Target Earth

[Alianger]

The space battle scenes were epic. I remember beating this on an emu in the early 00's and I thought it was a cakewalk. Turned out the rom was hacked though and you couldn't actually die. Never got past the third level or so in the non-hacked version.

[Jesse813]

Pretty Good Run & Gun for the Genny

[SirArthur]

So, was it sold at a budget price from the start? (back in 1990)

I bought Target Earth around release in 1990. If memory serves most new games released during the first year of the Genesis were $50 aside from PSII which I paid about $70 for (I still have the receipt somewhere).

Loved TE game back then, very unique & like others have said had great tunes & an insane level of difficulty.

I need to reaquire this as its always bothered me I never finished it. That one level where you freefall downward & once you hit the bottom you get hit by everything under the sun. I thought it wasn't possible to finish that level & there was a mistake in the programming.

I remember EGM had a contest back in 1990 for this game for high score. I would have received second place but the pictures I took of the TV didn't come out and I never mailed in my score. Glad it wouldn't have been first.

[Bottino]

Great review, great game.

I have spent quite some time with Target Earth recently and i find it quite impressive for the time of it was released. I really like how the plot evolves during your gameplay and how you have diferent missions in each stage, as opposed to the usual run'n gun/blow everything mechanics that was common at the time. Plus the music is pretty good, and does a good job by setting the atmosphere during the missions, especially in the last stage.
It's curious that looking back at some reviews at the time of it's release, i take it that the game wasn't well recevied. Maybe because it was from NCS ,an unknown company at the time. Personally, i think this game was a ahead of the curve when it was released and is a quite a unique game in the awesome MD/Genesis library.

About the difficult level, there is a secret in the first stage that helps a lot: you need to destroy ONLY the enemy vessel that is attacking your base, using your standart weapon( the machine gun). It's very hard to do it, but if done correctly, you get a massive bonus point and will have a bunch of equipments at your disposal , including the shield ( an absolute must, if you plan to clear the game ). Also, each stage needs an particular strategy and the correct choice of gear in order for you to succeed.

So far, it's one of my favorite games for the system. I was able to beat it on Normal and Hard settings, and maybe someday i'll go for the Hyper one.

[Zz Badnusty]

Public service announcement:
Gunhound EX on the PSP continues the the Target Earth/Assault Suit/Cybernator style with great success.

[Bottino]

Public service announcement:
Gunhound EX on the PSP continues the the Target Earth/Assault Suit/Cybernator style with great success.

Nice!
Too bad for me it's on the PSP.

[Aarzak]

After intermittently playing the game for the last 20 years, I've finally beat it.........using the 2-player cheat.

I gave it far too many tries in that time period the honest way, always being drawn in by the badassedness of the 1st level BGM. But I couldn't stand to lose anymore. This game is unfairly difficult, period.

[bigladiesman]

Hard, hectic, hellish… Hooray! I discovered this game late, one or two years ago, and it just blew me away. It's not the most beautiful game ever, but the epic, Konami-style, music and the fast, borderline unforgiving and unrelenting gameplay - without any slowdown that I know of! - make up for it. Controls take a while to get used to, but they're tight and solid. In my opinion, this could be the nearest thing to Contra we had until the release of Hard Cops.

Over the years, I gained a great deal of respect for Masaya's videogames, and I'm looking forward to review its prequel Cybernator on the SNES post.

[Also, I'll be sure to try the first level trick Bottino talks about: I want that shield!].

[OverDrone]

I think the accolade for closest thing to Contra before Hard Corps would go to Midnight Resistance. Personal favourite of mine, that one.

[bigladiesman]

I think the accolade for closest thing to Contra before Hard Corps would go to Midnight Resistance. Personal favourite of mine, that one.

Of course it could be (and I thought of that before posting, but I think that speaking of gameplay, this game is a little faster than MR. Content-wise, of course, MR and Contra are way more similar). I forgot to add something as basic as "I think" and sounded like I was affirming what I stated, which is just my take on something. Fixed.

[Leynos]

Check out the remake on Steam/PS4. A lot of improvements. A good one is back and shields you have right away. The original is on NSO Genesis. I adore this game hence my name.