Cannon Spike review

For that reason Cannon Spike is like instant fresh air for someone wanting quick hand relief without the use of Fiesta and Vaseline and for that reason, it makes its mark on the Dreamcast. Why, you ask? Read on, my friend. The story is simple, uncomplicated and shallower than the river of spittle left around the local street hangout, but a little deeper than the morons who create the river. Terrorist Robots wreak havoc upon the world prompting fear of the apocalypse amongst the race we call human and the World Peace Alliance forms an anti-terrorist group called the Anti-Robot Special Forces to combat this threat. As ridiculous as videogame backgrounds go, this isn't too bad in comparison to something along the lines of, lets say, Jeff Minter's Attack of the Mutant Camels, but it's pretty abysmal. But it's fun, simple and light-hearted, just like the game itself. Cannon Spike is an isometric 3D shoot 'em up with graphics loosely based on a mish-mash of old levels from various Capcom produced games; anyone familiar with Capcom games of old and new will find the style familiar and comforting. Some old Capcom characters make an appearance too, such as Arthur from Ghosts and Goblins, Cammy from Street Fighter, Mega Man (yeah!) and B.B. Hood from Darkstalkers. Complete with a few new ones such as Shiva, an ex-snowboarding champion and Simone (a lady with a love for swords) there isn't a bad selection of playable characters although some would say not enough.Each player has different moves to take on the rampant hoards of enemy that attack, including a gun that can be locked on to target individuals and individual melee manoeuvres of varying strength. A two-player co-operative mode is present too. It's graphically crisp, accomplished and although it doesn't astound or stun GameStyle found it to be striking in an odd way. The game play is polished, smooth and easy to master although at times the lock on targeting is a bit fiddly. At first you reminisce about playing the far superior Powerstone, but then the fogs of time roll back and you start to think more along the lines of Smash TV due to a constant stream of enemies, ranging from Zombies to flamethrower wielding droids. Boss battles and the bosses themselves are nothing special, but fairly inventive with differing methods of attack, some bordering on complete panic station feeling with multitudes of bullets onscreen at once. Instantly the frenetic action onscreen at once reminds one of those old skool shooters. You know, the ones that used to cause beads of sweat to trickle down the inside of your arms on a hot summers day spent down the local arcade. The music is there, but somehow you don't really notice it, possibly due to the frantic shooting and explosions or due to its averageness. On completion of all 10 stages and destruction of the final bosses (the tenth stage is a run of boss battles) you are treated to a small hand drawn cutscene, credits and once done you can access a gallery of artwork, and that's basically it. One amusing point to mention is that the game is such a straight port from the arcade machine that at the end of the credits you get to enter your initials, nicely placed in the (usual) top right/left of the screen. Even the difficulty settings are straight from an arcade machine! Overall, Cannon Spike is as deep as any straight-port arcade game is and for that fact alone at full price it wouldn't be worth touching. With the price just one penny below twenty notes and the fact that it offers some straight up, quick paced shooting and fighting action makes the retail price palatable. A good, if not great or remarkable game; if you like the arcades and quick thrill games of this nature, give it a try. You might just like it. I did.