Midnight Resistance (Game)

Midnight Resistance

GAME » on 1989

Amiga (Platform)Amstrad CPC (Platform)Arcade (Platform)Atari ST (Platform)Commodore 64 (Platform)Genesis (Platform)ZX Spectrum (Platform)

Run, jump and gun as you take on legions of murderous armed forces in Data East's classic shoot 'em-up.

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Overview

Take a ride on the jeep (Arcade)

Midnight Resistance is a side-scrolling platform shoot 'em-up and a sequel to the 1987 game Heavy Barrel (Game). Developed and published by Data East for the arcades in 1989 its gameplay is very reminiscent of the Contra / Probotector saga released by Konami.

In Europe the game was ported by Special FX to several 8-bit and 16-bit home computers and published in 1990 by Ocean Software. The Genesis conversion was done in 1991 by ISCO / Opera House (Company) and given a new soundtrack composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto (Person).

It is notable in its original arcade format for having a rotatable hat as part of the joystick. The joystick 'hat's rotation would then relate to the direction the player's character aimed their weapon in the game. This was an innovative approach to solving a re-occuring problem in platform shoot 'em-ups, of aiming in a different direction to the movement of the player's character. The arcade version also supports a two players co-op mode which was omitted in all other portings except on the Amiga.

Story

There are different story versions depending on the platform the game was released on:

Time to free the family (Genesis)

In the Arcade version, two nameless brothers are on a mission to rescue their family from an alien mutant known as King Crimson (Character).
In the home computer versions published by Ocean Software, a ruthless Commissar, leader of a vicious regime of megalomaniacs, has kidnapped the players family (including the grandfather - a world famous scientist in the field of weapons research). Now it is the task of the player to free his relatives before the evil Commissar forces the grandfather to reveal his superior weapons research which he can then use to subjugate the world.
In the Genesis version, the player assumes the role of Johnny Ford (Character) (Daichi Madoka in the Japanese version) a member of an operative group who shuts down drug cartels. Johnny's father, Dr. Malcom Ford, is also a fighter against drug abuse and is about to research a serum that would break people's addiction to lethal drugs. He has tested it on laboratory rats, and is in the process of making it safe for use by human beings. When Crimson King, the head of the most powerfull drug cartel, finds out about the research he loses no time and immediately kidnaps the whole family. After completing his last mission, Johnny returns home only to find an devastated house. When he sees a note in which King Crimson kidnapped his entire family he immediately starts for the tropical island called Matano. Since Johnny knows the Crimson King's organization inside and out, he suspects this to be the place where his family is being held.

Gameplay

With a character, that resembles Ramboand is armed with an automatic weapon, nine rather short levels have to be crossed before the final showdown with King Crimson. The play mechanics and controls are similar to that of the Contra (Game) series and the Arcade and Amiga versions can be played by two players in a co-op mode. The main protagonist can run in two directions, jump, crawl, climb ladders and shoot in eight directions(clockwise or counter-clockwise).

The Arcade game has as already mentioned a special rotating joystick similar to the one used in Ikari Warriors (Game) for independent control of movement and firing. This property has been cumbersome ported to the other systems that lack this joystick. In the home computer versions for example, pressing and holding the fire button will maintain the last movement (standing, walking, crawling) and after that the joystick lever can be used to determine the direction of the shot. In the Genesis version two control schemes are offered: The first one is a basic method of shooting the direction of the D-pad while the second one, which is considerably trickier to control and requires more practice, allows the player to continually shoot in a particular direction no matter what the D-pad is doing.

Weapon storage room (C64)

On the way, the player must fight enemies such as soldiers, tanks, jets, saws, helicopters, ships and metal snakes. Some of the defeated soldiers lose red keys that can be picked up and used to buy weapons at the end of each level where the player enters a weapon storage room. There are six glass cases with a different number of key slots at the bottom, each holding one weapon or item. The number of the key slots shows how many keys are required to open the case and release the weapon or item included in it. Since each player can carry only six keys at the same time he will never be able to open every case and should therefore experiment early with each different type of weapon and find out which ones are more effective.

The two types of weapons that can be purchased in the weaponry are hand-held weapons(Full Auto, 3-Way, Fire, Shot Gun) and backpack weapons(Nitro, Shower, Homing Missile) that are launched by pushing the joystick up while pressing the shoot button or simply with the space key in the home computer versions. All types of weapons have limited ammunition and when the player runs out of ammo, he will revert to the default "Full Auto" rifle which is the only one with unlimited ammo. Additional ammo for the player's current weapon and other power-ups can be purchased in the weaponry.

When the player character comes in contact with an enemy or is downed by enemy fire he loses one life and drops the weapons and keys he is carrying. But these all can be picked up again if they don't fall off-screen.

After the penultimate level the player enters again the weapon storage room. But this time the glass cases are holding instead of weapons or items the relatives of the player. Those can be freed in exchange for the collected keys. So to free all relatives it must be ensured that the last armory is entered with six keys.

Weapons & Power-ups

Icon in the Weaponry	Item	Description
\|\|Full Auto\|\|The standard hand-held weapon with unlimited ammunition and a long range.
\|\|3-Way\|\|A powerfull hand-held weapon which fires in three directions. With limited ammunition and long range.
\|\|Shot Gun\|\|A hand-held weapon which fires not many but very powerfull bullets. The ammunition is limited.
\|\|Fire\|\|A hand-held weapon which throws flames. It's the most powerfull weapon in the game with limited ammunition and range.
\|\|Homing Missiles\|\|A backpack weapon limited to 50 charges. When fired, eight missiles lock automatically on the nearest enemies.
\|\|Nitro\|\|A backpack weapon limited to 50 charges. When fired, flames spread in eight directions from the top of the screen.
\|\|Shower\|\|A backpack weapon limited to 50 charges. When fired, lethal spikes come from top of the screen and sift through enemies in their way.
\|\|Super Charge\|\|Powers up the carried hand-held weapon to its full capabilities. Especially usefull with the flamethrower.
\|\|Barrier\|\|Time limited shield protection for the playing character.
\|\|Bullet\|\|Increases the count on the carried hand-held weapon counter by 500.
\|\|1 Up\|\|Extra life.

Reviews

Magazine	Issue	Page	System	Rating	%	Reviewer	Language
Games-X	05/1991	36	Genesis	96 out of 100	96 \|\|-\|\|English
Your Commodore	11/1990	42,43	C64	95 out of 100	95 \|\|-\|\|English
Your Sinclair	06/1992	75	ZX Spectrum	94 out of 100	94 \|\|Stuart\|\|English
Crash	07/1990	40	ZX Spectrum	93 out of 100	93 \|\|Mark, Nick\|\|English
Zzap	04/1992	49	C64	93 out of 100	93 \|\|-\|\|English
The Games Machine	07/1990	44,45	Amiga, ZX Spectrum	92 out of 100	92 \|\|Mark Caswell\|\|English
Your Sinclair	08/1990	35	ZX Spectrum	92 out of 100	92 \|\|Matt\|\|English
Zero	08/1990	32,33,34,35	Amiga	91 out of 100	91 \|\|Paul Lakin, Teresa Maughan\|\|English
The Games Machine	07/1990	44,45	Atari ST	90 out of 100	90 \|\|Mark Caswell\|\|English
Sinclair User	08/1990	18,19	ZX Spectrum	90 out of 100	90 \|\|Jim Douglas\|\|English
Zzap	12/1990	14,15	C64	90 out of 100	90 \|\|Stuart Wynne, Robin Hogg, Phil King\|\|English
CU Amiga	07/1990	36,37	Amiga	89 out of 100	89 \|\|Tony Dillon\|\|English
Zzap	10/1990	93	Amiga	89 out of 100	89 \|\|Stuart Wynne, Robin Hogg\|\|English
Zero	08/1990	32,33,34,35	Atari ST	88 out of 100	88 \|\|Paul Lakin, Teresa Maughan\|\|English
Micro Hobby	09/1990	33	ZX Spectrum	88 out of 100	88 \|\|-\|\|Spanish
Sinclair User	05/1992	60,61	ZX Spectrum	87 out of 100	87 \|\|Alan\|\|English
Sinclair User	04/1993	19	ZX Spectrum	87 out of 100	87 \|\|-\|\|English
C+VG (Computer + Video Games)	06/1991	44,45,46	Genesis	86 out of 100	86 \|\|Robert Swan, Paul Glancey\|\|English
Amiga Action	04/1992	80	Amiga	86 out of 100	86 \|\|-\|\|English
Amiga Action	08/1990	66,67	Amiga	85 out of 100	85 \|\|Steve Kennedy, Alex Simmons, Doug Johns\|\|English
Generation 4	09/1990	12,13	Amiga	85 out of 100	85 \|\|-\|\|French
Amiga Joker	10/1990	34	Amiga	85 out of 100	85 \|\|Carsten Borgmeier\|\|German
Mega Tech	01/1992	79	Genesis	85 out of 100	85 \|\|-\|\|English
Commodore Force	08/1993	16	C64	85 out of 100	85 \|\|-\|\|English
Amstrad Cent Pour Cent	11/1990	28,29	Amstrad CPC	84 out of 100	84 \|\|Matt Murdock\|\|French
Mean Machines	05/1991	82,83,84	Genesis	84 out of 100	84 \|\|Matt, Julian\|\|English
Sinclair User	03/1991	56	ZX Spectrum	84 out of 100	84 \|\|Mathew Denton\|\|English
Amiga Power	06/1992	81	Amiga	84 out of 100	84 \|\|Stuart Campbell\|\|English
The One	08/1990	52,53	Amiga	81 out of 100	81 \|\|Gary Whitta\|\|English
Amiga Magazine	12/1990	82	Amiga	81 out of 100	81 \|\|-\|\|Italian
CU Amiga	01/1990	113	Arcade	80 out of 100	80 \|\|-\|\|English
C+VG (Computer + Video Games)	08/1990	68,69	Amiga	80 out of 100	80 \|\|Robert Swan\|\|English
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	10/1990	56	Amiga	9.6 out of 12	80 \|\|Manfred Kleimann\|\|German
Commodore Format	11/1990	34,35	C64	80 out of 100	80 \|\|Andy\|\|English
Joystick	11/1990	280	Amstrad CPC	80 out of 100	80 \|\|Seb\|\|French
Datormagazin	12/1990	59	C64	8 out of 10	80 \|\|Pontus Berg\|\|Swedish
Micro News	05/1991	105	Genesis	4 out of 5	80 \|\|-\|\|French
Electronic Gaming Monthly	06/1991	22	Genesis	8 out of 10	80 \|\|-\|\|English
Raze	09/1991	30,31	Genesis	80 out of 100	80 \|\|Julian Boardman\|\|English
Joystick	09/1990	158	Amiga	79 out of 100	79 \|\|Kaaa\|\|French
C+VG (Computer + Video Games)	10/1990	77	Atari ST	79 out of 100	79 \|\|-\|\|English
Zero	06/1992	64	Amiga	79 out of 100	79 \|\|-\|\|English
Amiga Force	03/1993	12	Amiga	77 out of 100	77 \|\|Ben the Boffin\|\|English
Joystick	09/1990	158	Atari ST	75 out of 100	75 \|\|Kaaa\|\|French
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	10/1990	56	Atari ST	9 out of 12	75 \|\|Manfred Kleimann\|\|German
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	10/1990	56	C64	8.8 out of 12	73 \|\|Manfred Kleimann\|\|German
Datormagazin	09/1990	65	Amiga	7 out of 10	70 \|\|Johan Petterson\|\|Swedish
Power Play	10/1990	116	Amiga	70 out of 100	70 \|\|Heinrich Lenhardt\|\|German
64'er	02/1991	103	C64	7 out of 10	70	Jörg Freymann	German
Amiga Format	09/1990	40	Amiga	69 out of 100	69 \|\|Mark Hill\|\|English
Power Play	01/1991	161	C64	68 out of 100	68 \|\|Heinrich Lenhardt\|\|German
Video Games	02/1991	89	Genesis	68 out of 100	68 \|\|Winnie Forster\|\|German
ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)	06/1991	73	Genesis	680 out of 1000	68 \|\|Jim Douglas\|\|English
Amiga Mania	06/1992	72	Amiga	67 out of 100	67 \|\|Huw Pryce\|\|English
Power Play	07/1991	124	Genesis	63 out of 100	63 \|\|Michael Hengst\|\|German
Amiga Power	05/1991	107,108	Amiga	3 out of 5	60 \|\|-\|\|English
Power Play	10/1990	116	Atari ST	56 out of 100	56 \|\|Heinrich Lenhardt\|\|German
Commodore Format	05/1992	48	C64	43 out of 100	43 \|\|-\|\|English
ST Format	08/1990	46	Atari ST	41 out of 100	41 \|\|Neil Jackson\|\|English
Sega Visions	04+05/1991	13	Genesis	-	- \|\|-\|\|English
GamePro	11/1991	51	Genesis	-	- \|\|-\|\|English

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Icon in the Weaponry	Item	Description
\|\|Full Auto\|\|The standard hand-held weapon with unlimited ammunition and a long range.
\|\|3-Way\|\|A powerfull hand-held weapon which fires in three directions. With limited ammunition and long range.
\|\|Shot Gun\|\|A hand-held weapon which fires not many but very powerfull bullets. The ammunition is limited.
\|\|Fire\|\|A hand-held weapon which throws flames. It's the most powerfull weapon in the game with limited ammunition and range.
\|\|Homing Missiles\|\|A backpack weapon limited to 50 charges. When fired, eight missiles lock automatically on the nearest enemies.
\|\|Nitro\|\|A backpack weapon limited to 50 charges. When fired, flames spread in eight directions from the top of the screen.
\|\|Shower\|\|A backpack weapon limited to 50 charges. When fired, lethal spikes come from top of the screen and sift through enemies in their way.
\|\|Super Charge\|\|Powers up the carried hand-held weapon to its full capabilities. Especially usefull with the flamethrower.
\|\|Barrier\|\|Time limited shield protection for the playing character.
\|\|Bullet\|\|Increases the count on the carried hand-held weapon counter by 500.
\|\|1 Up\|\|Extra life.