Amagon
System: NES
Release Date: April 1989
Developer: Aicom
Publisher: American Sammy
Genre: Run and Gun
According to the manual, Amagon is the most decorated marine and has been sent to a monster infested island in the South Pacific. His goal is to get to the other end of the island and escape on a rescue ship. Wait… why are they dropping him off if his goal is to leave? Shouldn’t his goal be wipe the enemies off the face of the planet or something?
Amagon runs to the right and is armed with a machine gun. He jumps surprisingly high up in the air, but I’d consider his movements a bit too floaty. Enemies come on the screen and you must shoot or avoid them before they touch you. Get touched and you die. It took me several attempts to figure out the first zone. Then I died and had to do it all over again… multiple times. Your bullets count down as you shoot, and have to hope for magazines to drop from defeated enemies to stock up. There are six zones with two scenes a piece. The second scene of each level ends in a boss fight. I would say these are impossible if you don’t transform into Megagon.
What’s Megagon, you ask? Well, it’s a super version of Amagon. If there’s a novel mechanic, it’s that score is actually useful for something! That’s right, the score is not just for bragging rights. The higher your score, the more energy you have as Megagon. Once you have at least 5000 points and collect a mega-key from a downed enemy, you can press the Select Button to transform. You max out at 14 points of energy if you have 70,000 or more points. When you get hit, you lose a bar. Megagon also has the ability to shoot a laser beam. This costs one point of energy. You’re going to want to transform into Megagon for the second scene, because uppercutting enemies to the moon is more fun than shooting Amagon’s pea shooter.
Graphics: 2.0
The graphics are unique, but I wouldn’t call them attractive.
Sound: 1.5
The normal music in each scene isn’t very good. I kind of like Megagon’s theme, though.
Gameplay: 1.5
The floaty controls lead to frustrating deaths. The enemy spawning is erratic at points.
Difficulty: 2.5
Amagon is weak. Megagon is strong. You don’t get continues until you reach zone 4, so you need to be good at the first three.
Fun Factor: 2.0
I had equal parts fun and annoyed. It’s not that great of a game, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve played this week.
Overall Grade: 1.9
Amagon earns a C. I wouldn’t go out of your way to play this, there are plenty of other better run and gun games… and plenty of worse ones…