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| New York City in the future is purple. |
Alright, let's do this; play us some Action in New York, I mean. When I first laid eyes on this game, I just didn't understand. Action in New York? I was thinking that it would be something along the lines of a Double Dragon clone or The Last Action Hero. Never did I imagine a side-scrolling shooter where you're some cybernetic guy or gal flying around shooting aliens. The name just confuses the hell out of me. To bring even more confusion to the table, the game is also known as SCAT. That's right, this game's name is SCAT. Fantastic, at least they're being upfront about the shit.
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| I guess this is an Astrotube. |
SCAT apparently stands for Special Cybernetic Attack Team, so maybe the game isn't all about feces. Whatever. The plot goes a bit like this: The year is 2029 and some aliens have planted a giant Astrotube, whatever that is, on Earth. Apparently it connects the ruins of New York City to the alien space station. I guess they wanted VIP access to Times Square or something so they shot it up and put in an elevator. SCAT was assembled to fight the aliens and remove the Asstube. Right, I meant to say Astrotube.
There's both a one and two player mode which are fairly self-explanatory, move around and kill stuff. The controls are basic, nothing's too stiff or too touchy, but it's not as great as it could be. When playing the single player mode you can choose between two members of SCAT: Arnold or Sigourney. When playing two players, player one is Arnold and two is Sigourney. Now do these names make you picture anyone in particular?
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| Man, just how old is she now? |
I would imagine that the creators made those US names on purpose, because they aren't the original Japanese names by any means. I realize that both actors have some great sci-fi hits, but did
Natsume really need to use these names and make kids think of their movie idols at the time? Can't they just make a good game instead?
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| Just put your money right in. |
So as I mentioned, the gameplay is pretty standard. Fly around the screen and shoot everything in sight. Sometimes you move vertically, but most of the time it's just a horizontal flight pattern, nothing special. You get six lives, but with unlimited continues there's no reason to not play straight through the five levels that there. Not only is this game a confusing mesh of science-fiction and feces, but it's also really freaking short. It's like today, if you were to buy a game and beat it in five hours it equals $50 shat right down the damn drain. Moving on, there're some power-ups for your gun, movement speed, and life recovery. Overall it's not a bad game, it's just blah. I mean, how many times have you pleayed a game like this? Granted not all of them involve Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Sigourney Weaver trying to save the world from an Asstube, but it's still too bland to be good.
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| See how much harder? |
The Japanese version was harder than the American and European, having supplied the players with only three lives. Also the story at the beginning showed the destruction of a bunch of cities before the Asstube was firmly planted into New York City. Another difference is that the JP version had two male characters instead of a male and female. What are they, sexist? Oh wait, they are. The European version also had a difference with the characters. They kept their likeness to the actors mentioned earlier, but the names were changed to Silver Man and Sparks, guess they didn't like either Alien or Predator... In this version also, SCAT was changed to SAT. I guess the EP market wouldn't do well with buying a game about shit.
Even though this game is really weird, and Natsume made it easy to pick on, it's not like it's a "bad" game, it's just so mediocre that it's not good. When I beat the game I didn't feel accomplished, I felt like I wasted a few hours of my life. Instead of playing this game I could have read a book, started a new language, or just played a better fucking game. What a waste.
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