| Metal Fighter μ | |
|---|---|
 Metal Fighter μ's title screen. | |
|
Publishers |
Sachen/Joy Van (Taiwan), Color Dreams(U.S. Europe?), Home Entertainment Suppliers (Australia), Kinema Music (Japan) |
|
Developer |
Joy Van |
|
Console |
Famicom/NES |
|
Date |
1989 |
|
Serial Number |
TC-008 |
Metal Fighter μ (also known as Joyvan Kid, Metal Fighter, and Future Boy [未來小子]) is a horizontal shoot-em-up developed by Joy Van in 1989. It is the eight game made by the company and one of the original ten before the company's merge with Sachen.
Storyline
The story tells of the MCS-920 (Nicknamed "Metal Fighter" in the U.S. version, "Joyvan Kid" in all other versions) returning to Earth after three centuries of intergalactic missions to find that it has been overtaken by an invasion of bionic alien life forms. The few life forms that survived the attack were either driven into hiding or turned into bionic allies for the aliens. As the Metal Fighter, the player must rescue the planet and free them of their oppressors.
General Info
The game is a scrolling shooter with slight platforming elements. The player starts off with no flight abilities, only able to jump a certain height by pressing the A Button. The first power-up in this state is always a flight power-up, which along with speed is one of the only items that don't require a fight in order to collect. All other power-ups force you to fight a miniboss that's a doppleganger of your ship. If you win, you get the desired power-up as well as one extra point of health (though you can lose health and die in these fights as well.) At the end of each round is a boss the player must fight. One threat the player must avoid is coming in direct contact with the boss, which will cause instant death no matter how much health the player has.
Trivia
- The game is noted to be of higher quality than most of Joy Van/Sachen's games, especially their earlier titles.
- Since the developer and main character share the same title (and, if one wants to stretch it, the Joy Van logo bearing a resemblance to the titular robot) one could theorize tha the Joyvan Kid mech is the company's (unofficial) mascot.
- The Japanese release was by Kinema Music, who did some localizations with Hacker International such as Papillon Gals (also known as just Papillon in the title screen) (Sachen's Galactic Crusader). However, Hacker themselves don't seem to be named/credited anywhere on or in this particular release.