MMMC - Surprise Attack

[scooterb23]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/scooterb23/mameclub.jpg

Welcome back everybody. Today's game...I've never heard of before it's ca SURPRISE ATTACK!!!!!! GAH! DON'T DO THAT TO ME... I HATE SURPRISES! Ahem, anyway...

I've never played this game before just a few minutes ago to make sure the ROM works. At first blush, it feels like a Metal Slug-ish style game. I'll be interested to hear from those with more SURPRISE ATTACK!!!!!! experience with the game about some of the different aspects of this game.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9981

http://www.klov.com/images/11/1181242177231.png

Club Rules

01. You do not need to sign up for the club. If you want to participate, simply download the game of the week and post about it!

02. At the end of the week, I will randomly select a game from a list of nominations.

03. The current MAME Club Pick of the Week can be found every Monday stickied at the top of the Arcade Alley.

Need the ROM?

ROM will be hosted by Flack at http://www.robohara.com/mameclub/

Previous MMMC games: Jump Coaster, Rampart, Jungler, Ninja Emaki, Port Man, Psycho Soldier, Metamoqester, Gunbarich, Sengoku (series), Snacks'n Jackson, Metro-Cross, Moon Shuttle, The Real Ghostbusters, Moonwalker, Black Widow, Kid Niki, Joust 2, Super Contra, Shoot-Out, Raiden, Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Dead Connection, Gate of Doom, The Outfoxies, Popeye, Baseball Stars 2, Intrepid, 1943, Super Pac-Man, Samurai Shodown II, Berzerk.

That's getting to be quite the massive SURPRISE ATTACK!!!!!! list, isn't it?

[jb143]

I've never heard of this game either. It seems pretty cool though, even the gimmick of jumping over the walls. I'm having the toughest time getting past the second level though. I'll have to put some time into it later this week.

[Arasoi]

Think "Rolling Thunder in space".

A nice take on the formula by Konami, the same challenge caveats apply here as with Rolling Thunder with some added twists such as gravity reversals. Lots and lots of memorization, but still a great game (same as RT)

It's got a nice accompaniment of cheese ("U DID IT" / quiz segments etc) as well, definetely a great little game. Im doing poorly because I misplaced my PSX-USB adapter, I'll take another stab at this one later this week when I've (hopefully) found it.

[scooterb23]

You know, I was thinking it had a bit of a Rolling Thunder feel, but couldn't place RT's name at the time

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I got to the stage with all the anti-gravity challenges and got my ass kicked. If it wasn't for these areas the game wouldn't be that hard. And yeah, the quiz sections are kinda odd in a game like this. I love the addition of the woman to the quiz section, as it kind of adds a cheese factor to it.

[Ed Oscuro]

U DID IT!

Yep, this was my choice!

I just put two hours into it via MAME (although I've also bought a PCB from the UK, so it should be exactly the same as what most everybody is playing - same English quiz scenes). Now, this is the sort of game that I think is helped along a bit by using savestates for practice - continuing would be fine too, but the savestates saved some time.

So, after I got a good ways in, I reset the virtual machine and saw what I could do...

EAH - Reach 4-1 - 146,840 - 20 PTS No "hover" items used; no continues; default MAME difficulty.

Not bad; I'd be 9000 points and some higher if the game didn't throw two of the worst trivia questions in a row at the very end of the second trivia section, and if I had managed to clear stage 1 of chapter four. Not too bad though, and aside from a few disappointing mistakes I did pretty well. I cleared the bosses without dying (and the second one in great time too).

Before the usual epic-poem length writeup, I'll point out that the name John Ryan is very similar to a character played by Alec Baldwin in a film released the year of this game's copyright - The Hunt for Red October (1990). The parallels aren't as close, or obviously intentional, as between that movie and BioShock, however. If you couldn't upgrade your gun in each level I'd say that the weaponry was closer though...I don't remember Jack Ryan jetting into walls or shooting endlessly into walls though.

It's hard to believe this game is pre-Super Castlevania IV, the game that made some of the tricks seen here famous. This game generally pulls them off better too - jumping over the glass walls beats the slow-as-heck door opening switch to the background from the first stage of SCVIV. I've also yet to see any completely senseless Mode 7 scaling effects just for the heck of it (although some dump trucks come close; at least you aren't meant to jump over them as they swing slowly back and forth). This game is 100% business and U DID IT!

More Castlevania: This game also uses some ideas we'll see later in Castlevania Bloodlines: the "what the hell the screen just went cocktail bananas" stage. There's none of the crazy magical / mirroring stuff seen in Bloodlines, but you get to play an entire stage (at least one) "upside down" (on the ceiling, i.e. there's no floor for this stage). I'm don't believe there's any long-term risk factors for that; I recovered quickly enough to get my score up above on a separate play.

Finally, I discovered when I first plugged in my PCB that the different difficulty settings add different enemies; this probably makes it harder to speedrun the levels but the extra points may be worth it. However, every second = 100 points, and most fodder enemies are only 100 points each; some of the new enemies are more durable ones that can take more than a second to deal with. I consider the higher difficulty a worthy challenge; I was still able to get through the early stages as normal.

How to play
Well, there's the obvious stuff which I won't rehash here.

First off, a couple things I don't enjoy about the game. One, this game has - again - another similarity to Castlevania, but this time one older than this game. The original Castlevania's hero stops in place to swing his whip; inexplicably, Johnny Boy (http://www.carterburwell.com/projects/Millers_Crossing.shtml) does too. This leads to a practical trick: You can shave fractions of a second off your stage times by jumping and shooting right before (or as, I'm not sure) you hit the ground. Not only does this not work all the time (it puts you in danger if there's something filling the part of the screen you jump into), but there's a point about when he touches down where he won't shoot even when you press the button. Very obnoxious if you start obsessing about another extra hundred points from speedrunning the level faster than normal (my advice - don't bother).

Secondly, there's a lot of knowing what's coming up necessary. That this is almost - almost - a pure memorizer doesn't bother me. Rather, it's that many enemies (especially the grenade guys) can be neutralized easier than you're meant to be able if you shoot them before they're on-screen (or still slightly off it). I don't mind zapping the grenadiers quickly, but having to shoot them before they're fully onscreen is more of an annoyance as shooting them normally (slowly) is because it makes you want to start crawling through stages, shooting and jumping constantly in hopes of hitting enemies. Not to worry, though; there's plenty of challenges that you'll have to figure out how to do the right way. Of course, sometimes you're meant to do things a certain way - the best way to deal with the first attack orb that appears on MAME's difficulty setting is to jump to the ceiling, duck (so you shoot higher) and keep plugging away when it starts trying to appear. It's much better than letting it buzz around your head.

This game is still a class act. Yes, there's a lot of memorization, but often there's different ways to clear the stage - the barriers and ceiling jump - and that forces you to think about how the enemies react.

Characters often seem to have their own personalities due to the relatively complex set of actions they can make. Sometimes the enemies still surprise me, and not always because Konami creates new varieties that look the same (that happens all the time, though). The third guy (down below) in the third stage won't jump up to get you unless you approach to within a specific distance of him (just barely past where you can collect the second of the two bombs visible at the beginning). The orange guys with pistols like to shoot right before you land from above (or below) and catch you with a bullet, so you have to remember to jump down (or up) to them when their back is turned (not a very Bond-like thing to do; then again, Sean Connery's Captain Raimus snaps a dude's neck from behind in Hunt From Red October, to say nothing of Alec's Ryan gunning down a cook for holding a couple wires). If you want a trick, however: You can evade all attacks from some of the extend-o-shiv (thing out of a William Gibson novel) wielding goons, like the second guy in the second stage, by simply preparing to switch surfaces (hold "up" when on the ground). The weapon extends harmlessly past John's face. Humorously, ducking will not produce the same result. You can also jump and generally dance endlessly before that guy. The knife guys are much more aggressive; if they can't hit you with their knife they'll eventually force a K.O. through body contact.

Some thoughts on the storyline: I know the game's intro seems preposterous, as it's hard to have a Goldeneye-style satellite death device when you're also blowing it up. However, as you travel through the stages it becomes clear that in the world of Surprise Attack there's a fairly realistic (by arcade game standards I mean) but extensive set of space-based industries and that there is likely some big prize (which may be big and nasty-looking) at the end of it, followed (or maybe preceded?) by the shirtless pro-wrestler looking dude (I wonder if his spacesuit variant doesn't have a shirt, kind of like how the gymnast girls' hair somehow sticks outside their helmet, at least when they die). Somehow, I doubt a caterpillar drive works in deep space. It would be cool if you could abscond with the ultimate whatever at the end of the game, with a sort of Streets of Rage-style "you became the bad guy" ending.

Finally: Coinop.org alleges that the guy is a "space Marine," but like the other Ryan he appears to be more elite now, having been named to "Special Task Force" member which means he gets to be in the middle of things he shouldn't be, kind of like Ryan again. Also, just to tie up the Castlevania references, the colors and style of the arcade flyers (http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=3351) are extremely similar to that of Akumajo Densetsu's (http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Akumajo_Densetsu/Akumajo_Densetsu_FC_A_b.jpg) box - the Japanese release of Castlevania 3. The sketchy lines in the middle remind me of something Castlevania, not sure exactly what though (I don't mean the red bar dripping with blood in the Densetsu box).

The trivia game
Get one or two wrong: 10x100 = 1000 points
Get all wrong = goose egg, nuttin
Get none wrong = Perfect, 10,000 points, plus a surprise!
This is pretty awesome for polishing up on some of your space-based trivia. I was already doing really well but this one has helped me

It's possible to cheat by memorizing whether the correct answer is 1, 2, or 3, but there's no score bonus for completing the question before time runs out. It just saves time. Personally I think it's lame, unless said question involves Aries or whatever. Many of the incorrect answers are pretty funny ("Who flew too close to the sun?" Answer 3: "Eddie Murphy (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/dec/19/eddie-murphy-dark-knight-riddler)"). I've only spotted one mistake (just a typo, you can still tell which is right), plus at least one answer that is obsolete (Pluto is no longer classified a planet; discoveries since 1990 about Saturn's and Jupter's ring systems and satellites don't change the answers here). For the most part it's golden. I'm all for educational vidyas.

The Japanese version's trivia seems completely different, though I haven't tried translating any. It's a sure bet that a number of them deal with Gundam, though.

The speed bonuses
There are at least three categories of "speed." They don't affect the time bonus, which is always the number of seconds left times 10.

Hi_Speed_Dude: Level completed with 1:20 or more remaining.
Medium_Paced_Operator: Level completed with 31 seconds or more.
Laid_Back_Turtle: An interesting choice of title because this one means you completed the level after the music changes to the "hurry up" tune and the timer turns red.

I almost feel that if you get this award at the bosses (okay, starting with boss 3) you ought to get a mega point boost just because they can be pretty hard to deal with. Thank goodness for small favors. Instead you want to blast through the bosses as quickly as possible - this can lead you to cut corners, but not having to deal with the third boss'

There's no benefits from timing out bosses ala Gradius (there aren't likely to be any safe spots at bosses anyway).

I'm not sure which I like more and which aggravates me more - the No Shuriken bonuses of Shinobi games. In Shinobi, it's usually hard to trigger the melee attack instead of throwing a star, and if you wait too long you get bonked, but when these work well (in Shadow Dancer on the MD / Genesis especially, where you can play without shuriken) they add a whole new way of playing the game. Surprise Attack's time-based bonus rewards excellent playing but you can go crazy trying to cut corners - the game doesn't like that.

Continuing
...costs half your score (rounded up or down to the nearest one, it seems to do both). Dang! This is the only way I've found to get a score with a number in the ones column other than zero. This is the only game I can think of in MAME that does this to scores - most either reset it to zero (some add a 1 too, like Gradius games where you would have to continue repeatedly like 100 times to get a correct-looking score), let you keep it (some beat-'em-ups), or (rarely) reset it to the beginning of the current area attained (more a console games feature I think).

Edit: I approve of scoot's introduction to this game; I make a lot of these Pythonesqe references to the game too. I am also becoming somewhat less fond of Tora Tora and Pearl Harbor memorabilia.

[jb143]

I finally got to the quiz section. Kinda strange. I think the only other actionish games I've seen something like that in was those bible adventure games. I got them all right, even the ones I guessed on, (even though Isaac Newton didn't really get hit in the head with an apple.)

[Ed Oscuro]

http://i50.tinypic.com/2yox0zr.jpg

ò_ó

[Arasoi]

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n310/Protogem/youdied.gif

Addendum:

After finding my controller adapter earlier today I gave Surprise Attack a run for it's money. Sadly Part 7 was as far as I got, as you cannot use infinite continues in said area.

There's some very tricky parts in this game and it's a lot of fun. I'll probably give this another try before next week rolls around.

[Arasoi]

Okay, after some work getting back and some practice I finally beat this one. For others looking to finish this one prepare for a rough time in the 7th stages lol.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n310/Protogem/surpatkend.gif

Had a lot of fun with this one, looking forward to next weeks!