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ディープブルー 海底神話
©Pack-in-Video Co.Ltd.
Release : 1989-03-31 (¥5300)
HuCard (2 Mbits) PV1002
Shooter / Horizontal
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Released in America as
DEEP BLUE
( TGX020012 )
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Deep blue Katei Shinwa (Deep Blue - The myth of the undersea)
is an horizontal shooter by Pack In Video. The action takes place
deep under the ocean and the player takes control of a fish-shaped robotic submarine.
Its mission is to rid the oceans of all the evil fishy monsters
that invaded it, and this through four long and perilous levels. Innumerable schools of
fish and other sea creatures appear at random and relentlessly attack the robot-fish. Its
first line of defense is a cannon that can fire small bursts of energy. More weapons are
available for the sub's destructive whim though - blue moon fish are scattered around
each stage and drop special items such as extra health, speed boost and new
weapons (Light Bullet, Swirl Cutter or Bubble Beam). Each weapon
can be upgraded up to three times, but getting hit will lower their power by
one level (as well as the speed of the sub).
Although the sub comes with only one life, his energy level is always displayed through
his glowing
eyes - if they glow blue then he is in good health, red and things can soon turn bad.
The sub also automatically (and slowly) refills its energy as long as it doesn't fire
its weapon. Meaner and larger creatures
await for the player at the end of each level, and range from large hungry fish, giant
jellyfish and mean nautilus.
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Teaser text from the American version:
You command an A.N.G.E.L. Fish Attack Sub. Your mission: rid the oceans of the evil aliens in their
Undersea Palace deep in the ocean depths. On top of the water is calm, beautiful. But as you descend
toward the Palace, you won't believe your goggles! Scaled creatures snarl. Swarms of mutant fish
attack. Power up! Use the Swirl Cutten! Energy Fin full throttle! Fire! Fire! Be John Paul Jones.
Or be Davey Jones. Fire!
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Japanese Phonecard
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Alter Ego
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P
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Deep Blue started with interesting premises - underwater
shooting action, aquatic monsters and so forth. Well, it's when you get
your hands on the controller that it becomes clear how fundamentally flawed
Deep Blue is. I have the feeling that the developers tried too hard
to create an innovative game, and they eventually lost sight of good gameplay
in the process. The fish-sub is really slow, hard to control and levels are
plain boring and really frustrating. Then the game is short and simply
loops - I tried to finish it but it loops after the fourth level, and the
new stage is called scene A' (and looks strangely identical to
stage A). This is where I gave up. If someone has ever ventured any
further in the game, please let me know. It is a shame because graphics are
more than correct and some of the bosses are fairly impressive. But don't
get fouled by the fancy screenshots, Deep Blue is a terrible shooter
and a regrettably missed opportunity.
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What were they thinking to bring Deep Blue as one of the launch title for the
North American Turbografx-16 ? I sometimes wonder if the game isn't
actually more infamous there than it ever was in Japan (where it was, let's hope,
simply ignored). Maybe this was all done in a cruel attempt to attract fans of Darius
and its robotic fish and other giant cyber-squids - if that was the case, then they
should have called it 'Diarrheaus' instead, because this is how much the two
games compare. And why do I have to shoot at fish with my deceitful cannon ? they are
not aggressive and they don't even shoot back at me, they just do their thing and
swim at random. Talking of which, Deep Blue should be called an avoid'em up
rather than a shoot'em up, since the only way to survive is to avoid enemies
rather than shooting them. All in all, Deep Blue should stay where it belongs,
at the bottom of the deepest ocean.
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Add your Pov here !
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