🎮 Missile Dancer 2
2024年 9月 14日
Missile Dancer 2 is an on-rails shooting game that looks like it time-traveled straight out of a late '80s game center. It takes clear inspiration from Sega classics like After Burner and Galaxy Force, with bold and crunchy sprite-scaling pixel art and missile-guiding barrage system. But whereas retro games are often limited to limited control schemes and grueling difficulty designed to slurp coins from your wallet, Missile Dancer 2 feels like a dream to play, and even a complete shooting game noob like me can clear it without smashing my controller... on Normal mode, at least.
The original MissileDancer uses the same lock-on targeting and missile barrage system, but is in a more traditional vertical shooter format.
The original MissileDancer is a more traditional 2D vertical shooting game. Its signature feature was the ability to lock-on to targets automatically just by "scanning" your reticle over them, then releasing the button to unleash a barrage of missiles for huge damage. You also had a regular shot that was more for defense, designed to catch any debris that made it through your missiles. The idea was to alternate between blasting through waves of enemies with your missiles, weaving around enemy bullets that you can't destroy, and using your regular shot for cleanup.
Missile Dancer 2 immediately sets itself apart from its predecessor with a switch to a third-person rail shooter perspective.
Its amped-up sequel takes that same dynamic but sticks you behind the plane in a 3D rail shooting perspective. You still sweep the screen to lock onto enemies and release the trigger to unload your missiles, but instead of coming down from the top of the screen, they come bursting out of cloud cover in the distance or overtaking you from behind. Power-ups and bonus points come floating towards the screen, and you'll need to weave around to grab them before they drift past. You really do feel like a, heh, missile dancer as you go pirouetting across the sky.
You'll need to roll out of the way of enemy fire, zip around to lock on to targets to release your missile barrage, and scoop up any items and bonus points that you can.
The switch from a 2D to 3D perspective makes movement feel more immediate any dynamic. On top of dodging enemies, you'll also need to gauge the distance and give yourself time to both lock on and launch missiles. You can pick up items that switch out your equipped missiles with different attributes. Multi Missiles let you lock on to more targets at once; Napalm Missiles hit hard and are great against single-target bosses; and quick Spear Missiles are good for punching through walls of enemies. There is a radar in the top left that can help you see at a glance how far off before enemy fire reaches you, and a quick tap of the right shoulder will let you barrel-roll to safety. At its most intense, Missile Dancer 2 can feel like a third-person danmaku with its tiny gaps of clearance. Knowing when to hold your ground and sweep the screen with your missiles, and when to dodge out of the way and use your regular shot for defense, is both familiar to anyone who has ever played the original and completely new thanks to the perspective change.
The sprite scaling pixel art and bold colors leaves quite an impression.
The presentation of Missile Dancer 2 goes above and beyond, favoring simple but impactful visuals and striking color contrasts. You'll go blasting over a craggy blue landscape with an enormous lime green planet looming over the horizon, zipping down highways lined with towering skyscrapers, and take on huge screen-filling bosses. The pixel art is deliberately scaled rather than smoothed for that retro arcade look, and matches perfectly with the heart-pounding electric soundtrack. Every session I had with Missile Dancer 2 was just so much fun. You can't play this and not feel like a superstar.
Even Normal mode will take quite a few attempts to clear, though there are no limits to continues.
Arcade mode has sixteen levels and three difficulty modes. As I mentioned, even a noob like me managed to see everything that Normal mode had to offer, though I need to get in a lot more practice to be able to do a 1CC run. There are online leaderboards for any score-chasers out there, plus a three-minute score attack Caravan Mode like Terarin's library of other games.
The effects in this game are extremely satisfying, especially when you take down the bosses.
There is a certain type of STG fan who is already very familiar with Terarin's body of work, and they already know that his games are always a good time. Missile Dancer 2 is out on Steam and Switch, and comes with a downloadable demo that goes over the controls. If you've ever wanted to get into STGs but were intimidated by the sheer difficulty, I highly encourage you to look into Missile Dancer 2 and the rest of Terarin's games as great points of entry. I find myself frequently loading it up in my spare moments to practice, and unlike most other games of the genre, I feel like a 1CC run is not completely outside the realm of possibility for me. And if I can do it, then so can you! Shall we dance?