Developer: ZAP Publisher: Namco Release: 04/27/90 Genre: Shooter
The Turbo Grafx-16 has its fair share of excellent arcade ports of classic shooters. But the original home console efforts were almost always the best of its lineup. Lords of Thunder and Sapphire are truly great games that I still find myself returning to today. But not every title is a winner. Barunba is a fairly generic game with few unique ideas and a lethargic pace that robs it of any excitement. You can easily skip this one as it has little to offer.
Barunba may seem like an arcade port yet but it is an original home effort. It is definitely created within the confines of the PC Engine’s limits. Backgrounds feature no parallax scrolling but explode with color. The themes are a bit generic but that is not a slight against the game. The sprites are large and varied with the game only slowing down at its worst moments. The bosses are massive sprites and a varied bunch which is the visual highlight of the game. There are many of them, including a samurai, an armored mole and even a turtle outfitted like a battleship. This may sound exciting however the gameplay will kill your enthusiasm.
The weapon system in Barunba is medium sized. There are four weapons: Vulcan, napalm bombs, lasers, and a shield beam. You have all four from the start and can switch at any time as the situation dictates. In addition all weapons can power up to three levels at which some evolve radically. Each has different functionality although some are straightforward. The Vulcan is your standard fire you can rely on when all else fails. Napalm is very strong however it does not hit until the explosions start. The laser eventually becomes a spread gun. The shield is the most interesting as it charges up and can destroy enemy bullets. The game is very generous with its power up capsules allowing you to level up weapons quickly. But this is because max power is temporary, a decision I do not like at all.
Barunba’s most unique feature is its rotating turrets. At any time you can rotate your guns around the ship to fire at any angle. This becomes a critical skill as the game scrolls in every direction with enemies spawning from practically anywhere. It is a pretty cool feature but is annoying in practice due to the PC Engine’s limited buttons. You rotate left and right using button I and the run button which is unwieldy. The developers had to make the most of a bad setup but it never comes close to feeling like second nature. The port of Forgotten Worlds had a similar issue and in that case a special three button controller was created for that game. If only this game supported it, not that it would have made too much of a difference as the game has plenty of other problems.
The main thing that kills Barunba is its pacing. There are only five levels however each is excruciatingly long. The levels are slow and plodding, more than likely to highlight the various uses of the rotating ring. Unfortunately due to the finger gymnastics needed to use it effectively it puts a spotlight on the worst aspect of the game. Destroying repetitive waves of enemies for almost ten minutes per stage grows old fast. Maybe if the game was better paced or a graphical powerhouse it could have been more interesting. There is not even a score counter to give you something to chase. As it is Barunba feels a bit generic.
Even though you have a life bar Barunba falls on the difficult side. Because of the controls and the need to manipulate the ring cheap hits are unavoidable. To the game’s credit life restoring items are common. But that does little to help deal with the waves of enemies. Weapons are not as strong as I feel they should be and the fact that max power is temporary makes it worse. But the real deal killer is that you have a single life to complete the game which is bonkers. There is a cheat to continue however you start at the beginning of the level with no weapons at their default. Yeah, good luck with that.
In Closing
Barunba is a decent game but that does not cut it. There is nothing outright bad with the game but there is also nothing that helps it stand out. Almost all of its features can be found in much better games leaving you to wonder why you should settle for mediocrity. The answer is you shouldn’t.
