Alpha Mission II | The Vibes King

[00:00:00] Aaron, okay, I got a joke, check this out. Alpha Mission, more like Beta Mission. Oh, fuck. Oh, snap, son, this is Neo Geo Go!. Hey, everybody, welcome back. We're here, it is the Neo, it is the Geo. What's up, Aaron? What's up, man? We're Neo going. We're Neo, we're Geo going. It's going all right.

[00:00:37] It's going all right, and we're here to talk about Alpha Mission II this week, released on March 25th, 1991, developed and published by SNK. What a surprise. And so, obviously, this is called Alpha Mission II. This is indeed a sequel to the original Alpha Mission that came out in 1985, believe it or not, by SNK.

[00:01:00] I have not played, I mean, I have played this game, but I did not play it until, you remember some years back on, like, Switch, they put out that SNK 40th anniversary collection, like the digital eclipse thing. Yeah. The original Alpha Mission is on there. That's, like, basically collects all of SNK's, like, pre-Neo Geo games, essentially, and that's on there, so I have played it. But, yeah, what we're playing today is a Neo Geo sequel six years later.

[00:01:27] And, man, six years between games back then felt like an eternity, Aaron. Like, the technology went so fast that it's, like, the difference between whatever they were using in 85 versus, like, Neo Geo was, like, oceans apart, man. That's crazy. I think, like, maybe a year or two in between Final Fantasy games on, like, the NES and, like, maybe the SNES. I don't recall. But, yeah, shit was flipped.

[00:01:56] Flipped like a table, goddammit. Shit was happening, man. But, yeah, Alpha Mission II. As far as I was concerned, Aaron, this was the real first shmup on Neo Geo. It was the first one I played. Because, yes, we talked about Ghost Pilots. I don't remember how many weeks ago now, but, like, yeah, that came out first. But as I said on that episode, our cabinet, our Neo Geo cabinet at the fabled bowling alley never had Ghost Pilots.

[00:02:24] So Alpha Mission II was the first one I played. And, Jesus, man, I loved it. It felt like Aaron. It was the first shmup I ever played that felt like the fucking future. Dude, I feel it. You know what I mean? Yeah, Ghost Pilots who? Fucking, like, that game just doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned. Because, yeah, this game blows it totally out of the water.

[00:02:50] Fucking, dude, when you go into armor mode and it feels like a fucking anime, like, you hit the button. Yes. And then it's just like, paching, like, your armor comes out of nowhere and, like, slaps onto your ship. And then it's like, oh, fuck, I'm going to kill everything here in just about a few seconds. Dude, it's so fucking cool. That's legit one of the coolest things in a shmup. I'm serious. I don't even know of another game that does that. I mean, I'm sure there's something. Yeah, I can't recall.

[00:03:19] Usually, like, pretty much any other shmup I've played, instead of armor, you have a bomb. Which, by the way, are there no bombs in this game? Am I stupid? I don't think there are. I don't think so. Yeah, any other shmup, you just have the bomb. I can't think of anything else that has a cool armor mode. Yeah, I can't think of it either. And, like, it just felt like this game really feels like the update of, like, stuff from the mid-early to mid-80s.

[00:03:49] It's, like, Xevious or Star Soldier. Because if you think about the late 80s, we start thinking about Toaplan stuff. Like, Truxton. Or we think about, like, Capcom things. Like, 1943 or 1941. Right? Like, we're getting more sophisticated with shmups. Or Konami. Like, Gradius is happening at that time. Right? Gradius 3 or 2. So, you know, we're thinking of those kind of things. Right? But, like, earlier in the decade, we had, like, a fairly different style of shmup. And it feels like Alpha Mission 2.

[00:04:18] Obviously, it's a sequel to a shmup from 1985. But it really does go for that style in a way that felt... It's weird to say at that time retro. As anything from 1991 could be retro to a video game. It actually did feel like a throwback. Yeah. It feels pretty good to play, too. Like, maybe the movement's a little bit slow. Maybe, I don't know.

[00:04:43] But, I like that in between stages, you get to that store where you can replenish your armor. Or, like, buy a new armor form or whatever. That shit's really, really cool. I can't recall anything else from that, I guess, time that has that same kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, like, other games, other shmup games, like Forgotten Worlds had a shop. Or famously, Fantasy Zone had a shop. Oh, right.

[00:05:12] I couldn't think of the name of that. I was thinking Opa Opa. Fuck, I was so close. If you had said that, I would have just let you have it. Yeah. The game is called Opa Opa. That's fine. Opa. Ordyne. I don't know if you know the Amco game Ordyne that also had a shmup. That had a shmup. A shmup. A shmup. That's the official name now. And shop into one thing. Shop shoot them up. That'd be cool. Shmup.

[00:05:39] That would be a fucking cool concept where you shrink really, really far down and you're inside of like a shop, like a bookstore or like a. Like a vending machine or something. Yeah. You're shooting all the snacks and shit inside of there. Yeah. Bro. We need to design. Come on. We need to be the best indie developers of all time. We need to get on that. We need to develop that. And Dick Twin Tender. Dick Twin Tenders. Dick Twin Tenders.

[00:06:10] Yeah, dude. No, I fucking. I love the entire. This game is aesthetic personified. It is so cool looking. It feels cool looking. It sounds cool. Dude, the music. Music's nuts. Out of control. Yep. It's it's so good, man. It's almost like. So I'm not really a Star Trek person. Right.

[00:06:35] But I've always loved the music of Star Trek, especially that first movie, like the 1979 movie. I think the soundtrack to that movie is like great. And this like Alpha Mission 2 gives me those vibes. It gives you those space age from another age. Vibes. You know, it's so excellent. But it also has that like early 90s slap to it. It's great. Dude. And speaking of the visuals, too, there's a lot of fucking depth to like.

[00:07:03] So it's it's it's vertical. But like when you're when you're looking down like underneath your ship, you can see like fucking just stories below your ship. Like I forget which stage it was, but there was just like tubes on top of tubes on top of tubes on top of tubes and so on and so forth. Yeah. Same thing with like like trees and everything like that. It's just they went. Holy shit.

[00:07:28] They went super duper hard with I guess with with the layers that that shit is nuts. Yes. 100%. And like, I think the only games I can think of that do that. You ever play the Ray trilogy, the title games, Ray Force, Ray Crisis. Oh, and Ray Storm. Ray Storm. Yeah. Yeah. Those have like really good depth to them, too. The 2D. I think Ray Crisis is 3D, but even that has like a good amount of depth to it.

[00:07:56] Like, yeah, those those are the ones I think of, particularly Ray Force, because that's one of my favorite shmups of all time. Yeah, dude. I think Alpha Mission 2 is excellent in that regard. The only thing I really don't like about this game is that whether it's Twin B, whether it's anything else that does this, I've never been much of a fan of the mechanic in shmups where you have to shoot the power up to get like different things. That's just not something.

[00:08:24] OK, so you agree because that's not something I've ever really liked that much. And this game makes you do it. It's not too bad. Again, it's not a Twin B situation where it's like, oh, my God, I'm so sick of seeing these different colored bells or whatever. Like it's I think I think 1943, the aforementioned 1943 is like the only game where it doesn't annoy me. Maybe it's the way it pops up on the screen and it doesn't pop way back up. You have to wait for it to come back down. I think that's what I hate, Aaron.

[00:08:54] It's the waiting for it. It does go way the fuck up there. It goes totally off screen. You got to wait forever. And I mean, this is a shmup. Like you're going to be shooting all the fucking time. Like I'm not going to wait to shoot shit. Just give me the goddamn laser upgrade or give me a fucking give me a shot upgrade. Just give me something. I don't give a fuck. Right. And you can't and they don't land on like random things because like otherwise you'll just get 10 million speed ups or whatever. Like you're not going to you're not going to get any cool.

[00:09:24] You have to shoot them to get different stuff. So it's like, OK, again, not the end of the world. I know a lot of people like that mechanic and shmups. I'm just not one of them. I I'm glad you're I'm glad we agree on that. But yeah, Alpha Mission 2. I wouldn't say it's like a tip top spectacular game or anything, but it's a spectacular vibe. And sometimes that matters just as much. Right.

[00:09:48] So in that regard, I think I'll get you know, I wrote B minus here. I'm going to up that. I'm going to give it a flat B. I would say. Hell yeah. I give it. Hmm. No, I give it a B plus. I think I'm sticking with the B plus, though, because like it's I thought it was really fun. It could. I mean, it's probably not. No, it's definitely not like our type. Good or like it's not like the greats.

[00:10:18] Good, but it's it's pretty good. Hey, we're we're grading with our heart here. Remember, these are vibes based grades here. So if you feel like a B plus, you should give it one. I think the only thing I didn't like is that there's no bombs, that there's no like screen clearing attack. It's just your armor. And then if you happen to die while you have your armor, boom, that's it. It's gone. I always like the safety net of the of the bomb. Yeah, honestly. Yeah.

[00:10:47] But, you know, this doesn't have it and that's OK. There is there is other things to compensate. What a game. I love. I love every visual piece about it. Like you said, the backgrounds, the fonts are so good. Wow. I love the fonts in this game. I know that's like a dork ass thing to say, but like, I really do feel that way. Yeah, I did. It just it just all works, man. Anyway, what are we talking about next time on Neo Geo Go? Next time burning fight. Cool. See you then.

[00:11:14] Yeah, we need a Neo Geo Go back in time and assassinate Chris Pratt.