"Forgotten Game"

In 1988, Capcom released the CPS board. A monumental new piece of arcade hardware that featured unprecidented quality graphics and sound. The first game Capcom released that utilized this powerful new arcade board was Forgotten Worlds, a somewhat awkward, but still delightful shooting game. Countless gamers, including myself, unloaded thousands of dollars worth of change into machines during the CPS1 era, and this game was one of the main reasons.

The angered Gods have unleashed devastation throughout the galaxy in an attempt to wipe out humanity. With the human race teetering on the brink of exinction, our only hope lies in two brave brutes who have to blast their way through each of the Gods. The journey will be long and harsh, but they will not be alone. What transpires is an adventure pumped with excitement and testosterone, and back in the day, it was enough to fascinate any boy enough to pop a few coins in.

From the start, Forgotten Worlds was amazing. The graphics in the game were incredible for their time. The stages had unseen levels of detail. Some backgrounds were as animated as the action that played against them. The characters had an insane amount of frames for every moment, giving them a very fluid and lifelike feel. Some bosses fill the entire screen with their horrific visages. For a bunch of younglings just coming off their Mario and Contra binges, Forgotten Worlds was truly a sight to behold.

Balancing out the incredible visuals was a fairly mediocre soundtrack. From the same sound team that brought us the unforgettable tunes from Megaman, one would expect more memorable pieces, especially from the debut game on a brand new arcade board that promised unequaled sound capabilities. Nevertheless, in terms of quality, the sounds in Forgotten Worlds hold up quite well against the inferiority of the home consoles of the age, boasting vivid explosions and fully voice acted (but horribly translated) intermissions.

Being one of the earliest innovators of space shooting, Forgotten Worlds had an interesting mix of both horizontal and vertical shooting in a genre that had previously been limited to one or the other. There were two extra buttons that allowed the player to rotate their character clockwise and counter-clockwise, giving them a full aiming radius. Although a great implimentation, the rate at which your characters rotate doesn't seem fast enough considering the density of enemies constantly surrounding you in the game, and the system in general takes a while to get used to.

Forgotten Worlds also added what would later become a staple of the Capcom arcade game for the next two generations of their CPS board; shopping. As you defeat minions of the Gods, they drop crystals. At certain points in the stages, you'll come across a shop, in which you can use the dropped crystals as tender for purchasing upgrades such as better blasters, increased health, armor, etc. This is required, as you will not last long with your base equipment.

One of the biggest benefits Forgotten Worlds has is that it's a 2-player game, another feature not implemented very often in earlier shooters that really seemed to become standard shortly after this game was released. This not only makes the game more fun, but more challenging as you split up the cache of currency.

Alone or with a friend, Forgotten Worlds is a classic shooter that would spawn its own sub-genre, containing memorable titles such as Trouble Shooter and Battle Bakraid. Though it only gave us a small glimpse of what the CPS board was capable of, it definitely paved the way for what Capcom had coming just over the horizon.

Scores
Graphics 10/10
Design 7/10
Sound 4/5
Music 6/15
Story 2/5
Control 4/5
Gameplay 40/50
Total 73/100 (7/10)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/05