Zanac

"Game desinded by Compile. Welcome to Arer 1."

In 1986, Compile and Pony released a fairly straightforward, entertaining shooter with a unique powerup system for the time and some fun boss fights.

The graphics are adequate, which by 1986 NES standards means not bad. The coloring usually lacks proper shading and is pretty ugly compared to even 2nd-generation NES games, but it's not impossible to look at. More than most NES games of the time, there are always an enormous amount of sprites due to every gunshot, every enemy, your ship, and the scoreboard, so there is some flicker and slowdown. Some of the minibosses and boss bases are fairly big, which is a plus for such an early shooter. It's nice to see how so many of the weapons and enemies evolved in later Compile shooters.

For a 1986 NES game, the audio is great--better than games like Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, etc. It's extremely repetitive--but in the best way possible, the kind where you can load up the .nsf and listen to the same loop over and over for 30 minutes and just go into the zone with it rather than getting bored by it. The sound effects are very solid--things like the trademark Compile 1-up sound and many of the shots evolve in later games, and the ways they use the noise and square waves in gunfire are impressive.

The difficulty is tough, but fair. In the crowded areas, you're going to run out all of the extra lives you can quickly gather through all the enemies to beat and bonuses to get. The power-up system, which once again Compile developed well in later games, is executed well here, although you have to be careful to avoid weapons that don't fit well for the given enemy formation. I'll always love the smiley Blue Landers and Red Landers. There are continue options and shortcuts to ease the frustrations. The Engrish, as suggested in the review title, is pretty entertaining.

As a whole, the game is fairly memorable and entertaining, nothing off the charts but a good early NES shooter and a good prelude to later Compile shooters.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/30/07