KEIO FLYING SQUADRON REV.
Bob Tomasevich
review of it.
The intro from the manual:
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Enter Edo, the 17th century capital city of feudal Japan. Rami, a
seemingly typical teen, has been the keeper of the Key to the Secret
Treasure. Rami is really a descendant of aliens who came to earth in
ancient times, But what is this mystery treasure the missing Key unlocks?
Rami doesn't know the importance of the treasure, nor does her overbearing
grandmother remember what secret the Key unlocks. But one thing is certain:
the Key has been stolen (while Rami was at the local mini-mart, a common
hangout for teens then) and now must get the key back.
Rami rides into battle on her trusty dragon "Spot" as she encounters
an octopus sea monster, the U.S. Nave, and the Russian Army until she
arrives at the ship of Dr. Pon. Dr. Pon, billed as the most intelligent
creature on earth with an IQ of 1400, has the appearance of a raccoon,
appropriate for the thief that he is.
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Essentially, you play seven levels of shoot 'em up action to get the key
the raccoon stole.
Packaging: Usual U.S. Sega CD plastic box, colorful manual, foam thing
and cdrom.
Translation: The intro, cut scenes, next level scenes, and ending are
dubbed in English. Keio's voice actor did a good job,
the other parts were ok. Japanese was left in-game, you'll
hear it right before the end of level boss on each level.
If the Japanese wasn't there, you wouldn't be missing anything.
A better translation job would have been done by Working Designs.
Controls: Basic shoot 'em up controls: fire, slow/fast movement, and
kamikaze (super bomb). You can change the speed of slow and fast
to five different levels, 1 being the slowest and 5 being the
quickest (not mentioned in the manual).
Difficulty: Three levels, easy, medium, & hard. You automatically get 3
continues on easy level and 6 for medium and hard. Restart point
is either the start of the current level or the current boss.
Graphics: The anime style intro, cut scenes, and ending are good.
In-game graphics are average to below average. Some parallax
scrolling in sky and sea levels. Minor slowdown with lots
of sprites on screen.
Music: Very peppy, fits well with the levels. Some of the instruments
in the first level music remind me of Lunar.
Bosses: Imaginitive, especially the U.S. ship boss at the end of
level 3. You destroy parts of the ship, then, this Abraham Lincoln
character, with stovepipe hat, pops out from different parts of
the ship. Now you play shooting gallery, trying to hit him before
he disappears. He pops out saying 'Over here!' If you miss him
and he's going to disappear, he'll say 'What are you shooting at?'
I got a kick out of it. (BTW, this is the boss in the bottom pic.
on the back of the box.)
Likes: Anime style intro and graphics (espcially the colorful artwork in
the manual), in game humor, cuteness (meowing cats, surfing
raccoons, dancing pickles), interesting bosses, catchy game music,
enemy count increases with difficulty, can turn off/skip intros and
cut scenes.
Beefs: Some parts of the manual do not match the control screen.
Buttons is spelled wrong (Bottons). The difficulty levels
on screen are Easy, Medium, and Hard, while the manual says
they are Monkey, Human, and Super Human. Control speeds
are pretty much a guess and try affair until you find the two
that suit your playing style.
Overall, this is a decent shoot 'em up with an anime feel that should have
lasting play value.
---
. MR/2 2.12 NR . A QWK compatible mail reader for OS/2
nukulkij poom
>Picked up Keio Flying Squadron yesterday from Electronics Boutique, here's a
>review of it.
>Translation: The intro, cut scenes, next level scenes, and ending are
>dubbed in English. Keio's voice actor did a good job,
>the other parts were ok. Japanese was left in-game, you'll
>hear it right before the end of level boss on each level.
>If the Japanese wasn't there, you wouldn't be missing anything.
>A better translation job would have been done by Working Designs.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Huh?? Working Designs converted this game? I thought JVC did. I don't know
for sure, that's why I'm commenting on this...
Poom!
nukulkij poom
>nukulkij poom (pnuk...@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
>: bob.tom...@nezuld.com (Bob Tomasevich) writes:
>: >A better translation job would have been done by Working Designs.
>: Huh?? Working Designs converted this game? I thought JVC did. I don't know
>: for sure, that's why I'm commenting on this...
>You're misunderstanding what he said, i think. He meant that, had Working
>Designs translated the game, the speech/text would have been much improved. As
>it is, JVC translated it and it's only so-so.
Yup--I misread it. I thought it said something to the effect of "WD SHOULD
HAVE done a better job on the translation." Hey, JVC must have the same
translators as SoA with PSIV. Just kidding.
Poom!