2 More Retro Reviews! AvP and Armored Warriors

jaykhunter

Wrote up two more reviews after another awesome afternoon of retrogaming! Let the Retro-goodness RECOMMENCE!!



Alien vs Predator



Yes. This game is as awesome as the picture suggests. This game is all out CARNAGE!! Note I didn't say mayhem. This one has tons and tons of baddies but the weapons/attack system is laid out that you can't just button-mash. Quick synopsis : AWESOME.

Things you should know :
-- There are 4 players : 2 Predators, 2 humans. There's one jakked-up army dude with a gun for a hand (that's RIGHT) and "Chun-Blaze" who is the only one who fights like a traditional beat-em-up
-- There's no friendly fire/hit detection - your bullets/knives bounce off your allies
-- Gun play is implemented well here. You kick ass with your combos, but the predators have their staffs, and the girl has a kitana blade.
-- you have a special meter at the bottom of the screen (green bar) that depletes. Predators shoot blue balls (lol), the dude shoots too, and the girl has a different type of gun.
-- Find Supers that you can use your special unlimited for 10 secs



The characters
-- Chun-Blaze : The girl can shoot both ways when 'locked' into the shooting mechanic. She's completely vunerable when she's recharging her gun (takes a few seconds). The flipside is that her gun is completely charged in a few seconds.

-- Predators : They can shoot from their eye gun, but also by default have their staff. They have another special where little blades cut around them. Looks pretty awesome. They can shoot their shoulder beam downwards too. Cool.

-- Marine : He had a gun, and it roided to the max. Awesome.

Power Ups
-- There's that super power-up that gives you 10 secs of unlimited gun blasts (awesome)
-- There's knives for throwing, lead pipes for beating, and a couple of different types of guns (including AKs and huge f-k off ridiculous guns!)
-- You can pick up others' weapons, including Predators' slashy disc. It comes back after killing people. Awesome. Same if Predator grabs Chunners' kitana blade.



Plot
PLOT?! LOL. You're (pick a character) and Aliens have over-run America. Go. It changes into a "the army are doing experiments" and take on the military half-way through the game. But you also battle Aliens again.



Enemy Types
Honestly, there weren't that many, but it was so full-on and AWESOME that you don't really notice! The main fodder is the general Alien. Then there are ones that block. Purple ones. Little robot rocket deelies, and ones strapped to the floor (which are gay).
Hilarious - you take on ZOMBIES!!! AHHHH HA HA HA HA HA!! Then, some Alien eggs. Cool. Then After you kill a big Alien; you find it it's the military, so u start killing army guys. When that comes to a close, you kill the mother Alien; just as you should.

Anything else?
-- The music was fairly non-descript, but was perfect for the game. Was fairly frantic throughout the game, but the game was frantic!!
-- The game will last about 40 minutes. 40 AWESOME minutes
-- Seven stages in total
-- I didn't like the way they brought in the marines after kicking the aliens' ass, i thought they could've done a better job implementing it. But that's a minor point.
-- The graphics were great
-- You can definitely tell with the great handling that the makers are experienced and took their time. It plays really well
-- The game is a fine difficulty, we used 8 credits between us (our lowest yet!) but some enemy bosses/levels are real coin-whores.



Overall?
This game was so much fun to play, which is impressive considering we've played LOADS of beat-em-ups in such a short space of time! Ya, great. Play it!! This game kicks ****in' ass, man!

This 1994 Capcom classic is AWESOME! PLAY IT!






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Armored Warriors

Holy ****, this is the DEFINITION of a button-masher. Yes, it is that frantic on-screen. Just imagine loads of bullets being shot and everything EXPLODING! WOW.

First impressions of the game were meh, but when you get the hang of the character set-up, and especially the power-ups, it's AWESOME. Not AvP awesome, but definitely great. Imagine if Dragon Gate made a game - that'd be it! You'll be knackered after this one...



Item checklist :
4 Humans in large robots - check!
Beating the **** out of other equally huge robots - check!
Stomping on puny humans - check!
Transforming into a more awesome robot - check!
Check out the COD-PIECE on the Blue trans-morpher lol...
JOINING into a NEW Transformer - DOUBLE-CHECK!!!

This game is really awesome, but it's just too chaotic. The sprites are HUGE and they fill up the screen. Since everyone's a robot you sometimes forget which one you are!



Selling Point :
There are SO MANY guns!! Mow those f***kers down!!
There are ROBOT PARTS that you can change you robot to get a new special power!!! Like then you jump and you turn into a ball covered in quickly rotating blades!! HOLY ****!! Or get a DRILL FOR AN ARM BIG DADDY (BioShock) style!!
A big robot part comes down and the players COMBINE to make one big M*****F***** ROBOT!! AHHHHHH!!!
This one definitely is later on in the beat-em-up lifespan because it's somewhat customizable and really builds on the Final Fight foundations.

The Plot :
There's trouble afoot on Earth (weird-shaped USA) and another planet called The Raia. (Not the RIAA, they're others lol). So 4 warriors get into 4 robots....which are ARMORED! They inject plot into each stage, but honestly, who cares? You start off on earth, move to RAIA, and end up IN SPACE to catch those fleeing bastards! And lets not forget Mother Brain from Metroid waiting for you at the end....lol....



The game is divided up into acts, with three areas in each. The game would be roughly 45 minutes, but you'll be really tired well before the final bell. it's just mayhem. And button-mashing!

You can punch, but you also have a certain type of bullets. Pick up all sorts of guns (heat seekers - how the f*** does that work with Robots vs Robots?!, AKs, grenades), also electricity grabber, DRILL, and wait for it.....LIGHTSABRES!!!! AWESOME! Sorry, beam-sword :L

Overall :
This was a fun game to play, and showed a lot of new things we haven't seen in beat-em-ups yet, (robots getting extra parts, becoming one mega-robot) which was pretty cool. But it's too chaotic, and you're just button-mashing for the most part. But it was fun. I'd have to say it's mayhem is to it's detriment. There's just too much going on and everything can be solved by hammering the triangle! The sprites are too big for the size of the screen, but it was a cool experience.

Retr0gamer

I ****ing love AvsP on the arcade. For me it's the absolute pinnacle of scrolling beat'em ups. I could almost beat it on 1 credit and used to get massive crowds around me watching me play it. I miss the old arcade scene.

o1s1n

Predator beating the crap out of loads of Aliens. You just can't get any cooler than that. I love it.

Was fairly rare in arcades around here. Only ever saw the one in Stillorgan.

Retr0gamer

It was in loads of arcades here. I remember it being in Leisureplex and Quirkeys. It was the most popular arcade game of 1994 I remember reading.

LoGiE

AvP was amazing. I played it many times in Leisure Plex in Coolock and I still play it on my cab every now and again. Where there any original 3 player cabs in Ireland?
I loved all the scrollers on CPS II but for me Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara is my favorite.

o1s1n

Actually just to note, I'd never played (Or even heard of) Armoured Warriors until I read this review. Which is odd as I love CSP2.

Fun game, cheers! The power ups are a lot of fun.

Retr0gamer

LoGiE wrote: »

AvP was amazing. I played it many times in Leisure Plex in Coolock and I still play it on my cab every now and again. Where there any original 3 player cabs in Ireland?

A few places had the Simpsons and Turtles 4 player cabs from Konami. Never did see a 6 player Xmen one though which has always been a big regret of mine having never played it in 6 player with the dual screen.

Tallon

Awesome games, awesome review (again)

was playing AVP the other day but I think ill get back into it again now

hama33

wow nice one!