Developer: Arcade Zone Publisher: Super Fighter Team Released: December 23, 2013 Genre: Action
Its always frustrating to see what could be a good game get cancelled. In this day and age it is more common to see and to even learn the details why. But back in the day it was rare. Nightmare Busters was an exquisitely beautiful late generation SNES title that gained attention due to its artwork. But on the eve of its release it disappeared although it was close to complete. Thanks to Super Fighter Team it is now available. But now that I have played it my feelings are mixed.
Nightmare Busters is a run and gun action game along the lines of Contra although it does not appear that way at first glance. Your leprechaun looking protagonist looks more at home in a platformer than an action game. But the game means business. Your default weapon are playing cards that are not that strong. There are a wide variety of extra power-ups, from wide shots, flaming cards, fireballs, and even a two-way shot. Bombs take the form of magic spells, of which there are three. One underused and sadly useless move is the dash attack. You can charge up the dash attack to rush across the screen, damaging everything in your path. However the charge is long and with the aggressive enemies not worth bothering with.
The gameplay in Nightmare Busters is very similar to the Midnight Wanderers portion of Capcom’s 3 Wonders. In some respects it even looks like it. The game wastes no time getting to the action. Within seconds enemies attack and rarely if ever let up. You cannot linger in one place, not just because of time but because enemies spawn constantly. The game is very generous with its power-ups which is a god send as the default cards are incredibly weak. While action is at Nightmare Busters core there is some platforming, mostly in the game’s second half. It is…serviceable at best. It is very obvious with these controls and pacing platforming is not the focus. You will appreciate the reprieve from the game’s chaos as the difficulty is absolutely brutal however.
From the moment the game starts it is immediately apparent that it will be a challenge. Whether your weapons are weak or the enemies are too resilient, whatever the case it is no surprise that most will die a few times in the opening moments. You can take two hits before death but it still seems like not enough. Do yourself a favor: use the cheat code to turn on rapid fire. Even with rapid fire the game still puts up a fight but is at least somewhat enjoyable. Unfortunately I do feel as though the difficulty impacts the game overall. The sluggish controls don’t help but the game is full of gotcha moments and cheap hits. Whether these would have been ironed out with more time is debatable. As is with its limited continues Nightmare Busters has a high difficulty curve that is not worth it.
Ironically Nightmare Busters did release for mobile phones under the name Flynn’s Adventures. This version massively tweaks the gameplay and is what this game should have been. Here your primary attack is to stomp on enemy heads. Cards are a finite resource although there is an option for infinite uses. The pace has been slowed down considerably to compensate for the smaller screen real estate. This benefits the game tremendously as it makes it more manageable. I would love to have seen these features in this version as it would have made Nightmare Busters a better game.
Like their previous titles Iron Commando (a French developed beat em up exclusive to Japan, seriously) and Legend Arcade Zone have crafted a beautiful title. Although the game typically only uses one layer of parallax scrolling the backgrounds are still stunning. Nightmare Busters uses its dreamlike premise to craft nightmarish worlds. In some ways it reminds me of Incantation, another late European SNES title. The game’s artwork has that exquisite attention to detail that European developers excelled at. The sprites are large and well animated, especially the bosses. The game throws around a lot of sprites with only minimal slowdown and flickering. Add to that a great soundtrack and you have a game that I wish played as well as it looks.
In Closing
Nightmare Busters had potential. With a late game pass to smooth out its rough edges it could have been great. But as is the game is frustrating for all the wrong reasons. With practice you can see all of its content but overall I feel that time is better spent elsewhere.
