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By Brian "Shell" Gazza
Let's take a look back at Irem. Yes, they are responsible for the excellent R-Type, that little spaceship game that was so
difficult yet so amazing. But what you probably don't know is that this company was born under the name of IPM in 1974. They
started by manufacturing, selling and renting arcade cabinets. In 1978, they created their first video game, and then in
1979, changed their name to Irem Corporation. Originally standing for "International Rental Electronics Machines", in the mid
80's they switched to "Innovations in Recreational Electronic Media", probably to better reflect their involvement in
software.
In the early 90's, Irem wasn't doing very well at all. They ceased production of video games in 1994, with their arcade
cabinets division separating itself from the company, and a bored and frustrated team of programmers leaving to form Nazca
Corporation (more on this later). However, the games in the years before their disbandment shared common graphic design,
style and animation. This is something we will see in every Irem game in this article, that I like to call Irem's "post-
apocalyptic style". The graphics are very detailed, and animation is very smooth, with large amount of frames detailing what
others would skimp over. The look has a very mechanical feel, with lots of steel and dust, combined with some impressive
special effects like screen-shaking explosions. You will also see abandoned and destroyed vehicles, buildings and even
cities. It has a very cyberpunk feel, and it comes to life remarkably, thanks to the outstanding detail. There's so much to
pay attention to in the backgrounds and on the enemies.
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Undercover Cops - Arcade / SNES / Gameboy (1992)
Japanese Flyer
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Undercover Cops
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Undercover Cops
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Our first example of post-apocalyptic chaos is Undercover Cops, a Japanese beat'em up similar to Final Fight. Undercover Cops was Irem's only attempt at the genre. It's really remarkable that, coming from a company that is mostly known for its shooters, and having absolutely no experience in fighting games, that Undercover Coprs turned out so well.
You start the game by choosing one of three heroes, each with their own attributes. They're ready to teach the local gangs a lesson and bring back peace to the city. You brawl through five (maybe too few) stages by yourself or with two other friends, beating up the usual boss at the end of each. For the most part, this is nothing new.
But here is what makes Undercover Cops different. Each character has a slightly bigger repertoire of kicks and punches than your usual Captain Commando or Vendetta.
Much like Final Fight, there are two buttons: an attack and a jump button, along with the usual special attack by hitting both buttons simultaneosly. You can also dash forward and attack, dash, jump and attack, and a special throw. There's also a move to knock enemies back when you're on the ground, and a final attack that wipes out everything on the screen and looks outstanding. For some reason, the English translated version released outside of Japan lacks all of these latter moves.
Undercover Corps features a cast of interesting characters and opponents. There are some very original bosses with cool attack sequences (like Parcs, who tries to throw you inside a metal compactor) and some weird enemies (like mole people.)
The animation is very smooth and the movement has more realistic physics than most games in the genre.
The stages are mostly dark, featuring abandoned sites and derelict buildings, with lots of debris to pick up and hurl at your foes. Nothing more satisfying than picking up a Hummer and swinging it at the stage's boss! The music is excellent. There are catchy tunes on every stage with some voice samples, along with screams and warcries for the characters and enemies. It's a great beat'em up all in all, that you absolutely HAVE to play if you like the genre.
Now, on to more obscure facts, there are two versions of the game: a Japanese and a World version. And here lays the problem. The World version that showed up in American arcades is VERY crippled. Like I said before, half the moves are gone, making the game boring and simple like Final Fight. There are also graphics missing in the backgrounds compared to the Asian version, and lots of details are missing. The whole thing reeks of a beta version. Maybe to confirm this, I remember playing a different version of the game at the arcades called Undercover Cops Alpha back in 1993, with everything intact from the Japanese version and in english. This was apparently a finished Western edition, but this game is nowhere to be found now.
The first Undercover Cops conversion was for the SNES by Varie. With obvious but no so big cutbacks in graphics and EXCELLENT music. It's technically so close to the arcade it will amaze you. But the playability takes quite a hit since its only a 1 player game. Undercover Cops Gaiden: Hakaishin Garumaa, a second and different turn-based/board-game hybrid was conceived for the original monochrome GameBoy only in Japan. You choose one of our three heroes and roll a dice to advance on a Mario Party style board, encountering shops where to spend your money and running into enemies you take down on turns. It's a cute idea and has nice super-deformed art, but gets boring really quickly. It's playable even in Japanese, so I recommend a look at it if you are a fan of the arcade game.
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Undercover Cops
Undercover Cops
Undercover Cops
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Screenshots Comparisons
Armored Police Unit Gallop - Arcade (1991)
Japanese Flyer
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Armored Police Unit Gallop
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Armored Police Unit Gallop
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Gallop is one of Irem's most unpopular shooters. Chances are you never heard of it.The game can easily be compared to R-Type 2 - it has smooth animation, a similar style of graphics, crazy huge bosses and that "look how many times I can kill you before you learn the pattern"-attitude. The first time you see it, and if you like old school shooters, you will be thinking "How the hell is it possible to have missed a game like this? Awesome graphics, big sprites, lots of frames, post-apocalyptic scenery...It needs to be played now!!"
The Armed Police Unit Gallop is out on the streets chasing and taking down "mad cars", dangerous war vehicles that are terrorizing the city. Your job as representative of the law is to engage them in your armored police ship.
There's really nothing new with the gameplay. In addition to your standard weapon, you get a side weapon that shoots together with your regular shot, which can be a ground bomb, a straight shooting missile, or a ground-based torpedo. You won't get a bomb that kills everything on the screen, but instead a homing laser that locks to the nearest unlucky vessel and does some nice drilling damage on its armor. This laser will run out when the gauge at the bottom of the screen is depleted, and has two levels to upgrade to for more power.
Gallop is not nearly as hard as R-Type 2. For example, if you get hit, you will first lose your side weapon, get hit again and you'll explode. We also thank the programmers for NOT KILLING YOU WHEN YOU HIT A WALL!! Nice touch isn't it??
There's nothing worth mentioning in the sound department, the music is good but the sound effects lack quality. The graphics ,on the other hand, are very good (the police ship is beautiful) and maintains Irem's characteristic decayed-future theme. However, it does get a little repetitive, with backgrounds, wall designs and enemies feeling dull after a couple of games. Gallop is fine when you start playing it and a lot of fun frying your enemies with the laser, but the game just doesn't deliver in the long run. The game grows even more annoying when you reach that fourth boss. It's R-Type-ish ways will frustrate you, and
the designs aren't nearly as interesting as other, similar games, you don't really look forward to see what lies ahead.
Then you realize why you never heard of Gallop, and why R-Type 2 is a classic even though it's hard as hell. Gallop was also never ported anywhere, which could account for it's obscurity.
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Armored Police Unit Gallop
Armored Police Unit Gallop
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Gunforce 2 / Geo Storm - Arcade (1994)
Japanese Flyer
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Gunforce 2
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Gunforce 2
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Gunforce was an obscure Contra-like game you might have seen at the arcades back in the day. It was FEED-ME-ALL-YOUR-QUARTERS hard and pretty much unplayable, but contributed one good thing: you could jump into war vehicules and used them against the enemy.
Most people probably don't even know that it had a sequel. Gunforce 2 was one of the last games (if not THE last one) from Irem Corp., published in 1994, its last year.
You've probably already taken a look at the pictures before you started reading this, and undoubtedly Metal Slug must have must have crossed your mind. Yes, Metal Slug is based on this game, as the staff members are actually the same. You see, after Irem Corp. ceased to exist, a group of programmers founded Nazca Corp. They revived their last idea, pumping it up and calling it "Metal Slug" on the Neo-Geo system.
Gunforce 2 is easier and more enjoyable than Metal Slug. You won't need a dozen quarters to finish it. It's much friendlier and infinitely more replayable, but there's less to see and find through out the whole game, as it's just not as technically complex as its modern brother.
Your character is equipped with two guns at the same time that can aim in any direction, at a slightly different angle each. Different weapons are available but only one of your guns can be upgraded, with the other one always keeping the basic shot. There aren't any bombs or grenades though. Our hero can jump, crouch and hang from ceilings and wires, and also use one of elevent (yes, eleven) war vehicules. This why Gunforce 2 is so incredibly cool. Engaging the enemy with Bipedal walkers, jeeps, tanks, and even a Gundam-like flying suit gives you such a fuzzy and trigger-happy feeling. Your objective in every level is to rescue hostages for higher scores, which was also later borrowed by Metal Slug. Luckily they are sexy half-dressed cuties instead of Robinson Crusoe's look-a-likes, but they won't leave any rewards or power-ups behind.
Plot-wise, Metal Slug and Gunforce are not related, although you fight off mutants, soldiers and aliens in both games.
But technically, they are almost identical, utilizing the same graphic design and color palette for backgrounds, explosions and vehicles. There's lots of metal and shrapnel flying everywhere following extremely well animated explosions (which, interestingly enough, ALSO causes slowdown here). The characters are less cartoonish than Metal Slug, they look more menacing and cool, except for our goofy looking hero, who looks like his arms are going to fall off from carrying those two huge guns. All of the sprites are fluidly animated, with huge mechanical bosses and mini-bosses with various attack sequences, You can shoot and destroy parts of the background too. The music is just repetitive and bland, but what's interesting is that some of it was first used in another Irem game. They are remixed versions of stages 1, 3 and 4 of Air Duel. But you probably won't pay much attention to it due to all the action. Some weapon samples and sound effects are exactly the same as in Metal Slug.
Gunforce 2 looks nothing like the first one did. The graphic design, playability and animation has completely changed and it's improved in every point. An excellent last jewel from Irem even if you are not a Metal Slug fan, and if you are, do yourself a favor and catch up on the game's roots. You shouldn't miss this.
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Gunforce 2
Gunforce 2
Gunforce 2
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Air Duel - Arcade (1990)
Air Duel
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Air Duel
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Air Duel
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Air Duel also qualifies as part of Irem's cyber-punk/post-war arcade games. It sports futuristic aircraft, cities in ruin, a dark ambiance and lots of rusted metal flying around. The only downfall is that the animation isn't quite as smooth as the other titles here. The reason for this being its early development date, when the rest of Irem's games in this article were produced later on and towards the company's latest days (and on better and more powerful hardware).
Two players can team up to save the world on this overhead view shoot'em up from a "secret organization" thru seven extremely difficult levels. At the beginning of each, you choose either a plane (with a straight regular shot) or a helicopter (which can shoot diagonally but with a weaker shot). Otherwise, it's your standard shooter. Weapon upgrades? Check. Secondary button for a bomb? Check. Huge end-of-level bosses? Also check. And that's it, nothing more to it. Air Duel is a VERY simple game. No pods, no secondary weapons, but most importantly, NO DIFFERENT weapons to switch to. You can upgrade your shot multiple times and it becomes wider (barely) and more powerful, but who the hell wants to go thru all the levels shooting the same puny gun? This is the game's first fault, and switching to the little helicopter will only get you a 30 degree diagonal shot capability besides shooting straight. But the chopper's gun is even weaker and you are likely to get surrounded by enemies quicker since it takes more shots to take simple enemies down.That's some serious lazy programming, since R-Type came out 3 years before showing off tjree totally different main weapons, a secondary weapon AND an attachable pod.
Air Duel's second fault is its poor enemy variety and design. Smaller enemies tend to repeat themselves on every level, and they are poorly designed and uninteresting. Same goes for the bosses - although huge, they lack attack patterns and above all animation. They are just a big chunky sprite that moves side to side on the screen. Really bad.
These two things render the game rather boring. Add a really hard difficulty level and there's really no reason to play.
The graphics are really good for the time, but there's little animation and variety. The backgrounds are a kind of bland too. I give Air Duel special mention for the final confrontation, because looks awesome - too bad the boss just sits there and shoots these four little ray bullet. Who knows what they were thinking...The music is almost non-existent, it's low, and even if you pay attention it doesn't have any kick to it. SFX are bad, a few shots and explosion sounds. It's like they just threw them in there. Overall, Air DUel is a mediocre game that smells like a rushed job. It's even worse than Gallop. Makes you wonder if they got lucky with R-Type...
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Air Duel
Air Duel
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In The Hunt / Kaitei Daisensou - Arcade / PSOne / Saturn (1993)
European PSOne Cover
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In The Hunt
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In The Hunt
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Lastly we have "In The Hunt". In my shoot-em-up carrer I have saved earth from aliens thousands of times, and fought the Japanese over Midway half a dozen times. The genre is rarely original, except in cases like Pocky and Rocky, where I've
exorcised goofy Japanese spirits with a racoon as my sidekick. In the Hunt is another original game concept. Despite the obvious reference to a Sean Connery submarine movie in the title, Irem's take on submerged warfare is different from the usual submarine simullators like Silent Service, as it's an experience much closer to R-Type.
There really is no introduction in the game except for a couple of lines urging you to "destroy the system before it's too late", but you can safely assume there's either some evil company trying to rule the world or an alien force trying to destroy it. It never mattered, did it?
Your sub is a little cute chubby tub that bounces around like crazy, showing off those abundant animation frames. You have a horizontal firing main weapon (primarily torpedoes), and an upward secondary one (including anti-air machine guns, missiles and mines) plus depth charges that slowly sink underneath your ship. These of course are interchangeable and upgradable via items. Where In the Hunt deviates from the classic shoot'em up formulas is that you choose your own pace. You controll the scrolling of the screen, and being that the fat vessel you pilot is so slow, you will often take your time waiting for openings on the enemy's attack to advance. It's a nice change, but maybe speed is more exciting.
There are other unique touches - walls do not kill you (very nice, like in Gallop), and you have the ability to shoot down most enemy bullets. Playability is high mainly due to the beautiful stages, stylish bosses and other heavy machinery, hindered only by the slow pace of the ship and the screen getting so cluttered with explosions and torpedo trails that you can't see what's going on. And that's when the slowdown kicks in.
Technically the game would almost be a masterpiece, if it wasn't for the cheap SFX and music. Come on Irem, you did an excellent job with Undercover Cop's soundtrack. But forget about the sound and look at the screenshots. Notice the shades of blue from the ice and water of the first level, and the greens of the underwater city in the second stage. These are some beautiful stages. filled With houses, bridges and buildings that can be demolished at your whim. You have to see those big enemy destroyers crack down the middle and sink. This is another Irem gem.
The Saturn version was ported by Imagineer and features a cheesy FMV as an intro, giving a little bit more insight into the game's story (it really was an evil organization trying to rule the world). The Playstation port was published in America by Kokopeli (?). Both are pretty much arcade perfect.
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In The Hunt
In The Hunt
In The Hunt
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Now here's a quick look at some other gems that, although under different companies, follow the same theme:
Last Resort
Metal Slug
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