If you play one Strategy game on Playstation then let it be..............
Feb 22 '02
The Bottom Line Hopefully you can find this cheap in a discount bin, but if you can't it's still worth picking up.
NECTARIS
MILITARY MADNESS
I'm writing this review to tell the world about this awesome strategy game because epinions.com still doesn't have it in their selection yet and I can't let this game be overlooked any longer.
I feel this game didn't get a lot of hype or respect and every strategy fan should know about I believe. Released in March of 1999, Nectaris was a war/strategy game created by Hudson soft of Japan and released here by Jaleco. It's also known as Military Madness for all you Turbografx fans out there. The name Nectaris was the Japanese name for the game and Military Madness was the North American name. Jaleco decided to combine the two names to avoid any more confusion.
Fight for the Moon
So what do you do in this game? You command your small moon army called Union (blue) and you're up against the more powerful and much larger Xenon army in a fight for control of the moon, if you lose; the Xenon (green) army will complete their top secret weapon S.A.M. (Supreme Air Missile) and destroy the earth with it. You have no choice but to fight the Xenon Army before it's too late. Can you out think your enemy enough to survive all 16levels?
What makes Nectaris so unique when compared to other war simulations is that game plays alot like a board game than a average real time strategy game like StarCraft, Herzog Zwei, or Dune. First the game start off with each side getting so many units like soldiers, tanks, indirect gunners, and aircrafts you get to move each unit once before you have to end your turn, than it's Xenon turn to strike back (which can be very hard to watch). Each set of units comes with a team of 8 and has its own strengths and weaknesses like the Rabbit doom buggies are extremely quick (so quick that they can even move after a battle) and have powerful ground missiles and even light air guns but they also have weak defense to be careful of.
Don't let tiny soldiers fight Giant Tanks
Although soldiers are the weakest units in the game, they are the only units that can capture a enemy base (for the instant win) or a factory. Xenon usually has the advantage with more units per level when you start, but there is also neutral yellow factories that carry more units to gain more of a advantage but the computer can also grab these factories too. If one of your units loses too many lives than you can store them into a factory to refill them back to a full 8per unit. There are two ways to win in Nectaris, first you can try and destroy every Xenon unit on the board or secondly you try and get your soldiers to take over the head base to force a surrender.
The really cool thing about Military Madness is the RPG elements throw in, each unit can get experience after a fight or factory takeover to increase firepower and defense to help gain a edge. Terrain can also effect gameplay by increasing defenses or by limiting the range of mobility like in a rocky area on a map that affects ground units while air units don't have to worry about this. It's also cool to 'gang up' on your enemy and use the Zone.Of.Control. effect, using Z.O.C. just right can cut a oppoents points in half or increase your attack power just by having friendly units near you during battle. Fights can be very unpredictable if you don't use Z.O.C.!
TurboGrafx-16
The Turbografx-16 version of Military Madness features 32 levels and decent 2D and Mode 7graphics and sound which are surprisingly not too different then the Playstation game. The game also has a build it manual to help get the basics down just incase you can't get a hold of the original instructions and even a cool two player mode as well. You can save your progress with a password system.
graphics: 5
sound: 7
gameplay: 9
Rating: 88/100
Playstation
The Playstation version features more of what I love with 16new missions plus the original Turbografx-16 levels too plus their altered worlds for a massive 64levels. If that wasn't enough there are also 44mini missions made by contest winners in Japan, that's over a 100 levels altogether and you can even make own thanks to a edit mode. Sadly there are no gameplay improvement over the original game because there are no new units, but at least there are all new 3D battle scenes (which can be turned off or on for zero loading times) that show off the powers of the Playstation. The graphics are much sharper than the original Military Madness thanks to the rendered backgrounds and the fight scenes look better than ever thanks to the awesome explosions, so they should be turned on ever once in awhile.
Although the music is the same as well, it too has been remixed exclusively for the Playstation complete with different tracks for each side's turn and it also has that cool final mission music too. The sound effects are also well done because you'll hear the difference between a foot soldier and a aircraft.
The Playstation version of Nectaris isn't perfect though because the new storyline cinema's are really poorly done in the game because the characters seem so bored despite being in a huge war, the cut scenes should be skipped altogether. Another thing wrong with this game is the lack of a two player like in the TurboGrafx-16 version. This is still a awesome game that should eat up a lot of your time because of all the levels and goodies to unlock.
graphics: 6
sound: 6
gameplay: 9
Rating: 91/100
Bottomline: At least try it!
Both games are excellent and hard to come by too. It takes about a hour or two to learn, and it hard to play the same game once thanks to the random damage, like a HUNTER party can totally wipe out a FALCON party or vice versa, so the game can be very hard to predict. It's cool to see if you can do better after you finish the game by trying a new strategy. I still play the game now and again, and I usually play Military Madness for hours on end.
-Starsoldier
www.gamegrandpas.com
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