Cleared on May 9th, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 65/160)
Mechanically, this might be my favorite shoot em up out of what I've played so far, but holy shit is it hard. And not always in a good way even with the tools that this game gives me.
What Eliminate Down proposes for its gameplay style is that you already have all of your weapons by default that you can switch to at anytime instead of having to collect a power-up and then stick to it until you can find another. You have a forward shot, missiles that cover both up and down direction at the same time, and a backward shot. This is actually really cool, and I didn't need to stress over figuring out what this weapon does or picking the wrong weapon at the wrong time. The only minor problem is that they have two buttons for weapon swap and you mean to tell me I have to cycle through the missiles before I can cycle to the backshot? Well, at least you can tap the weapon swap button twice, and you can get it. Another cool thing they did is the same idea that Whip Rush brought with being able to control speed, but you do that via pause menu. This gives you more time to plan your next move. If there's a series of tight corridors coming up, just switch to slower speeds. When you got a bunch of enemies to barrage, just switch to faster speeds. The caveat is that there are no bombs or ultimate attacks, but you do acquire shields to withstand a few hits and power-ups that empower your weapons, and it doesn't take long to get to Level 3 and good news is that you only lose one level when you lose a life and it keeps all the power points you've collected, so if you collected 4 P at Level 3, then lose a life, then just collect one P and you're back at Level 3.
All that aside, this game can still seriously bullshit you in the worst ways and that gets especially apparent during the game's second half. There are points in the game where I got ambushed by traps or unexpected shots that gave me almost no time to react not to mention just straight up difficult shots to avoid in general as well as unfair enemy placement like at the start of Stage 7. The bosses are also difficult, but you can figure them out.
The presentation for the game is really good. I think the soundtrack is great, and the grotesque alien aesthetic is well done. The fourth mini-boss was fucking weird with its penis attack... so that's why it never got localized in the first place. Also, this game actually has a dedicated final boss theme, and that always excites me since there are usually no guarantees that a Sega Genesis game will even have one.
Eliminate Down in a way represents some of the best and worst of the schmup genre. It's weapon swapping and speed shifting helps to give this game some variety as well as overcome situations in front of you, but those situations in question have reached points of being really unfair. Thankfully, the fun factor kept me from being bored or driving me mad. Is it a game that I'll come back to for another round? Maybe. If nothing else, there's a fun little minigame in the options.
Mechanically, this might be my favorite shoot em up out of what I've played so far, but holy shit is it hard. And not always in a good way even with the tools that this game gives me.
What Eliminate Down proposes for its gameplay style is that you already have all of your weapons by default that you can switch to at anytime instead of having to collect a power-up and then stick to it until you can find another. You have a forward shot, missiles that cover both up and down direction at the same time, and a backward shot. This is actually really cool, and I didn't need to stress over figuring out what this weapon does or picking the wrong weapon at the wrong time. The only minor problem is that they have two buttons for weapon swap and you mean to tell me I have to cycle through the missiles before I can cycle to the backshot? Well, at least you can tap the weapon swap button twice, and you can get it. Another cool thing they did is the same idea that Whip Rush brought with being able to control speed, but you do that via pause menu. This gives you more time to plan your next move. If there's a series of tight corridors coming up, just switch to slower speeds. When you got a bunch of enemies to barrage, just switch to faster speeds. The caveat is that there are no bombs or ultimate attacks, but you do acquire shields to withstand a few hits and power-ups that empower your weapons, and it doesn't take long to get to Level 3 and good news is that you only lose one level when you lose a life and it keeps all the power points you've collected, so if you collected 4 P at Level 3, then lose a life, then just collect one P and you're back at Level 3.
All that aside, this game can still seriously bullshit you in the worst ways and that gets especially apparent during the game's second half. There are points in the game where I got ambushed by traps or unexpected shots that gave me almost no time to react not to mention just straight up difficult shots to avoid in general as well as unfair enemy placement like at the start of Stage 7. The bosses are also difficult, but you can figure them out.
The presentation for the game is really good. I think the soundtrack is great, and the grotesque alien aesthetic is well done. The fourth mini-boss was fucking weird with its penis attack... so that's why it never got localized in the first place. Also, this game actually has a dedicated final boss theme, and that always excites me since there are usually no guarantees that a Sega Genesis game will even have one.
Eliminate Down in a way represents some of the best and worst of the schmup genre. It's weapon swapping and speed shifting helps to give this game some variety as well as overcome situations in front of you, but those situations in question have reached points of being really unfair. Thankfully, the fun factor kept me from being bored or driving me mad. Is it a game that I'll come back to for another round? Maybe. If nothing else, there's a fun little minigame in the options.