It’s a quick way to clear a screen full of enemies, but it’s not as useful against bosses. The more power-ups you currently have in Terra Cresta, the more pods will appear. Instead it has a mechanic where, once you’ve acquired at least one of the five power-ups, you can briefly detach it, basically using it like the pods you’ll find in so many other shooters. Frustration, optimism, then frustration again: it’s the ultimate cycle of the shoot ‘em up. And then, every single run, I make another dumb, obvious mistake, lose all those power-ups, and then struggle through a few quick, ignominious deaths. Terra Cresta is one of those games where I start every single run full of hope and determined to avoid the one obvious mistake that did me in the last time I played. And because the locations of those power-ups are hard-locked and few and far between, and because the game’s weird checkpointing system will often restart you further ahead in the level than where you actually died, you’ll probably wind up facing bosses without any power-ups fairly often. And although most standard enemies can be killed, or at least withstood, through smart flying and fast shooting, it’s very hard to get by any of the bosses without at least the first power-up. Any hit will blow up all your current perks and reduce you to the basic twin-shot gun it doesn’t matter if you’ve collected the first three power-ups in the series, one hit and you’re right back to the starting point. Holding onto them long enough to make good use of them isn’t. It’s Terra Cresta’s chief selling point: be the bird that burns the world. That firebird can just slice through anything on the screen, instantly destroying it. The first one doubles the shots from two to four the next fires off shots behind the ship as well as in front the third adds a powerful missile to every shot the fourth adds an energy wave to the back of the ship that destroys any enemy that touches it and the fifth and final power-up briefly turns the ship into a completely invincible phoenix. Shoot the nodes and a new addition to the ship will appear. You’ll find little military installations on the ground throughout each level, with numbered nodes. Terra Cresta has a power-up system with five tiers, and each power-up is found in the same spot every time you play. No, you’ll want to boost that lackluster cannon whenever possible. Don’t even think of facing off against one of the game’s bosses, final or even mini, with just the standard weapon you’ll get tired of dodging and circling during a futile attempt to whittle down their invisible health meter. It’s fine against basic enemies but close to worthless against, say, the giant dinosaurs that occasionally pop up in the desert below. The ship starts with a basic two-bullet pea shooter. It’s also why I think I’ve struggled with the game more than I should have. That unique power-up system is Terra Cresta’s calling card. Most enemies are airborne, though, and it’s a toss-up where they’ll come from. Like Xevious, some enemies are based on the ground, and at least those will be in the same spot every time you play. They regularly vary up their approach, coming from different points on the screen each playthrough. Most of those enemies are unpredictable, though. Terra Cresta’s vertically scrolling screen is almost never overwhelmed with bullets or enemies. I’m really terrible at that, and I’m not entirely sure why. I just have to pay attention, dodging bullets and waves of alien ships, occasionally killing a dinosaur or giant floating fortress that looks a bit like Sinistar, and just focus on driving that score ever upward. 1985 was still fairly early in the shmupstakes, and Terra Cresta owes a lot to Xevious, a game that has never vexed me half as thoroughly as Terra Cresta has. I don’t have to worry about a million bullets bearing down on me, or a screen absolutely full of pixels that will all individually bring me death. Do you ever worry that you’re making a game way harder than it needs to be? Terra Cresta, a 1985 arcade shoot ‘em up by Nichibutsu, should feel refreshing after playing a bunch of bullet hell shooters from the ‘90s and ‘00s.
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