HAL 21 is a classic arcade shooter, developed by SNK Playmore. Does this game's charm carry over to the Minis reincarnation or does it need to be bombed? Read on for my impression of this 15 year old game.

Going Old School

When I fired this game up, I was greeted by a classic "Insert Coin" screen. After pressing start, I was taken to a screen telling me to press the 1 player button. If I inserted 2 coins, it asked me to press the 1 or 2 player button. Unfortunately, there isn't a 2 player function, however, in the original arcade game, players took control of their own ship to blast enemies side by side,  I took control of HAL 21, and started blasting away at enemy ships and tanks. SNK gives the option of custom mapping the controls, but I stuck with the default controls. There is to fire the dual laser cannons, to fire missiles at the ground, to insert coin, and the analog stick or the directional pad to move up, down, left, and right.

Where's the Brake?
As HAL 21, I flew over a scenic desert looking world, which for its time, is okay, but the background seems to scroll way to fast. I would try to shoot a tank with a missile and miss because the background would fly right pass me. The enemy ships fly down from off screen in large groups at high speeds and shoot cannon ball type missiles. After pounding my button a few hundred times to blast the enemy ships, these square shaped objects started appearing, which I collected by flying over them. I never figured out what they did, so I found them useless. As you progress farther through the levels, little pyramids would pop out of the ground in random spots, giving me little time to react and fly around them. If I couldn't fly around them fast enough and ran into one, I would explode in a fiery ball. When I lost all my ships, I was taken to a insert coin screen, with a countdown clock going from 9 to 0. When I pressed started to play again, I lost my previous score, making it impossible for me to get any real high score. The speed of which everything moves and appears out of thin air almost makes the game somewhat unplayable. 

Recommendation
I would recommend this classic arcade shooter to anyone who likes old school arcade shooters, or anyone who really wants a challenge. However, if you aren't really into top-down arcade shooters, or don't like it when easy is hard, then this game is definitely not for you. Especially if you like to take things slow. This is by far the hardest arcade game I've ever played.

HAL 21 is a PlayStation Mini developed by SNK Playmore and costs $2.99 USD. I played this infuriatingly hard arcade shooter for an hour on my PSP before rage quitting.