Warpman

"Simple, but quite solid."

This very obscure Famicom title called Warpman, which can almost exclusively found on many multi-game cartridges, is a simplistic shooter. Warpman is sort of a sequel to an arcade game called Warp & Warp (Warp Warp in the US) with improved graphics and some extra content.

You appear in the screen with space and with a few rocks and galaxy in the middle. Right away, enemies start to appear from the corners of the screen. Your job is to eliminate 24 common aliens before advancing to the next level. You and your enemies can move and shoot in 4 directions and you can shoot down enemy bullets as well. Here's the catch however: there are two places you can be: either in outer space or corridor room. To get to the corridor room, you must go to the center of the galaxy when it's flashing which happens either at seemingly random intervals or after picking up a powerup which appears at quite random times too.
Inside the corridor room, your blaster is replaced to timed bombs which you can lay. It's much harder to kill enemies inside, but at least they can't shoot there.

Speaking of powerups, the powerup which can be collected at outside, works only inside and vice versa. The blaster powerup will make the the projectile to explode after impact while the bomb powerup will make an explosion bigger and also it sticks into enemies. However, there is a downside: the explosions can also kill you much more easily. Effects of powerups won't last forever too. For an example, weapons are downgraded when the new level starts.

The game is mainly played for high score. The closer the common alien to the center is, the more points it gives when killed. As alien moves towards the center, it changes colour, determining the amount of points it gives. Shooting 3 same enemies in the same row will make a special alien to be moving on the side of the screen from one end to another. Shooting it will give you bigger points. These special aliens can also come at random times and in this case, they're carrying the letter "E", "X", "T", "R" or "A" with them. After killing such alien, player obtains a letter that the alien was carrying. Obtaining all letters will give player an extra life.

As the stage number increases, the placement of rocks in space and the layout of warp corridors change. Also new types of enemies start appearing and finally the moving speed of enemies will increase too.

The fun factor can be increased by playing with your friend. It can get pretty competitive at the end since, unlike Battle City, you don't have to cooperate to stay alive. You can even stun each other.

The game looks, as many early Famicom games, very simplistic, although not too ugly. In terms of sound variety, it reminds me very much of Pac-Man where sound loops constantly. Almost always, you can hear that 8-note theme made by moving enemies. Fortunately it's not as annoying as it should be.

If you like simple games, you might want to find this one, but good luck of finding an original cartridge.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/27/07

Game Release: Warpman (JP, 07/12/85)