Pulstar

Released at a time when there were few side scrolling shooters being published, Pulstar was a breath of fresh air in the arcade scene. Prior to Pulstar there had only been a handful of shooters released on the Neo-Geo, and most of them were released between 1990 and 1992. Eager to get some variety in their MVS arcade cabinets, arcade operators were pleased to have an attractive, well designed game that drew in players who weren't interested in fighting games. 

While Pulstar was generally well received upon release, journalists were quick to mention the difficulty as being off putting to some. It sold well enough in Japan, but was received very poorly in the US due to the difficulty. Oddly enough, its difficulty is often looked at as one of the game's biggest assets in retrospective reviews. It's not nearly as hard as early Neo-Geo shooters, but is tougher than its sequel Blazing Star by a fair margin. Despite being a modest success in the arcade, SNK only released a handful of AES carts in Japan as a result. Due to the very poor reception in the US, there was not a western AES or CD release.

Pulstar's story revolves around Kaoru Yamazaki, pilot of the Pulstar attack force, as she pilots the Dino-246 space fighter jet against an alien race that threatens to wipe out the remaining population of humans in the year 2248. Her single-handed assault on the alien menace takes her through a ruined solar system to Neptune where she will meet the main threat and hopefully put an end to the onslaught. 

At the outset of the game you can choose to begin in one of the four main stages. This is handy as each stage has its own gimmicks and learning curve to deal with. Once you've mastered a stage you can begin on the subsequent stage the next time you play so you don't have to bother going through all the other stages you've already mastered before tackling the next challenge. That said, all the first four stages must be cleared before moving on to the final four stages, and there are inherent drawbacks to not starting from the beginning I'll cover below when we discuss the game's difficulty. 

Pulstar's gameplay is mostly reminiscent of Irem's classic shooter R-Type. Like R-Type you gain a drone that provides of variety of passive and active buffs. Rather than being able to detach and use the drone around the screen like in the aforementioned game, it stays on the front of your ship once obtained. This drone boosts your fire power and you can sacrifice it to do a (mostly) screen clearing bomb. The best feature of the drone is the ability to absorb most bullets and even kill weak enemy types that run into it. As the drone is always at the front of your ship, the rest of your ship is vulnerable. As you power up you can also earn two side gunners that increase the amount of bullets and missiles each time you shoot. These side gunners will absorb many small bullets as they swarm around you leading to further protection...and you'll need it. 

For the most part you have one standard gun attack and a variety of charged shots you can collect and use. Charged shots are integral to the game plan and do a substantial amount of damage compared to your regular shot. Your normal charged shot shoots a single, large ball of plasma ahead of you that rips through enemies. There are also three additional different types of charged shots you can collect that each have their own abilities. The first type releases a twirling stream of green bullets that hit above and below you, while also unleashing your fully charged plasma cannon straight ahead. The second type of charged shot shoots lasers along with your plasma ball that bounce along the floor and ceiling destroying most in their path. The third type of charged shot releases a laser that creates enemy destroying ripples in the air as it travels the screen, piercing all that touch it. 

There is one additional type of weapon that replaces your normal bullets with small pink lasers. The faster you press the fire button, the larger a glowing pink shield grows around you that protects you from all damage. If you use a charged shot when this weapon is equipped you lose your shield, so it is best to keep jamming on the fire button to keep the shield up when surrounded by a large group of enemies - especially the swarms in level 2.

The last main weapon mechanic is the power meter at the bottom of the screen. The red left side of the meter shows how effective your shots are when fire is continually pressed. You get more bullets per button press the faster you press it, thus increasing your fire power. The blue right side of the meter is a visual representation of how long it will take you to power up your charge shot. The more power you collect, the faster your charged shot meter will fill. 

Like many other STG's of the day, your ship does not begin the adventure at full speed. Along with weapon types, drones, and power-ups, you'll also have to collect speed power-ups to increase your ship's mobility. The default speed of your ship is hardly useful, even at the outset of the game. Thankfully, speed power-ups are pretty common, but the lack of default speed is my biggest gripe with this game. If you find yourself late game and lose a life, your speed is reset to default and your game essentially goes to shit. 

Pulstar is a game of skill. Individual bullets do very little damage to enemies, especially bosses, so smart timing of your charged shot is the crux of the gameplay loop. The screen is usually littered with larger enemies that will only fall if shot with your charged cannon, and bosses won't go down easily unless this tactic is applied. Because you can't shoot when you are charging your weapon, your drone acts as a shield to protect you from on coming fire so you can be free to maneuver your ship around enemies above, below, and behind you. Enemy swarms can be dense, though, so you often find yourself trapped and unable to maneuver out of harms way. Thankfully, weapon charges are relatively fast even at default, so you won't be without power for long. That said, one missed charged shot can spell doom if you aren't careful. Like many other horizontal shooters, everything in Pulstar is based on pre-programmed positions and patterns. Basically, the more you play the better you become.

The difficulty curve is Pulstar's biggest turn-off to many gamers, and is the one attribute that keeps me from declaring Pulstar a classic masterpiece. As amazing as the game is, it continues to get in its own way by quickly making a frustrating experience for all but the most stalwart of gamers. First off, Pulstar is fair. It is 100% possible to beat the game in a single credit. At the same time, when you lose a life you are sent back to a checkpoint - and each stage has at least two. You also lose all powerups including your speed boosts, so you'll often find yourself in an exceedingly difficult area with a stock ship that moves as slow as molasses with no fire-power. Much like Konami's Gradius, once you die you may as well start the game over. Unlike Gradius, which is hard, Pulstar is leagues more difficult and much longer. The second checkpoint in each stage happens about 3/4 of the way through, so if you die at a boss you are flung back to that point. While you can collect at least one speed boost and one power up on the trek back to the boss, it is the trek back that is usually the problem. If playing on AES, you have unlimited credits, so at least there's that?

If you're playing on real Neo-Geo Hardware (AES or MVS) you can get an easy to install upgrade called a Unibios that replaces the BIOS ROM on the system's motherboard. This Unibios allows you to switch regions, boot a game in AES or MVS mode, and acts as a sort of Action Replay with built in cheats for each game. Pulstar has a cadre of cheats, like Max Speed, that allow you to tailor the game difficulty a bit as the actual difficulty settings are pointless from my experience. I can tell no discernable difference between Easy and Normal. Using a Unibios cheat or two takes away some of the pain while still providing a challenging and satisfying experience. Still, the game is completely beatable, even on one credit, without any cheats applied...it will probably take you around 40 hours to master the game, though, which is much more time than most people can or will dedicate to an arcade game like this. 

Released on the largest mega cartridge on the Neo-Geo at the time, Pulstar is an absolute showstopper even today. As the first game on the Neo-Geo to use fully CGI assets, it had a lot to prove with the likes of Killer Instinct being released a year prior in the arcade, and even the impressive Donkey Kong Country on the SNES at home. The CGI sprites are beautifully colored, with vibrant backgrounds that are absolutely teeming with life and animation. Every object moves with a fluidity that was unparalleled in 1995, and the shear size and density of the sprites on screen creates a beautiful orchestra of chaos around the player ship. Every explosion, every bullet, and every enemy is meticulously detailed. One very awesome detail I have to mention is the way light moves and refracts on the player's ship when they are submerged in water. It's a small detail that is just as impressive now as it was over 25 years ago. It's unfortunate that unless you watch somebody else playing you hardly have time to appreciate how beautiful the game is in the middle of battle. Every moment of Pulstar is an astounding work of art and engineering. 

Pulstar also has an amazing and varied soundtrack that fits the themes of each individual stage perfectly. The opening stage in particular is awesome with a booming entrance that gets you excited for long and difficult road ahead. That said, the music does not use the Neo's powerful Yamaha 2610 sound processor to its full extent. Rather, the music was produced on more powerful music hardware and was then down sampled to low-bitrate mono. Each track in the game is essentially a one minute long recording set to loop. It's a shame too, as the music ends up sounding a muffled compared to the bright and vibrant sound effects that are in full Stereo. This is the one instance where I'd almost recommend (if it weren't for the frequent and long loads) playing this game on Neo CD to get the full aural experience as the composition of the music is actually rather good.

Pulstar is often lauded as the best shooter on the Neo-Geo (with Blazing Star being a very close second) and one of the best shooters of the late-90's arcade era. Big, bold, beautiful, and bursting with energy, Pulstar is most certainly a classic that arcade game fans should try at least once. Even today the graphics, animation, music, and effects hold up admirably. Sure, the game is undeniably hard, but despite the difficulty there is a continuous draw to jump back in for "just one more go." To say they don't make games like this anymore is an understatement of epic proportions. 

Due to Pulstar's obscurity on the AES, MVS, and CD, all versions of the game are prohibitively expensive for the average collector. A complete Japanese AES copy in good condition will run you no less than $4000 in the modern market, while the MVS version can be as expensive as $800 depending on condition. Due to the game being unpopular in the arcade in the US, there was no Western branded AES release for those territories and MVS copies are more sparse due to it being unpopular pretty much everywhere but Japan. The NeoCD version, while being the cheapest of the three, still costs upwards of $200. Pulstar was never ported to any other console of the day, so until it showed up randomly on PC a few years ago there was no official way to play this masterpiece for almost 20 years! In the years since it has become more available, modern gamers are waking up to the amazing craftsmanship, design, and old school charm that make Pulstar such a compelling piece of art. 

These days? Just grab a copy of it on Hamster's Arcade Archives series on modern platforms or fire it up on a Neo compatible arcade emulator. The Neo is well explored by now, so you can experience this game with save states on emulators which will let you further practice each stage on your way to mastery without all the misery. Really, this is one game I recommend modern gamers play on emulator over original hardware due to how dense the difficulty is. 

No matter how you play this game, you should give it a shot. Even if you don't typically like STGs, play it at least once to see what Aicom and SNK cooked up - you may just find yourself hooked on a game you thought you'd otherwise pass up.