Border Down
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| Border Down | |
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| Developer(s) | G.rev |
| Publisher(s) | G.rev |
| Release date(s) | 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Horizontal scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Sega Dreamcast September 25, 2003 (JP) |
| Input | 8-way Joystick, 3 Buttons |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system(s) | Sega NAOMI |
| Arcade display | Raster (Horizontal) |
Border Down (J: ボーダーダウン) is a horizontal scrolling shooter arcade game created by G.rev in 2003. It is a spiritual sequel to Metal Black, a favorite game of creator Hiroyuki Maruyama. As with other Sega NAOMI titles, the game was later released on the Sega Dreamcast in September 2003 in two incarnations: a normal edition, and a limited edition that came bundled with a music CD and alternate cover art. Border Down was G.rev's second independent game (thought they did subcontracted work on other titles, most notably Ikaruga), released after Sega's official discontinuation of the Dreamcast console.
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[edit] Story
In the distant future, humanity has entered a golden age and has colonized Mars. One day, contact was lost suddenly from an asteroid mining station. This was found to be caused by an invading hostile extraterrestrial force known as F.A. (First Approach ). To defend against the aggressors, the Solar System Defense Forces developed the R.A.I.N ( Remote Artificial Intelligence Network ), a remote guidance system for the Antares-xx, an unmanned combat vehicle.
[edit] Gameplay
Border Down is similar to other scrolling shooters, except for the inclusion of difficulty settings that are switched during gameplay. There are three difficulties to a level, called "borders", green being the easiest whereas red is the hardest. The green "border" is the longest variation on a level, but the enemies fire far less frequently. The red "border" is the shortest variation on a level, but the enemies fire at a frantic rate, making it increasingly more difficult to stay alive. Instead of receiving a set number of lives, a player has the option to start on any "border" at the beginning of the game. Whenever the player dies, a "border down" occurs and the game continues onward on the next hardest difficulty. This puts increasing pressure on the player to stay on the green (easiest) border. Conversely, a player can opt to start at the red "border" for the maximum challenge.
[edit] Weapons system
At the bottom of a screen is a laser power meter that progressively fills as enemies are destroyed. Initially the lasers are at level one and can increase up to level five.
- Forward laser: Performed by holding down the attack button, this is a strong, but narrow weapon that requires precise aiming. As the laser power increases, the width of the beam does as well.
- Homing laser: Performed by rapidly tapping the attack button, this is a wide-scoping weapon that sends pulses of lasers that home in several targets simultaneously. This weapon does not deal as much damage as the forward laser
- Break laser: This weapon acts as a "smart bomb" and is the key to getting high scores in the game. When triggering the laser, it will immediately consume half a bar of laser energy, and after a second the energy will start going down at the rate of one bar for about every three seconds. The break laser deals approximately twice as much damage as a fully powered laser deals at a point-blank range.
During the use of the break laser, the vessel becomes invincible and all enemy projectiles can be destroyed. Each enemy projectile destroyed by the break laser increases the hit counter by one. . At the end of a level, this hit counter is multiplied by 5000 and added on to the score as a bonus. This scoring system is unique to Border Down and encourages the player to take risks. In most games, player is usually motivated to eliminate boss as quickly as possible, where as the goal here is to utilize the most time possible with high hit counter! If the player exceeds a certain score defined by levels, it can go up to a different border before the beginning of the following level.
[edit] Scoring
The scoring is calculated in the following manner: points of destruction during the level + (5000 * station-wagon hit during the level) + (10000 * hit counter during the boss ) + 3.000.000 maximum (time bonus)
[edit] External links
- Official Border Down website (Japanese)
- Border Down at the Killer List of Videogames
- Border Down at GameFAQs
