Welcome to Day 2 of Man Week here at Octurbo. Today we look at NCS's Shockman, another superhero parody action game that skews a little more towards Mega Man than Bravoman did. In fact, it's highly reminiscent of Mega Man X, only without the non-linear enemy select, which is quite a feat considering it pre-dates Capcom's Mega Man spin-off by a couple of years. Shockman is actually the second game in the Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman quadrilogy, but for some reason this was the only one that received a localization.
Shock-Fu
Welcome to Shockman! There's been a lot of sweet logos around here of late. Maybe I should make one?We have a tough choice between Shockman and... Shockwoman? Well, it's Blue Arnold and Red Sonya (I see what they did there). I'll stick with the blue guy for now.We're afforded a brief glance at more peaceful times, with Arnold in his civilian clothes. Which is to say, a shirt, a kilt and a bandana. You know, day to day wear.These robot worker guys each doing their own task are a nice touch.Or it was a nice touch until they all decided to gang up on me. One quick henshin later, and I'm ready to throw down (also, is it just me, or do I look a lot like MM2's Quickman?)The worker robots toss a pickaxe back and forth until one set have been destroyed, at which point the real fight begins. It's actually a tough little boss fight this early on, though fortunately not an unwinnable one.A quick bit of maneuvering later and the workers have gone from unionized to atomized.But wait! We're getting a report that the alien Ryo empire is invading! Why, it's almost as if the game was starting.I dunno, that seems like an irresponsible thing for a newsreader broadcasting to the entire city to say. Also, escape to where? They're coming in from space, right?Late title card! I knew I was going to like this game.So now we enter the very familiar side-scrolling shooter action in earnest. These bomb-throwing fatbots seem like the best source for health pick-ups.They even do that "carrying in a friend" business (is that a concept page yet?). I've got a few charged up shots waiting for this lazy guy once he decides to drop down.Entering a vertical area now, dodging inexplicable fire flumes and having a grand old time of it. Not to be contrary, but this whole section feels a bit more Contra-y.Holy crap, it's suddenly Canabalt now. Fast horizontal scrolling and collapsing buildings.Oh wait, I guess it's R-Type? I need to stop referring to other games already. So reductive. But man that is an ugly looking alien wing-wang.I've got some sort of wacky doppelganger to contend with it seems.He's content to troll us for now, but I'll be surprised (shocked, even) if this isn't the last time we see this dude.Oh hey, it's the big computer from Strider. Screw what I said earlier, I'm just going to see if I can namedrop as many other games as possible.Great Scott, the good doctor's been kidnapped. The Ryo Empire must have hired some Libyans.For a kidnapped guy, he sure knows a lot about the enemy's movements and is somehow able to communicate all this to hero. Maybe put a guard on him?Well, that's convenient. Maybe it's like the Batcave and he just has one of every vehicle just in case.Ha haaa. We like to joke here at Shockman HQ, but Alzheimer's is a serious problem that affects many people. Pick up a pamphlet at your nearest physician's for more information.Then again, Shockman's not the sharpest tool in the shed either.Some mysterious person, perhaps the narrator, informs Shockman that this is the Shockmarine. Sounds like an electrocution mishap waiting to happen.And then the game becomes a horizontal shoot 'em up, because why not. This is a TurboGrafx-16 game after all.It actually doesn't look half bad down here, and dodging all these medicine balls isn't as easy it as looks.I dunno, I'm starting to suspect Mega Man X of some foul play here.Oh what the hell is this ridiculous looking thing? It's all academic, because I die almost immediately. Turns out there aren't any health pick-ups for this entire shmup stage. That means I'm going to need to get good at shoot 'em ups to get any further, and that ain't happening any time soon.
So Shockman's actually quite solid. Plays well, is reasonably challenging, has some bizarre bosses and lets you continue from the start of the current level as many times as you'd like. I don't know what I was expecting after the underwhelming Bravoman but this feels much closer to a 16-bit era game. I'd hesitate to go as far as to say this was the TG-16's Mega Man X, despite my many allusions to same, because that game had a hell of a lot more going on with all its wall-jumps, interchangeable weapons and non-linearity (the music's quite a bit better too). Instead, think of this as a lesser/earlier version of what would become one of Capcom's best SNES games, in the same way that Neutopia felt like a waypoint between the original Legend of Zelda and A Link to the Past.
It does make me curious about the other Schbibinman games. You can read more about them in one of HardcoreGaming101's characteristically verbose breakdowns here. I might have to check out that third game whenever I finally start covering the TurboGrafx-CD.
