Cosmo Gang: The Video

Overview

Cosmo Gang the Video is a 1992 fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. A home conversion for the Super Famicom was released the same year. Controlling the Hyper Beat starship, the player is tasked with ridding the galaxy of the Cosmo Gang, a race of aliens that cause mischief across Earth. Gameplay involves shooting enemies and avoiding projectiles. Power-up items can be collected to grant the player additional abilities. It ran on the Namco System 2 arcade board. Cosmo Gang the Video features characters and ideas from Cosmo Gangs, an older Namco redemption game from 1990 that was exported outside Japan by Data East. The game is heavily based on the company's own Galaxian series, with early versions shown at tradeshows being titled Cosmo Galaxian. The arcade version of Cosmo Gang the Video was widely successful and well-received for its graphics, gameplay and music, while the Super Famicom was met with a more mixed response for its simplistic gameplay and lacking replay value. The arcade version was digitally re-released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2009. It was followed by Cosmo Gang the Puzzle later that same year. Gameplay Cosmo Gang the Video is a fixed shooter arcade game. Up to two players take control of the Hyper Beat starships — yellow for player one and white for player two — as they must rid the galaxy of the Cosmo Gang, a race of aliens causing mischief across Earth. In the multiplayer mode, one of the players is on top of the other, and share the same number of lives. Gameplay involves shooting down enemies as they fly into formation from the top and sides of the screen. Enemies will dive-bomb towards the bottom of the screen in an attempt to hit the player. Occasionally, a "Bakuto" alien will appear at the top of the screen while carrying a twin-shot power item, which can be collected by shooting it down. Some enemies will drop special power-up items after being shot, which will give the player one of several abilities when collected — these include a one-hit shield, slow-moving bombs, a black hole that brushes all enemies in its area off the screen, and a jack-in-the-box that stuns all on-screen enemies for a brief period of time. In some rare cases, enemies may drop a Special Flag item from Rally-X that gives the player an extra life when collected. Small "P" items can also be found, which increase the rate of the player's shots when collected. In the multiplayer mode, two other power-up items can appear — one of which swaps the positions of the players, and the other allows the player to "fill up" the other player and make them burst, shooting out a large number of projectiles towards the enemy formation. The game spans 32 stages. Later stages add in several new obstacles, including boxes that fire projectiles at the players, large coins that act as shields for the enemies, and draconic enemies that bring in reinforcements. Some stages are bonus rounds, which are recreations of the original redemption game this title is based upon — in these, the players are tasked with keeping the aliens at bay before they latch onto their cargo containers and drag them to the other side of the screen. Bonus points are awarded for each cargo container saved. The 32nd stage features the players fighting Don Cosmo, the final boss.

Alternate Names

• コズモギャング・ザ・ビデオ Kozumo Gyangu: Za Bideo Japan

Wikipedia

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