Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge

Overview

Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge is a sci-fi light-gun on-rails shooter developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America on December 1993, and in Europe on 1994.

It is the sequel to the 1992 game Battle Clash and, like its predecessor, requires the Super Scope peripheral. Along with expanding the story, this entry includes a revamped "shot charging" mechanic (where players can charge their shots up even further for more powerful shots), a tutorial mode, an two-player asymmetrical versus mode (where one player controls the attacks of the enemy ST with a controller), and a hidden alternate ST (the ST Tornado).

The game is set three years after the ST Falcon, piloted by Mike Anderson, defeated the Battle Chiefs and ended the reign of Anubis and his ST Thanatos in his moonbase Luna. As the world began to heal, Anubis resurfaces and the Falcon is deployed again to stop him.

Gameplay

Each fight requires that the player wear down the enemy ST's health bar. There's usually several ways to do this, but the goal is often to find the quickest and most damaging means to take down the opponent before they can do to the same to the player's ST. This involves exploiting weak points, building up the energy bar for powerful targeted shots, using the limited supply of bombs and intercepting the enemy's shots to mitigate damage intake.

Due to the game's combat heavy nature, accuracy is important. To help compensate for potential issues sensor alignment or bad TV placement, the game follows its title screen with a gun calibration to ensure the player can correctly aim from their position.

Game Modes

Single Player

Battle Game

The Battle Game is effectively Metal Combat's campaign mode, which pits players in their ST Falcon (or Tornado if a cheat code is entered) against the top ST combatants of various regions of Earth. After all of Earth's top combatants are defeated, the player will move on to space to fight the Battle Game ruler Thanatos. What they will instead find, are plot twists abound.

Players engage in combat with enemies in a one on one setting, using the Super Scope to fire on their opponents. The player's ST is capable of firing very weak rapid shots (typically used defensively to shoot down enemy projectiles), and charged shots of varying power depending on how long the shot is charged for. The most powerful charged shot available to the player is the Treble Shot, which can be used to cause massive damage to enemy weak points, as well as wipe most enemy projectiles off the screen in a single shot.

Aside from the basic rapid and charged shots, the player can also acquire special one-use power ups. At the end of each battle, the player will be rewarded with a bomb (which carries over to the next fight), and at the end of most battles the player will be upgraded with a special single shot power (such as a temporary shield, or a power boost). Players may hold a maximum of five bombs, and as many special items as they'd like, although they can only bring two special items into battle (bombs must be brought into battle and are automatically added to the players weapon list).

Each opponent ST that the player faces will have a weak point of some kind. These weak points can be found in one of two ways, depending on the enemy: The enemy ST will either perform an action that will cause the weak spot to glow and be given away, or, the player can fire a treble shot at the enemy and expose their weak point. Typically hitting a weak point with a treble shot will destroy that area on the enemy ST. However, because some weak points can only be exposed with a treble shot, the only possible follow up is to hit the spot with a weaker charged shot.

Other individual parts of an enemy ST, such as the arms or legs, can be destroyed, allowing the player to cripple an enemy part by part. Rather then be adversely effected by losing parts, some enemies will simply fire powerful shots from their missing parts, making this a sometimes risky tactic.

A cheat code may be entered at the title screen to unlock access to a second ST, named Tornado. Tornado's weapon systems charge shots much more rapidly at the cost of needing to charge ten times before firing a treble shot (or in this case, more of a decible shot). The ST Tornado also has a much lower defense in exchange for this offensive power. In addition to combat changes, some areas of the plot are changed to accommodate the new ST and pilot.

Time Trials

In Time Trials, the player selects their difficulty level (Low, Medium, or High), which determines the three opponents they will face during the time trial. The player then fights the three opponents for the difficulty level they have selected, and at the end receive a cumulative fight time. In each fight, the player is given a single bomb, and no special power ups. If the player's ST is destroyed during a fight, their time of defeat is kept should they decide to continue, and is added to their total fight time when the level is subsequently finished.

Training Mode

Training Mode allows the player to replay each ST's respective tutorial missions from the start of the game.

Multiplayer

Combat Game

Combat Game allows for two player combat; one player uses the SNES Control Pad to control an enemy ST of their choosing, while another player uses the super scope to fight them like a normal enemy.

Using the XYAB buttons, the control pad player can use one of four attacks in their ST's arsenal, and using the D-Pad they can control the movement of the battle. Like single player CPU battles, the control pad ST can be crippled and has weak points. The last player with health remaining wins.

Time Trials

Multiplayer Time Trials play exactly the same as single player time trials, with the exception being that both players are given a chance at defeating each enemy. At the end of three rounds, a cumulative time is totaled for each player, and the player with the lower time wins.

Enemy STs

On their way to save humanity, the players will encounter a colorful cast of Standing Tanks and pilots. In order of apperance:

Garam Mk2
Pilot: Guido
Area: Neo New York, America
Weakness: Stomach
Notes: Appeared in Battle Clash and remains largely unchanged.

Siamang
Pilot: Chada
Area: Borneo, Oceania
Weakness: Tail
Notes: Is Guido's brother.

Wong
Pilot: Dayan
Area: Mongolia, Asia
Weakness: Exposed head
Notes: Only fights the player because he thinks they are invading Mongolia.

Griffin
Pilot: Orusoh
Area: Earth's Atmosphere, Orbital Station Babel
Weakness: Antennae, Lower body
Notes: Challenges the player to a suicide duel above the Earth.

Viscount
Pilot: Carlos
Area: Moonbase LUNA
Weakness: Chest, Legs
Notes: Uses a shield, and a gun shaped like a Super Scope.

Thanatos
Pilot: Anubis
Area: The Surface of Mars
Weakness: Chest, Limbs
Notes: Attempts to suck in the player to their death upon his defeat.

Arachnus
Pilot: Danpe
Area: Orbiting Jupiter
Weakness: Head
Notes: Will enter a frenzied state if its tail is destroyed.

Cobra
Pilot: Zephyr
Area: Epsilon-Ring
Weakness: Lower body
Notes: Absorbs most of the player's attacks.

Groken
Pilot: Pamera
Area: The Methane Sea
Weakness: Many scattered throughout the ST
Notes: Zephyr's wife.

Vivirus
Pilot: True Anubis
Area: Inside the Space Fortress
Weakness:
Form 1: Chest, Limbs
Form 2: Center of the ST
Notes: After being defeated once, Vivirus will morph into a new form.

Giga-Desp
Pilot: Typhon
Area: Space Fortress Core
Weakness: The area covered by Rola
Notes: Takes the player's ally, Rola, hostage