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GAME
OF THE MONTH COLLECTION:
NECTARIS
MILITARY MADNESS
Last month I picked a low profile N64 game as the game of the month and now I'm picking a Playstation game I feel didn't get a lot of hype or respect. Released in March of 1999, Nectaris was a war/strategy game created by Hudson soft of Japan and released here by Jaleco. It's also known as Military Madness for all you Turbografx fans out there. The name Nectaris was the Japanese name for the game and Military Madness was the North American name. Jaleco decided to combine the two names to avoid any more confusion.
Move your units on hexagon
grids
So what do you do in this game? You command your small moon army called Union (blue) and your up against the powerful and much larger Xenon army in a fight for control of the moon, if you lose; the Xenon (green) army will destroy the earth with their secret weapon S.A.M. (Supreme Air Missile). The game plays alot like a board game than a average strategy game like StarCraft, first the game start off with each side getting so many units like men, tanks, and aircrafts you get to move each unit once before you end your turn, than it's Xenon turn to strike back (which can be hard to watch). Xenon usually has the advantage with more units per level when you start, but there is also neutral factories that carry more units to gain more of a advantage.
The really cool thing about Military Madness is the RPG elements throw in, each unit can get experience to increase firepower and defense to help gain a edge. Terrain can also effect gameplay by increasing defenses or limiting mobility like in a rocky area on a map. It's also cool to 'gang up' on your enemy and use the Zone.Of.Control. effect, using Z.O.C. can cut a oppoents points in half.
Fights can be very unpredictable
if you don't use Z.O.C.!
The Turbografx-16 version features 32 levels and OK graphics and sound which
are surprisily not too different then the Playstation game. The game also has
a build it manual to help get the basics down.
graphics: 5
sound: 7
gameplay: 9
Rating: 88/100
The Playstation version features more of what I love with over a 100 levels
but no gameplay improvement over the original game, but there are new 3D battle
scenes which can be turned off or on. Storyline cinema's are really poorly done
and should be skipped. This game should eat up a lot of your time because of
all the levels and goodies to unlock.
graphics: 6
sound: 6
gameplay: 9
Rating: 91/100
Both games
are excellent and hard to come by too. It takes about a hour to learn, and it
hard to play the same game once thanks to the random damage, like a HUNTER party
can totally wipe out a FALCON party or vice versa. It's cool to see if you can
to better after you finish the game. I still play the game now and again, and
I usually play Military Madness for hours.
See the
other games of the month