@#$#! Mobile Light Force!!!! ACKKKKKKKK!!!!!

[Captain Wrong]

I'm sure there's about 5 of you who will care, but for those of you considering a purchase of Mobile Light Force PSX, this is for you.

Those of you playing at home should note my love for all things shmup. You might also note my strong wish for these budget label PSX publishers to bring over some of the PSX shmups that were stranded in Japan. Well, I got my wish, and man did they botch it.

Exibit A: "Mobile Light Force." First off, let's examine the cover art:



Now, take a look at that, and tell me what you think this game is? If you guessed a Charlie's Angels game, you'd be dead wrong. Understandable, but wrong. What's under the cover? Why, it's none other than Gunbird! Perhaps some of you are familiar with Gunbird 2 on the DC? For those who aren't, let's have a look at the true Japanese cover art for this game:



Hmm...quite different, eh?

For those who have never played it, Gunbird is a fantastic shmup from Psikyo with a very silly magic oriented theme. A lot of the charm of this game comes from the absurd story line. Although the game is pretty nonsencical, the characters make a little more sence if you know what's going on. (Yeah, I know the concept of playing a shmup for it's story is pretty absurd, but it does help you differenciate one from the other.)

So, I knew going into it that they'd retitled the game and given it some really misleading cover art. What I didn't know is that they removed all the story elements from the game entirely! Before reaching a boss, the game just pauses a bit, you see the evil characters you are chasing scamper off on the ground and then you fight the boss. Nothing, na da. The elements before the levels are gone as well.

Hmm...bit of a dissapointment there, but why really plays a shmup for the story, right? Yeah it takes the personality out of the game, but I kind of expected things would be changed to make it fit the "Mobile Light Force" mode. And there's still the gameplay, right???

Well, to add insult to injury, you can't change the screen mode. Now with Psikyo's vertical scrolling shmups, you get three screen options. First, there is Tate mode. Tate puts the image on it's side so if you flip your TV over you can play it in proper arcade mode. Nearly every shmup that gets a US release is missing this, so I wasn't expecting that.

Then there are two other non-flipping modes that I would relate to letterboxed and pan and scan for movies. The letterboxed type gives you the full screen with black bars to the left and right. It's a little small, but you get the whole image.

The pan and scan version is like this, imagine a magnifing glass on the screen. The image is a little bigger than the letterboxed version and you don't get the whole image on your screen at the same time. To make up for that, the magnifing part "scrolls" when you reach about the half way mark. In a game that's already scrolling, this makes for some very jerky game play and when you cross that line, the screen starts scrolling faster and then slows down. To make matters worse, there is always going to be stuff shooting at you above or below that magnified part because it's still there even though you can't see it.

In a game like Gunbird where there's lots of stuff coming at you at all times, this makes playing a real chore. First off you can't see when an enemy is on screen, all you see is bullets floating at you and you don't know from where. Second, in Gunbird, finding the "safe zone" is crucial and it's damn hard to do when the scroll speed of the screen is constantly changing. I played with this mode on DC Gunbird 2 once and never went back because it makes the game really really hard and cheap when you can't see what's shooting at you.

EDIT: It would appear that the Japanese PSX version only has the pan and scan mode as opposed to the Saturn vers which has it all. Ok, I can't fault XS for that, but my complaint still stands. I'll leave this part of the rant for those of you considering a purchase to play. Go Saturn, that seems to be the only way to go.

The final insult? You can't save your scores. I'm really confused as to why this was taken out. I mean I can't think of a single reason for it. Small beans to some, but shmups are all about score and to not be able to save your score is a real dissapointment.

EDIT: Looks like this wasn't in the JPN PSX version either. Man, I'm striking out here. Still, it's a pretty weak thing, but it looke like half my ire is for the original JPN release and half is for XS pulling the story elements, which were translated in the arcade version. Considering they cut and pasted their own title screen, how hard would it have been to cut and paste the translated story elements? Sigh.

Ok, I know, I know, "What do you want for $10?" I know it seems silly to get this worked up about a $10 release for a dead console, but I'm really appaled that they took a fantastic game in a genre that doesn't get much love and gutted it for no reason. It gives me a headache playing the game with the scrolling speeding up and slowing down constantly and makes a tough but well balanced game play really unfair and cheap.

The only reason this bothers me is Psikyo is one of my favorite shmup developers and I was really exicted about getting another of their games on a US release. I know some of you might think I've really flipped out this time, but I think Psikyo's games are art and this is so chopped up it makes me mad. It's really senseless that they cut so much out when it was all there in the Japanese release. This was a fantastic game in it's original form, but as it was released here, it's severly lacking.

If you were considering buying this, I really can't reccommend it. If you've never played this game before, you'll probably think it's utter crap based on this release. I'd advise anyone who really wants to play it to get the import Saturn or MAME it. Even at $10, I still feel ripped off.

All these months I've been hoping someone would pick up DoDonpachi and now, I'm really hoping they don't. I'd rather pay import prices than play DDP in a form like this.

OK, long rant over. You can wake up now. (At least until I get to spend some serious time with Mobile Light Force 2 on PS2 )
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[Kid Fenris]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the Japanese PSX version of Gunbird had a TATE mode either.

Other than that, I'm with you. The loss of the cute interludes is enough to kill Gunbird's spirit, but the scrolling problem makes the game an awkward chore. How much does the imported Saturn version go for?

[ArnoldRimmer83]

I agree those changes are stupid. The lack of cutscenes is a severe act of laziness. That cover is awful too. I doubt that'll help sell copies of the game. When I first saw it, I assumed it was a bland action game Based on Charlie's Angels, or any other generic action show, and I assume others will have the same reaction to it as well.

[Captain Wrong]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the Japanese PSX version of Gunbird had a TATE mode either.

Yeppers, it does. This according to turn.to/vertical a site dedicated to tate mode games. (Goes to show you really can find anything on the web.)

Other than that, I'm with you. The loss of the cute interludes is enough to kill Gunbird's spirit, but the scrolling problem makes the game an awkward chore. How much does the imported Saturn version go for?

PSX version I've seen in the range of $30-$40. Saturn, $40 and up.

I will say this as a positive, I was really curious how the PSX, a console that has a bad reputation when it comes to 2D, could handle this game. It seems like it runs pretty well. Everything looks good (of course the original Gunbird was hardly the pinnacle of 2D) and I haven't noticed any slowdown to any large extent. Hell, even the mighty Saturn chugs a bit on Strikers.

It's just so sad that this could have been a real steal and as it stands it's barely playable. Considering it was all there in the Japanese version, there's just no excuse.

[Kid Fenris]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the Japanese PSX version of Gunbird had a TATE mode either.

Yeppers, it does. This according to turn.to/vertical a site dedicated to tate mode games. (Goes to show you really can find anything on the web.)

That's strange, because the forum folks at The Next Level seem to agree that it doesn't, though people claim both at Shmups Mk2. At this point, I'd like to play the Japanese version anyway, considering the alternative.

By the way, did anyone notice that the robot in Mobile Light Force was apparently renamed "MILF"?

[Captain Wrong]

Yeah, I noticed that too while I was posting @ shmups.com. I can tell you this for certain, the Saturn version of Strikers has it, and considering they were released around the same time and every JPN vert shmup I've bought has it, I don't understand why Gunbird wouldn't.

Still, I don't own it, and I'm confused as to why a simple yes or no question has been answered both ways.

Oh, and all the characters in Gunbird have been renamed. Sigh.

[Sardius]

Yeah, XS games is on my shitlist now for sure. That cover and name change (for Gunbird of all freaking things. GUNBIRD!) are crimes enough against humanity in their own right, but it seems like XS intends to make a habit of lazy, bastardized localizations. They released PSX Sol Divide awhile back for $10 as well, which was another Psikyo shooter - horizontal scrolling, digitized graphics, fair-to-middling gameplay - except they did the exact same thing as they did to poor Gunbird here. They gave it new, crappy cover art (think an underachieving Frank Frazetta, minus the penises), removed a few options, and completely cut out all story/text elements.

...which is just amazingly stupid, considering that English versions of Gunbird and Sol Divide already exist! Check out Mame sometime - fully-translated versions of Gunbird and Sol Divide were in fact released in US arcades. So all XS Games had to do was hack that already-translated text into their releases, and everybody would have been happy. But nooooo. Lord knows that there can't ever be a $10 game that ISN'T critically flawed in some way, so out go the storyline, options, and various other things that made the games worth playing in the first place. This goes way beyond laziness, this is spiteful butchery.

Oh, and MILF? What the hell, man. What the hell.

[kingpong]

I don't have a problem with story/text elements being cut - I'd like to see it happen more often! IMO, stories are worthless in games. Whatever I'm supposed to do in the game, I want to do that without any fluff thrown in there. Apparently it does make for an odd pause in the game, but I'd rather have an awkward pause for 3 seconds than the best story every written for 30 seconds.

It has been funny watching the whining about everything from the cover art to the cuts on The Next Level message boards for the past few weeks. Cover art... give me a break. Name a game that was ruined by cover art. Tate mode being taken out... if you're serious enough to turn your monitor, you better would be serious enough to have imported the Saturn version years ago.

I'm passing on MLF anyways, as I've played enough Gunbird to suit me. I will be picking up MLF2 though, despite not being terribly crazy about the PC demo. I would have much rather seen the XBox version come over, but for a niche title they do need to try to hit as many potential customers as possible.

[lionforce]

Thanks for the heads up Captain Wrong, I dig stories in my games and that sucks that XS is doing this, damn I picked up Sol Divide already assuming the port would not be too butchered, hey Sardius did the gameplay change that much in the XS version of Sol Divide (I havent had the chance to sit down and play it yet) or was it basically just the storyline that was cut out? and while on the topic of the final PS One games, has anyone got a review for Dragonball Z Ultimate Battle and Inu Yasha?

[josekortez]

Since you guys are definitely more informed than I am, can anyone tell me if Mobile Light Force 2 is a translation of Cannon Spike?

When I looked at the package at the EBX the other day, it looked like a top-down shooter, but as everyone says, the box doesn't tell the whole story...

[Captain Wrong]

My problem with the cover art is it's deceptive and doesn't fit the game at all. If I didn't know it was Gunbird in there, I'd have no idea looking at the cover. I think they packaged the game like a Charlie's Angels action game to try and fool people into thinking that's what it was.

It bugs me because, as many have noted, with the popularity of anime they'd probably have a better chance at selling it if they had left it intact. I think people would have been more attracted to the quirky style of the original than what looks like just another generic action title.

And though the cover for Sol Divide was bad in a TG16 way, at least it gave you an idea of what you were getting. Why XS didn't do something like that for Gunbird, I don't know. Trying to make two totally unrelated games part of a series for marketing reasons gives me a headache.

And I'm a purist. I guess I just want it the way the developers intended it.

The story elements matter to me too. I play a ton of shmups and one of the reasons I like Gunbird is it breaks from the "space shooter" or 194x style theme most of them have. I love the story parts because they are very quirky and give the game it's personality. Without the story, this game might as well be Strikers because they play so similar.

If you don't like the story, that's cool, but you can hit buttons and jump past it. Well, most of the time you can. And I'll agree that if I've played a game a ton, I tend to do that. But it's nice to have the option to see it if you want and it's just a real sign of laziness that they cut it out.

Again, I'm a purist and the game feels naked with out it.

@josekortez, MLF2 is Shikigami no Shiro, not Cannon Spike. It's a japanese shmup which so far is pretty fun. Again, it's gutted, and this feels like a game that really needs Tate mode and yes the imports have it, but there it is.

[bargora]

Saw your post at shmups.com, Captain, as well as the nearly flambent replies by the tate nazis. But yeah, I wish tate wasn't stripped out of every U.S. release.

This business of having only up-down scrolling presentation (ala Strikers 1945 "original 2" mode) is a suck, too. I didn't like it in Namco Museum Vol. 2's Xevious port, and I avoid it if possible. While I'll be getting MLF2, I might just pass on MLF1...