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Cannon Spike

Friday March 22, 2024

Cannon Spike is a shoot em up/beat em up hybrid. A beatemshmup, if you will. You probably could’ve guessed this, but I originally tried this game because Cammy is a playable character. She scoots around on roller skates and has a gun. You can even use her blue “Killer Bee” outfit, maerk.xyz style.

Obviously I had to try this game. The first time I played it I used a Dreamcast emulator, but now I play it on my Blast City. It was originally a Naomi game, so it’s not surprising that it got a flawless Dreamcast port. All the screenshots on the page are from the Dreamcast version because I already had the ROM on my computer.

Gameplay

You can move/shoot in 8 directions. Each character has regular bullets, a slower but stronger shot, a close range attack, and a super. It’s kind of like a twin stick shooter but with one stick, so there is a lock on button that will allow you to move freely while shooting directly at an enemy. You will probably be mashing the lock on button like crazy, because for some reason it times out. Due this time out, you’ll have to constantly face towards the high health enemy, lock on, and start shooting again. You get used to it especially once you get a feel for when the lock on time is about to run out, but it still seems weird to have a time out on it at all. When enemies die they will sometimes drop health, additional space on your health bar, or a stock of super. The first stage of each level is a wave of regular enemies, followed by a mini boss. After the mini boss you fight a real boss, and are taken to the next level. That’s it. I have no idea what the story is, and I don’t care. Cammy has a gun. Kill robots.

The gameplay loop is really simple and really fast. Once you get a hang of the controls, it’s easy to get in the zone and melt mini bosses with well timed strong shots. There was a time where I was determined to beat this game with Cammy using only 3 credits, which is the Dreamcast default. It took me a million tries, but I eventually got it. I’d Game Over and start right back up again. It’s repetitive, but there’s enough variety to keep each level interesting. Don’t worry about how I have 0 credits at 1-6. I was zooming through just to get screenshots.

The last half of the game gets pretty hard. Pretty bullshit, I mean. I was playing on a Dreamcast the other day and I made it pretty far with a full health bar and no deaths. I said to the guy next to me who was playing Tetris Attack, “Yo I’m kinda hauling ass in this game” and within 30 seconds I died because the fucking jungle boss deletes your health bar with one swing of his gay ass staff. I don’t think I will ever “1cc” this game, and I’m okay with that. Side note: Arthur is fucking broken. I’m making it harder for myself by always playing as Cammy. His melee attack is insanely strong and so is his power shot.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot this game is multiplayer. I have never played this game with another person, and something tells me none of my friends will like it. I will force Rewald through The Rewald Cycle and report back.

Aesthetics

I think this game looks pretty good. The environments are kinda generic looking but they get the job done. To greatly paraphrase the words of Moosh:

The music is nothing special. I think it ranges from fine to mildly annoying.

The art on the character select screen, level transition screen, and each character’s ending was done by Kinu Nishimura, who I love.

Is it worth your quarters?

I think so. If you like shmups, I’d say definitely give it a try. Maybe it’s just because I’ve become somewhat decent at this game, but I think the quarter robbing bullshit doesn’t really happen until near the end. Since you have a health bar and you don’t die in one hit like a normal shmup, it’s pretty easy to jump into. If you do end up trying it, let me know what you think.