Blue Angelo Review


Hooka

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Blue Angelo
by Virtual Spagetti
published by Shibuya Games (fr)

Well, I've decided that I've been really lazy about this (had the game for ~9 months now and beat it within a month so I should probably get around to making a nice little review...
unfortunately I can't include alot of nice new pics (it won't recognize the buttons pressed in geepee32 so I could get screenshots :S) but I'll try and make up for it with an eloquently written review (I said try...) Anyways, time to start writing a review:

Imagine one day you woke up in a big room that looked like the clone room in Aliens 3, only to find that you could either hang around there forever and get nothing done or you could transport into the middle of nowhere and have big, pink, naked (asexual) demons attack you :eek:

Well, don't worry eventually there's demons WITH pants too! I remember when I interviewed Shibuya Games along time back I offered to do editing for the english version of Blue Angelo, I really kinda wish they'd taken me up on the offer but I guess I still like to get a laugh now and then at the engrish they've throw in there so either way I guess it works ;)

"Mmm... This place is so different, I should be normally in the heart of the problem. Why I'm here?" The engrish isn't too bad but it's enough to catch your attention...
although this might not be the case for every language the game is in (English,Français,Español,Deutsh,Italiano and Portuguese) Then and again, most GP32 commercial games are only English or Korean, so I guess this isn't something that should be messed with.

The parallax scrolling in this game is phenomenal and the tracers behind your character give it a nice touch along with alot of the other graphical effect, but there are a couple things that make me wonder sometimes, like the insane flickering (on purpose, not like my wolf3d port :p). I'm almost sure they were trying to weed out some epileptics with some of those effects.

The quality of the graphics in the game is actually almost comparable to similar games for the more "popular" consoles, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Super Metroid for example, maybe not quite the same level but getting quite close.

The music is acceptable and fits the game quite well although I can tell you that if you die lots you'll come to hate the music that plays off of the start :S.

The gameplay is very comfortable, even with the parallax scrolling and everything going on on the screen it doesn't ever seem to slowdown too terribly.

The controls comment the gameplay quite well also, allowing for you to jump but if you let go of the jump button you start to descend immediately (useful in some cases, bothersome if your used to just tapping jump though)

the attacks are fluid and even though there's only one attack button it allows for a combo move and specials like sending your spear spinning through the air to return like a boomerang (questionable from a physics point of view) and response time is good also.

When you get certain weapons you can equip them and then do special "summons" (There's a couple) which really helps when it comes to the bosses.

And for those of you who thought the case looked like a Dragon Ball Z drawing might find it kind of funny to find that you get to collect 5 green balls with red stars in the middle :p
you also have to collect four ability sphere's so that you can Super Dash, Super Jump, Super Slide and Double Jump also note that they're referred to as Eagle Power, Red Horse Power, Scorpion Power and Pegasus Feather. Apart from those you also have to collect stones of different colors (and ones even a rainbow stone :p) so that you can open locked areas of the game to proceed.

Instead of letting you choose armor and weapons though you'll be collecting rings, necklaces and armbands to change your stats, which works and then they don't have to do multiple graphics for different equipment.

So anyways, there's elves for no apparent reason but they hate humans (lucky your a clone ;) ) don't know if that matters but I thought I'd mention it :p

In the end there are actually 4 characters you can play as (and only three save slots :S) but three are basically the same character just some are stronger and start out with more than others.

The character that is different from the rest is called William and he's a human but his hand is all messed up and makes a really good weapon!

Oh, I forgot to mention, there's all sorts of neat stuff like being able to climb on statues and places that look like you should be able to walk on them but you can't, ect. Really messes with you sometimes, but that's part of the fun!

As it's an Action/RPG you fight like a normal side scroller but you gain experience like a RPG allowing for your character to develop, and if your lazy theirs certain places in the game where you can kill something and go up a whole level (doesn't move but you can hurt yourself by touching it and respawns when you leave and return... not sure if they intended it to be like that).

Saving can be confusing at times, not because it's hard but because in some places you can find a whole bunch of save points close together while other places your wishing you could find a savepoint but it just never seems to be close enough.

The game gives you quite a bit of area to explore but I couldn't get 100% (then and again you can't save after finishing so I'm not sure if the other ~4% was used up by the last boss room but I wouldn't think so...)

I think it might be possible with Night 331 to get to special area's but haven't gotten quite that far to find out yet. There's a talking dragon statue that you have to bring all the star balls to, not exactly sure why but he tells you your not dark enough when you do (I'm guessing that you have to be Night 331 or something).

Then the Giant moron toe in the sky came out of nowhere and tried to suck me up... Now that I have your attention again, I want to mention that character reuse with shifted palettes is slightly minimized compared to some games but still exists and there are some enemies that look similar but are different if you look closer ;) Another mentionable graphical effect is that the background color changes for each character! Ahh, if you get a combo over 1000 hits it will just turn to Combo000 and continue also, not sure if that's important or not just thought I'd mention it. Scheisse Hund!

Well, to summarize this all up it was an excellent game with alot of gameplay available (especially if you intend to finish it with all the characters :p), great graphics, music and sound effects that suit the game, terrific controls, and a storyline riddled with engrish :p It truly is a tribute to what could've been done on the GP32.

I'd have to give this game a 10/10 for graphics because they're not only fluid but also the various amount of special effects really do the game good!
Sound gets a 8/10 because I can't say everything is perfect...
Gameplay gets a solid 9/10, very intuitive control and smooth!
Storyline get's a 8/10 but only cause it's strewn with engrish although I have to give them points for supporting 6 languages

And as a final note: With the game the price it is now I'd say it's a worthwhile investment, seeing as I payed $100 CAD last winter to get it (and ordered before they had the cheap shipping for worldwide customers too :S)

P.S. Deleted User, thanks I totally forgot about the spacing :p
 
Hooka posted on Oct 31 2005 at 08:50 PM said:
*review*

I spaced it out a little so thats its easier to read :p

hope u dont mind ;)

Great review
 
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