1. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
2. Dragon Scroll: Yomigaerishi Maryuu (Famicom)
3. Ninja-kun: Majou no Bouken (Famicom)
4. Hello Kitty World (Famicom)
5. Galaxian (Famicom)
6. Esper Dream 2: Aratanaru Tatakai (Famicom)
7. Ninja Jajamaru-kun (Famicom)
8. Jajamaru no Daibouken (Famicom)
9. Front Line (Famicom)
10. Field Combat (Famicom)
11. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
12. Mississippi Satsujin Jiken: Murder on the Mississippi (Famicom)
13. Space Harrier (Famicom)
14. Geimos (Famicom)
15. Attack Animal Gakuen (Famicom)
16. Sky Destroyer (Famicom)
17. Ripple Island (Famicom)
18. Oishinbo: Kyukyoku no Menu 3bon Syoubu (Famicom)
19. Bird Week (Famicom)
20. Baltron (Famicom)
Everything was "tron" back in the 80s, huh? Enter Baltron (1986), a horizontal space shooter for the Famicom, presented courtesy of Shouei and Toei. The game's epic tale is presented via some Zelda-esque scrolling text that follows the title screen. The "Baltron" itself is apparently some sort of "ultimate weapon" threatening humanity, and it's the player's duty to annihilate it.
At first blush Baltron appears to be closely modeled after Konami's earliest attempt at a side-scrolling shmup: Scramble. When the A button is pressed, the heroic spacecraft of Baltron (apparently called the "Gistorias") simultaneously launches forward-travelling missiles and drops arced bombs. There's an ever-depleting fuel gauge. And the entire game consists of one (very) lengthy stage, with alternating outer space and cavernous segments.
But wait! There is a wrinkle to the formula. The auto-scrolling of Baltron seems slow, oddly slow. There's a "radar" mini-map which displays oncoming enemies, as well as those attempting a sneak attack from behind. The Gistorias can flip around at will, to travel in a leftward direction. And the ship gains and loses speed based on how long the d-pad is held. Sounds familiar? Yes, apparently someone at Shouei was a fan of Defender, as this control scheme is ripped straight from the Williams classic. It's a novel idea: an attempt to merge Western and Japanese shooter design. It also doesn't work particularly well in practice. Defender was successful because the control scheme felt logical within the given environment: giant wrapping space arenas. Shoehorn these controls into what is otherwise a more advanced "third generation" shmup, and things turn ugly fast. The Gistorias always seems to travel too fast or too slow; achieving a level speed equilibrium is all but impossible.
The entire game is filled with strange capricious elements. There are two special attacks, awkwardly performed by holing up or down on the d-pad in tandem with the B button. The Gistorias can drop a "smart bomb" capable of destroying all enemies on the screen. There's also a warp, which can be used to bypass particularly tricky areas. Both maneuvers drain tremendous amounts of fuel. Said fuel can be regained, apparently, by collecting moving blue orbs that occasionally materialize. I didn't collect a single orb during my playthrough. They're nigh indistinguishable from enemy crafts, so I ending up shooting them down. Thankfully, one-ups, which appear in the form of koalas (seriously), are in ample supply.
Game difficulty is wildly and comically inconsistent. There enemy AI is clueless, making no attempts to zero in on the player's spacecraft. While traveling through the outer space stretches, it's actually possible to just stay put, while mashing the fire button, and never take a hit. In contrast, the interior cavern segments are annoyingly difficult, featuring narrow stretches of rock that require pixel-perfect precision to navigate properly.
Aesthetics are particularly bland. The outdoor night sky has the requisite star dots, while the indoor caverns are typically just dull treks of brown and black. Enemy sprites are pretty abysmal. Many are quite literally just "shapes" -- triangular airplanes, circular alien ships, and so on. The soundtrack consists of a single repetitive jingle, which doesn't quite inspire feelings of appreciation or annoyance. It's just there, oddly muffled in the background, as if it's being played from a distant boombox.
Baltron is yet another shooter bobbing in the sea of mediocre early Famicom shmups. It admittedly has some interesting ideas, but everything feels rushed, undeveloped, and haphazardly pieced together. Baltron perhaps could have been a more worthwhile experience, had it been allowed to cook for a few more years.