First things first. Its NEVER EVER wrong to buy a Capcom, or CPS shooter. Be it Carrier Airwing, 19XX, Giga Wing, Ecofighters or this great game. And...its never wrong to buy any CPS 2 game (well...except Slam Masters perhaps. But even this game isnt really bad). I dont say this about many developers. In fact i cant think of any others.
This game uses only 1(!) Button and its all u need.
Being the 2nd game of Takumi on the
CPS system (first was Giga Wing), Takumi again features new ideas to shooter gameplay.
This time its the "Mosquito Force", which lets u throw back enemy shots. And
this is how it works:
In the lower left of the screen u have a
"Force-Meter" that displays loading status of ur "Mosquito Force
Shield". Once it shows full power u r ready to collect incoming enemy shots by
holding the A-Button. The longer u keep it held the more time u have to collect shots but
also the more ur Force-meter gets drained. And believe me it takes aeons to recharge it
(about 10 seconds). Only if fully charged u can use it again.
Usage of his Force-Field is variable....u can use it as i mentioned above to collect shots (hold longer), or as a shield against enemy shots so they cant hit u (hold only a short time to have the Force-Meter quickly on full strength again).
If u have collected some enemy shots release the A-Button to reflect them. U can direct the shots by moving ur ship and they will move in the opposite direction u r currently moving. So if u want to hit an enemy flying in front of u, move back and release the button.
If done correctly and u hit something all shots that hit an enemy will turn into golden squares. I will get back on these squares later. Also some enemies leave golden squares when hit with ur normal Laser-Shot. Some enemies only drop golden squares if u hit them with a "Power-Shot", which i will talk about now...
If u quickly press the button u will
shoot with ur normal laser. But if u pause a second between shots u will shoot with a
special "Power-Shot". Its short-ranged but very powerful. Some enemies need to
be hit with this shot to drop golden squares. Also great for killing off bigger enemies
quickly.
So what do we have till now...the normal "Laser-Shot" by quickly pressing A, the "Power-Shot" by pausing a second between shots and the "Mosquito-Force" by holding A. Last but not least there is the "Mosquito-Bomb". Release it by holding A till ur Force-Meter is totally drained. During the "hold" u collect enemy shots so nothing can hit u. Once the Force-Meter is drained ull release the bomb, destroying nearly everything onscreen instantly (except endbosses). U wont get any golden squared outta destroyed enemies that way!!!
Golden squares come in different sizes...from small to giant sized. The bigger the square the more Experience Points u get. Yes...Experience points...u upgrade ur Laser-Shots with them. Level 1 u have from start on. Level 2 ull get by gaining 1.000 XP, Level 3 10.000 XP, 4th 100.000 XP (plus a bonus ship), 5th 200.000 XP and so on.
Trick is to get as many squares as quickly as possible cause every collected square after the first adds an additional XP bonus in addition to its normal value. If u leave too much time between collecting u lose this special XP bonus. Its possible to get 4th level in game level one. Maximum Laser-Shot-Power is level 8.
DONT!!!!!!!!!! think this is another fly-through shooter! Its hard. Its mean. Its fuckin great! And it plays very different from normal shooters! This is a game for advanced shooter-fans, not for beginners.
Dont let the small pix fool u! Grafix are great and sound is like nothing else u ever heard on CPS systems. Top-notch! I never saw slowdowns or clipping errors even while bombing alongside a second player. Well programmed, very intelligent enemy formations and ull spend days figuring out how to get the most XP outta the level. Even enemy formations change sometimes. Dont ask me why.
With this game CPS2 shows what it can do...its still a great system!
Game also features some secrets. As soon as i figured them out ill put them on the page...
Players: 2
Developer: Capcom/Takumi
System: CPS2
Rating: 
+