The fun filled stages are additive, there's plenty of modes to play and also the gun package with the game is an........
Game Title: Point Blank
Platform: PlayStation
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Genre: Light Gun Shooter
Age Rating: ELSPA: 3+
Release Date: August 7th 1997 (Japan), April 30th 1998 (North America), July 1998 (Europe)
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Game Score: 8.5/10
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Summery:
The fun filled stages are additive, there's plenty of modes to play and also the gun package with the game is an excellent deal.
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Namco's arcade title Point Blank (or Gun Bullet as it's called in Japan) is on the PlayStation and it's compatible with the G-Con 45 peripheral which brings the arcade home. The better deal is that you can get the game alongside the Light Gun controller for a decent price.
Point Blank offers many different ways of playing. There is the original Arcade mode where you pick from 4 different difficulty settings with set of number of stages to beat but the Practice level has only 4 to play while the others have 16 levels. In some levels you'll have Very Hard symbol on it in which that level's difficulty is at the highest.
Each stage requires you shoot down a number of targets in order to qualify, there are also targets like bombs, cardboard civilians or the other players colour. If you fail to qualify or shoot the wrong targets you will lose a life and you have 3 at default. You can set the Life and Credits from 3 to 5 to Free Play which is infinite continues by the way. Every 8 Stages you'll enter a Bonus Stage where you get to chose from 1 of 4 chests to see which one has an Extra Life as well as Extra Points. Sometimes you'll might get a chest that has nothing which really hurts. At the end of the game you'll get a level where you need to shoot 20 targets in about 5 seconds which requires speed and accuracy to beat it.
Stages in Point Blank have their own theme such as such shooting your way through a Hallway of cardboard criminals, spraying bullets on a car and you can shoot of it's windows, wheels and the doors. There are colour stages where players need to their own colours, skeletons that have no animations aside from floating with different poses, shooting cardboard Japanese Ninjas while avoiding the girls, the stages that the most challenging are stages where you have to shoot down a target with one shot. One for example has you shooting down a Falling Leaf which is incredibly challenging to beat as sometimes you'll miss the target. There are also some puzzle based stages where you need to shoot down targets in order, targets where you need to wait for them to flip round so that you can shoot them. Shooting targets that are drop from a parachute and matching targets where you need to shoot down the correct target and also a a level where you shoot letters to match the words which is very cool. There are also protection levels where you need to protect Dr Don and Dr Dan from dangerous hazards like piranhas, Point Blank's gameplay is amazingly additive and you can invite a friend over locally to shoot down targets together and it results in creating an intense competition against each other.
The Arcade mode is very brief but however the console release has other modes like Special Mode where you can play console exclusive levels not seen in the Arcade Version, Training Mode allows you to select a level from different sets of category, play the whole category of your picking or seeing how many stages you can beat with only a set of Lifes. You can also play a series of party games where up to 4 and 8 players can play. Best point is that they can be played with one controller. The games are Score Battle where up to 4 players compete in 4 stages to get the highest score possible, Tournament Mode is where 4 players compete to get highest score through 4 stages for the winner to advance to the next round and Team Battle where both teams of 4 players have to earn the highest score possible to beat the opposing team. The Party Games use most of the same rules in which you'll get deja vu playing the other two once you played Score Battle. What's hilarious is that the game asks the losers to do weird things like making the players kiss each other, sing a song to the victor or to salute the victor on one leg. You'll feel like an idiot doing those things but they are only good for a laugh with friends.
The last mode of the game is the RPG infested Quest Mode where the game gives you a brief storyline, a chance to explore the 5 different areas, battle monsters and earn experience and gold much like other RPG's like old Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. The plot follows Dr Don and Dr Dan who look similar to Sesame Street's Ernie and Bert on their quest to retrieve the Legendary Gunball before a evil company Scrimp N Save get their hands on it. Their boss is named Quickbuck and he originally wanted the heroes to find it so that they can have their reward which is 1 million gold. The writing is mostly rough like "Best" a boss stage instead of beat. You walk around each area finding items that are very well hidden and you can only find them by searching by the walls. For the most part the Quest Mode is mostly not very challenging but you can still level up incase the minigames take more Health away from you for failing. Your biggest challenge in Quest Mode is finding out where to go. The game sometimes give you some clues but for the most part you'll be wondering around for a few minutes before you'll know where to go next. You can run away from encounters if you want to speed things up but sometimes it can't runaway from certain encounters. This can lead to losing a lot of Agility when you fail to runaway. You can Buy items from a shop with Items like Hamburgers, Medicines and finally Shotguns and Machine Guns which you can use in some stages. Quest Mode can be beaten in about under 5 to 6 hours but like the rest of the entire game the mode is insanely crazy with the encounters actually and that's very funny.
Point Blank's graphics aren't bad but the explosion effects for when each target is shot is pretty good. The target animations are impressive and Dr Don and Dr Dan's screams are really funny to listen to which makes shooting them very amusing. The soundtrack is full of techno beats to tracks that are just so weird.
Point Blank is a solid Light Gun Shooter game where many of it's minigames are additive and challenging. With the G-Con 45 and game package you'll get an excellent deal that's really worth the price. It's hilarious at times and the party games aren't bad with friends but the RPG Quest Mode is a little disappointing. Still Point Blank is an easier Light Gun shooter to recommend to fans wanting more great G-Con games to play.
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The Good Points:
1. Gun and Game package which is an excellent deal
2. Plenty of different modes to play for it's console release such as Party Modes and Special unlockable Levels
3. Each different level is challenging and additive with it's own variation
4. It's insanely wacky and funny
The Bad Points:
1. RPG invested Quest Mode does lack somewhat of a challenge and also it does leave you wondering on where you need to go next
2. Party Mode events play to similar to each other.
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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