Arrow Flash

"The key words for this review are: "If only...""

Arrow Flash, one of the numerous shoot-em-up games released for the Sega Genesis (and let's face it --- that system has no shortage of this sort of game), perhaps could be described as the worst kind of disappointing game.
You see, playing it is not an inherently horrible experience, such as a game like Alpha Mission or Hydlide tends to become. The five stages take your mech through a variety of areas, some quite impressive in experience. With one exception (the first), bosses are well-designed, if a bit unoriginal. And you have a fair number of weapons to create havoc among the forces of evil.
Unfortunately, all the positives this game brings to the table just seem to be slightly overcome by a few crippling negatives — leaving Arrow Flash the sort of game that you put down, shake your head sadly and remark, ''If only....''
Examples?

''If only.... the Arrow Flash wasn't so accessible/powerful.'' The Arrow Flash is your mech's super-powerful special weapon. By activating it, you become an invulnerable battering ram that is capable of running into any enemy with mind numbingly destructive results. The problem with this device is two-fold.
First, you can hold over 10 uses of the Arrow Flash (and can obtain close to that maximum after the first level of play). This means that you can essentially use Arrow Flashes on a regular basis, instead of having to conserve them for that one brutally difficult moment of the game where you absolutely need some help.
Second, the Arrow Flash is just too powerful. Against the boss of Level Three, I fired regular bullets into it for a few seconds, got tired of that, fired up an Arrow Flash and.....it was dead in seconds. The same held true for just about every boss in the game (the last couple take a bit more punishment), meaning this tool potentially will single-handedly suck a good deal of the challenge out of the game.

''If only.... the actual levels were a bit more challenging.'' After all, no matter how plentiful Arrow Flashes are, you can't use them for entire levels. You'll have to fight fair and square some of the time, right? Well, yes, but for much of the game, that's not overly difficult. Too many of the minor enemies simply are too weak. Following simple patterns, they go down with (at most) a couple of shots. When you combine that with the fact that your mech can potentially fire multiple shots, have a pair of options adding to the bullet waves, have a shield protecting it from a limited number of enemy bullets AND still have a multitude of Arrow Flashes just in case you still get into a jam — well, that just makes for an overly easy experience.

And that is just too bad. For, you see, this game should have been a lot better. With the exception of the drab first level, this game does have some pretty graphics. The red planet (second half of the second stage) is a particular favorite of mine, as is the forest (second half of the fourth stage).
If you take away the boss of the first stage (some ship that didn't quite make the cut for the original Gradius), the bosses are another positive (assuming you don't destroy them in seconds with an Arrow Flash). From the mecha dragon in the fourth stage to a pair of encounters with ships that assault you with lasers (after you've destroyed their exterior defenses), there are a number of fun encounters in this game.
In fact, that is the primary saving grace of this game — the fact that (at least to me) despite all the flaws, it does have have its share of fun moments. While some points of the game are quite tedious (destroy predictably moving wave of weak enemies....repeat....keep repeating as often as necessary), other sections are full of enjoyable and entertaining action. Just enough to make you think, ''If only....all the game could have been this good.''

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/03