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Air Fortress: Difference between revisions
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''Air Fortress'' is a game released in Japan in 1987 by HAL Laboratories, today best known for ''[[Kirby]]'' and ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' It came to American shores in 1989. Its basic plot will remind you of the end of ''[[Star Wars]]'' in a way: The planet Farmel finds itself threatened by eight mysterious Air Fortresses. The Federation of Intergalactic Powers has thrown all their defenses at the Fortress to no avail. Now, it's been decided that one man, Hal Bailman, will attempt to infiltrate and blow up the Fortresses from the inside.
The gameplay of ''Air Fortress'' combines two genres, and can be said to be composed of three separate parts. The first part of a given level is a [[Shoot'Em Up]] where you're trying to get inside the Fortress in question. On your way, you also want to gather as much Energy and Bombs as possible. These will all come in handy in the second part of the level.
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The way your Energy works is somewhat notable. Doing pretty much anything -- moving, shooting, etc. -- drains your Energy, and idling recovers it. Taking damage from enemies both drains your Energy and lowers your maximum Energy, so getting into prolonged firefights is a bad idea.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[A Winner Is You]]: The game has a pretty typical 1987 ending. Which is to say, the effort you go through to get it is not nearly worth the reward.
* [[Action Adventure]]: The second part of each level, where you're actually inside the Air Fortresses.
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* [[Engrish]]: For some reason, the Japanese version of the game has what little text it does have in English. This leads to such jewels as "You have encounterd the 1st 'Air Fortress'" and "On the planet 'Farmel', they had the gloriest days for two centuries..." This may be because [[wikipedia:Air Fortress|supposedly]], a ''very'' limited number of copies of the original version came over to the States in 1987 as a "Test run" for HAL Laboratories to release games in the US. Note that the proper US version has a much better translation.
* [[Excuse Plot]]: Translation aside, the actual story of the game never really figures into the gameplay itself.
* [[The Maze]]:
** Technically speaking, every Air Fortress after the first is non-linear, but they don't get truly mazelike until Level 4 (Where the teleporters first become asymmetric -- taking a teleporter at Location A will take you to Location A', but even ''if'' there's a teleporter at A', which is far from a certainty, said teleporter at A' is almost guaranteed '''not''' to take you back to Location A.), and especially so at Level 6. Trying to determine the best path to the Reactor and then your ship becomes a huge part of the challenge in the later levels -- no matter how much Energy you grab, just wandering around the Fortresses aimlessly is guaranteed to get you killed, either by enemies or by failing to find your ship in time.
** Level 8 takes things to a whole new level of complexity. You almost '''need''' to use speed running techniques to make it back to your ship before the fortress explodes.
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: The game stops playing around at about Level 4, but gets downright evil at Level 6. The main reason this game doesn't have the reputation of ''[[Battletoads]]'' or ''[[Ghosts 'n Goblins
:For reference, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MD-doYyoTE this run] shows one of a handful of routes known for the level. At the time, it was a different (and faster) route than was in any walkthrough on [[GameFAQs]], although the use of speed running techniques (Facing the backwards and shooting to propel yourself in the direction you want to go, as in this video, is actually the quickest way to move if you can get the rhyth, down) also helped.
* [[Shoot'Em Up]]: The first part of each level, where you're on the approach to the Air Fortresses.
* [[Side View]]: The entire game.
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