Cyber-Lip Game Sample - Arcade
18Cyber-Lip is an old run-and-gun from SNK, that essentially was their answer to "Contra". It's not a bad game, by any means, but it was a game that originally had limited exposure (though it is now available on platforms such as the Nintendo Switch, PS4, etc, through digital distribution) and fairly limited appeal because of that. To give a basic run-down, it was decent in the visual department (though not quite the best that arcades had to offer during the time of release) and despite having what was known as "Sphero Symphony" to add "3-dimensional, stereophonic sounds" to make Neo Geo "come alive", the sound is the least pleasing aspect of the game...or so I feel. It works, but only in the sense that it isn't "terrible". It does what it needs to do and sound effects are general fare (as far as shots and explosions go). The real kicker is the spoken pieces of audio, which are pretty cool for what it is worth, and definitely gives me some "Metal Slug" vibes.
All of that said, CL is a pretty neat game to play, though there are a couple of things that I wish it had. The first thing is a "diagonal shot". You can shoot above you, below you, and straight, but as funny as this sounds in 2019, a diagonal shot is such a "quality of life" improvement that the game could have benefited from, especially since character movement is rather stiff, which brings me to the other thing I wish was better --- I wish the character movement was a little less robotic...though I see the devs did try to fix that as well. You can high jump (very helpful), which also lets you hang from certain fixtures, drop through spots to get to lower ground, and even roll along the ground. You cannot, however, dash...which is fine, but what I found odd is that when you jump, there is this weird "pause", before movement can begin, rather than a seamless, ongoing movement when you jump forward. I can't really explain the reasoning for that all too well, but you must manage your jumps in areas with lots of enemies because that pause can keep you from moving away from diagonal bullets or other attacks.
Now, here's where CL shines --- if you can get over the lack of diagonal shooting and stiff movement in spots, the game is 2-player co-op (Player 1 uses Rick and Player 2 uses Brook) and there are a variety of actions you can perform. High jumps, rolls, hangs, you *can* shoot in three directions (up, straight, and down) and there are numerous weapons, each with varying degrees of effectiveness that may warrant knowing certain parts of the level from memory to get the most out of them. Also, there are rooms you can enter (think "Rolling Thunder", from Namco) and in those rooms, you will "reload" on ammo and such. Another cool thing is that you don't have to "know" which weapon will be the best for different screens, because you can keep your weapons and switch between them (they have different maximum ammunition, though). Lastly, you get guard bots that rotate around you to protect you from attacks and such, which comes in handy because you don't have health (one-hit kills). Other than the movement and shooting, the game is pretty solid in what it offers.
Usually, I would have said something about the plot near the start of this whole word salad, but as you can see, the general plot summary is actually in one of the video banners. You basically are out to stop a computer that has gone too far...and as an ad puts it, "SCIENCE GONE MAD!" --- However, there is a twist that is *not* super typical for an arcade game at all, let alone in the early 90s...it is up to you if you are interested enough in what has been presented to find out what that plot point may be.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! If this year sucked for you, hopefully, 2020 will be better.
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