Thexder: Hyper Dual Armor
 |
 |
1987 Sierra/Game arts
DOS
Old school mecha shooter from the creators of Silpheed. There doesn't seem to be much of a story, you are a pilot in control of a robot that can change into an airplane Robotech style and you shoot your way through 16 levels.
The game is rather primitive in that you seem to only need to use one weapon, an automatically targeting lazer beam. Since you don't have to aim this weapon gameplay largely consists of dodging back and forth while continuously holding the lazer beam down to kill whatever is coming at you. There are other weapons and powerups to collect but they don't seem to do much the basic lazer can't do for you.
The whole transformation from plane to robot seems to be a gimmick insomuch as the only advantage to flying is the added speed gained. In robot form you have to walk along the ground. If you're gonna put something like this in a game there should be areas when you have to use it, i.e. and area where you can only get through in robot form or plane form. Game design 101 folks.
Enemies tend to be generic flying saucers or little orb robot things that attack in formation. Although a few of them shoot their main avenue of attack is to just to crash into you. There aren't any boss battles either, just wave after wave of little enemies in gigantic levels. Speaking of the levels they move right into each other at the end of each "level" without much apparent load time which actually gives the game more of an exploratory feeling.
The game is much better than I'm making it sound though. Graphics are detailed and animate very well, and was much better than what the home systems at the time were capable of. Gameplay can get a little repetitive but it is fast paced and exciting. Since the game seems to be easy with it's auto-targeting weapons it becomes an endurance test to see how far you can get without dying. As you progress through the huge levels (They are big. I mean it) the difficulty ramps up to where eventually you're being mobbed every step of the way and have to move ahead with caution yet think fast enough to avoid being surrounded. A pretty solid title for fans of old school shooters.