Coron Land for SFC

Image: MobyGames

Coron Land

Smash TV meets Bubble Bobble

Genre: arcade - n/a

Publisher: Yumedia

Year: 1995

System: SFC

Gameplay Score: 1

Gameplay Notes:

It's a twin-stick shooter, but without the second stick. There's no way to strafe. 8 direction movement. Enemies spawn in anywhere, including right inside of you. Enemies have no collision and love to stun lock you. Your weapon has a limited range, so you have to get uncomfortably close to them. It also has no rapid fire - you can only fire it one shot at a time. Your weapon captures enemies in a bubble which can be picked up and thrown. Enemies move around randomly. It's like fighting wave after wave of bats and Armos from the original Legend of Zelda. Come to think of it, there are also Wizzrobe clones. Whoever made this game played a lot of Zelda. Enemies respawn several times. This varies between screens and doesn't seem to follow any consistent pattern. Bombs must also be destroyed. They dash toward you, like the spikes in LoZ, and do so just as you reach your weapon's range. Terrible hit detection - you have to be perfectly aligned with your target. And most enemies require multiple hits so you have to get them alone and lined up. It's exhausting.

Level Design Score: 1

Level Design Notes:

Every level is about the same. There's no ramp up in difficulty because it's the same enemies on every stage. They add a couple but the number and aggressiveness of the enemies stays about constant. The HUD and some foreground graphics obscure part of the playing field, making it even more difficult to play. Oh and of course they had to throw in a handful of ice levels right away. As if the controls in this game aren't bad enough, adding ice physics that only affect you (not your enemies) is a cruel move. After 10 screens you fight a boss, but I swear I hit him 30 times with no indication that I was making any progress. After about 10 minutes he finally killed me. What a slog!

Theme Score: 4

Theme Notes:

The cute anime characters work well. There's a story (all in Japanese, of course) that had me hooked.

Art Style Score: 4

Art Style Notes:

Easily the highlight of this terrible game. The graphics are colorful and fun. The characters designs are nice, aside from a couple of dumb enemies. Effects are veruy weak, especially the explosions, but everything else is top-notch.

Audio Score: 2

Audio Notes:

A single track plays continuously. There isn't any fanfare when completing a screen. The song isn't terrible, but as you might guess, it gets old.

Overall Score: 31

Review ID: 1574