Armored Dragon Corps

Intro

"Armored Dragon Corps" is a twin stick shooter that was being developed by Kevincalanor, Aethers, Kylaila, and Delsin7 using Game Maker Studio as part of the McBacon Jam 4 held back in March/April of 2017. Unfortunately sometime after the jam this game was put on hiatus for reasons unknown. Though considering there hasn't been any public updates for this project in nearly seven years at the time of writing it's probably safe to say this game is cancelled. Oh well, I suppose I'll just focus on reviewing what was released even if it has a few notable glitches here and there.

Story

In this game we take on the role of an elite pilot that operates a mech suit that can be outfitted with various parts and weapons in order to deal with any situation. Unfortunately it looks like the deeper mysteries of this story will have to wait since the game is comprised of only the first two missions. And only the first mission even comes with a briefing explaining the situation which is that we are being dropped into a hot zone against enemies that are technologically superior to us. Though it doesn't feel that way when you consider that some of our enemies are bringing knives to a gunfight.

Gameplay

Sadly the controls in this game are a bit of a mess. For whatever reason the developers decided to tie moving and jumping to one hand with the player moving left and right using the a and d keys respectively. You can also fall through platforms by pressing the s key. The issue here is that while you can triple jump. If you press jump while holding down an arrow you'll dash in that direction. This can make moving through levels when you have to deal with a really tall jump a bit awkward to say the least. It also makes moving, jumping, and shooting at the same time a bit weird since you fire and aim your gun by moving the mouse and left clicking in the direction of your target. As for how to fix this issue I'd have to go with pianotm's suggestion of making the player jump by right clicking. That way it's a bit easier to move, jump, and shoot during hectic fights. Albeit the only hectic fight in this demo is against the boss at the end of level two which can be cheesed to a certain level of success.

For starters you need to rush over the right side of the stage during the boss fight and jump up on top of the cliff, but not fall over the side. You'll then proceed to shoot down on the boss by taking advantage of your arm being able to swivel 360 degrees.



The boss will eventually jump up in order to be right next to your suit, but will get a bit stuck in the terrain. You can then jump backwards and start shooting the boss in the butt while the terrain causes all of his missiles to instantly explode next to him. And if he gets free before you can finish him off you simply repeat step one until he dies. Admittedly this strategy isn't going to help you get the default layout you get for mission one past this boss with anything approaching reliable, but it can be done if your a masochist. Though, I'll admit that strategy relies a bit more on positioning yourself beneath the boss when it gets stuck and hope it gets stuck coming down to get you.



Outside of cheesing the boss most of the other enemies are rather easy to deal with since a decent chunk of them can't shoot back and a lot of the enemies with ranged weapons only shoot back when the player gets within a specified range. And that range is small enough that it's possible to snipe enemies near the edge of the screen while giving them zero chance to react. To make matters worse some of the enemies are so dumb that you can reliably trick them into getting stuck. This is especially true of the flying enemies who can be tricked into crashing into the ground. You can then just jump over them and ignore them. After all, seeing an airship stuck in the dirt is almost as pathetic as that time Homer got stuck in a pipe while trying to run from the police in "The Simpsons".

Graphics

Graphically the game does alright for the most part. I'll admit the look of the arm as it swivels to shoot enemies behind you looks a bit weird. And the shadows in the second mission are a bit off at times with the world's light source appearing to come from two directions. Admittedly binary stars are a thing, but I don't think that's the explanation here unless the mission on the second planet was inspired by Tatooine.

Sound

Sound wise the game is alright in my opinion for the most part, but the hectic fighting during the boss fight at the end of the second mission is so loud it basically drowns out the background music. Which is a shame since a powerful boss deserves a soundtrack that is both awesome and audible during the fight. Otherwise the soundtrack is serviceable if rather forgettable in my opinion.

Conclusion

"Armored Dragon Corps" is a mixed bag in my opinion. On one hand it's always fun to fight while piloting a giant robot even if the game itself isn't very good. It's why I've subjected myself to the licensed PS2 games based on "Eureka Seven" on more than one occasion. On the other hand it's hard to deny that the controls in this game need a bit of work and that the enemy AI is in need of tweaking as well. As it stands it's pretty easy for the player to simply rush through a stage with their gun blazing and come out the other side mostly intact. Especially if you equip a weapon with a high rate of fire with a fast reload time. Though the likelihood of this getting finished is so low I'll probably have to consider playing "Eureka Seven vol.1: The New Wave" again.