This game is great and deserves it's own thread. 
I bought it a while ago but only got around to checking it out recently. I didn't quite know what to expect since there have been quite a few expensive shooters with big reputations that have disappointed me when I've actually played them, but Harmful Park isn't one of them. In fact, it's great in every department and easily one of the most memorable shooters I've played.
Looking at their company profile, this appears to have been the last game Sky Think Systems ever made, which is a shame, but perhaps they already knew this because it's obvious that they made a real effort here.
At first glance, it appears to be just another highly-polished "cute" shmup like Parodius and various other early '90s PCE/SFC games, but lurking beneath the surface is a serious shooter with surprisingly-deep gameplay and scoring.
My first impression of the game was that it actually felt quite reminiscant of Progear since it has bright, cartoony graphics just like that game, and also a similar ( S L O W ) scrolling speed. Plus, you're piloting a flying contraption with a seperate gun/weapon (actually a pair of hands that change according to the weapon selected) and there's also jewels floating around the screen during play... so the similarities are there, even if both games are quite different in execution.
4 weapons are available at any time, and each of them are very different. The Potato gun is default, and is like your typical rapid-firing "vulcan". The Ice Cream weapon is a powerful laser with a slower firing speed. You can also elect to use the Pie weapon which, throws pies(!) at the enemies...these explode on impact and can take out other baddies in the vicinity, but you're left vulnerable and unable to fire for quite a while between throws with this one. Last but not least, is the Jerry (Jelly beans?) which have homing tendencies.
All of these can be powered-up by collecting tokens. I tend do prefer just use the Potato gun most of the time, with the occasional switch to the Ice Cream to take out clusters of enemies for the multiple kill bonuses (x2, x3, x4...etc).
You can use these weapons to blow apart cuddly teddys, pigs, monkeys, clowns and other bizarre creatures and stuff you might expect to find in an amusement park. What really makes it great though, is the sheer amount of imagination put into the game. The levels and enemy patterns are superb, with great attention to detail and ingenious set-pieces that Treasure would be proud of.
There's only 6 "attractions" (levels) in all, but they're a decent length with plenty of variety, plus there's a seperate level for the score-attack mode.
The graphics look good in static screens, but the game looks amazingly good in the flesh when it's running. Everything is really well-animated and the screen is always full of life with lots of nice special effects. You really need to watch someone else playing to take most of it in. The soundtrack is also fantastic with some good stereo effects and some truly great tunes.
The only real problem with Harmful Park is the difficulty. The default setting is "Easy" and even though I changed that to "Normal" straight away it's not exactly tough, with the bosses in particular being fairly easy to beat. The game is so good to play though that there's plenty to come back for, including 3 unlockable minigames.
I bought it a while ago but only got around to checking it out recently. I didn't quite know what to expect since there have been quite a few expensive shooters with big reputations that have disappointed me when I've actually played them, but Harmful Park isn't one of them. In fact, it's great in every department and easily one of the most memorable shooters I've played.
Looking at their company profile, this appears to have been the last game Sky Think Systems ever made, which is a shame, but perhaps they already knew this because it's obvious that they made a real effort here.
At first glance, it appears to be just another highly-polished "cute" shmup like Parodius and various other early '90s PCE/SFC games, but lurking beneath the surface is a serious shooter with surprisingly-deep gameplay and scoring.
My first impression of the game was that it actually felt quite reminiscant of Progear since it has bright, cartoony graphics just like that game, and also a similar ( S L O W ) scrolling speed. Plus, you're piloting a flying contraption with a seperate gun/weapon (actually a pair of hands that change according to the weapon selected) and there's also jewels floating around the screen during play... so the similarities are there, even if both games are quite different in execution.
4 weapons are available at any time, and each of them are very different. The Potato gun is default, and is like your typical rapid-firing "vulcan". The Ice Cream weapon is a powerful laser with a slower firing speed. You can also elect to use the Pie weapon which, throws pies(!) at the enemies...these explode on impact and can take out other baddies in the vicinity, but you're left vulnerable and unable to fire for quite a while between throws with this one. Last but not least, is the Jerry (Jelly beans?) which have homing tendencies.
All of these can be powered-up by collecting tokens. I tend do prefer just use the Potato gun most of the time, with the occasional switch to the Ice Cream to take out clusters of enemies for the multiple kill bonuses (x2, x3, x4...etc).
You can use these weapons to blow apart cuddly teddys, pigs, monkeys, clowns and other bizarre creatures and stuff you might expect to find in an amusement park. What really makes it great though, is the sheer amount of imagination put into the game. The levels and enemy patterns are superb, with great attention to detail and ingenious set-pieces that Treasure would be proud of.
There's only 6 "attractions" (levels) in all, but they're a decent length with plenty of variety, plus there's a seperate level for the score-attack mode.
The graphics look good in static screens, but the game looks amazingly good in the flesh when it's running. Everything is really well-animated and the screen is always full of life with lots of nice special effects. You really need to watch someone else playing to take most of it in. The soundtrack is also fantastic with some good stereo effects and some truly great tunes.
The only real problem with Harmful Park is the difficulty. The default setting is "Easy" and even though I changed that to "Normal" straight away it's not exactly tough, with the bosses in particular being fairly easy to beat. The game is so good to play though that there's plenty to come back for, including 3 unlockable minigames.
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