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75% - Rockstar begins its journey here
If there is one thing about a video game giant that tends to be overlooked, it is Rockstar North's first game, a side-scrolling shooter for Amiga called Menace. Yes, that Rockstar, the same company founded in Dundee, Scotland, as DMA Design, and the same people behind megahits Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto. Published by Psygnosis, another young company with a massive future ahead of them based in Liverpool, under its new budget label, Psyclapse, both Menace and Blood Money would serve as the Scottish developer's easy entry into the video game market, for which their lemmings would later invade millions of people's computers and their gang-related activity would show up on the screens of millions more. In this review, I bring Rockstar's foray into the gaming world back into the spotlight.
In Menace, six ruthless dictators from galaxies from which they were exiled wreak havoc across space, using worlds they have destroyed to create Draconia, a planet "of fear and death." Inhabiting Draconia are the most abominable lifeforms to ever exist, also created by the dictators in their image. As a large-scale attack is estimated to cost thousands in casualties, it is decided that one fighter craft should be sent to penetrate the planetary defense systems undetected. All the odds are against the one pilot, but they, the player, may have a shot at spelling doom to their reign of terror. As the game runs, transforming the Amiga into a miniature arcade cabinet, the player is accompanied by a soundtrack of thrashing, syncopated electronic metal and graphics that make even the same year's venerable Super Mario Bros. 3 look antiquated. Ignore the standard story for a moment, and we are off to an already excellent start. Besides, the story is not what is front and center.
With a joystick ready, the player selects out of two difficulty modes: rookie and expert, with expert doubling the player's score. One will probably select rookie out of instinct, as I had, that it will probably require playing it more than once before beating it, on which they would be correct. Presented before the player is a column of six zones to blow up in order: sea, technology, macabre, jungle, classical antiquity, and a rocky plateau containing Draconia's nerve center, literally. I will not spoil the description of that boss or any others, but to have an idea of what enemies one will be battling across the zones, the assortment includes jellyfish, ships and drones, cave bats, arachnids, dragonflies, and pterodactyls; flying projectiles like bubbles, disks, rockets, bones, bricks, and meteors; and bizarre creatures like underwater seed pods, jellyfish, Cyberman heads, goblin heads, armed (likely nonhuman) astronauts the size of the player's ship, and what-even. Throughout the levels, only one kind of the enemies appears at a time. The player's ship starts off with a simple energy gun and can move across the screen in any direction the player points their joystick while facing rightward. Destroying enemies rewards points. Blow up all of a single kind in a segment, and one sees a piece of space debris in the form of a power-up. It appears as a 1,000-bonus-point power-up, but it can be shot to cycle through six other types of power-ups: cannons, lasers, maneuverability, up to two turrets, an invulnerability force field, and full shield restoration. The latter six are necessary for beating the game, as proven by the later zones. Collecting a cannon or laser power-up once, will mount a dual-cannon system or laser gun to the ship, respectively, and collecting them again will charge up those weapons. I like how my fighter looks almost like an X-wing when the lasers and cannons are mounted.
As for the zones, they all have their own background and still scenery that includes underwater seedpods, coral, and other marine flora; rockets, power generators, and other space installations, some with pipes; slithering snakes and a ceiling of inner small intestinal wall with hanging bloody skulls; trees and overgrown plants and vines; Greco-Roman architecture with deathly symbols slightly in ruins; and rocky hills, pillars, and arches. It is amazing how much level of detail was put into the visuals, and that is just judging by 1988's standards, comparable even to Shadow of the Beast, another Psygnosis game released the very next year. Touching anything harmful does not crash one's ship or destroy it, but rather drains one's shields. The game ends the moment its shields are depleted and the ship scrapes any hazard, which will crash it. Perhaps they were good enough to make it to the top 8 high scores. If so, they can input their name like a typical arcade shoot 'em up. Also like an arcade game from the late-1980s is the option the player has to continue the game with all of their fighter's upgrades removed and the score reset. I should note that when continuing on the latter half of the levels, the player should execute their run with a great deal of precision (with an extreme amount on the last zone). While not impossible, one does need to find an opportunity to kill all enemies for a power-up, acquire the right one, waste as few shields as possible, and also pay attention to how the enemies behave, as well as the order in which they appear, for even one mistake may guarantee that "you have proven no match for the defences of Draconia". Once one has flown to the other end of the level, the player then encounters a boss ready to pulverize their ship. Although they will inflict pain, they are not as fearsome as they seem. If the player has sufficient power-ups, they can easily shoot the boss's eye, core, or heart out within mere seconds, and the player is rewarded a fireworks display of the monster disintegrating while their score climbs rapidly. It should be noted that the bosses are not willing to put up with long fights, as they will try to hasten the ship's demise after a while of stalemate.
Okay, six bosses destroyed, six defense systems disabled, and now I return to my starship as I watch the wretched world behind me crumble and explode before my fleet. It is all over now - except that it is not. The Draconians will come back for revenge and rebuild the planet, and one will need to destroy the six zones again in the same order as before. My upgrades from my previous mission are kept, but so are my shields in critical condition. I replay the first level and crash my ship somehow. At first, I could not figure out what could have caused that to happen, but I did input my high score and name in second place. The next thing I did was to replay the game in expert mode, the harder difficulty level that doubles the points. At first, I could not see the difference between the two modes besides the point multiplier. The enemies are no deadlier or tougher, and my health and weapons remain the same. However, I noticed that my ship was taking damage from an unknown source. I was confused, but quickly found that the source of my trouble was the terrain. The terrain, which I had assumed was simply decoration themed for each of the zones, was added to come to life when the player selects expert mode. Okay, that is stretching it since the scenery is still static, but it is a whole other level to fight through the heart of Draconia and not let the terrain scrape one's ship. I honestly did not expect that, which is why I was more enthusiastic than I probably ought to have been. It is indeed a lot harder than it looks, but it justifies doubling the points. It turns out that the landscape becomes harmful to scrape in rookie mode after one beats the game the first time, although there is no point multiplier. I deduced that that was the cause of my ship's crash the first time I beat the game and tried to increase my score. In case anyone is curious, I completed the game in expert mode to see whether anything related to the gameplay changes afterwards, and it is the same, with the point multiplier still intact.
There is not much left to write about this game. Menace is an arcade shoot 'em up whose performance relies on eye-candy and aggressive synths and guitars and less so on the gameplay and concept, both of which are standard. There are many shoot 'em ups like this with similar gameplay and concept. It is definitely not the first of its kind, but neither is it the last. Its lack of individuality means that if one gets hooked on to this game the way it did me, it would be a matter of hours of trying to beat the final boss and maybe again on expert mode before moving on to another game. One will more likely get briefly hooked than not. After all, a gamer in 1988 with an Amiga would be foolish to forgo the game's assets and not visit an arcade with games of comparable quality, and it being a budget title, one could have done a lot worse then.
VERDICT: Rockstar North embarked on its career spanning decades with a game good enough to attract notice from a handful of Amiga owners in the United Kingdom and expand its budget satisfactorily. Menace is technically a good shoot 'em up, but it is as good a shoot 'em up as any I had ever seen. The lack of individuality precludes the likelihood of weeks-long replayability, although to gamers who had to put up with a narrow selection of games with such superior visuals and audio in the desktop world compared to arcades or even console gamers, I cannot rule that out as impossible. I suppose it is not impossible for those today who play these sorts of games for the purpose of retrogaming. Nevertheless, we should appreciate the fact that as Rockstar's first game, it helped it gain a presence in the gaming community to which the studio would introduce megahit franchises, including one still produced to this day.
In Menace, six ruthless dictators from galaxies from which they were exiled wreak havoc across space, using worlds they have destroyed to create Draconia, a planet "of fear and death." Inhabiting Draconia are the most abominable lifeforms to ever exist, also created by the dictators in their image. As a large-scale attack is estimated to cost thousands in casualties, it is decided that one fighter craft should be sent to penetrate the planetary defense systems undetected. All the odds are against the one pilot, but they, the player, may have a shot at spelling doom to their reign of terror. As the game runs, transforming the Amiga into a miniature arcade cabinet, the player is accompanied by a soundtrack of thrashing, syncopated electronic metal and graphics that make even the same year's venerable Super Mario Bros. 3 look antiquated. Ignore the standard story for a moment, and we are off to an already excellent start. Besides, the story is not what is front and center.
With a joystick ready, the player selects out of two difficulty modes: rookie and expert, with expert doubling the player's score. One will probably select rookie out of instinct, as I had, that it will probably require playing it more than once before beating it, on which they would be correct. Presented before the player is a column of six zones to blow up in order: sea, technology, macabre, jungle, classical antiquity, and a rocky plateau containing Draconia's nerve center, literally. I will not spoil the description of that boss or any others, but to have an idea of what enemies one will be battling across the zones, the assortment includes jellyfish, ships and drones, cave bats, arachnids, dragonflies, and pterodactyls; flying projectiles like bubbles, disks, rockets, bones, bricks, and meteors; and bizarre creatures like underwater seed pods, jellyfish, Cyberman heads, goblin heads, armed (likely nonhuman) astronauts the size of the player's ship, and what-even. Throughout the levels, only one kind of the enemies appears at a time. The player's ship starts off with a simple energy gun and can move across the screen in any direction the player points their joystick while facing rightward. Destroying enemies rewards points. Blow up all of a single kind in a segment, and one sees a piece of space debris in the form of a power-up. It appears as a 1,000-bonus-point power-up, but it can be shot to cycle through six other types of power-ups: cannons, lasers, maneuverability, up to two turrets, an invulnerability force field, and full shield restoration. The latter six are necessary for beating the game, as proven by the later zones. Collecting a cannon or laser power-up once, will mount a dual-cannon system or laser gun to the ship, respectively, and collecting them again will charge up those weapons. I like how my fighter looks almost like an X-wing when the lasers and cannons are mounted.
As for the zones, they all have their own background and still scenery that includes underwater seedpods, coral, and other marine flora; rockets, power generators, and other space installations, some with pipes; slithering snakes and a ceiling of inner small intestinal wall with hanging bloody skulls; trees and overgrown plants and vines; Greco-Roman architecture with deathly symbols slightly in ruins; and rocky hills, pillars, and arches. It is amazing how much level of detail was put into the visuals, and that is just judging by 1988's standards, comparable even to Shadow of the Beast, another Psygnosis game released the very next year. Touching anything harmful does not crash one's ship or destroy it, but rather drains one's shields. The game ends the moment its shields are depleted and the ship scrapes any hazard, which will crash it. Perhaps they were good enough to make it to the top 8 high scores. If so, they can input their name like a typical arcade shoot 'em up. Also like an arcade game from the late-1980s is the option the player has to continue the game with all of their fighter's upgrades removed and the score reset. I should note that when continuing on the latter half of the levels, the player should execute their run with a great deal of precision (with an extreme amount on the last zone). While not impossible, one does need to find an opportunity to kill all enemies for a power-up, acquire the right one, waste as few shields as possible, and also pay attention to how the enemies behave, as well as the order in which they appear, for even one mistake may guarantee that "you have proven no match for the defences of Draconia". Once one has flown to the other end of the level, the player then encounters a boss ready to pulverize their ship. Although they will inflict pain, they are not as fearsome as they seem. If the player has sufficient power-ups, they can easily shoot the boss's eye, core, or heart out within mere seconds, and the player is rewarded a fireworks display of the monster disintegrating while their score climbs rapidly. It should be noted that the bosses are not willing to put up with long fights, as they will try to hasten the ship's demise after a while of stalemate.
Okay, six bosses destroyed, six defense systems disabled, and now I return to my starship as I watch the wretched world behind me crumble and explode before my fleet. It is all over now - except that it is not. The Draconians will come back for revenge and rebuild the planet, and one will need to destroy the six zones again in the same order as before. My upgrades from my previous mission are kept, but so are my shields in critical condition. I replay the first level and crash my ship somehow. At first, I could not figure out what could have caused that to happen, but I did input my high score and name in second place. The next thing I did was to replay the game in expert mode, the harder difficulty level that doubles the points. At first, I could not see the difference between the two modes besides the point multiplier. The enemies are no deadlier or tougher, and my health and weapons remain the same. However, I noticed that my ship was taking damage from an unknown source. I was confused, but quickly found that the source of my trouble was the terrain. The terrain, which I had assumed was simply decoration themed for each of the zones, was added to come to life when the player selects expert mode. Okay, that is stretching it since the scenery is still static, but it is a whole other level to fight through the heart of Draconia and not let the terrain scrape one's ship. I honestly did not expect that, which is why I was more enthusiastic than I probably ought to have been. It is indeed a lot harder than it looks, but it justifies doubling the points. It turns out that the landscape becomes harmful to scrape in rookie mode after one beats the game the first time, although there is no point multiplier. I deduced that that was the cause of my ship's crash the first time I beat the game and tried to increase my score. In case anyone is curious, I completed the game in expert mode to see whether anything related to the gameplay changes afterwards, and it is the same, with the point multiplier still intact.
There is not much left to write about this game. Menace is an arcade shoot 'em up whose performance relies on eye-candy and aggressive synths and guitars and less so on the gameplay and concept, both of which are standard. There are many shoot 'em ups like this with similar gameplay and concept. It is definitely not the first of its kind, but neither is it the last. Its lack of individuality means that if one gets hooked on to this game the way it did me, it would be a matter of hours of trying to beat the final boss and maybe again on expert mode before moving on to another game. One will more likely get briefly hooked than not. After all, a gamer in 1988 with an Amiga would be foolish to forgo the game's assets and not visit an arcade with games of comparable quality, and it being a budget title, one could have done a lot worse then.
VERDICT: Rockstar North embarked on its career spanning decades with a game good enough to attract notice from a handful of Amiga owners in the United Kingdom and expand its budget satisfactorily. Menace is technically a good shoot 'em up, but it is as good a shoot 'em up as any I had ever seen. The lack of individuality precludes the likelihood of weeks-long replayability, although to gamers who had to put up with a narrow selection of games with such superior visuals and audio in the desktop world compared to arcades or even console gamers, I cannot rule that out as impossible. I suppose it is not impossible for those today who play these sorts of games for the purpose of retrogaming. Nevertheless, we should appreciate the fact that as Rockstar's first game, it helped it gain a presence in the gaming community to which the studio would introduce megahit franchises, including one still produced to this day.
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- FreeMediaKids
- Jul 31, 2022
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