Rainbow Games

Posted by: softchassis

When I was in Middle School, I bought one of these, one of those unlicensed “[impossible number]-in-1” NES on a chip controllers with tons of NES games on it. I saw it in a little toy shop in a mall, hooked up to a TV as a display model, and even though these kinds of things had been around for ages, this was the first I’d ever heard of one or seen one. It was such a novel concept to young teenage me, someone who had grown up on emulators because we couldn’t afford many games.  How did they manage to squeeze all those games into one controller? Amazing! I of course know better now, but I still remember being amazed all the same.

So, I bought the little controller, and I probably spent an equal amount of time–if not more–playing it as I did my Wii. I learned about a few neat NES games I would’ve never heard of otherwise through this little controller, such as the (in my opinion) superior version of Tetris by Tengen, Yie-Ar Kung Fu, Karateka… but the game which wowed me the most, which I still play to this day on occasion, was Sqoon.

Sqoon is a horizontal shoot-em-up like Gradius, except in a novel-for-the-time twist, you control a little pink submarine underwater instead of a spaceship in space. Aside from having a unique setting, Sqoon is also a fairly unique shoot-em-up all its own.

A little intermission on the title screen, complete with an SOS in Morse code, says that Neptunians have invaded the Earth and are melting the ice caps. It’s up to you to pilot the Sqoon submarine and beat back their assault, before it’s too late!

In actuality though, it seems you may already be too late! Each stage starts out with a peaceful little tropical tune as you travel over an underwater city, appearing to be based on various locales from across the world.

Still, those Neptunians have to pay. How does Sqoon fight these alien invaders? Well, you have two weapons at your disposal in Sqoon–a torpedo that shoots straight ahead, and a depth charge that travels diagonally towards the sea floor. While the torpedoes and depth charges can both hurt any biological enemy, you need to use the depth charges specifically to destroy flashing things which your torpedoes have no effect on.

The main enemies in the game are the Neptunians, which are cute little alien things which travel in all sorts of unique ways. These big one-eyed creatures travel in a loop-de-loop across the screen, for example. The enemy patterns keep the game fresh and interesting.

Towards the sea floor is a container with a flashing cap on it, which we need to destroy with the depth charges. What’s in the container?

Captured earthlings! We need to rescue them before they drown or get eaten by the killer whales which always follow Sqoon around.

Once you have 9 earthlings aboard Sqoon, a ship appears on the surface of the ocean where you can deposit them. Your reward is either a stronger weapon or more fuel, the latter of which you can also get from bombing crabs with depth charges.

And that’s the basic formula of Sqoon–shoot alien sea creatures and free their captives. The levels get longer and longer and the enemy patterns get more and more complex as the game goes on. Being an early NES game, it’s very arcade-y, but it’s a lot of fun! The colorful yet grim setting is also a neat anachronism which I think adds to this game’s charm.

Sqoon doesn’t appear to have been very popular at the time, as it hasn’t had any re-releases or really any mention at all outside of its initial release, which is a shame as I think it’s one of the better horizontal shoot-em-ups out there.

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Source: rainbowgames DW

Posted by: jackvambrace

Wine and Roses is and RPG Maker game published in late 2012. You play as a trio of exorcists under the employ of Luc Francisco, Lord of Fort Adder. The fort has been taken by monsters and spirits and such, cursing everything and everyone in it and leaving Lord Francisco a skeleton.

The game presents as a typical top down jrpg, with some uniqueness. There are no random encounters, instead each enemy you can fight is visible on the map, allowing you to choose when and what you fight. When you win a fight it disappears forever. and you are gifted upgrades, loot, skills, and story tidbits. It feels kinda like Megaman, you fight a boss and get a new weapon or power and most of the time another enemy is weak to your new equipment.

During the fights you control the three exorcists, Carmanth, Argent, and Nynavae. Luc is incapable of fighting in his skeletal form, so he instead offers advice and color commentary on the fight as it progresses. This is used as a gameplay mechanic to kinda help you figure out what to do against some of the tougher enemies, but it is also used a storytelling element. Luc is usually not being a smarmy jerk he sometimes offers insight into his past and personality, I really liked this part of the game.

The maps are laid out so that you can pretty much go everywhere at the outset, it reminds me a little of Demon Souls. Some fights are definitely easier at the start (I think the ice sector was way harder than the rest) but you can try whatever you like. If you lose a fight it just boots you back to the map where you were, so there’s no real penalty for losing. This may be the most forgiving and inviting RPG I’ve ever played.

At the end of it all Wine and Roses was fun to play. On top of that, it was funny, emotional, and challenging without being off-putting. Only real complaint is that it’s short, maybe four hours, although there is a fair bit of replay if you like toying around with the exorcists loadouts. I recommend this to anyone who likes rpg’s or silly skeletons with dressed like red mages.

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Source: rainbowgames DW