A funny thing happened, though. Curse seemingly vanished from
the face of the planet. It never showed up on store shelves, nothing else
was ever mentioned about it in any game magazines that I can recall... in
short, it was like it had never existed at all.
Of course, that really wasn't the case. Curse was released in Japan for the Mega Drive. However, the U.S. release obviously fell through... and I never did find out what happened to the INTV Corporation, the company that was supposed to release it here. Nothing was ever released by them, it seems. Curse was supposed to be their first game, but when they vanished, so did the game.
Curse is a sidescrolling shooter. It bears a resemblance to a lot of other shooters - R-Type, Whip Rush and Psychosis in particular. It's not hard to see elements from all three of those shooters in Curse. The execution, though, turns what could have been a great (if short) shooter into an average one.
For starters, the animation is substandard. Compared to some of the other sidescrolling shooters released the same year - most notably ThunderForce III - Curse falls very short. The backgrounds, while detailed, have choppy scrolling. This isn't noticable in some of the levels, but really stands out in others. The cave level comes to mind in particular. The animation of the ship's standard bullets is almost nonexistant. You're firing more rounds than you realize (not a bad thing), but the animation just makes it look completely unrealistic. I've seen this kind of animation referred to as "jerk-and-flitter syndrome" before, which is a pretty good description of it.
Secondly, the ship
just moves too slowly at first. It's not sluggish to the point of being a
flying cinderblock, but it could have used a variable-speed option.
Instead, like R-Type, you have to pick up speed capsules (that's
one of the only things I didn't like about R-Type, either). It's
not a major problem, but it's one I've never liked.
Third, the game gets really cheap on you in the last level. In the first four levels, when your ship is destroyed, you start back at the exact spot you left off. In the last level, when the ship is destroyed, you get sent back to the beginning of the level. Scattered throughout the level there are weapons that can rip through your fully powered shield and destroy your ship, which doesn't make it any easier.
Those points aside, Curse is oddly addicting. The action is fast most of the time. The weapon selection, although not large, is quite good (my favorite weapon would have to be the "crystal cluster" explosive - you shoot out a crystal that explodes, sending fragments flying everywhere. It's kind of like the weapon that the Chenjesu Broodhome has in the game Star Control). Your ship can also take three hits before it's destroyed, thanks to the shield that surrounds it - and powerups to replenish your shield can be easily found. Curse is pretty generous with giving out extra lives, too - which is a plus. The graphics are fairly detailed (and VERY reminiscent of Psychosis, especially in the first stage), although not up to the standards of some of the other games of that time.
Audio-wise, I love the game. The music is really good, imo, and the
sound effects are very reminiscent of the sfx from the ThunderForce
games. I'm glad the game has a sound test (accesible only by holding
button A and pressing start at the title screen)... it's nice to be able
to hear the music without all the sound effects going on at the same time.
The question, of course - is Curse worth hunting down? To most
of you, I'd say no. There are many, many better shooters out there for the
Mega Drive. However, if you've played most of the shooters that you can
find and want to try a new one, and the price is right - then why not?
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