Mecha 8 - MSX - longplay
3This is a MSX homebrew, programmed by Oscar Toledo.
Initially, the game was developed in 2011 to participate in the annual MSX DEV 2011 contest, placing 5th out of 10 classified (there was a total of 16 titles in the competition).
The MSX DEV 11 version had a fast scrolling and monochrome sprites. Next year a commercial version of the game was made, with even more smooth scrolling and more deefined sprites.
Few years ago, Oscar Toledo released this new version for free.
The game is not so difficult, but it's often frustrating because the big robot is toooo big and enemies' projectiles are big aswell, so they are difficult to avoid. You only have one life.
Enemies cannot be eliminated with one hit, they must be hit multiple times. Green power-up increase firepower, blue one increases speed, and red one restore energy. But if you get hit you lose power ups and energy, so it's important to keep the green fire power upas much as possible, because with you can destroy enemies with one hit.
There is also a super hit called "GAUGE", and it loads up as you eliminate enemies. When it's ready, you can fire missiles ( pressing MSX second fire button)destroying normal enemies and dealing an higher damage to bosses.
Mecha 8 is a decent shooter, with a good design that could be improved. It shows how much scrolling was not a real problem on MSX, but some sort of Japanese philosophy, who preferred to pay more attention to playability.
Bosses are difficult but once you understand the attack pattern, you can limit the damage...limit, not avoid...
The game make use, if possible, of the "MAX AUDIO" audio extension, also known as FM PAC, by Panasonic/Yamaha, improving the music, which however is nice even with the MSX internal PSG.
Many thanks once again to @ReBITMAGAZINE for recording the whole game and reviewing it!
As he's a retro expert (MSX is his home :D) you can also follow him here: https://www.twitch.tv/rebitmagazine
Played and recorded by RebitMagazine, as part of the videogame endings database, whose goal is to catalogue and create the world's largest archive of videogame endings! (what an humble and not ambitious project :D)
If you want to contribute please let me know!