Target Earth
System: Genesis
Release Date: June 1990
Developer: NCS
Publisher: DreamWorks
Genre: Action
Climb into a big ol’ space mech in Target Earth. A space colonization team is lost in space just before the world devolves into world war. From the ashes of destruction, the Earth became united and resumed their colonization efforts. Equipped with 12 foot tall mechs, the Earth Defense League is beset upon by a new enemy named the Chron! Guard the planet or doom them all.
When the level begins, you have to choose your load out. There are many different weapons and their upgrades that you earn by defeating the stage with many points. The LG Gun is your starting weapon. It comes equipped with infinite bullets, but in clips of 20. This restriction becomes incredibly annoying and restricting and you’ll sub this gun out right away. There’s a spread gun, a grenade launcher, the D.D. shoots a bomb that leaves damaging residue in the air, the Missile Launcher is a homing weapon.
Your weapon is aimed by moving the d-pad. So is your movement. This gets to be kind of a pain in the butt to control efficiently. The A Button fires your currently equipped weapon. The B Button jumps, with an extra large jump occasionally occurring if you press it repeatedly. The C Button switches to the next weapon in your queue.
Levels have different objectives to them. On the first, you need to destroy an incoming war ship before dying yourself. This is much more difficult than it sounds. Your health replenishes extremely slowly if you’re not in action. Enemies take a ton of hits to kill and if you aren’t well equipped, you’ll be hamstrung by the default gun. Enemy layouts change between lives, so maybe dying can help you out.
After escaping Ganymede in stage two, you are sent to space to guard the space shuttle as it reenters the atmosphere. You have to stay alive for five minutes, which again, not so simple. Level four sends you across the front line to sabotage the enemy’s power reactor. This is where I crapped out. The unresponsiveness of aiming the gun made taking out the guard turrets nearly impossible. Then the reactor did so much damage that I couldn’t escape from.
Graphics: 2.5
I think everything looks nice enough. The sprites are pretty crisp. The backgrounds have the ability to be interesting to look.
Sound: 2.0
This is the typical Genesis music that I expect from the system. I have a soft spot for Sega bass.
Gameplay: 1.0
Controls are very finicky. Aiming is slow and terrible. Enemies take way too many hits to kill.
Difficulty: 1.0
The new guns don’t make you much more powerful or effective. Too many enemies spawn, tearing you to shreds without much hope.
Fun Factor: 0.5
You can tell when I’m really not enjoying a game if I call it quits half way through.
Overall Grade: 1.4
Target Earth earns a D+. My guess is the lost expedition came back as the bad guys. I’m not going to bother to look it up. Pass on this one.