Gigandes

East Technology, 1989

Reviewed by malc.

Alright - Gigandes then. Saw a pcb on Ebay, had a play in Mame, decided I MUST have it. I do this quite a lot anyway - damn Ebay, damn Mame. Making me want stuff.

East Technology aren't exactly known for their shmups. In fact they're not exactly known for anything much. So Gigandes turning out to be one of the most fun shooters I've played for a long time was a nice surprise. As I write this, I've just come fresh from another blast of it, and it just gets better and better.

You might have scrolled down to see some screenies by now, and thinking I've lost the plot, but graphics are not what Gigandes is about. This is no Xexex, no pretty effects, no parallax, no scaling... I have to admit it's downright ugly really. Everything's small and titchy, and really badly drawn and animated at times. Just check out level one's boss - isn't that atrocious? However, there's a great deal of unusual and plain weird stuff in there, even if it looks like the tea-boy drew it in 16 colours. It doesn't help that there's a significant amount of slowdown either - what you see in Mame is what the pcb is like too.

So, first visual impressions aren't that good, at least the music is much better. Quite trancey and hypnotic at times, it burbles away in the background and contributes to the surreal feel Gigandes has. Some of the tracks will have you humming them at inappropriate moments, which is always the sign of decent shmup tunage.

Well, I intentionally got the audiovisuals out of the way first, because the entire point of Gigandes is the superb tactical gameplay. Yes, I believe it's right up there with R-Type and all those other slow paced horizontal strategic shmups that I love. Vertical bullet-fest fans can stop reading now. Gigandes is slow, methodical, and heavy on careful and considered weapon usage.

Initially, Gigandes will confuse. Starting off, your little rotund ship, looking like a reject from an HG Wells book, launches from your everyday garden variety nuclear submarine. Pressing fire does as you would expect - a couple of shots squeeze themselves out from the stick-like extrustion on the front of your spheri-ship.

That's it up there by the way, round and cuddly isn't it? Let's turn it into something altogether more spiky and ferocious then shall we? Cue the core goodness of the game - Weapons. Apart from the initial piddly shot, there are three main types you can pick up, with two modifers:

		A round ball which shoots off, rolls about the scenery a bit, and then returns. Powers up to a quicker more powerful ball.
		A missile shot, which expands to a wide but quite weak triple stream of missiles.
		A thin Laser beam, powerful but needs accuracy to use. Powers up to a double Laser.
		Now, this is a Powerup, which increases the power and size of the above three weapons.
		And, a Wavy Mutate. This is the only possible name I can give it. This mutates the normal shots into something more wavy. The laser goes all wobbly and blue for instance, and the missiles will snake around in a sine wave if you add this to it.

"Wow" you say, "How novel." Shut up and listen...

Depending on which side of your ship you bash into the pickup, will attach the pickup to that side of it. So if you pick up a missile on the left of it, the missile will be attached to the left, and shoot backwards. Good players will find their favourite formations for every situation. For example, a powered up laser in front, a missile shot behind, and two round balls above and below will see you past most claustrophobic tight spots.

One restriction is that you can't have more than two weapons of the same type, so if you already have two missiles in place, don't try and pick up a third - nothing will happen. Bear in mind once you bolt on a weapon, it can't be changed for another even if you die (unless you start a new level, see later) So you'll have to think carefully on whether or not to pick up a powerup just because you need more firepower at that moment, instead of the most suitable setup for the level and boss.

Now (and this is the good bit) press the B button - your entire weapon complement rotates 90 degrees around your ship clockwise, meaning you can change your attack and defense depending on where the enemies are coming from. This is especially handy in levels which give you only limited powerups - and ask you to fire round corners or clear vertical tunnels of turrets and stuff. Nothing is random here - weapon pickup placement and type is carefully thought out in every level. Sometimes you'll get pelted with powerups, and sometimes you'll get only a very few. It all adds up to requiring some nifty bolting on and planning - very necessary for grabbing the correct type of new weapons to negotiate the stage.

Plus, I only just discovered that holding down the B button will angle your top and bottom shots 45 degrees towards the front, or the back, letting you have more control over your already fairly complex firepower options. There's several places where this comes in very handy, especially level three's boss, or occasions where you need to launch your [C] options down a tunnel.

Making things slightly easier is the fact that there are no restart points - you return where you died, WITH all your weapons intact. But every time you start a new level you begin with only the peashooter, making you collect the right types of powerups you need for that level from scratch. This works very nicely in practice, a good combination of difficulty without frustration. Even continues are sensibly implemented, taking you back to the very start of the level to attempt it over again.

I realise you may be terribly confused by this point, but the weapon system is ingenious and simple in actual play. The levels are designed around this system, with enemies coming from all angles, tight spaces and corridors needing cleared out before you go down them, and movable areas of scenery needing punched out of the way with your [C] options.

I think maybe the best thing to do is shut up now and take you through the levels of the game, as they may be ugly but they are very cleverly laid out at times, with some really great and unusual bosses attacking in many different ways.

It's one of those games which is obscure, strange, ugly, clunky, slow - but the intricacies of its gameplay and weapon system demands you to play it again and again. I really am hooked on this little gem - you can't fault Gigandes for invention and effort, but the execution (slowdown especially) and visuals are hopelessly under-par at times, which is why it's getting a 7/10.

Gigandes plays excellently in Mame, so go and try it now. I'm not sure how easy it would be to get on pcb, this is the first one I've seen (it's a taito board by the way). But, it's a trifle easy on normal, so I highly suggest you play it on hard to get the most out of it. After a few goes the early levels become very easy and, I have to admit, quite tedious - but on hard even the first level will be a continual challenge.

Playing with the different configurations of weapons trying to clear each level of ALL enemies is what I'm doing right now - its perfectly possible to kill absolutely everything if you use the weapons optimally. Yes, even on the bits with different paths. I'm off to have another go - bye! Malc.