Power Strike II

[snowblind]

smsfiend said:

Unfortunatelly it is one of thoes vertical shooters that screws you once you die because it is hell a hard to get anywhere without your weapons at max level.

I use to think that too, if I died at the start of level 5 I'd just turn the game off because it seemed futile to continue. Though whether by luck or practice I can now make it through most levels even if dying at the start of them and having all weapons reset.

As for weapon choice, I never got the hang of Napalm, the delay, although small, between the bombs doing their thing and the next set being sent out usually puts me off relying on it in later levels. With Absorption the firepower is constant and it protects the rear more so that's why I recommended it. It's good to give them all a try, though.

[Stan]

I'd have to go with the absorbtion as well. Now, I'm going to throw this in tonight. I know that PS isn't really tied to this at all, but I wanted to get the feel of it completely before I played this thoroughly so I can adequately compare. I have a thing about not playing a series through from the start. I totally PARed Power Strike, but it actually made it more fun to me since I could have a blast shooting everything without worrying so much about dying every two seconds.

[Stan]

I really wanted to enjoy this game throughout, but I just can't. Here's why.

Presentation

Great graphics, excellent sound/effects, it all looks and sounds just great.

Controls

Excellent, quite fluid and very responsive, no problems here.

Gameplay

And then this comes up. Okay, all games of this type carry the same problem normally, that being that if you lose your power-ups (especially when you can't see what even happened) YOU DIE. There is no way around it except to change the mechanics a bit, and they didn't do that here. The first level is easy enough to get into but still hard, just not hard enough to drive you insane. Near the end of level two this all changes. File this game under "too much crap flying about to tell what in the hell is going on." There's just too much going on. If you lose power-ups you end up spending your time trying to dodge everything, which is impossible. Can't be done. Even cheating using the PAR for infinite lives and this game was still aggrivating. It's just too hard, even on the normal setting. Normal should have been the NORMAL setting, not the BEAST FROM HELL setting. You don't have enough lives, though you have infinite continues, but this doesn't matter since when you start at the beginning of each level you suck again and can forget really getting anywhere. Here's what they should have done:

1. Program the game so that even when you die you have the same level of power-ups that you had before you died, thus giving you more of a chance later on when it goes from manic to hypermanic.

2. Provide the player with at least 5 instead of 3 lives. 2 lives would help, trust me.

3. Going along with 1, after dying and continuing power-ups are eliminated and you have to collect them all over again.

4. Getting any power-ups, regardless if it's the same one you have, should equal more power. Though you do get to keep the same level if you change, it should go up for each icon you get because there were numerous instances where I'd try to avoid a sucky icon to save my life and ended up running into a barrage of millions of bullets.

5. Along with 4 add some downtime where little is going on. This game just doesn't let up at all except at the beginning of each level. Give the player a freaking break already, this is insane.

Anyway, the idea to select weapons is cool, transferring power is pretty cool, but some of the weapons are just useless. Who in their right mind wants to pick up gun 0? It freaking sucks. In my opinion, the flaming dildo (gun 3) is the best because you can just stay at the bottom of the screen and sweep back and forth. It deflects most bullets and you can even keep yourself safe in the corners when things get too tight. The Destroyer (gun 5) dominates all if you get it strong enough AND get the rotating shields. Absorbtion can be good, but tends to be worthless unless its full. Napalm also sucks until you get it strong, and even then it's pretty dang lame. With fire dildo you can wipe out nearly everything and with the destroyer you take out the entire upper screen with each blast on the highest level. Fire dildo is also pretty much the only way to defeat some of the bosses if you lose all power-ups because it completely penetrates their defenses with no hindrance, just cuts right through. If anyone wants to actually have more fun with this the PAR infinite lives code is 00C3 1402. Peace out yo biatches.

[anagrama]

Nah, you just suck ;D

[snowblind]

The game isn't meant to be a walk in the park, many of those reasons you gave and described as "problems" are among the reasons I like it so much.

But anagrama put it best.

[Stan]

Don't get me wrong, I like difficulty and such, but this game loses itself in my opinion because it can be too hard, and not because of a lack of ability. There were so many times that slight screen flicker would cause a stray bullet to take me out (even with three rotating shield things), or the fact that when you die you start in the same position where you died from, sometimes leading to an additional life lost because you just pop up in a previous heinous position. There are some points of gameplay that even the best player has trouble avoiding. I would stake my life and Bock's Mahjong on the fact that I bet you could never beat this game raw.

[anagrama]

Been spending an enjoyable week playing this again, and I've got to disagree with the main thrust of Stan's gripes - there's no doubting it's extremely tough, but it never strikes me as being unfair - as with say, Ikaruga, when you die it's always because you know you made an error. Extra lives aren't *too* hard to pick up either.
I really like the weapons system aswell - the weapons come pretty thick & fast and it's always possible to chop & change depending on the situation. The Destroyer is my default option, but the flame-thrower & Absorbation are vaital in certain situations.

I've not been using any continues this week, so have only made it as far as the end of the 3rd level but the steep difficulty is one of the things that keeps bringing me back to it. It's certainly one of the Master System's finest moments in my book.

[anagrama]

Oh, and one more thing - I'd really recommend a MD/Genesis Arcade Power Stick for playing this. I couldn't imagine trying to tackle it with a standard SMS pad.

[Stan]

You'll say that for a bit. Just wait to you get to the fifth level boss (I think, may be level 6, but it's the female pirate).

[snowblind]

Yeah the female pirate is the level 5 boss, level 6 has the chubby-faced cat Sultan guy. Best tactic there is to fight head-on until she moves forward, then sit just to her side as the deadly energy balls whatsits come out. After they're gone swing up and around her to dodge the blue seeking things (this is all very technical) and attack from the front again. With weapons on full power it only takes 2 or 3 cycles of this to defeat her.