Arcade Archives: Polaris

[tepidsnake]

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Polaris (Taito, 1980)

Arcade Archives (previous-gen consoles)

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Arcade Archives 2 (current-gen consoles)

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Both the Old and New versions are included- the Old version only has four-way movement and no name entry for a high score, while the New version has eight-way movement and proper name entry for a high score. As pointed out by ohfivepro, the last time this one was rereleased (on Taito Memories II Gekan on Playstation 2, only in Japan) it was just the New version, so this is the first time the Old version's ever been rereleased. No specific Preference Settings this time though.

Alright, captain, here's your briefing. Our nuclear sub, the Polaris, is in a bit of a sticky situation. The enemy has us completely surrounded in a small underwater valley- fighter jets and anti-submarine aircraft in the skies, warships and submarines in the depths. They're bombarding us with missiles, homing missiles, depth charges and mines from every angle! Things aren't completely hopeless though- we've got our own missiles we can fire straight up for taking out the enemies and can at least destroy the normal missiles and depth charges (the homing missiles and mines are a bit too strong for us to deal with) and the Polaris is the fastest sub in the sea so we can dodge enemy projectiles pretty well. Just don't crash it into the sea bed, and watch out, as we won't be able to surface as high the longer the fight goes on. Good luck, captain, we're all counting on you.

Ooh, a Taito game I'm completely unfamiliar with! Somehow I completely skipped past this one on the Taito Memories set it's in and I really regret that now- this game is excellent! It's a gallery shooter set in the ocean where, unlike Space Invaders and Galaxian, you have full horizontal and vertical movement across the sea bed and the game absolutely expects you to use all that space available to you, because threats are everywhere. You're constantly surrounded by hostiles and their projectiles and the game goes at a fast pace, not giving you a chance to take a breath at all. Keeping track of what's happening under the sea and in the skies is really intense, especially with elements like the homing missiles (scary but not too tough to outsmart) and you have less space to work with the longer you survive as the highest point you can reach gradually goes lower and lower (it'll reset when you die or clear a round). The constant sonar ping adds to the tension too, a bit like the heartbeat of something like Asteroids or Space Invaders. I don't have too much else to say on this one, it's a great gallery shooter, definitely give it a try!