Armed Police BatRider
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| Armed Police BatRider | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of Armed Police BatRider |
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| Developer(s) | 8ing/Raizing |
| Publisher(s) | 8ing/Raizing |
| Designer(s) | Kazuyuki Nakashima |
| Release date(s) | 1998 (Arcade) |
| Genre(s) | Shooter game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, 2 player co-op |
| Platform(s) | Arcade Game |
| Input | 8-way Joystick, 3 Buttons |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade CPU(s) | 68000 |
| Arcade sound system(s) | Z80 Sound Chips : YM2610, OKI6295 |
| Arcade display | Raster, 240 x 320 pixels, 2048 colors |
Armed Police Batrider is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by 8ing/Raizing in 1998. The game is initially set in Manhattan, 2014. You control a flying jet bike called a Batrider, with a choice of 4 configurations (Normal, Option, Bomber, Speed up), and a further choice of 9 pilots (and a further 9 secret pilots) each with unique modifications to the Batrider. You can play as the Police team, Psychic team or Criminal team. You shoot enemies in the air and ground, collect power-ups, and defeat many bosses to advance up to 7 stages. There are many variations and secrets in the game and this style of game spawned a popular sub-genre in scrolling shooter games.
[edit] Game Modes
The game allows many different modes of play, if they are enabled via dip switches or cheat codes. There are three difficulty levels: the easy mode only lasts for three levels, but if the player takes a hit, a bomb will automatically be used instead of losing a life (meaning a life is only lost when the player runs out of bombs). The normal mode lasts for five levels, and the hard mode is the full game of seven levels. The player can also go through one of two entire sets of levels, either the normal course or the advanced course. When selecting characters, the player can choose Team Select (select one of three sets of characters, using only one of each ship), Custom Team Select (choose any characters you wish), or Single Character (choose one character with multiple lives).
[edit] Gameplay
In usual shooter fashion, the player has their primary guns, and a supply of bombs. With certain power-ups, secondary guns will appear alongside the player's ship, called Options. If one of the cameo ships from Battle Garegga is being used, the formation of the Options can be manipulated at will. In some cabinets, this can be done with a third button. However, two-button cabinets require the player to enter specific joystick movements to change the Option formation. A large variety of power-ups can be collected, either by shooting down formations of enemies, or destroying objects on the ground. Some of them appear in large and small sizes.
•Bomber: Most often, Small Bomber items are found, and for every 40 Small Bombers picked up, the player receives an extra bomb. If there are Small Bombers stockpiled but no full bombs, then pressing the Bomb button will use the remaining Small Bombers, yielding a smaller effect than a normal bomb. On rare occasions a Large Bomber item appears, and will immediately add one bomb to the player's stock.
•Shot Up: Small and Large Shot Up items can be found, increasing the power of the ship's primary guns. Collecting enough Small Shot Ups will yield a power increase, and a single Large Shot Up will immediately boost the ship's guns.
•Option Up: In the same fashion as Bombers and Shot Ups, small and large Option Ups can be collected, adding Option guns to the player's arsenal. Picking up more Option Ups makes the Options fire more powerful shots.
•Medals: Destroying certain enemies or obstacles will yield bonus medals. At first these are only worth 100 points, but if more sets of medals are collected, they will increase in value, as long as no medals are missed. Each consecutive set of medals is worth 100 points more than the last, until the value reaches 1000. At this point, the value increases by 1000 for each set, until it maxes out at 10000 points.
