Format: Advance
Genre: Action
Developer: Altron Corporation
Publisher: Taito

he port of the popular SNES game, Pocky & Rocky! Unfortunately I didn't see any way to co-op play for this title, which is extremely sad considering that the entire reason this game was so popular in the first place was because of it's co-op play. 7 Stages, plays like a mixture between an action adventure like 'Zelda: link to the past' and your average shmup with enemies that roll in from off screen in set patterns. The art style is very cutesy in this game. The music is fairly fitting as well. In terms, this easily qualifies as a polished game, yet, after experiencing it's respawning mechanics it can easily be seen as somewhat makeshift. The original game has Pocky(shrine maiden) and Rocky(Tanuki Raccoon) as they seal up a great evil ghost that escaped. The story holds as these 2 heroes + one extra shrine maiden named Becky joins in. Hardcore shmup fans won't get a ton of mileage out of this one, as it's more of a baby's first shmup experience. In truth, it's a very easy going game with little to stop the player from just running past everything. If you're like me, you'll probably die a lot to some very stupid things, like umbrellas. The bosses are all pretty interesting in their own rights, but the one that earned most of my ire was the final boss for having a few movements that 100% guaranteed death. You have 2 attacks in this game and a super attack. The A button shoots projectiles, the B button does a melee swipe, and the L button launches your super death beams from above attack. Or maybe it was the R button? Doesn't really matter, it's barely ever needed in this game that's really really easy. Upon beating the game you get an input code you can enter in the title screen to unlock a second playthrough, aka hard mode. More enemies, tougher enemies, you know the deal. It's pretty clear when you beat the game because of the giant "THE END" sign, but, I didn't see any credits. It's just a simple fun run&gun style game with some shmup inspiration added to it. Great for beginners. For anyone wondering what a 'shmup' is, it stands for 'shoot'em up', a style of game where many enemies come on the screen and shoot bullets at you, while you are expected to shoot back while dodging. Shmups are almost exclusively never 'First Person Shooters', but there are rare occasions like Starfox.

All in All, This short joyful adventure gets a score of 8.0 for it's light-hearted nature. No strafing hurts this game for it's style of play. Respawning enemies can be a nuisance. Bosses are a bit funky and too weak/strong. Game design is basically 2-hits to death. Not really challenging (too easy).