Retro Reboot SHMUPtember | Alpha Mission II (Neo Geo)
That's how you beef up a sequel
RETRO REBOOT
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
9/22/20264 min read
Developer : SNK
Published by: SNK
Release date: July 1st, 1991
I don't talk about SNK's shoot'em ups enough. the brand that ingratiate themselves to me through their fighting games as a kid also has a more than respectable library of SHMUP titles that get a little overlooked, in my humble opinion. Granted, the field was very crowded, and at least for my experience, I was always more familiar with Ikari Warriors and Aero Fighters. Alpha Mission, I played on the NES. It was pretty decent, but Alpha Mission II felt like a cooler game.
This was that period where any time I saw the New Geo hardware in action, it was always a sight to witness. Their sprite work definitely left an impression, and while it was business malpractice as the 90's rolled on, I sort of understood why they stuck with them for so long. Alpha Mission II's animations and hand drawn designs exhibited some traits and nuances that would later appear in the Metal Slug series, like the machinery. It bears a resemblance in my eyes, anyways.
Like Konami's Lightning Fighters, Alpha Mission comes from that era of vertical scrolling SHMUPs that have a hearty challenge to them, yet exemplify a more emphasized on gradual escalation of difficulty. It's not brutally unfair, nor does it become an insane boss rush. In Alpha Mission II, much of the meta from the first game is retained, like upgrading your cannon to a temporary power-up that depletes energy with continued use, and restocking your supply at the end of a stage.
Thankfully, you do instant respawn after death, and your weapons face a downgrade upon returning, so SNK cut some on players. After the brutal hell they put me through with Guerilla War and Iron Tank, it was about time. Alpha Mission II is also faster, and weapons are a little more diverse, and the bosses are bigger, packing the screen with tons of firepower.
Talking a little more about the visuals, they light up the playing field. There's no slowdown, not a lot of screen tearing, and as I played the Arcade Archives version of this (produced by Hamster), there's zero input lag, from my experience. As mentioned before, SNK's style is visually impressive, and a lot of times through Alpha Mission II, the screen can get pretty dense. Coloring the main ship being shaded pink thankfully helps it stand out.
I do have some problems, however. I am not the biggest fan of the HUD. Even with the shadowdrop on the text, the information gets easily lost in enemy fire. the text to notify me when my laser upgrade is ready happens to be red...when a red spaceship is flying right in front of it. Also, there is little distinction between airborne and ground enemies. Might be a nitpick with your vertical scrollers, but it can be annoying to me, as I have to keep in mind where I'm supposed to be flying, and I don't wish to put myself in the wave of fire to destroy a structure. Looks great, but it can get incredibly busy.
Alpha Mission II controls really well. Fast, responsive, and easy to understand, it's a pretty stimulating title that hearkens to the period before Treasure's influence on the genre changed the way how these games were made; a time where you could beat one of these games by simply pumping a ton of tokens into the cabinet. You can upgrade your main Laser a good handful of times, as well as the missiles. As mentioned, your weapons can be retained after dying, providing you've collected enough K power-ups to maintain them.
It's got a solid amount of nuance, and while it doesn't do much that hasn't been seen before from this genre at this point, it's satisfying enough to hold my attention. The stages can be a little monotonous, as the locations don't vary all to much from design to enemies. Occasionally, some things catch me off guard, like magnetic beams that draw the ship inward, or indestructible mirrors that obstruct the path of travel. But for the most part, Alpha Mission II teeters on getting repetitive. At only seven stages, it doesn't overstay its welcome.
The music and sound effects are solid. They won't be OST that gets stuck in my brain the way Gradius or R-TYPE does, but it provides a decent ambiance, and the explosions are crisp. Maybe there is a setback to playing on my basic bitch set-up, these elements are probably far more impressive emitting from the genuine article.
This is a cool game. It doesn't really blown the lid off of the SHMUP genre, but when talking about a sequel that makes everything from the original game that much better, Alpha Mission II fits that bill quite adequately. It's a good arcade shoot'em up from the earlier days, where the genre began to discover itself coming out of the 80's, and SNK had some good ingenuity and artistic style. It may float around with being too old school for its own good, as the features and weapons can feel a little thin compared to other games from Taito, who went big all the time. But Alpha Mission is enough of a different flavor to be a quality middle-tier blaster.
