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The Saturn's software library is
chock full of games that appeal to everyone... but me.
Just look at Silhouette Mirage, or Groove On Fight, or Psychic
Assassin Taromaru. Many consider Time-Warner
Interactive's fast-paced side-scrolling action game to be one
of the Saturn's Assassin apps, but frankly, I just don't see
its appeal. Sure, the game's got wild special effects,
including well integrated polygonal backgrounds, and yes, the
Japanese atmosphere is extremely authentic thanks to a superb
soundtrack and dozens of enemies borrowed from Eastern
mythology. However, Taromaru is crippled by incredibly
annoying play mechanics that make the game as hard for me to
embrace as an especially well fed sumo wrestler.
 Psychic Assassin Taromaru stars two heroes with
mystic abilities... the first is a ninja who favors stealth
and cunning over raw power. His psychic blasts aren't
very strong, but if he's given time to concentrate, he can
fire lightning which jumps from one enemy to the next, killing
dozens of them in the blink of an eye. The second
character is a burly monk... his many years of Shinto training
have perfected his abilities, allowing him to kill foes with
just a couple of shots, rather than five or six.
Unfortunately, neither of these
fighters can fire at will... they must target enemies with a
Japanese symbol that hovers in front of them. This
symbol acts as a crosshair, focusing your devastating mental
powers on any poor sap dumb enough to walk in front of
it. Only enemies touching the symbol can be attacked,
and with so many bad guys onscreen, it can become extremely
difficult to target specific foes. Worsening matters is
that there's no close-quarters combat... if an enemy closes in
on you, you can't throw him or knock him away with a
punch. A shield offers some protection against the
incroaching ninjas and swordsmen, but your best option will be
to retreat while concentrating your fire on them,
giving their buddies a golden opportunity to sneak in
their own cheap attacks while you're distracted.
Fighting the game's legions of
demonic ninjas becomes frustrating and monotonous
quickly. Realizing this, the designers threw in the
ability to enchant enemies, allowing you to turn them into
loyal allies. This is almost always a terrific idea, but
not here... Psychic Assassin Taromaru has the lousiest
acquisition play mechanic I've seen since Axl's worthless Copy
Beam in Mega Man X7. Only weakened enemies are
susceptible to the enchantment spell, but you're given little
indication of your opponents' health... just a tiny, difficult
to read number hidden at the top of the screen. Worst of
all, only some of your adversaries can be enchanted... anyone
who's immune to the spell will ignore your hocus-pocus and
hack you to bits as you desperately try to befriend
them. In the end, you'll wonder if enchanting enemies is
even worth the effort, as they certainly don't put much effort
into defending you from their former comrades.
Psychic Assassin Toramaru does
have its moments of inspiration, mostly reserved for the boss
battles. You'll fight against everything from a
possessed suit of samurai armor to enormous foxes with more
tails than any canine has a right to own. However, even
with these memorable encounters, the game wears out its
welcome quickly thanks to its aggravating and restrictive
weapon system. You may disagree with me on this,
though... you certainly wouldn't be the first. |
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Psychic Assassin
Taromaru
Time-Warner Interactive
Action
 
You can shield yourself from
incoming attacks by pressing down twice quickly. This
skill is absolutely necessary if you intend to survive against
the flame-spitting skeleton in the second round.
Being a very Japanese game, it
goes without saying that there is a lot of Japanese in
it. Fortunately, most of it's just to enhance the game's
atmosphere... you won't need to read any of it to make
progress.
Negligible at best. And you
won't notice it much, either!
Psychic Assassin Taromaru is
populated by dozens of creatures from Japanese
mythology. One such monster is the kitsune, a fox with
multiple tails and the ability to disguise itself as a
beautiful woman.
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