Obscure Game Matchup #1

[Chris]

Both Seicross and Sqoon are fairly obscure NES games. It's a bit of a shame, really, both games have pretty good gameplay. I have decided to pit the two against each other because they both deserve more recognition than they receive. My question to you is, which one is better, Seicross, or Sqoon?

Personally, I prefer Seicross. I have put more time into Seicross because it is faster-paced and more difficult than Sqoon. Sqoon is kind of laid-back for a shooter, in that your enemies aren't shooting at you, rather they just try to run into you. Of course, the same could be said for Seicross, (for the most part, there are some stationary shooters) but your enemies try to knock you into various obstacles that lie in your path. There are some remarkable similarities between the two, including the need to keep fuel or energy from running out, or the mission to rescue humans.

Links to play on RU:

Seicross:
www.retrouprising.com/play/NES/Seicross.php

Sqoon:
www.retrouprising.com/play/NES/Sqoon.php

Links to play on EVG:

Seicross:
www.everyvideogame.com/arcade.php?mode=play&g=768

Sqoon:
www.everyvideogame.com/arcade.php?mode=play&g=834

[Tenser]

Forgive me if I don't play the games again. I feel confidant enough in my memory to make an adequate comparison.

There's not really much of a comparison to make here. The only thing Sqoon has going for it is that it's by the guys who made R-Type. That and it was released in '86, two years prior to Seicross so a little leeway can be awarded to it.

Besides that, Sqoon feels like the programmers tossed in all the ideas they rejected to add to R-Type. The boat is tediously slow, there's a lack of power-ups excluding attacking the churches for free lives, and it has about 15 levels, which is about 8 levels too many to keep someone interested. Also factoring in that the mini-bosses repeat (turtle every odd level, starfish every even) it becomes too repetitive to justify the expenditure of time required.

Seicross had only 6 fun levels, more power-ups, more enemies and different speeds and vectors to aid in aiming. That and piloting a space bike is cooler than a log they call a submarine.

[NintendoNerds]

I just played both of these games. I like playing Seicross more so than Sqoon. I'd say Sqoon is a far more obscure game than Seicross as well. Reading the storyline/ plot for Sqoon was far more exciting than playing it. I even added game pages on the NintendoNerds website for each of the games.

Seicross:
www.NintendoNerds.com/NES/Seicross.htm


Sqoon:
www.NintendoNerds.com/NES/Sqoon.htm

I am sure screenshots and other information for these two games will be published on NintendoNerds.com in the future.

Good thread, Ninjatiamat