Ratalaika Games has been re-releasing old games to the pleasure of retro fans with the latest being the forgotten third game in the Shockman series. Originally released exclusively in Japan for the PC Engine CD, Cyber Citizen Shockman 3: A Princess from Another World is another side scrolling action platformer akin to the previous games only with crisper visuals and much more manageable difficulty factor.
View my coverage of the first Shockman HERE and the second Shockman HERE.
And when I say it has a much more manageable difficulty factor, I mean it is still super hard but has the most non-cheap gameplay of the trilogy. Playing as a boy or girl robot similar to Mega Man, players need to hack and slash anything that moves throughout a handful of stages. In other words, gameplay is similar to the first two games only wrapped around a much deeper narrative. Thanks to the original CD format, there are plenty of cutscenes and voice acting, which has newly translated subtitles. While I don’t want to spoil the story here, just know that is very anime but brings a pleasant amount of charm to the overall experience. The soundtrack is also exceedingly well done. However, I did experience some odd audio issues during the cutscenes where the audio would be completely muted. Perhaps this can be updated with a future patch.
To witness the difficulty for yourself, feel free to watch my embedded playthrough here in this article. However, I cheated by activating the invincibility option found in the main menu – a much welcomed option. Without this cheat, I was only able to clear the first couple stages before getting smoked. Like the first games, I don’t really think it is possible to beat this game without this cheat activated.
Speaking of cheats, Ratalaika also included their typical extras, like saving and rewinding, but also added some much-requested features. For the first time, players can enjoy box, disc, and manual scans of the original game. Taking it one step further, players can access the unlockable bonus features right from the start that would otherwise only be viewable after clearing the game. These unlockable bonus features are also really strange and you can see it for yourself at the end of my embedded stream. While these new additions are certainly welcomed, there is still no option to adjust the audio levels. This is a pain for streamers because gameplay is just too loud, like most games are nowadays.
Out of the three games, this threequel is probably my favorite not just because it has the most features implemented, but because the gameplay is the fairest despite it being still ridiculously hard. The Shockman series is a perfectly fine, middle-tier action series. By no means is the gameplay outstanding or really different in anyway, but the fact that Ratalaika made the effort to re-release these forgotten titles says something about their commitment to gaming history. I am glad to have the chance to play through each game in this trilogy now that they are easily playable and outfitted with the absolutely necessary invincibility cheat. Chances are you missed these games upon their original release but given their low price and ease of access, it is encouraged to give these a shot even if you are mildly interested in retro games. Personally, I hope more PC Engine and PC Engine CD games get re-released like this because not many had the chance to experience these old titles.
SCORE: 7.5/10
Also Play: Jackie Chan’s Action Kung-Fu (TG16)
Don’t Forget About: the Legend of Dark Witch games on 3DS
Wait For It: a re-release of Dungeon Explorer I and II with 5-player co-op!
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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