from a laser gun, to a machine gun, to a pistol, to a shotgun, to a pack of grenades, or even a crowd-obliterating giant ball of flame (!).
Also, I was kinda disappointed that they didn't do more with the spy film theme. The in-game sprite art doesn't really feature any notable genre referencing motifs, so you could easily miss the whole spy movie concept from just glancing at a given stage. At the very least, it would have been nice to see some more direct allusions to the genre - even humorously - but there's really nothing worth speaking of. The music is reasonably appropriate for the theme, but, much like the graphics, only in a vague sense. Lastly, I should probably also mention that the game ends very confusingly. After you take down the final boss' henchman, he flies away in a rocket-powered chair never to be seen again, and then the game loops back to the first stage with no explanation whatsoever. Anyhow, it may not really even be a pure beat-em-up, but it's an interesting experiment, for sure. It's just too bad that it's not a particularly great game.