Charge'N Blast (Dreamcast)

 There was a big problem in the world of UK-based Dreamcast magazines. Though the console was mostly a home arcade machine, made by an arcade company, and with many arcade ports in its library, both first and third party, most of these magazines seemed to be staffed by writers with a bizarre pathological hatred for arcade games. Charge N Blast was a game they really, really hated, of course.

 

The big point of contention with a lot of the critics at the time was its length. And yes, if you don't care about actually playing the game, and you just want to credit feed your way to seeing the end credits, it is a very short game. Probably less than half an hour. But I don't know why you would do that. It's not an enjoyable way of playing any kind of game. I find it boring to use continues, as I'm sure I've mentioned numerous times before, and after a couple of hours of playing Charge N Blast, I can semi-reliably get about half way through the game on a single credit.

 

Addressing the follies of generations past aside, how does the game actually play? Pretty well, and, more interestingly: pretty idiosyncratically! It looks like a standard Cabal-alike, which was a long-dead genre in 2000, but it's actually something a little more unique. The best way to describe it would be to describe the control system, which does take a little getting used to at first. You use the d-pad or analogue stick to move your crosshairs around and aim at enemies, and the shoulder buttons to move left and right to dodge enemy attacks. 

 

That's odd enough, but it's shooting where things get even more unusual. Each character (there are three to choose from) has three weapons, and each is assigned to the X, Y, and B buttons. These aren't fire buttons, though, but they start charging the weapon up; the longer you leave it before firing, the more powerful the shot will be. Furthermore, some weapons let you lock onto multiple enemies by moving the crosshair over them while the weapon charges. Then, you press A to actually shoot. So, rather than switching between your three weapons, you instead choose which one you want to charge a few seconds before you actually make each shot.

 

It's a fun and interesting take on the old crosshair shooter, and though it could have been done a few years earlier with sprite scaling, the turn-of-the-century polygons look is fine, too. Like I said, it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it's a fun and unique game, and I recommend giving it a try. Unfortunately, it seems that the Dreamcast has gone the way of the PC Engine in terms of ludicrous game prices, though, so emulate it, unless you're rich uncle moneybags.