Shippu Mahou Daisakusen/
Kingdom Grand Prix
review for the Sega Saturn


Converted by Gaga Communications in 1996.
Of all great vertical scrolling shoot 'em ups released in and before the year 1994 they had to chose this game.

It does have a full screen "vertical arcade mode".
Check the How to.. section of this site for instructions on how to succesfully rotate your monitor.

Well........, this game plain sucks. I like nothing about it. Except maybe for a few boss sprites that are o.k. & the music.
The sprites/enemies have such a wacky style to them. And nothing else for that matter seems to blend in well with each other. The backgrounds, the sprites, the flashing "HURRY"-sign, the music all seem from different games/era's.
Stay away from this title. I know a shoot 'em up fanatic will not be intimidated by those words.
I nevertheless urge you to postpone your purchase of this title untill you have the others (with higher ratings).




FACT FILE     

Vertical arcade mode   Yes
Unlimited continues    No 
Levels                 12 
Aircraft               8  
BGM Audio test mode    Yes
CD player audio        Yes


What about the graphics?
Well, the graphics suck.
Almost no animation whatsoever, the bosses have little animation.

The playability however is ace & the game does have that true arcade feeling to it.
But with graphics like these who cares.

I would describe this game as a cross between:
Spy Hunter (the old 2D game) for some of the level designs>>>>> the play area getting more narrow at times
Aleste (SNES) for the game engine
Ghost House (Master System) for some of the sprites colored red without outlines!!!!!!!?!

But even if you like the above mentioned you might still hate this game which is a bad mix of the above mentioned games.

Four of the characters are featured in Battle Garegga anyway.


Verdict:

Playability 10
Music 8,7
Lastability ?
Graphics 5,5

Overall 5

Stay gone.

screenshots: