Category : Various Text files
Archive   : SEGAMISC.ZIP
Filename : GAIARES

Article 14780 of rec.games.video:
Path: uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!bluecow
From: [email protected] (Tobish E Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Gaiares for Genesis
Summary: 1st impressions of Gaiares
Keywords: gaiares genesis home
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 23 Mar 91 03:08:12 GMT
Distribution: rec.games.video
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 40

I just picked up Gaiares tonight from the mall, and thought I'd tell y'all
about my first impressions of the game. But first, a question: HOW do you
pronounce the name of this thing??

Gaiares is an 8-meg horizontal shooter from Renovation (Whip Rush, Final Zone,
GranadaX, Arrow Flash), and graphically, it is phenomenal. I was excited to
get M.U.S.H.A. since I knew of its movie-like intro. Gaiares' intro is at
least twice as long, and the music is nicer. Very very slick. The game has
eight levels (with monstrously large bosses at the end of each...) and you
get four continues. As I mentioned before, the graphics on this game are
first-rate - better than TFIII, IMHO. The gameplay is pretty standard, with
a couple of notes: first, it utilizes the WHip Rush-style speed control. You
can set your ship's speed at low, med, or hi according to the situation. I
utilized this quite a bit in Whip Rush (which had more speed levels), but
finished MUSHA (which has the same feature) without ever changing speed. I
haven't noticed a real need for it in Gaiares, yet, but I haven't gotten all
that far yet either. The second interesting feature is the way in which you
power up your weapons. You have a pod that floats along with you, called the
TOZ. The TOZ shoots and is invincible, so just as a friend its handy for
extra firepower and absorbing the occasional enemy shot. But its real use
is for copying the firepower of the enemy critters. This is a neat idea.
When you press the C button, the TOZ shoots forward from your ship, and if
an enemy is in line with it, it will attach to that enemy and transfer its
weapon to your ship. Each different weapon type has 3 levels of powerup
(i.e. it's worthwhile to do the TOZ on three different enemies of a given
type) and the manual lists ten types of weapons. If you have a laser weapon
at levl 2, for example, and do the TOZ on a new type of critter so that you
now have a "plasma cannon" at level 1, the game will remember that you had
the laser powered up to 2, so if you find another enemy that shoots lasers
and manage to TOZ it, you'll have a level 3 laser. All in all, I think this
is a nifty twist on powering up your spaceship.
The graphics are really, really, REALLY excellent... Really. Fun to play,
too (so far) once you get used to using the TOZ (which takes a few minutes).
I'd like to tell you more about gameplay but I haven't played it long enough
to really be fair to it, so I'll refrain. However, I do know that given a
choice between Gaiares and Strider (another expensive 8-meg cart) after seeing
both for equal amounts of time, I'd take Gaiares in a second.

Tob
[email protected]


From [email protected] Sun Mar 24 02:38:51 1991
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Date: Sun, 24 Mar 91 02:38:25 -0600
From: [email protected] (Milton W. Kuo)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Review Of GAIARES
Cc: [email protected]
Status: RO

Game Name : Gaiares
Game Type : Shooting
Game Maker : Nihon Telenet
Game Size : 8 Mbits (1 MB)

Gaiares is Nihon Telenet's bid to up stakes in the Genesis/Mega Drive
shooting game market. Not only has Nihon Telenet upped the stakes, Gaiares
represents possibly the best shooting game ever for any system. Coupled
with the best graphics of any shooting game, a good soundtrack, and a truly
unique and creative power up process, Gaiares leaves all other shooting
games for the Genesis eating dust!

Gaiares get off to an impressive start when you load up the cartridge
with an opening sequence of graphics explaining the story that is nearly
ten minutes long! The basic premise of the story is that the Earth has
been polluted to the extent that it is no longer habitable. A terrorist
group, the Gulfer (?), are planning to take the radiactive waste from the
planet Earth and develop that waste into weapons. In a desperate bid to
stop the Gulfer, an alien race has decreed that if the humans cannot pre-
vent the Gulfer objective, they will be forced to cause the Sun to explode
and destroy the Earth. As the one of the last of the dying human race,
you must repel the Gulfer invasion armed only with courage and a revolu-
tionary weapons system, the WOZ unit. Defeat the Gulfer threat, and Earth
may yet rise from the ashes....

With a full eight megabits of program code, Gaiares is able to put
some truly amazing images on the screen. Bosses are as tall as the whole
screen and the backgrounds on each of the levels is a masterpiece in graph-
ics. From the opening sequence revealing the story behind the game to the
various graphical extras in each of the levels (such as the second level
where the setting is the arctic region of some planet. In the ocean of the
planet, the reflection of the mountain range can be seen), Gaiares clearly
shows Nihon Telenet's effort to make Gaiares the best game possible. Awe-
some background graphics and ingenious use of the line scrolling feature
of the Genesis for moving backgrounds puts Gaiares head and shoulders above
any game out for the Genesis in terms of graphics.

In the advertisements in the Japanese Mega Drive magazines, Nihon Tel-
enet states that the salient feature of Gaiares that separates Gaiares from
all other shooting games is the "WOZ" concept of powering up the ship. The
concept of the "WOZ" is that the WOZ is a weapons unit that is much like
the helper in R-Type in that it provides the ship with extra firepower and
affords protection against enemy fire. However, what makes WOZ truly uni-
que is the fact that while most shooting games require the destruction of
an enemy vessel thus leaving behind a power up capsule for you to take,
Gaiares requires that you launch the WOZ unit at an enemy ship. Upon at-
taching itself to the enemy ship, the WOZ unit proceeds to take the charac-
teristics and power of the enemy vessel's weapon. Upon successfully steal-
ing the enemy's power, the player can then attack the enemy vessel using
the enemy's weapon. With the many different types of enemy ships in
Gaiares, the number of different weapons the player may assimilate for him-
self using the WOZ unit is nearly limitless (by the second level, I have
counted over ten different weapons). The great number of weapons available
for the player's use give Gaiares a degree of variety not found in other
shooting games.

While the graphics and the gameplay are definitely Gaiares' strongest
points, Gaiares did not slack off when it came to the background music.
While the soundtrack is not as good as Thunder Force III's, Gaiares has a
number of very catchy tunes that fit the game very well. Of all of the
Genesis/Mega Drive games, Gaiares is arguably the best available because
cause of its seamless integration of graphics, music, gameplay, and varie-
ty. Gaiares is definitely a game worth buying. Sorry Thunder Force III,
but Gaiares totally outclasses you in almost every way!


Ratings:
Graphics : 10 (Incredible! The best I've ever seen!)
Sound : 9
Gameplay : 10 ("WOZ" is a truly original and neat concept)
"Funness" : 9
Overall : 10 (Simply the BEST shooting game I've ever played)


By the way, Gaiares is a very difficult game - definitely not a game that
can be finished within a day of playing. For those who complain about Gen-
esis games being too easy, they have yet to play Gaiares!


Milton W. Kuo
[email protected]

Article 15208 of rec.games.video:
Path: uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!milton
From: [email protected] (Milton W. Kuo)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: GAIARES - A Tough Game!
Keywords: Sega, Mega, Drive, Genesis, GAIARES, Telenet, Renovation
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 4 Apr 91 07:36:12 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Reply-To: [email protected] (Milton W. Kuo)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 21
Originator: [email protected]


For those of you who have GAIARES, you'll be in for a real challenge.
It took me about a month of playing two or three hours a day to finish it.
Although GAIARES is a hard game, I didn't get sick of it like some games
which are difficult (like Sword Of Sodan). There are a total of eight
levels in GAIARES and the toughest boss by far is the level six boss - I
must have lost about a hundred men at that stage using continues.

For those who are surprised that Renovation released a good game, I
should say that Renovation doesn't write games. If I'm correct, all they
do is distribute games - just like Sage's Creation. GAIARES was program-
med by Nihon Telenet. Those of you who have GAIARES, listen to it through
headphones - it's got great stereo music!

By the way, the manual doesn't mention it but there are three weapons
which you can get randomly which are incredibly powerful - the T Blaster,
F-Formation, and A Bullet. With these weapons, you can kill most bosses
with but a few hits.

Milton W. Kuo
[email protected]


Article 15209 of rec.games.video:
Path: uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!bluecow
From: [email protected] (Tobish E Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Re: GAIARES - A Tough Game!
Keywords: Sega, Mega, Drive, Genesis, GAIARES, Telenet, Renovation
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 4 Apr 91 08:43:31 GMT
References: <[email protected]>
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 10

The A-Bullet - I stumbled across that one in the stage right before you
attack the second boss underwater. Suddenly the TAZ was shooting these
big ol' missiles for no apparent reason! Toasted that boss but good.
That's the only undocumented weapon I've had, and it's only happened once.
I've been looking for a special-looking critter on that screen that might
carry it, but no such luck. Is it purely random or is there any skill in
getting these bad bruisers?

Tob
[email protected]