Elemental Master (Technosoft, 1990)

Moments before Laden, a master sorcerer serving under King Lorelei, releases an energy blast directed at his sworn enemy, a masked figure who calls himself "The Gyra", he comes across a horrible secret. He learns his mysterious adversary is, in fact, Roki, his own brother.

Stunned by the revelation, Laden realizes he is no match for the evil which has consumed his beloved kin. Left alone without a chance for a fight, Laden sets off on a journey to hone his powers as a master of the elements. For it is through the path of the Elemental Master, will he be worthy of saving his kingdom.

----

I had no idea this game was by the same makers of Thunder Force--Technosoft. As a kid, I was an SNES fanboy, so I never cared much about the Genesis, even though I missed out on a lot of good games. I was drawn to the game because the double-sided firing in Death Smiles reminded me of this pseudo hidden gem, and I was also looking to play something really easy.

Everybody mentions this game as being one of the easiest shooters ever made. It's not an arcade game, so it's definitely not made to fuck you up and take your lunch money. It was made for you to kick its ass and take whatever change it had leftover in its overalls.

Not only is it easy, but it has a heavy, darkish soundtrack to it that makes it very charming. Plus, it has a kickass opener which made me feel like I wanted to and was going to kick some ass. And that I did.


I played this game last weekend for a couple hours and 1CC'd it on the second day. My score was 373,430. I know, who gives a shit, right? But it was fun! Even though it is frightfully easy (I made it to the 5th stage on my first try), it did take a lot of effort on my part to complete it, and I credit fed a lot so I could practice the last boss. The last couple of stages took more time to get used to, but compared to anything found in an arcade, this made me feel like a MLB player playing in Little League.

When it comes to (arcade) shooters, I'm someone who has managed to make it to the last levels, yet never went through and completed one. For consoles, the only one that I ever 1CC'd was U.N. Squadron/Area 88. I'm looking to fix that.

So it felt good beating Elemental Master, an easy, yet badass game in its own right. There are a lot of things which bothered me about it though (bad hit-detection and a large hitbox, cheap hits, some ugly sprites, and a couple useless weapons to name a few), but its music and the way it presented itself makes it an endearingly cool game. I recommend it to anyone starting out on shooters, but felt too intimidated by them.