Buster Bros./Pang, 1989 Mitchell/Capcom (20 From 1989 #14)
8Cute but challenging little strategy game in which you control a little safari explorer who looks suspiciously like Gohan from Dragon Ball Z (and player 2 can control a blond haired counterpart) trying to fire a grappling hook or harpoon skyward as bouncing balls bear down on you, and despite the ease of popping them with your grappling hook (I'm just gonna call it that from now on, or "GH" to save time), they are deadly to touch. Pop a ball and it breaks down into smaller balls (kind of like shooting asteroids in the classic game ASTEROIDS), and if you pop them at the height of their bounce they are MUCH easier to deal with. Remember this-- and also remember how to move underneath the bouncing balls without getting nailed, and also to get all the good power ups you can from the popped balls. The goal of each stage is to clear all the ball fragments, and it's a good idea to stay just ahead of ball fragments and kind of "lead" them into the side of the GH (they pop whether they touch the hook itself or the cable). Power ups include: Double hook, which lets you fire off 2 hooks at once instead of the usual one; Power wire, which hooks to a ceiling/block and stays taut until a ball touches it and breaks down; the awesome Vulcan missile, which lets you fire double lasers instead of a hook (but may not break certain crystal blocks like the hook can-- very important to know later in the game as some balls can't be reached otherwise); the important Force Field, which gives you protection from one hit; Hourglass, which restores time on your timer (I think); the Clock which freezes the balls for a short time (and you're able to walk through them at this time); and Dynamite which breaks down all balls into the small fragments-- this can be a bad item to collect sometimes. You can earn a 1up at 20,000, 100,000, 1 million and at 9 million. Or you can nab the elusive yashichi for an instant 1up. The different locales in this game are quite nice and show up in the background of each stage, including New York, Paris, Mt. Fuji, Egypt, Athens, Barcelona, Antarctica, the Taj Mahal, etc. up to Easter Island for a total of 17 locations spread across 50 stages. Fun, inventive little strategy game with a long series mostly outside of the US, and with the non-US title of PANG. See you soon for game #13, and stay cool-- the summer ain't over yet!