Phantom 2040, for SNES

Rating: 8.0/10; Great

Phantom 2040 is a 2D side view shooter platformer with levels that can go in all directions and a semi open world that allows you to revisit most stages. There are permanent powerups to collect, a variety of weapons and multiple branching paths that lead to several different endings. The game is very similar to Super Metroid and the Mega Man series mixed with a cyberpunk setting and a comic book vigilante that is very similar to Batman, with a little Spider Man thrown in from the induction rope. Of course the story and villains are straight out of comics, so how much you like the plot and characters will depend on how you feel about comic books. The story touches on some interesting themes, such as environmental protection, automation, fake news and the rights of space colonists. A very interesting setting.

Controls are very simple: D pad to move (press again while moving to run), 2 face buttons which can be assigned to any of your weapons, 1 for jump and 1 for the rope. Going into the inventory pauses the game and allows you to set up your weapons, use a few special abilities and use your stash of health and ammo packs; no limits on how much you can carry and the combat difficulty is balanced upon you having these consumables. Some weapons can even change each other when equipped at the same time. How cool is that. All weapons and abilities cost energy, except for the basic melee punch/kick. However the combat is often very hectic with infinitely respawning enemies, which severely limits your ability to conserve ammo. In some places (including some boss fights) the rate of enemy respawn is so high that you can't even get a breather. It can be frustrating at times to try to navigate and platform while being constantly cheap shotted by enemies that shoot from off screen, spawn right on top of you or otherwise blindside you. This is exacerbated by the lack of any in game map, which makes it even more frustrating to find your way through the somewhat sprawling, mazelike and samey looking levels. There are plenty of numbered consoles that open numbered doors, sometimes for optional loot and sometimes needed to progress. Nearly every time I found one I groaned and was like "where was the door for this?". It was a huge disincentive to try and get every secret. One of the most important features of a metroidvania is checking the map to see where you have not been yet, particularly those seeming dead ends that require some future thing to bypass. This game relies only on these numbered pairs and improvements on the rope length to gain access to new areas; there could have been far more variety.

The rope is a very cool feature that is the core of the platforming. It functions like a hi tech grappling hook that can attach to almost any surface. Enemies can detach it if they touch it but otherwise you only fall if you jump or press the rope button again. It can be used to reach higher than jumping, hang out of range of harm, scale or descend vertical surfaces, and swing across ceilings Spider Man style. The only problem is aiming at small platforms. In fact aiming weapons is difficult as well, a common problem with 2D shooters. The D pad controls aiming as well as movement, so it is difficult NOT to move while aiming. There is a button to lock direction but it is awkward and you are better off jumping to aim. Or use homing or area attacks. Many bosses are difficult to the point of needing to spend your lives, especially the very final fight which takes place in a long vertical shaft that forces you to keep going up or die. That concept is difficult enough without also having to dodge and kill the boss!

Phantom is one of the better shooters of the era, and even one of the better comic book games. Well made, fun to play and an interesting plot and setting, the game is held back by not having level maps, resulting in the levels being more obnoxious than fun to explore. The game either needed a good map system or more simple and linear level design. An actual save mechanic instead of the ridiculous PARAGRAPH of characters required to load the password saves would not have hurt either.