Armed Police BatRider

Infobox VG
title = Armed Police BatRider


caption=Screenshot of Armed Police BatRider
developer = 8ing/Raizing
publisher = 8ing/Raizing
designer = Kazuyuki Nakashima
release = 1998 (Arcade)
platforms= Arcade Game
genre = Shooter game
modes = Single player, 2 player co-op
cpu=68000
sound=Z80
Sound Chips : YM2610, OKI6295
cabinet=Upright
display=Raster, 240 x 320 pixels, 2048 colors
input = 8-way Joystick, 3 Buttons

Armed Police Batrider is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by 8ing/Raizing in 1998. The player controls a flying jet bike called a Batrider, with a choice of 9 pilots (and a further 9 secret pilots) each with unique modifications to the Batrider, and four different configurations (Normal, Option, Bomber, Speed Up). One can play as the Police team, Psychic team or Criminal team. You shoot enemies in the air and ground, collect power-ups, and defeat many bosses to advance up to 7 stages. There are many variations and secrets in the game and this style of game spawned a popular sub-genre in scrolling shooter games.

Story

In the year 2004, Manhattan was plagued with unprecedented levels of crime. No measure of law enforcement seemed able to combat the strife and violence, and so a desperate plan was brought forth by GiganTech Cybertronics Corporation. This plan was the artificial island Zenovia, two kilometers south of Manhattan, which would be patrolled by GiganTech's own robotic creations. A rapid exodus from Manhattan to Zenovia resulted.

However, by 2019, the promise of tranquility has not been fulfilled. Even with all the expansions to Zenovia the population influx called for, it has become something of a slum, except for the massive GiganTech headquarters. There have been quarrels over whether or not Zenovia should be regarded as being the jurisdiction of the United States, or just GiganTech. Crime, amazingly, has grown even more rapidly than Manhattan ever knew--partly because the GiganTech machines have been promoting everything EXCEPT law and order. The most horrific aspect, though, is the result of an intelligence investigation from the government...

GiganTech's own executives, both then and now, are actually among the most dangerous criminals the country has ever known. Zenovia, far from being planned as a refuge from violence, was actually a trap and a testing ground for the weapons GiganTech plans to use to become the sole power of the underworld.

Neither police nor armies are willing to commit against the mechanical forces that GiganTech commands and invade Zenovia. Therefore, nine fighters--three police, three convicts, and three psychics--have been drafted as "Zero-Cops", riding the BatRider airbikes against the forces invading Manhattan and charging into Zenovia to take down GiganTech's CEO and his ultimate weapon, known only as "Discharge".

Game Modes

The game allows many different modes of play, if they are enabled via dip switches or cheat codes. There are three difficulty levels: the easy mode only lasts for three levels, but if the player takes a hit, a bomb will automatically be used instead of losing a life (meaning a life is only lost when the player runs out of bombs). The normal mode lasts for five levels, and the hard mode is the full game of seven levels. The player can also go through one of two entire sets of levels, either the normal course or the advanced course. When selecting characters, the player can choose Team Select (select one of three sets of characters, using only one of each ship), Custom Team Select (choose any characters you wish), or Single Character (choose one character with multiple lives). With use of dipswitches it is also possible to access Team Edit mode where any three characters may be selected as one team. [Korean release has all characters implemented and all game modes available from the outset without need for codes or dipswitch settings.

Special course is a hidden boss attack game mode, featuring 8 bosses. The player starts with everything fully powered up. [More bosses are available with proper character selection and gameplay, i.e. not losing a particular character until the next boss has been activated.

Gameplay

In usual shooter fashion, the player has their primary guns, and a supply of bombs. With certain power-ups, secondary guns will appear alongside the player's ship, called Options. If one of the cameo ships from "Battle Garegga" is being used, the formation of the Options can be manipulated at will. In some cabinets, this can be done with a third button. However, two-button cabinets require the player to enter specific joystick movements to change the Option formation. In addition to the standard methods of causing destruction, pressing nothing will fire your Aura (later reused in Battle Bakraid), an energy field at the front of your ship which damages enemies and absorbs certain types of bullets.

Enemies and scenery will generally give different scores depending upon which weapon you attack them with; along with medal collection this is one of the most important aspects to scoring well in Batrider, as in some instances it's possible to earn a score several times higher simply by attacking with a bomb or aura instead of the regular shot.

A large variety of power-ups can be collected, either by shooting down formations of enemies, or destroying objects on the ground. Some of them appear in large and small sizes.

*Bomber: Small Bomber items are usually found where something on the ground is destroyed, although large targets will occasionally yield better items. For every 40 Small Bombers picked up, the player receives an extra bomb. If there are Small Bombers stockpiled but no full bombs, then pressing the Bomb button will use the remaining Small Bombers, yielding a smaller effect than a normal bomb. On rare occasions a Large Bomber item appears, and will immediately add one bomb to the player's stock.

Bombers are needed to bomb areas of scenery with medals behind them, in addition to frequently giving the highest scores when attacking an enemy. As such, players will find themselves using their bombs far more frequently than in most shooters, and bomb management is more about scoring than survival.

*Shot Up: Small and Large Shot Up items can be found, increasing the power of the ship's primary guns. Collecting enough Small Shot Ups will yield a power increase, and a single Large Shot Up will immediately boost the ship's guns.

*Option Up: In the same fashion as Bombers and Shot Ups, Option Ups can be collected, adding Option guns to the player's arsenal. Picking up more Option Ups makes the Options fire more powerful shots.

*Extend: Unlike most shooters, Batrider does not automatically grant extra lives when a score is reached; instead, when the extend score is passed, the next enemy which would drop an item will drop an Extend. If you fail to pick it up, you'll have to wait for the next. [The Korean release of the game does NOT drop extend items for reaching a score plateau, the extra life is granted automatically.

*Special Power Up: Allowing three of the same power-up (except Small Bomber) to drop off the screen will result in the next power-up of that type being a Special Power Up. In the case of Shot and Option items, these will power up your shot or option to maximum; missing three Large Bomber items gives an Extend, and a Special Extend item will replenish your life stock to full.

*Medals: Destroying certain enemies or obstacles will yield bonus medals. At first these are only worth 100 points, but if more sets of medals are collected, they will increase in value, as long as no medals are missed. Each consecutive set of medals is worth 100 points more than the last, until the value reaches 1000. At this point, the value increases by 1000 for each set, until it maxes out at 10000 points. Dropping one medal will result in the value of the chain being reset to 100; however if a medal is dropped while another medal is still on screen, collecting it will restore the chain value to the point value of the medal.

There are a large number of secrets in Batrider; most notably nine secret characters which can be unlocked either with a code or dipswitches. In addition to these, there are also a number of secret bosses, who will only appear if certain conditions are met; and of whom some will only appear if you have the hidden characters in your party. For instance, bosses from Mahou Daisakusen and Battle Garegga will appear on certain stages if there is a character from those games on your team; other bosses will only appear if you fulfil a certain objective on a prior stage, which are never made obvious but usually signified by the VO shouting something encouraging.

External links

* [http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=armed-police-batrider.&page=detail&id=112 "Armed Police BatRider"] at [http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=news Arcade History]
*KLOV game|id=6923