Developer: Toho Publisher: Kaneko Released: 12/26/90 Genre: Shooter
It is amazing just how many shooters were released for the Genesis early on. It shouldn’t come as a surprise; the system’s fast processor made porting the latest arcade titles easy. Of course it also does not hurt that shooters in general are not as complex as a platformer and easier to create. But just because the games were there does not mean they were good. Case in point, Heavy Unit. The game is decent and ticks all of the usual boxes but lacks that special something like a Thunder Force that would make you seek it out. There are far too many alternatives on the system to bother with an average game.
This version of Heavy Unit is an interesting beast. Originally the game was released to the arcade in 1988 with a PC Engine port the next year. That version is pretty much identical to its coin op big brother in terms of gameplay although the graphics have taken a massive hit. Its Sega counterpart improves on the arcade game with slightly better graphics although that is not saying much. Both versions are import only and considering the stiff competition I can see why. Heavy Unit would have been just another shooter from a weird publisher and lost in the mix.
Most shooters live and die by their weapon system and unfortunately Heavy Unit falls short. There’s an option for more speed, a shield that protects you from three hits, and a power booster that raises your firepower. You also have missiles that to be honest aren’t much help. Sadly that is all and when fully powered up you won’t really notice much of a difference. On the plus side it only takes three boosters to reach max level.
The Heavy Unit in the title refers to a power-up that transforms your ship into a mech. In this form your firepower doubles and your missiles become heat seekers. Unfortunately it is not as awesome as it sounds. Your missiles have a tendency to follow the wrong enemies and even circle around power-ups instead. While your robot looks cool it also makes you a very large target, making some boss battles even more frustrating than they should be. It’s also pretty rare up until the end of the game; in the first five levels I probably changed twice. As much as I like the mech power-up in practice it was not worth dealing with the larger sprite in exchange for power.
Even though Heavy Unit is a bit simple on the mechanics it can be incredibly difficult. Because the weapons system is lacking you have to employ some ace flying to make up for it. Death comes in one hit and you are thrown back to a checkpoint which any shooting fan will know might as well be a death sentence. Power-up distribution isn’t the greatest and when combined with the sparse checkpoints dying becomes an even larger deterrent to finishing the game. The barrier item that offers protection does so sporadically; some enemies seemed to have no problem pushing right through it. All of these factors might sound harsh but it just means you’ll have to be extra careful because the designers did not equip you properly.
Heavy Unit’s six levels initially don’t seem very long. However due to the difficulty and heavy trial and error involved in making progress it seems longer than it actually is. It’s a Catch 22; more levels would have been nice but the entire production is mediocre so would that really have made the game better? They at least tried to extend the life of the game through the various options in its menus such as stage select, game saving, and even watching a replay of your last run. They are definitely cool but would have been better off in a good game.
The game’s presentation is a bit odd. This is very clearly a sci-fi shooter however there are numerous medieval elements such as heavily armored archers and dragons. It mixes its technological enemies and themes with the organic in a way that never quite seems to mesh. The enemy sprites are larger overall than in most games of this type, especially for the year of its release. The backgrounds and color choices tend to be very garish with the game’s best moments being its Alien inspiration. Despite that it lags far behind similar 1990 releases such as Thunder Force 3 and M.U.S.H.A.
In Conclusion
Decent sums up Heavy Unit the best. It is entertaining for what it is but at the same time it won’t knock your socks off either. The one interesting feature in the game is executed far better in other titles like Android Assault and Macross 2036. With so many options you would have to be hard up for yet another shooter to sink this low.
