Conflict
System: NES
Release Date: March 1990
Developer: Vic Tokai
Publisher: Vic Tokai
Genre: Strategy
Vic Tokai is back with another mistranslated nightmare, this time with Conflict. It’s a Cold War battle between the Western and Eastern forces. Take control of the blue team and try to wipe out your enemy, computer or human, in sixteen levels.
You can choose from fifteen available maps to start your game. You need to defeat them all to earn a password for the final level. There are two choices for how many units can be moved per turn, either 3 or all units. I only played with 3 units moving in my attempts, I can see getting overrun quickly with all units moving turned on. There’s also a level of difficulty that affects your starting Fame Points.
Fame Points are necessary for producing new units at the factory. The more FP you have, the more units that are available for you to produce. Fame Points are earned by holding towns and airports and defeating enemies in battle. They are lost when you lose in battle. If you lose all your FP, the only units you can produce are the super weak Infantrymen.
When you get into battle you may be given the option to attack, defend, or retreat. If you attack, you’ll be able to shoot your machine guns and possibly your secondary weapon. Your secondary weapon is often the better choice, able to deal big damage, but limited in ammo. On defense, you’re given five or six options of what to do. I thought I understood what the proper choices would be after setting my decisions to be decided automatically by the computer. I was dead wrong. When I switched back to manual calls, I could rarely kill an enemy. The instruction manual gives you some clues, but I think they’re wrong, as the AI never followed them.
There’s a rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock relationship among the different units. You can see the specific unit you’re selecting and then you’re told what kind of unit it should attack. At that point, you’re locked into moving it, so hopefully you’re making a good decision. Forests and mountains require more movement points than plains. In order to win, you have to take out the enemy Commander, designated with an H. However, if they destroy yours, it’s game over.
Graphics: 2.5
The map has a lot of green and blue. The battle screens are a lot more detailed.
Sound: 2.5
Music and sounds are decidedly Vic Tokai in composition.
Gameplay: 2.5
You have a lot of options. When are they best used? Beats me.
Difficulty: 3.0
I think there is some garbage randomization. I feel like I lost a lot of dice rolls I should have had a good chance of winning.
Fun Factor: 2.0
I was kind of enjoying myself, but not fully.
Overall Grade: 2.5
Conflict earns a B-. This is definitely a playable game. Different people will get different mileage out of it, but give it a try.