Overview
Cannon Spike (previously released in Japanese arcades under the name Gun Spike) actually hearkens back to the shooters of the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s. You know the ones…those quarter-consuming arcade games that so many of us loved and loathed with equal passion- games like Contra, Strikers 1945, and Metal Slug. Cannon Spike’s game engine and gameplay were created by the now-defunct videogame subcontractor Psikyo, but makes use of characters wholly owned and created by Capcom. Unsurprisingly, it is the presence of these characters which serves as the greatest initial lure for playing the game.
Cannon Spike takes place in the early 21st century of the Capcom universe. Acts of terrorism around the world have created a chaotic lawlessness that has crippled humanity. These terrorists, unlike the ones in our more banal reality, are actually cybernetic in nature. Accordingly, an organization called ‘The World Union for Peace’ assemble an “Anti-Robot Special Force” which is designed to hunt down these terrorists and destroy them. ARSF members use their own individualized weapons and are issued “motor boots” – basically motorized skates. The members of this ARSF are drawn from various parts of the Capcom universe. Among them are Cammy (Street Fighter series), Arthur (of Ghost and Goblins fame), Charlie (Street Fighter Series), Simone (an original character created for this game) and Shiba Shintaro (who hails from Three Wonders...cool points to those of you who remembered this game, becuase I certainly didn't!).Selectable as special “hidden”characters are Capcom fan-favorites Megaman (Megaman series, naturally) and B.B. Hood (Darkstalkers series).To select these ‘hidden’ characters, just move the selection cursor off the screen to the right or the left.
Cannon Spike attempts to bring the ferocious energy and fun of traditional 2-D, sprite-based shooters of the past into the future through the use of 3-D polygonal character models and level design. In many aspects, the game succeeds admirably. Unfortunately, it also falls short a few very important areas.
Graphics 8/10
Taking into consideration the hardware of the time, Cannon Spike looks quite good. At the beginning of each level, there is a very short cutscene which usually depicts your character squaring off against the robotic opponents. Each of these cutscenes is well done, setting the tone for the action to follow. The polygonal character and level models all have an element depth.There is no polygon overlapping The individual heavy shots for each charter are visually appealing and unique. Also, the explosion and fire effects for this game are quite good. The fire effects in particular are probably among the best ever executed on the Dreamcast.
It’s worth noting that a great deal of time and effort was put into designing distinctive-looking opponents and bosses. Capcom, of course, has always been good at designing good-looking robotic characters. After all, they’ve done 87 games in the Megaman series. One would hope that they’ve learned something about designing interesting robotic figures. The boss characters have a style all their own. Without a doubt, Capcom’s artists had the most fun designing these characters. Not only do they all sport unusual names like “Crazy Machine Jet Tiger” or “Ravager Kabuki,” they’re often hilarious looking. Fun Fact: Street Fighter's Vega– here known as “Fallen Balrog” – makes a cameo appearance in this game as a sub-boss. However, for some strange reason he looks a lot like Marilyn Manson...
Gameplay/Controls 7/10
Cannon Spike makes use of an overhead, top-down camera view which provides the characters with great freedom of movement throughout their limited environments. Gameplay tends to be fairly typical of the shooter genre: Scores of enemies surround and attack in rapid succession. The player must, of course, evade the enemies’ projectiles and melee attacks while pumpin’ the evil robotic varmints full of as much lead as possible. There are two separate attacks for each character which can be used to do this. The normal shot simply fires a steady stream of dots indicative of sub-machine gun fire. Each character also has an individualized ‘heavy shot’ which is slower to execute, but far more damaging. The player also has the option attacking the enemy with one of two different melee attacks, a normal one or a hard attack. There is a primitive combo system in place which will count the number of hits used in a melee combo and display them for you near the upper left of your life bar. Melee attacks can be used either to maintain distance with the encroaching enemies or in order to punch one’s way out once you’ve been completely surrounded.
Many of you who are familiar with shooters know that, every so often, destroyed enemies drop goodies that can replenish or strengthen your character. Cannon Spike has three of these power ups. Armor items (shaped like little rectangles) actually increase the total length of your character’s life meter. Recovery items (these look like little green and white capsules) enable your character to regain the life that is lost whenever your reflexes aren’t quite as fast as you would have liked. Super meter items ( red diamonds with a yellow ‘S’ in the center) enable the character to make use of the ‘Super Attack.’ Each character has his or her own custom super attack which will do massive damage across a wide radius. As you might imagine, Super meter items show up sparingly, and thus Super Attacks should be used only as a last resort or when facing boss characters.
Speaking of boss characters, each of the game’s levels has a similar set-up when it comes to facing these. Each level begins with your selected ARSF member facing off with hordes of robotic enemies. After destroying a certain number of terrorists, the level sub-boss will attack. After you’ve dispatched him, you must fight the boss of the level. In several cases the boss or sub-boss will have two different forms which must be defeated. This ‘dual-form’ will tend to happen with greater frequency as you near the game’s final level.
Each of the seven game characters has their own individualized weapons and move-sets, as well as different movement speeds. Arthur, for example, fights in a massive suit of powered armor which seems to be an amalgamation of that of a medieval English knight and Marvel’s War Machine. As a result, he is relatively slow but sports tremendous power. Arthur can destroy even bosses in short order if he can connect with a string of heavy shots and heavy melee attacks. Megaman, Cammy, Bulleta, and Charlie all have move-sets which will be very familiar to those who have played them in their respective genre games.
All in all, gameplay for Cannon Spike is challenging and a lot of fun. Psikyo was the creator of many fine shooters, and they definitely knew their craft well. The game has 7 difficulty levels (Level 1= ‘Baby,’ while Level 7 = ‘Very Hard’), so finding a skill level which matches your current reflex speed won’t be a problem at all. The fact that there are only a finite amount of continues available will definitely provide a challenge to those who want to flex their screen clearing abilities.
Despite the fun of Cannon Spike's gameplay, a serious chink in its armor is the level design. Many of the levels are well-designed, and visually reminiscent of scenes from other Capcom games. For example SFA2’s SonSon store shows up in one level, while another level looks like it came straight out of Resident Evil. Unfortunately, the levels as a whole are too small. Because the overall area isn’t very large, there isn’t the feeling that one is freely roaming about, exploring new terrain while dodging incoming fire. Another downside is that these levels are often simple open areas. Including hazardous or beneficial terrain features (such as caverns to be avoided or trees to temporarily hide behind) would have added a great deal to the game. Finally, there are fewer levels in this game than one who enjoys shooters would typically expect. There are only 10 levels- far too few. (It’s rumored, however, that extra levels are unlockable if one can complete a game on hard without dying once. If any of you gamers out there manage to pull that off, be sure to e-mail me a pic or two...)
The game makes use of all 6 of the Dreamcast’s buttons. A unleashes the normal shot, and X is the heavy shot. Similarly, B is the game’s normal melee attack, and Y executes the heavy melee attack. The left trigger executes the Super Attack if you have any red Super Attack icons in your inventory. Finally, the right trigger is used for ‘target lock.’ This feature sights up a red beam against any selected enemy. Holding the trigger down will cause the lock to hold for a short duration. While the lock lasts, the player can move anywhere in the environment while firing at that target and have their shots hit. Considering the frantic movements that players will make while trying to attack and evade a screen-full of enemies, the target lock ability is invaluable. Either the analog stick or the D-pad can be used to control the character’s movement.
Cannon Spike is a very responsive game; if you’ve got good hand-eye-coordination you should have no problems dealing out death while evading what the AI throws at you. It can’t be stressed enough that the target lock must be utilized regularly in order to become truly effective.
Sound/Music 5/10
This is where the game takes another significant hit, unfortunately. While the music in some levels is engaging and seems appropriate to the setting (the Slope, King of the Jungle, and the Deep Shrine come to mind), in most of the levels the music is just not very memorable. There isn’t even an option at the opening menu of the game which would allow one to review the game’s sounds or audio track, and that’s never a good sign.
The voice actors for the player characters do make those characters sound authentic and true to their origins. In contrast, the robotic terrorists that you’re battling against make a VERY annoying sound when they die. It actually sounds like they’re saying “Wheee!” Needless to say, that did not appeal to this gamer. In a game like this one, death should sound painful or explosive.
Preferably both.
Replay Value 5/10
Unfortunately, the brevity and simplicity of the levels, combined with the fact that there are only ten of them, comes as a big strike against the replayability of this game. However, Capcom does include a few features in the hopes of enticing players to come back for a second and third go-round.
Each of the game’s characters has their own ending. This will be an enticement for some to play with every character. Then too, the fact that each character plays differently from the others can add to the game’s replay value. If you’ve beaten the game with Megaman, playing through it again as Cammy or Arthur will definitely be a different experience.
The feature which most enticed me to play, though, was the Gallery. Capcom artist Kinu Nishimura was the lead designer for this game. The gallery includes the design paintings and sketchings that she used in creating the characters for this game. As you beat Cannon Spike with different characters, you will unlock different sections of the gallery. There are 61 total images in 4 different sections. For those of you with an artistic bent, the addition of this feature will be a welcome enticement to play. Others will simply want more levels.
Overall 6/10
Cannon Spike will definitely provide a few hours of fun. However, it is not designed for long-term enjoyment. Capcom was aware of this from the start; the game was first offered on the DC for $29.99. These days, even that would be too much to pay. If you can get your hands on it for $15.00 or less, you should look forward to a few hours of good times.
- by Kain Maxi
