GBAtemp Recommends Revival # 004

[VatoLoco]

Welcome to the 4th issue of the GBAtemp Recommends Revival Project! This project is a weekly magazine feature where we share our favorite games and applications with you. The things we recommend may be "old school" titles, a Homebrew, a ROM hack, sleeper hits, an application, etc, but one thing's for certain, we think they are fantastic and deserve your attention!

GBAtemp Recommends!

Recca​

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D'ya like shmups? Me too! This week we take a look at Recca (Blazing Fire), a super fast paced vertical shooter for the NES/Famicom developed by Naxat Soft for their "Summer Carnival" competition back in 1992. Fully titled as Legend Consumer Series - Summer Carnival '92 Recca, the game came out towards the end of the NES' lifespan, after the SNES system release. Unfortunately the game was overlooked and didn't receive the attention it deserved.

Your mission in Recca is to blast your way through an array of enemy spacecraft in order to engage and destroy the level's boss. What sets this game apart from other shooters of this era are the speed of play and the sprite count. It was an amazing feat that the programmer, Shinobu Yagawa, was able to code the game to run at full speed, without significant slowdowns, considering the Nintendo's limited processing power.

Recca was meant to be played competitively, so the game-play can be quite difficult right from the start, but frustratingly fun. It consists of three game-play modes; Normal Game, Time Attack, and Score Attack. Additionally, there is a Recca Pure hack patch available that adds a hard/easy selection, and also unlocks a super-hard fourth mode called Zanki Attack, where enemies you've shot explode into a spray of bullets.

The game was a limited production Japan only release, so the original cartridge is rare (and expensive), meaning that most of us will only experience the pleasures of this game from a ROM dump. So, fire up your favorite NES console emulator [nesDS (DS), FCE Ultra GX (Wii), Mednafen (PC, Wii)] and give this manic shooter a go, you wont be disappointed, just a li'l bit heart-broken your ship keeps getting destroyed so quickly... again, and again.

Also Check Out:
Naxat Soft's "Summer Carnival" shooter titles for Turbografx/PCEngine, playable through Nitrografx (DS), Hugo (Wii), and Mednafen (PC, Wii)

Alzadick~Summer Carnival '92

Nexzr Special

Genre: Vertical Shooter
Type: Retail Release
Developer: Shinobu Yagawa for Naxat Soft
Release Date: July 17, 1992
ROM Size: 256 KB
System: NES (and your choice of NES EMUs)

If you enjoyed this weeks edition of GBAtemp Recommends! please leave a comment in the thread. This helps us monitor feedback and ensures we keep posting these magazine articles in the future. If you want to write for the GBAtemp Recommends, please PM a topic idea to Another World. Be sure to include a brief description and why you feel it is software appropriate for the Recommends Revival.

Recca Pure Patch

Recca Wiki Page

Official GBAtemp Recommends! Mini-Page & History

 

[Another World]

this is a really fun game and a hidden gem. its super hard tho, i always have to make use of a rewind button! lol.

-another world

 

[VatoLoco]

I always forget you can rewind with nesDS =P
It took all 50 of my ships, but I was able to make through level one in Zanki Attack=)...then my last ship got destroyed right as i hit the second level=(

edit: made it a bit further into level 2 Zanki today =D

 

[Evo.lve]

Never owned an NES, never heard of this either

Shame, it looks good.