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SEGA ARCADE
ROUND UP 2005
During a recent
holiday in France, I came across a small arcade (in La Tranche
sur mer
to be exact) which had a couple of games I didn't feature before,
here's a look..
GHOST SQUAD
SEGA -sadly- didn't really
release much cabinets lately (well not in Europe, anyway) so
Ghost Squad was the main one I was looking for. Probably seen
by many as 'just another gun
game' , Ghost Squad is far from that. I even would go as far
as saying that Ghost Squad is the
best lightgun blaster since House of the Dead 2. We had games
such as Confidential mission and
Virtua Cop 3, which were playable enough and fun, but hardly
had much original content. Ghost
Squad is totally packed with cool features. First of all; the
cabinet. Instead of having the heavier 'stunner' guns like the games
I mentioned earlier, Ghost Squad features two machinegun
controllers (unknown type, mail me if you know which, I'm not a gun
nut). Despite being large,
they have the added plus of being able to be held with two
hands. This saves a LOT of pain in your arms during long
sessions. The gun comes with TWO triggers, one for firing your gun
and
one for events. There's a third small 'shot selector' trigger as
well but I'll come to that later. Secondly; the card system. It's
back. Proving to be a very popular feature in games such as F-ZERO
AX and Derby owners club, SEGA used this feature once
again. And good it is too.
The 'IC Card' (as SEGA calls it) now is made from 'credit card' hardplastic and can be bought from the arcade counter. (I suspect
there's machines which have a card dispenser built-in as well). This card
system gives away that Ghost Squad is a BIG game. Don't be
fooled by the three missions on the mission select screen, because
if you count everything that's hidden it's more like 100 missions.
You start the game by making a profile (provided that you got an IC
card). Select a name (I went for a simple 'SEGA' once again) and
your equipment. When you start the game there's just the basic stuff, but when you've completed various missions and gained
higher ranks, more guns and outfits (some hilarious) are unlocked. There's around
20(!) different guns to unlock, some are useful, some are pure
gimmicky. Just like Virtua Cop, you're free to select whatever
mission you want to start with. Here's an idea of the missions;
Mission 1: Grand Villas
The president is kidnapped again (Yeah, Yeah, I know very lame, but
hey) and it's your mission
to breach the area, search every chamber in this set of villas and
rescue him. If you've played earlier SEGA gun games, you
immediately see that Ghost Squad is very different. Instead
of the
'rushing' gameplay of Virtua Cop, the pace in Ghost Squad is a lot more sedate,
which could've been expected, as that's just the way those squads operate in
real life. The 'bad guy count' also is a lot lower but that is
reflected by the better A.I. of them. They try to shoot you from behind
crates, sometimes shoot you from big distances and try to
surprise you by jumping at you. The most difficult thing about
killing them is that there's a lot situations where they have to be
shot in a real short amount of time. A red circle surrounds their
gun and if you don't act REALLY quickly you'll take a LOT of damage. The bad guys also behave very realisticly; after they've
missed, you'll see them reloading their gun to start firing at you
again after a few seconds, before you'll be advised to get rid of
them. After disposing about 30 bad guys, you are given the choice of
what to do next. You can either rescue the hostages, disarm a bomb
or use some heavy equipment to get rid of even more bad guys. Hostages are rescued by
using the second trigger near the front of your gun. Hold your
crosshair over them for a few seconds while pulling this trigger (and
only that, or you'll kill them, remember) and they'll be
released. The other objective of disarming a bomb is done by
cutting the right wire at the right time. Mess up and you're in big
trouble!
Next up is a bit of sniping action. Always popular around
these parts. Your view is zoomed and you're given a set time get rid
of some bad guys by sniping them. The sniper has to be reloaded
after each shot (nice!) and -because of the time- about every shot
has to be a hit. Because Ghost Squad always has an on-screen
crosshair (I love that) it's a lot of fun. After a bit more blasting here
and there (the last part of this level is a real b*tch btw) you'll encounter a
boss. In a helicopter. Thankfully, you don't need to blast him a
thousand times (like in HOTD), instead you can kill the boss by some
well-aimed RPG rounds, which have to be locked-on to the chopper. Fail to kill the boss in-time will
simply lead to a mission abortion so don't mess up! After each mission there's
some story cutscenes (lovely use of cheesy speech again) and you are shown the route you've taken through the mission, together
with information on where you went wrong and what other routes you
could have taken.
2.Air Force one
The president is gone again (just what is it with that guy?), the
plane he was on is hijacked and
it's up to you (together with the rest of the squad) to sort it out.
You'll enter the cockpit (don't shoot the pilot and co-pilot!) and
enter the passenger area next. Because a plane isn't a very large
battlescene this mission isn't that long, but does feature
some excellent new events all the same.
First of them is a one on one combat with some of the terrorists.
Basicly, they try to hit you with their bare fists and it's up to you
to block those attacks. A hand symbol is shown somewhere on the
screen, and you'll quickly have to move your crosshair to that spot and
press the event trigger to block the attack. Fail to block one of
the attacks (it ain't too hard, except for usually the last blow) and you'll get punched back into the
corridor..better luck next
time. The boss of this stage is the usual cheesy 'tough guy' , but
before you can dispose of him (with a well-aimed head shot no less) you'll have to clean
a dark enclosed area with loads of bad guys, all in a 'just about to
hit you' position. Nasty. Thankfully, a French guy with an IC card
and a profile name of 'Miles prower' (no shit)
joined in and we kicked some serious butt, I can tell you. I
remained unharmed for the total
of this level. Woohoo!
3.Jungle
I don't remember seeing a jungle level since Operation wolf,
so this is a nice change. The longest
of all stages and serious amount of bad guys and hazards await you
here. First, you have to rescue some sort of dodgy hostage (didn't
really understand the importance of him, but there you go) and
that's when this level really kicks off. There are various
one-on-one combat scenes (with knifes to dodge this time!) and
a really cool minefield sub-mission, in which you'll have to cut the
mine' wires before they blow up. It wasn't made easier by all the
bad guys who are shooting at you at the same time! Your escaping
from it all by boat, in a Time Crisis 2-like event (loads of
gunfire coming from chasing jetski's and choppers). I won't spoil the final
boss event, but rest assured it's rock hard. Only your grenade launcher will save you now..if you're
quick enough! Complete this boss (or at least make it through unharmed..which really is a mission
fail, but still) and the ending credits will roll. Thankfully, the
game has now only started. Everytime you play, points are added to your counter (and card). When you've gained enough points (Good
amounts of points can be gained by completing special events and making 'quick shots') and
you'll be awarded a new rank. When your rank is high enough, new guns, new equipment and -best of
all- new routes will open up. Also, the enemies will become faster and more intelligent as well!
Because -like said- there's a huge amount of events and equipment to
be unlocked, you'll be busy for quite a while finding them all,
making every time you play a new experience.
Anything else to tell? Well, there's a couple of other things I'd like
you to know. Like the life bars, for instance. Instead of the usual 3
'hit points', the player in Ghost Squad is given an actual life bar.
The amount of times you can be hit now depends on who you were hit
by, and how you were hit. Fail one of the events, and you'll take a lot of damage, while getting
hit by a 'regular' bad guy from a distance isn't quite so harmful. A
lot of equipment can also be picked up along the way, such
as armour vests and med kits which are a good way of prolonging your
life. Finally, there's a huge selection of weapons. You'll be able to
use machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenade
launchers and many other guns, which makes for a very varied killing
spree! Large ammo packs can be picked up, as well as various 'burst' shots.
By using the 'shot' selector on your gun, you can either have a 'rapid
firing / ammo draining gun', or a 'slow fire / more economic' one.
I found the 'in-between' mode -naturally- the most efficient
one.
After completing the game on about six credits (not too bad really,
for a rookie) I can say I love
this game. The gameplay variation, the quick action scenes, the
amount of events and the bosses that are fun rather than a chore.. it
all helps to make Ghost Squad one of the best lightgun
blasters ever created and a game you really should try, should you
come across a cabinet.
Gameplay: 9/10
Cabinet design: 9/10
BONUS: Ghost Squad Flyer.
Check out Http://www.sega-ghostsquad.com
for
more info and internet ranking!
HOUSE OF THE
DEAD 2 (Sitdown version)
It was a bit of a shame that the arcade didn't have any other games
I didn't already feature, apart
from this House of the Dead 2 sitdown. Obviously based on the 'Lost
World' cabinet, this two player sit-down cabinet (with the guns
on either side) didn't really do much for me, to be honest. The vibrating seat (!) doesn't really
add much, and I prefer to stand while playing lightgun games, anyway. The Lost world was so good because
of the enclosed area you sat in and the overall tension, but I think House
of the Dead 2 could've done without this, really.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Cabinet design: 8/10
OTHER STUFF YOU
MIGHT LIKE TO SEE..
^Sega Rally 2 twin seater,
already an oldie!
^Outside the arcade. Nice...
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