by Sarge Wed Jan 10, 2018 12:50 pm
If you end up liking Mutant Apocalypse, be sure to give War of the Gems a try, too. Both are a lot of fun. I find War a bit easier, too, especially if you equip the right gems.
EDIT: Cross-posted from Hardcore Retro Gaming.
So, for those that don't know, Phantom 2040 was based on a short-lived cartoon series. It's also, if you squint really hard, a bit of a Metroid clone. You choose stages on the overworld, but you can backtrack to other areas, and some of them even change a bit depending on your actions. Phantom has the Metroid-style somersault jump as well, and a pretty cool grappling hook that is tough to use, but very useful (and necessary). You'll upgrade the length on it, find items that reduce your weapon energy usage (of which there are many), get powerups like shields and whatnot, pick up the equivalent of Mega Man's E-Tanks and W-Tanks... there's a lot going on here.
On top of that, the game actually has a branching storyline. Your path can lead to quite a few different endings depending on the path you take. I haven't taken all the paths; I followed a walkthrough so I'd only have to go through once.
The real question, though, is how good is it compared to Super Metroid? It's... well, it's good, but doesn't hold a candle to it. The game's areas are labyrinthine and confusing, and there's no map here to help out. Worse, much is hidden behind breakable walls, or progression takes the form of gate puzzles. While Super Metroid also has its gate puzzles, those are gated by interesting abilities. Here, it's just destroy a machine to open a gate.
Enemy variety is a problem, too. You'll take out a few forms of humans, and a lot of mechs. It's nowhere near as diverse as you'd like. And the graphics are serviceable, but not amazing. It reminds me of most other Western-developed games at the time (not sure why, but the Sega CD Terminator comes to mind. Music is hit and miss, but there was one track I liked a lot.
I'd also note that all those E-Tanks the game hands out (along with lives if you poke around as well) are very necessary. You're going to take a lot of hits, with the only way to alleviate it is a limited-use, easily-missable Shield item, or a damage reducer that is very well hidden. Most spots, you can mostly brute-force your way through if you know what you're doing. You can particularly do this if you've upgraded your weapons significantly.
Really, the biggest problem with the game is that it gets close enough to Super Metroid to draw those comparisons, but that lack of polish really doesn't help it compare well. There are a few areas where you really start to get in to the groove, but then you get knocked right back into some less interesting layouts again. I'd recommend it if you're desperate for something else in the Metroid style, but if you haven't for some reason played Super Metroid (or Demon's Crest), then go do that first. With the vague guides out there, expect this to take 8-10 hours if you're trying to be thorough. (The longplay can't be trusted!) I'd give this puppy a 7/10.
I would have finished another one by now, but real life responsiblities have been sapping my play time for almost a week now. BUT hopefully tonight I'll knock another one out.