Andro Dunos

Despite not being a well-known name in arcade game development in the 90's, Visco created an early relationship with SNK to publish a handfull of titles on the Neo-Geo platform. Andro Dunos was the first out of the gate in 1992 and the final release was the rather abysmal Ganryu in 1999. Visco wasn't exactly known for their innovative game development, and all of their releases feel just a little generic. Still, they produced some real bangers like Andro Dunos, the Breakers series, and Neo Drift Out. Sadly, only Andro Dunos and the first Breakers saw release on the AES in Japan with Andro Dunos being the only one with an English AES release. All other Visco developed Neo games were locked on MVS in the 90's aside from Neo Drift Out which got an enhanced Neo CD release.

Andro Dunos sold relatively well for Visco and SNK, being the twentieth best performing arcade game in Japan in 1992. Still, it wasn't quite popular enough to warrant a home port to any home console of the day - which is a bit of a shame. At only 34 megs, it would have been a perfect fit on the SNES or Mega Drive - with some cutbacks of course. Taking inspiration from a number of better known STG's of the day, Andro Dunos is most like a cross between Technosoft's Thunderforce series and Konami's Gradius. 

Like Thunderforce, Andro Dunos is built around having multiple weapons you can freely switch between at any time. Rather than collecting weapons, though, you collect power-ups that can boost your weapon's strength up to three additional power levels. You can choose to sacrifice one of your weapon's power levels to unleash a devastating bomb that can decimate bosses. It seems that the "Normal" shot's bomb is the most powerful. 

Power-ups icons are not static and switch to different item types the longer they stay floating on the screen. Here's a quick breakdown:

• S Icon: Adds an additional power level to your main weapon systems.

• M Icon: Adds homing missiles, up to two levels. All weapons have a homing missile.

• B Icon: Adds special weapon properties to your equipped weapon. Each weapon type has a special sub weapon.

• U Icon: Adds option shields that can change into four different formations around your ship depending on the weapon you have equipped. For example, the Normal shot rotates the options around your ship. Options can absorb up to five hits before disappearing.

• B Bubble Icon: Bonus points. If you collect all bonus bubbles in the level you will begin the next stage with a full kit of weapons, including shield.

Each item type can be further beefed up by collecting more of the same icon, which is a nice touch. When you lose all your lives and continue, you are given one power level for each of your weapon types, including a shield. This helps quite a bit in the later levels due to a stark increase in overall difficulty beginning around the middle of stage 4. 

The level layouts are quite good, actually, and are decently long without overstaying their welcome. There are seven levels to traverse, and each one is unique. Additionally, the scrolling will shift from horizontal to vertical at some points which lends a bit of variety to your play through. Your ship always stays horizontally orientated, though. Enemy types are varied and the patterns they are programmed to follow are well designed overall. 

While some early Neo STG's were ridiculously difficult like Aicom's Viewpoint and SNK's own Ghost Pilots, Andro Dunos has a more even difficulty curve. It's still very hard, mind you, and the AES version is set at only 4 credits like most other AES games. Still, you can 1cc the game but it will take a bit of work. Not as much work as a game like Viewpoint or Pulstar, but there is a fair challenge here. Each time you lose a life one of the power stocks of your currently equipped weapon is sacrificed. And when you use up your lives and continue your game, you are given a complete loadout with one extra stock for your currently equipped weapon. This is nice as most STGs strip you bare if you use a continue no matter how far you are in the game, making it almost impossible to regain all the power-ups you've lost. 

You can also play co-op with one other player. While this is always a nice touch, I feel playing co-op STG's clutters the screen and you often lose sight of your ship in the chaos. The colors are so bright on the ships, though, that this is one of the easier STGs to play two player. 

Andro Dunos isn't going to win any awards for its graphics or presentation, but that's not to say it isn't well crafted. The pixel art is defined and strong, but the lower memory footprint holds the game back from having more variety and detail in its sprite and tile sets. Regardless, what is here is very competent. There's even a few clever sprite scaling techniques with enemy ships flying in the background and swooping around to the foreground and the like. I mean, it's not RayForce levels of scaling here, but nice that the designers were playing with perspective for the enemy patterns rather than just a linear onslaught. The visual style fits somewhere between a more serious shooter like Gradius and a cute'em-up like Twin-Bee. Sound design is also quite competent with excellent earworms that get stuck in your head long after a play session. And whoever designed the game's logo and marketing art needs an award - they are both brilliant.

Competent - That's the best word to describe Andro Dunos and most of Visco's games by and large. There isn't anything wrong with Andro Dunos, really, but it's not particularly innovative and you've seen everything it has to offer before. That isn't to say it's not worth your time, though, because if you like horizontal STG's based on pattern recognition, you'll find a lot of value here. It's a fun game that is just hard enough to provide a long challenge with decent music and graphics. 

There are a few ways to snag a physical copy these days thanks to a modern, official reproduction. First up is the original Japanese AES release from 1992. This is the rarest of the bunch and will set you back over $2000 if you can find a copy. The English AES release is slightly less rare, which equates to about $1500 or so in the modern 2022 retro market. In 2020 French publisher PixelHeart and Japanese publisher Josh Prod (Columbus Circle) snagged the rights to many of Visco's titles and released "official" AES reproductions of their games. Although limited to 500 copies for each the Japanese and English versions, these official reprints are still widely available for less than $400 directly from PixelHeart or other retailers. I mean, you could also snag an unofficial reproduction cartridge for even less, so do what works for you here. My one caveat with these reproductions are the actual PCB size. The PCBs are a bit thicker than official SNK stock making them fit somewhat uncomfortably snug in your AES. So, while I don't think they would cause an issue, it may bend the connection pins in the console back further than intended making authentic games hard to play over time. I mention this only because it could happen and you will have to use your best judgement if you want to take that risk or not.

Of course there was an MVS release both in Japan and the US, but these are quite rare compared to other MVS titles, so be prepared to pay $500 or more. There was no official Neo CD release in the 90's, but there was a Neo CD version issued with the aforementioned PixelHeart AES reproductions you can snag for just over $100 if the Neo CD is your thing. To my knowledge there is no official digital version of Andro Dunos outside of emulation in the modern era.

In 2022 PixelHeart, along with other publishing and developing partners, released a surprise sequel called Andro Dunos 2 for most modern platforms available both digitally and physically (in limited numbers). Reviews for the sequel have been very positive across the board, with many modern STG masters declaring it one of their games of the year for 2022. While nobody asked for or wanted a sequel to this somewhat obscure early Neo-Geo game, the release and favorable reviews of the surprise second game have made more people take notice of the original and it has garnered some more positive press in retrospective reviews as of late. 

So, should you get a copy for your AES or MVS library? Well, considering there are numerous ways to get the game - sure? I mean, even an unofficial reproduction will cost you over $250 and the MVS is a better deal only because is a quarter of the price of the AES release but still an obscene amount of money for most people. If you're willing to spend $500 on a single video game, there are more important and better Neo releases to capture first. Still, if STGs are your thing you honestly can't go wrong here.