Burning Force: The Beginning of My Gaming Journey

Do you remember your first game? First console or computer? Your first cartridge, disk, floppy disk or God bless your ancient soul cassette tape? Your first dive into the virtual world of games?

I remember all of this. And my first video game experience, just like this moment, is filled with a New Year’s atmosphere.

The first of January I don’t remember exactly which year. The house is filled with the smells of tangerines and the Christmas tree, the decorations on the branches shimmer merrily in the light of the garland, half-eaten goodies await their inevitable fate, and I, having just opened my eyes, rush to the tree in search of traces of Santa Claus. What if the letter with the ordered Dendy (and not, unfortunately, a request for mercy from the beautiful Dalek) did not reach this miracle worker with an interesting work schedule? What if he doesn’t know what this overseas something is and brought something else??

To be honest, I myself didn’t really know what kind of dandy this was. Stories about little people that you control yourself aroused many questions and genuine interest, and boxes with an elephant in the store poisoned a small soul unfamiliar with this miracle. And the impatience to finally get acquainted with a certain Dendy gave me a second cosmic speed that morning.

And here I am under the Christmas tree and in my hands is the coveted box with the inscription SEGA Mega Drive 2! And at that moment I was absolutely happy… stop. What SEGA? Where is my Dendy? An old idiot in a red robe decided to grab my gift and put something unknown in it?

Luckily, relatives came to the rescue and told us that “this is better than dandy!». Even if certain notes of doubt never left me (especially after the incidents with "how a mosquito bites" And "the hamster just ran away"), but curiosity and delight at being introduced to something unprecedented took over, and I forced all this splendor to be connected while I annihilated all the sweets found on the tree.

The console is connected, I’m bursting with impatience and sweets, but the main question remains – what to play?? It’s a gaming console. This is where the cartridge came to the rescue, lying neatly next to the main gift. A girl on a motorcycle flying straight into some kind of technodrome from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inspired some fantasies about the upcoming adventure. But there was no time to fantasize, because the console’s power switch clicked, and for the first time I saw the name of my first game – Burning Force.

You are a Space Force cadet. What’s more important is that you are also a sexy anime girl with gorgeous blue hair. What is most important and what characterizes your parents well as not really dreaming about you – your name is Hiromi. In order to become a full-fledged member of the team, you must pass the final test. Fortunately, it’s not as cruel as in fast food eateries or office pens. No, no one will force you to learn a sandwich recipe or sell a pen. Everything is simpler here. We need to save the world from an army of alien robots.

To carry out the assigned tasks, you will be given all the necessary equipment and equipment: an exoskeleton, an energy shield, tanks, machine guns, grenade launchers… but no, all of the above has already been traditionally stolen by the ensign and you will have to be content with a tight-fitting swimsuit, a bicycle helmet, a motorcycle without wheels, the skeleton of an airplane and a pair of guns.

With this starter pack for the savior of the world, we plunge into the abyss of shooter gameplay. If you played Space Harrier, saved your sanity from the trips shown there and remember its gameplay, then with Burning Force you’ll become friends right away.

Your task as a player: shoot, dodge retaliatory bullets, catch all obstacles with your face, and collect balls with letters at will. What do they give? Playing Contra such a question would not be asked. Each ball changes the type of projectiles. They may be like "oh cool" and "why the hell did I take this", well, that is, according to the classics.

Standard type of shooting https://winshark-casino.co.uk/ – two bullets. You can change them to one fat beam that pierces enemies through, to a wide volley of four bullets, or to spiral-shaped projectiles with an increased rate of fire. Well, for the toughest enemies you have in your stash there are two types of missiles that sting no worse than black corsairs. You may also have noticed green balls without letters. So they are needed to exchange for short-term invulnerability. "Fi, legal cheats" – you say. To which I will answer: “Absolutely true».

Why is such a formidable ammunition needed?? For alien robots, as I said at the beginning. There are many types of these creatures, and their design is my respect. Robots are tanks, robots are fighter jets, this jumping crap, it’s hard to understand what it is, and I won’t even try to describe it..

In short, it is not possible to consider opponents properly. Therefore, when a new type of robotic something appeared, my imagination turned on, and all the details that could not be seen due to the low resolution of the picture and the features of the screens of those years were completed in my imagination.

By the way, because of these same features, I then thought that this girl had no legs and instead of them a strange rounded prosthesis with small paws.

But what looks as it should, regardless of screens and resolution – the environment. For each of the 6 days of the “exam” there is one location, divided into three sublevels. Morning and evening you will have to fight on your trusty two-wheeled…oh, wait, it’s hovering… Morning and evening you will have to fight on your trusty wheelless friend, but at night you will have to put on the body of an airplane. When compared with the arcade version of the game, Sega’s version is, of course, inferior in the variety of backdrops.

But does this stop you from playing?? Not at all. Despite only the changing lighting, I waited with trepidation for the transition to the next level. After all, new opponents, new half-bosses and full bosses were waiting there. And I won’t lie at all if I say that this is one of the few games in my memory with so many interesting bossfights. Their appearance was mesmerizing, and their sudden attacks made you convulsively squeeze the joystick with your hands and the carpet with your seat. Just take a look! Where else have you seen a shooting fly??

Or a snake robot from Morgenstenorv knobs?

And in this hostile product I alone see the head of a fly?

The final boss is actually a whole fucking flying castle with a bunch of guns! So try to guess where he will start naughty again.

But it’s not the Glavgads alone who are interested in alien lands. Each level boasts excellent music playing in the background of the unfolding battles. And the soundtrack is just wonderful. Moreover, not only does each theme sound great even apart from the game, but it also perfectly emphasizes the atmosphere of each location directly during the gameplay.

The theme of the first level, as befits the beginning of a great journey, inspires us to heroic adventures with its squeaky 16-bit guitar cuts.

While fighting in the desert, you will hear oriental motifs characteristic of such an environment. But so that you don’t relax and feel like you’re on a simple excursion through the dunes, the soundtrack is filled with a powerful percussion component, which makes you feel the danger lurking around.

Mysterious and dark locations of the third level are perfectly complemented by equally mysterious music. The predominant bass line perfectly emphasizes the surrealism and gloom of these places.

Next we have to continue our journey through sun-drenched fields. After such a oppressive environment of the previous level, this environment is like a breath of fresh air. The musical theme, guessing our mood, gives out something light, as if relaxing us, but the heroic notes do not let us forget about our goal and seem to prepare us for something dangerous in the future.

But something dangerous doesn’t take long to appear and appears in the form of a set of last arenas before the final battle. There’s also the soundtrack, and the location itself is quite similar to what was in the third level. But even though there is more light here, the music has begun to evoke more unfriendly sensations.

About the musical component of the last boss fight, we can say that it turned out to be not very melodic, but it copes with its main function – to create tension from the final difficult battle.

And if the musical accompaniment turned out to be “excellent”, then with the sounds the situation turned out to be a little worse. Firstly, some sound effects, and especially the scoring and picking up balls in the bonus level, make you think about twisting your ears against the thread. Secondly, you will not get a complete sound picture of what is happening, because.To. the howl of a siren, the roar of explosions and the roar of gunfire are not played simultaneously, but drown out each other, leaving only one playable effect. It may seem that this gets rid of the cacophony of all kinds of bangs, booms and other auditory violence, but no one has canceled the quality balance of the sound and you still feel as if you are going deaf from yet another audio effect that has come to the fore.

If we put all the components together into a single picture, then we are faced with just a good game. She doesn’t want to sing her praises, she doesn’t want to consider her a cult, but she just wants to play. Tightly crafted arcade gameplay, extravaganza of visual special effects and stunning background music are woven into a single flow of levels, floating through which you simply have fun. It’s nice to come back to it, it’s nice to listen to the soundtrack and it’s nice to see that the creators remember their creation.

After all, we could see the main character Burning Force in games like Namco High (2013) and Namco X Capcom (2005).

I remember this game too. Even though I didn’t become a fan of anime style or a fan of similar gameplay, I really appreciate it as my first gaming experience. I am grateful to this cartridge, as well as to my family, who gave it to me along with the first console in my life. I am grateful that from that moment to this day my life is very closely connected with video game entertainment. My hobbies, my work, my humble beginnings in my business.

Yes, I don’t argue at all that it’s in place Burning Force it could have been any other game and it could have just as warmed my memory part of the brain and my soul with nostalgia. But under the tree on the morning of January 1, I don’t remember which year there was exactly THIS cartridge, with THIS prefix, just for me.

And nothing can be changed. All that remains is to remember this moment and subsequent moments with warm and slightly sad notes. And now I’m not just talking about the cartridge and games. So I wish to remember all the bright moments of my past and try to multiply them in the future both for myself and for those who deserve it.