Midnight Resistance
System: Genesis
Release Date: June 1991
Developer: Data East/ISCO/Opera House
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
They’ve taken your family and you need to make them pay in Midnight Resistance! As an agent for the government’s Narcotics Control Agency, you’re bound to make some enemies. Especially when your dad is a lead scientist working on a cure for drug addiction. Crimson King, the head of the most powerful of the cartels has abducted your family. There are nine levels of enemies to take out before you can save them. Can you dethrone the Crimson King?
Going into the options, you find four different control modes. Normally, Genesis games allow you to rotate what the buttons do. Here, it changes the function of the B Button. The A Button is a toggle between shooting and not shooting. This can take a few minutes to get used to. Control Mode A has you controlling your aim with the d-pad, but pressing the B Button locks the direction you’re shooting. I started with this scheme, but didn’t care for it, so when I died, I opted to try Control Mode B-1. The other 3 Control Modes have you rotate your aim as you hold the B Button. B-1 alternates rotating clockwise and counterclockwise every time, while the other two always rotate one direction or the other.
This is run and gun style shoot ‘em up. Levels are linear and involve you killing all the enemies that come on screen. Red clad enemies drop keys when you kill them. You can hold up to six and they are used to buy powerups between levels. There are four different main guns and three different backpack weapons you can buy. The Full Auto, 3-Way, and Shot Gun were fine, but weren’t my favorites. All of the guns you buy with keys have limited ammo, starting with 500 bullets. This should be enough to run your gun constantly for the next level, but you can buy more bullets, maxing out at 999. My favorite weapon was the flamethrower. This thing was an unstoppable beast of a weapon and I played as much of the game as possible with it.
The backpack weapons can be activated by pressing up when you’ve got shooting toggled on. These are screen attacking weapons, with the shower dropping missiles across the screen. Nitro having a fireball split and radiate from a circle. The homing missiles seek out enemies on screen. These all come with 50 bullets and you should really just use them whenever you want. I doubt you’ll use 50 in a level and you can always buy more. What you should definitely buy whenever you can is the Super Charge. This powers up your equipped weapon, making you an unstoppable bad ass. These airplanes were a huge pain in the butt with the default gun, but a super charge powered fire gun put them to waste in a snap. There’s also a super helpful barrier that takes out bad guys when they touch it.
Levels are pretty short. I beat the game twice in the span of less than an hour. The levels mostly have some sort of gimmick at their core. Whether it’s a bunch of trucks trying to run you over. Or a gauntlet of enemies and gears that want to crush you. Or a series of corridors you have to crawl through. Bosses at the end of each level are relatively easy once you figure out their pattern. They’re especially easy if your weapon is powered up. You want to stock up on keys when you’re climbing the set of four ladders. Have all six if you can in order to save your entire family. Any you don’t save won’t be there after defeating the final boss. The final boss tried to trick me, thinking the jaw was the weak point because it would flash when dealing damage, but it’s actually the eyes. But he’s not hard, so I hope you save your whole family!
Graphics: 3.0
Some of the sprites almost kind of remind me of a love affair between Metal Slug and Contra, which isn’t a bad place to live.
Sound: 3.0
I didn’t mind the sound track and the sounds weren’t overpoweringly annoying.
Gameplay: 3.0
The weapon rotating gimmick is novel, but I don’t love it. I wouldn’t mind seeing the B and C Buttons rotating them in different directions, but then you lose the jump button, so it’s not a perfect solution.
Difficulty: 3.0
Levels were competently laid out, you are able to have upwards of 30 lives to get it all said and done.
Fun Factor: 3.0
Hey, I liked this one enough to play it again right away. If that doesn’t tell you that it’s a good time, I don’t know what does.
Overall Rating: 3.0
Midnight Resistance earns a B. This is a solid run and gun that I probably would have gotten a kick out of when I was younger, give it a shot.