[Sega CD] Robo Aleste first impressions

[shim...@acs.bu.edu]

The game that everybody thought to be "too Japanese" is here and it hasn't
suffered much in the translation. As far as the graphics are concerned,
everything is in there except for a shower scene in one of the intermissions
(to get the GA rating, I guess :-). The voice acting could have been better -
the woman doing Saeba's voice falls into a typical dubbing trap - tries to
sound like an anime character with a high-pitched voice and, as a result,
comes out sounding squeaky and unnatural. Sometimes the voice doesn't match
the lip movement, but that was in the Japanese version as well, and I couldn't
care less about the lip sync, anyway.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, I've noticed some changes. There
are four difficulty levels (the Japanese version had three). It is now much
easier to power up your main weapon, some of the enemy attack patterns are
different (noticed mainly because the patterns that I had memorized for the
Japanese version did not work). Also, some enemies take more hits to kill
(the armored knights in the gold mine, for example) and some are more
aggressive, so it is hard to tell whether the US version has been made
easier - it is just a bit different.

Also, it is one of the very few instances that the manual has been written
in such a manner so as not to insult your intelligence (remember the Ninja
Turtle lingo in the SNES Cybernator manual).

All in all, I'd say that Tengen did a decent job and I would recommend this
game. It is no Silpheed, but still a pretty good shooter.

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// Ryan: What is it to you, demon? //// Sergei Shimkevich //
// Lune: It is Sir, Demon to you, worm! //// shim...@acs.bu.edu //
// -Phantasy Star III //// shimk...@A1.tch.harvard.edu //