Page 19 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #21 Free Edition

some Virtua Cop, which was ported from Sega’s 1994 arcade game. The game casts you in the role of a police officer tracking down illegal gunrunners. While avoiding killing civilians, you fire at bad guys through three multi-scene stages: Arms Black Market, Underground Weapon Storage, and Gang Headquarters. There are no unorthodox weapons like grenades or flamethrow- ers, but you can find power-ups that upgrade your gun to automatic, machine gun, rifle, magnum, or shotgun. You should shoot and reload quickly as enemies pop up frequently and at varying angles from behind barrels, buildings, hills, vehicles, and the like. This game was an early favorite among Saturn owners, and it holds up today. Even better is Virtua Cop 2, which offers more levels, more weapons, more destructible scenery, harder gameplay, a wider variety of enemies, and, best of all, driving sequences.
POINT BLANK (PLAYSTATION)
A lighthearted, cartoonish, non-violent, and even humorous target shooting game, Point Blank is a port of Namco’s coin-op classic, where gamers fire at a bunch of targets (many of them whimsical), including ducks, piranhas, vultures, birds popping out of windows, cardboard cutout ninjas, aliens, bouncing plates, tanks driving toward you from the background, and far too many others to mention. Stages are diverse (types include Accuracy, Intelligence, Memory, Simulation, Visual Acuity, and Speed), and some contain puzzle elements, testing your shooting skills in a variety of ways. You’ll fire at bad guys while avoiding civilians, shoot an apple off a guy’s head within a set time limit, shoot the keys of a keyboard to spell out words, anni- hilate a sports car, fire at flaming rocks emitting from erupting volcanoes, and blast the wool off of animated sheep. There are even stages with Whack-A-Mole-type
elements. Select missions have limited ammo, but usually you can blast away without worrying about running out of bullets. After each game, you are graded according to your performance. Point Blank 2 and Point Blank 3 followed on the PlayStation, and you can play on the go with Point Blank DS for the Nintendo DS.
HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 (DREAMCAST)
A terrific port of Sega’s difficult, quarter-gobbling coin-op game, House of the Dead 2 casts gamers in the role of either James Taylor (first player) or Gary Stewart (second player), government agents who must thwart a maniac mastermind who has unleashed zombies and other monsters on an Italian city. As with many light gun games, this is an on-rails shooter (meaning the action takes you down a predetermined path), but there are many branching pathways, making for an absorbing, re-playable adventure. As you make your way through the nicely rendered levels, blasting gory green holes through the shambling monsters, you can destroy barrels and boxes in order to acquire such items as health packs and gun power-ups. In addition to the standard and original modes, you can practice in training mode and take on the game’s major baddies in boss mode. One caveat: there’s no first-party light gun for the U.S. Dreamcast; I recommend the InterAct brand over Mad Catz. Regarding the House of the Dead series overall, I’m a fan and have spent the most time with House of the Dead III for the Xbox.
Nintendo Zapper
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