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SPRIGGAN MARK 2 - Re Terraform Project
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スプリガンmark2
リ テラフォーム プロジェクト
©1992 Naxat Soft
©1992 Compile
Release: 1992-05-01 (¥6800)
SuperCDRom² NXCD2008
Shooter / Horizontal
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Spriggan Mark 2 is a horizontal shooter developed by Compile
and published by Naxat Soft, and it is the spiritual sequel of
Seirei Senshi Spriggan originally released in 1991. In a distant
future, the Earth's human population has drastically increased, and humanity
began to move out into space as a result. As humans colonize Mars,
a war for territorial dominance of the red planet erupts. Spriggan Mark 2
begins on the Mars colony as armed forces land and suddenly attack without
warning - the game's elaborate story leaps off from there, and ultimately takes
the player back to Earth. The player takes control of Greg Irwin, an
elite mech pilot - although he starts out the first couple of missions by
controlling a Bartholomeu, he soon takes control of the
Spriggan Mark 2, a prototype mecha-fighter built from ancient technology
discovered on Mars. The Bartholomeu comes first equipped with
three interchangeable weapons - a standard Beam Cannon,
Homing Missiles and a powerful Beam Saber which doubles as a
temporary shield (weapons can be switched at any time by pressing Select).
Beside, the game doesn't have any in-game weapon upgrades nor power ups - instead,
the player can equip a different weapon configuration (from a total of six) at the
beginning of each stage. However, this feature is only available when the player
acquires the Spriggan Mark 2 at the end of the third level. All of the
secondary weapons have limited ammunition and can only be replenish between levels,
which requires the player to constantly and strategically re-evaluate which weapon
to use. Spriggan Mark 2 consists of eight levels, and the game's story unfolds
primarily through a series of animated cutscenes and mission messages.
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Spriggan Mark 2 has absolutely nothing in common with Seirei Senshi Spriggan
originally released in 1991. The first game was set in a fantasy world cleverly entwining
ancient magic and technology. Spriggan Mark 2 appears to have a more traditional
futuristic/sci-fi theme, reminding the likes of the Gundam and Macross
animated series. Furthermore, the game is a side-scrolling shooter (whereas Seirei Senshi Spriggan
was a vertical scroller) and the weapon system is far less elaborate. Finally, the game's story
is heavily intertwined with the action - cutscenes and communications between pilots bookend the
combat sections and advance the plot. Interestingly, the game's manual mentions that
the Spriggan (and Spriggan Mark 2) mechas were actually created using ancient
designs borrowed from an unknown and ancient civilization discovered on Mars - this is
probably the only apparent connection between Seirei Senshi Spriggan
and Spriggan Mark 2 (picture on the right)...
Finally, the first Spriggan was part of Naxat Soft's Summer Carnival
(similar to Hudson Soft's score attack tournaments). However, in 1992, the game
featured at the event was Recca for the Famicom system, which featured a
'score attack' gameplay similar to the first Spriggan - this may explain why
Spriggan Mark 2 followed a different route and dropped the intense score attack
approach for a story driven formula.
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As an interesting note, Spriggan Mark 2, like a handful of other
PC Engine CDRom games, had a re-print, which was apparently done back in 1994.
The two versions of the game are identical (as far as I know), however, they come with
different obi spincards - one golden and the other one pink (picture on the right).
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Add your Pov here !
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Don't try to find any similarities between Spriggan and
Spriggan Mark 2, there aren't any, except maybe for the 'Game Over'
screen. The previous iteration's theme has been discarded in favor of a more
sci-fi one, and the gameplay mechanics are totally different - Compile's
trademark style is nowhere to be found (hence I often wonder how much they were
involved with the game's development). Anyway, Spriggan Mark2 is definitively
eye-catching with a strong and complex storyline. The game is a technical marvel
with smooth multi-layer parallax scrolling, large sprites, flawless controls and
huge bosses (even if they always end up using the same 'segmented-arms' technique).
The story is a bit too intertwined with the action to my taste though, and I'd advice
you to turn off the in-game voice option (available when you pause) so it
doesn't disrupt the flow of the game too much. All in all, although Mark 2
is not necessarily as memorable as the first game was, it is still an amazing and
impressive treat. But players looking for an intense shooter in the vein of the
legendary first game will certainly be somewhat disappointed...
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