"Battleships with special weapons - and a killer AI"

Navy Blue

What did you do during a boring school lesson back in the old days? Old days meaning before Gameboy and iPod and the like existed. Rate the other class members' shoes? Write stupid notes to your friend? Or play Hangman or Battleship with your desk neighbor? Never? Well, you should have, it's part of mankind's intellectual evolution. Or not.

If you did, well, then you basically know what Navy Blue is about, as it's a variant of Battleships. If you didn't, here's how the basics of the game work. The game is played one versus one. Each player has a rectangular battlefield, divided into a grid of squares, ordered in rows and columns. On this field, a number of different ships are placed freely before the actual battle starts. The aim of the game is now to shoot down all enemy ships before the own boats are down. For this, the players interchangeably fire shots at (single) squares of the opponent's grid. Of course, they can't see the opponent's ship, so they have to fire randomly, at least at first. With the feedback one gets, this being if the shot was a HIT, MISS or sometimes also a 'Near Hit' and when a ship has sunk, at least some strategy is involved the longer the game lasts. Should I mention that still most if it is pure luck? Nah, that's probably not necessary, it should be pretty obvious.

Now, if you ever wanted to play this game all by yourself, here's your chance with Use's and I'Max's Famicom game Navy Blue, published in 1992. The game not only offers this fantastic option, it adds even more. Beside the goal of beating several battles and conquering the enemy base and an often unfair AI, which seems so find your own ships with ease and then also know how they lie, it also adds fun things such as special weapons assigned to the individual ships that can hit more than one target per shot, and even some RPG-style upgrading.

You start out with only 4 ships to choose from 8 available vessels, each with its specific size ranging from 1 square up to 8 squares and special weapons selection, and a rather low amount of unit points to spend on said weapons. However, with each battle you win, you get more unit points you can attribute, sometimes a ship more and even some weapons to unlock. This is also bitterly needed for the casual gamer not willing to spend hours trying to win a single fight at a later stage (<whisper>or use an emulator</whisper>). Spend them wisely on a good selection of special weapons that allow covering, and thus getting feedback from, a larger area of the grid or multiple single shots. It is also advisable to distribute the weapons a bit on your ships, as it can be lost for the battle should the ship sink. These additions make the game actually quite fun, if it weren't for the AI... did I mention this already? It is plain unfair in the battles closer to the enemy base. Oh, I did mention it already... never mind, then.

The game's presentation is almost as basic as if you had a piece of paper in front of you. Of course I mean this as a compliment, as this means there's not much to detract you from the actual goal of the game. The most colors and moving objects will only show in the ending sequence. The music score that goes with the game is actually quite good, but I must admit I often listened to other things, mainly my own music, when playing the game. This being due to the sound effects getting on my nerves after a while.

The game's difficulty is... STOP, we already know the AI seem so cheat, so skip that!

Okok, stop screaming, voice-in-my-head. I'll then blend in with how motivating the game is. Basically, each battle is similar, but then again, each one is different. So if you like the game principle, you'll most probably not stop at the first battle and play the game for a long time. And the hint of RPG together with the special weapon system, the battles are actually fun and end relatively quickly. Another plus point is that you get a password after each battle so you can restart at the point of your conquest where you left. Once you beat the game, you'll not only see the ending but also get a rank, depending on the number of battles you fought overall until you captured the enemy base. Even though there's no learning curve due to the high degree of randomness in this game, this could motivate you to go for the highest rank, meaning beating the game in the least amount of battles possible, but here again, the game's difficulty comes in... STOP! ... Ok...

That's also it for the game's content. There's no two player option, which wouldn't work well on this platform anyway with both players seeing each other's screen, and no further game options or modes. Nevertheless, the game will last for a good while if you like strategy games requiring a lot of luck. And the simplistic presentation supported by good music carries the game nicely. Honestly, though, it is never as much fun as playing this kind of game against another human opponent. So you'd better look for a version of a Battleships game that has a link or online feature, or you grab a pen & paper as well as a friend and play it that way. Or you can play against your own voice-in-your-head, like I do. *fires a shot in the upper left corner* . . . *hears sinking noise* . . . Aaaarrrggh . . . *smirks*

Final score: 58/100 - which is rounded up for GameFAQs to 6/10.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/08

Game Release: Navy Blue (JP, 02/14/92)