Developer: Irem Publisher: Irem Release: 07/90 Genre: Shooter
R-Type was sorely missed on the NES. As the undisputed king of the console market you would expect one of the most popular arcade games of the day to hit the system. Yet Irem would port it to obscure platforms like the Sega Master System and Turbo Grafx-16. The fact that Nintendo was the distributor of the arcade game makes it even more dubious. They were not shy with their less popular titles however. Image Fight lives in the shadow of its more famous big brother. It has an interesting premise and the NES version is a solid port.
The weapon system in Image Fight is pretty light. Your main weapons will be the pods. These come in two colors, red and blue. The ship can equip three pods simultaneously on three sides of its body. Blue pods fire straight forward and offer more power but less versatility. Red Pods follow the movement of your ship and fire in the opposite direction. They are tricky to use but indispensable in so many situations. In fact I would go so far as to say they should be the default, they are just too good.
For your main cannon there are a few options. The V-cannon is your wide beam except it is so wide it is near useless. Heat seeking missiles are the best in the game despite their lacking power. The reflective shield I am iffy about. I have seen it work but it always felt like a dicey proposition to let bullets hit you. Seeking lasers follow the nearest enemy while the piercing laser is the strongest in the game. One feature I do not like is that you must destroy your current weapon to acquire a new one, an idiotic decision that I am sure has led to many unintentional deaths.
Image Fight has a different structure to most shooters. The first five missions are a training ground of sorts. You are graded on your performance such as every enemy shot down, number of deaths, and how fast you beat the end level bosses. The bosses account for 50% of your grade and if you take too long the game moves on and you essentially fail that level. You must earn a cumulative 90% at the end of the “simulation” to get a passing grade to move on to the real mission. Fail and you go to a penalty stage before moving on. While it sounds dramatic it is not. To be honest you would have to actively try to fail as there are fewer enemies in this version, making it easier to hunt them all down.
Once you are finished with your training the real game starts. The game informs you that this is not a drill and there is a notable step up in intensity. However the NES game is paired back compared to the arcade and in spite of its best efforts there is a lot of dead air. Image Fight is a slow paced shooter and that is exacerbated here. You will rarely face more than three enemies simultaneously. Even the capital ships pose little threat as the red pods can easily destroy their turrets at any angle. While main weapons are not as common they only make an already easy game that much simpler.
Part of what makes Image Fight so easy is the homing missiles. They are practically game breaking. It is entirely possible to hide in one corner of the screen and let them do all the work. Occasionally they will try to find an enemy behind a wall but those situations are few. With the fewer enemies in this version it feels even more overpowered. True you can simply avoid using it. But who the hell purposely gimps themselves? In the other versions the feeling of the real mission starting was tangible. That is less so here. I had little trouble breezing through the game and I imagine most will too.
In Closing
Despite the nips and tucks to bring it to the NES I still like Image Fight. There is a distinct lack of intensity that makes it more accessible but also puts it behind dedicated efforts like Gun-Nac and the Guardian Legend. If you want a shooter fix go for those games first before settling for this one even though it is good.The presence of the phenomenal Turbo Grafx version also makes this one less appealing.
