Cannon Spike First Impressions

Think of the old Midway games Smash TV and Total Carnage and you'll be on the right track about Cannon Spike. Though the "television game show" idea has been dropped, the gameplay is pretty much the same. The game is in very early stages of development, but at press time players could choose from either Cammy or an unknown female and shoot their way through scores of opponents. The game is viewed largely from an isometric angle, but the camera occasionally changes to better follow the action. Solving aiming difficulties is a lock-on button, which, when pressed, shoots a laser into the field of battle. Whomever the laser first hits is targeted (though it can be switched later), and players can run around the stage shooting endless amounts of ammo into it until it dies. There are handheld weapons, a pulse-cannon type projectile fired by pressing all three buttons, but no powerups were present at this stage. Unlike some of the other games in this genre, Cannon Spike seems to consist largely of scores of minibosses than a near endless stream of smaller enemies. The graphics are very clean and the action is non-stop. Players can take multiple hits before they die, or presumably channel some of their life into a screen-clearing wipeout move. Capcom has released very little information about this title (it was only identified to the public as "New Game"), but it should hit arcades later this year.