Juuryoku Soukou Metal Storm (FC) (1990)
Developer: Tamtex and Irem

Review by Faididi and Co.

The fun way to throw around your weight

Story: Average

In the future, humankind has colonized the solar system. Unfortunately, a computer-controlled laser weapon at Pluto that's been designed to protect Earth has gone berserk and wants us dead. Our hopes now lie in a special combat robot called the M-308 Gunner, who is sent to the station housing the laser weapon, with the task of flipping on the switch for the self-destruct sequence. The M-308 has to hurry, because the giant deathray cannon is charging up, and Earth is next on its hit list.

Gameplay: Excellent

Tamtex and Irem's Juuryoku Soukou Metal Storm is a fine action platformer with surprisingly innovative gameplay. The M-308 runs, jumps, and shoots through 7 side-scrolling stages packed with killer robots and traps, but what makes Metal Storm so special is the M-308's ability to reverse its own gravitational field. Whenever gravity is flipped, up becomes down and vice-versa. This lets our hero work around hazards it can't otherwise bypass. See that large patch of spikes ahead? No problem; just reverse gravity and run along the ceiling. Too much incoming enemy fire? Flip gravity again to escape. Coupled with some screen-looping effects, reversing gravity forms most of the game's challenge, and beating every stage and every boss encourages this unique ability to be flexibly applied.

Flipping gravity isn't our hero's only means of defense. There are 3 different special weapons for the M-308 to find, each sporting its own quirky advantages. The Plasma Beam increases the strength and width of the M-308's standard shots, allowing them to penetrate objects. The Shield Force creates an energy field in front of the M-308, protecting it from enemy projectiles. The Gravity Fireball turns its user into a flaming ball of death as it reverses gravity, letting the M-308 incinerate enemies from above or below. Experimenting with these weapons is fun, and learning how to master them together with the gravity-flipping is important, considering that our hero normally goes BOOM with a single hit.

The level and enemy designs are exceptional. Each stage offers totally different sets of obstacles for the M-308 to face, and many areas require it to think its way past seemingly impenetrable barriers, often by flipping gravity to zip around them. The bad guys include everything from walking drones to armored turrets to flying gunships to even energy columns that sweep through entire corridors. The massive bosses are fun to watch and fight. Some shoot standard laser bolts, and some attempt to ram the M-308, but the rest are truly original. The fifth stage's boss, for instance, can transform into multiple forms, each having its own attack pattern. Another example is the triple bosses of the sixth stage, who serve as the flooring of a room covered with lethal surfaces. The M-308 must find a way to destroy these bosses, its only safe footholds, without falling onto the traps. The creative designs that abound in this game are awesome stuff indeed.

Controls: Excellent

The controls are perfectly responsive, and reversing gravity becomes second nature in no time. The M-308 can also shoot upward while running forward, although it can't aim diagonally.

Graphics: Excellent

Prepare to be wowed by the visuals. From the M-308 to the common robot bad guy, the characters' animations are all extremely fluid. Turrets spin about and bipedal droids march up and down the corridors in life-like motion. Some bosses have pulsating lights, some carry armor plating that bounces when they spring off from a wall, and some hide under carapaces that smoothly slide back when they prepare to fire deathrays. The transformer boss mentioned earlier looks really cool when its parts bend and twist into new shapes. The characters here look far, far more alive than those in nearly every other 8-bit title. The backgrounds even contain multilayering effects, and slowdown is minimal.

If there's anything wrong with the visuals, however, it's the coloring. Some objects in the English versions of the game have muddy hues, making them blend in with the backgrounds at times. The Japanese version tries to correct this by giving the characters brighter palettes, but more contrast still would have helped.

Audio: Excellent

The weaponfire sounds crisp, and reversing gravity makes its own signature noise. Defeated bad guys are vaporized with an electrical poof, and bosses explode like thunder. Much of the music is inspired, and its futuristic tones fit the game's world well.

Overall: Excellent

Metal Storm beautifully combines unique gravity-reversing concepts with highly creative level and enemy designs, and it's also blessed with impressive visual and audio effects. This is a sci-fi wonder that no action platformer fan will want to miss.