Veigues Tactical Gladiator

~ VEIGUES TACTICAL GLADIATOR ~

Victor Musical Industries / Game Arts / NEC

HuCard

1990

Back when I was in junior high, a friend and I used to get together and play this game a lot. We seemed to be the only people in the world who liked it. Magazines ripped on it, and our other friends made fun of us for playing a game where the bosses actually run away after a certain amount of time. As the years went by, I came to look back on it as a mediocre game that I liked for my own idiosyncratic reasons, so I wasn't expecting much when I got around to revisiting it. As it turns out, I underestimated it. And so began the cycle of Veigues falling in my esteem when I spend some time away from it and then impressing me more than ever when eventually given the chance.

First off, the graphics are great: lots of colors, lots of parallax, and nice large sprites. The music is also cool, reminiscent of R-Type's during its melodic bits, but rocking at certain points more than R-T's soundtrack ever has.

But I know the typical knock on Veigues is that it's decent superficially but a sloppy dud when it comes to gameplay. Still, I assert that taking a couple of plays to get accustomed to piloting the initially clunky mecha is well worth it. There's a lot to like here: the punch, chest, and cannon weapons that Veigues comes equipped with; the "turn-around" technique that allows Veigues to dodge enemy fire; the strategic point-distribution sessions at the end of each stage; and the annihilation of body parts as defeat draws near. Make good use of your points, utilize your radar, and figure out the best weapons to use and spots to occupy for each leg of the adventure, and the gameplay actually starts to feel smooth.

Also, the game has a really cool ending, certainly one of the coolest HuCard finales I've seen. (Don't stop watching when the credits start rolling...) Heck, it even has a "fake ending" cinema before you take off for the final mission. I can't name too many chip games that put so much effort into cinematics--or into presenting a truly unique experience augmented by extremely impressive aesthetic elements.

This game deserves praise for so many things. I can only recommend that people give it a shot beyond the inevitably rough initial experiences; I think they might end up pleasantly surprised.