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ファルシオン
©Konami 1987
Release: 1987-10-21 (¥2980)
DiskCard KDS-FAL
Shooter / 3D
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Falsion is an intense 3D shooter by Konami. In 21XX, humanity
has colonized space. But during its quest to find more habitable planets,
humans have faced an aggressive alien race who wants nothing but destruction.
Their fleet, lead by the warship Gigantos, has now entered our solar system
and hurls towards Earth.
Only the new Falsion spacecraft and its courageous pilot stand
a chance to save humanity from destruction. It will be a long journey through
six varied stages, from asteroid fields to narrow and deep canyons. The craft
can use a simple Vulcan laser gun or secondary, but in limited quantities,
homing missiles. Power-ups, in the shape of floating orbs stamped with the
letter P, sometimes appear from defeated enemies. Blue ones
speed-up the ship and red ones increase the depleting stock of homing missiles.
The greatest feature of this unusual title is certainly the 3D option, which
can be activated from the option menu or by pressing select
at anytime during the game (Nintendo's official 3D glasses must be
used though). Falsion consists of six intense levels and is
single-player only.
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The 3D glasses peripheral (HVC-021) was released by Nintendo in 1987 but
curiously the company didn't release any game for it at first. These glasses
use a LCD shutter system - two images are alternately displayed on screen
and the glasses alternately hide one of the player's eye - this is why it looks like the screen
simply flickers if you are not wearing the special glasses. Other techniques exist, like
the two color anaglyph with red-cyan filters used in games such as
Tobidase Daisakusen, but LCD shutter
glasses have the advantage to display
colored images in 3D. Curiously, Nintendo's 3D glasses were never released
outside Japan.
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Gradius Gaiden released for the Sony Playstation in 1997 features a
playable purple ship called the Falchion Beta. Although both ships seem to be
unrelated (Gradius and Falsion take place in different universes) it
is nevertheless an interesting coincidence.
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Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
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STAFF
Programmed by
Hori
Yanagisawa
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Charactor Design
Yoshimoto
Maruo
Ozawa
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Sound by
Sakamoto
Takenouchi
Fujio
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Visual Design by
Shimoide
Satoh
Kinoshita
Presented by
KONAMI
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Like several other early Konami games released in the 1980s/1990s, Falsion
included a numbered collector card also known in Japan as コナミ キャラカード (aka 'Konami Chara Cards' or 'Konami Character Cards').
Each card featured an illustration or a snapshot
from the game (picture on the right), and the back of each card showed a serial number as well as the
game's title. They were randomly included with the games and Konami
produced several variations of each card. That's it, each game included a
card from a series related to the game, it is however not known
how many different card variations were made for each game.
Apparently six cards (on average) were produced for each game, except
for Doremikko (1 card), Exciting Boxing (1 card) and Meikyujin Dababa
(which, curiously, only seem to feature five cards).
The list of
Konami games to include such cards are believed to be :
Ai Senshi Nicol (FDS),
Dracula II Noroi no Fuin (FDS),
Arumana no Kiseki (FDS),
Contra (FC),
Doremikko (FDS),
Dragon Scroll (FC),
Exciting Baseball (FDS),
Exciting Basketball (FDS),
Exciting Billard (FDS),
Exciting Boxing (FDS),
Exciting Soccer (FDS),
Falsion (FDS),
Getsu Fūma Den (FC),
Majō Densetsu II Daimashikyō Galious(FC),
Meikyū Jiin Dababa (FDS),
Metal Gear (FC),
Salamander (FC),
Tetsuwan Atom (FC),
Top Gun (FC)
and Wai Wai World (FC).
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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Falsion is an excellent game! The animation is surprisingly
smooth with responsive controls and an equally fun and addictive gameplay.
Stages are incredibly varied as well - I must say, I was expecting at first a game with constant star field
backgrounds (and Falsion doesn't display the best ones I have seen)...
but how wrong I was! The second stage has you flying over the surface of a
green planet and the third one navigate a narrow canyon.
Enemy attack patterns are also
varied and will surprise players in many occasions. Bosses are
definitively the icing on the cake - thanks to Sega's Space Harrier,
3D shooters have always felt obligated to design bosses like long
segmented snakes. But not Falsion! You fight here
large and aggressive spaceships and other flying fortresses!
Finally, if you own the official 3D headset then I really recommend you to try
the awesome 3D option! Falsion is truly a breakthrough in every aspect
(for the time) and, surprisingly, can still be a hell of a ride today!
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