Midnight Resistance

"Why Have Bill Rizer When You Can Get the All American Hero, Johnny Ford?"

Midnight Resistance is quite possibly the worst Contra clone I have ever gotten my hands on. Of course, I should have acknowledged that many run 'n gunners aren't very good. Take GunForce1 for instance. However, I decided to neglect that thought and let it rot in the back of my head when I decided to buy Midnight Resistance. Even though Midnight Resistance was only four bucks, I could have gotten a few packs of chewing gum and would have strolled away with a more pleased purchase.

Let's get right down to it. Midnight Resistance's title should blatantly be renamed "Stupid." Every last thing in Midnight Resistance is just that too: "Stupid." In fact, I'll call the game Stupid from now on.

Immediately after a few seconds of experiencing the gameplay in Stupid, you'll discover that the movements are alarmingly slow--ridiculously slow. Contra for the NES moved faster and even had a better frame rate. The enemies are not what make this game hard. It is the physics and the painfully slow speed.

Here's a better example of the abhorrently slow speed in Stupid. X=dork (the Bill Rizer wannabe.) Take note that this is about a five second speed. X_ _ _ _ _ _ _X

Holy crap! Look at that! I ran less than two inches! The speed is literally that bad. I'm 99.7% positive that it is not an exaggeration either. =D

The physics to Stupid are best described as a Contra game however Johnny Ford (the all American name) is made out of glue and sticks to himself. Your position does not change back to the default setting once you let go of the D-pad. The developers probably had in mind that instead to hold the gun to the upper left or right you must constantly run, that being stationary would be more suitable. It isn't. If you remain stationary, you will most likely get hit by enemies' slow moving bullets that, though are slow, move faster than your character so get ready to take some unfair hits. Another problem with the physics structure is that when you duck, you aim your gun down to the floor. I want to shoot the enemy in front of me, albeit that I cannot because Johnny Ford seems to have some fierce hatred towards the floor rather than the enemy. So, I jump and shoot the enemy, and the possibility of me getting shot in the air and then laying in the air in a fetal position is considerably high.

To obtain weapons you need keys from enemies that you shoot. The red guys are the ones to drop'em. Once you beat a stage, you are taken to the weapon area and you can unlock the weapons you want. Most of the weapons are monotonous. However, the useful ones are going to beat the mess out of everything. Oh, yeah. Contra's spread shot is in this. The original Contra spread shot owns Stupid's in every possible way though.

The stages are very short, and uncreative, even for a run 'n gun shooter. One stage has you walk across a semi-lengthy bridge and that is all the stage is. There will be the occasional tank that will gleefully roll along and run over Mr. Hardcore American, Johnny Ford. I was assuming that you are meant to destroy the tanks before they run you over. There is no way to avoid getting in contact with them. If one comes bumbling down from the opposite side of the screen, Johnny better start running to save his all-American ass. However, his ass will turn into a third world country in a couple seconds because the tank will leave one hell of a skid mark on it. And then the tank leaves the screen, hopefully to run over the developers of Stupid. Oh, crud. There's another tank. Have fun.

Okay, well, there is one way to dispose of the tanks...but it can be annoyingly difficult and it can't be guaranteed that it will be successful every time. The semi-solution is to fire one of those air bomb things and hope that one of the stray shots will come into contact with the tank. It takes about four to six hits to destroy it.

Most of the bosses are asinine, and not difficult to topple at all. Their fighting patterns are bland and nothing intense takes form. You see this floating thing in that electrical current that looks like an Oscar award? Wait for him to shoot six electrical bolts (which you can avoid by standing on the bottom of the screen or remaining immobile on the top of the ladder.) Now blow up the electrical currents. Wait for six more bolts to be fired. Now shoot the crap out of him. I'll admit, there was one cool boss that put you up against a bunch jets that dropped bombs on you. But that fight wasn't even really that good. It just had potential more than anything else.

So the story to this game is about some African Drug Lord named Crimson King (Evil Head on back of box) who kidnaps Johnny's family because Johnny and his father created a serum that makes people lack an addiction to drugs. This makes Crimson King mad and so he kidnaps Johnny's family because...that is what African Drug Lords do. They do stuff like that. So Johnny somehow knows were Crimson King's Evil and Bad and Not Very Nice Fortress of Stupendous Evil Stuff is. And he apparently knows the layout to the entire fortress. How does he? I don't know. Anyway...yeah. Ar first, you don't think it is going to get any worse. Ah, but sadly the further it progesses it does. Here's an example. How does this game end up from African Drug Lords and stuff to you fighting a giant mutated monster head that spits bugs at you in outerspace? Oh well. Not like the story matters, but just thought I'd rip on it.

The music to this game was decent. However, there were only about four or five tracks of music. There was only one or two types of stage music. It was decent to listen to (sounded like an old Sonic Genesis game), however it got tiresome hearing the same tracks thorughout the stages.

If you are looking for a good run 'n game, don't bother with this one. Gunstar Heroes is also for the Genesis. Get that instead.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/06