Kiaidan 00

~ KIAIDAN 00 ~

RIOT / Alfa System / Telenet

Super CD-ROM

1992

Kiaidan makes me feel like I'm in Tranzor Z or something. It's a Cinderella-story shoot 'em up that tells of how a goofy young lad assumes control of a giant robot...

...and defeats a cold-hearted crew of master pilots and their monstrous mecha. As you might expect with a premise like that, the boss fights are the highlights of the show. You square off against two-headed dragons, enormous swordsmen, and plenty of other steel behemoths, and put them out of commission with special charge attacks that set the whole screen aglow upon connecting. These battles make for some nice, exciting spectacles, and I wouldn't have minded a "Kiaidan Alpha" mode in which players would be able to fight just the bosses, one after another.

That's not to say that the stages themselves aren't enjoyable. One level has you flying over a gorgeous snow-covered forest as you contend with families of metal mammoths and armored hoversled-riding axemen. Another pits you against sets of swift ninjas and caravans of gigantic demon-head tanks.

Admittedly, some spots are somewhat "flat," both visually and action-wise, but those stumble steps are in the minority.

Here's a bit of a warning: there's a learning curve here, as it takes some time to get comfortable with the rather unusual set of weapons, and some trial and error will be required in order to figure out which of those weapons works best in each segment. Also, things get pretty tough near the very end. The last level's midboss in particular is a bastard.

You don't have to be a super-pro like me or anything, but you should at least be a decent shooter player before taking this one on. But hey, if you do suck and you buy it anyway, at least you'll get to see one of the coolest Game Over screens ever.