Wednesday, January 4, 2017

TheUtilityMan plays Little Samson - Part 1 of 7


Finally, something original for a change.

The game was released in Japan as Seirei Densetsu Lickle.

Here's the story, according to the instruction manual:

"Dire times have fallen upon the Kingdom of the Imperial Forgy. Ta-Keed, the Prince of Darkness has escaped his supernatural prison. Red lightning destroyed the magical seal that held him at bay, freeing him to rampage the countryside - getting revenge for his centuries of captivity!

Emperor Hans heard of those who own the Majestic Bells of Power. He asked each of the owners to come to the capitol city to begin the quest to rid the land of the evil Ta-Keed. Samson - the boy adventurer, Kikira - the Dragon Lord, Gamm - the Rock Lord and K.O. - the Enchanted Beast unite to fight the dreaded intruder and his armies of deadly creatures! Let freedom's bells ring!"

Of course, the intro is straight to the point, minus the backstory from the manual. Ruler sends out knight, green wizard shows up and waves his arm, knights are immediately annihilated, ruler sends winged messengers, title screen, press Start to play.

When you start the game, you'll have four introduction stages, one for each character: Samson (the boy adventurer), Kikira (the dragon), Gamm (the golem) and K.O. (the mouse). 

This walkthrough (and set of videos) assume that you are playing on Normal, which just has more enemies than Easy. You also get to fight the true final boss in Normal mode.

Samson Stage


Playing the game is pretty simple. Run, jump and shoot at enemies. Not sure why Samson spins when he jumps, but it's a constant reminder of how good the animation in the game is.

That's not all, though. Samson can also latch on to walls and ceilings and then move across them. Jump to let go. It takes getting used to, though: press A while moving into a wall during your jump to latch on. To transfer from a wall to a ceiling, or to transfer from a wall to the ground above, you'll have to roll your thumb in the direction you're wanting to go. For example, if you're at the top of a wall and the ceiling goes left, you'll have to roll your thumb from up to left when you reach the top to get on the ceiling.

The blobs shoot to the sides whenever they flatten themselves, and the blue caterpillars on the ceilings shoot straight down as they move. The worms move towards you when you latch onto the walls.

The ball with the orange core adds two hit points to your maximum health. The hearts refill some of your health. Small ones are worth one unit, while big ones are worth four. They will sometimes be dropped at random by defeated enemies.

The green pterodactyls will either charge at you when they line up with you or will float up and down while shooting at you. The orange frogs get bigger for a few moments and shoot out a five-way shot.

The potion works like an energy tank in the Mega Man games. To use it, pause the game and select it to use it. You can also use it to refill the health of another character if you need to.

It won't be long until you reach the castle. The intro stages are pretty short, but it helps you learn and get used to the abilities of each character. They do their job well.

Kikira Stage


Kikira's fireballs arc upwards after you shoot them, but it doesn't take long to get used to it.

The tornadoes will move you where you want to go, and you can jump out of them at anytime.

When you think you're reached the end, move into the center of the screen and a tornado will take you to the next part of the stage.

Press A in the middle of a jump and hold it down to fly for a few seconds. You'll stop flying either after a few seconds or until you let go of the A button, whichever happens first. You will only be able to go left or right.

The Samson doll is an extra life.

Gamm Stage


Gamm isn't very fast, seeing as he's a rock monster. This makes platforming with Gamm something to get used to. His arm extends a little bit when he punches, so he doesn't have to be up close that much to fight. The fist can go in four directions, including downwards in mid-air, leaving him far from defenseless when used right. If you're going /to punch upwards, though, remember that he has to be facing the enemy first, as it's not perfectly centered.

Unlike Samson and Kikira, Gamm starts with eight units of health.

The swords track your position vertically before going straight for the kill.

K.O. Stage


K.O. is a mouse. He's very fast and can climb walls and ceilings, and he can also move across narrow spaces that the other characters cannot.

K.O. starts with only two units of health. Simply touching an enemy is instant death at this point. You'd better extend that health whenever you possibly can.

His attack is a bomb that he can place wherever he is on the screen. You have to be very close to enemies in order to damage them, but in a twist of irony the bombs are the most powerful attack in the game. You can only have three bombs onscreen at any given time.

The mines split apart when destroyed. You'd better place mines next to each other in quick succession when fighting them, otherwise you're not going to be having a good time.

No comments:

Post a Comment