Cybernator - Final Boss

So I do this whole long post about classifying games and then immediately the next game I play is one that's hard to classify. In Cybernator you pilot a giant mech with various weapons and capabilities. You can jump and fly. It is close to Contra in gameplay, but there is a bit more jumping and moving around. I guess if I had to put it in one of my current categories then Platform would be the right genre for it, but all the shooting and blowing stuff up makes that seem a little off. Plus there are 2 or 3 sections that are like a shoot 'em up. I could just lump it in Action and that's what MobyGames does. Or I could give it multiple labels (that's what they are there for) like Digital Press does (Action/Platform/Shooter). Or make up a new one for Contra-like games (typically called "run and gun"). I like the Digital Press method the best, but the whole point of giving these genre labels to games is so that people can search for all games in one genre. I don't see any way to show all posts with both labels "shooter" and "platform" with blogger, so I'll abandon that and just create a new Run and Gun label. Typically, overhead shooters like Commando and Ikari Warriors also fall into this category and even though I find them quite a bit different from side-scrollers like Contra and especially Cybernator, I guess I'll live.

Ignoring that whole aside, Cybernator is a pretty slick game. The graphics and attention to detail are pretty amazing and it just feels smooth. For whatever reason, most mech games totally suck, but this one really works. I thought I read once that this was based on an anime, but can now find no corroborating evidence of this, so I will assume I am misremembering. The game certainly feels like some Gundam cartoon, right down to the bad dubbing (the translation is notoriously chopped and censored).

Anyway, I dig it quite a bit and it is certainly a difficult game. Despite doing the trick to get the napalm at the end of the first level, I still have not beaten it. Like any good run and gun, you practice and learn the patterns and make it further. I made it to the final boss this time (so my first entry on the game is not me beating it - yay!) who is, predictably, a huge mech. The fight it pretty awesome and I got close to beating it, but couldn't quite do it. I have a fair bit of confidance that next time I play, I will beat the game.

This game is totally recommended if you like run 'n guns and/or giant mechs.