Ed Oscuro
01-06-2006, 03:59 PM
(Sorry, don't have any images to post. Use your imagination, or sing-along via MAME.)
A while back I had sworn this would be a game I would never play, like Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Well, looks like I broke my promise. Surprisingly, I actually found myself playing it...and here I'm a guy who still gets repulsed by gameplay movies out of Stubbs the Zombie (or at least...I was).
The key to the game: lower the difficulty setting (Easy) and crank up the time (70 seconds is the highest). If you want you can select the 1 coin / 4 credits option. The game is pretty playable on the default setting (Normal), but by the time you get to the third level (Hallway) it gets pretty tough, especially on a second playthrough - it seemed to me that you couldn't really get all the secrets on that one (blasted mummy heart) in one playthrough. Or maybe you can.
Yes, everybody's commented on the violence. You won't want to pick apart a chicken after playing this game, and I need not say anything else. Tiny hit areas and a race for secrets keep it surprisingly challenging (to say nothing of the blasted ghosts in the Hallway).
There are four main areas.
The first is the most brutal - the infamous Torture Chamber.
After that, the second area seems a bit flat and empty. It also is a torture chamber scene, but has less going on - no ghosts flying past the screen, relatively few creatures flying/runing back and forth, and not much on the back wall.
The third area is a hallway with ghosts rushing back and forth. Love the music that plays here. This is a relatively kid-safe area, actually - aside from the falling leg/heads around the level, the goriest thing you'll see are beating hearts shaped like valentines. This stage would feel empty if you weren't spending so much time just trying to shoot the ghosts...
The final regular stage actually has nudity! Well, it's just a pair of breasts. After you've cleared all four stages and found all the secrets a bonus round will open up.
Before you play each level a screen shows up. You may notice after plays that the images off the screen mysteriously disappear, and a picture of a mansion starts to form in the background. As you find "secrets," the board starts to clear. Before each level, take a second to look at the board and see what you need to clear. After you find a secret, a sound should play. I also believe that the pointing hands tend to point towards secrets (though perhaps they don't always.) Spoilers follow!
Reading straight off the chart (in the same order as shown, though it doesn't matter):
Torture Chamber:
Hit the guillotine's knife a few times to decapacitate the woman (ouch).
Shoot the crank on the press to crush the man's head.
Shoot one of the heads on the rack above him.
Shoot the woman's head on the floor, lying amongst the body parts, with a puddle of blood right above it.
Reduce the hanging man's head to a pile of rubble (though I actually only needed to shoot it once or twice).
In the pile of bricks that support a chopping block, a skeleton resides...shoot it into a jumble.
Under and to the right of the barred window where a woman peeks out at times, there's a skull in the masonry.
The easiest one: Shoot the shield.
Rack Room:
Pull the man apart by shooting the wheel.
Continue to shoot the crank to lower the woman into the stream of blood until nothing is left (her head falls in).
A person of unknown gender is throwing knives. Do away with them.
Find the tongs in the back wall (easy, there's a cupboard back there).
Shoot the keys to make a silver key (??)
Shoot the face of the man on the rack.
Shoot the chest of the man on the floor.
Shoot a scurrying rat (might be above the 'river').
Hallway:
The very beginning of the level is a good time to work on that monster meter. Shoot the trap door open before the woman runs past it.
Shoot the large monster head (only once is necessary) to make his eyes bug out...or wait...fall out.
In the middle of the floor, just underneath where the leg hanging from the grate above will fall, is a loose stone. Dislodge it, and shoot the skull that'll fly out (do this early so you can keep getting "points" by shooting the skull).
Partway under the right corner of the coffin there is another loose stone.
On the right side of the screen, there is a tab in the rock above a cracked rock (shoot the rock right aboved the cracked one, and shoot the key).
Shoot the right torch (you should shoot both torches twice at the beginning of the level).
Shoot the leg hanging from the grate. Should be done early on before you start working on the ghosts, because easily shot heads and sometimes hearts will fall at regular intervals after that.
Shoot the coffin in the upper center to expose the mummy's chest, and blast away at its chest until its heart appears. Zap it. Note that you don't get points for chipping away at the coffin, so concentrate on only what you need to shoot.
This level is quite hard, so make good use of the stationary objects (shooting the trap door will always yield a point, for example). Also note that the various ghosts (especially the woman's ghost) are easily shot when they're partway into a wall, much easier than trying to shoot one zipping across the playfield.
Graveyard:
Nifty level, huh? Shoot the green back of the tombstone on the left and close to the camera.
Shoot the poor woman trapped in the soil as much as you can (and she thought it was just a prank at the beach...) You'll need to shoot six times.
Shoot the bell in the clock tower.
A window has gotten loose...
Shoot the head on the fence. It's looking right and tilted up.
Shoot the eyes in the tree when they're large and orange (this one seems to be invincible when they're small and red, some of the time at least).
There's a mound in the background, to the right of the church. Shoot it to reveal a gaping tomb (I think).
Shoot the top off the obelisk-shaped tomb on the far left.
It's not a secret, but there is a bird in the branches of the tree. Easy shot. The flying birds are hard to hit, so concentrate most of your fire on the zombie hands and especially on the zombie arm that chucks a skull. This one can be shot repeatedly, so focus on it until it's disappeared.
After every round in which you clear out all the secrets, a slot machine will show up. Shooting some symbols will make the two last wheels spin faster than others (though it's probably worth it to try to get two RIP signs - if you can nail all three, the game pays out 70,000 points).
On Easy, it is indeed quite easy to make your way through the whole game in one play (without repeating levels or continuing), especially when you have the time turned up. After the fourth bonus round you'll be whisked to a special bonus round. I haven't made it all the way through this - just managed to clear six or seven stages. They all seem the same, except with each new stage another flying object will be added. If you've lost count, just look at the stage number and add one head to the count - that is the number of heads you'll need to shoot.
Finally, the score system...I was able to continue repeatedly, but at some point the game cut off the score. I'm not sure how that works, but it seems you can buy highscores on this one. Meh.
Has anybody been able to make it past that point (it's probably just a matter of willpower to play through the game over and over)? I'd like to find out what comes at the end (if anything does), or if it just repeats over and over until you get a game over (if it were me that made the game, I would've put a big red button for the very last challenge stage...hit it and blow this evil cabinet to smithereens! LOL )
Overall, though, the game's not too bad (not much less than a 7 on the classic gaming scale, ignoring the fact that there's not that much replay value after you've figured out all the secrets, and not succumbing to influence from any weak-kneed opinions of the game). Humorous secrets help keep it from being a totally depressing chore, and there's a wide variety to the graphics even beyond those in the regular stages. This actually makes me want to check out the other gun games from Exidy.
A while back I had sworn this would be a game I would never play, like Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Well, looks like I broke my promise. Surprisingly, I actually found myself playing it...and here I'm a guy who still gets repulsed by gameplay movies out of Stubbs the Zombie (or at least...I was).
The key to the game: lower the difficulty setting (Easy) and crank up the time (70 seconds is the highest). If you want you can select the 1 coin / 4 credits option. The game is pretty playable on the default setting (Normal), but by the time you get to the third level (Hallway) it gets pretty tough, especially on a second playthrough - it seemed to me that you couldn't really get all the secrets on that one (blasted mummy heart) in one playthrough. Or maybe you can.
Yes, everybody's commented on the violence. You won't want to pick apart a chicken after playing this game, and I need not say anything else. Tiny hit areas and a race for secrets keep it surprisingly challenging (to say nothing of the blasted ghosts in the Hallway).
There are four main areas.
The first is the most brutal - the infamous Torture Chamber.
After that, the second area seems a bit flat and empty. It also is a torture chamber scene, but has less going on - no ghosts flying past the screen, relatively few creatures flying/runing back and forth, and not much on the back wall.
The third area is a hallway with ghosts rushing back and forth. Love the music that plays here. This is a relatively kid-safe area, actually - aside from the falling leg/heads around the level, the goriest thing you'll see are beating hearts shaped like valentines. This stage would feel empty if you weren't spending so much time just trying to shoot the ghosts...
The final regular stage actually has nudity! Well, it's just a pair of breasts. After you've cleared all four stages and found all the secrets a bonus round will open up.
Before you play each level a screen shows up. You may notice after plays that the images off the screen mysteriously disappear, and a picture of a mansion starts to form in the background. As you find "secrets," the board starts to clear. Before each level, take a second to look at the board and see what you need to clear. After you find a secret, a sound should play. I also believe that the pointing hands tend to point towards secrets (though perhaps they don't always.) Spoilers follow!
Reading straight off the chart (in the same order as shown, though it doesn't matter):
Torture Chamber:
Hit the guillotine's knife a few times to decapacitate the woman (ouch).
Shoot the crank on the press to crush the man's head.
Shoot one of the heads on the rack above him.
Shoot the woman's head on the floor, lying amongst the body parts, with a puddle of blood right above it.
Reduce the hanging man's head to a pile of rubble (though I actually only needed to shoot it once or twice).
In the pile of bricks that support a chopping block, a skeleton resides...shoot it into a jumble.
Under and to the right of the barred window where a woman peeks out at times, there's a skull in the masonry.
The easiest one: Shoot the shield.
Rack Room:
Pull the man apart by shooting the wheel.
Continue to shoot the crank to lower the woman into the stream of blood until nothing is left (her head falls in).
A person of unknown gender is throwing knives. Do away with them.
Find the tongs in the back wall (easy, there's a cupboard back there).
Shoot the keys to make a silver key (??)
Shoot the face of the man on the rack.
Shoot the chest of the man on the floor.
Shoot a scurrying rat (might be above the 'river').
Hallway:
The very beginning of the level is a good time to work on that monster meter. Shoot the trap door open before the woman runs past it.
Shoot the large monster head (only once is necessary) to make his eyes bug out...or wait...fall out.
In the middle of the floor, just underneath where the leg hanging from the grate above will fall, is a loose stone. Dislodge it, and shoot the skull that'll fly out (do this early so you can keep getting "points" by shooting the skull).
Partway under the right corner of the coffin there is another loose stone.
On the right side of the screen, there is a tab in the rock above a cracked rock (shoot the rock right aboved the cracked one, and shoot the key).
Shoot the right torch (you should shoot both torches twice at the beginning of the level).
Shoot the leg hanging from the grate. Should be done early on before you start working on the ghosts, because easily shot heads and sometimes hearts will fall at regular intervals after that.
Shoot the coffin in the upper center to expose the mummy's chest, and blast away at its chest until its heart appears. Zap it. Note that you don't get points for chipping away at the coffin, so concentrate on only what you need to shoot.
This level is quite hard, so make good use of the stationary objects (shooting the trap door will always yield a point, for example). Also note that the various ghosts (especially the woman's ghost) are easily shot when they're partway into a wall, much easier than trying to shoot one zipping across the playfield.
Graveyard:
Nifty level, huh? Shoot the green back of the tombstone on the left and close to the camera.
Shoot the poor woman trapped in the soil as much as you can (and she thought it was just a prank at the beach...) You'll need to shoot six times.
Shoot the bell in the clock tower.
A window has gotten loose...
Shoot the head on the fence. It's looking right and tilted up.
Shoot the eyes in the tree when they're large and orange (this one seems to be invincible when they're small and red, some of the time at least).
There's a mound in the background, to the right of the church. Shoot it to reveal a gaping tomb (I think).
Shoot the top off the obelisk-shaped tomb on the far left.
It's not a secret, but there is a bird in the branches of the tree. Easy shot. The flying birds are hard to hit, so concentrate most of your fire on the zombie hands and especially on the zombie arm that chucks a skull. This one can be shot repeatedly, so focus on it until it's disappeared.
After every round in which you clear out all the secrets, a slot machine will show up. Shooting some symbols will make the two last wheels spin faster than others (though it's probably worth it to try to get two RIP signs - if you can nail all three, the game pays out 70,000 points).
On Easy, it is indeed quite easy to make your way through the whole game in one play (without repeating levels or continuing), especially when you have the time turned up. After the fourth bonus round you'll be whisked to a special bonus round. I haven't made it all the way through this - just managed to clear six or seven stages. They all seem the same, except with each new stage another flying object will be added. If you've lost count, just look at the stage number and add one head to the count - that is the number of heads you'll need to shoot.
Finally, the score system...I was able to continue repeatedly, but at some point the game cut off the score. I'm not sure how that works, but it seems you can buy highscores on this one. Meh.
Has anybody been able to make it past that point (it's probably just a matter of willpower to play through the game over and over)? I'd like to find out what comes at the end (if anything does), or if it just repeats over and over until you get a game over (if it were me that made the game, I would've put a big red button for the very last challenge stage...hit it and blow this evil cabinet to smithereens! LOL )
Overall, though, the game's not too bad (not much less than a 7 on the classic gaming scale, ignoring the fact that there's not that much replay value after you've figured out all the secrets, and not succumbing to influence from any weak-kneed opinions of the game). Humorous secrets help keep it from being a totally depressing chore, and there's a wide variety to the graphics even beyond those in the regular stages. This actually makes me want to check out the other gun games from Exidy.