Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm Game Sample - Sega CD
42Sega's CD add-on doesn't have the largest library in the world and gets some flak for having lots of FMV (Full Motion Video, which are seen as somewhat of a "niche" genre) games and minor (though sometimes moderate...though it wasn't always clear on the surface) upgrades to existing Gen/MD titles, but there are quite a few gems nestled away on the system that are well worth collecting, though you'll have to spend some coin for some of them if you want to add them to your personal collection. "Android Assault" (known simply as "Bari-Arm" in Japan) is a title I'd known about for a while but picked up a few years back along with "Shining Force CD" and "The Space Adventure", and is one of the better titles on the system: an above average horizontal Shmup with some detailed imagery, nice color usage, great layering and scrolling (as most levels are multi-tiered to an extent), detailed mecha designs, fun tried-and-true gameplay, and awesome music. Developed by the great folks over at "Human Entertainment" and published in the U.S. by "Big Fun Games" in 1993/94, it's the only title Human released for the system as they were way too busy developing for the more popular PC Engine CD-ROM add-on and Super Famicom at the time, but you could do a lot worse than this. A basic excerpt of the plot from Wikipedia:
"Mankind makes advances in space travel and colonization. In the year 2192 however, the colonists near Jupiter are attacked by the independent military nation of Zias stationed on the Olympus colony of Saturn. Zias uses a symbiotic computer system and several mecha factories powered by a device called the GEO as their primary attack force. Human scientists study the Zias technology and, based on the Zias GEO system, construct a space fighter capable of fighting against the Zias: the Bari-arm, a space ship capable of using multiple weapons and transforming into a giant robot. The Bari-arm must destroy the GEO system before the Zias war machines destroy any further colonies."
With seven stages, four upgradeable weapons, adjustable ship speed and charged specials for each weapon, your ship can dish out quite a bit of firepower for almost any given situation, adopting gameplay mechanics somewhere between "Thunder Force" and "Lords of Thunder". The game's main draw is that your ship, the "Variable Fighter Bari-Arm", can transform into a humanoid mech, not unlike titles like "Arrow Flash" "Choujikuu Yousai Macross - Scrambled Valkyrie", "Orguss", etc. In terms of usefulness, its transformed state can protect you from a hit and charges attacks way faster, but its large size makes it nearly impossible to get through certain sections on higher difficulties for long, limiting it somewhat. Speaking of higher difficulties, they change enemy placement and toughness, not just bullet speed or patterns. When you do have your upgraded state, it's kinda OP. Something worth noting is the Japanese version has a hidden "Bad Ending" as well as a hidden congratulations screen minutes after the credits end that seems inaccessible in the U.S. version even with a code.
As one of Nobuhiro Makino's earliest works, the game plays it safe with a mainly heavy metal / rock / jazz soundtrack with a bit of an interstellar flair here and there, but he has since gone on to work on a large variety of projects, ranging from games like Magicoal, Mahoujin Guru Guru and Hyper Iria to even popular franchises like "Fairy Tail". Some of the mech designs seem inspired by the likes of classics like Tatsunoko Production's "Tekkaman Blade" and AIC/Artmic's "Detonator Orgun" (which, coincidentally, got it's own Japan-only Sega CD game a year prior), both of which were done by Masami Ōbari. This is not a bad thing, of course.
This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.
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