[Game Review 26] "Sky Kid" is all about rapid-fire

The side-scrolling shooter game "Sky Kid". The fluffy title logo gives it that Namco feel. The defining feature of this game is that even if you get hit by enemies or enemy bullets, you can recover by rapidly pressing the button. I wonder if the games kids were playing in arcades back then while mashing buttons furiously were either "Hyper Olympic" or this Sky Kid.

■ Encountering the game

I remember buying it somewhat on a whim because the cassette cover looked cool. This game is the last one in the numbered Namcot cassette series. Now, what number is it? The answer is here.

■ Game story

In a world called Bird Land where birds are anthropomorphized, Red Baron and Blue Max fight against the enemy army, the Mechazukin.

■ Game content

A button: Fire bullets. You use these bullets to shoot down enemies in both the air and on the ground. You also mash it to recover while you are falling.
B button: Loop-the-loop. When an enemy is coming from behind, you can get behind them by pressing the directional key in the direction they are coming from along with the B button. Also, since you are invincible during a loop, you can use it to dodge when surrounded by enemies. (If you hit an obstacle or the ground while looping, you will crash.)
MISSION: Each stage has a mission; you pick up a bomb placed along the way and drop it on an enemy base or battleship to clear the MISSION. You can still proceed to the next stage even if you don't pick up the bomb or fail to hit the target.
Landing: You clear the stage by landing on the runway at the end. If you time a loop-the-loop correctly at that moment, you can land upside down and receive bonus points.

■ Completing MISSIONS is difficult

You pick up a bomb along the way and drop it on a base or battleship. If you drop it in the center, the target disappears and you get a 10,000-point bonus, but I was bad at hitting that center spot. Also, while holding a bomb, you cannot perform a loop-the-loop, and if you get hit by an enemy or a bullet, you will drop the bomb.

■ Getting bonuses comes with risks.

If you perform a loop-the-loop at specific set locations, an action will occur and you will receive bonus points. ・If you loop in front of the sun, the screen darkens and changes to the moon. ・If you loop in front of the Statue of Liberty, the hem of the statue's robe goes wild, etc. However, since there is often no need to loop at those spots, it is easy to crash by hitting enemies. It is best not to push your luck.

■ Cliffs are nerve-wracking

Passing by cliffs is nerve-wracking. If you get hit by an enemy or a bullet while passing, you are so close to the ground that a crash is inevitable. To use an analogy, I think it was as nerve-wracking as the "Nan-chan Irohazaka" stage in Super Denki Iraira Bo.

■ The unruly Thunder Boy

When a gray cloud appears, the screen flashes to the sound of drums and the Thunder Boy appears. He is a troublesome kid who drops lightning bolts from above the thundercloud. You can't defeat him; you just have to keep dodging. I don't know how many times I crashed here.

■ The worst volcano

Just when you think the screen has suddenly started flashing red, lava erupts from the volcano. I've never seen the ending, so I don't think I've ever made it past this point.

■ The winning strategy is boring

If you keep doing loop-the-loops in the upper right, you will almost never crash. You can keep pushing forward forever. But that becomes a chore, so it was boring and I didn't do it.

■ Excellent compatibility with the Joyball

Around the same time, I bought the "Joyball" released by HAL Laboratory. It had a rapid-fire function, and the directional pad was a sphere about the size of a softball that you would grip and operate from above. At the time, I thought that by moving the ball delicately, I could dodge enemies in "TwinBee" like Haman Karn, and escape monsters in "Pac-Man" with ease, but I couldn't get used to operating the ball and was far from being a Newtype. Eventually, I even ended up pressing the Joyball's button with my toe while it was set to rapid-fire mode, using the directional pad to control the game.
However, Sky Kid was the only game that had perfect compatibility with the Joyball. If you just kept the button held down, you would almost never crash... or so it should have been, but I couldn't get past the volcano. I wonder why.

■ Two-player simultaneous play

The two-player simultaneous play had a very unusual setup. If one player was in the middle of crashing and the other player shot them, they could recover without having to mash the button. You could save your teammate by shooting them.

■ Summary

No matter how many times I played, I never got good at it, but it was still a game I wanted to play periodically.
I would mash the button frantically to recover, and because I was constantly practicing rapid-fire due to the influence of "Master Takahashi" at the time, I couldn't quite reach 16 shots per second, but I became able to mash the button by vibrating my thumb.
As time has passed, playing mini-games with my children in titles like "Super Mario Party", it makes me both sad and happy that I can't win as easily as I used to, but I am confident that I still won't lose in games that require frantic button mashing.

Thank you for reading until the end! I would be happy if you could click the heart as a sign that you read it.