Arcade Archives: Bermuda Triangle

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This week's Arcade Archives release is... Bermuda Triangle (SNK, 1987)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Both the Japanese and English ROMs are included, but if you're expecting World Wars, the heavily-modified alternate version of the game, then sorry, that's not here. No special Preference Settings, but you have a few control options- you can keep it semi-faithful to the Loop Lever control scheme of the arcade game by using one stick to move and the other to rotate your cannon, have one stick do both movement and aiming, or have rotation set to buttons for use on arcade stick controllers. Remember, this game is also on Digital Eclipse's SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, although not as part of the original lineup (you have to download an update for it).
 

It's shmuo time again, so time for me to flail about and not really know what I'm doing! Still, this is a strange one. SNK decided to use their Loop Lever control scheme (where you twist the top of the joystick to rotate your aim in-game) for a more traditional shmup rather than a Commando-style top-down action game. Well, I say more traditional, but Bermuda Triangle actually does quite a few things differently, such as scrolling both forwards and backwards (you can aim in all eight cardinal directions, might as well make the most of it), tiny formation fighters you can pick up and rearrange akin to Tokio / Scramble Formation to fit the situation, and an energy system that lets you take multiple hits per life and alters the look and attack power of your ship as you gain or lose energy. This ends up being a little absurd though, as at maximum power you are near-unstoppable with huge projectiles that explode into multiple other shots that decimate enemies, but the second you take one too many hits, you'll power down and then you are gonna lose a lot of lives in quick succession. The size of the ship is unusual too- your player ship is absolutely huge, so you'll be bumping into obstacles like the giant spike balls a lot, so the energy system feels like a band-aid on that particular issue. I've never really been able to get into this one, mostly because of that honking massive player ship, but it's certainly interesting, if nothing else!