Let's play Ikari..!
The conversion of Time Soldiers was released in 1989 by Electrocoin and is based on the vertically shoot 'em up which isn't too dissimilar to something like
Ikari Warriors. The story goes that big bad Gylend has captured a few of our friends. They are being held captive in different time periods, so it's up to us to rescue them.
Now, I've not played the arcade game, but I see there's a slight name change which basically means we're running solo. That would be (
almost) understandable but we're only given one life which makes the quest rather difficult. Before setting out, we're given the name and location of our captured warrior but the wonky teleporter can send us somewhere different, which means you gotta plough through and find the correct portal.
Shoot. Kill. Shoot. Kill.
Each of the time periods has a change of graphics but is basically the same format. These places are stuffed full of enemies that need killing and slain baddies leave behind goodies that should be collected for a power boost. Health can also be replenished which is needed when every contact drains you dry.
A boss is featured at the end of level and most are rather easy to kill. However, my power-ups sometimes ran out during the fight, which made it nigh on impossible to win!
The gameplay is a cross between something like
Wanted or
Commando yet doesn't impress as much. I wasn't too sure about the scrolling which often left me vulnerable to the off-screen baddies. I was never going to like the one-life aspect too so now I'm beginning to pick flaws and I wondered who beta-tested this arcade conversion?
Aesthetics
I quite like the graphics in Time Soldier; from start to end, it's colourful and detailed. The backgrounds are great and we have some of the silliest sprites who attack in waves. That means the screen is usually cluttered with their firepower - which I loved! Heck, it's even making use of overscan and the scrolling is pretty smooth.
The
music is balanced well against the sound effects and suits the gameplay very well. No complaints.
The CryptO'pinion?
This was fun but I had a few mixed feelings: I wasn't too keen on the scrolling method which can sometimes fail to keep up with the player and having one life is very restricting. If you're expecting an authentic arcade conversion then brace yourself for disappointment because it doesn't come together very well and it's far too tough.
Having said that, Time Soldier is actually an entertaining shooter in its own right. The levels are interesting with lots of meaningless action so, for all its flaws, I enjoyed this peculiar conversion. I just don't fully understand why!
