Tokio

Released: 1987

Pitch: Defeat the waves of enemy planes as you fly over Tokyo in your bi-plane.

Tokio is a vertical-scrolling shmup that I didn't like very much. First of all, it follows the Xevious model of using different shots for air and ground bad guys (they fire at the same time at least) and I've never been a fan of that style. I want to shoot everything with the same bullets! And when you die, you do not start right where you died. If a game wants to start me at the beginning of a level after I use a continue, ok, I can accept that, but this game bumps you back to the start of the current section every time you die. If you run out of lives, it's back to the beginning of the game. It's not very friendly. It does have an interesting structure, though. Rather than separate levels, the game is one long run (near as I can tell, anyway; I haven't watched the longplay yet) with the backgrounds changing depending on where you are. It's kind of cool. You can also pick up wingmen: little ships that will fly with you and help. It's reminiscent of Gradius from the previous year, though this game certainly does not reach the same heights. Still, the wingmen do help keep the experience from feeling stale. Too bad the rest of the game has so many problems.

The guy that made this video calls Tokio the "greatest Xevious-like of all time," so clearly the game has fans.