A Look back at a classic arcade game and one of it's Memorable Bosses
Since the beginning of video games, end
of level bosses have been a staple part of the gaming experience.
There have been many memorable boss characters over the years, some
even earning the same level of recognition and popularity as the main
protagonist. Where would Mario be without Bowser? Sonic without Dr
Robotnik... sorry, Eggman (groan)? From the many robot masters of the
Mega Man series, to the giant mountain sized behemoths you must
defeat in Shadow of the Colossus, bosses have always been there to
challenge, and infuriate us. They are the final obstacle between the
player and the next level, or indeed the end of the game, and without
them a game feels unfinished. The player needs closure in the form of
an epic battle that takes many tries to win.
One boss I am particularly fond of
features in Taito's wonderful 1988 arcade game, The New Zealand
Story. It's an adorable 2D platformer, with the same charming,
cartoony visuals as other Taito games from that era, titles such as
Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands and Liquid Kids. In this adventure you
donned the tiny sneakers of a Kiwi named Tiki who, along with all his
pals, is kidnapped by an evil walrus named Wally. Little Tiki manages
to jump out of the top of the bag without Wally noticing and, feeling
pretty peeved about the whole ordeal, he sets off to rescue his
friends before they develop Stockholm Syndrome, or get turned into
stew. Armed with his trusty bow and arrows (an infinite supply it
would seem), he navigates platforms, shooting cute critters,
collecting fruits, taking balloon rides and swimming through
underwater caves. The game's cute visuals mask a tough challenge and
it will put you through your paces. It's great fun to play, even
today, and comes highly recommended.
Back to bosses, though, and the one I
remember most is the very first one you encounter. At the end of
stage 1-4 you enter a room and suddenly the wall behind you closes.
You are then faced with a large (though not huge) pink whale floating
above the spike covered floor. He is covered in ice, which gives him
the appearance of being made of glass or crystal, but there is no
time to dwell on this as he instantly begins to bombard you with
deadly snowflakes. These arch upwards before falling from the top of
the screen. Deftly avoiding these projectiles, you fire arrows into
his bulbous form as fast as your button mashing finger will allow.
After a barrage of hits his large jaw opens and he lunges forward,
swallowing you whole. But this is not the end of Tiki, oh no.
Standing inside the whale's insides, you must blast away at the walls
of his guts whilst avoiding fatal drops of acid. Once the gluttonous
ice beast can take no more the screen flicks back to an external
view, and you stand by and watch as the whale disintegrates before
your eyes. It's a great boss battle and a great game, and one I
always come back to play.
New Zealand Story was ported to every
format around, from the humble ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, to the
more powerful 16-bit machines such as the Sega Mega Drive and
Commodore Amiga. It even received an updated version in the form of
New Zealand Story Revolution on the Nintendo DS in 2007, which was
OK, but not a patch on the simple, yet brilliant original. The Sega
Mega Drive version was quite an oddity in that the Japan only release
had completely different level design to that of its arcade parent
(and all the other home ports). The levels themselves are good, but
as I grew up with the original they feel slightly strange and don't
have the same 'magic'. All the ports are worth playing, but for the
authentic experience you can play it on the excellent Taito Legends
compilation which is on Xbox, PS2, and PSP, or use the awesome arcade
emulator MAME.