3RRDC Cannon Spike

Some more shooting mayhem from the fine folks at Psikyo and
Capcom, but is it any good? Of course, but while it is an enjoyable
game it does have its flaws. This plays a lot like a vertical 2d shooter
except now it's in 3d and now you aren't limited to just flying up or
down. You get a top down perspective of the action. But, the power
ups, bullets, and boss battles are all there so lets check out the spike.
Be warned this review makes repeated reference to the other
capcom/psikyo shooter gunbird 2. But don't worry that review is also
posted.

Even though Psikyo made this, there are a lot of capcom characters in
this game to keep the capcom fans excited. You see the story is in
20xx AD the world is in trouble and there is a bunch of terrorism
caused by robots. So the "World union for peace" gets this team
together to stop the robots. The team is equipped with specialized
motor boots, or fancy roller blades. Why? Not sure, but if I were going
up against terrorist robots, I'd bring my motor boots too. So the story is
kinda weird but how about the team? Who are the playable
characters? Well first the two new original characters are shiba and
simone. I'm assuming psikyo made them. But we get some cool
capcom characters as well. Charlie (or Nash if you prefer) from street
fighter alpha, King Arthur from the classic ghosts and goblins series,
Cammy White from the street fighter series as well as two secret
capcom characters, B.B. Hood from darkstalkers and the blue bomber
himself, let's all say yeah for Mega man! So while it doesn't make sense
on how the characters have come together in the future, I don't really
care as the character list is pretty solid.

So choose your character and prepare to blast your way through 10
intense levels of bullet mayhem. Shoot the robots and don't get shot
yourself. Fight some bosses and in about oh say a half an hour you
should be done. Let's talk about gameplay. Your character can lock on
to enemies, use a heavy shot, a close up attack, normal fire, and a
special attack. Now unlike gunbird 2 the other shooter from
psikyo/capcom released in the states (go read that review if you
haven't already) the normal fire and charged up attacks while looking
slightly different don't have the variety of gunbird 2. Special attacks
and close up shots however do look very different. In cannon spike 1
bullet will not mean death. In this game you are given a life bar that
you can enlarge and refill from powerups you get from killing enemies.
You also can collect special attack diamonds which are used for
special attacks. No powerup and you can't use it. You can move with
either the d-pad or the control stick, your choice. So gameplay wise, if
you've ever played a shooter before, you should know the drill for
cannon spike. All in all classic fun.

For the different modes there is only arcade mode, which includes
seven different difficulty levels from 1:baby to 7:hard. There are no
story sequences between levels, and each character only has 1
ending. Pairing up characters is possible to get unique endings
character specific for the team but they tend to be very similar. It was
a huge mistake to not include the 1 player, 2 player mode found in
gunbird 2. If you want to see the 2 player specific endings, you need to
have someone playing as 2 player. So bring a friend.

Graphics wise is a mixed bag. Character models certainly won't have
you drooling, but they weren't bad. They have the look and feel of
power stone if that helps. Enemies however, are boring and mundane
looking (mostly) and the levels are varied. Some levels like the resident
evil like level with zombie dogs are pretty cool, but some like the arctic
level and the geo front are boring. But the levels are all different, 1
takes place in a jungle, another the ghetto ect. Too many dull colors
though. Many enemies of the robot kind are either brown or grey. The
artwork for the characters and their endings are very nice though.
Also in this game is "revenger balrog" (vega in america). Yes now you
can battle balrog as he is in the future, a scary looking hobo(?). If more
capcom (or psikyo) references were put into the baddies, it would have
added some flair, but I guess too much time went into the playable
characters. Boss battles fare better then the normal drones. Here we
get some cool looking robots and a Cat girl among others.

Sound wise is pretty good. The characters all have Japanese voices
that sound good and we have normal shooting sound effects. Music
wise, cannon spike is strange. I was wondering, that with all the
capcom references, would we also receive capcom music for some of
the stages but nope. Instead we get this weird and crazy
porno/technoish soundtrack, that while there's nothing wrong with it,
it wasn't really something to get excited over. But it is still good and
almost danceable. The sweet piece of music played during the credits
was a welcome addition and was really good.

Replay value wise are playing to get all the endings of course. There's
also a gallery. This one is better than gunbird 2's because most of the
pics in here aren't in the game, and a lot are sketches. There are 61
pieces of art to look at in the gallery (which you unlock after you beat
the game once.) You can also try to get high scores and try to fill the
rankings. You can also play as Cammy in her blue street fighter suit.
(Just press up on the d-pad at the character select screen to change
the costume.) No debug mode in this one. (At least no one's found it.)

Overall, while the game has more levels than gunbird 2, and more
capcom characters for the (capcom) fans this one isn't as fun. I just
enjoyed the orignal psykio characters and 2D graphics from gunbird 2
more. But if gunbird 2 was too cute for you, this one might be up your
alley. The loading times are very quick and it only takes 8 blocks of
memory on the vmu. Fans will want it just to play as mega man in
(good) 3d. But presentation wise, I'd rather fly with the bird. But of
course I'll always swoop down to the spike becuase it also is fun and
interesting. Just lacking in a few areas. But don't let that fool ya. This
game can get just as intense and impossible as gb2 so it's another
welcome challenge.

P.S. In Capcom vs. SNK on the Dreamcast, in the dojo level where the
building can fall down, when the walls fall down the street outside is
one of the levels in this game. Just thought I'd let you know. By the
way why is the game called Cannon Spike? Why did psikyo name it
after one of Cammy's moves?

Review by: Orochi Sonic