Galactic Crusader Nintendo NES

by Bunch Games

Product Details

• ASIN: B000Q7XDQA
• Media: Game Cartridge
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,846 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Super Difficult Shooter by Sachen, September 17, 2010

By 

Sean T. Bussiere - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

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This review is from: Galactic Crusader Nintendo NES (Game Cartridge)

Sachen, also known as Thin Chen Enterprise, Joy Van, and Commin, is a Taiwanese company that produces unlicensed games for various classic consoles. This is one of their earlier titles called Galactic Crusader (also known as Incantation and Papillion Gals.) It was released under the Bunch Games division at Color Dreams, which is the branch that publishes games considered to be of low quality (why they didn't just keep it unreleased in the U.S. is beyond me.) Is it a bad game? Well...Kinda.
Galactic Crusader is a vertical shooter. Your task is to survive many waves of enemies and defeat the level's boss to progress. Along the way, some enemies will drop different weapons which will power up if you collect enough of the same weapon capsule. There's the Pulsar weapon, which launches fireballs that can fire a horizontal wall of fire, the Plasma weapon, which fires lasers and can fire a three-way shot, and the Corkscrew weapon, which launches a spinning projectile with decent aim, but low power. You can get equipped with Devices, which act like the options in R-Type. They can fire at enemies, absorb bullets, and be positioned behind your ship to aid against sneak attacks. These can be found in large meteorite-like enemies which explode in a spinning 8-way blast. You first get the Gama Device, then you can upgrade to the Photon Device.
The Graphics aren't too bad. By 1989 standards, they're pretty low-tech, but they get the job done. The music is rather catchy, and changes themes the further you progress in the game. Controls work fine; they are responsive and functional.
So what makes this game iffy? Ridiculous difficulty level. Enemies move in strange patterns, which makes it hard to hit them. What doesn't help is that the game's very unforgiving. If you take damage (you can take three hits before you die and have to restart from a checkpoint) your weapon will downgrade one level and you'll lose your Device, if you have one equipped. The screen can quickly fill up with enemies, some that explode in a corkscrew 4-way spead shot, some that quickly flash by the screen diagonally, and some that bob up from the bottom of the screen. The bosses aren't much better. They're quite big, but touching one results in instant death. They also fire at you, and later ones will chase after you. Your basic weapon is weak on enemies (some take two or more shots to defeat) yet amusingly, you can take on bosses easier if your weapon fires a single stream of fire (like most of them at level 1 power.)
The difference between the versions is minimal. This version got released in Taiwan by Sachen and the U.S. by Color Dreams. Incantation got released only in Taiwan, but the only difference is the title screen, which features Chinese. Papillion Gals was released in Japan by Hacker International, featuring a new soundtrack and nude anime girls after clearing certain levels.
So how is it overall? It's not a great game, yet I've found myself oddly addicted to it. It's very hard, but it can also be fun if you're looking for a challenge. If they toned down the difficulty, it would've been a great game, but as it stands, it's good for those wanting a very difficult game.