 Here we have what is Capcom's
one and only in-house attempt at a traditional
side-scrolling shoot'emup on the CPS2 JAMMA
system, and their last ever example of the genre
released in arcades. (I'm discounting Progear as it was
actually produced by Cave rather
than internally at Capcom). Luckily it's a pretty
good cartoon-style shmup with beautifully
rendered visuals and an interesting weapon
system, and an unusual but oddly appealing
environmental-themed story-line. Famously the
game was the result of a Japanese competition to
design an arcade game for Capcom which is not a
bad prize to win at all eh folks? Presumably the
winning contestant's design pitch went something
like this - "Dear Capcom. Global pollution
is bad. Blowing stuff up is good. I'd like to
combine the two in a video-game. Do I win?"
And, in a rather unlikely turn of events, he
actually did.
Mmmm.. impressively pretty
hand-drawn backgrounds.
So
who exactly are we fighting and why? It's the Goyulk
mega-corporation, man. They're turning the planet
into a dread-sphere with their
ecologically unsound business-practices, man. For
the prosecution - Evidence item A:
Rapidly dwindling level of surface vegetation
coinciding with appearance of colossal buzz-saw
wielding tank. Evidence item B:
Distinct decline in ocean water purity near
enormous ship suspiciously seen to be sporting
large compliment of laser turrets, missile
launchers and flame cannons. Evidence
item C: Un-self-concious demonstration
of the construction of ridiculous flying and
submarine craft that look like fish..
Eco Fighters unashamedley pinches its weapon
system lock-stock-and-barrel from SNK's Prehistoric Isle. You have a little ship
(the eponymous Eco Fighter I
presume) and attached to your little ship is a pod
which is the bit that you actually shoot with
most of the time. This pod (which although not
strictly a side-pod is still quite cool)
can be rotated 360 degrees
around your ship by holding down one of two
pre-assigned buttons - clockwise rotation is
achieved with the first button and
counter-clockwise rotation with the second. The
pod acts as a defensive barrier against enemy
shots and enemies themslves, and can issue forth
a charge shot by holding down then releasing the
fire button. The pod shoots in the direction it's
rotated to ie if it's above you it'll shoot up,
if its below you at 45 degrees it'll shoot in
that direction. Simple. It's a system vaguely
reminscent of R-Type's Force
pod, if rather less elegant and slightly more
awkward to control, but it works well enough,
with tactical defensive pod positioning being the
key to lengthened survival in many levels of the
game. Plus if you hold down one of the
pod-rotation buttons while firing the whole
contraption does a nice catherine-wheel
impersonation sending bullets spiralling 360
degrees across the screen. Which is not actually
that useful, come to think of it, but is
definitely a bloody good laugh.
|
is for.... 
