The Neo Geo is known mostly for its plethora of fighting games. The system doesn’t excel in many other genres, but if I had to choose a second place it would be shoot ’em ups. There aren’t a significant number of these, but what’s there is actually really good. One of these such games is a small release called Pulstar. While popular in the Japanese arcades it was only released in North America on the Neo Geo CD console, and not the more popular cartridge based AES model of the hardware. Because the system wasn’t very popular here there were only a limited number of copies released, and it has become one of the most rare Neo Geo titles on CD. Pulstar is an excellent shooter, but that price tag is more than a little intimidating most collectors.
I’m sure Pulstar has a story, but I couldn’t be bothered to dig around for it. The scenario has to do with you piloting a lone ship and standing up against an alien menace that’s attacking this universe. That’s all good and well, but the gameplay is what’s important and this is where Pulstar succeeds most. This is a traditional horizontal scrolling shooter where you guide your ship dodging enemies, projectiles, and environmental hazards as you return fire at your foes.
This is one of the more challenging shoot ’em ups because a single hit will blow your aircraft up, and instead of simply being thrown back into the mix from where you left off you’re taken back to the last checkpoint you reached. The vast number of enemies and projectiles you must contend with in every stage makes avoiding death a tall order. The game is relatively easy at first but the later stages are all perilous. Because of the large size of your ship you’ve got a big target to protect.
You begin the game with a single shot that fires forward only. Defeated enemies frequently leave behind power-ups that serve numerous functions. These change your primary shot type and trajectory, and this can be upgraded several times. The power-ups can speed up your ship, change your projectile patterns into a spread, or even into a laser that reflects off of surfaces in the environment. In typical fashion you can also gain up to two option crafts that follow you around and also fire at enemies. It’s pretty basic but somehow Pulstar manages to make these features its own.
The final ability your ship has via power-ups is node that sits in the front of your ship. This can be used to absorb and deflect some enemy projectiles, and will also damage most enemies when touched with it. This item also functions as your typical shooter game bomb; with the press of a button you can send it out and detonate it to take out all enemies within the blast radius. By default your ship even comes with a charge up shot or you can simply rely on rapid fire. Pulstar offers many more features than most shooters of its time.
Pulstar isn’t a very long game. Not many titles originally released in arcades are so it’s hard to fault this one for it. What it lacks in longevity it makes up for in level design. There are eight different stages which are thematically diverse but generally resort to simple high tech environments. The hazards offer significant diversity in how you approach each of them. Because of the size of your ship and its maneuverability you have to use significant precision while navigating. Success depends greatly on memorization of enemy patterns as well as placement of obstacles.
The developers did a fantastic job of throwing a lot of different things at your ship and giving you a small window of opportunity to fight or flee their fire. At the end of each stage awaits a boss, and these encounters are easily my favorite part of the game. Many of these goliaths take up the entire screen, and their well placed hit boxes and unique shot patterns make each one dynamic, interesting, and chaotic. They’re tough as nails, but with practice these become manageable as you sharpen your reflexes. One small nuance is the game freezes momentarily when it’s loading the explosion from your ship being destroyed. It’s a little weird to be honest but I suppose that’s because of the medium.
This is one of the best looking titles available on the Neo Geo. Most everything is pre-rendered and animated via cgi like Donkey Kong Country. It looks astounding, and it’s hard to believe this was pulled off on such an old system. The game opens up to a cinema which shows your ship being deployed. While it’s not up to FMV standards it still looks really nice. The in-game animations are the highlight here with explosions that are surprisingly realistic, and excellent use of computer generated enemies.
The backgrounds aren’t quite as impressive, but they’re decent and some feature significant amounts of detail. Unfortunately Pulstar does suffer from slowdown on a pretty regular basis. This occurs even when there’s only a few enemies on-screen at once which is very disappointing. I imagine this is mostly because of the high fidelity graphics, and it does interfere with gameplay at times. It’s like the explosions each have to load in separately. I would have preferred they leave out the fancy effects and focus on a smooth experience instead. It’s not enough to ruin the game, but it’s clear where the focus was. The graphics overall are extremely good though.
Despite originally being released on arcade hardware this game features a fantastic CD quality redbook soundtrack. It’s mostly the typical kind of stuff you would expect; there’s an emphasis on techno/pop tracks, but it’s all really well done. I especially enjoy the first and second level themes; they’re high energy and very well composed. The sound effects are also extremely realistic with real world samples used for many. I’m a little disappointed overall because the explosions are a little muffled and low volume. One thing I really don’t like is the fact that the sound effects are generally too loud. It wouldn’t be an issue except for the fact that they often block out the excellent music in the background. The audio is pretty good with the soundtrack standing out in particular.
