Return to Digital Press Home
B-Wings |
NES |
||
Review by Doug Jackson |
Data East |
Shooter |
|
Graphics: 4 |
Sound: 3 |
Gameplay: 3 |
Overall: 3 |
| We Americans cry about how many good games never make it out of Japan,
but sometimes they don't make it over here for the better. This would be dead weight in
the NES library. Released in 1986 by Data East, a company that usually put out decent
games, gave gamers a really lackluster one in B-Wing. The graphics are colorful and look like a game you played on your last acid trip. They are all abstract and strange backgrounds. Despite the unique style, they're rather bland and leave something to be desired. This might have worked as an early generation Colecovision game at best. Game play is a mixed bag. There are a ton of weapons to select and pick up, but only about half of them are useful. The rest are close range, and when you have to destroy obstructive scenery and a screen full of enemies it can quickly become tough to pass a stage. Some weapons are quite good and make up for the mostly otherwise drab game play. They range from flame throwers, spreaders, energy waves and bombs. One interesting touch is that if you don't have a weapon equipped, you can do somewhat of a dive to dodge enemies similar to the same move in 1942. The bosses are pretty good and offer a fair challenge. They each fire an onslaught of missiles and beams at you. The problem is that they all use the same weapons. Each new boss is shaped differently and the weak spots are in different locations every time. Each one seems like another form of the same boss. Data East was not keeping variety in mind with the game play here. The music has kind of a cheesy Japanese sound to it. It's not awful, but it gets boring by the end of the first round and each stage plays the same tune repeatedly. Sound effects are pretty weak too. The whole game feels like a it was tossed together just to get it onto the market. I'm glad this never saw a US release because it's about as boring as Tecmo's Star Force. |