Here's
another little gem of a shooter that I hadn't ever heard of until
browsing through some obscure page on the web. Over Horizon, from
Japan, is one of the top NES shooters, along with Crisis Force and
Life Force (should have called it Over Force!). But of course, to
my knowledge, this game didn't even come close to making it to the
United States. But oh, what we Westerners are missing…..if you can
get past the graphics, which are VERY dated, OH offers a very fun
and innovative trip through level designs similar to R-Type. I think
if Hot-B redid this game for a more powerful system, with updated
graphics and marketing, OH would do very well. This game is fun
to play, and offers new surprises in the bosses and levels as you
progress.
Over
Horizon starts you out with edit choices on the menu screen. Edit
weapons? What's this, I thought? Before taking off on this adventure,
you can change the setup of your weapons and options (called Bombars…heheh).
I remember an Amiga game sort of like this, where you customize
your ship. This is a little more freestyle than the Gradius weapon
selections, too. If developers take this to the next level, where
you can really "build your own ship", that would make a great game
too….choose to level up your main weapon or options, then custom
place your options and tell them how to move during the game! This
was something really new, and really neat.
Even
without that feature, this game still keeps you wanting to finish
it. You have a front and back shot, using two buttons so they are
available at any time. Speed is adjustable, options are twofold,
and pressing both fire buttons at once causes your options to rotate
in the direction you programmed in the options screen. There are
three types of weapons: laser, homing, and bomb. The laser is my
favorite, because it bends towards enemies, and is soft of homing
itself. But the best part of OH is the gameplay. Level designs (as
I said similar to R-Type) are near perfect, and the bosses impress
more as the game goes on. Rather than just a blast-fest, each boss
offers something new to keep the player busy. And most of them speed
up their pattern as you get near to defeating it. Check the pics
and comments for more on this. The only down side are the graphics.
They are very dated (your ship looks kinda stupid too….). However,
the fun factor highly outweighs the lack of eye-candy. Even the
difficulty is just about right. Bosses will take a couple of "mistakes"
to get used to. Unless you are one of those people who demand top
notch graphics, be sure to check out Over Horizon.
Over
Horizon - Hot B
