ALLTYNEX Second
ALLTYNEX Second アルティネクス セカンド
ALLTYNEX Second is a Japanese vertically scrolling doujin shoot'em up by SITER SKAIN, which released in 2010. ALLTYNEX Second is a remake of the original FM Towns ALLTYNEX released in 1996. Despite being the last game released, it is the first chapter of 'The Tale Of ALLTYNEX' trilogy.
Thanks to the British publisher Nyu Media and a successful Kickstarter campaign, this game, alongside RefleX and KAMUI, were localized and released in 2013, with the Steam version released in 2014 via Steam Greenlight.
Story
During the latter half of the 22nd century, economists predict a worldwide depression. Some claim a shortage of natural resources could see advanced nations reduced to third-world levels. To avoid this, the first world begins the New City Project toward the end of the 21st century, which would facilitate economic control on a planetary level. After being promised a full share of space resources for the next century, the hold-out nations agree to sign the treaty. This was the birth of the Special Administrative City Aeneas.
To ensure fair governance and economic management, it was decided that an advanced A. I. would govern Aeneas rather than humans. This was the inception of the ALLTYNEX Plan.
However, in the Year 2192 AD, the super-computer Alltynex goes out of control and conducts a mass genocide upon Earth's populace, killing off 85% of all humanity (around 7.6 billion). The survivors were forced to escape into space, but the harsh conditions dwindled their numbers as the years went by.
Forty years go by and the Earth Unification Government begins its plan to retake Earth by using a strategy of the pilots diving deep into the enemy forces and suicide running all available craft. One of these pilots is 24-year old Guehala Dennis, who aboard one of the Tactical Melee Craft Armed Saboteurs begins his mission to stop Alltynex once and for all.
Controls
- A: Fighter Mode
- B: Armor Mode
- A+B (Hold): Fighter Mode Special
- B+A (Hold): Armor Mode Special
Ships
Type-A ship, referred to as the Standard ship, which is equipped with Homing Laser as its Fighter Mode special, that automatically homes in on enemies closest to the player and a Buster Rifle as its Armor Mode special, which based on your blades locking on specific target, will then lock your aim in that direction and fire a massive laser beam.
Type-B ship, referred to as the Advanced ship, aside from being red to differentiate it from the Type-A ship, also has changes in its arsenal. The Fighter Mode special is the Buster Beam (fires only forward), the Blades are now manual and don't lock onto targets, forcing you to move to your designated target and the Armor Mode special is the Homing Missiles, that can potentially destroy enemy bullets.
The Mode specials use up your Energy gauge, which can be maxed up to five levels, but is also tied to the power of your main shot, which gets weaker and weaker with constant usage of the specials.
Items
The only items in this game are energy chips, which restore the energy gauge at a fixed rate. There are large and small ones, and their effects are described below:
- Energy Chips (Large) When an enemy is destroyed, these will appear. Smaller enemies drop one, while medium-sized enemies drop eight or more. In Fighter Mode, your ship automatically recovers them, but in Armor Mode, they will gradually fall off the screen. Recovery Amount: 100
- Energy Chips (Small) These appear when the Blade destroys enemy bullets. They are automatically recovered, regardless of mode. Recovery Amount: 10
Extra lives are awarded and 3 million points and then every 5 million points.
Scoring
This game has two types of bonus systems:
- Combo Bonuses A Combo Bonus is awarded for destroying multiple enemies in Fighter Mode (with either Homing Laser or main gun) within 0.6 seconds or less. The bonus begins with 200 points after four enemies, that increases per every two more destroyed at intervals of 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12,800, with 25,600 points being the maximum. If another enemy is not destroyed within 0.6 seconds, the combo chain will be broken.
- Multiplier Bonus Killing enemies in Fighter Mode increases your multiplier gauge (x2, x3, x4 etc., up to x16). Destroying an enemy in Armor Mode (with either Blade or Buster Rifle) will award points equal to the enemy's base score times the current multipler. The multiplier gauge depletes over time, and shooting mid/large-sized enemies with the main gun decreases the rate at which the multiplier depletes.