"Beautiful Debut"

''In the ages long lost, the world was ruled by tyrant ''the God of the gods.'' With most of other gods under his thumb, he had governed his world with terror and horror, and those who dare opposed him suffered fate worse than death. When people has lost their hopes, there appeared two warriors. They swore they shall bring head of ''the god of gods,'' and peace to the world again. With promise and hope, two nameless warriors started their two men war against ''the God of the gods.''
Ah, yes. Another side scrolling shooter. Same old story with same old theme. Things could not get tackier than this. With muscular commando looking guys as heroes and everything. Yet, this game had some serious significance under its belt in time of its introduction.
This game was the very first game to be released for capcom's famous ''CP system.'' CP system was basically new hardware they've developed and it incooperated ''motherboard system.'' It had two parts boards one of which was the motherboard machinery and others being the program board softs. Just think of it as something similar to home entertainment system.(like nintendo or noe-geo of sorts.) Due to its economical setting, it became instant hit among arcade owners. Since once you have purchased the motherboard, you only needed to invest in softs and it was much cheaper in terms of costs. Also, because of its large capability, it could generate very detailed and clear pictures and it was also be able to handle very large numbers of sprites on screen very smoothly. Since its release, capcom has created numerous amount of arcade hits like U.N.Squadron, Magic Sword, Final Fight, and famous Street Fighter 2 just name a few. And they all owe it to the brilliant CP system.
Now to game itself, it had made its debut gracefully. In order to show what Cp system could do, they have put some effort in is one. Graphics were enhaunced with great deal, though it may not seem much when compared to what you see in arcade now a days, back in when it was released, it was very impressive. And some of the boss characters you will encounter throughout this game is huge(They are HUGE!) and it is amazing to see them actually animating without any slow downs. Sounds weren't too bad either. It was your usual shooter music, but they did help set up mystic mood of this game. It could get annoying, but thanks to loud shooting and exploding sound effects, you won't hear it half of time. It did meet qualification it had to exceed.
Although it is your tired old shooter, this one looked interesting enough. Console was quite different compare to any other games around. You had your joystick and instead of regular button, you were presented with well sized dial that you could hold down. Your character has satelite that shoots out projectiles around him, and using dial you could change angles of satelite or change position of satelite. Your caracters might be small in size, but they were well detailed and looked good enough. They are called nameless warriors.(nameless super warriors as capcom puts it) You could see detailed drawing of them in tacky cinematic sequences between stages. Things they say are And 1P would make another appearance in game called ''Capcom World'' as one of castle keepers and 2P would reappear in game ''Final Fight.''(now you know why one of enemies is called ''Two P.'' he is also getting his head squeezed by Mike Haggar in background of Guy's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2.) You will go through nine stages of interesting scenary. Each stages you can go into shop to buy power ups. You will face bosses at end of each stages and they are all very large and very detailed. Boss of 3rd stage ''WarGod'' is enoumously huge. You will go through deprived sub-urbs, Pylamid of Egypt, ancient Shintoism Japan, and finally fortess tower of ''The God of all gods.''
As usual of capcom, this game's difficulty level is above average. But it is also easy enough once you get hang of the dial. Even though enemies appear constantly, and often they decide to swirm you, luckily this game offer a life bar, momentual invincivility, and armour system via ''Black Tiger.'' All in all, this game offers solid game play (dial could go without, but in order to supply preciseness and reflex they could not have choosen better tool.) and their usual ''eerie atmosphire'' is surely present. This is no Street Fighter 2, but considering its age and its role in gaming community, this game deserves rating of higher average.

This here is for anyone who care to know. In last stage, at last shop, you have option to buy ''Dress.'' In Japanese version, if you buy them and beat game without dying, the girl from Shop will appear topless at Ending. This feature was not included in any other version than Japanese one, and later reprogramed due to certain opinions. But in reprogrammed version, they still left option to buy dress. Why leave it since it provided no more use for anything?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/00, Updated 08/20/00