SNK's tough love

It's beautiful, isn't it?

Recently I came into possession of a Neo Geo X Gold. It was a late birthday present from a friend, and I was more than excited to finally catch up on some arcade classics. As far as I knew, SNK is mostly known for their fighting games, most of which I'm terrible at. I'm not very good at fighting games. I played that Ninja Master's game, and I guess I was alright at that one, but this isn't really what this article is about.

SNK games are terribly difficult. But not to the point where you want to rage quit after each gaming session. No, there's a fine balance to it. They games are hard, yes, but you want to keep playing them because the games are such that when you make just a little bit of progress from where you last failed in a given game, you want to keep playing. Like, genuinely keep playing. The games are like crack for the senses. There's the wonderful arcade-y graphics, wonderful soundtracks, and heart-pumping action that just does not let up. You have to focus all of your gamer know-how to get a grasp of some of these games. It's really intense. SNK games, from what I can tell, are not for the casual gamer.

One of the games that I've taken a particular liking to is Alpha Mission 2. It's a shmup! I LOVE shmups! What's more fun than hopping into a space ship and shooting maniacally while dodging a barrage of bullets? Not much, I can tell you that. This game, when you first start off, seems like your typical shoot-em-up thing where you gather power ups, shoot the things shooting at you, and it doesn't SEEM to difficult at first. There aren't that many bullets flying around the screen, and you would think that would make for an easier shmup. NOPE. You need to figure out what's more important, gathering power ups? Dodging bullets? Which enemies should I take out first? And this is all happening at once, in a fairly short period of time, this is also just the first level. Trying to get a handle on things is the midst of the action. Tough love, but you take it and push forward. Just when you think you have the enemies patterns down or maybe if you're doing to well, the game will throw a curve ball at you. Alright! I got passed this part! Crap, where did that stray drone and lone bullet come from?! GAH! And you start over. You WANT to see what comes next.

 

 

That's just the first level boss, it's the other guy I'm worried about.

So far I've been able to make it to the end of the second level. Not bad, I think, for a game that's only 8 levels long. This is one of those games that you'll have to master before actually making any progress. While this might sound frustrating, I think it's a great exercise in patience and reflexes. You have to think fast if want to best some of these baddies. There's more to this game too, than just shooting at drones and other ships. The entire first half of the second level has you taking out pieces of this giant ship, one at a time, by taking out turrets that are shooting at you then shooting the ship's weak point. It's completely obvious too where the weak points are. It you're paying attention to the details you'll see, though as small as they are, the little weak points open up, and then you just fire away (While avoiding other enemies, a constantly moving screen, and stray bullets from who knows where). Also, you'll need to be sure that when your ship is powered up, to not pick up any more power ups from the carriers as they'll actually take power away. (Jerks.) These are the power ups that look like upside down purple letter versions of the regular power ups you get.

I must have played the first two levels of this game a couple dozen times over by now, and I still want to continue to play it. Level two's boss is a bitch though, with circling drones with spreadshots protecting it, having to avoid the wall lasers, and those goddamn homing missiles! The missiles are the worst! There's no avoiding them unless you shoot them, which is hard to do while you're shooting at other stuff and trying to not get hit by them. But I want more! I want to beat it and make my way to level 3! Why is this game so hard?! Why do I love it so much?!