Kyuukyoku Tiger
Title screen
| Developer: | Toaplan |
|---|---|
| Music: | Masahiro Yuge, Tatsuya Uemura |
| Art: | Kōetsu Iwabuchi |
| Release date: | 1987 |
| Previous game: | Hishouzame |
| Next game: | Tatsujin |
Contents
Kyuukyoku Tiger / Twin Cobra
Shooting game from Toaplan. 1987. Published by Taito. The sequel to Tiger-Heli. Known in the US as Twin Cobra.
Gameplay Overview
Kyuukyoku Tiger is a highly rudimentary game with a barebones control format and marathon-like game loop. There are ten stages in the game, with the latter five games serving as re-arranged versions of the first five stages. The game loops infinitely, with each loop increasing bullet speed and enemy aggression.
Controls
- A: Fires your Weapon. There is no auto-fire functionality in the game.
- B: Fires a Bomb. Bombs have a brief delay before they become active, and the player is not invincible at any point during the bomb.
Weapons
There are four weapons to choose from in Kyuukyoku Tiger, each one identified by the color of the weapon pickup. Every weapon has several power levels that offers increased firepower and slightly varies the weapon functionality.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Vulcan (Red) | Fires a straight shot. Concurrent upgrades increase the number of bullets shot at once, and very marginally increases the horizontal range of the weapon. |
| Spread (Blue) | Fires a series of blue bullets that increase in size and amount with upgrades. When upgraded twice, the weapon gains a 3-way spread fire, which then upgrades to a 5-way. |
| Laser (Green) | A variation on the straight shot that features increased power and refire rate, but a narrower bullet range. |
| Four-Way (Yellow) | Fires a multi-directional shot. When upgraded to level 3, it begins firing from the left and right of the helicopter, as well as from behind. |
Items
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Bonus Item | Awards 100pts. Tallied at the end of the stage for bonus points. |
| Weapon Pickup | Switches the weapon the player is using based on the color. Awards 2000pts on collection if the color is the same as the shot already used, 100pts otherwise. |
| Power Up | Increases the player's weapon power level by 1. |
| 1UP | Awards an extend to the player. |
Loops
Kyuukyoku Tiger, like many early Toaplan shmups, features an infinite loop, allowing the skilled player to play the game forever as long as they're able to keep up with the scaling increase in enemy bullet speed and general ferocity.
Scoring
Scoring in Kyuukyoku Tiger is extremely basic, with each enemy and item offering a flat amount of points. Like most Toaplan games, Kyuukyoku Tiger loops infinitely, and scoring is essentially done by clearing several loops. There are, however, a few details that can improve the player's score on a given loop.
End-Stage Bonus
The player is awarded 3000pts for every P-Star they collected in the stage. If the player dies in a stage, any Stars collected on that life are lost.
Weapon pickup
If the item is collected while its color is the same as the shot the player was already using, they are awarded 2000 points. Otherwise, they only get 100 points.
Infinite pattern
The final boss doesn't time out, while enemy tanks will appear infinitely. By using the yellow shot type (four-way) and staying in a safespot while shooting, it is possible to destroy the tanks as they spawn without damaging the boss, making the score slowly increase.
Strategy
See Kyuukyoku Tiger/Strategy for stage maps, enemy and boss descriptions, walkthroughs, and advanced play strategies.
WIP
Development History
During the development of Slap Fight, the developers at Toaplan had already developed the "shot + bomb" structure of Hishouzame and Kyuukyoku Tiger, intending to focus mostly on "the simple thrill of shooting and dodging".
Kyuukyoku Tiger was received well both in and outside of Japan, quoted as being Toaplan's "biggest hit".
Version Differences
- The USA release of Kyuukyoku Tiger is known as Twin Cobra, and it features a few key differences that separate it from the original game, and make for an overall easier experience.
- Kyuukyoku Tiger features a checkpoint system, where Twin Cobra simply respawns you instantly on death. This change can allow you to fly past troublesome sections, but can also heavily affect routing and death recovery, as you can end up going a very long time woefully underpowered.
- The overall flying speed of the heli in Twin Cobra is faster than in Kyuukyoku Tiger.
- Twin Cobra reduces the number of shots you can fire at once to three, whereas Kyuukyoku Tiger allows four.
Gallery
See Kyuukyuku Tiger/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.
References
- "Toaplan Developer Interview -- Gamest, September 1990, translated into EN by Shmupulations | http://shmuplations.com/toaplan-gamest/
