Release Date: 16 October 2018
Date Played: 29 January 2022
Introduction:
Fast Striker started out as a homebrew game developed by NG.Dev for the NeoGeo MVS in 2010. Shortly afterwards, it was ported to the Dreamcast (once again as a homebrew) before getting an official port to the PS4 in 2018. EastAsiaSoft published the game and released it as a physical edition that was met with middle of the road reviews from both the critics and the public alike. I played it originally in March of 2019 before deciding to revisit it again and wasn't surprised that my opinion hadn't really changed from that of the critics or even myself from my prior experiences with it. It's a competent vertical shmup that plays well, has a few interesting ideas, and can even be a little fun. But, it definitely has the "homebrew" feel that so many of NG. Dev's games suffer from and you can feel how simple and barebones it is right from the onset.
Gameplay:
Fast Striker is your basic vertically scrolling shmup. You have a standard shot that fires upwards as you repeatedly tap the fire button (I hate having to do this) that becomes a focus shot when held down. Just like with Cave games, you maintain your speed when tapping and slow down greatly when focus firing. This will allow you to dodge various bullet patterns with adjustable speed as needed. In addition to this, you also have a reverse shot to take out any enemies approaching you from the rear. Bombs are absent from the game, but you are given several shields that will make you invulnerable and even able to crash into enemies for damage if you're so inclined. Your firepower can be upgraded a couple of levels by destroying one of the spacemen floating around in the level and collecting the powerup he drops. If you're fully powered up, he will drop a much needed additional shield. Making sure to always destroy these spacemen, which can be difficult sometimes because they take quite a few shots to take down and tend to zip all around the screen as they take damage, is essential because you'll be using your shields very often to circumvent the very quick and thick bullet patterns that are thrown at you. These bullet patterns are an odd mix of Raiden style that are super fast mixed with more danmaku style slow patterns that you have to carefully weave your way through. This can be difficult as your ship is rather on the large side and can be a bit clunky to fit in between the gaps. Sometimes, these patterns are a bit too much to handle and don't feel very well designed as they seem virtually impossible to dodge. You can tell the developers were intending for you to save your shields for these moments. Sadly, this turns the game into more of a memorization exercise of when to use your shields for invulnerability rather than a skill test of dodging bullets. These sort of "memorizer" games can be fun at times, and Fast Striker is no different. But, don't go into the game hoping on your dodging skills to carry you the whole way.
The gimmick of this game comes with the character select system. There are no independent character select screens and difficulty screens. Instead, each difficulty is tied to each of the three different characters and is focused around their play style. This includes the scoring system as well as the tactics you'll need to employ to succeed. The first of the characters is Popo, a blue robot, who is assigned to the Novice difficulty. He has a spread shot for when you tap the fire button that focuses itself when you hold down the button. He's very weak, but has the easiest difficulty on the levels, so it balances out. As you kill enemies, they will drop star tokens that you can collect to increase your score multiplier and also your difficulty rank. You play through the first 5 stages with this character before receiving a message telling you to try on Normal Mode.
The second character is a green guy called Max Speed (...sigh) and he plays much the same way as Popo except your firepower is greatly increased. The playstyle is flipped with the tap being your spread shot this time around, and the focus attack being a very powerful barrage of lasers. At first, this character feels much easier than Popo because you plow through enemies so much faster, but the difficulty catches up to you quickly and will give you a run for your money. You'll certainly be doing a lot more dodging in this mode and you'll have to start memorizing patterns of you want to survive. You'll be collecting symbols with radiation warnings on them instead of stars this time around, but the scoring system is pretty much the same. After clearing the 5th stage, you'll have access to the much, much harder 6th, and final stage of the game.
The third character is a pink female named Chloe Valentine and her difficulty level is known as Maniac. Her attack style is very similar to the green guy, but she doesn't collect shields from spacemen. Instead, you have a gauge at the bottom of the screen that fills up when you collect her scoring tokens and once it's full you'll get an extra shield. This time around your score multiplier is on a timer and you'll have to continually collect score tokens before the short timer reaches zero. Of course, the difficulty in this mode is much more difficult and will be a feat to 1 credit clear even for a very skilled player.
The final mode is called Omake, and is brutally difficult. You'll be playing with a pallet swapped version of the green guy, but with the attack style of the pink girl. Since the bullets are so fast and dense in this mode, you won't be required to collect any score tokens and your multiplier is now on a timer that is tied to killing enemies in quick succession. It's the most fun mode by far, I just wish it wasn't the most difficult because there's no way to practice it other than playing the game from the beginning.
To help you out, you can get extends at certain point totals (they very by difficulty) and extra credits based on how many times you have continued over all of your attempts. These extra credits max out at 9, but should be enough for you to credit feed through Novice and Normal if you put in some effort. Still, if you want to make it through Maniac or Omake, you're going to need to put in some real practice because not even 9 credits is enough to make it easy on yourself. These modes would have be a lot more fun if there was a stage select or training mode to help you learn to route and memorize the levels. Having to start a shmup from the beginning each time you want to make a little progress on it is a recipe for frustration and a great way to overstay your welcome.
One other theme of the game is environmental hazards during the levels. More than half of the levels are focused around weaving your way through patterns of blocks, giant ships that move in formation around the screen, flashing laser walls, and indestructible orbs that continually spew streams of bullets at you. These sorts of mechanic are pretty common in both vertical and horizontal shmups, but this time around, they feel a little excessive since most of the stages have them whereas in most other games that employ them you might only encounter them occasionally.
Presentation:
Fast Striker isn't much to look at. It was originally designed to be played on a console that was developed in 1989 and it really shows. While many games for the NeoGeo have gorgeous sprite work and stunning uses of color that were remarkably advanced for the time and were essentially equal to what you'd find in an actual arcade, Fast Striker instead opts for Prerendered CGI backgrounds with chunky ship and enemy sprites. The backgrounds, while done well and impressive to see on a NeoGeo are very basic and monotonous. They lack any sort of color and make the whole game have this sort of washed out look that really isn't very appealing. The first stage you'll fly over a grey city, the second stage is a grey tunnel, the third stage is another grey tunnel with some blue accents. Stage 4 mixes things up by having you fly through black space with a single planet in the background. Stage 5 is a return to another grey tunnel, and finally stage 6 has you flying over a bundle of cables. It's really, really boring and uninspired but you can tell that it was just the best the NG. Dev could do. After all, this was done as a passion project for two guys who were struggling to fit CGI graphics on a system designed for sprites and limited memory. In addition to this, the enemies are usually just blobby shapes or generic space ships that don't really stand out and all of the bosses are just a giant space ship or something like it. Overall, the presentation is very generic and lackluster and isn't going to win any awards in the art design department. Luckily, the game runs at a smooth 60fps so, you're not going to be inhibited by choppy gameplay.
In addition to the boring art style, you're also given an even more boring techno/trance soundtrack. It sounds like all of NG.Dev's other games and rather than amping up the intensity of your gaming session, it instead lulls you into a sort of drowsiness that only serves to exacerbate the boredom you'll experience by the game's very dull visuals. Just like the backgrounds of the game, the music is very repetitive and doesn't have much going for it in terms of originality or catchiness.
Conclusion:
Fast Striker is an ok vertical shmup that is a little too barebones. I commend NG.Dev for trying to do something new with the whole difficulty and game mechanics being tied to specific characters idea. But, sadly, instead of this adding some novel content in the game it actually makes you feel more limited in your options. The game would have been better served by sticking to the standard structure that well all know to work and letting us pick our preferred character, difficulty, and scoring mechanics independently.
The gameplay and scoring is pretty fun and controlling the ships feels nice and fluid, but the bullet speed and patterns are a bit unbalanced and too focused on you having to rely on your shields. Also, there's just too many environmental hazards that you have to fidget around with while trying to kill enemies and avoid their bullets. It often makes the game feel puzzle based like Ikaruga... but not nearly as well thought out or good and these feel like obstacles that are getting in the way of your fun rather than the awesome set pieces the developers were aiming for. Sadly, the visuals and music really bring the game down a good bit. It's hard to get really invested in the game when the overall package looks so bland and amateurish. If NG.Dev had stuck to a more classic NeoGeo look when developing this game, I could see it as being an above average shooter. As it stands, its just an OK shmup wrapped up in a very ugly and pedestrian package.
Final Status: Beaten
Final Score: 6/10 (ok)
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