Usually I’ll defend a poorly received console, but the Amiga CD32 really got the rap that it deserved. Perhaps that’s because it lacked both North American and Japanese support. Europe wasn’t a particular hot spot for game development in the early 90s. Every console has it’s hidden gems, and I think I’ve finally found just that, but in this case, on the Amiga CD32. This game is Banshee. This is a long forgotten shmup released late in the unpopular system’s lifespan. At first I didn’t like it, but it quickly became one of my favorite genre offerings. Today I’m going to tell you why.
I know I just vouched for the game, but bear with me as I describe the plot because it’s undoubtedly going to turn some of you off straight away. The game begins in the year 1999, but in a different timeline on Earth. Microwave ovens have yet to be invented, and televisions display exclusively in black and white. An evil alien force called the Styx Empire decides to attack Earth, because, why not? One man stands in their way; Sven Svardensvart. He’s the lone pilot of a fighter plane, and has just cause to lead the rebellion because his father was murdered by the Styx Empire for refusing to invent microwave ovens. Yes, you read that right. You can’t make this stuff up; video game or not.
Sven pilots a homemade ship armed with guns and bombs called the Banshee. The game itself is vertical scrolling shoot em up. You can move in all directions, and will need to do so to dodge the incoming bullets from the vast number of enemies you’ll be blowing up. The screen constantly moves up as your ship pilots forward from an overhead perspective. One of the first gimmicks rears it’s head immediately; the screen can scroll left and right as you move. This means the stages have more real estate than in your standard run of the mill overhead shooter.
The scrolling is welcome because of the fact that a noticeable amount of the display is taken up by the interface. This is locked into the left side of the screen and shows your number of lives, loop-de-loops, and more. Banshee uses a distinctly steampunk style. I only mention this now because the interface showing all of your stats is decked out in brass, and it looks really cool to be honest. That’s something minor, but it’s part of Banshee’s overall style. At first I was upset with the significant portion of screen real estate I was missing out on, but I think it really adds to the atmosphere.
Banshee has you constantly fighting a plethora of incoming planes, submarines, and even people on feet. I was thankful that this game didn’t rely on differentiating between air units and on-ground enemies. You can shoot them both the same by default. Banshee is not a bullet hell shooter, but you’ll need to weave your way through a screen full of enemies and shots constantly. As you upgrade your firepower this is less of an issue and you can decimate the foes when you’re all powered-up. The game becomes significantly easier at this point, but that’s a constant theme in the genre.
Where Banshee excels is in its enemy diversity. Foes fly in from all sides of the screen (except behind, thankfully), and you’ll find foot soldiers running our from buildings, submarines rising from the seas, etc. Banshee keeps you on your toes and has a fantastic amount of diversity. You never feel like any of the stages is too similar to one another. That’s a really good thing because levels in this game are much longer than in your typical shmup. You’ll find that each one is longer than ten minutes, and that may seem like a drag, but they never overstay their welcome here.
The power-up system is a play off of that in TwinBee. What this means is that each of them has a different icon, and you can change these by shooting them. This option gives you much more to pay attention to. Power-ups appear from off-screen or are left behind by a defeated foe. You have several different options to choose from. You have shield restoration (the shield is your life bar), rate of fire (indicated on the interface), firepower, diagonal shots, loop-de-loops, lives, bombs and even points. Being able to change what you’ll get adds to the strategy a great deal.
This system ensures that no two play-throughs will be the same. It also gives you more to think about as you’re playing. What’s particularly interesting is that the change in power-ups is never linear. You’ll get different results at random. This encourages you to target the falling icon over defeating all on-screen opponents. When you’re low on life you’re going to want to increase your shield, but when you’re at max perhaps a life would be beneficial. I always focus on upgrading my firepower at first. This tailors Banshee to your preferred method of gameplay.
Banshee is one of the best looking games on the Amiga CD32. That should come as no surprise considering it was such a late release for the platform. Your ship, as well as the enemies, are highly detailed and look incredible. When you play in two player mode the two ships are different colors. It’s a great concept that helps out more than you would expect. I’m no huge fan of the steampunk style but it adds a lot to the experience here. You have the brass colored interface (as I mentioned earlier) and the buildings are all old Victorian style. It’s really cool and carves out a unique identity for this game. The high point however is that the framerate stays steady no matter what’s happening.
The only downfall to the game is that, outside of the opening scenes and demo, there’s no music to be heard here. For me the music is more important than the graphics, and so that’s a major issue here. Instead the developers fill the audio tracks with the sound effects. Everything in this regard is hyper realistic. Each shot from your ship sounds like an actual machine gun being fired. You’ll also hear the enemy fire, as well as propellers. While some music would have been welcome I was actually really impressed by this one in regards to sound.
Banshee is amazing. That’s not something I’ll say about a lot of games on the Amiga CD32. The levels are huge but the developers did an amazing job of keeping things fresh in regards to enemy types and attack patterns. This is one of those few shooters where I was compelled to keep playing just to see what was around the corner. I might even go so far as to say it’s the best game on the platform. The lack of music is a bit of a drag, but the gameplay more than makes up for it.
