Vist Genki!

Format: Mega CD
From: Wolf Team
Year of Release: 1993
Onscreen Language: Japanese
Campaign 1 - Banner 2

 
Devastator
 





















N/A

Created as a co-production between the animation studio Takara and Japanese software house Wolfteam. The two part Anime OAVs and video game were released simultaneously.

In the early 90's Wolfteam were unwavering in their support for the less than popular Mega CD add-on, releasing wave after wave of low quality dross on the format. Unfortunately this co-production is no different. In fact Takara commissioned two games to be released together with the D1-Devastator videos but only this one made it to the shops, the Super Famicom game later being reworked into a completely unconnected title.

It's not hard to see why the other project was cancelled. Devastator is a dull, formulaic, repetitive and highly uninspired platform game. Just to prove how uninspired this effort is consider this fact; the Devastator of the title is a giant car that can transform into a robot yet this game doesn't actually feature any transforming or car related action! Instead you just leap around almost identical levels hitting almost identical enemies with an anchor.

There is a tiny sliver of level variation with the odd scrolling shoot-em-up stage dropped in every so often but these are even less inspired than the platform sections. Wave after wave of tiny robots fly past you with seemingly no thought as to their attack patterns or numbers.

Your robot's choice of weapon doesn't help matters either. Repeatedly poking bad guys with a slow moving anchor just isn't exciting. You can upgrade you anchor up to 4 times with one of three different power-ups but it makes no difference to it's dullness factor.

The CD format is basically used to store reasonable quality chunks of the OAV which are shown between levels and for the standard Mega CD game/Wolfteam rock muzak soundtrack. The graphics are nothing the Mega Drive couldn't handle alone. Occasionally a boss enemy might pay lip-service to a scaling effect but it's nothing that will wake you from your apathetic coma.

Everything about this game screams generic platform game template. Even the sound effects are library sounds used in countless other unremarkable Wolfteam snooze-fests.

Has anyone actually seen the obscure anime this was promoting? If you have let me know as I'd be interested in viewing it for myself. From what I can tell from the clips in the game it's just as generic. And the pilot girl's costume? I heard of 'scantily clad' but she's basically wearing a capital T! But most importantly of all; are the levels actually based on scenes from the OAV? Does Devastator do battle with a giant circle? Does it fight tiny bees in a desert? Does it even use an anchor as a weapon? Let me know.

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