The Best Martin Virtual Report #7
By: Patrick X. Best and Eric M. Martin |
Tuesday September 04, 2007 |
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Silent Debuggers |
Silent Debuggers Patrick: I come to you today a new man, a man who recently turned twenty two and has a new outlook on life. Due to our recent hiatus we were sort of forced to take due to scheduling problems, Eric and I come to you with a fresh list of Virtual Console games and great titles have hit the shelves: Paper Mario, Super Mario 2, and Kirby’s Dream Course, just to name a few. However, we’ve decided to take on yet another game that most have probably never heard of. Silent Debuggers for the TurboGrafx-16. After reading the “More Info” on this title we were well not as disappointed in it as the other titles. So 600 points and a few minutes later we were the proud owners of the game. Silent Debuggers Originally released for: TurboGrafx-16 Cost: 600 Wii Points ($6.00 US) Year of Release: 1991 Controller Options: Wii Remote, Classic Controller Players: 1 GENERAL OVERVIEW Silent Debuggers is a first person shooter video game developed by Data East. The game was originally released in 1991. Due to an unfortunate incident that occurred one year ago, the large cargo station, "OHME" was abandoned. Motivated by the rumor that there is great treasure on board, you take on the challenge as a "DEBUGGER" to recover the treasure and return from a place no one has ever come back from alive! "LEON" and a rookie "DEBUGGER" (main character) enter "OHME" to investigate and unravel its mystery. Players must explore "OHME" and make it to the lowest level ("LEVEL 6") within the time limit to take control of the sub-computer and stop the self-destruct. You must defeat all of the enemies in one level to gain access to the next lower one. You'll have to rely on your Sensors' sound and color changes to find all of the monsters. OPENING THOUGHTS Patrick: Hmm what to say. The opening looks like a Mega Man meets Gundam intro, nice shiny lights with a lame spaceship meets transformer thingy. Eric: The story seems a little lengthy for something pretty basic. After the intro, I was half expecting to read some good ol’ down-home Engrish. Instead, it was simple story that kept me as bored as Leon, your in-game assistant, just talked away. GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE Patrick: Well this game is, um… so basically, hmm. Eric? Eric: This game is a total disappointment is what it is, or you could go with the “extreme letdown” way of thinking. My ponderance of choice? I just chunked off part of a brand new Wii points card on this piece of total crap! TOTAL! CRAP! Level design is confusing with no real help from the map system, but that may have been forgivable. What isn’t forgivable is the total lack of difficulty balance. On level one, aliens take anywhere from 9 to 250 shots to kill, and that doesn’t stop them from ramming into you relentlessly. Without a life indicator of sorts, you have no clue when you’re going to bite it. Zero indication that I’m out to kill every enemy in the outer areas in order to advance. Then, once I do, I get a little more story that makes little sense and then end up with enemies in the so-called safe zones. Without warning, I lose one of my eight blocks before I realize that I’m supposed to check my map and realize what block they’re in. Weapon selection is more or less an afterthought. And what’s up with the item selection? What items? There are no other rooms in these open areas. Enemies don’t drop items. Enemies don’t drop anything other than my patience level and my expectations. After dying twice and losing two blocks in a matter of nine minutes, I hit the Power button, ruefully regretting choosing this over Kirby’s Dream Course. Not only do I feel cheated for purchasing this game in 2007, but I believe that a small part of my 11-year-old past just suffered from severe disappointment, far outclassing the closing of Showbiz Pizza. Shame on you, Data East. I mean, you brought us Bad Dudes! Come on! Patrick: Yeah that pretty much sums up my feelings. CHANGES Both: WHO CARES!!! JUDGEMENT Well even Ebert and Roper had to do this when you knew the obvious. Eric: PASS! Read the Gameplay Experience section. Patrick: Why are you still reading this? |
