story | gameplay | my thoughts |
level structure | controls | options
BASIC INFO:
Title ....... Quarth
Players ..... 1-2
Genre ....... shooter, puzzle
Subgenre .... vertically-oriented shoot 'em up, tile removal
Platform .... Arcade (1989), Famicom/NES (1990), Game Boy (1990), MSX2 (1990), Sharp X68000 (1990), mobile phone (2005), PS2 (2006), Wii Virtual Console (2010)
STORY:There is a story to this, I bet. I'm sure it's a paper-thin, Arkanoid-esque story, but it's there. Hell if I know what it is. It's not explained in-game, I don't have the manual, and can't even find a copy online.
GAMEPLAY:
This is a hybrid between a vertically oriented shoot 'em up and tile removal block puzzler.
You are a ship. You shoot things. Enemies advance on you in a set pattern throughout 27 levels.
You shoot puzzle blocks. Your enemies are puzzle pieces formed from similarly shaped blocks. If you shoot at these pieces, your bullets will attach to them, changing their shape. Your goal is to change the shape of enemy pieces so that they form a rectangle, which destroys them.
Score a lot of points to get some power-ups to help you on the more difficult levels. A lightning-bolt shaped power-up will destroy all pieces on screen, while an arrow-shaped power-up will temporarily pause the advancement of enemies so you can destroy them at a more leisurely pace. There's at least one other power-up whose use I haven't yet figured out.
THOUGHTS:
This game is weird and I feel weird after playing it.
Did I just play a puzzle game? I love puzzle games! I love building up giant combos so I can blow up as many bricks as possible. It's like being a kid again, and making a giant tower of blocks so you can knock it down.
Did I just play a 2D vertically oriented shoot-em-up? I thought I hated those. I hate the monotonous rote memorization of enemy patterns, and Quarth certainly has that. It's even worse than a normal scrolling shooter because all the blocking enemies blook blike the blame blocking blocks.
Normal shooters at least let you mash the shoot button, which is nice and cathartic. But Quarth takes away this pleasure. Should you get trigger happy, blocks will stack up too far and crush you. For shame, Quarth! The ability to shooting indiscriminately is one of the few things I like about scrolling shooters!
On the other hand, the enemy in Quarth produce no projectiles and move in a very simple pattern. They're perfectly harmless until, you know, they crush you. Their slow, inexorable, and perfectly predictable advance provides an excellent opportunity to set up a line of kills. It feels good, methodically dispatching each fearsome block in the most efficient manner possible.
In the end, there is only 1 conclusion I can come to about the game: Quarth is weird. I don't know if I can say that like it, but I keep playing it.
LEVEL STRUCTURE:
There are 3 worlds, each with 9 levels. 1-1 is the easiest to beat while 3-9 is the hardest, with difficulty determined by the speed, density, and complexity of "enemy" advancement. You begin the game with access to all 27 levels.
CONTROLS:
D-pad .... move cursor; during a puzzle, press LEFT or RIGHT to move ship and press UP to speed up block advancement
select ... select 1P or 2P match
start .... choose menu item; pause/unpause
A ........ shoot
B ........ use powerup
OPTIONS:
There are 6 ships you can choose from before beginning play. This slightly affects the graphics of the puzzle, and changes the background music.
Drive a suspiciously Kirby-esque tank around the countryside and blow stuff up. The screen "scrolls" vertically sometimes and horizontally at other times, but you are always moving at your own pace. There are some entertaining weapon upgrades, but the game is so easy that you probably don't need them. They're just, y'know, fun.