Game:

Aldynes: The Mission Code for Rage Crisis (1991)

Duration: 8:22

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SuperGrafx? Some of you might be wondering what the heck it is. Well, it's the ill-fated upgrade to the TurboGrafx/PC Engine with slightly greater graphics capabilities and processing abilities. It had decent games for it but none of them took full advantage of the hardware and... it bombed... very badly. How badly did it bomb? Only five games were officially released specifically for the unit in limited quantities and two others (Darius Plus and Darius Alpha) support the SuperGrafx but also work on PC Engine.

The main reasons it failed was the complexity of the hardware's additional features (supporting much more RAM, a second video chip with its own RAM, and a priority controller chip that allowed the output of both video chips to be combined in ways that differed from anything a stock PCE could do) as well as the steep cost to develop titles for it, but I also think it was because of bad timing (being released too soon after the PC Engine). It also doesn't help that the few games made weren't particularly special or much beyond what a standard TG16/PCE could do, but due to the powers that be, anyone can experience the games and how they contribute to the history of NEC and Hudson's line-up of home consoles.

Aldynes or "Aldynes: The Mission Code for Rage Crisis" is not really innovative or intriguing in any way, but it's still one heck of a nice shooter that's also difficult and one of the titles that makes the best use of the SuperGrafx, which is made more surprising as it was one of the first titles developed by Produce (comprised of former Irem employees) before they started working with Nintendo and Sony. Given that, it's no surprise that the game is tough as they aren't known for making games that are a walk in the park (heck, they developed Elnard or "The 7th Saga", which is deemed by some as one of the hardest RPGs ever). Here's a story excerpt for the game from a Wikipedia article:

"Nearing the year 2020, the societies of mankind fall into global depression just as an alien invasion suddenly comes down on Earth; coming from a large mechanical planetoid, the aliens attack the Earth without reason or communication. With all defenses annihilated, the League of Nations corresponds with NASA to make a powerful space fighter known as The Ortega under project name Aldynes. During that time, a particular space fighter pilot - known only by his call sign Fox-A - was killed in action; his bereaved girlfriend Hiroko soon discovered Project Aldynes and its near complete fighter. As the invaders attack the air force housing Project Aldynes, she hijacks one of the ships and throws herself into battle in hopes of getting her revenge."

If you thought games like R-Type or Gradius III were difficult, you'll wanna try this. Enemies coming from all directions, stages with complex parallax scrolling layers and loads of enemy fire getting lost in the shuffle, and HUGE bosses that leave you with a quarter of the screen or less to dodge attacks is the norm for this title. The game features great graphics with a nice usage of darker colors and a fine soundtrack too, spread across seven stages. The only issue with the audio/visuals is sprite flickering, which just couldn't be helped given how hectic the game can get but can lead to a cheap death here or there, which is very very bad. Like Gradius or R-Type, if you die, you lose all your powers with almost no hope of finishing the rest of the game.

Gameplay-wise, it takes the option-focused gameplay of R-Type but has the hectic shooting acion of Gradius. Stages can sometimes scroll and enemies can be hiding anywhere. You can get three different weapons that have five different levels of power as well as get up to four options that can be given three commands: "Free", "Formation", and "Rotate". With Free, the options track down things to shoot. With Formation, they add to the firepower of your main weapon. And, with Rotate, they spiral around your ship defensively (destroying enemies and some projectiles). Lastly, you can charge your gun into a barrier which protects the front of your ship from negligible shots as well as destroy some obstacles and destroy enemies with it too. Overall, this is a good game. Enjoy.

Basic Format: SuperGrafx HuCard